LONDON — Survivors of close brushes with death recount a common story of the journey that they almost took into the afterlife: The dying person finds himself slipping down a long dark tunnel into a brilliant light, and experiencing there great love, peace and well-being.
Some see their relatives while others recall being welcomed by Jesus Christ, and some even see their lives replayed before them like a giant movie.
And yet for some mysterious reason it is not their time to die and these people come back to this world, passionately convinced they have glimpsed eternal life.
All of this adds up to the classic account of a “Near Death Experience” as explored by Raymond Moody Jr. in his controversial best seller Life After Life, which purported to recount case histories of “Near Death Experiences.”
Until now, scientists have been almost universally skeptical of these claims, which are based on anecdotal evidence and often veer into decidedly flaky New Age realms.
But now two reputable British scientists have subjected these experiences to scientific investigation — and their conclusions are mind-expanding: Human consciousness exists independently of the physical state of the body and brain.
In research due to be published next year in Resuscitation, the journal of the European Resuscitation Council, Peter Fenwick, a consultant neuropsychiatrist of the British Institute of Psychiatry, and Sam Parnia, a clinical research fellow and registrar at University Hospital, Southampton, will announce that consciousness exists independently of the brain, based on their interviews with 63 people who had survived an almost-fatal heart attack.
They discovered that seven had experienced the so-called near death experience. Of those, four qualified under the Grayson scale, the narrowly defined medical criteria for assessing the validity of near-death experiences.
The four survivors, who included three non-practising Anglicans and one lapsed Catholic, recounted feelings of peace and joy, heightened senses, encountering a mystical being and coming to “a point of no return.”
“There is nothing physiological that explains this phenomenon. The only factor in common is that those who had the experience had more oxygen in their brain,” Fenwick told the Register. The presence of high levels of oxygen actually enhances the credibility of the experiences, since some near death skeptics suggest that oxygen deprivation is what produces the effects described by survivors.
Added Fenwick, “The first really interesting point is that all who referred to the experience referred to it taking place during the period of unconsciousness. We know how unconscious they were — they were brain dead according to clinical criteria.”
Fenwick and Parnia argue their research reveals that the mind outlives the brain.
These conclusions are disputed by British psychologist Susan Blackmore, of the University of Western England, Bristol, acknowledged by proponents of near death experiences to be the premier skeptic about claims of life after death.
The Skeptic
Blackmore, who says she once had a near death experience herself, has no doubt that the patients experience what they describe. She just disputes their interpretation.
“People have not had an experience of life after death; if anything they have been given an insight into the working of the human mind,” she told the Register.
Arguing that in certain stressful situations chemicals released by the brain trigger the reported feelings and sensations, Blackmore predicted that, “As advances in neurochemistry take place we will get a clearer insight into this experience.”
Blackmore said she used to be a parapsychologist with an interest in the New Age because of her own near death experience, but her research had led her to believe that physiology and psychology are the key to finding the truth about the phenomenon.
But neuropsychiatrist Fenwick is adamant that the mind exists after brain death. “This becomes a really interesting question that owes more to philosophy than to science,” he said.
Ironically, Fenwick comes to his current opinion from the opposite direction to Blackmore. “I used to be sceptical about [near death experiences], but now I believe something is going on,” he said.
The research has also received a guarded endorsement from one of the Catholic Church's foremost theologians on the Resurrection.
Father Gerald O'Collins, professor of systematic theology at the prestigious Gregorian University in Rome, told The Register, “I cautiously treat these experiences as a good thing but not as a major argument for life after death and our belief in the Resurrection — the big thing is Jesus' victory over death.
However, he added, “Some people have quite a big change in their lives for the better after one of these experiences.”
Father O'Collins also sees no reason why theories about near death experiences being a glimpse of the eternal have to be in opposition to those that attribute the effect to chemicals released by the brain.
As he put it, “Who made the brain anyway? God.”
Priest's Experience
Another priest views the debate from an experiential perspective. Father Steven Scheier, parish priest of Holy Name of Jesus Church in Bushton, Kan., and Holy Trinity Church in Little River, Kan., has no doubt regarding what we will face as we die.
On Oct. 18, 1985, a head-on collision in an automobile accident left him unconscious on the freeway with a broken neck.
“If I had moved my head either way I would have died — the injury is called the hangman's break,” he told the Register.
A nurse who arrived on the scene recognized his injury and prevented anyone from moving his head. As he hovered near death in hospital, a huge prayer effort led by his parishioners and joined by other denominations prayed for his recovery.
Father Scheier had no recollection of the crash or its aftermath. But eight months later, long after having recovering completely, a reading of the passage from Luke's Gospel on the parable of the fig tree suddenly brought memories flooding back into his mind.
“I suddenly remembered back at the rectory a conversation that took place between the Lord and myself,” he said.
There was no tunnel experience or bright shining light, but, as Father Scheier explained, “I did not see him but I heard his voice and he told me I had unconfessed mortal sin on my soul. He said, ‘For 12 years you have been a priest for yourself and you are going to hell.’”
“I knew he was right and I had made my decision and there was nothing I could do about it.”
The Blessed Mother, however, had other ideas. Father Scheier heard a woman's voice plead for a second chance so he could give glory to God. Father Scheier later learned that during this time his parishioners had been praying the rosary.
“I did not actually die, but I would have died had the Lord let me,” said the priest. “In that sense you can call it a near death experience.”
A New Attitude
As for neuropsychiatrist Fenwick, his research findings have not drawn him to Christianity or any formal belief in God, but he said they had started a change in his attitude to spirituality.
“I am not a Christian but I am a spiritual person. I think this research tells us that we have a spirituality,” Fenwick said.
“Science since the 17th century has kept to the idea of an objective external world, arguing that matter is dead, but in the last few decades another view has developed that the material world is not dead and has a consciousness.”
Father Scheier has a far simpler outlook.
“We as Catholics take life after death for granted,” he said. “The experience I had has made me realize that we are accountable to God and that this life is just a shadow world.”
Paul Burnell writes from Manchester, England.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Paul Burnell ------ KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Catholic Hospital Says It's Stuck With Abortionist DATE: 01/7/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:GRANITE CITY, Ill. — Nathan Niebling thinks the local Catholic hospital should be able to get rid of a staff doctor who performs abortions elsewhere.
Niebling is no expert on hospitals, but he is a Catholic and thinks that the pro-life decision should be simple enough.
The manager of a Meineke Discount Mufflers near St. Elizabeth Medical Center, said, “I would think that any business has a right to assume for its employees a code of ethics — especially a religious institution.”
But it's more complicated then that, says St. Elizabeth hospital. Federal law requires the hospital to keep Dr. Yogendra Shah on staff.
When the hospital brought Shah into their obstetrics and gynecology department over 25 years ago, they had no idea that years later he would be moonlighting as the top abortionist at the Hope Clinic for Women, an abortion business across the street. The business advertises abortions up to 24 weeks. Allison Hoyle, spokeswoman for the Hope Clinic, refused to comment.
Shah's fox-in-the-henhouse situation grabbed December headlines when Internet news services reported that in the fall, Shah had been given a high position at St. Elizabeth. Some reports erroneously stated that he was chief of staff or “top doc” at the hospital; in fact, he had been named interim chief of staff of his department.
The hospital refused to comment for this article, but referred to a statement issued Dec. 7 by the Diocese of Springfield. The statement claimed that the hospital's bylaws required that the chief be the most senior doctor in the department. The most senior doctor in OB-GYN was Shah.
The diocese noted that Shah has been removed from that post. Dr. Dennis Hurford is now department chief. Moreover, the diocese said, Shah “was not paid for the position nor was he given any awards for community service, etc., routinely given to other physicians in similar positions.”
But why was an abortionist on staff at all?
Said the statement, “In 1995, St. Elizabeth Medical Center discovered that Dr. Shah was performing abortion procedures” at the Hope Clinic.
At that time, the hospital consulted its attorneys and investigated the possibility of removing Shah from its staff, the diocese said. But then they read 42 US Code 300a-7.
That law was intended to protect pro-life doctors, nurses and hospital employees. It says that no hospital, doctor or hospital employee can be required to perform abortions or sterilizations, and no hospital can be required to perform these procedures. However, the flip side of the coin is that no hospital can revoke a physician's staff privileges because he performs abortions or sterilizations at another location.
Stuck With You?
Some, like Angela Michael, believe that the hospital should disregard the legal barrier. Michael, who for seven years has been going to the Hope Clinic to protest, said, “They should get rid of him and take the chance of a lawsuit. They're going by man's law” rather than God's.
In October, Bishop George Lucas led a rosary walk to the abortion business. Pro-life picketers outside the Hope Clinic accused the bishop and the hospital of allowing scandal by keeping Shah on staff. One angry protester began yelling that the bishop and the hospital were “Pharisees and scribes.”
The diocese's statement warns, however, that if the hospital provokes a lawsuit the results might have far-reaching consequences.
“Diocesan and hospital legal consultants have concluded that to protest the law that protects Dr. Shah … would be provoking litigation that might endanger the legal right of Catholic hospitals to refuse to perform abortions.”
In other words, the diocese is worried that if the hospital kicks Shah off its staff and he sues, a resulting lawsuit might lead to the entire “conscience clause” law being overturned, leaving pro-life hospitals and physicians vulnerable.
A Way Out?
But Richard Myers, a professor at Ave Maria School of Law, said that St. Elizabeth would have “a pretty good argument” for getting rid of Shah, based on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993.
The act made it harder for legislatures to justify passing laws that infringed on religious practices. Although the Supreme Court overturned the act with regard to state and local law, Myers pointed out that it probably still stands with regard to federal law like the “conscience clause.”
Myers added that the hospital might also be wary of provoking a legislative backlash.
In his 1998 address to the bishops of California, Hawaii and Nevada on their five-yearly visit to the Vatican, Pope John Paul II urged U.S. bishops to defend the right-to-life, particularly where hospitals are concerned.
“Dear brother bishops,” he concluded, “Catholic moral teaching is an essential part of our heritage of faith; we must see to it that it is faithfully transmitted, and take appropriate measures to guard the faithful from the deceit of opinions which dissent from it. Although the Church often appears as a sign of contradiction, in defending the whole moral law firmly and humbly she is upholding truths which are indispensable for the good of humanity and for the safeguarding of civilization itself.
“Our teaching must be clear; it must recognize the drama of the human condition, in which we all struggle with sin and in which we must all strive, with the help of grace, to embrace the good” (No. 7).
St. Elizabeth's supporters point to the crisis pregnancy center housed in a trailer on hospital property. The center provides diapers, formula and other baby supplies. Connie Balen, a volunteer at the center, said that St. Elizabeth had always strongly supported its work. St. Elizabeth provides maintenance, security, and electric lighting for the center.
The hospital also performs free pregnancy tests on women who come to the center. “This was the hospital's effort to counteract the [abortion] clinic,” Balen said.Thomas D. Kennedy, chair of the philosophy department at Valparaiso University, said that the hospital should “take some action to dissociate themselves from” Shah.
If, as the diocese's statement says, removing Shah could damage protections for pro-life physicians, Kennedy counseled “other legal alternatives” such as buying out Shah's contract. He acknowledged the financial cost to the hospital, but said, “There's a high moral cost” to keeping Shah on staff.
Kennedy said, “It may be the case that the best approach would be for patients who enter the hospital to be made aware of this, and be given the option of some other physician, so patients can vote with their feet.” He said that knowledge of Shah's abortion practice would enable patients to make “an informed decision.”.
One potential patient, Paula Roberts, a stylist at the nearby Earl's Coiffures, said, “I don't see why” Shah's job at the Hope Clinic should matter to patients at St. Elizabeth.
But Kathie Sass, spokeswoman for the diocese, said, “I would not want my personal physician to be a known abortionist. I would want to put my health and the health of my family in the hands of someone who has the same fundamental values.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ------ KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Catholic Crackdown: China Trade's First Fruits DATE: 01/7/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:WENZHOU, China — Congress approved permanent normal trade relations with communist China in September. If free-trade rhetoric had proven true, this should have been followed by greater civil liberty. Instead, Beijing has responded with the most savage religious persecution since the death of Chairman Mao.
Agence France Presse reported Dec. 12 that 450 Catholic and Protestant churches and Taoist and Buddhist temples had recently been closed down or blown up in the city of Wenzhou in the eastern province of Zhejiang.
A spokesman for China's Religious Affairs Bureau justified the attacks. “In order to maintain social stability, the local government demolished underground churches and temples and other illegal places,” the spokesman said, Agence France Press reported. “[The underground churches] hoodwinked people, interfered in normal religious activities.”
The state-run media have reported that more than 1,500 churches, temples and shrines in the region have been shut down or destroyed since the crackdown began in early November, The Washington Post reported Dec. 18. Many of these buildings were private houses used for “underground” religious activities.
China's current constitution recognizes five religions: Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Protestantism and Catholicism.
To worship legally, Chinese must join state-controlled “patriotic” religious organizations. Joseph Kung, president of the Cardinal Kung Foundation, said that 4 million Chinese belong to the patriotic Catholic church, and he estimated that 10 to 12 million maintain loyalty to the Pope.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Dec. 13 that the U.S. government is “appalled” by the crackdown, “particularly coming at the eve of the celebration of Christmas … We've protested that here and in Beijing.” He threatened no sanctions, however.
Centuries of Persecution
The persecution of Christians in China began in the 14th century, but the Church's presence is much older (the heretical Nestorians introduced it in the seventh century).
Said Pennsylvania State University religious studies professor Philip Jenkins, “The problem is that Christianity has been associated with foreignness, which is odd because it has been in China for as long as Buddhism has been in Japan — nearly 1,400 years.”
Missionaries flocked to China in the 17th century. The Jesuits enjoyed particular success at court because of their latitudinarian willingness to accommodate non-Christian religious practices. Explained Jenkins, “In Eastern religions there is usually no problem in following more than one; you can mix and match.”
By the end of the century, however, syncretism had been condemned and the Roman Rite had triumphed. Since then, Christian persecution has been a constant, becoming particularly virulent in times of nationalist fervor such as the Boxer Rebellion (1898 – 1900) and the rule of Mao Zedong (1949 – 1976).
Under the communists, untold thousands of priests and religious were murdered and imprisoned. “Since 1949 the persecution has never ceased,” Joseph Kung told the Register.
Kung's uncle, Ignatius Kung, was consecrated Bishop of Shanghai in 1950, a year after China became officially atheist. Arrested in 1955, he was tortured but refused to recant. The Communists had thought they could defeat Catholicism by exterminating the clergy, said Joseph Kung, “but this attempt to bring the Church to its knees failed. That's why the [Catholic] Patriotic Association was founded in 1957.”
The state church was condemned by Pope Pius XII and remains schismatic, although the Vatican seeks to maintain contact with its bishops and priests.
Cardinal Kung's Witness
Bishop Kung refused to trade his faith for freedom. He once told his captors, “I am a Roman Catholic bishop. If I denounce the Holy Father, not only would I not be a bishop, I would not even be a Catholic. You can cut off my head, but you can never take away my duties.”
He spent over three decades in prison and was not released until 1987. He was allowed to immigrate to America, and in 1991 Pope John Paul II announced that he had been created a cardinal in pectore (secretly) in 1979. He died this year at 98, and the campaign for his canonization has begun.
Earlier this year, Joseph Kung had publicly expressed his concern that the Vatican was softening its opposition to the patriotic church. On Oct. 1, however, the Pope sent an authoritative message to Beijing regarding the Church's independence with the proclamation as saints of the 120 martyrs of China — 33 missionaries and 87 ethnic Chinese, most murdered during the Boxer Rebellion.
Gabriel Yiu, a Vancouver journalist and Chinese-language talk show host, told the Register that Beijing considers the Pope's action a “provocation.” Explained Yiu, “It strongly offended Beijing, especially as Oct. 1 is the Communists' National Day, and these saints are considered traitors or even criminals by the government.”
Yiu said that another cause of the recent crackdown could be a power struggle between Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Premier Zhu Rongji. The premier, who has been considered more pro-Western than the president, was embarrassed when on Sept. 5 the State Department issued its Annual Report on International Religious Freedom, which blasted China for a “marked deterioration” in this respect.
Steven Mosher, president of the Population Research Institute and author of Hegemon: The Chinese Plan To Dominate Asia And The Rest Of The World, told the Register that the Communist leadership is terrified that the Catholic faith could play the same role in China it did in the fall of European communism. In 1991, he reports, shortly after the collapse of the Iron Curtain, the leadership announced a campaign against Chu Liu Hai, the “Six Poisons,” of which the underground Catholic Church is one.
Communist officials have been candid in assessing the hazard posed by religion. Pointing to the role of Christian churches in the collapse of the Warsaw Pact in 1992, an official party organ said that the Chinese regime must “strangle the baby while it is still in the manger” to escape a similar fate.
“What has varied over time,” said Mosher, “is the degree to which local officials get caught up in the campaign and the extent to which news gets out of China. The party will never say, “Torture 80-year-old bishops to death,” but it will say that [unofficial] religious activities are forbidden, and you must use all means at your disposal to stop them.
And it will wink and nod when torture happens, when mass arrests happen, when churches are torn down. That way they have plausible deniability.”
Mosher is a Catholic convert who was the first American social scientist allowed to study in China after the communist revolution. He was subsequently expelled for reporting on the abuses caused by China's one-child population control policy.
He urges the West to keep up the pressure against communist terror. “If organizations and governments and magazines like yours carry reports, the Chinese take notice, because they don't want to lose face,” Mosher said. “And sometimes they back off to save face.”
A Test of Faith
Ultimately, Mosher continued, the persecutions are a test of faith: “The Church has always thrived under persecution. I say that cringing because it's easy for us to say. I was arrested and spent three days in jail; some have spent decades in prison.
Suffering forces us to decide what's important and true, and once people make the decision to follow the Catholic faith wherever it may lead, including martyrdom, they become saints.
“What the Communists don't understand — because they are materialists — is that they think they've defeated a priest when they arrest him, because he can't say Mass and administer the sacraments. But what they've done is free him for a life of prayer. And I believe that prayer brings down great graces for the church in China.”
Kevin Michael Grace writes from Vancouver, British Columbia
----- EXCERPT: Communists launch massive religious persecution in Zheijang province ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kevin Michael Grace ------ KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Italy's Latest Superhero: Pope John Paul the Great DATE: 01/7/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:ROME — Hightail it back to Krypton, Superman. Move over X-Men. Holy Father, Batman! There's a new comic book hero in town.
Like his fictional counterparts, he lost his parents at a young age, he wears a cape, and he has a vehicle that would make most comic book superheros envious. Only this hero isn't fictional. His name is Karol Wojtyla, otherwise known as Pope John Paul II. The Holy Father is featured in a new series of four comic books being published by the Society of St. Paul for the Italian children's magazine Il Giornalino (The Little Newspaper).
“It is a life full of adventures, change, interest, tragedy, missions, trips,” the authors of Karol Wojtyla: Pope of the Third Millennium explain in the prologue. They note that the publication has the Vatican's approval. In addition, both Radio Vaticana and Avvenire, the Italian bishop's conference daily newspaper, had positive comments to make regarding the series.
The biography is narrated by an aged grandfather and begins with the Holy Father's infancy and childhood in Wadowice, Poland, and includes his youth, when he played soccer and was an actor on the stage. The narrative includes moments of anguish, such as his mother's death when he was 9 years old, and that of his only brother two years later.
The series was written by Toni Pagot, and illustrated by one of Italy's most popular illustrators, Sergio Toppi.
Toppi spent a year creating the series. The first of the four-part series was published in mid-November. The remaining episodes ended at Christmas.
“Il Giornalino uses the comic to dis close and introduce the history of Karol Wojtyla,” says Father Antonio Tarzia, editor of the weekly magazine. “The Jubilee Year would be incomplete without such a publication on John Paul II, given that he is such a great friend of the young people,” adds Father Tarzia.
Tarzia says that children seem to appreciate the comics. “The language is straighter, more natural and spontaneous, and as a consequence, easier for them to follow.”
Il Giornalino is no stranger to such comics. They have a history of publishing about the lives of other positive historical characters, such as Mother Teresa, Ghandi and Martin Luther King. According to Maria Re, publicist for St. Paul's International, it is possible that the papal comic strips may be later bound as a book, as was done with the Society's “Holy Bible” in comics.
At present, there are no plans to reproduce an English version of the comic.
Il Giornalino is not the first time that the Holy Father's story has been presented in comic book art. Marvel Comics released in 1982 an English version of The Life of Pope John Paul II.
Pauline Books and Media has also used comic books as a way to reach youth with the message of Christ. They distribute a series of comic books on the lives of the Saints that were originally published in France by publisher Editions du Signe. The stories, including the lives of Saints Bernadette, Bernard, Clare, Elizabeth, Joan of Arc, Martin, Maximilian Kolbe, Thérèse, and Vincent de Paul were translated into English in 1995.
As an addition to their Saints series, the Daughters of St. Paul have also published a comic book about their founder, the Venerable Father James Alberione. Catholic Parent has praised the series as “appealing, artistic and competent.”
“The stories of saints Thérèse and Maximilian Kolbe are very popular,” explains children's editor, Franciscan Sisters of Peace Sister Patricia Edward Jablonski.
“People are first attracted to the well-known saints,” says Sr. Jablonski. “Then parents come back for the rest of the series. There seems to be a resurgence of interest in saints as role models for young people.”
Pope for Kids
One of their recent books, although not a comic book, is a children's biography of Pope John Paul II. Titled Karol from Poland: The Life of Pope John Paul II for Children, it is written for a younger audience and tells the major events in the Holy Father's life in a way that would be interesting to children.
“It shows Karol with his friends. It brings out his humanness, but it also tells of his hardships … the loss of his mother and only brother, and the difficulties of being a member of an underground seminary during World War II. It offers him as a role model,” says Sr. Jablonski. “It explains that Pope John Paul II is a missionary to the whole world and in the end asks children to pray for him.”
It has received rave reviews.
“The book contributes greatly to offering insight into the life of His Holiness, motivating children to respond to the God who loves them … just as Karol has responded,” said Msgr. Stanislaus Sypek who reviewed the book. Sypek is a priest in Boston and a personal friend of the Pope.
Written by Franciscan of Peace Sister Mary Leonora Wilson, and illustrated by Carla Koch, Pauline Books and Media has already sold out its original print-run of 3,000 and has had to run a second printing of Karol from Poland.
One thing is for certain.
A comic book version will serve to introduce Pope John Paul II to even more people.
“At last we have a superhero who children can look up to and whose ‘super powers’ are within reach of us all,” says Chris Erickson, director of communications with Catholics United for the Faith.
“The comic book is an innovative idea that casts a superhero in an unambiguous good vs. evil real-life plot, filled with tragedies and heroic accomplishments. He is super because he is Christ-like. He is a hero because he is real,” he says. “We desperately need an English edition!”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ------ KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Thunder Shatters a Stormy Life DATE: 01/7/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:She saw the meaning of her painful personal situation for the first time when it was lit up by bolts of lightning, literally. The experience has fueled her music. She spoke with Register features correspondent Tim Drake from her home in Treasure Island, Fla., where she now lives with her husband, David, and three sons.
Tell me about yourself. Was your family musical?
I grew up in a Catholic home in Indiana as the fourth child in a family of eight children. My mother had a strong devotion to Our Lady and named me Mary Ann after the Blessed Mother. I was nicknamed Annie. My first memories of family prayer time were kneeling before a statue of Mary every night and praying the rosary.
My mother was a homemaker and my father was an engineer for General Motors. My mother was also the organist at our church. Whenever our family traveled together my parents would sing duets that were famous in their time. There was always so much joy in their singing. That was a real blessing for me. The only way my dad could get me to sleep was to sing to me on the front porch.
I understand that you faced many challenges as a young adult?
I left home right after my senior year and married my high school sweetheart. I had my first child at 18 and my second at 19. My husband was in the Navy and was an alcoholic. On the birth of our second child, my parents came to see us. When I answered the door my father didn't even recognize me.
It was a devastating time that ravaged both my spirit and my body. We were divorced after six years, and then I remarried outside the Church. Each time I would begin the annulment process I wouldn't carry it through because I didn't want to face the past. I was delaying my healing and knew that something was not right with my life.
After our move to Florida, my new spiritual director, [Salesian] Father August Bosio, told me that I was not to receive the sacraments until I had gotten my marriage annulled. Here I was singing about the sacraments, but I could-n't receive them. I would cry at every Mass over the poor choices I had made in my life. I wondered how my life could end up so broken into pieces. I had to wait two years before the annulment came through fully and I could return to the full embrace of the Church.
I knew that even if my annulment did not go through, I would continue to go daily Mass and eucharistic adoration because the graces we receive are in direct proportion to the desires in our heart to receive Jesus. In that way, spiritual communion can be edifying and grace-filled.
The reason that I sing with such passion is because the Lord's divine mercy saved my spiritual life and brought me back to the full embrace of the Church. The magisterium does not make these laws for punishment, but because the role of the Church is to prepare our souls to be the bride of Christ. We need to be purified in our journey.
I witness to those Catholics who feel alienated. I tell them that it might be an arduous and painful journey, but it is worth every effort they can possibly endure because the truth will set them free and the reward is eternal. There is no greater gift than to receive the Eucharist.
It was a storm, wasn't it, that helped bring about your conversion back to the faith?
Yes. I was visiting my parents in Arkansas in 1989. They lived on top of a mountain in the Ozarks, just a few houses from the Little Portion Hermitage Retreat Center. My mother had invited me to take part in a Divine Mercy devotion and eucharistic adoration at the retreat center chapel. While there, a storm rolled in.
I was unable to take my eyes off of Our Lord in the Eucharist through the thunder and lightning. I was riveted to his presence and felt that every wrong choice and sin was exposed and completely known to him. At first I felt ashamed and wanted to leave the chapel, but my mother was sitting in the last pew and I didn't want to have to go past her. I had a longing to be whole, and so I asked for forgiveness for my sins. Rather than a harsh judgment, I felt a river of mercy flood my soul. It swept away all the brokenness in my life.
Didn't that experience also bring about your first song?
Yes, when I returned home to Indiana I asked the Lord what that experience was all about and asked if he would help me put that experience to music. He put words and music together for my song “Divine Mercy Flood My Soul.” That started me on the music ministry path of spreading the Divine Mercy message through song and witness. Six months later I came out with my first album.
How did your first solo album come about?
From 1989 to 1998, I went through a lot of healing. While singing in a trio with two Protestant brothers I sought to use my talents for the Lord's will. During that time the Holy Spirit revealed to me that he wanted me to use and focus the talents he had given me to stir the flame in his Church — the Holy Catholic Church. That revelation was very important to me. We had been singing in many denominations, but I really wanted to use my talents for the Catholic Church. I released my first solo album, Hidden God, in 1998. Many of my songs are about the sacraments.
Explain how your latest song “You are a Priest Forever” came to be.
While home visiting family in the summer of 1998 I picked up a fictional book titled The Last Mass of Brother Michael. After reading it I wept rivers of tears. Over and over, all I could say was, “Thank you for the gift of the priesthood.” Afterwards, I went into the living room and the melody for “You are a Priest Forever” came to me simultaneously.
The following year, while in a Catholic bookstore, I saw the book A Priest Forever: The Life of Father Eugene Hamilton by [Franciscan Friar of the Renewal] Father Benedict Groeschel. I was amazed, having just written a song with such a similar title. I purchased the book and could not put it down.
Father Eugene Hamilton was a young man who had cancerous tumors in his chest and who gave his very life and death to be a priest. As he lay dying in his mother's arms, the bishop ordained him. Just before his death, three hours later, he traced the sign of the cross on his best friend's palm. He remains a priest forever.
I was even more surprised to discover that Father Eugene mentioned my spiritual director, Father Bosio, in the book as being an influence in his life growing up in New York. After mentioning my song to Father Bosio he called Father Eugene's mother and told her that I had a very special song that I wanted to dedicate to her son.
What is your hope for this song?
The Lord wants to use Father Eugene's life and beautiful death to draw young people to vocations. That is why I dedicated the song to him. I wanted not only the priests to be encouraged in their vocations, but I also wanted to draw young people to listen to the call that comes from the Shepherd through Father Eugene's influence and life.
Pope John Paul II says that “The priesthood is the nerve center of the Church's whole life and mission.” That is why it is so important for the lay people to intercede. If the nerve center is not doing well, the body will not do well. We lay people need to support, fast and pray for our priests and the priesthood. We have a very important role to play.
Your song was nominated for liturgical song of the year for the Unity Awards by the United Catholic Music and Video Association. Did that surprise you?
Yes, it came as a big surprise for me. The song has been playing globally on EWTN and on a few Catholic radio stations across the country, but I did not realize the impact it was having on priests and the laity. The Unity Awards are like the Dove Awards, but for Catholics.
There were more than 100 Catholic artists in attendance.
Many of your songs are focused on the Divine Mercy. Can you explain the attraction of that particular devotion?
Divine Mercy is more than a devotion, it is a way of life. If you think about the saints, particularly Mary Magdalene or St. Paul — those saints whose lives were converted by the mercy of God — you discover that what propelled them to share the mercy of God was that they had received mercy themselves. That changed their entire life. No matter what a person has done, God's love and mercy are greater.
Tell me about your involvement in the lay apostolate, The Eucharistic Apostles of the Divine Mercy?
After hearing me sing “Divine Mercy Flood My Soul,” Dr. Bryan Thatcher invited our family to come to Florida to meet his family one Christmas. That began our association with the apostolate. We later became members. After my husband, David, was hired as a teacher we moved to Florida and became more involved in the ministry.
Its mission is to spread the message of Divine Mercy, to promote the truth about the True Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, to spread eucharistic adoration, to promote the recitation of the Divine Mercy chaplet for the dying, and to pray for the priesthood. Cenacle groups gather to pray, study Scripture and the Catechism, and read from the Diary of Sister Faustina. It's a wonderful way for Catholics to learn more about their faith.
What do you have planned next?
I have had several priests and a producer tell me there should be a visual to accompany “You are a Priest Forever.” I believe this would be a powerful impact for the priesthood and vocations. With God's grace and direction, I would also like to complete a 10-song project.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY:Annie Karto ------ KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Photo Shoot-Out: Taking Aim at Tasteless Ads DATE: 01/7/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:NEW YORK — Rochelle Gurstein doesn't know why she still buys magazines with ads she finds offensive.
“I see ads and they irritate me, but it doesn't occur to me to boycott or write a letter,” the Bard College professor and public obscenity historian said.
“There is a level at which we are all bombarded by unwholesome, sadistic imagery that we don't respond to.”
Gurstein's 1996 book The Repeal of Reticence chronicled the history of America's cultural and legal struggles over free speech, obscenity, sexual liberation and modern art. In it, she acknowledges that those who have fought to keep private matter private have largely yielded in recent years to a widespread acceptance of the crass — and sometimes violent and obscene — imagery of mainstream advertising.
Yet while apathy may be the rule in Gurstein's view, some Americans have broken ranks in recent years to complain about ads they think are intended to provoke rather than please.
In September, D Magazine publisher Wick Allison destroyed an entire print run of that month's issue of the Dallas-based magazine because it contained two ads he found distasteful.
Last year, Calvin Klein, Banana Republic and Abercrombie and Fitch raised eyebrows — and public ire — for running erotic ads featuring children and teens.
This year, Gucci got heat for its premiere fall-line image featuring a woman crawling in the dirt toward a shirtless and evidently aroused man.
Gurstein said she's not sure how or if such advertising affects her or other women. But perhaps more mysterious, she said, is the fact that ads which “dehumanize, and objectify” women are able to move products at all.
“My fear is that people get used to what is shocking and it coarsens everyone's sensibilities,” she said. “It's insidious.”
Yet Gurstein thinks those who are tempted to despair over American culture's increasingly vulgar imagery should be encouraged by the backlash Calvin Klein and others suffered after their attempted assault on childhood innocence.
She also found publisher Allison's decision encouraging. Allison would not say which ads distressed him, though one of them is widely believed to be Gucci's fall-line image.
“This is a positive sign,” Gurstein said of the move, which Allison said he made at “great” financial cost to himself.
A Catholic convert from Methodism, Allison called the ads in question “obscene, vulgar, inappropriate and stupid.” He added that the companies that submitted the ads were bluntly informed to “never to send us that kind of advertising again.”
A glossy review of Dallas fashion, arts and culture, D Magazine circulates in the nation's fourth-largest fashion market. Founder, publisher and editor Allison explained that under such conditions advertisers are forced to do pretty much what he tells them to do.
‘Commercial Desperation’
“These are two fashion houses that are well-known and desperate to do anything they can to achieve any notoriety to stay alive. I make them pay in advance,” Allison said. “I refuse to play along or to degrade my magazine or offend my readers in the service of somebody's commercial desperation.”
Allison said the reaction of his staff and readership was almost universally positive.
“It's a liberal group of people and the reaction was overwhelmingly positive, especially by young women in our office,” Allison said, adding, “but I would have done it whether the reaction was positive or negative.”
Allison said he's received roughly 1,200 hundred letters of support from his trendy Dallas subscribers. “One or two” people wrote to complain, he said.
Jenny Parker, a spokesman for the magazine New York, which shares a similar market niche with D Magazine, said New York publisher Allen Katz reviews ads on a case-by-case basis and that “this particular ad [from Gucci's fall-line] did not raise any concerns.”
Parker said she was not going to respond to claims Allison made about the motives of advertisers or the quality of their ads, but noted that New York got very minimal complaints about the Gucci ad.
Gucci advertising chief Frazier Conlon did not return Register calls about his fall-line image.
At the Dec. 16 Jubilee of the Fashion World in Rome, Pope John Paul II told an audience of fashion executives and designers they had a responsibility to “transmit love of beauty” and to use their work to raise spirits to God.
Sisters Laura Biagiotti and Raffaella Curiel, of the Fendi fashion family, were in attendance, sitting prayerfully in the front row at a morning Mass that began the event. The night before, entrepreneurs, craftsmen and fashion designers gathered at the Basilica of St. Eugene to reflect on topics like the problems of child labor in apparel factories, wastefulness in luxury and provocative advertising.
“May your work raise the spirit to the One who transforms life's efforts into joy,” the Pope prayed during his homily.
The Holy Father reminded those present that beauty can only be transmitted when its stewards are inspired by healthy moral principles, and that such principles were “the patrimony of every authentically human culture.”
Ads Reflect Culture
Gurstein said today's ad images are a mere reflection of the topics being addressed on the print pages they face.
It was in the late 19th Century, she said, that “invasive reporters” began to divulge small personal details such as what a woman wore at her wedding or divorce proceedings — details most people at the time thought were best kept private, Gurstein said.
“They thought these things pollute the public sphere,” Gurstein explained.
“The people who fought [this kind of journalism] were concerned that if you spend too much time on private matters it trivializes things that are important, like sexual intimacy and marriage, which become trivial and small and laughable as a result.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian Mcguire ------ KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: RU-486 Drug Linked to Deaths DATE: 01/7/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:SAN FRANCISCO — The pro-abortion magazine Mother Jones has obtained FDA figures listing 30 cases of uterine rupture associated with the use of the drug Cytotec to induce labor in expectant mothers, including eight cases in which the unborn child died in utero.
The FDA recently approved the RU-486 chemical abortion regimen that includes use of Cytotec in the abortion process, despite objections from the drug's manufacturer that such use is unsafe.
Even though Cytotec is only FDA-approved for treating peptic ulcers rather than for inducing labor, it is now “the predominant agent of choice” for inducing labor, according to Dr. Charles Lockwood, chairman of obstetrical practices for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
Mother Jones contributing writer David Goodman reported that deaths resulting from the “off-label” use of Cytotec have become the subject of several lawsuits, including two in Oregon and others in Texas and Connecticut. After being named as a defendant in a Portland, Ore., lawsuit, the drug's manufacturer, G.D. Searle Corporation, sent a letter to 200,000 healthcare providers warning them that “Cytotec administration by any route is contraindicated in women who are pregnant because it can cause abortion.”
In the RU-486 drug cocktail, Cytotec is used in combination with the drug mifepristone, which kills the unborn child. Searle noted that this off-label use of Cytotec to induce labor has resulted in reports of uterine rupture, hysterectomy, and the death of mothers and infants.
According to one informal survey, reported Mother Jones, at least a third of hospitals have restricted the use of the drug because of health and safety concerns for women, but other hospitals stand by it. Dr. Luis Sanchez-Ramos, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Florida, insists the drug is safe and told Goodman that the warning “hasn't impacted us at all.”
Critics such as Dr. Marsden Wagner, formerly with the World Health Organization, argue that doctors are using Cytotec to help fit deliveries into a daytime schedule. Wagner notes that Cytotec is not used to induce labor in Europe because of health concerns and chides American physicians for what he calls “vigilante obstetrics.”
“Whatever the drug's dangers,” concludes Goodman, “most women who receive it have no idea that it is not approved for use during pregnancy.” (Pro-Life Infonet)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ------ KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 01/7/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:Cuomo Chided on Conscience
Msgr. Michael J. Wrenn, pastor of St. John the Evangelist Church, sent Cuomo a private letter chastising him for his statements during his Dec. 10 CNN appearance. Msgr. Wrenn thought Cuomo might be encouraging electors pledged to President-elect George W. Bush to switch their votes to Vice President Al Gore, thus handing Gore the election. On CNN, Cuomo asked if it would be “legitimate” for Bush electors to “vote their conscience” and “change their mind.” Cuomo denied that he was encouraging Bush electors to go Democratic.
In 1984, Cuomo spoke at the University of Notre Dame, defending Catholic politicians who supported legal abortion. Dreher connected this incident to Cuomo's recent comments, writing that Cuomo “maintains that being true to one's conscience, not the church's moral norms, is the ultimate behavioral guide for individual Catholics.”
That's not so, Dreher said: “Catholics are obliged to live by different standards even if those standards do not suit the wishes of the Democratic Party.”
Should Catholics Start ‘E-Tithing’?
E-tithing gives churches a steady cash flow, even during winter and summer vacation seasons when parishioners may not be in their local pews. And churchgoers say they can focus more on the service when they don't have to fumble for a billfold.
In order to e-tithe, a parishioner must fill out a form indicating how much he wants taken from his bank account, how often, and when. After that, the funds are transferred automatically.
But Michael Murphy, development director for the archdiocese of Detroit, cautioned that “sacrificial giving through the offertory collection” is an important part of Mass. He explained that a Mass is an exchange of gifts: Participants receive God's word through readings and God's Son through the Eucharist. In return, they give God prayer, praise, adoration, and commitment — and give to the Church, through the collection basket.
Not all Catholics agree. Our Sunday Visitor, which supplies offering envelopes to Catholic parishes, plans to test-market a special envelope for e-tithers.
Philadelphia Holds Reconciliation 2000
The effort was part of Reconciliation 2000, an archdiocesan effort to bring people back to the sacraments by offering two weeks of penance services. From Dec. 10 through 23, 100 of the archdiocese's parish churches offered the sacrament of reconciliation. On Dec. 23, priests heard confessions at all 283 parish churches.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ------ KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Economy Grows, But So Do Lines at Soup Kitchens DATE: 01/7/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The nation's 11th-largest charitable organization, Catholic Charities USA, increased emergency giving last year by 32% despite record-high employment rates and a soaring economy, its president said in a Dec. 19 press conference.
Jesuit Father Fred Kammer called the results of a 1999 report on the work of Catholic Charities “astonishing,” saying the numbers reflect a problem of “persistent poverty” and “the inadequacy of incomes in millions of U.S. families.”
Challenging Father Kammer's bleak assessment were advocates of welfare-to-work programs that were set into motion by Congress's1996 Welfare Reform Act.
While Father Kammer implored “a new president and a new Congress” to work toward reversing the trends he decried and to resolve to “end poverty as we know it,” welfare policy analysts voiced optimism over religious-based initiatives that have emerged since reform was initiated four years ago.
“All you need to do is look at the effect that welfare rolls have been cut in half. A lot of folks are saying it's the greatest thing that's ever happened to them and that they have gained a sense of self-respect,” said Brian Anderson, senior editor at the New York-based City Journal magazine. “Nobody said this was going to be easy, but certainly the consequences are good so far.”
Anderson, a Catholic, agreed that alleviating poverty is an important goal, but he thinks behavior, not the economy, is usually the root cause of poverty in America.
“There are still going to be people who are self-destructive,” he said. “If you look at the long-term poor in this country, in almost every case, it's someone who has screwed up their lives, somebody who has done something that has contributed to their situation.”
But Father Kammer said the Welfare Reform Act and the failure of Congress to raise the minimum wage this year have left America's lowest income earners unable to cover their basic needs.
Another key factor in the need for increased assistance, Father Kammer said, was housing. Five million U.S. families, he said, currently spend more than 50% of their total income on housing.
He called on president-elect George W. Bush and the new Congress to adjust the minimum wage to rise with the inflation rate and to make a major investment in low-income housing, a step he said hasn't been taken in over 20 years.
Tough Love
Missionary Sister of the Poor Connie Driscoll told the Register that when she started the now-famous St. Martin de Porres House of Hope in Chicago's Woodlawn area in 1983, she viewed the poor women who came to her for help with “the same rose-colored glasses as everyone else. We thought, ‘Oh, you poor women, you were abused by the system,’” she said.
“Within six weeks,” Sister Driscoll said, “we realized we had a real problem with accountability and responsibility.”
Sister Driscoll said her apostolate has housed over 11,000 women and children in the St. Martin de Porres House of Hope and claims a 94% success rate with them.
One of those women, Ollie Thomas, said that when she came to the home in 1993 she was drug dependent and on public assistance. Today, at 44, she is a senior at Chicago's Northwestern University and working as a substance abuse counselor.
“When I came here I found out that it was a myth that it's not possible to live without drugs,” Thomas said. “A lot of women are naive, they think that they have to stay on public aid.”
Sister Driscoll said that although she believes in “tough love,” she also sees that it's difficult in many cases for people coming off welfare to adapt well to society.
“We know there is a problem when people start right off welfare to the workforce,” she said. “They may need help with food and utilities.”
Nevertheless, Sister Driscoll said the Welfare Reform Act of 1996 didn't seem to have aggravated the problems she mentioned.
“I think the welfare reform is working wonderfully well,” she said. “We see people much happier, doing very, very well and taking care of their families,” she said.
Father Kammer counters that the numbers speak for themselves. Those who have benefited from an economic boom can be tone-deaf to the voices of those who lack skills and sophistication to swim in today's fast-paced market, he said.
Inundated by Requests
“Catholic Charities agencies are being inundated with requests for emergency assistance from individuals and families that would otherwise go hungry or homeless,” he said. “Or they cannot afford even the basics such as rent, food, heat, medicine or clothes.”
But even in those cases, the remedy isn't necessarily a boost in welfare handouts, others believe. John Walters heads a Washington, D.C.-based information-gathering organization for prospective philanthropists. Many organizations that had once been convinced of the benefits of welfare have started to acknowledge the successes of welfare reform, he said.
“Even the Ford Foundation, which was considered a pioneer in supporting the old welfare system is now looking at new ways to foster self-reliance, job-training and greater educational opportunities,” the president of the Philanthropy Roundtable said.
Walters said he was surprised by the numbers presented by Father Kammer at his Dec. 19 press conference.
“If this is to be taken at face value, it seems anomalous to say that there is a serious increase in emergency need,” Walters said. “And I don't hear from people who have been working with nonprofits that there has been a dramatic increase in need.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian Mcguire ------ KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Vatican to Catholics: Don't Like the Media? Fix It! DATE: 01/7/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — Oddly enough, one of the last celebrations of the Great Jubilee that ends Jan. 6 (see back page) was the Jubilee for Entertainers.
Not so odd, though, Vatican media point-man Archbishop John Foley told the Register, when you consider the emphasis our culture puts on entertainment — and the duty Catholics have to change it.
Celebrating a Jubilee Mass attended by thousands of actors, singers and other performers, Pope John Paul II urged the entertainment industry to act responsibly and promote a healthy concept of fun.
Addressing some 40,000 people gathered in St. Peter's Square Dec. 17 for the Jubilee for Entertainers, the Pope told them to keep in mind the rights and needs of their audience, especially children.
“Do not let yourselves be conditioned by sheer economic or ideological interests,” he told the crowd, which included film and television personalities, musicians and entertainment executives. “Society thus must give thanks to those who produce intelligent and relaxing broadcasts and programs that are enjoyable without being alienating, funny but not vulgar. Spreading authentic cheer can be a genuine form of social charity.”
During the Mass, men and women on stilts gingerly bent down to receive Communion from priests who strained to reach the performers' outstretched hands above them. Among some 200 participants from the United States were Jack Shea, head of the Directors Guild of America, and his wife, Patt Shea, president of the Catholics in Media Association. At the beginning of the Mass, Jack Shea gave a brief address to the Holy Father on behalf of those who work in the entertainment industry.
“I have never spoken to a live audience that large — it was overwhelming,” said Shea. “I was very happy to thank the Holy Father for his interest in our work and to pray with him that entertainment would be used for good purposes.
“It's very important to express that the world of entertainment can be a wonderful tool for God's people,” Shea continued. “Hollywood is made up of all kinds of people — some who are very good and some who are not. Because of our high visibility, we can make an easy target. But we have the same obligation as anybody else — to tell the truth and to follow our conscience in our work.”
The Mass included other people from the world of entertainment. The first reading, in French, was done by Robert Molhant, president of the International Association of Catholics in Cinema. Scott Armstrong, a deacon who was previously an orchestra violinist in western Australia, read the Gospel.
The Jubilee for Entertainers was organized under the auspices of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. Its president, Archbishop Foley, spoke with the Register about the event.
Register: What was the main purpose of holding a special Jubilee for entertainers?
Archbishop Foley: Our council is responsible for contacts both with news media and the world of entertainment — we regularly have contact with Hollywood and New York. Of course, the Holy Father himself is very interested in the world of theater and actors and writers, and he knows from his own work in the theater as a young man the impact that the dramatic world can have.
The purpose of the Jubilee was just what the Holy Father said to them in his homily: That they should be proud of their work, and that they should do work of which they can be proud in every respect.
People who work in entertainment also need spiritual care. During the Jubilee events, there was a great moment when the owner of some circuses here in Italy, Liliana Orfei, came out dressed as a clown and offered a “clown's prayer.” She said that clowns, who seek to make others happy, also need to be looked after, they too need the grace of God and to be ministered to by the Church.
Does the entertainer — the novelist, the playwright, the composer, the screenwriter — have to do more than just entertain? Is it enough to provide good entertainment, if only as a diversion?
Entertainment is valuable in itself if it brings joy and refreshment. But entertainment can also do much more than that. Writers can give insight into human nature — sometimes it is more valuable to read a novel than a history book. The dramatist can show us something of ourselves by portraying the “inner story” of the characters, their “inner struggles,” their inner aspirations. The dramatist is artistically free to go beyond the merely factual to the profoundly real.
From the North American perspective at least, can it be said that we simply have too much entertainment?
We have too much of everything, in a certain sense, and that would include information and entertainment. The only thing we do not have too much of is time. So we have to make intelligent choices. What a shame to waste time, therefore, on something that is morally destructive — the ultimate waste of time — or merely distracting instead of truly refreshing.
Once we spend a moment, it is spent forever. Every moment must be invested well, and that includes time given to entertainment. Education in the constructive use of time is an important part of “media education,” which today in places like Canada and the United States is an essential part of moral formation.
It is not that every program needs to be a specifically “moral” piece of entertainment — though of course it should never be morally destructive. But entertainment should be such that it enriches the person; it should help to refresh and to uplift the person. So we should seek entertainment and information that we truly need, and not, for example, just seek after gossip or mere distractions, as many television talk shows do.
Do these same concerns apply in other parts of the world?
Clearly, the same issues are present in Europe. The world of electronic media is reaching everywhere now, including parts of the developing world. While it does bring greater opportunities, it is also a greater intrusion. So, for example, the traditional storytelling within families and cultures can be displaced.
Should this Jubilee be understood as a particular invitation for Catholics to enter the world of entertainment, not just as a profession, but also as a mission or vocation?
I got involved in the media after reading a book by Maryknoll Father James Keller, You Can Change the World.
He was the founder of the Christopher Movement, and in that book he recommended that people ought to get involved in the media and other areas of society in which they could bring a Christian influence. So I got involved in writing radio plays on the lives of the saints.
I know of many Christians who got involved in the world of entertainment because they liked it and it was a challenge, but also because they saw it as socially significant. There are many who get involved in the entertainment industry not only to make a living but also to offer a service. It is possible to make a very good living, but for many the industry is a very difficult and risky profession.
I am not canonizing him, but to take one example, the actor Martin Sheen — who currently has a hit series The West Wing — is a Catholic who has looked for such roles in his career.
(CNS contributed to this article.)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Raymond J. De Souza ------ KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Make the World Like World Youth Day, Says Pope DATE: 01/7/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — There is no easy way to world peace, Pope John Paul II said in his Jan. 1 World Day of Peace message. But World Youth Day 2000 is one sign of hope for a better world.
A difficult and unpredictable dialogue among cultures and traditions is “the obligatory path” to peace, said the Holy Father. He urged nations to acknowledge differences but put them in the context of “the underlying unity of the human family.”
The 24-page message, titled “Dialogue Between Cultures for a Civilization of Love and Peace,” criticized “the slavish conformity of cultures” around the globe to certain aspects of Western culture. He said societies had the duty to ensure that influxes of immigrants did not upset the local “cultural equilibrium.”
Noting that dialogue was frequently obstructed by “the tragic heritage of war, conflict, violence and hatred, which lives on in people's memory,” John Paul asked Christians to “become witness to and missionaries of forgiveness and reconciliation.”
He appealed especially to young people to “become craftsmen of a new humanity” and said that at Rome's World Youth Day celebrations in August he was “able to glimpse a more peaceful and human future for the world.”
“Feeling your closeness to me, I sensed a profound gratitude to the Lord, who gave me the grace of contemplating — through the multicolored mosaic of your different languages, cultures, customs and ways of thinking — the miracle of the universality of the Church, of her catholicity, of her unity,” he said.
Bishop Diarmuid Martin, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, said at a press conference that the Pope had a “different message” than that popularized by the 1996 book, “The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order,” written by Samuel P. Huntington, a Harvard professor. Rather than a “clash,” the Vatican official said, “it is dialogue between civilizations that [John Paul] proposes as the creative way to resolve problems” caused by the increasing mix of cultures brought by globalization.
Migration and Cultural Identity
The Holy Father especially stressed the theme of migration, but with an emphasis on culture identity, devoting nearly four consecutive pages to the rights and duties of cultures which find themselves living together. Asserting that a person's own culture is “a structuring element of one's personality, especially in the initial stages of life,” he said it was appropriate for societies to be concerned with maintaining their cultural identity, particularly for the sake of their children.
“From this point of view, a reasonable way forward would be to ensure a certain ‘cultural equilibrium’ in each region, by reference to the culture which has prevalently marked its development,” he said.
“This equilibrium, even while welcoming minorities and respecting their basic rights, would allow the continued existence and development of a particular ‘cultural profile,’ by which I mean that basic heritage of language, traditions and values which are inextricably part of a nation's history and its national identity,” he said.
But he added that laws alone were not enough to maintain a region's traditional culture.
“As long as a culture is truly alive, it need have no fear of being displaced. And no law could keep it alive if it were already dead in people's hearts,” he said.
“In the dialogue between cultures, no side can be prevented from proposing to the other the values in which it believes,” he said, “as long as this is done in a way that is respectful of people's freedom and conscience.”
Archbishop Francois Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan, president of the justice and peace council, underscored a passage in which the Pope said that “the cultural practices which immigrants bring with them should be respected and accepted, as long as they do not contravene either the universal ethical values inherent in the natural law or fundamental human rights.”
Western Media
The Pope also turned a critical eye toward Western culture and its disproportionate influence, through media and economic wealth, on the rest of the world.
“Western cultural models are enticing and alluring because of their remarkable scientific and technical cast, but regrettably there is growing evidence of their deepening human, spiritual and moral impoverishment,” he said.
The Pope said Western cultural models were “marked by the fatal attempt to secure the good of humanity by eliminating God.”
“A culture which no longer has a point of reference in God loses its soul and loses its way, becoming a culture of death,” he said.
In addition, the spread of Western culture meant that “other estimable cultures and civilizations” were being eroded from within and lost, the Pope said.
“The fact that a few countries have a monopoly on these cultural ‘industries’ and distribute their products to an ever growing public in every corner of the earth,” he said, “can be a powerful factor in undermining cultural distinctness.”
(CNS reporter John Norton contributed to this report.)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Norton ------ KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 01/7/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:City of Miraculous Cures
On Dec. 18, Pope John Paul II signed a decree accepting as miraculous the case of Bernadette McKenzie, a Philadelphia native cured of a painful spinal defect in 1992 after praying for the intercession of Blessed Frances de Sales Aviat.
The second approved miracle attributed to Blessed Frances, it clears the way for her canonization.
The Vatican's decision comes on the heels of the October canonization of Philadelphia heiress Katharine Drexel.
Two other Philadelphia residents, Amy Wall and Robert Gutherman, had childhood healings from deafness that were certified by the Vatican as miraculous.
Philadelphia's other saint is the Czechoslovakian-born St. John Neumann, who was consecrated bishop of the city in 1852.
Philippine Church Activism Worries Vatican Official
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, Dec 18 — “The Vatican is very concerned with the local Church's active involvement with the move to oust the president,” Philippine ambassador to the Holy See Henrietta de Villa told the news service after he had a long, informal conversation with Msgr. Luis Montemayor, who heads the Vatican's Asia Secretariat.
De Villa said the Vatican believes the campaign “has placed the entire Church in a precarious situation,” and such an expression of political sentiment “could eventually redound to a negative effect on the country, the Church and the ‘magisterium of the presidency.’”
Philippine bishops have led street protests calling for the resignation of Estrada, who was impeached last month by the country's House of Representatives on charges of bribery, corruption, betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the constitution.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ------ KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 01/7/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:Philippines Church Leads in E-Vangelization
The Church in the Philippines has constructed the nation's most comprehensive Internet backbone, running the 1,000-mile length of this far-flung archipelago.
Eventually, CBCPNet, as the Church-run entity calls itself, intends to wire up every diocese, parish house and parochial school in the country. In partnership with private companies, it is also setting up Internet cafes around the country to give urban poor access to the Internet.
The Internet service provided by the Church is free of violence, gambling and pornography. Ronald Paredes, 24, demonstrated for reporters how this was done at the Internet shop he runs with 10 computer terminals in a plain storefront between a hardware store and a massage parlor off a busy street in Quezon City.
Paredes typed in the Internet address for a Playboy Web site and almost immediately, the computer displayed this admonition: “Thank God you were not able to enter that bad site.”
Same-Sex Nativity Scenes Sold in Britain
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL, Dec. 17 — Retailers in Britain engaged in a little revisionist history this year as department stores sold Nativity scenes featuring same-sex couples, the news service reported.
The attack on the Holy Family represents an attempt by chains to attract single-parent and lesbian customers. A spokesman for an unidentified store said, “We have a variety of Nativity sets so people can choose what they like best,” the news service reported.
Some Nativity sets presented Joseph as a figure with rosy cheeks and curly hair, donning a headscarf and cloak and carrying a crook. A survey of storeowners showed that the sets were designed to appeal to single parents or those with “Sapphic (lesbian) inclinations.”
Ukraine's Orthodox Churches Begin Uniting
POST-SOVIET PRESS, Dec. 13 — An agreement to create a joint commission on the unification of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the leadership of the self-proclaimed Kiev Patriarchate (the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kiev Patriarchate) and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church has been signed in Istanbul. They will form a united local Ukrainian Orthodox Church, independent of Moscow.
According to official figures, 12,500 of the 24,000 religious congregations in Ukraine today are Orthodox. Nine thousand are under the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church/Moscow Patriarchate, 3,000 are under the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church/Kiev Patriarchate and about 1,000 are under the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. There is also a fourth branch, which is in communion with Rome — the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, which has 3,500 congregations.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ------ KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Post-Jubilee Church DATE: 01/7/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:By the time Jan. 7 dawns, Rome's holy doors will all be closed, and parishes will begin to take down the Jubilee posters and flags that adorn many pilgrimage churches across the United States.
The Great Jubilee will be done. More holy years will come — the anniversary of Christ's death and resurrection, for instance, will be noted, but not for another 1,000 years will we have another opportunity to celebrate the passing of another millennium in the history of Christ's continued transformation of the world.
Now all that is left is to size up what the Holy Year has meant, and what it ought to mean, now.
There is a temptation to reduce the Great Jubilee's scope, making it merely the story of Pope John Paul II. The Holy Father is a great figure indeed and, without his intense focus on the millennial anniversary, the Jubilee would never have captured the imagination of Catholics the way it did.
Yes, the Pope gave it a character that would be hard to match. His careful preparation for it included not just two major papal documents, but years of research and evaluation of the Church by its top theologians. We saw the Church's wisdom applied to the martyrs, Catholics' sins throughout time, the Church's place in salvation history and the faith of taxi drivers, pizza makers, bishops and single lay people.
Through John Paul's witness, major media players usually tone-deaf to the Catholic faith were able to grasp a little bit of the Jubilee's purpose, especially through the Holy Father's historic mea culpa on behalf of the Church and his pilgrimage to the Holy Land. “Consider the long and extraordinary life of Karol Wojtyla in the context of Middle East tensions, Time magazine wrote in its year-end wrap-up, remembering the Nazi atrocities the future Pope was horrified by in his youth. “In the Holy Land he begged forgiveness and asked over and over again for peace.”
But the last thing the Pope wants is for the Jubilee's meaning to be reduced to the tiny size of his life — vis a vis 2,000 years of Christtianity. If you look at him alone, you'll miss the whole point. It's not “all about John Paul”: It's all about Christ.
The Jubilee belongs to the whole Church, from the college of cardinals to the assistant sacristans, to the family running a little late for 10 a.m. Mass because a 3-year-old didn't like her dress.
The Holy Father stressed this by giving so many Catholic groupings their 15 minutes of liturgical fame. He stressed it by becoming a pilgrim himself, touring the Holy Land and Egypt. And, on the last Sunday of last liturgical year, he made it explicit by addressing lay people with explicit instructions: an examination of conscience and some homework.
The questions of his conscience exam are basic, but very few of us can answer them guiltlessly. “What have I done with by baptism and confirmation? Is Christ really at the center of my life? Do I make time for prayer? Do I live my life as a mission?”
Next, said the Pope, the documents of the Second Vatican Council explain what fields lay people are supposed to work in.
“Suffice it to say that it includes social conquests and the revolution in the genetic field,” he said, “in economic progress and in the underdevelopment that exists in wide areas of the planet; in the tragedy of hunger in the world, and in the difficulties of safeguarding peace; in the fiber network of communications and in the drama of loneliness and violence that we hear about every day.”
It's a tall order. But the Great Jubilee is supposed to accomplish great things. And there aren't any Catholics but us to do it.
----- EXCERPT: Editorial ----- EXTENDED BODY: ------ KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 01/7/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:No Fan of ACLU, But …
To be very concise, I am in no way a fan of the ACLU (“ACLU Stops Muslim Teens Form Praying,” Dec. 17 – 23). They are perhaps the most repugnant of all the so-called American civil-liberty protectors. Even many liberals with the ability to think for themselves feel the same. Lets not forget that Michael Dukakis may have lost the presidential election when he was foolish enough to announce that he was a card-carrying member of the (Godless) ACLU.
In reality, though, it may be a taste of their own medicine when Muslims encounter this type of treatment. Let's not forget the Muslim intolerance for Christianity. We need not go much further than the many news reports in the Register over the last year depicting the slaughter of Christians in Africa and Asia by Muslims. Let's not forget that it is illegal for Christians to practice Christianity in many Muslim countries, even when American Christians are in that country fighting a war for them. I have a difficult time feeling sorry for Muslim teen-agers in Brooklyn, N.Y., not being able to pray during school time. I do pray for the Christians who are repressed in a country founded by Christians who wanted to worship in their own way.
STEVE NOGUEIRA Christiansburg, Virginia
Dutch Watch
I was wondering if you would be able to keep an eye on the situation in the Netherlands and see how many people take advantage of that law (“Netherlands Backs Euthanasia, Even for 12-Year-Olds,” Dec. 10 – 16). I'm especially interested in the number of people who are too incapacitated mentally to make a euthanasia request. How many of them will be euthanized under the law, and what will the effect be on the Netherlands'health budget?
JULIE A. ROBICHAUD San Antonio
Just Another Smiley Face?
Several years ago I purchased three gift subscriptions to your newspaper and one for myself. There was never an invitation to renew from your newspaper and I never renewed. Since then I re-subscribed for myself, but I find your paper to be another “smiley-faced” Catholic publication.
This isn't the kind of Catholic paper that I want. And I won't renew my subscription. I am sure that your publisher will never see this letter. That is one reason your paper will not improve.
JOHN BRADEY Yankton, South Dakota
Bible's Table Of Contents
I am puzzled by Mr. Douglas Wilson's letter about Karl Keating's column on the Bible when he uses the phrase, “a table of contents.” (“Sola Roma,” Dec. 10 – 16). I am surmising that he means a teaching on a list of just what books are to be in the Bible. But he seems on the other hand to be in a quandary about finding any authoritative Catholic “table of contents” which can identify the boundaries of authoritative and infallible tradition.
I shall offer several “tables of contents” in the Catholic tradition, starting with the most authoritative. There are “several” because Catholic tradition has many aspects. In my library I have a book called Enchiridion Symbolorum, a list in itself of definitive statements of popes and Church councils starting with the creeds of the first century and various statements by the early popes. One interesting entry is that of the declaration of the Council of Carthage in 397 A.D. regarding the canon of Scripture. It is followed by a declaration by Pope Innocent on the same subject but adding a list of apocryphal works. One can say therefore that the Bible itself is a part of authoritative Church tradition.
The Enchiridion continues with Church declarations through the centuries, right up to 1939. Add to these a list of all the encyclicals mostly of recent history that rest in some cases on the infallible authority of the Church. As Mr. Keating suggested, there is most recently the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Next, one might consider lists of works of considerable authority by the Church Fathers, starting with the Didache of the first century and continuing through the centuries with St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Catherine, St. Thérèse of Lisieux and so on. They are all consistent with a single Catholic tradition.
Lastly the scale of authority for Catholic tradition are works of religious art. Mr. Wilson need only consult an art-history book on religious works and see graphically a witness in glass, carvings, paintings and edifices reflecting what the Church has taught through the centuries, obviously with enough authority and conviction to inspire great works of art.
These in my mind constitute the Tradition of the Church. So now with divine revelation and inspired Scripture, the Church stands on unshakable ground for its teaching authority.
LAWRENCE PETRUS Rocky River, Ohio
Hermana Nirmala
Please tell me the name of the publisher of Sister Nirmala: In the Shadow of Mother Theresa by Cristina Ansorena (“‘God Thirsts for Our Love,’ Says Sister Nirmala,” Dec. 17 – 23). Where to buy? How much is the work?
DR. STEPHEN TOROK New York
Unwise Investment?
I continuously find myself impressed with the journalism poured into every issue of the National Catholic Register. However, I must add a caveat regarding Phil Lenahan's recent column regarding “own your own home quickly,” which appeared in the Dec. 17 – 23 issue. Being employed in the world of finance, I found his misstatements too egregious to remain silent. And so I write…
In the second to last paragraph Phil makes a comparison between two families:
1) those who prepay their mortgage and
2) those who do not. He concludes that the family which prepaid their mortgage, and then invested, after 30 years will have accumulated a larger asset. What he forgets to point out is that this family has been paying $285 more per month over 30 years, and so the comparison is mathematically flawed. If the family which did not prepay their mortgage was to have set $285 aside in an investment, and continued paying their mortgage for the full 30 years, in the end their assets would be identical to the first family. This is basic time value of money.
I would also point out that most solid investments have a higher yield than the interest rate paid on a mortgage. Therefore if the family, in his example, which did not prepay their mortgage were to set the same amount aside in an investment and let the $285 per month compound over 30 years at a higher yield, they would most likely have the larger nest egg.
In the finance world it is commonly known that many people tie up capital in their home's equity which would yield a much higher return if properly invested.
Phil's column only serves to further that myth.
PAUL DEEMER Columbus, Ohio
Whose Churches?
The Orthodox bishop of Lviv and Galacia had no grounds for complaint when the Ukrainian Catholics of that area took back the churches and cathedrals in 1989 and 1990 that had been stolen from them in 1946 with the help of Joseph Stalin (“Ukraine Headache,” Dec. 10 – 16). Books published later state that the Catholic Metropolitan Cathedral of St. George in Lviv was returned with due pomp and ceremony. What probably bothers that sniveling prelate is that 350 of his priests and parishes defected en masse to the Ukranian Catholic Rite (parishes that had been Catholic before 1946).
As for the Russian Orthodox Patriarch in Moscow, Catholic Eastern rites are not permitted to operate in the Russian Federation, and Roman-rite parishes (mostly among non-Russian ethnics) are permitted to operate publicly only if licensed by Russian Federation bureaucrats. Tell me how Catholics can be proselytizing? Ukraine is no concern of the Russian Orthodox, because the Orthodox Christians in that now-independent nation organized themselves into two Ukranian Orthodox Churches, one with some slight connection with the Moscow patriarch.
The Soviet decree of tolerance for Catholics covered only Ukraine, but not Russia at that time. The Ukranian Catholics posed as the patriots fighting for an independent Ukraine and made good use of the then-rebel Ukrainian blue and yellow flag, so that the Orthodox Christians decided that they were no longer Russian Orthodox although they were not as enthusiastic as the Catholics in waving the blue and yellow flag. Ecumenist Catholic prelates here are a bunch of sellouts of Catholic interests abroad, and that is especially true of Israel!
ROBERT GORMAN Chicago
Rosary Campaign Clarified
Regarding the letter from the individual who assumes the Lepanto Rosary pledge was to pray for “ballots to be counted a certain way” (“Rosaries for Chads?” Letters, 12/17 – 12/23), please let me set you straight.
The Lepanto rosary pledges were for the election of a president who would lead this country away from the present culture of death to a culture of life and a new morality; for a president who would appoint
Supreme Court Justices with moral and not political agendas; for a president who would ban partial birth abortion and embryonic stem cell research and last but not least, that God would not give this country what we truly deserve. Shame on the Catholics who did not choose to vote for life, the most fundamental right, without which all other benefits or rights are meaningless.
Had the Catholics voted their faith, there never would have been a Lepanto pledge. But perhaps that was part of God's plan all along — to get this country to unite in prayer!
DEBRA VINNEDGE Clearwater, Florida
The Naive Catholic Register
Your conclusion that it is the fault of the laity for not communicating differences between Catholic and Democratic Party positions on major issues so that Catholics vote in sync with their ethics is incredibly naïve (“The Blame,” Dec. 3 – 9).
For example, as a citizen of Chicago, what would you consider the chances of Mayor Daley telling the party headquarters that his support base is voting Republican from now on based upon a conversation he had with me about abortion? And in Massachusetts, a similar outcome from a layman talking to Sen. Ted Kennedy?
In fact, you reported earlier this year of a dialogue between a Pennsylvania bishop and the state governor concerning critical issues that obtained a response from the politician and must have aroused the attention of the faithful in that state. So, don't you agree that an effective outcome would more likely result from a dialogue of Cardinal George with Mayor Daley? And a similar outcome with a dialogue by the cardinal in Boston with Sen. Kennedy?
Which raises a more fundamental question: Where is the Catholic leadership on the anti-Christian policies of the Democratic Party leadership? Issuing a policy statement with no follow-up action accomplishes little. Do you think this is all that Pope John Paul II would do if he were a bishop in the U.S.?
DOUGLAS MACLEOD Chicago
Shoe On the Other Foot
Since the election I have been thinking, like you, about the position our bishops and Catholic political leaders took. I ask, what would their position have been if the Republicans had a party plank advocating the murder of 1 million Jews or blacks? Would they have put out a laundry list of other concerns that should be considered?
Would we have heard that the Church can't be an advocate of one party without losing the tax-exempt position we have? Would any Catholic politician have said that he didn't personally support murder of Jews or blacks but it was the law of the land? Why, then, weren't they just as strong in condemning the Democrats' position on abortion, the murder of innocent unborn children?
FRED HOLT Englewood, Florida
Dear President-Elect,
Regarding “Dear President-Elect Bush …” (Dec. 17 – 23): Did Father C. John McCloskey really send that to President-elect Bush? If he didn't, I'd love to clip my copy and send it right away! Excellent letter! Kudos to Father McCloskey!
CAROL NYPAVER Middletown, Kansas
I truly believe that this new millennium will witness a new springtime of evangelization.
Or better, re-evangelization, since much of the territory to be conquered was won in the first thousand years only to be lost in the last one hundred.
It is especially in such territory that Christianity will face far more difficult obstacles than the first Christians met.
The first Christians had to confront paganism, but pagans still had both feet planted on natural ground, even if they were putting Christians to the sword. As a consequence, they had a firm sense of the natural law, of moral boundaries written into the universe which even to think of transgressing filled them with horror.
That does not mean that pagans were saints awaiting baptism as a mere formality. They were fallen, and their judgment was consequently distorted.
The same Romans who were the first among the pagans to formulate the outlines of the lex naturalis (the natural law) also positively enjoyed a good day at the theater watching Christians, slaves and criminals shredded and eaten by wild animals.
But if we look to another ancient theater, the theater not of the gladiators but of the tragedians Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripides, we can see the moral core of paganism, clear and intact. The ancients loved tragedies, but tragedies presuppose that there is a moral order which can be violated. Without such an order, there can be no tragic plays, for there can be no tragedy in our lives which the plays imitate.
The great Greek philosopher Aristotle, in his Poetics, argued that a good tragedy relies on a good plot. The plot “should be so constructed that even without seeing the play, anyone who merely hears the events unfold will shudder and feel pity as a result of what is happening — which is precisely what one would experience in listening to the plot of Oedipus.”
The example of Sophocles' play Oedipus Rex is especially instructive. Oedipus, king of Thebes, discovers that he, himself, is the cause of the evil plague which the gods' wrath has visited upon Thebes. Without knowing it, he has killed his father and married his mother — thereby becoming both father and brother to his own children. Oedipus is so horrified to learn of his unnatural relations with his mother that he gouges his own eyes out and wanders blind into exile.
That was then and this is now. In our own day, we have sunk below the level of the pagans. We have not only embraced all their moral errors — they also accepted divorce, contraception, abortion, infanticide, homosexuality and suicide — but we have also gone beyond the point of feeling any moral horror at all. We are beyond tragedy, and therefore almost beyond hope.
Witness the following headline: “Infertile Men Turn to Fathers for Sperm.” This procedure, “now regularly performed in British clinics,” and which is neatly described in the article as “logical, appropriate, and ethical,” allows a grandfather to father his grandson; it can turn a father into the brother of his son and a son into the brother of his father.
We must raise the culture to the level of paganism first.
What for Oedipus was a moral nightmare has become a dream to be pursued. Incest? No problem. “If you'll just have a seat, fill out these forms, the doctor will be right with you.” We can imagine, in 20 years, with what utter bewilderment a 21st-century audience will watch the agony of Oedipus. “What is that man so upset about?”
It was common in the ancient tragedies for those caught in the web of tragic fate, such as Oedipus, to curse the day they were born. Had they lived today, rather than wailing and gouging their eyes out, they could see a lawyer instead.
“Boy Compensated for Being Born,” trumpets another recent headline. Nicholas Perruche, born 17 years ago with disabilities, is — along with his parents, Christian and Josette — suing doctors for allowing him to be born, rather than being aborted. The parents argue that the medical staff “failed to realize that his mother had caught rubella … during her pregnancy,” and the rubella caused the defects. “Would my son really have wanted to live if he'd known he had all these disabilities?” asked Christian. “That's the question I'm posing.”
We are, therefore, beyond tragedy in a second sense. Not only have we rejected any natural moral boundaries, and therefore have no feelings of moral horror doing what is unnatural, but we reject the very notion that we must suffer things outside our power to control. When things do not go our way, somebody must be at fault, and so somebody will have to pay. The chorus in Oedipus Rex bewailing the fate which has crushed the king has been replaced by a chorus of lawyers bent on exacting retribution by any means. We can imagine the billboards. “Don't curse the day of your birth. Get even! Call us at 1-800-SUE-MAMA.”
So, at this, the dawn of Christianity's third millennium, we find ourselves not in a tragic situation, but a situation without tragedy. Christianity introduced a Divine Comedy 2,000 years ago as an answer to pagan tragedy, not only correcting, sharpening and transforming the moral sense of paganism, but offering an eternal reward for those crushed under the wheel of life's tragedies. Having now sunk to a level below paganism, we must raise the culture to the level of paganism before we can re-evangelize it.
Ben Wiker teaches classics at Franciscan University of Steubenville.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Benjamin D. Wiker ------ KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Darkness to Light, Advent to Epiphany DATE: 01/7/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:Light clarifies and illuminates, uplifts and reveals. As it does all these things, it leads us, as the Star of Bethlehem led the Magi to the Christ Child on the first Epiphany, to God. Light ultimately leads to love.
Dante Alighieri opens the Paradiso segment of his Divine Comedy by proclaiming that God is a glorious light that sends itself out into the universe and is received and reflected by all beings in accordance with their dignity: “La gloria di colui che tutto move/ per l'universo penetra, e risplende/ in una parte più e meno in altrove” (“The glory of the One who moves all things penetrates the universe and reverberates [re-glows] more in one part and less in another”). For Dante, God's light penetrates to the essence of things and their responses are not mere surface reflections, but a re-glowing that emanates from the very core of their being.
Further in the Paradiso (Canto XXXI), he returns to his opening theme and states that “la luce divina è penetrante per l'universo secondo ch'è degno” (“the light of God penetrates the universe according to the dignity of each part”). God bathes the world with his glorious light and each being absorbs and recasts it on the basis of its own intrinsic capacity to do so. One sees the glory of God, therefore, more clearly in the saint than in the sinner — and in man more than in beast.
Echoing Dante's view, Nicolas Caussin, a Jesuit preacher and moralist of the 17th century, wrote: “We should render thanks to God for having produced temporal light, which is the smile of heaven and the joy of the world, spreading it like a cloth of gold over the face of the air and earth, and lighting it as a torch, by which we may behold his works.” Similarly, the 18th-century Scottish poet James Thomson sang praises to light for brightening our life and allowing us to appreciate God's artistry: “Light! Nature's resplendent robe; without whose vesting beauty all were in gloom.”
Patches of God-light, to borrow C.S. Lewis' expression, allow us to sense God's presence in the material order. St. Bonaventure claimed that, among all the things in the universe, that which most clearly resembles God is light (“Lux inter omnia corporalia maxime assimilatur luci aeternae”).
We may describe our spiritual journey as one that leads from created light to the uncreated Light, from light that is symbolic and transitory to the Light that is non-symbolic and everlasting. One way of describing this journey is to see light as levity; another is to see light as revealing.
Light as Levity
Levity is lightness that reverses the force of gravity. It is the natural antidote to the heaviness of the world. It is the buoyancy of mirth that lifts the spirit and elevates it to the source of all lightness, which is God.
“Angels can fly,” said G.K. Chesterton, “because they can take themselves lightly.” Levity gives wings to the spirit. Lightheartedness is a most infectious virtue because we all want to escape the dreary hold that gravity has on us. The whole point of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol was to get Ebenezer Scrooge to lighten up. When Scrooge was finally delivered from the burden of his ponderous ego, he became irrepressible in his lightheartedness: “I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy.”
“A light heart lives long,” Shakespeare declared. And why should it not! We were born for lofty things. Our hearts should be light because our hopes are high. It is said that God loves a cheerful giver. The maxim should be self-evident. Cheerfulness is the comportment of a lighthearted soul, one that enjoys the delightful sense that he is moving in the direction of his destiny.
We put the whole cosmos in perspective during the Mass when we set lights on the altar to honor the Invisible Light.
Light as Revealing
“In your light we see light,” the Psalmist writes (36:9). There would be no earthly light if it were not for the divine Light. We see light and the things that light illuminates. But, more importantly, we are led by our experiences of light to a realization of the supreme author of light. Light gives us knowledge, but it points to something above knowledge: a sense of the transcendent God, the Light above light. To see the light without sensing the Light is to be spiritually blind. God showers us in his eternal light so that we may see and understand all things.
T.S. Eliot praises God who is “Light Invisible … Too bright for mortal vision.” We put the whole cosmos in perspective during the Mass when we set little lights on the altar to honor the Invisible Light. Even the darkness can remind us of the forthcoming light, the very light that draws our souls toward the Light Invisible.
The Greek words lugé (darkness) and luké (daybreak) are etymologically related. From lugé we get the word “lugubrious,” meaning “doleful” or “mournful.” From luké we get “lucent” or “lucid,” meaning “shining” or “luminous.” Darkness anticipates the dawn because in some way it bears light. It may be darkest before the dawn, but that period of darkness is also one of hope, a prelude to daybreak in which lugé is about to give way to luké, just as the dark days of Advent prepare us for the arrival of Christmas.
Light as Love
When John Henry Cardinal Newman was journeying home to England from Italy in 1832, he became deliriously ill. Convinced that death was hovering near, he gave final instructions to his Italian servant. But then, just as darkness precedes the dawn, he uttered these unexpected words: “I shall not die, I shall not die, for I have not sinned against the light. … God has still a work for me to do.”
With difficulty, he reached Palermo. He crossed the Mediterranean, then France, and was sailing home when his vessel was becalmed in the Straits of Bonifaccio. While walking the deck and gazing up at the darkening sky, he composed his most celebrated poem, “Lead, Kindly Light.” The first stanza is an eloquent testimony to a faith that can see light in the midst of darkness: “Lead, kindly light, amid the encircling gloom/Lead Thou me on!/The night is dark, and I am far from home/Lead Thou me on!”
Newman's use of the adjective “kindly” is of particular significance. The divine light is not only a source of illumination, but also one of love. Lucifer, whose name means “light-bearer,” has knowledge, but lacks love. Newman is reminding us that the God of light is also the God of love. To separate love from light is to create hell.
St. John the Evangelist states repeatedly that Christ brings the true light into the world: “I am the light of the world. He who follows me does not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life (8:12); “As long as I am in the world I am the light of the world” (9:5); “While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light” (12:36); “I have come a light into the world, that whoever believes in me may not remain in the darkness” (12:46). “God is light,” he writes (1 John 1:15) and “God is love” (1 John 4:16).
In the final analysis, as St. Paul tells us, “light and darkness have nothing in common” (2 Corinthians 6:14). Light can do two things: Positively, it can illuminate; negatively, it can dispel the darkness. Darkness, on the other hand, is absolutely powerless: Positively, it cannot do anything; negatively, it cannot dispel the light. Light and darkness are not moral alternatives that exist on the same metaphysical plane. Darkness is the absolute privation of light and also the absolute privation of love. It is part of wisdom to know this; it is another part of wisdom to live by it. And one returns to the light through love.
Wisdom is a light that illumines other lights. It allows us to be led from one light to another. God wants us to be wise without ignoring his creation. We are pilgrims traveling along a road of lesser lights, each serving and guiding. None are final. Only the non-symbolic, invisible and everlasting Light will completely fill our souls. Wisdom, then, is a light that bids us to settle for nothing less than the Ultimate. At the end of our journey, we find that Light is inseparable from Love.
Dante closes his Paradiso by adding to God's identity as Light, which opened the poem, his identity as Love: “the Love that moves the sun and the stars” (“l'amor che move il sole e l'altre stelle”).
Donald DeMarco is a professor of philosophy at St. Jerome's University in Waterloo, Ontario.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Don Demarco ------ KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: The Toronto Miracle of Catholic Renewal DATE: 01/7/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:Parkdale was once a grand Toronto neighborhood.
It's a few blocks from Lake Ontario and a 20-minute streetcar ride from the heart of Canada's financial district. Today grandness is found mostly in the dreams of the immigrant families establishing a life for themselves on streets where prostitutes and drug dealers compete for space with the mentally ill who, thanks to a nearby psychiatric hospital, are a constant presence.
The “miracle”? Amidst all this is rising what may arguably be Canada's most beautiful new parish church, the new Holy Family Catholic Church on King Street West. The Renaissance/Classical structure — similar in appearance to St. Agnes Church near Grand Central Station in New York — is rising in place of the old Holy Family which was devastated in a June 1997 fire.
I lived on King Street West for two years. It was there that I did my first two years in the seminary, studying philosophy under the Fathers of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri. They are the real “miracle” behind the new Holy Family, which is scheduled to be finished before Christmas. The Fathers marked the 25th anniversary of their community's launch this fall just past and, aside from the significance of the anniversary for the Oratorians themselves, the astonishing success of the Oratory bears notice as a particularly fruitful expression of the vision of the Second Vatican Council.
Parkdale is not where anyone would have gone looking to find a renewal of priestly life, but in the designs of Providence that is where it can be found. I myself had no idea that the Oratory existed six months before I took up residence there as a new seminarian. My two years there were not without difficulties, but I knew then that I was witness to something extraordinary and with great potential for the Church in Canada.
The Toronto Oratory was actually founded in Montreal by Father Jonathan Robinson, a native of that city who served as secretary to Cardinal Paul Leger after his ordination in 1962. Prior to entering the seminary, Robinson had completed his doctorate in philosophy and, after Leger's retirement in 1967, he resumed his academic career, teaching 19th-century philosophy at McGill University in Montreal. But the scholar priest was attracted to the vision of Cardinal John Henry Newman, who introduced the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, a 16th-century Roman innovation, to the English-speaking world. So in the early 1970s, Robinson rented a small house, gathered together some like-minded priests and launched the new project.
“I was always very influenced by Cardinal Newman, and through him I discovered the Oratory, which seemed to me a happy combination of life in community with other priests,” says Robinson. “We're not monks. St. Philip's idea was there should be small centers of priests leading a community life but nonetheless devoted to prayer, preaching and the ministration of the sacraments — and, of course, you've got to have people around you for that. St. Philip saw the Oratory as a little island within a big city.”
When political turmoil made the flourishing of an English-speaking initiative unlikely in Quebec during the 1970s, Robinson moved the Oratory to its current location in Toronto at the invitation of Emmett Carter, then archbishop of Toronto and a Montreal native himself.
“I asked for a church that we didn't get,” recalls Robinson. “Carter gave us this one, but it was all providential because the people around here have been marvelously supportive.”
Parkdale was an unlikely place for an Oratory after the spirit of Cardinal Newman, a son of Oxford. But over 25 years the growing community has built a center of pastoral activity impressive in its diversity.
The 10 priests and three brothers man two parishes (Holy Family and the neighboring St. Vincent de Paul), both of which have schools. They operate the seminary I attended, which currently has 31 students in a two-year philosophy program affiliated with the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome. In addition, the Fathers have been given the chaplaincy at Ryerson Polytechnic University, celebrate Mass and provide spiritual direction for the Missionaries of Charity who live across the street, and run a food bank program called “St. Philip's Pantry.” It was busy place to live.
Above all, though, the Toronto Oratory is known for its liturgy. Taking after the London Oratory, famous for its high liturgy and formal style, the Toronto Oratory has sung Masses in both English and Latin every Sunday, as well as sung solemn Vespers. While the London Oratory has been criticized for sometimes letting the music get in the way of the Mass, the Toronto approach emphasizes both congregational singing and the riches of the Church's sacred choral music, all within a setting that fully observes the rubrics of the Novus Ordo Mass.
“We have made a very serious attempt to keep alive what I would call the ‘civilized musical tradition’ in the Church,” says Robinson. “Not just plainsong but Renaissance polyphony.”
The juxtaposition of the Church's most beautiful music in Toronto's inner city is only one sign that what the Oratory is doing on King Street West is something very like what the Second Vatican Council had in mind. An authentic, vibrant liturgical reform serves a poor, immigrant community with the Church's ancient treasures. Priests devoted to an intense common prayer life are also fully engaged in apostolic works. Cassocks and surplices are not an obstacle to extensive material assistance to the poor. The intellectual formation of future priests is conducted in the context of a busy parish, not separate from it. And some of Toronto's best-educated priests spend a good deal of their time dealing with the mentally ill.
The Church in Canada does not lack for programs and strategies for renewal, which is all to the good. But more than programs we need models and witnesses. Twenty-five years after a modest beginning in Montreal, it would seem the Toronto Oratory is just that.
A miracle in Parkdale? I would say so.
Raymond de Souza is the Register's Rome correspondent.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Raymond J. De Souza ------ KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Boston Songs in Stone DATE: 01/7/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:Chances are, there's a Patrick C. Keely church or cathedral near you.
In the 50 years between 1846 and 1896, after emigrating from Tipperary, Ireland, the architect designed 26 cathedrals and well over 600 churches from Montreal to Baton Rouge, from the East Coast to Iowa. Some of his outstanding works are in Boston. Because my time in the city was limited, I focused on three landmark examples little-known to travelers and representative of his work around the country.
Certainly the most magnificent of his accomplishments in “the Hub” of New England is the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. But by no means does that grand house of God overshadow the other impressive Keely works in these parts. During my brief stay, I visited three — St. James the Greater, Holy Trinity and St. Mary's — and found all rich in tradition, beauty and physical reverence.
St. James the Greater Church lies just a few blocks from the cathedral, and from Boston Common. The massive brick-and-stone Romanesque basilica-style edifice poses a stately, regal appearance in busy Chinatown. Finished the same year as the cathedral, it shows Keely a versatile master of styles. This church replaced his original structure on the same site, from where Father John Williams was named Boston's first archbishop. In all, St. James the Greater produced four bishops, including James Healey, the nation's first black prelate.
In St. James' noble, opulent interior, Roman arches seem to be repeated and echoed everywhere; a standout example is the unusual set of four recessing-keystone arch doorways that lead to the sacristy. The Latin inscription on the high altar refers to the Transfiguration scene above, which is joined by other Gospel scenes in which St. James played a part.
Larger-than-life-sized statues of the apostles and evangelists keep watch from the perimeters of the 1,500-seat nave. Their imposing, yet comforting, presence compensates for the relative scarcity of stained glass here. It's a surprise to hear Father Hugh O'Regan, longtime administrator, explain that the statues are metal as they look for all the world like marble.
Only the clerestory, supported by Scotch granite pillars with gold Corinthian caps, has stained-glass windows. Their medallions salute various Boston trades in this long-time “workers' church.” One window honors St. James' quartet of bishops.
The great 1867 Hook organ from the original church, with its Aeolian-Skinner addition, can be heard at the 11:30 a.m. Sunday Mass. The lower church for weekday Masses glows with light woods, soft carpeting and serene colors.
Classic Elements
Nearer the cathedral still, Holy Trinity Church's Gothic edifice in Roxbury stone was dedicated on Trinity Sunday in 1877. Parishioner Louis Prang would easily recognize this church, which remains exceptionally close to its original detailing. Who's Prang? Father O'Regan refreshes our memory: Prang originated mass printing of Christmas cards.
Keely's interior here has all the classic elements, from dramatically curved ceilings to an intricate reredos (an ornately decorated partition behind an altar) that rises in Gothic spires. Tall spire-shrines honor the Sacred Heart and the Blessed Mother. Angels fill smaller spires lining the top.
Above, the Holy Family appears in stained glass, the first of many elaborate windows. Harmonizing with them are poly-colored statues of the apostles. The sanctuary is elaborate, yet disciplined and restrained; it's as though Keely set out to “write” a visual liturgical hymn.
Across the Charles River, St. Mary's Church sits in Charlestown near Bunker Hill, site of the first major battle of the American Revolution.
In fact, the Bunker Hill monument is just one block from this stunning monument to the Mother of God.
St. Mary's began in 1830 as Boston's second parish. Ever since this present edifice of Rockport granite with brick trimming was dedicated in 1892, visitors have never ceased marveling over the structure. It's simply breathtaking. Many feel it is Keely's pièce de résistance, a loving gift to Mary that outshines even the cathedral. I'm not sure about that, but there are few sanctuaries that better communicate the glory of God in Mary than this one.
Marian Magnificence
Architects, too, even nonreligious ones, are awestruck over Keely's ingenuity and innovation on display here. He used no pillars except for the two supporting the choir gallery. Uninterrupted space allows perfect views of the altar and artistry around the nave. Every detail harmonizes in a heavenly balance of light, color and form.
Angels carved at the end of the wooden trusses that support the ceiling in the 15th-century English-church manner watch over the assembly.
Visually, everything is lush, generous. The 27-foot-high altar is an ornate blend of Rutland and Carrara marbles and onyx that rises in rows of Gothic spires under which are the tabernacle, statues of the apostles to either side and angels. The marble side altars are shrines to the Sacred Heart and St. Joseph, while windows that reach to the sky in the apse showcase events central to our salvation. Magnificent Munich windows surround the congregation with the story of Mary's life and role in our redemption in scenes, expressions and colors of celestial beauty within exquisitely illuminated stained-glass framing.
Another surprise: These windows contain pairs of scenes, an upper and lower one. For example, Mary's betrothal to Joseph is paired with the Annunciation; the Fall of Man in the Garden is paired with the promise of Gabriel in the Annunciation. Among the smaller windows, one depicts Our Lady of the Scapular, while windows over the choir gallery picture the Church Triumphant.
A murallike painting by the gallery, with its 1893 Woodbury Harris organ (whose more than 2,400 pipes fill the church for Sunday Mass), shows Mary receiving holy Communion from St. John the Evangelist. The sculptured alabaster stations of the cross, framed in columnar arches, is the only set of its kind in existence.
The detail is yet another exceptional feature in Keely's masterpiece, St. Mary's — and another example of the stunning, worshipful beauty he brought, with great craftsmanship and dedication, to every Church structure he had a hand in planning, designing or building.
Joseph Pronechen is based in Trumbull, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: Visual reverence was the signature of Irish architectural genius Patrick Keely ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ------ KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: The Pope Next Door DATE: 01/7/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:Twice I heard cheering outside, and twice a glance down to the street below told me why: Pope John Paul II was passing by. After dark, the Holy Father's office window stays lit until 11 — I know, because I could see it from my window.
Apart from the tolling of the bells of St. Peter's Basilica, this hotel is quieter than any in Rome, because it isn't in Rome: It's the only hotel in Vatican City.
Residenza Paolo VI (the VI is pronounced “Sesto” in Italian; the name means “Paul VI Residence” ) was converted into a hotel by Dr. Courtial, the gregarious and impressive man who greeted me the morning I arrived for a free stay.
He explained that the Augustinian Fathers who own the property have allowed him to offer rooms to guests.
His goal was to combine a retreat-center atmosphere with a luxury hotel. The combination, as one might expect, doesn't always work. The television set in my room was handy for me while I was “on duty” for the Register and kept up with CNN for the first half of my one-week stay. But when I transitioned to pilgrim for the second half, it became a distraction.
But the great advantages of service and location at the hotel far outweighed any disadvantage.
Breakfast is plentiful and the help exemplary. I missed it the day I went to Mass in St. Peter's Square. Since the hotel is located literally across the street from the arms of the colonnade arms that stretch out from St. Peter's (and across the street from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith), there is no need to guess what time is best to show up at the basilica for an event. You need only look out a window to see if the lines have begun forming yet. (Quick tip: Wait until the nuns arrive — and they will, by the dozens — then go wherever they go.)
Another morning, I woke early due to jet lag and wandered down to the square to watch the extraordinary Italian street cleaners do their work (they expertly maneuver oddly shaped machines and brooms). Colorful Swiss guards were arriving and taking their positions, battle-axes in hand. I ran into a priest-friend (I didn't even know he was in Rome) who invited me along to his early morning Mass in St. Peter's.
The location also saves you having to juggle information sources.
One evening I heard loudspeakers and headed to the square. There, a booklet informed me that this was a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the proclamation of the dogma of the assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It afforded me the opportunity to say the rosary with Catholic lay people (and bishops) from around the world and to get a point-scoring memento for my wife (we were married on the feast of the Assumption eight years ago). I can't imagine how I would have found out about that event — or have been able to go — if I hadn't been staying at the Residenza.
This hotel, alas, won't be for everyone. The price would have been prohibitively expensive for a father of four like myself, even if I went alone, if it hadn't been a free promotional visit. But for those who can afford it, it's an experience well worth the price.
— Tom Hoopes Executive Editor
----- EXCERPT: Don't abandon Rome just because the Jubilee is over ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tom Hoopes ------ KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Big-Screen Sitcom DATE: 01/7/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:What do women want? Mel Gibson.
At least that's the answer you'd give after watching this competently crafted, box-office-busting, major-star vehicle which has half-hearted aspirations to be something more than that it actually is.
The question may have stumped Freud, but he was trying to explore the subject at some depth. Director Nancy Meyers (The Parent Trap) and screenwriters Josh Goldsmith and Cathy Yuspa wind up just skimming the surface. Mel shines as a handsome, successful guy who transforms himself from an unfeeling jerk into a sensitive person by listening to women's concerns.
The movie juggles two overlapping story lines. The first revolves around a clever gimmick that would make a passable “Saturday Night Live” skit. Gibson's character is able to hear what all the women around him are thinking but don't dare say. This generates a half-dozen big laughs. The second has an old-fashioned plot line that's a partial rip-off of the 1961 Rock Hudson-Doris Day classic Lover Come Back. But the dramatic choices made by Meyers and her screenwriters in reworking the material tell us more about the temper of our times than they probably intend.
Nick Marshall (Gibson) is a hot-shot Chicago advertising executive who specializes in products consumed by males — cars and beer, for example. “He's the total bachelor and the least politically correct man in the company,” a co-worker cracks.
In short, he's an unreconstructed male chauvinist, proud of his ways and ripe for comeuppance. The instrument of payback is Darcy McGuire (Helen Hunt), a rival ad exec who snags the promotion to which he believes he's entitled.
Raised by a single-mom Vegas showgirl, Nick models himself on Frank Sinatra and, like the leader of the Rat Pack, he equates manhood with late-night partying, multiple seductions, a sharp wardrobe and cool quips. The filmmakers hammer home this connection by letting Nick mug shamelessly while dancing to some of the late crooner's greatest hits.
They also want us to think that their comedy has a message about female empowerment in addition to its gags and romantic complications, and they dramatize the issue by making women's increased spending power in the marketplace a key plot point.
Females aged 16 to 24 are the fastest-growing consumer group in the country, shelling out $40 billion a year. These trends have changed the nature of the advertising business, and Darcy is brought into Nick's agency above him because she's a proven expert in appealing to that demographic.
Characterized as “a real man-eater,” she locks horns with Nick when she insists that her staff take home a box of female products to learn how women think and come up with ways to sell them. In what's intended to be a bravura comedy scene, Nick paints his toenails, removes body hair and puts on women's underwear.
While clutching a hair dryer, he falls into a full bathtub and, as a result of a freak electrical accident, discovers he can literally read women's minds. This ability scares him, and he consults a pot-smoking therapist (Bette Midler) who observes: “If you know what women want, you can rule.”
The filmmakers, like most in present-day Hollywood, assume that the use of locker-room humor is a sign of female empowerment: Through his special gift, Nick learns that women are just as raunchy as men in their secret thoughts.
Somehow this new awareness also brings out his softer, feminine side, which makes him even more irresistible to women. He uses these newfound talents for his own self-aggrandizement, enhancing his seduction skills in his private life and stealing Darcy's ideas at the agency.
But his special powers do have some positive effects. He realizes that his female associates don't like to be called “babe” and that his secretary gets tired of fetching coffee and running his personal errands.
Nick's family life is a mess. His ex-wife (Lauren Holly) is about to remarry, and his teen-age daughter (Ashley Johnson) rarely sees him, calling him “Uncle Dad.” She resents his sporadic attempts to buy her affections. Nick now is able to understand her conflicted feelings and reaches out to her during some difficult moments on prom night.
To land a big account, Nick conspires to work closely with Darcy. Sparks fly, and they fall in love. This throws a monkey wrench into his Machiavellian manipulations, and he's forced to change.
This bawdy battle of the sexes is set in a culture of divorce in which adolescent and young-adult courtship rituals extend well into middle age. Nick's attitudes and behavior aren't much different than his daughter's except as regards sex. Promiscuity seems to have no moral consequences; its only negative is that it sometimes makes others feel bad.
In this all-too-familiar milieu, the highest virtue is being in touch with your own feelings while respecting those of others — and the ultimate reward for virtuous conduct is personal empowerment.
Catholics should recognize this point of view as an aspect of what John Paul II labels “consumerism,” whose primary values are immediate gratification and the possession of material goods. By uncritically accepting these worldly aspirations as a contemporary common denominator, What Women Want ends up more an artifact of our me-first civilization of consumption than a witty commentary upon it.
Arts & Culture correspondent John Prizer writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: What Women Want sticks with contemporary comedic - and moral - conventions ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ------ KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 01/7/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:The Tree of the Wooden Clogs (1978)
American society has become so secularized over the past 30 years that one finds it difficult to imagine what it would be like to be part of a culture in which everyone believed in God, looked for his design in the world and trusted religious authorities.
The Tree of the Wooden Clogs, one of the Vatican's top 45 films, is set 100 years ago among the Northern Italian peasantry who lived and worked in a deeply Catholic environment.
Using real people instead of actors, Writer-director Ermanno Olmi follows the fortunes of four families who reside together on a farmstead and makes us believe we're watching a documentary about the period rather than a theatrical melodrama. It's an effective technique.
We see that sincerity of religious belief is no protection from suffering.
The peasants' spirituality isn't idealized, and their practices often border on superstition.
But their faith is as real to them as the fields they till, and it sustains them in times of tragedy and joy.
Touch of Evil(1958)
This film noir masterpiece is currently being re-released in a re-edited version that's closer to the original intentions of its director, Orson Welles (Citizen Kane). It plunges us into a dark vortex of cruelty and corruption that's a visceral evocation of how evil operates in our psyches and in the world.
A Mexican narcotics agent named Mike Vargas (Charlton Heston) is honeymooning with his American wife, Susie (Janet Leigh), in an American border town when a car bomb kills one of the region's most prosperous citizens.
As the device was planted on the Mexican side, Vargas technically has some jurisdiction. But it exploded on the American side, giving effective control to famed local police detective Hank Quinlan (Welles), who quickly frames an innocent Mexican. Vargas struggles to see that justice is done and inevitably clashes with the corrupt Quinlan, who's a surprisingly sympathetic character.
Babe (1995)
Most animal movies use broad humor and contrived melodrama to tell their stories.
Babe emphasizes the psychological development and upbringing of its four-legged characters instead and creates a comic morality tale of wit and charm. It's an imaginative live-action fantasy in which all the animals can talk.
Australian farmer G. Hoggett (James Cromwell) and his wife (Magda Szubanski) raise sheep. Babe (voice of Christine Cavanaugh), a piglet won at a carnival, is raised by Hoggett's collies and develops a special talent for herding the sheep. He uses kindness and understanding instead of intimidation.
Rex the collie (voice of Hugo Weaving) and Duchess the cat (voice of Russie Taylor) are jealous and scheme to get the pig in trouble.
Eventually, each animal must learn to discard its prejudices about the others.
— John Prizer
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ------ KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 01/7/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:All times Eastern
SUNDAY, JAN. 7
National Football League Divisional Playoffs
Check local listings
In one of today's two games, the remaining top two American Football Conference teams battle for a spot in next Sunday's AFC Championship game. In the other contest today, the top two National Football Conference teams fight to advance to the NFC Championship next Sunday. As of press time, the teams in these games were still to be determined — but, no matter the participants, NFL play off games are always exciting.
SUNDAY, JAN. 7
20th-Century Sacred Music
EWTN, 1:30 p.m.
This pleasant show presents choral compositions by three 20th-century composers. At St. John's College Chapel, the Choir of Clare College and the Wallace Collection of Cambridge perform Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms (a work in Hebrew) and John Rutter's Gloria (a work in Latin). Then, in St. Giles Cathedral in London, the Corydon Singers offer five pieces by Francis Poulenc: Four Short Prayers of St. Francis of Assisi, Four Motets for Christmas Time, Litanies to the Black Virgin of Rocamadour, Salve Regina and Exultate Deo. To be rebroadcast Saturday, Jan. 13, at 3 a.m.
SUNDAY, JAN. 7
Brother Andre
EWTN, 8 p.m.
This 90-minute “Catholic Compass” drama presents scenes from the life of Blessed Andre Bessette (1845 – 1937), a Holy Cross brother who for 40 years served as the porter at the College of Notre Dame in Montreal. People loved him for his goodness, his humility, his prayerfulness and countless cures that he always credited to St. Joseph.
So much did Brother Andre love the Foster Father of Jesus that he initiated the building of St. Joseph's Oratory, today a large basilica that towers above Montreal. The beautiful oratory remains a popular pilgrimage site for Canadians and for Americans, too — and visitors continue to report cures and answered prayers. To be rebroadcast Thursday, Jan.11, at 1 p.m. and Friday, Jan. 12, at 3 a.m. and 10 p.m.
SATURDAY, JAN. 13
PGA of America Year in Review
NBC, 4 p.m.
If you love to hit the links, you'll enjoy this hour-long recap of golfing highlights from the year 2000. Mark Rolfing and Roger Maltbie provide expert commentary.
SATURDAY, JAN. 13
The Holy Cities, Parts I and II
EWTN
These shows are the first two parts of a three-part documentary series on cities revered by Catholics everywhere. At 8 p.m., Jerusalem, using archaeological, geographical and historical perspectives, takes you to places where Jesus walked. At 9 p.m., Rome brings you from Jerusalem to Rome, providing detailed looks at Vatican City, the basilicas, additional glorious churches and many spectacular sights. To be rebroadcast on Wednesday, Jan. 17, at 1 p.m. and on Thursday, Jan. 18, at 3 a.m. and 10 p.m.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Daniel J. Engler ------ KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: The Holy Father's Special Connection to the World of Entertainers DATE: 01/7/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — Monsignor Enrique Planas, director of the Vatican Film Library and one of the organizers of the Jubilee for Entertainers, told Zenit in an interview: “It is the first time that the world of entertainment, not only professionals but also amateurs, including street and itinerant performers, offer their testimony of faith, without any privileges, as all are playing leading roles.”
In general, when one speaks of shows, one thinks immediately of Hollywood and stars with million-dollar fees. Is this the picture people have of this Jubilee?
Msgr. Planas: Movie stars are movie stars, of course.
However, in preparing this Jubilee event we have tried to place performances in second place, as the participants are all persons in addition to being artists. During the Jubilee, we have given the same amount of time to different forms of art.
What will be the most important moment of this Jubilee?
The key moment is the meeting with John Paul II and the celebration of Mass in St. Peter's on Sunday. It will also be the moment of greatest attendance. Although this Jubilee lasts three days, it culminates at this moment; following the Mass the artists will meet the Holy Father personally.
Don't ask me what will happen at the end in Vatican Square, as 70 musical bands have announced their arrival and, obviously, they will make themselves heard. Like them, other artists will come with their surprises. What is clear is that all will be heard.
You are in charge of advising John Paul II about the films he views in private. The Pope has been a stage actor, he has written scripts that have been put on the big screen. What concern does Pope Wojtyla wish to express to the world of entertainment?
Over these years, as director of the Vatican Film Library, I have seen a real effervescence in the Church's relations with the film world. This can be seen in the Pope's magisterium, in our presence at film festivals, etc. All this has taken place because the Pope has fostered it with a warm disposition.
I think we can say that the world of entertainment will find they are a priority and special interest of the Pope. When this world has wanted to meet with him, the Pope has taken the initiative immediately. The dialogue that has been established between the world of film and entertainment has resulted in pontifical documentation, which was recently published in a book by the Vatican Press.
What has the Pope said about the world of entertainment over these years?
First of all, John Paul II makes it clear that it is worthwhile to look at the ferment in this world.
Not only is it worthwhile to pay priority and pastoral attention to it, but, in addition, the dialogue has a future and must continue. These are two clear undertakings from the Pope's dialogue with the film and e n t e r t a i n m e n t world.
There was a very significant moment in this connection, when Roberto Benigni watched “Life Is Beautiful” with the Pope. Perhaps it was a symbolic moment, because in previous years, the author was more of a critic of John Paul II. Later, when he matured artistically, Benigni began a lovely relation with the Holy Father.
First of all, I would like to state a premise.
Benigni was enormously delicate and respectful in his contact with the Holy Father. He has never made public use of it, despite the fact it could have been an occasion for publicity. I think he must be paid back in kind. I had the good fortune of being present when his film was projected for the Pope. However, I think that both the Holy Father as well as Benigni would be grateful for my discretion.
As regards Benigni, I would say: “By their fruits you shall know them.” His cinematographic production is being increasingly decanted into a cinema of values. I think his cinematographic production will not be sidetracked in the future.
The Pope's relation with Benigni has had great repercussions, because of the latter's overwhelming personality and because he was awarded an Oscar. However, I could refer to very many other cases of meetings of artists and movie fans with the Holy Father, but I will not do so, because I am bound by the same discretion I mentioned earlier. Dialogues have begun with them through platforms such as the Church's presence at festivals.
However, whoever comes to my office will often see people of the film world, who for one reason or another are beginning to come in and out of the Vatican's doors with a certain familiarity. This is a sign of the dialogue that is currently under way, and this gives room for much hope.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ------ KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: In a League of Their Own, They Want Out DATE: 01/7/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:DALLAS — No one wants to play ball with the Jesuits.
Dallas' Jesuit College Preparatory School and Houston's Strake Jesuit College Preparatory School are too big to compete against other private schools, and barred from competition with public schools by Texas law.
One school and one football dad want to change that.
Dallas Jesuit College Preparatory School and Charles Gonzalez, the father of a student at the school, have filed a suit against the University Interscholastic League in U.S. District Court in Dallas.
They want a federal court to even the playing field between Texas and other states, 47 of which allow public and private schools to play in the same league. Dallas Jesuit and Houston Strake Jesuit are the only two Jesuit schools in the country denied the opportunity to play in a public school league.
Houston Strake is not a party to the lawsuit, but athletic director Bill McDonald said officials there are watching it “with great interest.”
So is Mark Shmiel, who has been Strake's quarterback for three years. “It's a tough situation not being in a district, but we have to leave a good impression that we are very competitive. Hopefully, that will lead us in the right direction into a new district.”
The lawsuit is a bit of a last resort for Dallas Jesuit. Father Philip Postell, the school's president, told the Dallas Morning News that he's even petitioned then Gov. George W. Bush about the problem.
“I have contacted the governor, the UT regents — I don't know what more to do,” Father Postell said. “I didn't want to do a lawsuit.”
History
But with a nearly century-long tradition against him, a lawsuit he shall have. Since 1918, the University Interscholastic League, known as UIL, has banned all private schools from membership.
The reason for the ban is recruitment for athletic programs, according to officials. They say that because Catholic schools do not have boundaries around the areas from which they draw students, like public schools, they could recruit players from any place in the city and take the best players, leaving public schools' teams at a supposed disadvantage.
Jesuit has said it would abide by all of the league's rules, including any restrictions against athletic recruitment.
The league's director, William Farney, said his organization received a copy of the lawsuit, filed Nov. 22. By early December no trial date had been set.
He noted that the league's voting members have been cool toward Dallas Jesuit's letters and pleas to be allowed to join.
“We have been aware that Jesuit has wanted to come into the UIL. Public schools on several [occasions] have overwhelmingly voted not to admit a private school,” Farney said.
Dallas Jesuit now plays sports as an independent program after the collapse of the four-team Texas Christian Interscholastic League last spring. Its enrollment of 960 students makes it too large to play in the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools.
Three-Pronged Attack
Jim Harris, Dallas Jesuit's attorney, said the suit is three-pronged.
First, he said, the school believes that the league's denial of membership to private schools interferes with a fundamental right of parents to educate their children. Also, the lawsuit claims that discrimination against private schools by a state entity is illegal.
Thirdly, the suit claims Dallas Jesuit is being denied protection under the Texas Religious Restoration Act, which prohibits state entities from putting a burden on anyone's practice of religion unless there is a compelling state interest.
Dallas Jesuit officials say there is no such interest.
Father Postell said by denying Jesuit admittance, the league is also affecting the school's mission to educate youths.
“Education takes place in and out of the classroom. Part of the whole picture of education is to have extracurricular opportunities,” he said. “These opportunities are severely limited when one does not belong to a conference.”
In the lawsuit, Dallas Jesuit says its admittance to the league “will enrich the competitive experience for the UIL's current students as well as for Jesuit's students.”
(CNS contributed to this story)
----- EXCERPT: Texas Jesuit high schools have no place to lay their helmets ----- EXTENDED BODY: Register Staff ------ KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Water for the Catechism's Rich Soil DATE: 01/7/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:I was listening to Dr. Laura Schlessinger's radio program recently when a caller asked for advice about her search for a spiritual base to her life. As is her wont, Dr. Laura began by suggesting that the caller look first to the religion she was brought up in. The caller demurred, saying she had been raised a Catholic and was not interested in a religion that was just “a lot of rules and guilt.” Dr. Laura urged the caller to read the Catechism of the Catholic Church before dismissing the Church in this way. “I've read the Catechism cover to cover,” she said. “Let me tell you, that is a truly profound book.”
“Way to go, Dr. Laura,” was my first thought. This was quickly followed by the blushing realization that I couldn't make the same claim as the Jewish radio psychologist. Some time after I finished part one, my copy of the Catechism found its way to the bookcase. I've taken it down to check various points from time to time, but I've never read it all the way through — much less studied it. It seems so academic, so daunting.
I no longer have that excuse, for now there's a series of short reflections on the Catechism written by the historic work's main editor, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn. The essays originally appeared in his diocesan newspaper (in Vienna, Austria); Ignatius Press is reprinting them in English in a multivolume series. Volume One, dealing with the Catechism's explication of the Creed, was published in 1995. This present volume, covering the liturgy and the sacraments, was released in 2000.
What a favor the cardinal has done for busy lay people like this hard-working housewife! By breaking the Catechism's comprehensive explanation of the liturgy and sacraments into 52 short sections, he has made it possible for me to thoroughly digest this section in a year's time.
And getting there will be half the fun. In the foreword, the cardinal describes the wonder and privilege of the sacramental life in a way that will make many a heart leap: “‘Power came forth from him and healed them all.’ That is how St. Luke the Evangelist describes the effect of Jesus on the many people who tried to touch him. … What happened then to men in Galilee takes place today whenever men are touched by the sacraments of Christ. For, as the Catechism says, the sacraments are ‘powers that come forth from the Body of Christ, which is ever-living and life-giving’” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1116).
These commentaries could be used as friendly guides to the corresponding sections in the Catechism. Alternatively, one could read the Catechism first, and then turn to Cardinal Schönborn afterward. Either way, the cardinal's comments make the Catechism more accessible and, in many cases, applicable to daily life.
So engaging and informative are these commentaries that the temptation may be to skip the Catechism and use them as a kind of abbreviated version — a kind of CliffsNotes to the work they are drawn from. Don't cheat yourself. These are two great tastes of doctrine that taste better together.
Daria Sockey writes from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Daria Sockey ------ KEYWORDS: Books -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 01/7/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:DePaul Expands
Other schools have begun studying DePaul to see how it managed to raise enrollment 66% in 15 years, hire new faculty, build and renovate, and still maintain high academic standards. The university is starting to feel growing pains: It is running out of classroom space, and for the first time it has had to turn down qualified applicants.
Because the school's Vincentian mission stresses access to education, these growing pains have prompted some faculty to suggest that it's time for the growth to slow down.
The administration points out that the percentage of students in the top quarter of their high school graduating class has increased, while test scores and grade point averages have remained the same. And about 75% of all courses are taught by full-time faculty rather than graduate students — in part due to the 104 new faculty members the burgeoning school hired this fall.
Play Raises Hackles
UNIVERSITY OF DETROIT MERCY, December — The Women's Studies program at the University of Detroit/Mercy announced on its Web site that it would present the play “The Vagina Monologues” on Valentine's Day.
The play will be directed by a professor in the Jesuit university's theatre and Women's Studies departments; proceeds will benefit local shelters for battered women. Last year, the university's theater department co-presented the play with a neighboring college.
The play features extremely explicit sexual descriptions, including a sexual encounter between a woman and an underage girl.
Knights of Columbus Gives Millions in Scholarships
KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS SUPREME COUNCIL, Dec. 11 — The Knights of Columbus announced scholarship grants for higher education, including religious vocational studies. The Knights' Supreme Council alone gave out 655 college and postgraduate scholarship and fellowship grants, and distributed $1.3 million in scholarship funds.
The total amount of scholarship money awarded by all levels of the Knights came to $9.1 million, with an additional $6.2 million to support Catholic schools. The Knights spent more than $7 million to promote vocations, including scholarships for seminarians and direct support for seminaries.
Sending Out an SOS
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL, Dec. 18 — Cardinal Francis George challenged wealthier Catholics to help him prevent the shutdown of Catholic schools in poor black communities, the wire service reported.
The archdiocese is laboring under the burden of a $14.3 million operating deficit for the year 2000, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. The archdiocese is considering parish consolidation, which may lead to the closure of some schools next year.
Cardinal George said, “We're going to save as many as we can.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ------ KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Bringing Mary Home DATE: 01/7/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:Q My wife and I are recent converts to the Catholic faith. As recent non-Catholics, devotion to the Blessed Mother is new to our family. Where do we start?
— T. L.Dover, Delaware
A George: A subject dear to our hearts! Since we first started dating, Lisette and I have always given the Blessed Mother a special place in our relationship. And now that we're married and have a family, she has a place of honor in our home.
First and foremost, Mary has been a true heavenly mother to us. Whenever we've faced troubles or sufferings, we've turned to her for solace and protection. And through our prayers and petitions, rosaries and novenas, which our son, George Alexander, sees us doing — and participates in at his level — we hope to pass on a love of Our Lady to him. We want him, as he grows older, to realize that Mary can be a mother for him as well.
Lisette: As I began to grow more in my faith, I felt I needed a place in my life for Our Lady. I knew she was the Mother of Christ and our mother but I really didn't own that thought in my heart.
One time, George and I made plans to visit a pilgrimage site of Our Lady. Before going, I shared my thoughts with a friend, who suggested I take the time before the trip to pray: “Lord, show me what your Mother's role is in my life.” I prayed this prayer daily, and little by little I began to read and know more about Our Lady, which in turn made me love her more. I began to give all my decisions, intercessions and even practical concerns to Jesus through the hands of Mary.
My relationship with Mary began to grow as I continued those simple steps. This all happened during the time George and I were dating. Before we would go out, I would say a quick prayer and end it by placing our date in the hands of Our Lady.
I realized that when I allowed Mary to be my mother, I knew her abiding presence in my life. I don't think it's a question of whether she's there or not. She is definitely there. But I ask myself, “Do I recognize her presence?”
George: One of the practical ways we show love for the Blessed Mother in our home is by celebrating her feast days. From the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe to the Immaculate Conception, Lisette and I try to make these days a special occasion. We try to attend Mass together as a family to celebrate the feast day. We also bake cookies or a cake in honor of the Virgin Mary. And of course we say prayers that are appropriate for that particular feast.
This past year, on the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, we celebrated the day with another family. We all sang songs while the kids led a procession through the house.
Lisette: This was our simple way to honor our Lady, and the kids had fun doing it. God bless you, and please pray for us in your next rosary!
George and Lisette de los Reyes host “The Two Shall Be One” on EWTN.
----- EXCERPT: Family Matters ----- EXTENDED BODY: George and Lisette De Los Reyes ------ KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: INTERCOUNT RY ADOPTION DATE: 01/7/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY: -----On October, The United States became the 43nd nation to adopt The Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption. The treaty targets abuses such as trafficking in children and profiteering from adoptions, and it promotes ethical structure for international adoptions. From 1948 to 2000, an estimated 275,000 children from other countries have found new families in the United States.
— Source: Family Research Council, December 2000.
----- EXCERPT: Facts of Life ----- EXTENDED BODY: ------ KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Gathering the Church for the Next Millennium DATE: 01/7/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — The Holy Year will end as it began, with overflow crowds in St. Peter's Square.
Christmas Eve Midnight Mass this year was celebrated outside, despite the Roman winter, as St. Peter's Basilica could not accommodate the crowds that came. Likewise, after Pope John Paul II closes the Holy Door on the morning of Jan. 6, he will head out to St. Peter's Square to celebrate the Mass of the Epiphany. It will be a fitting end — the Pope together with the crowds one last time to close the Great Jubilee of 2000.
“The role of the shepherds is to assemble the People of God,” said John Paul II some 20 years ago, explaining to the Roman Curia why he intended to travel so much. “Among the different methods of realizing Vatican II, this seems to be fundamental and of particular importance.”
In anticipation of the Great Jubilee, John Paul spoke repeatedly of Vatican II as the Holy Spirit's preparation of the Church for the third millennium.
That was highlighted during the Holy Year, both with a scholars' conference on the implementation of Vatican II in February, and by the re-presentation of the council documents to the laity of the world on the feast of Christ the King. The Great Jubilee has been a yearlong living out of the teaching of Vatican II that the Church is a “pilgrim on earth,” accompanying man through history toward his ultimate destination in the house of the Father.
The great “assembly” of the Holy Year was an invitation to renew — to “realize” once again — the Church as a “sacrament of unity among all men,” as the council called her. The over 24 million pilgrims who came to Rome during the Holy Year were a manifestation of that universal brotherhood only possible in the Church.
“When we were praying together on the threshold of the Holy Door, our communion was real, a real communion of prayer,” observed Bishop John Baycroft, Director of the Anglican Center in Rome and the Archbishop of Canterbury's representative to the Holy See.
Bishop Baycroft, the former Anglican bishop of Ottawa, was present for the opening of the Holy Doors at St. Peter's and at St. Paul's Outside the Walls. “The Holy Father is the only one who could have brought together that collection of Christians. We had a taste of what is meant to be — a fore-taste of unity.”
Cardinal J. Francis Stafford, who organized World Youth Day, spoke of the Pope's “ministry of gathering,” echoing John Paul II's thoughts on assembling the Church. Such “gathering,” indicated the cardinal, was not the measure of celebrity but a real pastoral obligation. The Church was born in the “assembly,” and the ministry of gathering allows Christ to be rediscovered.
The Heavens
The Great Jubilee highlighted this from the Cenacle in Jerusalem, site of the first Pentecost, to St. Peter's Square, which the Holy Father called “another Cenacle” on the occasion of the Jubilee of Bishops in October — the successors of the apostles gathered around Mary under the title of Our Lady of Fatima.
“The Church needs to be a rock that people can come to when they are feeling alone, without spiritual support, and faced with some of the most difficult questions of life,” said 2nd Lt. David Desmond, a U.S. Army chaplain candidate and seminarian from Sioux Falls, S.D., participating in the Jubilee for the Military. The Jubilee provided that opportunity for an almost innumerable list of people — many of whom are barely noticed by the world.
While the great gatherings — World Youth Day, the World Meeting of Families, the International Eucharistic Congress — drew most attention, there were other Jubilees that highlighted various aspects of the Church's life.
From the Jubilee of Children (the first special Jubilee of the year) to the Jubilee of Entertainers (the last), the program emphasized the universal presence of the Church.
The immense arms of St. Peter's Bernini colonnade embraced both the sick, many of whom came on stretchers, and the super-fit, as the Marathon of Rome began there. Both athletes and the disabled had their day, as well as professors and journalists, artists and scientists, migrants and politicians, workers and farmers, and even some who were not included on the official Jubilee calendar but came anyway and were feted: pizza-makers and taxi drivers.
In addition to all those who have their mission in the world, there were the Jubilees for the religious, bishops, the Roman Curia, the diplomats of the Holy See, and perhaps the most festive of all, the Jubilee of Priests, which took place on John Paul II's 80th birthday.
The horizon of the Jubilee panorama was not limited to this world.
Beatifications and canonizations — including those of two Americans, Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos and St. Katharine Drexel — united the Church Triumphant with those rejoicing here below. The first saint of the new millennium, St. Faustina Kowalska, underscored that every Jubilee is intended to be a new experience of divine mercy. The raising to the altars of the first Chinese saints was a consolation to those parts of the Church Militant that are currently suffering persecution.
The beatification of the Fatima children, Francisco and Jacinta — the youngest children ever to be beatified who were not martyrs — emphasized that even the littlest ones share fully in the Church's mission.
Fatima 2000
Their story was overshadowed, though, by the revelation of the “third secret” of Fatima, a moment that captured even the imagination of the secular world. To the eyes of faith, the confluence of events at Fatima rendered almost tangible the workings of Providence.
John Paul II spoke at Fatima of the immense suffering the Church endured during the 20th century. That suffering was brought into stark relief by the ceremony at the Colosseum, which commemorated the many “witnesses to the faith” of the past century, from those imprisoned in communist gulags to those who died in genocidal slaughter in central Africa. That commemoration of the new martyrs was the other Jubilee “bookend” to the request for forgiveness that took place during Lent.
Perhaps the most widely covered Jubilee event, the Pope's dramatic plea for forgiveness presented a new “icon” of the Church to the world — an icon of strength through humility, leadership though service, and healing through sincere repentance.
John Paul insisted on the “day of forgiveness” confident that, despite complaints and attacks, the Church could be generous because — as exemplified by the martyrs — the “history of the Church is the history of holiness,” as he wrote in Incarnationis Mysterium, the papal bull for the Holy Year.
Soon the Great Jubilee of 2000 will also belong to history. The Holy Door will be shut and no longer will there be long lines to pass through it — something done by thousands of people every day, both ordinary and otherwise, as when the King and Queen of Spain came to kneel at its threshold. It will surely be judged as one of the most extraordinary religious events in the history of the world. As for its impact in the hidden history of salvation there is every reason for confidence that this “gathering” — like every gathering of two or three in Christ's name — will not fail to bear fruit.
“For two thousand years the gospel of the Cross has spoken to man,” wrote John Paul II for Good Friday's Via Crucis. He wrote the meditations for the Stations himself, and expressed that the purpose of the great “assembly” of the Jubilee was to allow space for another meeting, the meeting of every pilgrim with the same Jesus Christ who fell and rose on the road to Calvary.
“For 20 centuries Christ, getting up again from his fall, meets those who fall. Throughout these two millennia many people have learned that falling does not mean the end of the road. In meeting the Savior they have heard his reassuring words: ‘My grace is sufficient for you; for my power is made perfect in weakness’” (2 Corinthians 12:9).
----- EXCERPT: Remarkable events made the Jubilee Year Momentous ----- EXTENDED BODY: Raymond Desouza ------ KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: The Paquettes vs. the Pill DATE: 01/7/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:What's so bad about artificial birth control?
If you had posed the question to Dr. Matthew Paquette and Dr. Mary Paquette when they were medical residents prescribing artificial contraception, they might have raised a quizzical eyebrow and responded, “Nothing.”
Ask them now, and you'll hear an enthusiastic explanation of why Catholic teaching on the subject is good morals, good sense and good medicine.
What happened?
The Paquettes came to their convictions gradually. Though each attended Catholic grade school, high school and college, neither emerged with an understanding of the Church's teaching on birth control. In medical school, neither encountered objections to oral contraceptives.
“I was never taught that these can cause abortions, so I saw no problem,” says Matt. More than that, adds Mary, the birth control pill was touted as “the answer to pretty much every gynecological problem.” Its possible serious side effects were downplayed.
Then, when Mary was a second-year resident, two Catholic doctors told her what the Church teaches about fertility regulation. “It was the first time I realized I shouldn't be prescribing contraception,” she says.
Another eye-opener was a study of different cross-sections of teen-agers that linked use of the pill with an increase in unplanned pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases, multiple sexual partners and abortions. Working in an inner city clinic, Mary had worried that refusing to prescribe the pill would leave many unmarried young mothers in the lurch. “Suddenly, I realized I wasn't helping them.”
Seeking alternatives to pill-based medical treatments, Mary discovered the Pope Paul VI Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction in Omaha, Neb., and a whole new world of “natural reproductive technology.” In cutting-edge research, Institute director Dr. Thomas Hilgers has perfected highly effective, ethical approaches to fertility regulation and gynecological problems.
“Dr. Hilgers is a good scientist who gets printed in reputable medical journals,” Mary observes, “but the common OB/GYN has never heard of him. In fact, especially when it comes to natural family planning, many people in medicine just don't want to know. It's part of a larger racist and elitist attitude that ‘there are too many people in the world’ — that is, too many of certain types of people.”
Mary, who is currently the sole Natural Family Planning-only woman doctor in the Twin Cities area, notes that many of her patients seek her out because they want alternatives to the pill.
Some, like Rachelle Medina, a young mother in West St. Paul, are fed up with being treated disrespectfully by health care practitioners who don't have a pro-life perspective.
“My former doctor asked what kind of birth control I use, and I answered, ‘NFP,’” says Rachelle. “She looked at me and said, ‘Oh, Russian roulette.’ It was very demeaning. I walked away thinking, ‘This is the person I'm supposed to trust with my fertility and my pregnancies?’”
The contrast with Dr. Mary Paquette couldn't be more striking, says Rachelle. “Because she's a pro-life professional who uses NFP herself, I experience a care and respect from her that I've never had before. I'm so grateful that she and her husband have taken such a strong stand for life.”
Not Crazy, After All
Matt's definitive conversion to life came in June 1998, after their marriage, at an ethics conference sponsored by the Pope Paul VI Institute. He says he was catechized there, especially by being taught how to read and understand Church documents like the encyclical Humanae Vitae.
“Frankly, they hadn't made a lot of sense to me,” he admits, “but once I grasped the principles, I found them so reasonable. I came away absolutely convinced that this is the truth. It really set me free.” Free enough to initiate the following risky conversation with the director of the clinic where he had just been hired for a very desirable position:
“Look, I can't prescribe contraception any more, but here's a better alternative.”
“Maybe you should look for another job.”
Things worked out somehow and Matt has stayed on, appealing to “diversity” as a rationale for offering patients a non-contraceptive approach. It's not a comfortable position. In most of the medical world, says Matt, “this is like saying the earth is flat. I speak out, though, because I see this as a justice issue. It's the patient's right to know that there are other, safer approaches and treatments.”
Most patients, he has found, are pleasantly surprised to discover a natural way to avoid pregnancy. “As I explain it, their faces light up,” Matt observes. “Many of these women have already been on the pill and don't like it. It's not foolproof, and the side effects make them miserable.”
Kathy Laird, for one, is grateful for the doctors Pacquette. “Matt and Mary are knowledgeable, articulate and on fire about marriage as a commitment to be open to the gift of life,” says the director of the Marriage and Family Life office for the archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis.
“They live out their faith and balance their responsibilities to make time for evangelization.”
Louise Perrotta writes from St. Paul, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: Why one medical couple went natural ----- EXTENDED BODY: Louise Perrotta ------ KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Gospel of Life DATE: 01/7/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:TELEVISION
“Television can enrich family life. … Parents should discuss television with their children, guiding them to regulate the amount and quality of their viewing, and to perceive and judge the ethical values underlying particular programs.”
— Message for 1994 World Day of Communications
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ------ KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Life Notes DATE: 01/7/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:New Zealand Bishop Thrilled
Bishop Dunn's offer was attacked by the Auckland Women's Health Council, which was concerned that women would be pressured by the Church.
At least 72 girls and women chose to become mothers following Bishop Pat Dunn's public vow.
“It is small-scale still, but it is quite touching … when you actually see a child and the mother will say, ‘I was going to have an abortion.’ We are not talking about a cause. We are talking about individuals.”
Bishop Slams U.S. Government
The homily compared the United States to ancient cultures that practiced human sacrifice.
The bishop echoed the Pope in calling for “ardent evangelizing activity” in order to enter a new “world without abortion, a world where every human is treated as a person from conception until natural death, a world where there is right and wrong and right means following the will of the Father.”
STD's Force Abstinence Push
BBC NEWS, Dec. 15 — Complacency over “safe sex” is being blamed for a dramatic rise in cases of sexually transmitted diseases, reported BBC News.
According to the British government, new cases have hit a 10-year high with rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea rising dramatically since 1995.
The statistics from the Public Health Laboratory Service show that since 1995 the incidence of genital chlamydia has risen by 77%, gonorrhea by 57%, syphilis by 56% and genital warts by 22%.
Proposals that officials should promote abstinence come from Dr. Trevor Stammers, writing in the British Medical Journal. Dr. Stammers said research showed that early intercourse carried greater risks and often led to subsequent regret, reported BBC News.
Sexually active teenagers are also more likely to be emotionally hurt, to experience depression, and to commit suicide.
‘Choose Life’ Plate Succeeds
Abortion advocates argue that the plates are a state-sanctioned political statement against abortion.
While the license plate is still facing a legal challenge, sales raise money for charities that help pregnant women who are putting their babies up for adoption instead of having abortions.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Paul Burnell ------ KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: How Much Will Catholics Like Bush's Cabinet? DATE: 01/14/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: January 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON—President-elect George W. Bush aimed for diversity in his Cabinet, naming a Democrat and two libertarians to a team already notable for its high number of women and minorities.
But the cabinet is less diverse as regards abortion, which U.S. bishops have called a decisive issue in Catholic support for a lawmaker. Most cabinet picks seem to favor abortion—with the most notable exception being John Ashcroft, Bush's nominee for the crucial post of Attorney General.
Early on in the appointment process, the Republican National Coalition for Life called Bush's pro-life bona fides into question with a strongly worded critique of his first 10 picks.
“So far, with just one exception, the people named by Bush to Cabinet positions are either publicly supportive of a mother's right to kill her unborn baby or we have found no evidence that they are in any way pro-life,” the Dallas-based organization's president, Colleen Parro, said in a statement.
The pro-abortion picks Parro was referring to were Colin Powell (Secretary of State), Condolezza Rice (National Security Advisor), Andy Card (White House Chief of Staff), Paul O'Neill (Treasury Department), Don Evans (Commerce Secretary), Karen Hughes (Senior Advisor), Al Gonzales (White House General Counsel), Ann Veneman (Agriculture Secretary) and former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman (Environmental Protection Agency).
The “one exception” cited by Parro was Mel Martinez, Bush's choice for Housing and Urban Development director. Martinez, a Cuban refugee, is a member of Legatus, an international organization that serves the spiritual needs of Catholic business leaders.
Parro pointed out that Bush's cabinet had drawn praise from Kate Michelman, president of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, who remarked on its “great diversity in terms of racial, ethnic and gender representation.”
“When Kate Michelman has something nice to say about the Cabinet appointments President-elect George W. Bush is making, it's time for the pro-life movement to sit up and take notice,” Parro said.
Applause for Ashcroft
But most pro-lifers remained patient, waiting to see who Bush would pick for positions more crucial to their cause. Bush subsequently nominated former Missouri Sen. John Ashcroft as Attorney General and Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson as Director of Heath and Human Services. Both had pro-life records.
While Ashcroft drew applause from pro-lifers of all stripes, Thompson's reception was mixed.
Ashcroft, a lifelong defender of the rights of the unborn, was given a 100% approval rating for his 1999 voting record by the National Right to Life Committee. He would provide a stark contrast to outgoing Attorney General Janet Reno, who has limited the freedom of pro-lifers to protest at abortion clinics and, in a recent gesture of abortion support, filed an amicus brief last year with the U.S. Supreme Court supporting Nebraska abortionist Leroy Carhart in his successful attempt to overturn that state's ban on partial-birth abortion.
The National Right to Life Committee also welcomed Bush's appointment of Thompson as Secretary of Health and Human Services, calling him “a pro-life governor over a period of 14 years” who has signed “numerous pro-life bills into law, including a ban on partial-birth abortions, a parental involvement law, an unborn victims of violence law and a woman's right-to-know law.”
But the American Life League responded to Thompson's appointment with strong disapproval.
A Dec. 28 statement from the Arlington, Va.-based lobbying organization, headlined “Tommy Thompson is not pro-life,” quoted comments Thompson made while governor in support of the University of Wisconsin doctor who pioneered the use of human embryos for stem-cell research.
The New Republic, a liberal, biweekly political journal, suggested the same in its Jan. 15 issue, noting that Thompson's past comments about stem-cell research indicate his potential for disappointing social conservatives.
Pro-Life Wisconsin director Peggy Hamill, who has watched Thompson closely for many years, said in a statement that her pro-life lobbying group was also “concerned” about his appointment.
“While the president-elect could have chosen someone much worse,” she said, “we've never viewed Tommy as a strong pro-lifer.”
Covert Pro-Life Strategy?
During the campaign, Bush did not highlight abortion as an election issue. Rather, he sent positive signals to pro-lifers in private meetings and in the occasional speech stretched out across his campaign. His apparent support for life, and Al Gore's strong pro-abortion agenda, were enough to convince most prolifers to vote for him.
Paul Gigot of The Wall Street Journal reported in a Sept. 29 that Bush had assured Crisis magazine editor and Catholic-vote liaison Deal Hudson of his pro-life commitments in a private meeting. And after meeting with Bush in May, Father Frank Pavone, director of Priests for Life, declared publicly that the Republican candidate was “pro-life.”
The full-throated support for Bush by the National Right to Life committee—even after his naming a predominantly pro-abortion cabinet—suggested that something of a gentleman's agreement was in place between a future Bush administration and the nation's largest pro-life lobbying organization.
Questioned about Bush's pro-life strategy before and after the presidential election, Bush's transition spokesman Scott McClellan told the Register the president-elect “is pro-life with the exception of rape, incest and life of the mother.” He added that Bush “has a proven record in Texas of working to reduce the number of abortions by streamlining the adoption process, promoting abstinence education and passing a strong parental notification bill.”
Responding to pro-life anxiety over abortion-backing cabinet appointments, McClellan noted that the president-elect, not his appointments, “set the agenda for his administration,” but quickly added that Bush is “pleased by the caliber of people and diversity that have agreed to serve in his cabinet.”
That a covert pro-life strategy is at play in Bush's cabinet appointments was suggested by Weekly Standard editor Fred Barnes in a Jan. 1-8 column entitled “A Pro-Life White House, But Very Quietly So.”
Barnes reported that several weeks before naming Powell as Secretary of State, Bush asked Powell to “follow [his] lead and eliminate any vestiges of the Clinton State Department's program to promote abortion around the world.”
Barnes said the private agreement between Bush and Powell “gives a pretty good idea” of how pro-life a Bush presidency will be.
“Bush will push the pro-life agenda in areas where it's politically feasible,” said Barnes. “But he won't be noisy about it.”
Bush spokesman McClellan said he would not comment on a private meeting.
“I reiterate,” he said, “that the president-elect's views are clear and consistent and his pro-life record is well-known.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian McGuire ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: New Threat To Catholic Health Plans DATE: 01/14/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: January 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON—A recent federal decision on contraceptive coverage may threaten all preventive health benefits for employees of Catholic business owners, a Catholic official has warned. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's decision affects all businesses or organizations with more than 15 employees.
“Catholic organizations would simply have to cease providing insurance services to employees if the government were to attempt to force Catholic institutions” to cover contraception, Msgr. Timothy Thorburn told the Register.
Msgr. Thorburn, vicar general of the Diocese of Lincoln, Neb., administers the diocese's health plan. It follows Catholic medical ethics—contraception and sterilization are not covered, but classes on natural family planning are. And employees receive a wide range of other preventive health care services.
But according to the Dec. 13 EEOC decision, the diocese may be guilty of discrimination against women because it provides dental checkups and vaccinations but not birth control pills.
Jim Holman, owner and editor of the San Diego Reader newspaper, echoed Msgr. Thorburn's concerns. He took contraception out of the Reader's health plan. If the commission's decision is expanded to affect his business, he said, “We will be forced into a situation where we won't have employer-provided health benefits.”
The commission's new ruling requires that businesses that provide benefits for preventive health care must also cover contraception. But the ruling did not address religious objections, which may provide an escape hatch for Catholic employers.
Mike O'Dea, executive director of the Christian medical group Christus Medicus, called the decision “a violation of a right of conscience and religious liberty.”
He has formed a coalition of 20 groups, including the Ave Maria School of Law, the Heritage Foundation, and the Family Research Council, to push for “legislation that would protect the rights of conscience in health care.”
Thirteen states have passed laws requiring businesses to cover contraception if they cover other prescription drugs or devices, although the California law is undergoing legal challenges brought by Catholic Charities of Sacramento. Holman's health care plan is not affected by the California law, since the law covers only Health Maintenance Organizations.
The EEOC ruling sided with two women who filed a sex discrimination complaint against their employers. All parties must remain unnamed due to confidentiality requirements. The two employers covered surgical sterilization for both men and women, as well as basic preventive care like vaccinations, but did not cover prescription contraceptive pills.
Pregnancy an Illness?
The decision is based on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and its 1978 amendment, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. According to that act, employers must give equal treatment to women “affected by pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.”
The businesses involved in the complaint argued that since pregnancy is not an “abnormal” condition, contraception is different from preventive medicine.
But the commission ruled, “It is widely recognized in the medical community that pregnancy is a medical condition that poses risks to, and consequences for, a woman.”
The commission quoted Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, who during Congressional debate in 1998 declared that there is “nothing ‘optional’ about contraception. It is a medical necessity for women during 30 years of their life span. To ignore the health benefits of contraception is to say that the alternative of 12 to 15 pregnancies during a woman's lifetime is medically acceptable.”
Tracy Williams, owner of Verus Health, disagrees with that premise. He called it “a leap over a great chasm to be able to equate preventive dental care or vaccinations against polio with contraceptive coverage, which prevents life.” Verus Health is an administrator of health insurance plans for dioceses and other large groups and provides only health plans that are consistent with Catholic teaching.
A July 25 letter from the National Conference of Catholic Bishops stated, “We object to a government mandate for contraceptive coverage generally. At a time when tens of millions of Americans lack even the most basic health coverage, efforts to mandate elective drugs and devices which raise serious moral problems and can pose their own health risks are misguided. In addition, any such mandate will cause needless injustice if it does not provide full protection to those who object for reasons of conscience.”
Catholic Loophole
Ellen Vargyas, legal counsel for the commission, pointed out that the ruling's narrow scope means that despite its harsh language, it actually does not cover any health plan that follows Catholic teaching comprehensively.
In the Dec. 13 ruling, Vargyas continued, “These were secular employers. There was no religious [objection] raised in this case.” Therefore, a Catholic employer might still be able to argue that his religious rights trumped the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, although the act itself contains no “conscience clause” or religious exemption.
An employer with religious or moral objections to contraception should prepare to argue before the commission, Vargyas added. “I am not in a position to anticipate” whether such a defense would succeed, she said. “I don't want to say that it's a slam dunk” for the Catholic employer.
And if an employer provided no preventive health benefits at all, he could avoid the entire ruling. Vargyas noted, “Discrimination laws don't require that an employer provide any specific benefit, or any benefits at all.”
Is Abortion Next?
The Pregnancy Discrimination Act explicitly states that employers are not required to pay for abortion under their health plans. However, that exception may be breaking down as the so-called “morning-after pill” becomes more widespread.
Pro-abortion activists consider the “morning-after pill” to be solely contraceptive, but the pill's makers, as well as many doctors, note that it also frequently induces early term abortions. O'Dea said, “This is not just talking about preventing a pregnancy. We're talking about also killing children.”
Vargyas said, “We've been asked, ‘What about the morning-after pill?’ Another question neither asked nor answered” as yet by the EEOC.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: The Church's Next Challenge DATE: 01/14/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: January 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY—After a busy, exhausting Jubilee year, Pope John Paul II plans to take a rest, and invites the whole Church to relax a bit, too, right?
Not at all.
“What we have done this year cannot justify a sense of complacency,” writes the Holy Father in a Jan. 6 apostolic letter at the end of the Jubilee Year, “and still less should it lead us to relax our commitment. On the contrary, the experiences we have had should inspire in us a new energy, and impel us to invest in concrete initiatives the enthusiasm which we have felt.”
Thus did the Pope signal the direction he wished the Church to take now that the immense project of the Jubilee Year is complete. Wasting no time, John Paul signed the 82-page apostolic letter, Novo Millennio Ineunte (At the Beginning of the New Millennium), at the conclusion of Mass in St. Peter's Square on Jan. 6.
The theme of the letter is taken from the words of Christ to Peter (Luke 5:4): Duc in altum! (Put out into the deep!). Those words have traditionally been understood in the Church as an exhortation to pastoral zeal—going out into the deep waters of the world in order to make a great catch of souls.
John Paul has repeatedly stated that his mission as Pope was to lead the Church into the third millennium.
That mission now accomplished, he insists that it is not a time for rest. In his view, the Second Vatican Council, which he refers to again as “the great grace bestowed on the Church in the 20th century,” began a 35-year period of preparation for the millennium which culminated in the Great Jubilee. Now it is time to embark, with “trusting optimism,” on the evangelization of the new millennium, relying not on any “magic formula” but only on the person of Christ, and “the assurance which he gives us: I am with you!”
Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, president of the Pontifical Committee of the Great Jubilee, proposed reading Novo Millennio Ineunte as a sort of “triptych.” In the central panel is the face of Christ, in which the Church in invited to the “contemplation of the mystery of Jesus Christ, Son of God and only savior of the world.”
In the first of the lateral panels, “one reads the events that have characterized the Jubilee. It is not a running commentary, but a reflection according the rhythm of the liturgical year on moments in the life of the Church.” In the other lateral panel, “a program is proposed referring to the life of the Church which opens for us ‘a future of hope.’
“It is not a nostalgic reading that the Pope proposes to us,” the cardinal points out. “To the contrary, the revisiting of the important events of the Jubilee becomes a project for the next millennium which is now opens itself before us.”
“It is an intense and demanding program that is proposed by the Pope. The same duties that the Church always presents to believers are presented again, with the same audacity: holiness and mission.”
The letter, rendered in a marvelous English translation, is one of the most personal documents John Paul has written to date, and is divided into four chapters.
It begins with a review of the Jubilee Year just ended, then proceeds to a profound contemplation of the “face of Jesus.” The final two chapters are devoted to suggestions for pastoral priorities, the first encouraging the local dioceses to recommit themselves to the pursuit of holiness, the second stressing a rediscovery of the spirit of communion informed by love.
Written largely in the first person, the letter begins with John Paul's own experience of the Holy Year, and concludes with a summons evocative of the epistles of the elderly apostle John, who urged his disciples to return to the basics: “let us love one another” (1 John 4:7).
Pope's Eye View
“I have been impressed this year by the crowds of people which have filled St. Peter's Square at the many celebrations,” writes John Paul, indicating that he had been watching from his window.
“I have often stopped to look at the long queues of pilgrims waiting patiently to go through the Holy Door. In each of them I tried to imagine the story of a life, made up of joys, worries, sufferings; the story of someone whom Christ had met and who, in dialogue with him, was setting out again on a journey of hope.”
While reviewing his impressions of the major events of the year—“It will not be possible to forget the Mass at Tor Vergata,” he wrote of World Youth Day—the Holy Father underscored that the true story of the Jubilee is known to Providence alone. “We have only been able to observe the outer face of this unique event. Who can measure the marvels of the grace wrought in human hearts? It is better to be silent and adore, trusting humbly in the mysterious workings of God.”
Before encouraging a renewal of pastoral activity, John Paul cautions against the temptation of “doing for the sake of doing,” insisting instead on trying “to be” before trying “to do.”
There follows a chapter on contemplating the “face of Jesus,” in which the Holy Father re-reads the testimony of the Gospels about the person of Christ. Clearly the fruit of his own prayer, the chapter invites the Church not to forget her contemplative vocation in a rush to engage in apostolic works.
St. Thérèse of Lisieux is quoted in the chapter, calling to mind that it was John Paul who proclaimed her a Doctor of the Church—she who was known as Sister Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face.
Staying Open to Christ
The remaining two chapters give practical suggestions for areas in which pastoral planning might be reinvigorated in light of the Jubilee. Not as detailed as, for example, the suggestions in Ecclesia in America, the suggestions focus on the primacy of the pursuit of holiness.
The letter asks for rereading and rediscovery of “The Universal Call to Holiness” as taught in Chapter 5 of the Council's document on the Church, Lumen Gentium. This requires above all prayer, and so Novo Millennio Ineunte calls for training in prayer, the centrality of Sunday Mass, and a recommitment to confession. In particular, the Holy Father himself has decided to dedicate his Wednesday audience talks to a commentary on the Psalms, the Church's ‘prayerbook.’
“I am also asking for a renewed pastoral courage in ensuring that the day-to-day teaching of Christian communities persuasively and effectively presents the practice of the Sacrament of Reconciliation,” he writes.
“The Jubilee Year, which has been particularly marked by a return to the sacrament of penance, has given us an encouraging message, which should not be ignored: If many people, and among them also many young people, have benefited from approaching this sacrament, it is probably necessary that pastors should arm themselves with more confidence, creativity and perseverance in presenting it and leading people to appreciate it. Dear brothers in the priesthood, we must not give in to passing crises!”
The final chapter is dedicated to doing all things together in love.
John Paul calls for collaboration between clergy and laity that is not only consultative, but also informed by a true experience of communion in the Spirit. From this should flow charity to the whole world.
As a concrete expression of that charity, the Holy Father announced that the surplus left over from Jubilee funds after all expenses have been met will be put in to a special endowment to fund charitable works in Rome.
“Not a single lira will remain in Vatican coffers,” said Archbishop Crescenzio Sepe, secretary of the Central Committee of the Great Jubilee.
“Duc in altum!” concludes the Holy Father. “A new millennium is opening before the Church like a vast ocean upon which we shall venture, relying on the help of Christ.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Raymond De Souza ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Saints Are Appearing on the Streets of L.A. DATE: 01/14/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: January 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:LOS ANGELES—Saints have been sighted in the past month on the streets of Los Angeles, and J. Michael Walker is the man who has brought them there.
Though originally from Arkansas, the 26-year Los Angeles resident has been commemorating the saints who have streets named for them in his adopted city.
Walker moved to Los Angeles because his “cultural interest is centered in Mexico,” and as a result, he felt when he moved that “it would be more relevant to come to L.A. than to New York.”
But while his art has often focused on religious paintings, he explained that the idea for his project began in a very unlikely place.
“It had a very prosaic beginning,” he said. “I was flipping through the Thomas guide [a map of Los Angeles Streets], and I was struck by how many streets were named after saints.”
The names were “given for a reason,” he decided, and set out to explore “the connection between the streets with saints’ names, and our lives.”
What he found were myriad reasons for the naming of the streets. Realtors attempted to lure Midwestern real estate buyers with Saint Louis Street. Simple piety on the part of a couple of elderly ladies led to the name of Santa Clara Street. A “renaissance” of Mexican culture and traditions in the late 1800s named many others.
Msgr. Francis Weber, archivist for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, said the streets are named as they are because “Los Angeles was a Hispanic town founded in 1781.”
“The [Spanish] tendency was to name cities and other places after saints of the day,” said Msgr. Weber, who is based in a suburb of Los Angeles on San Fernando Road, a major thoroughfare in the area.
With 78 streets named for saints in Los Angeles, Walker had quite a task ahead of him.
Armed with $6,500 in “seed money” from the city's Cultural Affairs Department, Walker researched the origins of the street names and decided to rent bus-stop shelters to display his art.
“Most of [the $6,500] went to renting the bus shelters,” he said, noting that the rest of the needed money came from “people on [his] e-mail list.” And soon, with hours of “painstaking research and drawing,” his project, called Todos Los Santos de Los Angeles (All the Saints of Los Angeles), began to take shape.
And despite the “obvious theological context,” Walker explained that “I did not approach the Archdiocese [for money] because I wanted people to see this not as Catholic with a ‘big C,’ but as catholic with a ‘small c’—encompassing everyone.”
His plan seems to have worked.
His posters have had a special relevance for a most eclectic group of people. Not only did one person like one bus-stop poster so much that he broke the glass that covered it and stole it, but several of the models for Walker's posters were people who had stories that were like secular counterparts to the saints he was painting.
For instance, he said, the women who appear in the poster of Santa Monica Boulevard are members of a support group for women whose children are imprisoned. St. Monica prayed for her wayward son and eventually brought about his conversion—he is now St. Augustine.
Even more incredible was the story of the young woman who was his model for Santa Ynez (Saint Agnes).
Walker said he told her the story of Saint Agnes, the beautiful Roman maiden who resisted the repeated sexual advances of lecherous men. When promises and bribes failed to shake her resolve, the men took her to a “house of shame,” where God protected her by encircling her with a great glowing light.
The young woman then told the artist that she had been through something very similar. While looking for a job as a fashion model, she found a photographer who agreed to help her, but “only if she would pose for other [pornographic] photos first.”
During the “explicit” photo shoot, Walker recounted that “she began to weep, and so the photographer tore up the film.” Like Saint Agnes, he says, she was “protected from shame.”
Skid Row
Walker found that his art seemed to have an almost supernatural relevance when he went to San Julian Street on Los Angeles’ “skid row.”
“San Julian is the patron of wanderers and those who give refuge to wanderers,” Walker said. He went on to explain that on that street he discovered a group called LAMP, a nondenominational group which serves the mentally ill homeless of the area.
“LAMP calls them guests,” he recalled.
In addition to the fact that on the street named for the patron of wanderers and their helpers there was a homeless shelter, Walker was happily surprised when many of the “guests” at the LAMP facility allowed him to sketch them for his poster of San Julian. “The homeless people invited me to incorporate their portraits into the poster,” Walker recalled.
And in addition to the “guests” and the artist, the relevance of the street's name had quite an impact on LAMP's founder, Molly Lowry.
“[Walker] came to our drop-in center on San Julian Street,” said Lowry, “where we support the homeless mentally ill.”
When Walker told her the story of San Julian, “I was floored,” Molly said. It was then that she understood why “it [had always] seemed that there was something right about the location.”
Noting that several of those who were being helped at the shelter were featured in Walker's poster of San Julian, Lowry added that “[the ‘guests’] flocked to him; they thought it was great. ... It emphasized the need for faith.”
She called the project's effects a “supernatural, spiritual thing that we cannot control.”
Continuing Project
To date, Walker has sketched and displayed 21 of the 78 saints for whom streets are named, and his project was displayed through December at the Avenue 50 studio in the Highland Park region of Los Angeles.
If he can raise the money, he hopes to continue the project this year as well.
The impact of the project, Walker said, makes these saints relevant today.
Throughout this project he said he has been “happening on people who are living the legends of these saints.”
Walker is not alone in seeing this relevance; Msgr. Francis Weber also sees modern significance in the lives of the saints, and their continuing place in the community.
Said Msgr. Weber, “People need to know the heritage.”
Andrew Walther writes from Los Angeles
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Andrew Walther ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: She Left Hell and Took to the Air DATE: 01/14/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: January 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:Perhaps best known as featured host on the Eternal Word Television Network she founded 20 years ago, the foundress and Abbess of Our Lady of the Angels Monastery in Hanceville, Ala., is an author and founder of the Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word, WEWN radio, and EWTN Online. She spoke recently with Register features correspondent Tim Drake.
Where did you grow up? Tell me about your family.
I was an only child, born in Canton, Ohio. My parents divorced when I was 6 years old. That's when hell began. My mother and I were desperate—moving from place to place, poor, hungry, and barely surviving. My mother loved me dearly, but was overwhelmed by the circumstance of our lives and she became severely depressed.
By the time I was 11, I had grown up fast with the responsibility of taking care of both my mother and myself. I can't recall having any real childhood. There were no Christmas trees and no friends because of my parents’ divorce.
Was there a significant event that led to your vocation?
I remember that time as if it were yesterday. It was Friday, Jan. 8, 1943. I had been experiencing severe stomach pain due to an obstruction for four years and was physically at the end of my rope. The doctors were unable to provide any remedy or hope.
One day, my mother came home with news of a woman in Canton, Ohio, named Rhoda Wise who had been healed of terminal cancer and now bore the stigmata of Jesus. We went to see her and asked her to pray for me...hoping God would use her to help me.
I can't express the feelings that swept over me as I entered the room where Jesus appeared to Mrs. Wise. I can only say it was awesome. We were there a short while and she gave me a novena to St. Thérèse to recite.
At the end of praying this novena for nine days, something began to happen. I went to bed that night and woke up experiencing the worst stomach pain. But it was over in one brief moment. I got up that morning, Sunday, Jan. 17, when I suddenly realized there was no pain whatsoever in my stomach. I was healed.
Unquestionably, that was the day I became aware of God's love for me and began to thirst for him. My life was changed. On Aug. 15, 1944, I entered the Adoration Monastery in Cleveland, Ohio.
What led to the construction of Our Lady of the Angels Monastery in Irondale in 1961?
In 1946, I was chosen as one of the Founding Sisters of a new Monastery in my hometown of Canton, Ohio. One day in the 1950s, my work assignment was to scrub the floors in the monastery.
Unlike St. Thérèse, I used an electric scrubbing machine. In an instant, the machine went out of control. I lost my footing on the soapy floor and was thrown against the wall, back first. Two years after the accident, being barely able to perform my activities, I was hospitalized. On the night before surgery, the doctor walked into my hospital room and stated, “Tomorrow we operate. You should know there is a 50/50 chance you will never walk again. Good night, Sister.”
And with that, he coldly walked out.
I was panic-stricken and made a bargain with God. I promised if he would allow me to walk again that I would build him a monastery in the South. God kept his end, and through divine providence, so did I.
Why Irondale, Ala.?
Well, when I presented the building plans for the new monastery to Mother Veronica, my Abbess at Sancta Clara in Canton, Ohio, she told me that another nun in the monastery also expressed interest in building a monastery.
Mother Veronica was as wise as Solomon; she had both of us mail letters of intent to two bishops on the same day and whoever received the first positive response would proceed. On the third day a letter came, addressed to me, saying, “Y'all come.” It was from Archbishop Thomas Toolen, Diocese of Mobile-Birmingham.
The Poor Clare Nuns of Perpetual Adoration are a cloistered order devoted to adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Tell me how EWTN and WEWN were an outgrowth of the monastery?
Everything was done in obedience to Our Lord. If he gave us an inspiration, we said, “fiat” [let it be done] and plunged in—without full knowledge of what we were doing or where to begin. And the witness of all this is that it has been accomplished through divine providence.
I taught a scripture class to a group of lay people every week for four years. They encouraged me to make audiotapes of the classes, and then put the tapes into booklet form. The first booklet was on prayer, entitled, “Journey Into Prayer.”
With the Lord's inspiration, I wrote 56 books and mini-books. We distributed over 15 million of these books all over the world.
Then I began receiving invitations for speaking engagements, which our bishop gave me permission to accept. A TV station in Chicago asked me for an interview. When I saw that tiny TV studio, I realized how easy it would be to reach the masses. So I said to the Lord, “Lord, I gotta have one of these!”
Then a Christian cable network asked me to send them a series for television which I taped at a local Birmingham TV station. When I found out that the station was going to broadcast a blasphemous movie, I confronted the station manager and objected.
He ignored my complaint, so I told him I would go elsewhere to make my tapes. He replied, “You can't do that! You leave this station and you're off television.” To which I replied, “I don't need you, I only need God! I'll build my own!” and stormed out of his office.
That's when we turned our plan for a garage into a television studio. EWTN went on air Aug. 15, 1981, and will celebrate its 20th anniversary this year. Today there are 33 nuns here and 16 friars in Birmingham.
Do you have a favorite story of how EWTN has touched the life of a viewer?
But perhaps, the real question is, “Do I have a favorite story of how EWTN has touched me?” It was during the early years of Mother Angelica Live, and my guest and I were talking about alcoholism.
It was time to take phone calls from our viewers, when this little voice came over the speaker and said, “I want to talk to the man about being an alcoholic.” At first I thought the call was a joke, but soon realized the young caller was very serious.
She was a latchkey child about 14 years old. Her parents worked until late, so she was home alone every night and had begun to drink.
My guest happened to be from the same city and he arranged for her to get professional counseling. I know for the EWTN staff and myself, that this was a turning point.
We knew we were reaching an audience, both in age and needs, that were more than we had ever imagined.
Tim Drake welcomes e-mail at tdrake@ncregister.com.
----- EXCERPT: TV nun celebrates 20 years ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mother Angelica ----- KEYWORD: Inperson -------- TITLE: Bishops Deny 'Backing Down' on Contraception and Sterilization DATE: 01/14/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: January 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON—This year, the annual meeting of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops made headlines for what it didn't do.
When the U.S. bishops met in November, they did not make some expected changes to the Ethical and Religious Directives, the code that guides the conduct of Catholic hospitals.
This non-action led to charges that they were “stalling” and “watering down” the guidelines, or even trying to change the Church's teaching on controversial medical issues like contraception and sterilization.
The proposed changes would have added tough language—sterilization was called “evil,” and contraception was “absolutely forbidden.” Those changes were tabled, though the bishops’ conference says it will revisit them in June.
But spokesmen for the U.S. bishops stressed to the Register, there will be no softening of church teachings on sexuality when the final version is eventually approved.
Frances Kissling, director of the pro-abortion lobby Catholics for a Free Choice, did not return repeated calls for this article. However, she told the Miami Herald, “This is a sign that both the Catholic bishops and the Catholic health systems want to negotiate with the Vatican behind the scenes. They are hopeful they can soften the language and get that accepted.”
Kissling's group, which has been denounced by the U.S. bishops for misrepresenting itself as an authentically Catholic organization, lobbies for the Church to abandon its opposition to contraception, abortion, and sterilization. The organization is currently spearheading a campaign by pro-abortion groups to strip the Holy See delegation of its Permanent Observer status at the United Nations.
“Unless this Pope dies before this issue is settled, there is very little chance that the Vatican is going to back down,” Kissling told the Herald. “I think we will see as much stalling as the bishops can muster.”
Kissling presented the same “Vatican undermines Catholic health care” scenario on CBS's “60 Minutes,” but without the claims that the U.S. bishops wanted a compromise (see sidebar).
Spokesmen for the U.S. bishops strongly disagreed with Kissling's diagnosis. James LeGrys, theological adviser at the bishops’ secretariat for doctrine and pastoral practice, said, “That sounds like wishful thinking on the part of Frances Kissling.”
Father Michael Place, head of the Catholic Health Association, said, “That is a complete misrepresentation of the truth. The bishops have not backed down on anything.”
He explained that the revisions to the health care directives deal with how the Church's teaching on contraception, sterilization and human sexuality should be applied in a complex world where Catholic and non-Catholic institutions are often closely intertwined.
“The revisions to these directives do not apply to the teachings about human sexuality,” he said. “The issue at hand is how, in partnership with people who do not share our values, do we maintain our integrity.”
Stressed Father Place, “There is no softening of the teaching” on sexual matters. “Bishops can't change the Church's position on abortion, sterilization, or anything else,” pointed out Bill Ryan, a spokesman for the bishops’ conference.
In November, he explained, “[the bishops] decided they wanted more time to study” another version of the health care directives, which will be presented in June.
Humanae Vitae (Human Life), Paul VI's 1968 encyclical, expressly prohibits any kind of contraception or sterilization. “The Church ... teaches that each and every marital act must of necessity retain its intrinsic relationship to the procreation of human life,” Paul VI instructed. “ ... Equally to be condemned, as the magisterium of the Church has affirmed on many occasions, is direct sterilization, whether of the man or of the woman, whether permanent or temporary. (Humanae Vitae, No. 12 and No. 15)
Still, no one disputes that Catholic medical ethics are getting more complicated as economic pressures force non-religious hospitals into mergers or alliances with Catholic health care providers. In such cases, the Catholic partner must tread carefully to make sure that it does not cooperate with immoral actions.
Catholic Ethics, Grateful Patients
When the bishops convene in June, North Dakota may be one place they will consider as a model for how ethical directives should play out in the lives of patients and doctors.
Carrington Health Care Center in Carrington, N.D., had never undertaken elective sterilizations, but it did perform them in situations that Bishop James S. Sullivan of Fargo found inappropriate. He notified the hospital, and Carrington stopped performing sterilizations. Men and women seeking sterilization as birth control now get an explanation of the hospital's policy and a referral to a doctor certified in natural family planning.
To critics of Catholic teachings on sexuality, this is a classic example of a heavy-handed bishop laying down the law to deprive patients of health care. But in practice, said Father Gregory Schlesselmann, diocesan director for Catholic education and formation, many patients are interested to learn about natural family planning.
Dr. James Craig shows couples how to do natural family planning at Carrington. Craig stopped performing sterilizations and prescribing artificial contraceptives after going to lectures on the subject held by the diocese.
Now, when a patient comes in seeking birth control, he discusses the reasons he won't prescribe it. He often has “30- or 40-minute-long” conversations with these patients, he said.
Father Schlesselmann said that many patients are “grateful [to Craig] for taking the time” to talk with them, and for “avoiding a procedure that mutilates a healthy organ, at times permanently with no possibility of reversal.”
Cody Stangeland is one of the grateful ones. She went to Craig last August, after other doctors had prescribed birth-control pills, which she refused to take. Craig “found what the problems were instead of covering them by prescribing birth-control pills,” she said.
She said Craig was more concerned with the “health of the woman” than previous physicians had been.
“I have told my friends about Dr.
Craig and Ann [his wife, also trained in natural family planning],” she said.
Stangeland added that some of those friends, who “did not know that there was anything else out there,” have since decided not to use contraception.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: '60 Minutes'Attacks Catholic Ethics DATE: 01/14/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: January 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:NEW YORK—The CBS show “60 Minutes” is billed as a newsmagazine, but observers of a recent segment on Catholic hospital mergers say the show smuggled in a heavy dose of opinionated criticism of Catholic medical ethics.
The feature, “God, Women and Medicine,” aired Dec. 10, bearing the subtitle, “Mergers between Catholic and non-Catholic hospitals prevent patients from certain kinds of care deemed inappropriate by the Church.”
After anchor Morley Safer summarized the upcoming segment—noting that four of the 10 largest health-care systems in America are Catholic, and asking whether “religious doctrine may supercede medical advice”—the first guest was Frances Kissling, president of Catholics for a Free Choice.
Kissling, whose group has been condemned by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops because of its advocacy of abortion and contraception, told Safer, “It's not like the old days. Doctors are no longer gods. Now we have bishops who are gods.”
Safer told viewers, “Over the past 10 years there have been more than 120 mergers and alliances between Catholic and non-Catholic hospitals; in nearly half of them, certain services were reduced or eliminated.”
Later, Safer described the Catholic guidelines for medical care as “a set of canons that absolutely dictate, that override in effect, best medical advice by a person's doctor.”
James LeGrys, theological adviser at the bishops’ confer-ence's secretariat for doctrine and pastoral practice, told the Register that the show skewed the issue. LeGrys challenged the show's opposition between religious doctrine and good medical practice, pointing out that to Catholic doctors, sterilization and contraception are not “care” or sound medicine.
By casting the issue as one of “forcing women to ignore the best medical advice,” LeGrys said, the show shut out the viewpoint that sterilization, contraception and abortion “are not services. They are simply immoral.”
The show profiled several women who faced medical emergencies, in which Catholic medical ethics allegedly threatened their health. CBS claimed. One woman, Kathleen Hutchins, was told that her fetus had a 2% chance of survival and that bringing the child to term could lead to her infection or even death. The only nearby hospital, Elliot Hospital in Manchester, N.H., had recently merged with the Catholic Medical Center.
Officials at Elliot allegedly told Hutchins's doctor that they could not perform an abortion unless she had already become infected. Her doctor also charged that the hospital asked him to lie about his diagnosis.
The hospital's lawyers wrote to “60 Minutes,” and Safer quoted their statement that Hutchins's doctor “did not follow policy in confirming his diagnosis,” a claim the doctor disputes. After community protests, the merger between Elliot Hospital and Catholic Medical Center was dissolved.
“60 Minutes” presented only one voice in favor of the Catholic position, Father Michael Place, head of the Catholic Health Association. He told Safer, “We cannot attack human life. Either the life of the unborn or the life of someone at the end of life. And we honor our understanding of human sexuality.”
However, the program did not show any doctors or patients who agreed with the Church's position, nor did it address the issue of whether sterilization, abortion, and contraception should be considered “the best medical advice.”
— Eve Tushnet
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 01/14/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: January 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:Magazine Calls Cardinal O'Connor a ‘Creep’
William Donohue, president of the Catholic League, responded in a press release stating, “What Cardinal O'Connor represented to these self-destructive souls was holiness, and that is why they're so angry with him—he reminds them of everything they're not. While Time Out New York was urging homosexuals to live a life of abandon—one that resulted in death due to AIDS—Cardinal O'Connor was personally attending to the needs of these persons in hospitals. That he also presided over the largest private providers of care for AIDS patients in New York is something that the surviving family members of those treated will not forget. Now ask them whether they agree with Time Out's characterization of Cardinal O'Connor.”
Man Handcuffs Archbishop Egan
The archbishop was unhurt. Byrne was arrested.
Tithing Time, Not Money
The Graying of Divorce
Experts note that many senior citizens feel isolated, a feeling that divorce can magnify. And although recent studies of divorce, like Judith Wallerstein's The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce, have focused on the effects of family breakup on young children, Fox found that adult children suffer as well when their parents part.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Father John Hardon: Catechist of the 20th Century DATE: 01/14/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: January 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:DETROIT—Jesuit Father John A. Hardon is finally getting a well-deserved rest.
In the book Fishers of Men (Trinity Communications, 1986), John Janaro writes that the drowning of a seminary colleague during a lakeshore vacation in 1941 profoundly affected Father Hardon.
Afterward, Father Hardon resolved to never take another vacation, and he never did. “The priest must want to share,” Father Hardon often said, “to wear himself out in the sharing.”
Father Hardon, a renowned and tireless teacher and defender of the Catholic faith, died during the hour of Divine Mercy on Dec. 30, after a long illness. He was 86.
Described as a holy priest, a master teacher, a world class theologian, a prolific author, an advisor to the Holy See, and a spiritual giant, Father Hardon's presence is one that will likely be felt for decades to come.
He was born on June 18, 1914, in Midland, Pa. His father, an iron-construction worker, suffered a fatal accident when John was only 1 year old, leaving Anna Hardon, a Third Order Franciscan, to raise her son alone. Anna never remarried, but raised and supported her only child by working as a cleaning woman.
John graduated from John Carroll University in 1936. Inspired by the story of St. Peter Canisius, who preached the Gospel amidst a crisis of faith in 16th-century Germany, John entered the Society of Jesus later that year and was ordained on his 33rd birthday in 1947. He received a master's degree from Loyola University in 1941 and his Theology doctorate from the Gregorian University in Rome in 1951.
“I recall Father Hardon saying that he always wanted to be a missionary, but his health did not allow it,” said Fred Blonigen, religion instructor at St. Agnes High School in St. Paul, Minn.
Over the next several years Father Hardon taught Catholic theology and comparative religion at a variety of Jesuit theological schools and Protestant seminaries.
When he was appointed to teach at Seabury-Western Divinity School, an Anglican/Episcopalian seminary, the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury sent a representative to Chicago in commemoration of the fact that Father Hardon was the first Jesuit ever asked to teach at an Anglican seminary.
Missionary of the Pen
Blonigen came to know Father Hardon through his retreats, which he attended over the course of four years in the early 1980s. “He realized that his “missionary” work was by way of the pen, through writing, and his mouth, through teaching, spiritual direction, and retreats. That was his calling,” said Blonigen.
“He was the quintessential catechist,” added Blonigen. “He was a true Catholic, a true theologian, and a true Jesuit.
“When you were in his presence you knew you were in the presence of a saint. Everything about him exuded holiness. He was not only a great teacher, but he also lived his faith in complete fidelity to the Pope and the magisterium.”
A prolific writer, Father Hardon authored more than 30 books, including his Catechism of the Catholic Church, published in 1975.
“Prior to the 1992 Catechism,” said Blonigen, “Father Hardon's catechism was the most important summary of the faith that had been written since the Second Vatican Council. It was desperately needed during a time of confusion and disarray.”
In addition, Father Hardon served as an advisor to the Holy See since 1964, served as spiritual director and confessor to Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity, and founded Catholic Faith magazine. And as a testament to his devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, Father Hardon traveled around the world to institute chapels of perpetual eucharistic adoration in spite of his physical infirmities.
At the request of Pope John Paul II, Father Hardon had been training Marian and Ignatian catechists for the past decade—a task he carried out up until the end of his life.
“Father Hardon was a son of St. Ignatius of Loyola through and through,” Bishop Raymond L. Burke of LaCrosse, Wis., told the Register. Bishop Burke worked with Father Hardon in the area of catechetics since first becoming a bishop in 1995.
Last year, Father Hardon asked Bishop Burke to assume direction of the Marian Catechists Program.
That program, explained Bishop Burke, was an extension of Father Hardon's efforts to prepare Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity to be catechists. Father Hardon's most recent work, The Marian Catechists Manual, published last fall, outlines the history of the association, its purpose, and provides instructions for faithful members of the association.
“He gave his all to the Church in every respect, but he was tireless in particular in the promotion of sound catechetics for children and young people,” said Bishop Burke. “I admired him very much and will do my best to imitate his tireless dedication and zeal in carrying on the work of the Marian Catechists Program.”
Inspired Thousands
Through his work, Father Hardon exerted a profound influence on countless students, priests, catechists, and others. According to Catholic writer Thomas A. Droleskey, Father Hardon was directly responsible for thousands of conversions, including the high-profile conversion of the late Lee Atwater, former chairman of the Republican National Committee.
At least two organizations, Inter Mirifica and Eternal Life, were established to distribute his catechetical work.
Father Hardon founded Eternal Life with friend William J. Smith and colleague Father Edmund J. McCaffrey nearly 20 years ago as a way of distributing Father Hardon's books, pamphlets and audiotapes.
“Father Hardon was very conscious of the need for good evangelization, prayer, and sacrifice,” said Eternal Life secretary Martha Spalding. “He will surely be missed. The work that he began here, and with so many other organizations, will bear much fruit for many years to come.
“He was a remarkable, holy priest,” added Spalding. “When you met him you knew you had just met someone special. He was a person worth knowing.”
“We may tend to think that we lived in bad times,” said Catholic writer Donna Steichen, “but Father Hardon is evidence that we lived among giants too. He was a sweet, dear, and fearless man. He always defended the faith and it he taught it to everyone. He was very quiet, but he said it all.”
Tim Drake can be reached at tdrake@ncregister.com
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Relic Diplomacy Warms Catholic-Orthodox Relations DATE: 01/14/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: January 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:ROME—When Pope John Paul II gave a relic of St. Gregory to the Armenian Apostolic Church late last fall, it was more than just the physical transfer of a saint's bodily remains.
It was a gesture meant to express the Catholic Church's respect for this Oriental Orthodox Church, and its desire for eventual reunion with the Church.
Giving relics and icons to the Orthodox to improve relations with the East is an increasingly popular Vatican strategy, especially under Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II.
As Jesuit Father Edward Faruggia, professor at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome puts it, “They are excellent signs of the ‘dialogue of love’” which “opens hearts and prepares the mind to listen to discussion.” Because relics are revered in both Catholic and Orthodox tradition, they provide an important common ground.
Relics are the bodily remains of saints (first class relics), clothing or objects used during a saint's life (second class), as well as articles that have touched their remains or tombs (third class).
“The reason why we Orthodox venerate relics,” said Metropolitan Maximus of Pittsburgh, co-chair of the theological consultation between the Orthodox and Catholic Church in North America, “is that we believe the body has an important role to play in the life of holiness. Man is a pyscho-physical unit. You cannot separate body and soul. The bodies of saints are honored because of the way in which they venerated the Lord.”
Good St. Greg
The Pope's gift of St. Gregory's relic was of singular importance to the Armenian Apostolic Church. St. Gregory converted King Tiridates III at the beginning of the fourth century in ancient Armenia, making Armenia the first country to adopt Christianity as its state religion.
Large crowds gathered at the airport when the Armenian Apostolic Patriarch returned home with the relic.
As one Vatican official who was travelling with the Armenian delegation put it, “It was as if the founder was going back to his country.”
The current plan is to display the relic in every church in Armenia before its placement in a new cathedral in September 2001.
One of the first major relic transfers occurred in late 1964. During the Second Vatican Council, Cardinal Augustin Bea brought the head of St. Andrew back to Patras, Greece, the place where the apostle was crucified. The relic had been given to Pope Pius II in 1462. Cardinal Bea, who brought the relic to the Greeks on behalf of Pope Paul VI, was moved to tears when he saw the throngs of people lining the roads from the airport to the church in Patras.
Old St. Nick
Another relic transfer involved the reliquary of St. Nicolas in Bari, Italy. St. Nicolas is one of the most revered saints in the Russian Orthodox Church, and is popular in the Catholic Church.
Italian sailors from Bari stole the saint's remains from Myra, Turkey, in 1087 after Muslims took control of the city. Since then, the saint's bones have never left Bari. A piece of wood from the original tomb was given to a Russian Orthodox parish on Long Island 10 years ago. Water that gathers around the tomb is sometimes collected and given to Orthodox groups that visit.
The transfer of religious objects also takes place from the Orthodox to the Catholic Church. In 1964, Patriarch Athenagoras gave Pope Paul VI an icon depicting St. Peter and St. Andrew in a fraternal embrace—symbolizing the meeting of the Pope and the patriarch in Jerusalem a few months earlier.
Father Gerardo Cioffari, director of the archives at St. Nicolas’ Basilica in Bari, spoke of the “beautiful relationship” his city had with the Russian Orthodox Church. “From the 1700s onwards we have been exchanging icons, paintings and religious objects. We have never had a moment of crisis with them.” In fact, St. Nicolas Basilica frequently allows Russian Orthodox priests to celebrate mass at the altar with the saint's remains.
Giving relics to the Orthodox has “fantastic significance,” according to Metropolitan Maximus. “We share our saints together. By giving part of the relics back, the Church of Rome respects and venerates the Church which produced the saint.”
“But it also brings us together,” the metropolitan said. “When we venerate a saint, it unites two Churches together. It's an ontological bond, not just psychological. The lives of the saints create unity because it is the same life of holiness for all Churches.”
According to Msgr. Arthur Calkins, an official at the pontifical commission Ecclesia Dei, returning relics to the East is a legitimate practice given that most of them were taken, or stolen, during the Crusades. “It can be considered part of the ‘cleansing of conscience’ that John Paul II frequently talks about.”
Long Way to Go
Though the Pope has long desired the unity of the Orthodox and Catholic Churches, he may not live to see his dream fulfilled. The Russian Orthodox Church has been especially hard to approach. Its patriarch, Alexi II, has twice backed out of meetings with the Pope in the last five years—once in Hungary in 1996, another time in Austria in 1997. Each time he backpedaled, he blamed the Catholic Church for missionary activity in traditionally Orthodox territory and “persecutions” against Ukrainian Orthodox by Ukrainian Greek Catholics.
One gesture that may help relations with the Russian Orthodox would be the return of the celebrated icon of Our Lady of Kazan. Painted on wood during the 13th century, it is considered to be miraculous because of the various times the people of Moscow received protection from foreign invaders after praying to her.
It was taken out of Russia after the Bolshevik revolution, changing hands numerous times within Europe and the United States during the past century. In 1970, the icon was purchased by the Fatima-inspired organization, Blue Army, and placed in its chapel in Fatima, Portugal.
According to Michael Fix, the Blue Army's national director in the United States, the icon stayed in Fatima for a number of years, before being transferred to the Vatican.
Restitution to the Russian Orthodox Church could take place within the context of a meeting between the Pope and Patriarch Alexi II, or during the Pope's upcoming visit to the Ukraine in June. A successful trip to the Ukraine could open the way for a papal visit to Moscow.
However, delicacy and timing are very important when it comes to giving a relic. Because of the strained relationship with the Russian Orthodox, Our Lady of Kazan may be staying in the Pope's own apartment longer than expected.
Sabrina Arena Ferrisi writes from Rome.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Sabrina Arena Ferrisi ----- KEYWORD: Vatican -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 01/14/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: January 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:30 Missionaries Died for the Gospel in 2000
The list was compiled by Fides, the Church's missionary news agency. In an editorial accompanying the list, Fides director Father Bernardo Cervellera observed that the list spans the globe and includes victims of religious bigots and of thieves.
Father Cervellera pointed to roving bandits, disease and the West's preoccupation with raw materials in Africa for missionary deaths on that continent.
He cited Muslim fundamentalism and “government without justice” in the Philippines and India for deaths there.
The Fides director also pointed out that the agency's list is incomplete, since it does not account for Christians who died anonymously in the Moluccan islands of Indonesia, in southern Sudan, in Rwanda and in the prisons of China.
The Fides list includes only those missionary workers whose deaths have already been made known to the world.
McDonald's Responds to Catholic Critique
NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO, Dec. 31—Recent critical statements about fast food by Italian theologian Massimo Celani have sparked indignation from officials at the hamburger chain's Italian headquarters, the Washington-based radio news program reported.
Celani's claim, that fast food lacks the communitarian aspect of sharing in favor of an individualistic pursuit of quick gratification, was dubbed “the excommunication of the hamburger” by the Italian media.
A statement issued by the Italian branch of McDonald's said: “Fast food means that one is served rapidly, and not that one eats rapidly.”
It added that McDonald's serves customers of all races and religions and adapts to all cultures and tastes.
Analysts predicted Italians would ignore the hamburger chain when it opened its doors in Italy in the mid-80s.
They were wrong. McDonald's currently runs 270 restaurants in the country, serving an average of 800,000 customers daily.
Vatican Supports Efforts to Oust Estrada
FIDES, Dec. 19—Archbishop Antonio Franco, Papal Nuncio to the Philippines, dispelled media-fueled rumors that the Vatican was upset with bishops in the archipelago nation for trying to oust scandal-ridden president Joseph Estrada, the news service reported.
“The Holy See, at present as in the past, is in absolute harmony with the Catholic bishops of the Philippines,” Archbishop Franco said in a statement to clear up the rumors.
The Philippine media had reported that the Vatican Secretariat of State was not in full accord with the position taken by Cardinal Jaime Sin, Archbishop of Manila, who has personally called for the resignation of President Estrada.
“The Holy See,” the Nuncio continued, “fully supports the bishops’ commitment in favor of spiritual and moral values which should also guide the State institutions in their task to favor and protect the common good of citizens.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Vatican -------- TITLE: Entering the New Millennium DATE: 01/14/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: January 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:In this moment we are crossing the threshold of 2001, and we enter the third Christian millennium. At the stroke of midnight, which marks this historic passage, we pause with hearts full of gratitude to consider the various events of the century and millennium that have passed.
Tragedies and hopes, joys and sufferings, victories and challenges: Over all this comes the knowledge that God guides the events of humanity. He walks with men and women and does not cease to do great things. How can we not thank him on this night? How can we not repeat to him, “In te, Domine, speravi, non confundar in aeternum”? Yes, “In you, O Lord, I trust, let me never be put to shame!”
At the end of the usual prayer meeting that marks each day of the Jubilee Year, and which today is being held at night to close the year 2000, our gaze is fixed on Christ, the Savior of mankind. Without him, life cannot reach its final destiny. It is he who helps us face the challenges of the new millennium with his wisdom and the power of his Spirit. It is he who makes us able to spend our existence for the glory of God and the good of humanity. We must share with him and be his witnesses in the future that awaits us.
It is Christ who makes us able to spend our existence for the glory of God and the good of humanity.
Let us be drawn by his love and the path of our lives will know the joy that comes from faithful service every day. This is my heartfelt wish that I make for all the faithful and for every man and woman of good will. In this moment, I send a special thought, accompanied by prayer, to those who are in difficulty, who live moments of pain. For each of them, I invoke the providential help of the Lord.
Now my gaze expands to the whole world. I hope the new millennium will bring peace, justice, fraternity and prosperity to all the nations! In particular, my thoughts go to the youth, hope of the future: May the light of Christ the Savior give meaning to their existence, guide them on the path of life, and make them strong in their witness to truth and service of good.
I entrust all these hopes to the inter-cession of the Madonna. Most Blessed Virgin, Dawn of new times, help us to look with faith on the history of the past and the year that is beginning. Star of the third millennium, guide our steps toward Christ, who live “yesterday, today, and forever,” and grant humanity, which advances with trembling into the new millennium, more and more fraternity and solidarity.
Happy New Year to all! (Zenit translation)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Vatican -------- TITLE: Register Summary DATE: 01/14/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: January 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:Pope John Paul II told tens of thousands of pilgrims, who spent the last hours of the year 2000 in a frigid St. Peter's Square, that God guides the events of the world.
On the threshold of the third Christian millennium, he repeated a familiar prayer of confidence in God for all that is to come: “In you, O Lord, I trust, let me never be put to shame!”
The Holy Father reminded everyone to look to Christ to find mankind's destiny. Wishing fraternity and prosperity to all nations, he called young people the hope of the future.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Vatican -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 01/14/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: January 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:Love and Marriage in Australia
Couples down under can now settle issues like who does the chores, holiday destinations, number of children or the frequency of marital relations—as well as who gets the property and children when they divorce.
As pre-nuptial agreements become legally binding, replacing love with stony pessimism, the new contracts are expected to be widely embraced on the island continent, especially among those marrying for a second time. Almost a third of marriages in Australia currently end in divorce.
Analysts interviewed by the Herald said the contracts could cause insecurity in marriages and would most likely benefit men eager to protect their assets.
God Prominent in New Russian Anthem
The new lyrics were personally approved by Russian president Vladimir Putin, a former communist. They were written by Sergei Mikhalkov, the 87-year-old poet who co-authored the original words for Stalin in 1944.
Unlike the Soviet versions, the new lyrics have no mention of Lenin or the Communist Party. But the new anthem preserves some of the key phrases of the old one, including the first words of the chorus, “Be glorious, Fatherland!”
“The anthem is not simply a symbol,” Putin said at a reception Dec. 30 where the new version was played for the first time, the Times reported. “It is impossible to live without it.”
Moluccan Bishop Sends SOS to United Nations
FIDES, Dec. 28—“We call on the international community in the name of human values, human dignity, human rights, order and security of people's lives, to help the Indonesian government to end the savagery and violence in the Moluccas and the forced conversions,” Moluccan Bishop Petrus Canisius Mandagi wrote in an emergency appeal Dec. 27 to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, the news service reported.
Bishop Mandagi said that the Indonesian government “has proved not to be able to end the conflict in the Moluccas” and that “the Republic of Indonesia has failed to guarantee and maintain justice and human rights by a lack of seriousness and constancy, honesty and integrity.” Consequently, the bishop wrote, “what prevails is the law of the jungle, barbarism and savagery.”
Fighting between religious communities in the Moluccas Islands started 23 months ago. Since then there has been an escalation of violence, by both the local population and by government authorities and institutions. Press accounts have reported widespread incidents of rape, murder, theft and forced conversions by adherents of the Muslim religious majority against Christians.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Open Wide New Doors to Christ DATE: 01/14/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: January 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY – Pope John Paul II closed the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica on Jan. 6 at 9:53 a.m., only hours after the last pilgrims had crossed its threshold.
To accommodate the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who thronged to St. Peter's in the last days of the Holy Year, the Holy Father asked that the Holy Door be kept open on Jan. 5 until all those who wished to pass through it had done so. It was not until 3 a.m. Jan. 6 that the line of those waiting was finally exhausted.
The date of Jan. 6, 2001—the Epiphany—had been set as the closing date of the Great Jubilee by the Pope in 1998.
The ceremony of closing was simple and echoed the opening rites of Christmas Eve 1999. John Paul, wearing a gold cope—not the striking cope of many colors he wore for the opening—prayed before the Holy Door and knelt on its threshold. Before the Pope ascended the steps to the Holy Door, the choir sung the Advent chant O Clavis David (“O Key of David, scepter of the house of Israel, who opens and no one can close, who closes, and no one can open ...”). With help from an assistant the Holy Father then rose from his knees and maneuvered around the two panels of the door, closing them himself from the outside.
After the closing ceremony in the portico of St. Peter's, John Paul celebrated Mass in St. Peter's Square, joined by the cardinals resident in Rome and the bishop and priest members of the central committee for the Great Jubilee.
More than 125,000 people were on hand for the Mass, which many observers noted was one of the more exuberant of the Holy Year, with the Pope himself visibly happy. The Mass concluded with the singing of the Te Deum, the Church's ancient hymn of praise to the Holy Trinity, traditionally sung on occasions of great thanksgiving.
During the Mass, each of the prayers of the faithful was introduced by a short quotation from one of the Holy Year addresses of John Paul, thereby calling to mind the broad sweep of Jubilee events. The Holy Father himself alluded to those in his homily, but was insistent that the closing of the Holy Year was not a time for rest, but renewed zeal. This forward-looking aspect was highlighted by the signing of a new apostolic letter, Novo millennio ineunte.
“Of course, it is not a question of organizing, in the short term, other major initiatives,” the Pope said in his homily. “We return to our normal activities, but this is something quite different from taking a rest. Rather, we need to draw from the experience of the Jubilee useful lessons which can give inspiration and effective direction to our new commitment.”
John Paul did allow himself one backward glance. He preached again the exhortation he first preached in St. Peter's Square on Oct. 22, 1978: “At the very beginning of my pontificate, and countless times since, I have exclaimed to the sons and daughters of the Church and to the world: ‘Open wide the doors to Christ’. I wish to cry out again, at the end of this Jubilee, at the beginning of this new millennium: Open, indeed, throw wide open the doors to Christ!”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Editorial DATE: 01/14/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: January 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:Reports like the shocking news coming from China may become even more common under the United States’ new “don't ask, don't tell” trade arrangement with the communist regime.
The Congress and President Clinton last year granted China permanent most favored nation status (renamed “normal” trading status to deflect concerns about China's human rights record). That means that we will trade on the same basis with China as we do with Belgium, only without the traditional reviews and without the need for regular authorization from Congress.
Catholic critics said that this was like giving China a blank check. In effect, we've agreed in advance to look the other way regardless what China does to its imagined “enemies of the state”—a category which includes simple Catholic faithful. After the Senate and Clinton sealed the deal last summer, China sent a delegation to Washington to thank America for the favor. Then, Chinese henchmen got busy at home, stepping up a campaign to destroy churches and, if the following report is true, harass priests and nuns.
A Jan. 4 report from a Taiwanese news service goes like this: A Father Lin was meeting in November with five nuns and six others, seminarians and lay people, to pray in a room at a Luoyuan County restaurant when Communist Party officials showed up uninvited.
Father Lin enraged one thug by defending religious freedom. The official broke the statue of the Blessed Mother the group planned to use in the prayer service. County police and communist officials reportedly videotaped the incident.
The Catholics were taken to what amounts to a jail that night and sent to various detention arrangements the next day. Two nuns and a laywoman were taken Nov. 4 to a “government office” in Fengshan town, where they were starved and kept awake for two days as they were forced to listen to anti-Catholic propaganda.
On Nov. 7, after what the news reports call “verbal sexual harassment,” the nuns were forced to sign a prepared document saying they renounced their faith.
This kind of brutality against religious would be precisely the sort of thing that would imperil a China trade vote under the old system. But the Chinese have no reason to fear U.S. reaction to their tactics now.
They needn't fear reaction to the communist-created version of the church which forces believers to deny their fidelity to Rome. They needn't fear the consequences of China's one-child policy: Forced abortion and sterilization are used to enforce it and families often abandon girls and handicapped babies in order to make their one child a “good” one.
Perhaps our representatives have decided not to notice what is happening in communist China. We should remind them repeatedly that their constituents have made no such decision.
After the bitter election fight, here are a couple of quotes that serve to remind us why we are blessed to live in America:
“On Jan. 20 ... the person standing up before the Capitol taking the oath of office ... will be sworn in as my president too. I will spare no efforts in saying to people who supported me, ‘Let's not have any talk about stealing the election, let's not question the legitimacy of the election.’”
— Al Gore Jr.
“I pledge to President-elect Bush my efforts and the best efforts of every member of our administration for a smooth and successful transition.”
— Bill Clinton
----- EXCERPT: From Washington to Fengshan Town ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Opinion -------- TITLE: Letters DATE: 01/14/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: January 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:The Rediscovery of Tim Drake
I have just read “The Rediscovery of Jesus” in the Dec. 24-30 Register. It makes me again mourn the transience of newspaper articles. This article should be a bedrock of formation classes for adults. Your Tim Drake has a genius for choosing, organizing and writing the very difficult combination of hard evidence within an inspirational message.
I have long admired and learned from Drake's interviews, but this article proves he can do far more than collect information and facts. He can weave them together with inspiration in a very readable and understandable writing style. I hope you will print more of his articles.
DOROTHY T. SAMUEL Saint Cloud, Minnesota
Engage
Upon reading Allen O'Donnell's letter (“So, What Next?” Dec. 17-23) and his question to you, “Why should a Catholic layman engage the culture?” something occurred to me. Because we are Catholics who represent a counter-culture in that we do not subscribe to the current mores of the culture in which we reside, perhaps the challenge is a bit different than merely engaging the culture.
The culture reflects a belief system contrary to Catholic teaching. And the Church, speaking as Christ speaks, calls us to be in the world but not of it. Thus it seems that perhaps the better question is: How can each of us have a positive effect on those around us with whom we may have influence, opportunity to witness or occasion to share the truth embodied in the Church and her immortal wisdom?
It is difficult to define “the culture” and subsequently take steps to challenge it; “the culture” is such a vague term. But it is not difficult to personally seek the courage and wisdom from the Lord Himself to make a difference one person at a time. Every single reader can do that if only he remembers that we are called to humbly make ourselves totally Christ's. Through Him, each one of us can affect others, and then the culture will be converted, soul by soul.
JUDIE BROWN Stafford, Virginia
The writer is president of American Life League.
Home School For Adults
I was very interested in the story about Vincentian Father Oscar Lukefahr and the Catholic Home Study Service (Inperson: “In Case You Missed CCD ...” Dec. 31-Jan. 6).
I am a member of the Society of Sts. Francis Xavier and Thérèse, which works with the Catholic Home Study Service to evangelize the American South. Members mail brochures, prepared by Father Lukefahr, to people in southern states where most of the recipients will not be Catholic. They contain a brief introduction to Jesus Christ and his Church and an invitation to enroll in the Catholic Home Study Service's basic correspondence course.
During the past 10 years more than 8,200 people have taken Catholic Home Study Service courses because they received our brochures and many of them have entered the Church.
The brochures and mailing lists are provided free to the Society's members and there are no membership fees or dues. The only cost is a postcard-rate stamp and the few minutes a day it takes to address a card and pray for the addressee. Anyone who wants to become personally involved in the Church's work of evangelization can get further information by writing to: The Society of Sts. Francis Xavier and Thérèse 216-32 Rockaway Point Blvd.
Breezy Point, NY 11697-1127
MARTIN W. HELGESEN Malverne, New York
Too Young to Vote for Bush
I'm just a teen-ager—too young to vote—but when I read the letter “Another Vote for Gore” I thought it was very upsetting. First of all, I'll agree that many Catholics (including me) don't like the fact that George W. visited an anti-Catholic school and supports the death penalty.
However, let me point out that not only did Al Gore support the death penalty, but he went on to say that it was all right to execute a woman, who is on death row, that is pregnant. Also, why do you think that the environment plan that Al Gore had is more important than Bush's plan to stop partial-birth abortion? I for one think that saving innocent babies’ lives is more important than saving trees.
Though George W. Bush may have some faults (like all of us do) I think that he will be a great leader for our country.
MARY DECRANE Greenwood, Indiana
A Democrat for Bush
As a retired County Democratic Chairman and former delegate to a National Democratic Convention, in 1972, I feel qualified to speak authoritatively on the voting responsibilities of Catholics, regardless of party affiliation.
First of all, as a practicing Catholic I must, in conscience, follow the basic philosophy of the Catholic Church, and its bishops, in my daily life, which includes voting.
My decision to vote the Republican ticket in the recent Presidential election was determined by my analysis of the Democratic and Republican platforms. There is no way that I, as a Catholic, nor any other Catholic, in good conscience, could vote for Al Gore's platform of killing human beings still in the womb by abortion on demand, and promoting and supporting worldwide financial support for Planned Parenthood's phony agenda of indirectly promoting business for their abortion mills by encouraging promiscuous sexual activity beginning in grade schools with distribution of various questionable and many times harmful birth control devices.
By the way, when will your paper enlighten us on the standing of the self-proclaimed “Catholics” in Congress, like Ted Kennedy, Leahy and others who vote against the official doctrine of the Catholic church?
GEORGE WEIDNER Fort Mitchell, Kentucky
Out of Line
Having subscribed to the Register for several years we have found the paper to be one of high standards and full of interesting useful information. The pro-life page was especially informative. We were very pleased with our subscription until recent issues when several items raised the question of whether those high standards are dropping.
The letter, “Another Vote for Gore” (Dec. 31-Jan. 6), was a harsh, caustic diatribe against Catholics who voted for Bush. It was an insulting letter that did not receive any editorial comment, even to advise the author that the Register demands civility and charity in its published letters.
JOHN AND CAROLYN NAUGHTON Silver Spring, Maryland
On another note: We have not abandoned the coverage you used to find on the Culture of Life page. The same articles about life issues are now featured on the news pages and front page, while the back page is devoted to features of help to families.
Drawing the Line
Mr. Szymanowski's letter “Another Vote for Gore” attempted to defend voting for a pro-abortion candidate by, among other things, citing the rejection of “single-issue voting” by Catholic Democrats. A candidate for political office—Democrat or Republican—disqualifies himself as a person for whom a Catholic can vote if he or she advocates the moral evil of abortion.
Even if this candidate espouses a variety of programs that are in accord with the Church's social teaching, a Catholic with a well-formed conscience will not vote for him given his advocacy of abortion.
Fortunately we have Church documents that address this issue. The 1974 document “Declaration on Procured Abortion” issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith states that we cannot take part in a campaign for laws that favor abortion or vote for them (No. 22). Since our elected representatives establish laws in the U.S., this provision clearly precludes Catholics from voting for politicians who support abortion.
In Evangelium Vitae Pope John Paul II states that the right to life is paramount because it is the right on which all others are based and cannot be regained once it's lost. The Holy Father also states that in politics and government today, the inalienable right to life “is questioned or denied on the basis of a parliamentary vote or the will of one part of the people—even if it's in the majority. This is the sinister result of relativism which reigns unopposed” (No. 22).
If this most basic of human rights is denied, a candidate's position on welfare, preferential option for the poor or any other issue is moot.
With regard to the death penalty, both candidates in the presidential election support capital punishment—so this argument is also moot.
Even if that were not the case, the death penalty and abortion are not on equal footing in terms of Catholic moral teaching. Abortion is the murder of an innocent person and therefore intrinsically evil. The Church has always taught that it is the right and responsibility of the legitimate temporal authority to execute capital criminals to protect society if no other means of defense is sufficient. The Holy Father has not changed this teaching, but he's asked that the death penalty not be used when society can be protected by other bloodless means. Morally, capital punishment and abortion are not the same act.
Every Catholic should read Evangelium Vitae and all members of the clergy should continuously preach its message. If we want 50% of Catholics in the U.S. to stop voting for pro-abortion candidates, then we need better catechesis of the laity. Every vote cast for a pro-abortion candidate is a vote for the culture of death. We're reaping what we have sown.
KATHLEEN M. HUNT Falls Church, Virginia
Community, Schommunity
Sorry to prolong this, but I can't let Mary Morch's snippy comments (Letters, Dec. 31-Jan.
6) about my previously published views on the awfulness of contemporary church architecture go unanswered.
“Churches today are designed for people, community, seeing and being with your fellow human beings and recognizing Christ in them,” Ms. Morch writes. Whenever I hear Catholics use that kind of jargon, I unholster my rosary. This is the kind of emotional cant employed to depict those of us who reject the ugly, depressing post-conciliar churches as mean-spirited and anti-human—and therefore the kind of people who can safely be ignored.
Surely Ms. Morch can't possibly believe that Catholics didn't engage in charitable works until the statues were removed, the tabernacle hustled away, and the altars stripped? That's not the life my family lives, nor many faithful Catholics today, and in generations past. On second thought, she probably does believe it. People like this are capable of convincing themselves of any oddball thing that advances their agenda.
It is a fallacy to suggest that today's churches are empty because past generations of church architects failed to appreciate “community.” There are many reasons why the Church is in dire straits, first among them the failure of the American church to teach its people what it means to be an authentically faithful Catholic. What's the point of filling hideous churchatoriums up with Catholics who have little idea what their faith is, much less any real commitment to living up to its demands?
The parable of the widow's mite comes to mind. The numbers of American Catholics who dissent from Church dogma on abortion, contraception, premarital sex, the Real Presence and other core teachings are scandalous. The notion that this can be remedied by newfangled church design is ridiculous. One suspects that the Mary Morches of the world don't see this as a crisis in need of remedy at all.
Ms. Morch says I appear to “need continued conversion.” I plead guilty; who doesn't? But if by “conversion” she means throwing in with the self-love hootenanny that obtains at many American parishes, I shall remain a hidebound heathen, so to speak, and do so in very good company. The “community” didn't save me from sin; Jesus Christ did. Would that he today rescue us from our co-religionists who seek to supplant the Catholic faith with an ersatz substitute.
ROD DREHER Brooklyn, New York
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Opinion -------- TITLE: Parent/Teacher Fright DATE: 01/14/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: January 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:The constant harping of many nowadays about how bad modern parents supposedly are doesn't ring true under close scrutiny.
Case in point: Dr. Ray Guarendi's “Family Matters” column in the Dec. 31 issue, in which he claims that parents rarely show up for high school parent/teacher nights.
I am the father of a college freshman and college junior. I can recall dreading parent/teacher nights when they were in high school because the waiting in line to meet with each teacher could stretch for hours. Those nights never lacked for parental interest.
By the way, both my children attended New York City public high schools. Is Dr. Guarendi by chance living in some forsaken part of the country where parental apathy reigns?
PETER FEUERHERD Queens, New York
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Commentary -------- TITLE: When Half The Nation Cried 'Foul!' DATE: 01/14/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: January 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:Even now, in the wake of political and electoral chaos, the American family has much to be grateful for. I should say especially now.
Together we witnessed that, even in the midst of political pandemonium, there is order and ironclad stability at America's core. Our forefathers at the head of the historical American family had the foresight to plan for such times as these.
Or look at our country this way: Have you ever seen a family in which there is no moral center, discipline, order or respect for authority? The tykes set their own rules—what to eat, when to sleep, what to watch on TV—and the parents, intent on maintaining peace at any cost, tiptoe around combustible emotions. This is a world of tiny tyrants tempted to oppress because there is no rule of law to keep them in check. Chaos prevails.
This, thankfully, is not the shape of the American democratic experiment. On the verge of an inauguration, after one of the most contentious presidential contests since our founding, all America's constitutional institutions have been severely tested—and proven themselves up to the challenge. The rule of law has prevailed over chaos.
That's because, for all our faults and moral deficiencies, the American family is a functioning family. It knows how to behave itself in times of national crisis. And this election process was at least a demi-crisis. It's times like these when healthy family-first principles become most clear.
Consider how conflict gets handled in a functioning family. I'll use the example of my own family not because it's anywhere near the standard, but because I happen to know it best.
At least once a day, one of my children makes a familiar charge: “That's not fair!” It is pretty well established that the first step to a remedy is to explain the nature of the grievance to the offending party (almost always another child). If satisfaction is not achieved, the next step is to take it to the arbiter on duty—their mother. In most cases, this suffices.
But sometimes the matter must be appealed to the supreme parental court—mother and father, together. This, in the end, is the forum where rules of the family must be interpreted and upheld in the light of principles of justice at the core of our family's founding—our Catholic faith. This is a pretty charitable sketch of life at the Dannenfelsers’, I admit. But I hope you get the idea.
There is a chain of command and an understood system for resolving conflict.
With so much more at stake than a hogged toy or hurt feelings, the American family relied upon our institutions in a similarly functional manner to pull us through the crisis of an excruciatingly close presidential election, one in which both sides believed they were victorious. Just as in our families, “fairness” could not be worked out to please every party's injured sense of justice. Thankfully, Al Gore and Joseph Lieberman led by example when they showed they had the maturity and integrity to graciously, if belatedly, acquiesce to our nation's institutions.
For all our faults, the American family is a functioning family.
A peaceful resolution to a potentially explosive crisis was possible because America's constitutional foundation is so very firm. Pope John Paul II articulated beautifully the transcendence of the principles at the root of the American experiment when he welcomed Lindy Boggs as ambassador to the Vatican in 1997.
“The founding fathers of the United States,” he said at the time, “asserted their claim to freedom and independence on the basis of certain ‘self-evident’ truths about the human person: truths which could be discerned in human nature, built into it by ‘nature's God.’”
Indeed, there is so much for which we should be thankful. Yet, while we Americans have operated as a functional family, we clearly have much growing up to do.
As children, we can take for granted the guiding principles of our family, frequently testing boundaries. That childlike freedom to defy foundational principles can flourish only where the foundation of a family is firm and children mature. But, eventually, growing up requires that we reaf-firm the core moral principles that guide our moral conduct.
In the same address to the Vatican ambassador, the Holy Father added: “But the continuing success of American democracy depends on the degree to which each new generation ... makes its own the moral truths on which the founding fathers staked the future of your republic. Their commitment to build a free society with liberty and justice for all must be constantly renewed.”
Certainly a renewal is in order. Without making the founding principles “our own,” the “culture of death” will continue to flourish. The tragic narrowing of the circle of those we welcome into the family and protect under the law will continue. The unborn, elderly and those not proving “useful” are rapidly getting squeezed out of the family. It is up to us to convince the majority of citizens to grow up when it comes to preserving human rights.
Otherwise, the equivalent of a 4-year-old's moral code will overtake our nation.
And, because of the wisdom of our founding fathers, we can renew our trust in our system of government. After all, we as a nation have just prevailed over a political power crisis. With trust in our institutions guided by a faith that is rooted in love, we Catholics are in a good position to build upon that trust and take on much more.
Marjorie Dannenfelser is chairwoman of the Susan B. Anthony List in Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Marjorie Dannenfelser ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: KILLER WEED DATE: 01/14/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: January 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:“Legalize it / Don't criticize it” sang Peter Tosh decades ago, and many still sing marijuana's praises. It's no worse than tobacco or alcohol. It's a godsend for people suffering intensive pain—it may help restore appetite and improve general well-being. Legalize it. Don't critize it.
Only now, you hear the refrain in courtrooms and state houses, not just reggae bars and subculture outposts.
In Canada, a judge determined that the law prohibiting the cultivation of marijuana is unconstitutional because it doesn't allow for medical use of the drug, The Globe and Mail reported Dec. 12. In the province of Alberta, Justice Darlene Acton threw out a charge of cultivating marijuana against Grant Krieger, who grows and consumes the drug to alleviate the symptoms of his multiple sclerosis.
In England, marijuana use has reached significant levels. A recent study indicates that up to two-fifths of children will have tried some form of drug before their 16th birthday, the BBC reported Nov. 23. Cannabis is by far the most popular drug among young teen-agers, with 11% saying they had used it in the past year. The survey of more than 9,000 secondary school pupils carried out late in 1999 points to a small increase in drug use over the previous year.
Marijuana use has been widely debated in English political circles, after the Conservative Party shadow home secretary, Ann Widdecombe, announced a couple of months ago that she favored the idea of giving police the powers to issue fixed penalty fines to cannabis users. Her proposal caused a fierce debate and embarrassed the Conservatives, as no less than eight members of the shadow Cabinet subsequently confessed to having experimented with the drug in their youth.
The British government, however, shows no sign of relaxing current restrictions. Home Secretary Jack Straw said there was little chance that the government was ready to relax the law on possession of soft drugs, The Telegraph reported Oct. 11. Straw did promise, however, that medical use of cannabis compounds to alleviate the suffering of those with conditions such as multiple sclerosis would be legalized if tests now under way show it to be effective.
Amerijuana
In the United States, Hawaii became the eighth state to decriminalize the use of medical marijuana, The New York Times reported June 15. Patients with certain qualifying illnesses must obtain a doctor's recommendation to use marijuana and must register with the state Department of Public Safety to avoid criminal prosecution. Initial reports suggested that 500 to 1,000 people will be eligible to use medical marijuana.
The marijuana question came up again during the November elections. And not by chance: The Washington Post reported Oct. 29 that a number of pro-drug ballot initiatives were the result of a well-financed campaign led by a trio of wealthy businessmen.
The trio have spent millions more to support medicinal-marijuana initiatives around the nation. In past elections, they had won approval for such initiatives in seven states.
The first of the trio is John Sperling, who founded the for-profit adult education institute known as the University of Phoenix. Another member is George Soros of New York, the Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor, financier and currency speculator who is worth an estimated $5 billion. The third is Peter Lewis of Cleveland, head of the fifth-largest auto insurer in the nation, Progressive Corp.
Their latest success came in California, where voters approved Proposition 36. The measure virtually bars authorities from sending nonviolent drug users to jail; instead, it requires treatment for drug possessors. The Washington Post reported Nov. 9 that the trio put more than $6 million into the campaign, overwhelming the efforts of their opponents.
Against smoking? Marijuana is worse than cigarettes. Weekend-only user? Studies say the drug's effects last all week.
Meanwhile, voters in Nevada and Colorado approved the use of “medical marijuana.” And in Oregon and Utah, voters OK'd measures making it harder for police to acquire and use the proceeds of drug-related forfeitures.
Other pro-drug proposals failed. Massachusetts rejected a drug-reform effort in November, while Alaska turned down, by a wide margin, an attempt to completely legalize marijuana. Notably, the latter plan was not part of the package of legislation supported by the Sperling-Soros-Lewis trio.
The bankrolling of drug liberalization measures by these wealthy businessmen raised a few eyebrows. The Associated Press on Nov. 9 quoted Calvina Fay, executive director of the Drug Free America Foundation, as saying, “I think the initiative process is becoming dangerous. ... The very wealthy who have the money to do it are buying public policy all over the country.”
Medical Concerns
A number of medical studies give grounds for worry over the consumption of marijuana. In a new federal study, monkeys repeatedly gave themselves doses of the main active ingredient of marijuana, according to the Oct. 16 New York Times. The researchers say the result emphasizes the idea that people can become addicted to marijuana.
Marijuana smokers may also have a higher risk of contracting lung cancer than tobacco smokers, the BBC reported June 20. A study in the United States found that one of the key ingredients of marijuana may promote the growth of cancerous tumors.
The researchers, from the Jonsson Cancer Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, suggest that THC, the major psychoactive component of marijuana, may reduce the body's ability to fight tumors. Previous research has found that THC can lower an individual's resistance to both bacterial and viral infections.
These effects of THC, combined with the tendency of marijuana smokers to inhale large amounts of tar and other cancer-causing agents, put users at increased risk of lung cancer, the researchers suggest. Moreover, studies have shown that marijuana smoke deposits four times as much tar in lungs as tobacco. The tar also contains higher doses of carcinogenic hydrocarbons.
Another warning concerning marijuana use came from a Sydney, Australia, doctor, John Anderson. The Age newspaper reported June 14 that thousands of casual marijuana smokers who have a joint on the weekend were unaware that they were affected throughout the rest of the week. Anderson said the chemicals in one marijuana cigarette lasted for weeks, leaving the smoker with greater anxiety, depression, slower reaction time and a “cognitive deficit” that reduced the person's ability to distinguish “relevant from irrelevant material.”
And then there is a New Zealand study, which showed that people who take cannabis regularly are much more likely than nonusers to move on to harder drugs. According to a Nov. 8 report in The Times of London, Keith Hellawell, the United Kingdom's anti-drugs coordinator, said the survey had convinced him that cannabis was a “gateway drug” which lead users on to more-harmful substances.
The study tracked 1,200 children from birth to age 21. It found that young people who smoked a marijuana cigarette more than 50 times a year were 60 times more likely to move on to harder drugs. All of which should give voters pause the next time a pro-drug initiative appears on a ballot.
This news analysis was provided by Zenit.
----- EXCERPT: As marijuana grows in popularity, so does evidence of its harm ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Katies Do What 'Normal'People Won't DATE: 01/14/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: January 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:My sister Steph wants to write a book about her 7-year-old daughter.
The title would be What Katie Didn't Do. Why?
Because Katie is what society would describe as “handicapped.” She was born four months premature and spent rather a long time in the hospital. Accompanied by a nursing team, she came home to a house wired for oxygen.
Katie had two strokes when she was tiny and is now classified as autistic. Which means many things to many people. I'll offer one example.
A large hospital in England. My dad lies in bed, having also suffered a serious stroke. We all sit around and do the usual hospital things—make jokes that aren't funny, pretend that everything is OK, be abnormally normal. Katie walks in. No inhibitions, none of our silly preconceptions and prejudices.
She climbs on the bed, gets under the blanket, puts her arms around her grandpa and cuddles up to him. And for the very first time since he was hit by fate's cruelty, my father smiles. A smile as wide as the world itself.
Katie achieved that. Because that is what Katies do. What the physically and mentally challenged do every day. Cut through the nonsense and the fear. They are in the frontline of the battle for civilization, teaching those of us who are without disability what honesty and simplicity are all about.
They are also the last people who have to fight for civil rights. Much as we congratulate ourselves on our liberal attitude toward those who are different, we regularly discriminate against the Katies of the world. The handicapped have no powerful lobby group behind them, no multimillion dollar advertising campaign, few friends in the media and in Hollywood.
Goodness me, her mom and dad have witnessed discrimination for years: They even had to change their church because their daughter was not accepted.
We know the way it happens. Oh boy, don't we.
“Of course you are welcome here—there's a ramp for you outside and we'll fine anyone who parks in the handicapped parking space. Of course you are welcome here. As long as you don't get in the way, speak too loudly or make any of us, the lucky ones, feel in any way uncomfortable.”
Katie can do jigsaws like Super-Girl. She starts not from the outside but from the middle. The complex shapes that so baffle us take form in her beautiful mind. Wonderful pictures come alive and speak. Speak in a way Katie cannot. Hey, not like Super-Girl. She is Super-Girl.
She doesn't have an extensive vocabulary, even though her parents have added “speech therapist” to their many other roles. But sometimes words aren't so important. When I arrive in England she walks straight up to me, grabs my hand and takes me to a chair. She crawls all over me, showing total and unconditional trust and love. Katie doesn't impose rules and regulations on her affection. She sees goodness and beauty in everybody and everything.
It's true that she doesn't always look you in the eye and that her attention seems to wander and that she appears to be distracted. Unlike, of course, those people who always look you straight in the eye and seem to take in every word you say. Then forget your name and care not a fig for your life or anything in it.
I sit down and chat to my sister. Has it been difficult? “Yes, but also joyous beyond belief,” she tells me. “A new adventure every day and a new path of discovery. Wouldn't change it for the world. Katie has made us all grow so much, taught us things we didn't know about ourselves, about what it really means to be human.”
We chat about the number of abortions of unborn children who are shown by ultrasound to possess some sort of handicap and how in many countries Katie would never have been allowed to live. We discuss the plight of the handicapped in society and the fact that there are allegedly serious philosophers about who make cases for euthanasia of the Katies of the world.
“I remember one woman looking at me, then at Katie, and saying, ‘It's such a shame, isn't it,’ and tilting her head as is to show sympathy for my terrible condition,” my sister says. “I felt like tilting it a bit further until it came off,” she says, laughing just to reassure me that murder was not really on her mind.
“Yes we cry, but we laugh, too. Actually being a mum to Katie is about saying ‘yes’ to things. Yes to life, yes to love. Yes.”
At which point Katie trots her way into our conversation, into our world. She wants to watch a video of The Jungle Book. She's seen it hundreds of times, but that doesn't matter. It pleases her and she learns from it. Katie doesn't need expensive toys or fashionable luxuries. She's so much more than that. Perhaps so much more than us.
Fly Super-Girl, fly Katie. Fly as high as the mountains and as swiftly as the eagles. And never care about those who would clip your wings.
Michael Coren writes from Toronto.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Michael Coren ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Catholic Pundits Praise Bush Strategy on Abortion DATE: 01/14/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: January 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:Veteran political reporter and Capital Gang host Robert Novak said Bush is a convinced pro-lifer, but told the Register he thinks Bush is pro-life “very much in the way that Ronald Reagan was pro-life—that he does-n't put the highest priority on it.”
Novak described Bush's cabinet picks as “clever,” saying the finished product is “modified to meet the political realities.”
“He will be for the kind of anti-abortion, pro-life measures and proposals that have popular support,” Novak said, suggesting parental notification and consent bills and bans on partial-birth abortions and government funding for abortion as examples of the pro-life measures Bush can be expected to promote.
Novak called critics of Bush's cabinet “unrealistic and extreme” for not seeing the difficulty the incoming president faces in leading a party divided over abortion.
“You have to live in the real world,” said Novak, a recent Catholic convert. “I am strongly pro-life and my wife is a volunteer in a crisis pregnancy center, but the enemy is not George W. Bush and it's not the Republican Party. The enemy is NARAL and the machinery of the Democratic Party.”
Wall Street Journal columnist Paul Gigot also doubts that Bush will give a high level of priority to abortion, but thinks pro-lifers should be optimistic about his agenda.
“What I would expect to see is that on the difficult calls, Bush will take a quiet pro-life position,” Gigot said, adding that he thinks Bush is “personally convinced, unlike his father,” on the importance of the pro-life cause.
Like Novak, Gigot expects Bush to be pro-life in the style of Ronald Reagan, “who addressed pro-life rallies and supported them publicly but did not make it one of his premiere agenda items.”
“We have had 20 years of abortion politics and we are frozen in a kind of stalemate,” Gigot said. “I think what pro-lifers have come to understand is that on a legislative front, you have to be incremental.”
Gigot said the biggest fights in Bush's tenure are likely to be over his Supreme Court nominees. “If he chooses people who are on record as having supported the overthrow of Roe v. Wade,” the Pulitzer Prize winning columnist said, the nomination “will be opposed by every Democratic senator,” and a handful of Republicans.
Novak and Gigot agreed that despite the presence of several pro-abortion Republicans in his cabinet, the Bush administration looked more pro-life than Ronald Reagan's ever did.
“I don't think there is any doubt about that,” Gigot said, adding, in a reference to Attorney General nominee John Ashcroft, “it doesn't get any better than that.”
Novak, for his part, said pro-lifers who hold Reagan up as their greatest advocate are looking through the “dim misty recollection of nostalgia.”
“He didn't want to make an issue about abortion and he didn't do much about it, Novak said.
And what might Bush do?
“I think he will try to get done in the first two years the issues I mentioned. I think that's more important than getting out there and talking about a Constitutional amendment [to ban abortion] which we all know has no chance of passing.”
— Brian McGuire
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Our Lord in An Amsterdam Attic DATE: 01/14/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: January 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:Christ seems banned from seedy modern-day Amsterdam, with its red light districts and drug bars. But there was a time when he was literally banned here.
You see can see old Amsterdam longing for him in two faces tucked away in the renowned Rijksmuseum in the Dutch capital.
Here visitors may appreciate the works of the great Dutch masters, including Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Vermeer and others. One of the most admired masterpieces is Rembrandt's The Syndics, which he finished in 1662. It is a portrait of the officials, or warders, in the Drapers’ Guild of Amsterdam.
Two of these syndics, captured so-serious about their civic business in their drab Calvinist attire, held a deep and dangerous secret: Aernout van der Mye and Jacob van Loon owned houses that served as clandestine chapels for the celebration of the Catholic Mass.
The residents of Amsterdam today are proud of their religious and ethnic tolerance. Here people of different creeds and colors go on with their daily activities peacefully. In the 16th century, however, many of the Dutch in Holland's northern provinces became Calvinists and revolted against the rule of King Philip of Spain.
A long and brutal struggle ensued; atrocities were committed on both sides. These political and religious rivalries left a tradition of mistrust between the country's Catholic and Protestant communities.
A memorial to the Catholics who lived (and died) in that less tolerant era still exists in the center of Amsterdam. The Our Lord in the Attic Museum (Ons’ Lieve Heer Op Solder) is a secret chapel. It is in a canal-side house just west of the Damrak, the city's main thoroughfare.
CatholicPurge
In 1578, the Calvinists staged a coup, known as the Alteration, and seized control of Amsterdam. They closed the religious houses and took over the churches. The Calvinists also expelled the Catholic rulers and clergy. Councilors and priests were exiled from the city by ship. New legislation outlawed Catholic Mass and Lutheran and Mennonite services.
Catholics went underground. Young men crossed over into neighboring Flanders, then under Spanish control, and studied for the priest-hood at Holland's College in the University of Leuven (Louvain).
Then they returned incognito as priests to the Netherlands. Secretly they said Mass in the attics and back rooms of private homes. Then Catholics began to construct clandestine chapels inside their residences. Eventually there were scores of them in Amsterdam and throughout the country—including the homes of Rembrandt's syndics van Loon and van der Mye.
During the Napoleonic occupation of the Netherlands, religious toleration prevailed. Then, in 1848, a new Dutch constitution guaranteed freedom of religion. Many once-secret Catholic chapels remained in use for Mass until well into the 19th century. Eventually modern churches in neo-Gothic style replaced them.
Upstairs in Hartman's House
Our Lord in the Attic faces Oudezijds Voorburgwal, one of Amsterdam's most picturesque canals. To the rear are two smaller houses fronting on a side alley.
A citizen named Jan Hartman built these structures in the 1660s. He resided with his wife in the lower part of this canal-side house. Hartman and his associates built the connected attics of the three houses into one chapel. The congregation came in through a side door on the alley and then went upstairs to hear Mass. As restrictions against Catholics were lifted, the chapel was improved and beautified.
Visitors now enter the museum through a street door and move through the ground and first floors. Here are the chaplain's quarters and an elaborate parlor. In the rear are the old confessional, the curator's office and facilities for exhibitions.
On the second floor is the chapel with its altar and seats. Above on each side in place of what normally should be the next two floors are two seating galleries.
An interesting feature of the sanctuary is a revolving pulpit, placed within the altar and pulled out as needed. Above the altar is a painting, The Baptism of Christ, created for the chapel by Dutch artist Jacob de Wit in 1736.
Our Lord in the Attic served as the parish of St. Nicholas for Catholics in central Amsterdam for over two centuries. In 1887, a new church of St. Nicholas, near the Central Railway Station, opened to provide for the spiritual needs of the area's Catholics. Abandonment threatened Our Lord in the Attic. Fortunately a group of supporters bought the building and made it into a museum.
Today Catholic families of Amsterdam still use this former secret chapel for weddings, baptisms and other ceremonies on festive occasions. For them, it is a place that combines the inspiring heritage of the past with the bright hopes of the future. For the Catholic traveler from abroad, it is like a small jewel, re-discovered, whose radiance points to the creator of all things bright and beautiful.
John Carroll writes from Silver Spring, Maryland.
----- EXCERPT: Where ‘good Calvinists’ gathered for secret Masses ----- EXTENDED BODY: John H. Carroll ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Tom Hanks Puts Time in a Bottle DATE: 01/14/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: January 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:Living in a civilization means we have plenty of food, shelter, access to medical care, etc.
It also means we can sometimes ignore the “big questions” about life. But what would happen if we suddenly found ourselves alone?
A person might be forced to develop facets of his personality which had previously lain dormant. A certain kind of facility in putting objects to unexpected use would become desirable. Other traits like people management and driving ambition would be of little value.
Cast Away is a well crafted story about one man's survival on a remote Pacific island, and it handles these sorts of issues with imagination and verve. Director Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump) and screenwriter William Broyles Jr. fashion an interesting personal drama that delivers a series of emotional wallops. But somehow we're left unsatisfied.
The sudden stripping away of civilization should also make their protagonist wonder about what's important in life and what's not, no matter how resistant he is to interior reflection. But these larger questions of meaning get lost in the filmmakers’ focus on the details of his day-to-day struggle for survival. There is no inner journey. We're left with the impression that ingenuity and perseverance are the highest virtues.
The movie begins like an expensive commercial for Federal Express. Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) is a systems engineer who's trying to organize the company's Moscow shipping operation. His employees, who grew up under communism, don't understand American standards of efficiency.
To Chuck, this means living and dying by the clock. “We can never allow ourselves the sin of losing track of time,” he declares in what is also an honest expression of his own personal value system.
Packages, he continues, must be delivered according to the officially advertised schedule. There can be no excuses. He warns that only a few delays and “pretty soon we're the U.S. mail.”
No Time
Chuck travels the globe troubleshooting and cheerleading for the company. But he practices what he preaches off the job as well. During his occasional stops back at headquarters in Memphis, Tenn., he hangs out with his devoted girlfriend Kelly Frears (Helen Hunt), who's studying for her Ph.D. At a Christmas Eve dinner with family and friends we learn she's been waiting for him to pop the question, but he just can't seem to find the time.
A work emergency pulls him away from the festivities. The couple exchanges gifts in their car at the airport. She presents him with a family heirloom watch with her photo in it. He surprises her with the long awaited ring. He promises to be back by New Year's Eve to tie up the loose ends of their relationship.
Fate has other plans. The FedEx cargo plane on which Chuck is traveling crashes into the ocean, leaving him the sole survivor. He washes up on a deserted island of great beauty, hundreds of miles away from civilization.
Too Much Time
The movie shifts gears. For almost an hour we watch Chuck struggle to stay alive. It's just him versus the elements. The film-makers successfully make us experience through our senses what he's going through. We hear the relentless sound of the waves that surround his tropical paradise, towering so high that they prevent his safe escape, and we feel both the pitiless heat of the sun and the comforting warmth of the cave which shelters him from the ever-changing weather.
The body of a co-worker on the cargo plane is swept onto the beach.
After stripping the corpse of all effects that could be useful, Chuck buries him. What's surprising is that he never says a prayer or utters a word of Scripture. It's unrealistic that this moment wouldn't trigger some kind of reflection about mortality. But the filmmakers aren't interested in probing too deeply. It's on to the next survival crisis without missing a beat.
There are a few quiet moments between adventures. Chuck paints pictures of himself and Kelly on the walls of his cave and creates a special place for the watch with her photo. And he develops a comic relationship with a soccer ball from a washed-up parcel that he nicknames Wilson. But there's no serious self-examination.
Time Out
The story jumps forward four years. Chuck is building a raft to leave the island. For reasons later explained, he's now willing to take the risk of searching for a ship that could rescue him on the open seas.
What follows is inventive and intriguing but still not quite enough. Chuck doesn't ever seem to be any wiser, just stunned by what he's been through. Aside from somewhat shedding his compulsion for efficiency, his character remains unchanged. His behavior towards others is always decent, and he keeps a stiff upper lip throughout.
The filmmakers aren't obligated to make a religious film out of this material, but they do take great care to establish time and its uses as a significant theme. It never pays off. Chuck does talk about learning the limits of logic. But after all that's happened to him, to simply conclude that “you gotta keep breathing” is philosophically a letdown.
Arts & culture correspondent John Prizer writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: But deeper meaning gets Cast Away ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 01/14/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: January 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:Saving Private Ryan (1998)
The unpopularity of the Vietnam War turned American audiences off of big-screen, battlefield heroics for almost three decades.
Saving Private Ryan, directed by Steven Spielberg (Schindler's List), reversed this trend by successfully combining post-Vietnam skepticism with an appreciation of our troops’ sacrifices during World War II. The action is divided into two stylistically different sections. The first is a documentary-style look at the high-casualty, DDay landings.
The second is a well-crafted yarn about a squad of rangers, who, after surviving Omaha Beach, are sent to retrieve an enlisted man (Matt Damon) whose three brothers have been killed in combat. Their commander is the youthful but wise Capt. Miller (Tom Hanks).
The movie dramatizes some challenging ideas.
Vengeance is depicted as a motive that can overwhelm compassion in the treatment of the enemy; and the soldiers are shown to be fighting mainly for their own and their buddies’ survival rather than any larger cause. There are disagreements over whether the violence is dramatically justified, but one thing is certain: It's not for weak stomachs. (Pay attention to the Register Ratings on this one.)
Dersu Uzala (1975)
In this age of environmental conc e r n s , Westerners often over-praise the wisdom of indigenous peoples in dealing with nature.
Celebrating more primitive lifestyles becomes a backhanded way of flailing industrially developed nations for their ecological sins. Dersu Uzala, directed by Akira Kurosawa (Rashomon), is an intelligent, reflective film that finds a proper balance between the natural wisdom of indigenous folk and the shortcomings of their animistic spirituality.
It's 1902, and Vladimir Arsenyev (Yuri Solomin) is leading a topo-graphical expedition into Russia's Ussurti region near the Chinese border. He hires as a guide a hunter from an ethnic Mongolian tribe, Dersu Uzala (Maxim Munzuk), who saves his life.
Five years pass, and Arsenyev returns the favor when the tribesman is unable to survive in the wild because of his growing fear of forest spirits. But the Russian's city ways turn out to be equally disorienting. The movie, one of the Vatican's top 45 films, evokes a world of untouched nature that's as dangerous as it is beautiful.
Gunga Din (1939)
Back when Hollywood thought war could be fun, soldiers charged across the screen like high-spirited heroes, risking their lives for a cause, a comrade or just the excitement of battle. Gunga Din, based on Rudyard Kipling's celebrated poem, mixes action scenes with comedy and romance in an innocent, good-hearted way that no longer seems possible.
In a remote outpost of the British Empire in 19th-century India, three sergeants — Cutter (Cary Grant), MacChesney (Victor McLaglen) and Ballentine (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) — fight among themselves while their native-born waterboy, Gunga Din (Sam Jaffe), dreams of joining the imperial army as a uniformed soldier. When violent worshippers of the Hindu goddess Kali rise up against the ordered civilization established by the Raj, this dashing trio and their loyal sidekick are drafted to set things right. A politically incorrect celebration of hand-to-hand combat and the glories of empire, the movie keeps you on the edge of your seat until the final frame.
—John Prizer
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 01/14/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: January 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:All times Eastern
Sunday, Jan. 14
National Football League Conference Championships AFC, CBS, 12:30 p.m., and NFC, Fox, 4 p.m. Game times might change due to matchups; check local listings.
These games – the championships of the American Football Conference and the National Football Conference — will decide which two teams go to the NFL's title game, the Super Bowl, on Jan. 28.
SUNDAY, JAN. 14
The Holy Cities, Part III
EWTN, 8 p.m.
This final installment (after tours of Rome and Jerusalem) tours Assisi, the home of St. Francis and St. Clare. This town of 25,000 in Umbria, central Italy, contains historic sites from the Etruscan epoch onward, including the holy places associated with the beloved founders of the Franciscans and the Poor Clares.
To be rebroadcast on Thursday, Jan. 18, at 1 p.m. and on Friday, Jan. 19, at 3 a.m. and 10 p.m.
SUNDAY, JAN. 14
Raising the Mammoth
Discovery, 9 p.m.
Expedition leader Bernard Buigues and his team perform the first-ever complete removal of a Pleistocene animal from the permafrost in Siberia. The Jarkov Mammoth – named after the family of reindeer herders who found his tusks protruding from the ice on the Taimyr Peninsula in 1997 — died around age 47 some 20,000 winters ago. This show features exciting computer recreations of the mammoth's life.
THURSDAY, JAN. 18
Mission Possible: The Shuttle Astronauts
A&E, 10 p.m.
For this report on the space station shuttle astronauts, Bill Kurtis got “unprecedented access” to NASA's Houston headquarters, to our launch site in Florida, and to Russia's Star City complex outside Moscow.
FRIDAY, JAN. 19
The Competition: Jack Russell Terrier Trials
A&E, 9 p.m.
The energetic short-haired terriers perform marvels during this international meet.
SATURDAY, JAN. 20
The Presidential Inauguration
Most networks, 10:30 a.m.; check local listings.
The eyes of all America will be upon Texan George W. Bush when Chief Justice William Rehnquist swears him in as the 43rd President of the United States. The west front of the Capitol is the setting for the ceremonies.
10:30 am: Pre-inaugural music starts.
11:30 am: The official swearing-in begins.
11:50 am: Richard Cheney takes the Vice Presidential oath.
Noon: Bush makes his Presidential oath and then delivers his Inaugural Address.
2 pm: The Inaugural parade sets off.
SATURDAYS
Sunday Dinner
Odyssey, 6 p.m.
This show gives us a look at Sunday dinners at the homes of celebrities such as pro-lifer Kathy Ireland, Sheree Wilson and Susan Egan.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Daniel J. Engler ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Catholic University Creates Unique Scholarship Plan DATE: 01/14/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: January 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — The Catholic University of America in Washington is fighting back after its enrollment dropped last September. Despite a record 3,000 applications, only 540 first-year students enrolled, down from more than 800 the previous fall.
Vincentian Father David M. O'Connell, president of the university, said that the decline has had adverse budgetary implications for the entire university community. He added that “the availability of more competitive or attractive financial aid packaging was the factor that deterred a higher subscription.”
In an innovative move that should help to reverse the trend, the university has decided to offer guaranteed, annually renewable $3,000 scholarships to every parish-nominated high school senior accepted for admission at the university for the fall 2001 semester. Each parish may nominate as many students as it wants.
The nationwide Parish Scholarship Program, worth $12,000 to each student over four years, was outlined in information packets sent to Catholic parishes throughout the United States in December. If the program is successful this year, the university will probably continue it in the future.
Father O'Connell, president of the university, said the scholarships were meant to “help deserving students in Catholic parishes participate in a life-transforming educational experience at CUA.”
In addition, he said, “we offer it as a visual symbol of our gratitude to Catholic parishes, whose constant generosity has affirmed the importance of our unique and privileged role among American Catholic institutions of higher learning.”
Dale M. Herold, dean of enrollment at Catholic University, said she thinks the nationwide program is unique.
“I know of at least one Catholic institution that offers a scholarship program to students in local area parishes,” she said. “Since we are the national university of the Catholic Church, it makes sense for us to be the first to offer this kind of program to Catholic parishes throughout the country.”
‘A Catholic Home’
In this year's annual report to U.S. bishops — who founded and sponsor Catholic University — Father O'Connell said a Catholic university or college campus should be “a Catholic home away from home.” He said creating a Catholic ethos and environment on campus is important “so that our students have the opportunity to witness the Catholic faith in those of us who work with and care for them, and so that our students are both encouraged and supported to live their Catholic faith in the immediate context of where they learn.”
Consequently, Father O'Connell said, the quality of campus life and ministry, residential life, worship and service is critical.
The president said he has seen spiritual life on campus transformed by the presence and work of the Conventual Franciscan priests who undertook campus ministry at the beginning of his tenure in 1998.
“It is a marvelous thing to see,” he said, describing students praying at holy hours and eucharistic adoration, asking for special Masses for teams and clubs, and seeking vocational guidance. Of about 50 to 60 men and women students who participated in two discernment groups, 11 entered seminaries or religious life in September, he noted.
He said the friars regularly hear confessions, and with other campus ministers sponsor student retreats and help students share their faith without fear of rejection.
“That faith on the campus is translated into action quite generously,” he said, “as our students volunteer in record numbers for service activities throughout the District of Columbia.”
Signs of Vitality
Father O'Connell noted several signs of vitality on the campus in Washington's northeast quadrant. Among them were:
l A retention rate among undergraduates that is more than twice the national average.
l An increase in the number of part-time and full-time law students.
l A “thriving” seminary in Theological College.
l Good rankings for graduate and undergraduate programs by U.S. News and World Report and the Intercollegiate Studies Institute.
l Reaccreditation by the Middle States Association of the Higher Education Commission, along with a AA-bond rating from Moody's.
l The ongoing construction of two new residence facilities and expected groundbreaking for a new university center next spring.
l New appointments in development, public relations and alumni relations, as well as new deans for the schools of nursing, philosophy and religious studies.
“What all this says to me,” Father O'Connell told the bishops, “is that the university is doing the job and doing it well for our students but that we need to get its message out there more strategically.”
He thanked the bishops for their financial and moral support, and encouraged them to promote the university with parents and students in the pages of diocesan newspapers and by hosting receptions.
The priest also mentioned the possibility of closer ties with the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family and increasing collaboration with the National Conference of Catholic
Bishops, U.S. Catholic Conference and Pope John Paul II Cultural Center.
He said he is considering making the university's canon law department — its “only absolutely unique program” — once again a school in its own right.
Calling Catholic University “distinctively American” and “authentically and unambiguously Catholic,” Father O'Connell said the institution “is solid, strong, healthy and moving forward with confidence and with enthusiasm into the next century.” (CNS contributed to this article.)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Register Staff ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Thinking Person's Pro-Life Battle Guide DATE: 01/14/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: January 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:At last, a chance to advance to “Pro-Life 102.” For three decades now, our discussions of the anti-life society in which we are ever more deeply immersed have sounded like an endless repetition of the introductory course.
The facts of fetology, of the methods of abortion, and of the alternatives available — all vital, basic material — have been continuously rehearsed, but we haven't gone much beyond them. Meanwhile, the holocaust in our country has advanced steadily past its “101” level. In spearheading this book project with his two collaborators, Jesuit Father Robert J. Spitzer, president of Gonzaga University, has taken a vital step to help us catch up.
Healing the Culture considers background knowledge of the anti-life situation a prerequisite to understanding — and doing something about — our present situation. Using Aristotelian as well as traditionally Catholic philosophical analyses, along with modern insights into psychology, the book delves deeper into the metaphysical assumptions fueling the abortion movement and all of its offshoots, describing the ways in which these assumptions need to be overturned if the movement is to be reversed.
“We will have to recover the reality of the intangibles,” Father Spitzer writes. “We will not only have consciously to reflect upon and correct our implicit materialism, but we will also have to correct all of the ethical and legal oversights that have arisen out of it.” His book provides a useful, thought-provoking tool for beginning this daunting but vital cultural task.
His discussion of the nature of personhood is nothing short of stirring.
Healing the Culture is intellectually challenging, as indeed any work with this broad a purpose would have to be. It is not, however, beyond the measure of the lay reader.
Father Spitzer presents penetrating insights in a user-friendly way, with engaging prose and plenty of contemporary references to help the reader feel at home in the potentially alien world of philosophy.
His discussion of the nature of personhood is nothing short of stirring, and his analysis of the “levels of happiness,” upon which the life-principles perspective hinges, is easy to grasp and provides a sure foothold for maneuvering through the rest of the material.
“Philosophers throughout the ages sought to draw their students away from the lower levels of happiness to the higher levels of happiness, appreciation of which generally requires some developmental maturity,” he writes.
“They sought to train hearts and minds to prefer those forms of happiness that are deeper and more lasting over those that are superficial and intense but short-lived. ... The level of happiness we tend to live for will determine how we view success, what we mean by ‘quality of life,’ what we think love is, how we interpret suffering, the system of ethics we live by and how we understand freedom, rights and the common good.”
Healing the Culture is one of a number of materials to come out of the Life Principles Project, an initiative of the Center for Life Principles in Redmond, Wash. Which means the book is not so much a theoretical treatise as a philosophical play book.
Yet, while commendably going beyond the merely personal, social and political aspects of the abortion problem, Healing the Culture does not stray far from the philosophical-psychological playing field. Spiritual considerations are often touched upon, but not treated as a focal point of the culture wars.
Thus, while Healing the Culture provides vital and valuable intellectual ammunition against the American holocaust, we will have to wait for “Pro-Life 103” to complete the picture.
Helen Valois writes from Irving, Texas.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Helen M. Valois ----- KEYWORD: Book Review -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 01/14/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: January 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:DeSales Gains University Status
DESALES UNIVERSITY, Jan. 1 — At the start of the new year, Allentown College of St. Francis de Sales got a new name, the school announced. After receiving approval from the Pennsylvania Department of Education on March 1, and approval from its own board of trustees in April, the college became De Sales University.
It has a new Web address as well, www.desales.edu, although the mailing address and telephone numbers will remain the same.
The university, located in Center Valley, Pa., was established by the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales in 1965. It offers five graduate programs, and its current combined enrollment is 2,000 students.
Oblates of St. Francis de Sales Father Bernard F. O'Connor, president of the University, commented, “The name ‘DeSales’ pays homage to our spiritual foundation and will be an ever-present reminder of the University's purpose: to bring knowledge and faith together for the betterment of humanity.
The historical use of the word ‘university’ stresses an education that is all-encompassing and flows out of the humanities, of which St. Francis de Sales was a strong proponent.”
Fordham and Marymount to Wed
The two schools expect that the merger will be complete by July 2002. Marymount will become the university's third campus. The college's president, Anne M. Slattery, praised the move and announced that she would step down. Fordham's president, Father Joseph O'Hare, will become president of Marymount as well.
The Marymount campus will continue to admit only women, at least for the near future. The Chronicle reported that many faculty members at Marymount had worried that the college would begin admitting men or even face closure due to its financial difficulties, but they were persuaded to support the move because the college will “keep its identity” and will be merging with a renowned Catholic university. Marymount was founded by the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary, while Fordham is a Jesuit institution.
Multimillion Donor: Anonymous
COLLEGE OF ST. CATHERINE, Dec. 14 — The College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minn., received a startling Christmas gift, the school announced.
An anonymous donor gave the school $7.5 million to build a new student center. Sister of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Andrea J. Lee, college president, announced the gift to a celebratory gathering of students, faculty, staff, alumnae and friends.
The student center will be connected to both the newly expanded library and Our Lady of Victory Chapel.
The school's statement said this design would demonstrate “the connections among the intellectual, spiritual and social aspects of the lives of our students.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Family Matters DATE: 01/14/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: January 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:Q My husband and I have been struggling with our finances for years now and we want to turn things around. We would like to get a handle on our debt and become financially stable — this is our “New Year's Resolution.” Do you have any concrete advice to get us started?
A Your resolution is a good one — and one that many families should make for the New Year. I would encourage you to set the following goals:
Put God first when it comes to your money — as well as other areas of your life. If you have not already done so, I encourage you to implement a daily spiritual plan of reading, meditation and prayer, and to focus on achieving a healthy attitude toward material things. In addition, by looking at your spending habits in light of the Gospel, you'll more effectively separate “needs” from “wants,” helping to overcome that habitual overspending.
Begin tithing and almsgiving. By giving back to God from your first fruits, you'll foster a closer relationship with God and experience the joy of assisting in building Christ's Kingdom here on earth.
Manage your checkbook. Keep it current and reconcile to your bank statement each month. Watch those cash advances from ATM's. Work to minimize these, but when necessary, at least make sure they get properly recorded.
Set a budget and track your expenses. If you need help with this, obtain a copy of our workbook, Catholic Answers’ Guide to Family Finances.
Create a debt repayment strategy that works with your budget. Debt can be a major obstacle in stabilizing one's finances. The emotional bondage that debt causes is a burden for millions of families (See Proverbs 22:7). By eliminating your consumer debt, you'll go a long way toward achieving financial “peace.” Here are some keys to becoming debt-free.
Commit to no further debt. If you can't pay off current purchases on your credit card cut them up.
Use a software program like Excel or Quicken to help calculate a debt repayment schedule.
Review your budget for spending habits that can be changed to allow for a more rapid debt repayment.
Be accountable to someone. Preferably, this can be your spouse, but if you don't have the discipline as a couple to stick with the plan on your own, bring in a friend, family member or pastor to help you stay on track.
Set up a visual system to show your progress, such as a chart on the refrigerator that shows your declining debt balances. Depending on the circumstances, it's not uncommon for a debt repayment plan to take from one to five years, so a visual aid, which tracks your progress, can help you persevere.
By implementing a solid financial plan right now, and sticking with it throughout the year, you'll find yourself well on your way to financial peace.
God love you!
Phil Lenahan is Vice President of Catholic Answers.
----- EXCERPT: A New Year's Resolution ----- EXTENDED BODY: Phil Lenahan ----- KEYWORD: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: American Hero DATE: 01/14/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: January 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:Vatican City—More than a dozen members of the U.S. Congress traveled to the Vatican Jan. 8 to present Pope John Paul II with the Congressional Gold Medal in honor of his efforts to defend human dignity and promote peace.
In the Clementine Hall, under frescoed figures representing the virtues of religion, justice, charity and mercy, the bipartisan delegation gave the Holy Father a standing ovation as well as the heavy gold medal and a framed copy of the bill.
Sen. Sam D. Brownback, R-Kan., told the Pope, “In a world that has become darkened in many places by a culture of death, you stand in contradiction, fearlessly proclaiming a culture of life.”
The senator said John Paul gave people hope and tirelessly proclaimed a message of peace that the world urgently needs to hear.
House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., told the Holy Father the ceremony was an expression of “our gratitude to you on behalf of our nation.”
The speaker told the Pope he was being honored for “preaching the message of love and truth” and for being an “advocate for the poor and oppressed, a voice for the unborn and the aged.” He also highlighted John Paul's “pivotal role in the downfall of communism.”
“May your influence be as strong in the 21st century as it was in the 20th century,” Hastert concluded.
Pope John Paul told the group of 50 members of Congress, their spouses and staff members, “I am honored by the gracious gesture which brought you here.
“It is not for the successor of the Apostle Peter to seek honors, but I gladly accept the Congressional Gold Medal as a recognition that in my ministry there has echoed a word that can touch every human heart.”
Proclaiming the word of God, he said, means proclaiming the dignity of the human person created in God's image. This is what leads the Church “to promote human life,” the Holy Father said.
“This is a truth which we contemplate in the glory of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, crucified and risen from the dead,” he continued. “In the years of my ministry, but especially in the Jubilee Year just ended, I have invited all to turn to Jesus in order to discover in a new and deeper ways the truth of the human person. For it is Christ alone who fully reveals man to himself and makes known his sublime dignity.
“To see the truth of Christ is to experience with deep amazement the worth and dignity of every human being, which is the Good News of the Gospel and the heart of Christianity,” he said.
The Pope said he accepted the medal as a sign that the legislators “recognize the importance of defending human dignity without compromise so that your nation may not fail to live up to its high responsibilities in a world where human rights are so often disregarded.”
For Father Daniel P. Coughlin, the audience marked the end of an amazing year. First, he became the first Catholic appointed chaplain of the House of Representatives, then both houses of Congress passed bills honoring the Pope.
“Life is a continuous surprise,” Father Coughlin said after the papal audience.
The medal is a sign that “the Holy Father through the years has been so respected,” he said. “People respect strength, and the Pope is strong and so persistent.
“We Americans have such great ideals of human dignity and human life; now we have to live up to those ideals,” the chaplain said.
Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., co-leader of the Senate delegation, told reporters afterward, “This was a fantastic moment for the U.S. Senate.”
The Pope, said the famously pro-abortion senator, “has really stood up for freedom, human rights and the dignity of people.”
The delegation included not only Democrats and Republicans, but people of different faiths. Some knelt before the Pope and kissed his ring, while others shook his hand.
The Holy Father gave each member of the delegation a medal in return — a bronze medal marking the 23rd year of his pontificate.
The six Senators present included Sen. Bob Smith of New Hampshire and Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, both noted Catholic pro-life voices. The House delegation included Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., who is well-known for his international pro-life work.
According to the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See, the delegation also included: l Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine; Mary Landrieu, D-La.; and Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska. l Reps. Christopher Cox, R-Calif.; Joseph Moakley, D-Mass.; James A. Leach, R-Iowa; Sherwood L. Boehlert, R-N.Y.; Robert E. Cramer, D-Ala.; Christopher John, D-La.; and Don Sherwood, R-Pa.
The Gold Medal Pope
What follows is the address of Pope John Paul II on the occasion of the presentation of the Congressional Gold Medal.
Mr. Speaker,
Members of Congress,
Distinguished Guests,
I am pleased to welcome you the Vatican this morning, and am honored by the gracious gesture which has brought you here.
It is not for the Successor of the Apostle Peter to seek honors, but I gladly accept the Congressional Gold Medal as a recognition that in my ministry there has echoed a word that can touch every human heart.
It has been my endeavor to proclaim the word of God, which on the very first page of the Bible tells us that man and woman have been created in his very image and likeness (cf. Genesis 1:26).
From this great truth there flows all that the Church says and does to defend human dignity and to promote human life. This is a truth which we contemplate in the glory of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, crucified and risen from the dead. In the years of my ministry, but especially in the Jubilee Year just ended, I have invited all to turn to Jesus in order to discover in a new and deeper ways the truth of the human person. For it is Christ alone who fully reveals man to himself and makes known his sublime dignity (cf. Gaudium et Spes, 22).
To see the truth of Christ is to experience with deep amazement the worth and dignity of every human being, which is the Good News of the Gospel and the heart of Christianity (cf. Redemptor Hominis, 10).
I accept this award as a sign that you, as legislators, recognize the importance of defending human dignity without compromise, so that your nation may not fail to live up to its high responsibilities in a world where human rights are so often disregarded.
Therefore, Ladies and Gentlemen, I thank you for this Congressional Gold Medal. In offering my good wishes for the New Year, I invoke upon you, your families and all whom you represent “the peace of God which is beyond understanding” (Philippians 4:7). May God bless you all!
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Raymond de Souza ----- KEYWORD: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: 'So Many Tears Ago' DATE: 01/14/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: January 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. —More than 35,000 unborn children died at the Chattanooga Women's Clinic before prolifers bought the building, putting the city's abortionists out of business.
“Chattanooga is now one of the largest cities in the United States without an abortion clinic. To God be the glory,” says Rita Sigler, director of the National Memorial for the Unborn that now occupies the same building.
In 1993, the clinic's landlord had ended up in bankruptcy court. In a bidding war to buy his building, members of the Pro-Life Majority Coalition of Chattanooga offered more than the director of the abortion clinic did.
“Clinic officials promised at the time they would reopen at a new location in just weeks,” says Sigler. “That was eight years ago, and we still don't have an abortion clinic in town.”
The National Memorial was completed early in 1996 and it has already inspired the construction of five more regional memorials for unborn children, and hundreds of others may be erected in the next decade.
The regional memorials can be visited in Berlin, Md., Ellensburg, Wash., Racine, Wis., and Boulder, Colo. Another wall is under construction in Portland, Ore. The Boulder and Racine walls were constructed with private donations raised by Catholic parishes, while the other three walls were built with donations raised by crisis pregnancy centers.
Not everyone is moved by the idea of memorials for unborn children, however. Some abortion advocates say such memorials unfairly promote an idea that all life is sacred and all children should be born.
“While I am not in support of partial-birth abortion or abortion as a method of birth control, I believe that some children would have been better off to have never been conceived or born,” says Nicole Huntley, who has publicly criticized Boulder's wall. “Accidents do happen and one cannot force a mother to love her unplanned child. Life can be hell, especially when you're at the mercy of an uncaring or even abusive parent.“But Sigler is undeterred by such criticism. “Our vision is to perpetuate this trend,” she says. “We want memorials in every city throughout the country. Like the Vietnam Memorial Wall, there will be one large national wall and smaller local and regional walls in towns and cities everywhere.”
In Boulder, the wall was inspired by events that occurred after a local mortuary's young staff had a rude awakening to the realities of abortion.
The city is home to the Boulder Abortion Clinic, which advertises that it “specializes in late abortions.” Clinic director Dr. Warren Hern has told the press that he works in Boulder because “it's the most pro-choice city in America.”
Chuck Myers, a Seventh Day Adventist, was the director of Howe Mortuary near Boulder when the phone rang one afternoon in 1997.
It was an employee of the Boulder Abortion Clinic wanting to contract with the mortuary to dispose of “products of conception” from the clinic.
The clinic needed to hire a mortuary with cremation facilities because of a new state law prohibiting garbage haulers from transporting medical waste that consisted of recognizable human remains. The law also prevents recognizable abortion remains from being dumped in landfills.
When the first box arrived at the mortuary, employees opened it to begin their work. Several were sickened and complained to Myers.
“They (the clinic) told us it was ‘tissue,’ but it wasn't,” says Myers, who describes himself as pro-choice. “I won't get specific, but what we saw was very disturbing to our staff. It was just very hard.”
Myers told the employees he'd handle all future shipments from the clinic himself.
Then he called Father Andrew Kemberling, a Benedictine priest and, at the time, director of Boulder's Sacred Heart of Mary parish cemetery.
“I'm not Catholic, but it seemed like I had to do something for these children,” Myers said. “As a mortuary director, I had worked with Father Andrew on funerals and he seemed to me like someone who would probably have some good advice.”
For the next two years, a monthly box of aborted babies arrived at the mortuary. Father Andrew and his music director showed up each time and performed a funeral.
After each cremation, the ashes were taken back to the parish cemetery for burial.
More than 1,000 aborted babies were entombed at the cemetery before a new director took over at the Howe Mortuary and discontinued the arrangement.
“They're not children. They're products of conception,” says a Howe Mortuary employee today, explaining why the funerals were discontinued.
After word got out about the babies in the cemetery, a committee formed at the parish and they decided to memorialize the plot. Today a large granite wall and a statue of the risen Christ adorn the grave. For a small fee, parents, grandparents or anyone else who knows of an aborted child can place a bronze plaque on the wall. A duplicate plaque is then placed on the national wall in Chattanooga. The four other regional walls have identical arrangements with the national wall.
Each plaque contains three lines of text. Some babies have first and last names, others just first names, and some simply say “Baby,” or “Baby Jones.” The second line is usually the date of the death, and the third can say anything.
Some examples, from the national wall: “We loved you too late”; “I'll hold you in Heaven”; “Mom longs to hold you”; “So many tears ago”; “Someday ... Love, Grandma”; “No less real — no less loved”; and “A part of me died too.”
Rita Sigler says that the trend to build memorials for the unborn seems to be picking up.
She expects many more to be set up in next few years. “Since January of 1999, I have responded to about 300 requests for our packets that give detailed instructions on how to start a memorial wall,” she reports.
Wayne Laugesen writes from Boulder, Colorado.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Wayne Laugesen ----- KEYWORD: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Gospel of Life DATE: 01/14/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: January 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:“[Today it is] urgent to rediscover the value of the family and to help it in every way to become what God wished: a living environment where every child who comes into the world is welcomed from conception with tenderness and gratitude.”
— Angelus message, Dec. 31
----- EXCERPT: Rediscover the Family ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Life Notes DATE: 01/14/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: January 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:Unborn Baby Survives Crash
Police said the baby, who was named Patrick for the first person to find him, was torn from his mother's womb during the accident.
The tractor-trailer was southbound on U.S. 127 about 10 miles south of Jamestown when the driver, the woman's fiancé, lost control, possibly because of black ice, and ran off the road, reported the Herald-Leader.
The mother was in the sleeping compartment and sat upright as the truck jackknifed. She was thrown through the wind-shield, caught underneath the truck and her torso was severed.
The woman was eight months pregnant and the baby, who appeared to suffer only a gravel-sized cut on the left knee, was lying next to her still attached by the umbilical cord.
Patrick was upgraded from critical to fair condition after one day in the hospital.
South Asian Gender Screening
REUTERS, Dec. 16 — Modern methods which establish the gender of unborn children have led to increased abortions of baby girls in South Asia, according to a United Nations report, reported Reuters.
The growing use of ultrasound and amniocentesis to screen babies’ health, which enables parents to learn their offspring's sex early in pregnancy, have facilitated abortions and skewed South Asia's population toward males, said the 2000 Report on Human Development in South Asia.
The survey of Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and the Maldives said some 79 million women were “missing in South Asia” due to discrimination against females, both before and after birth, reported Reuters.
The report showed there are only 94 women for every 100 men in South Asia while the ratio worldwide is 106 women for every 100 men.
Coffee and Miscarriage?
BBC NEWS, Dec. 20 — Swedish researchers have warned that women who drink more than four cups of coffee a day during early pregnancy double their chances of suffering a miscarriage, reported BBC News.
Professor Sven Cnattingius of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm also reported that drinking between two and three cups of coffee a day increased the risks of miscarriage by 30% to 40%.
Pope Praised for Life Stand
Dobson, along with Chuck Colson, another evangelical leader, attended a meeting in Rome with the Pope about family issues.
Dobson said although he has theological differences with the Catholic Church, “When it comes to the family, there is far more agreement than disagreement, and with regard to moral issues from abortion to premarital sex, safe-sex ideology and homosexuality, I find more in common with Catholics than with some of my evangelical brothers and sisters,” reported The Gazette.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Did University Treat Christian Protest as Mental Illness? DATE: 01/21/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:PHILADELPHIA “This isn't right. You know this isn't right.”
That's what Michael Marcavage says he told a Temple University police officer as the man handcuffed Marcavage and led him to a squad car, which Marcavage says took him against his will to a state mental hospital.
Marcavage claims that he was committed to the hospital in November 1999 after he organized opposition to a campus play that depicted Jesus as a homosexual who sleeps with his disciples. He is now suing the Philadelphia university.
Temple University spokeswoman Harriet Goodheart said that although the university would not discuss details of the case, “The university vigorously denies the charges as set forth in the lawsuit. We are confident that the accusations will through the judicial process be shown to be inaccurate.”
Discovery (the process of gathering facts in the case) begins this month.
The dispute stems from October 1999, when students in the university's theater department announced that they would be producing Terence McNally's “Corpus Christi.”
The play, which was the target of demonstrations when it was staged in New York in 1998, portrays Jesus as the sexual partner of Judas, and implies that the disciples hold a drunken orgy. Jesus is crucified for being “king of the queers.”
Marcavage, then a junior at Temple, complained to the dean of the School of Communications and Theater and to the university's president. He then began posting fliers against the play.
As promises of support poured in, Marcavage said, he met with Vice President of Campus Safety William Bergman and Director of Campus Safety Carl Bittenbender. The university was concerned that protests would turn confrontational, and so Marcavage agreed not to hold a demonstration. Instead, he asked if he could put on a separate performance, featuring a Christian play and the Temple University Gospel Choir as well as an array of Christian speakers, to “show students who the real Jesus is.”
The university agreed and, according to Marcavage, promised that it would provide a stage.
However, Marcavage says that Bittenbender called him Nov. 1, 1999, to retract the school's offer of a stage. He then asked Marcavage to meet with him and Bergman at the vice president's office the next morning.
There, Marcavage says, Bergman again refused him a stage. Marcavage, who had been working on the event for several weeks, became upset. He felt tears coming, so he excused himself, went to the bathroom, locked the door, washed his face and prayed about what to do next.
According to Marcavage, Bergman then began pounding on the door, saying, “Michael, come out of there, we need to talk to you.” Marcavage says he opened the door and “told him that I believed our conversation was over.”
He said Bergman then grabbed him, propelled him into the office, and forced him onto a couch.
Marcavage stated that a university police officer then arrived, handcuffed him, and took him to the Emergency Crisis Center at Temple University Hospital. There Bittenbender allegedly signed a statement declaring that Marcavage was “severely mentally disabled,” represented a “clear and present danger to others,” had “inflicted or attempted to inflict serious bodily harm on another” within the past 30 days, and was at risk of suicide.
The office of campus safety declined comment, referring Register calls about the alleged incident to Temple spokeswoman Goodheart.
Dr. Stephen King, one of the doctors who examined Marcavage, could not be reached for this story.
Marcavage says he left the hospital and tried to file a report with the campus police, who he said refused to file charges against Bergman because he was “our boss.” Then, Marcavage said, Bittenbender entered and informed him that no report would be filed because no crime had been committed. Marcavage then took his case to the Philadelphia police.
He also filed suit against the school and sought the services of Brian Fahling, an attorney with the American Family Association's Center for Law and Policy.
Fahling noted Marcavage's impressive record, including stints on the Dean's List, an internship in the West Wing of the White House, and ownership of his own business, which provides voice mail services to Internet companies. “He is about as good a plaintiff as you could hope for,” Fahling said.
As for the university's response, Fahling said that documents signed by doctors who had examined Marcavage when he was admitted to the hospital would show that Marcavage was mentally stable and in no way a threat to himself or others.
Kathy Logan, a friend who met Marcavage through campus ministry programs, concurred. Logan, a registered nurse, said she had “thought he was joking” when Marcavage called her to say that he was in the psychiatric ward.
She immediately headed over to the hospital, where one of the doctors pulled her aside and asked her privately what she thought of “Michael's mental stability,” she said.
“I've known him for a few years,” she said, adding that he was “stable” and in no way struck her as mentally disabled.
As for Corpus Christi, it played for two performances, both of which were sold out.
There were quiet demonstrations outside. In April 2000, Marcavage was finally able to hold his counterevent. At that time, Marcavage said, the university was “very cooperative.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Pro-Family Groups Fear U.N. Summit on Children DATE: 01/21/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:NEW YORK — Negotiations for an upcoming U.N. session on the rights of children have pro-family advocates concerned about the future legal status of the family.
The U.N. General Assembly's Special Session on Children, scheduled to take place in New York in late September, is a follow-up to the 1990 World Summit for Children in New York, which it calls a “universal appeal to give every child a better future.”
But current U.N. plans would have parents playing a secondary role to the state in the lives of their own children, pro-family representatives warn.
“There is a particular danger for children in what we see as an advancing view that children need special protection of rights safeguarded by the state,” said Anna Halpine, co-founder and president of the World Youth Alliance, in New York.
“That's a huge concern we have because when the state comes in, you are at the mercy of the fashions of a particular time. The education and development — spiritual, psychological and emotional — of the child are best safeguarded in the family.”
When U.N. delegates gather in New York in September, they will rubberstamp a document that is being negotiated right now.
The negotiating process began in October and continues next at a Jan. 29-Feb.2 meeting at U.N. headquarters.
For the last several years, pitched battles have been waged at such meetings between, on the one hand, non-governmental organizations that recognize the family and their allies on developing world delegations, and on the other, feminist and population-control groups and their backers among Western nations.
Pro-lifers say unexpected deletions or insertions to the first draft of the U.N. plan could dramatically alter its meaning and effect.
Such insertions commonly involve innocuous-sounding phrases, such as “reproductive health services,” that can subsequently be interpreted as mandating abortion-on-demand or artificial contraceptives.
“One of the things we see over and over at the U.N., and at this summit, is this semantic game which is difficult to explain to people and difficult to portray concisely in the press,” said the World Youth Alliance's Halpine in a reference to draft-document negotiations.
Halpine's group is an international organization formed in 1999 that aims at increasing youth involvement in the international decision-making process, with an eye toward defending and promoting life, the family and what its Web site refers to as “true development.”
Halpine said that UNICEF, the U.N. agency responsible for guiding preparations for the Youth Summit, “sees its direction as heading more toward advocacy” of controversial social agendas “rather than on-the-ground assistance.”
She said the coming meetings could accelerate this shift in direction.
For example, in the section on “early childhood development,” the draft document says “women of child-bearing age must have access to quality reproductive health services.”
Holy See Position
Msgr. James Reinert, an attache of the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations, could not comment on specific portions of the draft because he had not yet received instructions from Rome on the Vatican's official concerns. He did say the Holy See would focus upon the involvement and the rights of parents regarding their children.
Msgr. Reinert characterized the Holy See's working relationship with UNICEF, which was strained by the Vatican's decision in 1994 to withdraw its annual donation to UNICEF because of its involvement in abortion, as “good.”
“There are some issues that UNICEF has involved itself in that the Holy See has difficulty with accepting but for the most part we see them as very good in 99% of its work,” he said.
Overall, Msgr. Reinert said he “did not have any grave concerns” about the document as it currently stands. But, he added, “That could all change when the second draft comes out after January.”
Restrictions on Family Advocates
Halpine believes that it was fear of resistance to its anti-family agenda that recently prompted UNICEF officials to limit non-governmental organization to two representatives each in future negotiations.
UNICEF spokesman Alfred Ironside denied the charge, saying the restrictions were imposed in order to “keep the meetings manageable.”
“This has become a common practice for U.N. summits. It also applies to all NGO delegations, without regard to mission, motives or special issues,” Ironside added.
Halpine countered that in her experience she has never seen the United Nations limit accreditation to such meetings. And given that only a tiny percentage of the 3,000 organizations accredited to the international body are pro-life and pro-family, “a limitation of the number of possible spots could only limit those who want to present a pro-life/pro-family view,” she said.
To veteran U.N.-watcher Dan Zeidler, U.S. representative for the Caracas-based Latin American Alliance for the Family, the upcoming summit is being driven by “an agenda that has to be fought and resisted.”
Zeidler believes the draft document fails in its primary goal of articulating ways to protect and promote the rights of children. He cited what he said was its lack of adequate recognition of the family in the life of a child.
“Families are where children are born and developed,” Zeidler said. “Families are what need to be strengthened, not set aside or weakened.”
UNICEF's Ironside downplayed the concerns of Halpine and Zeidler. He said the purpose of the Special Session is to “take stock of progress made on the goals set at the World Summit for Children and to establish a new agenda for children that re-energizes the word of governments, civil society groups, NGOs and U.N. agencies on behalf of children.
“At the heart of these efforts,” Ironside added, “is an abiding concern for the dignity, health and development of every child, especially those at the mercy of crushing poverty, war and civil conflict, HIV/AIDS and other diseases and discrimination.”
Halpine said such goals were indeed laudable, but cautioned that UNICEF's “use of a significant portion of its resources to promote and finance abortion in the Third World” is “very disturbing” for a lot of people.
“UNICEF is perceived as a great humanitarian agency that protects children and yet they now pursue policies and advocate for something which is obviously destructive of the child in the most complete sense.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian Mcguire ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Youth Alliance Takes Aim at U.N. Excess DATE: 01/21/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY:January 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:In the short time since its founding, the World Youth Alliance has established European, North American, African, and Asia-Pacific branches, and plans are under way to set up a group in Latin America.
At the Beijing+5 conference on women last year, the group greatly strengthened the work of the pro-life lobby at the United Nations.
Austin Ruse, president of the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute, said that previously pro-life lobbyists focused on the official government delegations from each country.
The large number of youth lobbyists at Beijing+5, he explained, enabled pro-lifers to expand into the “NGO track” — the important talks between non-governmental organizations that run parallel to the official deliberations.
“They neutralized a lot of the radical NGO activity,” Ruse explained, “meaning that the government [delegations] were more free to do what they wanted to do,” instead of feeling they had to follow the agenda of powerful pro-abortion groups like Planned Parenthood.
World Youth Alliance members witnessed such groups, and their allies in the official delegations of Western nations, using strong-arm tactics on delegates from several countries where life and family values are protected in law.
Yvonne Odero, public relations coordinator of True Love Waits-Kenya, said that “during one of the late night discussions ... some of the African countries would not change their stand on certain issues — for example, sexual orientation. A delegate from the European Union delegation actually went up to the Nigerian delegate, who was quite vocal, and tried to threaten him not to speak anymore on the issue. Thank God the Nigerian delegate was not intimidated by these threats.”
The remarkable success of the World Youth Alliance has caught complacent members of the pro-abortion members of the Youth Caucus off-guard.
World Youth Alliance member Tanya Granic, national director of Canada's Campaign Life Coalition Youth, attributes this in part to the fact that, unlike the pro-life youth lobbyists (some of whom slept on the floors of a monastery in Harlem), many members of the Youth Caucus haven't had to make real sacrifices to be present at the United Nations.
Youth Caucus representatives declined to be interviewed or did not respond to interview requests in the preparation of this article.
The World Youth Alliance's next objective is to have a significant influence on the World Summit for Children, to be held in New York in September 2001.
Veteran pro-lifer Peter Smith, chief executive officer at the United Nations for Britain's Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, notes admiringly that “they've actually been able to become some of the leaders in the NGO document that's going to be produced. They've got themselves in some very influential positions and have positioned themselves incredibly well for that next conference.”
— David Curtin
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian Mcguire ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: 'Lead Us Into Temptation' Fox TV Contestants Pray DATE: 01/21/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY:January 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:LOS ANGELES — Call it “Lust-See TV.”
Fox's new “reality” show, “Temptation Island,” features four unmarried couples, marooned on an island with 13 tempters and temptresses who try to entice them to stray. The couples “test their commitment”; at the end of the show, each man and woman will announce whether they want to stay with their previous mate.
On the first episode, one boyfriend compared the show to the Pepsi Challenge (in which tasters chose their favorite cola), “only the ladies are the soft drinks.” And another has second thoughts about the show, after he watches a videotape of his girlfriend kissing another man.
Gary Fernando, a sophomore at Yale University, falls in the show's target audience. Fernando, who is Catholic, watched the show with friends, but, he says, “I did not particularly enjoy the show. My friend and I were watching and just kept saying, ‘This is going to get canceled in about three weeks.’”
Fernando said, “The girls were really acting in a sort of ‘Come here and talk to me because of my body’ manner. The guys were doing the same to the women. I think they are exploiting people for their desires, their looks, and their behavior. I do not know if this is necessarily the best course of action to captivate an audience.”
But viewers seem to disagree. The first episode of “Temptation Island” was watched by 16.1 million people, which, according to Fox, is about a million more than watched “Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?”
Fox defended itself from charges that it was glorifying extramarital sex and pandering to viewers' delight in other people's pain. But when Fox executive Sandy Grushow told reporters the show was “not about sex,” many reviewers were unconvinced.
A spokesman for the Sky One satellite channel, which is carrying the show in Britain, told the London Daily Telegraph that the show “sounds a lot tackier than it is. It's actually compelling entertainment with a good story line that unfolds.”
‘Really’ Bad
Fox has previously come under fire for such “reality” shows as “Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire?”, which ended in the dissolution of its quickie marriage, and “I Want a Divorce,” in which separating couples compete for their household property.
There are some limits on Temptation Island. Couples can't be married, must pass a variety of physical and psychological tests (including tests for sexually transmitted diseases), and can't have children together. In fact, one upcoming episode shows a couple being kicked off the island when they reveal that they falsely denied having a child.
Fox spokesman Scott Grogan refused to comment for this article.
And Michael Medved, film critic and frequent commentator on media morality, thought that some of the show's critics were missing a crucial point.
Medved wrote in USA Today, “By definition, the couples who participate in ‘Temptation Island’ already are involved in a sexual relationship outside of marriage. If the show leads them to participate in an additional sexual relationship outside of marriage, or even a substitute relationship, the process may not prove honorable or uplifting, but why is it especially ‘horrible’ or ‘debaucherous?’”
One Fox spokesman told the Register that although he wasn't sure if all the couples had been sexually active before the show, “You would assume so.”
Medved contrasted the romantic breakups featured on Fox to divorces, and claimed that most critics of the show “fail to emphasize the crucial distinction between holy matrimony and nonmarital romantic relationships — and thereby highlight our cultural confusion more clearly than any example of trash TV.”
Although he criticized the show's taste and its appeal to “sadistic instincts,” he warned that “over-reaction” could lead to critics' “inadvertently slighting the significance of marriage.”
But Maggie Gallagher, coauthor of The Case for Marriage: Why Married People Are Happier, Healthier, and Better Off Financially, said the show is “attempting to turn actual betrayal and suffering into a form of entertainment. ‘Temptation Island’ is based on the idea that we are all so jaded that fictional depictions of illicit sex and betrayal no longer titillate us. What we want for our jollies is to see real people actually suffer from jealousy, loss of love, pain and betrayal. How sick is that?”
She wasn't impressed by the show's refusal to “tempt” husbands and wives. “Don't worry, next year they'll use married couples,” she said. “It's the nature of ‘pushing the envelope’ that you always have to go further in order to shock and titillate.”
Gallagher also questioned “what kind of person in love” would ever agree to go on the show. She challenged the show's claim that placing oneself in temptation is a way to build trust: “Part of trusting is trying to put the other person first, to avoid temptations. People who court it for national celebrity are not acting out of love.”
She pointed out that people seeking sexual fulfillment are unlikely to find it outside of marriage, noting that “married people have better sex, more often.” She attributed this to the greater care married couples show for one another, the greater incentives they have to please one another, and the greater trust they share.
Further episodes of “Temptation Island” will show whether the cast members come to agree.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: In Today's Global Village, No Temptation Is an Island DATE: 01/21/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:One problem with tasteless TV, said the Pontifical Council for Social Communications in May, is that it is broadcast worldwide. American TV in particular is susceptible to this criticism from the document Ethics in Communication:
“Critics frequently decry the superficiality and bad taste of media, and although they are not obliged to be somber and dull, they should not be tawdry and demeaning either. It is no excuse to say the media reflect popular standards; for they also powerfully influence popular standards and so have a serious duty to uplift, not degrade, them.
“The problem takes various forms. Instead of explaining complex matters carefully and truthfully, news media avoid or oversimplify them. Entertainment media feature presentations of a corrupting, dehumanizing kind, including exploitative treatments of sexuality and violence. It is grossly irresponsible to ignore or dismiss the fact that ‘pornography and sadistic violence debase sexuality, corrode human relationships, exploit individuals?especially women and young people, undermine marriage and family life, foster anti-social behaviour and weaken the moral fibre of society itself’ (Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Pornography and Violence in the Communications Media: A Pastoral Response, No. 10).
“On the international level, cultural domination imposed through the means of social communication also is a serious, growing problem.
Traditional cultural expressions are virtually excluded from access to popular media in some places and face extinction; meanwhile the values of affluent, secularized societies increasingly supplant the traditional values of societies less wealthy and powerful. In considering these matters, particular attention should go to providing children and young people with media presentations that put them in living contact with their cultural heritage.
“Communication across cultural lines is desirable. Societies can and should learn from one another. But transcultural communication should not be at the expense of the less powerful. Today ‘even the least-widespread cultures are no longer isolated. They benefit from an increase in contacts, but they also suffer from the pressures of a powerful trend toward uniformity’ (Toward a Pastoral Approach To Culture, No. 33).
That so much communication now flows in one direction only? from developed nations to the developing and the poor?raises serious ethical questions. Have the rich nothing to learn from the poor? Are the powerful deaf to the voices of the weak?” (No. 16)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Covenant Keepers Makes Real Men out of the Military DATE: 01/21/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — Steve Wood, author of Christian Fatherhood, understands the unique problems that military men can face.
Enlisted in the Naval Reserves during the Vietnam War, Wood encountered temptations as well. “Marijuana,” said Wood, “was almost as common as Marlboros.”
He also understands the power of supportive friends to overcome such temptations. While his ship was home-ported in Norfolk, Va., a colleague introduced him to Christ and urged him to read the Bible. This started Wood on his journey from evangelical Protestantism to become a Presbyterian minister and, later, to become a Catholic.
When Wood founded the St. Joseph's Covenant Keepers apostolate, which supports Christian men in their responsibilities as husbands and fathers, he didn't forget his experience in the military.
“I try not to treat them like boys,” he said of his attitude toward the men he works with at his Fort Charlotte, Fla., headquarters and in the many conferences he gives nationwide.
“When the military has a tough job to do they do not flower it up,” he said. They say, ‘This is what we have to do and this is how we will do it.’ So, I tell them what Christ expects of them as husbands and fathers. It works extremely well with military men because they like a challenge. The straighter it is the better they like it.”
Wood says that men frequently come up to him after a conference to say, “Thanks for treating me like a man.”
“We try to help those in the military, but the military also helps us,” said Wood. “One of our first supporters was the military chaplaincy in Virginia Beach. At a recent conference in Denver, two chaplain-cies contacted us. Chaplains see the need for our materials and request them all the time.”
Wood says that Covenant Keepers supports more than 40,000 families in 46 different countries.
“Friends gladly share materials with friends. Our material has been used on aircraft carriers and at U.S. military bases in places such as Germany and Hawaii.”
In addition, the group makes its electronic newsletter available free to military personnel everywhere in the world. Wood says he has also received several requests to do conferences at bases overseas. “We could easily use someone full-time to put on conferences at military bases worldwide.”
Wood provides the example of Marine Capt. Hugh Williamson as someone who has demonstrated how Marine leadership traits can be incorporated in following the Christian virtues.
Williamson, who is now a special agent with the FBI, says that the military and the work force in general, sets up the potential for competing loyalties.
“You are asked to be the best officer, or the best doctor, or the best businessman. Oftentimes, your relationship to God, wife and family take back seat,” he said. “It's a misplaced loyalty.”
Williamson sees the organization's eight commitments as the key to its strength.
“The commitments are something that military men can understand.” He compares the commitments to what the Marine Corps calls Standing Operating Procedure — and, military-style, abbreviates both.
“A SOP outlines your mission. The mission for a Christian husband and father is to protect and lead their family to heaven. SJCK provides Christian men with an SOP for how to be a loving leader and head of the family.”
Williamson, a husband and father of three, converted to Evangelical Protestantism while on active duty, and then converted to the Catholic faith in 1994. He is not alone in finding St. Joseph's Covenant Keepers helpful. Covenant Keepers' literature includes similar comments from military personnel such as Navy Cmdr. Robert “Mac” McCloskey, Navy Capt. Steve Beal and Marine Lt. Col. Bob Stephenson.
McCloskey says he shares the apostolate's materials and newsletters with his shipmates on board the USS George Washington.
“I'd recommend SJCK to any Catholic male. It has helped me grasp and hold on to faith.”
Joseph Foundation
Another organization working to support men both within and outside the military is the Joseph Foundation (www.thejosephfoundation.com) based in Red Bluff, Calif. The Joseph Foundation uses technology and the Internet to keep men who are overseas in touch with others back home.
The foundation's Web site features a news service, a men and marriage discussion list, libraries of Catholic documents and Web sites, and a men's-only e-mail discussion list.
“When it comes to faith and family, men in the military are more homogenous in their needs than the general overall population,” said Joseph Foundation President Jim Prusa, himself a U.S. Navy officer during the Vietnam War.
Prusa estimates that the Joseph Foundation serves approximately 25-50 active duty personnel through its men-only discussion group, Catholicmen.com. In addition, the Joseph Foundation hosted its first conference last fall and hopes to continue hosting conferences biannually.
“There has also been an exodus from the ranks of middle and upper level officers, along with an attempt to politicize the military. It's become a social test tube and is subjected to a lot of attitudes that run counter to the family and Christianity,” Prusa added. “Men in the services have seen their values attacked. That's very demoralizing. They need our support.”
Tim Drake can be reached at tdrake@ncregister.com.
The Eight Commitments of the St. Joseph's Covenant Keepers:
l Affirm Christ's Lordship over our families
l Follow St. Joseph, the loving leader and head of the Holy Family
l Love our wives all our lives.
l Turn our hearts toward our children.
l Educate our children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord
l Protect our families
l Provide for our families
l Build our marriages and families on the Rock
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Chuck Norris, the Pope and Me DATE: 01/21/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:An actor whose credits include Top Gun and Die Hard, he now co-stars with Chuck Norris on TV's “Walker, Texas Ranger.” He attends daily Mass whenever he can during grueling production hours. He converted to the Catholic faith eight years ago and says it changed his life. He recently spoke with Register correspondent Karen Walker.
Walker: Where did you grow up and how did you enter the acting field?
Gilyard: I grew up as an Air Force brat. My family moved around a lot. I entered the U.S. Air Force Academy after high school, but left after a year. I couldn't afford to stay at Sterling College in Kansas, where I played wide receiver for the football team, so I went to work and eventually moved back to California. After a few years working in Long Beach, I enrolled in Cal State University, Long Beach, and signed up for an acting class.
Within a year I was accepted into a repertory company that performed children's plays on weekends. Sometimes we performed three shows a day at elementary schools and the long hours and hard work led to a role in the theater's evening presentation of “Bleacher Bums.”
I had to drop school, but after a year I got a big break with one line on NBC's “Diff'rent Strokes” television series. Later, I played Officer Ben Webster in the last season of “ChiPs,” a show about California highway patrolmen. Then I was Rolland Culp, opposite Jim Carrey on NBC's pilot “The Duck Factory.” In 1989, I landed the role as deputy police chief Conrad McMasters on the TV series “Matlock” for four years. It took me 10 years, but I eventually graduated from college too.
What are your current movie and television roles?
I've played Chuck Norris' partner in the television series “Walker, Texas Ranger “ for the entire 8-1/2 years the show has been running. We're just approaching 200 episodes. The series is rooted in the old westerns, but brought up-to-date. It takes seven working days to shoot the principal photography for one episode.
I just finished a movie role in a new film called “Left Behind,” which is based on the first of three books in the Tim LaHayes series on his portrayal of the end times. I play Bruce Barns, who is a pivotal character in the book. The film was shot on location in Toronto. The film soundtrack was released a few months ago at a huge Baptist church in Texas. They showed some film clips and contemporary Christian artists gave a live performance.
The television and movie industry has a rather wild reputation. How do you live your faith in the entertainment industry?
I can't speak for the industry, that's a dangerous question. But for this particular person, who's almost 45 years old and who's been graced with the opportunity to be Catholic, I can say it's almost an hourly struggle. I don't think my life is different from anyone else's.
Every time I walk out of my trailer door, I'm faced with secularism. I have to evaluate the situations I'm in as they relate to the script and to male-female relationships. I also have to evaluate how I'm taking care of myself mentally and spiritually so that I live as a healthy and spiritual person, just like anyone else.
I go to confession, Mass and holy days. We all have to make sure we get the “food” we need to do the work we need to do.
How did your conversion to the Catholic faith affect your life?
It's hard to capture all the things I've been through in 21 years, all of which have been in the acting business. I converted from Lutheranism eight years ago this past Christmas. My conversion is very critical to the next person, to the way I interact with the people I meet.
I figured out that my purpose in life is to cry the Gospel; to live it in my life and to strive to be the best Catholic Christian I can be. By this I don't mean standing on a stump on a street corner, unless the Holy Spirit inspires me to do that.
How do you “feed” your interior prayer life?
One of the things that grounds me is the Mass. I can find a Catholic church wherever I go. I try to go daily and feel like I'm missing something if I don't strive to go daily. It's not a reflection on anyone else, just where God and I are right now.
I'm really listening to what God is communicating to me. I really need the Eucharist. My spiritual director, Father John Dick, suggested I pick up the Liturgy of the Hours about eight months ago. I struggle with that, three times a day. But I love it when I hit a stride and can get more prayers in.
I'm like any Catholic who is striving. I try to do what the Church says we're supposed to do — pray the rosary, keep up with the saints being observed, and participate in the liturgical seasons like Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter.
When you do what the Church says to do, it works.
You had the opportunity to visit with the Pope during the Jubilee Year. What was your experience?
I'm still numb from it. It makes me look at Mondays a lot differently, since we met the Holy Father on a Monday.
I was on a 10-day trip to Italy this past summer with a priest — who is my spiritual director — and a seminarian. We saw the [eucharistic] miracle at Lanciano [near Rome], [the shrine of] Padre Pio, Assisi and other holy places.
Upon returning to our room in Rome, after visiting Assisi, we received a note confirming that we would be able to attend morning Mass [with the Pope]. We were overjoyed and just dropped to our knees and thanked God. The experience was awesome. We got to kiss his hands; he said “good morning.”
We hear talk about the Holy Father being so frail. But these comments are like a Sunday couch-potato quarterback commenting on a game. The Holy Father is as sharp as a tack. We are so concerned about our bodies that we think that's the going deal. But I'm not worried at all. The Holy Father is doing just fine. He's right where God wants him.
What advice would you have for other Catholics in living their faith more fully?
I strive not to give advice unless people ask for it. I've found that one of the things I have to battle with is this human arrogance we have to not allow God to be God. We put him in a box, give him a size we think is right and then we speak for him.
That's not right!
Karen Walker writes from San Juan Capistrano, California.
Clarence Gilyard
He played Conrad McMasters in the series “Matlock” for five seasons, has also appeared in the series “Diff'rent Strokes” and “CHiPS.” Among the feature films in which he has co-starred are Top Gun and Die Hard.
For his role in “Walker, Texas Ranger,” he won an NAACP Image Award in the year 2000 as Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. A real-life cowboy, he devotes much of his free time to riding and roping in celebrity rodeos to benefit various children's charities. He is honorary chairman of and celebrity spokesman for Cowboys for Kids and also serves on the board of directors of the Children's Organ Transplant Association.
Gilyard has two children and divides his time between Dallas and Rancho Mirage, Calif.
----- EXCERPT: Hollywood actor on who's really important in his life ----- EXTENDED BODY: Karen Walker ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: After Defeats, School Reformers Are Planning the Next Step DATE: 01/21/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:CLEVELAND — For Danny Kelly, the debate over school vouchers isn't academic. It's about even more fundamental things: keeping his family safe and close.
“The Catholic schools are just safer than the Cleveland [public] schools,” he told the Register. “And they're a lot safer, too — which is a big thing.”
Kelly says that family time would suffer the most if Cleveland's voucher system were to end. “I'd have to do something else to make money to make up for that,” he said. “Otherwise I'd have to go to the suburbs.”
As a construction worker in downtown Cleveland, that would mean a longer commute. “I like Cleveland. It's close for me,” he said.
“I can hop on the bus and get home and be with the kids.”
A recent court ruling, however, has put the Cleveland voucher system in peril. In November, a federal court ruled that the system was unconstitutional.
In another blow to voucher proponents, voters in Michigan and California overwhelmingly rejected attempts to create statewide voucher systems.
These events have voucher opponents proclaiming victory.
“The resounding defeat of vouchers in Michigan and California should put an end to the myth that voters want vouchers,” Bob Chase, president of the National Education Association, said in a statement to the Register.
“Clearly, what parents and the public want are good public schools in their neighborhoods,” said the leader of the nation's largest teacher union lobby.
New Directions
Not so fast, said the Institute for Justice, a Washington-based nonprofit legal firm. “The only thing the elections results prove is that the scare tactics utilized by the teachers' unions worked,” Matthew Berry, an attorney with the group, told the Register in a statement. “After the unions spent millions of dollars on false advertising designed to frighten parents, it is not surprising that these referenda failed.”
Berry said that parents like Danny Kelly, who use vouchers to send their kids to private school, are the best testament to the program. “The evidence is overwhelming that voters like school choice once they see how it works,” Berry concluded. “If the bigwigs in the teachers unions think that Americans don't like school choice, they need to leave their office suites and go talk to parents in Milwaukee, Cleveland and Florida.”
Nonetheless, it does appear that the legal and electoral defeats have been a setback for vouchers. Washington insiders speculate that the climate for vouchers is downright chilly.
“The incoming Bush administration has concluded that it faces insurmountable opposition in Congress to its private school voucher plan and has decided to focus instead on two other key educational goals: regular testing of students and increased education flexibility for states,” the Washington Post reported in early January.
But just as quickly, the Bush camp refuted these reports, insisting that they will fight for vouchers for poor families.
“That will be part of the agenda — the proposals — that he [Bush] puts before the Congress and he is going to work hard to enact school choice into law,” Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters Jan. 2.
Bush campaigned heavily on education reform during his campaign. In addition to school safety and increased local control, Bush favored giving $1,500 to parents of students in public schools that failed to meet standards for three consecutive years, enabling them to send their kids elsewhere.
“It's one of the strongest ways we have to help educate our children and to give parents options, especially for those who may attend schools that are failing our, children,” Fleischer said. “He [Bush] campaigned on those ideas, including school choice, because he thinks they are right for the country.”
Passing legislation authorizing vouchers might be difficult this year because Congress is so equally divided between Republicans and Democrats. Republicans hold a slim 221-211 lead in the House of Representatives, while the Senate chamber is split 50-50. In general, Democrats, who receive millions of dollars in support from teachers unions, oppose vouchers.
Washington's newest Catholic leader also announced his support for school choice.
Speaking to reporters before his installation as archbishop of Washington, Archbishop Theodore McCarrick called school choice a “justice issue.” “I think that the government should make it possible for them to do that,” he said. When asked if this meant support for vouchers, he said that it was only one of several options for expanding access to religious schools.
But the problem facing voucher supporters might be the contentment that suburban families have with their own schools.
“The basic moral case for vouchers is that, for the most part, nobody cares about children more than their parents,” Ramesh Ponnuru, Washington editor of National Review, told the Register. “But that is also the fundamental political weakness of vouchers. Suburban voters aren't going to overhaul the school system in order to help other people's children.”
Ponnuru said that the defeats in California and Michigan should inspire voucher advocates to focus on getting legislatures to adopt pilot programs like those found in Milwaukee and Cleveland.
And while the debate rages in the Beltway, Denny Kelly hopes that the U.S. Supreme Court will overturn the federal court decision and declare voucher programs as constitutional once and for all.
“I think it'll correct itself. It'll go all the way to the United States Supreme Court,” Kelly told the Register. “I think vouchers are here to stay in Cleveland.”
Joshua Mercer writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: Are vouchers for Catholic schools a dead issue? ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 01/21/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:Apology for Slamming Cardinal O'Connor
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Jan. 4 — Time Out New York, a weekly entertainment guide that came under fire for listing Cardinal John O'Connor's death as one of the best events of 2000, issued an apology for the item, the wire service reported.
The item appeared in the Jan. 4 issue in a section geared toward homosexual readers.
The note read, “The press eulogized him as a saint, when in fact, the pious creep was a stuck-in-the-1950s anti-gay menace. Good riddance!” Time Out editor Joe Angio said, “We regret the insensitive tone of the statement and apologize to anyone who was offended by it.”
But he stuck by the claim that the cardinal was against homosexuals.
Cop Under Investigation in Rainbow Ruckus
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Jan. 9 — A police officer in Traverse City, Mich., is under investigation after he criticized city bumper stickers which some residents say promote homosexual activism, the wire service reported.
After a dust-up that gained national attention, the city dropped the stickers.
The officer, David Leach, was off duty when he spoke against the stickers on a local Christian radio station. The stickers show figures holding hands on a rainbow background. They were meant to foster unity after a series of crimes against blacks and homosexuals, and would have been posted on every city vehicle, including police cars, and given away to private citizens.
Many homosexual groups use the rainbow flag as a symbol of homosexual activism. Officer Leach told the Associated Press that the rainbow “is a sign of the homosexual and it's on my patrol car.”
The city's Human Rights Commission is now investigating him to determine whether his comments violated the city's anti-discrimination policy, which recently added “sexual orientation” to a list of protected categories.
Catholics and Episcoplalians Seek Vocations Together
The Archdiocese of Cincinnati has two recruiting ads on television. One spot features a diocesan priest talking about his experiences, and the other shows priests in action.
The Episcopal priest search began earlier and is already showing some success. The diocese assigns interested high school and college students to a congregation and a priest-mentor for eight weeks. The diocese also encourages priests to seek out interested young people, and plans to expand its campus ministry, matching congregations with local colleges.
One of the four students who participated in the Episcopalian program last summer is now in seminary, and 10 students have already expressed an interest in this year's program.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Poll Finds Support for Religion in Public Life DATE: 01/21/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:NEW YORK — The American people have a deep belief in the power of religion to improve U.S. life, the president of a nonpartisan research organization said Jan. 10.
The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life hosted the briefing at the Brookings Institution in Washington to unveil a new study by Public Agenda on what Americans think about the place of religion, faith and personal morality in various arenas of public life — schools, the work-place, social gatherings, politics.
The study, funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, included a random-sample telephone survey of more than 1,500 adult Americans and in-depth discussions with seven focus groups in different parts of the country.
Public Agenda President Deborah Wadsworth said the belief of Americans in religion's power for good “is largely driven by an equally strong conclusion that American society is suffering from an appalling dearth of morality.”
“From the decline in family values to the rise of materialism, from a lack of civility to excessive crime, most Americans in our study, regardless of the issue that we start out with, wind up talking about moral decay; and in their view the antidote to this problem is a greater dose of religion in American life,” she said.
The 60-page report on the study is titled “For Goodness' Sake: Why So Many Want Religion to Play a Greater Role in American Life.” Highlights of its findings are available on the Internet at publicagenda.org.
The phone survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 3%. The researchers did additional surveys of self-identified Jews and nonreligious people to establish statistically reliable samples of more than 200 in each of those subgroups.
According to the survey, most Americans think that if Americans were more religious, volunteer and charity work would increase, children would be raised better, and there would be less crime, greed and materialism. A full 69% of respondents agreed that religion is the best way to strengthen moral behavior and family values.
A slim majority, 52%, thought a more religious populace would show less tolerance toward people with “unconventional lifestyles.” Nearly two-thirds did not think prejudice toward religious minorities would increase. A majority of Jews and nonreligious respondents, however, felt prejudice toward religious minorities would go up.
When asked about public school prayer, 53% of those polled favored a moment of silence; 20% thought students should say a prayer that refers to God but not to any specific religion; 6% favored a Christian prayer that refers to Jesus; only 19% said public schools should avoid all of those.
Majorities of Jewish and nonreligious respondents opposed any form of school prayer, however. Most regarded it as unconstitutional, an infringement on parents' rights and embarrassing to students of minority religions or no religion.
Two-thirds of respondents said a major Jewish holiday should receive the same attention in school as Christmas if Jewish parents request it. A slightly smaller majority, 56%, said the same should hold for a Muslim holiday.
The report said the inclusiveness represented in the favorable responses on non-Christian holidays and on silent or nondenominational prayer indicates a strong desire by Americans “to navigate a middle ground” — encouraging a religious presence in their public institutions while recognizing the country's religious pluralism and avoiding the tensions that can rise from it.
Those polled also complained of bias in the media against religion (cited by 56%) and a general dissatisfaction with media coverage of religion (64%).
Politics and Religion
The results showed a great deal of caution in mixing politics and religion. This year's presidential campaign may have had a large role in these negative feelings, after the controversies over George W. Bush's appearance at Bob Jones University and fund-raisers for Vice President Al Gore at the Playboy mansion.
Senator Joseph Lieberman's openly speaking about his Jewish faith brought many other such statements from Bush and Gore about their own religious experience.
A full 74% of those polled said that politicians who talk about their faith “are just saying what people want to hear.”
Fifty-eight percent said it is wrong for voters to seriously consider a candidate's religious affiliation in deciding how to cast their vote; 37% said a candidate's affiliation should matter when deciding how to vote.
Only 26% said that they would be more likely to vote for a candidate who always decides on the basis of his religious convictions.
One of Bush's campaign promises was to make greater use of faith-based groups as suppliers of government-funded social programs.
Two-thirds of survey respondents favored increased government funding to churches or religious groups for social programs such as homeless shelters or help for drug addicts, while 31% opposed the idea.
Nearly two-thirds of those in favor thought government funding should be available even if the programs in question promote a religious message.
In a two-hour panel discussion at the briefing, experts had a lively debate about the possible implications, points of tension and questions arising from the findings.
Panelist Michael J. Sandel, a Harvard University professor of government, said the survey findings indicate most Americans hold the “socially useful” view of religion articulated by President Eisenhower, that “having some religion or other will produce a better social and moral order.”
He said, however, that less evident was the “faith as truth” perspective and the related “prophetic role of religion in politics” — the idea of “troublesome” challenges to the status quo because of a faith conviction that they are wrong.
Sandel cited the 19th-century abolitionist movement and current movements opposing abortion, capitalism and the death penalty as examples.
(Zenit, a Rome-based news agency, contributed to this report)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Jerry Filteau ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 01/21/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:N.Y. Times Ambivalent on Jubilee Marketing
In an article highlighting the Vatican's success at harmonizing technological and marketing know-how during Jubilee 2000, the Times conceded that for many years prior to a 1990 financial reorganization, the Church was cash-strapped.
Eager to seize on the perceived hypocrisy of a financial turnaround, the article went on to note that through a new licensing agreement the Vatican now keeps itself in the black by selling objects as varied as ceremonial baby clothes to gold-leaf reproductions of Ptolemy's celestial charts.
Buried in this story on what the Times refers to as the Church's new money-making “strategy” was the fact that all proceeds from Jubilee-related products such as Internet stations, satellite hookups, corporate sponsor logos and Jubilee souvenirs, went to charity.
“The marketing was so successful,” the Times said, “that when Pope John Paul II formally ended the Holy Year by closing the Holy Door to St. Peter's, he announced that profits earned by the Jubilee organizing committee would be donated to charity.”
“It is important that such an important religious event be completely dissociated from any semblance of financial gain,” the Pope said. (See full story, this page)
Italian Exorcists Busy During Holy Year
In an accompanying article, Maxim editors noted that while genuine possessions made up only 1% of the reported cases, three Italians out of four believe that the devil is at work in such cases.
The magazine polled 896 people between the ages of 20 and 65. Sixty-five percent of the respondents were women and 20% minors. The Vatican officially recognizes 400 exorcists in Italy, Maxim said.
Though Christ gave his apostles authority to perform exorcisms, no specific formula for the rite was promulgated until the end of the fourth century. As early as 251, during the pontificate of Pope Cornelius, the minor order of exorcist was established.
An exorcist's manual of 1614 is soon to be translated into Italian by the Vatican after a 1999 revision took into account developments in psychiatry.
Unlike the seven sacraments, which bring about the grace they signify, exorcism is a sacramental, meaning it does not infallibly produce its intended effect.
French Artist Has Privileged View of Vatican
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Jan. 6 — For many, gaining access to the Vatican is a long process, requiring patience and tenacity. But for Parisian painter Noelle Herrenschmidt, closeness to the Pope was won with a sketchpad, the news service reported.
Herrenschmidt has documented the Vatican's inner workings through her craft for two years, concluding her tour of duty soon after Pope John Paul II closed the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica Jan. 6. Herrenschmidt said she doesn't know if the Pope has seen her work.
“I think I will give to the Pope the last drawing,” Herrenschmidt told AP as she headed to the Holy Door to sketch the last thousands of faithful waiting to pass through. “It is for him; it's not a historical drawing.”
So far Herrenschmidt has published two volumes of inside-the-Vatican watercolors, including one dedicated to the Holy Year
According to AP, It took a year of knocking on doors before Herrenschmidt, 60, gained her extraordinary access. She was first allowed inside in 1998 for the 20th anniversary of John Paul's pontificate.
“Every day I ask, ‘May I go on?’ and they say I can,” she said.
Persistent, but polite, as soon as Herrenschmidt finishes sketching a cardinal, she shows him the drawing, then delivers a color photocopy. Herrenschmidt said she has been invited to the Pope's private Masses in his chapel in early morning but was not allowed to sketch. She recreated the scene later from memory.
“I couldn't draw but I could see this holy man, very, very strong when he prayed.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Legion of Christ's Celebration With Pope Includes 37 New Priests DATE: 01/21/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:ROME — When Darren and Tina Hogan of Mount Carmel, Conn., found their place amid more than 25,000 people in St. Peter's Square the morning of Jan. 4, they had a strategy: Stay near the sides.
That's where Pope John Paul II passes in his “popemobile” — and where they thought they might have a chance at a papal blessing for their baby, 5-month-old Maria Regina.
The Hogans, natives of Canada, were among the 4,000 pilgrims from the United States and Canada in Rome to end the Jubilee Year and celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Legionaries of Christ and the Regnum Christi Movement. And when the Holy Father drove toward St. Anne's Gate to return to his residence and stopped to kiss one more baby, the Hogans had the highlight of their pilgrimage. (Find more baby encounters on page 15.)
“We had no expectation of getting close,” Darren Hogan said. “We never dreamed that it could happen. Our desire was just to see him.” But to have the baby “blessed and kissed by the Holy Father was a source of great joy.”
All told, more than 12,000 Legionary and Regnum Christi pilgrims from 33 countries gathered for 11 days of festivities to close out the Great Jubilee in Rome.
The high-octane event was more than a pilgrimage. The first several days included conferences and expositions at the Legionaries' Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University. Members of the Regnum Christi apostolic movement shared insights on their work in different countries to win the culture for Christ via mass media outlets, more than 145 schools, and associations to evangelize the culture.
For instance, workers at CIDECO, which helps the poor of Latin America develop new economic initiatives, could compare notes with Americans like Lupita Assad of Dallas, Texas, a nurse and director of Helping Hand Medical Missions, which takes North American medical expertise to Latin America.
The group then shifted focus to its anniversary celebrations:
l They rang in the New Year in a bitterly cold St. Peter's Square with the Holy Father, who made a surprise appearance from his apartment window.
l They celebrated the ordination Jan. 2 of 37 new Legionary priests by Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos, prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for the Clergy.
l They prayed the rosary that night with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano in the Vatican Gardens.
l They marked the 60th anniversary of their founding with a solemn Eucharistic Liturgy Jan. 3 concelebrated by the Legionaries, several bishops, and many diocesan priests who are members of Regnum Christi.
l On Jan. 4, they had the special audience with the Holy Father in the morning and in the evening a lively Youth and Family Encounter featuring live musical performances and a talk by Father Marcial Maciel, the 80-year-old founder of the Legionaries and Regnum Christi still serving as their general director.
Fittingly, it all ended with the closing of the Holy Door at St. Peter's Jan. 6.
Of the 37 new priests, 10 are from the United States: Jon Budke of Underwood, Minn., brothers John and Martin Connor of Baltimore, David Daly of St. Louis, Anselmo Hernandez of Brooklyn, N.Y., Vincent Higgins of Millbrook, N.Y., Andre LaSana of Dover, Del., Kevin Lixey of Swartz Creek, Mich., Edward McIlmail of Philadelphia and Neil McNeil of Abbeville, La.
A Loss for Words
Father McIlmail said the grace of his ordination is the “hardest one to articulate. It's beyond words” — a tough admission, he said, for a former newspaperman like himself.
A graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, Father McIlmail spent years as a journalist before discerning his call to the priesthood and religious life. He was assistant city editor of a paper in Pennsylvania when he heard the call.
While he finds it difficult to express his thoughts about his ordination, the words flow when Father McIlmail reflects on the special audience Jan. 4, when he and his fellow Legionaries sat near Pope John Paul II in front of St. Peter's Basilica, opposite several hundred consecrated women of Regnum Christi. They listened to the Pope's words of support and challenge for the Legionaries, Regnum Christi, and their founder.
“I greet each and every one of you,” the Holy Father said, “with the hope that this occasion will constitute a strong support for your faith in the Lord Jesus and your decision to bear witness to him before your brothers and sisters.” In response to introductory words by Father Maciel, the Pope said, “I especially appreciate his express confirmation of the fidelity to the Successor of Peter that characterizes you. Your communion with the Pope attests to your full insertion into the mystery of the Church's unity.”
Quoting St. Catherine of Siena, John Paul laid down a challenge: “If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world on fire,” he said (find the full text on page 15).
Father McIlmail said it was moving for him to be in the presence of the father who raised him, William McIlmail of Philadelphia, the father founder of his priestly congregation, and the Holy Father. “The three earthly fathers of my life were all there together,” he said. “All of my personal history came together in that moment.
“We heard great praise for our founder and for the promise the Legionaries hold for the Church,” he said. “That hit home for me: the tremendous responsibility we have on our shoulders. The Holy Father has said mankind has never been at such a crossroads. We can seize the future and make it work for God and man.”
Father McIlmail sees great grace in God's call to collaborate with him at this pivotal moment when “the new springtime of evangelization is beginning to bud. It will take a lifetime to work it out,” he said.
From Minneapolis to Rome
Archbishop Harry Flynn of St. Paul and Minneapolis, participated in the ordinations, anointing the hands of many of the new priests. It was especially poignant for him to anoint one of the young men, Father Neil McNeil, whom he first knew as one of his diocesan seminarians when he was bishop of Lafayette, La.
When Neil left the diocesan seminary, Archbishop Flynn asked him to stay in touch, which he did, and encouraged him to look into the priesthood with a religious order, particularly the Legionaries.
“It was a magnificent ordination, and the Legionaries came in from all over the world to participate in it,” Archbishop Flynn wrote in his archdiocesan paper, The Catholic Spirit. “I think there were more than 1,000 staying in the seminary in which I resided while in Rome.
“As I watched Father Neil and spent those few days with him, I could not help but see again God's plan,” he wrote.
“Surely Neil McNeil has grown in loving God out of his special place.”
The founder, Father Marciel, also focused on God's plan — for lay people — in words directed to the predominantly lay Regnum Christi members.
“God continues to call us every single day,” he said. “Every grace, every event or circumstance that he permits in our life is an opportunity to give thanks, the possibility for a personal encounter with Christ, a new call to repay his love generously.
“Before you is the hint of a future full of vitality, with all its hopes and challenges,” Father Maciel said. “Build up the Church with your conscious and total ‘yes’ to God's call in your life.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Register Staff ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Jubilee Justice DATE: 01/21/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:Register Summary
Jubilee efforts to promote justice and reduce the foreign debt of poor countries must continue as a part of Catholics' normal practice of their faith, Pope John Paul II said at a Jan. 10 audience attended by some 3,000 people.
One of the clearest signs that the jubilee had ended four days earlier was an almost empty St. Peter's Square, where in previous weeks 30,000 people and more had gathered for the audience. The Jan. 10 audience was held in the Paul VI Audience Hall.
The voice of the prophets, like Isaiah's … resounds repeatedly to remind us that we must make efforts to free the oppressed and make justice prevail. If this effort is lacking, the worship given to God is not pleasing to him.
This is an urgent appeal, expressed at times in paradoxical terms, as when Hosea refers to this divine saying, also quoted by Jesus (Matthew 9:13; 12:7):
“For it is love that I desire, not sacrifice, and knowledge of God rather than holocausts” (Hosea 6:6). With striking vehemence, the prophet Amos also presents God turning his gaze from us and not accepting the rites, feasts, fasts, music and supplications, when a just man is sold for money outside the sanctuary, a poor man for a pair of sandals and the head of the poor is trampled on like dust (see Amos 2:6-7). Hence, the invitation is unre-served: “Rather let justice surge like water and goodness like an unfailing stream” (Amos 5:24). Thus, the prophets speak in the name of God, refusing worship isolated from life, liturgy separated from justice, prayer detached from daily efforts, faith devoid of works.
Learn to Do Good
Isaiah's cry: “Cease doing evil, learn to do good. Make justice your aim: redress the wronged, hear the orphan's plea, defend the widow (Isaiah 1:16-17), echoes in the teaching of Christ, who admonishes us: “If you bring your gift at the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift” (Matthew 5:23-24).
At the end of the life of every person and at the close of the history of humanity, the judgment of God will be based precisely on love, the practice of justice and assistance to the poor (see Matthew 25:31-46).
In face of a community plagued by divisions and injustice, as Corinth was, Paul reaches the point of calling for the suspension of Eucharistic participation, asking Christians to examine their own conscience first, so as not to be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord (see Cor 11:27-29).
The judgment of God will be based precisely on love, the practice of justice and assistance to the poor.
For Christians, the service of charity, linked consistently with faith and the liturgy (see James 2:14-17), efforts for justice, the struggle against every oppression, and the safeguarding of the dignity of the person, are not expressions of philanthropy motivated solely by membership in the human family. Instead, they are choices and acts that have a profoundly religious inspiration, they are true and proper sacrifices that are pleasing to God, in keeping with the affirmation of the Letter to the Hebrews (13:16). Particularly incisive is St. John Chrysostom's admonishment: “Do you wish to honor the body of Christ? Do not neglect it when it is naked. Do not render it honor here in time with silk fabrics, and then neglect it outside, where it suffers cold and nakedness.”
“This deep and varied trend, at the basis of which the contemporary human conscience has placed justice, gives proof of the ethical character of the tensions and struggles pervading the world. The Church shares with the people of our time this profound and ardent desire for a life which is just in every aspect, nor does she fail to examine the various aspects of the sort of justice that the life of people and society demands.
“This is confirmed by the field of Catholic social doctrine, greatly developed in the course of the last century.” (Dives in Misericordia, No. 12). This endeavor of reflection and action must receive an added impulse from the Jubilee itself. In its Biblical source, this was a celebration of solidarity: When the trumpet of the Jubilee year sounded, everyone returned to his own property and his family, as the official text of the Jubilee states (see Leviticus 25:10).
First of all, the lands alienated by various economic and family issues were restored to their former owners. Therefore, the Jubilee year allowed all to return to an ideal point of departure, through a bold and courageous work of distributive justice. A dimension which might be described as “utopian,” is evident, and is proposed as the concrete remedy to privileges and abuses: It is the attempt to inspire society toward a higher ideal of solidarity, generosity and fraternity. In modern times, the return to lost lands could be expressed, as I have proposed several times, in the total cancellation, or at least reduction, of the international debt of poor countries (Tertio Millennio Adveniente, No. 51).
Liberty and Solidarity
The other Jubilee endeavor consisted in allowing slaves to return free to their families (see Leviticus 25:39-41). Poverty had subjected them to the humiliation of slavery. Now the possibility opened up before them to be able to build their future in freedom, within their families. For this reason, the prophet Ezekiel called the Jubilee year a “year of liberation,” that is, of rescue (see Ezekiel 46:17).
The Book of Deuteronomy, calls for a just and free society in solidarity with these words: “There should be no one of you in need. If one of your kinsmen in any community is in need... you shall not harden your heart and close your hand” (Deuteronomy 15:4,7).
We must also look to this goal of solidarity: “Solidarity of the poor among themselves, solidarity with the poor, to which the wealthy are called, solidarity of workers and with workers” (Instruction of Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on Christian Liberty and Liberation, No. 89).
Seen in this way, the Jubilee that has just ended will continue to produce abundant fruits of justice, liberty and love.
(Zenit translation)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Brazil's Liberation Theologians Seek Alliance with Charismatics DATE: 01/21/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:SAO PAULO, Brazil — Members of Catholic movements in São Paulo, Brazil's largest city, were delighted when Cláudio Hum mes, the new archbishop of São Paulo, agreed to preside last month at the archdiocese's Jubilee of Lay Movements.
Despite the vibrancy of lay movements in Brazil, it was the first such gathering ever allowed in São Paulo. The reason: Hummes' predecessor, Cardinal Paulo Evaristo Arns, a strong supporter of liberation theology, looked at lay movements with suspicion.
“His Eminence [Cardinal Arns] would always regard us like a burden, almost a menace, because he thought we were competing with Ecclesial Base Communities — known as CEBs — which were much more political and ideological,” said Jordi Leppe, a leader of the Charismatic Renewal in one of São Paulo's suburbs.
Cardinal Arns was not alone in his negative opinion. After the Charismatic Renewal, known locally as the RCC, and other movements started to grow significantly in Brazil almost two decades ago — especially among the middle class in large cities — several bishops and liberation theologians ex-pressed open rejection.
“Movements are the spiritualistic alibi for imperialism,” said Bishop Pedro Casaldáliga, the former ordinary of São Felix. His close adviser, liberation theologian and former Franciscan priest Leonardo Boff, wrote that “[charismatics] are an expression of the kind of uncommitted spirituality that is the enemy of the poor.”
Things have changed dramatically in recent years.
First, CEBs, and the liberation theology upon which they are based, are no longer dominant. A 1994 investigation by the independent polling agency Datafolha reported that 1.8 million adult Brazilian Catholics declared themselves to be members of CEBs, while 4.9 million declared they belonged to a movement, most to the Charismatic Renewal.
About 80% of Brazil's 173 million residents are Catholic.
Liberation theology gained wide influence in Latin America in the 1970s, as theologians promoted solutions, generally derived from Marxism or socialism, for the region's glaring economic, social and political disparities.
Liberation theology holds that traditional Christianity, with its interpretation of Christ's death and resurrection as the means through which individuals attain eternal life through being liberated from sin, is inadequate.
Instead, liberation theologians assert that Jesus was primarily concerned with liberating the poor and oppressed in this life. Similarly, it is argued, liberation from oppressive social structures should be the Church's primary focus, not the salvation of souls.
Liberation Theology's Decline
In 1984, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published “An Instruction on Certain Aspects of ‘Theology of Liberation.’” It condemned giving “an exclusively political interpretation” to the death of Christ, thereby denying “its value for salvation and the whole economy of redemption.”
Since then, the influence of liberation theology has declined steeply. “CEBs do not have the prominent role they had between 1975 and 1985 any more,” said Father Alberto Antoniazzi, a liberation theology supporter. “Definitely, this is the time of the movements.”
Lay movements, and particularly the Charismatic Renewal, have achieved such a wide presence that very few bishops remain willing to get into a collision course with them.
Despite this favorable tide, very few in Brazil expected liberation theologians to propose an unlikely alliance between followers of liberation theology and charismatics.
The first hint of such a proposal came in late July, at an international summit of liberation theologians held in Belo Horizonte, where Belgian-born theologian Joseph Comblin discussed tensions with charismatics. “I think we have to review our too-dogmatic criticism against the RCC,” said Comblin.
But the most striking overture came in late November, when Clodovis Boff, Leonardo's lesser-known brother, published an essay in the Brazilian Theological Magazine.
“In many conferences I am asked what do I think about the RCC,” Boff wrote in the article. “The question obviously is directed to me, identified with Liberation Theology.”
In his article, Boff openly praised lay movements in general, and the RCC in particular. He recalled that the RCC arrived in Brazil in 1976, and noted that “today it has more than 8 million members. Therefore, from a historical perspective, the RCC and lay movements have to be regarded as one of the revival or renewal episodes the Catholic Church has experienced in history.”
His article also noted the pontifical and episcopal support received throughout the Church by the Charismatic Renewal and other lay movements, and he admitted that the Brazilian bishops were very late in recognizing the movements as being “among the fruits of the Holy Spirit.”
In fact, it wasn't until last year that the Brazilian National Conference of Bishops finally decided to create a four-member commission to deal with the RCC.
As well, Clodovis Boff reported that even his brother Leonardo now recognizes that lay movements are a “new, valid expression of the Church.”
And despite the continuing tensions in several Brazilian dioceses between RCC members and CEBs members, “it can be said that, even if the RCC is not socially liberating, there is nothing on it that prevents it from becoming truly liberating,”
Clodovis Boff wrote. “This is precisely the kind of help that Liberationists can provide to them.”
Boff admitted that for “traditional” liberation theologians, this might sound like a “heresy,” but he noted that during last year's Ninth Assembly of CEBs, a group of young militants suggested the creation of a “Charismatic Theology of Liberation” or a “CharismaticLiberationist Renewal.”
The ‘Rocking Liberationist'
“Who knows?” said Boff. “Maybe from the marriage of the Charismatic and the Liberationist lines, we may end up with a new type of militant, that we could call a ‘Rocking liberationist.’”
So far, RCC leaders have shown no interest in Boff's proposal. “We believe that the identity of each movement or Catholic institute depends on what the Holy Spirit and the Church are asking and not the consequence of strategic alliances,” said Antoninho Tatto, founder of the Movement of Lay Apostles, an organization related to the RCC.
“In that sense, we believe that openness and collaboration with other Catholic organizations requires the consolidation of each one's identity and not the confusing blending of them.”
Bishop Fernando Antonio Figueiredo of Santo Amaro, one of the strongest supporters of lay movements, criticized any suggestion of a merger.
“I believe movements are bringing a whole new breath of fresh air into the Catholic Church,” he told the Register. “They are diverse and provide a variety of pastoral alternatives.”
Bishop Figueiredo, whose 7-year-old diocese has received a boost of vocations and pastoral initiatives from several movements, is quite adamant regarding how needless a “marriage” is with liberation theology.
Said the bishop, “It is quite simple: You don't put the new wine in old skins.”
Alejandro Bermúdez is based in Lima, Peru.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Alejandro Bermudez ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 01/21/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:Polish Murder Trial Recalls Communism's Grip
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Jan. 9 — A former Polish police captain convicted in the killing of a pro-Solidarity priest has testified in support of a communist-era general charged with ordering the murder, the news service reported.
Grzegorz Piotrowski refused to implicate Wladyslaw Ciaston, 75, the former head of the Polish Interior Ministry, in questions surrounding the 1984 murder of Father Jerzy Popieluszko, a popular priest and supporter of the Solidarity trade union whose murder shocked the country.
Ciaston was first tried in 1992, after the toppling of communist rule by Solidarity paved the way for investigations into possible involvement of more senior officials. He was acquitted for lack of evidence, but an appeals court later ordered a retrial.
Ciaston could face life in prison if convicted.
Piotrowski, 49, is considered the main perpetrator of the 1984 murder and is the only one of four original defendants still in prison. He is due to be released in August.
Zambia Suspends Pro-Condom Campaign
BBC NEWS, Jan. 11 — The Zambian government has suspended a controversial television advertising campaign that promoted so-called safe sex for youth through the use of condoms, the news service reported.
The move followed fierce criticism from churches who complained after the ads were first aired on state-run television a couple of weeks earlier that they were encouraging promiscuity.
In one scene teen-age girls talk frankly about sex and condoms. In another, how to use a condom is illustrated. The ads aired in prime time, when parents and children traditionally watch television together.
At first the Health Ministry refused to stop the campaign, saying people needed to face up to the reality that Zambia has one of the highest rates of HIV infection in the world.
But in the face of continued criticism, not only from church leaders but also from government circles, the minister for health, Enoch Kavindele, ordered the ad campaign to be suspended.
Kavindele said it would resume only after the ads had been thoroughly reviewed and offensive material edited out.
Catholic Convert and Philosopher G.E. Anscombe Dies
Though Anscombe's parents were not religious, their only son became a priest in the Church of England and she converted to Catholicism.
Anscombe took instruction in the faith, The Independent noted, while an undergraduate at Oxford not long before meeting her future husband, Peter Geach, who was also a convert. They were married in 1941 in the Brompton Oratory with only two witnesses present.
After graduating from Oxford, Anscombe was elected to a research fellowship at Newnham College, Cambridge. It was there, The Independent said, that she first met Wittgenstein. When Wittgenstein died in 1951, he left a will in which he named Anscombe as one of his three literary executors.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Modern Women DATE: 01/21/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:Modern Women
On the 28th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, here are quotations from women in history and contemporary culture who oppose abortion. They are presented to show the diversity of women who oppose abortion.
“Guilty? Yes. No matter what the motive, love of ease, or a desire to save from suffering the unborn innocent, the woman is awfully guilty who commits the deed. It will burden her conscience in life, it will burden her soul in death; But oh, thrice guilty is he who drove her to the desperation which impelled her to the crime!”
— Susan B. Anthony, 1869
“When we consider that women are treated as property, it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we see fit.”
— Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 1873
“I would never, personally, be able to [have an abortion], because down the road it would always haunt me.”
— Britney Spears, 2000
“I was once pro-choice. And the thing that changed my mind was, I read my husband's biology books, medical books and what I learned is simply what it states — this isn't even morally — this is pure biology. At the moment of conception, a life starts. And this life has its own unique set of DNA, which contains a blueprint for the whole genetic being. The sex is determined. Now people ask the question, well, is it a human being? We know there's a life because it's growing and changing.”
— Supermodel Kathy Ireland, 1998
“[Abortion] was not an option for me.” Having “worked as a labor and delivery nurse ... I've seen ultrasounds ... you know that those babies are real.” [She reminded the audience that if she had had an abortion, the world would have been deprived of the great singing talent of her daughter and fellow performer, Wynonna Judd.]
— Country singer Naomi Judd on the Sally Jesse Raphael show, 1998
“I am in no position to judge other women, you know. But I mean, why did she get pregnant? It's not good for women to go through the procedure [abortion] and have something living sucked out of their bodies. It belittles women. Even though some women say, ‘Oh, I don't mind to have one,’ every time a woman has an abortion, it just crushes her self-esteem smaller and smaller and smaller.”
— Dolores O'Riordan, lead vocalist, The Cranberries, 1996
“There is a day coming when we will hear the voice from within the womb, when its own authentic pain will be undeniable, when we will know with certainty that it is saying, ‘I want to live. I have a right to live. I do not need your permission to live.’”
— Mary McAleese, president of the Republic of Ireland
[Her mother was initially devastated to find that she was pregnant with the 14th child in her family.] However, a priest “told her that she had no right to go against nature [by having an abortion]. … So I have to admit that in a way, I owe my life to that priest.”
— Celine Dion, 2000
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 01/21/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:Not So Fast with Vouchers
I have always been a vocal promoter of the Register and am thankful for this positive publication. I am dismayed, however, at the paper's coverage concerning the school-voucher debates (“School Voucher Showdown Looms,” Dec. 31-Jan. 6).
I think that the one-sided presentations of this topic really diminish the paper's credibility. Also the many Catholics who form their opinions from what they believe is the truth written in the Register are not receiving all of the facts of the voucher issue. It appears that not supporting school vouchers is like not being pro-life.
Before we endorse a system, we must evaluate its effect on society and not just the financial gains possible for Catholic schools. The Cleveland court case and actual events in Cleveland are a great example of only looking at one, very small, side of this issue.
The fact is that many of the schools that were started to take advantage of the voucher program were for-profit businesses using the guise of religion to open “schools” in condemned buildings, with few supplies, [employing] teachers without certified teaching degrees (actually some were convicted felons), and where little learning took place.
Before we become euphoric over Catholic-school benefits from vouchers, we need to be sure that the overall program will have the desired effect for everyone and not become another vehicle to exploit the poor. These programs, which will certainly drain financial support from the public schools, also do not address what will happen to those who need the special-education classes and care which public schools provide since most private schools have no special-needs programs.
There is plenty of Catholic bashing in America today, so we should be careful not to equate vouchers with Gospel directives, which can only provide for those who accuse us of only seeing what we want to see. The Register should be more responsible by offering both sides of this issue and not by presenting vouchers as the Catholic position.
TOM SAWYER Cleveland
Clarification
I just saw your article on the papal comic book (“Italy's Latest Superhero: John Paul the Great,” Jan. 7-13). Thank you for taking the time to interview me about our Pauline Comics and our children's biography, Karol From Poland. I just wanted to clarify that our initials, FSP, do not stand for Franciscan Sisters of Peace, as was indicated in your story, but are the Latin initials for the Daughters of St. Paul. Sister Leonora Wilson, who wrote Karol From Poland, is also a Daughter of St. Paul, not a Franciscan Sister of Peace!
Because we are an international congregation, it was decided many years ago to use the Latin initials in order to standardize them for the sisters all over the world. Up until then, we in the States had used DSP, the English initials.
No harm done. I just thought I'd mention it in case confusion ever arises in the future.
SISTER PATRICIA EDWARD, FSP Boston
Sigh of Relief
I am writing in regard to Karl Keating's column “Catechizing the Catechist” (Dec. 31-Jan. 6). This item about the hosts being scattered to “christen” the ground appeared in The Wanderer on Aug. 31. Like most people, I was shocked to read of such a sacrilegious act.
Some time later, an update appeared in that publication. Unfortunately, I cannot find it. However, [the gist was] that, upon investigation of this incident, it turned out the priest had embellished his description of the service for the bulletin, which was used as the basis for later news reports. The update stated that the host had not been used in a wrongful manner, after all.
SARAH MCCRAY Annapolis, Maryland
Faith No More?
Well, now that “New Research Confirms Life After Death”( Jan. 7-12), it would appear that faith is no longer necessary. The famous art critic Sister Wendy Beckett said the same thing to Bill Moyers in a PBS interview. When asked about her faith, she replied (and I paraphrase) — “I don't need faith, because I am certain of Christ's promises.” For those of us who still require the grace of faith, this article may be titillating, but it is not solid science and never will be.
Come on now, let's stick to orthodox Catholic theology and teaching. And let's also remember the admonition in 1 Corinthians 2:9-10: “What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him, this God has revealed to us through the Spirit.”
DAVE BRACKENRIDGE Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Another Ex-Democrat
This is in response to Paul Szymanowski from Curtice, Ohio (“Another Vote for Gore,” Letters, Dec. 31-Jan. 6): You asked if any of us who had abandoned the Democratic party had tried to fix it first? I did. Not far from you in Mansfield, I was a precinct committee chairman back in the mid-'80s.
It is a long story that I would be happy to share with you privately, but the short of it is, [the candidate] said he couldn't change his pro-death voting record, and would continue to vote that way. I decided to resign and became the chairman of his opponent's election campaign.
In the Gospel Jesus tells us that he is the Life. To deny that would have been to deny Jesus. I chose Jesus, and would never apologize for it.
DON MARCUM Mansfield, Ohio
New York NFP Miracle
Thank you for the ‘pill’ article mentioning Dr. Thomas Hilgers (“The Pacquettes vs. the Pill,” Jan. 7-13). He is an underutilized miracle worker. His natural family planning science, when reversed, can resolve infertility problems.
Our story in a nutshell: We were a ‘fast track’ New York couple, Wall Streeters, five years married, no children. The fancy Westchester fertility doctors all wanted to bypass my wife's body with artificial insemination and in vitro fertilization. Because of our faith, we said no. None of them explained what was actually causing the problem.
Meanwhile, a young, pregnant immigrant girl decided on abortion. While price-shopping, she accidentally called Expectant Mother Care, a pro-life center. After a few meetings she said that if they could get her a doctor, hospital, job and a place to live, she would choose adoption. They called us, and we accepted the challenge.
After inviting the Sisters of Life to speak to my seventh-grade CCD class, I gave Sister Simeon and Sister Loretta a ride back to their convent. The sisters asked if I had tried the Pope Paul VI center and gave me their number. We contacted Dr. Hilgers, who put us on, of all things, a natural family planning charting program. After three months of charting, he made a temporary diagnosis of the problem.
On Dec. 6, 1996, our gorgeous adopted daughter Julia was born. We believe her biological mother is a hero. A few months later, my wife flew to Omaha and was operated on by Dr. Hilgers. She was pregnant two months later, and, over the years, again and again!
Last week, our fourth child was born. Thanks to Dr. Hilgers, the sisters and Julia's biological mom, we are the luckiest people in the world.
Dr. Hilgers' clinic needs more publicity, both for the financial well-being of the clinic and the emotional (and financial) well-being of the 1 million couples in the United States who are struggling with infertility and don't know about this resource.
KEVIN MCMAHON Pelham, New York
Weakly Video Picks
I find the “Weekly Video Picks” to be very weak. What ever happened to good, conservative Catholic entertainment? What is justifiable profanity, nudity and sexual content? Seems like the Register is promoting these less-than-desirable shows! How can these “picks” build the Kingdom of God?
JOEY A. MATIS Houma, Louisiana
Virgin Birth a Mystery
I admire your periodical's efforts to search out and recognize what is laudable from a Catholic point of view in contemporary current events and entertainment, and I know how difficult it can be.
Along with John Prizer, I consider Franco Zefferelli's Jesus of Nazareth a great motion picture. Nevertheless, I believe it does contain certain elements that are incompatible with the Catholic faith. In particular, the image of Mary yelling in pain while giving birth to Jesus seems to me to be contrary to a Catholic understanding of the virgin birth.
My impression, in fact, is that we are to believe that Mary gave birth to Jesus, not only without detriment to her virginity, but, in addition, without the pangs of childbirth and any carnal movements as well.
ROBERT RAKAUSKAS Los Angeles
Parade of New Saints
I was deeply impressed with the article on the new martyrs (“Jubilee Year Abounds With New Saints,” Dec. 31-Jan. 6). The priest at my parish was impressed as well. We wanted to know if you were aware of where one could obtain the images of the martyrs that were used in your article.
We are thinking of purchasing them, if able to, in order to place them in the Hispanic mission of our church as well as in the main church as well. If you are unaware of where one can purchase them, do you know of a Web site where one can find them? Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated.
JAVIER BRAVO Yuma, Arizona
2000 wasn't a great year (with apologies to my wife and kids).
There was my hernia operation, with a resultant nerve problem, keeping me from many activities, including anticipating the March crash of the Nasdaq.
Then it rained all summer, which, together with the drought elsewhere, apparently depressed once-confident Nasdaq investors.
Then there were the Mets. They rose, then fell, then rose again, only to lose the World Series. Then came the gloat of the Yankees fans saying my team was a “worthy opponent.” Worthy opponent? The whole thing kept me from anticipating the September-October slide of the Nasdaq.
Then came the election. The candidate I voted for (and I'm certain I did) won, an unusual occurrence for me. I even found the whole post-election jumble affirming in a republican (note the small “r”) kind of way. But the holes in the voting and counting system were ridiculous. Why any county or state would accept as routine such high percentages of rejected ballots is way beyond me. And it was, of course, another thing to force my attention away from the Nasdaq, where investments continued to flake away like the layers of a crescent roll.
In the middle of all this came the death of Cardinal John O'Connor, which affected me deeply. I knew he was going, of course; that was no secret. But the dignity of his final months was moving, even for me, who expected a lot of dignity from him. I will never forget his funeral, sitting among others who had been so influenced by him, rising out of our seats with thunderous applause to celebrate his pro-life commitment.
I believe we embarrassed, angered and humbled our so-called pro-choice state and national leaders who refused to stand or who rose so reluctantly when our ovation would not end. I remember thinking about our applause: “This is the way polite people shout.”
We shouted to heaven that day and we promised to God, I'm sure we all did in that great moment, that we will never be silent; that the compassion, vigilance and righteous anger of Cardinal O'Connor's pro-life voice did not die with him.
George W. Bush was there that day. I met him, and I noted his demeanor and expressions, the way we do with celebrities. And when that moment came, when the applause began and the people rose, he applauded and he rose. Not with hesitation. Not like some of the other politicians, dragged to their feet by the fear of votes won or lost. He rose that day with me and all those others, to announce that we are unambiguously pro-life.
That's the way I saw it then, and I hope I was right. I hope that the promise I made that day was also made by President Bush. I also hope that I'm not, like with the Mets and the Nasdaq, in for a letdown.
All the post-election talk of conciliation and bipartisanship doesn't bode well for pro-life issues. I've seen for too long how it works — the Democrats will push and pull, the Republicans will pull and push. The president will give a little on tax cuts and Medicaid, the Democrats will give a little on the environment and spending programs. The Republicans will be tough, then weak, on China, the Democrats will be weak, then tough, on domestic crime. Bravado, then peace-making. A little give and a little take.
I carefully watched Bush's demeanor at Cardinal O'Connor's funeral.
But on pro-life issues, there will be a bitter fight, with little room for compromise. Pressure on the president will be enormous. I can just hear the president's advisers say: “Let's give it time. No need to stir the pot just yet. We wait until we've got some strength for that. No point doing a partial-birth abortion ban. The pro-lifers won't accept a bill with a broad health exception in it and the court won't accept a bill without it. So wait until we put conservatives on the court.”
That all sounds, well, sound. But here's the hitch: The fight to get a pro-life court is likely to be the most bruising of the Bush administration — the Democrats' “line in the sand.”
The gloves will come off.
The Democrats will seek help from the “moderate” (media-speak for pro-abortion) Republicans, an alliance hoping to offer their own slate of names for consideration: fiscal conservatives and states-righters, Rockefeller Republicans and “big-tent” Republicans. And attempts will be made to discredit any potential nominee known or suspected to be pro-life. I have no doubt there will be scrutiny, like never before, of professional and personal lives in order to uncover any hint of pro-life tendencies. Religious faith will get a long, hard look, with evangelical Protestants and Catholics being the suspect classes.
Yes, the bigotry will surface. But it need not win the day. Because now, with the Jan. 22 anniversary of Roe v. Wade, comes the memory of that hot, sunny day in New York — that moment when the ugliness and the bitterness was swept away in the ovation to our great pro-life leader. That moment when we were collectively reunited in our commitment to life.
When the time comes, when the gloves come off, after the advisers advise and the consultants consult, I hope President Bush will recall that May afternoon and what it meant. I hope he renews daily the commitment I believe he shared with me and thousands of others that day. We are in a struggle for the lives of millions of children and for the soul of our nation. We need a victory. It has been too long.
Richard Barnes is legislative/administrative counsel for the New York State Catholic Conference.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Richard E. Barnes ----- KEYWORDS: News --------- TITLE: The Goodness of Guilt DATE: 01/21/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:In Crossing the Threshold of Hope, Pope John Paul II tells us that those who subscribe to “post-enlightenment thought” refuse to accept the reality of sin. Even during a visit to his native Poland, where he gave homilies on the Decalogue and the commandment to love, “all the Polish followers of the ‘enlightened agenda’ were upset.”
The notion that we can commit sins and become guilty of moral wrongdoing does not sit well with citizens of the post-enlightenment. It clashes with their self-esteem and is, given the immense amount of knowledge they have amassed — especially in psychology, sociology and biology — unscientific, unmodern and unfashionable.
Throughout history, in both literate and nonliterate societies, the prevailing consensus has been that guilt is a natural human response to one's deliberate and voluntary complicity in moral wrongdoing, and that man persists in suffering both in body and in soul when his guilt remains unconfessed and unatoned.
The post-Enlightenment period has denied the very existence of moral guilt (though it does recognize “guilt feelings”). Pulitzer Prize-winning Catholic poet Phyliss McGinley, in her introduction to C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters, writes: “Of all losses man has sustained in the past hundred years, no deprivation has been so terrible as the abandonment of private guilt.” It was more dreadful than losing his creator, McGinley maintains, because, in substituting shame for sin, society amputated half of the human psyche, thereby making man ineligible for either wholeness or forgiveness.
Thus weakened and deprived of hope, “guiltless” man suffers more acutely the very death he seeks to evade. O. Hobart Mowrer, author of The Crisis in Psychiatry and Religion, concurs. “To have the excuse of being ‘sick’ rather than sinful,” he reasons, “is to court the danger of also becoming lost. … In becoming amoral, ethically neutral, and ‘free,’ we have cut the very roots of our being; lost our deepest sense of self-hood and identity; and with neurotics themselves, find ourselves asking: ‘Who am I?’”
Want It? Will It
There are two lines of influence in the modern world, though diametrically opposed to one another, which have contributed significantly to the current denial of guilt. One flows from Sigmund Freud, who held that the human will was too weak to sin and experience real guilt. The other stems from Friedrich Nietzsche, who argued that the will is so powerful that it can rise above the conventional notions of good and evil and therefore above sin and guilt. In sum, man is guiltless either because his will is too weak or because his will is too strong.
The scientific-analytic approach to man that is found in strict Freudian analysis has historical roots in the radical dualism of Descartes. The Cartesian partition that separated man's soul from his body inaugurated a tradition in which scientists studied him as a mere body, while theologians and philosophers were left to regard him as a disembodied spirit. Since all human ills, psychic or somatic, are expressed on the physical level and scientists have no direct access to the movements of the soul, the belief naturally arose among many scientists that man is a mere mechanism, though one of extraordinary complexity. Freud, in keeping with the requirements of his scientific model, compared man with a system of “hydraulics” and likened the libido to an “electromagnetic” charge.
Concurrently, theology and philosophy, left with the “ghost” in the machine, began to appear more and more like disciplines without valid subject matter. Thus, Descartes' radical dualism that split mind from body led inevitably to an acute crisis between science on the one hand, and philosophy and religion on the other.
According to the classical Freudian position, the great mistake of the Victorians was to stress “will power” at the price of repressing the sexual impulse. Freud considered this a most improvident arrangement inasmuch as it could lead to neurotic affects such as depression, anxiety and panic — something he referred to as the “return of the repressed.” His revolutionary solution was to turn the tables and free the sexual impulse by discounting the value of the will.
As a result, Freud assigned the will a new function, that of inhibiting or repressing. Thus weakened and reduced to a negative role, the will could no longer be regarded as a factor positive enough to produce guilt. “Guilt feelings” (rather than real, objective guilt) were now understood as the result of repressing sexual feelings in the face of social constrictions and external authority.
The will, then, to use philosopher Paul Ricoeur's image, was crushed in the dialectic of the sexual impulse (libido) and outside authority (superego).
The Freudian concept of guilt, then, portrays guilt as a factor of neurosis and as something false, unrealistic, and crippling — the result of too strict a socialization of the individual. In this view guilt is never the fault of the individual but rather of the society or the authority that produces “guilt feelings” in the individual. In other words, guilt feelings do not arise from guilt; an individual does not feel guilt because of anything he did, but because of a desire to do what he did not do that was repressed.
We Shall Overcome … Overselves?
With the Death-of-God movement, man suddenly inherited the over-burdensome task of being like God but without benefit of His grace. Nietzsche's notion of the superman with his “will to power” called for a new morality that would overcome the inhibiting effects of guilt by throwing them off through sheer willpower.
“Life consists of self-overcoming,” he writes. “I estimate the power of a will according to how much resistance, pain and torture it endures and knows how to transform into its own advantage.”
Man is guiltless, then, not because he is will-less, but because the power of the will is limitless. Princeton University philosopher Walter Kaufmann carries the Nietzschean notion of the heroic will into the present-day discussion of guilt. At the close of his book Without Guilt and Justice, he rewrites the temptation scene in Genesis, making the serpent wisdom's mouthpiece: “Once upon a time God decided, but now that he is dead it is up to you to decide. It is up to you to leave behind guilt and fear. You can be autonomous.”
For Kaufmann, guilt is as unreal as it is for the Freudians. However, he enlists the power of the will to discharge guilt, whereas the Freudians see the negativity of the will as its cause. Like Nietzsche, Kaufmann emphasizes assertiveness and self-realization. Guilt is the effect of being submissive to another and is, therefore, an obstacle in the attainment of creative autonomy. Kaufmann advocates alienation and discipline so that the self can be free to create. The Freudians advocate just the opposite so that man can function as an unimpeded mechanism.
In both cases, when guilt is evaded, some other crucial factor is evaded in the process. When the “will to power” advocates evade guilt, they evade man's responsibilities to his neighbors (and to God): When the Freudians do, they evade man's capacity to function as a self. In either case there is a failure to achieve a balance between body and soul, self and other, creativity and morality.
The Freudian theory of guilt as sickness may very well be a direct outgrowth of the Nietzschean position that guilt is a weakness. Nietzsche saw no value in guilt because God — and, with him, objective moral standards — was dead. Freud, as a psychoanalyst, could not abolish guilt so easily, but he reduced its presence in the individual to a neurosis by denying the human will its positive character. Thus, God was dead and man was broken. However, something akin to what Freud himself recognized as the “return of the repressed” was to have its day of triumph. The guilt which was thought abolished returned with greater vengeance: The Freudians began to feel guilty that they had never lived; the Nietzscheans, because they had never loved.
Pope John Paul II has proposed a better way. In his Agenda for the Third Millennium, the Holy Father speaks of sin and guilt, and adjures us to expiate our guilt through confession. His statement, though addressed specifically to young people, extends to everyone. It is simple, direct and attractive, and needs no commentary:
“To all young people in the Church I address a special invitation to receive Christ's forgiveness and strength in the Sacrament of Penance. It is a sign of strength to be able to say: ‘I have made a mistake; I have sinned, Father; I have offended you, my God; I'm sorry; I ask your forgiveness; I will try again since I trust in your strength and believe in your forgiveness. And I know that the power of your son's paschal mystery — the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ — is greater than my weaknesses and all the sins in the world. I will come and confess my sins, and I shall be healed and shall live in your love!’”
Donald DeMarco is a professor of philosophy at St. Jerome's University in Waterloo, Ontario.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Donald DeMarco ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The 'Legacy': Clinton as History's Worst President DATE: 01/21/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:A friend of mine who was in one of Bill Clinton's university classes often remarks that, even in college, he planned to be president.
Plato, for good reasons, remarks that the last person who should have an important political post is someone who eagerly wants it.
Unlike, say, Cincinnatus or Washington, we cannot, I suppose, expect Mr. Clinton to retire quietly to some farm in Arkansas to lead a sedate life. We have the impression that Mr. Clinton knows no other life but the political life, one of mankind's most unhappy situations. As an ex-president he will go around the world preaching what he has always preached, justifying what he has always justified.
The press frequently brings up the question of Mr. Clinton's “legacy.” What is it that he bequeaths to us? One should only answer this question with the utmost frankness. There is, in principle, no objective judgment on moral and political issues that does not include some statement about the goodness or badness of the human actions under consideration.
Of course, we might try to impose some Machiavellian standard by which we attempt to praise a politician by withdrawing any consideration of good and evil from our analysis. We concentrate only on “success” in staying in power. Mr. Clinton stayed in power. This is a fact. He was a “success.” Whether this type of tenacity is to be admired is another question.
When asked, which is not often, what I thought of this president, I usually replied, in my jaundiced, freedom-of-speech opinion, that “from what I can observe, he was the worst man ever to be president, and he was the worst president.” Compared to previous presidents both on the score of integrity and accomplishment, I place the president from 1992-2000 at the bottom of both lists. Previous presidents are superior by these standards. Somebody has to be at the bottom.
What this president did by way of executive orders, by way of influence, by way of example — and this is an opinion; it could be awry — corrupted much of our public life by making what is wrong either to be tolerated or approved, something to be admired.
But, someone might well object, the economy was prosperous. Economy is not politics; the main thing that Mr. Clinton did for the economy was not to bother it. He got us into no big wars, though all the little wars he did get us into seemed to be principally a function of some political need he had to cover his domestic actions. He seriously lessened our military capacity and its morale. He was, no doubt, well liked, even admired by not a few. He was also, I think, feared.
I have mostly seen the Clinton legacy in terms of Plato. This view might be imposing an outside, out-of-time view on something in our own day. But it is precisely because of what we do here and now that the Platonic shadow is so star-tlingly pertinent. The essence of the Clinton legacy was that a man of highly disordered soul became a model to justify the disordered souls of a significant proportion of the citizenry. Several previous presidents had, no doubt, disordered souls, but they did not present their deeds as justified. Mr. Clinton gloried in legally getting away with what he did. “They never laid a glove on him,” one could say of his enemies.
This escape from punishment itself was, in Plato's view, the most unfortunate thing that could happen to someone who has violated basic human standards. The failure of the Senate to remove him from office when he had in fact lied and thus corrupted our judicial system and the rights of others to the truth was, paradoxically, the worst thing that could have happened to Mr. Clinton himself. It enabled him to continue in his illusion that he had done nothing wrong. The worst punishment that can be given someone with a disordered soul, Plato thought, is to prevent him from acknowledging that he did anything wrong. Plato's observation here almost seems eerie.
Mr. Clinton is, it seems, a perfect replica of the sort of man Plato called a tyrant, a word we usually do not analyze with care. When we use that word today, we often have the wrong image. We think we would recognize a tyrant as an ugly, horrid person, repulsive in every way. Plato did not think this way. A tyrant was invariably very popular, handsome, clever, with loyal friends, eager to please, aware of the sins and shallowness of most men, limited by nothing but his own interests and daring. Plato's tyrant did not have much of a soul of his own. What he held from day to day changed with what the people wanted. It did not much matter what they wanted. That was the point.
On the other hand, the tyrant saw the weakness of the democratic man. The latter simply wanted what he wanted and called it freedom or liberty. There were no self-evident principles behind it. The leader who knew how to appeal to this ungrounded desire could pretty much do what he wished. Almost the only things, in retrospect, about which Mr. Clinton was consistent were what we call “pro-death” issues that he seems to hold even if the people would be against them.
The saddest part of Mr. Clinton's regime is that he was never really fully investigated. The Justice Department and often the press saw their purpose to protect the president, and did so. And it was dangerous to suggest anything was wrong. Reputations and families were attacked if they were called to witness. Much of this information will come out. Indeed, it is already coming out, even on TV, as Dorothy Rabinowitz pointed out in The Wall Street Journal on Jan. 8. The print media will have a field day both in attacking and explaining this president.
The Clinton legacy, as many have pointed out, is that of a vast opportunity missed because of a soul concerned more with itself than with the objective principles of what is good and just. This condition is an affirmation of Plato's basic principle that the disorder of polity begins in disorder of soul. Mr. Clinton succeeded in separating the two orders in the public mind, but it cannot be done. The legacy is, as it must be, that men in high office have first to look to their own souls and to recognize a right order, the outlines of which they cannot change by their own wills.
Jesuit Father James V. Schall is a professor of government at Georgetown University.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: James Schall Sj ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: A Sacred Spot in A Super-Bowl City DATE: 01/21/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:Thanks to its worldwide exposure as the host city for Super Bowl XXXV on Jan. 28, Tampa may become known only as an NFL hotspot.
But the area called Tampa Bay — which includes the triad of St. Petersburg, Clearwater and Tampa — has more to offer the Catholic visitor than a visit to Raymond James Stadium, home of the Buccaneers.
The city claims the Church's protomartyr in Florida and one of the first Catholics to die for the faith in the United States. The Dominican friar Luis de Cancer was clubbed to death in 1549 by natives from the Timucuan and Caloosa Nations who accosted his band of religious as they came ashore on Tampa Bay. A dramatic stained-glass window in Espiritu Santo Church in the area's Safety Harbor is a visual reminder of Fray Luis' sacrifice. It wasn't until 1565, when Spain established St. Augustine colony on Florida's Atlantic shore, that the Church established a foothold in the state. It would take 311 years after Fray Luis' death for a Catholic church to be built in Tampa Bay.
Tampa's Catholic history owes a debt to the Jesuits who arrived in Tampa in 1888 to take over the tiny St. Louis Church, which had been founded in 1860 and named in honor of Fray Luis. Yellow fever had killed three of the four priests in the area and the bishop of the state's only diocese turned to the Jesuits' New Orleans province for help. With new vigor, the Jesuits arrived and set out to build a new church to replace St. Louis. They broke ground in Tampa's downtown in 1898 for what would be christened Sacred Heart Church.
Sacred Heart was finished in 1904 and dedicated in 1905. As Tampa Bay's oldest church, it has served as the mother church for 50 parishes in the area, which is now under the leadership of the Diocese of St. Petersburg and is the home of 77 parishes serving more than 365,000 Catholics.
Shape of a Cross
Tampa's skyline has changed tremendously since 1905, but visitors to Sacred Heart will see a church that looks much the same now as it did when it was dedicated.
Other than side altars added later in its history, and a new marble altar added in the 1960s, Sacred Heart has remained a 19th-century architectural jewel. What had originally been a neighborhood of small homes is now the city's growing downtown; what was once an imposing Romanesque church towering over a residential neighborhood is now dwarfed by skyscrapers built in the 96 years since.
The Jesuits planned Sacred Heart in the shape of a cross and imported marble for its white exterior, which is offset by granite. A petal-shaped, stained-glass window and three solid-oak entryways give the church's entrance a grand European cathedral character à la Notre Dame de Chartres. Now surrounded by parking lots and towers, Sacred Heart sits squarely in a business center that's alive during business hours, but lonely on evenings and weekends.
A visitor to Tampa's downtown can find a quiet refuge at Sacred Heart. A pilgrim can appreciate the old-style beauty of the church's interior, which rises more than 70 feet from its porcelain tile floor to its dome.
The main altar and its railing have the gleaming white-marble grandeur of the churches many of us remember from our parochial childhoods. The Jesuits' motto Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (For the Greater Glory of God) frames the sanctuary. Even a casual visitor walking into Sacred Heart couldn't help but peg this as an unmistakably Catholic church.
Sacred Heart's 17 stained-glass windows are the church's greatest artistic treasure. Made in Munich specifically for the Jesuits' home church in Florida, the richly colored panels depicting scenes of Jesus' life are still vibrant in their 10th decade. Jesus blesses children and saves Peter from drowning in Tiffanyesque stained glass that, thanks to Florida's brilliant sunshine, bathes empty pews in rainbow hues on a Sunday afternoon.
Bas-relief Stations of the Cross complement the stained glass windows along the sides of the church. The side pews that make up the crossbar of Sacred Heart's cross shape are prime spots to take in the grandeur of the church. The stained-glass windows are offset by the marble stations along the side aisles. A magnificent 1927 Mighty Moeller pipe organ adds to the character of the church. The organ was restored in 1991 and is used for performances as well as liturgies.
Tampa's suburban growth had an effect on Sacred Heart's parish rolls; as more families have moved out of central Tampa, they've shifted their attendance to newer churches.
The church remains a vital parish with several ministries, including Hearts for Healing, an ecumenical group that focuses on praying for healing wounds caused by disunion and racism. Half of the group's members are Catholic and the other half are from other Christian denominations. The Friends of Sacred Heart organization was formed in 1993 as a way to raise funds through enrollments and memorials to continue the church's restoration and maintenance. (In the 1970s, termite damage was repaired at a cost greater than the church's original construction cost in 1904.)
Sacred Heart continues to serve Catholics in Tampa's business center with a daily lunchtime Mass and the church continues to be popular with history buffs and engaged couples looking to marry in its stately interior.
The Super Bowl notwithstanding, the Tampa Bay area is more than an NFL city — it's also one of the cradles of Catholicism in Florida and the home of one of its most beautiful churches.
Maggie D. Hall is based in Dunedin, Florida.
----- EXCERPT: Sacred Heart Church, Tampa, Fla. ----- EXTENDED BODY: Maggie D. Hall ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: California Mission to Showcase Filipino Textiles DATE: 01/21/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:Mission San Juan Capistrano will present an exhibition titled Native Peoples' Textiles from the Philippines from Jan. 27 through June 30 in the mission's Barracks Gallery, according to a release issued by the popular pilgrim and tourist stop.
The exhibition will feature Filipino religious vestments, evening attire, wedding garments, scarves and decorative book covers, each hand-woven and embroidered using traditional weaving techniques by members of 20 different native tribes of the Philippines.
Materials used include abaca (banana fiber), pina (pineapple fiber), jusi (silk and abaca or pina blends).
“The techniques used by the Filipino craftsmen and women who created these textiles date back centuries,” says museum coordinator Alana Jolley.
The exhibition was organized by Dom Martin de Jesus Gomez, formerly a prominent designer in New York who became a Benedictine monk in the Philippines a decade ago. While living the monastic life, he began to study ancient Filipino tribal techniques employed in the creation of vestments used in religious services. His study took him to remote villages in the Philippines which each used unique materials and techniques to create beautiful garments.
These weaving skills date back generations, and are secrets jealously guarded by tribal elders. Gomez was concerned, however, that younger Filipinos were leaving the tribes to take industrial jobs in the cities, and hence are abandoning their ancient tribal hand weaving skills.
“The exhibition is Gomez's attempt to revive traditional indigenous weaving arts and to create a greater demand for their goods,” explains Jolley.
Mission administrator Jerry Miller believes the San Juan Capistrano is an ideal location for the exhibition, since the native people of California built the Mission.
Additionally, just as in the case of the Philippines, it was the Spanish who first brought Christianity and opened trade routes along the California coast by way of the missions.
The textile exhibition is part of the 2001 theme of the mission museums: “Preserving Native Art and Artistic Techniques.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Register Staff ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Computers as Creative Collaborators DATE: 01/21/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:I remember a few years ago when you had to download audio and video files from the Internet before you could play them.
This was very inconvenient, as the process took a half-hour or more. Then came streaming media, which let you listen or watch something almost immediately. What a relief that was. Yet now I am seeing a trend back to the original concept. Of course, many things have changed to make this possible — not the least of them faster computers and Internet connections, along with better compression techniques that allow smaller media files.
An example of this for audio would be MP3. I had heard about people downloading music from the Internet and then playing it at their leisure on their computer or on MP3 players. One of our Web site visitors asked me if I could provide our Chanted Rosary streaming audio in MP3 so he could play it on his MP3 machine whenever and wherever he wants. I knew that this seemingly simple request would involve re-recording our Chanted Rosary, finding a software program to convert it to an MP3 file and then making it available on our Web site. I saw this as one of those projects one places on the back burner, so I answered with one of those “someday” replies.
Then I started thinking about it. Here was a young person who wants to hear the rosary. That's impressive! So I moved the project to the front burner. I re-recorded the half-hour rosary, which became a 38-megabyte WAV file in my computer. Then I used the free MusicMatch Jukebox program (www.music-match.com) to convert it into a 3.5-megabyte MP3 file. With a 56K modem it would take approximately 10 minutes for a person to download this audio file from the Internet. Broadband connections would take even less time. The Chanted Rosary would be available to the world in almost CD quality. And, if one's computer has a CD-RW Drive, a CD of the Chanted Rosary could be made, also. (Of course, MP3 could be used to distribute talks as well as music.)
What about video? Video for Windows (AVI) files can get very large very fast. Until very recently, producing and editing your own videos on your computer was an exorbitant, if not impossible, proposition for home users. But that has changed. Falling computer prices, faster computers, giant hard drives and digital video cameras have accounted for a new video revolution. Microsoft certainly thinks so, as attested by its new consumer Windows ME (Millenium Edition) operating system with video-editing software. Suddenly, video production is affordable; the way has been paved for anyone to produce their own movies.
What about sharing these movies? As mentioned already, AVI file sizes easily reach gigabyte proportions. The Motion Pictures Experts Group (MPEG) that developed MPEG-1, on which MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer III) is based, has developed MPEG-4, which has become the standard compression for video used on the Internet. They are currently working on MPEG-7 and even MPEG-21 (don't ask me to explain what happened to versions 8 through 20!).
With current and newer compression techniques and broadband Internet connections, sharing video by downloading it on the Internet becomes a possibility. @Home Broadband Cable ISP provides this service already with ClickVideo, which it bills as “a showcase of the best on-demand video the Web has to offer.” With ClickVideo you can watch video or short films they provide or you can show off your directorial skills by posting your very own home videos. And with DVDRAM drives capable of storing gigabytes of information on a single disk, you can download and burn your own movie DVDs for DVD-player replay or to share with others.
AtomFilms' Web site delivers millions of video streams and downloads every month from their collection of over 1,000 film, animation and digital media titles. Their length varies from 30 seconds to 30 minutes. Also, they are syndicated to television networks, airlines, video retailers, Internet sites and broadband services. Recognize some of these names? HBO, Canal Plus, Sci-Fi Channel, United, Continental, Air New Zealand, Intel, British Telecom, @Home, Blockbuster and Warner Brothers. Time magazine said about them, “AtomFilms is drawing big audiences by putting movies on the Internet.”
Now, if AtomFilms can do this, so can Catholic organizations and individuals. And perhaps Hollywood will pick up some of these Catholic Internet films for television use. Perhaps we need a CatholicFilms Web site. There was a Catholic Films and Television Web site up a year ago, which now is defunct. Perhaps someone else will give it a try.
This week's recommended Catholic sites revolve around apologetics, that is, defense of the Catholic faith. At the same time these same sites can answer questions you may have about your own faith.
Recommendations
The Web site of Catholic Answers, founded by Register columnist Karl Keating (www.catholic.com), presents a comprehensive overview of what Catholics really believe — about God, creation, the Gospel, sin, salvation, last things, Scripture, the Church, saints, sacraments, and morals — with a particular emphasis on correcting falsifications about the Church that are leveled by fundamentalists and other anti-Catholic groups. Catholic Answers' radio program can be heard live on their site during the radio show's air time or at any time via an archive. You can also read sample articles from This Rock magazine on the site and order books and tapes.
How many times have you heard the question from our Protestant brothers and sisters, “Where is that in the Bible?” David Armstrong's Biblical Evidence for Catholicism site (http://ic.net/∼erasmus/RAZINDEX.HTM) tackles those kind of questions.
Doctrinal articles are grouped under 15 categories, including the Church, the Blessed Virgin Mary and the papacy, just to mention a few. Also covered are topics like anti-Catholicism, Protestantism and converts.
Father John Noone, pastor of St. Charles Borromeo parish in Picayune, Miss., has put together a booklet based on questions parishioners have asked about the faith. I'm Glad You Asked is available online at www.scborromeo.org/glad.htm. Father Noone is also the author of To Tell You the Whole Truth, available at www.scborromeo.org/truth.htm.
For many more such sites see my online Apologetics directory at www.monksofadoration.org/apolo gia.html.
Brother John Raymond is author of Catholics on the Internet.
----- EXCERPT: Making movies and music the digital way ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brother John Raymond ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 01/21/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:The Quiet Man (1952)
After making good in A m e r i c a , immigrants often return to the old country to retire. If born into peasant or working - class stock, they're now able to live as gentry in a style which they only dreamed of as youths.
The Oscar-winning The Quiet Man is an intelligent, funny dramatization of the unexpected consequences of living out this fantasy.
Sean Thornton (John Wayne) is a wealthy American who returns to the Irish county where he was born and purchases his rundown childhood home.
This alienates Red Dannaher (Victor McLaglen), the region's richest and meanest citizen, who thinks the property should have been sold to him.
When Thornton falls for his strong-willed, tempestuous sister, Mary Kate (Maureen O'Hara), and marries her, Red vows to make their lives miserable. Director John Ford (Stagecoach), of Irish roots himself, shows how strange the local customs now appear to the native-born Thornton. His years in America have turned him into an outsider.
The Kid (2000)
How would we as a grownup look to the child we used to be? Have we been true to our childhood dreams? Or, have we compromised our earliest sense of self? Russ Duritz (Bruce Willis) is an abrasive, self-absorbed Los Angeles image consultant who makes big bucks and is proud of it. Inexplicably, his pudgy, awkward 8-year-old self, Rusty (Spencer Breslin), materializes on his doorstep and asks to be taken care of. The kid immediately labels his older self “a loser” because he has no friends and doesn't even own a dog. This forces the successful Russ to takes a hard look at his present-day life and values.
The Kid is a well-crafted fantasy film with an old-fashioned message: Money can't buy happiness. The movie doesn't probe too deeply and it's occasionally emotionally manipulative. But there are plenty of laughs and tugs on the heart strings.
The Sacrifice (1986)
There have never been many committed Christian filmmakers. Writer-director Andrei Tarkovsky came to his faith under Soviet rule during the Cold War, and his career predictably suffered. His final masterpiece, The Sacrifice, was made in exile. One of the Vatican's top 45 films, its central character is a Swedish journalist (Erland Josephson) who learns that nuclear war is about to begin. Although not a religious man, he promises God he will give up everything he cherishes if only the world will be spared. The crisis becomes his call to a spiritual awakening.
Tarkovsky tries to show how and where the numinous invisible reality of God intersects with the ordinary physical world in which we live. To him, this interaction of the seen and unseen has the logic of a dream. The filmmaker believes that “the true affirmation of self is sacrifice.” We are encouraged to be like Alexander and enter into a dialogue with God about the meaning of his creation.
— John Prizer
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: College Students Fight for Life DATE: 01/21/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — Entering its fourth decade, the pro-life movement is getting younger — thanks to the diligence of organizations like American Collegians for Life.
Serving as a nationwide network and information clearinghouse, American Collegians for Life is best known for its annual pro-life conference held in conjunction with the annual March for Life in Washington.
“It's a chance for pro-life students to hear inspirational stories from these great luminaries, plus learning the nuts and bolts things to do on their campuses,” said Mattai Radu, the organization's outreach director for the eastern United States.
The workshops are important, he said, so that students don't have to reinvent the wheel.
“We teach them how to get funding, how to deal with a hostile administration and how to deal with other hostile student organizations,” Radu told the Register.
Which is invaluable help to those students brave enough to defend life in academia, where all too often there is overwhelming support for abortion.
Pro-life groups aren't the biggest organizations on America's campuses, “but they're there and we want to fund them,” said Radu, a sophomore at Villanova University in Philadelphia. “If we find one student who is gung-ho pro-life, then we equip him with the tools to get 15 or 20 others involved that would-n't have been involved otherwise.”
Without a pro-life group on campus, students will often hear only from abortion supporters.
“Kids are more pro-life when they enter college than when they leave, which is dangerous and disturbing,” said George Paci, a Cornell alumnus who chairs Collegians for Life's board. “If there's no vocal pro-lifers, then there's a missed opportunity.”
In 1991, Paci founded the Ivy League Coalition for Life, which holds annual conferences and has worked hard to bring the message of life to the best-rated colleges in the Northeast.
“People have this image that the Ivy League is more pro-abortion. We want to say that it isn't uniformly pro-abortion,” Paci told the Register. “We want to challenge the idea that the smarter you are, the more you love abortion.”
American Collegians for Life, which counts over a thousand student members nationwide, works with other organizations to find innovative ways to promote life. They collaborated with Feminists for Life on an educational program designed to challenge students to question abortion and ask college and university administrators to provide resources for pregnant and parenting students.
“American Collegians for Life has been instrumental in helping to implement Feminists for Life's college outreach program on campuses across the country,” said Molly Pannell, who serves as Feminists for Life's Advocacy and Outreach Coordinator. “We are very excited that Feminists for Life President Serrin Foster will be speaking at the 2001 American Collegians for Life conference,” she said.
Previously, Pannell served as president and then as board member for American Collegians for Life.
Encouraging students to attend the organization's annual conference leads to more pro-life campus activism, said Paci.
“Coming to the conference is a wonderful bonding experience. It's a good way to start a group,” he said. About 75 students attended the 2000 conference and the organization expects over 100 this year.
Even if they're not in college, Paci said, interested pro-lifers can help by informing college students about the organization's website, www.aclife.org, or by contributing financially.
The 14th annual conference, to be held Jan. 19-21, will feature speeches by Serrin Foster, president of Feminists for Life, Mary Jane Owen from the U.S. bishops' National Catholic Office for Persons with Disabilities and Patty Lyman from American Center for Law and Justice.
How big an impact can this conference have? Radu, who attended his first conference just last year and is already an outreach director, said the meeting “inspired me to get more involved in this issue on a national level. This is what I want to do with my life.”
Joshua Mercer writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Eugenics in the Hot Seat 28 Years After Roe DATE: 01/21/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:“The principal manifestations of eugenics are racism and abortion. Eugenics is the driving force behind euthanasia, artificial insemination, environmental extremism, genetic engineering and coercive population policies. … It is found … in all the social sciences [and] in many works of modern literature, especially science fiction.”
Thus opens John CavanaughO'Keefe's study of how eugenics, the movement devoted to changing the human species through the control of hereditary factors in mating, has laid the foundation for today's ethical conundrums in medical, reproductive and social-justice initiatives. If it all sounds a bit alarmist, O'Keefe convincingly demonstrates that racist notions fuel the pseudoscientific eugenics enterprise, which then lobbies, at home and abroad, for “access” to abortion and other technological fixes.
O'Keefe's thesis is wide-ranging, but he makes a persuasive case in a format resembling a high-school textbook. Each chapter addresses one issue (Eugenics Captures Feminism, The Abortion Debate) in solid, if bland, prose with recommendations for further reading and review questions at the end.
The earlier, historical chapters trace the “pedigree” of eugenics, both in theory (Malthus, Darwin, Francis Galton, etc.) and in early American efforts at social engineering such as campaigns to restrict immigration and sterilize the “unfit.” In dealing with such subjects, O'Keefe, known for his controversial activism ever since he opposed the Vietnam War, exercises restraint.
There are a few flashes of his characteristic wit, but little of the sardonic tone one might have expected from such an outspoken pro-life activist. The depth of discussion varies greatly from chapter to chapter, though, and his examination of more current issues is a bit unfocused. This flaw compromises the cohesiveness of the book without destroying its essential arguments.
O'Keefe means to expose “eugenics” as an ideology-driven movement, and things get interesting in his discussion of the turn of the 20th century. He names names of U.S. industrialists and British economic theorists who also belonged to eugenics societies. The author does not limit his study to the English-speaking world; he has a chapter on the origins of the Nazi holocaust in European eugenics. Nevertheless, an Anglo-American axis emerges from this survey, reflecting a history of economic imperialism and a predominantly utilitarian philosophy.
“One of the places where the eugenics movement made strides after the war was in the new global peace-keeping operation, the United Nations,” he writes. “In 1948, when the U.N. was founded, the Americans and British pushed through a provision for population studies as an official function. Some other countries resisted the idea, but the U.S. and Britain succeeded in making a population commission part of the international body.”
The author acknowledges his dependence on the research of his sister, Katharine S. O'Keefe. In a sidebar he quotes her argument that trying to discuss the pre-World-War-II period “without knowing that the architects of appeasement were all eugenicists is like writing post-war history without mentioning that Stalin, Tito and Mao Tse-Tung were all communists.”
The Roots of Racism shows the pervasive, dehumanizing effects of a worldview that denies the intrinsic value of human life and tries to rate it on a sliding scale, depending upon race, IQ or stage of development. The book is a useful dossier on an important and much-misunderstood issue. It might have been titled, more aptly, The Roots of the Culture of Death. In any case, it's well worth a read for anyone who finds him- or herself defending the culture of life 28 years after Roe v. Wade put life issues at the top of the Church's priority list.
Michael J. Miller writes from Glenside,Pennsylvania.
Colleges Host Major Pro-Life Speakers
CHRISTENDOM COLLEGE AND CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA, Jan. 8 — Two Catholic colleges announced that they hosted renowned pro-life speakers this month. Christendom College, in Front Royal, Va., hosted Population Research Institute head Steven Mosher for a Jan. 29 lecture on United States population control policy, while the Catholic University of America sponsored a Jan. 11 discussion of abortion and the death penalty between Sister of St. Joseph Sister Helen Prejean and Helen Alvaré.
Mosher is the author of eight books, including A Mother's Ordeal: One Woman's Fight Against China's One-Child Policy. He is a well-known lecturer on population control.
Sister Prejean is the author of the best-selling book Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States. Alvaré is an associate professor at Catholic University's Columbus School of Law and the former national spokeswoman for the pro-life secretariat of the National Council of Catholic Bishops. The presentation was part of the law school's Brendan F. Brown Lecture series, and was co-sponsored by two student groups, the school's Advocates for Life and Pope John Paul II Guild of Catholic Lawyers.
Anorexic Student Sues College
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Jan. 3 — An anorexic student sued Stonehill College, a Catholic college in Massachusetts, seeking readmission after school officials turned her away because of her condition.
Keri Krissik, 20, suffered cardiac arrest while at home in Milford, Conn., in April. She completed her spring semester coursework, but administrators at Stonehill refused to let her register last fall. The university says it does not have the resources to take care of Krissik properly.
Krissik, 5-foot-6 and between 97 and 100 pounds, has been anorexic since she was 8. She said she is protected by the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. Krissik's lawyer, Abbe Ross, said her condition had improved and that the school was “only keeping her out because of her disability.” Anorexia nervosa's effects range from weight loss to heart problems, depression and death.
Dayton Homecoming Canceled
UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON, Jan. 8 — The University of Dayton has suspended Homecoming indefinitely, the school announced. Due to concerns over drinking and student safety, the university nixed the weekend-long celebrations, but expanded its fall alumni awards banquet and initiated a five-year class reunion to attract younger alumni to Reunion Weekend.
Marianist Brother Raymond L. Fitz, university president, said that recent homecomings have seen “extensive and excessive drinking and trashing of the student neighborhoods” by crowds of students, young alumni, guests and others. Last October's Homecoming street party drew over 7,000 people and resulted in eight arrests and 18 citations. Two Dayton students were arrested. Most of the citations were for violations of university alcohol policies.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: 'If You Are What You Should Be, You Will Set the World On Fire!' DATE: 01/21/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:On Jan. 4 in St. Peter's Square, Pope John Paul II met with 12,000 members of the Regnum Christi Movement and the Legionaries of Christ, including 37 newly-ordained priests.
He addressed the following words to them stressing themes close to his heart.
Dear Legionaries of Christ!
Dear members of the Regnum Christi Movement!
I am profoundly happy to greet you upon your jubilee pilgrimage to Rome, during which you are celebrating the 60th anniversary of your founding. You come from different nations of the world; I greet each and every one of you with the hope that this occasion will constitute a strong support for your faith in the Lord Jesus and your decision to bear witness to him before your brothers and sisters.
I extend a particularly affectionate greeting to your dear founder, Father Marcial Maciel, whom I heartily congratulate at this significant juncture. I warmly thank him for the words he has addressed to me in the name of all of you. I especially appreciate his express confirmation of the fidelity to the Successor of Peter that characterizes you. Your communion with the Pope attests to your full insertion into the mystery of the Church's unity.
Over the course of these days you have wished to give thanks to God for all the benefits he has poured out upon your spiritual family. Casting your eyes back to Jan. 3, 1941, when this work had its beginnings in Mexico City, you have noted how that small seed that the divine sower planted in the soil of a few young men's hearts has now become a flourishing tree (see Matthew 13:32) that is home to numerous priests, consecrated men and women, and lay people whose ideal is to give their lives for the extension of the Kingdom of Christ in the world.
You have come to Rome within the framework of the Jubilee Year to renew your faith in Jesus Christ. The Christ-centered character of your spirituality helps you penetrate more deeply into the meaning of this Jubilee, which has proposed the mystery of the Incarnation and the person of Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8), as a subject for meditation. Announcing Christ to today's world throughout the various sectors of society is your apostolic ideal.
In order to preach Christ, however, it is necessary to profoundly experience his love like St. Paul, so as to say together with him, “The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
I encourage you, in keeping with your motto, “Your Kingdom Come!” never to let up in your enthusiasm for working tirelessly to make the Kingdom of love, grace, justice, and peace a reality in persons and in society. May one of the main fruits of this intense spiritual experience in Rome be the renewal in your souls of sincere love for Jesus Christ, so that you may bring many other men and women to share in the blessing of this unique friendship with him.
Faith in the person of Jesus Christ leads you to love the Church passionately as the universal sacrament of salvation and propagator of his work throughout history. Hence, you wish to nourish your spiritual and apostolic charism from the great well-spring of life that flows through his body through a special spirit of ecclesial communion with the Successor of Peter and the shepherds of local churches. With renewed zeal, continue spreading the magisterium and doctrine of the Church as you have up to now, both through the numerous projects begun among you over the course of your 60 years of life, and through the many others that your apostolic ardor will boldly initiate for the good of souls.
One of the important spiritual traits of your service in the Church is your commitment to the spirit of authentic Gospel charity. At the Last Supper the Lord stated clearly and for all time that fraternal love would be the distinctive feature of his followers:
“By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).
It has been your desire to take up this Gospel challenge, placing particular emphasis on the fraternal warmth of your interpersonal relations, and furthering the spirit of charity in thought and word, passing over in silence the errors of others and bringing up only those deeds of theirs which are positive and helpful. May the Lord preserve you in this spirit, helping you to bear witness in every way to that Christian charity which St. Paul so masterfully described in the famous hymn to love found in his First Letter to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 13:4-8).
Another trait which distinguishes your charism is apostolic fervor. You show this in all the many works you have undertaken, especially in education, evangelization, social communications, the spreading of the Church's social teaching, the cultural and human promotion of the disadvantaged, and the training of diocesan priests.
In all of this you strive to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit, who constantly renews the face of the Church with gifts and charisms which enrich and strengthen it. In a secularized world such as our own, built in large part on neglect of transcendent truths and values, the faith of many of our brothers and sisters is sorely tried.
Because of this, there is a need today more than ever for a confident proclamation of the Gospel, which, casting aside all crippling fears, announces with intellectual depth and with courage the truth about God, about man, about the world.
To you, Legionaries of Christ and members of Regnum Christi, I repeat the words of St. Catherine of Siena which I proposed to the young people at the World Youth Day: “If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world on fire!”
Generously open the doors of your spirits to this invitation. I now speak in particular to those whom Christ calls to follow him with total dedication in the priesthood and consecrated life. May the Blessed Virgin, the pilgrim in faith full of the Holy Spirit, help you to fulfill your resolutions.
As you return to your homes and your daily activities, know that the Pope is with you and is praying for you, that you may be faithful to your Christian vocation and your specific charism. May the Holy Spirit expand your hearts, making you courageous messengers of the Gospel and witnesses to the Risen Christ, the Redeemer and Savior of the world.
I affectionately bless you all!
Translated by Matthew Williams
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mathew Williams ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: DATE: 01/21/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:Determined to Do Good
Q My son always seems to take the easiest way he can, though he tries to be a “nice guy.” When I think of the hard work it took to get qualified in my profession, I wonder if he'll ever have what it takes. I don't care what direction he decides to go, I'd just like him to decide. What can I do?
—T.J.W. Flagstaff, Arizona
A. You're rightly implying that it's not enough to be just a nice guy who doesn't do anything wrong. I recently heard a priest point out that the word “nice” is never used in the Bible.
There's an expression in basketball: “Hit the boards.” It refers to rebounding, which involves a great deal of skill — blocking out the opposing player and anticipating where the shot will go. Sure it helps to be tall, but rebounding is really a product of hustle and desire. Whoever wants the ball the most, usually gets it.
We want our kids to “Hit the boards.” We want them to actively pursue the good. It doesn't mean they won't be generous, or self-surrendering. Encouraging them to be assertively active means directing them to the cardinal virtues of justice, prudence, temperance and courage in every situation they face. This is opposed to a sort of niceness that keeps the cardinal virtues waiting — perpetually on deck, but never stepping up to the plate (to use another sport metaphor).
Here are some practical tips we can offer our kids:
l Our motivation to do the good comes from grace in prayer, not from our own will alone. God wills the good, and our strength comes from working with him. Therefore, we teach our children the necessary connection between prayer and perseverance.
l Commit to and display an active spirit yourself. Temperament plays a role here, but your example is key. They will notice if you are striving to actively pursue the good with prayerful perseverance and without discouragement.
l Actively support your children. Yelling, screaming and haranguing might seem to work for a short while, but over the long haul it's important to support your kids and let them know you'll be there to help them whether they succeed or fail.
l Help them realize that when they assertively go after the good they create something valuable for others. We all want to do important things. Be appreciative when your children achieve something. Help them see how their good actions improve the welfare of everyone. You may have to be on the lookout for examples in their lives, but it's important to draw their attention to what they have done, to “connect the dots” for them.
l Clarify and support their responsibilities and roles as baptized children of God. It's true in organizational management and it's true in families: we all need to clearly understand our roles and to be supported in accomplishing our tasks. Kids need challenging responsibilities, but not overwhelming ones that could discourage them.
When people step up to their roles — as students, athletes, siblings, and so on — and accept the responsibility that each entails, then they're less likely to resort to blaming, depression or scapegoating.
The world doesn't need raw aggression. And it doesn't really need more nice guys. It needs people who are eagerly and prayerfully committed to the tough task of doing good.
Art A. Bennett is a marriage, family and child therapist.
Reach Family Matters at familymatters@ncregister.com
----- EXCERPT: Family Matters ----- EXTENDED BODY: Art A. Bennett ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Facts of Life DATE: 01/21/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:GOOD NEWS FOR BABIES
The annual nationwide poll on values showed that 58% of the population favors a ban on partial-birth abortion. The poll also revealed that 51% believe "abortion destroys a human life and is manslaughter."
—Source: zogby.com, Dec. 20
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: 'The Best Day of My Life' DATE: 01/21/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:Hands down, Nov. 29 was “the best day of my life,” says 7-year-old Paul Nichols, of Malone, N.Y. Early that morning, at private Mass in the papal chapel in Rome, he received first Communion from John Paul II. “There's only one word” for the experience, says Paul. “A blessing.”
It was a blessing for Paul's family, too. Watching from the front pew, his parents, Joseph and Kathleen Nichols, thought back to their son's iffy first two years of life. Six months after birth, Paul was diagnosed with fourth-stage neuroblastoma, a cancer that originated in his adrenal glands and shot through his body. He went blind, as cancerous tumors damaged his optic nerves and pushed his eyes forward till they were actually out of his skull.
By his third birthday, the boy had endured two years of chemotherapy, three radiation sessions, and four major surgeries, including one in which three feet of intestines were removed.
“Jesus, where are you?” Kathleen had once cried in anguish on seeing little Paul on his hospital bed — tied down, hooked up, in pain. An inner voice answered, “Here I am.” In her son's suffering Kathleen glimpsed Jesus on the cross and grasped something of what Mary went through at the crucifixion. The experience also gave Kathleen hope in God's merciful love, pointing her toward the resurrection.
Sitting in the papal chapel, the Nichols prayed in union with their other children? Maureen (15), Claire (12), John (5) and Veronica (1) — who accompanied them to Rome but were not present at this Mass.
Maureen and Claire especially had played a critical part in Paul's recovery; again and again, their very presence had seemed to strengthen his will to live.
Family friend Father Garry Giroux concelebrated with the Pope. Like many other friends and family members, he had helped storm heaven with prayers for Paul's healing. Saints Lucy, Peregrine, Peter, Pius X, and especially Our Lady of Guadalupe had been invoked. And against all odds, in February 2000, five years after his last chemotherapy session, Paul was declared free of cancer. Today, he is legally blind but able to detect shapes and colors and read large print. “Our little Lazarus,” the family calls him — and keeps praying for total restoration of his sight.
Throughout Paul's struggles for life and health, his parents have always whispered in his ear, “Be not afraid,” the words with which John Paul II began his pontificate. They have been heartened by the Pope's efforts to promote a culture of life.
This sense of closeness with the Holy Father made their son's first Communion experience all the more moving. “Seeing Paul with Pope John Paul — a boy who has gone through suffering with a great deal of bravery together with a Pope who has himself suffered and who constantly reaches out to the suffering — that was a sight I will never forget,” says Joe Nichols.
“It highlighted the amazing reality that the Church reaches out to children, to the disabled, to everyone. No one is left behind.”
In fact, this reality began hitting home as soon as Kathleen had the inspiration for a first Communion in Rome and discussed the possibility with the family's pastor, Msgr. Dennis Duprey, of Notre Dame Church in Malone. Msgr. Duprey responded by writing a letter of request and contacting local bishop Gerald Barbarito on the Nichols' behalf. Bishop Barbarito approved the request and forwarded it to the Vatican.
“To be honest,” says Joe, “I'd been skeptical about this idea working out. But through the help of our pastor and bishop, as well as other people in Rome, I saw it become a reality. It was a great witness to me that in the Church, everyone is important.”
For his part, says Msgr. Duprey, “I was delighted to help. Paul was being prepared for first penance and first Communion through the parish catechetical program and also at home, and I knew he was ready. Of course, I'd be thrilled if any of my parishioners received Communion from the Pope! But Paul is a person of a lot of faith, and I knew he would appreciate the enormity of the privilege.”
Paul and John Paul
Talking to Paul bears out Mgsr. Duprey's observations.
“Receiving Jesus from the Pope is, like, the best honor anyone could have,” says Paul. He was eager for it. “When we got the phone call that it was set for the next day, I thought, ‘Oh my goodness, I wish it could be right now!’ I was that excited.”
Meeting the Pope in a side room after Mass was exciting too. “He was in sort of a cream-colored robe,” Paul remembers. “I told him Totus Tuus and that made him smile. Then he kissed me on the head. I think it was his way of blessing my eyes.”
But for Paul, the biggest blessing of all was receiving Jesus in the Eucharist. “I was most excited about that. Definitely. Because Jesus is in the host, and I wanted him to come into my heart. And he did! I kind of noticed it too. I was happy, and I could sort of feel that Jesus was really happy to be in my heart.”
Paul has noticed something else since then. “Receiving Communion helps me in my life. I'm more loving to my family, I think. Because Jesus can strengthen you with love, you know?”
Louise Perrotta writes from St. Paul, Minnesota
----- EXCERPT: Pope John Paul welcomes a boy who knows what it means to suffer ----- EXTENDED BODY: Louise Perrotta ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Toronto's Raving Apostles DATE: 01/21/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:TORONTO — A “rave” party in Edmonton recently drew national attention when it was discovered that public health officials in the Alberta provincial capital were desperately tracking down party-goers to stem a rare tuberculosis outbreak traced to the rave.
Meanwhile, the Toronto police force recently established a special unit to deal with Ecstasy, an illegal and dangerous drug often distributed to young people at all-night raves. During 1999, at least three Toronto young people attending raves died from overdoses of the amphetamine-based drug. Public health officials in Toronto now report that an average of 20 young people are sent to hospital after each of these events.
Toronto rave organizers now routinely keep a team of paramedics on hand at local parties to respond immediately to Ecstasy overdoses and similar drug and alcohol emergencies.
Meanwhile, students in the Toronto archdiocese have started their own counteroffensive.
At Brother André Catholic Secondary School in Markham, north of Toronto, senior students are recruited to lead retreats for their peers focusing on the dangers of the rave scene and drug abuse.
Sophia Reynoso, 17, one of the students, said raves are all the rage. “Surprisingly, a lot of the eighth grade students I talk to find raves especially appealing,” she said. “In such cases, I use the experience of my friends to point out the dangers.”
In addition to the student leadership retreats at some Toronto-area high schools, the local Catholic school board has established a leadership team composed of representatives of the different student councils. The team meets monthly to discuss ways of promoting lifestyle choices based on Catholic values.
During its December meeting, student leaders heard from Joanne Banfield, coordinator of an innovative program designed to reduce risky behavior among young people. Known as the Prevention of Alcohol-Related Trauma in Youth (PARTY), the program is aimed primarily at 12-14 year olds, and is designed to reduce injury and death from avoidable accidents.
“How many students know that they might be getting into a dangerous situation, but are not assertive enough to back out?” asked Banfield.
She said PARTY has found that one of the most effective ways to reach young people is to have older teen-agers act as teachers and role models.
Now offered in 48 cities across Canada and the United States, the PARTY program features tours of hospital trauma units to allow students to see the devastating effects of alcohol and drug abuse, and other risky behaviors.
Robert McCarty, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based National Federation of Catholic Youth Ministry (NFCYM), said he welcomes these kinds of efforts to promote Catholic students as ambassadors for healthier living.
“There's little doubt that one of the gifts [of young people] is their ability to be role models for those who might not be open to safe lifestyle messages from an adult or other authority figure.”
Mike Mastromatteo writes from Toronto.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mike Mastromatteo ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Gospel of Life DATE: 01/21/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:YOUNG PEOPLE
Sometimes when we look at the young … we tend to be pessimistic. The Jubilee of Young People however changed that, telling us that young people, whatever their possible ambiguities, have a profound longing for those genuine values which find their fullness in Christ.
— Novo Millennio Inuente, No. 9
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Life Notes DATE: 01/21/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:Babies Taste in the Womb
BBC NEWS, Jan. 4 — Babies acquire a taste for certain foods while still in their mother's womb, BBC News reported.
A team from the European Center for Taste Science in Dijon, France, tested the response of 24 new-born babies. Half of the babies' mothers had eaten anise — the main flavor of aniseed — during their pregnancy, and the other half had not, BBC News reported.
The infants were exposed to anise odor immediately after birth and again four days afterwards, to see if they showed an attraction or aversion to the smell. In both cases, infants born to anise-consuming mothers turned towards the smell, but those whose mothers did not eat anise either ignored it or turned away.
Abortionists Compete
Over the last few years, as the number of abortions has declined, abortions have been concentrated in specialty facilities in cities, and pockets of competition have developed.
While women in rural areas sometimes travel hundreds of miles to the nearest abortion business, in cities and suburbs there are price wars and competition over amenities.
Kindergarten Sex-Ed Classes
LIFESITE DAILY NEWS, Jan. 5 — At the St. Monica's Anglo-Chinese Kindergarten in Hing Tung, the Family Planning Association of Hong Kong announced details of their Early Childhood Sexuality Education Development Project, reported LifeSite Daily News.
Over the next two years, the project will “provide a school-based sex education training program for teachers and parents.
Dr. Susan Fan, Executive Director of the Family Planning Association added: “We believe that kindergartens participating in this pilot project will take a leading role in promoting early childhood sex education.”
New Hampshire Abortion Zoning
The decision came shortly before midnight and followed arguments against abortion and questions about whether the abortion facility is a medical office.
“I think we're still going to be in court,” said former New Hampshire Right to Life president Barbara Hagan, but she said the board did the right thing in voting against the building permit, reported the Union Leader.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life --------- TITLE: Marchers Buoyed by Bush's Promise DATE: 01/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 28-February 3, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — Marching for the unborn just seemed like the natural thing to do for 16-year-old John Kosa.
“It's a spiritual thing,” said Kosa, a first-time marcher who came with 50 members of St. Joseph's Church in Marblehead, Ohio. “We came to show support for the unborn babies — for those who don't have a voice.”
And the high-school sophomore was optimistic about President Bush. “I think he's gonna do a good job,” he said, “from what I've heard and seen.”
Kristina Gillespie, 26, of Boise, Idaho, and her husband Clark, traveled across the country “to show our support for the policies that we agree on with Bush and to oppose the ones where we aren't in so much agreement.”
The inauguration of a self-proclaimed pro-life president only increased the need to march, said Nancy Gerber, mother of seven adopted children. “I think it's important to show the public officials that there are pro-life people out there and that they need to support pro-life legislation,” said the Indianapolis woman. Gerber's friend, Lena Peoni, agreed that President Bush would be a major improvement while acknowledging the huge task before the pro-life movement.
“He will not veto, like Clinton did, the ban on partial-birth abortions,” Peoni told the Register. “Now Roe v. Wade — that's gonna take a long time to get rid of.”
It will be difficult because those who support abortion are equally determined to keep it legal. Polly Stamatopoulos, of Washington, D.C., stood with a small group of abortion activists outside the U.S. Supreme Court awaiting the pro-life marchers.
“I come out every year on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade,” she said, “to celebrate the ruling and to also let people know that there are people who don't like that the government is chipping away at women's reproductive rights.”
March for Life organizer Nellie Gray said the turnout marked the biggest rally in the 27-year history of the march, even larger than 1998's showing of 200,000. The march has been held annually since the first anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide on Jan. 22, 1973.
Gray said the reason to march is “to educate Washington officialdom — the White House, the Congress, the Supreme Court — that Roe v. Wade is not settled law and we shall indeed have it overturned.”
She said she was distressed by recent comments on Roe v. Wade made by John Ashcroft, President Bush's designated attorney general.
“He considered it ‘settled law.’ It's not settled law,” said Gray. “That's very disturbing that he said that.”
Gray also expressed concerned over Laura Bush's comments on NBC's “Today” show Jan. 19, in which the first lady said she didn't favor overturning the 1973 decision legalizing abortion.
“It's equally disturbing that Mrs. Bush said that she wanted to reduce abortions and not overturn Roe v. Wade,” said Gray.
About 20 members of the youth pro-life group, Survivors, demonstrated outside of the Bush-Cheney transition office the day before George W. Bush became the 43rd U.S. president, asking him to repeal five pro-abortion executive orders signed eight years ago by President Clinton.
“I'd like a president who claims to be pro-life to be pro-life,” said Danielle White, 17, of Whittier, Calif.
The first step in demonstrating that, she said, is “by rescinding the five executive orders. They really hurt the pro-life movement,” said White, the organization's spokeswoman.
On the 20th anniversary of Roe v. Wade and on only his third day in office, President Clinton overturned President George H. Bush's ban on the importation of the abortion pill, RU-486, and ended the prohibition of abortions on military bases.
Other Federal Funds
In addition, Clinton lifted bans on federal subsidies to organizations that promote abortion globally, on Title X funding of abortion groups domestically and on funding of research that uses fetal tissue or stem cells from aborted children.
Congress later reinstated the bans on military base abortions and funding of abortion groups overseas by attaching them to appropriations bill that became law.
White said that Clinton acted fast to prove his support for abortion and she hopes that President Bush will likewise quickly establish a firm defense of life.
“President Clinton did that to make his statement that he is pro-choice; we're asking Bush to make a statement that he's pro-life,” she added.
Abortion advocates are openly concerned that Bush intends to do exactly that. Gloria Feldt, president of Planned Parenthood, told CNN Jan. 22 that she believes abortion could become illegal during Bush's current term. “It absolutely could happen in the next four years,” she said. “It could happen sooner than that.”
In fact, the Bush administration is wasting little time in demonstrating its pro-life orientation.
Its first executive order will likely ban subsidizing those groups that promulgate abortion across the globe. Bush said he would do so, “soon.”
“That's an important act,” press secretary Ari Fleischer told The Washington Post. “The president does not support using federal funds to promote abortion.”
The ban is known as the Mexico City policy because President Reagan first announced the order during a speech at a United Nations population conference held there in 1984. The policy remained in place under the elder Bush's administration.
Before President George W. Bush issues an executive order on RU-486, he will consult with the Department on Health and Human Services, said White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card.
“We're going to take a look at all of the regulations. We're going to take a look at all of the executive orders,” Card told CBS's “Face the Nation.”
At a Jan. 19 Senate hearing on his confirmation, Bush's choice to head the health and human services department, Tommy Thompson, questioned the safety of the abortion pill and hinted strongly that he would initiate a review. The Food and Drug Administration approved RU-486, or mifepristone, in September.
March of Life organizer Gray welcomed the impending move to reinstate the Mexico City policy, and said she was hopeful that a ban on RU-486 would follow. “I understand that they have that under review,” she said.
But, she added, until abortion is completely illegal, “The fight continues.”
Joshua Mercer writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Bush's Statement to the March of Life DATE: 01/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 28-February 3, 2001 ----- BODY:Good afternoon, friends and fellow citizens. Two days ago, Americans gathered on the Washington Mall to celebrate our Nation's ideals. Today, you are gathered to remind our country that one of those ideals is the infinite value of every life.
I deeply appreciate your message and your work. You see the weak and defenseless, and you try to help them. You see the hardship of many young mothers and their unborn children, and you care for them both. In so many ways, you make our society more compassionate and welcoming.
We share a great goal: to work toward a day when every child is welcomed in life and protected in law. We know this will not come easily, or all at once. But the goal leads us onward: to build a culture of life, affirming that every person, at every stage and season of life, is created equal in God's image.
The promises of our Declaration of Independence are not just for the strong, the independent, or the healthy. They are for everyone — including unborn children. We are a society with enough compassion and wealth and love to care for both mothers and their children, to seek the promise and potential in every human life.
I believe that we are making progress toward that goal. I trust in the good hearts of Americans. I trust in the unfolding promise of our country — an expanding circle of inclusion and protection. And I trust in the civility and good sense of our citizens — a willingness to engage our differences in a spirit of tolerance and good will.
All of you marching today have never tired in a good cause. Thank you for your conviction, your idealism, and your courage. May God bless you all.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: New European Patent Licenses Man-Beasts DATE: 01/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 28-February 3, 2001 ----- BODY:MANCHESTER, England — Centaurs, mermaids and satyrs have long existed in humanity's imagination, but recently the biological production of such creatures has been patented.
Late last year, genetic engineering watchdog groups warned that the European Union had granted a patent in December 1999 to an Australian company for a process that would allow the creation of “chimerical” creatures — human/animal hybrids. The patent is now held by a California company, Chemicron International.
Chimeras would be created, most likely, in order to serve as a source of organs and other body parts for human beings.
“This patent, granted in the E.U. [European Union], covers a technology that could include [the creation of] a chimera,” Dr. Sue Mayer, director of Genewatch, a British bioethics group, told the Register: “Greenpeace in Germany did the research [that discovered this patent].”
Mayer said the issuance of such a patent was wrong, as patents are not supposed to be given to things that are “immoral.”
The Manchester Observer, in a Nov. 26 article, noted that this patent specifically covers the possible creation of embryos made containing both “cells from humans and ‘mice, sheep, pigs, cattle, goats or fish.’”
This would not be the first mixing of human and non-human components. Dr. John Haas of the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Boston told the Register that Advanced Cell Technology of Worcester, Mass., “has been creating embryos by denucleating cow eggs and inserting human DNA.”
The embryos are used for research and then are destroyed, in a process that Haas says is “immoral from start to finish.”
While the new E.U. patent covers a potentially more difficult process, the technology exists to make it a reality, according to Dr. Stuart Newman, professor of cell biology and anatomy at New York Medical College in Valhalla, N.Y. “The chimeras would look like composites of humans and apes or pigs, etc.,” said Newman, who is a member of the board of directors of The Council for Responsible Genetics in Cambridge, Mass.
“There are people who might contemplate [creating] an animal that is 75% chimp and 25% human,” explained Newman. “Nobody has said that they want to do this but they might be used in a lab.”
Newman, who is strongly opposed to such research, said that if chimeras were produced it was likely that they would be allowed to grow to maturity for “medical research” like organ harvesting.
“The technology currently exists to do this — there is no biological principle that would prevent [it],” he said.
Newman has been at the center of the “hybrid” battle in the United States, applying for a similar patent in order to bring attention to the dangers of such creations. “It's very disgusting; I'm trying to patent [something similar] to block it,” he said.
The Catholic Church is firm in its stand against cloning and artificial human embryo development, and opposes this process on the same ethical grounds. Professor Helen Watt, research fellow at the Linacre Institute, a bioethics think tank whose trustees are the Catholic archbishops of England and Wales, said that while the Church has condoned gene therapy and organ transplants from animals, “an animal/human embryo would be completely out of line.”
Watt explained that Pope Paul VI's 1968 encyclical, Humanae Vitae “condemns the mixing of human and animal sex cells” through its assertion that the dignity of the human body must be respected through giving “the reverence due to the whole human organism and its natural functions” (no. 17).
Improper genetic manipulations are more specifically condemned in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's 1987 document, Donum Vitae (The Gift of Life). “Certain attempts to influence chromosomic or genetic inheritance are not therapeutic … These manipulations are contrary to the personal dignity of the human being and his or her integrity and identity” (no. 33).
David Byers, a spokesman for the U.S. bishops, told the Register that the creation of chimerical embryos “would be an unworthy use of human life and would be a violation of human dignity.” Byers also worried about what a chimera would actually be. “Who knows what you would get?” he asked.
Professor Newman agreed about the destructive potential of such research. “In my view producing a chimera, which blurs the boundaries between humans and nonhuman animals, for experimental purposes, is even more of an ethical problem than producing a human embryo for experimental purposes,” he said.
The Money Motive
But the lure of discovery and subsequent profits drives companies on. Genewatch's Mayer said that the point of “transgenic animals is to improve production or other characteristics; to get the best of both [species].”
Newman agreed. “Just as some companies are now producing pigs that express human genes with the intention of using them for sources of tissue and organ transplantation, the human-animal chimeras would also be potential sources of such transplantable tissues.”
In fact, there has been a flood of recent applications to patent human organs and genes for commercial purposes. Genewatch and the Observer have reported that the number of patents held on “whole or partial human genes” stood at 126,672 the first week in November, but within just one week had jumped to 161,195, an increase of 27%, in what Mayer called “a bit of a gold rush.”
Neither Amrad, the Australian company that was granted the European Union patent, nor Chemicron International, the California company that now holds it, responded to Register requests for comment. However, the Observer reported, “Amrad chief executive John Grace denied his company had ever conducted research in this field and said the patent would not be used to create animals with human cells. He said the process was mainly used to produce genetically engineered mice for research.”
But the very real possibility that human-animal hybrids could be produced is cause for acute alarm, many bioethicists agree. “Technology ought not trump morality,” said Father Germain Kopaczynski, director of education at the National Catholic Bioethics Center. “To say otherwise leads to a world of technological titans and moral midgets.”
Andrew Walther writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: California company's move draws ethicists'condemnation ----- EXTENDED BODY: Andrew Walther ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Parishioners Demand a Voice in Renovations DATE: 01/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 28-February 3, 2001 ----- BODY:PETOSKY, Mich. — Barb Shimmons always dreamed of being married in St. Francis Xavier Church in Petoskey, Mich., a church she was attracted to because of its traditional style.
A month after her 1998 marriage to Ramon Shimmons, a renovation plan was announced that would move the altar forward and remove the communion rail.
“We were just devastated,” Shimmons said.
She and other parishioners objected and, two years later, the renovation still has not begun, although the parish business manager claims the project is scheduled to proceed May 7 with the removal of pews.
Shimmons and other lay Catholics no longer are remaining silent when Church leaders tell them their churches must be altered to comply with liturgical guidelines.
In communities as divergent as Petoskey, Mich., Grand Rapids, Ohio., and Rochester, N.Y., lay people are questioning whether changes are mandated or even recommended by the Church “in the spirit of Vatican II,” a phrase often invoked as a blessing for such projects.
When a proposal was announced to renovate St. Patrick Providence Church in Grand Rapids by moving the altar into the center of the church and relocating the tabernacle, parishioner Cathy Tippenhauer reacted immediately against it, though she didn't quite know why.
Tippenhauer said the project awakened a drive to learn, understand, and read more about what the Church really has to say on the subject. “It was kind of a springboard for me.”
Likewise, Michael Brennan of Rochester said a recently announced plan to renovate Rochester's Sacred Heart Cathedral sent him searching for his copies of the Vatican II documents and other Church writings.
“I had to do some research and I have done that research,” said Brennan who is part of a 30-member group circulating petitions against the cathedral renovation. “It has focused me on my faith. And I'm finding it more of a treasure and worth trying to keep.”
Respect for Church art is stressed in Rome's post-Vatican II instructions. “Should it become necessary to adapt works of art and the treasures of the past to new liturgical laws, bishops are to take care that the need is genuine and that no harm comes to the work of art,” states Opera Artis (Works of Art), published by the Sacred Congregation of the Clergy in 1971.
Michael Rose, author of The Renovation Manipulation, said most of the projects that have drawn opposition include such elements as moving the altar closer to the congregation, removing the altar railing or statues, moving the tabernacle and replacing pews with chairs.
The U.S. bishops’ new document on church architecture, “Built of Living Stones,” has attempted to address such issues.
It says, for example, that in most cases, the altar should allow the priest to celebrate Mass facing the people. But it also says the sanctuary should be distinct and that seating should not resemble that of a theater or arena.
“Built of Living Stones” allows the local bishop to determine the location of the tabernacle, but says it can be apart from the altar of celebration or in a separate chapel. In any case, the document says, “the piety of the people and the custom of the area” are to be considered.
The document also urges respect for existing buildings and stresses the need for balance by selecting designs that protect the Church's ancient artistic heritage.
Despite increasing interest in such documents by the laity, Sister Arlene Bennett, director of the secretariat for worship and liturgical formation for the Diocese of Gaylord, Mich., thinks opponents of renovation projects tend to be ill informed.
“What we're trying to do is follow the official Church directive, and people who haven't had an education in the Church since the Second Vatican Council have a problem with anything that is being changed in the Church,” said Sister Arlene, a proponent of the controversial renovation of St. Francis Xavier Church in Petoskey.
“They have no concept of the history of the Church, the theology of space in relationship to the liturgy, and rather than go through the educational process they would rather just object to everything.”
Sister Arlene said parishioners who have challenged plans for a separate Blessed Sacrament devotional area at St. Francis Xavier, for example, fail to understand the difference between Christ in the Blessed Sacrament and Christ as present on the altar during Mass.
“How many Jesuses do we need?” she said.
“Because they don't know and understand, they won't listen to it. They still want to look back at that tabernacle where the body and blood of the Lord from the last Mass has been put.”
Sister Arlene said directives in the revised General Instruction of the Roman Missal provide that the tabernacle be in a separate chapel, “if possible.”
Yet, because of parishioners’ objections at St. Francis Xavier, a lattice wall that was to have divided the tabernacle area from the Mass altar has been eliminated as part of the $3.2 million plan.
Instead, there will be two lighting systems so that during Mass, the altar will be illuminated, and after Mass, the tabernacle will be lit.
Duncan Stroik, associate professor of architecture at the University of Notre Dame and director of the Institute for Sacred Architecture, said projects that draw the greatest opposition are those that fail to respect original architecture and artwork.
No one, he said, seems to complain about new churches designed in a traditional manner or historic churches that are being restored.
Repairing the Damage
He said many churches that were remodeled after Vatican II now are being re-renovated to put things back to where they were.
One such example, he said, is the recently restored Gothic chapel of Emmanuel College in Boston, which was built in 1915 and renovated after Vatican II.
Stroik said any renovation should work aesthetically with what is already there.
Bishop Raymond Burke of La Crosse, Wis., agrees with Stroik.
Parishioners once thought there was nothing they could do about impoverished renovations, said Bishop Burke. “Now,” he said, “people won't accept that.”
Canon law encourages the laity to engage themselves in this way.
“The Christian faithful are free to make known their needs, especially spiritual ones, and their desires to the Pastors of the Church. In accord with this knowledge, competence, and preeminence which they possess, they have the right and even at times the duty to manifest to the sacred Pastors their opinion on matters which pertain to the good of the Church” (Canon 212).
“I think that what is so needed in our time is to respect the tradition of Church architecture and not to have it be such a rupture with everything people associate with sacred art and architecture,” he said.
“We need to find that continuity. It doesn't mean that some new art form can't be introduced, but we need to respect the tradition that has been handed on.”
Judy Roberts writes from Millbury, Ohio.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Judy Roberts ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Pope Names Record Number Of Cardinals DATE: 01/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 28-February 3, 2001 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — Pope John Paul II used his Jan. 21 Sunday morning blessing above St. Peter's Square to name 37 new cardinals, including three from the United States.
The list includes two priests, who, following the guidelines of John XXIII, will be consecrated as bishops before they receive their red hats.
Catholic News Service singled out some of the more eye-catching appointments: Cardinal-designate Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne of Lima, Peru, the first cardinal member of the Opus Dei personal prelature; Vietnamese Archbishop Francois X. Nguyen Van Thuan, who spent 13 years in communist prisons; Roberto Tucci, a priest and Vatican Radio director who has planned Pope John Paul's foreign trips; and Ivan Dias, who has made the evangelization of Asia one of his primary concerns.
The Americans are Archbishop Edward Egan of New York; Archbishop Theodore McCarrick of Washington, D.C.; and Jesuit Father Avery Dulles, a theologian and professor at New York's Fordham University.
The men will be created cardinals at a consistory Feb. 21. This will be the eighth consistory of John Paul II's pontificate. The Associated Press noted that John Paul II has appointed all but 10 of the cardinals eligible to vote to elect a pope.
He has also waived the usual limit of 120 voting-age cardinals, set by Paul VI. Cardinals can vote until they reach age 80. Five of the bishops and priests named by the Holy Father on Jan. 21 are already past that age, and several more will celebrate their 80th birthdays within a few months.
The Zenit news service reported that 11 of the cardinals-designate are members of the Roman Curia. The second-largest group comes from Latin America. The others include natives of the Ivory Coast, Vietnam, India and 17 other countries.
Zenit quoted the Pope's words on his appointees: “The new cardinals come from various parts of the world. The universality of the Church is reflected in their ranks by the multiplicity of their ministries. Along with prelates honored for service rendered the Holy See, there are pastors who spend their energies in direct contact with the faithful.”
John Paul also said that he would soon reveal the names of two cardinals that he named secretly, or “in pectore,” in 1998. Cardinals are usually kept secret when naming them might place them in danger.
The Americans
The New York Times profiled Archbishop McCarrick, who spent 14 years as the archbishop of Newark, N.J., before his move to Washington. The Times reported that the archbishop was a good match for Washington because of his commitment to international affairs. He has called for debt relief for poor nations, toured China to assess religious freedom for the State Department, and visited nations such as Haiti, Rwanda and Yugoslavia.
The Times also called Archbishop McCarrick “a prodigious recruiter for the priesthood.” Susan Gibbs, a spokeswoman for the Washington Archdiocese, told the Times that while he was in Newark, Archbishop McCarrick ordained more priests than any other bishop in the same period.
Archbishop Egan took over the Archdiocese of New York last June, following the death of Cardinal John O'Connor. The New York Post reported that within hours of the announcement of his appointment, he was in the pulpit for Right-to-Life Sunday, making what the Post called “his sharpest public attack yet on abortion.”
Archbishop Egan, a canon lawyer, spent 20 years in Rome, first as a student and then as a professor and a judge of the Tribunal of the Sacred Roman Rota. In 1982, he was one of six canonists who reviewed the new Code of Canon Law with Pope John Paul II.
Father Dulles, a convert to Catholicism, comes from a family that has distinguished itself in politics and foreign affairs. His family includes three secretaries of state (for Presidents Benjamin Harrison, Wilson and Eisenhower), and his uncle, Allen Dulles, headed the CIA. Even Father Dulles took a shot at intelligence work, and won the Croix de Guerre in 1945 for his work with the French navy. The next year, he joined the Jesuits and began training for the priesthood.
He entered Harvard University as an agnostic, the Times reported, but his studies of medieval art, Plato, and the New Testament drew him to enter the Catholic Church.
Father Dulles, the author of 21 books and a vast crowd of articles and essays, is the only American theologian without pastoral responsibilities ever to be made a cardinal, the Times reported.
At a news conference in Manhattan, Father Dulles took his new title with grace and humor. He told reporters, “At my advanced age, I will have the task of trying to learn how to look and act ‘cardinalatial.’ I might very well incur red socks.” More seriously, he later told the Times that he sees his appointment in part as “a gesture of encouragement for American theologians and for my order, the Society of Jesus.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Register Staff ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Fatima Apostle DATE: 01/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 28-February 3, 2001 ----- BODY:Author of more than 40 books, founder of the Fatima Family Apostolate and creator of the quarterly magazine Immaculate Heart Messenger, he has taken more than 2,000 young people on pilgrimage retreats to Fatima. The South Dakotan spoke recently with Register features correspondent Tim Drake.
Drake: Where did you grow up? Tell me a little bit about your family.
Father Fox: I grew up as the youngest of eight children on a farm near Watertown, S.D. We had everything … pigs, sheep, milk cows and horses, but we raised primarily potatoes. My father died shortly after I was born, leaving my mother with the children. Not long after, the Depression years came. We grew up under very poor circumstances, but we were happy because we didn't know any better.
My mother said to me, when she was dying, that there were many times when she did not know what food she would put on the table for the next meal, but she always managed.
How did you come to be a priest? Was there a specific event that led to your vocation?
I do not remember ever not wanting to be a priest.
I can recall wanting to be a priest even before I started first grade. My mother put the thought in my mind. She mentioned it only two times in my life, but it stuck.
I remember when my mother would go into town to get groceries, and she would let me be alone for an hour in town. Every time, without exception, I would go the Catholic Church and genuflect and spend time before Jesus. Even then I could feel the Real Presence of Jesus in the tabernacle. That drew me to the priest-hood.
While every vocation comes from God, I believe that a sincere priestly vocation comes to us through Mary. Her “yes” gave us the High Priest, so she is the mother of vocations.
Archbishop William O'Brady ordained me in 1955, at the Cathedral of Sioux Falls.
How did you learn about the faith in rural South Dakota?
We didn't have a Catholic high school in Watertown, but our family did receive the National Catholic Register. Msgr. William Smith used to have beautiful articles explaining the faith. I would wait for it to arrive in the mail every Tuesday and I would read it cover to cover.
After high school, I was among more than 350 freshman to begin studies at St. John's University in Collegeville, Minn. In those days St. John's taught the traditional Catholic faith. All students were required to take a religious placement exam. Most of the other students had had four years of previous religious instruction at St. John's or other places; I had lacked formal religious education during my high-school years.
After the examination I was given a sheet of paper with the number 17 on it and was told to meet with my advisor. I still remember seeing that number and wondering how I could have done so poorly. “How could I have gotten only 17% correct?” I asked myself. The advisor, however, corrected my error. He said, “No, this is very good. You scored 17th from the top of all the students.”
I instantly responded, “That's because all four years of high school I read the National Catholic Register.”
You were asked by the Vatican to start the International Fatima Family Apostolate, weren't you?
In 1974, I made a pilgrimage to Fatima and I asked Our Lady, “What do you want of me?” Those were always the first words spoken by Lucia when Our Lady appeared to her. I had the overwhelming conviction that Our Lady wanted me to teach the fullness of the Catholic faith to young people wherever I could using the Fatima message as the vehicle in my instruction.
It wasn't long after that that I developed a Fatima youth apostolate that spread widely and quickly.
In 1976 I felt that I was being called to conduct youth retreats to Fatima for teen-agers and young adults. Over the past 25 years I have brought more than 2,000 young people to Fatima on pilgrimages. I estimate that, of those young people, about 200 are becoming, or are already, priests. More than 20 have become contemplative Carmelites, one of whom co-founded the first Carmelite monastery in South Dakota located across the street from my parish. Many others joined other religious communities.
Cardinal John Wright, who was the Prefect of the Pontifical Congregation for the Clergy, heard about my work and was reading articles I was writing in the National Catholic Register, and he began phoning and writing me.
He encouraged me to continue writing on catechetics and asked me to write a catechism for young people. That catechism is still in print under the title Jesus, Light of the World, and has been revised to incorporate features of the new universal Catechism.
In 1985, the Pontifical Council for the Laity wrote, encouraging me to form a Fatima apostolate independent of what I had been doing. This new apostolate became the Fatima Family Apostolate (FFA), dedicated to the sanctification of the family. Within two years its charter was endorsed by the Pontifical Council for the Family. After I spoke at the first International Fatima Pastoral Symposium at the request of the Bishop of Fatima, the FFA became known internationally.
Every diocese has a family-life committee. Why is a Fatima Family Apostolate needed?
Every diocese is doing good work as regards family life; however, they are dealing with the problems. The Fatima Family Apostolate exists to prevent family problems from arising. Fatima family prayer and study groups meet monthly and sometimes more often.
We provide all of the tools and the structure for what families can do during those meetings. Our “bible” on family life is Pope John Paul II's document Familiaris Consortio [the 1981 apostolic exhortation on the family], in which the Pope calls for families-to-families apostolates.
Good Catholic families, because of our secular society, often feel very alone. Getting Catholic families to meet at least monthly in support groups of five to six couples allows them to study, pray and share their problems with one another.
You became a priest at a time when there was an abundance of priests. Do you have any thoughts on our present vocations crisis?
One of the problems today is that the faith is not being lived and shared within the family. Families have gone down in size, and therefore families do not have the deep faith and generosity which produces vocations. I predict that many priests will come from home-schooling families. The answer is families-to-families apostolates. That is the future of the Church.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father Robert Fox ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Pope and Cardinal-Designate McCarrick Pray for New President DATE: 01/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 28-February 3, 2001 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — Pope John Paul II, in offering congratulations to President George W. Bush on his inauguration, prayed that the future of the United States would be marked by justice, freedom and respect for human dignity.
The Pope, in a Jan. 20 telegram, told Bush he prayed “that almighty God will grant you wisdom and strength of purpose in the exercise of your high office.”
Popes traditionally send a telegram of congratulations to new presidents of the United States on the day of their inauguration.
In his message to Bush, John Paul II said he prayed that under the new president's leadership, “the American people will discover in their rich religious and political heritage the ethical foundation for building a society marked by authentic justice and freedom with unfailing respect for the dignity and rights of each individual, especially the poor, the defenseless and those who have no voice.”
The Pope also prayed that God would guide the president's efforts “to foster understanding, cooperation and peace among the peoples of the world.”
He also asked God to bless the Bush family and all the people of the United States.
On Jan. 21, Cardinal-designate Theodore McCarrick of Washington joined a rabbi, a Greek Orthodox priest and Protestant ministers in praying for President Bush and his new administration at a Sunday morning inaugural prayer service, the Associated Press reported.
The pews of Washington National Cathedral were filled with members of the Bush family, friends and supporters as the Rev. Franklin Graham, continuing a tradition established by his father, the Rev. Billy Graham, invoked blessings on the new government and its leaders.
“I pray that God will place his great hand of protection on each and everyone, and especially on you, Mr. President, and your family,” said Graham, who also said a prayer at Bush's swearing-in Saturday.
“The greatest threat, however, lies deep within our own hearts that are infected with greed, hate and lust,” Graham said in his sermon.
The service was held on Bush's first full day in office and came hours after he attended inaugural balls around the city.
One of the many clergymen offering prayers in the crossing before the altar of the Gothic-style Episcopalian cathedral was Archbishop Theodore McCarrick of Washington, who was wearing the red cap symbolic of his being named by the Pope earlier Sunday to the rank of cardinal.
In a prayer, Archbishop McCarrick asked God to grant “wisdom and grace” to Bush and all who will serve the nation in his administration.
Other clergy offering prayers were Rabbi Samuel Karff, Greek Orthodox Bishop Demetrios, the Rt. Rev. Jane Holmes Dixon, the bishop of the Episcopal diocese of Washington, and the Very Rev. Nathan D. Baxter, dean of the cathedral.
The first inaugural prayer service was held on April 30, 1789, at St. Paul's Chapel in New York City for newly inaugurated President George Washington. President Franklin Roosevelt re-established the precedent in 1933.
Bush's father, President George H. Bush, attended a similar service at the cathedral on the Sunday after his inauguration in 1989. (From combined wire services)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 01/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 28-February 3, 2001 ----- BODY:Orthodoxy Draws New Priests
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL, Jan. 10 — What makes a man want to be a priest? Orthodox Catholic teaching, the news service reported.
Father David P. Talley, vocations director of the Archdiocese of Atlanta, said that in his 11 years with the archdiocese he saw the numbers of candidates for the priesthood jump from seven to 58. He attributed the rise to the archdiocese's orthodoxy.
Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Neb., is equally known for drawing vocations and for what the wire service called his “traditionalism.”
In monastic life, strict orders like the Discalced Carmelite nuns and the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal are attracting more young women and men.
Homer, Marge and God
A recent study of religion in “The Simpsons” surveyed 71 of the show's 248 episodes. The study found that more than two-thirds of the shows had at least one reference to religion, and more than 10% had significant religious content.
“Simpsons” episodes have featured Bart selling his soul (he gets it back after he prays) and Rev. Lovejoy, the Simpsons’ pastor, regaining his lost love of ministry. Although Homer sometimes belittles church attendance, or says his ideal religion would have “No hell, no kneeling,” “Simpsons” creator Matt Groening pointed out that the characters pray and attend church regularly.
Cop Cleared in Rainbow Ruckus
Traverse City has also revoked its decision to post rainbow bumper stickers on all public vehicles. Many local residents saw the rainbow flag as a symbol of the homosexual movement.
After Officer David Leach spoke against the stickers to a local Christian radio host and to a reporter from the Detroit Free Press about his stance against the stickers, the Traverse City Human Rights Commission opened an investigation into his comments. The city's laws prohibit discrimination based on “sexual orientation.”
Seminaries Draw Few Black Students
Only about 350 of the country's 47,000 priests are black, and in South Florida's two seminaries, all 10 black students are Haitian-born. Black priests are often Haitian or African.
Hilbert Stanley, executive director of the National Black Catholic Congress, said that this trend would change only after parents begin talking to their children about religious vocations. He said that many black parents want grandchildren so much that they don't encourage children to explore religious life.
The Miami Archdiocese encourages black parishioners to become deacons, because a Church leadership role can help people learn if they are called to the priesthood. Predominantly black congregations often adapt practices of black Protestants, like tent revivals and gospel music. Father George Knab, of the largely black St. Francis Xavier parish, is holding a revival Feb. 5-8 to boost vocations.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Drive to Punish Scouts for Homosexual Ban Fizzles DATE: 01/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 28-February 3, 2001 ----- BODY:LOS ANGELES — For 90 years the Boy Scouts have been seen as a positive moral force in the United States — a character-building rite of passage for millions of young men.
And despite efforts by homosexual activists and a handful of communities and religious groups to punish the Scouts for its policies excluding homosexuals and atheists, most Americans still appear to be firm in their support for the organization.
Although the Boy Scouts’ membership policies were upheld last year by the Supreme Court in the case of Dale v. Boy Scouts of America, the exclusion of openly homosexual individuals has triggered a few anti-Scout moves.
In Los Angeles, the City Council voted 11-0 on Nov. 28 to cut ties with the Boy Scouts, and called on all city departments to evaluate their relationship with the Scouts in light of the city's non-discrimination policy. Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, an openly lesbian member whose term was about to expire, led the move.
“This is an organization that fought all the way to the United States Supreme Court for its right to discriminate,” Goldberg said after the vote, the Los Angeles Daily News reported. “They thought there would be no consequences. Well, there has to be.”
Oddly enough, one of the council's targets, the Explorer Program, allows both boys and girls and does not require the Scout oath or the other “controversial” exclusions.
In Broward County, Fla., the Boy Scouts have been “evicted from schools,” according to Gregg Shields, national spokesman for the Scouts. And in New York City, which has 33 school districts, “three have made a nominal withdrawal” from cooperation with the Scouts, Shields said.
Strong Support
But while these isolated cases have received a great deal of media coverage, Boy Scout officials say that support is still strong across the country.
Hugh Travis, scout executive for the Boy Scouts of America's Western Los Angeles County Council, told the Register that while the Los Angeles City Council has come out against the Boy Scouts, in the suburbs of Los Angeles, “The Lancaster City Council and Palmdale City Council voted unanimously in favor of the Boy Scouts.”
Added Travis, “Santa Clara is expected to do the same.”
Even in Los Angeles, there has been considerable sympathy for the Scouts.
At a rally near city hall in early December, hundreds of demonstrators protested the council's decision, and Travis said the City Council has been “deluged” with pro-scout phone calls.
Manuel Gomez, a Los Angeles resident and former Boy Scout, says that the City Council's position is “not realistic.”
“That kind of thinking is dangerous,” Gomez said, “because they are not looking at the overall advantages of [the Boy Scouts].”
Noting that the armed forces also continue to exclude those who are openly homosexual, Gomez asked, “What are they going to do next, abolish the military?”
Where the Boy Scouts have been targeted, they are not going quietly.
In Broward County, they are suing for the right to use school facilities since “the schools are being used by other organizations,” said Scouts spokesman Shields.
And in New York, Shields said, when angry pro-Scout parents demanded to know what the Queens School Board planned to do, “they were told by the School Board that there was no intention to back out” of support.
Los Angeles Scout executive Travis sees a positive aspect of the attacks. “We have been passive too long,” he told the Register, adding that the Boy Scouts “want to stand up for what is good and right.”
Jews Are Divided
Some liberal-minded religious groups have been drawn into the fray.
The Unitarian Universalists have condemned the Boy Scout's membership policies, and in a memo dated Jan. 5, the Joint Commission on Social Action of the Reform Jewish Movement argued that the policy against homosexuals was “incompatible with our consistent belief that every individual — regardless of sexual orientation — is created in the image and likeness of God and [is] deserving of equal treatment.”
Rabbi Dan Polish, the commission's director, told the Register, “This statement is a way of coping with the fact that the core values of the Boy Scouts of America and the Reform Jewish Movement are incompatible.”
But many Jews disagree with Rabbi Polish's perspective. According to Hugh Travis, when “seven Jewish temples kicked [the Scouts] out, those [troops] were immediately picked up by Conservative and Orthodox synagogues.”
Said Irv Rubin, chairman of the Jewish Defense League, “We are absolutely, unalterably, 100% opposed to what this Reform Movement is trying to do to the Boy Scouts.”
According to Rubin, the Scouts have a constitutional right to associate with whomever they wish, in the same way that “B'nai Brith, and even Jewish war veterans for that matter, don't allow in gentiles.”
The Scouts’ Shields said that even among Reform Jewish congregations there is no anti-Scouts consensus. Several Reform congregations have remained committed to the Scouts, he said, citing Reform Rabbi Peter Hyman of Philadelphia, the chairman of the National Jewish Committee on Scouting, as a prominent example.
Father Jim Maher of St. Francis de Sales Church in Sherman Oaks, Calif., a few miles from downtown Los Angeles, said that there is no move to get rid of Scout Troop 139, which meets on the church's property.
And there is little apparent hostility among the local Jewish community toward Troop 139 either; in fact, most of its members and “all of the board members are Jewish,” Father Maher told the Register.
Father Maher cautioned that Troop 139 and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles would not accept the exclusion by the Scouts of a person who had homosexual tendencies but was leading a chaste lifestyle (a situation that has not arisen). But when the Scouts’ membership policies became a hot-button issue, he assured Troop 139 that “we would stand behind the truth and not run them off the property.”
In spite of all of the controversy, Gregg Shields says that the majority of Americans, religious and non-religious, support scouting. “Sixty-five percent of [Scout troops] are chartered by religious organizations,” Shields noted.
And, Shields said, national support can be gauged by the resounding defeat of a proposal last year to revoke the Scouts’ federal charter. On Sept. 13, the House of Representatives reaffirmed the charter by a vote of 362-12.
Andrew Walther writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Andrew Walther ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 01/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 28-February 3, 2001 ----- BODY:Pope and Alexi II to Meet
INTERFAX RUSSIAN NEWS, Jan. 14, 2001 –– A Vatican representative told the news service that a meeting between Pope John Paul II and Patriarch Alexi II of Moscow will definitely take place during the Pope's summer trip to Ukraine. (See story of the trip above)
In a recent interview with an Interfax reporter in Kaliningrad, Archbishop Crescencio Sepe said: “John Paul II is ready to meet with Alexi II even today. But there are certain problems which we are trying to solve jointly with the Orthodox Church.”
Archbishop Sepe was in Kaliningrad to attend a Catholic symposium on the completion of the celebrations in Russia of the 2000th anniversary of Christianity.
The symposium brought together bishops from different parts of Russia and representatives of the Russian Orthodox and Evangelical-Lutheran churches.
Vatican Ambassador on Clinton and John Paul
He has already released a fictional story set at the Vatican and will soon issue the memoirs of his time there.
A recent article in the Phoenix provided readers with a glimpse of the upcoming book, which, among other things, details Flynn's well-known rift with President Clinton over Vatican diplomacy.
According to the article, the trouble began in 1994, after Clinton signed executive orders allowing America to fund abortions abroad. Wishing to communicate the Pope's displeasure over this change in policy, Flynn made a request to speak with the president.
Flynn writes that he was rebuffed by Clinton for two days, prompting him to fly to Washington to meet with Clinton personally over the matter.
“White House officials escorted Flynn to Secretary Betty Currie's area outside the Oval Office to wait for the president.
There Flynn sat, nibbling on M&Ms from a bowl in the office, for two days — leaving only late at night to return to his hotel room … [U]ltimately, Flynn persuaded Clinton to call the Pope. But the damage was done.”
As Flynn put it, “There was a certain arrogance on the part of the White House staff.”
Vatican Appoints U.N. Permanent Observer
Born in 1945, Archbishop Martin served with the Pontifical Council for the Family in Rome from 1976, moving ten years later to the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. He became secretary of that council in 1994.
In U.N.-related work, Archbishop Martin was a senior member of Vatican delegations to international conferences at Rio de Janeiro (1992), Cairo (1994), Beijing (1995), Istanbul (1996) and Rome (1997).
He also led a delegation at the World Conference for Social Development in Copenhagen (1995) and has sponsored meetings on international debt between the World Bank, the IMF and the Council for Latin American Bishops’ Conferences.
Before being named to his current position and being made titular head of the diocese of Glendalough, he was secretary of the Pontifical Council on Justice and Peace.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Humane to Ecology DATE: 01/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 28-February 3, 2001 ----- BODY:Register Summary
The world's people need to undergo an “ecological conversion” to protect the environment and make the earth a place where all life is valued and can grow in harmony, Pope John Paul II said Jan. 17 during his weekly general audience.
“The human creature receives a mission of governance over creation to make all its potential shine,” the Pope told several thousand people in the Paul VI Audience Hall.
God's plan for creation “was and continually is upset by human sin,” he said. He called on the men and women of today to return to a domination over creation that is not one of exploitation, but of service and ministry aimed at continuing “the Creator's work, a work of life and peace.”
In the hymn of praise just proclaimed (Psalm 148:1-5), the Psalmist convokes all creatures, calling them by name. Angels, the sun, moon, stars, and skies appear on high; 22 creatures move on earth, as many as the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, to indicate fullness and totality. The faithful is like “the shepherd of being,” namely, the one who leads all beings to God, inviting them to intone an “alleluia” of praise.
The Psalm takes us into what seems a cosmic temple, which has the heavens as apse and the regions of the world as naves, and in whose interior the choir of creatures sings to God. This vision could be the representation both of a lost paradise as well as that of the promised paradise. Significantly, the prospect of a cosmic paradise, presented by Genesis (2) at the very origins of the world, is placed by Isaiah (11) and Revelation (21-22) at the end of history.
Thus it is seen that man's harmony with his fellow creatures, with creation and with God is the plan intended by the Creator. This plan was and is continually upset by human sin, which draws its inspiration from the alternative plan portrayed in the Book of Genesis (3-11), which describes the emergence of man's progressive conflictual tension with God, with his fellow men and even with nature.
Mission to Govern the Earth
The contrast between the two plans emerges clearly in the vocation to which, according to the Bible, humanity is called and in the consequences caused by his infidelity to that call. The human creature receives a mission of governance over creation to make all its potential shine. It is a delegation attributed by the divine King at the very origins of creation, when man and woman, who are the “image of God” (Genesis 1:27), received the order to be fruitful, to multiply, to fill the earth, to subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and over every living being that crawls on the earth (see Genesis 1:28).
St. Gregory of Nyssa, one of the three great Cappadocian Fathers, commented: “God made man in such a way that he could perform his function as king of the earth. Man was created in the image of the One who governs the universe. Everything shows that from the beginning his nature is marked by royalty. … He is the living image who participates in his dignity in the perfection of the divine model” (De Hominis Opificio, 4: PG 44,136).
Continuing God's Work
Man's lordship, however, is not “absolute, but ministerial: it is a real reflection of the one infinite lordship of God. So, man must exercise it with wisdom and love, sharing in the boundless wisdom and love of God” (Evangelium Vitae, No. 52). In biblical language, “to name” creatures (see Genesis 2:19-20) is the sign of this mission to know and transform created reality. His is not the mission of an absolute and unchallengeable master, but of a minister of the Kingdom of God, called to continue the Creator's work, a work of life and peace. His responsibility, defined in the Book of Wisdom, is to govern “the world in holiness and justice” (Wisdom 9:3).
Unfortunately, if we take a look at the regions of our planet, we realize immediately that humanity has disappointed God's expectation. Especially in our time, man has unhesitatingly devastated wooded plains and valleys, polluted the waters, deformed the earth's habitat, made the air unbreathable, upset the hydro-geological and atmospheric systems, blighted green spaces, implemented forms of unregulated industrialization, humiliating — to use an image of Dante Alighieri (Paradiso, XXII, 151) — the “flower-bed” that is the earth, our home.
Ecological Conversion
It is necessary, therefore, to stimulate and sustain the “ecological conversion” which over the last few decades has made humanity more sensitive to the catastrophe it was heading toward. Man is no longer a “minister” of the Creator. However, as an autonomous despot, he is understanding that he must finally stop before the abyss.
“Another welcome sign is the growing attention being paid to the ‘quality of life’ and to ‘ecology,’ especially in more developed societies, where people's expectations are no longer concentrated so much on problems of survival as on the search for an overall improvement of living conditions” (Evangelium Vitae, No. 27).
If we take a look at the regions of our planet, we realize immediately that humanity has disappointed God's expectation.
What is at stake, therefore, is not only a “physical” ecology intent on safeguarding the habitat of the various living beings, but also a “humane” ecology that will give greater dignity to the existence of creatures by protecting the radical good of life in all its manifestations and preparing an environment for future generations that is closer to the Creator's plan.
In this recovered harmony with nature and among themselves, men and women will once again walk in the garden of creation, seeking to make the goods of the earth available to all and not just to the privileged few, exactly as the biblical Jubilee suggested (see Leviticus 25:8-13,23). In the midst of those wonders we discover the Creator's voice, transmitted by the heavens and by the earth, by the day and by the night — a language “without words whose sound is heard,” capable of crossing all frontiers (see Psalm 19:2-5).
The Book of Wisdom, echoed by Paul, celebrates this presence of God in the universe, recalling that “from the greatness and beauty of creatures, by analogy, the Creator is contemplated” (Wisdom 13:5; see Romans 1:20). This is what the Jewish tradition of the Hasidim also sings: “Wherever I go, You! Wherever I stop, You … wherever I turn, wherever I admire, only You, again You, always You” (Martin Buber, I Racconti dei Chassidim, Milan 1979, p. 256).
(Translation by Zenit and Register)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Aid Agencies Rally to Help Quake-Devastated El Salvador DATE: 01/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 28-February 3, 2001 ----- BODY:SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — “We've dug out two rooms … now we're moving onto clearing the garage. They must be somewhere in there,” said Oscar Flores, who had spent two days helping emergency workers dig in search of an old school friend and his family.
But like an increasing number of people, Flores admitted that he is slowly accepting the fate of his friends.
“I want to make this effort, so that afterward no one can say that I didn't at least try to find their bodies,” he said.
Relief efforts intensified as aftershocks continued to rattle El Salvador in the week following the devastating earthquake that struck the Central American country Jan. 13.
The epicenter of the quake, which registered 7.6 on the open-ended Richter scale, was in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of El Salvador. Buildings shook as far north as Mexico City, 600 miles away.
Salvadoran President Francisco Flores urged people to remain calm in the wake of repeated aftershocks that measured up to 5.0 on the Richter scale. The president said “normality would soon return” to the disaster-struck country.
At least 682 people, including six in neighboring Guatemala, were believed to have died from quake-related causes, but authorities expected the death toll to rise as search efforts continue. At least 500 people are unaccounted for.
About 2,500 people were injured, and nearly 45,000 people have been left homeless or evacuated from their homes.
The El Salvadorean government reported Jan. 16 that more than 675 bodies had been recovered, almost half of them from the Las Colinas residential neighborhood outside San Salvador, where 400 houses were razed by mud brought down from the surrounding mountains by the quake.
Rescue workers continued shifting through the debris at the site of the Las Colinas tragedy, with search dogs and their Mexican handlers leading efforts to find traces of life. The scenes of desperate digging that marked the first hours after the quake had been replaced by a general air of tense calm at the site.
Elsewhere in the country, half of El Salvador's 6 million inhabitants were without water and a number of villages remained isolated. Among them is Comasagua, 17 miles southeast of San Salvador, where hundreds of peasants awaited rescue after part of a hill collapsed and buried the village.
With the death toll rising, mass burials were conducted in a race against time to prevent the spread of disease from rotting corpses. Health officials warned people not to drink running water for fear it was contaminated.
The Salvadoran government ordered 3,000 coffins from Colombia in anticipation of rising casualties.
The aftershocks kept offices, businesses and schools closed in the hardest-hit areas. More than 100 churches were damaged, as well as a number of Catholic schools.
Meanwhile, the National Commission of Solidarity appealed for tarpaulins and tents, water and other drinks, blankets, lamps, nonperishable foods, batteries, first aid kits, portable toilettes, serum, surgical materials, equipment for orthopedic treatment, and antibiotics.
Archbishop Fernando Saenz Lacalle of San Salvador is personally presiding over the commission, which was organized by the Church for the emergency. Pope John Paul II himself made two appeals for assistance to survivors and reconstruction.
In addition, Catholic Relief Services has committed a total of $250,00 toward earthquake relief.
“Three teams from Catholic Relief Services spent all day Sunday traveling through the departments of La Union, San Miguel and Usulutan,” CRS aide Gino Lofredo said. “We have met with local partners to assess the highest priority needs.”
CRS has sent plastic sheeting, potable water, blankets and basic food supplies, as well as funds, to the dioceses of Santiago de Maria, Zacatecoluca, San Vicente and Sonsonate.
Funds have also been sent to the bishops’ conference and to the diocese of Santa Ana. Relief materials were also sent to the Archdiocese of El Salvador.
“This has been a regional response for Catholic Relief Services,” Lofredo said. “Agency staff from Honduras and Guatemala have come to assist us. In addition, the local Church and Caritas partners are tremendous.” Both Caritas-El Salvador as well as the various Caritas of sister churches mobilized to coordinate the Church's aid.
Many other faith-based aid agencies also galvanized forces to meet the needs of those affected by the earthquake. An international coalition of 200 Protestant and Orthodox churches, Action By Churches Together, had collected $50,000 for relief efforts by Jan. 16, and had given digging tools to communities buried beneath mud.
In Las Colinas, angry residents criticized the lack of government intervention to prevent new construction projects on the edge of the mountain range. Backed by ecologists, they claimed construction undermined the mountains’ stability.
“This disaster could have been avoided, God only knows why,” 64-year-old Tomas Castellano said.
“I can only think of my two little grandchildren who died here,” he added, his eyes welling up with tears.
Ricardo Navarro, an ecologist, said: “We said hundreds of times to the government and the construction industry that the tree line on this hillside should not be destroyed. … But several urbanization projects were born, and there you have the results.”
(From combined wire services)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 01/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 28-February 3, 2001 ----- BODY:Chiapas Bishop Backs Mexico's President
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Jan. 15 –– Mexican Bishop Felipe Arizmendi, whose diocese lies in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, has teamed up with Mexican President Vicente Fox in an effort to stop rebel violence in that area of the country, the news service reported.
Zapatista rebels responsible for the violence have accused the Mexican army of abusing Indians and supporting paramilitary gangs. The rebel group has given only faint praise to Fox's closing of three army bases, and is now demanding the closing of four more bases and the release of about a hundred imprisoned rebels as a precondition to peace talks.
Speaking in the Chiapas city of San Cristobal, Bishop Arizmendi said “they [the rebels] would get more sympathy and support from Mexicans” if they disarmed.
The bishop, considered progressive and a supporter of the rebels’ demands for Indian rights, praised Fox's initiatives.
The Church in Mexico has long expressed sympathy with the demands raised by the Zapatistas, but has said it disagrees with their use of violence.
British and Irish Officials Condemn Bombing
REUTERS, Jan. 12 –– Britain and Ireland have condemned the recent bombing of a Catholic political party's offices that has disrupted the Northern Irish peace process, the news service reported.
The Jan. 11 blast was the latest in a spate of violent incidents blamed on Protestant militants. Police confirmed that a homemade pipe bomb was used. It has been a favorite device of pro-British “loyalist” militias during 30 years of conflict.
The attack damaged offices of the Social Democratic and Labor Party.
Ireland's Prime Minister Bertie Ahern branded the nighttime bombing as “an attack on democracy in Northern Ireland.”
Said Britain's Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson, “All violence is to be deplored but particularly an attack on an elected representative.”
Koreans to Commemorate Catholic Martyrs
In remembrance of the 200th anniversary of Korea's first attack against native Catholics, the local Catholic community will review its own significance in Korean history as well as in the evangelistic history of world religions.
At the center of the Catholic efforts, the paper reported, is a drive to beatify and canonize the martyrs sacrificed 200 years ago in Korea.
As the number of Catholics in the Asian country increased in the late 18th century, Korea's ruling class felt threatened by the Church's power, the Herald said, noting that the equality championed by the faith clashed with the patriarchal feudal ethics of Choson, the ruling dynasty from 1392 to 1910.
The government of Choson declared the establishment of the Church traitorous and began using physical force to oppress it, leading to the first persecution of the Catholics in 1801.
In the Shinyu Persecution that lasted throughout the year, the number of people who died as martyrs is estimated at between 100 and 300.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: PERSPECTIVE DATE: 01/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 28-February 3, 2001 ----- BODY:The custom of trying to guess what a president's legacy will be is a good one: It forces us to think about how history will judge our times. But what will Clinton really be remembered for? Conventional wisdom says it will be summed up in one word: “Monica.” But this misses the point.
Monica will appear in history books, but decent people probably won'twant to dwell on her in the future, just as many wanted to ignore her in the past.
A counter-intuitive strain of thought says he'll be remembered as a conservative president who balanced the budget, reformed welfare and established NAFTA. Not likely. This is the Gingrich legacy after all (excepting NAFTA, which belongs to Reagan and Bush) — and what past budgets and spending slowdowns do we remember previous administrations for?
Unfortunately, these stabs at Clinton's legacy have missed what will surely emerge as the lasting effect of the last eight years.
What Clinton will be remembered for is violence.
For one thing, the most ubiquitous domestic news stories of the Clinton years — the Oklahoma City bombing, the O.J. Simpson trial and the Columbine massacre — were all about violence, though these had nothing to do with Clinton.
Other violence in the Clinton years will not, perhaps, be held against him: In Somalia, U.S. soldiers’ bodies being dragged through the streets. In Kosovo, U.S. troops ousting one violent regime … only to see another take its place. In China, a new level of U.S. friendship followed by a new level of anti-religious violence. In Northern Ireland, a celebration of Clinton, and then back to the killing. In the Middle East, a protracted (and noble) effort at peace, followed by new death, pain and hatred.
No, the violence that will become part of the Clinton legacy is violence against children. And that's not counting the strange mixture of big guns and little kids early in the administration at Waco and at its end in Elian's closet hideaway.
The Clinton legacy that will rank right up there with slavery and war is infanticide.
In 1993 came President Clinton's executive order legalizing fetal tissue research. One of his first actions as president, it was hailed as a great liberation for science: The sad reality of abortion could have some salutary use.
What was underreported (or ignored) at the time was that first-trimester fetuses are of limited use for fetal experimentation. Older, more developed babies were much more useful. The “problem” for pharmaceutical firms and medical research industries is that such babies were in short supply. Not surprisingly, a new class of entrepreneurs soon found ways to meet the demand.
In 1996, a growing late-term-abortion industry must have seemed in jeopardy when the U.S. House and Senate overwhelmingly supported a ban on partial-birth abortions. The bill banned the abortion procedure in which a baby is removed feet first from the mother's womb, its skull broken by a doctor's scissors and its brains removed.
But Clinton vetoed the ban in 1996. He vetoed similar legislation a year later.
He wouldn't sign last year's partial-birth abortion act either, even though new information about the trade in body parts shed light on the money motive behind the barbaric procedure. Partial-birth abortion keeps a baby's body intact so that it fetches a higher price from researchers — $500 for an “intact trunk (with/without limbs),” according to one report.
Clinton's executive order made partial-birth abortion possible, his vetos kept it legal and his administration's inaction has seen it grow profitable. And, as pro-abortion former Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan has said, partial-birth abortion is infanticide.
This is what history will remember about the Clinton years: the legalization and fostering of infanticide. “And where were the decent people in America?” history will ask.
Let's hope that each of us can answer that question guiltlessly.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 01/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 28-February 3, 2001 ----- BODY:Hillary's Oath
I was dismayed to see that you chose to picture Hillary Clinton being sworn in as a U.S. Senator ("Catholics Remain Largest Religious Bloc in Congress,” Jan. 14-20).
Could you not find another new legislator who is not antagonistic to our Catholic beliefs? Mrs. Clinton opposes everything that our Church represents. Also, the adjoining article that Catholics remain the largest religious bloc in Congress — are these Catholics in name only, or Catholics who truly believe and live out the teaching of the Church?
From what I read, most Catholics in Congress are pro-choice. Are they really Catholic?
ELIZABETH C. CORY Brandon, Florida
Catholic Congress?
Your paper reported that 150 members of the 107th Congress are Catholic ("Catholics Remain Largest Religious Bloc in Congress,” Jan. 14-20). I ask, how many of those are pro-life?
Once again I have been sickened and thoroughly disgusted by Ted Kennedy. Not only does he flaunt his murderous views, but he is also one of the “champions” for unlimited, unrestrained abortion.
If Kennedy and other elected officials continue to publicly support such a serious crime as abortion, they should be publicly excommunicated due to the scandal they create to the faithful.
A letter to the editor in a previous issue stated, “I ask, what would their (bishops ’and Catholic political leaders’) position have been if the Republicans had a party plank advocating the murder of 1 million Jews or blacks?” It's time for the laity to help them answer this question.
KATHLEEN BAL Iron Mountain, Michigan
Beyond the Archies
Thank you for the article on the comics about the Pope ("Italy's Latest Superhero: Pope John Paul the Great,” Jan. 7-13). Secular comic books are a very expensive form of entertainment. At about 10 cents a page, they cost $6 an hour if you read one page a minute.
But $6 an hour is near the normal price of public education, about twice the cost of Catholic education. And the great thing about comics is that they will be read: Both children and adults find them difficult to resist.
I have recommended Iva Hoth's The Picture Bible, a 750-page comic-book Bible, to public libraries in the Sacramento area. As a result, 11 copies have been added to the collections of ten different branches. I can not do much to get it included in libraries outside of the Sacramento area. But you can get this comic Bible and good Catholic books included in your local public library. You can read the letters I wrote to the librarians at my Web site, geocities.com/richlee-bruce.
As Chris Erickson of Catholics United for Faith suggested, it would be great to get the four comics on the Pope printed in English. I would also like to see a big, thick collection of Catholic comics in hardback that I could suggest to public libraries.
RICHARD BRUCE Davis, California
Christ in the Mall
The following comments are offered in support of the very perceptive column by Kevin Hasson (“Who'll Bring Jesus to Today's Public Square?”) published in your issue of Dec. 24-30.
Sadly missing from Mr. Hasson's fine essay was any suggestion of a specific way to achieve the worthy cause he enunciates. May we offer a suggestion which did work successfully this past Christmas season. We offer it to any who might wish to imitate our success.
Finding ourselves between assignments (I am an ordained deacon), my wife and I wondered what we might do to evangelize our neighbors in the months immediately preceding the new year, when we expected to relocate to a new parish. It was her suggestion that we set up a Catholic religious-articles shop in the large mall in central St. Petersburg, Fla.
The concern, of course, was that crèches in malls are not permitted and, as Mr. Hasson points out, generate immediate response from the ACLU and their allies. Our thought was to rent a kiosk and fill it with Catholic literature, statues, rosaries, medals and all the other good things we have seen so little of lately. We wondered whether we would be confronted with overt opposition and, if so, whether existing right-to-work laws and the first-amendment clause regarding freedom of speech would prevent open controversy.
To put it briefly, they did.
We operated the stand, smack in the middle of the mall for three months, with no difficulties. The literally hundreds of sincere inquiries by young men and women who had not been in a church for years was truly gratifying. It was well worth the time, effort and expense.
To anyone wanting to engage in a similar ministry, we can offer our assurance that the effort can easily be financially self-sustaining, emotionally satisfying and evangelically successful in a short time. We are grateful to Mr. Hasson for his column and to you for publishing it.
AL AND JAMES THOMPSON St. Petersburg, Florida
The writer, a Catholic deacon, kept his local bishop apprised of his mall plans.
Shake Them Up
After reading “Photo Shoot Out: Taking Aim at Tasteless Ads” in the Jan. 7-13 issue of the Register, I thought it might be helpful to let your readers know how I express my disapproval of actions by organizations I have supported in the past when they become involved in immoral activities.
I am a graduate of both Case Institute of Technology (now a part of Case Western Reserve University) and the University of Michigan. Several years ago it occurred to me that calls for alumni support presented an opportunity for me to express my pro-life views. I inform fundraisers from both universities that I would be pleased to provide support if they could assure me that the university does not allow or teach abortion procedures in university medical facilities. Neither has been able to do this thus far, so I have not contributed to either.
As an addendum, I have resolved not to purchase a GM vehicle as a result of reading your recent article disclosing that GM now has an interest in a company selling pornography.
CHARLES ROELANT Paradise, Michigan
The Cyber-Register
I am a religious-education instructor and, from time to time, I read articles in the Register which I would like to share with our director, pastor, staff, etc. Is there any way I can get copies of these articles? In particular, I am interested in the Inperson interview with singer Annie Karto, “Thunder Shatters a Stormy Life” (Jan. 7-13).
May God continue to bless your work. Know that I do share these papers with my co-teachers.
SARAH SHANEFELTER Middletown, Kansas
Smiley-Faced Register?
I am curious about what John Bradey means by [calling the Register] “another 'smiley-faced’ Catholic publication” (Letters, Jan. 7-13). If he means a publication that reflects the teachings of the Catholic Church, then absolutely, the National Catholic Register does indeed. I welcome a newspaper that supports my beliefs and brings me articles that teach and stimulate my thinking.
Some publications that call themselves Catholic seem to take their dogmas from popular culture, and take delight affirming dissident groups that attack the Church. It is easy to go along with popular trends, but it takes courage to defend the teaching of our beloved Church.
BARBARA A. MOSKAL Prosperity, Pennsylvania
30 Years With the Register
I have been a regular reader of the National Catholic Register for 30 years, beginning with my first copy picked up at a U.S. Army chapel in Heidelberg, Germany. Your publication had then, as it has now, the answer to my question: “What is the Catholic viewpoint of the religious, political, economic, and social issues of the day?”
Particularly apropos are the articles in your last two issues: “Catholic Hospital Says It's Stuck with Abortionist,” “Evidence of Embryo's Humanity Presented to U. S. Journalists” and “Bush Promises Creation of Faith-based Programs” in Jan. 7-13 and, in Jan. 14-20, the articles “How Much Will Catholics Like Bush's Cabinet?” “New Threat to Catholic Health Plans” and “Bishops Deny ‘Backing Down’ on Contraception and Sterilization.” These articles alone are worth the annual subscription prices.
More importantly, however, these articles counter the propaganda heard and seen in the [general-interest] media. They provide faithful Catholics with the information needed not to “dialogue with,” but to confront those in the Church who espouse a more secular form of Catholicism. Such articles reassure and refresh the sincere heart.
May the Lord, our God, bless your efforts; I know the Holy Spirit guides them.
ALBERT C. SCHULTZ San Antonio
Missing the Point?
In “Drawing the Line” (Letters, Jan. 14-20), Ms. Hunt did a fine job of defining Church doctrine on abortion, but did not address the point of my letter in the Dec. 31-Jan. 6 issue (“Another Vote for Gore”). It's about a party using the moral high ground on abortion for votes to elective office, followed by calculated neglect of the other social and moral issues. This is the height of hypocrisy, and we all know how Jesus felt about that.
Our catechisms say that the ends do not justify the means. This applies to political manipulations as well as to the acts of individuals. When the Pope speaks of the right to life as paramount, exchanging one evil for another is not what he has in mind.
Last fall, this paper reported that the bishops of this country admitted that very little support has come from the Republican Party on the abortion issue. This is my point. Politics is not going to solve the abortion problem, and the Church knows it. Metanoia of the public is needed. A person who really wants to get an abortion will do it, regardless of legality. When people's actions and attitudes change, then politicians will change. Could this be why the Pope's main theme for the next century is evangelization and not political-action committees?
PAUL SZYMANOWSKI Curtice, Ohio
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Sudan Cries For Our Care And Our Prayer DATE: 01/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 28-February 3, 2001 ----- BODY:“After they kill the men and older boys, they take the women and put them in corrals.
“The women stay there during the day and then are gang raped every night … and the methods they use are too horrible [to describe].”
Bill Saunders, Sudan Relief and Rescue founder, is speaking of some of the least-known victims of the Sudan government's “holy war” of ethnic cleansing, enslavement, torture, rape and starvation against its own Christian population in central and southern Sudan. “Too horrible” is very certainly an apt description of the inhumanities the Sudan government is perpetrating right now upon the precious children of God in its care. But it is a horror that must be faced by the rest of the world — including us.
While the U.S. Catholic bishops, the U.S. government and others have made some initial strides in turning back this tide of brutality, the actions so far taken are only a very modest beginning. So much more can be done to reach out and directly assist these suffering members of our Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, with whom we are in communion.
Bombings and murders are principal tactics in Sudan's strategy of ethnic cleansing. Those who survive are targeted for the soul's slow death from the inside out. Government authorities understand well what institutions nourish the human spirit. So Catholic churches, schools and relief organizations are primary bombing targets — whether inhabited or not. For example, just after Christmas 1999, the government bombed a school full of children in the Nuba Mountains. This past November, the government bombed a school in Panlit where formerly enslaved children received care. And spontaneous, unannounced bombings regularly communicate the government's distaste for the relief work of heroes like Bishop Macram Max Gassis, who operated out of the schools.
Bishop Gassis, exiled in Kenya from his people, now tends to his suffering flock in secret. He celebrates Mass in a “sycamore cathedral” below the trees, transporting as many relief supplies as he can to persecuted families. He provides the pastoral care and counseling that are so acutely needed to hold despair at bay. He cares for around 1,200 children formerly redeemed from slavery. While he experiences many triumphs, the government is well supplied and strategic in its thinking. The regime will not allow relief flights into the area. They torture and kill catechists. The government encourages the enslavement of children and systematic rape of women to ensure the slow degradation of the body and soul among those escaping death. There is some amount of ghastly wisdom in the government's knowledge of how to affect the death of the human soul.
What the world doesn't know, and what we aren't doing, is holding up solutions. The scale of the horror is larger than most know. The death toll alone is higher than all the victims in Bosnia, Kosovo and Rwanda combined. Yet international attention has been slight and relief funds frugal. Why?
These children of God are suffering.
For the many times as I've asked this question, I've gotten only two responses: because it's in Africa, not Europe, and because of Sudan's oil, “the golden calf,” as Bishop Gassis has dubbed it.
Perhaps the eyes of some glaze over when the name of Africa arises. Perhaps some have come to believe that such vicious hegemony and cruelty is inevitable among and between Africa's tribal peoples. If indeed our perspective is colored by such thinking, it is time to think again. These children of God, many devout Catholics among them, are suffering martyrdoms as merciless as any throughout Christian history. We either answer Christ's own African-accented cries — whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me — or we pretend not to hear his voice. As soon as we know what's happening, our path is clear.
The second international consideration is oil. While the United States has finally sanctioned trade with Sudan, China pours billions into oil exploration and production. Human rights violator number one comes to energize human rights violator number two. When we give China the benefit of favorable trade terms through favorable trade status and entrance to the World Trade Organization, we should not be surprised if the communist giant uses its power to bolster regimes whose human-rights policies are consistent with its own. We are all connected, for good or for ill. The result is clear and Sudan suffers for it.
What can we do? For starters, recognize that the U.S. bishops have issued a firm and articulate condemnation of Sudan's behavior. Next, consider three concrete actions we as U.S. Catholics might take: Launch a U.S.-wide regular collection until the genocide ceases, pressure elected representatives to push for a U.N.-backed no-fly zone over central and southern Sudan where the air bombing now occurs and, finally, insert the needs of Sudan in our prayers of the faithful.
As Saunders points out, “Catholics of all nations should understand our union with those suffering in Sudan.” When we receive the sacraments, we do so as an international communion of the faithful. He adds that the Catholic Sudanese people regularly offer their sufferings for us, and that this benefits us greatly. To close our ears to such Rachel-style suffering is to impoverish ourselves. To listen and act is to enter into a heightened state of grace.
Marjorie Dannenfelser is chairwoman of the Susan B. Anthony List in Washington, D.C.
Information about Sudan Relief and Rescue: P.O. Box 1877 Washington, DC, 20013-1877 www.petersvoice.com
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Marjorie Dannenfelser ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Christians: Unqualified Citizens DATE: 01/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 28-February 3, 2001 ----- BODY:The headlines in The Washington Times Jan. 16 read as follows: “Senate Urged to Question Ashcroft on Whether His Faith Leads to Intolerance.”
This questioning, it turns out, is “urged” by a group known as “The Interfaith Alliance,” an offshoot of the Democratic Party. Even though we live under a Constitution that forbids religious tests for office, here we have one.
Unless one is a secularist, he cannot hold office.
What evidently bothers the group is Ashcoft's “deep Christian faith.” Presumably if he had weak or corrupt Christian faith, he would fare better. Moreover, “intolerance” itself is here elevated into a kind of secular faith. Intolerance for what? These are the same people who insist that there be no “tolerance” for bigotry, or anti-Semitism, or racism, or any number of things. Intolerance has its own selectivities that seek to impose a particular worldview on others, especially Christians, who, finding themselves more and more isolated, are deemed particularly suspect.
Qualifying Factors
Constitutional practice has long recognized a distinction between those who were “citizens” but who could not participate in the actual electoral or legislative process.
Children, for example, are citizens but do not actively participate in public life. However, today the pressure to lower ever more the age at which children are emancipated comes often from peculiar sources such as those who think it unjust for homosexuals, since they have a “right” to their desires, to be prevented from relations with minors if that is what they choose.
We hear of “abusive” parents; notorious cases exist, no doubt about it. Yet this “abuse” may be said to come from parents who teach religion to their children, or paddle them lightly for disciplinary reasons.
The separation of children from their families is looked upon in some circles as favorable to opening up society to newer practices and “values.” The family is an outmoded, even dangerous institution. A judge in Canada seems to think that Christianity is intrinsically discriminatory. Meanwhile, the Pope is considered to be hopeless since he thinks we should still evangelize, still teach what has been handed down to be taught.
If we follow the curious progress of “rights” theory, we catch increasing glimmers of the idea that whoever does not “hold” the corpus of a certain brand of “rights” is no longer fit to participate actively in the workings of state affairs. A pro-life person, for instance, cannot hold positions that are considered “sensitive” to pro-abortion, anti-life doctrines.
Such a citizen is automatically disqualified. One might hold such a pro-life view “privately,” but the “Constitution” or whatever, it is claimed, does not allow such a person in the inner workings of the republic. Though we are not quite there yet, anti-euthanasia proponents will soon be excluded from active participation in bureaucracies or offices that can foster this way of death.
No doubt, people who are thus excluded from active participation will still be required to pay taxes to finance the activities that they think immoral. Fathers who think it best that their sons or daughters not join, say, a Boy or Girl Scout troop with a homosexual director will be considered bigots, violators of rights of others to do what they want. After all, the scout master has a “right” to be what he is and hence to any position in the society. Common sense precautions are not allowed. Besides, since there is nothing legally wrong with homosexuality, any institution, such as the Church, which proposes that such active practices are wrong, will set itself against the public good and undermine its new constitutional status.
Such groups are in principle “discriminatory,” currently almost the only sin left to us. Even though the main arguments against this practice are not, even in Church circles, religious, any organization holding the opposite will lose any funding or advantage in the public order, perhaps even the right to be in the public order. Some churches and elements in the Church, in a skewered view of self-defense, will begin to find nothing wrong with such practices, whatever the evidence.
The public order is becoming a closed circle. Anyone who cannot subscribe to a list of rights including certain “rights” of unions, gays, death, support, and well-being will be defined as ineligible to participate in the public order.
Any religion or philosophy that has a definite, well-argued position on right and wrong, one based in nature and experience, is an enemy to this new state.
The World Over
This is not just an American movement.
It is rife in the United Nations and in many European countries. The modern public world is not defined by anything objective. It is defined by courts and legislatures and executives. Whatever is so defined, is right. Opposition on the ground of natural law, reason, science or faith has no standing. Nothing limits such a state. It is itself, furthermore, “utopian”; that is, it intends to produce what it wants, what “rights” it holds, as it were.
Anyone who does not agree with these positions is “intolerant.” He is an enemy of the new public order and as such has no “right” to participate in it. Any religion or philosophy that has a definite, well-argued position on right and wrong, one based in nature and experience, is an enemy to this new state.
Its members can only participate in it by foreswearing in advance those tenets, religious or otherwise, that are contrary to the state. Not only this, but it is specifically immoral or unjust to work to change things by peaceful or constitutional methods. Hence every religious person must undergo a secular-religious test, as it were, before he can be allowed into the new government or state. It is a closed system, and religion, more and more, is excluded by the rhetoric and practice of absolute rights defined arbitrarily by the state and its organs.
No one needs more attention to these ideas than Christians themselves if they do not wish suddenly to find themselves unqualified citizens standing completely outside of public life. It has happened before.
Jesuit Father James Schall is a professor of government at Georgetown University.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father James Schall ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: How Bush Can Energize Catholics (Even Pro-Gore Ones) and Attract Blacks DATE: 01/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 28-February 3, 2001 ----- BODY:Memo to President George W. Bush:
Everyone else is giving you unsolicited advice, so I might as well stick my oar in the water too. I have an idea that will increase your support among people currently in your coalition, placate some of the people currently outside it and throw your enemies off balance. Why not appoint a blue-ribbon commission to study alternatives to the death penalty?
Present it as a bold pro-life initiative. You will increase your support among Catholics and blacks, and completely befuddle the radical left.
By most exit polls, you did well among Catholics who attend church at least once a week, but not well among Catholics who are less active. This divide in the Catholic vote corresponds to a number of cultural differences among Catholics, including the relative importance they place on the different aspects of the Church's pro-life teaching. The Church, famously, opposes abortion. More recently, Pope John Paul II has criticized capital punishment.
Catholics who voted for Gore are likely to endorse this aspect of the pro-life teaching, while finding the anti-abortion position more of a challenge. Meanwhile conservative, traditional Catholics strongly oppose abortion on demand but are challenged by the Holy Father's recent opposition to the death penalty. Your challenge, Mr. President, is to give the liberal Catholics reason to move toward your side. The Holy Father's nuanced position on capital punishment gives you an opportunity to build up the pro-life coalition from the left-leaning side of the political spectrum.
While affirming traditional Church teaching on states having the right to execute criminals, John Paul argues that, under modern conditions, the state hardly ever has an actual need to exercise this right. The state should not use the death penalty when more modest measures would fulfill the state's responsibility to protect society. Your blue-ribbon commission could take a sober-minded look at alternatives to capital punishment, taking the Pope's reasoning into account.
The traditional Catholics are already voting for you, Mr. President, and you are not likely to lose them by opening the question of the death penalty. It is the Gore Catholics you need to attract. Imagine your results if you had carried the Catholic vote the way Gore carried the black vote (90%), the Jewish vote, or even the homosexual vote (75%). No one would ever have heard of a dimpled chad.
Speaking of the black vote, you really need to do something dramatic if you hope to penetrate the radical left's hold on blacks.
In the aftermath of the election, The New York Times asked a wide variety of black public figures how you might reach out to black voters. Most of these prominent blacks cited the death penalty as one of the core issues.
You are not likely to appeal to them on their other favorite issues, like affirmative action. You can show them that you take the death penalty seriously, even if you don't endorse every aspect of their position. Racial disparities in executions are troubling to many people from across the political spectrum. Many blacks consider it literally a matter of life and death. This is one of the issues that a commission should examine with an open mind.
The death penalty touches on a whole complex of issues, including crime control, punishment, deterrence and rehabilitation. There are good reasons to oppose the death penalty and bad reasons to do so. Likewise there are good and thoughtful reasons to favor it, and bad and mindless reasons to favor it. It is hard to imagine that any two thoughtful people would analyze it in exactly the same way, and come to identical conclusions about it in every detail. This is precisely the feature that makes the death penalty amenable to serious discussion and coalition-building.
Ironically, the radical left has managed to turn capital punishment into a touchstone, knee-jerk issue. The “Free Mumia” crowd seems to think that every man on death row is an innocent lamb. The obvious subtext is that the entire criminal-justice system is unfair. That is exactly why it is so important that a good conservative administration take a bold initiative in this issue.
With a proper choice of panelists, you can steer this issue away from the control of the lunatic fringe and turn it into an opportunity for building good will among a seemingly unlikely coalition of religious figures from the right and civil rights activists from the left.
You could choose a couple of high-profile, no-nonsense pro-life Catholic clergymen who can articulate the Holy Father's position and apply it to the American context. Although pro-life evangelical Protestants tend to favor capital punishment, they will listen respectfully to the Catholic position. You need to appoint someone who can articulate that position. Prominent pro-life figures will prevent your commission from becoming a vehicle for the radical left.
But avoid the mistake Bill Clinton made when he appointed a panel to study race relations. Clinton packed the panel with his own people, and assiduously avoided iconoclasts like Ward Connerly. You can do better, Mr. President. Choose some level-headed civil libertarians, and a few moderate black leaders. Pick outspoken advocates and opponents of the death penalty. Select a few people with extensive experience in law enforcement.
You will increase your political capital among groups where you are relatively weak. You won't lose anybody, since the people who strongly favor the death penalty probably support you already.
Your opponents have pegged you as an avid supporter of the death penalty, since you presided over so many executions in Texas. No one will expect you to open this question. Your opponents will be thrown into confusion. And flummoxing your enemies is just a side benefit of doing the right thing.
Jennifer Roback Morse, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, welcomes e-mail at jmorse@jps.net.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: J.R. Morse ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Sicilian Sanctuary DATE: 01/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 28-February 3, 2001 ----- BODY:A tempest, unforeseen and violent, suddenly tossed the ships into chaos, striking terror into even the brave heart of the popular King Roger.
At the time (actually 1131), Normans ruled Sicily, and King Roger II was sailing along the island's northern coast, with several ships as his escort. Praying for safety, he made a solemn vow to build a cathedral at the shore where he landed and dedicate it to Christ the Savior. Out of the mists, St. George (a Norman favorite) then appeared to the king and assured him that all would be well. The next day was Pentecost; the seas calmed and the king found himself at Cefalù, east of Palermo.
Visitors to Sicily today still see his ruggedly elegant, double-towered cathedral — the Palermo Cathedral — at the foot of an enormous rock, an unforgettable sight in this charming town. Right after landing, the king had a temporary chapel built and named it for the messenger, St. George, and then Roger commenced work on the cathedral, which would be his royal ex-voto to be enjoyed for generations to come.
Arriving at Cefalù from the west is thrilling. A curve of coast brings a massive boulder, shaped something like a priest's biretta, or a pastry shop's brioche, into view with the town beneath it, as if huddled in the wake of a tidal wave.
Cefalù sits on a promontory from which this mass, called La Rocca, rises about 900 feet above the Mediterranean. The cathedral is massive as a Norman fortress, but softened with elegant Arab arches. Arabs had occupied Sicily before the Normans. The latter seemed to achieve a relatively peaceable kingdom, at least under Roger. Walk around to the back, too, as it is a gem from all directions. Each of the twin towers has three tiers of mullioned (divided) windows.
The cathedral, or Duomo, as all major city cathedrals are called, stands on a charming piazza where coffee bars and restaurants leave their tables and chairs out at all hours for the hundreds of tourists who visit the town each day. Just sitting there and looking up at Roger's gift is awe-inspiring.
Blessed Beach Town
Inside the church, the vast Byzantine mosaic of Christ is one of my favorites of this kind. Although his grandeur is apparent, Christ's appearance is softened by a stray lock of hair that seems to have just slipped down on his forehead. The open Gospel he holds shows the Greek and Latin text of St. John 8:12: “I am the light of the world. Those who follow me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”
A beautiful Madonna and Child statue by Antonello Gagini (1533) stands in the left nave. Near it is the entrance to the 12th-century cloister, which is still evocative of its time, though fire has damaged it. Biblical events can be seen finely carved into capitals of columns. Cefalù was a bishop's see: A bishop's palace, a seminary, and a convent stand alongside piazza Duomo, the palm tree-graced piazza in front of the cathedral.
Down the hill, at the beach, bathers linger during long spring days and well into the fall, and raucous cries of diving seagulls shatter the air along the sea. The first day I saw the town with its mighty cathedral I thought it would be a fine place to live, and not long afterward my work took me to Sicily, where I rented an apartment in Cefalù on the rocky shore near the cathedral.
Capuchin Charm
The town of Cefalù, whose name comes from the Greek word kafale, for headland or cape, dates back to about the 9th century B.C. Remnants of that time can be seen high above the town on top of La Rocca. If you like hiking, walk up there (the path is not very steep), to enjoy a thrilling view of the honey-colored town against the often deep-blue sea beyond. A temple to the Greek goddess Diana and other ancient Greek ruins are there for the exploring.
Some fine religious paintings as well as Greek vases are displayed at the attractive Mandralisca museum, on a street in front of the Duomo. Its most famous painting, however, is by Antonello da Messina (1465), Portrait of a Man, which shows a sly Sicilian.
Apart from the Duomo, several churches of Baroque elegance can be seen along the main Corso Ruggero (Roger). The Purgatorio Church at the top of a double stairway is worth searching out. At the end of the Corso, the Church of Santa Maria della Catena has a graceful portico.
Cefalù is beguiling, filled with charming streets and sea views. The pilgrim will find places for reverent prayer and for exultation at the beauty of the world.
A popular place for pilgrimages can be found nearby, about five miles south, on Monte Sant'Angelo, at the Sanctuary of Gibelmanna, built in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Cappuchin friars’ museum there contains Franciscan creche figures, vestments, enameled reliquaries, a 16th-century alabaster rosary and a Pieta. The humble carts, looms and utensils were collected from Franciscan monasteries (conventi in Italian) for men or women. A late 18th-century wax baby form is typical of ex-votos found in Sicily even today, asking favors for a child.
Sicily was a major destination for Catholic pilgrims all last year. The Jubilee may be over now, but, for those hungry for beauty and spiritual refreshment, Cefalù's appeal is timeless.
Barbara Coeyman Hults is based in New York City.
----- EXCERPT: On the Italian island's north coast, the town of Cefalù pampers pilgrims ----- EXTENDED BODY: Barbara Coeyman Hults ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Contaminated Confection DATE: 01/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 28-February 3, 2001 ----- BODY:Anti-Catholic bias doesn't always take the form of a frontal assault.
A proven tactic is to condemn Church organizational structures as corrupt and hold out hope for reform.
But accompanying this point of view is often an attack on orthodox Catholic doctrine which, it's implied, needs to be modified to accommodate current spiritual trends.
Chocolat is a well crafted, female-empowerment fairy tale set in 1950s France that's animated by this kind of anti-Catholicism. Yet somehow it has managed to pass itself off as a plea for understanding and open-mindedness.
After receiving largely favorable reviews, this Miramax (Priest and The Cider House Rules) release garnered an endorsement from the New York-based Anti-Defamation League. Its Jan. 11 statement urges “all Americans” to see the film, which it praises for “addressing the issues of prejudice and intolerance in a sensitive and entertaining manner.” This is to be followed by a screening later in the month at Los Angeles’ Museum of Tolerance.
A close examination of the film's content, however, reveals a repudiation of the Catholic faith as most orthodox believers understand it. The movie's villain is a conservative Catholic, and he and his reluctant underling, the local parish priest, must not only prove themselves more tolerant of non-churchgoing citizens but also turn their backs on the essence of their faith before the filmmakers will certify them as good guys.
The story is set in the fictional village of Lansquenet, where “everyone knows his place.” This means total conformity to existing social traditions which are based on the Church and the land-owning aristocracy. The enforcer is the mayor, Comte de Reynaud (Alfred Molina), who expects all villagers to attend Mass regularly and rewrites the homi-lies of the parish priest (Hugh O'Conor). But, the pastor, it's humorously suggested, can't be all bad because he, at least, likes Elvis Presley.
An unusually strong wind blows into town, bringing with it an unwed mother, Vianne Rocher (Juliette Binoche), and her pre-adolescent daughter, Anouk (Victoire Thivisol). They open a chocolate shop, symbolically named Maya, which promises to overturn Lansquenet's established order like an unruly force of nature.
It's Lent, and fasting is expected, a practice director Lasse Hallstrom (The Cider House Rules) and screenwriter Robert Nelson Jacobs subtly ridicule. When the mayor tells Vianne not to open her shop because its goodies might tempt the faithful away from the holy season's disciplines, we're meant to see his demands as arbitrary and intolerant. Her refusal to comply or to attend Mass gets her labeled “an atheist” which, by definition, makes her seem a threat to this closely knit community. The battle lines are now drawn, and it's clear the audience is supposed to take her side.
Vianne's homemade chocolates have magical powers which improve her customers’ sex lives and open them up to long repressed feelings. Her recipes were handed down to her by Central American ancestors — female followers of the ancient Maya religion who had special spiritual powers and wandered from place to place as she does.
In keeping with popular New Age thinking, the filmmakers associate these close-to-nature pagan cults with female liberation and show Vianne empowering the neglected and abused women (Judi Dench and Lena Olin) of the village. By extension, the Church, as represented by the Comte, is depicted as the primary instrument of patriarchal oppression. This, of course, ignores the violent, blood-thirsty rituals of Maya worship which regarded women far more harshly than even the most reactionary sort of 1950s Catholicism.
Vianne takes up with Roux (Johnny Depp), a romanticized version of an Irish gypsy who plays guitar and lives on a river barge. The Comte organizes a campaign to run him and his band of “godless drifters” out of the area. Leaflets are printed which the filmmakers intend to be ironic. “Family, Church and Community,” it's stated, need to be protected from the evils of “self-gratification.” But this latter value, in fact, accurately describes the effects produced by Vianne's chocolates, which the movie holds up as morally superior to Christianity.
The mayor, while presented as the source of most of the village's intolerance and repression, is also treated comically, often behaving like a cross between Peter Sellers’ Inspector Clouseau and the cartoon character Snidely Whiplash. He's as bumbling as he is cruelly judgmental, and, predictably, he too is eventually tempted by Vianne's tasty concoctions.
Lent is, of course, is followed by Easter, and the parish priest uses the occasion to deliver a homily that finally reflects his views rather than those of the mayor. The young cleric focuses on Jesus as a man. “I don't want to talk about his divinity,” he preaches, voicing a sentiment that seems directly contrary to the meaning of the feast which celebrates Our Lord's resurrection. Yet the filmmakers want us to applaud his departure from the rigidities of orthodox faith as proof of what he's learned from Vianne's presence in the village.
Chocolat, based on Joanne Harris’ novel, perpetuates certain fashionable clichés. A chaste, ascetic lifestyle is depicted as dangerous to your mental and physical health, and an unrestrained libido is seen as the key to psychological and spiritual sanity.
It would be hard to watch this film and not think of Babette's Feast, one of the Vatican's top 45 films, which also uses food as a metaphor to explore the relationship between the senses and the spirit. Babette sees the sensual submitted to the spiritual, and the spirit soars.
Chocolat tries to have it the other way around and winds up, like so much Hollywood religion, only pretending to fly.
Arts & culture correspondent John Prizer writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: Chocolat is tainted by anti-Catholic ingredients ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 01/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 28-February 3, 2001 ----- BODY:Race Against Time (2000)
Pope John Paul II has warned us about a culture of death in which abortion, euthanasia and suicide become legalized and the norm. Race Against Time, a cable-TV sci-fi movie, is a pop-culture riff on the Holy Father's concerns. Suspense-filled action scenes and well-choreographed chases take precedence over ideas, but enough serious issues are presented to raise questions in the minds of even escapist viewers.
It's the year 2008, and all laws criminalizing suicide have been repealed.
This clears the way for outfits like LifeCorps, which pays big bucks to needy citizens in return for ownership of their vital organs in the future. A construction worker, James Gabriel (Eric Roberts), can't pay his son's medical expenses and sells his body parts to the company for the necessary funds. But when the boy mysteriously dies, he reneges on the deal and goes on the run. LifeCorps’ leader, Dr. Stofeles (Chris Sarandon), sends a ruthless bounty hunter (Cary Elwes) after him to collect.
Wild Strawberries (1957)
Each of us is going to die. As we get older, if we're wise, we face up to the fact and use it as an opportunity to examine our lives. Professor Isak Borg (Victor Sjostrom) is a 78-year-old physician who's about to receive an honorary degree. A hardheaded rational-ist, he's never had time for messy stuff like love and relationships. After a disturbing dream, he decides to take a car to the ceremony instead of flying.
The long journey becomes a spiritual odyssey that forces him to wrestle with his own mortality. His shortcomings are cruelly laid before him. He also comes to understand that, if you forgive others, you yourself may be forgiven. Wild Strawberries, one of the Vatican's top 45 films, dramatizes the hollowness of a life that denies itself love. But writer-director Ingmar Bergman shows us that it's never to late to start over if a person is honest in his repentance.
Drums Along the Mohawk (1939)
Families eking out a life on the frontier faced a special set of challenges. The lawlessness, untamed landscape and occasionally hostile indigenous tribes made it difficult to set down roots and raise children. Drums Along the Mohawk, based on Walter Edmonds’ novel, is an intelligent, beautifully mounted drama set during the American Revolution. It focuses on a newly married couple, Lana and Gil Martin (Claudette Colbert and Henry Fonda), who move to New York's sparsely settled Mohawk Valley in 1776.
Marauding Redcoats and their Indian allies invade the territories and disrupt the already harsh way of life. The Martins’ recently cleared homestead is destroyed in a scorched-earth invasion, and they seek safety in a nearby fort. These unfortunate circumstances transform Lana from a spoiled young woman into a warm-hearted, resourceful frontier matriarch, and Gil becomes a wilderness-savvy warrior.
— John Prizer
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 01/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 28-February 3, 2001 ----- BODY:Former Abortion Nurse At Steubenville
FRANCISCAN UNIVERSITY OF STEUBENVILLE, Jan. 16 — The Franciscan University of Steubenville marked the 28th anniversary of Roe v. Wade with a pro-life memorial service and an unusual speaker, the university announced. The speaker, Joan Appleton, is a registered nurse who assisted in over 10,000 abortions during the 1980s. Appleton was head nurse at a Washington, D.C.-area abortion business. But encounters with pro-life people led her to reconsider and eventually abandon her pro-abortion stance. She now directs Centurions, an outreach program offering guidance to abortion practitioners who have left or are considering leaving the abortion business.
Appleton discussed why she left the abortion business, as well as post-abortion trauma and other psychological and spiritual aspects of abortion. The memorial service then concluded with a candlelight procession to the nearby Tomb of the Unborn Child, where seven aborted infants are buried.
Focusing on Christ
But instead of spending all his nights around a beer keg, he began to read a Bible his mother had given him. He returned to Christ, and, he said, “began to have more fun with my friends in college, with Christ-centered relationships, than I ever had before.”
To help students, in 1997 he founded the Fellowship of Catholic University Students, or FOCUS. It began with 24 students, but now has over 600 members on campuses in Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Illinois and Michigan.
The group recently held a Catholic student leadership conference at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, which drew 200 students. FOCUS reaches out to both Catholics and non-Catholics. Martin said the group used techniques adapted from evangelical Protestants, but stayed faithful to Catholic teaching.
The daylong conference featured workshops like “Leading a Bible Study” and “The Big Three — Chastity, Sobriety and Excellence.”
Renowned Dallas Professor Dies
UNIVERSITY OF DALLAS, Jan. 5 — The University of Dallas announced that on Dec. 31 it lost Dr. William Farmer, an adjunct professor of theology, to complications from prostate cancer.
Farmer was senior editor of the ecumenical International Bible Commentary, a volume drawing together the work of 118 scholars. “Dr. Farmer provided a strong ecumenical presence at the University of Dallas,” said Glenn Thurow, the university's provost.
Farmer had taught at the school since 1991, when he retired from Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. He is survived by his wife of 54 years, the former Nell Cochran.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Shrouded in Science DATE: 01/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 28-February 3, 2001 ----- BODY:In The Resurrection of the Shroud, attorney and former law professor Mark Antonacci turns to science to establish the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin. Grounding his study in the intensive achievement by the Shroud of Turin Research Project (STURP) in 1978, he seeks to discredit a 1988 carbon-dating endeavor which theorized the images of the shroud were the creation of a medieval artist. He tries to demonstrate the shroud was indeed the authentic covering of Jesus’ body at the time of his crucifixion.
This book surveys the latest discoveries and new evidence. Antonacci claims that the overwhelming majority of proof supporting the claim that the man in the shroud is Jesus Christ has only recently come to light. Some of the most astonishing aspects of it were discovered only within the past few years and most people are still completely unaware of them.
The author argues that the carbon-dating process conducted more than 12 years ago violates existing protocol. He explains that samples used were poorly chosen and compromised the results. Their accuracy is limited, especially when applied to textiles. He calls for new studies which he believes will explain the shroud's paradoxical characteristics and affirms that further investigation will prove those features resulted from extraordinary forces.
“The three-dimensional image is produced because the lightness or darkness on the image of the man in the shroud is directly correlated with how close the body was to the cloth at the time the image was generated,” writes Antonacci. “A normal photograph is created by light reflecting off many surfaces, generated from many different light sources. The human mind can imagine the contours of a face from a flat photograph because we see faces so often from so many angles, in so many lighting situations. A computer does not have this advantage.
“To a computer, a normal photo is impossible to interpret correctly. The image on the shroud, however, is not like a photograph, but is a perfect contour map of the body of the man in the shroud.”
Something miraculous occurred to the individual who was covered by the shroud, Antonacci mantains. The images on this sacred relic literally defy the laws of chemistry and physics. Antonacci asserts that scientific evidence and historical proof of the resurrection can be derived from a review of the cloth and its images.
To achieve this, he suggests that a reinvestigation take place and that a more “flexible” scientific approach be attempted which would consider hypotheses that might not be found readily in conventional modern science.
For Christians who may be profoundly drawn to the shroud but who question whether it is possible to scientifically validate basic statements of faith, two key questions might be posed at this point.
Is it possible to prove by human means the authenticity of sacred relics?
Secondly, if this were possible, in the case of the shroud would this empirically demonstrate, beyond doubt, two fundamental Christian beliefs — that Jesus died, and that he rose again?
The reader might question many aspects of the author's archeological and historical evidence intended to establish the shroud's compatibility with first-century Jewish burial practices and biblical accounts. Antonacci's work will no doubt reinforce the faith of those who already believe in the shroud, but in the end it seems unlikely that he will win any new converts from empirically minded skeptics.
Ultimately an authentic shroud isn't necessary; it would only add another historical detail to facts of Jesus, a man born in time who was also God.
Wayne A. Holst is an instructor in religion and culture at the University of Calgary.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Wayne A. Holst ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Family Matters DATE: 01/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 28-February 3, 2001 ----- BODY:I ‘Forgot’
Q My 10-year-old son seems to have a bad memory, but only where I'm concerned. If I ask, “Please take out the trash,” a half hour later he says, “I forgot.” If I ask, “Why aren't the dishes dried yet?” again I get, “I forgot.” He only seems to forget what he doesn't want to do.
— K. W. Troy, Ohio
A Your son's problem is similar to another common childhood affliction: Selective Hearing Loss. Its main symptom is deafness to any words the child doesn't want to hear. The treatment: Make Giles repeat to you every request or directive, thus making it impossible for him to truthfully claim he didn't hear you. If he still persists in ignoring you, place consequences upon his behavior. In other words, put a cost on tuning you out.
For most kids this medicine will also cure the related disorder, Juvenile Memory Deficit. Whereas SHL (you know a disease has arrived when you can call it by its initials) is deafness to unwanted words, JMD is forgetting unwanted words. To get some idea of how badly your son suffers from JMD, try this diagnostic test. “Earhard, I promise I'll give you $5, one month from now. All you have to do to get it is to remember the exact place and time — to the second — that I made this promise. I'll ask you about it next month.”
Some JMD kids actually have photographic memories, but only at select times. Kermit forgot to feed the turtle two minutes after being reminded for the third time, yet he can describe exactly how his brother didn't do what he was told to do on Friday morning at 7:10 a.m. three weeks ago. Even the worst case of JMD doesn't hamper a child's ability to remember your every transgression or “inequity” as a parent.
Once you've diagnosed JMD, you can apply the necessary medicine. The first dose is similar to that used for Selective Hearing Loss: Require your son to look you in the eye and repeat what you just said. While this is strong medicine for SHL since kids can't claim they didn't hear what they themselves said — not legitimately anyway — it's not foolproof for JMD. Faith can still claim she “forgot” what both you and she said.
Therefore, you may need more potent medicine. One experimental procedure has shown promise in clinical trials: Treat poor memory with poor memory. For example, if your son forgets that three hours ago he was asked to take out the trash, you will forget what you asked. Was it to dry the dishes or take out the trash? Since you can't recall, he'll now do both, just to cover all the bases. If he has memory lapses — and he's young and healthy — how can he expect his mother, whose brain cells are part petrified, to remember everything?
At this point most kids instantly recall exactly what you asked. (It's a miracle!) Nevertheless, it's too late. This time around there are added duties or consequences for ignoring mom. As your son is held accountable for his forgetfulness, his memory skills should improve radically.
What if your son truly forgets? Sometimes he will. It's a psychological axiom that humans — little and big — often forget what they don't want to remember. Nevertheless, your intent is to teach your son to remember his responsibilities, whether he wants to or not.
It's possible that this column may never be read by anybody. You see, my editor gave me a deadline, and I don't recall when it was.
Dr. Ray Guarendi is a clinical psychologist and author.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dr. Ray Guerendi ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: Facts of Life DATE: 01/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 28-February 3, 2001 ----- BODY:LESS TV, LESS AGGRESSION
In a study of the effects of media use, a group of third and fourth graders decreased their television, video and video game time from an average of 23 hours per week to 14 hours per week. After seven months this group showed 25% less aggressive behavior than another group of children who did not cut their TV time.
—Source: Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, January 2001
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: Feminists for Life Reveals Prominent Pro-Life Women DATE: 01/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 28-February 3, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — Celebrities exert a considerable amount of influence in American life today. Their support or opposition can make a big difference to any social crusade. Supermodels have spoken out recently against the use of animal fur, actors in favor of government funding for arts, rock stars against nuclear proliferation — and so on.
Now a small, but growing, number of celebrities have begun to step forward to proclaim their opposition to both abortion and the death penalty.
“The pro-choice people just took over the idea of feminism in the 1960s and said that you must end this child's life,” actress Margaret Colin told the Register in an exclusive interview. The true feminist heritage, she said, opposed abortion as a denial of femininity. Gone now, she said, is the feminist ideal of having “the right to bear your child and protect your child.”
Colin credits her mother's involvement in the pro-life movement for instilling in her a respect for all life.
Even though Hollywood is known for its support of abortion, she doesn't think she should be regarded as a saint just because she acknowledges the sanctity of life
“It's life. It's fundamental,” Colin told the Register. “This is just oxygen. This is reality. You should be born. You should be taken care of,” said the actress, who appeared in Three Men and a Baby and the sci-fi blockbuster, Independence Day.
Feminists for Life, a national women's pro-life organization with no religious affiliation, recently honored Colin and other female celebrities that they call “Remarkable Pro-Life Women” for defending human life against all forms of violence, including both abortion and the death penalty.
The actress Patricia Heaton was another woman recognized by the organization this year. Receiving awards is nothing new for Heaton. When she accepted an Emmy for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series, she thanked “my mother for letting me out, because life is really amazing.”
Known as the mother on CBS's “Everybody Loves Raymond,” Heaton defended motherhood in a debate on the Oxygen network.
A doctor on the program had told the audience that the “morning after” pill would allow women “the opportunity — instead of having babies every year — they could actually do something with their lives.” To which Heaton, a mother of four, responded, “Having and raising children is doing something with your life! … And I have to say that having your kids is one of the greatest things you can do.”
But defending life can sometimes be very difficult says another honoree, Kate Mulgrew, star of the television series Star Trek: Voyager.
“I practiced my belief at great cost to myself,” the television actress told the American Feminist, a publication of Feminists for Life. Mulgrew had become pregnant at an early age and decided to place her baby girl for adoption. They were reunited two years ago.
‘Life is sacred to me on all levels. Abortion does not compute with my philosophy.’
She said that though “adoption or abortion almost always promises the mother a legacy of shame and regret, I have to be frank about my experience. I survived it.” She added, “women often don't believe that they can survive nine months of pregnancy and place the child with an adoptive family. Life is not always easy.”
But life should always be protected, she said.
“Life is sacred to me on all levels,” said the self-described liberal Democrat. “Abortion does not compute with my philosophy.” Neither does capital punishment, she added. “Execution as punishment is barbaric and unnecessary.”
Journalists can have as much power as movie stars and they can often be just as resistant to defending innocent human life.
But not columnists Michelle Malkin and Norah Vincent, two other recipients of this year's awards from Feminists for Life.
Born of Filipino immigrants, Malkin said that while working for the Seattle Times, she found few people who shared her views about protecting the unborn.
“I was the only outspoken pro-life [member] of the editorial board on that paper. Sometimes it's a little lonely,” Malkin told the Register. “But even in liberal Seattle there are people who want to hear the pro-life perspective.”
She now writes a twice-weekly column syndicated to newspapers around the country. And she still doesn't shy away from the life issue.
“That's the surprising thing for me. [My columns] don't get silenced,” said Malkin. “I get picked up by violently liberal editorial pages.”
Malkin stressed that concerned pro-lifers must adopt a consistent life ethic, which she said means opposing abortion, euthanasia and capital punishment.
“I think that ideological consistency is important,” she said. “I think it can persuade a lot of anti-death penalty liberals to second-guess their support for abortion.”
Norah Vincent is anything but your stereotypical pro-lifer. An avowed lesbian, she writes a bi-weekly column on higher education for the left-wing New York newspaper, the Village Voice.
Vincent has been critical of those who accept the women's movement's approval of abortion. “Second-wave feminists embraced the wrongheaded notion that for women to be equal to men, they had essentially to become men and erase all signs of womanhood, especially the biologically determinative ones,” she wrote in one of her columns.
Feminists for Life also honored two elected officials: Michigan State Rep. Patricia Lockwood and Minnesota State Rep. Mary Ellen Otremba. Both Democrats, they work on legislation that expresses their pro-life position. Lockwood sponsored a law to curb baby abandonment, while Otremba co-sponsored a Women's Right to Know bill.
Additional women honored by Feminists for Life this year include: professor and author Sidney Callahan, former Filipino president Corazon Aquino, Irish singer and politician Dana Rosemary Scallon, disabled rights activist Mary Jane Owen, pro-life activist Marion Syversen and attorney Rebecca Wasser Kiessling.
The Washington-based pro-life organization also plans to honor Remarkable Pro-Life Men.
Joshua Mercer writes from Washington.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: Gospel of Life DATE: 01/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 28-February 3, 2001 ----- BODY:GOD IN DAILY LIFE
“To respond to their vocation, the lay faithful must see their daily activities as an occasion to join themselves to God, fulfil his will, serve other people and lead them to communion with God in Christ.”
— Christifidelis Laici, No. 17
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: LIFE NOTES DATE: 01/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: January 28-February 3, 2001 ----- BODY:Natural Family Planning Grows
MSNBC, Jan. 5 — Increasing numbers of couples begin each day with a pen, paper, and digital thermometer, recording the woman's basal body temperature, reported MSNBC. Couples then combine the temperature readings with other physiological data to track the woman's fertility cycle and to time sexual intercourse to achieve or avoid pregnancy.
Many proponents of natural family planning see a growing interest among non-Catholics. “It's not just a Catholic thing anymore,” says Patrick Homan, the western region field director for the Couple to Couple League, an Ohio-based institute whose 1,351 teachers offer instruction on natural family planning.
Homan says modern NFP methods rely upon physiological signs such as changes in cervical discharge, body temperature, cervix position, or if it's the “sympto-thermal” method, a combination of all three, to signal whether a woman is fertile. “Modern natural family planning doesn't try to predict anything,” he says. “It's, ‘What you see is what you are.’”
Zambian Parents Block Ads
PANAFRICAN NEWS AGENCY, Jan. 9 — Outraged parents, with the full backing of churches, have succeeded in blocking the airing of explicit condom-use ads on Zambia's national television, reported the Panafrican News Agency.
The controversy began when the ads aired on the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation in December as part of the worldwide commemoration of World AIDS Day.
Christian groups and concerned parents immediately condemned the ads, saying they were merely a marketing gimmick conjured up by condom manufacturers, reported Panafrican.
In one of the ads, a female teenager is dropped off by a boyfriend at a friend's house where her two friends are braiding their hair under a tree.
The three girls start discussing the boyfriend who has just left and one is heard advising friends that without a condom she will not allow her boyfriend to have intercourse with her.
Panafrican News said that many political pundits believe the Zambian president must have intervened behind the scenes for the reluctant Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation management to quietly withdraw the ads.
In-Womb Heart Surgery
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Jan. 10 — A baby who underwent heart surgery while still in the womb was pronounced fit a week after her birth, reported the Associated Press.
The six-hour surgery in October in Austria involved the reopening of a valve in the right ventricle of the unborn child's heart. Doctors said the operation was the first of its kind for the region.
Baby Johanna was then born by Caesarean section on Jan. 3, the Associated Press reported. She weighed 5.7 pounds. The agency did not give her last name.
After medical tests, doctors said that Johanna's condition was good despite the fact that she underwent a further operation after her birth. Left untreated, she would not have survived until birth, they said.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: Historic First: Dinner With D.C. Bishops DATE: 02/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Fubruary 04-10, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — By the end of George W. Bush's first week in office he had become the first U.S. president ever to visit the home of a Washington bishop.
Bush accepted the Jan. 25 dinner invitation of Cardinal-designate Theodore McCarrick, archbishop of Washington, to get acquainted with him, but also as part of his larger plan to reach out to religious leaders, said his spokesman, Ari Fleischer.
The dinner came just a few days before Bush announced plans to expand opportunities for religious organization to work with the federal government.
Also attending the dinner with the president and first lady were Cardinal James Hickey, who retired as Archbishop of Washington in November; archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, the papal nuncio; Bishop Joseph Fiorenza, president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops; and Washington Auxiliary Bishop William Lori, who was recently named to Bridgeport, Conn. (see story page 10).
At the dinner, Cardinal-designate McCarrick presented the Bushes with two gifts, a small icon and a medallion of the Pope.
On Jan. 29, Bush announced that a new White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives will report directly to the president.
“This is one of the most important initiatives that my administration will implement,” he told reporters. “There are deep needs and real suffering in the shadow of America's affluence. We are called by conscience to respond.”
The legislative portion of the president's plan — which would allow religious groups to compete with secular organizations for federal dollars to pay for certainprograms — was sent to Capitol Hill Jan. 30, Bush said.
The Associated Press reported that the documents sent to Congress will include broader tax deductions for Americans who make regular charitable donations.
Fleischer called Bush's plan to utilize faith-based organizations “the next step in welfare reform.” In it the federal government would work with churches and religious organizations in treating alcoholism, rehabilitating prisoners, helping the children of prisoners and assisting released prisoners to re-enter the work force.
Bush said before the dinner that he hoped to speak of his plans for reform with the bishops, whom he called “men of great faith, of huge compassion for the poor and the oppressed.”
“I think that was such a nice gesture both of Archbishop McCarrick to invite the president and of the president to accept,” said outgoing U.S. ambassador to the Vatican Lindy Boggs.
Boggs, who was named ambassador to the Vatican in 1997 by President Clinton, denied that the dinner between Bush and Archbishop McCarrick marked a turning point in relations between the executive branch of the U.S. government and the Vatican.
“I found a great deal of warmth between the Clinton administration and the Vatican,” Boggs said, citing meetings of former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and the Vatican secretary of state.
Susan Gibbs, Archbishop McCarrick's spokeswoman, told Catholic News Service that while faith-based initiatives were mentioned at the dinner, two bishops told her that the discussion was not substantial.
Sister Mary Anne Walsh, spokeswoman for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, told the Register that participants weren't commenting on the dinner because it was a social occasion. Calling the interaction between Archbishop McCarrick and Bush “two newcomers to Washington getting together,” she added that Bishop Fiorenza shares a special bond with the president: They are both Texans.
Catholic Connections
A month before his inauguration, Bush held a meeting of national religious leaders to discuss plans to work with faith-based organizations to address social ills.
Bishop Fiorenza of Galveston-Houston told Catholic News Service after the Dec. 20 meeting in Austin, Texas, that the incoming president wanted “to bring people together.”
Bishop Fiorenza, two other Catholic representatives and leaders of other denominations met with Bush for more than an hour to talk about ways the government and faith-based organizations could work together.
Anti-Catholicism Charges
Bush first made faith-based initiatives a campaign promise after being charged with anti-Catholicism for visiting Bob Jones University.
In a Feb. 27 letter to then New York Cardinal John O'Connor, Bush said that those who interpreted his visit to Bob Jones as a sign that he “approved of the anti-Catholic and racially divisive views associated with that school” were mistaken.
“Such opinions are personally offensive to me, and I want to erase any doubts about my views and values,” Bush wrote to Cardinal O'Connor not long before his death, adding that he had “a profound respect” for the Church, “a sympathy beyond mere tolerance.”
Bush went on to say that the Church “helps shape our country's conscience” on issues relating to the poor and explained that under a Bush administration, churches would have “a broader role … in providing social services.”
----- EXCERPT: Bush Reaches Out in First Week ----- Extended BODY: Brian Mcguire ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Blocks Aid For Overseas Abortions DATE: 02/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Fubruary 04-10, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — As Jan. 22 ended, the Marchers for Life headed for their hotel rooms, cars and local pubs to celebrate a long day amid the huge crowds of pro-lifers on the Mall. They switched on televisions and radios — and learned they had already won a major victory.
On the first working day of his presidency, and on the 28th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion in the United States, George W. Bush had proven his pro-life commitment was more than campaign rhetoric by signing an executive order reinstating the ban on U.S. funding for organizations that promote abortion overseas.
Ronald Reagan started the ban in 1984. It got the name “Mexico City policy” from the international population conference at which it was announced.
One of Bill Clinton's first actions in office in 1993 was to overturn the ban, letting taxpayer money flow into the bank accounts of pro-abortion groups like International Planned Parenthood Federation.
Many critics charge that U.S. funding of abortion promoters has bred resentment, especially in largely Catholic and Islamic countries where abortion is prohibited. Max Padilla, former family minister of Nicaragua, agreed.
“Most Nicaraguans are Christians,” Padilla said. “They love life and they are against abortion.” During the Clinton years, he said, pro-abortion groups that received U.S. money had lobbied the governments of Chile, Peru, Venezuela and Nicaragua to persuade these countries to scrap their pro-life laws.
Padilla said he had prayed for Bush to win, and was glad to see his prayers paying off.
Prayers Answered
Andy Napoli, a spokesman for Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., said that Bush's stand will clean up America's image as “the international abortion crusader.”
Napoli said the ban would not only “save the lives of children,” it would also “clarify whether certain organizations are primarily about abortion, or are they truly about family planning as they purport to be. If they refuse to accept this policy, they'll be saying providing abortion services is so important that it's better to do nothing than to stop doing abortions.”
Napoli called pro-abortion lobbying in Catholic countries “cultural imperialism of the worst kind.”
Steven Mosher, president of the Population Research Institute, said that even where the law prevents abortion, pro-abortion groups distribute manual vacuum aspirators, which can be used to perform early-term abortions, train physicians to perform abortions, and lobby to overturn pro-life laws — all with taxpayer money.
And Mosher cautioned that groups that do not perform or promote abortion will still be able to get government funding, even if their goal is population control. In 1992, the last year the ban was in place, 480 groups sought and received certification and funding. These groups can still offer contraception and sterilization.
In one grant description, the U.S. Agency for International Development stated that in order to meet its population goals, groups in developing countries would have to “perform 150 million sterilizations, insert 310 million IUDs, implant 31 million sets of Norplant, give 663 million injections, distribute 8.8 billion cycles of oral contraceptives and 44 billion condoms.”
Still, Mosher called Bush's reinstatement of the ban on the promotion of abortion “a good first step.”
Some political analysts commented that Bush showed political savvy by making reinstatement of the Mexico City policy his first pro-life move. That's because many voters, even those sympathetic to the abortion movement, do not want taxpayers' money spent on abortion.
Stephanie Mueller, a spokes-woman for the National Abortion Federation, said, “I share that concern.” But, she added, “since 1973, taxpayer money has not been used to perform abortions abroad.”
However, many Bush supporters have pointed out that grant money is “fungible”: If an organization performs abortions, any federal funds it gets for “promoting” abortion or for other purposes frees up other funds in the organization's budget to be used to carry out abortions directly.
Free Speech Issue?
Mueller also charged that the Bush policy would “jeopardize the health of countless women and families” by denying access to legal abortions.
And she called the policy a “gag rule” that raised free-speech issues, since organizations that receive federal funding cannot refer women for abortions or lobby governments to loosen abortion restrictions.
Austin Ruse, president of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, dismissed this claim. “These groups are not restricted in what they say or do or think,” he said. “They just can't be supported by federal money” if they promote abortion.
Most strikingly, Mueller charged that Bush's action “will most likely result in an increase in abortions.”
She said that studies by the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a research group that is an affiliate of Planned Parenthood, show that when pro-abortion family planning organizations lose government funding, there are more unintended pregnancies, and therefore more abortions.
Ruse rejected this claim as well. “What reduces unintended pregnancies is a proper understanding of the relationship between men and women and marriage,” he said.
Mosher added that a recent study in the British Medical Journal suggested that “the massive distribution of condoms, especially in Africa, is promoting the spread of AIDS by promoting a false sense of security.”
Said Mosher, “The Mexico City policy will save lives.”
As for the claim that contraception lowers abortion rates, Mosher said that reporting of abortion rates is often sloppy: “I'm not convinced that the figures that are brought forward by [pro-abortion] groups are always accurate.”
Mueller thought Bush was just “trying to score political points with the religious right,” and accused him of breaking his campaign promise to promote national unity. “The majority of Americans support international family planning,” she said.
But Ruse cited surveys that he said show that while Americans may like “international family planning,” they oppose the more specific use of tax money for funding or promoting abortion.
More Pressing Needs
Besides, pro-lifers say, developing countries have far more pressing needs than the promotion of abortion or contraception does.
Mosher noted that “80% of women in Haiti have either been sterilized or are on contraception provided by U.S. foreign aid, and only 20% have access to safe drinking water.”
Napoli, Rep. Chris Smith's spokesman, said that the United States should bolster efforts like the Child Survival Fund, which provides health care in poor countries. He pointed out that the fund receives less federal money than contraception.
The United States also funds programs that teach only natural family planning. Mosher said that about $2 million goes to these programs (with another $2 million to USAID for their administration).
He argued that this fund “needs to be vastly expanded.”
Foreign aid programs should focus on providing clean drinking water, building roads, strengthening the rule of law and providing supplies like schoolbooks, Mosher said, rather than on “telling couples how many children they should have.”
In his 1999 postsynodal apostolic exhortation Ecclesia in America, Pope John Paul II decried the “cultural imperialism” behind the spread of abortion and other evils of that he says comprise “culture of death” and called on Catholics to address the problem in the fields of medicine and law.
It is essential for the Church in America to take appropriate measures to influence the deliberations of legislative assemblies, encouraging citizens, both Catholics and other people of good will, to establish organizations to propose workable legislation and to resist measures which endanger the two inseparable realities of life and the family” (No. 63).
----- EXCERPT: Bush Reaches Out in First Week ----- Extended BODY: Eve Tushnet ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Christians and Muslims: Foes orAllies? DATE: 02/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Fubruary 04-10, 2001 ----- BODY:TORONTO — What a difference a century has made.
In 1901, Islam was sick. Western imperialism had reached its zenith, and the Ottoman Empire was being dismantled.
In 2001, Islam is thriving. Islamic states are now confident enough to impose the stringent legal code of Shariah (the way), most recently in northern Nigeria, where a 17-year-old Muslim girl (13 by some accounts) was given 100 lashes for the crime of fornication.
Over 1,000 Christians have been killed in Nigeria, a deadly echo of the massacres that precipitated the Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970), in which the government crushed the breakaway Catholic republic of Biafra, at a cost of 2 million civilians starved to death.
Resurgent Islam hounds Christians worldwide: in Indonesia; the Philippines; Afghanistan, where the Taliban regime last month proclaimed the death sentence for converts; Pakistan, where a Catholic priest has been arrested and then released for protesting anti-blasphemy laws; Kosovo, where Orthodox churches are dynamited; and Sudan, where Christians are massacred or sold into slavery.
At the United Nations, however, Islamic states have forged an alliance with the Vatican. Austin Ruse, president of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, told the Register, “If not for them, we would have been in trouble on a whole host of issues.”
Explained Ruse, “[Islamic states] are very strong on the family and very strong on the question of homosexual rights.”
For instance, at the “Beijing+5” conference last year, the Islamic-Catholic axis blocked proposals to make mandatory the teaching of abortion techniques to all medical personnel and to insert what Ruse calls “a new and dangerous term” into the conference document, “sexual rights.” It is an alliance that “grows stronger with every conference,” Ruse added.
Islam's Teachings
The moral teaching of Islam (“surrender to God's will”) resembles Christianity in many respects, which is not surprising since Islam's founder was greatly influenced by Jewish and Christian teaching.
Mohammed, born in Mecca in 570, claimed a revelation from the Angel Gabriel and preached monotheism (“there is no God but Allah”) against paganism. He conquered Arabia in 630 and died in 633. His teachings are contained in the Koran but are supplemented by numerous subsequent commentaries.
Muslims are enjoined to pray, fast, give alms and make the pilgrimage to Mecca, if they are able. Prayers are said five times a day; they must be directed toward Mecca and be preceded by ritual cleansing. On Fridays, Muslims worship in mosques.
Islam teaches that the wicked are tormented in hell, and the good rewarded with the sensual delights of paradise. Muslims are forbidden alcohol and pork; men are permitted four wives and may divorce any wife by simple declaration.
Islam has no central authority, and Muslims revere Mohammed not as a deity but as a prophet, of which there are a multitude, including Adam, Abraham, Noah, Moses and Jesus.
Ibrahim Hooper, communications director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington, D.C., told the Register, “Catholicism and Islam are pretty close in the way we look at things. We have Jesus as a central figure in our faith, not as Son of God, but if you leave that aside, what is the difference?”
A History of Conflict
It is all the difference in the world to Christians, of course, and Islam and Christianity have been at war for 14 centuries.
Islam spread fast, first west and east, then north. It was halted at the gates of Paris in 732, and Muslims were finally driven out of Spain in 1492. The persecution of Christians in the Holy Land inspired the First Crusade and the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (1099-1291).
Byzantium fell to the Islamic Turks in 1453, Vienna was besieged in 1683, and the Turks were not forced out of the Balkans until the 20th century.
According to the Global Evangelization Movement research center in Virginia, Islam had 200 million adherents in 1900, 12% of the world population. At that time, and for some time afterward, Islam had the reputation, being a tolerant religion. This may have been the result of the weakness of the Islamic states and a resulting crisis in confidence.
Thomas Fleming, the Catholic editor of Chronicles magazine, told the Register that “Islam has never coexisted with other religions without attempting to exterminate them, and the exceptions only prove the rule: Spain and to some extent Persia, which were both very relativistic and skeptical. Essentially it is in Islam's nature to view the world as its right; everyone else is wrong and must convert or die.”
Fleming, a classical scholar, said that Islam has never forgotten its humiliation by the West. The power of oil and the West's weakness has initiated “a new phase in the global struggle,” he said.
According to the Global Evangelization Movement study, Islam had 1.2 billion adherents in 2000, 20% of the world population. Christianity had 2 billion adherents, 33% of the world population, a slight decline from 34.5% in 1900.
Boston College philosophy professor Peter Kreeft, who promotes an alliance of theists against cultural decadence, told the Register that Islam's resurgence is linked to its refound militancy. This, Kreeft said, “is an overreaction. Instead of finding the good in modern Western secular humanism, namely personalism and the dignity of man, Islam focuses on its evil, calls it the ‘Great Satan’ and regresses to a much more fundamentalist theology.”
Islam is associated in the West today with terrorism and anti-intellectualism. Asked about the death sentence issued against novelist Salman Rushdie and endorsed by many Western Muslim clerics, Kreeft responded that this is not representative of Islam. “They are the ones that get the press; the same is true of the pro-life movement,” he said. “Most Muslims does not justify violence and do not justify terrorism.”
This is also the message preached by the Council on American-Islamic Relations' Hooper, who said of the Nigerian flogging, “These cases are a means to stereotype Muslims as barbaric and cruel without any real understanding of what Islamic law is in its entirely, not just in some specific application that may or not be in accordance with Islamic law.”
“We are obviously in favor [of Shariah], but what you mean by Shariah is a different question,” continued Hooper, who forwarded an Islamic legal opinion that the flogging was not justified by the evidence presented.
Islam in the U.S.
Hooper is a convert from Presbyterianism. He became a Muslim because “of the common sense nature of Islam, its actively anti-racist stance, and its universal brotherhood and sisterhood. Plus, I believe it's true.”
There are now over 4 million Muslims in the United States, six times as many as in 1970. The increase is due to immigration, a higher Muslim birthrate and conversion. Of the last, Hooper conjectured, “People are looking for an alternative to materialism and consumerism.”
Islam preaches theocracy, but Hooper said this does not mean Muslims and Christians cannot live together peacefully. “Perhaps I should ask the same question about Catholics,” was his rejoinder.
The burgeoning of Islam in the West has raised tensions throughout Europe, most notably in Germany and in Italy, where last year Cardinal Giacomo Biffi of Bologna called Islamic immigration “one of the most serious and biggest assaults on Christianity that history remembers.”
He explained, “I don't know how you're going to cope with Friday as a holiday; polygamy; discrimination against women; and the fundamentalism of Muslims, for whom politics and religion are the same thing.”
Cardinal Biffi was supported by Vatican Secretary of State Angelo Sodano but appeared last month to have been rebuked by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, president of the Italian bishops'conference, who urged a “culture of welcome” for immigrants.
In a Jan. 22 address to the Iranian ambassador to the Vatican, Pope John Paul II reaffirmed the “urgent need for people to acknowledge that dialogue is the necessary path to reconciliation, harmony and cooperation between different cultures and religious traditions.”
Kevin Michael Grace writes from Vancouver, British Columbia.
----- EXCERPT: ----- Extended BODY: Kevin Michael Grace ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Witches Brew Trouble in Latin America and Caribbean DATE: 02/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Fubruary 04-10, 2001 ----- BODY:LOS ANGELES — Cultists, curses and witches are among the most common pastoral concerns in many predominately Catholic countries in Latin American and the Caribbean.
Father Charles Carpenter is an American who teaches theology at the seminary in Ciudad Obregón, Mexico, and is superior general of the Missionaries of Perpetual Adoration, an order of priests based in Sonora, Mexico. When he was first flying to Mexico in 1977, the man sitting beside him on the plane gave him some very strange advice.
“When I asked him what the biggest problem I would encounter in Mexico would be,” Father Carpenter recalled, “[the man] said ‘witchcraft.’”
After 24 years working in the Mexican State of Sonora, Father Carpenter says the advice proved to be correct.
Likewise, the recent murder of a nun in the cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in the Caribbean nation of St. Lucia, by two men who claimed that spirits had instructed them to destroy the Catholic Church, underscored that even in a country that is almost 80% Catholic, deranged cultists can do great harm. And in Latin American nations like Mexico, the problem is pervasive.
Despite the warning from his traveling companion in 1977, “it took me seven years to wake up” to the realities of Mexican witchcraft, Father Carpenter told the Register. But he now says that “the book by Father Gabriel Amorth [the chief exorcist of Rome] is completely true to life in Mexico.”
The book provides case studies of exorcisms, curses and witchcraft.
Known as curanderos (healers), adivinos (diviners) or brujos (witches), these individuals hold great sway over the populace, especially in rural areas. They often charge hundreds of dollars for their services, which often involve potions, amulets and eggs, which are rubbed over the body to “cleanse it,” says Father Carpenter.
One victim of such sorcery was a singer in a local band in the town of Alamos, Sonora. “He said he could not sing any more, and therefore could not work,” Father Carpenter explained, noting that the man was not very devout and was prone to the “power of suggestion.”
Doctors had been unable to diagnose anything. Remembering that he had read about similar cases in Father Amorth's book, Father Carpenter asked if the man had seen a witch doctor. The man admitted that he had, and that lately he had felt compelled to see her again.
Father Carpenter convinced him not to return to the witch, and got the man to “go to confession and receive Communion.” He also administered holy water. Two days later “[his throat] was healed.”
Others aren't so fortunate. A Mexican cardiologist, an atheist, told Father Carpenter of a woman who died of malnutrition. “Everything she ate [was to no avail].”
Again doctors could find nothing wrong, but the woman admitted that she had hired a witch and used a mal puesto (curse) to break up a marriage so that she could wed the husband. The marriage broke up, and she married the man, but she claimed that the curse had come back to haunt her.
After nearly a quarter-century in Mexico, Father Carpenter finds the account completely credible, and says that the cardiologist who told him the story believed it as well.
In fact, such stories are common. Within one week last August, 11 people died near Mexico City at the hands of witches, according the London newspaper The Independent. And for those who live, said Father Carpenter, “It turns into a spiritual slavery.”
Mexico provides fertile ground for witchcraft, he added, because “there is a lot of ignorance” about spiritual matters.
Jesuit Father Mitch Pacwa, a theology professor at the University of Dallas, agrees. “[The people] don't know much about the faith so they try this stuff out,” he told the Register.
Father Pacwa related stories of his own from Costa Rica and Peru, and said that witchcraft in Latin countries has long been a problem. In the 1970s when he was in Peru, “there were far more witches than priests and nuns,” Father Pacwa recalled.
Although the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that “all practices of magic or sorcery … even if this were for the sake of restoring [one's] health — are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion” (No. 2117), Father Pacwa said a “syncretism” in Latin America often incorporates both Christian and pagan beliefs. He explained that “Pacha Mama” (the earth goddess), the “gods of the mountains,” Christ and the saints are often all worshipped together in the “same pantheon.”
Father Pacwa added that some “new trends” in the Latin American Church like liberation theology have aggravated the problem. “New theologies like liberation theology created a vacuum, and the people went back to the witches,” Father Pacwa said.
The reason was simple, he added: “[The priests] stopped teaching ‘Christ crucified’ and started teaching Marx.”
Without the emphasis on the redemptive value of suffering, it was not long before many people “decided that ‘Christ isn't that big a deal so we can try the other thing,’” Father Pacwa said, especially since it is understood that “in order to get rid of pain, you go to the devil.”
Andrew Walther writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: ----- Extended BODY: Andrew Walther ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Judging Karen DATE: 02/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Fubruary 04-10, 2001 ----- BODY:Before and after becoming Catholic, she has written for TV hits (M*A*S*H, Moonlighting, Hill Street Blues, Eight is Enough, Northern Exposure and Roseanne), been nominated for six Emmys, won four Humanitas Prizes and the Writers Guild of America Award. She currently works on Judging Amy (be forewarned: since she is one of a team of writers, the show will not always reflect her perspective). She recently spoke with Register features correspondent Tim Drake.
Drake: You got your start as a television writer working for “M*A*S*H” in your early 20s. How did this come about?
Hall: While I was a junior in college I came out to Los Angeles as part of a summer school course. The professors had connections and they set up seminars with people that they knew.
I had the opportunity to talk with Alan Alda and told him about a one-act play that I had written which was being put on back in my hometown. He encouraged me to send it to him, and so I did. After that he asked me to keep sending him material.
He also encouraged me to move to Los Angeles when I graduated. In 1979, I moved to Los Angeles. After about 11 months of doing Kelly Girl-kind of stuff, Alda asked the staff to look into hiring a female staff writer. They wanted to hire a free-lance writer and had never had a female on staff, so he sent me in to pitch ideas to them. They hired me to write an episode, and then one job led to another.
I understand you used to be an agnostic?
As a child, I was very theologically obsessed. I grew up Methodist, and at the age of 8 tried to get an appointment with the minister. He didn't want to discuss the Trinity with an 8-year-old. My parents let me go where I wanted to go, so I would make my way along the string of Protestant churches in our town. I wasn't happy, though, and thought I should be getting more from worship.
As a senior in high school, I went to a Catholic Mass with my boyfriend and I loved it. I continued going to Mass even after we broke up, and all through college. In about 1978 I went to an old priest with about two or three pages of questions.
He told me that I had too many questions, and so I declared myself too intelligent and sophisticated to believe anything any more. I stopped going to Church and remained an agnostic secular humanist for the next 15 years.
What led to your conversion to the Catholic faith?
I came back to the Church through my research. I was working on my novel, Dark Debts, about demonic possession and realized that I was going to have to write about exorcism whether I wanted to or not.
The major protagonist is a Jesuit Catholic priest and I realized that in order to understand the protagonist and square the events of the novel with what he believed I needed to go back to the Church. The book was a spiritual pilgrimage.
Even as an agnostic I found that I missed the ritual. There was no logic to the things I believed. For example, I believed in transubstantiation even when I was an agnostic. In the end, I realized that I couldn't improve on it, but that I had to believe in something and this is what I loved. I took instruction and joined the Church on April 2, 1995. Dark Debts was published by Random House in 1996.
Has your conversion influenced your writing in any way?
Even as a secular humanist I had similar principles. I wrote not just for entertainment, but material that I thought was going to do someone some good. If you have a talent for writing it's a great tool for proselytizing. Doing it, however, is very tricky. I try to find any way I can to do that. When I get to do it, I feel like I'm getting away with something.
It's very difficult for any person of faith in Hollywood because you're outnumbered. If I had continued to travel in the same circles of people, my conversion would have made my career more difficult, but my sister is the executive producer of Judging Amy and she is very open-minded and lets all the writers have their voice.
After my conversion I gave God a speech about how I wanted to write novels so that I could write about him. I told God that if he was going to send me back to screenwriting, I'd appreciate if he would send me opportunities to write about him. He's taken me up on that offer. One friend of mine points out that God doesn't get many offers like that from Hollywood.
Much has been said about television's moral decline over the past decade. Where do you see television headed in the new millennium?
I never would have predicted that I would have been working in television after my novel, because it had declined so much. I didn't think that there would be themes worth writing about. On Judging Amy, I'm able to explore themes of justice, family issues and child abuse.
One thing that changed after my conversion was that what is most important to me is what I am writing about. I'm no longer interested in writing for the sake of writing. Now I ask myself if each project is worth putting my energy into. I will not write about things that do not directly reflect my beliefs. I'm much more concerned about what Jesus thinks of me than about what CBS thinks.
You are also on the faculty of Act One. Explain how that program is trying to make a difference in Hollywood.
The thing I really like about the program is how much it stresses quality. When you go in announcing that you're a Christian screenwriter, you go in with a strike against you, so you have to be good.
Some writers think that they will be given a break because they are Christian, but just the opposite it true. You have to be better than everyone else. The main problem I've seen with people trying to break in is that they don't want to work as hard as you have to work.
I recently attended an international screenwriting seminar in Oklahoma and the teacher said that when you're trying to break in you have to do something harder than at any other time in your career. You have to write a flawless script, and you have to write it by yourself. You have to write the best script of your life under the worst circumstances. I tell writers that showing up with one screenplay means little. You may have been working on that script for 10 years. It's not just a script you're trying to sell.
You're trying to sell an ability. You need to bring six, seven or eight scripts.
What projects are you currently working on?
I'm working on Judging Amy, and shopping around a screenplay called “The Sparrow” with a friend. I was going to work on my second novel during the writer's strike, but am expecting a child next August. I've been too exhausted to work on it.
----- EXCERPT: TV hit-writer cares what Jesus thinks, not CBS ----- Extended BODY: Karen Hall ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Canadian Court Upholds Sentence for Killer of Disabled Daughter DATE: 02/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Fubruary 04-10, 2001 ----- BODY:TORONTO — Canada's Supreme Court dealt a victory to advocates for the disabled Jan. 18, ruling that convicted “mercy killer” Robert Latimer must serve at least the minimum 10-year sentence for murdering his 12-year-old daughter Tracy.
Like most other children, Tracy enjoyed being with her family, and liked to laugh and listen to music. Unlike most other children, however, she was also profoundly disabled due to cerebral palsy, unable to walk, speak, or feed herself.
Her father, a farmer in Wilkie, Saskatchewan, gassed her to death in the cab of his pickup truck in October 1993.
Latimer, who was convicted of raping a 15-year-old girl in 1974 (a conviction that was later overturned on a technicality), lied to police about his action and confessedonly when an autopsy revealed Tracy was killed by carbon monoxide poisoning. He claimed he acted to spare his daughter a life of unbearable suffering.
At issue before the Supreme Court was whether Latimer should be granted an unprecedented exemption from the statutory 10-year minimum sentence for second-degree murder.
A lower court ruled in 1997 that he had acted out of “compassion” and that the minimum sentence amounted to “cruel and unusual punishment.” That court sentenced Latimer to one year in prison and one year under house arrest on his farm.
But the Supreme Court rejected Latimer's “defense of necessity” — the legal argument that he had to kill his daughter to prevent a greater evil. “He had at least one reasonable legal alternative,” the justices said in their unanimous Jan. 18 decision. “He could have struggled on, with what was unquestionably a difficult situation, by helping Tracy to live and by minimizing her pain as much as possible.
“Killing a person — in order to relieve the suffering produced by a medically manageable physical or mental condition — is not a proportionate response to the harm represented by the non-life-threatening suffering resulting from that condition.”
Disabled Applaud Decision
The decision came as a great relief to Canadians with disabilities, who were left feeling vulnerable after Latimer's lenient 1997 sentence. At that time, disabled activist Mark Pickup noted bitterly that the extraordinary sentence “heralded the emergence of a new underclass: the disabled.”
Canadian Catholics praised the Jan. 18 ruling as “[affirming] the fullness of life of Tracy Latimer.”
The Catholic Group for Health, Justice and Life, which includes the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Catholic Women's League and the Knights of Columbus, added that “our social and health services [should] be given the necessary resources to support people who are suffering and families who live with and care for people who have disabilities.”
Alex Scha-denberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition of Ontario, agrees. His organization is working to improve palliative care and pain control so that families like the Latimers are not tempted to despair.
But Schadenberg is concerned that many Canadians seem to support Latimer's action, and believe that Tracy's situation was hopeless.
“This attitude concerns me greatly — that many Canadians thought Robert Latimer was a loving father and should be let off,” said Schadenberg.
Throughout the court battle, the media have cited polls indicating a large majority of Canadians support Latimer's action, or at least favor treating him with leniency. A 1999 Angus Reid poll, for example, found 73% felt the mandatory minimum sentence was too harsh.
From the beginning Latimer has appealed to public opinion.
He condemned the Supreme Court's decision, claiming that “thinking people who actually had an understanding of the situation would not participate in this conviction. … It's really unbelievable how understanding the general population is, given all of the misinformation they've been fed and things like that by the court system.”
The question of public opinion remains important. Latimer's high-profile lawyer, Edward Greenspan, has announced he will appeal to the government to exercise the “royal prerogative of mercy” — a traditional power to grant clemency in extraordinary situations.
Although Canada's Liberal government has no clear policy on euthanasia, the Liberal Party is officially in favor of doctor-assisted suicide. Justice Minister Anne McLellan, who would be responsible for dealing with any request to exercise the royal prerogative, is widely considered a “liberal” on moral issues. As of Jan. 24 she had not indicated what the government intended to do.
Some pro-lifers, however, are hopeful that the Canadian public may be less sympathetic to euthanasia than it appears. Basilian Father Alphonse de Valk, editor of Catholic Insight magazine, noted with surprise that three of the four Toronto daily newspapers supported the Supreme Court's decision.
Father de Valk also pointed out that the court recognized in its ruling the “educative function” of the law, and said he hopes the ruling may serve to shore up public support for the law as it stands.
Rita Wolfe, a Saskatchewan mother who lost two children to a rare neurological disorder that causes disabilities similar to Tracy Latimer's, remains vigilant, but she too is hopeful. Wolfe, a Catholic, gained national attention after one of Latimer's court appearances, when she asked the media and the public to consider her own family's experience, and their choice for life.
Love Is the Key
“Do you know what it's like to hear that killing your child is an act of love, when love is what it takes to wake up with new energy every morning to give care and comfort to a child who needs it and who is absolutely dependent on her parents?” she said. “What happened to Tracy Latimer was not an act of love. She was killed the day love ran out.”
Wolfe told the Register that Canadians might sympathize with Latimer because they have not been exposed to the stories of families who have persevered.
Referring to the day she learned her daughter Megan would become severely disabled and eventually die, Wolfe said, “I can remember the utter anguish and devastation of that moment. I think that's what the public relates to. [But] living out Megan's life with her was so different from what I anticipated …. I could always see what good things were going on in her life, and that would tend to balance the bad times.”
“People just responded so kindly and beautifully to our children,” Wolfe added. “I just couldn't be negative about people and I don't want to lose that, because that was the best experience.”
“I had a renewed faith in people, [that] when they see a problem in front of them, they're there to help.”
David Curtin writes from Toronto.
----- EXCERPT: ----- Extended BODY: David Curtin ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 02/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Fubruary 04-10, 2001 ----- BODY:A Texas Tide of Catholics
The Diocese of Dallas has tripled in Catholics since 1987, the rise fueled by immigration from Latin America and white-collar job seekers from Northern states. The diocese faces shortages of both land and priests, as well as the cultural challenges of the city's rising Hispanic population.
It has embarked on a massive building spree, the biggest since the 1950s, diocesan officials said. The signs of crowding are everywhere: Masses in church cafeterias, Masses spilling out into overflow rooms where parishioners must watch the Mass on big-screen televisions, and 20 to 30 baptisms each Sunday at one parish.
Southern states — especially Texas and Georgia — have the fastest-growing Catholic populations in the country.
The Diocese of Dallas is scrambling to build new schools and bigger churches, as well as to attract priests.
The Next Battlegrounds for Same-Sex Unions
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Jan. 22 — Vermont's recent elections proved a significant setback for supporters of homosexual unions, but legislators in two more states plan to introduce bills to legalize so-called gay marriage, the wire service reported.
In November, Vermont's voters re-elected Gov. Howard Dean, who signed the state's civil unions law, which extended the legal rights of marriage to same-sex couples. But more than 20 lawmakers who supported the bill were defeated, and local elections gave an overall triumph to opponents of civil unions.
Nebraska and Nevada both voted — with more than 70% majorities — to ban same-sex “marriage.” The Nebraska amendment faces a legal challenge.
Texas legislators will introduce a similar law this year, which would make Texas the 35th state to ban same-sex unions. Legislators say they fear a rash of lawsuits from Texas couples who got civil unions in Vermont.
Meanwhile, both Rhode Island and New York will debate bills designed to legalize what the bills call “same-sex marriage.”
Prayer Under Pressure
Women and black seniors were most likely to pray.
The researchers' next step will be to determine whether prayer affects mental and physical health. But even before those results are in, the Times said, studies like this one underscore the need for nurses and doctors to recognize the importance of prayer in their older patients' lives.
----- EXCERPT: ----- Extended BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Speaking His Mind --- and His Catholic Faith DATE: 02/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Fubruary 04-10, 2001 ----- BODY:NEW YORK — The popular co-host of the Fox News Channel's nightly debate show, Hannity and Colmes, says faith and family are the first things in his life as he balances the demands of his TV program and a radio show on New York's WABC. A product of a Catholic home and schools who grew up in St. Catherine of Siena Parish, Franklin Square, Long Island, N.Y., Hannity, 39, is also a frequent guest host for talk radio's Rush Limbaugh. He recently spoke with Register correspondent Judy Roberts.
Roberts: How did you get your start in talk radio?
Hannity: It's a long story. I did very well in college, got good grades, and made the dean's list off and on, but I ran out of money. My parents wanted to help me out, but I had conservative leanings even then and I wanted to do it myself. I decided to go work for a year. I moved to Rhode Island and started a contracting business, painting and wallpapering and eventually building houses and doing renovation work.
I was 20 years old, had a ton of people working for me, and was making more money than I ever dreamed of. Then I decided to move the company to California. I remember distinctly it was in the middle of the Iran-contra hearings and I was riveted to those hearings. I would tune in to local talk radio during the breaks and see how people were reacting. So I would get on the phone and start rattling on about how unjust it was, and people would start calling and reacting to me. I said, “That's what I want to do.”
Did you ever envision being where you are now?
I wanted to get into talk radio, but I never dreamed I would be afforded these opportunities. I got my first start on a station at the University of Santa Barbara. It was a very left-wing station and I liked Ronald Reagan so I didn't last very long.
I wasn't very good because nobody is when they start out, but I had had some articles written about me and I put a tape together and got hired in Huntsville, Alabama, over the phone. I packed everything I had in one of my old work vans and drove cross-country to Huntsville on Saturday and was live on the air Monday afternoon. I was there two years. Then in Atlanta, one of the big talk stars left one station to go to the other and they needed somebody.
When I was in Atlanta, I used to go on CNN, Phil Donahue, Sally Jessy Raphael, Geraldo. Once you get in the pundit loop, you're in there. And I was always pretty controversial and outspoken. Roger Ailes, now the head of Fox News, was running CNBC and he gave me my big, big, big break, the opportunity to host a couple of shows on CNBC. He's the one who really took the biggest chance with me and brought me up to New York from Atlanta to host Hannity and Colmes.
You've been very open, especially on
In talk radio, when you're on the air three or four hours a day, you have to reveal a part of your heart. I don't think you can fake it. The only chance you have for success in this business is you've got to be real and people have to sense you're genuine and honest.
How would you describe your faith? Did you ever fall away?
I pray every day. You've got to keep your faith and family as the first things in your life. Probably there was a period in my life where I definitely did fall away. But I've always been somebody who had a pretty highly tuned and sensitive conscience. And I always find I'm the happiest when I listen to it. So a long time ago, I just thought I would live life conflict-free, which is a great blessing.
I am proud of my faith and I use it in debate because it lets people know where I'm coming from and why I think the way I do. I do believe in good and evil, the concept of sin, and doing the right thing.
You clearly value your commitment to your wife, Jill, and 2-year-old son, Sean Patrick. How do you make time for them with such a demanding schedule?
I live a very, very disciplined life. I don't sleep a lot — maybe six hours a night. When I get up every day, my son and I have the morning together. He gets up around 7 or 8 and my job is to play with him up till 11 o'clock when I have to shower and take off. When you look at most fathers, they leave early in the morning give their kids a quick kiss and have an hour or two with them at night. I get my time in the morning and it's Patrick's best time. I let my wife sleep in and Patrick and I eat breakfast together and then have an hour or two to play. Most of my time with my wife is on the weekends. I also say No to speaking a lot. When I do it, I fly in, do the event, and fly right out.
What do you and your family do for fun? Do you ever really get away from your work?
[My work] is in my mind all the time. My wife is the first one to tell me that, but she knew that when she met me. For fun, we just do normal family stuff. We go out to dinner. We ski in the winter. We just put a pool in our back yard — we like to swim. Our quiet time is fun time. We like to go to zoos; wherever animals are we love to go.
You appear to be very even when you engage your guests, even when it is clear that you are passionate about an issue. You also use humor very effectively when things get hot. Do you ever get really mad, especially at your liberal co-host, Alan Colmes?
That's a question that gets asked a lot. Alan is a very nice guy and our differences are only political, never personal. There are times I genuinely get mad, indignant and frustrated because I believe everything I say. But I love to laugh in real life. In the four and a half years I've been at Fox, Roger Ailes only criticized me one time.
It was in the middle of the impeachment saga and I thought we had a great show the night before. He said, “What was missing last night?” I couldn't think of anything. He said, “You didn't smile once.” That had a very profound impact on me. “I know you in real life,” he said, “and every time I'm with you, you always crack jokes. Just be yourself. Let people see that side of you.”
It was painful to hear it, but he was right.
What are your absolutes, the values on which you will not compromise?
I'm not going to say things that I don't believe. I believe you don't sell your soul for anything. If I ever came under fire and lost my job because of what I believed in, I would go back to building houses.
Is there a book in your future?
I have a number of offers and probably will do one within the next year. It will be a combination of the things I believe in — politics and social issues. I'll probably call it Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled. It's sort of become a mantra of mine when people call in.
----- EXCERPT: ----- Extended BODY: Judy Roberts ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Cardinals-designate Show Church's Range and Depth DATE: 02/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Fubruary 04-10, 2001 ----- BODY:The secular papers may tell you that there were few “surprises” in the list of new cardinals to be created on Feb. 21. But take a closer look. The list shows the wide range and depth of talent and spirituality within the Catholic Church of the third millennium.
Suffering and Hope
One of the greatest expectations was the nomination of Archbiship Francois Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan.
Long considered one of the most eligible choices for cardinal, this 73-year-old Vietnamese has been running the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace since 1998. He follows issues of wealth, poverty, human rights, population, development and more recently, debt reduction for Third World countries.
Archbishop Van Thuan is most remembered, however, for the 13 years he spent within communist prisons and camps in Vietnam, from 1975 to 1988. Nine of those years were in solitary confinement. He rarely talks about this experience in public, and if he does, it is to highlight the importance of prayer and complete surrender to God as a path to peace. Archbishop Van Thuan's 1997 book Prayers of Hope is a compilation of reflections of his time in prison.
Liberator of Hostages
Another name on the list, Archbishop Juan Luis Cipriani of Lima, Peru. In 1997, he found himself in the media spotlight after a guerrilla group took over the Japanese Embassy in Lima, with 72 diplomats inside.
The Vatican gave Archbishop Cipriani permission to act as a mediator between the guerrillas and the Peruvian government. As Peru's bishop in the Ayacucho region, one of the nation's poorest areas and the birthplace of another guerrilla movement, the Shining Path, he was familiar with rebel violence.
For 126 tense days, he shuttled back and forth between the two groups. The hostage crisis ended on April 23, 1997, after government troops invaded the embassy and killed all 17 guerrillas inside.
All but one hostage survived. Archbishop Cipriani had wanted a non-violent solution to the crisis and was heartbroken by the loss of life, especially of the younger guerrillas, whom he had grown fond of.
Archbishop Cipriani would be the Church's first Opus Dei cardinal.
Old Testament Cardinal
The nomination of Argentine Archbishop Jorge Maria Mejia was expected by many Vatican analysts. Today he runs one of the greatest libraries in the world, the Vatican library, but Archbishop Mejia has played a major role in and around the Vatican since the early 1980s.
He came to Rome originally to work for the Holy See's commission on Jewish relations. In fact, Archbishop Mejia organized the Pope's visit to Rome's synagogue on April 13, 1986, and was involved as the No. 2 person at the Council for Justice and Peace, where he helped organize the Assisi interreligious prayer gathering with the Pope on Oct. 23, 1986.
In 1994, he became the Secretary for the Congregation of Bishops. His publications are on a vast variety of subjects, including biblical archaeology, Hebrew and biblical Greek, Church social doctrine, Old Testament prophets and the Psalms.
No Surprise
Widely expected was the nomination of Archbishop Giovanni Battista Re, currently prefect of the Congregation for Bishops. He is known for his tremendous capacity to work, his loyalty to the Holy Father and his efficiency. Archbishop Re was the sostituto (papal chief of staff) from 1989 to 2000.
Though many claim he is a serious contender for pope, it is also possible that he could play the role of “pope-maker” in a future conclave due to his vast knowledge of Church leaders both inside and outside of Vatican City.
Model Cardinal?
Father Avery Dulles, an American Jesuit theologian, was a surprise nomination.
The son of John Foster Dulles, the U.S. secretary of state from 1953 to 1959, he is sometimes called the dean of American Catholic theologians.
This 80-year-old priest has authored over 20 books on a wide spectrum of theological issues.
His most famous work, Models of the Church, studied a variety of perspectives on how the Church can be structured.
The book drew substantial criticism because it seemed to encourage “ecclesiastical relativism,” as if Catholics were free to choose whatever model of Church they preferred.
But Father Dulles claims that his purpose was not to create divisions, but to faciliate dialogue and reconciliation between proponents of each model.
In the last few years, Father Dulles has spoken out against American theologians who dissent from Church authority. He has called for a greater collaboration between bishops and theologians.
Prelate of the East
One of the exciting additions to the College of Cardinals is that of Patriarch Moussa Daoud, prefect of the Vatican's Congregation of Eastern Churches.
Patriarch Daoud is one of only three Eastern-rite patriarchs ever to be named cardinal. He is the former patriarch of the Syrian Catholic Church which has enjoyed full communion with the Catholic Church since the 1600s. (The Pope has allowed him to keep the title of patriarch after naming him to the Congregation of Eastern Churches.)
“Patriarch Daoud is someone from the Middle East,” said professor Justo Lacunza, president of the Pontifical Institute for Arab and Islamic Studies.
“He knows what he is talking about. He has an inner vision of the region. He speaks the language. He can help Catholic relations in the Middle East, even those apart from the Eastern rite.”
Sabrina Arena Ferrisi writes from Rome
----- EXCERPT: ----- Extended BODY: Sabrina Arena Ferrisi ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 02/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Fubruary 04-10, 2001 ----- BODY:Vatican City-State Unveils New Constitution
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Jan. 26 — “A revamped Vatican constitution coming out next month officially takes the death penalty off the Holy See's books,” reported the wire service.
“Pope Paul VI abolished the death penalty within the walls of the Vatican in the 1960s. However, capital punishment remained in the text of the constitution, which dates to the 1929 creation of the modern Vatican city-state,” a Vatican spokesman, Father Ciro Benedettini, told the Associated Press.
Vatican Clarifies New Mass Regulations
To the question: “Is it the case that the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments … intends to prohibit the faithful from kneeling during any part of the Mass except during the Consecration,” Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments Prefect Cardinal Jorge Arturo Medina Estévez responded, “Negative.”
To the question: “Does the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments intend … that the people may no longer genuflect or bow as a sign of reverence to the Blessed Sacrament immediately before they receive Holy Communion,” Cardinal Medina Estévez responded, “Negative.”
To a third question about the proper place for reserving the Blessed Sacrament in churches, Cardinal Medina Estévez responded:
“Within the norms specified by law, it pertains to the diocesan bishop, in his capacity as moderator of the Sacred Liturgy in the particular Church entrusted to him, to exercise judgment regarding the most appropriate place for the reservation of the Most Blessed Sacrament, bearing foremost in mind the purpose of encouraging and enabling the faithful to visit and adore the Most Blessed Sacrament.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- Extended BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: The Hope That Springs From Our Faith DATE: 02/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Fubruary 04-10, 2001 ----- BODY:Register Summary
We live in “a troubled world, in which the Kingdom of God has difficulty making progress,” Pope John Paul II said Jan. 24 during his weekly general audience. In the face of so much suffering and oppression, many, especially among the young, become indifferent and even brutalize themselves.
The Holy Father, however, repeated his hope for the future, saying again that “the tears of this century have prepared the terrain for a new springtime of the human spirit.”
“With faith in Christ and in the Kingdom of God one is never lost,” he told an estimated 4,000 people gathered in the Paul VI Audience Hall. He said that the hope that springs from Christian faith gives us “certainty that it is possible to defeat evil and the Evil One, in virtue of the efficacious presence of our heavenly Father.”
If we take a look at the world and its history, at first glance the banner of war, violence, oppression, injustice and moral decay seems to prevail. As in the vision of chapter 6 of the book of Revelation, it seems that over earth's desolate moors are galloping the horsemen who wield at times the crown of triumphant power, at times the sword of violence, at times the scales of poverty and famine, at times the sharp scythe of death (see Revelation 6:1-8).
In the face of the tragedies of history and rampant immorality, it is fitting to repeat the question the prophet Jeremiah asked God, giving voice to so many suffering and oppressed people: “You would be in the right, O Lord, if I should dispute with you; even so, I must discuss the case with you. Why does the way of the godless prosper, why do all the treacherous live in contentment?” (12:1). Unlike Moses, who from the top of Mount Nebo contemplated the Promised Land (see Deuteronomy 34:1), we look out on a troubled world, in which the Kingdom of God has difficulty in making progress.
Man, Cause of His Own Loss
By way of explanation, in the second century, St. Irenaeus pointed out the freedom of man who, instead of following the divine plan of peaceful coexistence (see Genesis 2), lacerates his relations with God, with man, and with the world. Hence, the bishop of Lyon wrote: “What is defective is not God's purpose, which is able to raise up children to Abraham out of stones; but it is the one who does not follow it who is the cause of his own loss of perfection. Nor [in like manner] does the light fail because of those who have blinded themselves, but those who are [thus] blinded remain in darkness through their own fault, while the light keeps on shining. The light does not subjugate anyone against their will; nor does God force anyone to accept his purpose” (Adversus Haereses IV, 39,3).
What is needed, therefore, is a continuous effort of conversion to rectify the course of humanity, so that it will freely choose to follow “God's purpose,” that is, his plan of peace and love, of truth and justice. It is the purpose that is fully revealed in Christ, and that the convert Paulinus of Nola made his own with this touching program of life: “My only purpose is faith and the music is Christ” (Carmen XX, 32).
The Seed of Hope
With faith, the Holy Spirit also places in man's heart the seed of hope. Faith is, in fact, as the letter to the Hebrews says, “assurance of the things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (11:1). In a panorama often marked by discouragement, pessimism, death choices, inertia and superficiality, a Christian must be open to the hope that springs from faith.
This is represented in the Gospel scene of the storm that breaks out over the lake: “Master, Master, we are perishing!” the disciples cried. And Christ asked them: “Where is your faith?” (Luke 8:24-25). With faith in Christ and in the Kingdom of God one is never lost, and the hope of a serene calm reappears on the horizon.
Even to ensure a future worthy of man, it is necessary to make the active faith that generates hope flourish again. Of the latter, a French poet wrote: “Hope is the anxious waiting of the good sower, and the desire of the candidate for eternity. Hope is the infiniteness of love” (Charles Peguy, “The Portico of the Mystery of the Second Virtue”).
Love for humanity, for its material and spiritual well-being, for genuine progress, should inspire all believers. Every act done to create a better future, a more habitable earth and a more fraternal society participates, even though indirectly, in building the Kingdom of God. Indeed, in the perspective of such a Kingdom, “man, living man, constitutes the first and fundamental way of the Church” (Evangelium Vitae, 2; see Redemptor Hominis, 14). It is the way Christ himself followed, making himself at the same time the “way” for man (see John 14:6).
Do Not Fear the Future
On this way we are called above all to rid ourselves of fear of the future. This often grips the young generations, leading them, in their reaction, to indifference, to abandonment of commitments in life, to self-brutalization in drugs, to violence and to apathy. Also, we should encourage joy for every baby that is born (see John 16:21), so that it is received with love and preparations are made so it can grow in body and spirit. In this way, one cooperates in the very work of Christ, who defined his mission thus: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).
At the beginning we heard the message the Apostle John addressed to fathers and children, to the elderly and youth, for them to continue to struggle and hope together, in the certainty that it is possible to defeat evil and the Evil One, in virtue of the efficacious presence of our heavenly Father. To point out hope is a fundamental duty of the Church. The Second Vatican Council has left us in this respect this illuminating consideration: “Legitimately one can hope that the future of humanity will be placed in the hands of those who are capable of transmitting to future generations reasons for life and hope” (Gaudium et Spes, 31).
From this point of view, I gladly propose again the call to trust that I made in my address at the U.N. in 1995: “We must not be afraid of the future. We have in us the capacity for wisdom and virtue. With such gifts, and with the help of God's grace, we can construct in the century that is about to arrive and for the next millennium a civilization worthy of the human person, a real culture of liberty. We can and we must do so! And, in doing so, we will realize that the tears of this century have prepared the terrain for a new springtime of the human spirit” (Insegnamenti XVIII/2, 1995, p. 744).
[Translation by Zenit and Register]
----- EXCERPT: ----- Extended BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Venezuelan Bishops Battle Ch·vez Over Education Reform DATE: 02/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Fubruary 04-10, 2001 ----- BODY:CARACAS, Venezuela — When Archbishop Baltazar Porras, president of the Venezuelan bishops' conference, took the podium at the bishops' 75th general assembly early in January, very few doubted that he would be critical regarding the government of President Hugo Chávez.
And even fewer were in doubt about what would be the focus of his criticism: the government's education “reform” plans, which would strip parents and the Church of much of their authority to direct the education of Venezuelan children.
In 1999, when Chávez — a 46-year-old former paratroop colonel who attempted in 1992 to overturn the oldest democracy in South America by an armed coup — was elected by a landslide, the Venezuelan bishops were persuaded to give mild but clear support to his bold program to tackle widespread corruption.
However, the good relationship between the Catholic Church and the Gospel-quoting Chávez soon faced its first crisis when a “constituency” process the new president initiated to redraw Venezuela's constitution showed worrying signs of providing him with dictatorial powers.
After the Caracas Archbishop, Ignacio Velasco denounced the “consistent tendencies to authoritarianism and dictatorship,” a verbal war was sparked with Chávez.
Since that clash in 1999, the confrontations between the president and the Venezuelan bishops have changed in issues and scenarios but have been almost continuous.
Still, Archbishop Porras' speech in early January started with a conciliatory tone, stressing that “the Church is a natural partner and not a competitor for the state.”
But after a few positive words about the hope placed in the government by many poor Venezuelans, Archbishop Porras tackled the hot-button issue of education reform.
As part of the “refounding of Venezuela” promised by Chávez, the government has announced a new program that will be mandatory to all public and private schools, both religious and secular.
The program, according to the government, is aimed at “recovering Venezuelan values and fostering patriotism.” But according to the bishops, it is an excuse for ideological indoctrination.
“We are especially concerned with the implementation of a completely ideological project, through which the government is trying to impose a state policy over the society's interest,” Archbishop Porras told the Register.
“The [education] program looks very much like the ones enforced 40 years ago in Castro's Cuba or during the '80s by the Sandinistas in Nicaragua,” he added.
Swimming With Fidel
Archbishop Porras preferred not to comment about the growing friendship between Fidel Castro and Chávez, who declared in 1999 that Venezuela and Cuba are swimming together “toward the same sea of happiness and of real social justice and peace.”
But, the archbishop told the Register, the Venezuelan president's sympathy toward the Cuban communist leader “seems to be consistent with some of [Chávez' s] initiatives.”
Added Archbishop Porras, “The program will not help building the needed consensus to bring education back on track in Venezuela. History has shown that ideological projects fail, and always at a great social and human cost.”
The final document from the Venezuelan bishops' January assembly acknowledges that the education system “requires a deep reform. But the bottom line of a true reform lies in providing the parents with a range of good possibilities to choose what they regard best for their children.”
Added the bishops, “In a truly democratic system, education is the fruit of the confluence of the state, parents, natural groups — such as churches — and educators.”
Leonardo Carvajal, an adviser of the Ministry of Education, said, “[The bishops] are overreacting to a project that has no hidden agenda, just the goal to improve the education of Venezuela.”
Nevertheless, he admitted that so far, “the project has not been able to generate the desired consensus.”
A Parent's Concerns
Emeterio Gómez, a Catholic economist, told the Register that “unfortunately, I see the regime dangerously leaning to state-controlled policies in economics and to socialism in education.”
Gómez believes that “there is not a single drop of exaggeration in the bishops' concern.”
“And I am talking as a parent, not as an economist,” he added.
The conflict around education tops the bishops' concerns, but it is far from the only issue.
During their assembly, the bishops formulated a list of the other social issues they are most concerned with.
The list includes “the need for a balanced relationship between the government and society, in which the government recognizes the priority of the people over the state,” “the need for strengthening the democratic institutions,” “the urgency of securing an independent judiciary,” and “the urgency of ending needless confrontations between the government and different sectors of society.”
The apostolic nuncio in Venezuela, Archbishop Andre Dupuy, supported the local Church's concerns during his opening speech to the bishops' assembly. Archbishop Dupuy said that while “the Church has no interest in a confrontation” with the government, “in an issue as important as education, the Church does not ask for privileges, but only for the needed means to carry out its mission.”
He added, “Nobody can forget that, fundamentally, the right and duty of educating belongs to parents and families. The role of the state is only subsidiary.”
How the confrontation on education is going to end will depend very much on the unpredictable Chávez, a man who once compared himself to Jesus Christ by claiming that if Christ had had the chance, he would have voted for Chávez's “constituency” reform.
Some bishops have expressed hope that a Jan. 31 meeting between Chávez and Pope John Paul II at the Vatican will ease tensions.
“We can't keep walking each one on its own road,” said Bishop Mariano Parra of San Fernando. “We have to start working together for the good of Venezuela. Whoever thinks that he can solve the nation's problems on his own is simply crazy.”
Alejandro Bermúdez is based in Lima, Peru.
----- EXCERPT: ----- Extended BODY: Alejandro Bermudez ----- KEYWORDS: World -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 02/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Fubruary 04-10, 2001 ----- BODY:Church Accuses Kenyan Government Over Elections
Severina Waititu, chairman of the Kenyan Church's Justice and Peace Commission, said the deployment of fully armed paramilitary personnel in one Kenyan city ahead of upcoming by-elections is an indication of what Kenyans could expect during next year's general elections.
In an address delivered at Nairobi's Holy Family Basilica on Jan. 21, Waititu said elections are neither free nor fair when conducted in an atmosphere of fear and intimidation.
She noted that violence had rocked the 1993 and 1998 by-elections in the Kenyan cities of Mathare, Siakago and Mathioya. In order to guard against violence and educate voters on their rights, Waititu said the Church had initiated civic education workshops countrywide.
Scottish Prisoners Disproportionately Catholic
Academics cited in the same article claim the figures may reflect Catholics' place in Scottish society.
A government official quoted in the story said he did not believe the Scottish judicial system discriminated against Catholics but acknowledged that more research was needed.
The latest jail figures show nearly 32% of Scotland's 5,634 inmates, and 31% of those serving life sentences, are Catholic. Of the prisoners surveyed, 2,515 belonged to the Church of Scotland, 1,802 were Catholic, 1,264 said they had no religion or refused to comment, 42 were Muslim, five were Jehovah's Witnesses, five were Buddhists and one was Hindu.
Michael Rosie, a Scottish researcher quoted in the story, suggested ongoing Catholic poverty or family ties could account for the constant high proportion of Catholic inmates since the late 1930s.
Colombian Cardinal-designate Makes Plea for Peace
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Jan. 21 — Colombian Cardinal designate Pedro Rubiano Saenz has said that the Church must aggressively pursue peace amid signs that his country's 36-year-old war is becoming bloodier than ever, the news service reported.
Cardinal-designate Rubiano, the bishop of Bogota, was one of 37 Church leaders worldwide named to the College of Cardinals on Jan. 21 by Pope John Paul II. During his service in Colombia, Cardinal-designate Rubiano has witnessed fighting involving leftist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitary groups and the government, with civilians being caught in the crossfire.
“The country is being torn apart by violence, by injustice, by so many things. Colombians are losing hope,” the soft-spoken, 68-year-old archbishop said in an interview with the news service. He added that the armed factions must end the fighting that kills some 3,000 people a year.
Pope John Paul II has frequently mentioned Colombia in his homilies, exhorting an end to Latin America's longest-running civil conflict.
----- EXCERPT: ----- Extended BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Correction to a Correction DATE: 02/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Fubruary 04-10, 2001 ----- BODY:This week the Register finds itself in the company of the The Guardian newspaper in Britain, famous for such corrections as the April 23, 1998, correction correcting the April 22 correction, which was itself a correction of an April 21 correction.
A garbled caption of the picture above ran in our Dec. 31-Jan. 6 issue. A garbled correction ran in our Jan. 28-Feb. 3 issue.
We zero in on three key figures in the photo to name them for the final time. They are, from left, Gerard Wegemer, Laura Smith and Stephen Smith. The Smiths hold their son William. Mr. Wegemer and Mr. Smith are director and associate director of the University of Dallas' new Thomas More Institute.
For newspapers, mistakes are inevitable — but not always excusable. We apologize for the erroneous impression last week's correction may have left. It brings to mind the Feb. 2, 1999, Guardian correction: “The absence of corrections yesterday was due to a technical hitch rather than any sudden onset of accuracy.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- Extended BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 02/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Fubruary 04-10, 2001 ----- BODY:Safest Place on Earth
The news clip “Baby Survives Crash” (Lifenotes, Jan. 14-20) clearly demonstrates that the mother's womb is the safest place on earth if man doesn't play God and try to decide who may live and who must die. According to the report, it seems that about all the mother's body was mutilated except where the unborn child dwelled.
It also sends a message that the baby conceived out of wedlock is just as precious before God and that includes in case of rape and incest. Before they suggest aborting the child they should have the common sense that Pontius Pilate demonstrated when the crowed demanded the death of an innocent man and ask: Why? What have these unborn children done to deserve capital punishment?
JIM ZIEGLER
Georgetown, Texas
Catholic-Friendly Cabinetry
Was that NCR or NPR?
It is clear how effective the master media manipulator has become when the headlines of the National Catholic Register are “How Much Will Catholics Like Bush's Cabinet?” (Jan. 14-20). I have seen these subtle news bites that are designed to alter public opinion in The New York Times and other liberal, pro-abortion papers for years. I could not believe that this headline was used by the Register.
Should not we be celebrating the election of a solidly pro-life president? The two most important cabinet positions concerning the abortion issue are secretary of Health & Human Services and attorney general, where President Bush has chosen pro-life people in Tommy Thompson and John Ashcroft.
TOM SAWYER
Cleveland
All-American Bishops
Regarding “Bishops' National Conference Will Add ‘United States’ to Its Name,” Jan. 21-27:
It is a little disturbing to prefix United States to the title of the Conference of Catholic Bishops. Would it [not] be more meaningful to identify the USCCB as Roman Catholic Conference of Bishops of the United States?
JIM VENDORS
Florissant, Missouri
Evil Bill
Thank you for a wonderful newspaper fully supporting the magisterium of the Catholic Church.
I found Brother John Raymond's article “Computers as Creative Collaborators” in the Jan. 21-27 issue informative, but I was disappointed that an image of Bill Gates was chosen as one of the illustrations for the article.
According to American Life League (ALL), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation provides funding for population-elimination programs worldwide. The foundation has donated at least $10 million to the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) and its affiliates worldwide.
One member of IPPF is Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), which commits 165,167 surgical abortions a year and is the largest abortion provider in the United States. The new boss of the Gates Foundation's global health program is Dr. Gordon Perkin, who is a former member of the board of directors of PPFA.
Mrs. Judie Brown of ALL published advertisements in Bill Gates' hometown newspaper at least 12 times, imploring him to meet with her to discuss his views and to be educated to redirect his wealth to sustain populations instead of eliminating them, but to no avail.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Web site lists a stunning $297 million in grants made between April 1997 and October 2000 for “Reproductive and Child Health Issues.” Of this, almost $100 million has been awarded for reproductive health and contraception, $61 million for HIV and AIDS prevention and $38 million for population research.
I am disappointed to see such a man associated with your newspaper.
MYRA TADYSHAK
Allen, Texas
Liars?
Regarding “‘60 Minutes' Attacks Catholic Ethics,’” Jan 14-20:
If the “60 Minutes” segment lied when it told of how Catholic hospitals and officials are denying medical services and care to people because they are against Catholic religious doctrine, then prove it.
JULIE ROBICHAUD
San Antonio
Mysterious Virgin Birth
You note in a response to a letter (“Virgin Birth a Mystery,” Letters, Jan. 21-27) that the Church has not clarified the issue of whether Mary had pains in childbirth.
This would only be possible if the pains of childbirth were in the same category as disease and death in terms of the withdrawal of the preternatural gifts because of Original Sin. However, a reading of Genesis in the matter seems to imply that the pains of childbirth were a special punishment assigned by God to Eve and her female posterity.
Mary can hardly be seen in this line and she certainly could not join in the punishment of Eve since she was free of Original Sin and its personal effects, i.e., concupiscence. Also, in Genesis, the pain of childbirth seems to be tied into concupiscence, so this could not apply to Mary.
“To the woman [Eve] he said: “I will intensify the pangs of your childbearing: in pain shall you bring forth children. Yet your urge shall be for your husband, and he shall be your master.” (Genesis 3, 16).
Both Mary and Christ in his human nature suffered the general effects of original sin in the world. However, even though both died, neither suffered the decay of the body, which is a natural effect of the loss of the preternatural gifts. So their bodies in a sense seemed to be exempt from the general effects of original sin and, of course, they were free from concupiscence.
Putting this all together, it seems highly unlikely that the movie scene in question was accurate and it certainly was not appropriate.
Personally, I agree with the Church Fathers and the Schoolmen that the actual birth of Christ was a miraculous event, which of course puts the question of any childbirth pain completely out of court.
This is the only way to ensure that the birth itself was virginal and it is the teaching of the Church that Mary gave birth to the Christ child without any loss to her virginity. “In general the Fathers and the Schoolmen taught that Mary gave birth in a miraculous fashion and consequently also without pains.” (Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, Dr. Ludwig Ott).
PAUL A. TROUVE
Montague, New Jersey
Democratic Drop-Out
I helped elect Bill Clinton. An Irish-Catholic democrat, justified in politics through the example of the Kennedy clan — the ‘apple in the eye’ of the Church hierarchy — I, a nominal Catholic, copied them. Many Catholics copied the Kennedys.
The Church hierarchy did not utter a word when JFK announced he would not let his religion influence the policies of his administration. We took a “cue” from that act. By the late 1960s, “the spirit of Vatican II” gave lift to our wings with even greater justification to be “liberals.”
Two fine opinion columns in the Jan. 21-27 Register put me in mind of this: Father James Schall's “The Legacy: Clinton as History's Worst President,” and Richard Barnes' “The Inauguration, Roe's Anniversary, and a May Afternoon.”
As a political scientist I agree with Father Schall — Clinton was a terrible president and a bad example for our children. Clinton not only increased abortion throughout the federal system, including the military, but he also pushed homosexuality on the military and the federal system. The majority of “us” (nominal Catholics) had no idea that these were Clinton priorities. But, following the Kennedys faithfully, we accepted anything tagged “Democrat,” knowing we were on God's side. Ted Kennedy accepted Clinton without question.
However, Catholics may not accept abortion; nor can they accept sodomy. This is the Word of God. Embarrassed, and knowing I had been used, my support ended there. I know others also “dropped out.” Father Schall's description of the tyrant is well constructed. Clinton, the tyrant, would not be put off his goals. Not even impeachment could stem his goal of increased worldwide abortion. (How amazing to have abortion pressed upon refugees in Kosovo in need of food and medical care!)
Also, how exhilarating is Richard Barnes' description of that day in St. Patrick's Cathedral where a united Catholic hierarchy finally — yes, finally — did ‘tend their sheep,’ bringing them to their feet in applause of the Gospel of Life over Clinton's culture of death. I like that line: 'This is the way polite people shout.” But, Bill and Hillary never lost composure. And now that Hillary is a U.S. Senator, we can expect her back in St. Pat's — with Bill as her escort, no doubt.
I owe a debt to Clinton. By St. Pat's Day of 1993, I was back in the fold after a 30-year hiatus.
ALLEN O'DONNELL
Wayne, Nebraska
----- EXCERPT: ----- Extended BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Fearing John Ashcroft DATE: 02/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Fubruary 04-10, 2001 ----- BODY:John Ashcroft himself said it best: “I would rather be falsely accused of being a racist than to falsely accuse someone else of being a racist.” The sneer and smear campaign against President Bush's pick for attorney general says far more about his opponents than it does about him. And what it says isn't pleasant.
First, consider his record:
Before becoming a senator, the two-term governor of Missouri was rated among the top 10 governors in the nation by Fortune magazine. Missouri's oldest black bar association commended the governor for his record appointing minorities. He was one of the first governors to sign a law creating Martin Luther King Jr. Day. He created an award honoring George Washington Carver's accomplishments. He saved Lincoln College, a historic black college founded by black veterans of the Civil War. A Jewish aid of his describes his deep affection for the Jewish people (he grew up in a Jewish neighborhood) and declared: “Ashcroft, I'd wager, knows more about Judaism than half the Jewish members of the Senate.”
When we hear Ashcroft's opponents questioning his record, or ridiculing his religious beliefs or practices, we can assume that something else is bothering them.
What might that be?
The law.
Ashcroft's opponents say they fear that his personal beliefs will prevent him from enforcing the law — he'll spend his time trying to change it, they say, citing such hot-button issues as abortion and pornography.
It is important to note that these same opponents see no such problems with attorney general Janet Reno. She really did fail to enforce the law and spent time trying to change them. The difference: She did so in favor of abortion and pornography.
l The “Federal Access to Clinics Act” bars blockades of abortion businesses. That has been stringently enforced. But the law also bars blockades of churches. That has been ignored by the Justice Department. Incidents like the homosexual activistsr' blockade of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington last year go unpunished while pro-lifers go to prison.
l Ashcroft's opponents say they fear he will try to “overturn” Roe v. Wade. But Janet Reno's Justice department used its influence to expand the “right to kill” standard of the Supreme Court's decision legalizing abortion. It sent an amicus brief to the court in Stenberg v. Carhart in order to preserve the legality of partial-birth abortion.
l As regards pornography, at a May hearing, Justice Department officials admitted to Congress that they have avoided enforcing obscenity laws. Said Rep. Steve Largent, “Today we turned over a rock and uncovered some of the most horrible and unspeakable examples of Internet obscenity, a national scourge which the Justice Department allows to proliferate in our homes, schools and public libraries due to its lack of prosecution of federal obscenity laws.”
l In an article about corporate involvement in the pornography industry, one lawyer told the Register in November that moves by General Motors and AT&T were a big gamble. “It's dangerous to submit your company to activities that are felonies in 46 states — and to put your stockholders and company assets in jeopardy like that. Remember, obscenity still isn't legal. This isn't a joke.” The fact is, many forms of pornography that are illegal federally have become mainstream business during the years Janet Reno was looking the other way. What will happen if an attorney general actually enforces these laws?
So, when Ashcroft's opponents say that they are afraid he won't enforce the law, they aren't telling the truth.
They're afraid he will.
----- EXCERPT: Perspective ----- Extended BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Guess Who Came to The Inauguration? Inauguration? DATE: 02/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Fubruary 04-10, 2001 ----- BODY:When she delivered her acceptance speech in Oslo, Norway, she surprised the skeptics even more.
She was audacious enough to say things that are not usually expected on such occasions, though they were exactly the kind of things she was wont to say always and everywhere. She spoke to the gathering of distinguished guest with no regard for the protocol of political correctness, yet placing her comments fully within their milieu — the pursuit of “world peace”:
“[T]he greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a direct war, a direct killing, direct murder by the mother herself,” she said. “And we read in the Scripture, for God says very clearly: ‘Even if a mother could forget her child, I will not forget you. I have carved you in the palm of my hand.’ We are carved in the palm of his hand; so close to him, that unborn child has been carved in the hand of God.”
The woman, a diminutive yet powerful presence, echoed her opinion on Feb. 3, 1994, at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. “[I]f we accept that a mother can kill even her own child,” she said, “how can we tell other people not to kill one another?”
President Clinton had said that abortions should be “safe, legal, and rare.” This represented his supposedly liberal, enlightened and moderate stance on abortion. His invited guest was saying that abortion is never safe for the unborn, should be made illegal, and must never take place. And it was this eloquent adversary who won the Nobel Peace Prize!
When she concluded this address, everyone present rose and applauded. Everyone, that is, except one conspicuous couple. President Clinton and the First Lady remained solemnly and stoically seated. Clearly, they were not pleased with what they had just heard.
Now, on Jan. 20, in that same nation's capitol, she of the small stature and giant presence reappears, most unexpectedly — at the inaugural address of Clinton's successor, George W. Bush.
Bush acknowledged the spirited election, the country's need for “civility, courage, compassion, and character,” and the duty to respect the dignity of every individual. He underscored the enormity of the task ahead and asked his fellow citizens to “seek a common good beyond your comfort.”
“Sometimes in life, we are called to do great things,” he added. “But, as a saint of our times has said, ‘Every day we are called to do small things with great love.’ The most important tasks of a democracy are done by everyone.”
President Bush did not mention the author of the quote by name, but he was confident that his audience would recognize and welcome the presence of Mother Teresa.
The out-going president and his pro-abortion ally, Al Gore, listened to the address while relaxing in comfortable, oversized chairs. What they heard no doubt caused them to squirm in their seats. President Clinton was, suddenly, yesterday's news; the poor nun who lived amongst the poorest of the poor in the streets of Calcutta was, just as suddenly, back in the news. The irony was as surprising as it was sweet. As one New York Times editor commented, “jubilant Republican dignitaries” were counterpoised against “somber Democratic leaders.”
How “back” was she? Consider that, two days later, President Bush enacted his first major policy. He reversed the Clinton administration's position on family-planning aid to international groups by preventing U.S. money from going to support abortion. “It is my conviction,” he stated in his executive memorandum to U.S. Agency for International Development, “that taxpayer funds should not be used to pay for abortions or advocate or actively promote abortion either here or abroad.”
“This means,” explained Douglas Johnson, legislative director for National Right to Life, “that the U.S. government will no longer be using taxpayer dollars to try to legalize abortion in countries in Latin America, Africa and Muslim countries in which the people are strongly opposed to abortion and believe in the protection of unborn children.”
On that very same day, Jan. 22, the 28th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, President Bush provided a written statement that New Jersey Republican Representative Chris Smith read to an enthusiastic throng attending the March for Life. “The Promises of our Declaration of Independence are not just for the strong, the independent or the healthy,” read Smith. “They are for everyone, including unborn children. We share a great goal, to work toward a day when every child is welcomed in life and protected in law … to build a culture of life, affirming that every person, at every stage and season of life, is created equal in God's image.”
The conspicuous reference to a “culture of life,” virtually identifiable with Pope John Paul II, offers great hope for America and President Bush's term of office. By promising to honor the life of everyone, born and unborn, he is being genuinely inclusive, truly democratic and, yes, authentically liberal — in the best sense of that word. He was promising to provide in substance what his adversaries were willing to provide only in empty rhetoric.
“We know the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong,” Bush said toward the close of his inaugural address, quoting a Virginia statesman by the name of John Page. “Do you not think an angel rides in the whirlwind and directs the storm?” Perhaps we should not discount the role Mother Teresa may continue to play in directing America through her stormy times ahead.
Donald DeMarco is a philosophy professor at St. Jerome's University in Waterloo, Ontario.
----- EXCERPT: When she won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, many were surprised. ----- Extended BODY: Don DeMarco ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Green Chapel DATE: 02/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Fubruary 04-10, 2001 ----- BODY:Last summer, I took my family hiking on Cannon Mountain in northern New Hampshire. As we set out, a thick treetop canopy overhead and dense tangles of ivy lining the trail, everything was wild and fragrant and moist from a hard rain that fell the night before. A gentle breeze rustled the leaves; squirrels jousted with birds in the brambles and berry bushes. As we proceeded higher up and deeper in, we gradually went from gliding along flat, well-worn paths to carefully negotiating untamed mountain terrain on which a misstep might have brought disaster.
Finally, at the end of one particularly rugged trail, we emerged from the shade and were treated to a sight so breathtaking that even my chattering preteen paused for a few seconds of spontaneous silence: in the valley below, a pristine mountain lake with a perfect reflection of the summit shimmering in its still waters. God, it seems, is as good at showing his creation as he is at bringing it into being. Call it the green chapel.
The Good Earth
I thought of our experience overlooking that grand vista during the presidential campaign whenever the issue of the environment came up.
Which candidate had the point of view in closer accord with the Gospel? Al Gore had written a book earlier in the decade, Earth in the Balance, in which he stated that “We must make the rescue of the environment the central organizing principle for civilization.” George W. Bush, a former oil executive, had consistently advocated exploring America's wilderness for natural resources that can bolster our economic and energy independence.
By now, of course, such comparisons are academic. With President George W. Bush's appointments of Christine Todd Whitman as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and Gale Norton as interior secretary, pending Senate approval, the discussion moves to the here-and-now.
Bush, Whitman and Norton are all known for their business-friendly policy decisions. All three would do well to consider the teachings of the Catholic Church, which has been thinking for centuries about man's responsibility to balance human development with steward-ship of the environment.
Could Pope John Paul II, great outdoorsman that he is, have had them in mind Jan. 17, when his general-audience address included a call for “ecological conversion”?
Peace in the Balance
Earlier in his papacy, in his 1990 Message for the World Day of Peace, John Paul said, “the earth is ultimately a common heritage, the fruits of which are for the benefit of all.” His message then, titled “The Ecological Crisis: A Common Responsibility,” drew on themes familiar to those who have followed his writings on social responsibility. The Pope began by reminding us that, in the Book of Genesis, God punctuated his creative activity by declaring the goodness of his handiwork. Then, before taking his rest on the seventh day, God entrusted his creation to Adam and Eve, commanding them to exercise dominion over the earth and rule it with wisdom and love.
Of course, the story doesn't end there. Through their disobedience in the Garden of Eden, our first parents not only introduced sin and death into the world, but they also disturbed the harmony of nature, subjecting it to “futility,” to use St. Paul's phrase. Birds don't contend with the air and fish don't struggle against the sea, but, because of Adam's sin, human beings exist in a state of tension with the natural world. “If man is not at peace with God,” the Holy Father wrote, “then the earth itself cannot be at peace.”
The Good News of the Christian revelation is that Jesus Christ has reconciled all things — including man and nature — to himself. John Paul reminds us that the natural world, like man, is no longer in bondage to decay and death, but now eagerly awaits its liberation in the fullness of time. The responsibility of Christians to the natural world mirrors their responsibility to humanity: to bear witness to the Gospel by becoming agents of Christ's reconciling, healing and restorative love.
With this commission as a foundation, a truly Christian ecology recognizes the ontological goodness of God's entire creation, and especially the fundamental dignity of the human person. It proceeds to acknowledge that the disharmony we observe in the natural world is a product of sin. Christ, through his cross and resurrection, has destroyed the power of sin and calls the entire world into communio with the Blessed Trinity. In fealty to our Lord, the Christian moral life must be characterized by a sense of loving stew-ardship for the whole of God's creation.
To the extent that the natural world suffers from exploitation, rampant consumerism, an obsession with profit and the indiscriminate application of technology, we must look for answers not in science, but in the heart of man.
Consider the Source
“An adequate solution cannot be found merely in a better management or a more rational use of the earth's resources,” the Holy Father wrote. “Rather, we must go to the source of the problem and face in its entirety that profound moral crisis of which the destruction of the environment is only one troubling aspect.”
Any Catholic reckoning with the relationship between man and the environment must take into account the Psalms, where the beauty and bounty of the earth are interpreted not simply as reflections of God, but as instruments of his loving kindness and mercy. “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. Day pours out the word to day, and night to night imparts knowledge” (Psalm 19:2-3).
The early Church Fathers also saw the face of God through the natural world, and considered respect for the environment to be an essential manifestation of Christian obedience and humility. “For even creation reveals him who formed it,” wrote St. Irenaeus (129-203), “and the very work suggests him who made it, and the world manifests him who ordered it. We are Christ's members and we are nourished by creation, which is his gift to us, for it is he who caused the sun to rise and the rain to fall.”
St. Basil the Great (329-379) urged the contemplation of nature 900 years before St. Francis: “I want to awaken in you a deep admiration for creation, until you in every place, contemplating plants and flowers, are overcome by a living remembrance of the Creator.” St. John Damascene (d. 754) put the early eco-theology of the Church succinctly: “The whole earth is a living icon of the face of God.”
Later doctors and saints of the Church held a similarly high view of the natural world. St. Francis, of course, is universally recognized as a “friend of the earth.” His Sermon to the Birds is a kind of primer on authentic respect for the environment. His most important disciple, St. Bonaventure, asserted that “Whoever is not enlightened by the splendor of created things is blind; whoever is not aroused by the sound of their voice is deaf; whoever does not praise God for all these creatures is mute.”
With this legacy, it is ironic that many of today's environmental debates, especially those concerning population growth, are predicated on the proposition that the biblical tradition, and particularly the teaching of the Catholic Church, stands in fundamental opposition to the interests of the natural world. Consider this admission by Germany's Carl Emery, a founder of the Green Party: “We in the Green movement aspire to a cultural model in which the killing of a forest will be considered more contemptible and more criminal than the sale of 6-year-old children to Asian brothels.”
The Church, of course, offers a very different solution to environmental problems.
“The human species is not just one more among others; for us to treat ourselves that way will do neither us nor nature any lasting good,” writes Robert Royal in his 1999 book The Virgin and the Dynamo: Use and Abuse of Religion in Environmental Debates. “It is only by recognition of our unique place in nature, which, contra many of the most prominent ecologists, puts us both within and outside the web of physical forces, that the properly human may flourish without becoming a threat to other species.”
Near the summit of Cannon Mountain, awestruck with beauty on a massive scale — not only the spectacular scenery, but also the sight of my wife and children being moved by it — I offered thanks to God for the goodness of his creation. At the summit of our faith, the Mass, Christians offer the gifts of the earth and “the work of human hands” in loving sacrifice to the Father.
The very event that reconciles us with each other and with the Blessed Trinity also accomplishes our reconciliation with all of creation. The Gospel of Life is ultimately the only hope for man and the natural world that is his divine patrimony. Here's hoping President Bush heeds it as he sets out on his expedition as environmental steward-in-chief.
Mark Gordon is administrator of the St. Michael Institute of Sacred Art in Mystic, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: ----- Extended BODY: Mark Gordon ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Now That Our Planks are Part of a Standing Platform DATE: 02/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Fubruary 04-10, 2001 ----- BODY:Now that we have finally made the transition to a new executive branch of the federal government, we ought to look carefully at exactly what kind of changes have been made and what Catholics should think about them.
Politics is the arena of half-truths and compromise. Unfortunately, we cannot split our one vote into several pieces. We are therefore compelled, momentarily, to act as if we supported a single candidate wholeheartedly. But after the votes are counted, it is time to split apart the planks of party platforms and examine each on its own merit.
Catholics, therefore, should not now say to Republicans, “As long as you continue to oppose abortion, we will support everything else you propose,” anymore than we could say to Democrats, “As long as you support programs which aid the poor, we will not oppose any other plank in your platform.” Catholics must be partisans of truth, not partisans of parties.
In assessing the various policies of both parties, we must avoid both “guilt by association” and “truth by association.” Guilt by association occurs when a perfectly good idea is upheld in the public arena by those who are advocates of immorality in other areas. To choose an important example, environmentalism is often dismissed by good Catholics because it is associated with those who defend abortion as if killing a child in the womb were of no more moral import than pruning a tree.
Truth by association occurs when a morally questionable, even reprehensible idea is upheld in the public arena by advocates of sound morality in other areas. Again, to choose an important example, the cheerful glorification of capitalism is often advocated by those who happen to defend the sanctity of human life from the barbarism of abortion, and good Catholics are sometimes led to affirm the former for the sake of the elimination of the latter.
Obviously, I am referring to the Democratic Party's support of environmental preservation and of abortion in the first instance; in the second, to the Republican party's support of every wish and whim of big corporations and its opposition to abortion. The combination of guilt by association and truth by association could create a dangerous situation for orthodox Catholics rightly horrified by the previous administration's eight-year frenzied pursuit of abortion spilling over into zealous support of infanticide. Such Catholics could begin to think that bulldozing trees for yet more shopping malls and the continual rise of the stock market are indications of moral progress. “Look! NASDAQ is up! Abortions must be down!”
As Catholics, we must cut the knots which tie together such associations and evaluate each policy in the stronger, clearer light of Catholic teaching. Since we have now elected a Republican president — a president for whom I voted — we would do well to examine more carefully what we might be inclined all too easily to reject or affirm by association.
Think about this: Care for the environment and care for the unborn might go together. The natural law is rooted in nature, in a recognition of the intrinsic order which God put into nature. The more we destroy visible manifestations of that order — with shopping malls, neon signs, billboards, sprawling suburbs, oil derricks, miles of concrete and asphalt — the less force the appeal to the natural foundation of the natural law will have.
People surrounded by such artificiality will soon behave as if moral commands are artificial as well. People who believe that the continual technological manipulation of nature is a sign of progress will consider the technological manipulation of human nature to be a sign of progress as well. People who collapse spiritual progress into economic progress will soon believe that the frenetic consumption of every gewgaw and gadget the market spews out is both a moral duty and a kind of sacrament.
By contrast, a deep appreciation of natural beauty is the proper and lasting foundation of an even deeper grasp of moral beauty. Environmentalists have this deep appreciation of natural beauty. They err in not seeing the divine source of that beauty, and in not drawing the proper moral conclusions. Thus, they are inclined to invest nature itself with divine status even while they ignore or applaud violations of the natural law. They rightly despise pollution of the environment, yet are blind to the pollution of the natural moral order. But such confusion on their part is no reason for Catholics to reject serious concerns about the environment.
Why? Not only is nature good in itself, but virtue needs visible means of support. A sane society encourages virtue not only directly, but indirectly. The indirect support of virtue provides what we might call the conditions of virtue, those things placed around virtue to reinforce it. Just as a beautiful church and beautiful music elevate our desires for, and our concentration on, the very center of the Mass, the Blessed Sacrament, so also natural beauty and the sounds of nature unstifled by concrete, neon, honking horns and blaring music elevate our desires for, and our concentration on, the perfection of our nature by virtue.
Our nature is part of the larger created order. If we cut ourselves off from the larger created order, we remove the natural conditions which reinforce moral order. When we see clear evidence that there is something greater than the will of man defining the world — every day, all around us — we realize that there is Someone greater than man defining the moral world. That is why monasteries are most often built in beautiful natural surroundings. Nature is God's visible cathedral; it inspires and reinforces prayer. By extension, it inspires the humility to submit to the established moral order in the natural law, not out of fear, but out of the desire to participate in the beauty of creation. Our moral perfection is one more glorious aspect of God's creation.
So let us be both thoughtful and careful. For the last eight years orthodox Catholics have rightly been gadflies stinging the calloused hide of the Democrats in regard to the sacredness of life. That fight must continue. But now we must sting the other party of half-truth with the whole truth.
Ben Wiker teaches classics at Franciscan University of Steubenville.
----- EXCERPT: ----- Extended BODY: Benjamin D. Wiker ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Face to Face With Virtue DATE: 02/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Fubruary 04-10, 2001 ----- BODY:by Donald DeMarco Emmaus Road Publishing, 2000.
226 pages, $14.95.
When I was a graduate student in theology, one of my professors posed the obvious question about Pope John Paul II's 1993 encyclical Veritatis Splendor (The Splendor of Truth): Why is truth splendid?
The answer comes in the opening paragraphs of the encyclical. Truth, John Paul teaches, is not some abstract ideal, something that is outside of and foreign to our human experience. Truth is deeply attractive, beautiful, a thing to behold. In short, truth has a face — the face of Jesus Christ, “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15), the “reflection of God's glory” (Hebrews 1:3).
In The Many Faces of Virtue, Register columnist Donald DeMarco picks up where the Holy Father left off, teaching about virtue by looking at the lives of the virtuous.
Eschewing the traditional classification of the virtues under the cardinal (prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance) and the theological (faith, hope, charity), DeMarco classifies some 48 specific virtues under four categories of his own: the personal, the interpersonal, the social and the sacred.
By doing so, he is able to focus his short essays on particular character traits that are often given short shrift, if not overlooked altogether, in philosophical and theological discourse. Docility, obedience and humility take center stage. Two chapters on solidarity illumine the virtue which has figured in much of John Paul II's thought. And, by way of showing that virtue cannot be understood apart from the inherent attractiveness of a life well-lived, DeMarco includes a number of traits not traditionally thought of as virtues.
For example, he describes what he calls the “infectious virtues” — kindheartedness, lightheartedness and warm-heartedness — which he says “tend to reproduce themselves in the people they greet.”
“It is as if their presence in the heart is enough to make them heartfelt,” he writes. “Hence they are also called the ‘visceral virtues,’ communicating to others through the silent eloquence of the body. They are the virtues that the writer is comfortable with, more than the philosopher is, since they show how a good habit can manifest itself in the body language of its possessor so well that it becomes palpable to others.”
DeMarco, a Catholic philosopher who teaches at St. Jerome's University in Ontario, has a keen eye for God's grace made manifest in ordinary human actions, and he's blessed with the ability to convey profound truths in plain prose.
It also turns out that, in connecting particular virtues with particular human faces, he has a broad base of historic knowledge from which to draw. In fact, the real-life stories he relays are the book's most compelling feature. Here's Olympic track star Eric Liddle refusing to compete on the Sabbath in the 1924 Paris games; there's Mahatma Gandhi advocating an early form of natural-family planning to Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger.
DeMarco has plumbed many sources, from English writer G.K. Chesterton to Czech writer Milan Kundera, from pop star Elton John to Pope John Paul II. Indeed, in places this reader found herself wishing DeMarco had chosen his quotes and anecdotes a little more judiciously, allowing more time to savor the deep insights of a few examples rather than offering a tantalizing taste of so many. That, along with a bit of confusion over some of the organization — why do we have to wait until the very end of the book to get to prudence, the “mother of the virtues”? — are the only soft spots this reader could find.
On whole The Many Faces of Virtue is a fresh look at the face of grace.
It's a motivating call to live virtue each moment of each day, complete with shining examples of how to make that happen — in short, a good game plan for those who want to better know God.
Lisa Lickona writes from Milford, Michigan.
----- EXCERPT: ----- Extended BODY: Lisa Lickona ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 02/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Fubruary 04-10, 2001 ----- BODY:Bible Class Scuttled
History teacher Marty Slonaker, the wife of a local minister, was slated to teach the course, but she decided the controversy had become too distracting. Rayna Bailey, a school board member, told the Post, “If we've got a teacher and a block of time, there are better things we could offer our students than Bible studies.”
Seventeen of the school's 68 juniors and seniors had signed up for the class. The school will offer an elective on law instead.
Public schools can teach about religion as part of a secular educational program. The National Council on Bible Curriculum says that the Bible is taught in 29 states.
Teacher Training Success
UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME, Jan. 18 — The University of Notre Dame received an award from the Corporation for National Service, which administers programs like AmeriCorps, the university announced.
The university received the award for its Alliance for Catholic Education, which includes 135 AmeriCorps members. The alliance, established in 1994, helps new teachers earn master's degrees in education while funneling rookie teachers to under-staffed Catholic elementary and secondary schools.
The teachers-in-training get a small stipend and free graduate education. About 150 recent college graduates enter the program each year. They spend two summers taking courses at Notre Dame, and then get full-time teaching assignments at more than 80 schools across the nation.
In the past several months, Notre Dame has received $1.75 million in grants to bring this teacher-training model to 10 other universities.
Tenured as a Catholic, Ordained as an Episcopalian
Dr. Moni McIntyre, a former Immaculate Heart of Mary Sister, was tenured several years ago. She did not tell the university of her ordination — an official of the Diocese of Pittsburgh happened to spot her name on a local Episcopal Web site. She then confirmed to the university that she had been ordained. She continues to receive a salary, but her courses have been assigned to other teachers and she may eventually be dismissed.
Duquesne president John E. Murray Jr. said, “To present her as a teacher of Roman Catholic theology under these circumstances is a contradiction which is not in keeping with the mission of the department of theology, the university or the Roman Catholic Church.”
Unique Degree for the Deaf
The program's first class has seven students, who will take an intensive weeklong course at the university, followed by online tests, e-mail communication, and a written project. Four of the seven are deaf. Two sign language interpreters sit in on each class.
The students include Peter Un, chairman of the Pastoral Council for the Deaf for the Archdiocese of Washington, two permanent deacons from the Archdiocese of Chicago, and the coordinator of deaf ministry at the diocese of Toledo, Ohio. The other three students are volunteers at Baptist churches.
The students will return to St. Thomas in June for two more one-week courses.
----- EXCERPT: ----- Extended BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Thoroughly Modern Marian Devotion DATE: 02/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Fubruary 04-10, 2001 ----- BODY:Its ancient history makes it a shrine impossible to dismiss as weird.
Tucked away in the tranquil hills of the central Italian countryside, a short distance from the ancient Via Appia Antica, is a Marian shrine seldom visited by Americans who travel to the Eternal City. Majestic yet humble, centuries old yet strikingly modern, the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Divine Love — Santuario Della Madonna del Divino Amore, or simply “Divino Amore” for short — lies within the city limits of Rome. Yet, situated around 15 miles from the city center, it seems worlds away from the hustle and bustle that are part and parcel of most Roman excursions.
A popular destination for local pilgrims, Divino Amore may be reached by a ride on the autostrada(the superhighway) or by public buses which wend their way through the narrow serpentine roads that connect Rome with the rest of Italy. The shrine is a welcome site to those who have ground their way through the snarl of Roman traffic before bumping ancient roads through a few sleepy villages, past a catacomb or two, to be deposited in the middle of a lovely campagna — a place of peace overflowing with palpable spirituality.
There's more here than just a quiet spot to get away from it all. For starters, two significant miracles are associated with the shrine. The first is simply known as the “first miracle”; the second, the “salvation of Rome.” But, first, before exploring these stories, it's important to note Divino Amore's recent history: The shrine boasts a brand-new church which was dedicated by none other than Pope John Paul II on July 4, 1999.
This new shrine church is contemporary, stark and spacious, and stands in sharp contrast to the older, smaller, original Chapel of Our Lady of Divine Love, still very much in use on the same grounds. It is here, in the old chapel, where the history of Divino Amore truly begins.
Miraculous Meandering
In the spring of 1740, a man was walking along one of the country roads nearby when he came upon a local castle, Castel di Leva. The castle was owned by local gentry, the Savelli-Orsini family; its origins date back to the 13th century. On one of its towers was a fresco portrait of Our Lady, holding the Holy Child in her arms. Above her head was a striking representation of a dove descending upon her — a symbol of the Holy Spirit, Divine Love itself.
As the traveler drew near to the castle, he was attacked by a pack of wild dogs. Looking up, his eyes fell on the image of Our Lady. He cried out to her for help. It is said that the dogs immediately calmed down, ceased their attack and dispersed, leaving the man singing the praises of Our Lady's intercession.
This event is known as the “first miracle” of Divino Amore. Shortly after it took place, the image was removed from the tower and affixed to a local church so that Our Lady might be better honored for her role in the miracle. Five years later, in 1745, the image was returned to its original tower, under which a church was built to honor Our Lady of Divine Love. At this time, “night pilgrimages” to the shrine began. The pilgrimages continue to this day, beginning the Sunday after Easter through the month of October, and the fresco remains in place on the church tower.
In 1930, Father Umberto Terenzi was appointed rector of Divino Amore. Twelve years later, he founded, with Madre Maria Elena, the Congregation of the Sisters of our Lady of Divine Love. The sisters were given the responsibility of running an orphanage on the grounds of the sanctuary. The sisters, whose mother house is also on the grounds, have expanded their outreach to other parts of the world, including Central and South America. They also continue the work of the orphanage.
Twenty years after founding the order of sisters, Don Umberto founded an order of Oblate priests who are responsible for the care of the sanctuary. A cause for the canonization of Don Umberto is currently underway in Rome. He is buried on the Divino Amore grounds in a beautiful grotto, which is a popular prayer stop for visitors.
And there's more to the story of Divino Amore. In January of 1944, Rome, under fascist control, was in grave danger of being bombed by the Allies. It was decided to take the image of Our Lady of Divine Love on pilgrimage to several popular churches in the heart of the city so that the faithful might pray for the Blessed Mother's intercessory help.
In Rome's Church of St. Ignatius, on June 4, 1944, the local faithful prayed for their city's protection and liberation: “Mother of Divine Love, guard and preserve your Rome.” They also made three promises to Our Lady in their pleas to obtain their petition — to spiritually renew their lives, to build a new sanctuary and to engage in charitable works in honor of Our Lady of Divine Love. As we know, Rome was never bombed.
A week later, on June 11, 1944, Pope Pius XII traveled from the Vatican to Divino Amore to confer upon Mary the title “Saver of the City.” At the conclusion of World War II, the sanctuary opened its doors and began much work which flourishes to this day. Among the shrine's most notable ongoing works are publishing, the orphanage for girls, a residence for the elderly, the ongoing ministries of the sisters and Oblate priests, an annual Marian summer camp for youth, and a pilgrim's house available for retreats, spiritual exercises and meetings.
Walls of Blue Glass
The Romans fulfilled the promise to build a new shrine church. They have also fulfilled the promise to engage in charitable works by establishing a residence for the care of the elderly on the grounds. However, the fulfillment of spiritual renewal is an ongoing, not a finished, work. As Pope John Paul II noted on the occasion of the shrine's dedication in 1999, the promises of the faithful in 1944 had only been “partially” fulfilled. Perhaps the Pope was referring to what may be regarded as a somewhat casual attitude toward the Catholic faith amongst some Catholic Romans. If that's the case, one would hope and pray that Our Lady of Divine Love has embraced the children of Rome, pouring forth on them the grace of renewal so wished by the Holy Father, particularly during the Jubilee Year just gone by.
One aspect of the new shrine church in honor of Our Lady of Divine Love that draws a reaction from nearly every visitor is its boldly contemporary styling. Upon arriving, pilgrims either love it or hate it. Designed by Father Constantino Ruggieri, the remarkable building is spare and angular, and walled from ceiling to floor by blue stained-glass windows, the color chosen in honor of Our Lady.
One eye-catching section of the stained-glass wall, situated as an off-center backdrop to the stark white altar, contains a bright yellow sun — a symbol of the resurrected Christ. When the real sun shines through this stained-glass representation, it bathes the entire interior in breathtaking rays of gold. A nearby glass wall spells out, in giant white block letters, “Ave Maria.” Another section of the stained-glass siding features a rainbow, signifying the union of God and mankind.
A short stroll away, the original church, also called the chapel, is small, warm and inviting. Its ancient ambience presents an almost jarring contrast to the feeling of newness elicited by the new shrine church. Behind the chapel's altar is an artful rendition of the original image of Our Lady of Divine Love. On either side of the painting are two immense, gold-leaf angels in relief, perched on celestial white clouds, also in relief.
A golden crucifix, golden candelabra, a marble altar, fresh flowers, lace altar cloths and narrow wooden pews complete the tiny chapel. Behind the chapel is a small room open to the public for private prayer. Hung on the ceiling and walls throughout this small room are numerous silver heart encasements, about three inches wide by four long. An old Italian custom, such silver encasements are symbolic tokens of answered prayers. Hanging next to the silver hearts are crutches which are no longer needed because of answered prayer, and even guns which were laid down because of converted hearts touched by grace.
Last year, Divino Amore hosted a conference for rectors of shrines from around the world. One of the messages which was greatly emphasized was that, with Mary, the Mother of God, one is able to enter the mystery of the Trinity, the mystery of the Incarnation — the mystery of love.
“When looking at Mary — virgin, mother, spouse — Christians can recognize their true vocation,” said one of the priests. “That is to receive, to live and to give the love of the Trinity.” Attendees recognized this Christian message as ancient, yet ever contemporary — just like the shrine on whose premises it was delivered.
Elena Dwyer writes from Annandale, New Jersey.
----- EXCERPT: Rome's Shrine of Our Lady of Divine Love ----- Extended BODY: Elena Dwyer ----- KEYWORDS: Traveller -------- TITLE: Cold War Cliffhanger DATE: 02/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Fubruary 04-10, 2001 ----- BODY:Ronald Reagan correctly identified the Soviet Union as an “evil empire” and framed the conflict as a moral struggle, and the media and the academy cringed.
The same mindset is still at work, rewriting history so that future generations will somehow equate our mistakes in Vietnam and at Cuba's Bay of Pigs with the Soviet conquest of Eastern and Central Europe.
Thirteen Days escapes this P.C. tendency — barely.
Based on the book The Kennedy Tapes, edited by Ernest May and Philip Zelikow, the film is a brilliantly crafted docudrama about the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, when the human race came close to blowing itself up for the first time in history. Director Roger Donaldson (Tender Mercies) and screenwriter David Self present Soviet Cold War actions as a genuine threat to American survival and celebrate our leaders for standing up to the enemy.
They skillfully use suspense to achieve the near-impossible — an emotionally involving story about middle-aged white guys in suits arguing about diplomacy and military tactics while pacing about in well-appointed conference rooms.
Although the movie avoids the hagiography of many pop-culture Kennedy projects, it occasionally goes too far in amping up the drama. To give JFK (Bruce Greenwood) and Robert Kennedy (Steven Culp) some villains to fight on the home front, the filmmakers oversimplify the military advisers' motives, making their recommendations appear brash and underhanded. This comes across more as a lazy plot-advancement device than a political-correctness stratagem; still, it makes for an inaccurate telling of history and stands out as a significant flaw in an otherwise intellectually satisfying experience.
The crisis begins on Oct. 16, 1962, when a U.S. spy plane photographs Soviet medium-range ballistic missiles recently smuggled into Cuba. The presence of these nuclear devices on the soil of the USSR's most recent satellite state upsets the existing Cold War balance of power. How will the young, inexperienced American president respond?
The movie presents the story from the point of view of JFK's appointments secretary, Kenny O'Donnell (Kevin Costner). The filmmakers depict him as a kind of everyman, an unremarkable family man whose work has brought him into the cockpit of history's highest-stakes showdown. A practicing Catholic with five children, he lives in a small house with a homemaker wife (Lucinda Jenney) and remains humble and down to earth despite the high-powered people and momentous decisions with which he must deal.
In order to put O'Donnell at the center of the action, his role in the crisis must be inflated. But there's a beneficial trade-off to this device. The Kennedy brothers now seem less heroic and Camelot-like because they're more in the background — two voices among many others. We may root for JFK to make the right decision for the good of the country. But our hearts remain with O'Donnell and his family.
The president orders a special committee selected from his National Security Council advisers to come up with options. The hawks are led by Gen. Maxwell Taylor (Bill Smitrovich) and Gen. Curtis Le May (Kevin Conway), who's portrayed as itching to take a crack at “the red bastards.”
This characterization is unfair. These generals weren't warmongers, scheming to get around civilian authority and manipulate Kennedy into combat. What they were seeking was an overwhelming military advantage to keep the U.S. from being destroyed. Taylor, in fact, was always considered a Kennedy loyalist and, in real life, Bobby named one of his sons after him.
Prominent among the movie's doves is U.N. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson (Michael Fairman), whom the Kennedys initially mistrust because he wants to negotiate. Searching for middle ground between the two camps are Bobby Kennedy and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara (Dylan Baker), who comes up with the idea of a naval blockade of Cuba.
On Oct. 22, JFK makes his famous TV address to the nation announcing the blockade. The filmmakers keep the story suspenseful by intercutting between continuing big-brass deliberations and well-staged action sequences involving low-level surveillance flights over Cuba and confrontations with Soviet ships that appear to be running the blockade.
The Kennedys are eventually shown exercising prudent judgment by forcing the Soviets to withdraw their missiles without going to war. Some hawkish historians claim the U.S. concession to get the deal — the removal of missiles from Turkey — was unnecessary.
Thirteen Days leaves these and other tantalizing questions unresolved. But, after all, it's intended to be mass entertainment, not a foreign-policy think piece. Its most important achievement is to make history come alive in such a way that today's audiences understand why the Cold War was worth fighting.
Arts & culture correspondent John Prizer writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: Thirteen Days makes a thriller of the Cuban missile crisis ----- Extended BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 02/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Fubruary 04-10, 2001 ----- BODY:All times Eastern
STARTING IN FEBRUARY
Culinary Travels with Dave Eckert
PBS, check local listings for time
Globetrotting chef Dave Eckert begins his second season of preparing favorite dishes in far-flung locales. Alsace, Burgundy, Canton, Chicago, Mexico, New Orleans, Paris, Scotland and Tuscany are just some of the savory stops on this year's tour.
SUNDAY, FEB. 4
World Alpine Skiing Championships
NBC, noon
“Sportsworld” takes us to St. Anton, Austria, to see the world's top skiers in action. More stages in the competition will be broadcast on Saturday, Feb. 10, at 4 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 11, at 3 p.m.
MON.-THURS. FEB. 5-8
The Eldest Daughter of the Church
EWTN, 1 p.m.
This four-part documentary sings the saga of France's Catholic saints, martyrs, cathedral-builders, knights, poets, kings, queens and everyday heroes through the generations. Part I, on Monday, takes us from St. Mary Magdalene's arrival up through the high Middle Ages. The remaining three segments weave back and forth through various epochs and then into the present. Each segment will be rebroadcast twice the next day, at 3 a.m. and 10 p.m.
MONDAY, FEB. 5
Streamliners: America's Lost Trains
PBS, check local listings for time
Was there ever a better marriage of form and function than the streamlined locomotive? Ralph Budd began a bold and romantic era in design when he and distant relative Edward Budd created the beautiful Zephyr — aerodynamic, lightweight and diesel-powered — for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad in 1933-1934.
TUESDAY, FEB. 6
Nazi Prison Escape
PBS, check local listings for time
“Bad boys,” the Nazis called them: the Allied POWs thrown into Colditz Castle in eastern Germany for being incorrigible resisters. This show re-creates their daring escape plots by interviewing ex-POWs and a German guard, and by rebuilding and testing the glider the men had readied just before U.S. GIs liberated them in 1945.
THURSDAY, FEB. 8
Goin' to Chicago
PBS, check local listings for time
In the United States' biggest internal migration ever, 5 million black Americans moved from the rural Deep South to Chicago in two periods, 1915-1925 and 1940-1970. This show provides lots of gospel, blues and jazz music as it documents the social change involved.
FRIDAY, FEB. 9
The World Over
EWTN, 8 p.m.
Raymond Arroyo hosts an up-to-the-minute examination of the Church's current situation in Cuba under dictator Fidel Castro's Communist regime. To be rebroadcast Sunday, Feb. 11, at 5 p.m. and Monday, Feb. 12, at 10 a.m. and 11 p.m.
SATURDAY, FEB. 10
NBA TeamUp Celebration
NBC, TNT, Nickelodeon and BET, noon
In this hour-long simulcast on the eve of the National Basketball Association's All-Star Game, NBA players and team executives salute high-school students who've excelled in various volunteer efforts.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- Extended BODY: Daniel J. Engler ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 02/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Fubruary 04-10, 2001 ----- BODY:The Great Santini (1979)
Lt. Col. Bull Meechum (Robert Duvall) is a Marine fighter pilot who raises his children as if they were in the Corps. Everything is discipline and control. He trains them to “chew nails while others suck cotton candy,” and his moral code boils down to: “never quit fighting, never surrender, never give up.” They, in turn, call him “Godzilla” behind his back.
His long-suffering wife, Lillian (Blythe Danner), always looks the other way even after he slides into alcoholism. Writer-director Lewis John Carlino allows us to see the pathos and humanity of this warrior without a war even when he's most oppressive.
On the Waterfront (1954)
How far should the Church go in encouraging social activism? And how deeply should a parish priest involve his flock in political protests that put their lives in danger? Director Elia Kazan combines bravura performances with a documentary look to dramatize the Church's role in activating a corrupt man's conscience. A parish priest (Karl Malden) and a Catholic college student (Eva Marie Saint) persuade an apolitical stevedore, Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando), to confront the evils of a New York longshoremen's union. The Oscar-winning On the Waterfront is one of the Vatican's top 45 films and a hard-edged version of Catholic social teaching.
— John Prizer
----- EXCERPT: ----- Extended BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Winning the War on Drugs DATE: 02/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Fubruary 04-10, 2001 ----- BODY:A growing number of Catholic high schools today are making it easier for teen-agers to “Just Say No” to drugs.
They're doing it by using mandatory drug-testing programs to boost the resolve of students who have never used drugs. The programs also help those who do use drugs to break their habits with the support of counseling or medical treatment.
Experts say the testing program is an extremely potent weapon against the peer pressure that so often traps teen-agers into drug habits.
“Among other things, the testing-program threat gives students an excuse not to let peer pressure induce them into drug use on the guise that ‘all the “in” students do it,’” said Joseph Hines dean of students at De La Salle High School in New Orleans.
The Christian Brothers school has been conducting the tests since the 1997-98 school year with what Hines described as “very substantial results in curbing drug use among the kids here.”
He said that since the testing began they never had more than 20 students test positive out of a student body of approximately 850 boys and girls.
“We let them know right off that we're just not going to put up with drug use among our students,” Hines explained. “And, as a result, the program is really getting great results.”
It is now mandatory for the entire student body — boys and girls — to be randomly tested once a year in at least eight Southern and mid-South Catholic high schools. A few strands of hair are cut from the back of the student's head, placed in an aluminum sack and sent to a California laboratory for testing. If the lab results are positive, the student must undergo counseling and retesting sometime after 100 days.
A fee of $60 is added to each student's tuition to cover the testing costs.
Any student who fails the test and refuses counseling, or fails the test a second time, is expelled immediately.
The schools report that most often fewer than 3% of their students test positive, and then mostly for marijuana, even though the tests also cover cocaine, heroin, PCP, methampheta-mines and Ecstasy.
Raymond Simon, principal of St. Thomas More High School in Lafayette, La., launched the first testing program almost five years ago.
“The vast majority of teen-agers naturally follow the popular slogan ‘Just say No to drugs,’” he pointed out. “But when you put peer pressure into the mix, then you start having really big problems.”
However, when word gets out about mandatory drug testing, the principal said, the peer pressure is weakened considerably because the students have the excuse that using drugs is too risky.
Christian Brothers High School in Memphis, Tenn., launched its testing program at the start of the current school year and found that, of 565 students tested so far in the all-male school of 870, only 13 tested positive — all for marijuana.
Brother Chris Englert, principal at the high school, called the number of drug detections a “relatively small” percentage, then added: “On the one hand, it's way below the national average. But on the other hand it concerns me that 13 kids knew they were going to be tested, but still did it.”
He also noted the stress today's young people are under because of what their friends want them to do. “Make no mistake about it,” he said, “peer pressure certainly is a very strong influence for boys this age. But, with the testing, we are giving kids a good excuse to say No and still not be mocked by their peers for not wanting to join the drug-using forces.”
George Pratt, dean of students at the Memphis school, conducts the tests. In fact, in all the schools only the principal and dean of students give the test and know the results, which then are communicated to the parents or guardians of students.
Dean Pratt said he has a three-pronged reason for never missing an opportunity to tell the pupils, or anyone else who will listen, about the school's testing program: “We hope the program will help keep boys from ever starting to use drugs. Secondly, if a boy is doing drugs, the testing program might scare him into stopping before tests find him positive. And finally, if a boy tests positive a second time, maybe we can identify him and get other help for him.”
Brother Chris expressed a sentiment that was echoed in various ways by all the schools using drug testing. “What I am happiest about,” he said, “is that I think it has completely stopped the drug presence not only on campus, but off campus.”
Judging from local news media accounts, public reaction to the programs has been overwhelmingly positive, not only among parents of the tested children but among others as well, who in letters to the editor in the hometown papers have urged the establishment of such programs in all schools — including public schools.
Others, however, have written letters complaining about “Gestapo methods of drug testing,” making it clear that similar drug programs would have a rocky road to travel before they could ever be approved for public school students.
But Thomas Miller, co-president with his wife, Kathy, of the parents' board at Christian Brothers High School, highly praised the program. “I think the numbers were extremely good,” Miller told the Register.
Miller expressed deep satisfaction that the testing showed an absence of the real hard drugs among those tested. “I actually thought some of the hard drugs would show up, but they didn't and I'm happy about that,” he said.
A number of Catholic school officials familiar with the program, Simon said, have expressed interest in the mandatory program and some others throughout the country already conduct random testing programs.
Robert R. Holton writes from Memphis, Tennessee.
----- EXCERPT: Catholic high schools show the way ----- Extended BODY: Robert R. Holton ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Family Matters DATE: 02/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Fubruary 04-10, 2001 ----- BODY:Q We have eight children and live on one income. While I have a job that provides a good salary, it's still difficult to make ends meet. One of our largest expenses is tuition. Do you have any ideas that can help us make our education dollars go further?
— K.D.
Kansas City, Missouri
A Without some type of voucher system or tax credits, we have to pull ourselves up by the bootstraps and figure out how we can pay for a Catholic education for our children.
Here are a number of suggestions:
l I highly recommend that your first step be the creation of a written financial plan (budget). This is necessary for you to be confident that you can achieve your goals, and it is the best tool available to help you maintain proper financial priorities.
l Be willing to cut back on unnecessary expenses (especially entertainment and meals out) and redirect these “newfound” dollars to the education of your children. These changes in lifestyle need to become a way of life for most families too. We're all familiar with the stories of families from a generation ago that made tremendous sacrifices in order to provide a Catholic education for their children. Many (including myself) have grown accustomed to living in a society where we expect to have it all. In reality, most of us will need to make similar sacrifices.
l You mentioned that you are a one-income family. For those who depend on two incomes and pay for childcare, I encourage you to look at all of the additional expenses associated with the second job. When the extra income is relatively low, it's not uncommon for the second job to actually cost money. You may be able to stay home with your young children and enhance their Catholic formation during the pre-school years.
l Look into financial aid. Many Catholic schools provide substantial discounts for more than one child. Visit the financial aid representative at your school to find your options.
l Homeschooling is a real possibility for a growing number of families. We have found that, while homeschooling is a heavy responsibility, it allows for more time together as a family and often makes it easier to form the children in the faith. It is also much less expensive than private schools.
l When resources allow, it would be best to tithe in addition to paying the cost of your children's education. If, however, your income is limited and you have done all you can to keep your expenses down, it would be appropriate to supplement your education dollars out of what you would have given as a tithe. If circumstances require the use of all your tithe, I would encourage you to at least set aside a minimum amount for the support of your parish.
God love you!
Phil Lenahan is vice president of Catholic Answers.
----- EXCERPT: Catholic Education ----- Extended BODY: Phil Lenahan ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: Gospel of Life DATE: 02/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Fubruary 04-10, 2001 ----- BODY:“The child is God's blessing. He transforms husband and wife into father and mother. Both ‘go out from themselves’ and express themselves … in a person, the very fruit of their love.”
— General Audience, Dec. 1, 1999
----- EXCERPT: THE FRUIT OF LOVE ----- Extended BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: LIFE NOTES DATE: 02/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Fubruary 04-10, 2001 ----- BODY:Alberta Pro-Life TV Ads
ALBERTA LIFE ISSUES EDUCATIONAL SOCIETY, Jan. 16 — Alberta Life Issues Educational Society is running TV ads throughout the Canadian province that celebrate the choice for life and reach out to women who are suffering after an abortion, the society reported.
The ads “were chosen because they are effective at … reaching out to women who are suffering the pain of abortion,” said Robert Mollot, president of the group.
The ads started airing Jan. 15 and will continue through Feb. 4. The society said they have helped many women seek help and counseling.
Review of RU 486 Approval
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Jan. 19 — Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson said he would review the recent approval of the abortion pill RU-486 if he is confirmed as health and human services secretary, suggesting there may be safety concerns for women, reported the Associated Press.
“If there are some problems, and somebody has indicated there might be some safety concerns, it should be reviewed and that's what I will do,” Thompson said after a confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, reported the Associated Press.
Thompson would not have the power to pull the drug from the market unless new medical information is uncovered.
Opposition to Morning-After Ads
In the ads, a funky beat pumps in the background as R&B singer Pink tells radio listeners to get the “morning-after pill” if they've had unprotected sex and fear pregnancy.
“It's a minor shock,” said Steve Lefemine of Columbia Christians for Life, upon learning of the ad campaign. “They're basically advertising chemical abortion.”
In a state where abstinence education is promoted in schools, and condom demonstrations are taboo, the ads are somewhat groundbreaking.
“I would ask those radio stations of their own choice, to stop” airing the ads, said Lefemine. “They are involving themselves in something that takes the life at an early stage.”
Researchers Fear Bush
Some scientists want Bush to continue the Clinton administration plan to provide federal funding for experiments on human embryos. Typically, the unborn children come from couples who sought treatment at fertility clinics and donated frozen fertilized eggs for research.
Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer was quoted saying, “Bush said he would oppose federally funded research for experimentation on embryonic stem cells that require live human embryos to be discarded or destroyed. I think the statement speaks for itself.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- Extended BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: Out of the Mouths of Babes … Miracles DATE: 02/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Fubruary 04-10, 2001 ----- BODY:Miracles are all around us. If you have any doubts, the grammar school children from St. Mary School in Waterbury, Conn., point them out and explain them in The Children's Book of Miracles, a work that evolved as somewhat of a miracle itself.
The child-authors find miracles everywhere, every day. “I'm only nine but I've known miracles from the biggest to the smallest,” writes Cody. “My uncle, for example, was told he had six months to live due to cancer. Three years and many prayers later, he is still alive and well. That is a miracle!”
“God made it possible to share the greatest miracle of all, love,” says a fourth grader. “When I play with my baby cousin and she hugs me, I know that this is the miracle of love.”
For another child, a miracle is when “you hear about a really bad accident and no one is hurt.”
The children find miracles disguised as the mundane. One sixth grader's personal miracle was getting an award for second honors. Learning to ride a bike was a bona fide small miracle for another.
They have no problem grading miracles either. “The birth of a child is truly the greatest gift from God and (life the) greatest miracle I could receive,” writes a grateful fifth grader.
Several children concentrated on babies as great miracles. After prayers and the miraculous medal turned around a failing premature baby, one child concluded: “All babies are miracles but some more than others.”
As a third-grader, Caitlin Geary wrote: “I believe that waking up every day is a miracle because the gift of life is the greatest miracle of all.” Today, sixth grader Caitlin believes her schoolmates' book “helps people to get closer to God and know about other people's experiences with miracles.”
Eleven-year-old classmate Kathryn Iaiennaro agreed. She thinks that reading all these personal experiences is a way for everyone “to know about God and how miracles are true.”
It's all meant to get readers thinking. “I was inspired that the children have an insight into things we adults don't think they know about,” explained reader Barbara Pocius.
The book itself had a bit of a miraculous start in January 1997. When illness forced Judith Busch to give up her law practice, she got more involved in St. Mary's school and organized an essay contest for grades 3-7 on this subject, dear to her.
“I told the kids all the time,” she said, “pray for miracles, expect miracles and identify miracles when they happen to you.”
The entries so impressed Busch that during the awards ceremonies, she recalled she spontaneously “blurted out, with no planning — these are so wonderful I'm going to put them into a book.”
With no book-publishing experience, she had to learn new things at every step as she waded into this three-year project. “I knew I wanted to self-publish,” she said. “If any money was to be made out of this, I wanted the kids to get it for the school.”
Just Another Miracle
Busch, who with her husband Frank personally financed the entire project, insisted on “a product that was really outstanding and really professional looking,” she said.
When the first price quotes for a finished book proved outrageously high and the Buschs desperately needed an art director, “just another miracle” happened, she said.
While Busch was checking her mailbox, a new neighbor stopped to say hello.
The woman happened to be a professional freelance art director who knew her way around book publishing.
Besides turning out to be the right person to design the book, she found a publishing broker with reasonable prices.
“I had a particular vision of the finished book,” said Busch, “and she put it together exactly the way I wanted it.”
Busch gives major credit for the book's successful progression to St. Jude, to whom she's always been strongly devoted and who helped make the sometimes impossible possible. “I gave him this as ‘your’ project,” she said. Even now, she says, “I don't think he's going to let this thing go.” Busch named her publishing company Saint Jude Press.
Since the book's release last September, the children have appeared on two Connecticut TV stations and a radio show and participated in book signings at Barnes and Noble.
Hope
The book touches hearts, brings smiles, instills hope and prompts readers to share it with others. A typically pleased reader is Terri Teta, who called the book “remarkable.”
“I got a great feeling of hope when I read it,” she says. The book can be a big help when adults get cynical and “don't see the light in the tunnel,” she adds.
Another reader, Virginia Scola, was so moved she bought a gift copy that became uplifting medicine for a friend undergoing chemotheraphy. “The children have such wisdom and insight,” Scola noted. “What they say is so pure. There's nothing purer than the words of a child.”
The book is a source of comfort even to those who wrote it. Ask eighth grader Megan Tough, 13. With her family going through a difficult time after her great-grandfather died, she “read the book a couple of times and it helped,” she said. It also inspired her to “pray for more miracles in the future, and realize” how fortunate she was “to know her great-grandfather for 13 years.”
M e g a n emphasized the book can make readers “more aware that miracles are in everyday life and can happen to anybody.”
If you pray, reminded her classmate Michelle Gagne, “they can happen to you.” She said the miracle of her father's recovery “helped me realize how much I loved my Dad and how much I needed him.”
For Father John Bevins, pastor of Immaculate Conception Church in Waterbury — the parish of St.
Mary School — the book is “so positive and so very uplifting.” He marveled: “It shows the kids understand what a miracle is, even if it's not what they expect, and it shows the power of prayer and the ability to face some unpleasant things.”
Even during difficult times in the children's lives, the definition holds true that “a miracle is God smiling down on us and touching our lives in an extra special way,” as wrote Michelle, a seventh grader.
With 5,000 copies in print, and 1,000 already sold either directly from the 113-year-old school, or through mail order, websites, and nearby bookstores and religious gift shops, Busch said there are plans for a companion — The Children's Book of Angels.
While the new book waits in the wings, people can already be inspired by the stories of miracles that might have been overlooked had not these children “opened the eyes of the blind.”
Joseph Pronechen writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: ----- Extended BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: Facts of Life DATE: 02/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Fubruary 04-10, 2001 ----- BODY:Only 15% of children under 5 are enrolled in full-time daycare institutions. Most of the other 85% are still cared for at home:
50%
Mother at home full-time
14%
Grandparent, father, or other relative
8%
Mother and father divide care
8%
Neighbor
3%
Mother with an at-home job
2%
Nanny
----- EXCERPT: AT-HOME CHILD CARE ----- Extended BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: Funny or Mean? 'Father Ted' Bumbling to America DATE: 02/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Feb. 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:NEW YORK — It's the classic comedy scenario of three guys thrown together by chance, not by choice. One is boozy and profane. One is dim. The sane and rational one tries to cope with both.
The difference this time: All three are Catholic priests.
Yes, four years after being blocked by the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, “Father Ted” is coming to America.
When the British Broadcasting Co. first broadcast the sitcom in Britain and Ireland five years ago, it found an eager audience in spite of the fears some expressed over a show about priests written by lapsed Irish Catholics and starring lapsed Irish Catholics. At the time of its debut, the Church in Ireland was under heavy fire from the Irish media. News organizations across the country were savaging the Church as a series of scandals came to light.
“Of course they were cashing in on the hammering the Church was receiving,” recalled Father Arthur O'Neill, administrator of a Dublin parish.
Over in Britain, the antics of Father Ted (played by comedian Dermot Morgan), his dim-witted sidekick Father Dougal (comic Ardal O'Hanlon), their profane housemate Father Jack (character-actor Frank Kelly) and scatterbrained housekeeper Mrs. Doyle (actress Pauline McLynn) saw the series gain cult status and a host of TV awards.
Now BBC America is hoping to begin creating legions of “Ted Heads” by exporting their successful product across the Atlantic — just in time for St. Patrick's Day.
Since the show's viewership will be limited to cable, the Catholic League will not take a stand against it. William Donohue, the organization's president, says that public condemnation would only give the show publicity.
Should a mainstream network decide to carry the show, however, “we will do to them what we did to ‘Nothing Sacred'" — a show cancelled after a relentless Catholic League campaign.
Donohue adds that the ascendance of “Father Ted” shows that the days of Hollywood depicting most priests as men of integrity, and casting such respected actors as Pat O'Brien and Bing Crosby to play them, are long gone.
“We don't even have Father Dowling now,” says Donohue. “The networks will always show a positive image of a gay character, and they dare not offend African-Americans, but it seems the Catholics do not matter.
“The report I got [of the program] was that one priest was chasing women, one was drunk and the other was totally stupid. I was talking to a BBC producer and I asked him: ‘If you really think there is nothing offensive, why don't you change the priests to Anglicans and keep the plot the same?'”
Lapsed Laughers
Father Michael McKenna, pastor of St. Aidan of Ashington Church in northeast England, has a different view of the program.
“I think it's hilarious,” he told The Register. “I think there are many clergy who recognize this situation of these men with nothing in common who can't stand each other.
“And to make matters worse, they have to live with these women who are absolutely mad,” says Father McKenna, who also doubles as a stand-up comedian in the Clergy Revue, a nationwide charity show performed by British priests in top theaters.
“You watch it and you think, ‘Yes, that guy is like [Father] so and so.’”
Father McKenna used to write a humor column in the British Catholic weekly The Universe under the pen name Don Jon.
Another clerical humorist who wrote for the same paper disagrees with him.
Canon Dick Wilson, pastor of Our Lady and St. Wulstan in Norwich, in southeast England, wrote a successful and popular column called “The Diary of Father Hadrian Mule” which poked fun at the foibles of parish and clerical life.
“I think the humor in Father Ted is inane, to say the least,” he said. “I try to draw on real life but exaggerate the reality.”
Catholics in the pew were also upset.
Teacher Robert Williams, a parishioner of Our Lady and St James in Bangor, Wales, told the Register, “The show is profane, but also anti-Catholic in a subtle way. It is part of the way that respect for the priesthood is being eroded. It is clever, but distasteful.”
The show's writer, Graham Linehan, a lapsed Catholic, did not respond to repeated requests for an interview but has always maintained in statements to the media that the priesthood is just a dramatic device to situate the dys-functional comic characters.
Ribbing or Roughhousing?
Pauline McLynn, “Mrs. Doyle,” even claims a strong fan base among parish housekeepers in Ireland.
But Morgan, “Father Ted” himself, says he studied for the priest-hood in his youth and later rejected the Church. “Fascist organizations are led by men wearing black who try to tell you what to do,” he says.
His first comic parody of a priest was “Father Trendy,” a character who appeared on Irish Television in the 1980s. A spinoff book, Trendy Sermons, was condemned by many Catholics as blasphemous.
The Church, however, gave him a Catholic funeral following his sudden death at age 45 in 1998.
When the program was first shown in Ireland, the Dublin archdiocese launched a highly visible vocations campaign contrasting “Father Ted” with the heroic reality of the call to the priesthood.
Father Kevin Doran, the arch-diocese's vocations director, told The Register: “I only caught the odd view of the program, but, from what I saw, it was so divorced from reality it wasn't funny.
“You could say it was humorous without being funny.”
Fellow Dubliner Father O'Neill adds, “It seems you can do anything against the Church nowadays. You only have to look at the over-the-top reaction to Dermot Morgan's funeral — you had past and present presidents of Ireland and prime ministers attending. Anybody who's anybody attended.”
How far is far enough when the culture makes the Church the butt end of its humor? The Catholic League's Donohue draws a line in the sand over the saints, the sacraments and the core beliefs of the faith. “I think it is acceptable to have a bumbling priest,” he says. “But if they are going to attack the holy Eucharist or the Blessed Mother, then we have to take a stand.”
Paul Burnell writes from Manchester, England.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Paul Burnell ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Canada's Choice: Lay Ministers or Vocations Drive DATE: 02/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Feb. 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:OTTAWA — Catholics in Canada were unsettled last December when a headline in the Ottawa Citizen declared that Ottawa's Archbishop Marcel Gervais was “introducing a ‘new model of church,’” in which nuns and lay people may officiate sacramentally at baptisms, weddings and funerals.
Alongside a decree on “parish teams” promulgated on Dec. 14, the archbishop in Canada's national capital announced the “pastoral appointments” of one religious sister and four lay people as “coordinators or parish activity,” with each team assigned to a parish without a resident priest.
The decree explained that while the priest is an indispensable part of the parish who manifests the communion of the parish with the local bishop, religious and lay people may now be charged with coordinating and performing pastoral care in parishes, with the exception of those functions — such as saying Mass and hearing confession — that priests alone can provide.
Archbishop Gervais implied the change was motivated not primarily by a shortage of priests, but instead by the desire to involve lay people more in parish leadership. “The issue is not just solving problems, but a new model of church,” he told the Citizen.
Some Catholics expressed concern that the archbishop was blurring the lines between laity and clergy, by emphasizing the extraordinary roles lay people may play in parishes and downplaying the primary vocation of the laity to evangelize the world through family life and in the secular realm.
Archbishop Gervais’ Perspective
But asked to clarify the reason for the change, Archbishop Gervais explained to the Register that he is simply calling lay people to take up their proper duties as Christians.
“Our lay people have traditionally handed over all their responsibility to ordained priests and religious,” the archbishop said. “They have exempted themselves from the responsibility of catechizing, of evangelizing, of taking the initiative to raise their children as Christians ... We're not taking something away from the priests, we're giving something back to the lay people that belongs to them to begin with.”
In response to media inquiries about Archbishop Gervais’ announcement, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops provided a statement indicating that the CCCB has formally authorized bishops in Canada to allow lay people to preach and to officiate at baptisms, weddings and funerals, “as indicated by the Code of Canon Law.”
The authority Archbishop Gervais cited for the new arrangements is a Church law, Canon 517.2, that allows bishops to “entrust a share in the exercise of the pastoral care of a parish” to deacons or lay people, specifically in case of a shortage of priests. He says he based his interpretation of the law on a 1995 publication of the Canon Law Society of America, Pastoral Care in Parishes Without Pastors: Applications of Canon 517.2.
However, an instruction promulgated by eight Roman dicasteries in 1997 details very strict circumstances under which lay people may officiate at baptisms and certain other liturgical functions. The document, Instruction on Certain Questions Regarding the Collaboration of the Non-ordained Faithful in the Sacred Ministry of Priests, also stresses repeatedly the need to maintain proper distinctions between clergy and laity.
The instruction notes that, in situations where collaboration between clerics and lay people in parish activities has been successful, “all who are in any way involved ... exercise particular care to safeguard the nature and mission of sacred ministry and the vocation and secular character of the lay faithful ... The necessary aspect of hierarchical relationship has been maintained while constantly seeking to remedy the situation of emergency” which has required such collaboration.
Among concerns about Archbishop Gervais’ announcement, one of the most frequently asked questions is why he is not planning primarily to use permanent deacons in parishes without resident priests. The 1997 instruction interprets canon 517.2 as indicating a preference for deacons over lay people in such situations.
The archbishop explains that “the permanent diaconate is not primarily geared to parish ministry,” citing the role of deacons in hospital and prison ministries and the like. “Some are involved directly in parishes and so we can use them there, but I would not want to just lump all deacons in as being in parish ministry. All of our permanent deacons, until they retire, they all have jobs, they all have families... They have all kinds of responsibilities before they have diaconal responsibilities.”
Another question raised by Archbishop Gervais’ initiative is whether enough is being done to encourage men to hear and answer the call to the priesthood. The 1997 instruction from the Vatican stresses there is a “necessity for a continuing, zealous, and well-organized pastoral promotion of vocations so as to provide the Church with those ministers which she needs ... Any other solution to problems deriving from a shortage of sacred ministers can only lead to precarious consequences.”
Archbishop Gervais says that Ottawa has two vocations teams which are hard at work and functioning well. But, he adds, “we have to wait on God. He calls. We can't, by drumming up the bushes, simply invent vocations.” The archdiocese does not plan to seek out foreign priests, although it does welcome a limited number of foreigners as seminarians.
Archbishop Exner's Perspective
The Archdiocese of Vancouver, the most prominent diocese in Western Canada, is also feeling a need for more priests. There, because of very rapid population growth mostly due to immigration, foreign priests and seminarians are much more numerous.
Archbishop Adam Exner says what's needed is a passionate and hope-filled approach to encouraging priestly vocations.
“We have to dispel the idea that the Church is a sinking ship or a losing team,” Archbishop Exner told the Register. “No one in his right mind wants to join a sinking ship or a losing team. As long as that idea is around we won't get any vocations ... If you believe in the divine presence in the Church you must understand that it is not a sinking ship.”
Archbishop Exner recounted his first meeting with Pope John Paul II, when the archbishop was a young bishop, just after the Pope's election in 1978. The Pope asked him whether he was optimistic or pessimistic about the Church, and then answered the question himself.
Said the Pope, “In the world today we have enormous problems and in the Church today we have problems as perhaps never before, but the reasons for hope and optimism are stronger and more convincing.”
Archbishop Exner told the Register, “All of a sudden it hit me. [The Pope] believes in Christianity — he believes that our Lord conquered evil and death and sin by dying and that he has restored life and hope by rising ... When this kind of thinking is diffused around the diocese, we'll get vocations.”
Archbishop Exner, who was previously Archbishop of Winnipeg, adds that before he went to that city, “there hadn't been an ordination for a number of years. When I arrived in the archdiocese there were five seminarians. In the nine years I was there I ordained 15 and I left behind 14 seminarians.”
“It can be done,” he concluded, “but you have to put effort into it in every diocese. You have to have vocations directors, and bishops have to be involved in some capacity. You have to beat the bushes. They're out there; you have to find them.”
David Curtin writes from Toronto.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: David Curtin ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Miracles of Survival DATE: 02/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Feb. 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:BHUJ, India––Kaushik Patel, who narrowly escaped death when his school collapsed in India's massive earthquake, now finds it difficult to sleep.
Each day he relives the horror of being trapped for hours inside a cavity following the Jan. 26 earthquake that devastated the western state of Gujarat, reported UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand.
“It was a miracle that I was saved,” the 16-year-old Patel said. “How can I face those who did not have that privilege?”
Patel was the last of seven survivors dug from the ruins of his former school. Forty bodies were later found at the site.
Most reasonable estimates suggest that a healthy person can be expected to survive without food and water for, at most, 100 hours.
And yet, one by one, survivors like Patel continued to surface from what remains of the homes, schools and businesses that were leveled by the quake, which Indian officials are calling the worst to hit the Indian subcontinent in more than 50 years.
Jyotsnabhen Gandhi, a 55-year-old woman from the hard-hit city of Ahmedabad, was pulled alive from her apartment building some 120 hours after the quake, the BBC reported.
Indian officials described Gandhi's survival as “miraculous.” Doctors told the BBC that “in many cases faith is helping keep [people] alive.”
Another survivor, 49-year-old Ramesh Soni, alerted bulldozer crews that he was trapped in a collapsed building just moments before they ploughed it through.
“For five days I lay with slabs on both sides. I had no water, nothing to eat or drink. I was drinking in my God's name,” Soni told the BBC's Peter Popham.
The stunning survival stories of Patel, Soni and Ghandi provided an inspiring storyline for reporters feeding news of the earthquake's fallout to Western media outlets. They also served as a momentary distraction to the tragedy of the earthquake, which may have killed as many as 100,000 people, and has left 800,000 thousand homeless people crowding the urban centers of Gujarat.
New Ghost Towns
It was the homeless that relief workers focused on in the days following the quake. Most had lost their homes. Others feared returning to the ones that still stood.
“In each and every village, the picture is the same –– that of a ghost area: only dead bodies and some people keeping watch over them, since they cannot move the debris with their bare hands,” Bishop Gregory Karotemprel of Rajkot told UCA News.
Bishop Karotemprel, whose diocese was the hardest hit in Gujarat, told an ENI news service reporter he believed that 60,000 had perished in his diocese alone, with 100,000 deaths possible altogether. Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes had made a similar estimate a day earlier.
Other estimates have placed the death toll lower, at around 20,000.
“It's one of those things people are not going to recover from for a very long time. I'd say they are set back a generation,” said Will Lynch from his home in Delhi.
Lynch, who is coordinating Catholic Relief Services’ aid efforts in Gujarat, described the city nearest the quake's epicenter, Bhuj, as being “flattened.”
“It's all concrete construction,” Lynch told the Register, referring to the 80 apartment towers that collapsed there.
Original aerial assessments put the number of collapsed towers at 30.
What officials couldn't see, Lynch said, was that the earth had swallowed up the first two or three floors of some 50 additional towers.
Observers reported that much of the destruction in Gujarat resulted from poorly built apartment towers that housed middle-class Indians. The poor, who mostly live in shanties, were the least affected.
But as Lynch pointed out, most of the poor that remain depended on the middle class for their work.
“This is a complex situation,” he said.
As Lynch described his relief work to the Register, news reports from Bhuj indicated that food aid was not reaching survivors.
Lynch explained that a relief effort of this size takes several days to coordinate.
“You start getting these reports of some places being triple-served and other places not being served. It's typical in any sort of situation like this that it's going to take a little while to get something steady in place. You have to plan it out,” the CRS coordinator said. “There becomes an illusion of a lack of coordination.”
A History of Disaster
The people of Gujarat were still reeling from a 1998 cyclone that destroyed much of the area's infrastructure when the massive earthquake, which measured 7.9 on the Richter scale, hit the Indian state. What's more, a severe, two-year drought had followed the cyclone, limiting food supplies in an already poor region.
Relief agencies that had moved in to serve those suffering from the drought immediately shifted focus to help those left homeless by the quake.
Catholic Relief Services already had 500 tons of food in the Bhuj area. Lynch said it was enough to last until supplies from Delhi arrive there –– but just enough.
“People are dissolving what they had. There is a lot of neighbor-to-neighbor help. They are running out,” he said.
A Jan. 31 report from ENI was even more grave, quoting one observer on the ground as saying that the hundreds of thousands of dollars in aid that had reached Gujarat since the quake was likely to prove insufficient, given the scale of the devastation.
Meanwhile, agencies from the U.S., Europe, and even India's bitter enemy Pakistan are rushing to get food, clothing and temporary shelter to the displaced.
Most of the aid is coming from England, which still has strong ties with India. Church aid agencies and the European Union have also promised several million dollars in assistance.
In the United States, Catholic Relief Services had processed $78,665 in credit card donations by Jan. 29, after receiving 447 phone calls from donors.
Mailed gifts were still in transit, Catholic Relief Services spokesman Joe Carney told the Register, and parish collections began the first Sunday in February. The organization sent $650,000 from its emergency fund to assist survivors.
“People are sleeping in the streets,” Carney told the Register, adding that the situation called for a long-term relief plan, one that will include a strategy for rebuilding homes.
“We've heard there is no running water, no electricity. People are just forced to sleep outside at night. Taking care of people is the main need.”
(With contributions from combined news services)
------- EXCERPT: AIDING INDIA'S EARTHQUAKE VICTIMS ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian McGuire ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: When Being Catholic Means Losing Everything You Love DATE: 02/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Feb. 11-17, 2001 -----ZANESVILLE, Ohio — Clergy conversions to the Catholic faith are no picnic.
Marcus Grodi, president of the Coming Home Network and a former Presbyterian pastor, tells the story of a 59-year-old former Baptist pastor in Texas who converted to the Catholic faith.
“Unable to find any work that would use his skills, he now works as a greeter at a Wal-Mart. The Coming Home Network exists because things like this happen.”
Such examples demonstrate the many obstacles that clergy converts must overcome. But while the journey is fraught with challenges, those who have made it offer hope: What is lost, they say, is nothing compared to what is gained.
After 18 years as a Presbyterian minister, Dr. Kenneth Howell's first hurdles were theological. “Following an in-depth study on the Eucharist,” said Howell, “I realized that the early Church fathers unanimously held that it was the Body and Blood of Christ.”
That realization, coupled with discoveries about the nature of the priesthood and Christian unity, led Howell to embrace Catholicism. However, because of practical difficulties, it would be another four years before he converted.
“Conversion,” noted Grodi, “has a profound impact upon an individual's vocation, marriage, family, and friendships. For many, all they have ever done is serve as a minister. What will they do now? How will they use their talents and gifts? How will they provide for their family? Did their ordination mean anything?”
Grodi said that the lack of understanding among family and friends is a major hurdle. “The person on the journey is receiving important information that those around them cannot ‘hear’ because they are still deafened by their ignorance and prejudice,” explained Grodi. “Because their spouse, their children, or their parishioners spend virtually no time studying the Catholic issues, they do not understand what the inquirer sees.”
Naturally, for many, this gap leads to marital difficulties. “One of the greatest practical difficulties,” agreed Howell, “was not being united with my wife in our walk of faith. After years of prayer and discussion, I felt I had a moral responsibility to enter the Church, but she could not bring herself to do so because she did not completely embrace it.”
In addition to struggles with theology and personal relations, Howell also faced vocational challenges. “I had been teaching at a Presbyterian seminary for seven years. Each year we were required to sign a statement of faith in agreement with the confessional standards of the Presbyterian Church. Eventually, I was unable to do so and had to leave the seminary,” said Howell.
What Howell planned as a two-year sabbatical turned into four years of uncertainty. “They were the most difficult years of my life,” explained Howell. “We had three teenagers and I was trying to piece together an income. Yet, through it all, God provided beautifully.”
How to Serve?
Some converts, such as Larry and Joetta Lewis, are finding innovative ways to serve. “I spent my entire life jumping through Protestant hoops,” said Larry, who spent more than 30 years as a Protestant minister. “Your self-worth is wrapped up in what you do. I became a Protestant minister because I heard God's call in my life. Moving from one world into another, it can be difficult to figure out how you can be faithful to the call God placed on your heart and how you can fit within the Catholic Church.”
Lewis’ conversion also posed a challenge to his family relationships. “My father was an Assembly of God minister,” explained Lewis. “My conversion was extremely difficult for my father. He said it was much like losing a son. My father's friends viewed him as a failure because his son was now a part of the ‘Whore of Babylon.’”
Now, though, Lewis says that his father is one of his biggest supporters. “There have been tremendous struggles, but I've never once felt that our decision was wrong,” he commented.
In order to make use of their ministry experience, Larry and his wife Joetta formed One Body, an apostolate calling Catholics to practice their faith more fully and share in the new evangelization.
“We're trying to bring non-practicing Catholics back home and share the Catholic faith with Protestants,” said Joetta.
The couple is in the process of relocating their center of evangelization from Oklahoma to Florida. To date, they have produced video and audio materials and presented their story to more than 300,000 people throughout Europe and the United States.
Continuing challenges
According to Noah Lett, originally a Lutheran pastor in New York, the difficulties do not cease once one has become Catholic and found employment. “When you come into the Church as a convert,” said Lett, “there are other obstacles.
“You carry with you your Protestant habits of mind. You don't have all the Catholic “street” knowledge and you oftentimes still speak with an accent.”
Lett has also found that it is not uncommon for a pastor or an organization to look upon a convert as someone who might be willing to help transform the traditional Catholic Mass into something more Protestant. Said Lett, “That is taking the Church in a direction that I don't find much comfort in. Why would I want to return to the place where I came from? If I had wanted that I could have stayed where I was at.”
That attitude is typical of clergy converts, Grodi says. “Ninety-nine percent of clergy converts are coming into the Church because they love it,” he said. They aren't coming in to change the Church.”
Lett warns that there is also the tendency to feel as if you are valued only for your “story,” rather than being valued for what you can do. “As a clergy convert especially, you want to find ways that you can help, but you don't know how,” he added.
Like many others, Lett has found help through the Coming Home Network — in fact, his current position as a theological researcher with EWTN came about through his relationship with Grodi.
Support in the journey
Grodi founded the Ohio-based network in 1996. Today it has more than 8,000 members.
“Our goal is not evangelization,” Grodi told the Register, “but to link converts to those considering the faith for the purposes of fellowship, encouragement, prayer, and support.”
The network also provides resources, a job bank, and limited financial assistance to clergy converts who face financial problems because of their conversion.
The foundation of the Coming Home Network coincided with Dr. Howell's journey into the Church. Grodi and Howell had met three years prior at a conference, and Grodi tapped Howell to work for the Coming Home Network.
For the next two years, Howell answered inquirer's questions and helped others in their journey. But his real calling was to academia, and in 1998 he was offered a position as director of the Institute for Catholic Thought at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where he has been since.
“I am deeply grateful for the support of the Coming Home Network,” commented Howell. “It made me realize that I wasn't a lone ranger.
“It gave me the real sense of belonging to a movement. We feel supported by others that are on the journey.”
Tim Drake can be reached at tdrake@ncregister.com.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Pulitzer Pundit DATE: 02/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Feb. 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:Paul Gigot
Winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for political commentary, his weekly column has appeared in The Wall Street Journal since 1993. In addition to a regular spot on PBS's “NewsHour with Jim Lehrer,” he is a frequent guest on NBC's Meet the Press and Fox News Channel. He recently spoke with Register staff writer Brian McGuire.
McGuire: Please tell us a little bit about yourself –– where you're from, the type of family you come from and your pre-college education.
Gigot: I'm the oldest of six kids from a middle-class Catholic family in a largely Catholic city, Green Bay, Wis. My dad was born, had his first job after college and died in the same place, St. Vincent's Hospital, also in Green Bay. He was a pharmacist who went on to own his own drugstore.
My sainted mom worked at home, more than a full-time job. Just about every family around our home was Catholic, with many kids, often eight or nine. So it's safe to say I had a strongly Catholic upbringing, going to Catholic schools right through high school. Not overly strict, but traditional.
Several of the Norbertine priests at my high school, De Pere Abbot Pennings, had a big influence on me. I think of them as Jesuits without the publicity. They were serious about teaching. One of them, Roger VandenBush, introduced us in religion class to The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James, a real mind-opener at the time. Unsurprisingly, given our cultural trends, Roger is no longer a priest and my high school no longer exists.
Many of your generation decided to leave the Church. Did you ever question the faith of your upbringing seriously or abandon it?
I've never rebelled against the Church, though like everyone I've wrestled with some of its strictures and I've gone through periods of lapsed practice.
Reading the existentialists in college and afterwards was enough to show me how barren life is without faith.
Your Alma Mater, Dartmouth, is thought to be the most conservative of the Ivy League Schools. Did this make it easier for a Catholic to be Catholic there in the ‘70s, or harder?
I have to laugh when people describe Dartmouth as conservative. It was as liberal and secular as any other Ivy school when I attended in the mid-1970s. The good news is that it was a quiet time politically on campus, a respite between the turmoil of the 1960s and the Reagan restoration.
The modern liberal holy trinity –– gender, class and race –– didn't yet dominate campus politics the way it later did. So you could at least raise a conservative thought without being ostracized. I became editor of the daily student newspaper, but was outvoted on just about every editorial position.
The Catholic community at Dartmouth was small but active, though for me those years weren't all that active religiously. I was trying to figure out my place in the broader world. The biggest surprise to me, and a cause of some reflection then and since, was when a good friend (also from my high school) left the Church and joined the fundamentalist Dartmouth Christian Fellowship.
He married another evangelical and now home schools his five kids. This was my first exposure to evangelical Christianity, something I have since had to understand covering politics. I saw the positive effect it had on my friend's life, but it made me wonder what he didn't get from his Catholicism. I've never felt that same need to find something else.
You spent a great deal of your early career in China and the Philippines. Did you witness persecution of Catholics in China? What was your experience of the Church in the Philippines?
I first saw China in 1979, just when Deng Xiaoping was beginning his post-Cultural Revolution reforms, so the news was less about persecution than hope for improvement. In Hong Kong I did get to know Father Ladany, the Jesuit who chronicled religious persecution in China throughout the Maoist years, and learned a lot. The courage of China's post-war priests and bishops is as remarkable as anything in Church history, yet Americans know very little about it. I should have done more to publicize it myself.
The Philippine Catholic Church is a fabulous story. My first interview in that country, in 1982, was with [Manila Archbishop] Cardinal [Jaime] Sin, for a profile I was doing on Imelda Marcos. The two were noted enemies.
I had the interview all scheduled for 10 a.m. the next morning with the cardinal when one of Imelda's pals called the night before to say Imelda could see me at 10:30 a.m. I said, “Sorry, I've got to see the cardinal at 10 a.m,” seeing my career pass before my eyes as my profile vanished. I was only 27 and this was going to be my first big foreign page-one story for The Wall Street Journal.
Imelda's friend said, “Well, the first lady isn't going to like that,” and hung up. Ten minutes later she called back to say, “How about noon?” I got my profile, and went on to see the Cardinal many times as I followed the fall of the Marcoses right through 1986.
The Philippine Church is the moral center of that country, for better and worse. For the better in that it carries enormous moral authority with the citizenry and does great social good. For the worse in that sometimes the liberal social-justice wing of the Church has been too suspicious of capitalism. That has often blocked or delayed the free-market reforms that could lift more Filipinos more quickly out of poverty.
You were awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1999 for 10 articles you wrote during the Lewinsky scandal on the significance of personality and character in politics. Why did you choose to focus on this dimension of political life?
I got lucky and figured out early in 1999 that the 2000 election would be mainly about character and the culture.
What began as a hunch, in the wake of impeachment, became obvious as the campaign unfolded. Millions of people, including many Democrats, wanted to take a shower after the Clinton years.
The longer I cover politics the more important I think character in politicians is, especially in presidents. As a young man I thought ideology mattered most. Now I think the worst thing a president can be is uncomfortable with himself. This was part of Clinton's problem, and most of Nixon's.
I think the Journal's turn toward the cultural right reflects the larger trends in society and politics. In the 1970s and 1980s, economics and foreign policy were paramount concerns. But as those problems eased, culture came to the fore, and it became clearer to many of us, especially [Journal] editor Bob Bartley, that religion deserved more respect and prominence as part of any cultural renewal.
The Journal's deputy editorial-page editor, Dan Henninger, a Catholic from Cleveland, has also been instrumental in developing these themes for us. So has one of our main editorial writers, Bill McGurn, another Catholic. I've played a minor role.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Ralph Reed: A Window Into the Bush Presidency DATE: 02/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Feb. 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:ATLANTA — Ralph Reed served as executive director of the Christian Coalition from its inception in 1989 until 1997, and in that capacity played a key role in delivering control of Congress to the Republican Party in 1994. Today, he is the head of Atlanta-based Century Strategies, a political consulting group that worked with the Bush presidential campaign, and is serving as an informal adviser to the president. He spoke recently with Register correspondent Mary Claire Kendall.
Kendall: How would you rate the first days of the Bush presidency?
Reed: Well, I think the president is off to a terrific start. He began by focusing on education, which had been the centerpiece of his successful governorship in Texas and served as the centerpiece of his campaign for president.
I think it was natural for him to begin with education. It is the opportunity for the greatest amount of bipartisan cooperation on Capitol Hill.
And, I think more to the point, the president has demonstrated to Washington, as he did before that on the campaign trail and in Austin, that he is an enormously charming and likeable man. I think over time you're going to find people on both sides of the aisle saying about George W. Bush as they once said of Ronald Reagan: “I may not agree with him on every issue but I found it impossible to dislike him.”
This week is the rollout of the faith-based initiative, and liberal interest groups are promising a big fight to defeat it. Could you describe the president's vision?
The vision is simply that we should place the emphasis of the success of our programs to address substance abuse, youth violence and teen pregnancy not by how much money we spend, but how successful we are at reducing those social pathologies.
And we know both from anecdotal evidence at the grassroots and also from a growing body of social scientific data that faith-based charities, churches, synagogues and other organizations that put faith at the center of their activities are among the most successful and effective at helping those in need.
So this is not a new concept. What is new is the federal government recognizing it and shifting policy so that faith-based organizations not only are not discriminated against in grants toward such programs but that in fact they play a very important and central role.
You have spoken about the wisdom of marrying economic and social-issue interests. Which of President Bush's policy goals and initiatives best integrate these two interests?
Well, one of them we've just talked about, which is taking welfare reform to the next level through a greater emphasis on faith.
Economic conservatives have generally been against traditional welfare programs because they were both costly and bureaucratic and therefore failed. Social conservatives have been against traditional welfare because they believed they sought bureaucratic and secular solutions to what were, at root, human and spiritual problems. So this is something that unites economic and social conservatives.
Another good example is tax reduction, where in addition to lowering income tax rates, President Bush's proposals to phase out the death tax and to reduce the marriage penalty appeal equally to moral and economic conservatives. And I think you're going to see a lot of that during President Bush's Administration.
What are President Bush's policy goals to foster a “culture of life,” Pope John Paul II's signature phrase, to which he referred during the presidential debates?
There are a combination of things. Number one, he has talked about the need to create a culture of life by elevating those organizations and individuals, and shining a light on their good work, who are seeking to protect and value life. I think you can expect to see the president continue to talk about the great work that those organizations do.
During the campaign he visited crisis pregnancy centers and homes for unwed mothers, and I would expect that to continue.
Secondly, in the area of common-sense restrictions on abortion, such as he recently adopted in reaffirming the Mexico City policy of the Reagan and [George H.W.] Bush administrations which had been countermanded by a Clinton executive order, I expect to see passed certainly before the August recess the ban on partial-birth abortion. And I expect that to be signed by President Bush.
Finally, I think the rhetorical function of the presidency, what Teddy Roosevelt called “the bully pulpit,” is important here.
You will often see President Bush leaven his public remarks with quotes from John Paul II or Mother Teresa or other religious figures who have talked about the importance of valuing every single human life, and recognizing that no human being is insignificant in God's eyes.
I think that matters. I think language matters — it can be used as a force for hurt or it can be used as a force of healing.
What is President Bush's thinking about what government can and can't do to build, as John Paul II calls it, a “civilization of love?
Number one, he is someone who, as a Baby Boomer, has seen that attempts — most of them with very noble intentions — at utopian government programs to usher in a society without poverty and without violence have failed.
And the reason why is because we've put our trust in secular and bureaucratic solutions to problems that really need the healing touch of faith and need to be solved at the community level — neighbor by neighbor, block by block.
So what I think you're going to see is President Bush emphasizing those areas where government does have a role and has traditionally played an important part — education and health care are examples.
But in other areas such as alleviating poverty, creating jobs and renewing communities, I think he believes that is primarily the function of a civil society in which, as he said in his Inaugural address, we are all citizens and not merely spectators.
This is a unique opportunity, in which a new president, ushering in a new era, has issued a pretty forthright challenge to the citizens of this country — probably the boldest challenge since John F. Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you but ask what you can do for your country.”
President Bush has said that what we do is as important, and often more important, than the things that a president does or a member of Congress does in solving some of these deep-seated social problems.
That's quite a challenge and I am hopeful and optimistic that the faith community will rise to that challenge and break out beyond what others have called “a stain-glassed ghetto” to be full participants in our civic life.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 02/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Feb. 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:Tax Break Would Aid Charities, Study Finds
The tax deduction, a component of Bush's faith-based initiative, would trigger an additional $ 14.6 billion annually in giving, up 11.2% from current levels, according to the study.
The study was conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers for the Independent Sector, a Washington, D.C.-based coalition of more than 700 nonprofits and grantmakers.
The deduction promotes tax fairness and will bring a new set of donors into charity, Sara Melendez, president and CEO of the Independent Sector, told the newspaper.
Said Melendez, “Of all the proposals the president has put forward, this one will have the greatest impact.”
Utah Looks South to Find Priests
The state's dioceses handle both challenges at once by bringing in foreign-born priests, most of them from Latin America.
About 21 of Utah's 70 priests were born outside the United States. The biggest group, seven, hails from Colombia.
The United States is home to about 2,400 foreign priests. About 800 are Irish, the largest group. But many of the newer foreign priests are Indian and East Asian. Archbishop Adam Exner of Vancouver, British Columbia, speculated that people rooted in Asian cultures don't harbor Americans’ fear of long-term commitments.
Grieving Mother's Message 'Too Political'
A community group in Marie Cupo's town of Newburyport, Mass., held a fundraiser last year in which residents could pay to have a message carved on a brick in a local park. Cupo paid for a brick inscribed, “For all the unborn children,” in memory of her own loss.
But two residents charged that Cupo's message, like Thomas Savastano's brick, which read “Jesus loves you,” was inappropriate. The city destroyed the bricks.
Mayor Lisa Mead said that Savastano's message violated the separation of church and state, while Cupo's could be seen as violating rules restricting political messages on public property.
Cupo and Savastano are filing suit. Their lawyer argued, “If [the city] opens up the walkway, it can't pick and choose on the basis of the content of the message.”
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Nun-Turned-Priest Ousted From Theology Department DATE: 02/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Feb. 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:PITTSBURGH — A Catholic nun who was ordained as an Episcopal priest and then fired in January from her teaching job at Duquesne University has been reassigned to the school's public policy center to teach ethics.
Sister Moni McIntyre was told by university officials that her status as a priest put her at odds with Church teaching. “he is now a publicly proclaimed, official teacher of Anglican doctrine, which differs from Roman Catholic in very important areas,” Duquesne President John E. Murray Jr. told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
According to the Post-Gazette, McIntyre had not told her department of her ordination last December, and university officials learned of it while looking at the Web site for the local Episcopal diocese. She returned from Christmas break to find her classes assigned to other professors and her books removed from a display case in the theology department.
In a statement issued Feb. 1 by Duquesne, Murray praised McIntyre as a “gifted teacher” and said he was “pleased that she will continue as a member of the Duquesne University faculty.”
In the same statement, McIntyre said she was “relieved” she and Murray had reached an agreement allowing her to continue “my scholarship and teaching in my areas of expertise with colleagues and students who mean so much to me.”
McIntyre will now teach ethics, health care ethics and ecology ethics at the university.
Norms adopted by the U.S. bishops and approved by the Vatican require that Catholic theology professors have a “mandatum” from a bishop. A bishops’ committee is currently working on developing recommended procedures for implementing the granting, withholding or withdrawing of the “mandatum.”
Murray said he consulted with the Diocese of Pittsburgh through Auxiliary Bishop David A. Zubik, a member of Duquesne's board of directors, before relieving McIntyre of her teaching duties in the theology department.
Said Bishop Zubik, “I support the president of the university in his desire to keep Duquesne faithful to its Catholic mission.” (From combined wire services)
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 02/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Feb. 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:Vatican Highlights Bush Abortion Policy
Vatican Radio also carried the report and broadcast comments by a spokeswoman from the U.S. Bishops Conference in Washington saying that Bush “had the right instincts” and was “going in the right direction” on abortion.
But the spokeswoman, Cathleen Cleaver of the Conference's Pro-Life Secretariat, distanced herself from Bush on the issue of capital punishment. During his six years as governor of Texas, 152 convicts were executed. Cleaver told Vatican Radio that Bush was “far afield on the issue of the death penalty.”
Hackers Attack Vatican Radio Web Portal
The Vatican's press office said that the attack was detected very quickly.
Il Messaggero reported that the hackers are thought to originate from Brazil. Sources suggest that Interpol and the Brazilian authorities are now investigating the hackers, who are known to have attacked other religious sites around the world.
Other hackers submitted information that suggests the Brazilian hacker group carried out a number of attacks on the Vatican Radio Web site.
Iraqi Official Criticizes Embargo During Rome Visit
AGENCE FRANCE PRESS, Jan 25 –– Iraqi Health Minister Umid Medhat Mubarak said during a recent trip to Italy that a UN embargo against Iraq has caused a dramatic increase in illnesses, partly due to depleted uranium munitions used during the Gulf War, the news service reported.
Mubarak made the comments at a press conference before meeting with Vatican Foreign Minister Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran. He said cases of malignant anemia, breast tumors, lung cancers and congenital malformations among the Iraqi population were much higher in 2000 than before the 1991 Gulf War, with the incidence of leukemia up 17%.
Iraq also lacks medical equipment, Mubarak said, explaining that parts needed to repair the equipment were prohibited under the embargo. The Iraqi health ministry said that the UN embargo imposed on Iraq after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait had caused more than 1.3 million deaths over 10 years.
Father Jean-Marie Benjamin, an Italian priest who organized the conference at which Mubarak outlined his critique of the embargo, said the Iraqi government is “accused of propaganda whenever it speaks” about the embargo.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Cooperate With God DATE: 02/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Feb. 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:Register Summary
“Divine action and human effort should be intertwined,” in building up the world, Pope John Paul II said Jan.31 during his weekly general audience.
Some “forgo any effort to face our human lot and transform it,” the Holy Father told an estimated 4,000 people gathered in the Paul VI Audience Hall. “They are convinced that nothing can change.”
The Pope said that, on the contrary, it is right to maintain hope for the future because “God has come into human affairs.” This also means that Christians are “stringently bound” to the duty of building up the world. God wants them to actively work with him to bring about “the plan of truth, justice and peace of the Kingdom.”
The Second Letter of Peter, employing the symbols characteristic of apocalyptic language in use in Jewish literature, presents the new creation almost as a flower blooming from the ashes of history and of the world (see 3:11-13). It is an image that seals the book of Revelation, when John proclaims: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more” (Revelation 21:1). In the Letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul describes creation groaning under the weight of evil, but destined to be “set free from will fill the earth as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9).
A Christian walks with courage on the roads of the world seeking to follow God's steps.
This new creation, human and cosmic, is inaugurated with Christ's resurrection, the first fruits of the transfiguration to which we are all destined. Paul affirms this in the First Letter to the Corinthians: “Christ the first fruits; then, at his coming, those who belong to Christ; then comes the end, when he hands over the Kingdom to his God and Father (...). The last enemy to be destroyed is death ... so that God may be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:23-24,26,28).
Temptation to Doubt
Granted, it is an outlook of faith that at times one could be tempted to doubt, as man lives in history under the weight of evil, conflict and death. The previously quoted Second Letter of Peter takes this into consideration, reflecting the objections of those who are suspicious, skeptical or even “mocking scorners” who ask: “Where is the promise of his coming? From the time when our ancestors fell asleep, everything has remained as it was from the beginning of creation” (2 Peter 3:3-4).
This is the discouraged attitude of those who forgo any effort to face our human lot and transform it. They are convinced that nothing can change, that every effort is destined to be in vain, that God is absent and not at all interested in this minute dot of the universe that is the earth. In the Greek world some thinkers had already taught this outlook, and the Second Letter announce, ‘Look, here it is,’ or, 'There it is.’ For behold, the Kingdom of God is among you” (Luke 17:20-21).
Hidden Coming of the Kingdom
To the temptation of those who imagine apocalyptic scenes of the Kingdom of God breaking out, and of those who close their eyes, heavy with the sleep of indifference, Christ counters with the unsensational coming of the new heavens and the new earth. Such a coming is similar to the hidden but dynamic germinating of the seed in the earth (see Mark 4:26-29).
God, therefore, has come into human affairs and the world and proceeds silently, waiting patiently for humanity with its delays and conditionings. He respects its liberty, sustains it when it is gripped by despair, leads it from stage to stage and invites it to collaborate in the plan of truth, justice and peace of the Kingdom. Divine action and human effort should, therefore, be intertwined. “Men are not deterred by the Christian message from building up the world, or impelled to neglect the welfare of their fellows, but they are rather more stringently bound to do these very things” (Gaudium et Spes, 34).
Thus, a topic of great importance opens up before us, which has always interested the reflection and work of the Church. Without falling into the opposite extremes of religious isolationism and secularism, a Christian must express his hope even within the structures of secular life. Though the Kingdom is divine and eternal, it is also sowed in time and space — it is “among us,” as Jesus says.
Transform the World
Vatican Council II strongly underlined this intimate and profound link: “The mission of the Church, consequently, is not only to bring men the message and grace of Christ but also to permeate and improve the whole range of the temporal” (Apostolicam actuositatem, 5). The spiritual and temporal orders, “are distinct; they are nevertheless so closely linked that God's plan is, in Christ, to take the whole world up again and make of it a new creation, in an initial way here on earth, in full realization at the end of time” (ibid.).
Inspired by this certainty, a Christian walks with courage on the roads of the world seeking to follow God's steps and collaborating with him to bring about the birth of a future in which “mercy and truth will meet, justice and peace will embrace” (Psalm 85:11).
(Translation by Zenit and Register)
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Pro-Lifers Reject U.N. Agency's Claim of 'Condom Crisis' DATE: 02/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Feb. 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:NEW YORK — The United Nations Population Fund, also known as UNFPA, has sent round the begging bowl to western governments, claiming it faces a “condom crisis” in Third World nations.
But pro-life critics and Catholic activists say this is a sham crisis manufactured by an agency that is dedicated to population control.
Quick to respond to the UNFPA appeal, issued late last fall, to fund more condoms for poverty-stricken nations were the British and Dutch governments, who have pledged substantial new donations to UNFPA — $37 million and $39 million respectively.
But the “condom crisis” claim was dismissed as non-existent by Austin Ruse, president of the New York-based Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute,
“They do this all the time,” Ruse told the Register. “They claim they are just trying to keep up with the demand [for condoms], when they have created a demand by their promotion of contraception.”
Asked to comment on Ruse's charge, UNFPA press spokesman William Ryan replied, “I don't see why I should have to answer. If you go to countries with a high rate of HIV infection you will see it is really quite extraordinary to suggest this.”
The British government announced its grant to UNFPA in mid-December. Clare Short, the international development secretary for the Labor government, said Britain would be providing the money to help UNFPA cope with the increasing demand for safe contraceptives in the developing world.
Asked to justify the policy, Short replied in a written statement to the Register. “The rising demand for contraceptives in the developing world is encouraging,” Short said. “It means that children are born by choice and are therefore more likely to thrive and also that the spread of HIV/AIDS is reduced.”
Short, a lapsed Catholic, added, “We are therefore doing all we can to make sure that this demand is met. The AIDS pandemic is spreading at an alarming rate, with up to a quarter of all adults infected in some African countries.”
The British Department for International Development said the funds given to UNFPA will be spent on male and female condoms, other methods of contraception, and drugs to treat sexually transmitted infections.
The department said the use of contraceptives has grown dramatically in the last 35 years, up from 10% of couples to around 60% of couples globally.
U.N. Arm-Twisting?
Pro-life advocates charge that the surge in demand for condoms in developing countries is due to aggressive promotion by U.N. agencies, western governments and pro-contraceptive non-governmental organizations.
UNFPA spokesman Ryan denied UNFPA had pressured poorer countries to promote condoms. “UNFPA is not dictating anybody's family size,” he said. “The aim of our aid is to help countries to meet the needs of their people.”
U.N. watchdog Ruse tells a very different story.
“[UNFPA] is not responding to requests for help,” he said. “It promotes abortion and contraception — it forces countries to accept the full 'reproductive rights’ package.”
Ruse cited events in early 2000 in Nicaragua, where senior government officials charged that UNFPA representatives withheld $11 million in aid money until the government softened its opposition to contraceptive programs.
“Their program ... was rejected by the government of Nicaragua and they withdrew all aid saying they had to accept reproductive rights or nothing,” Ruse said. “They forced their way in.”
Ruse, who traveled to Kosovo in 1999 to research UNFPA's alleged promotion of abortion and contraception there in the wake of the war with Serbia, told the Register, “They changed their story three times when asked about how they came to be involved in Kosovo.
“First we were told they were invited in. Next it was that they invited themselves and finally that they entered without permission.”
UNFPA officials have consistently denied that they are engaged in the promotion of abortion.
But other observers insist that the U.N. agency is becoming more open in its promotion of “reproductive rights” and “reproductive health,” terms coined by pro-abortion activists who interpret them to include access to on-demand abortion.
Jim Vittitow, education director of the Virginia-based Population Research Institute, cited an interview published by the UN Foundation's UN Wire news service last year with outgoing UNFPA Executive Director Nafis Sadik. Sadik said that she had been very successful at changing policies around the globe in areas of reproductive health, population issues, and family planning.
Sadik, who was succeeded Jan. by Thoraya Obaid of Saudi Arabia, led the UNFPA for 14 years.
In the UN Wire interview, Sadik said that when the U.N. agency started 29 years ago, few countries had family planning programs, but “now every country in the developing world has family planning as part of its health service, and today every country now has a reproductive health program.”
Sadik also admitted development aid is tied to population control, saying, “I think we've been able to make the consensus ... that population issues are part of developmental issues, that they're not separate, that they link with all facets of social life and economic and developmental life.
“Without pursuing social policies and social goals, you can't really have economic development.”
Population Control's Sins
Father Thomas Euteneuer, the president of Human Life International, counters that the UNFPA's pro-contraceptive policies are actually destroying developing countries — morally, physically and economically.
“The UNFPA, in soliciting funds for its campaign to distribute contraceptives in the third world, is committing a tri-fold sin,” Father Euteneuer told the Register.
“They are introducing the sin of contraception and its denial of God's plan for love and the family; they are force-feeding the Culture of Death and its inevitable products — disease, immorality, promiscuity, abortion, and the dissolution of the family — to uneducated, unsophisticated and innocent people; and they are robbing these countries of their single most important resource — people.”
Added Father Euteneuer, “This is what Pope John Paul II aptly calls ‘contraceptive imperialism.’ They export immorality, limit the developing world's most precious resource, and then lure its best minds away to fill the gaps left by their own failed population programs.
“Like one tiny cancer cell, the simple condom is the first step towards a deadly disease.”
Paul Burnell writes from Manchester, England.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Paul Burnell ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 02/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Feb. 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:Portuguese Priests Prepare Parishioners for Euro
Priests are giving simple advice about the Euro, especially to the elderly and underprivileged, after many people had fallen victim to swindles.
“Don't accept Euros before next year,” Father Horacio Alves Gomes, a priest from the southern Portuguese town of Nisa, was quoted by the magazine as telling his flock. “Don't trust people who say they are bank officials and ask you to change your bank notes for Euros.”
Official Euro-guide leaflets have also been stacked at the entrance to churches, Focus said.
Euro-zone countries are printing an estimated 14.5 billion Euro notes, worth 600 billion Euros ($560 billion), and minting 56 billion Euro coins for the changeover at midnight Dec. 31.
The 12 Euro-zone nations are Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.
Korean Cardinal Receives Top German Award
AGENCE FRANCE PRESS, Jan. 29 –– The head of the Church in South Korea, Cardinal Stephen Kim, was presented with Germany's highest civilian award for his work in helping German priests escape the country during South Korea's years under a dictatorship, the news agency reported.
German ambassador Hubertus von Morr presented the Great Cross Order of Merit with Star to Cardinal Kim in the South Korean capital of Seoul.
In a presentation ceremony, the ambassador recalled Cardinal Kim's efforts to help German priests and aid workers who were harassed for their human rights work during the military dictatorships that lasted up to the mid-1980s.
Japan Welcomes “Fifth Evangelist”
The aptness of that title was defended by papal biographer George Weigel in an article in St. Louis’ archdiocesan newspaper, entitled “A Lutheran's music may help convert Japan.” Weigel reports that over the past decade, between 100 and 200 Bach choirs have sprung up all over Japan, a country Weigel said has traditionally been resistant to the Christian message.
The Christian director of one such choir, Maasaki Suzuki, said non-Christians crowd his podium after performances of Bach's music to talk about taboo subjects like death. “They inevitably ask me to explain to them what ‘hope means’ to Christians,” Suzuki added.
On Good Friday, Weigel continued, thousands of Japanese buy tickets priced in the hundreds of dollars to hear Suzuki's Bach Collegium perform the “St. Matthew Passion.” Suzuki is “convinced,” Weigel wrote, “that tens of thousands of Japanese have been baptized because of Bach.”
Concluded Weigel, “What St. Francis Xavier began, J.S. Bach may, perhaps, help complete. No one knows whether the fascination of Japanese élites with Bach will lead to mass conversions. But a new conversation about Christianity has been started in Japan. Its future course will be one of the fascinating stories of the new millennium.”
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: PERSPECTIVE DATE: 02/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Feb. 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:Here is the text of an address given Jan. 31 by Archbishop Renato Martino, permanent observer of the Vatican at the United Nations, to a UN committee that is organizing the World Summit on Children for September.
Eleven years have passed since leaders of the world gathered for the World Summit for Children. Once again, the Holy See joins other states in reviewing the progress that has been made regarding the World Declaration on the Survival, Protection and Development of Children.
The Holy See welcomes the draft document. My delegation hopes that the success of the Millennium Summit, held just this past September, will help to provide a spirit of good will as the United Nations focuses special attention on the needs of children, especially those situations that might keep them from enjoying their human dignity and rights. The Holy See also looks forward to the opportunity to participate in the substantive discussions that will lead to the adoption of the outcome document.
At this time, the Holy See notes three specific elements taken from the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Plan of Action of the World Summit for Children which must have their proper place in the final document to be adopted:
First, the promotion and protection of the right to life as well as the human dignity and rights of the child, before as well as after birth.
Second, the fact that the family is the basic unit of society, and has the primary responsibility for the nurturing and protection of children from infancy to adolescence and, thus, should be afforded necessary protection and assistance so that it can duly assume its responsibility within the community. Accordingly, it is critical that children's rights must at all times be seen in the light of parents’ prior right to provide in a manner consistent with the evolving capacities of the child, appropriate direction and guidance in the exercise by the child of the rights recognized in the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Third, the outcome document must include strong statements concerning sustainable development, debt relief and the eradication of poverty. These issues, which touch upon every aspect of the lives of more than a billion of the worlds children, especially basic health care, nutrition, and housing; peace, security and stability; opportunities for education; and the promise for a brighter future, must be discussed.
Madame Chairperson, there have been many successes during the past eleven years, but there are also many shortfalls and goals that have not been met.
The last line of the Provisional Outcome Document reaffirms the commitment of the United Nations to serving the best interests of humanity through serving the best interests of the world's children.
Pope John Paul II voiced that same commitment in his Message for the World Day of Peace (January 1, 2001) when he stated: “Dear young people of every language and culture, a high and exhilarating task awaits you: that of becoming men and women capable of solidarity, peace and love of life, with respect for everyone. Become craftsmen of a new humanity, where brothers and sisters — members all of the same family — are able at last to live in peace.”
When it comes to children, the Family of Nations can no longer afford to say that we tried or we wanted to. The outcome of this special session must include our commitment to forever be a world of hope, a world of resolute action and a world of achieved goals.
Thank you, Madame Chairperson.
------- EXCERPT: Children in Need ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 02/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Feb. 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:Journalistic Nostalgia
“Fatima Apostle” (Inperson, Jan. 28-Feb. 3) offered a nostalgic tribute to Father Robert J. Fox's long apostolate promoting the Fatima message. The life-fulfilling inspiration he received from reading the National Catholic Register in the early days revived my own memories of Msgr. Matthew Smith, the paper's founder. I worked for him in the original plant on Bannock Street in Denver in the 1940s — page-proofer, columnist, etc.
MARY EISENMAN CARSON
Shoreline, Washington
Eschatological Entertainment
I want to let you know that I appreciate the efforts of the Register to talk to Catholic role models in the entertainment industry. It is refreshing to know that there are people in Hollywood trying to live out a life of faith and virtue.
However, in your interview with Clarence Gilyard ("Chuck Norris, the Pope and Me,” Jan. 21), Mr. Gilyard shared information about a movie he recently completed called Left Behind.
Apparently neither Mr. Gilyard nor the Register are aware that this movie is based on a very popular series of books that contain very faulty [eschatological, or end-times] theology. Although I have not read the books myself, I have read several reviews by noted Catholics. In addition to the erroneous teachings about the end times that the books (and presumably movie) espouse, there are apparently some anti-Catholic references.
I know that you, as [the editors of] a solid Catholic newspaper, would want your readers to know that you are not endorsing this movie in this interview. It would be good to educate your readers so that they would not be misled into thinking that this movie would be a good use of their entertainment dollar.
CARA AYERS
Omaha, Nebraska
Unqualified Catholic?
Regarding your wonderful analysis “Christians: Unqualified Citizens” by Jesuit Father James Schall (Jan. 28-Feb. 3): It makes me as a Catholic embarrassed to be known as a Catholic when a so-called Catholic, Ted Kennedy, finds the nomination of a true Christian “troubling.”
Why he wasn't excommunicated years ago is very troubling to me as a Catholic and certainly something I cannot defend to my Protestant friends. I quit [reading] the Register during the Clinton administration because of the views expressed in it. One Sunday before the election, I picked it up in my church and, to my surprise, I discovered that I can be Catholic even if I'm not a Democrat.
EILENE WETZEL
Columbus, Georgia
Catholic Theater Call
I applaud Mr. Macarvage and the students at Temple University who protested the play “Corpus Christi” ("Did University Treat Christian Protest as Mental Illness?” Jan. 21-27). To depict Jesus as a homosexual is shameful and repulsive. Catholics in several cities have protested this play, with little success.
Though anti-Catholic themes on stage and screen seem to be increasing, your readers should not be disheartened. There is an alternative: Catholics can pool their talents and put out their own entertainment. We at Qua Vadis Theatre Co. took that alternative, and founded a Catholic theater company to put on plays about the great historical figures of our faith.
The response of theater-goers to our work has been very positive. Though we struggle financially, the rewards are worth [the sacrifice]. Astonishingly, we have discovered we are the only Cahtolic community theater in the United States.
We at Quo Vadis would like to see a Catholic theater in every city in the land. We will help any group who wishes to establish one. However, it is important for Catholic businessmen and women to lend their support.
Perhaps together we can bring about a new Catholic renaissance in the entertainment world.
CATHAL GALLAGHER
San Jose, Calfornia
Christ on the Altar
This is in regard to your article “Parishioners Demand a Voice in Renovations” (Jan. 28-Feb. 3), which concerned the issue of moving the tabernacle to a distant, adjacent chapel during Mass.
I must politely object, with due respect, to Sister Arlene Bennett of the Diocese of Gaylord, Mich., in her mistaken assessment that the body and blood of Jesus is always present on the altar during Mass.
The new supply of hosts brought up for each Mass has usually just been taken from a shipment box stored in the sacristy; therefore, those hosts have not yet been consecrated. Jesus is not present on the altar until the hosts have been consecrated.
In the past, this interim period of Christ's “absence” in the sanctuary was remedied by having the tabernacle, always containing a consecrated host, located near the altar.
This is why Catholics are objecting to the moving of the tabernacle by the new architects of the Church, and rightfully so!
B.H. NEHER
Melbourne, Florida
Publicly Opposed
I get copies of the Register passed down to me, so my response may be a little late. Please forgive me. This is in response to the article “How to Kill Christians Without Shedding Blood,” about Mary Ann Glendon in the Dec. 10-16 issue.
The silencing of Christian witnesses by the phrase “Personally I'm opposed to — here you may fill in the blank — but I can't impose my opinions on others” is mostly used to silence Christians on the subject of abortion.
This is a disarming technique that operates in the intellectual dimension, as opposed to being physically disarming or spiritually disarming.
When we hear this, we know there's something wrong with it, but we just can't put our finger on it. Yet, it disarms us all the same, and that's exactly what it's aimed to do — to disarm you, to reduce you to silence, to reduce you to inaction. In order for evil to succeed, good people need only do nothing.
If you look at what a magician does in mis-directing an audience's attention, it's easier to understand. It's pure deception.
Your freedom from this intellectual trap rests in your ability to recognize, and not be distracted from the objective truth of the situation. Blood is red. Red is red.
When someone says to me, “Personally I'm opposed to abortion but I can't impose my opinions on others,” my response is to question: “So what you're trying to tell me is that you're going to stand by and do nothing while these babies are being butchered?”
Regardless of the response, stand your ground and state objective truth. “Blood is red. Red is red.”
Once a person bites down on this idea it will strike them like a rock. There are two primary responses to be concerned about. If they agree in any way, shape or form, the discussion is ended. Do not continue. You've already won. You got your yes, and further discussion can only risk snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
Either way, once someone bites down on that idea, you have nothing more to gain, so stop, leave, extract yourself. They are not going to be able to go back in time, to a point before they faced that truth. Truth does hurt. Having been hurt, the temptation will be to respond in kind. If they disagree, they will be tempted to strike back. Fear is useless.
GREGORY GRABUS
Bel Air, Maryland
During the recently ended campaign, the Register referred several times to Al Gore Jr.'s view that it should be legal to execute pregnant women on death row. We continue to get letters and phone calls challenging us on this point and demanding our source, and so we reluctantly return to the campaign that many would as soon forget.
Here is the source: On the July 19 edition of NBC's “Meet the Press,” Tim Russert challenged Gore again and again to say when life began and to spell out any limits he saw to Roe v. Wade. Again and again, Gore said a woman's right to choose trumped all considerations about unborn life, until Russert asked him about a 1994 federal law prohibiting executions of pregnant women.
Gore refused to say whether or not executing pregnant women on death row should be legal. Laughing, he said, “I'd want to think about that.”
The next day, challenged again on the question by reporters in Nashville, Tenn., he said that it should be legal: “The principle of a woman's right to choose governs in that case.”
On July 19, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (RFla.) introduced the “Innocent Child Protection Act” to protect the unborn from being executed with their mothers. A U.S. House vote, taken immediately, overwhelmingly reaffirmed the law.
“I have no respect whatsoever for Mr. Gore's position to permit the execution of children,” said Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.). “Mr. Gore's child death penalty is totally contrary to internationally recognized human rights principles.”
Others expressed outrage at the vice president's statement — but the House action was almost universally ignored in the media. The Register did publish a story about it in our July 30 issue.
— The Editors
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Good Governance Flows From the Ground Up DATE: 02/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Feb. 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:The most disputed election in U.S. history is an increasingly dim memory.
Sure, it's been good to see Washington return, along with the new president, to a certain everyday routine. And President Bush has been quite impressive right out of the gates, with his focus on education reform and cutting off federal funding for overseas abortions. But, in the wake of the nail-biting drama that proved so irresistible in those weeks leading up to, and immediately after, the excruciatingly close election, back-to-business has seemed rather mundane. What's a Catholic political junkie to do?
The answer: Practice subsidiarity.
It may not sound so fascinating as watching up-to-the-second cable newscasts until the wee hours. But the founding fathers, the new president, and even Pope John Paul II have asked us to live out this Catholic idea.
Subsidiarity was defined by Pope Pius XI in his 1931 encyclical Quadragesimo Anno. Pius said that governments should never “assign to a greater and higher association what lesser and subordinate organizations can do.” He said it is a “grave evil and disturbance of right order” for a national government to usurp all authority.
Pope John Paul II told the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences on Feb. 23, 2000, that “a community of a higher order should not interfere in the internal life of a community of a lower order, depriving the latter of its rightful functions; instead, the higher order should support the lower order and help it to coordinate its activity with that of the rest of society.”
The U.S. Constitution anticipated the principle of subsidiarity. The founding fathers wanted to make sure that no one political body made itself sovereign, as Parliament had in England after the Glorious Revolution of 1688. So they placed the ultimate authority not in the state or federal governments, but in the people.
The federal structure of government, with power shared among national, state and local bodies, is obviously a type of subsidiarity. Furthermore, the private sector, made up of individuals and corporations, has rights. It was a Catholic politician, Daniel Carroll, who proposed the 10th amendment to the Constitution: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
Carroll, whose brother John was the first archbishop of Baltimore, followed the Jesuit tradition in which so many American Catholics were educated.
Another founder, Supreme Court Justice James Wilson, remarked that “by some politicians, society has been considered as only the scaffolding of government.” But “in the just order of things, government is the scaffolding of society: and if society could be built and kept entire without government, the scaffolding might be thrown down, without the least inconvenience or cause of regret.”
Call it ‘faith-based initiatives’ or ‘charitable choice' — it's really the principle of subsidiarity.
In other words, government exists to serve the people; things should not be ordered the other way around. Faced with our huge federal bureaucracy, however, many Americans have fallen into a passive attitude. We have forgotten that sovereignty belongs not to Congress, not to the president, not to our state governments — but to we the people.
Fortunately, President George W. Bush has promised to encourage our efforts to take responsibility for our communities. Bush wants to expand “charitable choice” or “faith-based initiatives,” a plan which gives non-governmental organizations federal dollars to spend in the community. He has also proposed a new “Office of Faith-Based Action” to “identify and remove federal regulations that bar faith-based organizations from participating in federal programs.”
If the president's “armies of compassion” are to have any effect on our communities, or a lasting impact on our system of government, a large number of citizens must volunteer. Catholics will no doubt be in the forefront of this movement, as we have been in so many charitable works in the past.
The possibilities are endless. Volunteer for a crisis pregnancy center. Start a task force to promote “family values” in your community. Sit on a zoning board or parks commission. Create a food bank. Read to schoolchildren.
Or think big. Why not start a new political party? It's about time the United States had a party which combines respect for individual rights with concern for the common good. The Christian Democratic parties in Europe represent Catholic political tradition, but America has a vacuum at its political center.
Both major parties are prone to err on the side of individual rights; it's just that each is pushing a different set of rights. For the Democrats, it's abortion, gay rights, women's rights. The Republicans champion rights to property, weapons, free enterprise. But the object of politics, Catholic tradition teaches, is not individual rights. It is the common good of society. The common good, in turn, implies certain individual rights, such as the right to life.
Directing ourselves toward the common good, while defending our individual prerogatives, is what subsidiarity is all about. Can this Catholic political notion take deep root in American soil?
“I ask you to be citizens,” President Bush said at his inauguration. “Citizens, not spectators. Citizens, not subjects.”
That's the spirit.
Scott McDermott's biography of Charles Carroll of Carrollton will be published this spring by Scepter Press.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Scott McDermott ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Marriage: Accept No Substitutes DATE: 02/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Feb. 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:Every week seems to bring a new headline about some law that legitimizes unmarried couples, including members of the same sex. Vermont has legalized “civil unions” for same-sex couples. France has passed a law allowing any two unmarried individuals to enter into a “solidarity pact.” A number of lawsuits to clear a path for same-sex “marriage” are wending their way through the Canadian legal system. And Holland has passed an act that will allow same-sex couples to fully “marry” as of April 1.
No one is more excited about these developments than mainstream greeting-card companies — ever eager to parse up new market segments each Valentine's Day, Feb. 14 — yet the issue of just what constitutes a couple is far from settled. For example, both the U.S. Congress and Canadian Parliament have reaffirmed that marriage requires a man and a woman, and 34 U.S. states have passed statutes recognizing this reality.
Into this maelstrom comes a very helpful document from the Pontifical Council on the Family (PCF). Entitled Family, Marriage and De Facto Unions, it was finalized in July and released in November. (If you have access to the Internet, you can read the document on the Vatican's Web site, www.vatican.va).
Family addresses three important questions about these developments: Why is marriage special? How do current trends threaten marriage and the family? And what can be done to help reverse these trends and reaffirm marriage?
Inimitable Institution
Marriage, the council states, is a unique sexual community. It is “based on some well-defined anthropological foundations which distinguish it from other kinds of union and which ... root it in the very essence of the person of the woman or the man.” For instance, men and women are equal, yet different, and their sexual difference is what brings them into a special union intended to create a family. “Marriage” is that union. It is based on a commitment of the will to give oneself and accept the other person without reservation. Marriage, says Family, is “a stable, joint project that comes from the free and total self-giving of fruitful conjugal love as something due in justice.”
There are other kinds of relationships, sexual or otherwise, and “other ways of bringing children into the world.” But marriage “is the only institution that incorporates and unites all the elements mentioned at the same time and in an original way.”Precisely because marriage is a unique social institution, the law should recognize it. “The marriage that comes from this covenant of conjugal love is not created by any public authority: it is a natural and original institution that is prior to it,” the council writes. “The family and life form a real unit which must be protected by society because this is the living nucleus of the succession (procreation and education) of human generations.”
Family spells out how marriage offers benefits for spouses, children and other members of the family — as well as for society as a whole: “[P]rocreation is the ‘genetic principle’ of society, and ... children's upbringing is the first place for the transmission and cultivation of the social fabric as well as the essential nucleus of its structural configuration.”
In short, marriage is a public institution, and therefore its well-being is a matter of public interest. De facto unions, in contrast, concern private life, and deserve no specifically public recognition. In Family, the council repeats the Church's argument that these relationships are immoral. But its focus here is “the social dimension of the problem that requires great reflection,” especially by policymakers. The council is concerned with how the recognition of these unions can harm marriage.
By “recognition,” the council means laws and policies that involve “elevating these private situations to the category of public interest.” By treating these unions as an institution similar to marriage, policymakers work “to the detriment of truth and justice.” This contributes decisively toward the breakdown of marriage.
How so? To begin with, laws that treat de facto unions like marriage are based on a lie. This has a very practical effect, since the law is a teacher. If the distinctive nature of marriage is denied, citizens do not understand the importance of forming stable and lasting marriages. (Then, too, no society built on lies can long endure.)
Also, treating de facto unions as similar to marriage is unjust. It makes marriage just another choice, based on an “individualistic and private approach.” In fact, such an approach “discriminates against marriage,” because the law takes on “marital” obligations toward de facto unions that the unions themselves reject.
Plus, treating de facto unions of homosexuals as similar to marriage has serious social consequences. It is contrary to common sense; it leads to adoption by same-sex couples; and it embodies an ideology of gender that disconnects culture from nature. The council quotes the French bishops who, in opposition to “solidarity pacts,” stated: “There is no equivalence between the relationship of two persons of the same sex and the relationship formed by a man and a woman. Only the latter can be described as a couple because it implies sexual difference, the conjugal dimension, the ability to exercise fatherhood and motherhood. Obviously, homosexuality cannot represent this symbolic whole.” This distinction is not a form of discrimination in any way.
Clarity vs. Confusion
What can be done in response to these social and political developments? The council recommends that Christians understand and act.
“Christians must try to understand the personal, social, cultural and ideological reasons for the spread of de facto unions,” writes the council. As for action, the council recommends six steps.
l First, Christian families must offer a positive witness to their neighbors. “To the disillusioned men and women who ask themselves cynically, ‘Can anything good come from the human heart?', it is necessary to be able to answer them: ‘Come and see our marriage, our family.’” Such marriages can be “a light in the midst of the darkness.”
l Second, marriage preparation needs to be intensified. The council notes that “many young people even doubt that it is possible to achieve real self-giving in marriage that will give rise to a faithful, fruitful and indissoluble bond.” To counter this, couples need “a correct and realistic idea of freedom in relation to marriage as the ability to choose and direct oneself toward the good of self-giving in marriage.”
l Third, the Church's educational system must be re-structured so that it provides “the explanation of marriage and the family based on a correct anthropological vision.” Based on this, schools can then offer “an appropriate education to marriage and the family as both fundamental and necessary nuclear structures for society itself.”
l Fourth, there must be “a special effort to make family values present in the communications media.” Adultery, divorce and cohabitation should not be glorified.
l Fifth, the Church must offer “intelligent and discreet pastoral care,” in which prevention “is a priority concern.” This involves “nearness, attention to the related problems and difficulties, patient dialogue, and concrete assistance, especially with regard to the children.” All of this expresses a “respect for the dignity of persons.”
l Finally, concerned citizens and organizations, including the Church, should advocate public policies that recognize, protect and promote marriage and the family. This is something all persons of good will can rally around. We must resist “giving in to demagogic pressures by lobbies that do not take the common good of society into consideration.”
The Church boldly “invites those who are fighting for the cause of man to unite their efforts in promoting the family and its intimate source of life which is the conjugal union.” In short, family rights and human rights go together.
Family, Marriage and De Facto Unions is a powerful statement of what makes marriage special, why de facto unions threaten marriage and the family, and how we should respond. No serious Catholic living in these confused times should fail to study it, share and, most of all, live it.
David Orgon Coolidge directs the Marriage Law Project at The Catholic University of America's Columbus School of Law in Washington.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: David Orgon Coolidge ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Guided by a Patron Saint Through Two Kinds of School DATE: 02/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Feb. 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:Sometimes, a saint won't wait to be asked.
I was a senior in high school in a little Pennsylvania coal-mining community. My father was gravely ill, my mother struggling to feed eight hungry mouths and make the payments on a hefty mortgage. There was very little to eat, and our clothes made us easy targets for ridicule at our public high school. I was a mess in more ways than one — not only disheveled, but a lousy student, too.
In April of my senior year, I realized that most of the kids I knew were all set to start college in the fall. They had been accepted, had scholarships. I was the only one in my orbit with no goals. Then, one day, a catalog arrived in the mail from Seton Hill College, a small Catholic school in Greensburg, Pa. At the time, it was a woman's college. I didn't notice my mother watching me as I leafed through the catalog, turning the idea of college over in my mind. In the book's center was a picture of a student walking past a white marble state of Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton — then Blessed Elizabeth Ann — who was shrouded by a swirl of blowing snow.
“Wonder who that is,” I thought. “Must be some saint or something.” I tossed the book aside.
“What do you think of that college, honey?” my mother asked.
“It's a girl's school,” I huffed. “Plus it looks like only snobby little mucketymucks get to go there.”
“Well, it has an application in the back,” she said. “Why don't you fill it out, just for the heck of it?”
I scanned the form, sneering when I saw that it cost $25 just to send it in, and told my mom that she might just as well flush her money right down the toilet because no decent college would take me. Besides, even if by some miracle I actually got accepted, how would we pay for it? It was four times more expensive than the local junior college and scholarships only go to smart kids. At her insistence, I filled out the application and forgot about it.
Three weeks later, my guidance counselor informed me that I had been accepted. I scoffed. “Yeah, and who's going to pay for it?” I said. “You?”
“I believe there's a reason you have this chance,” he said. “You have to admit it's pretty amazing they even took you. Your parents filed an application for financial aid. Accept this offer, and I believe the same power responsible for this miracle will make certain it's paid for.” I knew he was a Catholic but I was still a little surprised to hear him talking about the situation in religious terms.
I scoffed again. But he was right. Two weeks after I said yes to Seton Hill College, I heard from the Sister of Charity who was director of financial aid. She sent me a pink paper showing a series of dollar figures all the way down the page. I didn't understand, but when my father took a look, his eyes filled with tears.
“I don't believe it,” he said. “They've covered everything. With the work-study job they've given you in the cafeteria, even your books will be paid for.”
The following winter, I found myself in front of the statue, in the snow. She was more beautiful in person, and her living sisters, my teachers, were geniuses. Tough as diamonds and twice as brilliant. They taught me many important lessons, not the least of which was that college was for me. I quickly recognized that education isn't just valuable; it's priceless. I worked hard and, at the Fall Honors Convocation, was recognized for earning high grades.
By Christmas on “The Hill,” I noticed an odd affinity for this little community of sisters. Despite still-frequent mistakes, I found myself drawn to the story of the founder, Blessed Elizabeth Ann, and those brave women who followed her. One night, in the middle of the night, the chapel bell began to toll. We all jumped out of bed like children on Christmas Eve: Our foundress was no longer a blessed. She was a saint.
After the 100 rings from the old bell had ceased, I stared out the window at the moon, and spoke to the quiet, jubilant air: “Mother Seton, are you the reason I'm here? Saint Elizabeth Ann, did you help me, did you pray for me before I even knew how to ask?”
I knew then that she'd chosen me. Before I even knew enough to cry for help, she'd gone to the Father and said, “This one. I'll take this one.” She prayed for me and never gave up. She'd picked me to be one of her miracles not because it would be a provable, measurable miracle for her portfolio in Rome. She did it because, without knowing it, I needed her. That's what saints do.
I made more mistakes. I was granted a full fellowship to graduate school and blew it. I did eventually get a master's degree, but not without a great deal more drama than was necessary.
Two years ago, I brought my husband and children to Emmitsburg, Md., where the Sisters of Charity were founded. Among the monuments at the shrine to St. Elizabeth Ann, there's a big rock, “Mother's Rock,” where the saint taught on Sunday afternoons. I was struck with awe as I realized: There, on that rock, Saint Elizabeth Ann taught women who became sisters who taught other women who became sisters who taught me. And on this rock God has built my faith.
She is still with me, of course, praying my children through their school years and interceding for me daily. Sometimes I fail to see her loving hand in the business of my days, but, now and then, God provides a reminder.
Recently, we moved to a city where my children could attend Catholic school. I was so excited, but just a little disappointed that the parish and school didn't bear my patron saint's name. Oh, well, I thought. Maybe I'm being led to another patron for the next phase of my life.
It wasn't until after the kids had been there a month that I saw God's little love note: Our parish and school take up an entire city block. The two streets that border the complex have familiar names: Elizabeth Street ... and Ann Street.
Amen, OK? I get it. My kids are in good hands, and the Church's communion of heroes is always way ahead of us — always watching for us, always praying. Always leading us deeper into life in Christ.
Susan Baxter writes from Mishawaka, Indiana.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Susan Baxter ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Missionaries of Charity Rush to the Rescue DATE: 02/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Feb. 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:CALCUTTA — From the world headquarters for the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, several nuns sped to Bhuj as soon as news of the quake reached them.
“They went the first day of the quake to Bhuj, where the epicenter is,” said Sister Priscilla, one of the four general counselors who run the order's worldwide missions along with Sister Nirmala.
Sister Priscilla said she sent 16 sisters and eight Missionaries of Charity brothers on the two-day train ride to Bhuj from Calcutta, noting that the order already operates seven houses in the area.
“Whenever there was a calamity, Mother [Teresa] used to go immediately and we keep up that practice, whatever it is,” Sister Priscilla said.
“They were dressing the wounds of the people, distributing food and clothes and taking care of the sick. They were [also] getting them together to help take out the bodies. And they are still at it.”
Sister Priscilla described the situation in Gujarat as “sad, very sad,” but said many in the country are working hard to aid the situation.
“There is a great desire to help in whatever way they can,” she said.
Responding to reports that some Hindus were reluctant to take aid from Catholic aid organizations, Sister Priscilla said, with a faint laugh, “I cannot answer that one.
“I only know that wherever we have gone –– and they went with lots of supplies –– people rushed to help them carry their things.”
Sister Priscilla said she is confident that her sisters are “doing a great job,” adding, “they are loved and trusted –– as a gift of God.”
— Brian McGuire
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian McGuire ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Bernadette in the New England Wood DATE: 02/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Feb. 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:Depending on the time of year you see them, Connecticut's Litchfield Hills are either serene or spectacular.
In spring and summer, the hills form honor guards of thick greenery punctuated by the occasional New England town in a valley. In autumn, the Route 8 corridor is swathed in the brilliant oranges, green-yellows and reds of the region's famous fall foliage. Winter's whites completely re-paint the scenery so that formerly obscured rock outcroppings come into beautiful, blanketed view.
In other words, no matter the season, it's a perfect place for a shrine. And Lourdes in Litchfield is, in the humble estimation of this proud Connecticut native, a near-perfect shrine — especially on Feb. 11, the day of Bernadette's initial encounter with the Blessed Mother and the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. I'm not alone: An average of 30,000 pilgrims and visitors make their way into this spot in the woods each year.
The Montfort Missionaries bought the 150-acre property on which the shrine now sits in 1947 in order to build a seminary. They turned a section of the grounds into a farm; two of the Montfort Brothers came from Italy to grow the vegetables and tend the animals.
In 1954, during the centenary of the declaration of the Immaculate Conception, the idea to build the shrine was planted. The two farmers, Brother Alfonso and Brother Gabriel, then set to work on it in a way that's become legendary.
“The plans of the grotto were a picture-postcard of Lourdes nailed to a tree,” says Father Gene Lynch, one of the three Monfort missionaries who staff the shrine today.
Using army-surplus equipment, bulldozer and truck, the brothers turned the local fieldstone into a beautiful replica of the grotto in Lourdes. They had plenty of help from Montfort seminarians and local artisans. With the grotto at the foot of a hill, they carved out a trail for the Way of the Cross that wends up and around the woodland summit like a crown. Today, the sylvan pathway winding to each of the sculpted-silver stations is paved. A practically continuous canopy of trees forms this part of this “church without walls.”
The shrine is a strong draw for people from a 150-mile radius, and Father Lynch points out that even Muslims, Buddhists and Jews come here to pray. They often tell him they “find God” here. “You can pray anyplace,” he says, “but it's easier to pray in some places.”
Irresistible Itinerary
Some come for private prayer, enfolded in summer's greenery or autumn's splendor. Others come for the daily outdoor Mass during the pilgrimage season and Sunday's Marian Prayer — rosary, Way of the Cross and Benediction.
Father Lynch explains that the shrine staff tries to bring people back to basic Christianity and deepen their baptismal commitment to follow Christ. “Jesus Christ is the end of all devotion to Mary,” he says.
Since the shrine grounds are open all year, it's common to find visitors’ footprints in the snow alongside the tracks of rabbits and deer on the Way of the Cross on the hillside. And speaking of animals, every October, visitors bring their pets for the blessing of animals around the feast of St. Francis.
Another special day comes in May, when hundreds of motorcyclists arrive for the blessing of the bikes. And, in December, children and their parents decorate gingerbread creches together, and teens sing, narrate, and act the living Nativity. Even the neighborhood animals — calves, a donkey, sheep and llamas — get into the act. Everyone gets hot chocolate and home-baked cookies from shrine volunteers who help with everything from the snack bar in Pilgrim Hall to the flowers in the gardens.
Living just an hour away from Lourdes in Litchfield, I find myself drawn here in all seasons. I've always found the natural grounds irresistibly peaceful and picturesque, and now they're being enhanced with flowers that ring trees and adorn a berm that outlines the grotto sanctuary from the plaza. A statue of Bernadette Soubirous kneels here, close to the people, her prayerful expression fixed on the Blessed Virgin Mary in a niche in the stone grotto.
Within the grotto itself, a granite altar is flanked by stands of abundant votive lights that testify to visitors’ faith. Nearby, prayerful pilgrims can touch a stone from the grotto of Lourdes, France, that's affixed on the outer wall of the Litchfield grotto. For us it becomes a tangible connection to the original grotto in which Our Lady actually appeared in 1858.
Faith and Light
It's comforting to sit and pray on the open-air pews under the trees and sky in the large plaza before the grotto. From the plaza, you can let your eyes follow a wide corridor cut through the blue spruce trees on the hillside. Its lines carry your sights to the summit and the larger-than-life-sized crucifixion scene — the 12th Station of the Cross atop a kind of Calvary of the northern woods. The scene is a reverential surprise that, like a magnet, draws you to climb the hillside path along the Way of the Cross to reach it.
On Good Fridays, the missionaries conduct a preached Way of the Cross three times and involve the 1,000 faithful who attend in such moving ceremonies as washing hands at the first station, a la Pontius Pilate, and pounding spikes into a cross at the 11th.
All year long, pilgrims also stop at the quiet shrine of St. Joseph, residing modestly in the background, for more meditation. There are also lovely shrines dedicated to the Sacred Heart, St. Michael, St. Jude and St. Louis de Montfort.
The theme of “lights” figures in one of the shrine's prominent ministries. Every six weeks, the Montfort Missionaries’ “Faith and Light” program brings together the mentally, emotionally and physically handicapped, who gather with relatives for a meal.
One of the miracles of Lourdes in France is the charity of the people there, Father Lynch says. With programs like this, and with the annual ecumenical gathering of people to prepare and preserve harvested food for the poor, Lourdes in Litchfield has its own little miracles, too.
I can't help but wonder if Brother Gabriel and Brother Alphonso, both now well into their 80s and retired in Bergamo, Italy, realize how much their project has accomplished — and continues to accomplish — with only a picture-postcard of Lourdes as a guide. The fruits of their labor in this beautiful setting stand as a peaceful, yet powerful, statement of God's sovereignty and the Blessed Mother's intercessory influence.
Joseph Pronechen writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.
------- EXCERPT: Lourdes in Litchfield (Conn.) is a prayer wonderland in all four seasons ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: It's a Jumble Out There DATE: 02/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Feb. 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:My teen-age niece has put me on her e-mail mailing list of friends.
Without my brother's knowledge, she has been receiving e-mail chain letters bearing superstitious threats or promises. “If you don't forward this message to at least 10 people, bad things will happen; if you do, good things will happen" — mostly that sort of thing. I informed her of the erroneous nature of this kind of e-mail, and she stopped forwarding the messages.
Another family I know made the mistake of allowing their 10-year-old son to have Internet access in his bedroom. They learned from their 8-year-old daughter that their son was looking at “bad pictures” on his computer. The computer was moved into the family room (soon enough to stop the boy from continuing to surf forbidden waters, but too late to keep the potentially harmful images from finding a place in his young and impressionable mind).
And my own experience: Trying to find Tara Lipinski's snail-mail address once, I stopped in a chat room dedicated to this Catholic Olympic gold medallist ice skater, known for invoking the intercession of St. Thérèse of Lisieux during competition. A teen-age girl in the room wanted to chat privately; it quickly became evident that her interest was not in Tara's address but in mine! I'm sure this girl's parent had no idea of their daughter's risky exploits in Internet chat rooms.
Are parents monitoring their children's Internet activity? A study I read recently said that the majority are not. Perhaps that is why in June of 2000, the U.S. Catholic Bishops’ Conference published a document titled “Your Family and Cyberspace.” (For the entire text of this helpful document online, go to www.nccbuscc.org/comm/cyberspace.html)
While extolling the great benefits of the Internet in this document, the bishops at the same time warn of its many dangers. For them, Internet use “can be a little like visiting the best theme park in the world and coming across a toxic-waste dump.” Anyone with a computer and modem has access to untold treasures of helpful, educational and inspiring information — yet can just as easily view millions of pages displaying images and text that glamorize violence, hate and grossly deviant sexual behavior. And those are just the obvious dangers. More subtle, and equally damaging in the long run, are religious sites containing all manner of mis information on the Church — from the slightly inaccurate to the flagrantly deceptive, and everything in between.
What's a parent to do?
The best protection the bishops recommend against Internet misuse is an atmosphere of prayer and the sharing of Christian values in the home. In most cases, this will lead to a natural and open dialogue between children and their parents about Internet experiences. The same rules of safe conduct in the real world for children also apply to the Internet. For example, don't talk to strangers. In the same way, ask your children where they are going when they “log on” to the Internet. Listen to your children when they tell you about what they have found.
If you use AOL or another major Internet service provider, you already have parental controls available to you. They're easy to implement. Another option is We-Blocker, a free Internet filtering software program downloadable at we-blocker.com that can be configured to suit your needs. Fortunately, for children at school and public libraries, lawmakers have mandated the use of Internet filtering software; failure to comply will result in the loss of federal funding.
Unless your child is an angel, you need to be an active participant in his or her Internet experience. Think of it as an excellent opportunity to communicate your values to your children. As the bishops say, “If parents don't care about Internet use, children will presume that they need not care, either.”
Here are this month's recommended sites, three of which have a family theme in keeping with the subject just discussed:
l The Daughters of St. Paul publish “My Friend,” a Catholic magazine for kids and their parents. The online version, at daughtersofstpaul.com/myfriend, contains games, activities, forums, saints, stories and a whole lot more stuff kids will enjoy.
l Catholic Kids Net (catholickidsnet.org) is a fun and exciting national club for children from 5 to 12. The site offers Catholic formation and fun in two ways. First, the “Kids for Jesus Mission Pack” challenges youngsters on aspects of their faith through theme-oriented puzzles, games and projects every month. Second, kids can form their own local team and become a “K4J” team leader. Corresponding online activities make this a fun stop.
l The Apostolate for Family Consecration hosts Catholic Familyland at familyland.org, another good source for family formation. You can find out how to subscribe to their 24-hour Catholic family TV network. The AFC offers many ways to assist families, parishes and other apostolates in the Church.
l Finally, the Catholic Yellow Pages (catholicyellowpages.net) is a new, free Internet service, created by Mark Endres of Madison, Wisc., for businesses that currently advertise in diocesan newspapers or church bulletins and consumers who prefer to patronize Catholic-owned businesses. Endres says his vision is to build a database of 1 million businesses that financially support the Church, providing Catholic families nationwide with an easy-to-use guide to Catholic-friendly businesses in their town, county and state.
Brother John Raymond wrote Catholics on the Internet: 2000-2001 and is Web master of www.monksofadoration.org.
------- EXCERPT: Don't let your children get lost in cyberspace ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brother John Raymond ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Safe Surfing for the Whole Family DATE: 02/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Feb. 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:Tips from the U.S. bishops’ document “Your Family and Cyberspace,” available at nccbuscc.org/comm/cyberspace.htm:
Take the time to become educated about the Internet — it's an investment in the safety and health of your children.
Select an Internet Service Provider (ISP) that provides the option of ISP-filtered access.
Put any computer with Internet access in a public area of the house — not in a bedroom or den.
Spend time on the Internet with your child, even if you are only an interested learner — you may be surprised by how much you enjoy it.
Encourage your children to think about what they find on the Internet and to ask you if, for instance, they find “Catholic” information that doesn't sound like what they've learned about the Church at home or in school.
Focus on the good sites and material available.
Guide your children in how to use e-mail responsibly. It's a fun and useful part of the Internet, if used properly.
Encourage your children to bring anything questionable to your attention, and praise them for bringing problems to you.
Caution your children never to give personal information — such as name, address or telephone number — to anyone on the Internet without your permission, and never to send their pictures.
Tell your children not to fill out questionnaires they find on the Internet without your permission.
Tell your children not to respond to any belligerent or suggestive contact or to anything that makes them uncomfortable — and to let you know if anything like that happens.
Do not permit face-to-face meetings with people they meet on the Internet, unless there's a good reason to do so and you or someone you trust is present.
Don't overreact if your children bring something inappropriate to your attention, or they will be intimidated and not do so again.
Don't miss the significance of hidden disks — usage of pornographic or hate-filled material tends to be secretive.
Remind your children that these rules apply whenever they use computers at locations outside the home, such as libraries.
Above all, communicate. The best protection is good relationships and a healthy Christian family life in which family members talk and pray together.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 02/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Feb. 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:All times Eastern
by DANIEL J. ENGLER
FEB., VARIOUS DATES
Enduring Faith
PBS, check local listings for time
This 90-minute documentary describes the Church's inspiring work of evangelizing African Americans, promoting vocations among them, and eliminating the culturally ingrained prejudice of some Catholics. The Diocese of Buffalo produced this program, which focuses on the Josephite Society and the Vatican's pro-brotherhood efforts, and the Catholic Communications Campaign helped fund it. Andre Braugher narrates.
SUNDAY, FEB. 11
Adventures From The Book of Virtues
PBS, 12:30 p.m.
Kids enjoy this animated series based on lively stories-with-a-moral from the best-selling anthologies compiled by William Bennett. “Self-Discipline,” this episode, features Plato telling modern youth Zach the timeless tale of a foolish king of old who neglected duty because his thoughts ran only to having fun.
SUNDAY, FEB. 11
NBA All-Star Game
NBC, 6 p.m.
As usual, the National Basketball Association's yearly East-West showcase game figures to be high scoring. The pre-game show starts at 6 p.m., with host Ahmad Rashad drawing analysis from P.J. Carlesimo, Kevin Johnson and Peter Vecsey. The game itself, from the MCI Center in Washington, D.C., starts at 6:30 p.m.
SUNDAY, FEB. 11
The American Wedding
A&E, 8 p.m.
It never hurts to start celebrating St. Valentine's Day a little early — so watch this new two-hour special from Lucky Duck Productions. The show waxes romantic as it explores the origins of present-day wedding customs. For example, the reason everyone in the wedding party dresses alike is to confuse any Lochinvars who might try to spirit away the bride or the groom. Also, you'll enjoy hearing spouses describe the one tradition, word or keepsake that made their wedding turn out just right. Joan Lunden hosts.
TUESDAY, FEB. 13
Secrets of the Pharaohs
PBS, check local listings for time
TV program schedulers never tire of airing shows about ancient Egypt's pharaohs, and that's because audiences always find them fascinating. This new three-part series is no exception. In “Tut's Family Curse,” tonight's Part I, archaeologists use DNA testing to investigate what caused the demise of King Tut's family — Egypt's 18th Dynasty. “Lost City of the Pyramids,” next Tuesday's Part II, examines the homes and tombs of the men who built the pyramids. “Unwrapping the Mummy,” the following Tuesday's Part III, studies the mummy of Asru, a noble lady who lived in Luxor.
SATURDAY, FEB. 17
Baking With Julia
PBS, noon. Check local listings
“You wanna taste somethin’ came di-rectly from Heaven?” a movie cowpoke once asked John Wayne when offering him a prospective cook's sample biscuits. That's the kind of compliment you'll receive after you watch Julia Child and other cooks, week after week, sharing their secrets of baking incredible breads, mouth-watering desserts and, yes, yummy biscuits too.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Daniel J. Engler ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 02/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Feb. 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn (1999)
Craftsmen who are more interested in doing excellent work than in making money are a rare breed, and the communities where they earn their living usually treat them with great respect. Noah Dearborn (Sidney Poitier) is a skilled small-town carpenter who keeps working several decades past retirement age. “What good is wanting to do something without going ahead and doing it?” he says.
An ambitious land developer (George Newbern) has plans to turn Noah's small farm into a shopping mall. When his generous offer for the property is refused, the entrepreneur attempts to have the humble craftsman declared senile so he can grab the land. The psychologist (Mary-Louise Parker) assigned to investigate the case is a close friend of the developer, but slowly she begins to understand the carpenter's ways and the high regard in which he is held by his neighbors. This TV movie dramatizes the virtues of hard work and simplicity with freshness and feeling.
The Seventh Seal (1957)
In times of great social turmoil or natural catastrophe, some people begin to believe they're living in the end times. Orthodox beliefs get set aside, and superstitions and the exploitation of religious fears blossom. The Seventh Seal, one of the Vatican's top 45 films, dramatizes the power of these ideas during the Middle Ages with vivid, symbolic imagery and a series of theological speculations rarely found in the commercial cinema.
A cerebral knight (Max von Sydow) and his cynical squire (Gunnar Bjornstrand) are crusaders returning from the Holy Land, exhausted physically and spiritually. Writer-director Ingmar Bergman (Wild Strawberries) contrasts their loss of faith with the simpler, more natural beliefs of a juggler (Nils Poppe) and his wife (Bibi Andersson). They all join forces with a band of traveling players and come into conflict with the Slaves of Sin, a group of heretical flagellants led by the knight's former theology teacher, who's manipulating the apocalyptic fears of the peasant populace.
The Big Parade (1925)
A new generation is rediscovering the beauty of silent movies, marveling at the way powerful drama can be expressed through physical gestures, facial expressions and epic tableaux alone. The Big Parade is reported to be the highest-grossing silent film of all time. Director King Vidor (The Crowd) creates a vigorous, emotionally involving, anti-war movie by combining stomach-churning, panoramic battle scenes with intimate, personal stories. The violence and horror of World War I trench warfare is realistically contrasted with the romanticized notions of battle on the home front.
Jim Apperson (John Gilbert) is persuaded by his flighty girlfriend, Justyn (Claire Adams), and domineering father (Hobart Bosworth) to enlist in the army. Then Justyn dumps him while he's away. Jim suffers terribly in combat but meets a sweet-tempered Frenchwoman (Renee Adoree) who promises to stick by him. The scene where he takes leave of her to return to the front is one of the most famous tearful farewells in movie history.
— John Prizer
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Catholic Law School Debate DATE: 02/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Feb. 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:The Columbus School of Law at The Catholic University of America has been without a permanent dean since the summer of 1998, when Richard Dobranski decided to leave the post to become founding dean of Ave Maria School of Law in Ann Arbor, Mich.
After a nationwide search for Dobranski's replacement proved inconclusive last year, some wondered if members of the search committee had actively blocked candidates who would have promoted the school's Catholic identity.
As one of Catholic University's professors of law, Marshall Breger, who is Jewish, told the Register: “What we have in the law school today is that some faculty members feel threatened by religion and druthers — that Catholic not be a religious law school.”
Notre Dame Law School professor Gerard Bradley echoed Breger's sentiment, saying he fears that without “strong leadership committed to the mission of the [Columbus School of Law], it would become permanently secular.”
Why? Because, according to Bradley, the law school's faculty “is famously opposed to the Catholic mission of the place.”
In the following interview, Catholic University President Father David O'Connell — the final arbiter in dean searches — addresses concerns about the direction of his law school in general, and the state of its dean search in particular.
McGuire: Why was last year's search for a dean of the clusive?
Father O'Connell: The Catholic University of America [CUA] has been involved in a search for a dean of its Columbus School of Law for over a year. The first year's search was unsuccessfully concluded and the search was reopened. Although some people have given the impression that this is unusual, my professional experience has been that initial searches for senior administrators are often inconclusive and reopened or extended.
Here at CUA, I was presented by the search committee with good candidates last year. With all due respect to the fine credentials of the group, I was not convinced at the time that CUA should move forward with an appointment from that group. I wanted a broader pool of candidates with more diversified backgrounds, professionals whom I was convinced could lead this particular academic institution and this particular faculty to the next level of academic excellence. That was my primary consideration. For me, evidence of an understanding of and commitment to the Catholic identity and mission of the Columbus School of Law within The Catholic University of America was also and continues to be a given. I will not be satisfied until I find an individual who demonstrates all of these characteristics to me. The appointment of the best possible academic deans is a responsibility I take very seriously.
Is it possible for a Catholic law school to pursue top-tier status in today's legal culture while maintaining its Catholic identity?
It is certainly possible –– in fact, it should be part of a concerted internal effort — that a Catholic law school pursue top-tier status within the contemporary legal education community in our country while, at the same time, affirming its Catholic identity. There is a nottoo-subtle presumption in the question that religious identity and scholarly professional reputation need to be at odds. I do not accept that presumption — in fact, I deny it. If a Catholic law school does not strive to excel in the professional legal education it imparts, it should close its doors. On the other hand, if scholarly reputation requires the abdication of religious principles and values, Catholic institutions should seriously question their involvement in legal education.
What is the point of a Catholic law school? In other words, why should one decide to attend a Catholic law school rather than a secular one?
A Catholic law school –– like a Catholic university — seeks to integrate reason and faith in the presentation of its curriculum, precisely because it is Catholic. In other words, the education that is provided at a Catholic law school should always attempt to raise the deeper questions, the “value” questions, the “meaning” questions, the “human” questions as they relate to the law and its practice within contemporary society.
There is, apart from within the Church itself, no “Catholic law” but there is — can be, should be — a “Catholic approach” to law that is fostered and promoted within a Catholic law school.
One should be very clear on this point: A Catholic law school is not a seminary and its clients are not priests in training. At the same time, however, they are preparing to be ministers in the broadest sense of the term: ministers and servants of justice. At a Catholic law school, justice and truth are rooted in God and God's revelation at work and effective within the human community. Students who seek to be in touch with that aspect of human community experience should be able to find that “unique” approach to the law in a Catholic law school.
Is the purpose of a Catholic law school to train good lawyers, or good Catholic lawyers? If the latter, what would this mean?
Not every student who attends a Catholic law school is, in fact, Catholic. Hence, the primary purpose of a Catholic law school is to offer an excellent legal education to its students so that they can be well prepared to take their place among their peers. Again, I think the difference evident in a Catholic law school is one of “approach.”
Have any members of the law school faculty communicated to you, either directly or indirectly, that they feel threatened by the prospect of a dean who would make a priority of strengthening the law school's religious identity? How would you respond to such a fear? Would you take such a concern into consideration in naming a dean? How so?
Catholic academic institutions –– some more than others –– have their fair share of faculty members who, for whatever reason, question what it means for an educator and for education to be labeled “Catholic.” I do not believe that is, in itself, necessarily bad; in fact, such questions can serve to push the Catholic institution to define itself better and its purpose and distinctiveness more clearly.
A Catholic law school is no exception. Fear usually enters the picture when there is ignorance or misunderstanding. Faculty who present themselves for appointment at a Catholic law school should use every means at their disposal to understand the context and obligations to which they are making a commitment prior to appointment. Institutions should be very careful to make these clear to faculty candidates.
It seems hardly reasonable for an individual to seek to join an institution whose very purpose and mission run counter to his or her personal or professional convictions, while hoping to make a positive contribution there.
Pope John Paul II states in Ex Corde Ecclesiae that “If need be, a Catholic University must have the courage to speak uncomfortable truths which do not please public opinion, but which are necessary to safeguard the authentic good of society.” Would you expect the next dean of Columbus School of Law to be willing to speak uncomfortable truths and encourage other faculty in doing the same? Please cite examples.
As far as I am concerned, the president of a Catholic university with the responsibility of appointing its academic deans, must take the fundamental Catholic character, mission and purpose of the institution into consideration when making such appointments. That is part of his or her institutional responsibility. To do otherwise would be to place the institution's Catholic character, mission and purpose at risk. No institution should tolerate that in a president or a dean.
It has been my own experience as president that on any given day, a percentage of the faculty supports you while another percentage questions your judgment. Administration is not or should not be a popularity contest.
Know your institution and its mission. Be as informed as you can be about the decisions you are asked to make. Pray for guidance. Seek advice. Do the right thing to the best of your ability and make your decision. Be prepared for disagreement and criticism but do not let it overcome you. That is how I approach my administrative responsibilities and that is what I would ask in any dean that I would appoint.
------- EXCERPT: CUA president answers concerns about dean search ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian McGuire ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 02/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Feb. 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:Chicago Schools Share the Wealth
The new plan calls for a “tuition covenant.” Parishes are asked to consider billing parents for the actual cost of educating their children, rather than the artificially low tuition parents pay today. With the additional revenues, parishes would create tuition assistance funds for families who find it hard to scrape up the cash. Parents in need would be able to apply for the same subsidy they used to receive, or even a higher one; wealthier parents, however, would pay full price.
The new plan also includes a yearlong advertising blitz for the schools.
The “tuition covenant” would especially benefit the poorest schools, where few parents are able to pay full price. Catholic school systems in Cleveland, Cincinnati and Washington, D.C., already use this plan, reported the Sun-Times.
At least two schools in Chicago are closing this year and the archdiocese needed to find a new plan because it has to slash its subsidy to schools next year due to severe financial pressures.
Play Canceled for Sexual Message
When the college told students that “The Vagina Monologues” could not be performed on campus, students and faculty who disagreed with the decsion charged that the school was censoring its students and alienating potential professors.
However, many students, parents and alumnae objected to the play's depiction of illicit sexual acts, including sexual contact between an adult woman and an underage girl. Proceeds from the play would have benefited campus anti-rape groups, but the administration suggested that students find other ways to fight rape.
Student Group Defunded Over Homosexual Stance
The college's Campus Christian Community is run jointly by Lutherans, Presbyterians, Episcopalians and United Methodists. But last month, the Methodist college ministries board began to cut its ties to the group, announcing that it would start its own campus ministry at Mary Washington and cut off funding for the larger group. It also took its building back from the Campus Christian Community.
The group's previous pastor had performed a homosexual union ceremony and placed a basketful of condoms in the group's offices. The new pastor removed the basket and a certificate from a pro-homosexual Lutheran group, but many Methodists still felt the group was engaged in homosexual activism.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Family Matters DATE: 02/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Feb. 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:Golfing on Mt. Tabor
Q I try to stay out of it when my friends gossip about their husbands, but I've slipped sometimes. I'm married to a great guy — but, sure, he has his flaws. What do I do when my friends start getting negative?
A George: Your question's easy to answer: Just tell them how great your husband is! But, seriously, it seems like this is a question for you to handle, Lisette.
Lisette: Thanks, George. I'll try, but it's an area where I fall too.
What has helped me the most is something I learned from Alice von Hildebrand's book By Love Refined, Letters to a Young Bride.
In one letter, von Hildebrand tells her niece about having a “Tabor Vision” of our husbands. Mount Tabor is where Jesus was trans-figured in front of his disciples. He was dazzling, splendid, amazing.
Von Hildebrand compares this to marriage. She advises her niece to keep a “Tabor Vision” of her husband, to see him the way she did when she first fell in love — to see his great and wonderful qualities and to remember the remarkable moments with him.
We all know that true love isn't blind. We see our spouse's faults very clearly, sometimes in fine-tuned detail. Overlooking flaws and keeping a Tabor Vision sounds good on paper, but it's easier to nag and blame everything that goes wrong on our husbands.
I remember one time I told George I'd like to spend an afternoon at the beach as a family. He was getting out of work early on Friday, and I thought it would be fun. George agreed, but said he had a meeting that day and didn't know what time he would be getting out of work. He said he'd call.
To my dismay, he didn't call until 4:30 p.m. On the phone I could hear the crackling of wind in the background. You know, the sound you hear when your husband calls you from the golf course. I couldn't believe he was playing golf! What was George thinking? Why did he say Yes when he really meant No? I hung up in anger.
A few minutes later a girlfriend called and I began telling her all about George. Beware when women get together and get into “top-this” stories about their husbands. Husband bashing, as I refer to this type of gossip, was well under way. What happened to the Tabor Vision?
There are two things that help me in situations like these. I call them “honor” and “let it go.” First of all, I try to honor George in his presence and in his absence. I could have honored him on the day of the golf incident by staying out of that “can you believe what he did” conversation.
The second thing I'm working on is “letting it go" — not turning a problem into a bigger deal than it is. If only I had “let it go” that day, and given George a chance to explain or ask forgiveness (which he did later that evening). Instead I got resentful, which didn't resolve anything.
So, like you, I'm trying to stay away from husband bashing. I'm always happier when I keep a Tabor Vision instead.
George and Lisette de los Reyes host “The Two Shall Be One” on EWTN.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: George and Lisette de los Reyes ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Facts of Life DATE: 02/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Feb. 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:Abortion activists have been trying to portray George W. Bush as outside the mainstream. But the mainstream has been changing. Americans increasingly identify themselves as pro-life.
Sept 1995
pro-choice 56%
pro-life 33%
Oct. 2000
pro-choice 47%
pro-life 45%
Source: Gallup Poll cited by salon.com, Jan 26.
------- EXCERPT: U.S. BECOMING PRO-LIFE ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Where to Go After the Pill DATE: 02/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Feb. 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:Editor's note: Doctor Joseph Tham has been collecting stories from couples who use natural family planning. He is editing them for a book that narrates couples’ experiences with using the method and the effects it has on their marriages.
One California couple's testimony is excerpted below, as told by the wife. They have been married eight years; he's a dairy farmer, while she's a part-time registered nurse. Names have been changed to preserve the couple's privacy.
When we were engaged, we thought it would be a wise decision to postpone pregnancy when we were married. We did hear of natural family planning from an engaged couple on our Engaged Encounter Weekend. But we knew of no one who actually practiced it.
I had irregular cycles and, being a registered nurse, doubted the effectiveness of the method. So, as a couple, we decided to use one of the leading forms of birth control, the pill. It appeared to be less complicated.
We were seven months married when we decided it was time to start our family. To our surprise, we were unable to conceive. After being on the pill a little over a year and going off it, I had no cycles.
The medical way to get my body to ovu-late was to take low-dose fertility drugs. (With my faith and information I have now, I would have chosen a different route to achieve ovulation.) After taking the fertility drug, we did conceive.
Our first child Mary was born, and she was and is a joy. I had intentions of returning to work part time, but Mary refused to suck from a bottle.
At this point in our lives, we were open to hearing more about natural family planning. We attended one class. We learned about natural family planning and ecological breast-feeding. We decided that I should keep breast-feeding Mary, work minimal hours and leave our fertility to God.
We conceived again at 11 months postpartum. This happy pregnancy was cut short. At 28 weeks, I went into preterm labor; bed rest followed, and a set of twins was delivered at 34 weeks.
Jenny and Martha were a challenge to our faith. They were small and had to learn to nurse. Jenny was born with a severe physical disability to both lower limbs.
With a lot of prayer and support, we made it through some tough times. We were very busy and Jenny needed surgery, so we did not want another child. We dug out The Art of Natural Family Planning (see information box) and read it again. We were sure the Church's teaching against contraception was right, and it was God's will.
My experience with interpreting the signs of fertility was minimal. We conceived our fourth child. We were upset with ourselves, with God and with natural family planning. Comments from family and friends were many and hurtful. My main question was, “How could God let us conceive when we were trying to do his will?”
Well, grace and peace did come. The tears dried up, and the answer to the question came: It was God's will, not ours. All this time, we were praying for our will, assuming it would be God's. We did not realize that God does have total control over all aspects of our lives, including our fertility if we allow him, and that his will may not be the same as ours.
Our third pregnancy was good. Labor was difficult. To our surprise, we had a healthy baby boy born on the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe. He was such a calm and easygoing baby. Jenny learned to walk with her prosthetics that same month. Two great blessings.
Life was even busier. I breast-fed Andrew, but my cycles did eventually return. I also found out I had stage-two cervical dysplasia (abnormal cell growth probable cancer in 5 to 10 years). I now realize that those irregular cycles I had before were due to a nutritional imbalance which was aggravated by the pill, as it depletes the body of certain vitamins. My body needed time to heal physically and mentally.
Tom was doubtful of natural family planning and our ability to abstain. There was a lot of crying and praying. We found it very difficult at this time to allow God's control over our fertility.
Through much prayer, and support from letters from Couple to Couple League members, we decided to try natural family planning again.
This time it was different. We asked the Holy Spirit for wisdom to know the signs God gave my body for the fertile and infertile times, and self-control to abstain as a couple in the fertile time. With God's grace, we succeeded.
We have four beautiful children, and they are blessings from God. At this moment, we are postponing pregnancy, but we know we are doing God's will as we are praying and are open to more children.
We cannot separate making love and making babies. This is God's natural design. We realize that God does have control over our lives, even our fertility, when we allow him ... and that's a good thing.
As a couple, we have grown together physically. We do not take each other for granted, and we have mutual respect for each other. We can talk about anything. We are not bored with each other physically or mentally.
Thus, our lovemaking is not taken for granted either — each time is special, a total giving of each other, and there is spontaneity. This is the time we learn more about each other's thoughts. We have learned that just holding each other and talking is intimacy, and very rewarding.
It is not easy to have self-control sometimes, but this is when we pray to the Holy Spirit for strength. We feel our love for each other is stronger now than on our wedding day.
We have also grown together spiritually. Our faith in God and his Church has grown enormously. We now find time to pray together as a couple and a family.
The greatest blessing we feel is knowing that we continue to glorify God even when we make love to each other, and this brings great peace.
Joseph Tham, is a member of the Legionaries of Christ.
------- EXCERPT: One Couple's Experience with Natural Family Planning ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Tham ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Gospel of Life DATE: 02/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Feb. 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:“In the case of baptized people, the family, called together by word and sacrament as the Church of the home, is both teacher and mother, the same as the worldwide Church.”
— On the Christian Family, No. 38
------- EXCERPT: CHURCH OF THE HOME ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: LIFE NOTES DATE: 02/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Feb. 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:Billings Method Beats IUDs
WORLD ORGANIZATION OVULATION METHOD BILLINGS (WOOMB) Jan. 29 — A Chinese trial demonstrated the effectiveness of the Billings Ovulation Method — a method of natural fertility regulation which can be used to achieve or avoid pregnancy.
The study compared the effectiveness of the intrauterine device against that of the Billings Method. It involved 1,654 women aged 24-35, with 992 using Billings and 662 using IUDs. Results after one year showed that in the Billings group five women became pregnant due to faulty application of the method, the pregnancy rate being 0.5%, while in the IUD group there were 12 pregnancies (2%).
Moreover, in the IUD group, there were 15 expulsions of the device and 38 removals due to severe pain and bleeding caused by the IUD, whereas no such complications exist with the Billings Method.
Anti-Life Protest Backfires
The poster showed a tiny 6 to 8 week-old embryo under the Seuss quote: “A person's a person, no matter how small.”
The Citizen reported that Audrey Geisel, widow of Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, is upset that the quote is being used and her lawyer is demanding that it be removed.
A spokesman for Action Life, the pro-life group that designed the poster for the Archdiocese of Ottawa, told LifeSite Daily News they were pleased that the additional publicity helped spread the pro-life message.
Judge Allows KMart Suit
AMERICAN CENTER FOR LAW AND JUSTICE, Jan. 25 — U.S. District Court Judge Herman Weber rejected the argument of KMart in their bid to quash a lawsuit filed by a pro-life pharmacist in Hamilton, Ohio, reported the American Center for Law and Justice.
In 1996 K-Mart fired pharmacist Karen Brauer after she refused to dispense an abortifacient birth control pill called Micronor. Micronor, a progestin-only birth control pill, works in a significant number of cases by preventing the implantation of a fertilized egg, ending a human life that has already begun.
Judge Weber said the state conscience statute “is obviously intended to allow an individual who morally or ethically opposes abortion ... to follow the dictates of her conscience and refuse to participate in such procedures.”
UK Tories Open to Life
BBC NEWS, Jan. 24 — The Conservative Party in England has demonstrated openness to pro-life initiatives, causing consternation among abortion supporters, reported BBC News.
The shadow health secretary Liam Fox is recorded in a Christian Fellowship prayerbook as asking party members “to pray that there would be a huge restriction if not abolition of our pro-abortion laws,” reported the BBC.
Fox confirmed the comment and suggested that a Conservative government would reverse the decision to make the abortifacient “morning-after” pill available over the counter from pharmacists.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Bush's Church-State Plan: What Strings Are Attached? DATE: 02/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Feb.18-24,2001 ----- BODY:CLEVELAND — President Bush has unveiled a new plan to give money to religious charities, but even some of the groups that would benefit aren't willing to sign on.
Robert Sandham, the director of ministry programs at the Cleveland's Evangelical Protestant program called City Mission, said that the mission has never taken government money in its 90 years. “Somewhere, someplace, there is a string attached to government money,” he declared. “That string always gets pulled at the point when you are proclaiming the Gospel of Christ.”
City Mission runs programs from summer camps to drug recovery, job training and membership in a church, which Sandford called “a total reorientation of a man's life.”
The program is just the kind of intensive, personal organization that Bush's plan is designed to help. And one of the purposes of his proposal is to ensure that City Mission would not have to give up its emphasis on the Gospel in order to get federal funds for its shelters and educational programs.
But Sandford said, “God has faithfully supplied all the needs of this ministry for ninety years through private-sector donations.”
Charles Ritchie disagrees. Ritchie is the director of Operation Blessing, a Fayetteville, N.C.-based group that cares for the homeless and operates a crisis pregnancy center. Operation Blessing received funds from the Housing and Urban Development department, but that money was yanked two years ago.
The department was concerned that Operation Blessing's logo includes the name “Jesus,” that the program asks its clients questions about their spiritual lives, and that its workers prayed with their clients.
Ritchie said the program never had a “religious requirement,” but even its limited mixture of the corporal and spiritual works of mercy were too much for HUD.
If Bush's plan would allow the program to receive funding without making any changes, “We'd be delighted to take advantage of it,” he said.
Bush's newly-created Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives has come under fire from all sides, but also has built up a bipartisan roster of supporters. The office's head, University of Pennsylvania professor John J. DiIulio, is a Democrat who, at one event, rushed past President Bush to embrace Democratic vice-presidential candidate Sen. Joe Lieberman.
DiIulio, a Catholic, will work with the Republican former mayor of Indianapolis Steven Goldsmith, who is Jewish. Their appointments were seen by some as a way to deflect concerns that Bush's plan would discriminate in favor of Protestants.
Goldsmith acknowledged that fears of government restrictions on religion were “a reasonable anxiety,” but thought that Bush's and the office's “leadership” could prevent that. Bush's proposal has few specifics yet, but Goldsmith pointed to other areas where the federal government funds non-religious programs at religious institutions, such as universities. “The goal here is to make resources available to faith-based organizations, but not to usurp their vision or mission. It's an issue of constant vigilance,” he said.
Goldsmith added that the federal office has drawn the most attention, but the president's proposal to allow taxpayers who do not itemize their deductions to deduct their charitable contributions would have at least an equally large effect.
He also suggested that “allowing a person in need to take a voucher for drug counseling” or other social services might be one way to get around worries of government entanglement in religion. The control of federal dollars would remain with the aid recipient rather than with a religious charity.
The Texas program that Bush modeled his plan on has come under fire, and one Christian job training program now faces a lawsuit.
Amber Khan, a spokeswoman for the Interfaith Alliance, said that her organization feared that Bush's plan would let governments meddle in the “inner workings of houses of worship.”
She also said that the doling out of federal money may be influenced by “political abuse” and “stereotypes about religion,” and that minority religions would not be able to compete equally for grants.
She dismissed Goldsmith's analogy to religious universities. “The more accurate analogy is Catholic Charities,” she said, making a common comparison. Whereas Catholic Charities is “religiously motivated” but, in Khan's words, “does not integrate Catholicism” into its programs, under Bush's plan no such segregation would be necessary.
Terri Schroeder, a legislative analyst for the American Civil Liberties Union, raised further objections: “Religious organizations would potentially be able to discriminate in hiring,” she said. “Currently, there is an exception” to some civil-rights protections for religious institutions. Neither City Mission nor Operation Blessing hire non-Christians. Schroeder also worried that “licensing and training requirements would be removed or limited.”
Further, “We're talking about direct aid to churches,” she said. “That has never been found constitutional in any context.”
Under Little Pressure
According to one study, Operation Blessing's experience with HUD is a rarity.
Stephen Monsma, professor of political science at Pepperdine University, surveyed faith-based child care and family organizations seven years ago and found that even then, very few of the organizations had been questioned by the government, let alone pressured to change their religious policies.
Monsma used a “religious practices scale” to measure how much of an organization's work is colored by religion. One-third of the groups that received high rankings of religious activity said they had been questioned about their religious practices or pressured by government officials.
The most controversial features, he found, were requirements of weekly religious services. Monsma found that groups used “a wild variety” of strategies to respond to questions. One used euphemisms like “values training” to sugarcoat the religious component. Another designed a system of rewards for attending religious services, rather than making them mandatory.
And one Baptist group simply issued an ultimatum: If you make us change, we will refuse any further funding. In all of these cases, the government “backed off,” Monsma said.
“What surprised me was that there were so few pressures from government officials.”
EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Academic Earthquake Rocks San Francisco DATE: 02/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Feb.18-24,2001 ----- BODY:SAN FRANCISCO — John Galten is facing his 60th birthday — and sudden unemployment.
During a 10-minute conversation Jan. 19 with Dr. Stanley Nel, the Dean of Arts and Sciences at the University of San Francisco, Galten's 25-year career at the university's prestigious St. Ignatius Institute, the last five as its director, ended with his unceremonious firing.
A few minutes later, John Hamlon, the institute's associate director, was also given his pink slip. It was a Friday, and the pair was told to clear their offices by the next Monday.
The summary firings of the popular administrators have stoked a smoldering historical feud between the institute — a small academic enclave catering to about 150 students — and the faculty of the larger Jesuit university of more than 2,000 where it is located.
Six of the institute's core faculty members immediately sent a letter to the university's new president, Jesuit Father Stephen Privett, declaring their intention to resign in protest from their posts at the St. Ignatius Institute after the spring session (they will retain their tenured professorships at the university itself).
The Friends of St. Ignatius Institute, an independent organization, set up a Web site, www.friend-sofsii.com, to protest the firings. Dozens of students, alumni and benefactors of the program have charged this is part of an “academic putsch” intended to stifle the institute's 25-year-old voice, advocating obedience to the teaching authority of the magisterium of the Church.
The institute's supporters have also been quick to point to its high accomplishments: Over the years, its small proportion of students took 30% of the University Scholar Awards.
Father Privett, barely five months in office as president, e-mailed his explanation to the university community the day of the firings. He appreciated Galten and Hamlon's service, he said, but “academic and fiscal challenges” demand “increased coordination and consolidation of University programs and the strategic concentration of limited resources.”
He told the Register Feb. 12 that the University projected “about $100,000 in savings” from the action.
Father Privett said he had appointed professor Paul Murphy, director of the main campus's Catholic Studies Certificate Program, as the institute's new director to “draw the [St. Ignatius Institute] and Catholic Studies into a more synergistic [relationship] that enriches and strengthens both programs.”
Core Faculty's View
Five of the core faculty who are resigning in protest — Professors Tom Cavanaugh, Raymond Dennehy, Erasmo Leiva, Kim Summerhays and Michael Torre — argued in a Jan. 29 open letter to Father Privett that the proposed melding of the St. Ignatius Institute's highly respected curriculum, based largely on the Great Books of Western Christian civilization, with the campus's 2-year-old Catholic Studies program was “administrative and academic recklessness.”
In their 10-page letter, the five professors dismissed Father Privett's financial explanations as “not believable.” Rather, they said, the firings were the latest manifestation of the anti-institute animosity of “a group of your fellow Jesuits, especially some members of the Theology Department.”
The St. Ignatius Institute's core faculty had always argued for “loyal assent” to the pope's teachings, the five professors added, while their opposition had argued in favor of “loyal dissent” — believing it was acceptable to publicly oppose Church teaching on faith and morals.
This bitter feud, the core faculty said, dated from the institute's founding in 1976 by Jesuit Father Joseph Fessio. But the old wounds had recently begun to heal, the faculty said. Then the firings occurred, without prior consultation with the SII Advisory Board.
Father Privett's secretary initially referred press inquiries to James Wiser, the university's vice president of academic affairs and provost.
“The institute here at the University of San Francisco has historically been one whose programs have raised questions among some people,” Wiser told the Register. “There are those at the institute who believe they are representing a certain orthodoxy within the Catholic Church, and those who believe they are not being generous enough and inclusive enough of the broad-based understanding of the Catholic faith.”
Regarding allegations that the firings were “abrupt and mean-spirited,” Wiser replied, “That's not true.” Galten and Hamlon were given adequate severance packages, said Wiser, and help looking for alternative employment.
Galten, however, told the Register his firing was abrupt. He was offered the opportunity to apply for a lesser administrative position at the institute this summer, he said, but had the distinct impression the post was already filled.
Asked if the long-standing philosophical dispute between the St. Ignatius Institute and its detractors at the university had anything to do with the recent firings, Wiser replied, “Well, I wouldn't focus on that aspect of it.” He insisted that the changes were being made to enhance the institute. Its Great Books program would be untouched, he said, and other programs like the foreign studies options would be expanded.
Students, alumni and benefactors remain unconvinced. Jason Kenney, former student of the institute and a Canadian member of parliament, called Father Privett's explanation “disingenuous.”
Kenney, a Catholic convert, said he arrived at St. Ignatius Institute in 1987 as a “non-Catholic political liberal” who was nonetheless “shocked by the degree of secularization” of the larger university. He was most bothered by the university's willingness to direct resources to a pro-abortion feminist group on campus.
“It was a gross violation of an allegedly Catholic university to …furnish resources and give official sanction to organizations actively fulminating against a central teaching of the Church … and promoting the killing of unborn children,” said Kenney.
Without the institute's support, Kenney challenged the university in a public battle, waged in the local media, that “got quite vicious with the Jesuits calling me a fascist trying to effect a coup d'etat on campus,” he said.
Father Privett told the Register he was unaware of Kenney's case. Asked about tensions at the university over the Church's teaching on abortion and contraception, he said, “I think we probably have all points on the spectrum represented here. We're a university.”
Older alumni recount earlier examples of the philosophical conflict. Elizabeth Nelson, who attended the St. Ignatius Institute in its first year in 1976, wrote to Father Privett describing how, as a Protestant living for the first time in a Catholic environment, she had been “impressed by [the University of San Francisco's] efforts to welcome and create community with students and faculty of diverse cultures and faiths,” but had noticed that tolerance did not extend to the institute's Catholic commitment.
Given that “history of intellectual and spiritual tension … it is hard to believe that you would expect vague statements about ‘strategic concentration of our limited resources’ to be accepted at face value,” Nelson wrote.
Shocked Students
Freshman St. Ignatius Institute student Eduardo del Rio told the Register that he was “still recovering” from the shock of the staff changes. Del Rio said Galten was trying to help him decide his major and to make arrangements for him to take film classes at San Francisco State University. “He was the easiest person to talk to,” the student said.
But when del Rio showed up on the day of the firings for a follow-up meeting, Galten was already in the meeting that resulted in his dismissal.
“I have considered transferring,” said del Rio. “Right now the only emotion that comes out is fury.”
Off-campus criticism is also continuing. Anthony J. Ryan, president of the board of directors at Trinity Grammar and Prep in Napa Valley, Calif., said his school would “no longer recommend USF to our future graduates.”
Many benefactors have declared they will no longer donate. Ronald G.
Maxson, former professor of military science at the university, signed his letter of protest as a father of four graduates of the program and “grandfather of 22 other potential graduates and adviser to innumerable candidates.”
Father Privett's View
Father Privett, who initially declined to comment to the Register or other media outlets, issued a letter of response Feb. 6 in a question-and-answer format. Answering questions he posed to himself, Father Privett defended his “decisive action” to strengthen the institute, reiterated that the institute would retain its existing character, and criticized the dissenting core faculty, saying that they “lack the academic and ecclesiastical warrant” for their “self-appointed role as the guardians of authentic Catholic theology.”
The core faculty members responded with a second, 12-page letter in which they again charged that the firings were motivated by philosophical differences rather than administrative concerns. The letter also reported that the SII Advisory Board had heard testimony that Father Privett had “harbored an animus against the Institute for 20 years.” Specifically, it was alleged that when Father Privett served as principal of Bellarmine College Preparatory, it was the only high school in California where the St. Ignatius Institute was not welcome to advertise.
In an interview with the Register, Father Privett specifically denied this allegation.
He said he expected a negative reaction to the dismissal of the institute's directors, but “I didn't think it would be this intense.”
In a Feb. 9 editorial, The Wall Street Journal said that the dismissals of Galten and Hamlon appear to violate the spirit of “diversity” that contemporary universities promote as a cardinal virtue. “Time will tell whether the Institute survives and prospers, as the university promises,” the newspaper wrote, “or whether the change at the top signals the crippling of a program whose existence added real diversity to what USF offered.”
Asked about the future of the St. Ignatius Institute, Father Privett said, “We have highly qualified professionals to replace [the resigning faculty]. That's not a problem. We already have people lined up who are eminently qualified to teach the program.”
Celeste McGovern writes from Portland, Oregon.
----- EXCERPT: Dispute pits president against supporters of St. Ignatius Institute ----- EXTENDED BODY: Celeste Mcgovern ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Tired of 'Homosexual Education,' Families Find a Way to Opt Out DATE: 02/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Feb.18-24,2001 ----- BODY:
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — These horror stories weren't supposed to happen. Parents were supposed to be warned of sensitive sexual discussions at school and given the opportunity to “opt-out.”
When an openly pro-homosexual curriculum was introduced without parental consent in her children's school, and a teacher of kindergarten through sixth grade began telling students that “prostitutes were oppressed at one time,” Donna Pasquerosa decided that she had had enough. Her children now attend a Catholic school near Boston.
Pasquerosa told the Register that one of the homosexuality classes included a first-grade teacher reading a book intended to spark discussion of homosexuality — a curricular move supported by the superintendent and principal.
“When one of the children asked [the teacher] if he had a ‘partner,’” Pasquerosa recalled, he answered that he didn't but added “it would be a same-sex partner” if he did. At this point one little boy declared, “I'm gay too; I don't like girls.”
A coalition of California activists want to give parents a way to exercise their legal right to opt-out of such instruction.
The primary motivation for the “optout” program is a series of California “hate violence” educational guidelines that mandate a pro-homosexuality curriculum, similar to those in Massachusetts, under the banner of “tolerance.” And according to published reports, hundreds of parents have already expressed interest.
Pro-homosexuality initiatives have been going on in Los Angeles schools for years, according to one Catholic high school administrator there who asked not be named.
“The first shot across the bow was ‘Project 10’ at a [Hollywood-area] high school,” he told the Register. Project 10, an openly pro-homosexual group, soon set up shop at a number of other schools, and soon schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District were having “gay proms,” the administrator explained.
Los Angeles schools spokesmen would not return calls about such allegations. Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute, cited other pro-homosexual programs in California schools. Long before new “hate violence” guidelines passed, he said, a group called “Fringe Benefits” has been coming to schools in Los Angeles and Orange County “to put on a presentation that portrays homosexuality as ‘normal.’”
Added Dacus, “The group asked the students ‘how to influence their peers in order to create a positive view of homosexuality.’”
“Fringe Benefits” was endorsed by the National Education Association, said Dacus, who added that he had been told by a member of the Los Angeles school board that the group had performed in over 100 schools.
Often, controversial presentations are conducted because parents fail to object, Dacus said. In some instances, “we have had teachers calling rather than parents.”
That's because in many cases parents were given no notice of the prohomosexuality lobbying, Dacus claimed, despite the fact that section 51554a of the California Education Code requires parental notification before a student can receive instruction on “sexually transmitted diseases, AIDS, human sexuality or family life that is delivered by an outside organization.”
The Opt-Out Form
Because of their shared concerns over the circumvention of parental consent, “five groups got together and decided to put together the ‘opt out’ form,” said Rich Ackerman, an attorney with the Escondido, Calif.-based United States Justice Foundation.
The opt-out initiative solves the problem of the lack of notification for an upcoming pro-homosexuality discussion by having parents submit a form to their child's school at the beginning of the academic year.
It states that without receiving the express written consent of the parent, neither teachers nor others are to “teach, instruct, advise, council, discuss, test, question, examine, survey or in any way provide data, information or images to my child” on a range of issues, including “sex education, sexual identity, sexual orientation, sexual preference, homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality, trans-gender or transsexual issues, or any alternative to monogamous heterosexual marriage.”
While Ackerman acknowledged that the California coalition is “testing uncharted waters” with the optout form, both he and Dacus are confident that it will be effective.
Dacus said that once parents have taken the time to read and sign the form and submit it to their children's schools, they would remain well informed about the issue. “If [the schools] ignore it,” he predicts, “we will be contacted by a parent and take immediate legal action.”
Pacific Justice Institute and the other coalition members will provide free opt-out forms to interested parents. Dacus said that the coalition would also like to get in touch with any parents whose children were forced to see “Fringe Benefits” or other pro-homosexuality presentations or material without parental notification and consent. The Pacific Justice Institute will provide free legal representation to such families, he added.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that “Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that ‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.’ … Under no circumstances can they be approved” (No. 2357).
It adds: “The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided” (No. 2358).
Andrew Walther writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Andrew Walther ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Holy Land Christians Are Wary After Israeli Election DATE: 02/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Feb.18-24,2001 ----- BODY:
JERUSALEM — Christians, like others in the Holy Land, are waiting to see what kind of Israeli leader Ariel Sharon will turn out to be.
Sharon, who on Feb. 6 won a landslide victory against incumbent Ehud Barak in the race for prime minister, is a veteran right-wing politician and a former general. Nicknamed “the bulldozer,” he is feared by many in the Arab world due to his strong-arm approach to foreign affairs.
In the early 1980s, Sharon led the Israeli Army's entry into Lebanon. Though he was successful in forcing out the Palestinian Liberation Organization, which had been attacking Israel's northern communities, an Israeli commission of inquiry found him indirectly responsible for the 1982 massacre by Christian Phalangist forces of hundreds of Palestinians in Lebanon's Sabra and Shzatilla refugee camps.
To this day, many Israelis and Arabs blame Sharon for the 18-year Israeli occupation of Lebanon.
Ironically, though, Barak, the man who finally withdrew all Israeli troops from Lebanon in 1999, failed to provide his constituents with a sense of security. Despite promising the Palestinians sovereignty over Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem and a variety of other unprecedented concessions, the Palestinians launched a second violent uprising, known as the Al Aksa Intifada, last September.
Since then, more than 50 Israelis and 300 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict.
The Palestinians are demanding that Israel hand over all land it captured during the 1967 Mideast war, the dissolution of all Israeli settlements on occupied territory, full sovereignty over the disputed Temple Mount in Jerusalem — a site sacred to both Jews and Muslims — and the right of all refugees to return to their homes in Israel. Barak refused on all four counts.
Officially, Church leaders have refused comment on Sharon's victory, and what it might mean for local Christians and the Church as a whole.
“Israeli elections are an internal affair,” Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah told the Register the day after the election. Patriarch Sabbah is an outspoken proponent of Palestinian national rights.
However, in an unofficial capacity, several Church officials did voice opinions.
Father Raed Awad Abusahlia, chancellor of the Latin Patriarchate, said that local Christians “know very well that the result will affect our life and future,” but he added that “we are ready to deal with the newly elected prime minister because he will not be worse than the previous one.”
Christian-Muslim Solidarity
Father Raed, like all of those interviewed, stressed that Holy Land Christians consider themselves to be “part of the Palestinian people,” no different from their Muslim Arab brethren. “We share the same hopes and aspirations, as well as the same difficulties and sufferings.”
The chancellor said that Sharon's victory “shows very well that the Israelis don't have leaders, because choosing Sharon with his past means that they are not ready to achieve a just peace and don't recognize” the rights and aspirations of the Palestinian people.
Unless Sharon changes his position, Father Raed said, “we will need a real miracle to go out from this dilemma.”
Maronite Archbishop Paul Sayah, patriarchal vicar of Jerusalem, Jordan and Palestinian-ruled territories, also underscored that when it comes to Israeli politics, “Christians don't see themselves as a separate category” from Muslims.
This was evident on election day, when many of Israel's approximately 100,000 Christian citizens, the vast majority of whom are Arabs, decided to boycott the elections, along with the majority of Muslim citizens. Only 25% of the country's 1 million Arab citizens cast a vote; there is no statistical breakdown between Christian and Muslim voting patterns.
“They were voting with their feet,” said Archbishop Sayah, explaining that the Israeli Arab minority, which constitutes 20% of the population of the Jewish State, feel discriminated against. “I think they felt originally that Barak was prepared to deliver on the score of justice and peace. They were as disillusioned as many Jews were.”
Archbishop Sayah pointed out that both Christian and Muslim Arab communities in Israel receive considerably less funding than do comparable Jewish communities. The schools are inferior, there is almost no local industry, and the unemployment rate is much higher.
Another factor led to the boycott: In October 2000, while Israelis and Palestinians were clashing in the West Bank and Gaza, Israeli Arabs in the Galilee staged a demonstration in solidarity with the Palestinians. When the rally grew violent, Israeli security personnel shot and killed 13 demonstrators.
Feeling shocked and outraged, Arab Israeli leaders urged their people to punish the Barak government by staying away on election day.
Israeli Arabs, both Muslim and Christian, “feel cheated out of some basic rights that they should have as citizens,” Archbishop Sayah said. “No one in Israel denies it.”
An Israeli official said that the government “is doing what it can to reverse these inequities, which have built up during the past 52 years. The day before the election, Barak officially apologized to the Arab community and officially took responsibility for the shootings.” Archbishop Sayah said he had every reason to believe that Sharon will honor the agreements pertaining to property and status that Israel has with the Holy Land's various churches.
“I presume any democratic state will honor its agreements, regardless of who is leading the country,” he said.
Sharon and Religious Freedom
This was confirmed by Ra'anan Gissin, Sharon's personal advisor.
“Israel will continue its agreements with the churches and will continue to maintain free access to all religions. In modern times,” he asserted, “the only time when there has been free access for all religions has been under Israeli sovereignty.”
Rabbi David Rosen, director of the Anti-Defamation League in Israel and an expert on Christian-Jewish affairs, predicts that Sharon will try to maintain positive relations with the international Christian community.
“There is no doubt in my mind that Sharon understands the importance of good relations with the Christian world,” Rosen said.
Rosen believes that the incoming prime minister will be especially attentive to evangelical Christians in the United States, “who have significant political influence, especially with the Republican Party.”
Referring to two other right-wing Israeli prime ministers of the past, Rosen added, “Menachem Begin and Benjamin Netanyahu actively courted this segment of this Christian world, but at the expense of other segments.”
Sharon will have to continue the Mideast peace process if he doesn't want to lose popular support, Franciscan Father David Jaeger, member of the Holy Land Custody and one of the architects of the agreements between Israel and the Vatican, told the Vatican missionary agency Fides.
“Israelis' vote was not against Barak's peace policy, but against his administrative deficiencies,” Father Jaeger said. “If Sharon does not continue the peace process, he will lose all popular consensus.”
Father Jaeger, who is an Israeli of Jewish origin, cautioned, “What is especially worrying is the future of relations with neighbors, especially with the Palestinians: Everyone knows the position of the Prime Minister-elect, his party, and the other parties of the right.”
But, added Father Jaeger, “Sharon appears to be aware of this concern, and has tried to come close not only to neighboring countries, but also to that clear majority of Israelis who have always supported the peace process.”
Michele Chabin writes from Jerusalem.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Michele Chabin ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Making of a Cardinal DATE: 02/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: Feb.18-24,2001 ----- BODY:
McGuire: How did you first come to find out you had been named a cardinal?
Father Dulles: I first came to know it when I got a call from [Papal Nuncio] Archbishop Montalvo on Friday afternoon just before the announcement. He told me that the Holy Father had named me a cardinal and would announce it Sunday noon at his Angelus. So I had about 36 hours notice. There had been rumors beforehand, so it wasn't a complete surprise to me.
What led you to convert the Catholic faith?
Well, I was raised in a generally religious atmosphere and I knew something about the Bible and had to go to church services at most of the schools that I attended, boarding schools and so forth. So I had a vague knowledge of and experience of Christianity before I went to college. I don't think I had any particular religious beliefs at that time, but I had some background and knowledge.
And then I really got to know Christianity through my courses in college. Mainly what I learned was Catholic Christianity. It was sort of pre-Reformation Catholicism in my studies. Then I found that was a very living reality in the contemporary world in a place like Cambridge, Mass. And that's how I came to Catholic Christianity.
Who were the big intellectual influences at Harvard at the time?
There weren't many, except indirectly. I'd say the influence of Etienne Gilson was quite strong. He had taught at the Harvard Tercentennial in 1935, so he was very much esteemed. I think only one of my teachers was Catholic so far as I can remember. I didn't have any particular personal influences of individuals I had met. I learned my Catholicism mostly from books.
Do you remember your first contacts with the Jesuits?
The first Jesuit I ever met was when I was being instructed in the faith.
I went into a Catholic bookstore and I said, “How do I get into the Catholic Church?” They said, “Well, you have to be instructed.” I said, “How do I get instructed ?” They said, “Well, you'll have to find a priest.” I said, “I've never met a priest,” which was true. So I said “How will I find one?” They said, “Well, we'll find one for you.”
They found a graduate student at Harvard, in classics, who turned out to be a Jesuit. That's the first Jesuit I ever met. He wanted to know if I was serious. He wasn't going to waste his time on me if I was just curious. I indicated that yes, I was serious about it — that I was seriously thinking about becoming a Catholic.
Actually I had pretty much made up my mind by that time. He went through a catechism with me for six weeks. He went through the main headings to make sure I knew what I was getting into. Then he said, “Okay. You're ready.” I was received into the Church at St. Paul's Church in Cambridge in the basement in one of the chapels.
How did your family react to your conversion? Was there a sense at all that it would reflect badly on the family name?
I think possibly. Catholics were kind of on the lower echelon of society at the time, educationally and financially and socially. They weren't quite up to par with the Protestants.
And there was a certain feeling that Catholicism was a rather superstitious, decaying religion and [that] it wasn't quite up to date. I'm putting words in their mouths, but I'm trying to articulate what I think they felt. So it was a bit of a shock to them. As far as my family could trace they had all been Protestant. They were Presbyterian on both sides. My grandfather was a Presbyterian minister.
Did you ever discuss with your parents why you had become Catholic?
I did. After I wrote to them that I was becoming a Catholic, my mother telephoned me and said they would like to discuss it with me. I came home for an overnight and met with my father in the library and talked with him for several hours, I imagine. After he saw that I had thought it through and that it wasn't a passing whim, he said that I was of age. “You can make your own decisions.” He didn't want to interfere.
How did the rest of your family respond?
I don't know. It was hard to tell. They were polite. I had a grandmother, the wife of the Protestant minister, my father's mother. She was very ill and really dying already and some people wanted me to delay my entrance into the Church until she died.
Well, I was a rather impatient young fella, and I said “No, I would-n't delay it.” I had the grace to do it now. What would happen if I didn't use the grace of the moment?
But I said I'd write to her, so I wrote her explaining my reasons. I got the nicest letter back. She said she was so happy that I had found religious faith in Christianity, that so many young people today were losing their faith.
Then she talked about her experience with Catholicism when she was a girl in Madrid. Her father had been ambassador in those days. She said she had a Catholic nurse who was taking care of her who had read prayers to her, and asked if I could find a prayer book for them to read together. She was quite blind. So I did. I found a volume called Prayer for All Times and sent it to her. She was absolutely delighted. After finishing it she wrote to me asking for another prayer book.
When you wrote your book A Testimonial To Grace in 1946, was that a way of explaining to your family and the other people that knew you why you had converted?
Yes, it was. It was kind of a personal memorandum. While my memories were still fresh I wanted to write something down. I didn't really have any idea of publishing it when I wrote it. It was more to myself and I thought I would distribute it to close friends and family, of the journey I had made.
I showed it to a priest and without even telling me he sent it to (publisher) Sheed & Ward. They told me he had sent it to Sheed & Ward. It wasn't published until I had entered the Jesuit novitiate. I had kind of disappeared from the world and I don't remember what correspondence I received, but I wasn't receiving many letters in the novitiate.
As a novice, who did you most admire?
I suppose my master of novices. I was 27, almost 28 years old when I entered. It wasn't a matter of finding role models particularly. I had my own personality at the time and was kind of incorrigible I guess. I had a very fine master of novices and I had learned something about how to pray. It was a very good two years.
You were in the public eye long before you converted. Was your family name more an incentive or an obstacle to becoming a priest?
At the time I became a Jesuit my name was not a household name. my father was certainly well known in certain circles, but the average American had probably never heard his name. So I wasn't that much of a celebrity.
By the time I got ordained, that was 1956, my father came to my ordination and to my first solemn high Mass. There was a good deal of press coverage. It made the first page of most of the New York papers.
Next week: Father Dulles speaks about Vatican II, his place in theology and another convert-cardinal whom he admires.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Avery Dulles ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Practicing Faith: Catholic Doctors Open Contraceptive-Free Clinics DATE: 02/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 18-24,2001 ----- BODY:
MINNEAPOLIS — After giving birth to her first child, Ann Maloney decided she wanted a pro-life doctor in the future.
“When I had an ultrasound done on my first pregnancy, the nurse practitioner pointed to the screen and said, ‘There's the pregnancy,’” Maloney recalled. “That terminology bothered me.”
Calling her child a “pregnancy” sent up a flag, said the Minneapolis native. So she contacted an organization for the names of natural family planning-only doctors in the Twin Cities, and visited Dr. Paul Spencer at Aalfa Family Practice. He was able to read her NFP charts and understand exactly what she was talking about.
“That was nice,” said Maloney. “The nurse practitioner at the other clinic had no clue. My guess is she knew all about [birth control].”
The Minneapolis mother adds that as her children grow, she doesn't want a doctor to secretly prescribe birth control to them and not “tell about the side effects or the increased health risks, besides the immoral side effects.”
Maloney's experience highlights a growing trend among Catholic physicians to open their own clinics, where doctors and patients alike can be confident they won't be engaging in medical procedures that conflict with their faith
‘Vasectomy Day’
Dr. Tim Fisher of Lincoln, Neb., left a group practice for that very reason. In 1989, he started an NFP-only clinic, Holy Family Medical Specialties, because he didn't want to be surrounded by things he opposed in his previous workplace. “Birth control pills [were] in our drug rooms and Friday afternoons were vasectomy day,” Fisher said.
Diane Reznicek and her family started seeing Fisher early on, and she's comforted now knowing that her three children, ages 18 to 24, today have a doctor who shares their values.
“We put our trust in another individual who loved God the way we did, who reflects Godly doctrines. As I grow older, it becomes more important to me because there is so much out there in the world,” she said.
Mike Herzog, executive director of the Catholic Medical Association in Pewaukee, Wis., said his organization averages 10 to 12 calls or e-mails a day from people all over the country looking for NFP-only and pro-life doctors — mainly for obstetriciangynecologists, Catholic urologists who will do vasectomy reversals, and doctors who can care for ailing parents.
Herzog said that setting up an NFP-only clinic can be a difficult decision for physicians, who often worry that such a clinic won't be able to survive economically.
But that's changing. “I think we're seeing that they can thrive,” Herzog said. “Years ago, hanging up your shingle as an NFP-only clinic was frightening to the physician as well as the patient, until they realized how detrimental oral contraceptives are, not only physiologically but sociologically too.”
Fisher's clinic is affiliated with St. Elizabeth Regional Medical Center, Lincoln's largest Catholic hospital. He has received its full support since the clinic opened, but jokes that they didn't give him “two months to survive.”
“We're supportive of his clinic,” confirmed Bob Lanik, president of St. Elizabeth. “I think it's a way for a Catholic hospital to be more proactive in terms of the Church's positions.”
Catholic hospitals must deal with a culture that is oriented toward birth-control methods, Lanik added, but St. Elizabeth is very “pristine” in following the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services issued by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Problems at Catholic Hospitals
Most hospitals adhere to the Church's positions, said the Catholic Medical Association's Herzog, but loopholes created by corporate structures sometimes allow for independent, off-site clinics that deviate from those positions. The bishops are responsible for the hospital premises but not the affiliated clinics, at which Catholic doctors may have to carry out part of their practice.
“If you are part of an [health management organization] or [planned provider organization] that pays for abortions or tubal ligations, a lot of doctors are seeing some pressure to provide these services to the members,” said Herzog.
But others maintain that some Catholic hospitals do not remain completely loyal to Church teachings even in their own operations.
Steve Koob, director of One More Soul, a Dayton, Ohio-based group that provides information about the negative consequences of artificial contraception, said that some hospitals are extremely weak about following Catholic teaching. His organization maintains a database of more than 400 NFP-only doctors who have philosophical differences with their local Catholic hospitals.
“Their pharmacies are dispensing contraceptives [and] family practice clinics are prescribing them,” Koob said. Less commonly, Catholic institutions also perform sterilizations, he added, citing one hospital in Louisiana that set up a separate room for sterilizations and then declared the room was not part of the hospital.
Dr. Ann Moell knows firsthand about the shortcomings of some Catholic hospitals. She did her residency in the late 1980s at a hospital in Ohio that “wasn't one that followed the rules of the Catholic Church,” she said.
Doctors were told that officially they were not to prescribe contraceptives, but “it was expected that we would, and everybody did.” In fact, of the 11 residents on staff, only one would not prescribe contraceptives.
“He seemed a little strange that he would be so adamant about his Catholic belief,” said Moell, a Catholic who at the time didn't understand or agree with the Church's positions on life issues.
A Change of Heart
But midway through an eight-year stint at a family practice, she was moved by Janet Smith's tape, “Contraception: Why Not,” given to her by One More Soul, and had a conversion. She informed her partners and staff that she would no longer dispense contraceptives.
Her partners and patients were very understanding. “Maybe they didn't agree with me, but they respected me for acting on my convictions,” Moell said.
Surprised by the positive response, Moell began sharing her convictions on a more spiritual level and heard over and over from patients that they hadn't “thought of it that way.”
Moell now works at a prenatal clinic inside Elizabeth's New Life Center in Dayton, Ohio, which upholds an NFP-only philosophy with the mothers who come there, including those who reject that viewpoint.
Said Moell, “I always try to speak the truth to them, even though I know they are spiritually and intellectually far from where I stand on the issue.”
Barb Ernster writes from Minneapolis.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: BARB ERNSTER ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 02/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 18-24,2001 ----- BODY:
Test-Drive Your Vocation
DULUTH NEWS TRIBUNE, Feb. 4 — To attract women to monastic life, the Benedictine Sisters of St. Scholastica Monastery will let them try sisterhood out for themselves, the Duluth, Minn., daily reported.
The monastery is inviting single women with no dependents to live in the monastery as part of their new Benedictine Associates program. Sister Freida Horak, the monastery's director of vocation ministry, said the program was an attempt to rebuild a “vocations culture.”
The associates will get free room and board, but no salary. They will share the monastery's life of community, prayer and service, for a period ranging from three months to a year. At the end of the year they may choose to renew their “trial run” for another year. They will work in areas like teaching, health care, liturgy, gardening and serving the elderly, infirm and poor.
Even as the U.S. Catholic population grows, there are only about 82,000 Catholic nuns, less than half the number in 1965.
Rabbi Honored by Miami Archdiocese
MIAMI HERALD, Feb. 2 — Irving Lehrman, an 89-year-old rabbi who has spent his life working with Catholic leaders, became the first Jew to receive the Pontifical Medal Benemerenti from the Archdiocese of Miami, on behalf of Pope John Paul II, the Miami daily reported.
In the early 1940s, Lehrman worked with Catholics to organize an “interfaith rally for decency” that drew 40,000 people to the Orange Bowl. He defended John F. Kennedy when Kennedy's Catholicism became an issue in his presidential campaign. He also worked closely with former Miami archbishops Coleman S. Carroll and Edward McCarthy, often bringing Jews and Catholics together to fight pornography and bigotry.
In 1987, the rabbi was among the Jewish leaders who received a papal audience; the Pope addressed Lehrman, “Shalom, my brother.”
Lehrman's wife Belle said that her husband has had a “love affair” with the Catholic Church. “In the '50s,” she said, “it was not so common as it is today for Catholics and Jews to work on a common agenda.”
Bishops and Biotech
THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS, Feb. 7 — Nearly 200 bishops met quietly in Las Colinas, Texas, to discuss the ethical implications of biotechnology, the Dallas daily reported.
For 18 years, the bishops have been gathering at a weeklong session organized by the National Catholic Bioethics Center and sponsored by the Knights of Columbus. This year, the conference's workshops included “Frozen Embryos: Theological, Pastoral and Ethical Issues,” and “Ethical Dilemmas Posed by the Genome Project.”
The workshops are led by experts in fields like biotechnology, embryology and theology. The conference does not allow media coverage, to ward off the protesters that dog and sometimes disrupt the bishops' meetings. But many bishops were willing to discuss the issues raised with the Morning News.
“If we could use an embryo, a stem cell, to cure Alzheimer's, should we do it?” asked Bishop Charles Grahmann of Dallas. “What about if it meant eliminating two or three human lives in the process?”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Two Dioceses Boycott Education Convention DATE: 02/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 18-24,2001 ----- BODY:
PITTSBURGH — Two Catholic dioceses have decided not to support the upcoming National Catholic Educational Association convention in Milwaukee, primarily because of the inclusion of a prominent dissenter, Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister, as a keynote speaker.
In Pittsburgh and in Peoria, Ill., diocesan officials have informed Catholic educators that because the program for the convention fails to uphold Church teaching, no diocesan funds will be spent to send teachers to the April 17-20 meeting, nor will continuing-education credit be granted for any of the sessions. In Peoria, the directive extends to parishes as well.
The three main speakers for the Milwaukee meeting are Archbishop Rembert Weakland of Milwaukee, Sister Chittister, a theologian who has been outspoken in her support for the ordination of women as priests, and Howard Fuller, director of the Institute for the Transformation of Learning at Milwaukee's Marquette University and an advocate of school choice.
Sister Chittister is to give an address on “The Spirituality of Leadership.”
“This is the first time we've been in a position not to support the NCEA,” said Father Kris Stubna, education secretary for the Diocese of Pittsburgh.
But after assessing the overall tone of the Milwaukee meeting, he said he expressed his concerns in private correspondence with the NCEA. “We indicated . . . that we found it to be lacking in its support for the teachings of the Church.” He declined to comment on any person or session of the program.
However, an internal memo sent to Father Stubna's staff in October cites “several objectionable speakers” at the convention, “most notably Sister Joan Chittister,” as reasons for the decision.
Bishop John Myers of Peoria decided to take similar action after learning about Pittsburgh's decision, said Msgr. Steven Rohlfs, vicar general in the diocese.
Msgr. Rohlfs said Sister Chittister's participation in the program was a key issue for the diocese because of her support for women's ordination and open disagreement with Church teaching on homosexuality and other issues.
“Usually NCEA has many fine things attached to it, but it was because she was the major speaker of a plenary session to which everyone would be expected to go,” Msgr. Rohlfs said. “We thought it was a bad choice.”
Pope John Paul II addressed the issue of women's ordination in the 1994 apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis (Priestly Ordination). To remove permanently all doubt about the question, the Pope said, “I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful.”
Speakers Must be Trustworthy
Msgr. Rohlfs said because the NCEA meeting is regarded as part of the formation of catechists, it is important that participants be able to trust that what is being said is consonant with Church teaching. “That's the real neuralgic issue here: The level of trust that our teachers and catechists can be formed at such an event,” he said. “We've presumed that in the past and we hope to presume that again.”
Dr. Claire Helm, vice president of operations for NCEA, said Sister Chittister was among the speakers recommended by Catholics in the Milwaukee Archdiocese. “The diocese of the area basically gave us a roster of folks they wanted to have.”
She said the association always seeks such recommendations from people in the area where a national meeting is to be held.
“I think that because [Sister Chittister's] been around so long and the topic on which she was chosen to speak about is not controversial . . . that's why the folks who recommended her didn't see it as an issue. We obviously didn't either and we didn't realize what an issue it was in some parts of the country.”
She said Sister Chittister was not invited to speak on women's ordination. “She has great credibility in the area for which we invited her.”
Helm added there are no plans to withdraw the invitation to Sister Chittister, nor has there been pressure to do so. The response of the membership to date, she said, has been supportive of having the nun as a conference presenter, and registration for the meeting does not seem to have been affected. NCEA's annual conference usually attracts 10,000 to 15,000 participants, Helm said.
Nuns Criticize Bishops
Meanwhile, Benetvision, a center for contemporary spirituality sponsored by Sister Chittister's religious community, the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, Pa., is providing her supporters with information about how they can protest the actions of the Pittsburgh and Peoria dioceses.
A sample text of a letter to Bishop Myers posted on the community's Web site calls the bishop's decision unacceptable, an imposition of one's personal views on others, and an injustice.
Sister Chittister could not be reached for comment, but a spokesman for her said the community had received upwards of 500 responses, all but one of them positive and in support of Sister Chittister.
Msgr. Rohlfs of Peoria estimated he and Bishop Myers had received about 30 postcards as part of the Benetvision campaign. A few dioceses also have contacted Peoria, Msgr. Rohlfs said, to say that they agreed it was unfortunate NCEA had chosen Sister Chittister as a speaker.
Dr. Mel Kuhbander, superintendent of schools in the Diocese of Peoria, said he has received little response to the decision from teachers.
Said Kuhbander, “When I explain to them that the decision does not intend to suggest that any teacher or principal working in the diocese is incapable of forming his own conscience, but that rather it is a decision to insure that people on the program do represent the magisterium in the position of the Church, they say, ‘OK, we understand.’”
Judy Roberts writes from Millbury, Ohio.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Judy Roberts ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Virginia Assembly Ratifies Waiting Period for Abortion DATE: 02/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 18-24,2001 ----- BODY:
RICHMOND, Va. — The Virginia General Assembly has approved a 24-hour mandatory waiting period for women seeking abortions.
The state Senate approved the measure Feb. 6 in a 24-16 vote, following approval a week earlier in the House of Delegates.
Under the bill, physicians must provide counseling, including medical explanations of the procedure and its alternatives, to women at least 24 hours before an abortion is performed. Other information, such as pictures of fetal development and information about adoption, must also be offered.
Doctors must receive a patient's written consent, except in cases of medical emergencies, before performing an abortion. Failure to abide by the bill could result in a $2,500 fine.
It marked a major milestone in a 20-year effort by pro-lifers to restrict abortion, The Washington Post noted.
The vote cheered state prolifers, who said they are close to victory on a political and social agenda they have advanced.
Other successes included passage four years ago of a law requiring teen-age girls to notify their parents before undergoing the procedure.
Opponents of the waiting period measure say it is a barrier to abortion access.
“Forcing a woman to wait after she's already made the decision is demeaning,” said Dayle Steinberg, a Planned Parenthood representative in Pennsylvania, where a similar law took effect in 1994. “It assumes that women haven't already given thought to their decision.”
The bill now goes to Governor James S. Gilmore III, who has made the 24-hour waiting period and other abortion restrictions a centerpiece of his legislative agenda. “I think it's a good thing for women to have the maximum amount of information,” he told reporters.
If Gilmore signs the bill, it will take effect Oct. 1.
(From combined wire services)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Do In Pectore Picks Show Stalled Orthodox Relations? DATE: 02/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 18-24,2001 ----- BODY:
VATICAN CITY — The naming of new cardinals only happens every few years, which is for the best: It brings out the worst in ecclesiastical circles.
The months before the announcement are rife with speculation, gossip and unseemly murmuring about who is up, down or out. And when the day itself comes, it usually happens that
all the sound and fury signified nothing — or at least very little. Popes tend to be rather predictable in their choices; the true surprise choice is a rarity.
But in this month's consistory for new cardinals, there is a real surprise that signifies something very important indeed. Actually the surprise is twofold — the names of the two cardinals named in pectore (secretly) in the consistory of 1998 have been revealed.
From time to time the Pope names a cardinal but reserves that name to himself (holding it, literally, in his breast). Even the new cardinal is not informed, and until his name is published, he may assume neither the privileges nor the duties of a cardinal. Pope John Paul did this once before, in 1979, when he named Shanghai Bishop Ignatius Gong Pin-mei a cardinal in pectore.
An in pectore nomination is usually done when the elevation might place the new cardinal in danger of persecution. This is not an idle concern. Pope Paul III named Bishop John Fisher a cardinal in the spring of 1535, hoping that the new dignity might persuade King Henry VIII to release the future saint from the Tower of London. Henry responded by cutting off his head. Bishop Gong Pin-mei likewise suffered imprisonment, at the hands of the Chinese communists, but his nomination was kept secret. It was not considered safe to reveal his name until 1991, by which time he had been exiled to the United States.
So when John Paul named two cardinals in pectore in 1998, speculation was that they might also be from China, or another country where Catholics were under persecution.
The ecclesiastical gossips, of course, had a field day. The Vatican press corps was true to form, opting for ill-founded rumor rather than simple common sense. The idea was widely bruited that John Paul had named his then “chief of staff” Giovanni Battista Re (now cardinal-designate and prefect of the Congregation for Bishops) in pectore, as if the exigencies of configuring the Roman Curia would warrant recourse to measures previously reserved for dealing with the Chinese politburo.
Catholic Rebirth in Russia
Last month's revelation of the two names therefore took everyone by surprise: Archbishop Janis Pujats of Riga (Latvia) and the Latin-rite archbishop of Lviv (Ukraine), Marian Jaworski. At the same time, the Holy Father named Lubomyr Husar, the newly elected Eastern-rite archbishop of Lviv, a cardinal, but in the normal fashion.
Since the 1991 implosion of the Soviet Union, both Latvia and Ukraine have been independent republics, no longer part of the communist empire. So why the caution in naming the prelates in pectore in 1998? Therein lies the significance of this cardinalatial surprise.
John Paul resorted to the in pectore nominations not out of concern for the secular authorities, but out of sensitivity to the reaction of fellow Christians, namely the Orthodox Church in Eastern Europe.
By 1998, so poor were the relations between the renascent Catholic churches in the former Soviet republics and the Orthodox that the Holy Father felt it necessary to use the in pectore precaution. Surely the scandal of disunity could not be more acutely felt: What was once done out of fear of the communists was now being done in the face of the Orthodox.
It becomes all the more striking in light of the fact that John Paul made the previous archbishop of Riga, Julijans Vaivods, a cardinal in 1983 without resort to the in pectore provision, despite Latvia's then-status as part of the Soviet internal empire. Indeed, what was not even done in the face of the communists in 1983 was done in 1998 in the face of the Orthodox.
The re-emergence of Catholic life in the former Soviet republics, particularly in Ukraine, has been viewed with great alarm by the various Orthodox patriarchs, who have accused the Catholics of proselytism.
And while there have been tensions with the Latin-rite Catholics in those countries, the real point of contention is the continued presence of the Eastern-rite Catholics in Ukraine, who share common traditions of liturgy and governance with the Orthodox, but who are in union with the bishop of Rome. For almost a decade, John Paul has been caught between his goal of better relations with the Orthodox, some of whom speak quite openly of their desire for the dissolution of the Eastern-rite Catholic churches, and his desire to support those very same Catholics, who suffered terribly under the communist persecution. In 1998 the Holy Father felt it unwise to name two cardinals, even of the Latin rite, in the prevailing climate of suspicion and hostility.
What has changed since then to permit the revelation of the names now?
Nothing substantial in Catholic-Orthodox relations.
But the significance of the revelation lies in the change of the Holy Father's approach. For more than 20 years, John Paul has placed unity with the Orthodox at the top of his agenda, beginning with his 1979 visit to the ecumenical patriarch in Constantinople (Istanbul). John Paul then imposed on himself the policy of not visiting a country where the Orthodox form the majority without an invitation from the local Orthodox bishops.
Given that such invitations were not forthcoming, John Paul did not set foot in an Orthodox country until his 1999 visit to Romania. The scandal of division meant that such a visit came many years after papal visits to non-Christian countries such as Morocco, Pakistan, India and Japan.
John Paul will no longer hold the pastoral needs of Catholics in abeyance while waiting for an increasingly unlikely breakthrough with Orthodoxy. His decision to go to Ukraine this coming June, over the objections of the Ukrainian Orthodox, signaled as much. Whereas in 1998 the Holy Father was willing to conceal the names of the new cardinals in deference to Orthodox sensibilities, that is no longer the case.
Much has happened since 1998, including the breathtakingly rude reception the Orthodox patriarch in Tbilisi gave to John Paul on his 1999 visit to Georgia, and the hostile reaction by the Orthodox bishops in Greece to his desire to visit their country on a pilgrimage in the footsteps of St. Paul.
Does this mean that John Paul has given up on his dearest project, the hope for reunion with Orthodoxy? That would be going too far, but the signs are clear that such a prospect is now viewed as unattainable in the short term. Indeed, it may well be another generation before conditions are sufficiently favorable for new initiatives. In the meantime, the Catholic Church must live, and her universal pastor must attend to the various necessities, including that of recognizing the heroism of Latvian and Ukrainian Catholics by awarding their pastors the red hat.
Consistories are happy affairs. But there may well be a touch of sadness in the air this Feb. 22, the feast of the Chair of St. Peter. If there is, it will be because the divisions between Catholics and the Orthodox on what exactly that chair represents appear as intractable as ever.
At the same time, though, consis-tories are singular occasions for highlighting both the unity and universality of the Church.
As such, they are suitable occasions to renew hope for the deepening of that unity in ways — as yet unknown — which would include Orthodoxy.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY:Raymond De Souza ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 02/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 18-24,2001 ----- BODY:
Talk of Cyberspace Patron Revived
THE WASHINGTON POST, Feb. 6 — The Vatican has revived talk of making St. Isidore of Seville the patron saint of Internet users and computer programmers, the Washington daily reported.
Saint Isidore was nominated two years ago but the Holy See did not make a final decision on the matter. St. Isidore lived in the seventh century. He is believed to have written the world's first encyclopedia, the Etymologies, which included entries on medicine, mathematics, history and theology. The book is frequently cited by St. Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologiae.
Dutch Bishops Lose Euthanasia Battle
L'OSSERVATORE ROMANO, Dec. 31 — The Dutch govern-ment's recent decision to lift penalties on doctors who perform euthanasia came after a campaign against the move by Dutch bishops.
In honor of the bishops' efforts, the Vatican weekly printed a translation of their 1999 letter to the Dutch people, warning them of the dangers of legalized euthanasia. According to the bishops, legal euthanasia will have the following consequences: l “More elements in our society will come to accept euthanasia as normal.” l “Respect for human life will deteriorate further.” l “Confidence in the doctor and in the medical profession will wane.”
Mad Cow Scare Reaches Vatican
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Jan. 31 — Europe's mad cow crisis, which is making beef an increasingly rare item on menus across the continent, has reached Pope John Paul II's dinner table, the Pope's butcher told the news service.
The Pope has a household staff of Polish nuns who do the shopping, make up the menu and cook for the Pope, who is known as a light eater with a preference for meat.
“Last week red meat was on the list, this week it wasn't,”s Giulio Lucarelli told the news service.
Lucarelli has a butcher shop in Rome and holds the meat concession at the Vatican supermarket, supplying Vatican officials as well as the Pope. The supermarket is open to Vatican employees.
In general, Lucarelli said, the purchase of red meat has gone down at the Vatican as a result of the mad cow scare but “not as sharply as elsewhere in Italy.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Marital Love Between Christ and the Church- DATE: 02/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 18-24,2001 ----- BODY:
Register Summary
The Church cannot be understood if God's love for man is not understood, John Paul II told several thousand pilgrims at his Feb. 7 general audience. With almost mystical overtones, the Pope told the several thousand pilgrims gathered at the midweek general audience that the Church continues the mission of Christ.
“To be loved by Christ and to love him with spousal love is constitutive of the mystery of the Church,” the Pope explained. “This love molds the Church, radiating on all creatures. In this light it may be said that the Church is a sign raised among the peoples to witness to the intensity of God's love revealed in Christ.”
As in the Old Testament the Holy City was called, with a feminine image, “the daughter of Zion,” so in John's Revelation the heavenly Jerusalem is described “as a bride adorned for her husband” (Revelation 21:2). The feminine symbol sketches the Church's face in her different profiles as betrothed, spouse, mother, thus emphasizing a dimension of love and fruitfulness.
Our thoughts flow to the words of the Apostle Paul who, in a very intense page of the letter to the Ephesians, traces the features of the Church “in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish,” loved by Christ and a model of all Christian realities that have a marital character (see Ephesians 5:25-32). The ecclesial community, “promised to one spouse” as a chaste virgin (see 2 Corinthians 11:2), is in line with the concept that arises in the Old Testament, in anguished pages like those of the prophet Hosea (chapters 1-3) or Ezekiel (chapter 16), or through the joyful radiance of the Song of Songs.
To be loved by Christ and to love him with spousal love is constitutive of the mystery of the Church. At the source is a free act of love that flows from the Father through Christ and the Holy Spirit. This love molds the Church, radiating on all creatures. In this light it may be said that the Church is a sign raised among the peoples to witness to the intensity of God's love revealed in Christ, especially in the gift that he makes of his own life (see John 10:11-15). Because of this, “all human beings — both women and men — are called through the Church, to be the Bride of Christ, the Redeemer of the world” (Mulieris Dignitatem, 25).
God's Tender Love
The Church must let this supreme love shine through, reminding humanity — which often feels alone and abandoned on life's desolate wastelands — that it will never be forgotten nor deprived of the warmth of divine tenderness. Isaiah declares, touchingly: “Can a woman forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you” (Isaiah 49:15).
The Church is a sign among the peoples to witness to the intensity of God's love.
Precisely because she is born of love, the Church spreads love. She does it by proclaiming the commandment to love one another as Christ has loved us (see John 15:12), namely, to the point of giving one's life: “He laid down his life for us; so we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers” (1 John 3:16). The God who “first loved us” (1 John 4:19) and did not hesitate to give his Son out of love (see John 3:16) impels the Church to walk the path of love “to the end” (see John 13:1). And she is called to do so with the freshness of two spouses who love each other in the joy of giving themselves without reserve and in daily generosity, whether life's sky is springlike and calm, or night and winter clouds of the spirit loom overhead.
So it makes sense that the book of Revelation, despite its dramatic representation of history, is constantly suffused with songs, music, joyful liturgy. In the landscape of the spirit, love is like the sun that illuminates and transfigures nature, which, without its radiance, would remain gray and uniform.
A Reproductive Love
Another fundamental dimension in the marital character of the Church is that of fruitfulness. Love received and given is not closed in on itself in the spousal relationship, but becomes creative and reproductive. In Genesis, which presents humanity made in the “image and likeness of God,” there is significant reference to being “male and female”: “God created man in his image; to the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (1:27).
The distinction and reciprocity in the human couple are a sign of the love of God, not only as the basis of a vocation to communion, but also as directed to reproductive fruitfulness. It is not accidental that the Book of Genesis is structured around genealogies, which are the fruit of reproduction and give origin to the history within which God reveals himself. So one understands how the Church also, in the Spirit that animates her and unites her to Christ her Spouse, is gifted with intimate fruitfulness, thanks to which she continuously generates children of God in baptism and makes them grow to the fullness of Christ (see Galatians 4:19; Ephesians 4:13).
The Bride's Love for Christ
It is these children who constitute that “assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven,” destined to inhabit “Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” (see Hebrews 12:21-23). Not for nothing are the last words of the book of Revelation an intense invocation addressed to Christ: “The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come!’” (Revelation 22:17), “Come, Lord Jesus” (22: 20). This is the final goal of the Church, which advances with confidence on her pilgrimage through history, even if often feeling near her, following the image in the book of Revelation, the hostile and furious presence of another feminine figure, “Babylon,” the “great Harlot” (see Revelation 17:1,5), who incarnates the “bestiality” of hatred, death and interior sterility.
Looking to her goal, the Church cultivates “the hope of the eternal Kingdom, that is brought about by participation in the life of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit, given to the Apostles as the Counselor, is the guardian and animator of this hope in the heart of the Church” (Dominum et Vivificantem, No. 66). So, let us ask God to grant his Church to always be the custodian of hope throughout history, radiant as the Woman of the Apocalypse “clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars” (Revelation 12:1).
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Peru's 'Videomania' Reveals Widespread Corruption DATE: 02/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 18-24,2001 ----- BODY:
LIMA, Peru — Since the Peruvian judiciary began to make public hundreds of videos showing how a large number of Peru's who's who were bribed by disgraced ex-president Alberto Fujimori's former top adviser Vladimiro Montesinos, watching TV has become the country's main pastime.
But it's a pastime with a hefty political price: The credibility of so many personalities and institutions has been shattered that the Catholic Church has moved to curb the “videomania” caused by the continuing disclosures on Peruvian television.
Recently, speaking about the careless way some media have been speculating about “who will be next” in the “Vladi-videos,” Cardinal-designate Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne said, “Any speculation aimed, willingly or not, to affect the dignity and good name of persons, is a crime.”
The archbishop of Lima especially criticized the media for trying to discredit interim President Valentín Paniagua and Congress Speaker Carlos Ferrero, “who are now involved in a delicate process of restoring full democracy and bringing morality to the nation,” the archbishop said.
Archbishop Cipriani said Jan. 25 that freedom of press “should not be confused with irresponsible mud-throwing.”
At present, only a few of the 2,400 videos clandestinely taped by ex-spy chief Montesinos and his allies — many apparently showing lawmakers and judges accepting bribes, favors or engaging in other incriminating acts — have come to light.
Montesinos fled the country in October after a video showing him bribing a congressman set off a scandal that toppled Fujimori. Montesinos' current location is unknown.
Fujimori, who was declared “morally unfit” for office by Congress in November, is in exile in Japan. New elections for president and Congress are slated for April 8.
Judge Saul PeÒa, who is overseeing the Montesinos case in the judiciary, said 70 of the 700 most important tapes have been reviewed, and that at least 20 contain incriminating evidence against politicians, judges, businessmen, bankers, police and military officers.
So far, the tapes have led to criminal investigations of the former president of the Electoral Jury and three Supreme Court judges, as well as mayors and congressmen, including one with a reputation as an anti-corruption crusader.
After rumors spread that some videos have disappeared and that key personalities had frantically tried to buy tapes involving them, Special Prosecutor José Ugaz asked the president of the Supreme Court to copy all of the videos and put them in the safe of the National Bank of Peru.
Meanwhile, President Paniagua has urged Congress and the courts to take whatever steps necessary to finish reviewing the videos and make them public before the April 8 general elections.
Among those involved in the “Vladi-videos” scandal is José Francisco Crousillat, owner of one of Peru's most powerful TV broadcasters, “América TelevisiÛn.” On Jan. 28, Nicolás Lucar , Crousillat's son-in-law and director of América TelevisiÛn's political program “Tiempo Nuevo,” aired an interview in which an alleged former Montesinos bodyguard claimed that Paniagua had received campaign funds from Montesinos' front man, Alberto Venero, when he ran for Congress.
The interview, in which the journalist oriented his questions to challenge Paniagua's image as an honest and incorruptible Catholic politician, sparked a wave of protests that forced Lucar to resign and then flee to Costa Rica.
Two days later, Venero, captured by FBI agents in Miami on money-laundering charges, denied ever having any relationship with Paniagua.
In a televised speech to the nation, Paniagua denounced a “conspiracy against his government” and said his Cabinet was “united in its fight against those trying to destabilize the process of democratization under way in Peru.”
Paniagua, who will hand over power on July 28 to the winner of the April presidential election, told Peruvians that nothing would prevent Peru from “overcoming this stage of corruption.”
The daily newspaper La Republica, traditionally opposed to Paniagua's political party, defended him in a Jan. 27 editorial that said “the Montesinos Mafia is still in action, because even on the run, Montesinos is still pulling strings from afar.”
Added the editorial, “They [Montesinos and his allies] are trying to make Peruvians believe that everybody is corrupted, and therefore, that the government should stop the cleansing process.”
In response to the situation, the Peruvian bishops' conference, in an unprecedented move, expressed its “firm and unconditional support” to
Paniagua. A delegation of bishops, including Cardinal-designate Cipriani, visited the president at the Pizarro Palace Jan. 26 to further emphasize their solidarity.
The bishops also released a letter stating that “the morally unbearable situation affecting our people moves us, as shepherds, to reaffirm our confidence in God, as well as in the support our people are expressing to the current presidency.”
Added the bishops. “We also want to demand, in this dramatic hour of our nation, a full respect for the dignity of the persons and the institutions they represent, who are seeking to bring the country back to moral values, democracy and justice.”
The bishops concluded by requesting the media “to help instead of obstructing the process of moral recovery for which our people is longing.”
Archbishop Cipriani has also proposed that Congress create a “Commission of Honor,” headed by a respected Peruvian, to oversee how the remaining “Vladi-videos” are handled and made public. “Freedom of the press must always be protected and preserved, but moral blackmail must be avoided also at any cost,” the cardinal-designate said.
But restoring faith in Peru's political institutions will not be easy. “Hundreds of [Montesinos'] cronies are still in the armed forces, police, judiciary, customs, tax offices, ministries and Congress,” Congresswoman Mercedes Cabanillas said at a press conference.
Cabanillas said the Catholic Church was the only institution not affected by Montesinos' ring of corruption. Consequently, she suggested the bishops themselves head the Commission of Honor proposed by Archbishop Cipriani.
Special Prosecutor Ugaz told the Register that a special commission will study the videos and set apart all incriminating evidence by Feb. 20 for review. After that, he said, “A Commission of Honor, to balance the right to privacy and the right of the people to know who is who before the elections, will certainly be needed.”
Alejandro Berm˙dez is based in Lima, Peru
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY:Alejandro Bermudez ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Hindu Extremists Urging Boycott of Christian Aid DATE: 02/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 18-24,2001 ----- BODY:
NEW DELHI, India — In the wake of the Jan. 26 earthquake that devastated the Indian state of Gujarat, the leader of the World Hindu Council has asked Indians to boycott aid from Christian organizations.
Ashok Singhal, the secretary general of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, also known as VHP, said Feb. 4 that India should “boycott” 200 million rupees (US$4.3 million) given by the Catholic Church to help those hit by the earthquake.
Singhal said that the money should be refused because of the call by Pope John Paul II for the conversion of Asia during his November 1999 visit to India.
In New Delhi, Father Dominic Emmanuel, spokesman for the bishops' conference, told ENI news service that “it is better to ignore” Singhal's comments. “This exposes VHP's pettiness,” said Father Emmanuel.
A few days earlier, news leaked that some Hindu groups were rejecting aid from priests and Christian volunteers. Archbishop Cyril Mar Baselios of Trivandrum, president of the bishops' conference, confirmed the reports in the Feb. 7 edition of the Italian newspaper Avvenire.
The Vatican missionary news agency Fides has also reported that tensions between Christians and Hindus are hampering relief efforts. Father Cedric Prakash, coordinator of Earthquake Affected Relief and Rehabilitation Services, a forum of 40 Catholic nongovernmental organizations, said that “some Hindu groups try to monopolize the aid.”
The priest said that he himself was expelled from a hospital in Ahmedaban, where he had gone to deliver aid. “In a situation such as this one, there should be room for everyone in solidarity, but it is not like this,” he said.
The Indian government has entrusted the coordination of aid to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, also known as RSS, an Indian organization made up of Hindu fundamentalists.
“Over the last few years,” Fides reported, “RSS members have been accused of violence against Christians in Gujarat.”
(From combined wire services)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 02/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 18-24,2001 ----- BODY:
Parliament Poised to Remove Ban on Priests
NEWCASTLE CHRONICLE AND JOURNAL, Feb. 7 — A 200-year-old law banning Catholic priests from becoming members of Parliament is likely to be repealed after a recent vote in the House of Commons, the English daily reported.
Home Office Minister Mike OíBrien said it was time to remove the “archaic” restriction that he said stemmed from “bigoted anti-Catholic legislation.”
Government ministers are eager to rush the Removal of Clergy Disqualification Bill through the Commons before the British general election, expected on May 3. Otherwise, David Cairns, a laicized priest due to run for office as a member of the ruling Labor Party, would be prevented from taking his parliamentary seat, even if elected.
Aristide Reassumes Power in Haiti
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Feb. 7 — Thousands filled Notre Dame Cathedral in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince as Jean-Bertrand Aristide's inauguration as president was blessed in a Mass, the news service reported.
Originally elected president in 1990, Aristide, a laicized Catholic priest, was ousted by the military a year later. He returned to power in 1994 after an U.S. military intervention, and reluctantly resigned from office in 1995 when his five-year term ended.
Aristide faces international isolation after his recent re-election because of widespread suspicion that it was unfair. France and the European Union didn't send delegations to the inauguration to show disapproval over the controversial elections, but the United States sent its ambassador.
NAACP to Push for Sanctions Against Sudan
THE WASHINGTON TIMES, Feb. 7 — Long silent about the enslavement of blacks in Africa's largest country, American black leaders will urge Congress this year to penalize Sudan for its slave trade, the Washington daily reported.
Hilary Shelton, head of the Washington office of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, acknowledged that economic sanctions against Sudan would be difficult to achieve, but said his organization has placed the issue on its list of congressional goals.
Sudan's brutal civil war pits the country's Islamic government against Christian and animist rebels in the south of the country. According to Washington-based Human Rights Watch, the Sudanese government organizes militias to abduct black southerners into slavery.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Wild About W. DATE: 02/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 18-24,2001 ----- BODY:
Comments from the Catholics who met with him in Washington last month show that many of us are wild about George W. Bush. We should be very enthusiastic indeed, we think. But we should also be careful.
Bush kicked off his presidency by giving a gift to the unborn, delivered in the presence of 200,000 pro-life marchers, a great many of them Catholic. By reinstating the Mexico City Policy of Ronald Reagan, he will ensure that money withdrawn from our paychecks isn't used to pay for abortions overseas. That's one good reason to be enthusiastic.
Here's another: On the sixth day of his presidency, he made an unprecedented visit to the home of Washington Archbishop Theodore McCarrick to meet him, along with Cardinal James Hickey and Bishop Joseph Fiorenza, president of the U.S. bishops' conference.
Then, at a meeting with 37 Catholic leaders earlier this month, the president remarked that the partnerships he has proposed between the government and faith-based initiatives could really be seen as the first step in a pro-life plan.
The picture from that meeting, showing Bush joking with Miami Archbishop John Favalora and Mother Agnes Mary Donovan of the Sisters of Life is enough to make the hearts of politically weary Catholics swell with pride. Such a thing would have been unconceivable in the previous administration, which succeeded in getting all eight U.S. cardinals at the time to Washington — to protest President Clinton's veto of the partial-birth abortion ban.
So let us all appreciate Bush's presidency, and enjoy being respected once again from the powers that be in our great country. But let's also remember two important lessons from political events of the '90s.
Pride Cometh Before a Fall. When Bill Clinton became president eight years ago, his political allies held a weeklong celebration in Washington. The Washington Post triumphantly reported that a new era had begun. Then, the new era never materialized. The administration was rattled by scandal early on, approval ratings for the president plummeted and, in the end, the two policy initiatives his allies like most — government health care and tax increases — tanked. The president lost control of Congress two years later and had to spend his time accomplishing things antithetical to his ideological base.
Likewise, when the Republicans took control of Congress four years later, they declared victory. They celebrated as if they had been made leaders of the free world. Within a year, they, too, saw that they had been over-confident and expected more than they had a right to expect. They also stepped away from the policy proposals they had campaigned on and seemed too gun-shy to accomplish much more.
The political lesson is clear: Getting elected is the first step, not the final victory. Let's be glad that a pro-lifer won the presidency, and be responsive to him when he shows he's on our side. But let's hold the champagne until real, lasting changes have been made in a broad array of areas of concern to us.
Another Catholic president? Another lesson can be learned from an embarrassing essay by novelist Tony Morrison, in which she proclaimed Bill Clinton the first black president. Excited by the promise of the new administration, she made the strange case that his personal history and affinity with blacks made the president a de facto member of her own race.
The “Catholic” circumstances of Bush's election are suggestive. Hundreds of thousands of rosaries were said in a nationwide campaign to defeat his pro-abortion opponent. The key turning points in the election happened on significant Marian feast days. One observer has said of Bush after his election that he has Catholic social teaching “in his blood.”
Such a thing is greatly to be desired. But the wisest course of action is to treat Bush as what he is, a politician, and not to identify him too closely with the faith as such.
Bush is a good politician and, it seems, a good man. He is not the “second Catholic president of the United States.” That's fine. He needn't be to win our admiration, and we shouldn't expect him to be more than he is.
So, yes, let's give Bush the benefit of the doubt — and, more, our greatest regards. But let's make sure he knows that he has to earn our support. Otherwise, we might find ourselves disappointed if we lose him as our ally — and he might find himself just as disappointed if he loses our votes.
----- EXCERPT: Editorial ----- EXTENDED BODY: ------ KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Letters DATE: 02/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 18-24,2001 ----- BODY:
Fan Mail
My wife and I wanted to drop a brief note complimenting the high quality of your newspaper. So impressed have we been that we gave subscriptions to the Register to all five of our married children as Christmas gifts. To our pleasant surprise, all five, as well as most of their spouses, have volunteered to us how eagerly they look forward to each weekly issue.
As the state director for the American Family Association of New York, and the only Catholic state director in this largely evangelical Protestant organization, I am encouraging our Catholic members in New York to consider reading your fine paper as well.
FRANK RUSSO JR. Port Washington, New York
Mary's Birth Pangs
I don't know if this might shed some light on the question of whether or not Mary experienced pain while giving birth to Jesus (“Virgin Birth a Mystery,” Letters, Jan. 21-27 and Feb. 4-10), but Revelation 12:1-2 (New American Bible) seems to be referring to Mary and the birth of our Savior. It reads: “A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth.”
Mary, our mother, experienced many pains and sufferings in her life — I don't think she was immune to these just because she was born without original sin.
ANN LABAR
Atlanta
Reconsidering Hannity
In America today, the politically correct spinmeisters who control the vast majority of our mass-media outlets would have us believe that morality has given way to hedonism. Out of this has come forth an exemplary voice, Sean Hannity, who strongly upholds basic Catholic values. It is refreshing to hear how much his love for his wife Jill and 2-year-old son Sean Patrick are manifest — not only in your fine article (“Speaking his Mind — and His Catholic Faith,” Feb. 4-10), but also in the way he conducts his highly rated radio and TV programs.
Hannity's strong pro-life stance is hard to come by in today's media, which is such a prominent example of “the culture of death” that surrounds us and chokes the very soul from our great country. Your many fine articles following the 28th March for Life in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 22 exhibited a great enthusiasm for life.
I would take issue with Sean Hannity, however, as he makes exceptions [to his pro-life convictions] for rape, incest and the “health” of the mother. Was it not these limitations that decriminalized abortion in the decision of Roe. V. Wade under the guise of a woman's right to choose to take the life of an innocent human being, the preborn child residing and developing within her womb?
As a result of extensive scientific investigation, utilizing the disciplines of genetics, embryology and advanced DNA studies, in conjunction with human obstetrics, it is a fact that at the moment of penetration of an egg by a sperm (fertilization), a distinctively new and unique human being has been created. From day one until birth, the newly formed human being residing within his or her mother is in a continual state of human growth and development. With God's interest and part in every human being created “in his own image and likeness,” we have no right to take the life of any human, before or after birth. We must be there to support and care for every woman in a difficult and unplanned pregnancy. Our Christianity and humanity demands this!
ARTHUR N. HOAGLAND, M.D.
Florham Park, New Jersey
Second Thoughts
I was a prospective student o f the University of San Francisco, but, after observing recent actions taken by the school's president, Jesuit Father Steven Privett, to fire the senior staff at the St. Ignatius Institute (“Alums Pull Donations,” Feb. 4-10), I had a drastic change of heart.
His decisions have been so clearly manipulative and divisive that I am skeptical of the judgment of USF's board of trustees in selecting a leader dedicated to intellectual integrity.
JAKE VOLLEBREGT
San Clemente, California
May Day
I am writing in regard to the Richard Barnes column “The Inauguration, Roe's Anniversary, And A May Afternoon” (Jan. 21-27).
I agree with the entire column and especially the events of Cardinal O' Connor's funeral and what President Bush observed that day as to our pro-life commitment. I am sure the president-to-be confidentially felt he had each person in St. Patrick's Cathedral voting for him during the upcoming election (excluding a couple of rows).
Given his pro-life position, I would assume he also thought he could count on a large portion of the Catholic vote outside of [those people in] St. Patrick's. However, Bush found that a large [percentage] of Catholics did not see it the same way as those in St. Patrick's that afternoon in May.
The president has told this country that he will support the unborn and, so far, has shown it. It is now time for that Catholic majority who seem to be lost to come home and support him. Without that support, the president might be a single voice in Washington against a large majority that also found it difficult to stand that May afternoon.
WILLIAM G. MCKAY
Mamaroneck, New York
Ashcroft: Failed Racist
Regarding your editorial “Fearing John Ashcroft” (Feb. 4-10): Mr. Ashcroft, who voted for 26 out of 27 appointments of black jurists, whose wife teaches at a black university and who, on being confirmed as attorney general asked a black man to administer his oath and then appointed a black man as his deputy, is not worth his salt as a racist.
If he does nothing he will be a much better attorney general than he is a racist. Democrats, in their selection of Terry McAuliffe as party chairman over a black candidate for the job, exhibited the racism and insensitivity of which they falsely accused Mr. Ashcroft.
NANCY WELLS
Potomac, Maryland
Hearing Sudan's Cry
Today I'm entertaining as my guest another spinal headache. Disabled permanently from a car accident and chronic back pain, I often wonder how people cope with pain who have little or no material comforts.
Marjorie Dannenfelser's column “Sudan Cries for Our Care and Our Prayer” (Jan.28-Feb. 3) allows me not only a glimpse of what it would be like but also yet another cup unto which I can offer my relatively “comfortable” suffering.
For the cup of suffering from which the Christians of Sudan are asked to drink is filled with the blood of many unheralded martyrs. It is a deep and bitter cup, but these beautiful fellow Catholics/Christians sip fully and lovingly by God's grace and his gift of courage. Our Sudanese brethren have my respect, love and heart-felt admiration.
After watching a couple of interviews with Bishop Macram Max Gassis on EWTN, I would have taken my body to Africa to help — if only my body could travel. Instead, I took myself to the Internet site which Bishop Gassis mentioned (www.petersvoice.com) and was able to make an on-line donation as well as write letters to legislators decrying the horrors of the religious and human rights persecutions in the Sudan. (The Web site provides all the necessary addresses, which can also be done right then and there via e-mail.)
After a couple of weeks, I received responses from my legislators. It was amazing to read the differences in their facts, which led me to realize that our political leaders need even more letters which state the realities of what is going on in the Sudan, as with the more accurate facts that Mrs. Dannenfelser states in her column.
They need to be encouraged (and pressured) to bring national attention and action upon this horrendous situation.
JOAN MCCLURE
Huntington, Indiana
Editor's note: Sudan Relief and Rescue can be reached by postal mail at P.O. Box 1877, Washington, DC 20013-1877.
Guess Who Else Was At the Inauguration?
In his column “Guess Who Came to the Inauguration?” (Feb. 4-10), Donald DeMarco identified Mother Teresa of Calcutta as the source of President Bush's quotation in his inaugural address:
“Sometimes in life we are called to do great things. But as a saint of our times has said, ‘Every day we are called to do small things with great love.’ The most important tasks of a democracy are done by everyone.”
I enjoyed this column. However, Dr. DeMarco did not mention that Mother Teresa was quoting St. Thérèse of Lisieux. In the book Words to Love By, Mother Teresa says:
“We all want to love God, but how? The Little Flower is a most wonderful example. She did small things with great love. Ordinary things with extraordinary love. That is why she became a great saint.”
In the actual writings of St. Thérèse, we find that doing “small things with great love” is a foundation of her spirituality. In the General Concordance of her completed works, we find that she writes many times that she was “too little to do great things.”
Surely one of the delights of heaven that St. Thérèse and Mother Teresa are now discovering is that God is continuing to use them to proclaim the Gospel in the most unexpected situations — why, even in an American president's inaugural address!
FATHER DONALD KINNEY, O.C.D.
Gervais, Oregon.
Presidential Pal
I'm [writing] to confirm my thanks for the exceptionally positive front-page articles about President Bush's initiatives to block U.S. aid for abortions overseas (by re-instituting President Reagan's 1984 Mexico City policies), and about his current faith-based, community-assistance initiatives.
The accompanying photo from the dining room of Cardinal-Designate McCarrick's residence in Hyattsville, Md., showing President Bush accepting an icon and medallion from Papal Nuncio Gabriel Montalvo and the three other local bishops present, is nothing if not an answer to millions of prayers.
That a sitting Methodist president and his wife would accept, for the first time in the history of our country, a dinner invitation from the Roman Catholic bishop of Washington, D.C., within days of his inauguration, is for me a very humbling reality.
May God reward President Bush's long-promised efforts to affirm life, and guide his faith-based initiatives to strengthen our communities, and may he find the support he deserves in these matters from Catholic Americans of good will.
DON MUNHALL
Worthington, Ohio
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ------ KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Set Our Armed Forces Straight DATE: 02/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 18-24,2001 ----- BODY:
To what degree George W. Bush's Pentagon will reverse eight years of social policies that have exhausted and demoralized the military remains to be seen.
There is much to be done. As commander-in-chief of the U.S. armed forces, Bill Clinton's most dubious innovations included nullifying, if not removing, the service's ban on homosexuals; removing barriers to women serving in combat; and promoting the performance of abortions in military hospitals. In his first week in office, Clinton announced his intention to lift the ban on open homosexuals serving in the military. That announcement created a firestorm within the services and throughout the country. By late July 1993, Clinton was forced to accept the compromise now known as “don't ask, don't tell” (DADT).
The compromise pleased no one — not the individuals practicing homosexuality and encouraged by the culture to “come out,” and not those who recognize the very real problems practicing homosexuals pose to military morale and readiness. The new president could eliminate this game of “cat and mouse” by directing that the homosexual policy be rewritten to reinstate the ability of recruiters to ask questions that were long used to screen out homosexuals.
Social conservatives fought successfully to include in the Republican Party's campaign platform the statement that “homosexuality is incompatible with military service.” In spite of this platform position, President Bush has said that he is a “DADT man” and that he intends to keep the policy.
The “don't ask, don't tell” policy may have been a factor in Bush's decision to reject former U.S. Senator Dan Coats as secretary of defense. Reportedly, Coats opposed what he called “social experimentation,” including accommodation to homosexuals and women in combat. It appears that Bush chose to avoid a fractious struggle over these issues. Donald Rumsfeld, Bush's secretary of defense, sidestepped questions about DADT at his appointment press conference by explaining that it was not an issue Bush had discussed and “certainly, the priorities are in other areas for me.”
Though it appears Bush will keep “don't ask, don't tell,” perhaps he will do a better job of implementing the policy. If he is wise, he will eliminate the highly unpopular homosexual sensitivity training.
Another policy front looks more promising. In April 1993, Les Aspin, Clinton's first secretary of defense, removed more than 250,000 combat exemptions for women. This decision turned readiness considerations on their head by ignoring such common-sense factors as privacy, physical differences between the sexes and the lack of a national consensus.
The Bush Pentagon will make few, but important changes.
Despite surveys showing that few military women wanted to serve in combat, the Clinton Pentagon continued to look for more barriers to remove. Even as his administration was winding down, Clinton aggressively pressed Congress to allow the assignment of women to submarine service. Fortunately, Congress amended the Fiscal 2001 Defense Authorization Act to prohibit women from such service.
Although the number of women in military ranks has swelled to 14%, too few stay past their first enlistment. Women are far more costly to recruit than men, and many choose to leave early due to poor motivation or family issues such as pregnancy.
The Kassebaum Commission evaluated Clinton's coed basic-training policy following a series of sexual misconduct scandals at Aberdeen Proving Grounds. Unfortunately, the recommendation to separate the sexes in basic training was ignored despite clear evidence that readiness would be enhanced. But the Republican platform states: “We support the advancement of women in the military, support their exemption from ground-combat units, and call for implementation of the recommendations of the Kassebaum Commission, which unanimously recommended that coed basic training be ended.”
While President Bush's support of the ground-combat exemption is welcome, it says nothing about the thousands of exemptions already lifted. Women now serve aboard combat ships and aircraft, and many serve in positions that are, of necessity, located near the front lines. Exemptions from such duties should be reinstated. However, aside from the Republican platform, there have been no indications as yet that the new president will aggressively reverse Clinton's “feminization of the military.”
Finally, on January 23, 1993, President Clinton directed the secretary of defense to lift the abortion ban, primarily in overseas military hospitals, arguing that service-women overseas do not have safe, legal-abortion alternatives. Abortions are not performed at domestic military hospitals, based upon the assumption that women have access to private medical facilities. Fortunately, pro-life members of Congress defeated Clinton's attempts to overturn the ban.
Bush's press secretary, Ari Fleischer, said recently, “The president does not support using taxpayer funds to provide abortions.” Although Bush has not directly addressed the issue of abortions in military hospitals, it is expected that his opposition to using taxpayer funds for abortion will apply to them.
President Bush's military social policies will set the tone for the command climate by communicating a message to our troops and to their commanders about what the new commander-in-chief thinks of them and their mission. Appropriate and timely policy changes will revive trust and confidence and improve retention rates. It's high time.
Lt. Col. Robert Maginnis is vice president of national security and foreign affairs for the Family Research Council. He served on the task force that drafted the military's homosexual policy before retiring from the U.S.
Army in 1993.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Robert L.Maginnis ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: The Late, Great St. Ignatius Institute DATE: 02/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 18-24,2001 ----- BODY:Twenty-five years after the founding of St. Ignatius Institute, a Great Books program at the University of San Francisco, the work of longtime directors John Galten and John Hamlon was thriving. The program was bringing bright students and good money to the Jesuit university. Enthusiasm among students and their parents was high.
So it came as the equivalent of an academic earthquake when, on Jan. 19, Galten and Hamlon were summoned to a dean's office and summarily dismissed by order of USF's president, Jesuit Father Stephen Privett.
The St. Ignatius Institute, the two were told, was being “consolidated” with another department for budgetary reasons. Effective immediately, their services as program co-directors would no longer be needed.
There is much to be said about the how and why of this action (even The Wall Street Journal has weighed in on that question). But, for those who graduated from the program, the most important thing that needs to be said is that the St. Ignatius Institute was, in many ways, exactly what Catholic higher education should be.
It was truly alma mater — a “nurturing mother” — to scores of students like me. It trained our minds, our hearts and our wills, and it literally changed us forever.
Mind, Heart and Will
For me, it happened in the bleak moors of Oxford University, where I studied in my junior year with the institute. I experienced in a small way what many people throughout history have experienced, from Solomon to Albert the Great's Paris students to John Keats reading a new translation of Homer. I fell in love with wisdom.
Not that I was a model student. Far from it. I had transferred to the St. Ignatius Institute by mistake, almost, because the University of San Francisco has low scholastic-aptitude test (SAT) requirements. I had heard about the great-books program because I wanted to have lunch with a girl who wanted to talk about it. She explained that it was an academic program that replaced normal core-curriculum requirements in various “majors” with a period by period reading of the Great Books, from the pre-Socratics to the senior year's emphasis on the 20th century.
She was a friend from childhood whom I hadn't seen in years and haven't seen since. We happened to run into each other in Tucson, Ariz., and I happened to mention that I was considering transferring to the University of San Francisco, and she happened to have forms for admission into the St. Ignatius Institute.
The program offered a Junior year abroad in Oxford University in England or Innsbruck, Austria. I chose Oxford and the experience worked the kind of magic on me that the St. Ignatius Institute existed to work.
I ploughed through St. Thomas Aquinas and suddenly saw the truths I'd stumbled on in Aristotle and Plato taking a distinct shape, where before they had been like random shards of light. I read Shakespeare and recognized the allusions he made to the Greeks and Romans I'd met at the institute.
For the first time, I realized that history wasn't the story of succeeding generations making their own realities, but the story of one human family contemplating the same truth and, in a dialogue across the ages, grappling together with the same thorny questions.
When my Oxford classmates and I came back to San Francisco, everything seemed to have changed. But it was us who had changed. It was our senior year, when we immersed ourselves in the “moderns” — and that year, boy, did we ever. Its unique situation, an academic program apart from and yet within the university, meant that there was a tension between the school and the institute.
We threw ourselves into the middle of several campus controversies. There was the matter of the university using student funds for a pro-abortion group, which we opposed strenuously. There was the matter of the Knights of Columbus being briefly banned from the school's lineup of school clubs. And then there were the campus's first homosexual activists organizing and seeking school funding.
We in the institute had the reputation of being a thorn in the side of the university. In my senior year, institute students were setting the agenda in the student government and the student newspaper, and not everyone liked it.
For better or worse, we were known as the pious ones on campus — as well as the ones too willing at times to prove that we weren't so pious after all. But in addition to influencing campus policies, we were also eager to build a faith life on campus.
We populated and perpetuated the 10 p.m. weekday Mass. Students organized rosaries and began a Legion of Mary chapter; the institute itself organized symposiums and talks on religious topics. When Pope John Paul II visited San Francisco in 1986, he praised one institute-run program that he was told of: the monthly all-night adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
The St. Ignatius Institute, without even trying, converted many of us to the Catholic faith. Some formally entered the Church because of the institute. Others, like myself, converted even though, on the outside, it didn't necessarily look like we needed to.
The institute classes didn't emphasize the faith in a heavy-handed way. It was always there, but the courses were interested in learning, not believing. But from learning came believing.
Plato's cave and his disastrous Republic got us thinking about truth vs. appearances, and man's utopian dreams vs. the Church. The Old Testament class, taught by a Birkenstocked Berkeley woman, brought us through the literary genres of the books to the unmistakable conclusion that something more was at work here. The 20th Century Catholic Literary Revival class introduced us to novelists and poets who saw our own times through the lens of faith.
But the crown jewel in the Catholic curriculum of the St. Ignatius Institute was the “Revelation and Christology” class taught by Jesuit Father Joseph Fessio, one of the institute's cofounders. The class had only three texts: Chesterton's Everlasting Man, C.S. Lewis' Miracles and Vatican II's Lumen Gentium. The homework was always just one chapter, but we were quizzed on the homework at each class. The result: We actually read these works with full attention. Protestants who took Revelation and Christology with were not likely to be Protestant much longer. And nominal Catholics often weren't just nominal anymore.
This newfound faith led institute students to do things they would not have otherwise done.
After the earthquake of '89, a group of institute students walked en masse to St. Mary's hospital to volunteer. They were turned away, and helped shuttle students and organize relief efforts in the Marina District instead. Institute students often helped out at the nearby Gift of Love AIDS hospice run by the Missionaries of Charity. The nuns especially needed men's help to help bathe the AIDS patients or chat with the patients and ease their loneliness.
Institute students were committed to social justice on a number of fronts. They were leaders in the campus Amnesty International group when I was there — as well as the Students United for Life. They went to Mexico and Latin America to fight poverty, and did pro-life work in the city. Several got arrested at abortion clinics or, worse, were hounded by the formidable women of BayCOR (Bay Area Coalition against Operation Rescue).
A Door Closes
In all these ways, the institute formed our minds, our hearts and our wills. It made us Catholic men and women. It gave us some of the sweetest and most intense memories of our lives. And then it launched us out into the world. In short, it was a mother — our alma mater.
Its loss will be felt beyond its circle of alumni. That's because the institute was also a model of Catholic education, accomplishing just what Pope John Paul II calls for in his 1995 apostolic constitution for higher education.
“It is the honor and responsibility of a Catholic university to consecrate itself without reserve to the cause of truth,” he writes (No. 4). Institutions so consecrated are “increasingly necessary for the encounter of the Church with the development of the sciences and with the cultures of our age,” he adds, (No. 9).
If the Church is to face the third millennium in a meaningful way, it will need institutions of higher learning, like the institute, that are not afraid to proclaim that truth exists, and that it is knowable.
The claim is being made that the St. Ignatius Institute will continue. Those who took the time to know the institute know better. Its name, perhaps, will be retained. But our mother is gone.
We can take great comfort, however, that her legacy will live on in her sons and daughters who know that there are a thousand theologies, but only one faith.
Tom Hoopes is the Register's executive editor.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Jesse Jackson a Pro-Life Leader? Don't Bet Against It DATE: 02/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 18-24,2001 ----- BODY:I cannot bring myself to join those rubbing their hands with glee over the public shaming of Jesse Jackson over his “love child” — a child he fathered in adultery.
As one who has had critical things to say about Jackson in the past, I can understand the impulse. But I prefer see a pro-life meaning in these events.
Jesse Jackson and his mistress could easily have aborted this child. No doubt, they were both distressed by the discovery of the pregnancy. It is perhaps unreasonable to compare the position of two highly skilled professionals with that of a couple of desperate teenagers.
Yet, precisely because of Jackson's position in the public eye, the temptation to rid himself of a potentially embarrassing situation through abortion must have been enormous. It would have been the easiest thing in the world for Jackson to wipe his hands of the whole situation, by paying his mistress off, pressuring her to have an abortion. Men do it all the time.
The pro-life wing of the conservative world needs to support Jesse at exactly this moment on exactly this point. This is the time for reconciliation: not the phony reconciliation that tries to manufacture some imaginary middle ground between good and evil, or between truth and falsehood. Genuine reconciliation reaches across human divisions to endorse the elements of goodness and truth on the other side. She did the right thing by bringing the child to term. He has done the right thing in supporting her and the child. He has done plenty wrong, of course. But that should not blind us to the fact that they might have swept this child away as inconvenient or even impossible. Instead, they welcomed her into life.
You might ask: Why should we reach out to Jesse Jackson? Think of all the trouble he has given conservatives by painting them at the slightest provocation as the image of Bull Conner. He has a long and unsavory alliance with the most radical pro-abortion extremists, the people who have never seen an abortion they didn't like.
The practical reason to reach out to Jackson is that the African-American community contains large pockets of pro-life sympathy.
Although blacks have large numbers of abortions, black women nonetheless carry many babies to term that their white counterparts would abort. Many blacks feel themselves targeted by the more unsavory elements of the population-control crowd. A study came out a few years ago claiming that legalized abortion had reduced the crime rate since babies statistically more likely to become criminals were also statistically more likely to have been aborted. Black Americans read the subtext: Abort black babies, prevent crime. Black America was aghast. Properly so, in my view.
Moreover, black Americans have proven culturally resistant to birth control — in spite of concerted efforts to make birth control information and methods readily available to the black community. Contraception workers have expressed frustration at attitudes within the black community. Many young black couples hesitate to use contraception, because they think that using it indicates that there is some problem in the relationship. They equate contraception with a lack of trust inside the relationship.
Guess what? This is not so far from the most robust form of the pro-life position, namely the Catholic variety. The Catholic Church teaches that keeping each marital sexual act open to new life enhances the communication and intimacy between the partners. There is a pro-life intuition within the black community. This reckless generosity toward new life unites the pro-life community at large, and large chunks of the African-American community.
Of course, the Catholic Church insists that marriage is the only proper context for sexual activity. This is the biggest gap between the Church and the behavior of the black community (actually the behavior of most of modern America). American culture at large has accepted the Planned Parenthood definition of responsible sex as any sex between consenting adults — as long as a condom is used. The Catholic Church defines responsible sex as getting married and staying married.
Ask yourself this question: Which definition would be more helpful for the black community to adopt for itself, the Planned Parenthood view or the Catholic view? Surely there is no doubt that the black community as a whole would be far better off adopting the Catholic view that getting married and staying married is the context for safe and responsible sex. It is frivolous at this point in history to claim that all would be well if only the black community had greater access to birth control information and technology. The efforts that have already been made are so substantial that the only greater “access” that is possible is compulsion.
There is no obvious reason that the efforts for black advancement have to be linked with the sexual revolution. Where is it written in stone that ethnic minorities must be in political alliance with the pro-abortion extremists? The link between these two issues is strictly functional. The black community and the lifestyle revolution have both been staging grounds from which the radical left can launch its broadsides against American society and its values.
Jesse Jackson has been one of the links in that chain. The radical left has been useful to Jesse because it provides the most effective ideology for accumulating political power ever devised. What if the black community were as closely aligned with pro-life Christian churches as it now is with the Nation of Islam? What would American political life look like had the black vote split as sharply as the Catholic vote?
This scandal has revealed that Jesse Jackson values the well-being of a little girl more than political power. He doesn't know it yet, but he is no longer a man of the left. Let's help him figure it out. Write to Rev. Jackson to tell him you are praying for him to fully embrace the pro-life position that he already intuitively holds. Send your letters to Rev. Jesse Jackson, c/o the Rainbow-Push Coalition, 930 East 50th Street, Chicago, IL 60615-2702.
Jennifer Roback Morse, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution welcomes e-mail at jmorse@jps.net.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY:J. R.Morse KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: St. Jude by the Chesapeake DATE: 02/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 18-24,2001 ----- BODY:The Shrine of St. Jude, located in downtown Baltimore, stands as a fitting American tribute to the popular apostle who has come to be known as the “saint of last resort or impossible cases.”
The shrine was originally built as a Baptist church more than 150 years ago. As the Baptist population proliferated, many of its members moved to the suburbs. The Archdiocese of Baltimore purchased the building in 1904. The Pallottine Fathers, founded by St. Vincent Pallotti (1795-1850),moved in in 1917; they have operated and staffed it ever since. In 1953, the Pallottines began to operate it as a national center for the propagation of devotion to St. Jude.
As you enter the vestibule, a life-size statue of St. Vincent Pallotti greets you, and extends his hand with a loaf of bread. A Bible is tucked under his arm. On a nearby wall, the words “The Charity of Christ Urges Us On” catch the eye. At this shrine, the spirit of St. Vincent Pallotti is interwoven with devotion to St. Jude. The Pallottines, in imitation of their founder's attitude of hope and help, minister to the souls who venture here. St. Jude is the main focal point of petitions and prayers.
As the center double doors open, to the immediate right, St. Jude's Chapel invites pilgrims of all ages and cultural backgrounds to implore the saint for their needs. St. Jude's statue, constructed of four different types of marble, looms high above a pair of kneelers and 1,300 green electric candles.
Petitions Aplenty
Though this apostle and kinsman of Jesus gives ear to every type of request, Pallottine Father Frank Donio, the shrine's director, points out that the saint has long been associated with physical healing. On the floor, a large basket contains an overflow of petitions. “And these are only those we've received in the last two weeks,” notes Father Donio. Large mosaics of the Infant of Prague and “Our Lady of the Chains” adorn the walls. People constantly move in and out of the shrine to pray, particularly the chapel area. As one of the few downtown churches that keeps its doors open until late in the day, visitors come and go, and St. Jude never lacks continual prayers for his powerful intercession.
The back wall of the shrine exhibits an enormous mosaic of Jesus, “San Salvatore,” or “Holy Savior.” Added to the shrine in the 1960s, this beautiful artistic rendering of Christ contains bits of cut glass, stone and marble. The pews surrounding the altar are tri-sided, to ensure that all who assist at Mass will never be more than 10 rows back from the altar. A first-class relic of St. Jude can be venerated after each Mass.
Rich, vibrant colors draw the eye to stained-glass windows where are depicted the Annunciation, Assumption, and Holy Family, as well as St. Michael, St. John the Baptist and Gethsemane. These were all added in the 1930s. At the rear, an exhibit of Our Lady, Queen of Apostles, stands amid the disciples and holy women in the upper room at Pentecost. At the front, near the tabernacle, the Sacred Heart of Jesus keeps a watchful eye over the entire shrine; Our Lady of the Chains stands on the left. Placid chant music plays quietly, creating a contemplative atmosphere.
In the Millennium Room at the St. Jude's Visitor's Center in the lower area, a computer kiosk lists names of persons appealing for prayer, or the names of benefactors.
This computerized display allows the public to touch the screen to pray with members of St. Jude's family. An additional screen allows visitors to access the St. Jude Shrine Web site at www.stjudeshrine.org.
Comfortable benches, and banners of the Pallottine Fathers and St. Vincent Pallotti, decorate the walls to create a place conducive to prayer and reflection. An information desk, located on this lower level, provides pilgrims with schedules of novenas, Masses and general information helpful in maneuvering around the shrine. A large gift shop and all-purpose room are also at ground level.
Shrine of Many Stories
The shrine's dedication to community outreach is outstanding. Programs include food and clothing drives, nursing-home visitations and meetings for those trapped by addiction, all of which simply touch the surface of what St. Jude's Shrine does for the needy. With St. Jude as the central figure, it would be hard to miss the Pallottine charism of apostleship, which emphasizes the need to touch the lives of others, especially those in pain.
As a multicultural worship center, St. Jude's invites the hurting world to come to Jesus with his uplifting and compassionate presence. Around 75,000 visitors come here each year, as well as at least 200 bus pilgrimages.
The Shrine of St. Jude is a place where people like to leave their stories. Even the gift shop functions as a place of ministry, an extension of the shrine's spiritual mission, where people tell others of the graciousness of God through the power of St. Jude.
If you can't visit the shrine personally, your prayer requests can always be sent by mail or Internet; here St. Jude is invoked constantly for spiritual, emotional and physical needs.
St. Jude's body rests in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, and the Baltimore shrine has arranged to have a daily Mass celebrated on the altar above the tomb for the intentions of those who send in petitions or leave them at the shrine.
As we drove out of the city, I looked through some literature given to me during my visit, and found a quote from St. Vincent Pallotti. It reflects the sense of healing and hope that the shrine imparts upon its visitors: “Seek God and you will find God. Seek God in all things and you will find God in all things. Seek God always and you will always find God.”
Anyone who visits here will understand the mission of the Pallottines in light of this quote. St. Jude is a helper close at hand, leading broken souls straight into the heart of God.
Regina Marshall is based in Hamden, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT:Baltimore's Tribute to Saint of Lost Causes ----- EXTENDED BODY:Regina Marshall KEYWORDS: Traveler -------- TITLE: Shout it From the Satellites DATE: 02/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 18-24,2001 ----- BODY:If you're one of the millions of Americans who tune out today's sleazy, phony “reality-TV” programs, here's good news: Real reality-TV is here.
“Vatican TV” is coming to the Americas for the first time, thanks to the Vatican's new “CTV to America” project. The Centro Televisivo Vaticano (Vatican Television Center) under director general Msgr. Ugo Moretto, can now broadcast to many TV stations in North and South America by direct satellite linkup, bypassing expensive intermediate hookups necessary in the past.
Inaugurating an uplink earth station that telecasts via digital satellites, CTV sent its first direct show to the Americas on Jan. 7: Mass in the Sistine Chapel for the feast of the Baptism of Jesus, at which Pope John Paul II baptized 18 babies from around the globe.
With the new service from Vatican Television, most networks in North and South America can now access live papal programming, and at no cost.
The scope of CTV to America's programming here is to be relatively modest, at least at first. CTV will transmit the Pope's Sunday midday Angelus prayer in St. Peter's Square, live, followed by “Octava Dies/Vatican Weekly Magazine,” according to Msgr. Moretto. On Wednesdays the service will transmit a recording of the Holy Father's general-audience address.
Plans are in the works for expanded programming. “This live feed with top-quality images is a first step,” says Msgr. Moretto. He wants to send America more of the 150 papal events that Vatican Television covers in an average year. “We would like to broadcast as well the papal visits worldwide, and news of the Holy Father's daily activities,” he says.
“There is also the possibility of broadcasting concerts, shows and the catechesis meetings that are frequently organized in Rome,” says Msgr. Moretto. “All those who are willing to spread the messages of the Pope and to give direct information concerning the activities of the Holy Father and the Holy See are interested exactly in this kind of service.”
Audience in Waiting
For now, the CTV to America signal reaches just the eastern half of the United States. It also reaches much of eastern Canada, as well as two large areas in South America. Msgr. Moretto says the service will “investigate new possibilities” to retransmit the feed from the East to the West Coast in the United States.
He adds that, with the input of Archbishop John Foley, head of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, he will present a plan for the CTV to America project to the council's plenary meeting, which is scheduled for March.
Msgr. Moretto has got some good support. In his message for World Communications Day this May 27, Pope John Paul II will extol “satellite telecasts of religious ceremonies which often reach a global audience.” (His statement for the occasion was released Jan. 24.) The Holy Father will cite such broadcasts as “unique opportunities for proclaiming the saving truth of Christ to the whole human family.”
Using the theme “proclaim from the housetops” (see Matthew 10:27), the Pope will note the “forest of transmitters and antennae” atop houses nowadays and say, “To proclaim the faith from the housetops today means to speak Jesus' word in and through the dynamic world of communications.”
Reaction to the new availability of papal events on live TV in the United States has so far been positive. Sister Mary Ann Walsh, deputy director for media relations at the U.S. Catholic Conference's department of communications in Washington, D.C., says, “We've received information about CTV and look forward to ways in which we can assist.”
“Making live TV from the Vatican easily accessible and free in the Americas is a great step by CTV,” says Corinne Vause, a communications consultant and retired professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara. “This kind of programming will help TV viewers survive spiritual dangers, which are a lot more real than the dangers on ‘reality’ TV.”
Rome, U.S.
Doug Keck, vice president of production and programming at the Eternal Word Television Network in Birmingham, Ala., says, “EWTN plans to use the new service during the Pope's upcoming Feb. 21 consistory [which creates new cardinals] to bring live coverage of the event to our TV viewers and radio listeners.”
“The advantage for us, or technically for any TV station in the United States,” adds Keck, “will be the ability to more directly access Church events from Rome without having to make special costly arrangements.”
Giving the viewing public easy access to Church events is important, says Msgr. Moretto. “A constant broadcasting of the Holy Father's activities,” he says, is “direct information of utmost usefulness for gaining better insight into the life and teaching of the Church, as well as activities of the Holy See.”
Keck says, “Certainly, CTV has taken a major leap forward in its efforts to get the Pope's message out to the world, and specifically the Americas.”
CTV, according to the center's statute, helps spread the Gospel by using television to document the Pope's pastoral ministry and the activities of the Apostolic See.
Besides doing live broadcasts of special events inside the Vatican, CTV covers the Pope's daily activities and distributes its footage to the media on request. The center also produces documentaries on the Pope's pontificate, the Vatican, and Rome's basilicas.
Additionally, CTV maintains a 10,000-cassette video archive of the Holy Father's activities since 1984. A computerized filing system makes it possible to retrieve items by subject matter, date and so on.
Getting out the Pope's message is at the heart of the Vatican Television Center's mission, Msgr. Moretto adds. The center's statute says that Pope John Paul II set it up (in 1983) “with the aim of contributing to the universal proclamation of the Gospel.”
The statute also says that the center's duty is to “promote the presence of the Apostolic See in the television and audiovisual field throughout the world.”
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California
----- EXCERPT: Vatican TV to be beamed to the Americas ----- EXTENDED BODY:Daniel J.Engler KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 02/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 18-24,2001 ----- BODY:Joseph: King of Dreams(2000)
Sequels are sometimes a good thing. After Dreamworks' success with The Prince of Egypt, which told the story of Moses, the studio has once again combined state-of-the-art hand-drawn and computer animation with Broadway-like show tunes to create a reverent biblical epic. Joseph: King of Dreams is a funny, moving chronicle of Jacob's favorite son and his travails in Egypt. It will please children and adults alike.
Most of the movie sticks to the original Genesis account, with a few changes that fill in the blanks and don't detract from the overall message. It cleverly establishes how the resentment of Joseph's brothers led to their selling him into slavery. The theme is God's omnipotence, his plan for each of our lives and the need to trust him in dark times.
Andrei Rublev (1966)
The religious icons produced by the monks of the Russian Orthodox faith are sublime. Andrei Rublev, one of the Vatican's top 45 films, is an imaginative presentation of their creative process.Director Andrei Tarkovsky (The Sacrifice) uses an episodic structure to narrate the life of 15th-century icon painter Andrei Rublev (Anatoli Solo-nitzine). Each incident illustrates a different problem inherent in Andrei's vocation or an aspect of the era's social and political culture, including bizarre pagan rites, state-sanctioned religious persecution and ethnic rivalry.
Even though artistic freedom is severely limited, everyone believes in God and continually looks for signs of his handiwork in their daily lives. Our contemporary religious practices and beliefs may be less severe, but they seem lukewarm by comparison. “Only by prayer can the soul transcend the flesh,” says Andrei in describing his approach to life and art.
— John Prizer
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE:Weekly TV Picks DATE: 02/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 18-24,2001 ----- BODY:All times Eastern
SUNDAY, FEB. 18
The Daytona 500
Fox, 1 p.m.
NASCAR kicks off the 53rd Winston Cup stock car racing season with this 500-mile classic. Always a thrill ride, the venerable Daytona 500 is one of some two dozen races that new NASCAR venues Fox and NBC will broadcast this year.
SUNDAY, FEB. 18
Frederick Douglass
Biography; check local listings for time
“I will not equivocate — I will not retreat a single inch — and I will be heard.” That was the credo of Douglass (1817-95), who escaped from slavery as a youth and became a leading abolitionist, a prolific writer and one of America's greatest orators ever.
MONDAY, FEB. 19
The Black Cowboys
History, 6 a.m.
This Emmy-winning show tells the little-known story of the black cowboys of the Old West. Actor Danny Glover hosts.
MONDAY, FEB. 19
The Unfinished Civil War
History, 6 p.m.
The spirit of Billy Yank and Johnny Reb lives on today in the Civil War re-enactor movement. This documentary captures the motivations of the re-enactors including those who portray black soldiers. Alert: Some graphic photos of actual Civil War casualties.
MON.-WED., FEB. 19-21
Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided
PBS; check local listings for time In this three-night, six-hour documentary, writer-director David Grubin creates a thorough and compelling portrayal of the Lincolns and their sometimes loving, sometimes heroic and often tragic married life. David McCullough narrates.
WEDNESDAY, FEB. 21
The Consistory of Cardinals
EWTN, Time TBA
EWTN viewers in the eastern half of the country will be able to see the consistory for the new cardinals live, thanks to Vatican TV's new availability via digital satellite hookup.
THURSDAY, FEB. 22
Life on the Rock
EWTN, 8 p.m.
Join genial host Jeff Cavins and his guest Tony Melendez, the Catholic singer-composer who plays the guitar with his toes because he was born without arms. Pope John Paul II told him in 1987, “Tony … continue giving hope to all the people.”
THURSDAY, FEB. 22
The Danger on Our Plates
A&E, 10 p.m.
This A&E/New York Times report focuses on the danger posed by food poisoning, which puts some 350,000 Americans in the hospital each year. Experts discuss the E.coli bacterium and what public and private health measures can do.
SATURDAY, FEB. 24
Edith Stein
EWTN, 8 p.m.
A 90-minute portrayal of a modern saint — a philosopher who converted from Judaism, became a Carmelite sister and gave her life in a Nazi death camp.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Daniel J. Engler KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Archbishop, Not Archenemy DATE: 02/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 18-24,2001 ----- BODY:Last December, The Hoya, Georgetown University's student newspaper, printed the following editorial about Washington, D.C.'s new archbishop, Theodore McCarrick. He will be elevated to the rank of cardinal this week, at a consistory in the Vatican.
Last Tuesday, Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick became archbishop of the Archdiocese of Washington, which includes Georgetown University. The role of this figure to Georgetown historically has been an important one, and introductions are in order.
Georgetown University, as a Catholic institution that is part of the Archdiocese of Washington, has a responsibility to uphold established dogma, doctrine and ideals of the Roman Catholic Church. Georgetown students, as a part of this institution and part of that archdiocese, are ultimately under McCarrick's jurisdiction with regards to issues of Catholicism.
As he prepares to step into this authoritative role, certain aspects of McCarrick's background become important to his potential interaction with us at Georgetown. McCarrick has been involved with education. As a former dean of students of Catholic University, the archbishop has dealt with the dayto-day functions of a university and its students. Hopefully, this exposure will translate into a sympathetic understanding of a university's internal and external conflicts. McCarrick's involvement in higher education should serve to bridge the gap between the university and archdiocese and help us find common ground in maintaining a Catholic identity.
As a former chairman of the U.S. bishops' committee on international policy, McCarrick has experience with international matters, an important notch on the belt of the leading Catholic figure in the nation's capital. In this role with the U.S. bishops' committee, McCarrick embodied the Jesuit ideal of men and women for others in his support of debt relief for developing countries and aiding immigrants and refugees. Certainly, Georgetown and McCarrick have parallel goals.
In recent history, Georgetown's interaction with the Archbishop of Washington has come in times of conflict. The archbishop often serves as the voice of authority in a give-and-take relationship between academic freedom and upholding Catholic ideals. In the past, this authority has stepped in to reprimand and advise the university when issues have arisen which draw the university's Catholic identity into question. Battles over Larry Flynt's controversial on-campus speech two years ago and consideration of funding groups like Hoyas for Choice have brought struggles of Georgetown as a marketplace for ideas versus Georgetown as a Catholic stronghold to the fore-front. The archbishop has traditionally had the difficult role of stepping in when the fuzzy line between these two roles has to be drawn.
McCarrick ultimately will be the authority of one aspect of Georgetown University. Georgetown has a dual mission. As Catholic and as a university, Georgetown has to balance the ideas, freedoms and beliefs within the mold of a Catholic institution. While the university president has primary responsibility to maintain Georgetown's Catholic identity and efficiency, the archbishop is a looming authority. The archbishop's role should be to help Georgetown make sure that it can be a great university and a great Catholic university. A little guidance on the way to greatness never hurts.
With similar goals for Georgetown and common Catholic ideals to uphold, the university and McCarrick have every incentive to work together. Georgetown plays a role in the Catholicism of the archbishop and his diocese, and McCarrick plays a role in the university's status as a Catholic institution. We can, and should, work together.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: The Chair of St. Peter in the Third Millennium DATE: 02/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 18-24,2001 ----- BODY:It all starts in a restaurant not far from the Vatican. Over spaghetti and vino, the author, a Catholic journalist, converses with a “Vaticanologist” about the future of the papacy. His colleague believes in defining papal authority downward.
Russell Shaw is reporting, but he's not buying.
In his 1995 encyclical on ecumenism Ut Unum Sint (That They May Be One), Pope John Paul II invited the Christian world to suggest new ways for the pope to exercise primacy in the Church. This book reports on the resulting dialogue, citing contributions from Anglican and Orthodox theologians as well as Catholic responses from bishops and radicals.
It seems that a lot of people would like to “tame” the pope. Many want to decentralize authority in the Church and give more autonomy to the local bishop. Some contrive democratic structures for consultation and papal elections. There's even been a call for term limits. Shaw surveys this entire landscape, providing an insightful reflection for Feb. 22, feast of the Chair of St. Peter.
With a veteran reporter's analytical eye, Shaw details the Church's perennial struggle to maintain independence from worldly powers, from Constantine to Napoleon. In the crucible of history, the Church learned that the pope has the last word in doctrinal disputes and that pronouncements of an ecumenical council are valid only when approved by the bishop of Rome. Shaw demonstrates how the nature of the papacy became more clearly understood as a succession of pontiffs navigated the bark of Peter between the whirlpool of conciliarism and the jagged boulders of Caesaro-papism.
Vatican I defined the doctrine of papal infallibility in the mid-19th century, but political unrest interrupted the council before its work was completed. The Second Vatican Council made progress toward a definition of the bishops' role in the Church, in their respective dioceses and collectively. Vatican II, so to speak, painted the second panel of the diptych. The question in many minds today is, how does collegiality work in practice? Exactly how should the two panels be hinged together?
“Bishops are neither the pope's local representatives nor his rivals for power,” writes Shaw. “They are leaders — pastors — of the Church in their own right, with a duty to teach, sanctify and govern the faithful in union with the pope and one another.”
Collegiality, as Shaw presents it, is not so much a theological formula to be pinned down as it is a complex, unfolding story. It is this story that the journalist tracks down. Radical critics of the papa-cy are part of the story, and the author lets their views be heard.
Shaw's commentary is skillful, engaging and thoroughly up-to-date. A fascinating appendix on “How the Pope is Elected” spells out the latest rules published in 1996. The author also cites thought-provoking statements on the subject by Cardinal John Henry Newman and others.
A genuinely Catholic image of the Church emerges — a Church not just for all nations, but for all times. The pope cannot be subject to majority opinion, principally because he is bound to ageless Truth.
“The pope is not the principle of unity; the Holy Spirit is,” Shaw writes. “But the pope is a principle of unity, and an indispensable one. He does not perform this service through a symbolic primacy of honor, but by authoritative teaching and governing. Yet even though he is not subject to any other authority in the Church, the pope is totally subordinate to Christ, and the answer to the question ‘Who will guard the guardian?’ is in this case: ‘The Holy Spirit.’”
Michael J. Miller writes from
Glenside, Pennsylvania.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Michael j. Miller ----- KEYWORDS: Book -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 02/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 18-24,2001 ----- BODY:Gates An Unexpected Donor
SEATTLE TIMES, Feb. 1 — The Diocese of Yakima Catholic School District just got a $1.36 million windfall, the Seattle daily reported — and the source might come as a surprise.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is known for funding numerous population-control and pro-abortion international agencies, announced that the Yakima diocese will get its grant over five years. The diocese is the first Washington private school district to receive a grant from the Gates Foundation, although one Catholic school in Spokane, Wash., had received an individual grant earlier.
The diocese will use the money to buy computers for the district's supervisor and its eight principals, as well as to increase teacher training, improve curricula and buy computers for teachers.
ROTC and Pacifists Find Truce at Notre Dame
THE OBSERVER, Jan. 30 — Students at the University of Notre Dame are forging an unusual bond between peace activists and cadets in the Reserve Officer Training Corps, the university's student daily reported. The school's pacifist group, Pax Christi, even counts an Air Force cadet among its members.
The group's discussions draw up to 100 students, including many cadets and officers exploring what it means to be a Catholic in the military. Notre Dame has 375 students in ROTC, one of the largest programs in the country.
Although Pax Christi, which was founded to oppose ROTC's presence on campus, initially alienated many cadets by sponsoring lectures like “Ten reasons why ROTC should be banned from Notre Dame's campus,” it now hosts dialogues in which cadets can present their own beliefs. Pacifists and supporters of Catholic just war theory square off regularly. And every month, the officers who run the school's ROTC programs have lunch with professors from the Peace Studies program to discuss issues relating to pacifism and the just use of force.
Dispute Continues at Boston College
BOSTON GLOBE, Feb. 8 — Boston College thought that a 25-year dispute with a radical feminist had ended when theology professor Mary Daly agreed to drop her lawsuit against the school, the Boston daily reported.
Daly, the author of Beyond God the Father, has refused to allow men into her class for the past 25 years, despite Boston College's repeated requests. In 1999 she told the college that she would rather stop teaching than admit men. The college then announced that she had retired — prompting Daly to sue for breach of contract and violation of tenure rights.
The two sides signed a pact in early February, in which Daly agreed to retire. But the Chronicle of Higher Education reported that Daly's lawyer apparently violated that settlement by issuing a press release claiming “victory” for Daly. Both sides must now enter a new round of negotiations.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Family Matters DATE: 02/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 18-24,2001 ----- BODY:Reversing Depression
Q My husband has been struggling with depression for years. Our health plan would only cover a few sessions with a therapist and we don't have the money to pay for care beyond that, so we don't know what to do. I pray about it constantly. What else can I do?
A Perhaps it helps to look at it this way: If you had bald tires on the family van and very little money, what would you do? If you lived in a dangerous neighborhood and your front door wouldn't lock, what would you do?
There are some things you don't want to simply accept or endure. Physical injury, safety concerns and serious mental health problems are all matters that we must deal with aggressively.
In our culture, where depression and chronic unhappiness are so common, we can start to think: “Hey, he's depressed; it's unfortunate, but that's the burden we have to bear.” But that's not so.
Depression, as opposed to episodic unhappiness, is debilitating. When left untreated, depressed parents are generally unable to provide the positive, supportive environment that a home needs. Domestic duties go unmet, plans unfulfilled. Happiness in the home is deflated, often producing a more serious withdrawal and a downward spiral that can even lead to death.
This is not normal. It should not be regarded as “just the way it goes.” It's radically abnormal, even though it's prevalent; and it's not what Christ intends for us.
Some of these problems may be related to temperament or to specific hardships. But we were created to give life, to spread the joy of the Gospel and to transmit love. Anything other than that as a normal way of life is odd, peculiar and unacceptable.
So, do anything you can to meet your husband's problem head on and get it behind him. Treat it like a crisis, because it is. Don't adjust to it, don't learn to live with it, don't apologize for it and don't blame. Commit yourself instead to bringing hope and joy back into his life.
If he'll go, you could start by seeking spiritual direction together. It helps to make sure that spiritual issues are being addressed thoughtfully and coherently — to be sure that you can benefit from God's grace.
But spiritual guidance must also be supplemented with professional clinical help. Talking with a therapist to get to the bottom of the depression, and to manage it, is critical. Anti-depressant medication may or may not be necessary. Find a qualified orthodox Catholic therapist if possible. Talk about the fee issue and try to work something out. But don't let a balanced budget get in the way because the situation is only likely to get worse. Be willing to give your total involvement as well, if it's called for.
Depression is treatable. Treating it is challenging, however, and at times exasperating — and potentially expensive. Therein lies the difficulty, but it's necessary to marshal all your resources — including prayer — to defeat it.
Art Bennett A. Bennett is a marriage, family and child therapist.
Reach Family Matters at familymatters@ncregister.com
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY:Art A.Bennett KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: In Fatima, Composer Finds Peace at Last DATE: 02/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 18-24,2001 ----- BODY:Originally a nurse by training, Barbara Oleynick Dwyer is a playwright, composer and lyricist. She returned to the Church after a 12-year absence. She holds a master of fine arts degree from New York University Tisch School of the Arts in Writing Musical Theater and is adjunct professor of English and Communications at Sacred Heart University in Bridgeport, Conn. Her dramatic musical Fatima premiered Nov. 30. She recently spoke with Register features correspondent Tim Drake.
Drake: Tell me about your background.
Oleynick Dwyer: I grew up in a family of 10 in Bridgeport, Conn. My father was in World War II and worked for the City of Bridgeport. My mother held various secretarial jobs with different banks.
Both of my parents were very musical. My father had met my mother when he was 14 years old. My mother's mother was a composer and he [my father] had gone to her for violin lessons. My mother played the piano and harmonica and my father played five different instruments. I was vocally creating music by the time I was 11. Of all the children, I took music the furthest.
I understand that you had a very difficult childhood?
I was abused for most of my childhood. At the age of 14, after a suicide attempt, I made the conscious decision to choose life and to choose God. I worked 35 hours a week, at a toy store and the Credit Bureau in order to pay my tuition and put myself through Cathedral High School in Bridgeport.
When it came time to graduate I was told that I had flunked English. I was told I could not graduate, although I had been accepted into a nursing program. I felt that my way out had been taken away from me at that moment.
Fortunately, the director of the nursing program at St. Vincent's Hospital asked me to come see her. I was sobbing and she took my face into her hands and said, “You will take a summer class and you will get an A, and you will sit in the first row of my class in the fall.” I did, and then spent the next 28 years as a nurse. Today, I teach the very class which I had flunked, at the college level.
You only just recently returned to the Church after a long absence. Can you explain?
Ten years into my marriage, when I started dealing with my past abuse, I realized I didn't have the tools to deal with all I had been through. I was leading music at my parish at the time, and when the pastor learned of my separation he asked me to step down. By doing so he was asking me to step away from something which had provided me great comfort and connection.
I felt both abandoned and devastated and so I left the Church. I was in a tailspin for many years searching for a spiritual family. I was fragmented and I tried Unitarianism. I spent the next 12 years angry with the Church. Anytime I would attempt to go back to Mass I would become so angry that I couldn't stay for the entire Mass.
In April of 1998, a friend and his mother invited me to attend Mass with them at a small Church in Orange, Conn. I sat there during Mass and I felt very moved by the fact that all of these people had come together, from whatever and wherever they come from, to celebrate God. It was like a window opening for me and I found that I was able to start going to Church again. I found an unbelievable joy, like that which I used to experience, when I was able to go back to Communion.
How did the idea for the musical come to you?
I was attending NYU and needed to submit a thesis project. I faced the task of writing an entire musical on my own. At first I thought I might turn my autobiography into a musical, but one day while jogging on the beach in Milford and praying my rosary I heard “You must write about the Marian apparitions.” I couldn't figure out where it came from. I knew nothing about Marian apparitions.
The idea hit me again while I was in the shower. At first, I resisted. I thought, “What is this? This is a joke. How can such an idea translate into a musical?” As I began to do research on Marian apparitions I learned that Mary had reportedly appeared more than 8,000 times since 40 AD and I wondered how I would condense all of this down into a 2-hour musical. I literally went from a state of laughing at the idea to feeling unworthy of it.
I felt drawn to attend daily Mass and to seek out the answer from God. It was the first time in my life that I sought God's counsel and through that I learned that if we are quiet and we listen, we will always be guided to where we are supposed to go.
How did you finally settle on the Fatima apparition?
From the 8,000 apparitions I kept paring it down, first to 15, and then to five. The five included Our Lady's appearance to St. James in 40 AD; Fatima; Zeton, Egypt; Zimbabwe, Africa; and Medgugorje. Eventually, through the help of classmates in my program at NYU I was able to pare it down to Fatima alone.
What did you learn from your research on Mary's apparitions throughout history?
I learned that the Blessed Mother is an ever-present force in our lives with the recurring messages that we need to stop offending God and that we are capable of living in peace if we would only pray. A prayerful state puts you into a more holy state. That has been the recurring theme of all of the different Marian apparitions.
What are your hopes for the play?
I would like to create 13 performance companies throughout the world. I want to use the gifts given to me by God and to serve him as an instrument of peace. My goal is to have about 100,000 people a week hearing this. If we can get 10% of that number impacted somehow that they know they are not alone and that they have within them the ability to create peace and that prayer is the way to help that happen.
What kind of response has the musical been getting?
It has been getting a very favorable response. We brought in more than 2,400 children for the show in Bridgeport, and it was remarkable to watch their faces. Children ages 5 to 19 sat there on the edge of their seats.
The show has also made grown men cry. One father came up to me after the show and said, “I was dragged here, but by the middle of the first act I was hoping there wasn't going to be an intermission.” Another father who came to the show with his daughter told me that not a week goes by where she doesn't talk about the musical and ask when they can see it again.
Is it likely it may find its way to Broadway?
A professional producer has asked to see a showcase, so it's possible. If that is where God wants it to play then it will. However, because of the cost of such tickets it will limit the audience. The more people that see this show the better off we will all be.
What do you have planned next?
The musical will be playing at St. Thomas Seminary in Bloomfield, Conn., in the spring, and at St. Bernard's High School there in May. In addition, we will be offering two two-week Fatima summer theater camps for children in July. We will be utilizing the story and roles from Fatima so that when we take the show to other areas children will be able to audition for it. It will be held at Father Bill McCarthy's retreat house My Father's House in Moodus, Conn.
I recently finished my latest project, also divinely inspired. It is a screenplay entitled Blessed Is Her Name. It is based on the manifested works of the Venerable 17th century nun, Mary Agreda of Spain. I know without a doubt that I was to write Fatima first, for there is a miracle that happened in our time. A miracle witnessed by 70,000 people. And a plan for peace. Blessed Is Her Name will show who sent that plan.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY:Tim Drake KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: The Lynns' Second Chance DATE: 02/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 18-24,2001 ----- BODY:“Each of our six children seems a miracle,” say Sean and Michele Lynn of Calgary, Alberta. But in a special way, the last three are “miracle babies” — children they were told they would probably never be able to conceive.
Married in 1984, the Lynns had their first three children quickly. Sean was a driller on the oil rigs then and was away from home often. “Life was extremely difficult,” Michele recalls. “I was basically a single mum with three small children.”
Financially strapped, emotionally overwhelmed, totally clueless about the moral teaching of the Catholic Church in which both had been raised, the Lynns finally took the step that family and friends had been urging as the most reasonable and responsible solution to their problems. At age 25, Sean had a vasectomy.
Vasectomy makes men sterile by blocking the tubes through which sperm pass into the semen. Each year, more than half a million men in the U.S. undergo the procedure; in Canada, the figure stands at about 50,000, roughly the same population percentage.
Proponents of vasectomy hail it as safe, simple, and relatively inexpensive birth control that is nearly 100% effective in preventing pregnancy. It is usually permanent. Vasectomy reversals are difficult and most often unsuccessful. For a variety of reasons, only a small percentage of the 36,000 American men each year who have reversals go on to father children.
But in 1989 Sean and Michele weren't thinking much beyond “enough's enough.” They had their family, and that year Sean also got his “dream job” with the Calgary police department.
But police work was stressful, and hard on marriages. “Michele and I were struggling,” says Sean. “And although we considered ourselves good Catholics, we certainly weren't looking to God for answers.”
Faith issues came to the foreground when Sean's youngest sister left the Catholic Church and became a Mormon. “Are we practicing what we believe?” the couple began asking themselves. “What exactly do we believe?”
A conversation with fellow police officer Jim Amsing, a Dutch Reformed Christian, pointed the Lynns in the right direction. As he and Sean patrolled the streets one night in October 1994, Jim explained that he and his wife did not use artificial birth control. It was because of something he had read while studying theology at a Protestant college, he told Sean: “Humanae Vitae. As soon as I read it, I said to myself, ‘This is the truth!’“
“What's Humanae Vitae?” Sean wanted to know. In twelve years of Catholic education, he had never heard of it. Jim responded by presenting the Catholic teaching on conjugal love and contraception, as articulated in Pope Paul VI's 1968 encyclical. For the first time, Sean realized that vasectomy, like other forms of direct sterilization, isn't merely a matter of personal choice: It is forbidden by the Church since it contravenes a married couple's full openness to each other.
A month later, the Lynns spent a quiet get-away week studying and discussing Catholic teaching. It was a total conversion to the faith, they say — ”an awakening, like Pentecost.”
They decided to seek a vasectomy reversal. “We knew from talking to our priest that the Church doesn't require this,” says Michele. Still, the couple wanted to make some reparation for having opposed God's purposes for their marriage. No matter that the chance of success was small. That's “completely up to God,” they decided.
Today, the effects of the Lynns' 1994 season of grace are abundantly obvious. The Lynns have become informed, committed Catholics who are eager to share their faith.
Michele focuses on providing a solid spiritual formation for the children, whom she now home schools. Sean has organized men's conferences and told his story often. With three other police officers — including Jim Amsing, whose whole family has come into the Church — he began monthly prayer sessions where officers meet to pray 15 decades of the rosary. As time permits, the Lynns run a Catholic book ministry.
But the most visible consequences of their radical change of heart are the three children born since Sean's vasectomy reversal: Emily (4), Peter (2), and Patrick (1). “It's so humbling to be entrusted with new life after having refused it for so many years,” says Michele.
Sean agrees. “To have messed up so royally and then to be so blessed with these little ones…. I can't imagine life without them. But you know,” he adds in reference to Meghan (almost 16), Kelsey (almost 14), and Timothy (12), “all our children seem more of a miracle to me now. Each is such a gift from God.”
“Sometimes,” Sean admits, “I think about the other children — the ones who should have been in that spot between Timothy and Emily. That's a hard way to look at it. But when I remember how good God is and how he turned everything around for us, I forget the gap and the guilt. I just thank him again and again for his grace.”
----- EXCERPT:Saying Yes to Life after Saying No ----- EXTENDED BODY:Louise Perrotta KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: Life Notes DATE: 02/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: February 18-24,2001 ----- BODY:Paying the Stork in Quebec
THE GLOBE AND MAIL, Jan. 31 — During its nine-year existence, Quebec's controversial policy of giving couples cash to have babies was considered a failure, reported the Globe and Mail.
But recent studies suggest that paying couples to procreate works after all. During the period Quebec implemented the policy, it brought the province's abysmal birth rate almost in line with the rest of Canada.
“People respond to incentives,” said Kevin Milligan, a University of Toronto economics doctoral candidate who completed a study on Quebec's baby bonus. “If a couple is on the edge, saying ‘Should we have a child or not,’ this kind of thing would push them over the edge,” reported the Globe and Mail.
Milligan's study, called “Subsidizing the Stork,” found that the bonuses had a “strong, positive and robust” impact on Quebeckers' fertility, which grew overall by 12%.
The bonuses went from $500 for a first baby up to $8,000 for a third.
Now in 3-D: Your Unborn Child
NEW YORK POST, Feb. 1 — Pregnant moms now can see the faces of their unborn babies thanks to a new, high-tech ultrasound device. The $175,000 3-D scanner also lets doctors spot pre-birth abnormalities more easily, reported the New York Post.
Siemens, the company that manufactures the device, says the imaging is so sharp it produces crystal-clear photos of a baby's face and body features.
It will be able to instantly show the child's gender. And the photos are available within seconds.
“Parents will now be able to see detail that was previously difficult to appreciate in two dimensions,” Dr. Rose de Bryn said.
No More Contraceptives
ANANOVA, Feb. 3 — A Belgian pharmacist has stopped selling contraceptives, condoms or morning-after pills because of his Christian belief, reported Ananova, an Internet media company.
Paul Vannes from Ruisbroek directs customers wanting contraceptives to a nearby pharmacy.
Vannes says retreats at different abbeys over the last two years have made him see the error of his ways, reported Ananova.
He said, “The friars told me literally that I should stop selling products which prevent or end life.”
Miracle Child Battles for Life
STARS AND STRIPES, Jan. 25 — Tammy Herring, a labor and delivery nurse at the Army hospital in Heidelberg, Germany, couldn't believe what was happening when her water broke. She was only 22 weeks into her pregnancy, reported Stars and Stripes.
Her own hospital was unequipped to deal with the situation, so Herring was rushed to the German hospital. After a week of trying to keep the baby alive inside her, doctors delivered her son Joseph via Cesarean section Oct. 2, more than three months early.
The baby was 12 inches long and just over 1 pound when he was born. Only doll clothes were small enough to fit him, reported Stars and Stripes.
Still in the intensive care, Joseph has quadrupled his weight and his doctors are hopeful.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life ----- TITLE: Catholics Boycott St. Patrick's Day Parade DATE: 03/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 11-17,2001 ----- BODY:NEW YORK — Green turned blue March 4 for thousands of Catholics on Staten Island who boycotted an early St. Patrick's Day parade on Staten Island.
At issue is whether a local politician who supports abortion should lead the annual parade, which is underwritten by the Hibernians.
According to Msgr. Peter Finn, co-vicar for Catholics in the borough, the answer is No: The Hibernians are pro-life, and the man leading their largest event of the year should be pro-life too.
But a majority of the Hibernians responsible for choosing the parade's grand marshal disagreed. In January, they elected Councilman Jerome O'Donovan, who supports legal abortion, to fill the honorary role.
Staten Island Hibernian President Bill Reilly would not return calls for this story.
Contacted in Florida, the organization's national president, Thomas Gilligan, also said he “had nothing to say” about how the abortion issue rained on his affiliate's parade.
The choice was a defiant one. Two weeks before the election, Msgr. Finn met privately with the parade committee and O'Donovan, explaining that he would boycott the parade if a pro-abortion politician led it.
“The sad thing is that the selection was made in spite of those discussions,” Msgr.
Finn told the Register. “The point here is the honor and highlighting, if you will, that goes with the position of grand marshal.”
When Msgr. Finn announced that he would honor his pledge by boycotting the parade — a move that was quickly seconded by the Knights of Columbus, the Ladies Division of the Hibernians and several Staten Island schools — parade organizers held their ground.
Preparing for the prospect of depleted numbers, they began to advertise the parade around town, something Staten Island native Joe Gerrito called a first.
Gerrito, who owns a restaurant/bar along the parade strip, said Msgr. Finn is “very well-known and respected for everything he's done,” for Staten Island Catholics. He questioned Msgr. Finn's consistency, however, saying that two pro-abortion grand marshals have led Staten Island's St. Patrick's Day parade in the past with no one raising the issue.
Msgr. Finn countered that when it has come to light that a candidate for grand marshal was an abortion supporter, he has always voiced opposition. “There has been a great deal of consistency on this issue,” Msgr. Finn said, noting that Councilman O'Donovan was up for nomination five years ago, but that his election was blocked “because of this very stance.”
Staten Island resident Virginia Hogan also brushed off the allegation of inconsistency, saying, “This is the first time that we have been aware of a grand marshal being pro-choice.”
Hogan, the president of Staten Island's first division of the Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians, told the Register that by a unanimous vote, the 150 members of her division decided not to participate in this year's parade because of Councilman O'Donovan's election as grand marshal. Instead, she said, they will attend a Mass for the unborn and for peace in Ireland that Msgr. Finn will be offering at parade time.
“Any time you have a celebration celebrating a saint, the patron of New York City and of Ireland, it should be celebrated with dignity and should be religious,” Hogan said, adding, “We just feel that a person who is pro-choice — how can they be our grand marshal?”
A Divided Island
Staten Island has hosted an annual St. Patrick's Day in its present form for 37 years. A smaller, more devotional procession goes back to 1876. It's an event that, as far as the locals are concerned, lacks none of the punch of neighboring Manhattan's own high-profile street celebration of the fifth century saint. So it's no wonder that this year's boycotts have put the island in an uproar.
The local newspaper has been a lively forum for debate and, according to Gerrito and Hogan, everyone is talking about it.
Gerrito said he thinks Msgr. Finn is dividing Staten Island by offering a Mass during the parade. But Hogan said Councilman O'Donovan is the one dividing the borough. “I think he should do the gentlemanly thing and step down,” she said.
“Right now, Staten Island is divided,” said Gerrito.
Said Msgr. Finn, “The issue has surfaced for discussion, and maybe that's a good side effect.”
Added Hogan: “I'll tell you one thing: This is really waking a lot of people up on the issue [of life].”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian McGuire ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Clinicians Who Got Sick Of Killing DATE: 03/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 11-17,2001 ----- BODY:FALLS CHURCH, Va. — Imagine that one day you begin to realize that your life — your job, your friends, your political beliefs, even your religious convictions — is based on a lie. A lie that caused you to harm others and yourself for years.
Joan Appleton remembers that day.
A client had come in for the usual procedure, but there were some complications, and Appleton, the head nurse at the clinic, was asked to run the ultrasound machine to make it easier to see what was going on during the operation. Appleton set up the machine and began to give instructions.
Then the abortion began.
Appleton, a firmly pro-abortion member of the National Organization for Women at the time, watched the ultrasound screen as the 17-week-old child in the womb jerked in shock and began to struggle. “I saw the baby fight for his life,” she said. “I saw him pull away from the suction tube” as it sought to tear him apart.
“It left me shaking for about six hours after that,” she said. None of the other workers at the Northern Virginia abortion business noticed her distress.
After a long struggle with her conscience, she quit her job and joined the Centurions in Minneapolis. Founded 10 years ago by Dr. Philip Ney, the Centurions is an international support group for former workers in the abortion industry and for people in the process of leaving it. It was named for the centurion who watched over Christ's crucifixion, but at Christ's death repented and proclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!” Two years ago, Appleton started the American Centurions.
The program stresses reconciliation with Christ and reparation for the wrongs the members have committed, including acts like praying for the unborn or trying to persuade others to leave the abortion business. This year, the American group has helped 22 people leave. It also helps former abortion workers find new jobs.
That such a group exists is natural, given the current situation in the abortion business. The Alan Guttmacher Institute, the research arm of Planned Parenthood, found that between 1982 and 1996 the number of abortion practitioners in the United States dropped by 30%.
Appleton's change was motivated by compassion for the unborn, but also for the mothers. “I was getting very upset over the number of young teen-agers that were coming back, getting pregnant again,” she said. “Each time they came back, their self-esteem was lower than the time before.”
In her view, the staffers in many abortion businesses are “pretty cold and pretty hard to the women, especially once they've had the abortion. If they're in pain,” she said, staffers often act like “they deserve it.” Appleton couldn't offer the women help if they wanted to keep their babies; instead, she had to refer them to a pro-life crisis pregnancy center.
Said Appleton, “[I] was not pro-life when I left” in November 1989. But she began to feel that she had been doing “the dirty work for choice.” She said that, of the people she knew in the abortion business, “Every one of us left our God. Even if we are active in our denominations, it's a lie.” Appleton, who was raised Catholic, returned to the Church after 30 years once she left the abortion business.
The ‘Hypocrite’ Factor
In the late 1970s, Diane Evert worked at a Minnesota clinic called the Family Tree. The clinic did not perform surgical abortions, but made referrals for them. She performed pregnancy tests and distributed abortifacient contraceptives. But in April 1986, Evert had a miscarriage — “the saddest day of my life,” she said. She was able to support abortion “until I lost [an unborn child]. Then I knew they were human.”
Like Appleton, she took several years to become pro-life after that. But Evert eventually entered the Centurions.
Her experience differed from Appleton's in two respects: She was able to keep a few friends from her pro-abortion days, while still trying to bring them into the Centurions. And she said the staff at the Family Tree clinic respected women, even though they were unwittingly harming their clients.
But Evert, a Lutheran, echoed Appleton's statements on faith. “I was a hypocrite Christian,” she said. She “didn't truly believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God” until she quit the Family Tree.
Stephanie Mueller, a spokeswoman for the National Abortion Federation, said, “The vast majority of abortion providers remain committed to what they do because they know that legal abortion protects women's health and saves women's lives.” She pointed to the low cost of abortion as a sign that abortionists do not enter the business to make money.
But Appleton and Evert both emphasized that many people who perform and assist with abortions suffer. Appleton said that recurring nightmares of dead or screaming babies are common among abortionists. She also said that many people in the business turn to alcohol, drug abuse or unhealthy relationships.
Mary Jo Faustgen, the Centurions' program director, added that people who worked in the abortion business “also feel that they're unforgivable, that what they've done is so terrible that no one can [forgive them], not even God.”
What can pro-lifers do to help people leave the abortion business? Appleton counseled, “Befriend them; love them; be there when they're ready to come out.” She also recommended handing out her brochure “About Your Choice.”
Faustgen said that workers in the clinics told her that they could hear pro-life prayers and counseling going on outside. “Some are angry that they're out there,” she said, “but most have told me that they go home at night and they think about those pro-life people out there and they wonder, ‘Are they right? Am I wrong?’ It gets them thinking.”
She added, “If the abortion worker sees disrespect in the clinic, and sees respect for women and life outside from pro-lifers, that's very powerful.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: CHIAPAS INDIANS MARCH TO MEXICO CITY DATE: 03/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 11-17,2001 ----- BODY:MEXICO CITY — It's the latest installment of a “revolution” that never happened.
Mexican President Vicente Fox has decided to fulfill one of his electoral promises by signing a peace agreement with the Marxist guerrilla group “Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional” — the Zapatista National Liberation Army, also known as EZLN. But Fox is coming under criticism, including from some of his own supporters, for being so accommodating to a rebel group that has never managed to seriously threaten the Mexican government.
However, Mexico's bishops are guardedly supportive of the initiative, hoping it will help address the legitimate grievances of the impoverished indigenous residents of the state of Chiapas, where the Zapatistas are based.
In preparation for the peace talks, two dozen Zapatista leaders have embarked on a highly publicized march from Chiapas to Mexico City, hoping to bolster their position by winning media coverage and acclaim.
The Zapatistas, named after the early-20th century agrarian revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata, took up arms for two weeks in Jan. 1, 1994, the same day in which the NAFTA agreement became active, supposedly bringing Mexico into the globalized world.
The rebellion in the poor, mostly Indian southern state of Chiapas was followed by six years of generally low-level conflict and tensions between Mexico's then ruling PRI party and the rebels.
Media reporting on the rebellion, dismissed by many Mexicans as mere “Guerrilla Theater,” made world-famous its ski-masked, white-skinned leader, Subcomandante Marcos.
Despite the fact that the Zapatistas have never become a real threat, Marcos has kept the world's attention focused on his grievances, making of the EZLN more than a simple annoyance for a country starved for foreign investment.
Over the years, several commissions and committees, and the intervention of the former bishop of Chiapas, Samuel Ruiz Garcia, failed to bring the government and the Zapatistas into serious peace negotiations.
After assuming power late last year, Fox called for a direct dialogue with Marcos, knowing that his July 200 presidential election had already achieved a central Zapatista goal: The defeat of the PRI, the Institutional Revolutionary Party that had ruled Mexico since 1929.
Marcos responded by requesting the pullout of government troops from an area in Chiapas. Fox immediately withdrew many troops and freed 20 Zapatista prisoners, leaving only about a dozen in jail.
“In this media-dominated battle”, Roger Bartra, an analyst of the Zapatista conflict, wrote Feb. 25, “Marcos knew he was now facing another media star, and knew also it was his turn to strike out something to impress the audience.”
Marcos on the March
Marcos responded by announced a 15-day march through about a dozen states, with plans to arrive in Mexico City on March 11, supposedly to promote a bill aimed “to expand the rights of Indian communities to enact laws, control lands and be free to use their own languages.”
Marcos and 23 rebel commanders started the march with a nationally broadcast speech from La Realidad, a small town in the heart of Chiapas, and began their trek through southern and central Mexico, followed by hundreds of foreign and Mexican supporters and a coterie of media representatives.
Fox again responded positively, declaring Feb. 24 that he “welcomes this march because we believe, feel and bet that this march will bring us to a solid peace process.”
The march became a national event, but very rapidly acquired ridiculous tones. A state congressman from Morelos, one of the Zapatista stops, challenged Marcos to a shootout, while Marcos imitators were used to sell everything from furniture to appliances on TV commercials.
On Feb. 26, Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera of Mexico City held a short press conference, expressing his concern that “the march may turn into a mere show, leaving no concrete fruits for peace.”
Cardinal Rivera strongly supported changes to “improve the inhuman conditions of indigenous groups,” but added that “neither a march nor a document, by themselves, will be enough to bring true peace.”
Cardinal Rivera's secretary, Father José Ortiz, told the Register, “His Eminence is hoping that the march will take place in a peaceful manner, but even more than that, he wants less spectacular acts and more effective means to achieve a peace agreement.”
In his stop in Oaxaca, where the Zapatista caravan arrived with some 300 vehicles, Marcos said that “this is the march of victory; we are here because we have never been defeated.”
Said Zapatista analyst Bartra, “Marcos will keep combining these saber rattles with generic calls for peace, because his main problem is what to do after he arrives in Mexico City. I have no doubt that at the Zócalo [Mexico City's main square] he will stage a great show, but what is he going to do after that?”
Out-Foxed by Fox?
Bartra added that the Zapatistas are between a rock and a hard place, since if they sign a peace agreement, they “will look like they were domesticated by Fox”, while if they go back to Chiapas, they will be regarded as the enemies of the peace process.
But Magdalena Gomez, an EZLN spokeswoman, said this is a simplistic analysis.
In a written statement to the Register, Gomez said, “The date of Feb. 24, 2001, is as important as Jan. 1, 1994. Both mark two historic moments for the EZLN, the first one at a military level, this one at a purely political level.”
For the EZLN, Gomez continued, “this march is not a mere act, it is the beginning of a whole new process in the Zapatista fight against neo-liberalism and globalization.”
But according to Bartra, “things are more complicated. There is an evident tension within the Zapatista Movement between a core of militants who want a military solution and those who are listening to the people's cry for peace and concrete solutions.”
“Among the latter are most of the ethnic groups the EZLN claims to speak for, and certainly Marcos himself,” he adds.
The new bishop of San Cristóbal de la Casas, Felipe Arizmendi Esquivel, publicly stated Feb. 27 that the government should protect the life of Marcos against any potential menace during the march.
Arizmendi, who has inherited a deeply divided diocese from his predecessor
Bishop Ruiz, was the target of heavy criticism from right-wing paramilitary groups as well as from PRI congressmen, who accused him and the Catholic Church of being “a subsidiary of the EZLN.”
Bishop Arizmendi countered that “we defend Marcos' life not because we support the EZLN, but because we are concerned for Chiapas and for Mexico.”
Added Bishop Arizmendi, “The Church has been offended by Marcos in several occasions, he has even called [the bishops] ‘Orthodox demons,’ but we believe that any attempt against his life would only inflame those who want more violence.”
Some columnists have accused both the bishops and Fox of “bringing a corpse back to life,” arguing that Marcos' popularity was already low when the president called for peace talks.
In an editorial, the daily Excelsior said that “we Mexicans want to live in peace and tranquility, but President Fox is guilty of bringing Marcos back to the cameras and the spotlights, thus opening a war on the Internet that has permitted the interference of foreigners into issues that concern only Mexicans.”
However, Bishop Arizmendi said that “those who believe that the problems of
Chiapas can be solved by the physical destruction of the Zapatistas are grossly mistaken.”
Added the bishop, “The indigenous groups have really deep and ancient problems of which the EZLN is not a representative, but a symptom.”
Roger Gonzalez Herrera, a congressman for Fox's National Action Party, known as PAN, acknowledges that even within PAN “there are many who are against the president's openness toward the Zapatistas.”
“Nevertheless, I believe that welcoming the march is a great opportunity for peace,” said Gonzalez Herrera, recalling that the Zapatistas announced on Jan. 1, 1994, that one of their objectives was to “march victoriously over the capital defeating the Federal Army and opening a new stage in our democracy.”
Said Gonzalez Herrera, “Today, the Zapatistas are marching, but without shooting even one bullet, and accepting the legitimacy of the new government.”
However, in the view of many Mexicans, it is uncertain that this is a sign of a peaceful future. As one verse of a popular “Ranchera” Mexican song says, “only time will tell.”
Alejandro Bermúdez is based in Lima, Peru.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Alejandro Berm˙dez ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Bush Approach on Sanctions May Offer Iraqis Hope DATE: 03/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 11-17,2001 ----- BODY:BASRA, Iraq — The Shakir family had a good life before the war.
The seven Shakirs shared a spacious home with two other families, in the Al Jumhuriya neighborhood of Basra in southern Iraq. They had a courtyard, gardens and patios. The family still keeps photographs of the old house.
Those photographs are almost all they have left. War with the United States, and American and British trade sanctions, have left Iraq devastated even as military dictator Saddam Hussein's wallet bulges. The Shakirs lost their house, sold their furniture and their bridal jewelry.
Now the Bush administration has given new hope to families like the Shakirs, and to Catholics, from Pope John Paul II to U.S. human rights activists, who say sanctions should be lifted.
On Feb. 26, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell suggested that the State Department was considering reforming the sanctions on Iraq. The sanctions currently prohibit other nations from trading with the oil-rich country except through a U.N.-administered fund for food and medicine.
Powell told reporters that he had discussed sanctions with President Bashar Assad of Syria, and that the United States was “exploring ideas” of modifying the sanctions. “The message I've consistently heard is that overdoing it with the sanctions gives [Hussein] a tool that he is using against us, and really is not weakening him,” Powell said, echoing many human rights groups' concerns.
One possible change is an easing of “dual-use” sanctions. These prohibit Iraq from importing items that have both a civilian and a military use — anything from water pumps to refrigerators. Powell gave no specifics on dual-use, but noted that the decision would be difficult because even innocuous items like eggs have military uses: “You can do certain things with eggs that can create a biological weapon.”
Even as Powell discussed possible changes in the sanction policy, a new report from the German intelligence service, suggesting that Saddam Hussein may be able to lob atomic weapons at Europe and Israel by 2005, may slow efforts to ease sanctions. Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill. and Chairman of the House International Relations Committee, has announced that he will hold hearings on Secretary Powell's statement this month.
Tom Jackson of the Chicago-based anti-sanctions group Voices in the Wilderness hoped that sanctions would be eased sooner rather than later.
Before the sanctions, he said, “Iraq was considered to be an emerging first world country.” Its oil wealth fueled the growth of a middle class of families like the Shakirs. That middle class disappeared in the wake of the Gulf War.
A representative of Voices in the Wilderness stayed with the Shakirs last summer. The Shakirs had air conditioning once, but now they simply wait out the hottest part of the day, when temperatures can reach 130 degrees.
The Shakirs, like most other Iraqis, live on rations from the “oil for food” program. Iraq can sell its oil to other countries only if the proceeds are put in a special fund administered by the United Nations. The rations are lentils, rice and a little flour.
Powell acknowledged the suffering in Iraq. He told reporters that sanctions should take into account humanitarian concerns, and said, “I'm not going to let a water pump not go to a well to fill up water to help a village that might be having cholera or other kinds of epidemics.”
Pope John Paul II has called for easing the sanctions for years. He even placed a personal phone call to then-President George Bush Sr. hours before the Gulf War began, asking Bush not to bomb Iraq.
And the Vatican specifically denounced sanctions on Iraq on June 9 during a visit by the president of the Iraqi parliament. The Holy Father has described the Iraq sanctions as “pitiless,” harming “the weak and the innocent.”
But Ken Bricker, a spokesman for the American Israel Policy Action Committee, said that the sanctions have not been without good effect. He argued that the sanctions have hobbled Hussein's arms program. He blamed the anti-sanctions campaign on “public relations” by Iraq and its allies.
Bricker noted that Iraq sells more oil (under the U.N.-administered program) than it did before the Gulf War. “Saddam has taken the proceeds from that ‘oil for food’ program and he's rewarded his cronies,” Bricker charged. “The sanctions are not responsible for the suffering of the Iraqi people. Saddam Hussein is.”
Although Bricker was not entirely opposed to revising the sanctions, he said such changes would only be acceptable if “end-use inspection” were tightened — checking to make sure that imports were not used for military purposes. Without that, he said, “Reducing the sanctions probably will equate to scrapping them altogether.”
Bricker cited the German intelligence service's finding that Iraq could build an atomic bomb within three years, and could have medium-range missiles capable of delivering bombs to Israel and southern Europe by 2005. He said sanctions had slowed Iraq's weapons programs down.
Voices in the Wilderness's Jackson disputed Bricker's claim that the sanctions are not the true cause of Iraqis' suffering. “The current head of the ‘oil for food’ program has said that it's not true that the government diverts anything” from the program, he said.
His organization maintains that the sanctions actually help the Iraqi dictatorship, both in their anti-American propaganda value and because impoverished people struggling for food are less troublesome to a dictator than an educated, powerful middle class is.
Meanwhile, any change may be too late to help the Shakirs.
Since last summer, the Shakirs have slid even farther from that middle class. A Voices in the Wilderness representative said that last fall she got “a pretty disheartening letter” from the family. They were evicted from their shack after a rent hike.
Said the representative, “We don't even know where they're living at this point.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: East and West United in One Man DATE: 03/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 11-17,2001 ----- BODY:The head of the estimated 4.5 million Greek-Catholics in Ukraine, he was made a cardinal by Pope John Paul II on Feb. 21. He spoke with Register correspondent Marguerite A. Peeters.
Peeters: After the death of Cardinal Lubachivsky, you became the head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church. The Pope then made you a cardinal of the universal Catholic Church. What do these developments mean to you?
To tell the truth, my nomination as Cardinal was not very expected. But it came, so now we have to deal with that problem!
It is not a special office in the sense of responsibility: It is an honor more for the Church than for the person. It seems that the Holy Father now has the heads of all the Eastern Churches as Cardinals. So it more or less falls into order.
You have spent a great part of your life in the West — in America and Rome. Has that experience provided you with any insights that are useful now in your apostolic work in Ukraine?
This is a mixed blessing in a sense.
Certainly it does give me a certain distance from the local view, which permits me to evaluate the situation maybe with greater objectivity. On the other hand, it of course makes it more difficult for me to understand how the local world operates. The one who has not been a part of it naturally has difficulties understanding it.
What would you hope Western Catholics to do to show solidarity to the Ukrainian people?
First, Western Catholics have to finally understand that we are also a part of the Church and equally Catholic as they are. For many years the idea has been that the only real and true Catholics were the Latin Catholics. The East and the West have to realize that the world is not so limited. We as Ukrainian-Greek Catholics do have a tradition, a valid tradition within the universal Church. We are useful in the universal Church. We are not simply “Johnny-come-lately,” an accident of history: There may be an important ecumenical aspect to our existence and our being as we are. That is the primary thing.
The second thing is that Western know-how is very useful. Lay movements, their social engagement, are very good examples for us. I think that anything the West can do to help us organize our civil society, our ecclesiastical society, is naturally very welcome.
Your great Metropolitan Sheptitsky, whose beatification process is under way, said at the beginning of last century that you, Ukrainian Greek-Catholics, were fully Orthodox and fully Catholic. Do you share that vision?
That is true. Even the present Holy Father has emphasized this. At the Millennium celebrations in Rome, he told us that we were orthodox in faith and catholic in love.
We are maintaining our traditional faith and at the same time we are a living part of the universal Church. This has more or less been our position until today, and I think Sheptitsky had the right intuition.
But the Russian Orthodox precisely do not want Ukrainian Greek-Catholics to be a model of unity, right?
Yes, but there are different reasons for that. We do not wish to put off anyone. We simply would like to defend that one can be of the authentic Byzantine tradition and yet Catholic — that the one does not contradict the other. On the contrary: The two rather complement one another.
In this sense, to fulfill your ecumenical mission, you have to be fully Orthodox in your liturgy.
Not only our liturgy. I think we also have to be Orthodox in mentality. This is maybe our weakest point.
We have permitted ourselves to be Latinized to a great extent, not so much externally as internally. And this is what we have to correct. I believe it has been our major mistake.
As for the future, our mission would be to interpret the West to the East and the East to the West, because I believe both know very little of each other. And the great misunderstandings between East and West may simply come from lack of mutual knowledge.
As much as we participate both in the West and in the East, we have to work very hard at becoming authentic interpreters.
How have you allowed yourselves to be Latinized “internally”?
I'll give a clear example. Much of our clergy has been educated in Western-style schools and theology. In that sense, if I may express myself this way, we are somewhat schizophrenic. Our external behavior is our liturgy — that is one thing — but our understanding of it is influenced by a Latin-style schooling. It has been considered that to be truly Catholic, one had to be somehow Latin. The temptation of our grandparents and parents was to fold our religious life with some Latin aspects to prove to everybody that we were really Catholic.
This was a mistaken attitude that we are trying to get out of today. It is not an easy process for us. But still, we have to do it if we wish to do something for the Church.
Do you now have theologians able to teach Catholic theology in an Eastern way?
We do not have them in any real number, but we are trying to develop them now, because we feel that it is a necessity.
And would you say that there is a consensus or agreement within the Greek-Catholic Church that this is the right direction to go?
Not yet. There are still those who feel that we ought to be pretty Latin.
Soon the Holy Father is going to come to your country. What do you expect from his trip?
My main hope is that he will address himself also to the non-Catholic world, that he will not present a “narrow,” if I may use the word in quotation marks, “Catholic” view, but as he usually does, a very wide human approach to religion.
We do have a great many people in Ukraine who are not part of any Church. It does not mean that they are hostile to God. But they are confused or do not find themselves. We have great hope that his way, as he has manifested so many times in different countries, speaking to the human element in these people, will awaken them to a deeply religious attitude.
And I also hope he will emphasize, as he has done very frequently, that there is hope, that the world is not at its end, that we have a foundation to truly hope. We feel that this would be the most important aspect of his mission here.
Here in the West, people see this trip as a historic event — the Pope going to the former Soviet Union in a country that was so linked to Russia's history. Christians in the West expect a great deal from this trip, hoping that it may break ground on the ecumenical level. Is that also your hope?
We share the same hope. Our hope is not so much for formal or official ecumenical contact. Our great hope is for the informal and human contact, that people will meet a person. He certainly has a charisma and can speak to people directly, touch their heart, both the elder and the younger.
I think this sort of ecumenism on the popular level is extremely important, because if people start to think that after all, we ought to be all one somehow, or at least not as distanced from one another as now, then the ecumenical battle is won. Ecumenism has to come from the basis: People must want it.
It is wonderful how things are moving forward to allow your Church to fulfill its specific mission within the universal Church.
Somehow these changes are against all human hope and against all human calculations. There seems to be a certain logical history which is not very logical in the sense of human rationality.
Marguerite A. Peeters Writes from Brussels, Belgium.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Cardinal Lubomyr Husar ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 03/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 11-17,2001 ----- BODY:Alfred Hitchcock and the Confessional
THE MONTREAL GAZETTE, Feb. 25 — A controversial film shot in Montreal, Quebec, returned to the city as part of an exhibit on Alfred Hitchcock's work, the Montreal daily reported.
I Confess was made in 1952, starring Montgomery Clift as a Catholic priest. Clift hears a murderer's confession — and is framed for the murder. He must decide whether to prove his innocence by breaking the seal of the confessional.
The film was dogged by problems with the two stars and with the Archdiocese of Quebec, which required cuts in the movie that left Hitchcock disgusted. The film flopped, largely because many non-Catholics found it impossible to believe that a priest would lose his life to preserve the seal of the confessional.
A Spy's Piety, a Paper's Bias?
NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE, Feb. 26 — As reporters search for motives behind Robert Philip Hanssen's alleged treachery, the online magazine warned that one newspaper seemed to delight in finding an example of Christian hypocrisy to confirm its own biases.
National Review's writer charged, “One of the cultural Left's articles of faith is that religious people are really hypocrites,” and used as evidence the New York Times Feb. 25 front-page analysis, “Much Piety But Not Polish from Spy Suspect.”
Hanssen was well-known to colleagues as a regular churchgoer and strong anti-Communist. The Times story also reported that Hanssen and his family were “adherents of Opus Dei, an elite conservative Catholic order.”
Asked the National Review, “Could one imagine the paper doing a large take-out on Jonathan Pollard's commitment to Judaism?” Pollard, a former civilian U.S. Navy analyst, was convicted in 1986 of spying for Israel and is serving a life sentence.
Church Battles Seattle's New Environmental Rules
SEATTLE TIMES, Feb. 23 — Seattle Archbishop Alex Brunett has vowed to take his campaign against county environmental laws that would restrict church construction “all the way to the Supreme Court,” the Seattle daily reported.
The laws set size limits for all non-residential buildings in rural areas. The archdiocese wants to add three new churches that would violate the restrictions.
Denver Seminaries Overflow
DENVER CATHOLIC REGISTER, Feb. 7 — The Archdiocese of Denver, with more than 75 men in formation for the priesthood, is facing financial strains, the Catholic weekly reported.
The archdiocese pays each student's tuition, room and board. It has launched an “Adopt a Seminarian” program, in which individuals, organizations and parishes donate the costs of educating one seminarian. Meanwhile, the archdiocese's Radical Awareness of Discipleship program, which offers high school boys a weekend at a seminary, drew a record 45 young men considering the priesthood.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Cardinal Egan to Fight for Conscience Rights DATE: 03/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 11-17,2001 ----- BODY:ALBANY, New York — Cardinal Edward Egan of New York was scarcely off the plane back from Rome, where he was awarded the red beretta Feb. 21 by Pope John II, before he waded headfirst into New York state politics.
A New York state women's health bill now under consideration, mandating coverage of contraceptives in employee medical insurance benefits, could lead to gross infringements on religious liberty and tread on the rights of individuals, the state's bishops have warned.
The matter is so vital that Cardinal Egan traveled to Albany March 5 to meet with Gov. George Pataki. The cardinal and other New York bishops were also scheduled to hold a press conference that afternoon at the offices of the New York Catholic Conference.
If passed by the Legislature without a conscience clause exemption, the bill would threaten the mission of Catholic parishes, schools, hospitals, religious orders, health insurance providers and any other Church organizations that provide medical plans for employees. Lacking such an exemption, they would have to cancel employee medical coverage or close altogether to remain faithful to Church teachings.
Brian Mulligan, spokesman for the Catholic Health Care System of the Archdiocese of New York, said that a network of Catholic health institutions serving tens of thousands each year is threatened. The bill would affect “Church teachings and a healing ministry dating back to the time of Jesus,” Mulligan said.
The state Senate passed a version of the bill with a religiously based conscience clause, but the Assembly refused such language in its version. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Democrat, said an exemption would be “taking religious freedom a little too far.”
Members of both houses are meeting to work out a compromise, if possible.
No Compromise
Dennis Poust, spokesman for the state's Catholic Conference, said that the impasse might last till the end of the legislative session. There's little room for compromise language, he said; “either you have a conscience clause or not.”
“This is a basic issue of religious freedom which all people of good will, not just Catholics, should support,” Poust added. “There are many implications involved, not the least of which is that if the Assembly version is passed, we are sure to see next an attempt to mandate coverage for abortion.”
He pointed out that contrary to some reports, the bishops do not support the Senate bill because it still promotes coverage for contraceptives, which the Church considers intrinsically immoral. Rather, the bishops say that if the health bill is going to be passed with these provisions, it must include a conscience clause.
The health bill also contains measures the bishops do not object to, such as mandated coverage for screenings for breast and cervical cancer and osteoporosis.
The bishops of the state's eight dioceses, led by Cardinal Egan, have issued a strong statement on the issue. Invoking the religious freedom guarantees of the U.S. and New York constitutions, the bishops said, “Our nation was founded upon the principle that those choosing to live by religious faith do so free from the unwarranted intrusion of government. We can think of no governmental action at this time so unwarranted or intrusive as the requirement that religiously affiliated employers or insurers pay for or provide coverage for procedures which violate the tenets of their religious faith.
“The same faith which motivates us to care for the sick and the dying, to educate children, and to defend the poor and forgotten is also the basis for our moral teachings. A law which would compel us to do what we sincerely believe is morally wrong violates our free exercise of religion and undermines all that we do in the name of faith.”
The statement was issued Jan. 29, the day the Assembly passed its version of the bill.
In a letter sent to the Catholic Conference, Democrat Deborah Glick, sponsor of the Assembly's version of the health bill, rejected “sectarian limitations on women's access to health care, including contraceptives.
Wrote Glick, “The religion of one's employer must not be the determining factor in what health care choices a person makes.”
Freedom of Religion
A spokesman for Republican Joseph Bruno, a leading proponent of the Senate version, said that the disagreement is not about advancing women's health, which both sides support, but protecting the freedom of religious groups.
William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, noted Jan. 30 that New York is among the 46 states that have conscience exemptions for employers or insurers on other issues based on religious beliefs. Calling Speaker Silver's comment “downright anti-Catholic,” Donohue said, “Any bill which forces religious organizations to relinquish their doctrinal prerogatives and institutional autonomy is an expression of intolerance … Separation of church and state cuts both ways.”
Nationwide, nine of the 13 states that mandate insurance coverage for contraception include waivers of varying effectiveness for employers or insurers who have religious objections. Washington, D.C., tried to pass a mandate last year without any conscience exemption, but the bill was stopped after strenuous opposition by the local bishops and by pro-life members of Congress.
Michael O'Dea, executive director of Christus Medicus, called the contraceptive push in medical plans “an organized, nationwide effort” to use legislatures to effect social change. Michigan-based Christus Medicus monitors legislative agendas and promotes health plans based on Catholic principles.
Said O'Dea, “We're moving toward total control of health insurance through state regulations and Catholics won't have a place.”
Forced to Close
Chris Bell runs five Good Counsel homes in New York for unwed mothers and their babies. If the state mandates contraceptive coverage, Bell said he would be forced in conscience to withdraw medical coverage for his employees and would find it almost impossible to find experienced people to staff his homes.
Said Bell, “This is another example of the state pushing its eugenics plan on the people. It is telling us that we must be made in its image, not God's image.”
Brian Caulfield writes from New York
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian Caulfield ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Consistory Was No Dress Rehearsal for Next Conclave DATE: 03/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 11-17,2001 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — Media coverage throughout the week of the Feb. 21 consistory was dominated by speculation that this was a “dress rehearsal” for the next conclave. But the cardinals themselves gave no indication that they thought there would be a need to elect a new Pope soon.
Several observers argued that because John Paul amended his own rules to enlarge the number of possible electors from 120 to 135, he was taking advantage of his “last chance” to influence his succession.
The consistory marked the induction of the largest group of cardinals ever named, bringing total membership in the college of cardinals to 183. Of these, 135 are below age 80 and therefore eligible to vote in a papal conclave. All but 10 of those who are eligible to vote in the conclave have been appointed by John Paul II.
Most of the new cardinals observed the unwritten rule of not commenting on such matters — despite repeated invitations from the press to do so. The most quoted response of the week came from Washington's Cardinal McCarrick.
“I don't expect to vote in a conclave,” said the 70-year-old cardinal, who has nine-and-half years before he turns 80. “I think this Holy Father is good for nine-and-a-half years. I think he is frail with regard to walking, but I think he is a very healthy, strong man. His mind is fine.”
For his part, Cardinal Edward Egan of New York recalled the story of a lady who wished Pope Leo XIII several more good years on the occasion of his 80th birthday. “Don't put a limit on Providence,” replied Leo, who lived until 93.
But the most direct comments were delivered by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, prefect of the Congregation of Bishops, who addressed the Holy Father during the consistory on behalf of all the cardinals.
“The witness which Your Holiness has given during the course of the Holy Year just concluded is an auspicious sign that the Lord wishes you to guide the Church for a long time,” said Re, taking the unusual step of commenting on the Pope's health during a public ceremony.
“The People of God still need the example of Your Holiness' dedication, even as your physical powers diminish, because at the same time, there is an increase in the sign of your paternity, and in the witness of your prayer and suffering for the good of the Church. This highlights that, while it is important to do, it is more important to be; and that, in the end, it is Christ who guides his Church.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Raymond J. De Souza ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 03/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 11-17,2001 ----- BODY:Roman Tailors' Busy February
LOS ANGELES TIMES, Feb. 27 — Rome's handful of clergy tailors had a month before the installation of 44 new cardinals Feb. 21 to sew by hand the distinctive attire the cardinals now wear, the daily reported.
The January appointment, the most ever in one batch, sent careful craftsmen such as Michele Ombroso at the Euroclero shop into a frenzy. The outfit, which costs about $1,500, consists of a crimson wool cassock lined in crimson silk, a white apron-like tunic called a rochet topped by a short crimson cape known as a mozzetta, a crimson and gold tasseled cord, a crimson mohair sash and a pair of crimson socks. Atop it all sits the best known accessories, the only ones a cardinal receives from the Pope — a crimson skullcap called a zucchetto and the crown-like biretta, a four-cornered hat with three ridges.
The job wasn't as daunting as it might have been in centuries past, the Times said. The 100-foot trailing cape and the ermine cap were abolished from the cardinal's wardrobe shortly after World War II. Gone too are the silver buckled shoes. The fasteners to hold together the sash that girds the waist have been replaced by Velcro.
Hoosier Shoots for Vatican Post
INDIANAPOLIS STAR, Feb. 28 — Indiana lobbyist Jeffery Drozda is lobbying the Bush administration for the ambassadorship of the Vatican, the daily reported.
A onetime seminarian and Notre Dame graduate, Drozda works as a lobbyist for American Electric Power Co. in Carmel, Indiana.
By ambassador standards, Drozda is a political novice, the Star said, noting that he has no diplomatic experience and has never held elected office. In contrast, the last two U.S. ambassadors to the Vatican were former U.S. Rep. Lindy Boggs and Raymond Flynn, former mayor of Boston.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Forty Days of Change DATE: 03/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 11-17,2001 ----- BODY:Register Summary
Calling on Christians to make a “decisive journey of personal renewal” during the season of Lent, Pope John Paul II said change would come from “fixing our eyes on the face of the crucified Christ.”
Speaking to about 5,000 pilgrims Feb. 28 — Ash Wednesday — the Pope said Lent can be “particularly arduous because of the secularized atmosphere that surrounds us.” He added, however, that “precisely because of this, our effort must be stronger and more determined.”
Pope John Paul said traditional Lenten practices of prayer, fasting, penance and almsgiving are aimed at personal conversion, a renewed relationship with God, and a strengthened commitment to help the afflicted.
“Do not harden your heart today, but listen to the voice of the Lord.” This invitation of the liturgy resounds in our spirit, as we begin our Lenten journey today, Ash Wednesday. It will lead us to the paschal triduum, the living memory of the passion, death and resurrection of the Lord, the heart of the mystery of our salvation.
The sacred time of Lent, always lived intensely by Christian people, recalls ancient biblical events, such as the 40 days of the worldwide flood, the prelude to the covenant made by God with Noah; the 40 years of Israel's pilgrimage in the desert toward the Promised Land; the 40 days that Moses stayed on Mount Sinai, where he received the Tablets of the Law from Yahweh. The Lenten period invites us especially to relive with Jesus the 40 days he spent praying and fasting in the desert, before undertaking his public mission, which would culminate on Calvary with the sacrifice of the cross, the final victory over sin and death.
“Remember, man, you are dust and to dust you will return.” The traditional rite of the imposition of ashes, repeated today, is always very eloquent and the words that accompany it are very evocative. In its simplicity, it evokes the transience of earthly life: Everything passes and is destined to die. We are sojourners in this world; sojourners who must not forget their true and final goal — heaven. Even though we are dust and destined to become dust, this does not put an end to everything. Man, created in the image and likeness of God, is made for eternal life. Jesus, dying on the cross, has unlocked access to it for every human being.
Even though we are dust and destined to become dust, this does not put an end to everything.
Determined to Change
The entire liturgy of Ash Wednesday helps us to focus on this fundamental truth of faith, and stimulates us to undertake a decisive journey of personal renewal. We must change our way of thinking and acting, fixing our eyes on the face of the crucified Christ and making his Gospel our daily rule of life. “Repent and believe in the Gospel” — may this be our Lenten program, while we enter an atmosphere of prayerful listening to the Spirit.
“Watch and pray, that you may not undergo the test. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41). Let us be guided by these words of the Lord, in a determined effort of conversion and spiritual renewal. In everyday life there is the risk of being absorbed by occupations and material interests. Lent is a favorable time for a reawakening to authentic faith, for a salutary restoration of our relation with God, and for a more generous commitment to the Gospel.
The means are always at our disposal, but in these weeks, we must have recourse to them more intensely: prayer, fasting and penance, as well as almsgiving — that is, sharing what we have with the needy. This is a personal and communal ascetic journey, which sometimes seems particularly arduous because of the secularized atmosphere that surrounds us. Precisely because of this, however, our effort must be stronger and more determined.
“Watch and pray.” If this command of Christ is valid at all times, it seems more eloquent and incisive at the beginning of Lent. Let us accept it with humble docility. Let us be willing to translate it into practical gestures of conversion and reconciliation with our brothers and sisters. Only in this way is faith reinvigorated, hope consolidated, and love becomes the way of life that characterizes the believer.
Loving Christ in the Afflicted
The result of such a courageous ascetic journey can only be a greater opening to the needs of our neighbor. Anyone who loves the Lord cannot close his eyes to individuals and peoples tried by suffering and poverty. After contemplating the face of the crucified Lord, how can we not recognize him and serve him in the sorrowful and abandoned? Jesus himself, who invites us to stay with him watching and praying, also asks us to love him in our brothers and sisters, reminding us that “whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40). The fruit of an intensely lived Lent, therefore, will be a greater and more universal love.
May Mary, an example of docile listening to the voice of the Spirit, guide us along the penitential journey that we undertake today. May she help us to treasure every opportunity the Church offers us so we can prepare worthily for the celebration of the paschal mystery.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: European Union Promises to Fill International Abortion Funding 'Gap' DATE: 03/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 11-17,2001 ----- BODY:BRUSSELS — The ink was barely dry on President George W. Bush's executive order reinstating the “Mexico City policy” that bans federal funding of abortion and population control programs in foreign countries when the European Union leaped to fill the breach.
With the British and Dutch governments acting as cheerleaders, European Commissioner for Development Poul Neilson pledged last month that Europeans would plug the funding gap caused by the president's first policy decision.
Said Neilson, “If it is necessary for others to fill the decency gap in view of recent decisions, we will do it.”
Neilson is one of 20 commissioners who form the European Commission — a hybrid body that is the civil service of the 16-nation European Union, but that also has the power to initiate policy and propose legislation.
Dutch Minister for Development Cooperation Eveline Herfkens urged “quick and strong” European action in a personal letter to Neilson, who she described as a “like-minded friend.”
Herfkens was not available for an interview when contacted by the Register, but her officials referred to a series of her answers to parliamentary questions.
She told the Dutch Parliament, “President Bush's measure affects intergovernmental agencies with headquarters outside the U.S.A. Agencies in Europe and developing countries will be hit hardest.”
Kristian Schmidt, one of six advisers who form Neilson's “cabinet,” told the Register, “It is not clear what effect the U. S. decision is going to have but the commissioner has promised to fill any gap which arises.”
U.N. Involvement?
He said the likely recipient would be the United Nations Population Fund, also known as UNFPA, as well as certain non-governmental organizations that he would not specify.
Pro-life activists frequently accuse UNFPA of supporting abortion, a charge that the UN agency denies. Asked if the EU had committed to give UNFPA money to replace funds that will be shut off due to Bush's decision, UNFPA spokesman Abubakar Dungus told the Register, “The Bush Administration decision did not affect the UNFPA, and we are not aware of such a development.”
Asked why a senior EU official would have made his comment about providing abortion-related funding to UNFPA, Dungus replied, “I think he might have made a mistake.”
European leaders contend that the U.S. reinstatement of the Mexico City policy is a violation of international agreements.
Herfkens told the Dutch Parliament, “The subsidizing of international organizations that support abortion abroad is not just a U.S. domestic affair … this specific case is about implementing the decisions of the Cairo conference on reproductive health care.”
Added Schmidt, “The U.S. is not supporting the kind of work that has been endorsed by the U.N. Conference in Cairo in 1994 and [its five-year follow-up conference] in New York in 1999. There was something close to universal consensus, and the U.S. was part of it.”
Schmidt also claimed the Holy See delegation was the only dissenting voice against this pro-abortion “consensus.”
Peter Smith, senior U.N. lobbyist for International Right to Life, said that Schmidt's assertion of international consensus in favor of abortion was “a lie.”
Smith explained that dozens of countries in the developing world have entered formal “reservations” against abortion-related provisions contained in the Cairo Conference's documents, and in other recent U.N. documents. “If you have 40 or 50 countries putting in reservations, while others are threatened or coerced into keeping silence [about their opposition to abortion], that is not consensus, “ he said.
Msgr. Anthony Frontiero, attaché at the Holy See's Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations in New York, agreed that, “We are not a lone voice at the U.N. There are Muslim and other states which are also opposed to that kind of policy.”
Abortion Colonialism
To the developing world the EU's decision looks suspiciously like an update of Europe's colonial past.
“It is very inhuman,” said Michael Ochieng, 23, a Kenyan who attended a recent World Youth Alliance gathering of pro-family young people in New York.
“For World AIDS day there was a big exhibition in Nairobi in which the government had asked all organizations to bring along information. The EU stand was giving away boxes and boxes of condoms, which were distributed like free food. This is just a new form of colonialism.”
Ochieng said that UN- and EU-sponsored “reproductive health” programs in his country work to change the lifestyle of youth, increasing their risk of AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases and pushing them toward abortion.
Abortion is illegal in Kenya, Ochieng noted, but he said it is offered at “mother and child” healthcare clinics funded by western countries.
“The government turns a blind eye to what western health officials are doing,” he said. “This puts pressure on the few good doctors, who now get labeled as bad doctors who don't care. And the same is said about the Catholic Church.”
EU official Schmidt denied that the European Union is undermining any countries' local policies regarding abortion, claiming that the majority of governments and their people in developing countries are in favor of “safe abortion.”
Responded International Right to Life's Smith, “That's the typical cry of the culture of death.
“I have been attending UN conferences since Cairo in 1994, and the Third World delegates do not want the legalization of abortion and they are not wanting the sexual promiscuity of the West. However the rich countries put certain governments under pressure,” Smith said.
More Important Needs
Critics of population control policies also point out that such aid is given at the expense of development projects.
Said Ochieng, “We had money given to build a condom factory while our water is unsafe to drink.”
While the Vatican has not commented officially on the EU decision, Msgr. Frontiero said the Holy See was pleased by the reinstatement of the Mexico City policy. “We applaud President Bush's decision,” he said. “We are opposed to the funding of abortion and so-called emergency contraception, when there are funds that are needed for clean water, immunization and good maternal health care.”
Paul Burnell writes from Manchester, England.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Paul Burnell ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 03/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 11-17,2001 ----- BODY:Bosnian Archbishop Asks President to Help Catholics
BRITISH BROADCASTING CORP., Feb. 27 — Bosnian Archbishop Franco Komarica has asked the Bosnian Serb Republic's newly elected president to address the most urgent needs of Catholics in the republic, the news service reported.
Archbishop Franjo Komarica, of the Banja Luka area of Bosnia, urged President Mirko Sarovic in a letter to invite Catholics who fled Serb-controlled areas of Bosnia five years ago to come home. Since the conclusion of the Dayton peace accords in 1996, only 1,343 Catholics of the 70,000 exiled from Banja Luka have returned.
Wrote Bishop Komarica, “As far as we know, to date the Bosnian Serb authorities have reconstructed not at least one house of any Catholic returnee, nor have they helped construct infrastructure in the villages where returnees and displaced people decide to come back.”
Iraqi Archbishop Condemns Bombings
FIDES, Feb. 24 — The head of Iraq's Chaldean Catholic Church condemned the recent U.S.-British bombing of a military facility outside the capital city of Baghdad, the missionary news service reported.
Patriarch Raphael Bidawid, leader of Iraq's 1 million Chaldean Catholics, said he had “no words with which to condemn this use of force against the weak,” which he said reflected a lack of respect for the dignity of the people of Iraq. Two civilians died in the bombing and 20 were injured.
Patriarch Bidawid forecast danger if Western nations continued to use force against Iraq. “I am afraid that if the U.S.A. and Britain continue this way, the whole of the Middle East will be set on fire,” he said.
“The more [Iraqi President] Saddam [Hussein] is maltreated the more he is applauded,” the patriarch said. “I appeal to the wisdom and prudence of the governors of these countries: think of the common good which peace can give to all, us and you. If we do not resume dialogue the specter of a war is not improbable and we risk new chaos.”
Hindu Extremists Reject Aid to Earthquake Survivors
RELIGION TODAY, Feb. 23 — Hindu extremists are blocking Christians from giving aid to the victims of India's devastating Jan. 13 earthquake, the Protestant news service reported.
Victims' reports indicate that members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a controversial Hindu nationalist group, are blocking aid from Christians, Christian agencies and other minority religions. The quake struck the northeastern state of Gujarat, a Hindu nationalist stronghold.
“Hindu hotheads are trying to dominate the rescue effort,” said Father Cedric Prakish, director of St. Xavier's Social Service Society. Father Prakish told The Washington Times that after the earthquake struck, he rushed to an understaffed local hospital to help with incoming victims. Instead, he was forced to leave when Hindu volunteers continued to shout at him and jostle him.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Color Red DATE: 03/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 11-17,2001 ----- BODY:John Paul II said Feb. 25 that the Church needs the example of martyrs in order to be faithful to its mission. And the ones who should be willing to embody this supreme example of love for Christ are the 44 newly created cardinals, he added.
Addressing the 10,000 pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square before the midday Angelus, John Paul II posed the question: “How can the Church be faithful to her vocation, at a time in which the dominant culture seems not infrequently to go against the demanding logic of the Gospel?”
The Pope answered this question by alluding to the “red color of the cardinals' habit.”
The complete remarks follow.
Dearest Brothers and Sisters!
The recent consistory for the creation of 44 new cardinals, just a few weeks after the conclusion of the Holy Year, will certainly remain memorable in the annals of the Church.
I wish to dwell once again on this event and its meaning, which affects not only the new cardinals and the ecclesial community from which they come, but the whole family of God and its mission in today's world.
A breath of new hope seems to have invaded Christian people. In the course of the Jubilee and also in these days, the invitation to look to the future has resounded powerfully.
The Church looks ahead, and wishes to go “out to sea,” inspired by the spiritual dynamism awakened within it by the Jubilee experience. This dynamism cannot but consolidate and enrich the elements that belong, so to speak, to the genetic code of the ecclesial community: its unity, holiness, catholicity and apostolicity.
The increase of the college of cardinals, while evidencing the unity of the ecclesial body around Peter's successor, underlines the Catholic dimension, reflected in the cardinals' place of origin, from all parts of the world.
One might ask: How can the Church be faithful to her vocation, at a time in which the dominant culture seems not infrequently to go against the demanding logic of the Gospel?
This question is answered, in symbolic terms, by the red color of the cardinals' habit. As is known, [red] recalls the blood of martyrs, witnesses of Christ to the point of the supreme sacrifice.
Cardinals must make visible with their life a love of Christ that does not cease, no matter what the sacrifice. Their example will be an encouragement for all Christians to serve the divine master generously, regarding themselves as living members of his one mystical Body, which is the Church.
The necessary condition for the fulfillment of this commitment is the assiduous contemplation of the face of the Lord. I wrote this in the apostolic letter “Novo Millennio Ineunte,” and I have been able to confirm it many times.
In fact, if there is less hearing of the word of God, if there is a weakening of prayer and interior contact with the Lord, it is easy to fall into a sterile activism, which constitutes a risk that unfortunately is not rare, especially in our days.
Let us invoke, for the new cardinals, the special assistance of Mary, Mother of the Church.
Reciting the Angelus together, let us ask her to obtain for all believers a generous impulse of more convinced and faithful witness to the Gospel.
----- EXCERPT: FROM THE POPE ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Defeating Depression DATE: 03/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 11-17,2001 ----- BODY:I can't tell you how thrilled I was with Art A. Bennett's “Family Matters” response to the woman whose husband was depressed (Feb. 18-24). His answer was perfect and needs to heard, especially by Christians.
Treating the depression should take priority over all things.
I went through a terrible bout of depression that nearly destroyed me, my marriage and my family. I attribute my regained health to a husband who stuck by me in good times and bad, a good therapist and a priest-friend who e-mailed me every day. I had to heal the mind, body and soul.
My mental health insurance ran out, so we had to decide whether to make the commitment to continue and pay out-of-pocket or discontinue. I felt guilty about using so much money on my health (more than $10,000 a year for three years), but my husband insisted. We have five children and money was tight, especially with all of them in Catholic schools.
The hardest part of the depression was dealing with so many uninformed people on what depression is and isn't. I had many people tell me that I simply needed more faith in Christ. “I didn't need any medication; I had Christ. I didn't need therapy, just more dependence on God. Just pull yourself up by the bootstraps and deal with it.” The hardest knock was when a person told me that I was a hypocrite for going to daily Mass and frequent confession and then not having hope in Christ. All of these well-meaning people made it harder because in my deep, dark depression, I wondered where God was. I doubted my love and belief for Christ. Maybe I wasn't praying hard enough, good enough or trusting enough in God's mercy and love.
I wouldn't wish depression on anyone, but, because of it, I am a much better [person] emotionally, physically and spiritually. Having gone through depression, I feel like I have grown into a mature woman of God and that I can take on anything.
PATRICIA G. DI RITO
Norcross, Georgia
Co-ed Catholics
Regarding “Catholic Law School Debate” (Feb. 11-17): I was most concerned when I read that parishes throughout this country were offering financial support to students attending The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Doubtless, parents and their pastors desire a truly Catholic education for their children, but I question whether Catholic University is the place.
Let's for the present ignore the fact that the undergraduates are “taught” by graduate students, not professors, and that undergraduate classes frequently have more than 75 students to a class.
As a longtime D.C. resident — more than 20 years — I feel I can speak accurately on the real situation at CUA. Do Catholic parents want their 17-year-old to live in a co-ed dorm?
There are true Catholic colleges where students will get a true Catholic education — places where there are no co-ed dorms, no questionable clubs and, yes, they do expel those who indulge in disruptive activities.
OMA SCHICK
Washington
National (Ahem) Education Association
I read “Dioceses Boycott Education Convention” (Feb. 18-24) with interest.
The invitation of Sister Joan Chit-tister as a keynote speaker at the National Catholic Educational Association's Annual Convention is problematic. Educators who attend the convention might get the impression that the NCEA is endorsing this controversial nun as a mainstream Catholic. Her many writings indicate that she is not.
If the Catholic Medical Association invited an abortionist to give a keynote address at its national convention, that would be a problem even if the abortionist promised to speak about microbiology rather than abortion. It seems sensible to apply that same logic to a keynote speaker at a Catholic education convention.
DUKE HILLARD
Lafayette, Louisiana
Reversal Rehearsal
Vasectomy reversal is no longer “most often unsuccessful” as your otherwise commendable article “The Lynns' Second Chance” states (Feb. 18-24). Ads on the Internet by specialists claim 95% successful patency and 70% or more pregnancy rates for routine reversals. For complicated cases, results are still good, 60% patency and 40% subsequent pregnancies.
In Los Angeles, a specialist claims that his last 100 reversals resulted in 100 successful re-canalizations. For women, a site reports 95% successful re-opening of the passages, and 70% pregnancy success. The reversal cost for women is advertised at $6,500.
The growing microsurgery business in the United States also suggests that the priest's advice about no obligation to undo the operation may be outdated. Among the 15 million surgically sterilized couples in the United States, 25% of either the wife or her partner express a desire for reversal. Published stories abound of happier marriages after the repair work is done. Inquire for example at OMSoulЀOMSoul.com. See more at: http://zimmerman.catholic.ac/.
FATHER A. ZIMMERMAN, S.T.D. Nagoya, Japan.
Strings Everywhere
Your Feb. 18-24 issue rightly warns, “Bush's Church-State Plan: What Strings Are Attached?” We should ask the same question about other policy proposals of his — empowering faith based charities, funding school choice options, reducing the availability of abortions. What strings are attached?
And as this president, as any president, accomplishes less than we hope for, we must also not attack and destroy him. For the greatest warning of all should be: We must never expect a president or a government to make our people holier in action or purer in living than we can inspire them to be. And when, blessedly, secular authorities narrow the margins for trampling on life, we must still ask: “What strings are attached?”
The message and the example of Jesus were always on the order of “come out from among them; be not like them.” There is not a single recorded incident of Jesus demanding that the civil authorities establish, for his followers and all others, the ethical code he preached. Rather, his followers, in living that Kingdom ethic, would draw all men to it — would form a city set on a hill whose beauty and goodness would inspire those in the secular city to live likewise.
Let us never demand of him laws that make us live up to our own vision, certainly not laws that make everyone else do so. Let us remember that anything he can do as a secular leader will also always come with “strings attached.” That is the nature of the state — any state on any issue.
DOROTHY T. SAMUEL
St. Cloud, Minnesota
The Left Wing
We find some articles and photos in the Register quite annoying and feel that such do not belong in an orthodox Catholic publication.
As we read the Feb. 18-24 issue, our blood is really boiling as we see the photo from the leftist TV show with the headline “West Wing Award.” Shame on the Christophers for awarding this leftist show a prize! The misguided, including many cafeteria Catholics, think that Martin Sheen is another Mother Teresa. We recall that, just before the national elections, Martin Sheen, who demonstrates against the U.S. military, was wearing a T-shirt with a photo of George W. Bush with blood dripping from it and, in large print, the word “Gored.” How peaceful!
This same Sheen has said he thinks that Bill Clinton was the greatest president ever and that his adulterous affairs “only make him more human.”
This same misguided Sheen said a few years back that he felt that it was OK for Catholics to miss Sunday Mass.
It troubles us deeply that those responsible for your Catholic paper are either ignorant or, worse still, spineless and wishy-washy, when it comes to presenting the true faith.
CONSTANTINO N. SANTOS
Atascadero, California
Getting the Point on Pro-Life
I have two comments on Paul Szymanowski's recent letter titled “Missing the Point?” (Letters, Feb. 18-24).
He mentions “exchanging one evil for another” as if we are dealing with equal evils. We are not. On the one hand, we are talking about issues that affect the “quality of life,” such as poverty. On the other hand is the very right to life of human individuals everywhere. It's possible to be in poverty and still lead a meaningful human existence (as both my parents did during the Great Depression). Not so if your life is snuffed out in your mother's womb.
We are dealing with a hierarchy of attacks on human life in which abortion is in a class of its own at the top of the hierarchy. I think this is why [the 1995 papal encyclical] Evangelium Vitae [The Gospel of Life] says “we all share in … the inescapable responsibility of choosing to be unconditionally pro-life” (No. 28). The mental tradeoffs Mr. Szymanowski described in his first letter (“A Vote for Gore,” Dec. 10-16) — poverty and health care vs. the right to life itself — do not sound unconditionally pro-life to me. They sound like rationalizations.
Secondly, his most recent letter says that “a person who really wants to get an abortion will do it, regardless of legality.” He continues by saying that instead of making abortion illegal, we should focus on getting “people's actions and attitudes [to] change.” But rationalizing support for a pro-abortion candidate on this basis ignores the educational role of the law.
Pope John Paul II acknowledges this educational role of laws in Evangelium Vitae, No. 90: “Although laws are not the only means of protecting human life, nevertheless they do play a very important and sometimes decisive role in influencing patterns of thought and behavior.” What becomes legal becomes normative. What becomes normative gets accepted by the culture as moral behavior.
MARK OSBORNE
Montgomery Village, Maryland
A Real Page-Turner
I have just recently become a subscriber to the National Catholic Register. I have found most of the news presentation very informative, especially those things not covered by the secular press, [but] the Feb. 25 issue had several errors which made it difficult to follow the front-page articles.
Of the six major stories covered on the front page, four of them had the wrong page number to continue the article. Since I also read that you recently received a third-place award [from the Catholic Press Association] for “Best Front Page,” the problem has become even more noticeable.
You have been running an ad for [a proofreader]. This indicates that attempts are being made to correct these errors. I will continue to read the National Catholic Register, and hope for your success.
FATHER ROGER NOLETTE, O.S.B
Hingham, Massachusetts
----- EXCERPT: LETTERS ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Why Pennsylvania Bishops Decry The Death Penalty DATE: 03/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 11-17,2001 ----- BODY:“We, the Catholic Bishops of Pennsylvania, join the Holy Father in calling for a re-examination of the death penalty.”
So say the Keystone State's 17 bishops in their 2,200-word statement The Death Penalty: Choose Life, a review of Catholic moral and social teaching on this vexing subject.
Why revisit this issue now? The Pennsylvania bishops expressed their opposition to capital punishment back in a 1987 statement. In 1994 the National Conference of Catholic Bishops took the same stance in a pastoral message, “Confronting a Culture of Violence,” which it reiterated in “An Appeal to End the Death Penalty” on Good Friday, 1999.
Yet, in the past few years, circumstances in Pennsylvania have changed. Executions of criminals convicted of first-degree murder were resumed in 1995, after the electric chair had collected dust for 30 years. The state's death-row population — presently 241 — is growing. And recent changes in federal and local laws accelerate the execution timetable, as the bishops note, by restricting review by the courts or intervention by the governor.
The Catholic bishops of Pennsylvania have noted these changes in the socio-political landscape and responded to them, asking that readers prayerfully reflect on their rationale. “We believe that it is crucial,” they write, “to continue the proclamation of the teaching of the Catholic Church on the fundamental sanctity of all human life.”
This, of course, is the primary consideration: Human beings are God's creatures, made in God's own image. “Accordingly, there is a moral presumption against human beings killing other human beings.” A second consistent Church teaching concerns the legitimate right of government to protect society by punishing wrongdoers. In the past, the Church allowed an exception to its presumption against taking human life, following St. Thomas Aquinas' teaching that executing the offender may sometimes be necessary to preserve the common good.
With both of these principles in mind, the Church's teaching on the use of capital punishment has been refined and is becoming more explicit. This is evident in the 1995 encyclical The Gospel of Life, in the revisions made to the Catechism of the Catholic Church in 1997 to reflect that teaching (No. 2267), and in the interventions of Pope John Paul II on behalf of condemned criminals.
The Feb. 12 statement formulates the new emphasis as follows: “Modern society has the means of protecting itself and preserving the common good without the necessity of capital punishment. The Holy Father's words are more a development in the use of the state's right rather than a change in the teaching of the Church on that state's right.”
The death penalty inflicts great harm on society'
Having summarized the Church's teachings, the Pennsylvania bishops turn to practical arguments. They cite studies by law enforcement officials showing that the death penalty is ineffective as a deterrent.
“Not only does the death penalty fail to protect us; it inflicts great harm on individuals and society,” the bishops write. Errors in the criminal-justice system can lead to the conviction and sentencing of innocent people.
Furthermore, there is an inherent miscalculation in capital punishment.
“Reliance on the use of the death penalty creates a greater harm to society by reinforcing the idea that violence is a solution to society's problems,” the bishops note. “The death penalty will not overcome violent crime any more than abortion will end the problem of unwanted pregnancy or euthanasia will solve the problems of aging and illness.”
What about justice and “closure” for those mourning the victims of violence? Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua of Philadelphia addressed this concern while testifying before the Pennsylvania Senate Judiciary Committee one year ago. “Those who suffer unimaginable grief as a result of the senseless murder of one dear to them deserve the love and support of everyone,” he said. “They have a right to expect that justice will be done and that the perpetrator of a crime will be punished swiftly and effectively.”
Yet an appeal to the survivors' well-being cannot be made the basis of demands for vengeance. Speaking as pastors, the bishops insist that “true emotional, spiritual and even physical healing is found in the compassionate embrace of Jesus, who practiced forgiveness and teaches us to do the same.”
“We believe the use of the death penalty should be abolished,” the bishops write. “We envision no circumstances in modern American society that could justify its continued use. We wholeheartedly support legislation for a moratorium as well as a study of the theory and practice of capital punishment in Pennsylvania.”
The bishops express their hope that Pennsylvania's Catholics will have a significant impact on the culture, based on their love for Jesus, by becoming consistent witnesses to the dignity of every human being. They suggest a charity that reaches out to the family and friends of both victims and offenders as well as to corrections personnel.
“The Death Penalty: Choose Life” is a pastoral application of Catholic teaching to recent developments in American society. In making their position heard, the bishops of Pennsylvania are like a prophetic voice in the moral wilderness brought on by a culture of death. They conclude by citing Ezekiel 33:11: “The Lord God says, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked man, but rather in the wicked man's conversion, that he may live.’”
Michael J. Miller writes from Glenside, Pennsylvania.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Michael J. Miller ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Shrouded in Mystery DATE: 03/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 11-17,2001 ----- BODY:For some, Feb. 16, 1989, has gone down as a day of infamy. It was on that day that scientists from America, Switzerland and England announced that the Shroud of Turin could not have been the cloth used to wrap the body of Jesus of Nazareth for burial.
Publishing their conclusions in the prestigious scientific journal Nature, the team said that, based on carbon-14 (C-14) analysis — and following a protocol agreed to by the Vatican — the cloth with the mysterious image of a crucified man only dates back as far as the 13th or 14th century. At the time it came out, the judgment was widely accepted within scientific and academic circles as the final word on the shroud's age.
Twelve years later, many scientists aren't so sure. Citing problems with the C-14 studies, plus new research into botanical, forensic and historical clues on the cloth, some say it remains altogether possible that the Shroud of Turin dates to first-century Palestine. And nearly all, regardless of their estimate of the shroud's age, remain perplexed over the photographic-negative image of the crucified man. However old the artifact may be, how did the image come to be created?
Botanic Bounty
Some of the most compelling new evidence supporting the possibility of the shroud's direct connection to Jesus comes from the field of botany. Avinoam Danin of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Uri Baruch of Jerusalem's Antiquities Authority have matched pollen taken from the shroud with that of the crown chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum coronarium), the rock rose (Cistus creticus), the bean caper plant (Zygophyllum dumosum) and the blooms of the tumbleweed (Gundelia tournefortii).
These last two are especially important, as they coexist only in the Holy Land, both blooming in the spring. What's more, pollen found on the Shroud matches that found on another mysterious historical relic, the Sudarium of Oviedo.
The Sudarium of Oviedo is a small linen cloth, 21 inches high by 32 wide, which, according to tradition, was placed over the face of Jesus after he died on the cross. Unlike the shroud, the sudarium has a well-documented history that extends at least as far back as the 7th century, when, according to reliable records, a presbyter brought it from Jerusalem to Alexandria in 614 to protect it from a Persian invasion. It was examined by King Alphonso IV in 1075 on his visit to Oviedo, where it has been housed ever since.
The sudarium is stained with blood — type AB, the same blood type found on the shroud — and with body fluids associated with asphyxiation, which is the usual cause of death in crucifixion. At an area on the sudarium which would have been at the back of the head, there are blood stains consistent with small punctures. Intriguingly, the pattern of the stains on the sudarium matches those of the head area on the shroud.
In 1989, Dr. Alan Whanger, a professor emeritus at the Duke University Medical Center, found numerous similarities between the two artifacts based on photographs taken of the sudarium.
Meanwhile, Danin reported finding tumbleweed pollen on the sudarium. It came from the same species of pollen he had previously identified on the shroud.
In order to understand the importance of the 1989 study which claimed a medieval European origin for the Shroud of Turin, it is necessary to understand the principles behind C-14 analysis.
‘The shroud is an image of both God's love and man's sin.’
In earth's atmosphere, a small proportion of carbon is radioactive, created by the sun's rays striking nitrogen atoms and converting them into C-14. (The common, stable form of carbon is C-12.) Carbon is the basic building block of living things, a main constituent of carbohydrates and protein. Green plants absorb it from the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2) and convert it into starch, sugar and tissue, thereby forming the base of the food chain for all living things.
All living tissue will have the same proportion of C-14 to C-12 that exists in the atmosphere.
The acquisition of C-14 by an organism stops at death, and the radioactive C-14 present gradually decays to become nitrogen. By knowing the rate of decay of C-14 (half the C-14 present every 5,730 years) and the proportion of C-14 to C-12 in a specimen, its age can be determined. Obviously the main assumption behind the method is that the proportion of C-14 in the atmosphere has been constant over time.
Given the established assumptions of the method, the conclusion of a medieval origin of the shroud appears reasonable based on C-14 dating alone. Yet, while the C-14 levels detected by the three laboratories are incontestable, conclusions based on the assumptions of the method are not as definite.
Scientific critics of the 1989 paper have questioned whether there could be biological contamination by either bacteria or fungi on the shroud, throwing off the C-14/C-12 balance. Dr. Leoncio A. Garza-Valdes and microbiology professor Stephen J. Mattingly, after examining several threads from the shroud, have suggested that the large amount of still-living bacteria and fungi they observed would have contaminated the C-14 composition of the samples.
Their thesis could have profound consequences for dating other artifacts as well, and is not easily dismissed. The argument against the Valdes-Mattingly proposal is that there would had to have been a noticeably large amount of contaminating material present on the sample in order to alter the date by over 1,000 years. Contrarily, given that the linen fibers are hollow (made up of flax), it might be possible for biological contaminants to remain undetected in spite of the extensive preparative cleansing done in the '89 study. Supporting this theory was the work of an archaeologist, William Meacham, who had warned of these potential problems three years before the C-14 analysis was published, citing anomalous results found in other C-14 studies.
Relic or Objet d'Art?
Last May, Pope John Paul II knelt before the Shroud of Turin, speaking of it as “the precious cloth that can help us better understand the mystery of the love of the Son of God.”
As to the authenticity of the shroud, however, the Holy Father reminded us that “as it is not a question of faith, the Church does not have the specific authority to make a pronouncement on such questions. … Scientists have the duty to continue research in order to arrive at adequate answers to the questions linked with this linen which, according to tradition, wrapped the body of our Redeemer when he was taken from the Cross.”
Whether as a relic of the crucifixion or as a medieval icon, the message the shroud holds for Christians does not change. In his homily given in the Turin Cathedral, the Holy Father asked:
“Contemplating the Shroud [of Turin], how can we not think of the millions of people who die of hunger, the horrors perpetrated during the many wars which have bloodied nations, the brutal exploitation of women and children, the millions of human beings who live in hardship and humiliation on the fringes of large cities, especially in developing countries? How can we not recall with bewilderment and pity all those who cannot enjoy basic civil rights, victims of torture and terrorism, slaves of criminal organizations?”
The problem of the C-14 dating still remains, the objections to the C-14 dating notwithstanding. It is a mistake to simply dismiss the C-14 results. Equally, is a profound mistake to dismiss the evidence from the other disciplines which demonstrate an older origin of the Shroud of Turin. One cannot ignore the contradiction between the C-14 evidence pointing to a medieval origin, and the similarity between the shroud's image and that found on the Sudarium of Oviedo.
The day may never come when science resolves the inconsistent findings on the Shroud of Turin. That should not stop Christians from using it to reflect on the Gospel event it points to.
“The shroud is an image of both God's love and man's sin,” said John Paul in his Turin homily. “In the incomparable suffering which it documents, the love of him who so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son becomes palpable.”
David Beresford, a biologist, writes from Lakefield, Ontario.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: David Beresford ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Family Experts' Take On Bush's Tax Plan DATE: 03/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 11-17,2001 ----- BODY:Tax-and-spend detractors revile it as a “tax cut.” President Bush prefers to call it “tax relief.” I like to think of it as a “tax rebate.”
With the projected budget surplus now approaching $6 trillion, it is clear that America's working families are over-paying their tax bills by an astonishing amount. What is the appropriate remedy when someone overpays for goods or services? A rebate. If Americans are paying more than is needed to run the government and its myriad programs, then the surplus should be returned to the hardworking folks who earned it. It's as simple as that.
America's families need and deserve a tax rebate. The government burden on working Americans is greater today than at any peacetime period in our nation's history. Save for the years of World War II, the government's share of the gross domestic product is greater than ever. The average family must work more than four months of every year just to pay the tax bill and today pays more in taxes than it does in food, housing and clothing combined. Worse, the current tax code is hostile to families, driving mothers from the home to earn second incomes and penalizing marriage.
President Bush has proposed a tax rebate package that is friendly to the ideals championed by the organizations I serve, the Family Research Council and its associated legislative arm, American Renewal. The Bush plan would strengthen our traditional American ideals of family, faith and freedom.
First, the family would be strengthened by eliminating the marriage penalty, abolishing the “death tax” on estates passed from one generation to another, and doubling the child tax credit to $1,000.
While rectifying the imbalance in the tax code that unfairly penalizes marriage, however, it is important that single-earner families not be put at a disadvantage. The tax code should not be used to encourage mothers to leave the home for the workplace by setting up financial rewards for two-earner families. The tax code should recognize the enormous economic contribution of stay-at-home moms. Many families make considerable sacrifices to allow mothers to stay at home raising and nurturing their children. This has a direct, if not always well understood benefit to the national economy. The traditional two-parent family with a mother in the home is the single best defense against childhood poverty and a host of social ills from crime and delinquency, to drug and alcohol abuse, and teenage pregnancy.
Any effort to restore balance to the tax code by eliminating the marriage penalty should extend to all families, single- as well as dual-earner. This is currently lacking in the Bush approach, which encompasses relief only for dual-earner families. An expanded congressional version of the Bush tax rebate plan sponsored by Rep. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), among others, would eliminate the marriage tax penalty for all families in all tax brackets. This family-friendly feature should be incorporated into President Bush's plan.
The death tax is a direct attack on family businesses. Family farms and small businesses are especially vulnerable to this insidious tax. Instead of fostering saving and frugality, the death tax encourages Americans to “spend down” their estates in order to escape the clutches of the taxman. Land-rich but cash-poor family farms often have to be broken up or sold off to pay estate taxes rather than being passed on to succeeding generations. Small family businesses that hardworking Americans spent lifetimes building from scratch can be lost to this most morbid form of taxation.
Second, the Bush plan would strengthen faith by expanding the charitable tax deduction to those families that do not currently itemize and allowing charitable donations to be credited against state taxes. These initiatives would strengthen those faith-based organizations that the President seeks to call upon as allies of government in ameliorating the nation's social ills.
Third, freedom would be strengthened by across-the-board rate reductions. This would allow working Americans to keep more of the money they earn through their own labor, enterprise, ingenuity and creativity.
In the celebrated 1964 speech that launched his political career, Ronald Reagan said: “No nation in history has ever survived a tax burden that reached a third of its national income.” Today we are perilously close to that upper limit of taxation.
Can any people truly be said to be free when government at all levels confiscates as much as a third of the product of their labor? With federal spending running at historically high peacetime levels, and a budget surplus approaching a staggering $6 trillion, surely we can afford to maintain essential government programs while returning a mere quarter of the excess taxation to the working families that produced it.
Kenneth L. Connor is president of the Family Research Council, a Washington-based public policy organization.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kenneth L. Connor ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: K of C Does a Museum Right DATE: 03/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 11-17,2001 ----- BODY:Knights of Columbus Museum, New Haven, Conn.
Bask in the presence of stunning artworks from the Vatican Mosaic Studio, admire galleries of changing religious-art exhibits and vicariously experience the colorful history of the Knights of Columbus.
The new Knights of Columbus Museum in New Haven, Conn., is planning to celebrate its grand opening March 10.
Located two blocks from the Knights' Supreme Council International Headquarters, the sleek modernistic building, formerly the site of city offices, has been transformed into a world-class museum. The Knights have done a remarkable job adapting the spacious, airy environment here for artistic and historic displays.
“Everybody Welcome” — this greeting stands out in bold lettering atop the museum's self-guided tour brochure. And welcome was exactly the feeling I got immediately upon entering the spacious lobby and adjoining two-story vestibule. Come to think of it, that feeling came even sooner — to be precise, when I was told admission is free for the first year (until at least April 2002). That's an incredible offer for a museum of this caliber to be making.
High above the main staircase, a huge, 400-year-old copper cross sends an unambiguous signal of the museum's Christian orientation. Once part of the statue of Christ the Redeemer atop St. Peter's Basilica, Pope John Paul II gave it as a gift to the Knights of Columbus in 1986, when the order finished restoring that Roman facade.
The copper cross is one of many artifacts here reminding visitors of the close, working relationship the “K of C” order has with the Vatican. Elsewhere you'll find the splendid papal chair the knights commissioned for John Paul II's 1995 Mass at New York's Aqueduct Racetrack. And a 17th-century statue of a larger-than-life enthroned St. Peter greets visitors at the entrance to the Papal Gallery, which showcases many stirring mementos of the successors of St. Peter.
Another artistic representation of our first pope stands by the mini-theater at the head of the galleries. The theater, for its part, is a good place to “officially” begin your tour as it continuously runs a short introductory film.
McGivney's Glory
Probably the best exhibit to take in first is that in the Father Michael
J. McGivney Gallery. Here you'll get to know the founder of the order. Father McGivney launched the Knights of Columbus in 1882, in the basement of New Haven's St. Mary's Church, to provide insurance benefits to its members and promote the principles of charity, unity and patriotism.
In an adjoining reliquary room, you'll see Father McGivney's burial vestments from 1890. They're in amazingly good condition, having been removed in 1981 when he was re-interred in St. Mary's Church on the 100th anniversary of the Knights' founding.
This gallery and reliquary will prompt you to later take the pleasant three-quarter-mile walk or short car ride past one of New England's oldest town greens to Hillhouse Ave. and the church, magnificently restored by the order, where you can pray at the granite tomb of Father McGivney — whose cause for sainthood is now being examined in Rome.
An interesting footnote: The beautiful rosewood floors in these opening galleries match the flooring in St. Mary's.
Next up is the Columbus Gallery, which allows you to explore the great faith and courage of the explorer who brought the Catholic faith to this side of the Atlantic Ocean. The glazed ceramic tiles on display were brought by
Columbus on his second voyage to build Our Lady of the Rosary Church in Santo Domingo.
Most of one side of the gallery corridors are glass walls that encircle a long atrium at the core of the building. The design allows you to see the terraced courtyard on the ground level and admire a nine-foot statue of Columbus the Evangelizer, who, from this vantage point, looks every inch the triumphant, heroic Christian visionary. The statue was sculpted by the renowned Stanley Bleifeld, who's done three of Father McGivney and is known for the “Lone Sailor” at the U.S. Navy Memorial in Washington.
The courtyard, by the way, with a memorial to knights of the order who died in World War II, has fountains, bamboo trees, and open skies above. It will make an inviting spot to enjoy a picnic lunch come spring and summer.
Back inside, the Wall of History galleries stretch nearly 200 feet as they chronicle, in artifacts, placards and photos, K of C milestones in relation to U.S. and world history. “Everybody Welcome” — sounds familiar — is the warm invitation visible in one poster-sized photo. It shows a Knights of Columbus hospitality center, one of many they ran for the doughboys of World War I, which set the blueprint for the USO clubs of World War II. I was surprised to learn this, and that the knights ran these even in huts near the front lines to comfort all soldiers — and all for free.
Good Knight
All the knights' compassionate war relief efforts had such a lasting, positive moral impact that, to thank the order, France presented the Knights of Columbus with an exquisitely decorated, enormous porcelain vase, big as a barrel.
Displays like this one teach and fascinate at the same time. To satisfy your appetite for more about the 1.6-million member organization that yearly donates an average $110 million and 55 million man-hours to help the Catholic Church, its different institutions, the family, and the needy, you can linger at a state-of-the-art media information center, where specially configured touch-screen computers make it easy to browse through extensive information.
An adjacent library holds over 400 Columbus-related books, the order's original minutes and membership ledgers. The latter take you back to the 1880s and the San Salvador Council No. 1.
Great things are in place and on tap in the changing-exhibits galleries.
The stunning collection from the Vatican Mosaic Studio, scheduled to be here through June 20, christens these galleries and promises more exchanges with the Vatican museums.
These magnificent reproductions of originals, which date as far back as the fourth century, were created by master craftsmen with the world's best, largest and most variegated collection of stone and glass used in mosaics.
If all you did was come here to see the Madonna of Perpetual Help, Mary as Mater Ecclesiae and the Annunciated, and Our Lady of Guadalupe (owned by the order), you would feel your trip to New Haven was worth the trouble. From feet away, they look unmistakably like oil paintings. Up close, they're a marvel of intricate artistry. At any distance, they're nothing less than inspiring.
Museum director Larry Sowinski, who also co-founded and directed the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum in New York City, aspires to make the Knights of Columbus museum the finest of its kind in the entire Northeast.
“It's a wholesome family experience,” he says, “and a brilliant move by the knights. It will go a long way to help people of faith — of all faiths.” In other words: “Everybody Welcome.”
Joseph Pronechen writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Laughing All the Way to the Church DATE: 03/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 11-17,2001 ----- BODY:By day he's a computer programmer, by night the Catholic answer to “Weird Al” Yankovic.
In Nick Alexander's case, the words he puts to pop music tunes aren't just funny; they're Catholic and, at times, instructive, too. His first CD, “A Time to Laugh,” features parodies of such songs as Sonny & Cher's “I Got You Babe” (“I Got You Saved” in Alexander's version) and the Beatles' “Revolution” (“Transubstantiation”). He spoke with Register features correspondent Tim Drake.
Drake: Tell me about your childhood. Where did you grow up?
I was born in Southern California, but my family moved around a lot because of job situations. I spent most of my youth in New York. Religiously, my mother is a devout Episcopalian, while my father was raised Catholic but is now an atheist. As a child I was given the choice between staying home from church on Sundays or going with my mother. If I stayed home, my father would put me to work doing chores, so church was a nice option.
Have you always been musical?
No, neither of my parents was into music. I did take guitar lessons and, as a teen, I watched MTV all the time. “Weird Al” was in heavy rotation then with songs like “Eat It” and “Like a Surgeon” and I fell in love with his parodies. My older sister is a musician as well. She is a flutist and has composed for orchestra.
Tell me about your own journey into the Church?
During high school I was the president of the Bible study, and very anti-Catholic. None of us knew any Catholics who really loved the Word of God. When I went onto college at Rutgers University in New Jersey, I signed up for every Christian group on campus. One group particularly intrigued me. Although I didn't know it at the time, it was an outgrowth of the charismatic renewal in the Church. I belonged to this group for months before realizing that they were Catholic. For the first time I realized that there were Catholics who loved the Church.
I loved picking up tracts and publications like the Jehovah's Witnesses' Watchtower magazine and finding the loopholes in it. While I was in college, my mother purchased a book for me about the reported apparitions at Medjugorje. She had no idea that she had purchased something that was totally offensive to me. I read through it, looking for the loopholes that I expected I would find — Catholics worshipping Mary, Mary replacing Jesus and so on, but couldn't find any. After reading the book, I started praying the rosary. Several Protestant friends who had read the book also started praying the rosary and ended up converting before I did.
Because of many other issues, such as the Real Presence and the ordination of women, I found great comfort in remaining an Episcopalian for many years. However, about a year after I graduated from college, those issues toppled and I came into the Church.
Tell me how
Through the years, I wanted to be recognized for my praise music. I had occasionally written parody songs to sharpen my own songwriting skills and I would sing these songs every so often, when the opportunity arose. But I had never taken this side of my music seriously. I always saw it as a stepping stone for my “serious” work.
So, trying to put away childish things, I went to the Catholic Association of Musicians conference and performed my serious work. It was after-hours at a Pizza Hut that I was handed a guitar and pushed to play my silly songs. I sang “Old Time Gregorian Chant,” “I Got You Saved,” and “Repent.” Most great inventions happen by accident, and the crowd was stunned with delight. Nobody had ever attempted what I had done before — blending orthodoxy with humor.
They were very enthusiastic and gave me a strong push to record a CD. To me this was both a shock and a relief. I realized I could be silly and get away with it. I spent the rest of year writing parodies and finished recording the album during Lent. The album was released in May of 2000.
What is the goal of your music?
When I first learned about Medjugorje, it seemed like a secret hidden behind the walls. It seemed as if no one knew about it. A part of me subconsciously wanted to share the treasures of the Catholic Church, yet to do so in a manner that would be both funny and acceptable. When I started writing the parodies, my love for apologetics would come into play because that is a part of me.
I wrote a lot of parodies, but the ones that seemed to work best were those that dealt with specifically Catholic issues. They end up being funny because no one expects that. My music is influenced by Weird Al, but it is also influenced by the likes of Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie, who tried to further their causes through the use of humor. I'm doing the same thing, but I'm talking about Christian unity and specific aspects of the Catholic faith. That's who I am.
What kind of response is your music getting?
The music has gone over really well. I performed on the comedy stage for the National Conference for Catholic Youth Ministers in Birmingham and received a standing ovation. I also emceed a musicians' showcase at the Catholic Marketing Network tradeshow in Miami in January.
Everyone who has seen me live has encouraged me to take my show on the road. My live show has many elements that the CD does not. I use props. For example, when I sing “I Got You Saved” I use a cardboard cutout of Cher for the duet. In my parody of The Clash song “Should I Stand or Should I Kneel,” I have a missalette that opens up like an accordian, and in my parody of The Village People singing “RCIA” — instead of “YMCA” — I bring people up on stage to do the hand motions along with the song. The audience loves it.
What do you have planned next?
I'm getting married in May, but hope to record my next album soon after that. All of the songs focus on the desire for sainthood and holiness. It will include a song about St. Therese of Lisieux, one about missionaries, and a parody of Billy Joel's “We Didn't Start the Fire” called “We Want to Stand United” which will go through all of the schisms throughout Church history. All of the songs will be very funny, while maintaining respect and reverence for their subject matter.
Features correspondent Tim Drake writes from St. Cloud, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: Art & Culture -------- TITLE: Old Time Gregorian Chant DATE: 03/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 11-17,2001 ----- BODY:Sung to the tune of “Old Time Rock & Roll” as performed by Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band
Just take those old records off the shelf You know I'm listenin' to somethin' else Today's music ain't got the same slant I dig that old time Gregorian chant
Don't want to hear about the new craze That stuff just turns me off in so many ways Don't want hip-hop or a country line dance Just give me that old time Gregorian chant
I like that old time Gregorian chant That kind of music really soothes my plants I don't wanna hear that old Robert Plant Just like that old time Gregorian chant
— From the CD “A Time to Laugh” by Nick Alexander
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Art & Culture -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 03/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 11-17,2001 ----- BODY:Freedom Song (2000)
This cable-TV movie, is set in the small town of Quinlan, Miss., in 1961.
Owen Walker (Vicellous Reon Shannon) is an African-American teen-ager who's trained by an out-of-state political organizer, Daniel Wall (Vondi Curtis Hall), to sit in at libraries, bus stations and lunch counters. When they try to register blacks to vote, they encounter the full force of the region's brutal racism and the Klu Klux Klan.
Writer-director Phil Alden Robinson (Field of Dreams) emphasizes the heroism of local activists of all ages as well as the boldness of the Kennedy administration's Justice Department.
Panic in the Streets (1950)
Panic in the Streets skillfully presents the behind-the-scenes drama of how plagues are kept under control in a modern American city.
Police discover a corpse on a New Orleans dock. Detective Captain Tom Warren (Paul Douglas) correctly thinks it's a case of murder. But Dr. Clinton Reed (Richard Widmark), a federal official, diagnoses the body as also carrying the bubonic plague. Director Elia Kazan (On the Waterfront) constructs a moody, atmospheric thriller with a documentary look.
Arts & Culture correspondent
John Prizer writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 03/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 11-17,2001 BODY:MARCH, VARIOUS DATES
Lawrence Welk:
Milestones and Memories PBS; check local listings for time
This nostalgic special, taped Sept. 1-2 in the Champagne Theatre in Branson, Mo., reunites 47 musicians, singers and dancers from the Lawrence Welk Show, a variety hit on TV from 1955 through 1982. The Lennon Sisters and other stars perform favorites and reminisce about the show and host Welk (1903-92). Many baby boomers who once thought Welk hopelessly corny might wish their own kids' music scene had less Eminem and more “square” numbers like those here, which include “America the Beautiful” and the finale, “In the Sweet By and By.”
SUNDAY, MAR. 11
Land of the Mammoth Discovery, 8 p.m.
The computer-generated graphics in this enjoyable two-hour documentary persuasively recreate the world of mammoths. The show also reveals the promise of new archaeological techniques for uncovering vast stores of previously unattainable information.
MONDAY, MAR. 12
Iceman: Mummy from the Stone Age Discovery, 6 p.m.
Scientists continue to gain new knowledge about Stone Age people by studying the remains and belongings of the 5,000-year-old man who was found in the Italian Alps.
TUESDAY, MAR. 13
Nick Stellino: Food, Love and Family Discovery, 6 p.m
“America is a dream, Nicolino,” chef Nick Stellino says his father used to tell him in Palermo, Sicily. Stellino followed the dream to America, but his relatives remain close to his heart. You'll see touching evidence of that as he peppers (pun intended) his soup- and tortemaking with warm-hearted stories of love, family and childhood back home in Italy.
FRIDAY, MAR. 16
Irish Tenors: Live from Belfast PBS, 8 p.m.
Featuring beloved Irish classics by Anthony Kearns, Ronan Tynan and Finbar Wright, this two-hour concert, taped in Belfast's Waterfront Hall, will get everyone in the mood for St. Patrick's Day.
SATURDAY, MAR. 17
The Secret World of Monster Trucks Learning Channel, 11 a.m.
Don't ask how there can be a “secret world” for anything as huge and thundering as monster trucks, but this hour-long show does delve into an arcane experience: training to become a driver of these fun, colorful and ridiculously outsize vehicles.
SATURDAY, MARCH 17
Dogs with Jobs PBS; check local listings for time
The first dog in this episode is Kavik, a wolf-husky being trained to star in the TV series “Call of the Wild.” The second is Mas, a Newfoundland in Italy; a water rescue specialist, he can jump from helicopters to save drowning people.
SATURDAY, MAR. 17
Joseph: The Man Closest to Christ EWTN, 8 p.m.
In this film, Rick Sarkisian and his interviewees provide fascinating insights about St. Joseph and present him as a model for every Catholic man.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dan Engler ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Students Can Oppose Homosexuality, Says Court DATE: 03/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 11-17,2001 ----- BODY:STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — A Pennsylvania State University professor who objected to a public school anti-harassment policy because he said it could have kept his children from freely expressing their religious beliefs has succeeded in having the policy declared unconstitutional.
The 1999 policy of the State College Area School District targeted harassment based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or any other personal characteristics, but David Warren Saxe believes it could have inhibited the free speech of anyone who opposed homosexuality on religious grounds.
In a Feb. 14 ruling, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court ruling and deemed the policy “unconstitutionally over-broad.” On Feb. 22, the school district announced plans to revise the policy to address the court's concerns.
The ruling, which applies to courts in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and the Virgin Islands, said negative or derogatory speech about racial customs, religious tradition, language, sexual orientation and values is within a student's First Amendment rights when it does not pose a “realistic threat of substantial disruption.” The State College school district, the ruling said, failed to show why it anticipated such disruption “from the broad swath of student speech prohibited under the policy.”
According to the ruling, schools may outlaw “lewd, vulgar, indecent, and plainly offensive speech,” but may not prohibit speech based on “undifferentiated fear or apprehension of disturbance.”
Saxe, who also is a member of the state school board, filed the suit out of concern that his children, both of whom are Catholic, be allowed to state the beliefs of the Church, which teaches that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 2357).
“We make no attack on the [homosexual] individual,” Saxe said. “It's an act that is in violation of God's law. That is the teaching we give our children.”
The Saxe children are referred to in the suit only as Student Doe 1 and Student Doe 2, and Saxe has declined to be more specific in identifying them.
Neither had spoken about the Church's teaching in school, he said, but he believes they might have. “There are occasions in the classroom when I would want my children to be able to speak freely about who they are.”
Patricia Best, superintendent of the State College schools, said in passing the anti-harassment policy the school board was acting out of concern for students who are bullied or intimidated.
“Our intent was not to inhibit any student's expression of an opinion about something; however, it was to inhibit verbal harassment that would be demeaning to the extent it would interfere with learning.”
In addition to race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation and disability, the policy covers harassment based on “such things as clothing, physical appearance, social skills, peer group, income, intellect, educational program, hobbies or values, etc.”
Violation of the policy could result in a warning, exclusion, suspension, transfer, termination, discharge and counseling.
Bryan J. Brown of the Tupelo, Miss.-based American Family Association's Center for Law and Policy, who represented Saxe in the suit against the school board, argued that the policy would have discriminated against students with certain moral and religious viewpoints.
For example, he said, a student who said something negative about homosexuality because it was his religious belief could be punished while another student who openly celebrated homosexuality could speak without fear even if he offended others. “Indeed, even quoting from the Catholic Catechism under this code could have gotten a student disciplined.”
Brown, who is Catholic, cited sections of the Catechism that deal with chastity and homosexuality in his principal brief.
“Catholic students who wanted to be faithful to the magisterium really had reason to fear this policy,” he said. “For us, that was one of the bottom lines. If you're going to be faithful to the orthodox position and speak on it, you will be punished according to this policy.”
Matt Chelko, a senior at State College Area High School and a member of Good Shepherd Catholic Church, said although some harassment may go on in his school, he thinks most students are generally very accepting of each other and in no great need of an anti-harassment policy.
“I personally felt that humans are intelligent enough to understand whether a comment is over the line or not and really shouldn't need a policy to guide ourselves about it.”
Best said enactment of the policy followed a lively public discussion in the community that lasted more than a year. “There was a lot of opposition and a lot of support.”
She said that since the Third Circuit recognized the school district's interest in promoting a safe educational environment, which was the goal of the policy, the board will now proceed with a revision.
Brown said if that is the motive of school officials, he is confident they will be able to draft a code that meets constitutional muster and satisfies Saxe.
“ Saxe's concerns are no broader than the First Amendment. If SCASD [State College Area School District] is now willing to be bound by the same law, then this litigation has run its course.”
Judy Roberts writes from Toledo, Ohio.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Judy Roberts ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Opiate of the People or Food for the Soul? DATE: 03/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 11-17,2001 ----- BODY:“Imagine yourself in a bungalow in North India,” writes one of the world's most respected authorities on religion, Huston Smith. “You are standing before a picture window that commands a breathtaking view of the Himalayan Mountains. What modernity has done, in effect, is to lower the shade of that window to within two inches of its sill. With our eyes angled downward, all that we can see now of the outdoors is the ground on which the bungalow stands. In this analogy, the ground represents the material world — and to give credit where credit is richly due, science has shown that world to be awesome beyond belief. Still, it is not Mount Everest.”
In this image-laden, mind-stretching, crisply presented and lucidly argued book, Smith brings a lifetime of experience and reflection to bear on an assessment of religion's recent history, current state and why it will matter in the future. “Two worldviews, the traditional and the scientific, compete for the mind of the third millennium,” he writes. “We have dropped transcendence, not because we have discovered something better that proves it nonexistent. We have merely lowered our gaze.”
Scientism, the belief in science as an all-encompassing worldview, claims to be the most reliable method to get at the truth or the most fundamental reality that exists. But science provides only the perspective of the lowest “two inches” of the picture window. The material world does not give us the full view which only a traditional religious worldview can.
Science and religion are separate but interrelated domains. Both parties must respect the other's sphere of competence. Science is based ultimately on reason; religion, on faith. Both faith and reason are important. The problem is, science has erased the traditional transcendent perspective from our reality map and claims exclusive rights. Science must not assume the role of religion and neither should religion attempt ultimately to establish and validate itself on a scientific base.
Modernity precipitated the loss of religious certainties. Now, meanings inherent to a strictly science-focused, progress-oriented worldview are ebbing in the era of post-modernism. We are globally enveloped in a spiritual crisis not unlike what occurred with the fall of materialistic Soviet communism a decade ago.
We have lost our story and modern stories have not replaced it. The traditional worldview speaks to the human heart's quest for meaning — a desire for oneness with creation and for happy endings. We live in the ambivalence of having abandoned traditional sources of knowledge, yet we cling to that same tradition to justify its values. We must recover a worldview to connect us to the final nature of things.
To trace the account of loss, uncertainty and quest to redis-cover what is needed, Smith refers to ‘flagship books’ which help him describe what is taking place. Readers will be led into the thought of T.S. Eliot, Bryan Appleyard, George Marsden, Edward Larson, Stephen Carter and others. Investigations into these literary tributaries feeding the mainstream of Smith's argument become interesting excursions in themselves.
When Barbara Walters interviewed Monica Lewinsky about the scandal that almost destroyed the Clinton presidency, she asked the former intern if she had sinned. Lewinsky appeared taken aback.
She hesitated and then answered, “I'm not very religious. I'm more spiritual.” This sentiment is a mantra common to our time. It reflects an attempt to justify concern for the larger questions without committing to any answers.
In the end, Smith's book is a plea to defend institutional expressions of faith as much as it is to affirm traditional religious values.
Without the strong presence of institutional religion in a world of ever-expanding secular institutions, it will be difficult to envision a healthy future for the traditional meaning systems espoused and promoted here.
This book will occupy the thoughts of readers long after its contents are digested.
Wayne A. Holst is a professor at the University of Calgary.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Wayne A. Holst ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 03/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 11-17,2001 ----- BODY:Justice Scalia Draws Princeton Ire
Feb. 26 — U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia faced between 30 and 40 student protesters when he spoke at Princeton University, the university's student daily reported.
The justice spoke to a packed crowd, but protesters waving signs and banners could be heard chanting “high court treason” and “illegitimate” outside. The College Democrats, Princeton Pro-Choice, and the Black Graduate Caucus were among the groups that joined the protest. Scalia drew condemnation for his dissents in the Court's pro-abortion rulings and, even more, for his role in crafting the 2000 Bush v. Gore decision, which effectively guaranteed George W. Bush the presidency.
The justice defended his view of constitutional interpretation, which stresses the “common sense” meaning of the words at the time the document was drafted, rather than allowing flexible interpretations in which the constitution's meaning changes from age to age. He charged that those who “insert into the constitution… new rights” are anti-democratic and “rigid,” denying localities the freedom to order their affairs differently.
Jesus Shirts Ruled ‘Disruptive’
THOMAS MORE CENTER, Feb. 26 — A third-grader who wore a sweatshirt and T-shirt with the name “Jesus Christ” was told to turn them inside out because they might disrupt class, Ann Arbor, Michigan's Thomas More Center for Law and Justice announced.
The center has sent a letter to school officials in Orono, Maine, demanding that the school retract its claim and offer the girl a written assurance that she could wear her sweatshirt. The principal had argued that some other students might find the sweatshirt to be profanity.
The center's chief counsel, Richard Thompson, said, “The only thing profane about this situation is the reaction of school officials toward this nine-year-old girl who was merely wearing a shirt bearing the name of Jesus Christ — an expression of her Christian faith.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Church Teaching on Cohabitation DATE: 03/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 11-17,2001 ----- BODY:From the Dec. 11 Pastoral Statement on Marriage, Sexuality and Chastity by Cardinal William Keeler, archbishop of Baltimore:
“Cohabitation, the practice of an unmarried man and woman living together, is one of the more common pastoral issues we face today. & The moral case against cohabitation is clear. One does not try out a permanent commitment. There is no statistical evidence that testing produces any guarantees. If anything, such arrangements undermine the will and freedom to make permanently binding commitments. Cohabiting for the sake of finances puts practical matters in front of moral, sacramental, and spiritual ones.
“But another obvious reason stands against cohabitation. It is the symbol of the threshold, of the marriage bed, of setting up house. These lose meaning unless a public exchange of vows precede them.
The exchange of vows in church, the rings, the departure together when the couple has arrived separately — all these declare that the act of moving into a home is a mutual gesture of commitment. & Mere cohabitation deprives these gestures of any symbolic weight.
“Cohabiting couples should be instructed to live apart before marriage for the sake of their own spiritual and marital integrity. & Rejecting cohabitation, in a way, is the gateway to a renewed experience of chastity.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: When to Start Dating DATE: 03/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 11-17,2001 ----- BODY:Q
Our oldest daughter is 14. We haven't let her go out with boys yet, but she wants to. What kind of guidance should we give her? Should she be allowed to have a boyfriend?
— K.R.
Massillon, Ohio
A
George: Being of Latin descent, for me the answer is simple: She can't date until she's at least 30. Of course I'm kidding — but I do want to make a point. Dating is serious business, and starting too early can mean trouble.
I had a close personal friend who entered into a serious, exclusive relationship with a girl when he was 16 years old. Dating in high school was, and still is, in vogue; so to those around them it was very normal. But they were always together — studying, eating, going to parties and so on. Their lives basically revolved around each other.
A few years later, the girl broke up with him, and he was devastated. He had invested so much time and energy in the relationship, and in a flash it was over. Two years later he was still struggling and the breakup was interfering with his studies in college.
After seeing what happened to him, I now tell kids that young daters have a high risk of “heart disease,” because a broken heart, early in life, is hard to heal.
High school and college is a time to learn and to grow as an individual, not to develop as a couple.
And in the end, dating's primary purpose is to find a future spouse. So anyone who's not in the market for one isn't ready to date exclusively.
Lisette: I remember one of my students who used to talk to me after class, asking for advice about her boyfriend. She wanted to get involved in school activities, but her time was limited because she spent it with him. Every time she wanted to get interested in something, it would be clouded over by her concern: “What will my boyfriend think?”
It was a classic case of what we used to call “couple-itis”: a high school couple whose life is dominated by their relationship with each other. She ended up breaking up with this guy after three years. Now she's in college. But what happened to those three years when she dated him? Could she have been the president of student council? In the school play? We'll never know — that time is now gone.
I suggest you give your daughter similar examples.
Maybe you could sit down with her and make a list of her priorities and ask what should take most of her time. Then have a discussion about how a serious boyfriend would infringe on that list. Encourage her to go out in groups of friends. She can get to know guys that way without all the hazards of dating.
May God help you guide her in this exciting and trying time of teen years!
George and Lisette de los Reyes host “The Two Shall Be One” on EWTN.
----- EXCERPT: Family Matters ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: PRAY TOGETHER, STAY TOGETHER DATE: 03/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 11-17,2001 ----- BODY:To avoid divorce, couples should get married in the Church, practice natural family planning, attend Mass together and pray together. Of those couples who do all four, only one in 1,105 split up. Percentage who get divorced:
Married by Justice of the Peace
----- EXCERPT: Fact of Life ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: How Splitting Up Brought Them Together DATE: 03/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 11-17,2001 ----- BODY:BALTIMORE — Steve and Terrie Nelson, high-school sweethearts, never planned to “live in sin.”
They grew up in the same Baltimore parish, St. Thomas More, dated as high-school seniors and all through college, even though their colleges were in different states. After graduation, they moved back with their parents and plunged into their new careers — Terry in nursing and Steve in computers.
But after several months, things changed. Steve, stressed with living at home, wanted his own place but needed a roommate to share expenses. Terrie, fed up with the roommate scene since college, suggested they move in together. Steve agreed. They rented an apartment and thus joined the more than 4 million couples (according to the Census) who cohabit, that is, live together in a sexual relationship outside of marriage.
“It was mostly for convenience,” admits Steve. “We'd do things differently now that we know better. But at the time, it seemed like the normal thing to do, almost like another stage in our relationship. These days, most people live together before marriage, even many Catholic couples. Why not us?”
A Compassionate Pastor
But a funny thing happened on the way to the wedding. They went to their parish to register for the sacrament of marriage and the deacon helping them fill out forms, Tom Mann, noticed they lived at the same address.
Mann, well aware of the sensitive pastoral issues involved with marrying a cohabiting couple, brought their situation to the attention of the pastor, Msgr. Victor Galeone. The monsignor, known to parishioners as Father Vic, had recently finished a set of parish guidelines for cohabiting couples seeking marriage.
“Cohabiting is far from harmless,” Father Vic, who is also director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, told the Register.
“Did you know that sociological studies show that living together before marriage increases the risk of divorce — by as much as 50%? Former cohabiters have higher levels of conflict, abuse and violence, plus overall lower levels of happiness.”
He called cohabitation “training for divorce.”
In his church, cohabiting couples who continue to live together must get married “in a small, quiet ceremony without flowers, music or gowns. Marriage is a couple's natural and canonical right, but unless they separate and live apart, there'll be no big traditional wedding. The big wedding would be a false sign.”
When Deacon Mann broke the news to Terrie and Steve, Terrie cried. Mann explained not only the sinful nature of cohabitation, but also its grave sociological risks. The couple said they needed time to think. They left the deacon's office in stunned silence, carrying some literature about the dangers of cohabitation.
Cohabitation's Cheerleaders
There are those who disagree with Father Vic's and Deacon Mann's position — and, indeed, with the magisterium's — that cohabitation is intrinsically harmful.
Secular marriage specialists often claim cohabitation can be, and often is, helpful. In fact, they say, with the 50% divorce rate, it's a popular assumption that a “trial marriage” makes good sense.
So says Marshall Miller, who founded the national non-profit organization called the Alternatives to Marriage Project with his domestic partner, Dorian Solot. Their organization is located in Massachusetts.
“The vast majority of couples we've talked to,” says Miller, “say that cohabitation was a really smart decision for them, for any number of reasons, including financial. … Living with someone is a way of getting to know what they are really like.”
They did acknowledge that the research is against them, saying, “Research shows that those who choose not to live together first tend to have more conservative views and are less likely to see divorce as an option. Therefore, that group has a lower divorce rate as a result of their values, not because they didn't live together.”
Other marriage specialists hold that good marital communication skills are more important than whether or not the couple cohabits. Diane Sollee, LSW, founder and director of the Coalition for Marriage, Family and Couple Education in Washington, D.C., wouldn't see a need to advise a cohabiting couple to separate.
“They won't learn the necessary skills by being apart.”
Father Vic, in response, says: “These positions evade the real issues. These experts are putting the cart before the horse. The reality is that sexual communications preempt, forestall and overshadow the development of solid verbal skills.”
After their meeting with Deacon Mann, Steve and Terrie talked, worried, wrestled with their consciences, and went over and over the literature he'd given them.
They surfed the Web and read recent sociological studies from several major secular universities, including “The Marriage Project” from Rutgers in New Jersey.
The findings were dismal. Cohabiters who married had substantially more divorce, instability, conflict, violence — and the women and children were always on the losing end.
The Rutgers' researchers concluded, “Living together is not a good way to prepare for marriage or to avoid divorce.”
It was an emotional time, remembers Terrie. “It's a shock when you realize you're doing wrong, especially when you didn't think you were. I was brought up Catholic. I must have known cohabiting was wrong, but I guess I thought the rules didn't apply to me, not at age 24 anyway.”
It was the scholarly evidence that initially convinced Steve and Terrie; then prayer and Scripture study converted their hearts. Love for each other and the desire to help each other do the right thing made them separate and put their sexual relationship on hold.
Terrie moved back into her parents' home.
“It was hard,” she remembers. “Really hard.” Steve stayed at the apartment and the couple scooted their wedding date forward to May. They spent five months living separately, going through marriage preparation, material on marital communication skills and a PreCana weekend. They reflected, thought and dialogued more deeply than they'd ever done before, and explored their understanding of commitment, covenant and sacramental marriage.
“We ended up being glad we separated,” says Steve. “Because it was during that time that we really became best friends and learned to be intimate in non-sexual ways.”
They also discovered and fell in love with the Catholic view of sexuality and the necessity of marriage. Currently, they are natural family planning.
Dr. James Healy, Director of the Center for Family Ministry in the Diocese of Joliet, Ill., and author of the Couple's Handbook for cohabiting couples, explains that sexuality is a created gift and a spiritual mystery:
“The Catholic community believes that persons who give themselves sexually to each other are offering not just an action, but the totality of their very lives. Ultimately, their dignity and honor as human persons can only be protected in a relationship that intends to be permanent, faithful and open to life.”
Five Months Later
After a slow start, the five months seem to fly by. Then on May 26, 1990, Deacon Mann heard Steve and Terrie's exchange of vows and Father Vic celebrated their nuptial Mass in a fine traditional Catholic wedding, complete with all the lace and flowers and beautiful trappings.
But for the deacon, the priest, and Steve and Terrie Nelson, this wedding day was first and foremost a monumental spiritual event — the joining of man and woman in holy matrimony, irrevocably and completely.
Una McManus writes from Columbia, Maryland.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Una McManus ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Putting Life on the Air DATE: 03/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 11-17,2001 ----- BODY:The 60-second radio ads get right to the point.
“At age 18, I had an abortion,” says one. “My boyfriend made the decision. I felt I didn't have a choice. The thoughts of grief and torment consumed me for 18 years.”
Another says: “I wasn't supposed to be here. Conceived in an act of infidelity, my father wanted me aborted. Thankfully, my mother chose life. Please choose adoption, not abortion.”
Listeners can hear these pro-life messages and others like them on central Minnesota's Spirit 93 KKJM-FM more than 30 times each week.
All of the announcements, 24 to date, were produced by the St. Cloud area Contemporary Christian music station as part of a year-long pro-life radio campaign. The effort, headed by station general manager Andy Hilger, has brought together 23 different pro-life organizations — many for the very first time.
“The idea,” explained Hilger, “was first brought up by radio station manager Vern Menning during a brainstorming session at the station. He was aware of a similar effort that took place in South Dakota 10-20 years ago.” Hilger donated the station to the Diocese of St. Cloud in 1999, but has remained on as its general manager.
He also enlisted the assistance of Linda Allen, executive director of Birthline, to draw up a list of central Minnesota pro-life organizations. “We mapped out Spirit 93's listenership, came up with an original list of about a dozen organizations,” said Allen, “and invited them to our first meeting last September.”
“The nice thing about the variety of agencies represented is that they are primarily grassroots efforts responding to specific needs,” explained Hilger.
For example, the consortium includes such organizations as Birthline, which provides support and services for anyone facing an unexpected pregnancy; New Beginnings, which offers a place of residence for women after their babies are born; Single Parent Support Group, which offers support for those who decide to keep their babies; and Project Rachel, which counsels women dealing with the aftereffects of abortion.
The consortium also includes such diverse groups as Lutherans for Life, Feminists for Life, and Teen Moms.
Each of the organizations recorded two spots. One ad tells listeners about their agency; the other is a first-person testimonial. The ads first started airing in December.
‘I Am Adopted, Not Aborted’
High school freshman Anne Balkany recorded an advertisement in support of adoption on behalf of Lutherans for Life. “I am adopted and I am thankful that my parents gave me the gift of life. A baby is a life, not a choice,” she says in her message.
Balkany was asked to record a spot as the result of a pro-life speech she gave in 7th grade. She said she felt motivated to record it based upon her own experiences. “As someone who has been adopted I wanted to let people know that there are different alternatives. There are so many people waiting to adopt children,” she said.
Funding for the broadcasting of the messages came in part from a $12,000 challenge grant established by the Spirit Fund, a component fund of the Central Minnesota Community Foundation of St. Cloud. The Spirit Fund's charitable mission is to promote Christian values. Hilger and Allen then presented the concept to potential financial supporters.
As a result, the pro-life consortium has raised $5,000 of their $12,000 matching goal to finance the ad campaign. “We went ahead with the campaign, but we still need to raise about $7,000,” commented Hilger
Sum vs. Parts
“The consortium has allowed us to be a greater force than we really are,” commented Julie Blonigen, executive director of the Human Life Action Council. “The advantage of the consortium is that we can be what we are. We are not being asked to change our identity.”
“The diversity represented by the consortium demonstrates the real strength of the pro-life movement. We are not single-issue people. One group tries to protect souls, another helps them to be chaste, another assists them if they get p r e g n a n t , another takes care of them after the birth of the child, and if they do not follow our advice Project Rachel takes care of them. Our groups do not say, ‘You follow what we say or we abandon you.’ Rather, they try to help them before and they pick up the pieces after. We care for the whole person, whether they do what we ask them to or not. That is Christianity.”
In the first months of the campaign, Hilger said that a number of listeners and business people have commented positively about the announcements.
Retired banking administrator Hub Levandowski said the ads cover everything “form abstinence education to crisis pregnancy and post-abortion counseling.”
“I have heard almost all of the ads,” he said.
“The one by the young man who was nearly aborted made the hair on my neck stand on end.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: LIFT NOTES DATE: 03/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 11-17,2001 ----- BODY:Kentucky Defines Life
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Feb. 21 — A Kentucky Senate committee approved a bill that effectively would define a life as beginning at the moment of conception and allow criminal wrongful death proceedings for causing the death of an unborn child, reported the Associated Press.
The committee, by a similar vote, approved a bill that places the use of RU-486 under all the legal restrictions relating to abortions.
Preacher Renounces Abortion
AMERICAN LIFE LEAGUE, March 2 — In a Slice of Life column, Judy Brown told “the story of a young black pastor who condemned abortion as a racist tool for reducing the number of black Americans.”
“He argued forcefully that the Roe v. Wade decision was flawed because — just like slavery — it made the right to privacy superior to the right to life.
Brown quoted what he would tell his audiences “with fiery conviction”: “You could not protest the existence of slaves … because that was private and therefore outside your right to be concerned.”
Saying his condemnation of abortion sometimes “had the quality of prophecy” she quoted another question the preacher asked: “What happens to the mind of a person and to the moral fabric of a nation that accepts the aborting of the life of a baby without a pang of conscience? Wha tkind of person and what kind of society willl we have … if life can be taken so casually?”
The preacher? The now pro-abortion Democratic Party activist Rev. Jesse Jackson. “Just five years after delivering that sermon,” wrote Brown, “the gangrene of abortion politics had poisoned his heart and captured his soul.”
Philippine President on NFP
THE MANILA TIMES, Feb. 16 — The president of the Philippines has emphasized her support for natural family planning as opposed to artificial contraception and abortifacient methods of birth control, reported the Manila Times.
Addressing the Asia Pacific Conference on Reproductive Health, Phillipine President Macapagal-Arroyo told delegates from 21 countries that while people should be able to make informed choices, “I am glad & that efforts have already been made to develop a more reliable natural family planning method,” reported the Times.
The president stressed the need to “preserve the religious and cultural values” of the political movement that brought her to power.
Pharmacists' Conscience Clause
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Feb. 22 — A conscience clause to protect pharmacists who refuse to fill prescriptions for abortion drugs advanced toward the Kentucky Senate, reported the Associated Press.
A physician can refuse on moral grounds to perform an abortion. A pharmacist should have an equal right, Sen. Elizabeth Tori, the bill sponsor, said in testimony to the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, reported the Associated Press.
She said the bill was aimed primarily at pharmacists who are employees, not owners, of a pharmacy. They could not be fired or otherwise punished for refusing to fill an abortion prescription if they had stated a conscientious objection.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Faith and Tragedy : After Shooting, Bush Calls For Life Ethic DATE: 03/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:SANTEE, Calif. — Girls and Boys Town President Father Val Peter applauded President Bush's remarks in the aftermath of the March 5 shooting that left two students dead and thirteen other people wounded at Santana High School in this San Diego, Calif., suburb.
A Santana student, 15year-old Charles Andrew “Andy” Williams, has been charged with two counts of murder, 13 counts of premeditated attempted murder and 13 counts of assault with a firearm. Friends of the boy said he was often the subject of teasing that might have motivated the attack.
The shooting was one of the most serious of a string of recent incidents of campus violence — and it was followed later in the week by another shooting, this one at a Catholic high school.
Kimberly Marchese, 13, was shot in the shoulder March 7 in the cafeteria of Bishop Neumann Junior-Senior High School in Williamsport, Pa. Police allege she was shot by a fellow eighth-grader, Elizabeth C. Bush.
Speaking after the Santana High School shooting, Bush attributed such events to an anti-life ethic and a lack of moral education in America, saying, “When America teaches our children right from wrong and teaches values to respect life in our country, our country will be better off.”
Father Peters, whose homes for at-risk youth are located in Southern California, New England and the Midwest, said he thought Bush “struck a good chord.”
“He made a very good statement about the general need of this country to throw into the garbage can the culture of death,” he said.
Father Mike Cullane, who works in Santee, said he saw firsthand the need for authentic moral instruction at the school. Soon after the shootings, he walked over to Santana to comfort the victims. They flocked to him, he said, because of what he represented.
“There were counselors all over the place. But the kids weren't talking so much with the counselors,” he said.
“I was so proud to be a Catholic priest. I wasn't there for show, but that these kids could identify with me and the Church and it was something they were a part of. There are so many out there. God is not in their life.”
Later, some 200 students from Santana and a neighboring school flocked to Guardian Angels Church, the only Catholic parish in town, 10 hours after the shooting.
With Matthew Pinto, a former youth leader at the parish and the co-founder of the Catholic apologetics magazine Envoy, he fielded the students' questions as best he could.
“God is not talked about in the homes because people don't know where they come from and where they are going,” said Father Cullane. “We have to have God in our lives.”
Pinto said the ignorance of God among youth has disastrous effects. “Young people nowadays, deep in their core, question whether hope really exists,” he said. “They are screaming for leadership. Without vision, without leadership, they will be attempting to fight the battle with very few weapons in hand. …
Morality is being made up as we go.”
One Catholic priest cautioned about too enthusiastically championing Bush's words.
Father Frank Hoffman, a chaplain at Scripps Catholic Hospital, where three of the students injured in the Santee shootings were sent, told the Register he thought the president was “talking out of both sides of his mouth.”
“If he said we have to respect all life I would totally agree with that,”
Father Hoffman said. “[But] I'm not sure he supports that when he supports capital punishment. I think it goes a lot deeper than that.”
Father Cullane, who said he voted for Bush, agreed with Father Hoffman.
“I think we have to respect life — that's the important thing,” Father Mike said. “But the president has to realize that we have to respect life across the board. I think the death penalty is complete violence.”
What can be done? For starters, said Father Peters of Girls and Boys Town, the media should be cleaned up.
“Is there anybody left in America who fails to understand the relationship between violence in the media and violence in our schools?” he asked.
“There can't possibly be anybody left except people who have their hand over their eyes and their fingers in their ears. When are we going to, as a nation, address the public heath issues of violence in the media?
“It's not a religious issue, it's a public health issue,” he said. “Our nation is at risk because of what our children are fed through music and other media.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian Mcguire ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: From Columbine to Santana, 'Love Always Triumphs' DATE: 03/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:It might take several years for students at Santana High School to get over the shock caused by the recent shootings there, said popular teen speaker Mary Beth Bonacci. And she should know. When Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold shot and killed 12 students at Columbine High School two years ago, Bonacci, who lives nearby, saw its devastation up close. Two days after the Santee shootings, Register staff writer Brian McGuire spoke with Bonacci about the causes and effects of school violence.
McGuire: What effect do these shootings have on the students who survive them?
I live about a half-mile from Columbine High School. It's hard to grasp how awful it is for these kids. It's traumatic enough for teenagers to lose someone and then when you combine that with the fact that it happened violently and that it happened in their own atmosphere, where they expect to be safe — it rocks their worlds to a level where you can't really comprehend.
So these pictures that come out of the shootings — the group huddles on the lawn, the tears — this isn't theatrics?
No. It's for absolute real. They are teenagers. They are not adults with a defense mechanism to deal with it. It's not something they'll get over in a week.
Why do you think these shootings are so numerous
One of the factors I see is that it's a copycat deal, where these kids want to be Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold — a desire for attention. They are angry, they see it [violence] glorified on television and the copycat element puts it into place. And don't underestimate the demonic. You have these angry, vulnerable, alienated kids, and then someone else does it. That's the wedge for the demonic to enter.
Why don't these students fear the consequences of murder?
We are not dealing with the most stable element here. I don't think risk assessment is their strong suit. They are thinking short term. It's popular culture glorifying this [violence] combined with an inner rage that comes from family situations — from not having basic needs met. And then combine that with how they see things expressed in popular culture.
What did you tell the students at Columbine? What would you tell students at Santana?
The message we learned is that love always triumphs. God always wins. On the first anniversary we had a big discussion group and I was shocked to see the depth of the pain they still had and then I looked at the cross and I said, “Does that look like he won?” God was executed. That's the ultimate loss.
Yet that was the moment of our greatest triumph and you can see a reflection of that in Columbine. What happened was awful and can never be erased. But the explosion of faith and the sense of urgency that life is short and that what counts is the life that lasts forever — those teens saw in a very clear way that this life is short and the afterlife is what counts, and as long as we follow Christ, to live for him and to live as followers of him, nothing can hurt us.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Marriage in the Balance In California Legislature DATE: 03/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:SACRAMENTO, Calif. — When Diane Whipple was mauled to death by two dogs outside her San Francisco apartment, most of the nation's media angled their reports on the liability of dog owners.
Now the tragedy has taken an unexpected turn.
Whipple's homosexual partner is suing for wrongful death, and homosexual activists are citing the case as they pressure California legislators to bestow marriage benefits upon same-sex couples.
The Sacramento-based Capitol Resource Institute, a subsidiary of Focus on the Family, is concerned. “[Whipple's partner] has our sympathy, but laws should be based on reason, not emotion,” says Karen Holgate, a spokesperson for the institute.
While 18 states currently have homosexual partnership legislation pending, two of the most strongly worded bills are currently working their way through the California assembly.
Holgate says that activists will use the emotional appeal of Whipple's death, and her partner's inability to sue, to further the viability of these bills, solidify pre-existing domestic partnership laws in California and establish “civil unions,” much like those in Vermont, for homosexuals.
The stronger of the two California bills would establish a virtual equivalence between marriage and “civil unions.” It seeks to strike the words “husband,” “wife,” “spouse” and “married persons” from Section 11 of the Family Code, and states that its purpose is “to equalize civil union and civil marriage under all applicable laws of any jurisdiction that may affect or govern the rights of married persons in every other state, the District of Columbia, the United States, and any foreign country, including the Constitution of the United States and the California Constitution, to the end that no party to a civil union shall be treated any differently than a married person
Make no mistake, “gay marriage” is the goal, says Judith Schaeffer of the Sacramento chapter of People for the American Way, a liberal group that enthusiastically supports the pending California legislation.
“There is no substitute for equal marriage rights” for homosexuals, she told the Register. “This bill remedies part of the problem; it is a step in the right direction.”
To herself and her organization, nothing but a completely equal par with marriage would be acceptable, she says.
The weaker of the two California bills nonetheless gives “additional basic rights,” she says, adding that she is quite sure that at least one of the bills will pass into law.
Holgate pointed out that the wishes of homosexual rights activists are opposite to the express wishes of California voters, who last year overwhelmingly agreed to a measure affirming this definition of marriage: “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”
From across the Atlantic, the Vatican weighed in on the issue of non-marital unions last March.
In a document published by the Pontifical Council for the Family, the Church reiterated that trying to make marriage and other “unions” equivalent “represents a grave and repeated attack on the family based on marriage, a union of love and life between a man and a woman from which life naturally springs.”
The document warns: “To deny this fundamental and elementary anthropological truth would lead to the destruction of the fabric of society.”
Then, in November, the council published a second document — Family, Marriage and de Facto Unions — which addresses the “equality-based” arguments in favor of civil unions by noting that “respect for the dignity of persons is not subject to discussion.
“Understanding circumstances and respect for persons are not equivalent to a justification,” the document adds. In addition, it calls such “de facto unions” a “false solution,” because they are “a detrimental comparison to marriage.”
Cautioning Catholics not to give in to “demagogic pressures by lobbies that do not take the common good of society into consideration,” the council instead recommends strengthening the family. The document includes an invitation to “those who are fighting for the cause of man to unite their efforts in promoting the family and its intimate source of life which is the conjugal union.”
In California, the executive committee of the state's bishops will meet this month to discuss several issues, including these pending bills, says David Pollard, a spokesman for the California Catholic Conference.
“There is no question of the Church's position on this.” he told the Register.“ But there is a dilemma.” And that is how to oppose the bills without increasing media coverage — which would almost certainly play into the hands of the bills' proponents.
“A wild-eyed reaction will perpetuate headlines and news coverage,” says Pollard. This, he believes, will favor those seeking to pass the bills since they will be given a forum in which to repeat the mantra of “equality.”
He hopes that California Gov. Gray Davis will veto these bills if they pass, but he says it is hard to say which way the governor will go — even though Davis is a Catholic.
Because of political pressure to appear “moderate,” he says, Davis has “been a windshield wiper on this [issue]; first he goes one way, then the other.”
Andrew Walther writes from Los Angeles
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Andrew Walther ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: 'Pick Abortion or Church,'Bishop Warns Politicians DATE: 03/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:CALGARY, Alberta — Canada's politicians have been warned: They can't be both Catholic and “pro-choice.”
Beginning with the publication Feb. 26 of an bylined article in the Calgary Sun, Bishop Fred Henry of Calgary has repeatedly accused Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and Progressive Conservative leader (and former prime minister) Joe Clark of “scandalous behavior.”
Bishop Henry has also castigated these pro-abortion Catholics for “weakness in their moral fiber,” and threatened to ban Clark, a parishioner, from Calgary Catholic schools. The bishop wrote that “no Catholic can responsibly take a ‘pro-choice’ stand when the ‘choice’ in question involves the taking of innocent human life.”
In an interview with the Register, Bishop Henry explained, “The point of the intervention was to call some Catholic politicians to repent in this Lenten season.”
During an earlier radio interview, the bishop threatened “that should Joe Clark predecease me, he may not have the bishop burying him from the cathedral,” but he has for now ruled out excommunication, banishment from the sacraments.
Basilian Father Alphonse de Valk, editor of Toronto's Catholic Insight magazine, has called publicly for Health Minister Allan Rock, another pro-abortion Catholic, to be excommunicated. He told the Register, “The Catholic pro-life movement is becoming more and more impatient” with Catholic politicians who “deliberately and knowingly” deny Church teaching on the sanctity of human life.
Father de Valk explained that canon law states that all Catholics who participate directly in an abortion are excommunicated automatically. Others who participate less directly are condemned based on the extent to which they facilitate this grave sin. Rock, he said, “has reached the highest degree of material cooperation” with his current campaign to force four Canadian provinces to pay for abortions committed in private health clinics.
What Father de Valk referred to as “a hardening of resolve” follows the 2000 Canadian federal election, in which, for the first time, the leaders of the Liberal and Conservative Party leaders called themselves “pro-choice.” Both parties had been effectively pro-abortion for decades (it was a Catholic Liberal prime minister, Pierre Trudeau, who legalized abortion in 1969) but had never dared previously to be so forthright.
Chrétien made it clear that his party's new position was aimed at gaining support at the expense of the Canadian Alliance, which takes no position on abortion but whose leader Stockwell Day is a pro-life evangelical Christian.
Speaking at a Catholic high school during the election, Chrétien said, “For me, I'm a Roman Catholic. Personally, I don't have to, you know, I'm not at the age any more to have my wife have an abortion, but the reality … is that it is the choice of not the husband to decide, in my judgment, it is the judgment of the woman according to the value that this person have.”
His statement was met with gasps, and for the second time that year Archbishop Marcel Gervais of Ottawa rebuked him publicly.
Throughout the campaign Clark insisted, “I am a Roman Catholic; I am pro-choice” and characterized the Canadian Alliance's policy of referendums on social issues like whether to criminalize abortion as a male plot to strip women of their alleged “right to choose.”
Spokesmen for Chrétien, Clark and Rock all refused comment on this issue. Bishop Henry has expressed his wish to speak personally to Clark, but he told the Register that Clark has yet to contact him.
Bishop Henry reported that messages to the diocese have been about “nine to one in favor” of his position, and letters in both Calgary newspapers have also been overwhelmingly supportive. He was the victim, however, of a savagely anti-Catholic editorial cartoon in the Calgary Herald: a drawing of a man holding an O Henry bar, saying, “Something new has been added to the political bar! Religious nuts! With a sprinkling of intolerance!!”
Bishop Henry commented, “I thought it was in poor taste, but I have a thick skin.”
The bishop has exhibited this thick skin previously, notably in a dispute with Canada's most powerful newspaper tycoon, Conrad Black, owner of the London Telegraph,Chicago Sun-Times and then-owner of the Calgary Herald. Bishop Henry took the side of labor in a strike against the Herald, and Black called him a “jumped-up little twerp” and a “prime candidate for an exorcism.”
As well, Bishop Henry has used his Calgary Sun column, where he first rebuked Chrétien and Clark, as a bully pulpit to inveigh against those he considers the enemies of social justice.
Calgary Catholic Carol Gregory, an anti-abortion activist for 20 years, told the Register she was thrilled by the bishop's intervention. Bishop Henry's relations with local pro-lifers had previously been strained, she said, and, “That's why I'm so happy that he has spoken out. It's the strongest statement I've heard any Canadian bishop make on this issue. I hope the tide is turning. Maybe other bishops will now start confronting their delinquent flocks.”
Father de Valk said that Bishop Henry's stance was evidence of a welcome change in the Canadian hierarchy to acknowledge that “abortion is not just one issue among social justice issues.” The recent decision by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops and its foreign charity arm, the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace, to withdraw support from the pro-abortion World March of Women lends support to his assertion.
Pope John Paul II has tirelessly reminded Catholic politicians of their duty to the unborn, most recently in a Nov. 5 speech: “A law which does not respect the right to life — from conception to natural death — of every human being … is not a law in harmony with the divine plan. Consequently, Christian legislators may neither contribute to the formulation of such a law nor approve it in parliamentary assembly.”
The Pope's exhortations have been taken to heart by several American bishops. In 1998, for example, Bishop Donald Trautman of Erie, Pa., banned pro-abortion Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge from Catholic events in his diocese. Last year, a Catholic hospital in Bishop James Timlin's diocese of Scranton, Pa., disinvited Al Gore to speak at the hospital. Also last year, the late Bishop James T. McHugh of Rockville Centre, N.Y., issued a blanket ban on pro-abortion politicians speaking on diocesan property.
Kevin Michael Grace is based in Vancouver, British Columbia
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kevin Michael Grace ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Crusading Internet Knight Defends the Honor of Relics DATE: 03/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:LOS ANGELES — It's a problem that is nearly as old as the Church, and Tom Serafin has started a crusade to stop it.
Though his battlefield happens to be virtual and his weapon is e-mail rather than a sword, in keeping with the finest medieval traditions he has been knighted for his efforts by the titular king of Portugal.
“Simony,” which derives its name from Simon Magus, who sought to buy St. Peter's power in a story recounted in the Acts of the Apostles, is the buying or selling of spiritual goods or sacred material, and has occurred periodically throughout the history of the Church.
And with the advent of what Serafin calls “e-simony” it seems to have come roaring back. Sales are made easy by popular Web auction sites such as eBay, and so the bones of the saints, relics of the true Cross and other priceless pieces of Catholic heritage are sold daily to the highest bidder, sometimes fetching thousands of dollars.
Serafin, who founded the International Crusade for Holy Relics in 1995, points out that such activity is prohibited by canon law, which states in Canon 1190: “It is strictly forbidden to sell relics.”
To ward off such sales, Serafin's group contacts sellers of relics to explain why the sacred items shouldn't be sold, and to try to persuade the sellers to donate the relics instead to worthy recipients. The group also contacts Internet auction houses, asking them to refrain from engaging in relics trading on their Web sites.
Relics of saints are classified by the Church as first class (a piece of the body), second class (something that a saint had direct contact with in his or her lifetime) and third class (something touched to a first- or second-class relic). They have long been a part of Catholic devotion, and until recently the altars in Catholic churches were supposed to have a first-class relic.
Claretian Father Robert Bishop, a canon lawyer and superior of Dominguez Seminary in California is familiar with Serafin's work and confirms that selling any relic clearly violates Church law.
“You cannot sell blessed articles or relics,” he said. “The more sacred the item, the bigger the penalty.”
But that doesn't seem to worry many of the Internet sellers. According to Serafin, much of the problem is due to “lack of knowledge” about relics among Catholics, many of whom “give [relics] away to Greek or Russian Orthodox” churches because they don't know what to do with them.
For some relic sellers, it's an honest mistake — Serafin tells the story of a woman he encountered who was selling a relic that she had inherited because it was “creepy.”
For others, though, it's no mistake. Serafin's e-mail correspondence, much of which he provided to the Register, included one seller who referred to Serafin and other relics activists as “e-relic Nazis,” and quibbled over whether it was “sacrilegious” or merely “gravely sinful” to sell relics; another called those trying to stop the sales “the canon law police.”
John Seese, who was selling a relic of St. Vincent Pallotti, a 19th century priest, defended his actions to the Register.
“I acquired this relic as a purchase to sell as a purchase, and in this sale I personally tell people the theca [that is, the case containing the relic] is for sale … the relic is a holy gift.”
Serafin said that's a common claim, which could be tested. “Sell the reliquary, but no relic, and see what you get.”
Father Bishop also sees such an excuse as inadequate under canon law. “You can sell the case, but only according to its real value,” he said.
In addition to simony, fraud abounds in the relics trade, according to Serafin. He cites one case in which a relic seller in September was auctioning “the air breathed by Jesus,” and says that many of the relics now being sold have no or, at best, suspect documentation.
A Russian Orthodox archimandrite, Father Symeon Carmona of Mother of Kazan Monastery in New Mexico, told the Register that at least some of the legitimate relics are stolen.
“There was a cranium of a saint auctioned for $10,000,” said Father Carmona, who is a member of the board of directors of International Crusade for Holy Relics-USA. “[It] was taken from St. Sadas Monastery in Israel during a burglary. It was sold on eBay.”
Despite the obstacles, Serafin's relics crusade has had some successes.
The U.S. branch, known by the acronym ICHR-USA, has grown to more than 200 members, including Catholics, Anglicans and Orthodox, all of whom assist in the effort to eradicate relics sales in the United States and Canada.
Worldwide, Serafin estimates the relics crusaders now number “between 2,000 and 3,000.” And while eBay still auctions relics, Amazon.com no longer does, and Serafin wonders aloud whether “a boycott [of eBay] would work.”
Father Robert Bishop said the veneration of relics has a solid pedigree, pointing out that the Acts of the Apostles gives support for their veneration, and that many of the Fathers of the Church, as well as the Second Council of Nicaea, in 787, and the Council of Trent, all addressed relics and their veneration.
Archimandrite Symeon Carmona said that though he is Russian Orthodox, his monastery has helped “3,000 people return to the Catholic faith” through the influence of relics.
“I have seen people overcome evil through relics,” he said, “because they are physical evidence that common people can become saints.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Andrew Walther ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Poverty and Power DATE: 03/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:How did you find out that you had been selected to preach this retreat?
I received a letter from the Apostolic Nuncio in the United States, saying that I was being asked to preach the retreat. I spoke to him about it, and he encouraged me to accept. Once you have accepted, the Holy Father then sends an official letter inviting you to preach the Lenten retreat for the papal household and the bishops of the Roman Curia.
Did the Holy Father himself make the selection?
I have no idea. He obviously has to approve it.
How long did you have to prepare?
I was informed last October or November, so there were several months to prepare, but by that time my program was already filled, so I had to scramble to find time.
What was your reaction to the invitation?
At first, there was anxiety about finding the time necessary to prepare. Secondly, anxiety over the fact of having to give 22 conferences in Italian to the bishops of the Roman Curia — who wouldn't be somewhat nervous about that!
Is it intimidating to be expected, in a manner of speaking, to provide nourishment for the Holy Father's soul?
I suppose it could be if you let yourself dwell on that. I didn't think too much about that, and once you get into it, it's fine. The Pope is a very humble man, despite his many talents and the fact that he is the Pope. The Pope is not an intimidating man at all. I have spoken with him a number of times before, so perhaps I was less worried about the Pope than about some of the others who I didn't know as well.
But finally, the Holy Spirit is the retreat master — that's true anywhere, for anybody. A retreat master only hopes that something that he says might trigger a response that will be an occasion of grace in someone's soul.
There should be no illusions. You are not instructing the Pope. You are just offering conferences that he will use, and others will use, as best as they can to pray. The time for the retreat is time set aside primarily to pray.
The Holy Father, in thanking you this morning, referred to your style as “personal and sober.” Was it challenging to avoid being too formal?
Yes. But then every conference is a challenge because of the Italian — I had to make sure that I was putting the accents in the right place. Knowing Spanish makes it a little more difficult too, as in Italian the accents are put in different places.
As for “sober”, I think that he meant that I tend to make points, to offer a discourse, to set out ideas, and I try to develop them. It is not very rhetorical and not given to a lot of exhortation.
You chose as a theme, “A Faith for All Peoples: Conversion, Freedom and Communion.” The theme of the 1997 Synod for America was “Encounter with the Living Jesus Christ: Conversion, Communion and Solidarity in America.” Was the similarity of themes deliberate?
My choice was touched by, though not inspired solely by, my experience at the Synod for America. It was inspired more proximately by my speaking in several places — including Argentina and Australia —on the missionary challenge of globalization.
This is a new moment. It is a new millennium. The Pope is calling for a new evangelization. It is a new moment in the history of the human race — more globalized society, culture, economy, even political structures.
What does that mean for a Church that was born in an empire which considered itself to include the whole world? What does it mean for the Church to find herself still the same, still herself, but now truly a universal Church in a global society?
That's a theme that is going to stay with us for many, many years to come. That's what I was trying to talk about when I said “A Faith for All Peoples” —a universal faith, and a universal Church, now for the first time in a global society.
The experience of the Synod for America led me to think that, perhaps, the missionary challenges for the new evangelization would be found, first of all, in the post-synodal exhortations of the continental synods. They are not usually read as a source for spiritual reflection. I thought it would be interesting to use them to see whether the dynamics of faith in the world are analogous to the actions of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.
Conversion in each soul involves a distancing from what is sinful toward true liberty in Christ, and then finding yourself related, through him, to all peoples in the world. That movement of grace in the individual soul is similar to the movement of the Gospel in the world. So I used the post-synodal documents as a source.
The theological source was St. Luke's Gospel which, together with the Acts of the Apostles, is the most universal of the Gospels. I found it a good complement. I could use the Gospel, the synodal documents, and then some of my own experiences, both as someone who was in charge of a missionary congregation and now as a residential bishop of a diocese in the United States. That helped to concretize it. Those were the three sources that talked to one another in a way that people found helpful.
You used the story of Peter's catch of fish (Luke 5) as an example of the need for “detachment” in the Christian life, and especially for the pastors of the Church. How have you experienced that detachment?
Any disciple of the Lord has to detach himself or herself from ego, so as to make Christ the center of one's life, not oneself.
That is already a huge distancing, a detachment from the “false ego” that Thomas Merton wrote about, which I spoke about in one of the conferences. We give up that ego and find ourselves returned to ourselves by Christ.
Pastors who are bishops of residential churches find their salvation in loving their people. It is harder — there is more detachment — for some in the Roman Curia, because they are here in the service of Peter's ministry. They work for the people, but through him. That's a greater detachment.
Many of the bishops here were bishops of residential churches, and to give that up is a serious, serious sacrifice. They come here and work through another, and do office work for the most part. It's very important work, and it makes the ministry of others possible, but it is not direct ministry in itself. It's a huge detachment and a sign of one's own poverty.
I spoke of the ministry here as being both poverty and power. Part of the poverty is having given up so much to come here — the foreigners have given up their own people, their own local pastorates, their own culture — into a situation where the work is important but not as humanly satisfying as it is to be a pastor among your own people.
You had both experiences, here in Rome as vicar general of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, and then in the United States in three dioceses.
A residential bishop goes back and forth between the administrative and the practical ministry, between the paperwork and the “peoplework.” In Rome there is mostly paperwork.
And that's more difficult?
Spiritually, it can be dangerous. The people keep you sane, and therefore keep you holy. People are a reality check. There is a danger in being detached from those whom you are serving. A lot of people can get into ego trips and lose focus. That can happen, unless you stay with the Lord all the time. In the case of religious, your rule saves you; in the case of anyone, the Lord saves you finally.
You dwelt at some length on freedom, especially as it relates to communion.
Freedom does lead to communion.
Communion is born of the sharing of gifts which we have received. You receive a gift, and you give it away immediately. In giving the gift away, it becomes the foundation for a relationship, a relationship we call “communion” if we are speaking about relations in the Church — communion with God and communion with one another.
The sharing of gifts is what creates communion. We both share the same gift, and so we are related to one another.
So in being free to give, and, first of all, being free to receive — which is often harder — a relationship is established.
This relationship can be with someone who is unknown to me, but it is a relationship in faith, which is a gift that is received and shared.
I wanted to spend a lot of time on freedom, because it is very important to the interior life, the spiritual life, but also because it is an American value. I wanted, as an American, to speak about freedom in this retreat. I tried to draw on some of the sources that have shaped the spiritual life in our country. Certainly freedom is our primary cultural value, but it is a religious value too.
Freedom, as we understand it, is often autonomy, so it is a false freedom and so we are in trouble with freedom in the United States. Freedom trumps everything else. Freedom trumps life — for the sake of freedom one can kill a child. All the more reason why we have to insist in America on what freedom really is. And as someone who does that in the United States, I thought I could do so here too. The Pope has said an awful lot on freedom, so it was easy to talk about it. But it is there in the Gospel.
One moves from autonomy to communion through freedom?
Yes, and the way into this is to train yourself to receive. Freedom as autonomy may or may not teach you how to give, but it will not teach you how to receive — autonomy resists influences from the outside.
Autonomy emphasizes that “I am who I am” and “I will do what I want to do” — that's freedom. But that is only freedom to give — and maybe it is not even that. It certainly is not freedom to receive. For a disciple of Jesus Christ — and a disciple is by definition someone who follows someone else — you have to be free to receive. That's the fundamental freedom.
----- EXCERPT: An American cardinal's words to the Pope ----- EXTENDED BODY: Cardinal Francis George, OMI ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Divorced N.J. Couple Battles Over Fate of Frozen Embryos DATE: 03/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:CAMDEN, N.J. — Child custody and property disputes were once regarded as the brutal but unavoidable finale of a failed marriage.
But compared with some of the ethical and legal challenges faced by divorced couples of today's biotech generation, yesterday's tangles were relatively straightforward.
Take the case of one former couple that is currently before the New Jersey Supreme Court. Divorced five years ago, the two remain locked in a pitched battle over what to do with seven frozen embryos left over from a six-year-old attempt at in-vitro fertilization.
In all, 11 viable embryos were created, of which four were implanted without resulting in a live birth.
The man, who has been described in some media accounts as “an observant Roman Catholic,” wants the embryos saved. He maintains that they are tiny human lives, and therefore worthy of the protection of the state.
Moreover, the man, referred to in the case as “M.B.,” says that his former wife agreed, while they were married, to save any unused embryos that resulted from their in-vitro fertilization efforts for use by another infertile couple. If the court rules in his favor, the man says, he will either give the embryos up for adoption or have them implanted into a future wife.
His ex-wife, referred to as “J.B.” in the court proceeding, wants the embryos destroyed. She doesn't want to be made a biological mother against her will, she says.
As well, she doesn't think an agreement she made during a marriage that is no longer recognized by the state should be binding.
This is the fourth post-divorce embryo custody battle to reach state courts since the advent of in-vitro fertilization techniques over 20 years ago. In each of the previous cases, a husband sought to destroy leftover eggs against the wishes of his former wife, and won. But the New Jersey case is the first in which either party has sought to save embryos on the grounds that they are human lives worthy of the state's protection.
While the man in this case may have greater moral leverage than the woman, his legal leverage is nil, said the woman's lawyer, James Katz.
No Legal Protection
“You may have disagreements over when life begins and what constitutes life, but as a matter of law, the four-to-eight cell pre-embryo is not entitled to legal protection,” he said.
“And if that's the case,” Katz added, “maybe people shouldn't be undertaking this assistive technology.”
Two of New Jersey's lower courts have already affirmed the woman's position. The Supreme Court is expected to rule within the next three months.
Lawyer Eric Spevak, who is representing the man in the case, is not optimistic about his chances for victory. His client is able to conceive with another woman, and the court is unlikely to be moved by an appeal to the humanity of the embryos, he said.
“Realistically, I have the law against me, and I have facts that aren't that great given that my client can have children with another woman,” Spevak said.
Spevak hangs his case on two points. First, he believes that the goal of the court and the goal of public policy in the state of New Jersey should be the preservation of “a form of life and the potential of human life,” represented by the embryos.
Secondly, he believes the woman should be held to her prior commitment.
“The parties already made the decision to procreate with these embryos. What we're saying is he has the right to carry out on that decision,” Spevak said.
“In reliance on that agreement he went through with the in-vitro fertilization process with her.”
Pandora's Box
Peter J. Cataldo, staff ethicist at the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Boston, said in-vitro fertilization techniques have opened a “Pandora's box” of thorny moral, ethical and legal problems.
“Issues like what to do with frozen embryos and issues of custody are simply the logical consequence of the procedure which is by itself morally unacceptable,” Cataldo said. He added that treating human embryos as property is the result of “many developments, not the least of which is Roe v. Wade.”
Though the Church has not yet dealt definitively with the issue of how to deal with frozen embryos, there are basic moral principles that apply, Cataldo said.
“One is that the life of the embryo is inviolable, that it is fully human and has a human dignity equal to any other human being, which must be respected and which forms the basis for the human rights which should be accorded to the embryo.”
Cataldo said Catholic ethicists today take one of three positions on frozen human embryos.
One position states that that it is morally unacceptable to allow the frozen human embryo to be adopted and implanted and brought to term because this is surrogate motherhood and simply an extension of the invitro fertilization process.
The second is to allow these embryos be put up for adoption and implanted in surrogate mothers, if that's possible, as an act of rescuing and attempting to save the embryos' lives.
The third is that it might be morally permissible to allow the embryo to thaw and to pass away under the principle that one is not morally obligated to provide ethically extraordinary means to preserve human life.
“This is an unsettled moral question,” Cataldo said “The best we can do until there is a definitive teaching is to explain what is absolutely morally unacceptable and what, on the other hand, may be morally acceptable. That's the state of things at this point.”
Concluded Cataldo, “What is absolutely morally unacceptable would be the directly intended destruction of these innocent human beings.”
Speaking at a 1996 symposium on “Evangelium Vitae and Law,” Pope John Paul II said, “I therefore appeal to the conscience of the world's scientific authorities and in particular to doctors, that the production of human embryos be halted, taking into account that there seems to be no morally licit solution regarding the human destiny of the thousands of ‘frozen” embryos which are and remain the subjects of essential rights and should therefore be protected by law as human persons.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian Mcguire ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 03/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:More Protestants Wearing Ashes
BOSTON GLOBE, Feb. 28 — It's getting harder to tell Catholics from Protestants on Ash Wednesday, the Boston daily reported.
As Protestant hostility toward Catholics lessens and Americans of many denominations seek ritual, many Protestant churches are beginning to offer ashes on the first day of Lent.
In the Reformation, many Protestants discarded the practice, but some Episcopal and Lutheran churches have returned to the imposition of ashes. More recently, some Presbyterian, United Church of Christ, United Methodist, and even some Unitarian Christian and American Baptist churches have joined in.
Some scholars point to the Second Vatican Council, which spurred Protestants to reform and reconsider their own liturgies, as an explanation. A few mainline Protestant churches are even returning to rituals like foot-washing ceremonies on Maundy Thursday.
When God Is an Obsession
SALT LAKE TRIBUNE, March 3 — Obsessive-compulsive disorders can work their way into any aspect of a sufferer's life — even religion, the Salt Lake City daily reported.
For example, sufferers from scrupulosity are constantly beset by doubts such as: Am I praying enough? Am I praying correctly? One woman said she would travel to several different churches a day so that priests would not realize she had already been to confession that day. Some of those afflicted by scrupulosity also have more common forms of obsessive-compulsion like repetitive hand-washing.
Father Thomas Santa, editor of the 13,000-circulation monthly newsletter Scrupulous Anonymous, based in Liguori, Mo., described the disorder: “Everything becomes a sin, to the point that you're almost paralyzed.” People with scrupulosity often feel that forgiveness or repentance is impossible.
From two to three percent of Americans — as many as six million people — may have obsessive-compulsive disorder. Between 60% and 80% of cases can be treated with antidepressants.
The ‘Gender Revolution’ Continues
U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT, March 2 — A new movement casts transsexuals as the next minority to demand civil rights, columnist John Leo wrote.
A&E television's Investigative Reports recently featured the “Transgender Revolution,” and the Los Angeles Times ran a two-day series of sympathetic reports. The city of San Francisco has decided to pay for city employees' sex changes.
But Paul McHugh, director of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University medical school, argued that someone who feels he is a woman trapped in a man's body is analogous to an anorexic woman who feels that she is drastically overweight. “We don't do liposuction on anorexics,” he said. “Why amputate the genitals of these poor men?” He opposed surgery on a healthy body.
The next step after recognizing transsexual “rights,” Leo suggested, is the demand for civil rights for sufferers of apotemnophilia, a mental disorder in which people want healthy limbs amputated. Some bioethicists already compare these amputations to sex changes.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Are Families the Focus of Tax Relief? DATE: 03/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — It's tax-cutting season in Washington, and for the Nugent family that might be even more welcome that the beginning of spring.
“Right now we have huge private education loans,” Nora Nugent of Springfield, Va., told the Register. “I'm a stay-at-home mom, so a tax cut would help just to pay the bills.”
Nugent said it's currently difficult making ends meet, raising two children on just one income.
“I'm not expecting to pay no taxes,” she said. “[But] families are the basis of our culture, the founding unit of our society. They should be mindful of that.”
Nugent's comments echo those of the U.S. bishops, who advocated family friendly tax policies in their 1999 document “Faithful Citizenship: Civic Responsibility for a New Millennium.”
Said the bishops, “Marriage as God intended it provides the basic foundation for family life and needs to be protected in the face of the many pressures to undermine it. Tax, work-place, divorce and welfare policies must be designed to help families stay together and reward responsibility and sacrifice for children.”
With an expected surplus of $5.4 trillion over the next ten years, both Republicans and Democrats want to provide Americans with tax relief. The only real questions are how much will taxes be cut, and in what way will they be cut?
President George W. Bush and Congressional Republicans favor a tax cut of around $1.6 trillion, while Democrats support tax relief around the range of $900 billion. Both parties favor doubling the per-child tax credit from $500 to $1,000 and reducing the marriage penalty in the tax code. Republicans also favor a reduction in all tax rates, whereas Democrats want to reduce only the bottom tax rate from 15% to 10%.
Molly Rowley, a spokeswoman for Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle (S.D.), said that Democrats don't oppose tax cuts, just the president's proposal.
“There's a surplus. It's largely the result of the hard work of the American people,” Rowley told the Register. “All we're saying is let's make it fair and let's be a little cautious.”
Republicans remain dedicated to providing more tax relief.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, RIll., said the president's tax plan “will give consumers more money to pay off credit card bills. It will give families more money to pay off high energy bills. It will give parents more money to pay for education expenses.”
The Catholic Viewpoint
Catholic Alliance President Raymond Flynn applauded both parties for focusing on families for tax relief.
“It's a wonderful idea to put money into the working families” Flynn told the Register. “We want people to have the independence to spend more time with their families.”
Flynn added that high taxes often force both parents into the workforce. “Even in good Catholic families, the mother has to leave the children and enter the workforce and the father has to work two jobs,” Flynn said.
But the migration of mothers into the workforce might actually increase if the president's tax bill passes, some pro-family activists warn. They're concerned that while trying to rectify the notorious marriage penalty in the tax code, legislators may inadvertently provide stay-at-home mothers with an incentive to enter the workforce.
Under current law, married couples on average pay an additional $1,400 in taxes because of a quirk in the tax code that charges married people more than if they were two single people filing separate tax forms.
The president's plan would alleviate much of the marriage penalty by allowing the second earner to deduct 10% of income, up to $30,000.
“Such a shift in the tax code would be economically regressive, primarily benefiting comparatively affluent, two-earner couples,” wrote Allan Carlson and David Blankenhorn in The Weekly Standard. “By encouraging spouses to join the labor force, and by shifting a greater share of the total tax burden onto one-earner couples, such a law would create greater disincentives for at-home motherhood.”
To avoid such an outcome, Stephanie Mollins, Congressional liaison for the Family Research Council, hopes that President Bush will work to reduce the marriage penalty while also providing tax relief for stay-at-home mothers.
“We think it's a very good bill overall. We're very excited about the doubling of the per-child tax credit,” Mollins told the Register. “We still have concerns with the marriage penalty relief, though.”
Too often when politicians tinker with the tax code, they forget about the importance of parents who stay at home with their children, Mollins said. She cited the $500 childcare tax credit signed into law a few years ago — a tax credit for which stay-at-home mothers are ineligible.
That reflects a typical Washington attitude, Mollins said: “Home economy isn't added to the economy when they figure the Gross Domestic Product.”
Joshua Mercer is based in Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Beatifications Recall Stories of Spain's Catholic Heroes DATE: 03/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — In the largest group ever beatified at one time, as well as the most lay people(42) ever beatified during the same ceremony, Pope John Paul II beatified 233 Spanish martyrs March11.
All were killed between 1936 and 1939, during one of the worst persecutions the Catholic Church has ever known.
In most parts of the country, churches were either burned, closed or used as places of torture. Convents, seminaries and schools were often confiscated and used as prisons.
Simply wearing a cross around your neck in public became a life or death decision.
“It has to be remembered that the religious persecution was parallel to the civil war,” said Sister Maria Luisa Labarta, a postulator from Spain for six Escolapia (Sisters of the Pious Schools) nuns and two lay women murdered during this time. “When the monarchy lost the election of 1931, the Republicans came to power. My order was immediately prohibited from teaching.”
The Republicans identified themselves with communist and socialist thought, which brought an intensely anti-clerical atmosphere into Spain.
“The Republicans burned Catholic archives. They destroyed all religious objects, “ said Silvia Correale, the postulator for a group of 74 martyrs from the region of Valencia. Correale, an Argentinian, is the first female lay postulator.
“These people formed death squads, called ‘anarchists,’” she said.
“They were never from the regions where they carried out the killings.” Some came from outside of Spain, from the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.
From 1931 to 1936, acts of intimidation against the Church were carried out with few killings. But when the Republicans won the elections again in 1936, violence exploded with full force.
He Took His Brother's Place
One of the beatified, Pablo Melendez Gonzalo, was a significant figure in the city of Valencia in the early 20th century. He was the father of 10, a lawyer for Valencia's archbishop, director of the Catholic newspaper Voice of Valencia, president of the lay organization Catholic Action, and a founder of a Catholic political party. When the militia came to look for him, they also wanted one of his married sons, an outspoken Catholic.
“But another son, who was not married, stepped up and said ‘I am he,’ taking the place of his brother who had children,” said Correale. “Both were taken to a seminary which had been converted into a prison. They stayed there for many months. Pablo wrote letters to his family every day, letters which showed incredible serenity. Eventually everyone in the prison was killed by firing squad.”
Many of the martyrs could have avoided their death but chose to accompany loved ones and share their fate. One woman, Maria Teresa Ferragut Roig, had five daughters of which four had become nuns.
“When the persecutions began, the mother took the nuns back into the house, “ said Correale. “Though all dressed in civilian clothes, someone in town informed on them. The militia came for the daughters but not the mother. She said, ‘Where my daughters go, I will go.’ The militia decided to shoot all the daughters. Again, Maria Teresa told them, ‘Where my daughters go, I will go — but kill me last so that I can give each moral support until the end.’;All were killed facing their mother, who was killed last, as she had wished.”
Heroic Forgiveness
Heroic acts of forgiveness also abound among the stories of the martyrs. One man refused to let his wife go downstairs when the militia came in the middle of the night for him. He told her, “It will be harder for you to forgive them later on.”
Another man, Rafael Alonso Guttierez, was found near death on the side of the road after being attacked by anarchists. While a town doctor tried to save him during his last moments, Alonso was asked to reveal the names of his attackers. Alonso refused and passed away shortly thereafter.
Two of the women who were made blessed are from Uruguay, the first beatifications for that country.
Dolores and Consuelo Mella were the daughters of a wealthy lawyer who had moved from Uruguay to Madrid in the early 1900s. Dolores, the eldest, lived in the residence of the Escolapia nuns, after having completed all her schooling with them. Though she never joined the order, she made a personal vow of celibacy as a lay person. In 1936, the militia closed the school and her residence, saying that it was needed for a hospital. A school alumna invited a few Escolapia nuns to live in an empty family apartment. Dolores was 39 at the time.
“Dolores went to live with the nuns, “ said Sr. Labarta. “She could have lived with her brother, Theofilo, who was a consul for Uruguay, or even sought asylum at the Uruguayan embassy for safety. But she chose to live with the nuns in order to help them.”
By this time, the nuns stayed indoors all day because the danger had grown too great. It was up to Dolores to go out every day to buy food and provisions. Eventually the milita came for her.
When her sister Consuelo, 38, heard the news, she immediately went to stay with the nuns. Within a few hours, two men arrived with a note written in Dolores's handwriting. It said that if the mother superior came, she would be freed. Despite a broken leg, the mother superior decided to go. Consuelo went with her, reasoning that her diplomatic passport would guarantee their safety.
They never came home.
Theofilo Mella went to 27 of Madrid's prisons in order to find them. Eventually, their bodies were found within one of the city morgues, where they recognized Consuelo's dress hanging out of a casket. They had been killed by firing squad on an abandoned highway, a typical execution for the martyrs of Spain during this time.
“Here we see people who knew where they were going, and what their decision meant,” said Don Ramon Fito, the diocesan delegate for the cause of saints of Valencia. “They accepted it with fortitude and valor. There were no great speeches, just true faith incarnated.”
Sabrina Arena Ferrisi writes from Rome.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Sabrina Arena Ferrisi ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Pope Appoints Cardinal Kasper to Cassidy's Ecumenical Post DATE: 03/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:ROME — German Cardinal Walter Kasper has been appointed head of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, the Vatican's ecumenical department.
On March 3 Pope John Paul announced, as expected, the retirement of Cardinal Edward Cassidy, the 76-year-old Australian who has directed the council since 1989, and named 68-year-old Cardinal Kasper as his successor.
Cardinal Kasper has served as the pontifical council's secretary for the past two years. His appointment to head the council has been warmly welcomed by leading Protestant officials.
He has had wide experience as a theologian and has written many books. From 1970 to 1989 he was professor of dogmatic theology at the University of Tubingen. In 1989 he was appointed Bishop of Rottenburg-Stuttgart.
In 1979, he was chosen by the Vatican as one of a dozen Catholic theologians to sit on the World Council of Churches' Faith and Order Commission.
In 1994 Cardinal Cassidy appointed then-Bishop Kasper as co-chairman of the Lutheran-Catholic Commission on Unity.
A Canadian, 56-year-old Father Marc Ouellet, has been appointed by the Pope to succeed Cardinal Kasper as secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. At the same time, Pope John Paul has announced that Father Ouellet is to be made a bishop.
On Jan. 22, the day after the Pope announced the names of the new cardinals, including Cardinal Kasper, a Catholic magazine in Austria, Die Furche, published an interview with him in which he expressed doubts about the presentation and interpretation last year of a controversial Vatican document, Dominus Iesus.
In a series of public appearances in Germany, Cardinal Kasper had also raised questions about the declaration , which was published Sept. 5. He said that the declaration — which described Protestant communities as not, properly speaking, “churches” — lacked sensitivity and was “too brief” in describing the relations between the Catholic Church and other Christian communities.
Referring to the claim that Protestant churches were not “churches in the proper sense,” Cardinal Kasper said that the declaration had correctly explained that “churches which grew out of the Reformation have a different idea of church from us [Catholics]. There is no dispute about that. These churches do not wish to be churches like the Catholic Church. They do not retain the apostolic succession for the episcopate or the ministry of Peter, which for us are essential. So in fact Dominus Iesus does not signify any change in the Vatican's ecumenical policy.”
Moreover, he added, “the document upholds the common ecumenical belief that Jesus Christ is the sole and universal mediator of our salvation. Protestants say the same thing.”
Another difficulty with Dominus Iesus signaled by Cardinal Kasper was its failure to mention the fruits of ecumenical dialogue undertaken since the Second Vatican Council (1962-65). He pointed out that Pope John Paul had specifically referred to this dialogue in his encyclical on ecumenism, Ut Unum Sint (That They May Be One) , published in 1995.
At the same time, the ecumenist made it clear that his complaints were with the document's tone, not its content, which he said “correctly rejects” attitudes downplaying the need for truth in dialogue.
In an interview with Lutheran World Information in Geneva late in February, Cardinal Kasper also commented on Dominus Iesus, saying that the original controversy had now been more or less overcome. He felt that the pontifical council had succeeded in its attempt to clarify the misunderstandings that had arisen. He added that Dominus Iesus was intended as a warning against “a relativism or a fundamental pluralism” and stressed that Pope John Paul had repeatedly stated “that for him, the decisions taken at the Second Vatican Council are irrevocable and irreversible for the ecumenical process”.
Cardinal Kasper's outspokenness on sensitive issues has attracted repeated German media attempts to pin him down on the ideological spectrum, but he told reporters in 1999 that he rejects the “conservative vs. progressive” schema.
“The current crisis (in the Church) is primarily a crisis of faith. Concern for preservation of the faith may mark one as a conservative, but I am convinced that one can only conserve what one simultaneously renews,” he said.
In Geneva, Dr. Konrad Raiser, general secretary of the World Council of Churches, welcomed Cardinal Kasper's appointment. “Cardinal Kasper comes to this central position of ecumenical leadership in the Roman Catholic Church with broad pastoral experience and sensitivity and after a distinguished career as a theological teacher,” Dr. Raiser said. “His competence will be an asset for our work together. We look forward to his leadership and inspiration in the years ahead.”
Dr. Ishmael Noko, general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, also based in Geneva, said he was filled with “great satisfaction” to know that in the coming years, Cardinal Kasper “will continue to be a decisive architect of ecumenism in the Catholic Church.” Dr. Noko described the new president of the pontifical council as a “renowned, respected theologian” who brings “a quality of theology and style of leadership that facilitate collaboration in the ecumenical movement.”
“We know Cardinal Kasper and have found in him a common faith in the living God, who will guide us in these complex times towards the unity which God makes possible in Christ,” said Dr. Noko.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Cardinal Walter Kasper ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 03/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:N.Y. Post: Are We Serious Catholics?
NEW YORK POST, Feb. 26 — In a report from Rome during the recent consistory, Post columnist Rod Dreher said the Pope invited the Church's 44 new cardinals to heroically offer their lives for the Faith.
But in conversations with Dreher, many of the cardinals noted that there are subtler forms of martyrdom than the bloody kind they are now expected to brave, he said.
“William Cardinal Keeler, the archbishop of Baltimore, said the kind of spite Christians face from cultural institutions like the Brooklyn Museum, and the mockery they may endure in defending their faith against insults like ‘Yo Mama's Last Supper’ amounts to a kind of martyrdom. 'there's a marginalization of spiritual and moral values, and a temptation to be quiet in the presence of that, because when one speaks up in the presence of that kind of thing, one suffers,’; Keeler said. ‘Pope Paul VI called that ‘White Martyrdom.’;
“Robert Royal, author of the recently published Catholic Martyrs of the Twentieth Century, told me the Pope's words about dying for one's faith may sound strange to contemporary Americans because we falsely associate Christianity with a comfortable middle-class lifestyle.
“‘If you really want to be a Christian in the United States these days, especially a Catholic, you are going to bump up hard against the political system and the media,’ Royal said.
“‘And if that's not happening, you probably are not being a very serious Catholic.’;”
Professor Warns of the Lures of Satanism
VATICAN RADIO, March 8 — In an interview with the radio station, Italian educator Carlo Climati warned that pop music groups, compact discs, magazines and the Internet are luring vulnerable young people into the practice of Satanism.
“Behind certain phenomena there is often a world that is aimed at young people, a bombardment of the young that leads them down bad streets,” said Climato, a professor at Regina Apostolorum Atheneum, run by the Legionaires of Christ in Rome.
“First the young people buy a disc. Then they get interested in a singer, and then, little by little, they want to know more about him or her, and they make contact with the sites of esoteric cults.
“Some young people find in the idea of the esoteric something of the transgression with which they may want, in a certain sense, to ally themselves,” the professor said, “but they do not realize that in this way they become more and more slaves because their behavior certainly doesn't favor thought but rather favors lack of thought.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Chicago's Cardinal George Leads Pope in Annual Lenten Retreat DATE: 03/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — It was a quiet week in the Vatican. And a very busy week for one American bishop.
As is customary during the first week of Lent, the Holy Father suspended all his official engagements, including his Wednesday general audience, to make his annual retreat, together with about 80 participants from the Roman Curia, the central administrative offices of the Church.
This year the retreat, which began March 4 and concluded March 10, was preached by Cardinal Francis George, archbishop of Chicago, who spoke to the Register about the experience.
Cardinal George was the second American asked to preach the retreat during the pontificate of John PaulII. Cardinal James Hickey preached the retreat during the Marian Year of 1988.
Cardinal George chose as his theme, “A Faith for All Peoples: Conversion, Freedom and Communion.” He addressed the “missionary challenges of globalization” and drew upon the series of continental synods that were held in preparation for the Great Jubilee of 2000.
A member of a missionary congregation, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, Cardinal George told the Register that “today, there are proportionately fewer Christians in the world than at the time of the Second Vatican Council,” and so it is necessary to re-examine the missionary challenge.
“I'm trying to take the Gospel dynamic, which is there for every age, and look at it in a new age, a new culture, sensitive to the globalization phenomenon,” said Cardinal George. The current context of the life of the Church is one in which “we are moving from jubilee to mission,” he added.
The retreat conferences, always given in Italian, are delivered every year by a different preacher, chosen by the Holy Father. Often the conferences are published later as a book, as will be the case with Cardinal George's retreat this year. Cardinal Hickey's 1988 retreat was published under the title, Mary at the Foot of the Cross; likewise the retreats given by Cardinals Joseph Ratzinger, Christoph Schönborn and Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan, have all been published and translated into English.
What the Pope Saw
For the past two years, the Lenten retreat for the papal household and the Roman Curia has been preached in the Redemptoris Mater chapel, one of the newest, and most striking, additions to the Apostolic Palace.
The chapel was renovated according to the wishes of John Paul himself, who financed the project with the money given to him by the College of Cardinals on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his priestly ordination (Nov. 1, 1996). The new chapel, dedicated in November 1999, highlights the riches of the Eastern tradition in the Vatican, and also combines modern styles with the iconographic tradition.
“In the Redemptoris Mater chapel some important themes of the pastoral magisterium of John Paul II emerge — first among them, ecumenism,” says Bishop Piero Marini, papal master of ceremonies and custodian of the chapel. “The mosaics celebrate the history of salvation, taking as their central theme the mystery of the Trinity, which reveals itself primarily in the Son of God made man and his Mother.”
“John Paul II has wisely transformed the gift given to him by the College of Cardinals into a gift to God, to his glory, and to all the People of God,” continues Bishop Marini. “It will remain in the future as a memorial of a long and significant pontificate.”
Cardinal Francis George commented upon his experience of being in the chapel — for the first time — during the papal retreat:
“It is clearly Eastern in its themes. The Annunciation is on one side and the Dormition of the Virgin Mary on the other — which is very Eastern.
“The style is more or less inspired by iconography, and because of that, all the walls are covered with images. It's a very busy place — almost an assault on the senses. But mosaics cover the whole space, like paintings in palaces in Venice where the walls are entirely covered — again showing the Eastern influence. So there is a lot to see in a relatively small space. I would like to spend some hours there in order to appreciate it — it's a very interesting place.
“As for being in the chapel for the retreat, I suppose that you would have to concentrate on what is being said rather than what you are looking at, unless, perhaps, you wanted to be distracted from what was being said!
“During the retreat itself, the Pope is in an attached side chapel — the chapel of St. Lawrence — which is like a small sacristy. The retreat master can see the Pope, but the other participants do not see him, and he does not see them. He was there for every talk, for all the offices, the rosary, benediction — for everything.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Raymond De Souza ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Aussie Priests Fight Back Against Catholic-Bashing DATE: 03/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:MELBOURNE, Australia — Call them the Crocodile Dundees of the Catholic Church in Australia. But Father Michael Shadbolt and Father Herman Hengel aren't wrestling with real-life reptiles — their opponents are the sharp-tongued purveyors of anti-Catholic sentiment in the Australian media.
“It is not an exaggeration to say that the media here have successfully created the impression in the public's mind that Catholic priests have a unique predisposition to serious sexual crime,” Father Michael Shadbolt, a priest of the Melbourne Archdiocese, told the Register.
Vitriolic anti-Catholic art, plays, movies and TV broadcasts — often utilizing material imported from Hollywood and other U.S. sources — have prompted the two Australian priests to found the Catholic Priests Anti-Defamation League to counter the flood of hostile propaganda.
Father Shadbolt explained that the theater is a particular locus of Catholic bashing. “Over the present [Australian] summer, two anti-Catholic plays were produced here in Melbourne. One was the infamous ‘Corpus Christi’ which depicts Christ as an active homosexual,” he said.
The other play was even worse. “It was an execrable local production called ‘Midnight Mass’ in which, among other thespian gems, Our Lady was portrayed as a foul-mouthed slut and Holy Communion was spat out on stage,” said Father Shadbolt.
Other major sources of anti-Catholicism are American TV productions. The two priests received a good deal of attention in December when they wrote letters to newspapers objecting to an episode of “South Park.” The show has also drawn the ire of Catholic and other Christian groups in the United States.
According to published reports in Australia, the episode in question featured Pope John Paul II “dribbling incoherently” and “a priest fornicating in a confessional box.” Said Father Hengel, “It was obnoxious in the way it treated Mass, confession and the Pope.”
Exporting Bad Culture
It is no surprise that an American television show elicited a hostile overseas reaction, said Robert Peters, president of Manhattan-based Morality in Media. He told the Register that around the world there is “a widespread concern about the influence of American pop culture on youth.”
Peters added that in some “more traditional cultures, American culture is for all practical purposes banned” because American TV and movies “celebrate and wallow in every form of depravity.”
So far, the two Australian priests have simply written letters to local newspapers, but they say that this is just the beginning. “This year we hope to set up a more formal structure and go national,” Father Shadbolt explained.
That's a necessary step, agrees William Donohue of the U.S. Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. “Such a group needs to be institutionalized,” Donohue told the Register.
Donohue said that he has known of the negative attitudes Down Under for some time. “The situation in Australia,” he said, “is very hostile to the Catholic Church.”
Added Donohue, “The two countries in the world right now where Catholic bashing is the greatest are Australia and Ireland.”
Dr. Michael Casey, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Melbourne, told the Register that the priests' league is “a private Catholic association.” But privately, Father Hengel said, he and Father Shadbolt have received written and verbal support from every level of the Church, from bishops and priests to lay people.
Picking Their Fights
Father Hengel said the group has been very careful in picking its battles in order to avoid being relegated by an already hostile media to “the fanatical fringe.” Still, it hasn't shied away from high-profile issues — the League took on a large portion of the Australian news media over their coverage of allegations of sexual abuse by priests.
One major newspaper , The Australian, ran a story titled “Prey For Priests” which presented allegations of sexual abuse by an anonymous woman against a priest she wouldn't name.
This sort of biased reporting has led to Catholic priests being “scapegoated for pedophilia,” Father Hengel said, while “the same problem in other organizations and professions has, in contrast, received little or no publicity.”
Said Father Hengel, “We do not wish to deny the reality of the problem in the Catholic priesthood, but we object to our being singled out.”
Andrew Walther writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Andrew Walther ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 03/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:Foot-And-Mouth Fears Force Church Cancellations
BELFAST NEWS LETTER, March 5 — Low church attendance in Ireland reflects the fear surrounding a recent outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease there, the paper said.
Masses at churches in the restricted zone in South Armagh were called off March 4. Archbishop Sean Brady said bishops in Ireland could cancel Sunday Masses and that people should not travel to other parishes.
Church of Ireland Bishop Brian Hannon said people in rural areas should not “feel a sense of guilt” about not going to church because of foot-and-mouth disease. He added that it was important to pray for all those affected by the outbreak.
In a statement, Presbyterian Moderator Trevor Morrow expressed his concern for those congregations affected by the scare.
Colombian Rebels Demand Ransom for Priest
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, March 5 — The Church in Colombia has revealed that members of the leftist rebel group FARC are demanding a $500,000 ransom for a priest they kidnapped seven months ago, the news service reported.
Father Juan Salvado told reporters the Church had received the ransom demand together with proof that the hostage, Father Guillermo Correa, is still alive. Father Correa's family cannot afford the ransom, and the Church will not encourage kidnapping by paying it, Father Salvado said.
At least 20 Colombians were killed in recent fighting between FARC rebels and right-wing paramilitaries in northwest Colombia. Five civilians died in the clash, which occurred some 250 miles northwest of Bogota. About 50 paramilitaries died in the same area two weeks ago during clashes with the rebel group.
The 8,000-strong Self-Defense Units of Colombia are waging a war to the death with FARC, which has twice as many members and is currently involved in preliminary peace talks with Colombian President Andres Pastrana.
Czech Government OKs Homosexual Partnerships
PLANET OUT, March 5 — The government of the Czech Republic on Feb. 26 approved a bill to create registered partnerships giving homosexual couples most of the benefits and responsibilities of marriage, the homosexual news service reported.
The Czech Chamber of Deputies, which has twice rejected similar bills, will take up the new measure in late August. The Czech Catholic Bishops' Conference council for public affairs announced it will stand aside from what it views as an entirely civil matter, Planet Out reported.
Deputy Premier Pavel Rychetsky, who headed the Justice Ministry while it drafted the bill, told the news service that the legislation is intended to “fully copy the legal relations arising between married couples,” with both the registry and dissolution processes following the laws governing marriage and divorce.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: After the Gunsmoke Clears DATE: 03/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:Two years ago, President Clinton spoke this way after the shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.:
“We must do more to keep guns out of the hands of children, to help our young people express their anger and alienation with words, not weapons, to prevent violence from shattering the peace of our schoolyards.”
Two weeks ago, President Bush reacted this way to the shooting at Santana High School in Santee, Calif.:
“When America teaches our children right from wrong and teaches values to respect life in our country, our country will be better off.”
Clinton had a point. The Columbine killers got their guns by breaking laws that should have been better enforced. But Bush's answer is more profound: He seems to recognize that there is something big wrong with the culture itself.
It's a culture that fears that the Ten Commandments will hurt school kids but doesn't think occult books will; one that keeps religious material out of public libraries but allows Internet pornography in; one that fears moral rigor more than obscenity and violent modern music. It's a culture in which there are many things to denounce.
Yet by coincidence, the day after the shooting, Pope John Paul II gave an address that encourages us to go beyond such denunciations.
“Although a necessity and an obligation, it is not sufficient to limit oneself to expose and denounce the lethal effects of the culture of death,” said the Holy Father. “Rather, what is needed is to constantly regenerate the inner fabric of contemporary culture, understood as a living mentality, as an ensemble of convictions and behavior, as social structures that support it.”
Ultimately, he added, “The encyclical Evangelium Vitae reminds us that ‘the Gospel of Life’ is neither a simple reflection nor a commandment to sensitize society, but a concrete and personal reality because it consists of proclaiming the person of Christ himself.”
So, for Catholics, the response to these school shootings (which now, sadly, include one at a Catholic school) is clear.
We should spend a little time exposing and denouncing the causes and consequences of the killing culture — from the abortionists who have made today's youth feel like “survivors,” to the cruelty of today's youth culture which demands conformity and punishes differences, to the adults who fill airwaves and movie theaters with products that demean human life.
We should spend a lot of time building the culture of life. Bush is right: For starters, that means teaching the difference between right and wrong, and teaching the value of human beings. It also means introducing people to the one person capable of rescuing our culture — Christ himself.
As the success of the Holy Father's World Youth Day events proves every two years, young people are hungry for authentic faith. How can we provide it? We recall the three-step program the Pope outlined for laity at the end of the Jubilee Year:
Step 1. Examine our consciences on these questions: What have I done with my baptism and confirmation? Is Christ really at the center of my life? Do I make time for prayer in my life? Do I live my life as a vocation and a mission?
Step 2. Read the documents of Vatican II. Our suggestions: the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, the Decree on the Apostolate of Lay People Apostolicam Actuositatem and the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes. All are available at www. Vatican.va or from the Daughter of St. Paul at (800) 876-4463.
Step 3. Creatively answer Vatican II's call — not by seeking a liturgical role, but a lay one: in parish action groups, apostolic movements or other diocesan-approved apostolates.
Catholics throughout history have had an enormous influence on the cultures they found themselves in. It's high time we did the same in America.
----- EXCERPT: From the Pope ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Letters DATE: 03/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:Catholics who Clamor for Clinton
I am one of the more than 100,000+ Morgan Stanley Dean Witter (MSDW) clients who called and wrote to that large organization to strongly complain that it should not have paid Clinton $100,000 for a Florida speech.
The result of that was a strong denunciation of their action by MSDW and a clear message to other groups, especially public orientated corporations, not to give this evil person a forum to speak.
Now, St. Joseph's Hospital Care System in Hamilton, Ontario, is doing the same thing, but with a Catholic background (“Catholic Nuns Welcome Bill Clinton,” March 4-10). Reminds me of the two times Clinton vetoed the partial-birth abortion bills from Congress with mostly Catholic women behind him at a photo-op praising what he was doing.
Thank you for printing this article on the front page, and for keeping us informed.
ART ALARCON Denver
It's About The Priesthood
Just a note of praise and thanks for including excerpts from “Another Face of the Priesthood,” Msgr. Earl Boyea's article in the February issue of First Things magazine (“The Gift and Challenge of Priestly Celibacy,” March 4-10).
There is a timely text in Scripture which reads, “truth stumbles in the public square and uprightness cannot enter” (Isaiah 59:14) and indeed, current analysis and discussion of priests and the priesthood is often “stumbling.”
Without doubt, Father Cozzen's controversial book The Changing Face of the Priesthood needed precisely such a clarification. Msgr. Boyea has provided a positive, proactive response. He carefully nuances his analysis and manages to “speak the truth in love” (Ephesians 3:15). For example, he states: “I recognize many of the problems discussed by Father Cozzens, but I believe that, at least in some cases, he frames the problem in a way that is, no doubt inadvertently, profoundly misleading.”
Msgr. Boyea courageously asserts what many people suspect, but are rather reluctant to acknowledge. He writes within the context of a practical realism and pinpoints the distortion of facts and issues with competence and a sense of conviction. Msgr. Boyea states that he would welcome a “more accurate and balanced depiction of the priesthood.” This would be greatly appreciated by many people! Perhaps Msgr. Boyea himself could consider such an endeavor? Meanwhile I give thanks for the many splendid priests who daily witness a faithful, faith-filled “depiction” of the priest-hood.
I appreciate and commend the Register's instructive, inspirational and interesting articles!
SISTER J. SHEILA GALLIGAN, IHM Immaculata, Pennsylvania
St. Dale of Daytona?
I write you today to ask you to consider whether you missed a good opportunity to preach the Gospel following the death of the popular [race-car] driver Dale Earn-hardt.
Rich Rinaldi's article (“Faith in the Fast Lane: Earnhardt's Last Lap,” March 4-10) contained Daryl Waltrip's conjecture that Earnhardt went straight to heaven.
It's incumbent upon Catholic journalists to write about both salvation and damnation so that readers might ponder the eternal consequences of their actions. We should always try to pattern our lives after Jesus Christ, and ask ourselves “Would Jesus want me to do this?” or “Is this how Jesus would live?”
A professional stock-car driver enjoys many of the rewards offered by the prince of the world: fame, fortune, and adulation and worship by the public. None of these are prescribed by Our Lord as the sure path to salvation. The Gospel preaches poverty, service, humility and the seeking of our consolations elsewhere than in the hearts and minds of men.
It's hard to imagine that Christ would have strapped himself into a stock car. Moreover, it is a sin to put our bodies at risk of death if it isn't the service of God.
The writer should have proposed the question of whether God made Dale Earnhardt for some other vocation. The journalist might have prompted the reader to reflect upon whether stock-car racing is a vain pursuit, one that can put the soul in peril.
When Mother Teresa died, it was prudent to begin praying for her intercession for us sinners in this world, because many believe she is a saint. When Dale Earnhardt died, it was prudent for a Catholic journalist to answer the secular cry for Earnhardt's canonization by pointing out contradictions in his chosen career and the path pointed out by Jesus.
It was an opportunity to call readers to reflect also on purgatory and hell.
Popularity and worldly success does not buy us heaven. This is clear in the Gospel, and that front-page article which missed all these points did your readers no service.
A. MATT WERNER Highlands Ranch, Colorado
On the St. Ignatius Institute
I felt compelled to write to you concerning your article, “The Late, Great St. Ignatius Institute” (Feb. 18-24). I first read the cover story “Academic Earthquake Rocks San Francisco,” and I was appalled. Then, I read your article and was brought to tears over the loss of such a great educational institution.
I am a longtime fan of Jesuit Father Joseph Fessio, so I know what a great educational program the institute must have been. Magisterium-following Catholics are being discriminated against by their own people. I see it everywhere now. It is a shame, but we were not guaranteed an easy road. Quite the opposite: Christ promised a rocky, narrow road.
Your article especially hit home because my husband and I just this week made our final decision to home school our children. We are pulling them from our local Catholic school at the end of the year. Not only that, we are going to be using a “Great Books” program for the remainder of their education. We strongly believe that the works of great authors, thinkers and theologians will prepare our children to know and love the truth. We want them to be great thinkers.
Not that this is much of a consolation, but there is a growing movement in the area of Great Books, and careful, sincere study of these works can only strengthen our faith as Catholics.
Thank you for sharing your personal story in the Register. It meant so much to me to read this, specifically this week. It was a difficult decision for us to home school, and an even more difficult curriculum decision. Your article was a gift in many ways, but for me it was a sign from the Holy Spirit that we are doing God's will in our decision.
LESLIE HICKMAN via e-mail
Director Dares to Be Decent
As a mother who gets momentary panic attacks when I read about the things that are being promoted as entertainment, I am so grateful for the likes of director-screenwriter Bill Bindley (“Sun-dance Catholic,” Feb. 25-March 3).
Standing up for the moral and right thing is so overlooked. I really feel compelled to stop my busy day (and complaining about this issue) to focus a little praise on a man who is definitely going upstream in his industry. But upstream is just where we need to be headed, and (forgive the pun) that means up out of the gutter and raising our eyes to a better standard.
My thanks to a man who dares to do the right thing! Don't stop now — we are just finding out that you're out there and are ready, willing and able to support your efforts!
MARY K. MAZZOLINI Cumming, Georgia
The Economist and the Church
The commentary by your London columnist on The Economist's article on the Catholic Church was most disappointing (“The Church and the Calculator,” Feb. 25-March 3). I still fail to understand how your correspondent missed the opening paragraph of that article. It reads:
“Step into London's Westminster Cathedral at 8 a.m. on any morning, and you will find 60 or 70 people attending Mass in a side-chapel. The same number appear at the 8:30 Mass, and at the 9 o'clock. Most are on their way to work, but they make a deliberate pause for this. And the scene could be repeated the world over.”
Daily Mass. Yes, daily Mass. Celebrating the Eucharist, rendering Christ present, making the Church visible: the universal sign (sacrament) of salvation. To his credit, that is what the article observed; to my bewilderment, that is what your columnist failed to perceive.
When I read that statement in The Economist, I was both delighted and surprised. Delighted that someone shared my belief that the Mass makes the Church; surprised that the secular press would notice the centrality of the Eucharist in Catholic practice and devotion. I thought the expression “a deliberate pause” was most apt in capturing the disposition of the faithful who attend Mass daily.
I do not share your columnist's view that the article was a “slam piece on the Catholic Church,” nor was it “death-watch journalism.” Rather, the article seemed to echo comments that I hear from fellow-priests and laity (informed and ill-informed). It even seemed to me that the writer deplored some of the things he was reporting.
I would venture to say that The Economist writer believes in the Church when he concludes: “The Church should be able to speak out as a radical voice. It still has a startling message for humanity to consider.”
That, sir, is precisely the view of Pope John Paul II.
FATHER DOUGLAS DANIEL Lennoxville, Canada
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Art Lesson DATE: 03/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:Art? Artists? Let's discuss these terms. It is high time.
As a Catholic with a master's degree in painting and a bachelor's degree in drawing, I cringe when these terms are used so carelessly as in “German Artists Criticized for Dead Bodies Exhibit” (Feb. 25 - March 3).
I had an instructor at Thomas More College in Northern Kentucky who, for his whole lifetime of hard work in his studio, always referred to himself as a painter. His works were paintings. When one of his students asked whether he was an artist, he answered that that was for history to decide.
Art is something a bit undefinable. It is something beyond the reach of everyday effort. It has everything to do with beauty. It has a lot to do with truth. It is seldom made — especially by someone who decides to make something ugly. For example … let's see … a crucifix in urine, a reproduction of Our Lady with feces thrown on it, and now the body parts of dead people touring Germany for five years and attracting 3 million people. These things are not art. And the folks who made them are not artists.
What's going on? I think it has something to do with art students being taught that they should be creative. So they try to make or do something that has never been done before. They try to shock. Isn't this a mistake? God is the real Creator, and we should pray to be his more perfect instruments: his pencils, his crayons, his paint-brushes, etc.
To sum up: If it isn't beautiful, it isn't art, and the person who made it is not an artist.
JENNY WARD Cincinnati
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: St. Joseph: He's Not What We Call Him DATE: 03/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:By today's definition, the term “foster father” does not fit St. Joseph, whose feast we celebrate March 19.
By law, a foster parent is an adult who cares for a child that is neither biologically nor legally his own. The commitment undertaken is temporary, with guardianship offered for a short time until the biological parent can resume caring for the child. The foster parent usually is paid by an agency of the state in return for care.
St. Joseph's relationship with Jesus hardly followed that arc.
First, Joseph of Nazareth was by no means a temporary caregiver. Instead, here was a man who committed his entire life to the care of his wife and her son. After taking Mary into his home despite her enigmatic pregnancy, he cared for Jesus all the days of his young life. Joseph fled with him when his life was threatened and searched for him when he was lost. And, according to tradition, Joseph died in the arms of Jesus and Mary. All these facts suggest that “temporary” is the last word we should use to describe St. Joseph's commitment to Mary and Jesus. “Steadfast” is more like it. Unwavering. Resolute.
Second, Joseph received no financial compensation for his care of Jesus; indeed, the added responsibility of a child in his household only increased his financial burden. Joseph had to accept financial insecurity when he took his young family to Egypt to escape the murderous King Herod. The returns he received — the love and affection of Jesus and Mary, the gratitude and grace of God the Father — were certainly reward enough, but they do not offer much in the way of immediate gratification, let alone monetary compensation.
For these reasons, the term “foster father” seems singularly inappropriate when describing St. Joseph.
Under Jewish law, by naming Jesus and presenting him in the temple, St. Joseph gave Our Lord standing in the Jewish community and an identity within the human family. St. Joseph gave Jesus “roots.” Also, under Jewish law, St. Joseph bore the responsibility to teach his child about the Jewish faith and Scriptures, and to give his child a trade. The indirect evidence in the Gospels is that he did so.
Meanwhile Christ's preaching and parables show a knowledge of items in the common experience of the people of Palestine of his age, evidenced by references to gardening, farming, civil law and Jewish law. A firm grasp of these things must have come to Jesus first in the way that most of us learn about the practical details of day-to-day life — from the adults closest to us.
Because St. Joseph taught the human Jesus many “earthly” things, shaping in many and various ways Jesus' earthly identity and personality, might it be appropriate to refer to Joseph as the “earthly father of Jesus Christ”?
We live in a world that desperately needs model dads.
Both in the context of popular culture and in the context of the Gospels, “earthly father” has clear advantages. For one thing, the term is sufficiently unusual to prevent confusion — unlike, for example, “human father,” which invites confusion because it is not biologically accurate.
For another, in the context of the Gospels, “earthly father” as a title for St. Joseph provides a clear contrast with Christ's many references to his heavenly Father. Our Lord spends much of the Gospels teaching us about how to relate to God our Father in heaven. Distinguishing between our Lord's earthly father and his heavenly Father also has the effect of strengthening our faith in Christ as our brother, because we all have an earthly father and a Father in heaven.
Is it possible that the term “earthly father” would invite confusion with God the Father in the minds of the faithful? Could it inappropriately elevate St. Joseph to an apparently coequal position with God the Father?
Surely writers and speakers, and most especially priests speaking from the pulpit, would be wise to use the term carefully and contrast it our Lord's many references to his Father in heaven. One obvious caution is to emphasize the fact that St. Joseph did not participate in the physical generation of Christ, and so is not an earthly father in that sense.
But any such fear must also acknowledge existing reality. At the present time, it seems unlikely that St. Joseph will be divinized at the popular level, given his relatively low standing in the mind of the Church. The contrast with Our Lady is instructive. Mary has three holy days of obligation on the U.S. liturgical calendar, and the Hail Mary is taught to all as arguably the second most important prayer in the Catholic arsenal. By contrast, St. Joseph has neither a holy day of obligation (although two feasts) nor a prayer. (Note that Catholics on the whole surely understand that Mary is not divine.)
If anything, St. Joseph should be raised in the Church to a post of greater visibility. We live in a world that denigrates fatherhood at a time it so desperately needs model dads.
A more accurate and more affectionate term for Joseph's fatherhood may increase devotion to the saint. Recognizing a role model in the earthly fatherhood of St. Joseph gives all men a chance to develop and grow their fatherhood with the patronage of a powerful inter-cessor in heaven — the man closest to Christ on earth who is surely the man closest to Christ in heaven.
St. Joseph, earthly father of Jesus Christ, pray for us!
Steve Michael is a father of four and a professor of business administration at the University of Illinois.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Steve Michael ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Our Wrath Is Righteous - But Is it Right? DATE: 03/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:Suppose you live in a town in the Wild West. Call it Glory Gulch. An armed and dangerous killer, a wily career criminal who has eluded capture for years, is at large. The sheriff, under pressure from the towns-folk to see to their safety and security, decides to put the man's wife and children in jail.
“Your husband is a wicked and treacherous man,” he says to the woman, “so we're locking you and your kids up until he lays down his arms and turns himself in. Until then, we'll feed you all meager rations, and you can't have any medical care. We'll make sure he hears about how you're suffering for his crimes. That should make him surrender — and teach all bad guys a lesson about messing with the good people of Glory Gulch.”
As a result of the poor nutrition and inadequate care, one of the children dies. Who is to blame for the death — the criminal or the sheriff?
The sheriff, of course: A good end can never justify evil means.
Fast-forward to 2001. Replace “Wild West” with “Middle East” and the at-large killer with the president of Iraq, Saddam Hussein — a dictator who has used chemical warfare against a minority group in his own country, lobbed missiles at population centers in Israel and is even now attempting to develop weapons of mass destruction. One of the primary targets of those weapons, should they come to be created, would be his sworn enemy — the United States.
That threat is reason enough to do what we can to apprehend the criminal and protect ourselves. But does it justify putting the Iraqi people through protracted hardship?
Secretary of State Colin Powell has given some indication of a softening of U.S. trade sanctions aimed at Iraq. That's good. But will they be softened enough?
The United States has continued an embargo against the nation of Iraq that began before the Gulf War. The purpose has been to end the threat to peace the Iraqi government under Saddam poses to this region. This siege has resulted in the deaths of many innocent Iraqi civilians. So the question is: Is this action, like that of the sheriff of Glory Gulch, a case of murder — or does the threat posed by Hussein somehow justify the actions taken by the United States in conjunction with the United Nations?
Before we try to answer that question, let us examine the price the people of Iraq have paid for the embargo.
The People Pay
The World Food Organization and UNICEF have estimated that, over the past ten years, more than 1 million people have died as a result of the sanctions. Children under five account for half of these deaths.
UNICEF has reported a six-fold to eight-fold increase in the fatality rates in children due to diarrhea and pneumonia from 1991 to 1996. According to UNICEF, 50,000 adult deaths are caused by the sanction each year. Repeated bombings by the United States have rendered almost all of the water treatment plants inoperable. As a result of bombings directed at sewage treatment plants, raw sewage flows in the streets, causing much localized illness.
Meanwhile the United States routinely denies crucial medical supplies to Iraq. For example, we regularly ban the shipping of the spare parts needed to repair the water and sewage systems.
Our government has banned powdered baby formula because it has phosphates, which can be used to make bombs. We ban the chlorine needed for water purification because it can be used for chemical warfare. We do the same with many drugs as well. We allow life support machines to come into Iraq, but ban the computers needed to run them. We allow dentists' chairs, but ban the compressors needed to operate the drills. We allow insulin for diabetics, but ban the syringes needed to administer the medicine.
In other words, the embargo itself has proven to be a truly effective weapon of mass destruction.
In recent months, planes from various nations have begun landing in Baghdad on humanitarian missions. These flights are a positive trend, but as noted by Jesuit Father Simon Harak, a founding member of Voices in the Wilderness, an organization dedicated toward ending the United States-led Embargo against Iraq: “Occasional humanitarian flights from 40 different nations are not going to help 23 million people.”
Our embargo has proven an effective weapon of mass destruction.
That is because the infrastructure of Iraq has been laid waste by repeated bombing, and the United States continuously vetoes the shipment of the equipment needed to rebuild it. “As long as the infrastructure remains destroyed, there can never be any substantive recovery by Iraq,” says Father Simon, who also points out that the United States and United Kingdom have frequently bombed civilian targets.
In February he learned from Archbishop Djibrie Kassab, of the Catholic Archdiocese of Basra and Ur, that the bombing in Basra was so intense that the Catholic cathedral collapsed on Christmas Eve of 2000.
Lives of the Innocent
The embargo has killed or caused grievous suffering among hundreds of thousands of persons whose only crime was to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
During the last 11 years, three senior U.N. administrators of Iraqi relief aid — Denis Halliday, Hans von Sponek and Jutta Burghardt — have resigned in protest once they recognized the harm caused by the sanctions. Halliday calls the sanctions genocidal. “We are destroying an entire society,” he says. “It is as simple and as terrifying as that.”
But Madeline Albright, former secretary of state (under Bill Clinton) gave a different response. The “60 Minutes” correspondent Leslie Stahl once pointed out to her that the children who died as a result of the economic sanctions were reater in number than all of those who died in Hiroshima. Stahl asked, “Is the price worth it?”
Albright responded, “I think this is a very hard choice, but the price, we think, is worth it.”
When does any price justify killing innocent children?
Pope John Paul II has spoken out repeatedly against the U.N. sanctions.
“The weak and the innocent cannot pay for mistakes for which they are not responsible,” said the Holy Father in a 1998 speech to diplomats. Why this response? Because of what the Catholic faith teaches us about the dignity of human life. According to this teaching, it is unjust to harm an innocent person or group of persons even when such an action is directed toward a good end.
The Holy Father's condemnation of the Iraqi embargo resonates with other Catholic moral teachings as well. After all, the same reverence for the dignity of life leads Catholics to defend life in the womb. Think of this: If it is unjust to try to harm an innocent person, then both the embargo and abortion are misguided responses. If the lives of the innocent must be respected in foreign lands, then they must be respected in the womb as well.
A heightened awareness of the dignity of human life can give rise to deeper questions than we are used to asking.
For those who already believe that the embargo is morally wrong, the question arises, “Aren't the unborn likewise guilty only of being in the wrong place at the wrong time?” For those who already believe that the life of the unborn is sacred, the question is: “Aren't the lives of the citizens of Iraq — especially the children — precious in the eyes of God?”
And, right now, the question we need to be asking ourselves as Catholic Americans is this. “How would we want the world to respond if our families lived in Iraq?”
Leo White is a visiting professor of philosophy at LaSalle University in Philadelphia.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Leo White ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Bush Administration Brings New Hope for China DATE: 03/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:On the whole, which individual is safer and more secure — a Christian in a secular society or a secularist in a Christian society?
History has shown time and again that, when religious perspectives are barred from the public square, the resulting vacuum is filled with, in the words of Father Richard John Neuhaus, “a new religion of utopian, destructive and dehumanizing proportions.”
Past attempts to build a society around man-made morals have resulted in “the heaping up of corpses and the loosing of rivers of blood without precedent in all human history,” said Father Neuhaus, editor-in-chief of First Things magazine, in a recent lecture.
Case in point: the present situation in China. Shortly after taking control of China in 1948, the Communists made it known there would be no place for religion in the new order. Not only was all political power to radiate from Beijing, but Mao Zedong asserted that the Communist Party was also to be the embodiment of all moral order in the country. The party would not tolerate the existence of competing sources of allegiance in the moral sphere. The Catholic Church was singled out as an especially egregious threat since its adherents looked to an easily identifiable person and place — the pope in Rome — rather than the chairman in Beijing.
Initially, the party's strategy involved vast, violent purges of Chinese believers and the imprisonment, torture and expulsion of foreign missionaries. But, after two years of such blatant persecution, Beijing concluded that the Christian churches were simply being driven underground and that they could not be destroyed by such means. So the Communists changed their strategy. They began setting up competing churches, strictly controlled by the party, in an attempt to co-opt believers' fidelity. To this day, these state-run “Patriotic Association” churches are the only churches allowed to exist, and the only ones in which Chinese Christians are permitted to worship.
Under China's legal system, police have the authority to send suspects of banned religious organizations to labor camps for up to three years — without trial.
Of course, exceptions to the rule of law in China are not uncommon. The archbishop of Shanghai, Ignatius Kung Pin-mei, for example, spent 30 years in jail, most of it in solitary confinement. His crime? He refused to renounce the Roman Catholic Church and publicly criticized the Chinese regime's repression of religious freedom. (Archbishop Kung, who died last year in the United States, was made a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 1979 while Kung was still in prison.)
Last year, the U.S. State Department listed China, along with Sudan, as having the worst human-rights record in the world, thanks primarily to its terrible treatment of religious believers.
Yet the U.S. Congress didn't do any favors for persecuted religious believers in China when they approved, last September, a policy of permanent, normal trade relations with communist China. Once the trade-status question was off the table, Beijing launched what has become the most savage religious persecution since the death of Chairman Mao in 1976.
In December, for example, it was reported that more than 1,500 house churches, temples and shrines in the eastern province of Zhejiang had been shut down or destroyed.
Bad as the treatment of Christians has been, it has been members of the Falun Gong who have been the target of Beijing's most ferocious repression. It is hard to imagine what could possibly be threatening about the Falun Gong, which mixes watered-down Buddhist theology, Taoist principles and breathing exercises to promote health. Its popularity in China, and the fact that it operates outside strict government control, seem to be enough to make it a threat to the repressive Beijing regime. According to a Hong Kong-based human-rights monitoring group, somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 Falun Gong followers have been placed in labor camps. Scores have died while in police custody.
On January 23, five devotees of the Falun Gong set themselves on fire in Tiananmen Square to protest the crack-down. In a sharp break with the policy of the Clinton administration, the United States' new secretary of state, Colin Powell, warned the Chinese ambassador that the Bush administration would not hesitate to raise Beijing's poor record on human rights and do it “frankly.”
“We call on China,” he said Jan. 24, “to release all those detained or imprisoned for peacefully exercising their internationally recognized rights to freedom of religion, freedom of belief and freedom of conscience.”
Outraged at the comment, Beijing lashed back the next day, describing the remarks as “totally unacceptable.” “China demands that the U.S. government respect the stand of the Chinese government on the Falun Gong and stop interfering in China's internal affairs,” said a spokesman for China's foreign ministry.
It is a heartening sign for people of faith around the world that the Bush administration appears to understand that religious rights are not incidental. They are a core freedom which must be respected by individuals and protected by governments.
Throughout history, freedom of religion has been among the foundational freedoms recognized by governments that have gone on to compile good human-rights records. We may sometimes forget how fortunate we are to live in a society built on the Judeo-Christian principle of respect for the conscience of the individual. We should never take our situation for granted, or cease praying for our brothers and sisters in Christ who are deprived of such privilege.
J. Fraser Field, executive officer of the Catholic Educators Resource Center (www.catholiceducation.org), writes from Powell River, British Columbia.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: J. Fraser Field ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Catholic Globetrotter DATE: 03/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:Having backpacked his way across 18 countries and led guided tours to Europe and the Holy Land, Kevin Wright is now a frequent contributor to Catholic radio, television and periodicals (including the Register).
He's also written three pilgrim guidebooks — Catholic Shrines of Western Europe, Catholic Shrines of Central and Eastern Europe and Europe's Monastery & Convent Guesthouses. This summer film crews will record a young-adult pilgrimage he is leading to France and Italy. Wright, who has recorded visits to more than 150 pilgrimage sites, spoke about his travel-related endeavors with Register features correspondent Tim Drake.
Drake: Did you travel much growing up?
Aside from family trips on the West Coast and to visit family in the Midwest, we didn't travel a great deal. I never planned to one day go out and ‘conquer the world.’;
How did you get your start traveling?
Midway through college at Washington State University, I met a couple of guys at the Newman Center who introduced me to some excellent Catholic material on Church-approved Marian sites, eucharistic-miracle sites, and the saints. After reading through the material, I was dying to see these places, so I planned to take a trip after graduation to see the great shrines of Europe.
I graduated in 1995, and took my first trip to Europe that summer. There were no Catholic guidebooks available at the time. In many cases, all I had was a church name and a city name. I mapped the entire trip out and spent two months visiting nine different countries
How did the idea for your first guidebook come about?
Halfway through that trip, while in Rome, I met two women who had just graduated from Thomas Aquinas College in California. One of them suggested the idea of writing a Catholic travel guidebook. That one statement affected my entire life. As soon as she said it, I knew that there was a market for the book and that it needed to be done.
It was the right concept at the right time. There was a vacuum in the Catholic book industry regarding Catholic travel guidebooks. Now, for the first time, you are starting to see a travel section in many Catholic bookstores.
In addition to your pilgrimage travels and writings, you also work full-time in the secular tour industry. Tell me about your job.
I work as a product manager for one the world's largest tour operators, Globus & Cosmos, based in Littleton, Colo. I am in charge of developing and designing the company's North American tours.
You must meet a lot of interesting people on your trips.
During my first European trip, while in Rome, I had signed up for a tour of the Vatican Gardens. Unfortunately, the tour ended up being full, which was a big setback as I was scheduled to leave Rome the next day. I begrudgingly signed up for the tour the next day and delayed my plans to leave Rome. While on that tour, I met my best friend, who is now a Catholic high school moral theology teacher in Valley Forge, Pa. What appeared to be a roadblock ended up being one of the greatest blessings of my life.
Do you have a favorite travel destination?
One place that has touched me tremendously is the shrine-convent in Nevers, France. The first time I went there, I remember walking into the chapel and turning to my right. There, in a beautiful, clear glass reliquary lies the incorrupt body of St. Bernadette Soubirous. I walked up to the altar rail and was able to get within six to eight feet of the reliquary. It's unbelievable.
Her hands are folded in prayer with a rosary and her face has a perfect expression of peace and contentment. The purity that emanates from her face is incredibly inspiring — it's like you're looking at the purity of God itself. She is my adopted patron saint and the shrine has become my personal favorite in Western Europe.
My favorite site in Eastern Europe is the Hill of Crosses in Lithuania. This is a place that faced incredible persecution by the Russian and Communist authorities over the past two centuries. The faithful would risk their lives to place crosses and other religious symbols on the hill. Each time, the authorities would tear them down. The last time it was bulldozed was 1975. Today there are more than 50,000 crucifixes and religious symbols knitted closely together on the compact hill. It is a very, very emotional place of pilgrimage. Pope John Paul II visited the hill and celebrated Mass there in 1993. Following a common tradition, I left eight small crosses of my own to symbolize my family members.
Through your travels, you share a commonality with the Holy Father, history's most traveled pope. Do you have any insight into what might inspire Pope John Paul II to travel so much?
When Pope John Paul II visits his flock around the world, he considers it a pilgrimage. Wherever he goes, one of the first things he always says upon arriving is that he comes as a pilgrim. He travels to evangelize and re-evangelize.
When I travel, my purpose is to allow God to evangelize me. When I go to Lourdes, for example, he evangelizes me in regards to who Mary truly is as the Mother of God. When I travel to a eucharistic-miracle site like Santarem, Portugal, it is an opportunity for God to evangelize me about a truth of the faith and about Jesus Christ's presence in the Blessed Sacrament.
What are the benefits of pilgrimage travel?
A pilgrimage has several benefits. First and foremost are the spiritual. A pilgrimage offers the opportunity to journey closer to God and allow him to work intimately on your soul. Second, there are social benefits. Whether you are traveling independently or with a group, you are able to meet new people and make new friends. Third, physically, a pilgrimage allows you to get outside and exercise. Finally, psychologically, it gets you out of your daily routine so that when you go home you can have a fresh start.
Features correspondent Tim Drake writes from St. Cloud, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Oscar the Lech: What the Awards Say About Hollywood DATE: 03/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:Everyone, it seems, is dazzled by the stars and the glitter of the Oscars.
The Academy Awards Show is one of TV's most-watched annual events. Hundreds of millions of viewers around the world vicariously participate in the movie industry's salute to its best and brightest. Hollywood's most luminous celebrities compete with one another to see who can look the most beautiful, and for weeks beforehand there's frenzied speculation as to who will go home with an Oscar.
Buried beneath the spectacle are more serious issues. Hollywood is an important combatant in America's culture wars and, this March 25, as the statuettes are passed out, we can discern that much of the product being celebrated encourages audiences to embrace “cutting-edge” values that conflict with traditional morality.
None of this year's crop of best-picture nominees is overtly anti-Catholic. But the Miramax release Chocolat (five nominations) makes its villain a conservative Catholic, repudiates an orthodox understanding of the faith and ridicules Lenten fasting. An unwed mother (Juliette Binoche) opens a chocolate shop whose goodies magically awaken the passions of a small town's inhabitants. Her key antagonist is the devout mayor (Alfred Molina) who expects everyone to attend Mass regularly.
It's a female-empowerment fairy tale set in 1950s France. An ascetic lifestyle is presented as a danger to a person's sanity, and spontaneous sensuality is seen as the key to a healthy mind, body and spirit — a point of view always popular in Hollywood.
Looking beyond the best-picture category, several films nominated for multiple awards have gay-related themes. Wonder Boy (three nominations) chronicles the mid-life crisis of a celebrated novelist (Michael Douglas) who teaches creative writing. His prize pupil (Toby McGuire) begins to develop his literary talents at the same time he realizes he's gay. The movie presents homosexuality as a lifestyle just as valid as heterosexual family life.
A similar set of attitudes can be found in Shadow of the Vampire (two nominations). Silent film genius F. W. Murnau (John Malkovich) hires a real-life vampire (Willem Dafoe) to play the lead in the horror film Nosferatu, promising him that he can feed on the female star after the cameras stop. Both the director and his vampire are also shown to have homosexual tastes.
Billy Elliot (three nominations) aspires to challenge our preconceptions about gender roles. The adolescent son (Jamie Bell) of a British coal miner must struggle to fulfill his dream of attending ballet school because his father believes that only homosexuals dance that way. Although the youthful hero is straight, his best friend is gay, and the audience is meant to accept both boys' sexual orientation as perfectly normal, healthy and moral.
Hollywood usually cuts Fidel Castro a lot of slack. But in his persecution of homosexuals he went too far even for tinseltown. Before Night Falls (one nomination) chronicles the sufferings of a Cuban revolutionary poet (Javier Bardem) who was jailed just because he was gay. Sexual liberation is presented as the most important example of free speech.
This questionable assumption is repeated in Quills (three nominations) and The Contender (two nominations). The former holds up the blasphemous, pornographic writings of the Marquis de Sade (Geoffrey Rush) as a test case for artistic liberty. His incarceration and torture in an 19th-century French insane asylum is interpreted as an attack on non-conformist free spirits everywhere.
The Contender is a camouflaged defense of the sexual misconduct of former President Clinton, whom the entertainment industry fervently supported. A Democratic commander-in-chief (Jeff Bridges) nominates a liberal woman senator (Joan Allen) to be vice president after the death of his running mate. A conservative Christian congressman (Gary Oldman) opposes her nomination because of lurid allegations about her sexual behavior. He is revealed to be a fanatic and a hypocrite, guilty of “sexual McCarthyism” — which Hollywood considers to be the worst possible sin.
Drug use is also a hot topic, and several films treat it permissively. Wonder Boy, Shadow of the Vampire and Before Night Falls present narcotics as an accepted part of the artistic milieu without passing judgment. Almost Famous (four nominations) is a coming-of-age story set in the 1970s that goes a step further. A 15-year-old rock fan (Patrick Fugit) attaches himself to an up-and-coming band and one of its groupies (Kate Hudson). The effect of dope-smoking on the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle is heavily sanitized as we watch how the music's values become subtly embedded in suburban youth culture.
Traffic (five nominations) effectively dramatizes the destructive effects of drug use, crosscutting between three different stories. Its central characters are an honest Mexican cop (Benicio de Toro), the ambitious wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones) of a jailed dealer and a drug czar (Michael Douglas) with an addicted daughter.
The message is the corrupting effects of the drug trade on everyone who touches it and how the War on Drugs has failed. It's argued that too much emphasis has been placed on law enforcement instead of on treatment programs. But no evidence is offered that this more permissive point of view will reduce consumption.
Fortunately, the two movies that garnered the most nominations aren't offensive to believers. But, predictably, both highlight spiritual paths that aren't Christian. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (10 nominations) is an innovative martial-arts epic about a warrior's quest for a lost sword. It turns into a spiritual journey inspired by Buddhist beliefs.
Gladiator (12 nominations) is an imaginative reworking of the Roman Empire spectacles of the past, chronicling the fall of a heroic general (Russell Crowe) who becomes an enslaved gladiator. But it's also the first movie in that genre to show pagan practices while making no mention of Christianity.
Erin Brockovich (five nominations) is another female-empowerment yarn. Its heroine (Julia Roberts) dresses like a hooker and uses the kind of profanity once heard only in male locker rooms. Also a single mom, she rightfully challenges a utilities giant in a class-action lawsuit when she discovers a power plant has left toxic chemicals that harm the local inhabitants.
Trial lawyers and their staffs are, along with Hollywood, one of the linchpins of the current liberal coalition. They're depicted here as populist crusaders even though Erin walks away with $2 million — six times more than what the average plaintiff in the suit clears. Based on a true story, the movie suggests that it's OK to go for the gold as long as you preach a politically correct message — another notion widely accepted in the entertainment industry.
It's no accident that 13 of the 17 films that received two or more nominations are R-rated and thus not intended for family viewing — a major departure from days past.
When taken together, the content of most of the films honored with Oscar nominations is proof positive that Hollywood has a cultural agenda that goes far beyond mere entertainment for the masses.
Arts & Culture correspondent John Prizer writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 03/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:How Green Was My Valley (1941)
This Oscar-winning adaptation of the novel is the chronicle of a Welsh coal-mining family in the early 20th century as remembered by its youngest son (Roddy McDowall). Huw Morgan's father (Donald Crisp) and five older brothers work in the mines. However, Huw is considered smart enough to aim higher, gaining admittance to a school that sends its best students to university. Hard times bring lower wages and an attempt at unionization. A strike divides the family, pitting the oldest sons against the father and Huw who decides to remain in the mines rather than enter the middle class. Director John Ford ( Stagecoach) masterfully evokes the rituals of the Morgans' working-class life — the scrubbing off of coal dust after work, the weekly collection of wages, the family meals and the constant singing.
George Wallace (1997)
The Democratic governor of Alabama defiantly standing in the doorway of the state university to block the admission of the first black students in 1963 is part of the American memory. In this Emmy-winning cable TV mini-series, Wallace (Gary Sinise) is first seen as a promising liberal politician who is defeated in his initial race for governor because he publicly attacks the Ku Klux Klan. Vowing never to make that mistake again, he abandons his conscience and becomes a hard-core segregationist. Director John Frankenheimer ( The Manchurian Candidate) dramatizes his change of heart in later years as the governor begs forgiveness from the black community he once opposed.
— John Prizer
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 03/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:SUNDAY, MARCH 18
St. Thérèse in Carmel
EWTN, 8 p.m.
This 90-minute French production uses photos and excerpts from the Little Flower's journal to recreate her holy life of “the little way” in the cloistered Carmel in Lisieux, France, from her entrance at age 15 in 1888 until her death on Sept. 30, 1897. To be rebroadcast Thursday, March 22, at 1 p.m. and Friday, March 2, at 3 a.m.
and 10 p.m.
SUNDAY, MARCH 18
Close-Up: Sesame Street
A&E, 8 p.m.
This two-hour “Biography Close-Up” takes us behind the scenes and on the set with the creators and current crew of the still-running educational TV series that debuted in 1969. We see every phase of making a TV show episode: Research, production, rehearsal and filming. We also watch the show's previously unseen pilot, interviews with the cast, footage of Frank Oz and the late Jim Henson, along with the Muppeteers, in action.
MONDAY, MARCH 19
Monsters of the Sea
History, 8 p.m.
This “History's Mysteries” premiere from Indigo Films investigates tales of “sea monsters” from Greek mythology onward. Included are such cases as an intriguing incident in Cape Ann, Mass., in 1639; the Loch Ness monster; and the coelacanth.
MONDAY, MARCH 19
Secrets of San Simeon
Travel, 9 p.m.
In this two-hour special, Patricia Hearst escorts us around the incredibly lavish estate in California's central coastal area that her grandfather, the newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, spent three decades building. Historic film footage captures Hearst and the celebrities of the day whom he loved to host.
MONDAY, MARCH 19
Lighthouses
History, 10 p.m.
This “Modern Marvels” premiere from Actuality Productions explores the history of lighthouses since the spectacular ancient Pharos of Alexandria. The show visits historic lighthouses, salutes brave lighthouse keepers of the past and explains that today's mostly unmanned coastal warning beacons remain indispensable as navigational life-savers.
TUESDAY, MARCH 20
Search for Battleship Bismarck
PBS; check local listings for time
This “World of National Geographic” presentation follows a quest by ocean explorer Robert Ballard, who found the Titanic in 1985. This time, Ballard pinpoints the German battleship Bismarck, which sank 60 miles off France and is three miles down. After sinking the British battle cruiser Hood on May 24, 1941, the Bismarck and 2,000 of its crew met their doom just three days later, blasted by British aircraft and ships.
SATURDAY, MARCH 24
Pope John Paul II: Almost an Autobiography
EWTN, 8 p.m.
Vatican Television supplies its own film footage, plus photos and reenactments, to tell the Holy Father's life story. The show uses the Pope's own writings as the narrative. To be rebroadcast Wednesday, March 28, at 8 p.m. and Thursday, March 29, at 3 a.m. and 10 p.m.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: All times Eastern ----- EXTENDED BODY: Daniel J. Engler ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Georgetown in Hands of Layman DATE: 03/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — Georgetown University broke with tradition Feb. 15 and selected the first non-Jesuit to lead the nation's oldest Catholic university — John “Jack” DeGioia, the school's former senior vice president.
“I'm honored to take on this new role and to continue working with our distinguished faculty, staff, students, Jesuits, alumni and friends,” said DeGioia, who graduated from Georgetown in 1979. “Together we will build on our success at Georgetown, strengthening academic excellence and deepening Georgetown's Catholic and Jesuit identity.”
Jesuit Father Brian O. McDermott, rector of the Georgetown University Jesuit Community, said that DeGioia's experience as both a student and administrator at Georgetown make him a great choice for president.
“He has a deeply personal appreciation for Georgetown's Catholic and Jesuit mission and our tradition of academic excellence,” said Father McDermott. “He has a lived knowledge of Jesuit higher education and has worked for more than 20 years to fulfill Georgetown's promise as a great university.”
DeGioia has held the position of senior vice president since 1998. He oversaw a $200 million budget as chief administrative officer of Georgetown's main campus from 1992 to 1998. Before that, he served as Dean of Student Affairs for seven years.
Many students, alumni and Church officials expressed disappointment that Georgetown didn't select a priest to run the university.
“While many of us were hoping that a Jesuit priest might be found for the leadership of this important Jesuit institution, I welcome Dr. John DeGioia,” said Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Archbishop of Washington. “He is known and respected as a fine Catholic educator.”
Junior Steve Feiler, a former Grand Knight of Georgetown's Knights of Columbus, agreed.
“Despite my strong sentiments that a Jesuit should lead Georgetown University, I welcome Dr. DeGioia as a loyal son of Georgetown who is otherwise eminently qualified to be president,” Feiler, of Montclair, N.J., told the Register. “Still, it pains me that there won't be a single ‘S.J.’ on my diploma.”
But Robert Swope, editor of The Georgetown Academy, told the Register that what mattered most is the person's commitment to the Catholic identity.
“I don't think it really matters so long as you have someone who is authentically Catholic and knows what it means to be a Catholic university in the Jesuit tradition,” said Swope, a senior from Hesperia, Calif. “The fact that he doesn't have a collar on his neck to deflect criticism may mean that there is going to be more scrutiny applied to the guy,” he said.
Swope however was concerned that Father O'Donovan might remain de facto president because of his new position as chancellor.
Father O'Donovan's Term
Controversy plagued Georgetown during Father O'Donovan's tenure, which began in 1989. In February 1991, Father O'Donovan and then-Dean of Student Affairs DeGioia agreed to fund an on-campus pro-abortion student group.
Almost immediately, Cardinal James Hickey, archbishop of Washington at the time, said the funding was “inconsistent with the aims of a Catholic university.”
Just months later, in November 1991, the controversy erupted again when DeGioia rejected the publication of a GU Choice pamphlet that described contraceptive use.
“GU Choice was granted access to benefits for the purpose of fostering the maximum exchange of ideas on issues related to the abortion issue,” DeGioia said at the time. “The pamphlet was outside the appropriate purview of activities for GU Choice,” he said, according to The Hoya, a student-run newspaper.
Georgetown eventually denied funding of the organization and insisted that the group not use the word “Georgetown” or “Hoya” in their name. On-campus, it is now known as H*yas for Choice.
But perhaps the most contentious episode in Father O'Donovan's tenure occurred when Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler, a pornographic magazine, spoke on campus in 1999.
DeGioia was not involved in the decision to bring Flynt to campus.
Catholic Identity
Some were elated that a priest did not become president of Georgetown University.
“The move is a chance for the University to free itself from the expectations of the local archbishop and move into the world-class ranks that its faculty and its students can propel it into,” said an editorial in The Georgetown Voice, a left-wing weekly magazine on campus. “We hope that, in choosing DeGioia, the Board of Directors has also chosen to value academic freedom above religious orthodoxy.”
Jonathan Zimmer, a junior from Princeton, Mass., disagreed sharply.
“There are a lot of students here who say we should stop being a Catholic school because half of the student body isn't Catholic, and the school is somehow ‘imposing’ Catholicism on them to the detriment of other student's beliefs and academic freedom,” Zimmer told the Register.
“They're missing the point. Archbishop John Carroll started Georgetown in 1789 not to bring the Jesuit educational tradition to the New World. At that time, Catholics were excluded from most colleges and universities,” he said. “Carroll built a school where anyone, not just Catholics, could receive a quality education based on Jesuit principles, regardless of their religion.”
A few years ago, Georgetown University returned crucifixes back into the classrooms. A student-led initiative, it was the most visible sign of Catholic renaissance on the Jesuit campus.
Joshua Mercer writes from Washington, D.C
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: In Every Leaf That Trembles, In Every Grain of Sand DATE: 03/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:A piece of flint found in a soybean field has chipped edges. Archaeologists conclude that tool-making hominids once lived at the site.
The DNA in one cell is shown to encode enough information to fill a CD-ROM. Evolutionary biologists assure us that it's a descendant of the first cell, which they insist was nothing more than a combination of chemicals thrown together by chance.
What is wrong with these pictures? Much, and professors Dembski, Meyer and Behe are just the men to ferret out evolution's failings. Explaining how a 19th-century materialistic bias skews “scientific” theories about the origins of life, they propose an alternative: the theory of intelligent design. “Unlike neoDarwinists and other evolutionary theorists,” they write, “design theorists hold that intelligent causes rather than undirected natural causes best explain many features of life and the universe.”
The Wethersfield Institute invited the three Ph.D's to a scientific conference in New York City in September 1999 to present the case for intelligent design. This volume presents the papers that they read, along with three additional essays by the same authors. As a whole, the book makes a strong, interdisciplinary case for granting “scientific” status to the hypothesis of intelligent design.
Dembski, a mathematician-philosopher, describes criteria for distinguishing among events that happen by necessity ( e.g., by a chemical law), those that occur by chance and those which result from intelligent causes. We often tell the difference intuitively. (Did gravity make snow roll down the hill, forming three spheres, one on top of the other?) Dembski develops the rigorously objective criterion of “specified complexity,” which is routinely used in the fields of archaeology, crime detection and information science.
Meyer, a philosophy professor and historian of science, applies Dembski's method to examples from cosmology and biology. As he shows, there is converging evidence that the universe is “fine-tuned” to support life on Earth. If the charge of the proton or the force of gravity, for example, had been slightly different, galaxies or planets might never have coalesced. The probability that these scientific constants are a random combination is less than the chance of finding one particular atom among all the matter in the universe!
Meyer also argues that neither chance nor necessity can account for the vast amount of data packed into the genetic code. And he makes a compelling case for giving intelligent design a seat at the origins-science table.
“[W]here origins are concerned,” he writes, “only a limited number of basic research programs are logically possible. Either brute matter has the capability to arrange itself into higher levels of complexity, or it does not. If it does not, then either some external agency has assisted the arrangement of matter, or matter has always possessed its present arrangement. The exclusion of one of the logically possible programs of origins research by assumption … seriously diminishes the significance of any claim to theoretical superiority by advocates of a remaining program.”
The prose found in scientific papers is never a breeze, but here a little effort pays big dividends: Watching these three accomplished thinkers debunk materialism is both highly edifying and great fun. Better still is the awe that the intelligent-design hypothesis inspires as we see that it is perfectly reasonable, even in our scientifically “enlightened” age, to conclude what the Psalmist concluded thousands of years ago: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.”
Michael Miller writes from Glenside, Pennsylvania.
----- EXCERPT: Book Review ----- EXTENDED BODY: Michael J. Miller ----- KEYWORDS: Books -------- TITLE: Moving Overseas DATE: 03/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:Q I have been asked to transfer overseas for three years because of my job. I believe this is a great career move and will provide great experiences for my wife and our four kids, ages 8 to 16. My wife is very attached to our present home and isn't sure she wants to go, and my older kids are attached to their school.
— F.X.T.
Indianapolis, Indiana
A Research shows that the most likely cause of expatriate failure is the adjustment of the family. For the employee the work is a different but familiar routine. For those at home, however, everything will be more challenging — shopping can be confusing, developing a relationship with neighbors can be difficult, driving can be disconcerting, speaking a new language is a hardship, and so on.
It is therefore imperative to get the enthusiastic agreement of your wife. She will face the brunt of problems for at least the first year.
For a relocation anywhere, but certainly abroad, an enthusiastic desire to go is key. You should have a lot of excitement and confidence that this will be better for the most important areas of your life — better for your career, for your family as a whole, for you and your wife as a couple, for your faith. If you go, go with a passion.
Passion, as Lent reminds us, entails struggle and suffering too. Even if this assignment turns out to be the most rewarding thing you and your family have ever done, it will still entail a lot of stress. That is the nature of an international move because there are so many changes to make. So even though you're enthusiastic, be realistic too.
The first step is to pray. Are you doing God's will and not just your own — or your boss's? You may also want to seek spiritual direction.
You mention that this is a three-year assignment. Make sure you understand the type of support your company will give. Talk with others who have been on similar assignments. Look carefully at the finances, but also at the business travel. Usually expatriates travel much more than stateside employees, and this can be stressful for the family.
Assuming that you have talked everything over with your wife and she concurs, then you can both try to lead the children to agree. Most young kids will take their cue from their parents. Older ones are generally more aware of what they will lose and have to be convinced about what they will gain.
Relationships are vitally important to adolescents and this is usually where the issues lie. Don't downplay the hurt that missing their friends will cause. Be empathetic and understanding. They need to see that you acknowledge their feelings before they'll be able to acknowledge yours.
If, however, they sense that, despite the sacrifices, you and your wife are still excited, and if you have convinced them about the good things that can happen, then the children will probably come around and do fine.
Art A. Bennett is a licensed marriage, family and child therapist.
Reach Family Matters at: familymatters@ncregister.com
----- EXCERPT: Family Matters ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian Mcguire ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Facts of Life DATE: 03/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:AMERICA PRAYS TOGETHER
The Supreme Court is now considering whether a student Bible study group should be allowed to hold after-hours meetings at their public school. Most people support religious expression in similar situations, and think the court's decision should be favorable:
Allow religious groups
Favor 72%
Oppose 26%
Daily prayer in schools
Favor 66%
Oppose 34%
Graduation prayers
Favor 80%
Oppose 20%
Source: Gallup poll cited in U.S. News & World Report, March 12
----- EXCERPT: Family Matters ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: The Man Mary Loved DATE: 03/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:The Church celebrates the feast of St. Joseph this week on Monday, March 19. This saint, often described as “the man closest to Christ,” has been the subject of lifelong devotion for Holy Cross Father Roland Gauthier.
Father Gauthier, an internationally renowned scholar on everything concerning the life of the saint, lives in Montreal, site of the Oratory of St. Joseph, the world's largest shrine to St. Joseph.
He spoke recently with Register correspondent Louise Perrotta.
Perrotta: When did you develop an interest in St. Joseph?
My family had a subscription to a monthly magazine put out by the Oratory of St. Joseph. As a boy, I remember often looking through it after Sunday dinner. At that point I had some degree of devotion toward St. Joseph but didn't know much about him.
In 1940 I was ordained a priest in the Congregation of the Holy Cross, which staffs the Oratory. Eventually I began taking courses for a doctorate in theology. One day as I was puzzling over what to choose for my dissertation topic, a lightning bolt of inspiration flashed through my mind: “The Oratory is here. … What about something on St. Joseph?”
The thought took root, so one fine day I went to the Oratory in search of materials. “You must have some books and articles about St. Joseph,” I asked the priests there. They showed me a little shelf — maybe three or four feet long — of materials in French, Latin, English. I was somewhat surprised to find so little.
Searches of other religious libraries around Montreal turned up a few more books, but it seemed to me that St. Joseph was like the poor relative in the Holy Family. There were so many books about the Blessed Virgin, so few about him. And many authors made no mention of Joseph even when speaking about biblical scenes like the flight into Egypt, where he plays an important role!
These discoveries intrigued and stimulated me. “I have to dig deeper,” I told myself. “There must be more.”
One thing led to another, and I ended up spending almost 45 years at the Oratory, most of them developing and supervising the Center and its various activities focused on St. Joseph.
Would you give an example of how good theology can contribute to our appreciation of St. Joseph?
In the area of marriage and family life, for example, theological research points to the fact that St. Joseph was a true father and husband. He didn't beget Jesus, but he carried out all the functions of a father towards his child — a role of educating and forming that first-century Jews considered even more important than we do today.
St. Joseph was also a true husband. This runs contrary to the view of some people, who have imagined Mary as a kind of nunand thought that the couple's love wasn't very deep. The truth is that Mary was a married woman who loved her husband with a virginal but real and complete love. I've always maintained that Mary loved Joseph as no other wife has ever loved her husband and that their union is the most perfect realization of earthly love.
Seeing Joseph as a true husband and father makes it easier to turn to him as a model for family life. Looking at his relationship with Mary, married couples can learn how to treat one another with loving respect. They can relate to St. Joseph as a real person who faced the problems of any breadwinner. Certainly, his experience of marriage and fatherhood was unique, but it was rooted in ordinary life.
In one of your recent books, you suggest that the Church draw attention to Mary and Joseph's relationship with a liturgical feast celebrating their marriage. Why?
Mary and Joseph's marriage was ordained by God for receiving Jesus. Together with the feast of the Holy Family, a feast celebrating Mary and Joseph's marriage would speak of God's plan for marriage and family life by presenting the model couple whose relationship of faithful commitment and mutual love is so closely linked to salvation history. Such a feast existed for centuries in various areas — without ever being approved for the universal Church — but was removed from the liturgical calendar in 1961. But given the current societal crisis, with so many marriages ending in divorce, it seems to me that a liturgical celebration of Mary and Joseph's marriage would underline the dignity and holiness of marriage and call couples to the deep spousal love that God intends.
On a personal level, what have you learned from St. Joseph?
Not just one thing, but everything that has to do with the spiritual life. By contemplating Joseph, I've come to a deeper understanding of the two great commandments, love of God above all and love of neighbor as oneself.
St. Teresa of Avila said that St. Joseph is the model of the interior life. I think this is a consequence of his unique roles of husband of Mary and father of Jesus. For years — 12 at the very least — Joseph lived in intimate union with the Son of God and with the world's greatest saint. No other saint had this privilege! So who better to lead us to Jesus and Mary?
Joseph's role in the spiritual life is well expressed in a Nativity scene by the Renaissance painter Barocci: Joseph is opening the door, motioning an unseen visitor to come inside towards Jesus and Mary. This captures something of what I've experienced of St. Joseph in my own personal life.
How has your perception of St. Joseph evolved?
Reading and reflecting on St. Joseph and his role and mission, I quickly understood that because his greatness stems from his intimate union with Jesus and Mary, it's important to see him in the context of the Holy Family. Joseph should-n't be separated from Jesus and Mary. In fact, every time I think of him, I think of them.
This is actually something I
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Coming Soon to a Billboard Near You DATE: 03/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:MINNEAPOLIS — One reads “Every Baby is a Miracle.” Another reads “My Doc says my heart was beating 24 days from conception!” Another: “2,000,000 couples are waiting to adopt.”
The full-color billboards with smiling babies are everywhere, dotting Minnesota's highways and freeways. The billboards, and more than 1,800 others like them, are the work of a grassroots pro-life organization whose message is educational rather than political. It's a message Mary Ann Kuharski has been spreading with Prolife Minnesota for 12 years.
Prolife Minnesota, she says, was born primarily out of frustration. “We've seen elections come and go and still 4,400 babies die nationwide every day. That's one death every 18 seconds.”
Kuharski herself was adopted and six of her 13 children are adopted. She wondered, “What can we do to promote adoption? I think big. More than 2 million couples nationally are waiting to adopt. How can I make this so big that people will see the message? We wanted to create an aware-ness.”
She had used bus advertising previously, and so she naturally thought of billboards. “Prolife Minnesota formed in 1989 and our first billboard went up in the spring of 1990. Today, Prolife Minnesota posts more than 1,800 billboards along freeways and highways across Minnesota, 16 other states, and Ontario, Canada, each year.”
“We're not here to change the law,” says Kuharski. “We really are here to change hearts and to offer alternatives. We don't use fighting words. Our billboards are very, very tender. We never use the word abortion.”
The billboards are leased from a month up to a year. Approximately 300 are leased year-round. Each billboard features a toll-free telephone number. People calling that number are directed to crisis pregnancy counseling or post-abortion assistance.
Never say never
“Prolife Minnesota started in my dining room. We never thought we would do newspaper, TV or radio advertising,” explains Kuharski, “but people began designating their donations for other mediums. So, in about 1991 or 1992 we started doing radio and television advertising and now we do that four times a year.”
The organization operates with no full-time salaried staff and raises more than $650,000 annually from individual donors and the proceeds from the sale of Kuharski's audio-tapes and three books on parenting.
While she doesn't know how many lives are saved through their efforts, she knows that many are. “It's rare when we know,” says Kuharski. “Last year a woman had gone into an abortion clinic to have an abortion. During the ultrasound it was discovered that she was carrying twins. She decided not to go through with the abortion. She later called us to tell us that it was a Prolife Minnesota ‘save the Twins!’ billboard that played a role in her decision,” explains Kuharski.
Patrick Foley, director of the Wakota Life Care Center, tells the story of the effect of one of Kuharski's billboards: “[It] features the drawing of an unborn child in the amniotic sac. The caption reads “Fetus is Latin for Little One.” Every year I am invited to speak at a high school near that billboard. One year while delivering my presentation I used the term “fetus” and about three voices responded, ‘Yeah, that's Latin for little one.’ They had seen the billboard.”
Kuharski also trains Foley's counselors in promoting adoption. “She has a marvelous zeal and she leaves no stone unturned to witness on behalf of adoption,” says Foley.
“Prolife Minnesota blankets the Minnesota landscape with these wonderful pictures and information about the unborn and adoption. That can't help but make a difference for the hundreds of thousands of people who see them each day and those who call for help,” adds Will Cossairt, executive director of Life Care Centers, which oversees 24 Life Care Centers within the state
Legal Challenges
In the mid-1990s, KSTP, a local television station, aired a news story in which they called Prolife Minnesota “the billboard people.” The name stuck, and they've used it ever since. Now trademarked, it is a moniker that others have tried to use to their advantage.
Last April a political fund-raising group began soliciting donations by telephone and insinuated an identity with Prolife Minnesota.
Kuharski first learned of the association when in May she received a formal complaint from the Minnesota attorney general's office. “A woman had called the attorney general saying that Prolife Minnesota had woken her up with a telemarketing call and that whoever was calling said they were ‘the billboard people,’” explained Kuharski.
Kuharski, whose organization is nonpolitical and has never engaged in telephone solicitation, said the telemarketing group's false insinuation has cost her organization many donors. The confusion led to a $70,000 drop in contributions.
To protect her organization she sought a court injunction against the political group. In October, a Dakota County District Court judge ruled in favor of Prolife Minnesota and ordered the other group to stop using the trade name or any insinuation of association with Prolife Minnesota. In addition, Prolife Minnesota filed a complaint with the Minnesota secretary of state contesting the other organization's name. In the end the secretary of state ruled in Kuharski's favor.
The opposition has taken notice of the billboards as well. Last year, the Religious Coalition of Reproductive Rights mailed its supporters asking, “Are you tired of seeing all those pro-life billboards?” Kuharski says, “They are attempting to raise money for their own billboards. So far, they've only been able to afford advertising in bus stations.”
Kuharski isn't letting the challenges stop her plans. Her organization was recently renamed Prolife Across America and she is taking the local success of the billboards national. Her goal is to raise $1 million and put up 2,001 billboards nationwide in 2001. To date, billboards have already been placed in 16 states, including California, Wisconsin, Kansas, North Dakota and New York.
“Our billboards tell people that this is a unified effort and that we aren't quitting. As long as one baby is being threatened by abortion you will see our signs,” says Kuharski.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Life Notes DATE: 03/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:Evangelicals' Agenda for Bush
CHRISTIANITY TODAY, March 5 — Pro-life reform should be at the top of President Bush's list of things to accomplish, reported the evangelical magazine, Christianity Today.
“Hands down, pro-life initiatives topped our list,” wrote the magazine's editors in their March 5 editorial. They also expressed hope for the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
The editorial encouraged all Christians to promote pro-life ethics even if laws stay the same. It supported Vicki Thorn, founder and director of Milwaukee's Project Rachel, who said, “It's not about changing the law. It's about changing the country.”
USA Today Wrong on Breast Cancer
USA TODAY, March 1 — The Coalition of Abortion/Breast Cancer criticized a USA Today report that minimized the connection between abortion and breast cancer.
“Dr. David Grimes, who is quoted in the story, is employed by Family Health International, which funded the discredited Lindefors Harris study completed by a team of Swedish researchers in 1991,” said Karen Malec, a member of the coalition.
“Dr. Joel Brind, president of the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute and the international expert who completed a review and meta-analysis of the worldwide research in 1996 … identified serious errors in this study and proved that the Swedish researchers covered up an abortion-breast cancer link in Norwegian women,” she said, noting that Brind was neither contacted for the story nor quoted in it.
Abortion Hard Line Fails
WASHINGTON POST, Feb. 23 — The Virginia bill to allow pharmacists to dispense the abortifacient morning-after-pill without a prescription from a doctor has died in committee thanks to the pro-abortion hardline taken by its sponsor, reported the Washington Post.
Despite having majority support in both the House and Senate, the bill faltered due to disagreement over parental consent.
Some lawmakers insisted that parental consent be required for those under 18, but Viola O. Baskerville (D-Richmond), the lead sponsor of the bill, refused. “It would defeat the whole purpose of making reproductive health choices available to teenagers,” she said.
Fines for Abortion Facility
THE TENNESSEAN, March 4 — The Tennessee attorney general's office urged a Davidson County chancellor to impose fines of $25 to $5,000 a day against the owner of a building that houses a Nashville abortion facility and those associated with it, reported the Tennessean.
Last December, Chancellor Irvin Kilcrease held Drs. Gary C. Boyle and Wesley Adams Jr. of Bristol, Tenn., and other defendants in contempt of injunctions he issued in July 1999 and in April 2000. The abortion facility had previously failed to meet required state health standards, reported the Tennessean.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life ----- TITLE: Fetal Tissue Transplants Cripple Patients DATE: 03/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 25-31, 2001 ----- BODY:DENVER — The results of the latest and most extensive study of aborted fetal tissue transplants into Parkinson's patients have shown the therapy to be a failure.
Curt Freed of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver recorded no measurable benefit among Parkinson's sufferers over the age of 60 who had aborted fetal brain tissue directly injected into their own brains. The tiny positive effects measured among patients younger than 50 were offset by the devastating, disabling and apparently irreversible side effects they experienced following the procedure.
Fifteen percent of the patients who received fetal brain transplants in the $5.7 million study, financed by the National Institute of Neurological Disorder and Stroke, have experienced runaway dyskinesia — uncontrollable muscle spasms causing them to twitch, writhe and fling their limbs spasmodically.
“They chew constantly, their fingers go up and down, their wrists flex and dis-tend,” Paul Greene, a neurologist at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and a named author of the study in the March 8 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, told the New York Times. “It was tragic, catastrophic.”
One patient's side effects were so bad, Greene added, he had to have a feeding tube inserted and lost his ability to speak. Such effects do occur in other Parkinson's patients, but they can be relieved by lowering medication doses. But with the fetal tissue recipients, reducing medication failed to alleviate the symptoms.
“No more fetal transplants,” said Greene. “We are absolutely and adamantly convinced that this should be considered for research only. And whether it should be research in people is an open question.”
Fetal tissue transplants were once the brightest hope for many people affected by Parkinson's disease, which occurs when the substantia nigra region of the brain fails to produce the brain chemical dopamine, causing patients to experience loss of muscle control, tremors and crippling “frozen” spells. It was hoped that implanted fetal brain cells would integrate into the host brain and take over dopamine production.
Since 1985 more than 360 Parkinson's patients have undertaken the surgical transplant procedure in at least 17 centers transplant procedure in at least 17 centers worldwide, but the small poorly designed studies of the results were inconclusive. Freed's study, conducted with Stanley Fahn of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, was the first to use a “control” group to eliminate the “placebo” effect that occurs in many medical treatments, in which patients report positive results that can not be objectively attributed to the treatment itself.
The researchers took 40 Parkinson's patients and divided them into two groups: half had a real transplant surgery; half had a sham surgery — holes were drilled into their heads but no tissue was implanted.
40 Aborted Babies per Patient
Each patient in the transplant group received four injections — the midbrain of four 7- to 8-week-old aborted babies. Freed told a Register correspondent last year that only one in 10 aborted fetuses renders useful tissue. So each Parkinson's patient required 40 aborted babies' brains.
Between 700,000 and 1 million Americans suffer from Parkinson's disease. If the study had shown great promise, there would have been a staggering demand for aborted tissue.
The tragic side effects have not been limited to Freed and Fahn's study, however. Thomas Freeman of the University of South Florida, who is completing a similar federally funded control trial of 34 patients due to be published this summer, said 2 of 7 transplant recipients from another study he conducted in 1993 have had similar problems.
One patient has uncontrolled muscle movements “all the time,” said Freeman. He is considering doing a pallidotomy (surgery to destroy brain tissue) to try to halt the uncontrolled movements. The other patient's dyskinesia is limited to his foot.
“If you looked at all the smaller numbers of patient studies, we each have found one or two of these [negatively affected] patients,” said Freeman.
“Fifteen percent of patients with disabling side effects, in all fairness, is heartbreaking for those individuals, but it is not that bad for a brand new experimental procedure,” said Freeman.
Tissue Caused Tumors
Those 15% are fortunate, according to Freeman, considering that two patients have died as a consequence of fetal implants. One case, described in the Register last year, was outlined in 1996 in the journal Neurology. A 52-year-old American man with Parkinson's paid a California doctor to fly to China to surgically implant aborted human tissue into his brain. Just weeks after the surgery both the man and his wife were convinced his health was much improved.
Twenty-three months later he died suddenly, however, and an autopsy revealed that the fetal tissue had indeed begun to grow — but not as nerves but as tumors that, doctors speculated, compressed his brainstem and led to his death. Some tissue from the aborted baby had grown wildly into hair, skin and bone within his brain.
Yet Parkinson's patients continue to be enthusiastic about fetal tissue transplants. Three of Freed's patients in the University of Colorado study, including two who suffered serious side effects, told The Times of London last week they would go through the procedure again, despite the disappointment. One patient had had a device implanted in his chest to control spasmodic uncontrolled arm flinging.
Freed's own enthusiasm for fetal transplant therapy has not waned. In e-mail correspondence, he told the Register, “Everything about our study is compatible with fetal cell transplant as a promising treatment for [Parkinson's disease]. Results have already led us to modify the transplant in ways that we expect will improve outcome and reduce risk.” He intends to continue to perform fetal tissue transplants at a cost of $40,000 each.
The University of South Florida's Freeman also thinks that calling off fetal tissue transplants would be “short sighted,” because new transplant techniques are developing. “There are really a lot of ways to skin a cat,” he said. “It took 30 years to do the first successful kidney transplant, but every year there was a 2% improvement in survival.”
A growing cadre of medical experts is criticizing the therapy, however. William Landau, professor of neurology at Washington University in St. Louis called it “incredibly naive” to compare a transplant into the complex human brain to a “simple pumping organ like the heart or kidney.”
Landau has vigorously opposed fetal transplants for more than a decade, not because of the ethics of using aborted baby tissue, but because of the experimentation on humans before adequately testing the procedure in monkeys. He said he would tell patients asking for fetal transplants: “If you want to go out and have your brain mutilated by an —— and pay a lot of money for it, go ahead.”
“To say Curt Freed is not well thought of within the medical community is an understatement,” added University of Toronto neurologist Paul Ranalli, who has in the past called fetal tissue transplants “yet another attempt by abortion advocates to fashion an altruistic spin on modern medicine's most shameful ongoing practice.”
Stem Cell Experiments
But fetal tissue transplant's light is fading under a new rising medical star. “Everybody is gearing up towards stem cells now,” said Freeman, referring to the cells derived from the inner mass sucked out of developing human embryos. “If history is going to judge this era, fetal tissue provided a road map to other advances. …We are in the process of learning lessons.”
Landau is still skeptical. “Now the popular issue is stem cells and I'm very fearful there will be a rush to pump stem cells into human brains and spinal cords without adequate experiments in animals first.” Already, researchers have begun to “dump stem cells into damaged brains of stroke patients,” Landau said, a practice he sees as virtually indistinguishable from fetal tissue transplants.
Said Landau, “It's criminal malpractice in my judgment.”
In his 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life), Pope John Paul condemned as morally illicit all medical procedures “that exploit living human embryos and fetuses-sometimes specifically “produced” for this purpose by in vitro fertilization - either to be used as ‘biological material’ or as providers of organs or tissue for transplants in the treatment of certain diseases. The killing of innocent human creatures, even if carried out to help others, constitutes an absolutely unacceptable act” (No. 63).
Celeste McGovern writes from Portland, Oregon.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Celeste McGovern ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: United States of AmÈrica DATE: 03/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 25-31, 2001 ----- BODY:RALEIGH, N.C. — The cultural shift revealed by the startling 2000 U.S. Census data has been a fact of life in the Church for years.
A giddy girl in a frothy white quinceañera dress clutches her new Bible, rosary and medal of Our Lady of Guadalupe. A procession of adults and children wends its way through Southern streets hung with Christmas lights, re-enacting Joseph and Mary's search for shelter. A telephone recording says, “Para información en español, oprima seis .” A priest hearing confession struggles to remember the Spanish for, “Are you truly sorry?”
This is the Catholic Church in a nation whose largest minority is now, for the first in 2000 counted 35.3 million Hispanics — 1 out of every 8 people in the United States. There are more Hispanics in the United States today than there are people in Canada.
And there are more Hispanics than black people, for the first time: 34.7 million people identified themselves as black. Most projections of U.S. demographic trends predicted that this shift would not happen before 2010 at the earliest.
The Hispanic population — which encompasses 21 nationalities and even more indigenous ethnic groups — isn't confined to the border areas of the Southwest.
There are booming Hispanic communities in the Midwest and South, from Iowa to Georgia. The Diocese of Kansas City, Kan., began offering quinceañera (15th birthday, or coming of age) retreats last year. About 15 girls were expected; 40 showed up.
But if there are more girls having quinceañera parties, relatively few Hispanics are entering the priest-hood or becoming nuns. Overall, there is one priest for every 1,200 faithful, but for Hispanics that figure drops to one Hispanic priest for every 10,000 Hispanic parishioners.
Public Devotions
The most visible features of Hispanic Catholic life are the colorful public devotions, sometimes involving street processions. The Good Friday procession in San Antonio draws tens of thousands of participants.
But under the surface, many Hispanic leaders worry that Hispanic Catholics have not had much education in the faith. “A lot of times they say, ‘I don't know why we do it, but we do it,’” said Jesuit Father Shay Auerbach, associate pastor at St. Raphael Catholic Church in Raleigh, N.C. Father Auerbach said that the public devotions offer a great opportunity to solve that problem.
Raleigh had the fourth-largest surge in Hispanic parishioners in the past five years, mostly due to Mexican immigrants. Father Auerbach encouraged their devotions, stressing, “A lot of these popular customs are very sound theologically.”
For example, at Advent, Mexican Catholics hold a procession called posadas. The procession includes plays modeled on medieval mystery plays, recreating Mary and Joseph's journey to find a place to give birth. When the procession has “found shelter,” the community celebrates by breaking a piñata. Father Auerbach uses the occasion to teach that “the breaking of the piñata signifies breaking of hardness of heart. The sweets that come out are the graces that come from conversion.”
Even the fruit that decorates altars on All Souls Day, the Day of the Dead, signifies Christ as “the first fruits of the dead,” Father Auerbach said.
Going Beyond
Ronaldo Cruz, executive director of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops' secretariat for Hispanic affairs, said that the next step for Hispanic ministries is to “go beyond the ‘turf’” of ministering only to other Hispanics. “In the last 15 years, Latinos, the new arrivals, are helping re-evangelize the Catholic population,” he said.
And Timothy Matovina, theology professor at the University of Notre Dame, added, “When the Hispanics have a big Good Friday celebration, with a live Way of the Cross a lot of the older Catholics [of other ethnicities] see in it some of the older devotions. And a lot of the younger Catholics who never experienced this really get immersed in how much you feel the Catholic faith in this vivid, animated pageantry.”
No Longer Catholic?
The Latin American countries have been Catholic for centuries, and many Americans reflexively identify Hispanics with the Catholic faith. But that's changing fast.
One 1997 study, by sociologist Father Andrew Greeley, claimed that only 67% of U.S. Hispanics were Catholic, down from 78% in 1970. A 2000 study by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops found that Protestant efforts to convert Hispanic Catholics increased dramatically between 1990 and 1998.
The Bishops' conference found a number of reasons that Hispanics leave the Church. Recent immigrants may be intimidated by parish paperwork or the language barrier. In 2000, the Bishops' conference found that only a third of parishes with a significant Hispanic presence offered ministries in Spanish (other than Mass). And the number of Hispanic seminarians has declined since the 1980s.
Ronaldo Cruz asked, “Why are these Pentecostal groups successful?” He called for greater intimacy in parish life and a bigger role for the laity, since it will take a long time to significantly raise the number of Hispanic priests.
Notre Dame's Timothy Matovina added that Protestants are “often very mission-minded, entrepreneurial. They're going door to door.”
Returning to the Church
Ruben Quezada remembers those door-to-door Protestants. He was the son of Mexican immigrants, and had been raised Catholic, but he found himself unable to answer their questions about his faith. He was drawn to the vivacious singing and close community of a nondenominational church in Azusa, Calif. Most churchgoers were Hispanic, and almost all were former Catholics.
It was only through “a big coincidence” that Quezada heard the apologetics of St. Joseph's Communications, a Catholic speakers' bureau. Through the bureau, he gained an understanding of the Bible and Catholic teaching. He returned to the Church at age 28.
Father Auerbach emphasized, “Mexicans here generally want to be Catholic. If they can find a way to defend their faith and also live the popular religious side of their faith, they respond very well.”
----- EXCERPT: Hispanics become our largest minority ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Sacrifice Transforms Consecrated Women DATE: 03/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 25-31, 2001 ----- BODY:NEW YORK — Just in time for her 22nd birthday, the package arrived at the Chicago address where Phyllis Scaringe was getting her first taste of life in a Focolare women's household.
“A gift from Mom!” she thought hopefully. But the contents — a big black lace veil — communicated quite a different message: “My daughter is dead.”
Her parents later reconciled with her decision to become a consecrated lay woman — it in fact became a source of unity with her — but in those early days, her parents were utterly opposed.
A month before that birthday, Phyllis had sat her parents down in their New York city home and tried to explain the unexplainable. She and her fiancé, whom she dearly loved, had broken off their engagement so that Phyllis could see if God was calling her instead to a lifestyle of consecrated virginity within the Focolare movement.
With their only daughter's wedding three months away — the New York Times announcement published, the church, hall, orchestra and bridal party in readiness — the Scaringes took this bomb-shell hard.
They liked the Focolare members they had met. But why did Phyllis have to change her plans and upset their hopes? “She's been brainwashed and abducted!” her mother decided.
More calmly, her mother would say, “If you had entered the convent, I would at least be able to tell people where you are and what you've done.” The consecrated lay vocation was simply not understood, even by Catholics.
While visiting a Focolare friend and the women she lived with, Phyllis had felt “like Jesus was passing in front of me” and had experienced the reality of his words, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there in their midst.” In a flash, Phyllis understood that although she was a practicing Catholic and loved Jesus, she had been relating to him on her own terms. That evening she turned a corner. “Your way,” she told God.
Phyllis and her fiancé then met families involved in Focolare. She saw Jesus there, too, and caught an exciting vision for marriage and family life. Yet to her surprise, she began to suspect that God was calling her along another path. To find out, she packed her bags and left for Chicago. She never looked back.
Parental Concern
Traditionally, even good Catholic parents have often objected when their daughters set marriage plans aside and headed for the convent. Women called to a vocation of consecrated celibacy in Focolare — one of many options of life in the movement — sometimes face similar opposition.
But like foundress Chiara Lubich's own mother, who was inconsolable when Chiara left home in 1944 in response to God's call, many aggrieved parents eventually come to a different view. That's what happened with the Scaringes.
First came two rocky years, when Phyllis's mother attended the annual Focolare conference, or Mariapolis, solely to criticize and disrupt. “She'd come ripping into the place, but my Focolare friends just tried to love her, double time,” Phyllis remembers. “Each year she'd go home a bit more accepting.”
But God was drawing the family closer. Finally, impressed with Focolare despite themselves, the Scaringes experienced a complete turn-around. Now it was Phyllis's turn to be surprised, as she saw her parents pursue God more seriously, become daily communicants, and even join Focolare's New Families movement, where they were active members until their deaths about 10 years ago.
“Meeting Focolare changed my parent's lives,” Phyllis reflects. “It gave them a way of living their faith, improving their marriage, and serving others. It was amazing to watch—really a case of God writing straight with crooked lines!”
Counting the Cost
“Whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple,” Jesus said. Required of all Christ's followers, this renouncing takes a particular shape for Focolare women called to consecrated virginity.
They undergo years of training and formation, some of them in Italy; they live with other women in small communities that are centers of Focolare activities; most hold regular jobs; they're willing to live and serve anywhere in the world.
Denise Silva thought long and hard before committing themselves to this way of life. Denise, a “very private and independent person” from a difficult family background, wondered whether she could learn “how to love and live” in community.
She also encountered objections to her proposed way of life. A promising graduate student in Purdue University's art department, she was teaching, showing her work in Chicago, being taken seriously as an artist. Her professors and colleagues couldn't fathom why Denise would risk all this for a “religious group.” Wasn't she being duped? Throwing away a rewarding career?
Denise developed her own doubts and fears. “I wanted you to be a part of my life, not take it over completely!” she argued with God. “And after so much work, don't I deserve at least a few good years?”
Denise finally laid everything on the altar. In a way, they could-n't help it.
Says Denise, “This kind of community was what I had been looking for all my life — something real, where people were trying to live the Gospel.”
Hundredfold Gains
Like so many who have sacrificed goods and relationships for the sake of Jesus and the Gospel, Denise has seen her friendships and career blessed “a hundredfold.”
Ten years after leaving the professional art scene to pursue her vocation within Focolare, she was led back to it. Today she directs an art center, has a studio, and shows and sells her paintings. The graduate school professors she's kept in touch with are happy about that, she reports.
Denise sees that ten-year break as having been necessary to her spiritual growth. Because of it, she says, “I returned to my art stronger, with more direction.”
There's an obvious change in her style. “Before, I was doing somber, serious pieces — life-size sculptures that were struggling with their world, struggling to emerge from environments that were in some way torn apart. They were saying more than I knew!”
Now Denise does abstract paintings filled with color — acrylics that reflect her experience of life in Focolare. In her most recent work, a bright yellow background emerges through superimposed colors. “It's this idea that, although there are struggles, all of life can be lived in the light of God's love.”
As Denise, Phyllis and many others have seen, coming to know that love makes surrender a joy.
“When I said yes to God, I thought I was sacrificing everything,” says Denise. “But the funny thing is, everything has come back multiplied! God returns so much more than we would have imagined. We can't possibly be more generous than he is!”
Louise Perotta writes from St. Paul, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Louise Perotta ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: An Outbreak of Love DATE: 03/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 25-31, 2001 ----- BODY:In the early 1940s, as both Allied and Nazi bombers were pounding Trent, Italy, twentysomething Chiara Lubich and her friends were pondering Scripture in the city's air raid shelters.
The Focolare Movement grew out of their sense of calling to live out the Gospel together, beginning with Jesus' prayer to the Father, “May they all be one” (John 17:21). Today more than five million people in182 countries participate in this movement whose special charism, John Paul II has said, is love.
Focolare spirituality emphasizes love of God and neighbor, practical application of Scripture to daily life, the pursuit of unity through the cross in imitation of “Jesus forsaken,” and devotion to Mary as mother of unity and model of love for humanity. (The movement's official name is Work of Mary. “Focolare” is Italian for hearth, or fireside.)
Focolare is especially known for its promotion of dialogue — rooted in Christian principles and the Golden Rule of “do unto others” (see Luke 6:31) — among Christians of different denominations, believers of other faiths, and also people of good will who have no religious convictions. By Vatican request, the movement maintains a presence in the World Conference on Religion and Peace, an organization headquartered at the United Nations.
Families, singles, children and young people, priests and bishops, men and women from various religious orders and congregations — many types of people make up Focolare's branches. They participate in a wide array of activities including social programs, publishing houses, model towns, “Mariapolis” conferences, and renewal movements.
At the heart of this activity are those members who give a special witness to unity by living together in small communities. Some are married couples who pursue the Focolare ideal in the context of family life. Many are single people who take private vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and live in allmen or all-women households.
The first Vatican approval of Focolare statutes came in 1962. In 1990, the Pontifical Council for the Laity recognized the movement as a “private, universal association of faithful of pontifical right.”
— Louise Perotta
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Louise Perotta ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Clicking Religion to Death DATE: 03/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 25-31, 2001 ----- BODY:TUCSON, Ariz. — Daniel Zimmerman, retired pastor of Universal Life Church and operator of one of its Web sites, gets so excited that he shouts when he talks about his church's secret mission to rid the world of religion.
The key to the plan is ordaining as many people as possible, he said, and that's where the Internet is a very useful tool.
Lately, according to Zimmerman's estimation, Universal Life Church has been performing “online ordinations” at a rate of about 15,000 each month.
With a few clicks of the mouse, Web surfers can be legally empowered in most states to perform marriages, baptisms, blessings, funerals and other ceremonies “as particular to your beliefs” and are free to start their own congregations.
“We issue the certificate the minute you click the ‘Enter’ key,” Zimmerman, the 54-year-old church spokesman in Tucson, Ariz., told the Register before launching into a practiced high-volume sales pitch. “You are equal with Billy Graham, Oral Roberts and the Pope. You can take care of spiritual needs from the womb to the tomb!”
In a curious intersection of television and the Internet last month, on an episode of the sitcom “Friends,” character “Joey” got ordained online so he could perform a marriage ceremony for two of his friends. Within 24 hours of the show's airing, according to Zimmerman, 1,500 Internet surfers had logged onto his site as laypeople and logged off as ministers.
“Religion teaches that ministers are something special,” Zimmerman said. “Oh! That man must be chosen, divine, selected by God, hand-picked by the Lord, called, pre-ordained, a holy man set apart — set apart from YOU! That's not true! We are AAALL called,” he shouted over the telephone.
The actual online Real Player ordination ceremony on his Web site is surprisingly peaceful. “Greetings,” intones Zimmerman solemnly over background organ music. “I … do this day, select, anoint and appoint you, a legally ordained minister, of the Universal Life Church.”
Andre Hensley, a member of the board of directors of Universal Life Church based in Modesto, Calif., said the church has been providing easy ordinations, allegedly based on the Bible passage John 15:16, since its inception in 1959. The church's only doctrines are that people operate within the laws of their jurisdiction and “do not infringe on the rights of others.”
The bulk of ordinations are still done by mail, but Hensley estimated the Internet has increased church activity (including ordinations) by about 25% to 30%.
Ordaining Dead Pets
But couldn't people ordain their cats and dogs, Zimmerman is asked? “That's fine with us,” said Zimmerman. “Didn't an ass speak to Saul in the Bible?”
A few months ago a woman complained to authorities after she ordained her parrot, Zimmerman admitted, but Universal Life Church has already survived a court challenge over this practice. Back in the early 1970s an assistant attorney general of Arizona ordained her dead dog and took the matter to court to challenge the church's tax-exempt status.
The church prevailed when the 9th U.S. District Court declared that no judge or branch of government “will consider the fallacies of a religion [or] compare the beliefs, dogmas and practices of a newly organized religion with those of an old, more established religion, however excellent or fanatical or preposterous it may seem.”
The way was paved for digital preachers.
The Internet has hosted an explosion of religious Web sites that run a gamut from blatant occult to tasteless jokes, such as the First Church of Jesus Christ, Elvis. They span a spectrum for skeptics, such as the Virtual Church of the Blind Chihuahua, to offerings for committed Catholics, such as Web cams for online eucharistic adoration and instruction in the Catholic catechism.
The “Internet ministry” of the Monks of Adoration in Petersham, Mass., www.monksofadoration.org, includes round-the clock Web cam surveillance of the Blessed Sacrament for net users the world over. Brother John Raymond of the Monks of the Adoration thinks the Net is a powerful tool for propagating the faith and is rich in resources for those who have fallen away from the faith or people who are seeking truth (see page 12 for his guide to religious truth on the net).
Brother Raymond expects it will continue to grow. “The numbers of Catholic parishes online increases every day,” he said.
At the same time, though, the number of Wiccan, pagan, New Age and other Web sites is also expanding, especially since anyone can found a religion and the Internet provides a virtually automatic audience. There are sites to help people find their “animal spirit guides,” (one online cult of New Agers encourages swimming with “dolphin angels” to absorb their positive healing energy), sites offering spell-casting kits (candles and string for $29.95), and even a reincarnation site offering a plan to “inherit your own fortune when you are reborn.”
Stealing from Catholics
The Universal Life Church Web site offers ID kits for ministers (or for shaman, high priestess or “any other title” you like), grants “Absolution of Sin” with a click of the mouse, and “plenary indulgences.”
“We stole that one from the Catholics,” said Zimmerman. “It's a great idea.”
On the other hand, Zimmerman doesn't like people stealing from his religion. Competition is “springing up all over the place,” he lamented. “But it's our church that started this.”
Now there's even a guy down in Chile operating a Web site called something like “Prestige Titles,” Zimmerman added. “He sells ordinations for $1,500 and we're giving them away! He charges $900 for a doctor of divinity degree and ours costs $20!”
But Zimmerman's church has a purpose — it is actually opposed to religion. “All religions are just gangs,” he said. “One sells hope, and one sells dope.”
“The secret purpose of the Universal Life Church is to get rid of all religion,” he added. “If everyone is ordained than it doesn't mean anything anymore. You can believe what you want to believe, we're not going to change that.”
Zimmerman gets a kick out of the people who sign the online guest book, gushing gratitude because they've “always wanted to be a minister.” “Nothing has happened, but they think it has,” he said. “Nothing has changed, but they think it has.”
Souls in Jeopardy
It's this sort of crass exploitation of people that bothers Jesuit Father Mitchell Pacwa, author of Catholics and the New Age. “It's frightening because people's souls are in danger,” he told the Register.
Still, Father Pacwa uses the Internet himself as a resource for religion students of Catholic apologetics, because Web sites provide “firsthand evidence of what these religions actually profess … you find a lot of really fine data.”
In post-Woodstock America, he explained, there has been a proliferation of people cultivating false religions. “As a Catholic you come with a perspective and with analysis, can discern what is true,” said Father Pacwa.
Dabbling in the Internet's religious offerings isn't for faint of faith, he stressed.
“If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything,” Father Pacwa said. “But if you know who you are, what you believe and why, you'll not only stay clear of a lot of these pitfalls, but you'll be able to help others out of them, too.”
Celeste McGovern writes from Portland, Oregon.
----- EXCERPT: The consequences of the Internet religious free-for-all ----- EXTENDED BODY: Celeste McGovern ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: He Has an Emmy - But Needs a Network DATE: 03/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 25-31, 2001 ----- BODY:He won an Emmy in October for “Generation Cross,” a public-access cable show for 20- 30-year-olds, featuring his wit and wisdom along with footage of priests and nuns participating in activities the public doesn't associate them with. He also works as a television reporter. He recently spoke with Register features correspondent Tim Drake.
Drake: Tell me about your family. Where did you grow up?
I was born in 1971, the only child of Angelo and Gina, a probation officer and a high school teacher. We had a very Italian upbringing and attended St. Ambrose Catholic Church in St. Paul, which closed in 1998. It was quintessential Italian Catholicism and I loved it.
Have you always been comedic?
I've always tried to be funny. I was actor in high school, but I never played the romantic lead. I always played parts like Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls — the guy who never gets the girl. I was the attempted class clown.
When I was young, my father started collecting music boxes and then organs. Eventually he became an organ grinder and was hired to provide music for a three-ring circus known as Circus Flora. During the summers I would accompany him. They would dress me up and let me ride around on the elephant, Flora, and wave to kids.
Have you ever considered the priesthood?
I didn't think about it growing up. It hasn't been until recently that I've started thinking about it. Working at a church will do that to you. I knew that priests said Mass on Sundays, but I didn't know what they did during the week. I had no clue.
Having worked with them I have found it truly amazing the amount of work they do and the way they have given up their lives. It's a remarkable thing. Who wouldn't want to do that?
I understand that it was a friend's suicide during college that moved you closer to the Church?
Yes. While a junior in college I discovered the body of one of my friends. He had shot himself in the chest in his car. That forced me to re-evaluate everything. I found that I needed to pray, but cannot explain why. It was something I needed to do.
For the first time I attended evening prayer with the monks to try to make some sense out of life, death and God. I also attended confession for the first time in a long time. When you experience a death, you find yourself at church a lot more often than you usually do. It encouraged me to start learning more about my faith. I attended church more often, took a few more theology courses, and realized that I wanted to learn more.
I decided that if God is real than I had better learn more about what we claim to believe. I ended up pursuing a graduate program in theology and graduated with a master's degree in theology from St. John's University in Collegeville, Minn., in 1995.
How did you get started in television?
The television show was a complete accident. I was totally unemployed and attending St. Olaf Catholic Church in Minneapolis one Sunday.
The priest was Italian and so after Mass I went up to him and said, “I'm Italian too and I'm looking for work.”
Father John Forliti suggested that I could help them produce their televised liturgies. After doing that for several months I interviewed a priest about what the Church says to young people today.
It was lousy television and we never aired it. We were crazy to think that 20-year-olds would watch something like this. So, we decided to try to do something creative and goofy to attract people my age. We figured that no one was watching us, so what did we have to lose?
I eventually became the host of the show. That's how it all started. At one point Father John asked me how we would know if anyone was watching. I told him that maybe after a year, I might be in a bar, and some woman might come up to say she saw the show. We didn't have a clue.
Tell me about the show. What is the purpose of “Generation Cross”?
The purpose of the show is to show the human side of the Church. We've taken a priest to the Minnesota State Fair to eat a “pronto pup” and ride the amusement park rides while asking him questions about being a priest. We've gone bowling and ice fishing and duck hunting with priests. We've also gone fly-fishing with a sister.
Next month we'll be visiting a sister who is a snake handler at the Minnesota Zoo. We talk about vocations and how the person knew they were to be a priest or nun. Father John also does a cooking segment on the show, and part of the show is filmed in Italy; he teaches about the history of the Church.
Do you have a favorite episode?
The episode I hear about constantly is when I went rock climbing with Father Andrew. I have a huge fear of heights, but Father Andrew was able to talk about how rock climbing is about faith. He told me that I needed to trust him and trust God. With that episode viewers could tell that we were real. The episode also featured St. Paul and Minneapolis Vicar General Father Kevin McDonough, who does not know how to cook, making Ramen noodles during the cooking segment. This episode is when we realized that we were funnier than we thought.
While the show is lighthearted it also reaches people. Explain some ways in which it has impacted viewers.
I receive approximately 150 e-mail messages each week from viewers. People often go out of their way to tell me that they're not Catholic or that they would never watch a religious show, yet they do.
It's a religious comedy show, but people end up asking me the most serious theological questions possible. It makes me realize that those with questions about the Church have no place to turn except to this goofy kid with a big nose.
Many viewers have written to say that the show has changed their perception of the Catholic Church.
One woman had e-mailed me with a statement about the Church's refusal to ordain women. I e-mailed her back and tried to explain the reasons behind it. She ended up e-mailing me with more questions.
Eventually she met with a priest and wrote to me saying, “I'm joining RCIA and I think I have you to blame.” I had never met her, but here she was asking me to be her RCIA sponsor. “What are you talking about?” I thought. “We're a cooking show.” But I said OK, and she came into the Church.
Has your faith grown as a result of doing the show?
Yes it has. I joke that I am in seminary now because of how much I have to learn. People expect me to know things like why Catholics have a certain number of books in the Bible and why Lutherans cannot receive the Eucharist in a Catholic church.
You're also the religion reporter for WCCO-TV?
WCCO recognizes that there is an audience. Saying what you believe doesn't have to offend people. I do 4-5 minute feature religion segments for WCCO. It's positive to be able to do shows about religion on CBS.
Was winning the Emmy last October a surprise?
Completely. I convinced myself we wouldn't win. No cable access show has ever won, and ours was a Catholic show. We were up against people with an actual budget.
What do you have planned next?
We would like to go national with the program. Unfortunately, the religious networks are scared of us and the secular networks are scared of us. The religious networks don't think we're holy enough, and the secular networks think we're too holy. But if it works in the Twin Cities it would work anywhere. It's not only Minnesotans who think that priests cooking is humorous.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Lino Rulli ----- KEYWORD: Inperson -------- TITLE: Polygamy Proponents Recycle Same-Sex 'Marriage' Arguments DATE: 03/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 25-31, 2001 ----- BODY:SALT LAKE CITY — Mary Batchelor called the scene last month in the Utah Capitol “amazing.” The legislative chamber was “filled to overflowing” with people waiting to testify on a bill containing provisions targeting polygamists like Batchelor. Three people raised their hands to speak in favor of the bill — and the rest of the crowd, nearly 100 people, raised their hands to speak against it.
It was “the largest gathering of polygamists at the Utah Capitol in over 100 years,” Batchelor said.
And the polygamists' activism apparently yielded some dividends: While the final version of the bill did increase penalties against clergy who perform ceremonies for “prohibited marriages” (such as polygamy) that involve minor children, polygamy itself was reduced to a misdemeanor from a felony.
Outside Utah, few have heard of American polygamists. But an estimated 30,000 Utah residents live in polygamous relationships, and a recent series of criminal investigations and state bills aimed at preventing the practice have drawn this normally quiet minority into the spotlight.
In response, polygamists are citing widening societal recognition of same-sex marriage as a reason why their own unusual “marriages” should not face legal sanctions.
The pro-polygamy Women's Religious Liberties Union has protested on the steps of the Salt Lake City Tribune building, decrying the newspaper's portrayal of polyga-mists.
And most recently, the group Principle Voices has released Voices in Harmony, a collection of personal narratives from 95 “plural wives” and five other women who support polygamy. Mary Batchelor is one of the book's three editors, all of whom live in polygamous relationships. They visited the state capitol last November and again in February to make their case to legislators.
The editors of Voices in Harmony said that they were not seeking state approval of their marriages, but simply trying to have bigamy decriminalized.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints promoted the practice of having multiple wives in the sect's formative years in the mid-1800s, but the church banned polygamy in 1890 and now excommunicates any member who practices it. As well, it was made a felony under the Utah state constitution. However, splinter groups still insist that polygamy was ordained by God.
David Zolman, a former member of the Utah House of Representatives, has led the fight to decriminalize polygamy. He expressed hope that in the future, a judge will rule that Utah's ban on the practice violates the First Amendment, although the U.S. Supreme Court has previously ruled that anti-bigamy laws are constitutional.
Zolman said marriage law should ban underage marriage and incest, but nothing more. As for same-sex marriage, “I'm not there yet, though I appreciate that they want to be on the cutting edge,” he said. He added, “The gay and lesbian success in their public relations has made people realize, if we're going to accept lesbian and homosexual commitment ceremonies,” why not polygamy as well?
ACLU Backs Polygamy
Stephen Clark, legal director for the Utah branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, said that polygamy should be “a protected exercise of religious liberty.”
While many supporters of homosexual marriage disapprove of polygamy, and many polygamists disapprove of homosexuality, some activists nonetheless find it useful to link the polygamy movement with the more accepted homosexual movement.
For example, Clark told the Salt Lake City Tribune, “Talking to Utah's polygamists is like talking to gays and lesbians who really want the right to live their lives, and not live in fear because of whom they love. The bigamy statute, like sodomy statutes and like other anachronistic moralistic legislation, goes to the core of what the Supreme Court identifies as important fundamental privacy rights.”
Batchelor said that the editors of Voices in Harmony “are not involved in the gay rights movement. We do not have an alliance with them, nor do we anticipate one in the future.” But, she added, “We understand that any strides we may make politically may unintentionally and incidentally impact or influence them as well.”
Batchelor said that she and other polygamists “have no choice” but to use the language of “personal choice” in order to gain acceptance.
Maggie Gallagher, a syndicated columnist and co-author of The Case for Marriage, said the polygamy movement is “part of a general model, which is that we should treat all kinds of relationships equally.”
Gallagher said that polygamy “does not tend to be associated with democratic societies or with mutual intimacy in marriage. It reduces intimacy not only between husband and wives, but between father and children.”
As for religious liberty, Gallagher responded, “If marriage is going to fulfill an important societal role, its legal character cannot vary according to the religious status of the people who made it.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that “[p]olygamy is contrary to conjugal love which is undidvided and exclusive” (No. 1645), and that polygamy is an offense against the dignity of marriage (No. 2387).
An Ex-Wife's Story
Like the editors of Voices in Harmony, Vicky Prunty was a “plural wife.” But Prunty, one of the founders of the anti-polygamy support group Tapestry Against Polygamy, said her marriage was “more like a dictatorship.”
Prunty said her first husband used the fact that she was not his only wife to control her. For example, he forbade the family to celebrate holidays, threatening that if she brought home a Christmas tree, he would “pack his bags and go to the other wife's house.”
“It's almost as if you're a single mother, but a mistress too,” Prunty recalled. If the husband treats his wives differently, he provokes jealousy, but if he treats them alike, “you feel like you're a clone, a Xeroxed copy of someone else.”
Prunty left the marriage, but became a “third wife” to another man. Before their first year of marriage was up, her husband told her, “I never believed in the religion. I just did it for the ego. What man would-n't want to have sex with more than one wife?”
She burst into tears, rushed to take a shower, and tried to scrub away the sense of violation she felt. She left polygamy for good, but found it “almost impossible to get any legal help, housing, anything.”
Prunty responded to the arguments made by the Voices in Harmony editors by saying, “No woman has to feel that they need another wife in the family to be a whole woman, to be a whole wife, to be a whole mother. You're good enough to be number one.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 03/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 25-31, 2001 ----- BODY:NEWSWEEK ONLINE, March 9 — The arrest of alleged spy Robert Hanssen, a member of the group Opus Dei, led the online news magazine to air accusations that the group is “sinister.”
Newsweek wrote, “To some liberal Catholics and disgruntled former members, Opus Dei is at the heart of a spooky and sinister plot to take the Catholic Church back to the Dark Ages.” Other “Opus Dei bashers,” equally unnamed, said that “Hanssen's haughty attitude… was characteristic of Opus Dei's sense of superiority.”
The article also suggested that FBI Director Louis Freeh and Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas are members of Opus Dei, a rumor the group denied.
Turner Sorry for ‘Jesus Freak’ Comment
At an Ash Wednesday gathering of CNN employees, Turner reportedly spotted ashes on the foreheads of a few people, called them “Jesus freaks,” and asked, “Shouldn't you guys be working for Fox?”
After the Catholic League criticized his comments, Turner apologized “to all Christians” for his “thoughtless” remark.
Ads Claim Christ Went Meatless
Cardinal Maida introduced a resolution at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops three years ago, reaffirming abstinence from meat on Fridays. Now, just in time for Lent, the animal-rights group has raised a billboard asking, “What Wouldn't Jesus Do?”
Many Biblical scholars point out that Jesus eats fish in the Bible. As well, the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that using animals for food and clothing is acceptable.
A spokesman for the Archdiocese of Detroit said, “The cardinal introduced the resolution for meatless Fridays for religious reasons, not political reasons.”
‘Designer Baby’ Grows Up
The Repository for Germinal Choice, founded in 1980, collected sperm from Nobel Prize winners and other luminaries. Blake, who is now studying comparative religion at a private college in Portland, Ore., knew his father only as “Batch 28.”
Blake excelled in school and plays three instruments, but he is no proponent of eugenics. “I like having a good brain,” he said.
“But I do not put a lot of stock in genes, and I don't think being smart makes anyone a better person.” And Blake must fight the familiar battles of adolescence: distance from his mother, worries about his first girlfriend.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Seances and Psychics Increasing, Occult Experts Warn DATE: 03/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 25-31, 2001 ----- BODY:BALTIMORE — Seances, the practice of trying to contact the dead, can be found almost everywhere in the media these days.
The March 5 issue of Time magazine profiled John Edward, a former ballroom-dancing instructor whose nightly TV show “Crossing Over with John Edward” is the highest-rated program on the Sci Fi Network. And the recent hit movie The Sixth Sense featured a boy medium who transmitted messages to the living from the other side.
Popular American mediums Sylvia Browne, John Edward and George Anderson frequent TV talk shows, and each has written a New York Times bestseller. In fact, a whole publishing empire is flourishing around “channeling” and “spiritism.”
But, Catholic experts on the occult warn, this widespread dabbling in the world of seances and psychics is anything but a harmless diversion.
“Exact statistics are impossible to come by,” said Father Lawrence Gesy, consultant on the occult for the Archdiocese of Baltimore and the author of Today's Destructive Cults and Movements. “But, as Jesus said, look around and see the signs of the times. Turn on the TV and see the ads for psychic advisors, tarot card readings, psychic hotlines, books ‘channeled’ through mediums. Seances and every other type of occult activity are increasing.”
While the exact number of seances performed in America isn't available, a 1996 Gallup poll found that 20% of respondents believed the dead could communicate with the living. A further 20% of respondents think that such a thing might be possible.
Another American expert on the occult, Jesuit Father Mitchel Pacwa, said that the “old style” seances of the 19th century — gloomy parlors, levitating tables and so-called “spirit” rappings — have largely been replaced. “The old-style seances made popular by the Fox sisters in 1849 have given way to New Age ‘channeling,’” he said. “In the old seances, the spirits would, supposedly, rap or tap out messages. These days, the medium goes into a trance and invites the spirit of the departed, or the spirit of an advanced spiritual master, or even the angels to speak through him or her.”
Credit Card Mediums
Mediums are as close as your telephone or computer, and most take credit cards. Father Pacwa said prices commonly range from $180 to $240 an hour. Megastar medium Sylvia Browne charges $700 for a 30-minute telephone session, according to her telephone announcement.
Browne did not respond to the Register's requests for an interview, but her Web site reveals that this “cradle Catholic” believes mediumship is her God-given mission. “To help Sylvia with the mission, God gave her a psychic ability that is unmatched by anyone, which is evident to all who have seen her work on television shows,” the Web site claims. “Many times she has appeared on the Montel Williams Show, Leeza, Unsolved Mysteries, etc; where her astonishing insights and communications with the dead are nothing short of miraculous.” George Anderson, also born Catholic and who claims in his own promotional literature to be “recognized by many people in religious orders,” has allegedly been communicating with the dead for over 40 years. For 25 years, Anderson has worked with bereaved families to facilitate contact with their deceased loved ones, a practice that he says brings healing and comfort. He also claims to have “channeled” various Catholic saints, including St. Therese, St. Rita and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton.
Anderson's Web site describes his work as “helping those who hurt learn to cope through mediumship, understanding and hope.”
This contention — that mediums provide solace and guidance to the living by contacting their dead friends and relatives — is a standard justification of mediums.
But while many mediums claim to be helping people and some use Christian and Catholic language, the Catholic Church strictly warns the faithful against seances and consulting mediums.
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to ‘unveil’ the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm readings, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone” (No. 2116).
But when the occult is so prevalently marketed as entertainment and as comfort for the bereaved, many contemporary Americans may wonder why the Church is so adamant in its teaching. In his Modern Catholic Dictionary, the late Jesuit Father John Hardon explained that “behind the Church's attitude toward Spiritualism is the concern that a Catholic would expose himself to the risk of actually dealing with the evil spirit. The assumption is that if fraud or deception are excluded, and manifestations occur that are beyond natural explanation, the active agent in these cases is neither God nor any one of the good spirits (whether angelic or human) but demonic forces that are sure to mislead the Catholic and endanger the integrity of his faith.”
Father Gesy, who has helped thousands of disillusioned occultists and New Agers during the last twenty-three years, warns, “The [bereaved] person may be comforted at first, but those feelings fade. He may go back to the medium or perhaps become more deeply involved with the occult.
“But we know that these spirits are not of God. God is not channeled. Nor are the saints, angels or souls of the deceased. For people who dabble in the occult, the end result is darkness, confusion and, often, despair.”
The correct way for Catholics to address the loss of loved ones is straightforward, Father Gesy explained. “We pray for our dead, that their souls may be at rest,” he said. “But we certainly don't make attempts to contact them or use a medium to relay messages from that person. We may ask the deceased to help us or invoke the intercession of the saints — but that's a completely different thing.”
Una McManus writes from Columbia, Maryland.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Una McManus ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Vatican Theologian Marie Hendrickx and the Feminine Genius DATE: 03/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 25-31, 2001 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — A cardinal might ask her directions as Marie Hendrickx walks silently and with purpose through the corridors of the 500-year-old building.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), arguably the most powerful in the Vatican, is housed here, within 50 yards of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome — and Hendrickx, the first and only woman official ever to work in the doctrinal section of congregation, knows her way around.
The congregation, once called the Sacred Congregation for the Universal Inquisition (it has this century changed names — to the relief of many Catholics), was founded in 1542 to defend the Church against heresy.
Today, its job is to guard the purity of the Catholic faith, and when necessary, reprove dissenting Catholic theologians. The congregation has made frequent headlines since 1981, the year Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger became prefect. Before that, Catholic theologians like Father Charles Curran and Father Hans Küng were told they could not teach in the Church's name anymore.
Yet the congregation does more than just reprimand wayward Catholic academics.
“We get experts together to study moral and theological questions,” said Hendrickx. “Especially on issues to do with the human embryo. The theme of life is very important to my work.” A notable example was when the congregation gathered a commission of experts in 1987 to study the question of in-vitro fertilization. “We decided that it didn't correspond to the dignity of human life.”
A strong respect for human life came naturally to Hendrickx, a shy and soft-spoken Belgian from a family of 11 siblings, and 44 nephews and nieces. She tells the story of how her sister, a doctor and mother of eight, discovered her seventh pregnancy, “It was completely not planned. But she put her faith in God, and it helped her accept it. Now, she calls that son ‘my little gift.’ It's not true that God doesn't help you. We must have the attitude of faith in life.”
A Dream of Rome
She still marvels at how she came to work at the congregation. After studying theology and philosophy at Belgium's Louvain University, Hendrickx discovered upon graduation that the university had no jobs available. She soon moved to Italy in 1987, where she received a one-year scholarship to study at Milan's Catholic University.
“While I was there, one of my Louvain professors contacted me and said, ‘You should go to Rome!’” In fact, her professor had written to various big names within the Vatican to receive her, people like Cardinal Ratzinger and Cardinal Gantin (one of the highest-ranking Africans in the Holy See, from Benin).
“I thought my professor was crazy. But everyone responded that I was welcome.”
She describes her first trip to Rome as like a dream. Belgian Archbishop Jan Schotte, bishop at the time (today he is a cardinal), brought her everywhere and “invited me to restaurants.” When Hendrickx boldly asked if she could go to Mass with the Pope, Archbishop Schotte arranged it.
“I couldn't believe it. Though I did not know it at the time, the meeting was arranged not so much so that I could meet the Pope, but so that the Pope could meet me.”
When Hendrickx returned to Milan, she received a startling phone call. “I didn't respond because no one ever called me. I think my mother called only once in four months. The cleaning lady answered and said, ‘It's for you!’ It was Msgr. Sepe, of the Holy See Secretariat of State.
He said, ‘The Holy Father needs you. When can you be in Rome?’” Hendrickx, in shock, managed to answer that she could go down the next day.
Nightmare on the Via
After her first dream-like visit, the next seemed like a nightmare.
Hendrickx's wallet was stolen when she arrived in Rome's Termini station. Not knowing where to go or what to do, she took a bus without a ticket — “something I had never done” — and went to the hotel where she had stayed on her previous visit. After hearing her story, hotel management allowed her to stay for free. The next day, she met with Archbishop Schotte — who gave her money — and together they went to visit Msgr. Sepe, who asked her to work on a document.
Though not allowed to speak of it at the time, the document was the draft of the Apostolic Letter On the Dignity of Women. Hendrickx returned to Milan, continued with her classes while beginning work on the letter. Later, she was invited back to Rome to have lunch with the Pope and the group of experts also working on the letter. By year's end, she returned to Belgium to teach at her alma mater.
Once again, the phone rang, and it was Msgr. Sepe.
“The Holy Father wants you to present the document in a press conference,” he told her. Hendrickx, horrified at the thought, wondered why there wasn't anyone else to present the document.
“But how could I refuse the Holy Father?” She went out and bought a new, wool dress for the event. Unfortunately, she forgot that September was still hot in Rome — and suffered through the heat because of it.
The press conference, in September 1988, consisted of a panel including Cardinal Ratzinger and Archbishop Jan Schotte. But Hendrickx was the main speaker. “I spoke about the dignity of women. How God himself made himself small in the womb of a woman.”
In February 1989, Msgr. Alberto Bovone, the number two person there, asked Hendrickx to join the congregation. He later told her that when he first saw her presenting the document, “the Holy Spirit fell on me and I knew we had to capture you.”
Feminine Genius
As one of the few female officials in the Vatican, Hendrickx is frequently asked for interviews, particularly about the “feminine genius,” as the Pope often calls it.
“Women have a perception of reality that is different from men,” explains Hendrickx. “It is more concrete. Men tend to be more abstract. Women have an intelligence of the heart which is more instinctive. They see the human being first, and are more attentive to the needs of human beings. In a sense, women are more expert on humanity.”
And the role of women in the Church?
Hendrickx believes it has always been in charity. “Women have the charism of love and hold great weight within the Church because they make the Church more concrete.”
As to the role of women within the Vatican, Hendrickx is confident that “with the proper preparation” women will work at all levels in the future. “But it will never be from within the priesthood.”
The issue of a female diaconate is being studied right now within the International Theological Commission, a think tank of sorts within the congregation.
“If you take the diaconate as the first part of priesthood, women cannot be a part of it. It would be contradictory to the idea that only men can be priests, “ said Hendrickx.
“But if you take the idea of ‘deacon’ as helper to priests, then it is possible. Women can help priests in all missions of charity. In fact, she does it better than men.”
According to Hendrickx, the main problem is terminology. “Basically, we need another word. ‘Deacon’ either means ‘helper’ or is associated with the priesthood. We can't put both ideas under the same term. And women are using this against the Church.”
“There are other women working at the CDF in positions requiring a high level of competence and skill, “ said Msgr. Charles Brown, a staff member of the doctrinal section of the the congregation, who has worked with Hendrickx for six years.
“But Marie is the only woman who has ever worked in the doctrinal section. She is an outstanding member of the staff of the CDF, with excellent academic preparation and a calm and cheerful manner.”
Professor
Besides working full time at the congregation, Hendrickx also teaches Catholic Social Doctrine at the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Rome.
“The presence of a woman serving the Church through theology is infrequent, “ said Professor Jean Laffitte, vice-president at the Pope John Paul II Instititute.
“Marie's presence as a teacher of theology truly makes real the anthropology that we promote here at our Institute on marriage and family life. After all, we teach an anthropology of communion — which has masculine and female elements … The richness that Marie Hendrickx brings to her work is very much appreciated.”
When Hendrickx is asked further questions about her role at the CDF, she declines to answer because, “There are many things which I can't speak about”.
At the congregation which put out Dominus Iesus and Fatima's Third Secret, it is clear that her job takes her to many places in the theological world. It is also evident that she loves it.
“Everything in life is a gift from God,” she says, “and personal merit has nothing to do with it.”
Sabrina Arena Ferrisi writes from Rome.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Sabrina Arena Ferrisi ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 03/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 25-31, 2001 ----- BODY:Cyprus Considers Papal Visit
ITAR TASS, March 12 — The government of Cyprus is considering the possibility of inviting Pope John Paul II to visit the island during his planned pilgrimage to Mediterranean sites visited by St. Paul. The Vatican has already announced that the Pope will stop in Athens, Damascus and Malta, but Cyprus was had not been mentioned as a stop until recently.
The news agency reports that the people of Cyprus are “ready to welcome the head of the Roman Catholic Church,” and that, according to government sources, the Cyprus Orthodox Church has no objections to a papal visit.
Lutherans Divided Over Pope's Role
IDEA, March 11 — Lutheran bishops in Germany are split over whether the Pope could act as a universally accepted spokesman for all Christianity, according to the Protestant news service.
Division over the topic arose after Hans Christian Knuth, presiding bishop of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany, suggested that Protestants might recognize the Pope in this role. Johannes Friedrich, Lutheran bishop of Bavaria, seconded Knuth's suggestion. But Margot Kaessmann, Lutheran bishop of Hanover, vehemently rejected her colleagues' proposal, calling it an illusion that was not evangelical. Said Kaessmann, “We don't need a Pope.”
Cardinal Karl Lehmann, chairman of Germany's Bishops' conference, said he welcomed the two Lutheran Bishops' proposal. Bishop Paul-Werner Scheele, ecumenical officer for the Bishops' conference commented that only a generation ago Protestants regarded the Pope as the Anti-Christ.
Did Pope Put a Hex on Scotland?
According to one presbytery of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, the recent spate of disasters are divine retribution for last year's meetings by Queen Elizabeth II and Scottish First Minister Henry McLeish with the Pope last year. The Queen and the Pope met at the Vatican in October. McLeish met the Pope during a December visit to Rome. Reverend John Macleod, a Stornoway minister, wrote to both in his capacity as the clerk to the Outer Isles presbytery of the Free Presbyterian Church.
“The Westminster Confession of Faith, which was ratified by the Scottish Parliament in 1649 and which became the subordinate standard of the Reformation Church of Scotland, identifies the Pope of Rome as ‘that Antichrist, that man of sin, and son of perdition, that exalteth himself, in the Church, against Christ and all that is called God,’ Macleod wrote in a letter to McLeish, adding, “We view your action, Sir, as a gross betrayal of all that the martyrs stood for and we believe that there may well be a connection between it and the troubles which afflict our nation at present, not least of which is the sudden appearance of the virus causing Foot-and-Mouth Disease.”
Macleod expressed similar sentiments in a letter to Queen Elizabeth.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: In Evil Times, Victory of Mary and the Church DATE: 03/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 25-31, 2001 ----- BODY:Register Summary
The Church may have to take refuge in the desert for a time, but all Satan's attacks will eventually end with the triumph of God's power, said Pope John Paul II.
At his March 14 general audience in the Paul VI Audience Hall, he drew lessons for the Church from the passage in the book of Revelation in which a woman is about to give birth and a dragon waits to devour her child.
The dragon's monstrous energy of violence and lies seems invincible, but the woman in her apparent weakness follows the way of God to salvation and glory.
The woman in the story represents Mary, but more primarily she stands for the Church, which “frequently feels the weight of history and is besieged by evil.” Even though the way of love, truth and justice that she follows seems powerless and ineffective, “at the end there will be deliverance and the hour of glory,” said the Pope. Indeed we already see in Mary an “icon of the liberty and liberation of humanity and the cosmos.”
We began our meeting hearing one of the most well-known pages of John's Apocalypse. In the pregnant woman, who gives birth to a son, in front of a blood-red dragon that rages against her and against the one to whom she gave birth, Christian liturgical and artistic tradition has seen the image of Mary, the Mother of Christ. However, according to the primary intention of the sacred author, if the birth of the baby represents the advent of the Messiah, the woman obviously personifies the people of God, whether biblical Israel or the Church. The Marian interpretation is not opposed to the ecclesial meaning of the text, since Mary is a “figure of the Church” (Lumen Gentium, 63; see St. Ambrose, Expos. Luke, II, 7).
Therefore, against the backdrop of the faithful community, the profile of the Mother of the Messiah is perceived. The dragon, who evokes Satan and evil, rises against Mary and the Church, as already indicated in the symbolism of the Old Testament; red is the sign of war, slaughter, spilt blood; the “seven heads” with crowns indicate a tremendous power, while the “ten horns” recall the impressive strength of the beast described by the prophet Daniel (see 7:7), also the image of the deceiver's power that rages in history.
Fleeing to the Desert
Thus, good and evil confront one another. Mary, her Son and the Church represent the apparent weakness and littleness of love, truth and justice. Against them is unleashed the monstrous and devastating energy of violence, falsehood and injustice. However, the song that completes the passage reminds us that the final verdict is entrusted to “the salvation, strength, the Kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ” (Revelation 12:10).
Certainly, on her journey through time and history, the Church can be obliged to seek refuge in the desert, as ancient Israel did on the journey to the promised land. Among other things, the desert is a traditional shelter for the persecuted, it is the secret and tranquil place where divine protection is offered (see Genesis 21:14-19; 1 Kings 19:4-7). However, the woman remains in this shelter, as Revelation underlines (see 12:6,14), only for a limited period. The time of anguish, of persecution, of trial is not, therefore, indefinite: In the end there will be deliverance and the hour of glory will come.
Contemplating this mystery from a Marian perspective, we can affirm that “Mary, next to her Son, is the most perfect icon of the liberty and liberation of humanity and the cosmos. It is to her that the Church, of which she is mother and model, must look to understand the meaning of its mission in its fullness” (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Libertatis conscientia, March, 22, 1986, No. 97; see Redemptoris Mater, No. 37).
A Woman Shows the Way
Let us fix our gaze, then, on Mary, icon of the Church as a pilgrim in the desert of history, but looking forward to the glorious goal of the heavenly Jerusalem where it will shine as the Bride of the Lamb, Christ the Lord. As the Eastern Church celebrates her, the Mother of God is the Odighitria, she who “shows the way,” namely Christ, the only mediator to lead us fully to the Father. A French poet sees in her “the creature in her first honor and final flowering, as she came from God on the morning of her original splendor” (P. Claudel, La Vierge à Midi, ed. Pléiade, p. 540).
In her Immaculate Conception, Mary is the perfect model of the human creature who, full from the beginning of that divine grace that sustains and transfigures the creature (see Luke 1:28) always freely chooses God's way. In her glorious assumption to heaven, Mary is, instead, the image of the creature called by the risen Christ to reach the fullness of communion with God in the resurrection to a blessed eternity at the end of history. For the Church, which often feels the weight of her journey through history and the assault of evil, the Mother of Christ is the luminous emblem of humanity redeemed and clothed in saving grace.
The dragon, who evokes Satan and evil, rises against Mary and the Church
The ultimate goal of human events will take place when “God may be everything to every one” (1 Corinthians 15:28) and, as the book of Revelation announces, the “sea will be no more” (21:1) — meaning that the sign of destructive chaos and of evil will finally be eliminated. Then the Church will present herself to Christ as a “Bride adorned for her Husband” (Revelation 21:2). That will be the moment of intimacy and flawless love. However, already now, by looking at the Virgin taken up to heaven, the Church has a foretaste of the joy that will be given to it in fullness at the end of time.
No Church Without Mary
On its pilgrimage of faith throughout history, Mary accompanies the Church as the “model of ecclesial communion in faith, love and union with Christ. Eternally present in the mystery of Christ, she remains, in the midst of the Apostles, in the very heart of the infant Church, and of the Church of all times.
In fact, the Church was gathered in the upper room of the cenacle with Mary, who was Jesus' mother, and with his brothers. Therefore, one cannot speak of the Church if Mary, the Mother of the Lord, is not present in it with his brothers” (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Communionis notio, May 28, 1992, No. 19; see Cromazio di Aquileia, Sermon 30,1).
Let us then sing our hymn of praise to Mary, the image of redeemed humanity and the sign of the Church living in faith and love, anticipating the fullness of the heavenly Jerusalem. “The poetic genius of St. Ephrem of Syria, who is called ‘the harp of the Holy Spirit,’ has tirelessly sung of Mary, leaving an impression that is still alive on the entire tradition of the Syrian Church” (Redemptoris Mater, No. 31). He represents Mary as the icon of beauty: “She is holy in her body, beautiful in her spirit, pure in her thoughts, honest in her intelligence, perfect in her feelings, chaste, firm in her resolutions, immaculate in her heart, eminent, filled with all the virtues” (Hymns to the Virgin Mary 1,4; ed. Th. J. Lamy, Hymns of Blessed Mary, Malines 1886, t. 2, col. 520).
May this image shine at the center of every ecclesial community as a perfect reflection of Christ and may it be like a sign raised among the people, like a “city set on a mountain” and “a lamp on a lampstand, to give light to all” (see Matthew 5:14-15).
[Translation by Zenit and Register]
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Re-Evangelizing Russia, in the Heart of the Former Gulag DATE: 03/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 25-31, 2001 ----- BODY:MAGADAN, Russia — Father Michael Shields was sent to the Siberian city of Magadan seven years ago, with a mandate to reevangelize those with Catholic roots. The Brother of the Heart of Jesus priest now administers a parish the size of France, in a diocese larger than the U.S. and Alaska combined. During a recent trip to the United States in search of financial support for his planned Church of the Nativity in Magadan, Father Shields spoke with Register Staff Writer Brian McGuire about the challenges of renewing souls long-lost to communism.
McGuire: How did you start your missionary work in Magadan?
Our mission is 10 years old. We came in right after perestroika. Gorbachev had visited the Pope in 1989 and then Gorbachev opened up Russia in 1990 with the Freedom of Conscience law. We were there in 1990 and we celebrated the first Mass and the parish was registered.
We met in probably eight different places and finally settled in a small, three-room apartment. We didn't know how many Catholics we would find when we started looking.
Magadan is known as a place of gulag [the Soviet Union's concentration camps for political prisoners]. Many of the people came there, the elderly people especially, under persecution, and stayed and had families.
We started looking for the roots of Catholicism, and as that happened, people started coming to the church.
Did people start coming through word of mouth?
A lot of young people started coming. We see young people bringing their families and so now even in the last three years we have had full families.
Husband, wife and children enter the Church together, which is very unusual in Russia, to have a family unit. To see a husband with a child at Mass is exceptional.
You have written that Russian men and women lost the sense of what it meant to be a father or a mother under communism.
The system itself separated the family. The child would be taken into a collective and raised basically in institutions while the mother worked and the father worked. It was encouraged for the mother to work. It was encouraged for the children to be raised in children's homes, where they would be indoctrinated. So what you had was not intact family units.
So you're not even dealing with the conditions that would exist in a primitive, non-Christian society where some of the natural institutions like the family would be in place?
Exactly. In primitive society you have some kind of village structure. What I think we are up against — it's not just evangelizing — it's also restructuring the principles of family out of a Christian image because it has been so devastated under the communist system.
I have about 100 members of my parish. Up until three years ago most of them, except for maybe two, were single mothers raising children. Most of the problems with men are alcoholism right now. So you look at this problem of how to evangelize and the question is “How do you start putting the pieces together?”
How are you working to restore the family in Magadan?
My plan, quite frankly, is ministering to the family, helping men to be Christian men and teaching the women to be Christian women. I am also supporting probably the first family missionaries in Russia. They are doing mission work in another parish close to ours.
They have three children, and they are imaging Christian life. What happened is that this young man and this young woman came into the Church about seven years ago and I said,"Your role in Russia is to image Christian families because no one knows what that means.”
And so there in this little apartment we have young men and young women off the street watching this man who doesn't beat his wife, who is not drunk, and who prays and sings and talks about Jesus. They are astounded. They see a man and his wife praying before meals and they say, “What is that?”
Evangelization in Russia as far as I can see has to be done through image because they have had the propaganda. The communists were the best propagandists. So if you come in with just words and not a life to back that up there is not going to be conversion. The Russians are very skeptical of new ideas.
There is a spiritual residue there — the devil had his heyday. This was 70 years of hating God.
There are records of 200,000 Orthodox priests killed. There were 450 Catholic priests in Russia during the regime; half of them received the death sentence. Churches were taken down and made into bars and venereal disease clinics. They did horrible things.
When did you decide you needed to build a new church?
In 1997, I helped to get the relics of St. Theresa of Lisieux brought to Russia. I went around with the icon [containing the relics] and found this [abandoned building] foundation on the edge of town and we prayed and said, “This is it.” Everyone said, “Wait a minute. There is no way you could have this. It's the government's, or somebody else owns it.”
So we researched it and prayed and prayed, and we received this foundation. Then I looked around and said, “Wait a minute, Why did we get this? It seems to be a little outside of town.”
And so I prayed and what the Lord showed me was that just two blocks down the street is the largest gathering in Magadan everyday — a large, five-story, indoor market that's open seven days a week.
And on the land the foundation is on happens to be the best sledding hill in Magadan. One day I was leaving [the site] and as I looked back right by the foundation there must have been 40 or 50 children sledding right near the foundation. I said, “That's it. The hope of Russia is right there.” As I wrote in my Christmas letter, I can evangelize with hot chocolate!
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian McGuire ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 03/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 25-31, 2001 ----- BODY:Priest Orchestrates Child-Porn Crackdown
The Sicilian priest happened upon the Internet-aided child pornography racket while teaching a catechism class to young parishioners over the Internet.
Links from a site containing pro-pedophilia messages led Father Di Noto to a shocking — and, thanks to the Internet, fast-growing — world of sexual brutality and exploitation aimed at children as young as three months old.
Four years and thousands of Web searches later Father Di Noto had gathered enough information on child pornography peddlers to lead investigators to an international ring of Russian-based pedophiles. A crackdown there led to a series of others in Europe and is expected to continue shortly in the United States.
Nigerian Bishops Condemn Islamic Law
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, March 12 — Nigeria's bishops have condemned the introduction of strict Islamic law in some northern states, describing it as “irresponsible and unacceptable,” the news service reported.
“Many Nigerians feel that their rights are being infringed upon where the Sharia [Islamic] law has been imposed as the state law,” the bishops said in a joint statement released after a recent weekend conference.
“Because of Sharia, thousands of people have been forced to relocate from their places and work at great cost and loss to themselves. Others suffer in silence because they are too poor to relocate or powerless to seek legal redress,” the statement said.
Ten states in northern Nigeria have adopted or announced plans to introduce the Sharia, which includes punishments for drinking, gambling, prostitution and adultery.
A number of Christians have been flogged in some northern states, having been convicted by Islamic courts of contravening the law.
Reckless Driver Told to Read the Bible
The 90-year-old Protestant pastor, Al Kowles, has lived in Taiwan for 25 years. He suffered minor injuries last month when a car driven by a man surnamed Yeh hit him on a boulevard in Taipei. Yeh, 36, fled the scene after the accident, but his plate number was taken down by a bystander and he was soon arrested.
Kowles said he would not bring Yeh to court if he promised to repent by reading the Bible for 20 minutes every day. Yeh agreed.
“God has let this happened in order for you to become serious with the things of the Lord,” Kowles told Yeh.
The Times said Yeh would still face criminal charges of endangering the public filed by the Taipei prosecutor's office.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Praying to an Embryo DATE: 03/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 25-31, 2001 ----- BODY:The consequences of the annunciation made to Mary by the angel Gabriel more than 2,000 years ago are almost impossible to exaggerate.
“Never in human history did so much depend, as it did then, upon the consent of one human creature,” writes Pope John Paul II in Tertio Millennio Adveniente (Advent of the Third Millennium, No. 2).
This world-changing event is celebrated on the solemnity of the Annunciation (a day later this year because March 25 falls on a Sunday in Lent). There is a movement to make that day the “Day of the Unborn Child,” with a weeklong pro-life remembrance. We think it's an excellent idea.
The day Mary said Yes to God is rife with pro-life significance.
It comes at time when the world has given a great No to God's plan for us. Where mary said Yes to being the mother of God our culture often says No to motherhood. Where her Yes led to the incarnation of Christ and to the new culture of Christianity our Nos have led to the demolition of that culture and the creation of what the Pope calls a “culture of death”
The day of the Annunciation and the week following it also occasioned the Gospels to give evidence for the humanity of the unborn. And not just the unborn — they show the humanity of the embryo as well.
Immediately after Mary was invited to be the mother of the Messiah, and consented, the Gospel tells us that she “went in haste” to a town in the hill country of Judea to visit her cousin Elizabeth. Researchers identify the place as a little village called Ain Karim, about five miles west of Jerusalem. Even if she went on foot, the journey would have taken no more than a week. Yet upon seeing Mary, her cousin said, “How does it happen that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”
The pro-life implications of this greeting are tremendous. First, Mary is addressed as “mother” — not somebody who might become a mother later on, if the embryo becomes a fetus and the fetus implants and the implanted fetus is “carried to term.” Days after conception, she is a mother.
And the tiny embryo in her womb is called “my Lord” — a title never given to a thing, only to a person. For Elizabeth to address Mary as the Mother of her Lord is a biblical confirmation of the personhood of the embryo, from the first days of conception.
In our time embryos are created and destroyed with no regard for their humanity. Practices like in-vitro fertilization can seem a great boon to infertile couples — but the practice inevitably leads to the destruction of embryos.
Other embryos are used as research specimens in medical programs promoted by celebrities like Christopher Reeve and Michael J. Fox, who argue that embryos should be harvested to help cure disease. Their arguments can sound compelling. But it is important to remember that Our Lord himself was an embryo once; it was precisely as an embryo that he was first called “Lord.” This gives that age a new significance.
Last, a greater celebration of the Annunciation would help fulfill the program of the new evangelization the Holy Father laid out in his 1999 postsynodal apostolic exhortation Ecclesia in America (The Church In America), in which he entrusts America to Our Lady of Guadalupe, whose image bears the symbolism of her pregnancy.
“Through her powerful intercession,” he writes (No. 70), “the Gospel will penetrate the hearts of the men and women of America and permeate their cultures, transforming them from within.”
If we truly join Mary in her Yes, what vast changes will the years ahead bring?
----- EXCERPT: Editorial ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Opinion -------- TITLE: Letters DATE: 03/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 25-31, 2001 ----- BODY:Patrick's Tears in Heaven
Regarding “Catholics Boycott St. Patrick's Day Parade” (March 11-17): Pro-abortion Councilman Jerome O'Donovan, grand marshal of the parade, told the New York Daily News that the parade is about Irish heritage, not religion. The early Irish immigrants were unwanted, and experienced prejudice. Abortion is a deadly prejudice. It denies babies their civil right to life. The Church has always spoken out on civil rights issues.
The parade is named in honor of a Catholic saint. If it were possible to cry in heaven, St. Patrick and all the Irish in paradise would be shedding tears at the sight of O'Donovan in the St. Patrick's Day Parade.
COLEEN REILLY Lebanon, Pennsylvania
What Were the Clinton Nuns Thinking?
Your front-page article in the March 4-10 issue titled “Catholic Nuns Welcome Bill Clinton” is most shocking and troubling.
Our Church teaches us that abortion is the taking of a human life. Many of those who disagree with this agree with us on partial-birth abortion. Clinton, while president of the United States, twice vetoed a bill banning partial-birth abortions. Our Church teaches the sanctity of marriage. How often did Clinton violate this before and during his presidency? Our Church teaches us that lying is a serious sin. Clinton, while the chief law enforcement officer of the United States, admittedly lied under oath. Our Church teaches us that we should not steal. When Clinton left the White House, he was caught “stealing” furniture and paintings. How much did he steal while in office? Before leaving office, Clinton granted several very questionable pardons which are currently being investigated in connection with financial donations and voting anomalies.
I could go on and on.
What can the Sisters of St. Joseph be thinking when they provide this man a pulpit and $100,000 to spread his gospel, which is the complete antithesis of the Gospel we believe and try to follow?
I serve on the board of a foundation supporting a Seventh-Day Adventist hospital. I dare say that we would never consider inviting such a speaker, no matter how dire our need for funds.
BETTY A. BARKER Mount Dora, Florida
Still Smiling After All This News
I usually go all sentimental and “smiley-faced” when I see something written by or referring to even a fellow South Dakotan, especially a fellow Yanktonian (“Just Another Smiley Face?” Letters, Jan. 7-13). However, my smile turned to a frown when he thumped on the Register, which I find indispensable to being a well-informed Catholic. The coverage is thorough and varied, and maintains an encouraging tone without glossing over the serious problems around us. The bioethics coverage alone makes the Register worth its subscription price. I especially enjoyed the “Inperson” interview with Father Robert Fox, who was assistant pastor in Yanktown during my elementary years.
Mr. Brady's letter did make me muse upon the fact that our eighth-grade teacher had us read the old Denver Register weekly and report on one article of our choice. Was that publication the forerunner of the present publication? I do believe I will purchase a gift subscription for my parish school in the hope that some of the kids might benefit as I did, and still do!
CAROL E. BISHOP Long Beach, California
Baxter Booster
Regarding “Guided by a Patron Saint Through Two Kinds of School” (Feb. 11-17): When I ran across the opinion column written by Susan Baxter, I thought, “Oh gosh, another piece that should draw a comment from a reader of your paper” — and it's true. There are so many good things in the Register. How nice to realize, at the end of that essay, that the school her daughter was registered in did somehow relate to Mother Seton — the streets are Elizabeth and Ann Streets!
How many miracles St. Elizabeth Ann Seton was responsible for in the life of Susan! A very nice, well-written column that gives the reader a good insight into the writer herself. Well done, Susan!
L.E. MERKER Pittsfield, Massachussets
Picking the Church
Hooray for the Bishops of Canada and their strong stance on this confusing business of these politicians and their contradictory positions in public life (“‘Pick Abortion or Church,’ Bishop Warns Politicians,” March 18-24).
Kudos to Erie, Pa., Bishop Donald Trautman and Scranton, Pa., Bishop James Timlin for their excellent pastoring of their people.
As a native of Pennsylvania and present resident of Colorado, I applaud their good sense and their commitment to the Church's excellent teachings on this issue. More bishops, as well as parish priests, must voice these very positions of the Church in the United States and Canada immediately, no matter how unpopular they become with their congregations or the media.
This is all past due and pro-lifers everywhere are ready for their worthy pastors to shout this from the pulpits and the rooftops.
LISA HOKE-MUNCHEL Colorado City, Colorado
Tale of Two High Schools
I am writing in reference to your March 18-24 issue. The articles I read were very good and I was particularly interested in the articles concerning school violence.
I think that the Catholic school incident in Williamsport, Pa., shows us that even Catholic schools are not immune to the violence, like even I wanted to believe. But I also think there are important differences in that incident.
The girl entered the school talking about suicide toward herself. She was particularly mad at one other girl student.
She uncontrollably fired 2 shots in the ceiling and 1 more shot at the floor. She never pointed the gun at any one person. She did not have a plan to go to the school and kill fellow students.
FRANK J. ZABOROWSKI Jefferson, Pennsylvania
The Race Is Not to the Swift
I wonder on what principle you decided to celebrate stockcar driver Dale Earnhardt on the front page of your March 4-10 edition (“Faith in the Fast Lane: Earnhardt's Last Lap”)? As your report states, he simply hit the wall at approximately 180 miles per hour and died instantly.
Did you mean to put forward the born-again, aggressive “Intimidator” to your read-model of one who follows the injunction of Paul (Philippians 1:27) that we should conduct ourselves in a way worthy of the Gospel of Christ? Perhaps we are to be pleased by his “nice faith in the Bible” and intrigued that he chose to thrill spectators by living “constantly on the edge of death.”
Our Lord's gift of life to each of us is precious. Are such lives worth risking for the sake of an afternoon of entertainment? Perhaps you might have reported what spiritual advice Mr. Earnhardt had been given on this point.
MICHAEL T. BARRY Colorado Springs, Colorado
Corrections
In “Nine New Saints Proclaimed” (March 18-24), we reported that Pope John Paul II had canonized nine new saints. In fact, the Pope, in consistory with the cardinals, has approved the candidates' canonizations — which will not be official until ceremonies scheduled for June 10-16.
Another story in the same issue, “How Splitting Up Brought Them Together,” mis-printed the first name of Deacon Jim Mann of the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Opinion -------- TITLE: El Salvador Calling DATE: 03/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 25-31, 2001 ----- BODY:We're writing in response to “Church Seeks Aid for Salvadorans” (Media Watch, Mar. 4-10), which states that the Church in El Salvador has issued an urgent call for food and clothes due to the earthquakes. Our question is, where do we send clothing donations? There is no address listed. Also, can they use winter clothing? We're unfamiliar with their geography — is it mountainous? Please answer these questions as we would like to send a clothing donation soon.
God bless you, and thank you for your wonderful paper.
BILL AND COLLEEN PASNIK Dubuque, Iowa
The Rev. Lindsay King of Toronto's Willowdale United Church once announced he would unite two mynah birds in holy wedlock.
Rajah and his prospective bride, Rani, could easily be coached to caw the words “I do.” And even though the vocalization of their vows would not come from their hearts, Pastor King thought that the ceremony would be refreshing and “emphasize the concept of love”.
The church wedding, however, did not take place.
A barrage of letters and telephone calls from irate members of his congregation persuaded the Protestant pastor to cancel the connubial service for his feathered friends. People insisted that marriage is for a man and a woman.
Yet, on Jan. 14, in the same city of Toronto, the Rev. Brent Hawkes celebrated the “marital union” of two men and two women. Because his church, the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto (headquartered in Hollywood), is homosexual, there was relatively little protest when the banns for these unions were announced.
Nonetheless, protests have been intense and continuous. Ontario's consumer minister, Bob Runciman, has promised not to register the “marriages.” His promise, as expected, has fueled the controversy and precipitated the predictable charges of “discrimination,” “homophobia” and “imposing right-wing values.” An editorial in the Toronto Star claimed that the church's plan is “ground-breaking” and compares it with the suffragette movement.
Is there any solid basis on which one can argue that sex — that is, the complementarity of male and female — plays an indispensable role in forming a true marriage?
Looking at the issue from a historical perspective, we see that homosexual acts were accepted in ancient times.
It was the Jewish Torah that found such acts to be an “abomination.” And it was Judaism alone, 3,000 years ago, which denounced homosexual practices, while insisting that all sexual activity be channeled into marriage, a two-in-one-flesh union between a man and a woman. In other words, it was marriage as a faithful and intimate union between a man and a woman that was truly groundbreaking.
Moreover, this form of marriage, together with its resulting family, has been a source of great strength and stability for Western civilization. Jewish scholar Dennis Prager has remarked that “[t]he acceptance of homosexuality as the equal of heterosexual love signifies the decline of Western civilization as surely as the rejection of homosexuality and other non-marital sex made the creation of this civilization possible.”
It was Christian marriage that was groundbreaking.
Marriage is more than a loving relationship between two people. Love is not restricted by gender, age, race or social status. Love is universal. But marriage is subject to restrictions, precisely because of its nature as a two-inone-flesh union.
Whereas each person is equally lovable by another, it cannot be said that each person is equally marriageable for that other. The essence of marriage is not equality, but two human beings who are properly proportioned to each other in accordance with the nature of marriage. As an institution, marriage transcends individuality, personal will and political fiat.
The science of immunology provides important insights that help us to understand why a same-sex relationship cannot exemplify a two-in-one-flesh intimacy.
An individual's immune system contains 100 billion immunological receptors. Each of these receptors has the remarkable capacity to distinguish the self from the non-self. In this way, the immune system protects the self from the intrusion of anything that is foreign and potentially dangerous to it. The immune system fights off diseases, but is also set up to reject organ transplants, since it recognizes the organ transplant as something alien to it. From a purely immunological standpoint, we are all alien to each other.
During heterosexual intercourse, something very special takes place, immunologically speaking. The male semen contains a mild immunosuppressant which, when released into the woman's body, alters her immune system just enough so that the man's sperm is received as part of herself.
This acceptance and mutual identification on an immunological level is also necessary to prevent the woman's body from rejecting an ensuing embryo as if it were a foreign substance. In other words, through sexual union, a man and a woman truly achieve a two-in-one-flesh unity. And the child that is formed as a result of their union is the fruit of that union. An intimate union of this kind is not possible between same-sex couples.
The nature of heterosexual intercourse is uniquely ordered so that the male and female participants are not only profoundly united to each other — body and soul — but also involve themselves in an act through which they can confer upon each other the blessing of motherhood and fatherhood.
This is why marriage, in the truest sense, requires a man and a woman. People who share the same sex can love each other, be friends, or remain lifelong allies. But they cannot be married to each other according to a two-in-one-flesh intimacy that is intrinsically ordered to parenthood. This is not a political restriction, but one that is natural. And we cannot de-legislate nature by a political act.
The essence of marriage must be honored. It is not politicizable. It is what it is, a two-in-one flesh unity between a man and a woman. As Rev. King's congregation reminded him, anything less is strictly for the birds.
Donald DeMarco is a professor of philosophy at St. Jerome's University in Waterloo, Ontario.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: The Annunciation and The Angels DATE: 03/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 25-31, 2001 ----- BODY:Is it just me or does it not seem that, at a time when everybody is talking about angels, we Catholics have clammed up on the subject?
Protestants are talking about angels. Billy Graham's bestseller Angels: God's Secret Agents, one of the most popular of his many book titles, has sold well over 3 million copies.
TV has joined in the act. “Highway to Heaven” was a hit in the 1980s. “Touched by an Angel” won the same popularity in the 1990s and is still going strong.
Angels have even caught on in secular reading circles. Just take a walk through any popular bookstore and you'll probably see an entire shelf dedicated to angels — yet precious few Catholic works among the titles.
It simply seems as though angelology has fallen silent in Catholic circles. Well, as a Catholic and a theologian, I'll say it: I believe in angels.
And I'll be reflecting on that belief come March 26, Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord. After all, the Annunciation reminds us that, when God was ready to send Christ to redeem the world, he called on an angel to set the plan in motion. (This year the Church observes the Annunciation on March 26 because the traditional date, the 25th, falls on a Lenten Sunday.)
“In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary,” St. Luke tells us. “And coming to her, he said, ‘Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you.’”
Thanks to his rightfully well-publicized role in salvation history, along with the fact that we know his name, Gabriel is an easy angel to remember. But he's also a reminder that angels are not only real — they are part of the communion of saints. Just as we Catholics have cultivated a devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and the saints, it is fitting that we cultivate a devotion to the angels. As Vatican II reminds us, the road to heaven is not for lone rangers.
Salvation is never won alone; we are saved in community. We are saved in the Church.
Our culture puts a tremendous emphasis on individualism. Just think of our cultural icons. Horatio Alger “pulling himself up by his bootstraps.” The Marlboro Man, a solitary figure astride his horse with the Grand Tetons behind and endless sunsets ahead. Frank Sinatra crooning “I did it my way.”
We will never get to heaven our way. We'll get there Christ's way, or not at all. But Christ's way is not an easy way — we're going to need help to complete the journey.
That's where some of my favorite players in the salvation drama come in: guardian angels.
Their Father's Eyes
It is extraordinarily consoling to remember that God so loves us that he entrusts us to a companion for life's journey, one who sees the beatific vision and so keeps the proper perspective on where we are going. God doesn't just provide a passive spectator; he gives us an active team player.
Christ's way is not an easy way — we need help to complete the journey to heaven. That's where angels come in.
Of course, the idea of an angelic witness (like the idea of the communion of saints) can also be disturbing to those raised on notions of a “right to privacy.” Human beings act differently when they think no one sees them.
That's what John the Evangelist is talking about when he says that everyone who does evil things hates the light, but whoever lives the truth comes to the light (John 3:20-21).
When I was a graduate student in New York in the 1980s, I remember a particularly powerful Christian witness given by some fundamentalist Protestants. They had an office in one of the rundown tenements facing the Port Authority Bus Terminal.
At the time, the Times Square neighborhood around the bus terminal was a seedy collection of pornographic theaters, prostitution and strip shows. Those Protestants put a simple neon lamp in their window with just two words: “Jesus Sees.”
The masses of people who came and went every day could see that sign. Hopefully, it caused some of them to re-think what they had come there to do.
And that's why God gave us guardian angels: to see the challenges and pitfalls in our lives, to compel us to remember that our behavior needs to be kept “in the light.”
We are surrounded by a “great cloud of witnesses,” which ought to be an impetus to “rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us, and persevere in running the race that lies before us” (Hebrews 12:1).
Is there a Christian “right to privacy?” Certainly. As Vatican II reminds us, conscience is the inner sanctum where every person stands alone before God.
Conscience is the private place where we determine ourselves, for good or for evil. But conscience is a mirror, not a loom. It reflects good and evil; it does not create them.
Heavenly Helpers
“Privacy” understood as some zone of “freedom” where human beings are “beyond good and evil,” where human beings are free of the gaze of God (and of his angels and his saints) is, however, an illusion. “Privacy” can never be an excuse for evading God.
A revival of devotion to our guardian angels would be helpful in rebuilding a sense of right and wrong, a sense of sin. It would remind us that we are not the measure of what is good and what is evil. There is an objective right and wrong. What we do is seen and must be accounted for.
But our guardian angels are not divine enforcers, ready to trap us at the least slip-up. They are there as signs of God's love. These beings, who have won their own salvation, who understand clearly the malice of evil, are humble enough to be with us. They remind us how precious we are to God.
The “angels” of the New Age bookshelves are a far cry from this. They do remind us that God has a personal care and solicitude for each and every one of us. But the New Age angel never chides, is never judgmental, and never tells us that what we are doing is wrong. He is, in fact, just our rationalizations writ large.
Against this kind of seriously deficient thought, Catholic angelology provides an important corrective. And it's not that angels are marginal to the faith. Angelic activity is discussed in various magisterial statements and in the liturgy itself.
It would eviscerate the commonplace meaning of those statements and the commonplace understanding of the liturgy if angelic references there were reduced to the merely symbolic. That's why writing off “angels” as merely projections of God's presence is erroneous.
The solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord should be a time for us to look not only to God and Mary, the main players in the Gospel event, but also to its top supporting player, Gabriel — and, with him, all the angels in the communion of saints. They never cease praying for us. Let us never cease reciprocating their friendship.
John M. Grondelski, a moral theologian, writes from London.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John M. Grondelski ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Is the Good News Club a Threat to Democracy? DATE: 03/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 25-31, 2001 ----- BODY:With a new, religion-friendly administration in the White House, the First Amendment's “establishment clause” is once again a very hot topic.
That's the part that goes, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”
Not surprisingly, the Supreme Court finds itself in the thick of the discussion. The justices this term have taken up one key case, Good News Club v. Milford Central School, that may frame the debate for years to come.
Milford is a small town in upstate New York, about an hour's drive west of Albany. There, a group of 25 or so children, ages 5 to 12, wanted to meet in their school on Tuesdays after classes had ended. They'd sing a Christian hymn, read a Bible verse. They'd have some refreshments and go home.
The Milford school board would have none of it. In 1996, its members voted to deny the club's leaders, Rev. Stephen Fournier and his wife, access to the Milford Central School for their meetings. The board insisted that school facilities are to be limited to “social, civil and recreational meetings and entertainment events and other uses pertaining to the welfare of the community.” And that the Good News Club, with its religious orientation, did not meet the cut.
Despite the fact that the school board views the Good News Club as akin to a worship service (the lawyer for the Milford school district argues that it “is no different than Sunday school”), the Fourniers wanted to provide a chance for kids who wanted to meet after classes at school for Good News Club activities — and had their parents' approval to do so.
The Fourniers have three children in the school and Mrs. Fournier volunteer-teaches a reading program. Rev. Fournier, believing free-speech rights were being violated, decided to sue the school board. So far, however, he has not had much luck.
Last year, a U.S. appeals court ruled that the school could deny the club access because it dared to “clearly and intentionally communicate Christian beliefs by teaching and by prayer.” A
Good News Club in Missouri, however, had better luck; an appeals court there found that the evangelical Protestant group had just as much right as any other group to meet at a public school.
Even though the Supreme Court's most recent decision (6-3) involving religion in schools — disallowing prayer at a high-school football game last year — wouldn't give you the impression, Americans march to a different drummer on the issue.
A recent Gallup poll found that 63% of Americans believe that religion does not have enough of a presence in schools, and that the court was wrong to nix prayer at sports events. Most polled support prayer at graduations and in the classroom as well.
The justices, of course, won't be taking their cues from any polling data, thankfully, but precedent may provide some hope for the kids at Milford's Good News Club — despite the high, extra-constitutional wall the court has built as an obstacle over the years.
The pro-Good News side argues that the Milford school district has simply violated the rights of the Christian families who want their children to participate in an after-school community group. The Boy Scouts, for instance, who invoke God's name in their pledge, use the same school Fournier wants to use.
To exclude the Good News Club from the premises because it is “too religious” would infringe on the free-speech rights of the children who want to be part of the group.
In 1993, the court ruled unanimously, in Lamb's Chapel v. Center Moriches School District, that a different New York school could not deny a Christian group access to the building because it had granted access to other community groups.
“Sacred-wall” proponents, however, argue that the facts are different since in the Lamb's Chapel case, the group asked for the building at night, when fewer children might be aware of the presence of the group. Less chance of a mass contamination.
During the Feb. 28 oral arguments in the Milford case, Justice Antonin Scalia asked the lawyer for the school district why, if school facilities are used for public purposes, religious purposes must be excluded.
One does wonder what is to be feared here. A great deal, according to the Great Wall lobby. Groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State argue that if the Good News Club is “given the right to meet at public schools, Religious Right legal organizations will quickly push the envelopes and explore new ways to apply religious pressure to America's public-school children.”
In a recent USA Today op-ed piece, a Virginia public-school teacher decried the push for legislative measures in various states for minimal religious symbols in schools: the Ten Commandments in classrooms in Kentucky, Ohio and South Dakota; “student-initiated prayer during the school day” in Georgia; the “appropriate display” of “In God We Trust” in Colorado. All of these, says teacher Patrick Welsh, “invite rebellion.”
He quotes a 17-year-old on Virginia's controversial moment of silence: “When you force us to go through a silly ritual every day, it just makes us more angry … more cynical.”
The Supreme Court's decision on the Milford, N.Y., Good News Club is expected by the early summer.
In the end, the ruling will not affect the Fourniers and the parents and children who are part of the Good News Club in Milford: They have been meeting in the Milford Center Community Bible Church ever since their school turned them away.
However the court rules, its decision won't provide a definitive, discussion-ending answer to Justice Scalia's question. On the contrary, the battle will just be heating up.
Kathryn Jean Lopez is deputy managing editor of National Review Online (www.nationalreview.com).
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kathryn Jean Lopez ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Have Sacraments - Will Travel DATE: 03/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 25-31, 2001 ----- BODY:Congregations on the move are Father John Jamnicky's specialty.
For 18 years, as chaplain at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, he welcomed thousands of travelers to Mass, confession and prayer in the airport chapel — and counseling wherever they happened to be when they needed it.
Now he's taking his ministry on the road.
In December, this co-founder and former longtime president of the National Catholic Conference of Airport Chaplains moved to new headquarters at the office of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, D.C. As newly appointed coordinator for mobility apostolates and national director for the Bishops' Apostolate for the Sea, Father Jamnicky is looking to bring his “ministry of the moment” to all U.S. air and sea travelers — not to mention people who find themselves in truck stops and national parks.
He has a lot of experience to draw from: Father Jamnicky is quick to share, from an amazing storehouse of memories, his enthusiasm over God's grace working to dramatically changes lives through even the briefest exchanges.
“You never realize the impact on people's lives in these graced moments, says Father Jamnicky. “We only have people for a moment, yet somehow these ‘travel moments’ can transform lives like little else can.”
Airport Stories
Father Jamnicky recounts the testimony of one man who, 15 years ago, had time to kill while waiting for a connecting flight. He wandered into the chapel even though he had stopped going to church 20 years earlier. While there, he felt moved to go to confession and stay for Mass.
Recently, that man found himself with another layover at O'Hare. He sought out Father Jamnicky and told him: “I am head usher at my parish and I even head up of one of its committees.” The man explained that his first wife had died and he had just remarried. “In fact,” he said, “I am just going on my honeymoon with my new bride. Our trip brought us through Chicago, and I figured, if that priest is still here, I want to tell him all that one day 15 years ago has meant to me. It changed my life.”
The value of travel ministry isn't missed on one Catholic traveler whose opinion means a lot to Father Jamnicky.
“There are marvelous opportunities in the mobility apostolates for doing good and preaching the Word,” says Bishop James Timlin of Scranton, Pa., who is himself a licensed pilot and for the last 10 years has served as episcopal liaison for Catholic airport chaplains in the U.S. “Wherever there are large numbers of people, there will be problems and the need for ministry.”
The bishop points out that an average of 250,000 people make their way through a major airport each day. Of these, many are in need of the hope provided by priestly Christian witness.
‘We only have people for a moment, yet … can transform lives like little else can.’
Take the woman who stopped in the O'Hare chapel while en route from Seattle to Chile. Earlier that morning, in Seattle, she had waited for her husband to go to work and then left him to return to her South American homeland.
“It is not right for you to do this,” Father Jamnicky told her. Then he got the couple together on the phone, scrambled to get her luggage off the flight to Chile, and haggled with a ticketing agent to have the woman's tickets exchanged for a return flight to Seattle.
Another time, TWA called Father Jamnicky to counsel a mother and daughter arriving from London. A second daughter, terminally ill and coming to the United States for a last-chance treatment, had died in-flight. For hours, the chaplain tried to comfort the two women until their return flight was ready. Grief-stricken, they would not be consoled; they expressed little but hostility and anger.
Yet he persisted with his counsel and, two weeks later, TWA informed him that the women had sent the airline a thank-you note. In it, they stressed how much the American airport chaplain had meant to them through the ordeal. “I was flabbergasted,” recalls Father Jamnicky.
Holy Oasis
This mobility apostolate also reaches airport and ship workers, along with their families. Citing the 40,000-plus who work in large airports, Bishop Timlin says he recognizes this as another opportunity to minister to those who may not be involved with their local parish.
Michael Brennan was one of those. A longtime employee of a major airline at O'Hare, he testifies to the impact the chapel had on his life.
He recounts how, in 1984, he was troubled spiritually. He wanted to get right with the Church, so he went to Father Jamnicky for confession. (Travelers often go to confession, explains Father Jamnicky, because of the anonymity away from home.)
In that brief meeting, Father Jamnicky recognized Brennan's potential and asked him to become editor of the chapel's weekly bulletin. Later, Father Jamnicky asked him to travel to Rome to tell his story to the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Tourism, who had requested input from laity at the annual airport chaplains' meeting.
Then, at a Vatican conference in 1993, Brennan served as lector at Pope John Paul II's Mass for airport chaplains in the Pope's private chapel.
“In a 10-year period,” Brennan says in a tone of disbelief, “I went from being down on my luck and spiritually dying, to finding myself [a lector for the Pope]. What an incredible turn of events — and it was all directly related to Father Jamnicky's nurturing and encouragement.”
Michael even married his wife, Margaret, in the O'Hare chapel; they had their daughter baptized there. Weddings and baptisms at the chapel are only for airport workers and personnel, not travelers — though not just a few have asked Father Jamnicky to marry them there, on board a plane or at the boarding ramp. “Chicago isn't Las Vegas,” he has told them, then used the opportunity to clarify the Church's teaching on the sacrament of matrimony.
Mostly, though, the frivolous take a back seat to the famished. “When travelers feel like they're in a desert, the chapel is like an oasis,” says Father Jamnicky. “People savor their time here and it makes a great impact on their lives.”
Ministerial Moments
A recent message on his voice-mail confirmed this. Some time ago, a young, traveling woman had heard an announcement for Mass over the public-address system. Distraught, estranged from her family and away from the Church for years, she decided to attend.
The “ministry of the moment” so impacted her life that she returned to the Church, reconciled with her family and got a job caring for a blind person. “My life is truly rewarding now,” she said in the voicemail message, “and it all started with that one visit to O'Hare Airport.”
“Travelers are unconnected from the comfortable routine of their normal, daily lives,” explains Father Jamnicky. “They are disorientated in many ways. They don't have around them the support structures they're used to. That lets them be open in a unique way to the Lord — to hear him in that moment. That's where our chaplaincies have a unique role to play.”
Bishop Timlin says Father Jamnicky's knowledge, experience and enthusiasm for this unusual ministry make him a perfect fit for his expanded duties in Washington. Already he is deeply involved in setting up chaplaincies in airports that haven't had one. For example, Miami International and Seattle are now “in the loop,” and San Francisco and New Orleans will soon follow.
This “ministry of the moment” will also reach out to seamen on freighters and fishing vessels. “Some are away from home a year at a time,” says Father Jamnicky. “Plus the apostolate is looking very seriously into placing chaplains on cruise ships. There has been no formal selection for them, but the need is there. Last year, 7 million people took cruises.”
“People recreating, confined to a ship, are more willing to talk to a priest,” adds Bishop Timlin.
Vast swaths of humanity also move through the large truckstops that dot the American interstate-highway system, says the bishop. “They don't fit into the normal parochial structure, and many are in need of what the Church has to offer.” He says there are already evangelical ministries with mobile chapels in 18-wheelers. Also in the works are chap-laincies in national parks.
“The Church needs to be here for these very special moments,” adds Father Jamnicky. “You don't have a lot of time with travelers. You have to be there for them now because they aren't going to look you up later. This reality makes for some very graced moments. I think that's what is so powerful about this ministry.”
Joseph Pronechen writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: Stories of souls touched by the airport priest ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORD: Travel -------- TITLE: How to Discern Online Deceit DATE: 03/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 25-31, 2001 ----- BODY:For Catholics looking to learn more about their faith, the Internet is like a massive library that's always expanding.
That's the good news. The bad new is, you have to watch where you wander in these virtual aisles, because a number of their shelves have been tainted: They contain cleverly disguised collections of misinformation that can pollute the mind and disorient the heart.
For example, if you surf over to CatholicAction.org, the first thing you will see is a wonderful picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Below it are a few paragraphs about the organization. “Catholic Action was inaugurated in the reign of His Holiness Pope Pius XI (1922-1939) for the participation of the laity in the apostolate of the Church's hierarchy,” the text begins. “In short, EVERY Catholic through thought, prayer and work is called upon to labour for the glory of God and the universal acceptance of the teachings of His Church, so that Christ the King will reign in each soul, in every family, in society and the world at large.”
Wow — sounds like a great Web site. Right? Wrong. The subsequent paragraphs go on to say: “There are NO Sacramental and sanctifying graces flowing from the Novus Ordo liturgy.”
According to the individual or group behind this Web site, the only true Mass is the Tridentine Mass. Well-informed Catholics will recognize this doctrine as a variation of that promulgated by the late, excommunicated Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and his schismatic group, the Society of St. Pius X. But the unsuspecting Catholic could easily be swayed to reject the New Mass by the evident piety of the presentation and the passion with which “Catholic Action” calls him or her to a deeper life in Christ.
When studying or learning about the Catholic faith on the Internet, it is a good idea to begin with the Vatican site at vatican.va, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops at nccbuscc.org and the Catechism of the Catholic Church at scborromeo.org/ccc.htm. Once you are grounded in legitimate Church teaching, you will then be able to recognize those sites that stray from it.
The main point is that it's easy enough to steer well clear of Web sites that openly attack Church teaching in faith or morals — but it can be challenging to spot the sites that dress up like orthodoxy while promoting heretical or schismatic doctrines.
For this reason, it is important to find out who is behind any given Web site presented as Catholic. Beware of any site that does not provide names, along with contact information such as e-mail addresses. Lack of this kind of disclosure isn't a guarantee of funny business — some good sites don't provide names, either — but it's often one telltale feature of sites with dubious fidelity to the Pope and the magisterium.
If the people behind the site do show themselves, you have something to work with. Are they a group known for their fidelity to the Church? Do they identify their diocese and bishop, and give signs of respecting lawful Church authority? Don't be fooled by a pleasant-sounding name.
Comely Contamination
“Catholics for a Free Choice” at catholicsforchoice.org sounds interesting, even if “choice” has become something of a loaded word these days. And indeed, this group, on its site, claims to be working in the Catholic social-justice tradition. They say they are “engaged in research, policy analysis, education and advocacy on issues of gender equality and reproductive health.”
Read on and you will find that the founders were “motivated by the simple conviction that the bishops did not represent the Catholic people on reproductive rights issues, including abortion.” Red light! In fact, this group is anything but authentically Catholic — they are one of the prime agitators trying to have the Holy See removed from the list of non-governmental organizations with a voice at the United Nations.
Perhaps the most dangerous sites of all are those that mix much good material with some erroneous or outdated material. As the saying goes: “What's more deadly — a beaker of arsenic or a bottle of fine wine into which a few drops of arsenic have been placed?” The point is, you'll spit out the pure poison, but you'll savor the tainted wine without ever being the wiser until it's too late. I can think of one Catholic publisher whose Web site offers many excellent Catholic books — and a few which attack the legitimacy of the Novus Ordo Mass.
Sometimes, of course, such mistakes are inadvertent. For example, on my own Web site, I relayed a eucharistic miracle which I had read about in a letter to the editor of a Catholic newspaper. It involved one of Pope John Paul II's visits to our country. After the information had been on my site for a while, the author of the letter informed me that her sources had turned out to be mistaken. This reminded me of a basic principle that must guide both journalism and Webmastering: You always needs to check your sources before reporting claims and allegations as facts.
In August, the NCCB came out with a document titled “Protocol for Catholic Media Programming and Media Outlets.” One paragraph states: “Web sites which intend to function as Catholic media outlets should voluntarily seek ecclesiastical approbation by submitting a written application to the diocesan bishop of the place where the production headquarters of the outlet are located. … “Without this approbation, outlets may not claim that programming is ‘Catholic.’”
In my limited research with a few dioceses, nobody has yet “voluntarily” asked for such approbation for a Web site. Perhaps at least some Catholic Internet media outlets should do this. For the full text of this document go to nccbuscc.org/comm/protocol.htm.
For this month's recommended sites, I would like to emphasize some online library collections. For a more complete list, see my online directory of libraries at monksofadoration.org/libraryx.html.
► The Christian Classics Ethereal Library at Calvin College (which is Protestant) offers much of The Early Church Fathers, a 38-volume collection of writings from the first 800 years of the Church. It's at ccel.org/fathers2.
► The Catholic Liturgical Library at catholicliturgy.com has a wealth of information. If you have questions on the liturgy, or just want to expand your knowledge about it, this is a great place to start your journey.
► EWTN has an impressive and useful collection of articles in both audio and text at ewtn.-com/new_library/index.htm.
► The Mary Page at udayton.edu/mary is maintained by The Marian Library/International Marian Research Institute at the University of Dayton in Ohio. The Marians who run it, by the way, lay claim to the world's largest collection of printed information on Mary.
► How could I write about libraries and not recommend the world-famous Vatican Library? It's online at vatican.va/library_archives/vat_library/index.htm. It's well worth a visit, especially for those planning an actual (not just virtual) trip to Rome.
► Finally, the Library of Congress has a fascinating online exhibit titled “Scrolls from the Dead Sea: The Ancient Library of Qumran and Modern Scholarship.” If you find this archaeological treasure as fascinating as I do, you'll definitely want to surf over t o loc.gov/exhibits/scrolls/toc.-html.
Brother John Raymond is the author of Catholics on the Internet: 2000-2001 and Web master of www.monksofadoration.org.
----- EXCERPT: Information and misinformation often sit side by side on 'Catholic' Web sites ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brother John Raymond ----- KEYWORD: Arts & Culture -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 03/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 25-31, 2001 ----- BODY:The Leopard (1963)
The goal of most revolutions is the removal of a ruling class to achieve economic and social justice. But sometimes the result is merely the replacement of one elite by another. The Leopard, one of the Vatican's top 45 films, presents the revolutionary upheavals in Sicily of the 1860s through the eyes of Prince Fabrizio Falconieri (Burt Lancaster). Religious faith is established as one of the pillars on which the old order rests. Fabrizio's priest (Romallo Valli) is afraid the revolution will mean the expropriation of Church property and there will be no resources to care for the poor.
Fabrizio's family survives the turmoil through manipulation of personalities and social forces as his nephew, Tancredi (Alain Delon), joins Garibaldi's rebels. Director Luchino Visconti (The Damned) laments the sellout of the revolution, balancing this with a nostalgia for the old order, including the Church. Based on Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's novel, the movie is a visual tone poem for a class which loses its power but preserves its mystique.
Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horrors (1922)
Great horror films find ways to evoke an atmosphere of terror and menace without resorting to sex and violence; the difference between good and evil, once defined, is never blurred. Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horrors, one of the Vatican's top 45 films, is a silent, visual poem of beauty and grace. Hutter (Gustav Von Wangenheim), a happily married Bremen real estate agent, is sent to Transylvania to close a deal with Count Orlok (Max Schreck), who' s a secret vampire.
When the cadaverous-looking aristocrat moves to his new property, everyone around him dies from the plague. Hutter's wife (Greta Schroeder) learns that vampires expire in daylight and lures Orlok into her house. She keeps him there until dawn by allowing him to nibble on her neck, dying herself soon thereafter. German Director F.W. Murnau (Sunrise) creates a unique horror movie that dramatizes the power of sacrifice. A vampire's evil power is terminated by the selfless act of a woman described as “pure in heart.”
Ride the High Country (1962)
The best Westerns are morality tales. One of the finest is Ride the High Country, a complex character study about two former sheriffs who've outlived their time and find it difficult to adjust. It's the beginning of the 20th century, and elderly gunslinger Steve Judd (Joel McCrea) is hired to escort a gold shipment from a mining town to a nearby bank. He enlists the help of fellow former lawman Gil Westrum (Randolph Scott) and his much younger sidekick Heck (Ronald Starr) who conspire to rip off Judd and his employer. On the way they encounter a bad-tempered rancher (R.G. Armstrong) and his daughter (Mariette Hartley) who disrupt their plans.
Director Sam Peckinpah (The Wild Bunch) fashions a subtle, ironic tribute to the values of the Old West in which few people behave as you would expect. The two aging gunmen are both motivated by a desire for self-respect, but their differing codes of honor lead to conflict.
— John Prizer
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORD: Arts & Culture -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 03/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 25-31, 2001 ----- BODY:VARIOUS DATES
Religion & Ethics Newsweekly
PBS; check local listings for day and time
This weekly program provides more balance than most television reporting of religious news. The show, produced by WNET New York and distributed by PBS on Fridays at 5 p.m., discusses religious events, people, practices and controversies. Tentative for this week: John Dancy looks at how Mormons train their missionary teams. (The producers sometimes change a program's content at the last minute so host Bob Abernethy and his aides can cover sudden hot topics and breaking news stories.)
MONDAY, MARCH 26
Generation Rx: Reading, Writing and Ritalin
A & E, 10 p.m.
Some 4 million American children are now given the drug Ritalin for “hyperactivity"; the dosing jumped 70% in the 1990s. This “Investigative Reports” segment interviews pediatricians, psychiatrists, teachers, parents and youngsters about the situation.
TUESDAY, MARCH 27
The Pentagon
History Channel, 10 p.m.
This premiere from “Modern Marvels” takes a fresh look at the Defense Department's headquarters — the world's largest office building. The mammoth edifice was completed in 1943, houses 24,000 employees and is so well designed that a person can walk between any two offices in seven minutes or less.
FRIDAY, MARCH 30
NCAA Women's Tournament
ESPN
The final four women's teams in the NCAA college basketball tournament compete in St. Louis, Mo. Semifinal #1 begins at 4 p.m., and semifinal #2 at 6:30 p.m. The championship game will take place on Sunday, Apr. 1.
FRIDAY, MARCH 30
Ancestors in the Americas
PBS, 9 p.m.
This installment, “Chinese in the Frontier West: An American Story,” is the second in a three-part series on Asian immigration to the United States. Using photos and artwork to depict the influx of Chinese between 1850 (in the California Gold Rush) and 1882, the show reveals Chinese immigrants' wide influence on the American West, from providing construction labor to paying taxes to waging court battles against bigotry.
SATURDAY, MARCH 31
NCAA Men's Tournament
CBS
The final four men's teams in the NCAA college basketball tournament do battle in the Metrodome in Minneapolis. Semifinal #1 starts at 2:30 p.m., and semifinal #2 at 5 p.m. The winners meet in the championship game on Monday, April 2.
SATURDAY, MARCH 31
Mother Earth: A Journey With Francis in his Land
EWTN, 8 p.m.
In this 90-minute documentary, actor Franco Giacobini uses St. Francis of Assisi's own words to convey the profound relevance of Franciscan spirituality to the present day. The show takes us to prominent Franciscan locations around Italy, including Assisi, Greccio, Fonte Colombo, Monte Casale and La Verna. Msgr. Flavio Carraro leads a brief meditation. To be rebroadcast Wednesday, April 4, at 1 p.m. and Thursday, April 5, at 3 a.m. and 10 p.m.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dan Engler ----- KEYWORD: Arts & Culture -------- TITLE: Anglican Priest-Biochemist to Get Templeton Prize DATE: 03/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 25-31, 2001 ----- BODY:NEW YORK — The Templeton Foundation announced March 8 that the 2001 Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion would go to the Rev. Arthur Peacocke, an English biochemist and Anglican priest.
The prize recipient is chosen by an international, interfaith panel of judges that this year included Cardinal Francis Arinze, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.
Peacocke, 78, was chosen for his contribution to the movement for relating religion to science, an effort he has carried out through teaching at Oxford and other universities and through publication of numerous books and articles.
Appearing at a press conference in New York where his selection was announced, he said that he was reared and confirmed as an Anglican, but that in reaction to some forms of conservative evangelicalism he moved to a position of “mild agnosticism.”
However, his later studies led him to believe that “the search for intelligibility that characterizes science and the search for meaning that characterizes religion are two necessary intertwined strands of the human enterprise.”
Peacocke was ordained in 1971, but said he always considered himself a “worker priest,” and never contemplated parish ministry.
A Society of Ordained Scientists he helped establish now has a membership of “79 men and women from seven different denominations and five countries,” he said.
Peacocke has lectured at institutions in the United States, Germany and Israel. Jesuit-run Georgetown University in Washington, which gave him an honorary doctorate in 1991, named him its Davis professor of interdisciplinary studies in 1994.
Prince Philip will present the Templeton Prize at Buckingham Palace May 9, and Peacocke is to give a public address the following day at the London Guild Hall, foundation officials said.
Peacocke lives in Oxford and has been married for 52 years to the former Rosemary W. Mann who, from being a headteacher of a church school, went on to be one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools with national responsibility for the education of young children. They have two children, Christopher, a professor of philosophy, and Jane, an Anglican priest and educator.
Currently a Warden Emeritus at the Society of Ordained Scientists, Peacocke is also chaplain and honorary canon at Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford.
In 1973, he was awarded the Le Conte Du Nouy Prize, and in 1986 he became an Academic Fellow at the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science.
The Templeton Foundation was established by financier John M. Templeton, 88, a native of Tennessee who became a British citizen and now lives in the Bahamas.
He initiated the Templeton Prize in 1973, with Mother Teresa as the first recipient, and has kept the prize — now 700,000 British pounds — larger than the Nobel Prize to symbolize his belief that progress in religion is more important than progress in the sciences honored by the Nobel Prizes.
Peacocke joins other professional scientists who have won the Templeton Prize, including physicist and theologian Ian Barbour in 1999, astrophysicist Paul Davies in 1995, physicist Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker in 1989, and Benedictine monk and professor of astrophysics Stanley L. Jaki in 1987.
Last year, the prize was given to Freeman J. Dyson, a physicist whose futuristic views have consistently called for the reconciliation of technology and social justice.
Among the best known recipients of the prize are the Rev. Billy Graham in 1982, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in 1983, and Watergate figure Charles Colson who received the prize in 1993 for his work in founding Prison Fellowship.
(CNS contributed to this report)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Education -------- TITLE: What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been DATE: 03/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 25-31, 2001 ----- BODY:“Where do all the hippies meet? … on South Street, South Street.” The refrain comes from an old '50s hit — a dance tune which gave us the synonym for those freewheeling iconoclasts of the “love generation.”
The baby boomers who came of age during the Vietnam War embraced such things as marriage-free “love relationships,” nuclear disarmament and “Mother Earth” spirituality. Along the way, they discarded many of the bedrock values of Christianity, upon which the United States had been built.
According to Roger Kimball, the hippies should have stuck to singing innocuous ballads and dancing the twist. In The Long March, he contends that generation's most prominent figures provoked a culture war which, little by little, did irreparable damage to American society.
Kimball presents a dozen portraits of the key cultural idols who shaped the period and whose output dominated the '60s and '70s. The result is 12 chapters which could be described aptly as “Profiles in Depravity.” Kimball shows how the long-term influence of onetime radical super-stars is only now becoming apparent.
“The destructiveness of their ideas and example may be most severe not when they first appear and, whether they be championed or castigated, are regarded by one and all as outrageous,” he writes. “On the contrary, the really toxic effects of a cultural revolution begin to be felt only laterally, when the revolution is agreed to be ‘over.’ By then, its characteristic attitudes have been so widely incorporated into the mainstream of life that they are taken for granted.”
The ‘new sensibility’ of the '60s and '70s, says Kimball, “set out not simply to lower intellectual, aesthetic and moral standards, but also to undermine the shared intellectual and moral foundations upon which such standards must rest.”
While many of the figures he selects are now barely recognized, others still retain a great deal of prestige.
What they all share is mediocre talent combined with an unrestrained ego. A few who stand out from the pack include the bombastic novelist Norman Mailer, the art and literary critic Susan Sontag and the beatnik poet Allen Ginsberg. All three are still highly regarded and lionized among today's liberal elite.
One of the most pathetic figures of the lot was Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver, a man who enjoyed almost mystical adulation and whose autobiography was celebrated by influential publications like the New York Times and Saturday Review. Kimball recounts how, in one critical passage of his book Soul On Ice, Cleaver told how raping women contributed to forming his own “revolutionary consciousness.”
“I became a rapist,” Cleaver wrote. “I started out on black girls in the ghetto … [then] I crossed the tracks and sought out white prey. … Rape was an insurrectionary act. It delighted me that I was defying and trampling upon the white man's law, upon his system of values, and I was defiling his women.”
Kimball is certainly not the first excellent essayist to attempt to locate the essence of the '60s and analyze the long-term significance of the counterculture. But this brief, powerful book manages to capture the movement and its luminaries as successfully as any to date. Those who find themselves looking back wistfully at the Eisenhower years — and wondering how in the world we got here from there — will find many keen insights in Kimball's observations. From these can be drawn smart strategies for the culture wars at hand.
David Peterson, author of Revoking the Moral Order, is a high-school teacher in Chicago.
----- EXCERPT: Book Review ----- EXTENDED BODY: David J. Peterson ----- KEYWORD: Education -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 03/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 25-31, 2001 ----- BODY:Xavier Leads Nation
XAVIER UNIVERSITY, March 12 — For the eighth year in a row, Louisiana's Xavier University placed more graduating black students in medical schools than any other university, the school announced.
Xavier, the only historically black Catholic university in America, sent 73 students to medical school in 2000, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. Morehouse College had 31 accepted, the second-largest number of black graduates entering medical school, and Howard University, much larger than Xavier, sent 26.
Xavier's streak should continue, as 44 of this year's seniors have already been accepted into medical schools.
Penn President Questioned
The hearing focused on a sex-education fair held at the university, which featured free condoms, explicit brochures, and even obscene games and gingerbread men.
The campus ministry sponsored a counter-event, featuring prayer and testimony from chaste couples. The university's president, Graham B. Spanier, defended the school on academic freedom grounds throughout three hours of grilling from angry lawmakers.
‘Real’ Catholic On Campus
Smith discussed his faith and his experiences on MTV as part of the school's Newman Week, an event put together by campus Catholics to raise money for charity and help Catholics focus on their faith.
Smith said that he had been able to share his faith with the other “Real World” participants, and that it helped him get through the show's sometimes traumatic filming in New Orleans. He added that he has considered entering the priesthood now that his television gig is over.
Influential ‘Friends’
The St. Ignatius Institute focused on authors from Aristotle to Nietzsche — with a large helping of Catholic theology. Many defenders of the institute charge that its strong commitment to the magisterium of the Catholic Church didn't sit well with the university's establishment.
The Friends of the St. Ignatius Institute bought an ad in the San Francisco daily as well as the diocesan newspaper to draw attention to their cause. The ad said that the university's actions teach “a sad lesson about the growing exclusion from our colleges and universities of even the most fair-minded traditional religious educators.”
Eighteen prominent Catholic professors, writers and thinkers signed the advertisement denouncing the university's actions. Signatories included Princeton University's Robert George, papal biographer George Weigel, First Things editor-in-chief Father Richard John Neuhaus, Amherst College's Hadley Arkes, Michael Novak of the American Enterprise Institute, Crisis publisher and editor Deal W. Hudson, and Robert Royal, president of the Faith and Reason Institute.
University Hosts Funk
March 3 — Seattle University invited Jesus Seminar founder Robert W. Funk to speak at the Jesuit institution, the Seattle-area daily reported.
Funk's appearance marked the first time a representative of the Jesus Seminar has spoken at a Catholic institution in the United States. In 1993, the group claimed that its investigations into Biblical history revealed that Jesus did not say 82% of what is attributed to him in the Gospels.
Seattle Archbishop Alex J. Brunett expressed disappointment at the university's invitation. University president and Jesuit Father Stephen Sundborg said that the university did not endorse the Jesus Seminar, and the dean of the school of theology and ministry said the school's Scripture faculty disagreed with the seminar's methods and conclusions.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Education -------- TITLE: Again and Again Discipline DATE: 03/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 25-31, 2001 ----- BODY:Q I think I'm pretty consistent in disciplining my son (age 8), yet he still gets into trouble for the same things over and over. Why does it seem to take so long for discipline to work?
— F.K.
Council Bluffs, Iowa
A Conventional child-rearing wisdom says, “Children want discipline and the security of knowing there are rules and limits.”
I agree — when they're grown up and can look back with a longer perspective: “Now I'm starting to understand why my parents did what they did.” But at the time it's happening, discipline is not something a child wants.
When was the last time your son ventured out of his room after half an hour of discipline for disrespectful talk and said, “Mom, while I was stuck in my room, watching those guys play football outside without me on the last nice day of the year, I was thinking: ‘I could have a mom like Lucky's. She gives him $25 a week. He has a nine-foot Nintendo in the bathroom and a wet bar in his closet.’ All I've got is a strict, old fashioned mom like you who won't let me get away with much — and I'm grateful.”
You'll never hear that, even though in their more rational, away-from-discipline moments, kids may acknowledge the need for discipline. Otherwise, they tend to look at the now, and see that we're doing something they totally disagree with.
As much as we grown-ups talk about owning up to our actions, we don't like being disciplined either. We, too, will do whatever we can to avoid it. Have you ever had this conversation with a state trooper?
“Ma'am, I clocked you going 71 miles.”
“Oh no, officer, I was doing at least 76. And you caught me today, but I've been speeding through here every day on my way to work for the past three years. I should owe the state back money for that.”
No, it's the nature of the being, young or old, to avoid unpleasant consequences.
To reduce your parenting frustration level, consider this: When we say that discipline is not working, maybe we mean things aren't improving fast enough. Redefine “work” to mean “teach a lesson,” and your discipline works the very first time.
Let's say you decide to fine Dawn 50 cents whenever she fails to make her bed. Most likely, she won't immediately start making her bed, but she will learn there's a cost for not making it.
Who knows, after paying you $3.50 a week for two months, she may translate her lesson into action.
We parents severely underestimate how long it can take for discipline to change behavior, especially given that none of us can be perfectly consistent, and that kids by their nature can grow up by the longest route.
In the end, the news is good: While a child takes most of childhood to learn something, an adult takes most of adulthood. It's still far easier to teach him when he's little.
Dr. Ray Guarendi is a clinical psychologist and author.
Reach Family Matters at familymatters@ncregister.com
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dr. Ray Guarendi ----- KEYWORD: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Facts of Life DATE: 03/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 25-31, 2001 ----- BODY:CHURCHES REACH OUT
Urban churches provide prison ministries, preschools, food pantries, health clinics, literacy programs and more to the neediest people in America's cities. Using Philadelphia as an example, a recent study found that the city's congregations provided social services worth $250 million annually, primarily for poor families who weren't members of the congregations.
Number of Philadelphia's urban congregations engaged in social programs
Source: Study by Univ. of Pennsylvania Professor Ram A. Cnaan, cited by John J. DiIulio, Jr., March 7.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Growing Priests and Nuns In the Family Garden DATE: 03/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 25-31, 2001 ----- BODY:SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Kenneth Kozinski, 11, shyly approaches Bishop John D'Arcy of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend at a reception after Mass. He proffers his program from the service and a pen, never taking his eyes off the bishop as the smiling cleric hands off his punch to do the honor.
Kenneth had the privilege of serving for his hero at Mass. Kenneth says he wants to be a priest.
It will be many years before the young man's desire will reveal itself as a true vocation. But his parents, Joseph and Sabrina Kozinski of Granger, Ind., are doing their best to support him: They pay tuition and drive him 20 minutes to his Catholic school every day. His altar service is already treated like a vocation, and when he discusses priesthood, his parents listen.
“Some days, he wants to be a priest, some days, its a priest-doctor-artist,” Sabrina said. “We just think he's great. We think he can do anything.”
Practice Makes Perfect
Holy Cross Father Jim King is director of vocations for his religious order at the University of Notre Dame. Father King says the kind of support the Kozinskis are offering their son — example and practice — are the best ways to encourage vocations at home.
“Vocations start in homes where there is not only an involvement in church, but where the Church has become part of the home culture,” he said. “Parents must prioritize church — above sports or anything else. If they do that, they may end up with an adult with a vocation to religious life. Or they may end up with adults who are simply very good Catholics. Either way, they win.”
San Diego Catholic mother Barbara Finkelstein agrees, saying parents should not be afraid to let children “play” at religious life, the way they play firefighter, dancer or teacher.
“Anything else your child might show an interest in, you'd support,” she said. “Why not priesthood or religious life?
“We should model [our family lives] after the Holy Family,” she said, “and treat our kids the way Jesus was treated in the home.”
Learning by Example
Kenneth, many religious might say, is not just blessed with supportive parents. He also has several other blessings he can lean on: There are priests in Kenneth's life who are not afraid to talk about their own vocations.
In talking about her vocation, Holy Cross Sister Margie Lavonis says the example of religious women in her life was crucial.
“When I graduated Catholic grade school, I informed my mother I wasn't going to a Catholic high school, because I was sick and tired of all those nuns and priests bossing me around,” said Sister Margie. “We fought about it, she wouldn't budge. I went to Catholic high school run by the Sisters of the Holy Cross.”
Sister Margie saw something in those women that changed her life, and now, after 25 years of religious life, she is vocations director for the sisters at St. Mary's College in Notre Dame.
“They were just so happy with their lives,” she said. “And they were happy in a way nobody else I knew was happy. Whatever they had — I wanted it. And I have never regretted a moment since.”
Go Easy on the Goods
Sister Lois DeLee of the Sisters of St. Frances of Perpetual Adoration, and also their vocations director, advises parents to “go easy on the goods” when raising their children — to avoid giving them too many material possessions.
“There is an individualism in society, the focus on self, that I think is perilous to vocations,” said Sister Lois who works from her order's Midwest provinical house in Mishawaka, Ind. “Kids these days grow up in a family of one or two. You go into their homes — what do you see? Here's my bedroom — I have my own phone, my own computer, my own TV — my own world, and I am at its center.
“Young people grow up thinking the only thing that will make them happy is money and possessions. The religious live a counter-cultural lifestyle. We live a life of simplicity and detachment. What we do have, we share.”
Pray Without Ceasing
But whatever a parent tries to do, nothing but nothing can take the place of that powerful tool given by God that makes all things possible: prayer.
Louise Christianson is a mother of five grown children and a grandmother several times over. As a young homemaker, she founded the Mishawaka, Ind., chapter of the Theresians, a group committed to praying for vocations.
The Theresian prayer implores the intercession of St. Therese of Lisieux, that members might “create in our homes and parishes an atmosphere where religious vocations can grow, where young men and women will learn to be generous with their God.” Louise believes the Saint not only answered her prayer, but called her to stand behind it.
“Two of my daughters are nuns, they're Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ,” she said. “To this day, both my daughters say they'd do it again — in a minute.”
Vocations for All
Each year, all Fort Wayne-South Bend diocesan schools are invited to the all-schools Mass at the Joyce Athletic Center at Notre Dame. In his homily this year, Bishop D'Arcy asked the more than 6,500 grade school children to pray that their true vocation would be revealed to them.
“You should never pray that God make you one thing or another when you grow up,” the Bishop said. “Your prayer should simply be: ‘Lord, show me, teach me my vocation in life.’”
And that, said Sister Lois, is how parents can most successfully foster vocations in their children:
“A person's job, their vocation, whatever it is, is to help others follow Jesus, completely and totally,” she said. “It is my job, my vocation, to help my sisters become saints. It is your job, as a married person, to help your spouse become a saint, to help your children to become saints.
“That's what vocation is about. It's that tough, and that simple.”
Susan Baxter writes from Mishawaka, Indiana.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Susan Baxter ----- KEYWORD: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Charge! Cries Pro-Life Credit-Card Company DATE: 03/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 25-31, 2001 ----- BODY:“In the beginning, Vitae was a substantial risk,” says founder Steve Thomas. “We had four children under the age of four, we were living week-to-week, and we had some credit card debt with no savings.”
Add to this the fact that Thomas was not planning to take a salary from Vitae and you have a recipe for failure, right? Wrong.
After five years of business, not only is the Culture of Life credit card and long-distance-service company on track to making $100,000 annually, but they are also giving money away. In January alone, the company donated more than $7,000 to pro-life, pro-family and natural family planning organizations such as the Couple to Couple League, Priests for Life and the Mary Foundation.
It was a combination of events that eventually led to the creation of Vitae Corporation. As natural family planning instructors in the Joliet Diocese, Steve and his wife Ginny realized pro-life efforts were constantly struggling to obtain funds.
Steve also happened to be thinking about new ways to do fundraising. His local Knights of Columbus group had asked members to dream up ideas for increasing donations. In addition, right around the same time, Ginny and Steve received reports in the mail from St. Antoninus Institute and Life Decisions International that detailed how several banks were donating money to anti-life groups. Everything started coming together.
“I woke up in the middle of the night with the idea of starting a culture of life credit card, but I had absolutely no concept of where to even start,” said Thomas. “I asked Our Lady to please help me out and, in her usual fashion, things happened almost immediately.”
The very next day Steve had a business appointment and in passing conversation he asked the person what he did for a living. Steve was dumb-founded when he heard the other man was in charge of affinity credit card programs in the Chicago area. It was at this providential meeting that Steve's ideas began to take a more definite shape.
About a year later Thomas' first attempt to set up a culture of life credit card with a small bank met with failure.
Then, in 1996, with the help of the Illinois Knights of Columbus, Thomas signed papers with MBNA of Delaware, Md., for a Culture of Life Visa credit card. “I think we were the only group to ever come to them, and get approved, and not have any members,” explained Thomas.
Today, thousands of members hold the card. Based in New Lenox, Ill., Vitae also uses PowerNet Global to provide long-distance service to nearly 1,000 customers nationwide.
The company is innovative not only in its commitment to life, but also because Thomas donates 100% of the company's profits to organizations that promote family and marital chastity. In addition to the ones mentioned above, these include One More Soul, Family of the Americas and the Billings Ovulation Method Association-USA.
Glad Receiver
One of the groups that recently benefited from such a donation was the Cincinnati, Ohio-based Couple to Couple League.
“My first contact with Vitae was at the GIFT Foundation's Pandora's Pillbox Conference last September,” explained Mark Hayden, executive director of Couple to Couple. “Steve Thomas, completely unexpected, approached me with a check. I was both shocked and thankful for his generosity.”
Father Peter West, a priest associate with Priests for Life, says he often uses the card rather than using a check so that a larger contribution will go to Vitae. “The Holy Father said recently that to build a culture of life we have to do more than just denounce the culture of death. We have to do positive things to change the culture of death. Why not let the use of your credit card go to promote life?” he said.
Thomas agrees. “As believers how can we support companies such as AT&T? The Vitae Corporation exists to not only raise money for pro-life and pro-family organizations, but also to affect corporate policy. We plan to keep money from companies that support or promote the culture of death.”
“I have heard it said that the pro-life movement will succeed only to the extent that pro-life people are willing to be inconvenienced,” recalled Thomas. “I take to heart the message from Pope John Paul II's encyclical Evangelium Vitae. The Pope wrote, ‘Together we all sense our duty to preach the gospel of life, to celebrate it in the liturgy and in our whole existence, and to serve it with various programs and structures which support and promote life.’”
All signs suggest that Vitae is poised for future growth. Thomas's next project is to develop a culture of life Internet service provider.
“Within the last year we've doubled our capacity to raise funds,” said Thomas. “Our statistics are off the chart when compared with other programs. Our members have more than a 70% approval rating. Our delinquency rate is below 1%, compared to an industry standard of 7%. Our average charge is $600. The average charge [in the industry] is $200. For most programs, it takes five years … to start making money. Vitae started making money after just two.
“I think that speaks to the kind of people we have been able to bring to the table,” said Thomas. In this era of tight margins the industry realizes that we bring a clientele that is very lucrative. The culture of life affinity is one of the strongest that exists, and the banking and telecommunications industry realize that.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORD: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Life Notes DATE: 03/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: March 25-31, 2001 ----- BODY:‘Necessary’ Abortion?
Brind, a leading expert on the abortion-breast cancer link and head of the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute, notes studies have shown that pregnant women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer and carry to term generally live longer than women who have abortions. In one study, while only 20% of women who carried to term were still alive 20 years later, all of the patients who chose to abort had died within 11 years reported the Post-Abortion Review.
Brind hypothesizes that the lower death rate may be due to hormone changes in the last stages of pregnancy that switch the cells from a growth stage into a milk producing tissue. Since this hormonal change shuts down cell division (cancer is characterized by out of control cell division), this hormonal shutdown signal may be a powerful form of “natural chemotherapy.”
New Bioethics Journal
The National Catholic Bioethics Center in Boston has published the first issue of National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly. The publication's editor, Edward J. Furton, said it would “come out of the Catholic life of reason and moral tradition.”
Father Jerry Spencer, Kansas City's archdiocesan health affairs coordinator said the new journal will interest those looking for solid scientific reference, regardless of their faith background.
Magazine Lauds Big Families
Nixon reflected on her brother-in-law who raised seven boys, “I'm beginning to think having small families, period, is highly impractical. A large family is like a complex organism, designed by nature to produce human beings who are responsible and cooperative, not to mention good at negotiating, alliance building and protecting themselves. Large families produce children for the real world, children with survival skills.”
Beyond benefits for children, Nixon wrote that parents of large families benefit from having siblings entertain one another. While her brother-in-law's children play outside for hours together, Nixon wrote her children refuse to go out saying, “There's no one to play with outside!”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Bush Hails Pope for Culture of Life DATE: 04/01/2000 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 1-7, 2000 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — President George W. Bush visited Catholic University of America in northeast Washington March 22 with a salute to John Paul II and a plea to “defend and love the innocent child waiting to be born.”
Bush's pro-life remarks, part of a speech at the dedication of the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center, across the street from the college campus, produced a long standing ovation from the crowd.
“On his four pilgrimages to America, he has spoken with wisdom and feeling about our strengths and our flaws, our successes and our needs,” Bush told the crowd of Catholic leaders. “And he is never more eloquent than when he speaks for a culture of life.” Such a culture, Bush said, makes room for the stranger, comforts the sick, cares for the aged, welcomes immigrants, teaches children to be gentle and loves the unborn.
Critics noted that he made no reference to one of the Holy Father's most prominent lectures to Americans: opposition to the death penalty, which Bush supports.
On March 22, Bush, a Methodist, spoke of the Pope's humanitarian efforts and travels to 123 countries, as well as his visit to a synagogue and an Islamic country (full text, page 15). “His is not the power of armies or technology or wealth,” the president said. “It is the unexpected power of a baby in a stable, of a man on a cross, of a simple fisherman who carried a message of hope to Rome.”
After cutting a ribbon with Cardinal Adam J. Maida, archbishop of Detroit, Mich., and head of the foundation that built the museum, Bush took a brief tour of the $65 million facility, which houses Vatican art, interactive exhibits and a center for scholars.
The night before the dedication, Bush hosted a delegation of U.S. Catholic cardinals, bishops and lay leaders at the White House as part of the festivities surrounding the cultural center.
Bush told his guests: “I've been struck by a lot of things as I've had the opportunity to meet the leadership of the Catholic Church. I think the thing that has captured my heart the most is the not only universal care for the weak and the suffering, but also the strong focus on making sure every child is educated.
“All of you are part of the humanizing mission which is part of the ‘great commission’ and the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center, which we will dedicate tomorrow, will bring this message to generations of Americans in this capital of our nation. The best way to honor Pope John Paul II, truly one of the great men, is to take his teaching seriously; is to listen to his words and put his words and teachings into action here in America. This is a challenge we must accept.”
George Weigel, whose papal biography Witness to Hope was the source of several of the president's observations, said he was impressed with the speech.
“I think it suggests the enormous strength of the papacy as a witness to damental moral truths and that this is what the world and the Church expect of popes now,” he said.
“The world and the Church do not expect the Pope to be an institutional manager,” he added, “they expect him to be a witness.”
The Catholic-friendly tone of the president's remarks was the subject of much comment the next day.
On the Web site National Review Online, John J. Miller and Ramesh Ponnuru wrote, “President Bush seems to be doing everything possible to emulate John F. Kennedy — he's not just cutting taxes, he's becoming America's second Catholic president.” They said that in his remarks he “began to sound like the pontiff himself.”
Bush advisor and Crisis magazine editor Deal Hudson, however, said that Bush isn't trying to become the next Catholic President:
“The strategy is to reach out to Catholics whose faith makes a difference to them in the way they think politically and the way they vote,” said Hudson. “The president and his advisors understand the difference.”
Said Hudson, the main reaction among Catholic leaders present at the speech was “Wow, isn't this a refreshing change? Isn't it wonderful that we have a President that appreciates Catholics, what they really are, instead of ignoring most central moral beliefs Catholics hold?”
(Zenit contributed to this report)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Register Staff ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Winning Is Just Step One in His Plan DATE: 04/01/2000 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 1-7, 2000 ----- BODY:NORMAN, Okla. –– There are only two groups of people who don't get along with Josh Heupel: The teams he's playing against (they lose), and people who tell him he can't run a service organization and be a top quarterback at the same time (they eat their words).
He led his team, the Oklahoma Sooners, from a 13th place ranking to this school year's national championship. Then, the Associated Press named him player of the year. So did the Sporting News. He was runner-up for the Heisman Trophy, and winner of the prestigious Walter Camp player of the year award.
He told the Register he didn't know where he would end up, but more news is certain to follow later this month at the NFL draft.
Yet, while most college football stars might be inclined to party under the limelight of so much success and soak up the attention of the press, Heupel is sticking to a mission he first envisioned as a boy.
“He was in the second grade. I remember it well,” recalled Josh's mother Cindy, a high school principal in Aberdeen, S.D. “I picked him up after school and he said ‘Mom, I know what my mission in life is.’”
“You know I'm going to be a football player, Mom,” Josh told her. “And pro-football players make a lot of money. That's how I'll do it. That's what God wants me to do with my life.”
“We'll see how that develops,” Cindy Heupel recalls saying.
Three years ago, Josh's “mission” came up again in a conversation with his mother. Just before the University of Oklahoma recruited Josh from a community college in Utah, Josh gave her an update, saying, “I don't know exactly what I'm going to do, but I know what my mission in life is. It's to help at-risk kids and to help people who are disadvantaged and homeless.”
Those words weren't empty.
Amid of this year's run for the national championship, Josh Heupel could have put off his plans to help the poor and needy. But in November, he began collecting food at games to provide Thanksgiving dinners for poor people in his community.
“Prior to the game with Texas Tech, we were able to help over 250 families with Thanksgiving,” said Mike Whitson, who, as an official with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, collaborated with Heupel in bringing food to the poor people of Norman, Okla. “After that we helped 14 elementary school students with Christmas gifts,”
After the food drive, Josh might have been excused again for putting his good works on hold. The season wasn't yet over, his team was gaining momentum and the attention of the national media began to focus more intensely on Josh, whose accomplishments on the field were multiplying by the game.
But in the middle of one of the most astonishing team turnarounds in college football memory, Heupel and Whitson decided to make their work with the local poor a permanent venture. They would use Josh's now famous jersey number, 14, to launch a charitable organization that would last long after Josh left for the pros.
“Josh's [fame] gives him a huge platform to do stuff like this,” Whitson said.
“A lot of people go out for a day and do a service project,” he said. “Josh is the type who will want to make sure that that continues –– that's what give him that rare quality.”
Upbringing
Heupel admits that while his reputation for focus and determination may be apt, he can't take all the credit.
“I think the Lord has blessed me tremendously throughout my life,” Josh, 23, told the Register. “I'm thankful, so I want to give back to people who aren't as fortunate as I have been. It's something that I enjoy and will continue throughout my life.”
Right now, Josh is focused on his next step: the NFL. His performance at the February's Combine –– a week-long invitation-only event at which top-rated college players demonstrate their abilities for pro scouts –– went “very well.” Now, it's a just waiting game.
“I don't think any of the players has a true sense of where they'll be. It's unpredictable,” Heupel said.
But given his focus, friends and relatives don't expect him to sit around and wait for the call.
Indeed, Heupel said the demands of prayer, family, training and fame can be rather difficult, but that he's trying not to let his “blessing become a burden.”
“The hardest thing people have to learn,” Heupel said, is to manage their time. For myself, learning to mix time between faith, the classroom, spending time preparing to do football and helping others, the key to all that is taking your faith into every aspect of life.”
In May of ‘97, while playing for community college in Utah, Heupel tore his ACL, an injury that puts most players out of commission for six months. Heupel recovered in a matter of weeks, but the experience changed his priorities.
“God wasn't No. 1 in my life,” Heupel said of the period just prior to and immediately following his injury.
“Things weren't going along the way I planned. My first year in college I allowed other things to become No. 1. I had to give God complete control over my life.”
Soon after recovering, Heupel was recruited by Oklahoma and his whirlwind rise to national prominence began.
The Future
One of the greatest blessings for Heupel, he says, is his family. He credits a close relationship with his parents, sister and relatives for his growth as a Christian, a leader and a giver.
“My parents were both leaders in their fields,” Heupel said of mom Cindy and dad Ken, a college football coach at Northern State University in Aberdeen.
“They are great human beings who genuinely care about the well being of others,” Josh said. “I saw the commitment they made to each other, but also to other people. They instilled those values in me.”
Cindy Heupel said her formula is to form a strong Catholic family that respects others whatever their religion or background. “We firmly believe that our priorities in life are faith, family and our careers,” she said.
“We always made a point of spending time together and doing family things together,” she added. “We were very fortunate because both of our parents made an effort to attend our children's baptisms and confirmations. We celebrated not only the fact that we were a family, but that we were a Christian family.”
Brush With Death Brought Family to Life
It was a brush with death, though, a severe stroke when she was 33, that Cindy Heupel believes strengthened her family most. It taught them, she said, that “through faith and prayer you can get through everything.”
After the stroke, Cindy had to learn to again to walk and to see. Throughout this difficult time, she only prayed, she said, that God would give her more time with her children. “He granted me that prayer, and I haven't taken that for granted.”
Looked at through the eyes of faith, Cindy says her illness and recovery have given her an insight into the life that awaits her famous son, Oklahoma Sooners football star Josh Heupel.
“I know that people say his performance [on the field] is tremendous, but if all you see in Josh is football, you've missed the most important things, and that's who Josh is as a person.
“I believe that God has a plan for Josh. He's a very strong Christian young man and sometimes, as a mom, I just pray that he'll have the courage and the strength. He has really given his life to God and is trying to live up to what God's plan is for him.”
As for Josh, he thinks he's ready for what lies ahead, on the field and off.
“In today's society high profile athletes are automatically thrust into the role of a role model. Some choose to embrace that and some don't I think it's important to embrace it,” Josh said.
“As a human being we are all going to fall short and none of us is string enough to do the right thing all the time, but with that relationship [with God] it definitely gives me the strength to get rough each day.”
— Brian McGuire
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian McGuire ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: What Pro-Lifers Want From Washington DATE: 04/01/2000 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 1-7, 2000 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — How can law-makers limit abortions while the Supreme Court seems determined to declare any limits unconstitutional?
That's the question the pro-life movement face the year after Stenberg vs. Carhart, in which the high court ruled that even half-delivered babies are not protected under the Constitution.
To make matters worse, the loss of four pro-life Senate seats in November has put a damper on pro-life hopes.
These realities mean the newest pro-life strategy is limited to reversing executive orders from the Clinton administration and pushing bills that will enjoy the support of at least some pro-abortion Senators.
One is the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act which would protect live infants from being killed by a physician, even those that survive an attempted abortion. The bill was approved by the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution March 21 and is expected to squeak through in the Senate later this spring.
Another bill that can be expected to pass the House and Senate is the Unborn Victims of Violence Act. Already introduced in the House but not yet put to a vote, this bill would make it a federal crime to injure or kill a baby in the course of beating the mother who is carrying it.
A third bill pro-life bill introduced in the House is the Child Custody Protection Act. It would make transporting minors across state lines for an abortion without the consent of their parents a federal crime.
“All of these are bills that should attract some support from senators who support legal abortion,” said National Right to Life Committee legislative director Doug Johnson.
Johnson explained that with 55 senators on record in support of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision of 1973 that legalized gave America the world's most liberal abortion license, any bills “that directly seek to circumscribe abortion in ways that aren't consistent with the view of that bloc are not going to be successful.”
In a recent interview with the Washington Post, pro-life Sen. Rick Santorum, R.-Pa., indicated that he intended to give up on the partial-birth abortion ban for now.
“The Supreme Court basically shot down the statute we were trying to pass. I'm not going to introduce it,” Santorum said.
But Johnson advised caution in taking the Supreme Court's decision in Stenberg vs. Carhart as “the last word on the matter.”
“The composition of the court can change,” he said. “It was a 5-4 decision. Personally, we don't think Congress should throw up its hands because the current court may be skeptical about abortion limitations.”
In fact, pro-abortion activists are openly worried about the opportunities that exist for passing pro-life initiatives. In the same Washington Post article in which Santorum expressed near-despair over substantial pro-life legislation making it through Congress anytime soon, National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League President Kate Michelman implied that Congress was poised to take action.
“The landscape is full of land mines now that are potentially quite lethal in terms of a woman's right to choose,” she said.
The Pro-Life President
Pro-lifers have put some hopes in Bush, pointing out that while the president cannot make law unilaterally, he has other means at his disposal to push a pro-life agenda.
President Bush cheered pro-lifers in January by reinstating a 1984 policy that forbids U.S. funding of abortions abroad. His nomination of strong pro-lifer John Ashcroft as Attorney General was similarly welcome.
Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., told the Register that the president has “enormous power” even without a pro-life majority in the Senate, and that the decisions he has already made will have far-reaching effects.
“That's a major sea change in our international diplomatic efforts,” he added. “We were the biggest purveyors of abortion in the world under Clinton and Gore. Now we will be the biggest promoters of a culture of life.”
Cathy Cleaver, spokeswoman for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops' Pro-Life Secretariat, agreed.
“There is no question that compared with the last eight years, we have new cause for hope,” said Cleaver.
Cleaver said the U.S. bishops will now urge Bush to place a moratorium on guidelines for stem-cell research issued by President Clinton in August, and to reverse a 1998 ruling by then Attorney General Janet Reno that allows doctors in Oregon to prescribe federally controlled substances to those who wish to kill themselves.
Cleaver said she approves of Congress' current pro-life strategy of pressing only for bills that have a good chance of passing through the Senate. “Right now that's the best use of the resources we have,” she said.
Nevertheless, Congress' apparent willingness to pursue only incremental pro-life legislation frustrates some pro-life lobbyists.
Incremental Fatalism?
Patrick Delaney, director of public policy for the Stafford, Va.-based American Life League, says the incremental approach is counterproductive.
“We need to be very circumspect about the legislation we call pro-life because if we are giving legal precedent to anything less than person-hood, we are fostering a political climate where no-compromise pro-life politicians who courageously stand up for all the children receive no political benefit for their courage,” Delaney said.
But Johnson at the National Right to Life Committee called Delaney's view “a formula for compete paralysis and inaction,” and defended Congress' current pro-life strategy.
“It's very hard to build a culture of life on a string of defeats,” Johnson said. “One must work within the political parties and make incremental progress possible. When there is a greater level of support in the Congress more substantial measures will be possible.”
Added Smith, “I would love to see a Human Life Amendment [protecting life from the moment of conception] tomorrow,” Smith said, “but we don't come anywhere close in the House or the Senate. Everywhere else we are going to push the envelope.”
----- EXCERPT: The 2001 Legislative Strategy ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian McGuire ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Why There Are So Many Young Priests in Omaha DATE: 04/01/2000 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 1-7, 2000 ----- BODY:OMAHA, Neb. –– When Archbishop Elden Curtiss came to Omaha eight years ago, he made it clear what his priorities were: vocations. Since then, he has built one of the nation's top dioceses for getting vocations.
But not everyone appreciated his forthright assessment of priest-shortage problems in the country. Rather than addressing himself to the “vocations crisis” that many Americans spoke of, Archbishop Curtiss denied that one existed, writing at the time, “It seems to me that the vocation ‘crisis’ is precipitated and continued by people who want to change the Church's agenda, by people who do not support orthodox candidates loyal to the magisterial teaching of the Pope and bishops, and by people who actually discourage viable candidates from seeking priesthood and religious life as the Church defines these ministries.”
After recruiting seminarians (in Omaha, any man between the ages of 18-55 is eligible), Omaha is particular about the seminaries its men attend. For major seminaries, it uses Kenrick-Glennon in St. Louis, Mount St. Mary's in Emittsburg, Md., and the Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio.
Why?
WHAT VOCATIONS CRISIS?
Part One: Omaha
“If you look at all at of them there is a faithful adherence to the teachings of the Church,” said seminarian Deacon James Keiter, who will be ordained in Omaha in June. “There's a zeal that is really captured and fostered in all of these seminaries about the Eucharist, the other sacraments and about serving the people of God.”
Archbishop Curtiss told the Register that unity in the Omaha diocese and the promotion of orthodoxy in the seminaries to which it sends men does not mean rigidity.
“We have a reputation of being conservative. If that means we conserve the tradition, that's fine with me,” he said. “But if that means we are not trying to implement Vatican II or confront the culture, that's not true. We are. We are looking for men who are open to the Spirit, open to formation and willing to grow in faith.”
Trouble in the Ranks?
Last year, a series of articles in the Kansas City Star highlighted a number of cases of priests with AIDS. Some of the priests who spoke with the Star argued against the celibate model of the priesthood, saying it prompts homosexual priests to engage in activities that lead to AIDS.
More recently, in his book The Changing Face of the Priesthood, the rector of Cleveland's St. Mary Seminary, Father Donald Cozzens, discussed what he called “the growing perception … that the priesthood is or is becoming a gay profession.”
Father Kevin Rhodes, the rector of the Maryland seminary that receives students from Omaha and elsewhere, said the seminaries he attended and those he visits aim at a balance that would make the scenario envisaged in Father Cozzens' book unlikely if not impossible.
“It [the book] gives the impression that a heterosexual would feel uncomfortable because of the homosexual culture in seminaries. That's just not the case,” Father Rhodes said.
“Anyone who comes here would see a very healthy environment.
“It's a healthy community of men who are very prayerful and very committed to serving the Church, eager to serve, have good, healthy relationships and are involved in their studies.”
Celibacy and Success
In fact, Archbishop Curtiss and Father Rhodes both agreed that in the particular area of celibacy, today's seminarians are being taught more effective ways of living celibacy than many of today's priests were 15 or 20 years ago.
“They are dealing with the chastity issues in a much more healthy way than they were dealt with in the past,” Archbishop Curtiss said. “They are learning the ways to live chaste that were not learned years ago. I think it's a much more healthy climate today for chaste living than in the past.”
Said Father Rhodes, “I think there are great improvements in the seminaries so that the men are faithful and happy in their celibate commitment.”
And this has in turn meant great success.
Omaha, with more than 215,000 Catholics, averaged seven ordinations a year between the years 1991-1998. You can pick other Midwest diocese at random and get a different story. For instance, though circumstances there are different in many ways, Madison, Wis., has a comparable Catholic population — and it ordained a total of four men during the entire 1991-1998 period.
Archbishop Curtiss, vocations director Father Gregory Baxter and Deacon Keiter won't compare their own dioceses with others, but even in assessing their own success at drawing men into the priesthood, they speak with one voice.
Organization and a unified community, they agree, are a winning combination.
“We're doing fairly well,” said Father Baxter, who has served as Omaha's vocations director since 1998.
“We range between the low 30s to the upper 30s” in the number of men in seminaries each year,” he said. “We work very hard at maintaining grass-roots support for vocations. We maintain a large database of potential names that I keep in contact with. We have vocations summer camp for fifth- to eighth-graders. We have a good Web site. I visit all of the seminarians twice a year and am in constant contact with all the men and the rectors of their seminaries.”
Training young men for the priesthood in today's culture is difficult. But Archbishop Curtiss insists it is anything but impossible. Father Rhodes agrees.
“It's a heavy responsibility,” he said about training today's future priests, “but joyful too, because our candidates really give us a lot of hope for the future. I'm very optimistic.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian McGuire ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Vindicated DATE: 04/01/2000 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 1-7, 2000 ----- BODY:Kennelly and Gaetan: You are known to many Americans for chairing Bill Clinton's impeachment's hearings. In Bill Clinton's final days in office, to avoid being disbarred, he finally admitted having tried to deceive the justice system regarding his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Did you feel vindicated?
I never felt the need to be vindicated. His belated admission that he lied under oath and deceived the court confirmed our judgment that Mr. Clinton deserved impeachment.
Tell us about the impeachment. How was that time for you?
It was the most troubling time in my entire life as a congressman. I have to say, it was the most troubling time of my life.
The committee made every effort and attempt to be fair, but our effort failed in terms of the impression made in the press. Since a two-thirds vote is required for impeachment, there must be substantial democratic participation and a bipartisan conclusion. So I really tried to conduct the Judiciary Committee hearings in a fair, evenhanded way. Our best efforts were misconstrued.
If time could be turned back, would you still recommend that the House of Representatives vote on articles of impeachment against President Clinton, knowing what you now know?
I would do it again because it was our duty. Any matters that evoke the possibility of impeachment need to be publicly debated. In the case of President Clinton, the offenses were there, staring me in the face. We went ahead and did what we perceived to be our duty. It was a time of real stress, real anxiety for everyone involved.
How did you bear the personal attacks against you which came from your opponents during the impeachment process?
That was the most hurtful thing because all you have is your reputation and your family. They tried to ruin my reputation and hurt my family. It should not have been a surprise to me. When people are in trouble, they go on the offense.
In the impeachment vote, as in most votes, there were Catholics on both sides of the issue. How do you explain the lack of political cohesiveness when it comes to Catholic public officials?
We have Catholics all over the map in the U.S. Congress. We have more than our share of “cafeteria Catholics” picking and choosing what to believe, and it's sad.
I just don't know what to say on that score.
The Church has become politicized. The problem is less with Catholicism per se, I think, and more with the nature of our public institutions. The radical separation between church and state leads people to discount their religious beliefs when they are members of a political body.
Was there a specific time when you became aware of your faith, when it became an active part of your life?
No. I never experienced a “rebirth” because I've always had a strong faith with no major ups and downs. In times of real trouble, you feel the incredible power of our faith. I'm 76 years old. I know.
How have you balanced your intense, political life and the demands of being the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee with the quieter, more interior requirements of faith?
You can't dissociate your daily life from your beliefs. We are on earth to attain salvation. In the sense of priorities, you have to put your faith first, which includes a belief in how we ought to conduct ourselves.
My strong faith was the result of my mother who impressed me with her devotion to the Church. Her instruction was reinforced by my education. I had a thorough Catholic education from grammar school through law school, an excellent education.
You married your wife Jeanne Simpson Hyde just after the war and were together for 45 years. Her death in 1992 was difficult for you.
I can say her death made me realize how deep and profound the Catholic faith is. I just put everything in God's hands. Your submission to God's will is a source of strength. In the darkest moments, you can call upon him.
Do you pray?
More than once every day.
The Bush administration has signaled a new philosophy with the announcement that faith-based organizations should receive federal support. What do you think of this initiative?
I think it is belated recognition of the marvelous work faith-based groups are capable of doing.
Will you be able to apply this approach in your new work, in the House Foreign Relations Committee?
Yes. Absolutely. We must give new emphasis to the use of faith-based groups in the distribution of foreign aid. There are many issues in international relations that have a moral aspect: world hunger, poverty, tribal warfare, ethnic cleansing. The list is endless. These and other issues deserve our attention.
What goals are prominent in your political life now?
I don't know that right now I have any intense goals. You take issues as they come along. I have always felt that abortion is a terrible scourge and that God must be terribly disappointed when we have 1.5 million abortions a year and people who should know better look the other way about this form of holocaust. I'd like to minimize the number of abortions.
I believe that we are on the verge of a new form of defense system. At the same time, these computer viruses remind us that being dependent on computers entails risk in itself.
There is no shortage of political problems; my ambition is to deal with them effectively. Another thing that all of us in public life have to do is dispel the suspicion around political figures. There is so much negativity which drives the best people away from politics. I prefer to stress the positive, the good people in government.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Rep. Henry Hyde ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Federal Court OKs Ohio's 'God' Motto DATE: 04/01/2000 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 1-7, 2000 ----- BODY:CINCINNATI — Ohio's motto, “With God, all things are possible,” is constitutional even though it quotes Jesus directly, a federal court ruled March 16.
The 9-4 decision by the full 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturns a decision made last April by a three-judge panel of the same court. That decision held that the Ohio motto, which quotes the words of Jesus in Matthew 19:26, expresses “a uniquely Christian thought” and its use by the state constituted government endorsement of Christianity.
“For most of our history as an independent nation, the words of the constitutional prohibition against enactment of any law 'respecting an establishment of religion’ were commonly assumed to mean what they literally said,” wrote Judge David A. Nelson in the majority decision.
“The provision was not understood as prohibiting the state from merely giving voice, in general terms, to religious sentiments widely shared by those of its citizens who profess a belief in God,” the judge added.
However, such expressions of religious sentiment are vehemently opposed by organizations like Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. The Washington-based group filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of the plaintiff, Presbyterian minister Matthew Peterson, who sued the state of Ohio with the backing of the American Civil Liberties Union.
“I think we could do without a direct quotation from a specific religious tradition,” Barry Lynn, the organization's executive director, told the Register. “It would be better if it were changed.”
He added that he prefers America's original motto “E Pluribus Unum” to the second motto, “In God We Trust,” adopted by Congress in the 1950s. “I'm always wary of when politicians try to cheapen and politicize religion,” said Lynn.
But others saw the decision as an affirmation of the religious sentiments of the people of Ohio.
“Some people tend to view such religious sentiments as vacuous,” said Father John Neuhaus, “but that doesn't mean the people of Ohio have to think that.”
The editor of First Things hailed the decision as a victory for religion in the public square, an arena where it has seen many setbacks in previous years.
“It's a welcome correction of the lower court, that in its majority opinion, as [Supreme Court Justice William] Rehnquist said on another occasion, ‘bristled with hostility toward religion,’” Father Neuhaus told the Register.
Father Neuhaus added that critics of the court's decision in favor of the motto were not being forthright.
“Barry Lynn's ideal is the ‘naked public square,’” said Father Neuhaus, referring to a political process devoid of religious influences.
Father Neuhaus questioned the sincerity of Lynn's claim that his group is trying to defend religion against being “cheapened” by being involved in politics. “It's in the nature of the political process that appeals are made to the integrity of the religious process,” Father Neuhaus said. “But knowing the history of his [Lynn's] organization, that's really a disingenuous argument.”
The defense of religion in the public square rightly deserves constitutional support, agreed Jay Sekulow of the Virginia-based American Center for Law and Justice.
“This is an important victory for freedom and a sound defeat for those who want to strip our nation of its religious heritage,” said Sekulow, who filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of Ohio.
“The decision comes at a time when there is a national movement underway to remove any mention of ‘God’ from the public arena,” Sekulow said in a statement to the Register. “The court decision affirms what we have believed from the beginning — the Ohio motto is constitutional and represents an important recognition that the motto reflects both the cultural and historical importance of our past and should not be banned.”
Ohio adopted the motto in 1959 and uses it on official stationery and tax forms. The suit arose when the motto was placed on a bronze plate in the sidewalk at an entrance to the Ohio Statehouse.
“I agree with the majority opinion that our motto serves a secular purpose, instilling confidence and optimism and exhorting the listener or reader not to give up and to continue to strive,” said Ohio Gov. Bob Taft, in a statement. “Our state motto has overwhelming support, and I'm pleased that we have survived this challenge.”
While the plaintiff may challenge the decision, the U.S. Supreme Court is not expected to hear such an appeal.
Joshua Mercer writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 04/01/2000 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 1-7, 2000 ----- BODY:Anti-Catholic Irish Leader Invited to White House
NEW YORK POST, March 14 — President Bush invited an array of Irish leaders on St. Patrick's Day, including Northern Ireland Protestant preacher and political activist the Rev. Ian Paisley, the New York daily reported.
It was Paisley's first White House invitation. He has called the Catholic Church “an instrument of the devil,” among other epithets.
The meeting was an attempt to strengthen Irish peace talks. New York State Rep. Peter King, who has been involved in the peace process, said, “I have nothing but contempt for Ian Paisley.” However, King added, “I have no problem with him being invited to the White House” for peace negotiations, “only because I think all the parties should be invited.”
How Americans Worship
THE WASHINGTON POST, March 14 — The largest study ever taken of American congregations has found some surprising results, the Washington daily reported.
Smaller U.S. religions, including Islam, Judaism and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, are growing fast. Evangelical Protestant congregations are also surging, unlike the declining mainline Protestant groups. Catholic and Eastern Orthodox congregations have built few new churches, although the survey found that Catholic churches tended to house the biggest congregations of any faith.
Nearly two-thirds of the congregations maintained strong ties to their religious denominations, debunking claims that people are unwilling to affiliate themselves with established religious groups.
Congregations that take “strong public stands on morality” tend to grow, and to have financial stability, the survey found. Social ministries and use of contemporary music styles in worship also drew high memberships.
Chinese Hymns Get Rare Public Hearing in Pa.
THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, March 18 — Americans got a rare chance to hear the hymns of China's underground Protestant “house church movement” at the Westminster Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia daily reported.
Accompanied by piano and violin, ten Chinese students at the seminary sang in Mandarin lyrics such as, “O God, my God, have mercy on the church of China!” The term “house church” refers to the underground Protestant fellowships that operate out of members' houses because they are forbidden to set up public churches.
The students performed as part of Westminster's 10th annual Contemporary Issues Conference, “The Transforming Word: The Bible in World Cultures.” One of the singers was arrested in 1996 for evangelizing in China.
The Chinese government operates official churches of its own, including a “Catholic Church” that is not in communion with Rome. Many priests and bishops loyal to Rome have been jailed in the government's “laogai” reform camps for saying Mass.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: ACLU and Librarians Challenge Law Protecting Kids from Internet Porn DATE: 04/01/2000 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 1-7, 2000 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — Elementary school was the last place Robin Johnson expected her 8-year-old son to discover the dark nature of pornography.
Yet that's exactly what happened when her son was innocently surfing the Internet from his Glen Lake Elementary School computer in Glen Arbor, Mich.
“The faster he tried to get out, the faster it went into the Web site,” Johnson told the Register. “Once it's up, the image is there. And my son won't forget it.”
After initial inaction from her school, Johnson rallied her local community with a petition to demand that no children have computers with Internet access unless they contain software to filter out pornography.
The filters have been in place for two years and no child has suffered a similar trauma since.
But now that Washington law-makers have come to the defense of mothers like Robin Johnson by passing the Children's Internet Protection Act last December, free speech activists have wasted little time in suing the federal government to overturn the law.
At a March 20 press conference in Philadelphia, representatives of the American Library Association and the American Civil Liberties Union announced a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the law, which ties federal funding to a requirement that school and library computers have filtering software to block out both illegal and obscene material.
“Forcing libraries to choose between funding and censorship means millions of library users will lose — particularly those in the most poverty-stricken and geographically isolated areas of the country,” said Nancy Kranich, president of the American Library Association. “The federal government should not be subsidizing commercial filtering companies by forcing libraries to buy technology that doesn't work.”
She said tying federal funds to the mandating of filtering software would close off too much of the Internet to library patrons.
“If the same standards used in online filters were applied to a library's books the way they are to the Internet, our shelves would be practically empty,” Kranich said. “Filters work by spotting words, not by making judgments about decency.”
Misleading Arguments
But Chicago librarian Laura Morgan said her organization's leadership is intentionally trying to distract people with false claims of censorship.
“The plain fact remains that public libraries have never been in the business of providing hard-core pornography in print, not to mention illegal obscenity and child pornography,” Morgan told the Register.
“The argument that we must provide it now simply because it is available via the ‘uncontrollable’ medium we call the Internet is wrong,” she added. “Must we now add ‘X-rated bookstore’ to our list of services? Is that what our public libraries have become?”
Morgan and Johnson both came to Washington March 20 to join family advocates in a press conference to defend the law.
Chris Hansen, an attorney with the ACLU, stated that the filtering programs were simply unworkable.
“The flaws in blocking programs are not a matter of individual flaws in individual products,” said Hansen. “They are inevitable given the task and the limitations of the technology.” He claimed that the filtering software would accidentally block Web sites that are not obscene, like the Army Corps of Engineers or Disney World.
But Rep. Ernest Istook, ROkla., who sponsored the bill last year, said that it would be foolish to leave children totally unprotected because filtering software falls short of perfection.
“Just because brakes on a car don't work perfectly doesn't mean you shouldn't use breaks,” Rep. Istook told the Register.
Beside, such incidents as those described by the ACLU's Hanson are rare and easily fixable, Johnson said.
“Since we put our software in place in January of 1999, we have had two sites that are considered educational that were blocked,” she said of her son's Glen Lake Elementary School. “The first incident happened on the first day while they were still fine-tuning the software,” she said.
On the other occasion, the teacher was able to remedy the situation immediately, Johnson said. “The teacher called the tech person and told him to unblock the site. It took one minute.”
Donna Rice Hughes, author of Kids Online: Protecting Your Children in Cyberspace, told the Register that the ACLU's comments on technology concerns are disingenuous.
“They don't believe in any filtering because they believe it's unconstitutional to prevent the distribution of pornography to anyone, even children,” she said.
ACLU and Pornography
Hughes cited Policy 4 of the ACLU which states, “The ACLU opposes any restraint on the right to create, publish or distribute materials to adults, or the right of adults to choose the materials they read or view, on the basis of obscenity, pornography or indecency.”
The organization's policy statement also states, “Laws which punish the distribution of such material to minors violate the First Amendment, and inevitably restrict the right to publish and distribute such materials to adults.”
Johnson said that organizations like the ACLU need to realize that such material is harmful to young children like her son.
“Putting children in adult situations and expecting them to act like adults is totally absurd,” she said.
But protecting her son and his classmates at Glen Lake Elementary isn't enough for the Michigan mother.
Said Johnson, “I'll be done when we have all our kids protected.”
Joshua Mercer writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Vatican Saint-Maker Tells What it Takes to Make the Cut DATE: 04/01/2000 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 1-7, 2000 ----- BODY:Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, prefect for the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, is known for his good-natured Portuguese temperament. Or perhaps it is the satisfaction of spending so much of his time with the saints.
Under Pope John Paul II, the Congregation has beatified 996 men and women and canonized another 447 — which is comparable to the beatification and canonization numbers of the four previous centuries combined.
The cardinal recently spoke with Register correspondent Sabrina Arena Ferrisi.
Ferrisi: How has your background helped you in your current position?
Though my background is very diversified, I believe it is complementary to my current job. I taught theology and worked on the formation of priests. This was a great preparation for the process used in the cause of saints. In all of our cases, we have an investigation on three different levels: theological, historical and scientific. We look at, respectively, the virtues, the historical facts, and our doctors examine the miracles.
My background prepared me particularly in the area of evaluating such things. Holiness is essential for the Church. Though we often speak of holiness, in my dicastery [Vatican department] we actually find holiness incarnated in the lives of these servants of God. We see how many Christians really took the Lord's Gospel seriously.
One of John Paul II's fundamental objectives is to give greater value to holiness. That's why he attributes great importance to beatifications and canonizations. They propose real models of holiness which challenge society itself.
During Pope John Paul II's pontificate, there have been numerous beatifications and canonizations. But the majority are still European religious men and women. Why are there not more lay people — who can serve as models for Catholics who are married, with children, with “ordinary jobs”?
This is an excellent question. First, we have to look at the geography of holiness — and this has already changed substantially. John Paul II has made saints in many countries. For example, on Oct. 1, he canonized 120 Chinese martyrs. Prior to that, he canonized Mother Katharine Drexel, an American, and before that, he canonized Sister Bakita, an African. All represent different continents. Holiness doesn't look at geography or borders. Holiness can flower anywhere. It is universal.
About there being less lay people canonized than religious, maybe in the past it was this way. But John Paul II has canonized hundreds of lay people. The exact number of lay beatifications are 215 and lay canonizations are 245. Many people don't know this.
I am very happy about it because lay people represent 98% of the Catholic Church. It also affirms Vatican II's universal call to holiness. The Church today needs lay witnesses to the faith. We need models of people who live in society.
We are currently working on the cause of an Italian couple, the Quattrocchi's, for beatification. We are also examining the cause of St. Thérèse of Lisieux's parents.
The reaction of the Chinese government to the canonizations of 120 Chinese martyrs, on October 1, was very negative. In fact, relations between the Holy See and China have worsened since then. Can you explain their reaction?
A beatification or canonization never has political significance for us in the Congregation. We went ahead with the Chinese martyrs because they were witnesses to the faith. They showed great heroism, to the point of spilling their blood in order to defend that faith. It was not meant as a provocation, and we never thought about the political problems that could result.
The reaction of the Chinese government does not influence our relations [between the Holy See and China] as much as you would think. We hope relations will get better. From what I know, Catholics in China received the news of the canonizations very well. They were, in fact, very inspired.
What exactly is the role of cardinals in saint-making?
The congregation has what we call “ordinary assemblies.” This is where our 30 cardinal members come together in a parliamentary fashion. They examine all the historical, medical and theological issues of each case. Then they give their evaluation on all these levels and reach a conclusion. If it is in favor of beatification, they present it to the Holy Father. It is Pope John Paul II who ultimately decides on the beatification and establishes a date.
It seems that most of the beatifications and canonizations that have taken place under Pope John Paul II have been martyrs. How can you explain this?
A great deal depends on the importance that John Paul II attributes to martyrs. The history of the Catholic Church is, in fact, a history of martyrs. I often say that the Church has never taken off the red tunic of martyrdom since her birth. It has been a constant. Also, we have to remember that John Paul II comes from a country with a history of Catholic martyrs.
Martyrs are a treasure for the Church, a precious inheritance. Their courage is not explainable in natural terms. It is supernatural. They stimulate us to be ready to give our lives. Today there is the tendency to live without sacrifice and live in comfort. The martyrs tell us that life is not a matter of pleasure, but of living supernatural values. Their importance to the Church is immense.
It is said that the cause of the Spanish martyrs took a very long time for political reasons. The cause had been brought up under Pope Paul VI, but he said No. Instead, Pope John Paul II has had no problem with it. Can you explain?
The Spanish martyrs has taken a very long time because it was a very delicate case. We had to study it well to avoid political interpretations. But also because we had to study it within the context of the martyrs themselves, and make sure that these people did not give up their life for political reasons but to defend their faith.
Some people have criticized the Vatican for what they claim is an “inflation” of beatifications and canonizations. How do you respond to this?
I respond that in good things, there can never be an inflation! In fact, we should have more beatifications and canonizations. Saints are not determined by computers. Saints come when God sends them to us.
How many canonizations and beatifications are on line at this moment?
Over 2000 cases altogether. 200 of these are at a very advanced stage.
The Pope shortened the normal time for a cause for Mother Teresa. What's the significance of this action?
According to canon law, five years must pass before you can open a cause for sainthood. The Pope made a big exception for Mother Teresa. After two and a half years, the process for her cause began. It is in the diocesan phase right now in Calcutta. It's hard because she didn't just live in one place, but all over the world. So we have people investigating her life in many different countries. We even sent an official from our congregation to Calcutta for two weeks to conduct research. This shows how important this cause is for us.
As a Portuguese, did the beatifications of the two shepherd children at Fatima, Francisco and Jacinta, have a special impact on you? And what about the “third secret” — did you expect it to be revealed?
The beatification was a beautiful experience! I consider it a privilege that it happened during my time here as prefect of this congregation. On the 13th of March last year, I was on the Italian TV program “Portaportese” live from Fatima. They had Giulio Andreotti [former President of Italy], Vittorio Messori [editor of Crossing the Threshold of Hope] and Franco Zeffirelli [director of the movie Jesus of Nazareth].
Zeffirelli asked me, “What's in the Third Secret?” And I said, “Nothing extraordinary that we do not already know.” Andreotti said that it had to be extraordinary, or else we would know it. I said that I was certain it did not contain anything apocalyptic, and let's wait until tomorrow.
The next day the Pope revealed it. I wanted to call everyone back and say ‘I told you so’!
There was much negative publicity on the canonization of Pope Pius IX. How do you feel about this experience? How did the Pope take it?
The Pope has lived this event with complete serenity.
The interpretation of history is not always as clear as one would like. Pius IX lived in a different time, when the masons were strong, and there was a large Jewish population in Rome.
People have said that Pope Pius IX was anti-Jew. But he opened the ghettos of the Jews. He gave rights to Jews that they didn't have. Critics use this as an opportunity to attack the Church.
But the Church always goes with the truth. We have great tranquility. Those who study history know the truth. It's very clear.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Cardinal Egan Given Key Role in Bishops' Synod DATE: 04/01/2000 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 1-7, 2000 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — Pope John Paul II has assigned Cardinal Edward Egan of New York a key role in a meeting of Roman Catholic bishops from throughout the world to be held in the Vatican in October.
The Vatican announced March 15 that Cardinal Egan will serve as general relator (reporter) at the Sept. 30 to Oct. 27 meeting of the Synod of Bishops. The task of the relator is to announce the topics for discussion at the beginning of the synod and to summarize the expositions and proposals stemming from the addresses given at the synod's general assembly.
The Pope, as president of the synod, delegated Cardinals Giovanna Battista Re, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Bishops, Bernard Agre, archbishop of Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, and Ivan Dias, archbishop of Bombay, to preside over the sessions in his place and named Bishop Marcello Semeraro of Oria, Italy, as special secretary.
The U.S. church will be represented at the synod by four elected delegates in addition to Cardinal Egan. They are Bishops Joseph Fiorenza, president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Wilton Gregory, vice president, and Cardinals William Keeler of Baltimore and Francis George of Chicago.
The theme of the assembly will be “The Bishop: Servant of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the Hope of the World.”
The Synod of Bishops is an outgrowth of the Second Vatican Council, established by Pope Paul VI in 1965 to strengthen papal ties with the bishops, exchange information on key issues facing the Church and promote agreement on doctrine and procedure within the Church.
The Pope also has called a consis-tory (meeting) of all 183 cardinals in the Vatican May 21-24 to consider the course of the Church in the new millennium.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Vatican Confirms Talks About Lefebvre Schism DATE: 04/01/2000 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 1-7, 2000 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — Vatican representatives are in contact with followers of traditionalist Bishop Marcel Lefebvre, responsible for the only schism of John Paul II's pontificate.
Bishop Camil Perl, secretary of the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei,” confirmed the news to the Italian ANSA agency. The Pope has entrusted the commission with the care of those faithful of the Priestly Society of St. Pius X, founded by Bishop Lefebvre, who wish to return to full communion with Rome.
The rupture took place June 30, 1988, when Bishop Lefebvre ordained four bishops without papal approval. The French bishop had rejected the Second Vatican Council's liturgical reform, and the legitimacy of interreligious dialogue. In 1986 he denounced John Paul's visit to Rome's synagogue as a scandal “without measure or precedent.” Bishop Lefebvre died in 1991.
On July 2, 1988, the Pope wrote the apostolic letter Ecclesia Dei, in which he specifically referred to the episcopal ordination: “Hence such disobedience — which implies in practice the rejection of the Roman primacy — constitutes a schismatic act” (No. 3).
However, in order not to cut off ties and to open the possibility of reconciliation, the Ecclesia Dei commission was created. The panel is now headed by Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Clergy.
Today, Bishop Perl disclosed that Cardinal Castrillón “started a series of talks some time ago with Don Bernard Falley, who leads the international Society of St. Pius X in Écône,” Switzerland. The Vatican aide said he did not know when the talks would conclude. He also said “juridical solutions” are being sought to overcome the controversy.
March 14, the Spanish newspaper La Razón reported that “the Vatican is studying [the possibility] of giving the Lefebvrites a personal prelature. The followers of the excommunicated bishop are prepared to return to the heart of the Catholic Church if they are allowed to celebrate Mass in Latin and the excommunications are lifted.”
Currently, Opus Dei is the only personal prelature in the Catholic Church.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 04/01/2000 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 1-7, 2000 ----- BODY:Chile to Donate Copper for Vatican Restoration
REUTERS, March 8 –– Chile has promised to donate an unlimited amount of copper to restore Vatican City in a show of gratitude for the Church's role in “difficult” moments in the country's history, the news service said.
The Church, and Pope John Paul II in particular, are credited by some Chileans with pressuring former dictator Augusto Pinochet to call a plebiscite that eventually ended his bloody 1973-1990 rule and returned the country to democracy.
A Chilean government spokesman said in early March that the Pope had accepted the offer from state-owned copper miner Codelco and six other private companies from Chile, the world's largest copper producer.
“The government and local producers decided to donate as much copper as is necessary for the remodeling of the Vatican … and there has been a very positive response from the holy city,’’ government spokesman Claudio Huepe told reporters.
The metal could be used to restore the roofs of landmark buildings such as St. Peter's Basilica or the Sistine Chapel.
Greek Orthodox Priests Vote to Boycott Pope's Visit
THE LONDON TELEGRAPH, March 15 –– Greek Orthodox priests have voted overwhelmingly to boycott the Pope when he visits Greece during a pilgrimage to retrace the steps of St. Paul, the daily reported.
Their opposition was described in the paper as “border[ing] on hatred” as a result of centuries of schism. The Orthodox Church also resents the Vatican's expansion into former Soviet states where the Eastern churches were traditionally dominant, the Telegraph said.
The Hellenic Clerics' Association, representing rank-and-file Orthodox priests, said no member of the Church should attend functions with the Pope. It called on Archbishop Christodoulos to stay away from the welcoming party at Athens airport or any other reception and said he should refuse any invitation to Rome.
The clerics recently branded the Pope an “arch-heretic” and said churches should ring their bells in a sign of mourning.
Police are preparing for demonstrations by priests during the Pope's visit, which is expected in May. Archbishop Christodoulos has said that “basic rules of politeness” dictate that he must meet the Pope and accept any invitation for a reciprocal visit.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: The Guiding Star of the New Millennium DATE: 04/01/2000 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 1-7, 2000 ----- BODY:Register Summary
The joys and sufferings of Mary's experience on her pilgrimage of faith mirror those of the entire Church, said John Paul II.
Even though God chose her and filled her with his grace, Mary knew uncertainty and pain, the Pope said March 21 during his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square.
Hers was a journey of faith, accomplished under the shadow of a prophecy that foretold her suffering — Simeon's warning that a sword would pierce her soul. Her path took her through the sufferings of exile in Egypt and of times of inner darkness when she did not understand Jesus, the Pope said.
Mary's pilgrimage finally led her to the foot of the cross, where she gained “a new motherhood” in the Church. She still walks ahead of the Church and of every believer on the path to mankind's ultimate encounter with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
The passage in Luke (1:39-42), which we just heard, shows us Mary as a pilgrim of love. Elizabeth draws attention to her faith, however, and when they meet pronounces the first beatitude of the Gospel — “Blessed are you who believed.” This expression is “almost a key, which gives us a glimpse of Mary's intimate reality” (Redemptoris Mater, 19). As a crowning to the catecheses of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, we would now like to present the Lord's Mother as a pilgrim in faith. As daughter of Zion, she follows in the footprints of Abraham, who obeyed by faith, “when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; he went out, not knowing where he was to go” (Hebrews 11:8).
This symbol of a pilgrimage in faith sheds light on the inner history of Mary, the believer par excellence, as the Second Vatican Council points out: “The Blessed Virgin advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and faithfully persevered in her union with her Son unto the cross” (Lumen Gentium, 58). The Annunciation “is the starting point of Mary's journey toward God” (Redemptoris Mater, 14) — a journey of faith with the foreknowledge of the sword that will pierce her soul (see Luke 2:35); a journey that passes through the tortuous roads of exile in Egypt and of interior darkness, when Mary “did not understand” the 12-year-old Jesus' attitude in the temple and yet “kept all these things in her heart” (Luke 2:51).
Times of Darkness, Times of Light
The hidden life of Jesus also unfolds in obscurity, a time when Mary must make Elizabeth's blessing reverberate within herself through an authentic “labor of the heart” (Redemptoris Mater, 17).
Certainly in Mary's life flashes of light were not lacking, as at the wedding of Cana, where — although with obvious detachment — Christ accepts the Mother's prayer and performs the first sign of Revelation, eliciting faith in his disciples (see John 2:1-12).
In the same interplay of light and shadow, of revelation and mystery, there are two other beatitudes that Luke mentions — one directed to the Mother of Christ by a woman of the crowd, and the other directed by Jesus to “those who hear the word of God and keep it” (Luke 11:28).
The goal of this earthly pilgrimage in faith is Golgotha, where Mary intimately experiences the paschal mystery of the Son; in a certain sense she dies as a mother in the death of the Son and opens herself to the “resurrection” and to a new motherhood in the life of the Church (see John 19:25-27). There, on Calvary, Mary experienced the night of faith, similar to Abraham's on Mount Moriah, and after the brightness of Pentecost, she continues to be a pilgrim in faith until her Assumption when the Son welcomes her into eternal happiness.
“The Blessed Virgin Mary continues to go before the People of God. Her exceptional pilgrimage of faith provides a constant reference point for the Church, for individuals and for communities, for peoples and nations and, in a certain sense, for all humanity” (Redemptoris Mater, 6). She is the star of the third millennium, as at the beginning of the Christian era she was the dawn that preceded Jesus on the horizon of history. In fact, Mary was born chronologically before Christ and gave him birth and introduced him into our human affairs.
Reasons for Joy
We turn to her, so that she will continue to guide us toward Christ and the Father, also in the dark night of evil, in moments of doubt, crisis, silence and suffering. To her we raise the hymn that the Eastern Church loves more than any other, the Akathistos hymn that, in stanza 24, lyrically exalts her. In the fifth stanza dedicated to the visit to Elizabeth, it exclaims:
On Calvary, Mary experienced the night of faith, similar to Abraham's on Mount Moriah.
“Rejoice, imperishable shoot of the vine. Rejoice, possessor of perfect fruit. Rejoice, you who cultivate the cultivator, friend of men. Rejoice, Mother of the Creator of our life. Rejoice, soil that germinates, fertile in compassion. Rejoice, table that is set with plentiful mercy. Rejoice, because you make a meadow of delights bloom. Rejoice, because you prepare a haven for souls. Rejoice, pleasing incense of prayer. Rejoice, forgiveness of the whole world. Rejoice, God's kindness to mortals. Rejoice, courageous word of mortals to God. Rejoice, Virgin Spouse!”
The visit to Elizabeth is sealed by the canticle of the Magnificat, a hymn that comes down through all the Christian centuries as a perennial melody — a hymn that unites the spirits of Christ's disciples beyond historical divisions, which we are determined to surmount for the sake of full communion.
In this ecumenical climate it is beautiful to recall that in 1521 Martin Luther dedicated a famous commentary to this “holy canticle of the Blessed Mother of God” — as he expressed it. In it he affirms that the hymn “should be well studied and remembered by all,” because “in the Magnificat, Mary teaches us how we must love and praise God. She wishes to be the greatest example of God's grace, so as to encourage all to confidence in and praise of divine grace” (M. Luther, Religious Writings, edited by V. Vinay, Turin 1967, pp. 431-512).
Hope of the Poor
Mary celebrates the preeminence of God and his grace — of God who chooses the last and the neglected, the “poor of the Lord” of whom the Old Testament speaks; who reverses their fortune and leads them to be participants in the history of salvation.
From the moment God looked upon her with love, Mary became a sign of hope for the company of the poor, the last of the earth who become the first in the Kingdom of God. She faithfully copies the preference of Christ, her Son, who repeats to all the afflicted throughout history: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). The Church follows Mary and the Lord Jesus walking on the twisted roads of history, to raise, promote and value the immense procession of women and men, the poor and the hungry, the humiliated and the hurt. (see Luke 1:52-53).
As St. Ambrose points out, the humble Virgin of Nazareth, is not “the God of the temple, but the temple of God” (De Spiritu Sancto III, 11, 80). As such, she guides all those who have recourse to her toward the encounter with the Triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
[Translation by Zenit and the Register]
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 04/01/2000 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 1-7, 2000 ----- BODY:Terrorism Rocks Philippine Island
XINHUA NEWS AGENCY, March 19 –– Two attempted terrorist attacks were recently thwarted in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, the news agency reported.
On March 18, an army unit detonated an improvised bomb found in Immaculate Conception Cathedral in the southern city of Cotabato. The previous night, another explosive fired from a grenade launcher landed on the roof of a house in the same city. No one was hurt in either incident.
The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force in Mindanao said officials are still examining the incidents carefully. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the country's largest armed rebel group, has been fighting for more than two decades to establish an independent Islamic state in the island. Philippines President Gloria Arroyo has declared a unilateral truce with the group and freed a number of jailed rebels to convince them to restart peace negotiations.
Lebanese Catholics Operate TV Network
THE DAILY STAR, March 17–– Tele-Lumiere, now in its 10th year, is the Middle East's first Catholic television station. And, according to the Lebanese daily, it's thriving.
What began as a one-room, part-time operation in 1991 has blossomed into a multi-story, 24-hour-a-day affair thanks to a mega-antenna on top of a mountain near the station's studio in the Lebanese city of Dora. TeleLumiere now reaches homes from Syria to Jordan and Palestine, and has viewers as far south as Alexandria, Egypt.
Known in-house as the “Continuous Miracle,” Tele-Lumiere has obtained funding by selling videocassettes at $20 each as well as religious paraphernalia such as rosaries, books and pictures of the saints. It also has a travel department that organizes pilgrimages to Medugorje.
Donations come from individuals both in Lebanon and abroad and take various forms. Marie-Therese Kreidy, head of Tele-Lumiere's public relations department, said she “honestly doesn't know” where money to support the station comes from, adding, “somehow, it always comes when we most need it.”
Portugal Grants Homosexuals Rights of Marriage
ASSOCIATED PRESS, March 16 –– Same-sex Portuguese couples who have lived together for more than two years have been granted the same rights as married heterosexual couples in the predominantly Catholic country, the news service reported.
The Portuguese National Assembly voted March 15 to extend some legal and tax benefits to homosexual couples. The vote, which pitted the left-of-center majority against the right-of-center opposition, came after years of lobbying by homosexual groups.
A proposal to include same-sex relationships in common-law marriage legislation was rejected in 1999, according to the Associated Press. But it picked up support after alterations were made to the tax provisions of the bill.
Like most of Europe, Portugal does not allow same-sex marriages. But, as part of the European Community, it must grant the rights for homosexuals outlined in the Community's statutes.
Last December, the Netherlands became the first nation in the world to include homosexual couples in its definition of marriage.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Horror Stories DATE: 04/01/2000 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 1-7, 2000 ----- BODY:It's hard to imagine what could be more heart-rending ... or more of an outrage.
Priests are raping nuns. Some of the headlines have greatly overstated the problem (calling it “widespread” is misleading and calling it a “time-bomb” is hyperbole) but we all owe a debt of gratitude to anyone helping to step up the Church's response to this tragedy and scandal.
Greatly to her credit, Pamela Schaeffer (managing editor of The National Catholic Reporter, which broke the story) stressed on National Public Radio that “we are talking here about very few priests. And I think it's important that not all priests be painted with this kind of a brush.”
Others have been less kind, quick to suggest that the cause of this horrible conduct was ... priestly celibacy.
The problem with that assumption is that these attacks have been very rare. If the nature of the priesthood were at fault, it wouldn't be rare at all.
Two other things Schaeffer said in summing up the newspaper's report might offer better clues as to how the Church could prevent such abuses in the future.
Seminary training. First, she made the point that these priests did not get appropriate seminary training in celibacy. Shouldn't the Church look here to address this problem? As Omaha, Neb., Archbishop Elden Curtiss says in Brian McGuire's front-page story this week, new pastoral and theological approaches can help to develop the virtue of celibacy in priests even better than old-style approaches, and of course much better than no approach. In addition, a faithful and vigorous Catholic culture in the seminary can help identify those not called to celibacy. Experiments in downplaying celibacy in our seminaries have caused great pain. They should end.
Inculturation. Schaeffer also pointed out that the attacks were caused by cultural differences, particularly in certain parts of Africa, which are hostile to celibacy. Here's another place the Church can respond. The Church should “accommodate” itself to cultures in order to teach its faith and morals more effectively — but should never change its faith or morals to fit a culture's. The models of the Church that pay the wrong kind of homage to cultural differences have had dire doctrinal consequences, which were addressed recently in the document Dominus Iesus. In the Reporter's article, we see that this soft model of the Church can have ugly moral consequences as well.
So, the prescription for addressing this problem should be straightforward: Jail the offenders, and then put their lessons on the wall of every seminary formator's office:
Lax seminaries and seminaries that are skimpy in authentic moral formation are disasters waiting to happen. Strong seminaries, like the one featured on our front page this week, are graces waiting to break out.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: George Bush II DATE: 04/01/2000 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 1-7, 2000 ----- BODY:We have recently cautioned against being too enthusiastic about President Bush, and there are still plenty of reasons for caution. But he has also provided new reasons for enthusiasm.
His comments to Catholic leaders the day before dedicating the John Paul II cultural center were remarkable.
Here's what W. said (the full text is on page 15): “All of you are part of the humanizing mission which is part of the ‘great commission’ and the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center, which we will dedicate tomorrow, will bring this message to generations of Americans in this capital of our nation. The best way to honor Pope John Paul II, truly one of the great men, is to take his teaching seriously; is to listen to his words and put his words and teachings into action here in America. This is a challenge we must accept.”
----- EXCERPT: EDITORIAL ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: DATE: 04/01/2000 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 1-7, 2000 ----- BODY:Confessional Conundrum
An article in your March 18-24 issue, “Seal of the Confessional Comes Into Play in FBI Spy Inquiry,” contains the following quote from a diocesan newspaper: “[A] priest may ask the penitent for a release from the sacramental seal to discuss the confession with the person himself or others.”
The Canon Law Society of Great Britain and Ireland, in its 1995 book The Canon Law: Letter and Spirit, comes to the opposite conclusion: “The use of the Latin word nefas (‘absolutely wrong’) shows how seriously the norm of this canon [i.e., No. 983] is regarded. Put simply, the priest is strictly forbidden to reveal by any means whatever anything the penitent may have disclosed to him. Even the penitent cannot release him from this obligation.”
Anthony Cardinal Bevilacqua, in a 1996 article in the Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, stated: “That which the priest learns in the confessional, he knows uniquely as the representative of God, and not at all through human knowledge or communication; he should completely detach himself from (such knowledge); it is as if he knows nothing. It is necessary that the faithful have the most absolute confidence in the perfect discretion of confessors. Also the secret is more rigid than any other and never permits the least exception.”
The Canon Law Society flatly contradicts the assertion in your article. Cardinal Bevilacqua's position also seems to do so. I invite the staff and readers of your fine newspaper to research this important question in more detail and to publish a clarification in a future issue.
MICHAEL J. MAZZA, ESQ.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Editor's Note: Father William Saunders informs us that Catholic News Service took the quote in question out of context from his 1998 book Straight Answers.
In its original context, it was accounting for two circumstances: penitents who approach priests for further guidance after confession, and priests who must get permission to absolve a sin. In the last case, which includes sins such as sacrilege against the Eucharist and a woman's second abortion, a priest must have the penitent's permission and must appeal the matter without naming the penitent.
We should have double-checked CNS's reporting on this story — we regret the oversight.
Georgetown's Lay Leader
The article “Georgetown in Hands of Layman” (March 18-24) states that John DeGioia is “the first non-Jesuit to lead the nation's oldest Catholic University.” This is not accurate.
DeGioia will, indeed, be the first layman to occupy the post. The third president of Georgetown College, appointed by Bishop John Carroll, was a Sulpician priest, Louis William Dubourg, who served in the post from 1796 until 1798.
Father Dubourg later became the bishop of Louisiana, where he distinguished himself as an outstanding figure in early American Catholic history. In 1826 Pope Leo XII appointed Bishop Dubourg as bishop of Montauban in his native France, and he later became the Archbishop of Besancon.
PHILIP GAGE, S.M.
Washington, D.C.
Letter Logistics
I was wondering if you could take just a minute to answer a few questions I have.
If I were to submit a letter to the editor of the National Catholic Register (which I love, by the way), what is the maximum length of the letter I could write?
Also, would I have to include my full name, street address and phone number? If so, would my workplace address or work phone number be all right?
I am actually asking these for a friend, so I would really appreciate it if you could give any information as soon as possible. Thank you so much.
LIZ REYNOLDS
via e-mail
Editor's Note: A good rule of thumb for letters is: the shorter, the better. The maximum length we'll run varies but we rarely run more than 400 words of any one letter.
In order to publish your letter, we'll need to include your name, city and state (we've made an exception for your letter so others can benefit from your question).
Last, always include your phone number or e-mail address, so we can reach you should we have any questions.
The Family That Moves Together ...
This is in response to the “Family Matters” question from F.X.T. of Indianapolis, a man who expressed his concern over a possible career-related move overseas (March 18-24). God must love your family very much! What a great blessing for you, your wife and children to be offered this opportunity to transfer overseas. Let me explain.
We have four children and we have moved as a family a lot! We have lived in Taiwan, Iceland, Spain, England, Hawaii and the continental United States. The children are in their 30s now and every one of them couldn't be better people, and much of it is directly from the challenges and exposures that we experienced together as a family.
My husband and I view transfers as another opportunity to solidify our family relationships. We prepared the children for the moves since their toddler days by explaining to them that the “family” — which is Mom, Dad and their siblings — is going to a new place to live.
Where we are at the time is just a house, and we will go live in another house. The family, which is people, is still going to be together. Nothing is changed. Each child is allowed to carry a small familiar and favored “thing” (usually a special toy) with him, while the movers transport the furniture. And I wish you could share our happiness when we are at the new destination and the household goods arrive and we see our familiar furnishings!
Moves bring our family closer. We find that family is the reality in life, not the trappings of an environment, no matter how pleasant. Isn't this what our life's “pilgrimage” to God is all about? The children learn to detach, to priori-tize, to focus on God, and understand the meaning of life, and develop trust in God's wisdom and providence.
This is family togetherness at its finest. The bonding that we derive is pure joy, peace and comfort. Our moves give us chances to learn together, experience together, share
My prayer is that your family will be filled with the love, unity, respect, loyalty and contentment that our family is blessed with.
NANCY C. WILSON
Sheridan, Wyoming
Kinsey Was No Harvard Man
Alfred Kinsey and the “Institute for Sex Research” are associated with Indiana University — not Harvard as your March 18-24 issue stated (“Renowned Sex Researcher Was a Fraud, Investigator Says”). I doubt that Harvard would have engaged Kinsey for research on this or any other topic. Just want to set the record straight.
Joseph O'Donnell
San Francisco
Catholic University Rocks
I am writing in response to Oma Schick's letter of March 11—17, “Coed Catholics.”
I attended The Catholic University of America as an undergraduate on a full—tuition scholarship which was funded in part by collections in parishes throughout the country. During my four wonderful years there (1990—94), I lost neither my virginity nor my faith, I learned to love praying the rosary with fellow students (in a coed dorm!), and I studied under many talented professors.
Why should we assume that a person who has not completed his or her Ph.D. is unqualified to teach? While I was there as a nursing student, I learned much about true Catholicism from fellow undergrads whose excellent philosophy teachers (graduate students) were defending the faith in their classes.
I agree that there were some classes and activities on campus which weren't faithful to a truly Catholic vision of higher education. But there is cause for great hope. Vincentian Father David O'Connell, the current president, is an extremely vocal and inspiring defender of ExCorde Ecclesiae. My own archbishop, Charles Chaput, is a member of Catholic University's board of trustees and has expressed his admiration for President O'Connell's leadership.
Let us not abandon The Catholic University of America as it continues to provide an excellent education and becomes ever more truly “our” Catholic university.
WENDY WEST
Littleton, Colorado
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Incensed Over Iraq DATE: 04/01/2000 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 1-7, 2000 ----- BODY:In Leo White's commentary on the effectiveness of the U.S. embargo on Iraq, “Our Wrath is Righteous — But is it Right?” (March 18-24), he illustrates his point by employing an outrageous and illogical analogy.
He implies that we are holding innocent children hostage and torturing them unless their parents do what we want. His stretching of the facts only serves to discredit his entire argument. It may indeed be time to consider all alternative strategies, but using this comparison certainly is not a valid argument. We only have to look at history, and not a concocted analogy, to measure the effects of economic sanctions and boycotts. There have been both successes and failures. The downfall of the Iron Curtain, USSR and communist influence is the most recent example of what economic pressure can achieve.
It was not an embargo, but it did force the communist rulers to spend money for military and not on the welfare of the people, which resulted in the people revolting to achieve their freedom. We also have no guarantee that any assistance will actually go to the people — as we have learned from the tragedies in Africa, where relief convoys of food are routinely captured by rogue bands and never reach the intended destination.
Many countries have already become welfare nations, depending on foreign assistance for necessities while dictators rule, build up their military, support terrorists with the same ideologies and plunder their own countries' wealth.
There is no simple solution to these complex issues, but one must be able to present workable solutions, backed by historical examples, and not employ a current reprehensible method of just stirring up emotions, by any means, to gain supporters, which is what professor White has attempted to do.
TOM SAWYER
Strongsville, Ohio
----- EXCERPT: LETTERS ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Brave New Feminism On the Rise DATE: 04/01/2000 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 1-7, 2000 ----- BODY:Seconds after being shot, Pope John Paul II noticed the glaring absence of an image of Mary over St. Peter's Square.
Later, while recovering, he commissioned a mosaic of the Madonna and Child — the New Eve and the New Adam. In the years that followed, as the Marian dimension of his Christian discipleship came into clearer focus, he frequently wrote and spoke on issues of specific concern to women. In his encyclical The Gospel of Life, he even proposed a project: the “new feminism.”
That project is still gaining momentum.
So just what is this “new feminism”?
For one thing, the new feminism is an understanding of women as being both equal to, and different from, men. It appreciates that, for all persons, being either a man or a woman is an essential aspect of being human. In his Letter to Women, the Holy Father explains: “Womanhood expresses the ‘human’ as much as manhood does, but in a different and complementary way.” Sexual differentiation helps women understand what it means to be a woman, which in turn helps engage the questions raised by the feminist movement over the past 40 years.
It's certainly true that a woman today can do just about everything a man can do, sometimes even better. (To answer Professor Higgins' question from My Fair Lady: Yes, a woman can be more like a man.) But does this bring out what is particularly feminine in her? Does it make her happy?
After more than a generation, sexual liberation notwithstanding, many women are less content than their mothers and far less so than their grandmothers. In Feminism Is Not the Story of My Life, Elizabeth FoxGenovese points out that most feminism focuses only on the sexual aspect of women. From another perspective, Robin Maas of the John Paul II Institute notes that feminism has rebelled against woman's natural tendencies, stressing an individualistic rather than communal understanding of the person and society.
Many changes have only led to women doing the work that men do in addition to women's other responsibilities. Both men and women can govern nations, sky-dive, clean house and change diapers. And if they were put to the test, it would be difficult to prove that one sex always outperforms the other in most fields — unless someone just wanted to get out of changing diapers. But no matter what Vermont or the European Parliament allow, a man is still a man and a woman is still a woman.
The two will never be exactly the same and will always be understood in relation to each other.
The relational dimension shows itself, in one way, within the context of the family. The basic family unit generally manifests a division of labor or a diversity of roles. Many feminist thinkers understand these traditional differences as threats to women. In some unfortunate instances, that has been the case. The new feminism should enable us to appreciate the kind of difference which, as the Pope writes, is “not the result of arbitrary imposition, but is rather an expression of what is specific to being male and female.”
What makes a woman truly happy?
The original feminist critique focused on self-realization. Women on the whole were isolated from the world of men and, often, from things which are proper to them as human beings, such as the intellectual life. Self-realization, however, means different things to different people at different times. Some need greater independence, others a greater sense of connection. But most feminist theories cut women off from everyone else by focusing too much on woman as an isolated self.
A woman's relationships and interests all contribute to her identity. Janne Haaland Matláry, Norway's secretary of state for foreign affairs, professor, wife and mother of four, explores this theme in her recent book Il tempo della fioritura: per un nuovo femminismo (soon to be published in English as A Time to Blossom: Notes on a New Feminism).
Although Matláry's choice of both motherhood and a career may not be one that all women would make, she carefully defends the right and freedom of women to recognize themselves in their relationships, interests and vocations. At the same time, she vehemently opposes those who claim that stay-at-home mothers contribute nothing to the well-being of society.
While the new feminism is intended for all women, much of it depends on specifically Christian ideas. The Christian tradition maintains the equality of all human persons and, simultaneously, recognizes their differences. But the differences are not contraries. They manifest the ways in which different men and women freely and responsibly carry out their mission or vocation.
The new feminism must also take into account Mary, the mother of God, who perfectly personifies freedom, responsibility and vocation.
As John Paul II explains in On the Dignity and Vocation of Women, she is the “living and irreplaceable witness” of “the mighty works of God.” Mary's witness is characteristically feminine because she stands as bride and mother, identities that only a woman can hold.
Without compromising masculinity, the Pope subtly insists that men must make a similar witness because all are called through the Church to be the Bride of Christ. Without men and women who understand what it means for a woman to be a woman — to be fundamentally feminine — neither can progress far in Christ's call to holiness.
Pia de Solenni is a theologian and research associate at the Faith and Reason Institute in Washington.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Pia de Solenni ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Is the Great Commission a Call to ... Proselytism? DATE: 04/01/2000 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 1-7, 2000 ----- BODY:The Washington Post of Feb. 20 described a religious theme park in Orlando built by “Marvin Rosenthal, a Jew who became a Baptist minister.”
The Florida park seems to be a replica of downtown Jerusalem in Christ's time. It has an entry fee of $17 and evidently attracts mainly aging Christians. However, certain objections to the park have arisen on the grounds that the park's theme attempts to “proselytize” Jews and, presumably, anyone else who voluntarily goes through it. I do not know if Catholics, say, object because it entices them to become Baptists.
Yet, to present Christianity as if it did not have a very specific Jewish background, a background the Christian holds as true, is difficult. To conceive Christianity without the Hebrew revelation is an old heresy called Marcionism. One cannot be a Christian and deny that Christ fulfilled the Law.
Most Jews hold that, to be Jews, one cannot, at the same time, hold that Christ as the Word made flesh did fulfill the Old Testament promises. Hopefully, this logic does not mean that, for practical purposes, either the Jew or the Christian must deny what he holds. To acknowledge what each respectively maintains to be true cannot itself be considered an affront or a violation of freedom of religion or of philosophical authenticity.
All of this anti-proselytism business, however, comes at a time when the Holy Father has been telling us that we are a missionary Church and that making the faith known to others is the first priority of business, something that has been rather neglected in recent decades. Cardinal Ratzinger's document Dominus Jesus was, in fact, directed to the theoretical reasons for this very neglect.
Pope John Paul II, in his audience of January 25, for example, remarked: “Many people, especially the young, ask what path they should take. In the storm of words that they endure every day, they ask: Where is the truth? How can we overcome the power of death with life?
“These are basic questions which express the reawakening in many of a longing for the spiritual dimension of life. These questions Jesus has already answered when he affirmed, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life.’ The task of Christians today is to re-propose this decisive proclamation with all the power of their witness.”
Yet, if I maintain that Christ has answered all the basic questions, and I re-propose this position with all the power of my witness, what am I doing but proselytizing?
What is ‘Truth’?
The word proselytize comes from a Geek word meaning to approach, hence to convert or change someone else's belief. The word emphasizes the active effort to engage someone in a serious consideration of life and how it ought to be lived. Today, the word has a rather pejorative connotation. It is considered bad taste, if not bad philosophy, to assume that anyone has anything to convert to. All philosophies and religions are held to be equal, so why bother? No firm truth exists. Thus, any claim to truth borders on “fanaticism” or “absolutism.” Besides, we have the right not to be pestered by fanatics who want us to become something other than we are.
Across our campus, in its main plaza, on the day I write this column, is a TV set sponsored by the Muslim students. It's running a video explaining what Islam is. They are proselytizing — trying to change people's views.
The two most active proselytizing groups on campus, it strikes me, are not the Catholics and Baptists, but the Muslim students and various branches of feminism, including pro-choice types. They are covered by what is called free speech. Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses are often accused of politely badgering us. Why cannot the world stay just as it is? People resent any implication that what they already hold is not sufficient.
The Holy See, for its part, has, in recent years, been officially engaged in a long series of dialogues with almost every religion and philosophy about what they hold and how one belief or position is related to the Catholic faith. Of course, this dialogue would not be called proselytism, as the respective representatives are not engaged in a conversion context.
They are simply explaining and clarifying their own position. Hopefully, the effort is directed to arriving at some agreement that would not involve radical change — that would find, when the words are clarified, that after all, much agreement already exists. Yet, behind this papal effort is the clear purpose of restoring unity to the Christian faith. To accomplish this, it is necessary to have proper understanding between differing religions and philosophies at least about what they claim themselves to be.
The difficulty is that, at bottom, Catholicism in particular is a doctrinal religion. This dogmatic side of it is no doubt part of its attraction and, in any case, essential to what it is. It has, as it were, an articulated intellectual content to it. There are some things it definitely does not say or hold about God or about itself.
In a most enlightening address given in the Vatican on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the issuance of John Paul II's encyclical Redemptoris Missio, Francis Cardinal George brought up this same issue.
The Christian revelation is a received revelation. Christians did not invent it.
“John Paul II repeats the argument that the Church proposes — and does not impose — the Gospel to persons who are free to accept or reject it. The Church's mission, in fact, promotes human freedom,” said the cardinal, as quoted in L'Osservatore Romano on Jan. 31.
“The Church rejects the view that the call to conversion addressed to non-Christians is proselytism, for every single person has the right to hear the truth of the Gospel. It is not enough, as some would suggest, to limit one's missionary service to promoting human development and helping people preserve their own religious traditions.”
We should not underestimate the extent to which these latter two ideas are held — namely, that today the Christian mission consists solely in human political or economic development and that people are saved in whatever religious tradition they are in so that no effort to make Christianity known is needed.
The Christian revelation is a received revelation. Christians did not invent it. This revelation contains a definite content that has the right and duty to be itself. At the same time, this revelation is not self-contained. It is not meant just for some, though how it reaches all we are not explicitly told; we are asked to hand on what we have received.
In today's relativist climate of opinion, we often hate to think that what we hold is, in fact, true. It is “arrogance.” We are, by our very positions, “proselytizing.” Cardinal George repeats what we hold if we be Christian:
“We affirm that Christ has united himself with every human being by his Incarnation, and that his Holy Spirit offers everyone the possibility of sharing in the paschal mystery. We reject the view that Christ is mediator of salvation only for some, or that he reveals only some aspects of the truth about God and the truth about the human person. It is not possible to remove the 'scandal’ of the Christian claim that we are saved in ‘no other name’ and remain a believer.”
We are free to go our own way, but we are not free to maintain that Christianity is something other than what it is defined and declared to be in a revelation that it did not invent, but only received. In no other name are we saved. The only greater scandal would be to deny this truth and call it Christian.
Jesuit Father Schall is a professor of government at Georgetown University.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father James V. Schall ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: The Church, the Culture and the Curse of Contraception DATE: 04/01/2000 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 1-7, 2000 ----- BODY:While most Americans were celebrating the first day of spring on March 21, protectors of life were noting the 70th anniversary of a day of infamy.
It was on March 21, 1931, that the Federal Council of Churches, the forerunner of today's National Council of Churches, voted to accept contraception as morally permissible for married couples.
The era known as the “Roaring ’20s” was marked not only by prohibition and speakeasies. The times also saw increasing promiscuity, much talk about free love and “companionate” (childless and non-permanent) marriages and the corresponding use of contraception by married and unmarried alike.
Protestantism's embrace of contraception had begun with some outspoken Anglicans who wanted to enjoy this carefree culture without feeling guilty. They pressured their church to change its teaching to accommodate their desires and, on Aug. 14, 1930, the majority of the Anglican bishops capitulated. Pope Pius XI responded with amazing swiftness. On Dec. 31, 1930, he reaffirmed the Christian tradition, clearly teaching that marital contraception constitutes the grave matter of mortal sin.
The March 1931 decision by the Federal Council of Churches came, in effect, as a response to these two pronouncements.
Much of the immediate reaction to the council's decision, even from the secular culture, was negative. An editorial writer for The Washington Post lost no time in pointing out the dire effects this decision would have on marriage. The very next day he wrote: “Carried to its logical conclusion, the committee's report, if carried into effect, would sound the death-knell of marriage as a holy institution by establishing degrading practices which would encourage indiscriminate immorality. The suggestion that the use of legalized contraceptives would be ‘careful and restrained’ is preposterous.”
Conservative Protestants were equally eloquent in their criticism. Dr. Walter A. Maier of the Concordia Lutheran Theological Seminary in St. Louis wrote: “Birth Control, as popularly understood today and involving the use of contraceptives, is one of the most repugnant of modern aberrations, representing a 20th-century renewal of pagan bankruptcy.”
In the 1960s, Pope Paul VI reiterated Pius XI's teaching — and has, by now, become famous for the accuracy of his predictions in section 17 of Humanae Vitae, his 1968 encyclical that once again reaffirmed the traditional Christian teaching against marital contraception. Paul warned against a number of looming dangers — among them vastly increased conjugal infidelity, a general lowering of morality, loss of respect for women with increased use of wives as instruments for sexual gratification, handing a dangerous weapon to the state, and the growth of an attitude that a person has absolute dominion over her or his body and can do with it anything she or he pleases. These predictions were ridiculed in 1968; today they are seen as prophetic.
What's interesting is how the culture responded to the popes — especially in light of the way it responded to others who made similar arguments against contraception.
For example, columnist Walter Lippmann wrote a stinging critique of the contraceptive mentality that gripped the West during the ’20s. In his 1929 Preface to Morals, he noted that one effect of removing the laws against the sale of contraceptives was that their use would spread to the unmarried as well. “Obviously that which all married couples are permitted to know everyone is bound to know. Human curiosity will make that certain. Now this is what the Christian churches, especially the Roman Catholic, which oppose contraception on principle, instantly recognized. They were quite right. They were quite right, too, in recognizing that whether or not birth control is eugenic, hygienic and economic, it is the most revolutionary practice in the history of sexual morals.”
Walter Lippmann wrote extensively about the dire effects of contraception. (The Washington Post writer and some of the conservative Protestant critics of the Federal Council of Church used even stronger language than he did). Yet Lippmann went on to become a popular, nationally syndicated columnist, while Paul VI was vilified for his position from both within and outside of the Catholic Church.
What accounted for the vastly different reactions? Lippmann and other commentators offered their personal opinions. Their voices blended in with those of many others doing the same. Pope Paul VI claimed to speak on behalf of God as the Vicar of Christ. He had the weight of 19 centuries of Christian teaching behind him.
There's a big difference between the opinion of a pundit and the teaching of the Church. The culture seems to sense that fact even if it doesn't openly acknowledge it. Some things never change.
John F. Kippley is co-founder of the Couple to Couple League for Natural Family Planning. ccli@ccli.org
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John F. Kippley ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: East Side Story DATE: 04/01/2000 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 1-7, 2000 ----- BODY:St. Vincent Ferrer Church is magnificent in Manhattan
One of my favorite parts of going to New York City is escaping the hustle of mid-town and the bustle around Grand Central Station for the relative peace of the upper-east side.
It's lively here in its own way, but the smaller shops and historic town-houses seem far removed from the adjacent skyscraper forest.
With this little bit of breathing room, the striking St. Vincent Ferrer Church on the corner of Lexington Ave. and 66th St. is a perfect place for an impromptu spiritual retreat.
There was even more elbow room in 1867, when Dominicans founded St. Vincent's as the second parish in this neighborhood, now one of the nation's wealthiest. Looking at the English Gothic edifice from across the street, I am immediately taken with the delicate, intricate tracery of the great rose window that stretches high over the main doors.
Between the window and the entrance is a large, intricately carved crucifix. I was surprised to learn upon my recent visit that Lee Laurie sculpted this holy rood. Most everybody is familiar with his statue of Atlas across from St. Patrick's Cathedral in Rockefeller Center. And Roger Kennedy, former director of the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian, wrote that many believe the church's stained glass to be the most beautiful in the United States.
But Catholic travelers quickly realize these are only two features of a spiritual and architectural treasure.
New York Nuance
The stone church, its granite darkened with the years, has a majestic appearance outside; it seems even bigger inside — and somehow ancient beyond its years. I at once felt transported back to old New York, and beyond that, to the Gothic grandeur of centuries' old churches in Europe.
Every detail works together to announce that this is sacred, holy ground, and prayer is the first order of the visit. The massive piers of block sandstone, the Gothic arches along the nave and the soaring ceiling carry the eye to the sanctuary. Even the intense cobalt blues and ruby reds of the tall, stained-glass windows along the nave don't intrude on the sense of visual intimacy. Indeed, they help enfold visitors in the sanctity of the place.
“The eye is drawn inexorably here, which is the way it's supposed to be,” Dominican Father Boniface Ramsey told me as we stood in the sanctuary. He had the privilege of growing up as a parishioner of St. Vincent's.
Lined with choir stalls, the deep sanctuary gives the place a theatrical effect, he said, and I could see exactly what he meant. The high altar, carved with exquisite designs and accoutrements, left me slack-jawed.
My eyes feasted on the magnificent details before me in marble, lapis lazuli and pearl. Then there's the huge tabernacle — one of the most magnificent one in the world, according the Father Ramsey. Its intricate details, not easily seen from the pews, boast goldwork ornamented with enameled Old and New Testament scenes that anticipate or directly present the Eucharist. A Crucifixion scene with angels tops the tabernacle.
Next level up, the paintings on the soaring reredos portray St. Vincent Ferrer leading a procession of friars. The flame above his head reminds visitors of his Pentecostal gift: His preaching was said to be understood in many languages. The trumpet he holds here is associated with the angel announcing the Last Judgement — the Second Coming was a favorite homiletic theme of St. Vincent.
A dazzling icon-like Christ, seated in majesty, crowns the reredos. Higher still, the great east rose window depicts the seven angels of the Apocalypse, St. Vincent (who's often called the angel of the Apocalypse) and Christ.
You can't possibly catch every detail of the perfectly balanced art, let alone absorb all its messages. There's just too much visual stimuli; your eyes won't rest on any one spot for long before being tempted away to something else. The display just never seems to end.
The Dominican nuns who staff the parish school got daily close-up views when they used the nuns' gallery high in the sanctuary. It was modeled after St. George's Gallery in Windsor Castle.
The Dominicans chose the most outstanding people of the day to build the church, Father Ramsey explained. Everything was custom-made by the best artisans; nothing was “store-bought.”
Medieval in Manhattan
Bertram Goodhue, considered the greatest neo-Gothic architect of his time, designed the church. Even with such high-profile works to his credit as the chapel at West Point and St. Bartholomew's Church, he stated in a 1920 letter, part of this parish's archive, that he considered this his finest work.
Goodhue was a dogged craftsman who had his hand in everything. It was his unique idea to have the Stations of the Cross painted to look as if they were done by different artists at different times and then collected by the church.
So we see them in the style of Giotto, for example, and Eastern iconography, even though they were created by people with names like Telford and Paullin.
The sets of tall triple lancets lining the nave present Dominican saints in elaborate patterns. If you didn't know better, you would think they'd been lifted straight out of medieval European churches. Look for more of this flavor in the friars' chapel to the right of the sanctuary.
The west rose window is similarly rich in detail. St. Dominic is in the center, surrounded with six trefoils featuring Dominican saints. More saints appear in the five lancets below. Like firm foundation layers, the 15 mysteries of the rosary in three rows underline them.
Mary is prominent — four shrines honor her. The latest one blends seamlessly with the original interior. The elaborate, colorful Rosary Altar, almost fully restored, has a very carefully carved reredos around Mary, presenting the rosary to St. Dominic.
I found two other peaceful side chapels that have an old-world Gothic appearance. They're distinguished by ironwork of grilles and silhouette-like scenes by Samuel Yellin. One of the chapel is dedicated to St. Joseph; the Pieta opposite his statue was displayed at the 1939 World's Fair.
Outside, I noted that the church property comprises several buildings, such as a priory, convent, Holy Name Society building, and school. All are visually tied together with Gothic lines. A walk around the neighborhood gives the Catholic traveler a seldom-appreciated perspective on Manhattan.
“It's not a well-known church, maybe because it's off the beaten path,” Father Ramsey observed. Here's hoping it stays that way — I like having this place all to myself when I'm in the neighborhood.
Joe Pronechen writes from
Trumbull, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: St. Vincent Ferrer Church is magnificent in Manhattan ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Healer, Preacher, Dominican, Saint DATE: 04/01/2000 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 1-7, 2000 ----- BODY:St. Vincent Ferrer, whose feast the Church celebrates on April 5, was born in Valencia, Spain, in 1350. He entered the Dominican order when he was 17, and before long became an adviser to the King of Aragon and of the Avignon pope, with whom he sided — in good faith, but erroneously — during a papal schism. To heal the schism, he traveled across Spain, France, Switzerland and Italy, preaching penance, working miracles and converting tens of thousands. When he realized that the Avignon party was not in the right, he turned his efforts toward bringing them into obedience to the legitimate Pope. Thanks in large measure to the power of his preaching and the miracles associated with his prayers, his authority was instrumental at the Council of Constance in 1414. — from The Book of Saints (Morehouse, 1989)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Magical Realism with a Yiddish Accent DATE: 04/01/2000 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 1-7, 2000 ----- BODY:Conflicts between Catholics and Jews are a hot topic, and many in the media and the academy enjoy making Catholics the bad guys.
A recent, highly publicized example is the book Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews by James Carroll, which alleges that the Church has been guilty of systematic anti-Semitism almost since its beginning.
Simon Magus is a cinematic fable about Catholics and Jews that avoids this trendy stereotyping. Set in a 19th-century shetl, it realistically recreates the texture of rural Polish life during that period from a Jewish point of view. But it is not anti-Catholic.
The parish priest and the local rabbi are both decent men and their beliefs and those of their respective flocks are treated with respect. Even the aristocratic squire, a nominal Catholic, is presented as a force for the good. If anything, the rabbi who administers corporal punishment to youthful transgressors is the strictest and most intolerant of the region's authority figures. But the movie's subtext is the anti-Semitism which pervades rural Polish culture like the ever-present fog that envelops the area's forests and farms.
Fortunately, English writer-director Ben Hopkins isn't interested in political guilt-tripping; his primary focus is elsewhere. He establishes a dream-like atmosphere in which non-rational happenings are everyday events in both the Christian and Jewish communities. Miracles are real, and evil is depicted as a supernatural phenomenon.
Simon (Noah Taylor) is a young, parentless Jew who's treated as an outsider (“a raven of the latrines”) by both communities. He's perceived by some as a kind of demented village idiot and by others as a magician who possesses supernatural powers to do either evil or good. Kids throw stones at him, and peasants pay him money not to put spells on their lands.
Hopkins convincingly takes us inside Simon's interior visions. It's ambiguous as to whether they are real or imagined. The outcast Jew is seen arguing with the devil (Ian Holm, best known to Catholics as Zerah, the Temple scribe, in Franco Zeffirelli's Jesus of Nazareth) and taking his advice in small matters like revenge against his youthful tormentors.
But Simon isn't the devil's disciple. The prince of darkness is presented as just one part of the spirit world which includes both Christian and Jewish manifestations. The outcast Jew prays sincerely and often in the synagogue, but the rabbi (David de Keyser) insists that he sit upstairs with the women during services because he uses his own words instead of those of the liturgy.
The region is in the middle of a great economic transformation brought about by the building of a railroad. Those merchants whose businesses were set next to the once-busy highway — both Christian and Jew — are being wiped out. The remedy is to construct a station next to the rail line where the entrepreneurs can relocate. The property involved is owned by the local squire (Rutger Hauer), and he must choose between two competing proposals presented by members from each community.
David (Stuart Townsend), a Jewish dairy farmer, makes the first offer but can come up with little money. The nobleman counters by attaching an unusual condition to the deal. He fancies himself a poet and insists the intelligent young Jew read his work and discuss it with him on a regular basis.
David's life is complicated by personal issues. He has long courted Leah (Embeth Davidtz), a widow who bakes delicious bread. But the only person who can bring him up to speed for poetry sessions with the squire is the well-educated Sarah (Amanda Ryan), who's also looking for an eligible Jewish husband. Leah's jealousy seems as if it will destroy the deal.
Hase (Sean McGinley), a wealthy Christian landlord, offers the squire more money for the same piece of land but is turned down. Furious, he exploits the community's antiSemitism and threatens violence in hopes of getting his way.
Simon sees himself as the man in the middle and tries to use this position for his own purposes. To ingratiate himself with the Catholic community, he tells the priest he wants to become a Christian and begins instruction in the faith. Hase hires him to spy on the Jews and set up retaliatory action against them.
Up until this point, Simon has functioned as the kind of scapegoat figure found in Yiddish folk tales. “I attract all the evil spirits,” he complains.
But lessons in the faith seem to have penetrated his soul. He's been taught the meaning of Jesus' crucifixion and about the martyrdom of certain saints, and when the chips are down, he is willing to sacrifice himself for the greater good.
Early in the movie, the young Jewish outcast says he was named after Simon the magician who was baptized by Philip in Samaria (Acts 8:9-25). When the convert offered Peter money for the ability to lay on hands and enable people to receive the Holy Spirit, he was sternly rebuked for trying to buy spiritual power and told to pray for repentance.
Simon the magician is considered by some to be the first gnostic, and there are some parallels between him and his namesake in the film. But Simon Magus is neither gnostic nor Christian. It's a serious and honest reflection on spiritual occurrences that appear to cut across denominational lines. By these means, the filmmaker transforms the material of a Yiddish literary genre into a work of broader appeal.
Arts & culture correspondent
John Prizer writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: Simon Magus is a fetching Jewish fable with an intriguingly catholic heart ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 04/01/2000 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 1-7, 2000 ----- BODY:Stagecoach (1939)
Six passengers board a stage in a New Mexico town in the 1870s. Two are respectable citizens; four are not. Apaches are terrorizing the countryside. The sheriff (George Bancroft), who's riding shotgun, arrests en route a notorious outlaw (John Wayne) and puts him inside. The cramped quarters and ever-present physical danger provoke quarrels, forcing each person to reveal his true self.
Stagecoach, one of the Vatican's top 45 films, dramatizes the difference between each passenger's status in the community and his interior moral qualities. In almost every case, initial expectations are reversed. An alcoholic doctor (Thomas Mitchell) and a dance-hall girl (Claire Trevor) are revealed to be persons of virtue while the haughty banker (Berton Churchill) is shown to have a dirty secret. Director John Ford (How Green Is My Valley) uses the situation to open his viewers' eyes to the power of forgiveness and redemption. Those characters who do overcome evil achieve their victory by wrestling with their souls, not by firing a six-gun.
Selma, Lord, Selma (1999)
The American civil-rights movement was deeply Christian in both its thinking and its practices. Many of its leaders were black Protestant preachers who used the language of the Gospels and the Old Testament prophets to define the political issues and determine the appropriate tactics.
A good example is the 1965 voter-registration drive in Selma, Ala., which resulted in several deaths but shook the nation's conscience and led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act. Selma, Lord, Selma, a cable TV docudrama, dramatizes these historic events through the eyes of an 11-year-old black girl, Sheyann Webb (Jurnee Smollett), whose parents (Ella Joyce and Afemo Omitani) oppose her involvement. The young student is inspired by Martin Luther King Jr. (Clifton Powell) and Rev. Jonathan Daniels (Mackenzie Astin), a white Protestant minister. An interesting minor character is Father Whitaker (Danny Nelson), a southern Catholic priest who initially opposes the movement but then has a change of heart.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1979)
We often forget that children are moral beings like adults, with their own set of temptations to overcome. These moments of youthful self-definition are imaginatively captured in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, adapted from the C.S. Lewis classic The Chronicles of Narnia. Four children discover a mysterious passageway through a wardrobe closet to the magical land of Narnia, which is ruled by an evil queen. The season there is always winter, but Christmas never comes.
One of the young visitors gives in to greed and sides with the queen, who turns her enemies into statues. The other children learn from the land's animal inhabitants about the good Lion King who will bring springtime upon his return. When this magical creature does reappear to do battle with the queen, he teaches the children about the importance of sacrifice and restores their faith in the eventual triumph of good. This animated fairy tale combines Christian spirituality with Germanic folklore. Both kids and adults will find it intriguing.
— John Prizer
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 04/01/2000 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 1-7, 2000 ----- BODY:All times Eastern
APRIL, VARIOUS DATES
A Long Season
PBS; check local listings for time
“You've got to start way down, at the bottom, when you're six or seven years old,” the dying Babe Ruth advised the children of America about baseball in his farewell address in Yankee Stadium in 1948. In this documentary, an engrossing chronicle of a Little League team's entire season, the kids do what the Babe said. Player Wyatt Cowen, 8, narrates, along with his dad, Fred, the team's coach. (Repeat.)
APRIL-JULY
Ancestors
PBS; check local listings for time
This 13-part series on family-history research looks at case studies to explain how to use records of all sorts, such as census and cemetery records, genealogical data, and military, probate, immigration and newspaper documents.
SUNDAY, APRIL1
Baseball Tonight
ESPN, 3 p.m.
“You can observe a lot by watching,” New York Yankees great Lawrence Peter “Yogi” Berra once pointed out. He could've been talking about this show, a full hour of each day's major league baseball scores and highlights, along with expert analysis. This installment is a special presentation, after which the show moves to its weeknight time slots of 10 p.m. and midnight.
SUNDAY, APR.IL 1
Major League Baseball: Opening Day
ESPN, 4:05 p.m.
The late baseball owner-showman Bill Veeck used to say, “That's the true harbinger of spring — the sound of a bat on a ball.” Fans should hear that unmistakable sound often on this year's Opening Day, when the American League's Texas Rangers and Toronto Blue Jays play ball in Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Jon Miller, Hall of Famer Joe Morgan and Alvaro Martin announce.
SUNDAY, APRIL 1
The Incurable Collector
A&E, 8 p.m.
In this world-premiere special presentation, John Larroquette reports on collectors both mainstream and offbeat. This initial installment discusses collectibles such as autographs, untrained artists' “outsider art” and the Rose Bowl flea market. Later this week, on Apr. 7 and 8 respectively, the show moves to its regular time slots, Saturday at 6 p.m. and Sunday at noon.
MONDAY, APRIL 2
MSNBC Investigates: The Runaways
MSNBC, 8 p.m.
Anyone who thinks that mass abortions have turned the Planned Parenthood mantra “Every child a wanted child” into reality will learn otherwise by watching this show. Host John Siegenthaler reports on a three-week stay on the streets of Portland, Ore., with runaway teenagers who become dependent on the black tar heroin sold there.
FRIDAY, APRIL 6
Egg: The Arts Show
APBS; check local listings for time
This season-opening episode, “How to Be Happy,” visits yodelers at the National Old-Time Country Festival; octogenarian Isidore Elfman, who recites love poems to his wife weekly in a café in Manhattan; bonsai master Harry Hirao in California desert country; and Jeff Koons with his botanical sculpture “Puppy” in Rockefeller Center.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Daniel J. Engler ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Professor Gets New TITLE: Bishop DATE: 04/01/2000 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 1-7, 2000 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — One of Canada's leading Catholic theologians was ordained a bishop March 19th by Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Basilica.
Bishop Marc Ouellet, 56, a prominent professor who has long worked in seminaries both in Canada and abroad, was ordained in conjunction with his recent appointment as Secretary for the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity.
The council also handles Catholic and Jewish relations, and has become, in recent years, one of the most high-profile Vatican departments as relations with Jews, Orthodox Christians, Anglicans and Lutherans have been marked by both breakthroughs and setbacks.
While he was given the news of his impending ordination less than three weeks before the date, the possibility of being ordained by the Holy Father himself led him to “forget all the other details, and get ready,” he told the Register.
Bishop Ouellet was ordained along with eight other bishops, for the most part destined for service in the diplomatic corps of the Holy See or in the Roman Curia.
“Bishop Ouellet will be, in a certain sense, Canada's unofficial representative in the Roman Curia,” said Father Emilius Goulet, the Rector of the Pontifical Canadian College, a residence for Canadian priests doing graduate studies in the Rome. “It is important to have bishops and priests who are excellent theologians.”
The appointment took many by surprise — including Bishop Ouellet himself, who received the unexpected news only four days before it was announced. Yet for many years, Bishop Ouellet has attracted attention for his theological sophistication and down-to-earth manner.
Mo Fung, former head of the Cardinal Newman Society, is now a lay student at the John Paul II Insitutute for Studies on Marriage and the Family, where Bishop Ouellet has served for the past five years as the Chair of Dogmatic Theology. He recalls hearing Bishop Ouellet give a lecture some years ago in Washington, D.C., which impressed him so much that he began to consider coming to Rome to study under him.
“His erudition and humility were so evident,” said Fung, who was on hand in St. Peter's for the colorful ceremony, which was attended by many of Bishop Ouellet's current and former students.
In fact, during the ordination ritual itself, Bishop Ouellet was attended by two deacons who are amongst his current students, Felipe de Jesus Rosales, a Mexican, and Gaetan Ceccato, a Frenchman — a testament to the international scope of the John Paul II Institute.
“Clearly he teaches from the heart, and definitely from a life of prayer,” said Luke Sweeney, a New Yorker who is taking two of Bishop Ouellet's classes this term. “He makes a connection with you in class and he cares not only about the material, which he takes very seriously, but also about you as a student.”
Recently, Bishop Ouellet had been appointed to prestigious international theological bodies, including the Pontifical Theological Academy. He also was on the editorial board of the influential theological journal Communio, a publication launched after Vatican II to promote the vision of the Council. He is one of the world's leading authorities on the work of the late Swiss theologian, Hans Urs von Balthasar.
“I enjoy teaching theology and communicating the faith — it is the joy of my life,” he said. “To the extent that this ministry will be reduced in my new tasks, it will be a real sacrifice and I will feel it. But on the other hand, much of my theological work has ecumenical aspects, and this will be fruitful in the field of Christian unity.”
Bishop Ouellet chose as his bishop's motto the phrase Ut unum sint, which Pope John Paul II chose as the title of his 1995 encyclical on Christian unity.
He says that “the Pope chose his motto for him,” in the sense that his new position is in Christian unity, and that the encyclical was dated May 25, Bishop Ouellet's own anniversary of priestly ordination. Ut unum sint means “that all may be one,” which is taken from John 17:21.
“The future of the Church is linked to ecumenism,” said Bishop Ouellet. “Jesus prays that his followers may all be one, so that the world might believe. Unity is a key for the credibility of the Gospel in today's world.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Raymond J. De Souza ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Ammunition for the Catholic Bible Brigade DATE: 04/01/2000 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 1-7, 2000 ----- BODY:Catholics don't know the Bible, and many Catholic beliefs are man-made traditions that have no biblical basis.
Bible Basics is Steve Kellmeyer's attempt to answer these common claims against the Church. He addresses both head-on — the first, by offering Catholics a chance to improve their biblical literacy; the second, by debunking the myth.
Kellmeyer, a director of adult faith formation when he's not writing for various Catholic publications, presents an apologetics textbook that is a timely and substantial contribution to the present renaissance in that category of Catholic witness.
It's a renaissance long overdue. Many have been confronted by an evangelical or fundamentalist Protestant rattling off Bible passages that seem to refute Catholic doctrine. Next comes a pointed challenge to defend Catholic teachings — and anything less than a chapter-and-verse quote from the Bible draws an exasperated roll of the eyes. Bible Basics won't make such exchanges any less annoying, but it can arm you well enough to turn the tables and do more pro-active witnessing than reactive defending.
Each major section (the Triune God, creation as sacrament, Scripture, the Church, the sacraments, sacramentals, salvation, Mary and prayer) provides a summary of Church teaching, often citing the Catechism. Frequently challenged doctrines are carefully spelled out, illustrated and reinforced with generous excerpts from Scripture and theological exegesis. In many cases, excerpts from Church documents, such as those written at the Council of Trent, are included; the point is to show how the Church has come to interpret the Scripture in question (and, by inference, to refute the claim that Scripture interprets itself).
Bible Basics: An Introductory Study Guide to the Catholic Faith by Steve Kellmeyer Basilica Press, 2000 302 pages, $19.95
In a theme from his introduction to the book's second section on Scripture, which is reflective of the entire book, Kellmeyer tells us: “Scripture is crucial revelation, but the plan revealed by Scripture can be known only through the Church. Indeed, that is why Christ established the Church, to reveal the structure and plan of salvation.”
Kellmeyer ably addresses such Protestant hot-button topics as sola scriptura and sola fide, as well as the canon of Scripture, papal authority, divorce, birth control, Mary and women's ordination. Readers will find strong scriptural support for many other Catholic beliefs and practices: the relics of saints, the scriptural basis for the Mass, calling priests “father,” purgatory and indulgences.
His section on Mary is exhaustive. Revealed here are many scriptural threads, all showing how firmly rooted in Scripture are Catholic teachings on Mary. Kellmeyer even includes quotes from Martin Luther, displaying Luther's devotion and veneration for the Mother of God.
Most heartening is the analysis and scriptural support presented for many traditional Catholic prayers, including the rosary, the Memorare, the Hail, Holy Queen and the Liturgy of the Hours. There's also a deep walk through the Our Father, blending the commentary of St. Thomas Aquinas with that of the Catechism. “The Our Father is the summary of the Gospel Jesus taught; it is essential for us,” writes Kellmeyer in this section's introduction.
The book reads fairly easily, but, thanks to its broad scope and scholarly depth, it works best as a reference tool — maybe even a Bible-study course book.
Bible Basics convincingly illustrates how inextricably linked are the Catholic faith and sacred Scripture. Steve Kellmeyer has done a masterful job showing that you not only can be a Catholic who knows and loves the Bible, but that you are called to be nothing less.
Mark Dittman writes from
Maplewood, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: BOOK REVIEW ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mark Dittman ----- KEYWORDS: Books -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 04/01/2000 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 1-7, 2000 ----- BODY:Catholic Schools on the Web
NATIONAL CATHOLIC COLLEGE ADMISSION ASSOCIATION, March 19 — The National CCAA has launched a new Web site, www.catholiccollegesonline.org, with sections for parents, high school college counselors, and prospective students. The site addresses questions like, When should I begin the college search? How can I find the best financial aid package? What should I bring to college? The site's search engine can also list all the colleges fitting a particular description — for example, “small liberal arts school in the Midwest.”
Harvard Can't Handle Pro-Life Posters
JEWISH WORLD REVIEW, March 14 — Matt Evans didn't think “Smile! Your mother chose life” was an inflammatory message, the online magazine reported.
Evans, a third-year student at the Harvard Law School, posted small signs with that message on student bulletin boards. Students ripped down the signs. A few days after a student confronted Evans about the posters, he was summoned by the dean of students and told that the dean was coming under pressure to ban all political messages from the bulletin boards. Evans was instructed to include contact information on his fliers, which had been unsigned.
Students posted unsigned anti-Evans fliers reading, “Smile! You're a simpleton.” The university did not attempt to locate the authors.
Loyola Scraps Classical Studies
CHICAGO TRIBUNE, March 15 — Loyola University Chicago has made a preliminary decision to dissolve its classical studies department in order to ease its financial woes, the Chicago daily reported.
The Jesuit university's decision would disperse the study of Latin, Greek, and ancient philosophy and literature throughout the school's other departments. Jesuit Father John Murphy, the department's head, protested, “In the principles of the Jesuit education, classics is primary.” He added that he had received no advance warning of the decision.
The change would cut funding for new books, visiting speakers, summer programs and other features. The final decision will be made in May.
Loyola has faced bad publicity and financial disarray, leading to a 33% drop in freshman enrollment in the last two years.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Catholics, the Pope and the Culture of Life in America DATE: 04/01/2000 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 1-7, 2000 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — President Bush began his March 22 address by complimenting Cardinal Adam Maida on his smile, and with good reason.
The cardinal must have been pleased that the president himself was dedicating the John Paul II Cultural Center that began as the cardinal's initiative several years ago.
After congratulating new cardinal and Archbishop of Washington, Theodore McCarrick, the president said “I may be just passing through and I may not be a parishioner, but I'm proud to live in your archdiocese.”
Following is the text of Bush's remarks about Pope John Paul II.
When Cardinal Wojtyla spoke here at Catholic University in 1976, few imagined the course his life would take, or the history his life would shape. In 1978, most of the world knew him only as the Polish Pope. There were signs of something different and deeper.
One journalist, after hearing the new Pope's first blessing in St. Peter's Square wired back to his editors: “This is not a Pope from Poland, this is a Pope from Galilee.” From that day to this, the Pope's life has written one of the great inspiring stories of our time.
We remember the Pope's first visit to Poland in 1979 when faith turned into resistance and began the swift collapse of imperial communism. The gentle, young priest, once ordered into forced labor by Nazis, became the foe of tyranny and a witness to hope. The last leader of the Soviet Union would call him “the highest moral authority on earth.” We remember his visit to a prison, comforting the man who shot him. By answering violence with forgiveness, the Pope became a symbol of reconciliation.
We remember the Pope's visit to Manila in 1995, speaking to one of the largest crowds in history, more than 5 million men and women and children. We remember that as a priest 50 years ago, he traveled by horse-cart to teach the children of small villages. Now he's kissed the ground of 123 countries and leads a flock of 1 billion into the third millennium.
We remember the Pope's visit to Israel and his mission of reconciliation and mutual respect between Christians and Jews. He is the first modern Pope to enter a synagogue or visit an Islamic country. He has always combined the practice of tolerance with a passion for truth.
John Paul, himself, has often said, “In the designs of Providence, there are no mere coincidences.” And maybe the reason this man became Pope is that he bears the message our world needs to hear. To the poor, sick and dying he carries a message of dignity and solidarity with their suffering. Even when they are forgotten by men, he reminds them they are never forgotten by God.
“Do not give in to despair,” he said, in the South Bronx. “God has your lives and his care, goes with you, calls you to better things, calls you to overcome.”
To the wealthy, this Pope carries the message that wealth alone is a false comfort. The goods of the world, he teaches, are nothing without goodness. We are called, each and every one of us, not only to make our own way, but to ease the path of others.
To those with power, the Pope carries a message of justice and human rights. And that message has caused dictators to fear and to fall. His is not the power of armies or technology or wealth. It is the unexpected power of a baby in a stable, of a man on a cross, of a simple fisherman who carried a message of hope to Rome.
Pope John Paul II brings that message of liberation to every corner of the world. When he arrived in Cuba in 1998, he was greeted by signs that read, “Fidel is the Revolution!” But as the Pope's biographer put it, “In the next four days Cuba belonged to another revolutionary.” We are confident that the revolution of hope the Pope began in that nation will bear fruit in our time.
And we're responsible to stand for human dignity and religious freedom wherever they are denied, from Cuba to China to southern Sudan. And we, in our country, must not ignore the words the Pope addresses to us. On his four pilgrimages to America, he has spoken with wisdom and feeling about our strengths and our flaws, our successes and our needs.
The Pope reminds us that while freedom defines our nation, responsibility must define our lives. He challenges us to live up to our aspirations, to be a fair and just society where all are welcomed, all are valued, and all are protected. And he is never more eloquent than when he speaks for a culture of life. The culture of life is a welcoming culture, never excluding, never dividing, never despairing and always affirming the goodness of life in all its seasons.
In the culture of life we must make room for the stranger. We must comfort the sick. We must care for the aged. We must welcome the immigrant. We must teach our children to be gentle with one another. We must defend in love the innocent child waiting to be born.
The center we dedicate today celebrates the Pope's message, its comfort and its challenge. This place stands for the dignity of the human person, the value of every life and the splendor of truth. And, above all, it stands, in the Pope's words, for the “joy of faith in a troubled world.”
I'm grateful that Pope John Paul II chose Washington as the site of this center. It brings honor and it fills a need. We are thankful for the message. We are also thankful for the messenger, for his personal warmth and prophetic strength; for his good humor and his bracing honesty; for his spiritual and intellectual gifts; for his moral courage, tested against tyranny and against our own complacency.
Always, the Pope points us to the things that last and the love that saves. We thank God for this rare man, a servant of God and a hero of history. And I thank all of you for building this center of conscience and reflection in our nation's capital. God bless.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Lenten Alms DATE: 04/01/2000 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 1-7, 2000 ----- BODY:Q I remember reading that the Church encourages us to give alms in a more sacrificial way during Lent. Is this still true and why is this? How do you recommend I implement this practice?
— S.S.L.
Three Rivers, Michigan
A Section 1438 of the Catechism calls Lent a time “for spiritual exercises, penitential liturgies, pilgrimages as signs of penance, voluntary self-denial such as fasting and almsgiving, and fraternal sharing (charitable and missionary works).”
I have always promoted tithing as the best way to fulfill our obligation to support the Church and its works. Since most American Catholics give only 1% of their income to charity, the thought of giving away 10% represents a radical approach.
Yet, Lent provides the perfect opportunity to stretch your faith by increasing your charitable giving. Malachi 3:10 says, “Bring the full tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house; and thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing.”
When counseling couples on how they can integrate tithing into their financial plan, a frequently asked question is how they can increase their giving from 1% to 10% when they're already swimming in credit card debt. A key is to have a long-term goal of becoming debt-free and tithing. In the short term, your budget may only allow an increase to 3% of your income, but, as you become a better steward, you'll find the ability and desire to reach a full tithe (10%).
One of the beautiful and often unmentioned fruits of tithing and almsgiving comes from its sacrificial nature. God is pleased when we are able to overcome the materialism so prevalent in our society and show our love for him in such a tangible way as tithing. He accepts our sacrifices and uses them to accomplish good things, many of which we will never know about.
This Lent, in addition to other steps you take to deepen your spiritual walk, increase your charitable giving as an offering to our Lord. Your gifts can be offered for such purposes as the Pope's general intentions, those of your parish priests, or for the suffering people of the world. Or, you may have specific family intentions or burdens on your heart, such as a family member who has left the faith, a troubled child or problems in your marriage. Uniting your sacrifice to Christ's perfect sacrifice on the cross, ask our Lord for his help and guidance with your intentions.
God love you!
Phil Lenahan is vice president of Catholic Answers.
Reach Family Matters at familymatters@ncregister.com
----- EXCERPT: Family Matters ----- EXTENDED BODY: Phil Lenahan ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: The Church's Tradition of Holy Fools DATE: 04/01/2000 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 1-7, 2000 ----- BODY:In honor of April Fool's Day, the Register presents the following holy fools, from East and West, as a reminder that, in this life, to paraphrase St. Paul, we should all be honored to be called fools for Christ's sake.
These “ fools” would likely be thrown into an insane asylum today, but they were revered in their own day, particularly in the East, as saints.
Yurodivi, as the Russians call them, are often clairvoyant men and women who may shriek, levitate, spurn clothing and point out the sins of others to their faces.
Why would God reveal himself through such fools?
“It seems to be a clear indication that God's ways are not our ways –– that God, as the Fourth Lateran Council says, is much more unlike than like us,” says John Mallory, the director of religious education at St. Ambrose Church in Alexandria, Va.
“From the human perspective, I would say that the charism of holy folly is one of the most difficult, radical examples of grace transforming nature that you'll ever see this side of heaven,” Mallory added. “Holy fools are the closest to transcending the world because they more perfectly than the rest of us realize in their lives the otherworldliness of God.”
St. Basil the Blessed
The most famous of Russia's holy fools, Basil was clairvoyant from an early age. Fired from his first job as a cobbler after both laughing and crying at a customer whom he knew would die before his boots were ready, Basil ended up wandering the streets of Moscow naked for many years.
There are many tales of Basil destroying the property of dishonest tradesmen and he was one of the few who dared warn deeds, if unrepented, would lead him to hell.
According to one story, Basil presented Ivan with a slab of raw beef in the middle of Lent, telling him that it didn't matter if he fasted or not since he was doomed anyway. Ivan, who murdered others at the slightest provocation, is said to have lived in great fear of Basil and would not allow anyone to harm him.
St. Bendict Joseph Labre
After trying to become a Cistercian and then a Carthusian, but not being cut out for either the religious or the secular life, Benedict Joseph set out to become a lifelong pilgrim, journeying to Loreto, Assisi, Compostela, Parayle-Monial, Einsiedeln in Switzerland and many other places. He lived in the utmost poverty, not begging, but accepting food from the well-disposed. Any money offered to him he usually gave away.
In 1774, he went to Rome and 'settled’ there, sleeping in the Colosseum and praying by day in various churches. When sickness forced him into a hospice, Benedict Joseph often walked out of the door with his serving of soup and offered it to others. In Holy Week 1783 he collapsed in the church of Santa Maria dei Monti near the Colosseum, one of his favorite haunts, and died in a nearby butcher's house.
St. Louis de Monfort
A native of Rennes, France, St. Louis challenged the faith of those around him to the point of suffering ostracism even from his religious confreres.
As a young man heading off to a Paris seminary, Louis' family offered him a horse to ride to Paris. He refused. Some of his family accompanied Louis as far as Cesson, where the road to Paris crossed the River Villaine, and there said their good-byes to him. Crossing over the bridge, Louis Marie took the first opportunity offered to him to give away the 10 écus given him by his father for the trip and exchanged a new suit of clothes given him by his mother for those of a beggar.
Tsar Theodore
The heir to Ivan the Terrible's throne, Tsar Theodore was regarded by Western diplomats during his day as a weakling and an idiot. The Russians, on the other hand, adored the Tsar for his simplicity, prayerfulness and the quiet devotion he showed to his wife.
Tsar Theodore would occasionally wake the people of Moscow in the hours before dawn by sounding the great bells of the Kremlin as a summons to prayer. Liberal in alms and constant in prayer, he never lost his playfulness in 14 years on the throne.
St. Francis
His first efforts at following God's will led him to sell fabric from his father's shop in order to repair a local church.
When his father dragged Francis before the local bishop demanding that Francis return the money, the bishop kindly asked Francis to return the money, adding that God would provide.
Francis not only gave back the money but stripped off all his clothes in front of the bishop and a crowd that had gathered from town, saying “Pietro Bernadone is no longer my father. From now on I can say with complete freedom, 'Our Father who art in heaven.’”
Wearing nothing but castoff rags, Francis then went off into the freezing woods singing. At a different time, when robbers beat him and took his clothes, he climbed out of the ditch and went off singing again.
Francis wanted nothing but to live by the Gospel. Taking its commands literally, he once made one of his brothers run after a thief who had stolen his hood to offer him his robe.
St. Xenia of St. Petersburg
After giving away her inherited wealth, Xenia became one of Russia's many pilgrims who walk from shrine to shrine while reciting the Jesus Prayer (“Jesus, son of the living God, have mercy on me, a sinner”). Xenia became known in her day for telling people what to expect in their lives and what they should do. She might tell certain people, for instance, to “Go home and make pancakes.” As these are served after funerals, the person she addressed would know that a family member would soon die. Xenia never begged, and only kept an occasional kopek for herself. Everything else she passed on to others.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian Mcguire ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: The Hamiltons: Life, Death and Oregon DATE: 04/01/2000 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 1-7, 2000 ----- BODY:Psychiatrist Dr. Gregory Hamilton co-founded Physicians for Compassionate Care with Dr. William Toffler when the two Catholic physicians saw the specter of legalized assisted suicide begin to emerge in Oregon. Their state is now the only one to have legalized assisted suicide — death by lethal overdose.
Physicians for Compassionate Care has now expanded to 40 states and counts about 2,000 members.
Dr. Hamilton and his wife Catherine, a mental health counselor, talked with Register correspondent Kate Ernsting about how their activism has drawn them more deeply into their Catholic faith and transformed their lives.
Kate Earnsting: How did Physicians for Compassionate Care come about?
Greg: In 1994, when the voters of Oregon were misled into approving the first referendum legalizing assisted suicide, I was devastated. I thought I had lost my profession. For 2,000 years the medical profession had valued human life as inherently valuable, but some doctors were going to treat some people's lives as if they weren't worth living.
So I felt a distinct calling — sudden and definite — to do something.
After Dr. Toffler and I formed it, Physicians for Compassionate Care became such a vibrant organization that we worked most evenings — giving testimony in legislatures and other forums. We testified before the U.S. Congress. We went to Poland. Cathy and I went to Rome and had an audience with the Pope while we were on a pilgrimage with Archbishop Vlasny. One of the high points of our lives was to receive the Holy Father's blessing.
Cathy: In 1994, it shocked me that my state had voted that one segment of the population could now just end their lives: the seriously ill, the most vulnerable. I had just spent 7 years of college learning how to prevent suicide.
I never thought [the law] would pass; when it did, it was a complete shock. I began to speak out at my place of employment, but that was now politically incorrect; it quickly became associated with the abortion issue and the Catholic issue. During that time, my government job got cut, and it was a blessing. I could counsel and write and answer the phone for Physicians for Compassionate Care.
Some callers were having problems getting care, so we set up a referral database to hook them up with doctors who respected their Hippocratic Oath and life. Others called by accident; I believe it was the Lord intervening. I could use my suicide counseling experience. Most were obviously depressed, in despair over a recent diagnosis. They could have contacted a doctor and got the packet that would enable them to get the suicide dose in two and a half weeks.
Greg: In Oregon we don't say “terminally ill”; it's become a stigmatizing term. These people who are most vulnerable are abandoned and treated as if their life is no longer worth living.
Cathy: What doctors need to do is impart hope to people. But suicide intervention stops, as soon as a terminal illness is mentioned.
What kinds of groups are represented in the coalition?
Greg: In promoting a culture of life, we have to reach out. Our group is a secular medical group; we oppose assisted suicide because it's bad medicine. We have Lutheran, Catholic, Mormon, Baptist and Quakers on our board and Jewish and Muslim members.
As an organization we are broad based. The Oregon Catholic Conference, and the three archbishops have been strong and powerful allies of Physician for Compassionate Care. We receive a lot of help from Richard Doerfllinger of the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Archbishop John Vlasny puts on a Mass for all the health care professionals on St. Luke's day. Our former archbishop, now Cardinal George of Chicago, has been very supportive.
Cathy: Our lives were transformed by this. Every day, you have your plans, but every day you are open to what the Holy Spirit has for you to do. You start to live the Eucharistic lifestyle, and the Holy Spirit can interrupt you and give you things to do. What has been done has not been humanly possible; you know it required Something bigger than yourself.
How does your Catholic faith influence you? Do you derive support from your faith in fighting euthanasia?
Cathy: I'm a cradle Catholic and my husband's a convert. When we met, we had both been divorced and felt we needed to do things differently. We both got annulments and got married in the Church. This sacramental marriage laid the foundation for what we are doing now.
Greg: I was raised Protestant but I had stopped going to church. The sacramental aspect of marriage became very important.
Cathy: When we were first married, we attended Mass on Sunday. A priest encouraged us to pray more, and that laid a foundation too.
Greg: Now we go to Mass every day, and pray the rosary daily. We go on retreat regularly. We just believe we need these things because we are dealing with the media and various kinds of conflict. We need to expose the evils of what is going on with legalized euthanasia.
Cathy: I believe my husband had the calling to work against assisted suicide.
----- EXCERPT: ProLife ProFile ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kate Ernsting ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Life Notes DATE: 04/01/2000 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 1-7, 2000 ----- BODY:After Coma, a Newborn Baby
ASSOCIATED PRESS, March 14 — An 18-year-old woman regained consciousness a week after giving birth to a healthy girl while in a coma induced by a car accident, reported the Associated Press.
Shannon Kranzberg gave birth Jan. 14 after a staph infection apparently triggered labor. She had been in a coma for two months.
“I just woke up and the baby was there,” Kranzberg said, reported the Associated Press.
Doctors say it's rare for a woman in a coma to give birth, especially by natural delivery.
Years of Prayer Close Clinic
THE MERCURY, March 9 — The Women's Health Foundation, the Australian state of Tasmania's only independent abortion clinic, closed its doors this week because of a decrease in demand for abortions, reported The Mercury.
Every Thursday, supporters of the Human Life Protection Society have gathered in Moonah to pray for the protection of unborn babies in Tasmania. The group held its first meeting in a house next to the abortion facility shortly after it opened, reported The Mercury.
Society spokesman Noel Roberts said the ecumenical prayer meetings, which began in August 1992, were believed to be longest running in Australia.
South Carolina Fetal Defense
KNIGHT RIDDER, March 12 — An unborn baby would be classified as a “person” in South Carolina from the moment of conception, under a bill to be considered by the South Carolina Senate Judiciary Committee, in order to prosecute criminals who kill or injure unborn children during the course of an attack on a pregnant woman, reported Knight Ridder.
Also, a driver who causes a car crash in which an unborn child is killed, for example, could be charged with manslaughter under the law.
Ethical Lung Transplants
BBC NEWS, March 16 — A new technique would allow lung transplants from dead donors, for the first time, reported the BBC News.
Prior to this technology, only lungs from donors whose hearts were still beating but who were declared “brain dead” could be used for transplants. The new technique allows transplant of the lungs even though the donor's heart has stopped beating, reported BBC News.
A successful transplant has shown that coolant pumped into the lungs of the dead body over an hour after death allows the lungs to survive for another 12-24 hours.
Dr. Stig Steen, professor of cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Lund in Sweden describes in the current issue of The Lancet a successful lung transplant using the new technique. The recipient of the lung has survived thus far for five months.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: What Two U.S. Sites Offer DATE: 04/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:ORLANDO, Fla. — This Holy Week, Florida tourists may be able to visit the Holy Land vicariously at a biblical theme park. But in Washington, D.C., Catholics have a site established more than 100 years ago by the Catholic Church that can canonically substitute for a Holy Land pilgrimage.
The new Protestant theme park in Orlando has gained nationwide attention by elaborately re-creating biblical scenes and places. At the “Holy Land Experience,” visitors can watch a man get crucified, then wash down a Goliath Burger with a Thirsty Camel Cooler.
At the Franciscan monastery in Washington, Catholics pray at replicas not only of Calvary, the Holy Sepulcher (Christ's Tomb) and other Holy Land sites, but of the catacombs where early Christians hid from Roman persecution. The Catholic version is smaller and lowtech, relying on the stone, glass and plaster of a large church rather than pricey date palms and film-strips.
But as frequent monastery visitor Kevin Dyer put it, “Rather than simply being a historical curiosity, it brings it into the living faith. You're not just going to see a reproduction of antiquity.”
The monastery is run by the Franciscan Commissariat of the Holy Land, a group that wears the Jerusalem cross on its habits to signify its responsibility to care for the holy places of Jerusalem.
The monastery is located minutes from the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Its series of grottos, shrines and catacombs opened in 1898.
Franciscan Father Kevin Treston said that the journey begins outdoors, where pedestals in the monastery's gardens mark the Stations of the Cross.
Inside the church, Father Treston takes visitors on a tour beginning with Mount Calvary. Vivid pictures illustrate the scenes. With the Calvary scene, Dyer noted, “You walk upstairs. You have the idea of a hill.”
Father Treston added, “We have a little reproduction of the chapel of Nazareth, where Gabriel asked Mary to be the mother of the Redeemer.” Across from Calvary is a facade of the tomb where Jesus was buried.
Underneath the church are the catacombs and a reproduction of the grotto where Jesus was born in Bethlehem. The walls resemble the rough rock that would have surrounded Jesus' birthplace.
The nearby Purgatory Chapel makes the connection between the Hebrew Bible and the Gospels explicit: A mosaic showing Ezekiel's vision of the raising of the dry bones is side-by-side with Jesus being taken down from the cross. Dyer noted that the Franciscans offer Mass there Nov. 1, All Souls Day, for the souls in purgatory.
Dyer contrasted the monastery to the Holy Land Experience by noting the differences in the two replicas of the Holy Sepulcher.
In the Florida park, there is a large tomb lying open and empty, as Jesus' tomb might have looked on Easter morning. At the monastery, there is a small door where visitors crouch down to see a replica of the tomb as it looks today — in the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher. The monastery recreates the tomb as it has been “adorned by the followers of Christ,” he explained.
Dyer added, “This is normal for Catholics. We've got the Stations of the Cross. We've reproduced the Scriptures on the windows. We have a marble altar, which is a symbol for Christ but also recalls the early days of the Church when the Mass was said on the tombs of martyrs. It looks like a sarcophagus.”
Along with the daily celebration of the Eucharist, these are “not just reminders,” he stressed. “The reality is there.”
The Holy Land Experience looks very different from the monastery. The park opened Feb. 5. It is located just three minutes from Universal Studios.
Its 15 acres are covered with date palms and tough grasses recreating the arid Jerusalem landscape. Loudspeakers broadcast Jewish prayers such as the Shema (“Hear, O Israel” Deuteronomy 6:4).
Visitors enter the park through the gates of a “walled city” and pass through a bustling Jerusalem marketplace circa 66 A.D. The noises of camels, goats and sheep fill the air via the park's sound system. Actors periodically present re-enactments of Jesus' last hours.
Actors in a “multimedia exhibit” demonstrate the ritual sacrifices that would take place in the tabernacle as the Hebrews followed Moses in the wilderness.
For Daniel Bub of Ocala, Fla., the park “didn't leave a big impression.” He said he liked the sense of immersion in the Jerusalem marketplace, and thought the park explained some historical details of the Gospels well. But, he said, “I went through it in about an hour and a half. I thought it was going to be more than that.”
Your Parish's ‘Holy Land Experience’
For those seeking a longer and deeper journey, there are “Holy Land experiences” in almost every Catholic church — the Stations of the Cross. The stations became widespread in the 17th century. They offered those who could not make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, whether because of financial difficulties, age or infirmity, a chance to walk the road that Jesus walked, carrying the cross.
The stations in every church, and even the Franciscan replicas in Washington, are smaller and less flashy than the Holy Land Experience. But they offer a prayerful atmosphere and a connection to the entire tradition of the Church. In the quiet monastery, a priest is always on hand to answer guests' questions about the faith.
And there are no Camel Coolers.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Priests for Life Launch Massive Media Push DATE: 04/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — The abortion wars have begun.
Pro-lifers see the Bush presidency as an opportunity. Pro-abortion forces see it as a threat. In either case, the war to frame the public debate is underway.
The National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, which goes by NARAL, has launched a $40 million campaign to mobilize people who favor abortion.
A new pro-life effort is modest by comparison.
Starting this spring, the Staten-Island-based organization Priests for Life will reach out to those suffering the moral and psychological effects of abortion with a massive billboard campaign of its own.
By July, 5,000 signs bearing the message: “Hurting from Abortion: The Doors of the Church are Open,” will appear along highways in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Chicago.
According to Priests for Life Founder Father Frank Pavone, the two-year, $12 million campaign is an effort to contrast what he called the widespread belief among American women that even though abortion is murder, it is still occasionally “the best course of action in a bad situation.”
The Priests for Life campaign responds to this “conflicted position,” Father Pavone said, “by demonstrating, on a practical level, that abortion is neither necessary nor helpful.”
“There are alternatives to abortion and there is healing and forgiveness for those who are hurting from abortion,” Father Pavone said. “The Church is committed to providing both the alternatives and the healing.”
Father Pavone made his comments at a March 29 press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
In addition to the billboards, he said that further media outreach will include television commercials, bus and trains signs, radio clips and: l An aggressive paid advertising campaign on secular television . l 26-part television series on pro-life issues to be aired toward the end of 2001. l A continuation of the organization's existing programming on the Eternal Word Television Network, the Odyssey Network, Vatican Radio and Catholic Family Radio.
“We intend to use all the means at our disposal to take this important message directly to the people in an unparalleled way, utilizing every form of mass media,” Father Pavone said.
Though NARAL representatives wouldn't talk to the Register for this story, the Associated Press quoted NARAL president Kate Michelman saying of the Bush administration, “We are facing an unprecedented historic threat from an administration that is deeply hostile to a woman's right to choose, and women's rights in general, and they are determined to take away that right.”
The Associated Press marshaled evidence that the Bush administration was aiding pro-abortion groups: l NARAL claims it has attracted more new members in the last three months than it had in the past two years. l Planned Parenthood raised $500,000 by scaring supporters of the Bush administration's ban on using U.S. taxpayer money for overseas abortions, said the report.
Priests for Life could look small compared to these efforts. It was founded by Father Frank Pavone in 1995 at the urging of former New York Archbishop John Cardinal O'Connor. Supported by a staff of five full-time diocesan priests, the organization works to assist priests across the country in addressing the abortion issue.
A statement issued by Priests for Life said that money for the post-abortion healing campaign comes from private donors from across the country.
“We realize that we will come under tremendous criticism from pro-abortion groups and others who believe we should remain silent behind the walls of the church sanctuary,” Father Pavone said.
“But we have never been intimidated by such rhetoric. While pro-abortion groups are interested in spreading rhetoric, we will be busy meeting the real needs of women exploited by abortion.”
Serrin Foster, president of Feminists for Life, called the billboard campaign “a step in the right direction,” but wondered if it would make non-Catholic women who need help coping with an abortion feel left out.
“It's important for women to know that there is hope and healing for women Catholic and non-Catholic alike,” Foster said. “Abortion has touched the lives of probably 30 million women in America and it's important that they know they have a place to turn, no matter what their faith background.”
Still, Foster praised the Church's efforts to reach out to those who suffer after abortion, saying its message of free help should send a signal to women about who has their best interests in mind.
“Even if those who profit from a woman's misery deny that abortion is a loss, women who have experienced it know the truth,” Foster said. “If you want to know where the truth lies, you have to answer yourself this question: ‘Who is it that offers their services for free and who is it that takes Mastercard and Visa?’ This is an industry.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian Mcguire ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Population Control's Legacy: West Has Too Few People DATE: 04/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — There has been no outbreak of the Black Death, no world war to kill millions of people, but for the first time in recent memory, Europe's overall population declined last year.
The population decrease is becoming so glaring that it is starting to get at least some media attention.
Swedish tennis star Bjorn Borg leapt into the population debate last month when he called on Europeans to have more children.
In a full page ad in the Swedish daily Dagens Industri, he pleaded, “If nothing drastic happens soon there won't be anyone who can work and put up for our pensions.”
More recently, the prestigious journal, Foreign Policy, sported a cover story titled: “Wanted: More Babies.”
Its author, Nicholas Eberstadt, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the Harvard University Center for Population and Developmental Studies, noted specifically that “population growth is poised to decelerate markedly over the next generation,” and that “83 countries and territories are thought to exhibit below replacement fertility patterns today.”
Closer to home, he cites U.S. Census Bureau statistics showing that “in 2025 the projected median age will be 43.”
Armed with just such statistics, the Vatican has been battling United Nations-style contraceptive policies for years, forging alliances with various Catholic and Muslim nations to stop the spread of policies that the Church views as immoral.
But like Eberstadt, Msgr. Anthony Frontiero, a member of the Holy See Mission to the United Nations, told the Register that he expects that the new statistics will simply cause a shift in tactics to something worse, not a decrease in population programs' funding.
“There might be a shift to a more forceful promotion of abortion,” he told the Register, explaining that this would likely be labeled as a shift in focus to “the rights of women in this regard.” In other words, he said, “there is not a lot of hope for change” at the United Nations.
At least one group, Population Action International, a liberal pro-population control lobbying group whose stated mission is to advance “policies and programs that slow population growth in order to enhance the quality of life for all people,” seems about to prove accurate Msgr. Frontiero's fears.
Sally Ethelston, a spokesperson for Population Action told the Register that while she has not reviewed all of the material, the current population control scheme “is something that people want,” and she added “it is saving lives.”
Ethelston said population control is “about people and their desire to have the number of children that they want,” and she worried that the U.N. and U.S. Census data “might not be entirely accurate.”
She also said she was concerned that recent policies in Singapore and Japan that promote a higher birthrate might “not be voluntary.”
Eberstadt denied that pro-family policies in Asia were a cause for that kind of concern.
“These programs aren't coercive because they aren't forcing people to have babies,” he told the Register, but “China is coercive because they force people not to have children.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Andrew Walther ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: New 3-D Ultrasound: Changing Views of the Unborn DATE: 04/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:TACOMA, Wash. — A whole new “window into the womb” that confirms the psalmist's words, “I am fearfully, wonderfully made” is said to be emerging with the development of three-dimensional ultrasound technology.
Although it is at least several years away from everyday use, 3-D ultrasound “really brings to mind what Psalm 139 says,” said Dr. Byron Calhoun of Tacoma, Wash., president of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, a special-interest group of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
Calhoun, who has used the technology on an investigational basis, expects that 3-D ultrasound will be especially helpful in diagnosing fetal abnormalities in the first trimester, when a “little person” with head, eyes, hands, and fingers is visible. Among the deformities experts say can be seen with 3-D ultrasound are spina bifida and cleft lip and palate. Researchers also have said a 3-D image can help parents bond with their unborn child and discourage smoking and alcohol consumption on the part of the mother.
“It's a different world for us to be able to look at,” Calhoun said. “The first-trimester stuff we're seeing is pretty impressive. When you pull [the image] out, it looks like a baby. Realistically, that's going to be a powerful tool.”
Pro-life advocates hope the technology will bolster the view that life begins at conception and is deserving of protection.
Thomas Glessner's organization, the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates, helps pro-life pregnancy centers acquire and use two-dimensional ultrasound equipment. He can't wait to get his hands on the 3-D equipment. “When the public understands and sees” 3-D, he said, “it will be nothing but a benefit for what we've been saying all along.”
Although Calhoun agreed it is too early for pregnancy centers to begin using 3-D equipment, which costs upwards of $100,000 and requires a sophisticated skill level on the part of technicians, he said the images the technology provides are indeed compelling.
“It's hard to look at this little person with a heartbeat and call it a blob of tissue. It does not look like a tad-pole or a blob of tissue. It's a little person, stretching, tumbling, acting like a kid … The heart is beating and it's really hard for an abortionist to get through it. They hate ultrasound.”
Representatives of the National Abortion Rights Action League were asked to comment about the impact of 3-D ultrasound on their movement, but declined to do so.
Three-dimensional ultrasound, also known as volumic sonography, uses special probes that automatically scan an area of the body, producing a series of planes that form a pyramid. The actual scan only takes 3 to 10 seconds, but the technology for achieving a three-dimensional image in so-called real time is still not available. Now, the data from the scan must be loaded into a computer and processed before an image can be generated.
Because 3-D ultrasound uses voxels (volumes) instead of pixels (dots) as in two-dimensional pictures, the images it produces take a lot of time to process, Calhoun said. To locate something freely in space and reconstruct it involves a complicated mathematical formula that today's processors are not fast enough to handle in real time.
However, Edith Stone, director of sales and marketing for Shimadzu Ultrasound-North America, Torrence, Calif., said as processing power gets more extensive and less expensive, 3-D ultrasound will become more user-friendly.
“The key to 3-D is computer power. … What is to everyone's advantage is that the cost of faster computer components is decreasing. The future may be just a year or two years out.”
Stone said images of fetal faces constitute much of what is emerging from 3-D ultrasound now. “What we have to be able to do to make 3-D valuable is what we call cut plane. Yes, there will be a rendering of the fetal face, but then you'll take away parts of the anatomy and look at other parts.
As an example, we would take away part of the fetal head and look at the brain, and be able to make an actual quantitative analysis.”
An advantage of 3-D ultrasound over 2-D, which was developed in the 1950s, is that it produces higher-resolution images that are more accurate. The limitations of 3-D are that the operator and patient must remain immobile for the duration of the scan, and that storage of the images requires a large computer memory. Additionally, the entire fetal body cannot fit into the image, except during the first two months.
The advent of 3-D ultrasound raises questions about what the new technology will contribute to the field of obstetrics, said Stone. For instance, she said, an infant with a cleft palate would likely have such a problem corrected after delivery anyway.
The new technology also will be helpful to gynecologists because of its effectiveness in visualizing cysts and ovaries more accurately, Calhoun said. Other long-term, major uses of 3-D ultrasound likely will involve cardiac and abdominal imaging, Stone added.
Calhoun said he is optimistic about the technology's impact on changing attitudes toward abortion.
“For virtually every woman who is shown the heartbeat and the beautiful features of her child — that's her baby. It makes it very difficult for them to do the abortion.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Judy Roberts ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Tracking the Dragon DATE: 04/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:In 1979, he became the first American social scientist invited to do research in post-revolutionary rural China. He was also the first to be asked to leave when he angered the Communist government. He is the president of the Population Research Institute and author of award-winning books about China. He spoke recently with Register features correspondent Tim Drake.
Drake: Tell me about yourself. Where did you grow up?
I was born in California in 1948 and grew up in the San Joaquin Valley near Fresno. In 1968, after two years of college, I joined the Navy and “saw the world,” at least the East Asian part of it. During a couple of tours of duty in Japan I developed a fascination for the Orient and a desire to make its study my life's work. I went to Hong Kong in 1976 to study Chinese for a year, and then entered the doctoral program in anthropology at Stanford University.
For those unfamiliar with your work, explain how it was that you first went to China in 1979.
When China and the United States normalized diplomatic relations I was selected by the American side to be the first social scientist to study rural China since the Chinese Communist Party took power in 1949. I arrived in March of 1979 unprepared for what I would find: massive disaffection with the Chinese communist party, primitive health, welfare and educational programs, and massive dissatisfaction with the recently announced population control policy.
I understand that you were asked to leave and later denied your Ph.D. because of your work in China. Can you explain?
During the course of my initial fieldwork in China, I came to the conclusion that the Communist revolution had failed the Chinese people. This failure took many forms, including the one-child policy and massive human rights violations. When I criticized the Chinese government for its failings, however, it declared that I was “attacking” China, accused me of “engaging in espionage,” asked me to leave and subsequently barred me from returning. These were ridiculous charges, but some at Stanford took them seriously. The university and I parted company.
You originally had no faith. Can you explain how you came to embrace the Catholic faith?
I grew up in an irreligious household. My parents had no faith, at least that they expressed to me. We never went to church as a family, or prayed together, even before meals. Christmas and Easter were secular holidays for us. My father had been raised Catholic by his mother (my grandfather was a non-practicing Protestant), but at age 12 had declared that he would never again darken the door of a church, and he never did.
It was my stark encounter with evil in China that brought me to a realization that God must exist, otherwise the universe was mad. After a long journey, I entered the Catholic Church in 1991.
In your recent book you describe China as a hegemon. Could you describe the Chinese understanding of this term?
China has always been the largest, most populous, most powerful country in the world in the eyes of the Chinese people. So the last 100 years of weakness of foreign encroachment — of China's invasion by Japan, for example, in the years leading up to World War II — was a great blow to Chinese national unity and Chinese pride.
A hegemon is a single axis of power. You can have more than one superpower, as we did during the years of the Cold War, but you can only have one hegemon. For most of China's long history, China has been the hegemon.
The Chinese elite are determined to recover China's traditional place in the world, that is to say, its center. That is what the very name of the country means. Zhonghua, which is how you say China in Chinese, means the “Middle Kingdom.”
However, the Chinese elite have another way to refer to their country which is even more revealing. They call it Tian-Xia, which means “All Under Heaven.”
Every week the news tells of another human rights abuse or arrest in China which seems to be ignored by the United States. What action can or should America take in response to such abuses?
I believe that China has the worst human rights record in the world. I say that not only because of the size of China's population, but also because of the severity of the abuses.
In Iran, for example, Christian converts from Islam may be punished, but minorities are generally left alone. In China, you name a human right and the government of China is abusing it — freedom of the press, freedom of association, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of conscience, freedom to practice one's faith — these are all forbidden to the Chinese people. China persecutes not only Christians, but minorities such as the Uigers in the West, Mongols and Manchus in the North, and Tibetans in the South. While some countries violate some human rights, China has the distinction of violating all human rights regularly.
In response, we must first reject the notion of Beijing's leaders that China is a world unto itself when it comes to human rights.
Li Tieying, a leading Politburo member, has said that human rights are relative and that each country and ethnicity has the right to determine its own system for protecting human rights. China, therefore, rejects the very notion that there are absolute standards of behavior that governments have to abide by and that human beings possess certain inalienable human rights. They believe that people possess only those rights that the government allows them to have. So, the first thing we have to do is to insist that the Chinese government abide by the same human rights standards that the other 150 countries in the world abide by.
Secondly, we need to call attention to human rights abuses in China.
This is a very effective way of improving the situation in China because Chinese leaders are very concerned about face and losing face. If you publicly embarrass Chinese leaders you are likely to see improvements.
The third thing we should do is, at every opportunity we should make China pay a price for violating the rights of its people.
We have to keep up positive moral pressure on China by taking specific actions to punish those government agencies or Chinese companies that violate the rights of its people. For example, there is child labor in China. Eleven-, 12-, and 13-year-old children in southern China are employed in sweatshops and forced to make Christmas ornaments and toys for export.
We should enforce the international labor covenants in China and forbid the import of these items.
Likewise, we should forbid the import of goods made by prisoners inside of China's Laogai, or gulag.
This is a violation of U.S. law and it should be enforced.
Doesn't the United States' normalization of permanent trade relations demonstrate what you describe in your book as
The passage of permanent trade relations without human rights amendments was a disappointment for me. The linkage between trade and human rights had been a very productive one over the past 10 years.
The threat of economic sanctions had forced China to take some positive steps each year, such as the release of high profile dissidents in order to win the renewal of trade relations for another year. Absent this pressure, we will have to be more creative in how we can encourage Beijing in the direction of respecting human rights.
We are going to have to more finely tune our sanctions against specific Chinese products and companies that violate human rights in production or their labor management policies.
The U.S. policy of engagement exists to try to make China more like us, but in reality aren't we becoming more like them?
It would certainly seem so. China is now exporting the culture of death to us in the form of a poison pill called RU-486.
Twenty years ago China embarked on a one-child policy at the urging of the Carter administration and population-control, anti-people organizations such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the United Nations.
So, instead of China becoming more like us, we are becoming more like them. The United States, like China, has the most permissive abortion laws in the world — permitting abortion up to the point of childbirth. That's not something we should be proud of. Not only are they killing their own children, but ours as well. They're more than happy to eliminate part of the next generation of Americans.
----- EXCERPT: Population specialist spent years in China ----- EXTENDED BODY: Steven Mosher ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Umbilical Stem Cells Offer Alternative to Killing Embryos DATE: 04/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — As lobbying continues over the question of whether Washington should fund research involving embryonic stem cells — research that inevitably requires the death of human embryos — some medical experts are insisting there is no scientific need to for such research.
New studies indicate that stem cells harvested from the umbilical cells of newborns and stored in “lifebanks,” and those taken from adult patients, may have far greater medical potential and fewer risks of dangerous side effects than using embryonic stem cells.
Stem cells have the potential to develop into tissue of any type. In recent years scientists have learned how to extract them from both embryos and adults, and are exploring their use to treat a host of diseases and disabilities. While most research so far has involved animals, the goal is human therapies.
In 1996 Congress outlawed federal support for any research that causes the death of embryos. However, the Clinton administration subsequently interpreted the law as not applying to research that utilized embryonic cells obtained from privately funded sources, and invited researchers to apply for funding.
During a visit to the National Institutes of Health Feb. 18, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said the Bush administration would announce a decision on embryonic stem cell research funding by the summer. Bush has previously expressed his opposition to such funding, but pro-life activists remain alarmed due to Thompson's support of embryonic stem cell research while he was governor of Wisconsin.
The presidents of more than 100 universities sent a letter to Thompson March 26 in support of the funding. Citing an earlier letter signed by 80 Nobel laureates, the presidents claimed, “It is premature to conclude that adult stem cells have the same potential as embryonic stem cells … impeding human pluripotent stem cell research risks unnecessary delay for millions of patients who may die or endure needless suffering while the effectiveness of adult stem cells is evaluated.”
Advantages of Adult Cells
David Prentice, professor of life sciences at Indiana State University and adjunct professor of medical and molecular genetics at the Indiana University School of Medicine, told the Register the debate “should already be put to rest, because the adult stem cells seem to have shown, over even just the last year, that they can do everything that the embryonic can do and do it ethically and do it without the problem of tissue rejection.”
Prentice explained that with adult cells, a patient can be treated with his own tissue, thus eliminating the problem of rejection inherent in transplants. He added that adult stem cell experiments have shown none of the medical risks associated with embryonic cells.
For example, Geron Corporation reported last fall that in one experiment, embryonic cells injected into the brain failed to generate new tissue and actually killed surrounding tissue. John Gearhart of Johns Hopkins University, a pioneer in the field, has recently reported cases in which embryonic cells caused tumors.
Prentice added that the Nobel laureates' claim that adult stem cells have less “differentiation potential” than embryonic cells is false, pointing to research showing adult cells can produce muscle, cartilage, blood, and heart, liver and brain tissue. Such cells have been used to treat leukemia for years, and recent studies indicate promise in treating many other illnesses, including strokes, arthritis, and lupus.
On Feb. 23, the company that cloned Dolly the sheep in 1997 announced it had succeeded in creating heart tissue from adult stem cells. And a group of researchers at a Feb. 18 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science reported success in reprogramming stem cells (in this case, cells from a newborn's umbilical cord blood) to become brain cells.
Stem Cell Banks
In fact, umbilical cord blood is quickly becoming recognized as the most promising of all sources of “adult” stem cells. Prentice explained, “Normally in our blood as an adult maybe at most one per cent of the cells are stem cells … whereas it's something like 20% of the cells in umbilical cord blood are stem cells.”
To collect and store such cells, “cord blood banking” has begun. Families are deciding to store blood from their newborns' umbilical cords, in order to treat any future illnesses their children may have, and a small industry has grown up to meet the demand.
One such company is Lifebank in Cedar Knolls, N.J. Lifebank's chief science officer Dr. Robert Hariri told the Register that the potential of cord blood stem cells is vast.
“People now see stem cells being used to treat things like sickle-cell anemia and rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis and Lou Gehrig's disease,” Hariri said. “People are doing it not solely because of their concerns about leukemia and cancer but because they say, ‘Look, this is a resource that is available today and only today, and if we don't collect it at the time the baby is born we won't have an opportunity to collect it again.’”
In spite of the evidence in favor of adult stem cells, David Prentice doubts the advocates of embryonic cells will give up. “Whether [their] motivation is grant dollars, just getting more money into science, or the thrill of discovery, of being the first one to do this and that without any real consideration of the ethics involved, unfortunately I don't think we're going to put the scientific question to rest very soon.”
Msgr. William Smith, professor of moral theology at St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y., says many scientists know that embryonic stem cell research involves the destruction of human life, but have become “numb” to that fact in order to avoid facing the issue.
Msgr. Smith said that all of the current sources of embryonic stem cells (mostly “spare” embryos from in vitro fertilization procedures) must be rejected as intrinsically immoral, apart from any benefit the cells may provide. “The problem with all of these [methods] is that they involve the intentional killing of unborn children,” he said. “It's not enough to say [human embryonic stem cell research] starts off with a little negative baggage. [It] starts with an intrinsic evil.”
But the heart of the problem, Msgr. Smith said, is society's acceptance of abortion, and that makes him doubt whether the stem cell issue will be resolved soon. “We've had 25 years of abortion now. Whether you like abortion or you don't like abortion, it has effects. It has cheapened human life,” he said “When you lower the God profile, whatever's made in the image and likeness of God is also lowered.”
David Curtin writes from Toronto.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: David Curtin ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 04/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:Alone on Death Row
LOS ANGELES TIMES, March 26 — The California Supreme Court has upheld death-row regulations that bar spiritual advisors from sharing a prisoner's last hours, the Los Angeles daily reported.
The court unanimously upheld a rule that requires pastors and other spiritual advisors to leave the prisoner 45 minutes before the execution. Prison officials argued that the rule protects the identities of the people performing the execution. Moreover, the state's deputy attorney general argued, the presence of “someone there who does love him and prefers that he live can be very distracting” while the prisoner and the execution team are preparing for the execution.
The lawyer for Thomas M. Thompson, who was executed in 1998, argued that spiritual advisors enhance security by calming inmates. Said the lawyer, “The last minutes before death are of extreme spiritual significance.”
No TV, No Problems
ASSOCIATED PRESS, March 27 — Carol Begley and her family are in the 2% of U.S. households who have no television, the wire service reported.
Begley said that television would distract her three sons from their spiritual lives as Catholics. Other parents without television argued that it allows children's imagination to grow lazy, keeps them indoors rather than outside playing, and exposes them to profanity, sexual images and violence.
Teachers added that TV-free students concentrate better in class. In the average U.S. home, the television is on almost eight hours a day. More than half of children aged 8 to 16 years have a TV in their bedroom.
Boy Scouts Booming in Florida
PALM BEACH POST, March 23 — The United Way of Palm Beach netted a record level of donations this year, including a huge increase in gifts earmarked for the Boy Scouts of America, the Florida daily reported.
Contributors gave $61,540 for the Scouts this year, compared with $19,897 last year. The Post speculated that the gifts were a reaction to a September decision by the United Way's board to cut off donations to the Boy Scouts in 2003 unless the group agreed to allow openly homosexual members.
But the United Way also received $30,000 in “negative designations” — money earmarked for anything but the Scouts.
Christ on Capitol Hill
THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR ONLINE, March 22 — Some senators are up in arms over a Christian “mock trial” to be held in the Hart Senate Office building just before Easter, the magazine's online “Washington Prowler” column reported.
The mock trial, “Can It Be Proven Jesus Rose from the Dead?”, provoked protests from pro-abortion Sens. Barbara Boxer, D.-Calif., and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
But the “Prowler” column slammed the senators for their own choice of events: Both Boxer and Schumer are guests of honor at the premiere of Soldier in the Army of God, an HBO movie that portrays pro-lifers as extremist zealots.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Marriage is the Strength of These Black Americans DATE: 04/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Maybe it was the chewing gum.
That's what Christian Methodist Episcopal Bishop Nathaniel Linsey would send Mae C. Mills to “sweeten” his letters. She lived in Durham, N.C., and he was studying for the ministry in Washington, D.C.
Bishop Linsey convinced Miss Mills to become Mrs. Linsey 50 years ago on April 5. They planned to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary in an unusual way — at a ceremony in Indianapolis honoring all the couples in Bishop Linsey's diocese who have been married 50 years or more. Each couple will receive a certificate from the Alliance for Marriage, and will be honored by the guests.
There will be 700 of those guests, including all of the church's U.S. bishops. More than 50 couples were to be honored, although only 17 would be able to make it to the actual ceremony.
The Christian Methodist Episcopal Church is a historically black denomination. In a time when newspapers are filled with stories of turbulence in the black family, Bishop Linsey and the Alliance for Marriage offer hope to struggling couples who wonder whether lifelong marriage is even possible.
Celebrating Black Families
Bishop Linsey said that he hoped the Indianapolis ceremony would “inspire young people who are thinking about getting married or who are having problems in their homes to hold fast, to put their trust in God, and to seek counseling to help keep their marriages together.”
He said that black families face the same stresses as do all American families today.
But Matt Daniels, founder of the Virginia-based Alliance for Marriage, told the Register, “You will encounter among some of the people in the welfare establishment a profound prejudice, a view that the African-American community is a community where it is socially impossible to form lifelong marriages. That's absolutely false — in fact, quite insulting to the African-American community.”
Many of the problems facing marriage, Daniels said, are the products of a culture that believes in “the disposable marriage.” He said the couples honored at the Indianapolis golden wedding anniversary are “living proof” that lifelong marriage is an attainable goal.
Daniels cited Marriage Savers and the Catholic program Retrouvaille as groups that help couples weather stormy periods. If there are no such groups in a couple's immediate area, he suggested that they either speak with their pastor or contact Marriage Savers on the Web at http://www.marriagesavers.org.
Daniels also advised employers to be sensitive to the needs of families, commenting that, “Employees with healthy marriages are always better employees.” He suggested offering flextime, job-sharing arrangements and options to work from the home.
Bishop Linsey advised couples to “seek counsel before they get married.” He added that struggling couples — even divorced couples — can rebuild happy, lifelong marriages: “I have had the privilege of marrying people who have been divorced and came back after 25 years and renewed their vows.”
These couples had learned that the fault was not always with their spouses. And, Bishop Linsey said, they had learned how to forgive one another.
Some critics have charged that the pro-marriage movement unfairly stigmatizes single mothers, divorced couples, and children born into such families. “That couldn't be more false,” Daniels replied. “I was raised by a single mother on welfare in New York City. To uphold the married two-parent family as an ideal is not to point a finger at any individual or group.”
He added that single mothers are usually “working valiantly to raise a child alone.”
Take Our Advice
Iula Carter of Dayton, Ohio, who became the wife of William B. Carter 53 years ago, said she and her husband decided to attend the golden wedding anniversary because “God has blessed us with love, understanding and prayer. I thought, let us share, let them know how long we've been together and what has kept us together.”
The Carters have six children, 17 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Like the other couples involved in the golden wedding anniversary, Iula Carter stressed prayer as the foundation of family life.
Sociological studies back her up, showing that families who pray together and attend church together are much more likely to stay together.
Like the Linseys, the Carters had a long period of “courting.” Iula and William grew up three streets apart. When he came down the street selling coal or ice, she would grab a broom and pretend that the front steps needed sweeping so that she could see him.
The Carters have both regular private time — she in her bedroom, often reading the Bible, and he in his office — and communal time. They eat breakfast together, and go on car trips.
She said, “A whole lot of things make you think, ‘Oh, this is it, I can't take it any more!’” But prayer got her through. She reminded herself, “He was the working man, he kept us eating and he was a good father. This I could not ever forget.”
“The most important thing that has made my marriage work is that God is first in our house, my husband is second and then me,” she said with a laugh. Like many of the spouses who will be attending the Indianapolis celebration, she is quick to laugh.
Bishop Linsey said that couples should “not just pray, but pray together.” The Linseys pray out loud, he said, so that their prayer helps them “realize the seriousness of our concern for staying together. And therefore, we get up off of our knees and start working on it.”
And then, like Iula Carter, he laughed.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 04/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:Paralyzed Teen Meets Pope
INDIANAPOLIS STAR, March 26 — A paralyzed Indiana teen recently got his wish to meet Pope John Paul II, the daily reported.
Nineteen-year-old Joe Flitcrafts, of tiny Roann, Ind., was left a quadriplegic after an accident last year.
Thanks to the Indiana Children's Wish Fund, Joe, his parents Joey and Betty, his 13-year-old sister Jewel, and one of his nurses spent more than a week in Rome in late March. Accompanying them was Dr. Chuck Dietzen, a pediatric rehabilitation specialist who was one of Joe's doctors. During the trip, the family, which is not Catholic, met Pope John Paul II. A priest friend of Dietzen's, in Rome studying canon law, arranged the private audience for the Flitcrafts.
Italian Clone Doctor Attacks Vatican
REUTERS, March 22 — The flamboyant Italian doctor who is determined to be the first to clone a human being recently defended his plan before a medical council and accused the Vatican of starting a new Inquisition against science.
“I haven't committed any crime,” Dr. Severino Antinori told reporters before the closed meeting at the Rome Medical Association headquarters. “To think and do research is still not forbidden.”
Antinori, whose team says it is ready to start work on the first human clone within weeks, rebuffed volleys of criticism of the project and reserved his strongest words for the Vatican, which has called human cloning “grotesque.”
The Vatican holds that no human being should be denied the fundamental right to be conceived and born the natural way.
Cyprus Officials Silence Anti-Catholic Clerics
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, March 26 — Government officials in Cyprus recently told native anti-Catholic Orthodox clerics to tone down their opposition to a proposed visit by Pope John Paul II this spring, the news service reported.
“Our advice to some clerics is that they choose their words very carefully,” government spokesman Michalis Papapetrou told reporters March 26.
Papapetrou was responding to inflammatory remarks the day before by Kyrenia Bishop Pavlos when addressing a congregation to mark Greek independence.
The bishop told the faithful that the Catholic Church was responsible for the Ottomans sacking Constantinople in 1453, which he said led to Muslim Turkish rule. This interpretation of events alarmed a government that is seeking to secure European Union membership by 2003.
Cyprus was the first stop of St. Paul's first mission to spread Christianity outside Palestine. He is said to have converted the island's Roman governor at the time, Sergius Paulus, in the southwestern coastal town of Paphos where it is also said he received 39 lashes for his troubles. What is described as “Saint Paul's Pillar” still stands in Paphos as a site of pilgrimage.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: The Psalms: Prayer of Christ and His Disciples DATE: 04/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:Register Summary
Pope John Paul II began a series of teachings on prayer March 28, proposing the psalms as an indispensable means of inspiration.
Speaking to about 15,000 pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square for his weekly general audience, the Pope stated his objective: that the psalter, as the collection of psalms is also called, should become a privileged instrument in the spiritual life of all Christians, not just priests and religious.
Noting their literary beauty and psychological insight, the Pope said the psalms, “though written so many centuries ago by Jewish believers, can be taken up into the prayer of Christ's disciples.”
He said the key to understanding the psalms is to realize that they speak of Christ. He said the teaching of the Fathers of the Church showed that “in the psalms, either the psalmist is speaking to Christ, or it is actually Christ who is speaking.”
This was why the psalms were used in prayer by the early Christians. In fact, the Pope recalled that, at a time when heresies were shaking the faith of Christian communities, some saints, such as Athanasius, dedicated their life to teaching the psalter as a way to remain firmly established in the faith.
Pope John Paul concluded saying: “The book of Psalms remains the ideal source of Christian prayer.”
In the apostolic letter Novo Millennio Ineunte, I express the hope that the Church will increasingly distinguish itself in the art of prayer, continually learning it anew from the lips of the divine Master (No. 32). This effort must be made especially in the liturgy, the source and summit of the Church's life. In this regard, it is important to dedicate greater pastoral attention to promoting the Liturgy of the Hours as the prayer of the entire People of God (ibid., 34).
Though, in fact, priests and religious have a specific responsibility to recite it, it is, nevertheless, also highly recommended to lay people. This is what my venerable predecessor Paul VI intended just over 30 years ago with [the promulgation of] the constitution Laudis Canticum, in which he established the current composition of this prayer, hoping that the psalms and canticles underlying the structure of the Liturgy of the Hours would be understood “with renewed love by the People of God” (AAS 63 [1971], 532).
It is encouraging that, both in parishes and in Church groups, many lay people have learned to value it. The fact remains, however, that it is a prayer that requires an adequate catechetical and biblical formation to be enjoyed to the full.
For this reason, we are beginning a series of catecheses today on the psalms and canticles used in morning prayer. In this way, I wish to encourage and help everyone to pray with the very words used by Jesus, which have existed for thousands of years in the prayer of Israel and of the Church.
Highly Poetic
We could approach an understanding of the psalms in various ways. The first would be to explain their literary structure, their authors, their development and the contexts in which they came into being. Then, an attractive approach would be to show their poetic character, which at times reaches the highest levels of lyrical intuition and symbolic expression. No less interesting would be to go through the psalms considering the various feelings of the human spirit they manifest: joy, gratitude, thanksgiving, love, tenderness, enthusiasm, but also intense suffering, complaint, appeals for help and justice, which at times end in anger and curses. In the psalms, the human being meets himself in his entirety.
Our approach will aim, above all, to make the religious meaning of the psalms emerge, showing how, though written so many centuries ago by Jewish believers, they can be taken up into the prayer of Christ's disciples. So, we will enlist the help the results of exegesis, but we will also attend the school of Tradition, and above all we will listen to the Fathers of the Church.
Christ in the Psalms
These latter, in fact, with profound spiritual insight, were able to discern and point out the great “key” to the reading of the psalms — Christ himself, in the fullness of his mystery. The Fathers were thoroughly convinced of it: The psalms are speaking about Christ. In fact, the risen Jesus applied the psalms to himself when he said to the disciples that it is necessary “that everything written about me in the law of Moses and in the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled” (Luke 24:44). The Fathers add that in the psalms, either the psalmist is speaking to Christ, or it is actually Christ who is speaking. In saying this, they were thinking not only of the individual person, Jesus, but of the “Christus totus” — the whole Christ, made up of Christ the head and of all his members.
In this way, the possibility arises for the Christian to read the psalter in light of the full mystery of Christ. It is precisely this perspective that makes their ecclesial dimension emerge as well, which is particularly emphasized in the choral chant of the psalms. Thus we understand how it is that the psalms were able to be used right from the first centuries as prayers of the People of God. When, in some historical periods, the tendency arose to prefer other prayers, it was the great merit of the monks to hold the torch of the psalter high in the Church. At the dawn of the second Christian millennium, one of them, St. Romuald, founder of the Camaldolese, went so far as to maintain — as his biographer Bruno of Querfurt states — that the psalms are the only way to experience truly profound prayer: “Una via in psalmis” (Passio Sanctorum Benedicti et Johannis ac sociorum eorundem: MPH VI, 1893, 427).
St. Romuald maintained that the psalms are the only way to experience truly profound prayer.
The Church's Book of Prayer
With this statement, which at first might appear exaggerated, he remained, in fact, anchored in the best tradition of the first Christian centuries, when the psalter had become the book of ecclesial prayer par excellence. This was the winning decision that was made in the struggle with heretical tendencies that continually undermined unity of faith and communion.
In this regard, it is interesting to note a wonderful letter that St. Athanasius wrote to Marcellinus in the first half of the fourth century, when the Arian heresy, which attacked faith in Christ's divinity, was raging. In contrast to the heretics, who attracted people to themselves with songs and prayers that pleased their religious feelings, this great Father of the Church dedicated himself with all his energy to teach the psalter as handed on by Scripture (PG 27, 12 ff.). In this way the prayer of the psalms, which soon became a universal practice among the baptized, was included with the Our Father, the Lord's prayer par excellence.
Moral Requirements
Thanks also to the communal prayer of the psalms, the Christian conscience remembered and understood that it is impossible to turn to the Father who lives in heaven without an authentic communion of life with one's brothers and sisters who live here on earth. Not only this, but by vigorously entering into the Jewish prayer tradition, Christians learned how to pray by recounting the “magnalia Dei” — the great wonders accomplished by God, whether in the creation of the world and of humanity, or in the history of Israel and the Church.
This form of prayer, drawn from Scripture, does not exclude certain freer expressions, and these will continue not only to characterize personal prayer, but also to enrich liturgical prayer itself, for example with hymns and other embellishments.
The book of Psalms, in any case, remains the ideal source of Christian prayer, and the Church of the new millennium will continue to draw inspiration from it.
(Translation by ZENIT and Register)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 04/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:Sri Lankans Welcome Pilgrim Virgin Statue
FIDES, March 24 — An ancient statue of Mary recently completed a nationwide pilgrimage of peace in the war-torn island nation of Sri Lanka, the missionary news service reported.
Sri Lanka bishops organized the first-ever pilgrimage of the 450-year-old statue of Our Lady of Madhu in an effort to bring peace and stability to their country, which remains embroiled in a 17-year-old civil war.
“Our Lady of Madhu has come to visit her children in trouble,” Archbishop Nicolas Marcus Fernando of Colombo told the massive crowds who thronged a church and nearby roads for a vigil service in honor of the miraculous statue.
Said the archbishop, “We have prayed to Mary for peace in our land. She is the Queen of Peace. She is our advocate. Let us remind her of her favors in times of need, as in war. Now we have our own war. Let her come from the north to the south to unite all as her children.”
Parisians Flock to Afro-Christian Cults
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH, March 22 — A large increase in the number of evangelical cults in France is drawing black worshippers from orthodox established churches to an exotic new vision of “Afro-Christianity,” the London daily reported.
Every Sunday, large crowds flock to a northern Paris suburb to take part in services that feature throbbing drums and swaying choirs, all-action sermons and prayer sessions devoted to faith-healing and clairvoyance.
David Brown, a British Protestant missionary who ministers near Paris, said about 400 evangelical churches have sprung up during the past decade while attendance at Catholic services has plummeted. Said Brown, “Evangelical Christianity appeals to a lot of people as a third way between Catholicism and secularism.”
Catholics in Uzbekistan Victims of Religious Ban
KESTON NEWS, March 23 — A concert of Christian music scheduled for October in the Church of the Sacred Heart in the Uzbekistan capital of Tashkent seems to be the first victim of a February decree that bans state educational institutions from having any contact with religious organizations, the news service reported.
Catholic officials told Keston News that musicians and singers from the city's conservatory took part in such a concert in mid-February, but will not be able to do so again without special permission.
Philippines Movie Censor Resigns Over Sex Film
ASSOCIATED PRESS, March 22 — The Philippines' top movie censor resigned recently after the country's president threatened to fire him over the wide distribution of a pornographic film about sex performers, the news service reported.
Nicanor Tiongson, chairman of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board, said he could no longer work amid Church and state criticism.
Church officials criticized Tiongson in early March for the approval of Live Show, a Philippine movie about sex performers. More recently, newly installed President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo threatened to fire Tiongson for approving the film.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Have More Babies DATE: 04/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:There are far too few babies being born, particularly in the West. Will we figure this out before it's too late?
Yes, the drumbeat of ideologues claiming the opposite has been steady for a long time. But a quick look at the facts shows the indisputable truth.
A recent issue of the weekly magazine Foreign Policy, for instance, features a child on its cover with the heading: “Wanted: More Babies.”
It's author, Nicholas Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute and Harvard University, notes that “population growth is poised to decelerate markedly over the next generation,” and that “83 countries and territories are thought to exhibit below replacement fertility patterns today.”
Ireland, for instance has the highest fertility rate in Europe, according to new U.N. statistics — but even there, it is a dangerously low 1.88 children per woman. Italy has the lowest: 1.19 children per women.
What's the effect in the United States? Citing U.S. Census Bureau statistics, Eberstadt says that “in 2025 the projected median age will be 43.”
Last month, in the Swedish daily Dagens Industri, tennis star Bjorn Borg called on Europeans to have more children. “If nothing drastic happens soon there won't be anyone who can work and put up for our pensions,” reads his full-page ad.
Though Western countries often marshaled economic arguments against having children, European economists now worry that the society will not be able to afford the retirement costs of the next generations of seniors, since there may be too few people of working age to support them.
As the Population Research Institute points out, children could easily become the principle factor in future wealth.
As Europe and Japan face futures with large numbers of elderly supported by shrinking numbers of young people, 99% of projected population growth is going to occur in the developing countries.
Why should we assume, asks the institute, that these countries will remain poor?
They will have an increase in producers who can fuel the economy and consumers to use products, without an oversized population of older people to support. If they add to that a system of laws and rights, there will be nothing to stop what happened in America from happening in Africa and South America: an economic boom time.
All of this should encourage Catholics in particular in at least two ways.
Our teaching on contraception is sound and sane. Last Lent, Pope John Paul II asked God's forgiveness for the past mistakes of Catholics. Will a future Pope have to apologize for the embarrassed silence that Catholics have given to Church teaching on contraception, precisely when Europe and America most needed to hear it? Too many of us were too willing to believe the population doomsayers and disbelieve our own faith. In particular, Catholic academia seems to be inflicted with a form of immigrant complex that keeps them busy trying to impress the secular world, leaving no one to expound and unfold the riches in the Church's teaching. A vigorous emphasis on the Church's teaching on contraception could still help turn around the demographic crisis that will soon engulf the West's financial resources.
The meek will inherit the earth. Beware schemes that try to thwart nature. They are bound to fail. European population gurus have been pushing contraceptives on Third World countries when Catholics knew all along that what these poor people really needed was better food distribution. Now the Europeans face extinction, and developing nations will out-develop them to the extent that they reject the contraceptive mentality that is killing the West.
It is now clearer than ever that the Church's teaching on contraception will long survive the secular saviors of our day who push sex and an easy life.
This should be no surprise to us during Holy Week, when our attention is on the world's one savior, and on his Cross.
----- EXCERPT: Editorial ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Register Readers Blame 'Culture of Death' DATE: 04/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:Regarding “After Shooting, Bush Calls For Life Ethic” (March 18-24): I agree with Mary Beth Bonacci that “a desire for attention” leads youth to follow through on their feelings with violent behavior.
As a writer in the secular press has recently pointed out, we are more than ready to give these young criminals all the attention — and even sympathy — they could desire. Your own front-page article names the perpetrator in the second paragraph, but never gets around to mentioning the names of any of the victims, dead or alive.
Surely the victims need remembering — in prayer, especially — as much as the criminal. In fact, in that second paragraph we hear through the journalist from the boy's friends; their testimony to the teasing he endured is a subtle appeal for empathy for him. All well and good, but what about the others — the slain and the survivors? What about their needs at this time?
But the article most upsets me for this reason: Though our pro-life president made a very cogent comment on where the tragedy should lead us, your writer feels it necessary to quote a priest whose comments mitigate Bush's point.
While Father Peters admits that Bush “struck a good chord” and that our country needs “to throw into the garbage can the culture of death,” another priest cautions us about being too enthusiastic about championing Bush's words.
I think enthusiasm is called for in support of a leader who correctly points out that teen violence is a by-product of the culture of death.
All the other talk about the need for God and moral instruction in the lives of youth is true, of course, but when the main culprit, abortion, is staring us in the face — let's address that monster first!
DENISE J. CLARKE Eaton Rapids, Michigan
Many reasons have been given for the March 5 school shootings in Santee, Calif. President Bush was quoted in the Register: “When America teaches our children right from wrong and teaches values to respect life in our country, our country will be better off” (“After Shooting, Bush Calls For Life Ethic,” March 18-24).
In the article, two priests who comforted the victims disputed Bush's statement, saying he endorses capital punishment. A third priest blamed the shootings on violence in music and the media.
Others blame public schools, which play a large role in the formation of children, for their Godless milieu. Also, many schools mislead children by teaching that, facilitated by condoms, promiscuity is the norm; abortion is the ultimate contraceptive when condoms fail; therefore, human life is valueless.
Each year over 1 million preborn babies are sliced to death and thousands of babies have their brains suctioned from their heads as they are being born. Their body parts are sold to increase the profit from killing.
Many parents tolerate, accept and even encourage this carnage, which is protected by legislators and judges. Parents are thus teaching their children to devalue human life, and our schools, legislators, media and judicial systems reinforce the culture of death.
President Bush is correct: The anti-life ethic that pervades our society results in youngsters killing youngsters. This lack of respect for human life first manifests itself at the abortuary. Parents must teach their children to value human life from conception to natural death, or our society will self-destruct.
JOHN NAUGHTON Silver Spring, Maryland
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Letters DATE: 04/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:Get Hip to the Music, Register
Regarding “Nun Promotes Christian Music for the MTV Generation” (March 18-24): Such an outdated idea — a nun, in this instance, Sister Gillis, and a Catholic newspaper, in this instance, the Register, failing to promote Catholic music, for Catholic audiences, while promoting passe “Christian” artists. It's time for Sister and the Register to get hip (as in hip-hop) — support Catholic musicians.
TERI SEIPEL Riverside, California
The writer is associated with KUCR radio.
Relics and Commerce
I am writing in response to the article “Crusading Internet Knight Defends the Honor of Relics” (March 18-24). While in large measure I agree with and applaud Mr.
Serafin's efforts to cease the sale of sacred relics for profit, some questions remain regarding the issue of selling and purchasing relics.
For example, there is an antique store near me in which one dealer frequently offers older and obviously authentic relics for sale. I have purchased some of these for my own veneration, some to give as gifts to friends or priests with a special devotion to a particular saint; others I have purchased, at great expense to myself, simply to “rescue” them from languishing on the antique store shelves amid china and knick-knacks.
For the same purposes, I have also bought relics over the Internet.
Has Mr. Serafin himself ever purchased relics out of a desire to rescue them, or for private veneration and, if so, how does this differ from myself, or any individual, doing the same? In other words, while it may be a violation of canon law to sell relics, what about the persons who purchase them?
This is a question which has puzzled me for some time, and for which I have searched in vain for a definitive answer. The only people I know who have ever purchased relics have done so in order to make them available for veneration, either privately or in a church, never for sacrilegious purposes. I doubt anyone with such ill motives would spend the hundreds to thousands of dollars which relics generally cost.
If sincere persons were to cease buying relics, what would become of those which are offered for sale? Is remaining on the dusty shelves of a shop or storeroom a better alternative than being sold to a devout person? I would appreciate any knowledgeable reader's input regarding these issues.
JENNIFER HEATH Greenfield, Massachusetts
Kudos, Brother Raymond
Thanks, thanks for the article on Internet sites (“How to Discern Online Deceit,” March 25-31). I would love to see a regular column by Brother John Raymond, or any other of the many experts in this field, for more suggestions, comments and recommendations. The sites he suggested are excellent, and it is good to know they are also “safe.” Thanks.
S. SCHERER Wilson, New York
Web of Accusations
I read with interest Brother John Raymond's advice on how to discern online deceit. One important element of such an effort at discernment by readers would be the personal possession of accurate information and a commitment to truth-telling.
In Brother Raymond's case, this would require him to understand the current role of the Vatican at the United Nations. He claims [the] Catholicity [of Catholics for a Free Choice] is in question because we are “one of the prime agitators trying to have the Holy See removed from the list of nongovernmental organizations with a voice at the United Nations.”
The Holy See is currently considered a Non-member State Permanent Observer (the same status as Switzerland), not a nongovernmental organization.
Catholics for a Free Choice wants the Holy See and the Roman Catholic Church active in the United Nations as a nongovernmental organization — as a religion, not a country. We think the Church would have more moral authority as a religious, not a secular, voice.
If Brother Raymond had bothered to read our Web site, which provides full details about the role of the Holy See at the United Nations, he would have been accurately informed about the status of the Holy See.
FRANCES KISSLING Washington, D.C.
The writer is president of Catholics for a Free Choice. The organization has retained that name despite its being repudiated by the U.S. bishops.
We did check out Kissling's Web site. We quickly came upon a press release that read, in part: “The Catholic church is complicit in interfering with women's reproductive rights around the world. … [W]e call into question the Vatican's status at the United Nations in order to reduce its impact on women's lives.” So much for seeking to give the Church “more moral authority.”
On First Reading the Register
I wanted to write and say kudos on a great paper. I am a converted Catholic, circa 1992 and must admit that I don't necessarily embrace all of the teachings and doctrines as easily as my wife.
We have been getting your paper delivered to our house for many months and I picked up my first paper this evening to read. I enjoyed it thoroughly. It's really nice to read both sides of the story. I will continue to read this paper weekly.
The other reason I am writing is to respond to Michael Barry's comments on Dale Earnhardt (“The Race is Not to the Swift,” Letters, March 25-31). I am by no means a race fan. What I am is an admirer of good human beings — people who have a passion for their calling in life, whether it be priests, accountants, football players or anyone else who puts in a good day's work.
This passion sometimes shows in our actions. Couldn't St. Michael be considered, like Earnhardt, the “Intimidator”?
And his comment about Earnhardt's being “born again” seemed a bit of a put-down and quite petty. Mr. Barry needs to realize that many people do risky jobs every day and sometimes bad things happen. Bad things also happen to many people who don't have risky jobs. Thanks for your time and God bless.
BRUCE MCKINNEY Louisville, Kentucky
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Making Holy Thursday Last All Year DATE: 04/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:Like many converts, Scott Adler takes his Catholic faith seriously.
He attends a weekly Gospel reflection with friends and organizes study circles on papal encyclicals in his home. At work, he puts into practice what he learns about his faith. At 39, married, with three children, Scott considers his faith the most important reality in his life.
Also like many converts, Scott has been surprised to find that most cradle Catholics are not quite so enthusiastic about their faith. Indifference, apathy and a dry sense of duty characterize the attitude of many lifelong Catholics. What do converts like Scott have that many cradle Catholics lack?
I asked Scott what keeps him interested and engaged in his faith. He responded without hesitating: “the Eucharist.” As a convert myself to the Catholic faith, I know exactly what he means. Scott is not just referring to a theoretical belief in the Real Presence, which most Catholics have, but a lifestyle imbued with a eucharistic spirituality — a dimension of our faith which all Catholics should renew each Holy Thursday, anniversary of Christ's institution of the Eucharist.
Some say, “Being Catholic means going to Mass on Sunday.” Others have replied, “It means keeping the rules of God and the Church.” Few I've talked to have said that being a Catholic means living a life of faith, hope and charity centered on Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. As a priest and a convert, I believe it is precisely this “eucharistic lifestyle” that can turn a passive Catholic into an active apostle.
And what does a eucharistic lifestyle consist of?
It all begins by realizing that our faith is more than a doctrine to be believed or an ethical code of conduct to be lived; it is, above all, a person — Jesus Christ. When our faith becomes a response to the person of Jesus Christ, then belief and practice become personal convictions of truth and not just mere obligations. To respond to Christ's love for us, we need to know him and experience him in our daily life. Where may the crucified and risen Lord be encountered as a living person, not just as an idea?
Primarily in the eucharistic celebration of the Holy Mass.
Encountering Christ in the eucharistic celebration means more than not missing Mass; it means living the Mass. The difference between passively attending Mass and actively living it is the difference between hearing about Christ and actually getting to know him.
How can a Catholic live the Mass? I suggest the following:
For starters, do your best to approach the eucharistic celebration with the conviction that it is the focal point of your entire life, the summit to which every activity of your life as a Christian is directed. Live the opening rite of the Mass acknowledging your limitations and sins before God and asking for the graces to be a more authentic Christian. Then prepare yourself with faith to listen to the Liturgy of the Word.
This is the moment when Christ speaks to our hearts through Sacred Scripture. Afterwards, during the presentation of the gifts of bread and wine, place all your sacrifices and daily efforts on the priest's paten for Christ to transform them into graces of personal holiness. This prepares us for the sacred moment of the consecration. Live the consecration with sentiments of adoration, thanksgiving and gratitude. Try to make the sentiments of Christ, who is immolating himself for our salvation, your own.
After the consecration, prepare yourself to receive the Body of Christ in an attitude of faith, charity, humility and compunction of heart. Be aware of the love Our Lord offers you in himself. Holy Communion is the moment to say Yes to Christ's sacrifice and to unite our own Yes to his. When receiving the Eucharist, nothing in our life should be in disagreement with the life of Christ. Fervent thanksgiving should follow Communion. This is a very personal moment to speak with Christ, to share with him your needs, your hopes, your sorrows and your joys. Take time to savor this part of the Mass.
In the concluding rite, Christ gives us his blessing to go out and live — at home, at work and with friends — what we have received in the Eucharist by evangelizing others. But this raises yet another question for many Catholics: What do we receive in the Eucharist that equips us to bring Christ to others?
Faith is the first gift of the Eucharist. To walk in life by faith means to believe, to trust and to confide in the Christ we encounter in the Eucharist. A eucharistic faith empowers us to live life with direction and assurance. It moves us to serve others. To work for the good of others authenticates our faith in Christ's Real Presence in the Eucharist; it makes our Christian witness credible.
No one doubted the sincerity of Mother Teresa of Calcutta because her works proved her faith in Christ. And her faith in Christ was firmly focused on his Real Presence in the Eucharist.
If the Eucharist moves us to love Christ ever more deeply, then it also moves us to hope in Christ ever more fervently. Hope, that most overlooked of the theological virtues, asserts victory in Christ. The Eucharist makes us beacons of hope for those seeking hope.
And that's the very essence of the eucharistic lifestyle. Just ask Scott Adler: He's been living it for 15 years now. Isn't Holy Thursday a good time to follow suit?
Father Andrew McNair teaches at Mater Ecclesiae International Center of Studies in Greenville, Rhode Island.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Andrew McNair ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: The Good Friday Appeal, Two Years Later DATE: 04/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:“[T]he dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil. Modern society has the means of protecting itself without definitively denying criminals the chance to reform. I renew the appeal I made … for a consensus to end the death penalty, which is both cruel and unnecessary.”
On April 2, 1999, two months after Pope John Paul II spoke those words in St. Louis, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops issued its Good Friday Appeal to End the Death Penalty. Such an abolition, the bishops said, is essential if we are to confront the culture of death all around us and build a culture of life in its place.
Two years later, it would appear that, while some change in public sentiment may be evolving, we are still a long way from changing the minds and hearts of Americans — including Catholics — toward the dignity of every human life.
Catholics' divided opinions on the death penalty probably owed, in no small part, to apparent ambiguity in the 1992 Catechism of the Catholic Church: Both pro-and anti-death penalty Catholics used it to support their positions.
The revised Catechism, released in 1997, should have set the matter straight. It stressed that, “if nonlethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people's safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity with the dignity of the human person.”
This was consistent with the teaching laid out by Pope John Paul II in his 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life), in which he called for a consistent pro-life stance — including the abolition of the death penalty in the modern world. “The nature and extent of punishment must be carefully evaluated and decided upon, and ought not go to the extreme of executing the offender except in cases of absolute necessity; in other words, when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society,” wrote the Holy Father. “Today, however, as a result of steady improvement in the organization of the penal system, such cases are very rare, if not practically non-existent.”
In light of the rapid prison expansion witnessed over the past 30 years, America clearly has the resources to abolish the death penalty.
Hard Evidence
Further support for the abolition of the death penalty has come from 30 years of evidence provided by both the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and criminal-justice academics researching the efficacy of capital punishment. The two approach the issue from disparate perspectives, yet they have reached similar conclusions.
Looking to the vast resources America has available today, we do in fact have a strong alternative to the death penalty for the worst offenders, and that is the sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole. A number of public-opinion polls have shown that, when this alternative is available, support of the death penalty becomes a minority viewpoint. In addition, research has proven time and time again that, despite conventional wisdom, committing criminals for life does not cost more than administering the death penalty, because of the exorbitant appeals that often come with capital cases. Research has also shown that early release of these prisoners (by pardon or commutation) is very rare, and escape rarer still.
Nor should Catholics fail to note ample research showing the death penalty to be discriminatory based on class, gender and race. The poor are more likely to be sentenced to death than the rich; men are more likely to be sentenced to death than women. Also, while more whites are sentenced to death than blacks, blacks committing crimes against whites are twice as likely to be executed than in the cases of white-on-white crimes, and four times more likely to be executed than in the case of white-on-black crimes.
For their call to end the death penalty, the U.S. bishop chose the day of Christ's crucifixion.
Other evidence spanning the past 30 years has consistently demonstrated that the use of the death penalty does not deter criminals at large.
And recent evidence, gained with the application of DNA technology, has revealed that the number of wrongly convicted individuals sentenced to be executed stands at just over 90 people. Had the DNA evidence not been available, how many of these individuals would have been executed?
Finally, the use of the death penalty in America, as related to the rest of the industrialized world, is unique, as America is the only nation still employing executions. And the application of the death penalty here is inconsistent, varying widely from state to state, and thus discriminatory. Of the 650 executions carried out between January 1977 and July 2000, all have occurred in 31 of the 40 jurisdictions in which the death penalty is an option; most of these have held fewer than ten executions. In addition, nearly 70% of all executions have taken place in six states and more than half (53%) have occurred in just three states — Texas, Virginia and Florida. If
not for these few hard-line localities, the death penalty would be much rarer today.
Still God's Children
Why, then, do we keep it?
There are two primary reasons that America continues to apply the death penalty and they result from public opinion and symbolic politics.
Public opinion, overall, continues to support the death penalty and has a profound distrust for life without parole. A majority of Americans do not believe that prisoners would actually serve their full sentence. Catholics, who make up a large portion of the American population, often express this sentiment.
(An intriguing aside to this point: Research shows Catholics who attend Mass regularly, and demonstrate a consistent pro-life belief — by opposing abortion, euthanasia and so on — tend to be overwhelmingly in favor of the abolition of the death penalty.)
The second reason for America's continuing embrace of the death penalty is derived from the advocacy of the death penalty by politicians who use it as a litmus test to see who can be the “toughest on crime.” Presidents, governors and legislators at all levels continue to advocate for the death penalty as a way to send a signal to their constituents that they will be tough on crime.
On the second anniversary of the bishops' Good Friday appeal, Catholics should reexamine their views of the death penalty in light of Catholic social doctrine and the evidence available regarding executions. This is an opportunity for Catholics across America to take a more active role in moving the country toward a more consistent ethic of life.
It should be clear that the bishops picked Good Friday to make their appeal two years ago for a purpose. They picked the day Jesus Christ was executed. That day in Jerusalem, the death penalty was ordered and administered by those who “knew not what they do”. Will we stand by as our country makes the same mistake against God's other children?
Willard M. Oliver is an assistant professor of criminal justice at Radford University in Radford, Virginia.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Willard M. Oliver ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Without the Passion, We Lose Our - Passion DATE: 04/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:When I was in graduate school, one of my evangelical Protestant friends once said to me, “Ben, do you know why we have a bare cross?”
He pointed to a cross without a corpus on the wall of the divinity library. “Because Jesus is risen!”
This, of course, was a little friendly Catholic baiting, yet he meant to give me a quick lesson in theology. Jesus is risen. Why dwell on the Crucifixion? The triumph of Christianity is in the Resurrection.
Only later did I think of the proper reply. “Our danger as Christians,” I should have said, “lies not in forgetting the Resurrection. If we forget the Resurrection, we simply cease to be Christians. Our danger comes from forgetting the Crucifixion, from dwelling only on the happy result, and not on the horrifying means of achieving it.”
My friend did have hold of a half-truth — even more than half. Good Friday without Easter Sunday would be a morbid, fruitless defeat. If there had been a crucifixion without a resurrection, there would have been no Christianity at all. But to restore his partial truth to its proper whole, the Resurrection without the Crucifixion removes the very heart of the sacrifice by which death itself and our sin were both destroyed.
Looking back, I can understand more clearly my Protestant friend's desire to empty the cross.
Surely he was filled with zeal at the great miracle of the Resurrection. But I suspect — God forgive me if I am wrong — that he enjoyed a secret sigh of relief over not having to look at Christ crucified. Christ has suffered, Christ has died and Christ has risen. If Christ took care of the first two, and now the Christian may enjoy the fruits of the last, we are relieved of a great burden. Such were the doctrines of the Protestant Reformation, sola gratia, sola fide, solo Christo — salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, because of Christ alone.
My friend, true to his heritage, held that the cross should be bare because it had all been done solo Christo. It was all Easter and no Lent or Good Friday. Could it really be that easy?
But another part of the Reformation battle cry was sola scriptura, and Scripture seemed to say otherwise.
I remember the sinking feeling I had the first time it really hit me hard that there was more to Christianity than the good news of the Resurrection. “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me”, for “he who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” “Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”
There it was, plain as day, painful but undeniable.
With this more thorough reading of the Gospels, my heart sunk like that of the rich man who was told by Jesus to sell all he had and give it to the poor.
I realized deep within me, where I was squirming and wriggling to finesse these passages, that there was no escape. Christ was clearly demanding that we, his followers, not just observe him, give mental assent to his teachings and claim all the benefits of the cross. We have to actually follow him, and that means the whole way — up the via dolorosa, up and onto the cross. He calls us to share his suffering, humiliation and death so that we might share in the Resurrection.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ, I sighed with resignation (but not relief), was certainly good — but not exactly cheerful — news.
In St. Paul's words: “If we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” These words were not merely metaphorical. A little later on, the Apostle makes clear that we are “fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” My friend had seized the comfort of the Resurrection without the agony of the Cross. But the comfort, St. Paul elsewhere proclaims, comes through sharing in the agony. “For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort, too.”
So why, we might ask, is the Gospel of Jesus Christ even called the Gospel — the “Good News”? As I am sure my friend would admit, even with Christ's resurrection, we Christians still suffer and we still die. Neither Christ's death nor his resurrection has removed these two evils.
Rather than making evil disappear all in a flash of glory, Christ humbly submitted to these evils so that, by divine grace, good could be brought out of evil.
If merely affirming the Resurrection were sufficient for our salvation, then our suffering and death would be pointless evils afflicting us. But if Christ is the way, the truth and the life, and we are to take up our cross and follow him, then through him, our suffering and our death can be redeemed. That is the Good News. It is hard news, yes — but profoundly good nonetheless.
Our suffering — our great and little pains, our anxiety, our fear, our sickness, our deadening fatigue — have now been lifted up out of the black pool of meaninglessness; they have been lifted up and united with the suffering Christ.
Even more glorious than the redemption of our suffering and death is that, by union with Christ's suffering and death, our suffering itself becomes redemptive. By uniting ourselves with Christ, by taking up our cross, we “bear fruit by configuration to the Savior's redemptive Passion. Suffering, a consequence of original sin, acquires a new meaning; it becomes a participation in the saving work of Jesus.” Now, my friend may not appreciate the source of this quote, section 1521 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. But let's hear it from St. Paul: “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake,” he told the Colossians, “and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church …” (Colossians 1:24).
Hard as it is, I'll keep the crucifix. And as we move from Lent toward Easter, I'll not forget either the good in Good Friday or the glory of the Resurrection on Easter morning.
Ben Wiker teaches classics at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Benjamin D. Wiker ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Jewish Converts in the Real Holy Land DATE: 04/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:JERUSALEM — More than two decades ago, Barry Siegal had a religious experience that changed his life forever.
“I had a supernatural encounter with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob while walking through the streets of the suburb where I lived,” recalled Siegal, 46, a resident of Mevasseret Zion, just outside Jerusalem. “I heard an audible voice speak to me very clearly, and instantly I knew that Yeshua is the messiah of the Jews and the gentiles.”
Siegal, who was raised as a Conservative Jew, said, “I immediately read the Bible from Genesis through the Book of Revelation. I became convinced that Israel is the focus of God's plan for the end of the age and that I was called to immigrate to Israel, the land of my forefathers, and live in the city of Jerusalem.”
Since moving to Israel from the United States in 1981, Siegal has worked hard to share his vision and love of Israel with non-Jews. He has traveled the world, sharing his faith with Christians of all denominations. Many of the people he encounters contribute generously to Joseph's Storehouse, the humanitarian organization Siegal founded, which distributes food, clothing and medical supplies to the Holy Land's needy Jews and Christian Arabs.
Siegal views his humanitarian work as an outgrowth of his faith as a Jewish believer in Christ, or Messianic Jew. Unlike the handful of Israeli Jews who have converted to Christianity, Messianic Jews (also known as Hebrew Christians) cling tightly to their Jewish identity while maintaining that Jesus is the Messiah.
Today, there are approximately 5,000 Messianic Jews in Israel, which is home to some 5 million Jews, 1 million Muslims and about 100,000 Christians.
Private to the point of paranoia just a few years ago, many of the estimated 70 Messianic Jewish congregations operating in churches, meeting halls and private homes throughout the country have become much more visible in recent years.
In most cases, the congregations include both Jewish and Christian rituals in their services. The service in Jerusalem's Christchurch, for example, is performed completely in Hebrew and incorporates both the Old and New Testaments. The centerpiece is a menorah (a candelabra with seven branches) resting on a tallit (a Jewish prayer shawl).
Rabbi Ron Kronish, director of ICCI, says that modern Judaism views the concept of Jews who believe in Jesus as a complete contradiction.
“What was true in the first century doesn't hold in the 21st century,” says Kronish, referring to the fact that Christ's first disciples were Jews (as was Jesus himself). “For modern-day Jews, being a Jew and believing that Jesus is the messiah is incompatible.”
Father Michael McGarry, rector of the Tanture Ecumenical Institute in Jerusalem, said that Catholics are less likely to hold onto their Jewish identity. “If a Jew converts to Catholicism, he is no longer a Jew,” he said.
Peacemakers?
While Hebrew Christians are a controversial presence in the Holy Land, their presence can transcend the religious differences they exacerbate.
Salim Munayer, the academic dean of the Bethlehem Bible College, said Messianic Jews are also playing a part in healing wounds between the Holy Land's war-torn Jewish and Arab communities.
He is director of Musalaha, an organization that promotes reconciliation between Israeli and Palestinian believers, and insists that finding common ground is now more important than ever before.
Referring to the ongoing spiral of Israeli-Palestinian violence that has gripped the region in recent months, Munayer says, “there is a broken relationship because of wars and everything that is happening now. But these communities have a better chance at reconciliation than other Israelis and Palestinians.”
Munayer, a Christian Arab citizen of Israel, says that the two communities “are very small minorities among their own people, and they love their people and the land. But at the same time, we both have a common Biblical understanding of reconciliation. We have the same core faith and ritual experience that unite us. Our challenge is finding how to express our loyalty to our own people while fulfilling our spiritual calling.”
With Munayer's guidance, each year several hundred Jewish and Arab Christian believers (including some Catholics) spend five days camping out in the desert, getting to know and to rely on one another for the most basic of things.
“They cook together, live together, ride camels together. The desert is viewed as neutral territory. It forces people to cooperate. We work on getting rid of prejudices and stereotypes. Once they get home, where they once again experience pressure from their respective communities, we encourage the participants to do follow-up projects as a mixed group: collecting trash in an Arab village, distributing toys together. They visit refugess camps and meet Palestinian and Israeli victims of violence.”
Although just a small group, Munayer prays that these Jewish and Christian believers will somehow lead the way toward peace.
“If they don't do it,” he says, “who will?”
Michelle Chabin writes from Jerusalem.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Michele Chabin ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Orlando Gift-Shop Holy War DATE: 04/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:The Orlando Holy Land experience park has drawn mixed reviews, and accusations that its creator, the Rev. Marvin Rosenthal, has misused Jewish symbols in an attempt to fuse Judaism and Christianity.
Rosenthal was raised Jewish, but converted to Christianity as a teen-ager and became a Baptist minister. The park emphasizes the Jewish roots of Christianity and the importance of the Hebrew Bible for Christians.
That's fine, the park's opponents say. But they disapprove of the park's use of ritual and symbols that are well known in Judaism, but unused in Christianity. For example, the Old Scroll Shop gift store sells souvenir menorahs and shofars, which Jews use in the celebrations of Hanukkah and Yom Kippur.
Eric Geboff, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando, said, “There's only one reason he's putting Jewish ritual and symbols out there, and that's to make Jews more comfortable with what he's doing, and ultimately convert Jews to Christianity.”
Greg Halteman, a spokesman for the park, replied, “We've been unfairly labeled as trying to target Jews. We make it clear in everything we do that this is a Christian facility.”
Mark Drogin, director and co-founder of the Catholic group Remnant of Israel, said, “It's good to bring in the Shema and the shofar and the menorah. The Pope has repeatedly said that we need to know the Old Testament. We need to know Judaism. It's not being taught.” Drogin and his wife, who were raised Jewish and married by a rabbi, converted to the Catholic faith.
Drogin pointed out that Jesus quoted the Shema in response to the scribe's question in Mark 12:28, “Which commandment is the first of all?”
He added, “Jesus was not a meteor that came out of the sky. He was a person born in a family, in a town, in a culture, and in an environment; and all of that was Jewish.”
— Eve Tushnet
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Angels Over Alabama DATE: 04/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:Seven round satellite dishes on the lawn at EWTN's studios in Irondale, Ala., face the heavens — conduits between a vibrant Catholic ministry and the world.
An hour's drive north, in Hanceville, another circular “bridge” between heaven and earth lifts visitors' hearts higher still.
Situated in a dazzling gold monstrance nearly eight feet tall, the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist — body, blood, soul and divinity — draws 2,000 visitors each week, including many non-Catholics, to the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament at Our Lady of the Angels Monastery.
Everything about the shrine, including its remote, rural location, is designed to prepare the pilgrim for a rich spiritual encounter with the Lord. There will be few better places to spend Holy Thursday, April 12, anniversary of the Last Supper, at which Jesus instituted the Blessed Sacrament.
‘Build Me a Temple’
The shrine's property is marked by a white picket fence that begins while you're still nearly two miles from the church. As we drove over the final hill and caught our first glimpse of the edifice across the fields, I remarked to my wife, “It looks just like Assisi,” which we visited six years ago.
The shrine, in fact, was modeled after Assisi's 13th-century churches. A separate structure, Castle San Miguel, situated across the piazza from the shrine, bears the appearance of a 13th-century castle. Due to be completed by Easter, it will house a gift shop, great hall and conference center, and offer catering for the many groups that visit.
The idea for the shrine came to EWTN's founder, Mother Angelica, during a 1995 trip to Latin America as she was announcing the beginning of the network's Spanish television and radio service. Our tour guide, Franciscan Brother John Marie, explained it to us: “While visiting the sanctuary of the Divino NiÑo Jesús in Bogota, Mother Angelica approached the tiny statue of the Divine Child Jesus. The figure appeared to her as if it were alive, turned to her and said, ‘Build me a temple and I will help those who help you.’ Mother Angelica was moved to tears.”
Upon her return to Alabama, Mother Angelica shared the experience with her fellow Poor Clares and they set to work trying to locate property.
“Everything seemed to happen in threes,” said Brother John. “The 380 acres upon which the shrine sits was originally three pieces of property, each sold individually. And the isolated farmland on which the shrine sits is surrounded on three sides by three different rivers.”
The size of the property ensures that it will shelter the shrine and monastery from the inevitable commercialism that ends up surrounding most popular shrines.
Construction began five years ago and was generously financed through donations from five anonymous, outof-state benefactor families who were troubled by the state of Church architecture in their home dioceses. The majority of construction took place during the three years leading up to the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000. In fact, three significant items found inside the shrine were completed during each of the three years.
The monstrance was created in 1997, the year dedicated to Jesus Christ. The Rose Window of the Holy Spirit, located on the far side of the Church, was created in 1998, the year dedicated to the Holy Spirit. The Rose Window of God the Father, located above the shrine's main entrance, was completed in 1999, the year of the Father. The monastery was blessed on Aug. 6, 1999. The upper church was consecrated on Dec. 19, 1999, and the Lower Church was completed on July 19, 2000.
Perpetual Maundy Thursday
Naturally, the Divine Child Jesus figures prominently at the shrine. A white marble statue of the young Christ, holding a heart of red jasper in his left hand, stands in the center of the piazza; the young Lord's arms are outstretched in a welcoming gesture of love. Written in English, Spanish, Italian and German is a prophetic Scripture verse from Isaiah 11:6, “…and a little Child shall lead them.”
Of the statue Mother Angelica has said, “I thought this would be a deterrent to women desiring an abortion. The childhood of Jesus, the statue itself, would affect them in some way that they would change their mind. I hope that placing the statue in the piazza would enflame the hearts of women to change their minds and hearts from slaughter to life.”
While the exterior of the shrine is a thing of beauty in its own right, the interior is nothing less than breathtaking. Filled with marble from the Italian Alps, Sicily, Macedonia, Spain, Brazil, South Africa and Finland, it could hardly be mistaken for anything other than a place of reverence for God. Gold leaf is everywhere. The dark woodwork found in the pews and the intricately carved confessionals provide a stark contrast to the shrine's white marble walls and vaulted ceiling.
Behind the altar, a hand-carved reredos of cedar from Paraguay rises 55 feet over the floor. It is ornamented with 24-carat gold and holds the gold monstrance. A side chapel, known as the Cloistered Mass Choir, is located on the right of the altar. Situated behind a gold leaf enclosure grille, it is where the community's nuns attend the Celebration of the Eucharist. Opposite the enclosure, on the left hand side of the altar, stands a life-size — and life-like — crucifix.
The traditional artwork, which includes statuary and a 3-dimensional Stations of the Cross, reminds the pilgrim that nothing is too good when it comes to glorifying God, who made it all anyway.
Large windows along both sides of the church are dedicated to the mysteries of the rosary — the glorious along the right and the joyful opposite. Up above, encircling the entire church, are stained-glass windows from which lovely angels look on. The window above the front entrance depicts God the Father. A window on the far side depicts the Holy Spirit as a dove. Brother John Marie explained that, if you look at the shrine as a whole, you'll see the persons of the Trinity being adored by the angels — “just like in heaven.”
Our pilgrimage to the Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament was highlighted by an impromptu visit with none other than Mother Angelica herself (one of the nice little perks of appearing as a guest on an EWTN show — in my case, “The Journey Home” with Marcus Grodi). During our conversation, Mother commented that at least 50% of the shrine's visitors are non-Catholics. She told us of a Baptist bus driver who occasionally drops in. “When times get tough I come out here,” she recalls the man telling her. “Sometimes I just sit on the steps.”
“Although he can't vocalize it,” said Mother Angelica, “he senses the Real Presence. It draws him.”
Features correspondent Tim Drake welcomes e-mail at timd@astound.net.
----- EXCERPT: The Blessed Sacrament shrine in the Heart of Dixie ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: No Word From Rome in Dispute, Say Jesuits DATE: 04/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:SAN FRANCISCO — An appeal has been made to the Vatican by partisans of the St. Ignatius Institute, the embattled Great Books program at the University of San Francisco.
The university's new president, Jesuit Father Stephen Privett, fired the institute's top two administrators in January, and announced that the institute would be thoroughly reorganized to integrate the institute more fully into the university. Six of the institute's 17 faculty members resigned in protest, claiming that Father Privett's actions would dissolve the program, which serves about 150 of the school's 7,000 students.
Father Privett, of the Jesuits' California province, and the Jesuits' North American Assistant Father Frank Case unequivocally denied rumors that the Holy See has responded to an appeal by opponents of Father Privett's actions. Father Privett said, “Nobody has produced one solid document. [The Vatican doesn't] communicate through individuals running around waving documents from the Pope.”
The rumors were that the Vatican had made moves to reinstate the fired administrators and restore the old status of the institute.
Jesuit Father Joseph Fessio, the institute's founder, confirmed that an appeal had been made: “The appeal is that [Father Privett] would work with the Jesuit General, Father Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, to achieve a peaceful resolution, in which the university would allow true diversity and the institution could exist in its integrity. The Holy Father is aware of the situation and has taken an interest in it.”
Catholic News Service reported that Father Fessio also met with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger about the matter.
On March 23, the university's board of trustees voted in favor of Father Privett's decisions concerning the institute.
On the Wednesday before the board meeting, Father Privett held the last in a series of “town hall meetings” designed to allow alumni, students and faculty to meet their new president. About 150 student protesters attended, waving signs and banners and chanting, “Academic freedom!” and the names of the two fired administrators, John Galten and John Hamlon.
In an unusual twist on the student protest scene, they even included a chant in Latin: “Privett, Privett, Privett, quod fecisti non ius est” (Privett, Privett, Privett, what you've done is not fair).
The institute, founded 25 years ago, offered what sophomore Justin West called “the integration of the academic, social and spiritual elements.” Students at the Institute have formed a close-knit community within the larger university. Many attend daily Mass at the Institute, volunteer together at local women's shelters, and thus naturally befriend others from the institute. West calls this “integration”; Father Privett has called it “isolationist.”
But West said emphatically that the institute was “what attracted me to the school.” He didn't think any other program at the university duplicated its “independent, orthodox voice.”
He said, “The St. Ignatius Institute tries to promote fidelity to the Church and the magisterium, whereas the theology department does not regard that as the priority that the [the institute] does.”
West worried that Paul Murphy, the program's new director, would be less independent because he does not have tenure.
Isolationist?
Father Privett strongly contested West's view. “What's going on is an effort to improve a program, to integrate it into the university,” he said.
He said that he would ask the authors of the letter to the Vatican to “make a sincere effort to understand the situation before they make allegations. This program is, has been, and will remain loyal to the teachings of the Church.”
In the San Francisco Chronicle, Father Privett compared Father Fessio to Joe McCarthy and accused his opponents of “manipulat[ing] this story.”
Citing programs like the school's Institute on Catholic Educational Leadership, he defended the university's commitment to the Church, “I'd like to see one instance where we have not been loyal,” he said. “One piece of solid evidence.”
Kim Summerhays, one of the professors who resigned in protest, said that the institute had always had “a theological position that said the role of theology is to explain why the Church teaches what she teaches, as opposed to taking a position of what is sometimes called ‘loyal dissent.’”
He said that the Institute on Catholic Educational Leadership and similar programs have “roles to play as far as social services, but they haven't taken that theological position.”
As for Father Privett, Summerhays said, “He has nowhere indicated that the new institute would be aligned with that founding principle.”
Financial Aid
Summerhays dismissed arguments that the change would help the university's finances. “The associate director had half of his salary paid for directly by donations solicited by the institute,” he said. Moreover, “There have been literally hundreds of letters from the alumni” protesting the change, he said. “If they're saving any money at all, it's more than wiped out in the loss of good will.”
Summerhays charged that the institute “frequently had to fend off attempts by liberal Jesuits in the theology department to try to insert themselves into the teaching staff of the program. They just wouldn't let it be.”
Nineteen prominent scholars have signed a newspaper ad opposing the changes to the institute. Stanley Kurtz, who spearheaded the ad campaign, said, that Father Privett's move demonstrated “liberal intolerance which doesn't really believe in a true intellectual diversity.”
He pointed out that students at the institute can still take courses in the rest of the university. He said that students at the institute frequently took courses in the university's theology department, and “put both sides on the hot seat.”
Kurtz, who is Jewish, noted that the institute “is quite liberal in that many of the teachers are not Catholic or not believers,” even though the program overall is grounded in and promotes the Catholic faith.
Kurtz called the changes to the institute “an attempt to homogenize” the university.
He responded to charges that the institute is “pushing a particular way to be Catholic” and calling it orthodoxy by saying, “You could say that the Pope is pushing a particular way to be Catholic. And they're saying, ‘We want that way.’ It's Privett who's pushing his views on everyone else.”
----- EXCERPT: University of San Francisco vs. St. Ignatius Institute ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: An Ode to Joy in Words and Charts DATE: 04/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:If you want to know what St. Thomas Aquinas, the Fathers of the Church and the classical philosophers had to say about “this particular animal” — man — it is not too late.
You don't need a university class — this deceptively slim volume will help you draw from the wholesome waters of ancient wisdom about the human condition — and let you take a satisfyingly deep drink, indeed.
Our main business, according to Dominican Father Pinckaers, is happiness. You have always known this in your heart, and great minds have spelled it out. “Everyone wants to be happy. Everyone will agree with me on this almost before the words are out of my mouth.” Norman Vincent Peale? No — St. Augustine, circa 400 A.D. In the Christian view, happiness has always been the core of morality.
“In the case of St. Thomas,” writes Father Pinckaers, “we are clearly dealing with a morality of happiness, virtues and gifts. It joins together in a remarkable way the Christian heritage (based on the Gospel and developed by the Fathers of the Church) and human wisdom (Aristotle being considered the best witness of this wisdom). The point of contact is found in the desire for happiness.”
Moving through the history of thought from the ancients through the Middle Ages to the modern and postmodern periods, Father Pinckaers gives an overview of changes and developments in ethics. His style is trenchant, pithy. “An ice bridge over an abyss” is his description of natural law when twisted out of context and placed in opposition to freedom.
“The discovery of joy beyond our trials is a decisive step on the way to moral maturity,” writes Father Pinckaers. “One even comes to perceive, upon fulfilling its requirements, that joy does not destroy, but rather refines and rightly orders, pleasure. Starting from this experience, we can reestablish the vital bond that unites joy to the virtues. … We can also understand how the virtues are like arteries that carry strength and disperse joy throughout the entire organism of the moral life.”
You may want to reach for a pen — insights this sharp and useful are too good to let slip away unremembered. But there's no need. Father Pinckaers, eminent teacher of moral theology for decades in Belgium, France and Switzerland, has anticipated what attentive students think and ask. In “call-outs” of synopses, charts and quotes you'll want to return to over and over, he has written your notes for you.
True history is revelatory. But there is more than history here. “For Christians, the Person of Jesus has become the center of moral life … it is here that faith acquires its full force, Faith is a vital act; it commits one person to another forever.” This is true of marriage and of every fruitful decision at the personal, political or even artistic level. If faith in Christ is the root of morality, charity is the sap, nourishing the trunk, rising into the branches, producing what Father Pinckaers calls “the delicious fruit of good works.”
Five years ago, Father Pinckaers produced The Sources of Christian Ethics, applauded by scholars as an essential entry in the field of moral theology. Its primary achievement was grounding Christian ethics in the Gospel and the Holy Spirit. With Morality: The Catholic View, it is as though he has distilled the best of that rather academic work into a format inviting and accessible to Everyman.
In Morality, I found a mature, grounded view of morality, of law, of freedom, of happiness — yet one that is fresh, stimulating, renewing. In the book's preface, Alasdair MacIntyre remarks that Father Pinckairs “is an extraordinary author and this is an extraordinary book.”
If that struck me as a bit of a marketing pitch when I first opened the book, I was happily relieved of the notion by the time I finished the final page. MacIntyre speaks the plain truth.
Dominican Sister Mary Thomas Noble writes from Buffalo, New York.
----- EXCERPT: Book Review ----- EXTENDED BODY: Sister Mary Thomas Noble ----- KEYWORDS: Books -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 04/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:Catholic Schools Test Best in NYC
NEW YORK POST, March 22 — A new study found that New York City's parochial school students scored higher in math and reading than public school students, the New York daily reported.
The New York University study showed that minority and low-income students in parochial schools outperformed public school students from similar backgrounds.
In fourth grade, Catholic school students averaged 10 points higher in reading and seven points higher in math.
By eighth grade, that gap had risen: Catholic students scored 17 points higher in reading and 20 points better in math.
Teacher Prohibited from Questioning Darwin
LOS ANGELES TIMES, March 25 — School officials in Burlington, Wash., told a high school biology teacher that he could no longer teach that Darwin's theory of evolution was flawed, the Los Angeles daily reported.
Roger DeHart did not mention God in his classes, but he did propose arguments for intelligent design, the theory that scientific study reveals that the universe must have had an intelligent creator.
In 1999, after complaints from the American Civil Liberties Union, school authorities instructed DeHart to stop discussing intelligent design. Then, in March of 2001, DeHart was forbidden from even using materials that questioned Darwin's theories.
Carlow College Nixes Comic
CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION, March 30 — Carlow College, a Catholic institution in Pennsylvania, canceled an appearance by lesbian comedian Suzanne Westenhoefer, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported.
Westenhoefer's agent, Steven Nash, said that the performance was canceled because of the comic's sexuality.
Grace Ann Geibel, the college's president, called the show “improper,” and the college declined to comment further.
Santa Fe Keeps Controversial Workshops
ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL, March 21 — Public schools in Santa Fe, N.M., will continue to use pro-homosexual health class workshops, the Albuquerque daily reported.
Opponents of “Project GLYPH” workshops won a few token concessions: The curriculum's title has been changed from “An Anti-Homophobia, Prejudice-Reduction Curriculum” to “Valuing Differences,” and definitions for homosexual, bisexual and heterosexual no longer describe them as “normal.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Lights ... Camera ... Sainthood? DATE: 04/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:In the midst of the media frenzy over the Academy Awards, no one mentioned the name of Father Patrick Peyton, a Catholic filmmaker, radio personality and worldwide rosary crusader.
That's not surprising — Father Peyton has been nominated for a status that doesn't much interest the mainstream news and entertainment industries: sainthood.
Father Patrick Peyton was born in Carracastle, Ireland, in 1909. After moving to the United States, he joined the Congregation of Holy Cross in 1932. He had long maintained a strong devotion to the Blessed Mother, but it was his miraculous cure from a bout of tuberculosis in 1939 that confirmed in him a desire to spread devotion to her.
“The cure was prominent because he firmly believed that it was a miracle,” explains Holy Cross Father Richard Gribble, Father Peyton's official critical biographer. “The doctors had told him, ‘you can have radical major surgery or you can pray.’” He prayed and, through Mary's intercession, fully recovered.
Later, Father Peyton was ordained and, while finishing school in 1941-1942 — he was behind because of his illness — he “tried to find what he should do.” He felt that he owed his life to Mary, and wanted to spend his time promoting devotion to her. Then, says Father Gribble, “he came up with the Family Rosary,” drawing on the example of his own family while he was growing up.
His work took off with a radio program for Mother's Day in 1945; when, through a series of incredible circumstances, “Family Theater of the Air” was launched in February 1947, things really began to move. The show ran until 1969 and included appearances by such Hollywood legends as Loretta Young, Bing Crosby, Jimmy Durante and Ricardo Montalban.
About a year later, Father Peyton began his famous “rosary crusades” with a gathering in London, Ontario. Throughout the 1950s, he preached worldwide on the rosary, attracting enormous crowds wherever he went. More than 1 million people turned out in Manila, 2 million for a rosary crusade in Brazil. In the United States, stadiums filled to capacity from coast to coast as he promoted the rosary and preached his simple message: “The family that prays together stays together.”
Rosary on Film
Father Peyton recognized a major new opportunity with the advent of television and, in 1955, began producing the first of 15 films, one for each mystery of the rosary. The movies premiered at the World's Fair in the Vatican Pavilion in May, 1958. They were highly acclaimed, translated into several languages and soon became a prime means of evangelization in Latin America.
Father Peyton continued the promotion of family prayer until his death in San Pedro, Calif., in June 1992. Mother Marie, a member of the Little Sisters of the Poor, and superior of the house where Father Peyton spent his last six months, has no doubt that Father Peyton was a saint. “I certainly do [think he was saint],” she says. She also told the Register: “I have given my deposition to the Vatican representative; his whole life was given to promoting Our Lady.”
Although Father Peyton died in the archdiocese of Los Angeles, the the diocesan phase of the cause for his canonization was recently moved to the diocese of Fall River, Mass., because Holy Cross Family Ministries, the successor to Father Peyton's work, is located within that diocese. The organization, led by Holy Cross Father John Phalen, is, along with the rest of the diocese, awaiting Rome's go-ahead. If it comes, Father Peyton will receive the title “Servant of God.”
In the diocesan phase of the process, certain information must be gathered. The first step, Holy Cross Father Tom Feeley, vice postulator for the canonization cause, explains, is “testimonies of holiness in life.” Father Feeley has interviewed many people who have sworn to Father Peyton's holiness, including the late Loretta Young, Oscar-winner for best actress in 1947.
Star Witness
In her statement, given in 1998 (two years before her death), Young told of Father Peyton's visits to her family while she was working with him for Family Theater. In each visit, before dinner, he would have the family kneel to pray the rosary.
Despite the fact that he often worked in Hollywood, Father Peyton “came out pure as a lily,” said Young in her statement. “I am sure he is [a saint], and he's going to be canonized, I hope. But I don't care if he is canonized or not because he made his point while he was here and he's where he belongs now.”
Though he was not the world's greatest speaker, people were drawn to Father Peyton by “the way he said what he said,”
Father Gribble explains. “He had a completely single-minded devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary as a way to Christ.”
In addition to holiness of life, the diocesan process must also show evidence of continued devotion and favors granted. There is no lack of the former, according to Father Feeley, who is currently traveling the world to speak about Father Peyton. “Anyone who met Father Peyton remembers the date and the occasion,” he explains, citing an African man who walked 15 miles just to hear the priest speak.
As for favors received, Father Feeley says that, when people pray through the intercession of Father Peyton, “they get rather instant responses.” Of the many stories he has heard, at least two deal with cures. One woman who was going blind regained her sight while praying along with a tape of Father Peyton saying the rosary. “The doctor had no explanation,” says Father Feeley.
Another woman, suffering from osteoporosis, broke her arm and was told by her doctor to “pray for a miracle.” She did, and the bone rejuvenated, enabling the doctor to set it. “The doctor said there was no [medical explanation],” says Father Feeley.
And it is not just his miracles that make Father Peyton important to today's world. His work continues as Holy Cross Family Ministries prepares to distribute 5 million rosaries by 2005. Mother Marie notes that, as families continue to be assaulted by contemporary culture, they should heed Father Peyton's famous words on family prayer.
“The family that prays together stays together,” she says. “Prayer does keep families together.”
Andrew Walther writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: Devotees want to see filmmaking priest canonized ----- EXTENDED BODY: Andrew Walther ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 04/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography (1992)
Movies are meant to be looked at as well as listened to; images are as important to cinematic storytelling as dialogue. The cinematographer, or cameraman, is the key to this process, using his craft to further the director's vision and, at times, his own. Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography, produced by the American Film Institute, is a feature-length documentary that intercuts clips from 125 movies with interviews of famous cameramen.
It begins with early newsreels and the pioneering work of D.W. Griffith's cameraman, Billy Bitzer (The Birth of a Nation). The beauty of the black-and-white images of the silent era are a revelation, reminding us of what may have been lost in the switch to color. Also enlightening is the juxtaposition of the work of more recent masters, like Gordon Willis (The Godfather), Conrad Hall (In Cold Blood) and William Fraker (Rosemary's Baby), with their comments upon it. This documentary may change the way you look at movies.
Man of Marble (1977)
The evils of communism are too quickly forgotten. After the gulags and the arbitrary secret-police arrests, one of the system's most reprehensible characteristics was the methodical promotion of lies that glorified its ideology. An example is the myth of the heroic worker, an icon of Stalinist propaganda. Man of Marble uses the narrative techniques of Citizen Kane to uncover the truth behind a statue erected to honor such a figure.
A young female film student (Krystyna Janda) sets out to make a documentary about a bricklayer (Jerzy Radziwilowicz) whom the communist regime has turned into a celebrity because of his skills as a craftsman and his dedication to communist ideology. Through interviews with his family and friends, the film student learns how the laborer tried to use his fame to help fellow workers. This deviation from the party line enraged the government, which turned against him. Director Andrzej Wajda (Ashes and Diamonds) creates a satiric indictment of Polish communism that, when released, foreshadowed the rise of the Solidarity movement.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Pope John Paul II has always asserted the dignity of the human person and his primacy over all ideological and technological systems. He finds an unlikely ally in the science-fiction classic 2001: A Space Odyssey, one of the Vatican's top 45 films. The action begins 4 million years ago. A clan of apes discovers a mysterious, black, rectangular monolith that brings about a change in their consciousness. Flash-forward to the year 2001, when some scientists discover a similar monolith with deadly electronic sound waves. Writer-director Stanley Kubrick (Clockwork Orange) suggests that mankind's advances come from this kind of extra-terrestrial intervention. It's not Christian cosmology, but his view of man's prideful, self-centered behavior encompasses an understanding of original sin.
The story moves to a Jupiter space mission during which an all-powerful computer named HAL fights for control of the spacecraft with its human navigators (Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood). The movie's message about the human person is more relevant today than when first released.
Arts and Culture Correspondent John Prizer writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 04/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:All times Eastern
HOLY WEEK
Rome's Hidden Churches: A Lenten Pilgrimage
EWTN, 9:45 p.m. Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday
Come along with EWTN on Lenten procession to many of Rome's station churches, following in the footsteps of popes and pilgrims through the centuries.
SUNDAY, APRIL 8
The Ten Commandments
ABC, 7 p.m.
Watching this almost five-hour presentation of Cecil B. DeMille's remarkable 1956 epic about God's delivery of the Israelites from Egypt is a reminder of the entertainment greatness that filmmakers achieved in Hollywood's golden age, when the Decency Code held sway.
MONDAY, APRIL 9
American Writers: A Journey Through History
C-SPAN, 9 a.m.
This ambitious series runs through Dec. 17, each week illustrating the life, work and influence of an American writer or writers. This episode features Jefferson and Madison. Some future topics: Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mark Twain, Whittaker Chambers, Russell Kirk and William F. Buckley, Jr. To be rebroadcast Friday, April 13, at 8 p.m.
MONDAY, APRIL 9
The Ultimate Guide: House Cats
Discovery, 3 p.m.
An intriguing look at the traits that make domestic cats such fun and endearing pets.
MON.-TUES., APRIL 9-10
Angel Force
EWTN, 5 p.m.
The children of the Angel Force Kids’ Club tell their little friends about the mysteries of the Faith. Monday's topic is “Who Is God?” and Tuesday's is “What Is Mass?”
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 11
The True Story of Braveheart
History Channel, 8 p.m.
Scots patriot William Wallace rallied his countrymen to fight English oppressors in the 1290's and paid for it on the scaffold around 1305. Randolph Wallace, writer of the screenplay for Mel Gibson's Oscarwinning film Braveheart (1995), says in this interesting presentation that his fleshing out of the historical record is faithful to Wallace's moral greatness. (Repeat.)
THURS.-SAT., APRIL 12-14
The Triduum
EWTN
From the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, follow the Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday at 6 p.m., the Commemoration of the Passion on Good Friday at 3 p.m. and the Easter Vigil Mass on Holy Saturday at 8 p.m.
FRIDAY, APRIL 13
The Seven Last Words of Christ
EWTN, 5:30 p.m.
Capuchin Father Benedict Groeschel, one of the Church's most riveting preachers, speaks in St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City.
FRIDAY, APRIL 13
Solemn Way of the Cross
EWTN, 8 p.m.
Accompany Pope John Paul II along the Way of the Cross in the Colosseum in Rome. To be rebroadcast Saturday, April 14, at 12 midnight.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dan Engler ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: What We'll be Doing In Our Home This Holy Week DATE: 04/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:Our seven kids like Holy Week. Even though it means heightened penance and extra hours in church, they really enter into it.
For one thing, the knowledge that it's the last week of Lent is a real consolation. For another, we've established some interesting customs that really set this week apart.
Finally, the force of years has rendered the Holy Week liturgies a part of the kids' lives to the extent that even the child who asks, “How long is this Mass going to take?” every Sunday of the year wouldn't dream of missing any part of the Easter Triduum.
As we drive to Mass on Palm Sunday, Dad reminds the kids what the good sisters taught him years ago: Children who stand without fidgeting during the long reading of the Passion may confidently ask God for a special favor in return. After we return home, we watch the video “Jesus of Nazareth” through the Palm Sunday scenes.
We cram our Holy Week home schooling into Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, with generous amounts of home economics (spring cleaning) thrown in. We try to get to Mass every day, and pay extra attention to the Gospel drama of those last days of Christ's public ministry.
On Wednesday, I complete our grocery shopping for the meals from now through Easter. An important part of the shopping is the food we will eat at our variation of a Passover seder.
Eucharist Thursday
Recently, many Catholic families have experimented with a seder dinner on Holy Thursday night or attended such a function at their parishes. But some Church officials have suggested that Catholics not attempt to imitate a full-scale Haggada service. They say such an undertaking could easily distract us from the high point of Holy Thursday evening — the Mass of the Lord's Supper.
But adults and older children might find it interesting to obtain a copy of the Haggada service and read through it. The text is often available for free at grocery stores in neighborhoods where there is a large Jewish population.
You'll recognize many of the psalms used in the Haggada service. The words “Blessed are you, Lord” at the beginning of many prayers show us the roots of the offertory of the Mass.
Yet, all the references to “offerings” and “sacrifice” demonstrate why the Passover Haggada service shouldn't be used in full by Catholic families. Our ritual offering and sacrifice is Christ himself at the Mass.
Because we don't want to confuse our children with a bread and wine offering that belongs to the Old Covenant, the Holy Thursday dinner at our house isn't an attempt to carry out a Jewish prayer service. Instead, it's simply a way to share in what Jesus and his disciples did on the eve of his passion, and make a connection between the old pasch and the new pasch.
Our Holy Thursday dinner menu is simple, traditional and memorable — roast leg of lamb, a “bitter herbs” salad (romaine lettuce, green onion, cilantro, parsley and dill) that stands for the bitterness of the years of slavery endured by the Hebrews, charoses (an apple/nut/cinnamon relish that represents the mortar used by the slaves to make bricks), and unleavened bread. This last item can be store-bought matzo crackers, but we usually prefer a homemade version that uses shortening and is much tastier.
During the meal, we drink sweet kosher wine. The youngest children drink grape juice. After grace, we pass around a cup of wine, prefaced by these words from the Haggada, “Blessed art thou, O Lord, our God, King of the universe, who createst the fruit of the vine.”
Then, we pass the other food, reminding the children about the first Passover and the symbolism of each item. We tell them that Jesus ate a meal much like this on Holy Thursday, but that he elevated this meal into something new, into the representation of his sacrificial death for us and the sacrament of his body and blood.
Our dessert is a frosted cake molded in the shape of a lamb and decorated with the victory banner seen in “Lamb of God” pictures.
To some, a sweet and fancy dessert might seem out of place during Lent. But we feel that something festive is called for on the feast of the institution of the holy Eucharist.
We conclude our dinner with a psalm of praise. This might be No. 117 or No. 94.
This special dinner must be prepared and served a bit earlier than usual if we're to get to Holy Thursday Mass without being rushed.
After Mass, we follow the old European custom of driving around to local churches to visit our Lord in the lovely decorated repository altars, offering a brief prayer at each one. Since there are many old ethnic churches in our city, this annual pilgrimage is a feast for the eyes as well as the spirit.
Solemn Friday
Good Friday is a solemn day. Breakfast is hot-cross buns (store-bought or homemade) and unsweetened tea.
We spend the morning building a Good Friday shrine: A small table in the living room is covered with a satin and lace cloth. The largest crucifix we have is laid on the table, and a votive candle lit. The table and floor around it are decked with flowers.
When we lived in Southern California, the children went to a vacant field to gather wildflowers, which are at their peak at this time. Now that we live in the Northeast, we cut branches of flowering shrubs and dig up emerging crocuses and hyacinths two weeks ahead of time. The warmth inside will force them into bloom by Holy Week.
Sometimes we supplement the bulbs with cut flowers from the supermarket or bedding plants from the nursery.
The Good Friday shrine turns our living room into a place for quiet meditation or spiritual reading.
At noon, the “Great Silence” begins. We do our best not to speak before 3 p.m., in honor of the three hours our Lord hung upon the cross.
We each eat another hot-cross bun for lunch and watch the passion scenes of “Jesus of Nazareth.” Then comes the Good Friday liturgy at church.
Dinner is usually pea soup and crusty bread, which taste fabulous after a day of fasting.
We rearrange our Good Friday shrine: The crucifix is put away, and a small tomb made from stones and small pieces of slate is assembled.
This year, I might make the tomb ahead of time out of papier-mâché as a friend of mine does. My stone structure can collapse at a touch if it's not done just so! On Easter morning, the stone at the entrance will be removed and an 8-inch statue of the risen Christ placed in front of the tomb.
The Saturday Wait
Holy Saturday is a happy day of anticipation. Everyone is busy cooking, cleaning, coloring eggs, shopping on behalf of the Easter Bunny, and putting Easter outfits together.
Townships here in Pennsylvania hold Easter-egg hunts the day before Palm Sunday. We pass on these and hunt eggs in our own yard on Easter and many times thereafter in the week to come.
As Lent ends, our joy in the resurrection is fueled by our joy in putting aside our penances! But this is as it should be. As Matthew 9:15 says, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?”
It's Jesus who has brought an end to our penances, as he brings an end to the sin that makes penance necessary. Our children, despite having complained on and off for the 40 days of Lent, take a certain satisfaction in having done “something hard” for God, who did something so much harder for them.
My husband and I hope that these yearly adventures in voluntary self-deprivation will prepare them to face nonvoluntary rough times in the future with self-discipline, courage and cheerfulness.
Daria Sockey writes from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Daria Sockey ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Recipes for Holy Week DATE: 04/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:Many families turn to meatless dishes during Holy Week. While giving up eggs and dairy products is optional during this period, some families choose to avoid these foods in observance of an ancient Lenten tradition. Here are recipes for meatless dishes that are also dairyless and eggless.
Double-baked Potato Skins
4 medium sized baking potatoes
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Pierce all the potatoes and bake in 400° F oven for one hour. Cool until they're easy to handle. Cut each potato in half, lengthwise and scoop out most of the potato flesh, leaving the skins about 1/4-inch thick.
Brush olive oil onto the skins and season with salt and pepper. Bake at 400° F until the skins are crisp and golden, about 45 minutes. Serve with guacamole.
Guacamole
4 large avocados, peeled and diced
1/2 small onion, finely chopped
1 large tomato, finely diced
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp lemon juice
chopped jalapenos to taste,
optional
Mix all ingredients together and serve immediately.
Fried Lemon Garlic Fish
2 lb haddock fillets, cut into 4-by-3-inch strips
Cooking oil
Batter:
1 cup flour, sifted
1 tsp each salt, lemon pepper, garlic
3/4 cup ice-cold water
1/4 tsp baking powder
Seasoning mix:
1 tsp each salt, sugar,
lemon pepper,
garlic granules
Mix the batter ingredients together in a bowl. Let stand at room temperature for 20 minutes.
Heat oil to 375° F in a deep frying pan. Dip 2 to 3 pieces of fish into batter, draining off excess, and add to the hot oil. Fry for 5 to 6 minutes, turning to brown evenly. Drain fried fish on paper towels and keep in a warm oven while you fry the rest.
After all the fish have been fried, serve on a big plate. Sprinkle with the seasoning mix for extra flavor.
Maltese Almond Cake
1 1/8 cups slivered blanched almonds
3 1/2 cups flour, sifted
1 1/2 to 1 3/4 cups sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
Grated rind from 2 lemons and 2 oranges
2 tsp orange extract
1 1/2 cups water
Preheat oven to 350° F. Use a dry frying pan to toast the almonds over medium heat, stirring until they brown slightly. Take a third of these almonds and grind as finely as possible in a food processor.
Mix the ground almonds with flour, sugar, cinnamon and rinds. Stir in extract. Mix in the rest of the almonds. Slowly add water to make a stiff and sticky dough. You may not need to use all the water.
Form dough into rectangles 7 inches long, 2 inches wide and about 1 inch thick. Bake for 35 minutes. Cool 20 minutes. Cut into 1 inch slices and serve.
adapted from A Continual Feast by Evelyn Birge Vitz available at www.Ignatius.com
Rose Capricio writes from Los Angeles
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Rose Capricio ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Mentor Couples DATE: 04/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:Q My husband's father ignored problems until they were unmanageable; my mother fixated on problems in a way that I now see was unhealthy. Despite ourselves, my husband and I seem to be imitating our parents' faults. How can we break this cycle?
— K.J.L.
Fond du Lac, Wisconsin
A George: In addition to the many positive experiences from our childhood, we all carry leftover baggage from our years growing up. None of our parents were perfect and we aren't either.
Accepting that you and your spouse have flaws is a major step forward. It's also good to recognize that problems which have developed over 20 years or more are not going to be resolved in a day.
It's an ongoing process, but the struggle is well worth it.
In order to get the help we need, Lisette and I have always sought out what we like to call “mentor couples” — a husband and wife whose relationship is an example to us.
By interaction with them, we've been able to glean nuggets of wisdom on how to relate to each other.
Lisette: There is no pat answer to problems like the ones you discuss. What's needed is a new lifestyle, built of virtues, and that takes time.
Learning from the example of mentor couples have been a key to our own growth as a couple.
One of the first couples that attracted us was Holly and Ed Andrade, my previous dorm director and her husband. I say “attracted” because they had something that was contagious and real. They were both very close to God and they loved each other in a selfless way.
Holly was very available to me as my dorm director. She would invite me to her room to sit and drink coffee, or just to chat.
One day, after she was married — and still our dorm director — I went to visit her. It was Valentine's Day and she had written notes on 100 hearts saying why she loved Ed.
Over the years I've seen Holly keep on expressing her love for Ed in so many ways. Because of my own background, I needed to see that true married love was real and that it did last. I saw it in Holly and Ed and that has changed the way I view marriage.
I've also learned a lot from Holly as a mother. First-time mothers often have doubts about their own mothering.
So, it's good to be able to go back and forth with Holly on my ideas about raising our son. Topics I've discussed with her range from discipline to schooling to the importance of “date nights” with our spouses.
Find a couple like this — or, better, find several — and follow them. Soon, you may become a mentor couple yourselves!
George and Lisette de los Reyes host “The Two Shall Be One” on EWTN.
Reach Family Maters at: familymatters@ncregister.com
----- EXCERPT: Family Matters ----- EXTENDED BODY: George and Lisette De Los Reyes ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Fact of Life DATE: 04/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:Special Care Moms
One might expect mothers caring for children with chronic health conditions to report negative effects on their home life. The opposite is true, however. A new study shows that caring for children with illnesses like sickle cell disease, cystic fibrosis, diabetes mellitus and moderate to severe asthma can be a positive experience.
Makes me a better mother 88%
Benefits my family 80%
Makes my family stronger 70%
Source: Johns Hopkins study reported in Ambulatory Pediatrics, March 2001
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: John Paul's Stations of the Cross DATE: 04/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — Providence has given us a suffering Pope to lead the Church into a new millennium, and nowhere was that more evident in the Jubilee Year than on the day commemorating Christ's great suffering.
Pope John Paul II led an intensely personal Stations of the Cross on Good Friday last year at the Colosseum, the site of early Christian martyrdoms.
Using special meditations he wrote himself — that are now being made available in book form by the Daughters of St. Paul — the Holy Father walked unaided through the entire Way of the Cross, despite great difficulty. He even climbed a long set of stairs to the final station, carrying a large wooden cross all the way.
“We believe that every step of the condemned Christ, every action and every word, as well as everything felt and done by those who took part in this tragic drama, continues to speak to us,” said the Pope in his opening prayer. “In his suffering and death, too, Christ reveals to us the truth about God and man.”
His meditations on the suffering of Christ raised some of the main streams of his thought, from the Second Vatican Council to his own encyclicals, putting them in the context of Christ's redemptive act.
What follows are short excerpts from the official English-language translation of the Italian text.
First Station
Jesus is condemned to death
The tragedy of Pilate is hidden in the question: What is truth? This was no philosophical question about the nature of truth, but an existential question about his own relationship with truth. It was an attempt to escape from the voice of conscience, which was pressing him to acknowledge the truth and follow it. When someone refuses to be guided by truth he is ultimately ready even to condemn an innocent person to death. … Over the centuries the denial of truth has spawned suffering and death. It is the innocent who pay the price of human hypocrisy.
Second Station
Jesus takes up his cross
God is love… This truth about God was revealed in the Cross. Could it not have been revealed in some other way? Perhaps. But God chose the Cross. The Cross is the sign of a love without limits.
Third Station
Jesus falls the first time
Jesus falls and gets up again. In this way, the Redeemer of the world addresses in a wordless way all those who fall. He exhorts them to get up again.
Fourth Station
Jesus meets his Mother
Mary remembered that, when she first heard the Angel's message, she had replied, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.” … Now she sees that her word is being fulfilled as the word of the Cross. Because she is a mother, Mary suffers deeply. But she answers now as she had answered then, at the Annunciation. In this way, as a mother would, she embraces the cross together with the divine Condemned One.
Fifth Station
Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus to carry his Cross
The divine Condemned One is someone who, in a certain sense, “makes a gift” of his Cross. Was it not he who said: “He who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me”? Simon receives a gift. He has become worthy of it. … In a unique way, the Son of God has made him a sharer in his work of salvation.
Sixth Station
Veronica wipes the face of Jesus
The veil upon which the face of Christ remains imprinted becomes a message for us. In a certain sense it says: This is how every act of goodness, every gesture of true love towards one's neighbor, strengthens the likeness of the Redeemer of the world in the one who acts that way. Acts of love do not pass away. Every act of goodness, of understanding, of service, leaves on people's hearts an indelible imprint. … This is what shapes our identity and gives us our true name.
Seventh Station
Jesus falls a second time
For 2,000 years the gospel of the Cross has spoken to man. For 20 centuries Christ, getting up again from his fall, meets those who fall. Throughout these two millennia many people have learned that falling does not mean the end of the road. In meeting the Savior they have heard his reassuring words: “My grace is sufficient for you; for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
Eighth Station
Jesus speaks to the women of Jerusalem
For our generation, which has just left a millennium behind, rather than weep for Christ crucified, it is now the time for us to recognize “the time of our visitation.” Already the dawn of the Resurrection is shining forth. … O Christ, do not permit that there should be weeping for us and for the men and women of the new century because we have rejected our merciful Father's outstretched hand.
Ninth Station
Jesus falls the third time
The third fall seems to express just this: the self-emptying, the kenosis of the Son of God, his humiliation beneath the Cross… In the Upper Room, bending low to the ground and washing their feet, Jesus sought, as it were, to prepare them for this humiliation of his. Falling to the ground for the third time on the way of the Cross, he cries out loudly to us once more the mystery of himself.
10th Station
Jesus is stripped on his garments and is offered vinegar and gall to drink
He did not want a sedative, which would have dulled his consciousness during the agony. He wanted to be fully aware as he suffered on the Cross, accomplishing the mission he had received from the Father… Without consciousness, he could not, in complete freedom, accept the full measure of suffering. … Conscience and freedom: these are the two essential elements of fully human action. The world has so many ways of weakening the will and of darkening conscience. They must be carefully defended from all violence. Even the legitimate attempt to control pain must always be done with respect for human dignity.
11th Station
Jesus is nailed to the Cross
What is it that “draws” us to the Condemned One in agony on the Cross? Certainly the sight of such intense suffering stirs compassion. But compassion is not enough to lead us to bind our very life to the One who hangs on the Cross. How is it that, generation after generation, this appalling sight has drawn countless hosts of people who have made the Cross the hallmark of their faith? Hosts of men and women who for centuries have lived and given their lives looking to this sign? From the Cross, Christ draws us by the power of love, divine Love, which did not recoil from the total gift of self.
12th Station
Jesus dies on the Cross
At the height of his Passion, Christ does not forget man, especially those who are directly responsible for his suffering. Jesus knows that more than anything else man needs love; he needs the mercy which at this moment is being poured out on the world.
13th Station
Jesus is laid in the arms of his Mother
In the arms of his Mother they have placed the lifeless body of the Son. The Gospels say nothing of what she felt at that moment. It is as though by their silence the Evangelists wished to respect her sorrow, her feelings and her memories. Or that they simply felt incapable of expressing them. It is only the devotion of the centuries that has preserved the figure of the Pietà, providing Christian memory with the most sorrowful image of the ineffable bond of love which blossomed in the Mother's heart on the day of the Annunciation. … Now this intimate bond of love must be transformed into a union which transcends the boundary between life and death.
14th Station
Jesus is laid in the tomb
The lifeless body of Christ has been laid in the tomb. But the stone of the tomb is not the final seal on his work. The last word belongs not to falsehood, hatred and violence. The last word will be spoken by Love, which is stronger than death. … The empty tomb is the sign of the definitive victory of truth over falsehood, of good over evil, of mercy over sin, of life over death.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Raymond J. De Souza ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: How Losing My Patients Saved Me DATE: 04/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:Perhaps it isn't surprising that my wife and I weren't familiar with Catholic teaching on artificial contraception — we came back to the Church just before marrying in 1975.
We didn't know what to do, so we did what everyone else was doing — we got on the pill, and we did it three months before we married. As serious Christians, we waited until we were married, but we had no qualms about using the pill.
About a year later we came off the pill to try to start our family. The first month we tried, son number one was on the way. We now have six wonderful children, and my wife is on her way to being a saint.
The joys and sorrows of raising a family got us thinking about how to live our lives. My wife was into breast-feeding and our children were spaced about two years apart, using breast-feeding alone. I was a medical student, a resident at the time, and I began looking into the physiology of spacing children that way.
Then I discovered that the Couple to Couple League had been promoting this for years. So we looked into natural family planning, which they also promote.
After that we also read Pope Paul VI's 1968 encyclical on the regulation of birth, Humanae Vitae, for the first time. When I asked patients, relatives and friends if they had read it, I found out that most had never heard of it.
We read it from cover to cover and our response was: “This is beautiful. Why didn't anyone tell us about this?”
Humanae Vitae says: “Direct interruption of the generative process already begun, and above all, directly willed and procured abortion — even for therapeutic reasons — are to be absolutely excluded as licit means for regulating birth. … Equally to be excluded, as the teaching authority of the Church has often declared, is direct sterilization, whether perpetual or temporary” (No. 14).
The concept that temporary sterilization should be avoided, like abortion, was new to me. Reading further, one finds that there isn't any way to limit births by using artificial contraception that's licit in the eyes of the Church.
When we read that and prayed about it, we committed ourselves to never use artificial contraception again. We found peace and wisdom in that decision. But now I was living a double life — personally committed to living Catholic teaching, but professionally willing to do what I had been trained to do in a Catholic hospital: prescribe contraceptives.
In my profession, prescribing the pill is the current approach to many different cases. It's reminiscent of how everyone switched to bottle-feeding in the 1950s for no good reason.
One day I received a phone call from a patient's husband that forced me to think more deeply. He put his question bluntly: “Do you prescribe artificial contraception?”
“My wife and I use natural family planning,” I replied.
“But what do you prescribe? Will you answer my question please?”
“Well, I have my reasons for what I do,” I said.
“Give me one.” “Well, if I don't prescribe contraceptives for them, then all my patients will get sterilized. I'm thinking the lesser of two evils,” I admitted.
“That particular moral approach has been entirely drummed out of orthodox Catholic teaching,” he informed me, not too gently.
His call pricked my conscience and spurred more study. I read a statement from the Canadian bishops: “When doubt arises due to a conflict between my views and the magisterium, the presumption of truth lies with the magisterium. This must be carefully distinguished from the teaching of individual theologians and individual priests, however intelligent or persuasive they may be.”
Another patient, who was probably praying for me, gave me the phone number for a Dr. Kim Hardy. I called Dr. Hardy at 10 p.m. in New Orleans and talked for an hour, probably the biggest phone bill I've ever had.
I asked him how he managed to make the change to recommending natural family planning only. He said, “Well after I made the decision to stop prescribing contraceptives, my practice disappeared. I had to move cities and go to a Catholic parish that was alive and on fire for God.”
I hung up, told my wife, and she said, “Oh, no!” We realized it was a big decision to put our financial stability on the line.
Losing Everything
Now I studied more diligently. Professor Janet Smith was very helpful. So were Pope John Paul II's writings on the theology of the body.
In Familiaris Consortio, he speaks of “the inseparable connection between the unitive and procreative meanings of human sexuality” (No. 32), and says that contraception contradicts the expression of total self-giving of the husband and wife.
Pope John Paul II is telling us that if you say, “I give my whole self to you, but not my ability to have children and I won't let you give me yours,” then the act of love between a husband and wife becomes degraded.
After studying all these things, my first change was to try to talk people out of using contraceptives. If I couldn't, I would write the prescription. After all, I reasoned, I wasn't the one doing it.
But I was still cooperating.
I considered refusing to give prescriptions to single women. I even encouraged some to abstain. But others only got mad, and besides, the Church says that's not where the line needs to be drawn.
In November 1997, I went to the Catholic Medical Association's annual conference in Toledo and met five Natural Family Planning-only physicians in one night. One speaker discussed the fact that the pill causes abortions at times. If contraceptives cause abortions — and I saw it was possible — how could I justify prescribing them for one more day?
I got down on my knees and prayerfully resolved to change, and went to confession where I received God's forgiveness.
I came back and said to my partners, “I'm a new man. I'm not going to prescribe any more contraceptives.” They responded, “Okay, what are you going to do with your 9 p.m. patient?”
Dear Patients …
My decision led to a few interesting talks the first week, but finally I sent out a letter to my patients.
Several other local gynecologists and pediatricians joined me in my decision to conduct Natural Family Planning-only practices. We also began supporting those teaching Natural Family Planning locally.
When I made the change my wife said, “I was wondering when you would do this. It's about time.”
I now speak to all of my pregnant patients about Natural Family Planning and natural spacing of children. Many have had a “failure” with their artificial methods and are very open to a better method.
Women now hear from their friends, “Dr. Fleming won't give me the pill.” I don't get these patients anymore; but I have a lot more who are praying for me, helping me be the best Catholic doctor I can be.
Dr. Phil Fleming is a gynecologist practicing in Ann Arbor, Mich.
Kate Ernsting contributed to this article.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Philip Fleming, M.D. ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Rethinking the Pill DATE: 04/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:Nowadays, the pill is regarded as a kind of silver bullet. They say, “It's good for everything.” So a lot of doctors are just putting people on the pill without thinking about it. There are better treatments for the hormonal and infertility problems that are now commonly treated by the pill.
Every year in this country, young women die from using birth control pills. How many young women — or men — die from using abstinence?
We need a different approach here. I would love to see Catholic hospitals establish task forces on Natural Family Planning like they did with breast-feeding.
— Dr. Phil Fleming
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Life Notes DATE: 04/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:Plurality Opposes Abortion
NATIONAL REVIEW, March 23 — A plurality of voters — 48% — oppose many abortions, but not all, according to a poll released by Kellyanne Fitzpatrick's polling company, reported the National Review.
Some believe that abortion should either be allowed in cases of rape, incest or a so-called “threat to the life of the mother,” reported the National Review.
By contrast, 41% believe that abortion should be generally permitted. This 41% includes 24% who would allow abortion in the first trimester only. Only 12% of voters believe abortions should be allowed at any time during a woman's pregnancy and for any reason, which is the state of abortion law in the country today.
Abortion is Top British Issue
THE TIMES, March 23 — The Catholic bishops of England have released a document entitled “Vote for the Common Good” in which they note that abortion should be at the top of the list of questions that a constituent asks any prospective MP, reported The Times.
The bishops also warn that euthanasia could be legalized in the next parliament. Other issues mentioned for serious reflection include support for marriage and family.
South Africa March for Life
PANAFRICA NEWS AGENCY, March 22 — All across South Africa March 21, thousands of pro-lifers demanded the right to life for unborn children, reported the Web news site PanAfrica News Agency.
Since abortion was permitted in 1996, it has cost the lives of over 150,000 South African babies, reported PanAfrica News.
Myrna King, one of the organizers of the event, said that the beautiful rainbow that appeared at the end of the march symbolized their hope that one day South Africans would be able to really celebrate Human Rights Day — “when the human rights of unborn babies are also protected.”
Not ‘Medically Necessary’
LIFESITE DAILY NEWS, March 21 — Gary Breitkreuz, the Canadian Alliance MP who presented a pro-life motion in parliament to define a fetus as a child, received confirmation that the federal government has no evidence to support its claim that abortion is “medically necessary,” reported LifeSite Daily News.
Earlier this year, Liberal Health Minister Alan Rock demanded that provinces fund all abortions, even at private sites, claiming that abortion is “medically necessary,” reported LifeSite Daily News.
Breitkreuz filed an Access to Information request to the Information Commissioner demanding any evidence of medical necessity.
“I regret to inform you,” said the reply, “that after a thorough search … officials have confirmed that they have no records relevant to your request.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Cable Giant's Policy Draws Foes in L.A. DATE: 04/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 22-28, 2001 ----- BODY:LOS ANGELES — Playboy and Spice were one thing. But keep your censoring hands off our seedy public-access shows.
That seems to be the message local lawyers and media here are sending to rural Pennsylvania-based Adelphia Cable, the nation's sixth-largest provider of cable-TV services. Adelphia, which has a no-pornography policy, first made waves in Southern California when it took over Century Cable in Los Angeles last fall and promptly stopped offering the mainstream adult channels.
A few voices rose in protest over the new company in town. Now Adelphia has dropped several programs from its spate of local public-access offerings and the battle has become more heated.
Along with the expected rumblings from the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, coverage of the development on local news outlets appears to be sympathetic with the forces of “unlimited free expression.”
These are intent on preserving such public-access fare as “Colin and His Sleazy Friends” and “The Dr. Susan Block Show.”
Indeed, it's the cancellation of the latter that is drawing the most fire.
“We have notified Dr. Block of our objections, and she has threatened us with litigation,” Randy Fisher, lead counsel for Adelphia, told the Register from his Coudersport, Pa., office. As a result of the possible action, he wasn't able to expound.
Block, whose bio says she received a doctorate in philosophy from Pacific Western University, is the author of The Ten Commandments of Pleasure: Erotic Keys to a Healthy Sexual Life. According to published reports, her program, which she broadcasts from a bed dressed in lingerie and surrounded by adult “novelties,” has been known to show bare-breasted women, genitalia and sex acts, in addition to blunt discussions of sex.
Block wrote a letter this spring to Adelphia's president, John Rigas. In it, she cited a 1996 U.S. Supreme Court decision which limited cable operators' discretion with respect to public-access programming.
Peter Eliasberg, an attorney looking into the situation for the ACLU in Los Angeles, agrees with her that Adelphia's move violates the law. “With a public-access channel,” he told the Register, “the city says you must give a public forum for people to come on and say what they want, when they want.”
The law is not that clear-cut, says Robert Peters of Morality in Media, a watchdog group in New York. “It's at least a gray area,” Peters told the Register.
He explained that cable companies are responsible for anything they allow to be broadcast and thus are faced with “an impossible situation.” He added, “If they pull it, they get sued; if not, they could go to jail.”
Federal law seems to support Peters' perspective. In light of the Supreme Court decision cited by Block, the Federal Communications Commission in 1997 updated the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992.
The law now reads: “A cable operator may refuse to transmit any public-access program or portion of a public access program that the operator believes contains obscenity.” As long as the determination is “reasonable,” Peters believes that Adelphia has good cause for its actions.
It seems clear Block's show could be reasonably deemed obscene. Her Web site proudly cites Playboy magazine's reference to her as “an excellent X-rated alternative to Leno, Letterman and Nightline.”
Even if it sometimes is “a serious show,” Peters explains, “some snippet of serious value does not prevent [a program] from being obscene.”
While Block cites Playboy, other pornographic magazines and even some in the mainstream press who extol her, not everyone is impressed with her approach. Radio psychologist Dr. Laura Schlessinger has referred to Block as “a pseudo-professional ‘porn queen.’” Meanwhile a small, but vocal, group of Adelphia customers has made it known that many are glad to see Block's show fade to black.
For now, lawsuits remain a possibility, and Block's show can be heard on the public-access channels, but not seen. The only visual is a message condemning Adelphia's policy, which scrolls across the television screen.
And even if Block and the other purveyors of explicit material are ultimately “legally correct,” such a finding, according to Robert Peters, would still be “morally perverse and disturbed.”
Andrew Walther writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Andrew Walther ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: Parents Love Adelphia DATE: 04/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 22-28, 2001 ----- BODY:Most published reports credit John Rigas, Adelphia Cable's founder and owner, for the moral values that the company lives by. The Los Angeles Times recently quoted Rigas as saying that many people have vocally supported Adelphia's refusal to air pornographic channels.
“We've had letters from all over the country thanking us for taking that kind of stand,” he said.
One of those who support the decision to drop both commercial and public-access pornography in Los Angeles is Anita Weiss, a parishioner of St. Charles Borromeo Church in North Hollywood.
“I didn't cry at all when they cut out the Spice channel,” she told the Register. And of Adelphia's decision to dispense with graphic public access programming, “I am a hundred percent for that,” Mrs. Weiss said.
She explained that her children generally only watch “Disney or Nickelodian,” but added that she thought Adelphia's move was a step in the right direction and hopes that the company will target violent programming as well. She worries that children who “have too much unsupervised time on their hands” can easily get access to harmful material on cable.
— Andrew Walther
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Andrew Walther ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: Atlanta's Vocations Turnaround DATE: 04/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 22-28, 2001 ----- BODY:ATLANTA — When Tim Hepburn entered the seminary from the Archdiocese of Atlanta in 1988, he and the 11 other men he joined could appreciate the predicament of the first Apostles: How could so few bring the Gospel to so many?
At the time, Atlanta's Catholic population was growing steadily. Businesses and their employees were relocating to the area and new enterprises were springing up due to the robust economy, siphoning more workers from the Catholic-rich Northeast and Midwest. Local priests were starting to feel pinched and a vocations crisis seemed imminent.
Today, the situation is very different. Even though the city has continued to grow by leaps and bounds (it ranked second only to Los Angeles in population growth among major U.S. cities between 1990 and 1998), its vocations rate began to outstrip even its population explosion. In 1985, eight men were studying for the priesthood in Atlanta. Today, there are 61.
“At present we are doing very well,” Atlanta Archbishop John Donoghue told the Register. “We have a very good vocations program.”
Given the declining vocations numbers nationwide over the past 30 years, any diocesan turnaround is encouraging news. But Atlanta's performance over the last 15 years is nothing short of jaw-dropping.
The reasons for the turnaround are varied.
Father Hepburn, now serving as Atlanta's assistant vocations director, cited an aggressive former vocations director from Ireland, the vitality of Atlanta's churches, and the dominance of evangelical Christianity in the South.
“One solid reason [for the turnaround] is the confluence of Catholic and evangelical culture in the South,” Father Hepburn, 36, said. “It causes Catholics to rally and defend their faith. Apologetics has become an important part of the young adult population.”
Seminarian Bryan Small, who is scheduled to be ordained as a deacon April 28, pointed to the overall growth of Atlanta as a reason for the increase in seminarians. Some professionals who moved to the city in recent years discovered their vocations after relocating, he said, adding that the vitality of Atlanta's parishes probably accounted for why they heard the call there.
“There is a pulse and a vibrant spirit here,” said Small, 27. “There is a sense of growing and building and expansion.”
Small pointed to the contrasting situation in other parts of the country. “I have a great concern for some of my classmates who are affiliated with the Northern dioceses because they are almost guaranteed being pastors of multiple parishes,” he said.
Eucharistic Miracle?
Another possible reason for the reversal in vocations, easily overlooked by demographers and sociologists but cited by everyone in Atlanta contacted by the Register for this story, is the importance of eucharistic adoration there.
Perpetual eucharistic adoration is practiced in four of Atlanta's 110 parishes. Twenty others have adoration once weekly, and 30 more do it once a month.
Archbishop Donoghue said he believes Atlanta's vocations surge is directly connected to the reintroduction of the centuries-old devotion.
“I just think the Lord is blessing us in this way for adoring him in the Eucharist,” Archbishop Donoghue said. “We are doing so well in this regard I believe because the Lord is thanking us in a way for this.”
It's not just Atlanta's seminary enrollment that's growing, either. At a time when many parishes in the Northeast and Midwest are closing schools and consolidating parishes, Atlanta is in the midst of a building boom. New York Archbishop Cardinal Edward Egan made headlines recently by announcing the he might be forced to close six diocesan schools due to a lack of money. Meanwhile, Atlanta has built three Catholic elementary schools and two Catholic high schools in the last few years.
Archbishop Donoghue noted that the local Church's growth is more than simply an accommodation of transplants from elsewhere. This Easter, he said, the archdiocese will welcome some 2,000 new Catholics into its fold.
Like his bishop, Father Hepburn has no doubts about the correlation between eucharistic adoration and increased seminary enrollment.
“The archbishop came in [in 1993] and really began to emphasize the Eucharist,” he said. “He started a eucharistic renewal and advocated perpetual adoration. Only faith can make the connection, but there was a simultaneous increase [in seminarians] from when I entered the seminary and when Archbishop Donoghue started the work of adoration.”
Vocations director Msgr. David Talley agreed.
“Many of our seminarians told me they were brought in through the eucharistic adoration program,” he said. “Each year it seems another parish comes on board.”
Still, the institution of eucharistic adoration can be effective only if people show up to participate. Father Hepburn said Atlanta's “sense of mission” accounted for the dynamic response of its laity.
“The Church in Atlanta is relatively young,” Father Hepburn said. “What's not as much present here is the idea that, well, Mass is Mass and that's all we do. The general population down here knows that when you go to a church you get involved.”
Added Msgr. Talley, “We have many, many parishes that are just filled with life and with many pastoral ministries. There is also a good relationship between clergy and laity. And when you have that living parish where it's not just Sunday Mass, you have men and women who are attracted to religious life.”
But to Archbishop Donoghue, it all remains the fruit of keeping company with the Blessed Sacrament.
“I give the biggest credit to eucharistic adoration,” he repeats. “Not only in vocations, but in some way the diocese has come alive and people are enthusiastic about it. I think that more than anything else, this has revived this whole archdiocese.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian Mcguire ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: Congress Eyes Rights for Unborn Victims DATE: 04/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 22-28, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — A rapist assaults a pregnant women. Her unborn child dies as a result of the attack. Should the assailant be charged with a federal crime on behalf of the baby?
The House of Representatives plans to vote on that question April 25, when it takes up its first piece of pro-life legislation since the November elections — the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, sponsored by Rep. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Sen. Mike Dewine, R-Ohio.
Currently 24 individual states recognize unborn children as potential victims of such violent crimes. Now the federal government has a chance to follow suit.
The House approved the bill in 1999. But after President Clinton threatened a veto, the measure died in the Senate. It was reintroduced last month and approved by the House Judiciary Committee, with the vote following party lines, on March 28.
Supporters of the act maintain that its aims have nothing to do with abortion. Indeed, the language of the bill explicitly states that it must not be construed as permitting “the prosecution of any person for conduct relating to an abortion for which the consent of the pregnant woman has been obtained.”
Abortion supporters, however, believe the bill could be used to mount future legal cases against Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that declared unconstitutional any state or federal limits on abortion.
The National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, which is lobbying against the bill, did not return Register's calls for this story.
The organization's Web site says it opposes the Unborn Victims of Violence Act because it “erodes the foundation of a woman's right to choose [by creating] a separate criminal offense if an individual causes death or injury to what the sponsors call ‘a member of the species homo sapiens at any stage of development.’”
The Web site also maintains: “The Unborn Victims of Violence Act does nothing to help solve the real problem: violence against women.”
‘Real Injustices’
Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee, says that existing law already dealt with violence against women — and that the bill is no challenge to abortion laws.
“Under Roe, the woman has this fundamental right to dispose of her unborn child which overrides any right the child might have,” says Johnson. “But that doctrine says nothing whatsoever about women who are assailed. Legally, that's a distinct issue.”
Asked why the National Right to Life Committee would interest itself in legislation that, in Johnson's own words, “does not provide a legal weapon” against Roe v. Wade, he says the inconsistency between federal and state laws creates “real injustices.”
“There are cases, and regrettably they are not that rare, in which an unborn child is killed and the prosecutors are only able to bring assault charges against the criminal,” Johnson explains.
“These children are killed by criminal assaults and are just as dead as the ones who are killed in abortion clinics. Roe creates no legal barrier whatsoever to protecting these children from violence. … We think this is worth doing in and of itself.”
Johnson cites the 1989 Supreme Court case Webster v. Reproductive Health Services. In that case, the court upheld a Missouri law which declared that “the life of each human being begins at conception,” and that “the unborn child at every stage of development [holds] all the rights, privileges and immunities available to other persons” — as long as Missouri did not use the law to restrict abortion.
Asked if he thought Webster and Roe were inconsistent, Johnson replied that there was no legal inconsistency between the two.
“Is there an ethical inconsistency?” he added. “Sure.”
Since the landmark Roe v. Wade decision nearly 30 years ago, Congress hasn't sent the White House any bill that explicitly recognizes unborn children as crime victims.
“It's really just something Congress hasn't spoken to and yet there is nothing whatsoever that stands in the way of it,” Johnson says.
A Fighting Chance
The House vote over the Unborn Victims of Violence Act is expected to be close. If it passes there, the bill will move on to the Senate, where Johnson says it has “a fighting chance.”
One obstacle to its passage in the Senate, aside from the fact that a majority of senators are avowed supporters of abortion rights — 55, to be precise — is an alternate bill by pro-abortion senators.
Rather than recognizing two victims of violent crimes against pregnant women, this bill would simply enhance the penalty for such crimes. Because current federal law is silent on this type of crime, supporters of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act say the amendment would gut their bill and actually move federal law in the wrong direction.
“That would actually be Congress declaring that, in a case where a pregnant woman was assaulted and the baby dies, there is no loss of human life,” Johnson says. “It would codify fiction.”
Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., who has been a vocal supporter of pro-life legislation in the past, told the Register through spokesman Rob Traynhan that he believes the Unborn Victims of Violence Act is “a good piece of legislation and, if enacted, will help all individuals involved in advancing the pro-life movement.”
“The senator believes in principle in what the amendment will do,” Traynhan said, adding, “This is a bill that will further the cause of pro-life as well as protect mothers and their babies.”
A leader in the Senate's unsuccessful fight against partial-birth abortion two years ago, Santorum was recently quoted in The Washington Post as saying that he will not reintroduce that bill anytime soon.
“The senator was accurately quoted,” Traynhan told the Register. “There are just some other initiatives that we have to move on. There are some immediate things that need the senator's attention. Military, social security — these things have to be addressed sooner rather than later.”
Santorum's unwillingness to introduce pro-life legislation underscores the obstacles pro-lifers face in the current Congress. Coupled with the slim chance that bills such as the Unborn Victims of Violence Act have at passing in the House and the Senate, pro-life lobbyists are admitting that their current efforts are often aimed more at moving the culture than Congress.
Says Johnson: “Certainly we think that recognizing the humanity of the unborn child might be considered a brick in building a culture of life, but these types of laws are worthy in their own right.”
----- EXCERPT: First Pro-Life Bill of The New Session ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian Mcguire ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: New Orleans to Rome - and Back DATE: 04/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 22-28, 2001 ----- BODY:After three years at the Vatican, she's back home at St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans’ French Quarter. The former U.S. ambassador to the Holy See spoke to Register correspondent Matt Sedensky.
Tell me about growing up in Louisiana.
I was born on Brunswick Plantation, a sugar cane plantation, which was my mother's father's home. My dad contracted the flu in the devastating epidemic of 1918. He was only 29 and he died. My mother and I then went to live with her parents on Brunswick and then my grandfather died when I was about 5.
I had lost my dad and lost my grandfather, but I really had a wonderful, wonderful childhood. All of my uncles and aunts and everybody spoiled me horribly, mostly because my father was apparently one of the world's most adorable people, and everybody tried to make up to me for the fact that I had lost him.
You've experienced some very tough times — your losses a child; your son dying as a baby; your daughter dying of cancer; your husband, U.S. Rep. Hale Boggs, mysteriously disappearing. What have these tragedies meant for your faith?
I think they strengthen your faith. You couldn't endure without it.
I remember when my husband was missing, I wouldn't allow anybody to suggest that he was dead, and the pastor of St. Mary's Church in the Irish Channel called me one day and said, “I know you don't want anybody to say anything about him being dead, but I want to tell you something. Remember the so-and-so he was trying to get the big donation out of for St. Mary's?”
I said, “Yes, Father.”
“She came by and gave it to me today, and Hale could only work that miracle from heaven.”
It was an extraordinarily difficult period — the not knowing haunts you always.
Why did you have the pro-life voting record you did after winning your husband's congressional seat?
Long ago, before I knew anything about abortion, I had always loved life. I was the only child, reared in the country, and creatures were born, creatures were cared for, creatures were loved. I think that when you live so intimately with life in many of its stages, particularly in its initial stages, and I think too that losing my wampaw, losing my daddy, somehow just made life more precious to me.
It was not a political decision, it was an innate position.
It has been said that the two things you spend the most time on are prayer and politics. What's the importance of prayer in your life?
Politics takes a lot of prayer! Prayer is essential. I say the prayer, “Come, Holy Ghost,” before I ever make a public statement and before I make a speech. It's not only calling for help, which you need, but it's also a reminder that you have to be truthful and meaningful and positive and so on.
The rosary is something that I love not only because I love Our Lady, but when I lived at the convent I was the youngest boarder, and we used to say the rosary from our beds in the dormitory. And the nuns told me it was all right if we fell asleep saying the rosary, that your guardian angel would finish it for you.
So that's a very consoling thought — you could always have a rosary being said as long as your guardian angel was finishing it for you.
People who meet you say your Southern charm makes it hard not to like you. You've even been called one of the least controversial people to ever occupy a congressional seat. What's your secret to people skills?
I don't know if I have any people skills. I was an only child who spent a great deal of time in different family settings. I was with my father's family; I was with my mother's family. I spent a great deal of time very much being loved, but I also had to comply with the wishes and the household rules and so on, and so I suppose I learned early on that it was easier to get along.
When President Clinton asked you to become ambassador to the Holy See, you made up your mind almost immediately that you did not want to do it. What changed your mind?
I usually go to 7:30 Mass at St.
Louis Cathedral on weekday mornings and I walked over to Mass and in the back of the church is a statue of Joan of Arc with a sword.
A group of us say the rosary after 7:30 Mass and we prayed at the altar of Our Lady and there's a statue of Our Lady of Prompt Succor — she was the one that the Ursuline nuns prayed before a statue of all during the Battle of New Orleans.
Andrew Jackson came in his uniform from the battlefield to the convent and to the chapel to thank the nuns for saving the cities. She's our 911 saint for all sorts of cases. I started thinking about all the strong people — particularly the strong women — of the Church and I thought I should accept the challenge.
Because much of Vatican policy rests on Catholic theology, it is hard to shape any Vatican policy. What would you say is the importance of your position at the Vatican?
My position at the Vatican wasn't a Church position, it was a government position, and I was the ambassador to the Holy See, the state of the Vatican.
A nation has an ambassador to the Holy See. You're not an ambassador to the Catholic Church. You don't try to shape Church policy. Your duty is to represent the United States of America to the state of the Holy See. The Vatican is involved in actions all over the world. There's nothing that goes on anywhere that the Vatican is not involved in. Much of the work with the 178 ambassadors representing various countries is with the political things.
Obviously, you're going to get some political problems that are also Church problems. And then you negotiate and you try to be helpful and you always try to give the point of view of your own country and the institutions in your country, particularly if you have Catholic institutions that come to you.
What is it like being around the Pope?
I am in admiration of the Pope. I think he's one of the most forceful leaders that I've known in the political life that I've been privileged to lead.
He's true-blue in his devotion to the holy Trinity, and he's lovingly dedicated to the bread and blood of humanity. He has an unusually strong outreach to young people and I think it's because he has a tough love for them — “I love you so much I want you to shape up” — and they respond to that in just amazing numbers.
What has your ambassador-ship taught you about the Catholic Church?
You have a much more sophisticated of the inner workings of the government of the Church and of the people who are the governmental leaders.
Just as you know the personalities in the executive and legislative and judicial branches of the United States, you are familiar with the feelings, the writings, the expressions of the various leaders of the various branches, you become to have the same sort of understanding of the Vatican government itself.
What is your guiding principle in life?
Always, you try to do what is the correct thing to do, and bring the greatest good to the largest number of people.
In all probability, the greatest lesson that I learned from the nuns was the three C's — respect, love, and promote all human beings regardless of color, condition or culture.
----- EXCERPT: Dixie Democrat bids farewell to the Vatican ----- EXTENDED BODY: Lindy Boggs ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson ----------- TITLE: Battle of the Pro-Life and Pro-Abortion Rock Stars DATE: 04/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 22-28, 2001 ----- BODY:HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — The pro-abortion viewpoint shared by many rock musicians is no secret. But Gary Cherone, former lead singer of Van Halen, is a prominent exception to the prevailing rock ‘n’ roll mentality.
On Jan. 22, the 28th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision, Cherone released his second open letter to Pearl Jam lead singer Eddie Vedder, challenging the pro-abortion Vedder's statement to Rolling Stone magazine that “terminating pregnancy is not an easy thing.”
Cherone's challenge, available at the Libertarians for Life Web site, www.l4l.org., posed the question, “Is the life within the mother's womb a human person? If the answer is No, it is not a human person, why would one feel [terminating] it ‘is not an easy thing’ to do? If the answer is Yes, it is a human person, why would one advocate ‘terminating’ it?”
Continued Cherone, “If the unborn is not a human person, no justification for abortion is necessary. However … if the unborn is a human person no justification for abortion is adequate.”
Vedder has not replied to either of Cherone's public letters. “Vedder is safest not responding,” said Rock for Life director Erik Whittington, the group that released Cherone's first letter in June 1999, “because he has no answer to Cherone's comments.”
However, other pro-abortion remarks by the Pearl Jam rocker can be found on the Web site of the organization Rock for Choice. “I'm usually good about my temper,” Vedder comments on the Web site, “but all these men trying to control women's bodies are really beginning to p--- me off.”
On April 6, Rock for Choice hosted a “Save Roe” concert at the Hollywood Palladium to raise awareness of what the organization calls “the impending threat to abortion rights posed by President Bush.” Featured acts at the concert included the Bangles, Sarah McLachlan, Paula Cole and Melissa Etheridge.
“This Rock for Choice concert comes at a critical time,” stated a press release from the sponsoring group, Feminist Majority, “as never before has the right to a safe, legal abortion been in greater jeopardy. For the first time since the U.S. Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion, the President, and leadership of both houses of Congress, are anti-choice.”
Picketing outside of the Palladium concert were members of The Survivors, a group of prolifers born since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. “If Sarah McLachlan, Melissa Etheridge, and the other performers here at this concert are successful in saving Roe v. Wade they will be paving the way to the continued exploitation of women and the murder of innocent children,” Survivor member Jason Conrad said in a statement.
There was little pro — abortion rhetoric from the lead performers during the concert itself, the Los Angeles Times reported April 9. But headliners Etheridge and Cole both offered comments to CNN outlining their views.
“I think, when it comes right down to it, at the end of the day, government should stay out of women's bodies — the end,” said Etheridge, a lesbian activist whose lover Julie Cypher bore two children, fathered through artificial insemination by rock legend David Crosby, while she and Etheridge were together. The lesbian couple separated last September.
Said Cole, “It's an important cause to me, you know, ever since — in college, I rode one of those buses and went down to D.C. And I marched … I am 33. I want a family. It doesn't apply to me now. I'm a wealthy white female, you know? But we have to take the responsibility to reach out and help those disenfranchised women, those women that don't have access.”
Speaking before the concert took place, Rock for Life's Whittington criticized the event. “The money gathered there for entertainment is sent to support the lies of the abortion industry,” he said.
Whittington also noted the irony of staging a pro-abortion concert entitled “Save Roe,” in light of the 1998 conversion to Catholicism of Norma McCorvey, the plaintiff named as “Jane Roe” in the 1973 court case. McCorvey subsequently changed her mind about abortion and today is a prominent pro-life activist.
“We will be there to alert the concert-goers that Roe has been saved,” said Whittington. “Norma McCorvey is now 100% pro-life.”
Matt Hisrich writes from Columbus, Ohio
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Matt Hisrich ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 04/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 22-28, 2001 ----- BODY:Brando Offered Role as Pope John XXIII
The Italian state television station RAI approached Marlon Brando and asked him to play the lead in their upcoming biography of the Pope. A spokeswoman for RAI confirmed that Brando was “very interested in the part,” but there is no word yet on whether he has agreed to play the role.
The film starts production this year.
More People Means More Wealth
America just witnessed the largest census-to-census increase in its history.
The Journal pointed out that only a generation ago, Richard Nixon claimed that America was threatened by a “growing flood of people.” But today, after an even bigger population surge, those fears are all but forgotten.
This is in part because American income has grown as the population rose. “More people means a bigger pie for all,” the newspaper said. The year 2000 saw the highest median household income recorded by the census since it began calculating this income in 1967, the highest median black income, and the highest median Hispanic income. And the unemployment rate was the lowest it's been in 30 years.
The Journal argued that this data should remind Americans that “the way to look at human beings is not as mouths but minds,” not as resource consumers but as producers and innovators. The article also noted that countries with low birthrates, such as many European countries and the population-controlled China, are facing an economic crisis due to their aging populations.
Clinton Leftover May Threaten Bush's Charity Plan
Opponents of La Casa claim that the shelter's lack of bilingual services constitutes discrimination. Jim Boulet, executive director of English First, pointed out that Executive Order 13166, signed by Bill Clinton in August 2000, grants every U.S. resident what Boulet summarized as “the right to be served by any government-funded program in the language or dialect of his choice.”
The Department of Health and Human Services has already ordered the Maine Medical Center to use nine languages at all times: English, Farsi, Khmer, Russian, Serbo-Croatian (in both Cyrillic and Roman alphabets), Somali, Spanish and Vietnamese. This is a burden few church-run charities could bear, National Review Online noted. Boulet called on Bush to repeal Clinton's executive order.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: Does Campaign Reform Bill Stifle Free Speech? DATE: 04/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 22-28, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — In a bill to revise the financing of elections, the U.S. Senate has mandated restrictions on political advertising sponsored by private groups like the National Rifle Association and the Sierra Club.
But pro-life activists warned that the bill, which passed 59-41 on April 2, would severely damper their own efforts to get their message out to the public if it also passes in the House of Representatives and is signed by President Bush.
“The winners are certainly the big media, Hollywood and millionaires and certain elitist special interests like Common Cause and League of Women Voters,” said Douglas Johnson, legislative director for National Right to Life.
“The losers would be people who express their views by joining a group with a large grass-roots network,” said Johnson.
He noted that the bill, sponsored by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Russell Feingold, D-Wis., would ban advertising from corporations, unions and groups like National Right to Life when the ads would make the most impact: within 60 days of a general election and within 30 days of a primary. Groups are further required to inform the government of the names of their largest donors, who often prefer anonymity especially when dealing with controversial issues like abortion, Johnson said.
Matt Keller, spokesman for Common Cause, said that the campaign reform bill was not “radical surgery” and works within currently accepted constitutional parameters.
His organization's main focus was not the issue ads, he said, but on a ban on so-called soft money.
The soft money ban would prevent corporations and unions from giving unregulated amounts of money to political parties, ostensibly for “party-building” rather than financing election campaigns. According to The Washington Post, such contributions reached nearly $500 million last year.
“We are trying to get rid of soft money contributions,” said Keller. “That's the alpha and omega of campaign finance reform.”
Unconstitutional?
But the main problem for pro-lifers is the restriction on advertising, which they believe are a violation of the right to free speech.
“Parts of it are clearly unconstitutional,” said Gabe Neville, press secretary for Rep. Joe Pitts, R-Pa. “The Supreme Court has been very clear about this. The Constitution has been very clear about this.”
Added Pitts, “This is a democracy. People ought to and do have the right to speak.”
Neville said it's hard to predict how the House will vote on the campaign finance bill. The House passed similar bills in 1998 and 1999, but voting for the bill then was safer, he said, because everyone knew it would fail in the Senate.
Keller predicted that the House would pass the bill and that Bush wouldn't risk a veto.
“Bush would be ill-advised to veto a campaign finance reform bill supported by McCain,” said the spokesman for Common Cause.
The White House seems to be signaling that the president was willing to sign the bill. “He looks forward to signing a campaign finance bill that improves the current system,” said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.
If the bill becomes law, Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and a number of groups are planning a lawsuit to challenge the bill. McConnell, a leading foe of recent attempts at campaign finance reform, called the bill “fatally unconstitutional.”
Johnson said that the bill's authors almost expect the Supreme Court to throw out the advertising restrictions. But if the court overturns the existing restriction that is limited to 60 days before elections and 30 days before primaries, another provision would take its place, making the restriction apply all year to ads found to “support” or “attack” or “oppose” any candidate.
“This is even worse in certain ways,” said Johnson. “How can you express anything that a politician wouldn't regard as an attack on him or support for his opponent?”
Even Keller was willing to concede that the wording of the ad regulation was too vague.
“It's probably overboard,” said Keller. But he remained confident that the courts would consider both the soft money ban and the advertising restriction constitutional.
“Definitely the soft money ban,” he said. “Now, the ad issue is more problematic. But we'll take our chances in the Supreme Court.”
Johnson said that it's very likely that National Right to Life would join the suit with McConnell, if necessary, but is more focused on stopping the bill in the House before it even becomes law.
“We are certainly going to do whatever we can to let pro-life members of Congress to take this very seriously and really look hard at how this bill is written,” said Johnson.
Having the ability to run advertisements near election time is crucial to National Right to Life because of the pro-abortion bias in the media, Johnson added. “It's important for groups disfavored by the media to go around the media and talk directly with like-minded citizens.”
Joshua Mercer writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 04/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 22-28, 2001 ----- BODY:Vatican to Cut Back Broadcasts
ASSOCIATED PRESS, April 10 — Vatican Radio, threatened with an imminent shutdown by the Italian government over health concerns, said it will cut back some transmissions starting Easter Monday, the news service reported.
The decision was announced one day before Environment Minister Willer Bordon was to announce whether the broadcaster meets government standards for electromagnetic emissions. If results show emissions exceed Italian radiation standards, Bordon has said he is prepared to order the electric company to pull the plug the following day. Residents near the station's transmitter in the town of Santa Maria di Galeria near Rome fear some leukemia cases may be linked to electromagnetic emissions.
Vatican Radio said it will cut its transmission time as a “goodwill gesture.”
“It is neither a surrender nor a definitive solution,” said programming director Father Federico Lombardi. “We are seeking to avoid a clash.”
Prosecutors say Vatican Radio violates the strict standards Italy adopted in 1998 on electromagnetic fields emitted by radio stations and telephone transmitters. The Vatican says its transmissions are in line with less strict international standards and that it is shielded from Italian law under a 1929 pact that established Vatican City as an independent city-state.
An Archbishop With Charisma
“Pell fits the model for new Church leaders that the Pope has been applying to key appointments. And conservatism is not the prerequisite for promotion,” columnist Desmond O'Grady wrote. “The most important quality he seems to seek is strength of personality.”
O'Grady cited Milan Archbishop Carlo Maria Martini, a noted progressive, as an example of the Pope's tendency to choose charisma over doctrinal probity. But most Church observers would see that example as an exception, not the rule.
Added O'Grady, “Two assumptions seem to underlie the Vatican policy [on appointments]. One runs counter to a conviction many held before John Paul II was elected: that the Church was to be a faithful remnant in a non-Christian society, quietly going about its work, which would bear fruit in the long run.
“But John Paul, who resisted the Church being confined to the sacristy in communist Poland … wants bishops to be heard in the public arena with a message relevant to society as a whole.”
Czech Questions Vatican
BRITISH BROADCASTING CORP., April 10 — Czech Republic member of Parliament Jan Zahradil has asked his country's foreign minister, Jan Kavan, for details on the agreement between the Czech Republic and the Vatican, which he said a majority of his colleagues would not accept if it followed the Concordat model.
Kavan must answer Zahradil's written question at a Chamber of Deputies meeting in 30 days.
Representatives of the Czech Republic and the Vatican started negotiations on the agreement last April. The document is to give a legal footing to the relationship between the state and the Church. The seventh round of negotiations was held in March with experts from the education, culture and social affairs ministries participating.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican ----------- TITLE: Learn to Love as Jesus Did DATE: 04/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 22-28, 2001 ----- BODY:Register Summary
The liturgies of Holy Week and Easter celebrate “the mystery of a love without limits,” Pope John Paul II told an audience of about 10,000 gathered in St. Peter's Square for his weekly general audience April 11.
He said that this “free and unmerited” love of Christ also enables Christians to imitate their Lord by loving others “to the end.” The realities of today's world call for us to be “ready to face tiredness and difficulty in the name of Christ,” John Paul proclaimed.
He prayed that Mary, who remained faithful at the side of her Son while he died on the Cross, would accompany the Church during the final days of Holy Week. The Pope called on her to teach Christ's followers to lay down their lives in sacrificial love just as he did.
We are now on the eve of the Easter Triduum, already immersed in the spiritual climate of Holy Week. From tomorrow until Sunday, we will live the central days of the liturgy, which again propose to us the mystery of the Lord's passion, death and resurrection. In their homilies, the Fathers of the Church often make reference to these days that, as St. Athanasius observes, lead us “to that time that brings us and gives us the experience of a new beginning, the day of the holy Passover, when the Lord was offered up.” In his Easter Letters (Lett. 5,1-2; PG 26, 1379), this is how he describes the period we are now living. The Easter preface this Sunday will prompt us to sing with great strength: “By rising he restored our life.”
At the heart of this sacred Triduum is the “mystery of a love without limits,” namely, the mystery of Jesus who “loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end” (John 13:1). I have proposed this wondrous and joyful mystery again to priests in the letter that I have sent them, as I do every year, on Holy Thursday.
Gifts, Sacrifice, Silence
I invite you also to reflect on the very same love, to prepare yourselves to worthily relive Jesus' last earthly moments. Tomorrow we will enter the Cenacle to receive the extraordinary gift of the Eucharist, of the priesthood, and of the new commandment [of love]. On Good Friday, we will walk again along the Via Dolorosa that leads to Calvary, where Christ will complete his sacrifice. On Holy Saturday, we will silently wait to be ushered into the solemn Easter Vigil.
“He loved them to the end.” These words of John the Evangelist express and characterize tomorrow's liturgy in a unique way, the liturgy of Holy Thursday, which is comprised of the celebration of the morning Chrism Mass and the evening Mass of the Lord's Supper that opens the sacred Triduum.
The Eucharist is the eloquent sign of this total love, free and unmerited; and it offers to everyone the joy of the presence of the One who enables us also to love “to the end” in imitation of him. The love Jesus proclaims to his disciples is a demanding love.
In today's meeting, we have heard the echo of this love in the words of Matthew the Evangelist: “Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven” (Matthew 5:11-12). Today also, to love “to the end” means to be ready to face tiredness and difficulty in the Christ's name. It means not fearing insults or persecutions, and being ready to “love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). These are gifts of Christ, who offered himself for every man as the sacrificial victim on the altar of the Cross.
The Paradox of the Cross
“He loved them to the end.” From the Cenacle to Golgotha: Our reflection leads us to Calvary, where we contemplate a love whose culmination is the gift of life. The Cross is the clear sign of this mystery, but at the same time — for this very reason — it becomes a symbol that challenges and upsets consciences. When we celebrate the Lord's Passion this Friday, and take part in the Via Crucis, we will not be able to forget the power of this love that gives itself without measure.
In the apostolic letter for the conclusion of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, I wrote: “In contemplating Christ's face, we confront the most paradoxical aspect of his mystery, as it emerges in his last hour, on the Cross. The mystery within the mystery, before which we cannot but prostrate ourselves in adoration” (Novo Millennio Ineunte,25). This is the most fitting interior attitude for preparing ourselves to relive the commemorative day of the passion, crucifixion and death of Christ.
Waiting to Encounter Christ
“He loved them to the end.” Sacrificed for us on the Cross, Jesus rises and becomes the first fruits of the new creation. We will spend Holy Saturday in silent expectation of the encounter with the Risen One, meditating on the words of the Apostle Paul: “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, […] he was buried, […] he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). In this way, we will be able to better prepare ourselves for the solemn Easter Vigil, when the shining light of the risen Christ will burst forth in the middle of the night.
May Mary, the Virgin who always remained faithful beside her Son, accompany us on this last stretch of our penitential journey, especially in the days of the Passion. May she be the one to teach us to love “to the end,” following in the footsteps of Jesus who saved the world by his death and resurrection. [Translation by Zenit and Register]
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican ----------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 04/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 22-28, 2001 ----- BODY:Protestant Parents Sue to Get Child Into Catholic School
Nathan Mackay was denied a place at a Catholic school near his home in the town of Livingston because the school gives priority to baptized Catholics.
His parents are challenging the decision under the European convention on human rights, which states that no person shall be denied the right to education and which prohibits discrimination on the basis of religion.
But a spokesman for Scotland's Catholic Education Commission defended the school's policy, arguing that the European convention “gives parents the right to have their children educated according to their religious or philosophical beliefs.”
French Teen Says ‘Voices’ Made Him Kill Priest
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, April 6 — A French court has given a 20-year prison sentence to a man who murdered a priest during what he called a “Satanic flash,” the news service reported.
David Oberdorf, 23, told the court in the town of Colmar that “voices” ordered him to kill Father Jean Uhl at his church in the town of Kingersheim in December 1996 by stabbing the victim 33 times.
After a week-long trial, prosecutor Jean Lorentz asked the jury to sentence Oberdorf to not more than 20 years behind bars, as he was only 18 when he committed the crime and had changed for the better since his detention.
Jewish Leader Compares Corpse Exhibit to Auschwitz
Andreas Nachama has likened the “Body Worlds” exhibit to techniques employed at Auschwitz.
Billed as a display of the human form with corpses skinned, dissected and exposed in a variety of provocative poses, the exhibit has also drawn fire from Christian churches, which have accused the show's creator, Professor Gunther von Hagens, of “playing with the dead.”
Nachama told the Independent he is disturbed by parallels between the Nazi obsession with human disposal and the profitable traveling exhibit, which has been viewed by 6 million people in Germany, Japan, Austria and Switzerland.
Said Nachama, “Body Worlds is possibly the logical conclusion of Nazi crimes, when millions of bodies were burnt by their murderers into cinders or transformed into soap, and their skin into lamp-shades.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: Chaput Hails Ambassador-Nominee for Vatican DATE: 04/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 22-28, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — Former Republican Party leader Jim Nicholson has been nominated U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, the White House announced April 6. The appointment remains to be confirmed by the Senate.
“I was very pleased to learn of Jim Nicholson's nomination as the U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See,” said Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput. Nicholson lives in Englewood, Colo.
“I know him as a man of honesty and integrity, who has devoted his considerable skills to the renewal of civic life in the United States,” Archbishop Chaput said. “He takes his responsibilities, both as a citizen and as a believer, seriously. This makes him an ideal person to represent the people of the United States to the Vatican, and to do so in a way that understands and respects the Holy See.”
As chairman of the Republican National Committee, Nicholson played a key role in the election of President Bush. It was a role he never expected growing up as a Catholic Democrat in Iowa.
After serving in Vietnam, going to law school and starting his first business, Nicholson joined the Republican Party and took off on the path that led to being named chairman of the RNC.
“It's been my view for a long time that government is not the answer to all our social problems, and the traditional way that less fortunate people in America have been assisted is by those of us who have been more fortunate, either directly or through organizations,” he told the Catholic News Service.
Nicholson backed up his beliefs by serving for three years as chairman of the Volunteers of America, which runs 31 programs and is Colorado's largest nonprofit social service agency. It was there that he led a grass-roots effort to expand programs for the homeless, people with AIDS and victims of domestic violence.
During the time Nicholson served at VOA, he and his daughter
Katie delivered Meals on Wheels and saw for themselves “what a big part of their lives” the program — which serves more than 2,000 hot meals a day — can be for the homebound, he said.
He also took an active role in the Listen Foundation, which helps hearing impaired children, and led the capital construction committee at All Souls. Nicholson will replace Corinne “Lindy” Boggs, the U.S. ambassador to the Vatican since late 1997, who stepped down in February. Boggs, appointed by President Clinton, celebrated her 85th birthday March 16.
“Jim is quiet and unassuming, but is very disciplined and knows how to get things done,” said Msgr. Tom Fryar, pastor of All Souls Parish. “Despite his many responsibilities, he still manages to attend daily Mass. I think that says a lot about him.”
Nicholson is proud of the Republican Party's strong opposition to partial-birth abortions and its support for vouchers to help the parents of low-income children to attend parochial schools.
One of the biggest changes Nicholson saw during his tenure was the growing openness in the Hispanic and black communities to the Republican Party.
“Both in the Hispanic and African American communities, there is a deep tradition and understanding of the importance of the family as the basic unit in society,” Nicholson said.
“There is also an emphasis on hard work and the importance of faith,” he continued. “These are Republican values, and more and more people in these communities are beginning to realize it.”
Education was also a key issue in the election, Nicholson said.
“Public schools are failing many of our young people,” he said. “We do not believe that Americans are willing to turn their backs on another generation of young people caught in a system that all too often fails to do its job, especially in low income neighborhoods.”
— Denver Catholic Register
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: Killer Mercy DATE: 04/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 22-28, 2001 ----- BODY:As the Church celebrates the first official Divine Mercy Sunday, Americans face the anniversary of — and scheduled May execution for — the horrible crime of Timothy McVeigh.
It is a situation ripe for mercy.
Of course that means it is also one that cries out for justice. If ever someone deserved the death penalty, it's McVeigh. New interviews show the full extent of the bloodthirsty and calculating way he carried out the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building. His delusional political rationale makes no more sense than the rantings of the serial killers who are the real founding fathers of his philosophy.
But it is worth taking a look at what the federal government will really accomplish by his execution.
Will the execution bring “closure” to the families of those he killed? These families have said it will. This man destroyed their loved ones and altered the course of their lives forever. His execution will satisfy a real human need to see justice done. But how long will the satisfaction last? “The promise of closure is a false promise,” Chicago's Cardinal Francis George said recently about McVeigh's execution. “The heart will not heal from killing somebody.”
Will the execution help recommit Americans to justice and right? After all, to ennoble the culture has been one important reason for the death penalty. To let a killer “get away with murder,” even tacitly, looks in a healthy society like the state is sanctioning his actions. The problem for us, though, is that ours is not a healthy society. By its embrace of abortion and other manifestations of the culture of death, our state has established “getting away with killing” as a right. The state's execution of Tim McVeigh, in our culture, will probably appear to most people as just another example of violent revenge.
Will it bring about McVeigh's conversion? Catholics know that, even if he's forfeited his right to life, a killer still has an eternal soul worth saving. That's why the young St. Thérèse of Lisieux prayed for Henri Pranzini, who converted just before being guillotined. Many point out that facing execution on a date certain actually encourages conversion. But will it in Tim McVeigh? He has indicated that, all along, “government-assisted suicide” was part of his plan. The bombing, among other things, was an the first act in a plan of self-destruction. Certainly, even in McVeigh's case, Christian charity can wait in order to give him the opportunity to become remorseful for his actions.
To not execute Timothy McVeigh would also, ironically, frustrate his own plans. He wants to die. Why not let him experience the redemptive value of suffering a little bit — by letting him live? There would be much justice in that — and it would be good for him at the same time.
But today's feast reminds us that Christian mercy is powerful for a different reason: It definitively ends the power struggle the human will puts between itself and God. Where we heighten the battle between human sin and God's will, God forgives and forgets the offense. The offender is left with nothing to do but surrender.
Realistically, it does not seem likely that President Bush, such a full-throated proponent of the death penalty as governor of Texas, will turn against it in a case as extreme as McVeigh's. But we should encourage him to do so nonetheless. It is the fully pro-life position.
If McVeigh is destined to die, though, we should imitate the Little Flower. Henri Pranzini, like McVeigh, was a multiple murderer, and he was caught red-handed. What infuriated 19th-century France was his apparent lack of any remorse for his crimes.
St. Thérèse of Lisieux looked past all of that, and was upset that her Christian countrymen were so eager to see him die. “I wanted at all costs to save his soul,” she wrote, “and I multiplied my prayers and sacrifices for his conversion.”
She reports the great joy she felt upon hearing that, at his execution, the killer walked to the guillotine cursing God, but at the last moment showed remorse, and kissed a priest's crucifix three times before kneeling down at the block.
So, pray a chaplet this Mercy Sunday for Timothy McVeigh. His crime is almost unimaginably horrible — but that will just make it a more significant victory to deny Satan his soul in the end.
----- EXCERPT: Editorial ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion ----------- TITLE: Letters DATE: 04/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 22-28, 2001 ----- BODY:Why is Gun Control a Dirty Word?
Your editorial “After the Gun-smoke Clears” (March 18-24) is certainly one that any reasonable person could agree with. Nor can we disagree with President Bush's comments about teaching our children right from wrong and teaching values with respect for life. But without exploring the whole spectrum involved in our schools, Bush's words, as well as those words expressed in your editorial, can be reduced to empty rhetoric. Maybe the president's answer to the Santana High School shooting are more profound, but Clinton's words are more realistic.
There is nothing, not one word, in Bush's comments about preventing children from having easy access to guns. Gun control is a dirty word with the present administration and is to be kept under wraps. So the strategy is to keep gun control off the agenda — the less said the better, keep the government off this issue, let the parents handle it. In other words, this problem is one of the home, not for Congress or the White House.
With an NRA-backed Republican as president and GOP control of Congress, the gun issue will be relegated to the back burner. But the shootings, the killings, won't stop. The easy accessibility to guns, coupled with the irresponsible conduct of many gun owners, will see to that.
The culture of death will continue.
MAX VENZOR El Paso, Texas
Wanting Love
Working with juvenile offenders and “at risk” teens in the state of Maine for the past three years has, we are always looking for cause and effect relationships that culminate in violence to better understand and work with our clients (“After the Gunsmoke Clears,” March 18-24).
Recently, there was an article in the Maine Sunday Telegram that centered around foreign adoptions and how a small number of these kids are nightmares to the parents due to a following disorder: The article states “Reactive Attachment Disorder is caused by abuse and severe deprivation in infancy. Its symptoms include the absence of conscience, an inability to give or receive love, learning disabilities, self-mutilation, cruelty to siblings and animals, morbid fascinations with fire and violence and overt sexuality.”
A large majority of our clients, juvenile offenders, display some or all of these symptoms.
Can we not then conclude that lack of love, effective parenting and spiritual education combined with the almost irresistible lure of sex and violence as displayed in the media are at the root of juvenile crime?
If there is no knowledge of the afterlife, that there is a heaven and hell, then there are no consequences to actions in this world. Prison does not phase these kids — it is a badge of bravado and a rite of passage. We believe that school shootings are the final manifestations of a secular society.
This sounds overly negative and it should. We need to be more active to save our kids. I am happy to report that the young people that make it completely through our nine-months course have gone on to be productive, non-violent citizens. We certainly believe that rehabilitation is possible. But not without a spiritual life.
U. KURT RAUSCHER Bristol, Maine
The writer is the executive director of the Maria Mercedes Foundation.
Shroud Creator
Regarding your article on the Shroud of Turin (March 11-17, “Shrouded in Mystery”): There is one aspect of the shroud that has, to my knowledge, never been addressed.
If the shroud is a fake, the artist who created it must have been a brilliant genius. The positioning of the wounds, the size and shape of the wounds, the direction of the blood flow — this and more were all in accordance, in exact detail, with the historical record of the crucifixion. With one exception! This genius made one incredible “mistake.”
Instead of placing the nail wounds in the palm of the hand, he placed them in the wrists, in contradiction to the historical evidence. It is doubtful that this talented artist could have made such a blunder.
What is more astounding is that modern medical science has shown that a nail wound in the palm of the hand could not support a body. Only a nail in the wrist could support a body. By trial and error the Romans must have come to the same conclusion.
Which leads one to ponder: An artist in the 13th century could not have known that the nail wound had to be in the wrist. If there were an original shroud, the nail would have had to be in the wrist.
ARCHIE SALERNO Florham Park, N.J.
Send Bush a Message
It has been reported that Planned Parenthood, NOW and other pro-abortion groups were having a campaign to keep abortion legal by having their members phone, fax or e-mail President Bush.
Shouldn't we show President Bush that there are more of us than them and ask Bush to select a pro-life Supreme Court judge?
President Bush is a nice man, but he is a politician and we must be a voice for the voiceless. Republican presidents have selected six Supreme Court judges since 1973 and only two are pro-life.
The White House phone number for comments is (202) 456-1414 and the e-mail is president@whitehouse.gov — let's not have regrets that we didn't do our part after he selects the Supreme Court justice (which could be soon).
BEVERLY MORAN Corinth, New York
Consecrated Commendation
Since you have so eloquently done such a great article on the Focolare movement, could you also elaborate on another worldwide, small faith community?
The Neo-Catechumenal Way, founded three decades ago by Kiko Arguello and Carmen Hernandez, was mentioned by Pope John Paul II at the Mount of Beatitudes during his homily there, as well as at World Youth Day in which there was a call to vocations that brought forth over 3,000 young men wanting to commit to the priesthood and over 2,000 young women for the convent.
Keep up the super reporting on the various topics. We love your paper and how it keeps us informed on what's happening in the world with our faith and the challenges to become better Catholics in today's world of Me vs. God.
TIM AND CHARLOTTE LENSEIGNE
New Minority?
The announcement by the rest of the country that there are a lot of Latino folks around is not news (“United States of America,” March 25-31). Up until three years ago, Hispanics were not even considered a minority different from Caucasians. It is curious how an Italian is “white” but a person with ancestors from the same area of Europe, but slightly west, is not “white.” (It is instructive to remember that California, Arizona and Nevada were a part of New Spain for more than 300 years and have been a part of the USA for only 160 years.)
Ah … the wonders of secular government. Perhaps a new “minority” was needed.
WILLIAM E. BAUER Fernley, Nevada
Register Supports Censorship
Regarding “ACLU and Librarians Challenge Law Protecting Kids from Internet Porn” (April 1-7):
As usual, the Register's coverage of this issue is biased and intended to attack professional librarians and organizations like the ACLU that support freedom from censorship and violation of the First Amendment.
The Church is not exactly noted for supporting the freedoms granted under the First Amendment — which the Church would probably deny. However, since it still maintains an office that censors materials it considers to violate its views, this simply and certainly suggests that it supports violating the First Amendment rights of Americans who do not agree with censorship. Ditto the rights of Americans to have free access to all points of view on controversial issues instead of those that have been carefully censored to reflect only one point of view, say, conservative Christians.
I would suggest that the bigots who compiled this article check the Web and read the legal briefings in the censorship cases and/or contact the ALA, etc., before misinforming the public concerning the Church's supposed support of the First Amendment.
The Church's history suggests that it actively suppresses opinions that don't conform to its own, and its bloody history of oppressing those who believe in freedom of belief, ideas and press is too well known to be repeated here.
CAROL BODENHEIMER Winston-Salem, North Carolina
If it is censorship to make pornography unavailable to our children, then you're right — the Register is all for that kind of censorship.
Also: The Church has always and everywhere taught against brutality and injustice — which makes all the more culpable those Catholic hierarchs who were responsible for brutality and injustice. To make the Church itself responsible for this would be like making the democratic system itself responsible for Nixon's or Clinton's abuses of power.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion ----------- TITLE: Of Pope John Paul, Protestent Crosses and Potato Skins DATE: 04/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 22-28, 2001 ----- BODY:I just finished reading the April 8-14 Register. Tremendous!
Beautiful coverage on the birth dearth and population issue. More good coverage on stem cells. Very touching photo of good Pope John Paul II on the back page, telling of his way of the cross last year. It seemed that every page had something valuable to me.
I liked the column on why the Protestants have a bare cross and we keep the corpus. I am even going to try the twice-baked potato skins! Thank you for a fine, fine paper.
DOROTHY VINING Danbury, Connecticut
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion ----------- TITLE: First Came Life, Now Comes Marriage: Off to Court We Go DATE: 04/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 22-28, 2001 ----- BODY:First the American legal system withdrew its protection of the weakest and most vulnerable members of society — the unborn.
Now it looks as though the courts will be used to put the institution of marriage up for grabs as well.
It follows a kind of perverse logic: Having succeeded in devaluing human life itself, a culture of death is now seeking to move upstream. Dismantle marriage, the well-spring and incubator of new life, and you've eliminated the very source of the problem. What problem? The “problem” of life.
This cannot stand. After decades of social ills driven by rampant divorce and out-of-wedlock births, the destruction of the legal institution of marriage as the union of one man and one woman would be the final blow to our already-hobbled social infrastructure. If it comes to pass, our nation would never recover.
In a sense, what is now increasingly being challenged in the American courts is the legal equivalent of cultural DNA. The legal road map to the institution of marriage and the family — enshrined in our nation's marriage laws — has provided social, cultural and moral guidance to Western society for millennia. Without this legal road map, future generations would be deprived of the very thing that they'll need most if they are ever to find their way out of the wilderness of social pathologies caused by the breakdown of the family.
In light of the ominous parallels to the treatment of abortion by the courts in our country, the general silence on the part of many of our religious and cultural leaders regarding the gathering storm over marriage is troublesome. Indeed, in this respect, history seems to be repeating itself in more ways than one. In the same manner that those opposed to abortion failed to anticipate Roe v. Wade and its tragic legal progeny, many religious and cultural leaders remain largely unaware of the battle for the family now going on in the courts.
Against this backdrop, the recent statement of the Pontifical Council for the Family — Family, Marriage and De Facto Unions — enters as a beacon of truth and hope for our society. To all Americans concerned about the future of the family in our nation, this document provides an insightful treatment of the disastrous effects of the destruction of the legal status of marriage on modern society. In addition, the document offers a blueprint for how Catholics — indeed, how all Americans of good will — can respond to the pitched social revolution underway in the American courts.
The proponents of homosexual “marriage,” for example, argue that our nation's marriage laws deprive homosexual “couples” of their equal rights. In contrast, the council's statement on de facto unions points out that marriage is not a right but a privilege — one granted to those unions that are judged to provide the best environment for the creation and nurture of new life. In fact, the document points out that full respect for the “dignity of human persons” requires the origin of children be from the union of a mother and a father who are joined in marriage.
The union of a man and a woman is the most multicultural social institution in the world.
Turning the equality argument on its head, the document convincingly argues that it fundamentally violates the principle of legal equality to treat things which are different as if they were the same. In this case, it is objectively wrong to ignore the unique procreative and nurturing advantages of the union of a man and a woman in marriage — the foundation of the family.
Those who would abolish marriage as the union of male and female under American law argue that our current marriage laws are the illegitimate legal embodiment of traditional religious bias against homosexuals. In contrast, the Pontifical Council for the Family points out that marriage as the union of a man and a woman is literally the most multicultural social institution in the world. Far from being the product of the value system of a specific religious tradition such as Christianity, the understanding that the union of male and female is the essence of marriage has been part of the “common currency” of humanity for millennia.
In other words, in light of the totality of human experience, it is those who attack marriage who are guilty of narrow-minded thinking and parochial bigotry.
Finally, Marriage, Family and De Facto Unions makes a powerful argument for the dangers inherent in any attempt to use the state as a vehicle for radically redefining the institution of the family. Building upon the foundation of the Catholic principle of subsidiarity, the document asserts that it is beyond the scope of the authority of the agents of the state, including the courts, to radically redefine an institution that precedes the state. Indeed, the document asserts that an acceptance of such nearly limitless power on the part of any branch of the government paves a road for an eventual exercise of “totalitarian authority” over the citizenry.
America is a great nation. We do not have to accept all of the human and social damage that will result from the wholesale abandonment of the institution of marriage as the union of male and female.
Americans of good will must join forces now to save the legal status of marriage and the family while there is still time. Fortunately, the Pontifical Council for the Family has given us all an excellent blueprint for positive and productive action. Let's read it, re-read it and get to work saving the family for future generations — and our own.
Matt Daniels is executive director of the Alliance for Marriage (www.allianceformarriage.org.)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Matt Daniels ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary ----------- TITLE: Heinous Harvest DATE: 04/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 22-28, 2001 ----- BODY:I was stunned recently when Tommy Thompson, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services — a Catholic and supposedly a “pro-life” member of President Bush's Cabinet — testified that he is “troubled” by a law that, as he put it, “prohibits the use of federal dollars for stem-cell research that comes from a destroyed embryo.”
Thompson indicated that applications for such research will continue to be welcomed by the National Institutes of Health, and that he will await the report of “scientists” on the effectiveness and ethics of such research.
How is it that the man who chaired Bush's platform committee during the presidential campaign — helping to forge a platform that was unambiguously pro-life — suddenly sounds like a member of the Clinton Cabinet? It's a great mystery. Perhaps Thompson just needs to be reminded that a human embryo is a human person. To be sure, it is tiny and helpless. It cannot survive without a “supportive environment.” It is not “viable” on its own. But cannot these things be said, albeit in a slightly different way, of other human beings? I'm thinking of the sick, the elderly and the disabled.
During my years in the U.S. Senate, while serving on the staff of the Senate Finance Committee, I sometimes thought that some of the members of that august body were not “viable.”
But I never once thought they were not human beings.
From the moment of conception, each of us is created in the image and likeness of our creator and Father — God. We have been given a unique soul never to be replicated by any other human being who ever has been or ever will be. For us to take it upon ourselves to determine when a human being is “expendable” to be killed for experiments to improve the health of another human being is to tempt both disaster and God's judgment.
Dark Masters
History is replete with examples of regimes that sanctioned the killing of innocents for strictly utilitarian, racial, religious or simply convenience reasons. Germany fell into the culture of death when its medical and scientific community overwhelmingly opted to kill innocents whose lives they determined were “not worth living” — the insane, those with Down syndrome, homosexuals, the elderly. In our own nation, abortion has become a convenience-killing option for a woman who is deemed by the highest court of the land to have the right of privacy in making such a “choice.”
When a government sanctions the killing of innocent human beings, that government has ceased to have any moral authority and even legitimacy in the eyes of God.
The killing of innocents is immoral. That should be the end of the debate. However, the arguments for research that involves the killing of human embryos are framed in terms of potential cures for dreaded diseases and on the position that these embryos are “extra” — generally in a frozen state from in vitro fertilization procedures.
From a strictly medical-scientific standpoint, such research has shown that therapies developed from stem cells are a disaster.
Adult stem cells have advantages over the immoral alternative even from a scientific point of view.
As reported in the March 25-31 Register, in an extensive study of aborted fetal-tissue transplants into the brains of patients with Parkinson's disease, a substantial percentage of the patients were devastated by debilitating side effects. Some patients suffered violent seizures and uncontrollable spasms; others could no longer eat and had to be fed from feeding tubes. None seemed to have gained significant benefits from the implants, and most were much worse off. The debilitating effects were permanent, as there is no way the implanted cells can be removed.
The research physicians who conducted the experiment called it a “controlled study.” So much for entrusting scientists with the issue of deciding the ethics of killing embryos for implants in their patients.
Scientists from Italy, the United States and Israel are undeterred by such “anecdotes” of clinical studies gone awry. The team led by Italian obstetrician Severino Antinori and Lexington, Ky.-based fertility specialist Panos Zavos plans to use 600 infertile couples to participate in an experiment to clone a human embryo. Zavos and Antinori both say their long experience in the field of in vitro fertilization and other forms of assisted pregnancies will allow them to create clones “without deformities.” The Catholic Church has objected strongly to the cloning of human embryos, but these and many other scientists pay no attention.
Neither do Western governments. The British government last year supported the cloning of human embryos up to 14 days old for purposes of retrieving potential therapeutic cells. We are not far behind. Last year, in Stenberg v. Carhart, the U.S. Supreme Court made infanticide legal by striking a Nebraska statute that banned abortions of babies at birth. Other state bans on partial-birth abortions are now being struck down because of that ruling.
Adult Cells Fill the Bill
The opponents of killing human embryos for research have consistently pointed out that the use of adult stem cells poses no moral problems because no one is killed, and that adult stem cells have advantages over the immoral alternative even from a scientific point of view. U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, the Kansas Republican who is without doubt the greatest fighter for the rights of human embryos, has constantly cited the progress made using adult stem cells. He has stated his unwavering support for increasing the funds for NIH to do research using adult stem cells.
Brownback is absolutely right. Numerous recent studies have revealed the potential of adult stem cells to cure the very diseases for which scientists want to use the cells from human embryos; the rejection problems experienced with fetal cells have not appeared. Why? It has been found that adult neural murine stem cells can transform themselves into blood cells, adult muscle cells can convert into large quantities of blood cells and adult bone-marrow cells can become liver cells.
Given the almost daily revelations about the benefits of using adult stem cells, one would think that the scientists would want to promote that kind of research over the alternative. Yet 80 “Nobel Laureates” wrote an open letter to President Bush seeking to remove restrictions on the use of embryos for research. Obviously these scientists did not get their prizes for their ethics.
There is a gradual awakening among people of faith that the culture of death is not a rhetorical phrase to awaken people up from the lethargy. For decades Pope John Paul II has been warning the Western world of its suicide pact with the devil, the “lobbyist” who promotes the culture of death. Death is the devil's endgame. The culture of death affects our young, our middle age and our elderly. It kills.
There is a principle deeply embedded in Judeo-Christian tradition that one can never use an intrinsically evil means to achieve a good end. The scientist and the physician are not exempt from this principle.
If adult stem cells can do everything fetal stem cells do, and better — and you don't have to kill to get them — what are our scientists and physicians waiting for?
Robert A. Best is president of the Culture of Life Foundation (www.christianity.com/cultureoflife).
----- EXCERPT: Why aren't adult stem cells sought instead of fetal ones? ----- EXTENDED BODY: Robert A. Best ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary ----------- TITLE: What to do When Christendom Is Called a Cult DATE: 04/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 22-28, 2001 ----- BODY:Since its earliest days, Christianity has faced charges of being a cult.
One of the first non-Christian witnesses we have, the ancient Roman historian Tacitus, called the new religion (solely by hearsay) a “deadly superstition” and accused its followers of “hatred of mankind.”
Tacitus was a virtuous man who deplored the corruption creeping into a people who had grown great because of their firm morals and simple lives. He seems to have heard that the Eucharist was a cannibalistic orgy. If it had been, he would have been right to denounce it.
But good pagans generally did not condemn religious beliefs without giving them a fair hearing. Pliny the Younger, a highly cultured nobleman who became the governor of Bithynia in the Near East, discovered Christians under his jurisdiction. Like any politician, he did not want to make trouble for himself. So, after examining some of them and finding that they merely met to sing hymns and “take food of an ordinary harmless kind,” he wrote to the emperor Trajan to ask how to treat them. Trajan, another good pagan, ordered him not to seek out Christians and, by all means, not to act on anonymous tips.
It would be a great step forward if modern opponents of the Church took a lesson from their tolerant ancient counterparts.
Except for cultural backwaters like Bob Jones University and the wilder rants of people like Northern Ireland's Ian Paisley, we do not often see the word cult applied to the Church these days. But even without actual use of the term, the attitude is there in spades.
A few years ago, Francis Ford Coppola's daughter produced a film, The Virgin Suicides, which portrayed young American Catholic women as so distraught over the Church's prohibition of fornication that they tried to kill themselves. The film was a box-office dud, but in its naive moralism confirmed once again how Hollywood and a good part of the dominant culture thinks of the Catholic faith — and all traditional forms of Christianity — as a “deadly superstition.”
Tacitus would not have agreed that promoting virginity outside marriage was a vice. Indeed, Rome's vestal virgins were among the most honored religious figures, and any vestal who grossly neglected her duties or broke her vows of virginity was subjected to one of the worst deaths imaginable: being buried alive.
We have plenty of social science research showing that religious kids who follow biblical sexual morality live happier and healthier lives. It would take an energetic and ingenious anthropologist to find a tribe anywhere — Manhattan, Southern California and college campuses aside — holding the curious belief that promiscuous sex is a social blessing.
Yet two views of the world are heading toward a collision in this country. If it occurs, it will produce a train wreck that will rival the American Civil War.
On the one hand, we have the traditional Christian virtues still professed, if (as usual) imperfectly followed, by large segments of the population. On the other, we have a barely submerged hatred of those virtues and the religious groups that seek to maintain them. When Ted Turner saw some of his CNN employees with ashes on their foreheads at the beginning of Lent and let fly that they must be “Jesus freaks,” it was not a momentary lapse. It was the surfacing of a hate that dare not speak its name and is shared by many other prominent people who know that there is no social penalty for such outbursts.
So if those who think the Catholic faith a superstitious cult will not yet come out into the open with their prejudices, let us help them — and ourselves — by being clear about where the battle lines are now being drawn. The cult critique hinges on four main points:
First, like the protagonists in The Virgin Suicides, large swaths of the nation have been mesmerized by claims that Christianity harms women, despite the fact that the majority and most fervent of church attendees are female. For the critics, this simply means that women have “internalized their own oppression.” Even worse, just to speak of the Trinity as Father, Son and Holy Ghost “disempowers” half the human race. The battle, then, is not over social equality; Christians ultimately need to change their very notions of God by abandoning the patriarchal cult.
Second is the charge that the Church's opposition to abortion is not, as it claims, a concern for unborn lives, but another means of control. Those who take this view won't allow photographs of developing fetuses into congressional hearings, let alone doctor's offices where abortion decisions may be made. Yet they think it is Catholics who want waiting periods, parental notification or greater information as taking a paternalistic attitude toward women or interfering in doctor-patient privacy. Trying to impose your views on women or disrupting a scientific/professional relationship are sure signs of membership in a fanatical cult.
Third, the day is almost already here when just to state the old Mosaic view that homosexuality is wrong — not necessarily even illegal or something that the state should discourage — will be classified as hate speech. Acting in any way on that belief may involve a civil rights violation or even a hate crime. People who speak that way in public are like the Ku Klux Klan, a pernicious cult.
Finally, as with Seventh-Day Adventists who refuse medical treatment and other religious groups regarded as eccentric, the state ought to require conformity to non-cultic norms. Cardinal Egan of New York made a brave stand when he petitioned the New York State legislature this spring to allow a conscience clause in a bill that would mandate contraception coverage in insurance plans for all employees in the Empire State, including those who work for Catholic institutions. It was a modest request. The cardinal rightly called anything else “un-American.”
But N.Y. assemblywoman Deborah Glick countered, “Sex discrimination is un-American and illegal.” She had a point, in a way. If our politicians decide that the Church's failure to underwrite services that contradict its own moral teaching is a cultic absurdity, the Catholic faith in any vigorous form may itself become illegal.
There may still be enough common decency in the American people that such things will not come to pass. But unless we all oppose this creeping delegitimization — loudly and often — we will have no one to blame but ourselves when we are treated as a cult.
Robert Royal is president of the Faith & Reason Institute in Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Robert Royal ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary ----------- TITLE: Pope's Message for First Easter of the Millennium DATE: 04/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 22-28, 2001 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — Here is a translation of John Paul II's message for Easter, given April 15 at the end of the Mass celebrated in St. Peter's Square and before his blessing “urbi et orbi” (to the city of Rome and the world).
“In the risen Christ all creation rises to new life.”
May the Easter proclamation reach all the peoples of the earth and may all people of good will feel themselves called to an active role in this day which the Lord has made, the day of his resurrection, when the Church, filled with joy, proclaims that the Lord is truly risen. This cry which burst forth from the hearts of the disciples on the first day after the Sabbath has spanned the centuries and now, at this precise moment of history, renews once more humanity's hopes with the unaltered certainty of the resurrection of Christ, the redeemer of mankind.
“In the risen Christ all creation rises to new life.”
The amazed surprise of the Apostles and the women who rushed to the tomb at sunrise today becomes the shared experience of the whole people of God. As the new millennium begins its course, we wish to hand on to the younger generation the certitude that is basic to our lives: Christ is risen and in him all creation rises to new life.
“Glory to you, O Christ Jesus, today and always you will reign.”
We are reminded of this faith-filled hymn, which we sang so many times during the course of the jubilee praising him who is “the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (Revelation 22:13). To him the pilgrim church remains faithful “amid the world's persecutions and God's consolations” (St. Augustine). She looks to him and has no fear. She walks with her gaze fixed on his face, and repeats to the men and women of our day that he, the Risen One, is “the same yesterday and today and for ever” (Hebrews 13:8).
On that tragic Friday of the passion, which saw the Son of Man become “obedient unto death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8), the earthly phase of the Redeemer's life came to a close. Now dead, he was hurriedly placed in the tomb, at the setting of the sun. A singular sunset! The ominous darkness of that hour signaled the end of the “first act” of creation, convulsed by sin. It seemed like the victory of death, the triumph of evil. Instead, while the tomb lay in cold silence, the plan of salvation was approaching its fulfillment, and the “new creation” was about to begin. Made obedient by love even to the extreme sacrifice, Jesus Christ is now “exalted” by God, who “has bestowed on him the name which is above every name” (Philippians 2:9). In this name every human life recovers hope. In this name, human beings are freed from the power of sin and death and restored to life and to love.
On this day heaven and earth sing out the ineffable and sublime “Name” of the Crucified One who has risen. Everything appears as before, but in fact nothing is the same as before. He, the life that does not die, has redeemed every human life and reopened it to hope.
“The old has passed away, behold, the new has come” (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:17). Every project and plan of this noble and frail creature that is man has a new “name” today in Christ risen from the dead, for “in him all creation rises to new life.” The words of Genesis are fully fulfilled in this new creation: “Then God said: ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness’” (Genesis 1:26). At Easter, Christ, the new Adam, having become “a life-giving spirit” (1 Corinthians 15:45), ransoms the old Adam from the defeat of death.
Men and women of the third millennium, the Easter gift of light that scatters the darkness of fear and sadness is meant for everyone; all are offered the gift of the peace of the risen Christ, who breaks the chains of violence and hatred. Rediscover today with joy and wonder that the world is no longer a slave to the inevitable. This world of ours can change: Peace is possible even where for too long there has been fighting and death, as in the Holy Land and Jerusalem; it is possible in the Balkans, no longer condemned to a worrying uncertainty that risks causing the failure of all proposals for agreement.
And you, Africa, a continent tormented by conflicts constantly threatening, raise your head confidently, trusting in the power of the risen Christ. With his help, you too, Asia, the cradle of age-old spiritual traditions, can win the challenge of tolerance and solidarity; and you, Latin America, filled with youthful promise, only in Christ will you find the capacity and courage needed for a development respectful of every human being.
Men and women of every continent, draw from his tomb, empty now forever, the strength needed to defeat the powers of evil and death, and to place all research and all technical and social progress at the service of a better future for all.
“In the Risen Christ all creation rises to new life.”
From the moment when your tomb, O Christ, was found empty and Cephas, the disciples, the women, and “more than 500 brethren” (1 Corinthians 15:6) saw you risen, there began the time in which the whole of creation sings your Name “which is above every other name” and awaits your final return in glory. During this time, between Easter and the coming of your everlasting Kingdom, a time like the travail of giving birth (see Romans 8:22), sustain us in our dedication to building a more human world, a world soothed by the balm of your love. Paschal Victim offered for the salvation of the world, grant that this commitment of ours will not falter, even when weariness slows our steps. You, victorious King, grant to us and to the world eternal salvation!
(Official Vatican Translation)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: 'We Live in Him': Papal Homily at Easter Vigil Mass DATE: 04/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 22-28, 2001 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — John Paul II celebrated the first Easter Vigil of the millennium, baptizing six catechumens, five adults and a girl, from different parts of the world.
John Paul II expressed words of affection and hope to the newly baptized: “Do not be afraid when difficulties arise for, being raised from the dead, Christ will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.”
The late night Saturday vigil service was moved inside St. Peter's Basilica at the last moment because of rain.
Here is John Paul II's homily delivered at the Easter Vigil.
“Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen” (Luke 24:5).
These words of the two men dressed “in dazzling apparel” rekindle the hope of the women who had rushed to the tomb at the break of dawn. They had experienced the tragic events culminating in Christ's crucifixion on Calvary; they had felt the sadness and the confusion. In the hour of trial, however, they had not abandoned their Lord.
They go secretly to the place where Jesus was buried in order to see him again and embrace him one last time. They are moved by love, that same love that led them to follow him through the byways of Galilee and Judea, all the way to Calvary.
What blessed women! They did not yet know that this was the dawn of the most important day of history. They could not have known that they, they themselves, would be the first witnesses of Jesus' resurrection.
“They found the stone rolled away from the tomb” (Luke 24:2).
So narrates the Evangelist Luke, adding that, “when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus” (cf. 24:3). In one brief moment, everything changes. Jesus “is not here, but has risen”. This announcement, which changed the sadness of these pious women into joy, re-echoes with changeless eloquence throughout the Church in the celebration of this Easter Vigil.
A singular Vigil of a singular night. A Vigil, the mother of all vigils, during which the whole Church waits at the tomb of the Messiah, sacrificed on the Cross. The Church waits and prays, listening again to the Scriptures that retrace the whole of salvation history.
But on this night, it is not darkness that dominates but the blinding brightness of a sudden light that breaks through with the starling news of the Lord's resurrection. Our waiting and our prayer then become a song of joy: “Exsultet iam angelica turba caelorum … Exult, O chorus of Angels!”
The perspective of history is completely turned around: death gives way to life, a life that dies no more. In the Preface we shall shortly sing that Christ “by dying destroyed our death, by rising restored our life”. This is the truth that we proclaim with our words, but above all with our lives. He whom the women thought was dead is alive. Their experience becomes our experience.
O Vigil imbued with hope, you fully express the meaning of the mystery! O Vigil rich in symbolism, you disclose the very heart of our Christian existence! On this night, everything is marvellously summed up in one name, the name of the Risen Christ.
O Christ, how can we fail to thank you for the ineffable gift which, on this night, you lavish upon us? The mystery of your death and resurrection descends into the baptismal waters that receive the old, carnal man and make him pure with divine youthfulness itself.
Into the mystery of your death and resurrection we shall shortly be immersed, renewing our baptismal promises; in a special way, the six catechumens will be immersed in this mystery as they receive baptism, confirmation and the Eucharist.
Dear brother and sister Catechumens, I greet you with all the warmth of my heart, and in the name of the Church gathered here I welcome you with brotherly affection. You come from different nations: Japan, Italy, China, Albania, the United States of America and Peru.
Your presence here is indicative of the variety of cultures and peoples who have opened their hearts to the Gospel. On this night death gives way to life for you too, as for all the baptized. Sin is erased and a new life begins. Persevere to the end in fidelity and love. And do not be afraid when difficulties arise, for “Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him” (Romans 6:9).
Yes, dear brothers and sisters, Jesus lives and we live in him. For ever. This is the gift of this night, which has definitively revealed to the world the power of Christ, Son of the Virgin Mary, whom he gave to us as Mother at the foot of the Cross.
This Vigil makes us part of a day that knows no end. The day of Christ's Passover, which for humanity is the beginning of a renewed springtime of hope.
“Haec dies quam fecit Dominus: exsultemus et laetemur in ea — This is the day that the Lord has made: let us rejoice in it and be glad”. Alleluia!
(Official Vatican translation)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: Mountain of Mercy DATE: 04/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 22-28, 2001 ----- BODY:Stand atop Eden Hill in the southwestern Massachusetts town of Stockbridge, and the spectacular Berkshire Hills present themselves on every side like live postcards from heaven.
But I recently re-discovered that an even more direct dispatch from the divine is right there on Eden Hill itself. It's the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy — where, for more than a half-century, the priests and religious of the Congregation of Marians of the Immaculate Conception have been proclaiming the insights on God's mercy which Jesus revealed to a Polish nun in the 1930s.
The revelations — known collectively as the “Divine Mercy” — got the definitive seal of approval last year on the first Sunday after Easter when Pope John Paul II canonized Sister of Our Lady of Mercy Faustina Kowalska, and proclaimed: “From now on the second Sunday of Easter will be called Divine Mercy Sunday.”
Before Pope John Paul II made it official for the universal calendar, the shrine was already promoting the feast. Last year, to celebrate the canonization, around 17,000 people came to these 360 tranquil, rolling acres.
The Marians originally bought it for a novitiate in 1943. When they learned of the message of Divine Mercy shortly after, they devoted themselves to printing Sister Faustina's journal and distributing it worldwide. Next, they set out to build, on a tiny budget, the Divine Mercy Chapel.
The plan for the chapel called for a simple stucco structure. But instead it turned out to incorporate all the classic beauty of a miniature cathedral. And its construction was something of a miracle too, I learned.
The design and detail evolved in the mind of Antonio Guerrieri, a local master furniture-maker and woodcarver who wanted to do something grand for God. Once the chapel was started in 1950, the 74-year-old Guerrieri simply handed out inspirations he rapidly sketched on the spot for the local artisans and volunteer workers.
Most materials originated from the neighboring area. The marble and multi-hued light gray granite blocks, for example, were quarried in the town of Lee. Without modern machinery, it took a full decade to build the chapel in the tradition of the magnificent Middle Ages churches. Everything was done by hand, including all the splendid woodwork. The intricate ceiling alone took nearly three years to finish.
Everywhere, the art and artistry of the chapel lifts heart and mind to the Divine Mercy. At the center of a beautifully carved reredos, The Divine Mercy image — Jesus as he appeared to St. Faustina, his right hand raised in a blessing, red and white rays of light emanating from his heart — is enshrined within bursting rays of gold to emphasize his glory. In arched niches to either side, polychromed statues of the Apostles, carved in Italy, look on as though poised to support St. Faustina's account.
‘Jesus, I Trust in You’
Centered above the reredos is a statue of the Immaculate Conception. From a mural on the arched wall and ceiling above, the Holy Trinity crowns Mary in a resplendent union of sculpture and painting.
The framed image of the Divine Mercy is the one Father Joseph Jarzebowski of the Marians of the Immaculate Conception commissioned in Mexico from a holy card he brought from occupied Poland. In a story that reads like a religious thriller, the priest fled from Nazi pursuers, traveled a circuitous route through Siberia and Japan with an invalid visa that authorities didn't challenge, and arrived in the United States in 1940. True to a promise he made if he got safely to America, he began to spread the message of mercy as recorded by St. Faustina, whom Jesus called the “Apostle and Secretary of Divine Mercy.”
Jesus directed her: “Paint an image according to the pattern you see here, bearing the signature, ‘Jesus, I Trust in You’ (Jezu, Ufam Tobie, in Polish).”
The shrine immerses us in this simple message of mercy. In the nave, we're surrounded by 14 main stained-glass windows depicting various Gospel events and themes. Stockbridge-based artist Fred Leuchs crafted them with old-world artistry.
Of course, everyone also wants to see the bas relief of St. Faustina and Divine Mercy and the major first-class relic of her in a reliquary near the sanctuary. She was the first saint to be canonized in 2000. When the Holy Father visited her convent in Poland in 1997, he reflected, “There is nothing that man needs more than Divine Mercy. … I give thanks to Divine Providence that I have been able to contribute personally to the fulfillment of Christ's will through the institution of the Feast of Divine Mercy.”
Here one can also venerate a smaller first-class relic that gives us another tap on the shoulder to seek and trust in God's mercy.Through St. Faustina, Jesus promised an ocean of graces to those going to confession, receiving Holy Communion and venerating the image of The Divine Mercy on Divine Mercy Sunday. If we fulfill these simple conditions, he promised to forgive all our sins — and remit the punishment due for them. The deal is too good to pass up, I thought.
And the shrine reminds us in various places how easy it is to recall the essentials of the message. It's as easy as “ABC” — Ask for mercy, Be merciful to others, Completely trust in Jesus.
Honoring Our Lady
There's another reminder of mercy in the beautiful St. Joseph side chapel with its stained-glass window of Our Lady of Ostra Brama (the Dawn Gate), also called Mother of Mercy.
Mary plays a major role all around the shrine, always pointing us to God's mercy. On the hillside below the chapel, where healing views of God's natural scenic beauty radiate everywhere, the newer Immaculate Conception Candle Shrine glows with the soft light of 1,600 votive candles.
Nestled on the other side of a grassy knoll at the Marian Helpers Center, I found more candles and windows at Our Lady of Mercy Candle Shrine and Oratory depicting the corporal works of mercy we're all urged to perform. The peaceful spot reminds us of our Christian obligation to be merciful to others by our actions, words and prayers on their behalf. In this chapel the Marians intend to launch perpetual Eucharistic adoration this Divine Mercy Sunday, April 22, as an important, growing part of the mercy devotion.
Another vital part of the shrine is the Divine Mercy Intercessory Prayer Ministry. “It's the flesh and bones of Divine Mercy,” Sister Peggy O'Neil told me. She's in charge of the 170 or so volunteer intercessors (plus 45 shut-in support intercessors) who take an average 10,000 phone, mail and e-mail requests for prayers every month.
They pray with callers, Sister O'Neil explained. Every request received is put before the Blessed Sacrament in the oratory and placed beneath a first-class relic of St. Faustina. Intercessors also put mercy into action by praying one at a time for each of close to 10,000 votive-candle requests per month that are lit in the 2,500-candle shrine here.
Just below the shrine, in the shadow of Eden Hill, tourists study Stockbridge's main street — which still looks much as it did when Norman Rockwell, then a resident of the town, painted it for a Christmas-issue cover of the Saturday Evening Post. Rockwell called the town “the best in America, the best in New England.” I hope many of these tourists look up and realize that, a mere half-mile up the hill, they can find a shrine with the best, most divine promise in the world.
Joseph Pronechen writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: National Shrine of the Divine Mercy, Stockbridge, Mass. ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 04/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 22-28, 2001 ----- BODY:All times Eastern
SUNDAY, APRIL 22
Feast of Divine Mercy: Solemn Mass and Celebration from Stockbridge, Mass.
EWTN, 1:30 p.m live
“I want to grant a complete pardon to the souls that will go to confession and receive Holy Communion on the feast of my mercy,” Jesus told St. Maria Faustina. “On that day, all the divine floodgates through which graces flow are opened.” Join the Marians of the Immaculate Conception as they observe this awe-inspiring new feast. To be rebroadcast at 6:30 p.m. (For more on the shrine, see this issue's Catholic Traveler section. For more on the feast, see page 18.)
SUNDAY, APRIL 22
Divine Mercy Sunday in Hanceville, Ala.
EWTN, 4 p.m. live
“Let no soul fear to draw near to me, even though its sins are as scarlet,” Jesus said to Sister Faustina. “Whoever approaches the Fountain of Life on this day will be granted complete forgiveness of sins and punishment.” Mother Angelica's new Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament is a most fitting setting for celebrating this feast day. To be rebroadcast at 9 p.m.
MONDAY, APRIL 23
Stephen Foster
PBS; check local listings for time
Stephen Collins Foster's 286 songs transformed American entertainment and won him a permanent place in American life and lore. He sought to elevate popular culture through songs that respected black Americans and sympathized with them. The composer of “Oh! Susanna,” “Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair” and “Beautiful Dreamer” died at age 37 in 1864, a victim of fever and a fall; scholars differ about the extent of his drinking. A one-hour “American Experience” special.
MONDAY, APRIL 23
Coming to Light: Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indians
PBS; check local listings for time
Between 1900 and 1930, Curtis (1868-1952) took 40,000 photos of the Indians of the North American West, and of Eskimos, and published his unique pictorial record of their ancient way of life in a multi-volume series. A 90-minute “American Masters” special.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25
The Famous Wally Amos: The Cookie King
A&E, 8 p.m.
This 60-minute, world-premiere special chronicles the life of the chocolate-chip cookie entrepreneur, including the ups, downs and comebacks in his personal and business life.
FRIDAY, APRIL 27
Religion & Ethics Newsweekly
PBS; check local listings for day and time
This episode, “A Test of Faith: Home-Schooling College,” describes Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Va. Now in its first school year (2000-2001), with 90 students from home schooling families, this fledgling traditional liberal-arts college refuses federal funding and strives to live up to its motto, “For Christ and for Liberty.”
FRIDAY, APRIL 27
Biography: Graham Kerr
A & E, 8 p.m.
This hour-long world premiere special relates the life of chef Graham Kerr, focusing on two conversions: his turn to healthful cooking instead of the ultra-rich recipes of his “Galloping Gourmet” days, and his embrace, along with his wife's, of Christianity.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Daniel J. Engler ----- KEYWORDS: Arts ----------- TITLE: He Is Risen Indeed - But How? DATE: 04/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 22-28, 2001 ----- BODY:It's still Easter — Easter Sunday 2 — and it is right and good that all Christians should contemplate Christ's resurrection.
That's one small challenge for the faithful, one daunting assignment for artists.
If you read the Gospels carefully, the moment of resurrection is never described. Its effects are. Encounters with the risen Christ are. But the resurrection in and of itself isn't.
The resurrected Christ is the same, yet different. He's not immediately recognized. Mary Magdalene thinks he's a gardener. The disciples en route to Emmaus fail to recognize him. The disciples fishing on the Lake of Tiberius can't quite make him out. But after encountering Jesus, after hearing his words, they know who he is. With the risen Christ, there is continuity but there are differences, too. And, this side of the Parousia, Resurrection is just not a common human experience. For that reason, the artist who tries to deal with the Resurrection must be audacious.
The bold there have been, striving to present Jesus stepping gingerly or gloriously bursting forth from the tomb, attending angels moving away the stone, Roman soldiers huddled about. The Romans often appear either terrified or comatose — a reflection of artists' attempts to incorporate Matthew 28:4: “The guards were shaken with fear of him and became like dead men.”
Titian's The Resurrection, dating to about 1582, shows a virile Christ ascending over his open tomb, the flag of victory (a red cross on a white field) clasped in his left hand, his right raised in blessing. The traditional halo is replaced by three points of light that form a cross around his head. The Trinitarian dimension is subliminal: The eyes of the two soldiers, staring upwards from the right and left bottom, intersect in Christ to form the top of the triangle. Christ's emblem of victory stands in sharp contrast to the Roman shields, emblazoned with insignia, which do little more than support the unconscious soldiers.
Titian's painting also wrestles with the question of how time and eternity interface as Jesus, floating over his tomb, reminds us of the Ascension.
Later, when the Lord meets Mary Magdalene, Jesus assures her that he is “going to my Father and your Father, to my God and to your God” (John 20:17). The Ascension, 40 days after Easter, is the definitive close to Jesus' post-Easter appearances to his disciples. That does not mean, however, that his going to his Father had to wait a chronological six weeks.
In God's eternity, there is but present. Jesus' rising, his going to his father, his sending the Holy Spirit, his judgment on the world — Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, parousia — are all one act. Just because we, limited by time, experience them successively does not mean that is how God works out salvation history.
Salvator Rosa, a 17th-century Neapolitan, places Jesus alone in his The Resurrected Christ. No angels. No Romans. No women carrying funereal balms. The powerful, ruddy Christ is at the center of the canvas, just as the risen Christ is at the center of our faith. What is beneath him? It looks like the slab of the tomb. But wait! Is it rather a cloud? The garment blowing off Jesus' right shoulder is also like a cloud which blends into the clouds behind Jesus' left. Here, the artist makes the connection between the risen Christ and a number of Old Testament prophecies. He is the holy one who is “pierced for our offenses” in Isaiah 53:5 and the “one like a son of man coming on the clouds of heaven” in Daniel 7:13.
Rosa's clouds are not just there to create a dramatic atmosphere, though they certainly do that. No, the clouds point to the Divine Presence, to the shekinah, to coming judgment. And, again alluding to Old Testament prophets, eternity breaks into time, for in Jesus' resurrection the restoration of all things in Christ is irrevocably begun.
These theological points are often made even more explicit in Eastern Christian art. Many depictions of the anastasis (resurrection) situate Adam and Eve nearby, pointing to Christ's triumphal descent into hell. The freeing of Adam and Eve and all their children is, after all, the meaning of the passion and resurrection.
If Jesus' physical resurrection from the dead challenges artists, many have also struggled to depict other scenes from the first Easter. Luke's account of the disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35) is a frequent favorite. Veromese's late 16th-century Supper at Emmaus is placed in a classical Greco-Roman setting, with all sorts of people huddled around the table. In contrast, Rembrandt's Supper at Emmaus, from the early 17th century, is simple, sober, restrained. Three persons sit at a table. A light emanates from Christ, “the Light of the World” of John's Gospel, into the reddish-brown hues of dusk that surround them.
Tactile encounter with the risen Christ offers yet another theme for artists to explore. Mary Magdalene reaches for Jesus, who tells her: “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father” (John 20:17). From classical times to modern, this encounter has fascinated artists. But if Mary is enjoined from touching Jesus, St. Thomas is positively commanded to probe Christ's wounds to buttress his faith (John 21:24-29). From the mosaics of Ravenna to the contemporary work of Emil Nolde, “Doubting Thomas” likewise graces numerous canvases.
Resurrection — the central mystery of Christianity — will always defy the artist's ability to capture a moment in time. Yet the prospect of visually exploring the reality of the resurrection remains tantalizing to those blessed with the imaginative and creative gifts of the artist. No matter how diligently they try, Christian artists can only approximate the “glory of a new world, aching to be born” that began one Sunday morning two millenniums ago.
John M. Grondelski, a moral theologian, and his wife, Dorota Kostrubiec Grondelski, an art historian, write from London.
----- EXCERPT: The Easter events have absorbed artists through the ages ----- EXTENDED BODY: John & Dorota Grondelski ----- KEYWORDS: Arts ----------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 04/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 22-28, 2001 ----- BODY:The Day Lincoln Was Shot(1998)
This cable-TV movie based on Jim Bishop's best-selling book accurately re-creates this dramatic event, placing it in historical context (making clear, for instance, that he wasn't lionized until after his death). Writer-director John Gray shows us the humanity and idealism of both Lincoln (Lance Hendriksen) and his fanatic assassin, John Wilkes Booth (Rob Morrow), who was a celebrated actor. The story also focuses on the president's passionate but conflicted relationship with his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln (Donna Murphy).
Metropolis (1926)
It's the year 2000. Society is divided into two classes — the workers beneath the city and the rulers who reign in hedonistic luxury above. Director Fritz Lang's futuristic vision of a machine-dominated, authoritarian culture, a silent-film classic, has been imitated many times. Tall, geometric skyscrapers tower over tiny human beings who scurry about in ant-sized airplanes and cars. Muscular workers in matching drab uniforms and caps toil away with military precision.
One of the Vatican's top 45 films, brilliantly communicates the horrors of a society where the production of material goods is more important than the human spirit.
Keys to the Kingdom(1944)
This character study of 60 years in the life of a missionary, Francis Chisholm (a young Roddy McDowall and an adult Gregory Peck) brings us from Scotland to China, where often Chisholm finds himself at cross-purposes with the haughty Mother Superior (Rose Stradner) of the nuns on his staff, and a seminary pal (Vincent Price), who's on the fast track to become bishop. Chisholm must also protect his flock from the terrors of a civil war. But his humility and natural charity always shine through.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts ----------- TITLE: 'The Greg' Hits the Big 4-5-0 DATE: 04/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 22-28, 2001 ----- BODY:ROME — The actual 450th anniversary of the world's premier Jesuit University, the Pontifical Gregorian University, fell nearly two months before the celebration it held here April 4-6.
Alas, other things were on the Church's mind Feb. 22 — the day after Pope John Paul II's record-breaking consistory at which he created 44 cardinals in a single day.
But in a sense, that day was also a celebration of the Greg, as it is often called: U.S. Cardinal Avery Dulles was feted there as one of more than 20 new cardinals who had attended the university as students or professors.
That reception was not long before another event that put the Greg into headlines: The “notification” of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith about the work of Jesuit Father Jacques Dupuis, a Gregorian professor who wrote on religious pluralism.
While the notification spoke about “dangerous ambiguities” in Father Dupuis' work, the attention paid to his work was a testament to the international influence still held by the Gregorian faculty.
From Dulles to Dupuis, the importance of the Gregorian has not diminished with age.
“There is a need to make theological sense of religious plurality, and how arduous a task this is,” said Bishop Michael Fitzgerald, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Interreligous Dialogue. “I wish to put on record here a debt of gratitude to Father Jacques Dupuis, for his pioneering work in this field.”
Bishop Fitzgerald paid tribute in general to the many Gregorian professors who assist the Holy See in its work, even as the university's primary mission remains scholarly research and teaching. The Gregorian has over 3,400 students in nine faculties, a faculty of nearly 400 professors, and is the primary university for the education of seminarians in Rome from the United States, England and Wales, Scotland, France, Germany, and many missionary lands.
“While remaining in full fidelity to the tradition and magisterium of the Church, it is our task to provide a synthesis of faith with respect for different cultures,” said Jesuit Father Franco Imoda, rector of the Gregorian, noting that it draws its students from over 130 countries.
Pope John Paul II granted a private audience to the Gregorian community to mark the anniversary.
“From the beginning,” he said, “St. Ignatius of Loyola conceived your venerable institution as a ‘university of all the nations,’ operating in Rome, at the side of the Vicar of Christ, linked to him by close bonds of fidelity, and at the service of the churches in every part of the world.
“Ignatius entrusted to the then Roman College the duty of promoting reasoned and systematic reflection on the faith to promote the correct preaching of the Gospel and the cause of Catholic unity in a social context marked by serious divisions and worrisome seeds of separation.”
He added, “Full fidelity to the magisterium is a condition which, as your centuries-old experience shows, does not detract from, but rather favors, to an even greater degree the ecclesial service of theological research and teaching,” the Holy Father added.
Since its founding in 1551, the Gregorian's storied history has made it one of the greatest fruits of the Counter-Reformation. But that the Jesuits would have a university at all would have been surprising to those close to St. Ignatius in his early years.
“No studies, nor lessons in the society,” Ignatius wrote in 1530, 10 years before founding the Society of Jesus. At the time, Ignatius felt that apostolic zeal was better focused on the direct pastoral care of souls, rather than academic pursuits.
Yet 20 years later, he came to the view that the Church needed well-trained priests in order to combat the errors of the time. The purpose therefore of the new Roman College, established at first to teach classical languages, was the “help of souls.”
Pope Gregory XIII, elected in 1572, was the Roman College's greatest benefactor, personally overseeing the construction of its new building, in which it remained until 1873.
In that year, it transferred buildings according to the plans for its reinvigoration by Blessed Pius IX, who gave it the new official name of the Pontifical Gregorian University of the Roman College, in honor of Gregory XIII.
The Gregorian followed the rocky history of the Jesuits, and ceased operating in 1773 when the Jesuits were suppressed by Pope Clement XIV. After the reconstitution of the Society in 1814, the Roman College was entrusted once again to the Jesuits in 1824.
Its influence has always been enormous, from its first years when its professors, including the famed astronomer Christopher Clavius, designed the reform of the old calendar (now known as “Gregorian” after Gregory XIII, who promulgated the reform in 1582).
One of its early rectors was Cardinal Robert Bellarmine, canonized and declared a doctor of the Church in 1930. In addition to St. Robert Bellarmine, there are 20 other saints who studied at the Gregorian, including several English martyrs and Maximillian Kolbe. Gregorian alumni also include 45 blesseds, including Aloysius Stepinac and Titus Brandsma.
Over the years, many popes have been former Gregorian students. Indeed, since 1846, all the popes have been Gregorian alumni, save for St. Pius X, Blessed John XXIII and the current Pope, John Paul II.
To celebrate the anniversary, a large display on the history of the Roman College has been staged in the atrium of the Gregorian's current building, which it has been in since 1930. The atrium is dominated by a large statue of Christ, giving the command, “Go and teach all nations,” a biblical reference to St. Ignatius' wish that the Roman College would be a seminarium omnium gentium — a seminary for all the nations.
----- EXCERPT: Alma Mater to Popes, Saints, Etc. ----- EXTENDED BODY: Raymond J. De Souza ----- KEYWORDS: Education ----------- TITLE: Do You Know the (California) Mission Man? DATE: 04/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 22-28, 2001 ----- BODY:Secular biographers have launched a barrage of accusations against the Franciscan missionary who founded California, Blessed Junipero Serra. He treated the natives harshly, say some of his accusers. He was a genocidal conqueror, others maintain. In this handsome and colorful volume, written by the archbishop emeritus of Birmingham, England, the mythmakers meet their match.
Answering to one charge that compared Father Serra with a Nazi death-camp taskmaster, Archbishop de Murville writes:
“To make such a comparison is to ignore two facts: that Father Junipero allowed natives to join the missions only of their own free will; second, that the high mortality rate was not confined to the missions.”
Throughout the book, the archbishop presents the accurate, if politically incorrect, view of Father Serra as a heroic soul — a servant of God who clearly loved the Indians he encountered as he brought the Gospel to the extreme western end of the New World.
The coffee-table book is a pleasure to look at, as the biographical text is augmented by beautiful photographs of missions from San Diego to San Francisco. But it's also a comprehensive and detailed biography, organized in the stages of Father Serra's journeys from Mexico to California — including his larger journey through life. A postscript explains the missions' fate after his death in 1784.
Most memorable are some of Father Serra's written reflections on his experiences, wide-eyed and earthy as you'd expect from a Franciscan missionary. “When we came here, we did not find even a single Christian,” he wrote. “[T]he friars feared that they would be devoured alive by insects if they kept out of the water and would be eaten by alligators if they fell in.”
Father Serra emerges as man who refuses to ride 80 miles on horseback to the next mission. Emulating Francis of Assisi's penitential ways, he prefers to walk the route, his feet and legs swollen and aching from the strain and from insect bites. Archbishop de Murville also testifies to Father Serra's mystical gifts, recounting two events where Father Serra's beloved native friends are dying miles away, and he bilocates to their bedsides to administer the last rites.
The reader is transported as Father Serra constructs nine missions under a weighty cross of loneliness, hunger, lack of the sacraments and fear of rejection from the natives. By the time he dies on his hardwood bed, clutching the 14-inch cross that was his constant companion through life, he has finally won the love and admiration of his native flock.
Archbishop de Murville's work documents a great blessed's tenacity, holiness and profound love of God, a love that compelled him to share his Christian faith no matter the cost.
And the mission spirit Father Serra brought to California lives on, as the missions continue to draw millions of visitors each year. If you can't visit one of these historic sites in person, you can be confident that Archbishop de Murville's book is a worthy substitute. It provides all you need for a spiritual pilgrimage to the heart that prayed the sites into being.
Regina Marshall writes from Hamden, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: Book Review ----- EXTENDED BODY: Regina Marshall ----- KEYWORDS: Education ----------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 04/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 22-28, 2001 ----- BODY:University Covers Birth Control After Lawsuit Threat
The National Women's Law Center sent a letter to the university the week before the regents voted, warning the university that the group would bring a legal challenge unless the regents agreed to cover birth control.
The law center's letter cited last December's U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruling that excluding contraceptives from prescription-drug plans violates the 1978 Pregnancy Discrimination Act.
Notre Dame Hosts Pro-Life Conference
One organizer characterized the conference, “Our Duty to Serve, Our Call to Lead,” as a “brainstorming session” between pro-life college students. There were six workshops, and two keynote speakers: Steven Mosher, president of the Population Research Institute, and Cathy Cleaver, the director of information and planning for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops' pro-life secretariat.
How Jesuit Is Georgetown?
Richard Wolff, Class of 1974, was also troubled by a statement in the university's weekly magazine, The Georgetown Voice, claiming, “If Georgetown is serious about its mission to truly become one of the world's foremost universities, it cannot simply be content with being the best Catholic school in America. DeGioia's appointment offers a tentative sign that the Board of Directors understands that secularizing the University need not ruin its Jesuit identity.”
Wolff called this statement “subtle anti-Catholicism” because it equated academic excellence with “secularization.”
Penn State: God Is Not Discriminatory
NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE, April 10 — Pennsylvania State University reversed its decision to deny registration to the school's chapter of Young Americans for Freedom, the online magazine reported.
The student group's charter cites “God-given” human rights. That led the student government to rule that the group practiced religious discrimination. But after protests from campus watchdog groups, the university's president intervened and the student government reversed itself.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education ----------- TITLE: Family Matters DATE: 04/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 22-28, 2001 ----- BODY:Handling Debt
Q My wife and I have eight credit cards with $30,000 in outstanding balances. We want to develop a repayment plan and were wondering how long it will take us to accomplish this. One thing we've had to do is cut out saving.
— L.B. Houma-Thibodaux, Louisiana
A The answers to your questions will depend on a number of factors, such as your current levels of income and spending, as well as available savings. However, you've taken a substantial step toward achieving financial freedom just by committing to eliminate your consumer debt.
Any debt repayment plan needs to take into account the overall situation of the family. Your objective should be to pay the debts down as quickly as possible in order to escape financial bondage — “The borrower is the slave of the lender” (Proverbs 22:7) — while ensuring that adequate resources exist to meet the needs of the family. Very seldom do we see a reason to take more than five years to eliminate debts such as yours.
Be careful about savings, though. Savings is a key component of any plan. Too often, couples place all their excess resources into debt repayment and fail to set aside anything for contingencies. Then when “surprises” occur, and they inevitably do, the only alternative is to use the credit card, starting the debt cycle all over again.
I encourage families to set aside contingency savings of three to six months of their fixed living expenses. If you have this level of savings, you can be comfortable applying your excess resources to debt repayment. Otherwise, you'll need to budget for this need as well.
To develop an effective plan, you'll need to understand what monthly payment will be required to pay off the debts in the desired time frame. I suggest you use one of the financial software packages like Quicken to accomplish this. In just a few seconds you can plug in your loan balance, interest rate and the planned repayment period to come up with the necessary monthly payment. You can also view a number of “what if” scenarios by adjusting time frames and interest rates.
For example, in your case, it would require $630 per month for five years to repay your $30,000 in debts if the interest rate averaged 9.5%. If you could be more aggressive, the debt could be paid off in three years with a monthly payment of $961. Once you have this number, and know how much you need to be saving each month, you can create a budget incorporating this information. Living on a budget is a key to creating a successful plan to escape financial bondage.
The rewards of financial freedom are well worth the short-term sacrifice.
God love you!
Phil Lenahan is vice president of Catholic Answers.
Family Matters can be reached at: familymatters@neregister.com
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Phil Lenahan ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life ----------- TITLE: GEN Y's HIGH FIVES DATE: 04/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 22-28, 2001 ----- BODY:Generation Y, young people born from the later ‘70s to about 1990, are surprising those who track their behavior and attitudes. They say they're going to have more children than their parents, and they're more socially and politically conservative than the last few generations:
Trust the police 80%
Favor traditional family 73%
Favor traditional education 61%
Source: Department of Defense annual Youth Attitudes Tracking Survey, cited by The Washington Post, April 8.
----- EXCERPT: Facts of Life ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life ----------- TITLE: An Explosion of Mercy DATE: 04/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 22-28, 2001 ----- BODY:When Sacred Heart Catholic Church needed a Divine Mercy image for veneration as part of their Mercy Sunday celebration last year, they contacted Laura and Harvey Yarus of King George, Va. The couple had a twoby-three foot image in their dining room.
The Yarus family were convinced of the value of The Divine Mercy spirituality even before Sister Faustina's canonization and Pope John Paul II's pronouncement last April of the feast of Divine Mercy on the Sunday after Easter. Laura also participates in a group that reads from St. Faustina's diary and performs acts of mercy by taking the image to prisons.
While Mercy Sunday had been celebrated on the Church calendar in Poland and Russia, this year marks the first time that Mercy Sunday will be celebrated as an officially recognized universal feast of the Church. Some parishes across the United States, however, had already been celebrating Mercy Sunday publicly following the Holy See's 1979 action lifting the ban on spreading the Divine Mercy message.
As a family, the Yaruses pray the Divine Mercy novena, beginning on Good Friday and ending on the Sunday after Easter; and they plan to participate in their parish's celebration of the feast as they have done for the past couple of years.
That celebration, led up by Father Vincent Paul Bork at St. Elizabeth Catholic Church, will include Mass, exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and Benediction, continuous confessions, the way of the cross, and the recitation of the Divine Mercy chaplet.
“Understanding the message of mercy and internalizing it within the heart of your family is a wonderful thing,” says Laura. “For our children to see parishioners venerating the same Divine Mercy image that we hang in our dining room was really something. They could see, in a small, quiet way that people were being brought closer to Our Lord. Nothing but blessings can flow from that.”
History of the Devotion
The message and devotion to Jesus as the Divine Mercy is based upon the writings of St. Faustina Kowalska, an uneducated Polish nun who, in obedience to her spiritual director, wrote a diary of about 600 pages recording the revelations she received about God's mercy. In Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, St. Faustina encourages the faithful to entrust themselves completely to God.
The purpose of the devotion is to demonstrate God's mercy for all sinners and she describes God's mercy as an ocean whose full depth is unknown.
The image of the Divine Mercy, which Christ instructed Sister Faustina to have painted, depicts Christ with rays of red and white light emanating from his side. The white rays represent the water that makes souls righteous, while the red rays stand for the blood which is the life of souls. An inscription below the image reads: “Jesus, I trust in you!” Devotion to the Divine Mercy began to spread even before St. Faustina's death in 1938.
In March 1959, the Holy See, acting upon information inaccurately presenting Sister Faustina's diary, prohibited the spreading of the image or devotion. However, in October 1965, then Cardinal Karol Wojtyla began the information process relating to the life and virtues of Sister Faustina leading up to her beatification. Because Poland was under Communist rule, and the Holy See was unable to authenticate St. Faustina's diary, the ban on the spread of her devotion was not lifted until 1978.
Prior to his election, Pope John Paul II was instrumental in engineering the lifting of the ban on the spread of Sister Faustina's message. His second encyclical, Dives in Misericordia, was on the mercy of God. He has even said that Divine Mercy has “formed the image of his pontificate.” Sister Faustina was beatified on April 18, 1993.
Divine Mercy Sunday
Therefore, it was not surprising that the Holy Father would canonize St. Faustina as the first saint of the Jubilee Year last April 30. What was a complete surprise to those attending the event was his proclamation that the second Sunday of Easter would become Divine Mercy Sunday.
“The Pope's surprise declaration was not part of his prepared homily, so when the announcement was made on April 30, 2000, we were not exactly certain what that meant.
Later, on May 5 the Vatican press office issued a decree officially naming the second Sunday of Easter as Divine Mercy Sunday, making it a universal feast as part of the octave of Easter,” explained Patrick Novecosky, spokesman for the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy.
Over the past five years, the number of American parishes marking the day has increased dramatically. “In 1995, the John Paul II Institute of Divine Mercy tracked 125 U.S. parishes celebrating Mercy Sunday,” said Novecosky. “In 2000, that number grew to 908.” The celebration at the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy attracted 18,000 pilgrims last year alone, and was broadcast live via EWTN.
To properly observe Divine Mercy Sunday, the faithful are instructed to prepare by performing works of mercy leading up to the day, going to confession, preferably before the day itself, receiving holy Communion on Mercy Sunday, and venerating the Divine Mercy image.
“The Lord told St. Faustina that the soul who did these things would receive complete forgiveness of sins and the punishment due them,” said Jim Dimino. Jim and his wife Colleen help coordinate the Divine Mercy Apostolate for the Diocese of Metuchen, N.J.
The Diocese of Metuchen is one that has been celebrating Mercy Sunday for more than a decade. Each year the shrine chapel of the Blessed Sacrament and the Cathedral of St. Francis of Assisi, along with another 20 parishes throughout the diocese, participate in the annual celebration. “Last year, more than 6,000 people participated,” estimated Jim Dimino.
Bishop Vincent de Paul Breen gave a first-class relic of St. Faustina to the apostolate, a relic that had been given to the diocese by former rector of the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy, Father Seraphim Michalenko of the Marians of the Immaculate Conception.
“It has been very encouraging to see the numbers of people that line up after Mass to venerate the relic,” said Dimino. “As a result, a number of people have come back to the sacraments, especially the sacrament of reconciliation.”
----- EXCERPT: Easter Sunday II With the Yarus Family ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life ----------- TITLE: Targeting Corporate Sponsors of Planned Parenthood DATE: 04/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 22-28, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — The news was too good to be true, but it was. Target Corp. had stopped supporting Planned Parenthood.
“When I sent an e-mail, a lot of people thought it was a hoax,” said Doug Scott, president of Life Decisions International, a group dedicated to boycotting any company that donates money to Planned Parenthood Federation of America, which performs more abortions than any other organization in America.
Scott was also somewhat in disbelief over the change in the corporation's longstanding support for Planned Parenthood.
“This is a victory people didn't expect … I was stunned. They're really good at playing games,” Scott told the Register. He said Target had frequently misled those who sent letters by claiming that it had given a grant to Planned Parenthood in the past.
“What they didn't say is that they've given this same grant for each year for the last 20 years,” said Scott.
The decision of Target to change its policy will cost Planned Parenthood $18,000 a year. In just over a decade, pro-life activists have used the boycott list from Life Decisions International to convince and cajole 75 companies to stop funding Planned Parenthood. Scott estimated that his organization's Corporate Funding Project has cost Planned Parenthood over $2 million to date.
But for Planned Parenthood, earning the endorsements of corporations is worth more than the actual grants awarded.
Adina Wingate-Quijada, spokes-woman for Planned Parenthood, refused to comment for this story.
“Corporate support was only about 5% of our budget, but it meant a great deal to us,” former president Faye Wattleton wrote in Life on the Line. “The credibility that such endorsements bestowed was at least as valuable as the actual dollars given. It was important that we receive support from every sector of our society — from the kid who sent a portion of an allowance, to major conglomerates.”
Which is exactly why Doug Scott wants to target these companies.
“We need to make it shameful for any corporation to associate with Planned Parenthood,” he said. “We need to make it so if they donate to Planned Parenthood, [it's like] they are donating to the Ku Klux Klan. That's how controversial it should be.”
This can only happen, Scott said, if pro-life activists refuse to buy from corporate sponsors of Planned Parenthood.
Father Thomas J. Euteneuer, president of Human Life International in Front Royal, Va., praised Scott's boycott of Planned Parenthood sponsors.
“I think his program is one of the best pro-life activities going. I have been convinced of that for years,” Father Euteneuer told the Register. Human Life International worked with Scott to put pressure on Target Corp.
The success of the program rests in the awareness it brings to pro-lifers, Father Euteneuer said. “It is a program that addresses the abortion issue from a conscience perspective and then attempts to do something that has a practical effect,” he added.
Scott admitted that the boycott might require people to drive a few miles to a different store or to change to a bankcard with fewer features.
“Yes, this might be an inconvenience. But it's not a sacrifice,” said Scott. “We're not asking you to sit outside an abortion clinic; we're not even asking you to protest outside these companies. Just don't shop there. And if you can, write a letter about it.”
He added, “This is probably the easiest pro-life activity to get involved in.”
And the letters work. One corporate official told Scott his company had received tens of thousands of letters over the years urging the company to stop, before finally succumbing to pressure and halting all funding to Planned Parenthood.
But Scott doesn't make the list of former-funders available to the public for fear that abortion supporters would use it to boycott companies. “We don't want the opposition to target these groups,” he explained. “There are no press conferences where we say, ‘Look what we did.’ There's no surprises with what we do.”
That integrity helps Life Decisions International maintain their focus.
“If they want to get off the list, great,” said Scott. “If not, we're going to do everything we can to make their life miserable.”
Josh Mercer writes from Washington D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life ----------- TITLE: Life Notes DATE: 04/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 22-28, 2001 ----- BODY:More People, More Growth
The pattern is striking because it marks the only time over the past century that America had population growth in every state of the union — and in cities as well as the countryside.
The population increase coincided with a strong economy, reported the Journal. Today real median household income is $40,816, its highest level since the census started tracking it in 1967.
The Journal said that the occurrence of record economic growth during a period of record population growth should remind us that the most important way to look at human beings is as minds, not mouths.
Death of Unborn Stirs Debate
ASSOCIATED PRESS, April 6 — A highway crash that killed a pregnant mother and her unborn daughter may revive the legal debate in Kentucky about when an unborn child becomes a baby and has legal rights, reported the Associated Press.
Troy Thornsbury was driving to the hospital on March 25 with his wife, Veronica Jane Thornsbury, who was in labor and ready to deliver their second child. Halfway there, their car was struck on the passenger side by a pickup truck.
A doctor performed a Caesarean section at the accident scene 10 to 15 minutes after the mother stopped breathing. The infant was stillborn.
Although the courts and news media cannot decide yet if the baby was a fetus or a person protected by law, many residents say there is no question, especially after seeing the photo of the dead infant dressed in pink and wrapped in a blanket printed in the local newspaper.
Rev. Paul Badgett, pastor of a local church, said, “What that precious mother was carrying in her womb was life. I think even people on the other side of the pro-life argument would agree that was a baby.”
‘Abortion Strike’ in France
The government wants to allow abortions up to 12 weeks instead of 10. However, members of the association are refusing to carry out any more abortions until they receive more money along with more training for young doctors and better working conditions in French hospitals, reported The Medical Post.
More than 1,000 doctors have closed ranks, with many of them canceling scheduled abortions for the foreseeable future.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Pro-Lifers Step Up the Pressure DATE: 04/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 29-May 5, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — As George W. Bush's first 100 days in office finish April 30, between 3 and 4,000 unborn babies are aborted in America every day. Pro-lifers worry that four years from now the same number of unborn babies will have died under the current administration as under a President Al Gore.
Unless they hold President Bush accountable to his campaign promises.
That is the message from Life Dynamics Inc., a Texas-based pro-life group that has launched a petition demanding that Bush appoint a blue ribbon panel of experts to find a way to “stop the abortion holocaust.”
“We, the undersigned, petition you to immediately create a Presidential Blue Ribbon Committee whose sole mission is to provide you with a pragmatic strategy (including an implementation plan) for promptly returning legal protection to every unborn child from the moment of conception,” reads the Life Dynamics petition to the president.
“This panel would include attorneys, judges, legal scholars, and public officials who are committed to the pro-life position, as well as selected individuals from the nation's pro-life leadership. We are also calling upon you to implement a National Abortion Education Program designed to encourage more Americans to embrace the pro-life position. This campaign should consist of radio, television and print advertising and be modeled after the government's efforts to eradicate illiteracy, smoking, drug use, violence and racism.”
Life Dynamics launched the two- part petition drive, calling it the “First Step Initiative,” on its monthly Lifetalk news video series in March and is urging people to collect signatures for it on its television talk show that airs on more than 200 stations across the country.
“We've got to get millions of these,” said Mark Crutcher, the group's president, who set a July 31 deadline for delivering the petition to the White House.
“George Bush is going to do no more than we insist that he does. He's a politician. Don't forget that,” said Crutcher. “[He] has got to realize that the pro-life movement is not just a bunch of lonely old people in the basement of a Baptist church.”
The White House didn't comment on the petition for this story, but USA Today quoted White House chief of staff Andy Card saying “I don't believe [Bush] feels that he'll be able to eliminate abortions.”
The paper said in its April 20 article that, “[a]sked specifically where abortion ranks among Bush's priorities, Card left it off the list.”
Instead, Card told the paper, “It's a high moral priority for the president, but his public policy priorities are education, tax reform and tax reduction, reforming Social Security, reforming the Medicare system and improving our national defense.”
Crutcher said he can understand how difficult it will be to tackle the controversial issue. “When [President Bush] was asked if he would support a constitutional ban on abortion, he said the American people are not ready for that yet,” he said. “Well, if that's true, your job, President Bush, is to get the American people ready for the plan.”
Civil War historian and retired professor Eugene Genovese has written about how President Abraham Lincoln changed American public opinion on slavery. Genovese said he finds a presidential blue ribbon committee on abortion “an intriguing idea.”
“Clearly [President Bush] can't do it in a ham-handed way … you'd have to have both sides,” said Genovese. “What such a commission could do, even while it is split, might [spark] debate,” particularly on university campuses where central pro-life arguments have been stifled for decades, he added.
The crux of the debate is not even at issue any more, said Genovese, adding that a blue ribbon panel on abortion would mean “serious anti-abortion arguments would have to be considered.”
A critical ingredient in the success of the North in the Civil War, added Genovese, was that Lincoln and abolitionists and churches did convince many people in both the North and the South that slavery was “sinful.” But he added, “It wasn't a change in public opinion, but a war that settled the matter.”
University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa history professor Forrest McDonald, author of The American Presidency: An Intellectual History , believes that President Bush has the power to change public opinion on abortion by maintaining “the moral high ground, even in the face of criticism, and not apologizing for it.”
His other means to change the law on abortion will come through the courts with the appointment of two, three or possibly even four Supreme Court judges over the course of the next four or eight years in the president's office.
Professor McDonald added that a Blue Ribbon panel on abortion is entirely within the president's power, however. It would face the “vocalness” of pro-abortionists and opposition from the pro-abortion media, but it might also raise discussion on the issue. “It might not help,” said McDonald, “but it wouldn't hurt.”
Life Dynamics’ Crutcher, however, is adamant that it is entirely within Bush's capability to appoint an entirely pro-life blue ribbon panel. If it were Bill Clinton's panel, after all, he wouldn't put any pro-life voices on it.
“If the country was in a financial crisis, George Bush would be appointing a blue ribbon committee of the top economic minds in the country to get him out of it,” said Crutcher. “If George Bush honestly believes that children are being butchered at a rate of 3 or 4,000 a day, then ‘Act like you believe it,’ that's what I would say to him.”
No one from the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League returned calls to the Register to comment on the petition before deadline.
In a passage that echoes America's own Declaration of Independence, the Catechism of the Catholic Church calls the right to life a fundamental right that nations must recognize.
“The inalienable right to life of every innocent human individual is a constitutive element of a civil society and its legislation ,” says the catechism. “The inalienable rights of the person must be recognized and respected by civil society and the political authority. These human rights … belong to human nature and are inherent in the person by virtue of the creative act from which the person took his origin. Among such fundamental rights one should mention in this regard every human being's right to life and physical integrity from the moment of conception until death” (No. 2273).
Life Dynamics has forced issues onto the government agenda before. Last year, Congress investigated the trade in fetal tissue from aborted babies after Life Dynamics paid an abortion clinic employee to gather hard-copy evidence of the lucrative market for baby parts in medical research and presented the documentation to government. ABC's program “20/20” also aired an episode last year confirming Life Dynamics’ evidence on fetal tissue.
“This is not about discussion,” said Crutcher, adding that abortion has been discussed for decades. “This panel is to provide an exit strategy.” The education campaign would be to change America's minds, said Crutcher; the panel to produce a plan to change the law to protect the unborn.
“The pro-life movement has Mickey Moused around on this long enough,” said Crutcher. “Forty million babies have already been killed. The salient issue is: Do we want to stop the killing more than they want to kill?”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Celeste Mcgovern ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Scientists Urging Cloning Despite Monstrous Results DATE: 04/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 29-May 5, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — Scientists who attempt to clone animals have a success rate of just 3% — at best — and often produce grotesquely deformed creatures susceptible to a host of fatal illnesses.
That was the testimony of several reproductive-technology experts reporting to a March 28 hearing of the U.S. House's Energy and Commerce Committee.
The hearing brought to the fore bitter divisions among leading reproductive technology scientists — some of whom want to go ahead with human cloning initiatives despite the medical and ethical horror stories from the animal studies.
Ryuzo Yanagimachi of the University of Hawaii said that mice clones can suddenly become grotesquely obese, and often have developmental difficulties. Mark Westhusin of Texas A&M University said cow clones often have enlarged hearts or poorly developed lungs.
Lawmakers on the committee reacted with horror. In the words of Illinois Democrat Bobby Rush, “Human cloning must be banned now and forever.” Oklahoma Republican J.C. Watts added: “Dolly the sheep will learn to fly before the U.S. House of Representatives condones human cloning.”
But Louisville, Ky., fertility doctor Panos Zavos, one of the two leaders of an international project to bring a human clone to birth in the next two years, insisted to the committee that “we have no intention of stepping over dead bodies or deformed babies in order to accomplish this.”
Zavos told the Register that scientists warning of grave risks involved with cloning were “irresponsible” and using “scare tactics.”
Genetic Gambit
Cloning has long since moved from the science-fiction section of the library to the laboratory. The most common technique involves removing the nucleus from an egg cell (enucleation), replacing it with the nucleus of an adult cell (nuclear transfer) and stimulating the newly “reprogrammed” cell so it begins dividing.
At the hearing, Rudolph Jaenisch of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology testified that the reason cloning is so risky is that the very rapid “reprogramming” process opens the door to an extraordinary number of genetic abnormalities.
Another congressional witness, Richard Rawlins, director of the in vitro fertilization laboratory of the Rush Health System in Chicago, told the Register that proponents of human cloning have no way to screen out genetically flawed clones.
“The prospect that [they] can actually test for inherent genetic damage in the cloned embryo to me is ridiculous at one end and premature at best. It's not to say that in the future, with the advent of the human genome being documented, that probes like that might not be available. … But think of the numbers [of tests] that would be needed to establish the normality” of the clone.
Panos Zavos responded, “They're saying that we need to check for 30,000 genes, which of course is a joke, if you know anything about genetics. If reprogramming is the problem we will solve the problem with reprogramming.”
“We think we're coming up with a breakthrough on that,” he added. “We're doing the reprogramming now before we do the nuclear transfer.”
Although there appears to be a consensus in the mainstream scientific community against current human cloning proposals, its seems most scientists are not opposed to human cloning in and of itself, and would approve of it if it were technologically viable.
Rawlins said, “If you talk to cell biologists, I doubt that if the procedures were all worked out and everything was fine, that they would have major objections to it. What they're really objecting to is the gross overstatement and oversimplifications of the necessary steps needed to produce a normal individual.”
He suggested that Zavos and his partner, Italian reproductive technology specialist Severino Antinori, are “rogues” who are motivated by the desire for notoriety and profit.
Referring to in vitro fertilization clinics in the private sector, Rawlins said, “It's a money-making business, and anyone who thinks that it isn't, or claims that this is something noble, is telling you a lie. It's strictly a mercenary operation. … I have no doubt that, if there's money to be made by doing a human clone, somebody's going to do it. They will put together [financing] and they will step over the bodies of the abnormal. It's going to look like a scene from ‘The X-Files.’”
David Curtin writes from Toronto.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: David Curtin ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Violence in the Streets Where He Walked DATE: 04/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 29-May 5, 2001 ----- BODY:JERUSALEM — Fewer than 500 Catholics celebrated Easter morning Mass in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher next to the traditional site of the tomb of Jesus.
In other years, it would have been almost impossible to walk around the tomb because of the crowds. This year, however, people moved easily from one point of the church to the other.
The situation follows months of violence that inspired Latin patriarch of Jerusalem Michel Sabbah to exhort, “Destroy our churches, but spare the homes of our faithful.”
The bishop's plea, delivered last month to the Israelis on behalf of the Palestinian Christians of the Bethlehem area, wasn't hyperbole.
Why was Patriarch Sabbah offering churches in ransom for the homes of both Christian and Muslim Palestinians? Because both have been under attack from gunners for months now.
The patriarch's words are Church policy. The Church has not raised a hue and cry about the bombardment of church buildings and the local seminary, because, as Patriarch Sabbah explained, his greater concern is defending families against Israeli bombardment.
In the al Aqsa intifada which began in late September, the Christian triangle south of Jerusalem has received a terrible pounding from Israeli guns. The Israel Defense Force claims it has been responding to Palestinian sniper fire originating from Beit Sahour and Beit Jala (which both have large Christian populations) or, sometimes, that it is seeking to prevent it. The Israeli shelling, however, is disproportionate to the feeble threat posed by Palestinian gunmen.
Even the U.S. State Department's recent report on human rights acknowledges that Israeli fire has been “excessive.”
The patriarch, together with leaders of other Jerusalem churches, supports the goals of the intifada: the end of Israeli occupation and the establishment of a Palestinian state. Yet he and they have also repeatedly asked their own people to love their enemies and to protest non-violently out of reverence for the image of God in every person. “We say to every Palestinian and to every Israeli who loves peace: Try to see God in us,” he said.
After almost seven months of conflict, Christians are emigrating to the United States and Canada in droves. What had been the largest concentration of Christians in the Palestinian Territories is fast dwindling.
The patriarch pleaded with his people: “Brothers and sisters, do not leave your land. … It is here that God wants you. … Stand firm around the holy places. … [Y]ou are part of the mystery of God in this land.”
Many Catholics in the United States and elsewhere do not understand the extent to which a lack of a just peace and the renewed cycle of violence in the region threaten the future of a Christian presence in the cradle of the Christian faith.
The Christians of the Holy Land are “the living stones” who together make up the “Mother Church” of Jerusalem. Their disappearance from the Holy Land would turn the holy places, as Pope John Paul II has repeatedly warned, into empty museums devoid of living communities of faith. Already, Christians count for less than 2% of the population in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.
The first step to supporting the Christians of the Holy Land is to end the violence. On the one hand, the Palestinian militia must stop using the Bethlehem area as a staging area for armed attacks and, on the other, the Israelis must cease using excessive force against civilian areas to forestall attacks or to retaliate for them. Pope John Paul II has called for such restraint and so have the U.S. bishops.
A second Catholic interest in an eventual Mideast peace is the future of the holy city of Jerusalem — and preserving the minuscule Christian community there.
For more than 30 years, the Holy See has sought a special status for Jerusalem. As a city sacred to the three Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), Jerusalem belongs, in a profound sense, to all believers. As the city where Jesus preached, healed, suffered, died and rose from the dead, it is the most sacred city for Christians. Its sacredness to Jews dates to the time of David, and Muslims regard it as their third-holiest city (after Mecca and Medina).
In the Holy See's view, a special status would affirm the uniqueness and universal religious significance of Jerusalem.
As a holy city, Jerusalem is the destination for millions of pilgrims from around the world. During Jordanian administration of East Jerusalem, Jews were not permitted to enter their traditional holy places. Since 1967, the Israelis have severely restricted admission of Muslims and Christians from the West Bank and Gaza to Jerusalem.
A special status would provide for open access to the city's holy places for all people, and especially Palestinian pilgrims for whom the holy places are central to their devotional lives. Other possible provisions would try to preserve what is left of the city's historic, cultural, architectural and environmental heritage.
More important, however, key provisions of a special status would be linked to the preservation of the historic religious communities, including Christians, in Jerusalem.
The Christian population is the smallest of the three religious families there, down from 48,000 souls in 1948 and 10,000 in 1967 to an estimated 5,000 today. These proposed articles would assure equal rights and services to all residents of the city, something denied Arab residents, Muslim and Christian alike, under Israeli occupation. This would allow the Muslims and Christians to carry out their charitable, educational, social-service and justice ministries without interference from the government.
In the end, of course, attaining the two specifically Catholic goals — preserving the Christian communities of the Holy Land and securing a special statute for Jerusalem — depend on securing a just and durable peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
The Holy See and the U.S. bishops have encouraged the long search for peace in the region. The Holy See reserves the right to make moral comment on the justice and adequacy of any agreement.
As a practical matter, the Holy See appeals to international law, including the Geneva Conventions and U.N. Security Council resolutions, as the legal foundation for any agreement. The preamble of the Holy See's February 2000 basic agreement with the Palestinian Liberation Organization affirmed the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinians, asserted that Jerusalem is illegally occupied by military force, and backed a special status for Jerusalem.
While it was still in office, the Barak government appears to have come close to accepting the Church's idea of a special status as part of a final status agreement for Jerusalem. In the end, negotiations foundered on Palestinian refusal to acknowledge Jewish attachment to the Temple Mount and on Israel's rejection of the right of return for Palestinian refugees. The incoming Sharon government, at best, will agree to further “interim” agreements — a position unacceptable to the Palestinians. Any final status agreement appears many years off. As result, the future looks bleak, promising low-level, intermittent hostilities for some time to come.
Such a future does not bode well for the Holy Land's Christians caught in the crossfire of two nationalisms. It is desperately important for Catholics to raise their voices on behalf of their brothers and sisters in the Holy Land.
Solidarity demands a vigorous and visible defense of the remnant Christian communities there. Arab Christians are asking, “Where is the Christian West in our time of trial? Where are the protests from the Catholics of the United States?” Catholics want peace for the sake of both Israelis and Palestinians, but they also have a special interest in seeking peace for the sake of their sisters and brothers in the faith.
Jesuit Father Drew Christiansen is counselor on international affairs to the U.S. Catholic Conference with special responsibility for the Middle East.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Drew Christiansen, Sj ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Faith, Hope And Heifers For the Poor DATE: 04/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 29-May 5, 2001 ----- BODY:CHICAGO — Rabbits in Guatemala. Goats in Zambia. Even earthworms in Chicago.
These are the animals that the Heifer Project International uses to give needy families self-sufficiency. The project, which started in 1944, has now brought animals to over 4 million families — everything from bees to yaks.
The project emphasizes that recipients are equal partners. Waiva Worthley, a volunteer with the project, said, “Heifer Project doesn't shove things down people's throats. It works to fill their needs — not what we think they need.”
Kate Sheehan helped the Heifer Project coordinate its efforts in the Massachusetts Catholic community. Parishes held fundraisers to purchase a “Gift Ark” — $5,000 worth of sheep, beehives, geese, pigs and assorted beasts.
Sheehan said that the program's Christian origin, focus on “care for God's creation,” and respect for the animals’ recipients made it a good fit for Catholics. She said that the program emphasized that “every person is sacred” by viewing recipients as “partners” who can help others rather than simply taking aid.
For example, in 1994 Beatrice Biira's mother was one of a group of Ugandan women who asked for a goat. The seven Biiras lived in a one-room straw hut with no furniture, electricity or water.
Beatrice sold their nanny goat's milk and the animal's first male off- spring, making enough to go to school for the first time. The first female kid was handed on to another poor family, a process the program calls “passing on the gift.” Anyone who receives an animal must pass on an animal, and anyone who receives training must train someone else.
When the Heifer Project checked back with the Biiras a few months later, the hut had blue wooden furniture and a tin roof.
Today, they have a flock of goats.
More than 60 other families in their village also have goats. The Heifer Project arranged for Beatrice to become the subject of a New York Times best selling children's book, Beatrice's Goat .
The Heifer Project began when Dan West, a farmer and teacher from Indiana and a member of the Church of the Brethren, was assigned to do alternative service as a conscientious objector. He went to Spain to do hunger relief work.
He was handing out cups of powdered milk to “long lines of mothers and children,” said Rosalie Sim, the program's northeast director.
“He had to decide sometimes who got the milk and who didn't,” she said. “And he looked around and saw that they were standing in the middle of green pastures.”
His farmer's instincts roused, he decided that Spain didn't need cupfuls of powdered milk; it needed cows to produce the real thing.
When he returned to the States, he founded what was then called Heifers for Hope. The first cows went to Puerto Rico in 1944. The program now operates in 30 areas of the U.S. and 100 countries. It offers not just animals but training in everything from milking to marketing. And passing on the gift also means that one animal can eventually feed and produce for an entire village.
The gifts are tailored to recipients’ situations. Landless families often get rabbits, which don't take up much space, while farmers might get a water buffalo.
The program operates even in closed societies like North Korea, so it must refrain from taking any political stands. Although it has been forced out of a few countries by unrest, it is usually able to return, since most governments appreciate the work it does in staving off poverty.
Heifer Project gifts can lead to start-up businesses. One Indian woman sold a Heifer Project goat, and used the proceeds to open a gem-cutting business. A Thai family's revenue from a water buffalo enabled them to reap 3,300 pounds of rice a year.
And Joseph Tinkamanyire of Uganda used proceeds from the cows he received to feed orphans and establish a school for them.
Kids Love Worms
It isn't every day that earthworms can make a tough teen-ager cry.
But Worthley remembered the day when the Heifer Project International brought red worms to the Robert Taylor Homes, a housing project that the city of Chicago has since torn down. Teens at risk of joining gangs could find a better after- school activity, and make some cash, by raising worms and selling the fertilizer.
A retiring commercial worm farmer decided to donate most of his stock to the group. Worthley watched as teen-agers from the projects received the worms that they would care for and sell. “Here's a guy who grew up in the Robert Taylor Homes,” she recalled, “and what's he getting? Worms! And he cried. Because he couldn't believe somebody was giving him a gift.”
“The allure of worm farming in the city is that worms can be kept inside,” Worthley said. “You're producing a commodity you can sell all year long: the worms, and the worms’ castings, which are an excellent fertilizer.”
She added, “Kids are fascinated with worms. If you take an urban kid who doesn't have much exposure to animals at all and you say they can feed the worms, touch the worms, that in itself is a huge draw.”
Elsewhere in the United States, the Heifer Project offers bigger livestock.
Francis Boisvert, a Maine farmer who received pigs and goats from the project and is now a volunteer, said, “It's not just the animals. It's the friendship.”
He said that many people in the isolated, mountainous Maine countryside needed contact with other people as much as they needed the income from an animal. But in one- room cabins lit by gas lamps, the money means a lot too. One woman came up to Boisvert and his wife at a county fair to thank them for selling her a cow: “It made enough money to send her girl and boy through college,” Boisvert said.
For Catholics, the reasons for such a program are straightforward. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church bluntly puts it (No. 2443): “God blesses those who come to the aid of the poor and rebukes those who turn away from them.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Sex, Lies and CD-ROM DATE: 04/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 29-May 5, 2001 ----- BODY:From founding shelters for unwed mothers to housing them herself, from creating a computer game to lobbying the United Nations, Kathleen DiFiore has put her creative energies at the service of her pro-life principles. She spoke with Register features correspondent Tim Drake.
Drake: How did you get started in pro-life work?
I'm originally from Rochester, N.Y., and am the older of two daughters in the family. I'm second generation Italian and a lot of my faith started at my grandmother's knee. She was very prayerful, attended daily Mass, and always reminded her grandchildren to pray.
My work didn't start out as a pro-life work. It started out as work I wanted to do for God. I was 33 and had attained most of my worldly goals. I had my MBA, and was a personnel director in industry, yet I needed to evaluate what I had done for God so I started praying the Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi.
At Mass one Sunday, the Gospel reading was from Matthew 25, “When I was hungry you fed me. When I was in prison you visited me.” Here I had been saying a prayer asking God what he wanted me to do for him. This reading was like a divine two-by-four over my head. It was as if God was saying, “This is what I want you to do. I've been telling people this for 2,000 years.”
So, in addition to a prison ministry, I put an ad in the newspaper that read “Pregnant? Need Help?” The first girl to stay with me was 15 years old. Her son, Christopher, turns 19 this year. Over time, family and friends seemed most interested in lending a helping hand in that ministry, and so I focused my energies on that facet of the work. Since then, our homes have served more than 1,500 young women and we have saved over 15,000 babies from abortion.
How did “The Choice Game” come about?
Abortion would not be in the minds of young people if they led a chaste lifestyle from the beginning. That was the seed for our game. We were teaching chastity programs at numerous schools and realized that we physically couldn't go to every school. So, we took what we learned and developed an interactive game to expose many, many more youth to our chastity concepts.
"The Choice Game” puts young people in real-life situations — they go on virtual dates, make decisions about drinking, driving, drugs, suicide and react to peer pressure. The game demonstrates that their actions have consequences. If they end up facing an unplanned pregnancy, they have to decide whether they will opt for adoption, keeping the baby, getting married, or abortion — with the resulting consequences. Along the way they can feel free to click on the angel or demon for their advice or ignore them. The purpose is to teach youth pro-life, pro-family, pro- chastity values in an entertaining way.
We distributed more than 20,000 copies of the game in Rome during World Youth Day. A beta-test version of the CD-ROM is currently available, and portions are also available at www.thechoicegame.com. In the first quarter of 2001 we have had more than 184,000 visitors to our Web sites and nearly 5,000 of those visitors have spent 15 minutes or longer at the sites.
We get e-mails daily from teenagers that are facing problems. One 16-year-old who played the game told us, “When you watch a video or go to school you're told, ‘Do this. Do this. Do this.’ When you play the game you get to decide what you are going to do and see what happens, so you feel like you are teaching yourself.”
You can give a girl a bed because she's pregnant, or you can teach her how to say No before she gets pregnant. There is no reason we cannot teach youth to be responsible for themselves. I live with girls who have made all the wrong choices, and have watched them change through our chastity programs, so I know that we can help young people make better choices. The key is faith and asking God to help you make decisions.
“The Choice Game” teaches values that will make youth into wiser adults.
How does your work as an U.N. non-governmental organization tie in with everything else?
Our work is primarily as a residential program for unwed mothers. Whether or not a country is pro-life doesn't matter because we are a shelter program.
The need to house unwed mothers is universal.
We are currently working with young women in Texas, Idaho, and California. The “Care Packages” we provide women have opened many doors. We have a Prolife Hotline in Ireland, and we've been asked to duplicate our work in both Ecuador and Russia.
In 1984 you were fined by the state of New Jersey for running an illegal boarding home. How did you overcome that challenge?
I had been financing all of my work out of my salary, and I decided to seek a permit so that I could hold a garage sale to raise funds. Apparently a town official had forwarded my request to authorities and after a search I was fined $10,000 for not meeting certain state and local laws.
In the 15 months that followed I received so much publicity that the company where I had worked for seven and a half years fired me.
I went to my pastor and bishop for help. Mother Teresa found out about our struggle and wrote the governor. Eventually a law was passed that exempted charitable works such as ours from the requirements.
Do you have a favorite story of someone you've helped along the way?
My favorite story is about Jonathan who is now 9 years old. His mother was seriously contemplating abortion and had been down that road before. When she came to me she was scared and didn't know what to do. She ended up spending a night in one of our shelters and came to live with us. Today she is our office manager. She has done chastity presentations, answered the hotline and served as assistant housemother. She has become a real advocate and I don't know what I would do without her.
In addition, I am Jonathan's godparent, so I get to see him all the time and watch him grow.
Many of the young women that stay with us develop life skills and they later give back. They become like family. Former residents are not only living a chaste lifestyle, but they are affecting their friends to do the same.
What do you have planned next?
We are currently working on a secular version of “The Choice Game” and recently applied for a Federal Abstinence grant for our work. We anticipate hearing from them by the end of April.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kathleen DiFiore ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: 'Gay Education' Looms for Schools as Union Date Nears DATE: 04/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 29-May 5, 2001 ----- BODY: EVE TUSHNETBOSTON — Brian Camenker didn't expect his son's first-grade teacher to transform “The Frog Prince” into a fable about homosexual relationships.
But the Massachusetts software developer soon learned that his district's schools had adopted a plan to use “teachable moments” to portray homosexual relationships as the equivalent of marriage. His son's teacher used the children's story as an opportunity to tell his students that he was homosexual and, as Camenker put it, “He could love a man like their mother and father loved each other.”
Stories like Camenker's could become more common after the National Education Association holds its annual meeting this July. The nation's largest teachers’ union will vote on a proposal to promote “Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Education.”
The proposal would affirm that the NEA “believes in efforts” to:
► "Support gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and questioning students and address the high drop out rate, suicide rate, and health risk behaviors.”
► Recognize “the importance of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender education employees as role models.”
► Offer “accurate portrayal of the roles and contributions of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people throughout history.”
► Include “the contributions, heritage, culture, and history of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people” in curricula.
► Coordinate school programs with “gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender organizations and concerned agencies that promote the contributions, heritage, culture, history, health and care of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender people.”
Kathleen Lyons, a spokeswoman for the union, said that she could not comment on the resolution because it has not yet been considered by the membership and is not NEA policy. She could not address questions on what the proposal might require of schools, or answer concerns of parents who oppose homosexual activism.
But recent suggestions from California's Department of Education may offer hints as to what compliance with the NEA proposal would entail. After the California legislature passed a law adding “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to the characteristics protected from discrimination in schools, the department recommended ways to enforce the policy.
Suggestions included discussing homosexuals in history, displaying images of homosexuals and bisexuals on classroom walls, and establishing “a clear rest room policy” for students who have had sex-change operations.
The Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, which has pushed for similar curriculum changes, offers several examples of programs that promote acceptance of homosexual acts and activism. For example, the organization's Web site suggests that teachers stock books like Jenny Lives With Eric and Martin , about a young girl who lives with her father and his homosexual partner.
The Web site also suggests that teachers tell students that same-sex couples can get married even though “there are currently no states where their marriages will be legally recognized.” Teachers may also give students a list of churches, synagogues and other religious bodies that perform “gay marriages.”
For October, which homosexual-activist groups have designated “Gay and Lesbian History Month,” theWeb site recommends that teachers create bulletin board displays such as “Famous Lesbians,” or teach research skills by assigning students to interview local homosexuals about their lives.
Camenker offered other examples of pro-homosexual education, promoted by his local NEA affiliate. One fourth-grade music class was taught that Tchaikovsky would not have committed suicide if society had accepted his homosexuality. A sixth-grade teachers’ guide for the “Living and Learning” curriculum included graphic descriptions of homosexual acts, Camenker said.
Camenker protested to the teachers, the principals and the school board. He now runs the Parents’ Rights Coalition.
He encouraged other parents, “Go to classes. Be room mothers. Walk down the halls and see what's on the boards.”
Camenker suggested going to the school board with any complaints, because “they're elected, and they have to listen to you.” His group eventually pushed a parental notification bill to victory, requiring that schools inform parents of any sexual education classes. This year, he hopes to pass a bill that will make all such classes “opt in,” meaning that students will only attend the classes if their parents specifically request them.
The schools have “gotten worse slower,” rather than gotten better, he said. But one of the coalition's members reported that at a local homosexual activist conference, attendees were complaining that they could not promote homosexuality as much “because of the parents.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church calls homosexuals to chastity and says that “under no circumstances can [homosexual acts] be approved,” in part because sacred Scripture presents them as “acts of grave depravity” (No. 2357). It also counsels “respect, compassion, and sensitivity” for homosexual persons, saying, “Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided” (No 2358).
NEA Alternatives
This isn't the first time a homosexual-education proposal has come before the teachers union. In 1996, after a public-relations uproar, the union dropped its support for Gay and Lesbian History Month.
The union's assembly initially passed a resolution supporting Gay and Lesbian History Month and calling on teachers to “acknowledge the contributions of lesbians, gays and bisexuals throughout history.” But Concerned Women for America alerted union members, who protested and even threatened resignation. Concerned Women's Wendy Wright added that some local union chapters even voted to rescind the resolution.
That hasn't stopped the union from trying again.
No matter how the July meeting turns out, the NEA's critics charge that it has become a partisan political lobby, representing Democratic Party interests rather than teachers, parents and students.
Some of those critics are former union members. Cindy Omlin resigned from the union in 1992 “in order to protect my right not to fund political agendas that I found immoral.” Omlin, who worked as an elementary-school speech patholo-gist in the Spokane, Wash., school district until 1996, especially objected to the NEA's pro-abortion and homosexual activist stances.
Omlin now works with an alternative teachers group, a growing movement of teachers who reject the NEA and the American Federation of Teachers.
Gary Beckner, executive director of the Association of American Educators, said that many of the teachers who seek out his group cite NEA “partisanship” as one of their reasons for leaving the union.
As Beckner notes, the alternative unions aren't going to pass a proposal for “Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Education.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 04/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 29-May 5, 2001 ----- BODY:Jewish Magazine Defends “B.C.” Cartoon
JEWISH WORLD REVIEW , April 17 — Johnny Hart intended his Easter “B.C.” cartoon to pay tribute to the Jewish roots of Christianity, the online magazine reported.
Critics had charged that the cartoon portrayed Judaism as useless, superseded by Christianity. The strip opens with an introductory panel about the many appearances of the number seven in the Bible — seven loaves, seven seals, and so forth, closing with “seven candlesticks.” A seven-candled lamp, the Jewish menorah, speaks, saying, “Father, forgive them: for they know not what they do.” Then, the candles blow out one by one. The last frame shows a cross in the distance, a cave with a flask of wine and a loaf of bread, and the caption, “Do this in remembrance of me.”
Binyamin L. Jolkovsky, editor in chief of Jewish World Review , defended Johnny Hart's Easter cartoon, arguing that the cartoonist's opponents were intolerant of religion in public life. He wrote that Hart's message “is one of love, not hate.” The menorah's transformation into a cross portrays the fact that “Christianity is rooted in Judaism,” Jolkovsky said.
Thirty papers considered dropping the strip, but Jolkovsky asked readers to call their local papers and either encourage them to keep the strip, or thank them for running it. As for Hart's critics, he told them to “grow some thicker skin.”
Christian Coalition Head Outrages Pro-Life Groups
THE WASHINGTON POST , April 18 — Pat Robertson, head of the Christian Coalition, downplayed China's “one-child” policy, the Washington daily reported.
Robertson told CNN's “Wolf Blitzer Reports” that although he disagreed with the policy, which has resulted in forced abortions and infanticide, China was “doing what they have to do” given its large population. He added that although he did not “agree with the forced abortion,” the U.S. should not “interfere with what they're doing internally.”
Robertson issued a “clarification” stating that he is “unalterably opposed to the policy which would result in forced abortions or sex selection.” But many conservative groups were not satisfied. Concerned Women for America issued a statement saying, “Babies are not the cause of China's problems. Communism is.”
Two More States May Consider Same-Sex ‘Marriage’
NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE , April 17 — Massachusetts and California face upcoming battles over homosexual “marriages,” the online magazine reported.
In Massachusetts, seven homosexual couples have filed a lawsuit seeking the right to same-sex marriage.
In California, activists are organizing a drive to amend the state constitution to permit same-sex marriage. Either state's actions could provoke the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether the 1997 Defense of Marriage Act, which allowed states to refuse to recognize homosexual unions performed in other states, is constitutional.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: After Outcry, Yahoo Drops Plan to Peddle Porn DATE: 04/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 29-May 5, 2001 ----- BODY:SAN DIEGO — When Susan Fay heard that Yahoo! Inc. planned to sell hard-core pornographic videos on its popular portal Web site, she didn't worry about her own children, who were grown.
She worried about San Diego County's children.
That's because Fay, a member of San Diego County's school board, knows how easy it would be for young children to stumble into lewd and obscene images while using computers in the schools that she represents.
But just as Fay was preparing her complaint to Yahoo, the company announced April 13, Good Friday, that it was abandoning its decision to sell pornography — a total reversal in just two days.
“My letter was ready to go,” said Fay. “I was very surprised that they pulled it. It was the fastest thing I've ever seen.”
Pro-family groups applauded Yahoo's decision as proof that what's good for the family is good for business.
“The pro-family movement is pro-capitalism. Companies like Yahoo provide jobs,” said Jeff Breedlove, a spokesman for the Sacramento, Calif.-based Capitol Research Institute. “Yahoo realized ‘Our customers don't want porn.’ It proves that businesses can be pro- family.”
The decision by Yahoo received significant media attention because it is one of the most recognized Internet brand names, reaching 192 million users every month.
Yahoo officials would only comment for this story through a written statement by company president Jeff Mallett.
“Many of our users voiced concerns this week about some of the products sold by merchants on Yahoo! Shopping. We heard them and swiftly responded,” Mallett said. “We consistently strive to act responsibly and constantly evaluate our policies based on what our users tell us.”
Mallett added that Yahoo no longer would renew advertising contracts with pornographic companies.
Said Breedlove, “Not only [is Yahoo] not expanding, now [it] won't renew contracts for the banners. That's a victory for God.”
Fay thinks that much of the credit for the company's quick turnaround belongs to the hard work of family groups like Capitol Resource Institute, which had sent her an e- mail about Yahoo!'s new business venture.
“They stand up for the family,” Fay said about the organization, which works with Focus on Family, run by James Dobson. “Without them, Yahoo would have just gone ahead and continued with their plans.”
Not ‘Harmless Fun’
The online pornography industry earns an annual $1.5 billion in sales. Industry experts speculate that there are as many as 1.2 million Web sites containing graphic sexual content.
But Monique Nelson, spokes- woman for Enough is Enough, an anti-pornography group based in Santa Ana, Calif., hopes the Yahoodecision will turn the tide on cyber-smut.
“It really hasn't come on the frontline, it's now conscious to people,” Nelson told the Register. “We've had other issues where people could have jumped up and said No, but they didn't. But they did this time. It was just spontaneous.”
Sister Mary Ann Walsh, deputy director of communications for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, called Yahoo's reversal a “wise decision,” because of the dangers of pornography.
“It's not harmless. Any understanding of pornography shows that it's associated with crime and denigration of people,” said Sister Walsh. “If Yahoo wants to associate with families, it doesn't want to associate with porn.”
And it turned out such a decision was bad for business, she added.
Business experts agreed. Safa Rashtchy, an analyst for U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray, told Reuters that the decision is more important for Yahoo's public perception than for financial implications. Yahoo posted revenues of just over $750 million last year. Of that, perhaps $7 million to $10 million came from pornographic sales.
After observing so much cultural decline in today's society, Fay is simply happy to have a quick and decisive victory. “We're so used to hitting a wall,” she confessed, “that I forgot that God can step in and make something like this happen.”
Josh Mercer writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: New Chance to Heal the Lefebvrist Latin Mass Schism? DATE: 04/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 29-May 5, 2001 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — The current “talks” between the Holy See and the Society of St. Pius X are not “negotiations” among two political powers, but “a dialogue for reconciliation,” according to a person close to the situation.
"One can see that they are Catholics in a situation a bit difficult; and the attempt is to get them to return to the house of the Father,” the source said.
In the past couple of months, amidst a swirl of rumors that “talks” are taking place to reunite the Lefebvrists with the Holy See, the situation has been difficult to understand. Relationships are quite delicate and all the sources contacted for this article wanted to remain anonymous. Others said they could not say a word. The Society, meanwhile, has a Web site regularly updated with the latest information.
"This is not so much about making dialogue between two powers, but rather creating a climate to arrive at pardon, the pardon of the prodigal son returning home,” one source said.
The Vatican, therefore, is handling the issue in a very sensitive manner. The Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei is the Vatican Body set up to care for traditional issues after the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre of France consecrated four bishops against the will of Pope John Paul II. Cardinal Darìo Castrillòn Hoyos, prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, is president of the Commission. His office, however, refers all inquiries about the Society to the Vatican Press Hall.
Toward the end of March, the Vatican spokesman, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, issued a three sentence statement on the alleged “negotiations” that had been taking place. His statement has been the only “official” word from the Church on the entire affair.
"I can confirm that there have been formal contacts between the Holy See and the Fraternity of St. Pius X,” said Navarro-Valls. He added, “these contacts, wished for by the Holy Father, are still in progress.”
Why is the Vatican so tight-lipped about these “contacts”? “It's because the current situation is about reconciliation” is one possible explanation given by a source familiar with the state of affairs. This person added, “Therefore you can only do this in secret, without a lot of press statements and things of that nature.”
Another source likened the situation to a husband and a wife having a disagreement: “It's better not to have opinions and rumors circulating around them, it could really make the situation worse. It must be worked out in private.”
But, despite the “no word on contacts” policy that many in the Vatican are strictly adhering to, one of the Commission's newest members made a few comments. “I wish, I hope, and I pray that the wound will be healed,” Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said recently at a book presentation in Milan, “but we still have a long way to go.”
The remarks by the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith left several people in the Vatican very surprised. Pope John Paul II appointed Cardinal Ratzinger as a member of the Pontifical Commission earlier this year along with three other top liturgical figures in the Church.
The members are the first Ecclesia Dei has had since it's inception in 1988. The appointment of the four members was the second act of great significance in the past 12 months. The first was the Pope's nomination of Cardinal Castrillón as head of the Commission.
Before these personnel changes, Ecclesia Dei was composed of an Italian Cardinal at retirement age and two monsignors, not a very hefty staff to deal with the Lefebvrist schism.
A source close to the question commented that the Pope has always had great concern for the old Mass and other traditional issues, but in the past year he made administrative moves to do something about it. Cardinal Castrillón, upon taking over as head of the commission, immediately got to work attempting to resolve the situation.
What exactly are the “traditional issues” in question? Many people, it seems, associate the Society of St. Pius X primarily with the traditional Roman Rite Mass, also called the Tridentine Mass. The group strictly adheres to celebrating the old Mass and, in fact, it might seem as though they themselves put the pre-Vatican II liturgy at the forefront of the debate.
One attendee of a traditional Roman liturgy in Rome said it was rumored that the Society had called off all “talks.” He said the reason for the cancellation was that the Lefebvists’ two requests of the Vatican have not been answered.
One “condition” is that the censure be lifted from all their bishops. The other is that all priests be allowed to celebrate the traditional Mass, even if only in private.
Satisfaction of these two conditions, however, would not be enough to bring about reunion of the Society of St. Pius X with the Holy See. The issue goes much deeper than the Mass. The objections on the part of the Society had been building for many years before 1988 and involve many different Church issues.
The Church wants the Society to address their issues from a position within the Church. So, Cardinal Ratzinger seems correct in saying that there's a long way to go and even a “hardening” on the part of the Society.
There may be some urgency to healing the divisions soon. For a church 2,000 years old, 13 years is a very fresh schism. The danger is, however, that as time goes on, the parties involved could become more polarized.
There are reasons, however, to remain optimistic. The Society's Web site has a link called “His Holiness” that “professes filial devotion and loyalty to Pope John Paul II, Successor of St. Peter and the Vicar of Christ.”
The society seemed to be putting action behind these words when some 5,000 members flooded into Saint Peter's Basilica last year for a Jubilee pilgrimage.
In the meantime, “members of the Church can pray and go about this in an ecumenical manner,” one source said. He added, “There will be wounds, but there needs to be reconciliation first, like the prodigal son, and then to eventually begin to live in brotherhood.”
John Drogin writes from Rome.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Drogin ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 04/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 29-May 5, 2001 ----- BODY:Vatican Blasts Dutch Euthanasia Law
L'OSSERVATORE ROMANO , April 12 –– Using the strongest of terms, the Vatican has criticized the Netherlands’ recent decision to legalize euthanasia, calling it abhorrent and criminal, and the doctors who perform it “butchers.”
The forceful denunciation was contained in an editorial written for the Vatican daily by Father Gino Concetti, a moral theologian whose views on euthanasia reflect those of Pope John Paul II.
"The Dutch law is worthy of condemnation and reprobation. Euthanasia is an abhorrent choice and killing a patient is a criminal gesture,’” the editorial said. “It is hard to believe how a choice which is so macabre can be called ‘civil’ and ‘humanitarian’ … Can it really be true that, at the dawn of the third millennium, there can be slaves to desperation and that one can give up the hope of life? And can a doctor legitimately take on the role of a butcher?”
The upper house of the Dutch parliament on April 10 defied thousands of protesters and voted by a clear majority to permit so-called “mercy killing,” a practice that has been tolerated in the Netherlands for over two decades.
Vatican Applauds British Pedophilia Panel
THE TIMES , April 18 –– Vatican officials have welcomed a plan by London Cardinal Archbishop Cormac Murphy-O'Connor to review the problem of pedophilia among priests in his archdiocese, the London daily reported.
Calling the plan to set up a committee chaired by a distinguished Catholic layman whose integrity and independence could not be questioned a “courageous initiative,” an unidentified Vatican spokesman told the Times that “if the recommendations prove successful, they could be applied elsewhere.”
The Vatican spokesman told the Times that the Holy See would not comment on the report's findings until they had been published in full later this year and discussed in Britain.
"In the meantime,” the spokesman said, “it is a matter for the bishops of England and Wales.” Other Vatican sources said the commit-tee's preliminary findings would be “studied with interest.”
Pope Hints at Newman Sainthood
IL MESSAGGERO , April 16 –– Pope John Paul II marked Good Friday by reading meditations and prayers composed by Cardinal John Henry Newman, the Vatican daily reported.
Those seeking to have Britain's most celebrated convert from Anglicanism declared a saint welcomed the gesture. The Pope's use of texts by Cardinal Newman (1801-1890) was partly a tribute to mark his birth 200 years ago. But it was also viewed by Vatican-watchers as a sign of the Holy Father's support for Newman's cause.
Newman came to prominence in the 1830s by leading the Oxford Movement, whose aim was to reinstate high church rituals and beliefs in the Church of England. He resigned as vicar of St Mary's, Oxford, in 1843 and was received into the Catholic Church two years later. He is perhaps best known for his writings on the Fathers of the Church, the development of doctrine and educational reforms, and for anticipating the teachings of the Second Vatican Council.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Discover the Face of the Risen One DATE: 04/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 29-May 5, 2001 ----- BODY:Register Summary
The core of the Jubilee's legacy is contemplation of the face of Christ, said Pope John Paul II at his weekly audience, April 18.
In the glory of the Easter season, this means beholding the face of Christ as the One who is risen and now alive in the Church and the world, he told 20,000 pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square.
Recalling Christ's Resurrection encounters with Mary Magdalene and the other holy women, with Peter and Paul, and with the disciples on the road to Emmaus, the Holy Father emphasized that Jesus still wants to draw near every man and woman in order to renew their sense of hope.
"After recognizing and contemplating the face of the risen Christ,” he said, “we too, like the … disciples, are invited to run to our brothers and sisters, to bring the great message to them all: ‘We have seen the Lord!‘”
Today the usual Wednesday audience is flooded with the luminous joy of Easter. During these days, the Church exultantly celebrates the great mystery of the Resurrection. This is a deep and inextinguishable joy, based on the risen Christ's gift of the new and eternal Covenant, which remains forever because he will never die again. Our joy lasts not only through the Octave of Easter, which the liturgy regards as a single day, but extends for fifty days up to Pentecost. Or better yet, it reaches out to embrace all times and all places. During this period, the Christian community is invited to a new and more thorough experience of the risen Christ, who is alive and active in the Church and the world.
In this splendid setting of the light and joy that characterize the Easter season, we now want our gaze to linger in contemplation together on the face of the Risen One, recapturing and focusing our attention on what I did not hesitate to point out as the “essential core” of the great heritage left to us by the Jubilee of the Year 2000. In fact, as I emphasized in the Apostolic Letter Novo millennio ineunte (At the Beginning of the New Millenium), “if we ask what is the core of the great legacy that the Jubilee experience leaves us, I would not hesitate to describe it as the contemplation of the face of Christ … known through his manifold presence in the Church and in the world, and confessed as the meaning of history and the light of life's journey” (No. 15).
From Sorrow to Joy
Just as on Good Friday and Holy Saturday we contemplated Christ's sorrowful face, we now turn our eyes, full of faith and grateful love, toward the face of the Risen One. The Church looks toward him during these days, following in the footsteps of Peter, who professed his love to Christ (see John 21:15-17), and in the steps of Paul, who was thunderstruck by the risen Jesus on the Damascus road (see Acts 9:3-5).
The Easter liturgy offers us various encounters with the risen Christ. These constitute an invitation to study his message in depth, and they spur us to imitate the faith journey of all those who recognized him in those first hours after the resurrection. Like the holy women and Mary Magdalene, we are impelled to urgently carry the message of the Risen One to the disciples (see Luke 24:8-10; John 20:18). The beloved disciple testifies in his own unique way that it's love that succeeds in seeing the reality signified by the signs of the Resurrection: the empty tomb, the absence of the corpse, the folded burial cloths. Love sees and believes, and it urges us to walk toward the One who bears in himself the full significance of all things — Jesus, living throughout all ages.
Our Own Emmaus Journey
In today's liturgy, the Church contemplates the face of the Risen One, by joining the journey of the two disciples of Emmaus. At the beginning of our meeting, we heard a passage from this well-known page of the Evangelist Luke.
However exhausting, the road to Emmaus leads from the sense of distress and bewilderment to the fullness of Easter faith. As we retrace this path, we too are joined by the mysterious traveling Companion. Jesus draws near to us on the road, taking us wherever we are, and asking us the essential questions that will once again open our hearts to hope. He has many things to explain concerning his destiny and ours. Above all, he reveals that every human life must pass through his Cross in order to enter into glory. But Christ accomplishes something more — he breaks the bread of fellowship for us, offering us the eucharistic table where the Scriptures acquire their full significance and reveal the unique and shining features of the face of the Redeemer.
‘We Have Seen the Lord’
After recognizing and contemplating the face of the risen Christ, we too, like the two disciples, are invited to run to our brothers and sisters to bring the great message to them all: “We have seen the Lord!” (John 20:25). “His resurrection is our rising to life” (Easter Preface II) — this is the good news that Christ's disciples never tire of bringing to the world, above all through the witness of their own lives. This is the most beautiful gift our brothers and sisters are expecting from us during this Easter season.
Let us, then, allow ourselves to be overcome by the fascination of Christ's resurrection. May the Virgin Mary help us fully savor the joy of Easter — a joy that, according to the promise of the Risen One, no one can take from us and that will never end (see John 16:23).
(Register translation)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Is Faith's End at Hand in England's Green and Pleasant Land? DATE: 04/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 29-May 5, 2001 ----- BODY:LONDON — It used to be like a second national anthem, but are the last strains of the hymn based on William Blake's poem fading in Britain?
"I will not cease from mental fight, / Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand / Till I have built Jerusalem / In England's green and pleasant land.”
Father Michael Gallagher says that the evangelical sword of Britain looks like it has slipped into a coma.
"Once when we were a Christian country, Good Friday was a public holiday, nobody ever heard of Sunday shopping and even the Anglicans had a three-hour service on Good Friday,” recalled Father Gallagher, 70, former novice master of the Norbertine Canons in Britain and now pastor of Corpus Christi Basilica in Manchester. “Now commerce has swept away the public holiday, Sunday is just another shopping day and soccer games kick off at 3 p.m. on Good Friday — the very hour of the Lord's death.”
Even the usually circumspect George Carey, archbishop of Canterbury and leader of the Anglican Communion, was reduced to stating bluntly last fall, “A tacit atheism prevails. Death is assumed to be the end of life, bleak though that thought is.”
He was reacting to the news that Anglican Sunday service attendance has dipped below 1 million for the first time.
Catholics are in a better position than Anglicans, but only slightly. They make up 11% of Great Britain's population. But a poll by the Catholic weekly magazine The Tablet found that they make up 26% of all those who regularly attend a religious service more than once a month, making the Catholic Church effectively the largest denominational churchgoing population.
The study also found that the level of religious belief among the young is relatively low. While 80% of those aged over 65 still believe that Jesus lived, only 54% of those aged 18-24 do so.
The findings also show that Muslims and Hindus, despite representing only 3% of the population, now make up 9% of all those attending religious ceremonies regularly. More Muslims may be attending a mosque each week than Anglicans attending church.
If only half of Britain's 2 million Muslims take part in regular worship, that already exceeds the number of worshippers in the so-called national church.
In a Gallup poll last year, only 38% of those questioned said they believed Jesus was the Son of God. When the same question was asked in 1957, 71% believed.
The newest research, carried out by Opinion Research Business, was conducted last month by telephone poll across Britain with 1,001 respondents.
In addition, a recent British Broadcasting Corp. Opinion Poll saw 65% of the population name Nelson Mandela as the world's most inspirational religious figure. Pope John Paul II came in fourth with 20%, Carey tied for fifth with Prime Minister Tony Blair at 14%, while Jesus Christ got only 1% of the vote, tying Gandhi, Winston Churchill and Bill Clinton.
Pagan or Secular?
Nontheless, “We have not turned our back on God,” said Jack Scarisbrick, emeritus professor of history at the University of Warwick and founder of the pro-life group Life.
"People have turned their back on Judeo-Christian morality,” he said. “We have de-Christianized our society and so much of our public life. … We have seen a consistent attack on Christian values by all parties — and Margaret Thatcher was no exception — which has been and accelerated by this present Labor Government.”
For theologians such as Catholic Times columnist Father Francis Marsden, it is that kind of thinking that has created the current mess.
He told the Register, “It is probably not accurate to call us a pagan society as nobody has taken up Wicca large-scale yet. But we are certainly a secular society. GK Chesterton once warned that some parts of Christianity would last longer than the faith as a whole, because of the dilution of doctrine, and that is what happened.”
The Catholic influence on the national moral psyche is weakened by two factors, he said.
"Catholics of all types are only 11% of the population,” said Father Marsden. “We are a minority and the form of ecumenism practiced by our bishops — although I must stress I am in favor of ecumenism — has undermined Catholic vitality.”
So what of the future? Scarisbrick argues that a Catholic Church is in an ideal position to assume the moral voice of the nation since the Anglican Church is in a long decline, but it has to keep its nerve and stick to the truth.
He says a spiritually strong, morally brave and vibrant Catholic Church will have a key role in the revival of land once called the Dowry of Mary.
Or as Father Marsden puts it, “As Catholics we have to live and teach the truth of the faith. We need a spiritual renewal in our nation and a revival in apologetics in our Church to enable young people not just to know their faith but to be able to defend it.”
Paul Burnell writes from Manchester, England .
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Paul Burnell ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 04/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 29-May 5, 2001 ----- BODY:Rome to Name First Puerto Rican Blessed
ASSOCIATED PRESS , April 12 –– A delegation of about 2,000 pilgrims will travel from Puerto Rico to Rome in late April to witness the first beatification of a Puerto Rican, the news service reported.
Bishop Ruben Gonzalez Medina will preside at a ceremony in the eastern city of Caguas on April 24 to bless the travelers going in honor of Carlos Manuel Rodríguez.
Rodríguez, who was born in Caguas in 1918 and died of cancer in 1963, is cited for interceding to cure a woman's lung cancer in 1981. The Church later recognized the cure as miraculous.
Rodríguez's cousin, Margarita Garcia Santiago, recalls that he was dedicated to God since early childhood.
"One day when he was only 2 or 3 years old –– no older than that –– his mother found him lying on the floor with his arms in the form of a cross, asking ‘Father God, take me with you to heaven,’” she told the news service.
Garcia Santiago plans to travel to Rome with Rodríguez's sister, Carmelite Sister Haydee.
"Puerto Rico has to realize that no matter what sort of atmosphere we live in,” Sister Haydee said, “if we follow the plan of God, there is no need to be burned by the evils of society.”
South Korean Christians Look North
INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE , APRIL 12 –– As North Korea cautiously begins to open its formerly locked borders, Christian groups from the South are making contact with underground Christians in the Communist north, the weekly reported.
Overtures by South Korean Christians to their co-religionists in the north are both furtive and open, the Herald Tribune said. Some smuggle tiny Bibles into the country and have set up secret way stations in China to assist and enlist the growing number of desperate Koreans who cross the border for food. Other Christian groups openly send food and other supplies to North Korea in backpacks and bags.
Despite North Korea's official policy of religious tolerance and expanded activities of the government-sanctioned churches, proselytism is still seen as a threat to the regime and can bring a death sentence. The State Department's Annual Report on International Religious Freedom for 1999 said that “genuine religious freedom does not exist” in North Korea.
Shared Easter Brings Rare Note of Unity
MOSCOW TIMES , April 16 –– Some Russians saw special significance in the joint celebration of Easter this year by Russian Orthodox and Western Christians, the daily reported. It was the first time in 11 years that the two traditions have marked the holiday on the same date.
This year's Easter is the first of the new millennium. The fact that it coincided this year with Catholic observance of the holiday caused some to press for a resolution of conflicts between the two Churches.
"Joint Easter celebrations this special year are a good sign, and yet another reminder that Christians should find a way to work together,” Metropolitan Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church told the Interfax news agency.
President Vladimir Putin added to the spirit of reconciliation on Easter with holiday greetings to the nation's Catholics, in addition to those to Orthodox believers. “With all my heart I congratulate Russia's Catholics on Easter,” the president said in his greetings. He added: “I believe that Easter celebrations will prove beneficial to the development of an interconfessional dialogue, attainment of mutual understanding and tolerance among people.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: A New Lincoln? DATE: 04/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 29-May 5, 2001 ----- BODY:There is great promise in the presidency of George W. Bush as he finishes his first 100 days in office April 30. But let there be no mistake about it: His handling of the abortion question, in his Supreme Court nominations and in his legislative agenda, will determine whether history considers Bush a great president or a mediocre one.
America's struggle with slavery is a good comparison with its current battle over abortion. Slavery was forbidden by our nation's founding principles (“all Men are created equal …”), it had a polarizing effect on the nation and was tolerated by our nation's leaders for political reasons. Abortion is also forbidden by our Declaration of Independence (“… and endowed by their Creator with … certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life”), attracts strident foes and supporters and is tolerated for fear of angering voters.
Slavery shapes the way we evaluate past presidents. Small children to this day can often name only two presidents: George Washington, because he was first, and Abraham Lincoln, because he was great.
Bush could be added to that list, if he handles the abortion issue right.
That's because it's virtually certain that, in years to come, abortion will be remembered with every bit the horror (and more) that we associate with slavery today. Science tells us more every day about the lives of the unborn. With developments like 3-D ultrasound, it will be increasingly difficult to convince the public that abortion is anything but the killing of one's children. And psychologists face the terrible damage done to abortion's other victims: the mothers who consent to it, often under intense pressure.
Bush should model his strategy on the way Lincoln handled slavery.
Lincoln always took into account the paradox of a public which 1.) had an innate moral sense that knew slavery was wrong and 2.) had an unfair but real distaste for the abolitionists who raised that moral outrage in public.
Lincoln's public statements reassured audiences that he understood their dislike of the issue — and even made that dislike itself into another reason to oppose slavery.
In an 1854 speech, he cleverly expressed his outrage over slavery as wounded patriotic pride: “I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world — enables the enemies of free institutions, with plausibility, to taunt us as hypocrites — causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity, and especially because it forces so many really good men amongst ourselves into an open war with the very fundamental principles of civil liberty — criticizing the Declaration of Independence, and insisting that there is no right principle of action but self-interest.”
Lincoln refused to make himself “better” than slavery's supporters. “They are just what we would be in their situation,” he said of Southerners.
Bush could do the same. He could argue that America ought not give China the opportunity to call us hypocrites on human rights. He could ask “pro-choice” voters to extend choices even to the unborn. He should always tell mothers under pressure that he understands their pain and wants to help.
Lincoln also spelled out what was ultimately at work in the slavery debate: “It is the eternal struggle between these two principles — right and wrong — throughout the world,” he said in 1858. “They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time; and will ever continue to struggle.”
They stand face to face today.
Which side will George W. Bush be on?
----- EXCERPT: Editorial ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 04/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 29-May 5, 2001 ----- BODY:Blessed Are the NFP Physicians
I am writing regarding the article “How Losing My Patients Saved Me,” by Dr. Fleming (April 8-14). How blessed are those doctors who practice natural family planning only, as well as their patients!
An hour away from me is a big city where couples cannot find such a doctor. My prayers are that one will come to town, or one of the doctors in the area will be converted. I can see how the Lord would reward such a faithful doctor with a thriving practice, because s/he is well wanted around here.
We have many natural family planning couples who settle, because we do not have the alternative. Couples get used to the “look” when they tell their doctor, “I practice natural family planning,” because natural family planning is mistaken for the old rhythm method.
It would be a wonderful thing for all of these couples to be able to get the support and answers they need from a knowledgeable doctor. I myself am a nurse, and will forever be grateful to the woman who introduced me to natural family planning.
Unfortunately, it wasn't in my Catholic college.
CAROLE HART, RN
Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho
Finding Faith & Family
In the April 15-21 issue, you have an article on Faith & Family magazine — but no information on how to subscribe to it!
This sounds like a magazine that all Catholic parents should subscribe to. Can you please send me some information on how I might do so?
KRIS KILIKI
Kenosha, Wisconsin
Editor's note: For a free sample issue of Faith & Family, the Register's sister publication under the umbrella of Circle Media Inc., go to www.Catholic.net. If the banner ad doesn't appear, hit “refresh” on your browser menu bar. To order by phone, call (800) 421-3230.
Catholic Classroom Chaos
In your April 15-21 issue, there is an account of a priest being thrown [out of] a Catholic school (“Pro-Life Priest Ejected From Catholic School Ceremony”). How in the world are little children expected to deal with such schools?
I did not wait for repentance on the part of similar elements in the Church and happily home-educated my four beautiful children. I am not going to ask my children to give up their freedom and faith to conform to foolishness I myself would not tolerate for one minute.
Any concerned parent can obtain academic materials surpassing those of most schools and can provide a much superior environment in a nice home, sans overcrowded classrooms, poor-quality food and peer-group programming. Families are the very best place for children to learn.
MARILYN HUNT
New Martinsville, West Virginia
Charge! Pro-life Shoppers
Hi. I love your paper! I read all of it every week. It is the only newspaper I actually enjoy reading. Thanks for all the info!
In your March 25-31 issue, there was an article about a man who started a non-profit credit-card company in which the interest paid went to pro-life affiliates.
I meant to clip the information so I could apply for the credit card, but I forgot. Can you please republish the company's contact information? Thank you so much!
LISA KERLIN
Jasper, Georgia
Editor's note: You're referring to Steve Thomas and Vitae Corp. You can call (888) 883-LIFE, e-mail vitaecorp@aol.com, visit www.-vitaecorp.com, or write Vitae Corp., P.O. Box 219, New Lenox, IL 60451.
Talkin’ ‘Bout My Generation
I was surprised to see your newspaper feature an interview with Mr. Lino Rulli (“He Has an Emmy — But Needs a Network,” March 25-31). I am quite sure that the Register understands that, in today's secular sphere, calling something “art” automatically puts it above any moral criticism. I hope that a similar trend doesn't develop in the Catholic sphere whereby profiling a person who is active in the Church automatically puts his activity above any moral criticism.
Mr. Rulli's show, “Generation Cross,” definitely features, as your interviewer put it, “footage of priests and nuns participating in activities the public doesn't associate them with.” Its year-end “best of” show featured 1.) Mr. Rulli being oiled down and massaged by an elderly nun; 2.) another nun dancing lewdly and 3.) cameramen making fun of the celibacy of Catholic seminarians.
Should the readers of the Register take your profiling of Mr. Rulli as an endorsement or recommendation of “Generation Cross”? While the content of “Generation Cross” has many fine aspects, it also scandalizes some, such as myself, in his target audience of 20- to 30-year-olds. I believe that Mr. Rulli's apostolate is in need of purification. I hope that in the future his show will be lighthearted, reach people and be sensitive to the virtue of purity.
ANDREW GLOWIK
Lynn, Massachusetts
The Father of All Foster Parents
Your recent commentary on an appropriate appellation for St. Joseph was rather disrespectful to foster parents in general (“St. Joseph: He's Not What We Call Him,” March 18-24). You imply that foster parents do not do all the things your columnist identified.
Many foster parents devote their lives to caring for unwanted children or children needing temporary but loving care. Their commitment is not “temporary.” The love and devotion of a foster parent is no more or less than that of a biological parent. They often are giving care to problem children — children with mental or physical problems who are not offered that care by any other person.
I am sure the financial compensation received by foster parents does not cover their expenditures either financially or emotionally.
The foster parent receives the same love and affection from the foster child that Mary and Joseph received from Jesus. It is my opinion that Jesus bestows untold blessings on foster parents and probably through the intercession of St. Joseph.
Just about every function or attribute you attribute to Joseph can be attributed to foster parents.
I believe that St. Joseph is proud to be identified as the foster father of Jesus.
Please be a little more understanding and compassionate in any future problems you may write in trying to enhance piety. I believe your stance needs some redirection.
WILLIAM J. HANEMAN
Levittown, Pennsylvania
Don't Dance with the Dragon
I commend the Register for its excellent editorial “Flirting With the Dragon” (April 15-21). The keen analysis of China and its totalitarian regime should be a wake-up call for all Americans and for all those throughout the world who value democracy and human rights. It is obscene and stupid that America thinks that good trade relations will convert China. China has won and will do exactly as it pleases. The Clinton policy has been a gross failure.
I urge you to send a copy of the editorial to President Bush and to every member of Congress.
GEOFFREY GNEUHS
New York
Credit Due in Alabama
The beautiful photos that ran with our April 8-14 Catholic Traveler report on the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, Ala., were taken by two Birmingham-area photographers. Shots of the shrine were by M. Lewis Kennedy. The portrait of Mother Angelica was by Hugh Hunter.
— Editor
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Beware the Embargo DATE: 04/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 29-May 5, 2001 ----- BODY:I must take vigorous exception to Tom Sawyer's (Letters, April 1-7) logic in his criticism of Leo White's commentary “Our Wrath is Righteous — But Is it Right?”
While Mr. Sawyer was disgusted with Mr. White's analogy, I think he'll find himself in opposition to our Pope John Paul II who has stated, “I insist on repeating clearly to all, once again, that no one may kill in God's name, recalling our brothers and sisters in Iraq, living under a pitiless embargo. … The weak and the innocent cannot pay for mistakes for which they are not responsible.”
What Mr. Sawyer is apparently defending is an approach which the Catholic Church has consistently denounced as evil, that is, Proportionalism — or, put another way, “Let us do evil so that good may result.”
Let me remind Mr. Sawyer that as of 1997, the UNICEF study reported that 1.2 million had died as a result of the embargo, the majority of whom were children under the age of 5. This is what our Holy Father (along with the bishops) calls killing the innocent. As for his comparison with the U.S.S.R, there may have been economic pressure there but there wasn't an all-out sanctioning causing the death of people.
Secondly, there are no signs that the sanctions are working toward their desired end. If anything, they seem to be strengthening the people's commitment to Saddam Hussein, viewing him as a victim, along with themselves, of a common enemy.
The comparison with rogue bands in Africa intercepting convoys of food as a point against sending aid to Iraq is a bad argument. By this line of logic we should-n't attempt to help the sick and starving in any troubled nation because there is no guarantee that the goods will reach their destination.
Mr. Sawyer's point on welfare nations building up their military with bad intentions is well taken. Nations’ concern for self-defense against a dictator is legitimate and the solution is a complex one, but we must pray that our leaders will find a just solution. We must staunchly reject any approach that employs sin as a means to an end.
JIM FLOOD
Baltimore
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Help Wanted: New Evangelizers ... Low Pay, Great Benefits DATE: 04/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 29-May 5, 2001 ----- BODY:Many of us spend a good part of our adult lives at our places of employment. How can Catholics put the new evangelization to work at work?
Pope John Paul II continues to remind Catholics that the Holy Spirit is summoning the Church to a “new evangelization.” He doesn't mean that the contents of the Gospel message have changed. Instead, since the world continues to change, the way the Gospel message is delivered must change as well.
In the Pope's message for World Communications Day on March 27, the Holy Father stated: “An estimated two thirds of the world's 6 billion people do not in any real sense know Jesus Christ; and many of them live in countries with ancient Christian roots, where entire groups of the baptized have lost a living sense of the faith, or no longer consider themselves members of the Church and live lives far removed from the Lord and his Gospel.”
Cardinal Francis George, the archbishop of Chicago, has explained the meaning of the “new evangelization” by contrasting it with “primary” and “secondary” evangelization. Primary evangelization involves proclaiming the Gospel in lands that have never heard the message that Jesus is Lord. Secondary evangelization, or “reevangelization,” is a call to lapsed Christians to return to Christ and the Church with renewed zeal.
The “new evangelization” is different from both of these. In the contemporary world, there are vast segments of society, once Christian to the core, whose culture is now best described as “post-Christian.” The challenge of the new evangelization is to present the Gospel message, that Jesus is Lord, in a cultural setting where faith is seen as an irrelevant relic of the past.
The new evangelization is the task of every Christian. It is not a matter for foreign missionaries. The new evangelization is directed both to individuals and to whole cultures. It involves not only presenting the basic Gospel message, but also challenging and confronting the widening “culture of death,” as John Paul has called it, as well as working to develop and deepen a culture of life.
The challenge of the new evangelization falls largely to lay Catholics in their everyday lives. Since most of us spend a good part of our adult lives working, that means giving witness to Christ in the offices, factories and other sites where we spend most of our weekday hours.
I asked Tom Lally, a businessman and a committed Catholic, how he gives witness to his faith on the job. Tom is an investment banker at a securities firm. “I don't preach at work,” he told me. “I mostly just try to live my faith and do a good job. The world needs investment bankers, and I try to be good at my job.” Since Tom is a committed Catholic, his co-workers naturally notice little things about his life.
The new evangelization is the task of every Christian.
This “wordless witness” is often the most powerful part of sharing one's faith. Pope Paul VI, in Evangelization in the Modern World , wrote that, “above all, the Gospel must be proclaimed by witness.” A life of authentic faith stirs up “irresistible questions in the hearts of those who see how the faithful live: Why are they like this? Why do they live in this way? What or who is it that inspires them?” (Evangelii Nuntiandi , No. 21).
Tom Lally confirms that co-workers sometimes ask questions that provide an opportunity to share his Catholic faith. Tom emphasizes that he works for a great company, and that he agrees with the principles of the company. Further, he really likes his co-workers. Yet, as in almost any contemporary business setting, there are times when Tom's co-workers raise questions that open the door for him to talk about his faith. “When that happens, I feel like I've got to answer them,” he says. “After all, they're the ones who started the conversation.”
He has heard all kinds of questions or comments from co-workers that invite him to share his faith. For example, when his co-workers find out that he is the youngest of six children, he is sometimes asked, “What is it like to know you were probably a mistake?” Or when a coworker has another child, he has heard others comment, “When is that guy going to get fixed?” Casual conversation by his co-workers often raises moral and religious questions. “Why don't we just nuke all those Iraqis?” “Don't those pro-lifers annoy you?” “What's with those right-wing crazies?”
When he hears these and similar comments, Tom follows the instruction of St. Peter: “Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence, keeping your conscience clear” (1 Peter 3:15-16).
For example, when co-workers raise the issue of Catholics with large families, Tom has a ready response: “Have you ever known a couple that wants to have a child but can't? They really want a baby, and they know that every child is a gift from God, not a mistake, since every human being is made in God's image.”
In addition to a wordless witness and then taking the opportunity to explain one's faith in contemporary terms, the new evangelization reaches full development when, with the grace of the Spirit, it arouses genuine adherence in the one who receives the Gospel message. Last year, 171,000 adults entered the Catholic Church. This Easter season, as thousands more Americans are becoming Catholics, we might do well to consider how we, like Tom Lally, can put the new evangelization to work at work.
Gregory R. Beabout is a philosophy professor at Saint Louis University and an adjunct scholar with the Center for Economic Personalism.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Gregory R. Beabout ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: It Is a Tangled Web They Spin DATE: 04/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 29-May 5, 2001 ----- BODY:The number of abortions has been steadily declining in the United States — yet business is booming for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the nation's largest and most aggressive abortion chain.
According to its most recent annual report, Planned Parenthood performed 182,854 abortions in 1999, its highest total ever and an increase of 8% over the previous year. That comes as no surprise. Steadily increasing its share of a shrinking market is a top goal of the organization, and ensuring and expanding “access to abortion services” remains the norm.
The theme of Planned Parenthood's slick 1999-2000 Annual Report is “Behind every choice is a story.” The corners of many pages are adorned with excerpts from grateful women “telling their stories” about their abortion experiences. But a careful reading of the numbers found in the annual report tells its own, quite different, story, as do the details of a recent botched abortion in San Francisco.
Since 1990 the annual number of abortions in the U.S. has dropped 17%, to 1.3 million. This welcome decline is due largely to a multi-pronged pro-life effort that included the passage of protective legislation, a well-conceived educational outreach and the saintly work of under-funded crisis-pregnancy centers.
By contrast, money is never a problem at Planned Parenthood. With media support to die for, abundant access to government money and tens of thousands of clients, it's always a bull market for Planned Parenthood. For 1999, the organization brought in an impressive $627.2 million. Nearly a third — $187.3 million — comes from government, slightly more than the $174.9 million Planned Parenthood takes in from “Private Contributions and Bequests.”
And, as the annual report confirms, the organization's largest revenue stream is “Clinic Income” — at $222.2 million. As its most common “surgical procedure,” abortion garnered Planned Parenthood at least $54 million in 1999, based on an estimated average price of $296 for a first-trimester abortion. That is a very conservative estimate, because we know some of those 182,854 abortions are the more expensive, later abortions which some clinics perform. Thus, at a minimum, aborting unborn babies accounted for nearly one-quarter of Planned Parenthood's lucrative clinic business.
Expensive Euphemisms
Planned Parenthood's rhetoric, parroted in the annual report, would have you believe that the organization offers a broad range of medical services. Yet in 1999 it saw only about one-tenth as many prenatal clients (19,281) as abortion clients — and made only 2,999 adoption referrals. These huge disparities proved once again that Planned Parenthood's plans don't typically involve parenthood.
Where does all this money go? Nearly two-thirds (65%) of Planned Parenthood's 1999-2000 budget was spent on “Medical Services” ($367.5 million), with the rest of its domestic expenses going to “Sexuality Education” ($31.8 million), “Public Policy” ($20.9 million), “Services to Affiliates” ($15.8 million) and “Services to the Field of Family Planning” ($15.8 million).
The huge disparities in profitability between various 'services’ prove that Planned Parenthood's plans don't typically involve parenthood.
The annual report also indicates that Planned Parenthood spent $5.6 million on “International Family Planning Programs.” This funds the Family Planning International Assistance program, which “supports organizations that are committed to providing underserved populations” with, among other services, “safe abortion services for unintended pregnancies.” Planned Parenthood says its International Assistance programs performed 1,305 abortions in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 2,908 abortions in Africa.
Planned Parenthood's annual report even solicits responses on a detachable postcard: “Tell us your story … make it count!” women are instructed.
However, some of the most important details of Planned Parenthood's “stories” are left out of the picture painted by the publication. For instance, when detailing its efforts to derail Nebraska's ban on partial-birth abortions (eventually struck down by the Supreme Court), Planned Parenthood never talks about the partial-birth abortions. The omission is not surprising, since these abortions are so stomach-turning even hardened proabortionists blanch.
The annual report also discusses Planned Parenthood's support of fetal-tissue research. While the organization may be excused for leaving out news of the devastating side effects from fetal stem-cell transplants, widely reported in the mainstream press, there is no excuse for failing to mention the fact that some of its clinics have a vested financial interest in fetal-tissue research. They collect “rent” from fetal-tissue collectors who set up shop on Planned Parenthood premises and use aborted babies supplied by Planned Parenthood.
Death and Dismemberment Deleted
One woman's story is sure to be left out of next year's annual report. Known only as “J.B.,” a California woman won a $672,610 settlement last February for a botched 1997 abortion that left one of her twin unborn children alive. The second mutilated baby was aborted more than two months later, when — after repeatedly being told that everything was normal — the 28-year-old mother discovered she was still pregnant. J.B. had undergone an abortion at the Planned Parenthood Golden Gate clinic in San Francisco. When she returned for a checkup, she was told that “she was fine, there were no complications,” her attorney, Chris Dolan, told the Washington Times .
Still feeling pregnant, J.B. called the clinic several times. She demanded a pregnancy test, the San Francisco Examiner reported and, on February 18, 1998, a urine test showed there was still an unborn baby in her womb.
Since the pregnancy was now well into the second trimester, Planned Parenthood Golden Gate gave J.B. a list of late-term abortion providers, made an apology, “and shooed her out the door,” Dolan told the Examiner . At Buena Vista Women's Center, a sonogram showed J.B. that her second baby was still alive. But one arm and one leg had been sliced off during the first abortion, the one that took the life of the twin's sibling.
Dolan told the Washington Times that J.B. had been thinking of keeping the second baby until she saw the sonogram. “She sees the ultrasound and has an emotional collapse,” said Dolan, according to the Examiner . “She has to go through a three-day procedure to terminate the fetus’ life, something that absolutely wrecks her.”
"It's definitely going to be appealed,” Lynn Stocker, attorney for the abortion clinic, told the Examiner . “Planned Parenthood disagrees with the verdict, and we will be appealing.”
Whether or not she receives the money, J.B. will need a long time to recover from her ordeal. Dolan said that since the abortions she “has been haunted by visions of babies being killed, has contemplated suicide, and cries uncontrollably at the sight of young children — especially twins.”
The pages of Planned Parenthood's annual report are peppered with the images of celebrities happy to lend their support. Here are actresses Kathleen Turner and Blythe Danner; there's comedian Al Franken. On another page, it's R&B singer Ginuwine, then author John Irving, creator of the pro-abortion paean The Cider House Rules . No doubt the idea was to imbue Planned Parenthood's cause and activities with an aura of hipness and glamour.
Yet no amount of glitz and glamour, no amount of spin or stories, can change this basic fact: Planned Parenthood is American's leading promoter and performer of the destruction of innocent human life.
Randall K. O'Bannon is education director for National Right to Life.
Dave Andrusko is editor of National Right to LifeNews .
----- EXCERPT: Planned Parenthood's slick annual report can't hide the tale the numbers tell ----- EXTENDED BODY: Randall K. O'Bannon ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Loving the Culture Out of its Attachment to Homosexuality DATE: 04/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 29-May 5, 2001 ----- BODY:If we don't understand the truth about homosexuality, we can't respond intelligently, prudently and compassionately to the popular culture's efforts to legitimize homosexual acts.
So says Christopher Wolfe, a professor of political science at Marquette University in Milwaukee and president of the American Public Philosophy Institute, in a new book he has edited for Spence Publishing, Same-Sex Matters: The Challenge of Homosexuality .
The philosophical stance of this work is essentially Catholic. That is, all its contributing writers — an impressive group of social scientists, religious leaders, educators, political analysts and cultural observers — take the position that sex-same attractions are fundamentally disordered, and that homosexual acts are intrinsically immoral.
Collectively, the writers make Wolfe's case that we are in the midst of an enormous cultural struggle over homosexuality. Wolfe believes that, while many Americans privately consider homosexuality a disorder, some for religious and some for intuitive reasons (“it just doesn't seem right”), relatively few of those individuals are actually able to defend their position in the public square. The book succeeds in providing arguments from a variety of perspectives.
For example, in a chapter titled “A Rhetoric of Hope,” Lawrence Burtoft offers a fascinating historical review of the media's inaccurate reporting of scientific evidence. In particular, he details the ongoing media distortion and scientific dishonesty that has promoted the idea that homosexuality is biologically predetermined. The result, of course, is that most Americans have now accepted the false idea advanced by homosexual activists that homosexuals are born that way and cannot change. This misinformation must be countered, Burtoft argues.
In its place must be the declaration that homosexuality is potentially preventable and also treatable, regardless of the nature and extent of the conditions which led some people into it. Further, even in those cases where there may be biological factors creating a homosexual predisposition, that would still not change the moral status of homosexual activity.
Similarly, we do not condone drinking by some people because they suffer with an alcoholism gene, or violence by people born with a gene for aggression, or the social withdrawal of people born with a shyness gene.
Film critic and author Michael Medved explains why we now have such a flood of “gay” material in the popular media. In Hollywood, he says, one is required to be gay-affirming — or else be labeled homophobic, and the burden of proof that one is not homo-phobic rests with each individual, forcing producers to promote gay characters that are almost uniformly (and unrealistically) positive.
Next, reviewing the pop-cultural landscape, Robert Knight of the Family Research Council concludes that the strongest threat to the gay-rights movement is the ex-gay movement. This movement directly confronts the untruth that “homosexuals are so different from the rest of us that they are exempt from natural law,” (that is, designed differently by God), or “so warped by sin that they are unqualified for salvation and spiritual renewal” (so that change is an impossibility).
Robert Louis Wilkin takes apart the revisionist scholarship of the influential homosexual apologist Rev. John Boswell, whose work has received lavish praise from many religious leaders seeking theological justification for the blessing of same-sex partnerships. Wilkin exposes Boswell's distortions and misrepresentations of Christian practice and history.
Rabbi Barry Freundel offers a brief but insightful review in his chapter on homosexuality and Judaism. “What is Judaism's view of the homosexual individual?” he asks. “I contend that the only appropriate answer to this question is that there is no such individual,” is his answer. “We are told in the Talmud that [God] does not play tricks on his creations, particularly in the area of sexuality.” Therefore it would follow that God would provide some means to change for those individuals who are motivated to do so.
Father John Harvey, founder of the Catholic ministry Courage, describes his work as head of the only national Catholic outreach established for struggling homosexuals who want to live the Church's teaching on chastity.
Jane Boyer tells us of her former lesbian life and her faith-based healing. “Lesbian love is a counterfeit, a lie,” she says. “It never satisfied, it never filled. It only left me craving. The love of Jesus satisfies. This man Jesus I could trust.”
Former Army officer Melissa Wells-Petry explains that the military has been weakened by a focus on radical sexual individualism. Military readiness is undermined when the individual's personal desires are placed above the military mission, and when we fail to recognize that the military is a unique society which must operate by relatively restrictive rules that leave no room for sexual license.
In the book's afterword, Wolfe discusses the labels “bigotry” and “intolerance” and their deployment as rhetorical weapons. He shows how homosexual activists have successfully promoted the misunderstanding that to oppose their agenda is to create an atmosphere of hatred and violence.
"Hatred, by its nature,” he writes, “involves an animus against certain people — an intention to do them harm or a desire to see them harmed. Those who oppose the legitimization of active homosexuality, who promote reparative therapy for those willing to pursue it, and who believe that the place of sex is within marriage clearly argue that these principles will make life better for individuals — be they homosexual or not — as well as for society at large.”
Not only do the contributors of Same-Sex Matters make a reasoned case for these positions, but many of them have dedicated their lives to helping homosexually oriented individuals through counseling or support groups.
"This,” Wolfe points out, “is the very opposite of ‘hatred.’”
Read this book and begin loving the culture out of its unhealthy attachment to homosexuality.
Joseph Nicolosi, Ph.D., a psychologist, is president of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Nicolosi ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Pro-Abortion Marchers Urge Their Case, Too DATE: 04/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 29-May 5, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON – A line of mostly women marched past the U.S. Supreme Court and around the U.S. Capitol arguing that the legality of abortions is in serious peril because of potential pro-life nominations to the Supreme Court this summer.
"We need you here in Washington more often,” Kate Michelman, president of National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, told the crowd before the march, “to make sure that no nominee that isn't pro-choice, pro-gay, pro-environment, pro-gun control gets confirmed.”
"This is a civil right. This is a human right. This is your right,” said Gloria Feldt, president of Planned Parenthood, the organization responsible for committing the most abortions in the United States.
The march kicks off a four-year campaign to challenge the views of President George W. Bush.
"The man who in 1998 declared he would do everything in his power to restrict abortion now has a great deal more power and he clearly intend to use it,” said Patricia Ireland, president of the National Organization for Women, which lead the march. She cited Bush's executive order banning taxpayer subsidies for abortions overseas and the appointments of Attorney General John Ashcroft and Health Secretary Tommy Thompson as proof.
In the route of the march, pro-life counter-protestors gathered outside the U.S. Supreme Court with signs reading “Face it, abortion kills.”
"We are here today to repudiate the silly notion that the National Organization for Women speaks for all women, or even a majority of women,” said Katie Mahoney, spokeswoman for the Christian Defense Coalition. “We reject the cleverly disguised reference to freedom that claims our 'reproductive lives’ include the killing of our own children.”
Mahoney noted that early feminists were as opposed to abortion as they were slavery and inequality. “Alice Paul, author of the original Equal Rights Amendment, said in 1923, ‘Abortion is the ultimate exploitation of women.”
Wendy Wright, spokeswoman for Concerned Women for America, said that today's self-proclaimed feminists aren't fighting for women at all.
"'Reproductive rights’ is a misnomer, as these radical feminist groups do nothing to help women who want to reproduce,” said Wright. “In fact, they are fighting — not on behalf of women — but for abortionists, most of whom ironically are male.”
When the pro-abortion marchers walked past the pro-life counter-protesters, they began shouting, “Pro-life is a lie; you don't care if women die.” Signs with vulgarities or references to genitalia were not uncommon among the abortion supporters.
Erik Whittington, a spokesman for Rock for Life, was unimpressed with the size of the abortion march. He noted that this year's March for Life, held in January, was so packed that it filled an entire street for sixteen blocks, whereas this abortion rally walked on just one side of the street, and was thinly-sparsed over six blocks.
"Sure they got 3,000 people,” Whittington told the Register. “But we have 75,000 every year for over 20 years and what kind of press do we get?”
After the march, abortion supporters gathered on the Mall and listened to more speakers as well as entertainers. Folk singer Sandy Rapp dedicated a song to the “Roman Catholic hierarchy.” The lyrics included, “White men in black dresses/Be afraid of the all” and “These men in high places/have blood on their hands.”
Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, archbishop of Washington, focused on mercy and trust in a prayer service at St. Peter's Catholic Church during the rally, located just two blocks from the Supreme Court building.
"We pray for conversion for ourselves and for those in need of forgiveness and mercy for their involvement in abortion,” said Cardinal McCarrick.
He reminded counter-protesters that they have an obligation to treat others with the same love that God has for his people.
"There is no limit to God's mercy, so there shouldn't be any limit to our mercy — even for those who are most vocal against the Gospel of Life,” he said. The timing of the abortion march caught the cardinal's attention.
"It is ironic that those who aren't with us today have chosen this day, Mercy Sunday,” said McCarrick. “This is a day for us to pray deeply. We should trust in his love for us, in his love for those involved in the sin of abortion, for all of us who are sinners.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Mysteries of Santa Fe DATE: 04/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 29-May 5, 2001 ----- BODY:If you're planning to visit Santa Fe, be sure to take along a copy of Willa Cather's novel Death Comes for the Archbishop.
It's the best preparation you could have to understand the silences and simplicity of the Southwestern desert.
Cather tells the tale of Bishop Jean Latour and Father Joseph Machebeut (based on the lives of Bishop Jean Baptiste L'Amy and Father Joseph Vaillant) as they struggle in the 1850s to set up a new Catholic diocese among the Mexican, Hopi and Navajo inhabitants.
How well the real pair succeeded is evidenced by the town's original name — “The Royal Town of the Holy Faith [Santa Fe ] of St. Francis” — and by the numerous shrines and churches in the area. Indeed, the first thing that greets you in the city center is a statue of St. Francis of Assisi, the city's patron, and one of Bishop L'Amy in front of St. Francis Cathedral. The cathedral houses the oldest Marian shrine in the United States, that of Our Lady of Conquering Love (Conquistadores) brought here by Spanish conquerors in 1626.
This fascinating city of only 60,000, the capital of New Mexico, is the oldest capital city in the country. It sits at an elevation of 7,000 feet above sea level in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo (Blood of Christ) mountains. Of the 19 Native American communities in the state, eight are near Santa Fe — Pueblo Indian tribes living in settlements called pueblos. There are simple parish churches in most pueblos. Each has its own patron saint and holds colorful festivals on the appropriate feast day. Visitors can tour the pueblos but must stick to a protocol that respects the culture and life of its inhabitants.
The decor and design of church architecture also reflects the strong Mexican-Spanish culture of the original colonizers. The Church's pervasive influence is seen in as simple a thing as the visor on the local tour bus, unabashedly displaying pictures of the Sacred Heart and Our Lady of Guadalupe. Even the hotel in which I stayed, the pueblo-style Inn of the Anasazi, was blessed by the Franciscans on the day it opened in 1990.
In my room, a guest booklet explained the presence, and asked guests to be respectful, of the crosses and religious motifs used in the hotel as decorations.
St. Joseph Was Here?
A world-famous religious phenomenon exists in Santa Fe. In 1873 the Sisters of Loretto, brought here as teachers in 1852 by Bishop L'Amy, wanted to build a chapel. Today that chapel is a museum surrounded by The Inn at Loretto (the convent was converted into a hotel). Modeled on Sainte Chapelle in Paris, it was the first Gothic building west of the Mississippi. Inside the its walls rises a miracle — a circular staircase 24 feet high with 33 steps winding in two complete, 360-degree turns with no supporting pole down its center. Architects and engineers from around the world have examined the staircase and can find no explanation as to how it got there or how it manages to stay there — with its entire weight on its base and no center or side supports
The Sisters of Loretto think there's a perfectly reasonable explanation. After the chapel was built, they realized there was no passageway connecting the choir loft to the church. Because the loft was so high, carpenters said the only solution was to use a ladder or rebuild the balcony. The sisters prayed to St. Joseph, the master carpenter, for a solution. On the last day of a novena in 1878, an elderly man on a donkey appeared at the door asking to help. Aided only by a saw, T-square and hammer, he built this complex staircase using only wooden pegs and no nails. The staircase is made of a hardwood unknown in that section of the United States. It is spliced in seven places on the inside and nine on the outside, each piece forming part of a perfect curve.
As suddenly as he appeared, the man left after his task was done. He never asked to be paid and no one ever found out his name. To this day, the sisters are convinced the nameless carpenter was St. Joseph.
Other unique chapels and shrines are to be found just outside Santa Fe. El Sanctuario de Chimayo, the “Lourdes of America,” is known as a place to experience peace and restfulness. The village of Chimayo, where one finds many weaving galleries and craft shops, possesses a marked Spanish flair.
One visitor described the sanctuary here as “a church built as graceful as a flower swaying in the summer breeze, nested in a valley protected by wild berry trees.” The land is painted in tones of muted pinks, blues, grays and sand which so inspired artist Georgia O'Keeffe. The shrine was built in 1816 after a local man found a crucifix — Our Lord of Esquipulas — in the ground.
After he dug up the cross, the man contacted a local priest, who took it to his existing church. The next morning, the crucifix had disappeared; soon it was discovered buried in its original location. Twice more it was moved and mysteriously reappeared next morning in the ground. The message was clear. It was to remain where it was found, and a chapel was built in that spot. The chapel, privately owned until 1929, was eventually turned it over to the archdiocese. By then, it had become known as the Lourdes of America because of the 300,000-plus people who visit each year seeking to be healed.
Wall of Wonder
The interior of the shrine contains five colorful panels of sacred art, one of which is the reredos around the altar. A wooden carving of a man on horseback represents the beloved saint of the Spanish, St. James, or Santiago. If you visit, be sure get here by midafternoon since they close precisely at the stroke of closing time (4 p.m. in the winter and 6 p.m. in the summer).
At Rancho de Taos, another religious “mystery” exists. In the adobe-style parish hall of San Francisco de Asis hangs a painting, The Shadow of the Cross , by Henri Ault. Painted in 1896, several years before radium was discovered, it depicts Jesus standing barefoot on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.
First, visitors see the painting in a lit room. Then the lights are turned out. I watched in wonder as, astonishingly, after the painting had been sitting in darkness for about 10 minutes, the figure changed posture. As well, a cross appeared over the right shoulder of Our Lord which was not visible in daylight. The sea and the sky behind him took on a glow that suggested moonlight. The light didn't remain constant, but varied in color from light blue to green. The attendant told me it gets brightest around midnight.
The artist, when questioned, stated that he has no idea why the painting does this, since there's never been a luminous paint developed that will not darken and oxidize within a short time. The painting has been subjected to extensive tests (floodlights to try to induce florescence, Geiger counters) by famous scientists as it traveled on exhibition for over 50 years — including the St. Louis World's Fair of 1904 — before finding a permanent home in New Mexico, yet no natural explanation can be found.
These are but a few of the wonderful works of faith found in Santa Fe and its environs. In addition, the numerous galleries for which the city is famous display many paintings and sculptures that are Catholic in content and theme. The impressive Palace of the Governors museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, which also contain some religious art, are both free to visitors on Fridays.
Santa Fe has been likened to a “Georgia O'Keeffe painting set to prose.” I believe that's an apt description of a city named after the faith of a great saint who was so in tune with the beauty of God's creation — a city that constantly proclaims the handiwork of its creator.
Lorraine Williams is based in Markham, Ontario.
----- EXCERPT: The silence and wonder of the nation's oldest capital ----- EXTENDED BODY: Lorraine M. Williams ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: No Rest for the Frugal DATE: 04/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 29-May 5, 2001 ----- BODY:Is the free lunch over on the Internet?
An obvious rule of thumb for a business is that it must eventually make a profit, or at least break even, to survive. Many free services on the Internet had investors behind them, holding them afloat until they turned a profit from their banner ads. When the profits failed to materialize, the investors pulled out and the services collapsed. Others are now subsisting by putting limitations on their free services and offering full features to paying customers only.
Some of the free services I have been using have adopted this method to continue to operate. For instance, I have been using Free Merchant (freemerchant.com) for our online bookshop. When I signed up, they offered very good templates for setting up an online storefront, along with shopping- cart software, a secure transaction connection and other impressive features. Their banner advertising was only displayed to me as a user, not on our storefront. Everything was going along fine until I received the following notification: “If you are currently using the Totally Free package, you will need to register for a new package if you would like to continue to have access to the secure shopping cart beyond Feb. 26.”
Now the “new package” referred to here is a “paid package.” I really didn't have much choice — an online store without a secure shopping cart is almost useless. People will not buy things with a credit card online unless the transaction is secure. Fortunately, Free Merchant's monthly fees were reasonable.
Here's another example. Our message boards on ezboard (ezboard.com) have been free. But the owner of the service recently warned users that unless they start patronizing his advertisers, the service could go under. Now I must admit I almost never click on a banner advertisement. But since this was a good service, I thought it worthwhile to do my part to keep it both alive and free of charges. So I visited one of the advertiser sites and began to pay a small, non-monetary price: being sent junk e-mail.
Apparently not enough other people responded to the ezboard appeal. A follow-up message said, “‘We never know the worth of water till the well is dry.’ … We have provided all this excellent customer service at absolutely no cost to you, relying on advertising to generate revenue. Times have changed, and to survive, we must change with them. … In order to continue to provide top-notch customer service, we need contributions from people like you who realize the intrinsic value of ezboard and our personalized, efficient support. Please take the time now to become a Community Supporter, and ensure the future of your ezboard communities.” This translates to $15 every six months — not a bad deal, so I don't mind paying.
Free, unlimited Internet access is also now much harder to come by than it was the last time I reported on it in the Register. NetZero (netzero.com), for instance, now restricts users to 40 hours each month. Kmart and Y a h o o ’ s BlueLight Internet access (blue-light.com) had a service announcement that went like this: “Dear Subscriber, beginning this week, you'll be enrolled in our new BlueLight Basic Free Internet Service. Now you can get online and explore the Web for 12 free hours per month. Don't worry, the change is automatic.”
It sounds like they are doing you a favor going from unlimited to limited access, doesn't it? Of course, if you want more time online, you have to sign up for “BlueLight Premium Internet Service.” This offers 100 hours for $9.95 per month.
The need to make money puts pressure on other Internet services we have come to rely on. Sometimes, they feel they need to do things we may not like. GoTo (goto.com), for example, appears on your screen like any other search engine. Yet, as reported by Danny Sullivan from The Search Engine Report : “While GoTo does have some editorial-style non-paid results which come from Inktomi, most of its top listings will be dominated by advertiser links.” Searching GoTo using the word “insurance,” one finds links ranked by how much each insurance company paid to advertise.
Now I don't know about you, but when I search for information, I want the emphasis on links that are the most relevant to my search — not on the ones that paid the most to be there.
AltaVista (altavista.com), one of the oldest search engines, has had to lay off many employees to survive. They provide space for sponsored listings at the bottom of the first page of search results. This helps them make money. Other search engines, such as Google (google.com), will put a sponsored link at the top. Lycos (lycos.com) puts what it calls “Featured Listings” at the top of their search results. Now this is fine, as it is fairly obvious that such listings are paid for. But as pressure to make money increases, thanks partly to a sluggish economy, we may find that more and more search engines are turning to paid advertising links at the top of their results pages. Not something I'm looking forward to!
So is the free lunch over? Not yet, but what you can get at no cost is clearly dwindling. If you are hooked on a free service, you may be soon paying for it if you want to continue enjoying the same features and the same level of service.
Must-See Sites
This month's picks focus on free Catholic stuff:
> “My Catholic Prayer Book and Study Guide for Windows” is a free “PrayerWare” program put together by David Sayre. If you like the program, the author only asks that you pray it for him one time, or for the intentions of the Sacred Heart, or the intentions of the Holy Father this month, or for the unborn. Go get it at http://showcase.netins.net/web/cl earlight/praybk10.html . (Note: no www after http://.)
l Faith of Our Fathers Catholic apologetics and living site offers “The Electric Holy Card Kiosk” at http://users.black-hole.com/-users/maloney/electric.htm . The Divine Word Fathers have also put together an impressive array of “Holy eCards” at www.svdca.com/design/cards.html .
l The Catholic Community Forum, put together by Liturgical Publications of St. Louis, at www.catholic-forum.com/community.html , offers not only free “Multimedia Holy Cards,” but also free Web sites. l How about virtual-rosary software for your Mac, Palm or Windows operating system? Go to http://-vrm.virtualave.net/index.htm .
Brother John Raymond is the author of Catholics on the Internet: 2000-2001 and Web master of www.monksofadoration.org.
----- EXCERPT: Is the Web's well of freebies running dry? ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brother John Raymond ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 04/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 29-May 5, 2001 ----- BODY:The Song of Bernadette (1943)
Christianity was once big box office. Back then Hollywood championed simple faith and the power of miracles that come from God. The Oscar-winning The Song of Bernadette , based on Franz Werfel's novel, is a neglected masterwork of that era. Director Henry King (The Gunfighter ) reverently dramatizes the story of Bernadette Soubirous (Jennifer Jones), a peasant girl who has a vision of the Virgin Mary in a grotto at Lourdes, France, in 1858.
Our Lady instructs her to dig at the grotto for a spring with water that will heal the sick. The local mayor (Aubrey Mather) and the imperial prosecutor (Vincent Price) scheme to undermine her credibility. Only her mother (Anna Revere) and a local priest (Charles Bick-ford) take her side. After an episcopal commission and the emperor accept as genuine her vision and the healings that follow, Bernadette enters a convent where her humility and charity win over a hostile nun (Gladys Cooper). Skeptics may find the action slow-paced and sentimental. Believers will be moved to tears.
Napoleon (1927)
Great political figures often have a sense of personal destiny that's a mixture of individual ambition and national purpose. It's usually less reflective and more ego-driven than a Christian's belief in God's plan for him. This silent-movie classic is an epic study of an idealistic military genius who's driven by a contradictory set of motives that coalesce around a single-minded desire for power.
Writer-director Abel Gance sees this Corsican-born dictator-general as conscious of his special place in history beginning with his studies at a French boarding school run by Catholic priests.
Using innovative techniques like quick-cutting montage and double exposures, the filmmaker imaginatively chronicles Napoleon's early years — his rise from officer in the French Revolution to emperor. “I am the revolution,” the Corsican proclaims in a characteristic display of hubris.
42 Up (1999)
Some people believe a person's character is formed by age 7. In 1964 a British TV network embarked on a documentary film project to find out the truth of this adage. It selected a small group of children of that age and determined to interview them every seven years for the rest of their lives.
The latest installment is “42 Up,” which revisits the subjects as they enter early middle age. Director Michael Apted sets them down for a series of 10- to 15-minute interviews that are intercut with previous footage.
The results are often surprising. We learn that a longtime bachelor has settled down, teaching in a Catholic school and married to a fellow instructor, and that a former homeless man has found a place in the world through his friendship with a fellow interviewee. But despite the diversity of careers and personal lives, England is shown to be a place where class background still matters.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 04/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 29-May 5, 2001 ----- BODY:SUNDAY, APR. 29
Putting People First
EWTN, 8 p.m.
Steven Mosher of the Population Research Institute in Front Royal, Va., the courageous scholar who exposed Red China's forced-abortion program, uses facts to prove “over-population” is a myth. He offers remedies for today's loss of love for children, and he exposes abortion and contraception as weapons against poor people and minorities around the world. This, the first installment in a series of three eye-opening specials set to run on consecutive Sundays, will be rebroadcast Thursday, May 3, at 1 p.m. and Friday, May 4, at 3 a.m. and 10 p.m.
MONDAY, APR. 30
The Story of Knock
EWTN, 9 p.m.
This 20-minute show depicts the wordless visit of Our Lady, St. Joseph and St. John, along with the Lamb of God standing on an altar, to Catholic parishioners in oppressed and hunger-beset County Mayo, Ireland, on the rainy evening of Aug. 21, 1879. The program also shows the reverence of present-day pilgrims. Pro-life singer Dana (Rosemary Scallon) presents beautiful Marian hymns.
TUESDAY, MAY 1
Fr. Groeschel: St. Joseph
EWTN, 6 a.m.
In this 30-minute show on the feast of St. Joseph the Worker, Franciscan Friar of the Renewal Father Benedict Groeschel explains the dignity of labor, the function of work in our lives, and the great virtues St. Joseph exemplified as foster father and breadwinner of the Holy Family. To be rebroadcast at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m.
TUESDAY, MAY 1
History's Mysteries: The Search for Noah's Ark
History Channel, 8 p.m.
The “History's Mysteries” series kicks off a slate of “All-Ancient May” programs with a brand-new episode that chronicles Ark expeditions, pictures possible sites on Mount Ararat and interviews archaeologists and Bible scholars.
TUESDAY, MAY 1
Fat and Happy?
PBS; check local listings for time
The twin dangers of obesity and a sedentary life give many people heart problems and diabetes sooner or later, so it behooves each of us to eat less and be more active.
THURSDAY, MAY 3
Ocean Wilds: Sperm Whale Oasis
PBS; check local listings for time
This is the second in a five-part series on ocean creatures that is airing on successive Thursdays. Naturalist-diver-cinematographer Feodor Pitcairn travels to the eastern Atlantic for a real coup: Off the Azores, he goes diving among rarely observed sperm whales for incredible film shots.
SATURDAY, MAY 5
The White Dove of Peace
EWTN, 8 p.m.
This is Part I of a new four-part series to air on successive Saturdays at 8 p.m. (Each segment is 90 minutes.) This series offers a Catholic perspective on English history. It supplies historical drama as well as stirring music and striking landscapes. Each episode is to be rebroadcast the following Wednesday at 1 p.m. and the following Thursday at 3 a.m. and 10 p.m.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: All times Eastern ----- EXTENDED BODY: Daniel J. Engler ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Student Sues to Wear 'Straight Pride'Shirt DATE: 04/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 29-May 5, 2001 ----- BODY:WOODBURY, Minn. — Elliot Chambers and his sister thought their new shirts were “cool.”
The shirts, which they had bought from an Internet vendor, read, “Straight Pride,” with restroom-style outlines of a man and a woman holding hands. Elliot's mother Lana said the shirts were meant to promote “not just the heterosexual lifestyle, but Christian abstinence before marriage.” They certainly weren't meant to spark a lawsuit.
The Chambers children wore their shirts to school twice without incident. But the third time Elliot, 16, wore his to Woodbury High School, a few students complained that the shirt was offensive. The next day, Elliot was called into the office of Dana Babbitt, the principal, and told not to wear the shirt anymore.
Lana Chambers said Babbitt told her that her son's shirt “might incite violence” by provoking a homosexual student to attack Elliot. “I said, ‘If you've got a homosexual that will violently attack our son, why don't you discipline those kids when it happens?’” Chambers said.
The Chambers’ daughter, who attends middle school, was not asked to stop wearing her shirt.
Elliot e-mailed the Web site where he bought the shirt and told the site what had happened. The site's owner suggested that the Chambers contact the American Family Association. They did — and ended up filing a lawsuit against the high school, charging that their son's First Amendment rights were being suppressed.
The U.S. Supreme Court has protected political speech at public high schools in the past, as in the 1969 Tinker v. Des Moines case, in which the court ruled that students could protest the Vietnam War by wearing black arm-bands to their public high school.
Jim Gelbmann, a member of the school board, wrote an editorial in the St. Paul Pioneer Press defending principal Babbitt's decision. “Instead of being sued, Woodbury school officials should be commended,” Gelbmann said. “School officials have a moral and legal obligation to protect the health and safety of all students.”
Gelbmann said that Elliot's shirt could disrupt the educational process. He said that other clothing, such as shirts with beer or alcohol logos, pictures of weapons, or Confederate flags, are also prohibited, and added, “the same policy would be enforced against a student wearing a ‘Gay Pride’ sweatshirt.”
Lana Chambers says that's not true: “Woodbury High School is really promoting a radical homosexual agenda.” She pointed to the signs posted in 48 classrooms labeling the rooms “safe zones.” The signs feature a pink triangle and the statement that “gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender” students should feel comfortable discussing their sexuality with staff members there.
Chambers said, “The public school that I'm paying tax dollars to support is undermining the moral training I'm doing at home.” She charged that the school's staff offered to refer troubled children to outside counselors or groups, including homosexual activist groups.
Gelbmann argued, “Issues relating to sexuality account for only a small fraction of the concerns discussed in the 'safe rooms.’” He said that they were necessary because not all students can “turn to their families” in “times of personal crisis.”
Chambers dismissed the claim that the “safe zones” and clothing regulations are necessary to prevent harassment.
"I don't advocate any kid being taunted or harassed for any reason,” she said. “But my son and daughter get ridiculed all the time because they're still virgins.” Elliot told the Straight Pride Web site that he had been hissed at and spit upon for wearing his shirt.
Lana Chambers said, “I don't see them setting up a safe zone for him.”
Like her son, Lana Chambers is ready for a fight: “Actually, the shirt should say 'Straight and narrow pride,’” she said.
"That would make a lot of people mad. So you're promoting narrow-mindedness? Well, when it comes to sexual morality, I sure do.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Breaking With Luther, Returning to Rome DATE: 04/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 29-May 5, 2001 ----- BODY:There We Stood, Here We Stand: Eleven Lutherans Rediscover their Catholic Roots by Timothy Drake First Books, 2001 182 pages, $9.95
"Why become Catholic? To become more fully who I was as a Lutheran,” writes Father Richard John Neuhaus, once a Lutheran pastor, now a Catholic priest, in the foreword to this collection of conversion testimonies.
Register features correspondent Tim Drake says he decided to compile this volume because Catholic apologetics books featuring conversion stories abound — but none he knew of specifically focus on the testimonies of Lutherans — those whose “journey home” began, figuratively speaking, in Wittenberg.
Making the transition can be a lonely, difficult journey, adds Drake. He hopes this book will serve as a resource for Lutherans contemplating a shift to Rome while also aiding Catholics whose faith might be strengthened through the passages of people who take Church teachings seriously. Indeed, pastors, priests, seminarians, RCIA leaders and their students could all benefit from exposure to these sometimes painful, always fruitful narratives. Every convert has a singular story to tell.
Struggle and doubt infuse many of these testimonies, but bitterness or resentment are not to be found here. All contributors are grateful for what they received in the Lutheran communion, yet each was intuitively led to find something more. Father Neuhaus, editor in chief of the monthly journal First Things , writes: “I am immeasurably grateful for all the grace of God I knew and I shared as a Lutheran. Like them, I hope that my witness will contribute to a greater Christian unity by concentrating on the truth of Christ and his Church. Like them, by becoming a Catholic, I am more fully, and yet very differently, who I was as a Lutheran.”
What prompted these individuals to convert?
For some it was the Catholic liturgical or theological tradition; a common theme is respect for the Church's teaching on the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. For others, the appeal was ecclesiology and the sacraments, or the piety and holiness of the faithful. Some wrestled with the need to be “in the right place” and longed for a greater sense of “authenticity.” Others were dispirited about Lutheran ethical decisions regarding such issues as contraception or abortion. Several women who were Lutheran pastors had to make a decision that cost them their Lutheran ordination. For many, it was an acknowledgment of the need for a strong, central system of authority, or magisterium, that influenced their choice.
This is a gentle, reverent and honest book, pointing to fullness, beauty, goodness and truth.
What does this reviewer — a former Lutheran pastor who's now a member of another Protestant body — think of this book?
I applaud the depth of spirit and sincerity of quest reflected in each testimony; however, from my vantage point, there is an unevenness of experience here.
Some of the converts have been involved with their conversion process for several decades while others converted only recently. Some ex-Lutherans come from a much more conservative background than I. My Lutheranism was never so “confessional” or “culture-bound,” so their Lutheran assurances and challenges were never mine. I could not possibly know the trials faced by the women whose stories I found particularly poignant.
Perhaps one sentence from Pastor Jim Cope (formerly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) sums up my thought as I assess this book even though I am not in his place. “My struggle,” he writes, “has been to find a way to [explain my conversion] that is gentle, reverent and kind, but at the same time honest and bearing witness to the fullness, beauty, goodness and truth which I have found in the Catholic Church.”
In the end, this is a gentle, reverent and honest book, pointing to fullness, beauty, goodness and truth.
Wayne Holst teaches religion and culture at the University of Calgary .
----- EXCERPT: Book Review ----- EXTENDED BODY: Wayne A. Holst ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 04/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 29-May 5, 2001 ----- BODY:Visit by Director of Pope's Movie
UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON , April 12 — Renowned Polish film director and producer Krzysztof Zanussi visited the University of Dayton to discuss his life's work, the university announced.
Zanussi's most recent film, Our God's Brother , was shown in conjunction with his visit. The movie is based on a play written in 1949 by Karol Wojtyla about Adam Chmielowski, a Polish artist he canonized in 1989.
University Offers Christian Housing
INDIANA DAILY STUDENT , April 10 — Indiana University already has three houses for Christians on campus, and is working to add a fourth, the university's student daily reported.
The fourth house is due to open in the fall of 2001. The school already offers housing for students seeking to live in a Christian community, including housing specifically for Lutherans and for Catholics. Six students can live in the school's Catholic center — with the added perk that the center overlooks Bill Armstrong Stadium, so residents can get front-row views of sports events from their bedrooms.
Many students said that Christian housing made it easier to live out their beliefs and work in campus ministries.
‘Gay’ Song Draws Catcalls
CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION , April 13 — Administrators and campus groups at the University of Virginia have been unsuccessful in battling a popular, informal addition to the school song, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported.
When the song is sung at football games, after the lines, “We come from Old Virginia, Where all is bright and gay,” many students shout, “Not gay!” Students have added the phrase for the past decade, despite university officials’ pleas that they stop. Some students suspect that university opposition has made more students shout the phrase as a defiance of authority.
Singer Wins ‘PC Award’
WASHINGTON TIMES , April 9 — The Intercollegiate Studies Institute gave Princeton ethics professor Peter Singer its “Polly” award for outrageous political correctness on campus, the Washington daily reported.
Singer, a utilitarian, has written in support of euthanasia and abortion.
He most recently drew attention for writing a book review in which he defended bestiality, claiming that society should come to accept it just as society has accepted birth control and homosexual acts.
Catholic Schools, New Age Spirituality
SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS , April 10 — Three Silicon Valley Catholic schools teach children to “tap their life-force energy” in hour-long sessions on New Age spirituality, the San Jose daily reported.
Mimi Latno teaches the qi gong meditation and visualization technique at Queen of Apostles, St. Elizabeth Seton and St. Martin of Tours schools.
Latno said she “blends” Western and Eastern religion in the classes. She teaches students to listen to the “spark,” or power inside themselves.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: I Gotta Be DATE: 04/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 29-May 5, 2001 ----- BODY:My wife thinks I'm too “blunt” and “pessimistic” at home. I think I'm “honest” and “realistic.” who's right?
— T.B.B. Everett, Washington
APopular psychology and our culture tell us we have an obligation to express what we feel. I feel X, so I express X. If I felt Y, I would express Y.
The problem with this approach is that it means we're driven by our moods. If I'm in a good mood, then I'll express happiness to others. If I'm in a rotten mood, I won't.
Let's assume that love is the only appropriate response from one person to another and that love is willing good for others. Then, if I love you, I'll want to do good for you as often as I can — even if I don't feel like it.
Our expressions and our attitudes should be a product of what people around us need — particularly what our family needs.
Dr. John Gottman points out what he calls the 5-1 ratio. His studies show that in happy marriages there are five positive and supportive interchanges for each zinger or criticism.
Sharing such happiness with our families makes us feel better, too. When we do what's good, we feel good about it because we're doing what we were created for — to love others.
Art A. Bennett is a licensed marriage, family and child therapist .
----- EXCERPT: Family Matters ----- EXTENDED BODY: Art A. Bennett ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: The Family That Made Father John DATE: 04/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 29-May 5, 2001 ----- BODY:MAINE, Minn. — The quiet young man lifted the host to heaven with the solemnity and absolute assurance that those present would receive what had been promised 2,000 years ago.
Those were the thoughts Kris Budke had as he watched his brother Jon celebrate his first solo Mass in Rome after his ordination into the Legion of Christ in Rome in January.
"Rome was about family and commitment and faith and hope,” Kris said. “[Seeing an] arthritic Italian woman negotiating the stones of St. Peter's square being warmly greeted by a strong young man in a collar and knowing both of them are the better for it — it put me in touch.”
The ordination was a culmination of a lifetime of religious education, the following of a vocation and the answer to many of the prayers of family and friends, as Father Jon Budke became a Catholic priest.
More than a dozen family members flew to Rome to see Father Jon's ordination, an experience for some that will leave an impression for a lifetime.
"The joy, peace, reverence and commitment of all the ordained was so obvious on the day of the ordination, and I think that flowed over to the participants in the congregation,” said his sister Karen Taylor.
"I don't think I was really at peace with his commitment to the Legionaries of Christ and especially the sacrifice that took from him and our family,” she said, “nor do I think I could have come to peace with that commitment had I not been there and seen the joy and peace in Jon on the day he was ordained.”
For Father Jon, it meant a great deal to have his parents, Don and Kathleen Budke, as well as many of his brothers and sisters present.
His parents received the rare opportunity for a personal blessing from the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, during the visit.
"It was a great joy having them there,” he said. “Obviously, Rome and the Vatican are very special places for our family and this was a very special time.”
Karen likened the experience of attending the ordination to the birth of her children.
"In a similar way joy, peace, reverence and commitment flows over parents and extended family at the birth of children,” she said. “At one event I was actively involved; at one, only an observer in most ways. Yet my faith was strengthened through both.”
The 11th child in a family of 13, Father Jon is used to the ribbing and jostling of a big family, which fit in well with the large number of rather boisterous youth present at the ordination.
"At times the atmosphere was a little raucous,” Kris said. “The ordinates and celebrants were obviously so focused that they seemed oblivious to this.”
On Feb. 18, family and friends gathered again as Father Jon celebrated his first Mass in his home parish at St. James Catholic Church.
Maintaining his dry sense of humor and surrounded by his nephews who served as altar boys, Father Jon said giving a sermon in front of people he's familiar with makes it a lot easier.
"You find yourself up on the altar and think ‘What am I doing here?’” he laughed. “It takes time to have everything sink in — even when you know this is what you were meant to do, it takes some adjusting. And being able to share that with my family is priceless.”
He has noticed that people approach him a little differently now that he's been ordained, particularly when receiving the sacraments.
"I know that it doesn't matter who the person is serving the sacraments,” Karen said. “But when it's your own brother, it just seems a little more special.”
Family ties remain strong and a weekend of get-togethers showed Father Jon that some things don't change.
"I was still given a hard time — when I deserved it,” he smiled. “I don't ever want that to change.”
Now assigned at Our Lady of Bethesda in Bethesda, Md., Father Jon will be working at a retreat center focused on giving spiritual direction to young men and women.
"Realizing that Christ has chosen you to continue the work he asked of the Twelve Apostles, sharing the experiences you have learned through all he's taught is simply a great honor,” he said.
This article is reprinted with the permission of the Fergus Falls (Minn.) Daily Journal.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mary Mahoney ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: Facts of Life DATE: 04/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 29-May 5, 2001 ----- BODY:CHILDHOOD WITH PARENTS
A study of 37,000 households showed that the number of children living with two parents increased in the first half of the ‘90s. In 1996, 56% lived with their married biological parents. An additional 4.6% lived with their biological parents who were not married.
Living with married biological parents Living with two parents
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: Late Term Abortionist May Face Prison DATE: 05/06/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 6-12, 2001 ----- BODY:LANSING, Mich. –– The case of a Michigan doctor accused of performing a late-term abortion on a healthy woman has gained national attention in recent weeks as the possibility of his imprisonment becomes real.
If convicted, Jose Higuera would be the first U.S. doctor jailed for performing an abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court declared it a constitutional right in 1973.
Though the specific details of the case are closely kept, public records indicate that a nurse who worked in Higuera's office informed local officials five years ago that the 61-year-old gynecologist routinely performed late-term abortions on women without recording any medical reason for doing so.
The 1973 Supreme Court case Doe v. Bolton declared that a doctor could perform late-term abortions only if, in “his best clinical judgment,” he found it “necessary” for a woman's “physical or mental health.”
But because the court left it up to abortionists to decide whether the women who came to them for abortions had health reasons for doing so, Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing in dissent of the majority opinion for last year's Supreme Court Stenberg vs. Carhart decision that struck down Nebraska's law banning partial-birth abortion, referred to the court's notion of a health exception as “meaningless.”
The Higuera case marks the first time an abortionist has been found prosecutable for abortion under the provisions stipulated by Roe and the abortion decisions that have followed from it.
Planned Parenthood of Michigan spokeswoman Judy Karandjeff said she had no comment on the Higuera case and the Michigan chapter of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League did not return the Register's call for comment.
Mark Blumer, the Michigan state prosecutor who is arguing the case against Higuera, told the Register that he could not speculate on the potential effect of a successful prosecution.
“I can only say that we felt that the facts of this case came within the limits of the Michigan statute” prohibiting abortion, he said. Blumer also declined to say when the court might go to trial, noting that it has already taken four years to win an appeal of an earlier decision in Higuera's favor.
The Michigan statute cited by Blumer predates the Roe v. Wade decision of 1973. Reaffirmed just months after the Roe ruling, it states that an abortion is illegal in the state of Michigan if it does not comply with the dictates of Roe.
The Michigan Court of Appeals reaffirmed the statue in January, but Higuera's attorney is now fighting it in Michigan's Supreme Court. Arguments before the court are not yet scheduled.
By giving an abortionist freedom to perform abortions for virtually any reason at any time, said Ave Maria Law School Dean Bernard Dobranski, Stenberg v. Carhart “left a hole wide enough to drag a whole army division of trucks through.”
But precisely because of the court's consistent defense and expansion of abortion rights, Dobranski said abortionists like Higuera are often cavalier to the point of ignoring even the minor technicalities the court requires for ensuring an abortion's legality.
“The court's treatment of abortion has really engendered in those who do abortions this [notion] that they can basically do anything they want to do and they will be protected by the court,” Dobranski said.
Referring to Higuera's alleged failure to record a medical reason for the particular 1994 late-term abortion in question, Dobranski said, “He didn't even care enough to do that.”
An April 17 Associated Press story said that Higuera's defense is based on doctor-patient privacy. His lawyers will also argue, the report said, that the Michigan statute under which he has been charged is unconstitutional.
Dobranski, whose college is located in Ypsilanti, Mich., described his state's Supreme Court as “judicially conservative,” adding that he expects it will uphold the Appeals Court ruling on the legality of the state's abortion statute “by more than a bare majority.”
As to the possible effects of a prosecution in the Higuera case, Dobranski said it might encourage other pro-lifers who think there are no limits to the abortion license to prosecute in their own states.
“If the prosecution is successful,” Dobranski said, “it would cause other people to think of pursuing this avenue.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian McGuire ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Why These Theologians Will Seek a Mandatum DATE: 05/06/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 6-12, 2001 ----- BODY:CINCINNATI –– As U.S. bishops prepare to implement canon law requirements for theologians, several theologians have written articles explaining why they won't seek a mandatum — a bishop's assurance that they teach in communion with the Church.
The Register asked several Catholic theologians to tell readers why they will seek a mandatum. Their answers follow.
Sister Sheila Galligan, Immaculata College, Immaculata, Pa.
I desire to seek the mandatum within the comprehensive context of the compelling challenges of Pope John Paul II's apostolic constitution for higher education, Ex Corde Ecclesiae (From the Heart of the Church, 1990).
Within that context I believe that theology is a reflection upon faith within the commitment of faith. It is therefore an essentially ecclesial discipline. The marvelous theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar once stated that “truth is symphonic, but it needs a score.”
In seeking the mandatum, therefore, I will explicitly express my relationship to the Church and my personal responsibility to teach its “score.”
It will affirm in a public (juridical) way that I teach in full communion with the Church, that my academic endeavor to engage the culture, to promote the dialogue between faith and reason, will maintain and strengthen Immaculata College's Catholic identity and mission.
F.C. Bauerschmidt, Loyola College, Baltimore.
I intend to apply for the mandatum for a couple of reasons.
First, I cannot imagine a theologian not wanting to teach in communion with the Church, as represented by the local ordinary. I hope that my teaching is profoundly embedded in both the tradition and ongoing life of the Church. The mandatum simply formalizes that relationship.
Of course, this is relatively easy for me to say, since I have an ordinary who does not have an ideological axe to grind and who does not find heretics lurking at every turn. But I think most bishops are fairly sensible and, as long as there is some sort of appeal beyond the local ordinary, I think the mandatum is workable.
Second, as an academic theologian I am already accountable to a number of non-ecclesial groups, from the graduate schools where I earned my PhD. to various state accrediting agencies. So I am skeptical of claims that the mandatum constitutes unprecedented outside interference or infringes upon academic freedom. If anything, it establishes something of a balance between accountability to non-ecclesial groups and the Church.
Again, I am not saying that it is a perfect solution to the question of accountability, but I do think it is a workable one.
J. Brian Benestad, University of Scranton, Scranton, Pa.
Asking for a mandatum is a public statement about the proper way to do theology –– i.e. in full communion with the Catholic Church.
In my mind, an ecclesial theologian is actually more free than the theologian who chooses willingly or under duress to bow before the reigning opinions in professional societies and in the universities. I find the option for communion and freedom to be very appealing.
Father Matthew L. Lamb, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Mass.
I will be seeking the mandatum and the reasons are that Catholic theology is always in the service of the Church and her apostolic commission of preaching and teaching the salvific word of God in communion with the successors of the apostles, our bishops and the bishop of Rome, the pope.
Theology, like the disciplines of law, medicine and architecture, etc., is a discipline in the service of other social institutions besides the academy. Therefore, no matter how many academic degrees one has, one still has to be certified by these other institutions. In theology's case, it's the Church, which is responsible for the standard norms for the particular discipline.
It is this character of theology which is widely recognized in the university circle in Europe and also accounts for the fact that Ex Corde Ecclesiae and the request for the mandatum has not caused any controversy in Europe the way it has in the United States, because they understand the character of theology as an academic discipline that is in the service of another social institution, namely, the Church, whose authorities should be able to certify whoever is going to be teaching and practicing this kind of discipline.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian McGuire ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Virginity as a Vocation DATE: 05/06/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 6-12, 2001 ----- BODY:SAUGUS, Mass. — Judith Stegman, owner of a tax and accounting firm in Lansing, Mich., doesn't mince words when describing her vocation. “I'm a consecrated virgin,” she says.
Even in Catholic circles, the statement doesn't always go down well. Once, about to speak at a finance seminar for area parish office workers, Judith was introduced as “a consecrated virgin in the Church.” Someone in the audience responded with a loud guffaw.
“Sometimes it seems that ‘virgin’ is one of the last dirty words left in our society,” Judith observes.
In a secular culture that treats virginity as an embarrassment, identifying oneself as a virgin invites snickers, even hostility. Still, without being in-your-face about it, Judith adamantly uses the word for two reasons. “It confronts people with the reality of something good, whose value needs to be recognized,” she said. “And it describes what I am!”
In 1993 Judith became one of perhaps only 100 women in the United States to experience the Solemn Rite of Consecration of Virgins for Women Living in the World, an ancient sacramental which Vatican II restored in 1970. Through it, in the words of the rite, a virgin's chastity is consecrated for the sake of “more fervent love of Christ and greater freedom” for serving others.
A virgin living in the world is rooted in the diocese, so it is the bishop who presides at her consecration; afterwards, he meets regularly with her and may request her help, as appropriate.
Consecration takes place in the context of a Mass, usually on a solemnity or feast of Mary or a virgin martyr. The rite is strikingly nuptial. Some virgins wear a wedding gown; each receives a wedding band signifying that she is a “bride of Christ.”
Immersed in the World
Typically, women called to consecrated virginity feel drawn to lifelong chastity but not to becoming nuns.
Judith says she realized early on, after hearing a “state in life” talk, that God had given her the gifts for single life. She prayed and searched for years before stumbling on a magazine article about the restored Rite of Consecration. She was immediately attracted.
So was Janet Maestranzi, of Saugus, Mass. Right after getting her M.A. in theology, Janet began a serious search for a “form” in which to live out her relationship with God. She looked into religious communities but found nothing that matched her desire for a spousal, consecrated, secular life.
Finally, having heard about consecrated virginity but feeling stymied about how to pursue it, Janet found an article on the subject; its author, a consecrated virgin, provided the necessary guidance.
Consecrated in July 1994, Janet sees her vocation as “such a good fit” and gratefully views it in terms of being loved by God. “It's a unique form among all the unique forms of the one vocation to holiness,” she says.
Janet appreciates the secularity of her vocation — the chance to bear quiet witness in the context of “very ordinary” activities that include working in a Boston office. But being immersed in the world, she has discovered, means not only giving but receiving. “In so many ways, God loves me through the world and reveals so much of his beauty in the people I meet.”
Hurdles and Challenges
As Janet's and Judith's stories suggest, lack of information about the vocation is one difficulty facing women who seek to become consecrated virgins in the world. That situation is changing, thanks to efforts of people like Bishop Raymond Burke, of La Crosse, Wisc., who serves as episcopal moderator for consecrated virgins in the United States. Still, many Catholics remain uninformed.
Another challenge comes from people who fail to see consecration to virginity in the world as a definitive vocation, or even a worthy one. More than one consecrated virgin has been criticized for not pursuing traditional religious life instead.
Still other critics contend that women who see themselves as “brides of Christ” guided by their bishops will inevitably be weak and passive. Consecrated virgins point out that their models, the virgin martyrs, were anything but.
“I feel stronger as a woman in the Church because of this vocation,” Janet affirms. “The Holy Father has said that the vocation to virginity is a way of understanding that women are created good in themselves. That's a profound insight — something to be taken very seriously and explored.”
Then, too, consecrated virgins face the same objections met by women entering religious life.
Barbara Swieciak, of La Crosse, Wisc., first ran into these in 1978, when she decided to quit a successful teaching job to enter the Poor Clares. “My family thought it was a cult!” she laughs.
They came to support her decision, but health problems forced Barbara to leave the monastery three happy years after she entered.
Deeply disappointed but knowing that Christ had another way for her to live as his bride, Barbara eventually heard about consecrated virginity in the world. Reading the Rite for the first time was a revelation, she says. “Bam! I recognized my vocation. I thought, ‘This is it! This describes my life!’”
Again, her family came to that conclusion more slowly. “This time, they really thought I had lost my marbles,” Barbara remembers.
They coped by joking. “If there's ever a volcano, at least we'll have a virgin to throw in!” one relative laughed.
Still, they all showed up at the cathedral for Barbara's consecration ceremony in 1984. “Seeing the bishop there with a dozen or so priests and the way I was supported by my parish family, my family was very proud of me. They could see the importance of a faith life and the power of prayer.”
Finally, as Judith Stegman experienced at that parish finance seminar, consecrated virgins face the challenges inherent in being willing to take a public stand for Christian values that run against the cultural grain. Sometimes, though, they meet with pleasant surprises.
Mary Kay Lacke, dean of evangelization at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, in Ohio, remembers a plane trip when she found herself sitting among a group of rowdy young men headed for a Florida golf tournament. “One looked over my shoulder, saw I was reading something about consecrated virginity, and started asking questions.”
Mary Kay braced herself for ridicule that never came. Instead, “the guy got pretty interested and started explaining it to his buddies. They didn't know exactly what to say, but they all listened and got kind of awed. Once again, I was amazed at how the Lord works.”
Louise Perotta writes from St. Paul, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Louise Perotta ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Catholics Bring Their Faith Into Their Business Lives DATE: 05/06/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 6-12, 2001 ----- BODY:INDIANAPOLIS — For 10 minutes each day, between 3 and 4 p.m., Robert Teipen and as many as 11 of his non-Catholic employees gather in a conference room at their business to pray the Liturgy of the Hours.
“I had always tried to operate my workplace ethically, but I didn't feel that was enough,” he said. “I felt I needed to be more visible in the practice of my faith.” This realization led Teipen to begin praying the Liturgy of the Hours with those employees who were interested when the Jubilee Year began.
Teipen, owner of an Indianapolis certified public accountant firm, is one of 80 members of Civitas Dei, a regional group founded two years ago by Shawn Conway, David Gorsage and Mike Maley to answer Pope John Paul II's call to bring faith to bear in the marketplace.
“People tend to think that ethics and business are an oxymoron, or that faith and profit don't mix. We're trying to change that,” added Conway. “The essence of Catholic social teaching and John Paul II's exhortations has been that Catholics should build a free and virtuous society. There is a moral dimension to the marketplace. It is a calling worthy of our highest ideals, like anything else.”
Civitas Dei holds 10 Masses per year, which are followed by a breakfast and lecture at the Indianapolis Athletic Club. The group holds other social and spiritual events throughout the year.
“We want members to be exposed to catechesis, Catholic thinking and Catholic teaching,” said Conway. “We want them to know it's OK to be Catholic 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
It's an idea that seems to be catching on. Conway says that he hopes to start chapters in Denver and Minneapolis-St. Paul next fall, and the group is in discussion with individuals in Dublin, Ireland, about starting an international chapter as well.
“The archdiocese, the archbishop and myself are most willing to support groups such as these because we see it as part of the New Evangelization called for by Pope John Paul II,” said Monsignor Joseph Schaedel, vicar general for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis. “Among business people there is a hunger for a deeper spirituality and there is also a real need for catechesis and religious education. We've lost whole generations,” added Msgr. Schaedel.
Msgr. Schaedel, who has served as chaplain for Legatus for seven years and also serves as chaplain for Civitas Dei, says that he has seen both organizations bear fruit. “The organizations educate and evangelize their members and get others excited about their faith. In both organizations, I've seen where current members have encouraged other members to join. In some cases the invitees have been people not truly active in the practice of their faith. Once exposed to the membership, they resume the practice of their faith.”
“I've belonged to Sertoma clubs over the years,” said Teipen, “but this was the first organization I've found that was willing to help me build upon my faith from a Catholic perspective. If I'm going to spend my time in these other secular clubs why not be involved in something that will strengthen my faith?”
Legatus
In some respects, Civitas Dei's work compliments that of the older national organization Legatus, a fraternal association of Catholic business leaders and their spouses, established by Domino's Pizza founder Thomas Monaghan in 1987.
In fact, George Maley, father of Civitas Dei's founding vice chairman Michael Maley, was the founder of the Indianapolis chapter of Legatus and currently sits on the advisory board for Civitas Dei.
To date, Legatus has more than 1,200 members in 40 chapters across the U.S. and worldwide.
Through mutual support and shared experience, Legatus participants receive the encouragement of peers in their attempt to imbue their professional lives with greater ethical practice and more complete Christian commitment.
“As presidents, CEOs and general partners, we are involved in plenty of professional organizations, non-profit organizations, and fundraising projects,” said Rita Illig Leibelt, president of Los Angeles-based Illig Construction, who has been a member of Legatus for four years.
Legatus is different, though, said Leibelt, because “it helps us to learn more about our faith.”
She said that her involvement in the organization has helped strengthen not only her spiritual life, but also her business decision making.
“The construction industry can be quite volatile,” Leibelt said. “During the last recession we felt strongly about retaining our team. We knew that it would be very difficult for someone to find employment in the industry, and so rather than laying off employees we all shared the burden through salary cuts. Those of us who made more took a larger hit, but we were able to retain our team and when things turned around we had our team intact.”
Leibelt added that she frequently tells employees that she will keep them in her prayers.
Leibelt also recalled the time an invitation crossed her desk for a local event sponsored by Planned Parenthood. “I decided I could not support that event either with my presence or my dollars,” she said. “Even if the event promoted women, I had to draw the line. You encounter these kind of things frequently.”
She and her husband Klaus recently attended a Legatus retreat led by Father William Watson, vice president for mission at Gonzaga University.
“Without Legatus I probably would not have taken the time to attend a retreat or work on my spirituality,” Leibelt said, “but they offered the venue and I knew I had to take advantage of it.”
Bill Burleigh, retired chairman of E.W. Scripps in Cincinnati and an eight-year Legatus member, agrees. Legatus is “a reminder that we are Catholic leaders in the world and that there are obligations and responsibilities that go with that,” said Burleigh. “There is more to life than making a name for yourself on Wall Street.”
Russ Bellant, writing for the Toronto-based NOW Magazine, criticized Legatus as an “elite Catholic club of millionaires.” Others disagree. “Catholic CEOs face ethical and moral dilemmas of a particular nature,” said Msgr. Schaedel. “These organizations offer a great forum for members to get together for support and to discuss these issues freely, in line with the teachings of the Church.”
Criteria for membership in Legatus is based upon number of employees and revenues. This actually helps make the organization more effective, says the group, by reaching leaders whose faith will impact others.
Civitas Dei membership is not as strictly limited. Conway comments that Civitas Dei was unknowingly designed to compliment Legatus because it is open to any and all members whose primary vocation is business.
Bob Teipen says this isn't just good for the soul — it's good for business.
“I believe that prayer adds to productivity. Our business has increased, and yet the last tax season was one of ease and peace. I believe the Lord is blessing our effort,” commented Teipen.
Teipen's enthusiasm for the faith has extended beyond his own business as well. He has set up a company, Intermirifica Inc., with the hopes of launching a Catholic radio station in Indianapolis. To date he has raised $25,000 of the $3 million necessary to launch the station.
“In the New Economy people are not only interested in business,” concludes Civitas Dei cofounder Conway, “but they are interested in the business of life as well. We provide a faith environment for business people. Any business that is conducted as a result of the association is merely a byproduct. We see our areopagus, or center of missionary activity, as the marketplace. That is our calling.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: He Knows Newman DATE: 05/06/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 6-12, 2001 ----- BODY:One of the world's leading Newman scholars, he is based in Oxford, England, and spoke with Register correspondent Raymond J. de Souza on a recent visit to Rome for a conference celebrating the 200th anniversary of Newman's birth.
De Souza: What impression did those who met Cardinal Newman have of him?
When people met him they noticed that there was an air of mystery about him. Perhaps this was because he had very pronounced masculine and feminine qualities, as they would have been called then. He was a tough, strong man. He was virile, was not afraid of controversies, and he fought many battles. His critics would say he was intransigent.
On the other hand, he was very sensitive, he had an enormous affectivity. He had very keen senses — he was chosen to be the wine-taster at Oriel College.
That is a rare combination in a person — strength alongside extreme sensitivity. I think it speaks to his fullness as a person, something most human beings only achieve by getting married.
People also remembered his voice. When he was vicar of St. Mary's, Newman read his sermons, as was the Anglican practice, with his eyes firmly fixed down, and he read very fast, with long, pregnant pauses which were very striking.
But people remember his thrilling voice — this low, musical, thrilling voice. They remembered this for years afterwards.
He also had a great sense of humor, but he was a shy man.
Sometimes people who met him, like Baron von Hugel, said, “Oh, he's not going to be made a saint, he's so sad.” Well, I dare say that I would have been a bit sad if I had to meet Baron von Hugel!
He was not a melancholy man?
No. He was very sensitive and he felt things very deeply, but even at the worst times of his life he maintained his sense of humor.
If you read his letters during his worst trials — when he was an Anglican and felt he had to leave the Anglican Church, or when he was a Catholic and was under the blackest of clouds in Rome — there is always an exuberant sense of humor.
When Gerald Manley Hopkins went to see him about becoming Catholic, he was astounded that Newman even used slang — he could be a casual, informal man. He was not a brooding figure.
Newman was such a great figure in so many fields — as a priest, a scholar, historian, philosopher, theologian, man of letters, controversialist — how would you sum him up?
He was preoccupied with the human mind. He was fascinated by the workings of the human mind. He was fascinated with how his own mind worked, how other people's minds worked, and with the mind of the Church.
He still has the classic book on higher education, The Idea of a University. Cardinal Avery Dulles has called him the “most seminal” Catholic theologian of the 19th century. “Seminal” because his ideas came to fruition at the Second Vatican Council. And he is one the great Catholic spiritual writers.
Is Newman's most important legacy his writings on conscience, and by extension, religious liberty?
Here we come to a very delicate area, because Newman is often misused on the matter of conscience. He has also been misused on the issue of consulting the faithful on matters of doctrine — he said “faithful” not “laity,” and there is a difference.
On conscience, he has very often been thought to say that you can do whatever you like. To the contrary, he simply was repeating classic Christian doctrine that you would find in St. Thomas Aquinas, namely, that conscience is the voice of God speaking in us, and that we hear an echo of that voice. Sometimes echoes are wrong, so we can have false consciences. But in the end, we have to follow our consciences as best we can.
Was he a saint?
Yes, he's a saint. I am sure that he will be canonized, though it is not as easy to get people like Newman canonized as it is, say, for someone like Mother Teresa.
When he is canonized he will be declared a Doctor of the Church, and he will be seen to be the doctor of the time in which we live, namely the post-conciliar era. He will be known as the “doctor of Vatican II” in the same way that St. Robert Bellarmine is the “doctor of the Tridentine period.”
How does Newman help us in understanding Vatican II?
We are living in the light, or the shadow, of Vatican II at the moment. Newman is the model of the Second Vatican Council — that's always been acknowledged — but his influence has not ended. He has much to say about the contemporary Church, and the correct interpretation, as opposed to the corruption, of the Second Vatican Council.
He said after Vatican I that there may be a false interpretation of the definition of papal infallibility, and I have no doubt whatsoever that he would have said that there have been many major false interpretations of what happened at Vatican II.
In the years leading up to the Second Vatican Council, the “Catholic Newman” was the most important Newman for the Catholic Church. Of course, as a Catholic, Newman was comparatively liberal. He was faced with extreme Ultramontanes and so he did emphasize rights of conscience and many things that were taken up at Vatican II — for example, ecumenism and entering into a dialogue with the modern world.
But it seems to me that in the post-conciliar period what we need now is the “Anglican Newman,” who was a much sterner figure, a more severe figure fighting liberalism in the Church of England. We are facing this in the Catholic Church today, for example, with a false emphasis on justice and peace, on a false opposition between Gaudium et Spes and Lumen Gentium, which is, I believe, the central document of the Council, and which Newman anticipated in a very powerful away.
The “Anglican Newman” is much more important for us today, because the “Catholic Newman” has been digested by the Church, has been taken into the magisterium. That was the controversial Newman in his day. What we need today is the Anglican Newman who struggled against theological liberalism and false pluralism, and who opposed vehemently any kind of secularization of Christianity.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father Ian Ker ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Baptists End Decades of Dialogue With the Church DATE: 05/06/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 6-12, 2001 ----- BODY:LEXINGTON, Ky. — Why has the Southern Baptist Convention decided to stop 30 years of official discussions on doctrine with the Catholic Church in the United States?
And what will the discontinuation of the dialogue mean for the future of the Church's ecumenical outreach to evangelical Protestants?
Those are the questions Catholics are asking in the wake of the convention's Feb. 7 letter to Lexington, Ky., Bishop Kendrick Williams, Catholic co-chair of the dialogue, stating that next year's meeting will be the last. The letter was made public in late March.
Established in 1971, the Southern Baptist-Catholic dialogue is one of eight official conversations with U.S. Christian branches that the Catholic bishops have conducted since the Second Vatican Council issued its decree on ecumenism.
With more than 14 million members, the Southern Baptist Convention is the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, tracing its roots to the time of the Civil War and historically exerting a significant cultural influence in the American South. The Southern Baptist Convention is a force to be reckoned with on a larger scale as well, as strong a voice for evangelical Protestant Christianity as you'll find in this country.
Christian Brother Jeffrey Gros, associate director of the Catholic-Southern Baptist dialogue for the last 10 years, is quick to laud the mission and accomplishments of the 30-year project. “It's important that fellow Christians reach out to one another,” says Brother Gros, who grew up in the Southern Baptist stronghold of Memphis, Tenn.
Brother Gros says he has a warm affection for that “great religious tradition,” and stresses that the talks weren't intended to achieve fuller communion between the Catholic Church and the Southern Baptists, but rather to “seek mutual understanding and clarify differences, and build a basis for a common witness to the Gospel.” A 1999 report detailing shared beliefs about Sacred Scripture is just one recent example of the kind of common ground that dialogue has helped flesh out.
Through the years, both sides have had room for growth in understanding, says Brother Gros. “There has been a good deal of anti-Catholicism” from the Southern Baptists, “and I have tried for years to explain to Catholics that Protestants don't have horns and tails.” The regular official meetings, he adds, helped create an atmosphere of “positive openness” that dispelled many misunderstandings.
Why Stop Now?
Rudy Gonzalez, director of interfaith evangelism for the Southern Baptists’ North American mission board, agrees. “The talks have been beneficial to both sides,” he told the Register. As Brother Gros’ counterpart on the Southern Baptist side, he has come away with a “keener understanding of the Roman Catholic Church,” while being able to “express clearly in our own words who Southern Baptists are, instead of [Catholics] relying on caricature or stereotype.”
So why stop a good thing? Gonzalez insists the Southern Baptist Convention is “not averse to communication"; that it is “not unplugging the phone lines,” but merely clarifying and redefining the focus of the mission board on evangelism, not ecumenism.
Brother Gros too, sees the decision as an internal matter for the convention, not a sign that “we're going to be any less friendly, or any less in touch.”
Yet there are signs that not everyone within the Southern Baptist Convention perceived the dialogue with the Catholic Church as a good thing. Gonzalez's predecessor, Rev. R. Philip Roberts, now president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo., admitted recently that “many Southern Baptists have become suspicious of these discussions.”
That doesn't surprise Father Richard John Neuhaus, a Catholic convert and a key framer of the ecumenical initiative “Evangelicals and Catholics Together.” Southern Baptists have “long-standing passions and prejudices” about Catholics, says Father Neuhaus, who is also editor-in-chief of the religious journal First Things. “There is a deep-seated suspicion among many evangelical Protestants that any time you get involved with Catholics, they are trying in a crafty, sinister way to co-opt you or seduce you.”
This suspicion tends not to cut both ways. Catholics “are more accustomed to being in dialogue with everybody,” notes Father Neuhaus. “Catholics aren't worried about being taken over by the Southern Baptist Convention.”
Besides traditional prejudices, there are theological and ecclesiological obstacles to Southern Baptist-Catholic relations. The organizational structure of the convention is loose, with local congregational leadership enjoying virtual autonomy and the Southern Baptist identity resting on historical precedent and a few binding doctrines, such as rejection of infant baptism.
Together In the Trenches
Evangelical Protestants tend to choose their church based on “where they feel welcomed and fed,” says James Akin, a Catholic apologist, author and convert from evangelical Protestantism. Pastors and local churches succeed or fail on the strength of the personalities that run them, he adds. Akin recalls one congregation in his hometown that lost 5,000 members when the choir director left.
He points out that, within the Southern Baptist Convention, there is no hierarchy, no sacramental system, and different factions are free to teach their own, competing understandings of such doctrinal matters as predestination, charismatic gifts, women elders and many moral matters.
Because of this, observers have speculated that the convention's decision to end formal talks with the Catholic Church may have been influenced by factions that saw the relationship as playing into the plans of other factions with different priorities.
“Hard-liners within the Southern Baptist Convention might view greater openness toward the Catholic Church as part of a liberalizing trend some fear is underway within the organization,” says Akin. The convention is “fairly unique” among Protestant denominations in that it has never had an official split along “liberal-conservative” lines, he adds, and “theological conservatives feel the need to flex their muscles sometimes to prevent” such a scenario from developing.
Likewise, Southern Baptists can vary widely in their views of the Catholic faith. Akin explains that, based on their reading of the Book of Revelation, some Southern Baptists believe that a time of worldwide tribulation is coming, and that it will be preceded by the advance of a one-world religion. This false religion some identify with Revelation's “Whore of Babylon” — which, they believe, will one day be revealed as the Catholic Church. These Southern Baptists would oppose dialogue with the Church out of fear that such a relationship would help hasten this end-times scenario
Interestingly, despite the suspicions and longstanding prejudices, Southern Baptists and other evangelicals find themselves more often than not united with Catholics on social issues, putting aside fine doctrinal differences to unite against the common enemies of secularism and the culture of death. Father Neuhaus says this “ecumenism of the trenches” is a “very strong and continuing phenomenon” that doesn't stand to be impacted negatively by the cessation of official dialogue.
Akin agrees, adding that he doubts many rank-and-file Southern Baptists will even take note that the talks are ending — if they were aware of them going on at all. There are far more important controversies for most Southern Baptists, he says — the question of women elders, for example. He thinks the cooperation will continue because “the culture is generally hostile to authentic Christian voices, which forces Christians to cooperate with each other despite their differences.”
Neither Brother Gros nor Gonzalez want or expect to see that kind of grassroots social cooperation diminished, but both are quick to point out that it's not their primary goal.
“Evangelism is our primary purpose,” says Gonzalez. “The Gospel is the overriding goal of everything we do here.”
“Our concern is not public policy,” says Brother Gros. “It's the Gospel.”
Todd Aglialoro writes from Peoria, Illinois.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Todd M. Aglialoro ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Involving Parents in Sex-Ed Boosts Kids'Abstinence DATE: 05/06/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 6-12, 2001 ----- BODY:ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A new study of nearly 200 adolescents has found that when children worked with their parents to complete homework about sexual abstinence they were more likely to resolve to refrain from sexual activity.
The report from the Alan Guttmacher Institute — published in the March/April issue of the institute's Family Planning Perspectives journal — surveyed 351 students participating in the “Bright Futures” abstinence-education program in several suburban middle schools in the Rochester, N.Y., area.
Some 95% of the 12- to 14-year-olds had indicated they were not sexually active in an earlier survey.
All the students were asked to complete five abstinence-only sex education classes, and 190 of them were given five additional homework assignments to complete with a parent, according to USA Today.
“For example, the first homework activity was as simple as agreeing to a general set of ground rules” such as respecting one another's opinions, study coauthor Cheryl Perkins told the Washington Times. The activities also included questions about reasons to delay sexual activity, and coping with peer pressure.
“Those who had completed such assignments with a parent were “less likely to intend to have sex before completing high school,” researchers concluded. Those assignments also improved communication skills between parents and children, creating “a much more even give and take,” said study co-author Linda Simkin, of the Academy for Educational Development in New York.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 05/06/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 6-12, 2001 ----- BODY:Census Blurs Definition of Traditional Family
INSTITUTE FOR AMERICAN VALUES, April 23 — News reports of recent Census data claimed that “Ozzie and Harriet are back,” but the numbers don't add up, the Institute for American Values announced.
The Census report stated that 56% of American children lived in a “traditional nuclear family,” up from 51% in 1991. Sounds like good news. But what rose was not the number of children living with two married parents.
The increase was in the number of children living only with two married parents — no grandmothers, no aunts, no cousins, no siblings over 18. That's the “traditional nuclear family” as defined by the report.
The institute assailed the Census Bureau for confusing two issues: more two-parent homes (beneficial for kids) and fewer extended-family homes ("arguably harmful,” the institute noted).
The institute did its own analysis of the data, and concluded that in 1996 about 62% of children lived with their own two married parents (including adoption but not step-parenting). About two percent lived with their own two unmarried parents. And the proportion of children living with two parents (including stepparents) fell from 73% in 1990 to 71% in 1996.
First Illuminated Bible in 500 Years
A group of scribes at St. John's Abbey and University in Minnesota will finish their calligraphic New Revised Standard Bible in approximately six more years. Each page takes nine hours.
Meanwhile, Dallas resident James Gerald Pepper has spent 13 years carefully preparing his own illuminated King James Version (Protestant) Bible. He estimates he'll need about three more years.
Illuminated Bibles, common in the years before the printing press, are handwritten and decorated with detailed curlicues and scenes from the Bible or from everyday life. Both American illuminated Bibles will feature illustrations like daffodils, robins and even space shuttles.
A Mother's Care Is Essential, Says Study
Moreover, the recent study from the National Institute on Child Health and Human Development found that children in day care are more aggressive, disobedient, cruel and impatient.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: GOP Starts Initiative to Court Catholic Voters DATE: 05/06/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 6-12, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — The Republican Party sees great potential in one bloc of untapped voters: churchgoing Catholics. But the party faces an uphill battle winning the traditionally Democratic group.
“In order to grow as a party, we must continually reach out,” said Republican National Committee Jim Gilmore, who spoke via satellite to a new-formed National Catholic Leadership Forum in Washington April 25.
The new organization will emerge from last year's Catholic Task Force and will encourage “team leaders” to introduce Mass-attending Catholics to the Republican Party.
“The time for talk is over,” said Deal Hudson, publisher of Crisis and the GOP's new national chairman for Catholic outreach. “The time to organize Catholics behind the party of life — that time has begun.”
“We need a presence in our dioceses. We need a people in our parishes,” said Steven Wagner, president of QEV Analytics and member of the Catholic Task Force.
In addition to the grass roots, Catholics will increasingly vote Republican, Wagner said, because President Bush “talks the Catholic language.” He noted how Bush talked about the “culture of life” at the opening of the John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington, D.C.
Karl Rove, the president's senior advisor, said that Bush's “compassionate conservatism” fits well with the Catholic Church's principles of subsidiarity and solidarity.
“Catholic teaching is between libertarian indifference and bureaucratic centralization,” Rove told the audience.
But winning the Catholic vote is difficult, because of the diversity of America's 60 million Catholics.
“There is no such thing as a ‘Catholic vote,’” said Sen. Rick Santorum, a Catholic Republican representing Pennsylvania. “There are at least two Catholic votes.”
He noted that among all Americans, not just Catholics, church attendance was the No. 1 indicator of how a person would vote.
“If you went to church once a week, 65% voted for Bush. If you went to church less than that or not at all, 68% voted for Gore,” said Santorum. “I believe the same would be true for Catholics.”
Wagner said that Catholics are following this pattern increasingly. He noted that while Bush won only 47% of the total Catholic vote, he won 55% of the active Catholics. “That matches Reagan's landslide in 1984 and almost matches Nixon's landslide in 1972,” he said.
And the Catholic vote proved decisive in this the closest presidential race in decades, said former GOP chairman, Jim Nicholson.
“By increasing the Catholic vote by 10% across the country in such a close election, it obviously made a difference,” said Nicholson, whom Bush has nominated for ambassador to the Vatican.
That outreach consisted of 3 million mailings sent to Catholic families as well as 1.3 million get-out-the-vote phone calls, Wagner noted.
Because of these efforts, Bush's campaign says it won 22,000 additional Catholic votes in New Hampshire, 146,000 new Catholic votes in Missouri and 107,000 more Catholic votes in Florida than Bob Dole had reaped in each of those states in 1996. Without these gains, Bush would have lost these three states and the presidential election.
But Kate O'Bierne, Washington Editor of National Review, said that the Republican Party has been slow to notice how many Catholics they have already.
“The single largest denomination in Republican households is Catholic,” she noted. “But the Republican Party at the national level doesn't look Catholic. The leadership looks Southern and Protestant.”
What About Abortion?
Bill McGurn, chief editorial writer for the Wall Street Journal, said that Republicans need to do better to inform Catholics of where the candidates stand on the issues. Some of his friends didn't even know where the two presidential candidates stood on the issue of abortion.
“I was always stunned that they didn't know Al Gore's position on abortion,” said McGurn. “I think that President Bush has been wonderful speaking on the culture of life, but the Republican Party has been somewhat ambivalent on abortion. There was talk of a pro-choice running mates,” said McGurn.
The Republican Party has a duty to inform Catholics how they differ from Democrats on abortion, he added.
“[Catholic Democrats] actually don't want to know the Republican Party's position on abortion,” said McGurn. “They want to be able to say that the Republican Party is just the same as the Democrats.”
Rep. Chris Smith, Catholic Republican from New Jersey, said that the Republican Party would earn more Catholic votes if it would speak loud and clear in defense of the unborn.
“Until we stop this ‘big tent’ nonsense, we're not going to get anywhere,” said Smith. Regarding the pro-life message, Smith said, “We should be willing to shout it from the rooftops.”
Joshua Mercer writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Pope's Trip Where Christians Are Second-Class DATE: 05/06/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 6-12, 2001 ----- BODY:JERUSALEM — The visit of Pope John Paul II to Syria, scheduled for May 5-8, is expected to give a much-needed boost to Middle East Christians.
The visit, a pilgrimage retracing the footsteps of St. Paul, comes at a time of escalating tensions in the Middle East.
Violence between Israelis and Palestinians reached unprecedented heights in April, with Palestinians firing mortars into Israel, and Israel temporarily reoccupying a Palestinian-ruled area of the Gaza Strip.
Also in April, Lebanese-based Hizbullah guerillas fired on Israel's northern communities. Israel responded by attacking a Syrian troop position deep inside Lebanon. Syria, which has 30,000 troops in Lebanon, supports Hizbullah attacks against Israel. Israel, which captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Middle East War, unilaterally ended its occupation of southern Lebanon a year ago.
Should the violence continue, analysts say, the conflict could escalate and engulf the entire region.
Against this backdrop, it is unclear whether the Pope's visit to Syria will take on an overtly political dimension.
On the one hand, Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir of the Maronite Catholic Church in Lebanon has, in recent months, openly demanded that the Syrian army quit Lebanon. Sfeir asserts that Syria's presence is a de-stabilizing force that saps the country's economic strength, and which, if left unchecked, could plunge the country into another war. Muslims, who tend to support Syria's continued presence, and Christians, who do not, ended 15 years of civil strife in 1990.
The Holy Father must balance these demands with the knowledge that overt criticism of the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad or any other Middle East leader could compromise the safety of the region's beleaguered Christian minority. Roughly a quarter of the population of the Middle East during the mid-1800s, Christians today comprise only 1% of the population.
Approximately 16% of Syria's 17 million citizens are Christian, among them 300,000 Catholics.
David Rosen, international director of interreligious affairs at the American Jewish Committee, said that Syria's Christians “are vulnerable in that they are a minority in a nonpluralistic, non-democratic society.” While Christian communities in the Middle East currently enjoy a certain level of security, due to Islamic fundamentalism and regional stability, Rosen said, “they don't know if that security will necessarily be there tomorrow.”
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a cleric with close ties to Syria's Christians categorized the Syrian minority as “second-class citizens. They're known as ‘Dhimmi,’ which means ‘half’ in French. They are forced to pay taxes Muslims do not have to pay. If they can afford to pay, they get protection [from government forces]. If they can't pay, which they often cannot, they receive no protection.”
Characterizing Syria as “a very secluded and severe society,” the cleric said that the Christians “are not free people. They live the way people once lived in the former Soviet Union. If you toe the party line, you survive. If you do not, you do not survive.”
Not that you will hear this directly from Syrian Christians.
“When you meet Christians in Syria they will say how wonderful it is to live there. Even the Church leaders are hostages of the regime.”
Asked whether individual Christians have been targeted for imprisonment or torture — things that occur quite frequently in Syria — the cleric replied, “We don't know. We don't know the name of even one resistance fighter in Syria. This is not by chance.”
The cleric noted that very few Christians enter the professions or the ruling Baath Party because there are unspoken quotas being used against them.
“Officially, there are no differences between them and Muslims, but the fact is you cannot have large numbers of Christians in academia or medicine or law or even teaching. They are not awarded the same rights as Muslims.”
Rosen said that John Paul's upcoming trip should help bolster the Christians.
“I think wherever the Pope visits, there is an important psychological value for the local Christian community. It gives them a greater sense of security. It also emphasizes the public relations value the Christian community can provide internationally.”
When a high-profile international visit takes place in a non-Christian country, Rosen said, the leaders feel obliged to demonstrate how well its minorities are treated.
“The more a leader can demonstrate that things are great for the Christians, it serves his interests internationally. It's important for the Syrians to counter any suggestions coming from the U.S. or elsewhere that it is a totalitarian society, that it does not harbor or encourage terrorists. If Assad can show that things are going well for the Christian community, it can serve as an important counter-weight.”
While aides to the Pope have predicted that he will steer clear of political statements, and concentrate instead on spiritual matters, Professor Gerald Steinberg, a Middle East expert at Israel's Bar Ilan Univesity, is not so certain.
“When the Pope was younger, he was known for taking political positions in such places and the former Soviet Union. It is possible that he will speak out,” Steinberg said.
Michele Chabin writes from Jerusalem.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Michele Chabin ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 05/06/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 6-12, 2001 ----- BODY:Irish Airline Ads Target Religion
Complaints about the Ryanair advertisement, which used an image of Pope John Paul II and Dublin Cardinal Desmond Connell at the recent consistory in Rome, were upheld on the grounds that it had given rise to “widespread offense.”
Added to the image of the two men are speech bubbles with comments about how low Ryanair fares are.
Papal Good Humor Warms Easter Pilgrims
According to a Monitor correspondent in Rome, the Pope greeted hundreds of visitors at his Castelgandolfo residence amid snow flurries Easter Monday by smiling from his balcony and advising: “Go home. It's too cold.”
Vatican Foreign Minister to Visit Moscow in May
Officials gave no indication whether the special envoy of Pope John Paul II, would meet Russian government or Orthodox Church officials. The Pope has said several times that he would like to visit Russia, but Russian Orthodox patriarch Alexy II has said two issues needed to be resolved first: the treatment by Greek Catholics of Orthodox Christians in western Ukraine and proselytizing by Catholics in Russian Orthodox areas.
The patriarch exercises an effective veto on a papal visit to Moscow since the Pope has indicated that he will not visit Russia without an invitation from the Russian Church.
Pope Sends Blessing to Italian Astronaut
ASSOCIATED PRESS, April 23 –– Pope John Paul II has sent his blessing to Italian astronaut Umberto Guidoni, who is orbiting Earth aboard the docked space shuttle Endeavour and space station Alpha, the news service reported.
The brief message was sent to Guidoni from the office of the Vatican's secretary of state April 12, one week before Endeavour blasted off. It was later released by the Italian Space Agency.
“The Supreme Pontiff takes joy in sending you his cordial salute, which he extends to the whole crew,” the message stated in Italian.
“Especially, he sends you a wish of peace, hoping that through such a courageous enterprise, it will reach space and contribute to increase real progress and ever more brotherhood and solidarity to humanity.”
Guidoni, 46, an astrophysicist from Rome, is making his second space flight. He is the first European Space Agency astronaut to visit the international space station and is responsible for the Italian-built Raffaello cargo carrier that was launched to the space station aboard Endeavour.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Man Thirsts for God DATE: 05/06/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 6-12, 2001 ----- BODY:Register Summary
When he met April 25 with thousands of pilgrims who attended his general audience in St. Peter's Square, John Paul II returned to the catechesis on prayer that he began a month ago.
The Pope focused on Psalm 63, which begins with the cry to God: “For you my body yearns; for you my soul thirsts.” He said the psalmist's plea helps Christians “understand how essential and profound is the need for God.”
In St. Peter's Square under a warm spring sun, the Pope asked pilgrims to picture the setting of Psalm 63: “It is dawn, the sun is rising in the clear sky of the Holy Land and the man of prayer is beginning his day by going to the temple to seek God's light.
“He has a nearly instinctive need for that meeting with the Lord — one could even say, a physical need,” he said.
This hunger for God is satisfied by listening to his word and receiving the body of Christ in the Eucharist, the Pope said.
Psalm 63, on which we reflect today, is a Psalm of mystical love that celebrates total adherence to God, beginning with an almost physical longing and reaching its fullness in an intimate and everlasting embrace. Because it involves the soul and body, prayer becomes desire, thirst and hunger.
As St. Teresa of Avila wrote, “I think thirst demonstrates a desire for something, but the desire is so intense that we die if we are deprived of it” (Way of Perfection, c. XXI). The liturgy proposes to us the two first stanzas of the psalm, which are centered precisely on the symbols of thirst and hunger, while the third stanza presents the dark perspective of God's judgment against evil, which contrasts with the radiance and delight of the rest of the psalm.
We begin our meditation, then, with the first song, the song of thirst for God (see verses 2-4). It is dawn, the sun is rising in the clear sky of the Holy Land and the man of prayer is beginning his day by going to the temple to seek God's light. He has a nearly instinctive need for that meeting with the Lord — one could even say a “physical” need. Just as arid ground is dead, as long as it is not watered by rain, and just as the cracks of dried earth are like thirsty and parched mouths, so the believer longs for God — longs to be filled with him, and so be enabled to live in communion with him.
Water to Refresh the Soul
The prophet Jeremiah had already proclaimed that the Lord is “the source of living waters,” and had reproached the people for having “dug themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that hold no water” (2:13). Jesus himself would cry out in a loud voice: “Let anyone who thirsts come to me and let him drink who believes in me” (John 7:37-38). At high noon on a sunny, silent day, he promised the Samaritan woman: “Whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14).
The prayer of Psalm 63 is linked by this theme with the song of another wonderful psalm, the 42nd: “As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God. My being thirsts for God, the living God” (verses 2-3). Now, in Hebrew, the language of the Old Testament, the term for “the soul” is “nefesh,” which in some texts designates the “throat” and in many others is extended to indicate a person's whole being. Understood in this perspective, the word helps us understand how essential and profound is the need for God: Without him breath and life itself mean nothing. Because of this, the psalmist goes so far as to put physical existence itself in second place if it means he will be deprived of union with God: “Your love is better than life” (Psalm 63:4). Psalm 73 also repeats to the Lord: “None beside you delights me on earth. Though my flesh and my heart fail, God is the rock of my heart, my portion forever. … As for me, to be near God is my good” (verses 25-28).
Spiritual Food
After the lyrics on thirst, the words of the psalmist intone the song of hunger (see Psalm 63:6-9). With the images of the “rich banquet” and satiation, perhaps the man of prayer is alluding to one of the sacrifices that were celebrated in the temple of Zion: the one called the “communion” sacrifice — in other words a sacred banquet in which the faithful ate the flesh of the immolated victims. Here another fundamental need of life is used as a symbol of communion with God: Hunger is satisfied when we listen to God's Word and meet the Lord. In fact, “not by bread alone does man live, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 8:3; see Matthew 4:4). And at this point a Christian's thoughts turn to the banquet that Christ prepared on the last evening of his earthly life, whose profound value he had already explained in his teaching at Capernaum: “For my flesh is true food, and my blood true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him” (John 6:55-56).
Through the mystical food of communion with God “the soul clings fast” to him, as the psalmist declares. Once again, the word “soul” evokes the whole human being. It is no accidentl that there is reference to an embrace, to an almost physical clinging: Now God and man are in full communion and from the lips of the creature there cannot but flow joyful and grateful praise. Even when undergoing the dark night, we feel protected by God's wings, as the ark of the covenant was covered by the cherubim's wings. And now the ecstatic expression of joy bursts forth: “In the shadow of your wings I shout for joy.” Fear vanishes; and one's embrace grasps not the void but God himself; our hand is gripped by the strength of his right hand (see Psalm 63:8-9).
Christ in the Eucharist
When reading this psalm in light of the paschal mystery, the thirst and hunger that impel us toward God find their satisfaction in the crucified and risen Christ, from whom we receive, through the gift of the Spirit and the sacraments, the new life and the nourishment that sustains it.
St. John Chrysostom reminds us of this when, commenting on the observation of John the Evangelist that from the side [of Christ] “blood and water flowed out” (see John 19:34), he affirms: “That blood and that water are symbols of baptism and of the mysteries,” that is, the Eucharist. And he concludes, “See how Christ unites the spouse to himself? See with what food he nourishes all of us? It is from the same food that we were formed and are nourished. Indeed, as the woman feeds the one she has generated with her own blood and milk, so Christ also continually feeds the one he himself has generated with his own blood” (Homily III Addressed to Neophytes, 16-19 passim: SC 50 bis, 160-162).
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 05/06/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 6-12, 2001 ----- BODY:Sudanese Christians Flogged and Imprisoned
FIDES, April 20 — The leaders of 10 Christian denominations have protested to the Sudanese premier for the treatment of Christians during Eastertide, the missionary news service reported.
According to Fides, 100 men, women and children were arrested and given harsh sentences –– including lashing, flogging and prison time –– following unrest sparked by the cancellation of an inter-denominational open-air Easter service in Khartoum. Then, on Easter Monday, an airplane carrying El Obeid Bishop Macram Max Gassis was caught in an attack on an airfield in the Nuba mountain region by government bombers.
The bishop and his entourage were unhurt but a militiaman was killed and two civilians were injured. According to Fides, the Khartoum regime has long seen the bishop as an obstacle to their efforts to depopulate and demoralize the people of the Nuba region, which is rich in resources.
Converts Trouble Myanmar Leadership
AID TO THE CHURCH IN NEED, April 20 –– Fearing a loss of control in the face of an ever-increasing number of converts, the government of Myanmar is implementing tighter control over the activities of Christians, the international charitable organization said in a press release.
Some 1.4 million Christians, 600,000 of whom are Catholic, face daily scrutiny in the Southeast Asian country, which is better known as Burma.
Various dioceses throughout Myanmar are facing restrictions on the number of foreign visitors who may stay in Church-owned buildings. In some dioceses of the country, the press release said, authorities are demanding detailed reports of all visits.
Most French Still Praying, Survey Finds
The survey, which was carried out by the public opinion enterprise Sofres, revealed that prayer continues to inspire 67% of Frenchmen. Only 2% regard prayer as something ridiculous or old-fashioned.
Half of those surveyed said they pray and meditate, although only 42% said they pray in the strict sense of the term; 22% pray regularly, at least once a week.
Women are more pious (54%) than men (46%). Personal prayer at home is preferred by 79%, as opposed to prayer in a church (48%).
To the question “To whom do the French address their prayer?” the answers are: 65% pray to God; 35% to the Virgin Mary; and 25% to Christ.
Among the other of the survey's findings were that 45% of Frenchmen offer prayers of praise and thanksgiving; 43% pray for personal healing or success for others; and 39% pray for the problems of the world. Among the prayer intentions for personal reasons, 49% pray on important occasions, 35% for courage to face life and 23% to overcome stress.
The Sofres survey was carried out from March 22-24, and included interviews with 953 individuals, representing Frenchmen older than 18.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Who Wants to Be a Republican? DATE: 05/06/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 6-12, 2001 ----- BODY:The Republican National Commitee has launched a nationwide effort to win Catholics over to the GOP. We think that's great, insofar as it makes the GOP more friendly to Catholics … and not just vice versa.
There are many misconceptions about political parties, because commitment to a party isn't usually just based on reason. Party identification is often learned as a child and colors our outlook on national events.
The win-and-loss coverage our media gives to national elections only heightens our lack of objectivity. We root for our candidate and cheer his victory or mourn his defeat. Our support for our party can become as unrelated to rationality as support for a favorite football team.
Thus, many Catholics consider themselves either Democrats or Republicans for reasons which may have little to do with the parties as they actually operate.
Ask a Catholic why he's a Democrat, and he'll tell you that the Democratic Party is the party that favors the poor, is more likely to oppose war-mongering and the death penalty, and is better for the environment.
Yet Democrats block school vouchers for poor children. And poverty rose under Lyndon Johnson's Great Society programs, fell in the ‘80s, and rose again in the ‘90s, says the Census Bureau. Democratic presidents dropped the A-Bomb, took us to Vietnam, got us involved in conflicts all over the globe for the past eight years, and brought us the first federal death sentence in memory. And, as the senior editor of the liberal magazine The New Republic recently pointed out, President Bush's plans for the environment are almost identical to Clinton's.
Then ask another Catholic why she's Republican, and she'll tell you it's the party that favors life, is better for Catholic education, is more likely to enforce decency standards in media and schools and is more willing to give faith a voice in public places.
Yet Republican presidents gave us a pro-abortion Supreme Court majority, and Republican Congresses pressed partial-birth abortion only when it could embarrass Clinton, but have tabled it when it can actually get signed into law. Republicans have all but eliminated voucher proposals from education plans. They failed to take on even the National Endowment for the Arts for funding pornography, and have blithely accepted church/state theories that say only atheism deserves a public voice.
Given all this, we shouldn't ask which party we should support, but which party we are more likely to change.
Today's Democratic Party platform, heartbreakingly, calls abortion “a fundamental constitutional liberty.” Whatever the party's strengths elsewhere, this posture is frightening and antithetical to America's founding principles.
And the total and unapologetic way that Democratic leaders in Washington apply this principle is sad and tragic. They have defended partial-birth abortion by saying that a baby isn't human until parents bring it home. They even opposed giving the unborn children killed in Oklahoma City's federal building the same legal status they would have if they were killed in Oklahoma City's state building.
Millions of women will suffer for the rest of their lives because they acted on the cold logic of abortion that Democratic leaders vehemently endorse.
Republicans, yes, have curtailed the culture of death in some ways. But even though they have the White House and Congress now, Republicans are busy repeating the mantra that abortion isn't a priority yet.
And now they want to win Catholics to their cause.
Well, Republican National Committee, if you're serious about wanting to attract Catholics, then you'll do the one thing that can make us take you seriously.
Show us that you're willing to defend life with the same passion and intensity your opponents show when they defend “choice.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 05/06/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 6-12, 2001 ----- BODY:Phobia or Infection?
I have just finished reading “School Phobia,” Dr. Ray Guarendi's answer to T.O. in Lancaster, Pa., in the April 15 “Family Matters” column.
I wish to relate a similar incident concerning our son, who was at the time about the same age as the child mentioned in the question. Our son had just gotten over strep throat. Shortly thereafter, he complained about not feeling well.
We took him back to the doctor, who could find nothing wrong with him. He had a very low-grade fever and complained about his stomach hurting. We continued to send him to school. But when the school called and said our child was sick, we again took him back to the doctor. I really felt there was something physically wrong with him, because I knew him well and knew that he was an “open” child. If things bothered him, he told us.
The doctor could find nothing wrong and suggested we have him examined by another physician, which we did. However, I knew the minute we walked into his office and the physician began questioning our son about school (and totally ignoring me) that the physician thought it was all in his head and that Mom was a “hovering” mom. He felt his stomach and concluded nothing was wrong. We departed. I was furious.
Our son at one point said, “You do believe me, don't you?” Yes, I did. In my past I had been to doctors for years for not feeling well, only to find out from a neighbor that my symptoms sounded like someone she knew and that person was allergic to caffeine. And so was I. So I decided we would try an allergist.
Well, guess what. He listened to both my son and me and, after extensive testing, skin tests and other regular tests, he took a simple urine test, only to find blood in our son's urine. He suggested we go back to our family physician with the results and ask for further testing.
We did as suggested. Our doctor ran another urine test, finding blood a second time. He was a bit shaken up and said it was not a fluke. He did some tests and found out that our son again was suffering a strep infection.
I shudder to think about the kidney or heart damage our son could be suffering today, had I not listened to him. Instead, today he is a healthy 21-year-old junior in college. (I did write the consulted physician a letter — thought, perhaps, he might at least listen to a concerned mom and, perhaps, save the health of some other child.)
Now I'm not saying that every child who complains of not feeling well is suffering from a strep infection, but I am saying that every mom should listen to her child and that doctors should not be too quick to think the child is feigning an illness just because he doesn't want to go to school.
I'm not trying to play doctor here; it is just that whenever I hear of incidents like this I think of our son and thank God that we found the cause. Thank you for listening.
MARY MULLIGAN
Garden City, Missouri
Away With McVeigh
First off, when the Murrah Building was destroyed, I thought, like many people, that it was another attack by an Islamic extremist and, like you, I was appalled that it was one of our own. The question here is whether McVeigh deserves to die for his crime.
In “Does Timothy McVeigh Deserve the Death Penalty?” (April 15-21), you quoted No. 2267 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which also states, “the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.”
I would think that Timothy McVeigh meets the definition of an “unjust aggressor.” As a Catholic I don't believe in the death penalty as a means of punishment as life in prison would be bad enough.
But what of the families of the victims? Are they willing to forgive McVeigh for his crime? It is an easy thing to say you forgive someone, but it is another to really mean it.
They [the families] are the ones who are hurting here.
Will this execution of McVeigh bring back their loved ones? No. But it might bring this whole nasty episode in their shattered lives to a close.
JOHN A. FRIEDLAND JR.
Eatontown, New Jersey
Editor's Note: For the Register's opinion on the matter of Timothy McVeigh and the death penalty, visit www.ncregister.com. Click on “Editor's Picks,” then “Editorial: Divine Mercy for McVeigh.”
Kudos All Around
I thought that Susan Baxter's column “To My Daughter on Her Confirmation” (April 15-21) was delightful and beautifully written. And while I'm at it, may I say that I look forward each week to reading the Register for its fine coverage of Catholic news.
MICHAEL MCBRIDE
Brooklyn, New York
Make Noise in the Marketplace
Doug Scott, president of Life Decisions International, has accomplished one of the most significant goals for the pro-life movement ("Targeting Corporate Sponsors of Planned Parenthood,” April 22). His approach is an example to many dioceses and parishes through the United States and the world. He goes to the corporations that supply our everyday purchases in retail, wholesale and industrial products, and asks that our money doesn't go to abortion.
A formidable effort could be launched if each parish were to use his lists of who supports what.
I write as a worker who services a Target Superstore and is proud to be of service to Target and all of its guests. Thank you for a fine article. We will support Life Decisions International as best as we can.
JIM VONDRAS
Florissant, Missouri
Hands Off Our Crime Control
The letter from Max Venzor poses the question: “Why is Gun Control a Dirty Word?” (April 22-28).
There are a number of suggestions to be offered on how best to address the culture of death. First, the statistics regarding elimination of firearms in Australia would be the place to begin. Gun owners in Australia were forced by a new law to surrender 640,381 personal firearms in 1996 at a cost to the taxpayers of more than $500 million. Did the elimination of guns reduce assaults? Consider these statistics:
Australian homicides are up 3.2%, assaults are up 8.6% and armed robberies are up 44%. In the state of Victoria, homicides with firearms are now up 300%. Figures over the previous 25 years indicated a steady decrease in armed robbery with firearms. This has changed drastically upward since criminals now are guaranteed that their prey is unarmed.
Guns in the hands of citizens save lives and property.
A second suggestions is that Mr. Venzor take action to stop the violence and gun-happy, so-called “entertainment” that is found not only in his home, but every home in America today. [T]he average teen watches 40 hours of violence and assault with guns. …
Mr. Venzor can begin an assault on gun violence by petitioning his neighbors and fellow church members to deluge TV sponsors with requests to reduce gun violence on shows they subsidize. The problem lies in his living room.
JOHN L. VOLANSKI
Painesville, Ohio
Editor's note: Reason magazine has investigated the statistics cited in this letter. The article took some exception with the homicide figure, but said the others are “on firmer ground.” The Reason article can be found at: www.reason.com/0010/ci.js.html.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Pius' Accusers Don't Know What They Are Saying DATE: 05/06/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 6-12, 2001 ----- BODY:Perhaps I can be of a little help. I am thinking of the controversy regarding Pope Pius XII and your article “Ad Defends Pius XII on ‘Nazi’ Charges” (April 15–21). People become obsessed when they have little information to go by. Misinformation will condemn an honest man; bigotry and ignorance crucified even Christ.
What people forget is that, were Pope Pius XII to condemn Nazism, in addition to Hitler, he would have had to denounce also the British who had the mandate over Palestine which — despite the Balfour Declaration — kept the doors closed to the Jews. If the Allies were such fine people, why did they not open their doors to Jewish migration? Yet millions of Jews made it to Palestine with the help of the National Socialist Party in Germany (the Nazis).
I was a witness. I remember the boatloads of Jewish refugees fleeing Europe aboard Nazi ships, flying the Swastika, to Palestine. Whom would Pope Pius XII have to have condemned or denounced at that time?
And what did America do when Germany tried to relocate boats full of Jewish refugees to Brazil, a nation willing to receive them, as the Vatican had paid for their passage? America cited the Monroe Doctrine, thereby depriving them entrance to South America.
Whom should the Pope have spoken out against then?
Is it not clear that, in speaking out against the evil of one, Pope Pius XII would also have denounced the evil of American racism? And that of others?
As one who lived in Italy during that terrible time, I still remember the many Jewish people who made their way through Italy, where they were sheltered. As an intake worker for displaced persons, I interviewed many Jewish refugees, some released during the General Amnesty in 1944. Nearly all were trying to reach the ancient homeland in then Palestine. Who did more than Pope Pius XII for the Jewish people at that time? Who, while helping them, also tried to keep peace to save the world?
And finally, had the German army in North Africa, then nearing Alexandria, been able to reach and free Palestine in 1942 — before the Americans landed at their rear — the Jews of Europe would all have been able to return to their homeland (Israel) instead of being returned to those territories in Eastern Europe and, eventually, the Holocaust.
Do not blame Pope Pius XII, do not blame Germany: The entire world was blinded by malice. Pope Pius was a beacon, a savior. Those who condemn him do not know what they are saying.
GIOIA DE ARCHANGELIS
Morrisonville, New York
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Has Collar Envy Eradicated The Lay Vocation? DATE: 05/06/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 6-12, 2001 ----- BODY:I recently learned that the term “melting pot” has been replaced by the politically correct “salad bowl.”
(In the melting pot, everything loses its proper identity. However, in a salad, the sundry ingredients retain their own differences.)
Generally, I tend to reject the notion of political correctness, but there's something to be said for a healthy respect for difference.
St. Paul said that we all are one in Christ, but he didn't say that we were exactly the same. One great saint explained heaven as a place where each soul was a different type of container. Some were thimbles, others were goblets. But all were completely filled.
Since Vatican II, there has been a consistent effort within the Church to promote a healthy understanding of difference. Every person, whatever their state in life, is called to sanctity. Sanctity doesn't come in spite of our personal vocations, but through them. Despite the clarifications made by the Church, many people are still confused about their role in the Church. In fact, it seems that some would like to blur all distinctions, including those between the laity and the clergy.
In 1997, the Congregation for Clergy with seven other Roman dicasteries, including the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, published the Instruction on Certain Questions Regarding the Collaboration of the Non-Ordained Faithful in the Sacred Ministry of Priest. In some ways, the Instruction is a list of do's and don'ts, but it also emphasizes a consistent theme in the Church: the call to a new evangelization.
The new evangelization involves all the “People of God,” both the laity and the clergy. As the document points out, this calls for two things — a special clerical activism and a full recovery of the awareness of the secular nature of the mission of the laity. In other words: Let the priests be priests and let the lay people be lay people.
In many instances, the lay vocation has implicitly been ignored, giving way to a clericalization of the laity. The laity has been considered active insofar as it participates in the activities of the clergy. But as discussed in the Instruction and, more recently, the revised General Instruction of the Roman Missal, clericalizing laity works to the detriment of both the laity and the clergy. In the same way, laicizing the clergy undermines the significance of sacramental ordination. It's as if to say that there's no difference between clergy and laity.
Some quickly point out that we are all sinners, that the priest can sin just like the layman. True, but more importantly we are all children of God. And as any parent will vouch, every child is different.
We smother the lay vocation when we try to express it in terms of the clerical. The ‘97 Instruction links the new evangelization with the rediscovery of the lay vocation. The activity of the laity expresses itself in as many ways as there are individual lay people. As the popes of the 20th century repeatedly emphasized, ours is a unique time in history. New opportunities abound, and the laity can and must explore and develop many of them.
The Church distinguishes between two types of priesthood, the royal and the sacramental. In virtue of our baptism, each one of us shares in the royal priesthood. Through this sacrament, we are called to witness our Father in whatever we do, just as all children reflect their parents through their actions. The sacramental priesthood builds on this and it is a particular way for men to witness the Father just as Jesus the man did.
In our own families, we would be unreasonable if we expected all the children to be exactly alike. Although some children achieve greater things than others, they're still equally children. Their achievements do not dictate how much they love their parents. So, too, in our extended family of the Church, we are equally sons and daughters of God; but we live that out in different ways. And as we've seen in the lives of the saints, those who love most are not always those who are the greatest achievers in the eyes of the world.
Recognizing the distinction between the roles of the laity and the clergy also helps to understand the significance of each vocation. The relationship of the Church to Christ is spousal: bride and groom. They are different, but both are essential. You can't have a marriage without a bride and a groom. Two grooms simply gives you two grooms and no marriage. The priest, because of his ordination, is alter Christus, another Christ, another groom.
Rather than leave the groom standing at the altar, the Church encourages its members to fully become the bride. Pope John Paul II, in the 1998 Apostolic Exhortation Christifideles laici, explains, “The exercise of such tasks [those directly related to priestly ministry] does not make pastors of the lay faithful.”
Even if the Church acts like the groom, she'll never become the groom. If anything, she will only lessen her preparedness as a bride. And, as most of us know, brides have a very distinct and active role.
Although the Church exists in the world, she will always stand apart from the world when it preaches falsely. At a time when the world seemingly extols difference but actually shuns it, the Church actually plays the more politically correct role by recognizing the unique character of each vocation and encouraging each to fully develop. In this way, her guidelines do not bind us with limitations.
They provide the guidance we need in order to develop fully, just as a wise parent guides a child — or a master chef tosses a salad.
Pia de Solenni writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Pia de Solenni ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: America: Decline the Dutch Descent DATE: 05/06/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 6-12, 2001 ----- BODY:It came as no surprise when the Netherlands became the first country in the world to legalize assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia. In mid-April, that country's senate voted to pass into law a bill that had been approved by its lower house of parliament last fall.
The Dutch had been accelerating toward this dark goal for several decades, doing in the shadows what they longed to do in the full light of day. Now they have their wish.
Those of us who watch with horror the seemingly inevitable advance of the culture of death across Europe and America can at least bring good out of evil by learning a lesson from this sorry chapter.
We have a tendency in our assessment of evil to believe that only obvious monsters commit great crimes. This tendency manifests itself quite clearly in public debates where the only example of evil anyone can recall is that of Hitler. We imagine that perpetrators of such large-scale evil would be as easy to spot as a hell-bent ghoul in full Nazi regalia.
There is a problem with this mode of argument, which the late Leo Strauss called the reductio ad Hitlerum. So few of us know what went on in the Third Reich, and how it was actually accomplished, that we have no way of comparing our own situation to that of the Germans in the first half of the 20th century. Ironically, the true lessons of Nazi Germany are lost on the Netherlands even though the Netherlands was lost to the invading Nazis in 1940.
As evidence of the Netherlands’ amnesia, hear the words of Dutch health minister Els Borst reassuring legislators that the law legalizing assisted suicide and euthanasia could not be abused by doctors: “There are sufficient measures to eliminate those concerns.” Assisted suicide, so she told the lawmakers, will remain a last resort, an option only available to those facing endless suffering.
Careful Killings
Well, now, let's go back a few decades. We hear a lot about the evils of German concentration camps — and rightly so, for they were hideous manifestations of the near-bottomless human reservoir of innovative cruelty. But how many of us are aware of the Nazis’ euthanasia program, and how it came about? Ms. Borst?
In Germany, a journal founded by the highly respected German zoologist Ernst Haeckel, Das monistische Jahrhundert, published in 1913 the first sustained arguments supporting euthanasia. This respectable public debate helped pave the way for the even more influential euthanasia tract published in 1920 by Karl Binding and Alfred Hoche. The title Binding and Hoche chose speaks for itself: Permission for the Destruction of Life Unworthy of Life.
This popular tract had a popular effect. It facilitated the easy acceptance of the Nazi euthanasia program Aktion T-4, which, at five German locations, dispatched between 120,000 and 275,000 mental patients, physically disabled persons, incurables and other “undesirables.” These patients were not eliminated by cackling, sadistic members of the SS, but by a vast and complex network of very ordinary doctors and nurses. Good and loyal bureaucrats, they filled out minutely detailed forms in triplicate, generally doing their best to treat patients to be euthanized with the utmost concern and gentleness — and all in the name of compassion.
We imagine that perpetrators of such large-scale evil would be as easy to spot as a hell-bent ghoul in full Nazi regalia.
As with many of the euthanasia programs being floated today — such as the one just ratified by the Dutch — the Nazi system incorporated many layers of checks and double-checks. It began as an immense federation of careful compassion, set up to ensure that no one who was curable or who still had a reasonable prospect for a pleasant existence would be inadvertently terminated.
But, alas, even the most carefully guarded boundaries somehow proved permeable to excess “compassion.” In 1943, for example, Hadamar, one of the five killing stations, began to euthanize children — not merely the disabled or retarded, but also members of asylums, juvenile homes and orphanages. Of course, troublemakers were included, too, as were children of mixed races and those with significant childhood acne.
What are the lessons for the Dutch from the German experience?
Harmful Healthcare
First, the Aktion T-4 euthanasia program was carried out by professional, competent, well-educated doctors and nurses. These doctors made their diagnoses in accordance with the medical histories of each patient under consideration, and the decision to euthanize was carried out only after several doctors had officially concurred.
Second, when the Aktion T-4 program was discontinued due to public outcry (yes, public opinion actually did count in Nazi Germany), doctors themselves continued the program without benefit of official sanction and apparatus, making decisions on their own about which patients to euthanize. The practice of euthanasia, once it was accepted as a part of the art of medicine, continued its forward motion, and was administered with a far freer hand.
Third, the Dutch no doubt believe that, unlike the Nazis, the Netherlands’ euthanasia and assisted-suicide program will apply only to willing participants. Yet, in the 1990 Remmelink Study, undertaken in the Netherlands to determine the number of cases of euthanasia being done in defiance of the law, it was found that at least 2,300 cases of requested euthanasia occurred per year, as well as 400 cases of assisted suicide.
Even more startling, the study showed there were at least 1,000 cases of involuntary euthanasia each year — that is, cases where doctors eliminated patients without the patient's explicit request.
If a little over a decade ago Dutch doctors were happy to break the law in order to euthanize patients, how is it that the recent legislation de-criminalizing euthanasia will make them more cautious about administering it? If 27% of the decisions to terminate the life of a patient occurred without the patient's’ explicit consent in 1990, what reason is there to expect that doctors who have been killing for years with the fear that they might be prosecuted will now, with legalization, suddenly break such habits?
Sadly, the Dutch have learned nothing from their own history, let alone that of Nazi Germany. They have asked for and received “Permission for the Destruction of Life Unworthy of Life.”
What about us? There is every indication that Americans are following the same path marked off by the Germans and the Dutch. Pro-euthanasia societies, those denizens of despair, have already won in Oregon and they're moving fast in on other states every day.
It's our hope against their hopelessness.
Will we stand by and watch as our nation falls, one state at a time, into this dark corner of the culture of death? Or will we let this historic moment spur us to fight for life with new intensity and resolve?
Ben Wiker teaches classics at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Benjamin D. Wiker ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Celibacy: Greater Love Than the World Can Know DATE: 05/06/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 6-12, 2001 ----- BODY:“Follow me.” These words are addressed to every Christian. Christ is the way that all must follow: Nobody comes to the Father except through him.
But when he said to the Apostles, “Follow me,” this was the beginning of their formation as leaders of his people.
This call he has addressed to you [the newly ordained deacons of the Dublin archdiocese]. You heard those words in your heart when you detected the first stirrings of your vocation. Throughout the years of formation here you have sought assurance that they are indeed addressed to you.
You have listened attentively in prayer, you have spoken openly to your spiritual guide, you have followed the direction given by those appointed for your formation. The Lord now confirms his call through the voice of his Church.
The call of Christ to follow him as he called the Apostles makes sense only if we see it in the light of his love. A decision to answer that call is an act of trust in the love of Christ. The man who says Yes to Christ surrenders himself to a love that commits itself to sustaining him right to the end.
No man could make that act of trust unless he knew Christ and loved and admired him with all his heart. And so the call makes itself heard through a living faith that inspires the humble confidence with which St. Peter speaks in our first reading.
Listening to his words, we are reminded of the threefold test addressed to him by the Risen Lord: “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”(John 21:16). With long years of apostolic labor behind him Peter could again renew his reply: “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” I have lived your question in times of struggle, temptation and trial, and you have kept your love fresh in my heart. I have always known that you would sustain me and I thank you for keeping me faithful.
Admiration and love for the person of Christ, a desire to bring others healing and hope in the knowledge of his person, identification with the divine pity for his sheep who have strayed, a longing to share in his mission — all convey the meaning of his call to a priestly vocation.
The horizon of this vision is not confined to this world but endlessly open through the life in which Christ now lives resplendent.
The way along which it beckons is the following of an arduous task in forgetfulness of self and the daily acceptance of the Cross. “That is why you must humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you” (1Peter 5:6-7).
Because we labor with Christ as companion, our journey partakes of the joy that filled his heart and which he promised his disciples on the night he went out to suffer for our salvation.
That was the night on which he gave himself to them in the Eucharist — an unmistakable sign that a firm devotion to his eucharistic presence is the way to deepen a priestly vocation and a constant source of the joy he has promised.
As you approach the day of your priestly ordination, you now commit yourself to lifelong fidelity to the gift of celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven.
As Pastores dabo vobis tells us, the Church's will to call to the priesthood those men who have received this gift, “finds its ultimate motivation in the link between celibacy and sacred ordination, which configures the priest to Jesus Christ the head and spouse of the Church.
“The Church, as the spouse of Jesus Christ, wishes to be loved by the priest in the total and exclusive manner in which Jesus Christ her head and spouse loved her. Priestly celibacy, then, is the gift of self in and with Christ to his Church and expresses the priest's service of the Church in and with the Lord” (No. 29).
The faithful living of a celibate life is not a matter of submission to a law with an uncertain future.
Apart from the fact that there is nothing uncertain about its future, as the synod of bishops in 1990, confirmed by the Pope's apostolic exhortation, makes clear, what is here at stake is something more fundamental than law. I am referring to the word you give to Christ and his Church in making the gift of yourself in a love unqualified by any reservation.
This shares in the love with which the Father gave his only Son to the world: He did not withdraw the gift of his Son even when the world rejected him and put him to death.
It shares in the love with which Christ loved the Church: He gave himself for her even to the end. It is the love poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit in the form of the gift of celibacy: It makes us such as the Church desires of her priests.
It is not a love that the world can inspire or explain: It is the love come down from heaven into our hearts to enable us bear witness to the power of Christ to raise all flesh through love. The very love that sanctifies Christian marriage is the love of the celibate heart of Christ. In reflecting this love, the celibacy of our priests is a sign to the faithful of the permanence and surpassing dignity of their own married love.
Do not allow your heart to be troubled by the spirit of worldliness so opposed to your commitment to celibacy, but place your trust in the love of Christ who calls you to live in his likeness.
Taken from the homily of Dublin's cardinal archbishop at April 16 diaconate ordinations to the diaconate at St. Patrick's College, Maynooth
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Cardinal Desmond Connell ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: A Heavenly Hospital of a Shrine DATE: 05/06/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 6-12, 2001 ----- BODY:The grounds of a psychiatric hospital may seem an unlikely site for a pilgrimage, but the National Shrine of St. Dymphna is right at home sharing space with Ohio's Massillon State Hospital.
Nor is the shrine's placement here an accident: The Irish-born princess who was murdered at the hands of her own father is patroness of the mentally ill.
A number of hospital residents work about the grounds as you walk along a peaceful, shaded path to the outdoor votive shrine. Inside the glass, trapezoid-shaped structure is a tall statue of St. Dymphna surrounded by vigil lights. Behind you is the premier church in the United States built in her honor and dedicated on her feast in 1938. The stately brick edifice, a few yards away from the state-run psychiatric hospital, is set in a peaceful and attractive area, surrounded by shrubs and trees that lend an aura of calm to the visitor.
Each year on St. Dymphna's feast — May 15 — you will find shrine director Father Matthew Herttna welcoming pilgrims into his office after a brief introduction in the church. Here there are no large processions, special Masses or great throngs of pilgrims. The Mass schedule remains the same as other days, and the doors are, as always, open to all.
A friendly secretary greets you behind a glass counter filled with St. Dymphna statues, books and chaplets. She leads each visitor down the hall past Father Herttna's office and into the church. The sociable and serene priest, whose onetime assignment has turned into a lifelong labor of love, always waits until a few people have gathered in the front pews. Then he comes into the sanctuary, welcomes everyone and tells the story of the saint.
Father Herttna reads letters from Dymphna devotees across the nation, which thank the Lily of Eire (Ireland) for her aid and attest to her powerful intercession. As a parting gesture, Father Herttna blesses each pilgrim with a relic of St. Dymphna, who died around the year 650, then invites all into his office for an informal chat.
Before you leave, the secretary sees that you sign the guest register and presents you with an envelope containing information about the shrine, along with some prayers and details on becoming a member of the St. Dymphna League (annual membership: $2).
Lively Light, Warm Woods
But there is no rush to see any pilgrim go, for time seems to stand still in the quiet of the shrine. You can easily spend an hour in the church. Small in size and modest in ornamentation, it features stained-glass windows that make up for the lack of grandeur. The windows are duo-tone — white and yellow, to be exact — and their effect is refreshing and cool on the warm wood of the sanctuary.
Above the choir loft, flanked by a pair of angels, St. Dymphna looks down on the congregation. Three cherubim in stained-glass bearing the words “Holy, Holy, Holy” overlook the altar, beside which rests a statue of the Infant of Prague. The statue was once moved, but hospital residents who attended daily Mass immediately protested, so the Infant was quickly returned to his proper place. Larger statues of the Holy Family (a Fontanini) and St. Dymphna are positioned on pedestals to either side of the sanctuary.
The other windows in the church are interesting for the pictures, fascinating for the antique English wording. Half of them tell stories directly related to Jesus’ healings: “Thy Faith made thee Whole,” “His hand was restored,” “I know that Thou art the Holy One of God,” and “Damsel, I say unto Thee rise.” The opposite half depict the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, listed in Latin, and scenes from the life of Christ, including the Resurrection, Crucifixion (which reads “He gave up the Ghost"), Holy Family with St. Joseph spreading a protective cloak around his family, and the Annunciation.
In the vestibule you can see a plaque dedicated to the first chaplain of the Massillon State Hospital, Rev. Austin W. Scully (b.1906), who assumed the post in June 1937. Here also you will find another fitting stained-glass window — St. John of God, the patron of hospitals, nurses, the sick and booksellers. He stands above two sick people; the bursting pomegranate with a cross at his side is a symbol of charity.
Dymphna's Dilemma
John was a Portuguese soldier who fought in France, Spain and Hungary, then became a shepherd in Seville and finally a religious-goods shop-owner in Granada. He entered a mental asylum after hearing St. John of Avila preach there in 1538, due to feelings of guilt for his wasted, dissolute past. With the aid of St. John, he left the asylum a year later and devoted the rest of his life to the ill poor, founding the Order of Brothers Hospitalers.
Unlike St. John of God, St. Dymphna suffered mental anguish at the hands of another whose own morality had gone askew. Though her father was a pagan king in Ireland, her mother was devout and faithful to God. When the mother died in Dymphna's youth, her grieving father searched to no avail for a similar wife. His advisors concluded that the only worthy person was his own daughter.
Dymphna's father approached her with the idea of marriage, but the 15-year-old recoiled in horror and asked for 40 days’ consideration. During that time, she fled to Belgium with her confessor, a Father Gerebran, and two others (in some accounts the court jester and his wife). They found refuge for a time in the village of Gheel, yet when the king learned of their flight, he pursued at once. Upon finding them, he again endeavored to talk Dymphna into marriage. Father Gerebran reproached him, at which the king ordered the priest killed on the spot. This had no effect on the teenage girl, thus securing her martyrdom as well, for the frenzied father pulled a dagger and cut off his daughter's head.
Dymphna's remains rest today in Gheel at a shrine in her honor, near an infirmary run by religious sisters, famous for kindness in their care of the mentally ill. Like its sister shrine in Belgium, the National Shrine of St. Dymphna in the United States is a tribute to prayers, miracles and the continual sacrifices offered for those who suffer any kind of mental anguish. Far from the college psychology classes and psychiatric offices of busy cities, this simple shrine in a country setting offers an ancient therapy for mental and emotional suffering — charity and calm, peace and prayer. Which is to say that it's a perfect place of pilgrimage for anyone bearing a cross of any kind through this life. And who among us doesn't fit that description?
Mary Soltis writes from Parma, Ohio.
----- EXCERPT: National Shrine of St. Dymphna, Massillon, Ohio ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mary Soltis ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Second-Hand Harvest, First-Rate Film DATE: 05/06/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 6-12, 2001 ----- BODY:Thirty or forty years ago the release of an artistically challenging French film was a major cultural event.
New Wave classics like Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless and Francois Truffaut's The 400 Blows were widely reviewed and distributed in America, and their meaning was the subject of countless late-night rap sessions on college campuses. No longer. For a complicated set of commercial and aesthetic reasons, it's now more difficult to view the latest cinematic gems from France than a generation ago.
Our culture is the poorer for the lack.
The Gleaners and I is a good case in point. A feature-length documentary that's every bit as good as the masterworks of yesteryear, it's been much acclaimed at film festivals abroad for its artistic motivations. But few have noticed that it's also a reflection on certain issues of great importance to Pope John Paul II.
“The so-called civilization of ‘consumption’ or ‘consumerism,’ … involves so much ‘throwing-away’ and ‘waste,’” the Holy Father writes in his encyclical Sollicitudo Rei Socialis. “An object already owned but now superseded by something better is discarded, with no thought of its possible lasting value in itself, nor of some other human being who is poorer.”
“All of us experience firsthand the sad effects of this blind submission to pure consumerism: in the first place a crass materialism, and at the same time a radical dissatisfaction,” the Holy Father continues, “because one quickly learns — unless one is shielded from the flood of publicity and the ceaseless and tempting offers of products — that the more one possesses, the more one wants, while deeper aspirations remain unsatisfied and perhaps even stifled.”
Aging New Wave filmmaker Agnes Varda (Vagabond and Cleo From 5 to 7) gives no indication of having read this or any other papal text. Her film isn't Catholic in intent. But its imaginative exploration of the underside of our consumerist culture is filled with insights which parallel those of John Paul II.
Varda defines “gleaners” as people who gather usable food or goods that others have no use for. This includes city dwellers who pick up furniture discarded on street corners as well as itinerant farm workers who support themselves by salvaging fruits and vegetables rejected after the harvest.
The movie is, in part, inspired by the 1857 painting The Gleaners by Jean-Francois Millet that depicts women in a wheat field, bending over to gather a harvest's remnants. Both the artist and the filmmaker delight in motion and significant details that define their characters’ activities.
Varda takes her hand-held cameras out into the streets and fields, where she observes both those who glean out of necessity and those who glean as if it were a hobby or a sport. She shows special sympathy for people living at society's margins like the poor, the homeless and recovering alcoholics.
There are also gleaners who don't fit comfortably into any convenient category. A young chef of a highly rated restaurant believes that good food should never be wasted. So he regularly scours the leavings of his region's harvests for fresh herbs for his dishes. He prefers these to what he can buy in the local markets.
Even more unusual is a neatly dressed vegetarian who feeds himself from the produce discarded by large city markets. At first he seems annoyingly self-indulgent and eccentric. But Varda follows him back to the shelter where he lives. We learn that he's a former high-school teacher who's devoted himself to instructing immigrants in the basics of French language so they can find work. His life is rooted entirely in meaningful service to the disadvantaged.
Varda employs a personal, discursive narrative style that enables her to expand the subject matter to encompass contemporary artists whose methods are similar to gleaning. After we see them foraging for objects on city streets, the filmmaker interviews them in their studios as they explain how and why they incorporate this stuff into their sculptures and collages.
A subtext is Varda's meditation on her own mortality. After a montage that focuses on gleaners’ hands, she briefly photographs her own wrinkled skin, noting that “my hands keep telling me that the end is near.” And during a visit to the harvests in Burgundy, she stops off at a local museum and shows us, in great detail, The Last Judgment by Renaissance painter Roger Van der Weyden. This puts the footage that follows in a subtle spiritual context.
The Gleaners and I is a biting commentary on the materialist values of much of contemporary culture. We see how much is unnecessarily wasted while at the same time those at society's margins are often shamefully neglected.
But Varda also celebrates life, finding beauty in unexpected places. As she journeys from city to countryside and back again, she takes time to include a series of interviews with couples whom she's met along the way who've been happily married for decades. Their quiet joy is contagious.
Because Hollywood rarely manufactures product about subjects that approximate Catholic teaching, it may be worth the extra effort required to find this passionate film (and to read the subtitles as the scenes unfold). Its currently limited release is scheduled to expand to other urban areas and university towns.
Arts & culture correspondent John Prizer writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: French documentary The Gleaners and I checks consumerism ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 05/06/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 6-12, 2001 ----- BODY:Yi Yi(2000)
The current blossoming of Chinese cinema reveals a culture circumscribed by family ties in a manner not seen in most of the West for more than a century. Yi Yi begins with a wedding and ends with a funeral.
The intervening story centers around an upper-middle class Taiwanese family whose cohesiveness begins to unravel when its matriarch suffers a stroke. Her middle-aged daughter, Min Min (Elaine Jin), is no longer able to cope with being a wife and mother and leaves everything for an extended spiritual retreat. Min Min's husband, N.J. (Wu Nujen), is confronted with the reappearance of an old flame (Ke Suyun) and ethical problems at work.
Director Edward Yang avoids the obvious melodramatic clichés, finding emotional truth in small gestures and the textures of everyday living. His characters aren't conditioned to yield to instant gratification. This denial causes them great pain. Yet they're able to get on with their lives without self-destructing. Despite their defects, this gives them great dignity and strength.
The Robe(1953)
For almost 2,000 years Western civilization was fueled by the interaction between Christianity and Greco-Roman culture. But most contemporary opinion-makers in the academy and the media aren't interested in either tradition except to deconstruct them. The Robe, based on Lloyd Douglas’ best-selling novel, is a good example of mass entertainment's contribution to this cultural mix before Hollywood turned politically correct. Marcellus Gallio (Richard Burton) is the Roman tribune in charge of Christ's crucifixion. While gambling at the foot of the cross, he wins the scarlet robe worn by Jesus.
Marcellus believes the garment is bewitched, and when it disappears along with his Greek slave (Victor Mature), he sets out to destroy it and the followers of Jesus. But the patrician tribune has a conversion experience which puts him into direct conflict with the bloodthirsty emperor, Caligula (Jay Robinson). The story may at times be over the top, but it effectively dramatizes the risks taken by the first converts in pagan Rome.
Little Women(1933)
Family is usually the place where we learn how to love, and it's not always easy. Yet a person's moral values are forged in this crucible. Louisa May Alcott's novel Little Women is the saga of the four March sisters, who love each other fiercely as they negotiate life's misfortunes and their own petty jealousies. Hollywood has adapted it four times. The best is George Cukor's 1933 production, one of the Vatican's top 45 films.
The movie begins in New England during the Civil War. The Marches’ father is off fighting to free the slaves. Romantic rivalries and a mean-spirited aunt (Edna May Oliver) create problems. Tomboy Jo (Katherine Hepburn) moves to New York to become a writer. Her coming-of-age is the story's emotional spine. Jo is an exemplary role model for our times. The needs of family are her first priority. Her spirit isn't embittered by disappointments in her personal life.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 05/06/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 6-12, 2001 ----- BODY:MONDAY, MAY 7
American Writers
C-SPAN, 9 a.m.
This installment harks back to mid-19th-century America as it analyzes the thoughts of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau on nature and mankind. To be rebroadcast Friday, May 11, at 8 p.m.
MONDAY, MAY 7
Pyramids
Discovery, 9 p.m.
This hour-long program uses ingenious animation and computer graphics to illustrate recent theories on how ancient peoples built pyramids in Egypt and the Americas.
TUESDAYS
Marriage: For Better … Forever
EWTN, 11 a.m.
Hear one Catholic couple's valuable tips on how to nurture your marriage in today's mixed-up, divorce-happy world. Greg Popcak directs the Pastoral Solutions Institute, and Lisa Popcak is his wife. To be rebroadcast Wednesdays at 10 p.m. and Fridays at 1:30 p.m.
TUESDAYS
Catholic Essentials: A Franciscan Living Room Retreat
EWTN, 6:30 p.m.
In this new series, missionary and retreat master Capuchin Father Angelus Shaughnessy discusses the faith with wisdom, kindliness and Franciscan joy. To be rebroadcast Mondays at 1:30 a.m. and Wednesdays at 2:30 p.m.
TUESDAY, MAY 8
History's Mysteries: The True Gladiators
History Channel, 8 p.m.
This world premiere episode explains what is known about those who fought for their lives — against one another and ferocious animals — in the savage arenas of pagan Rome's far-flung empire. Few gladiators managed to survive, retire and live out their lives in peace.
TUESDAY, MAY 8
Divine Mission: San Xavier del Bac
PBS; check local listings for time
This inspiring half-hour documentary follows the restoration of Mission San Xavier del Bac in Tucson, Ariz., between 1992 and 1997 by preservation architect Bob Vint's international team of conservators, Sonny and Dan Morales’ construction company and local Tohono O'odham Indians. They repaired the exterior of the beautiful Mexican baroque mission with traditional early methods.
FRIDAY, MAY 11
Religion & Ethics Newsweekly
PBS; check local listings for time
The imminent execution of Timothy McVeigh for the murders of 168 people in the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995 is the basis for this discussion of the death penalty. Against the backdrop of how to protect the innocent from remorseless murderers whom no penalties seem to deter, host Tim O'Brien explores religious arguments pro and con.
SATURDAYS
The Most Glorious Art: Understanding the Mass
EWTN, 2 p.m.
In this exciting new series, Christifideles founder Father John Perricone of St. Agnes Church in Manhattan discusses topics such as: the history of the Mass; Mass, ourselves and the work of salvation; and barriers to the Mass in today's culture. To be rebroadcast Tuesdays at 10 p.m. and Thursdays at 1:30 a.m.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: All times Eastern ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dan Engler ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Infant Academy, Vast Tradition DATE: 05/06/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 6-12, 2001 ----- BODY:BARRY'S BAY, Ontario — When Naomi Hiroe first heard that Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy was starting up in Barry's Bay, Ontario, she thought, “It's a nice idea, but it's not for me.”
But a visit to the school, which adheres to the Church's magisterium and focuses on the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas, changed her mind.
The 19-year-old, originally from British Columbia, visited when students were meeting in a living room during the academy's first pilot project. But that was enough to sell her. Now the school, whose teachers are still working without pay, has made it through its first year and has two buildings for dorms and classes.
“When I came to visit I got hooked,” said Hiroe, 19. “It was so different. Absolutely nowhere else would offer the same sort of stuff. Catholic thought permeates each class. I found out I knew nothing about my faith and coming here will help me from getting wacky ideas.”
The academy, about four hours from Toronto, hopes to become an accredited two- or four-year college. That could take years. Currently, it is focusing on giving students a one-year foundational program to teach them the truths of the Catholic Faith, said John Paul Meenan, the academy's director. The program provides a solid introduction to higher education, and allows students to prepare for a wide variety of careers or to transfer to other colleges, he said.
“We want our students to be able to go on to other universities and be grounded in the intellectual treasures of the Church,” Meenan said. “We can do quite a bit in a year.”
Meenan said the academy was founded to offer an alternative to secularized education that ignores Church teaching, whether at secular or Catholic schools.
Canada has a special need for the academy, added Meenan. Many families want their children to receive this kind of education, but have to send them to schools in the United States — like Christendom or Thomas Aquinas College — to get it.
The academy now makes it possible to provide this kind of education without the extra personal and financial difficulties of educating students outside their own country, he said.
All staff members take an oath of allegiance to the magisterium and the academy is founded on the guidelines set forth by Pope John Paul II in Ex Corde Ecclesiae (From the Heart of the Church) — the 1990 apostolic constitution for higher education.
The school received the support of Bishop Brendan O'Brien of the local Diocese of Pembroke.
“While this is a private initiative and not a project of the Diocese of Pembroke,” the bishop wrote in a letter last year, “I am sure that the potential students and benefactors would want to know that I am supportive of your goal to provide young people with a greater exposure to Christian culture.”
The staff is hoping a new bishop will be as supportive as Bishop O'Brien, who was recently transferred to another diocese. Pembroke is awaiting the appointment of a new bishop.
Basement Beginnings
Starting the academy has been a lesson in faith, staff members said.
What started out as a pilot project in the living rooms of a group of parishioners of Holy Canadian Martyrs Church in Combermere, Ontario, has turned into an academy that now has classrooms, a library and dorm rooms. Six students now attend — three male and three female. Next year, 15 are expected.
The academy offers numerous classes, spiritual direction, weekly hikes and occasional pilgrimages. Nine courses are offered, including logic, Christian doctrine, ecclesiastical Latin, Church history, Scripture and apologetics and an introduction to magisterial thought. Tuition, room and board is $6,000 annually.
The academy's teachers have backgrounds in theology, philosophy, economics and other disciplines. Meenan completed degrees in Thomistic philosophy and theology at the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in Toronto. The dean of students, Scott Nicholson, studied at Cornell University in New York, receiving degrees in economics. He also studied at the Oratory with Meenan. Another professor studied with the Legionaries of Christ for eight years earning a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy, and another graduated from the Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio.
Even though the college isn't offering degrees, parents said it is a good starting point.
Diana Vanderhulst from Meaford, Ontario, sent her daughter Jill to the school to “continue what we had started at home,” she said.
A homeschooler, Vanderhulst said Canada needs a place like Our Lady Seat of Wisdom. “She is getting a good education and finding out more about the faith. If she goes on to a secular college she will have a good foundation and be able to defend her faith,” Vanderhulst said.
Students said their faith has grown during their time at the academy.
Hiroe, who attended public schools, said her prayer life has increased and she now attends daily Mass — “a foreign idea before.” The chapel is only five minutes from campus.
Rob Koechl, 20, attended Magdalen College in Warner, N.H., but has now chosen the academy.
“This was the only good Catholic college in Ontario,” he said. He also attends daily Mass and said he is learning a great deal about the Catechism.
While the school is off to a good start, more still needs to be done, Meenan said. Money is always a problem and the staff can't exist for long on their current compensation — room and board, with a stipend of $150 Canadian per month.
Professors also live in the same building as students. The male students are at one end of the hall and the male professors at the other. Female students are in a separate house on campus.
The importance of starting a new school, however, is worth the long hours and no pay, according to the staff.
Dean of students Scott Nicholson said he is pleased to see the students learning. “And they are advancing in the spiritual life,” he added.
He said the academy's low enrollment allows for a family atmosphere.
Basilian Father Leonard Kennedy, who is on the academy's board of directors, said the college is starting out like many others in the past.
“Just seeing young people doing something like this is inspiring,” Father Kennedy said. “All colleges started out on a shoestring and didn't have enough money. What we are seeing here is a wonderful formation that they won't get elsewhere.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Jennifer Del Vechio ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Have Your Wedding Cake and Eat It, Too DATE: 05/06/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 6-12, 2001 ----- BODY:Last summer's publication of Judith Wallerstein's The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce prompted a wind-fall of media reports on the effect of family breakup on children, especially young children. But the reports, print as well as broadcast, have usually focused on the negative effects of divorce, rather than making a positive case for married life.
Now Linda Waite and Maggie Gallagher have taken up the challenge to defend marriage in its own right — not just as a “lesser-of-two-evils” alternative to divorce. Waite, a sociologist at the University of Chicago, and Gallagher, a nationally syndicated columnist, pile up the statistics, showing that married people are more likely to express satisfaction with their lives than single or divorced people, less likely to suffer health problems, less prone to alcoholism and drug use, and more likely to report sexual satisfaction than people who have sex outside of marriage.
Married couples reap major economic gains, too, the pair points out. They can hand over the family finances to the more responsible partner. They can specialize — she does the finances, he does car maintenance — which means they can get the same amount of chores done in half the time it would take a single person. And a married couple's income pays for one roof repair job and one toaster; if the two people lived separately, the same income would have to stretch to cover two households.
This may seem like a selfish argument. Get married for the health benefits? What about love?
But Waite and Gallagher subtly show that spouses only reap the benefits of marriage to the extent that they remain loyal to one another. Love, it turns out, is the secret ingredient that makes marriage so healthy.
The more deeply committed a husband is to his wife, the more loyal a wife is to her husband, the more likely both of them are to gain the emotional, physical and financial benefits of marriage. One study found that “husbands and wives who do not believe marriage is forever are far less willing to pool their money,” and thus far less likely to gain the economic benefits of marriage.
Marriage's benefits also come from the social support married couples get. “[M]arriage is not just a label,” the authors write. “It remains a transformative act — marriage not only names a relationship but it creates a relationship between two people, one that is acknowledged, not just by the couple itself, but by the couple's kin, friends, religious community, and larger society.”
Waite and Gallagher's book lacks the passionate prose and moral philosophy that distinguished Gallagher's 1996 book The Abolition of Marriage from the crowd of family-policy books. The present book sometimes feels too laden with statistics.
But The Case for Marriage is a strong challenge to the conventional wisdom that marriage is about “the old ball and chain.” (The book was deemed too controversial by Harvard University Press, which has been roundly criticized for rejecting it.) Waite and Gallagher are very careful to address potential problems in the interpretation of their statistics, and they touch on a wide range of subjects.
The Case for Marriage is a necessary and well-written contribution to the national dialogue on marriage. It presents social science in terms that are easy to understand. Its final chapter offers practical suggestions for strengthening marriage. And its belief that promise-making love is anything but selfish, boring, fleeting or weak is nothing less than inspired.
----- EXCERPT: Book Review ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ----- KEYWORDS: Books -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 05/06/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 6-12, 2001 ----- BODY:Official Denounces Play
Where Are the Religious?
Little Mirrors
Q Our two oldest kids seem obsessed about the possessions that their friends have, and how their own compare.
— G.L.
Troy, Michigan
A George: The first place to look, when dealing with kids, is in the mirror. Often, you'll see your kids there. Our children will tend to pick up our virtues and our vices and show them back to us. Maybe that's why their faults can make us so mad.
As with all the virtues we're trying to instill in our children, we need to model them ourselves. If you're a shopaholic, don't be surprised if your son or daughter doesn't value money. But if you take your kids to help out at a soup kitchen, or to visit the elderly, then they're seeing generosity in action.
Lisette and I recently visited some friends in Atlanta — Alex and Maria Munoz. During our stay, we observed one of their family traditions that gets to the heart of your question.
Lisette: Alex and Maria are committed to teaching their five kids responsibility with money, while giving them a sense of solidarity with the Church and the needy. In order to accomplish this, they've developed an interesting allowance system.
Each of their children receives 25 cents per year of life per week. For example, one of their daughters is eight and receives $2 per week. But the amount is also adjusted for how they've behaved and how they've completed their chores. A deduction is taken for each infraction, usually five cents for the smaller children and ten cents for the older. After any subtractions, 10% of the remaining balance is put aside to give away and 10% is put into savings. The portion set aside for donations goes into the next Sunday's collection and to other special projects.
After all these deductions, the remaining money is for the kids to spend as they see fit.
How has this system helped the Munoz kids grow in virtue? Alex and Maria gave us some examples. For instance, the oldest daughter is regularly generous with the younger kids. She comes to their aid from her own allowance if they're short of money for something important to them.
Another example: Not too long ago the 8-year-old wanted to make a major purchase. Understanding the value of money and what it takes to save it up, she wrote down a pro and con list to help her decide whether to go ahead and spend the money. Talk about responsible spending.
George:While Lisette and I were with them, Alex and Maria held a get together at their home to raise funds for the Church in Cuba. Each of the children was given things to do — from preparing food to cleaning up the house — with the understanding that they were playing a role in helping the needy in Cuba.
Our visit to the Munoz family got us to thinking about what we could do to help our son grow up to be responsible and generous. One thing we know: We'll start by looking in the mirror first.
George and Lisette de los Reyes host The Two Shall Be One on EWTN.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: George And Lisette De Los Reyes ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: Facts of Life DATE: 05/06/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 6-12, 2001 ----- BODY:TEENS GOING BACK TO CHURCH
A study in Canada showed that teens are returning to churches and other religious institutions. Seventy-three percent believe in God; 65% believe that Jesus is the divine Son of God; and 78% believe there is life after death.
Committed to Christianity or some other faith
1992 ——— 22%
2000 ————— 50%
Weekly church attendance
1992 —— 18%
2000 ———— 22%
Source: Canada's Teens by Reginald Bibby, cited by Religious News Service, April 19.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: The Hand of Mary DATE: 05/06/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 6-12, 2001 ----- BODY:(The following was adapted by the Register from Michael Lambert's account.)
Michael Lambert already had a devotion to the Blessed Mother before that day in Vietnam.
“I had studied as a seminarian for the Marist Fathers,” the native of Georgia says. “I had been dedicated to Our Blessed Lady as an infant by my mother.”
But he would have an even greater devotion later, when he came to understand what had happened to him there.
It was February 1968, at the height of the Vietnam War. The Tet holiday, New Year's festivities celebrated by families throughout Vietnam, had begun on Jan. 31. To honor it, combatants had called a truce — until North Vietnamese defense minister Gen. Nuygen Giap, defense minister for North Vietnam, launched a countrywide “general uprising.”
Communist forces attacked major cities and military bases throughout South Vietnam at the very moment many South Vietnamese troops were on leave with their wives and children.
Lambert's Company H, Second Battalion Fifth Marines, were ordered to head into Hue’ (pronounced “whey"), a city that was both strategically and psychologically key. It was Vietnam's Alamo, only more dear. Hue was the former capital of Vietnam. It was the location of the former emperor of Vietnam's ancient fortress, known as the Citadel. More recently, it had been colonized by the French, who brought Western architecture and the Catholic faith.
The journey to Hue was strange and silent, Lambert remembers. “Usually, on a trip into a South Vietnamese city, children begging for food would swarm the trucks,” he said. “The marines would toss ‘c ration’ meals and candy bars to the kids.” The young soldiers would laugh at the resulting melee.
“This time,” he said, “the only ones on the side of the road were the bodies of dead American soldiers.”
As the convoy headed into the old French section of Hue, “the scene began to resemble a Wild West movie,” he said. “We began receiving heavy machine gun fire from the steeple of a Catholic church.”
Once they got to the military compound in Hue, they learned what had happened. The North Vietnamese had slipped into the city by night, occupying it and massacring thousands. The Marines would have to take it back.
And they would have to do it block by bock, house by house, on the Communists’ terms.
“Urban warfare was a totally new experience for us,” said Lambert. “The vicious house-to-house and room-to-room tactics demanded a unique aggressive spirit.”
The fighting was intense.
“After six days, we had developed a routine that consisted of violent assault supported by heavy automatic weapons fire,” he recalled. “Once the enemy return fire was suppressed, a fire team of three marines would rush into a building and run from room to room tossing in fragmentation grenades and spraying each room with automatic fire from their M-16 rifles. After many days without sleep and little food, these assaults became mechanical. Many of us were like walking dead.”
The horror of the war, the total confusion of combat, the physical exhaustion of the soldiers and the deadening of the soldiers’ sensitivity to killing are hard for most people to understand, Lambert said.
But these elements also make Mary's intervention in the carnage and filth of that particular battle all the more extraordinary, he added.
Lambert's reinforced platoon, which had started out with 65 marines, had dwindled to 20 men in six days of continuous fighting. That's when Company Commander Captain Ron Christmas gave the order to clear a Catholic church near the Phu Cam canal. The church was suspected of being the location of the machine gun nest that had fired at the convoy a week earlier.
“I issued a brief order to my three squad-leaders to clear the churchyard and check the church itself,” said Lambert. “I gave special attention to the bell tower.” Noticing a basement staircase descending from a low door in the back of the church, he decided to check that out himself.
“I removed an M-26 grenade from the front pocket of my flack jacket and tucked my M-16 rifle under my right armpit,” he said. “As I descended the staircase, I readied the grenade. I placed my left index finger into the safety ring and began to ease the pin out of the arming mechanism of the hand grenade.”
Lambert easily could have thrown the grenade into the room at the bottom of the stairway, but he didn't.
Instead, “I felt a gentle hand touch me and lay over the grenade,” he said. “In one of those inexplicable moments in time, I instantly knew I was to re-safe the deadly grenade.” He did, returning it to his flack jacket.
Stepping off the stairway landing, he entered the crypt of the Church.
“There in the darkness, I saw a sea of lit vigil lights with Vietnamese huddled over them,” he said. “The parishioners of the church had taken refuge in the basement.”
He led them out into the light of day and sent them to the refugee center.
After four more days of fighting, Lambert was wounded, treated and sent back into combat. In the rush of events, he forgot all about the incident in the Church basement.
Until 25 years later.
Then a father of six, he heard about a priest in New Orleans who had the reputation, like Padre Pio, of reading souls in confession.
“On impulse,” he said, “I made an appointment with that priest.”
They traveled from Atlanta and each family member made a general confession. Lambert was the last.
The priest knew nothing of his past or identity, and at the end of the general confession he asked Lambert if he had anything else to discuss.
“I mentioned that I was experiencing troubling dreams about my experiences in Vietnam,” said Lambert.
“You mean about the church?” asked the priest.
“Yes, Father,” said Lambert.
Answered the priest: “That was the Blessed Mother's hand that stopped you from throwing the hand grenade.”
The church was named Our Lady of Perpetual Help.
----- EXCERPT: A Marine's encounter in a bloody battle ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: LIFE NOTES DATE: 05/06/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 6-12, 2001 ----- BODY:‘Baby Bonus’
CANADIAN PRESS, April 17 — Manitoba is introducing a baby bonus for the unborn to help low-income mothers give birth to healthier children, reported the Canadian Press news service.
Premier Gary Doer said the plan is the first of its kind in Canada. To be eligible for benefits, women must have a total family income of less than $32,000 (Canadian).
Benefits are provided on a sliding scale up to a maximum of $81.41 per month, reported the Canadian Press.
Lawsuit Over DNR Order
Chris Gardener, 60, a retired consultant, was horrified to find the notice, which had been written by Dr. David Cove. Gardener said that Cove did not discuss the decision with him beforehand, reported The Times.
Gardener was in the hospital to have both legs amputated. The “do not resuscitate” notice was issued Christmas Eve, 1999. He claimed that the file said neither he nor his family was to be informed of the decision.
Wisconsin Conscience Bill
The state's existing conscience clause allows professionals to decline to perform abortions and sterilizations based on moral or religious grounds. Rep. Scott Walker's bill specifies that they could also refuse to participate in implanting fertilized eggs; withholding food and water; assisting at suicide or euthanasia; and in destroying human embryos or using fetal tissue.
The bill also extends protections to pharmacists, allowing them to object to providing drugs that can prevent embryo implantation.
Court Sides With Pro-Lifers
LIFESITE DAILY NEWS, April 9 — The city of Elkhorn, Wis., had to pay $6,630 after bailing out of a losing lawsuit filed by the American Family Association Center for Law & Policy on behalf of eight pro-lifers, reported LifeSite Daily News.
The city was acting on a new ordinance that seemed to be written specifically to shut down pro-life protests.
Federal Judge Joseph P. Stadtmueller issued Elkhorn a stern warning from the bench saying the ordinance was a “2x4 across the brow of the First Amendment.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: 'May We All Be One' DATE: 05/13/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 13-19, 2001 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY—In the days leading up to Pope John Paul II's “Jubilee pilgrimage” to Greece—it continued the visits he made to Egypt and the Holy Land last year—it was common to hear Vatican commentators describe the visit as the “most difficult,” and perhaps even “most dangerous” of his pontificate.
It was an extraordinary comment, given that Greece is a Christian country with a democratic government. Could it be possible that the hostility of the Greek Orthodox would be worse than the communist boors of Sandinista Nicaragua, who shouted down the pope in Managua in 1983, or the henchmen of Augusto Pinochet in 1987, who provoked a riot during a papal Mass in Chile?
Despite ominous signs beforehand — in which the Orthodox bishops of Greece made it abundantly clear that they would prefer the Pope not to come and the more militant clergy staged anti-papal protests—the May 4-5 visit was a step forward. The first papal visit to Greece in over 1000 years was not the triumph of last year's visit to the Holy Land, but it yielded discernible progress. And the Holy Father's historic request for forgiveness for Catholic sins against the Orthodox may mark a turning point in Catholic-Orthodox relations.
“The impossible mission will finish with a success,” one Italian newspaper put its headline. The newspaper's commentator suggested that the meeting between the Pope and the Orthodox Patriarch of Greece Christódoulos at the Areopagus in Athens could be an encounter as historic as the “Men of Athens” speech of St. Paul that made the Areopagus famous (Acts 17:22-34).
That may be a stretch, but there was at least a small breakthrough when the Pope and Patriarch Christódoulos prayed the “Our Father” together in Greek at the apostolic nunciature in Athens. Previously, the Greek Orthodox had refused any common prayer with the Pope—which is why they signed a joint declaration at the Areopagus instead of having a liturgical service—but Christódoulos responded favorably to the Holy Father's spontaneous request.
“More than any other pilgrimage which I have made, the one I am about to undertake [to the places linked with the history of salvation] during the Jubilee event will be marked by the desire expressed in Christ's prayer to the Father that his disciples ‘may all be one’,” wrote the Holy Father in his June 1999 letter that declared his desire to visit the Holy Land, and then to follow in St. Paul's footsteps to Athens and Damascus.
That letter was met in the fall of 1999 with a flat rejection from the Orthodox Synod of Greece, saying that the Pope was not welcome. It was not until January 2001 that the Greek pilgrimage became possible, when Greek President Constantinos Stephanopoulos came to Rome and invited the Pope. Upon his return to Greece, Stephanopoulos forced the Orthodox Synod to withdraw its objections and accept the visit.
That process underscored the difficulties that awaited john Paul II in Athens. Today, the Roman Pontiff enjoys unmatched prestige, and is invited by heads of state all over the world. The patriarchs of Orthodoxy, by contrast, feel besieged by a world that relegates them to the periphery; indeed, the Greek Orthodox keenly felt the humiliation of being forced by their own government to accept a visit that they did not want.
A continuing obstacle on the path to greater Catholic-Orthodox unity is that, despite Roman efforts to emphasize the fraternal nature of these meetings between “sister churches,” the meetings are not in practice encounters between equals. For Patriarch Christó doulos, his only day on the world stage came when the Pope visited, a fact that aggravates Orthodox concerns that the Catholic Church wants merely to swallow up the Orthodox Churches in the name of unity.
But papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls insisted that the difficulties reinforced the necessity of the Greek pilgrimage. For most Catholics, hearing the Holy Father called a “two-horned monster” and a “heretic” came as a shock. However, this is so primarily because most Catholics hear almost nothing about, or from, Orthodoxy.
Consequently, the trip was like two estranged branches of a family meeting after several generations of isolation. The news is not that the various relatives think ill of each other—which, after all, is the reason for the estrangement – but that they are meeting. A meeting marked by some rancor is, therefore, a more promising sign of reconciliation than snubbed invitations that generated only stony silence.
“The Pope is very happy,” said Navarro-Valls. “A way has been opened. Even two months ago this visit was unthinkable, and today it ends with a joint declaration.”
Visible Sign of Unity
The joint declaration signed at the Areopagus made a nod toward Christian unity and a joint appeal for Europe to preserve its Christian roots, but the importance was not its frankly banal substance. Almost 10 centuries after the schism of 1054, the achievement of Greece was to produce for the first time since then a common act.
With an eye to the future, John Paul II renewed his now established practice of offering a mea culpa — the most historic moment during his short visit. In asking forgiveness from God for sins against the Orthodox, the Holy Father hoped to heal the wounds of the past.
“Clearly, there is need for a liberating process of purification of memory,” said the Holy Father. “For the occasions past and present, when sons and daughters of the Catholic Church have sinned by action or omission against their Orthodox brothers and sisters, may the Lord grant us the forgiveness we beg of him.”
John Paul's address came in response to that of Patriarch Christódoulos, who, at the behest of the Orthodox Synod, presented a list of Orthodoxy's historic grievances against the Church of Rome.
“Traumatic experiences remain as open wounds in the vigorous body of the Greek people,” the patriarch said. “To date, not even one single petition for forgiveness has been heard.”
Ancient Grievances
John Paul also referred to the Fourth Crusade of 1204, the single event that most soured the Catholic-Orthodox relationship. The Crusade was supposed to go to Jerusalem to re-open access to the Holy Places, but instead ended in Constantinople. Catholics from the West pillaged the city, Orthodoxy's capital. Attempts were also made to impose the Latin rites and ecclesiastical structures on the Orthodox.
“Some memories are especially painful, and some events of the distant past have left deep wounds in the minds and hearts of people to this day,” John Paul continued. “I am thinking of the disastrous sack of the imperial city of Constantinople, which was for so long the bastion of Christianity in the East. It is tragic that the assailants, who had set out to secure free access for Christians to the Holy Land, turned against their own brothers in the faith.
“The fact that they were Latin Christians fills Catholics with deep regret. How can we fail to see here the mysterium iniquitatis at work in the human heart? To God alone belongs judgment and, therefore, we entrust the heavy burden of the past to his endless mercy, imploring him to heal the wounds that still cause suffering to the spirit of the Greek people.”
It is not yet clear what happens after such a mea culpa. Does it mean that the Fourth Crusade is now a closed issue? Does it mean that the Orthodox are expected to make a similar request for forgiveness from God for acts of anti-Catholic aggression—as happened much more recently in Central and Eastern European countries under communism?
Those matters remain for the future—but not the distant future. Next month, the Holy Father will be in another predominantly Orthodox country, the Ukraine, where the challenges will be the same as in Greece, only more complicated.
------- EXCERPT: John Paul II's trip makes history ----- EXTENDED BODY: Raymond De Souza ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Rocky Mountain Vocations High DATE: 05/13/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 13-19, 2001 ----- BODY:DENVER—Archbishop Charles Chaput and the Denver archdiocese have two things to celebrate this year.
One is its 60th anniversary this fall. The other is the largest major seminary enrollment in Denver's history.
In today's vocations climate, too often perceived as dreary, the fact merits repeating: This year's 71 major seminarians are the most Denver has ever had.
The high figure, Archbishop Chaput admits, is inflated by the presence in Denver, since 1996, of seminarians from the Spain-based movement known as the Neocatechumenal Way. But since several of the movement's seminarians are themselves Denver natives, and all of them will end up serving the archdiocese, the distinction means little to those who benefit from it most—the Catholic people of Northern Colorado.
Counting those who are studying for the Neocatechumenal Way, Denver has produced 33 of the 71 seminarians on its own. The largest single class in recent years was 19, in 1998. This fall, Denver Vocations Director Father Kent Drotar expects his entering class to be somewhere between 12 and 17, a slight increase over the 10-year average.
“Those are pretty high numbers,” Father Drotar said, noting that many dioceses in the country won't add a single seminarian this year.
Msgr. Samuel J. Aquila, the rector of Denver's new St. John Vianney Theological Seminary, said that seminary enrollment can be expected to climb in the years ahead.
“I think the vocations are present in every diocese, and that if everyone encourages them we will see a real flourishing,” Msgr. Aquila told the Register. “Certainly since the late ‘80s and early ‘90s there has been a turnaround in the number of seminarians entering each year for the Archdiocese of Denver.”
Vocations have doubled, he said, and he expects them to more than double again in the years ahead.
Msgr. Aquila's optimism was shared by every diocesan spokesman contacted for this story. All traced their enthusiasm to 1993, the year Pope John Paul II turned Denver into a virtual Rocky Mountain Vatican during his trip there for World Youth Day. Ever since, the archdiocese has emanated the glow of renewal.
Vocations to the priesthood, Denver Catholics say, is just one of its signs.
“World Youth Day had a huge impact on this community and its self-understanding,” Archbishop Chaput said. “It's just a kind of different place than it was before.”
In terms of priestly vocations, Archbishop Chaput said that a number of seminarians “are coming forward now and talking about the impact [World Youth Day] had on them.”
Another sign of Denver's renewal, Archbishop Chaput said, is the high number of adult conversions over the past decade.
This year, Denver received nearly 1,500 adults into full communion with the Church, a figure Archbishop Chaput called “huge.”
Looking only at ordinations, Denver's numbers have been erratic. The archdiocese has averaged three a year for the last five, with seven in 2000. But there were none in 1999 and only one the year before that.
But for a diocese of 116 parishes, these numbers are still strong compared to dozens of larger, urban dioceses.
Archbishop Chaput said that, 30 years after Vatican II, the harvest is ripening.
“I think as we try to declericalize the Church the people want it to be reclericalized where priests and sisters and deacons are part of the leaven that makes the community strong,” Archbishop Chaput said.
“We really do need a lot of priests if we are going to evangelize the culture. Although the Lord has blessed us abundantly, we need a whole lot more—a whole lot more.”
Archbishop Chaput recalled that many people were shocked when he said soon after his installation as archbishop in 1997 that he hoped to have 150 men studying for the priesthood. Using the archbishop's yardstick as a measure, Denver is now about halfway to its goal.
And what kind of seminarians is Denver getting?
“The seminarians who are coming forward are Catholic to the core,” Father Drotar said. “For most of them the only Pope they've ever known is John Paul II,” he said. “They are very faithful to the teachings of the Church, hungry to learn more about them and they are very evangelical. They have a willingness to share their faith with others, and they are not afraid to admit they're Catholic.”
Archbishop Charles Chaput stressed the importance of a confident faith in those striving to become priests.
“I think the most important quality I look for is that he [the seminarian] is a believer—that he has a confident faith in Jesus Christ and a confident faith that Jesus Christ works through his Church,” he said.
Archbishop Chaput said that he's “grateful” to be a part of Denver's renewal. Still, he said the people of Denver should not be too quick to take credit for God's work in the archdiocese.
“As soon you start bragging about things,” he warned, “God will show you who's in charge.”
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian McGuire ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Chestertonís Long-Lost Novel Found DATE: 05/13/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 13-19, 2001 ----- BODY:LIVERPOOL, England—Forget Shakespeare In Love … hereís G.K. Chesterton in love.
A previously unpublished novel by the celebrated Catholic convert from England has been unearthed and was due to be released in the United Kingdom this month.
In a literary career that began with the publication of a book of poetry 100 years ago, Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) was a master of many genres, from satire and polemical journalism to literary criticism. He wrote Christian apologetics, first as an Anglican and then as a Catholic. His novels included the Father Brown detective stories and his apologetics included such renowned works as Orthodoxy (about faith) and The Everlasting Man (about Christ).
An influential figure in the early 20th century, he edited and founded newspapers, was a gifted artist and cartoonist and a superb public speaker and debater.
Chesterton was also the intellectual leader of a practical intellectual movement anchored in Catholic social teaching and known as Distributism —opposed to both socialism and monopoly capitalism in the name of individual liberty and social solidarity.
His ideas and writings continue to command a following today, with Chesterton societies active in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Australia.
Chesterton experts say the new novel, Basil Howe, is semi-autobiographical and was written when Chesterton was 20. It shows Chesterton wearing yet another literary hat: romance novelist.
If Shakespeare had what literary historians call “the dark lady” of the sonnets, Chesterton had a red-headed girl, according to this novel.
“You would never have thought it was written by Chesterton,” said Professor Denis Conlon, president of the U.K. Chesterton Society.
“His later work was influenced by his wife. This was one she did not want. It is a good romantic novel—not quite Jane Austen — but it would stand up very well,” he said. “It is the sort of work any novelist would hope to achieve especially at that age.”
Why wasn't it published by the author? “It is not really the done thing to parade one's first love before one's spouse.”
The novel, he said, “also shows the talent that was lost. Every critic has said that he cannot handle female characters or love affairs. This novel shows that he could do this extremely well.”
Basil Howe was written in 1894, 11 years before Chesterton's first published novel, The Napoleon of Notting Hill, was released.
It is also the product of literary detective work by Conlon, professor of English literature at the University of Antwerp, Belgium. It was among 200 notebooks and assorted papers kept in the attic at Top Meadow Cottage in Beaconsfield—Chesterton's final home—by Dorothy Collins, who was his secretary, until her death in 1989.
Most of the stories were written in notebooks because, according to Conlon, Mrs. Chesterton was very frugal with the daily allowance she gave her husband.
After Collins’ death, the collection was sold for £200,000 (about $300,000) to the British Library in London. Conlon was given access to the material before it went to its new home.
“The title Basil Howe is one I made up,” he added, explaining that “a lot of the title pages for the stories were missing, and it even seems Miss Collins could not really cope with the filing and classified two parts of the present book into two separate stories. Basil Howe does seem to be the central character, however.”
The novel, complete with commentary by Professor Conlon, is due to be published by New City, the publishing arm of the Focolare Movement, which will also published two unpublished Father Brown stories —including the last story —garnered from the same found papers.
G.K. Buzz
The novel has already created a buzz among Chesterton devotees.
Stratford Caldecott, director of the Chesterton Institute at Plater College, Oxford University, told the Register, “I would be very interested to see it. I am certainly looking forward to its publication.”
He said he is not surprised about its romantic content. “He had a very romantic heart, he wrote a lot of very moving love poetry.”
Basilian Father Ian Boyd, of Seton Hall University in New Jersey, is also looking forward to the volume. The editor of The Chesterton Review and president of The Chesterton Institute in the United States told the Register that the novel dates from a very interesting period in the writer's life.
“This was written in the period when he was attending Slade School of Art in London. Chesterton explained the situation in a chapter in his autobiography called ‘How to become a lunatic,’” said Father Boyd.
“At this period he had come to the conclusion that nature and the universe were just projections of his own mind,” he explained. “He was very close to madness, and an extreme form of solipsism [the philosophical position that the self is the only knowable or existent thing].”
Father Boyd added the experience meant that Chesterton understood modernity intimately.
Caldecott said the novel would be read around the world.
In addition to the United States and England, “Chesterton is also popular in Russia and Lithuania. During the Communist era his writings were published samizdat [underground] and were quite influential in keeping ideas such as freedom and liberty alive,” Caldecott said. “It was only natural that when Communism fell people would want to pursue their interest.”
He added that in his own British college, a student Chesterton Club had attracted at least one member from Sierra Leone. Like the rest of the students, the young African is anxious to read the new book—and may even bring it back to West Africa for others to read.
“He is setting up a Chesterton Society which is going to be an educational initiative to promote rural economic development.”
Paul Burnell writes from Manchester, England.
------- EXCERPT: Available this month in England ----- EXTENDED BODY: Paul Burnell ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Home Schooling Graduating Into the Mainstream DATE: 05/13/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 13-19, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON —When Helen and Mark Helm started home schooling their son Greg, the first of their four children, home schooling was barely a blip on the screen of cultural awareness. “We worried that a social worker might show up and take our kids away,” she recalled.
That was 11 years ago. Now, with the likes of William Bennett, Baltimore Cardinal William Keeler and popular radio talk show host Dr. Laura Schlessinger singing its praises, “Things are different,” said Helm.
She lives on Andrews Air Force Base in Washington. “These days, many kids around here are home schooled and you see them out and around during regular school hours. When you mention home schooling, more people admire you instead of shaking their heads as if you were weird or nuts or something.”
Greg, now 15, and his younger siblings can take their books out to the yard and study in the sunshine without fear.
Statistics confirm the Helms’ experience. In 1980, close to 100% of American children attended institutional schools. Within two decades, the number of home schooled children jumped to between 1.2 and 1.6 million (compared to 52.6 million students enrolled in Grades K-12 in 1999).
“If this trend were to continue at a modest 7% annual growth rate,” said Dr. Brian D. Ray, president of the National Home Education Research Institution in Salem, Ore., “about 3 million students would be home educated during the fall of 2010.”
What many believed a passing fad has become an established movement. Ray, who has studied home schooling for 16 years, said he knows why. “Because home schooling works, plain and simple. Year after year, studies have shown that home schooled children perform at a higher academic level than their peers in conventional schools.”
Ray's largest-ever nationwide study of home education showed home schoolers score, on average, at or above the 80th percentile in all areas on standardized achievement tests. The national average is in the 50th percentile. In other words, the home schoolers out-performed their public-school peers by 30 to 37 percentile points across all subjects.
The Opposing View
But not everyone endorses home schooling. The National Education Association states bluntly on its Web site, “The National Education Association believes that home schooling programs cannot provide the student with a comprehensive education experience.” However, the NEA declined to discuss the reasons for their position with the Register.
“I'm really not surprised,” said Ray. “What can they say? They're a teachers’ union. I think the evidence that home schooling works is so overwhelming that almost no one will say anything.”Ray added that the most common complaint about home schooling concerns “socialization”—that is, a fear that home schooled children will not be able to interact adequately with their peers and with people of different faiths or races.
Tim and Miki Hill of Woodstock, Md., have home schooled their eight children for 20 years.
The co-presidents of the National Association of Catholic Home Educators dispute the prevailing wisdom regarding socialization. “My argument against the classic school environment is that there is only one period of your life that you're going to be in groups of people all the same age,” said Tim Hill. “It's artificial. In the real world, you have to deal with people young and old and people of different abilities. I think home schoolers get a more real-life experience.
“In most home schooling families, there are several children, so that's an opportunity just within the family to learn the dynamics of getting along with different age groups,” he continued. “Home schoolers are typically involved in community sports—several of our kids play in a band formed of home schooled kids and kids from Catholic and Christian schools. Home schooling families generally have weekly activities with each other — history clubs, and what have you.”
In fact, Ray said, research has shown that 98% of home schoolers are involved in at least two outside-the-home activities, such as Scouts, music, ballet or Bible classes.
A Student's Perspective
Benjamin Smedberg, 22, of Sterling, Va., can discuss the socialization issue from the inside. Home schooled from sixth grade through high school, the graduate of The Catholic University of America is now the musical director of St. Patrick's Church in downtown Washington. “What about those poor public school kids who don't know how to be socialized because the only people they ever deal with are kids their own age?” Smedberg asked.
The eldest of seven children, Smedberg is glad that his parents removed him from public school. “I found it boring,” he admitted. “Everything goes so slowly there. Once they teach something, they teach it again and again and again rather than moving on.” At home, Smedberg and his siblings covered their academic subjects in three to four hours per day. Much reading was accomplished, including the entire Bible, the ancient Greek classics and some five hundred other books he listed on his college application.
Just about the only thing Smedberg regrets about his home schooling years was that he couldn't play soccer. Some local boards of education will not allow home schoolers to participate in high-school sports and the official position of the National Education Association is that “home-schooled students should not participate in any extracurricular activities in the public schools.”
In his teen years, while officially home schooling, Smedberg took several science labs and upper-level math courses in calculus at a local community college. His mother, Marian Smedberg, explains that taking community college classes is common among older home schooled kids. “Also, we home schoolers do some things cooperatively,” she added. “For instance, I teach a Latin group for the mothers who can't.”
Bishop Thomas J. Tobin of Youngstown, Ohio, is a robust supporter of home schooling. In his recent pastoral letter, “Catholic Schools: A Commitment Renewed,” Bishop Tobin stated, “Nor should our strong affirmation of and commitment to Catholic schools be a source of envy or competition for other forms of religious education or other ministries of the Church. Home schooling is a legitimate option for some and it deserves the recognition and support of the Church.”
Una McManus writes from
Columbia, Maryland.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Una McManus ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Beauty of Faith DATE: 05/13/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 13-19, 2001 ----- BODY:Sonia Amir
A former youth minister, juvenile counselor and community center recreation director, she made youth a part of her winning platform in the Miss Maryland competition. She spoke recently with Register features correspondent Tim Drake.
Drake: Tell us about your family.
My mother, Clemencia, is Colombian, and my father, Javed, is from Pakistan. I was brought to the United States when I was 3. I have two younger brothers — Kamilo (22) and Ivan (16).
My parents came to the United States in search of the American dream of success and good fortune. They instilled in us a lot of values and a sincere appreciation for this country. It was a blessing to be able to call this country our home. My father works as a writer and my mother is an after-care director for St. Joseph's School.
My father is Muslim and my mother is Catholic. Since my father is non-practicing he agreed to allow my mother to raise us Catholic. I see my mother as a saint. She is a very humble soul who loves life and lives it to the fullest. Even when times are tough she trusts in God and is ready to accept what he has for us and our lives.
What was it like growing up in a foreign country?
It was difficult learning a new language. I attended Catholic schools all my life, and in about fourth and fifth grade other children began pointing out my differences as a mixed Hispanic and Asian. Other children could be cruel. They would make fun of me for speaking in a foreign language. My mother just kept telling me, “That's how children are. Don't let them get to you.”
By about eighth grade I realized that I was different, but that there was nothing I could do about it. I didn't realize then that these differences would help me to become the person that I have.
I understand that there was a time when you doubted your faith?
Yes, at age 18 I was raped. I was a freshman in college and it was devastating. It put a damper on my hopes, dreams and beliefs. I blamed myself and wondered why bad things happened to good people. I felt that God was punishing me and stopped going to Church for a time.
I was still a child, grasping and learning and understanding the ways of life. I went through a period of confusion and depression and even questioned whether I should continue living. My relationships suffered took nearly three years for me to understand what had gone on and how I could rise above it.
The love of my parents, my faith, and a kind priest helped me through it, and I started attending Church again. I used to go to Church because I had to. Now I go because I need it and I miss it. It's part of who I am. God gives us every day of the week and all we're giving back to him is one hour. That's nothing compared to what He has given us realize that when I felt I was getting weaker and breaking away from the Church, my faith was actually getting stronger.
Eventually I did understand why this bad thing had happened. The most important thing I learned is that I could take negative learning experiences and turn them into positive ones. It's similar to what Jesus said when he said that we should “turn the other cheek.” After you get slapped once, you turn the other cheek but you are more aware. You learn from that experience and you do something positive about it.
Your platform is youth empowerment and positive peer pressure. What do you tell young people when you speak with them?
I was active in our Church youth group when I was in sixth to eighth grade, and I worked as a youth minister at our parish, St. Joseph in Beltsville, Md., for two years. Nowadays we have a lot of youth violence. Youth feel that they are not regarded as anything special.
I want them to see that they are important in the community's eyes. I talk with them about issues they may be facing in school with their peers or their parents. I try to build their self-esteem and help them make positive choices. I help them to see that they are worth something. When you do that, they will feel proud of their accomplishments and their community and they will think twice before they harm themselves or someone else.
Nowadays children feel that believing in God is un-cool. They feel that it doesn't look cool at all. That is what we need to start changing. I understand the need for separation of church and state and people not discussing God, but that is where our mistake is. Parents are not even willing to discuss God or make him an important aspect of their lives. They don't pay attention to God or the blessings they receive each day. Therefore, when a child receives a bad grade, or curfew, or is disciplined, they don't know how to handle it. They cannot see beyond the immediate to the big picture. Look at the suicide rate among teens, or the violence in schools and you can see that something isn't right. I believe it is the lack of faith, the lack of God, and the lack of respect for life.
What led you to compete in pageants?
In 1997 I was working out at my gym and was talking to a woman at the gym when she asked me if I had ever thought about competing in pageants. I reverted to my stereotype of Miss America pageants and told her that I didn't think that was who I was. She then told me that she was Miss Maryland 1997, and she explained to me that the Miss America pageant offers young women a chance to improve their lives.
Women do not pay to compete. The pageant operates through the support of non-profits and more than 300,000 volunteers. Eighty thousand young women compete, but only 51 make it to Miss America. They distribute more than $40 million annually in scholarships. She encouraged me saying, “If you're interested in school and have a passion worth talking about, this is the time and place to do it.”
I competed and won at the local level and ended up making the top ten in 1998. Then I went back to my full-time job and worked on my master's.
What led you to compete again in 2000?
In 1999, Heather Davis, my roommate during pageant week in 1998 who had gone on to become Miss Maryland, encouraged me to reconsider competing.
Competing again involved a lot of soul searching. I was in a great position as the director of a community center in a socio-economically poor area known as Langley Park. There was a lot of poverty and gang violence and a lot of youth who had given up on life. Because many of them were Hispanic I was able to speak to them in their own language to show them that they could rise up and improve their lives. I loved the challenge and knew that God was using me as an instrument at that time. I knew that if I won Miss Maryland I would have to resign.
Once you turn 25 you can't compete. I was 24 and so this would be the last year that I could compete. Heather was very Christian.
During the 1998 pageant week she would read from her Bible each day and we would pray together. She left a lot of things in God's hands. Her faith and hope gave me the courage to compete one more time.
I decided that I would give the competition my all, and with Heather's example I left it in God's hands. I knew that if I won God would have more plans for me than I would ever know. I was at peace and I had let go. That's when I knew that my faith was stronger than ever.
Has being Miss Maryland allowed you to share about your faith?
Absolutely. I've had people come up and tell me things that make me tear up.
One woman came up to me and said she could sense the Holy Spirit in me. For people to come up and say they see God's presence in you is the most humbling compliment that anyone could ever pay me. I know that God is using me as his instrument.
When I go into schools, I ask permission to talk about God. I tell youth that they are not a mistake—that there is a reason to their being born. Each of us has a purpose that is unique. We all need to become instruments in God's plan.
Once we have fulfilled that plan, he calls us home. I close all of my speeches with, “What you are is God's gift to you; what you become is your gift to God.”
What are your plans after your reign is up at the end of June?
The crown has never been a destination for me, but simply a step in the journey. It has given me an opportunity to speak passionately about my platform. I came to this country with hopes and dreams and was able to achieve an American dream. I want to give a piece of the American dream to every child.
I hope to go into the public relations field and work for an organization that focuses on social issues, improving life for children and communities.
I also plan to finish my master's degree and receive an MBA with the scholarship moneys from the pageants. Eventually, I'd like to get married and have a family of my own.
------- EXCERPT: Miss Maryland's harrowing ordeal ----- EXTENDED BODY: Sonia Amir ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 05/13/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 13-19, 2001 ----- BODY:Will Faith-Based Plan Hurt Churches?
WALL STREET JOURNAL, April 30—President Bush's faith-based initiative would have the same destructive effects on religious charities that government intervention has had on secular ones, the New York daily argued.
An editorial column in the newspaper praised two aspects of Bush's plan: removing regulations that hinder charities, and offering tax incentives for charitable donations. But it decried the plan's federal grants to religious charities.
The newspaper warned that decisions about who would get the money would be swayed by churches’ political clout and the religious biases of officials. It also argued that the plan would make charities concerned more with “keeping the grants flowing” than with serving the poor.
Noting that some churchgoers choose their churches based on the services they provide, the Journal asked, “Do we really want federal funding to affect America's religious dynamics in this manner?"
Ashcroft's Rules: No Pride Allowed
NEWSWEEK, April 30—Attorney General John Ashcroft has brought his faith to work, the weekly magazine reported.
Ashcroft holds daily prayer sessions in his office—Christian morning prayers and smaller meetings for both Christians and non-Christians. And Ashcroft told staffers not to use the phrase “no higher calling than public service” or the word “proud” in letters that will bear Ashcroft's signature, explaining that God is above government and that pride is a sin.
Georgia Lesbians Seek Recognition of Vermont ‘Union’
PLANETOUT.COM, April 27—A Georgia woman asked a court to force the state to recognize the homosexual civil union she got in Vermont, the homosexual news service reported.
Susan Freer and Debra Jean Freer are seeking custody of Susan's sons. The children's father said that Susan violated the terms of their 1998 visitation agreement by living with a person to whom she is not married. Susan argued that her civil union with Debra Jean constituted the equivalent of marriage.
Vermont's law distinguishes between marriage and civil unions.
Christian Charm School
DETROIT NEWS, April 25—Joseanna Kimball runs an unusual charm school, the Detroit daily reported.
Along with etiquette and dining behavior, Josie's Haven teaches Christian principles. The school teaches children aged seven to 17, with classes featuring topics like confidence, stress reduction, abstinence, and anger management. Fifteen kids have signed up so far.
Awards Honor Schlafly, Mock Wills
THE CATHOLIC NEW WORLD, April 15—Catholic Citizens of Illinois gave out twin awards to Phyllis Schlafly and Garry Wills, the Chicago Catholic newspaper reported.
Schlafly, founder of the pro-family group the Eagle Forum, received the St. Thomas More award.
Wills, journalist and author of Papal Sin, received the “Archbishop Cranmer Award for Disservice to the Church.” The Illinois group likened Wills’ attacks on the Eucharist and the papacy with the actions of the 16th–century Archbishop of Canterbury who sided with Henry VIII against Rome.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: How Pro-Life is the Bush Administration? DATE: 05/13/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 13-19, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON—The House of Representatives passed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act April 26 with a boost from President George W. Bush.
But, some pro-life analysts asked, was the bill such a victory? Despite the firestorm of political ads and newspaper editorials denouncing the bill as a pro-life “assault on reproductive rights,” the act would not ban a single abortion. It merely enhanced the penalties for an assault on a pregnant woman that causes her to miscarry.
The most controversial part of the bill was its wording: It called an unborn child a child, and talked about taking a life rather than “interruption to the normal course of a pregnancy.”
Is this the best pro-lifers can expect under this president?
In an April 20 interview with USA Today, White House chief of staff Andy Card said that Bush doesn't expect that he will “be able to eliminate abortions.” Card called abortion “a high moral priority for the president,” but not a “public policy priority.”
Teresa R. Wagner, sanctity of life analyst for the Family Research Council, called Card's statements “a great disappointment.” She challenged the administration to “take the lead. It's no answer to say the culture isn't ready—it's the president's job to make the culture ready.”
Mercy Viana, a White House spokeswoman, did not directly address Card's remarks. But, she said, “The president has a consistent pro-life record and believes our goals should be that all unborn children are welcomed in life and protected in law.”
Viana listed Bush's achievements: “In his first hundred days, the president restored the Mexico City policy [barring federal funding for agencies that perform or promote abortion overseas], spoke at the dedication of the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center, met with cardinals and bishops across the country, and supported the passage of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2001.”
Darla St. Martin, associate executive director of the National Right to Life Committee, cited some other accomplishments. Bush has “appointed pro-lifers to the most critical cabinet positions: we have a pro-life attorney general, and a governor [Tommy Thompson] who signed every pro-life bill that came to his desk in Wisconsin as the secretary of Health and Human Services,” St. Martin said.
St. Martin added that Card's comments were inaccurate. “I know the president,” she said. “He is pro-life. We should judge the man by what he does, not by what some adviser thinks is in his head.”
As for the criticism Bush has not done much, St. Martin told pro-lifers who want more action from the president to “elect a much stronger pro-life Senate next time,” since the 50-50 Senate split between Republicans and Democrats makes it difficult to pass pro-life legislation.
But Judie Brown, president of the American Life League, reminded pro-lifers that Bush has always supported an “exception” to allow abortions for women who are the victims of rape or incest. And she pointed out that the Mexico City policy—which pro-abortion Congressmen are currently seeking to overturn—does not affect abortifacients like the birth control pill.
Bush is “less pro-killing than Bill Clinton,” she conceded sardonically.
Brown called Bush “an enormous disappointment,” citing Tommy Thompson's support of embryonic stem cell research, which requires the killing of embryos to obtain the stem cells, while Thompson was governor of Wisconsin.
However, the National Institutes of Health, which is under Thompson's authority, canceled an April meeting to discuss applications for federal funding of stem-cell research projects. Many observers interpreted the cancellation as a sign that the White House intends to ban any such funding.
And as governor of Wisconsin, Thompson opposed “buffer zones” meant to keep pro-lifers away from abortion businesses. He also supported a bill requiring parental consent for a minor's abortion, a 24-hour waiting period, and a ban on late-term abortions.
The Supreme Court
Meanwhile, speculations continue concerning the Supreme Court. The court's abortion rulings became a key campaign issue. Democratic candidate Al Gore vowed not to nominate any candidates for the court who would overturn Roe v. Wade.
Bush, in contrast, insisted he would not use abortion as a “litmus test,” but would nominate only judges who interpreted the Constitution strictly. Bush named Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas—two of the court's most reliable anti-Roe votes—as his favorite justices.
Court watchers have suggested that one of Bush's prime candidates for the next court appointment may not be reliably pro-life. Alberto Gonzales, currently White House counsel, is frequently predicted to be Bush's first nominee, becoming the first Hispanic nominee to the high court.
While Gonzales was on the Texas Supreme Court, he supported a broad interpretation of a loophole in the state's law requiring parental notification for minors seeking abortions. Critics said the loophole effectively dismantled the law.
This murky, complex case is the only “paper trail” Gonzales has left on abortion.
Other potential nominees include J. Michael Luttig and Emilio M. Garza, both staunch opponents of abortion.
Whoever the nominee is, the Family Research Council's Wagner warned, “We are in for a complete circus” if a Supreme Court justice retires, since any nominee must pass the evenly divided Senate.
Predicted Wagner, “The abortion lobby will treat it like the end of the world.”
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Register Summary DATE: 05/13/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 13-19, 2001 ----- BODY:A majestic vision of the entire creation finds its crowning glory in the risen Christ, John Paul II proclaimed in his general audience May 2.
Addressing some 20,000 pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square, the Pope commented on the canticle of the three young men who were condemned to die in a fiery furnace for refusing to adore a golden statue of Nebuchadnezzar. As the Book of Daniel recounts, God saved them from death.
This thanksgiving hymn is a unique inspiration for Christian prayer, the Pope explained.
“Repeating the canticle of the three young men of Israel in the Sunday liturgy of morning prayer, we who are disciples of Christ want to adopt the same sentiments of gratitude for the great works accomplished by God—in creation and, especially, in the paschal mystery,” John Paul said.
The Pope's address continued his catechesis on prayer and the biblical psalms and canticles which make up the Liturgy of the Hours.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Risen Christ, Full Meaning of the Creation DATE: 05/13/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 13-19, 2001 ----- BODY:“Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord” (Daniel 3:57). A sense of the entire cosmos pervades this canticle taken from the Book of Daniel, which the Liturgy of the Hours proposes for Sunday morning prayer in the first and third week [of its four-week cycle]. Indeed, this wonderful litany is very suitable for the Dies Domini, the Lord's Day, because it enables us to contemplate in the risen Christ the culmination of God's plan for the cosmos and for history.
Indeed, in him, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and end of history (see Revelation 22:13), creation itself achieves its full meaning, because, as John recalls in the prologue of his Gospel, “All things came to be through him” (John 1:3). The history of salvation culminates in the Resurrection of Christ, opening the human project to the gift of the Spirit and to adoption as sons and daughters, while we await the return of the divine Spouse, who will give the world back to God the Father (see 1 Corinthians 15:24).
The Heavens and the Earth
In this litany [from Daniel 3], all things are called forth in review. We look up at the sun, the moon and the stars; we look out over the immense expanse of waters and up toward the mountains, lingering on the most varied weather conditions; passing from heat to cold, from light to darkness; considering minerals and plants, observing the various animal species.
The summons then becomes universal. It calls the angels of God as witnesses; it gathers all the “sons of men”—particularly including Israel, the people of God; its priests and the just ones. It is an immense chorus, a symphony in which all the different voices raise their song to God, the Creator of the universe and the Lord of history. Recited in the light of Christian revelation, this litany addresses the Trinitarian God, as the liturgy invites us to do by adding a Trinitarian formula to the canticle: “Let us bless the Father, and the Son with the Holy Spirit.”
Delivered from Great Danger
In a certain sense, this canticle reflects the common religious awareness of all mankind, which perceives the traces of God in the world and rises from them to the contemplation of the Creator. In the Book of Daniel, however, it is a hymn of thanksgiving offered by three young men of Israel—Hananiah, Azariah and Mishael—condemned to be burned to death in a furnace for refusing to adore Nebuchadnezzar's golden statue, but miraculously protected from the flames. The background of this event is that singular history of salvation in which God chooses Israel as his people and establishes a covenant with them. It is precisely to this covenant that the three young men want to remain faithful, at the price of martyrdom in the fiery furnace. Their faithfulness meets with the faithfulness of God, who sends an angel to keep the flames away from them (see Daniel 3:49).
In this litany, all things are called forth in review. We look up at the sun, the moon and the stars; we look out over the immense expanse of waters.
This canticle, therefore, belongs to the family of Old Testament songs of praise for escaping from danger. Among these is the famous victory song in Exodus 15, in which the ancient Hebrews express their gratitude to the Lord for that night when they would have been inevitably destroyed by Pharaoh's army if the Lord had not opened a way for them in the midst of the waters, throwing “horse and rider into the sea” (Exodus 15:1).
A New Way of Escape
It is no accident that every year, during the solemn Easter Vigil, the liturgy bids us repeat the hymn sung by the Israelites in Exodus. The path that was opened for them was a prophetic announcement of the new path that the risen Christ established for all mankind on the holy night of his Resurrection from the dead. Our symbolic passage through the waters of baptism enables us to relive a similar experience of passing from death to life, thanks to the victory over death won by Jesus for the good of us all.
Repeating the canticle of the three young men of Israel in the Sunday liturgy of morning prayer, we who are disciples of Christ want to adopt the same sentiments of gratitude for the great works accomplished by God—in creation and, especially, in the paschal mystery.
It is the Christian who perceives the relation between the liberation of the three young men in the canticle and the Resurrection of Jesus. The Acts of the Apostles sees the Resurrection as an answer to the prayer of the believer who, like the Psalmist, confidently sings: “Because you will not abandon my soul to the nether world, nor will you suffer your holy one to see corruption” (Acts 2:27; Psalm 15:10).
Relating this canticle to the Resurrection is deeply traditional. There are very ancient testimonies to the presence of this hymn in the prayer of the Lord's Day, which is the weekly Christian Easter. The Roman catacombs preserve ancient icons in which the three young men are seen praying, unharmed by the flames—thus giving witness to the power of prayer and to the certainty of the Lord's intervention.
New Vision of Creation
“Blessed are you in the firmament of heaven, praiseworthy and glorious forever” (Daniel 3:56). Singing this hymn on Sunday morning, a Christian feels grateful not only for the gift of creation, but also because God's fatherly care has raised him in Christ to the dignity of a son or daughter.
This fatherly care prompts us to look at creation itself with new eyes, and makes us savor its beauty, in which we can glimpse, as though looking through fine ornamentation, the love of God. It is with such feelings that Francis of Assisi would contemplate creation and raise his praise to God, the ultimate source of all beauty. One spontaneously imagines that the grandeur of this biblical text echoed in his soul when in San Damiano, after reaching the heights of suffering in body and spirit, he composed the Canticle to Brother Sun (see Fonti Francescane, 263).
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Sant' Egidio Internationalizes Faith and Love DATE: 05/13/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 13-19, 2001 ----- BODY:SOUTH BEND, Ind.—Andrea Riccardi is a professor of contemporary history at the Third University of Studies in Rome. But the 50-year-old Italian is much more widely known as the founder of the international Sant'Egidio community, one of the most promising lay movements to emerge since Vatican II.
Riccardi's father was a bank president who was largely uninterested in religion. But animated by his own faith, 18-year-old Andrea and some of his friends moved from Rome's wealthy neighborhoods to the city's impoverished outskirts in 1968 and 1969. By 1973, the young people were meeting to read Scripture and pray each night in the St. Egidio Church in the Trastevere area of Rome.
According to Sant’ Egidio and the World, Riccardi's 1996 book about the community, the young activists worked and went to school in the city by day. At night, they roomed in basements in Trastevere to establish solidarity with immigrants, the unemployed, the elderly and lonely.
Early efforts to serve included an outreach to the elderly and home-bound and the establishment of a day care in a neighborhood where a baby had been bitten by rats.
Since then, the tiny group of idealistic teenagers gathered together by Riccardi has grown into an ecclesial community with 40,000 members in 60 nations including the U.S., where Sant'Egidio affiliates have been founded in New York and Boston.
Along with serving the poor, Sant'Egidio has acted as a peacebroker in countries like Madagascar, where the community played a role in the 1992 negotiations that ended 16 years of civil war. Sant'Egidio also has been active in building opposition to capital punishment, gathering 2.7 million of the 3.2 million signatures of death-penalty opponents that were submitted to the United Nations.
The community was nominated for the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize and received the 2001 Felix HouphouetBoigny UNESCO peace prize in February.
Riccardi recently received the University of Notre Dame's annual Award for International Humanitarianism, given previously to such individuals as Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Jean Vanier and Brother Roger of Taize. He spoke with Register correspondent Catherine M. Odell.
Odell: Please tell how the Sant'Egidio Community was born, when you and your friends were just high school students at Virgilio High School in Rome.
It was 1968, and in that climate, young people were beginning to be protagonists. There were two major influences on us then. One was the Second Vatican Council and the other was the student revolts of 1968. We were a small group of students who discovered the Gospel and we wanted to live with the poor.
I asked myself, “How can we change the world if we don't change the hearts of people?” We believed that the Gospel had those words that could change the hearts of people. We began to work in this shanty-town, this slum next to the Tiber.
Suddenly, all of these young people from rich families were discovering the poor and a large part of the world they had never seen which was poor.
What kept you going in these early years of community life?
What really pushed me to continue was not courage, but the awareness that this was my path. The joy of seeing the poor who were happier and the joy of seeing young people find some motivation for their lives was wonderful.
But, the [response from] the Church was a problem. Sant'Egidio was not being understood or accepted. I have memories of being thrown out every time from one place or another [where we tried to meet]. The priest would throw us out saying, “You are not Catholics. You are Protestants. You read the Bible and there is no priest with you…”
Besides Jesus, who were the patron saints or models for you then?
St. Francis of Assisi, because he was a person who brought the Gospel into the streets. He brought it out of the monastery and the castles. But there were many other encounters with friends who helped me see things differently. I discovered ecumenism through some friends.
How did Pope John Paul II become a friend of Sant'Egidio Community?
Right after he became Pope, he was touring Rome in December of 1978, and wanted to know the city. He was driving by our parish, the first parish he visited, and we called to him. He stopped and came in to visit the day care. He sat on one of the little benches we had and said, “Who are you?"
We told him about our community and how we founded this day care. Two months later, he came back to visit the whole community at Sant'Egidio. We think of him not so much as Pope, but as the bishop of Rome, our bishop.
What are your hopes for the Sant’ Egidio Community?
The hope for this community is that we will never become proud, that we will never think of ourselves as the best in the world. I hope that the community will continue to work for the poor. I want us to be truly brothers and sisters unafraid of evil, unafraid of war and living with the audacity of the simple ones.
The secret of Sant'Egidio is that we are strong. We do have strength, but not the strength of power or money.
Our strength is the strength of faith and love, and sometimes, we can show that this is stronger than the powers that be.
Catherine M. Odell writes from South Bend, Indiana.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Catherine M. Odell ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 05/13/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 13-19, 2001 ----- BODY:Colombian Bishop Offers Haven for Guerrillas
BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION, April 25 –– A Colombian bishop has offered to work to set up a safe haven for the country's second biggest guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army, or ELN, to hold peace talks with the government, the BBC reported.
Bishop Hector Gutierrez Pobon of Chiquinquira said residents of the area were prepared to live under guerrilla control if that would help peace. The bishop's idea has the backing of 15 municipalities in the region as well as the Church.
The offer came after the ELN broke off earlier negotiations, accusing the government of failing to take action against right-wing paramilitary groups. Neither the government nor the ELN has yet replied to the offer, the BBC said.
Chinese Priest Gets Three Years in Labor Camp
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, May 1 –– A Chinese priest has been condemned to three years in labor camp for his membership in the underground Catholic Church, the news service reported.
Father Lu Genju was jailed April 13 for allegedly performing pastoral activities without the approval of the state-sanctioned Chinese Patriotic Church. “Since 1998, Lu Genju has many times conducted illegal evangelization activities in Wanghuitong village, seriously creating social disturbance,” the sentencing order read.
The sentence of re-education through labor given to Lu on Good Friday is an administrative order that Chinese police can hand out without a trial. It coincided with an Easter crackdown against several members of the underground Catholic Church, which recognizes the primacy of the Pope.
The Connecticut-based Cardinal Kung Foundation issued the following statement in connection with Father Lu's sentence: “This decision … makes official and abundantly clear that people who refuse to join the government-established Patriotic Association and who persist in worshipping in accordance with their conscience are now punishable to three years of labor camp.”
Hundreds Flock to See Image in Canada
GLOBE AND MAIL, May 1 –– Hundreds of people flocked to a Nova Scotia reserve during the last days of April to view an image that reportedly resembles the Virgin Mary holding the baby Jesus, the Canadian daily reported.
The 3.2-inch image, which appeared in the home of Tina Sack one day after her husband painted a room, has attracted some 700 pilgrims to the town of Indian Brook since it was first noticed in late April.
Pilgrims from all over Eastern Canada have come to pray at the image, which they say appears to be a woman kneeling and cradling a child in her arms.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: William Bennett's Virtual School DATE: 05/13/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 13-19, 2001 ----- BODY:Another sign of the times is former U.S. Secretary of Education William J. Bennett's new “virtual” school, K12. Located on the Internet at www.K12.org and based out of McLean, Va., it advertises itself as, “An internet-based elementary and secondary school committed to offering a complete, world-class education—anytime and anywhere.”
Said Bennett, “The center of my work for the last twenty years has been quality—how to get a good school to every child.”
With K12, he hopes to achieve this by blending high technology with traditional learning. Target markets will be home schooling families, public schools, and charter schools. Enrollment will cost a minimum $1,200 a year and could cost up to $5,000 with the inclusion of personal tutoring, computer equipment and other services. K12 will start next fall with a complete curriculum for grades K to 2, adding three grades a year.
Bennett will address the National Association of Catholic Home Educators convention in Northern Virginia July 20-21, along with Cardinal William Keeler, archbishop of Baltimore. Bennett, a Catholic, is not opposed to the idea of creating a Catholic-based K12, according to Miki Hill of Woodstock, Md., who serves with her husband Tim as co-presidents of the National Association of Catholic Home Educators.
— Una McManus
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Invincible Vulnerability DATE: 05/13/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 13-19, 2001 ----- BODY:“I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and constraints for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”
When St. Paul wrote those words to the church at Corinth, Greece, around the year 57, he could hardly have known how dramatically they would be made manifest in that same country 19 and a half centuries later—in the person of a successor apostle following his footsteps.
“For the occasions past and present, when the sons and daughters of the Catholic Church have sinned by actions and omission against their Orthodox brothers and sisters, may the Lord grant us the forgiveness we beg.”
What did much of the world see in Pope John Paul II as he gave his May 4 address to Greece's Orthodox leader, Archbishop Christodoulos? A frail, aged religious leader, pleading for pardon in a land where 95% of the inhabitants are non-Catholic, and most are indifferent, if not openly hostile, to his presence. More than a few expressed their cynicism.
But others saw something much different: a modern modeling of the strength-in-weakness paradox St. Paul tried so hard to inspire in all who would be baptized and call themselves Christian.
In fact, with a few exceptions, the large-scale opposition that had preceded the Pope's arrival seemed to evaporate just hours before he touched down on Greek soil.
Then Archbishop Christodoulos, who had only grudgingly accepted John Paul's visit after the Greek government invited him, burst into applause at the Holy Father's remarks. The two men later embraced.
And, together, standing at the Aeropagus, the site at which St. Paul preached the Gospel to the Athenians, the two released a historic joint statement. While it isn't likely to create a sudden, complete reversal of the rupture between the Eastern and Western churches, separate entities since the Great Schism of 1054, it was clearly a significant step in the right direction.
“We wish that our God and Father and our Lord Jesus direct our way,” the declaration read, “so that we may increase and abound in love toward one another and toward all men, and establish the hearts of all … in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of the Lord Jesus with all his saints.”
The Second Letter to the Corinthians, in which St. Paul most clearly explicates his strength-in-weakness dialectic, is considered the most personal of all his writings. It reveals not only his theology, but also his character. Crises had arisen in the Corinthian church, and their resistance to resolution caused him to look deeply into his own heart to consider what he might do to bring relational healing without compromising doctrinal purity.
Pope John Paul II's efforts to begin the third Christian millennium with prayers of, and pleas for, contrition for wrongs committed by Catholics through the ages reflect this same deep soul-searching as a necessary ingredient of evangelization and unity.
In this, St. Paul and the Holy Father mirror the Lord himself in a way that challenges us all to “boast most gladly of my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me” (2 Corinthians 12:9).
After all, it was Christ who said to Paul: “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.”
We saw Christian weakness at work in Greece last week, and in a new and powerful way.
------- EXCERPT: Editorial ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Right on Target DATE: 05/13/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 13-19, 2001 ----- BODY:Thank you so much for Joshua Mercer's article on Target Corp. ("Targeting Corporate Sponsors of Planned Parenthood,” April 22-28). I am delighted to hear that they have stopped supporting Planned Parenthood!
This is such a relief to me since I live one mile from a Target store and have spent most of my professional life working to solve some of the problems Planned Parenthood has caused. In conscience, I would have to waste precious time driving to a store farther away in order to avoid giving to Planned Parenthood; the time could have been used to further promote chastity and my Sex Respect programs. When I originally found out the bad news, I wrote to Target to express my disappointment that such a great family store supported anti-family programs promoting birth control and abortion. Who did they think would be left to shop there in 20 years? And if the people with the most kids in town won't shop at Target, what would happen to sales?
Thanks so much, Register, for reporting the good news of Target's conversion. I don't know how else I would've found out, since I don't have time to read every newsletter I get. Thanks, also, for publishing the company's phone number so we can call to thank them directly. It's great for families to have a newspaper we can trust.
COLEEN KELLY MAST
Bourbonnais, Illinois
We Need Educators,
Not Indoctrinators
I read with interest “'Gay Education’ Looms for Schools as Union Date Nears” (April 29-May 5), about the National Education Association's forthcoming vote on “Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Education.”
I think that, if this teachers’ union is truly interested in diversity, it will put equal zeal into developing a proposal aimed at supporting students who are striving to remain abstinent until they marry someone of the opposite sex, whether such students are virgins or not.
Certainly, the teachers’ union cannot deny that such students exist, that they are frequently met with disdain and ridicule, and that their goals deserve respect and should be supported.
Unless the NEA is willing to admit that it is trying to reshape the culture to favor lesbian/homosexual relationships, and transgendering, by promoting “Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Education,” it's difficult to see why it wouldn't also promote “Sex Between a Married Man and Woman Education.”
PATRICIA SHNAIDER
Congress Must Lead
Have Mercy on Iraq
On this past Divine Mercy Sunday, Catholics venerated St. Faustina and recalled her writings, which reveal that Jesus’ great mercy is received when we give a substantial amount of compassion and love to our fellow man ("An Explosion of Mercy,” April 22-28). I believe that the economic sanctions imposed upon Iraq by the United Nations represent a great social injustice and abandonment of mercy.
I implore the Catholics of the United States to seek the truth about the consequences of these sanctions and I agree with the U.S. Catholic bishops that force against Iraq is immoral and illegal. … These sanctions are illegal because the distinction between combatants and non-combatants has not only been blurred, but simply ignored.
The U.S. bishops have been outspoken in their opposition to these U.N. sanctions against Iraq. They believe that Saddam Hussein and his government are primarily responsible for the disputes with the international community. But the bishops also recognize that the international community is liable for the suffering of the Iraqi people.
In light of recent developments, such as the Bush administration's “smart sanctions” proposal, American Catholics must follow the example of their bishops. The virtually even split of the Catholic vote in the last election proves our importance to the political scene. We must oppose the warfare waged against the Iraqi by the U.N. Catholics must take advantage of their political power by writing their representatives in Washington to demand an end to the embargo against Iraq.
MICHAEL F. SHEEHAN
Williamstown, Massachusetts
We're Halving a Party
“Who Wants to be a Republican” (Editorial, May 6-12) is, sorry to say, based on the false premise that Catholics are against abortion. The premise may not be false among Catholics who worshiped prior to Vatican II, but for those who followed, it is shocking how apathetic they are toward the killing of innocent babies and ignorant of the basic teachings of the Church.
Can there be any issue more urgent than protecting the life of an unborn child? No! Yet in the past election millions of Catholics voted for the candidate that advocated abortion while voting against a candidate that is against abortion. The Democrat Party needs more leaders with the courage of a Ray Flynn from Boston. Because of his stand on abortion, he has essentially been excommunicated from the Democratic Party while the Catholic advocates of baby killing such as Kennedy, De Lauro, etc., wage war against basic Christian principles and freedoms. (We have to give Dodd credit for voting for right-to-life Ashcroft.)
Change must come from the Church; from the pulpit. The issue of life must be conveyed by word of mouth, by written word (even though you know you cannot force a person to read), and by other vehicles in addition to EWTN (because you cannot make a person tune into such a channel). If the Pope took a stand describing the moral responsibility of each Catholic on this issue, and warned them of the consequence of their actions, maybe the “born and baptized Irish or Italian Catholic Democrats” would break from this unholy tradition.
Until such time, the “born and baptized Irish or Italian Catholic Democrats” will continue to listen to the leaders of the Democrat Party and the vocal cords for the party—NBC, CBS, ABC, MSNBC, CNN and so on. Bush can stand on his head for Christian principles and the “born and Baptized Irish or Italian Catholic Democrats” could care less.
JOHN D. MALLON
Northford, Connecticut
Kudos to the House
I am a physician and I strongly support the “Unborn Victims of Violence Act” ("Congress Eyes Rights for Unborn Victims,” April 22-28) that passed in the U.S. House of Representatives.
This bill does not create any new crimes; it simply allows prosecutors to bring a second charge against a criminal if there has been a second victim, an unborn child. It is simple common sense. Assault against a pregnant woman whose baby is harmed should be a crime.
Why wasn't the vote overwhelmingly in favor?
Consider the words of Tracy Marciniak of Wisconsin, who was assaulted in the ninth month of her pregnancy. She was injured and her unborn son, Zachariah, was killed. Because Wisconsin at that time lacked an unborn victims law, the assailant was convicted only for the injury he did to Mrs. Marciniak, and he is already eligible for parole.
Mrs. Marciniak explains, “This one-victim proposal is offensive to me. Its premise is this: On the night my husband beat me, nobody died. But that is not true. That night, there were two victims. I was nearly killed. Little Zachariah died.” Mrs. Marciniak urges House members to look at the photo of her holding Zachariah in her arms at his funeral, and asks, “Can anybody honestly tell me there is only one victim in that picture?"
The pro-choice community argued that the bill was a ploy to interfere with a woman's “right to choose.” But it explicitly states that nothing in the bill “shall be construed to permit the prosecution of any person for conduct relating to an abortion for which the consent of the pregnant woman … has been obtained.”
Nor does the bill pertain to any action by a woman that results in harm to her unborn child.
THOMAS V. MESSE, M.D.
Groton, Connecticut
Congress Must Lead
Recent articles and editorial comment from the Register are urging President Bush to “do more” to stop abortion. This is commendable and as a pro life Catholic I strongly urge him to continue the already apparent and valiant efforts he has started.
However, his biggest obstacles are “Catholics” like with names like Kennedy, Leahy, Durbin et al and their ilk in both Senate and Congress.
These legislators, many coming from the Northeast and claiming to be “Catholic,” oppose, restrict, obstruct and just plain halt any attempt to change this infanticide. In many cases, especially the blowhard Kennedy who literally commissioned the attack on John Ashcroft due to his deeply held antithesis to abortion, they are its biggest supporters. Bishops of their districts hardly censure them, perhaps out of fear for bad publicity, loss of contributions or both.
It's time the Register also start putting its editorial influence on these other “Catholics". Remember, George W. can propose law all he wants. That is the function of the executive branch.
He can lead from the presidential pulpit and in this he has. But unless both Houses support and pass his proposals, they will die the death on the withering vine. The real disgrace is that George W. is more pro life than these so called “Catholic” legislators who claim to believe in the Church's teachings, yet their legislative behavior is bereft of anything that would resemble this.
JAMES A. SETTEMBRE
Lake Worth, Florida
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Frequent Confession for Priests, Too DATE: 05/13/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 13-19, 2001 ----- BODY:The inspiring Holy Thursday letter to priests from the Holy Father regarding the importance of frequent confession restates so well the constant teaching of the Church on this matter ("In Holy Thursday Letter, Pope Urges Frequent Confession,” April 8-14). Besides hoping and praying that this message reverberates in the hearts of priests and laity alike, how glorious it would be if we were to encourage our family and friends who have allowed—for whatever reason—this essential source of grace to be neglected for so long, to begin again.
In his 1910 encyclical Editae Saepe, Pope Pius X urged: “Let every faithful pastor, therefore, employ the utmost zeal in seeing that the benefits of such great value be held in the highest esteem. Let them never permit these two works of divine love grow cold in the hearts of men.”
And in Mystici Corporis, Pope Pius XII in 1943 not only repeated this admonition, but pointed out the many benefits of this practice: “By it genuine self-knowledge is increased, Christian humility grows, bad habits are corrected, spiritual neglect and tepidity are resisted, the conscience is purified, a salutary self-control is attained, and grace is increased in virtue of the Sacrament itself. Let those, therefore, among the younger clergy who make light of or lessen esteem for frequent confession realize that what they are doing is alien to the Spirit of Christ and disastrous for the Mystical Body of our Savior.”
GEORGE V. HERMAN
Deerfield, Illinois
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Lots to Learn About Leadership On May 13 DATE: 05/13/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 13-19, 2001 ----- BODY:Who will be the most essential Catholic leaders of the third millennium?
Will it be bishops and priests? Catholic scholars, Christian CEOs and politicians?
All these leaders have an important role in creating a Christian culture, but none is as influential and effective as … our moms. We seldom think of mothers as Christian leaders. Yet that's just what they are.
Barbara Keean, a teacher and mother of six, knows just what I'm talking about. She believes the old saying “the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world” holds true even today. “Christian mothers,” explains Barbara, “can communicate the faith to their children in a way no one else can.”
Barbara shared with me a simple, but important, lesson she taught her 12-year-old son. Patrick loves Little League baseball. This year his team had batting practice scheduled on Good Friday. Patrick was going to go, but his mom told him he shouldn't. This was a tough moment for Patrick. “But mom, why can't I go?” he pleaded. Barbara calmed her son down and explained to him what happened on Good Friday. Then the whole family watched the film Jesus of Nazareth. Later that day, Patrick told his mother, “Now I get it, mom.” Kids never forget moments that help them to discern the value of their faith.
Christian mothers seem to be naturally the best teachers of the faith for their children. In Pope John Paul II's apostolic letter Mulieris Dignitatem (On the Dignity and Vocation of Women), the Holy Father says that the heart of Christianity is love because God himself is love. A mother, by the gift of her femininity, realizes herself by receiving love and giving love. This means Christian mothers can receive God's love and share it with their children in a unique way. This is essentially what makes them the best evangelizers.
What do Christians mothers normally strive to teach their children daily? Above all, they want their children to know and love God. This is why moms are normally the first to teach their children how to pray or talk with God. They want their children to face life with God, knowing there is someone greater than themselves who loves them and watches over them. Many of us recall how our mothers taught us to pray the Our Father or the Hail Mary when we were kids, and to say grace before meals. All these things seem small, but it is precisely these small things that build a Christian and Catholic culture, one heart at a time.
Not only do moms want their children to love and to know God as they go through life, but also to love and respect others. Mothers, more so than fathers, can teach their children to value and respect human life because motherhood, in the Holy Father's words, “involves a special communion with the mystery of life.” This unique affinity that mothers have with life allows them to teach their children the immense value of all human life. Consequently, Christian mothers are key leaders in promoting the culture of life. When motherhood is understood and valued from this perspective, it is no wonder that the Pope refers to motherhood as a “gift” and “vocation” from God.
We seldom think of our mothers as Christian leaders. Yet that's just what they are.
The young consecrated women I teach every day remind me that the wonderful gift and vocation of motherhood is not limited to physical motherhood, but extends as well to women, like my students, who embrace what the Holy Father calls motherhood according to the spirit. These spiritual mothers play an indispensable leadership role in the building of a Christian culture. They express their motherhood by caring for the needy, the sick, the handicapped, the abandoned, orphans, the elderly, children, young people, the imprisoned and, in general, people on the margins of society. This spiritual motherhood permits consecrated women to love their divine spouse, Jesus Christ, in every person, according to the words of the Gospel: “As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.” Consequently, the most outstanding characteristic of spiritual motherhood is universal charity—love expressed for everyone.
While spiritual and physical motherhood differ from one another, they are complementary. The Holy Father states that, in both situations, women live an essential dimension of motherhood. Either way, they give themselves completely as a gift to their spouses, either through the sacrament of marriage or spiritually through marriage to Christ.
Who is the perfect role model today for young women aspiring to be the moms of tomorrow? Who else? Devotion to Mary—who alone is both virgin and mother—is the best way for young women to learn what Christian motherhood is and what it entails. This Marian devotion is most effective when it implies imitating the virtues of Our Lady. Mary is able to love others as a mother because she prays. She experiences the love of God in prayer and gives that love to her family. Prayer is what helps the Virgin Mother to understand the things of God. Mary is also the attentive mother. Always, she thinks first of the needs of her family. She listens, consoles, serves and motivates those around her with optimism. Mary is the first to realize that motherhood is not always easy. She offers her difficulties to God with faith and hope.
If it's true that the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world, then Christian culture depends on moms with hands like Mary's. Happy Mother's Day, moms—and thank you for all you do for all of us.
Father Andrew McNair teaches at
Mater Ecclesiae International Center of Studies
in Greenville, Rhode Island.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Pornography, Incorporated DATE: 05/13/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 13-19, 2001 ----- BODY:Sex sells. That seems to be at the heart of recent business decisions by corporations such as Amazon.com and AT&T to support and promote the pornography industry. It doesn't seem to bother these powerful businesses that, in pursuing their own lust for profits, they are increasingly corrupting the hearts of Americans.
In April, Yahoo!, the popular Internet search engine and portal, announced its plans to get in on the action and deliver pornography directly into American living rooms, offices and bedrooms. Yahoo!, which has been struggling financially for some time, said it would substantially increase its distribution of pornographic videos and DVDs, making itself the first top-tier Internet company to aggressively embrace the pornography industry. The company, whose site is accessed by nearly 200 million people each month, had been offering a limited line of such products for the past two years.
Two days after the announcement, however, in response to a flood of customer complaints, Yahoo! reversed its decision. Its pornography business would never see the light of day after all.
That was encouraging news for promoters of the culture of life, but a closer look reveals that Yahoo!'s hands are only so clean. As it has all along, the company will continue to derive sizeable revenues from premium links to pornographic Web sites—to the tune of $599 per link. Currently, Yahoo provides such links, which allow computer-users to go to the linked site with one click of the mouse, to more than 10,000 pornographic sites.
Yahoo! is not alone in helping pornographers, many of whom have very deep pockets indeed, to mainstream their putrid products—that is, to make such material seem acceptable to mass markets rather than just isolated niches of society. Last year AT&T, facing a sharp decline in its stock prices, made the decision to carry Vivid Entertainment's hardcore Hot Network as part of its cable television lineup. That decision, like Yahoo!'s, brought cries of protest.
Last December a group of eight institutional investors, controlling more than 1.6 million AT&T shares, filed a proxy resolution urging “Ma Bell” to review its role as a pornography distributor. The filers, led by Mennonite Mutual Aid, included Catholic Health East, Christian Brothers Investment Services, the Benedictine Sisters of San Antonio and Praxis Mutual Funds. They are the first group to file a pornography-focused resolution targeting a major U.S. media company.
Sacrificing Society
In the resolution, the group cites AT&T's involvement in pornography on both social and financial grounds and calls upon the company to issue a report by this month—May 2001—reviewing its policies for involvement in the pornography industry and an assessment of the potential financial, legal and public relations liabilities.
“Our approach is to engage the corporation and get their attention,” says Mark A. Regier, research and advocacy coordinator with Mennonite Mutual Aid Financial Services. Collectively, the organizations own more than 2.8 million shares in AT&T, worth at least $92 million. “For decades, AT&T has promoted and conducted itself as a leading corporate citizen in the country. We see their action as flying in the face of their own stated values and objectives. AT&T does not need fewer customers. We want them to see that this is a risk to the company financially that we don't think is worth whatever AT&T imagines they will gain from it.”
In response, at least one organization, the Sisters of Charity in Cincinnati, divested their AT&T stock. “The Sisters made the decision to sell all of their stock, despite a slight loss,” says Mary Kay Gilbert, communications director. “It was an issue of morality, not money.” According to Gilbert, other individuals associated with the Sisters of Charity have followed suit, including one retired couple who decided to sell their stock even though they were living on the income generated by the stock's dividends.
As the resolution so keenly points out, “the very nature of pornography demands a constant escalation of explicit content to maintain stimulation, as the addition of the Hot Network demonstrates … thus the current pornographic offerings can be presumed to be the first of even more graphic offerings to follow.”
Underscoring the resolution's point, Playboy Enterprises Inc. has announced its plans to release Spice Platinum Network on cable, a service that plans to exhibit racier sex acts not even available on the Hot Network channels.
When public companies invest in pornography, they put the public at risk.
Recent studies by the American Medical Association and the American Psychological Association have cited causal connections between graphic media content and aggressive behavior. Similar studies show links between pornography and sexual harassment, domestic violence, family disintegration and even serial rape and murder.
Clear and Present Danger
One example that illustrates the gargantuan dimensions of the pornography business is Vivid Entertainment Group, owner of the Hot Network. Launched in 1984, Vivid has taken its cable business from six million homes to 26 million, pocketing $14.3 million last year from that end of its business alone. The company plans to go public within the year in order to use proceeds to produce even more pornography, launch new cable channels and acquire other content companies.
Vivid co-chairman Steve Hirsch told The Wall Street Journal, “We have always been the most mainstream of adult companies, and we did that for a reason, to attract the largest audience.”
Pornography being a $56 billion industry, and still growing, such actions demonstrate the desperation of struggling companies to get a piece of the pie. Clearly, they see such decisions as a painless way to boost cash flow.
Make no mistake. Pornography and its secondary effects cause real harm to real people. So says Kimberly Drake, executive director of the Spokane-based organization Citizens for Community Values. She knows firsthand the dangers of pornography. “I was addicted to pornography,” she told the Register. “What we view and read we eventually become. I was a stripper in a local club, and lived 13 years in an environment where everyone finds their significance in their sexuality.”
The U.S. bishops, in their 1999 video “Renewing the Mind of the Media” compare the pornographer to the drug dealer—"preying on people's weaknesses for their own benefit. It is … one of those categories of crime which are the breeding ground for other types of crime.”
Here's how the Catechism of the Catholic Church characterizes the problem of pornography: “Pornography consists in removing real or simulated sexual acts from the intimacy of the partners, in order to display them deliberately to third parties. It offends against chastity because it perverts the conjugal act, the intimate giving of spouses to each other. It does grave injury to the dignity of its participants (actors, vendors, the public), since each one becomes an object of base pleasure and illicit profit for others. It immerses all who are involved in the illusion of a fantasy world. It is a grave offense. Civil authorities should prevent the production and distribution of pornographic materials” (No. 2354).
The mainstreaming of pornography—via magazines, mail, cable and the Internet—is a grave offense to mankind indeed.
It exploits women and children, destroys marriages and twists the minds of those who seek it out. When public companies invest in pornography just to make a dollar, they put the public at risk.
Pornography is about more than money; it's about the destruction of individual human lives. When corporations embrace something so fundamentally destructive to society, they should be held accountable for whatever consequences result.
Features correspondent Tim Drake writes from St. Cloud, Minnesota.
------- EXCERPT: The mainstreaming of pornography continues despite Yahoo!'s non-entry into the business ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: New Evangelization Won't Wait for the Times-or for Me DATE: 05/13/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 13-19, 2001 ----- BODY:I've got little time for nostalgia over how the world used to be and, as a Christian, no use for despair over the sorry state we're in now.
But, every so often, things come together in a way that has me shaking my head over just how much the times have changed during the course of my own lifetime.
I had one of those moments late last month. It was set off by a couple of snapshots of New York Times cultural coverage—one old, one new—that made their way across my desk.
First, while checking some facts, I was thumbing through my set of “This Fabulous Century” books, Time-Life's decade-by-decade chronicle of America through the 1900s. In the 1950s volume, for reasons I'm not sure of, I stopped when I came to a spread on Elvis Presley. Accompanying a series of early shots of the king of rock ‘n’ roll doing his stuff onstage was a brief quote from a New York Times writer commenting on the singer's seminal 1956 appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”
The excerpt captured the writer, famed radio and television critic Jack Gould, urging Sullivan's network to be more responsible with the choice of stars it chose to deliver to a national, prime-time audience.
“When Presley executes his bumps and grinds,” wrote Gould, “it must be remembered by the Columbia Broadcasting System that even the 12-year-old's curiosity may be overstimulated.”
The New York Times scolding CBS for corrupting the culture with a cautious helping of Elvis—that was good for a laugh. I returned to my fact-checking, set the book back on the shelf and that was the end of it.
Until the next day. When I got into the office, I picked up that day's New York Times. When I got to the arts—excuse me, that's “The Arts”—section, I read a review of a new mainstream film written, directed and starring a guy named Tom Green. Evidently the film, Freddy Got Fingered, billed as a comedy, features Green engaging in a series of revolting, arrested-development antics. Example: When a friend tells Green's character, an aspiring animator, that he needs to “get inside his animals,” he finds a dead deer by the side of the road, skins it and dances around in the uncleaned hide.
And that's one of the quiet scenes. Most of the rest can't be repeated in the Register.
Sounds like a laugh riot, doesn't it?
But it wasn't so much the description of the puerile proceedings that brought me within a breath of asphyxiating on my cup of morning high-test. No, the particulars of this picture show might be unique, but the general idea—shocking audiences into laughing, or leaving, or somehow reacting viscerally—has long since become a staple of contemporary adolescent entertainment.
What turned my stomach was the Times critic's take on the thing.
“I come not to bury Mr. Green,” wrote our urbane and knowing gallery guide, one A.O. Scott, “but to praise him.
“Mr. Green stage[s] his gross-outs,” Mr. Scott insisted, “with a demented but unmistakable integrity. Like it or not, he's an artist.”
An artist. In a less-enlightened age, Green would have been called an out-patient.
I guess Mr. Scott's point is that, if you're going to be warped and disgusting, you need to be consistent about it. Never let up. Only then will your cretinism rise to the level of craftsmanship.
Yessir, the arts section of the New York Times. All the art that's fit to praise. If you can make it there, you'll make it anywhere.
The times have changed, all right. Not to mention the Times. If Elvis isn't turning over in his grave over what's become of modern music, Jack Gould, wherever he may be, is surely hurting over the state of “The Arts” in the nation's unofficial newspaper of record.
Now, to be perfectly accurate, Elvis’ appearance on the Sullivan show predated my birth by a few years. I was conceived while the ‘50s were still underway, but not specifically born until 1960. Yet, after taking this little era-jumping side-trip in words and pictures, I felt like checking into the Heartbreak Hotel. It might be a little shabby by now, the amenities a little lacking, but at least it's not situated on a hostile, alien planet.
This called for a return visit to ‘50sville. This time, for a dose of sappy sentimentalism. A good, five-minute wallow in pure, unmitigated, misty-eyed nostalgia. Ike would be in the White House, Beav and Wally on the tube, Mom in the kitchen and a 3-speed Schwinn on the front lawn. I'll be home for supper, Ma …
I never made it there.
Sitting on my desk, in the space between “This Fabulous Century” and me, was a printout of Pope John Paul II's March 12 address. That was the day he spoke to the throngs of Spanish pilgrims who traveled to Rome for the beatification of 233 souls martyred for the Catholic faith during the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s.
“The legacy of these courageous witnesses of faith, archives of truth written in letters of blood, has left us an inheritance that speaks louder than that of shameful indifference,” said the Holy Father that early-spring day. “It is a voice that urgently calls for our presence in public life: a living but peaceful presence which will lead us, through the incomparable transparency of the Gospel, to present its ever timely radicalness to the men and women of our time.”
That's when I remembered why I'm here—in this place and at this time—and discerned what I needed to do next: get back to work.
Features editor David Pearson welcomes e-mail at dpearson@ncregister.com.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: David Pearson ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Rosary Rest Stop, Xaverian-Style DATE: 05/13/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 13-19, 2001 ----- BODY:The unassuming entrance to Our Lady of Fatima Shrine in Holliston, Mass., does-n't even hint at the surprises awaiting pilgrims on the peaceful grounds just beyond.
Among these, the most amazing is the world's largest rosary.
I didn't make this discovery immediately upon entering the property. First came a slow stroll along well-marked walkways that wend their way around the parklike shrine. These paths invite visitors to stop, pray and meditate at a number of small shrines and to walk the Way of the Cross.
As you walk, the shrine unveils itself to you a bit a time—the “bits” being made up of well-tended gardens, rolling lawns, and clusters of trees and shrubs. The site is not spectacular in the way great mountain vistas and ocean views can be, but rather understated, a sort of visual poetry. It's this quality of humble, simple beauty that makes the spiritual aspects of the site so palpable.
Even though the surrounding area has somewhat of a small-town atmosphere, the woodsy perimeter of the shrine's 23 acres wraps the whole place in an extra layer of seclusion and tranquility.
Wide, paved pathways begin past the parking lots and the picnic shelter, where visitors often gather for lunch or a snack. The shortest path leads to the newer Fatima chapel. Its A-line roof rises above an alternating combination of narrow stained-glass windows and pillar supports that, in sunlight, look like shiny rows of organ pipes.
Three long pathways eventually arrive at the gigantic rosary. One of them passes a small pond, then carries pilgrims toward the Fatima scene of the Angel of Peace appearing to the three shepherd children. The second wide way leads to the Scala Sancta.
The third path moves along the sylvan Way of the Cross in a series of continuous, gentle curves that coax you from station to station. Each station is a raised relief on a white Carrara marble plaque that's attached to a soaring, rough pillar of local pink granite. At twilight, this peaceful walk glows in soft illumination.
This path eventually arrives at the Hill of Fatima, recalling the 1917 apparitions of Mary, who stands on Madonna Hill, while the Portuguese children—Lucia, Blessed Francisco and Blessed Jacinta—kneel attentively in front of her. Like all the shine's life-sized statues, these are carved of white Carrara marble. This inspiring scene, the first done when the shrine was being built, is a perfect prelude to the magnificent rosary because it brings to mind that, at Fatima, one of Mary's main instructions to the children and to the world was to pray the rosary for peace.
Rosary Revelation
Peace is exactly what I was experiencing when I came to the monumental rosary. This starts by the Scala Santa—the Holy Stairs—which allow you to climb to a Calvary scene larger than life-sized. Mary stands before her crucified son; John and Mary Magdalene kneel. Once you climb the stairs and stand near the crucifixion scene, you see that you're standing at the beginning and end of the rosary, which unfurls before you on the other side of the hill to encircle more than an acre of lawn.
At 950 feet long and weighing in at 300 tons, this rock rosary doesn't seem to have an equal. For three years in the early 1960s, Xaverian Father Oddo Galeazzi tirelessly searched quarries and abandoned gravel pits in eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island to find the right “beads.” Each “bead” is a boulder of granite that measures a few feet in length and width. Massive “Our Father” beads are about twice the size of the “Hail Marys.”
Heavy links from the chain of a ship's anchor join each bead to form the decades that meet at the 18-ton granite “medal.”
That's not all. Following the paved path that outlines this immense rosary, you'll find on every bead a copper plaque engraved with the Hail Mary in one of 53 different languages—one language for each bead—arranged in alphabetical order.
There are the easily recognizable ones like French, Italian, German, Polish and Spanish. But there are also the exotic tongues such as Aramaic, Old Arabic, Bengali, Inuit-Eskimo, Fijian, Samoan, Swahili and Tamil.
The incorporation of a wide variety of languages seems to stress the universality of Mary's request, and the Church's missionary spirit. The rosary is for all peoples. This complete rosary is laid out in the shape of a heart, too. It's a beautiful, subtle reminder that the this prayer is at the heart of the Blessed Mother's Fatima message—a prayer that's the way to her Son's heart, and a prayer to give heart to the world.
The walking rosary eliminates all distractions. As you pray along it, you can easily rest your hand on each bead, more than waist-high. Even if you can't say the Hail Mary in each particular language, you still pray with universal solidarity with that particular people. Incidentally, the large anchor chain that joins the beads to the crucifix is on lend-lease from the U.S. Navy, which gave it in memory of John F. Kennedy.
This world mission-sized rosary was blessed in 1964 by Bishop Jeremiah Minihan and has indirect connections to the earliest American missions. Father Galeazzi got the idea for it at the Shrine of the North American Martyrs in Auriesville, N.Y., where he saw a rosary of small stones recreating one that a resourceful young Indian girl named Theresa, niece of the chief of the Bear Nation, formed with brook pebbles after her rosary was taken from her.
Fatima Dispatch
Another reminder of joining people and times by prayer also comes at the huge slice of a 2,400-year-old Sequoia tree that predates Christianity and ties together three millenniums. A few events, such as the Crucifixion, are marked on the tree's rings.
Under Calvary Hill, there's a quiet grotto with a reproduction of the Pieta. Nearby, the outdoor altar, with its generous stone and grass plaza, again heart-shaped, is the scene of many outdoor Masses. They're always a part of the devotions which include the Way of the Cross and an evening candlelight procession on every 13th of the month from May through October. They draw hundreds of participants to commemorate the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima.
In 1950, Cardinal Richard Cushing of Boston came to solemnly bless the shrine which had been founded by Father J. Henry Frassineti, the first Xaverian Missionary in the United States.
He had originally gotten the land for a seminary to train missioners. In 1949, he built the shrine as a sign of devotion to Mary and to make her Fatima messages known. While a missionary in China from his native Italy, he had already built a chapel to Our Lady of Fatima there in 1932—thought to be the first in the world to her under this title.
During the 1950s, group pilgrimages here were immensely popular. An annual children's day pilgrimage, for example, held each September, regularly drew close to 12,000 participants.
Today, the shrine is seldom so densely populated by visitors, but, true to the universal message of Fatima, it regularly hosts pilgrims representing a wide array of nationalities—Italians, Irish, Polish, Vietnamese, Filipino and Portuguese being among the best-represented. Scores of people also travel here every December for the displays of all-white Christmas lights that illuminate the shrine in the spirit of a transcendant journey, explains Xaverian Father Eugene Montesi, the current director. The shrine even draws many high-school groups, which come to study and identify the great variety of trees.
At the head of the grounds, Our Lady of Fatima Chapel and adjoining hall were opened in 1975 for Masses that would keep visitors undaunted by rain or snow. There are beautiful, contemporary stained-glass windows that tell the story of Mary's life and also recount Xaverian missions.
I couldn't help but realize that, indoors or out, all year round, this shrine has a welcome reign of peace and the unmistakable presence of the message of Fatima.
Joseph Pronechen writes from
Trumbull, Connecticut.
------- EXCERPT: Our Lady of Fatima Shrine, Holliston, Mass. ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Everywoman of the Self-Involved Age DATE: 05/13/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 13-19, 2001 ----- BODY:Sometimes hit movies are more than just crowd-pleasing entertainment.
They strike a nerve in our collective unconscious, and their success tells us something about the direction of contemporary culture.
Everyone is talking about Bridget Jones's Diary. The New York Times’ top political commentator, Maureen Dowd, took time off from bashing George W. Bush to devote an entire column to it, and Vogue magazine put the movie's star, Renee Zellweger, on its cover. Money can't buy this kind of free publicity. There's got to be a buzz.
Originally a London newspaper column by Helen Fielding, the story was expanded into a novel and a sequel which have sold five million copies in 32 countries. Its film adaptation has been the number one movie in America for several weeks and its heroine, an unmarried 32-year-old career woman, is being heralded as an everywoman for our time.
The book openly borrowed its key characters and much of its plot from Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice, and the movie's director, Sharon McGuire, continues the conceit by hiring both a male lead (Colin Firth) and a co-writer (Andrew Davies) from a recent BBC production of that early 19th-century classic. But the differences between Austen's book and Bridget are more revealing than the similarities.
The strict moral and social codes of Austen's rural gentry contrast vividly with the free-wheeling, trendy behavior of the movie's present-day urban strivers. The film-makers and many contemporary viewers assume that most of the changes are a great leap forward. Those who still see some merit in traditional values may think otherwise.
Pride and Prejudice is a witty satire about a middle-class mother's attempts to marry off her daughters, who have no dowry. Lizzie, the eldest, is an outspoken, free-thinking woman who initially rejects the marriage proposal of the aristocratic Darcy because he seems too snobbish and proud. Lydia, a younger sibling, is a flirt who elopes with Wickham, a charming army officer who turns out to be a scoundrel. The message is that first impressions can be deceiving.
The filmmakers concoct their version of Austen's message and model their female lead on Lizzie, creating a romantic triangle between her and their re-creations of Darcy and Wickham to spice things up. Their story centers on the adventures of a publicity assistant in a posh London publishing house named Bridget Jones (Zellweger).
Against her better judgment, Bridget gets involved with her handsome boss, Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant), who's got a great sense of humor. In the process, she gives the cold shoulder to the man whom her mother has tried to fix her up with, a seemingly uptight lawyer named Mark Darcy (Firth). The filmmakers craft a series of comic complications around this situation with some well-timed physical gags.
Female audiences root for Bridget because she isn't a feminist superwoman who has it all. Like Austen's heroine, her main goal is to find an acceptable mate who will treat her as an equal. But Bridget's notions of equality have been influenced by a pop-culture variation of feminism. They hinge on an understanding of female empowerment that stresses self-fulfillment above all else, and that process includes the same right to complete sexual freedom that Bridget and her friends believe men enjoy.
The filmmakers have little nostalgia for Austen's world and, in fact, want to push things further in the other direction. A key set piece is the “Tarts and Vicars Ball,” a raunchy party where the women are meant to dress up as prostitutes and the men as priests or bishops. The scene sets out to tweak organized religion in a supposedly harmless manner, but ends up revealing the filmmakers’ rejection of any notion of moral authority.
That point of view is consistent with the movie's ideas about personal freedom, and the consequences are an implicit rejection of virtue, faith and family. “Having children isn't all it's cracked up to be,” Bridget's middle-aged mother (Gemma Jones) remarks before she leaves Bridget's father (Jim Broadbent) to have a fling with a TV shopping-channel host (Patrick Barlow).
As Bridget tries to sort out her own love life, her main source of comfort and support is “her urban family.” They, of course, aren't blood relatives. That would be too Jane Austen. Instead they're a pair of single thirtysomething career women like herself (Shirley Henderson and Sally Phillips) and their obligatory male gay sidekick (James Callis), who was briefly a successful pop singer in the ‘80s.
The protagonists in the movie have moral aspirations that are 180 degrees away from their equivalents in Austen's novel. In Pride and Prejudice everyone wants to be perceived as either a “lady of character” or a “man of honor.” Such concepts would be considered archaic and restrictive in contemporary London.
In both the movie and Austen's novel, Darcy wins the heroine's heart through an unexpected display of charity. In Bridget, he does so to advance her career. In Pride and Prejudice, the motive is to save her family's honor. The latter reflects Austen's belief in the necessity of a social system that's based on valuing moral principles above selfish desires. The movie, being very much of our time, upholds the reverse, and Bridget Jones pays the price.
Despite a freedom of lifestyle and career choice unimaginable in Austen's time, our 21st-century everywoman is dissatisfied. She has no center. Her solution is decidedly retro: She wants to find Mr. Right. In this, the movie skillfully mirrors the contradictions of those in our professional classes who embrace the moral relativism that's currently in fashion.
Arts & culture correspondent
John Prizer writes from Los Angeles.
------- EXCERPT: Bridget Jones's Diary tries to turn Jane Austen's world on its head ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts & culture -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 05/13/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 13-19, 2001 ----- BODY:Truman (1995)
American politics is sustained by a populist mythology, and occasionally a public figure of humble origins arises to justify these hopes.
The Emmy-winning Truman, a cable-TV movie based on David McCullough's book, presents our 33rd President as a flawed, uncertain everyman who grows in office until he approaches greatness. Harry S. Truman (Gary Sinise) is a bankrupt Missouri haberdasher and World War I veteran who's chosen by corrupt political boss Tom Pendergast (Pat Hingle) to be first a county judge and then a U.S. senator.
Selected by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to be his vice president in 1944, he becomes commander-in-chief upon FDR's death.
The variety of crises Truman faces is awesome. He must decide whether to use the atomic bomb against Japan to end World War II and how to cope with the Cold War against the Soviet Union and the rise of McCarthyism in his own country.
The movie emphasizes the importance of Truman's relationship with his long-suffering wife Bess (Diana Scarwid).
Where is the Friend's Home? (1989)
The flowering of Iranian cinema is one of the wonders of contemporary culture, and its undisputed master is Abbas Kiarostami. The strict censorship of the Islamic regime has forced him to learn how to tell emotionally involving stories without the use of sex and violence. Where Is The Friend's Home?, written and directed by Kiarostami, is set in a poor, mountain area of Northern Iran. When the 8-year-old Ahmed (Babek Ahmed Poor) discovers he's accidentally taken the homework notebook of a classmate (Ahmed Ahmed Poor), he sets out to return it the same day. The journey on foot takes him into a neighboring village where he quickly gets lost.
Kiarostami films this simple premise in a semi-documentary style that captures the rhythms and textures of his characters’ harsh way of life. The relationship between children and adults is presented in fresh, unexpected ways, and there are occasional hints of a subtle critique of the regime's authoritarian methods.
Seven Cities of Gold (1955)
Nowadays Hollywood is unlikely to hold up Catholic missionaries as role models. Most contemporary mass entertainment toes the politically correct line and presents these dedicated individuals as destroyers of indigenous cultures and hypocritical front men for imperialist expansion. Seven Cities of Gold, based on Isabelle Gibson Ziegler's novel, is one of the last in the cycle of the old-time major-studio productions that celebrated the priests and religious who saved souls in the non-Christian world. Spanish conquistador Gaspar de Portola (Anthony Quinn) and his top lieutenant, Jose (Richard Egan), head out into unexplored territory in 1769 to find the Indians’ rumored cities of gold. Accompanying them is the lame Franciscan priest Junipero Serra (Michael Rennie), who is determined to establish a series of missions.
The party stops in the area that is today San Diego. The soldiers and the priest clash when famine, disease and hostile Indians put them to the test. Father Serra is shown to epitomize the virtues of faith, charity and self-sacrifice in time of trouble.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts & culture -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 05/13/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 13-19, 2001 ----- BODY:All times Eastern
by DANIEL J. ENGLER
MAY, VARIOUS DATES
Cruising America's Waterways
PBS; check local listings for time
In a 13-part series that debuts this month, singer-songwriter Jonathan Edwards and two of his friends travel by boat along some of America's prettiest and most interesting rivers, lakes, canals and coastal areas.
SUNDAY, MAY 13
Our Lady of Fatima
EWTN
Apparitions at Fatima, at 3 a.m. and 8 p.m., conveys Our Lady's everurgent message of conversion and reparation. Fr. Apostoli: Our Lady in Scripture and Tradition, at 10 a.m., discusses Fatima. Fatima, at 11:30 a.m., depicts Pope John Paul II's trip to Fatima to thank Our Lady for saving his life. The cartoon The Day the Sun Danced, at 7 p.m., is CCC (Creative Communication Center) of America's faithful retelling of the events at Fatima.
TUESDAY, MAY 15
Secrets of Lost Empires
PBS; check local listings for time
“Medieval Siege,” the first episode in a new three-part series on successive Tuesdays, features a team of historians, engineers and timber framers who try to build an improved trebuchet (itself an improvement on ancient catapults) to sling 250-lb. boulders.
TUES.-WED., MAY 15-16
History's Mysteries: Cliff Mummies of the Andes
History Channel, 8 p.m.
In this two-part show, scientists gain detailed insights into the lives, culture and beliefs of ancient Andean peoples by studying their mummies and burial sites.
THURSDAY, MAY 17
Andy Griffith
Retrospective Special
The Learning Channel, 3 p.m.
Andy and his cast and crew from “The Andy Griffith Show” recall the fun they had in making their beloved small-town-America comedy series, which ran from 1960 to 1968.
FRIDAY, MAY 18
Celebrate
Pope John Paul II's Birthday!
EWTN
In Be Not Afraid: Twenty Years of John Paul II, at 1 a.m. and 1 p.m., Raymond Arroyo interviews the Pope's biographer, George Weigel, and a childhood friend. Pope John Paul II: Conscience of the World, at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., covers the Pope's calls for justice. The Personalism of John Paul II, in two parts (2 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.), examines the Pope's philosophy. John Paul II and the Sick: The Value of Suffering, at 2:30 p.m. and 9 p.m., shows the Holy Father with sick people on his journeys.
SATURDAYS
Handyma'am with Beverly DeJulio
PBS; check local listings for time
In this series, Beverly DeJulio and her daughters Angel and Christine demonstrate how everyone can do home maintenance, improvement and decorating projects. Their topics range from home-office design to picking the right trees for your yard.
SATURDAY, MAY 19
The Preakness Stakes
NBC, 5 p.m.
Many of this year's top thoroughbreds compete in another leg of the thrilling Triple Crown races, this one in Baltimore.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Archbishop Stafford and Denver's New Seminary DATE: 05/13/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 13-19, 2001 ----- BODY:Much of the credit for Denver's current surge in seminarians is due to the foresight of former Archbishop (now Cardinal) Francis Stafford.
In 1990, Archbishop Stafford learned that a local Vincentian seminary that had served the archdiocese since the early part of the century was closing its doors. He quickly moved to purchase the property for Denver.
The move was a bold one. On the one hand, he didn't want to see the beautiful old seminary lost from the Church. But when the archbishop indicated that he would like to reopen it to train seminarians for Denver, some wondered at the practicality of his plan. After all, a major diocesan seminary hadn't opened in the U.S. since the Second Vatican Council.
Against the odds, the St. John Vianney Theological Seminary opened for business in 1999. To honor the occasion, Archbishop Chaput issued a pastoral letter on the priesthood in which he outlined the role of the priest in the modern world and the program of studies, prayer and discipline his seminarians would undertake to face it.
At the end of the letter, Archbishop Chaput made a plea: “ We need priests,” he said, adding, “God will surely send them.”
Reflecting on the letter now, Archbishop Chaput said, “I'm confident God is going to give us what we need if we just respond to his graces. I'm not in a position to dictate to him the number, but that's my prayer. God is not going to give me what I want, he's going to give us what we need.”
— Brian McGuire
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Controversial Theologian Stops Teaching At Rome's Request DATE: 05/13/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 13-19, 2001 ----- BODY:CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—At the request of the Congregation for Catholic Education, Jesuit Father Roger Haight has temporarily stopped teaching at the Weston Jesuit School of Theology.
Father Haight's 1999 book, Jesus Symbol of God, took the top prize in theology from the Catholic Press Association. But the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is looking into claims that the book denies Jesus’ teaching that he is the only path to salvation for all.
Capuchin Father Thomas Weinandy, who gave Jesus Symbol of God a strongly negative review in The Thomist magazine, said that Father Haight's “basic premise is that there's no such thing as God being able to actually act in time and history as God. What were traditionally called supernatural acts just do not happen. The son of God coming to exist as man doesn't happen, the resurrection of the son of God as man doesn't happen, and also the Trinity doesn't exist” according to Father Haight's book, he said.
Father Weinandy said these conclusions were stated “clearly” in the book.
His review cited passages such as Father Haight's claim that the language of “Jesus suffering for us, of being a sacrifice to God, of absorbing punishment for sin in our place, of being required to die to render satisfaction to God, hardly communicates meaningfully in our age.”
On the matter that has caused the most controversy, Father Haight characterized the Church's teaching that Jesus is the only means of salvation as a “lapse” and a misunderstanding by the Church.
Weston is a fully accredited school of theology with a pontifical faculty. That means that all of its professors need permission from the Congregation for Catholic Education in order to teach, a requirement that is not made of Catholic theologians at other schools. Since Weston trains students for religious life, its professors are especially charged with accurately representing and adhering to Church teachings.
Father Haight declined to comment for this story.
But the press has not been so reticent. The Washington Post announced an “escalating conflict between religious pluralism and Roman Catholic orthodoxy.”
Franciscan Father Kenneth R. Himes, professor of moral theology at the Washington Theological Union and president of the Catholic Theological Society of America, took issue with the Vatican's actions, but without the Post's harshness.
Father Himes said, “While I fully recognize and respect that the Vatican has to be concerned with protecting the teaching of the Church, I think this was a book aimed at scholars. There were few, if any, Catholics who were shocked or scandalized by this book” since anyone with the theological background necessary to untangle its complex prose would probably be well versed in Church doctrine already.
Father Himes added, “A number of the reviews I have read, while appreciating the scholarship, indicated fairly serious reservations about aspects of the book.” Father Himes saw this as evidence that “theology is to some extent a self-policing field,” and thus it was not necessary for the Vatican to step in.
Father Himes had not yet read Jesus Symbol of God. But, he said, “I've heard no evidence from anybody that Roger in his teaching was confusing people as to the teaching of the Church or passing off his personal views as the teaching of the Church.”
Father Himes noted, “Roger, to my knowledge, was dealing with this thing rather discreetly and was in conversation with the Congregation [for the Doctrine of the Faith]. Now, people who never read the book will say, ‘Oh, Haight—didn't I read that the Vatican banned him?’"
He also feared that theologians have begun “to look over their shoulders,” unwilling to advance ideas that might draw unwanted attention from Rome—and the press. “I know any number of theologians who have said to me, ‘I have some problems with [another theologian's work], but I don't want to say it publicly if it's only going to give ammunition to the opponents of this author,’” he said.
Father Weinandy disagreed: “A lot of people, primarily theologians, support Father Haight, but I think the Vatican was justified.” Father Weinandy charged that Father Haight had ignored criticism of his positions, and thus “from an intellectual scholarly point of view” the book is “untenable.”
More importantly, Father Weinandy added that “It was in keeping with the Vatican's [role] to protect the Gospel. They had to say something. I don't think Haight is writing from within a Catholic and Christian framework.”
Jesuit Father Robert Manning, president of Weston, issued a statement saying, “Because Father Haight acknowledges the truth of the Church's dogmas concerning Jesus Christ, he has begun the work of clarifying his book in a spirit of fraternal dialogue and will continue this important task for the sake of the Church.”
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: 'New Testament Christianity' Is Our Catholic Faith DATE: 05/13/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 13-19, 2001 ----- BODY:Ever since the Protestant Reformation divided Christendom in Western Europe, many outside the Catholic Church have viewed religion as a matter of retrieving what Christ taught his disciples, rather than receiving and believing it. “If only we could return to the faith of the early Christians,” thought the founders of various Protestant denominations. So they tried, with results that were just as varied.
Kenneth D. Whitehead has set out to prove that nostalgic Protestants are seeking the Church described in the Nicene Creed. “Despite superficial differences in certain appearances—and just as an adult differs from a child in some appearances but still remains the same person—the worldwide Catholic Church today remains the Church that was founded by Jesus Christ on Peter and the other apostles in the first century in the Near East,” he writes. “The early Church was—always!—nothing else but the Catholic Church.”
The author makes his case by systematically reviewing the first six centuries of Christian history. His argument starts with the Acts of the Apostles. The first followers of the New Way “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of the bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42). This verse encapsulates important facts about the early Christians: “1. They subscribed to a specific doctrine about what they must believe and do in order to be saved. … 2. They belonged to a definite, organized community ("the Church"), precisely the one led by the apostles. … 3. They participated in a sacred rite that included a meal regularly enacted within this same organized community.”
To prove the third point, Whitehead would have to write another book on the history of the sacraments, which continue Christ's saving and sanctifying actions in the Church in every age. Instead he focuses on the ministry of St. Peter and his successors, the vicars of Christ governing the one true Church. The longest chapter, “The Primacy of Rome in the Early Church,” begins again at the first century A.D. The author methodically examines historical events in which the popes exercised primacy over the local churches—mediating disputes, clarifying doctrinal questions and ratifying (some, not all) councils. At a distance of so many centuries, no one incident conclusively proves the Catholic claims about the papacy, but, as he shows, the cumulative effect of the historical evidence is compelling.
Whitehead recounts the history of the Church in enough detail that the reader learns about the human side as well. The Church is not an abstraction; her features become apparent in dramatic moments, such the arrest of St. Paul in 58 A.D. The Church rose to societal acceptance in the early fourth century, only to contend with Arian intrigues and imperial meddling. These trials, however, in no way deformed the Church or distorted the Gospel.
The author's study of the Church's four great councils explains the Christological doctrines that they defended against fourth- and fifth-century heresies. He shows that those same doctrines have been the constant teachings of the Catholic Church. As he makes his way from the time of Christ through the early Church Fathers to the Conciliar age, he also gathers plenty of evidence for apostolic succession, the unbroken line of bishops who guarded and handed on that faith.
Whitehead's book skillfully hews stones from early Church history and fits them together with the mortar of apologetics. The resulting edifice is an impressive, scholarly tribute to the Catholic Church. If it was good enough for the Church Fathers, it should be good enough for Christians of the 21st century.
Michael J. Miller writes from Glenside, Pennsylvania.
------- EXCERPT: Book Reviews ----- EXTENDED BODY: Michael J. Miller ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: God Bless the U.S.A., Warts and All DATE: 05/13/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 13-19, 2001 ----- BODY:Free Press couldn't have timed the publication of Norman Podhoretz's My Love Affair with America any better: The United States has entered a time when conservatives have good reason for hope, but can use a strong dose of knowing, patriotic guidance on where to direct it.
Last July, when the book was released, there was anger, mourning and strategizing among pro-life advocates, strategists, and lawyers. But mostly there was despair in the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling that banning the monstrous partial-birth abortion was unconstitutional.
Of course, the year didn't get any better after that. The FDA approved RU-486 in the fall. Podhoretz could never have anticipated what was still to come. The painfully protracted Florida election further destroyed Americans’ confidence in politics and politicians. As a journalist covering all this nonsense those 36 long days, I was thankful to have My Love Affair with America on the bookshelf.
Norman Podhoretz has been shaping conservative and neoconservative thought since he famously broke ranks with the band of ‘60s radical intellectuals among whom he had been a leader. (He recounted his “conversion story” in 1979's Breaking Ranks: A Political Memoir and exposed the lunacy of the far left in 1999's Ex-Friends: Falling Out With Allen Ginsberg, Lionel & Diana Trilling, Lillian Hellman, Hannah Arendt, and Norman Mailer.)
My Love Affair with America: The Cautionary Tale of a Cheerful Conservative by Norman Podhoretz Free Press, 2000 256 pages, $25
In My Love Affair with America, his latest book, Podhoretz makes a case against those on the right whom he sees as leaning toward anti-Americanism. And be warned: Not all Register readers will appreciate the exercise. For among his prime targets are those who argued in a celebrated 1997 symposium in the journal First Things that the American system, mostly thanks to the courts, has veered fatally off course. This, some stated in no uncertain terms, had made it impossible to remain loyal to both church and state.
Podhoretz counters this point of view, which he sees as a form of despair, with what amounts to an intellectually pumped pep-talk. In firing up the troops, he draws substantially from his past personal experience holding deeply felt anti-American sentiments.
“[T]he resurrection of anti-Americanism on the Right in America itself also turned out, perversely, to be a stroke of luck,” he writes, “… in that my being summoned from the reserves into active duty, and having to defend this country once more, served to remind me of why I loved it so much.
“America, according to some who have preceded me in their attitude toward it, is ‘God's country.’ This is, as the pages that follow will attest, a judgment with which I have no inclination whatsoever to disagree.”
My Love Affair with America is an intellectual's heartfelt thank-you note to his country. He is grateful for a grade-school teacher who forced a ghetto accent out of him at a young age. He is grateful to those Catholic teachers who weren't afraid to invoke God's name in front of the children. He is grateful just to be an American, right here and right now.
Some Register readers will cheer as they read this book. Others will gnash their teeth. Few will remain indifferent. In other words, it's vintage Podhoretz.
Kathryn Jean Lopez is an associate editor at National Review Online.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kathryn Jean Lopez ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 05/13/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 13-19, 2001 ----- BODY:Protest Over Bush Speech
SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE, April 29—President George W. Bush will be the University of Notre Dame's commencement speaker on May 20, but a disgruntled professor has started an online petition against the president's appearance, the Tribune reported.
Peter Walshe, a professor of government, said, “Having Bush as the commencement speaker demonstrates that Notre Dame is drifting away from social teachings of the Catholic Church.” Walshe cited Bush's policies on tax refunds, health care and the environment.
A counter-petition Website protests Walshe's effort, the Tribune reported. One senior who signed Walshe's petition acknowledged that many students are excited Bush is coming, noting that “he's a pro-life president.”
Cash for Catholic Schools
THE NEW YORK POST, April 30— New York City Central Labor Council president Brian McLaughlin, the head of the city's labor movement, has offered a major cash infusion for six struggling parochial schools, the New York daily reported.
McLaughlin wrote a letter to Cardinal Edward Egan offering to put together a group of union leaders to find a “permanent, long-term solution” to the cash crisis. The six schools, which have been threatened with closure, have a combined projected deficit of $853,000 for the next school year.
An anonymous donor, rumored to have promised $150 million, never came through.
Kennedy on Bioethics
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY, April 17—Sen. Edward Kennedy will speak at the 30th anniversary celebration of Georgetown University's Joseph P. and Rose F. Kennedy Institute of Ethics, the university announced.]
Sen. Kennedy, D-Mass., has been one of the Senate's most reliable pro-abortion votes, even voting against a ban on partial-birth abortion.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Adopted Baby Girl Helps Family Heal from Columbine Loss DATE: 05/13/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 13-19, 2001 ----- BODY:LITTLETON, Colo.—In a neighborhood a few miles south of Littleton's Columbine High School, little kids are playing T-ball on a perfect springtime evening.
As the sun sets over the purple foothills, parents talk to each other while keeping one eye on the field.
It is pretty here. And timeless in the way suburban neighborhoods are. A group of boys, like those from previous generations, stop their bikes along a path to fish for crawdads with bits of hot dog tied to dirty string.
Two little girls are roller-blading shakily, shrieking and holding onto each other's hands. Other kids set elaborate traps for a fox that is rumored to live under the footbridge.
This was Daniel Mauser's neighborhood. On April 20, 1999, he was a 15-year-old sophomore killed in the worst high school shooting in this country's history.
A recent visitor remarked that the neighborhood was “prettier than you'd think, you know, what with all that happened here.”
She meant, of course, how could any place connected to the ugliness and horror that has become known as Columbine, ever again be a place of beauty, serenity and normal life?
That's where Madeline comes in.
Daniel's parents, Tom and Linda Mauser, who are parishioners at St. Frances Cabrini Catholic Parish in Littleton, decided to adopt a Chinese baby. It was their way of dealing with the tragedy that took their son's life. He was killed when fellow students Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris killed 12 students and a teacher and injured 23 others.
Last fall the Mausers and their ninth-grade daughter, Christie, traveled to southern China to bring home their new little girl, Madeline HaiXing.
“HaiXing, in Chinese, means Ocean Star,” Linda Mauser told the Denver Catholic Register, newspaper of the Denver Archdiocese, as Madeline gurgled and crushed crackers in her high chair.
“We Americans may see ourselves as superior to other poorer cultures,” Tom Mauser said, “yet we have our own problems. We have children killing children.
“We wanted a girl,” he added. “A boy would be too much like trying to replace Daniel and no child, of course, can do that. We didn't want to relive soccer and scouting and all those boy things.”
“And we wanted to do good for a child who needed us,” Linda said.
When asked if he had any parenting advice, Tom Mauser shrugged, indicating it was really pretty basic.
“Hug your kids a lot,” he said as he picked up his daughter and held her for a second before she wriggled free.
In the months since the tragic shooting, the Mauser family aches to be whole. And normal.
When Tom's at work and Christie's at school, Linda will likely tuck Madeline into her stroller, if the weather's nice, and walk her through the neighborhood.
The ball field, the creek, the elusive fox, they are Madeline's now. Robins sing and Canada geese fly overhead.
Springtime has come to Columbine.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eileen Love ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: School Phobia II DATE: 05/13/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 13-19, 2001 ----- BODY:Q In the past month or so, my son (aged 10) hasn't wanted to go to school. Almost every morning he says he doesn't feel good. Our family doctor can find nothing physically wrong.
— T.O.
Lancaster, Pennsylvania
A One column ago we talked about the basics of school resistance. These are: (1) A tiny percentage of children are intensely distraught over leaving home and/or attending school. (2) The great majority of school refusals are not driven by anxiety but by apathy or frustration over something related to school. (3) It's not unusual for a child who has been school positive to become temporarily school negative. (4) Finally, and perhaps most frustratingly, parents often can't locate the root of the resistance, or if we can, we can't influence it directly.
Which brings us to where we are today. How can you lessen your son's resistance to school? Here are several steps:
Step One: To reinforce something said last column, begin by asking your son all about school—his teacher, the bus, other children, schedule changes, anything which could be affecting his change of heart. Also, talk to school personnel to get their impressions. It's possible what you hear could lead to a resolution. If not, proceed to step two.
Step Two: Inform your son that because the doctor has given him a clean bill of health, you will not allow him to stay home. If symptoms emerge such as fever, cold, etc., these are another matter—but don't tell him that. You'd be surprised how closely some kids can mimic common maladies.
Tell him if he feels ill at school he can ask to see the school nurse who may allow him to lie down in the clinic. However, you will ask her to call you if that happens; and you will then allow—actually require—him to rest in bed or on the couch for the remainder of the evening when he gets home—without friends, television or video games. Should your son in fact be under the weather, the quiet night won't bother him.
If you're not confident in your ability to judge legitimate sickness, or if your son is incredibly convincing, or if you just want another option, move to step three.
Step Three: On any morning your son claims illness, he will be permitted to stay home—in bed, all day and all evening, with no entertainment other than reading materials. Whether he gets up for meals is at your discretion. Again, if he truly is feeling bad, he won't totally mind his semi-solitary confinement. If he isn't, bed will quickly become more unpleasant or boring than school.
Two themes run throughout these steps. One, you are making school the more enjoyable option. Two, your stance is nonnegotiable. No matter how much your son might temporarily hate his scholastic lot, to allow him to avoid it is to allow him to take a course of action the repercussions of which he can't remotely begin to understand.
Dr. Ray Guarendi is a clinical psychologist and author.
Reach Family Matters at
familymatters@ncregister.com
------- EXCERPT: Family Matters ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dr. Ray Guarendi ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: Receiving Special Children With a Mother's Heart DATE: 05/13/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 13-19, 2001 ----- BODY:“When I hear about a baby born with a severe handicap, of course I feel sorry for parents and child,” says Sandy Maichen of South Bend, Ind. “But I'm also happy God has sent another angel into the world. I know God can use that child to bless the family and many others.”
Sandy never babysat as a teenager. As a student in Catholic schools, she loved “Church things” and dreamed of being a missionary nun or a physical therapist. Her mother discouraged these aspirations, but Sandy feels her vocation to a heroic life has been fulfilled as a mother to children with special needs.
Sandy and her husband Charlie began their family 36 years ago after a priest told them having a child would improve their marriage. In spite of all the hardships that followed, they say the advice worked.
The birth of their first son, Tony, was followed quickly by the premature birth of Melanie, 13 months later. Melanie was profoundly retarded, with obvious physical deformities including club feet, dislocated hips and a partial cleft palate. Seizures soon followed.
Just over a year after Melanie came, their third child was born—Maureen, who is now 32 years old and still has very limited speech, along with the mental capacity of a 7-year-old.
Caring for her three children was often overwhelming to Sandy; she would sit in her pediatrician's waiting room looking wistfully at “normal” children. “I cried regularly for about 10 years before I was able fully to accept God's will and find joy in it.”
There was never any doubt, however, that the Maichens would love and care for each child. After Melanie's birth, a physician predicted she would never sit, speak or feed herself. He advised institutionalizing her, but Charlie tore up the paperwork right there in the doctor's office.
No Brooding
After Maureen was born, Sandy realized she couldn't sit around feeling sorry for herself. She had to put all her energy into meeting her children's needs. “These children were totally dependent on me around the clock. I couldn't ask, ‘Why me?’"
There were many years when Pat Kaiser, who lived near the Maichens and has been Sandy's friend since those early days, helped with the overload of practical problems that came with the special needs of Sandy's children. At the same time, it was surprising how much Sandy did in return to help Pat. Pat marvels at Sandy, calling her “a totally dedicated mother.”
The Maichens’ pediatrician, Dr. G. Walter Erickson, is also quick to say that Sandy and Charlie were extraordinary parents. He observed that Melanie was “meticulously cared for by her parents,” who sometimes stayed awake through the night to make sure she didn't stop breathing. For Sandy, deciding to make these kinds of sacrifices was simple: “I asked myself, if I were Melanie, how would I want to be accepted and cared for?"
A ‘Normal Life’
On the other hand, Charlie points out they tried to live like a normal family as much as possible. They didn't allow a demanding therapeutic program to totally dominate their life together, preventing all the usual household activities.
Melanie was in and out of hospitals with pneumonia, or when seizures were dangerous. Her pediatrician, however, quickly learned to send her home as soon as possible because he saw that the child would improve rapidly in the familial setting.
Although she could barely see or hear, Melanie responded to loving touch and even learned as a teenager to say “Mama” and to crawl into Sandy's lap and snuggle. Such moments are treasured memories for Sandy, especially since Melanie went to be with the Lord in 1993, at the age of 26.
Sandy never had the usual reasons for parental pride—an A on a report card or a softball trophy—but she diligently sought causes for celebration. She rejoiced in every little success that so many others would take for granted: Melanie learned to hold a cup, to stand alone, to walk with assistance.
Maureen's successes, though limited, have been more numerous than Melanie's. First of all, she was very devoted to her sister and assisted in her care. She now works in a sheltered workshop and proudly takes her parents to a fast-food restaurant on each paycheck. Sandy continues to teach her practical household skills.
A tireless advocate for her children, Sandy has given Maureen opportunities to excel and stay active through Special Olympics. Maureen swims, bowls, skis, rides a horse and plays basketball. Her coaches set realistic goals like scoring a single basket, and join her parents in exulting when she succeeds. Her hobbies include weaving and working jigsaw puzzles.
The Avon Lady
An x-ray technician before her marriage, Sandy looked for work that she could adjust to her children's needs. Working has helped her keep a balance in her life. She sold encyclopedias and Avon and Tupperware products before starting a business out of an office in her home. She uses the phone to schedule workers to go into grocery and department stores to distribute sample products.
Sandy's most important secret? “Our faith keeps us going. We know we can't do it alone, but we also know God gives the grace we need.”
When it was difficult for Sandy to pray herself, she was grateful to know that others, like her mother-inlaw's Legion of Mary group, were praying for her. God provided the means for the family to journey twice to Lourdes, where Sandy believes they received strength to carry on.
Her Christian friends saw Christ in her children and Sandy says that nourished her faith. The girls received the sacraments and developed their own spirituality. Their pastor, Holy Cross Father Joseph Payne, told her, “Those children have a job to do. Even if it looks like they can't do anything but sit there, every person on earth has a God-given purpose.”
It was often a struggle to take them to church on Sunday, but Sandy is glad they made that commitment. Despite her extremely limited hearing, at the last Midnight Mass of her life, Melanie calmed down when the service began and kept her head turned toward the soloist throughout the singing of the Ave Maria.
When Melanie was 13, Sandy began praying for the grace to give her back to the Lord whenever he called. Thirteen years later, the time came. She is grateful that God let her know when Melanie's death was imminent, due to kidney failure. Now she looks back on Melanie's life with thankfulness—happy that God gave her daughter the chance to live and to return to him.
Sandy is quick to say she has learned a great deal from her children. “Maureen faithfully calls our family to right order. If anyone's voice is raised, her non-verbal reaction expresses her outrage. She quickly accepts our apologies, says ‘I love you’ and moves on without holding grudges. Because her love is unconditional, I can be myself with her. She helps me be senstiive to others’ needs.”
She continues, “Through my children, I've gotten to know God more personally. When I'm really hurting, Jesus seems closest. Once when Melanie was in the hospital, I didn't have the strength to go see her. I felt the Lord inviting me to hold his hand and I was able to get up and go.”
Sandy Maichen continues to pray to be a good mother—one day at a time.
Jill Boughton writes from
South Bend, Indiana.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Jill Boughton ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: Helping Pornography's Victims DATE: 05/13/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 13-19, 2001 ----- BODY:When she was a little girl, Sandra was not only forced to participate in child pornography, she was also personally abused by the pornographers themselves. Now at the age of 30, she said, she is still struggling to find peace through four-times-a-week therapy sessions.
Sandra, whose last name was not given for privacy reasons, was among several victims who testified at a national press conference in Washington May 2, observing May as National Victims of Pornography Month.
A coalition of family organizations, including groups like Concerned Women for America, Morality in Media, the Family Research Council, sponsored the press conference in an effort to show the personal damage inflicted by pornography, which its proponents maintain is a “victimless crime.”
Three members of the House of Representatives were co-sponsors of the press conference—Tom Delay (R-Texas), Steve Largent (R-Okla.) and Jim Ryun (R-Kan.).
Besides sponsoring the press conference, the family groups organize other activities throughout the month, including letter writing campaigns and lobbying days in state legislatures.
Rebecca Riggs of Concerned Women for America told the Register that the groups sponsor the annual press conference to make sure lawmakers understand how prevalent pornography is in our culture and how devastating it is for so many children. “We're asking the Justice Department to enforce the obscenity laws that are already in place,” she said.
“Pornography is not a victimless crime,” says Vickie Burress, director of the National Victims of Pornography Campaign, launched May 2. “And it is the most vulnerable in our population who are at risk from its dire effects.”
The campaign works in partnership with the American Family Association. The two organizations also sponsored a new Web site to help pornography victims (www.victim-sofpornography.org).
Residents of Ypsilanti, Mich., learned about the connection between pornography and crime the hard way when a child-molestation ring was discovered operating near the city.
When several hundred pornographic videotapes were found in the possession of ring members, city residents formed a citizen's group to lobby for restrictions on Ypsilanti's porn merchants. Within a few months, the Ypsilanti City Council had lowered the percentage of total sales of adult material to at most 15%.
To help them in their campaign against smut in their city, an Ypsilanti group called Citizens Against Adult Businesses used materials from the National Center for the Protection of Children and Families.
Sharmaine Mclaren, the center's spokeswoman, praised the strategy used by the Ypsilanti group in dealing with the adult businesses.
“We've found the best bet is to restrict, rather than eliminate [adult-entertainment establishments], because if you restrict them they will leave and other businesses come in,” Mclaren says. “It's just as effective and easier to get legislated.”
After helping to create relatively pornography-free environments in Cincinnati, San Diego, Atlanta and Memphis, Tenn., the National Center for the Protection of Children and Families now aids communities in forming their own anti-pornography advocacy groups through a “model cities” program.
Mclaren says her organization, which operates a help-line for pornography victims and a Web site (www.nationalcoalition.org), has also developed an Internet-safety program for teachers, parents and businesses.
“Businesses can also be victimized by pornography,” she explains, “since the average worker now loses more than 21 hours a month of job productivity from Internet porn, according to Nielsen, the same people who do TV ratings.”
Mclaren says her organization works closely with the National Law Center for Children and Families, an organization “established by lawyers specifically to fight pornography-related crimes and social problems.” The center advises interested groups on rezoning measures and legislation initiatives as well, she adds.
Minimizing the presence of pornography in the community helps prevent victimization. But another huge problem is law enforcement, says Pat McGrath, director of media relations for the New York-based Morality in Media.
“There isn't enough enforcement of the current federal and state obscenity laws,” he says. “If these laws were properly enforced, there would be a lot fewer victims of pornography.”
In addition to working for enforcement of federal and state obscenity laws, McGrath says his organization promotes decency in broadcasting.
But unrestricted, invasive pornography on the Internet is becoming the biggest cause for concern for those who deal with victimization, according to Donna Rice Hughes. Hughes is on the board of Enough is Enough, an organization that helps victims of pornography and advocates for anti-pornography solutions nationwide.
“The way pornography's intruding into our lives via the Internet, a lot of people find themselves getting hooked without realizing what is going on,” Hughes says. “This is now becoming a national epidemic.”
But she notes that these people are also victims of pornography, and resources to help are springing up all around the country.
“A few years ago, there was almost nothing to offer them,” Hughes says. “But the good news is that a lot of expertise is being brought to bear on the problem now. We are seeing a lot of counseling services springing up. There is online help as well.”
On May 17, Hughes joined with Tim Robertson to help launch FamilyClick.com, an Internet provider that can block pornography on the Web as well as in e-mail and chat programs.
Other services, e.g., familink.com, filter out objectionable sites before they get to a computer in the home. Familink filters out new sites that are unacceptable on a daily basis.
Hughes recommends that families use some form of Internet filtering. “No one's really immune to pornography,” she says.
Kate Ernsting writes from Ann Arbor, Michigan.
------- EXCERPT: Organizations Gear Up to Protect Children From the Onslaught ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kate Ernsting ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Life & Notes DATE: 05/13/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 13-19, 2001 ----- BODY:Singapore's Perks for Births
NEW YORK TIMES, April 25—Alarmed by its declining birthrate, Singapore, the city-state of 4 million people, is urging its citizens to multiply as fast as they can, reported the New York Times.
“We need more babies!” Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said last fall.
A government office, the Working Committee on Marriage and Procreation, has developed monetary and workplace incentives that go into effect this month, reported the Times.
In what it calls the Baby Bonus Scheme, the government is offering cash to couples who have second and third children, extending maternity leave and adding a brief paternity leave for government workers. It is experimenting with flexible working hours to make child rearing easier and offering special deals on apartment rentals to young couples.
Abortion's Aftermath
THE LANTERN, April 27—An Ohio State University student wrote in his school's newspaper, The Lantern, that abortion supporters should consider the aftermath of abortion when defending the act.
Rich Bordner cited studies reporting that a very high percentage of women who have abortions feel guilt, from 70% to 92%, depending on the study.
“Some women go into a self-destruct mode, doing things such as getting pregnant again in an attempt to ‘compensate’ for the abortion of her previous child, having an affair, becoming depressed or punishing themselves,” wrote Bordner.
Immoral Laws Are Null
LIFESITE DAILY NEWS, April 25—Archbishop Estanislao Karlic, president of the Argentine bishops'conference, has said that Argentines don't have to obey a new birth control law approved by the House of Representatives and now waiting for approval by the Senate, reported LifeSite Daily News.
“Laws must be in accordance with the well-being of the human person, that is the key condition for a law to be respected,” said Archbishop Karlic.
The new law forces public hospitals and the Social Security agency to provide non-permanent birth control to all women, including minors without their parents’ consent.
“If the law goes directly against true values, then it is not a law, since an unjust law just ceases to exist,” said Archbishop Karlic.
Docs Oppose Gender Tests
THE HINDU, April 25 —The Indian Medical Association has asked its members to refrain from conducting sex-determination tests and aiding female feticide, reported The Hindu.
“We as an organization should warn our members against aiding in such heinous crimes,” said Dr. Vinay Agarwal, joint secretary of the association, at a regional workshop on female feticide and infanticide.
Other spokespeople of the association called for effective monitoring and reporting practices to be developed.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Vatican Calls for Changes to Mass DATE: 05/20/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: May 20-26, 2001 ----- BODY:ROME – The words you hear at Mass will be changing in the years to come, says a new Vatican instruction. They'll be a more literal translation of the Latin.
After decades of translations to the vernacular that attempted to capture the sense, rather than the literal meaning, of the originals, the Holy See's May 7 document calls for a “new era” of liturgical translation.
It's the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments’ most specific and wide-ranging instruction on the subject in nearly 40 years.
“It's been a long time coming,” Chicago Cardinal Francis George told the Register. A member of the board of bishops who oversee English-language liturgical translators, Cardinal George said the difficulty of translation “has been a 10-year conversation.”
Authentic Liturgy (Liturgiam Authenticam) was prepared by the Congregation for Divine Worship at the specific request of Pope John Paul II. It rejects inclusive language and promotes a direct rendering of original texts.
Specific changes will include avoiding forced “inclusive” language that isn't gender specific, and returning the first words of the creed from “We believe” to the more literal “I believe.” The response to “Peace be with you” will also be changed, from the current “And also with you” to the more literal “And with your spirit.”
“Translations must be freed from exaggerated dependence on modern modes of expression and in general from psychologizing language,” said a Vatican press release announcing the document.
Authentic Liturgy also calls for stricter oversight of the so-called mixed commissions that have been responsible for translating liturgical texts since the Second Vatican Council.
Set up jointly by the bishops of countries that share a common tongue, mixed commissions produce translations that must then be approved by the Holy See. During the past decade, the Vatican has refused to grant approval for several translations produced by the commission that is responsible for translating liturgical texts into English, and approved others only after having insisted on substantial modifications.
The work of the translation body, known as the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL), will now be required to obtain a nihil obstat from the Congregation for Divine Worship “prior to taking up their duties.” ICEL will also be required to bring its statues into conformity with the new document within two years.
The Pope's directive followed many years of dispute over the quality of translations produced by bodies such as ICEL, which had been entrusted after Vatican II with the task of rendering original Latin texts into the vernacular.
Authentic Liturgy comes nearly four years after Pope John Paul II asked congregation prefect Cardinal Jorge Medina Estévez to compose a document on translation for use by the universal Church.
Regarding ICEL's future, Cardinal George said its provisional constitution, written up last year at the request of the Congregation for Divine Worship, will have to be “recast in light of this new document from Rome.”
Controversy
Not everyone views Authentic Liturgy as an organic development of the Church's prior statements on the liturgy.
John Page, executive secretary of ICEL, said the document “does seem to bring up a judgment of the decisions of bishops’ conferences and the [the Second Vatican] Council and the Concilium,” the body set up by the Council to make the transition into the vernacular.
“The very first instructions that came out were in a very different period of the reform,” Page said.
“This one speaks about a new era. It seems to continue in the direction of giving the Roman authorities greater say.…[It] seems to be moving more toward strengthening the authority of the congregation at the expense of the authority of the bishops’ conference.”
But the director of the U.S. bishops’ committee on liturgy disputed the contention that the document undercuts the authority of the bishops’ conference.
Father James Maroney told the Register that the Second Vatican Council fathers “themselves determined that it would be episcopal conferences that would be charged with the approval of liturgical translations. That has not changed.”
He called Authentic Liturgy the “latest expression” of Vatican II.
On the matter of inclusive language, Page defended translation principles used by ICEL in the past. “Certainly ICEL has made an effort to use language that is inclusive of men and women insofar as that can be done. The question there is, is that the living language?”
The new document says, “Many languages have nouns and pronouns capable of referring to both the masculine and the feminine in a single term. The abandonment of these terms under pressure of criticism on ideological or other grounds is not always wise or necessary nor is it an inevitable part of linguistic development.”
Said Page, “There is a stage in which [inclusive language] might have initiated in an ideological way, but it became more mainstream. It now seems to have moved with the actual cultural use of the language beyond an ideological program.”
But Father Maroney said that there is another principle at stake.
Often, a method of making language inclusive “prevents the hearer from fully appreciating the substance of the original text,” he said.
“The entire work is translation, and any technique that fails to translate precisely and completely what is contained in the source text is not appropriate.”
Reactions
Msgr. Francis Mannion, director of the newly created Liturgical Institute at the University of St. Mary of the Lake in Chicago, welcomed Authentic Liturgy as a “comprehensive and well-rounded presentation of translation principles.”
He called it the fruit of translating experience and “as much a self-correction on the part of the Holy See as a rebuke to the wider Church.”
“I think it's a very respectful document, very prudently stated,” Msgr. Mannion told the Register. “One shouldn't view this dispute as being between the Holy See and the rest of the Church. The period since Vatican II has been a period of intense change and the Church had very little experience to fall back on in the whole matter of vernacularization of the liturgy. I would say this document could only come now.”
The fundamental issue resolved by Authentic Liturgy, Msgr. Mannion said, is whether liturgical documents translated literally have the ability to speak across cultures. The answer to that question, emphatically stated in the new document, he said, is that a literal translation of the Roman rite is not done “at the expense of inculturation, but rather, is itself an instrument of inculturation.”
When will these changes in the Church's prayers be put into effect? He said the man in the pew will have to wait.
“It will be some time,” Msgr. Mannion said. “Translations have to be approved and no pastor has a right to translate on his own. We tend to live in a world of committees.”
But what is certain is that they will change — to something like they were meant to be all along.
“The challenge here is to teach the Catholic people to speak the language of the Roman liturgy rather than to have the Roman liturgy translated into their language,” Msgr. Mannion added.
Church's liturgical language into the vernacular in a way which is immediately accessible to the people,” he said, “we are not serving them because they are not getting the Roman liturgy; they are getting an adaptation of it.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian McGuire ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Mary's Urgent Message for Our Times DATE: 05/20/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: May 20-26, 2001 ----- BODY:LOS ANGELES — On May 13, the United States celebrated Mother's Day, and some 600,000 pilgrims honored Mary in Fatima, Portugal.
The apparitions in Fatima are certainly the best-known Church-approved Marian apparitions of the 20th century, but they are by no means the only ones.
Though literally hundreds of visions have been reported, the Church seldom confers its approval on such events. And even when the Church acknowledges supernatural activity, as in Fatima, it doesn't require Catholics to believe it.
In the last 100 years various apparitions — from Banneux and Beauraing, Belgium in 1930s; Zeitoun in Cairo, Egypt, in the 1960s; Akita, Japan, in the 1970s, as well as a few other, less well-known events — have received ecclesiastical approval.
A key thread in all these Marian apparitions, said retired Bishop Donald Montrose of Stockton, Calif., and a member of the Marian Movement of Priests, is twofold. Wherever she appears, her message always centers on “First, the love of her son and the love of God, and second, the specific situation.”
He pointed out that at Guadalupe, in the 16th century, Mary's message was that she was the Americans’ mother. At Lourdes, in the 19th century, it was her “love for the suffering and sick.” At Fatima, the message was directed to those suffering “the danger of war.” Mary, said Bishop Montrose, “wants to be seen individually as our mother.”
And in keeping with that message, Bishop Montrose said that in the 20th century it seems that Mary has appeared in crisis situations.
“Of course,” he cautioned, “we don't know what is in her mind,” but, he noted, she seems to have visited “crisis areas to show herself as a mother.”
Claretian Father Robert Billet has been researching and compiling a comprehensive list of Marian apparitions and feast days since 1980.
The 20th century has “definitely seen more [Marian apparitions] than usual” for such a period of time, said the pastor of St. Anthony Mary Claret Church in Fresno, Calif.
He believes that the increased numbers of apparitions point to a sense of “urgency.” “We live in such a materialistic age that people don't know what is going on,” said Father Billet.
And Mary's messages have urged more prayer. Her message at Fatima — that people should pray the rosary especially — is well known.
At Beauraing in 1932 and 1933 she told the visionaries to “pray very much,” and even “pray always,” a message which she echoed that same year at Banneux, also in Belgium.
At Zeitoun, Egypt, Mary did not speak, but stood luminous atop a Coptic Orthodox Church in prayer. There, in that obviously prayerful setting, she was seen by millions of people — Catholics, Orthodox and Muslims — in a series of apparitions, which not only drew immense crowds, but were photographed and broadcast. The Coptic Orthodox Patriarch Kyrillos VI officially approved the apparitions, as did the leader of the Coptic Catholics loyal to Rome, Cardinal Stephanos I.
Dire Warnings
But it was at Akita, Japan, approved by the local bishop in 1984, that the urgency of the Blessed Virgin's message was clearest.
In a series of visions to Sister Agnes Sasagawa in 1973, Mary warned that there would be attacks on the Church even from within, and that dire consequences would befall the world if people did not repent and do reparation for those who did not.
As at Fatima, Our Lady stressed the need for the rosary, and she explained to Sister Agnes that she was holding back the wrath of God, but warned: “If men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity.”
Father Billet points out that Our Lady has a very good record in terms of her predictions. At La Salette, France, an approved 19th-century apparition, Mary warned that “a famine would come,” recalled Father Billet.
It came not only to Ireland in the form of the famous potato famine, he explained, but “to France too.” And if the message at Fatima had been heeded, he says, “we could have foregone World War II and communism — but people just didn't wake up.”
As a response to Mary's current admonitions, Father Billet says that “the main thing is that [people should] repent,” but he is concerned that while “some” people may wake up, the general tendency is to realize too late the importance of the message. In fact, he says, the only time in history that people ever universally heeded such a call to repentance “was in Nineva.”
Work Ahead
Despite some successes in spreading Mary's message, said the Blue Army's Michael Six, this is no time to relax.
Like Father Billet, he believes that “there is still a lot of work to be done.” Nevertheless, while much of the world may remain oblivious to such Marian messages, Six says there are some hopeful signs especially among young people. He said the abundance of Marian activity of the last century might be “Mary crushing the devil's head,” a heavenly reaction to what he termed as “the 100 years of the freedom of the devil,” which Pope Leo XIII saw in a vision in 1884.
And from his national vantage point, he has said he has “seen a great increase in Marian devotion in the last five years.”
“When I was in [Catholic] school [in the ‘70s] we were taught that ‘God loves me, and all religions are the same,’” and the rosary “was dismissed as medievalism,” said Six, but now he says, “the pendulum is swinging back.”
He explained that at a National Catholic Educational Association conference four years ago, those staffing the Blue Army booth found great devotion to Our Lady, especially among young school-teachers.
“Six hundred young school-teachers picked up a rosary,” he said, “and many wanted to know how to pray it.”
Soon a “Classroom Rosary Program” was developed to send rosaries to students. Each student would receive two rosaries, one for himself and one to give to a friend. “Our publisher expected 25,000” students to enroll, Six said, but they were overwhelmed when “by the end of the year we had 400,000 kids in the program.”
Andrew Walther writes from Los Angeles.
Called and Ordained by the Suffering Pope
VATICAN CITY—Pope John Paul II ordained 34 priests for the service in the Diocese of Rome on May 13, the 20th anniversary of the attempt on his life in St. Peter's Square.
One of the newly ordained has a special connection to the hospital where the Holy Father was taken in the frantic minutes after Mehmet Ali Agca fired the shots that nearly took his life.
“Upon these new priests of the Diocese of Rome we invoke the maternal assistance of Mary Most Holy, on the day in which we remember her apparitions at Fatima,” said John Paul before leading the Regina Caeli, noting that May 13 would be observed as the feast of Our Lady of Fatima if it didn't fall on a Sunday.
“I myself had the opportunity to experience her protection on May 13, 20 years ago,” he continued, making his only reference of the day to the anniversary of his assassination attempt.
The Holy Father has attributed his survival to the intercession of the Madonna of Fatima, a view he confirmed on May 13 last year when he revealed that part of Mary's message to the shepherd children of Fatima was a prophecy that bore striking resemblance to his own assassination attempt.
But there was a remarkable “coincidence” on the anniversary date—or better, a special sign of Providence, since John Paul remarked when visiting Fatima in 1982 for the first anniversary of the assassination attempt: “in the designs of Providence there are no mere coincidences.”
Among the 34 new priests, themselves drawn from 16 countries throughout the world, was a 34-year-old Neapolitan doctor, Father Andrea Manto.
Then Dr. Manto was a medical student at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, in which is found the Gemelli Polyclinic, the hospital where John Paul has been treated throughout his pontificate. It was there that the seven-hour surgery was performed in 1981 to save him from his gunshot wounds.
Manto completed his medical studies in 1991, and then a specialization in geriatrics in 1996. His encounter with the suffering elderly planted in him the seeds of his priestly vocation.
“The presence of the suffering Pope in these wards was a vocation, a call,” said Father Manto, recalling that the Pope returned to the Gemelli in 1992 for intestinal surgery and again in 1994 after he fell and broke his hip. “It was as if the Lord himself was passing by and calling me.”
Fresh from his ordination in St. Peter's Basilica, Father Manto returned to his former workplace to celebrate his first Mass that afternoon in the main chapel of the Catholic University. The late afternoon Mass was celebrated at exactly the same hour, 20 years later, that the Holy Father was brought to the Gemelli from St. Peter's Square.
----- EXCERPT: Apparitions show her 21st-century concern ----- EXTENDED BODY: Andrew Walther ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Resignations Rock University of Dallas DATE: 05/20/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: May 20-26, 2001 ----- BODY:DALLAS — What is happening at the University of Dallas?
It is a question many seem to be asking after the April 9 resignations of the entire full-time staff of the university's 15-year-old Institute for Religious and Pastoral Studies (IRPS) program.
The resignations include those of director Douglas Bushman and associate directors Timothy Herrman and David Twellman, and took effect May 11.
On April 8, Ave Maria College of Ann Arbor, Mich. announced that it is launching a master's degree in sacred theology through its Institute for Pastoral Theology which will be modeled after the University of Dallas program, and directed by the resigning Dallas faculty. Both programs are designed for adult lay Catholics, and include weekend sessions in several cities around the country.
Bushman said that he thinks there is a great deal of evidence that “the current administration [of the University of Dallas] is antagonistic to the IRPS in its present form and there is a desire to change direction. That is the prerogative of the president and the [university's governing] board.”
“It placed me in the awkward position of inviting hundreds of students and several bishops to make a significant commitment to a program that the university did not support,” he said. “I felt I could no longer fulfill my responsibilities with integrity.”
Bushman said the program was marked by “rigorous fidelity to the texts of the Catholic tradition” and stressed “the universal call to holiness.”
Associate director David Twellman said that Bushman's approach is key. He “has a vision for teaching what the Church teaches. He was instrumental in my own conversion to the Catholic Church as a United Methodist pastor.”
Bushman said that such conversions come naturally from the program. “A principal objective,” he said, “has always been to lead students to appreciate the interdependence of truth and love, doctrine and pastoral practice, and thereby to overcome the false oppositions between them.”
He has directed the program since 1992 — when it had an enrollment of about 67 students and was losing money.
Today the program operates in the black, has an enrollment of 200 students, and has satellite sites in Irving, Texas, St. Paul/Minneapolis, Stevens Point, Wis., and Tulsa, Okla. Future sites were being planned for Omaha, Neb., in the fall of 2001, and Atlanta and Syracuse, N.Y., in 2002. The program has received the support of several bishops, including Bishop Edward Slattery in Tulsa, Cardinal Francis George in Chicago and Bishop Raymond Burke in La Crosse.
Bushman “teaches the truth and has invited me to work with him,” said Twellman. “If he has the opportunity to teach what the Church teaches elsewhere I am going to follow him.”
The President
In response to the resignations, University of Dallas President Msgr. Milam Joseph told the Register, “The IRPS provides pastoral theology within the diocese and the region. We are in constant dialogue with our bishops about the content of the program. The program will continue.”
He said the case was simply a matter of professors changing universities.
Ave Maria College president Dr. Nicholas Healy disagreed. “Why would three senior administrators of a prestigious program leave the University of Dallas for a startup?” asked Healy. “It wasn't for the money.”
Ave Maria College was founded on March 19, 1998 by a lay board headed by Tom Monaghan, Domino's Pizza founder, to offer a liberal arts curriculum rooted in the Catholic faith.
“At any university there are individuals taking jobs elsewhere,” said Msgr. Joseph answered.
“The issue is that the members of the IRPS program have decided to take another job. There is no story or agenda beyond that. They feel they can get a better deal elsewhere, I guess. That's all I have to say.”
Said Healy: “I did not initiate Doug Bushman's decision to leave Dallas. I never would have talked to him had I not heard that he was looking for a job. When I learned of Bushman's work and accomplishments I was convinced of how important this is for the Church in America and how good these men were in executing a program. I spoke with students and other faculty, and they confirmed this too.”
Whatever the reasons, the resignations leave current students of the program wondering about their future.
“Initially, I was shocked by the resignations,” said second-year student Cathy Hennessey of Abilene, Texas.
“There is grief that I have to let go of what I had been anticipating. However, the program has instilled in us a trust in the Lord.”
While Hennessey admitted that it is too early to say what she will do, she says her instinct is to pursue the program through Ave Maria. “We are each at UD for different reasons. I am there for those professors and if there is any way possible, I would like to follow them.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: U.S. House Answers U.N. Rebuke DATE: 05/20/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: May 20-26, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — It was an unprecedented rebuke, and it came with a cost.
The United Nations removed the United States from the U.N. Human Rights Commission in early May, while egregious human rights transgressors Sudan and China retained their seats.
In a bipartisan 252-165 vote days later, the U.S. House canceled a $244 million payment to the United Nations.
May 10's vote came despite resistance from the White House to linking U.S. membership on the Human Rights Commission to paying past U.N. dues.
“It's time to look at membership on the commission,” Rep. Chris Smith, vice chairman of the House International Relations Committee, told the Register. “It's filled with abusers and rogue nations. Under these guidelines, 50 years ago the Nazis could be on this panel.”
That's particularly ironic, Smith added, because the U.N. commission was established in 1947 in response to World War II atrocities. The United States had served on the commission since its inception.
Smith said that Congress would likely hold hearings on how the U.N panel should reform its membership-selection procedures.
The U.N. vote excluding the United States was made by secret ballot among U.N. delegates from Western nations.
It is uncertain exactly why delegates decided to reject United States, which remains the largest financial contributor to U.N. operations. But many observers suggested that President Bush was being punished for a variety of decisions regarded as hostile to the United Nations. In particular, the recent White House announcement that the United States would reject the 1997 Kyoto treaty on global warming angered European governments.
Other grievances include American resistance to the proposed International Criminal Court, which European governments strongly support, and the sharp differences between the pro-life White House and the pro-abortion European Union regarding international abortion policies.
The White House, however, did not support the congressional retaliation against the United Nations. Before the May 10 vote, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said, “While the United States is disappointed with the results of the Human Rights Commission election, the president feels strongly that this issue should not be linked to the payment of our arrears to the U.N. and other international organizations.”
Even so, the White House didn't actively lobby members to vote against the bill.
Said House Speaker Dennis Hastert, “The Congress has the right to work its will as well.”
The House vote would allow Congress to pay $582 million in back dues this year, but would suspend the next installment if the United States fails to regain its seat on the Human Rights Commission.
It is unclear if the provision will pass the Senate, but if it does, Bush is unlikely to veto the bill because it is part of an $8.8 billion State Department appropriations bill.
The House vote came just a week after the May 3 vote by the Economic and Social Council, known as ECOSOC, which places U.N. member states on the commission on a regional basis.
Despite written assurances of support from European countries, the United States was edged out in a secret ballot that selected France, Austria and Sweden for the three seats reserved for Western countries. The same day, the United States also lost its seat on the United Nation's International Narcotics Board.
Oppressors Are Welcome
Both China and Sudan remain on the Human Rights Commission despite receiving international condemnation for violations of human rights.
China's communist regime continues to impose its harsh “one-child” population-control policy, which human-rights advocates say have led to forced sterilizations and forced abortions.
Sudan's Islamic government has been engaged since 1983 in a brutal civil war that has killed an estimated 2 million residents of the mostly Christian and animist residents of southern Sudan.
As well, China and Sudan were both listed as being among the worst offenders against religious freedom in a report released April 30 by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
“Minimally, countries that serve on the [U.N. Human Rights] Commission should allow human-rights monitors like Amnesty International or Helsinki Watch into their own countries,” Rep. Smith told the Register.
The removal of the United States from the commission could result in a loss of its credibility, said Harvard law professor Mary Ann Glendon, who served as the head of the Holy See's delegation to the 1995 U.N. Conference on Women.
“It seems to me that this outcome of the voting by ECOSOC is, or should be, something of an embarrassment to the U.N.,” said Glendon. “It will undermine the authority and effectiveness of the Human Rights Commission.”
Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, told the Register that while it was “unfortunate” that the United States had lost its seat, the commission remains a vehicle for advancing human rights.
He added that the membership of countries like China and Sudan did not illegimitize the commission. “Being on the commission almost brings more scrutiny,” said Dujarric.
On May 10, Annan told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York that he was unhappy about the congressional vote, but pleased that Congress did not also cancel payment of the $582 million in back dues.
“Punishing all 189 member states would be counterproductive and punishing the bureaucracy would be unfair,” Annan spokesman Fred Eckhard said in a statement to the Register. “We are just hoping that they don't shoot the messenger.”
But Rep. Henry Hyde, chairman of the House International Relations Committee, insisted that the United States could not remain silent — because of its support for human rights.
“This is a deliberate attempt to punish the United States for telling the truth when it comes to human-rights violations around the globe,” said Hyde.
“To our critics who would say we're overreaching and overreacting, I would say to do anything less would be a repudiation of our values.”
Joshua Mercer writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: U.S. ousted from panel Sudan and China are on ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Voice of the Faith DATE: 05/20/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: May 20-26, 2001 ----- BODY:There are few radio personalities as familiar as the voice of the Dodgers, who has announced many baseball All-Star games and World Series. He spoke to Register correspondent G.E. Devine.
G.E. Devine: You've been inducted into the broadcast wing of the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, Pa. The Dodgers have named a press box after you. How do you feel about that praise?
I'm just overwhelmed with gratitude that I'm still alive and doing the job I love.
Any voice that I do have I know is God-given. Any ability I have was originally given by God, and I'm very aware of that. I've tried to improve on the gift as best I can. I don't take it for granted, by any means. I know that I could lose it just as quickly as I was given it. Consequently, I don't have any feelings except great thankfulness for the success I've had in the business.
For the youngsters, I would say: Whatever your gift might be, remember where it came from. Cherish it and develop it to the best of your ability.
What is the most important message you want to share with people, both young and old, about your Catholic faith?
I don't know if I could single one out. I do know that, when you get on your knees, it's a perfect position to be in to put things in proper perspective. It helps me more than anything else. Whether it helps others, I don't know; maybe they do it in their own way. I would encourage all of us, though, to take time to get on our knees. It lets you know where you are, who you are, what you're doing, whom you belong to, where it's all coming from and, eventually, where it's all going.
You came west with the Dodgers after growing up in New York. What part of that city did you come from?
I graduated from Incarnation School in Manhattan, under the Sisters of Charity. One of the nuns who took really good care of me was Sister Virginia Maria.
When I was 8 or 9, I had written a composition saying I wanted to be a sports announcer. When Sister read that she made sure that every day I would stand and read aloud to the class. So, even in those early days, the nuns made a contribution and steered me in the right way.
Are their other religious or clergy you remember who influenced you?
Oh, yes, there were a good number. There was one priest, Father Sullivan, when I was an altar boy at Incarnation. He was a wondrous man. In high school, there was Father Joseph O'Connell, the president of Fordham Prep.
I was representing the school in an elocution contest. Father asked me what I was wearing and I told him: a blue suit, white shirt, blue tie and oxblood cordovan shoes.
He said “You should wear black!”
I said “I don't have black shoes!” He said, “OK, be in my office after school tomorrow!” I went into his office after school and there must have been — so help me — 30 or 40 pair of black shoes on the rug in front of his desk. He had gone to all the good Jesuits on the campus and gotten their shoes, because he didn't know my size. I sat like Cinderella in his office, trying on black shoes until I got a pair that fit! I wore them representing the school.
Also, I remember Father Victor Yanitelli, another Jesuit who was a novice when I first met him. He eventually became president of St. Peter's College in Jersey City. He and I were very close. He was a 140-pound running back, so you can imagine what kind of a guy he was! Along the way there have been a lot of people who have given me a boost and a push in the right direction.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Vin Scully ----- KEYWORD: Inperson -------- TITLE: Bad Business: Viewers Tune Out Ads on Violent Shows DATE: 05/20/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: May 20-26, 2001 ----- BODY:AMES, Iowa — It's harder to remember a commercial if it interrupts a violent program.
That was the striking conclusion of new research conducted by Brad Bushman, associate professor of psychology at Iowa State University.
Bushman's previous research also focused on violence and aggression. He had already found that violent shows increase their audiences’ anger and belligerence, so now he wanted to find out how those psychological changes would affect mental processes like memory.
What he found should come as an unpleasant surprise to the companies that spend millions to buy precious airtime on programs like “WWF Smackdown!” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”
Bushman compiled and reviewed 12 studies, four of which he had conducted himself. In one study, over 2,000 men and women watched clips from either a violent movie such as “Die Hard,” “Single White Female,” or “Karate Kid III,” or a nonviolent movie such as “Field of Dreams,” “Awakenings,” or “Chariots of Fire.” The clips were shown with commercials for such products as Wisk detergent or Krazy Glue.
The psychologist found that the people who had watched violent movie clips had a harder time remembering details of the advertisements — and, more importantly for corporations, they couldn't recall the brand names either.
Bushman said the results were the same whether the audience was men or women, young or old. It didn't matter whether the audience enjoyed violent programs or disliked them.
Even the message of the movie or television show didn't matter. A violent but lighthearted action flick had the same memory-blocking effect as a grim and violent drama.
Some researchers have criticized Bushman's study. John Eighmey, professor and chairman of the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication, argued that the ads were the problem, not the violent shows. He told the Iowa State Daily, “Any time you show drama against boredom, you're going to find a difference. I'm not surprised that violence would win against Wisk.”
Bushman hopes to test that hypothesis in a new study, mixing-and-matching boring and exciting ads with violent and nonviolent shows.
But pending that additional research, Bushman offers what he sees as the reason behind his results. “Viewing violence triggers aggressive thoughts,” he told the Register. “People in a bad mood usually try to improve their mood, and it takes a lot of effort and energy to improve a bad mood.”
That energy is taken from other mental tasks like memory. Bushman added, “If people are thinking about other things they're less likely to think about the commercial messages.”
A Smack for Smackdown
Some companies that advertise on violent shows say that they have little control over where their ads go. The Subway sandwich shop chain, for example, stated in a letter concerning their ads on “WWF Smackdown!” that, “We as advertisers do not always know the content of a program before it airs. For this and other reasons, the American Association of Advertising Agencies encourages individuals to voice their concerns directly to the networks or local stations, rather than to the advertisers.”
But Bushman said that a few advertisers had contacted him about his research, and one had even decided to pull its ads from violent programs as a result of his study.
For Bushman, an advertiser's decision to buy airtime only on non-violent programs is the right decision morally as well as financially. “Viewing violence increases aggression in society,” he said.
Papa John's pizza company agrees. Papa John's, like many national advertisers, yanked their ads from “WWF Smackdown!” after they were alerted to its violent content, which includes wrestlers wrapping each other in barbed wire. “Smackdown!” also trades in crass and sexually explicit fare — one episode, for example, showed a topless woman barely covering herself with dollar bills.
Those images prompted both Papa John's and Domino's Pizza to pull their ads. Syl Sosnowski, vice president of marketing for Papa John's, said, “We view ourselves as a wholesome product aimed for the family. We avoid any kind of programming that is outright violent, [that has] gratuitous sexual content or the liberal use of profanity and vulgarity.”
Sosnowski said that Papa John's didn't make its decision based on consumer pressure or financial concerns.
In fact, he noted, “We received lots of negative e-mails” from “Smackdown!” fans. “This is about our brand image, what we stand for,” he said.
According to Prof. Bushman, it's also smart business.
Bushman plans to broaden his research by looking at the effects of sexually explicit programs on memory. He also wants to “focus more on why the effects occur, what people are thinking as they're watching.”
Bushman said, “I love to challenge prevalent beliefs that may be false, such as the belief that violence sells.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 05/20/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: May 20-26, 2001 ----- BODY:Hitler in Heaven?
THE OTTAWA CITIZEN, May 1 — An upcoming film asks whether the men who commit the greatest evils are beyond redemption, the Ottawa daily reported.
Michael Moriarty, best known as the former star of the hit show “Law and Order,” wrote the script and starred in “Hitler Meets Christ,” the story of two mentally ill, homeless men. One man believes he is Hitler; the other believes he is Christ.
The Ottawa Citizen sought guidance in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, noting that the Catechism states, “God predestines no one to go to hell” and that “we must entrust judgment of persons to the justice and mercy of God.”
More Latinos Leaving Church
LOS ANGELES TIMES, May 6 — With each generation, more Latinos leave the Catholic Church for Protestant denominations, the Los Angeles daily reported.
A new survey found that only 18% of first-generation Latino Americans are Protestant, but that number jumps to 33% for third-generation Latinos. Overall, 70% of America's Latinos are Catholic and 22% are Protestant.
Latino Protestants tend to agree with Catholic views on abortion, to oppose the death penalty, and to favor immigration.
Why a Rabbi Thanked a Euthanasia Advocate
JEWISH WORLD REVIEW, May 2 — Everything Princeton philosopher Peter Singer teaches goes against the teachings of Rabbi Avi Shafran's faith, the rabbi wrote in the online magazine.
So why is he blessing Singer's soul?
Singer advocates killing severely handicapped infants and elderly people, and believes that since humans are just animals, they can ethically engage in practices like abortion and even bestiality.
Singer performed a service by showing “the sort of interesting places to which societal rejection of the concept of ‘morality’ must inexorably lead,” Rabbi Shafran wrote. He said that Singer's most outrageous calls for euthanasia and bestiality are just logical extensions of the principles used to justify abortion, assisted suicide, homosexual relationships and adultery.
Dorothy Day's House Razed
VILLAGE VOICE, May 8 — A developer with ties to New York's Republican establishment won the right to demolish the Staten Island cottage of Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement, the New York weekly reported.
Day, whose cause for sainthood is under consideration by the Vatican, lived in the cottage for most of her final decade before her death in 1980. The Catholic convert started a nationwide chain of 120 homes and farms to serve the poor.
For over three years, supporters have tried to get the cottage designated a historic landmark. But developer John Discala bought the land and razed the cottage.
Discala, his family and his business partners are major donors to New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, New York Gov. George Pataki, Staten Island Congressman Vito Fossella and Staten Island Borough President Guy Molinari. The Voice speculated that their support might have allowed Discala to get his demolition permit.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Husband Seeks to End Life of Brain-Damaged Wife DATE: 05/20/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: May 20-26, 2001 ----- BODY:PINELLAS PARK, Fla. — When Terri Schiavo collapsed one winter day in 1990, no one could have predicted that her medical condition would divide St. Petersburg's Catholic community more than a decade later.
Schiavo, now 37, has been in a state of diminished consciousness since her heart attack 11 years ago, when she lost the flow of oxygen to the brain for five minutes. She receives nutrients and water through a tube.
Doctors believe she could live many more years.
Her parents, some doctors, and a priest who visits her regularly say that she smiles, laughs and cries when they visit.
But others charge that her movements are only reflexes, and in late April the office of Bishop Robert Lynch of St. Petersburg declined to criticize a decision to withdraw her feeding tube.
For 60 hours in late April, doctors withheld food and water from Schiavo due to a court order granted to her husband, Michael Schiavo. The withdrawal occurred April 24, one day after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of that court order.
Then, before Terri could die of starvation, new evidence emerged that Terri's parents say proves that Michael perjured himself in the hearings that led up to the feeding tube's withdrawal.
In the face of that evidence, the judge who had ordered Terri's feeding tube withdrawn reversed his decision on April 26, so she is now receiving food.
According to Terri's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, trouble began when Terri was awarded $700,000 in 1993 from a malpractice suit. “Within eight months of receiving that money, [Michael Schiavo] made an attempt to end her life by asking [her doctors] not to give her antibiotics” for a life-threatening infection,” Bob Schindler charged.
Michael Schiavo denied that accusation and charged that the Schindlers themselves hoped to obtain the settlement money, which is in a trust fund, by being named Terri's guardians, the St. Petersburg Times reported in a Jan. 2000 article.
In May 1998, Michael Schiavo first requested that Terri's feeding be stopped. Two years later, on Feb. 11, 2000, a judge granted that request.
The judge's decision was based in part on Michael Schiavo's claim that before her heart attack, Terri told him that she would not want to live on life support. “She said, ‘No tubes for me,’ that kind of thing,” Schiavo's attorney, George Felos, told the Miami Herald.
Terri's parents claim that Schiavo's former girlfriend has now come forward with a story contradicting Schiavo's statement.
Joe Magri, the Schindlers’ attorney, said that the girlfriend had told investigators, “On two separate occasions [the girlfriend] indicated that she had concerns about the future and what Schiavo was going to do about Terri's situation. [She] mentioned that Schiavo became angry and said, quote, ‘How the hell should I know? We [Michael and Terri Schiavo] never spoke about this!’”
When to Let Go?
Dr. Lofty Basta, a St. Petersburg cardiologist, said that Terri's parents needed to realize that it is time to let go.
Although he had not examined Terri Schiavo, he said, “After three months of a cardiac arrest, if there is no measurable improvement in high brain function, the chance of any measurable improvement is less than 1%.
“She has been unconscious for 11 years. So she has become permanently and irretrievably void of all that characterizes a human being: emotion, will, passion, and awareness.”
Basta, a Coptic Orthodox Christian, asked, “Is this life when it is totally void of all characteristics that defined that person as a person?”
Basta said, “A mindless existence sustained only through feats of high-tech intervention is not what medicine should be all about.”
Jana Carpenter, a nurse and the secretary of a Florida pro-life group, responded:
“The intent here is to end some-one's life who is not dying. If we withheld food from you for two weeks, you'd die too.”
Medical ethicist Wesley J. Smith noted, “This case is another in a series of cases where we will decide whether it is acceptable to dehydrate to death somebody because they have a cognitive disability.”
And while he agreed with Basta that “there are times when one should let go,” he cautioned, “Food and water is not a high-tech invasive procedure.”
Added Smith, “Often these diagnoses of permanent unconsciousness are erroneous. People in permanent comas wake up all the time.”
Catholic Responses
The Schindlers, practicing Catholics, said that their daughter had also practiced the faith. The Schindlers tried unsuccessfully to get the Diocese of St. Petersburg to weigh in on their side.
The day before Terri Schiavo's feeding tube was withdrawn, the office of Bishop Robert Lynch of St. Petersburg issued a statement that did not assert that it was necessary to continue providing her with sustenance.
Although the statement noted, “Classic Roman Catholic theology suggests that the removal of food and water from even a comatose patient can only be justified if the natural projected path of the disease will lead inevitably to death, sooner rather than later,” it also stated, “The Catholic Church would prefer to see all parties take the safer path but it must and will refrain from characterizing the actions of anyone in this tragic moment.”
Critics of the bishop's statement point out that Terri has no diseases and could live for years in her current condition.
Said pro-life spokeswoman Jana Carpenter, “The Catholic community at large is confused as to the Church's teaching. What has been most distressing is that Terri's case could have been used to impart the clarity of the Church's belief that everyone deserves food and water.”
In June 2000, St. Louis Archbishop Justin Rigali made a statement clarifying the Church's position on medical care, during a similar controversy over a brain-damaged patient in a St. Louis Catholic hospital.
Archbishop Rigali quoted Pope John Paul II from his Oct. 2, 1998, ad limina address to the bishops of California, Nevada, and Hawaii.
Said Pope John Paul II, “[T]he presumption should be in favor of providing medically assisted nutrition and hydration to all patients who need them.”
The Pope added that “feeding, hydration, and normal medical care” are “ordinary means of preserving life,” not “burdensome” or “disproportionate.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Court Rules Fetus a ‘Person’ DATE: 05/20/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: May 20-26, 2001 ----- BODY:LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas—Arkansas' Supreme Court ruled May 10 that a fetus is a person in a wrongful-death lawsuit, Associated Press reported.
The case arose from the Dec. 13, 1995, death of Evangeline Aka and her unborn son, following induced labor in a hospital. Her husband claimed the defendants had caused the two deaths through medical negligence by causing the two deaths.
In reversing a lower court ruling that the unborn child could not be named as a person in the lawsuit, the Supreme Court cited a 1999 law that amended state law to include a living fetus of 12 weeks gestation in the definition of a person.
Wrote Chief Justice W.H. “Dub” Arnold, “Given this amended definition of ‘person,’ the Legislature plainly affords protection to unborn viable fetuses.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Drogin ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Catholic, Orthodox and Muslim Youth Cheer Pope in Damascus DATE: 05/20/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: May 20-26, 2001 ----- BODY:DAMASCUS, Syria — Pope John Paul II was able to fulfill two out of three of his pilgrimage goals in the Jubilee year.
He followed in the footsteps of the Old Testament prophets and Jesus in the Holy Land, but not in St. Paul's footsteps in Syria…until now.
Whereas religious discord prevented Pope John Paul II from making a Jubilee pilgrimage to all the places he wanted to last year, what he found in Damascus this early May was religious harmony.
“Here…sacred history can be read like an open book in the countryside,” said the Holy Father at Damascus.
Also sacred unity.
“I think Damascus must be the most ecumenical city in the world,” said Marah (Joy) Haddad, a Lebanese Orthodox on hand to see the Pope.
One of the great signs of this togetherness was the expressed desire from both Orthodox and Catholics on several occasions during the Pope's trip to celebrate Easter together.
“Our patriarch declared today that we want to have Easter together forever,” said Nemer Haddad to the Register, a Greek Orthodox and the president of the Legion of Mary in Syria who attended the youth meeting at the Greek Catholic Cathedral on the last night on the trip.
In a stark contrast to how the Holy Father was received in Greece, Nemer added, “The patriarch promised and it's not just talk. So maybe it will happen next year, at least for Syria and then with some steps the other countries will join us.”
Bassel Aris is the leader of the Scouts in Syria, a Catholic version of the Boy Scouts. A Melkite-rite Catholic, Aris comes from a mixed Orthodox-Catholic family. Many Orthodox are also members of his troop.
Aris, who presented John Paul with an icon of the Lady of Damascus at a stadium Mass, told the Register, “We people don't have any problem with having Easter together. The problem is with some of [the clergy and elders]. We would like to have the same Easter and it's a shame that usually we celebrate Easter first and then they do.”
Although the primary intention of the Holy Father's trip was to make a pilgrimage in the steps of St. Paul, it also served to highlight for the world an example of the way Christians and Muslims live together in peace every day in Syria.
“As a Muslim, the Pope's trip means a lot to me because many of his events are to show brotherhood between Christians and Muslims,” said Ramez Mawas.
Mawas, 24, attended the youth event and said, “It doesn't matter here socially what religion you are, but what matters is how you deal with other people. The Pope's witness increases my faith in the God of Abraham…There's something special about him for sure.”
When asked how Muslims view the Pope's trip to Syria, the first papal visit ever to a largely Islamic country, he said, “I have heard no one say anything negative about Pope John Paul; on the contrary everybody is excited and eager to see him.”
Peace Path
Besides showcasing the way Christians and Muslims can coexist, many people in Syria also hope the Pope's trip will help bring about a real and lasting peace in the Middle East.
The highpoint in this mission was when the Holy Father went to the Syrian part of the Golan Heights to pray for peace.
“It's a historic event that is very important for Syria and very important for the Middle East,” said Msgr. Denis Madden, vice president of a New York-based Catholic humanitarian and pastoral agency that helps Middle East countries.
“When the Holy Father said the prayer, planted the olive tree for peace and looked across the Golan Heights, I just had the feeling that he was trying to tell all the parties involved,” Msgr. Madden added, “that now it's time to begin to rebuild in a real genuine way this whole peace.”
Syria has left the destroyed city, Quneitra, unrestored after the 1967 bombing by Israel. It is meant to be a showcase for the world.
This rebuilding process can begin with further unity among Christians, reported Aid to the Church in Need. It's a path of working for peace much different than the diplomatic process between political leaders — which is nonetheless important, but a field the Pope avoided completely during his pilgrimage.
An ecumenical encouter at the Orthodox Church on the Pope's first night in Damascus was the Pope's first ceremony inside the city after he was officially welcomed at the airport.
The Orthodox present cheered wildly for the Pope, an emotion-filled event that showcased the enthusiastic response he has gotten in the area.
Father Malathius, a Greek Orthodox told the Register, “We pray and hope that all the Christians in Syria will be one and that will give us strength.”
The Christians hope that this strength will help in a country so important for the Middle East peace process.
After the youth meeting at the Greek Catholic Cathedral, Patriarch Gregory III said, “I thank all the people who made the Pope's trip possible, his most important visit in the Middle East.”
Thousands of Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant youth partied long after the Pope and almost all of the media had left the ceremony at the cathedral.
The Patriarch was carried through the crowd and hoisted up onto the shoulders of his escorts, before making his way to the stage in the courtyard in front of the Church of the Dormition of Mary.
He said to the ecstatic young people, “Pope John Paul goes on for us while being sick and old, and that's very important. I challenge every young person in Syria to discover the powers of love and faith. I wish that the Pope comes again.”
And indeed many of the Christians in Damascus expressed the same hopes, that the Pope would come again to Syria very soon.
The small Greek Catholic patriarchy, just off the “street called straight,” where St. Paul walked, sits in the heart of Damascus’ Christian Quarter.
Although, a minority in the country, the Christians stick closely together.
Nemer of the Legion of Mary summed up the Pope's farewell celebration of peace and brotherhood at the Catholic patriarchy, “The Pope is here shedding light on ‘the way,’ as the Christians here in the time of St. Paul were called.”
The Pope himself gave his own gloss on what — and who — might be behind the trip's success.
“The Lord meets everyone on their journey, often in a mysterious and unexpected way, just as he met Paul on the road to Damascus, surrounding him with his brilliant light.”
John Drogin, based in Rome, filed this report from Damascus.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Drogin ----- KEYWORD: Vatican -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 05/20/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: May 20-26, 2001 ----- BODY:On Orthodox Who Didain the Pope
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, May 8–In an article for the Journal, columnist Rod Dreher of the New York Post lamented Greek Orthodox disdain for Pope John Paul II, saying the real enemies of God today are not fellow Christians but Hollywood, and the “functional nihilism” spawned by consumerism.
“It is said that the Greek Orthodox regard John Paul as a symbol of the Westernization they despise,” Dreher wrote. “Who are they kidding? The Pontiff who was the scourge of the militant atheist ideology that made martyrs of millions of Orthodox believers is the same man who is the fiercest enemy of the secular Western juggernaut. Have the Orthodox been paying attention for the past two decades? Do they read this stuff?”
Added Dreher: “By the time the Orthodox awaken from their self-satisfaction and grasp the true nature of the spiritual and moral crisis engulfing their respective cultures, what will they do to fight it? Perhaps they will consult Veritatis Splendor and Evangelium Vitae, as well as other prophetic writings of John Paul II.…Too late, it may dawn on the Orthodox religious authorities what kind of wise and holy man they, in their narrow-mindedness and pride, rejected out of hand. Tragic? Yes. But in the Gospels, you'll find precedent for this sort of thing.”
Nearly Half of Ukrainians Support Visit
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, May 4 — Nearly half of Ukrainians support next month's visit by Pope John Paul II, despite the staunch opposition of the Russian Orthodox Church, the dominant faith in this ex-Soviet republic, the news agency reported.
Twenty-three percent of Ukrainians are “very favorable” to the June 23-27 visit and 21% “broadly favorable,” a May opinion poll published showed.
Only 4% of the 1,200 people interviewed by the Socis polling organization declared themselves “broadly opposed” or “completely opposed.”
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Alexy II, has several times expressed his opposition to the Pope's trip, accusing the Catholic Church of proselytism in a part of the world that is traditionally Orthodox.
Armenia: Fall Stop on the Pope's Unity Tour
ASSOCIATED PRESS, May 8–Pope John Paul II is to visit Armenia in September to take part in celebrations of the 1,700th anniversary of Christianity as the national religion, the Armenian Apostolic Church told the news service.
The visit will take place Sept. 25, officials of the commission coordinating the celebration at Etchmiadzin, the church's seat, said.
The Armenian church separated from the Byzantine church centuries before the schism of 1054 divided most of Christendom between the Eastern Orthodox and the Roman Catholics. The Armenian and Roman Catholic churches in recent years have made efforts to move closer together and Pope John Paul II met last year with the Armenian church's leader, Catholicos Garegin II.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Vatican -------- TITLE: Every Believer Should Be a Missionary, Pope Says DATE: 05/20/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: May 20-26, 2001 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — All Christians, and not just those who take vows, should become a missionary, John Paul II said.
“Jesus calls us and sends us as he did with the apostles,” the Pope told more than 100 national directors of pontifical missionary works meeting in Rome May 3-11.
God does not choose missionaries “on the basis of our merits or our works; rather, he supports us and fortifies us with his Spirit,” the Pope told the directors during a May 11 audience at the Vatican.
“Only ‘armed’ with his grace can we bring the good news to the ends of the earth. Difficulties and obstacles will not stop us because the heavenly Father's love for all humanity will be our continuing support,” the Pope said.
Pope John Paul said the pontifical missionary works, which include the Holy Childhood Association and the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, must inspire more Catholics to dedicate their lives to the missions.
The “invincible passion for Christ” which hundreds of missionaries have demonstrated to the point of risking and losing their lives is “a unique and eloquent witness for men and women of our age,” he said.
Cardinal Jozef Tomko, the recently retired prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, earlier told the directors that the number of lands and peoples in need of evangelization is growing, not shrinking.
“Today, out of 6.1 billion people in the world, Christians are only 2 billion and Catholics just over 1 billion,” he said. “But the non-Christian population is growing more than the Christian population is today.”
In addition, he said, countries once solidly Christian are not only welcoming a growing number of non-Christian immigrants, their populations are becoming “paganized in a frightening way.”
“This is why the Pope talks about ‘new evangelization,’ which should be understood in this way: new energy, new methods, a new commitment to vocations and a greater Christian animation of families,” he said.
Msgr. Bernard A. Prince, secretary-general of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, said the number of requests for help from Catholics in missionary territories continues to outpace the collection from Mission Sunday and other donations.
Although in many poor countries’ donations in local currency increased in 1999, he said, many currencies’ weakness in relation to the dollar meant a decrease of $4.3 million available for distribution in 2000.
Still, he said, the society was able to distribute almost $122 million in 2000, most of which was used for “pastoral projects in the strict sense,” including training and support of catechists, building Churches and chapels and providing pastoral services.
The society also supports retired bishops in missionary territories and helps offset the costs of running Vatican embassies in those nations, he said.
(From combined wire service reports)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Guatemalan Bishop's Murder Remains Shrouded in Mystery DATE: 05/20/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: May 20-26, 2001 ----- BODY:GUATEMALA CITY — May 3 was a key day in the protracted Guatemalan trial of the alleged murderers of Auxiliary Bishop Juan Gerardi Conedera. For the first time since the Spanish-born bishop was murdered on April 26, 1998, one of the five accused, Father Mario Orantes Najera, finally made his deposition.
Oddly, the seats of the large courtroom were almost empty of journalists. For most of them, as for the general public, the Bishop Gerardi saga has continued too long and the passage of time seems only to confuse matters further.
On Jan. 20, 2000, the newly elected president of Guatemala, Alfonso Portillo, announced he would personally pursue the murder investigation until the case was resolved.
Initially, the president's promises bore some fruit. Upon the request of prosecutor Leopoldo Zeissig, the Guatemalan police arrested retired Army Col. Byron Disrael Lima Estrada, his son, Capt. Byron Lima Oliva, and Sgt. Obdulio Villanueva as suspects.
Zeissig also ordered the arrest of Margarita Lopez, the bishop's cook, and demanded Father Orantes, who lived with Bishop Gerardi at the residence where he was murdered, to return from the United States to stand trial or face extradition proceedings.
The following month, at the Guatemalan bishops’ conference's request, Father Orantes returned from self-imposed exile in Dallas and was arrested in a hospital, after alleging health problems.
But from that moment on, investigations have led only to dead ends.
The Human Rights Office of the Archdiocese of Guatemala, known as ODHA, claims Gerardi was murdered by the military for issuing a report two days before his death blaming the army for 90% of the human-rights violations committed during Guatemala's bloody, 30-year-long civil war. Zeissig agrees with that theory, telling the trial judges that Bishop Gerardi's report “directly caused his death.”
But when the trial finally began on March 23, nearly three years after the murder, contradictory testimony abounded.
Since the prosecution has no witness who actually saw the killing, Zeissig must rely on evidence found at the crime scene, as well as testimonies from homeless people who slept in a park in front of the parish residence, located just a block away from the presidential palace. All those providing such evidence have left the country after being attacked or threatened, but some of their testimony has been presented in written form.
According to the prosecution, Villanueva and Lima Oliva killed Bishop Gerardi with a concrete block, with the complicity of Father Orantes and under the orders of Lima Estrada, who allegedly directed the killing from a nearby bar through a cellular phone.
Bishop Mario Rios Montt, auxiliary bishop of Guatemala City and Bishop Gerardi's successor as head of the archdiocesan human-rights commission, took the stand in late March to support the prosecutor's theory. He also sparked controversy by saying the brother of Alvaro Arzú, Guatemala's president at the time of the murder, had offered him a “deal” regarding the prosecution of Father Orantes (see accompanying story).
Father Orantes’ May 3 deposition, transmitted on a videotape, contributed very little to clear up matters. Orantes testified that at 7:15 p.m. on April 26, 1998 — the time the killing is believed to have occurred — he was working on his computer. At around 10:30 p.m., the priest said, he turned on the TV and fell asleep.
He also said that when he saw Bishop Gerardi murdered at the front porch, he could not recognize him. “You don't see a corpse every day, and I was shocked,” he added.
To make his case against Father Orantes and the other defendants, Zeissig must overcome numerous obstacles. For example, Obdulio Villanueva, one of the accused military men, was in jail for another crime until two days after the bishop was murdered. ODHA notes that many jailed soldiers receive special privileges that might have included a temporary release, but cannot prove that was the case with Villanueva.
Moreover, blood samples collected at the crime scene and analyzed at the FBI's headquarters in Quantico, Va., contain a mixture of blood from Father Orantes, a homeless man who was the first suspect arrested in the crime and later released, and a former drug dealer.
Zeissig will also have to answer other puzzling questions:
lWhy Bishop Gerardi was murdered with a piece of concrete instead of a more efficient weapon?
lWas the blood of the bishop mixed with Father Orantes’ blood and that of the homeless man?
lWhy were the blood samples found by the FBI in a carpet at the second floor of the bishop's rectory?
Whatever the eventual resolution of the case, Guatemalan commentators say that Bishop Gerardi's death has already brought a significant consequence: the lesson that there cannot be “untouchables” — like the military, until recently — in Guatemala's legal and political systems.
“Who really killed Bishop Gerardi cannot be said yet,” said Archbishop Próspero Penados del Barrio of Guatemala City at a press conference in early May. “Nevertheless, his murder will not be fruitless. We will work to make it a cause to bring justice and reconciliation to Guatemala.”
Alejandro Bermúdez is based in Lima, Peru.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Alejandro Bermudez ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Businessman Defends His Name DATE: 05/20/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: May 20-26, 2001 ----- BODY:A Guatemalan businessman objects to his name being brought up in the trial over Bishop Gerardi's murder and wants to clear his reputation.
Bishop Marion Rios Montt, auxiliary bishop of Guatemala City, alleged in court testimony in late March that Jose Antonio Arzú, brother of then president Edward Arzú, offered him a “deal” after the April 1998 killing of Bishop Juan Gerardi Conedera.
According to Bishop Rios Montt, Arzú said the government would not prosecute Father Mario Orantes Najera for any involvement in the case if the Church signed a statement absolving the military from any responsibility for the murder.
Contacted by the Register, Arzú strongly denied the bishop's allegation that he proposed a deal. Instead, Arzú said, he was contacted by Msgr. Efraín Hernández, chancellor of the Curia, through a common friend, Father Danilo Sanchinelli, with a request that he meet with Bishop Rios Montt.
“The bishop told me they were deeply concerned about the situation of Father Orantes and asked me if I could help in any way to get him out of that situation,” Arzú told the Register. “I told them that the only way to take him out of the problem was by making him tell what he saw, but they told me they had thoroughly questioned him, without any fruit.”
The businessman's account is supported by written legal testimony from Father Sanchinelli, confirming that the meeting with Bishop Rios Montt was held upon the request of Msgr. Hernández.
According to Father Sanchinelli's statement, Msgr. Hernández contacted him about two years ago, expressing concern about the Church's connection with the Gerardi investigation and urgently requesting help in contacting President Arzú or a member of his family.
Father Sanchinelli stated that he arranged a meeting the next day with Jose Antonio Arzú, a personal friend, and that Bishop Rios Montt also attended the meeting. “I wish to certify that it was Msgr. Efrain Hernández Valle who proposed and organized the meeting and not Mr. Jose Antonio Arzú,” Father Sanchinelli stated.
Contacted by the Register, Bishop Rios Montt emphatically reaffirmed his court testimony. “If Mr. Arzú was talking on his behalf, on the government's, or the military's, I don't know, but the proposal was definitely made,” he said.
When asked about Father Sanchinelli's written testimony, the bishop said “it has no value.” “How the meeting took place is a matter of Msgr. Hernández and I don't care. At the end, it is his [Arzú's] word against mine and I am ready to go to court if necessary,” said the bishop, who is the brother of former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt.
Arzú expressed disappointment at having been implicated in the Bishop Gerardi case. Said Arzú, “My family is Catholic, but sometimes we feel disappointed by the political bias some Church personalities take.”
— Alejandro Bermúdez
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 05/20/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: May 20-26, 2001 ----- BODY:Rwandan Nuns Deny Genocide Charges
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, May 4–Two nuns accused of crimes against humanity in the 1994 Rwandan genocide that claimed 800,000 lives testified in a Belgian court that they had done everything in their power to protect hunted Tutsis who sought refuge in their monastery, the news agency reported.
The nuns, Sister Consolata Mukangango and Sister Julienne Mukabutera, have pleaded innocent to charges of “serious violations of international humanitarian rights” in the landmark trial. Both are now Belgian residents.
“We did everything we could, not ostentatiously but discreetly, to avoid the worst,” said Sister Mukangango, in testimony repeated by Sister Mukabutera.
The nuns, located at the time in Sovu in southern Rwanda, are accused of having turned over to Hutu militia some 5,000 to 7,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus who had sought shelter in their convent, where Sister Mukangango was mother superior.
Ugandan Cardinal Attacks ‘Gospel of Death’ Promoters
ALL AFRICA.COM, May 7–At a Mass marking the end of a five-day pastoral visit to parishes of his archdiocese, Archbishop Cardinal Emmanuel Wamala of Kampala called Westerners who promote abortion and contraception in his country of Uganda “enemies of the Church.”
“I would like to show you areas that the enemy has attacked,” Cardinal Wamala said. “The enemy has attacked three fronts. It has attacked health where the gospel of death is being preached. Abortion and contraceptives are preached daily. The clinics doing this are here. You know them and they all speak the same language…sensitization seminars with catchy names like ‘reproductive heath,’ ‘family planning,’ ‘safe motherhood’ and others have been organized for you. These words are very persuasive but what is contained inside is the gospel of death.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Vatican II on the Street DATE: 05/20/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: May 20-26, 2001 ----- BODY:The Church's new principles of translation are “the latest expression” of the Second Vatican Council, said Father James Maroney of the U.S. Bishops Conference.
He has a good point.
Pope John Paul II's pontificate has been nothing more or less than Vatican II in action. His decisions, thoughts and words have been so shaped by Vatican II that he has changed the dynamic of Church dissent. Dissenters used to cite “the spirit of Vatican II” as their justification.
Now, it's increasingly clear that dissenting Catholics are dissenters from Vatican II above all else.
John Paul became Pope at a time when Catholics were factionalizing, dissent was “in” and it was anyone's guess what would happen to the Church in the future.
By creatively applying the council teachings, by preaching the council's message in visits to the faithful around the world and by his refusal to treat wayward Church leaders harshly, he pulled the rug out from under the feet of dissenters.
Don't get us wrong; there are still plenty of dissenting Catholic leaders. But now, the energy and life of the Church is in the young people who flock to diocesan reconciliation events, eucharistic adoration and papal World Youth Days.
And today, we see all around us the springtime of the lay apostolate: apologetics tape series, the conferences and retreats in the Register's “New Evangelization Events” calendar each month, Catholic credit card and phone companies, Catholic media efforts, Internet Web sites, new ways of serving the poor, the ecclesial movements, a high level of service to post-abortive women, and on and on.
In other words, we see the principles and prescriptions of Vatican II flowering and filling the Catholic world.
Authentic Liturgy (Liturgiam Authenticam), the May 7 document on translation principles that the Holy Father ordered, is just the most recent example. The document does nothing new. It merely implements the principles that Vatican II provided for the vernacular Mass.
That means that to object to it one must object to the Second Vatican Council itself.
It's the same with so many other masterworks of John Paul's pontificate: the Christ-centered ecclesiology of Dominus Iesus, the moral vision of Veritatis Splendor and the understanding of human sexuality in Familiaris Consortio all reiterate — and extensively quote — the council's thought on the Church, moral theology and hot-button issues like contraception.
Nonetheless it would be a mistake to think of the Holy Father as the man who rescued the council from misinterpretation or obscurity.
The reverse is more like it. The Pope didn't have to save the Church from the aftermath of the council so much as he had to implement the council to re-invigorate the Church in a messy century.
Vatican II's great project was to recover the sources of Christian life and apply them to the needs of our present age. What the Holy Father showed us is that enduring Christian truths are the best — and only — answer to the problems of man today.
John Paul's great accomplishment has been to unite the Church behind a council too many were dissenting from — in its theological, moral and liturgical teachings.
The Holy Father is always, of course, the visible sign of the Church's unity. But the present Pope has been so in a special way.
“Things fall apart,” wrote William Butler Yeats, “The center cannot hold.” By the grace of the Holy Spirit, who was the real “spirit of Vatican II” all along, John Paul II has proved him wrong.
----- EXCERPT: EDITORIAL ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Opinion -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 05/20/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: May 20-26, 2001 ----- BODY:Priest Answers Chinese Bishop
Because the Zenit news service article on Chinese Patriotic Association Bishop Jin Luxian (“Chinese Patriotic Bishop: ‘We're With the Pope in Faith,’” May 6-12) is misleading, the following facts are submitted to set the record straight.
The article states that Jin “was educated by the Jesuits in Italy in the 1940s.” It is more accurate to state that Jin in the late ‘40s was more than a Jesuit student. He was, in fact, a Jesuit priest. Jin Luxian was born in Shanghai in 1916, entered the Jesuit order in 1938, and ordained a Jesuit priest in 1945. After studying in Europe, he returned to Shanghai in 1950. In Shanghai, he served as a faithful collaborator of Bishop Ignatius Kung of Shanghai. He was appointed by Bishop Kung as rector of the local seminary.
Foreseeing what would happen to the Catholic Church under the communist leadership of Chairman Mao, Bishop Kung in 1954 led all his priests and seminarians to Sheshan Basilica for prayer. The bishop, along with all priests and seminarians, including Father Jin, took an oath before a statue of the Blessed Lady of Sheshan never to do anything to compromise their Catholic faith.
The next year Bishop Kung and Father Jin were among those arrested and imprisoned, and efforts were made for each of them to defect from the Catholic Church and join the puppet Catholic Church, which is now known as the Catholic Patriotic Association. Bishop Kung was unwilling to defect and was eventually given a life sentence. Father Jin was more pliable, however.
Father Ladany's book The Catholic Church in China made the following reference to Father Jin Luxian: “Several families suffered because of his confessions ...The court verdict stated that he was given only 18 years because, while in jail, he was willing to reveal the ‘crimes’ of others.” Because of Jin's collaboration, he earned the communists’ trust and became head of a scientific translation bureau under the government's Ministry of Security. Eventually, to reward him for his cooperation with the communist regime, he was consecrated auxiliary bishop of the Patriotic Association, under the now government-controlled Diocese of Shanghai. Later, when the Patriotic Association ordinary of the Diocese of Shanghai died in 1988, Bishop Jin succeeded him.
By accepting Episcopal consecration without a papal mandate, he incurred automatic excommunication from the Catholic Church, and his schism became now full-blown. Bishop Jin apparently finds that his defection is merely a problem with ecclesiastical law which is, according to him, “man-made.” During his time as a bishop of the state approved church, he wrote to all the bishops of the U.S. soliciting and receiving funds of the “Catholic Church in China.” He toured the U.S. several times and was well received by several U.S. bishops and other church authorities including his Jesuit confreres.
Bishop Jin's view of the Catholic Church is that the pope is merely the bishop of the Diocese of Rome and that each other diocese is independent from the jurisdiction of the Roman pontiff. In his view, the Catholic Church is not governed by the Roman pontiff, in contradiction from what the First Vatican Council clearly taught. According to him, mirroring the communist line, the pope is merely a spiritual leader with no authority over any other diocese beyond Rome.
On Nov. 16, 1987, Cardinal Jaime Sin of Manila visited China and was feted at a state banquet. Also present was the prisoner Bishop Kung, then under house arrest. The cardinal was not allowed to speak directly with Bishop Kung. When, to liven things up in a very tense situation, each person present was invited to sing a song of his own choice. Bishop Kung, to let Cardinal Sin know that he was still loyal to the Holy See, sang the familiar hymn “Tu es Petrus.” After that, Jin, who was also present, remarked to Bishop Kung: “What are you trying to do, show your position?” Bishop Kung quietly replied: “It is not necessary to show my position. My position has never changed.”
At this time Bishop Kung's life sentence had been commuted to ten years of house arrest. Keeping guard over Bishop Kung as his official jailer was none other than Bishop Jin Lusian, now no longer a faithful helper of the true bishop of Shanghai, Ignatius Kung, but instead a faithful collaborator of the communist government of China.
As is well known, Bishop Kung, while still in a communist prison, was named a cardinal in secret in 1979. Later, when he was freed and living in the U.S., he was publicly proclaimed a cardinal in the consistory of 1991. When he received the cardinal's insignia, the ovation he received last seven minutes. In March, 2000, Ignatius Cardinal Kung died a faithful priest for 70 years, a bishop for 50 years and a cardinal for 20 years. In him are fulfilled the words of the Gospel: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”
FATHER RAYMOND V. DUNN, S.J. Boston
The writer is a member of the board of directors of the Cardinal Kung Foundation.
The Register Goes Semi-Cyber
I've had the pleasure of being a subscriber for several years. On occassion (actually, quite often!) I find an article I'd like to pass on to a friend. An example is the Vatican News article on Lucienne Salle in your April 15-21 edition. I'd like to be able to find this article online and pass it to a friend. Do you “archive” past editions so that this could be done? Please let me know. Thanks for all you do. It is appreciated!
TOM CANEFF Burnsville, Minnesota
I was thrilled when I read the article about Michael Lambert in the May 6-12 issue of your wonderful paper (“The Hand of Mary: A Marine's Encounter in a Bloody Battle”). Several months ago I met a former U.S. Marine who could relate a story to you that I think you would be also be very interested to publish.
His name is Rocco Nasiatka. He works for the Groton Utilities Department in the water-treatment plant in Groton, Connecticut. I met Rocco when I took a water sample to be tested at the lab where he is employed as a porter. He enlisted in the U.S. Marines at age 17, and he was in combat in Vietnam at 18. He said he was raised as a Catholic, but his faith was weak. In the Marines he stopped going to church. He related to me how he lived like an “animal” for months and that his only thought was day-to-day survival. He said he even scoffed at Catholics who wore rosaries or scapulars around their necks, thinking that it would not do them any good.
He was assigned to an M-60 machine gun, a weapon with which he had had no prior training. He was lying prone on the ground exchanging gunfire with Viet Cong soldiers when he was hit in both hands, sustaining especially severe wounds to his left hand. He said the only thing that saved him from being killed was the flak jacket he was wearing. Because of the heavy fighting, it was a full day before a rescue helicopter could evacuate him to a field hospital.
At some point he had a vision of Mary, an experience he related in a way that captivated and fascinated me. Although the doctors told him that he would be permanently disabled, he now uses the hands that were so badly mangled to make exquisitely beautiful rosary beads. He has great devotion to Mary and he gave me three sets of the handmade rosaries as a gift. When I left, I thanked him and told him that I was happy to have had the chance to meet him. He replied quietly, “Nothing happens by chance.”
JOHN C. GOODRICH Mystic, Connecticut
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John C. Goodrich ----- KEYWORD: Commentary -------- TITLE: A Landscape With Humans DATE: 05/20/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: May 20-26, 2001 ----- BODY:Saturday was blustery, filled with persistent showers and a low overcast. I saw our weekend plans running into the storm drains. Late at night I awoke, peeked out the bedroom window, and saw stars — a good sign.
The storms were passing and, with them, the winds. Sunday dawned cloudless, the air almost still. It would be ideal weather for our flight into Big Bear City for lunch.
After pre-flighting the motorglider, I settled into the pilot's seat on the left. My friend got in on the right. We flew north from San Diego, skirting Mt. San Gorgonio, the tallest peak in the coastal range.
To the west spread the Los Angeles basin. Despite the rain, it still wore a blanket of smog. To the east, through the Banning Pass, lay Palm Springs and the desert, where the air was clean and the visibility unrestricted. Beneath us the scrub was green, but in a month the green would be replaced with summer's brown.
We left the lowlands and turned northeast up a deep and rapidly rising valley, where pines above and below us wore the previous day's snow.
I pulled back the stick and pushed forward the throttle. The lower slopes fell away, and we crested an 8,000-foot ridge next to Sugarloaf Mountain. Then the nose was pushed down, and we headed into the valley, maneuvering to enter the approach to the airport. On the far side of the ridge we flew over ski runs, great white swaths with lift towers marching up their flanks. The runs were filled with dots. Or so it looked from our vantage point: black dots zigzagging downhill.
The mind makes curious associations.
One moment I was contemplating dots on the ski slope, the next I was thinking about Joseph Cotton and Orson Welles in one of my favorite movies. In The Third Man Cotton played Holly Martins and Welles played Harry Lime. Martins, a writer of hack Westerns, arrived in post-war Vienna, where he had been promised a job by his friend Lime, only to be told that Lime had died in a traffic accident a few days before.
‘Would you really feel any pity if one of those dots stopped moving forever?’
Martins started asking questions and discovered that Lime was still alive and that the accident had been faked in an effort to mislead the authorities. They had been searching for Lime because he was engaged in selling watered-down penicillin on the black market. The adulterated drug had caused the death of many patients, including children.
In the last portion of the movie Martins and Lime finally meet on neutral ground, at the base of the giant Prater Wheel. To talk privately, they get into one of the large cars and are taken slowly upward. The motion stops when they are at the top of the ride, far above the people milling below.
After Martins says that he has told the police that Lime's death was faked and that he is aware of his friend's line of work, Lime peers out the window.
“Look down there,” he says. “Would you really feel any pity if one of those dots stopped moving forever? If I offered you 20,000 pounds for every dot that stopped, would you really, old man, tell me to keep my money? Or would you calculate how many dots you could afford to spend? Free of income tax, old man. Free of income tax. It's the only way to save money nowadays.”
It's one of the most chilling scenes in film. The chill comes not only from Lime's callous disregard of anonymous people whose lives are worth, by his calculus, a few years’ wages each.
The chill comes also from the realization that each of us, watching the film, begins his own mental calculation — and then catches himself, saying, “What in the world am I doing? How can I even think of something like that?” There is a bit of Harry Lime in each of us.
We left the ski runs behind, turned downwind, made our base leg over the lake and rolled out long on the runway. Although it had snowed the day before, we had shirtsleeve weather.
After lunching at the airport café, we took off to the west, gained altitude over the lake, and headed for the dam and the left-hand turn down the valley. To our right was another mountain. More ski runs, more dots.
Each dot was a marvel to watch as it careened downhill and around trees. Dot followed dot, all headed in the same direction but each on its own path, going at its own speed.
Although much too far away to tell for sure, I had no doubt that each dot sported a wide smile and at least a subconscious gratitude to God for the privilege of living on the slopes that day.
Twenty thousand pounds a dot? That's infinitely too little, Mr. Lime. Infinitely too little.
Karl Keating is founding director of Catholic Answers in El Cajon, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Karl Keating ----- KEYWORD: Commentary -------- TITLE: Cardinal Newman's 'Kindly Light' Shines On DATE: 05/20/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: May 20-26, 2001 ----- BODY:In his homily during the most recent consistory for the creation of new cardinals, Pope John Paul II noted that the ceremony fell on the 200th anniversary of the birth of Cardinal John Henry Newman (Feb. 21, 1801), the most important English churchman of the 19th century, and one of the Catholic Church's most celebrated converts.
“The Church has nothing more to do than to go on in her own proper duties, in confidence and peace; to stand still and see the salvation of God,” quoted John Paul from Newman's own speech upon being made a cardinal in 1879.
Newman's long life (1801-1890) was not marked by great peace, as he found himself at the heart of almost every major religious controversy to rattle Victorian England. In retrospect, Newman was controversial in his day because he was ahead of his time. Within a century of his death, he came to be almost universally acclaimed in every part of the Church. So influential was his thought in the 20th century that the 19th century's greatest theologian has been called the guiding spirit of the Second Vatican Council.
The festivities for the bicentenary of Cardinal Newman's birth testify to that acclaim. From his home at the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in Birmingham, England, to other oratories around the world, special events have been held. St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York, for example, held a five-part lecture series on different aspects of his work. For the anniversary itself, a special international gathering of Newman scholars met at the Pontifical Urban University in Rome, where in 1846-47 Newman studied for the priest-hood following his conversion from Anglicanism. The Holy Father penned a special letter to the Archbishop of Birmingham for the occasion, indicating his own hope that Newman's canonization will not be long delayed. And, to further mark the occasion, John Paul selected texts from Cardinal Newman for this year's Good Friday Via Crucis at the Colosseum. (St. Philip Neri's feast day, by the way, is May 26.)
Cardinal Newman's influence is such that entire centers of scholarship are dedicated to research on his life and works. Nevertheless, three characteristics stand out that marked Newman as a man apart from others. Here was a man wholly dedicated to the truth, to God and to the Church.
To Know the Truth
Cardinal Newman was a man committed above all to the truth — to the conviction that it existed and that it could be known with certainty, both by the light of natural reason and by the light of revelation. For his tombstone he composed the epitaph ex umbris et imaginibus in veritatem (out of the shadows and imaginings into the truth).
His commitment to discover the truth and to live in accord with its demands led him to the most difficult decision of his life, that of leaving the Anglican Church to become a Catholic in 1845. At that time in England, becoming Catholic meant surrendering his esteemed position at Oxford for a life of material uncertainty and cultural impoverishment. After his conversion, in a Catholic environment marked by a noticeable lack of intellectual adventurousness, he was severely criticized by those who thought his creative theology to be dangerous. When he was entrusted with the (ultimately failed) project of creating a Catholic university in Dublin, he wrote a vision of the intellectual life, The Idea of a University, which expounded his view that the Church has nothing to fear from honest intellectual inquiry.
Though a first-rate philosopher, Cardinal Newman did not seek an impersonal wisdom that spoke only to the nature of things. Rather, he was a passionate believer in a wisdom that became flesh and blood, a wisdom that was also love. By the age of 15, the young John Newman was already something of an intellectual prodigy and, given the philosophical winds blowing in the 19th century, may well have been tempted to follow the path of purely secular reason. Yet in August of 1916, Newman had his “first conversion,” in which he accepted with his whole person the need for divine revelation to know the truth about himself and the world. Toward the end of his life, Newman still spoke of that conversion to God — which he never fully explained — as if he became a new person: “I should say that it is difficult to realize or imagine the identity of the boy before and after August 1816.…I can look back at the end of 70 years as if on another person.”
Though a first-rate philosopher, Cardinal Newman was a passionate believer in a wisdom that became flesh and blood — a wisdom that was also love.
“The young man, in the fullness of his intellectual pride and self-sufficiency, now becomes aware of something, of some power, which he had dimly guessed at, even when he turned away from it,” wrote Father Louis Bouyer of that conversion. “Something, Someone, stronger and more wise than he, Someone who subdued him to His will, even in the proudest hour of his intellectual self-reliance. To that other Power, the mind, be it never so proudly confident, must needs defer. The very clearness with which he recognizes this is a token that he has already surrendered.”
Newman's passion for truth was a Christian passion from that day forth, namely, that without the revelation of God in Jesus Christ, the deepest of truth of things could not be known.
Seeing Christ in the Church
From his earliest days, Newman was a man of the Church. Indeed, his devotion to the Church was the cause of his becoming Catholic; he could not do otherwise when he concluded that Anglicanism had cut itself off from the Church established by Christ on the foundation of the Apostles. To the end, Newman viewed himself as a humble servant of the Church and when, in the winter of his life, he was made a cardinal by Pope Leo XIII, he counted it as a singular grace to be honored by the Church to which he had given his life.
“I have nothing of that high perfection, which belongs to the writings of the Saints, [namely] that error cannot be found in them,” he said in his speech upon being made a cardinal. “But what I trust that I may claim all through what I have written, is this — an honest intention, an absence of private ends, a temper of obedience, a willingness to be corrected, a dread of error, a desire to serve Holy Church, and, through Divine Mercy, a fair measure of success.”
Cardinal Newman believed that revelation made demands upon the believer, and foremost among them was the obligation to belong to the Church that God had chosen to safeguard the deposit of that revelation. And he defended that cause against what he saw as the great danger of his day — a danger that sounds all too familiar to contemporary ears.
“And I rejoice to say, to one great mischief I have from the first opposed myself. For 30, 40, 50 years I have resisted to the best of my powers the spirit of liberalism in religion,” Newman said in summarizing his career.
“Liberalism in religion is the doctrine that there is no positive truth in religion, but that one creed is as good as another, and this is the teaching which is gaining substance and force daily,” explained Newman.
“It is inconsistent with any recognition of any religion, as true. It teaches that all are to be tolerated, but all are matters of opinion. Revealed religion is not a truth, but a sentiment and taste; not an objective fact; not miraculous: and it is the right of each individual to make it say just what strikes his fancy. Devotion is not necessarily founded on faith. Men may go to Protestant Churches and to Catholic, may get good from both and belong to neither.”
To fighting that error Newman devoted his considerable talent and, if the error is abroad today more than in his own time, so too is the need for his work to be more widely diffused. From the reality of truth, to the revealer of truth, to the necessity of adhering to revealed religion in the Church — such was the path that Newman walked in his long 19th-century life. And at the beginning of the 21st century, he himself has become a “kindly light” for those who seek after the wisdom that is also love.
Raymond J. de Souza is the Register's chief Rome correspondent.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Raymond J. De Souza ----- KEYWORD: Commentary -------- TITLE: They'll Call You a Hypocrite, But Love Virtue Anyway DATE: 05/20/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: May 20-26, 2001 ----- BODY:When Dostoevsky submitted his manuscript of Crime and Punishment for publication, he included a cover letter that gave a brief synopsis of the novel.
In this way, he informed the publisher that his story was about a university student who “had submitted to certain strange, incomplete ideas which float on the wind.” It was an apt description not only of his book, but also of what happens to so many “victims” of higher education who fall prey to the attraction of a less-than-adequate idea.
Such “strange, incomplete ideas” continue to float on the wind and continue to infect the minds of the very university students who pride themselves on being able to “think for themselves.” Ideas of this type are like viruses, but they are more insidious. By entering the mind and influencing one's actions, they can have an adverse effect on the whole person. “If the eye is worthless, the whole body will be in full darkness” (Matthew 6:23; Luke 11:34).
In his new book Standing for Something: 10 Neglected Virtues That Will Heal Our Hearts and Homes (Times Books, 2000), Gordon B. Hinckley provides a poignant account of two university students, deeply infected by one of these “strange, incomplete ideas,” who came to his office with a tale of woe.
The two were engaged and had been looking forward to their wedding day with great anticipation. Now, through tears, they related their sad and unforeseen situation. The girl's untimely pregnancy meant that the couple would get married much sooner than planned, and under considerably less jubilant circumstances. The thought of abortion crossed their minds, but they eventually rejected it. But it would be necessary for them to compromise their education plans.
“We were sold short,” the young man lamented. “We've cheated one another,” sobbed his fiancee. She explained how they submitted to the idea that virtue is hypocrisy. Now they were suffering from the realization that the absence of virtue is not spontaneity and freedom, but misery and regret.
The notion that “virtue is hypocrisy” is a curious one. Surely hypocrisy, the mere pretense of virtue, is not itself a virtue. We do well to avoid hypocrisy. But the way to avoid this universally detested vice is precisely through virtue.
Hypocrisy is a species of pride. It is a way of pretending to be better than we know ourselves to be. Its natural antidote is humility. But humility is a virtue. The mere semblance of virtue may illustrate hypocrisy. Yet to think of virtue only as an outward pretense is to have a strange and incomplete understanding of virtue. Real virtue is inward and enables us to be more genuine. Its purpose is not to make us gloat and be proud of its possession, but rather to help us love more effectively. Refusal to cultivate virtue is not the way to avoid hypocrisy. Indeed, in the absence of virtue, hypocrisy flourishes. The engaged couple, unfortunately, had a woefully incomplete notion of virtue. They thought it was pretense; in reality, it is essence.
Try as we may, we cannot fully deny the value of virtuousness. We sign our letters “sincerely” and bid each other to “take care.” We bemoan the lack of “integrity in the business world and praise the athlete who shows determination. Our stereos must have high fidelity, and a major insurance company calls itself Prudential.
And vice, which continues to pay homage to virtue, feels the need to disguise itself in virtuous raiment. Thus, we have abortion for “compassion,” and euthanasia for “mercy,” while even members of the Mafia pride themselves on being “loyal” and “courageous.” Hypocrisy may be a mockery of virtue, but in its own way pays it a lavish compliment.
Virtue is primarily an interior possession. Its primary function is to facilitate the expression of our love. Without virtue, love remains dormant and unex-pressed. As we express love through virtue, virtue takes on an outward demeanor. The caring heart manifests itself outwardly, as do kindness, courtesy, and all the other sundry virtues.
According to the incomplete notion of virtue, it is just an outer appearance, without substance or foundation. Thus, it is a sham, and the bearer of such a vitiated form of virtue is a hypocrite. We fear hypocrisy and the stern rebukes it earns. As a result, we avoid its apparent cause — virtue itself. Such is the trendy, but simplistic idea of virtue.
It should be apparent that the person who avoids virtue because he fears that it will turn him into a hypocrite is more concerned about public criticism than personal authenticity. We must dare to be virtuous, even at the risk of seeming to be hypocrites. It is for this reason that some thinkers have come to believe that courage is the mother of all virtues. Courage need not be associated with the battlefield. It is present in the individual who, knowing that he is not a saint, is nonetheless willing to expose himself to the accusation of being a hypocrite.
Of course, it is better to be falsely accused of hypocrisy than to be rightly accused of moral cowardice. We do not avoid vices, such as hypocrisy, simply by dodging them. The person who imagines that he is above hypocrisy has really fallen into a deeper recess of pride. Only through virtue can one avoid the vice of hypocrisy, though not necessarily its charge. But then, the virtuous person is more interested in doing good than in having an unsullied reputation.
Rev. Hinckley's penitent university students felt cheated by the incomplete idea of virtue that was floating on the wind. They began to realize, though via the “school of hard knocks,” that virtue is for the stouthearted — indeed, for those brave souls who persist in doing good in the face of opposition and misjudgment. Christ himself remained virtuous under the assault of humiliation and public ridicule. Should we model ourselves on anyone less?
Donald DeMarco is a philosophy professor at St. Jerome's University in Waterloo, Ontario,
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Don DeMarco ----- KEYWORD: Commentary -------- TITLE: Precious Blood of Belgium DATE: 05/20/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: May 20-26, 2001 ----- BODY:“Blood of Christ, inebriate me.” These words, from St. Ignatius’ prayer Anima Christi, are embla-zoned on one of the walls of the Basilica of the Sacred Blood (Heilig Bloedbasiliek) in Bruges, Belgium.
The basilica itself has been the center of devotion to the Precious Blood since at least 1255.
The church holds a vial purporting to be the precious blood of Jesus Christ. The relic is exposed for veneration every Friday. Each year, on Ascension Thursday — this year, that's May 24 — a gala procession with the relic wends its way through the quaint streets of this “Venice of the North.”
Pious tradition has it that, when Joseph of Arimathea took Christ's body from the Cross, he carefully preserved the blood mixed with water from Christ's side, as well as the blood from his nail wounds and, before dying, passed these precious relics on to his family.
Sporadic testimonies to the existence of relics of the precious blood appear from time to time in the Christian East, often associated with Constantinople. The fourth-century quest of Helen, mother of Constantine, for relics of the true cross is evidence that devotion to Christ's passion was strong.
There are two traditions accounting for the relic coming to the Belgian seacoast town of Bruges. An oral tradition claims that Thierry of Alsace, count of Flanders, was given a relic from Jerusalem with some of the precious blood by Baldwin III, his brother-in-law, in gratitude for services rendered during the disastrous second crusade. According to this tradition, Thierry returned with the relic to Flanders, entrusting it to the citizens of Bruges in 1150.
Although the oral tradition is the standard explanation for how Christ's blood came to Bruges, written documents do not mention the relic's being there until 1256. One list of relics, circa 1150, speaks of a relic of the precious blood in the Imperial Palace at Constantinople. On this basis, some say that the relic was a gift from the emperor to his daughter Jeanne, Countess of Flanders.
However it arrived in Bruges, Pope Clement V became aware of the cult in 1310, granting indulgences to those who participate in the annual procession that was already then underway. His bull, Licet, also claims that the clotted precious blood in the relic liquefies every Friday, a phenomenon not observed since 1388.
A doubting age may impugn the historicity of the relic, but, against such skeptics, Pierre Aspeslagh has an adequate reply: “As far as the origins of the relic are concerned, there is no proof of their historical authenticity. But one must not lose sight of the main point of the relic: namely, that as a symbol of Christ's ultimate sacrifice it has through the ages inspired and given comfort to millions upon millions of believers.”
Blood of the Lamb
It certainly inspired me. It was a moving experience to participate in Sunday High Mass at 11 a.m., when the relic was exposed for the faithful. Mass began with a procession of members of the Noble Fraternity and the Pious Fellowship of the Precious Blood, spiritual societies charged with promoting devotion to the relic. The relic is removed from a silver tabernacle and placed on the main altar during Mass. At the end of Mass, the congregation is blessed with the relic, which is then carried in procession to a raised side platform where the faithful can approach and venerate the relic, held in a crystal vial attached to a chain around the priest's neck.
It's hard to imagine any Christian not being moved by the scene. Many generations of Christians have grown in holiness in this place; here is a powerful and ancient reminder that “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son” (John 3:16).
The relic is exposed for veneration every Friday and, it seems, every Sunday after the 11 a.m. Mass. It is also exposed daily in the two weeks of the “Fortnight of the Precious Blood,” May 3-17.
The basilica itself, from the outside, is unprepossessing. The chapel dates from the first half of the 12th century and was dedicated to St. Basil the Great, though it was only raised to the status of basilica in 1923. Tucked into a corner of a square a block off Bruges’ main square, the smallish, grayish building does not compete with the grander ones — like the Gothic Hall — next to it.
The inside, however, is another story. There are two chapels, a lower and an upper. The lower chapel is Romanesque, its massive stone walls providing an air of solidity. Over the main altar is a golden pelican, recalling the legend that, in time of famine, that bird pierces its own breast to feed its young with its blood. The other statues in the lower chapel compellingly focus the mind on the Passion. Beautifully painted statues of Christ, Ecce Homo and in the tomb, are carried in the annual Ascension Day procession. The Pietà, with Mary in a purple robe and dark veil, holding the dead Christ, is simply impressive.
Much Ado about Ascension
The upper chapel, reached by a winding staircase, is where the relic itself is kept in a side altar. In contrast to the somber stone of the Romanesque lower chapel, the upper chapel is a Gothic riot of color. The eye is quickly riveted on the fresco behind the main altar. The cross stands center stage. Above, God the Father accepts his Son's sacrifice, while the Holy Spirit completes the Trinity. Some angels capture the blood draining from Christ while others carry instruments of his Passion. On one side of the Cross appears Bethlehem; on the other, Jerusalem. Sheep graze in the foreground, quenching their thirst from the living waters of the cross.
Ascension Thursday is the high point of Bruges’ year, when the relic is carried in procession through the medieval streets of this old center of the Flemish cloth trade. The day begins with veneration of the relic at the basilica. Mass at 11 a.m. in the cathedral follows. The procession takes place from 3-6 p.m. and is made up of four parts: medieval mystery plays depicting how the Old Testament prefigures Christ, the life of Christ, and how Thierry brought the relic to Bruges, followed by the procession itself. The day ends at 6 p.m. with Benediction.
If this powerful spiritual experience were not enough, Bruges welcomes visitors to wander its streets. One of the best-preserved Flemish medieval towns, Bruges boasts many beautiful churches. Since it has been designated a European Cultural City, lots of renovation work is underway, but it is still worthwhile visiting the cathedral and the Church of Our Lady. The latter holds a particularly beautiful marble Madonna and Child by Michelangelo, dating from 1514. The medieval Beguins also had a house in Bruges and their Beguinage, now housing a small Benedictine community, beckons.
Bruges is a city of canals and picturesque vistas, so bring lots of film. Also bring a good appetite, because Belgians love to cook. Mussels and rabbit in beer are local specialties. Belgian lace, tapestries and chocolate abound in Bruges, which is a day-trip for many people in the low countries, northern France and England.
For those who enjoy medieval and especially baroque music, Bruges also hosts a “Festival Musica Antiqua.” This year's festival will be held from July 28 to August 11.
I am annually tempted to return to Bruges for Ascension Thursday's Corpus Christi-like procession, which has been held there since at least 1291. They call it “Brugges Schoonste Dag” (Bruges’ Most Beautiful Day). For the tourist, it's an intriguing historic happening. For the pilgrim, it's an adventure in faith.
John M. Grondelski, a moral theologian, writes from London.
----- EXCERPT: In Bruges, a relic of Christ's sacred blood brings out the faithful for Ascension Thursday ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: A Pipe, a Pint ó and Chesterton DATE: 05/20/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: May 20-26, 2001 ----- BODY:Gilbert Keith Chesterton last visited the United States in 1930, six years before his death.
He's back.
The influential English essayist, poet and novelist comes to life, his wit and wisdom intact, in “An Evening With G.K. Chesterton” — thanks to the acting and impersonating abilities of Minnesota history professor John “Chuck” Chalberg.
Chalberg's traveling, one-man show kept a crowd thinking and chuckling for slightly under two hours recently in a stop at De Sales University in Allentown, Pa.
Entering in a disheveled Edwardian costume, tousled hair and enough padding to suggest a man who had indeed enjoyed many ‘a pipe, a pint and a prayer,’ Chalberg wasted no time putting the attentive audience in the virtual presence of Chesterton.
A practiced British accent and commanding pitch of voice, which Chalberg studied from rare, archived audio tape, made it easy to believe, for a moment, that this was not a mild-mannered community-college teacher from the Midwest, but the flamboyantly orthodox Catholic convert, apologist and author himself.
Then came the content. In the first act, Chesterton tells about his early life, punctuating each event with one of his trademark paradoxes:
“I have always loved limits, boundaries, and frames: Only in very small spaces can you comprehend very big ideas.”
“I'm proud of my religion because it is bounded in humility.”
“Joy is the gigantic secret of the Christian, and that joy comes from the doctrine of Original Sin.”
“A thing that is worth doing is worth doing badly.” This last remark had fans in the audience nodding and mouthing the familiar words along with the actor.
Bounding energetically from one broad theme to another, Chalberg covered all the topics Chesterton was best-known for. At various points he exalted family life, exposed feminism's flawed foundations, revered religious orthodoxy while disdaining innovation, and excoriated imperialism. He even rained praise on the notion of patriotism, as long as it is based on affection for one's home-land rather than a desire for power over other lands.
What came across most clearly was that this quaint literary figure from the past was rather controversial in his own time — and probably would be today, too. As he said, “I like getting into hot water — it keeps me clean.”
But this particular audience was too delighted to be offended as Mr. Chesterton paced the stage and held forth on issues still timely today. Of course, some were of more value for lending historic perspective than for providing cutting-edge insights to our own times.
E On women seeking careers outside the home: “A thousand women rose up and said, ‘We won't be dictated to’ — and promptly became stenographers.”
E On objective morality: “What is right is right even if no one is right about it; what is wrong is wrong even if everyone is wrong about it.” E On family life: “To be born into a family is the most romantic adventure of one's life. It's like climbing down the chimney of any house at random and trying to get along with the people inside.”
Chalberg developed his avocation of historic portrayals while teaching at Normandale Community College in Bloomington, Minn., where he still works today. The idea first suggested itself when he was assigned the college theater, rather than a classroom, to teach a survey course on American history.
Dressing and speaking as various historical characters proved a big hit with students and, before long, he was being asked to take his show on the road.
“I choose characters that are colorful, historically significant and easy to make myself resemble,” he explains.
His repertoire includes Theodore Roosevelt, H.L. Mencken and Branch Rickey, the Brooklyn Dodgers manager who hired Jackie Robinson.
The Chesterton impression came to the attention of television producers, who used Chalberg's talent in a series on the life of Chesterton, “The Apostle of Common Sense.” Hosted by Dale Ahlquist, president of the American Chesterton Society, the series has been airing on EWTN since last September.
Today a devout Catholic, Chalberg says that Chesterton's writings had a great impact on his faith. “I'd been a daily communicant right through grad school, but then, like many people around that age, I stupidly decided I didn't need that anymore,” he says. “Some years later, when I had already started coming back to the Church, I discovered Chesterton. It just went hand in glove with my return to the faith, and a deepening thereof.
“What most attracts me in his writings is his sense of humility before the world and before God, and the joy that results from that humility,” adds Chalberg. “That's what I really try to portray in my impression of him. It's almost become a calling, to keep alive what he had to say.”
And that includes Chesterton's thoughts on the search for truth: “I open my mind as I open my mouth: so I can shut it again, quickly, on something solid.”
Daria Sockey writes from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
----- EXCERPT: A one-man stage show brings the apologist to life ----- EXTENDED BODY: Daria Sockey ----- KEYWORD: Arts & Culture -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 05/20/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: May 20-26, 2001 ----- BODY:Life and Nothing More…(1992)
Natural disasters have a far different effect on Third World nations than on Europe or America. Immediate relief can be slow in coming, and the region may be crippled for generations.
More than 50,000 people died in the 1990 earthquake in Northern Iran. The event received little Western media coverage. Life and Nothing More... follows an Iranian documentary director (Farhad Kheramand) and his pre-adolescent son (Bubu Bayour) as they make their way through the rubble to try and establish contact with some mountain people he once filmed. En route, they encounter, among others, a newly wed couple who rushed to get married right after the quake and some soccer fans who erect an antenna to watch the World Cup even when basic necessities like food, water and adequate shelter are in short supply. Master filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami (Where Is the Friend's Home) mixes documentary footage with dramatic re-creations to produce a moving, hopeful portrait of an impoverished people struggling to put their lives back together.
Brian's Song (1971)
The fatal disease is a Hollywood staple. The Emmy-winning Brian's Song, a TV movie about real people, overcomes the limitations of the tear-jerking genre with strong characterizations and themes. It starts out looking like a typical sports film but soon switches gears. Brian Piccolo (James Caan) and Gale Sayers (Billy Dee Williams) are both rookie running backs who have made the Chicago Bears football team. Piccolo is white, Sayers black. At first fierce rivals, they become best friends when it's discovered that Piccolo has cancer.
Instead of being a downer, the movie succeeds in lifting our hearts. Piccolo's determined will to live inspires Sayers to fulfill his athletic potential, a situation which legendary coach George Halas (Jack Warden) skillfully manipulates. Director Buzz Kulik and screen-writer Bill Blinn fashion some unusual touches including a super-macho hazing sequence. But they keep their main focus on the real-life human drama. A particularly memorable moment is the locker room scene when Sayers tells his team-mates about Piccolo's illness.
The Burmese Harp (1957)
War changes people — sometimes for better, sometimes for worse.
The possibility of death forces a person to confront the meaning of existence. But the thrill of combat and hatred of the enemy can also damage the soul. The Burmese Harp, one of the Vatican's top 45 films, shows how wartime experience can provide opportunities for redemption and regeneration on both a personal and collective level. A Japanese sergeant in Burma (Shoji Yasui) surrenders to the British at the end of World War II. He's then injured while trying to persuade a more fanatical army unit to give up.
To escape from the hospital, the sergeant steals a Buddhist monk's robes and travels across the devastated countryside. The journey transforms him, and he begins to behave like the holy man he's impersonating. Director Kon Ichikawa is critical of his country's traditional militarism and the war's purpose — a perspective unusual among Japanese of his generation. Elements of both Christianity and Buddhism are offered as moral guides.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORD: Arts & Culture -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 05/20/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: May 20-26, 2001 ----- BODY:All times Eastern
DAILY
Sports Center ESPN; check listings for times
Hear all the latest news and game highlights from the major U.S. sports, along with expert commentary and entertaining banter.
VARIOUS DATES
Weekend Explorer PBS; check local listings for time
Debuting this month, this 13-episode series follows host Jeffrey Lehmann as he tours scenic wilderness areas in Alaska, California, New Mexico and Utah and discusses their landmarks, wildlife and history.
VARIOUS DATES
Moneywise with Kelvin Boston PBS; check local listings for time
In this series, Boston seeks to help people whose yearly income is $25,000-$100,000. He explains how people can increase their net worth by becoming familiar with financial planning strategies and by using their resources efficiently — and prudently.
SUNDAY, MAY 20
Jewish Roots of Catholicism (Part 2) EWTN, 8 p.m.
In this hour-long program, the second in a three-part series, convert Bob Fishman explores Catholic rites and celebrations and their links to Judaism.
SUNDAY, MAY 20
The Rockies Biography
This four-part “Lifespan” traces the modern history of America's “purple mountain majesties.” At 8 p.m., Great Explorers follows the routes of Lewis and Clark and of John Wesley Powell. At 9 p.m., Striking It Rich tells of Horace Tabor's silver strike and the Coors brewery. At 10 p.m., War & Disaster covers tragedies between 1857 and 1949. At 11 p.m., Taming the Mountains describes the feats of engineering — and heroism — that roped and saddled the great peaks with railways and highways.
TUESDAYS
The Lamb's Supper EWTN, 10:30 p.m.
In this series, convert and author Scott Hahn discusses the Mass in the context of the Book of the Apocalypse (a.k.a. Revelation) and its many keys to the Holy Sacrifice. To be rebroadcast Sundays at 1:30 a.m. and Thursdays at 2 p.m.
TUESDAY, MAY 22
Secrets of Lost Empires PBS; check local listings for time
In “Pharaoh's Obelisk,” this second in a three-part series on successive Tuesday nights, experts return to Egypt to try to stand up a 15-ton concrete replica obelisk that defied their efforts in 1994. This time, they have an ingenious new method to try.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 23
The Hidden Tomb of Antiochus History, 8 p.m.
This “History's Mysteries” installment examines an extensive site atop 7,000 ft. Mt. Nemrud in southern Turkey that an ancient inscription says is the burial place of King Antiochus I of Commagene (mid-1st century B.C.). The U.S. archaeologist Theresa Goell studied the site between 1953 and 1973 and solved many of its mysteries, but not all.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Daniel J. Engler ----- KEYWORD: Arts & Culture -------- TITLE: College Program Is Helping Fill Seminaries DATE: 05/20/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: May 20-26, 2001 ----- BODY:YPSILANTI, Mich. — Last Spring, the U.S. bishops made it one of their top priorities to foster more vocations to the priesthood. Soon after, an NCCB press release said, “We need to look at new ways to help create an environment in which someone can say Yes to religious life or the priesthood.”
A new program started at Franciscan University of Steubenville and now duplicated at Ave Maria College in Ypsilanti, Mich., looks like it might be just what the bishops are seeking.
Called the ‘pretheologate,’ a reference to the coursework required for entry to a major seminary, the new program gives young men the chance to study philosophy and theology on a coed campus while they learn about the lifestyle of a priest.
“Every year young men graduating from high school are thinking about the priesthood but are not ready to make a commitment to the seminary. So they get a job, go to college, join the military, etc. These options are not necessarily supportive of a possible vocation,” said Father David Testa, a diocesan priest from Albany, N.Y., who developed much of the Steubenville program.
“A college-level pretheologate is made for these young men,” the priest explained. “It allows them to be ordinary college students, majoring in the field of their choice. There's very little pressure. It's not ‘Johnny's going to become a priest,’ but ‘Johnny's going to college.’ And if they decide they are not called to the priesthood, they haven't lost anything,” he added. “They are still going to college, and all their coursework can be put toward their degree.”
For five years Father Testa ran the Steubenville program, which started 16 years ago. During that time the program drew 80 men from the United States and many other countries. In fall 2000, he moved to Ave Maria to start a pretheologate at the new Catholic liberal arts college, part of Ave Maria University and a sister college to St. Mary's in Orchard Lake, Mich. At Ave Maria, the program has already drawn seven students in its first year.
At Franciscan University, pre Theologate students join one of three faith households: Living Stones, for men 17 to 23; Koinonia, for men 23-28; and Electi Mariae, for older men. Currently, 65 men, ranging in age from 18 to 50, are enrolled.
This year the Steubenville program will graduate its largest class ever, something Bishop Gilbert Sheldon says has helped his diocese of Steubenville, Ohio.
Bishop Sheldon
“I credit the increase in the number of seminarians for the Diocese of Steubenville at least in part to the program at Franciscan University,” says Bishop Sheldon. “I believe if something similar were implemented at other Catholic colleges and universities, it would go a long way to alleviate the present shortage of vocations to the priesthood.”
Adam Hertzfeld, who completed Franciscan's pretheologate and now is a seminarian for the diocese of Toledo, said he gives the same advice to everyone he meets who is considering the priesthood: “If you are thinking about becoming a priest, start living the life of a priest.”
Young men who join the pretheologate will do just that, said Father Testa. They will attend daily Mass, develop a regular prayer life, recite the Liturgy of the Hours, study Catholic thought and develop solidarity with other young men.
They commit themselves to these disciplines six months at a time, the priest added. During the first part of the program, they can even date.
“The newer members must abide by a dating policy that does not allow for a steady dating relationship with one woman,” said Father. “The program's senior members observe a no-dating policy as they prepare to enter a major seminary.”
Joe Lussier of Chelsea, Mich., who graduated from the pretheolo-gate and started at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit last fall, said the situation helped him. Although Lussier attended the program at Steubenville, he grew up near Ypsilanti and is familiar with both campus communities. “There are women at both colleges who would make incredible wives,” he said. “Testing your vocation this way adds a great depth that should be there.”
Lussier said the program helped him examine his recognition that he might have a vocation until he was really sure.
“I took my time in deciding,” he related. “I began to think there was at least the possibility of a vocation, and I felt led to explore it.”
He spent three years at Washtenaw Community College (near Ypsilanti) and Franciscan University before he entered the pretheologate. “My spiritual director at Steubenville said, ‘What are you going to loose by joining?’”
Lussier spent another year and a half living a priest's lifestyle before deciding, he said.
Before enrolling at Sacred Heart this fall, Lussier said he talked with Bishop Carl Mengeling of the Diocese of Lansing and Vocation Director Father J. Thomas Munley about the program. “They were very impressed,” he said.
God Always Wins
Daniel Firmin of Augusta, Ga., now attending seminary at the North American College in Rome, said the program he was part of at Franciscan University was “just a wonderful, prayerful environment to discern the priesthood. It was great having so many other guys around me, everyone supporting each other.”
Stephen Malo of Canada is now part of the pretheologate at Ave Maria. He said he was praying the rosary with his mother one night several years ago when the idea that the Lord might want him to be priest came into his mind. But Malo didn't think of himself as the type of person who could maintain that kind of devotion, and didn't actually know any strong Christians that he admired.
“In my hometown there is a very small Christian community with many overly pious, ‘saved’ types,” he explained. “I always thought that I wished Christian youth could be more like me. Then, after meeting some of the Ave Maria students, I realized that I wanted to be more like them.” So Malo joined the pretheolo-gate a short while after he started college there last fall.
John Ferguson, still part of Franciscan's pretheologate program, said even those who decide to leave benefit from it. “Every semester I have been in it, at least one guy has left the program, and not one of them has ever regretted joining it,” he said.
“God always wins,” agreed Father Testa. “When I run into these men after a few years, they tell me, ‘Thanks, Father, you taught me to pray, your program made a real difference in my life.’ And their wives thank me, too!” said the priest, with a smile.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kate Ernsting ----- KEYWORD: Education -------- TITLE: The Church: The Key That Unlocks the Realistic Life DATE: 05/20/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: May 20-26, 2001 ----- BODY:Why the Church?
by Msgr. Luigi Giussani
McGill-Queen's University Press, March 2001 256 pages, $19.95.
In an age that idolizes individualism, who among us hasn't wondered “Why the Church?” and desired a compelling way to explain it?
Msgr. Luigi Giussani has provided a profound answer. The depth of his reply remains rooted in his astute understanding of modern man as one who “is obsessed by the need to depersonalize (or impersonalize) all that he most admires.” The founder of the Communion and Liberation movement aptly observes that “man divides himself: he crumbles into his own interests, falling back within his own ambit and, in the process, becomes prey to his own measure.…This is why secularism is, at least implicitly, atheism; it is life without God.”
To this rebellious self-sufficiency, “the Church presents itself in history as a relationship with the living Christ,” for “what the Church is for all men is Jesus Christ's self-communication to the world.”
Msgr. Giussani explains that “the Church is Christ's continuance in history, time and space, the means by which Christ continues to be present in history in a particular way.” Moreover, the Church “is also the method by which the Spirit of Christ mobilizes the world towards truth, justice, and happiness. … It presents itself both as a human and a divine reality.”
As such, “the Church's function…has the same function as Jesus in history, which is to educate…all mankind to the religious sense, precisely in order to be able to ‘save’ him.” The “religious sense” recognizes God “as the totalizing horizon of every human action.”
It blesses every human being with “a conception of God as pertinent to all aspects of life, underlying every human experience excluding none.” For, as Msgr. Giussani asserts, “only a God perceived for what he is…is a credible God, because conviction comes when every aspect of existence is bonded with a universally determining value.”
Put more simply, “the Church's function in history…is that of the mother calling back her children to the reality of things. …The Church…urges us to adopt the ‘right attitude’ towards ourselves and life. It calls us back…to realism and to a type of behavior in which we are reminded how things really are.”
Msgr. Giussani has a genius for explaining the reasonableness of the faith. Why the Church? is an invaluable resource, suitable for both catechesis and spiritual reading. Particularly strong is the way the book treats the action of the Holy Spirit in the Church, the sacraments, catholicity, and criticisms leveled against the Church.
The author insists on an understanding of realism in which Jesus Christ alone is the center of reality. To this end, the Church proposes a concept for human life in which “everything has value for eternity, nothing falls into oblivion.” Without the Church, man would not be able “to attain objective clarity and security in his perception of all the ultimate meanings of his existence.” For the Church's chief concern “is to bring man's supreme yearning to fulfillment without asking him to forget any of his own very real desires or his own elementary needs.”
Consequently, “anyone who lives the mystery of the ecclesial community receives a change in his nature.…We will become different in a verifiable way.” This requires “obedience to the total Church, depending on it, organizing one's life according to its rhythms.” It is worth the effort, for “in the life of the Church…Christ communicates to man the gift of a more profound participation in the origin of everything. In this way, man remains man but becomes something more. Man within the Church is offered a ‘supernatural’ participation in Being.”
Msgr. Giussani's prose can be challenging at times, but this exquisite book is a work of love that deserves careful — and repeated — reading.
Dominican Father Peter John Cameron is editor of the liturgical-prayer monthly Magnificat.
----- EXCERPT: Book Review ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father Peter John Cameron ----- KEYWORD: Education -------- TITLE: 'Appreciate Teachers,' Bishop Says DATE: 05/20/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: May 20-26, 2001 ----- BODY:Bishop Thomas J. Tobin of Youngstown, Ohio, recently wrote a pastoral letter “Catholic Schools: A Commitment Renewed.”
He said he wrote the letter because, “We take our Catholic schools for granted” and “it's good to step back once in a while and say publicly how good they are, how important a contribution they make.” He acknowledged that today's Catholic schools face the practical challenge of increasing teachers’ salaries while keeping tuition down.
Finally, Bishop Tobin called for all Catholics to be grateful to Catholic teachers “who make personal sacrifices for their profession.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: This Old Car DATE: 05/20/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: May 20-26, 2001 ----- BODY:We own a car with 100,000 miles on it and the transmission just went bad. It's going to cost nearly $2,000 to replace it. To buy a new vehicle — a minivan — would require almost $20,000. What do you suggest?
A We recently went through the same situation you describe and found that a good rule of thumb is that the least expensive car you can own is the one that you already have!
Studies by Runzheimer International, a worldwide transportation consultant, consistently show that it is less expensive to operate a car for longer periods of time.
While it's true that repair costs tend to escalate, especially as a car reaches the 100,000-mile mark, these expenses would usually be more than offset by the cost of financing and the immediate depreciation that occurs when you purchase a new car. Most new cars lose 20% of their value as soon as you drive them off the lot.
If you financed $20,000 for a new car at 7% over five years, your monthly payment would be nearly $400. The $2,000 cost of replacing the transmission is the equivalent of five monthly payments, so in essence, you will break even with replacing the transmission if the car lasts at least another five months.
Obviously, you'll want to do much better than just breaking even on this decision, so you'll need to make some estimates as to how much longer you think the car will last.
Is the car in good shape otherwise? Ask your mechanic what his experience is with your particular model. You may find that with a new transmission and a regular maintenance schedule, the car will take you another 50,000 miles without any substantial problems. If this is the case, you'll be miles ahead financially by replacing the transmission.
Two other issues worth taking into consideration are time and safety. There comes a point where a car is in the shop so often that it becomes a true burden from a time standpoint. While it can be difficult to measure this cost in purely economic terms, if the repair history of the car is such that it is making it difficult to fulfill other responsibilities, it's probably time to replace it.
Safety needs to be a primary concern when it comes to family vehicles. If your old car, even with a new transmission, is unreliable in other ways, you'll probably want to replace it. You certainly don't want your wife or children put into a situation where they are stranded because the car consistently breaks down.
While time and safety are certainly valid issues to take into consideration, don't fall into the trap of using them as an excuse to purchase a new car, when the real reason is that you just want to own something new.
After reviewing all of the facts, you'll be in a position to make a good decision for your family.
God love you!
Phil Lenahan is vice president of Catholic Answers.
----- EXCERPT: Family Matters ----- EXTENDED BODY: Phil Lenahan ----- KEYWORD: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Organ Donation DATE: 05/20/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: May 20-26, 2001 ----- BODY:The number of living organ donors jumped 17.2% in the United States last year, the largest increase on record. A total of 22,854 organs were transplanted. The Vatican has encouraged organ donation as long as ethical standards are followed.
----- EXCERPT: Facts of Life ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: What It Costs to Teach in Catholic Schools DATE: 05/20/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: May 20-26, 2001 ----- BODY:When James Dubyoski decided to go into Catholic education, he knew it was no get-rich-quick scheme.
On average, a lay Catholic teacher earns $26,800 a year, according to the National Catholic Educational Association; whereas a public school teacher earns on average $40,574, according to the American Federation of Teachers.
But this wage gap didn't deter Dubyoski. More than 20 years ago, during his student years at Loyola College in Baltimore he heard the “call” to Catholic teaching.
“Through several very powerful experiences of Christ's presence in the Eucharist, I felt led to Catholic education,” he says. “I believe that Catholic education is a place where God wants young people to experience and know his love for them, to live for him, to change the world as leaven.”
In his early 20s, Dubyoski finished his undergraduate degree in theology and began teaching religious studies at Loyola Blakefield, an all-boys secondary school founded in Towson, Md., in 1852.
His starting salary was about $10,000. Two years later, he and his fiancee, Mary, peered into their future and decided vocation was more important than money.
“If Catholic education is about a truth revealed in the person of Jesus, it's worth any sacrifice,” says Dubyoski. “We felt it was our calling to live this vocation, even though it's been hard work and not without suffering.”
The headmaster of Loyola Blakefield, John Weetenkamp III, stresses the value of good Catholic teachers. “Particularly in today's culture — the ‘Toxic Culture,’ as some psychologist called it. More than ever, our young men need dedicated role models. James Dubyoski is one of those.”
In 1984, when James and Mary exchanged wedding vows, they didn't take the “for poorer” for granted. They trusted God to see them through difficult times.
Soon, the children started coming. Their first baby was born two weeks before their first anniversary.
Mary describes their large family of seven children between the ages of 5 and 15 as a welcome surprise.
In his mid-30s, James earned a master's degree in pastoral counseling, also at Loyola College.
Over the years, he turned down several potentially lucrative sales positions. He was called to Catholic education, and that was that.
Both James and Mary are now in their early 40s and have found that rearing a large family on a small salary can be challenging.
The Sacrifices
Most Catholics are aware that Catholic teachers earn less, but few know what it really costs them to teach in Catholic schools.
Ronald J. Valenti, superintendent of Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, told the Register: “Catholic teachers’ starting pay can be $10-15,000 less than public school teachers.’ Their health benefits may not be as extensive. Their retirement is less, often much less.”
Valenti explains why. “In diocesan schools, the moneys come from tuition and from the parishes. We will always have this struggle; we will never have parity with public schools. Perhaps school vouchers would make a difference, but if that doesn't happen, we will continue to rely on parents and parishes.
“Lay people make up 94% of Catholic teachers; religious and clergy, only 7%. Catholic teachers see teaching as their ministry, and they knowingly make sacrifices. But that in no way excuses the administration from trying for more equity between Catholic teachers and public school teachers.”
The Dubyoskis struggle financially, even though James earns an above-average salary because he teaches in a private Catholic secondary school.
Loyola Blakefield's average teachers’ salary is $37,000 and Blakefield's pay scale is 87% of Baltimore County's pay scale. Catholic elementary teachers in diocesan schools, the largest component of Catholic educators, earn an average salary of $20,716. That's about 40% less than their public schools counterparts.
What does “less” mean in everyday life, practically speaking?
“For the first eight years of our married life, we never bought new clothes,” says Mary Dubyoski.
“We bought virtually everything for the kids at yard sales. James’ parents had a vegetable garden from which they'd share with us. We've belonged to various food co-ops,” she adds.
Today, it is still necessary to save. “I buy all our food on sale. We don't go out to eat as a family. We don't subscribe to newspapers or magazines. We pay extra for adequate health insurance.”
Robert Kealey, executive director of the Elementary Schools Department in the National Catholic Education Association, comments: “We're talking real sacrifices here. I know teachers and principals who because of their commitment to Catholic education, cannot afford to send their own children to Catholic schools.”
“I think we must begin the process of educating people to the low salaries in our schools,” he adds. “Our teacher turnover rate is directly related to low salaries.”
The Dubyoski children attend a small, nearby interdenominational school. Their oldest daughter, their first in high school, has earned a full four-year scholarship to a girl's Catholic high school.
But not all Catholic teachers feel called to Catholic schools. A devout Catholic, John Leidy believes his teaching in the Ann Arbor, Mich., public school system is meeting a real need.
An elementary teacher for 10 years, he's noticed that the schools are moving away from moral relativism to basic virtues revered by most religious traditions.
“The relativism…has somewhat gone by the wayside and is being replaced by Life Skills programs,” he told the Register.
The values that appear in these programs could also be found in a class on Christian virtue: truthfulness, integrity, a sense of humor, cooperation and kindness.
“Teachers in public schools are fearful of talking about religion, especially when the holidays are coming,” says Leidy, who has sent his children to both private and public schools.
“But the law does allow kids to learn about religion, just as long as you're not pushing doctrine,” he oints out.
Kealey appreciates Catholics like John Leidy.
“This is the other side of the coin. When Catholics teach in the state-run schools, in a certain sense, they bring their Catholicity with them and that enriches the state school,” he says
The Special Joys
Kealey urges Catholic teachers to have a large vision. “There are real joys of teaching in Catholic schools,” he says, “of seeing children learn academically, grow in their faith and receive the various sacraments.”
James and Mary Dubyoski agree. Despite the struggles, they wouldn't change their life.
“We have James home every day and every weekend,” says Mary. “Many dads have to travel for business. James has summers off. That's when we supplement our income by running a soccer camp. It's a big family affair and it's great for the kids. They have their Dad right there.
“Most of all, we believe we're doing the Lord's will for us.”
James adds: “Sometimes, after my students leave, they'll write notes of thanks. They'll say how important my teaching was to them, maybe how they're going to study theology themselves.
“These rewards certainly make me feel that despite income sacrifices, I'm very rich.”
Una McManus writes from Columbia, Maryland.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Una McManus ----- KEYWORD: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Doing the Science for the Culture of Life DATE: 05/20/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: May 20-26, 2001 ----- BODY:The National Catholic Bioethics Center has more to do now than ever before in its 30-year history.
Embryonic research, cloning and other issues have put bioethics in the spotlight. The center's current president, Dr. John Haas spoke with the Register about the bioethical dilemmas facing our society.
Ernster: Tell me about your background, and your conversion to the Catholic faith.
I came from a branch of the Episcopal Church that was very much like the Catholic Church. I was a priest who was referred to as “Father,” and we had daily Mass. In 1977, my wife and I became Catholics; we had three children at the time. Our biggest concerns were the moral issues.
We were always pro-life as Episcopalians, and the Episcopal Church began taking a different path. It had approved divorce and re-marriage and we thought that was contrary to our Lord's teaching and tradition. It was becoming increasingly accepting of homosexual relationships. So the moral questions were a significant factor in our becoming Catholic.
You had strange situations where the regular bishop of a diocese wouldn't believe women could be priests and wouldn't ordain them, but his auxiliary bishop would. For me the ultimate question was that of ecclesiastical authority. God had left a gift with his Church to resolve disputes within the area of doctrine and morals.
I understand Pope John Paul II's
Oh yes, it was one of the most powerful and galvanizing documents I've ever read. The Pope's language is very strong. It's a profound critique of the culture. More than a treatise in moral theology, it's an analysis of contemporary culture. It tries to provide an answer to the question, and the Pope himself raises the question, “How is it that those actions, which a generation ago were regarded as crimes, can now be insisted upon as rights?” That's a chilling question.
So when Cardinal Bevilaqua, who was my boss, asked why I was taking this position, I had to refer to Evangelium Vitae, and said, “This is it, we're faced with this clash between the culture of life and the culture of death, and there's a need for a strong national Catholic voice that is compelling, articulate and compassionate.” So I've been working very hard to bring the center into the public forum. We have a solid reputation among the bishops, but the center hadn't been involved in public policy questions and in the public forum.
‘Find ways of pointing our culture toward the incomparable goodness of each human life.’
Does the center have some influence on public policy or within the medical community?
We're out there, but to the extent we're having an impact is difficult to judge. We're consulted a lot, but I wouldn't say much by the secular community. I just have a note here on my desk to call ABC News because they want to do something on stem cells. We have been quoted in those kinds of venues.
We probably do close to 600 consultations in the course of a year. The next center after ours might do 60. We're also consulted by the Holy See. The Vatican will have tough issues to deal with, so we'll be pulled in as consultants there as well.
What kind of questions do you get at the center?
The first month I was at the center, we got a call from a bishop who had a question brought to him by a Sister. The Sister was preparing an RCIA group who was coming into the Catholic Church, and she discovered that one of the couples had two children by in vitro fertilization, and had five frozen embryos. To complicate things more, the children and the embryos were not engendered by the wife's eggs, but by the eggs of the wife's sister. You can see how complicated and messy this becomes.
These are the kinds of questions we're facing more and more. This couple didn't realize what they were getting themselves into. Here they had five embryos that were in a state of suspended animation. The bottom line is that, of course, they could be received into the Church if they realized that what they had done was wrong and resolved not to do it again. The wife and the sister, who was the actual mother of the embryos, should also probably try to bring them to term.
Human cloning is such a hot topic today; is the center involved in some of the political discussions taking place?
Oh yes, I've testified before the Senate subcommittee on cloning, and when the president's National Bioethical Advisory Commission held hearings, we provided testimony. Our testimony has been published in a government publication dealing with the findings of the commission.
The advances toward human cloning are alarming. There's no question it's going to be done, but what a wastage of human life to clone a human being. There were close to 200 attempts before Dolly was cloned.
I think it was Time magazine had a piece on it, the number of women to whom you would have to give hyper-ovulatory drugs to have them mature a number of eggs so that they could be harvested, was like seven or eight women. And then the number of those eggs that would have to be fertilized in petri dishes, and then the number of those that would have to be implanted so the women could carry them — we're talking about 50 or 60 engendered new lives to try to come up with one clone.
Again, a lot of people don't realize how much life is being destroyed as you try to bring about a new life.
Are any Protestant groups coming to the center for consulting or answers?
There is an evangelical group that has set up a center for human dignity. We have allies among the evangelicals, but one of the difficulties there is that they can defend their position only by appealing to Scripture, and if somebody doesn't accept the authority of scripture, there's no way to talk with them; whereas, we operate out of the natural law tradition. But the mainline Protestant churches are just gone, the Methodists, the Episcopalians, the Presbyterians — they're doing everything from advocating abortion to same-sex marriages. So that's the world we're living in.
With all the Catholic hospitals, the Catholic population and the Church's consistent teaching regarding life issues, why doesn't the Church have greater influence in these matters? Is it because we're caught in a culture of death?
Oh I think that's a huge part of it. There are situations where the truth can't even be heard. There was a local television station in Philadelphia that was going to do a show on pregnancy among teenagers, so they invited 12 experts to address this and somehow I got invited.
The other culprits were there, like Planned Parenthood, AIDS Act-Up and others.
I never referred to any papal document or Scripture; I just referred to the consequences of sexual behavior and when I was getting ready to leave, the president of the Southeast Pennsylvania Family Planning turned to me and said, “Why do you have such a negative attitude about sex?”
And I said, “I wasn't aware that I did. I can't have too terrible of an attitude about sex because we have nine children.”
And she said, “There you go, every time you talk about sex you talk about children.”
Now in her mind that was a negative! So how do you address people in a culture, which no longer looks upon reality as it truly is, so that children are no longer incomparable goods and unspeakable gifts, but are seen as negatives, and something to be avoided, and if you can't avoid them, they are to be eliminated.
What's the strategy in reaching this culture?
How do you begin to address a culture like that? This is why the Pope was so profound in Evangelium Vitae. We can make the philosophical and scientific arguments, but if people — and our Lord speaks about this — are calling what is good evil, and what is evil good, you have a very difficult time.
John Paul II said the key to teaching in a situation like that is keeping our eyes fixed on Christ and him crucified.
Jesus was willing to pay the ultimate price rather than violate the moral law, and that is the kind of witness that Catholics have to give in our day. Catholic hospitals will not do tubal ligations, for example, because they see these as violation of the physical, moral and spiritual integrity of women who are coming to them for help.
Now, in a merger deal when a Catholic hospital refuses to do tubal ligations, how is it reported in the press? Not “Catholic hospital refuses to violate women,” but, “Catholic hospital refuses to provide the full range of women reproductive services.”
There's where the problem is.
How does Catholic bioethics serve the human person?
In terms of its constant defense of the goodness of the human person's inviolability, it shows how many of these medical and scientific procedures do indeed violate the human person. That's the greatest service to be rendered, to find ways of pointing our culture toward the tremendous value and incomparable goodness of each innocent human life.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Barb Ernster ----- KEYWORD: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Life Notes DATE: 05/20/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: May 20-26, 2001 ----- BODY:Women Seek to Overturn Roe
ELLIOT INSTITUTE, May 3 — The Elliot Institute has joined a national effort to give post-abortive women a voice in the federal courts.
“This is a great opportunity, through legal affidavits, for women to provide testimony to the federal courts, and ultimately to the Supreme Court, regarding the devastating effects abortion has had on their lives,” said Dr. David Reardon, director of the Elliot Institute and an expert on post-abortion complications.
Thousands of affidavits from post-abortive women are being gathered in which women describe how they were either pressured into unwanted abortions, misinformed about risks, or suffered emotionally or physically after their abortions. These affidavits will be used in a series of legal challenges in state and federal courts, reported the Elliot Institute.
Blank copies of the affidavits and instructions are available on the Internet at www.operationoutcry.org or by calling, toll free, (877) 247-7582.
Catholic Value Mutual Fund
SCHWARTZ INVESTMENT COUNSEL, May 1 — The Ave Maria Catholic Values Fund began this month offering a mutual fund with a proprietary screening process that allows for investments only in those companies whose policies are consistent with the core values of the Catholic Church, reported Schwartz Investment Counsel Inc.
The Ave Maria Catholic Values Fund is a broadly diversified, value-oriented equity mutual fund. The Fund manager seeks out seasoned companies, with healthy profits, strong balance sheets, proprietary products and enduring business franchises, then screens out companies involved with abortion or anti-family policies.
The Fund has assembled a six-member Catholic Advisory Board that will establish guidelines and criteria to ensure selected securities meet the Fund's religious criteria.
Planned Parenthood's Neighbor
NEWSDAY, May 1 — The Life Center of Long Island plans to offer what it describes as the “first pro-life medical facility on Long Island,” across the street from a newly opened Planned Parenthood, reported Newsday.
Executive Director Lorraine Gariboldi is frank about the group's mission to compete for clients with Planned Parenthood — and to join the national movement of pro-life pregnancy centers that offer sonograms, in addition to counseling.
“We chose the location carefully,” said Gariboldi, adding the group paid $125,000 cash for the white cape house at 35 E. Willow St. “Let's be honest. We will be attempting to reach the women walking in the door [of Planned Parenthood] and that's our right,” she said, reported Newsday.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News ----- TITLE: Homosexuals Can Change, Research Says DATE: 05/27/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 27-June 2, 2001 ----- BODY:NEW YORK — Back in 1973, Dr. Robert Spitzer persuaded the American Psychiatric Association to stop classifying homosexuality as a mental disorder.
More than two decades later, the same Dr. Spitzer finds his new research out of step with the prevailing view of homosexuality that he helped create.
He says his five-year study of 200 people shows that homosexuals can change their sexual preference.
“I think I've always been somebody who likes to challenge prevailing orthodoxies,” said Spitzer, chief of biometrics research and professor of psychiatry at New York's Columbia University. “There was an orthodoxy in 1973, and there is a recent orthodoxy in the mental-health profession which makes this kind of a taboo question to even ask.”
Spitzer's study of 143 males and 57 females was presented May 9 at the American Psychiatric Association's annual meeting and since has been met with praise from conservative groups and criticism from homosexual activists. He will also present it to the Catholic Conference on Healing for the Homosexual next month at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
Dr. Richard Fitzgibbons of the Catholic Medical Association, which in November released “Homosexuality and Hope” for Catholic physicians, educators, clergy, parents and mental health professionals, said he feels vindicated by the Spitzer study. “It's encouraging to see a man of science who is able to document what we are stating.”
“Homosexuality and Hope” calls homosexuality a preventable and treatable condition and says it is not genetically determined and unchangeable. “Our statement says that there is no such thing as a homosexual identity. … It is a state of emotional woundedness which can be healed,” said Fitzgibbons, a Philadelphia psychiatrist who helped head the task force that produced the document.
The Catholic Medical Association statement, which supports Catholic teaching that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered and contrary to natural law (No. 2357 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church), says that with the help of grace, the sacraments, support from the community, and an experienced therapist, a determined individual should be able to achieve freedom from homosexuality.
The Catechism teaching concludes: “Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection” (No. 2359).
Different Results
However, Drs. Michael Schroeder and Ariel Shidlo, psychologists who presented results of their five-year study on the effects of homosexual “conversion therapies” at the same American Psychiatrist Association meeting, said their findings differed considerably from Spitzer's.
They found that 178 of their 202 subjects failed in such therapies and that most reported suffering mental stress or emotional pain from the treatment.
Of the 24 who succeeded in making changes, Schroeder and Shidlo said six were what researchers called “heterosexual shifters,” people who were able to shift from being attracted to the same gender to the opposite sex. The other 18, they said, continued to struggle with same-sex desires. “Some labeled themselves as heterosexual, eight or nine took no label at all, and many were asexual or celibate,” Schroeder said.
Shidlo said the study found that most people felt they experienced success early on in their therapy, but failed later: “Some people that we spoke to who failed to change said that had we spoken to them at some point earlier in their journey, they would have told us that they succeeded.”
Schroeder and Shidlo said a stronger study that would follow people from the start of therapy to the post-therapy period has yet to be done.
Spitzer agreed that further study is needed, but he said he likely will not be the person to do it.
He has received hate mail as a result of his findings and has been severely criticized by professional colleagues as well as homosexual leaders.
“My reputation in some circles is over,” he said.
Although he has been embraced by religious conservatives because of his study, he said he does not necessarily share their views and refers to himself as a Jewish atheist.
He stands by his earlier efforts to declassify homosexuality as a psychological disorder. “I'm happy that I did it.
It's a complicated issue,” he said, “but the homosexual community made great strides because of that change and I'm happy about that.”
Spitzer said he remains a supporter of homosexual adoption and homosexuals serving openly in the military.
For now, though, he said, “I'm a temporary hero of the Christian right.”
Power to Change
The subjects in Spitzer's study maintained their shift toward a heterosexual identity for at least five years through exploring their formative experiences and identifying how those could have contributed to their sexual orientation.
The participants also cited same-sex mentoring relationships and behavioral and group therapy as helping them change. For most, religious faith also was a strong motivator.
Of the 200 people in the study, nearly 75% of the men and 50% of the women were married to partners of the opposite sex by the time Spitzer interviewed them.
Most subjects also reported feeling more masculine if they were males or feminine if they were females.
“Good heterosexual functioning” was achieved by 66% of the men and 44% of the women studied.
Spitzer concluded that some highly motivated people could make a substantial change in sexual orientation and achieve good heterosexual functioning, although he said that for a person to completely cease having homosexual attractions and fantasies is likely uncommon.
He said that while talking with people who were protesting the American Psychiatric Association's position statements on reorientation therapy he was moved by curiosity to investigate whether homosexuals could change their sexual orientation.
“When I spoke to individuals who claimed they had changed,” he said, “I began to wonder if it was possible.”
Jerry Armelli was one of those who eventually assured Spitzer that it was.
Armelli, director of Prodigal Ministries in Cincinnati and a participant in the Spitzer study, said he engaged in homosexual behavior for nearly 10 years before ceasing in 1984.
A small prayer group at a Catholic church helped him with the transition.
Said Armelli: “It really was that prayer group and their unconditional love, sharing God's truth with me, bringing order out of the confusion, providing strength for where I was weak, character development and healing from the past.”
Seven years later, he said, he met the woman who would become his wife, and married her in 1994. They now have a 2-year-old daughter.
Armelli, whose group works with homosexuals to help them give up homosexual activity, said Spitzer's study has helped give a voice to those who have experienced change and want to encourage others.
----- EXCERPT: New study reverses psychiatrist's earlier work ----- EXTENDED BODY: Judy Roberts ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: U.S. Patients Report Chinese Organ-Snatchers DATE: 05/27/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 27-June 2, 2001 ----- BODY:NEW YORK — Dr. Thomas Diflo had heard the rumors.
In the media, and among other kidney-transplant doctors, reports and rumors circulated that Chinese prison officials were harvesting the organs of executed prisoners.
Since Chinese prisoners are executed for crimes ranging from small-scale tax evasion to opposing the Communist regime, the country could offer a large supply of donors for the grisly practice.
As the director of renal transplantation at New York University Medical Center, Diflo has plenty of contact with Chinese immigrants who have received transplants overseas. Some of his patients told him that they had received organs from executed prisoners. Now, he is the first American doctor to have publicly revealed that he has treated patients who received organs in this way.
Diflo found the first such patient three years ago. Most of the patients he sees are “patients we've transplanted ourselves,” he said. If someone with a transplant from an outside hospital comes in seeking treatment, it's routine to ask where the transplant came from.
But some of Diflo's patients gave evasive replies, saying their new organs came from shadowy relatives or acquaintances back in China. “They were unable to define better who the relative or the acquaintance was, which made me” suspicious, Diflo said. Some patients told him directly, “I got it from an executed prisoner.” Diflo has seen about six patients with Chinese death-row kidneys.
Diflo told the hospital's ethics committee about his patients Jan. 11, and eventually told his story to the Village Voice weekly newspaper in New York.
“My objective was to publicize it and bring it out in the open,” he said.
Doctors and Executioners
That's the last thing the Chinese government wants.
According to the Laogai Research Foundation, which investigates human rights abuses in Chinese prisons, the rate of organ-snatching has risen in recent years.
The rise is fueled in part by improvements in medical technology, and in part by traditional Chinese cultural beliefs that lead very few Chinese people to donate their organs.
The Laogai Research Foundation says that execution methods vary based on which organ is wanted: a shot to the head to preserve the kidneys, a shot to the chest to keep the corneas intact.
Lethal injections have also spurred the rise in organ harvesting.
The sale of prisoners’ organs benefits guards and even judges, who may be paid by hospitals to inform them when a potential donor is sentenced to death. An investigator for the Laogai Research Foundation, who asked to remain anonymous because she still travels in China, said that the Chinese Journal of Organ Transplantation showed a steady rise in the number of transplants performed, but did not report how many came from executed prisoners.
The investigator told the Village Voice that courts sometimes set execution dates in order to coincide with a demand for organs.
Exiled Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng said that while he was still in prison in China, he once asked a fellow prisoner to help him uncover the organ trade. The prisoner, who was slated for execution, agreed to shout, “I'm not sick, I don't need a doctor,” if he saw doctors waiting to take his organs. If there were no harvesters waiting, the prisoner would just scream.
The prisoner's last act was to shout the message.
Wei told the story in 1998 testimony to the U.S. House of representatives, reported the Village Voice.
Wei added that while he was on death row in China, one of the guards told him that organ removal is sometimes used as the means of execution.
China strongly persecutes Catholics who refuse to join the state-controlled “Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association.” In April, during Holy Week, the government arrested a bishop and many priests and lay Catholics, according to the Cardinal Kung Foundation, which monitors persecution of Chinese Catholics.
China executes more prisoners than all other nations combined, according to Amnesty International. The investigator for the Laogai Research Foundation told the Village Voice that a holiday surge in executions makes the Lunar New Year a particularly good time to get an organ.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., refused to return repeated telephone calls for this article.
However, Chinese spokesmen often point to laws prohibiting the sale of organs, and requiring that prisoners’ organs be taken only if consent is given or the body is unclaimed.
Human rights advocates replied that prisoners’ families often do not know that their relative has been killed, so they do not claim the body.
In the United States, the sale of organs is a felony. Live or executed prisoners cannot donate an organ, except to family members.
It is also against the law to make arrangements on U.S. soil to buy organs overseas.
For years, human-rights advocates have tried to prove that the Chinese organ trade reaches American shores.
In 1998, the FBI caught two men who arranged to fly patients to China for kidneys and to smuggle corneas.
The case fell apart when a key witness fled the country.
Dr. Diflo's Revelations
The next step, Diflo said, is to “find out exactly what the mechanism is, whether there's a middleman here in the United States or whether it all happens in China or what.”
The Laogai Research Foundation's investigator said that Diflo was an important witness because he “demonstrates that this is affecting the United States,” at least in the donor recipients who move here.
“Before, a great majority of the evidence involved things that were going on in China, or at most in Asia at large — Thailand, Malaysia and Hong Kong,” she said.
“That doesn't bring it home as much to the U.S. Congress as when [these patients come to] New York City.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: FBI Blunders Shake Support for Death Penalty DATE: 05/27/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 27-June 2, 2001 ----- BODY:NEW YORK — Nobody expected Timothy McVeigh, the deadliest mass murderer in American history, to become a poster child for opposition to the death penalty.
But after the FBI admitted that it had failed to turn more than 3,000 documents over to defense attorneys, New York Post columnist Rod Dreher began to reconsider his staunch support of capital punishment.
Dreher, a Catholic, had always argued against those who believed the death penalty to be vengeful or unnecessary.
He said, “For years I had doubts” that all the prisoners on death row were guilty, “but the anger I feel at murderers and the compassion I feel for victims gave me a more emotional response.”
The McVeigh mess, coming only weeks after revelations that sloppy expert testimony from an Oklahoma City forensic chemist may have convicted scores of innocent men, shook Dreher. On May 15, he wrote a column describing what he now calls his partial conversion to the anti-death penalty ranks.
Dreher couldn't understand how the FBI could botch such a high-profile, high-stakes case. Although none of the newly revealed documents are thought to cast doubt on McVeigh's guilt — especially since McVeigh has confessed to the Oklahoma City bombing — many people have suggested that if the nation's judicial elite can blunder in their most public case, lower-profile capital cases may be botched as well.
Dreher said that his views on capital punishment began to shift further after he wrote the column: “I picked up a copy of Evangelium Vitae,” Pope John Paul II's 1995 encyclical on the “Gospel of life.”
He said, “John Paul II says in Evangelium Vitae that no human being, not even a murderer, loses the dignity that comes with being a human. Somehow the power of his words struck me in a way they hadn't before.”
Dreher added, “It's very hard for me to have compassion for Timothy McVeigh or any other murderer, but I can live with knowing that they'll be in jail for the rest of their lives. I can't live with knowing that in order to execute them, to bring them that justice, we have to have a system” in which innocent men are mistakenly executed.
Dreher said that he now supports the abolition of the death penalty in the U.S. He said, “I believe the Pope is right: As long as we as a society can protect the commonweal without resorting to bloody means, we should do it.”
Death Penalty ‘Dissenters’
Supporters of capital punishment responded that no one now known to be innocent has been executed since the U.S. Supreme Court revoked its ban on the death penalty in 1976. But Dreher said, “I think that may simply be a matter of time. I'm from Louisiana and I know that black people there, until very recent times, could not even begin to hope to get a fair trial.”
He noted that after forensic chemist Joyce Gilchrist's testimony was exposed as unreliable, Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating ordered a review of every felony conviction that was based on Gilchrist's testimony. One man has already been cleared of a rape charge and released from prison; 12 prisoners on death row may owe their convictions to her, along with 11 who have already been executed. “I'll bet they're frightened of what they're going to find,” Dreher said.
Keating, a Catholic, supports the death penalty and has presided over more than 20 executions. Mike Brake, a spokesman for the governor, said that in the Gilchrist cases reviewed so far, “No indication has arisen in any of those cases that Gilchrist's testimony was central to the conviction,” a claim some reporters following the cases have disputed.
Christopher Thacker, a Catholic convert who works at a Washington, D.C., organization that deals with various policy issues, said that the McVeigh case had only strengthened his support of the death penalty. He called execution “the only just punishment for some crimes.”
He added, “With the modern state of forensic science, it is less likely now than ever before that an innocent person will be convicted of a capital crime. The state has to be free to administer just punishments when guilt can be ascertained ‘beyond a reasonable doubt,’” as in McVeigh's case.
Thacker agreed with Dreher that Catholics must worry “that the poor and disadvantaged are more likely to be subject to the death penalty than wealthy individuals who commit the same crime.” But he said that this poses a challenge to the judicial system as a whole, not to the death penalty.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches: “Assuming that the guilty party's identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against an unjust aggressor” (No. 2267).
The catechism's treatment of capital punishment concludes, “Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm
… the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity are very rare, if not practically nonexistent.”
Dreher Strikes a Nerve
Several readers wrote to Dreher after his column appeared to recount similar changes of heart over the death penalty. Dreher noted, “I got a call today from a friend of mine, a New York police detective and a very strong Catholic. He [said], ‘I've seen it in my own work. You take mug shots to people, ask them to identify them. They say that's the one who did it, and it turns out he wasn't anywhere near the place.’”
Brian Oglesby, a North Carolina defense attorney, wrote to Dreher in agreement. He told the Register that he first began to oppose the death penalty after he began work as a lawyer. “I have personally witnessed mistakes occur in criminal cases which led to an individual being incarcerated but which were later remedied,” he said. “I have seen what happens [in low-profile cases] and it is no prettier than the McVeigh case.” But with the death penalty, he said, mistakes can't be fixed.
Furthermore, he cited a belief in “limited government,” which he said should prevent “giving the government the ultimate power to kill its citizens, even those who commit very serious crimes.”
Dreher concluded that even if his own child were killed, “Even though my heart will be screaming out for the blood of this murderer” he hoped he would not seek the death penalty. He added, “Think about how much of our demand for justice is really a demand for vengeance. That's what it was for me.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Navy Chaplain Who Died for His Men DATE: 05/27/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 27-June 2, 2001 ----- BODY:FAIRFAX, Va. — The whole world seems to be noticing him now, but Jim Hamfeldt remembers the last time he saw Father Vincent Capodanno. It was on the Vietnam battlefield where the priest died.
EWTN will honor Father Capodanno with a special show this Memorial Day; next month a Boston homeless shelter for veterans will be named after him. Gaeta, Italy, the hometown of the priest's grandfather, will soon dedicate a naval hospital and a statue in the town square to the priest-hero. There's even talk that the Vatican may begin the process for his canonization.
Hamfeldt says he knows why — firsthand.
“I judge everyone I know by this guy,” said Hamfeldt, who served with Father Capodanno in Vietnam. “He's the most influential person in my life and that's saying a lot.”
Marines affectionately called Father Capodanno the “grunt padre” for his ability to relate well with soldiers and his willingness to risk his life to minister to the men.
It was during heavy fighting outside the village of Chau Lam on Sept. 4, 1967, that Father Capodanno died. Arriving with ammunition, Father Vincent's chopper had to land in the middle of the battlefield.
First, part of the priest's hand was shot off. Then a mortar shredded his arm. “Most guys would stop with one wound,” said Hamfeldt. “He kept going. He was willing to risk his life to save ours.”
He received the wound that killed him after he administered the sacrament of the sick to a wounded soldier. Hamfeldt said he wishes he could have taken that bullet for Father Vincent.
“But I would have had to stand in line for the chance,” he said, “because so many guys would have done the same thing.”
That kind of affection is spreading today as more people learn about the heroism of the “grunt padre.”
New Fame
All of the attention to Father Capodanno is no surprise to Father Daniel Mode, who wrote a biography about the priest last year.
“Every month I get another story about some miracle that has occurred from knowing Father Capodanno,” said Father Mode. “There's a lot of healing related to Father Capodanno.”
Men usually prefer not to talk about their war experiences, he said. But Marines were excited to share their stories for his book, The Grunt Padre.
“He radiated Christ,” said Father Mode. “He was always with people at their time of need.”
Father Mode said that Bob Stagnold, president of the American Legion, became interested in the “grunt padre” after listening to the author. Now, a new effort is underway to reach veterans with Father Capodanno's story.
A screenwriter has even inked a deal with the Father Vincent Capodanno Foundation to develop a script for a major motion picture, said Father Mode.
Family Hero
All this attention to Father Vincent Capodanno makes his older brother Jim very proud.
“He served and helped the young grunts and now they are helping homeless veterans. It ties together well,” Capodanno said about the dedication of the homeless shelter in Boston. “Thirty-four years later and he's still being honored and I pray that people will always remember him.”
Marines, like Hamfeldt, continue to call Jim to tell him how much his younger brother affected their lives.
“They can't talk enough good about him,” said Capodanno. “They felt at the heart of the battle that they would have rather been killed than Father Vincent.”
And days like Memorial Day are when Capodanno reflects on the brave men, like his brother, who died in battle.
“I think of all the fellas that fought in all the battles for our country,” said Capodanno. “Their bodies are all over the world. You have to pray for the dead. And of course, I think of my brother.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Jammin' Reggae Ghetto Priest DATE: 05/27/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 27-June 2, 2001 ----- BODY:“The ghetto priest of the Caribbean” founded the Missionaries of the Poor and discovered a way to combine his award-winning musical talent with his service to the needy. He recently spoke with Register correspondent Karen Walker.
Walker: What prompted you to found the Missionaries of the Poor?
Several things: the homelessness and destitution in Kingston, Jamaica, and the increase in poverty. We now have 115 members — 10 priests and 105 brothers.
I have worked and lived in the ghettos for the last 20 years. I write a weekly column in The Gleaner newspaper called “Diary of a Ghetto Priest.”
The charism of our institute is to live and work in the ghettos with the homeless and destitute. We take a fourth vow of free service to the least of our brothers and sisters.
You have won awards for your compositions. What sort of music do you specialize in?
The music of Father Richard Ho Lung and Friends is basically Caribbean, featuring reggae, mento, soca, calypso, revival and dance hall rhythms. It's varied. I compose all of our recordings and they are performed by our group, which is 28 years old.
The music is deeply worshipful but extremely modern, filled with percussion instruments as well as conventional Western instruments. We have played to filled-to-capacity audiences in the Caribbean, the United States, Canada and England, including more than 100 overseas tours.
Tell me about your recent Jesus 2000 musical play for the Jubilee Year.
I wrote all the music in just two hours. Meditating on Our Lord's passionate and miraculous presence on earth opened up melodies and rhythms and lyrics that were clear and beautiful, and full of conviction. More than 20 songs for Jesus 2000 were poured into my heart and mind in two wonderful hours.
We encountered problems during the creation of this musical, but performed for more than 30,000 people during its opening weekend in the largest arena in Kingston, Jamaica. Each night was sold out. When the production burst forth on the stage, everyone was shocked, awed and dazzled.
No one, including me, the managers and the technicians, had any idea it would be so fantastic.
People wept, laughed and were thrilled to death! I could not believe the crowds, the feeling of relief and joy as the audiences and our own selves witnessed the fulfillment of Jesus 2000.
What continues to motivate you to do the work you do?
My love of God and the poor. I have a deep desire to see the Catholic Church spread, especially in its covenant with the poor based on Jesus' promise: “I have come to preach good news to the poor.” I want the Church to return to Christ's undying love and readiness to sacrifice himself so that others might live, especially the poor and forgotten.
What are your plans?
To open more homes for the destitute and homeless, for children in danger, the sick and the dying, for people with AIDS who are terminally ill. We do not receive any government subsistence for our poor and cannot do so because of rules and regulations.
We opened missions in India, Haiti, the Philippines and Uganda, Africa, for people who are sick with leprosy, for the mentally ill, for old folk and others who live on the streets and are homeless. We all run free schools for poor village children.
I think it is terribly important that Catholics begin to work together, that missionaries be sent out, lay as well as religious, to show God's love to those in the poor and forgotten countries.
Mission Territories
At present, the Missionaries of the Poor priests and brothers serve the poor in four countries.
In addition to these, the Missionaries also offer the spiritual works of mercy such as retreats, missions, music workshops, liturgy and catechesis.
All the services of the Missionaries are given freely without any charge. Support comes mainly from donations and gifts made by individuals, companies and Church groups.
Naga City, Philippines
E Basic education and feeding for slum children. This includes orphans and disabled children, crippled and incapacitated adults, sick elderly and AIDS patients.
E Care of the mentally ill.
E Care of shutins.
Kingston, Jamaica
E Four shelters for the homeless where more than 400 destitute persons are sheltered and cared for permanently. This includes orphans and disabled children, crippled and incapacitated adults, sick elderly and AIDS patients.
E Feeding program for more than 200 poor families.
E Building and repairing houses of the poor in the ghetto.
E Night shelter for street people.
Cap-Haitien, Haiti
E Permanent shelter and care for 160 homeless people, including children and AIDS patients. This includes orphans and disabled children, crippled and incapacitated adults, sick elderly and AIDS patients.
E Feeding program for poor school-children.
Andhra Pradesh, India
E Caring for lepers.
E Feeding and educating the children of poor laborers.
E Prison ministry.
New missions are planned this year: Uganda, Mexico, Cebu, Philippines and Jamaica.
----- EXCERPT: Inperson ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father Richard Ho Lung ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: At Notre Dame, Bush Defends Faith-Based Plan DATE: 05/27/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 27-June 2, 2001 ----- BODY:SOUTH BEND, Ind. — President George W. Bush urged Americans to “revive the spirit of citizenship” by combating poverty through organizations based on faith.
Speaking to 3,000 Notre Dame graduates and their families and friends, President Bush called service organizations with a spiritual dimension essential in reaching needy individuals.
“Much of today's poverty has more to do with troubled lives than a troubled economy,” Bush said May 20. “And often when a life is broken, it can only be restored by another caring, concerned human being.”
Bush emphasized that compassion was a moral imperative.
“Jewish prophets and Catholic teaching both speak of God's special concern for the poor,” said Bush. “This is perhaps the most radical teaching of faith that the value of life is not contingent on wealth or strength or skill, that value is a reflection of God's image.”
Bush announced at the school's commencement two additional policies, focusing on home ownership and drug addiction, to his faith-based initiatives. He also called on corporations not to discriminate against faith-based organizations simply because they have a religious character.
The president defended his program against critics who have said it would violate the constitutional protections against the establishment of religion.
“Public money already goes to groups like The Center for the Homeless and, on a larger scale, to Catholic Charities. Do the critics really want to cut them off?” the president asked. “Government loans send countless students to religious colleges. Should this be banned? Of course not.”
Before the president's address, protesters gathered outside the auditorium charging that some of Bush's policies contradict the Catholic Church's teachings.
“It's a protest against George Bush's anti-labor policies, his policies against the poor, and the death penalty,” said John Shalanski, of Conyngham, Pa., who had entered the auditorium to watch his son, John, graduate. “A Catholic institution doesn't have to bring in someone that acts contrary to Catholic social teaching.”
But junior Catherine Totten of Pittsburgh said that the small band of protestors were wrong.
“Overall, Bush's policies are closer to the Church's than Gore's — and as far as abortion, he's definitely closest to the Church's teachings,” Totten said.
But Bush left abortion and the death penalty largely unmentioned in his remarks, focusing instead on his plan to fight poverty through community-based organizations, including religious ones.
Princeton professor Robert George praised the remarks.
“Bush made clear that he is not backing away from his faith-based initiative, despite the criticism of some, not all, evangelical leaders and many libertarians,” said George.
‘John Paul II’ Republican
The overall theme should be appealing to those Catholics that voted for Gore, George added.
Bush's vision is “government that, while limited, is active within its proper sphere to support families, churches, and other institutions of civil society who bear primary responsibility for transmitting culture and character and meeting social needs,” George said. “What Bush is, in effect, saying is that ‘I am a John Paul II Republican — pro-life, pro-family, pro-poor,’” said George.
But critics said the speech didn't address nagging concerns that the federal government will end up promoting certain churches by subsidizing their benefits.
“Churches that get these grants — for job training or child care — will grow more,” said Ramesh Ponnuru, senior editor of National Review magazine.
Even worse, he said, churches might alter their character to attract government aid.
Asked Ponnuru, “Should the church's decisions be significantly affected by federal programs?”
Chuck Donovan, vice-president of the Family Research Council, agreed with Ponnuru that the direct grants presented a problem, but overall he praised Bush's remarks.
“This is a comprehensive defense of the faith-based initiatives,” Donovan said. “It's a welcome development from our view.”
Donovan said that the dispute over the grants shouldn't sink other elements of the initiative, such as a proposal to allow all taxpayers to deduct their charitable contributions. “We certainly think that the tax elements shouldn't generate any controversy at all.”
Political Epicenter
Notre Dame, a Catholic university in the Midwest with a national reputation, has long been a coveted presidential speaking engagement — seven presidents going back to Franklin Roosevelt have addressed the campus.
Donovan, an alumnus of Notre Dame, said that addressing the university is a great way for a president to define issues morally.
“Reagan used his [1981] speech to set a moral tone on foreign policy and Bush has used his speech to set a moral tone on domestic policy,” said Donovan.
Another political observer said Notre Dame is an ideal setting for announcing grand ideas.
“When a president speaks there, he consciously and subliminally invokes the greatness of the institution, from scholarship to religion to Knute Rockne,” said Dr. Larry J. Sabato, director of government studies at the University of Virginia.
And speaking at a Catholic university in the Midwest could yield political dividends.
“Bush came close to splitting the Catholic vote with Gore in 2000; by contrast, Bob Dole received only 37% of Catholics in November 1996,” noted Sabato. “If Bush is to win reelection in 2004 he must strengthen his position with two groups above all: Catholics and Hispanics.”
Joshua Mercer writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 05/27/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 27-June 2, 2001 ----- BODY:‘Faith in God’ Not Fit to Print
Florida's St. Petersburg Times and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch replaced Housing and Urban Development head Mel Martinez's words with an ellipsis. The Dallas Morning News, New Jersey's Bergen County Record, and the Knight-Ridder news syndicate didn't even add the ellipsis to let readers know they had cut a phrase.
Martinez is a Catholic immigrant from Cuba.
Polygamy Trial Opens in Utah
ASSOCIATED PRESS, May 14 — Utah's most famous polygamist could face 25 years in prison if convicted on all counts of bigamy and criminal nonsupport, the wire service reported.
Tom Green, who lives with his five “wives” and 29 children, also faces a separate trial for child rape, stemming from his marriage to one woman when she was 13.
There are an estimated 30,000 polygamists living in the West, most in Utah. In 1890, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints disavowed its earlier support of polygamy. Recently, some polygamists have attempted to build political support for their practices.
When Ads Target Kids, Moms Target Ads
The institute's Motherhood Project published a statement signed by prominent mothers such as syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher and the president of the Children's Defense Fund, Marian Wright Edelman.
The statement issued a six-point code of conduct for ads, including a call to end “advertising, marketing, or market research in schools, including high schools.”
The statement came in response to a four-day “Consumer Kids” conference held by advertisers seeking to enhance their skills. The conference discussed issues like the “influence of schools in marketing to kids” and “how to communicate to kids and moms in ways that eliminate the parental barriers to product trial.”
Senators Push for Aid to Cuban Dissidents
Sens. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., and Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., sponsored the “Cuban Solidarity Act,” which would send food, cash, and office supplies to dissidents, political prisoners and their families, workers' rights activists, and independent economists and journalists.
The U.S. has never given direct aid to Cuban dissidents. Though some activists decried the move as “meddling in the internal affairs” of the Communist-run country, the bill's supporters compared it to U.S. aid to the Solidarity movement inside Cold War Poland.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: House Upholds Ban on Funding Promotion of Abortion DATE: 05/27/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 27-June 2, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — By a slim 218-210 margin, the House voted May 16 to maintain a ban on foreign aid to organizations that promote or commit abortions outside the United States.
“It was a little closer than it's been in the past,” Cathy Cleaver, the U.S. bishops' pro-life activities spokeswoman, told the Register. “Planned Parenthood seems to be pulling out all the stops.”
Austin Ruse, president of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, an organization that focuses on international pro-life issues, told the Register that the abortion lobby used this fight to rally its supporters against President Bush's pro-life policies.
“The Hill has been inundated with phone calls,” said Ruse about the abortion activists. “It's easier to get your troops riled up when you're down.”
The anti-abortion spending provision was attached to the State Department's $8.2 billion appropriations bill. The bill covered funding for the fiscal year 2002, in which President Bush has allocated $425 million for overseas “family planning” money.
This year, $372.5 million is being spent on such programs.
To be eligible for this funding, organizations must pledge not to support or commit abortions. Nine groups refused to sign the pledge, whereas 448 groups agreed to the provision.
The vote was a victory for Bush, who reinstated the ban through executive order on his third day in office.
Earlier this month, a House committee had voted to remove the ban. Afterward, the White House had warned in writing that Bush intended to veto any State Department appropriations bill that sought to overturn his executive order.
At a press briefing, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said, “Now that the matter has been returned to the policy that the president supports, unless there is something else in there, the president will be supportive [of the House bill].”
The ban on foreign organizations that promote or commit abortions is known as the Mexico City policy because President Ronald Reagan first enacted the restriction at a population conference there in 1984. It remained in effect until President Bill Clinton removed the ban in 1993.
Pro-life congressional leaders partially restored the ban in 1999 by linking it to a bill to pay U.S. dues owed to the United Nations, but prolifers charged that the Clinton administration continued to circumvent the provision.
Pro-Abortionists' Anger
Abortion supporters denounced the House vote, calling the restriction of subsidies to abortion groups a “gag rule” that stifles free speech.
“Family planning providers around the world need to be able to talk freely with their clients and with their government about important public health issues,” said Gloria Feldt, president of Planned Parenthood of America, an affiliate of Planned Parenthood International, the world's largest private abortion provider. “The ‘gag rule’ forces providers to withhold information from their clients — an intrusion that would be considered intolerable in the United States.”
Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., an active abortion supporter, echoed those comments during the House debate. “It's not about abortion,” said Lowey about the funding ban. “It's about us imposing on others laws we wouldn't impose on ourselves.”
But Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J, vice-chairman of the House International Relations Committee, told fellow House members that Planned Parenthood and their supporters were being disingenuous. Pro-life spokesmen have pointed out that pro-abortion groups remain free to advocate for abortion outside the United States, but disqualify themselves from receiving U.S. taxpayers' funding for their foreign programs if they choose to do so.
“Members should be aware that the International Planned Parenthood Federation is leaving no stone unturned in its misguided, obsessive campaign to legalize abortion on demand around the world,” Smith said during debate on the House floor. “If they succeed, millions of babies will die from the violence of abortion on demand.”
Cleaver said Planned Parenthood demonstrated its extremism during this debate.
“They are committed to abortions and they want to be funded by U.S. dollars for their abortion crusade,” said Cleaver. “It's sensible that the House has saved it from these efforts.”
Joshua Mercer writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 05/27/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 27-June 2, 2001 ----- BODY:Detroit Suburb Rejects Homosexual Ordinance
ROYAL OAK, Michigan — Voters in a Detroit suburb noted for its generally liberal outlook emphatically rejected a proposed human rights ordinance that would have enshrined homosexual rights, the Detroit News reported.
The ordinance, which sought to ban discrimination on the basis of “sexual orientation” and 13 other characteristics, failed by a 2-1 margin.
After city commissioners voted in February to let residents decide directly whether to adopt the ordinance, pro-family activists and homosexual groups both lobbied voters vigorously.
Jessica Taubert, spokeswoman for Royal Oak Citizens Voting No to Special Rights Discrimination, was ecstatic over the outcome, the News reported. Said Taubert, “People are saying loud and clear that Royal Oak does not need this ordinance.”
(The Detroit News)
Viva Las Vegas!
LAS VEGAS — Phil Audet was scheduled to become the first priest ever ordained in the Diocese of Las Vegas on May 22, the diocese reported.
It has been a long road to the priesthood for the Las Vegas precedent-setter. Audet first entered a seminary in Phoenix 20 years ago, but left soon afterward because he felt unready for the priesthood.
But following a stint in the Navy, where he assisted on-board chaplains, he worked on a fish boat in Alaska and discerned there that his vocation was to be a fisher of men, not of fish.
Bush's SEC Nominee Linked to Porn Company
WASHINGTON — Harvey Pitt, President Bush's nominee to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission, helped a pornography distributor clear up a regulatory dispute with the NASDAQ stock exchange, Associated Press reported.
Directors of New Frontier Media Inc. hired Pitt in 1999 to perform legal work to help the company keep its NASDAQ listing, according an SEC filing by the company. NASDAQ officials agreed last year to continue trading the company's stock after its executives restructured stock sales that ran afoul of NASDAQ rules.
New Frontier Media bills itself as “America's Most Turned-On Media Company,” operating pay-per-view satellite and cable television channels that show adult movies and a network of Web sites offering teen sex videos and other sexually explicit material.
Pitt was nominated May 11 as chairman of the SEC, which regulates U.S. stock markets. He was the agency's general counsel from 1975 to 1978. (Agape Press)
Controversial Pope Sculpture Sold For $886,000
NEW YORK — A controversial sculpture of Pope John Paul II fetched $886,000 at a New York auction May 17, the New York Daily News reported.
The sculpture, “La Nona Ora” (“The Ninth Hour”) by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, is a wax effigy of the Pope being struck by a meteorite while holding a cross. The title is a reference to the hour of Christ's death.
When the artwork was displayed in Poland, two members of Poland's parliament moved the meteorite and tried to right the Pope.
U.S. reaction has been less hostile, the Daily News reported. Said Catholic League President William Donohue, “Cattelan's ‘The Ninth Hour’ strikes us as being bizarre, but not necessarily anti-Catholic.”
The Archdiocese of New York had no comment.
(New York Daily News)
Court Postpones Kopp Extradition Hearing
RENNES, France, — James Kopp, the American pro-life activist indicted in the United States for the murder of New York abortionist Barnet Slepian, appeared in a French court May 17 for a first extradition hearing, Agence France Presse reported.
However, the judge agreed to suspend proceedings until June 7 to allow Kopp's lawyer to prepare his case.
Kopp was captured in the western French town of Dinan in March, and in mid-May U.S. diplomats filed an official request for his extra-dition. He has been indicted for the murder of Slepian, who was shot by a sniper using a high-powered rifle at his home in Amherst, N.Y., in October 1998.
The French court is likely to demand guarantees that Kopp will not face the death penalty once he is put on trial before it will approve his extradition.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Father Stravinskas: New Liturgy Document Vindicates Critics DATE: 05/27/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 27-June 2, 2001 ----- BODY:PHILADELPHIA — In the recently-issued Liturgiam Authenticam, the Vatican calls for “a new era” in the translation of liturgical texts. Register correspondent Brian McGuire asked Father Peter Stravinskas to shed some light on the new document and the “old era” in the translation of liturgical texts.
McGuire: Why this document? Why now?
I would say first of all that it's an attempt at correcting course. We are 35 years or more into a vernacular liturgy and it's time to takes stock of what has been accomplished. What's been good, what's been bad.
Secondly, it's a wake up call. There are serious problems with most of the existing translations in most of the main languages — in French, in Japanese, to a lesser degree in Italian and to some degree in German. The Spanish is probably the most accurate. We have found that some translations into the vernacular have actually not been translations from Latin but from the English translations of the Latin. So that you have an already defective English translation now as the basis of liturgical translation in another language.
The third aspect would be to say, with what we hope is the accumulated wisdom of the last 35 years, we can chart a course for the next 60. The document makes clear that this translation process is not to go on interminally.
Does the document's title
I think it's implying that there have been serious problems. No one is questioning, nor should they question, the validity of the texts. But certainly it's been less than a full-throated proclamation of Catholic truth.
Take something as simple as the Domine non sum dignus. For 35 years our people have been praying “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you. But only say the word and I shall be healed.” Well, the Latin says, “and my soul shall be healed.”
This is not an accident.
Has the Church's view of translation changed since the Council?
I think there has been an evolution going on in Rome. Initially, a lot of people involved in the liturgy reforms in Rome were, shall we say, less than enthusiastic about maintaining clear ties to the tradition. Then I think we moved from that group to a group that had a laissez faire mentality in terms of ecclesiastical governance. Then, I think with a number of us in the States in particular, combining with the attitudes of people like Cardinal Ratzinger … this has been starting to move toward a more creative synthesis.
There are people now who see the issues much more clearly and in a much more orthodox fashion than we've witnessed for a very long time.
I think it's not simply a matter of style and taste. These are important issues in liturgy to be sure. But I think the concern that underlies this entire document is a concern for doctrinal integrity and I think that screams out on every page of the document.
Why hasn't the Vatican done the translations itself all along?
The Church operates on a principle of subsidiarity — that nothing ought to be done at a higher level that can be done at a lower level. Also, it was believed that native speakers would be better able to translate into their own languages.
After 35 years it's been proven that this is false. …
I also think there was a great deal of internal conflict at the time of the Second Vatican Council. You had conflicting ideologies. The result was that the local churches were left pretty much to their own devices. I don't think it's fair, for example, to say ICEL went off half-cocked in 1965. I think they did consult with the Holy See and got mixed signals at best and, at worst, complete support for what they were doing. At this point, with a new generation of bishops and a new generation of young Catholics, this new generation is saying, “We don't want this anymore. This is not serving the worship of the Church and this is not serving the catechetical process.”
This document from the Vatican spells out very clearly what the role of a translator is and what it is not. Could these various translation bodies have misunderstood their role for three decades?
I think we grew into several things at once. It was clear to me as a 19-year-old seminarian that the translations we were being given were not translations. They were, at the very best, a paraphrase.
The original translators were not in sync with the mind of the Church as she presented the Latin text.
So, for example, ICEL had clear principles that any time the word anima appeared in Latin, it was not to be translated as soul — that a sacral vocabulary was to be avoided. …
Also, the Church was not to be referred to as “she.” One of the more delicious ironies of this whole thing were some of the changes that took place. Any time the Latin collect had God, it was to be translated Father. Then suddenly, under pressure from feminist ideologues, ICEL was calling for a return to the original language and changed Father back to God.
Some have defended ICEL's use of so-called inclusive language on the grounds that it has become mainstream, that it no longer has the ideological force it once did.
That's complete nonsense because in the real world outside the Church it's not an issue. I'm very careful about watching secular media, and the number of times in any given week on the news that the word man and mankind is used. Hilary Clinton herself uses the word mankind. I've taught at the college and graduate level for years and I have never had a single person in those environments — male or female — become exercised about that issue and they don't use that language themselves. This is completely apart from the real world. It was an effort of an organized lobby of feminists. The language was driven in that direction.
Some have said that the most important point of this document is the Vatican's insistence in it that the Roman Rite is capable of crossing cultures, of not needing to be altered to communicate the faith to people.
No one is a stronger proponent in the union of faith and culture than Pope John Paul II, and yet he begins with the position that every culture needs to be evangelized. There are aspects of culture and of our language, of our mode of living, that are not in keeping with Gospel principles. The liturgy created by the Church is an attempt — not an infallible attempt, but a serious and trustworthy attempt — at providing a text that is free of ideological taint.
What effect has the current translation had?
I think that we can't underestimate how much damage has been done at a practical level by having such translations.
Cardinal Arinze and I were having a discussion about this a couple of years ago. And I said some of this stuff would be humorous if it wasn't so sad. You take a simple line in the Creed like visibilium et invisibilium. A first year Latin student knows that that's visible and invisible.
What does ICEL say? “Seen and unseen.”
Well there's a world of difference between the two. I said to Cardinal Arinze, “let me give you an example. If I hid under the table I'm unseen, but I'm not invisible.”
He howled with laughter. He has said since then that every time he says Mass in English he finds himself smirking at that point in the Mass.
What was the point of that translation? It was precisely to eliminate reference to the invisible world, which consists of spirits and angels.
Once again that issue with the soul.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian Mcguire ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 05/27/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 27-June 2, 2001 ----- BODY:Vatican Radio Opponent Loses Election
Bordon had threatened to shut down Vatican Radio due to charges that its transmitter posed a health hazard. His actions angered some of his fellow ministers, but the Vatican accepted Italy's tougher environmental standards and reduced its short-wave transmissions.
Many scientists say evidence of any environmental hazard is still lacking.
Syrian Anti-Semites Call Pope Pawn of Jews
Soheil Zakar charged that “immense pressure” from Zionist groups forced the Vatican in 1965 to absolve the Jews from the “historical responsibility” for the death of Christ. Zakar, whose book Popes from the Jewish Ghetto claims that three medieval popes were of Jewish origin, accused the Pope of ignoring “the historical side of Christianity.”
Bashir Zohdi, another historian, said that under Pope John Paul II the Church has fallen under Jewish influence.
Meanwhile, the online magazine Jewish World Review castigated the Pope for failing to respond to anti-Jewish statements made by Syrian President Bashar Assad and the mufti of Damascus.
The magazine said that Assad used the visit of the Pope, whom the magazine called “a unique voice of reason” and a tireless friend of the Jews, to “spread the worst kind of anti-Jewish libels.” Assad said that Muslims and Christians should join together against the Jews, and he accused the Jews of betraying Christ. The magazine called for an apology from the Pope.
The Vatican issued a response noting that Pope John Paul II has consistently made it clear that he does not oppose Jews or blame them for Christ's death in any way.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Appointments & Meetings DATE: 05/27/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 27-June 2, 2001 ----- BODY:Appointed
Saturday, May 12
• Father Lawrence Saldanha, as archbishop of Lahore, Pakistan.
• Coadjutor Bishop Vilhelms Lapelis succeeded Bishop Arvaldis Brumanis of Liepaja, Latvia, who reached 75, the age limit.
Monday, May 14
• Father Denis Wiehe as coadjutor bishop of Port Victoria, Seychelles.
• Msgr. Agostino De Angelis as prelate judge of the Tribunal of the Roman Rota.
Tuesday, May 15
• Cardinals Ignace Moussa I Daoud, Giovanni Battista Re, Ivan Dias, Desmond Connell, Zenon Grocholewski and Walter Kasper as members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
• Cardinals Varkey Vithayathil, Lubomyr Husar, Karl Lehmann, Agostino Cacciavillan and Walter Kasper as members of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches.
• Cardinals Ivan Dias, Juan L. Cipriani Thorne, Claudio Hummes, Jorge M. Bergoglio, Cormac Murphy-O‘Connor, Francois X. Nguyen Van Thuan, Jose Saraiva Martins and Mario F. Pompedda as members of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
• Cardinals Janis Pujats, Juan L. Cipriani Thorne and Jorge M. Mejia as members of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
• Cardinals Desmond Connell, Louis-Marie Bille, Karl Lehmann, Agostino Cacciavillan, Zenon Grocholewski and Jose Saraiva Martins as members of the Congregation for Bishops.
• Cardinals Wilfrid F. Napier, Bernard Agre, Ignacio A. Velasco Garcia, Francois X. Nguyen Van Thuan and Agostino Cacciavillan as members of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.
• Cardinals Marian Jaworski, Johannes J. Degenhardt, Oscar A. Rodriguez Maradiaga, Jorge M. Bergoglio, Severino Poletto, Sergio Sebastiani and Crescenzio Sepe as members of the Congregation for the Clergy.
• Cardinals Francisco J. Errazuriz Ossa, Wilfrid F. Napier and Jorge M. Bergoglio as members of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
• Cardinals Christoph Schonborn, Johannes Joachim Degenhardt, Ivan Diaz, Pedro Rubiano Saenz, Audrys J. Backis and Jose da Cruz Policarpo as members of the Congregation for Catholic Education.
• Bishop Jorge E. Jimenez Carvajal of Zipaquira, Colombia, as counsellor of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.
• Appointed Msgr. Thomas J. Rodi as bishop of Biloxi, Mississippi, following the resignation of Bishop Joseph L. Howze, who reached 75.
Wednesday, May 16
• Coadjutor Bishop Gerald Almeida became the bishop of Jabalpur, India, following the resignation of Bishop Theophane M. Thannickunnel.
Thursday, May 18
• Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re as a member of the Council of Cardinals and Bishops of the Section for Relations with States of the Secretary of State.
• Cardinals Antonio J. Gonzalez Zumarraga, Desmond Connell, Julio Terrazas Sandoval, Francisco Alvarez Martinez, Jose da Cruz Policarpo and Francois X. Nguyen Van Thuan as members of the Pontifical Council for the Laity.
• Cardinals Ignace Moussa I Daoud, Francisco Alvarez Martinez, Lubomyr Husar and Sergio Sebastiani as members of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
• Cardinals Marian Jazworski, Francisco J. Errazuriz Ossa, Bernard Agre, Claudio Hummes, Jorge M. Bergoglio and Edward M. Egan as members of the Presidential Committee of the Pontifical Council for the Family.
• Cardinals Theodore E. McCarrick, Oscar A. Rodriguez Maradiaga, Bernard Agre and Jorge M. Mejia as members of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.
• Cardinals Ignacio A. Velasco Garcia and Claudio Hummes as members of the Pontifical Council “Cor Unum.”
• Cardinals Geraldo M. Agnelo and Pedro Rubiano Saenz as members of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples.
• Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins as a member of the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers.
• Cardinals Ignace Moussa I Daoud, Agostino Cacciavillan, Zenon Grocholewski and Mario F. Pompedda as members of the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts.
• Cardinals Claudio Hummes, Sergio Sebastiano, Crescenzio Sepe and Jorge M. Mejia as members of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue.
• Cardinals Ivan Dias, Louis-Marie Bille, Claudio Hummes, Jose da Cruz Policarpo, Jorge M. Mejia and Walter Kasper as members of the Pontifical Council for Culture.
• Cardinals Audrys J. Backis, Oscar A. Rodriguez Maradiaga, Bernard Agre and Crescenzio Sepe as members of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.
• Cardinals Theodore E. McCarrick, Cormac Murphy-O‘Connor and Karl Lehmann as members of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See.
• Cardinals Louis-Marie Bille and Severino Poletto as members of the Prefecture for Economic Affairs of the Holy See.
• Cardinals Ivan Dias, Geraldo M. Agnelo, Audrys J. Backis, Severino Poletto and Jorge M. Mejia as members of the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Patrimony of the Church.
• Cardinals Antonio J. Gonzalez Zumarraga, Francisco J. Errazuriz Ossa, Julio Terrazas Sandoval, Oscar A. Rodriguez Maradiaga, Ignacio A. Velasco Garcia, Juan L. Cipriani Thorne, Claudio Hummes and Agostino Cacciavillan as counselors of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.
Met With
Friday, May 11
• Participants in the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Missionary Works.
• Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith.
Saturday, May 12
• His Beatitude Cardinal Ignace Moussa I Daoud, prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches.
• Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops.
Monday, May 14
• Seven members of the bishops' conference of Bangladesh on their ad limina visit, which heads of dioceses make every five years to review their diocese with the Pope and Vatican officials.
Tuesday, May 15
• Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.
Wednesday, May 16
• Cardinal Camillo Ruini, vicar general for the diocese of Rome, with Archbishop Cesare Nosiglia, vice-regent of Rome, and two parish priests to prepare for a papal visit.
Friday, May 18
• Five members of the bishops' conference of Pakistan on their ad limina visit.
• Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone, secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Pilgrimage of Peace DATE: 05/27/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 27-June 2, 2001 ----- BODY:Register Summary
Pope John Paul II said he was encouraged and moved by the warm welcome of Orthodox and Muslim leaders and youths during his early May pilgrimage to Greece, Syria and Malta.
Speaking May 16 at his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square, he said reconciliation with Orthodox Christians and dialogue with Muslims were among Catholic Church priorities for the new millennium.
During his May 4-9 visit to the three countries, the Pope retraced the footsteps of St. Paul, completing a cycle of long-desired biblical pilgrimages to mark the new millennium of Christianity.
My pilgrimage in St. Paul's footsteps, which took me to Greece, Syria and Malta, ended a week ago. Today, I am happy to reflect with you on this event, which constitutes the last part of my Jubilee journey to the principal places of salvation history. I am grateful to all those who followed me in prayer on this unforgettable “return to the sources” to draw on the freshness of the initial Christian experience.
I renew my sentiments of cordial gratitude to Mr. Kostis Stephanopoulos, president of the Hellenic Republic, for inviting me to visit Greece. I thank Mr. Bashar Assad, president of the Syrian Arab Republic, and Mr. Guido De Marco, president of the Republic of Malta, who welcomed me so courteously in Damascus and Valletta.
In all these places, I wanted to give evidence to the Orthodox Churches of the affection and esteem of the Catholic Church, with the hope that the memory of past faults against communion will be fully purified, and make way for reconciliation and fraternity. I had the opportunity, moreover, to reaf-firm the sincere openness with which the Church turns to the believers of Islam, to whom we are united in adoration of the one God.
I consider it a particular grace to have been able to meet the Catholic bishops of Greece, Syria and Malta, especially in their mission fields — and together with them, the priests, the men and the women religious, and the numerous lay faithful. Following in St. Paul's footsteps, Peter's successor was able to comfort and encourage those communities, exhorting them to fidelity and, at the same time, to openness and fraternal charity.
Preaching in the Areopagus
The words of Paul's famed address, recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, echoed in the Areopagus of Athens. They were read in Greek and English, and this very fact was significant in itself. The Greek language was, in fact, the one most spoken in the Mediterranean region at the beginning of the first millennium, as English is today at the global level. The “Good News” of Christ, revealer of God and savior of the world — yesterday, today and forever — is intended for all men and women on earth, according to his explicit command.
At the beginning of this third millennium, the Areopagus of Athens became, in a certain sense, “the Areopagus of the world,” from which the Christian message of salvation was proposed again to all who are searching for God and are “God-fearing” in accepting his inexhaustible mystery of truth and love. In particular, through the reading of the “Joint Declaration,” which at the end of a fraternal meeting I signed with His Beatitude Christodoulos, archbishop of Athens and All Greece, an appeal was directed to all the peoples of the European Continent not to forget their Christian roots.
Paul's address in the Areopagus constitutes a model of inculturation and, as such, it retains its timeliness intact. Because of this, I proposed it again at the eucharistic celebration with the Catholic community in Greece, recalling the wonderful example of the holy brothers Cyril and Methodius, natives of Salonika. FaithfulIy and creatively taking their inspiration from that model, they did not hesitate to spread the Gospel among the Slavic peoples.
Paul's Vocation And Ours
After Greece, I went to Syria where, on the Damascus road, the risen Christ appeared to Saul of Tarsus, transforming him from a fierce persecutor into a tireless apostle of the Gospel. It was a journey to the origins, as [was my pilgrimage to the places of] Abraham, a return to the call, the vocation. That is what I was thinking when I visited St. Paul's Memorial. God's interaction with men always begins with a call — a call that invites one to leave behind oneself and one's own security to set out towards a new land, trusting the One who calls. That's how it was for Abraham, Moses, Mary, Peter and the other Apostles — and also for Paul.
Today, Syria is a country inhabited primarily by Muslims, who believe in one God and seek to subject themselves to him following the example of Abraham, to whose faith they gladly link their own (see Nostra Aetate, No. 3). At the beginning of the third millennium, the interreligious dialogue with Islam is becoming ever more important and necessary. In this respect, the warm welcome reserved for me by the civil authorities and the Grand Mufti was truly encouraging. [The latter] accompanied me on the historic visit to the Great Mosque of the Omayyad, where the Memorial to St. John the Baptist is found — which is very much venerated by Muslims also.
In Damascus, my pilgrimage assumed, above all, a strong ecumenical character, thanks particularly to the visits I had the joy of making to the cathedral of His Beatitude Ignatius IV, the Greek-Orthodox patriarch, and to that of His Holiness Mor Ignatius Zakka I, the Syrian-Orthodox patriarch. Then, in the historic Greek-Orthodox Cathedral of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, we held a solemn prayer meeting. Thus, with heartfelt emotion, I saw one of the principal objectives of the Jubilee pilgrimage realized, namely, to “gather together in the places of our common origin, to bear witness to Christ our unity (cf., Ut Unum Sint, No. 23) and to confirm our mutual commitment to the restoration of full communion” (Letter on the Pilgrimage to Places Linked to the History of Salvation, No. 11).
A Cry for Peace
In Syria, motivated, unfortunately, by the dramatic present situation, which is becoming ever more troubling, I could not but direct a special plea to God for peace in the Middle East. I went up to the Golan Heights, to the church of Quneitra, half-destroyed by the war, and there raised my plea. In a certain sense, my spirit remained there, and my prayer continues and will not end until vendetta gives way to reconciliation and the recognition of mutual rights.
This hope is based on faith. It is the hope I entrusted to the youth of Syria, whom I had the joy of meeting on the evening before leaving Damascus. I carry in my heart the warmth of their greeting and I pray to the God of peace that Christian, Muslim and Jewish youth will be able to grow together as children of the one God.
Ship of Paul, Ship of the Church
The last stage of my pilgrimage in Paul's footsteps was the island of Malta, where the Apostle spent three months, after the sinking of the ship that was taking him as a prisoner to Rome (see Acts 27:39-28:10). For the second time, I too experienced the warm welcome of the Maltese, and had the joy of beatifying two sons of their people — Don Giorgio Preca, founder of the Society of Christian Doctrine, and Ignatius Falzon, a lay catechist — together with Sister Maria Adeodata Pisani, a Benedictine religious.
Once again I wanted to point out the way of holiness as the high road for believers of the third millennium. In the vast ocean of history, the Church does not fear the challenges and snares she encounters in the course of her voyage — as long as she holds the rudder firm on the way of holiness, toward which she has been pointed by the Great Jubilee of 2000 (see Novo Millennio Ineunte, No. 30).
May this be so for all, thanks also to the intercession of Mary, to whom we have constant recourse during this month of May, dedicated to her. May the Virgin help every Christian, every family and every community to continue with renewed energy in their commitment of daily fidelity to the Gospel.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Pro-Abortionists Threaten Nicaraguan Church Leaders DATE: 05/27/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 27-June 2, 2001 ----- BODY:MANAGUA, Nicaragua — Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo, Archbishop of Managua, shocked the congregation at the city's cathedral on Sunday, April 29. He disclosed the existence of a plan to kill “bishops, cardinals and priests.” The plot was allegedly launched by “foes of the pro-life and anti-abortion campaign launched by the Catholic Church.”
Cardinal Obando announced that “reliable sources have told us of [the alleged plot's] existence, but we want to be prudent, so for now we will not give any names.”
In a country in which Cardinal Obando is almost a national hero, the news could not be more shocking.
President Arnoldo Aleman ordered an immediate investigation, while Managua's police department ordered permanent protection for the archbishop.
The announcement also sparked a wave of speculation about when and why a life threat against Church personalities had been issued.
Apparently, the controversy started at an April 4 session at a Managua hotel, where a pro-abortion forum entitled “Pending Sexual and Reproductive Rights, After Cairo and Beijing” took place.
The non-public event, organized by the local feminist group “Sí Mujer” and by “Hivos,” a private Dutch organization, featured Latin American pro-abortion leaders such as Armando Ulloa from Nicaragua, Margot Tapia from the Dominican Republic and Argentinean Martha Alaniz, regional coordinator of “Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir,” the Latin American branch of the U.S.-based pro-abortion group “Catholics for a Free Choice.” That group has been denounced by the U.S. bishops for misrepresenting itself as an authentically Catholic organization.
According to some published accounts, near the end of the meeting Guatemalan participant Laura Elisa Asturias asked Alaniz when a Central American branch of Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir would be opened, “because we need to eliminate the opinion of cardinals, bishops and priests, who make almost impossible any advancement on sexual and reproductive rights,” Asturias said
Enthusiastic claps and cheers immediately followed Asturias' words.
But Nina Lucas, a pro-lifer who works as advisor on moral values at the Nicaraguan Ministry of Education, was not clapping. According to her account of the meeting, the words “the opinion of” were never pronounced by Asturias, and the claps and cheers followed a direct threat against the lives of Catholic clergy.
Contacted by the Register, Lucas, who attended the forum in the company of another pro-lifer, José Tenorio, confirmed her earlier account.
Threat was Taped
Lucas' account was substantiated by the May 12 airing by a local television station of an audiocassette, in which a feminine voice clearly asked for the “elimination of cardinals, bishops and priests,” without any reference to their “opinions.”
After the tape was aired, Auxiliary Bishop Jorge Solórzano told the Register, “You can see now that what was seen as a preposterous theory has been proven real.”
But after the April 4 meeting, Asturias claimed to reporters that she had referred to eliminating the opinions, not the persons, of Church authorities.
Her version was backed by some other conference participants. Germán Arteaga Ríos, a writer from the left-wing quarterly Tesis, told the Register, “I don't think she [Asturias] meant to physically eliminate Church authorities, but just to get them out of the issue.”
However, pro-life activist Tenorio told the local magazine Confidencial that he stood up during the controversial meeting, specifically pointed out that an open threat against the lives of Church officials had just been made, and demanded a clarification or an apology.
“Someone there openly asked for a plan to eliminate cardinals and bishops, and when you say eliminate, you are clearly talking like a mobster, aren't you?” Tenorio said.
A week after his April 29 allegations, Cardinal Obando politely requested police stop protecting him, “because for so many years, I have been protected by the Holy Spirit,” he said.
Msgr. Eddy Montenegro, Vicar General of Managua, said that even though the archdiocese has proof of the threat, “no case will be presented before the judiciary, because that is not the spirit of the Church.” But, he added, Cardinal Obando decided to go public with the case “because he wanted to let the people know that there are very radical people fighting against life.”
Anti-Life ‘Logic’
Meanwhile, in neighboring El Salvador, Archbishop Fernando Sáenz Lacalle of San Salvador expressed his solidarity with pro-lifers in Nicaragua and elsewhere in Central America. He said he was “not surprised with the possibility of the threats, because it fits perfectly in the logic of those who have no hesitation in murdering the unborn.”
Said Archbishop Sáenz Lacalle, “if the threats took place or not is not the most important issue here. What really matters is that there is a culture war, in which pro-lifers are facing forces who have very few moral limits, if any.”
Concluded the Salvadoran archbishop, “Whoever intentionally promotes abortion as a ‘right’ has a criminal mind.”
Alejandro Bermúdez is based in Lima, Peru.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Alejandro Bermudez ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 05/27/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 27-June 2, 2001 ----- BODY:Angolan Rebel Asks Church to Mediate
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, May 14 — Angolan rebel leader Jonas Savimbi has sent a letter to the war-torn country's bishops asking the Catholic Church to mediate between rebels and the government, the wire service reported.
The rebels had announced earlier that they would pursue “a military campaign throughout the land,” and their attacks in the week of May 5 left hundreds dead or missing. However, there are signs that Savimbi and his supporters may be ready to return to the negotiating table. One bishop told the RDP Africa Web site that Savimbi's letter might become the basis for a cease-fire.
Angola's civil war, which has claimed at least 500,000 lives, resumed in 1998.
Irish Priest Shortage Easing
While there is expected to be only one ordination this year in the Dublin archdiocese, Ireland's biggest, across the country there will be 32 ordinations this year, six more than last year.
The numbers are much stronger for seminarians. Last year only 25 men began preparing for the priesthood, whereas this year there are 139.
Poland's Bishops Plan Apology to Jews
ASSOCIATED PRESS, May 15 — Cardinal Jozef Glemp, head of the Catholic Church in Poland, said that the country's bishops plan to apologize for evils committed against Jews by Polish Catholics during World War II, the wire service reported.
However, Cardinal Glemp rejected accusations that the Church had fostered the anti-Semitism that led to pogroms like the one in Jedwabne.
The ceremony will be held at a Warsaw church that bordered the Jewish ghetto set up by the Nazis. The church's wartime provost, though he had been known for anti-Semitic views before the war, helped many Jews fleeing the ghetto.
Poland had 3.5 million Jewish citizens before the war, about 10% of the population. About 3 million were killed in the Holocaust, along with more than 3 million non-Jewish Poles. Most Jewish survivors fled after the war due to communist-sponsored anti-Semitic propaganda. About 20,000 Jews live in Poland now.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Cardinals' Job: Bring Church Into the New Millennium DATE: 05/27/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 27-June 2, 2001 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — Pope John Paul II's sixth “extraordinary consistory” of cardinals began meeting May 21 in the Vatican — eight minutes early.
The consistory, a meeting to which all 183 members of the College of Cardinals are invited, began early when the Holy Father arrived unexpectedly, startling some of the cardinals who came at the scheduled hour and found that prayers had already begun.
It may have been a sign that the Pope was eager to begin work on what some have called the Church's “agenda for a new millennium.”
“The Holy Father does not allow himself to rest — he never looks backward, only forward,” said Cardinal William Baum, the senior cardinal from the United States, noting that the Pope had just celebrated his 81st birthday and returned from a trip to Greece, Syria and Malta. “And he does not let us rest either. He does not tire of preaching the Gospel.”
“The Church listens to the Spirit in every moment, but especially in those that are decisive,” said John Paul II himself May 20, commenting on the Gospel of the day. “It was like this in the Cenacle of Jerusalem, and in the first ‘council’ that opened the doors to the pagans, and it will also be so in this consistory.”
Pastoral Priorities
This consistory was called by the Holy Father to discuss the pastoral priorities of the Church after the conclusion of the Jubilee Year. On five previous occasions the Pope has called together the cardinals to advise him on specific issues, including Curial reform, Vatican finances and contemporary threats to human life.
“The Pope told us that it is not right that the cardinals only meet when there is no pope,” said Cardinal Paul Poupard, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, speaking about the last such consis-tory in 1994, called to discuss preparations of the Year 2000.
“The well-known key of this pontificate for almost 23 years has been the Jubilee Year,” said Msgr. Timothy Dolan, Rector of the Pontifical North American College, on the eve of the consistory. “Now the question is: What must we do so that the energy of the Jubilee Year is not lost?”
Dolan also addressed the issue that has drawn most of the secular media to Rome this week — the sense that this is a “rehearsal” for the next conclave.
“It would be a mistake to think that this is the Iowa caucuses for the next conclave,” said Dolan. “But the Holy Father is a very practical man — he knows that he now has 183 cardinals, many of them brand new, and that he has to create opportunities for them to get to know one another.”
Reviewing the Jubilee
The Holy Father began the consistory by addressing the subject at hand: the Holy year.
“I pray that the Spirit of the Lord, who has allowed us to live these extraordinary ecclesial experiences, may continue to guide us and help us now to determine the challenges emerging from this epochal event,” he said
The Pope proposed to begin the consistory by listening to what the Church's leading pastors have to say.
“In these days we shall have the opportunity to listen to reflections and testimonies,” the Holy Father said.
“We shall confront in a fraternal spirit pastoral problems and challenges; together we shall look again at the most appropriate ways of being, even today, a credible sign of God's love for every man.”
Two cardinals were asked to provide brief opening reflections for the consistory's first session: Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, president of the Central Committee for the Great Jubilee, and Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, now Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, but previously the secretary of the Jubilee committee.
“The Jubilee was celebrated with fervor in the official Church of China,” recalled Cardinal Etchegaray, offering his own testimony of the Jubilee experience. “In September, at the national seminary of Beijing, I was received by 120 seminarians who were wearing T-shirts with the Jubilee logo and who sang the Jubilee hymn.”
Cardinal Etchegaray reviewed the main highlights of the Jubilee Year, paying particular attention to the ecumenical and inter-religious dimensions, as well as the moments that captured the world's attention: the day of asking forgiveness, the commemoration of the 20th century martyrs, and the pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
Calling the “People of God” the “true protagonist” of the Jubilee, Cardinal Sepe offered a hopeful outlook for the future.
“In reality, for an event such as this there does not exist the word ‘end’,” said Cardinal Sepe. “Indeed, everything begins again with a new spirit, with fresh and reinvigorated strength after a journey which did not cause tiredness, but instead a new enthusiasm. That ‘duc in altum’ [Go out into the deep], which was proposed to the Church of the new millennium, is like a symbol stamped on the seal of a new, great phase of proclamation and of evangelization.”
Cardinal Sepe highlighted six aspects of the Jubilee Year which he offered as having the potential to build upon in the new century: E attention to the teaching of the Second Vatican Council;
E rediscovery of the holiness of the faithful, particularly in frequenting the sacraments;
E concrete steps toward practical charity and justice;
E the spirit of pilgrimage, both of the faithful and of the Pope;
E ecumenism and witnesses to the faith; and E a move toward the future with confidence, renewed by both Eucharistic and Marian devotion.
“In conclusion,” said Cardinal Sepe, “the Jubilee in Rome, the Holy Land and in the local Churches, has shown the face of a living and young Church, not at all weary from two millennia of history already traveled, and more ready than ever to confront the new challenges of the third millennium.”
Raymond de Souza writes from Rome.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Raymond De Souza ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Behind the Consistory Doors DATE: 05/27/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 27-June 2, 2001 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — The sight of the scarlet swirling around the Synod Hall signifies that an august gathering is underway, but otherwise the cardinals were greeting old friends and new faces as if it was a class reunion — which in a way it is.
The whole college of Cardinals rarely meets, and so it can be years in between opportunities for everyone to meet everyone else. And the need for such meetings becomes more evident as the college grows bigger — 44 new cardinals were added last February.
“You are still alive!” exclaimed one African cardinal to another upon embracing him in the Synod Hall before the first session. With 183 members now, the vast majority in their 70s or older, it is not easy to keep track of who is who.
But some of the newcomers are better known than others.
Cardinal Avery Dulles had a regular stream of well-wishers, especially amongst the other theologian-cardinals, including Cardinals Walter Kasper and Christoph Schonborn. Cardinal Dulles jokingly refers to himself as the “bambino” of the college — he is the most junior on the order of seniority — even though at 82 he was the oldest of the new cardinals last February.
Yet as large as the college is now, when assembled all together in the Synod Hall — a plain facility in which the cardinals only fill half the available seats — it is clear that they are a small band of brothers given the size of the Church they lead. The consistory is a remarkably workmanlike affair, with the cardinals leaving their secretaries and entourages elsewhere.
The Holy Father, too, is more or less on his own, unaccompanied as he entered even by Bishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, his longtime secretary who is customarily at his side.
But when the Pope arrives, it is time to work — or rather, to pray. The consistory sessions open with prayers, and in the morning the cardinals pray together the “third hour” of the breviary. They begin, as is traditional in meetings of bishops, by singing the Veni Creator Spiritus, invoking the Holy Spirit.
After prayers, the journalists leave and the work of the consistory begins. It is mostly a matter of listening for three days to other cardinals speak — a sometimes difficult change of pace for prelates who are usually the featured speakers wherever they go.
“They listen to each other, mostly,” commented one observer inside the Synod Hall. “But they hope that in those many words they can listen to the whisperings of the Holy Spirit speaking to the churches.”
— Raymond de Souza
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: EDITORIAL DATE: 05/27/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 27-June 2, 2001 ----- BODY:The Church is changing the world. That's the secret Pope John Paul II knows that allows him to do such great things.
The Church is changing the world. Not the other way around.
The secular media has been speculating wildly about what secret agenda is on the table in the May 21-24 consistory. The fact is that the basic text of what the cardinals are discussing has been on the Vatican Web site for months: It's the January apostolic letter Novo Millennio Ineunte (At the Beginning of the Third Millennium).
The tone is set in the introduction where the Holy Father declares that “the one holy, catholic and apostolic Church of Christ is truly present and operative.” The Church is still at the center of human history, he says.
The document seems eager to correct a misunderstanding about the Jubilee. It was not an event that happened for one year in Rome; it was a renewal of the Church that is meant to have consequences in every diocese around the world.
The same paragraph continues by locating the place the Church will change the world: each of our neighborhoods: “It is above all in the actual situation of each local church that the mystery of the one People of God takes the particular form that fits it to each individual context and culture” (No. 3).
The document is written with authority and confidence. To the Holy Father, Christ is not someone from the past; he is God-with-us, the Lord of the universe, waiting only for man's cooperation to finish his work.
The Pope is not worrying about saving the Church. He's anxious to see the Church save mankind.
And he wants to see the task begun, right away, with concrete projects: “the experiences we have had should inspire in us new energy, and impel us to invest in concrete initiatives the enthusiasm which we have felt” (No. 15).
The Holy Father warns against expecting it to be easy, saying, “We are certainly not seduced by the naive expectation that, faced with the great challenges of our time, we shall find some magic formula” (No. 29).
Nonetheless, he adds, “It is not … a matter of inventing a ‘new program.’ The program already exists: it is the plan found in the Gospel and in the living Tradition, it is the same as ever.”
And how will such an effort succeed? “Ultimately,” writes the Pope, “it has its center in Christ himself, who is to be known, loved and imitated, so that in him we may live the life of the Trinity, and with him transform history until its fulfillment in the heavenly Jerusalem” (No. 29).
All that's left is that Christ's program “must be translated into pastoral initiatives adapted to the circumstances of each community.”
Then, the document directly addreses the bishops: “I therefore earnestly exhort the Pastors of the particular Churches, with the help of all sectors of God's People, confidently to plan the stages of the journey ahead, harmonizing the choices of each diocesan community with those of neighboring Churches and of the universal Church” (No. 29).
He even lists what he thinks are the priorities for the Church in the years ahead: the universal call to holiness, education in prayer, the Sunday Eucharist and the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
So, the Holy Father doesn't have a secret agenda to talk to the cardinals about. He's made his plans perfectly clear.
He wants Catholics to change the world.
----- EXCERPT: The Pope's 'Secret' Agenda ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 05/27/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 27-June 2, 2001 ----- BODY:Don't Pin Hopes on Ribbons
Regarding “Pro-Lifers Step up the Pressure” (April 29-May 5):
The demand of the pro-life group Life Dynamics that President Bush appoint a blue-ribbon panel of experts to find a way to stop abortions is preposterous. Who will be on this panel? The same political gamblers who convinced us the election of Ronald Reagan would guarantee the end of abortion through U.S. Supreme Court appointments?
By now it should be apparent that saving the unborn calls for a different strategy than saving Social Security. President Bush should not squander his political capital on a public-relations display producing great expectations with no chance of success. If after 28 years the pro-life movement still doesn't understand what legal mechanism must be used to change Roe v. Wade, all the blue ribbon panels in the world won't be of any help.
ROBERT A. NICKLAUS
Cologne, Minnesota
Give Bush a Break
Your editorial “Who Wants to be a Republican?” (May 6-12) contains two statements that require corrective comments.
You state, “Yet Republican presidents gave us a pro-abortion Supreme Court majority …” This is only true because of a reversal of position on the part of Justice [Anthony] “Flipper” Kennedy.
You add, “and Republican Congress pressed partial-birth (bans) only when it could embarrass Clinton, but have tabled it when it can actually get signed into law.” You overlook the reality that the Supreme Court has recently labeled such laws unconstitutional, overturning a 99-1 vote in the Nebraska legislative body.
It is true that we defenders of the right to life must hold our new president's feet to the fire on the issue (he is not an ideologue), but give him a break. He's trying.
WILLIAM F. COLITION JR. M.D.
Bethesda, Maryland
Bush Isn't the Enemy
Being an advocate of a no-exception human-life amendment [to the U.S. Constitution], I was hesitant to write regarding Eve Tushnet's article “How Pro-Life is the Bush Administration?” (May 13-19), but, frankly, I fail to see how shooting at the best leader this country has had on the anti-abortion issue will help save babies.
Whether we like it or not, this country is not ready to support an end to abortions. They need, first, to understand that abortions are not anything but a treacherous operation that results in the death of at least one defenseless human being. If we push for legislation that has no chance of passing, we only give the enemies of life ammunition to argue they have the population's interest at heart.
The president has taken numerous steps to educate this society. Let's not weaken him by failing to recognize who the enemy really is — a poorly informed, self-deluded voting public.
ALLEN LYONS
Clinton, Connecticut
Bullying Smarts
I am a certified pediatric nurse practitioner currently working as a school nurse and I am writing in response to your answer in the May 13-19 Family Matters column, “School Phobia II” by Dr. Ray Guarendi.
You brought up many good points, but I believe there are other concerns that must be addressed regarding the sudden onset of a child not wanting to go to school.
Parents, faculty and staff should be concerned that something improper may be happening at school and the child is trying to avoid it. It is important that something is done to determine if the child has become a victim of teasing or bullying either by his classmates, other school students, or has been ridiculed by a teacher. It is also important to determine if something has happened to embarrass him at school — forgetting an assignment, doing poorly on a test, being the victim of a joke, spilling a lunch, etc.
Bullying or embarrassing episodes can account for the sudden development of a child not wanting to go to school. If the school is no longer a comfortable place for him to be, he will want to avoid it. It is important for the parents to talk with the child and the school to find out if there has been a problem. Children are often not willing to volunteer that there is a problem, especially that they are the victim of another person.
If it is determined that the child has been a victim of a joke or a bully, it is very important for the child to have the opportunity to discuss the situation and how they feel about it. In addition to expressing their feelings they must work with an adult/counselor to develop a plan to overcome the damage that has been done and ways to prevent it in the future.
Bullying and cruel practical jokes are a menace in our society. One only has to look at the news over the last few years to see the results of bullies. In each of the school violence episodes, the aggressor was a victim of bullying. In many instances the victims of bullies are told that they must just toughen up or just ignore it. It is as impossible to ignore the wounding of ones spirit as it is to ignore the wounding of one's flesh — it hurts.
Please address these issues in your column in response to the child's refusal to go to school.
LINDA FRYE
Middletown, Kansas
Bullies Beware
I just read Dr. Ray Guarendi's Family Matters column “School Phobia II” (May 13 –19).
Something that concerns me is that you did not seem to spend much time on the possibility of problems at school. My children are now ages 14 and 21. They have both gone through problems of not wanting go to school — and every time it has had to do with problems at school such as being bullied or classroom difficulties in certain areas. There were even problems on the school bus in one instance. All of this happened even though we live in a small town. I don't even want to consider how much greater the problems must be in larger towns.
At one point in my daughter's junior year in high school, a couple of girls on her bus kept accusing my daughter of hitting them. She was called into the principal's office, given warnings of suspension and more. Needless to say my daughter was distraught — and I just didn't know what to think or do about the whole situation. Finally, I allowed my daughter to spend a few days at home. While my daughter was absent from school, the complaints continued … they apparently didn't realize that my daughter wasn't even on the bus those days.
So, my daughter was finally exonerated. It turned out that these girls just wanted to cause problems for my daughter for no particular reason, but in the end they were “found out.”
If bullies are keeping our children away from school, we need to correct the problem — even if it means letting them stay at home.
THERESA MULHOLLAND
Merritt, Wisconsin
Questions and Answers
Regarding the recent commentary on Planned Parenthood's 1999-2000 annual report (“It Is a Tangled Web They Spin,” April 29-May 5): I have examined the report and have a number of questions that were not covered in the essay.
1. Exactly how does the “Clinic Income” break down? While it is probably easy to make a crude guess about their income from abortions, where is the proof? Also, even if the $54 million is an accurate estimate of their abortion income, that still leaves more than 75% of their clinic income unaccounted for. Where is that money coming from?
2. If Planned Parenthood is getting about one-third of their income from government, what are they using it on? Given that government funds come with heavy strings attached, especially anything that goes to an organization involved in abortion, I cannot believe that there are not very strict audits to keep the money away from abortion-related activities. The article did not say a word about the details on this.
3. I'm also interested in a breakdown of their “Medical Services” category. The “Affiliate Service Summary” in the report showed a lot of activity in areas like contraceptive services, HIV testing, pregnancy tests and breast exams. Exactly how much money does each of their activities bring in?
I hope you will be able to publish an article taking a much more detailed look at Planned Parenthood's income and expenses. I think it would be very enlightening.
Julie A. Robichaud
San Antonio, Texas
Dave Andrusko responds: Thank you for giving us the opportunity to answer your questions. While neither a single, brief essay nor a public letter give us the opportunity to go into great detail, here at least is a general response to some of your questions.
In January 1995, the Los Angeles Times published a figure of $296 as the average cost for a standard first-trimester abortion. Unless a) the cost of abortions has gone down in the past several years (unlikely), or b) Planned Parenthood is providing a substantial number of its abortions free or at a substantial discount, their minimum income from the 182,854 abortion they reported for 1999 would be at least $54 million. Since we know Planned Parenthood clinics offer and perform later, more expensive abortions (check the Web sites for your local Planned Parenthood clinics), this figure is probably much too low.
Planned Parenthood doesn't specifically say where it gets or how it uses the money it receives in “Government Grants and Contracts.” Thanks to pro-life stalwarts in Congress such as Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Rep. Henry Hyde (R-IL), very little, if any, federal money directly funds abortion, but the money they do receive promotes the Planned Parenthood brand name and frees up other resources for promoting the abortion cause. State and local government monies, which reflect a portion of this, do not always come with the sort of restrictions the federal government imposes.
Does Planned Parenthood offer and promote other services besides abortion? Yes. But what is relevant here is that they put abortion — the deliberate, violent destruction of human life — on par with HIV testing, breast exams and other medical services. They invest relatively little of their time on prenatal services (19,281 clients in 1999), infertility (516 clients in 1999) or adoption (2,999 referrals in 1999) — activities that have anything to do with parenthood. They state publicly that one of their four major goals is to “ensure access to abortion,” and they devote a great deal of their time and resources to accomplishing that goal.
Last, we agree: a more detailed look at Planned Parenthood would be very enlightening indeed.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Tolkien Confounds The Critics DATE: 05/27/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 27-June 2, 2001 ----- BODY:When various bookstores, newspapers, magazines and literary societies compiled their rolls of all-time greats at the end of last year, J.R.R. Tolkien topped list after list.
First it was a chain of bookstores, polling more than 25,000 readers. Dickens, Tolstoy and Jane Austen did well, but the bloke with the pipe and friends in dwarfish places came out on top.
Then the prestigious Folio Society asked its 50,000 members. Connoisseurs of fine literature, these good men and women were certain to make a different choice. They didn't.
Finally, in the summer of 2000, the short trailer of The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy was put on the producing film company's official Web site, part of an early publicity blitz for the release of the first of the three productions, slated for the end of this year.
On the first day the trailer was available, it was downloaded 1.5 million times — twice the number for the previous record, held by Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. Informed insiders believe that The Lord of the Rings could become the most commercially successful movie series ever made.
The support for Tolkien is fascinating not only because of its vast dimensions but also because of its diversity. Devotees include science-fiction and fantasy aficionados, fans of dungeon-and-dragon epics, devout Catholics, zealots on the fringes of the political far right, dabblers in the occult, old hippies and, now, the new wave of people opposed to globalization and free trade.
The reason for this unholy alliance is really a reflection of the nature of the man himself. Tolkien was an old-style Catholic, never happy with the reforms of the Second Vatican Council and somewhat sympathetic to the aspirations of Franco and his gang during the Spanish Civil War.
This needs context.
There were many British and North American Catholics who, while totally opposed to Hitler and Nazism, were shocked by the slaughter of priests and nuns by the Republicans in Spain and grudgingly preferred the Generalissimo to a left increasingly dominated by Stalinism and the Kremlin's thugs.
Tolkien's elves, dwarves and hobbits had Christian qualities.
Yet Tolkien was an anti-Nazi before it was altogether respectable, and indeed when many on the political left were still ambivalent.
Shortly before the Second World War, a German publisher wrote to him and inquired about buying the rights to his works. They asked if he was an Aryan. He replied that the word made no linguistic or ethnic sense. But, he added, if they were in fact asking him if he had any Jewish blood he regretted that this was not the case, although he would like to have some connection with such a gifted people. He finished by telling the letter-writer that he would never allow him to publish his work and that the Nazis were destroying German culture and the beauty of the northern spirit.
Tolkien's religious conservatism simply did not transfer into political action. He viewed the industrialization of his beloved Warwickshire, that country in the middle of England that inspired the characters and locations in The Lord of the Rings, with unrestrained horror. The working people of his youth had, he thought, a special dignity. That had been expunged with the advance of the factory, the collective, the multinational.
As for globalization, Tolkien believed in the small community. He once said that Belgium was the perfect size for a country. Large enough to be distinct, small enough to feel like an extended family. The idea of universal free trade and a one-world corporate government terrified him.
His fame and success was, in essence, an American phenomenon, or at least it began in the United States, when the new radicalism of the 1960s looked to a most surprising hero. Tolkien's books sold in quite staggering numbers and graffiti began to appear on college walls. Beneath slogans demanding withdrawal from Vietnam would be written, “Frodo Rules” and “Bilbo for President.” No surprise, then, that the man should be read again now by the pierced ranks determined to bring down Starbucks, Nike and international capitalism.
Science fiction and dungeons and dragons? The appeal is obvious. The issue here is that Tolkien initiated the whole thing. But whereas his emulators fill their books with babes in red leather and muscular chaps in jerkins, Tolkien gave them character and depth and, yes, fundamentally Christian notions of value, virtue and truth.
So the fan base sure to turn out for these films is a delicious mingling of types who would not normally give each other the time of day.
The movies, their movies, will annoy as well as delight. There is none so fanatical as a Tolkien fan. By Gandalf's beard, they had better get Gandalf's beard right. And, as Tolkien's triumph is largely within the individual imagination, any interpretation will inevitably displease some.
But that is the delight of the man and his work. Tolkien gave us the magnificent playing field, we play the game. It never stops. It wasn't supposed to.
Michael Coren is the author of the new biography JRR Tolkien: The Man Who Created The Lord of the Rings. Contact him at www.michaelcoren.com.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Michael Coren ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Authentic Liturgy ... At Last DATE: 05/27/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 27-June 2, 2001 ----- BODY:In Italian the word for translator, traduttore, is similar to the word for traitor, traditore — and Vatican wags often remark that the translator is apt to betray the original author.
Few issues are more neuralgic than the question of how to translate the Church's official Latin liturgical books into the vernacular languages. Now a new instruction, Liturgiam Authenticam (Authentic Liturgy), from the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, the curial office responsible for the liturgy, provides a new approach and specific directives to guide such work in the future.
It is not known when the new instruction will have an impact on how Mass is said, but English-speaking Catholics will have to get used to some new phrases: And with your spirit instead of And also with you; I believe rather than We believe.
In the immediate aftermath of the Second Vatican Council, nobody knew how best to proceed with the translations of the liturgical books; it had never been done before. But it had to be done quickly. So the translators (not traitors) set to work with only the broadest guidelines. For the English-speaking world, the national episcopal conferences of the relevant countries created the International Commission for English in the Liturgy (known as ICEL), an organization of experts contracted to provide draft translations.
Those translations were submitted to national episcopal conferences for approval, and then to the Congregation of Divine Worship for confirmation. The result was that the actual texts were produced by an autonomous consultant, presented to bishops who had the resources only to effect minor changes, and then forwarded to Rome. In recent years, the Vatican refused to give approval for several texts, which resulted in a cumbersome and acrimonious revision process. Last year, in a remarkably public vote of non-confidence in ICEL's work, the Congregation of Divine Worship indicated that it intended to drastically overhaul the whole translation process. The new Instruction intends to do just that.
Faithful Translation Trumps Creative Innovation
For the world's major languages, the congregation has declared its intent to be “involved more directly in the preparation of the translations,” meaning that no longer will the congregation be involved only at the last step. Furthermore, all the “principal collaborators” to the bishops (e.g., ICEL) must receive prior Congregation for Divine Worship approval for their appointments. Such collaborators themselves are reminded they exist only to assist the bishops, and that their competence is narrow: “translation of the liturgical texts of the Roman Liturgy is not so much a work of creative innovation as it is of rendering the original texts faithfully and accurately into the vernacular language.”
In the future, translators will not be allowed to prepare new vernacular texts on their own, as ICEL did when inserting its own original prayers as “alternative” Opening Prayers at Mass. ICEL and various other translation bodies will be guided in future by a ratio translationis, produced by the Congregation for Divine Worship, which will provide specific instructions on how to translate Latin into the various languages, including “a list of vernacular words to be equated with their Latin counterparts.”
“The omissions or errors which affect certain existing vernacular translations — especially in the case of certain languages — have impeded the progress of the inculturation that actually should have taken place,” says the instruction, with no doubt that English is one of the “certain languages” in question. While ICEL has been the dominant force in shaping the Roman Rite as prayed in English since the council, the instruction, all official discretion aside, declares frankly that those days are over.
A new translation of the Mass in English may be celebrated within five years.
Currently, English-speaking parishes in North America use the ICEL-produced and congregation-approved translation of the “second typical edition” of the Roman Missal (Latin). A “third typical edition” will be published in Latin within the next year, and this instruction will guide its translation into English. Thus it may be that a new translation of the Mass in English, shaped by Liturgiam Authenticam, will be celebrated within five years.
“The words of the Sacred Scriptures, as well as other words spoken in liturgical celebrations, especially in the celebration of the Sacraments, are not intended primarily to be a sort of mirror of the interior dispositions of the faithful; rather, they express truths that transcend the limits of time and space,” states the instruction as a fundamental principle.
Good translation does not mean a slavish adherence to a word-for-word equivalency, but the instruction moves in the direction of greater fidelity to the original Latin.
“While is it permissible to arrange the wording, the syntax and the style in such a way as to prepare a flowing vernacular text suitable to the rhythm of popular prayer, the original text, insofar as possible, must be translated integrally in the most exact manner, without omissions or additions in terms of their content, and without paraphrases or glosses,” says the instruction.
That might sound innocuous enough, but on plain reading it would appear to mean that the current English translation of the Gloria is no longer acceptable. For example, et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis is rendered and peace to his people on earth, even though the Latin says nothing about “his” people, and speaks rather of “men of good will.” Likewise, the Latin Gloria has four verbs for our homage to God (laudamus te, benedicimus te, adoramus te, glorificamus te), while the English has only two (we worship you, we praise you); the Latin prays twice qui tollis peccata mundi … miserere nobis, the English only once.
There are, of course, other principles which justify such emendations, and they have been used and approved in the past. Yet the instruction makes clear that “a new period” is now beginning, and the rules will be more exact.
Whether the proposed changes will be made or not remains to be worked out in what will surely be a highly contentious and drawn-out debate. Among the issues will be the use of “inclusive language,” which the instruction for the most part rejects, claiming that “such measures introduce theological and anthropological problems into the translation.”
Digging in for Debate
One expects that an interesting feature of the debates will be the appeal to “stability” in translation by those who favor the more recent innovations. The instruction is certainly aware of the danger of changing the liturgical texts too often.
“A certain stability ought to be maintained whenever possible in successive editions prepared in modern languages. The parts that are to be committed to memory by the people, especially if they are to be sung, are to be changed only for a just and considerable reason,” it says. Stability is especially important for the eucharistic prayers, which the instruction says “should not notably change the previously approved vernacular texts … which the faithful will have gradually committed to memory.”
Controversies will abound in future translations as the need for stability will clash with current translations that fail the instruction's general principles. For example, Eucharistic Prayer III speaks of the people making their offering a solis ortu usque ad occasum (from the rising of the sun to its setting), an echo of Malachi 1:11. Yet in English it is now rendered as from east to west, in French as “in every part of the world,” and in Italian as “from one end of the earth to the other” (Spanish, Portuguese and German maintain the temporal and spatial imagery of the sun). In this case adopting a superior translation in English, French and Italian will militate against stability.
The next few years will likely see more turmoil than stability as the instruction's directives are applied to specific situations. The battles will be especially intense in the United States, where pressure groups have already poured gasoline on the sparks of the new instruction. But, after those battles are fought, Liturgiam Authenticam offers the real possibility of both a more felicitous vernacular Mass and liturgical peace.
Raymond de Souza is the Register's Rome correspondent.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Raymond J. de Souza ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Do Your Part for Catholic Art: Befriend the NEA DATE: 05/27/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 27-June 2, 2001 ----- BODY:If you want to pick an argument, tell a group of devoutly Christian American citizens that you think the National Endowment for the Arts has been doing a reasonably good job lately.
To many Catholics and evangelical Protestants, the NEA is public enemy number one in the culture wars.
While understandable, this attitude is misguided. We are in a war, it's true, but the NEA itself is not the enemy; it is merely a battleground, vital terrain on and for which we must contend. Gaining control of the NEA and its $100 million annual budget should be a strategic imperative for Christians who have made this fight their own.
The recent announcement that NEA Chairman Bill Ivey will step down on Sept. 30, eight months before his term expires, offers our new president an early opportunity to define his administration's role in the struggle. Will George W. Bush sit this one out, or will he try to leverage the battle for the good guys? Will Ivey's successor be a professional “culturecrat,” mistrustful of the capacity of the American taxpayer, the agency's sole patron, to recognize and appreciate “diverse forms” of artistic expression?
Or will he be a learned art scholar, committed to upholding broadly held standards of excellence, decency and beauty in the arts?
Many observers would concede that Ivey has done a creditable job during his three-year tenure.
His 27 years as head of the Nashville-based Country Music Foundation gave Ivey an appreciation for authentic American folk culture, including the role Christianity has had in forming that culture. It also kept him largely insulated from the parade of debauchery that often passes for creativity in trendy arts centers like SoHo, West Hollywood and North Beach. Upon arriving in Washington, Bill Ivey was not beholden to the so-called avant garde, and the proof has been in his mature administration of the agency.
That maturity is on display in the 800 or so grants the NEA made during its first round of funding this year. These include $27,000 to the (Episcopal) Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, used to assist in the conservation of two 17th-century Barberini tapestries, part of a series depicting the life of Christ. A grant of $5,000 will go to Festiva Navidad, a California touring concert of mariachi music and folklorico dancing that retells the story of Mary and Joseph's journey to Bethlehem. The Bach Choir of Pittsburgh will get $7,500 to record Christmas music, while the University of Memphis will receive $29,000 to support the touring exhibition of Coming Home: Self-Taught Artists, the Bible, and the American South, which looks at the impact of the Bible on contemporary Southern artists.
Will some of the projects funded this year anger Christians and embarrass the NEA? Probably. And that really shouldn't be any surprise, given the flood of proposals the agency receives, not to mention the manner in which most proposals are written. An example: $18,000 has been awarded to a San Francisco theater troupe for the development of a play based on the biblical Song of Songs.
On its face, this project looks unobjectionable, even commendable. But if you've ever read Song of Songs, you know that, in the hands of the wrong playwright, it could be a disaster. The point is that the NEA sometimes comes in for criticism it really doesn't deserve.
A new director can minimize the chances of public money being misappropriated for immoral or anti-Christian projects by honing three core missions for the agency.
First, he or she can invest in the preservation of works widely acknowledged to fit within the Western and American artistic “canon.”
Second, there should be a focus on underwriting popular access to the fine arts, especially classical music, ballet, theater and the traditional visual arts.
Third, when funding “creativity,” or new work, the new director ought to concentrate on those institutions and individuals dedicated to employing traditional techniques, themes, materials and so on. There will always be a place in the arts for a true avant garde, but taxpayers should-n't have to foot the bill for art-school faddishness or aimless experimentation.
Whom should President Bush tap to take the helm at the NEA? At the top of my wish list is Ena Heller, Ph.D., director of the American Bible Society gallery in New York City. Whomever the president chooses, it's important that Catholics get involved in the arts at all levels.
If you're a Catholic and an artist, wield your brush or chisel for Christ. Create works that glorify God by showing the beauty of his creation. Read and re-read Pope John Paul II's Letter to Artists from Easter 1999. If you need to support yourself primarily with commercial work, devote a portion of your free time to purely religious projects on your own initiative.
If your gifts lie elsewhere than in artistic expression, support your local Catholic artist. Be a patron. Fill your home with Catholic art, and be sure to include works by living, working artists. Take a course in art appreciation or art history at the local community college. Frequent the nearest museum of fine arts, and let the curator know that you'd like to see more exhibits featuring living religious artists.
As Christians, we know that the enemy is a creeping, all-consuming secularism that seeks to expel the Gospel from the public square. Every day we see our foe inching forward in schools, town halls, marketplaces and, yes, even in our very homes and churches. A new renaissance in Christian art won't be all it takes to build a civilization of love based on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but it will be an indispensable ingredient in the mortar.
Let's do our part for Catholic art — and not be suspicious when the National Endowment for the Arts lends us a hand. Like the artists of the Renaissance, whose accomplishments would have been all but impossible without private, civic and governmental patronage, we need all the help we can get.
Mark Gordon is administrator of the St. Michael Institute of Sacred Art in Mystic, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mark Gordon ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Mysteries of Santa Fe DATE: 05/27/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 27-June 2, 2001 ----- BODY:If you're planning to visit Santa Fe, be sure to take along a copy of Willa Cather's novel Death Comes for the Archbishop.
It's the best preparation you could have to understand the silences and simplicity of the Southwestern desert.
Cather tells the tale of Bishop Jean Latour and Father Joseph Machebeut (based on the lives of Bishop Jean Baptiste L‘Amy and Father Joseph Vaillant) as they struggle in the 1850s to set up a new Catholic diocese among the Mexican, Hopi and Navajo inhabitants.
How well the real pair succeeded is evidenced by the town's original name — “The Royal Town of the Holy Faith [Santa Fe] of St. Francis” — and by the numerous shrines and churches in the area. Indeed, the first thing that greets you in the city center is a statue of St. Francis of Assisi, the city's patron, and one of Bishop L‘Amy in front of St. Francis Cathedral. The cathedral houses the oldest Marian shrine in the United States, that of Our Lady of Conquering Love (Conquistadores) brought here by Spanish conquerors in 1626.
This fascinating city of only 60,000, the capital of New Mexico, is the oldest capital city in the country. It sits at an elevation of 7,000 feet above sea level in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo (Blood of Christ) mountains. Of the 19 Native American communities in the state, eight are near Santa Fe — Pueblo Indian tribes living in settlements called pueblos. There are simple parish churches in most pueblos. Each has its own patron saint and holds colorful festivals on the appropriate feast day. Visitors can tour the pueblos but must stick to a protocol that respects the culture and life of its inhabitants.
The decor and design of church architecture also reflects the strong Mexican-Spanish culture of the original colonizers. The Church's pervasive influence is seen in as simple a thing as the visor on the local tour bus, unabashedly displaying pictures of the Sacred Heart and Our Lady of Guadalupe. Even the hotel in which I stayed, the pueblo-style Inn of the Anasazi, was blessed by the Franciscans on the day it opened in 1990.
In my room, a guest booklet explained the presence, and asked guests to be respectful, of the crosses and religious motifs used in the hotel as decorations.
St. Joseph Was Here?
A world-famous religious phenomenon exists in Santa Fe. In 1873 the Sisters of Loretto, brought here as teachers in 1852 by Bishop L‘Amy, wanted to build a chapel. Today that chapel is a museum surrounded by The Inn at Loretto (the convent was converted into a hotel). Modeled on Sainte Chapelle in Paris, it was the first Gothic building west of the Mississippi. Inside the its walls rises a miracle — a circular staircase 24 feet high with 33 steps winding in two complete, 360-degree turns with no supporting pole down its center. Architects and engineers from around the world have examined the staircase and can find no explanation as to how it got there or how it manages to stay there — with its entire weight on its base and no center or side supports
The Sisters of Loretto think there's a perfectly reasonable explanation. After the chapel was built, they realized there was no passageway connecting the choir loft to the church. Because the loft was so high, carpenters said the only solution was to use a ladder or rebuild the balcony. The sisters prayed to St. Joseph, the master carpenter, for a solution. On the last day of a novena in 1878, an elderly man on a donkey appeared at the door asking to help. Aided only by a saw, T-square and hammer, he built this complex staircase using only wooden pegs and no nails. The staircase is made of a hardwood unknown in that section of the United States. It is spliced in seven places on the inside and nine on the outside, each piece forming part of a perfect curve.
As suddenly as he appeared, the man left after his task was done. He never asked to be paid and no one ever found out his name. To this day, the sisters are convinced the nameless carpenter was St. Joseph.
Other unique chapels and shrines are to be found just outside Santa Fe. El Sanctuario de Chimayo, the “Lourdes of America,” is known as a place to experience peace and restfulness. The village of Chimayo, where one finds many weaving galleries and craft shops, possesses a marked Spanish flair.
One visitor described the sanctuary here as “a church built as graceful as a flower swaying in the summer breeze, nested in a valley protected by wild berry trees.” The land is painted in tones of muted pinks, blues, grays and sand which so inspired artist Georgia O‘Keeffe. The shrine was built in 1816 after a local man found a crucifix — Our Lord of Esquipulas — in the ground.
After he dug up the cross, the man contacted a local priest, who took it to his existing church. The next morning, the crucifix had disappeared; soon it was discovered buried in its original location. Twice more it was moved and mysteriously reappeared next morning in the ground. The message was clear. It was to remain where it was found, and a chapel was built in that spot. The chapel, privately owned until 1929, was eventually turned it over to the archdiocese. By then, it had become known as the Lourdes of America because of the 300,000-plus people who visit each year seeking to be healed.
Wall of Wonder
The interior of the shrine contains five colorful panels of sacred art, one of which is the reredos around the altar. A wooden carving of a man on horseback represents the beloved saint of the Spanish, St. James, or Santiago. If you visit, be sure get here by midafternoon since they close precisely at the stroke of closing time (4 p.m. in the winter and 6 p.m. in the summer).
At Rancho de Taos, another religious “mystery” exists. In the adobe-style parish hall of San Francisco de Asis hangs a painting, The Shadow of the Cross, by Henri Ault. Painted in 1896, several years before radium was discovered, it depicts Jesus standing barefoot on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.
First, visitors see the painting in a lit room. Then the lights are turned out. I watched in wonder as, astonishingly, after the painting had been sitting in darkness for about 10 minutes, the figure changed posture. As well, a cross appeared over the right shoulder of Our Lord which was not visible in daylight. The sea and the sky behind him took on a glow that suggested moonlight. The light didn't remain constant, but varied in color from light blue to green. The attendant told me it gets brightest around midnight.
The artist, when questioned, stated that he has no idea why the painting does this, since there's never been a luminous paint developed that will not darken and oxidize within a short time. The painting has been subjected to extensive tests (floodlights to try to induce florescence, Geiger counters) by famous scientists as it traveled on exhibition for over 50 years — including the St. Louis World's Fair of 1904 — before finding a permanent home in New Mexico, yet no natural explanation can be found.
These are but a few of the wonderful works of faith found in Santa Fe and its environs. In addition, the numerous galleries for which the city is famous display many paintings and sculptures that are Catholic in content and theme. The impressive Palace of the Governors museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, which also contain some religious art, are both free to visitors on Fridays.
Santa Fe has been likened to a “Georgia O‘Keeffe painting set to prose.” I believe that's an apt description of a city named after the faith of a great saint who was so in tune with the beauty of God's creation — a city that constantly proclaims the handiwork of its creator.
Lorraine Williams is based in Markham, Ontario.
----- EXCERPT: The silence and wonder of the nation's oldest capital ----- EXTENDED BODY: Lorraine M. Williams ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Armenia, Armenia, God Shed His Grace on Thee DATE: 05/27/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 27-June 2, 2001 ----- BODY:More than a decade before Constantine issued his Edict of Milan, extending toleration for the first time to Christianity in the Roman Empire, King Trdat II was baptized by St. Gregory the Illuminator, bringing Christianity to his small country.
That country was Armenia.
Pope John Paul II will be among those marking the 1,700th anniversary of Armenia's conversion to Christianity this year — he plans a trip there this summer.
The British Library in the St. Pancras section of London is marking the anniversary this year, also. It has mounted a gala exhibit, “Treasures from the Ark: 1,700 Years of Armenian Christian Art.”
While it's probably a little late for Register readers to cross the Atlantic and take in the show — the Armenian exhibit will close May 28 — it's been so exhortative that it seems a vicarious visit is in order. Allow me to be your virtual gallery guide during these, its final days?
‘Breath of God’
“Treasures from the Ark” refers to the tradition that Noah's Ark landed on Mount Ararat on the Armenian-Turkish border. Armenians claim that the Apostles Bartholomew and Jude Thaddeus preached the Gospel there. Although remote, Armenia has long played an active role in the history of Christianity. Consider, for example, that along with the Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox, they are among the custodians of Jerusalem's holy places. The focus of the exhibit is on artifacts from the monophysite Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church.
The range of media in the exhibit — illuminated manuscripts, silverware, carved wood and ivory, ceramics, tapestry, carved stone — is vivid testimony to the pervasiveness of faith among the Armenians. While works from Armenia proper occupy center stage, some political points are also scored (for example, the 1232 Tarmantchat Gospel from Nagorno-Karabakh asserts Armenia's interests in that territory now disputed with Azerbaijan).
Armenia's far-flung diaspora is also represented. One particularly moving example of the latter is the 25-foot altar cloth from Madras, India, depicting scenes from Jesus' Passion like the Last Supper, the Mandatum, the agony and arrest in Gethsemane, Jesus before Caiaphas and Pilate, the scourging, crowning and crucifixion, and Jesus' burial.
Illuminated manuscripts, however, occupy pride of place. A broad range of Gospels and other sacred books show the development of Armenian Christian art, combining general Byzantine styles with indigenous elements as well as traces from Armenia's various occupiers. (One exhibit note even suggested resemblance between the depiction of Christ and Buddha in a manuscript dating from the era of the Mongols, although I thought that was stretching it.)
It is said Armenians call the Bible Astuadsashantch, the “breath of God.” One can see the loving care and maturing mastery that inspired Armenian illuminators over the centuries in these Bibles.
If one must pick and choose among these treasures, however, certain ones merit special mention: the Rabbula Gospels (ca. 586), whose art set patterns for religious art in both East and West; the Erznka Bible (ca. 1269), the first complete illustrated Armenian Bible; and various “Canon Gospels” (parallel Gospel texts).
Western manuscript illuminators and their patrons are often anonymous. In contrast, in Armenia both felt that having a role in preparing a sacred book was a pious act, and they wanted to commend themselves to the users' prayers. An entire segment of the exhibit looks at the development of this phenomenon by studying the colophons, the inscriptions at the end of a book which tell how the book was made.
The skills of Armenia's Christian artists were not confined, however, to books. Two intricately carved wooden church doors, one (from the 15th century) depicting Pentecost, grace the exhibit. Sacred and secular motifs intertwine on a wooden capital dating from 874 from the Church of the Holy Apostles (claimed to be one of only two extant pre-12th-century examples of such handiwork). The silversmith's craft is exhibited in three reliquaries — one of St. Stephen, one said to contain a relic of the True Cross and one of St. Bartholomew.
Armenian weaving skills are renowned the world over and are showcased in this program. In addition to the passion cloth from Madras, a large, detailed altar frontal depicts the life and work of St. Gregory. Also on display is a collection of 19th-century liturgical vestments.
“Treasures from the Ark” testifies to the powerful inspiration of Christianity on the arts. It proves how faith can impel artists to make lasting objects of beauty for the service of God (while provoking reflection on our seemingly contemporary impoverishment in that field). “Treasures” also exposes viewers to the richness of the Eastern Christian tradition, one of the Church's “two lungs,” as Pope John Paul II has reminded us.
John Grondelski, a moral theologian, writes from London.
----- EXCERPT: The British Library showcases the Bethlehem of European Christianity ----- EXTENDED BODY: John M. Grondelski ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly Videos DATE: 05/27/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 27-June 2, 2001 ----- BODY:The House of Mirth (2000)
America has always been fueled by social ambition and the desire for wealth. Early 20th-century novelist Edith Wharton focused on the difficulties of upper-class women in balancing those goals with a personal moral code. Her books detail how society often punished these women unfairly when they failed to reconcile the contradictions in their motivations.
British writer-director Terence Davies intelligently dramatizes Wharton's masterwork, The House of Mirth. Lily Bart (Gillian Anderson) is a turn-of-the-century socialite. Aging, she needs to find a husband so she can maintain her social standing, but she cannot find a suitable suitor and she is too naive and good-hearted to keep pace with the fast set whose approval she craves.
A scheming heiress (Laura Linney) falsely accuses Lily of having an affair with her husband (Terry Kinney) to cover up her own sins, and the unmarried socialite finds herself ostracized.
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974)
Great historical movements are usually remembered for their leaders and the important ideas which they embody. The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, a TV movie based on Ernest Gaines' novel, puts a human face on the American civil rights struggle by dramatizing the life of an ordinary person who was there at the very beginning. Miss Jane (Cicely Tyson) is a 110-year-old former slave who opens up to a white journalist (Michael Murphy) in 1962 about her past.
We flash back to her childhood and experience the tragedies inflicted upon her as an African-American as she encounters the different forms of racism throughout her life.
Miss Jane's will is never broken, and she survives with her generosity of spirit intact.
Director John Korty creates a memorable sequence in which she is depicted as the first black person to drink out of a “whites-only” water fountain in the Deep South. She's also shown to enjoy less serious things, particularly baseball and the sport's first black player, Jackie Robinson.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 05/27/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 27-June 2, 2001 ----- BODY:All times Eastern
SUNDAY, MAY 27
Bookmark: The Grunt Padre
EWTN, 9:30 a.m.
Father Daniel Mode discusses The Grunt Padre, his inspiring biography of Catholic hero Father Vincent Capodanno, a Navy chaplain (b. 1929) who received the Medal of Honor posthumously. In South Vietnam on Sept. 4, 1967, he gave his life for his comrades when he braved communist machine gun fire to pray with wounded Marines. To be rebroadcast Monday, May 28, at 3 a.m.; Wednesday, May 30, at 4:30 p.m.; and Saturday, June 2, at 6:30 p.m.
SUNDAY, MAY 27
The National Memorial Day Concert PBS, 8 p.m.
In this 90-minute special, the National Symphony Orchestra, directed by Erich Kunzel, performs its annual concert of patriotic music with various artists on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. This year's event, 60 years after Pearl Harbor and 10 years after the Persian Gulf War, salutes the fallen and the veterans of those conflicts. It also pauses in remembrance of our POWsMIAs of the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
SUNDAY, MAY 27
Audrey's Life: Voice of a Silent Soul EWTN, 8 p.m.
This hour-long video by the Mercy Foundation tells about Audrey Marie Santo, who suffered brain damage when she nearly drowned at age 3 in 1987. Her mom Linda cares for her at home in Worcester, Mass. — and visitors have poured in because of unexplained occurrences, such as oils emanating from holy objects. The local diocese in 1999 urged caution and more study, asked people to pray for Audrey rather than to her, and said her family's loving care is the best evidence of God's presence in the household. To be rebroadcast Thursday, May 31, at 1 p.m. and Friday, June 1, at 3 a.m. and 10 p.m.
MONDAY, MAY 28
American Writers
C-Span, 9 a.m.
This episode, “Frederick Douglass & the Abolitionist Writers,” examines Douglass's autobiography and the works of his fellow leaders in the antislavery movement. To be rebroadcast Friday, June 1, at 8 p.m.
MONDAY, MAY 28
The Greatest Pharaoh and His Lost Children
History, 10 p.m.
This “Egypt: Beyond the Pyramids” segment takes us to a long-bypassed site that recently was found to hold the tombs of 60 sons of Pharaoh Ramses the Great (Ramses II, who ruled Egypt for 67 years in the13th century B.C.).
WEDNESDAY, MAY 30
The Met Celebrates Verdi
PBS; check local listings for time
This “Metropolitan Opera Presents” program marks the centennial of the death of Giuseppe Verdi by showing excerpts from historic telecasts of his famed operas “Aida,” “Falstaff” and “Otello,” along with less familiar works of his.
THURSDAY, MAY 31
Volcanologists
History, 11 p.m.
This “Suicide Missions” show reports on the raw courage of the scientists who risk their lives in close-up monitoring of active volcanoes.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Daniel J. Engler ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: No Medal's Big Enough for the Grunt Padre DATE: 05/27/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 27-June 2, 2001 ----- BODY:It's been more than three decades since his friend died on a hilltop battlefield in Vietnam, but hardly a day passes that he doesn't think about the Catholic chaplain he left behind.
Frederick K. Smith, founder and chief executive officer of Federal Express Corp., becomes emotional when he talks about Father Vincent Capodanno, a Maryknoll priest who paid the ultimate price for which Congress awarded the Medal of Honor.
“Words can't adequately describe my feelings about Father Capodanno,” Smith told the Register. “He was a great man and a lot of people owe their lives to him. I loved Father Capodanno.”
The Catholic chaplain, who died in 1967, is the subject of a biography titled The Grunt Padre. Smith helped fund the book's research.
“He was a model of everything you'd ever want to find in a military chaplain,” explained Smith, who himself was a “grunt.” Smith was a Marine platoon leader in the area when his priest friend was killed by Viet Cong gunfire as he ministered to a dying U.S. Marine.
Smith, an Episcopalian now in his 60s, described Father Capodanno as “a model for anything good and religious. … He was a good guy and he was my friend.”
The multimillionaire, a pioneer of airfreight delivery, said he could recall only two vices that Father Capodanno had.
“He loved to smoke cigarettes and he liked to play poker,” Smith said. “Father Vincent used to go out at night in the area to take a smoke — something we were absolutely forbidden by the military to do because of the presence of the enemy.
“So, I showed him how to poke a couple holes in a C ration cardboard box, light his cigarette and then slip his head into the box under his poncho and smoke to his heart's content and nobody could see the glow of the cigarette in the dark and make themselves an easy target for an enemy bullet.”
Smith continued: “Father Vincent was a heck of a gambler and be used to lift a lot of money off people in poker games — but he always gave it away to someone in need.
“Father was a tremendous guy and we saw a lot of each other even though I was a platoon leader on one side of a hill and he was on the other side. He was one great guy and I think about him a lot.”
For his bravery and enormous contributions, Capodanno was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, making him only the second chaplain to ever receive the award and the first Naval officer to receive it for service in Vietnam.
Said Smith, “They didn't have any medals big or ornate enough for his brand of man.”
— Robert Holton
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Robert Holton ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Home Schooling 2001 DATE: 05/27/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 27-June 2, 2001 ----- BODY:Laura Berquist is a home-schooling mother of six, and director of the Mother of Divine Grace independent study program in Ojai, Calif. A graduate of St. Thomas Aquinas College, Berquist is the author of Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum and Harp and Laurel Wreath. She recently spoke with Register features correspondent Tim Drake.
Drake: What led you to begin home schooling?
Very early on I had thought about home schooling. My mother [author Donna Steichen] had a friend who home schooled and she gave me the idea. At that time we had young children and as far as I could tell they were going to keep coming, so my first reaction was, “I just can't do that!”
When it came time for schooling, however, I didn't like the alternatives that were available, so my husband and I, along with several other families, started a school. I don't know why I thought that would be easier than home schooling, but I did.
When our first child was in third grade, our second child started school and she just wasn't happy. It was then that I decided to take my mother's advice and made the decision to teach my children at home.
It was amazing to me how much better life became at home.
My husband and I were both readers, but our children hadn't been reading. It wasn't until I began teaching them at home that I realized what was wrong. Their life was too full. They would get up late in the morning, rush around looking for lost homework, shoes and lunch and then get to school late. After school we would do homework, say the rosary, have dinner, read a story, and go to bed.
Then we would repeat the same thing the next day.
There wasn't any time for reflection. Once they were at home again, there was time for daily Mass, for reading and for playing.
The Register recently reported that home schooling is gaining in popularity. Why do you think that is?
Absolutely. I have only to look at the increase in enrollment at Mother of Divine Grace to see that this is true. We started with 35 families in 1995. That number has nearly doubled each year. Today, we have 1,400 students from 515 families.
There are a number of factors for why it is becoming popular. One is the clear collapse of culture. To have school shootings, even in Catholic schools, is frightening. However, it's not surprising, given that acceptance of abortion diminishes everyone's respect for life. Most people, though, start home schooling because they know someone who is doing it and they decide “this is how I want my children to be.”
It gains in numbers because there are more witnesses.
I also think that in the U.S. we have a strong independent spirit that I have not seen elsewhere. We say, “these are my children and I'm going to raise them the way that I want.” We see it as our duty, our responsibility and our right.
Additionally, home schooling is gaining in popularity because it is a way to pass on the faith. Our Lord is the Word and it is through words that our faith is passed on. If you want to pass on the faith, you need to say it. At home with your children, you are free to talk about it all the time. There are a great number of people who feel that their own religious formation was not as good as it could have been. This is the chronicle of my generation. We weren't taught our faith and it's something we want our children to have.
You also work as a home-school consultant. What do you see as the number one challenge that home-schooling parents face?
There is no question. The thing that makes the difference in whether a home school succeeds or not is the relationship that the parents have with their children.
Parents need to see the good in what their children do and praise them.
There is no room for an adversarial relationship. We need to pay attention to our children, and tell them that we enjoy being with them and that we love them.
At the end of each day we might run through a kind of examination of conscience, asking ourselves, “How was I with each of my children, individually? Did I affirm the good things that they did? Was I meeting their needs?” If the answer is “no,” then we need to make the resolution to get up in the morning and do these things. Getting to a child's heart will turn an adversarial relationship into a positive one.
How do you see home-schooled children contributing to the Church of the future?
I think that home-schooled children will be a light. My mother always asks, “If you want a boat that will weather a storm where will you build it? Out in the open in the middle of a raging sea or in a harbor where you can take time making it seaworthy?” Our homes are a harbor. Most people are converted by both example and doctrine, but example comes first.
Home-schooled children will lead the kind of lives that are an example to others. I think they are the future of the Catholic Church. They are where we will get our vocations.
Home-schooled children, as a block, are going to be able to witness to their faith. That is where the hope of the Church lies. They will make a difference.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Accusers Unmasked as the Real Pius XII Stands Up DATE: 05/27/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 27-June 2, 2001 ----- BODY:Who is this man who was beloved by two generations but whose “silence” during World War II is now attacked by the media?
Anyone who studies the historical record will see that the answer is simple: Pius XII was not silent. He spoke out, directly and often, both personally and through his cardinals, bishops, priests and religious.
Throughout Europe, including within the Vatican's walls, Catholics hid Jews, papal nuncios protested Nazi atrocities and bishops raised their voices. In fact, in some cases Jews protested the Church's condemnations of the Nazis, for some protests precipitated savage Nazi reprisals. After the war, sentiments of Jewish gratitude poured in to the Vatican.
All of this is documented in Ralph McInerny's The Defamation of Pius XII. McInerny, professor of philosophy and medieval studies at Notre Dame University, and cofounder of Crisis magazine, introduces the real Eugenio Pacelli. We meet a plain, but spiritually sensitive and intellectually gifted, Italian lad — one who became fluent in four languages, mastered the violin, and earned doctorates in philosophy, theology, and civil and canon law.
Then he devoted his life to serving Christ. McInerny traces the priest's rise from his ordination in 1899 through roles of increasing ecclesiastical and pastoral responsibility, recounting the years he spent as papal nuncio to Germany and Vatican secretary of state before being chosen by his brother cardinals to lead the Church in 1939.
McInerny presents a year-by-year chronology of the Second World War, highlighting major battles and key players on the world scene as a background to the actions of Pius XII. What emerges is a portrait of a man who was duty-bound to prudently weigh his responsibilities in a world gone mad with war. “All over the world,” McInerny tells us, “where the pope's messages were heard, they were understood. More importantly, perhaps, he spoke through the deeds of his nuncios and bishops on the front lines of a war that Pius correctly saw as a war against the Church and the common morality the Church was entrusted to defend.”
Pius clearly detested Nazi aggression and all the party stood for; he used both opportunity and wariness to make his disapproval known to the world. His goal, which he also pressed on his clergy, was to save as many lives as possible, regardless of race or creed. Any reader faced with the evidence pointing to this conclusion, copiously documented in articles, editorials and records anyone could look up, will see the utter absurdity of the suggestion that Pius was an accessory to the Nazis in any way.
Commenting on the recent anti-Pius XII books, McInerny devotes his final two chapters to making an impassioned plea for Pius' accusers to cease and desist their unfounded attacks. In a tone of dignified outrage, he labels the slander of Pius as defamation and asks, rhetorically: Why? Why are some today targeting this great moral leader, roundly recognized as a hero in his time — a view the overwhelming majority of Jews shared — for character assassination?
“The target is the Catholic Church and her unchanging moral doctrine,” McInerny writes. “This is clearest in the books written by soi-disant Catholics. Their books express a simmering rage that the Church does not follow their false understanding of Vatican II. Their animus against Paul VI and John Paul II is every bit as great as that they feel against Pope Pius XII.”
The Defamation of Pius XII goes beyond a mere defense of one man; it juxtaposes one man's opposition to evil against a culture's rejection of the faith he represented, both in his time and today. McInerny is at his sharpest as he tracks, and indicts, the progression of modern-day attitudes toward human life — particularly the attitudes that allow a supposedly civilized society to shrug its shoulders as millions of defenseless babies are destroyed in their mothers' wombs.
In this way, his book makes history as relevant as today's headlines.
Mark Dittman writes from Maplewood, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mark Dittman ----- KEYWORDS: Books -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 05/27/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 27-June 2, 2001 ----- BODY:Cardinal Law Meets With Skeptical Theologians
Cardinal Law said that he would inform college presidents about which theologians sought a mandatum, a written statement pledging that the theologian will teach authentic Catholic doctrine. But he promised he would not take any disputes public.
The Globe reported that theologians at the meeting “seemed generally satisfied,” despite previous criticism of the mandatum.
Cardinal George Blasts Illinois Law
Cardinal George responded to a Tribune article that stated that he opposed Church-run charter schools. “I don't oppose the Catholic Church running charter schools,” he replied; “the State of Illinois won't permit the church to run charter schools.”
Some have suggested turning Catholic schools in financial crises over to the public school system, which the cardinal called “a way of cannibalizing successful but under-funded schools.”
Catholic School Start-Ups Conference
AVE MARIA COLLEGE, May 11 — Ave Maria College is organizing a conference in the Detroit area to promote start-ups of independent Catholic schools, the college announced. The conference will discuss everything from fundraising to finding teaching materials.
Conference coordinator Dan Guernsey said, “Families are home schooling in record numbers, and Catholic education is in demand as never before. But the resources of parishes and dioceses are spread thin, so a lot of parents are taking matters into their own hands and exploring how they can start their own independent Catholic schools.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Family Matters DATE: 05/27/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 27-June 2, 2001 ----- BODY:My Kids Won't Obey
Q How can we encourage our kids to be more obedient to me and my husband?
— B. F.
Fort Worth, Texas
A In Christian life, we obey a loving Father. In the same way, it's critical that your kids see you as loving parents. It's easier, and it makes sense, to obey a loving father and mother. It's intolerable and burdensome to obey a tyrant — so eventually we rebel. We don't grow weary, however, of obeying someone we love.
Families are not a democracy, but should be like the Church: overflowing with fellowship. If we are asking our children to obey us, then our part of the deal is to motivate them. In fact, if you aren't willing to motivate them to do what you're asking, then it's probably not something important anyway.
A climate of love encourages everyone to do good for each other. It's easier to make commitments to someone we love.
Of course, love implies order. But love is always primarily personal. As Christians, we obey a person — Christ or one of our parents — and not merely a set of laws.
Some parents use punishment to try to foster conformity. Used by itself, however, punishment only decreases behaviors they don't want to see in their children. It does-n't build positive behaviors. It can teach kids to resent being caught, or to respect force more than love.
Of course, there are times when it's important to stop negative behaviors even if we can't build up something positive at the same time. We need to remember, though, that it's important to find ways to foster the virtue of obedience.
This doesn't imply there should be a lack of consequences for wrongdoing — though consequences work best when they are as close as possible to natural results. But to foster obedience we not only want to stop disobedience, we want to motivate our children to overcome their will and to follow God's and ours. This requires a change of heart.
In my last column I mentioned Dr. John Gottman's studies. He discovered that between spouses in successful marriages there has to be about a 5-1 ratio of good, supportive statements and interactions to negative ones. Psychologist Gary Gintner says that for teens and parents the ratio has to be 3-1 in favor of positive comments. So, clearly, we don't have the luxury to pile critical or punishing comments on our kids if we want our homes to be uplifting, supportive and successful.
Christianity always starts and ends with love. As St. Paul tells us, without love we are just sounding gongs (1 Corinthians 13:1). Ask your kids if they see you and your spouse as loving, or if they see you as tyrannical. And tell them their obedience is important to you and that you're willing to change to help them learn to obey.
Art A. Bennett is a licensed marriage, family and child therapist.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Art A. Bennett ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Facts of Life DATE: 05/27/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 27-June 2, 2001 ----- BODY:Divorced men and women tend to live shorter lives than those who stay married. Some studies suggest that at least part of the difference comes from an increase in risky behaviors like drinking, smoking, and driving under the influence of alcohol. The divorced are also more likely to commit suicide.
Source: The Case for Marriage, by Linda Waite and Maggie Gallagher, 2000
----- EXCERPT: MARRIED LIFE IS LONG LIFE ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Day-Care Dangers DATE: 05/27/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 27-June 2, 2001 ----- BODY:AUSTIN, Texas — Carolyn Graglia wasn't surprised by a recent study that found more behavioral problems among children who spend significant time in day care.
Graglia's surprise came decades ago, when she became pregnant with her first child. She and her husband were high-octane Washington lawyers, and Graglia had no intention of setting her career aside.
“I changed my mind the first morning I realized I was pregnant,” she said. “I had that queasy feeling you get, and I was overwhelmed by this feeling of incredible achievement.”
She thought, “I could never go back to work. My kids deserve me.” Graglia welcomed a recent 10-year study by the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development. The study found that children who spend long hours in non-maternal child care are more likely to be aggressive and disobedient, and less likely to have strong relationships with their mothers.
The study fits in with reports like Pediatrics magazine's September 1999 study showing that young children in day care centers were more likely to get a variety of respiratory illnesses.
Critics accused the study of fueling guilt among working mothers and ignoring alternative explanations for the data. One popular criticism was that the results could show merely that more aggressive children were more likely to end up in day care.
Jay Belsky, an investigator in the study, responded that the study had carefully controlled for several factors: poor quality of day care, less harmonious mother-child relationships, family income, children's temperaments and mother's level of depression. “For the most part, the results remained,” he said.
Belsky said the study did not suggest that day care was always a bad choice, but rather that many hours in day care in the early years caused problems. He noted that high-quality care produced some cognitive benefits for kids — for example, they have greater language development at an early age.
He added that criticism in the press had used social science “in a very self-serving manner.” He agreed that there might be alternative explanations for the study's data, but charged that no one sought such alternative explanations when studies showed benefits of day care.
For example, Belsky noted that critics never suggested that smarter children were more likely to get put in day care — since that explanation would erase high-quality day care's cognitive benefits.
Belsky denied that he brought a bias to the issue, saying that in 1978 he worked on a study that found “very little negative effects, if any, of child care.” Since then, he said, his research made him change his mind.
Follow the Facts
Linda Waite, a sociologist and coauthor of The Case for Marriage, said, “The researchers were not only among the most highly respected in the field, but they came from different preconceived notions.”
Waite compared criticism to “the divorce controversy. Parents want to think that they can do whatever they want and their kids will be just fine.”
But Cathy Young, a columnist for Reason magazine and author of Ceasefire: Why Women and Men Must Join Forces, cautioned, “There's a lot of conflicting evidence from different studies. The results of one study should not be taken as definitive.”
Young dismissed the idea that more aggressive children tend to be placed in day care, saying, “Most of these kids [who showed increased aggression] started day care at 6 months. At that age, you don't see much aggressive behavior.”
She did suggest, however, that mothers who have “high-powered careers” are more likely both to place their children in long-term day care and to have aggressive personalities that they pass on to their children.
She suggested that parents could decrease behavioral problems not by reducing hours in day care, but by being “a little extra-careful to inculcate civility and a friendly attitude in their kids.” She also suggested that day care workers “pay more attention to how kids are playing.”
The Two-Income Myth
In the wake of the 10-year National Institute for Child Health and Human Development study, many critics argued that there was no point in such studies, since mothers don't choose to work but are forced into the marketplace by financial necessity.
Graglia disputed that claim, pointing out that more women whose husbands earn less than the median income stay home. “A lot of women today will say they'd like to stay home but they can't afford it,” she said. “I call it the myth of economic necessity.”
She acknowledged, “Sometimes there is economic necessity — for example, in the case of single mothers.” But she added that American culture needs to make homemaking more attractive.
“Women who feel very secure in their marriages are enabled to freely respond emotionally to their children,” she said, and so they find it easier and more fun to stay home. But a culture riddled with divorce makes that sense of security harder to come by.
Divorce law also pushes women into the workplace, Graglia claimed: “Today, women who give up their jobs are in great economic peril,” she said. If their husbands leave, such women are told to jump into the work force in middle age.
Graglia added, “Our tax laws are very badly used to encourage paid day care. You get a tax break for what you spend on child care.” She suggested a “raising the child” tax credit instead, since that would benefit both families who used paid day care and families where relatives or Mom cared for the kids.
Many women want to stay home: In a recent survey, roughly 70% of young mothers called day-care centers the “option of last resort.” But how can a family do it?
Waite suggested that if one parent goes to work early and the other comes home late, even families that rely on two full-time incomes can keep a child in day care only from 9 to 4.
“From 8 in the morning to 6 at night, which is pretty standard, is a long time,” Waite said. “Who could thrive in such a situation?”
----- EXCERPT: ... And the Double-Income Myth ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of life -------- TITLE: Now, One Call Can Save a Life DATE: 05/27/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 27-June 2, 2001 ----- BODY:APPLE VALLEY, Minn. — “When I first found out I was pregnant I didn't want the baby,” says the pre-recorded message on the Her Choice telephone system.
“I went to the Robbinsdale Women's Center by mistake. (The women's center is across the street from an abortion clinic.) They helped calm me down and bombarded me with options other than abortion. I was able to see what a beautiful baby I had through their ultrasound machine. Well, to make a long story short, I didn't have an abortion.”
The voice continues, crying now. “After Hannah was born she was brought to my room. It hurt me to think that I could have made the decision to kill her, my perfect little girl wouldn't be here if I had gone to the other side of the street where there was an abortion clinic. If I hurt that badly over something I could have done, I can't imagine how other women must feel who actually go through with it.”
That story, and more than a dozen others like it, is part of a grassroots pro-life effort that has now spread to four cities across the country. If founder Paul Laursen has his way it will spread to every diocese in the country.
The innovative telephone information system allows the caller to select any of many choices simply by pressing a number on the telephone keypad.
Callers can listen to a variety of pre-recorded testimonies, including those by women who have chosen abortion, those who have chosen to give birth to their babies, testimonies from men, abortion facts and related talks such as Mother Teresa's presentation at the National Prayer Breakfast several years ago.
Following the testimonies, a 24-hour hot-line number for the Alpha Women's Center is provided for those women who desire to talk to a live counselor or have more specific needs.
“Over the past three years,” says Laursen, “the Twin Cities system has received an average of 175 calls per month. The system provides a forum where post-abortive women can talk to pre-abortive women anonymously. This has not existed since Roe vs. Wade.”
What is now an effective pro-life telephone information system originally started out six years ago as The Catholic Connection, a 24-hour-a-day telephone information system that provided homilies from local priests, information about upcoming events, abortion testimonies, daily confession times, perpetual Eucharistic chapels and other information of interest to Catholics.
Laursen received generous support from his local Knights of Columbus council and the pastor of his parish, Father George Welzbacher, to start the system and begin advertising it.
“When Paul first came up with the idea, I described it in some detail to Archbishop Harry Flynn. He was very enthusiastic and gave permission to use his name to endorsement it,” explained Father Welzbacher of St. Nicholas Catholic Church in New Market, Minn. The parish contributes $100 a month towards the telephone service. “We support it because it gives the real picture from people who know tragically from the inside what abortion does,” commented Father Welzbacher.
The New Market, Minn., Knights of Columbus council, of which Laursen is a member, recently donated $15,000 from the sale of its “House for Life” — a home built through the voluntary efforts of the council to raise money for various pro-life organizations — to support the system.
“Two or three years ago I received a call from the Archbishop of Atlanta inquiring about the program. I gave it the strongest recommendation I could,” added Father Welzbacher.
Phones Ringing in Atlanta
With the support of Archbishop John F. Donoghue and Msgr. Hugh Marren, Patty Steele, executive director of the Human Development Resource Council, set to work getting a similar system established in the Atlanta archdiocese.
“The program appealed to me very much because it places no pressure upon a person, said Monsignor Hugh Marren, of St. Benedict Catholic Church in Duluth, Ga. “It is merely people sharing their experiences. Those contemplating abortion are free to call the number and listen to the joys and regrets of others sharing their experiences. It's completely anonymous.”
“The Archbishop gave it his blessing,” Msgr. Marren continued, “and so we went ahead with it. We didn't know whether we would receive 1 call or 10 calls.” Since it began, two years ago, the Atlanta Her Choice system has received between 300-500 calls per month.
“We do not know how women decide,” added Msgr. Marren, “but we do know of one woman who thanked us for helping her make her choice to give birth to her child. I feel the system was worth it for that call alone.”
Whereas the Twin Cities system routes calls to one local pregnancy center, Her Choice Atlanta has customized the system so that it provides information on 35 different area pregnancy centers, and routes interested callers to whatever center has mentors available.
The information system in Atlanta has been supported by the Knights of Columbus as well. The council in Atlanta recently donated $3,000 from a Christmas tree fundraiser to support the system.
Both Laursen and Steele said that the system requires little to operate. “The cost to run the system is pretty nominal. Two incoming lines cost about $100 per month and the initial setup is about $400. The program runs in the background on any Windows computer,” explained Steele.
The program is also being used in Flint, Mich., and Boise, Idaho — and will soon be in Des Moines, Iowa.
Both the original Her Choice and the Atlanta system advertise in the Yellow Pages under abortion alternatives, and also through billboards and fliers. “There are 14,000 abortions in Minneapolis annually,” said Laursen. “We don't know what women who are calling into the line are deciding, but we do know that we reach 175 each month.”
Laursen knows of at least two women who gave their babies the gift of life. They later contacted the Alpha Women's Center to express their thanks for the system.
“One out of four women in this country have had an abortion, they are the key to winning this battle, they have not been heard” said Laursen. “If post-abortive women, who cannot be stigmatized, can come forward in large numbers, abortion laws can be overturned. People know there have been millions of abortions during the past 28 years, but they don't hear the pain caused by abortion. That pain comes through dramatically in these testimonies.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: LIFE NOTES DATE: 05/27/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: May 27-June 2, 2001 ----- BODY:Baby Born After Abortion
When 18-year-old Saia learned she was pregnant, she followed the urging of the baby's father to have an abortion. She received an injection of methotrexate, part of the RU 486 chemical abortion process.
Two days later, Saia said, she realized she did not want to abort her baby. Dr. Steven Roth of the Genesis Women's Center in Inverness agreed to see her and, through ultrasound, determined that her baby was still alive.
Roth gave her Leukovorin to overwhelm the methotrexate and it worked.
Pro-Lifers Plan Citizen's Arrests
Campaigners are gathering undercover information at UK hospitals and clinics, information that they say shows the 1967 Abortion Act is being broken. When they are fully prepared, Precious Life says small groups of members will target two or three sites in Scotland and the same number in England, and arrest the lawbreaking medics.
Precious Life spokesman Jim Dowson said, “We all know that abortion is being used as contraception but that is not facilitated for in law. They should either change the law or uphold the law.”
Baby May Save Mother
PROLIFE INFONET, May 10 — Doctors at one of the nation's leading cancer transplant centers are preparing for a first-of-its-kind transplant in which they will infuse a little girl's umbilical cord blood stem cells into her mother, who has chronic myelocytic leukemia (CML), reported the Prolife Infonet.
More than 1,500 cord blood transplants have been performed worldwide, but never before has cord blood been used for the newborn's mother.
Restricting Planned Parenthood
Most agencies use both state and federal money. The new language added to the state's social services budget could cause some clinics to close, reported the Star.
“I would hope the [Missouri Department of Health] would follow state law before worrying about following federal guidelines,” said Sen. John Russell, a Lebanon Republican.
“These poor women are out there and their babies are being killed and [the health department is] out there advocating for it. That just burns me up,” he said.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life ----- TITLE: New Babies Have Three Parents DATE: 06/03/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 3-9, 2001 ----- BODY:LIVINGSTON, N.J. — Scientists in Livingston, N.J., announced recently that genetically modified humans — until now thought to exist only in science-fiction novels — are already among us.
A team of infertility specialists at the Institute for Reproductive Medicine and Science at St. Barnabas Medical Center said they helped produce 15 children with foreign DNA added to that which the children naturally inherited from their mothers and fathers.
The news was met with an outcry from ethicists and from other scientists, who accused the team of playing God and of ignoring potentially disastrous side effects in their haste to dabble in genetic engineering.
The criticism intensified after The Washington Post reported May 18 that in an article published by the St. Barnabas scientists in the March issue of the journal Human Reproduction, the researchers failed to disclose that two of the 17 embryos they created had suffered from Turner's Syndrome. The syndrome is a genetic abnormality in which an entire chromosome is missing.
One of the embryos suffering from the syndrome was deliberately aborted by the scientists, the Post reported. The other was spontaneously miscarried after being implanted in its mother.
Earlier, scientists at the Institute of Science in Society (known as ISIS) in London had charged that the New Jersey research raises the terrifying specter of eugenics. They compared the development with the advent of nuclear weapons, saying it “amounts to changing the gene pool of the human species.”
The ISIS scientists also warned that the genetic modifications undertaken on the15 living children “may also give rise inadvertently to individuals who have the extreme diseases associated with mitochondrial heteroplasmy, most frequently expressed beyond puberty, or much later in life.”
The rationale for the genetic modifications was that some scientists speculate that female infertility may be caused, in some cases, by defects in the cytoplasm of a woman's egg cells. The New Jersey team transplanted the cytoplasm of donor egg cells into the egg cells of infertile women, and found success in helping the women achieve pregnancy.
The cytoplasm is the material surrounding the cell nucleus, which contains most of the DNA that holds an individual's genetic code. But since cytoplasm also contains small amounts of DNA, in structures called mitochondria, the children conceived through the procedure have three genetic parents — something which is impossible in nature and which could lead to new and harmful genetic mutations.
Brave New World?
As well, the procedure affects the child's “germline cells,” so the genetic modification will be passed from generation to generation.
“It's not just that these babies are at risk — the whole human race is at risk,” said Dr. Gene Rudd, associate executive director of the Christian Medical Association in Bristol, Tenn. “We will take the chance of introducing a new disease into the whole genetic makeup of the human race.”
While the New Jersey team announced that tests on two 1-year-old children conceived through the procedure show no sign of any genetic disease or disability, critics say that proves nothing about the safety of the procedure.
“They did find some mutations,” said Dr. Mae-Wan Ho, a geneticist and biophysicist who is the director of ISIS, “but we don't know whether those mutations matter or not, because a lot of the mitochondrial defects don't appear until after puberty.”
In their May 2 published critique of the New Jersey experiments issued May 2, Ho and colleague Joe Cummins, a geneticist at the University of Western Ontario, noted that “mitochondrial DNA mutations have been linked to seizures, strokes, optic atrophy, neuropathy, myopathy, cardiomyopathy, sensorineural hearing loss, diabetes mellitus, and other syndromes .… More often than not, the disease symptoms are delayed until puberty or midlife.”
Denise Pinney, assistant director of public relations for St. Barnabas Medical Center, told the Register that the Institute for Reproductive Medicine and Science is not currently granting interviews about the genetic alterations it has undertaken.
But in a May 18 press release, the medical center defended its actions, stating the cytoplasmic transfer research “complies with stringent medical guidelines and the rigorous restrictions” set by an internal review committee “composed of physicians, religious representatives, patients, ethicists, and others.”
The St. Barnabas statement also discussed the two embryos with Turner's Syndrome, noting that the genetic abnormality occurs frequently in all babies conceived artificially. The center acknowledged that one of the embryos had died in a miscarriage and that the second unborn baby, one of a pair of twins, had been aborted deliberately.
Said the statement, “The fetus with Turner's Syndrome … was electively reduced, and a healthy singleton resulted.”
Unregulated Research
There is no law governing such experiments in the United States, and the only regulatory body with competence in the field of “gene splicing,” the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee, deals only with projects receiving federal funding. The New Jersey experiments were not supported by federal funds, and the scientists involved argue that their experiments did not involve gene splicing anyway.
Ho countered that “in the past even those people who were not supported by federal funds … let the regulatory body know what they were doing, and consulted.” She also argued that there is no essential difference between “gene splicing” and the introduction of mitochondrial DNA through a cytoplasm transplant.
Pinney said that the experiments were carried out according to in-house ethical and scientific guidelines. But Ho believes scientists have a responsibility to society and must not act in secret or without regard for ethical considerations, and that they must be held accountable to the public.
“The first thing [the New Jersey team] did wrong was they never told anyone … what they were doing, and they knew they were putting in new genes,” Ho said. “Secondly, it wasn't based on sound scientific evidence that that was what was wrong with the eggs and that they actually needed to have cytoplasmic transplants. Third, they just never … notified the public so that the public could have input into whether they want this done.”
Such high-handedness is hardly new in the reproductive technology field, according to critics, but the scientists involved in such debatable objectionable projects are seldom, if ever, held to account for their actions. The Christian Medical Association's Rudd told the Register that the various regulatory bodies that exist in the United States “don't come with teeth, [and] right now the scientific community doesn't do a very good job of policing itself.”
Said Rudd, “Regulation is necessary for society to live cooperatively without anarchy, and when the pendulum swings too far toward anarchy we finally realize that, and we start getting more regulatory, and I suspect that science is on the verge of enough anarchy that we will move … towards more regulation with teeth.”
Professional “peer pressure” and commonly accepted moral standards no longer hold sway over genetic researchers, Rudd added. These restraints “are not that great in our society anymore because of the relativistic thinking and the tolerance concepts that are so prevalent. I think that when we live with the consequences of that for half a generation [we will] probably realize that it's time to go back a little bit.”
Ho said that “scientists should love humanity as much as they love their own science,” but that since that is not always the case, further regulation and even criminal sanctions may be necessary to prevent abuses of scientific freedom.
Rudd looks at the matter theologically. “God's design is safe,” he said. “ We know that there's a design that we can depend upon in taking [the] genetic material that comes from a husband and wife and keeping a family unit intact …. We have to think real hard any time we step away from that basic family unit design.”
Donum Vitae (The Gift of Life), the 1987 instruction from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on questions regarding respect for human life and the dignity of procreation, states that, “Techniques of fertilization in vitro can open the way to other forms of biological and genetic manipulation of human embryos … These procedures are contrary to the human dignity proper to the embryo, and at the same time they are contrary to the right of every person to be conceived and to be born within marriage and from marriage” (No. 6).
David Curtin writes from Toronto.
----- EXCERPT: Research 'changes human species' ----- EXTENDED BODY: David Curtin ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Cardinals Huddle With Pope DATE: 06/03/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 3-9, 2001 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — The largest gathering of cardinals in the Church's history concluded on the feast of the Ascension, with fresh reflections on how to enter the new millennium.
Pope John Paul II said in his closing homily that he intends to use the information gathered at the consistory to create a program of apostolate “concerning evangelization and Christian witness in the world of today, at the beginning of a new millennium.”
The “extraordinary consistory” was held May 21-24 at the Vatican, where 155 cardinals engaged in three days of discussion on the broad topic of the pastoral challenges for the Church.
It was the sixth extraordinary consis-tory called by John Paul II, with the last being in 1994 to discuss preparations for the Great Jubilee of 2000. This consistory was spoken of repeatedly as a means to ensure that the graces of the Jubilee Year take root in the Church throughout the world.
Given the breadth of the agenda, the cardinals limited themselves to fundamentals for the most part. Their “final message” (printed in full on page 8) returned to basics, saying that the priorities for the Church must be contemplating the face of Christ in the Word of God, in personal prayer and in the sacraments; holiness; the missions and the new evangelization; communion within the Church, and ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue with non-Catholics; and a renewed commitment to peace and justice in world characterized by globalization.
The cardinals also made specific pleas for international solidarity with Africa, and for an end to the killing in the Holy Land.
During the course of the consis-tory, several cardinals did make specific suggestions, but the meeting did not pass resolutions or vote on any such propositions.
Cardinals’ Suggestions
Cardinal William H. Keeler of Baltimore spoke about the Church's presence in the mass media, a theme echoed throughout the consistory. He spoke about the Church participating in the “media culture,” especially the Internet, as a necessary means of evangelization.
Cardinal Keeler's comments were backed up, unintentionally, by communications snafus in that gave a confused presentation of consis-tory information to the world's media. One day's press briefing was cancelled suddenly with no reason given.
On a related matter of global communications, Cardinal Wilfrid F. Napier of Durban, South Africa, suggested in an interview that the Church's liturgical books should be produced in a modern language. Having the official editions in Latin, he said, made the work of translation unworkable in a world where Latin is no longer studied adequately.
Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles spoke on the challenges of preaching the faith in the microcosm of the world that is his archdiocese. With 5 million people from varied backgrounds and levels of instruction in the faith, Mahony thought that it would be useful to have a “Directory on the New Evangelization,” a Vatican document that would provide guidelines and direction on what the “new evangelization” meant for local churches.
Ecumenism emerged as a repeated theme, with Cardinal Walter Kasper, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, calling it “the theme of the new millennium.”
Cardinal Roger Etchegaray noted the disappointment of many that a hoped-for gathering of Christian leaders during the Jubilee Year never materialized.
Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor of Westminster, England, proposed that Pope John Paul II again seek to organize a pan-Christian meeting.
Cardinal Avery Dulles, professor at Fordham University in The Bronx, N.Y., underscored the importance of papal primacy in relations with other Christians. It is the primacy that preserves unity, he said, noting that history has shown that those Christians without the Petrine primacy have suffered divisions amongst themselves.
Cardinal Carlo Martini of Milan proposed that a Synod be held on the Word of God. Several of his fellow cardinals noted that the renowned biblical scholar had proposed that idea at previous meetings going back over the years, and had clearly not lost hope of eventual success.
A Better Way?
The structure of the meeting necessarily led to what one observer called a “shopping list” result of a little bit of everything, with no substantial discussion of any specific issue. That format clearly left some cardinals unsatisfied.
Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston had, according to several of his brother cardinals, suggested that an annual meeting of the Synod of Bishops be held with an open agenda — not unlike the current meeting. The Synod of Bishops now meets once every few years.
That suggestion was rejected out of hand by a number of consistory participants, who thought that the current model needs major changes before any increase in the time spent at consistory or synod meetings.
“With over 75 speeches to listen to, at a certain point it didn't matter who was saying what,” confessed one cardinal, who thought there was too much talk on too many subjects and not enough sustained examination of any one issue.
In an interview with Catholic News Service, Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago said he thought the church could use a synod that is more “supple” and less tied to the standard format of speech-giving.
“The framework [of synods] now is quite conciliar. Therefore, it's not a forum for give and take, except in the small groups,” Cardinal George said. “The structure [of this consistory] is synodal, which surprised me. It is a synod in miniature. And the synod is a council in miniature. We still haven't found that more supple framework for these discussions that I think would be helpful.”
“[The structure] is very concerned about protecting the voice of each member, which is a good concern.
But in protecting that value, it has sacrificed the kind of give-and-take discussion where ideas can be honed on the floor of the synod itself,” Cardinal George continued.
Cardinal Godfried Danneels of Brussels, Belgium, echoed those concerns and told reporters that many cardinals spoke about the need to improve the synod process. “What is absent in synods today is the possibility to have a debate. Bishops should be much more frank in their speaking. There are too many homilies.”
Whether or not such changes in process will happen remains to be seen. The next Synod of Bishops is scheduled for this coming October, and will focus on the role of the bishop.
John Paul himself commented on the subject of these concerns. In his homily, he said:
“Different questions will be taken up again in the next Synod of Bishops, which has shown itself to be a valid and effective instrument of episcopal collegiality at the service of the local Churches.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Raymond De Souza ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Umbert the Unborn Makes His Debut DATE: 06/03/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 3-9, 2001 ----- BODY:Meet Umbert the Unborn, the world's first pre-natal comic strip character. He's feisty, outspoken, loveable and almost ready to take on the world.
The cartoon is making its debut in the Register's Culture of Life section this issue, but its creator hopes to see it debut in faith-based and other pro-life newspapers throughout the country this summer.
Umbert is an unborn infant of yet to be determined gender who lives in his mother's womb — “his own private universe, think tank and playground,” said creator Gary Cangemi, “from which he can anticipate life and the world that awaits him and ponder the primordial questions that plague us all.”
Cangemi, a professional cartoonist for over 20 years, has published many cartoons and columns in defense of unborn children.
Father James Paisley, pastor of St. Maria Goretti Church near Cangemi's Scranton, Pa., home, said he is proud of the cartoon-ist's new work.
“In an age where the unborn child is treated like a nonentity,” said Father Paisley, the cartoon “has given life, meaning and humanity to 'the child within.’”
Father Paisley brought the cartoon to the attention of Scranton Bishop James Timlin, who was also supportive of the project.
“I want to commend you for your unique approach to making people more aware of the plight of the unborn in our society,” wrote the bishop in a letter to Cangemi. “Anything we can do to humanize the unborn is most welcome and you have certainly done a great service through your artistic talent and wit.”
Cangemi sees the cartoon as his contribution to the pro-life movement. He hopes that its friendly but firm approach will attract more people to respect for the unborn.
“Umbert's purpose is to give life, personality and humanity to the unborn child and to change the hearts and minds of the ‘born’,” he said.
Father Paisley agrees — and sees an even greater potential.
He said Umbert can help “change the face of the pro-life movement as we know it.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Seton Hall Stands By Abortion Supporter DATE: 06/03/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 3-9, 2001 ----- BODY:SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. — Seton Hall University won't rescind an honorary degree given May 7 to Dolores Cross, the president of Morris Brown College in Atlanta, despite information indicating that she has publicly worked to advance abortion rights.
“As an undergraduate alumna of Seton Hall University with a long history with the university, Dr. Cross knows our ethical commitments well and has assured us she sees no conflict between her public statements and Seton Hall's Catholic mission,” Robina Schepp, director of public relations at Seton Hall University, told the Register.
Questioned about Cross’ participation in a 1992 report from the National Abortion Rights and Reproductive Action League, or NARAL, Schepp reiterated that Seton Hall had been assured by Cross that none of her public statements contradicted the Catholic Church's teachings.
“She knows the school. She has a long history with school,” said Schepp. “She has assured us that she doesn't see a conflict in relation to the report or at any other time that is in conflict with our Catholic mission.”
The Register obtained a copy of the NARAL report, called “Facing a Future Without Choice: A Report on Reproductive Liberty in America.” Cross served as a member of the National Commission on America Without Roe, which released the report.
The report quotes Cross on page 24, affirming the importance of “choice” as a principle to be respected in the context of abortion: “What I say to my students relates to my role as a college president as well as a mother and an African American woman. I'm concerned with three things — students being able to get into college, making sure we retain the students and they graduate from college, and creating opportunities for them. At every step of the way, choice is important.”
Asked to comment on Cross’ remarks, Schepp said, “I really do not want to enter into a debate with you in regards to her statement.”
Schepp refused to answer if Cross’ statement proves that she supports legalized abortion.
“Again, she has told us that she has not made any public comments that are in conflict with our mission,” said Schepp.
Priests for Life spokesman Father Peter West, who was the first to publicly call on Seton Hall to rescind the degree, was disappointed by the university's response.
“Dolores Cross obviously lied to Seton Hall. She has made public statements in favor of abortion,” said Father West, a priest in the Archdiocese of Newark.
He again called on Seton Hall's president, Msgr. Robert Sheerhan, to revoke the degree.
“Msgr. Sheerhan praised Dolores Cross for exemplifying the values that are taught everyday at Seton Hall,” said Father West. “I think it's Msgr. Sheerhan's duty as a priest and as a leader of a Catholic university to retract this degree because this woman is not only pro-abortion, she is also not truthful.”
Father West did find a positive development from the controversy.
“One good thing is that she is running from her public record and is obviously ashamed of her role with the National Abortion Rights Action League,” he said.
But that doesn't mean that the honorary degree did no harm, he added.
“It's very disheartening for people working to protect unborn children when Catholic universities give honor people who believe in ‘abortion rights,’” said Father West.
Seton Hall is an archdiocesan university. The Archdiocese of Newark called the controversy “a university matter.” Newark has been without a bishop since Theodore McCarrick became archbishop of Washington in January.
“Seton Hall continues to be important to the diocese, but university matters on a day-to-day basis are dealt with by the university,” said Jim Goodness, spokesman for the diocese.
Student's Perspective
James Riley, Jr., a sophomore from Newark studying political science, said the university's lack of knowledge regarding the views of Cross is unacceptable.
“Any claim of ignorance is an attempt by the university to shy away from any bad publicity that this might bring,” said Riley. “You do not award an honorary doctorate to a stranger, or to a person whose background has not been completely reviewed. It is just not good sense.”
Riley said that is obvious from the NARAL report that the views of Cross “clearly conflict with those of the Catholic Church.”
Ray Flynn, former ambassador to the Vatican and mayor of Boston, said accidents happen and that Seton Hall should be given the benefit of doubt regarding the original confer-ral of the degree.
“A lot of these things slip though the cracks. You just have to be vigilant,” said Flynn, the president of Catholic Alliance, a national Catholic political organization.
But Flynn added that now that Cross’ ties to abortion advocates are publicly known, Seton Hall should rescind the honor.
“Why should we confer a degree on someone who is advocating the taking of innocent lives, which is contrary to Catholic teaching?” Flynn asked.
Patrick Reilly, president of the Cardinal Newman Society, said many Catholics must share in the blame.
“Several abortion advocates are selected as commencement speakers at Catholic universities every year, and the argument is always the same: academic freedom and freedom of speech dictate the right — the privilege — of abortion advocates to be seated in places of honor beside the leaders of Catholic institutions,” said Reilly. “It's outrageous, but where's the outrage?
Schepp insisted that giving Cross an honorary degree didn't violate the school's Catholic identity.
“The school did not give an award to NARAL,” she told the Register. That doesn't excuse the school, Flynn said.
“Just by being on the commission whose stated goal is to advocate for abortion, Cross is making a statement,” he said.
Father West said that Schepp's argument wouldn't hold up if the university tried to honor someone like David Duke, the former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, or someone else associated with the racist organization.
“If the speaker were associated with the Ku Klux Klan, [the honorary degree] would be revoked,” Father West said.
“We should have the same policy for those who deny human rights to the unborn child.”
The Catholic Alliance's Flynn, who has issued a public statement calling on Seton Hall to rescind Cross’ doctorate, insisted that he has no animosity against New Jersey's only Catholic college.
“I have the highest respect for Seton Hall,” Flynn said. “I received an honorary degree from Seton Hall in 1995 when I spoke at commencement. But what has happened? I don't think the students have changed.”
Joshua Mercer writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Rap-ologist DATE: 06/03/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 3-9, 2001 ----- BODY:In songs like “53 Beads on a String,” this Chicagoan shows his unusual blend of classical melodies, rap beats and rhythms, and Catholic lyrics. “The Apologist,” who just released his second CD, spoke with Register staff writer Eve Tushnet.
Tushnet: Tell me about your background.
I wasn't brought up Catholic. My father was a Black Muslim — “White people are devils,” stuff like that. He left it right before I was born, but we kept some of the beliefs, so we didn't celebrate Christmas. My mother was Baptist, but went along to keep her marriage together.
How did you become interested in the Church?
First, I became interested in Christianity. A friend told me about some of the things in the Bible, like the apocalypse — that kind of scared me. I was 17, I had a rap group, and I was starting to get depressed. I knew that some of the things that I was doing were wrong. I started watching Protestants on TV. As I became a devout Baptist, I stumbled across EWTN. I didn't know there was a difference between Catholics and Protestants.
I had already accepted the teachings on the Eucharist by listening to these priests explain it [on EWTN]. I didn't understand other things — the Blessed Mother, statues — so I started to defend my mother's faith first. I went through this anti-Catholic phase, which was basically me trying to understand why I wasn't Catholic.
I left my rap group; I only made music in my basement.
I kept my friends, but they knew I was becoming more serious about God. I went to Baptist Bible study. All of this happened in a year, from me being totally pagan to being Baptist to being Catholic. It happened really fast.
At the stroke of midnight on the New Year, 1994, I was able to see the final things about the Church. So I thought, “Shoot, I have to go to Mass now!” My first Mass was the Feast of the Epiphany, and now I'm a member of Miles Jesu, Militant Sons and Daughters of the Immaculate Heart of Our Lady of the Epiphany.
After I graduated from high school, I went to a retreat and met some members of Miles Jesu. Now I'm a consecrated layman.
Did you keep at your music?
No. I couldn't write a Christian rap song. An older member [of Miles Jesu] said, “Keep it. Don't let it go,” but I left it for four years.
Then I went to Mexico, and I heard these kids come down the alley blasting a rap song. I thought, “I can't believe that rap has spread so far. I wonder if I could write a song about the Blessed Mother.” And it just flowed out, I didn't even have to think about it.
At Miles Jesu, we wake up to classical music every day. Even in my pagan days, I loved classical music. I used to pick out the rhythms in it and say, “Oh, if I wanted to, I could write a rap song with this in it.”
I use classical music to keep it as pure as possible, because rap has been so defiled that it's hard to really Christianize it without sounding irreverent.
What's next?
A lot of people are asking me to do a whole album. I'm looking at how this one sells.
I have songs on confession, on marriage, love songs to the Blessed Mother and to Jesus, pro-life songs, all with classical music. I'm getting more into telling stories.
There's an apologetical song, about a Catholic who's approached by a Protestant, but this is a Catholic like Karl Keating, and he's explaining it in a charitable way. The whole thing rhymes. He goes into the Inquisition, all the little arguments I could get in there, so the kids know how to defend the faith.
There's a song where I tell stories of some of the martyrs, so they have heroes that are martyrs instead of basketball players.
What are some of your musical influences as far as rap?
Some people have said that I sound like Eminem. He's very creative, but he's horrible — he uses it in such a bad way. Him and maybe this guy Jay-Z. They're the only ones I've heard that are new that can actually write.
I'm almost creating a new genre. There isn't other rap that uses classical music.
Who's your audience?
My target is Catholics. Some people say, “Aren't you targeting the kids that are lost?” Yes, I am, but it's mainly for Catholic kids. They're getting confirmed and they don't even know the seven sacraments, the Ten Commandments, how to pray the rosary. If they get fired up about their faith, they'll spread it.
What was your best experience on the road?
In Florida, we went to a youth group; they were going to be confirmed that weekend. It was guys and girls, which isn't always a great idea — they were all sitting on the floor, uninterested. One of our guys gave a testimony and they were like, “Yeah, whatever.” Then I did my song ["53 Beads on a String"]. In the end, [the kids who had been the least interested at first] were the main ones wanting posters and buying CDs, coming up and talking to me.
They were saying to the youth leader, “You need to teach us to pray the rosary!”
Is your family supportive?
Yes. My mother recorded the “Life on the Rock” show [on which I appeared]. She's showing it to all my aunts.
If you met yourself at age 15, what would you say?
“What are you doing? Where are you going? Stop the things you're doing before it's too late. Don't worry about pleasing people so much.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: David Rey ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Cleaning Up the Barracks: U.S. Army Installs Porn Filters DATE: 06/03/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 3-9, 2001 ----- BODY:SAN DIEGO — U.S. soldiers will have a much more difficult time viewing pornographic Web sites now that the Army has enlisted the aid of Websense, a Southern California company, to help in the battle to restrict unfettered Internet access by its troops.
The offensive against the inappropriate use of Army computers is definitely a good idea, said Janson Durney, a third-year cadet at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y.
Durney told the Register that he supports the regulation of anything that does not support “the Army's mission of winning the nation's wars.”
The cadet also worries that the use of pornography by troops “can degrade the work atmosphere if men begin to objectify women as a means for pleasure, rather than fellow human beings who should be treated accordingly.”
Durney said there are additional problems with having pornography available in today's Army. “Pornography is especially a concern, because men and women are working together more often in today's Army,” he noted.
Nor has the military been immune from pornography-induced sex scandals. In 1998, for example, an Army major and an airman were at the centers of separate child pornography cases in North Carolina.
The Software
The $1.8-million deal between Websense and the Army will provide a software package to be utilized by more than 100 military facilities in the United States and abroad. The software works by allowing a manager “to select from 67 categories — anything an employer might not want [employees] looking at,” explained Phil Hill, a spokesman for Websense in San Diego.
Hill said the filtering system is updated daily, filtering our new Web sites both by electronic means and through input from people that Websense employs to surf the Web and find other sites containing problematic material.
Websense, which was founded in 1994, already works with over 12,000 customers worldwide, including 239 of the Fortune 500 companies and 75 government agencies. The most frequently blocked Web sites disseminating hate material and pornography. Said Hill, “No employer would want that in their workplace.”
While spokesman Timothy Rider stressed that the Army's computer filter program was targeted not at any one particular kind of Web site, but at all sites that can decrease military productivity, published reports indicate that the new system will likely spell the end of pornographic Internet surfing.
In addition to pornography, the system will be able to filter gambling, shopping, the downloading of MP3 music files and “anything that would give administrators a headache because [some] people are doing non-duty [activities],” Rider said. The new system is an improvement on current Army filtering devices, he added, because it “will give managers more flexibility in ensuring that more work gets done.”
Viewing Internet pornography is already against Army rules regarding use of its computers. According to Army regulations: “The Joint Ethics Regulations now allows users to make limited use of [Department of Defense] telephones, e-mail systems, and Internet connections for personal use, so long as such uses are on a not-to-interfere basis and are not for an improper purpose (such as conducting a private business or reviewing pornography).”
Rider explained that the new filtering software is not directly related to this army policy, but conceded that while he was recently stationed in Korea, some soldiers were accessing pornography on military computers. Said Rider, “I won't say that nobody went to such sites.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that: “[Pornography] offends against chastity because it perverts the conjugal act…. It is a grave offense. Civil authorities should prevent the production and distribution of pornographic materials” (No. 2354).
The Archdiocese of the Military Services said that is strongly supportive of any moves undertaken to reduce the damaging spiritual, psychological and social consequences of soldiers viewing pornography. Msgr. Aloysius Callaghan, vicar general for the military archdiocese, told the Register, “We respect the value system [against pornography] being maintained by the Army.”
Andrew Walther writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Andrew Walther ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 06/03/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 3-9, 2001 ----- BODY:White House Places Pro-Family Groups on Delegations
Groups like the American Public Health Association, the American Medical Association and the American Nurses Association were snubbed in favor of the Family Research Council and the National Law Center for Children and Families. Delegates also include a lobbyist for International Right to Life, senior health care officials, and Bush friends in the health care field.
Former President Bill Clinton's delegation to the 1999 U.N. General Assembly Special Session on Population included strongly pro-abortion voices like Planned Parenthood.
Don't Stigmatize Working Moms, Says Pro-Family Expert
Gallagher, co-author of the recent book The Case for Marriage: Why Married People Are Happier, Healthier, and Better Off Financially, agreed that day care, especially for young children, has major problems, and that “Public policy has tilted far too heavily in favor of subsidizing day care at the expense of family care.”
But Gallagher pointed out the complex reasons mothers enter the workforce: circumstances such as single motherhood, a husband's low wages, a husband's alcoholism, or unexpected medical needs. She concluded that “behaviors whose immorality depends on complex judgment calls about circumstances are not good candidates for stigmatization.”
Pro-Abortion Foundation's Media Influence
Kaiser works closely with the top-rated television drama “ER,” influencing storylines. A Kaiser study found that a 1997 “ER” episode featuring the “morning-after” use of birth control pills “dramatically raised awareness” of the pills’ abortifacient use. The foundation also promotes depictions of contraception on shows like “Felicity.”
Focus on Marriage, D.C. Delegate Tells Essence
When the national black magazine asked Norton what elected officials should do about black children in poverty, Norton replied, “I'm not going to give you the politician's answer.” Instead, she blamed the “disappearance of marriage” in large segments of the black community. “We've got to talk about marriage again,” Norton said. “We've got to make it fashionable.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Couple and County Reach Settlement on Home Schooling of Child DATE: 06/03/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 3-9, 2001 ----- BODY:LAUREL, Md. — A Maryland mother who was charged with 83 counts of truancy for refusing to submit her Catholic home-school curriculum to public-school authorities has agreed to a settlement that puts her criminal case on hold while she seeks state approval of the program.
Mary Simmons, who with her husband, John Stafford, is home schooling the couple's oldest child, a 6-year-old girl, had resisted requirements that their curriculum be submitted to the Howard County Public School System.
The couple said their child did not belong to the state and cited Catholic teaching that parents have the primary responsibility for the education of their children.
Stafford and Simmons, who have two other children, have been teaching their 6-year-old at home using the Our Lady of the Rosary program based in Bardstown, Ky., while she is on a parish school waiting list.
Stafford, a retired administrative law judge who is considering a run for governor of Maryland, had said before the settlement was reached that he objected to the “government monopoly school system.”
The Church, Stafford said, has taught consistently that parents have total responsibility for their children, particularly in the area of education.
“This directly violates our religious liberty under the First Amendment and our rights of conscience as Catholics.” He was not charged because school officials said they had no communication with him.
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “The state has a responsibility for its citizens’ well-being,” but “may not legitimately usurp the initiative of spouses, who have the primary responsibility for the procreation and education of their children” (No. 2372).
On May 24, the day before Simmons was to have appeared in a Maryland criminal court on truancy charges, she accepted an offer to postpone prosecution while she seeks approval through the state for her family's home-instruction program.
According to terms of the settlement, which was negotiated by Scott Somerville of the Home School Legal Defense Association and a Howard County assistant state's attorney, the charges against Simmons will be dropped as soon as the Maryland Department of Education recognizes the program the family is using.
Simmons and Stafford plan to ask the state board of education to approve the Our Lady of the Rosary program as well as several other home-school programs, including Seton Home Study and Kolbe Academy. They also will ask the superintendent of Catholic schools for the Archdiocese of Baltimore to consider starting a program under his office.
Miki Hill of the National Association of Catholic Home Educators said the superintendent already is exploring that possibility, which would enable Catholic home-schoolers to bypass curriculum reviews by public-school officials. Hill said the head of the archdiocese, Cardinal William Keeler, has been a leader in supporting the Catholic home-schooling movement.
Somerville of the Home School Legal Defense Association said home-schooling parents in Maryland can avoid review by using a program that already has been approved by the state or is supervised by a state-certified nonpublic school. However, he said, none of the state-approved programs is Catholic and no recognized Catholic school in Maryland is supervising home schoolers.
Parish School Supervision?
“I wish that some of the parish schools in Maryland would supervise home-school programs,” said Somerville, who is Protestant. “Although there are hundreds of Protestant schools that will, there is no recognized Catholic school in Maryland that will supervise home schoolers.”
Likewise, Somerville said, none of the three most reputable national Catholic home-schooling programs in the country is on the Maryland Department of Education approved list.
The Stafford-Simmons case has caused some concern among Catholic home schoolers in Maryland, said Hill, a Howard County resident who designed her family's home-school program and has complied with the local system requirements. She said her own experience with the Howard County Schools has been largely positive.
Hill said that of the nearly 2 million home-schooled children nationwide, about 2% are Catholic. Studies show that home-taught students consistently outperform their peers in conventional schools in such academic subjects as reading, language, and math.
Stafford said that after school officials inquired about the education of their daughter late last year, his wife sent in the required forms stating their intent to teach her at home. But the couple declined to submit their program to the school system. Stafford said school officials were free to review the program on their own by obtaining materials from Our Lady of the Rosary.
Betsy Rice, resource pupil personnel worker for the Howard County Schools, said if the couple had submitted to a simple review lasting 15 to 20 minutes, their program likely would have been approved. “They tell us what they're doing and we record it . . . We just have to know what [they're] doing; otherwise we have to put that child as truant.”
Rice said the review insures that the parents’ intent is to home school the child. “The only thing we look at is does the person have a planned program. They have to have something that says they're doing something.”
Patti Caplan, a Howard County schools spokesman, said the central issue in the Simmons-Stafford case was the school system's responsibility to insure that children are being educated. “And that's all we're concerned about. We're not concerned about the content of any curriculum. There is no intention on anybody's part to get into making judgements about religious-based education.”
Rice said the 45,000-student Howard County School System works with about 800 home-schooled children, many of whom are taught with a religious-based curriculum, and never has had a complaint from parents until now. It was home-schooling parents, she said, who helped the system establish the review procedures.
The school system first tried to contact Simmons and Stafford by going to their home on Sept. 27, after receiving an anonymous phone call about the couple's failure to send their daughter to school, Caplan said.
Somerville got involved in the case after Simmons was charged with truancy in January.
David Lank, assistant state's attorney for Howard County, said that in truancy cases, hearings are typically held with a prosecutor, school officials, and parents before charges are brought, but he said Simmons and Stafford resisted coming to those meetings, where they could have expressed their concerns.
“Unfortunately, they took a very adversarial approach. Rather than opening up a dialogue of communication with the state and the school pupil personnel worker, they decided they didn't want to have any communication.”
In Maryland, he said, “You can be home-schooled in anything if you're Buddhist, Catholic, Jewish, Hindu, whatever it is, as long as there is some type of state monitoring system.”
Howard County officials said they never intended to be unfair to Catholic families.
“We have a process that allows us to provide reasonable accommodation for people with sincere religious beliefs,” Lank said. “If this family had taken advantage of this process, these charges would probably never have been filed.”
Judy Roberts writes from Millbury, Ohio.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Judy Roberts ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 06/03/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 3-9, 2001 ----- BODY:Weigel: ‘More St. Augustine, Less Lee Iacocca’
As Pope John Paul II met with the world's cardinals, many commentators suggested that the consistory might lead to a radical reconsideration of the role of the papacy.
Not so fast, said Weigel. He told the Star-Ledger, “People who imagine this consistory as producing dramatic structural innovations are crazy.
For 23 years, the Pope has been trying to get these guys [the cardinals] to think out of the box, to think about evangelization.” In Weigel's view, the Pope “wants these guys to think more like St. Augustine and less like Lee Iacocca.”
Weigel also dismissed the idea that the meeting is a “trial run” for the conclave in which the cardinals will choose John Paul II's successor.
“The Pope is not thinking about dying. He is booked solid through 2002,” Weigel said.
Evidence for Mother Teresa's Cause, In by August
ASSOCIATED PRESS, May 22 — The evidence-gathering for Mother Teresa's cause for canonization should be completed by August 15, the wire service reported.
The inquiry began in July 1999. After the evidence is in, the Vatican normally takes two or three years to decide on canonization, but Mother Teresa may take less time.
The revered nun died in 1997 in Calcutta at age 87.
Pope John Paul II waived the customary five-year waiting period before evidence could be gathered for her possible canonization.
At least three people have already stepped forward to say they received miraculous healings through Mother Teresa's intercession.
Papal Biographer Dies
ASSOCIATED PRESS, May 22 — Tad Szulc, a foreign and diplomatic correspondent for The New York Times, died at age 74 in his Washington home, the wire service reported.
Szulc was born in Warsaw, Poland, and became a U.S. citizen in 1954. He wrote numerous books, including biographies of Fidel Castro and Pope John Paul II. His last book was the novel To Kill the Pope, based on the 1981 assassination attempt against John Paul II.
St. Thérèse Brings ‘Ecumenism of Holiness’
He also recalled Pope John Paul II's idea of the “great ecumenism of holiness,” in which holiness like St. Thérèse's by its nature draws people together into what the cardinal called “the peace which God alone can give, and which Northern Ireland so desperately needs.”
Cardinal Daly thanked Protestant churches that greeted the saint's relics by ringing their bells.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: 'The Lord Honors the Poor with Victory' DATE: 06/03/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 3-9, 2001 ----- BODY:Register Summary
Returning to his series of teachings on the psalms used in the Church's morning prayer, Pope John Paul described Psalm 149 as a hymn of festive joy in response to God's deliverance.
The Holy Father elaborated the meaning of the psalm during his May 23 general audience, which drew about 13,000 people to St. Peter's Square.
God's deliverance is needed, the Pope said, because his faithful and humble people are marginalized in this world “by all those who choose violence, wealth and arrogance.”
Yet God's people are certain to triumph, he said, because God loves them and “honors the poor with victory.”
“Let the faithful rejoice in their glory; cry out for joy at their banquet.” This appeal from Psalm 149 [verse 5] refers to a dawn that is about to break, finding the faithful ready to intone their morning praise. Their praise is described, with the significant expression, “a new song” (verse 1) — for it is a solemn and perfect hymn, suitable for the final days when the Lord will gather the just in a renewed world. The entire psalm overflows with a festive atmosphere, beginning right away with an initial alleluia and marked by a rhythm of song, praise, joy, dance, and the sound of tambourines and lyres. This psalm inspires a prayer of thanksgiving from a heart filled with religious exultation.
In the Hebrew original of the hymn, the central characters of the psalm are referred to by two words that are typical of the spirituality of the Old Testament. Three times they are described, above all, as hasidim (verses 1,5,9) — namely, “the pious, the faithful,” those who respond with fidelity and love (hesed) to the paternal love of the Lord.
Battling to Serve God
The second part of the psalm is surprising, because it is full of warlike expressions. It seems strange that in the same verse the psalm combines “the praise of God in their mouths” with “a two-edged sword in their hands” (verse 6). Upon reflection, we are able to understand why: The psalm was composed by “faithful” who were involved in a struggle for liberation; they were fighting to free their oppressed people and to give them the chance to serve God. During the time of the Maccabees, in the second century B.C., the combatants for liberty and for the faith, subjected to harsh repression by the Hellenistic power, were, in fact, called hasidim — that is, “the faithful” to the Word of God and the tradition of the fathers.
In today's perspective, considering our own prayer, this warlike symbolism becomes a reflection of our commitment as believers who, having sung our morning praise to God, go into the streets of this world in the midst of evil and injustice. Unfortunately, the forces that are opposed to God's kingdom are impressive; the psalmist speaks of “nations, peoples, kings and nobles.” Yet, he is confident because he knows he has, by his side, the Lord who is the real King of history (verse 2). Therefore, his victory over evil is certain, and it will be the triumph of love. All the hasidim participate in this struggle — all the faithful and just who, with the strength of the Spirit, fully carry out all the wonderful work conveyed by the expression, kingdom of God.
Singing in One Accord
Beginning with the psalm's references to the “choir” and the “tambourine and lyre,” St. Augustine comments: “What does a choir represent? […] The choir is an ensemble of singers who sing together. If we sing in a choir we must sing in harmony. When one sings in a choir, just one flat voice wounds the listener and puts the choir itself into a state of confusion” (Enarr. in Psalm 149: CCL 40,7,1-4).
Then, referring to the instruments used by the psalmist, he asks: “Why does the psalmist take the tambourine and psaltery in hand?” He answers: “Because not only voices but works also praise the Lord. When the tambourine and psaltery are taken, the hands are in agreement with the voice. So it is for you. When you sing the alleluia, you must give bread to the hungry, dress the naked, welcome the pilgrim. If you do this, it is not only the voice that sings, but the hands harmonize with the voice, for the words are in agreement with the works” (Ibid., 8,1-4).
The whole psalm overflows with a festive atmosphere of song, praise, joy, dance.
Living in Poverty
There is a second word describing those who pray this psalm — they are the ‘anawim, that is, “the poor, the humble” (verse 4). This is a very common expression in the psalms, indicating not only the oppressed, the poor, those persecuted for the cause of justice, but also those who, because they are faithful to the moral commitments of the covenant with God, are marginalized by all who choose violence, wealth and arrogance. In this light, one understands that the concept “poor” refers not only to a social class, but also to a spiritual choice. This is the meaning of the well-known first beatitude: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). The prophet Zephaniah already addressed the ‘anawim, saying: “Seek the Lord, all you humble of the earth, who have observed his law; seek justice, seek humility; perhaps you may be sheltered on the day of Lord's anger” (Zephaniah 2:3).
Raising Up the Lowly
Now, the “day of the Lord's anger” is exactly the one described in the second part of the psalm when the “poor” are marshalled on the side of God to fight against evil. On their own, they do not have the sufficient strength, or the means, or the necessary strategies to oppose the outbreak of evil. Yet the expression of the psalmist does not allow for hesitations: “For the Lord takes delight in his people, he honors the poor (‘anawim) with victory” (verse 4). This same idea is epitomized when the Apostle Paul declares to the Corinthians: “God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something” (1 Corinthians 1:28).
With this confidence, “the people of Zion” (verse 2), hasidim and ‘anawim — that is, the faithful and poor — prepare to live their witness in the world and in history. The Magnificat, Mary's song in Luke's Gospel, is the echo of the best sentiments of the “people of Zion” — joyful praise to God the Savior, thanksgiving for the great things accomplished in her by the Almighty, struggle against the forces of evil, solidarity with the poor, faithfulness to the God of the covenant (see Luke 1:46-55).
(Zenit and Register translation)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Human Rights Groups Face Hostile Climate at U.N. DATE: 06/03/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 3-9, 2001 ----- BODY:NEW YORK — Is Freedom House, a highly regarded human rights group that monitors religious freedom around the globe, really a spy group intent on subverting foreign governments?
That was the charge brought by the permanent representative of Cuba to the United Nations when the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations considered Freedom House's U.N. status on May 14. The Cuban government's representative accused Freedom House of being “a machinery of subversion, closer to an intelligence service than an NGO,” doing the foreign-policy dirty work of the United States.
Cuba charged that Freedom House had given money to outlawed groups in Cuba and organized “subversive activities.” The group was also accused of naming members of terrorist organizations as its members, a charge Freedom House denied.
Cuba joined a roster of countries, known for their infringements of religious freedom, that lined up to challenge Freedom House's application for U.N. accreditation. China objected to the fact that Freedom House lists Taiwan as an independent nation. China claims that Taiwan is a province of the mainland.
Sudan, meanwhile, decried what it called “the arrogance of Freedom House,” and Russia accused the organization of “Russiaphobia.”
In recent years, such complaints have become more common, and with the recent ouster of the United States from the U.N. Human Rights Commission, many U.N.-watchers expect intensified pressure to exclude human rights groups from U.N. NGO status. Such status facilitates participation in U.N.-sponsored negotiations.
Several groups have already been targeted. The groups include Freedom House, the Baptist World Alliance, the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Family Research Council. The Family Research Council recently saw its application to the U.N. deferred for the third time.
Joanna Wechsler, the United Nations representative of Human Rights Watch, said, “The U.N. Human Rights Commission is the only place where you can actually see a victim of human rights violations directly address the country that abused them.” At meetings in the general assembly hall, “the actual victims or the witnesses” can speak to representatives of repressive governments.
That's the kind of attention China, Cuba and Sudan can do without. So those countries joined with several other countries on a 19-nation subcommittee of the U.N. Economic and Social Council, known as ECOSOC, to make it harder for human rights groups to get into the U.N. ECOSOC is the group that voted in early May not to include the United States on the Human Rights Commission.
The recent spate of challenges to human rights groups began in 1999, when Sudan won a challenge to Christian Solidarity International. The Swiss-based group drew Sudan's ire for denouncing the enslavement of Sudanese Christians and animists, a slave trade the government has studiously ignored as it has waged a brutal 18-year civil war against the mainly animist and Christian southern regions of the country.
Sudan persuaded the subcommittee to remove Christian Solidarity International's U.N. accreditation.
Procedure or Prejudice?
Most of the countries cite procedural errors by human rights groups as the basis for their complaints. For example, Freedom House is under scrutiny for its unauthorized use of a translator at one of its presentations.
“This started in around May of 2000,” said Michael Goldfarb, a spokesman for Freedom House. “China and Cuba presented complaints alleging technical violations of protocol. The Chinese complaint centered on what they claimed was improperly obtaining translation services for a panel we held.”
But, Goldfarb said, “We bend over backwards to make sure we're in compliance with all the rules.” And while he acknowledged that Freedom House had committed a technical violation by using the translator, he said that the group had asked permission from the U.N. and had been erroneously informed by officials that the translator was acceptable.
As for Cuba, he said, the government accused some people affiliated with Freedom House of being “anti-revolutionaries who are working to subvert the revolution and disrupt social order.” Goldfarb decried the charges as an attempt to “remove a voice that's championing the cause of human rights within the U.N.”
Summed up Goldfarb, “There does appear to be a climate of clamping down on voices for human rights.”
Wechsler agreed. She said that although complaints against nongovernmental organizations are “very rare,” they are on the rise, “and these complaints almost invariably come out of the commission on human rights.” Human Rights Watch was turned down the first time it applied, but eventually gained accreditation.
Goldfarb suggested that the United States’ rejection from the Human Rights Commission might have “emboldened” countries who now feel “that they can go after some American-based NGOs.”
Wechsler, however, saw the rejection of the United States as a separate issue, due to resentment of the United States’ refusal to sign several U.N. treaties, such as an anti-landmine treaty and a proposal to ban the death penalty.
Freedom House's application won't come to a vote until January. Goldfarb said the group has “received strong support from the United States” delegation.
The Family Research Council has gotten support from Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., and Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J. The pro-family group is under attack from China due to its stances opposing establishing Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China, religious repression, and China's harsh population control policies. It also irked Russia by writing about that country's declining religious freedom.
Bob Maginnis, the Family Research Council's vice president for policy, said that the group would “continue working through someone else's good graces” despite the U.N. committee's rejection.
“We're not going to be silent,” Maginnis vowed. “If silence is what it takes to become an NGO, I don't think we'll ever be an NGO.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Taliban to Require Hindus to Wear Identifying Marks DATE: 06/03/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 3-9, 2001 ----- BODY:KABUL, Afghanistan — Hindus in Afghanistan will soon be required to attach identity labels to their clothing to identify them as non-Muslims.
The Central Asian state's ruling Taliban group announced the new edict May 22. They have not yet set a date for when the law will go into effect, nor have they determined exactly what kind of label Hindus must wear, said Mohammed Wali, the Islamic group's religious police minister.
The edict also requires Hindu women in Afghanistan to wear veils as their Muslim counterparts do, Wali told the Associated Press.
The new law targets Hindus because no Jews or Christians live in Afghanistan, Wali claimed. Since Sikhs wear turbans, they are easily distinguished from Muslims, he added.
“Religious minorities living in an Islamic state must be identified,” Wali said.
The UNI news agency of India reported that the decree obliges all Hindu residents to dress in orange or yellow tunics, and place a yellow flag at the entrance to their homes.
India's foreign minister immediately protested against the measure, saying it discriminates against Afghanistan's Hindu minority.
UNI said the decree prohibits men from wearing a turban, while women must be totally covered by a yellow “burka,” with two small openings for the eyes.
Families must display a yellow flag outside their homes — internationally, the sign of infection — of at least 2 meters length. Moreover, Hindus are prohibited from living with Muslims and will not be allowed to build new places of worship.
Since seizing control of Kabul in 1996, the Taliban has brought about 95% of Afghanistan under its strict interpretation of Islam, which bans women from the workplace and requires that girls withdraw from school at the age of 8.
Last month the group faced international condemnation after sending armed troops to destroy Buddhist and other statues considered offensive to Islam.
In January, a Taliban official announced that Muslims who convert to other religions, as well as those who seek to convert them, would face the death penalty. He also said that those who sell books and other material that promotes “wrong beliefs” or is offensive to Islam would be imprisoned for five years.
From Combined news services)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 06/03/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 3-9, 2001 ----- BODY:U.S. Urges Vietnam to Free Priest
RADIO AUSTRALIA, May 18 - The United States ambassador and other officials have urged Vietnam to release Father Tadeus Nguyen Van Ly, Vietnam's best-known dissident, the Australian radio service reported.
Father Ly was arrested in Hue for defying his house arrest. The arrest coincided with a visit to Vietnam by James Kelly, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State. Kelly spoke with Vietnam's foreign minister about subjects including Father Ly's arrest. The U.S. embassy also said that Father Ly and other religious leaders should be able to express their views without governmental interference.
Venezuelan Bishops Chastise President
REUTERS, May 17 - A report presented by Venezuela's bishops strongly criticized President Hugo Chavez for failing to reduce poverty and crime, and questioned whether he had concentrated political power in his own hands, the wire service reported.
The report was presented to a meeting of bishops from around Latin America.
There was no immediate reply from the government. In the past, Chavez has stated that he believes in democracy, and has charged that some members of the Catholic Church look after Venezuela's wealthy elite rather than the poor.
Sierra Leone Rebels Release Children
AFRICA NEWS, May 16 - Rebels in Sierra Leone have released 88 child soldiers to the Catholic aid agency Caritas, the Internet news service reported.
The Revolutionary United Front rebel group has seized thousands of children to hold as captives or as soldiers. The group has frequently promised to free the children but has rarely done so.
The rebels have raped women and girls, amputated people's limbs, and kidnapped children during their 10-year civil war. Recently, as military pressure from neighboring countries has increased, the rebels have given signs that they may be ready to sue for peace. Government officials met with rebel leaders May 15 to discuss disarmament.
The group of freed children included two girls. The children were between 8 and 14, and some had been captives since they were 6 years old.
Hungary May Recognize Church Weddings
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, May 17 - Hungary is considering granting legal recognition to church weddings, the wire service reported.
Current law requires couples to rush from the church to the state registrar's office in order to get an official “state wedding.” An 1895 law intended to give the country a unified system of marriage registration required all couples to have a state wedding.
Hungary is about 67% Catholic. Some Catholic leaders noted potential problems with the change if legal marriage did not conform to Church teachings. Other religious leaders, such as Reformed Church and Jewish authorities, said that they had no major objections but would need time to consider the plan and coordinate their services.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: FOR THE RECORD DATE: 06/03/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 3-9, 2001 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — To get a sense of how the consistory developed, Zenit interviewed Italian Cardinal Ersilio Tonini, 86, archbishop emeritus of Ravenna. He was made a cardinal in 1994, in recognition of his work as a communicator in the press, radio and television.
Zenit: Eminence, what have you all accomplished over these days?
It is as though the Church has removed her veil and shown her real face: a community that reflects exhaustion, hope, courage, zeal — all stemming from Christ.
The topic that was most frequently mentioned was holiness, that is, we have returned to the cave in Bethlehem, to the cenacle, the cross, and the resurrection of Christ the Lord, to the strength of the sacraments — Christ living in our midst, who inspires us with his Spirit and helps us look at what will happen, so that this generation will know that it is living in the most extraordinary moment of the history of the world, because now there is truly a return to the beginning.
For example, the great challenge facing the world today is the following: Will we be able to live together, to live together in a human way?
How will the third millennium Church be; how was this perceived by this consistory?
One of the most frequently mentioned topics was ecumenism: a Church that goes out in search of unity. More than that: It is about people feeling that the love of the Creator is in Christians.
A Church that has a logic which is different from that of the world.
Certainly, because it is a Church that looks at each thing from its source.
A Church that is a real witness; a Church of the poor, it was said.
A Church that is poor because it is filled with God. She is poor because she has greater goods.
What has been the most striking thing about this consistory?
I was impressed to see that the Church is found in her totality. Hearing the cardinal of Jakarta speak about martyrdom, about the massacres to which Catholics are exposed in the different islands of Indonesia; hearing the bishops of the realm of youth, I must say that we are before a vibrant Church, and it is wonderful to be part of her.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: FOR THE RECORD DATE: 06/03/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 3-9, 2001 ----- BODY:Here is a translation of the final message of the cardinals, published May 24 at the end of the extraordinary consistory.
At the end of the consistory, we cardinals, who come from all over the world, reconfirm our profound communion of faith and love with the Holy Father, Peter's successor.
We express our cordial gratitude to him because, as he previously convoked us in consistory for the preparation of the Great Jubilee of 2000, so now in this new consistory he has called us to reflect on the spiritual and pastoral implementation of the Jubilee grace, by studying the programmatic lines in the valuable apostolic letter Novo Millennio Ineunte.
With all the Church we thank the Lord, giver of every gift, for the river of grace, poured on the people of God and on the whole of humanity during the Holy Year. Let us be convinced that the great legacy that the Jubilee offers us as a gift and responsibility is that of renewing, with heartfelt conviction and growing trust, our confession of faith in Jesus Christ, Son of God made man, crucified and resurrected, unique and universal Savior of mankind.
Because of this, we joyfully welcome and propose to all again the task of continuing to keep their sight fixed on Christ and of contemplating his face, through familiarity with the Word of God, assiduous prayer, and personal communion with Him, [and] participation in the Eucharist, especially on the Day of the Lord; acceptance of the Father's mercy in the sacrament of Reconciliation; courageous commitment to holiness, the meaning and end of every man, and source and strength of the pastoral action of the Church. In accepting the absolute primacy of grace, the Jubilee experience will be able to inspire and direct the life of believers.
Prayerful contemplation of Christ, while leading to a communion of love with him, nourishes the evangelization mission of the Church. In the face of every man's great need for Christ, we feel urgently called not only to “talk” about him, but also to make him “seen": with the proclamation of the Word that saves, and the audacious witness of faith in a renewed missionary endeavor.
The condition, strength, and fruit of the evangelization mission is communion, the unity of disciples, for which Christ prayed. In a world profoundly marked by lacerations and conflicts, and in a Church that bears the wounds of divisions, we feel ever more strongly the duty to cultivate the spirituality of communion: both within the Christian community, as well as in proceeding with charity, truth, and confidence in the ecumenical road and interreligious dialogue, following the exemplary impetus given to us by the Holy Father.
Communion drives the Church to be in solidarity with humanity, especially in the present context of globalization, with the growing mass of poor, of suffering, of those who are trampled in their sacrosanct rights to life, health, work, culture, social participation, religious liberty. We renew our commitment to work for justice, solidarity and peace to peoples who suffer because of tensions and wars. We are thinking particularly of Africa, where numerous populations are afflicted by ethnic conflicts, endemic poverty and serious illnesses. The solidarity of the whole Church reaches out to Africa.
In unison with the Holy Father, we make a heartfelt appeal to all Christians to intensify their prayer for peace in the Holy Land, and we ask those who are responsible for Nations to help Israelis and Palestinians to live together peacefully. In recent times, the situation in the Land of Jesus has worsened, and too much blood has already been spilled. In union with the Holy Father, we entreat the parties in dispute to agree to a “cease-fire” immediately, and return to dialogue on a plane of parity and mutual respect. In the face of the numerous, grave, and new challenges that the Church meets at the present turn of the epoch, the experience of faith lived during the Jubilee encourages us not to be afraid, but to go forward, placing our hope in Christ and trusting in the maternal intercession of Most Holy Mary.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 06/03/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 3-9, 2001 ----- BODY:Bush as Gore?
In response to John Mallon's letter (“We're Halving a Party,” May 13-19): Mr. Mallon stated that “millions of Catholics voted for the candidate that advocated abortion while voting against a candidate that is against abortion.”
As published in the same issue of the Register, White House chief of staff Andy Card called abortion “a high moral priority for the president, but not a public policy priority.”
Explain to me again the candidates’ difference on abortion?
AL MURIUS Irrigon, Oregon
Contain Abortion Stateside
Regarding “House Upholds Ban on Funding Promotion of Abortion” (May 27-June 2):
Good: The House of Representatives voted 218-210 to preserve President Bush's “Mexico City Policy,” which prevents taxpayer funding of organizations that promote or perform abortions overseas. But why was it so close? Why do many of us insist on spreading our culture of death to other nations? Aren't we content with the 1.5 million children we slaughter each year in the United States?
Pro-choice leaders argued that the Mexico City Policy was a “global gag rule.” I agree with Rep. Henry Hyde, who said, “If you want to talk about abortions, talk away. But not on our dime.” Hyde noted that “federal appellate court has held that [the Mexico City Policy] is fully consistent with the first amendment. Everyone has a right to free speech but not a right to federal tax dollars.”
I believe there is little accountability for the money given to family-planning organizations unless the Mexico City Policy is in place. In the past, the International Planned Parenthood Federation repayed $700,000 in federal grants right before a federal audit because they were used for abortions in India and Uganda. It is estimated that the Mexico City policy will cost International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) over 25% of their operating budget.
IPPF is the world's largest and richest abortion provider in the world and spends millions of dollars every year trying to change various national laws against abortion
THOMAS V. MESSE, M.D. Groton, Connecticut
Don't Go Dutch
Mr. Benjamin D. Wiker is on target with his evaluation of the Dutch (“America: Decline the Dutch Descent,” May 6-12). Unfortunately, for most people, Nazis are simply a name to shout to end a debate. While many consider the evil of Germany irrational and crazy, the actions of the Germans were exquisitely logical based on false materialistic premises.
Most people are unaware of how corrupted the medical profession became in Germany. The Nazis always considered their killing therapeutic and healing (like a therapeutic abortion). Physicians were intimately involved in every aspect and provided a professional veneer for these killings.
What is even worse, the German medical community was very distinguished and well respected throughout the world prior to the war. If a highly respected medical community can be turned into killers, can any community be safe when healing becomes killing?
THERON BOWERS Houston
Concerned Parent
I have just read, with great concern, your front-page article concerning the IRPS program at the University of Dallas (“Resignations Rock University of Dallas,” May 20-26).
We are well aware of Doug Bushman's wonderful work at the college, and of the strong impact the Institute for Religious and Pastoral Studies programs have had. My husband and I are parents of two University of Dallas students. We are now questioning our decision to enroll our children in that university.
We chose the University of Dallas because of the Catholicity of its programs, its staff and its reputation as a solid academic university. Our concern with the situation at the school began earlier this year, when the provost, Glen Thurow, was dismissed suddenly by the president. Rumors flew, and many questioned the motives behind the dismissal. Now, again, certain staff have been targeted. Many other, more minor, incidents have concerned us as well.
I am hesitant at this point to contact anyone at the university because of my children's status there (and please, don't use my name, for the same reason), but I know that I speak for many parents and many students when I express my dissatisfaction with the administration of the college. Since there are so few truly Catholic colleges in the country, we would all be greatly saddened to witness the destruction of one of them.
Name Withheld
AT&T Ire
I have never written to the editor of a newspaper. The article on pornography (“Pornography, Incorporated,” May 13-19) was very educational. One wonders how many other companies invest in pornography without our knowing.
The fact that stands out: We all use AT&T; our phones, television and computers have links of communication provided by AT&T. Therefore, in a sense, I contribute to pornography. The question I have is, how do we stop this insidious trend? I only came up with one answer: Contribute funds to help the victims. I would like to know if there is an address to write to AT&T to show our dissatisfaction with their investment in pornography.
MARJORIE DAVIES Portland, Oregon
Video Venture?
I love the reviews of older movies on video that appear in your paper each week (“Weekly Video Picks” by John Prizer). Did you ever consider compiling them in a book?
ELLEN FINAN Cortland, Ohio
Gunning for Firearm Society
I am deeply grieved that a handgunners's society has set up St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows as their patron front man (“Pistol-Packin’ Piety: A Patron Saint for Handgunners?” March 5-11, 2000; referenced in subsequent classified ads placed in the Register by the St. Gabriel Possenti Society).
An insult to St. Gabriel and to Gospel values which teach forgiveness, turning the other cheek, and that those who live by the sword will die by the sword. Handguns, before they kill, are an occasion of sin.
The so-called “St. Gabriel Possenti Society” should not spread its worthless values to Catholics via the Register with the legend that a lone cleric drove looting soldiers out of town at the point of a gun.
Such a story, even if it happened, carries no weight in a country like the United States where, The Economist reports: “In 1996 handguns were used to murder two people in New Zealand, 15 in Japan, 30 in Britain, 106 in Canada, 211 in Germany and 9,390 in the United States.”
Each year in the United States, firearms are involved in about a half a million criminal incidents and some 35,000 deaths, including suicides and accidents. A constitutional right? Give us Gospel rights instead. Peace to you all.
PATRICK OWENS Calgary, Alberta
Correction
The Catholic Traveler report of May 20-26, “Precious Blood of Belgium,” was written by John M. Grondelski, a frequent contributor to the Register who lives in London.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Family Wage vs. Affordable Schools? DATE: 06/03/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 3-9, 2001 ----- BODY:I read with interest “Got Money? What it Costs to Teach in Catholic Schools” (May 20-26), in which Register Correspondent Una McManus succinctly points out the sacrifices made by Catholic teachers every day. However, McManus highlights quotes from a teacher suggesting that these sacrifices are acceptable to individuals who feel that their work in these schools is vocational in the religious sense. The article goes on to mention that some teachers cannot even afford to send their own children to Catholic schools.
In 1982, The Sacred Congregation for Education wrote in “Lay Catholics in Schools: Witness to Faith":
“If the directors of the school and the lay people who work in the school are to live according to the same ideals, two things are essential. First, lay people must receive an adequate salary, guaranteed by a well-defined contract, for the work they do in the school: a salary that will permit them to live in dignity, without excessive work or a need for additional employment that will interfere with the duties of an educator. This may not be immediately possible without putting an enormous financial burden on the families, or making the school so expensive that it becomes a school for a small elite group; but so long as a truly adequate salary is not being paid, the laity should see in the school directors a genuine preoccupation to find the resources necessary to achieve this end.”
This lays out the conditions for involvement in a temporarily unjust situation; the school board must move toward financial stability and a just family wage. Teachers must not be unduly burdened by other work to make up the gap between their needs and the salary since it will dilute their strength and time needed for their duties. Secondly, financial resources are needed by teachers to improve professionally.
Having been a Catholic schoolteacher and administrator for over a dozen years, I have personally lived the tension between the needs of my family, my professional development and the necessity of making the schools I worked in affordable. The real crisis began with the loss of vocations to the teaching congregations. Lay married people have as their first vocation the education of their own children.
The only answers to this problem come from alternative funding schemes for private and parochial schools, such as vouchers or developing new resources of support, for an increase in the sacrifices of parents, and for the return of vocations to consecrated life that do not require sacrificing one's family for one's apostolic intentions.
TOM HARDY Worcester, Massachusetts
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: My Wife at 40: Her Suffering Will Bring Life DATE: 06/03/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 3-9, 2001 ----- BODY:Converting to the Catholic faith has been good for my imagination, and my wife's.
I am not speaking simply about the aesthetic treasury of the Church — the architecture, the icons, the music, the liturgy — but the expansion of our souls to include what we thought was too difficult, if not impossible, in our lives.
My wife never thought she would be waddling around just prior to her 40th birthday, wheezing for breath, unable to sleep at night, battling her own body, waiting for the agony of childbirth — for the sixth time. But her imagination has had to stretch to accommodate the reality.
That stretch of the imagination is painful because it is a stretching like the one on the cross and, as with all crosses, the cross of childbirth is hard to bear.
I can hear the gasping in the audience. “Don't make your wife look like a martyr! That'll just fuel the hellish fires of the pro-abortion movement!”
I beg your pardon. My wife is a martyr, and at nine-months pregnant, a rather conspicuous martyr at that. A martyr is a witness, and she is a witness to the central truth of Christianity: What is good is worth suffering for, indeed, must be bought by suffering. Is that not the tale the other martyrs tell? Is that not the lesson of the cross?
How many women, facing their 40th birthday and a pregnancy, have turned away from the suffering, the nausea, the throbbing varicose veins, the shooting pains, the swollen limbs and sleepless nights, and turned toward the abortionist? How many women have not taken up these crosses, but have shaken their heads, unburdened themselves and walked away, leaving those crosses to become the silent grave-markers of the lives they would not bear?
Not my wife. She is giving her life for this new life. If no greater love has any man than to give his life for his brother, then no greater love has any woman than to give her life for her child. I am not using “give” metaphorically here. I know even as a father who has lost much sleep with sleepless children that I have aged more quickly than those rosy-cheeked, taut-skinned, gym-committed fathers of one or two.
But a mother really gives her life. And, to return to the Gospel, a woman who tries to save some of her life by abortion shall lose it, and a woman who loses some of her life in giving birth shall save it. Such is the paradoxical law of the cross.
My wife? She is the queen, and her throne is a rocking chair by the fireplace.
There is more to the paradox. By virtue of being united to Christ's sufferings, the nausea, the throbbing varicose veins, the shooting pains, the swollen limbs and sleepless nights become redemptive both locally and universally.
To the woman herself, they are the purgative fires of sainthood. For the women who have refused these sufferings, great rivers of grace flow out from the trials of those who have refused to refuse motherhood. One woman's unhardened heart, by the mysterious, magnifying power of Christ's redemptive grace, radiates the solvent of charity to countless other hardened hearts, making them repentant flesh again.
Now I do not want to make it seem like having children is all crucifixion and no resurrection. So let's talk a little about Easter.
My wife was one of two children; I was one of three. How small was the world of our childhood. How correspondingly compressed our imagination.
Our children, on the contrary, live in a much larger world, quite full of each other, but happy to expand at any moment. Whereas we couldn't imagine having six children, our children hope to have twice that many. Our hearts are still stretching to accommodate the children we have; our children's hearts are ready to reach all the way to China and gather more siblings by adoption.
Nor could I imagine, when I first got married, that some day I would be met at the door each day by a thundering herd of overly affectionate offspring, as if I were some kind of king whose subjects swarm around him in undying devotion. And I am indeed a king, for I have twice, three, or six times as many loyal subjects as those poor, unimaginative fathers with so few. A king I am indeed, for a large house with a single child is far smaller than a smaller house with a large family. The latter really is a castle.
My wife? She is the queen, and her throne is a rocking chair by the fireplace, and woe the child who does not yield to her majesty when she approaches with her afternoon tea. There she surveys her realm, adjudicates disputes and issues edicts. There she receives her adoring (sometimes even smothering) subjects. As queen, she has found that a heart divided between more children — by some strange equation — multiplies rather than divides love.
And here also there is a witness. Few things are as conspicuous as a family of seven marching grandly past the far less grand, constricted “normal” families. They cower when they see us coming; they part like the red sea before us; they gasp, astounded as our great train of fecundity rumbles by.
We shall soon be a family of eight, and the queen and I shall be far the grander for it, witnesses for both the trial and the glory. Imagine that.
Ben Wiker teaches classics at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Benjamin D. Wiker ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: What Do You Do With ADrunken Student Early in the Morning? DATE: 06/03/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 3-9, 2001 ----- BODY:In April, eight players of the Eastern Nazarene College baseball team were caught breaking their school's rules of conduct: They had been drinking. As the team only had 17 players, one of whom was ill, the school canceled the rest of the season's schedule.
Evidently, all students at the college, not just the baseball players, promise not to drink. The ballplayers violated two rules: the religious rule not to drink and the free promise about general conduct. Whether the original rule not to drink is a good one is not a question. The university enforced its own rules.
Few students at Georgetown, George Washington or the University of Maryland are Nazarenes, eastern or western, but students at these schools have received considerable local and national notoriety recently for drinking habits and other incommodious actions.
As reported in the Washington Post on April 7, a district-zoning panel refused Georgetown's requests for expansion of the student numbers because of complaints by area residents that “immature students have filled their neglected rental homes with noise and streets with trash.” Residents complained that the university, unlike Eastern Nazarene, never disciplined students causing such disturbances. “The Board of Zoning Adjustment also ordered the university to take several steps aimed at curbing drunkenness, noise and rowdiness of off-campus students — such as staffing a daily, 24-hour hotline for neighbors’ complaints. …”
The university, in other words, is still obliged to be in loco parentis, even with legally emancipated students. The students can be blind drunk on campus so long as they don't make any noise. Presumably, the university does not take a stronger position because students have “rights.”
After losing to Duke in the final-four round of the NCAA Basketball Tournament, hundreds of University of Maryland students rioted in nearby College Park. They caused some $500,000 in damages due to vandalism and arson. The local police were appalled. The chief blamed the students; he censured “the few hundred drunken hooligans who came off campus with no self-control and basically did what they wanted to do.”
This statement is a parody of modern ethical science. Since when are we to be “self-controlled” and not do “what we want to do?” The Washington Post, in an April 7 editorial, remarked on the “sad and terrible postscript to a memorable basketball season.” No doubt the riots will be more remembered than the basketball team and its exciting season.
One arrested Maryland student was a wrestler. He was charged with “first-degree and second-degree malicious burning,” and six counts of “reckless endangerment.” These are new crimes to me. Apparently, “burning” and “endangerment” are fine — but, please, let such activities not be “malicious” or “reckless.”
Towns, Gowns and Class Clowns
We do well to remember, as graduation festivities descend once again — high school as well as college — that student drinking and boisterousness are as old as universities and the towns in which they reside. It's the old “towns and gowns” equation. The towns are often accused of quietly and quickly taking the students’ silver, then they tell them to shut up and get out of sight. The towns see the students as inebriates and potential rioters who can explode at any moment — after a game, in the springtime, for any irrational reason that pops into their undisciplined heads.
The students see the town as an ungrateful cabal of tight-wad old biddies and clods who get upset if anyone so much as belches out loud in their precious streets at 2 O'clock in the morning.
I usually begin my reflection on the topic of student drinking by recalling the first two chapters of Plato's Laws. It puts the issue in order if we realize that training the young to drink prudently is a classical problem. Plato does not use the Eastern Nazarene solution of forbidding all drinking. Nor does he approve of riots and drunken melees on the local streets.
The notorious character Alcibiades is first seen as precisely a drunken and undisciplined young man, one of Socrates's main failures. Yet Socrates realized that we must learn to drink prudently, wisely. It can be done and ought to be. This learning process will require some watching over the youth and some careful judgment of character.
The Georgetown-citizen proposed “hotline” that tattles on any student caught yelling and disturbing the sleep of some resident congressman strikes me as little less than totalitarian, as do the efforts to force students out of local apartments and houses back onto the campus. Why students do not have a right to live where they want, once we grant them emancipation, is beyond me.
Riotous students should be treated like anyone else. Why their behavior is a university predicament, and not mainly a civic, familial, or personal problem, I don't know.
As a culture, we do everything we can to separate students from parents. Then we end up, when they are not self-disciplined, blaming the schools which they attend.
Of course, in thinking about this problem, we do not wonder if the philosophical content of what students study in college has anything to do with their behavior. God forbid! We teach them pragmatism, consequentialism, deconstructionism, little religion, and an ethics that can justify almost anything; then the locals, who probably hold about the same positions intellectually, complain of the results.
No doubt, anyone who has 3,000 young men and women in his neighborhood and expects complete peace and quiet in the streets is either hopelessly forgetful of his own youth or utterly naive about what human nature is composed of.
In a letter to the editor of the Washington Post, a resident named Harry Kopp has this to say about the riots at Maryland, one after an earlier Duke game and one after the Final Four game: “A Maryland fraternity member, explaining the drunken rampage at College Park, said: ‘We beat Duke, we riot, and we lose to Duke, we riot. The police should accept it.’” Kopp adds wittily, “I guess it takes a child to raze a village.”
Educating Hooligans
The day in 1978 when I flew from San Francisco to Washington to join the Georgetown faculty, I happened to notice in the airline magazine of that January date a column on college drinking. To my astonishment, Georgetown was then listed as one of the top ten “party schools” in the country. The poor Georgetown villagers have been at this for a very long time, it seems.
I do not laugh at the problem. But I do walk the streets of Georgetown to notice the amount of wine and liquor bottles that appear in the early-morning “waste management” run. If students are to learn to be sober and responsible drinkers, it strikes me that neither the Georgetown-resident solution nor the Eastern Nazarene solution is the best.
Frankly, I like the College Park police chief's rhetoric. He calls the offending youths “hooligans.” He is more likely to scare sense into drunken students than any college authority.
After all, it was Aristotle himself who told us, at the end of his Ethics, that the main cause of a civil coercive power was due to a failure of the family to teach self-discipline to its youth.
When that fails, police are going to do a better job in teaching the significance of sobriety than any university disciplinary body, suffused as it probably is with vague modern ideologies about what makes students tick.
My youngest brother was ticketed on the night before his 21st birthday at a bar near the University of Santa Clara. Chances were a thousand to one. He would never deny that it was a good lesson, nor that his father could have made the same point more forcefully.
In short, in the villages around universities, let us not drive the students into compounds and hotline them to death. Let them live among us if they will, and suffer the consequences of their own acts. As long as we blame someone else in good Rousseauist fashion for their actions — parents, churches, universities, fraternities — nothing much will be different.
Let us respect the Eastern Nazarene solution, but, in this case, follow Aristotle and the police chief in self-discipline — and in coercion, when needed.
Jesuit Father James Schall teaches political science at Georgetown University.
----- EXCERPT: On curbing drunkenness - collegiate-style ----- EXTENDED BODY: James V.Schall ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: What the Daycare Study Says About Motherhood DATE: 06/03/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 3-9, 2001 ----- BODY:Even though it was 10 years in the works, a study on the long-term effects of daycare on children was all but thrown out by scads of vocal “children's activists” who did not like the results.
Not surprisingly, their dismissal found plenty of support from the mainstream media.
The study, sponsored by the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development, a branch of the National Institutes of Health, found that the more time kids spend in daycare, the more likely they are to engage in aggressive behavior. This, of course, flies in the face of those who profess the “super-mom” creed — the myth that women can “have it all” without sacrificing something, or someone.
When the study was released in late April, immediately, the media and left-wing advocates like Marian Wright Edelman of the Children's Defense Fund acted on their instincts: They rushed to the rescue of the career mom — making excuses for her and ignoring the science, however preliminary, before them. Anything to make sure she is not made to feel guilty.
On the day the study was released, the major news networks led with stories discussing the lack of federal money spent on daycare in the United States. The clear implication: The only problem with daycare is that we don't have enough of it.
And it's not like this point of view is limited to those on the left.
When Rich Lowry, editor of National Review, the magazine I work for, wrote a cover piece in the wake of the study suggesting that the rush to exonerate working women is a bit too enthusiastic, that perhaps they have something to feel guilty about if they have put career over kids on their list of priorities, he was quickly attacked — from the right as well as the left.
Friendly fire came from a conservative columnist who has, in fact, written about the perils of institutionalized day-care herself. She objected to Lowry's call for a return to stigmatization, for cheerleading the idea that there should be some sense of shame in carting your kid off to a center every morning. It's just not normal, he wrote, to want to leave your young child to work in an office. But that's not something you can say much anymore, in a culture where nothing is normal.
At the time, Time magazine reported on the epidemic of the “empty swing-set.” It told of one mother whose kids play video games instead of playing outdoors, or with each other. When she was asked why she doesn't take them to the nearby park, she told the reporter: “It's boring. And I don't have time. When I'm home, I have a lot to do here.” Not to pick on one harried mother in particular, but the dishes can wait, if work can't be avoided. But that's not politically correct.
And not to pick on Time, but the same issue also included a classic example of excuse-making. Reporter Nancy Gibbs wrote: “Should we even be worried at all? The researchers noted that almost all the ‘aggressive’ toddlers were well within the range of normal behavior for 4-year-olds. And what about that adjective, anyway? Is a vice not sometimes a form of virtue? Cruelty never is, but arguing back? Is that being defiant — or spunky and independent? ‘Demanding attention’ could be a natural and healthy skill to develop if you are in a room with 16 other kids.”
None of this reaction should come as any surprise. Jay Belsky, the chief researcher on the study, has been made a bit of a pariah for his findings. But he's not new to the guilt wars. He fell victim to those some 15 years ago, when he published findings revealing that children who spend more than 20 hours a week in daycare are at risk of insecure attachment to their mothers.
Again, his scientific research was construed as some kind of attempt by the patriarchy to set back the women's rights movement. The fact that the mother of his own children stayed home to raise their kids, of course, didn't help.
All you have to do is turn on cable-TV's “Nick at Nite” or, perhaps, open your own family scrapbook to remember a day not too long ago when not only was it normal for a mother to stay at home and raise her kids, but it was — imagine — even encouraged. Stay-at-home motherhood was a respected vocation, one to be proud of.
Not long ago, a mother would hold her head up high, aware of what her infant or toddler had been doing throughout the day. Today, mothers consider themselves pretty lucky, and loving, if they get to watch their kids by Webcam from their office desks, if they have enrolled in a state-of-the-art, guilt-free center. Meanwhile, mothers who stay home report being casually insulted by friends on their choice to do “nothing but” raise their children. If they have three or more tykes in tow in public places, they risk being upbraided by strangers who accuse them of disrespecting our precious planet.
The celebration of “choice,” so revered when it comes to the right to end human life, is suddenly silenced when a woman chooses to embrace life, and to put parenting above all her other priorities.
Let them squawk all they want. We know who the true heroines of our times are. So do the kids — and, deep in their hearts, the daycare workers.
Kathryn Jean Lopez is an associate editor at National Review (www.nationalreview.com).
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kathryn Jean Lopez ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: In the Footsteps of Blessed Junipero DATE: 06/03/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 3-9, 2001 ----- BODY:I first visited Mission Santa Clara de Asis many years ago, on the kind of beautiful, sunny day that is typical for late spring in California.
It was a school field trip, and I was in the eighth grade, the daughter of devout and devoted Protestant parents. They had given me a deep, abiding faith in a loving God and the saving grace of Christ. But, with that first visit to Mission Santa Clara, I was introduced to the stunning, humbling, heart- and soul-filling beauty that is the true Catholic faith.
Born and raised in California, I had learned in school about the Franciscan missions, the famous El Camino Real that linked them into a chain of Catholic gems up and down the length of most of California. I had learned about Junipero Serra (1713-1784). But the visit to the mission brought it all to life and, although I didn't fully understand it then, set me on the road to conversion.
Our tour was conducted by a young Jesuit priest wearing a cassock. I didn't know he was a Jesuit; I had never heard of the Jesuits. He was, in fact, the first Roman Catholic priest I had ever met. Cassocks? Bing Crosby and Ward Bond wore them in the movies. But as I listened to him tell us about the mission and its history, I had no doubt that this kind, soft-spoken, thoughtful priest was someone special. As he guided us around the gardens and through the church, I was in complete awe of what I was seeing and hearing.
Situated in the midst of the bustling and very busy Santa Clara Valley, the mission today continues to be an exquisite and inspiring place of peace. These days, my home is in Maine. But when I return to California to visit family, my place of pilgrimage is always the mission, for Mass and for simple, meditative visits of individual retreat.
Adobe for the Admiring
Founded in 1777, Mission Santa Clara, the first mission to honor a woman, Clare of Assisi, was moved several times after the first attempted missions in the area were ruined by floods and earthquakes. It has experienced, and triumphed over, disaster.
A tall, simple, wooden cross, first erected in 1777, and lovingly moved to each new site, stands in front of the church. It is an inspiring testament to the enduring faith of those early Franciscan friars.
At last, construction of a permanent, adobe mission complex began at the present site in 1822. Of that group of buildings, only two adobe sections remain. Carefully preserved, they are an integral part of the mission's beautiful gardens, and set the Mission grounds off from the larger campus grounds of the University of Santa Clara, the Jesuit university which surrounds it. The university, founded in 1851, is California's oldest institution of higher learning.
Originally blessed by Franciscan Father Serra himself, the mission has been under the care of the Jesuits since the 1860s. The present church has undergone many changes, including embellishments to the façade and, following a devastating fire in 1926, a complete rebuilding and restoration. The results are beautiful and faith-inspiring.
On the day I arrived, camera in hand, it was mid-week. As I quietly entered the church, a solitary man was reverently performing the Stations of the Cross. Camera flashes and the sound of winding film would have been intrusive and irreverent. I put my camera away and went about my own devotions, thankfully absorbing once again the holiness of the place.
The interior of the church is expansive, and is decorated in the joyous, exuberant flourishes of Spanish Colonial Baroque, all done in pale, creamy yellows, rich pinks and light blues. Clerestory windows let in soft, diffused light. During Mass, the imposing, elaborate altar glows with candlelight and brilliant chandeliers highlight the ceiling, which is painted in an intricate, grand-scale pattern of criss-crossing diagonals. Side aisles, set off by arches, feature large oil paintings of the saints and traditional, curtained confessionals.
The beauty of the interior invites visitor and worshiper alike to pause and consider the devotion that has created this church.
At last I took my leave and walked out into the gardens. They are an essential element of any pilgrimage to the mission. Surrounded by such peace and quiet, one hears nothing of the rush of traffic just beyond the university's perimeter. The gardens are an oasis of faith in a thirsting, secular world. They refresh the soul.
Gardens of Godly Delight
I have visited the mission in spring, as well as early and late summer, and the gardens are always beautiful and immaculately kept. There are hundreds of rose bushes, many in a courtyard of their own. Standard (tree) roses line the walkways, under-planted with a riot of brightly colored annuals.
Mid-June is an especially lovely time to visit, because then the majestic jacaranda trees are in bloom and, as they shed their blossoms, the pilgrim finds that, here and there, the path is transformed into a lavender carpet.
At a conjunction of two walkways stands a bronze statue of Blessed Junipero, his walking staff in hand. He seems to survey with pleasure the church and gardens, the old adobe structures and the university beyond. The mission he planted has borne generous fruit.
This humble friar, originally from the Mediterranean island of Majorca, played such an important role in the establishment of California's missions and in its history that he is called the founder of California. A freeway that stretches from Santa Clara to San Francisco, and which is designated a scenic route, bears his name. Near the city of San Bruno, an enormous statue of him stands beside the road, pointing the traveler on his way. I suspect Father Serra would prefer the smaller, more modest statue at the mission, or none at all.
There is yet another feature of the mission that deserves mention. It is one I find quite moving, and singularly appropriate. Tucked into a cool, sheltered niche in the outer wall of the church is a memorial tribute, a statue of St. Augustine, whose life and writings still remind us that we should seek always the eternal City of God, not the transitory, material city of man.
It is a fitting reminder to those who would abandon the true name of that once idyllic California valley in favor of a name which reflects only man's commerce and pride: Silicon.
There is nothing artificial about Mission Santa Clara, a place that inspires the same authentic faith that built it. May it ever be so.
Anne Carrington McHugh writes from Fort Fairfield, Maine.
----- EXCERPT: A pilgrim returns to the place that launched her conversion ----- EXTENDED BODY: Anne Carrington Mchugh ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Summer Sleepers DATE: 06/03/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 3-9, 2001 ----- BODY:The summer movie season is now upon us. How can you tell?
By Hollywood's success in turning it into a cultural event in which we have to participate if we don't want to feel left out.
We're constantly being bombarded with attention-grabbing TV commercials and newspaper publicity for each week's upcoming releases. The buzz is overwhelming. At Starbucks, in shopping malls and around the water cooler at work, everyone seems to be talking about the latest from Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck or Steven Spielberg. The temptation is to get to the theater so you can jump right in.
But committed Christians should take a step back before going with the flow. Even though this pop-culture carnival is designed primarily to entertain, the values propagated by many of its products can be toxic, and the faithful should pick and choose with care.
There's also another alternative. If you're willing to look beyond the Hollywood hype machine, you can find smaller, lower-budget films from foreign countries that are equally involving but don't depend on celebrity superstars, state-of-the-art special effects or the exploitation of sex and violence to hold your attention. Their distribution is often limited. But it's worth the hunt.
Japanese Gem
The story of Eureka would work for a Hollywood film: Three survivors of a deadly bus hijacking try to put their lives back together. But Japanese writer-director Shinj Aoyama chooses a more contemplative approach, using spare dialogue and intimate moments instead of melodramatic confrontations and clever plotting.
A despairing, alienated man (Go Riju) commandeers a bus in rural Southwestern Japan and kills everyone aboard except for the driver, Sawai (Koji Yakusho), and a young adolescent brother and sister, Naoki (Masaru Miyazaki) and Kozue (Aoi Miyazaki). The rest of the film explores the effects of post-traumatic stress on each of them.
“Am I at fault for having survived?” Sawai guiltily wonders. He disappears for two years. Upon his return he learns that his wife has left him to go to the city. He stays put, getting a job with a local construction company.
The other members of his family and the community around him find his presence unsettling, reminding them of the hijacking tragedy. The police detective (Yukati Matushige) who saved his life during the incident even considers him the prime suspect in a rash of serial murders.
The family of Naoki and Kozue has splintered apart under similar pressures. Their mother has run off, and their father unexpectedly dies. The brother and sister sink into a paralyzing depression, unable to attend school, clean up their house or, at times, even speak.
Sawai moves in with them because no else understands his or their predicaments, and he tries to help them overcome their trauma. They're soon joined by Akihiko (Yochichiroh Saitoh), a college student and cousin of Naoki and Kozue, who's checking them out for the rest of the family and provides some needed comic relief.
Sawai buys an old bus and resumes a variation of his old profession, driving across the country with his three younger companions in search of some kind of psychological rebirth. Although this odyssey has few overtly spiritual components, it dramatizes how serving others can lead to interior redemption. The film-maker skillfully explores the interaction between chance and choice, and good and evil, as each character works out his own destiny.
Iranian Insights
The Iranian cinema has produced several similarly life-affirming films despite censorship from its Islamic regime. The Day I Became a Woman, by female director Marzieh Meshini, examines the role of women through three separate but related stories set on the island of Kish. Each passionately underlines the unfair restrictions on women's freedom at different stages of their lives. But this critique doesn't spring from a Westernized, feminist ideology. Instead it's framed within the context of Iranian culture.
The first vignette centers on Havva (Fatmeh Cheragh Akhtar), a girl who's told on her ninth birthday that she can no longer play with boys. Under Islamic law she's now considered a woman and eligible for marriage. She resists — before finally putting on a black chador for the first time.
The third segment concerns Houra (Aziel Seddighi), an old woman of tribal origin who inherits enough money to buy the modern appliances and furniture she's always yearned for. It humorously presents the conflict between old and new in contemporary Iran.
The middle episode is a minor masterpiece. Ahoo (Shabam Toloui), a young married woman, is participating in a seaside bicycle race with two dozen other female competitors all clad in full-length dark chadors. Her husband rides up on horseback and orders her to stop. When she refuse, he returns with a mullah who warns that her disobedience could lead to divorce and expulsion from the tribe.
Her insistence at remaining in the race brings other angry males on horseback, including clan elders and her own brothers. The striking images and agitated motion of her pedaling brilliantly convey the tension between this desperate young woman and tribal traditions.
Both Eureka and The Day I Became a Woman offer a welcome window into modern societies whose psychology and customs are still markedly different from ours. They may seem slowly paced by Hollywood standards. But each triumphantly celebrates the human spirit in real-life situations without fancy narrative twists — let alone mind-boggling special effects, frenetic action, ear-splitting explosions or any of the other razzle-dazzle devices Hollywood uses to lure us into the local multiplex.
Watch these films and let the folks at the water cooler know what they're missing out on.
Arts & culture correspondent John Prizer writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: Better than the blockbusters, but without the hype ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly Videos DATE: 06/03/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 3-9, 2001 ----- BODY:Bonhoeffer: Agent of Grace (1999)
What should a Christian do when confronted with a government of great evil? Dietrich Bonhoeffer (The Cost of Discipleship) was a Lutheran pastor and theologian who wrestled with how to remain true to his non-violent, pacifist ideals while living under Hitler's murderous tyranny. Bonhoeffer: Agent of Grace, a PBS movie, begins in 1939 when the young German scholar (Ulrich Tukur) is studying in the United States. He risks everything to return to his homeland.
Many Lutheran leaders are caving in to pressure from Hitler. Bonhoeffer takes a job at a secret seminary that refuses to teach Nazi modifications to centuries-old Protestant doctrine. While traveling to neutral Sweden, he delivers messages for the resistance movement.
A plot to assassinate Hitler fails, and the theologian is arrested during the crackdown. Director Eric Till movingly dramatizes the deep impression Bonhoeffer's humility and charity make on his fellow prisoners and some of the guards. He's executed on April 9, 1945, less than a month before the war's end.
The Trouble With Angels (1966)
Hollywood once considered the religious life as a normal part of the American experience. The Trouble With Angels, based on Jane Trahey's book Life With Mother Superior, is an amiable comedy set in a convent school that makes little effort to preach.
But even while playing everything primarily for laughs, director Ida Lupino (The Hitch-Hiker) presents the nuns as exemplary role models for young girls.
Mary Clancy (Hayley Mills) is a reluctant boarder at St. Francis Academy who conspires with her best friend (June Harding) to make life miserable for the Mother Superior (Rosalind Russell). The sisters are surprised one evening to discover bubble bath in place of their mealtime sugar, and another student finds her face covered with quick-drying plaster when the two mischief-makers attempt to make a mask.
The mother superior, who once wanted to be a dressmaker, sees something good in these troublemakers, and we root for her somehow to win them over and show them the beauty of the religious life.
Modern Times (1936)
Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp character was always the image of tattered elegance in the face of adversity. A mustached vagabond, he sported a cane, a derby hat, a wing-collared shirt and shoes that were too big. His outsize shuffle became his trademark.
In Modern Times, one of the Vatican's top 45 films, machines and the cold-hearted impersonality of the industrial workplace are the main menace. The Little Tramp suffers a nervous breakdown working on an assembly line. He teams up with an impoverished young woman (Paulette Goddard) who's gotten into trouble trying to find food for her sisters. The rest of the movie is a series of comic skits showing them at different jobs. Chaplin uses his gags to involve us in the deepest emotions of his characters, and no matter how cruel the circumstance, the Little Tramp is always able to bounce back with a smile.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Intellectual Intruder in the Ivy? DATE: 06/03/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 3-9, 2001 ----- BODY:PRINCETON, N.J — Infanticide proponent Peter Singer might not be the most radical professor at Princeton after all.
It might just be a politics professor named Robert George.
“Robby is almost alone in being an outspoken conservative on moral issues in the ivies,” said National Review senior editor Ramesh Ponnuru, who studied under George at Princeton. “And he articulates the case for his positions at an appropriately sophisticated level.”
Steve Forbes agrees.
“Robert George is probably the only pro-life professor at Princeton,” said Forbes.
At most Ivy League schools, Forbes said, traditional morality has been relegated to the sidelines in intellectual debates. “It's like the monasteries in the Dark Ages,” Forbes explained.
'There's an orthodoxy sometimes ruthlessly enforced in elite American universities.’
Which is why the millionaire publisher and former presidential candidate is happy to lend financial support to the James Madison Program, a new project started by George to spark a discussion at Princeton about abortion, religion and politics. Forbes had made national headlines for withdrawing support from his alma mater when they hired infanticide proponent Peter Singer in 1999.
Forbes confirmed, however, that he is now financially supporting the James Madison Program. “They have a heroic battle in front of them,” he said.
And George is clear about what he's battling against.
“There's an orthodoxy sometimes ruthlessly enforced in elite American universities,” said George. “Anyone who has held positions different from that orthodoxy in an elite university knows that the toleration of views is a joke.”
George said that the James Madison Program was needed to invigorate debate once again.
“For some reason, liberals don't want an argument. I want to have an interesting debate on abortion, homosexuality, capital punishment and on cloning,” said George.
Princeton University officials declined to comment on the campus's intellectual atmosphere for this article.
“I'm happy to have a debate. I believe the Church's teaching on abortion. I believe the Judeo-Christian view of the sanctity of marriage,” said George, who is Princeton's McCormick Professor for Jurisprudence, a chair once held by President Woodrow Wilson.
George noted that it's ironic that today's liberals criticize the Catholic faith for supposedly being intellectually monolithic.
“This current kind of liberalism is far less tolerant of dissent than were Catholic universities of a previous generation,” said George, who is Catholic.
Fast Track
The James Madison Program started only last summer, but it has already become quite a fixture on campus. An April lecture series on religion featured a talk by John DiIulio, a former Princeton professor who now runs the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiative.
The James Madison Program plans to form a society of scholars outside of Princeton while also inviting six visiting scholars to campus this autumn. In addition, the program is preparing to host a conference on the Declaration of Independence in November and intends to inaugurate the John Witherspoon Medal for Statesmanship.
“Given that we've just started, it is ambitious,” said associate director Seana Sugrue. “People are very excited about the program.”
People like sophomore Matt O'Brien of Swarthmore, Pa.
“The James Madison Program fills an intellectual gap at Princeton,” said O'Brien. “In the past, certain ideas and viewpoints have often been dismissed before they were even considered.”
O'Brien believes that the program will heighten respect for those currently outside the liberal orthodoxy.
“From an academic standpoint, traditional Judeo-Christian viewpoints are often seen as antiquated and simple-minded. It is assumed by many that a traditional Jew or Christian cannot be a serious thinker,” said O'Brien. “I think the James Madison Project will challenge students to question critically the received wisdom they get from most other professors.”
And because the James Madison Program conducts debates on religion and abortion, it can attract nationally known conservative speakers who might have no other venue in the Ivy Leagues.
“Word is already going around the politics department, and even the campus, that if one wants to meet the country's top political theorists, then he should get involved in the Madison Program,” said Niall Fagan, a sophomore from Washington, D.C.
Sugrue had only kind words for President Shapiro, who will step down in June.
“We are very thankful to President Shapiro for allowing the creation of the program,” said Sugrue. “The administration has been very helpful.”
Fagan also noted that questions surrounding President Harold Shapiro's reasons for supporting the program should be dismissed.
“It is often said that the university was obligated to support the program after hiring Professor Peter Singer, but this should not hide the fact that the administration actually did support it, and indeed gave it the freedom to govern itself,” said Fagan. “Princeton deserves credit for providing more than lip service to its commitment to foster intellectual debate at the highest level.”
Josh Mercer writes from Washington.
----- EXCERPT: New Princeton program isn't P.C. ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: How To Pray When the World's Salvation is on the Line DATE: 06/03/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 3-9, 2001 ----- BODY:“Have you ever had those weary days when the daily tasks seem meaningless? And those seasons of the heart when life itself seems meaningless? What goes wrong? What often goes wrong is that we neglect the serious issues of life and death, heaven or hell. We cram life with trivia and even with sin until our hearts become trampled gardens where there is no room for love to grow.”
This is one of many bright insights Jesuit Father Herbert F. Smith delivers in this worthwhile collection of homilies. Throughout, he speaks to the heart with great intuition and understanding. His tone is upbeat, hopeful.
All the homilies are based on the complementary themes of devotion to the Sacred Heart and perseverance in prayer. The subtitle reveals the aim behind the book: The Apostleship of Prayer for the World's Salvation. It's an ambitious aim, but Father Smith carries it off; his desire to see all souls saved leaps from the page and sets the reader's heart on fire without warning.
Since the Second Vatican Council we have witnessed a notable decline in popular devotions in the Church and the plummeting of attendance at Mass. Far from growing out of the council, both phenomena contradict it. Father Smith demonstrates this ably, highlighting the centrality of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Christ throughout the Church's history.
The 19th-century founder of the Apostleship of Prayer, Jesuit Father Francis Xavier Gautrelet, realized that his seminarians needed a new direction.
Their dreams of following Xavier to distant missions were blocking their studies. “Be apostles now,” Gautrelet cried, “apostles of prayer!
Offer everything you are doing every day in union with the Heart of our Lord for what he wishes, the spread of his Kingdom for the salvation of souls.” On the day he convinced the seminarians to follow through with this initiative, the League of the Apostolate of Prayer was born.
Father Smith notes that Christ himself gave the first call to friendship and to mission: “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart.” And, as Father Smith documents, in today's Church Christ repeats the call through his apostles.
Pope Paul VI wrote in 1968: “The Church was born from the pierced Heart of the Redeemer and is nourished there … thus it is absolutely necessary that the faithful venerate and honor this Heart.”
Pope John Paul II, commemorating the 150th anniversary of the League in 1994, pointed out: “The Apostleship of Prayer has always been especially close to the Roman Pontiffs. … The new evangelization will also be effective insofar as it strengthens the bonds of ecclesial communion with the grace that flows from the Heart of Christ.”
Is a book of homilies exclusively for priests? On the contrary, this book has a message for us all. We need to move from devotions to devotion.
Devotions are informal, personal practices of prayer evolving throughout the Church's history and drawing us closer to the Lord. Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Christ originated on Calvary. It leads us to devotion, which is, in the words of St. Thomas Aquinas, “the readiness to do God's will in all things.”
Our lives are too precious to be mere trampled gardens. The challenge of this book is to become apostles through a life of prayer.
Dominican Sister Mary Thomas Noble writes from Buffalo, New York.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Sister Mary Thomas Noble ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 06/03/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 3-9, 2001 ----- BODY:Crackdown on Classics
The university originally planned to scrap the department entirely. Under the new plan, it will still offer undergraduate degrees in classical studies. The university will also eliminate 35 full-time administrative and staff positions.
Judge Allows 'Straight Pride’ Shirt
The Register reported April 29 that the lawsuit was underway.
The judge ruled that Woodbury High School Principal Dana Babbitt's ban on the shirt could violate free-speech protections. The shirt says “Straight Pride” on the front, and shows a man and woman holding hands on the back.
Chambers said he wore the shirt in part as a protest against the school's pro-homosexual actions, such as designating classrooms “safe zones” where homosexual students would be counseled to express their sexuality.
The ruling leaves open the possibility that the shirt may still be banned if school officials can prove that it caused a disruption of school activities.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Family Matters DATE: 06/03/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 3-9, 2001 ----- BODY:The Heart Grows Fonder
Q We think Natural Family Planning is wonderful. We have practiced this method in order to have more children. However, this is the first time that we are using the method to avoid pregnancy. Do you have any practical recommendations?
A Lisette: Too many couples are still uninformed about Natural Family Planning. The more that information is made available, the more they'll be able to enjoy the fruitful results of this method — whether they use it to achieve or to avoid pregnancy.
Now that you're using it to avoid pregnancy, there will be certain times during the female cycle when you have to avoid sexual intercourse. Like other couples, however, you'll probably find that the sacrifice enhances your love for each other.
During our marriage, there have been times when out of medical necessity we've had to avoid pregnancy. There have also been times when we've tried to achieve pregnancy. The latter has actually been our biggest struggle because we've had several miscarriages. In both instances, though, we've learned a lot about our relationship, about ways we can give love to one another.
During those times when we had to avoid pregnancy there were so many expressions of love we cherished more than ever: holding hands, soft and tender kisses, romantic walks and many laughs over long dinners. Out of necessity, we were more creative than before. We learned to date again. I cooked George's favorite meals and baked his favorite desserts. I even encouraged him to play golf — with a smile!
We found many ways to show that we loved each other. George and I realized, in fact, that we had become best friends again during this time. It was like lighting another spark in our relationship. Trying though it was at times, it was wonderful.
George: Based on personal research (i.e., conversations with other guys), men have a harder time with abstinence than women do. Natural Family Planning offers a husband the opportunity to express the tenderness of his love and affection outside the marriage bed.
If my data is correct, wives uniformly applaud these kinds of efforts from their husbands. I know Lisette does.
Life can get hectic. With work, school, extracurricular activities and everything else, time with each other can get pretty scarce for Lisette and me. During the times when we also needed to abstain from sex, I had to be creative, thinking up new ways to express my love for her.
Nothing fancy. Holding hands as we walked around the neighborhood talking about life was one of our favorites. It was a simple act, but the difference was that I initiated it rather than waiting till Lisette asked me to spend time alone together. I made the first move to show her my love. That was the key.
Love is giving oneself to another; and, for us, Natural Family Planning taught us a lot more about doing just that.
George and Lisette de los Reyes host
The Two Shall Be One on EWTN.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: George And Lisette De Los Reyes ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: Facts of Life DATE: 06/03/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 3-9, 2001 ----- BODY:HOP ON POP
Dual careers, business trips, time at the gym — in spite of these and other modern-day obstacles, parents are creatively finding ways to spend more time with their children.
Weekly time with parents for children aged 3 to 12
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: Father Philip and the Holy Spirit DATE: 06/03/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 3-9, 2001 ----- BODY:In 1980, Philip Scott experienced the power and gifts of the Holy Spirit, leading him back to the belief in Christ that he had abandoned as a teenager. In his zeal to be faithful to God, however, he took a detour away from the Church.
Eventually, God led him back not only to the Church, but also to the priesthood. In 1989 he founded a new religious order, known as the Family of Jesus Healer, which is currently a private association of the faithful seeking to become a public association. Its members, seven men and four women, live a life of poverty and prayer. They evangelize among the poor in Tampa's Ybor City.
Father Scott recently spoke with Register feature correspondent Tim Drake.
Drake: Tell me about yourself. Where are you from originally?
I was born in Lima, Peru, and come from a family of six.
My identical twin brother and I were the youngest two children. My father worked for the Shell Corporation and we moved to the United States when I was 5 years old. We spoke Spanish at home.
My immediate family currently lives in Maryland. My twin, Father Richard Scott, is also a priest. He serves the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C.
I understand that you fell away from your faith?
As a young boy I knew Christ, but between the ages of 15 and 20, I started living a lifestyle that wasn't in accord with my Catholic faith. The harder I would party, the deeper emptiness I felt. I wasn't a happy young man.
In 1980, I had an encounter that charismatics would describe as the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Basically, I told Jesus, “I don't know who you are but I give you my life.” For the following week I would awake at 12:30 a.m. each night and felt an overwhelming sense of God's presence. I knew that he died for me and that he loved me deeply and that he was calling me to a conversion.
Shortly after this experience my brother-in-law, who had left the Catholic Church, noticed the change in my life and he began posing questions and objections about Catholicism. While I was reading the Bible with great zeal, I found that I didn't know how to answer him. I had never been catechized.
I was convinced of the errors of Catholicism and felt the Church had lied to me. I became a fundamentalist. I began asking my parents the same questions. My father told me that as long as I lived under his roof I had to still attend Mass with the family.
How did you end up becoming a priest?
I was anti-Catholic because that is what I was being fed. I started dating a Hispanic woman and together we began attending a weekly Catholic prayer group that was an offshoot of Communion and Liberation. Through that group I met three priests from Spain that lovingly and zealously explained the faith to me. These priests were scholars and they lived their priesthood.
It was exciting to see priests that loved the Pope and were on fire for their faith. I was shocked to see how thoroughly Catholic they were — praying the rosary, reading Scripture, studying the Church Fathers. This experience was something entirely new to me in Catholic circles and I felt drawn to them. I couldn't wait to attend each week.
My girlfriend and I had a very Christ-centered relationship. I was working as a commercial artist and had asked her to marry me. She said Yes. Before making our engaged encounter weekend we decided to attend a retreat with these priests and nun friends from Communion and Liberation.
During the retreat, as I sat holding my girlfriend's hand, I was listening to one of the priests speaking about being “fishermen of men.” Suddenly, I was no longer aware of holding my girlfriend's hand. It felt as if it were the priest and I in the room alone together. The thought that filled me was this: “Leave all and come follow me.” I remember responding, “All, meaning her also?” Christ's response resonated within me — “All!”
The rest of the weekend I was preoccupied by this experience. My fiancée sensed this and thought I was being attracted by another girl. At first I attempted to fight the call, but it followed me like the hound of heaven. After a month she confronted me and told me that I hadn't been myself since the retreat. I told her that I could not get the idea out of my mind and told her that it wasn't fair to her.
In 1982 I entered seminary to become a priest with the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C.
How did the Family of Jesus Healer community come about?
I always wanted to be a Franciscan, but the communities that I visited did not appeal to me. While in seminary the idea started coming to mind of starting a new religious community. I was a new seminarian and so at first I didn't pay any attention to it.
One day, in 1983, my spiritual director pointed his finger at me and asked, “Philip, do you think that God will one day ask you to start a new religious community that will be missionary and go to Latin America?” I was stunned. I laughed in his face, but it was nervous laughter because I wondered how this guy could know that this had been on my mind. That scared me.
Eventually I went onto Mount St. Mary's in Emmitsburg, Md. During the summer of 1986 I did a come-and-see with the Missionaries of Charity in the South Bronx. I was attracted to the radical life which they lived, and found that during my two-week stay with them that the idea of a new community stuck to me like chewing gum sticks to a shoe.
Every moment before the Blessed Sacrament the idea was on my mind.
At first, I rebuked it as a temptation. Eventually, as the idea persisted, I brought it in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament and was filled with a peace and joy I cannot put into words. I had received the gift of healing in 1983 while at Lourdes and so the idea came to mind that the community would involve healing, and living a radical lifestyle of ministry to the poor.
In the summer of 1986 I was invited by the Diocese of St. Petersburg, Fla., to give a retreat on healing. During my stay in Tampa the idea came to me that this was where Christ was calling me to begin the community. The priest in St. Petersburg arranged a meeting with the bishop and I asked him if he would accept me as a priest for his diocese and permit me to start this community. He responded, “We will take you and whatever you owe, our diocese will pay.”
I was ordained for the Diocese of St. Petersburg on May 6, 1989, I gave away everything that I owned, and on April 1, 1989, my German shepherd, Moses, and I officially started the community in Tampa's Ybor City.
Tell me about the order. What makes it unique?
Our charism is healing the family by bringing back the Gospel as it is fully and prophetically taught by the Catholic Church. Our community is a living example of family life. Families have been attracted by that. God has evangelized them without us even knowing it. Once a month we host picnics for families. We study [Pope John Paul II's 1981 Apostolic Letter on the family in the modern world] Familiaris Consortio and pray the Liturgy of the Hours with them. They also join us in feeding the homeless. Something wonderful happens when a family meets Christ in the poor. The poor evangelize without words.
----- EXCERPT: From anti-Catholic to priest ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: Texas Showdown: Bishop's Pro-Life Crusade DATE: 06/03/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 3-9, 2001 ----- BODY:AMARILLO, Texas — On March 15, Planned Parenthood of Amarillo and the Texas Panhandle announced the decision to close five of its centers.
In an Amarillo Globe-News article, Planned Parenthood's Amarillo chief, Claudia Stravato, cited dramatically rising costs and fixed federal funding as reasons for the decision.
But some observers attribute the latest closings — and five other Planned Parenthood closings since 1997 — to the leadership of Amarillo's Bishop John W. Yanta, who, they say, has “given birth to the pro-life community on the diocesan level.”
Bishop Yanta, 69, who grew up on a farm in South Texas, says he was always pro-life, but not passionately so until 10 years ago: “I always did and said the right things as a priest, but I was not visibly involved until 1991.”
That year, a Protestant man invited him to take part in a Jericho Walk, an ecumenical effort in San Antonio, where then-Father Yanta served as pastor of a 3,000-family Mexican-American parish.
Father Yanta began joining the group as they walked from abortion clinic to abortion clinic on Saturday mornings, singing, praying and carrying pro-life signs. The same friend later introduced him to Operation Rescue, which Father Yanta first joined as a prayer supporter.
“After the fourth rescue, I said, ‘Well, it's time to do it.’ So at Mass on New Year's Day 1993, I shocked the people by saying, 'My New Year's resolution is to go to jail.’ That got everybody's attention! I said, 'Sometime this year I'm going to go to jail for the unborn babies.’”
As good as his word, Father Yanta blocked the doors to a San Antonio abortion clinic and was arrested along with 24 other rescuers Jan. 23. Released from the county jail that evening, Father Yanta was later sentenced to six months probation and soon received time off for “good conduct.”
Though some of his relatives told him he'd “blown his chances” of becoming bishop by rescuing, two years later Father Yanta was named auxiliary bishop of San Antonio. With the “Precious Feet” symbol on his crest giving silent testimony to his pro-life commitment, Bishop Yanta continued his vocal, visible pro-life leadership for two years in San Antonio before moving to Amarillo, Texas.
Only two weeks after his installation in the Dioceses of Amarillo in March 1997, Bishop Yanta joined pro-life picketers outside a Planned Parenthood fundraiser featuring abortionist Dr. Henry Foster. Next, he called a diocese-wide meeting to discuss pro-life outreaches with 150 attendees. First on his agenda: “What can we do about the 18 Planned Parenthood centers located within this diocese?”
As a result of that meeting, Bishop Yanta created a diocesan Respect Life Ministries Office, which now provides services ranging from handmade receiving blankets for women in crisis pregnancies to Natural Family Planning training to healing after abortion.
Bishop Yanta, however, ascribes the “wonderful success” of his diocese's pro-life efforts and the closing of the 10 Planned Parenthood clinics primarily to prayer. “I encourage our people to pray the rosary at least once a week at the Planned Parenthood centers,” he says.
“I go as I can to support them and to encourage them,” he adds, “because prayer is the greatest power on earth.”
But Rita Diller, director of Respect Life Ministries, says, “Everything Respect Life Ministries has been able to accomplish, we've accomplished because of Bishop Yanta's support. He's a fabulous advocate for women and children, and he never slows down, never stops. He's such a pro-life hero.”
Not surprisingly, Stravato of Planned Parenthood describes Bishop Yanta in different terms, calling him an “extremist” who has an “obsession” with Planned Parenthood. She also insists their 10 clinic closings have “nothing whatsoever to do with him” and that many other Planned Parenthood clinics have merged or closed across the country due to lack of funding.
Diller, however, says Planned Parenthood has had a foothold in the Texas Panhandle for 34 years and to her knowledge had never shut down a clinic until four years ago.
“Between 1994 and 1999 Planned Parenthood shut down only 9% of its clinics nationwide, and from 1999-2000 it showed an increase in clinics,” she explains. “Here it has shut down 56% of its clinics since 1997. That's not a trend going on nationwide, at least not in the proportions we're seeing here.”
Stravato describes Bishop Yanta's and Respect Life Ministries’ protests as “ludicrous” because, she says, the local Planned Parenthood clinics do not provide abortions: “Abortion isn't our goal; preventing abortion is our goal. Bishop Yanta should be joining with us, not demonizing us.”
Yet Amarillo's Planned Parenthood literature says they “fully support accessibility to legal and safe abortions” and that they offer “birth control services” and “emergency contraception.”
According to Bishop Yanta, Planned Parenthood has a “rather respected image” and many Catholics don't realize it's “the biggest promoter and provider of abortions in the U.S. and in the world.” In October 1998, Bishop Yanta wrote a letter to Catholics in his diocese spelling out the Church's teaching on the Gospel of Life and urging them not to cooperate with Planned Parenthood in any way:
“As your bishop and shepherd, I ask all Catholics not to use their services, not to belong to any of their boards, not to serve as a volunteer, and not to be employed there.”
Bishop Yanta also offered to help find a job for anyone who quit working for Planned Parenthood, an important offer since Stravato says Planned Parenthood of Amarillo and the Texas Panhandle has many Catholics on its board and that “the majority of our employees are Catholics.”
Diller says many people have left their jobs with Planned Parenthood since pro-lifers began praying outside the clinics.
A clinic director walked out one day while they were praying and said she'd never return. A Catholic clinic employee felt so convicted seeing the large image of Our Lady of Guadalupe carried by the pro-life witnesses that she went to work at another clinic — only to discover the same prayerful, pro-life presence there as well. She left her job a few weeks later.
Says Diller: “These are very obvious instances of people leaving because their consciences started bothering them once someone started praying and questioning publicly the morality of Planned Parenthood.”
Lisa Ferguson writes from Steubenville, Ohio.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Lisa Ferguson ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: Life Notes DATE: 06/03/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 3-9, 2001 ----- BODY:Tiniest Premature Baby
His mother, Leona Williams, feared she would never get to cradle her first son when he arrived 16 weeks premature and weighing just over 1lb. 5oz.
Christopher was born November 21. His mother said, “He was in the special care baby nursery on oxygen and had two hernia operations. It was the happiest day when I brought him home last month.” Christopher is now over 9 pounds, said his mother.
Abortion Study Criticized
CYBERCAST NEWS SERVICE, May 17 — A study linking abortion to a drop in the national crime rate has prompted renewed criticism from pro-life advocates and silence from abortion rights proponents.
In the May 2001 issue of the Quarterly Journal of Economics, researchers John J. Donohue III and Steven D. Levitt theorize that a criminal element is being weeded out of society since abortion was legalized in 1973 because a greater portion of black women have abortions than white women and homicide rates of black youths are roughly nine times those of white youth.
The crime drop was really a result of many socio-economic factors, and not abortion, countered Ed Szymkowiak, national director of the American Life League's STOPP International, citing a recently published book, The Crime Drop in America.
Nazi Research Recalled
CNN, May 18 — German President Johannes Rau said genetic research in Germany must take account of the country's Nazi past.
Delivering his annual Berlin Speech, Rau recalled the horrific medical experiments carried out by Third Reich scientists on unwilling people.
The memory of such experiments, he suggested, should serve as a warning of the moral dangers implicit in unbridled genetic study.
Guilty in Death of Fetus
ASSOCIATED PRESS, May 16 — A woman was convicted and sentenced to 12 years in prison for killing her unborn child by using crack cocaine during her pregnancy, reported the Associated Press.
A jury found Regina McKnight, 24, guilty after deliberating 15 minutes. She could have faced a life sentence. McKnight's lawyers said they will appeal. The state Supreme Court ruled in 1996 that a viable fetus is considered a child and mothers can be charged with abuse if they took drugs after their unborn child was able to live outside the womb, reported the Associated Press.
McKnight's baby was stillborn in 1999 at 35 weeks. She is the mother of three other children and is two months pregnant.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life ----- TITLE: Critics Question New Pope Products DATE: 6/10/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 10-16, 2001 ---- BODY:NEW YORK — Pope John Paul II is no stranger to famous musicians. He has hosted Bob Dylan, B.B. King and U2's Bono, among others.
But a new collaboration adds some surprising names to that list: Aerosmith's lead singer Steve Tyler and pop-teen singer Britney Spears. It has some wondering whether it's a sign of respect for the Holy Father — or for his selling power.
Hoping to seize upon the success of the Holy Father's Crossing the Threshold of Hope book and “Abba Pater” CD, New York-based Compulsion Entertainment and Pocket Books recently announced their partnership on a spoken-word CD, a companion DVD, and a series of prayer books featuring the poems, prayers and homilies of Pope John Paul II.
The CD features the voices of Spears, Tyler, N'Sync, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, Brooke Shields, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Danny Glover, Dennis Franz, James Earl Jones and Edward James Olmos. While none of the celebrities could be reached for comment, Holly Fussell, publicist for the project, said that all of the artists contributed their voice talent at no cost.
A portion of the proceeds from sales of the CD will support charitable organizations. Brooke Shields, a Catholic, wrote of her involvement, “I feel blessed to have been a part of this project.”
But don't expect the Catholic faith to make a strong showing on the CD.
Tracy Behar, Vice President Editorial Director with Pocket Books called the Pope a “hot commodity” and cited sales figures in explaining the inspiration of the project. “The books are fairly nondenominational.
“We are not a religious publisher,” she said. “We're going to make them more commercial and plan to market them to our inspirational market.”
Pocket Books reportedly acquired U.S. and Canadian publishing rights for the prayer books for $850,000.
Executive producer and Compulsion chairman Rick Garson is best known for masterminding corporate media sponsorships for Michael Jackson's Thriller tour, the Billboard Music Awards, and Amnesty International tours featuring Sting, Bruce Springsteen and Peter Gabriel. He has outlined a long marketing program for the Pope project which will include new books and merchandise.
Not Catholic
The project has raised the eyebrows of both Catholics and non-Catholics. “My biggest concern is whether the words of the Holy Father were modified in any way to make them more ecumenical,” said Philip Gray, vice president and director of Information Services with Catholics United for the Faith. “If they were, then they are no longer praying the words of the Holy Father.”
Gray said the situation was reminiscent of the apostles complaining about others casting out demons in Christ's name.
Christ's response was that ‘if they were for me they could not be against me.’ Before I could say that about this product, I would need to know how much poetic license was used to modify the text” added Gray.
While she could not say for certain, Fussell believed that the CD and prayer book texts were direct translations. She was unsure who translated the works.
But both Garson and Pocket Books have been careful to describe their product as not exclusively Catholic. “To me this project was never about religion, Catholicism or Christianity,” said Garson. “It's all about spirituality, and, in my own way, I wanted to give something back to the world, and I realized the best way to get out the message of spirituality is through entertainers.”
He said called Holy Father “much more than a Christian figure.”
“He is now a worldwide spiritual leader,” said Garson. “By having many of today's contemporary celebrities, artists, and musicians read selections from the Pope's personal prayers, we are introducing the Pope's message of unity to an entirely new generation of people from different ethnic, religious, geographic and cultural backgrounds.”
Peter Edman, editor with the Christian Web site BreakPoint raised questions about the dichotomy between the messengers and the message, and wondered whether Garson was using the Pope.
Edman asked, “Will generic ‘spirituality’ provide a sufficient segue to the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Then again, a CD and video of the Pope's prayers is unlikely to do harm and may very well do some good. Is it seemly to have entertainers such as Tyler speaking holy words, or to have them produced by someone who doesn't seem to know what to do with them?”
Maxx International initially planned to release the CD under the title World Voice 2000 last September, “but that deal fell through,” said Fussell. “The project is the same, the contributors are the same, and the project is still headed up by Rick Garson — it's just through a different company.”
The CD will include poems and prayers of Pope John Paul II being read by the artists, with musical accompaniment.
The spoken words have been recorded and the original orchestration is currently being produced. If all goes as planned, the company expects the product to be available in November.
Garson told Rolling Stone that he enjoyed the recording sessions immensely, especially Tyler's spontaneous scat contribution. “Tyler asked me, ‘Has anyone ever sang the works of the Pope?’” recalled Garson, “and then he went into a two-minute song totally made up on the spot. After he was finished, he said, “I'll never do that again, but do you think the Pope will like it?'”
After the CD's release, Garson and a group of the artists hope to go to Rome to meet with the Pope.
“After each session,” said Garson, “I had each artist sign a card to the Pope. We plan to get together and deliver it in person.”
Tim Drake can be reached at tdrake@ncregister.com.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ------ KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Rome Halts Renovation Of Milwaukee Cathedral DATE: 6/10/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 10-16, 2001 ----- BODY:MILWAUKEE — A public move by the Vatican to restrain a controversial renovation project in Milwaukee appears to be unprecedented in recent Church history. Rome wants work suspended to insure the project conforms to canonical and liturgical norms.
The Vatican is the latest and most powerful critic to weigh in on a $10 million renovation of Milwaukee's historic St. John the Evangelist Cathedral. The renovation is to be completed by Feb. 9, 2002.
The word came in a May 28 letter to Alan Kershaw, a canon lawyer in Rome who is representing a group of opponents to the renovation. Msgr. Mario Marini, under-secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, wrote that after receiving information from Milwaukee's Archbishop Rembert Weakland, the congregation still had doubts about the project.
“This Dicastery on May 26, 2001 moved to suspend the work of renovation until these doubts may be clarified,” the letter said.
Msgr. Marini also said in a May 22 letter to Kershaw that an initial examination of the planned renovation had “revealed suffi cient indications that the proposed restoration would not conform to the relative liturgical norms.” The letter added that the Congregation for Divine Worship, in unison with the Congregation for Bishops, had invited the archbishop of Milwaukee to “suspend any work of renovation until the project may be reviewed by the Holy See.”
Opponents of the project object to plans to move the altar forward, replace the pews with chairs, relocate the tabernacle to a side chapel, place the organ and choir in a more prominent location, and establish the baptistery at the entrance. Father Richard Vosko of Albany, N.Y., is the project's liturgical design consultant.
The project, which began after the Sunday Masses of May 20, continues with asbestos removal, an aspect that had not been contested by opponents of the renovation, said Jerry Topczewski, the archbishop's spokesman.
Topczewski acknowledged that Archbishop Weakland was asked to suspend the work in a May 26 letter from Cardinal Jorge Medina, head of the Congregation for Divine Worship.
“The archbishop has told Cardinal Medina that at this point none of the [asbestos] work going on seems to be objectionable to anybody so there is no reason to stop it,” Topczewski said, adding that because of contractual obligations it would be difficult to halt the work without financial penalty to the diocese.
Topczewski said the archbishop first learned of the Vatican's interest in the project when he was contacted May 23 by Apostolic Nuncio Gabriel Montalvo, who said the Congregation for Bishops and Congregation for Divine Worship had received complaints about the renovation. The archbishop was asked to provide more information and did so on May 24.
On May 26, Archbishop Weakland received another letter, this one from Cardinal Medina, asking for more information about specific aspects of the project. The archdiocese has publicly declined to identify what those were, but said the archbishop responded to the questions on May 29.
“The archbishop has clearly said he's glad to respond in the spirit of fraternal or collegial cooperation, but he also has said that he will defend his decisions in what's been done here with regard to the project and his authority to make those decisions,” Topczewski said.
He added that the General Instruction of the Roman Missal and canon law clearly leave liturgical decisions to the local bishop.
Canon Law
But Al Szews, president of the St. Gregory VII Chapter of Catholics United for the Faith, the group that engaged canon lawyer Kershaw to help fight the cathedral renovation, said he understands canon law to say that when a congregation of the Curia speaks, it is with the authority of the Holy Father.
Father Patrick R. Lagges, a canon lawyer who serves as vicar for canonical services with the Archdiocese of Chicago, said the Vatican has the authority to enforce guidelines for church architecture if it can be shown that those standards have been violated.
“Nobody works alone in the Church; we're all tied into one another in one way or another and also tied in hierarchically … Just as the archbishop of Milwaukee has responsibility for the liturgical life of the archdiocese, the Pope has responsibility for the liturgical life of the whole Church.”
However, Father Lagges said he does not see the Vatican's interest in the Milwaukee Cathedral renovation as unusual.
“The basic principle I was taught in canon law school is, ‘if you ask the Vatican a question, you're going to get an answer.’ And it's true. They are very good about responding to questions that are brought to them. … Really, all the Vatican seems to be saying is these people have raised some legitimate questions and we should talk about it.”
Msgr. Francis Mannion, a sacramental theologian and director of the Liturgical Institute at the University of St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein, Ill., said his impression is that Archbishop Weakland is on strong ground canonically in asserting his authority. He said the new General Instruction of the Roman Missal does give the local bishop considerable authority in placement of the tabernacle, as well as in other liturgical matters.
However, Msgr. Mannion said, “The Church is not run solely by canon law, but also by theological and larger ecclesial considerations.”
Szews and others familiar with church-renovation battles of recent years believe the Milwaukee case may be the first time Rome has stepped into a dispute of this kind. “I'm not aware of another instance in which the Vatican has intervened like this,” he said.
He added that other groups have appealed to the Vatican to thwart a church renovation, but none has received a response like Milwaukee's.
“I think it is unusual,” said Michael Rose, author of The Renovation Manipulation, a popular handbook for renovation opponents. “Based on my experience, I've never heard of this.”
Rose said depending on how the case is resolved, the Vatican's response to the Milwaukee case could give other renovation opponents hope that they can reverse or mitigate changes in church buildings.
Msgr. Mannion agreed that the Vatican's response seems extraordinary.
“My suspicion is this kind of thing has happened behind the scenes before,” he said, “but this is the most public example of a dispute over liturgical architecture in which Rome has intervened.”
He said that it is unlikely that the Congregation for Divine Worship would have acted as it did without proper canonical consideration.
Tabernacle Placement
Szews said his group's strongest argument against the proposed renovation of the landmark cathedral in downtown Milwaukee is likely the relocation of the tabernacle.
The General Instruction of the Roman Missal says the tabernacle should be in a conspicuous place, and Szews said it cannot possibly be easily seen in the former baptistery where it is to be moved. The official Cathedral Project Web site, however, says, “There will be a new Blessed Sacrament Chapel designed and located in the current baptistery in order to be conspicuous to the faithful (General Instruction of the Roman Missal), fully accessible, prominent and integrally connected to the main body of the Cathedral.”
As part of the renovation, seating capacity in the cathedral is to be expanded from 740 to more than 900. The cathedral's 80 oak pews already have been removed and sold to a Baptist church in Milwaukee and a Franciscan friary in North Dakota, Topczewski said.
The $10 million cost of the cathedral renovation includes $4.5 million for the interior, $3 million for the renovation of two other buildings for outreach ministries, and $2.5 million for an atrium gathering space and a garden wall to enclose a courtyard.
Msgr. Mannion said a significant change has occurred in the thinking of the American bishops in the area of liturgical art and architecture with the recent approval of the U.S. bishops' document, “Built of Living Stones,” which replaced “Environment and Art in Catholic Worship.”
The new document, he said, is more sensitive to the need for traditional elements in the church building.
“The question that needs to be asked now about any new building or any new renovation is, is it consistent with the new directions established in ‘Built of Living Stones,’” said Msgr. Mannion, “or is it still too influenced by ‘Environment and Art in Catholic Worship?’”
Judy Roberts writes from Millbury, Ohio.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Judy Roberts ------ KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Democratic Tax-Plan Rider Aids Big Catholic Families DATE: 6/10/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 10-16, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — When Darren Hogan of Mount Carmel, Conn., announced the birth of his sixth child, Regina, he called her a “blessing” but also a “tax credit.”
It was meant in jest, but Catholic parents like the Hogans will be keenly interested in the new tax credit that President Bush was expected to sign into law June 7.
The plan increases the child tax credit from $500 per child to $600 immediately, and, by 2010, to $1,000 per child — meaning that families with dependents will eventually get double the current amount sliced from their tax bill.
It also changes the tax credit so that even families that owe nothing in taxes can benefit from it.
Under the current system, the credits can reduce a family's tax burden to zero, but that's all — if parents' credits add up to more than the amount of tax they would pay anyway, the extra credit is ignored. Under the proposed system, tax credit would be “refundable” — that means a qualifying family would not only pay no taxes, but also get a check for the “extra” credit.
The credit would apply to married couples making under $110,000 or single parents making under $75,000. Most parents will get the full credit, but various exceptions change how much of it is refundable.
Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza, president of the U.S. Catholic Conference, strongly supported the refundable tax credit and urged Bush to veto any tax-cut proposals that didn't include it. The conference has supported refundable child tax credits since 1991.
Bush originally proposed a non-refundable tax credit, but one that gave the credit to families with incomes up to $200,000, a higher ceiling than the Congressional versions.
Allan Carlson, president of the Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society, praised the bill. In 1991 the National Commission on Children, of which Carlson was a member, issued a report calling for a $1,000 per child refundable tax credit.
Carlson saw the refundable credit as a cushion for families leaving the rolls under welfare reform. “It helps poor parents raise their children,” he claimed.
Single-Mom Subsidy?
Critics charged that the refundable credit had been falsely portrayed as “family-friendly.”
Maggie Gallagher, a syndicated columnist and co-author of The Case for Marriage: Why Married People are Happier, Healthier, and Better Off Financially, said, “It would be better if it were not refundable, because [the refundable credit] functions as a fairly small subsidy for single mothers.”
Gallagher cited research in Europe and the United States showing that European-style “family allowances,” in which the government offers subsidies to families in order to ease falling birthrates, had very limited effects. Tax exemptions for children, on the other hand, have “quite powerful effects on marital fertility,” she said.
Gallagher said that this difference in effectiveness occurred because a tax exemption allows the family to keep more of its own money, whereas a subsidy — or a refundable credit — injects money from outside.
A tax credit “increases interdependence among family members,” she said. “It increases the economy of gratitude within the family when the money seems to come from one another, as opposed to a check from the government.”
Gallagher said, “In terms of increasing the proportion of children growing up with their own two parents, the increase in the tax exemption is likely to help. The refundable tax credit is not likely to help, and at the margins may hurt.”
Carlson replied, “I favor strongly that children should be born only inside of marriage, but even children that aren't born that way are a blessing.”
In general, Carlson saw the tax bill as “pro-marriage and pro-child.” He was disappointed that the child-care portions of the bill still grant tax credits only to families who employ outside day care. He would have preferred a bill that would have granted tax credits to all families, so that some could use the money to work fewer hours and stay home with the children, or pay family members to babysit.
However, Carlson noted, Congress “took some steps to lessen the marriage penalty, and they did it the right way.”
The Bush administration had originally proposed a marriage-penalty relief only for two-income families, excluding families where one parent stays home. Carlson said that energetic pro-family lobbyists got Congress to expand the lower tax bracket and the standard deduction for all married couples, not just “high-income, two-career couples.”
The plan also doubles the tax credits for adoption-related expenses, and gives employers incentives to provide day care for their employees' children.
But Gallagher cautioned that although voters are increasingly concerned with fixing family breakdown, “It is striking to me how very little of the tax cut is focused on developing a pro-family tax structure.”
As for Darren Hogan in Mount Carmel, the father of six tax credits acknowledged that the credit might not be the greatest tax policy from “a macro-economics perspective.”
All the same, he said, “we'll be sure to fill out whatever forms are necessary to get it.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ------ KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Blessed John XXIII's Return Spotlights Incorrupt Saints DATE: 6/10/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 10-16, 2001 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — From dust we all came, but to dust we will not all necessarily return, at least not right away.
The incorruptibles — saints whose bodies do not decompose when they should — are in the spotlight again. That's because, on June 3, Pope John XXIII returned to St. Peter's Square 38 years after his death — and it seemed like he hadn't changed a bit.
The remains of Blessed John XXIII were discovered to be largely intact when his casket was exhumed from the crypt of St. Peter's Basilica last year.
Cardinal Virgilio Noè, archpriest of the basilica, told reporters that the incorrupt body of Blessed John “is a providential coincidence, a sign of divine favor and of holiness.” But he stopped short of calling it a miracle.
As is usual in such cases, the Church is not jumping to any conclusions. The Zenit news service reported that Church officials have been quick to explain that while it is unusual, they do not necessarily consider the state of the corpse to be a miracle in this case.
There are two reasons for this stance. First, though not embalmed, the body was treated with formalin, a preservative, before it was allowed to lie in state in 1963. Second, when the Pope was buried, he was placed inside of three coffins which would have kept out oxygen and helped to preserve the body.
Msgr. Francis Weber, archivist for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, used to work for Pierce Brother's Mortuary in Los Angeles where he “held every position except that of embalmer — for which a state license was required.”
He said that the three coffins in which Pope John XXIII was buried “certainly would retard the decomposition [of his corpse].” While Msgr. Weber noted that an incorrupt corpse “can be a sign of the preternatural,” he was quick to add that it doesn't have to be.
In fact, the condition of John XXIII's body is not unique.
There exists many cases of inexplicably incorrupt bodies. Almost all are linked to Catholic saints, according to Joan Carroll Cruz, author of The Incorruptibles.
She added that this might be the case simply because the Church exhumes so many bodies — it is a requirement of the canonization process. Nevertheless, over the centuries, the corpses of many venerable, blessed and canonized Catholics have remained incorrupt in a variety of locales and circumstances.
Cruz has documented the stories of the corpses of more than 100 incorrupt venerable, beatified and canonized persons, with an eye to answering the objections of scientists and skeptics. Msgr. Weber made the point that the bodies of the incorruptibles differ from “mummies which are pickled” so that the preservative reaches the cellular level.
It is also possible, though unusual, for the Church to accept an incorrupt corpse as an official miracle that can be used in a canonization cause.
Cruz cites the 19th-century case of St. Andrew Bobola “the condition of [whose] body, though mutilated because of the wounds inflicted during his martyrdom, was ultimately accepted by the Vatican as one of the miracles required for his canonization.”
But like Msgr. Weber, Cruz told the Register that the manner in which the body of John XXIII was buried means that, at least for now, it is “not a miracle.”
Many Are Miraculous
However, she noted that with many other incorrupt bodies, the condition “seems to be a miracle.”
Cruz said that the most incredible one is a rather recent case that occurred at the turn of the last century with the body of St. Charbel Makhlouf, a Lebanese monk who died in 1898, and whose case she has documented in detail.
Cruz writes that St. Charbel was buried in the ground without being embalmed or placed in a coffin. However, a brilliant light “surrounded his tomb for 45 nights following his interment.” Therefore, several months later, his corpse was exhumed.
At that time, said Cruz, “He was floating in mud,” a situation which she explained is “supposed to bring on corruption.” But an examination of the body in 1950 revealed that it was still “flexible and lifelike,” and was “perfectly free of corruption,” although part of the clothing had rotted away.
The body remained incorrupt for 67 years and exuded a mysterious oil during that time — occurrences that do not easily lend themselves to a scientific rationale.
In addition, according to Cruz, given the initial mud burial and subsequent exposure to oxygen, this lack of corruption is practically impossible to explain. Today, only the bones remain, though not in a completely natural state. They are inexplicably red in color, according to Cruz.
Msgr. Weber confirmed that bodies buried in the ground, especially those in wet ground, don't remain intact. Based on his experience in the funeral industry, he said, “where [corpses] are buried in the ground in a casket, there is invariably corruption.”
He recalled one temporary exception — a man whose corpse he helped to exhume in Nashville, Tenn.
But although the well-preserved corpse could be seen through the glass window in the top of the coffin, Msgr. Weber recalled: “The minute we broke the seal of the coffin the corpse went black and decomposed.” There was little left after 24 hours.
Tom Serafin, founder of the International Crusade for Holy Relics USA, a group devoted to preserving relics of the saints and other Catholic treasures, has several relics of incorrupt saints.
He said that it is incredible that in the documented cases of incorrupt saints “[the corpses] have not become putrid.” As he put it, “a pair of socks after a basketball game smells worse.” In fact, in many cases, Joan Carroll Cruz points out, the corpses have actually given off a sweet-smelling perfume.
St. Rita's Eyes
Although unavailable to speak to the Register, in the online “Skeptics Dictionary,” Robert Carroll, Professor of Philosophy at Sacramento City College, notes: “The Catholic Church claims there are many incorruptible bodies and that they are divine signs of the holiness of the persons whose bodies they used to be. Perhaps, but they are more likely signs of careful or lucky burial, combined with ignorance regarding the factors that affect rate of decay.”
He ultimately concludes: “Immutable human bodies are ultimately cases of apparent immutability. Given enough time and removed from the special conditions which delay the decay process (such as absence of oxygen, bacteria, worms, light, etc.), all human bodies and body parts disinte-grate.”
In her book, Joan Carroll Cruz is careful to answer such claims by pointing out that the varied places of burial and backgrounds of those holy individuals whose bodies are preserved refute generalizations about burial circumstances. And even if all bodies will ultimately decay, those that have survived burials in water, mud, earth and quicklime — surefire means to quick decay — remain visible witnesses to the fact that something more than luck seems to be at work, according to Cruz.
She documents many other seemingly inexplicable cases of incorruption, including those of St. Francis Xavier, who died in 1552, and St. Rita of Cassia, who died in 1457.
St. Francis Xavier's corpse was buried without embalming and with several bags of quicklime in order to speed its destruction. Remarkably, it remained totally intact until the 1930s. Though the body is no longer completely lifelike in appearance, Cruz's book points out that even Newsweek, in a 1974 article, stated that the body is “surprisingly well preserved.”
The body of St. Rita of Cassia is also still in remarkable condition despite some minor injuries and discoloration. Even more shocking, however, is the fact that this saint's corpse opened its eyes unaided about 150 years after her death, and has several times been documented to move of its own accord.
Of course, though it doesn't detract from those saints that are incorrupt, Msgr. Weber points out that many great saints have decomposed, and Cruz, too, urges caution.
And as to whether Pope John XXIII's corpse will ultimately fall into the “preternatural” category, Msgr. Weber said it will be a matter of waiting — probably a very long wait.
But whatever happens in this case, Tom Serafin thinks that perhaps God is trying to send people a message by preserving the bodies of certain saints.
“I don't know why God does this,” he said. “Maybe it's a way for Christ to remind people that these [saints] are still his vehicles — our intercessors.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Andrew Walther ------ KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Times That Call for Greatness DATE: 6/10/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 10-16, 2001 ----- BODY:On July 22, 1862, Abraham Lincoln summoned his cabinet. He had reached a momentous decision. He had weighed the practical issues, wrestled with the great moral questions at stake, spent hours in prayer over the arguments on both sides of the matter. Now he was prepared to act.
For reasons that had little to do with practical politics — indeed, such considerations weighed against Lincoln's contemplated action — the president had determined that the slaves then held in the rebellious states should be freed. On that fateful summer day, Lincoln informed the members of his cabinet of his decision to issue a proclamation of the slaves' emancipation.
Lincoln's decision was a bold and risky stroke. A majority of the North still regarded the conflict as a war to preserve the Union, not one to free the slaves. Lincoln himself had only progressively come to the conclusion that the war served a larger moral purpose than the mere preservation of the Union. Indeed he had once famously remarked to New York newspaper editor Horace Greeley that, if he could save the Union without touching slavery, he would do so.
Over the course of time, however, Lincoln had come slowly to recognize the great truth that he later expressed in his second inaugural address: that the war was God's judgment upon the nation and that it would continue “until every drop of blood drawn by the lash shall be paid with another drawn by the sword.” Lincoln had arrived at a moral conclusion that had profound political consequences.
So he laid the document upon the table and told his cabinet what he intended to do. The responses were entirely pragmatic. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and Attorney General Edward Bates, abolitionists, pressed Lincoln to issue the proclamation immediately and without further delay. Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase thought the proclamation would unsettle the stock market with unpredictable effect. Postmaster Montgomery Blair noted dryly that it would cost Republicans the fall election.
Lincoln was undaunted by the risk of dire political consequences. He had summoned the cabinet, he said, not to consult its members but to inform them of a decision he had already made. The proclamation would be issued. He awaited only a Union victory on the battlefield. That victory came two months later, on Sept. 17, 1862, on the fields surrounding Antietam Creek near the small Maryland town of Sharpsburg. Five days after the bloodiest single day of the Civil War, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
Decisions and Destiny
This supremely moral gesture revolutionized the war and the American nation. It transformed the war into a crusade to preserve and extend America's founding proposition that “all men are created equal.” For the Union, the war became a noble cause grounded in the highest of moral principles. None of this was apparent to Lincoln the day he summoned his cabinet to the White House to inform them of his historic decision. Indeed, at the time, public opinion was against him and the issuance of the proclamation was greeted with mixed reactions at best.
Had Lincoln waited for a popular moral consensus on race relations to emerge in the country before issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, he probably never would have taken that historic step. But he understood that an important function of the presidency was to provide moral leadership to the nation — that the office was, as a later Republican president would refer to it, a bully pulpit.
As Lincoln's leadership demonstrates, presidents, by virtue of the office they occupy, have the capability of forging a moral consensus. This is a lesson that our new president could profitably learn.
Earlier this spring, President Bush's top political advisors floated the story to the press that ending abortion, while remaining a “moral priority,” is not a policy priority for the new administration.
“I don't believe he feels that he'll be able to eliminate abortions,” Chief of Staff Andy Card said. “It's a high moral priority for the president, but his public policy priorities are education, tax reform and tax reduction, reforming Social Security, reforming the Medicare system and improving national defense.”
Rich Bond, Republican political consultant and former chairman of the Republican National Committee, said President Bush won't push for abortion restrictions because there is no consensus in the country on the issue or the necessary political bloc to push such restrictions through Congress.
The fact is that no such consensus will emerge unless the president exercises the required moral leadership. One can easily imagine Lincoln's political advisers cautioning him against moving on emancipation in the absence of any national consensus on slavery and race. Unless the president commits his personal prestige and the prestige of his office to making the moral case for the sanctity of life, as Lincoln did to free the slaves, the nation's conscience on abortion will remain unformed.
No Time for the Timid
In fairness, President Bush does occasionally mention the sanctity of life, but typically before friendly audiences such as the recent gathering at the Catholic University of America for the dedication of the Pope John Paul II Center.
As welcome as the president's pro-life comments are when delivered to pro-life audiences — and they are very welcome — such declarations are insufficient to begin forging a national consensus in favor of life and against the culture of death.
This requires sustained, persistent leadership. Mr. Bush needs to talk about reverence for life in a multitude of settings and before a wide range of audiences. He needs to begin the process of teaching Americans how to think about the life issue, of defining the terms of debate and establishing the moral context for a national dialogue on the issue.
If a national consensus regarding the sanctity of life is wanting, then it is partly because Americans have not had a president since Ronald Reagan speak to them seriously about reverence for life, about the far-reaching consequences of the culture of death which Roe v. Wade unleashed on the country's families, and why they should care about ending abortion. President Bush seems to be a man of genuine modesty and some humility, just the qualities of character required in a great leader and precisely those most associated with Lincoln.
Lincoln undertook to lead his countrymen into a deeper understanding of the horrible Civil War in which they were then engaged. He did not simply bow to prevailing public opinion, but led Americans into a new way of thinking about the devastating conflict that was daily killing and maiming their husbands, fathers and sons. This transformation of leadership can be seen in Lincoln's public utterances and policy initiatives in the year between the Emancipation Proclamation and the Gettysburg Address, by which time he was summoning the nation to “a new birth of freedom.”
Moral leadership requires taking political risks, making the arguments and marshalling the resources to accomplish the objective. President Bush can be a leader who is content to “nibble around the abortion topic,” as some political consultants advise, or he can provide moral leadership that offers the American people a vision of a country that truly lives up to its founding ideal that all are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with the unalienable right to life.
If he would take up that mantle, the president and his political advisors might be surprised at the number of people who are prepared to follow his lead.
Kenneth L. Connor is president of Family Research Council, a Washington-based public policy organization.
----- EXCERPT: For the second time in its history, a deeply divided America looks to its president ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kenneth L. Connor ------ KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: On 'Cafeteria Catholics' and the Pope DATE: 6/10/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 10-16, 2001 ----- BODY:He's in his 18th year as a baseball broadcaster, and his ninth with the National League West champion San Francisco Giants, following four seasons on TV with the Minnesota Twins. He will soon be covering his third Olympic Games from Salt Lake City. He discussed his professional and faith life with G.E. Devine.
Devine: Where did you go to school, before Notre Dame?
I grew up on Long Island, in Rockville Centre, and went to public school through grade eight. Then I really wanted to go to a Catholic high school, and attended Chaminade, conducted by the Marianists, in Mineola. That was a great experience for me. I had a much greater introduction to Catholic education than I had received in the “Sunday school” experience. I had great academic and behavioral discipline under the priests and brothers — things I hadn't experienced previously.
What led you to the University of Notre Dame?
There were some family influences. I had two uncles, my mother's two brothers, who had gone to school there and were huge sports fans. So my parents were sort of “subway alums” and I was a big Notre Dame fan. I did not want to go there when I was a senior in high school. I was independent and stubborn, a typical 17-year-old. I applied elsewhere and actually was accepted at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, which had a great radio-TV program. I was also considering Cornell and Boston College.
So what happened?
My dad said, “You're going to see Notre Dame!” So he took me for a day trip from New York. After 15 minutes on campus I said, “This is where I want to go! This is what I want from a school!”
As far as facing a college choice, you're now in your dad's former position, aren't you?
That's right. Our daughter Annie is currently navigating the college selection process. It's been agonizing, frustrating and stressful yet extraordinarily rewarding in one way — the affirmation of her faith. She has applied to a wide range of schools, including some of the best Catholic universities in the country. When the merits of various schools are debated, she often raises the issue of her faith and how she could continue to practice it at that school.
Throughout her high school years she has been challenged to defend her faith. It has angered her to be placed in such a position, yet she now knows it has strengthened her in ways incalculable. As parents, Mary and I are ecstatic to see someone at an age where religion is often considered disposable actually embrace her Catholicism and refuse to discard it in the name of higher education. At this point, Annie has made a decision which we support her in, to attend Notre Dame.
Do you consider the topics your daughter is dealing with to apply to many young people?
I think so. It's almost standard today among some folks to “pick and choose” as you follow the Catholic faith. The term “cafeteria Catholic” certainly is bandied about. I see that too much and it disturbs me. In life it's much too easy to say, “I'm just going to pick and choose what I want and what I don't want. I'm going to take this and not take that!”
You can't be a person of faith — regardless of which faith — and not follow even things that you personally may question.
No way am I saying don't question. Questioning is good.
But I believe you take the faith as a whole, take it as a package. With Annie and her younger brother Patrick, we try to emphasize it, even with something as simple as not eating meat on Fridays during Lent. It's hard for an adolescent to understand why they can't have a hot dog on a Friday in Lent; it seems to many people not significant.
But it's important to us that they understand that it's a tenet of the Catholic Church and you don't disregard it simply because you want a hot dog on Friday.
It doesn't work that way. I guess that's the point I'm trying to make. You can apply it to the most major issues that we can find, but I try to apply it in my everyday life to the simplest terms. The kids have to understand, also, that you have to go to Mass every week, participate in the sacraments and say prayers. I think it's important for a family to develop a Catholic faith and a Catholic discipline together, for children to learn what comprises the faith. Mary's worked hard on that with me.
Where is your parish?
Nativity in Menlo Park, south of San Francisco, is our parish, although we often attend Mass with the Catholic community on the campus at Stanford — a wonderful group of Franciscans.
You've covered many games. What is your greatest thrill as a broadcaster?
The greatest thrill was not a game, but the Mass celebrated by Pope John Paul II at Candlestick Park when he visited San Francisco in 1987.
I made a point of going to our news director at KCBS, Ed Cavagnaro, and said I wanted to be part of it.
They thought I was a “sports knucklehead” doing a papal visit broadcast on what could have been my day off.
But with my faith and my background I wanted to do it. I knew more about it and what would transpire in that Mass than 99 per cent of the people on the staff. To his credit, Ed let me do it. I anchored the papal Mass, with two priests from the Archdiocese of San Francisco to help with explanations and interpretations.
That was the greatest thrill I've ever had, just to be there. There is no game that could ever compete with that.
I don't imagine anything would ever top that. Games are wonderful, and it's great to be involved with a World Series championship. But nothing could match the people I saw — 60,000 or more — falling on their knees as the Holy Father made his way through the stadium. Nothing can compare with that — nothing.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Ted Robinson ------ KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Abortion Supporters Take Control of U.S. Senate DATE: 6/10/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 10-16, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — When Vermont Senator James Jeffords' departure from the Republican Party becomes official June 5, the Democratic Party will have control of the U.S. Senate. Perhaps more importantly, it will have the reins of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee, which has to confirm nominations to the federal judiciary and the Supreme Court.
“If the pro-abortion crowd could do one thing, it would tip the balance on the Judiciary Committee,” said Raymond Flynn, president of Catholic Alliance.
“It's really disappointing. The president will have to reconsider who he'll appoint as judges,” added the former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican.
Democrats now control the Senate with a 50-49-1 edge, with Jeffords, the Senate's lone independent, siding with Democrats in organizational votes.
Jeffords acknowledged at a press conference with Vermont journalists May 25 that his defection was triggered in part by his pro-abortion sentiments. He cited abortion as one of the key areas “where I will disagree with the president on very fundamental issues.”
The Senate shakeup also means that Vermont's other senator, Democrat Patrick Leahy, will begin chairing the judicial committee June 6. And he promises not to be hasty in approving President Bush's judicial picks. First up will be reinstating the role of the American Bar Association in analyzing the backgrounds of potential judges.
Bush had responded to longstanding conservative complaints about the bar association's alleged liberal bias by canceling its role in vetting all presidential judicial appointments.
“The White House ended the 50-year-old partnership with the ABA for peer review vetting,” said Sen. Leahy's spokesman, David Carle. “The [bar association's] peer-review vetting will be done on the Senate's clock now.”
But Carle denied that Sen. Leahy would block most of Bush's selections for the federal courts.
“As was the case in previous administrations, the bulk of cases will be confirmed,” said Carle. But, he added, “It is a signal that nominees must be more mainstream.”
Douglas Johnson, spokesman for National Right to Life Committee, responded that the nine Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee before the Senate shakeup were anything but mainstream in their position on life issues.
“You've got Leahy, Kennedy, Biden, Durbin and Cantwell — all Catholics. They are all vehement defenders of Roe v. Wade,” Johnson, himself a Catholic, told the Register.
Johnson warned Democrats that their stalling tactics might backfire politically, especially if Bush calls attention to their obstructionism.
“There could be a backlash if Democrats won't approve judges who refuse to make an ideological pledge. Not all 51 senators will follow these leaders [on the judiciary committee] if public sentiment is against them,” said Johnson, National Right to Life's legislative director.
By contrast, abortion activists were ecstatic over the shift in Senate control to supporters of on-demand abortion.
“When it comes to the future of the U.S. Supreme Court and a woman's right to choose, Sen. Jeffords will go down in history as the man who saved America,” Gloria Feldt, president of Planned Parenthood, said in a statement to the Register.
Pro-Abortion ‘Hysteria’
Cathleen Cleaver, pro-life spokeswoman for the U.S. bishops, said that such comments show why people are becoming increasingly skeptical of the abortion lobby.
“They are sounding more and more hysterical and they're becoming more out-of-touch with mainstream Americans,” Cleaver said.
But Cleaver did acknowledge that the Senate shift would affect the fortunes of the unborn.
“We know the courts are very important to any chance to confer rights to all citizens,” Cleaver said. “We have important nominations that Senator Leahy, the new judiciary committee chairman, could do a lot to stall.”
Political observers believe Bush will continue to place judges who share his “constructionist” interpretation of the Constitution. These judges, Johnson said, are almost always pro-life.
“What [Bush's spokesmen] have said is they are going to continue nominating those judges who are not legislating from the bench. That is of course antithetical to Roe v. Wade and as well as to the Stenberg case [striking down Nebraska's ban on partial-birth abortions] decided last June,” Johnson said.
Larry Sabato, professor of politics at the University of Virginia, said fighting for judges who are pro-life will not be an easy political battle.
“There is almost no middle ground between the solidly pro-choice party, controlling the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate floor, and the solidly pro-life party controlling the nomination itself,” Sabato said.
And, he added, tapping so-called “stealth” candidates — those believed to hold pro-life views but with no public record substantiating that outlook — backfired on Bush's father when he appointed David Souter, who has subsequently sided with the Supreme Court's pro-abortion faction.
Sabato thinks that Bush will continue to nominate judges who are pro-life to the federal courts, including the Supreme Court, when vacancies arise. But Bush will likely give special attention to nominees from minority groups, to minimize the chance of their rejection by the Senate.
“For the Supreme Court he will try to pick someone in a category that is tough to turn down — a Hispanic, a woman, a former senator, and the like,” predicted Sabato. “That way, if he is defeated, the Democrats will have to pay a big price.”
Hardball Politics
But Sabato questioned if Bush was up to the challenge of the tough political battle for a Supreme Court nomination.
“Bush's ride will be very rough — and many of us wonder whether he's up to a game of hardball,” said Sabato. “He's a classic conflict-avoider. But he can't avoid conflict on this critical social issue unless he wants to lose his conservative base and part of the Catholic vote he needs in 2004 to win reelection.”
While the nomination of judges is very important, Cleaver thinks that pro-lifers need to begin thinking about control of the Senate, which will be up for grabs in next year's November elections.
“Rather than putting all eyes on nominations on the short-term,” Cleaver said, “it might be time to start focusing on the Senate elections in 2002.”
Joshua Mercer writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ------ KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 6/10/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 10-16, 2001 ----- BODY:Mary and the Mets
Piazza attended a pre-game Mass May 27, after which Mandt gave him a Miraculous Medal of Mary that had been blessed by two popes. Auxiliary Bishop of Brooklyn Ignatius Catanello also gave Piazza a statue of his namesake, St. Michael.
Piazza hit a homer a few hours later, his first since May 7, and led the Mets to a come-from-behind victory over the Florida Marlins.
Is ‘Prayer of Jabez’ Just Greed?
Jabez, whose prayer appears in I Chronicles 4:9–10, asked God “that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory…”
While some Christians criticized The Prayer of Jabez for encouraging a focus on selfish needs and material wants, the book's author, Bruce Wilkinson, argued that many poor Christians are right to pray for food, rain for their crops, and other material needs.
The Guilt for Jesus' Death
Syrian President Bashar Assad, New York Knicks point guard Charlie Ward and conservative activist and Catholic deacon Paul Weyrich all spoke recently of Christ being crucified “by the Jews.”
David Novak called that accusation “crude and simplistic,” pointing out that the Catholic Church has rejected the notion of collective Jewish guilt. Moreover, he wrote, “the New Testament holds all humanity responsible for the death of Jesus.” Jewish leaders called for his execution; Roman officials executed him; and Peter, a Jewish Christian, denied him. Thus, Novak wrote, “Jesus' death on the cross is atonement for the sins of all humans, even the sins of his followers.”
New Movie: Ireland ‘Haven’ for Catholic Bigots
CATHOLIC LEAGUE, June 1 — “A Love Divided,” a BBC-made movie that just opened in the United States, “portrays the Catholic Church and the Republic of Ireland as a haven for bigots and bullies,” according to one reviewer.
The Catholic League announced that the movie's producer has denounced Ireland, while the lead actress, Orla Brady, has called Pope John Paul II “a voice for evil.”
The film portrays a Protestant woman married to a Catholic in 1950s Ireland. She pledges to bring up their children Catholic, but then reneges. A local priest objects, and the woman flees to Northern Ireland. Irish bishops stage a boycott of Protestant goods and services, sparking a national outcry.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ------ KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: School Vouchers Nixed From Bush's Education Plan DATE: 6/10/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 10-16, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — Education activists assert that President Bush has sacrificed needed school reform in order to earn a bipartisan education bill.
Among the elements omitted from the education reform package passed by the House last month was school vouchers, a concept that has been endorsed by Cardinal Edward Egan of New York and other prominent Church leaders.
The House May 23 gave Bush a landslide 384–45 approval for his education bill, known also as H.R. 1.
But 34 of those 45 dissenters were Republicans, most of them conservative. There's a reason why, said Erika Lestelle, education policy analyst at the Washington-based Family Research Council.
“H.R. 1 is not really the president's bill. It is a bipartisan piece of legislation that no longer reflects many of the main components of the President's original ‘No Child Left Behind’ plan,” Lestelle said.
During the House debate, Lestelle said, most of Bush's reform ideas were gutted, leaving only policies that many education reformers dislike.
Many education “activists never liked the heavy-handed federal testing requirements, but they were willing to swallow it if the private school choice and local flexibility measures were also passed,” said Lestelle. “Unfortunately, those components have been weakened to the point that they no longer balance the intrusive federal testing mandates.”
But she said she remained optimistic that the bill can be sufficiently repaired in meetings with the Senate. She noted that the White House promised Rep. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., that a popular reform plan known as Straight A's would be included in the final bill.
Straight A's
Straight A's would allow states and local districts the option to consolidate a large number of federal programs for use as they see fit.
The funds would come free of federal regulations, giving a large degree of local autonomy to institute innovative reforms. States and districts would have to demonstrate to the Secretary of Education that they meet certain mutually agreed upon academic goals over a five-year period.
“Without Straight A's, the bill does not really reform the current education system,” said Lestelle. “The same old programs will be funded at even higher levels without the ability of local schools to initiate the programs and activities they believe would best help the children in that area.”
Lindsey Kozberg, director of public affairs at the Department of Education, confirmed the administration's support for Straight A's, which she noted is in the Senate's education bill.
“We've been supportive of Straight A's,” Kozberg told the Register. But she added a note of caution regarding negotiations between the House and Senate. “It remains to be seen what happens in conference.”
Even without Straight A's, the Bush bill would do a lot to reform public schools across our country, Kozberg argued.
“The president set forth the plan as a means to how we create a system of accountability and a culture of performance,” Kozberg said. Such a plan begins with testing students between the third and eighth grades on reading and math.
“It lets every parent in the country know how their child, their school, their district, their state are performing,” the Education Department official said. “It gives them the power to get involved.”
While vouchers were not in the final bill, Kozberg noted that the legislation contains more choices for parents with children trapped in bad schools.
The bill provides federal funding for supplemental services, like private tutoring, and aids the transportation costs of sending a student to a different public school.
Parents Not Empowered
Such moves don't really empower parents, said Kristina Twitty, education policy analyst in the Washington office of Eagle Forum, a conservative grassroots organization based in St. Louis.
“Real choice is putting the money that a school gets for the attendance of a child in a public school back in the parent's hands like a Pell Grant, or the G.I. Bill,” Twitty said. “Then the student and parent have a real choice in education.”
Twitty said the White House caved too easily before pressure from anti-reform Democrats, and warned that conservative support ultimately rests on whether the White House demands that the final education bill contains Straight A's, Twitty said.
“President Bush has promised to have the language of DeMint's Straight A's included in the conference report,” she said. “We appreciate that promise and will take him at his word.”
Joshua Mercer writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ------ KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 6/10/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 10-16, 2001 ----- BODY:Pope Tells Sick Children He Understands
ASSOCIATED PRESS, June 4 — Pope John Paul II, who has been hospitalized several times during his pontificate, commiserated with a group of Polish children who have cancer, reported the Associated Press.
“I know how difficult the experience of illness is, especially for a child,” John Paul said June 4 in a meeting with 180 youngsters from his homeland.
He prayed that they be “strong in spirit.” “Even in illness a great good is accomplished both in the sick person and in the hearts of those who are near,” John Paul said.
Added the Associated Press: “Although ailing, John Paul has kept up much of his routine, including long work days at the Vatican and trips abroad. His latest trip comes later this month, to Ukraine.”
New Facts on Pius XII in World War II
ZENIT, May 29 — A new book, Pius XII, Pope of the Jews, reveals previously unpublished details of the wartime Pope's life, the Vatican news service reported.
Andrea Tornielli, a Milanese reporter, revealed that in 1942 Pius XII wrote a document explicitly condemning Nazism — but burned it after he saw that Dutch bishops' stern condemnation of Nazism led to increased persecution in Holland. He did not want to be responsible for an upswing in Nazi killings and imprisonments. Several witnesses testified to the existence of the document.
In 1938, when Eugenio Pacelli — later Pius XII — was Vatican secretary of state, he and then-Pope Pius XI acted together to require Archbishop Theodor Innitzer of Vienna to publicly retract his support of Hitler.
As Pope, Pius XII also aided an unsuccessful plot against Hitler, sheltered Jews in the Vatican and encouraged other clergy and religious to hide Jews, and sold family assets, sending the money to aid persecuted Jews.
He told one chaplain, “Tell [those persecuted by the Nazis] that the Pope suffers with them, he suffers with the persecuted and that, if at times he doesn't raise his voice more, it is only not to cause worse evils.”
Pope's Message to Europe's Catholic Schools
The Pope addressed the International Congress of the Catholic Schools of Europe. He emphasized the need for high scholastic standards in order to present “a fruitful dialogue between faith and reason.” He noted that it was extremely important, given the “worrisome weakening of the family bond,” that schools work closely with families and view parents as the primary and indispensable educators of their children.
The Pope also encouraged bringing “young people belonging to other religious traditions” into Catholic schools, as long as the specifically Catholic nature of the schools remained strong.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ------ KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Beginning a Difficult Day With Prayer DATE: 6/10/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 10-16, 2001 ----- BODY:Register Summary
Psalm 5 is the morning prayer of a believer who feels “tension and anxiety” looking ahead to the day's encounters with enemies and evildoers, said Pope John Paul at his regular weekly general audience May 30.
“In the face of the anxieties of an exhausting and perhaps dangerous day, a certainty emerges,” the Pope told about 12,000 pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's square. “The Lord is a consistent God, rigorous towards injustice, opposed to any compromise with evil.”
Morning prayer gives believers “an interior energy” that enables them to face an often hostile world.
Despite the dangers and disappointments that each day brings, those who faithfully turn to God experience a “wave of serenity and joy,” knowing that he is at their side.
At dawn you will hear my cry; at dawn I will plead before you and wait.” With these words, Psalm 5 presents itself as a morning prayer, and it is, therefore, well placed in the liturgy of lauds, the song of the believer at the beginning of the day. Tension and anxiety over the dangers and afflictions that lie ahead mark the background tonality of this plea. Trust in God, however, is not diminished, for God is always ready to sustain his faithful one so that he will not stumble in the path of life.
“No one except the Church possesses such trust” (Jerome, Tractatus LIX in Psalmos, 5,27: PL 26,829). Pointing out that the heading given this psalm in its Latin version reads “for her who receives the inheritance,” St. Augustine explains: “This refers, therefore, to the Church, which receives eternal life as an inheritance through our Lord Jesus Christ, so that she possesses God himself, clings to him, and finds her happiness in him, in keeping with what is written: ‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth’” (Matthew 5:4). (Enarr. in Ps., 5: CCL 38,1,2–3).
You, the Holy God
As often happens in the psalms of “supplication” that are addressed to the Lord for deliverance from evil, there are three characters who enter the scene in this psalm. See, the first to appear is God (verses 2–7) — the “You” par excellence of the psalm, whom the person praying addresses trustfully. In the face of the anxieties of an exhausting and perhaps dangerous day, a certainty emerges: The Lord is a consistent God, rigorous towards injustice, opposed to any compromise with evil: “You are not a god who delights in evil” (verse 5).
A long list of evil people — the wicked, the arrogant, evildoers, liars, murders and deceivers — pass before the Lord's eyes. He is the holy and just God and he sides with whoever follows the paths of truth and love, opposing the one who chooses “the paths that lead to the kingdom of darkness” (see Proverbs 2:18). The faithful believer, then, does not feel alone and abandoned when he faces the city, entering society and the tangle of daily affairs.
I, the One at Prayer
In verses 8 to 9 of our morning prayer the second character, the person at prayer, presents himself as “I,” showing that his entire person is dedicated to God and to his “great mercy.” He is sure that the doors of the temple — namely, of the place of communion and of divine intimacy — barred to the godless, are opened wide before him. He enters in to experience the certainty of God's protection, while outside, evil rages and celebrates its apparent, fleeting triumphs.
From his morning prayer in the temple, the believer receives the interior energy to face an often hostile world. The Lord himself will take him by the hand and lead him through the streets of the city — he will even “make straight the way,” as the psalmist says, using a simple yet thought-provoking image. In the Hebrew original this serene trust is based on two words (hésed and sedaqáh): “mercy or faithfulness” on the one hand, and “justice or salvation” on the other. They are the characteristic words to celebrate the covenant joining the Lord with his people and with each believer.
They, the Malicious Enemies
Here, finally, the somber figure of the third character in this daily drama is outlined in the scene: It is the “enemies,” the wicked, who were already in the background in the preceding verses. After the “You” of God and the “I” of the person at prayer, there is now a “They,” indicating the hostile masses, a symbol of the evil of the world (verses 10–11). [Their misuse of] a fundamental component of social communication — the word - forms the basis of the psalmist's sketch of the evildoers' telling characteristics. Four elements — mouth, heart, throat, tongue — express the radical nature of the malice inherent in their choices. Their mouth is full of falsehood, their heart constantly plots treachery, their throat is like an open grave, quick to wish only death, their tongue is seductive but “full of deadly poison” (James 3:8).
Certainty of Blessing
After this harsh and realistic portrait of the perverse one who attacks the just man, the psalmist calls for God to condemn him, in a verse (11) that the Christian liturgy omits, with the intent of conforming to the New Testament Revelation of merciful love, which offers the possibility of conversion even to the wicked.
At this point, after the barely sketched, somber profile of the sinner, the psalmist's prayer reaches a finale full of light and peace (verses 12–13). A wave of serenity and joy envelops the one who is faithful to the Lord. The day that is now opening up before the believer, though marked by toil and anxiety, will always have the sun of God's blessing shining down on him. The psalmist, who knows God's heart and character profoundly, has no doubt: “You, Lord, bless the just; you surround them with favor like a shield” (verse 13).
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ------ KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Papal Trip Spotlights Rifts Among Ukraine's Orthodox DATE: 6/10/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 10-16, 2001 ----- BODY:KIEV, Ukraine — Dressed in a simple burgundy cassock, flashing the occasional gold-toothed smile and speaking in soothing tones, Patriarch Filaret does not come off like a master of this country's religious scene, a rough-and-tumble world where Orthodox Christianity and post-Soviet politics meet.
But Patriarch Filaret, the 71-year-old head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kiev Patriarchate, is arguably Ukraine's most powerful religious leader, the architect of a plan to give this mostly Orthodox country of 49 million people a legitimate, independent Orthodox Church.
As Patriarch Filaret explained in a recent interview, “Ukraine is an independent government. The biggest Church is Orthodox. It is not natural for that biggest Church, which is independent of the Ukrainian government, to be dependent on a Church in another country … Therefore, sooner or later, this question must be decided.”
The Moscow-based Russian Orthodox Church has for centuries claimed Ukraine — along with a vast swath of the world from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean — as its canonical territory. As long as Ukraine was part of the Russian Empire and then the Soviet Union, Moscow's claim went unchallenged.
But now, independent Ukraine is home to three rival Orthodox Churches: Patriarch Filaret's Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kiev Patriarchate, the smaller Ukrainian Auto-cephalous Orthodox Church and the considerably larger Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate, part of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Of the three, only the Moscow Patriarchate is accepted as legitimate by the rest of Orthodoxy, the world's second largest Christian communion after Catholicism. Ukraine's two smaller Orthodox Churches are in schism, having broken away from Moscow.
In the last 18 months, Patriarch Filaret's nine-year campaign has picked up significant momentum. First, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma put his political weight behind the unification of Ukraine's Orthodox Churches.
Then, world Orthodoxy's first among equals, Ecumenical Patriarch and Archbishop of Constantinople Bartholomew I, started working to broker a unification deal between Patriarch Filaret and the Autocephalous Church, holding out possible canonical status for a new Ukrainian Church.
And finally, Pope John Paul II decided to make a historic visit to Ukraine this month, when he is widely expected to meet with Patriarch Filaret and other religious leaders. Such a meeting would boost Patriarch Filaret's credibility. According to a Canadian expert on Eastern Christianity, the Pope's five-day visit might well “create a pro-Ukrainian momentum that Constantinople could ride” in its bid to bring the smaller two Orthodox Churches together.
“Things being volatile the way they are in Ukraine, who knows what kinds of things might change in the next few months,” said Peter Galadza, a Ukrainian Catholic priest at the Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies at St. Paul University in Ottawa.
Russian Orthodox Rage
All these developments infuriate leaders of the 80 million-member Russian Orthodox Church, by far the largest Orthodox Church in the world. More than 1,000 people in Moscow marched to the Kremlin walls May 12 to protest the Pope's visit to Ukraine. About 400 Orthodox staged a similar demonstration in Kiev May 17.
Some Russian Orthodox Church leaders smell a conspiracy between Rome and Constantinople.
“Certainly the pontiff's visit will coincide with a new attempt to break up the Russian Orthodox Church and create an independent Ukrainian Church by means of the interference of Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, who is known for his pro-Catholic orientation,” said Bishop Ippolit in an April interview with the Kremlin-linked Web site www.strana.ru.
Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexei II expressed similar sentiments in late May. “Unfortunately, the Pope's visit will not bring soothing and pacification between religious groups in Ukraine, but will bring further aggravation,” said Patriarch Alexei, Associated Press reported.
The stakes are high. Ukraine is the spiritual breadbasket of the Russian Orthodox Church. Nearly half the Russian Orthodox Church's parishes are located in Ukraine, a country with almost one-third the population of Russia. Kiev, where local Slav princes first accepted Orthodoxy in 988, has huge historical significance to Russian Orthodox believers.
For the leading hierarchs in Moscow, Patriarch Filaret is an especially odious figure in the battle for control of Ukraine, partly because Filaret was once one of them. In 1990, after years of leading the Church in Ukraine, he was a top candidate in balloting to become the new Russian Orthodox patriarch. But as Ukraine declared its independence from the crumbling Soviet Union, Patriarch Filaret did the same with the Russian Orthodox Church.
Now he stands defrocked, excommunicated and anathematized by Moscow for the break.
Today, Patriarch Filaret's Church has about 3,000 parishes. Moscow has 9,000 in Ukraine, and the Autocephalous Church has slightly more than 1,000, according to Ukrainian government statistics.
Constantinople's Role
Given Moscow's intransigence, only the Ecumenical Patriarch in Constantinople seems capable of granting the Autocephalous and Kiev Patriachate Churches canonical status.
So far, Patriarch Bartholomew is acting with caution. Hopeful rumors abound within Ukraine's breakaway Orthodox Churches that Patriarch Bartholomew will visit Ukraine this year. But in a fax to Religion News Service May 18, Metropolitan Meliton of the Ecumenical Patriarchate wrote that Bartholomew “has judged that the conditions are not ripe for such a visit. Consequently, at present there is no such plan or program, only good will on both sides.”
In Estonia, a former Soviet republic on the Baltic Sea which the Moscow Patriarchate considers its territory, Constantinople took one group of anti-Moscow Orthodox parishes under its jurisdiction in 1996, declaring that it took the action “as a tender mother has accepted the free and unanimous request of her children.”
The Moscow Patriarchate reacted swiftly by breaking communion with Constantinople and dropping the Ecumenical Patriarch's name from the Divine Liturgy for the first time in centuries. The break lasted from February to May 1996. Relations are still shaky over Estonia, where both Churches now share jurisdiction and are searching for a permanent solution.
With just 84 Orthodox parishes, Estonia is tiny compared to Ukraine. Said Father Galadza, “The fact that Moscow and Constantinople could break communion over a Church as small and insignificant as Estonia, suggests that Ukraine would be the equivalent of an H-bomb falling on Moscow-Constantinople relations.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Frank Brown ------ KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 6/10/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 10-16, 2001 ----- BODY:Now Tourists Can Confess
ASSOCIATED PRESS, May 26 — Catholic officials in the popular Malaga region of Spain have prepared a booklet for non-Spanish-speaking tourists seeking the sacrament of penance, the wire service reported.
The booklet translates from English, French, Italian and German into Spanish. People can tell the priest what they need to confess, or simply point to the items. The booklet, which has been sent to 50 parishes, includes translations for the penances given by the priest.
U.S. Urges Probe of French Sect Legislation
The measure, which aims to rid France of 173 “dangerous sects,” disbands listed sects if any members of a listed group receive two convictions of any kind. Similar lists have been drawn up in Belgium and Germany, and Hong Kong is considering a sect law aimed primarily at the Falun Gong.
The 173 groups named in the French legislation include Baptists, Buddhists, Catholic charismatics, Hasidic Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Quakers, Scientologists and the YWCA.
Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., who heads the Helsinki Commission, was hissed last year by French delegates at the commission's hearings when he charged that the law would aid formerly communist countries in repressing religion.
Polish Bishops Apologize for Wartime Massacre
ASSOCIATED PRESS, May 28 — Poland's bishops made a historic apology for a 1941 massacre of Jews in northeastern Poland, and for other wrongs committed by Polish Catholics against Jews during World War II. About 100 bishops participated, led by Cardinal Jozef Glemp. About 2,500 Poles attended the ceremony.
The event was originally intended to focus only on the 1941 massacre in Jedwabne, where as many as 1,600 Jews were killed. Recent investigations found that Poles, not Nazi troops as most Poles had believed, committed the murders.
The bishops said they were “following the call and the example” of Pope John Paul II.
No Communion for Cohabitors, Irish Priests Stress
Although the rule is rarely followed strictly, one-fifth of priests surveyed said that they refused Communion to unmarried couples. This typically meant telling parishioners privately, and then blessing the parishioners at Mass rather than giving them Communion.
The Church in Ireland has recently seen an upswing in attendance at Sunday Mass and a slight rise in vocations. Several of the priests surveyed said that parishioners often did not know the facts about what Communion is and when they could receive.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ------ KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Loving Homosexuals DATE: 6/10/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 10-16, 2001 ----- BODY:We Catholics have a tough job ahead of us. The task of loving homosexuals in a total and authentic way falls squarely on our shoulders.
We may be the only ones capable of it.
Why? Because the Catholic Church is the only place to find a balanced view of homosexuality. The Catechism acknowledges that homosexuality is a disordered condition, contrary to natural law (and not just a transgression of biblical admonitions). But the Catechism spends just as much space explaining that homosexuals are not to be discriminated against, that they often struggle with the condition as a cross.
This means that we are to love homosexuals as brothers and sisters, never reduce them to enemies. We are to do nothing to unfairly exclude them; we are to show them by our attitude and demeanor that we want the best for them.
But to truly love them, we have to want what's best for their souls. To revile them as sinners and merely make them ashamed would be counterproductive.
If we do so, we risk hardening them in their sin rather than helping them out of it. We risk their souls.
At the same time, modern “tolerance” is just as risky. In case after case, the person most likely to be reviled as a sinner is the one who points out that homosexual activity has disastrous consequences. Homosexuals risk early death from AIDS; the behavior is a gateway to other sexual perversions, usually including promiscuity and disproportionately including pedophilia.
High suicide rates suggest that many lead unhappy lives beneath a surface of gaiety. To express these sentiments is to come a hair's breadth from committing a hate crime.
And yet these things are true and must be explained. Words that whitewash the homosexual lifestyle and treat it as something just as normal as heterosexual marriage are untrue and unkind. They further enslave homosexuals to behavior that harms them. The more common such sentiments become, the easier it is for homosexuals to seduce young men and women into homosexuality — followed too often by an early death.
So, how do you tell the truth about homosexuality without being reviled by the culture and tuned out by the people you most need to help?
Mother Teresa has the answer.
More to the point, the order that continues her mission does. In AIDS hospices like the Gift of Love home in San Francisco, the Missionaries of Charity happily spend the day in prayer and in serving dying homosexuals. They serve them meals. They launder their clothes. They clean their bedpans.
It isn't part of the nuns' charism to preach — rather, they spend their time serving these men, and teach them that way. Nonetheless, it is impossible to spend time with the Missionaries of Charity and not be aware that they are 100% committed to Catholic teaching. And their patients know that they subscribe to the teachings about homosexuality without qualification.
And what's the result? Gift of Love has a nearly 100% record of patients converting to the Catholic faith before they die.
The lesson we can all draw is this: It is neither desirable nor necessary to tone down Church teaching on homosexuality. Truth alone has has the power to reach souls and change them.
But what is necessary is for us to put charity in the highest place in our dealings with homosexuals. If we want to help them, we have to prove we're worth listening to. If we want them to listen to us, we have to prove we're trustworthy.
If we want them to trust us, we have to prove that we love them.
----- EXCERPT: Editorial ----- EXTENDED BODY: ------ KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 6/10/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 10-16, 2001 ----- BODY:UD: The Full Story
Regarding “Resignations Rock University of Dallas” (May 20–26): You neglected to print the end of this article!
Unfortunately one of the most interesting articles in some time had to be chopped off. This left us up in the air as to further information about the forming of this new school and the demise of the old, which was extremely disappointing.
I, for one, am delighted to hear that Dr. Bushman is going to continue his excellent work at Ave Maria. I sincerely hope that the areas served by the new school will include Southern California, even if it has to be San Diego. How about locating it at Santa Paula and St. Thomas Aquinas College, for example?
I found the article very interesting but the article did not receive the proofreading attention it deserved. This is not the standard to which I am accustomed.
Keep up the good work! We certainly have to have something to compete with the other material permitted to be in the racks in our diocese.
KEN BRINKMAN via e-mail
While Hennessey admitted that it is too early to say what she will do, she says her instinct is to pursue the program through Ave Maria. “We are each at UD for different reasons. I am there for those professors and if there is any way possible, I would like to follow them.”
The Non-Violent Vampire Slayer
As a subscriber to Register let me first say that I really appreciate and enjoy your newspaper. It is a refreshing relief from the secular press.
That said, I have a complaint. In your May 20–26 issue, you have an article on page two, “Bad Business: Viewers Tune Out Ads on Violent shows,” that defames one of our favorite TV shows, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”
The article hooks “Buffy” to such other violent shows as “WWF Smackdown” and “Die Hard.” (Those are the only ones I've even seen once — the others are unfamiliar to me.) I only saw a portion of one “Smackdown” show, and I saw “Die Hard” some years ago, but my recollection of both those shows is that they tried to portray their violence as real or at least directed at real people. If I recall “Die Hard” correctly, people were getting shot multiple times all throughout the movie. “Smackdown” was, as I recall, more clownish, with muscle-bound guys throwing chairs at each other.
“Buffy”, on the other hand, is pure fantasy. It is about vampires, demons, witches and assorted otherworldly creatures, who for the most part are dispatched but not killed. Most of them are already dead — which is a large part of their problem.
The fight scenes on “Buffy” are not really violent — they're more like very acrobatic ballet with punching and kicking. But having watched the show for some time, I can't recall the last time I saw anybody really get hurt. Considering that most of the characters who actually do the fighting are supposed to have superhuman strength, the blows have very little effect. The choreography of the fight scenes is remarkable for TV. “Buffy” has some of the most acrobatic stunt people you'll ever see in a syndicated TV show.
Mostly, “Buffy” is just a trendy soap opera peopled by strange and unbelievable characters — only some of whom happen to be human … sort of. Trash? You bet! Predictable? Absolutely! Forgettable? Undoubtedly! But violent? No. Just a relatively harmless hour of escapism, with some really funny writing.
DAVID R. KLUGE Sheridan, Oregon
An Ambiguously Pro-Life President?
The topic of President Bush's “pro-life-ness” (Letters, May 27-June 2) raises a deeper question. When the president began contemplating his bid for the White House in late 1998, where were his pro-life coaches? Why didn't those with pro-life political action committees, or those with an alleged “inside track,” press him to tighten up his position?
Where were the people who could have helped him articulate an authentic pro-life position — one that does not allow for killing in certain instances such as rape, incest and life of the mother?
If we who are leaders in this movement are perfectly honest, we would have to admit that, rather than helping him rectify his position through artful education and persuasion, many of us endorsed him early on without any publicly stated concerns. The president's position regarding total protection for the pre-born is clearly flawed, but what did we expect? Too many of us, though definitely not all, share that position in the political arena even now, though protests to the contrary are heard.
The president's position is not the basic problem; pro-life pragmatism is.
JUDIE BROWN Stafford, Virginia
The writer is president of American Life League, Inc.
Home School Convert
Kudos to Laura Berquist, the subject of the “Home Schooling 2001” article of the May 27-June 2 issue. In this world of peer pressure, it's a blessing to have someone like Laura who has taken the task of raising Godly, educated children seriously and shared it with others.
I found myself on the phone to Mother of Divine Grace after agonizing over pulling our two oldest children (third and fifth grade at the time) from public school three years ago. I didn't know where to start. Having been raised in public school myself, I was torn between the “what was good enough for me, is good enough for our children” attitude, and the not so gentle nudging from the Holy Spirit to become a better steward of what God had given us — our children. The Holy Spirit had the “upper hand” and I began to home school.
Home schooling has been both a struggle and a blessing. We feel as if we have our children back after already beginning to lose them to their peers at such an early age. I thank God every day for the wisdom and experience of Laura. She is a wonderful witness to our faith and the teachings of the Church.
I also agree with Laura that our children are the future of the Catholic Church. As she mentioned, “our homes are a harbor.” If we want our children to weather the storm, we have to make sure they have a well-made, seaworthy boat. What better place to do that than in our own home where we can pass the faith on by example and doctrine? Then our children can become examples to others.
SUSIE SWANSON Littleton, Colorado
Register Rally
I have just received my third trial copy of the National Catholic Register. I am pleased to let your know that I am thrilled at paper and will become a paid subscriber and avid reader.
My concern is that I did not know of the existence of your publication. Had I known, you would have had me as a subscriber for years.
I love your articles and the straightforward and insightful reporting they contain. I feel as though I have found a valued friend in your publication. I will do all I can to promote your fine paper to everyone I know.
GEORGE GARBELL Phoenix, Arizona
‘Authentic’ Is Not a Synonym for ‘Literal’
Regarding “Authentic Liturgy … At Last” (May 27-June 2): I remember reading years ago a report concerning a U.N. translator charged with rendering in English the speech of a Russian diplomat. Referring to the unlike-lihood of an event taking place, the Russian said it would happen “… when a shrimp sings on a mountaintop.” The translator, knowing that a literal rendering of the speaker's words would mean nothing to his English speaking audience and, therefore, not serve the purpose of translation, said that the event would happen, “when pigs fly.” The English phrase, while nowhere near a literal translation, served well and substantially conveyed the meaning of the Russian's remarks.
Every act of translation is also an act of transculturation. Not only are words being translated, but, more importantly in terms of our worship, ideas, concepts and images have to be rendered in a way that makes the truth of the text accessible to the hearers. The suggestion that a literal translation of the texts of the Mass best accomplishes this in all instances is simplistic because it does not take into account transculturation. Words and phrases that have great meaning in one language do not automatically have the same gravitas in another.
In his marvelous book on translation, Le Ton beau de Marot, and all that must be considered in this exceptionally difficult art, Douglas Hofstadter reminds us that distortion-free translation is a chimera, an impossible goal. He says, “A translator does to an original text something like what an impressionist painter — Van Gogh, say — does to a landscape: there is an inevitable and cherished personal touch that makes the process totally different from photography.”
The painting, while not a “literal” representation of the original scene, is no less interesting or valuable.
Finally, any suggestion that this current round of translations is going to produce English texts that will serve for all times and never need revision and re-translation is shortsighted at best and ideologically tainted at worst. All language is analogical and, as our culture and our language evolve, it will be necessary, even essential, to update, refine and retranslate the texts.
Our Church has made extraordinary strides since the Second Vatican Council to disabuse herself of the notion that immutability is one of the marks of her liturgy. The truths celebrated in the liturgies do not change. The manner in which those truths are conveyed does.
FATHER MICHAEL J. KAVANAUGH Port Wentworth, Georgia
The writer is pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church.
The End of Liturgical Longsuffering
Brian McGuire's interview of Father Peter Stravinskas regarding the liturgy (“Father Stravinskas: New Liturgy Document Vindicates Critics,” May 27-June 2) is really a relief and a breeze of fresh air regarding the Mass.
For many years we have complained about the lack of holiness of, respect for the Eucharist, and the constant din of certain songs during Mass. The Catholic Church at one time was a house of prayer and meditation. Catholics want to pray before the Blessed Sacrament during daily visits, Mass, Benediction and all those forms of worship of our God that have been eliminated for a gross misinterpretations of the articles of Vatican ll.
I hope I do not hear another pastor say at the most attended Mass, “I can fire a cannonball through the Church and not hit one person.”
Our complaints to the diocesan newspapers and office of liturgy and the bishops' representatives have always been met with demeaning remarks and an “Always in Christ.”
We have no voice in the Church. Most parishioners do not want to expose themselves to criticism and are forced to seek a parish that abides closest to the Church of Rome and Vatican ll.
Thank you for this fine article. This realignment does not come too soon. It is about 15 years overdue.
JIM VONDRAS Florissant, Missouri
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ------ KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: A Layman Will Lead Them - So What? DATE: 6/10/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 10-16, 2001 ----- BODY:So read the Register's March 18–24 headline announcing Dr. John DeGioia's selection as president of the Jesuit university in Washington, D.C., Cardinal Theodore McCarrick was quoted in the article saying: “While many of us were hoping that a Jesuit priest might be found for the leadership of this important institution, I welcome Dr. John DiGioia.”
Reading these quotes, it could seem that both were begrudging the fact that Georgetown appears to have “fallen” into lay hands. Dr. DiGioia's “welcome” seemed tainted with a feeling of settling for second-best. As a Catholic layman and educator, I have to say that I believe such an attitude is unfortunate.
I have been around Catholic higher education a long time. I earned an undergraduate degree at St. Mary's, a Catholic college in Michigan founded by a diocesan priest. My graduate degrees came from a Jesuit university, Fordham. I was an assistant professor of theology at St. John's, the largest Catholic university in America, run by Vincentians. I was a visiting fellow at Poland's Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski, where Pope John Paul II was a faculty member. And I was the first layman to be associate dean of Immaculate Conception Seminary, the graduate School of Theology at Seton Hall University in New Jersey, Archbishop McCarrick's former seminary.
My experiences have shown me that there are many loyal, devoted and orthodox Catholic lay scholars out there. They are dedicated academics who are committed to the importance of Catholic education. Many make considerable sacrifices to work in Catholic higher education, where salaries are often lower than in secular academia. Those scholars are there because they believe in what Catholic colleges and universities stand for: a place where faith and reason go together.
One reason some people might lament the absence of a priest at the helm of a Catholic university is concern about the institutional identity of Catholic higher education. They ask, and sometimes rightly, are Catholic schools really Catholic?
That's a legitimate question. But the presence of a priest at the head of a Catholic school is no guarantee of a university's Catholicity — just as having a layman at the top is not necessarily a sign that such identity is lacking.
Consider Catholic moral theology. I still encounter some raised eyebrows when I tell people I am a moral theologian. Some people still assume theology is, or should be, a clerical preserve. Well, in my field of sexual ethics, who better exemplifies Catholic teaching than William May, Germain Grisez, Janet Smith and John Haas? All are laypersons, and all are outspoken in their faithfulness to Catholic teaching. I don't think I need to remind Register readers that the same cannot be said for a number of high-profile priest-professors who openly dissent from Church teaching in their instruction of this subject.
Clearly, the quality of a theologian is not a function of Holy Orders.
There are also practical implications to this prejudice. Academics, like almost all professions, has certain natural career paths. We do not encourage our best and brightest to aspire to excellence or dedicate themselves to Catholic higher education if we treat academic leadership not as a role meritoriously acquired, but as one assigned on the basis of characteristics that are extrinsic to that role. The presidency of a Catholic university should be awarded on the basis of merit and qualifications, not titular concession to traditional customs whose significance in maintaining certain values is often more symbolic than real.
And it cuts both ways. Eight Vatican congregations in 1997 issued a document insisting that roles proper to the clergy should not be assigned to lay people. Neither, however, should roles proper and appropriate to lay people become traditional set-asides for the clergy. The other side of the coin is affirming the right of laypersons to occupy appropriate roles for the laity, even at the head of a Catholic university.
As for the “set-aside” question, let's admit a nasty little secret. Some Catholic universities still operate two-tier compensation systems: Lay faculty receive salaries; clergy and religious receive stipends. Such two-track systems are doubly unjust. “Contributed services” by clergy and religious can attest to a personal generosity of spirit when voluntarily given. But when institutionalized, it can be a euphemism for cheap labor that excludes lay faculty. Nor are clergy adequately motivated to excel when they see a lay person carrying a similar teaching and research load earning three times their salary. One can idealistically declare that clergy should not consider pecuniary interests, but priests have to buy gasoline, too, and diocesan clergy do not take vows of poverty.
Let me share one final observation. I have worked for Catholic universities and would only work for Catholic universities. That's because I'm Catholic and because I believe that a Catholic university is the only university in the fullest sense of that word. An institution is a university — universal in the sense of the range and totality of its concerns — when it recognizes that it exists for one reason: to bring the light of faith and reason to the human person made in the Image of God and redeemed in Jesus Christ.
A university is universal only when it allows itself to be caught up in the whole truth about man. That's what makes an institution of higher learning Catholic and a university. That's where its Catholic identity comes from, not from the sacramental status of its chief executive officer.
John M. Grondelski writes from London.
----- EXCERPT: "Georgetown in Hands of Layman." ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Grondelski ------ KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Religious Profiling a Fact of Life in Irish Abuse Scandals DATE: 6/10/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 10-16, 2001 ----- BODY:Ireland has been hit by a wave of clerical sex-abuse scandals.
No one now doubts that children in the care of priests and religious were abused. The trouble is that an atmosphere has been created in which every allegation is believed, and in which it is easy for anyone to destroy the lives of innocent people.
Let me give a few examples. The most recent one involved the case of Willie Delaney. Willie was a resident of Letterfrack Reform School in Galway, run by the Christian Brothers. In the middle of last month his body was exhumed. The discovery followed allegations from other former residents that he had suffered a vicious blow to the head from a teacher while in class.
The case received extensive media coverage. Most newspapers did not wait for the results of the autopsy before pronouncing judgment; they declared in front-page stories that Willie had died of foul play just as alleged. They also ignored or played down glaring inconsistencies in the testimonies of the “witnesses.”
When the investigation revealed that young Willie had died of natural causes, newspapers buried their coverage of the development deep inside their pages. Thanks to this selective journalism, a year from now, when people talk about how Willie Delaney died, most will say that he was murdered by a Christian Brother.
Of course, this was not the first time the Irish press has uncritically accepted allegations of abuse. Nor will it be the last.
A much more serious case involved a former member of the Mercy Sisters called Nora Wall. She, along with a man called Paul McCabe, were accused of raping a girl at a children's home. As the trial proceeded, newspapers ran headlines about the “monster nun.” Based on the testimony of the alleged victim, the pair were found guilty and Wall was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Within days of the sentence being delivered, grave irregularities in the “evidence” were found and the sentence was quashed. No newspaper apologized to her, or to their readers, for their shoddy coverage of the case.
Then we had the case of a Northern Ireland priest, Father Gerard Green. He stood trial for allegedly abusing a teenage boy. Once more the newspapers declared him guilty and branded him a monster. The trial collapsed, once again due to irregularities in the so-called evidence. Once again the papers did not eat humble pie for doing their utmost to destroy a man's reputation.
I could give other examples of false allegations. The problem is that they do nothing to make newspapers question the witch hunt that is being conducted in this country against priests and nuns accused of child abuse. Every allegation continues to be taken at face value as the normal journalistic guidelines of skepticism, balance and objectivity are cast aside.
There are a number of reasons for this. The first is that lurid headlines about child abuse, and especially abuse at the hands of priests and religious, sell newspapers.
The second is that there was a time when no allegation of abuse was believed. Because of this, many people, journalists included, feel compelled to compensate for what they see as the country's former lack of compassion by accepting every allegation at face value.
A third and more sinister reason is that the child-abuse scandals are a weapon which can be used against the Church. And so it is claimed that there is something in the nature of the Catholic Church which attracts child abusers. That something is variously patriarchy, the Church's “culture of secrecy” or its teaching on sex and morality. Connected to this is the claim that celibacy so distorts sexuality that some people become pedophiles as a result.
It is then concluded that the only way to truly protect children against child abusers is to abolish the rule of celibacy and to reform the Church, root and branch. This means allowing women priests, “sharing power” with the laity and embracing the sexual revolution.
What is sad is that many Catholics, and not just disaffected ones, have internalized this criticism, quite ignoring the fact that here, as in other parts of the world, some children in some group homes have been abused — and the abusers' trails show no pattern of affiliation with one church over another, or with any church at all.
In an Irish context, what is particularly galling about our readiness to accept every allegation of abuse at face value is that we appear to have learned nothing at all from the experience of Irish people at the hands of the British legal system in the 1970s.
At that time, because of the atmosphere created by IRA bombing campaigns in England, any Irish person living in England who had a Northern accent and came from a Catholic, working class, nationalist background stood in danger of being accused of membership of the IRA.
This led to famous miscarriages of justice involving the Birmingham Six and the Guildford Four. These individuals served years in prison for crimes they never committed; such was the atmosphere in Britain at the time they were convicted. There was a clamor for convictions, a desire for retribution, because some Irish people were indeed engaged in bombing campaigns.
The examples of the Birmingham Six and the Guildford Four should have made us aware that it is especially when there is a demand for retribution that we need to hold on most strongly to the presumption of innocence. Unfortunately, in the case of priests and religious accused of child abuse, this need has been completely forgotten. For the sake of those who stand falsely accused today, we must do all we can to rekindle Ireland's collective memory.
David Quinn is editor of The Irish Catholic in Dublin.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: David Quinn ------ KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Universities Under Fire for Pro-Abortion Honorees DATE: 6/10/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 10-16, 2001 ----- BODY:BOSTON — Catholic organizations have criticized two prominent Catholic universities, Boston College and Seton Hall, over honors the schools bestowed recently on abortion supporters.
Boston College Law School invited Margaret H. Marshall, chief justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, to serve as speaker at its May 25 commencement ceremonies. Prior to becoming a judge in 1996, Marshall served on the board of directors of Crittendon Hastings House & Clinic, an abortion facility in Brighton, Mass.
Seton Hall granted an honorary degree May 7 to Dolores Cross, the president of Morris Brown College in Atlanta. Cross has been publicly identified as a member of the National Abortion Rights Action League's 1992 National Commission on America Without Roe.
While Seton Hall continues to argue that Cross's pro-abortion views have not been clearly established, Boston College officials did not deny the links between Marshall and abortion when contacted by the Register regarding her service with the organization that operates the Brighton abortion clinic.
“Boston College Law School chose Margaret Marshall as its commencement speaker because she's the highest ranking jurist in the state and the first female Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court,” said Boston College spokesman Jack Dunn. “She's a vigorous defender of the First Amendment, particularly the rights of religious institutions.”
As for Marshall's involvement with Crittendon House, which operates the abortion clinic, Dunn said it “is a multiservice organization, providing housing for homeless people, childcare, GED and a host of other services.”
Dunn added that Marshall's views on abortion were not a consideration in her selection as commencement speaker.
When Marshall was nominated to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in 1999, Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston sent a letter to Massachusetts Gov. Paul Cellucci expressing concern over the appointment. The cardinal's concern stemmed from a letter Marshall wrote in 1992 while serving as chief legal counsel for Harvard University, in which she advised Harvard professor Mary Ann Glendon, an anti-abortion advocate, to stop using Harvard letterhead to promote her political views. The Catholic Action League of Massachusetts criticized Marshall's appearance at Boston College in a May 25 press release.
Secularization is all too common in Jesuit Universities, according to Father Peter Hans Kolvenbach, Superior General of the Society of Jesus. “For some [Jesuit] universities,” he told Father Richard John Neuhaus, “it is probably too late to restore their Catholic character.”
“It is incomprehensible how any Catholic with a shred of conviction or an ounce of loyalty could acquiesce in the selection of someone whose career is so antithetical to what the Catholic religion teaches about human life and human dignity,” said the league's executive director, C.J. Doyle.
“Those who participated in the decision to select Marshall have made themselves collaborators in what Pope John Paul II has called the ‘culture of death.’”
Seton Hall
In the earlier controversy involving Seton Hall, Raymond Flynn, president of the Catholic Alliance, issued a May 18 press release calling for the revocation of Cross' honorary degree because of her link to the 1992 pro-abortion commission. “Just by being on the Commission whose stated goal is to advocate for abortion, Dr. Cross is making a statement,” said Flynn.
But in a June 1 statement by Susan Diamond, Seton Hall's assistant vice president for university relations, the university declined to revisit its actions.
Said Diamond's statement, “Before we awarded an honorary degree to Dr. Cross, she assured the University that she had never spoken publicly on any issues contrary to the Church's teaching and that she made it a practice to maintain her privacy on matters unrelated to her professional life.”
Regarding Cross' participation on the pro-abortion commission, Diamond said that Cross had told Seton Hall she had merely attended a single “America Without Roe” meeting. “Spokepersons for various groups have endeavored to interpret Dr. Cross' attendance at the America Without Roe meeting but, absent a public statement from Dr. Cross herself, relying on such interpretations would be both unjust and improper,” Diamond said.
However, the Seton Hall statement did not address the fact that Cross was publicly named as a member of the 1992 pro-abortion commission. There is no record of Cross having stated subsequently that the National Abortion Rights Action League misrepresented her by naming her as a member.
According to a transcript of a Jan. 22, 1992 press conference announcing the creation of the pro-abortion commission, National Abortion Rights Action League executive director Kate Michelman specifically introduced Cross, who was then the president of Chicago State University, as one of the commission's members.
Remarks by Michelman and other speakers at the press conference left no doubt about the commission's pro-abortion objectives. “The Commission will recommend goals and strategies for protecting reproductive choice in a nation without Roe,” said Michelman.
Added Walter Dellinger, a professor of constitutional law at Duke University, “Our goal is to devise a realistic and concrete strategy leading to the enactment of a national policy of guaranteed access to safe and legal abortions for every American woman, no matter what state she calls home.”
Cross said that the requests for the revocation of her honorary degree were an attack on her constitutional rights of free speech and association, The Atlanta Constitution reported May 30. Said Cross, “To carry out the suggestion recommended would have a chilling affect and violate the spirit of the Constitution.”
Pro-abortion groups have defended Cross as an abortion supporter whose views should be acceptable at Catholic institutions.
NARAL president Kate Michelman issued a statement May 30 criticizing Flynn for requesting that Seton Hall “retract an honorary degree conferred upon Dr. Cross this year, merely because she holds the view that women have a constitutional right to reproductive choice.”
Frances Kissling, president of the pro-abortion lobby Catholics for a Free Choice, issued a similar statement May 31.
Kissling's group has been denounced by the U.S. bishops for improperly representing itself as a Catholic organization.
Said Kissling, “In objecting to Dr. Cross' participation in the National Commission on an America Without Roe, a group organized in 1992 by NARAL, Flynn ignores the fact that most Catholics are both in favor of legal abortion and committed to social justice for the poor, minorities and women.”
In an e-mail that reprinted Kissling's comments, Priests For Life spokesman Father Peter West said, “I wonder if the administration of Seton Hall feels vindicated now that Frances Kissling has come to their defense.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ------ KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Wonder Worker's Beantown Digs DATE: 6/10/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 10-16, 2001 ----- BODY:St. Anthony Shrine took me by surprise even though I had come to Boston looking for it.
Wedged in a canyonlike wall of moderate high-rises, on a humming, winding, one-way street, the shrine is, from outside at ground level, not recognizable as a place of prayer. Then I looked up. The two-story crucifix hovering over Arch Street was a dead giveaway.
From the corner of Arch Street, which with all its crazy curves could only have begun life as a 17th-century cow path, the sleek building looks right at home. It sits on the block between the city's business and financial districts; just a few blocks away is the government center, the neighborhood in which Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone.
As I got up to the entrance, I could see that many of the sharply dressed professionals who populate these sections each weekday are just as home at St. Anthony's as they are in their offices. And they have plenty of company. College students toting backpacks stride in alongside senior citizens; shoppers with bulging bags are followed by businessmen bearing briefcases. And, of course, the occasional tourist clicking a camera.
Franciscan Father John Ullrich, the shrine's guardian and rector, told me that a couple of thousand people attend one of the 13 Masses that are celebrated daily from morning to evening. Others come to make a confession, pray before the Blessed Sacrament, petition a saint or light a votive candle at one of the several shrines in the church. On Ash Wednesday, upwards of 30,000 queue up along the sidewalks, patiently waiting to receive ashes.
The Franciscans who staff and run St. Anthony Shrine, popularly known as “The Workers' Chapel,” will tell you it's been a busy place for 50 years. Even the 18 Sunday Masses, celebrated in two chapels, an upper and a lower, draw an average total of 4,000 people, none of whom live in the business-commerce district.
Despite all the pedestrian and vehicle traffic whizzing by — subway lines also serve the neighborhood — inside, the chapel gently coaxes visitors to take an instant retreat from all the activity on the streets outside.
The confessionals draw a steady stream of traffic of their own. As one of the main ministries of the shrine, they're manned non-stop by friars from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, except for shorter hours on Sundays.
People coming here find a sense of two things, says Father Ullrich: genuine kindness and a communication of God's forgiveness. “They know they've sinned and need to be forgiven,” he says, adding that it's not uncommon for people who have been away from the confessional for decades to come back to the sacrament here.
Loads of Light
Masses, confessions and popular devotions to St. Anthony and St. Jude draw the multitudes. The great mosaic wall behind the main altar in the lower church is a constant reminder of the shrine's patron, whose feast the Church celebrates June 13, and such a beautiful focal point for meditation. Kneeling before Mary Queen of Angels, the patroness of the Order of Friars Minor, who holds Jesus on her lap and is surrounded by angels, St. Anthony — the Church's most popular saint after Mary, according to a recent poll — offers them homage. He becomes a model of what people can do by going to Jesus through Mary's intercession.
Later I was to discover another great mosaic, practically “back-to-back” with this one, but on the rear exterior wall of the shrine. The stream of passersby see St. Anthony holding fire, representing the word of God, as he preaches to an attentive group whose numbers include a penitent, children and the sick.
Of course, several more representations of the great Franciscan preacher abound in the shrine, beginning on one of the unusual glass window panels that form a facade wall several stories high.
These windows are primarily clear glass with unmistakable figures in outline, such as the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Anthony. Like sparkling jewels, random scattered sections of stained glass dot the clear glass, which acts as a skin, Father Ullrich explained. When you're outside, you feel inside, and vice versa.
Another purpose is to allow lots of daylight into the lobby, which was a real innovation when the shrine was built and opened in 1955. The white marble lobby, with its bright terrazzo floor, provides a truly warm sense of welcome. It makes for an easy transition from the hustle and bustle of the city outside.
People can walk to the end and find the desk for information, give for Mass offerings, or ask for a friar on duty. An open, wide staircase sweeps up one side toward the upstairs chapel used on weekends.
Midway at the mezzanine, there's a wooden statue of St. Anthony with Jesus, carved in high relief. The poor, along with a kneeling child, gaze expectantly at them. Father Ullrich speaks of the many touching notes and letters petitioners leave by the statue. “The depth of faith of those people is really moving,” he says. He carefully saves these notes as a sign of respect for all the wishes, hopes and dreams they represent.
Bauhaus Blessings
In ministry and externals, the shrine delivers this traditional care and concern in what was considered in 1955 an ultra-modern building. In fact, it still looks quite contemporary, designed by a German Franciscan brother, as it was, in the pure Bauhaus style. It's a radical departure from many of Boston's other stately churches, most of which were built in a variety of traditional styles, from English Gothic to Colonial.
Only a very few gentle curves, like the wall behind the main altar, join with the style's clean vertical lines and its perfect symmetry and proportion. Even the “rounded” marble columns in the lower church are made up of many vertical strips that angle carefully to form a circle.
The extensive marbles in whites, pinks and light beiges, the light-colored terrazzo floors, and the many mosaics capitalize on the style while at the same time conveying a convincing sense of warmth.
The upstairs chapel has contemporary designed stained-glass windows in vibrant primary colors. The morning sun really lights up the glassed wall behind the altar with the story of the Eucharist, from the dazzling host at the center, to images beginning with the Lamb of God above and the Last Supper below.
Clerestory windows one side surprised me with events from St. Anthony's life — among them, his preaching to fish and meeting St. Francis. The other side does the same for Francis, from preaching to the birds to the legend of his meeting with St. Dominic.
On the day I visited, shrine regulars, readily identified by their easy familiarity with the place, walked through the ever-busy marble pass-way that stretches from the lobby to the rear street.
They stopped to pray by a larger-than-life-size St. Anthony statue; many reached up to touch the image before making the sign of the cross. Other images, such as ones of the Infant of Prague, St. Jude, the Immaculate Heart and the guardian angels, like popular wayside shrines, draw the devoted to this annex and back into the lower chapel.
Over the last few years, the St. Anthony Shrine has become a full-service spiritual center. It offers counseling and spiritual-direction services, faith formation and major “Come Home” programs for alienated Catholics.
When the shrine was dedicated in 1955, it was counted the first major building constructed in Boston after World War II and the first major one in downtown during a recession.
Now, practically a stone's throw from the Freedom Trail and sites that inspired the American Revolution, this shrine continues to build a solid spiritual foundation and to lead a quiet spiritual revolution in the heart of Boston.
Joseph Pronechen writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: Boston's St. Anthony Shrine — 'The Workers' Chapel' ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ------ KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 6/10/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 10-16, 2001 ----- BODY:All times Eastern
JUNE, VARIOUS DATES
The Richard Tucker Silver Anniversary Gala
PBS; check local listings
This special celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Richard Tucker Foundation, which supports young opera singers. Guest performers include the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra (Julius Rudel conducting), the New York Choral Society and other singers.
SUNDAY, JUNE 10
Putting People First EWTN, 8 p.m.
In this second segment of a three-part series, Population Research Institute head Steven Mosher exposes the population controllers' attacks against poor people all over the world. His guests are Dr. Stephen Karanja of Kenya, Sonny de los Reyes of the Philippines and Dr. Teresa Wolff, an expert on Mexico. To be rebroadcast Thursday, June 14, at 1 p.m. and Friday, June 15, at 3 a.m. and 10 p.m.
MONDAYS Country at Home
Home & Garden, 4:30 p.m.
Author Mary Emmerling's topics on this show about American country design include antiques, accessories, interior and exterior décor, and furniture repair and refinishing. Rebroadcast Mondays at 9:30 p.m. and Tuesdays at 12:30 a.m.
TUESDAY, JUNE 12
The True Story of Rob Roy
History, 8 p.m.
This “History's Mysteries” world premiere documentary from MPH Entertainment examines the life of Scots hero Rob Roy (“Red Robertxs”) MacGregor (1671–1734), cattle baron, Jacobite and war leader of the Clan MacGregor. Arthur Kent hosts this look at a Highlander whose battles, escapes, loyalties and history still stir up disputes today.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13
Lives of the Saints: St. Anthony of Padua
EWTN, 4 p.m.
This half-hour documentary reveals exciting and inspiring details about the life of great St. Anthony, the beloved Wonder-Worker. To be rebroadcast the same day at 10:30 p.m.
THURSDAY, JUNE 14
Anyplace Wild
PBS; check local listings for time
In this episode of a series on expeditions, host John Viehman and Sharon Motola, director of the Belize Zoo, explore the Maya Mountains in Belize. A repeat. (Next week, in the same jungle, Viehman and his associates find tombs hidden for 1,200 years.)
FRIDAY, JUNE 15
Ladies Kennel Association Dog Show Lifetime, 4 p.m.
This fun two-hour special shows how the top dogs (pun intended) are judged.
SATURDAY, JUNE 16
The Father's Gift
EWTN, 8 p.m.
On the eve of the Feast of Corpus Christi, this riveting hour-long documentary supplies authentic Catholic doctrine on the Real Presence. It also provides people's testimony about the countless graces available through adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Daniel J. Engler ------ KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Pearl Harbor Buzz Bomb DATE: 6/10/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 10-16, 2001 ----- BODY:In the 1970s George Lucas (Star Wars) and Steven Spielberg (Jaws) put event films onto our national cultural agenda and permanently changed the way Hollywood does business.
At their best (Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan and Schindler's List, one of the Vatican's top 45 movies), event films help define important changes in our consciousness. At their worst (Armageddon, Godzilla, etc.), they're merely pop-culture consumer products that are meant to be quickly experienced, merchandised and discarded.
Pearl Harbor tries desperately to take the high road. Director Michael Bay (Armageddon), producer Jerry Bruckheimer (Top Gun) and screen-writer Randall Wallace (Braveheart) are aware of the significance of their movie's real-life inspiration. The Japanese surprise attack on Dec. 7, 1941, did more than catch our Pacific Fleet off guard. It was a national humiliation that robbed us of our dignity and forever altered our military and diplomatic relationships with the rest of the world.
The filmmakers fail to dramatize these issues in anything but the most superficial manner, shying away from the controversial aspects of both American and Japanese behavior prior to the bombing. The movie has other equally noble ambitions, aspiring to evoke an era of lost innocence and to honor the men and women of that generation who sacrificed themselves for their country.
But their characters have no interior life, displaying few emotions other than patriotism and romantic distress. The action sequences are striking (as expected in a $140 million production), but the personal stories are on a par with a below-average TV movie and have no larger resonance.
Rafe McCawley (Ben Affleck) and Danny Walker (Josh Hartnett) were best friends as boys in rural Tennessee who always wanted to fly. They volunteer for the Army Air Corps just before the outbreak of World War II. During training Rafe falls in love with Evelyn (Kate Beckinsale), a highly professional, kind-hearted nurse whose father was also a flyboy.
The buddies separate when the gung-ho Rafe joins the English Eagle Squadron to save Great Britain from the Nazis. Evelyn and Danny are both re-assigned to picturesque Hawaii, where they receive news that Rafe has been killed in action.
Sparks fly between the two as they mourn their mutual friend, and soon they're lovers. Rafe inconveniently turns up alive and is understandably bitter at what he takes to be their betrayal. The filmmakers try to generate some tears over this romantic triangle but seem uninterested in probing too deeply into its moral implications.
In the meantime, the Japanese, led by Admiral Yamamoto (Mako) secretly mobilize for the surprise attack while publicly pursuing peace negotiations. A U.S. Navy cryptologist in Washington, Thurman (Dan Aykroyd), intuits that they plan to hit Pearl Harbor, and the movie generates some mild suspense as we root for him to persuade his skeptical superiors to get ready.
Of course, Thurman fails. The filmmakers use state-of-the-art digital technology to manufacture a gripping set of images which effectively illustrate the panic and carnage that follow.
To tie up the narrative loose ends, the movie continues beyond the Japanese bombing to include a retaliatory American raid on Tokyo. President Franklin Roosevelt (Jon Voight) pushes the military to come up with some kind of payback, and Rafe and Danny are recruited by their flight-school commander, Col. James Doolittle (Alec Baldwin), to sign up for this semi-suicidal mission.
With the best of intentions, Pearl Harbor misunderstands the nature of the warrior ethic in America and Japan during World War II. It projects the filmmakers' very contemporary notions of masculine virtue back into an era where other values had priority.
Rafe and Danny epitomize a certain kind of 21st-century young male who's supposed to be in touch with his feelings and quick to verbalize them. This politically correct psychology creates a soft-hearted personality type that makes the courage and eagerness for combat of the movie's protagonists ring false. Nor are their conceptions of virtue consistent with what we would expect from the best and brightest of that generation: The protagonists' moral code allows for a ready embrace of premarital relations. Only Doolittle, who has no personal life in the film, is completely believable.
Similarly, the Japanese military's fierce intelligence and samurai-like dedication to victory are watered down; clearly, the decision was made to avoid any characterization that might offend today's Japanese-Americans. But the filmmakers' sanitized way of achieving this laudable goal weakens our appreciation of how the differences between the two countries' cultures may have contributed to the outcome.
The Disney Co., which financed the film, hosted a $5 million party on the USS Stennis at Pearl Harbor for celebrities, the press and other public figures. The heavily promoted festivities generated as much media attention as important real-life news items such as Sen. Jeffords' defection from the Republican Party. This turned the movie into the biggest event film ever. But with that success comes a responsibility to increase our understanding of what happened, and why, on that “day that will live in infamy.” The filmmakers aren't up to the challenge.
Arts & culture correspondent John Prizer writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: Shallow story and characters sink the film, but a blinding marketing blitz is selling a lot of tickets ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ------ KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly Videos DATE: 6/10/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 10-16, 2001 ----- BODY:The Grand Illusion (1937)
This Vatican top 45 film explores the relationship of two aristocrats who wind up on opposite sides of the trenches during World War I. A pair of French aviators, the upper-class Capt. de Boeldieu (Pierre Fresnay) and the middle-class Lt. Marechal (Jean Gabin), are shot down on a reconnaissance mission and shipped off to a German prison camp run by the aristocratic Capt. Von Raffenstein (Eric Von Stroheim).
De Boeldieu and Von Raffenstein bond. But the prisoners have organized an escape, and this creates a deadly conflict between the French nobleman and his German counterpart. Writer-director Jean Renoir (The Rules of the Game) skillfully mixes comedy and tragedy with social commentary and suspense.
The moral choices made by his two protagonists show us the real meaning of honor, comradeship and self-sacrifice.
There are no heroes or villains, only a few brave souls trying to do the right thing against all odds.
The Spirit of St. Louis(1957)
Directed by the legendary Billy Wilder (Sunset Boulevard) concentrates primarily on the flight itself, sketching in only those aspects of the airman's character that relate directly to this achievement. In a series of flashbacks beginning as he waits for the takeoff, we see the young Lindbergh (James Stewart) purchase an old, dilapidated bi-plane.
Gradually, a greater ambition takes hold, and the pilot hustles up the funds to build a special plane and finance his history-making adventure. The filmmaker intelligently dramatizes the dangers of the flight itself. Lindbergh emerges as the kind of non-mercenary celebrity-hero almost impossible to imagine today.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ------ KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Christian School Wins One in Hostile Canadian Climate DATE: 6/10/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 10-16, 2001 ----- BODY:LANGLEY, British Columbia — Canadian Christian educators and social activists were cheered May 17 when the Supreme Court of Canada ruled 8–1 in favor of Trinity Western University, in its battle with the British Columbia College of Teachers.
Trinity Western in Langley, British Columbia, is a full degree-granting university of 2,850 students, affiliated with the Evangelical Free Church of Canada.
For five years, Trinity Western has been fighting a B.C. College of Teachers ruling barring it from accrediting its education graduates for public school teaching. Trinity Western's Christian code of student conduct forbids “practices that are biblically condemned,” like homosexual activity (and indeed any pre-marital sex) drinking and gambling.
The College of Teachers argued that this must encourage Trinity Western's education grads subsequently to be discriminatory or “homophobic” in their public school classrooms.
For more than a decade, however, Trinity Western's four-year bachelor of education graduates have had to take a fifth-year accreditation practicum at a neighboring public university. And Trinity Western argued successfully that the College of Teachers had no concrete evidence that its existing alumni have ever discriminated against homosexual public school students.
The case was the first real test of the boundary between religious freedom and “sexual orientation” rights, since sexual orientation was “read into” the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms by the Supreme Court some four years ago.
So, as the issue moved from trial court to the court of appeals and Supreme Court, it attracted inter-venors like the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, the Seventh-Day Adventists, and even the Canadian Civil Liberties Association on the side of Trinity Western.
The Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation and EGALE (Equality for Gays and Lesbians Everywhere) waded in on the side of the B.C. College of Teachers.
In the end, the Supreme Court ruled that students from a sectarian education could qualify for public employment. The court upheld the right of the B.C. College of Teachers to question whether any university's practices did indeed uphold the social objectives of public education. But it also ruled that the question could be answered only by reference to concrete evidence of bigotry or discrimination.
Democracy Wins
Trinity Western's executive vice president, Guy Saffold, in charge of the school's legal campaign, said the court's decision was “critical for democracy,” because it affirmed that “in our multicultural and multi-faith society, people cannot be arbitrarily penalized or barred from participating in public life simply because they hold religious views. … The B.C. College of Teachers was only able to cite vague suspicions and stereotypes to justify its position. Such stereotypes are anathema to our laws and themselves amount to discrimination.”
For its part, the College of Teachers said that it would “accept the court's decision.” And Canadian homosexual rights activists largely refused to characterize the decision as a setback in their national campaign for “equality rights.”
Homosexual activist Stephen Lock of Calgary, Alberta, said he found the court's decision “reasonably fair.” Lock described the court's position as, “You can think what you want, but you can't impose what you think on others,” and like most homosexual activists, he was not particularly upset by it.
“I don't think the government should dictate to religious institutions what they should believe,” he said. “If you later find a Trinity grad discriminating against gay or lesbian students — saying all homosexuals are going to hell or something — then you can deal with that issue as it arises.”
But Catholic lawyer Iain Benson, director of the Ottawa-based Center for Cultural Renewal, said that the ruling was far more significant than the homosexual activists let on.
He summed up his feelings this way: “[A] big sigh of relief.”
“With an 8–1 majority, this is a very significant decision and a very important victory for freedom of religion in Canada.” Canada's homosexual activists have been engaged in a legal campaign to “deny the right to affirm publicly the universal norm of the traditional family,” said Benson.
And in a series of legal challenges to parental authority over school curriculum, the freedom of commercial transactions, inheritance rights and the legal definition of marriage, they have made a great deal of progress.
But now, Benson suggested, the court has affirmed that religious freedom includes not merely the right to believe privately, but also the right to “manifest, disseminate and teach” those beliefs.
Despite the fact that it has spent much of the past decade affirming homosexuality as a public norm, the court has now asked itself whether it can also allow the religious contradiction of that norm to have a place in the public discourse. And the court has ruled in favor of such pluralism.
The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops welcomed the decision for confirming “that it is wrong to stereotype people with religious beliefs as intolerant or to suggest that students of religious institutions are unqualified to work in the public sector.”
Conference spokesman Father William Kokesh added: “the decision underlines that it is not acceptable to withhold a public benefit from an individual or a religious institution on the basis of belief as distinct from merit.
“It reinforces the understanding that genuine pluralism makes room for a variety of beliefs from a variety of sources.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joe Woodard ------ KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: The Interior Battlegrounds of World War II DATE: 6/10/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 10-16, 2001 ----- BODY:“Signorina, we're all living through an experience that will furnish us with something to reflect on for a long time, and for me, perhaps all my life.” Manno, who speaks these words, does not have much time left. He is home briefly after escaping from the rout in North Africa and on his way to another assignment where he will die a hero's death at the battle of Cassino. But Eugenio Corti, the author of this epic novel of Italy's involvement in World War II and the difficult post-war aftermath, has guaranteed the truth of Manno's prediction.
First published in Italy in 1983, The Red Horse is a big book that seems to be settling in for a very long shelf life. It has been translated into Spanish, French and Lithuanian, with new editions in Japanese and Romanian. This marks its first appearance in English. The author is a Catholic writer and intellectual who personally experienced the atrocities of war on the Russian front and, later, as an Italian freedom fighter.
So powerful, so horrific, so apocalyptic are these experiences that they inevitably challenge the reader to carefully consider the author's clearly stated political agenda and cultural analysis. Corti points us unabashedly to “the fruits to which the distancing from Christianity leads today” after the triple distortions of Fascism, Nazism and, particularly, Communism.
In contrast, he presents the society and people from the Lombardian town of Brianza and its environs. Here true Roman pietas, a deep love of country and family, blend with traditional forms of religious piety, love of God and his holy Mother, and reverence for the Church. Most of the story revolves around the people from this town, the Riva family who own the local textile factory, and their friends and associates. Some are richer than others; some, more educated.
But as the story begins and Italy has not yet entered the war, the characters embody these twin sets of virtue, pietas and piety, unconsciously. After entering the war, they grasp them for succor and, in the political and moral corruption endemic in the post-war period, they need to choose these values and fight for them, lest their patrimony be lost altogether.
The author speculates “comedy and tragedy really do intermingle and alternate continuously in life.” Reading this book, I was more convinced of tragedy than its cheerful counterpart. Some images are poignant, such as the mothers who frequented the train stations waving photographs of their missing sons in the hopes that someone would have news from the Russian front. How, after all, could 100,000 people disappear without a trace?
Other images are so horrific that I can barely stand to think of them. There is painful, useless death; random cruelty everywhere. There is escalating cannibalism among the Russian people and within the prisoner-of-war camps. These scenes are bad enough but Michele surely travels to the inner circle of hell when he enters a room of prisoners sitting still and falling dead, one by one, because they were told if they stopped being cannibals and were quiet, the Russians would feed them.
But if there is not much to laugh at, there is surely goodness and extraordinary courage. I need only think of the stalwart Paccoi refusing to abandon his lieutenant Ambrogio; the good Father Turla imprisoned with Michele; Gerardo Riva, the industrialist devoted to his employees and his wife who prayed without ceasing and could always get a good meal together for their visitors.
“Losing a son to war,” (Ambrogio) said to himself, “has no poetry about it, nothing. It's about the same as letting bodies decompose in among the weeds, after the battle is over.” This book often has no poetry. It is too long, often repetitious; it frequently veers off track into abstruse topics or into overly personalized interests. The omniscient-narrator point of view is cumbersome; the translation, leaden. But without a doubt, it captures the glory and the shame of the human body, soul and spirit, ultimately lifting the reader toward a deeper contemplation of God.
Maryanne Hannan writes from Troy, New York.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Maryanne Hannan ------ KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 6/10/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 10-16, 2001 ----- BODY:Wis. Research on Humans
PRO-LIFE WISCONSIN, May 29 — Pro-Life Wisconsin launched a campaign to end research on human embryos at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the group announced.
The campaign includes a postcard drive to notify state legislators and Gov. Scott McCallum, and the formation of UW Alumni for Life, an association of university alumni who oppose embryo research.
Gov. McCallum assigned $27 million over five years to the university's BioStar Initiative. This cash increase prompted Pro-Life Wisconsin to try to make sure that none of the money funds human embryo research.
Peggy Hamill, state director of Pro-Life Wisconsin, said, “Human embryos are not mere research material, they are persons who deserve respect.”
Campus Bank Funds Abortion
First Union Bank has been a boycott target by the pro-life movement. Due to a confidentiality clause in the bank's agreement with the Catholic university, it is unclear when Villanova's contract with First Union will end and whether the bank's donations to Planned Parenthood will affect a new contract.
The local bank has donated to a local Planned Parenthood group in the past, and though it has no plans to do so in the future, it does not rule Planned Parenthood out. A spokeswoman for the bank said that its donations went only to Planned Parenthood's “educational” expenses, not “medical” expenses. But many Villanova students took issue with the pro-abortion group's “educational” projects as well.
Local Pennsylvania Congressman Curt Weldon called the Planned Parenthood-supported movement to yank the Vatican's permanent observer status at the United Nations an “anti-Catholic effort.” The Villanova Times also noted that Planned Parenthood has lobbied for laws and court rulings requiring Catholic institutions to provide contraceptive coverage in employees' health plans.
Missionaries In Public Schools
The fellowship focuses on getting children to state that they accept Jesus as their savior. It attracts children to its Good News Clubs with after-school activities, songs and candy, often on school property immediately after the end of classes.
Detractors called the group “an evangelical hard sell.” The group has 3,000 paid and 45,000 volunteer missionaries.
The fellowship is awaiting a U.S. Supreme Court decision on whether it can continue to use public facilities.
The court has ruled that high schools cannot bar student-led religious groups if other student groups are allowed, but that ruling may not affect elementary schools or adult-led groups like the Good News Clubs.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ------ KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Mother Teresa Beatification May Come this Year, Says Archbishop DATE: 6/10/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 10-16, 2001 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — Archbishop Henry D'Souza of Calcutta, India, said he was confident Pope John Paul II would beatify Mother Teresa soon, possibly by the end of the year.
The Calcutta Archdiocese planned to formally close the cause's initial information-gathering stage Aug. 15, when the process will move to the Vatican's Congregation for Sainthood Causes, he told Fides, the Vatican's missionary news service.
“I hope the congregation will find everything in order. Who knows, the beatification may even take place before the end of the year.
“I would not be surprised. It all depends on the work schedule of the congregation and the Holy Father's decision,” he said.
In addition to transcripts of hundreds of interviews with people who knew Mother Teresa, as well as a “massive” amount of documentation relating to her life, he said the archdiocesan commission would be submitting case files for “a number of miracles” attributed to Mother Teresa's intercession since her death in 1997.
“I cannot say much more. The case of a woman in Raiganj (India) cured of cancer is one of the miracles presented,” Archbishop D'Souza told Fides.
In Rome, a sainthood official familiar with Mother Teresa's cause said it would be virtually impossible for her to be beatified within the year unless the Pope waived some procedural requirements.
Jesuit Father Peter Gumpel, who served as a consultant to the arch-diocesan commission, said the Vatican's examination and approval of beatification causes normally lasted many months and even years.
Under the procedural rules, he said, the Vatican would appoint an official to guide the process after the arrival of all the paperwork, which in Mother Teresa's case is thought to run at least 40 volumes. That official would oversee the drafting of a summary, though still hundreds of pages, which would be submitted to the examination of a panel of theologians.
The theologians normally are given two months to read through the document and express an opinion.
If positive, the material would be presented to the bishop and cardinal members of the congregation for study, and if approved, to the Pope.
Evidence of miracles would also have to be examined separately by a panel of doctors and scientists, he said.
Pope John Paul has already shown himself willing to bend the rules in Mother Teresa's case. In 1999, less than two years after her death, he waived a five-year waiting period before the opening of sainthood causes.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Norton ------ KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: A Deafening Dad DATE: 6/10/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 10-16, 2001 ----- BODY:Q. My kids won't do anything I ask unless I yell. And they won't stop doing anything unless I yell some more. I'm getting louder by the day.
A. I suspect you weren't always in such loud shape. At one time — though you might strain to remember — you were probably calm during most discipline. But if words acted as your discipline, and not consequences, as usually happens, they lost impact. Then you were hooked into using even more and louder words to get yourself heard. Alas, habituation is a stubborn phenomenon. Once it grabs you, it's easy to use more of the same approach only to get more of the same response.
You see the end of all this. Yelling makes you feel mean and guilty, and your kids ignore you anyway. Nobody benefits. A nice thing about parenting, and discipline in particular, is that we get a lot of chances to get smarter.
So how do you withdraw from the yelling addiction? Probably the least painful way is to go cold turkey. Cease yelling and return to normal speaking volume. I know, that's easier yelled than said. But to get Serena to hear soft words again you must start using soft words again.
Sometimes, merely talking softly works for a while because it's such a shock to the kids' systems. They're so stunned they listen, if only in a mindless daze. Sometimes a quiet tone works because Everhard wonders why all of a sudden you're so calm. He's wary about what you're up to. Then again, he might feel sorry for you. It's been years since you've talked so softly. Maybe you've finally cracked.
Even if the kids start to listen again, don't expect it to last. It's a honeymoon phase. To get durable listening, speaking quietly is only the first step. The second step is where you'll really make yourself heard.
You must provide a reason for your children to listen. In other words, you must make it in their best interests to heed you. How? By backing your quiet request with a quiet statement of the consequences for ignoring you.
Examples: “Hazel, please have your room cleaned by 6:00 p.m., or you'll stay there until it's spotless.” “Wyatt, don't squirt your water pistol at the dog, or you'll lose it for a week.” To paraphrase an old saying, one deed is worth 1,000 decibels.
Your consequences are doing your talking, not your words. Will your kids ignore your quietly conveyed choices? Most likely. But in time they'll find out you mean what you softly say.
Please try these ideas, they should help. I said, try these ideas, they should help! I'M TELLING YOU ONE LAST TIME, GIVE THESE IDEAS A TRY! I'm sorry. Let me try again. Please try these ideas, or I'm not going to answer your questions anymore.
Dr. Ray Guarendi is a clinical psychologist and author.
Reach Family Matters at familymatters@ncregister.com
----- EXCERPT: Family Matters ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dr Ray Guarendi ------ KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: 'Grace' DATE: 6/10/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 10-16, 2001 ----- BODY:If I remember correctly, it was a Monday, February 11th. I was on my way to school, and almost to the corner where my best friend Grace and I always met. We would walk the rest of the way to school together.
When we met up, Grace looked awfully sad. This was different for her, because she was always smiling. I guess that's why we fit together so well. We were like two peas in a pod, me and Grace. We'd known each other since we were three.
Grace was very pretty. No, she was more than pretty and more than beautiful. I can't exactly think of the word to describe her. She could have any guy in the whole high school if she wanted. But right now she just didn't look her usual self.
“Are you okay?” I asked. No answer. “Grace,” I asked again, “are you okay?” That's when I noticed tears running down her cheeks. I didn't know exactly what to say. “No,” she said in a big sob and threw her arms around me and cried and cried.
I just let her cry. Then I said to her, “Do you wanna talk?” I knew I couldn't be late for class. Mrs. Crow said if I was late once more she'd have to have a talk with my parents. And boy, I didn't want that. Grace interrupted my thoughts by saying, “We can talk at study period. I don't want to make you late again.” “Okay,” I answered. We always could sort of tell what the other was thinking.
I was anxious all morning for study period to come. I couldn't imagine what had happened with Grace. Maybe David, her boyfriend, who she claimed she would always be with, had broken up with her. Just then the bell rang and everyone was filing out of class.
I made my way toward the courtyard and sat down beside Grace.
She got right to the point. Grace said that she and David had decided that they wanted to make their relationship stronger. Well, I thought that couldn't be too bad. But the next half of her story took me totally off guard. The thing that she and David had decided to do got her pregnant! She had just found out Sunday. Grace had decided that she would go ahead and have the baby. When it was born she would put it up for adoption.
I just sat there. I couldn't believe what I'd just heard. I wanted to say something, anything to her. I couldn't speak with the big lump in my throat. The rest of the day Grace avoided my eyes. On our way home from school we didn't talk. When I got home I talked to my mom about it. Mom said all I could do was pray and be a friend to Grace.
I went up to my room and prayed for my best friend. I didn't understand how she could do something like that. She would have to buy maternity clothes and wear a maternity dress to prom. It was so sad.
As Grace got further into her pregnancy, things got harder. It was harder for me because I was her best friend. When Grace hit ten weeks of pregnancy, she was really having trouble. She was sick a lot and having lots of pain. Grace had to get a tutor because she couldn't go to school. One day we were sitting on Grace's porch just talking when Grace told me the most terrifying thing, the thing that I'd hoped and prayed that Grace would never say.
“Ellie,” she said, “I've thought about this for a long time. I'm having a lot of trouble with this pregnancy. I … I've decided that it would be better for me if I had an abortion.” There was silence for a few minutes after that.
I wanted to cry! I wanted to tell her she couldn't do it! That this was an even bigger mistake than the mistake that got her preg-nant. I hated abortions! Having an abortion is like saying that you don't respect human life at all. God gave life and only God has the right to take away life.
Grace interrupted my thoughts. “Ellie, I've made up my mind. I know how you feel about abortions and how you say it's murder and everything. I'm sorry, but I just don't see it your way.” The next thing I knew, Grace was walking into her house and closing the door behind her.
I guess Grace and I always had a difference of opinion about religion. I was Catholic and she was atheist. We had lots of arguments on whether God was real or not. The results always came out Grace still being atheist and me still believing in God.
When I got home, I went up to my room and cried. How could anyone not want a precious little baby. I'd seen lots of babies. They were all so beautiful. I read an article once that said what different parts of aborted babies doctors from around the world ordered. It disgusted me. Some doctors ordered “whole intact legs, including entire hip joint, 22–24 weeks gest.” What kind of people actually buy parts of aborted babies?
I prayed hard that God would give me wisdom about what I could say to Grace and how to make her change her mind. I talked it over with my mom. Again, she gave me the advice to pray. She said that Grace changed her life for the worse the moment she made that first decision with David.
The next day my mom met me at the door. She said that she had something important to tell me. “Ellie,” my mom said, “Grace's mom called me this morning. Grace had a miscarriage at home. Her mother told me that while they were waiting for the ambulance to come, Grace sat there holding the baby looking lovingly at it. She said that Grace counted the babies ten perfect little fingers and toes as if she realized just what she held in her hand.
But the most important thing was, Grace kept saying over and over, ‘Ellie was right. Ellie was right.’”
Just as I started to go up to my room to sort this all out, my mom said, “Ellie, Grace named her baby, Anne.”
----- EXCERPT: Sometimes 13-year-olds cannot avoid life's biggest questions ----- EXTENDED BODY: Miriam Stella ------ KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Life Notes DATE: 6/10/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 10-16, 2001 ----- BODY:Chastity in Calgary
The Calgary Pregnancy Care Center promotes abstinence and advises that it has counseling services available to pregnant girls.
The Calgary Board of Education has tacitly allowed the group to continue presenting guest lectures when invited by teachers, drawing up a policy this winter that leaves it to school principals to decide whether an outside group should be kept out of the classroom.
When some parents have learned that the center will be giving a lecture, they immediately seek to bar the group.
“We've told the board of trustees that if … we have to do their job, which is making sure the curriculum is being taught properly — we will,” said Teri Posyniak, a member of Mad Moms Against Bad Sex Ed, which has a core of 10 members.
Neonates, Not Fetuses
A Health and Human Services rule first written in 1975, and broadened by the Clinton administration, defined such newborns as “fetuses.” After a two-month review by the Bush White House, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson announced the term “fetus” should only apply to unborn babies.
John Cusey of the House pro-life caucus described the word “neonate” as a “term of respect,” reported CBN.
Many on Capitol Hill had feared the government was blurring the definition of the beginning of life by not granting newborn babies personhood, thus paving the way for legal infanticide.
Court Denies Abortion
ASSOCIATED PRESS, May 24 — The Alabama Court of Civil Appeals, split 3–2, denied an abortion for a 17-year-old who hadn't talked to anyone about the consequences of an abortion.
Montgomery attorney Julian McPhillips called it “a real victory for the parents of minor children who are pregnant.”
Alabama's parental consent law requires a female under 18 to get a parent's permission to have an abortion unless she obtains a judicial waiver. State law allows a judge to deny the abortion if the girl is immature and not well informed or if the abortion would not be in her best interests, reported the Associated Press.
The girl was a high school senior who was eight weeks pregnant.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ------ KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Global Group Fights the 'Just a Mom' Attitude DATE: 6/10/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 10-16, 2001 ----- BODY:Parenting dilemmas. Working outside the home. Drugs. Breast-feeding. Sex education. Abortion.
These are a few of the concerns the Mouvement Mondial des Mères — World Movement of Mothers — has been addressing since its beginnings in the aftermath of World War II
The movement now comprises over 100 local and national associations, some with thousands of members. Its president, Jill Donnelly of England, spoke with Register correspondent Marguerite Peeters.
Peeters: Why did you get involved with the World Movement of Mothers?
Donnelly: Several threads of my life came together to lead me to a desire to redefine the popular attitude towards motherhood; to influence national and international family policy; to reawaken public awareness of what it means to be a mother — the commitment, the mutual tenderness, the demands, the worries and the joys.
What are those threads?
Mother of two children, teacher of modern languages, tutor to delinquent boys, magistrate in the British justice system.
I came gradually to realize that although our children are our best hope for the future, against all logic, the “system” was letting them down. Legislation, schooling, public opinion all encourage mothers into the workplace, abandoning their children to the care of others, denigrating those who choose to stay at home and look after their own children.
I was perpetuating the “system” myself. Like so many of us I had given in to these intellectual, financial and social pressures — juggling looking after my husband, bringing up our children, looking after the home, working part-time and fulfilling a civic voluntary duty.
My children, marriage and family survived strong and intact due to a loving and supportive husband, but for mothers without that support or alone, for mothers who must work full-time, the pressures can become unbearable. And then, often her children do suffer and eventually so does society as a whole.
So what made you change your approach?
I became increasingly aware that our perception of motherhood, especially in the developed world, has been flawed — “I'm only a housewife,” “I'm only a mother.” Admit it, we have all said it!
So as a young full-time mother, when someone asked what I did, I started saying “I'm a doctor, nurse, teacher, sports instructor, spiritual advisor, emotional counselor, psychologist, seamstress, cook, interior decorator, gardener — in short, a mother.”
The response was invariably, “Goodness, I hadn't thought of it like that before!”
Then I found the World Movement of Mothers — because the title in French is Movement Mondial des Mères we all affectionately call it the MMM — and began to understand more clearly the far-reaching aspects of what had until then been a personal reflection.
I realized that we cannot blame the “system,” the government, the feminists, or anyone else for the way that motherhood is despised. It is up to each one of us to promote the true image of motherhood in any way which appeals to us, whether it is by political lobbying, international action, educating, influencing public opinion or — more accessible to each one of us — by just letting it be obvious in our everyday contacts with other people that we find enough excitement, rewarding work, challenge, fulfillment in that most complex task, motherhood.
What is the true image of motherhood, and why is it so important to promote the value of motherhood in society today?
Motherhood is a fundamental human right. We may choose to exercise this right or not, but women were designed for motherhood — to nurture, to protect and to care about others.
This gives women a very different perspective on the world from men, but this is a complementary skill, and both are necessary for balance — whether it is in bringing up children or running a company.
Motherhood is probably the most universal of all human activities. In so many countries it is undervalued and often not recognized. Motherhood is a unifying experience, cutting across all barriers of ethnic, religious, social, or any other, prejudice.
On a world level, mothers represent the largest single social group, and as such are potentially a powerful force for good, for justice, for peace.
Mothers everywhere are united in the same priority — we want a peaceful, prosperous world for everyone, where our children can grow up in a stable, happy home in order to realize their full potential as well-balanced adults …
Every time a mother gives birth, it is an act of faith in the future — which makes mothers the most optimistic people on earth. The love of a mother is, indeed, a very powerful force.
Speaking of rights, the children's rights movement tends to build on and promote a culture of divisive relations between children and parents, just as the women's rights movement affirmed the autonomy of womanhood from motherhood.
How is the MMM trying to respond to that double challenge?
I agree that when anyone demands their rights, they tend to forget their interdependence with others, their responsibilities and their obligations. A kind of selfishness takes over and then dissent and division sour their thinking.
We are all grateful for the fight for women's rights, which gave to all women the wonderful gift of equal opportunity and resolved many injustices; but, as it evolved, it burdened many women with a sense of obligation to work outside the home, with a belief that they cannot be fulfilled without a paid job.
The women's rights movement actually undermined the rights of the woman at home. Any government legislation to ease this double burden for mothers — and fathers — causes antagonism from those who devote themselves solely to their career, and working mothers feel embarrassed to ask for preferential treatment, such as time off to look after a sick child.
The MMM and many other groups who respect traditional social values, which have stood the test of time, believe that the foremost and most fundamental right for any woman who so wishes — and it must always be a matter of private choice — is to have children and to bring them up herself with a fully involved father and in a loving and supportive family.
That is the ideal and this is the message the MMM works to convey to the decision-makers of the world, from local government through to the United Nations organization.
Marguerite Peeters writes from Brussels, Belgium.
Charter of the Mother
The mother is the principle artisan of history. She profoundly influences family, economic, social and civic life.
Together with the father, she is responsible for procreation and, with him, she exercises the decisive role of education within the family.
The mother's influence on the family radiates within the city and beyond, in both national and international affairs. Her particular gifts as a woman are a constitutive contribution at the cultural, economical, social and civic level. She therefore determines the moral and spiritual values of an entire civilization.
These realities are profoundly inscribed in the human being and define the mother's mission within the family as being just as fundamentally irreplaceable as that of the family in society.
— World Movement of Mothers
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Marguerite Peeters ------ KEYWORDS: Culture of Life ----- TITLE: Investigate the Abortion Industry, Say Priests DATE: 06/17/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 17-23, 2001 ----- BODY:NEW YORK — Maria Cardamone smiles shyly from her photograph. Christi Stile is laughing in hers. But beneath their pictures, their mothers testified to the pain and grief of having a daughter killed or gravely injured by abortion.
Cardamone died at age 18. Stile, 26, has been in a coma for eight years following a botched abortion. They are two of the reasons Priests for Life President Father Frank Pavone called for a “full investigation of the abortion industry,” in full-page advertisements that ran in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today.
The advertisement charged that abortion is “one of the most unregulated surgical procedures in the nation,” and called on pro-abortion groups like Planned Parenthood to join Priests for Life in investigating and regulating the industry.
The ad described the events that led to the imprisonment of Dr. John Biskind of Scottsdale, Ariz., who was convicted of manslaughter after LouAnne Herron bled to death following an abortion Biskind performed. In yet another case cited in the ad, an abortionist failed to help his patient when his staff called saying the woman's life was in danger. The abortionist, David Benjamin, was found guilty of murder in 1995 and received a sentence of 25 years to life.
Father Pavone offered to provide documentary proof of his charges to anyone who wrote in to Priests for Life and requested it.
Christi Stile had her abortion in 1993, a day after she turned 18. Her mother Kay said, “We were told by the clinic staff that the only possible risk was heavy bleeding, and that the clinic had everything on hand to deal with that situation should it arise.”
But when Christi began to hemorrhage, Kay said, “we found out that the way they take care of hemorrhage is to put you in a car to the hospital, and that if you died between the clinic and the hospital, they were not liable.”
Christi went into full cardiac and respiratory arrest, and then slipped into a coma from which she has never awoken.
Kay said, “It angers me to hear people say that legalized abortion profits women. It doesn't profit women. These young women and these young girls put their lives on the line every day they walk into a clinic to have an abortion. What they don't know is that they may never walk again… like my daughter.”
Deborah Cardamone's story is even more heart-rending. Her daughter Marla “had planned to put her baby up for adoption.” But a medical-social worker, convinced that Marla's use of anti-depressant medication had damaged her baby, “pressured Marla to have an abortion.”
Deborah kissed her daughter goodnight and left the hospital room.
“At 9:15 the next morning, I received a call from the intensive care unit,” she said. “The nurse said, ‘Something went wrong. It's very serious.’”
Cardamone raced to the hospital and consulted the doctors. She was not taken to see Marla. Suddenly, she recalled, “the room filled with white coats. A doctor sat in front of me and held my hands.”
“My daughter is dead, isn't she?” Cardamone asked. The doctor nodded.
After Marla's death, Cardamone discovered that the social worker who persuaded Marla to have the abortion had never even seen Marla's sonograms. The sonogram report read, “No abnormalities detected.” Marla's baby would have been born healthy.
Cardamone challenged women's groups like the pro-abortion National Organization for Women: “Why are they so quiet?”
Who's Watching the Abortionists?
It's extremely difficult to get accurate information on injuries and deaths to women who abort. Pro-abortion groups often claim that abortion is “safer than childbirth.”
But in 1998, the Aug. 26 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association noted that “some states — Alaska, California, Iowa, New Hampshire, and Oklahoma — neither collect nor report abortion-related information to the [federal Center for Disease Control].” And “some state health departments lack information on 40% to 50% of abortions performed in the state.”
So Father Pavone and other groups have compiled listings of known cases of malpractice or abortion-related deaths. The listings can be found online in the “Dirty Laundry” section of prolife.about.com, although they only cover cases that made it to court or showed up in reports of women's deaths.
The Priests for Life ad has provoked a sharp response from pro-abortion activists. New York state senator Eric Schneiderman wrote to the Journal protesting the ad.
Schneiderman wrote of his “outrage at [Priests for Life's] dishonesty and hypocrisy.” In his view, the ad was “an astonishing effort to turn the truth upside down.”
He charged that Father Pavone's views, by making abortion illegal, would lead to “a world in which women are killed or injured from botched, bloody abortions performed by unskilled practitioners.”
Many authors have debunked the claim that when abortion was illegal, countless women died of “back-alley abortions.” Bernard Nathanson, a founder of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League who later became pro-life, has admitted that he and other abortion advocates simply made up numbers of women who had died from illegal abortions.
In 1972, the year before Roe v. Wade, 39 women were reported to have died from illegal abortions. Yet representatives of Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion groups have claimed that 1,000 or even 8,000 women died per year from illegal abortions.
Schneiderman wrote that “advocates for legal abortion have saved the lives and health of countless women.”
Deborah Cardamone and Kay Stile respectfully disagree.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Mexican Cardinal Sandoval Reveals He Was Poisoned DATE: 06/17/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 17-23, 2001 ----- BODY:MEXICO CITY — Cardinal Juan Sandoval Íñiguez, successor to the murdered archbishop of Guadalajara, revealed that he was poisoned two years ago and almost died.
Talk of the poisoning had circulated in the past, to explain Cardinal Sandoval's inexplicable illness which kept him hospitalized for two months. But it wasn't until June 5, at a news conference, that he confirmed the poisoning.
The cardinal attributed the attempt on his life to his statements against the conclusions of the investigations by Mexican authorities into the May 1993 murder of Cardinal Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo at the Guadalajara international airport.
Moreover, Cardinal Sandoval said that five witnesses, who testified in the case, received death threats and “offers of money.”
In late May, Cardinal Sandoval gave the Department of Justice of the state of Jalisco new evidence on his predecessor's murder.
“It is clear,” he told reporters, that the murder was a “state crime” orchestrated by “elements of the government.” He noted that many security officers were present at the Guadalajara airport when Cardinal Posadas was shot.
Cardinal Sandoval said that the government of new President Vicente Fox “has all the necessary elements” to shed light on the murder.
The archbishop of Guadalajara refused to confirm or deny a report in the Italian newspaper Il Giornale, in which journalist Andrea Tornielli pointed out that Cardinal Sandoval had information that implicated former President Carlos Salinas de Gortari and his brother, Raúl, in drug trafficking.
During last month's consistory in Rome, Cardinal Sandoval gave the Pope and his collaborators information on the 1993 murder. “I handed it over,” the Mexican prelate said, “and they will certainly not use it in any way to make it known to the public, but only for the files on the case, as it involved a cardinal.”
Meanwhile, Adolfo Aguilar Zínser, President Fox's security adviser, said, “Our obligation and that of the Office of the General Procurator of the Republic will be to investigate to the ultimate consequences,” if there is evidence that the cardinal's case was a “state crime.”
Meanwhile, the Vatican said May 7 that it welcomes a new investigation by Mexican authorities into the assassination eight years ago of the Cardinal Sandoval's predecessor as cardinal archbishop of Guadalajara.
The Vatican expects “complete and authoritative clarity.”
“From the start the Holy See has expressed interest in knowing the entire truth about the dramatic killing of Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo,” Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said. He said the Vatican was aware of “the coinciding interest of Mexican authorities in arriving at the truth.”
“The Holy See awaits a complete and authoritative clarity on the assassination of Cardinal Posadas Ocampo from the competent judiciary authorities,” the spokesman said.
Posadas Ocampo, who had accused the long-entrenched Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) of ties to narcotics traffickers, was gunned down in the parking lot of the Guadalajara Airport in 1993.
Authorities alleged the cardinal was killed by narcotrafficker Joaquin Loera Guznam, who mis-took him for a member of a rival band led by Arellano Felix.
A Milan newspaper said Tuesday that an unidentified cardinal attending last month's Consistory at the Vatican turned over to Vatican authorities nine compact disks containing new evidence linking the assassination to former Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari and his brother Raul.
The election of President Vicente Fox Quesada, leader of the National Action Party, in July 2000 apparently cleared the way for a new probe into the killing by ending the church-state hostility of seven decades of PRI rule.
Maria de la Luz Lima Malvido, No. 2 in the Attorney General's Office, said in Mexico City Wednesday the government would ask the Vatican through diplomatic channels to turn over any evidence that the assassination was a “crime of the state.” She said she expected a response in about a month.
(Compiled from Zenit and RNS reports)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Closed, Due to Prayer DATE: 06/17/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 17-23, 2001 ----- BODY:DAYTON, Ohio — A combination of prayer and the persistent monitoring of a state law regulating abortion businesses is credited with bringing about the closing of an abortion facility and its subsequent sale to a pro-life group here.
Dayton Women's Services, one of two abortion sites in this central Ohio city, closed in January, less than a month after the state threatened to revoke its license and two months after a prayer vigil was begun at the facility.
Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, who was in Dayton for the start of the vigil, said he has seen similar prayer efforts lead to the closing of abortion clinics elsewhere and to the conversion of abortion providers.
He recalled celebrating Mass next to a Jacksonville, Fla., abortion clinic that closed the following year. Said Father Pavone, “Many other [abortion] mills have closed after the prayerful, faithful, presence of pro-life people.”
Prayer, he said, is the foundation of the pro-life movement, but he stressed that it should never be used as an escape from taking necessary action.
Vivian Koob, director of Elizabeth's New Life Center, which purchased the Dayton Women's Services clinic next to its own building Jan. 26, said that on Dec. 12, the last day of the prayer vigil, the state health department announced the clinic's license would be revoked.
Dec. 12 is the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, whose image was carried by participants in the vigil.
“That was pretty powerful,” said Koob, who also is a Respect Life coordinator for two Catholic parishes here. “Certainly there were a lot of factors in closing the clinic, but nobody could dismiss the efforts of the faith community in this. I think it all worked together to bring the clinic to closure.”
Angie McGraw, executive director of Dayton Right to Life, which led an effort to make sure state requirements on the inspection and licensing of local abortion clinics were met, agreed. “The prayers were obviously very powerful, but God also expects us to do our part. I think it was a combination of prayer and action that resulted in the closing of the clinic.”
Lars Egede-Nissen, chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood of the Greater Miami Valley, said he was saddened by the clinic's closing.
Said Egede-Nissen, “We strongly value safe, affordable, and high-quality services to families needing to make responsible choices about their health care, and we hope the community will come together to assure that women have access to all the services they need. This would include education, birth control, prenatal care, abortion, and adoption.”
Dayton Right to Life decided to take a closer look at Ohio's regulation of abortion clinics in the city after learning in 1999 that a state law treats such facilities as ambulatory surgical facilities, and requires them to be licensed.
The law had been on the books about a year when Dayton Right to Life and other Ohio pro-life groups urged state officials to enforce the regulations. In May 2000, the Dayton group began monitoring the licensing process by filing a request under the Freedom of Information Act.
As a result, they discovered that Dayton Women's Services had been licensed on May 25 and that a former abortionist from the clinic was serving as its backup physician, circumventing a requirement that the facility have a transfer agreement with a hospital.
That surprised longtime Dayton prolifers, McGraw said, because the physician, Dr. Larry Gould, had said publicly in 1986 that he had experienced a conversion and would no longer do abortions. “We called him and said, ‘Tell us what's going on,’” McGraw said. “His response was, ‘I'm not going to let a woman suffer if she needs medical help.’”
McGraw said it was hard to convince the doctor that by serving as the clinic's backup physician he was enabling abortions to be performed. “He had laid low for a lot of years and hadn't done abortions, but at least we opened up a dialogue with him.”
Then on Oct. 11, Dayton Right to Life got an anonymous tip that a Dayton Women's Services patient had died at a local hospital following an abortion eight hours earlier. They contacted Dr. Gould, who said he didn't know about it.
Dayton Right to Life immediately called for an investigation into the woman's death and a week later, the state health department conducted an inspection of the clinic. On Nov. 1, Dayton Women's Services was given 30 days to correct violations.
In the meantime, Dr. Gould notified the state he would no longer serve as the clinic's backup physician, requiring the clinic to find someone else or seek an agreement with a local hospital. The clinic responded by asking for a waiver of the requirement, but after a follow-up inspection, the request was denied and the state announced plans to revoke the clinic's license.
On Jan. 4, the state was notified that the clinic owner had retired and closed the facility.
“In the end, the clinic cited retirement as the reason for closing,” McGraw said, “but we can't help think that all the pressure the state exerted on them had to help with that decision.”
McGraw said that although the clinic was not found to have been negligent in the woman's death, it did fail to correct the violations that were identified. “They really were their own worst enemy in ways,” she said.
Among the problems the state cited, McGraw said, were rusty instruments and unmarked or incorrectly marked medications. “That kind of thing should strike fear in everyone's heart, no matter which side of the issue you're on.”
After the state action, Elizabeth's New Life Center learned through calls from the clinic receptionist and an unidentified realtor that the abortion clinic building was for sale.
The receptionist had already begun to question her work at the clinic, Koob said. “She called because she said she didn't want another abortionist coming in here and opening another abortion clinic.”
Koob's group decided to make an offer on the building and its contents, taking money from the center's capital campaign to pay the $58,500 purchase price.
When her organization got the keys to the abortion clinic, Koob said, “The first thing we did was go in and pray.”
Plans are to sell the building to a men's ministry or some other group that will not perform abortions. Although Elizabeth's New Life Center initially thought it might use the building to expand its own services, Koob said the group has determined it cannot afford to keep the clinic.
Judy Roberts writes from Millbury, Ohio.
----- EXCERPT: Vigil triggers abortion site's closure ----- EXTENDED BODY: Judy Roberts ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: America's Latest Discovery: Eucharistic Adoration DATE: 06/17/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 17-23, 2001 ----- BODY:SACRAMENTO, Calif. — June 17 is the feast of Corpus Christi — when Catholics celebrate their belief that Christ is truly present in the Eucharist, the consecrated Host distributed at communion, kept in tabernacles and displayed in monstrances.
But the Eucharist attracting a lot of visitors year-round.
Dominican Father Robert Goedert knows. He's priest promoter for Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration International, a lay group located in La Habra, Calif. He told the Register that adoration has “definitely” increased in recent years in the United States.
And he explained that “last year was extremely busy.”
The trend is not limited to any area, but is nationwide, he said. From Baton Rouge, La., to Portland, Ore., Father Goedert has made the rounds helping parish priests and parishioners to set up perpetual adoration, often signing up hundreds of parishioners at each church he visits.
After the Second Vatican Council, Father Goedert explained, there was a tendency to say that “anything before Vatican II was wrong and old,” but he says: “It was the lay people who brought it back.”
And the support of John Paul II certainly helped.
Father Goedert cited the Pope's repeated statements on the importance of adoration, and especially those at the Eucharistic Congress in Seville, Spain, in 1993. The Holy Father said: “I hope that the fruit of this congress results in the establishment of perpetual eucharistic adoration in all parishes and Christian communities throughout the world.”
Where people have heeded the message, the results have been phenomenal.
Some priests worry that “it's something else that they are going to start that's going to fail,” said Father Goedert, but he emphasized that it will work “if you've got people committed.”
One example of the remarkable success of eucharistic adoration is the Parish of Sts. Peter and Paul near Denver, where Father Goedert says the pastor told him that since beginning eucharistic adoration, “Sunday and weekday Mass attendance has doubled, and the collections have tripled.”
Even in Las Vegas, hardly the first place one would think to look for this sort of thing, Father Goedert says that adoration saved St. Bridget's Parish.
“A priest was sent to close the church down,” recalled Father Goedert, but he says, the priest started eucharistic adoration at the parish, “and five years later he was building a new church there.”
Father Goedert has no shortage of stories about such miraculous happenings, from those who convert to the faith because of eucharistic adoration, to those who find solace in the midst of a crisis. And because of people's diverse schedules, Father Goedert strongly recommends that parishes implement perpetual adoration, since the majority of people are unavailable during the day.
One of the most incredible things, he says, is that Eucharistic adoration draws in everyone, from college students at University of California at Davis or Oregon State University, to the elderly, to young married couples who make the time to visit Christ every week at 1 in the morning.
And two late weeknight trips to adoration chapels, one in Alhambra, Calif., near Los Angeles, the other in Santa Clara, Calif., near San Francisco, bear this out.
In the former instance, a half dozen people, many under 30 years old prayed quietly before the Eucharist; in the latter instance, there were over a dozen people with all age groups represented.
Teen Adoration
That young people are drawn to the Eucharist is no surprise to Patrick Tapia, 25, who works with Life Teen, a Catholic youth group at San Gabriel Mission in San Gabriel, Calif.
He said adoration is important both to himself and to the teens he mentors. “[Eucharistic adoration] allows me to commune directly with Jesus, since I am literally in the presence of his body,” he explained.
As for the teens who attend adoration, the results are spectacular, said Tapia.
“I have seen teens transformed by it,” he said, remembering that at one retreat a particularly disruptive teen-ager underwent a “transformation [that] was startling.” This young man “was in tears as he prayed before the Eucharist. He perceived that he was really letting Christ into his life. And today,” Tapia noted, “he is still an active participant in the Life Teen ministry.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Jubilee Year Highlights DATE: 06/17/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 17-23, 2001 ----- BODY:Pope John Paul II called the Jubilee Year “intensely eucharistic,” and so it was:
The 17 Catholic bishops of Pennsylvania issued a document answering questions about the Eucharist.
Eucharistic gatherings drew large crowds in Jefferson City, Mo., Arizona State University, Pittsburgh and many other places nationwide.
Archbishop Oscar H. Lipscomb of Mobile, Ala., told a Sacramento diocesan gathering the Eucharist has “the answers to our human hurts, inadequacies, doubts and even despair.”
Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger of Paris said it's capable of transforming cultures.
The president of the Lithuanian bishops' conference Archbishop Sigitas Tamkevicius of Kaunas recalled only one aspect of communist persecution fondly: The Eucharist was more respected when the faith was stronger.
John Paul II said disunity hurts most when it means all Christians can't share the Eucharist together.
Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna stressed the best reason for frequent confession: the Eucharist. “Perhaps we have lost sight of the fact that Communion requires preparation,” the cardinal said June 23 at the International Eucharist Congress.
“Go to him, talk to him, love him, said St. Clare Sister Briege McKenna, in a visit to the Fall River, Mass., diocese last year.
— Compiled from staff reports
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: The Miracle of Lanciano DATE: 06/17/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 17-23, 2001 ----- BODY:LANCIANO, Italy — It's not the fishing in nearby Pescara, nor is it the picturesque Adriatic coastline.
No, what brings 1 million people a year to the remote and sleepy Italian town of Lanciano, Italy, is the Eucharist.
In the eighth century, so the story goes, a priest was saying Mass here when he doubted Christ's true presence in the Eucharist. Immediately following the consecration, the Host was visibly changed into flesh and the contents of the chalice to blood. The miraculous flesh and blood have been preserved here ever since as a visible testimony to the Real Presence.
And, ever since, Lanciano has been a place of pilgrimage.
More recently, it's been a place of 20th-century science, also, as researchers weigh in on the miracle. Their conclusions, in 1971 and 1980: “The flesh is real flesh, and the blood is real blood,” explained Father Luigi, one of the Franciscan caretakers of the shrine, who doesn't use a last name.
What the scientists discovered was that both the flesh and the blood were human, and were of the same blood type (AB). They also discovered that the flesh was from the heart, and that there was no explanation for the relics remaining intact without preservatives for 1,200 years.
The reason for the miracle is simple, according to Father Luigi, “It's an extraordinary sign of the True Presence,” he said. And even today, Father Luigi says there are still miracles in Lanciano. There are many “miracles of conversion to the faith,” he explained.
— Andrew Walther and Josh Mercer
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Andrew Walther ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: The Father's Day Bishop DATE: 06/17/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 17-23, 2001 ----- BODY:The bishop of Worcester, Mass., who is an occasional consultant to the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, recently attracted 600 men to a conference on fatherhood. He spoke with Register features correspondent Tim Drake.
The bishop of Worcester, Mass., who is an occasional consultant to the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, recently attracted 600 men to a conference on father-hood. He spoke with Register features correspondent Tim Drake.
Drake: Tell me about your family.
I was born in Providence, R.I., and was one of nine children. My father had a stroke and died when I was 9 years old, and so my mother had to be both mother and father.
Faith was an enormous part of our life and the home was really sacred.
I was born in the same bed that my father died in. My mother had the soul of a priest and passed it on. When I told her that I would like to become a priest, she could have told me that I was too young, or that it was too expensive, or that she needed me at home, but she didn't. She must have known that there was something there.
The inspiration for becoming a priest came from seeing priests in the parish, but the support came from my mother.
What do you remember about your father?
I remember us running to greet him when he came home from work, and gathering for a meal. On pay day, he might give us each a few pennies. I also remember attending Mass with him and holding his hand. He was a very mild and kind person and hardworking.
How did you first become involved in the fatherhood movement?
During my studies in France, as a seminarian for the Diocese of Providence, I remember helping out as a deacon during a funeral.
The body would be placed upon a carriage and there would be a big procession of men and women to the church. When everyone arrived, the women would go into the church, while the men would go behind the church to smoke. What happens to a country when the men stop practicing their faith?
We need to have men paying attention to their faith and being energized by it.
I can recall my father participating in Holy Name Celebration Days. Men would gather wearing purple ribbons with gold Holy Name badges and they would process through the streets of Providence. What do we have for men today? In what ways can men express their faith? We no longer have many men's societies so we have to find ways to bring men together.
Is this what led you to host a men's conferences?
Yes. For a couple of years we gathered with other dioceses to host such an event. Two years ago it was held in Worcester and more than 200 men from the diocese attended, so we decided to try hosting a conference on our own.
A successful businessman who wanted to do something for the Church was sent to the chancery by his pastor. As a former vice president of sales we asked him to help us to make sales pitches to men encouraging them to attend the conference. He would visit various parishes and speak to the men. He pulled together a group of parish leaders who I then met with over breakfast.
We encouraged each of them to find seven-nine men from their parish to attend the conference. In the end, more than 600 men attended. We had 35 priests hearing confessions and at least 400 men went to confession.
Conferences such as this help men to identify with others. They attend and say, “Hey, I'm not the only person that is interested in this.”
How do you respond to the opposition that says that a men's spiritual movement is somehow threatening to women's spirituality?
I do not see what the threat is. Those who see such a gathering as a threat are mixing spirituality and secularity somehow.
In what ways does being a spiritual “father” help you in ministering to fathers?
Being a priest is a fatherly relationship. You're there to be a leader, to nourish, to be an example, and to be supportive.
I remember as a young priest being asked to help out in a small town where the pastor was sick. I recall driving into that town one night just as the lights were starting to come on in the homes, and I remember my heart beating fast because I was going to get to know all these people. As a priest you form a remarkable relationship with people.
To be the father of a family — I have never doubted that this is the role of a priest or a bishop. I try to do that on a diocesan level. If we lose sight of that, it becomes just a job. To be a father you have to be there where the action is; you can't sit on the sidelines saying, “I don't do those sort of things.”
God is a father that loves us and will never take that love from us. It's important to receive that love and bring that love out to others. That's what I think fathering is about.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Bishop Daniel O'Reilly ----- KEYWORD: Inperson -------- TITLE: What Dads Should Do DATE: 00/17/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 17-23, 2001 ----- BODY:Bishop Reilly told Tim Drake this bit of advice he gives to fathers today:
The great challenge facing all of us is the culture we are living in. It is a very materialist, very self-centered society.
Our message to men is that they need to have courage to be involved with their family and live their faith.
Fathers need to pray in the home and practice their faith — making their home a sacred place. They should have a crucifix and holy pictures in the home. We have to get back to having common sense in the spiritual upbringing of our children. The best thing we can do is provide children a good example. The best thing fathers can do is to attend church with their children.
Men should make a resolution to do one more thing, in their parish, than they have done in the past. Finally, men should not be afraid to bring their faith into the workplace or the public square. Political correctness is killing us. Be proud of who you are. I'm fond of saying, “I'm not P.C., I'm R.C. and Roman Catholic is as correct as you can be.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: U.S. Bishops Address Confusion About Communion DATE: 06/17/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 17-23, 2001 ----- BODY:ATLANTA — Fearing that some in the pews think of the Eucharist as merely a symbol of Jesus or that it may evoke images of cannibalism, the U.S. bishops' Committee on Doctrine is offering a step-by-step question-and-answer format to Catholic teaching on the real presence of Jesus — “body, blood, soul and divinity” — in the Eucharist.
The full National Conference of Catholic Bishops is scheduled to vote on the pastoral statement at its meeting June 14-16 in Atlanta.
In their proposed pastoral statement, the bishops declare that the bread and wine become the physical body and blood of Jesus each time the Eucharist is consecrated, although to all earthly appearance it remains bread and wine.
Once the bread and wine is changed over, the doctrine commit-tee's statement says, it can never be turned back again, and even those without faith who eat and drink the consecrated bread and wine receive the body and blood of Christ.
“The entire Christ is present, God and man, including both Christ's human soul and body,” the bishops' committee says in its statement.
The church is not talking about “actually chewing the body of Christ up,” said Father Joseph Komonchak, a consultant to the document and religion professor at The Catholic University of America. “It is a real presence, but it is a presence in sacramental form, not a presence in flesh and bone.”
But how one distinguishes a sacramental presence from a flesh-and-bone presence is a tough issue.
In attempting to bring a complex theological subject home to the average Church member, the committee set forth simple, direct questions individuals of any age would wonder about, and then answered them.
“Does the bread cease to be bread, and the wine cease to be wine?”
“Does the consecrated blood and wine cease to be the body and blood of Christ when the Mass is over?”
“If someone without faith eats and drinks the consecrated bread and wine, does he or she still receive the body and blood of Christ?”
The answers: Yes, no, and yes and no.
The Eucharist still looks, tastes and feels like bread and wine, the committee said, but it “is changed by the power of the Holy Spirit into the substance of the body and blood of Jesus Christ.”
And once the bread and wine are consecrated, there is no turning back because “they are no longer bread and wine at all.” Instead, some of the hosts are kept in the tabernacle, where it will be used for distribution to the sick and dying, and as an object of adoration.
Catholics bend to one knee in front of the tabernacle because they believe Jesus is present in the Eucharist.
As for the thornier issue of how the sacrament is received by different believers, the bishops' committee said someone without faith who receives communion consumes the body of Christ, but the person would not receive the spiritual benefit, “which is communion with Christ.”
In jumping into the theological discussion, the bishops' committee admits the Church “can never fully explain in words” the mystery of how the risen Jesus is present in the Eucharist.
However, it said, within the mystery God has revealed certain truths about the Eucharist, and those truths are in danger of being watered down or lost today.
Both in the pastoral experience of Church leaders and in surveys showing that many Catholics treat the Communion host as only a symbol, “a grave situation” of confusion exists in the pews, the committee said.
Father J-Glenn Murray, director of the Office for Pastoral Liturgy of the Diocese of Cleveland, said there is a concern that receiving communion is becoming too casual in the life of the Church.
Talking about the body and blood of Christ gives believers a greater reverence and awe for the sacrament than if they think of it in terms of eating bread and drinking wine, he said.
But both Father Komonchak and Father Murray said there is disagreement over how serious the problem of Eucharistic ignorance is. Some survey questions, they said, tend to lead people into responding that the Eucharist is a symbol of Jesus.
If you ask an ordinary Catholic whether the consecrated bread and wine is Jesus, Father Murray said, “any Catholic will tell you without even thinking, ‘Of course, that's Jesus.’”
In their proposed pastoral statement, the bishops avoided the question of the benefit to non-Catholic believers of receiving Communion in a Catholic church.
Orthodox Churches' beliefs about the Real Presence are almost identical to the Catholic Church's. Some Protestant denominations say they believe in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, too.
However, the issue is so fundamental that intercommunion is restricted among Catholic and Orthodox Churches and Protestant denominations.
Protestants do not treat the bread and wine or grape juice they use in communion services as the real presence of Jesus. These churches generally permit any believer to participate in the rite.
Father Murray said the reason the Catholic Church does not share Communion with most other churches that believe in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist is that they are not yet in full communion with one another.
Said Father Murray, “Communion is not only on the table; it's at the table.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: David Briggs ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 06/17/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 17-23, 2001 ----- BODY:Selling Narnia, Without Christ
The Lewis estate and HarperCollins publishers will soon unveil Narnia stuffed animals and new Narnia books by as-yet-unidentified authors.
A memo from a HarperCollins executive declared, “We'll need to be able to give emphatic assurances that no attempt will be made to correlate the stories to Christian imagery/theology.” The Narnia series tells the story of Aslan the lion's triumph over the evil White Witch through his death and resurrection.
The Lewis estate denied that it was trying to whitewash Lewis' Christianity, but HarperCollins issued a statement saying that it was trying to appeal “to the secular as well as the evangelical market.”
Goddess with a Government Grant
The New York Post reported on a recently canceled $860,000 federal program that taught public housing residents “creative wellness.” It relied on gemstones, incense, and a belief that each resident should identify with a particular “goddess” such as Venus.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal by the city of Elkhart, Ind., which had been ordered by a lower court to remove a pillar engraved with the Ten Commandments from its town hall.
Bush spoke at the University of Notre Dame's commencement, and is often photographed with cardinals and bishops, even on trips promoting energy or tax proposals.
The last time Republicans won a majority of Catholic votes was in 1988. Al Gore won 49% of the Catholic vote in 2000, compared to Bush's 47%, although Bush had stronger support among Catholics who attended church at least once a week.
Clinton's ‘Ragin’ Cajun' Reveals He's Catholic
MEET THE PRESS, May 27 — James Carville, Democratic strategist and former advisor to Bill Clinton, revealed on the NBC political talk show that he is Catholic.
Carville, nicknamed “The Ragin' Cajun,” is a staunch advocate of abortion. But during a discussion of Vermont Sen. Jim Jeffords' decision to quit the Republican Party, Carville said, “I'm a Marine and a Catholic.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Twenty Years Later, Research Sees Only One Answer to AIDS DATE: 06/17/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 17-23, 2001 ----- BODY:TORONTO — After two decades of research and development by pharmaceutical scientists, chastity remains the only answer to the AIDS epidemic.
But it didn't take John McKellar 20 years to figure that out. He was a young homosexual when he first heard of AIDS in the early 1980s.
“I remember … a telephone conversation with a friend whose cousin happened to be a physician in New York City,” he said. “My friend told me there was a mysterious gay cancer running through the homosexual community in Manhattan which was apparently spread by” homosexual acts.
“Just hearing that was all I needed” to stop such activity, McKellar said. “As young and naive as I was, I certainly didn't need further information or counseling or coaxing.”
Others at risk of contracting the AIDS virus are still at risk, even with the life-extending “drug cocktail” in use since 1996. Numerous studies are indicating a sharp rise in the rate of HIV infection in the United States and around the world, and an alarming decrease in the effectiveness of the new AIDS drugs.
On May 31, exactly 20 years after the emerging AIDS epidemic was first diagnosed among U.S. male homosexuals, the Centers for Disease Control disclosed that young homosexual and bisexual men are transmitting HIV at rates similar to the first years after AIDS was discovered.
Overall, male homosexuals and bisexuals between 23 and 29 are becoming infected at a rate of 4.4% annually, and the annual infection rate among blacks of that age group stands at a devastating 14.7%.
“The numbers we're publishing right now are more like the findings you see in the '80s than the findings you see in the '90s,” said Centers for Disease Control epidemiologist Linda Valleroy, The Washington Times reported.
Only Abstinence Works
John McKellar is the founder and president of HOPE, Homosexuals Opposed to Pride Extremism, an organization that acts as a critic of Toronto's large “mainstream” homosexual movement.
He argues that from the beginning, homosexual leaders should have clearly advised abstinence from the sexual practices that bring the disease. They should also have agreed to public health measures — such as mandatory reporting of new infections and closing of bath-houses — that would normally be implemented in any other epidemic.
Instead, McKellar said, “It was more important for them to canonize the victims of the disease … than to condemn the behavior that caused their deaths.”
McKellar said “the gay leaders were strident about this … because of the perceived stigmatization threat to the gay lifestyle.”
Other recent data back him up.
Last year Dr. Ronald Valdiserri of the National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention reported that the rate of HIV infection among homosexuals in San Francisco nearly tripled over a two-year period, rising from 1.3% in 1997 to 3.7% in 1999. Dr. Willi McFarland of the San Francisco Public Health Department reported a dramatic decrease in consistent condom usage, from 70% in 1994 to 54% in 1999.
Experts speculate the rise in high-risk behavior is due in part to the false belief that the drug cocktail is a cure for AIDS, or at least makes the disease bearable. But while that was never the case, it now seems the drugs are even less effective and cause more serious side effects than originally thought.
At the Seventh Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Chicago in January, it was reported that the drugs fail in as many as 50% of patients. Two recent studies, one from Britain and one from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, indicate that up to 28% of new HIV cases are resistant to the drugs.
Where they do work, they can cause high cholesterol, liver damage, kidney stones, diabetes and osteoporosis, as well as grotesque changes in the distribution of body fat.
The Catholic Church has repeatedly and strongly rejected the promotion of condom use to prevent AIDS, and has insisted that the only solution is chastity. In the April 19, 2000, issue of L'Osservatore Romano, Msgr. Jacques Suaudeau of the Pontifical Academy for the Family wrote that “the publicity given to the condom in the fight against HIV/AIDS could have an effect contrary to what is desired inasmuch as such publicity might lead people to riskier sexual behavior because of the sense of safety they feel when using a prophylactic.”
Pointing out that encouraging condom use “means continuing to feed the vicious cycle of sex which is at the root of the serious pandemic,” he concluded that “if people really want to prevent AIDS, they must be convinced to change their sexual behavior. … The most radical prevention of HIV/AIDS, the one which is absolutely effective and which no one can deny, is sexual abstinence for adolescents before marriage and conjugal chastity in marriage. This is the Church's message.”
Father John Harvey, founder and director of Courage, a Vatican-approved support group for homosexuals, says the experience of its members shows that chastity works. He said that in the 20 years Courage has operated in New York, only four committed members have died of AIDS.
But Father Harvey points out that chastity is not mere abstinence from sexual activity. He says that “interior chastity” enables people to “control [sexual desires] so completely that [they] can readily turn away from temptation. That, of course, is intimately related to prayer” and a strong spiritual life.
Dr. Roxanne Cox-Iyamu, who treats AIDS patients at the Whitman-Walker Clinic in Washington, D.C., might agree. Commenting on the recent increase in HIV infection rates and the decreasing effectiveness of drug cocktails, the front-line medical expert recently told The Washington Times that she believed that sound morals are the only protection.
“I am afraid for our youth,” said Cox-Iyamu. “How do I defend my kids? I can only hope and pray that I have given them the proper moral code to protect themselves.”
David Curtin writes from Toronto.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: David Curtin ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Irina Ilovajskaya Alberti and Christian Unity DATE: 06/17/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 17-23, 2001 ----- BODY:As the Holy Father prepares to embark on his pilgrimage to Ukraine at the end of this month (June 23-27), it is opportune to meditate on the life and vital message of Irina Ilovajskaya Alberti, a daughter of the Russian nation and a close friend of the Pope, who throughout her life identified with Jesus' last prayer “Father, may they all be one.”
Ukraine's history constantly and painfully intertwines with Russia's. The Holy Father's trip to Ukraine will certainly have an impact on relations between the Holy See and the Moscow patriarchate. One of the Holy Father's greatest desires is still to be able to visit Russia as a pilgrim. Many times he confided his great and special love for Russia to Irina Ilovajskaya Alberti.
At a press conference May 13 — that is, on the anniversary of the Fatima apparitions — Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II declared that a papal visit to Moscow would be possible “on condition that all barriers in relations between the Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches are removed.”
In his mind, one major barrier would be “the situation of Orthodox believers in western Ukraine.” The position of the Russian Orthodox Church is that the Greek Catholics there, since they came out of the catacombs in the early 1990s, have taken over many Russian Orthodox churches and destroyed three Orthodox dioceses.
Alberti died April 4, 2000. Fairly recently, the Holy Father confided to her daughter Chiara that “there isn't a day that goes by when I don't think of her.” He had once told Alberti privately that he considered nothing more important, at the beginning of the 21st century, than unity among Christians, especially between Catholics and the Orthodox.
Alberti understood that her vocation was to pursue that mission of unity — a mission the Pope both entrusted to her and confirmed her in.
Born in 1924 in Yugoslavia of exiled Russian parents, Alberti married an Italian diplomat whom she accompanied on successive missions to Czechoslovakia, Austria, Venezuela, Greece, Germany and France. They had two children, Chiara and Cesio.
After the premature death of her husband in 1975, she met Alexander Solzhenitsyn in Switzerland prior to his moving to Vermont, and accepted his invitation to become his secretary. In his company, in an atmosphere of prayer and silence which was the only quiet time in her life, Alberti continued to learn about the life of Russian dissidents through the letters Solzhenitsyn received. She had already started to know them by listening to thousands of Russian refugees in Italy.
She regained hope about her country, which she had believed was morally dead. She started to understand what needed to be done to help Russia. This period in her life was like a retreat, a preparation for the next.
In 1979, she was called to Paris to become editor-in-chief of La Pensée Russe, the most reliable Russian emigrants' newspaper, which she substantially reformed.
In June 1998, President Yeltsin gave her a medal for her remarkable work on behalf of Russian culture and her bridge-building efforts between East and West. Irina used to say that Russia must be explained to the West, and vice versa; and to her friends in Western Europe, she used to repeat, “Let us not abandon Russia!”
Towards the mid-80s, as her desire was growing to dedicate herself more specifically to Christian unity, she made a special consecration to God with the help of her spiritual director, a French Jesuit. Through providential circumstances, she then heard of the possibility of starting radio evangelization in Russia. This was a dream she had been praying for.
She eventually became director of Radio Blagovest, transmitting daily programs about the life of the Catholic Church. Every day, wherever she was, Alberti hosted a one-hour program, responding to people's personal queries about the faith and life of the Church in the West.
Through her articles, radio programs and participation in many conferences, Alberti managed to create an atmosphere in favor of unity among a significant number of Orthodox intellectuals. She opened people's heart to the Catholic Church. She said that for unity to come about, people must first want it — it will not be something artificially decided between hierarchies.
She was convinced that people had to know and love the Catholic Church before they could begin to desire unity. She never hid the truth about problems in the Catholic Church, but she would always explain the reasons. She never separated truth from love.
Alberti also thought that Catholics must love the Russian Orthodox in a concrete way. According to her, the greatest consequence of communism was the destruction of man made in the image of God. She understood this destruction as diabolical. The task now, she said, is to rebuild the spiritual person in Russia in a concrete way.
Brought up in the Orthodox tradition, Alberti's life was a progressive realization that the Church was one, that there could not possibly be two churches. This realization led her to profess her faith in the Catholic Church in which she found the plenitude she had been moving toward.
She used to say that instead of making unity, one had to discover it; unity must be received from Christ as a gift. She lived at the level of faith, in which the Church is undivided. In that way, she had a mystical understanding of reality.
When Albertiwent through phases of discouragement because of the many difficulties she faced in Russia, the Pope would always give her courage and strength and she would start working with renewed vigor, as “a general ready for a battle” (in the words of her daughter Chiara).
In the last years of her life, although in poor health, she would travel every month to Paris, Rome and Moscow. She translated the Catechism of the Catholic Church into Russian. She repeatedly attempted to arrange a meeting between the Patriarch of Moscow Alexy II and Pope John Paul II.
“I miss her Russia,” said the Pope recently — that is, her way of telling him about Russia. She informed him regularly of the situation there.
Irina Alberti suffered a heart attack a little over a year ago, dying without much suffering the way she had always wanted — at work.
Her last words were from T. S. Eliot's play, Murder in the Cathedral: “What good is a path if it doesn't lead to a cathedral?”
Marguerite Peeters writes from Brussels.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Marguerite Peeters ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 06/17/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 17-23, 2001 ----- BODY:Pope Visits Young Cancer Patients From His Homeland
ASSOCIATED PRESS, June 4 — Pope John Paul II met with a group of 180 Polish children who have cancer, the wire service reported.
The Pope, who has been hospitalized several times during his papacy, told the children, “I know how difficult the experience of illness is, especially for a child.” He prayed that they be “strong in spirit,” and said, “Even in illness a great good is accomplished both in the sick person and in the hearts of those who are near.”
Bishop Tells Story of Pope's Brush With Death
That was the first thing Pope John Paul II said when he regained consciousness after his operation to remove a bullet fired by a would-be assassin in 1981. Bishop Stanislaw Dziwisz described the assassination attempt in his address accepting an honorary doctorate from the University of Lublin on the 20th anniversary of the failed assault on the Pope's life, the Vatican newspaper reported.
When the bullets hit, the Pope collapsed into Bishop Dziwisz's arms. “An invisible power came into action, making it possible to save the life of the Holy Father,” the bishop recalled. The Pope whispered prayers as the ambulance rushed him to the Gemelli Polyclinic.
Doctors at the Polyclinic “gave their blood without a qualm” for transfusions. Bishop Dziwisz administered the anointing of the sick, and the Pope soon began to regain strength. In the days after the operation, he concelebrated the Eucharist in his hospital bed.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Vatican -------- TITLE: Vatican: Request on Milwaukee Cathedral Meant to Defuse Situation DATE: 06/17/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 17-23, 2001 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — The Vatican's request to suspend renovation of the Milwaukee cathedral while the plans are studied is meant to ensure respect for Church norms and to help defuse local controversy over the project, an official said.
Archbishop Francesco Tamburrino, secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, said, “The Holy See is interested in resolving problems, not complicating them.”
Archbishop Tamburrino spoke to Catholic News Service June 5 following reports that the congregation had asked Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland of Milwaukee to stop the renovation pending a discussion about complaints that changes planned for the cathedral would violate Church liturgical norms.
The Vatican official would not discuss whether or not any particular part of the renovation of St. John the Evangelist Cathedral appeared problematic to the congregation.
Archbishop Tamburrino said it was the congregation's job to promote “communion in the Church and the observance of those norms dictated by wisdom and respectful of the teachings of the Second Vatican Council.”
He described the situation as one of dialogue with Archbishop Weakland aimed at clarifying concerns and offering suggestions to the archbishop on how the situation might be resolved.
The congregation became involved after a canon lawyer for opponents of the cathedral renovation wrote to the Vatican asking for intervention.
The planned changes to the cathedral's interior include moving the altar forward, having seating on three sides of the altar and constructing a separate chapel for the Blessed Sacrament. The $4.5 million work on the church is part of a $10 million project to renovate church property occupying a city block and to expand facilities for social services.
Archbishop Tamburrino said it was not unusual for the congregation to look into the concerns of lay people regarding the actions of their priests or bishops in matters related to liturgy and the celebration of the sacraments.
“Everyone has access to the congregation,” he said. “Anyone who is baptized has a right to turn to the Holy See, and we make no distinction between left and right, big or small.
“It is important that every Christian know there is an authority to whom he can turn,” the archbishop said, adding that “obviously, we must discern what we hear.”
James Reiter, a Milwaukee opponent of the renovation, hired Alan Kershaw, a Rome-based canon lawyer, to represent him in the matter.
Kershaw said he thinks the fact that the congregation asked Archbishop Weakland to suspend the work May 26 and the fact that Kershaw was given 30 days to file additional information with the congregation shows the Vatican believes the complaints may have merit.
Kershaw said his client asked for Vatican intervention based on “the violation of liturgical norms and the violation of canon law, including in the administration of the archdiocese itself.”
The canon lawyer would not go into more detail.
“I cannot go into too much detail,” Kershaw said. “I cannot give away my strategy.”
He said the archdiocese's Web site for the project quotes liturgical documents to support the proposed changes, but “they are giving a very liberal interpretation to excerpts of the liturgical norms without taking into consideration the overall meaning of them. They are trying to make the norms fit their own, very personal designs.”
In a telephone interview, Archbishop Weakland said he was “totally confused” by the Vatican congregation's intervention.
He asked why the group opposing the renovations “waited until the very last minute” to file their appeal, when broken contracts caused by delays could cost the archdiocese large amounts of money.
“I am absolutely convinced that I have followed the liturgical norms” in the renovation plans, he said.
Archbishop Weakland said Cardinal Jorge Medina Estevez, head of the worship congregation, had faxed him six points of objection raised by the opponents of the renovation “and I answered all six points.” All the objections concerned areas where Church law gives the local bishop competence to decide, he said.
The archbishop said one objection concerned the chairs with kneelers that will be used to replace the bench-style pews. Church law says benches or chairs — “scamma seu sedilia” in Latin — may be used. Archbishop Weakland said he regarded the objection as “rather silly.”
He said there was another objection to the removal of the two side altars, which “hadn't been used for 30 years.”
Under the renovation plan “we will actually have more devotional spaces than before,” he said.
He said the groups opposing the renovation are rather small, while Catholics all over the archdiocese have contributed to the renovation fund. The archdiocesan pastoral council, consultors and priests' council have all approved the renovation, he said.
They would be legitimately disturbed “if I failed to move ahead with it,” he said.
Kershaw said that, while an archbishop is the chief liturgist in his diocese, “he has authority if he abides by liturgical legislation; if he violates it, then he has absolutely no authority. And the archbishop does have to be obedient to the authority of Rome.”
The canon lawyer said the fact that the renovation began less than a year before Archbishop Weakland turns 75 and offers his resignation to the Pope “is not a principal part” of the case.
“That just raises eyebrows and questions,” he said. “He has had 25 years to renovate the cathedral; why is he doing it now to the tune of $10 million?”
Contributing to this story was Jerry Filteau in Washington.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Cindy Wooden ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Christian View of Earthly Power DATE: 06/17/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 17-23, 2001 ----- BODY:“Blessed may you be, O Lord, God of Israel our father” (1 Chronicles 29:10). This powerful canticle of praise, which the first Book of the Chronicles puts on David's lips, enables us to relive the outburst of joy with which the community of the old covenant welcomed the grand preparations for the construction of the Temple. These preparations were the fruit of a common effort of the king and of so many others who were lavish in helping him. They practically competed in generosity, because this was appropriate for a dwelling that “is not intended for man, but for the Lord God” (1 Chronicles 29:1).
Reading that event again after centuries, the chronicler senses David's feelings and those of the whole people — their joy and esteem for all those who had made their contribution: “The people rejoiced over these free-will offerings, which had been contributed to the Lord wholeheartedly. King David also rejoiced greatly” (1 Chronicles 29:9).
God's Gifts
These are the circumstances in which the canticle is born. It does not dwell, except briefly, on human happiness, however, but immediately centers attention on the glory of God: “Yours, O Lord, is the grandeur … yours the Kingdom.” What is always hiding in ambush, when works are accomplished for the Lord, is the great temptation to place oneself at the center, as if God were now in our debt. David, instead, attributes everything to the Lord. It is not man, with his intelligence and strength, who is the primary maker of what has been accomplished, but God himself.
Thus David expresses the profound truth that everything is grace. In a certain sense, all that was placed at the disposal of the temple was only a restitution, and extremely meager at that, from all that Israel had received in the immeasurable gift of the covenant that God established with the Patriarchs. Along the same line, David gives credit to the Lord for everything that has gone into his success — in military endeavors and in political and economic affairs. Everything comes from him!
It seems that the author of the canticle does not have enough words to confess the greatness and power of God.
God Our Father
Herein lies the contemplative thrust of these verses. It seems that the author of the canticle does not have enough words to confess the greatness and power of God. He sees him first of all in the special father-hood shown to Israel — “our father.” This is the first motive that elicits praise “now and always.”
In the Christian recital of these words, we cannot forget that this fatherhood was fully revealed in the Incarnation of the Son of God. It is he, and only he, who can address God, in the proper sense and affectionately, as “Abba” (Mark 14:36). At the same time, through the gift of the Spirit we participate in his sonship, which makes us “sons in the Son.” The blessing of ancient Israel by God the Father acquires for us the force Jesus made evident when teaching us to call God “our Father.”
Origin of All Things
The view of the biblical author then widens out from the history of salvation to the entire cosmos, to contemplate the greatness of God the Creator: “For all in heaven and on earth is yours.” And again: “You are exalted as head over all.” As in Psalm 8, the man praying this canticle raises his head toward the endless expanse of the heavens, then looks down in wonder on the immensity of the earth, and sees everything as under the dominion of the Creator.
How can God's glory be expressed? Words pile up, in a kind of mystical outpouring: grandeur, power, glory, majesty, splendor — and then, again, might and power. Everything that man experiences as beautiful and great must be referred to him who is the origin of everything and who governs all. Man knows that everything he possesses is a gift from God, as David underlines as the canticle continues: “But who am I, and who are my people, that we should have the means to contribute so freely? For everything is from you, and we only give you what we have received from you” (29:14).
This underlying vision of reality as a gift of God helps us combine the sentiments of praise and thanksgiving of this canticle with the authentic “offertory” spirituality that we live out in Christian liturgy, especially in the celebration of the Eucharistic. This is what emerges from the double prayer with which the priest offers the bread and wine destined to become the body and blood of Christ: “Through your goodness we have this bread to offer, which earth has given and human hands have made. It will become for us the bread of life.” The prayer is repeated for the wine. Similar sentiments are implied in both the Byzantine Divine Liturgy and the old Roman Canon, when the eucharistic anamnesis expresses an awareness of offering as gifts to God the very things received from him.
Pride vs. Poverty
A last application of this vision of God occurs as the canticle looks at the human experience of wealth and power. Both of these elements emerged as David prepared what was necessary to build the Temple. There is a universal temptation that could also have been a temptation for him — to act as if he were the absolute ruler of what he possessed, to make it a source of pride and of abuse of others. The prayer proclaimed in this canticle brings man back to his condition as “one who is poor,” one who receives everything.
The kings of this earth, then, are no more than images of divine king-ship: “Yours, O Lord, is the sovereignty.” The wealthy cannot forget the origin of their possessions: “Riches and honor are from you.” The powerful must know how to recognize God, as the source “of every greatness and power.” A Christian is called to consider these expressions by exultantly contemplating the risen Christ, who is glorified by God, “far above every principality, authority, power and dominion” (Ephesians 1:21). Christ is the true King of the universe.
(Translation by ZENIT and Register)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Register Summary DATE: 06/17/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 17-23, 2001 ----- BODY:Prayer helps people see worldly power and wealth in a new light, said John Paul II. It shows them that “everything is grace,” he said.
At his general audience June 6, attended by 15,000 pilgrims in St. Peter's Square, the Holy Father offered a meditation on a canticle in 1 Chronicles 29. He spoke of “the great temptation to place oneself at the center” when works are accomplished for the Lord.
Thus the Pope continued his series of meditations on the psalms and canticles of the Old Testament that are used in the Liturgy of the Hours.
John Paul II described wealth and power as “a universal temptation.” When man loses sight of God, the Holy Father noted, he can “act as if he were absolute ruler of what he possessed, to make it a source of pride and of abuse of others.”
The prayer in the canticle, in contrast, “brings man back to his condition as ‘one who is poor,’ one who receives everything,” the Pope said.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Permanent Recession: The Childless Economy DATE: 06/17/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 17-23, 2001 ----- BODY:NEW YORK — Experts agree that low birthrates have played a central role in Japan's transformation from an economic superpower in the 1980s to a country facing a severe economic crisis.
“Japan's number of consumers has topped off,” said Paul Hewitt, director of the Global Aging Initiative with the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. “The country has experienced 46 months of shrinking consumption, as well as a collapse in housing prices and land values. By 2020, Japan will have 18% fewer people in the home buying-market.”
Hewitt noted that in1995, 14% of Japan's population was over age 65, a figure projected to increase to 22% by 2010. “Japan is aging very rapidly, he said. “They are creating a generation without brothers or sisters, cousins, aunts or uncles.”
One of the consequences of Japan's economic stagnation has been a colossal accumulation of debt.
“They are borrowing too much money,” said Hewitt. “If their system collapses or they are unable to pay their debt it could lead to a global depression.”
Unless Japan's demographics change radically, analysts suggest the country's problems may be insoluble.
“The working-age population of Japan is expected to continually decline from 87 million in 1995 to less than 60 million in 2050, while the retirement age population increases to more than 30 million, almost guaranteeing a permanent recession from now on,” said Robert Sassone, senior researcher with the World Life League and author of the Handbook on Population. “The bad economy will make it even harder to pay for children, thereby causing additional declines in Japan's already record-low fertility rate.”
In response to the crisis some private industries have been offering incentives to encourage childbirth. For example, Japan's Bandai Corporation is offering mothers up to $10,000 for each additional child they have beyond their second, the New York Times reported last year.
Europe's Gray Future
As bleak as the situation appears in Japan, Hewitt said it is even worse in Europe. Europe's share of the world population, 20% in 1960 and already down to 13%, will fall to 7% in 2050, according to U.N. estimates. In fact, after 2010, Italy and Spain will grow older more quickly than Japan.
“The danger is that if a collapse occurs in all of these countries at about the same time we would face a serial crisis. If that were to happen, these countries' welfare states could disappear in an instant,” warned Hewitt.
Currently, there are 3.7 workers for each person of pension age in Europe. By 2050 this ratio will decrease to 1.5 workers for each retired person. “Germany, Italy, and France will experience severe fiscal pressures between 2004 and 2005 as their baby boomers begin to retire, and it will only get worse every year after that,” said Hewitt.
In March 2000, the U.N. Population Division released “Replacement Migration,” a report on migration as one possible solution for both Japan and Europe
The study looked at demographic data from eight countries: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Its conclusions confirm what many demographic experts have predicted for decades — that most industrialized nations will require millions of working-age migrants to make up for a three-decade long birth dearth.
In the European Union, under current retirement practices, immigration would have to average 4 million people annually to compensate for projected declines in native-born workers. In Italy alone, to maintain the same work force it had in 1995, the country will need 300,000 immigrants annually over the next 25 years.
The British government, facing a severe skills shortage, last year relaxed its immigration controls for the first time in 30 years, allowing settlement by as many as 100,000 foreigners per year.
The U.S. Situation
Migration, said Ben Wattenberg, senior fellow with the American Enterprise Institute and author of the 1986 book The Birth Dearth, is what has kept the U.S. population stable.
“American fertility rates have been below replacement level for 28 years, yet the U.S. will continue to grow, in large measure because of the arrival of about one million immigrants each year. Still, because there is a mismatch between the large ‘Baby Boom’ cohorts [born in the 1950s and early 1960s] and the ‘Birth Dearth’ cohorts [that followed], America will face a pension shortfall,” predicted Wattenberg.
The grave international implications of the population implosion prompted the Center for Strategic and International Studies to organize the Commission on Global Aging. It is co-chaired by former U.S. Vice President Walter Mondale, former Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, and Karl Otto, former chief central banker of Germany.
Other members include senior executives from such corporations as Toyota, Coca-Cola and Olivetti, and demographers and other academic experts from leading universities and institutes in Europe, Japan and the United States.
According to a preliminary report from the commission, global aging will lead to a social transformation unparalleled in human history, placing burdens on health care and pensions, restructuring the economy, reshaping the family, redefining politics, and rearranging the geopolitical order.
The commission will make its recommendations public at a conference in Tokyo in August. Hewitt said that they will include encouraging people to work longer and pro-natalist policies that help young people raise families.
“My guess is that we are in for a lot of turbulence,” said Hewitt. “We will have to throw arbitrary ages of retirement out the window and work longer. All of the institutions we have created to deal with a labor surplus will be radically counterproductive. If we cannot adjust, we'll have a depression. We need leaders who see this.”
Tim Drake writes from St. Cloud, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 06/17/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 17-23, 2001 ----- BODY:Chinese Press Confirms Church-Destruction Campaign
KESTON NEWS SERVICE, June 1 — The government-controlled Wenzhou Daily newspaper confirmed that last year's campaign against “feudal superstition” led to the destruction of hundreds of Buddhist, Daoist and Christian temples, shrines and churches at the behest of local Communist Party authorities, the religious-freedom news service reported.
The catalyst for the church-smashing campaign was Chinese President Jiang Zemin's visit to the Wenzhou region in early 2000. Zemin was reportedly horrified to see scores of churches and Buddhist shrines. Wenzhou is known as the “Jerusalem of China” because of its large numbers of Protestant converts.
Wenzhou's religious believers were told to demolish their shrines and churches, and register with the state-controlled “patriotic” religious organizations. When this demand met with almost unanimous refusal, the buildings were destroyed by the state.
Local Christians told Keston that regional Communist Party leaders held a conference in early 2001 at which they expressed shock at the strength of the international outcry against the demolitions.
BBC Cuts Abortion Footage from Election Broadcast
PROLIFE ALLIANCE, May 31 — The British Broadcasting Company refused to show the election broadcast of the Prolife Alliance political party, the party announced.
The government-funded channel required the Alliance to heavily revise its original broadcast, which had shown footage of abortions. But even the revised version, with the grislier images blurred, was rejected. The Alliance called the BBC action “state censorship of the most blatant nature.”
Germany's Bavarian Television recently broadcast an award-winning documentary showing the fetal remains from an early abortion, material similar to the footage rejected by the BBC.
British Pregnancy Advisory Service spokeswoman Ann Furedi called the Prolife Alliance “vile scum” who are “dishonest, manipulative, irrational, ignorant fanatics who patronize women.”
Alliance members Madeline Jeremy and Josephine Quintavallee said that Furedi's comments only helped their position by showing the extremism of pro-abortion activists.
Attacks on Church Increase in Bosnia
HABENA, June 4 — Assaults on Catholic officials and church facilities are increasing in Bosnia, the Bosnian Croat news agency reported.
In the week of May 28 alone, a nun was assaulted in Sarajevo; a church in Drivuca was broken into; an employee of the Catholic humanitarian group Caritas was beaten in Zenica; and Catholic head-stones in the Bijeljina cemetery were toppled.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: EDITORIAL DATE: 06/17/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 17-23, 2001 ----- BODY:Some will remember wringing their hands over divisions among pro-lifers 20 years ago. Well, today a new generation is wringing its hands over the same divisions.
You'll find them spelled out in two opinion columns on Page 9.
Why spotlight the too-often rancorous dispute within the pro-life ranks? Two reasons.
First, this isn't a petty division over an inconsequential matter. It's over the basic question that the pro-life movement exists to answer: how best to end abortion in the Untied States.
Second, we think we have an answer.
One side says the best way to end abortion is to find the legal victories, short of a full ban, that can limit abortion right away. Eat away at abortion laws bit by bit, until they're gone. It's the “camel's nose under the tent” theory. Let the camel edge his nose into the tent, and he'll soon be standing in the middle of it. As this strategy has it, any little law that saves lives is a law worth enacting — as long as it doesn't preclude even better laws in the future.
The other side counters that in an area of grave moral confusion like abortion, such a strategy will only make a bad situation worse. If, say, 5-year-old children were being shot, we would be horrified by a legislative strategy that spent its energy saying: You can only shoot your 5-year-old if you have the permission of the grandmother (as with parental notification laws). So why do we accept a “camel's nose” strategy against abortion? Unless we treat abortion as killing that must be stopped, period, we send the signal that it isn't so bad, after all.
The question is complicated, the stakes are high and the emotions on both sides are intense. One longs for a Solomon to step in and give the answer that resolves the situation.
Providentially, one has.
In his 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life), Pope John Paul II acknowledges the problem of passing smaller laws while living under the regime of a big, permissive pro-abortion law:
“A particular problem of conscience can arise in cases where a legislative vote would be decisive for the passage of a more restrictive law, aimed at limiting the number of authorized abortions, in place of a more permissive law already passed or ready to be voted on. Such cases are not infrequent.”
His way of resolving it is this:
“[W]hen it is not possible to overturn or completely abrogate a pro-abortion law, an elected official, whose absolute personal opposition to procured abortion was well known, could licitly support proposals aimed at limiting the harm done by such a law and at lessening its negative consequences at the level of general opinion and public morality. This does not in fact represent an illicit cooperation with an unjust law, but rather a legitimate and proper attempt to limit its evil aspects” (No. 73).
This statement doesn't let either side off the hook.
The Holy Father says that, with politicians, we can pursue a strategy of passing laws limiting abortion while allowing it to remain legal. But he also says that we can't fully endorse politicians who aren't publicly known to be 100% opposed to abortion.
This challenges some of us to admit the justice of an incremental strategy. It challenges others of us to examine our own pro-life consciences — and to carefully consider how we evaluate candidates.
That said, we can admire both of the organizations on the page opposite this.
A hundred years from now, abortion will be mostly a guilty memory in the human consciousness — a right-to-kill legal standard like ours can't last. When history books are written, organizations like these will be regarded as the heroes of our time.
The trick is to hasten that day's arrival.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Opinion -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 06/17/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 17-23, 2001 ----- BODY:She Ain't Heavy, She's My Sister
In your June 3-9 issue, you reported that London has the lightest single-birth premature child ever born — Christopher Williams (Lifenotes, “Tiniest Premature Baby”). I would like to make a correction to that report. The lightest single-birth premature child ever born is actually in the United States, in Michigan.
My sister Christa Marie Buehler was born at 1 pound, 3 ounces on June 17, 1999. She is now almost 2 years old, weighs around 20 pounds, and is in perfect health. When she was born she was about the size of a dollar bill, and her father's wedding ring fit all the way up her arm with room to spare. Her first bathtub was the size of a butter tub (and we have pictures of all this). What a story that would make to support the pro-life movement!
HOLLY SCHNEIDER Grand Rapids, Michigan
It's Academic
Regarding “Seton Hall Stands By Abortion Supporter,” June 3-9: What (not so) great choices Seton Hall makes! An honorary degree to Dolores Cross.
Robina Schepp, director of public relations at Seton Hall is quoted as follows: “Dr. Cross knows our ethical commitments well and has assured us that she sees no conflict between her public statements and Seton Hall's Catholic mission.”
Now, Robina Schepp, do you know the ethical commitments of Seton Hall? Cross sees no conflict about her public statements and supporting abortion, and she is the president of Morris Brown College. Let me point out to Dr. Cross the conflict: Every teaching of the Catholic Church and the Bible condemns the killing of the unborn child. Just because you don't see any conflict doesn't mean a conflict doesn't exist.
This is just another example of the absurd actions taken by a so-called center of learning that makes the modern day university come in near the bottom of the list as an institution of rational thought.
DON FAHRENKRUG Colorado Springs, Colorado
God Is Testing Seton Hall
Regarding “Seton Hall Stands By Abortion Supporter,” June 3-9: Joshua Mercer's coverage of this issue is most worthy. However, his article is worldly in one significant way.
While there is much reporting and questioning about the political issues, there is none about the most important participant. It strikes me that the sequence of events in the Dolores Cross vs. Seton Hall issue may be described as “God's fault.” Have you not noticed that at such crossroads there is usually an opportunity to make a possible sacrifice, or to risk something valued, to witness to God's will? Why do you suppose that is?
At great risk of appearing naive, which I should not mind — right? — I submit that we are being tested by none other than Almighty God. Why should he do that? So we can see for ourselves how selfish we are. We want to oppose abortion, but without personal or institutional risk of any kind.
Scan the article again and see how careful everyone is to only do what is safe. Is that how the saints and martyrs lived? Is that how Christ lived — and died?
If we would step out, trusting God rather than ourselves, God will instantly make the best of the matter, for all concerned! Notice that I didn't say he would make matters comfortable. But what is a little discomfort compared with the joy of trusting him like the saints do every day?
NORMAN B. KELLER Silver Spring, Maryland
Hope and the Register
It is nice to see “all the news that is really fit to print.”
It is nice to hear that currently there are so many thoughtful, educated converts. Without the Register we would get the impression that evil in the world is winning.
I liked the news of the minister who closed up his church and moved himself, and a lot of his flock, back to the Apostles' Church (“Pastor and Flock Become Catholics This Easter,” April 15-21). What a well-thinking leader and group of people! They certainly must have given a lot of sincere thought before making that move. May God bless them. And you, for keeping us apprised of these pleasant changes.
I'd say there are a lot of well-meaning, good people outside the Church. It is amazing that some have the courage to follow their beliefs back to the Church, often knowing that they are giving up their financially security, and a lot of their friends and acquaintances in doing so.
The world is not lost to evil. The regular news sources would lead us to believe the opposite.
JAMES J. KELLY Feasterville, Pennsylvania
Communications (ahem) Mess-up
I have been receiving your newspaper for almost a year now and read each issue with relish and thanksgiving.
In your front-page story on the recent consistory (“Facing the Future: Cardinals Huddle With the Pope,” June 3-9), however, we read the following: “Cardinal Keeler's comments were backed up, unintentionally, by communications snafus in that gave a confused presentation of consistory information to the world's media.”
The irony here is that one organ of the world's media, namely yours, reports this fact by means of yet another confusing communications “snafu,” an oversight in proofreading. But this is just a quibble in passing.
More important is your use of the obscene expression “snafu.” Has it really come all the way from the battlefields of WWII to infiltrate a family newspaper, without alerting any proofreading reconnaissance? Lest we forget, it began as an apt acronym to describe army confusion in that war: Situation Normal, All [Messed] Up.
Another irony may be my own, of course, focusing young eyes on those brackets.
So let's stop these ironies before our heads start spinning. Please hire a proofreader posthaste.
PATRICK LEE MILLER Chapel Hill, North Carolina
‘Not PC’ Dot-Com?
I was very interested in your article on the James Madison Program at Princeton. They must have a Web site — everyone seems to have one these days.
It would have been helpful if you included it in the article. That would have enabled us to get in touch with them and maybe support them a bit financially.
The Web is our friend. We should make use of it as much as possible to publicize and support and encourage worthy causes. Thanks.
MICHAEL BRENNER Corona Del Mar, California
In your May 27-June 2 issue, you quoted the New York Times in a Media Watch item called “Nuclear Families under 25% of U.S. Households, Census Says.”
Here is another short example of how those with an agenda use statistics to advance their cause. On the surface it would appear that married people living together in marriage is a thing of the past. After all, the headlines tell it all. Now less than 25% of people are living in nuclear families. Amazing! Looks like most of the world has finally got with it. The family unit is dead; long live freedom.
Of course, the nuclear family [is defined as] “married people with children under 18 living in the house.” No mention of how many married people are living together without children under 18 in the house. All the other categories are quoted with great fanfare. Let's see if we can figure out the real picture:
Married with children under 18 — 23.5%
Unmarried couples — 9%
Non-family households — 33.3
Total as written — 65.8%
What about the other 34.2%? Well, I guess that's those married people whose children have either moved out or who are over 18 and still living in the house. That means the normal nuclear family idea is really 23.5% + 34.2% = 57.7% — still a respectable number. Also, in the non-family households, there are going to be a significant number of widows at the end of life who did participate in the nuclear family.
Now, I do think there has been a continued movement in families in the wrong direction, but the point of the article is to convince us all it's over, so don't get too worried if most of the world doesn't see things your way.
Of course, one of the reasons the number has been going down is the increasing age of when people marry. This creates a delay in the numbers of nuclear families. Also, in ten years the number they make a big deal out of only went from 25.6% to 23.5%, hardly a stampede.
Make no mistake about it. The press, the media and our educational system have been taken over by liberals who want no sexual rules.
How else could such a small group of homosexuals (1.5% of the population) make so much noise and affect our laws as they do? Maybe the Register could look behind the headlines and produce their own editorial?
MICHAEL NEESER Reno, Nevada
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Opinion -------- TITLE: Our Holy Father Is the World's 'Model Dad' DATE: 06/17/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 17-23, 2001 ----- BODY:Contrary to the popular reading of Ephesians 5, the father's role as head of the family is not intended to be one of domination.
His headship must be given to him by the woman because men and women are of equal dignity, both possessing free will. The husband cannot demand authority. If he were to force it, how could he serve his wife and his family as Christ serves the Church?
For many American households, including Christian ones, heated discussions of such matters would be a good problem to have. As the latest census figures reminded us, fewer and fewer children are growing up in homes with a father.
Meanwhile, by some accounts, Pope John Paul II has spent an inordinate amount of time nurturing the discussion of woman, feminine nature and the feminine vocation. Or at least, some say, he hasn't spent enough time on masculine vocation and fatherhood.
Could it be that the Pope has not focused enough on the issue of fatherhood and the masculine vocation? Or could it simply be that he's addressing the crisis from a different angle than we'd expect?
As the Holy Father understands it, the mission of men as fathers is to “reveal” and “relive” on earth the “very fatherhood of God.”
Between husbands, wives and their children, John Paul II insists, there must exist the merciful love spoken of in the parable of the prodigal son. According to the parable, this love is most characteristic of God the Father.
Dr. William May, professor of family and marriage at the John Paul II Institute in Washington, D.C., comments that merciful love must characterize the way men exercise fatherhood on earth. But it is not enough.
In the encyclical letter Mulieris dignitatem (On the Dignity and Vocation of Woman), John Paul II includes a curious statement. In contrast to the immediate union that a mother experiences with her child, he comments: “The man — even with his sharing in parenthood — always remains ‘outside’ the process of pregnancy and the baby's birth; in many ways he has to learn his own ‘fatherhood’ from the mother.” Fatherhood, therefore, depends on the mother.
Dr. May explains that this phrase implies that the woman must let her husband be a father by allowing him to become involved with his children: “Man, in short, becomes a father by doing things that a father ought to do. … I believe that fathers also learn their own fatherhood from their own fathers — and men whose fathers have truly revealed on earth the fatherhood of God, as mine did, are truly blessed.”
By focusing on the feminine vocation, the Pope has prepared a fertile ground for fostering the masculine vocation, particularly with regards to fatherhood. He speaks from his own experience. He has learned his own fatherhood from the example of his father and, in a unique way, from the Mother of the Church, whom he knows directly through prayer.
From the beginning of his pontificate, John Paul II has been a father to the faithful of the entire world. Recall his first words as Pope: “Be not afraid.” And his fatherly attention has not been limited to Catholics. His paternal solicitude accounts for his amazing success with young people throughout the world. No other figure in the world can draw such numbers of young people open to being “parented” — to being prepared and entrusted, that is, to become the next generation of leaders.
Merciful love must characterize the way men exercise fatherhood on earth. But it is not enough.
His fatherly leadership is having an effect. Father Belisario, a theology classmate of mine in Rome who is now a priest of the Missionaries of Charity, became aware of his priestly vocation when he saw the Pope from a distance during a papal trip. He wasn't even a practicing Catholic at the time. Yet he was drawn to the fatherhood which the Pope has been able to live in a very dynamic way.
Through prayer the father comes to know God the Father. Many cultures, however, see prayer as something for women and children, not for virile men. Father Gereon Goldmann, a well known author and missionary, wrote: “Prayer means talking with God. … First and foremost, it is for the man, the head of the family.” In order for fathers to reveal God, they must first know him.
Although natural fathers and spiritual fathers will live out their fatherhood in different ways, both reveal God the Father. Much of this depends on the women of the culture. The rest depends on each father's individual prayer life.
In a time when we are experiencing the crisis of male identity in every aspect of society, John Paul II's deep understanding and powerful personal example of father-hood has communicated itself in various ways, all of which have been formed by his prayer life. Through it, the Mother of the Church has taught him to be a father. Whatever trials the world is experiencing, there are many signs of a new springtime in the Church. We see it in the men who have been ordained during this pontificate and we also see it in the rebirth of nuclear family.
The Holy Father's writings have indeed focused more attention on the vocation of woman, but not to the detriment of fatherhood. Instead, he is living fatherhood — and teaching it — in every aspect of his life.
Pia de Solenni is a theologian based in Washington, D.C. She may be reached at Pia1@compuserve.com.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Pia De Solenni ----- KEYWORD: Commentary -------- TITLE: Better To Save Some Lives Now Than None At All, Ever DATE: 06/17/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 17-23, 2001 ----- BODY:Pro-lifers share a common goal. We want to end abortion and build a world which respects the lives of all God's children, born and unborn.
But not all pro-lifers agree on the best strategy for achieving that goal.
The millions of Americans who have worked with National Right to Life, its state affiliates or its community chapters during the past 28 years have saved the lives of countless unborn babies through a carefully thought-out strategy of intensive education, legislation and political action. Our strategy is sometimes called “incremental” because we have advanced toward our goal in increments, rather than waiting to pass perfect legislation.
We have seized every available opportunity to save as many lives and make the maximum progress possible each day and each year without compromising our ultimate goal.
Legislatively, we support full, legal protection for unborn children. We also support more limited legislation, which can be passed more quickly, to begin saving lives immediately.
Since 1973, National Right to Life and its affiliates have spearheaded the passage of hundreds of lifesaving bills in Congress and the state legislatures.
A study of just one parental notification law in one state for four years indicated that abortions were reduced among teenagers by 15%. Restrictions on public funding of abortion, banning partial-birth abortion, or requiring that women seeking abortions be given the facts about the development of unborn babies saved thousands of lives and advanced the cause of the innocents.
We have also supported thousands of electable pro-life candidates pledged to support pro-life legislation.
When a candidate's pro-life position was good, but not perfect, we made a careful judgement about how we could best save the most lives. Sometimes that meant the first priority was defeating a dangerous pro-abortion enemy.
Others have a different strategy. They would vote for a candidate they think is perfect who has no chance of election rather than a good candidate who could be elected.
These pro-lifers wanted us to stand by and allow Al Gore to be elected president rather than vote for George W. Bush, who had a strong pro-life record as governor, and who had pledged to pro-life policies which would save many unborn babies. They were willing to let Al Gore carry out his campaign promises to the pro-abortionists and unleash a slaughter of the innocents such as this country had never seen before.
Fortunately, millions of pro-life people, Republicans, Democrats and Independents knew better and voted for George W. Bush.
President Bush started making pro-life changes immediately. He barred the government from funding groups which promote abortion overseas, he put pro-life people in the key cabinet positions, he stopped the promotion of abortion by U.S. representatives at the United Nations and he promoted pro-life bills in Congress.
Millions of unborn babies who would have died in America and worldwide under a Gore administration will live because George W. Bush is president.
Without Bush and the other pro-life public officials our votes have elected over the years, and without the legislation pro-life work has passed, millions of children who live today would have died a horrible death in the womb.
We understand there are pro-lifers who see our strategy as letting some unborn babies die.
But they need to understand that we see their strategy as letting all the unborn babies die until we can save them all.
Let's look at the bottom line.
Our strategy saves real, living babies and strengthens the movement. Their strategy results only in dead babies now and a movement in danger of withering away due to legislative inaction and stagnation — a movement which is unlikely to ever protect any babies.
For those who are unwilling or unable to accept the harsh truth of this reality, who think that perfection could be achieved if only we worked harder or were more unified, we ask them to simply count the votes. Likewise, saying that legislative compromises should be made only by politicians ignores the fact that, without pro-life input, the laws passed will be far weaker.
When there is any real chance of success for perfect pro-life candidates or perfect pro-life legislation, we will be their strongest supporters.
We too pray for a miracle which transcends everyday reality and saves all the children now. But miracles come in God's own good time and place.
Until then, we believe our mission is to do what we really can do every day to save real unborn babies. We also passionately believe that this is the best way to hasten ultimate victory.
It will be a tough struggle. We will mourn the loss of babies we cannot save, but we will not let that stop us from saving the babies we can.
Darla St. Martin is associate executive director of the National Right to Life Committee in Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Darla St. Martin ----- KEYWORD: Commentary -------- TITLE: Incremental 'Victories' Mean Deadly Compromises DATE: 06/17/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 17-23, 2001 ----- BODY:Every social evil can be traced to a lie. In its infamous 1973 decision, the Supreme Court imposed a rather radical lie upon the United States. This lie states that pre-born children were to be considered non-persons under constitutional law; they therefore have no basic inalienable human rights. Stepping well outside the boundaries of civil law, this decision also promulgated a second equally heinous lie by aggregating to the government a new atheistic “Caesar” status.
Like Roman emperors of the past, our government now claims the authority to exercise arbitrary judgment over the life and death of innocent human beings.
How can the pro-life movement correct this?
Well, when truth is imparted, grace accompanies it. After having primary recourse to prayer, the movement needs to clearly represent the authentic truth with consistency in word and deed as a means of educating and converting the American people.
This truth is called the Personhood Principle: “all human beings are human persons from conception and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable human rights — first and foremost, the right to life.” All human rights come, not from the whim of Caesar, but with our human nature itself.
Therefore, personhood stands as the sole determining factor in defining whether or not legislation or candidates are truly pro-life. When, for example, a candidate for public office clearly acknowledges the legal personhood of the preborn from conception, he or she stands in conformity with objective truth. If this principle is denied, even implicitly, then the lie of Roe v. Wade becomes the standard, offering only the plague of moral relativism and no real protection for preborn children.
Our current political environment provides many examples of rhetorical deception, words that camouflage or distort the real issues. “Choice” is a perfect example that needs no explanation in these pages.
Or this: “pro-life with exceptions?”
When political candidates classify themselves as such, where do they stand in relation to the real issue of personhood and the lies of Roe v. Wade? If a preborn child can be directly killed in “exceptional” circumstances, then these preborns cannot be considered persons in the legal sense.
But isn't that the entire issue? Even if these politicians do actually intend to provide protection for all the children, barring those innocents who fall under their unethical “exceptions,” what argument can they use to press their case?
They have already subscribed to the fundamental lie of Roe v. Wade and are thereby neutralized from providing any persuasive arguments for the protection of any “non-persons.” The truth of personhood is gone and the unrestricted slaughter of children continues.
Only unity in the truth can provide the grace and power to shatter the lies and violence enveloping our country.
As we can see, Caesar is back, but arrayed in some stunning new “pro-life” clothing. In the final analysis, whether its applied to legislation or candidates, “pro-life with exceptions” means “nonpersonhood for preborn children,” conformity with Roe v. Wade, and therefore unrestricted abortion through nine months of pregnancy. This rhetorical diversion has sadly worked just as effectively on pro-lifers as “choice” has on the general public.
In her April 27 column, Colleen Parro, Executive Director of the Republican National Coalition for Life, exposes this problem in reference to our most recent and prominent pro-life capitulation. She states “the idea [President] Bush was going to be a ‘pro-life President’ was solely the creation of certain national pro-life and religious leaders … [Bush] never said he intended to do anything to end abortion.”
For many years now, elements of the pro-life leadership, primarily the National Right to Life Committee, have sincerely thought it prudent to drastically compromise fundamental truth.
Heralding a supposedly clever, yet intrinsically flawed, pragmatic strategy, they have unapologetically promoted ethically questionable legislative proposals, expressed indifference on abortion-causing “contraceptives,” voiced “no objection” to federally imposed population control measures, and run interference for pro-abortion Republican candidates (with some generous financial help from the GOP, of course).
Retreats and defeats have characterized this “pragmatic” approach for the last 27 years.
The cornerstone pro-life principle of personhood has been increasingly removed from the consciousness of America; moral absolutes have become a relic of our public life, leaving our pre-born children exposed to the wiles of fuzzy, self-centered opinion.
The debate over abortion has “incrementally” digressed over time from whether it is ethical to kill preborn children, to when such a murder can take place, to how the children can be killed, and beyond. Though the moral grounds for such pragmatism are only questionable, prudentially, such an approach should be clearly rejected as counterproductive.
It is time for a new approach. Only unity in the truth, in word and deed, as an end and a means, can provide the grace and power to shatter the lies and violence enveloping our country.
This is not an “all or nothing” approach, but one where “regular consecutive advances do not contradict or detract from the personhood principle.”
Recognizing that the truth, and not any particular political party, is a permanent entity instituted by God, it is only natural that, should a political party refuse to recognize fundamental truth, such a party has no right to exist.
Our allegiance is to the Truth, who is ultimately Jesus Christ, who instructs us that only “the truth will set you free.”
Patrick Delaney is director of public policy for the American Life League in Stafford, Virginia.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Patrick Delaney ----- KEYWORD: Commentary -------- TITLE: In Huntington Beach, Evidence of Things Hoped For DATE: 06/17/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 17-23, 2001 ----- BODY:Atheists and agnostics surround me.
They pop up at unexpected moments, tempering their doubt and disbelief with a generous dollop of pity for the naïve believer. Secure in my faith, I reciprocate, feeling a touch of sorrow, a twinge of incomprehension. How can a person not believe? I don't get it.
It was with that familiar feeling of comfortable faith that I drove to the Shroud Center of Southern California. My knowledge about the Shroud of Turin was about as deep as that of most Catholics': I knew that the cloth has an image of unexplainable media and origin showing a crucified male corpse, and that many believe the ancient sheet to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ. I was also well aware that, a few years ago, a carbon-14 test claimed to prove that the cloth was only a few hundred years old, not 2,000, meaning it was nothing more than some kind of medieval artistry.
If I want to believe it's the burial cloth of Christ, I said to myself as I turned off the freeway, that's what I'm going to do — science or no. At the same time, though, I wondered what I would encounter. Would my firmness of faith be validated or shaken?
My first visit to the Shroud Center of Southern California — one of two shroud centers in the state, and more than a dozen across the country — was a private one. Volunteers Steve and Nancy Bolettieri led me through the two exhibit rooms, readily answering my questions and explaining their own fascination with the Shroud of Turin. Steve told me that his interest in the artifact began when, at nine years old, he received a holy card of the Holy Face that had been touched to the shroud.
For the purposes of a standard visit, the Bolettieris condense hundreds of thousands of hours of scientific research into about two hours. They begin in the smaller of the two rooms with a history of the shroud, emphasizing those aspects of its travels that have been supported by scientific research as well as by Scripture.
Eyes of Faith
It quickly became clear to me that the Bolettieris are, at once, scholars and believers. Pollen and flowers found in the fibers of the cloth, they explained, come from Jerusalem, France, Spain and Iran. Iran? I asked. It turns out that, according to tradition, the apostle Jude Thaddeus carried it there to heal a king of leprosy.
The “three-in-one” weave found in the shroud, Steve pointed out, is not typical for a burial cloth of the first century. It would have been much more costly than the usual fabric. His explanation? Simple. Just read Matthew 27:57-60. The cloth, along with the grave in which Jesus was laid, was donated by Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy man.
The Bolettieris are not above asking exam-style questions that can put a cradle Catholic — you know, the kind who occasionally takes her faith for granted — on the spot. Who is shown in this picture? What feast is on August 15? What does St. Jude Thaddeus wear around his neck? Their enthusiasm is part of what makes the Shroud Center experience so affecting.
And then there's the photo of the cloth itself. The Bolettieris showed me how the image is not two-dimensional, like a painting, but three-dimensional, like an impression made from the radiation of a real body. They also showed me how the image on the cloth is the equivalent of a photographic negative, reminding me that photography was not invented until the 19th century. And they encouraged me to look closely to see that the image is skeletal, revealing teeth behind a closed mouth, and the bones of thumbs that are hidden by hands.
Once we reached the second room, the quizzing fell by the wayside. It was here that I felt overwhelmed by a sense of wonder.
This room — dark and chilly, bringing to mind the sepulcher the women entered Easter morning, only to find Jesus' body was missing — exhibits transparencies of the cloth set permanently against lightboxes. Here you can see a life-size image of the cloth, showing not only the face of Christ but also his body, front and back (he was laid on the cloth, which was twice as long as his body, and then the top half of the cloth was pulled over him). You can see the blood stains from the wrists and from the heart, and the patches of linen that were burned in fires over the centuries.
A ‘Fifth Gospel’
The longer I stood in the center, the more breathless I felt. Despite the carbon-14 tests (and knowing that carbon-14 testing is not always reliable), I felt totally confident in believing the image was not a painting. Still, though, my ignorant faith could not see exactly what the big deal was. Of course it's Christ, I thought to myself.
Perhaps, though, I was more doubtful than I realized.
The final transparency in that second room is of the shroud with light shining behind it. You would expect the image to block light, so that at least the outlines of the face and body would stand out against the brilliantly lit fabric.
But when light shines through the Shroud of Turin, there is no image. The blood stains are there, blocking the light, the holes are still evident. But there is no image: It is not on the cloth; it's in the cloth.
“The Gospels are the perfect written word,” said the Bolettieris. “This is the perfect visual Word. It's the Fifth Gospel.”
My faith may still be ignorant, but I am more knowledgeable than I was; my feelings about the Shroud of Turin are no longer of the “You can't tell me what to believe, you crazy scientists” variety, and my reaction to the atheists I bump into will, I think, be changed by my visit to the Shroud Center of Southern California.
I won't feel incomprehension anymore, but dis-belief in their disbelief. When faced with a miracle like the Shroud of Turin, how could anyone doubt the existence of God? How could they doubt that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God?
I blithely believed at first, but now I know better — I've seen and heard the evidence for myself. And my faith, thanks to the experience, is nothing short of unshakeable.
Elisabeth Deffner writes from Orange, California.
----- EXCERPT: The Shroud Center of Southern California ----- EXTENDED BODY: Elisabeth Deffner ----- KEYWORD: Travel -------- TITLE: Who Stole My Web Site? DATE: 06/17/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 17-23, 2001 ----- BODY:Maintaining an online Catholic directory can be challenging.
Sites move. Dead links have to be removed. Newly submitted links need to be reviewed before being added to the database.
Given all the maintenance and attention it takes to keep the monksofadoration.org directory upto-date, I wasn't surprised when somebody e-mailed me to say I had a “bad link” under my Hunger category. It seemed something was wrong with the Aid to the Church in Need site. Normally, I interpret “bad” to mean “dead” when it's used in reference to an Internet link. So I filed the e-mail in my non-urgent to-do folder.
A couple of weeks later, the same person e-mailed to ask if I had removed that “bad link.” I explained that I hadn't yet found the time; nor had I forgotten about it. He responded by conveying, with great urgency, that the link was “really bad.” It became clear that he wasn't referring to a technical aspect of the link or the site — he was referring to its content.
Now I know that Aid to the Church in Need is a very good Catholic organization. It was started by Norbertine Father Werenfried van Straaten in the 1940s, and is recognized by the Church as a Universal Public Association of the Faithful. The organization's goal is to try to help Catholics in need wherever they are repressed or persecuted, and therefore prevented from living according to their faith. The group offers financial support to more than 8,000 projects worldwide. In the past its people did much to help the Church behind the former Iron Curtain. I couldn't see what my e-mail correspondent could possibly be so concerned about.
Off I went to the site to find out. I entered the Web address I had listed for the organization — an obvious, intuitive address based on the name of the organization — and a plain purple page downloaded with a hyperlinked “Enter” button. I clicked on it … and was taken to a site dedicated to pornography. I exited posthaste, went to a search engine and keyed in “Aid to the Church in Need.” This gave me their new location, www.kirche-innot.org. Needless to say, I immediately updated my directory.
That problem solved, I could now rest easy. Or so I thought. Within a week, a priest alerted me to the link I had for Schoenstatt, a solid, international Marian movement with diverse branches for both laity and priests. Again, the address was intuitive and obvious, and based on the name of the movement. And, again, it led to pornography. I found their correct location, www. execpc.com/schoenstatteditionsusa, and updated my directory.
After getting a heads-up on a third incident of this kind, this one on the former site of the Oklahoma Catholic, I figured out what was going on. A number of good Catholic organizations had let the rights to their original domain names expire — and pornographic-site operators had snatched up the domain names. Unfortunately, this is perfectly legal if they haven't acquired a trademark or service mark for their organization. There was little the Catholic groups could do once the new owners had sneakily taken over their domains on the Internet.
Why were the pornographers targeting specifically Catholic domain names for takeovers? After all, the names of these sites were not suggestive or even remotely related to pornography. It could only be a campaign of mischievous cyber-vandalism against the Church.
Another derivation on this domain-name game was brought to my attention recently. A Catholic woman informed me that someone had bought up all the domain names similar to her Web-page address (or URL, for Uniform Resource Locator), including different name endings such as .com, .net and .org. Then they redirected these URLs not to pornographic sites, but to sites that spoke against this woman's Web site.
What's a Catholic Web master to do? First, don't let your domain name expire. When you set up your site, pick a domain name that you will keep.
If it's too late, and you've already been victimized, it is possible to track down the people who have abused your former domain name and ask them to stop. Quite a few cyber pranksters back down as soon as they are confronted. One way to trace the individuals behind the mischief is to go to www.inter-nic.com and select the Registry WHOIS link. Type in the domain name you had before and follow the instructions.
You can also try the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) at www.icann.org and click on the Domain-Name Dispute Resolution link.
Here you will find a wealth of information on the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, which was adopted October 24, 1999, by ICANN. Most domain-name registrants are subject to this policy because it is incorporated into their registration agreements.
Plus you can learn about the federal Anti-cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, which was enacted Nov. 29, 1999. Cybersquatting and Cyberpiracy laws apply to anyone who profits from, or does harm to, a trademark or service mark of another by registration, trafficking in, or use of a domain name identical or confusingly similar to the trademark.
For further discussion of both these policies see Hunter Tonry's article at www.estoel.com/ resources/ebiz_0014.shtm.
Brother John Raymond is the author of Catholics on the Internet and Web master of www.monksofadoration.org.
----- EXCERPT: Unguarded Web addresses are vulnerable to "domain theft" ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brother John Raymond ----- KEYWORD: Arts & Culture -------- TITLE: Monthly Web Picks DATE: 06/17/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 17-23, 2001 ----- BODY:Since we've discussed pornography this month, here are some recommended sites that encourage a healthy and moral understanding of human sexuality: E “The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality: Guidelines for Education within the Family,” put out by the Pontifical Council for the Family in 1995, can be found at www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pon tifical_councils/family/index.htm. E Real Love Productions, featuring talks given by Mary Beth Bonacci, is at www.reallove.net. Bonacci addresses key issues facing young people and, in fact, all of us, with regard to faith, chastity and our culture. She holds a master's degree in the theology of marriage and family from the John Paul II Institute at Lateran University.
E The inspiring 28-page newspaper www.Lovematters.com, aimed primarily at teens and college students, likewise contains helpful and exhortative information useful to grownups as well as adolescents. E Sufferers of pornography addiction will find help and encouragement to break their addiction at the Catholic Support Group for Recovery from Pornography Addiction (CSGPA), located at www.saint-mike.org. You don't need to be a member to read the posts in the message board, but you need to register in order to post. E Enough is Enough at www.enough.org lights the way for protecting children and families from the dangers of illegal pornography and online predators. A related site, the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families, can be found at www.nationalcoalition.org.
For Catholic information on other sexuality-related issues, see the Sexuality listings at www.monksofadoration.org/sexualty.html.
— Brother John Raymond
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brother John Raymond ----- KEYWORD: Arts & Culture -------- TITLE: Weekly Videos DATE: 06/17/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 17-23, 2001 ----- BODY:The Sea Gypsies (1978)
A strong affirmation of family values set against a background of startling landscapes is still a surefire guarantee of superior entertainment for children and adults alike.
The Sea Gypsies, written and directed by Stewart Rafill (The Adventures of the Wilderness Family) focuses on an around-the-world sea voyage by a father Travis Maclaine (Robert Logan) and his daughters Courtney (Heather Rattray) and Samantha (Shannon Saylor).
Also on board is Kelly (Mikki Jamison-Olsen). He's a freelance writer who's covering their trip for a magazine.
The difficulties begin with the discovery of Jesse (Cjon Damiki Patterson), an orphaned stowaway and, as the group is deciding what to do, a major-league storm destroys their boat.
Things quickly go from bad to worse.
Shipwrecked, they're forced to survive in the wilderness of an uninhabited island of great beauty off the Alaska coast.
Monsieur Vincent (1947)
One of the Vatican's top 45 films, presents St. Vincent de Paul (Pierre Fresnay) as a first-rate organizer with an often difficult personality. He shows little patience for people who ignore those in need.
The action begins in 1617. Vincent is a village parish priest who bullies and cajoles his flock into feeding and sheltering needy women and children. As word of his good works spreads throughout France, groups of religious and lay people are organized to help him expand his mission. Director Maurice Cloche shows how the saint's intense energy is balanced by an active prayer life and respect for the Church hierarchy.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORD: Arts & Culture -------- TITLE: Bioethics Faculty a Trailblazer in Academia DATE: 06/17/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 17-23, 2001 ----- BODY:ROME — The world's first faculty of bioethics will be inaugurated this October.
It is an initiative of the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical Athenaeum, an ecclesiastical university center that operates in Rome and near New York.
The new faculty and its students will study such issues as euthanasia, genetic engineering and genetic tests, which challenge scientists and doctors, as well as lawmakers, philosophers and theologians.
Zenit interviewed Legionary Father Paolo Scarafoni, rector of Regina Apostolorum, about the new faculty's objectives.
Why is an ecclesiastical university center like the Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum concerned with the topic of bioethics to such an extent that it creates a faculty?
The apostolic constitution “Sapientia Christiana,” the pontifical document that guides the activities of ecclesiastical universities, requests that the latter not be dedicated solely to philosophy and theology, but that they be able to address current problems of great interest for the Church and society, in light of Revelation.
Undoubtedly, at present one of the areas of greatest interest are the problems linked to biomedical sciences, and behavior related to human life and life in general, in other words, the field of bioethics. This is the reason we have been concerned about this for years, in particular, by offering a master's course in bioethics — in cooperation with the Bioethics Center of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart — and by organizing some congresses on these topics.
But, why create a faculty of bioethics?
Bioethics has become a genuine academic discipline, which calls for serious dedication to study and research. Moreover, this discipline has a marked interdisciplinary character, requiring the interaction of different areas of learning, such as philosophy, medicine, law and also theology.
We thought that the best, and virtually the only, way to acquire adequate preparation in this field would be to institute a formative curriculum, which would establish the bases in each one of those sectors, and then add bioethical reflection to them.
Of course, graduate studies, congresses, study seminars, etc., are very interesting, but their very temporal limitation does not allow for that interdisciplinary and profound preparation that we wish to give the students of our faculty, through an ambitious and adequately long program.
Lastly, bioethics is increasingly required at the professional level, which means that, henceforth, there is a need to have a corresponding university degree that guarantees the adequate preparation of professionals in bioethics.
To whom does the faculty appeal and what is the content of its formative program?
The faculty opens its doors to all those interested in issues of bioethics, the promotion of health, and defense of life. Youths who wish to dedicate themselves professionally to bio-ethics, or professionals in areas more directly related to life, particularly priests, catechists and other pastoral care agents, who are especially committed to proclaiming the Gospel of life.
The formative program consists of three cycles: the bachelor's degree, licentiate and doctorate. In the two years of the bachelor's degree — preceded by an introductory year for those coming from pre-university studies — the foundations are established in the fields of philosophy, theology, medicine and law, and a comprehensive and rigorous knowledge of bioethical topics is acquired.
The object of the licentiate is further study and specialization, which will enable the student to be a professional in bioethics. The doctorate consists primarily of writing a research thesis, which offers a new contribution in the realm of this discipline.
It is interesting that the first faculty of bioethics in the world is established in an ecclesiastical university. What characteristics will the faculty have?
Well, the first characteristic is, precisely, that it is a faculty, as you yourself say, the first in the world, and, therefore, the first to be able to offer, at the university level, both formation and the corresponding degrees.
In addition, it seems to me that it is significant that this first faculty of bioethics is established in a university that is not only ecclesiastical but pontifical. This is proof that the Catholic Church, its institutions, and living forces, are always concerned with new problems and man's aspirations.
Bioethics has become an exciting field of dialogue and debate around some issues that affect all of us, such as health, respect for the human person, and life.
The Church has much to say in these areas, and wishes to say it in open dialogue with all. Our faculty of bioethics can be yet another instrument for this task, operating in full harmony with the magisterium of the Church, in the sincere search for truth.
----- EXCERPT: Interview With Rector of Regina Apostolorum Pontifical Athenaeum ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Education -------- TITLE: An American Ambassador and His Pope DATE: 06/17/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 17-23, 2001 ----- BODY:From his first encounter with Cardinal Karol Wojtyla in a Boston parish in 1969, Ray Flynn recalls, he knew there was “something special” about the Polish prelate.
Flynn, who would later be named U.S. ambassador to the Vatican by President Bill Clinton, would next meet the churchman 10 years later — when he returned to Boston as Pope John Paul II. Again, he says, he was impressed.
After kissing the Pope's ring, I said, “It is good to see you again, Holy Father.”
“Again?” He looked surprised.
“I met you once before, on your visit to Boston, in 1969.”
Now, the pope smiled in recognition. “St. Adalbert's … Cardinal Cushing,” he said.
I was impressed by his memory and quick recall.
Flynn's is a different kind of Pope book than we have seen; it's not an analysis of John Paul's life or thought so much as a collection of personal memories from an American politician who has had unique access to the Vatican.
Flynn recalls the Holy Father's visits to the United States, noting the Pope's immense appeal even to non-Catholics. He recounts, for example, how he excited a packed Madison Square Garden “like a rock and roll singer” and how zestfully President Jimmy Carter sang his praises.
Looking back on his ambassadorial appointment, Flynn writes: “I accepted the appointment because it would allow me an opportunity to get to know John Paul II, this man I had become fascinated with from a distance.”
Readers who pick up Ray Flynn's memoir hoping for an explanation of why a devoutly Catholic, publicly pro-life family man would agree to represent an adamantly pro-abortion White House will be frustrated. Flynn's chapter on the United Nations' conference in Cairo on population and his subsequent relationship with both the Clinton administration and Vatican officials may, for some, add to the confusion.
Flynn recalls that, although Bill Clinton played “Mr. Safe, Legal and Rare” during his campaign for the presidency, once he took office, he “proved to be anything but moderate when it came to abortion.” Translation: Flynn felt duped.
Flynn explains how, when Pope John Paul II pulled no punches at the Cairo conference, the U.S. State Department sent out a memo prior to the conference, stating, “[T]he United States believes access to safe, legal and voluntary abortion is a fundamental right of all women.” Flynn was called to Washington to be briefed on that policy by point-man Tim Wirth, known for having a condom tree in his State Department office.
Wirth had Flynn's name taken off the list of delegates to the Cairo conference once Flynn spoke his mind. And when the Holy Father, troubled by the United States' anti-life lobbying, asked Flynn to get the president on the phone for him, Flynn had to go to the White House and hold a sit-in until someone would even hear his request — which was not taken kindly.
Why he did not resign in the summer of 1994 is unclear, though surely his love for the Pope had much to do with his resolve. In the stories he recounts here, what comes through is a man who in many ways, as ambassador, identified less with his own country's leadership than he did with that of the city-state he was sent to.
Whatever you think of Ray Flynn and his politics (which prompted him to include a snide remark or two about Republicans in the book), John Paul II is an enjoyable read for anyone eager to encounter John Paul, the man.
Kathryn Jean Lopez is associate editor of National Review (www.nationalreview.com).
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kathryn Jean Lopez ----- KEYWORD: Books -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 06/17/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 17-23, 2001 ----- BODY:Nun Who Saved La Roche College Dies
In 1969 Sister Mahler became president of La Roche College, which was on the verge of shutting down due to financial turmoil and a post-Vatican II plunge in the number of vocations to the order.
Sister Mahler slashed costs, raised money, and made the school coeducational. When she left in 1975 to become general superior of the order, La Roche had an enrollment over 700, a balanced budget and full academic accreditation.
Steubenville Speakers
FRANCISCAN UNIVERSITY OF STEUBENVILLE, May 15 — Baltimore Cardinal William Keeler and Illinois Congressman Henry J. Hyde addressed Franciscan University of Steubenville's largest-ever graduating class, the university announced.
Hyde received an honorary doctor of laws degree for advocating pro-life legislation.
Cardinal Keeler received an honorary doctor of pedagogy degree.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Education -------- TITLE: Family Matters DATE: 06/17/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 17-23, 2001 ----- BODY:Installment Sales
Q There is a store in town that will allow us to buy furniture with no money down and no interest for six months. We're tempted, but we aren't sure. What do you think?
A You're asking about what the sales industry calls “installment sales.”
The ability to purchase $5,000 or more in home furnishings with no cash out of pocket is too irresistible for many Americans, and companies like the one you mentioned are fully aware of this. The installment sale is a tool they use to boost revenues by selling to people who otherwise can't afford to purchase their products. The problems with installment sales include the following: E The limited up-front cash commitment and low monthly payment entice customers to buy more than they can afford. If buying on installment becomes habitual, it most often leads to crushing levels of consumer debt, with dire consequences for the family. E Many financing plans carry interest rates of 20% or more. While no payment may be required for six months, in many cases interest begins accruing immediately, substantially increasing the cost of the purchase.
E With an installment sale, there is a presumption that you'll be able to meet the required future monthly obligations. Proverbs 22:26-27 reminds us, “Be not one of those who gives pledges, who become surety for debts. If you have nothing with which to pay, why should your bed be taken from under you?”
E In many cases, companies offering installment sales actually have higher prices than other companies because they have to cover losses associated with delinquent accounts. In addition to paying 20% interest, you may be paying substantially more for the item to begin with.
One example comes to mind. A well-known retailer offered a set of cookware for $69.97 with payment in full at the time of sale. Another retailer offered the same cookware on an installment plan that totaled $206.82 over a year and a half.
With that said, there can be times where installment sales make sense. A good example is when an automobile manufacturer has a glut of inventory and develops incentive programs to reduce inventory levels. While I encourage people to save and pay cash for a car, in cases like this it can make sense to leave the money in the bank earning more interest than you are paying to the finance company.
In most cases however, you'll find yourselves much better off saving ahead and paying cash for your purchases rather than falling into the trap of installment sales.
God love you!
Phil Lenahan is managing director of Catholic Answers.
Reach Family Matters at familymatters@ncregister.com
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Phil Lenahan ----- KEYWORD: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Facts of Life DATE: 06/17/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 17-23, 2001 ----- BODY:WORLD'S TINIEST
Christopher Williams, born in London Nov. 21 at 1 lb., 5 ozs., weighed less at birth than any other single-birth baby on record. A Register reader says that Christa Marie Buehler, born June 17, 1999, really holds the record at 1 lb., 3 ozs. (See letters to the editor.) At birth, she was about one and a half inches shorter than the cartoon strip to the right. The lightest twin on record, 13 ozs., was born in Australia in 1993.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: On Holiness And Fatherhood DATE: 06/17/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 17-23, 2001 ----- BODY:Every Day Is Father's Day for Eucharistic Dads
Many of us grew up in a time when the American father's primary responsibility within the family was financial.
Dad worked hard all day and came home to rest in the early evening. For the most part, he limited his parenting to the role of decision-maker on important family issues. Dad was also in charge of discipline. All of us remember Mom saying, “Just wait until your father comes home.” Fortunately, the anticipated punishment was hardly ever as bad as you had imagined.
While many of us had special moments with our fathers, these encounters tended to be fairly few and far between. Where Mom was the ever-present nurturer and teacher, Dad was the special-occasion specialist. Although it would be inaccurate to lump all fathers together into this stereotype, it's safe to say that most American fathers saw their chief role as that of breadwinner.
Is this concept of “Dear Old Dad” compatible with the Christian concept of father-hood? Just what is the most important role of a Christian father within the family, anyway? These seem important questions to consider prior to June 17, Father's Day — which, this year, happens to coincide with the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, Corpus Christi.
In his book Gift and Mystery, Pope John Paul II outlines the primary role of a father within the family by reflecting on the impact that his own father had on his life. The Holy Father describes the lasting impression his father made on him: “My father [was] a deeply religious man. Day after day I was able to observe the austere way in which he lived. By profession he was a soldier and, after my mother's death, his life became one of constant prayer. Sometimes I would wake up during the night and find my father on his knees, just as I would always see him kneeling in the parish church.”
The Pope illustrates with this simple example that the foremost responsibility of a Christian father, whatever his other priorities might be, is to be a homo Dei - a man of God.
Any father who accepts the challenge of carrying this essential mantle needs to know well the answers to three questions: What does it mean to be a man of God? What is such a man's mission? And what are his most salient virtues?
First, a homo Dei is a man who becomes a friend of God by living his baptismal promises. He anchors his identity as a Christian father in the Eucharist, which brings to perfection his baptismal promises. In his Apostolic letter Patres Ecclesiae, (On the Fathers of the Church) the Holy Father notes this key relationship between baptism and the Eucharist: “The Eucharist is seen as the fullness of baptism, since it alone makes it possible to live faithfully in accordance with one's baptismal obligations and continually to put into effect the power of its grace.” For this reason, a father becomes a committed Christian through the Eucharist.
To be a Christian dad carries with it one crucial responsibility: to help each member of the family to know and to love God above all else. This means helping everyone in his household discover the will of God in his life. To teach anyone, even our family, about the love and knowledge of God, and to help them discover their vocation in life, is not an easy task. How does a father fulfil such a challenging obligation? He needs to ask Jesus Christ daily in the Holy Eucharist for the virtues of prudence, fortitude and charity. Every dad understands the daily challenge of knowing what to say, how to say it and when to say it, when it comes to giving guidance to someone in his family. This is why a true homo Dei needs prudence.
Christian prudence concerns itself with all the details of our daily life by discerning everything in the presence of God. To act prudently from a practical standpoint requires three conditions: mature deliberation, a wise choice and right execution. If a father keeps these three conditions in mind when relating to his family, he will certainly know how to guide them in the right direction.
However, prudence alone will not solve all the problems that a Christian family may face in a secular world. Even the best of families have their share of difficulties. That's why Christian families need fathers well-formed in the virtue of fortitude. Fortitude gives fathers the necessary strength of soul, strength of character and spiritual vigor to pursue always the moral good for their families without being deterred by the many difficulties they may encounter.
What does fortitude demand of an authentic homo Dei? First, it demands determination to seek at all cost the moral good of the family, which may imply many sacrifices. Courage and generosity are needed in putting forth all the personal effort that a peculiar difficulty the family may call for. And steadfastness is needed to prolong as long as necessary the effort to overcome any problem that may endanger the moral good of the family. A truly wise father will always realize that his fortitude does not come from himself, but from God. He will encounter strength of character principally in the worthy reception of the Holy Eucharist.
A father's witness as a homo Dei within his family will be convincing only if he lives the virtue of charity. Charity for a dad means loving his family as God loves them. We know that God's love is personal. A father's love should be personal, too. Dad's love is personal when he becomes a vital part of each ones life in his family. This occurs when he knows each member's strengths, limitations, needs, fears and aspirations. In other words, he's there to support, to motivate and to offer the best of himself to everyone in his family along their journey toward the love and knowledge of God.
Every year, Father's Day reminds us that our dads are special because every family needs a homo Dei. This year, Father's Day reminds dads themselves that help is available in the form of the body and blood of Jesus.
Father Andrew McNair teaches at Mater Ecclesiae International Center of Studies in Greenville, Rhode Island.
----- EXCERPT: The Holy Father ----- EXTENDED BODY: Andrew Mcnair LC ----- KEYWORD: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: One Doctor's Hope for the Poor DATE: 06/17/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 17-23, 2001 ----- BODY:YPSILANTI, Mich. — During 35 years of serving the poor, Dr. Daniel Heffernan has learned some simple lessons.
“If you look for a need and try to fill it, things will start happening. God does it,” said the Catholic physician from Plymouth, Mich.
Another key is that God speaks through others. “At least he's done that with me,”
Heffernan started a medical outreach to migrant workers in Midland, Mich., and a clinic in Ypsilanti (near Detroit) that blossomed into a dozen programs for the needy. He recently added an international medical outreach to Nicaragua.
On the side, he has been involved in prison ministry.
All the while, the family practitioner kept up his full-time medical practice in Ypsilanti until he retired last January.
But he did not retire from serving the poor at Ypsilanti's Hope Clinic where he still sees patients twice a week and serves as president of Hope Center, which runs a food bank, a free laundry service, a dental clinic, a shopping service and a restaurant for the indigent.
Combined, Hope agencies serve around 3,000 people a year, according to Executive Director Cathy Robinson. “A year-and-a-half ago, with 45 people jamming the clinic on Saturday mornings, we opened up a Wednesday slot.” Soon, Wednesday times were crowded, too. “We serve up to our capacity. We could always serve more,” she said.
Heffernan first attempted to meet the medical needs of the poor after he had been practicing medicine about 10 years in Midland. He and wife Beverly met some migrant workers through their involvement with the Catholic Family Movement there.
“We were invited to meet a group of Mexican-American migrants who came to Michigan each year to harvest the sugar-beet crop,” he said. “We'd go out and visit, take them to church and our kids would play ball with their kids. I saw they had a terrible need for medical care that was going completely unmet.”
So Heffernan and one of his nurses took a station wagon full of vitamins and antibiotics and ace bandages out to the migrants to provide care. Soon the demand was so great the doctor had to open an after-hours clinic and, finally, move the service to nearby public health facilities.
“We had volunteer nurses and pharmacy reps, we had interns and residents and students and people who did clerical work. We did very little to make it happen, it just sort of sprang up.”
The clinic continued for the entire decade of the 60s until it was taken over by agencies that used “significant” federal funding to accomplish the same thing.
“That frustrated me a bit, but I realized it wasn't really something I had done in the first place, God had started it,” said the physician.
A few years later, the Heffernans moved to Ann Arbor, Mich. so that Dan could join other Christian physicians in a family practice. His practice was going well and he was beginning to take on responsibility in a prayer group when he was abruptly faced with a new challenge.
“I went on retreat with some people from the prayer group. I visited the chapel and prayerfully received the strong impression that I was becoming a ‘fat cat.’ It was as if the Lord was telling me, ‘I don't have any use for fat cats.’”
Heffernan said he asked God what he should do.
Within a few weeks, three people approached him separately with unsolicited suggestions. “One asked if I could come down to minister to prisoners in the jail. Another asked if I had considered starting a free medical clinic. And yet another shared a personal experience that made me realize I should take God's call to be generous very seriously.”
Heffernan said he was sure God was answering his prayer for direction.
“Within a short period of time we got started with a Saturday morning walk-in clinic for the indigent. Some good Christian women started sending home-baked bread and rolls. Soon, someone else was sending fresh eggs. Without me even thinking about it, our food bank began,” he related.
When a deacon from his parish, Mike Leverington, started visiting the jails, Dr. Heffernan came along. Soon other ministries were starting up.
He hired Cathy Robinson, a social worker who was then managing a homeless shelter in Ann Arbor, to manage services associated with the clinic. Soon other doctors and dentists were also joining Heffernan.
“Docs are very busy people. It takes some doing to convince a doctor to use his spare time to practice medicine,” laughed Heffernan. “But some of the Christian physicians in my practice were very generous.”
During its 20 years of operation, Hope has received countless kudos and awards from Catholic parishes and local social service agencies.
Father James McDougall of St. Francis Assisi Parish in nearby Ann Arbor has worked with Hope Clinic for almost 8 years.
“I have found that they do an excellent job working with the poor in our area. We do we all can to support them, not only financially but also by making sure that the people in our parish — especially professionals — know about Hope so they can share their talents and gifts and so build up the body of Christ,” he said.
Denise Brown of Christian Love Fellowship, a predominately African-American church in Ypsilanti, also praised Hope's work among the poor. “We refer people to them regularly. We send people to their new restaurant, Oasis, that serves the needy.”
Andrea (Hope asks the media to use only the first names of its clients.), an Ypsilanti mother of three, likes the atmosphere at Hope's Shop With Pride, which she visits every week to find items she can't buy with food stamps. “I love this place. Everyone is so warm and caring that it makes me enjoy coming here,” she said.
Often, those helped by Hope end up giving back by volunteering, said Robinson.
One woman came to Hope after loosing medical coverage when her company went out of business. Shortly afterwards, the woman's troubles were compounded with an automobile accident.
After she recovered with the help of Hope's medical and dental clinics, the woman started volunteering. Now back in the work force, she sends monthly donations.
Mike Frison, pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Ann Arbor, said when he is bringing a new person into his church, he invites them to Oasis, Hope's new restaurant.
“They can see Christianity at work,” he said.
Kate Ernsting werites from Ann Arbor, Michigan.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kate Ernsting ----- KEYWORD: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: LIFE NOTES DATE: 06/17/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 17-23, 2001 ----- BODY:Get Married, Tiger
The newspaper put the question to Nicklaus, who answered: “It will be very difficult for him to keep the focus on what he's doing and what his life is if he does-n't get married and have a family.”
Nicklaus said a bachelor isn't likely to be emotionally strong enough to make golf history. “I look at a lot of guys I started with at the same time who were probably as talented as I was, maybe more, but they were not married, they didn't have the support that I had. They sort of went by the wayside.”
The newspaper headed one section of the article: “Family is best prize of all to Nicklaus.”
Son Saves Mom's Life
Bowen was three months pregnant when a doctor at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., warned that her unborn baby would drain important nutrients and put a strain on her failing kidneys. Bowen delivered a healthy baby, Brandon Clute, three weeks early.
Bowen said, “We are going back to the same place that told us [my son] would kill me and now he is giving me life.”
Testimonies on the Web
PRIESTS FOR LIFE, May 30 — Priests for Life and the Elliot Institute have announced a combined effort to make post-abortive women's testimonies available to the public.
Both groups have collected testimonies and case studies and, with the permission of those who wrote them, the testimonies have been posted at www.priestsforlife.org and the Elliot Institute's www.afterabortion.org.
Launching the resource, Fr. Frank Pavone, Director of Priests for Life, asked, “If abortion supporters believe abortion is a woman's issue, shouldn't they listen to the voices of women who have had abortions?”
Court Forgives Novice
LIFESITE DAILY NEWS, May 30 — The Illinois Court of Appeals recently reversed the trespassing conviction of sidewalk counselor Laura Carroll.
Carroll, now Sister Mary Alix, writing from her convent, said “All Glory to God! I am grateful for the Court's thoughtful and prudent ruling.”
Carroll's “crime” was walking onto an abortion clinic's parking lot to deliver pamphlets.
The appeals court accepted the argument put forward by Carroll's attorneys that she acted because she was invited by a person in the parking lot.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Heaven or Hell? McVeigh's Request for Last Rites DATE: 06/24/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 24-30, 2001 ----- BODY:ANN ARBOR, Mich.—“Does the personification of evil ask for the sacraments?”
That's what Father Michael Orsi, chaplain and research fellow at Ave Maria School of Law, asked himself when he heard reports that Timothy McVeigh, the deadliest mass murderer in American history, had requested the anointing of the sick before his execution June 11.
Father Orsi said, “Everybody's quick to think this guy was the personification of evil. And I thought that too, but then when I saw [that McVeigh requested the sacraments] I had to think.”
Even one of McVeigh's lawyers expressed surprise at his client's request. But Father Ron Ashmore wasn't puzzled. Father Ashmore met McVeigh as part of his work as a chaplain at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind. McVeigh was baptized and confirmed as a Catholic, although before his execution date he had said he would not seek the sacraments.
Father Ashmore said, “I saw Tim in a way that most people have not been able to see Tim. I saw Tim in his goodness, and also in his sinfulness, the horror of what he did.”
Father Ashmore said McVeigh could be “generous, gracious and sensitive”—although he said that most of his knowledge of McVeigh “cannot ever be shared.”
But was McVeigh's request a sign of repentance?
According to his attorneys, when the prison warden asked if he would like a chaplain and the sacraments, McVeigh said, “Sure, send him in.” Even this seemingly halfhearted request contrasted starkly with the public face McVeigh presented in his last days. He was described as “defiant,” and although he had said he regretted the deaths he had caused, he still insisted that he had been justified in bombing the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City.
Father Orsi explained that the sacrament of the anointing of the sick includes a penitential rite which is “very similar to the rite at Mass.” However, it is standard practice for that rite to be replaced with the sacrament of penance.
Both Father Ashmore and Father Orsi said McVeigh would have been informed about what the sacrament meant. “Any pastor would tell the person that part of the efficacy of this rite is that it presumes that you are sorry for your sins,” Father Orsi said. Because of the seal of confession (and prison publicity rules), “we don't know if he went to confession,” Father Orsi noted. “But it's implied that penance is part of this rite.”
Msgr. Francis Mannion, a sacramental theologian and director of the Liturgical Institute at the University of St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein, Ill., added, “I would expect that any priest who is dealing with a death row inmate who has admitted in public to a serious crime would very pointedly raise the matter of the sacrament of penance.”
Father Orsi said McVeigh's “defiant public face” could signify that McVeigh had “invincible ignorance—this person just did not understand the gravity of his actions, or he believed that his purpose in some way mitigated the responsibility for the action.” But even in that case, he said, “implied in the sacrament is that even if I do something which I don't perceive to be sinful, if it was sinful, I'm sorry for it.”
Did the Chair Prompt Penitence?
No one will know what led McVeigh to request the sacrament. But Father Orsi pointed out that “rehabilitation of the criminal” is one of the four goods “traditionally attributed to the death penalty.” (The others are defense of society, deterrence, and just retribution.)
Father Orsi said, “The imminence of death is something that would move someone to conversion. Was the death penalty a good for Timothy McVeigh? Did it bring him into contact with the sacraments?”
He added, “This should cause us to re-evaluate the death penalty, and, to an extent, to re-evaluate Timothy McVeigh. We're very focused on the here and now; we're not looking at the big picture, which of course entails eternity and the immortal soul.”
While Father Orsi suggested that the death penalty spurred McVeigh to repent, Father Ashmore argued that it had cut short the process of repentance: “Given time—which means life—we believe [McVeigh] could come to a point of acknowledgment of his wrong and asking for forgiveness publicly.”
Father Ashmore said, “If you talk about a public apology, he never got there fully, but there were inklings that it was coming,” citing McVeigh's letter to the Buffalo News, his hometown newspaper. McVeigh wrote, “I am sorry these people had to lose their lives. But that's the nature of the beast. It's understood going in what the human toll would be.”
“He was moving slowly to a position where he could publicly acknowledge the hurt and the pain he caused,” Father Ashmore said. “That's one of the reasons our American bishops say that execution is inappropriate. It takes away the time necessary to grow into that conversion of heart.”
Heaven?
Father Ashmore claimed, “In my judgment of hearing Tim in a way not many people were able to, I feel the Lord will take him to the Kingdom.”
Msgr. Mannion noted, “Were I somebody who had committed a serious crime and at the end of my life repented of it, I would expect to spend a great deal of time in purgatory.” But, he pointed out, purgatory is “the process by which we are conformed to Christ.”
The priest added, “No matter how serious the crime is, nobody who is truly repentant is beyond the reach of God's redemptive power. God sees into the heart of the person who has committed the crime better than we can.”
Chad Steener, an evangelical Protestant, rented a billboard in Terre Haute to proclaim, “Pray for McVeigh.” And McVeigh's childhood parish church, Good Shepherd in Pendleton, N.Y., offered a Mass for him at the hour of his execution.
What was the effect of those prayers? In a trial and execution that became a media blitz, the most important event was off-camera, in the silence or confession of a killer's heart.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Anointing of the Sick DATE: 06/24/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 24-30, 2001 ----- BODY:The Catechism of the Catholic Church on the sacrament of the sick:
1526 “Is any among you sick? Let him call for the presbyters of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven” (James 5:14-15).
1527 The sacrament of Anointing of the Sick has as its purpose the conferral of a special grace on the Christian experiencing the difficulties inherent in the condition of grave illness or old age.
1528 The proper time for receiving this holy anointing has certainly arrived when the believer begins to be in danger of death because of illness or old age.
1529 Each time a Christian falls seriously ill, he may receive the Anointing of the Sick, and also when, after he has received it, the illness worsens.
1530 Only priests (presbyters and bishops) can give the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick, using oil blessed by the bishop, or if necessary by the celebrating presbyter himself.
1531 The celebration of the Anointing of the Sick consists essentially in the anointing of the forehead and hands of the sick person (in the Roman Rite) or of other parts of the body (in the Eastern rite), the anointing being accompanied by the liturgical prayer of the celebrant asking for the special grace of this sacrament.
1532 The special grace of the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick has as its effects: E the uniting of the sick person to the passion of Christ, for his own good and that of the whole Church; E the strengthening, peace, and courage to endure in a Christian manner the sufferings of illness or old age; E the forgiveness of sins, if the sick person was not able to obtain it through the sacrament of Penance; E the restoration of health, if it is conducive to the salvation of his soul;
E the preparation for passing over to eternal life.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Court Decision Won't End Confusion For Catholics DATE: 06/24/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 24-30, 2001 ----- BODY:SEATTLE—Will Catholic employers have to cover the birth control pill in theirs employee health plans?
Even after a federal court ruled on contraception coverage, no one knows.
On June 12, a U.S. District judge handed down the first federal ruling that an employer who refused to cover prescription contraceptives was guilty of sex discrimination.
The case, Erickson v. Bartell, concerned a Seattle-based drug company whose employee health plan covered abortions but not prescription contraceptives. Jennifer Erickson, a Bartell pharmacist, filed a sex-discrimination suit on the grounds that prescription contraceptives are only used by women.
But the case left more questions than it answered.
U.S. District Judge Robert S. Lasnik's decision said: “[W]hen an employer decides to offer a prescription plan covering everything except a few specifically excluded drugs and devices, it has a legal obligation to make sure that the resulting plan does not discriminate based on sex-based characteristics and that it provides equally comprehensive coverage for both sexes.”
The point of contention is the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, which prohibits discrimination based on “pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.” In December, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled that this prohibition meant that two employers must cover contraceptives in their health plans. That decision does not affect any other companies, although Lasnik cited it as a precedent in his decision.
The ruling only applies to those employers who employ more than 15 people, and whose health plans cover preventative medicine.
The National Women's Law Center announced, “Employers who are not in compliance [with the ruling] risk private lawsuits like the Erickson case as well as EEOC enforcement action.”
The Center for Reproductive Law and Politics, a pro-abortion legal group, refused to comment for this story.
Religious Freedom at Stake
In his decision, Lasnik found the time to footnote Bob Dylan lyrics, but chose not to address the question most important to employers with religious reasons for excluding contraceptive coverage: How will this decision affect me?
As with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruling, the new decision nowhere addresses how this law might affect employers with religious or moral objections to covering contraception.
William E. May, professor of moral theology at the John Paul II Institute in Washington, D.C., said that the ruling should have included “a conscience clause,” specifying that employers can follow their religious beliefs on contraception.
Without that clause, he warned, the ruling could lead to “coercing a Catholic company, like the Knights of Columbus,” to cover contraception. “That infringes on their religious liberty. It violates the First Amendment.”
Bartell Drugs claimed no moral objections to contraception, In fact, Jean Bartell Barber, the company's chief financial officer, issued a statement saying, “It was never our intention to discriminate and we had planned to offer contraceptive coverage well before this judgment.”
Barber added, “Last year we offered to provide prescription contraceptive coverage for Jennifer Erickson and other non-union employees.” Barber said that since April 1, the company has covered prescription contraceptive benefits for union employees.
Catholic employers have one thing going for them: the fact that they would not cover vasectomies. Thus men and women would equally lack contraceptive coverage. Again, none of the previous decisions have addressed this issue.
Judge Lasnik called contraception “a fundamental and immediate health care need.” According to his ruling, “The availability of affordable and effective contraceptives is of great importance to the health of women and children because it can help to prevent a litany of physical, emotional, economic and social consequences.”
That's simply not the case, said Mary Shivanandan, professor of theology at the John Paul II Institute. Far from making women equal, she said, “Contraception denies the fundamental integrity of the woman. The person is a unity of body and soul, and intrinsic to the woman as a person is her fertility.”
Shivanandan pointed out, “If she has to get rid of [her fertility] in order to participate in the world of work, this is not equality. A man doesn't have to get rid of his fertility in order to participate in the world of work.”
Furthermore, she added, “There are health risks” to contraception, which were not acknowledged by the court ruling. “All the hormonal contraceptives pose some kind of a risk,” Shivanandan said. “They can bring about dysplasia of the cervix, and that's a precursor of cancer.”
She noted that “even the prescription leaflets” for contraceptives mention some of the dangers. Employers who don't promote contraception are, in this way, actually acting for “the health of the woman,” according to Shivanandan.
But Catholic employers who refuse to cover contraception won't know whether what they are doing is illegal until a court decision finally addresses the issue.
And in the end, according to Bartell, there isn't yet an overwhelming demand for contraception coverage. “[T]he letter sent by Erickson requesting birth control coverage was the only letter ever received from an employee asking for that particular benefit.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: THE DAY THE POPE WAS SHOT DATE: 06/24/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 24-30, 2001 ----- BODY:At the Catholic University of Lublin, Poland, the personal secretary to Pope John Paul II gave this unprecedented first-person account May 13 of the day the Holy Father was shot.
He made the remarks, he said, “20 years from the day on which divine Providence, through the intercession of the Most Blessed Mother, saved the Holy Father from death at the hands of his assassin.” The first part of his text follows:
In Italy … May 1981 was a turbulent month.
The referendum on the abortion law was to take place and so a large demonstration had been planned in Rome by the Communist Party on 13 May. That same day, the Holy Father was to found the Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family at the Pontifical Lateran University and to establish the Pontifical Council for the Family as an organ of the Holy See. …
On 13 May Prof. Jerome Lejeune from Paris, a world-famous expert on genetics and a great defender of life, had been invited by the Holy Father to lunch. At 5 o'clock in the afternoon the Pope was to hold the usual Wednesday General Audience.
At 5:17 p.m., during his second tour of the square, the shots fired at John Paul II were heard. Ali Mehmet Agca, a professional killer, had fired a pistol, injuring the Holy Father in the stomach, on the right cheek and in the index finger. A bullet passed through the Pope's body and fell between us. I heard two shots. The bullets hit another two people. I was spared, but their force was such that they could have passed through more people.
I asked the Holy Father:
“Where?” He answered: “In the stomach”.
“Does it hurt?” He answered: “It hurts.”
At that instant he began to collapse. Standing behind him, I was able to support him. He was drained of strength. It was a dramatic moment. Today I can say that at that instant an invisible power came into action, making it possible to save the life of the Holy Father who was in mortal danger.
There was no time to think, there was no doctor within reach. A single erroneous decision could have had catastrophic effects. We did not even attempt to give him first aid nor did we decide to take the injured Pope to his apartment.
Every minute was precious. We therefore transferred him to an ambulance in which there was also his personal doctor, Dr. Renato Buzzonetti, and we rushed him to the Policlinico Gemelli [Gemelli Hospital]. On the way there the Holy Father was still conscious; he fainted on entering the hospital. As long as he could, he prayed in a whisper.
At the Polyclinic we met with consternation, which was not surprising! The injured Pope was first taken to a room on the 10th floor reserved for special cases, and from there he was immediately carried to the operating room. From that moment the doctors were burdened by an enormous responsibility.
The Mysterious Force
The surgeon, Professor Francesco Crucitti, played a special role. He confided to me later that he had not been on duty that day and was at home, but a mysterious force had impelled him to go to the hospital. On his way, he had heard on the radio the news of the attempt on the Pope's life. He immediately offered to perform the operation, especially since the head of surgery, Professor Castiglione, was in Milan [he arrived at the Gemelli towards the end of the operation].
Professor Crucitti was assisted by other doctors. The operating room was crowded. The situation was very serious. The Pope's body was suffering lack of blood and the blood for the transfusion turned out to be incompatible. However, some doctors at the Polyclinic who had the same blood group gave their blood without a qualm to save the Holy Father's life.
It was a serious situation. At a certain point, Dr. Buzzonetti turned to me, asking me to administer the Anointing of the Sick since the patient was in grave danger: His blood pressure was falling, and his heartbeat very faint.
The blood transfusion restored him to a condition in which it was possible to begin surgery, which was extremely complicated. The operation lasted five hours and 20 minutes. From minute to minute, however, his hopes of survival increased.
A great many people flocked to the Polyclinic—cardinals who worked in the Curia. (Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, Secretary of State, was absent because he was traveling in the United States.) Italian politicians also came, including Italy's President, Sandro Pertini, who stayed beside the Holy Father until 2 a.m. Indeed, he did not want to leave until the Pope left the operating room. The President's conduct was touching, and far from any kind of calculation.
The heads of the Italian political parties also arrived: Piccoli, Forlani, Craxi, Berlinguer [the head of Italy's Communist Party] and others. I add in the margin that Berlinguer cancelled the pro-abortion demonstration which had been scheduled for the evening of 13 May.
After the operation the Holy Father was taken to the recovery room. The doctors feared infection and other complications. When he came to, the Holy Father asked: “Have we said Compline?”
It was the day after the assassination attempt. For two days the Pope was in great pain, but his hopes of life were increasing. He remained in intensive care until 18 May.
Our Lady at His Side
On the first day after the operation, the Holy Father received Holy Communion, and in the following days, he concelebrated the Eucharist in bed.
There began to be talk of an international medical consultation on which Cardinal Macharski insisted.
On Sunday morning, 17 May, the Holy Father recorded a short reflection for the Regina Caeli. It consisted of words of thanks for the prayers of many of the faithful, of forgiveness for the would-be assassin, and of entrustment to Our Lady. The attempt on his life had gathered the Church and the world around him. This was the first fruit of his suffering.
Poland watched on bended knee. In Krakow the young people's unforgettable “White March” took place.
The Gemelli Polyclinic was besieged by journalists, ecclesiastical and lay figures and thousands of people, ordinary folk. They came to the Pope with love. Telegrams arrived from all over the world—in the first few days more than 15,000 were counted.
That same day the specialists arrived: two doctors from the United States, one from France, one from Germany, one from Spain and one from Krakow. Their diagnosis of the Holy Father's health and the progress of his medical treatment was positive.
A week after the attempt on his life, we sang the Te Deum.
People began insistently to associate the date of the attack with the apparitions of Fatima. The rumor of a miraculous healing through the inter-cession of Our Lady of Fatima became more and more widespread. As soon as he felt stronger, the Holy Father began to accept visits, especially from his collaborators, the cardinals, but also from the representatives of other religions. We would normally celebrate Mass at 6 p.m., and then sing the litanies of the month of May with our sisters. In the meantime, we were receiving news from Warsaw that the Primate [Cardinal Stefan] Wyszynski was dying.
The Death of a Friend
The Pope was intensely involved in those last moments.
On 24 May—by telephone via Father Gozdziewz—he conveyed his greeting and his blessing to him. The following day, at 12:15 p.m., the Holy Father spoke to the dying primate for the last time. Their conversation was brief. I remember the words: “I send you my blessing and a kiss.”
On 27 May, the Holy Father tape-recorded his address to the pilgrims of Piekary Slaskie. However, he felt tired and complained of a pain in his heart. The patient's condition was deteriorating. He was subjected to a careful checkup. Cardiologists monitored him all night long. Heart problems, as the doctors explained, had occurred because of a minor pulmonary embolism which was gradually reabsorbed.
Day by day the worrying symptoms disappeared from the electrocardiogram.
On 28 May—the Solemnity of the Lord's Ascension—his state of health improved, but his hospital stay had to be extended. Cardinal Wyszynski died on that day at 4:40 a.m. His death did not come as a surprise but was deeply distressing to us all. We heard the official news of it at about 10 a.m.
However, Father Piasecki had privately announced it to us at 6.30 a.m. I told the Holy Father a little later. He was filled with sorrow at the news.
On 30 May, the Pope met Cardinal Casaroli and gave him the letter with the text to be read at the Primate's funeral. The Secretary of State took part on behalf of the Holy Father who would have so liked to participate personally.
On Sunday, 31 May, the Holy Father recorded his address for the recitation of the Regina Caeli. His voice was already stronger. At 5 p.m. he took part in Cardinal Wyszynski's funeral by listening to the Vatican Radio broadcast. During the funeral liturgy, he celebrated his own Mass at the Gemelli Polyclinic.
After the Eucharist he said: “I shall miss him. We were bound by friendship. I needed his presence.”
The Struggle to Survive
On the morning of 1 June, as always, the Pope dedicated himself to meditation and prayers. He then submitted to the medical examinations. In addition to the doctors of the clinic, a Vatican doctor was constantly present; every detail was followed by Dr. Buzzonetti. Later the Holy Father received official visits and visits from friends. On that day, after evening Mass, we began the functions in honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The Holy Father went home on 3 June. We celebrated Mass at 12:30 p.m. Before leaving the Polyclinic, the Pope received Prof. Lazzati, Rector of the Milan's Catholic University, and, in the afternoon, the doctors and paramedical. He left for the Vatican at 7 p.m. His meeting with the Curia and residents of the papal palace was moving. The Holy Father's presence filled the Apostolic See with new life. Thus ended the first stage after the attack and the dramatic moments of his struggle to survive.
----- EXCERPT: 20 Years Later, The Pope's Right-hand Man Remembers ----- EXTENDED BODY: Bishop Stanislaw Dziwisz ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: 'If Words Do Not Convert, Blood Will' DATE: 06/24/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 24-30, 2001 ----- BODY:“I would like to delve into history, recent but nonetheless important, for certain events concerning the date of 13 May 1981,” began Bishop Stanislaw Dziwisz in his remarks to the Catholic University of Dublin. “They are deeply impressed on my heart and only today have I mustered the courage to speak of them publicly. I know that it is impossible to tell the whole story or to understand it fully. Nonetheless, I consider them worth recalling.
“I hope that mentioning the details of those events, generally unknown, will serve not so much to satisfy curiosity but above all to help us see how the Holy Father's life was truly saved by a wonderful grace of God, for which we must be constantly grateful.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: High Court Ruling Good News For Christian Clubs DATE: 06/24/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 24-30, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON—In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled on June 11 that the evangelical Good News Club had the right to meet in a Milford, N.Y., public school. The decision overturned an appellate court decision from last year.
Writing for the majority, Justice Clarence Thomas, a Catholic convert, wrote, “We disagree that something that is ‘quintessentially religious in nature’ cannot also be characterized properly as the teaching of morals and character development from a particular viewpoint.”
Princeton University professor Robert P. George, a Catholic, said the decision bode well for religious freedom in America. “Apparently a solid majority of justices is serious about the proposition that the state and its institutions is not permitted to discriminate against religious expression, association and activity simply on the ground that it is religious.”
Evangelical Christian minister Stephen Fournier, a Good News Club leader, said it was a defeat against unfair discrimination.
“We are thankful that we have prevailed in this case,” Fournier said in a statement. “We were discriminated against, not because we teach morals and values but because we teach morals and values from a Christian perspective.”
The case centers on the small town of Milford in upstate New York, about an hour's drive west of Albany. There, a group of 25 or so children, ages 5 to 12, wanted to meet in their school building on Tuesdays after class. They'd sing a Christian hymn, read a Bible verse, drink some refreshments, and then go home.
The Milford Central school board would have none of it. In 1996, its members voted to deny the club's leaders, Fournier and his wife, access to the Milford Central School for their meetings. The board insisted that school facilities are to be limited to “social, civil and recreational meetings and entertainment events and other issues pertaining to the welfare of the community.” The Good News Club, being religious, did not make the cut.
The school board views the Good News Club as akin to a worship service—the lawyer for the Milford school district argued that it “is no different than Sunday school.” The Fourniers said they just wanted to provide a chance for kids who wanted to meet after classes at school for Good News Club activities—and had their parents' approval to do so.
The Supreme Court's decision may have come too late for the Fourniers and the Milford parents and schoolchildren who are part of the Good News Club. They have been meeting in the Milford Center Community Bible Church ever since their school turned them away. It is a good sign for religious kids across the country, however, who may no longer have to be the victims of court-sanctioned discrimination.
As for other groups in the Milford school district, despite the court's ruling in the Good News case, come September there may be little good news for them.
The school board is currently considering barring all groups from meeting in the school building, or, alternatively, pushing back starting times for all clubs to 5 or 6 pm, which would limit the number of groups which would want to use the school.
The Good News Club, for one, has said that would be too late a start time. Fournier said, “The best opportunity for us to reach the kids was right after school.”
Good News Blues
The Fourniers are no outsiders to the Milford school district. They have three children at Milford Central and Mrs. Fournier is a volunteer teacher with a school reading program.
Fournier, believing free-speech rights were being violated, decided to sue the school board after being denied access to the meeting room. Last year, a U.S. appeals court ruled that the school could deny the club access because it dared to “clearly and intentionally communicate Christian beliefs by teaching and by prayer.”
A Good News Club in Missouri, however, fared better; an appeals court there found that the evangelical Protestant group had just as much right as any other organization to meet in a public school.
Court watchers were unsure which way the court would go on this case. In a recent decision involving school prayer at a high-school football game, the court prohibited prayer in a 6-3 decision. But in a 1993 ruling in Lamb's Chapel v. Center Moriches School District, the court ruled unanimously that a different New York State school could not deny a Christian group access to the building because it had granted access to other community groups.
“Sacred wall” proponents had argued that the Good News case was different. They noted that in the Lamb's Chapel case, the group in question had asked to use the building at night, when fewer children might be aware of the group's presence.
Activists who promote a separation of church and state, of course, were none too happy with the Supreme Court's ruling.
Barry Lynn, president of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State said, “This decision is a terrible mistake.”
“The court's ruling means aggressive fundamentalist evangelists have a new way to proselytize school kids,” he added. “I can't imagine most parents will be happy about that.”
In a separate concurring opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia, a Catholic, disagreed with that sort of characterization.
Said Scalia: “A priest has as much liberty to proselytize as a patriot.”
Kathryn Jean Lopez is an associate editor at National Review(www.nationalreview.com).
(Religion News Service contributed to this report.)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kathryn Jean Lopez ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Putting God on the Stage DATE: 06/24/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 24-30, 2001 ----- BODY:A former Shakespearean actor, in 1980 he and his future wife Patti started St. Luke Productions, a Catholic production company which is in the process of financing a full-length feature film on St. Thérèse of Lisieux. He spoke with Register features correspondent Tim Drake.
Tell me a little about yourself.
I grew up in Napa Valley, Calif., the famous wine country as the oldest of five children and attended Catholic schools. My father was a meat cutter and my mother stayed at home with the children. In regard to my faith, I began losing interest in it during high school and altogether abandoned it in college with the turbulence of the early '70s.
I got into theater accidentally in high school, and then later more so in college. In my early career, I performed and participated in Shakespearean festivals in San Diego, Colorado, Oregon, and elsewhere, having had a deep love for classical theater.
What led you back to the faith?
It was a combination of things.
I could see the unstable environment I was in, morally speaking. But to be more specific, it was a young dancer I had befriended who ended up a heroin addict. I tried to help her, and in doing so I began to realize that I was helpless and at a roadblock. Another actor friend, a homosexual who later died from AIDS, had given me a rosary many years before. I had kept the rosary, but never used it. I wasn't into that “stuff.” Yet, in trying to help my friend, I came to realize that I had to entrust her entirely to God.
It was funny, at that moment I found that long-forgotten rosary and I began to pray once again. This opened my heart to read the Scriptures and I began the journey home to the Church.
What led you to create St. Luke Productions?
In the late 1970s I had seen a one-man show on the Gospel of Mark and another on Father Damien of Molokai. They planted the seed for my doing something religious. I began taking big risks in my auditions by portraying more religious themes, which is something you are not supposed to do in the theater.
In a way, I was reaching out and doing what I truly wanted to do. In fact, that's how I met Patti, my wife. She saw me at an audition and thought, “Who is that crazy guy?” Patti was a Presbyterian at the time. I was active in my faith, and I introduced her to Catholicism. We participated in a Bible study group together with other actors, and about a year later Patti converted. In 1983 we were married.
I started doing one-man religious dramas because no one else was interested in doing anything like it.
My first religious show was a one-man production on the Gospel of St. Luke. This was most appropriate, as St. Luke is the patron of artists, and it is where we drew the name for our company. Eventually, one thing led to another and I started creating a new show every couple of years. To date we have developed a repertoire of nine original plays. The videos, like Maximilian Kolbe and John of the Cross came later as I realized that our plays could not go everywhere. Seeing the importance and impact of the art of filmmaking, we began producing our live productions on videotape and 16mm film.
We see part of our vocation as being instruments used for restoring the relationship between artists and the Church. The Church, in the past, was the mother of the arts; however, that does not seem to be the case in our culture today. In our own little way, we are trying to restore that relationship, through theater and film. Because of this vision, and the need for quality film and theatre in our culture, our ministry is attempting to expand. We are trying to create opportunities for young people and professionals, and we hope to foster vocations not only through the redemption of our work, but by means of our live dramas and film presentations.
I understand that Saint Luke Productions has become a family affair?
Yes, Patti is an actress too. We started this work before she came into the Church and before we were married. It seems that we would create an original show, and the next year we would have a baby and that is the way it continued — show, baby, show, baby, for 15 years until we had seven beautiful children.
Our children have gotten involved in our work by doing audio recordings for the live dramas, or by acting in our films. We also have even introduced our 14-year-old son to editing. Over the last eight years we have also opened our work to other young people, involving more than 100 youth through involvement in our films and plays.
Do you have any favorite stories of how your work has touched the lives of others?
Our play on St. Maximilian Kolbe, in particular, seems to have had a lot of influence on seminarians and women entering the religious life. Many individuals have written us saying that they named their children Maximilian, after seeing the show. Following our World Youth Day production in Denver, an Episcopalian wrote to me, explaining how the show helped him make the decision to become Catholic. Many parents write us about the inspiration our dramas provide for their children.
In our most recent production, the actress who portrays Thérèse, Lindsay Younce, had just graduated from high school. She was not Catholic, but because of her encounter with Thérèse, through this incredible role and many other encouragements, Lindsay converted to the Church on the feast of the Visitation of this year. The making of the film has also brought others back to the Church.
What do you have planned next?
Our next big project is the completion of the first full-length motion picture on St. Thérèse of Lisieux written in English.
This movie is an interior, intimate drama — not the story of Thérèse's life, but the story of her soul.
This classical period production presents a personal portrait of this extraordinary, accessible saint, allowing Thérèse to speak to the heart of each individual viewer.
Thérèse will be the first feature on a saint ever to be funded entirely with donations. People believe in what we are doing. In fact, the Vatican has expressed interest in the Thérèse project, and has assured us of the Holy Father's prayers.
We are a small Catholic nonprofit attempting something courageous — a grass-roots movement of support for a film that will touch and change the hearts of many.
We pray that the Catholic community can really get behind this film and realize that this production can truly be, as Cardinal Francis George wrote us: “a vehicle for making sanctity attractive.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Leonardo Defilippis ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 06/24/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 24-30, 2001 ----- BODY:‘Catholic Art’ Museum Scam Exposed
Museum director Christina Cox spent museum funds on beach vacations, antiques, clothing and jewelry.
The Archdiocese of New York opposed Cox's hire. The Vatican Museum refused to meet with her. Msgr. James Murray, who ran Catholic Charities for the archdiocese, sent her an angry letter asking where the money went.
But the museum got financial support from Ed Malloy, the head of New York's largest private-sector union and chair of the museum board, and City Council Speaker Peter Vallone, reported the paper.
Modesty Is Modern
Modesty is as old as Isaac and Rebecca, and as new as the students who flooded Shalit with letters agreeing with her Reader's Digest article protesting colleges with “coed” bathrooms.
Shalit discussed the recently-discovered hormone oxytocin, which helps mothers bond with their infants—but is also released during sexual intimacy, making it physically impossible for a woman to willingly have sex without some level of emotional bonding. “Modesty protected this natural emotional vulnerability,” Shalit said.
Vietnamese Priest Charges Refugee With Torture
Father Le Huu Nguyen was a prisoner at a “re-education” camp near Hanoi after the Communist victory. Father Nguyen said Bui killed a prisoner and beat many more. Another prisoner confirmed Father Nguyen's account.
If an immigration judge finds Bui guilty, he may lose his refugee status and be deported, but since Vietnam does not accept expatriates convicted of crimes abroad his fate is uncertain.
'60s Birmingham Bomber Wanted to Target Catholics
Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama, the Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution, by Diane McWhorter, found that Thomas Blanton Jr., convicted in early May of 2001 of the murder of the four girls, originally “focused his violent hatred on Catholics, like the Klan of the 1920s,” The Nation wrote.
In 1963 he said he wanted to bomb a Catholic church. Eventually he settled on a black church, where he killed the girls in an attack that galvanized the civil rights movement.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Domino's Founder's Fund Throws Good Money After Good DATE: 06/24/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 24-30, 2001 ----- BODY:NEW YORK — With pornography bringing big money to large, mainstream corporations, investors often find themselves in a bind. How to make money without being mired in guilt over supporting pornography—or, in other cases, abortion?
Former Domino's Pizza owner and Catholic philanthropist Tom Monaghan thinks he has the answer.
In May, Monaghan, who has been spending his estimated $1 billion fortune on various Catholic causes, unveiled what amounts to a clean mutual fund for Catholic investors.
The Ave Maria Catholic Values Fund screens out companies involved in abortion or the distribution of pornography while at the same time seeking a maximum return for investors.
“Fortunately, it's not too difficult,” said portfolio manager Gregg Watkins. He said fewer than 10% of available stocks are off-limits to the pro-family investor. Many of those 200 companies, however, are large and include subsidiaries that the untrained investor might miss. Watkins cited General Motors and Johnson & Johnson as examples—the first, because of its involvement in the X-rated film trade; the latter because of its role in developing abortifacient drugs.
Approached several months ago by a small number of longtime clients with the idea of beginning a screened fund, the Ave Maria Fund was launched May 1 with an initial investment of somewhere between $15 million and $20 million, Watkins said. The fund's objective, Watkins added, is the same as most others — long-term capital appreciation through ownership of a diversified portfolio of shares of common stock.
One of the initial investors in the Ave Maria Fund, Richard Walsh, said he likes not having to worry about what his money supports, adding that the fund appealed to him “as a practicing Catholic.”
“I guess from my point of view I get a solid investment and an investment that I can be assured is not involved with things that I don't approve of,” said Walsh, 65, a former manufacturing company owner in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.
While Watkins allowed that funds like his might very well prompt corporate executives to realize they don't have “a free pass” from investors, his primary purpose is not advocacy.
“To the extent that companies change their behavior, that's good; but we are not going to take our investors' money and pick fights with it,” Watkins said. “We are going to do our darndest to earn a good return on their money and do it in a way that they don't have to worry about the types of business they are invested in.”
Schwartz Investment Counsel Inc., of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., is managing the Ave Maria Fund. Watkins affirmed that Schwarz also manages funds that invest in companies excluded from the Ave Maria Fund. He downplayed the significance of this, however, arguing that other clients are “entitled to have their money managed according to their principles just as much as anyone else would be.”
Investment Guilt
Are Catholics obligated to use screened funds like Ave Maria? Not according to Phil Lenahan, a money management counselor associated with the San Diego-based apologetics organization Catholic Answers (and a Register columnist).
“For me it's pretty basic that we should certainly do all that we can to promote the culture of life,” Lenahan said. “But let's say you have a mutual fund which invests in 100 companies and one has a subsidiary which gave a $5,000 gift to Planned Parenthood. That's quite limited. There would be some concern I could have if people felt they were absolutely obligated to invest solely with a fund like [the Ave Maria fund].”
Lenahan said Catholics should not feel that there is a “flat-out obligation” to invest in screened funds because, as he put it, “there are alternatives that probably are OK.”
Moral theologian Msgr. William B. Smith, a professor of moral theology at St. Joseph's Seminary in Dunwoodie, N.Y., took a similar view.
Msgr. Smith distinguished between investments that involve “cooperation,” or, in legal terms, complicity, on the part of the investor and those that do not.
Buying stock is a direct investment because it means purchasing part of the company. But investing in mutual funds, Msgr. Smith said, is “enormously complicated,” as a moral question, since investors do not actually buy shares in the companies that form the fund. Rather, they are investing into the fund itself.
“Some part of our tax money ends up in the hands of Planned Parenthood,” Msgr. Smith said. “I don't approve of that. But out of a couple hundred billion dollar federal budget, there is no real sense in which I or any other person is a cooperator in that.”
Msgr. Smith advised that consumers be careful about any company that claims take the sin out of the marketplace.
“It [the company] might sound noble, but it's very, very difficult to pin this down in terms of moral accountability,” Msgr. Smith said. “Just because someone runs a flag up that says Catholic does not convince me they are.”
For Ave Maria, determining which investments are good and which are bad is the job of a six-person advisory board, composed of Monaghan himself, former Major League Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, economist Michael Novak, activist Phyllis Schlafly, Ave Maria Foundation executive director Paul Roney and retired business executive Thomas Sullivan.
Watkins characterized the screened fund as not extremely aggressive. “Our objective is to beat the overall market over a reasonable time,” he said. “Like most stock funds, it's a far more appropriate investment for long-term objectives because the nature of the stock market is such that in the short term it's extremely unpredictable.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian McGuire ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Original Catholic Mutual Fund DATE: 06/24/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 24-30, 2001 ----- BODY:Before there was the Ave Maria Fund, there was the Catholic Values Investment Fund.
Started in 1997 by veteran banker Walter Miller, the Milford, Conn.-based fund has $30 million in assets and a board consisting of former Vatican Ambassadors Tom Malady and Bill Wilson; former Ireland Ambassador Margaret Heckler; Tim May, a senior managing partner in the Washington law firm of Patton & Boggs; and Alfred E. Smith, grandson of the former New York governor whose name he shares.
Tom Monaghan, whom Miller described as a “very good friend” left the fund's board last year to start the Ave Maria Mutual Fund.
“He's a very committed person and he wanted to start his own fund, and he did so,” Miller said. “There is plenty of room for competition.”
As to the difference between the two funds, Miller said his own guiding light is the Church's magisterium. He explained that if the magisterium has identified a particular trade or practice as immoral, any businesses that engage in or support that trade are excluded from his fund. But if the magisterium hasn't spoken out on a topic—even a controversial one—neither does Miller.
“Investors can be assured that that their investment would adhere as closely to the magisterium as possible,” Miller said, noting that there are “gray areas,” such as atomic energy, that some individuals might oppose, but which the Church hasn't spoken on definitively.
On Monaghan's decision to leave the Catholic Values Investment Fund, Miller said: “I'm wishing him well. And I truly mean that. I wish we were still together, but you can understand a man of that background wanting to do what he wants to do.
“We hope that more people will turn toward us, but we can understand why they would go with his fund too. It's another option.”
— Brian McGuire
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian McGuire ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Churches at Home and Abroad Follow Pope's Eucharistic Example DATE: 06/24/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 24-30, 2001 ----- BODY:ROME—Pope John Paul II gave a big boost to Corpus Christi processions when he led his own through Rome on June 14.
His example—and the advice he gave during last year's Jubilee Year, which he called “intensely Eucharistic”—was followed throughout the United States when America celebrated the feast of Corpus Christi three days later.
“On this journey, Jesus precedes us with the gift of himself to the point of sacrifice and offers himself as food and sustenance,” the Pope said at Mass on the day the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ is celebrated In Rome. His procession wound from the Basilica of St. John Lateran to the Basilica of St. Mary Major.
In the procession, he said, Jesus is visible in the Eucharist held in a monstrance, but his invisible presence in people's hearts must be made evident through the way they live.
Similar processions were held in Boston, Baltimore and Philadelphia, as well as cities such as Front Royal, Va., the Twin Cities, and Chicago. According to participants, the fruits of this public testimony of faith have been felt not only by those participating in the processions, but by bystanders as well.
This public profession of the Catholic teaching on the Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament was first encouraged by the Council of Trent. A German eyewitness account, from 1851, mentions the custom of children dressing as angels to represent heavenly hosts and the tradition of the parish group marching together as a body.
The Archdiocese of Philadelphia, like so many others, is continuing this parish-wide practice on a broader level. Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua planned to celebrate Mass at St. Adalbert parish followed by a procession to four other parishes among the Port Richmond parishes of northern Philadelphia.
“A number of parishes have had a tradition of joining together with two or three others for a procession,” said Father Daniel Mackle, director of the office of worship for Philadelphia. “Last year the bishops of Pennsylvania made a commitment to continue a Corpus Christi [procession] in each of the dioceses. The Bishops hope to continue this practice each year because of the centrality of the Eucharist in the life of the Church.”
In Front Royal, Va., home to a host of Catholic institutions, more than 500 parishioners from St. John the Baptist marched together down Main Street for prayer and benediction at the gazebo located near the town visitors' center one-half mile away.
The procession began in 2000 under the leadership of Christendom associate librarian Stephen Pilon. “I was discussing the possibility of our Knights of Columbus council doing something spiritual for the Jubilee when someone suggested a Eucharistic procession,” recalled Pilon. Father William Ruehl of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Front Royal estimates that at least 450 people participated in the procession the first year.
This year the organizers placed an advertisement in the Arlington Catholic Herald and also invited parishioners and priests from six neighboring parishes to join the procession. They also involved the parish's first communicants and a group of young girls, known as the Little Flowers, who spread rose petals along the procession's pathway.
Father Ruehl believes that the procession is good not only for the parish but also the entire town. “It demonstrates the respect that we have for Christ in the Eucharist.”
That sentiment, says Pilon, is not lost on non-Catholics. “During the procession the entire congregation of a storefront Protestant church on Main Street came out to see what was going on,” explained Pilon. Legion of Mary members were on hand to answer their questions and let community members know what we were doing. “While they didn't believe what we believe, they were impressed that we believed in it enough to come out and do a procession,” said Pilon.
The Twin Cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis have alternated hosting a Eucharistic procession for the past five years. The inspiration for the procession came from Jennifer Speltz. “Originally she wanted to walk from St. Cloud 90 miles south to St. Paul, then the idea was whittled down to walking from Minneapolis to St. Paul. In the end, we walked four miles, from Nativity parish to the St. Paul Cathedral,” said Father Jim Livingston, one of the event's organizers. Attendance has fluctuated between 400 and 1000. This year the procession traveled 1.5 miles from the Church of St. Olaf to the Basilica of St. Mary in downtown Minneapolis.
While Father Livingston admitted that some folks get annoyed because they cannot cross the street, wonderful things happen as well. “As we passed one house a woman came out from her home, knelt down, and started crying in thanksgiving that this was taking place.”
Brother Peter Gabriel, another of the event's coordinators, said that there is a marked difference in how the residents of the two cities respond to the procession. “In St. Paul bystanders and neighbors genuflect. In Minneapolis, we travel through a park known as a homosexual hangout and through the center of downtown. In Minneapolis people give us looks as if we are a kind of cult. It's nonconfrontational. We're just bringing Christ where Christ needs to go. We are evangelizing simply by our presence.”
“We are getting in touch with the Catholic culture that so many Catholics do not have an awareness of and which in many areas has been dispensed with,” added Br. Gabriel.
Karen Atkinson agrees. She first participated when a friend asked her to play the flute as part of the 1998 procession. “Although I was raised Catholic, at first I couldn't quite fathom what they were going to do. Once it took place it very much touched my heart.” Atkinson has been involved in each procession since then.
“We're putting our lives on hold to spend time with Christ. As a result, my prayer life has increased. I am much more cognizant of being in a holy state when I receive Christ in the Eucharist, every day if I choose. I find myself more involved in youth ministry at Church. My free time is spent either with family or Church. My involvement has also opened me up to speaking about my faith with my parents and siblings,” said Atkinson.
Atkinson also tells of a friend who was profoundly moved after cantoring for the 2000 procession. “Father Benedict Groeschel spoke mid-way through last year's procession,” said Atkinson. “That talk opened many doors for my friend and it was a major turning point in his life.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Eucharistic Events at a Glance - A Year in Review DATE: 06/24/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 24-30, 2001 ----- BODY:Questions and Answers on the Eucharist
Bishop's Conference of Pennsylvania
April 13, 2000
Eucharistic Congress
Diocese of St. Augustine, Fla.
June 10, 2000
International Eucharistic Congress
Rome
June 18-25, 2000
Eucharistic 2000 Congress
Archdiocese of San Antonio
June 24, 2000
Eucharistic Congress
Diocese of Harrisburg, Pa.
July 1, 2000
Eucharistic Congress
Archdiocese of Jefferson City, Mo.
Aug. 19, 2000
Eucharistic Congress
Archdiocese of Detroit
Sept. 2000
Eucharistic Congress 2000
Archdiocese of Washington, D.C.
Oct. 5-8, 2000
Marian Eucharistic Congress
Diocese of Fargo
Oct. 13-15, 2000
Eucharistic Procession on the Parkway
Archdiocese of Philadelphia
Oct. 22, 2000
Archdiocesan Eucharistic Congress
Archdiocese of New Orleans
Oct. 28-29, 2000
Eucharistic Congress
Archdiocese of Milwaukee
Oct. 28-29, 2000
Eucharistic Conference
University of Dallas
Nov. 9-11, 2000
Eucharistic Congress
Archdiocese of St. Louis
June 15-16, 2001
Perpetual Eucharistic Adorers Gathering
St. Matthew's Catholic Church, Virginia Beach, Va.
June 29-30, 2001
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 06/24/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 24-30, 2001 ----- BODY:Priests From Poor Countries Called Home by Vatican
ASSOCIATED PRESS, June 12—Some dioceses in Africa and Asia have one-third or even one-half of their diocesan priests serving abroad, the wire service reported—and the Vatican wants the priests to come home.
Pope John Paul II approved updated guidelines for priests sent from poorer countries to the West. The guidelines expressed concern that many priests stay in the West, rather than returning home, where they are urgently needed. Some even defy their bishops' calls to return home.
Fides, the Vatican's missionary news service, added that some Western dioceses take advantage of the situation by assigning foreign priests to parish duties “without thinking of the damage they are doing” to the struggling dioceses from which the priests came.
China's ‘Patriotic’ Church Secretly Aids Loyal Priests
China's Communist government still claims to appoint bishops, and persecutes Catholics who accept papal authority. Thousands have been harassed, detained and imprisoned, and in the past year hundreds of churches were demolished.
But behind the scenes, the Vatican has accepted nearly all of China's 70 government-approved bishops. Underground and “official” priests mingle, even sharing residences. Some official bishops protect the clandestine priests.
The Vatican has prepared an agreement, similar to the ones used in Communist Eastern Europe, by which the government-sponsored church could suggest bishops but the Vatican would have the final say. Beijing has not responded.
A recent push for reconciliation was derailed when Fides, the Vatican's missionary news service, obtained a classified government document planning a crackdown on Chinese Catholics.
Improving relations with the Vatican would raise China's chances to host the 2008 Olympic Games. Beijing also hopes that open relations with the Vatican would lead the Holy See to drop its recognition of Taiwan.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: The Psalm of seven Thunders DATE: 06/24/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 24-30, 2001 ----- BODY:The “fascination” that God exerts on man is a duel between his tremendous force and his serene tenderness, with the latter prevailing, said John Paul II in his weekly general audience June 13.
Some 15,000 pilgrims gathered to hear his catechesis in blinding sunshine in St. Peter's Square.
The Pope spoke of the powerful images of Psalm 29, “the psalm of the seven thunders,” as part of his ongoing series of reflections on the biblical prayers used in the Liturgy of the Hours.
The psalm is dominated by the image of a thunderstorm, seen as a symbol of the powerful voice of God.
The storm rises from the sea and its unstoppable and destructive power is felt everywhere. The psalm suggests, in this way, that we cannot capture the mystery of God; he is transcendent and nothing can resist his sovereign power and activity.
The psalm goes on to speak of the adoration of God in the Temple at Jerusalem. There the terror of the storm is replaced by the certainty of God's protection. In the intimacy of prayer and in the liturgy, God enables us to overcome anxiety and fear.
As we take part in the heavenly liturgy with all the “children of God”—the angels and the saints—we experience the protective love of God our Father, who blesses us with his gifts of strength and peace.
Some scholars consider Psalm 29, which we have just heard, to be one of the oldest texts of the psalter. The image that sustains its poetic and prayerful development is a powerful one. It sets us, in fact, before the progressive unfolding of a storm. In the Hebrew original, this is indicated by the word qol, which means both “voice” and “thunder.” This is why some commentators give this text the title “psalm of the seven thunders”—for the number of times the word resounds in it. In fact, the psalmist can be said to conceive of thunder as a symbol of the divine voice which, in its transcendent and unattainable mystery, breaks into the created world to the point of shaking and terrifying it, though in its inner meaning it is a word of peace and harmony. One's thoughts go to chapter 12 of the fourth Gospel, where the voice that answers Jesus from heaven is perceived by the crowd as thunder (see John 12:28-29).
By putting Psalm 29 before us for Morning Prayer (Lauds), the Liturgy of the Hours invites us to adopt an attitude of deep and trusting adoration of God's majesty.
Chaos and Terror
The biblical cantor leads us to two moments and places. At the center (verses 3-9) is the depiction of the storm, which is unleashed from the “immensity of waters” of the Mediterranean. To the eyes of biblical man, the seawaters embody the chaos that assaults the beauty and splendor of creation until it corrodes, destroys and breaks it down. By observing the raging storm, then, one discovers the immense power of God. One praying the psalm sees the hurricane moving northwards and striking land. The towering cedars of Mt. Lebanon and Mt. Sirion (sometimes called Hermon) are split by lightning bolts and seem to leap like terrified animals beneath the thunderclaps. The blasts come closer, cross over the entire Holy Land, and go down to the south, into the desert wilderness of Kadesh.
Peace and Adoration
Following this picture of intense movement and tension, we are invited to contemplate a contrasting scene, which is represented at the beginning and the end of the psalm (verses 1-2 and 9b-11). Alarm and fear are now offset by adoring glorification of God in the Temple of Zion.
There is almost a channel of communication joining the Jerusalem sanctuary and the heavenly sanctuary. In both these sacred places there is peace, and praise to divine glory rises upwards. The deafening sound of thunder yields to the harmony of liturgical song; terror is replaced by the certainty of divine protection. God now appears “enthroned over the flood” as “king forever” (verse 10)—namely, as the Lord and supreme Sovereign of all creation.
First Experience of God
Faced with these two contrasting pictures, one praying the psalm is invited to undergo a twofold experience. First of all, he must discover that the mystery of God expressed in the symbol of the storm cannot be captured and mastered by man. As the prophet Isaiah sings, the Lord breaks into history like lightning or a storm, sowing panic as he confronts the wicked and the oppressors. Before his judgment, proud adversaries are uprooted like trees struck down by a gale or cedars shattered by divine thunderbolts (see Isaiah 14:7-8).
What becomes evident in this light is what a modern thinker, Rudolph Otto, described as the “tremendum” of God—his ineffable transcendence and his presence as just judge in the history of humanity. Mankind suffers from the vain illusion that it can oppose his sovereign power. In the Magnificat, Mary too will exalt this aspect of God's action: “He has shown strength with his arm, he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts, he has put down the mighty from their thrones” (Luke 1:51-52a).
Second Experience of God
The psalm, however, goes on to present us with another aspect of the face of God, one discovered in the intimacy of prayer and the celebration of the liturgy. It is, according to the aforementioned thinker, the “fascinosum” of God—the fascination which emanates from his grace, the mystery of love poured out on the faithful believer, the serene certainty of the blessing reserved for the just one. Even when faced with the chaos of evil, the storms of history and the very wrath of divine justice, one praying this psalm feels at peace, enveloped in the mantle of protection that Providence offers whoever praises God and follows his paths. Through prayer we know that the Lord's real desire is to give the gift of peace.
In the Temple, our anxiety is healed and our terror eliminated. We participate in the heavenly liturgy with all “the children of God,” angels and saints. And after the storm, as after the Flood which destroyed human wickedness, arches now the rainbow of divine blessing which recalls “the eternal covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon earth” (Genesis 9:16).
Thunder of the Gospel
This, above all, is the message that emerges in the “Christian” rereading of the psalm. If the seven “thunders” of our psalm represent God's voice in the cosmos, the highest expression of this voice was when the Father revealed Jesus' most profound identity as “beloved Son” in the theophany at his baptism (Mark 1:11 and parallel passages in Matthew and Luke).
St. Basil wrote, “Perhaps ‘the Lord's voice on the waters’ echoed—and more mystically—when a voice came from on high at Jesus' baptism and said, ‘This is my beloved Son.’ The Lord was indeed hovering over many waters then, sanctifying them with baptism. The God of glory thundered from on high with the strong voice of his testimony.… And you can understand ‘thunder’ as that change which occurs after baptism through the great ‘voice’ of the Gospel” (Homilies on the Psalms, PG 30, 359).
(Zenit and Register translation)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Irish Give Abortion Ship the Silent Treatment DATE: 06/24/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 24-30, 2001 ----- BODY:DUBLIN, Ireland—When the world's first floating abortion clinic arrives off the coast of Ireland, the country's two leading pro-life organizations will do their best to ignore it.
“It's a publicity stunt by a bunch of loonies, and we are not going to lend it any credibility,” said Justin Barrett of Youth Defense.
John Smith of the Pro-Life Campaign said his organization would not “sink to their level of reducing women in crisis to the level of a publicity stunt.”
“For this service to work, you would have to use some women with crisis pregnancies as guinea pigs, and I don't think the Irish public will like that,” he said.
Named “The Sea of Change,” but already dubbed “the death ship” by some pro-lifers, the floating clinic is a converted fishing boat.
No surgical abortions will be performed on the vessel. The eight-person crew, which includes a gynecologist and a nurse, will distribute RU-486 pills to Irish mothers wanting to abort.
The vessel is owned by a Dutch group, Women on Waves Foundation, whose founder, Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, said it will offer abortion services to women in countries like Ireland, where abortion is illegal, or in Third World countries where abortions are difficult to obtain.
Gomperts has been quoted as saying that Dutch law allows abortions to be carried out on board the craft in international waters.
However, the Netherlands' justice minister, Albert Kortals, said June 12 that the group had not been licensed to perform abortions and would face imprisonment on their return to Holland if abortions were performed under the Dutch flag without a proper license.
The boat left the Hague, Netherlands, June 12 and was due to arrive off the Irish coast several days later. It will moor outside Ireland's territorial waters.
The trip to Ireland, expected to last about a month, is a pilot program that could eventually include parts of Africa.
Smith said: “Women on Waves claim they are highlighting what they call the hypocrisy of our abortion laws and the fact that hundreds of women travel to England from Ireland for terminations each year. But we can highlight the hypocrisies of other European countries that deny the humanity of the unborn child and who allow abortions almost up to birth.”
The Irish Family Planning Association, which provides some assistance to women seeking abortions in England, expressed some skepticism about the project.
“When RU-486 is administered, a woman is supposed to rest for about an hour to avoid nausea. I don't see being on board a converted trawler as being in any way helpful for that,” said Tony O'Brien, chief executive of the family planning association.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Cian Molloy ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 06/24/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 24-30, 2001 ----- BODY:Few Priests Brave Tibetan Mountains
Ethnic Tibetans are usually raised Buddhist, but there are tiny Catholic enclaves where congregations wait for traveling priests. Sometimes holidays like Christmas are postponed until the priest arrives. Baptisms are performed by the laity.
Many worry that Tibet's Catholic communities, which have faced persecution both from the Chinese government and from Tibetan Buddhists fearful of foreign evangelists, may die out without local priests.
Russia Moves Toward Restrictions on Religion
KESTON NEWS SERVICE, June 13—A draft of a new religion policy for Russia called for tighter controls on religious organizations and believers, the religous-freedom news service reported.
The draft was proposed by the Institute for State-Confessional Relations and Law and the Moscow City Department of Justice. It calls for protection against “foreign religious expansion into Russia as an element of the foreign policy of a number of foreign states,” echoing a common charge against foreign missionaries and members of religious groups based outside of Russia, like the Catholic Church.
Another drafted policy, “Conceptual Bases for Church-State Relations in the Russian Federation,” was produced by the religious faculty of the Russian Academy for State Service. It emphasized that the Russian Federation is a secular state. The draft called for a revival of a state organization dealing with religious groups, after the manner of the Soviet-era Council for Religious Affairs.
The draft policies have not yet been approved by the Russian administration.
Priest Who Slew Bishop Faces Excommunication
ASSOCIATED PRESS, June 12—Father Mario Orantes, convicted of involvement in the 1998 murder of Guatemalan Bishop Juan Jose Gerardi, will face excommunication in a religious trial, the wire service reported.
The trial will take place once Father Orantes has exhausted his appeal of the 20-year prison sentence handed down by a secular Guatemalan court. The appeal could take up to a year.
Bishop Gerardi, the head of the Church's Guatemalan human rights office, was bludgeoned to death at his rectory apparently in retaliation for presenting a report that blamed the military for most of the 200,000 deaths in Guatemala's 1960-1996 civil war.
Father Orantes was convicted of giving the killers access to and information on Bishop Gerardi.
Most Australian IVF Couples Kill the ‘Extras’
In vitro fertilization results in the creation of a number of “excess,” unwanted embryos. The state will store them for five years. Many parents who considered donating the unwanted embryos changed their minds after being told that the children might want to contact them in the future.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Mc Veigh and Paradise DATE: 06/24/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 24-30, 2001 ----- BODY:Tim McVeigh deserved to die. But he shouldn't have been put to death.
This, in its simplest form, is the Catholic position on the death penalty. In the weeks following McVeigh's death, many other kinds of arguments have been put forward against his execution.
Most are wrong.
One goes something like this: McVeigh was friendly growing up and was even called “gracious” after he killed 168 people in Oklahoma City with a bomb six years ago. Yes, his crime was terrible; but no, he wasn't a monster. He was a living, breathing human being like you and me, and it's always wrong to kill a human being.
The problem with that argument is that it isn't wrong to kill a human being who is a clear danger to society. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says as much.
“Assuming that the guilty party's identity and responsibility have been fully determined,” says the Catechism, “the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor” (No. 2267).
But in our own day, when sufficient means of incarcerating criminals exist, “the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity are very rare, if not practically non-existent,” it concludes.
That isn't to say that the argument about McVeigh's humanity isn't on to something. It is. But the conclusion is wrong. We don't oppose the death penalty because no one deserves to die. We oppose it because, in one sense, we all do.
Listen to the Catechism's wisdom again, this time in the section on death. “As a consequence of original sin, man must suffer bodily death, from which man would have been immune had he not sinned” (No. 1018).
By rejecting God's offer of eternal life, we all are born under a “death penalty.” It was Christ's acceptance of that sentence, once and for all, that frees us from eternal death. We therefore inhabit the world as a band of sinners under the mercy of God. And it's our job to give everyone access to his grace.
No, we are not all McVeighs, equally deserving to die. While he isn't a monster, his abominable act puts him in a different category from those of us who have not committed a crime of that magnitude. We don't point out our own state with God in order to exonerate McVeigh, but as an opportunity to look at our own lives.
When we look at him as a fellow sinner, we might find it easier to desire mercy for him—not the mercy of a commutation of his sentence (that, alas, is no longer possible) but mercy in the afterlife. We might find it easier to hope that, along with the last rites he received, he somehow repented of—and, far better, confessed—his sin.
After all, there is another example a man who was executed and who repented at the last minute. He was hanging beside Christ on a cross. Before he died, he admitted that he deserved to die for his crimes—much as McVeigh, in his recent interview, also seemed to accept that he deserved his sentence.
This example of the good thief is extraordinary. Christ told him “This day, you will be with me in Paradise.” That makes an executed felon the only person in the Bible told by Christ that he was on his way to heaven.
Perhaps Timothy McVeigh is in good company after all.
----- EXCERPT: EDITORIAL ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 06/24/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 24-30, 2001 ----- BODY:Liturgy and the Singing Shrimp
I'd like to comment on Father Michael J. Kavanaugh's letter in the June 10-16 issue (“Authentic Is Not a Synonym for ‘Literal’”). I think that Father Kavanaugh makes indisputably true points about translation. Certainly a literal translation might be unintelligible to someone from a background different from the one from which the text emerged. Nevertheless, reading the commentary on which Father Kavanaugh is commenting (“Authentic Liturgy … At Last,” May 27-June 2), I do not come away with the idea that the Congregation for Divine Worship is seeking literal translations, but rather faithful translations.
The writer adduces an example of translation that appears to be ineffective in making his point. He refers to a U.N. translator rendering the Russian hyperbole “… when a shrimp sings on a mountaintop” with the English “when pigs fly.” Frankly, although I'd never heard the words before, to me the Russian original is not only understandable, but is positively lyrical. The original simile has a basic beauty that is lacking in the English paraphrase, which feels pedestrian. Indeed, “when pigs fly” has to me a cynical connotation that does not come through in the Russian phrase, which contains a broad good humor. Perhaps an actual example, from the current liturgical translations, would have made the case better.
But I wonder. It is hard to avoid the impression that the laity are regarded as a target for experimenting. One criticism of the current English translations is that they are pedestrian. And when we hear liturgists tell us what is good and what is not, there is the tacit assumption that the laity is not up to understanding the meanings in the original text; that they cannot appreciate its richness. Now the laity is no longer inferior in education or sophistication to the experts, as was once the case. The local parish priest, for example, used to be the only educated person in town.
This has obviously changed. This is not to say that taste cannot be disputed, or that the laity should be choosing translations. But the laity's traditions, attitudes and reactions to what the specialists think ought not to be discounted.
FRANK DROLLINGER
Woodhaven, New York
Translation and Inculturation
Regarding Father Kavanaugh's June 10-16 letter in response to the May 27-June 2 commentary “Authentic Liturgy … At Last,” I think there is another factor to consider in translation and that is fidelity to the “culture of the Church.” I am not an advocate of a literal translation, and I appreciate Father Kavanaugh's remarks in this regard. However, authentic translation must above all be true to the Tradition of God's people, for translation is part of the process of handing on the faith from generation to generation.
Why has translation been a cause of tension in the Church in the period since the Second Vatican Council? I do not believe it arose from the technical aspect of translation but a wrong concept of inculturation. When, for example, translators took it upon themselves to downplay or eliminate words related to kingship and majesty, they were tampering with concepts that are part of divine Revelation. It was God's idea to make of King David a type of Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords. Kings may not be part of modern democratic culture, but they are part of the Word of God in both the Old and New Testament; they have also been part of the Church's worship for two thousand years.
Such an approach to translation is, in fact, the worst kind of inculturation, a submitting of the Word of God, which shall not pass away, to the world that is passing away. And what are we to say of the attempt to co-opt the liturgy and the Scriptures by means of translation to the cause of radical feminism!
It is tragic that so many have lost faith in the transcultural reality of the Church, the Word of God and the liturgy. A Church adapted in a radical way to modern culture would no longer be a universal Church. Worst than that, it would not have a “saving Word” to say to modern man.
In summary, I believe the principle that Father Kavanaugh relies on should therefore be not “every act of translation is also an act of transculturation,” but rather “every act of translation is also an act of Tradition.”
FATHER JOHN D. DREHER
Pawtucket, Rhode Island
Her Choice
Recently I read the Register's May 27- June 2 article on a crisis pregnancy center called Her Choice. They had started a hotline for women considering abortion. The hotline consisted of personal testimonies, among other things. I am very interested in starting a hotline like theirs in Kansas. Unfortunately, I misplaced the article. I would appreciate any assistance you could give me in locating this article and additional information.
JENNIFER MAI
Pierceville, Kansas
Expecting Too Much?
Poor President Bush (“Times that Call for Greatness,”
June 10-16). We expect a lot from him. We expect him to be even greater than Lincoln. Lincoln did have one pragmatic reason for the Emancipation Proclamation. It made it difficult for England and other European countries to continue to support the South when the war was to be fought to uphold slavery. I can't think of even one pragmatic reason to be outspokenly pro-life.
How many times in recent years have you heard your own pastor exercise the moral leadership urged on President Bush ? I haven't heard many homilies teaching even us Catholics, a supposedly friendly audience, how to think about the life issues. And how many times have you stepped out of the crowd and made yourself visible in defense of human life lately? Those times have been embarrassingly few for me.
So how will we Catholics support the courage we ask of President Bush after has stepped out in faith? Catholic Democrats (most of us, unfortunately) will say he's insincere and unconcerned about those already born, and that abortion isn't the only pro-life issue. Some prolifers will say he's still not pro-life enough.
I hope that President Bush will provide the moral leadership that offers us a vision of a country living up to its founding ideal—that we are endowed by our creator with an unalienable right to life. But I'm glad I'm not in President Bush's shoes.
SALLY CRAGON
Ashtabula, Ohio
School Can be Scary
I would like to comment on your response to a parent whose child is exhibiting school-aversion behavior (“School Phobia II,” Family Matters, May 13-19). When I was only five years old I developed agoraphobia (fear of losing control in public situations) over attendance at school, a condition which I have struggled with for 33 years.
When a child exhibits a fear of going to school, there should be matters looked into in addition to the ones you mentioned. For example, what type of teacher does the child have? Unfortunately, not every teacher is as stable and as trustworthy as we would like to believe. Teachers can have personalities and behavior which can instill unhealthy fears in a child. A parent should make every effort to get to know their child's teacher well to determine if this is part of the problem.
Also, a child may develop phobias involving enclosed spaces, public-speaking situations such as oral reports in front of other classmates and fear of failure. It is not enough just to force a child to go to school.
If serious examination of my own situation had taken place many years ago during my first time in school, it might have saved me a tremendous amount of suffering. I would like to think that passing this information on will enable a parent to do the same for their child.
Name Withheld
A Reader Turns 70
It had a been a wonderful 15th Annual Marian Congress, but now I was home and ready to relax with my favorite newspaper, the National Catholic Register. It was not to be: Right there on the front page were pictures of three young, female [sex symbols] chosen to repeat the words of John Paul II on a CD (“Selling the Pope: Critics Question New Pope Products,” June 10-16).
Surprisingly enough, the three men displayed are all recognized for talent; certainly not for “handsome good looks” or “great bods”!
There is more, the news blurb on page 3: “Poll: Most Americans Now Endorse Premarital Sex.” We know, unfortunately, that millions of Catholics are part of “most Americans.” But do not stop here, back up to page 2 and find that “Abortion Supporters Take Control of U.S. Senate.” This is devastating!
Not only devastating to the Senate—consider that Kennedy, Leahy, Biden, Durbin and Daschle all claim to be Catholic as they proudly display themselves to America and the world favoring abortion. They do not follow the 2,000-year teaching of Christ; they do not follow the Vicar of Christ of today—no, these fellows follow Frances Kissling, the lone live member of that very strange group Catholics for a Free Choice.
Catholics across America and the world still await truth from the bishops that these fellows … excommunicate themselves from the faith of Christ. They are liars. They lie to themselves and to the world as they claim Roman Catholicism. When will our bishops make the public announcements?
On June 10, 2001, I reached the big 7-0. Again, I learned that oft-taught lesson: Satan never sleeps! Thank you, National Catholic Register of June 10, 2001.
ALLEN O'DONNELL
Wayne, Nebraska
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: The Real Cathedral DATE: 06/24/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 24-30, 2001 ----- BODY:In “Rome Halts Renovation of Milwaukee Cathedral” (June 10-16), the Register reported that Vatican officials feared a planned remake violated liturgical norms. The photo of downtown Milwaukee that accompanied the story was mislabeled; it didn't include a picture of the cathedral (l) but did include a picture of the federal building (r). We regret the error.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: The Dollar, The Witch And the Wardrobe DATE: 06/24/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 24-30, 2001 ----- BODY:Over the past month, my 5-year-old son and I have established a nightly ritual.
Just before bedtime, he sits on my lap and I read to him from The Magician's Nephew, the first in C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia series.
Last week, we read the vivid passage in which Digory and Polly, along with the Witch from Charn, Uncle Andrew, the cabby and his horse, Strawberry, arrive in a world of apparent nothingness. Before long, they hear the singing of a beautiful voice. They stand in awe and watch as stars fill the sky and a sun rises. In the expanding light, they catch sight of a lion singing the world into being.
I first read these books as a teen-ager. Back then the Christian allusions and allegories were an interesting aside to the fantastic adventures. Now I see things the other way around, and the stories are even more exciting because of it. Some day, I hope my son feels the same way.
The Narnia tales thrill the imagination while teaching the truth. They are works explicitly centered on Christ and his offer of redemption. Rereading from them all these years later, I was reminded how much they helped to shape and strengthen my faith in God.
That's why I was dismayed when, a couple of weeks ago, I read in the newspaper that HarperCollins is exploring the idea of releasing a new version of these fantasy classics—with the Christian elements removed.
Dismayed, and then livid.
“We'll need to be able to give emphatic assurances that no attempt will be made to correlate the stories to Christian imagery [and] theology,” a publishing executive was quoted as saying.
The reason for the literary sacrilege? To paraphrase the news report: The custodians of Lewis' estate have seen the Harry Potter phenomenon—millions of books sold, a major motion picture on the way, fabulous fortunes amassed—and decided they want a piece of the action.
Never mind that, given Lewis' rather radical conversion to Christ, the concept of gutting The Chronicles of Narnia of their Christian theme is absurd. Lewis gave up agnosticism for Christianity in 1929, and spent the rest of his life growing in faith and writing about issues related to it. An Anglican, he held views on the Eucharist and the liturgy that today seem very Catholic—an intriguing fact, given his immense popularity today among evangelical Protestants.
Lewis' appeal to diverse groups of Christians today isn't hard to understand. He was one of the 20th century's great thinkers and, once he turned to Christ, his faith informed every thought he had.
In his apologetics classic Mere Christianity, Lewis compared the subject of the title to a hallway from which the Christian may enter any number of rooms. “The hall is a place to wait in, a place from which to try the various doors, not a place to live in. For that purpose the worst of the rooms is, I think, preferable. And, even in the hall you must begin trying to obey the rules which are common to the whole house. And above all you must be asking which door is the true one; not which pleases you best by its paint and paneling.”
And now comes HarperCollins, eager to introduce a new generation to a dim shadow of the real C.S. Lewis, one utterly stripped of his muse. For taking Christianity out of Narnia would be like cutting the economics out of Marx's Communist Manifesto in order to make it more palatable to capitalists. Like editing all evidence of Jesus' divinity out of the New Testament in order to sell it to Buddhists. Like … oh, I'd better stop here or I'll start giving publishers ideas.
‘People won't write the books I want, so I'll have to do it for myself.’—C.S. Lewis
The problem, of course, is that the absence of religion is itself a belief system. If the symbols and elements of Christ are taken out of Narnia, they will be replaced with something else. If the Christ figure, Aslan, the lion of Narnia, is banished from Lewis' books, what remains? The witch.
In Narnia, unlike the universe described in the Harry Potter books, the White Witch represents what witches should always represent—evil. Her presence, absent Aslan's, would most assuredly reflect a belief system: the belief that there is no such thing as God, no such thing as a transcendent struggle between good and evil. Only nice characters and naughty ones.
As Catholic novelist Michael D. O'Brien has warned, there is a battle underway for our children's minds. A Chronicles of Narnia plundered of its Christian elements would be an incredibly audacious act of war indeed.
As for the Drake family, we know that, if all this comes to pass, it will be the new fans who will be missing out on something truly special. Not us. When the marketing hype for the new books begins, and my son starts asking to have them because “everyone else” does, I'll replace my old, dog-eared copies not with the new books, but with a spiffy new set of the originals.
Later, when Hollywood produces their zillion-dollar version based on the new books, we'll pass on that, too. We'll stage our own private screening of videos based on the real deal, and buy extra popcorn with the money we save by not going to the multiplex.
And we'll thank God for giving us C.S. Lewis and his wonderful story about Narnia—the whole story.
Features correspondent Tim Drake welcomes e-mail at tdrake@ncregister.com
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Angry White Female DATE: 06/24/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 24-30, 2001 ----- BODY:Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, was one of the lead architects of the culture of death. Not only was she a major contributor to the liberation of sexuality from all restraint, but sexual liberation was for her part of a larger program of eugenics. While Planned Parenthood has been very careful to keep its founder's sexual and especially eugenic views from the light, they are a matter of public record, boldly and clearly expressed throughout Sanger's writings.
Sanger's dedication to the propagation and legalization of birth control was part of an overall eugenics program. Her journal, The Birth Control Review, was filled from cover to cover with the strongest and crudest eugenic propaganda. One of her favorite slogans, adorning each issue, was “Birth Control: To Create a Race of Thoroughbreds.”
For Sanger, the “lack of balance between the birth rate of the ‘unfit’ and the ‘fit,’” was “the greatest present menace to civilization,” so that “the most urgent problem today is how to limit and discourage the over-fertility of the mentally and physically defective.” As with the other eugenicists of the early 20th century, Sanger was particularly upset by the presence of the “feeble-minded,” a vague term which seemed to encompass everyone from the insane and those with nervous disorders, to those hitting low marks on the newly developed IQ tests. (By her estimate, some 70% of the population was feebleminded.)
To deal with the great “menace,” Sanger advocated a new kind of philanthropy, claiming that traditional philanthropy only succeeded in making the problem worse—“it encourages the perpetuation of defectives, delinquents and dependents,” she said, who were “the most devastating curse on human progress and expression.” True charity, by contrast, should not both coddle and perpetuate the “dead weight of human waste,” but weed out these undesirables at the source through birth control. Nor did Sanger shrink from advocating the use of force if necessary: “We prefer the policy of immediate sterilization, of making sure that parenthood is absolutely prohibited to the feeble-minded.”
Sanger's plans for genetic cleansing for the sake of “racial health” were racist as well. She was horrified by the fertility of the immigrant “Slavs, Latins [i.e., Italians], and Hebrews,” and her first birth-control clinic was set up in the Brownsville section of New York City, where such racially defective immigrants predominated.
Nor was she innocent of connections to the eugenic policies of Hitler's Germany. Her Birth Control Review published numerous articles by leading American eugenicists who lavished envious praise on the Nazi eugenic programs. As for the black population in the United States, Sanger “did not want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population,” she wrote; therefore, the eugenic effort had to be carried out “through a religious appeal.”
She suggested that the birth-control movement should “hire three or four colored ministers” as traveling preachers of the gospel of birth control.
Sanger's zeal as a prophet and missionary of birth control was rooted in her evolutionary beliefs. Without birth control, the “dead weight” would continually drag humanity back down the evolutionary slope. But, no less important, she believed sexuality to be a dynamic, creative power which, if released from its traditional restraints, would bring about the development of “genius,” thereby allowing the “more fit” to make great leaps up that same slope.
Sanger's rather strange notion of the creation of “genius” through sexuality was based on a combination of current evolutionary thought, pop psychology and the writings of famed “sexologist” Havelock Ellis. Human beings were formed, socially and psychologically, by internal and external “forces … the greatest and most imperative of which are Sex and Hunger,” she claimed. While “Hunger … has created ‘the struggle for existence,’” the “dynamic energy” of “the great force of Sex” was the evolutionary force which created genius.
To Sanger, true charity consisted in weeding out society's ‘undesirables’ before they had a chance to be born.
The creation of genius will only come about with the “removal of physiological and psychological inhibitions and constraints which makes possible the release and channeling of the primordial inner energies of man into full and divine expression,” she wrote. “The removal of these inhibitions, so scientists assure us, makes possible more rapid and profound perceptions.”
Since the release of sexual energy was creative, and therefore the repression of sexual energy was destructive, it followed, in Sanger's logic, that the traditional approach to sexuality had to be replaced. That meant, of course, the necessity of breaking down the “codes that have surrounded sexual behavior in the so-called Christian communities, the teachings of the churches concerning chastity and sexual purity, the prohibitions of the laws, and the hypocritical conventions of society.”
As a consequence, Sanger became a direct opponent of Christianity, especially the Catholic faith, for the Church was the greatest obstacle opposing the release of the “dynamic energy” of sexuality, and such obstruction for Sanger was “nothing less than foolhardy.”
“Instead of laying down hard and fast laws of sexual conduct, instead of attempting to inculcate rules and regulations,” as the Church had done, “the teacher of Birth Control seeks to meet the needs of the people,” she wrote.
What do people need?
As we have seen, the wrong sort of people need to be taught (or forced) to quit breeding altogether. The right people need to be taught “the power to control this great force” of sexual energy—“to use it,” she wrote, “to direct it into channels in which it becomes the energy enhancing their lives and increasing self-expression and self-development.”
Extolling Eugenics
Sanger longed to create an earthly paradise, one in which the free expression of sexuality would replace the need for religion by creating a new religion. “Through sex,” she wrote, “mankind may attain the great spiritual illumination which will transform the world, which will light up the only path to an earthly paradise. So must we necessarily and inevitably conceive of sex-expression.”
No longer would humanity foolishly yearn for a world to come, for “in that dawn men and women will have come to the realization, already suggested, that there close at hand is our paradise, our everlasting abode, our Heaven and our eternity.”
Sanger not only preached this new religion; she practiced it as well. Sexual fulfillment had been, from very early on, the criterion by which she thought marriage should be judged. When marriage proved sexually unsatisfying, it should be dissolved. Even better, marriages should be “open” to sexual fulfillment elsewhere.
Following her own advise, she carried on at least six unconcealed premarital and extramarital affairs. As contemporary Mildred Dodge wrote of her: “She was the first person I ever knew who was openly an ardent propagandist for the joys of the flesh.”
Even though she was an advocate of “more children from the fit, less from the unfit,” she had only three children, and paid relatively little attention to them.
As her son Grant stated, “Mother was seldom around. She just left us with anybody handy and ran off we didn't know where.”
Although Sanger died in 1966, her legacy lives on in Planned Parenthood. The liberation of sexuality from all traditional moral restraints is still central to its agenda, as is clear from International Planned Parenthood's recent Youth Manifesto, which states that “young people must be able to have pleasure and confidence in relationships and all aspects of sexuality.” This demands that “society must recognize the right of all young people to enjoy sex and to express their sexuality in the way that they choose.”
As with Sanger, contraception is the means to bring about this sexual paradise.
But with the release of sexuality from procreative ends, and making of it merely a “creative” means for “enhancing … lives and increasing self-expression and self-development,” abortion has become a necessity. It is no accident that Planned Parenthood is both the largest educative force for Sangerian sexuality, and the largest abortion provider. Furthermore, with the advent of prenatal screening, abortion is bringing about Sanger's eugenic “dream” of eliminating “the mentally and physically defective,”—“the dead weight of human waste,” as she called them.
Sanger's “great spiritual illumination” did indeed “transform the world”—but in such a way as to usher in not an “earthly paradise,” but the culture of death.
Ben Wiker teaches classics at Franciscan University of Steubenville (Ohio).
----- EXCERPT: Margaret Sanger's Race of Thoroughbreds ----- EXTENDED BODY: Ben Wiker ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Energy: How Human Beings Can Always Keep the Lights On DATE: 06/24/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 24-30, 2001 ----- BODY:In a recent article in USA Today, a number of Germans commented on the world's energy problems.
All said essentially the same thing: Blame the United States.
“We are having these difficulties because the Americans are buying all the oil and wasting like crazy,” said Christa Keim, 53, interviewed as she washed her Alfa Romeo 146, a small sedan, in downtown Berlin. “All the world has to be careful about it now, because these resources won't be here forever.”
This position, in essence, maintains that we are running out of resources; therefore, their use has to be controlled; therefore, governments must be empowered to force guzzlers and Americans who “waste energy like crazy” into line. Rolling blackouts in California and ever-higher gas prices across the nation serve to focus our attention on energy. Where does the energy problem lie? Is it mainly a problem of consumption? Do we live in a niggardly world?
Not long ago, I saw a report of the latest scientific theory seeking to replace the “big bang,” itself a theory that replaced the wave theory, as the explanation for the origins of the universe. Now, it seems, the hypothesis argues that the so-called big bang was itself not out of nothing, but the result of two or more previous cosmiclike collisions of previous worlds. The world, in other words, is full of energy, so full we can hardly imagine its extent or range. The real question is not whether we will run out of energy, but whether we will allow our theories about energy supply to convince us not to do what is necessary to make use of the infinite supplies available in various forms.
Already we know that there are practically unlimited amounts of hydrogen that can be harnessed in various types of controlled environments. Nuclear power is also practically unlimited and, in fact, if we do not imitate the Russian neglect, safe. Even coal is available in enormous supplies and can now be used in a relatively smokeless way. Wind and sea have something to add, although we are not quite sure what. Moreover, ways of making oil and gas directly from plants are within sight. Indeed, we already do this; crops grown for fuel will probably become a regular part of the agricultural scene. The need is to perfect the processes in a careful, human way.
The major incentive to develop these things, besides curiosity, is, like most things, need and cost. The major disincentive to our having enough energy is in the order of theory, usually ecological of some sort. Various forms of ecological and stew-ardship theories seem to imply that we should sharply limit our energy use for the good of the planet down through the ages.
This might be fine, were the theory on which it is based true. What we have here is a sort of universal, common-good speculation that presumes to take into account not only those living in the present century, but also those living in the year, say, 5000—and beyond. On this basis, having deftly assumed that nothing in the order of knowledge will change in the oncoming centuries, “experts” seek to deal with present energy policies as if supply were and even ought to be a static, indeed diminishing, item of calculation.
The only trouble with this sort of thinking, which often borders on a new religion, is that it does not take into account the human brain, the ultimate source of knowledge and indeed of available energy. Thus, what is emphasized is not energy development and growth, but energy restriction. The German lady cited above is a typical example of this thinking; her anger is directed not at those who impede production and development, but at consumers.
In the end, it would be ironic if the human race were to convince itself that it must limit its technology to that of 100 years ago, or to today, and then slowly see the race deplete all its known energy sources as if nothing could be done about it. Never mind that there is an infinite amount of energy available, energy many refuse either to use or to study. This is part of the perennial Luddite temptation that cannot imagine how what is new can be also made into what is human.
No doubt, an argument can be made for simpler technologies. But that argument has little to do with whether or not energy supplies are available if we would but develop them. And here I do not just mean coal, gas and oil. We can pretty much count on the fact that, if left free to do so, we will easily meet every energy crisis with the development of energy sources and ways to use them far beyond anything we had previously known. The energy shortage, in other words, is not a natural-resource problem. It is a political problem.
When it comes to what we need to exist, the human race has not been short-changed by the collision of universes, the “big bang,” the wave theory, or the living God. The current problem is, in large part, due to governmental restrictions on the development of nuclear, coal and oil supplies—restrictions generally put into place through lobbies with a specific agenda about the limited nature of the universe and man's place in it. But I suspect that these present resources will ultimately themselves be bypassed by newer technologies and capacities made possible by human intelligence.
Does this mean that with this abundance of energy all our moral and spiritual problems will be solved? By no means. They will continue and be pretty much the same whether we have much or little energy. Not to realize this is to fail to locate the real source of human problems: our wills. But we still can and should will to use our intelligence, one of the greatest natural resources in the universe, to keep the lights on.
Jesuit Father James V. Schall teaches political science at Georgetown University.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: James Schall SJ ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: A Basilica Grows in Brooklyn DATE: 06/24/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 24-30, 2001 ----- BODY:Brooklyn's Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help commands a fair portion of an entire city block.
As well it should: It's the flagship church of the Redemptorists in New York.
It heads a fleet of related buildings including the parish's rectory, school and convent covering the
remainder of the block. Together, they look like a friendly spiritual armada anchored to protect and help this bustling Bay Ridge neighborhood of modest houses and shops.
The massive basilica's granite exterior is such a pristine light gray you'd think it was quarried last week, and not in 1925, when the upper church's cornerstone was laid. Seen from across the street, the basil-ica is noticeably cruciform in design and, with its abundance of rounded arches, somewhat Romanesque in style. To switch metaphors, it beckons to us like a safe harbor and heavenly anchorage.
The basilica caught me unawares because it's really two beautiful churches under one roof. Both the upper church and the lower church, as they're called, have prominent shrines to Our Lady of Perpetual Help. There's a good lesson here: Mary remains changeless in her familiar icon even though both shrines and icons are different.
In the upper church, the magnificent “Golden Shrine,” gleaming mainly in marble, has sculpted angels holding Mary's familiar painted icon above an altar and beneath a blue dome shimmering with stars.
In the lower church, the same icon in stunning mosaic is enshrined in a semicircle of warm oak highlighted by gold trim. Beautiful stained-glass windows of simple liturgical design add another layer to the rich golden glow.
This peaceful, prayerful atmosphere, which radiates through the lower church, makes it a warm and cozy spiritual place for even a thousand worshippers at once. Used daily, it was just entirely redone with that aim in mind.
“We wanted people to feel very much at home here,” Redemptorist Father Kevin Moley told me, speaking on behalf of the basilica's 12,000 regular parishioners and its visitors. “It's always been like a family church.”
Father Moley, the rector and pastor, speaks from experience. Though he also spent 26 years in ministry in Puerto Rico, he grew up in Our Lady of Perpetual Help before it was named a basilica in 1969. His is one of more than 200 vocations to come from this parish since the Redemptorists founded it in 1893. (The Sisters of St. Joseph who staff the school arrived in 1896.)
The glowing woods, the Byzantine-like burgundy columns topped by golden Corinthian capitals, the bright stenciling that outlines the many Roman arched vaults on the lower ceiling—all contribute to making this large, lower “everyday church” radiate with the warmth of a real home, albeit a stately and majestic one.
Immigrants' Input
The redesigned sanctuary is spiritually magnetic. The tabernacle, returned to the center in the apse behind the altar, focuses the attention on the real presence of Christ here. The prayer area immediately before the Blessed Sacrament invites us to “come up closer” for a visit on our way to Mary's shrine.
I couldn't help but think that the Irish, Italian, German and Norwegian immigrants who built and first worshipped in this lower church early in the 20th century would find themselves right at home, just like today's many new immigrants in the parish do. They come from Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Ecuador, Peru—all of Latin America. There are Filipinos and Chinese, too, joining the constant flow of Irish, Italians and Germans. In fact, a weekly Mass in Chinese has recently been added to the regular English and Spanish schedule.
The new immigrants' different cultural devotions fit in beautifully with long-established ones headed by the Our Lady of Perpetual Help novena. I also found images of St. Joseph, St. Patrick and St. Anthony, along with Redemptorist saints like Alphonsus Ligouri and Gerard Majella, in the recessed side shrines. They are joined by a statue of Santo Nino de Cebu (the Infant Jesus) from the Philippines that draws many petitioners to this beautiful place of worship.
The enormous, Byzantine-Romanesque upper church includes a painting from Mexico of Our Lady of Guadalupe that, on the Dec. 12 feast, is surrounded by 500 roses and draws upward of 5,000 devotees; singers come at midnight with their guitars to serenade Our Lady. Within the transept's Sacred Heart altar, a large image of Our Lady of Cobre, the Virgin of Charity from Cuba, reminds people of that country's needs. Then a nearly life-sized crucifix called Señor de los Milagros—Lord of the Miracles—presents a devotion that began in Buga, Colombia.
All are grouped not far from the statue of St. Gerard and the stunning “Golden Shrine” of Our Lady of Perpetual Help.
Every June 27, scores of people celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, including numbers of Haitians who pray and tenderly sing all day before Mary's image. Under this title, she is the patroness of their country.
The feast isn't on the universal calendar, but it's a Redemptorist privilege. In fact, in 1865, Pope Pius IX gave custody of the miraculous icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help to the Redemptorists and charged them: “See to it that Our Lady of Perpetual Help be made known throughout the world.”
Holiness out of Hiding
In 1866, this icon was presented for public veneration in St. Alphonsus Church in Rome. For a thumbnail history of a long story, the Byzantine style icon had been painted during the 15th century on Crete after the original miraculous icon, called the Hodegetria and believed painted by St. Luke, was destroyed by Turks invading Constantinople.
When the image arrived in Rome, Our Lady appeared to a little girl and directed that it be placed in the church between St. Mary Major and St. John Lateran. In 1499, it was, and remained there 300 years until Napoleon's invasion leveled the church and forced the picture into hiding. Once it was rediscovered, the Redemptorists followed Pius IX's directive and joyously spread devotion to Our Lady of Perpetual Help with copies of the original painted in Rome and then sent to their churches.
They also began the Perpetual Novena to her. In 1943, this basilica played a key role in spreading the perpetual novena throughout the world. As World War II Army chaplains, two Redemptorists who preached the weekly perpetual novena in Brooklyn during the 1930s introduced the devotion in Ireland—beginning with Belfast, then on to Limerick and Dublin—with novena booklets supplied by the Brooklyn church. Within a year, 10,000 attended the weekly services. Then Irish Redemptorists picked up the perpetual novena and carried it to England, Africa and points east—the Philippines, India and Singapore.
The way this devotion spread from this Brooklyn basilica seems truly miraculous. An important footnote concerns a native son of the parish, Redemptorist Father Joseph Manton. He preached the homily the day the church was raised to a basilica, and for decades he drew thousands of people every Wednesday to Mission Church in Boston (also called the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help) where he preached this novena.
Whether on a lone pilgrimage or while attending one of the Diocese of Brooklyn's major events held in this big basilica, visitors always pause to marvel at the elaborate mural of Mary's assumption into heaven. The painting covers the soaring dome above the sanctuary and seems supported by a colonnaded gallery of angels and larger-than-life murals of Old and New Testament figures, from Moses to John the Baptist.
Taking in the grandeur of the basilica and the years of devotion carried on here, facing Brooklyn's Fifth Avenue, I wondered how many of the pilgrims and visitors to St. Patrick's Cathedral on the more-famous Fifth Avenue—the one in Manhattan—have ever heard of this basilica across the Brooklyn Bridge. Here Our Lady of Perpetual Help patiently waits for them.
Joseph Pronechen writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: The Redemptorists'Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Why Don't the Networks 'Get' Faith? DATE: 06/24/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 24-30, 2001 ----- BODY:They wouldn't know a Christian from a Klingon.
Television series spare no effort or expense to create accurate characters. The networks' careful research brings us believable military lawyers and credible space crews, pioneer folks, police officers and emergency-room physicians.
So why the inability to come up with an authentic Catholic character? Or a believable evangelical Protestant, for that matter? Usually, we see no Christian characters on television. The few who do pop up every once in a while are invariably villains, buffoons or both.
Next time you're in church, look at the families and friends around you and ask yourself how many times you've seen anything approximating lives like these on television. Why is television so blind to life as we know it?
The anti-Christian “humor” on some shows is evidence of bias. So are the anti-Christian premises, storylines and dialogue in other shows. But sometimes the absence of Christian characters in a show, or a faulty depiction of them, suggests that the problem lies not so much in ill will as in basic unfamiliarity with the subject matter.
Let's call this television's Christianity-Challenged Syndrome. One current example of this unfortunate malady is “Kristin,” a Paramount-made sitcom that NBC picked up for this summer. This 13-episode series debuted on Tuesday, June 5.
“Kristin” probably won't be around long. Its laughs are few, its critics many. So its only importance lies in the claims its creators have made for it. They say they're presenting a Christian young woman as talented, appealing and fun—not, as they admit, television's usual Christian misfit or hypocrite.
It's also interesting that “Kristin” is one of very few shows for which NBC has sent a publicity kit—press releases, actor biographies, printable photos and a video of the first three episodes—to the Register. Evidently, the network is hoping the show will have greater appeal to Catholics than its other new shows.
Are they right? Should Catholics watch this show? Should Catholic publications help the network push it? I took a look at the tape, which included the first three episodes. Here's what I found.
Kristin Yancey, the lead character, played by perky Kristin Chenoweth, is a Baptist from Oklahoma who's in New York City as a showbiz hopeful. After being cut at a dance audition for being too short, she takes a day job.
She becomes an assistant to Tommy Ballantine (Jon Tenney), a cheerfully immoral real estate developer. His right-hand man, Aldo Bonnadonna (Larry Romano), found Kristin through a minister whom he'd asked to recruit someone who could help reform Tommy.
Kristin shocks Tommy right away by standing up to him. Good-naturedly but firmly, she refuses to tell lies for him on the phone. He soon starts to like her mix of spunk, simplicity, savvy and a sense of humor, not to mention her good looks. But she warns him that she's off-limits until marriage.
So far, so good? The trouble is, from this point on, sexual misbehavior becomes a running topic of conversation in every episode, always punctuated by innuendo-laden wisecracks.
Also, Kristin's office dress sometimes is immodest. Nor does she always act and speak modestly around Tommy or Aldo. The show has crude words, abuses of God's name and subtly anti-Catholic portrayals. The characters with Catholic names commit serious sins—Aldo has been shacked up (we see him leaving that situation), and another employee, Santa Clemente (Ana Ortiz), constantly brags about her sins.
Finally, Kristin doesn't cite her faith as the reason she tries to avoid sin. Her virtue seems less related to love of God than to an affinity for old-fashioned heartland culture.
So is “Kristin” a Christian-friendly show? Its creators say it is. And I get the sense that they honestly think so. In other words, we've got a definite case of Christianity-Challenged Syndrome here.
In fairness, we shouldn't single out “Kristin”—or NBC, for that matter. They are products of their industry, no better or worse than any of their competitors. What we do need to do is be aware that, to the people we invite into our homes night after night, religious faith is an unnecessary and superficial appendage; it's a quirk some viewers inexplicably attach to themselves. It's something that needs to be not so much understood and respected as tolerated and placated.
The good news is: The appearance of “Kristin” may be a sign that the networks are grappling with how to reach people of faith. It's a lame attempt, to be sure, but could it indicate that they're reckoning with the fact that folks like us are many, and we aren't going away any time soon?
Let's hope so. Meantime, how can Catholics help television's creative minds understand that the kind of material in “Kristin” not only doesn't please us, but, in fact, offends us? How can Catholics encourage television to treat us with the sensitivity it reserves for other constituencies it consults to ensure positive portrayals?
Catholics can write letters to the editors of newspapers, magazines and entertainment-industry publications—not just to criticize what's wrong, but also to suggest what could be done right.
Catholics can organize into coalitions, as members of minority groups have done, to make their voices heard en masse.
And more Catholic young people can follow the encouragement of recent popes and enter the television and film industries as actors, actresses, writers, workers and executives.
Then, who knows? Someday, the likes of “Kristin” might dress modestly, meet a rosary-praying guy and become a happy stay-at-home mom. And prove a ratings winner, to boot.
Dan Engler, a former scriptwriter, writes the Register's “Weekly TV Picks” column from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: TV networks offer Christians a bone, but deliver a cheap chew-toy ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dan Engler ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 06/24/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 24-30, 2001 ----- BODY:The American Experience: MacArthur (1999)
The United States' 20th-century involvement in Asia can't be fully understood without coming to terms with Douglas MacArthur.
This four-hour PBS documentary, narrated by prize-winning historian David McCullough, captures both the personality and the historical significance of this controversial, larger-than-life military genius. Beginning with a quick character sketch of the general's war-hero father, the movie presents his privileged childhood, success as a West Point cadet and World War I combat valor as a prelude to his emergence an important public figure.
Believing that politics had unjustly destroyed his father's career, “Dugout Doug” used his connections with the conservative wing of the Republican party to defeat his enemies at home.
He also cultivated the press with the skill of a seasoned election campaigner. The American Experience: MacArthur chronicles his brilliant World War II and Korean War victories as well as his far-sighted reconstruction of Japan.
The complexities of the political and military events leading to his firing by President Harry Truman during the Korea conflict are deftly handled.
Harbor several times before. Tora! Tora! Tora! was the code used by the Japanese bomber pilots to signal their mission's success after they destroyed the U.S. Navy's Pacific headquarters on Dec. 7, 1941. Unlike the recently released blockbuster about the same incident, this movie focuses on a detailed, accurate re-creation of the two sides' war strategies instead of a schmaltzy romantic triangle.
The Japanese commanders, led by Admiral Yamamoto (Soh Yamura), are depicted as highly motivated, innovative warriors.
In contrast, the Americans, represented by Admiral Kimmel (Martin Balsam) and General Short (Jason Robards, Jr.) appear unimaginative and complacent.
The action sequences are impressive if not quite as spectacular as those in the current Pearl Harbor. To create a proper balance, the studio hired both Japanese (Kinji Fukasaku and Toshio Masuda) and American (Richard Fleischer) directors.
However, some may argue that this version, like the current release, downplays the savagery of the Japanese aggression elsewhere during World War II to avoid offending Japanese audiences, a potentially lucrative market.
Intolerance (1916)
Writer-director D.W. Griffith (The Birth of A Nation) invented the cinematic storytelling techniques that made Hollywood possible. At the height of his career he had more clout than Steven Spielberg and George Lucas put together.
Intolerance, a silent classic that's one of the Vatican's top 45 films, was originally a financial flop. Its innovative crosscutting between four different stories confused the audiences of its time. But its techniques seem perfectly intelligible today.
The movie's religious-themed message is to “show how hatred and intolerance, through all the ages, have battled against love and charity.”
Its modern story focuses on the efforts of a devout Irish-Catholic wife (Mae Marsh) to keep her blue-collar husband (Donald Harron) from being executed for a crime he didn't commit.
The other segments dramatize: Jesus' persecution by the Pharisees; the conflict between Catholics and Protestants in 16th-century France; and the betrayal of a tolerant 6th-century BC Babylonian prince by a Baal-worshipping priest.
The crowd scenes and epic battles are all spectacular, and the personal moments intimate and subtle.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 06/24/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 24-30, 2001 ----- BODY:SUNDAY, JUNE 24
Statue of Liberty
Discovery, noon
This documentary tells us all about the massive personification of liberty that French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi created “to cast radiance” on the New World and the Old from New York's harbor. In 1865, Bartholdi got the idea of a French-built monument to American independence from politician Edouard de Laboulaye, a Catholic, who called liberty “the daughter of the Gospel.”
MONDAY, JUNE 25
This Week in History: Little Big Horn
History, 8 p.m.
This documentary airs on the 125th anniversary of the battle of the title. The Seventh Cavalry's only survivor was the horse Comanche, who was found riddled with bullets and arrows but standing by the body of his master, Irish-born Myles Keogh. Capt. Keogh had served in the army of the Papal States, fighting for Pope Pius IX.
MON-THURS, JUNE 25-28
“Some Assembly Required” Week
History, 10 p.m.
If you love duct tape, nuts, bolts and the sweet smell of sawdust, see these shows. The Hardware Store (new), Mon., tours mom & pop stores and “big boxes.” Garage Gadgets, Tues., shows what a typical garage holds (besides cars). More Gadgets (new), Weds., looks at inventions from flashlights to palm pilots. The Tool Bench, Thurs., covers hand tools from caveman days to our modern toolboxes.
TUESDAY, JUNE 26
Great Food: Delia Smith's Chocolate PBS, 5 p.m.
Diets go out the window as expert cook Delia fills up the TV screen with everything chocolate.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 27
Great Streets: Edinburgh's Royal Mile, With Emmylou Harris
PBS, 8 p.m.
Country-folk singer Emmylou Harris explores a street that has figured in Scotland's history since medieval times. Along the way, she encounters Fringe Festival performers, a jam session of Scots musicians and a garden concert of songs by Robert Burns.
THURSDAY, JUNE 28
Anyplace Wild: Canoeing the Borderline PBS; check local listings for time
Two pairs of brothers canoe the rivers and lakes along the U.S.-Canadian border and camp out along the historic water routes. (A repeat.)
FRIDAY, JUNE 29
Religion & Ethics Newsweekly
PBS; check local listings for time
Some Asian-American Buddhists charge that many Americans take up Buddhism and distort it. Kim Lawton reports. Program content subject to last-minute change.
SATURDAY, JUNE 30
The Papacy
EWTN, 8-9:30 p.m.
At 8 p.m., Rock of Truth examines Sts. Peter and Paul and the Church's early days in Rome. At 9 p.m., in The Glory of the Papacy, Dr. Timothy O'Donnell of Christendom College discusses St. Peter and the papacy's founding by Jesus.
— Dan Engler
----- EXCERPT: All times Eastern ----- EXTENDED BODY: Daniel J.Engler ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: The New Curriculum: Reading, Writing and Self-Esteem DATE: 06/24/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 24-30, 2001 ----- BODY:One of the most dominant articles of faith pervading the modern curriculum is the notion that children can't achieve and won't succeed unless they have high self-esteem.
In parochial and public schools, in reading and writing, in health class and on the sports field, making students feel good about themselves has become a foundational goal in the modern classroom.
It's not hard to imagine how teachers and parents have come to believe that improving self-esteem is important. The idea of increasing students' sense of self-worth, of improving their respect and confidence in their own being, certainly has merit. And surely everyone, at some time or other, has been the beaming recipient of the magical power of encouragement — of praise given for a job well done or for a solid effort made.
Aren't self-esteem programs just a natural extension of the venerable idea of encouragement, which has always played a central role in good teaching and sound parenting?
Well, not exactly.
The problem with the idea of self-esteem as currently applied in the field of education, is the problem of a truth distorted and exaggerated out of all proportion to its proper place in the healthy development of children.
Examples of self-esteem extremism are everywhere. A kindergarten teacher invites youngsters to announce their self-admiration as a part of a course called “I Like Me” (“I like me because of my Yankee's hat!” “I like me because of my hair!”).
One dumbfounded parent reported how her teenage daughter arrived home with a certificate of recognition for future achievement. The girl was being encouraged to feel good about great things she hadn't even done yet.
In addition to continually reminding students how wonderful and important they are, teachers who want to build their students' self-esteem are expected to carefully avoid the slightest whiff of criticism.
I remember being informed — very forcefully, mind you — at a workshop for Catholic teachers, that we weren't to put Xs beside wrong answers on student papers any more, that doing so would damage our students' sense of themselves. From now on only positive and encouraging remarks on tests and papers would be allowed.
Now that's what I call avoiding the slightest whiff of criticism.
Unlike our older understanding of encouragement, the self-esteem experts inform us that praise should not be linked to performance, since this would raise the possibility of failure, which would only perpetuate low self-esteem. As a consequence, in order to raise students' self-regard many schools today have been willing to lower standards, make classes easier, inflate grades and even eliminate the idea of failure entirely.
One big problem with all of this, of course, is that it isn't the real world. “In the real world, praise has to be the reward for something worthwhile. Praise must be connected to reality,” says psychologist Paul Vitz of New York University. Confidence without justification can easily become a form of arrogance. “The building up of self-esteem unrelated to real accomplishment is very likely to simply make a person overconfident, narcissistic and unable to work hard,” says Vitz.
It was not uncommon in the school where I taught for the staff to have to deal with problem parents whose natural parenting skills had been badly compromised by self-esteem theory. They refused to discipline their misbehaving and sometimes violent children for fear it would hurt their child's self-esteem. Believing the cause of their child's acting out was low self-esteem and that the remedy was gentle and positive encouragement, rather than the older notion of tough love, it was not uncommon for these parents to side with their children against teachers and administrators trying to bring their child into line with entirely appropriate disciplinary measures.
Siding with the kids against the teachers, I was told by the older members of the staff, was almost unheard-of in days gone by; and in a number of cases it made our job virtually impossible.
Certainly little children need loads of encouragement, but as kids reach the age of reason reality needs to be gradually and charitably introduced.
From a Catholic point of view, the kind of manipulation advocated by the self-esteem movement plays complete havoc with the spiritual life of the child. Only on the basis of knowing the truth about oneself, along with hope and trust in God, can real progress in the spiritual life take place.
I'll never forget the late Father John Hardon's succinct Catholic definition of self-esteem: “A realistic appraisal of one's strengths and weaknesses, and the attributing of one's strengths to God and one's weaknesses to oneself.”
It is hardly surprising that thousands of psychological studies have failed to demonstrate that high self-esteem reliably causes anything—at least anything desirable.
While many highly successful people suffer from low self-esteem, many others with high self-esteem feel good about themselves simply because they are rich, beautiful or socially well-connected.
It has been demonstrated that inner-city drug dealers exhibit high self-esteem. That seems natural enough; after all they have been successful in making a lot of money in a hostile and highly competitive environment.
Contrary to what the theory predicts—that high self-esteem will correlate positively with academic achievement—racial studies show black males have the highest self-esteem, followed by black females, white males and finally white females. The exact opposite of what one would expect if the theory were true.
It also turns out that aggressive and violent men have remarkably high self-esteem. Leading at least one researcher to question whether increasing self-esteem might not actually increase violent behavior.
Which all raises the question: Why have we imposed this superficial understanding of self-esteem on millions of kids and their teachers if there is no research evidence that it does what it is supposed to do? Why are we using our kids as guinea pigs for the latest fad in educational psychology?
And while we're at it, why aren't the psychologists who think this stuff up ever required to read Aristotle? Aristotle understood very well that bad things happen when good ideas are taken to an extreme.
In sum then, the notion of self-esteem is a serious distortion of the proper role of encouragement and praise in the character development of children and is not an idea Christians should have anything to do with.
J. Fraser Field is executive officer of the Catholic Educator's Resource Center (www.catholiceducation.org).
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: J. Fraser Field ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Mariology for the Masses DATE: 06/24/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 24-30, 2001 ----- BODY:Popular professor and apologist Scott Hahn wrote this book so that his fellow Catholics would never be ashamed of their supernatural mother, as he once was of his natural mother.
He recounts the incident in his introduction.
When he was 15, he got sick in school. His mother came to pick him up, and he asked her to walk well in front of him so his friends wouldn't laugh and label him a “mama's boy.”
That night, his father called him on his “cool,” reprimanding him in no uncertain terms: “Don't ever be ashamed to be seen with your mother.” The younger Hahn took the talking-to to heart—and it's clear from Hail, Holy Queen that he has allowed it to guide his relationship with his supernatural mother as well as his natural one.
Hahn offers a spirited, colorful defense of the Blessed Mother, of whom the former anti-Catholic, Presbyterian pastor is an unabashed champion. “Too many Catholics and Orthodox Christians have abandoned their rich heritage of Marian devotion,” he writes. “They've been cowed by the polemics of fundamentalists, shamed by the snickering of dissenting theologians, or made sheepish by well-meaning but misguided ecumenical sensitivities.”
Hahn believes that all Marian study and devotion must begin with solid theology and firm credal faith. Using the exegetical skills he honed in evangelical Protestantism, the author grounds the Church's Marian doctrine in Scripture. Far from finding her a biblical aberration, Hahn portrays Mary as prefigured in the Old and revealed in the New Testament. He depicts her as a key image, or “type,” representing the New Eve, the “Ark” of the New Covenant and the Queen Mother of the Kingdom of Christ.
Of particular interest to this reviewer was a discussion of the ancient Near Eastern practice of honoring the “mother of the king” as the embodied continuity of the dynasty. The king bows to his mother and honors her requests not out of obligation, but out of filial love. The queen mother would intercede before the king on behalf of his subjects. It is not hard to understand why this monarchical imagery was transferred to Mary and her Son even though the idea may seem quaint to moderns who are unfamiliar with the ways of ancient royalty.
Hahn is only slightly less compelling when he writes of the Church Fathers' teachings on Mary. Here he covers a wide spectrum of teachings spanning the centuries, from St. Justin Martyr in the second century through to Cardinal John Henry Newman in the 19th. His patristics are solid and well-catalogued; it's just that his biblical exegesis—in which even the most esoteric minutiae is often cause for breathless enthusiasm—is a tough act to follow.
Speaking of which, if you're among the growing legions who've enjoyed Hahn's high-energy presentations in person or on tape, you'll be glad to know that his joy of discovery comes through loud and clear on the printed page. Indeed, probably the book's best gift is its joyful spirit. It has often been said that the conviction of the convert puts to shame the conformity of the cradle believer. Hahn obviously revels in his discovery of Mary and her gifts to the Church.
At the same time, he writes humbly and avoids being the aggressive evangelizer. Children of Mary have no enemies; Marian doctrines are not proven by a rude defense. “We must never come to believe that we have all the answers,” he writes. “Though the answers are all available to us, no one is ever in full possession of them.”
That advice helps to make the book palatable, even inviting, to non-Catholic readers, who, like this reviewer, may approach its subject with a certain guardedness. Every Christian who approaches this work with an open heart and mind will find here, at the very least, an enlightening, exhortative and downright entertaining reading experience.
Wayne A. Holst is an instructor in religion and culture at the University of Calgary.
----- EXCERPT: Book Review ----- EXTENDED BODY: Wayne A. Holst ----- KEYWORDS: Books -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 06/24/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 24-30, 2001 ----- BODY:Dallas Resignations Prompt Change in Theology Program
The professors resigned from the university's Institute for Religious and Pastoral Studies in what some insiders call a dispute over the role of theological orthodoxy in pastoral training.
Critics of the program charged that it had strayed from its practical purpose of training people for lay ministry, while its supporters urged that knowing and understanding Catholic doctrine was the essential foundation of ministry and therefore an appropriate focus for the program.
University president Msgr. Milam Joseph denied that the dispute was theological, but said he was eager to set a new direction for the institute. The three theologians will start a similar program at Ave Maria College in Michigan.
Washington Girl Can Wear Pro-Life Shirt, For Now
The Prosser, Wash., freshman was asked to turn inside-out a Rock for Life shirt reading, “Abortion is Homicide. You will not silence my message. You will not mock my God. You will hear my cry and stop killing my generation.”
Later, school officials decided she could wear the shirt, but they are considering changing the dress code over the summer to prohibit political messages. Lawyer said she would obey any change in the rules.
Chicago Catholic Schools Ace National Tests
Over 28,000 Catholic elementary school students took the TerraNova standardized test. Catholic school third-graders scored in the 68th percentile (50th is average), fifth-graders in the 70th percentile and seventh-graders in the 75th percentile.
Popular Professor Tapped By Ratzinger's Congregation
VATICAN NEWS SERVICE, June 12 — John Paul II today appointed Canadian Bishop Marc Ouellet, 64, consultor of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Formerly a professor at the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family, he was consecrated a bishop by the Pope March 19. Bishop Ouellet was initially made secretary of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity. He is also vice president of the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with Judaism.
He was profiled on the Books & Education Page of the April 1-7 Register.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Dos and Don'ts for Having Priests Over DATE: 06/24/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 24-30, 2001 ----- BODY:DO
E Schedule ahead. Priests are busy, and evenings are prime work time. Ask what time works best.
E Keep it short. Every priest appreciates hearing, “Come for an hour or two and leave when you have to.”
E Make it simple. You can ask a priest what he likes to eat (he might have a food allergy), but you don't have to cook gourmet. Says one pastor: “A priest goes to restaurants. What he doesn't have oftentimes is a home-cooked meal with children around.”
E Be real. Talk about your family's real life, your interests and experiences. Tell anecdotes. Show the photos on your refrigerator door. Ask about the priest's family, about his personal interests.
E Relax. Entertaining clergy doesn't require an extraordinarily clean living room or perfectly behaved children. Take it from one priest: “You can make a hundred mistakes which the priest won't mind at all if you're gracious and friendly.”
E Show support. Mention something you really appreciate about what the priest does. Ask him to give your family a blessing before he leaves.
DON't
E Have a hidden agenda. No surprise “ministry” encounters with fallen-away Catholics, no setups where the priest is expected to have that life-changing conversation with a wayward child or divorcing couple.
E Make it a griping session. A social evening is not the place to complain about parish affairs, argue over the religious controversy of the week or criticize homilies.
E Ignore personality and pastoral differences. Some priests accept fewer social invitations than others because they need more down time alone. And pastoral approaches run the gamut from never refusing to never accepting parishioners' invitations.
— Louise Perrotta
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Louise Perrotta ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Work vs. Family DATE: 06/24/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 24-30, 2001 ----- BODY:Q I'm the father and sole breadwinner of my family and I've been asked to transfer to the South. All of our family, including grandparents, uncles, cousins — as well as our friends — are here in the North. But the professional opportunity is better down there.
A Your dilemma about transferring shows the tension between work and family in a particularly dramatic way.
If we think only about our family and not about work, then we limit our future and possibly bring suffering to our family in the long run. If we decide to always opt for work demands, then we run the risk of alienation from our family and eventually a deep sense of loss and irresponsibility. Serving only the family on the one hand, or only the boss and career on the other, are mutually unsatisfactory options.
As theologian William May has noted: “Neither one can be the sole arena of self-realization.”
John Paul II wrote about the relationship between the two in his encyclical On Human Work: “Work constitutes a foundation for the formation of family life” (No. 42). He added: “The family constitutes one of the most important terms of reference for shaping … human work” (No. 43).
Before you decide whether to move, prayerfully remember that we are here to know, love and serve God. We owe our first allegiance to him. We often acknowledge the great interest God has in our families; but do we prayerfully consider his great interest in our work?
Here are some issues to consider:
Will the new position cause any moral compromises? If so, that's a sign it's not the will of God.
Are you being guided by pride — “I deserve this recognition, and finally I'll get to be in charge” — or vanity — “I'm afraid to say No; I might lose my boss's respect.”
Remember, work is for people and not people for work; so look honestly at how the move will benefit you and your family, and not just your career.
It may be that the benefits for your family, where the bulk of your responsibility lies, outweigh the difficulties for your extended family — unless there are serious responsibilities like caring for an elderly parent.
It is in our work that we not only change society, but develop ourselves and co-create God's Kingdom. Talking to a spiritual director, therefore, is also important in a decision like yours. A spiritual director can help you see which place would allow you to better serve God with the confidence that he will take care of you and your family?
Career dilemmas have no easy answers. They awaken in us our dependency upon the will and grace of God. The dignity we find in work and in family life comes from him. The most likely way to find the correct solution is in prayerful dialogue with him, in concert with a spiritual director.
Art A. Bennett is a licensed marriage and family therapist who manages employee support programs.
Reach Family Matters at: familymatters@ncregister.com
----- EXCERPT: Family Matters ----- EXTENDED BODY: Art A.Bennett ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: EAST WEST HOME IS BEST DATE: 06/24/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 24-30, 2001 ----- BODY:Eighty percent of young mothers (age 18 to 29) prefer to stay home with their children rather than go to work. In fact, parents of children under 5 consistently express a strong sense of responsibility for their children and a desire to make sure their children absorb the values they believe in.
Parents raise children best
79%
Kids get more attention at home
81%
One parent should stay home
70%
Childcare is the last option
70%
Source: Public Agenda survey cited in American Demographics, November 2000.
----- EXCERPT: Facts of Life ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? DATE: 06/24/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 24-30, 2001 ----- BODY:Michelle Virnig wasn't entertaining lofty thoughts about building the culture of life as she flipped through her cookbooks in preparation for a Friday dinner eight years ago.
It was entertaining and feeding the parish priest that preoccupied her.
The Shoreview, Minn., mother of five finally settled on fish — “orange roughy” — but for the whole family, the evening's real find was the personal connection with their guest.
Priests have visited the Virnigs often since then. One in particular — Michelle's husband, Kurt, serves for him at daily Mass — has become a good friend and a hands-on ally in the work of building Catholic family life.
“Our kids are 13 to 25 now, and as they've gotten older, almost all of them have gone to Father for help with a problem or something,” says Michelle. “They know he's approachable. But if they hadn't seen him on their turf, would they have talked to a priest at all? Probably not.”
Teaching Moments
If culture-building means strengthening and passing on certain values and ideals, then culture-building isn't too grand a term for what happens at family mealtimes. In ordinary-life settings like this, values and teachings can become concrete and compelling through personal stories and conversation. Faith-building relationships can develop. As the Virnigs and many other Catholic parents have discovered, a priest's presence at the table can advance these goals significantly. It's a role that most priests — time permitting — are eager to embrace.
Father Joseph O'meara, pastor of St. Rose of Lima Church, Baltimore, says that visiting families and interacting with their children is one of his favorite activities and brings him great encouragement for his own vocation.
Parents of younger children could try a few ideas from Father Charles.
The visits strengthen parish bonds, he has noticed, and are good opportunities for sharing and discussion. “I sort of expect and enjoy being asked questions about Catholic life,” he says. “Sometimes the younger children will ask, ‘How come you wear those clothes?’ The older ones, without asking directly, might wonder why I'm not married.” Father O'meara seizes every opening. “It's a nice chance to explain. Sometimes I tell stories about how I found my vocation.”
If Father O'meara didn't live halfway across the country from Dwight and Margaret Ganje, this Minnesota couple might well seek him out as a guest for their family's monthly “focus” meal. They came up with the concept more than six years ago, when the oldest of their three children was going into ninth grade.
“We wanted our children to see that there are many possibilities for following God, so we started inviting people over to share their story, their testimony,” Margaret explains. “Specifically, we wanted our children to hear how these people made choices in their lives — the bad as well as the good, and what they learned from that.”
Focus meals have worked well for the Ganjes and have provided valuable insights into the lives of dedicated people from a variety of vocations, ministries, and occupations. Many priests have shared their stories.
“We all love hearing about their childhood and how they discovered their vocation,” Margaret reports. “We always come away with a sense of closeness — being inspired by priests' faithfulness, seeing them as real people who struggle sometimes, wanting to support them more. Also, for the children, the conversation is very intellectually stimulating — full of interesting topics they can relate to.”
Kids and Priests
Parents who worry that younger children might not be able to connect with a visiting priest could try out a few ideas from Father Charles Antekeier, recently retired pastor of St. Francis Xavier Church, Grand Rapids, Mich. “There should be introductions, with parents indicating what each child contributes to the family,” he suggests. “They can help each child to tell about their school, sports, classroom activities.”
Father Antekeier, who tries to come prepared for visits by knowing children's names and putting a few candies in his pockets, says that parents can prepare too. “Show young children a picture of the priest and explain that he's coming. Have them prepare a list of simple questions — things like how many brothers and sisters do you have? What do you do every day?”
“‘What's the most fun thing you do as a priest? Which of my toys do you like best?’ Those are good question for small children,” adds Father William Baer. Older children may be more of a challenge, he admits, but even they can be drawn in if parents keep the conversational ball rolling.
“When I'm with a family that has teen-agers who look like they'd rather be anywhere else but with their parents and the parish priest, I talk to the parents,” says Father Baer. “I tell funny stories about growing up, about some of the behind-the-scenes surprises that can come up at church events like weddings. Everybody loves stories! I watch the kids slowly start to laugh, show interest” — even interest in the priest-hood, he says.
“Sometimes in the course of an hour, I see a teen-ager go from nervous or sullen to a very positive fascination with priesthood,” he says. “I'm impressed at how many of them admit — not just later, but right there at the dinner table — that being a priest would be cool, wow!, really something.”
It's the kind of statement that makes not only parents sit up and take notice, but also Father Baer of St. John Vianney Junior Seminary, St. Paul, Minn.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Louise Perrotta ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: A Hippocratic Oath for the 21st Century DATE: 06/24/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 24-30, 2001 ----- BODY:ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Each year the crowd grows. Graduating medical students at the University of Michigan are coming to the Hippocratic Oath Banquet sponsored by three Christian medical organizations. At this year's third annual event June 6, 30 students and 12 graduates attended.
Even though Michigan's medical school offered them a version of the oath two days later at graduation, the new physicians came to the banquet to publicly swear they would protect life “from conception to a natural death.”
“I was interested in taking the oath just to affirm in a public way my commitment to life,” said graduate Michele Gray. “My commitment is to not provide abortions and not participate in or encourage life-defeating procedures. I want instead to be promoting life for my patients.” As she begins her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Missouri next month, she said the oath's perspective is particularly important for her profession.
Another graduate who took the oath, Tony Yang, will start residency at the University of California in San Francisco.
In his specialty, pathology, Yang said he does not expect to be challenged with life-and-death ethical decisions. For him, the oath was a means to witness to his Catholic faith in the public forum of his profession.
“I'm probably not as good a witness as some others, but I think this gives me a chance to do it. As a Christian physician, and even just as a Christian, it's important to stand up for what is right and not let it be drowned out amidst voices that are saying so many other things nowadays,” Yang explained.
“I'm still going to the U. of M. graduation, but I feel the oath being said [there] has been stripped of a lot of things. Although the oath itself is not Christian by origin, it contains elements that parallel Christian — and even basic human — principles that should have been retained.”
New Need
Dr. William Martin, an internist who practices out of Mercy Primary Care in Ann Arbor, said he was not aware of changes undergone by the oath or of the version presented at the banquet, which he did not attend.
“I took the oath when I graduated from medical school in Rome in the 1960s. I didn't think about it very much or hang it up in my office — patients don't usually care as much about those things as they do about getting well.”
But he added, “I think these things were simply taken for granted, that you did no harm and that you sought to heal your patients. But if they are trying to dilute these principles, or add another agenda, then maybe a new presentation is needed.”
Dr. William Toffler, the keynote speaker for the event, agrees.
“If doctors don't stand up for the tradition of not doing harm,” he said, “if we aren't willing to be forthright and speak up for the sanctity of life, our culture is lost.”
Toffler, a family practitioner who teaches at Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, co-founded Physicians for Compassionate Care, a national group that works to protect the practice of medicine from the threat posed by the Right to Die movement.
Physicians for Compassionate Care lobbied successfully to have the Oregon Medical Association take a position against assisted suicide; and it now trains doctors to give palliative care to the terminally ill.
“But if we do speak up, people will listen,” Toffler went on. “They will say, ‘There are those people whom we respect, from this profession that we revere. We believe them.’”
Dr. Rusty Chavey, who founded the Oath Banquet, agrees. “Many young people bring these ideals to medical school. We need to make sure they don't lose them here,” said the Ann Arbor family-practice physician, a member of the Catholic Medical Association's Lansing, Mich., guild.
Chavey said medical schools across the country currently water down the oath to the point where it is almost meaningless. “Some versions even leave out the part where a physician promises not to seduce his/her patient,” he said.
Just as the number taking the oath has grown each year, Chavey said, so has the list of organizations sponsoring the banquet. “Last year the Christian Medical and Dental Association joined with us in the Catholic Medical Association; at this year's banquet the Culture of Life Foundation helped with our expenses.”
The Culture of Life Foundation publishes a newsletter, Medical Facts of Life, which appeals to university medical students, he said, because it offers “data rather than dogma.”
Toffler said events like the Oath Banquet can help preserve a “reasoned dialogue” about the ethical practice of medicine. “It's critical that doctors be involved in these issues. There have been 2,400 years of a consistent ethic. Even at the time of Hippocrates, a people without any theology understood the inherent conflict of interest in asking a physician to be involved in the death of a patient.
“We've become dulled as a society, and even as a profession. But this isn't anything new,” he said.
“It's the same ethic of not doing any harm.”
Kate Ernsting writes from Ann Arbor, Michigan.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kate Ernsting ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Life Notes DATE: 06/24/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: June 24-30, 2001 ----- BODY:Physicians' Right to Object
CANADIAN PHYSICIANS FOR LIFE, June 7 — The notion that physicians who object to abortion for reasons of conscience are obliged to refer patients for the procedure has been refuted by Canadian Physicians for Life.
Canadian Physicians for Life president Dr. Will Johnson responded that both in Alberta and nationally, a physician's responsibility is to make their personal views known. Johnston said a doctor then must “outline the potential mental and physical risks of abortion,” such as increased risk of breast cancer or post-abortion trauma.
Johnson added that, “For a woman to make a truly “informed decision” she must be presented with the facts of human embryology of her unborn child.”
Copper's Role in Miscarriage
BBC NEWS, June 4 — Embryos must have a supply of copper if they are to develop properly, scientists have discovered, reported BBC News.
Three separate studies have established the metal as a crucial player in the proper formation of organs and tissues during pregnancy.
The work suggests that some miscarriages may be caused by genetic defects relating to copper.
Although the research was carried out in unborn mice, the scientists are confident the same holds good for humans.
Pregnant women, however, have been advised not to try to increase the amount of copper in their diets as too much can be toxic.
Most people get plenty of copper from their daily diet, but some have genetic problems that prevent the body from properly using the nutrient.
Attempt at Forced Abortion
ASSOCIATED PRESS, June, 6 — A 24-year-old New York farmhand was sentenced to two to four years in prison for spiking his pregnant girlfriend's drink with a veterinary drug used to cause abortions in cows.
Danny R. Court of Covington pleaded guilty in April to second-degree abortion.
Police said there was no evidence his 19-year-old girlfriend or the unborn child was harmed after Court slipped the drug into her drink in December. He got the drug from the farm where he worked.
Abortions in Lancaster County
Lancaster United for Life had organized prayer rallies and mounted legal challenges before the city Zoning Hearing Board.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Trip Moves Pope One Step Closer to Moscow DATE: 07/01/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 1-7,2001 ----- BODY:KIEV, Ukraine — As has so often been the case with the travels of Pope John Paul II, the first three days of his historic five-day trip to Ukraine held out the promise of healing ancient wounds.
At his first Mass in Ukraine, John Paul II paid tribute June 24 to Christians persecuted during the Communist era and Jews murdered by the Nazis.
“Land of Ukraine, drenched with the blood of martyrs, thank you for the example of fidelity to the Gospel, which you have given to Christians the world over,” the Pope said on Day Two of his visit.
The June 24 Mass, held on a rain-swept grassy field at the old Chayka airport 10 miles outside Kiev, drew 150,000 pilgrims, about a third of them Orthodox. One organizer said that the rain, the distance from Kiev, and heavy security kept more people from attending the Mass, the Associated Press reported.
Yet, the Mass attracted Catholics from Siberia, as well as Lithuania, Kazakhstan and other countries, who came with their bishops. Emigrant Ukrainians from the West also attended.
President Leonid Kuchma and the country's entire Catholic hierarchy also attended the Latin-rite Mass, celebrated in Ukrainian.
In welcoming the Pope, Kuchma said that his visit would be “a milestone in the country's history.” Kuchma stressed Ukraine's “European vocation” and paid tribute to the Holy Father's “historic personality.”
At the beginning of the celebration, Catholic Bishop Jan Purwinski of Kiev-Zhytomyr said that only 11 years ago, when the Church was still persecuted, a meeting with the Pope in these lands was unthinkable.
In memory of those years of persecution, the bishop gave John Paul II a gift: a handwritten prayer book used by Catholics during the persecution.
During his homily delivered in Ukrainian, the Polish Pope recalled that Kiev was the cradle of Slavic Christianity at the end of the first millennium.
Thus, the Holy Father extended an olive branch to the Moscow Orthodox Church, as he had done on arrival Saturday, hoping that “the one baptism that we share will help to restore that situation of communion in which diversity of traditions posed no obstacle to unity in faith and ecclesial life.”
Appeal for Unity
The Pope continued his outreach the next day, appealing for an end to the 1,000-year schism between Catholics and Orthodox Christians at the second open-air Mass of his visit, Agence France Presse reported.
John Paul prayed there for “the unity of God's disciples,” quoted the news source. “It is a heartfelt appeal for the unity of Christians,” the Pope said. “It is an unceasing prayer.”
The June 25 Mass was celebrated according to the Eastern rite followed by most of Ukraine's Catholics. Observers attributed an unexpectedly low turnout of only about 30,000 for the service, held at a Kiev airport, to opposition from leaders of the Moscow Orthodox Church, which commands the loyalty of most of the country's Orthodox.
Catholicism has grown steadily over the past decade in Ukraine and now claims an estimated six million believers in the country of 50 million, compared to 10 million practicing Orthodox.
The Orthodox have been split by schisms in recent years, with a substantial minority of parishes now recognizing the authority of Orthodox Patriarch Filaret of Kiev or of Metropolitan Methodius, leader of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, rather than the Moscow Orthodox Church.
Ukraine's Orthodox Archbishop Vladimir, who is obedient to the Moscow Orthodox Church, signaled his displeasure at the Pope's pilgrimage by boycotting an interfaith meeting June 24 where John Paul called for an end to Christianity's 1,000-year schism.
But the Pope had a warm reception from other Ukrainian religious leaders, including Patriarch Filaret and Metropolitan Methodius.
Referring to the tragic history of the Jews in Ukraine, the Pope spoke of the memorial at Babi Yar, a ravine in Kiev where up to 200,000 Jews and others were shot and killed by the Nazis (see accompanying story). He called the massacre “one of the most atrocious of the many crimes” of the past century.
The two Orthodox leaders thanked the Pope for his visit, and assured him of their efforts to seek unity between Moscow and Rome. Rabbi Alexander Dukhovny even asked the Holy Father to appeal to nonbelieving Jews to embrace faith.
Patriarch Filaret said that Archbishop Vladimir, by his absence, rejected dialogue with the Pope as well as with the other Ukrainian confessions.
Prayers for the Dead
After the meeting, the Holy Father went to the site of another atrocity: the mass graves of up to 200,000 Ukrainians who were killed in Soviet jails from 1929 to 1941, Associated Press reported. He stood in prayer for two minutes before a 20-foot bronze cross.
Yellow ribbons around tree trunks mark the spots in the Bykivnia Woods where the victims’ bodies were dumped. Some trees bear simple wooden plaques listing victims' names.
On arrival Saturday in Boryspil airport in the Ukrainian capital, the Pope renewed his personal tradition when visiting a new country by kissing Ukrainian soil.
In his remarks immediately afterward, the Pope spoke delivered a stern warning to leaders of politics, business, science and culture not to fall into the abyss of corruption that has trapped other former Soviet republics.
“I come as a brother in the faith to embrace all the Christians who, amid the severest of tribulations, have persevered in their fidelity to Christ,” he told the state and Church officials who had come to the airport to greet him.
No Orthodox leaders were at the airport to greet him, but the Holy Father addressed their bishops, priests, monks and faithful, and admitted that in the past Catholics and Orthodox have obfuscated “the image of Christ's love.”
His words that echoed the apology he offered to hostile Greek Orthodox leaders in Athens on May 4 for the past sins of Catholics against the Orthodox. But this time he said that both sides, not just Catholics, needed to seek forgiveness for past errors.
“Bowing before our one Lord, let us recognize our faults,” he proposed. “As we ask forgiveness for the errors committed in both the distant and recent past, let us in turn offer forgiveness for the wrongs endured. The most fervent wish that rises from my heart is that the errors of times past will not be repeated in the future.”
A Catholic Church source said it would have been impossible for the Pope to place the burden of the past entirely on the Catholic church, ignoring the bitterness that the Greek Catholic Church feels toward the Greek Orthodox Church for collaborating with Communist authorities, who confiscated Greek Catholic property and imprisoned bishops, priests, nuns and laity.
Many Orthodox lay people seemed more receptive to the Holy Father's message of reconciliation than did the leaders of the Moscow Orthodox Church.
Oleksandr Karmasyn, an Orthodox believer, said he had come to worship at the June 25 Mass because he believed the church split was “artificial,” Associated Press reported.
“As I remember, it says in the Bible that we should be orthodox in our faith and catholic in our love,” he said.
Another Orthodox, Liudmyla Kanish, was critical of the Orthodox leaders’ objections to John Paul's trip, Associated Press reported. Said Kanish, “The Moscow Patriarchate's reaction is linked to the fight for power and the Pope's visit is linked to people's well-being.”
(Combined news services contributed to this story)
Prayers at Babi Yar
BABI YAR, Ukraine — Standing before a statue of twisted and tormented figures, Pope John Paul II offered a prayer for the dead June 25 at Babi Yar, the ravine where the Nazis began the systematic slaughter of Europe's Jews during World War II, Associated Press reported.
The Pope and Ukraine's chief rabbi stood together at the base of the main Babi Yar memorial, an imposing concrete-and-bronze statue erected by the Soviet government between 1966 and 1974.
John Paul stood for two minutes in silent prayer, and recited a prayer for the dead in Latin. He then turned to Rabbi Yaakov Dov Bleich, reported Associated Press, and said, “God bless you,” according to Bleich.
More than 33,000 Jews were taken to Babi Yar and shot over the first two days of the mass killing by the Nazis that began Sept. 28, 1941.
Jews constituted about half of the up to 200,000 people killed at Babi Yar and pushed into a mass grave.
Jews erected their own monument at the site in 1991, after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Bleich, who was born in New York, said that he would have preferred that the pope visit the Jewish memorial, Associated Press reported. “But the fact that he's come,” said Bleich, “means a lot to Jews worldwide.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Register Staff ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Sea Change At the U.N.: United States Is Pro-Life DATE: 07/01/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 1-7,2001 ----- BODY:NEW YORK — It's a whole new world at the United Nations.
Though a June 15 meeting ended without solving a dispute over abortion, U.N. lobbyists say there has been a sea change now that Bush is in the White House. He has turned the United States delegation into a staunchly pro-life and pro-family force.
The meeting was the final Preparatory Committee meeting for the U.N. Child Summit. In a week of negotiations, the committee was trying to set the wording of the document that is expected to be approved by the world's leaders at a Special Session of the U.N. General Assembly on Children in September.
“The United States aggressively called for abstinence language in the document,” said Austin Ruse, president of the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute.
“But the United States was most valiant when they asked the question about what ‘reproductive health care’ meant,’” added Ruse, referring to a debate that erupted over a term in the Child Summit document referring to provision of “reproductive health care services” “to “adolescents.”
The United Nations defines “adolescence” as beginning at age 10, and pro-life activists at the United Nations had warned that the term “reproductive health care services” in the Child Summit document was really code language to mandate provision of abortions, without parental oversight, to girls as young as 10.
Much to the surprise of everybody, a Canadian delegation admitted that was indeed the true meaning behind the phrase, when questioned by a U.S. delegate during negotiations June 12.
“But of course it includes, and I hate to say the word, but it includes the word abortion,” the Canadian delegate explained.
“I am shocked,” a representative for the Holy See delegation replied. He immediately called on revisiting all language that referred to “services” in the Child Summit document.
The ensuing debate over the contentious language caused a standstill, forcing the Preparatory Committee meeting to be adjourned June 15 without a final agreement on the document's wording.
Peter Smith, U.N. lobbyist for the International Right to Life and for Britain's Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child, said he was worried that pro-abortion European countries had intentionally delayed negotiations over the issue to an additional “intersessional” meeting, to which many poorer nations wouldn't be able to send delegates.
“One delegate told me, ‘I'm supposed to be at four meetings at once,’” Smith told the Register. “These small countries have very small delegations. We see it as a tactic by larger industrial countries, by their continual belligerence, to postpone negotiations to their advantage.”
Ruse maintains that such tactics will not prevail at the intersessional meeting, which is planned for sometime in July or August.
“I think ‘services’ will be removed,” Ruse predicted. He added, however, that an attempt by pro-life delegates to have “reproductive health care” defined as not including abortion will also likely fail.
The final document has to be approved by consensus, so pro-lifers have warned abortion supporters that any pro-abortion “code” language will have to be removed if the document is to be passed.
Even though the contentious paragraph had not been resolved by the end of the conference, a Latin American delegate said he was pleased that clarity was brought to the discussions by the Canadian delegate's startling admission.
“Now we know what they are talking about,” the delegate said. “It clarified the words. Reproductive health services means abortion.”
He added, “If ‘services’ means ‘abortion,’ then of course it's going to be rejected.”
A delegate from the European Union expressed regret that the Canadian delegate had been so forthcoming, calling his explanation “a little bit clumsy.”
“To make something so clear is not so necessary,” the delegate said. “Sometimes you have to use a high-level abstraction.”
U.S. Backs Abstinence
Debate over abortion caused the most vocal dispute, but other fights erupted throughout the June11-15 Child Summit negotiations.
The United States delegation introduced pro-family language into a paragraph dealing with health behavior among children and adolescents. The U.S. language called for the promotion “especially of sexual abstinence to avoid sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies.”
However, a number of delegations were visibly unhappy over the mention of sexual abstinence, and representatives of the European Union and some Latin American countries like Chile won approval for postponing discussion on the topic. It will also be debated at the intersessional meeting.
Michael Ochieng of Kenya, director of operations for the African Youth Alliance, a pro-family nongovernmental organization, praised the U.S. position.
“This is what children want — education about abstinence at an early age. That's a healthy lifestyle,” he said.
Other fireworks ensued when the United States recommended during negotiations June 14 that education systems involve the “due respect of the rights, duties and responsibilities of parents.”
The introduction of the reference to “parents” caused expressions of amazement and disgust among some anti-family NGO representatives observing from the gallery.
Undaunted, the United States added further abstinence language to the document.
But it was Kazakhstan that dropped the biggest bombshell a short time later.
“I have one proposal,” said the Kazakhstan delegate. “Instead of ‘sexual education’ have ‘moral sexual education.’”
Immediately, sighs, scoffs and grunts erupted from the gallery, catching the attention of delegates from the convention floor and causing them to look up at the cause of the commotion. Pro-family lobbyists, represented in nearly equal numbers, made little noise but were visibly happy at both proposed amendments.
Korea suggested additional pro-family text, calling for measures “to protect children from violent or harmful Web sites, computer programs and games that negatively influence the psychological development of children.”
The United States agreed with the Korean language and suggested that “due respect to the rights, duties and responsibilities of parents” be added to the measure. The Holy See recommended that “such as pornography” be added to language about Web sites.
Poland praised the proposals. “I think that the proposal of Korea is very important,” the Polish delegate said, but she added that she preferred the language added by the United States “because we have to respect the responsibility of parents.”
Another amendment from the United States encouraged pro-family activists. It added “participation in alternative good quality primary education programs,” or homeschooling, to the section of the Child Summit document dealing with promoting education.
Praise for Bush
A delegate from the Middle East praised the United States for its pro-family positions.
“The U.S. position has dramatically changed after the Bush administration arrived. It energized other governments,” the delegate said. “It surprised us. They have had a very constructive role this year.”
A delegate from the Holy See also approved of the United States’ pro-family and pro-life stance, but added that the word “chastity” would have been even better than “abstinence.” “The U.S. doesn't mind condoms as apart of abstinence education,” the Holy See delegate told the Register. “I'd rather talk about delaying sexual activity.”
Overall, pro-family advocates were happy with the successes made during the Child Summit conference and their future prospects at the inter-sessional meeting.
“I don't believe the pro-abortionists will win on the [pro-abortion] language,” Smith told the Register. “The United States delegation is pro-life and pro-family. So is Poland. So are some developing countries. So is the Holy See.”
Summed up Smith, “If they don't agree, it isn't consensus. It's not even close.”
Joshua Mercer writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Will New Narnia Books Lose the Religion? DATE: 07/01/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 1-7,2001 ----- BODY:SAN FRANCISCO — More than half a century after the original series was published, HarperCollins Publishers has announced its plans to create a new series of Narnia children's novels and picture books, using a stable of established children's fantasy writers.
The publisher seems eager to give the kids what they want, but not necessarily their parents.
Children like the Narnia Chronicles because they evoke a fantasy wonderland populated by people like Digory, Polly, Lucy, Edmund and the great lion, Aslan. Catholic parents like them because they know Aslan is a Christ figure and the author, C.S. Lewis, wrote the books in part to evangelize readers.
C.S. Lewis Co. director Simon Adley, holding the Narnia copyright, assured Lewis fans this spring that his estate would play a role in the new series, to avoid “exploitation of the books.” Weeks later, however, a HarperCollins strategy memo was leaked to the media that was less reassuring.
“Obviously, this is a biggie as far as the estate and our publishing interests are concerned,” wrote an involved HarperSan Francisco executive. “We'll need to be able to give emphatic assurances that no attempt will be made to correlate the stories to Christian imagery/theology.”
With the leaking of that memo, the fat was in the fire. Catholic, Protestant and agnostic commentators alike denounced the memo.
“The Narnia books are classics just because of their overarching Christian moral structure,” chided Ottawa Citizen editorialist John Robson. Seattle University professor John G. West, co-editor of the C.S. Lewis Readers’ Encyclopedia, fumed that “they're turning Narnia into a British version of Mickey Mouse.”
Another commentator quipped, “The series will be just another amputee pretending it still walks on both feet.” And newspaper letter-writers were generally “repulsed by the greed and blatant ignorance of HarperCollins and C.S. Lewis's estate.”
Not everyone has been so alarmed by the publisher's plans, however.
“It's just the Harry Potter thing, and after all, they're just trying to make money,” said Toronto writer Michael Coren, author of the biography, C.S. Lewis: The Man Who Created Narnia. “They'll have a hell of a job de-Christianizing Lewis, because his Christianity is so implicit — and so frequent. So what if they do? Anybody who likes the spin-offs will read Lewis himself. Anybody who likes the abridged version will go back to the original.”
He cited the movie Shadowlands, starring Anthony Hopkins, which he said was another “de-Christianized version of Lewis.”
“But so what?” he asked. “It didn't hurt anything, and it got more people reading him.”
The Author's View
When Lewis first began publishing his Narnia books in 1950, he apparently made no attempt to advertise their Christian motifs. Yet, in a 1954 letter, he wrote that the Narnia Chronicles began with the premise of the Son of God becoming incarnate as a lion in a different reality — a world with a “doorway” to 20th century Britain through a wardrobe in the attic of a London home.
Narnia's Christianity may be only implicit, but it is pervasive. In Volume 1, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the Christ-lion Aslan gives up his own life to save a child who's turned traitor — Aslan then returns to life.
In another volume, a boy turns himself into a dragon by dwelling on his resentments. When he then wishes to regain his friendship with the other children, Aslan leads him to a pool of water — baptism — where he painfully rips off his scales and frees the boy within.
And in the final volume, The Last Battle, the children take part in an Apocalypse — the End-time for the world of Narnia — mirroring the Bible's Book of Revelation.
Until the Harry Potter revolution in juvenile literature, the seven volumes of Lewis’ Narnia series were the most influential children's books in the world, voted so by successive polls of parents, librarians and teachers, and by their sales: 65 million copies in 30 languages over 50 years.
In the last four years, however, British writer J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books have sold 100 million in 42 languages.
The Potter books haven't cut into Narnia's market. They've greatly expanded it. HarperCollins’ decision to extend the Narnia series was reportedly sparked by the fact that, once Pottermania really took off, Narnia sales rose 20%.
In a formal June 4 statement on its C.S. Lewis Publishing Program, the publisher says its goal is “to publish the works of C.S. Lewis to the broadest possible audience, and leave any interpretation of the works to the reader.”
In a brief interview with the Register, June 12, HarperCollins executive Lisa Herling would first refer only to the June 4 statement: “The works of C.S. Lewis will continue to be published by HarperCollins as written by the author with no alteration.”
Then when pressed to confirm whether there would be new Narnia books, written by new authors, she did say, “It is expected that there will be future books.”
Creating New Classics?
Focus on the Family writer Paul McCusker, producing the Narnia books as radio plays, said, “I've been fascinated by the reaction to the news of the new Narnia books. I've gotten dozens e-mails from people wondering what's happening.”
McCusker sees no problem in a publisher downplaying the Christianity in Lewis’ own books, since Lewis himself “never made a big deal of it. ... He was amused that kids picked up the biblical imagery quicker than adults.”
And if downplaying it improves the marketability and broadens the books’ exposure, so much the better, he said.
But writing new stories, shorn of his Christianity, is another matter. “Lewis's Christianity was integral to his worldview,” he said. “How true could the new books be to Narnia, if they take that out? Could you trust any writer who'd do it?”
What can't be anticipated is the effect on the HarperCollins writers themselves, from immersion in the original, McCusker said. “You can pray there'll be something redemptive in the process of writing them.”
Christopher Mitchell is director of the Marion E. Wade Center in Wheaton (Ill.) College, home of the Lewis archives. He said the new books will likely be, not sequels to the old plot line, but rather stories stuck in the gaps of the existing tales.
“Clearly, they're facing a great challenge,” he said. “The minimum they'll have to achieve, to stay true to Lewis's intention, is to make good attractive, while not making the bad any less bad. It's always easy to create believable evil characters. Making goodness believable and attractive is hard. And the new books will be judged from the perspective of the classics.”
Boston College philosophy professor Peter Kreeft said that the providential order, “the benign concern of a hidden God,” distinguishes Christian fantasy from the pagan alternatives, like Harry Potter. The fantasy universe differs in detail, but not in principle.
“Good and evil, justice and injustice, loyalty and betrayal, life and death, these remain the same, no matter how different the fantasy world,” Kreeft said.
Christian fantasy serves at least three purposes, Kreeft said: Human beings inevitably see the world through moral categories. The moral imagination, the lens of these perceptions, is inevitably shaped by stories, tales and myths. “False myths,” where falsehood triumphs and evil brings happiness, are intellectual pornography, actively corrupting the young, said Kreeft.
The Harry Potter books are largely innocuous, Kreeft thought. If they have a problem, it lies not in the fact that their magic is demonic, but rather that it is so pedestrian and technological — concerned with things like baking cakes, traveling and playing pranks.
“Real” magic, the magic of Narnia and J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, is “a beauty that can't be controlled,” something that “we enter into,” rather than simply use.
Dad's View
Catholic father-of-eight Paul Moroney said that he was first exposed to the Narnia books as a boy, read them again in college, and has read them aloud to his kids — when the books could be dug out of the bedrooms of the older kids.
“If the new books don't have a Christian message,” Moroney said, “I couldn't see us going past the first one.”
Joe Woodard writes from Calgary, Alberta.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joe Woodard ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: A Child's Clutter Changed Her Life DATE: 07/01/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 1-7,2001 ----- BODY:Dolores Park has opened for Bob Hope, Tennessee Ernie Ford and Phyllis Diller and has sung for two presidents of the United States.
On the verge of a full-blown country music career, tragedy struck a friend. She spoke with features correspondent Tim Drake about her decision to give her talents solely to Catholic music.
Drake: Tell me about your family growing up.
I come from a “Leave it to Beaver” Catholic family. I am the youngest of six children and grew up in Garden Grove, Calif., where I lived all my life in the same home. My father was a dentist, my mother was a loving housewife, and my parents were married for more than 40 years.
We never missed Mass on Sunday, and we were never late for Church. My dad would always say, “You don't want Jesus to be late when you die, do you?”
To what do you credit your strong faith?
My parents, and in the way we were raised. That is why my husband and I realize that if we raise our children to be strong in the Catholic faith and root them in Scripture and the Catechism we know that this will be the key to a happy and holy life.
Have you always been a singer?
Yes, I did my first solo when I was in fourth grade. I remember another student telling me, “Hey, you sing good, girl!”
At that moment I knew that I did not want to do anything else.
I had no idea it would lead me to what I am doing now. People would often tell me I should sing religious music. I would respond, “I am going to sing country music and use that to reach people.”
If you had told me that I was going to sing only for God and record Catholic music I would have said,You're crazy, there are no Catholic record stores.” Yet little did I know there is Catholic music and I am so proud to be a part of it.
Do you come from a musical family?
Everyone in my family sings,though not professionally. My mother sang operatically, but did not want to ursue the business. She wanted to marry my daddy and have lots children.
My career started when my father shared a tape with a friend who had come into town. They, in turn, hared it with Bob Hope. Five days later, at the age of 18, I was flying to do a Christmas special with Bob Hope in Houston, Texas. My father wanted me to be a choral teacher, but when I began traveling and performing with Bob Hope, I knew God had different plans for me.
You were on the verge of a fullblown country music career. What led to your decision to sing Catholic music?
It was through the death of my girlfriend's son, as a result of a gun accident, that led me to change my focus.
When I was with the mother in his room, I realized in a moment that everything in his room was still there, is schoolbooks and his sports stuff, but he was gone.
I realized that the only thing that matters is your soul, it is the only thing that lives — and my whole life changed in that one moment. Suddenly my country music career seemed insignificant. There was nothing else for me. Thinking about my own sons convinced me that the state of our souls was the only thing that mattered.
My husband and I discussed and prayed about our priorities and decided to give everything to God. A few days later my priest asked me to sing at Christmas Mass. Bill Steltemeier, the C.E.O. of EWTN [Eternal Word Television Network], happened to be there and heard me sing.
A month later I was on “Life on the Rock” with host Jeff Cavins. Six months later I came out with my first Catholic album. God was totally in charge of my life.
Why is it important to you to be identified as a Catholic singer rather than a Christian artist?
Would I be able to sing a song about Padre Pio on Christian radio? Could I go on-stage with a crucifix around my neck? Could I sing about Mary or sing with my rosary in my hand? I could not do any of that in Christian music. They would not have let me and I would never leave those things behind.
I have been told, “If you want to make it in the Christian music business, and if you want to be played on Christian radio, don't tell them you are Catholic.” But I do want that to be a part of who I am. It is all of who I am.
Your singing has become a family affair hasn't it?
Yes, my husband John is my manager and my two sons have performed with me. I knew that my boys, Johnny [11] and Joseph [10] always had a voice, but I never wanted them to be in show business. After we left the studio, following my first appearance on “Life on the Rock,” Johnny turned to me and said, “I want to sing now.”
You cannot lie to kids. He saw that I had found my niche and Jesus was there. He saw the truth. My husband will be introducing me, and my boys will be singing with me, at the upcoming Midwest Catholic Family Conference in Wichita, Kan.
I understand that one of your songs, about the Eucharist, didn't make it onto the CD. Tell me about that.
Yes, I had one song about the Eucharist that we had originally included on the album, but it did not clarify the Real Presence. So, we removed the song and remade 2,500 CDs. That is how strongly we feel about what we are doing. We do not want to misinform anyone who listens to the CD.
Can you share any stories of how your music has touched your listeners?
We have received hundreds of email [messages] from listeners. They tell me that they can hear the truth of religion through my music and it touches them in a personal way.
One e-mail that stands out was from a woman and her husband who were not practicing Catholics. She told me that after hearing my song “No Prayer too Small” they started going back to Church. This is what I love about my CD. It's not about me — it's about God.
What do you have planned next?
Well, I have been on EWTN several times and at the end of the summer they will be airing a 30-minute special titled “Backstage with Dolores Park.”
I will perform for two of St. Joseph Communications' Catholic Family Conferences within the year. I look forward to performing at more Catholic Conferences. I am currently in the studio recording a song I wrote about Padre Pio. My hopes and prayers are to sing it at Padre Pio's canonization. My management is currently working on me singing at World Youth Day 2002 in Toronto, Canada.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dolores Park ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Senate Defends Boy Scouts Against Local Critics DATE: 07/01/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 1-7,2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — Even with a Supreme Court decision in their favor, the Boy Scouts are not safe from attack from local governments that disagree with their policies excluding active homosexuals from becoming Scoutmasters.
Such a battle erupted in Cape St. Clair, Md., last fall when local government officials told the Boy Scouts that they were unwelcome on school property because the Scouts discriminate against active homosexuals.
That spurred David Whitney, a local Evangelical pastor, into action.
“I started a petition drive that would give the whole community a voice in the decision,” Whitney said.
The result was dramatic.
“Almost 90% sided with the Scouts,” Whitney said. “And we're not a conservative county. Well over 60% to 70% are Democrats.”
The United States Senate wants to make sure that other school districts won't try to discriminate against the Boy Scouts.
By a narrow 51-49 vote, the Senate passed a resolution July 14 to withhold federal funds from school districts that deny use of facilities to the Boy Scouts because the organization excludes homosexuals.
Kristen Hansen, spokeswoman for the Family Research Council, said that Congress has a reason for protecting the Boy Scouts.
“The scouts received a charter from Congress in 1916,” Hansen said. “Congress has an interest in making sure they are protected.”
She said the issue should have been settled with last year's landmark court decision.
“The Supreme Court said that the Boy Scouts’ policies are protected,” Hansen said. “How can schools discriminate against the scouts when they are upstanding according to the law?”
The Boy Scouts of America were not available for comment, but their Web site has posted a statement on the subject of school access. It reads, in part:
“The BSA respects the rights of people and groups who hold values that differ from those encompassed in the Scout Oath and Laws, and the BSA makes no effort to deny the rights of those whose views differ to hold their attitudes or opinions. The Boy Scouts of America aims to allow youth to live and to learn as children and enjoy Scouting without immersing them in the politics of the day. However, people dissatisfied with the Boy Scouts of America's membership policies and the moral views on which they are based have suggested that the BSA not have the privilege of meeting in public schools or distributing recruitment information at public schools. Just as other student or community groups are permitted to have access to public school facilities, the Boy Scouts of America aims to have the same access.”
Critics of the Senate measure argued that Congress shouldn't interfere with school districts’ ability to ban the Scouts from school property.
“I think it should be up to the local level,” said Julie Underwood, general counsel to the National School Boards Association. The Senate measure defending the Scouts passed, she added, “because Senators are enthralled by the Boy Scouts.”
PBS Documentary
Just five days after the Senate vote, PBS ran a documentary that many viewers believed to be one-sided against the Scouts.
The film, directed by homosexual activist Tom Shepard, highlighted a straight 12-year-old boy named Steven Cozza, who at the prompting of his father is working with Scouting for All, a group that is lobbying against the Boy Scouts policy prohibiting homosexuals.
“What's ironic is that the values and tenets that Steven Cozza learned in scouting — about fairness, about sticking up for the rights of all people, and being honest and open in your relationships — sort of welled up in him and moved him to take a stand,” said film-maker Shepard. “In an age where young people have become disaffected by American institutions, here's an example of a very idealistic young person who's coming of age, who's developing his moral compass, and a lot of that comes from the Boy Scouts.”
But critics of the PBS documentary accused the public broadcaster of airing a one-sided program.
In a June 20 article in National Review Online, Tim Graham, former director of media analysis of the Media Research Center, characterized Shepard's program as “yet another in a long string of gay-left propaganda films” aired by PBS.
Graham, who became a Cub Scout leader four years ago when his son was 7, said that that it is homosexual activists, not the Scouts, who are constantly making an issue out of the Boy Scout policy on homosexuality. The policy, Graham noted, is barely mentioned in Scout policy manuals and guidebooks.
Wrote Graham, “These disturbers of the peace don't have the decency to recognize that Scouting begins now at age 7, and even Boy Scouts begin at the usually prepubescent age of 11. Why should parents and leaders have to be dragged into explaining to young children about the sinfulness or celebration of homosexuality?”
Ray G. Smith, national commander of the American Legion, the nation's largest veterans organization, also criticized PBS for attacking the Boy Scouts.
In a statement to the Register, Smith scorned the documentary for “driving another nail into the coffin of the moral and cultural values of our society.”
“Attacking one of America's greatest traditions simply because they exercise their right to set their own membership and leadership standards is outrageous,” Smith said.
The American Legion is one of the largest supporters of the Boy Scouts, Smith noted, sponsoring 75,000 scouts in over 2,500 units.
“I ask all Americans to learn the facts about the assault on Scouting and traditional values,” said Smith, who urged Legion members to “stand up and be counted in defending what is good and right and decent — the Boy Scout tradition.”
Joshua Mercer writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Cardinal Ambrozic Looks Forward to World Youth Day DATE: 07/01/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 1-7,2001 ----- BODY:ROME — Cardinal Aloysius Ambrozic, 71, archbishop of Toronto, was in Rome in mid-June working with the Pontifical Council for the Laity on preparations for World Youth Day 2002, which will take place in his city next July. Zenit news service spoke with him about the significance of the event.
The World Youth Days have always exerted a powerful attraction. In August of last year, 2 million youths gathered in the Eternal City. What impact do these events have on young people's lives?
I began to follow the World Youth Days in a more direct way by participating in the one in Denver in 1993. I have seen that these young people, in Denver, Manila, Paris and Rome have faith and live faith experiences in their daily life.
They come from believing families, and school also helps them make their faith concrete. However, the World Days give them an additional charge: They are among other believing youths like themselves. In everyday life, at times one can be afraid of showing one's faith, while in concentrations like this they feel happy to find others with whom they can share the same experience.
The great collective experience allows them to experience another way of living the faith in another environment. As opposed to us adults, these young people are more conditioned by the environment in which they live. For them, history and geography don't mean much. However, when they can broaden their horizons, they go back home with more courage and a wider view of life.
World Youth Day is seen as a great pilgrimage: One leaves home, goes to the diocese, and finally arrives at the goal of meeting with the Pope. Has a new way of going on pilgrimages has been discovered?
The aspect of pilgrimage is fundamental. Pilgrimage has always been a going apart from daily life to feel free to be and say what one thinks. It is a great experience of liberation, freedom and broadening of horizons.
There are those who say that youth follow the Pope but that later, in everyday choices, they are not in line with the Church. What do you think?
It can happen, of course. However, in the Canadian sociocultural environment, the Church is represented as an institution that has no reason.
When bishops speak on ethical and moral issues they are always “mistaken,” because they make statements that are not in line with the media and the world of economic power that they represent. The Pope is also criticized.
However, when young people meet with the Pope, it is not like this; they are ready to listen. In their heart they think that if the Pope says it, it might be true!
The world of youth is especially sensitive to the great social topics of justice and equality. How does the Church respond?
As Canadian bishops, we have addressed social problems many times. The struggle is difficult because consumerism has caught on forcefully, and youth, in addition, are idealists but often in their life they make quite pragmatic choices.
Very often the ideals are not in line with real life, and it is hard for the world of youth to realize how consumerist their life is. However, in Canada there are many groups that commit themselves in favor of Latin America, carrying forward experiences of solidarity, with effects that are seen in time.
World Youth Day will present Mother Teresa as a relevant figure. Why?
She reminds us that social commitment comes from spirituality. The Missionaries of Charity have to pray many hours a day, and Mother Teresa insisted on this aspect. Otherwise, one runs the risk of losing the proper direction, replacing religious with social commitment.
I was very impressed by what Archbishop Mark MacGrath of Panama said to me years ago: In the first five years, a new community must be strongly rooted spiritually, before moving to the social commitment. There must be a determination to change society, but it must be Christian. This is what Mother Teresa teaches, but also other witnesses, like Jean Vanier.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 07/01/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 1-7,2001 ----- BODY:Pro-Life Spokesman Says N.Y. Times Misquoted Him
NATIONAL RIGHT TO LIFE COMMITTEE, June 18 — Douglas Johnson, legislative director at the National Right to Life Committee, sent an open letter to protest what he called misquotation by New York Times columnist Gail Collins.
Collins, who was recently named editor of the Times editorial page, spoke with Johnson about embryonic stem-cell research. When she referred to the embryos as “fertilized eggs,” Johnson says he explained that a fertilized egg is a single cell, and thus does not have a cluster of stem cells within it. He added that embryo researchers often destroy the embryos at one week of development, long after the one-cell stage. He also said calling embryos “fertilized eggs” is “politically motivated.”
Despite all this, Collins’ June 15 column supporting embryo-destructive research quoted Johnson saying, “We start with the principle that each of these eggs is an individual member of the human species.”
When Johnson complained, Collins replied that her notes showed that he used the term “eggs,” which Johnson said he “would never use to refer to human beings.”
Medieval Flower Power in New Jersey
THE RECORD, June 18 — Hundreds of volunteers and a million fresh petals combined to create a “Carpet of Flowers” in a New Jersey church, the Bergen County, N.J., daily reported.
The Carpet of Flowers or “infiorata” tradition was started by Cistercian monks in Italy in the 1200s. At St. John Neumann Church in Mount Laurel, N.J., Brother Anselmo Florio and volunteers create a carpet every year for the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. This year, the carpet included scenes of the resurrection of Jesus, St. Matthew, St. Katharine Drexel and two peacocks symbolizing eternity.
Forget-me-nots, asters, carnations, mums, daisies and many more varieties make up the carpet.
Brother Florio, 74, believes his is the only infiorata in the United States.
Marriage: Forget the Doomsayers
U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT, June 17 — Newsweek's May 28 cover boldly proclaimed, “The New Single Mom — Why the Traditional Family Is Fading Fast.” Postpone the funeral, U.S. News and World Report columnist John Leo said, predicting magazines would soon be running stories about marriage “making a comeback.”
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities analyzed 1995 to 2000 data and found that the decline of marriage has stopped. The proportion of children under 18 living with a single mother declined 8% in five years, and the change is strongest among black families. The proportion of black children living with two parents rose 11.8%.
Leo credited a strong economy and welfare reform. The return to two-parent families is “concentrated largely among the poor,” the Center found. A study of welfare reform in Minnesota found an increase in marriage rates and marital stability.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The World Greets the Struggling Pope DATE: 07/01/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 1-7,2001 ----- BODY:The Holy Father continued to be under the care of the Gemelli Poly-clinic and Vatican doctors. On Friday, 5 June, he recorded his address for the Solemnity of Pentecost to which the bishops of the whole world were invited.
The occasion was the 1,600th anniversary of the First Council of Constantinople and the 1,550th of the Council of Ephesus. During these celebrations the Pope — in the spirit of the message of Fatima — wanted to entrust to the Most Holy Mother the Church and the world and, in a special way, those countries which, more than all the others, were expecting this act.
On Pentecost Sunday, June 7, Cardinal Carlo Confalonieri, Dean of the College of Cardinals, presided at the liturgy in St. Peter's Basilica.
A recording of the Holy Father's homily was broadcast, and at the end of the liturgy he himself came to the basilica's internal loggia to impart his blessing, to the great joy of all. The address that preceded the Regina Caeli was also reproduced from a tape recording. The Holy Father appeared at the window of his private study only to impart his blessing to the large crowd gathered on St. Peter's Square.
The important ceremony during which the Holy Father entrusted the Church and the world to the Mother of God took place in St. Mary Major in the afternoon. Delegations of bishops from every continent took part. The words of this act, prepared by the Pope, were broadcast by Vatican Radio. The Holy Father followed the whole ceremony on television.
Cardinal Otunga of Nairobi presided, and the procession was led by Cardinal Corripio of Mexico. Thus was fulfilled the great desire of the Polish Bishops and of the Primate Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, expressed during the Second Vatican Council.
However on Tuesday, June 9, the Pope's fever returned, and he had a general relapse. Analyses and examinations began in order to find the cause.
He felt acute pain and began to lose his strength. In addition, the constant examinations were exhausting and had no concrete results. His temperature soared to [104 degrees Farenheit], where it remained for days, increasingly sapping his strength. Another two professors were summoned to join the medical team: Prof. Giunchi, a specialist in internal medicine, and the famous surgeon, Prof. Fegiz.
On Sunday, June 14, the Holy Father reappeared at the window for the prayer of the Regina Caeli.
On June 17 the Pope briefly met the [Polish] farmer's union Solidarnosc. The medical team, concerned by his state of health and even fearing for his life, decided that he should return to the Gemelli Polyclinic. He was so weak that he could not read the breviary on his own. At 4:30 p.m. on 20 June, the Pope was once again transferred to the Polyclinic for more precise examinations, which did not immediately reveal the causes of the patient's condition.
On June 22 infiltrations in the lungs became apparent but gradually disappeared. On that day for the first time the cytomegalovirus was identified as the cause of those very serious complications. This discovery made it possible to apply the appropriate treatment. At the Gemelli Polyclinic, the Pope continued dealing with many official matters. In the day he would receive his coworkers, including the present Nuncio, Msgr. Rakoczy, who then constituted the Polish Section of the Secretariat of State.
At that time the appointment of the new Primate of Poland was imminent.
Peter on the Cot
This was uppermost in the Holy Father's mind and heart. After a thorough consultation by the bishops, Bishop Jozef Glemp was chosen. Cardinal Franciszek Macharski arrived in Rome. So did Bishop Jozef Glemp. On 6 July the Holy Father wrote a letter to the Church in Poland concerning the new Primate's appointment.
The Pope's state of health had so improved that the doctors began to think about a second operation, to close the colostomy. However, most of the professors suggested delaying the operation, in consideration of the patient's enfeebled condition. The Holy Father felt that the operation should not be postponed. He wanted to leave the hospital completely cured.
On July 10, his condition began once again to deteriorate, with progressive inflammation of the lungs. In the doctors’ opinion, these serious symptoms and complications were still being caused by the presence of the cytomegalovirus. I must stress here the great dedication and concern of the doctors of the Gemelli Polyclinic and of the Vatican.
We are particularly grateful to the nurses and Sisters of the Sacred Heart, faithful handmaids of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.
On July 16, the day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the illness took a decisive turn and a general improvement in his condition was recorded. The Holy Father faced the daily problems with renewed vitality; he began to work out the program for the forthcoming Synod with Archbishop Jozef Tomko and to follow the Curia's work, every day receiving Cardinal Casaroli, Archbishop Martinez and other heads of dicasteries.
He once again turned his attention to political events, and particularly the situation in Poland. On July 20 the would-be assassin's trial began. The matter was a sensitive one for the Holy Father and for the Apostolic See. The Pope had forgiven him but the instruments of Italian justice had to initiate the procedures required by the law.
On July 23, the Holy Father took part in the medical consultation during which he expressed his own point of view on the treatment and asked the doctors to take it into account.
He firmly insisted on having the operation, so as to be able to return home fully functioning. The doctors seemed embarrassed, but did not exclude the possibility of a second operation. It was Professor Crucitti in particular who persuaded the others that it was appropriate to take the patient's wishes into consideration. The Holy Father was feeling better and better, although his physical resistance was still weak.
No Rest in the Hospital
Despite the hospital conditions, he worked without respite. His day began with the recitation of the Little Office in Honour of Our Lady and Morning prayers and meditation; then came the doctor's visit, the recitation of the breviary, visits from guests — official visits and those which had not been planned.
Of course, he also met friends who arrived from Poland. The essential topics of the Church's life and the prominent issues in the various fields of culture and science frequently recurred in his conversations.
In the evenings, the Holy Father concelebrated the Eucharist. A small group of guests always took part. Towards the end of his stay in the clinic, a crowd of pilgrims would wait outside the hospital: parish and pious groups, choirs and individuals. The Pope would greet them from his window and impart his Apostolic Blessing to them.
On July 31, the medical decision concerning the second operation was to be made. After a heated discussion, the date was fixed for Aug. 5. The Holy Father himself chose the day dedicated to Our Lady of Snows. The operation began at 7 a.m. and lasted an hour. Professor Crucitti operated, assisted by the other professors. It was successful. Surgery brought the Holy Father true relief and allowed him a normal life. During the operation, his closest co-workers were celebrating Mass in the hospital chapel.
On Aug. 6, the patient could already take a few steps in his room. On that day, the Primate Jozef Glemp paid him a visit with Archbishop Bronislaw Dabrowski. They concelebrated Mass for Paul Vl on the anniversary of his death. In the days that followed, the Pope gradually recovered and there were no further complications.
On Aug. 10, the doctors began to speak of his discharge. The Holy Father was greeting the numerous pilgrims’ groups from his hospital window more and more often. In addition to his concern for the whole Church he was living intensely the situation in Poland, from which he was receiving news of the military maneuvers, of the protests of Solidarnosc and of the con-vocation of the plenum of the party's Central Committee.
On Aug. 13, the doctors met and after the consultation wrote the bulletin concerning the end of the Holy Father's hospital stay and his return home.
Home Again
On the morning of Aug. 14, after prayers and adoration, the Pope spoke to the patients in the hospital and took his leave of the doctors and staff who had cared for him.
At the entrance of the Gemelli Polyclinic and in front of the building a large crowd had gathered, including numerous journalists. The Holy Father said a fast goodbye to the doctors and then returned to the Vatican by car.
After crossing St. Peter's Square, he entered the basilica. In the courtyard of St. Damasus, he told the cardinals and Curia staff present: “I paid a visit to St. Peter to thank him for deigning to let his Successor survive. I visited the tombs of Paul Vl and John Paul I, for there might well have been another tomb beside them.”
The Solemnity of the Assumption of Our Lady, Aug. 15, was the first day after the assassination attempt on which the Holy Father could at last feel he had finished with medical and hospital treatment. Tens of thousands of people flocked to St. Peter's Square to take part in the midday Angelus with him. That day marked the end of the great drama, during which the Holy Father was able to have a unique experience of the goodness, tender concern and protection of the Most Holy Mother. This conviction motivated and still today motivates him.
When he returned to St. Peter's Square to meet the faithful at the General Audience two months later, he thanked them all for their prayers and confessed: “Again I have become indebted to the Blessed Virgin and to all the Patron Saints. Could I forget that the event in St. Peter's Square took place on the day and at the hour when the first appearance of the Mother of Christ to the poor little peasants has been remembered for over 60 years at Fatima in Portugal? For, in every thing that happened to me on that very day, I felt that extraordinary motherly protection and care, which turned out to be stronger than the deadly bullet” (General Audience, Oct. 7, 1981, No. 6).
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Bishop Stanislaw Dziwisz ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: THE DAY THE POPE WAS SHOT-PART TWO- DATE: 07/01/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 1-7,2001 ----- BODY:At the Catholic University of Lublin, Poland, the Personal Secretary to Pope John Paul II gave an unprecedented first-person account May 13 of the day the Holy Father was shot.
“Neither we, nor, especially, this university, which boasts the prestige of having had Pope John Paul II as a professor, can be left indifferent by the date of 13 May,” said Bishop Stanislaw Dziwisz in introducing his remarks.
“May this ceremony therefore be an opportunity to relive the event we witnessed. In this context it seems right to fit today's meeting into the twofold dimension of ‘gift and mystery,’ before which we must bow our heads and respect their deep value. The gift is the Holy Father's life, which continues to bear fruit for the Church and the world; the mystery is the attempt on his life, which we are trying to see in the perspective of divine Providence's saving design, despite the drama we lived through.”
The second part of his remarks follow. The final installment comes next week.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 07/01/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 1-7,2001 ----- BODY:Vatican Makes Some Progress in Vietnam
FIDES, June 18 — A Vatican delegation gained approval for three bishops from Vietnam's Communist government, the Vatican's missionary news service reported.
Three other bishops proposed by the Vatican were rejected by the Hanoi government at the close of the Vatican delegation's six-day visit, and further negotiations will not take place until later. A year ago, a visit by the same Vatican officials met with an even frostier response, so the announcement of agreement on the bishops is a sign of easing tensions.
Vietnam is home to 8 million Catholics, the largest Catholic community in Southeast Asia outside the Philippines. But Hanoi insists on having the final veto on any religious appointments, and last month, a Catholic priest who fought for religious and political freedom was arrested. Fides reported that Buddhists and Protestants were also targets of government hostility.
Pope Praises ‘Conscientious Objectors'
ASSOCIATED PRESS, June 18 — Pope John Paul II told a group of Catholic gynecologists and obstetricians that the use of medical technology increasingly clashes with morality, the wire service reported.
The Pope cited contraceptive and abortive drugs, the production of embryos as part of in vitro fertilization, the use of embryonic stem cells to grow tissue for transplants, and cloning. He urged all, especially law-makers, to respect the decisions of doctors who refuse to participate in such practices. He suggested “conscientious objection,” refusal to perform immoral acts, as a middle way for doctors who feel trapped in a situation where they must act wrongly or leave the medical field.
In Ukraine, Pope Gets Run of the City
REUTERS, June 22 — When Pope John Paul visited Lviv in western Ukraine, he was greeted with unusual generosity, the wire service reported.
The town fathers of Lviv, a major Catholic center, granted the Pope the freedom of the city, meaning that he had a rent-free apartment and free use of all public transport. Senior town council official Igor Mykytyn said, “Only six people have this right and we are happy that Pope John Paul II is among them.” The Pope traveled to Lviv after three days in the capital, Kiev.
U.N. Clash Over AIDS Document
ASSOCIATED PRESS, June 20 — On the eve of a major U.N. conference on the AIDS epidemic, some members objected to language that they saw as endorsing immoral practices, the wire service reported.
The conference brought more than 3,000 government officials, activists and business leaders to the United Nations. A draft document mapping out a campaign against AIDS singles out vulnerable groups, including homosexual men, prostitutes and their clients, and intravenous drug users. Muslim nations, the Vatican and the United States objected to this singling out.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: I, 'A Sick Man Like Them' DATE: 07/01/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 1-7,2001 ----- BODY:On May 24, 1981, thousands of faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square for the customary Marian prayer. Although they knew the Holy Father would not appear at his window, they had come to pray with him and for him. The following is the message they heard, taped earlier at the Gemelli Hospital.
Praised be Jesus Christ!
Today I wish to address myself in a special way to all the sick, expressing to them — I, a sick man like them — a word of comfort and of hope.
When, on the day following my election to the See of Peter, I came on a visit to the Polyclinic Gemelli, I mentioned that I wished to entrust my papal ministry particularly to the support of those who suffer.
Providence has ordained that I should return to the Polyclinic Gemelli as a patient. I now reaffirm the same conviction as on that previous occasion: suffering, accepted in union with the suffering Christ, has an incomparable efficacy for the implementation of the divine plan of salvation. I repeat; therefore, with St. Paul: “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that the Church” (Col 1:24).
I invite all the sick to join with me in offering their sufferings to Christ for the good of the Church and of humanity. May Mary Most Holy, sustain and strengthen us.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Three Conditions for Finding God DATE: 07/01/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 1-7,2001 ----- BODY:What are the conditions necessary for man to find God? John Paul II dedicated his general audience June 20 to answering this question.
Addressing more than 10,000 faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square, the Pope addressed the question asked in one way or another by all who seek God: “Who may go up the mountain of the Lord? Who can stand in his holy place?”
This is the way the question is posed in Psalm 24. Pope John Paul said that the psalm responds by saying that what is needed are purity of action and intention, purity of religion and worship, and justice and honesty.
The psalm lists these conditions not as “ritualistic and external rules,” but as “moral and existential commitments to be put into practice.”
With these conditions, the heart of man prepares for the meeting with the infinite God who, as Psalm 24 demonstrates, despite being “all–powerful and eternal, adapts himself to his human creatures, draws near to them to meet them, listen to them and enter into communion with them.”
----- EXCERPT: Register Summary ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Three Conditions for Finding God DATE: 07/01/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 1-7,2001 ----- BODY:The ancient song of the People of God that we just listened to, used to resound against the backdrop of the Jerusalem temple. To be able to understand the leitmotif of this hymn clearly, it is necessary to keep in mind three of its fundamental assumptions. The first concerns the truth of creation: God created the world and is its Lord. The second refers to the judgment to which he subjects his creatures: We must be summoned before him and be questioned about what we have achieved. The third is the mystery of God's coming: He comes into the cosmos and into history; and he wants to have free access in order to establish a relationship of profound communion with men. As a modern commentator has written: “These are three elementary forms of the experience of God and of the relationship with God: We live by the power of God, we live before God, and we can live with God” (Gerhard Ebeling, Sui Salmi, Brescia 1973, p. 97).
To these three assumptions correspond the three parts of Psalm 24, which we will now try to explore in greater depth, considering them as three panels of a poetic and prayerful triptych.
The First Picture is a kind of profession of faith in the Lord of the universe and of history. Creation, according to the ancientsí worldview, is conceived as an architectural construction: God lays the earth's foundation on the sea—the symbol of the destructive waters of the void—as a sign of the limitations of creatures, who are conditioned by nothingness and evil. Created reality is suspended over this abyss and it is the creative and providential work of God to preserve it in existence and in life.
The Second Picture
Moving from the cosmic panorama, the perspective of the psalmist narrows down to the microcosm of Zion, “the mountain of the Lord.” We are now in the second picture of the psalm (verses 3–6). We are in front of the Jerusalem Temple. The procession of the faithful asks the guards of the holy door a question about entering: “Who may go up the mountain of the Lord? Who can stand in his holy place?” The priests—as is the case in other biblical texts that scholars call an “entrance liturgy” (see Psalm 15; Isaiah 33:14–16; Micah 6:6–8)—respond by listing the conditions for gaining access to communion with the Lord in worship. The conditions are not merely ritualistic and external norms to be followed, but about moral and existential commitments to be put into practice. It is almost like a conscience examen or a penitential rite that precedes the celebration of the liturgy.
The priests put forward three requirements. First, it is necessary to have “clean hands and a pure heart.” Hands and heart signify action and intention—that is, man's entire being which must be radically turned toward God and his law. The second requirement is “to not utter lies,” which, in biblical language, not only refers to sincerity but above all to the struggle against idolatry, since idols are false gods—that is, “lies.” Thus, purity of religion and worship, the first of the Ten Commandments, is reaffirmed. Finally, the third condition—“have not sworn falsely”—concerns relations with one's neighbor. As we know, in an oral civilization like ancient Israel's, the word had to be not an instrument of deceit, but on the contrary, a symbol of social relations inspired by justice and integrity.
We must be summoned before God and be questioned about what we have achieved.
The Third Picture
So, we reach the third picture, which indirectly describes the festive entry of the faithful into the Temple to meet the Lord (verses 7– 10). An evocative play of appeals, questions and answers presents God's progressive self–revelation through three of his solemn titles: “King of glory, strong and mighty Lord, Lord of the armies.” Zion's Temple doors are personified and invited to raise their lintels to welcome the Lord who is taking possession of his house.
The triumphal scene described by the psalm in this third poetic picture has been used by the Christian liturgy of the East and of the West to recall both the victorious descent of Christ into hell, of which the first letter of Peter speaks (see 3:19), and the glorious ascension of the risen Lord to heaven (see Acts 1:9–10). The same psalm is still sung by alternating choirs in the Byzantine liturgy of the Easter vigil, just as it used to be chanted in the Roman liturgy at the end of the procession of palms on Passion Sunday. The solemn liturgy of the opening of the Holy Door during the inauguration of the Jubilee Year allowed us to feel with intense internal emotion the same sentiments experienced by the psalmist when he crossed the threshold of the ancient Temple of Zion.
The last title, “Lord of the armies,” does not have—as might appear at first sight—a military connotation, though it does not exclude a reference to Israel's armies. It bears, rather, a cosmic meaning: The Lord who is about to encounter humanity within the restricted space of the sanctuary of Zion, is the Creator who has all the stars of heaven for an army—that is, all the creatures of the universe who obey him. In the book of the prophet Baruch, we read that, before God “the stars at their posts shine and rejoice. When he calls them, they answer, ëHere we are!í shining with joy for their Maker” (Baruch 3:34–35). The infinite God, all–powerful and eternal, adapts himself to his human creatures, comes near to them to meet them, listen to them and to enter into communion with them. The liturgy is the expression of this encounter in faith, conversation and love.
[Translation by Zenit and Register] ----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: British Cabinet Minister Condemns Down Syndrome Abortions DATE: 07/01/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 1-7,2001 ----- BODY:
LONDON — A British politician, who has a 9-year-old son with Down syndrome, has condemned as “grotesque” the use of amniocentesis testing during pregnancy. The test is used to “eliminate” the majority of children diagnosed with the condition, he says.
Brian Wilson was a cabinet minister in the previous Labor government of Prime Minister Tony Blair, who won re-election in early June and consequently will head Britain's government for a second term. Shortly before the election campaign began this spring, Wilson told the London Telegraph, “I find it grotesque that 95% of Down children are eliminated as a result of amniocentesis. And to achieve the assumed social good, four times as many non-Down kids are not born.”
Wilson, 52, has three children: Mairi, 12, Eoin, 9 and Ronan, 4. Eoin has Down syndrome and attends a special school near the family home in Glasgow.
Wilson's comments came just before a British hospital announced research that enables a “fast track” test for Down syndrome. Most of the children diagnosed with the genetic condition as a result of this new test have been aborted.
And the comments were followed by Wilson's own Labor Government announcing that all pregnant women will be offered tests for Down syndrome by 2004, along with tests for syphilis, HIV, hepatitis and rubella.
Pro-life campaigners are waging a constant campaign against what they call a “search and destroy mission” against the handicapped.
But it is not just the pro-life lobby who is concerned.
The U.K. Down's Syndrome Association, which has generally avoided lining up with pro-lifers, has stated, “The Down's Syndrome Association and the parents it represents does not believe that having a baby with Down syndrome is a reason to terminate a pregnancy, however it is a matter for the parents to decide.”
Said spokeswoman Sarah Waights, “It does seem as if doctors put pressure on couples to have a termination. We believe this is due to ignorance and would change if there was better training for doctors.”
Discrimination Continues
Wilson's comments also criticized Britain's free National Health Service for discriminating against Down syndrome children after birth.
The former minister told the Telegraph that the use of abortion to avoid the risk of having a Down child meant those who survived were deprived of proper care.
Some 40,000 women have an amniocentesis test each year to check for the chromosomal abnormality that indicates Down. The test, which involves drawing amniotic fluid from the uterus, carries a risk of miscarriage. A recent study at London's St. Bartholomew's hospital showed that while tests identified 100 Down cases each year, 400 healthy fetuses miscarried as a result.
There are about 1,800 abortions on Down babies out of an approximate total of 175,000 abortions in the United Kingdom.
And the number looks certain to increase with the mid-May announcement by Harold Wood Hospital in Romford, Essex, about a new screening technique aimed at identifying unborn babies with Down syndrome.
The technique offers women the chance to abort their baby within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, two months earlier than with conventional screening. About 50 unborn Down children identified at the hospital were aborted.
Pro-life Alternatives
Faced with these developments, pro-life medical personnel are promoting positive alternatives to abortion. One key part of their strategy has been the formation of the Lejeune Center in London, with regional outlets elsewhere in Britain, to help parents with Down syndrome children.
The first Lejeune Clinic was founded in Paris by the late Professor Jerome Lejeune, the French geneticist who discovered that an extra chromo-some causes Down syndrome. Pope John Paul II prayed at his tomb during his 1997 World Youth Day visit to France.
Lejeune's principles of treatment, which emphatically reject anything that diminishes the full human dignity of those with Down syndrome, include the importance of giving folic acid to stop further retardation and the use of various amino acids to help treat the condition.
The U.K. clinic was established in 1995 to implement and enhance Lejeune's principles, as little research worldwide had taken place into Down syndrome since his death in 1994.
Catholic Dr. Tony Cole, one of five pediatricians working with the London clinic, said, “We have treated and helped more than 100 children in the last few years and our work is growing. Our problem is that demand for our services is greater than our resources — we are a charity where every penny is vital. Parents are grateful for help.”
The clinic gives support to parents and their children, the most high-profile being Dominic Lawson, editor of The Sunday Telegraph national newspaper, and his wife Rosa. Their Down daughter Domenica was the god-daughter of the late Princess Diana.
But Cole, who is former Master of the Guild of Catholic Doctors, admits that before the baby is born is where the real business of changing social attitudes must occur.
Said Cole, “It is not just doctors who need to change their attitudes, we also have to work on the midwives who are also key players in this problem.”
The Guild of Catholic Doctors has produced a form for parents to hand to doctors and midwives. It states that the parents do not want pre-natal tests that are unnecessary for the care of the mother's pregnancy or the baby's health.
Alex Ross, spokesman for the U.K. Department of Health, denied that Down children in the womb were targeted for termination.
Said Ross, “I do not think that is true. We are providing a lot more information to make sure women can make an informed choice.”
Ross also denied the charges from the Down's Syndrome Association that doctors adopted a negative approach to couples who were expecting Down babies.
But Labor politician Wilson told the Telegraph that Britain is a hostile environment for people like his son Eoin.
Said Wilson, “There is a double jeopardy for the few who do make it into the world, because there are so few of them, and less pressure to do very much for them. In a civilized society, there should be a Rolls-Royce service for the small number of children who have these requirements, and I don't think that's the case.”
Paul Burnell writes from Manchester, England.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Paul Burnell ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 07/01/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 1-7,2001 ----- BODY:Blame Saddam, Not Sanctions
THE NEW REPUBLIC, June 18 — In one crescent-shaped slice of Iraq — an area not governed by dictator Saddam Hussein — the starvation found elsewhere in the country is nowhere to be seen, the national weekly reported.
Antibiotics, fruit, meat and even Mercedes-Benz cars and Sony PlayStations are plentiful in Kurdish-controlled Northern Iraq, which like the rest of the country is subject to U.N. restrictions on the sale of Iraqi oil but not subject to Hussein's dictatorship.
Under the U.N. plan, state authorities working with the United Nations spend the country's oil profits. Whereas Hussein has resold humanitarian aid supplies to finance palaces and arms, Northern Iraq's Kurdish government has built a university, rural medical clinics, and sewage systems. The region has lower infant mortality rates than it did before sanctions began in 1990.
Although the Bush administration has considered scaling back sanctions, many Kurds in Northern Iraq want sanctions strengthened, The New Republic reported.
Irish Bishops Condemn Asylum Crackdown
BELFAST NEWS LETTER, June 19 — Ireland's bishops sharply criticized what they called Dublin's “asylum exclusion policies,” the Belfast daily reported.
On the eve of World Refugee Day, the bishops’ Committee on Asylum Seekers and Refugees accused Ireland of keeping refugees out of the country despite Ireland's need for immigrant labor.
After Attack, Reggae Stars Clean Up Their Music
LOS ANGELES TIMES, June 19 — A Jamaican Rastafarian group made 1,200 brooms to symbolize their effort to sweep the sex and violence of American rap out of Jamaican reggae, the Los Angeles daily reported.
Gary Himelfarb, a Washington-based reggae promoter who uses the name Dr. Dread, sent brooms and CDs featuring songs titled “Unconditional Love” and “Walk Away from Trouble” to 1,000 of the biggest retail shops, producers and record stations in the United States and the Caribbean.
Reggae stars like Bounty Killer, Sizzla and Capleton filled their music with images of sex, drugs and violence. Meanwhile, drug-related murders, robberies and rapes are on the rise in the Caribbean, and religious leaders in St. Lucia cited violent lyrics as one reason that two Rastafarians attacked a Catholic cathedral during Mass in December, killing a nun and a priest.
Some performers, like Angie Angel, have recently switched from lewd or violent songs to uplifting songs. Angel was featured on the Himelfarb CD.
Philippines Peace Talks Begin
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, June 20 — The Philippine government and the Muslim separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front began peace talks led by Seif al-Islam, son of Libyan dictator Muammar Al-Quaddafi, the wire service reported.
The negotiators hope to end a 23-year rebellion. The Muslim group is one of three separatist groups seeking an independent Islamic state in the predominantly Catholic country. Another separatist group signed a peace deal in 1996, but a third, Abu Sayyaf, is currently holding 26 hostages in the southern Philippines.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Boy Scouts, American Heroes DATE: 07/01/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 1-7,2001 ----- BODY:You didn't hear about it on the network news, but an interesting thing happened last summer that is worth revisiting this Fourth of July.
A Boy Scouts color guard was booed off the stage of the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles.
Imagine being one of those Scouts. The patriotic music plays, and you hold the flag high. You're just a boy, but you feel a part of history, a part of the drama of American democracy. You get that thrill of knowing you love your country and your country respects you.
Then the angry yells start, and you wonder why people are upset. And then you realize that it's you that upsets them. They don't want you on their stage. They don't want you to hold the flag. They don't want you anywhere near them.
Unfortunately, that's a feeling Boy Scouts have become familiar with.
School districts across America are now being pressured to boot the Boy Scouts out of public-school facilities.
Why? Because the Boy Scouts will not surrender their First Amendment rights to follow their religious ideals. They won't take God out of their promise. They won't allow in males who identify themselves by their sexual attraction to other males.
The Scouts have noble reasons for sticking to this policy. They also have reasons of necessity.
Another unsettling thing happened last summer. Former scoutmaster Robert Malcomb Jr., 35, of Warr Acres, Okla., pleaded guilty to 61 of 107 charges of sex abuse and was sentenced to 200 years in prison. Victims included five boys under the age of 14, including two boys allegedly molested on camping trips.
John Hemstreet, a leading promoter of the idea that the Scouts should allow homosexuals, is a convicted child molester. He is president of the Toledo, Ohio, chapters of both Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, and Scouting for All. “I have done a terrible, horrible disservice to a boy,” he told the Associated Press last summer. His homosexual activism “is one of the things I have elected to do — to do community service.”
You can understand why the Scouts don't want men who, statistically, have a high predisposition toward pedophilia, to take boys on overnight trips in the woods.
They also don't see any reason to forfeit their own conviction of what's “morally straight.” Not in America. The Supreme Court, as it turns out, agrees with them.
But none of this matters to school districts in Los Angeles, New York, Minneapolis, Seatle, Worcester, Mass., and Madison, Wis., all of whom have attempted to block Boy Scouts activities. They want to force the Scouts to take men who identify themselves by their homosexual tendencies.
People nowadays like to talk about a culture war. This can be helpful in one way: Christians have always recognized that sin is a roaring lion, prowling about, and must be fought. But it can also be a problem: In the end, we are all in this culture together, and it is our job not to defeat people, but to win them over to the truth.
However you look at it, this pitting of cultural elites against the Boy Scouts of America shows two competing views of freedom. One view wants the freedom of religion, the other wants freedom from religion. One view says that God and morality are respectable concepts; the other says that they are dangerous and exclusionary.
This July 4, we should pray that the view our nation was founded on — that government can't interfere with religious freedom — will prevail.
And we can thank God that he's made the Boy Scouts the American heroes of our time.
----- EXCERPT: Editorial ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Lettres DATE: 07/01/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 1-7,2001 ----- BODY:Authentic vs. Literal
Father Kavanaugh's letter in the June 10-16 Register emphasized that authentic translation need not mean literal translation. Of course, anyone who is familiar with languages will realize that a “literal translation” in the sense of an exact word-for-word rendering is not always possible.
But this does not mean that the process of transculturation demands the modernized paraphrases which abound in the current translations.
The fact is that while untranslatable idioms and structures do exist, nonetheless, the vast majority of the content of the official texts can be completely conveyed in modern English without paraphrase or loose rendering. Such devices serve merely to substitute the words of a handful of translators for the original and often ancient text.
In my years of studying Latin, I have run across countless inexplicably loose renderings in liturgical translations. For instance, there is no reason that the present beginning of the Eucharistic Prayer should read “these gifts we offer you in sacrifice” when the “literal” rendering — “these gifts, these offerings, these holy unblemished sacrifices” — is not only just as intelligible, but much more beautiful.
MICHAEL J. HOUSER
Steubenville, Ohio
Incorrupt Statistics
Regarding “Blessed John XXIII's Return Spotlights Incorrupt Saints” (June 10-16): Joan Carroll Cruz, whose excellent book on incorrupt bodies I use regularly in the course on the saints that I teach at Loyola University Chicago, is quoted as saying that perhaps the reason so many incorrupt bodies are found among Catholics is that Catholics exhume more bodies, given the requirements of the canonization process.
This may in part be true, but one must remember that for centuries in many parts of the world, including in Europe where most saints have come from, bodies were routinely exhumed after a few years’ burial in order to reuse the grave in situations where churchyards were limited in size and had been in use for many centuries. The bones dug up were then transferred to charnel houses, as can be seen at the Capuchin Church in Rome. Thus a strong, broad statistical sample of exhumations independent of canonization causes exists.
That nonetheless a strong correlation is found between a reputation for sanctity and the incidence of incorrupt bodies points clearly to a connection between holiness and the phenomenon of incorruption rather than simply a “normal” distribution of incorrupt bodies across the general population.
Herbert Thurston, S.J., pointed this out already in his book The Physical Phenomena of Mysticism about 100 years ago. It's proper to go out of one's way to find a natural explanation for miracle claims, as the people your writer interviewed were doing. But scholarly method also requires giving attention to the statistical evidence when it points in the direction of the miraculous.
DENNIS MARTIN
Chicago
The writer is a professor of historical theology at Loyola University in Chicago.
Whither Dallas Institute?
I was deeply saddened to read of the resignations of Douglas Bushman and the other IRPS (Institute for Religious and Pastoral Studies) faculty in “Resignations Rock the University of Dallas” (May 20-26) as well as in the Dallas Morning's News’ June 2 feature “Theology Professors’ Departure Raises Concerns.”
As an alumna of both the undergraduate program and the IRPS program, I am deeply disappointed that Msgr. Milam Joseph and the university administration would fail to support and thereby keep in Dallas Douglas Bushman and the extraordinary program and faculty that he has built over the last ten years. I find it puzzling that Msgr. Joseph and Bishop Grahmann somehow saw this program as “too narrowly focused on teaching doctrine,” failing to “serve the local church,” and lacking a “pastoral approach.” Are they talking about the same program I attended?
As I think the vast majority of its student's would attest, Douglas Bushman's IRPS was pastoral in the fullest sense of the word. Far from being a merely academic exercise in perusing dry principles of “doctrine” removed from the faith and life of Dallas Catholics, this program was steeped in the teaching of Vatican II, the pastoral council for our times. Transcending facile liberal/conservative labels, it always strove to educate and inspire to action lay Catholics and deacons in their service to the Church.
ELIZABETH M. SCHLUETER
UD Alumna “96 & ”00
Democrats Opposed Tax Plan
In the June 10-16 Register, your page-one headline “Democratic Tax Plan Rider Aids Big Catholic Families” is just plain wrong.
The Republicans got the tax plan passed — and it does help families and children. The Democrats just want to tax everyone more. The Democratic Party is not for families or children. They are only for bigger government and taking money out of the pockets of working Americans so they can buy the votes of others.
JOHN RYAN
Staten Island, N.Y.
The page-one headline “”Democratic Tax Plan Rider Aids Big Catholic Families” (June 10-16) is truly an example of slanted political information. With almost 50% of the Democrats voting against the bill, why are they touted as national heroes to big Catholic families?
This tax plan originated as a party platform by the Republican Party, opposed by the Democrats and now is touted as a Democratic victory. How ironic that the word Republican was not used once in the entire article. By adding on an increase to a Republican bill, it now becomes a Democratic moral victory to big Catholic families.
FRed STephanek
Lansing, Illinois
Editor's Note: Republicans have long opposed refundable tax “credits” — benefits paid to families whether or not they owe taxes. But not in this case. The president of the U.S. bishops, Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza, called the tax credit a “provision that the Catholic bishops in the United States have long sought” and said he was “extremely happy … with the support and direct intervention of President Bush” on the legislation. The Register regrets the error.
Father's Day Tears
I haven't cried in two months, since the death of my little angel in December. But on Father's Day evening, I sat down to read the Register and, in my usual fashion, I turned to the “Culture of Life” section and began. I didn't notice, at first, since I was drawn to the picture of our Holy Father holding Christ in the monstrance, but as I followed the direction, I saw my little angel saying “Thank you” [“Baby Mugs,” June 17-23, featured a picture of Rebecca Anne Feleccia saying “Thank you” in sign language. She died in December at age 3].
This was the greatest gift a father can receive on Father's Day. Since the Feast of Corpus Christi coincided with Father's Day this year, I reflected on how Becky Anne would have loved the culmination of the “Come To Me” conference in Atlanta and how his presence has always given us strength through her illness. Christ's love is always blanketing us and giving us strength.
Becky Anne knew this. She lived it and shared it. She taught me how to trust in him completely. She taught me how to love him unconditionally. And, in her death, she taught me of the Father's undying, unfaltering love for us, his children.
My wife talked about sending in her “mug shot,” but I had forgotten all about it. God, in his usual fashion, gave me the booster I needed. I said I haven't cried in two months. This was true … until last night. Tears of joy as only God and my saint Becky Anne can bring.
DAVID FILECCIA
Sugar Hill, Georgia
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: True love in Pearl Harbor DATE: 07/01/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 1-7,2001 ----- BODY:I am very disappointed with “Peal Harbor Buzz Bomb,” John Prizer's review of the movie Pearl Harbor in the June 10-16 issue of the Register. It did not even attempt to highlight this movie's strong Catholic messages. Prizer missed the obvious pro-chastity message and the clearly portrayed consequence of losing one's true freedom if a person does engage in sex outside of marriage.
Prizer did not even mention that thee leading characters, Rafe [Ben Affleck] and Evelyn [Kate Beckinsale], fell in love and chose not to engage in premarital sex. In fact, while Rafe is leaving in the morning for a dangerous mission, the couple is headed for a hotel with obvious intentions. Our handsome hero stops his beautiful girlfriend and convinces here that she, and sex, are worth waiting for. He tells her, “I don't want you to have anything to regret when I'm gone.” I wanted to stand up and cheer for this young man's courage to sacrifice his own desires and bridle his passions to protect the virtue of the woman he loves. The message here is, “True love waits and is worth waiting for.”
And then our hero is shot down and crashes into the Atlantic Ocean. He is presumed dead, but later reappears to tell how his burning love for Evelyn kept him alive in the bitter cold of the Atlantic Ocean. The powerful message here: “True love can conquer all.”
Prizer notes that Evelyn, thinking her true love is dead, pursues a sexual relationship with Danny [Josh Harnett], but does not mention how the movie clearly portrays this relationship as a shallow distraction for Evelyn compared to the deeper, more meaningful, chaste relationship with her one true love, Rafe.
Pearl Harbor clearly shows some of the consequences of sex outside of marriage as Evelyn discovers she is pregnant with Danny's child the same day that Rafe returns unexpectedly, very much alive and in love with Evelyn. But Evelyn is no longer free to go to her true love. If she had been dating Danny and had kept her clothes on, she would have been free to go to her true love. But now Rafe knows, and she knows, that this is no longer possible.
Prizer talks about Rafe's understandable bitterness but he never mentions Rafe's willingness to forgive and marry Evelyn and raise Danny's son as his own after Danny is killed in action in the war. The powerful message here is, “True love can heal and forgive, even after infidelity.”
I believe people want to see true love wait and true love conquer (as well as true love heal and forgive). I believe Pearl Harbor is selling because there are powerful messages of truth presented with beautiful people and a big budget.
I walked out of Pearl Harbor saying, “Thank God! That was a great date movie with great messages.”
I finished reading Prizer's review saying, “I can't believe this! How could he have missed the obvious truths in this movie?” And feeling disappointed that many people might skip this movie because of the trust people place in the Register's uniquely Catholic perspective — which was not well represented by Prizer's review.
MARY LEGREID
Paso Robles, California
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: The Truth Can Navigate the Conscience Maze DATE: 07/01/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 1-7,2001 ----- BODY:Conscience, like most important concepts in the contemporary world, is widely misunderstood. In fact, its more popular usage is the perfect antithesis of what it really means. The world, being skeptical and not believing that one can know what is true, has disconnected conscience from the realm of the objective and has transferred it in the purely subjective.
Thus, a person declares that we cannot judge whether abortion is good or not in a particular situation and therefore we must leave the decision up to the conscience of the individual.
Once conscience is uprooted from the objective order, however, it is no longer “conscience,” but a guess — a shot in the dark. Even worse, it is a rationalization for expediency. “Conscience” in this sense, therefore, has paved the way for choosing contraception, sterilization, abortion, euthanasia and other objective disorders.
The etymology of the word conscience tells us that it means “with knowledge” (cum + scientia). Conscience does not constitute moral truth, but reflects it. It is a synthesis between knowledge of the objective order of being and my free decision to act morally in the face of that knowledge. There should no more be any rift between objective knowledge and my response as a subject to that knowledge as there is between light and the eye. The intrinsic harmony between light and the eye us captured by the very title of Pope John Paul II's encyclical on moral values, Veritatis Splendor (the splendor of the light of truth, which is naturally recognizable by the human faculty of reason).
It is in keeping with the freedom, nature and dignity of man that he is allowed to act in accordance with his objectively based conscience. This is why the Catechism of the Catholic Church states that “Man has the right to act in conscience and in freedom so as personally to make moral decisions. ‘He must not be forced to act contrary to his conscience, especially in religious matters’” (No. 1782).
The citation within this statement is taken from the Second Vatican Council's Dignitatis Humanae — respecting conscience is consistent with respecting the dignity of the human person.
Why the Subjectivist Prefers the Dark
The subjectivized notion of conscience is shorn of any relationship with the truth. It is rooted in one's self-will, or one's ego. In this way, one might say, “anything goes.” Nonetheless, this is not the case. Those who form their “conscience” solely on the basis of willfulness naturally oppose those who are confident that conscience has an objective basis.
If conscience does have a basis in truth, then the position of the subjectivist is seriously challenged. Rather than admit that he may be morally wrong, he fiercely denies that his challenger can be objectively right. The subjectivist prefers to remain in the darkened world of his own ego, where he maintains his illusion of freedom, than to venture into a world of objective values that may prove him to be complicit in wrongdoing.
Plato has written about this in his Analogy of the Cave. It is a parable of education, he reminds us, that people who prefer the dark are sworn enemies of those who stand by the light.
This inversion that the subjectivization of conscience represents explains why “pro-choice” advocates are pro-choice about abortion, but not necessarily pro-choice about extending the right to choose to those who do not want to participate in abortion.
It is painfully ironic that the appeal to conscience, which was a significant factor in legalizing abortion and other immoralities, loses its force when used by pro-life advocates. A few examples:
Michelle Diaz was fired from her job at the Riverside Neighborhood “Health” Center in June of 1999 when she refused to sign a document requiring her to dispense to patients RU-486 and other abortifacient pills.
Elain Tramm was discharged from her post at a hospital in Valparaiso, Ind., for refusing to clean and prepare instruments used in performing abortions or handling fetal tissue after abortion procedures.
Lorraine Carbonneau was dismissed after five years as a full-time worker at a facility in North Bay, Ontario, because she would not counsel women for abortions or refer them to any pro-abortion counselor.
Karen L. Brauer lost her position as a pharmacist in Cincinnati because she refused to dispense contraceptives that function as abortifacients.
Dr. Everett Julyan was denied employment by North Glasgow Universities in Scotland because he had moral objections to participating in abortions.
An internal memo in a Calgary, Alberta, hospital, published by the Alberta Report, informed nurses that they would have to begin caring for aborting women, regardless of their own moral qualms.
Some Ontario hospitals require a nurse who is being considered for employment to consent to the following: “I further agree that my personal opinions, private or religious beliefs in respect to certain hospital procedures will not prevent me from carrying out my assigned duties and responsibilities.” “Certain hospital procedures” is a euphemism for abortions.
Pharmacists in Florida, Indiana, Washington and California have been reprimanded or fired for refusing to dispense abortifacient drugs.
The College of Pharmacists of British Columbia has demanded that conscientious objectors dispense abortifacient drugs or otherwise help the patient, even if this is contrary to their conscientious judgment.
Opinions vs. The Truth
For those interested in learning more about these cases and many others, consult www.consciencelaws.org. Here one will find the Web site of the Protection of Conscience Project. This effort is working to ensure that people not be coerced (or required to act contrary to their conscience) into participating in medical procedures such as abortion, artificial contraception, sterilization, artificial reproduction (in vitro fertilization, prenatal diagnosis, cloning, etc.), euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, various forms of human experimentation and so on.
In a 1992 article in the New England Journal of Medicine, “Prolife Perinatology — Paradox or Possibility?” the authors argue that only the moral skeptic should have a place in prenatal care. “If a physician cannot discuss issues of antenatal diagnosis with patients and present both viewpoints [abortion or birth], then it would be better for all concerned if he or she entered another field. Patients should not be subjected to one-sided arguments for or against antenatal diagnosis and the subsequent options.”
The article makes it clear that respecting people's moral opinions (whatever they may be) takes precedence over respecting the moral truth of the situation. This is just another instance of giving subjectivized conscience priority over a conscience that is formed in truth.
The authors go on to state: “Theoretically, pro-choice physicians will have less difficulty in counseling patients because they do not consider either the choice to abort or the choice to continue a pregnancy to be immoral.”
Again, indifference to the objective moral order has greater value than compliance with it. As a result, people who have a properly formed conscience become targets for discrimination.
Conscience will continue to be a major and dramatic issue in social life for some time. If the “liberal establishment” continues to contemn the views and actions of people who have a properly formed conscience, it will continue to operate in moral darkness, obliging its workers to function in an ethical vacuum, while rejecting those who represent truth, freedom and genuine human care.
We cannot have conscientious people unless we value conscience. By dismissing true conscience, we take a significant step in reducing the conscientious worker to a mere functionary, and civil society to a heartless bureaucracy.
Don DeMarco is a philosophy professor at St. Jerome's University in Waterloo, Ontario.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Donald Demarco ----- KEYWORDS: Commentry -------- TITLE: Real Marriage - And the Wearing Of the Black Beret DATE: 07/01/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 1-7,2001 ----- BODY:The average American feels in his gut that something is not quite right with “homosexual marriage.”
But, typically, he can't back up his strong sensibility with an airtight argument. And he's silenced by the fear that, even if he were able to articulate his views with utmost reason and charity, he would be branded a “homophobe” just for trying.
When preparing testimony recently in favor of the Protection of Marriage Act before a joint sub-committee of the Massachusetts legislature, we came upon what seemed a simple and effective analogy for expressing the commonsense view that “homosexual marriage” is a pale imitation of — and a very real threat to — the real thing.
Last year, the U.S. Army created a public controversy when it announced a new policy designed to increase morale and win recruits. Black berets, previously reserved for the Rangers, an elite special-force unit, would now be handed out to every soldier as part of the standard-issue uniform. The idea was that ranks of enlisted soldiers would swell if every soldier could wear the coveted black beret.
As was reported in the national media, many Rangers objected strenuously to the new policy. Yet I am not aware of anyone asking these Rangers, “How are you harmed if we let every soldier in the Army wear a black beret like yours? Aren't you just being selfish and spiteful in wanting to reserve it for yourself?”
No one asked such questions because, whether we agreed with the angry reaction or not, it was easy enough to understand. Clearly, were we to give every soldier a black beret just for joining the service, the very meaning of the black beret would evaporate.
No longer would it identify an accomplished, specially prepared solider who has successfully completed a long and arduous training program; now it would signify nothing more than basic enlistment. And never mind what it would do to the morale of the real Rangers — or to the motivation for new recruits to aspire to become a Ranger.
In other words, if everyone gets a black beret, no one is honored by it. So why have black berets at all?
The reasons against “homosexual marriage” are exactly the same. The legal category of marriage, with various benefits and privileges attached, is a mark of honor. After all, there are many kinds of human relationships, and many different bonds of affection — friends, relatives, companions, co-workers and lovers.
In the past, society has selected out and honored just one of these in a special way, namely, the bond between a man and a woman who commit themselves to each other perpetually, and who aim to beget and raise children. In doing so, society has not been frivolous, since this bond by its nature requires unique sacrifices from which society benefits directly.
Let's carry through the analogy. Suppose now that, just as the Army decided to issue black berets universally, so we expand the definition of marriage to include homosexual partners and live-in sexual relationships. In that case we certainly do harm those heterosexual couples who are founding families, since we deprive them of an honor that was once theirs alone.
Moreover, we change the very meaning of the term marriage. The term can no longer at its core signify sacrifice of oneself for one's spouse and for the sake of one's offspring. Rather, now it signifies, merely, extended sexual intimacy. But, since extended sexual intimacy on its own does not imply any self-sacrifice, or any important benefits for society, it is not worthy of special honor.
Thus, the term marriage would lose whatever prestige and honor it still has. And the policy behind it, like black berets for all soldiers, would defeat the aim it sought to achieve.
If the analogy is indeed exact, then why are the Rangers’ objections against universal black berets so easy to grasp, while those against “homosexual marriage” are not? The reason is that society has already moved far in the direction of redefining marriage — through no-fault divorce, and through a social ethic which sees children as something burdensome and accidental in relation to sex. Clearly, many heterosexuals today become married with no purpose beyond emotional intimacy and sexual pleasure. So it can look unfair that homosexuals may not similarly be “married.”
The proper remedy lies not in expanding the definition of marriage, but rather in appropriately preserving it for permanently committed couples who aim to have children together.
We as a society are conflicted, and the question of gay marriage requires that we take a step toward resolving the conflict in one way or another. If we decide against “homosexual marriage,” we take a clear step toward restoring the ideal that a permanent relationship between a man and a woman, open to children, is the basic building block of society.
If we decide for “homosexual marriage,” we harm ourselves by removing one of the few remaining public witnesses to the bedrock of civilization.
Michael Pakaluk teaches philosophy at Clark University in Worcester, Mass. Catherine, his wife, is a doctoral student in economics at Harvard University. They reside in Worcester with eight children.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Michael Pakaluk ----- KEYWORDS: Commentry -------- TITLE: The 'Abortion Ship' Sails Straight Into Oblivion DATE: 07/01/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 1-7,2001 ----- BODY:The visit of a Dutch abortion ship to Ireland generated more interest abroad than it did in Ireland.
The day the boat arrived, June 14, the country was crawling with news teams from Holland, Germany, Britain, America and Canada.
What in the world were they expecting? Violence? Mass protests? Outbreaks of fanatical pro-life lunacy? When such high drama failed to materialize, the coverage became the event.
By lunchtime the next day there were still dozens of reporters, cameramen and photographers crowded around the dock. By this stage the women on the ship claimed to have received bomb threats. The upshot? A police boat was patrolling the river nearby and police were checking cars approaching the ship by road. This did make for good TV even if it was out of all proportion to the scale of the threat.
This morsel aside, the foreign crews were clearly starved of good material. They would speak to anyone, simply anyone, who would provide them with something to send back home and justify the trip. If ever someone wanted to grab the attention of the world's media this would have been their chance. The moment was seized by the Pro-Life Campaign, which presented the foreign journalists and networks with attractive and articulate young women who calmly ridiculed the abortion ship and set out their pro-life arguments reasonably and well.
Not all of the networks were happy with this. The women just didn't fit in with the pro-life stereotype. One crew from Canada asked the Pro-Life Campaign if they could recommend someone who was more “passionate” (read fanatical) than the pro-lifers they were being presented with. They also said they would rather a man than a woman. One wonders why?
It's impossible to know how many of the foreign networks ran the interviews, but, if they did, then paradoxically the abortion ship may have done the pro-life cause abroad, if not in Ireland, more good than harm.
How often do Dutch or German people get to see the pro-life argument articulated by attractive, modern young women? In those countries the pro-life argument has been reduced to a straw man, one that's easy to demolish.
In coming to Ireland and attracting all those foreign reporters, the abortion ship inadvertently allowed Irish pro-lifers into the living rooms of their countries — countries where the culture of death is almost unchallenged. God really does write straight with crooked lines.
At home it's hard to know whether the abortion ship also did more good than harm. It did attract some attention, and it was discussed on radio programs. Yet it met with almost no political response. None of our politicians seemed terribly worried that a Dutch ship intended to dock in Irish ports, take Irish women out to international waters, abort their unborn children and then drop them back home again in time for supper.
That does show a change in attitudes toward abortion in Ireland. The fact that we were so calm about it probably further illustrates the change. One presumes that, had a ship arrived promising to kill newborns if their mothers so wished, there would have been rather more fuss.
The Dutch-based Women on Waves is the organization behind the abortion ship. Its ostensible purpose is to protect women from unsafe abortions — presumably meaning “back-alley” abortions — in countries where abortion is against the law.
However, since no Irish women die as a result of the ban on abortion in this country (direct abortion is never needed to save a woman's life), the boat was entirely superfluous to requirements even on its own terms.
In addition, what woman was ever going to run the media gauntlet in order to sail 12 miles from shore, board the ship with the world looking on and have an abortion performed in a sterile steel container on the deck?
In fact, what organization claiming to be concerned about the welfare of women would want to perform an abortion under such conditions? The ship's “operating room” is entirely dehumanizing.
There was never going to be an abortion performed on this ship. Quite apart from anything else, it lacks the license to do so under Dutch law. It was in Ireland purely in order to attract publicity and advance the abortion cause. In my opinion it backfired. Articulate pro-lifers had a chance to make their case in countries where a decent pro-life argument is rarely heard.
By the second day of its stay, even the international media had grown impatient. They decided they had been brought to Ireland under false pretenses.
Since there never was going to be an abortion, there were never going to be the protests they anticipated. Hence there was not much of a story to cover.
If there is one sure way to annoy a journalist, it is to drag him half way across the world and then deprive him of his story. In doing so, Women on Waves have hopefully ensured that they will never again attract the sort of publicity that they did on this occasion.
That's a pleasurable thought on one level. But, on another, strangely, it is unfortunate, since Women on Waves gave their pro-lifers adversaries such a gilt-edged opportunity to put their case to the world. A bit more of that and a real dent could be put in the culture of death.
David Quinn is editor of The Irish Catholic in Dublin.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: David Quinn ----- KEYWORDS: Commentry -------- TITLE: ord of the Box Office? DATE: 07/01/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 1-7,2001 ----- BODY:The Hobbit and Harry Potter are going head-to-head this fall.
One of the most expensive films ever made, the film version of J.R.R. Tolkein's trilogy The Lord of the Rings will be in theaters at about the same time as a film based on J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books.
The film's cast — including Sir Ian McKellan, Cate Blanchett, Sean Bean and Liv Tyler — reportedly saw a 20-minute preview of the movie at the Cannes film festival in May.
Hollywood's New Line Cinema invested $300 million in the film, according to the Daily Telegraph in London, which said the expense was “equivalent to filming Titanic three times over.”
The first of three movies, The Fellowship of the Ring, is based on the first book by J.R.R. Tolkein, a Catholic who translated the book of Job for the Jerusalem Bible in the '60s.
One reason for the expense: All three films, directed by Peter Jackson, were filmed. The company is expected to release them over several years. “In order to do the tale's epic nature justice,” director Peter Jackson told the Daily Telegraph, “we had to shoot it as one big story because that's what it is.”
Agence France-Presse said that money also has something to do with the simultaneous filming of one long story to be released as three films.
“The Lord of the Rings trilogy ... looks so much like being a mega-hit that the studio is going all-out to build the hype,” said the news service May 12.
— Register Staff
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Register Staff ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Apple of the Augustinians' Eye DATE: 07/01/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 1-7,2001 ----- BODY:One soft spring night in Rome many years ago, I heard about a concert to be given at the church of San Agostino.
I'd never seen the church, although I'd been to the nearby Piazza Navona. When I climbed the steps to the plain facade and entered, another Roman marvel spread out before me. It's a spot almost unknown to tourists, but Italians often make it a place of pilgrimage.
As is true in most Roman churches, St. Augustine's lavish interior belies its very unassuming exterior. The array of altars, each unusual, each dedicated to a different holy person, now gives me the sense that I am visiting old friends.
A few people are usually lingering at the lamp-lit altar to the right of the entrance to St. Augustine, for this altar is said to have special graces to bestow on women expecting a child. The strong, matron-like figure, more classical than the usual ethereal Madonna, is seated, with a very robust child standing by her.
The hopeful who linger here may be talking to the Madonna quite openly, perhaps crying, and they may have brought flowers or an ex voto to place near her, to remind her of their plea. You'll see these precious objects arrayed around this altar, a quite beguiling collection — the hopes and dreams of other Catholics.
As you may have seen at St. Peter's Basilica, here is a statue so beloved that its foot has been worn smooth with kisses. It seems that this veneration began in 1829 when a man asked the sacristan to keep a light burning day and night for his wife, who was enduring a difficult labor. When word was out that there had been a safe delivery, others began to visit the statue and soon it became known as Our Lady of Childbirth (Parto).
A special celebration takes place here on the second Sunday in October, just in case you are in Rome then. If not, say a prayer for someone in childbirth.
Chubby Cherubs
Another famous woman, St. Catherine of Siena, is celebrated in the altar to the right. This scholarly mystic is patron of studies of the Augustinian order. Catherine is not only patron of Italy but also, as of last year, a patroness of Europe as well.
The Ecstasy of St. Rita by Giacinto Brandi greets pilgrims as they stroll to the right, and soon after, in the Chapel of St. Peter, a famous painting of God the Father comes into view.
This masterful work shows the Father contemplating the globe as lots of chubby, knowing cherubs look on. Beneath it, on the altar, a marble grouping of Christ and St. Peter shows the saint as he receives the keys.
At the right transept, the great St. Augustine makes his impressive appearance. Bishop, doctor of the Church and author of The Confessions and The City of God, Augustine is shown practicing charity, defending the church, always wearing the Augustinian habit — “anachronistically,” as stated in the guide I bought at the church. It had never occurred to me how much the garb postdates the saint.
Augustine, born in northern Africa around 354, is respected around the world as one of history's greatest intellects. Yet it was his intense love of God that made him the model of what a saint is. “Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee,” he wrote — just one of countless beautiful, resonant passages to come from his gifted and prolific hand.
Now to the high altar, where the icon of the Madonna and Child rests amid soft lights and smooth marble. According to tradition, this work came from the church of St. Sophia in Constantinople.
In the inscription, Our Lady is called “The Joy of Heaven, Help of Earth, and Consolation of Purgatory.”
Munificence Magnet
St. Monica, mother of St. Augustine, is venerated in an altar to the left of this one. It is altogether fitting that she should be, since, according to his accounts, her Christian witness was largely responsible for his radical transformation from a sampler of worldly wares into arguably the most influential Catholic thinker of the first millennium. Monica's remains were placed in the urn on this altar in the original sarcophagus.
Look up from here and you'll see another painting of God the Father, this a brilliant one in which majesty blends with fatherly tenderness.
Some of the most celebrated works of art and spirituality are yet to come, many placed on pillars in the central nave. This church became an attraction for well-to-do, artistic Romans; they seem to have endowed it with a very Roman brilliance.
Raphael himself is credited with the mystical, strong figure of the prophet Isaiah (1512).This painting is reminiscent of the style of his rival, Michaelangelo, who worked at the same time.
Beneath it, a very moving statue of the Virgin and St. Anne has been placed, in which an elderly woman rests an affectionate arm around the young mother, whose plump baby seems very pleased with the attention.
You're close to the exit, but don't leave yet. Near the door, The Madonna of Pilgrims (or of Loreto), a fine Caravaggio (about 1603), shows still a different Mary, glowing with a pearly radiance, with a very real child holding on to his exquisite mother.
At her feet, two shabbily dressed pilgrims with dirty feet kneel in adoration. Not all of bourgeois Rome liked having this reference to the unwashed in the church, but fortunately the Augustinians thought they looked just fine. This alone should inspire a visit and the climb up the stairs to the church to see it.
I didn't realize how beautiful this church is when I first saw it in about 1972, probably because it was always dark.
A luminous blessing of the Jubilee year preparations was the adding of light to Rome's churches. The Church of St. Augustine has benefited. So, too, will its pilgrims.
Barbara Coeyman Hults is based in New York City.
----- EXCERPT: Rome's Church of Saint Augustine ----- EXTENDED BODY: Barbara Coeyman Hults ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Anatomy of a New-Economy Nosedive DATE: 07/01/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 1-7,2001 ----- BODY:Approximately 85% of new businesses go belly-up. The good news is, there's no loss of face for the enterprising American entrepreneur who, acknowledging failure in one venture, takes a second shot with another. Or a third or a fourth, for that matter.
Startup.com, a feature-length documentary playing in selected theaters around the country, chronicles this uniquely American kind of failure. Shot in 1999 and 2000, it captures that crazy moment when Internet entrepreneurs dreamed of getting rich and making history.
Venture capitalists poured tens of billions of dollars into this fantasy, most of which has since disappeared, and the movie lets us watch two of its protagonists, Kaleil Isaza Tuzman and Tom Herman, scarf up some $60 million of this booty.
Filmmakers Chris Hegedus (The War Room) and Jehane Noujaim find the human drama in their story. Kaleil and Tom were high-school buddies whose friendship is severed on camera by their enterprise's collapse, and the experience hurts them personally.
The action begins when recent Harvard grad Kaleil quits his hot-shot job at Goldman, Sachs to hustle up capital for a company started by Tom and another techie. The deal is that Kaleil is to be given control in exchange for access to his fundraising skills, which are considerable.
Smart, focused, energetic, with a disarming, charismatic smile, Kaleil has the right stuff to drive a company. He's also amoral and ruthless. He fires Tom's original partner, engineering a buyout at what appears to be a bargain-basement price.
The product they're selling, govworks.com, enables Internet access to government services; their bestselling tool facilitates online payment of parking tickets. When a top Silicon Valley venture-capital firm accurately identifies the weaknesses in their business plan and refuses to back them, Kaleil keeps moving. Glued to his cell phone 24/7, he convinces other investors to pony up.
The high point of his hustling is an appearance on a C-SPAN panel show with President Bill Clinton, to whom he gives a business card. In a wonderful follow-up scene, the entrepreneur persuades Atlanta's black ex-mayor, Maynard Jackson, to join their board and lead them in a company cheer.
We see that, when forced to choose between personal values and business, both entrepreneurs always go for the bucks. Kaleil burns through his romantic relationship with Dora, a TV producer who, of course, promotes his company on her show, and Tom tries lamely to connect with his pre-school daughter from a failed marriage during her occasional custody visits.
The firm grows from eight employees to 233. But revenues are flat and more money is needed. When NASDAQ crashes in April of 2000, venture capital dries up. Someone has to take the fall.
Kaleil makes sure it's Tom, not him, and appears to feel badly about making his long-time chum the scapegoat.
The culture created by high-tech entrepreneurs is as much a part of America's economic success as the speculative bucks that drive them, and the lifestyle and values of these Internet wonderboys seem very different from what came before. Kaleil and Tom only wear suits and ties when talking up investors. The rest of the time it's baseball caps, warm-up jackets, sweats and sneakers.
Their language is a cross between business-school jargon and rock 'n’ roll, including the extensive profanity. Sprinkled throughout their patter are new-age buzzwords like “heuristic” and “holistic,” which Kaleil uses to manipulate employees and investors. Particularly nauseating is the emphasis on “connecting” and “feeling” each other's pain in his take-no-prisoners management style. Kaleil also uses a Hindu-like style of meditation and prayer when stressed out that also seems more new-agey than a reflection of traditional religious beliefs.
Unintentionally, the filmmakers remind us of what Catholic thinkers like Michael Novak have been long saying. A world dominated by the values of people like Tom and Kaleil would be unbearable. A just and ordered society, these thinkers point out, needs more than a thriving economy.
It also must have a transcendent moral code based on religion and mediating institutions like churches, schools and voluntary associations.
The balance and interplay of these forces can transform what could be materialistic excesses into a culture that is both virtuous and productive. The viewer gets hints of this in the scenes with the protagonists’ mothers, who try to insert traditional values into their sons’ lives.
“How bad can it be?” Tom asks Kaleil when things look darkest. “We'll get other jobs, start other businesses.”
And they do.
After the movie's production ended, the two got back together and set up another operation that specializes in helping failed Internet companies like their own. Their failure with Govworks hasn't broken their spirit. It was just a necessary part of their entrepreneurial learning experience.
The filmmakers offer a firsthand look at both the bright and dark sides of this innovative, market-driven culture at work.
It's a ground-level look at the landscape of 21st-century American capitalism — a place of boundless opportunities and daunting dangers, not all of them financial.
Arts & culture correspondent
John Prizer writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: Startup.com follows two entrepreneurs from dream to demise ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 07/01/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 1-7,2001 ----- BODY:Thirteen Days (2000)
This brilliantly crafted docudrama about the 1962 Cuban missile crisis dramatizes the behind-the-scenes machinations of that moment in history when the human race came close to blowing itself up. Director Roger Donaldson (No Way Out) presents Soviet Cold War actions as a genuine threat to American survival and celebrates our leaders for standing up to the enemy. He skillfully uses a suspense format to achieve the almost impossible — an emotionally involving story about middle-aged white guys in suits arguing about diplomacy and military options.
The crisis begins on Oct. 16, 1962, when a U.S. spy plane photographs medium-range ballistic missiles recently smuggled into Cuba, a Soviet satellite state. The weapons are soon expected to be operational.
Thirteen Days is told from the point of view of a bit player — presidential appointments secretary Kenny O'Donnell (Kevin Costner), who's a practicing Catholic. President Kennedy (Bruce Greenwood) and his brother Bobby (Steven Culp) are shown exercising prudent judgment by forcing the Soviets to withdraw their missiles without going to war.
Across the Great Divide (1976)
Holly (Heather Rattray) and Jason Smith (Michael Edward Hall) are young orphans crossing the Rocky Mountains to Oregon in 1876 to claim a 400-acre farm they've inherited. One of their horses is stolen by Zachariah Coop (Robert Logan), a card shark on the run. The resourceful Smiths chase the outlaw and take their animal back. But they decide to team up with him because each party has something the other can use. Zachariah understands the treacherous landscape over which the brother and sister must travel, and their horse provides the card shark with a means of escaping from his pursuers.
Writer-director Stewart Raffill (Wilderness Family) subjects this mismatched trio to a series of terrifying adventures.
He confronts them with bears, cougars, mountain lions, a snow storm and a band of fierce-looking Native Americans. The trek's dangers force the outlaw and the orphans to become dependent on each other.
The rugged plains and mountains provide a picturesque backdrop. Both children and adults will find this wholesome story captivating.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 07/01/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 1-7,2001 ----- BODY:SUNDAY, JULY 1
Rafting Alaska's Wildest Rivers PBS, 10 p.m. Check local listings
Expert rafters ride the Tatshenshini and Alsek rivers, as well as the Kongakut River, which is in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a proposed site for some drilling.
MONDAY, JULY 2
This Week in History: Statue of Liberty History Channel, 8 p.m.
This “world premiere” episode in the “This Week in History” series asks whether the French Catholic politician Edouard de Laboulaye, who in 1865 gave Frederic Auguste Bartholdi the idea for what became the Statue of Liberty, wanted it to be a monument to freed slaves. Laboulaye did head the French AntiSlavery Society; he also revered the American Revolution and France's role in it. Rebecca Joseph, head anthropologist of a National Park Service probe into the matter, discusses indications so far.
TUESDAY, JULY 3
Journey through the Rockies History Channel, 10 p.m.
This installment in the new travel-adventure series “The Greatest Journeys on Earth” takes us through the Rocky Mountains. The series inspects major locations, conducts interviews and visits current cultural, social and historical celebrations.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 4
A Capitol Fourth PBS, 8 p.m.
“A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums, / A flash of color beneath the sky: / Hats off! The flag is passing by!” These patriotic lines by Henry Holcomb Bennett spring to life on the U.S. Capitol's West Lawn every Independence Day when the National Symphony Orchestra salutes America's fight for liberty. Erich Kunzel conducts. Guests include the Pointer Sisters, Donny Osmond, Luther Vandross and the Irish tenors Anthony Kearns, Ronan Tynan and Finbar Wright.
THURSDAY, JULY 5
They Drew Fire PBS, 10 p.m.
In World War II, the War Department asked certain outstanding American artists to create a permanent pictorial record of the conflict. This one-hour documentary shows many of the remarkable paintings and drawings that resulted.
FRIDAY, JULY 6
Super Saints EWTN, 1 p.m.
On the feast day of St. Maria Goretti, virgin and martyr, Bob and Penny Lord tell the story of her purity, her love for Jesus and the Blessed Mother, and her murder at age 11 in Nettuno, Italy, a century ago. Her mother, Assunta, attended her child's canonization by Pope Pius XII in 1950, the first such occasion in history. (To be rebroadcast at 6:30 p.m.)
SATURDAY, JULY 7
Save Our History: America's Most Endangered, 2001 History Channel, 10 p.m.
This special inspects the 11 historical sites that the National Trust for Historic Preservation says are most in jeopardy this year. The organization cites the biggest dangers as uncaring government policy, “inappropriate” private development, deterioration, poor maintenance and lack of funding. The sites were not announced as of the Register's deadline.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: All times Eastern ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dan Engler ----- KEYWORDS: ARTS & CULTURE -------- TITLE: Helpful Hints for Your Family's DATE: 07/01/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 1-7,2001 ----- BODY:Helpful Hints for Your Family's
Every summer, Americans are compelled to throw open their doors and drink in the sun. Many will celebrate the nation's birth by running blades of grass between their feet, listening to a cricket symphony and looking heavenward for fire-works.The Fourth of July is the time to picnic.
A picnic doesn't have to mean the standard crispy-burnt hot dogs lost in a crumbly bun or soggy pieces of fried chicken. A light and healthy picnic can be fast, delicious and hassle-free.
For starters, think about packing juices. There's orange, grape, cranberry, guava and combinations you've probably never heard of — the selection in the market nowadays is remarkable.
Because most juices taste better cold, freeze your selection the night before in a plastic pitcher. Allow some room for expansion, as the juice expands into ice. Juice in a plastic container from the store should have about a quarter cup poured out to allow room for expansion. Afterwards, place the entire container in the freezer.
The day of the picnic, remove the juice from the fridge. The ice-cold refreshment should be defrosted in about three hours, just in time for you to reach your picnic spot.
If you like mouth-tickling fizz, bring along a liter or two of lemon-lime soda pop to mix with the juice. But don't try to freeze the soda — it'll explode!
It's a good idea to keep plenty of plain water on hand as well.
Rolled sandwiches are a tasty variation on the standard version. The only thing that can be possibly difficult about constructing them is finding the proper kind of bread you need.
Called Lavosh, it's a pliable flat bread that is sold in ethnic or gourmet supermarkets. Substitute flour tortillas if you can't find Lavosh.
Rolled sandwiches are easy to make and fun to eat. The more colorful and varied the ingredients, the prettier the sandwich. Use your imagination to customize the filling. To get you started, here is a beef-based sandwich:
Rolled Beef Sandwiches
Lavosh or flour tortillas Whipped cream cheese roast beef lettuce or spinach thinly sliced tomato
Swiss cheese or American cheese slices
chopped white onions (raw or cooked)
salt and pepper to taste
Thinly spread cream cheese all over one slice of bread, up to the edges. This cheese layer does double duty by adding flavor and moisture to the bread.
Next, on the bottom of the slice, lay down a strip of meat from left to right, slightly overlapping. Lay a strip of lettuce above that. Then add a strip of tomato, a strip of cheese and so on until the entire surface of the bread is covered with the ingredients of your choice
Once all the fillings are in place, begin rolling the sandwich from the bottom up. Keep the roll tight. This will make the end product neater.
The cream cheese should hold the roll together when you slice it cross-wise in three-inch-wide sections.
This will reveal the pretty circles within the roll. If the sandwiches begin to fall apart, fasten each with a toothpick.
Repeat the process until there are enough servings for the number of people in your party. These sandwiches are scrumptious, so be sure to make an ample amount. Keep the sandwiches cold in an ice cooler when transporting to the picnic. They can be made one day ahead.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Rose Capricio ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Where the Boys Aren't: Single-Sex Education's Surprising Comeback DATE: 07/01/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 1-7,2001 ----- BODY:BALTIMORE — Girls’ schools were the first to make a comeback, after decades of disparagement. Now boys’ schools are attracting new interest from parents and educators.
Single-sex education has been accused of sticking to outdated ways. Maryland mother Carolyn O'Keefe was wary of choosing single-sex education for her daughter Grace.
O'Keefe feared that a girls-only education would make Grace “too girl-focused,” diminishing her ability to interact with boys.
But O'Keefe began to reconsider when Grace's teachers at the girl's coeducational school all described her as “sweet.” Grace, then five, was “very boisterous at home,” her mother said. “Not that she's not sweet, but it seemed as if something was holding her back in terms of expressing herself” at school.
Grace told her mother that some boys at the school got praise for not misbehaving, while girls — who caused fewer problems — didn't get any praise for behaving. “I also would hear about recess,” O'Keefe recalled, where boys chased girls. That's “cute,” she said, “but I wondered whether it flowed back into the classroom.”
So the family took Grace to visit Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore. There, O'Keefe said, the teacher focused on “pulling out” quiet kids rather than “calming down” active ones. Grace loved the visit, and when her mother asked why, the girl replied, “Because it's all girls.”
Now that Grace attends Bryn Mawr, O'Keefe said, “The teachers say she participates, her hand shoots up all the time. She's great in math, and I was always curious why the previous school never noticed. They immediately noticed it in the new school.”
And “it hasn't diminished her social comfort with boys at all,” O'Keefe added. Although she said that more competitive or outspoken girls would thrive in coed schools, for her daughter, “there have been no drawbacks” to single-sex education.
Partly as a result of her daughter's experience, O'Keefe recently became a publicist for the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools.
How They Learn
O'Keefe's story is a common one. Meg Moulton, an executive director of the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools, said, “In the late '80s there was a real question whether some girls’ schools would survive. Now enrollments are up 30%, and three times as many of our member schools are at capacity enrollment than 10 years ago.”
Moulton said research had found that “girls tend to be more verbal. Girls are less likely to raise their hands and shout out; boys are much more energetic participants.” She said that teachers in mixed-sex schools can find it “quite difficult to respond to two different types of behavior.” She also noted wryly that “the boy-girl interaction” can draw children's focus away from the blackboard.
New York City's public girls’ high school, the Young Women's Leadership High School, just graduated its first class. All 32 seniors received college acceptances. Ninety percent will be the first person in their families to attend college.
Maureen Grogan, executive director of the foundation that directs the school, said that girls reported feeling “freer to speak up in class. They're not made fun of by boys,” she added. One college-bound girl told the New York Times that boys at her old school had called her “retard” and “illiterate.”
Meanwhile, some scholars claim that mixed-sex education bypasses boys’ needs, too. Christina Hoff Sommers’ 2000 book, The War Against Boys, gained widespread attention for its claim that teachers punished boys for “misbehaving” when they were simply energetic.
And Sommers pointed out that U.S. Department of Education statistics showed that girls get higher grades than boys and participate more in the Advanced Placement program. Meanwhile, boys get suspended, drop out, and are placed in special education more often than girls.
Can boys do better in single-sex environments? Anthony Sgro, spokesman for the all-boys Woodberry Forest (Va.) School, said, “We try to teach in ways where there's a lot more hands-on learning. There's not as much lecturing — boys don't sit for an hour and listen to a lecture as easily as girls might.”
Bullies — Or Poets?
Boys’ schools aren't the solution, countered Bernice Sandler, senior scholar at the Women's Research and Education Institute in Washington, D.C.
“The boys become more rowdy and more sexist” in an all-boys setting, she said.
Sandler agreed that at coed schools, “Girls get praised a lot for their appearance and for neatness. Boys get praised for creativity and being smart.”
She added, “One of the newly emerging hot issues — in middle school it's the worst, and in high schools it's very bad — is student-to-student harassment.” Girls face increased “sexual bullying,” she said.
“Single-sex schools avoid these problems, but it doesn't do anything for the rest of the kids,” Sandler said.
Moreover, she said, in boys’ schools the students “learn to be sexist. In an all-male school, very often there are [comments] like, ‘You're acting like a girl.’ The teachers will say that. There probably is more bullying in all-male institutions.”
But teachers in single-sex schools say they've found a solution to those problems. School Sister of Notre Dame Frances Butler, who taught in mixed-sex schools for 30 years before becoming principal of the all-girls Mother Caroline Academy eight years ago, said her students, mostly “inner-city girls who can't afford other options,” found a “safe environment” in her school. “In some of the mixed-sex schools I've been in, there was a lot of sexual harassment that wasn't always addressed by the administration,” she said.
And Woodberry Forest School's Sgro added that boys’ schools also give boys “the opportunity to explore different sides of their lives, such as theater or art or a spiritual life, that they wouldn't necessarily even look at in a coed environment where they're playing to another gender.”
“We offer a poetry class for juniors,” he noted. “The boys share their poetry, read the poetry aloud, it's very serious. The boys critique it. That's something you would rarely see in a coed classroom.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: There and Back with a Prodigal Proclaimer DATE: 07/01/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 1-7,2001 ----- BODY:My Life on the Rock: A Rebel Returns to His Faith by Jeff Cavins e3press, 2000 214 pages, $14.99
Anyone familiar with Jeff Cavins’ weekly EWTN television program will recognize the title of his recently published spiritual autobiography. However, Cavins’ story is not merely his own. It is familiar to thousands of Catholics who fell away from their faith only to return, prodigal-like, with great vigor and zeal.
The book opens with Cavins at 18, sitting in the balcony of his parish church while in the midst of an agonizing spiritual search. From there, we meet his wife-to-be, Emily, who introduces him to Scripture study and inspires in him a new hunger for the Lord.
We then follow Cavins to Bible college, through two Christian radio jobs and on to an emotional falling-out with his father. It is while Cavins is working as a disc jockey in North Dakota that he leaves the Church, and with no lack of dramatic flair. Cavins confronts Fargo Bishop Justin Driscoll at an “ask-the-bishop” session. Showing his anger before all present, he shouts: “I am done with the Catholic Church.
To Cavins’ surprise, Bishop Driscoll applauds. He says, “Young man, I want to talk to you later.” Through a serendipitous meeting the next day, Bishop Driscoll prophetically tells Cavins that “there will be a day when you return to the Church and you will teach your people.”
Then follows Cavins’ search for truth as pastor of two independent, evangelical Protestant churches — a decade-long passage that slowly reveals the hand of God behind the Catholic faith. Through the first job, Cavins learns that the evangelicals’ “unstructured worship” really is quite tightly structured. Though the content of their services changes somewhat from week to week, Cavins writes that “it was every bit as liturgical as anything I had ever encountered in the Catholic Church.” This leads Cavins to investigate Christianity's Jewish roots in order to celebrate worship as the early Christians did.
Gradually, through much Scripture study and historical inquiry, the lights begin to flicker on — leading Cavins to some unexpected conclusions. “I began to see with greater and greater clarity the irony of our attempt to build a ‘New Covenant Church’ that, however connected we were to Jewish roots, was almost entirely unconnected to Christian roots.”
Cavins’ story is peppered with humorous anecdotes, including Jeff's first meeting with Emily's mother, and the time he showed up to speak to a youth group on Easter morning dressed in jeans and a T-shirt only to learn that he was speaking with the entire congregation.
The last third of the book is an absorbing exercise in lay apologetics, as Cavins tells how he came to a scriptural understanding of Catholic teachings on the Eucharist, Mary and doctrinal authority. A minor criticism of this section is that, although Cavins returned to the Church in 1995, he uses quotations from a 1997 book to explain the Catholic understanding of Mary. It might have been more compelling to know the exact sources that moved him closer to his ultimate “reversion” to the Catholic faith.
At one point, Cavins compares his journey to the solving of a jigsaw puzzle. The left border, he explains, is sacred Scripture, the top edge is sacred Tradition, the right edge is sacramentality and the bottom edge is the authority of the Church. Fill in all the pieces, Cavins realized, and you're looking at a crystal-clear picture of the Catholic Church.
In the end, Cavins writes of his emotional reconciliation with his father and his full return to the Church. Like the prodigal son, he finds upon his return home the loving embrace of a merciful father. His is a warm, faith-affirming journey of growth, discovery and forgiveness, and we are the richer for having made it with him.
Features correspondent Tim
Drake welcomes e-mail at timd@astound.net.
----- EXCERPT: Book Reviews ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: An Imaginative Stroll Through the Rosary DATE: 07/01/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 1-7,2001 ----- BODY:Mystery Stories: A Journey Through the Rosary by James L. Carney Crown of Mary, 2000 422 pages, $24.95
James L. Carney has taken an unusual approach to familiar material. He has looked carefully at the rosary events and fashioned a work of historical fiction from them.
If you're inclined to view with skepticism such a novel take on the rosary, know that Carney has anticipated your concern. “If you question whether such an historical fiction, or ‘docudrama,’ approach to rosary meditations is appropriate, consider this: all of the great religious art of the Middle Ages was fictionalized,” he explains in his introduction. “New Testament scenes were almost always presented in medieval settings. …The Sistine Chapel presents a picture of creation and the Last Judgment that are Michelangelo's imaginative vision.”
True enough. We all have our favorite hymns, religious paintings, sculptures, musical scores, mystery plays. They bring God into the grime of our ordinariness; the Word slips into our stable. So why not a contemporary “journey through the rosary”?
This Carney-led journey is many-faceted. Within the confines of the 15 mysteries, he portrays the life of Christ with vivid imagery in an account that synthesizes the four Gospels and draws the reader into meditative prayer. Scientific, historical and archeological details add further dimensions.
Recounting the agony in the garden, Carney writes: “The still of the night pressed down ominously all around the little group of twelve men. The sound of their sandaled feet scuffing along the road was unnaturally loud, seeming to thunder their passage to the disapproving darkness. The men shivered against the cold and a terrible feeling of dread. They turned off the road and crossed the arched bridge spanning the little brook murmuring of a rainy season past. The garden of the olive press lay hushed and foreboding amid deep, mournful shadows. Olive trees with gnarled trunks and lacy, silver-green foliage stood motionless among outcrops of craggy, limestone rock. The whole world seemed to be holding its breath.”
As we move through the events, absorbing theological insights culled from the Church Fathers, Thomistic studies and the teachings of today's Magisterium, the spiritual impact of each mystery upon our personal life becomes clearer. Comprehensive appendices give the history of the rosary and the how and why of praying it. First-rate illustrations by, among others, Sister Mary Jean Dorcy and Don Paulos round out the absorbing experience.
Whether read solo in an interior attempt to penetrate further into the truths of faith, or used as the basis for fruitful communication among friends, the possibilities of Mystery Stories are tempting. And, given the imaginative approach, the results may be surprising.
Dominican Sister Mary
Thomas Noble writes
from Buffalo, New York.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Sister Mary Thomas Noble ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Pope to Catholics: Make America's Freedom Ring DATE: 07/01/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 1-7,2001 ----- BODY:In each year's Independence Day issue, the Register offers readers a different meditation on the Declaration of Independence by one of its most famous admirers: Pope John Paul II.
This year, we went back to the Holy Father's Oct. 3, 1979, visit to Philadelphia and found this homily given at Logan Circle.
Philadelphia is the city of the Declaration of Independence, that remarkable document, containing a solemn attestation of the equality of all human beings, endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, expressing — “firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence”.
These are the sound moral principles formulated by your Founding Fathers and enshrined forever in your history. In the human and civil values that are contained in the spirit of this Declaration there are easily recognized strong connections with basic religious and Christian values.
A sense of religion itself is part of this heritage.
The Liberty Bell which I visited on another occasion, proudly bears the words of the Bible: “Proclaim liberty throughout the land” (Levicus 25:10). This tradition poses for all future generations of America a noble challenge: “One Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all”.
As citizens, you must strive to preserve these human values, to understand them better and to define their consequences for the whole community, and as a worthy contribution to the world.
As Christians, you must strengthen these human values and complement them by confronting them with the Gospel message, so that you may discover their deeper meaning, and thus assume more — fully your duties and obligations toward your fellow human beings, with whom you are bound in a common destiny. In a way, for us, who know Jesus Christ human and Christian values are but two aspects of the same reality: the reality of man, redeemed by Christ and called to the fullness of eternal life.
In my first encyclical letter, I stated this important truth: “Christ, the Redeemer of the world, is the one who penetrated in a unique unrepeatable way into the mystery of man and entered his ‘heart’.
Rightly therefore does the Second Vatican Council teach: ‘The truth is that only in the mystery of the Incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light. For Adam, the first man, was a type of him who was to come (Rom 5:14), Christ the Lord. Christ the new Adam, in the very revelation of the mystery of the Father and his love, fully reveals man to himself and brings to light his most high calling”‘ (Redemptor Hominis, No. 8).
It is then in Jesus Christ that every man, woman and child is called to find the answer to the questions regarding the values that will inspire his or her personal and social relations.
How then can a Christian, inspired and guided by the mystery of the Incarnation and Redemption of Christ, strengthen his or her own values and those that are embodied in the heritage of this nation?
The answer to that question, in order to be complete, would have to be long. Let me, however, just touch upon a few important points.
These values are strengthened: when power and authority are exercised in full respect for all the fundamental rights of the human person, whose dignity is the dignity of one created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26); when freedom is accepted, not as an absolute end in itself, but as a gift that enables self-giving and service; when the family is protected and strengthened, when its unity is preserved, and when its role as the basic cell of society is recognized and honored human-Christian values are fostered
When every effort is made so that no child anywhere in the world faces death because of lack of food, or faces a diminished intellectual and physical potential for want of sufficient nourishment, or has to bear all through life the scars of deprivation.
Human-Christian values triumph when any system is reformed that authorizes the exploitation of any human being; when upright service and honesty in public servants is promoted; when the dispensing of justice is fair and the same for all, when responsible use is made of the material and energy resources of the world resources that are meant for the benefit of all; when the environment is preserved intact for the future generations. Human — Christian values triumph by subjecting political and economic considerations to human dignity, by making them serve the cause of man -every person created by God, every brother and sister redeemed by Christ.
I have mentioned the Declaration of Independence and the Liberty Bell, two monuments that exemplify the spirit of freedom on which this country founded. Your attachment to liberty, to freedom, is part of your heritage.
When the Liberty Bell rang for the first time in 1776, it was to announce the freedom of your nation, the beginning of the pursuit of a common destiny independent of any outside coercion.
This principle of freedom is paramount in the political and social order, in relationships between the government and the people, and between individual and individual.
However, man's life is also lived in another order of reality: in the order of his relationship to what is objectively true and morally good.
Freedom thus acquires a deeper meaning when it is referred to the human person. It concerns in the first place the relation of man to himself.
Every human person, endowed with reason, is free when he is the master of his own actions, when he is capable of choosing that good which is in conformity with reason, and therefore with his own human dignity. (Nos. 2-5)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Pope John Paul II ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: Discipline DogHouse DATE: 07/01/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 1-7,2001 ----- BODY:Q It seems that I get a lot of resistance, especially from friends and relatives, when I discipline my children. I'm no taskmaster, but I do want well-behaved children.
A Picture the scenario. You're out somewhere, and someone hands your 4-year-old a cookie. Now you've been working on manners since she toddled, so you're anxious for some parental payoff. Indeed, manners make parents look very good in public. That's why kids don't use them.
Without a word, little Grace begins to chomp. So, you help her out. “What do you say?” More chewing, no words. “What are the magic words?” Dumb look, as if to say, what exactly is your point? Being a veteran parent, you try a nonverbal approach. Taking your thumb and index finger, you reach behind her elbow, squeeze, and gritting your teeth, quietly urge in her ear, “Say, ‘thank you.’” At last she talks: “Owwww, you're hurting me!”
In a fit of parental resolve you take the half-chewed cookie, hand it back to the giver, explaining, “Thank you, but we have a rule. She knows she needs to say ‘thank you,’ or she can't keep it. And I prompted her three times just to avoid a scene.”
Does the giver gape at you, astonished, and exclaim, “Good for you. You know, you don't see parents standing their ground like they should these days.” Then turning to your daughter, “Honey, you are very fortunate to have a mom who does this. You don't like it now, but you will when you're grown up.”
Not real world. Instead, you're much more likely to hear something akin to, “Oh, that's all right. In fact, here you go, little one, I have three more bags for you because you live with the WICKED WITCH OF THE WEST!”
This is just about teaching manners. It's not about the big stuff — morals, character, peers, academics, dating. This is manners. Why are you getting grief for this? Simple. You have a standard and you're enforcing it.
A paradoxical mindset has infected our culture. People want well-behaved and delightful children, and they bemoan that fewer and fewer seem so. Yet, they resist and challenge the very things you need to do to raise such children. Parents who set the character bar high and discipline accordingly are more and more being met with questions, comments, doubts and sometimes outright interference from surrounding adults.
I'm not speaking here of parents who are nasty, arbitrary and dictatorially controlling. I'm speaking of loving moms and dads with high, healthy standards.
By their fruits you will know them. The proof of great parenting will show clearly in the children. So stand strong. Resist the resistance. The grief you're getting is a sign that you're doing what is right for your children. It is ultimately your children who, as their character unfolds, will begin to shift the parenting continuum back to where it belongs.
Dr. Ray Guarendi is a clinical psychologist and author
----- EXCERPT: Family Matters ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dr. Ray Guarendi ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: Being Catholic on the Fourth of July DATE: 07/01/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 1-7,2001 ----- BODY:Love for one's country is a matter of the heart.
And Fourth of July flag-waving — like a birthday party — is an beautiful public expression of the patriotic heart.
But does patriotism diminish our other love? Does our love of God, the Pope and his Church preclude or diminish a love of country? Should we allow loyalty to our country to fade away out of loyalty to our faith?
Quite the contrary, says Pope John Paul II. The Holy Father points out that we have an opposite duty — to actively affirm America's moral foundation.
In a Dec. 16, 1997, address to then U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican Lindy Boggs, the Pope said: “Millions of people around the world look to the United States as a model in their search for freedom, dignity and prosperity. But the continuing success of American democracy depends on the degree to which each new generation, native-born and immigrant, makes its own the moral truths on which the Founding Fathers staked the future of your Republic.”
According to the Pope, we Catholic parents have an obligation to “own” and help our children “own” the moral truths upon which our nation is premised. The future of our nation depends upon it.
A Serious Effort
Our public institutions provide immense opportunities to serve. When we take this responsibility seriously, we are better patriots and better Catholics.
Consider the courage it took for the Catholic Carroll family of Maryland to persevere until they won rights for Catholics in pre-Revolutionary and post-Revolutionary America.
Generations of Carrolls struggled against religious intolerance, unjust taxation and militarization. Charles Carroll signed the Declaration of Independence and played a pivotal part in the Revolutionary War in the North. Shortly thereafter, John Carroll became the first U.S. Catholic bishop.
These two statesmen knew the American Revolution was a religious as well as a political event. Their faith and virtue propelled them into civic and public life. Their families provided strength, courage and the shield of faith to help them persevere.
Acting together, our families can also be a shield of faith for one another. Imagine how we could transform our culture and better the lives of the generations following us.
As the Pope said to Ambassador Boggs, “the Founding Fathers of the United States asserted their claim to freedom and independence on the basis of certain ‘self-evident’ truths about the human person: truths which could be discerned in human nature, built into it by ‘nature's God.’”
The self-evident moral truths of the Church and of America's foundational documents are shared truths. To allow them to fade puts the constitutional bedrock of America and, therefore, our families at great peril.
Because freedom was guaranteed to us through revolution and constitutional government, we're each free to pursue the truths of our faith. We can't consider such freedom a “given.” The practice of public virtue that flows from our faith can turn us and our children into the heroes needed for this age.
Any one of us can aspire to such heroism. It requires deep faith — just as America's great leaders had in the past.
The courage and sacrifice necessary to prevail over adversity come from a faith-informed sense of duty.
The Second Vatican Council said as much: “Citizens should cultivate a generous and loyal sprit of patriotism, but without narrow-mindedness,” said Gaudium et Spes (the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World), “Let all Christians appreciate their special and personal vocation in the political community. This vocation requires that they be a shining example of devotion to the sense of duty and dedication to the common good. … So that all citizens will be able to play their part in political affairs, civic and political education is today vitally necessary” (No. 75).
The question of how to implement this mandate in our families, in our community and in the Church is a pressing one. Patriotism and loving America requires formation.
It requires understanding and honoring principles worth dying for and those heroes who entered public life, risking their “lives … fortunes
… and sacred honor” to establish such freedom of the heart and conscience. It also means taking action when those principles are threatened.
Marjorie Dannenfelser writes from Washington, D.C
Kids and Country
How to teach children about the obligation to our children and help form them into good, Catholic Americans?
Start forming your children at a young age. Use the following tools; they will encourage patriotism and heroism, and reinforce the fact that faith informed America's great leaders and made them heroes: E Discuss American heroes and the virtues that made them heroes. E Teach your children about their ancestors. Display pictures of them. Whether the ancestors arrived recently or in the distant past, discuss why they wanted to live here. If you don't know, speculate about the reasons. Commemorate relatives who fought in American wars. E Sing patriotic American songs. The lyrics of “My Country ‘Tis of Thee,” “God Bless America,” “You're a Grand Old Flag” and others tell great stories of faith, courage and patriotism.
E Pray for America in nightly prayers. One good prayer is singing “God Bless America.” Ask God to send us heroes for the nation's specific concerns.
E Learn about American presidents. Focus on one a week, starting with George Washington. Re-enact parts of a president's life. Find age-appropriate books about each president. Visit presidential sites (birthplace, monument, “visited here” stops).
Discuss each president's faith, his family, his character and the virtues necessary for him to lead.
E Don't forget the flag-waving. Buy a flag if you don't have one; take the children with you. If your children don't say the Pledge of Allegiance at school, help them memorize it. Show them how to honor the flag. Show them a flag-raising ceremony.
E Celebrate the Fourth of July with a birthday cake for America. Place the number 225 on the cake, or get an enormous cake and lots of candles. Sing “Happy Birthday” to America. If your children are old enough, show them a copy of the Declaration of Independence.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Marjorie Dannenfelser ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: Students' Brave New Worldwide Bioethics Group DATE: 07/01/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 1-7,2001 ----- BODY:SOUTH BEND, Ind. — It started last year in the Pittsburgh airport. Now it's international.
Notre Dame students Mike Mann and Anne Cooper, along with Jayme Dowdall of Boston University, started a conversation about biological and medical ethics that led to the founding of the International Student Bioethics Initiative.
Now, they are encouraging students all over the world to form their thinking on bioethics issues.
The three — and a fourth student who has joined them — have backgrounds in pre-med or philosophy. They came together as a result of discussion after the Second Annual Undergraduate Bioethics Conference at the University of Virginia last year, and reunited at a similar third annual conference at Notre Dame in March.
The international initiative adds a formal link between existing University bioethics groups and a way to help new groups get started at campuses all over the world.
Notre Dame has been supportive of its student bioethics group from the outset. The group invited Holy Cross Father Theodore Hesburgh, president emeritus of Notre Dame, to give the opening address at the Third Annual Undergraduate Bioethics Conference at the university in March.
“When they asked me to address the recent conference at Notre Dame,” Father Hesburgh remembered, “I told the audience how important this subject is and also how complicated it would be in the future, particularly in the field of bioethics.
“The students have good advice on the theological and scientific aspects of this initiative, which I trust will underline the importance of an ethical foundation for this new study which is now in its infancy.”
Phillip Sloan, director of the Reilly Center Program in Science, Technology and Values at the University of Notre Dame and faculty advisor of its student bioethics group, has an acute awareness of the need for such groups.
“Student involvement is absolutely crucial,” Sloan said. “These are the new ‘professionals’ who will be making the technological decisions in the future.”
A Pro-Life Stance?
Voices outside academia applaud the International Student Bioethics Initiative, but say that it has not yet come out clearly as a pro-life organization.
Fred Everett is an attorney who, with his wife Lisa Ann, co-chairs the Office of Family Life for the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend. Everett said that although the group's mission has far-reaching possibilities, he would like to hear a firm statement from the students about what they believe is the status of the human embryo.
“First in any bioethics debate must be the question ‘What is the status of the human being, from conception to natural death,’” Everett said.
“The status they give to that entity will be crucial to their identity as a true presence in the bioethics discussion.”
He cited the teachings of Peter Singer at Princeton, who postulates that there are instances where a chicken could have more value than a human being.
“He uses consciousness as the standard,” Everett said.
“He concludes that because an adult animal has a higher consciousness than an unborn human, the animal has primacy over that human.
“This is where the lack of a firm statement of the status of the embryo can lead,” Everett said.
Mann and Cooper both voiced personal opposition to abortion, but Cooper said it was important that students consider the full range of bioethics issues.
“Bioethics is extremely difficult to define,” said Anne Cooper. “It can include questions of cloning and stem cell research, questions of euthanasia, of abortion, of distributive justice in health care and of prescription [distribution].”
When asked, hypothetically, what action International Student Bioethics Initiative would take if approached by a third-world nation for a referral to help begin a contraceptive program in their country, Cooper said, “We would simply tell them, ‘That's not what we do.’”
The International Association of Bioethics invited the International Student Bioethics Initiative to its Third Global Summit of National Bioethics Commissions in London this year.
The group also attended a similar conference in Mexico City.
Sloan said the fact that students are becoming involved in this debate locally and internationally is an encouraging sign.
“The issues are only going to get more complex in the coming century,” Sloan said.
“Also, they have an energy, idealism and willingness to think new >thoughts that is truly inspirational. I feel from my experience with these student activities that the world is indeed in good hands.”
Susan Baxter writes
from South Bend, Indiana.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Susan Baxter ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: Life Notes DATE: 07/01/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 1-7,2001 ----- BODY:Pro-Life Legal Review.
ASSOCIATED PRESS, June 13 — Wasting little time in pushing a pro-life platform, a minister in Silvio Berlusconi's new government called for a review of the law allowing abortion in Italy, reported Associated Press.
Rocco Buttiglione, minister for European Affairs, proposed amending the law to include subsidies and family therapy to try to persuade women to avoid having abortions. Italy allows abortion in the first three months of pregnancy.
Buttiglione, who was sworn into office June 11 with the rest of the cabinet, predicted his proposal would garner broad support.
Abortion-Breast Cancer Link
COALITION ON ABORTION/BREAST CANCER, June 20 — In an article in the Times of London last Aug. 14 Dr. Thomas Stuttaford said, “As yet there is no evidence of a causative link between abortion and breast cancer.”
In another article for the Times this May 17 Stuttaford reversed his position: “Breast cancer is diagnosed in 33,000 women in the U.K. each year; of these, an unusually high proportion had an abortion before eventually starting a family. Such women are up to four times more likely to develop breast cancer.”
He said that an abortion interrupts cellular changes that occur in the breast during pregnancy. “Once the woman has had children,” he wrote, “the effect is less because the cellular changes have been completed.”
Louisiana Restricts Abortion
THE TIMES-PICAYUNE, June 16 — A bill regulating late-term abortions passed by a resounding 34-4 vote in the full Louisiana State Senate, reported the Times-Picayune.
The bill requires ultrasound testing for women planning to have an abortion any time after 20 weeks gestation so a doctor can determine whether the unborn baby could survive outside the womb. It would also require the presence of a second doctor in case a child survives a failed abortion. The bill now goes to the state governor's desk.
Unborn Victim Verdict
ASSOCIATED PRESS, June11 — A 38-year-old Madison, Wis., man has been sentenced to 14 months in prison in the death of an unborn child in a drunken-driving crash in which two women were injured, reported Associated Press.
Thomas Hodgkiss pleaded no contest in March to homicide of an unborn child by intoxicated use of a motor vehicle and two counts of causing injury by intoxicated use of a motor vehicle.
Authorities said his car veered into oncoming traffic Sept. 16 and collided with a vehicle driven by Kelly Harrison, killing the male unborn child she was six weeks from delivering, reported Associated Press. The crash also seriously injured Harrison and her passenger, Linda Andrewjeski.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life ----- TITLE: John Paul In the Land Of Blood And Crosses DATE: 07/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 08-14, 2001 ---- BODY:LVIV, Ukraine — Even in today's relatively free Ukraine, one doesn't have to scratch very deep to find memories of religious persecution among the country's Greek Catholics.
Children were especially forbidden to attend church during her youth under Soviet rule, said Olha Kisyk, 70, a small but fierce woman, her head wrapped in a floral Ukrainian scarf.
“I remember Good Friday in 1951, when they wouldn't allow children to attend church,” said Kisyk, who lived in a small village outside Lviv. “That's how it was.”
Even throughout the 1980s, secret Masses were necessary in Maria Kruk's western Ukrainian village of Kyrshakovi.
A priest named “Father Roman” would arrive secretly from Lviv, said Kruk, 36.
Villagers managed to make a key that would open their locked church, and they would celebrate Easter and Christmas.
Thousands of such memories were tucked underneath the sea of bright blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flags and joyful Christian anthems that welcomed Pope John Paul II to Lviv, the hub of Greek Catholicism in Ukraine June 25.
“That may be why we're so very joyful that Pope has visited us in Lviv,” said Kruk, one of the 2 million Ukranians who attended papal events during his June 23–27 visit. “That he didn't forget about us.”
Few regions of Europe have had their devotion to Catholicism tested as severely as western Ukraine, where the Greek Catholic Church became the largest illegal religious body in the world for 43 years under Soviet rule until 1989.
The Greek Catholic Church, which retains the Rastern Orthodox liturgy but professes loyalty to Rome, claims 5 million members in the country of 50 million.
Despite a half-century effort by the Soviet government to destroy the Vhurch, Greek Catholicism has re-emerged as the leading social force in western Ukraine since the nation gained its independence from Russia 10 years ago.
Its current popularity can be traced to the Church's loyalty and support of Ukrainian identity and culture, especially during Soviet rule.
Western Ukraine's other major religious groups have always had cultural allegiances with foreign cultures: the Latin-rite Catholic Church with Poland and the Orthodox Church with Russia.
Instead of succumbing to the Soviet demand that the Church unite with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate and abandon its Ukrainian-language liturgy, the Greek Catholic Church resisted.
Eventually, it provided the support that led the Ukrainian independence movement of the late 1980s.
As a result of its dedication, the Greek Catholic Church is reaping the loyalty of many western Ukrainians. Just 10 years ago, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church had no property and operated entirely underground. It now boasts 3,317 parishes.
The Pope's historic visit, coupled with its increasing popularity, has breathed new confidence into the Greek Catholic Church, illegal for a half-century, to take an authoritative role in Ukraine's moral and political life.
21st Century Ukraine
Over 97% of the religious communities now registered in Ukraine are Christian: Half are Orthodox and the other half divided among Catholics and Protestants. There are also Jews, Muslims and believers of other faiths in 21st-century Ukraine.
There are three major Orthodox Churches represented in Ukraine:
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP)
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate (UOC-KP)
The Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC)
There are two major Catholic Churches represented in Ukraine The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC)
The Roman Catholic Church (RCC)
For more Information on the Church in Ukraine, see papalvisit.org.ua/eng/christianity.php
= approximately 1,000 communities.
Greek Catholics' Status
The Pope's relations with the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church during last month's five-day trip was a political tightrope.
He made few direct references to the Greek Catholic Church itself during his four sermons in Ukraine, instead addressing his audience as Christians.
The two Latin-rite Masses he celebrated were heavily attended by Roman Catholics from neighboring Poland, Russia, Belarus, and from within Ukraine. And the Vatican was careful to balance two Latin-rite and two Byzantine-rite Masses.
Specific recognition of Greek Catholic persecution came only at the last Mass in Lviv, performed in the Byzantine rite, when the Pope honored priests and nuns, especially those who were exiled or killed by Communists.
“This land of Halychyna [Lviv and surrounding regions], which in the course of history has witnessed the growth of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, has been covered, as the unforgettable Metropolitan Josef Slipyi used to say, ‘with mountains of corpses and rivers of blood,’” the Pope said in his sermon.
That same day, he beatified 28 Greek Catholics. Without causing friction between Orthodox, Roman and Greek Catholics, the Pope had managed to give the Greek Catholic Church its long-awaited recognition and morale boost.
The Pope's balancing act is reflective of the situation the Greek Catholic Church has faced. It has held a secondary status in Ukraine where the Moscow Patriarchate has 9,049 parishes — nearly three times as many as the Greek Catholic Church.
John Paul's success in advancing Greek Catholic interests inside Ukraine could be measured by the support expressed by secular leaders. Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma's words to the Pope were particularly welcoming, especially considering Kuchma's political base lies in the Orthodox-dominated regions of eastern and southern Ukraine.
“Today Ukraine welcomes an unbending champion of human rights and dignity, uncompromising enemy of totalitarianism, intolerance, discrimination and fratricidal conflicts,” said Kuchma, who himself has been scrutinized over human rights violations.
The Greek Catholic Church may try to capitalize on the momentum caused by the visit. Throughout the five-day visit, Greek Catholic priests and seminary students hummed with excitement about the prospect that the Vatican will make their Church a patriarchate.
They are quick to point out that the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is bigger than any current Eastern Catholic patriarchate.
Perhaps nothing impressed western Ukrainians more than hearing the Pope speak to them and celebrates Mass fluently in their native language of Ukrainian.
“It was extremely important,” said Larissa Sidova, an English-language teacher from the Khmelnytskiy region of Ukraine. “It's a very important political event.”
Western Ukrainians are growing increasingly frustrated at living in a nation where the vast majority of its citizens still speak Russian, as a result of decades of strict Soviet and Russian restrictions imposed upon use of the Ukrainian language.
No other organization as large as the Greek Catholic Church had supported the Ukrainian language and culture during Soviet rule. While Ukraine's Orthodox Christians celebrate Mass in Old Church Slavonic or Russian, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church strictly limits itself to the Ukrainian language, whether in Ukraine, Poland or the United States.
As a result, Greek Catholics consider themselves the standard-bearers for a Ukrainian culture that has been largely Russified.
At the same time, Orthodox Ukrainians view their Catholic counterparts as victims of hundreds of years of forced Catholicism, either from Austria, Poland or the Czech Republic.
“I don't think it's very good, because this faith came violently,” said Andriy Imnozemtsev, 22, an Orthodox Christian from Kyiv. “Those who accepted it had succumbed to violence. But still, it's a personal choice for everyone.”
The East-West religious divide in Ukraine between the Catholics and Orthodox also reflects itself in international politics, particularly regarding issues of Western integration.
No other Church in Ukraine receives as much financial and moral support from Western countries as the Greek Catholic Church. And while the Church went underground during the Soviet years, Ukrainian Catholic parishes budded throughout the Americas. When it became legal again in 1989, it began to grow again.
The Greek Catholic leadership is highly cynical of any links with Russia, after having been persecuted so severely under Communist rule.
As regards Europe, Greek Catholics will take their cue from the Pope's farewell address in Lviv. Said the Holy Father, “My hope is that Ukraine will be able fully to become a part of the Europe which will take in the entire continent from the Atlantic to the Urals.”
President Kuchma echoed those sentiments in his own remarks at the farewell ceremony. Said Kuchma, “Your Holiness' visit to Ukraine obviously proved to the world that Ukraine is an integral and natural part of European society.”
Zenon Zawada filed this report from Lviv, Ukraine.
----- EXCERPT: Ukraine's Resurgent Greek Catholic Church ----- EXTENDED BODY: Zenon Zawada ------ KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Human Rights For Apes? DATE: 07/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:PALO ALTO, Calif. — About 30 people gathered in a secluded sculpture garden at Stanford University last month to honor a beloved friend who died last April.
Dr. Penny Patterson, who conducted the service, spoke from her heart and read a speech about Michael who had suffered an unexpected fatal heart attack at 28 years of age but had still “dedicated much of his life to learning to speak to us in our own language,” she said.
The passages were read concurrently by another friend of Michael's near his birthplace in Cameroon, Africa, where the new “Michael Sanctuary” was dedicated to his memory.
It was a touching ceremony — especially when you consider that the deceased was a gorilla.
Michael the gorilla was one of a handful of primates who had, with the help of training from psychologist Patterson at the Gorilla Foundation in Woodside, Calif., developed a vocabulary of 500 words. His female friend Koko was a faster study and became famous for learning to sign more than 1,000 words, and even phrases such as “Apple, apple! Hurry! Apple!”
But as far as anyone knows she has never signed “I'll sue you!” or “I want my lawyer.”
If a growing body of legal experts and animal rights activists has their way, however, animal litigation will soon explode. The movement to bestow legal personhood in the form of international or constitutional human rights on “nonhuman animals” — beginning with great apes — is ascending.
At its forefront is Peter Singer, philosopher-ethicist at Princeton University's Center for Human Values, whose 1975 book Animal Liberation launched modern animal rights activism, and whose remarks in favor of human infanticide and bestiality have earned him controversial renown.
A letter from Singer posted on the online magazine Slate June 11 is addressed to Richard A. Posner, a judge of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School.
In it, Singer expresses his gratitude to Posner for considering with a “tone of respect,” in a recent Yale Law Journal article, arguments in favor of recognizing apes as legal persons.
“[T]he view that I want to defend puts human and nonhuman animals, as such, on the same moral footing,” wrote Singer. “People often say, without much thought, that all human beings are infinitely more valuable than any animals of any other species. This view owes more to our own selfish interests and to ancient religious teachings that reflect these interests than to reason or impartial moral reflection. … Like racists and sexists, speciesists say that the boundary of their own group is also a boundary that marks off the most valuable beings from all the rest.”
‘Beyond Humanity’
Singer's 1993 book The Great Ape Project: Equality Beyond Humanity launched the Great Ape Project International, known as GAP, which seeks to extend the “moral community of equals” to include human beings, chimps, gorillas and orangutans because of their “morally important characteristics.”
GAP wants apes immediately removed from the category of “property” to the category of “persons” and granted the “right to life,” the “protection of individual liberty” and the “prohibition of torture.” GAP's goal is to have a U.N. Declaration of the Rights of Great Apes.
The movement is gaining momentum. More than a dozen American law schools currently offer courses in animal law including Harvard, Georgetown, Yale and Rutgers. More than 30 full-time advocates work in the specialty. Millions in donations are at the disposal of organizations such as the Petaluma, Calif.-based Animal Legal Defense Fund, devoted not merely to applying anti-cruelty laws, but also to bestowing traditional common law and constitutional rights on animals.
“Conferring rights on animals is really not that big of a stretch,” said Laura Ireland, a recent graduate of Northwestern School of Law of Lewis & Clarke College in Portland, Ore.
“This generation of law students is being exposed to these [animal rights] issues,” Ireland said. “I think the real changes will come when the next generation of law students become lawyers and judges.”
Already, there have been legal victories for animals. In 1998, in a decision regarded as a precedent by animal-rights advocates, the federal court of appeals in Washington State upheld the right of a visitor to a Long Island, N.Y., zoo to demand companionship for a lonely chimp named Barney — even though by then Barney had already been shot dead after escaping his cage and biting someone.
Great Ape Project of New Zealand, known as GAPENZ, succeeded in passing a ban on experimentation on “non-human hominids” in 1999. England and the Netherlands are expected to follow suit.
“The ban is an important step,” wrote GAPENZ activist Rowan Taylor in the current Animal Law journal, a quarterly journal produced at Northwestern by 45 law student volunteers, toward “the legal dismantling of speciesism within the hominid family.”
Harvard constitutional law professor (and Al Gore defender) Lawrence Tribe contributed to the current Animal Law journal, with a speech he gave last year in Boston. “Recognizing the animals themselves by statute as holders of rights would mean that they could sue in their own name and in their own right,” he said. An abused ape “could file suit as a plaintiff. Such animals would have what is termed legal standing.”
What about other animals? Singer told the Register that apes ought to have human rights not only because of their sentience and ability to experience pain and displeasure but primarily because of their “demonstrated higher levels of self-awareness.”
“I don't know of any evidence that rats are self-aware,” he added.
But other animal rights enthusiasts disagree. In another Animal Law paper, Supreme Court of Texas briefing attorney Bill Davis accuses Singer and other activists such as Boston animal rights lawyer Steven Wise of “intelligenceism” because while they reject “speciesism” they focus “disproportionate attention on humanlike animals.”
“Just as in 1776, black slaves and native Americans were not covered by the American revolutionaries' use of the word ‘men,’ in 2000, rabbits, mice, dogs, birds and other relatively unintelligent animals are not covered by a leading animal rights activists' use of the word ‘animal,’” wrote Davis. He lamented the lack of rights enthusiasm for “a bacterium or a snail up to a pig or an elephant.”
The only species that all the animal activists seem equally to disfavor is humans, said Father Thomas Lynch, professor of moral theology at St. Augustine's Seminary in Scarborough, Ontario. “People are more inconvenient than animals, especially babies and old, disabled people,” he said.
“We should never treat a living thing as if it was an inanimate thing,” Father Lynch added. “We are called to be good stewards, to treat animals humanely, not to treat them as humans.” But, he continued, “There is a perversion of nature where we are using people and loving animals when it should be the reverse.”
But Singer would be prepared to see disabled humans and infants effectively trade legal status with apes.
“I do think that we should not regard all human beings as having the same right to life,” said Singer. “The right to life that you or I have is not the same, say, as the right of an anencephalic baby.”
This sort of reasoning worries even the most sympathetic animal advocates. “Once we have said that infants and very old people with advanced Alzheimer's and the comatose have no rights unless we choose to grant them, we must decide about people who are three-quarters of the way to such a condition,” said Tribe in his Animal Law speech. “I needn't spell it out, but the possibilities are genocidal and horrific and reminiscent of slavery and of the Holocaust.”
Celeste McGovern writes from Portland, Oregon.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Celeste Mcgovern ------ KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Absolute Secrecy: The Priest and the Accused Traitor DATE: 07/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — What is the legal status of private conversations a person has with a priest outside the sacrament of confession? What should a priest do when someone comes to him asking whether he should turn himself in for serious criminal acts?
These questions were prominently raised by recent reports that accused FBI spy Robert P. Hanssen had consulted a priest in 1980 after he told his wife that he had sold secrets to the Soviet Union for $20,000.
The reported discussions with the priest occurred five years before the period in which the U.S. government said Hanssen began to sell highly classified information to Russians. The U.S. government believes that information is responsible for the death of at least two U.S. spies who were working in Russia.
According to a June 16 story in The New York Times, Hanssen's wife, Bonnie, told investigators that she and her husband met in Westchester, N.Y., with a priest who initially advised the FBI counterintelligence agent to turn himself in, then later said that Hanssen could resolve the moral issue by donating the $20,000 to charity.
Mrs. Hanssen reportedly said that her husband had claimed he gave the money in small installments to Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity.
The Times said that investigators have not been able to corroborate Mrs. Hanssen's account but have no reason to doubt its accuracy. She is not a suspect in the case.
Although investigators reportedly have not questioned the priest, identified by the Times as Opus Dei Father Robert P. Bucciarelli, the case of a priest possibly having information that could bear on legal proceedings always opens the question of church-state relations. State laws for the most part uphold the inviolable nature of sacramental confession, and prosecutors normally avoid questioning priests on such matters to avoid freedom-of-religion issues.
But from the details given in the Times, the conversations between Hanssen and the priest apparently were not in the form of confession, since his wife was present. Just how much protection the law affords a priest in so-called parlor counseling sessions is not firmly established.
A spokesman for Opus Dei, Brian Finnerty, cited confidentiality concerns in refusing to confirm or deny whether Father Bucciarelli, who is chaplain for an Opus Dei student center in Cambridge, Mass., is the priest consulted by Hanssen. He did say that those interested in the case might want to know that Father Bucciarelli holds a doctorate in sacramental theology from the Lateran University in Rome.
Father Michael Barrett, an Opus Dei priest in Texas, speaking to the Register in general terms about the case, said that “part of the efficacy of a priest's ministry is based on eliciting trust through guarantees of confidentiality.”
“If you undermine the confidentiality in a particular case, you could jeopardize” all private religious communications, Father Barrett said, with the result that “society suffers.”
In the case of non-sacramental advice, civil law affords at least the protection given similar professional relationships, such as attorney to client and doctor to patient, said Msgr. John Strynkowski, doctrinal expert for the U.S. bishops.
Acknowledging that there may be exceptions in some states to the confidentiality of these secular exchanges, he stated that the Church would insist on the confidentiality of all communication between a priest and a person coming to him for religious counseling.
“You want to know when you go to a priest that all you say will be held in strict confidentiality,” Msgr.
Strynkowski said.
When a priest meets with someone, more than a professional relationship is involved. The integrity of the Church's sacraments come into play, since the average person is not likely to make a fine distinction between a sacramental session and religious counseling, said a number of canon lawyers and moral theologians interviewed by the Register
“To violate the confidentiality of this type of communication is to rip apart the moral fabric of society,” Msgr. Strynkowski said. “It would deny people the necessary freedom in consulting their priests or any religious minister on matters of morals and conscience.”
Oregon came close to doing just that when prison officials taped an inmate's sacramental confession in April 1996. Attempts to admit the tape and its transcript into evidence were fought strenuously by the priest and the Archdiocese of Portland. After defeat in district court, the Church's position prevailed in federal appeals court.
Earlier, the district attorney in the case issued a faint apology for the state's action, stating “some things which are legal and ethical are simply not right. I have concluded that [taping of] clergy-penitent communications fall within the zone of societally unacceptable conduct.”
The 1997 appellate decision went much further, expressing shock that the taping had taken place and concluding that such a violation of the privacy of the inmate and the religious practice of the Church is against federal statute and unconstitutional.
Nonetheless, the tapes were neither returned nor destroyed, at last report. Msgr. William B. Smith, moral theologian at St. Joseph's Seminary (known as Dunwoodie) in Yonkers, N.Y., said that an incident in upstate New York occurred years ago in which a man suspected of criminal activity ran into a parish rectory and spoke to a priest. Although the priest was never called by the prosecution because a conviction was assured without his testimony, it was Msgr. Smith's view that the priest should not reveal anything of the conversation with the accused if he were called.
Confidentiality is one thing; the quality of the guidance given in these parlor sessions is another. What if someone, as is alleged regarding Robert Hanssen, tells a priest about espionage that could compromise national security and cost lives?
There are no hard-and-fast rules on what to advise, Msgr. Smith said, though common sense based on respect for the civil and moral law should be the guide. He added that if the priest at first advised Hanssen to turn himself after hearing about spying, “He probably got it right at the beginning.”
Msgr. Smith noted the Times account leaves many questions open about the encounter between the priest and Hanssen; therefore, a full assessment of the quality of guidance is impossible without a number of facts that will likely never be known, given the confidential nature of that type of encounter.
Msgr. Smith did state, though, “I have little sympathy for spies.” He added that that private restitution, such as donating the money gained in treasonable acts, falls short of giving restitution for the harm inflicted. Selling secrets is an act that harms the public good and places lives in jeopardy years into the future, he said. Hence, it requires a public reparation which can probably only be fulfilled by the spy turning himself in and reporting the extent of his espionage, the theologian said.
“You cannot profit by the evil you've done and you have to make restitution — a somewhat lost concept in today's world,” Msgr. Smith said. “If you steal a bike, you just don't say I'm sorry and keep the bike. You must return it.”
Msgr. Strynkowski said that if a priest hears of a crime in sacramental confession, he may rightly make a condition for giving absolution that the person turn himself in.
“If the case is murder, the priest would say to turn yourself in to authorities, and I think that has happened,” he said. “But under no conditions can the priest himself go public with the information.”
Brian Caulfield writes from New York.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian Caulfield ------ KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Enraptured With the Rapture DATE: 07/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:Carl Olson's current project is a book on end-of-the-world-theories popularized in the Left Behind movie and book series.
Olson used to be a hardcore evangelical Protestant himself. Now he writes for Catholic apologetics outlets such as This Rock, Envoy, The Catholic Faith and e3mil.com. Olson spoke with Tim Drake from his Springfield, Ore., home.
You grew up in circles which were natural places for rapture theology. Tell me about your family.
I was raised in a small town in western Montana as the oldest of two children. Shortly after my parents were married, they became fundamentalists. My father and three other men founded a small, nondenominational Bible Chapel. We would commonly go to church three, four times per week.
Did you stay with your evangelical faith?
I attended a couple of different art colleges before attending an evangelical Bible College in Canada for two years. During this time I went through my greatest crisis of faith and came to grips with why I was a Christian. I tore apart my belief system and questioned why I believed in God.
It was a healthy process because I chose to be a Christian instead of being one simply because I was raised as one.
At Bible college I was exposed to Christian authors that I had little previous knowledge of — Flannery O'Connor, T.S. Eliot, Gerard Manley Hopkins — and I was introduced to many Catholic thinkers for the first time in my life. After graduation I worked in retail advertising in Portland, Ore.
When did you decide to enter the Church?
My wife Heather and I were attending various evangelical churches, and I started reading books by Catholic authors such as G.K. Chesterton, Russell Kirk and Walker Percy. These Catholic writers had a depth and insight about Christianity that I hungered for. After reading Chesterton's Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man I purchased a copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and a copy of Karl Keating's Fundamentalism and Catholicism.
That was when the doors were blown wide open. I began a two-, three-year study of the Catholic Church, reading hundreds of Catholic books. During this time my wife and I would alternate between fright and excitement because of what we were learning.
I spent a lot of time reading about early Church history and the Reformation era. For many years I had been puzzled by John 6 and Christ's words there. As an evangelical Protestant I had never heard any sermons about that difficult passage. That puzzled me, until I began studying Catholic teaching about the Eucharist. We entered the Church on Easter Vigil of 1997.
How did your family and friends react to your conversion?
Several college friends wrote us off, and both of our families were bothered by it. My mom and I still cannot talk about it. She feels we were brainwashed. Interestingly, my younger sister went to an evangelical Bible college and although she is not Catholic she recently wrote a 30-page paper in defense of the Catholic teaching on the Eucharist.
You've written much about the
No, it definitely isn't. The Left Behind books and movie are based upon a belief system called premillennial dispensationalism, a 200-year-old fundamentalist idea about the end times that originated in England, but is now widely accepted in America. Most Americans are familiar with it through Hal Lindsey's 1970 book The Late Great Planet Earth. The creator and coauthor of the Left Behind novels, Tim LaHaye, has been teaching the same kind of Biblical prophecy since the early '70s.
The title Left Behind comes from the belief in a pre-tribulational rapture where Christians will be taken up to meet Christ and enter heaven. This will be followed by a seven-year tribulation, and then the second coming and Christ's earthly reign of 1,000 years. The Catholic Church does not believe, as dispensationalists do, that Christ's return will have two parts — the rapture followed by the second coming. The Catholic Church believes that there will be only the second coming, often called the Parousia.
The real problem with dispensationalism is its understanding of the nature of the Church. It claims that Christianity has basically failed and that God is going to remove the Church, his heavenly people, and then deal with his earthly people, the Jews. John Nelson Darby, the ex-Anglican priest who created this belief system, believed that the Old Testament promises made to Israel were never fulfilled, but will be in the future, when [God] will establish an earthly, Jewish kingdom.
Therefore, rather than seeing the Church as the fulfillment of those Old Testament promises, which most Catholic and mainline Protestant churches believe, dispensationalists believe that God must deal with two entirely separate groups of people — the Church and the Jews. This is why dispensationalists are so focused on what is happening in Israel.
In contrast, Catholics believe that the Church is the new Israel and that the Kingdom was established by Christ when he came. It is not that the Old Covenant has been done away with, but it has been fulfilled. To paraphrase Dr. Scott Hahn, “In the New Covenant the Old Covenant has been concluded and included.”
What is the attraction of the
Like Hal Lindsey's books, the Left Behind novels claim to interpret the Book of Revelation and say that it is all about events that will be fulfilled in the near future.
Of course, it's a very natural thing to want to know the future. Those caught up in the Left Behind craze feel that not only do they know the future, they will be saved from the coming time of tribulation. If you're convinced that the end is coming soon, you are driven to tell others how to escape it.
Readers of the books will say, “You must read these books so that you can be saved from going through it.” There's also an element of pride that says, “I know something that you don't. I have some secret knowledge.”
Dispensationalists believe they will be saved from future suffering, and that they may even escape death. Obviously such a belief is very attractive. By comparison, Catholicism has always held up the martyrs as the greatest exemplars of the faith. The Catholic Church teaches there have always been tribulations, and we are all called to go through suffering.
What should be the Catholic response to the
Catholics should know it is not compatible with the Catholic faith, but they should affirm their belief in Christ's Second Coming and try to live their life with that expectation. Catholics should point out that dispensationalism was not believed by the early Church, or even the Protestant Reformers — it is less than 200 years old. There is no biblical evidence for this belief, despite what its proponents say.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Carl Olson ------ KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Former Seminary Director Refutes 'Gay Priesthood' Myth DATE: 07/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:ROME — Scandals in involving Catholic clergy have given rise to press speculation that there is something deeply flawed about the men who are drawn to the priesthood.
To get a perspective on the problem, Zenit news service interviewed Msgr. Timothy Dolan, rector of the North American College in Rome until last month. He gave this interview before his recent appointment as auxiliary bishop of St. Louis.
Zenit: Media reports in the United States talk of the priesthood becoming a “gay profession.” How much truth is in this report?
Reports in the American media that the priesthood is becoming a “gay profession” are inaccurate and unfair.
Are there some homosexual priests? Of course. Priests are human beings, not angels, and reflect — for better or worse — the tendencies found in the rest of society. If, as polls tell us, a certain small percent of the male population are homosexuals, I suppose the same statistics would then apply to men who are priests.
Are there some actively homosexual priests? Of course, as there are some actively heterosexual ones. Sexual promiscuity among priests is sinful, scandalous and a violation, not only of purity, but also of integrity, as our people justly expect their priests to live out sincerely the principles they publicly preach.
To imply that a large number of priests are actively homosexual is sensationalistic. However, I must confess that I worry about the perception — now unfortunately common — that the priesthood is a “gay profession.” The headlines given to priests who are guilty of pedophilia, or who are promiscuous with other men, and the effeminate, “campy” behavior of some priests, is destructive.
The overwhelming majority of priests are sincere, virtuous, integrated men. The priesthood is a very “manly” vocation — we are called “Father” — and the core of our identity is configurement to Christ in total love of his bride, the Church.
The vast majority of priests takes this with the utmost seriousness, and live pure lives, even those who might be homosexuals. Thus, the media reports to which you refer are harmful to the priesthood, damaging not only the identity but also the morale of priests.
Celibacy is a gift, a call from the Lord to love him and his Church totally, exclusively, radically.
— Msgr. Timothy Dolan
How are seminary formators responding to this scenario?
Thank God that he is a Lord who can bring good from evil! In the light of scandals, in the wake of the admitted fact that there are indeed some scandalously active homosexual priests, and given that the erroneous perception of priests as “gay” is tragically becoming a stereotype, today's candidates for ordination display a laudable and strong desire to commit themselves to the noble virtues of priesthood, lest they, by their weakness, would ever drag the vocation they love into the gutter.
Remember that today's seminarians are precisely those who have had to bear the ridicule and taunts that have come from a society that believes celibacy impossible. These are the men who have seen firsthand the damage done to their vocations by the “oil spill” of clerical sexual scandal.
Thus do you see a realistic yet firm purpose on their part to know what they're getting into, a humble sense of their own weakness, the utter necessity of a strong spiritual life to protect their virtue, a prudent construction of proper boundaries in their interaction with men and women, and an ardent hope that they will inspire, never shock, their people by upright, pure lives.
Seminary formators owe it to the Church to be vigilant. For one, they must never allow a man to be ordained who gives any evidence of tendencies to sexual immorality. Two, they must be very blunt in holding up to their men the clear expectations of Jesus and his Church.
Positively, this means they present the beauty of celibacy, that it is a gift, a call from the Lord to love him and his Church totally, exclusively, radically.
Negatively, this means they are candid in warning about dangers to celibate commitment, and a homosexual inclination falls under this category.
The critical point is chastity. This is, of course, that cardinal virtue given us in seed form by God, which we then develop, cultivate and strengthen, allowing us to live responsibly with our sexual drives under the dominion of God. A positive result of the negative climate about priesthood today is that seminaries are assiduous in stressing healthy, integrated, realistic chastity.
You will find a welcome openness to the insights from psychology to assist in the human formation of candidates regarding chastity, and to natural helps such as good friendships and a balanced life.
Even more important is the renewed accent on the absolute necessity of a strong relationship with Christ, nurtured daily by prayer and the Eucharist. As the Jesuit theologian and psychologist Dominic Maruca — who has spent his life with priests and seminarians — observes, “A priest who wants to live celibately without a strong relationship to Christ is committing psychic suicide.”
How can the Church express its disapproval of homosexual behavior without being accused of bigotry or hate crimes?
This is a tactical question. Instead of focusing on disapproval of sexual immorality, it is much more effective to concentrate on approval of authentic sexual love.
Here we take our lead from Pope John Paul II. We cannot allow the “culture of death” to stereotype the Church as a dour, finger-wagging, puritanical old spinster. No!
The Church is in the forefront of defending the beauty, dignity, joy and, yes, the “divinity” of sexual love! This can only be done when we defend the divine design of sexuality. For the Church, sexual love is so good, so sacred, so special, so beautifu, and so powerful, that the Creator intends that it only be used by a man and a woman united in faithful, life-giving, lifelong marriage. Anything outside of this is not a proper use of sex but an abuse, and leads to destruction of self, of partner, of culture, of society and of life.
It is time for the Church to stand up and preach to the forces of sexual license, “We are not anti-sex, you are! We defend the beauty, the dignity and the nobility of sexual love. We dare to claim, as does our Pope, that the conjugal love of a husband and wife is an icon, a mirror, of God's love.”
That is the tactic we must employ. And sane voices in society, even from those who do not share our faith, are beginning to admit that maybe we're on to something, for the horrors of unrestrained sexual license are too dramatic to ignore.
Given the growing secularization in the West — not to mention Internet pornography, the push for homosexual “marriages,” the low birthrates, the advent of “morning-after” pills, etc. — what will the Church look like in 40 years, vis-à-vis the priesthood?
My forte is the past — I'm a historian by training — not the future, so I am on thin ice here.
But I would wager we will see a renewed, reinvigorated priesthood in 40 years, at least in the United States. The admitted negatives — the sexual problems we spoke of earlier, the undeniable decline in numbers, the endless re-examination of the identity and mission of the priesthood which has gone on since the [Second Vatican] Council — have, with God's grace, led to a purification.
Thus we see men today in the seminary excited about the call, reclaiming the spiritual, evangelical, sacramental dimension of the priest-hood, who have taken the Holy Father's exhortation “Be not afraid” to heart. I know it's become a cliché, but these are the men eager for the new evangelization.
Thus, to answer your question — you will see a Church in 40 years led by priests committed to presenting the truth with love, more interested in being missionaries than managers, more apostolic than minister-ial, more rooted in being than in doing. That gives me great hope.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Msgr. Timothy Dolan ------ KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 07/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:Boston Station Cancels ‘Father Ted’ After Protests
CATHOLIC ACTION LEAGUE, June 21 — The British comedy “Father Ted,” which portrays priests as “imbeciles, hypocrites, alcoholics, cross-dressers and users of pornography,” won't be showing on Boston public television, the Catholic Action League announced.
The group protested when WGBH-TV, the flagship station of the Public Broadcasting System, aired “Father Ted” for a four-week trial broadcast.
Quinceanera Barbie Hits Stores
THE ORLANDO SENTINEL, June 25 — She's past 40, but Barbie will get a quinceanera, the traditional Mass and party that celebrates a Mexican 15-year-old girl's entrance into womanhood, the Orlando, Fla. daily reported.
At her quinceanera, a girl often receives a doll from her godmother as the last gift of her childhood, or gives a doll to a younger sister to show that she's leaving childhood behind.
The Sentinel warned girls not to “overaccessorize” Mattel's new Quinceanera Barbie, since that would go against “the kind of values quinceaneras should represent.”
Catholics Take Sides in the ‘Satan Trial’
THOMAS MORE CENTER, June 25 — The lawsuit by parents and students against the Bedford Central School District in Westchester County, N.Y. got two new Catholic allies: the American Catholic Lawyers Association in Ramsey, N.J., and the Thomas More Center For Law & Justice in Ann Arbor, Mich.
The two groups filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court after the high court began looking into the claims of Beford Catholic parents in what the media has called the “Satan trial” lawsuit.
The parents challenged a series of school-sponsored activities that they contended were promoting Eastern, pagan and satanic religious concepts in Bedford schools.
They allege that there was a school-sponsored card game called “Magic the Gathering,” in which students summoned demons depicted on the playing cards, which also depict human sacrifice and a pact with the devil.
A decision on whether the Supreme Court will accept review of the case is not expected until September.
News Bias in Stem-Cell Debate
NEW YORK POST, June 22 — Bioethicist Wesley J. Smith, author of Culture of Death: The Assault on Medical Ethics in America, charged in a New York Post opinion piece that news coverage of embryonic stem-cell research was strongly biased against the pro-life position.
Smith reported that the Statistical Assessment Service, a non-partisan research organization, had found that the media emphasized breakthroughs in the use of embryonic stem cells while ignoring equivalent or even bigger breakthroughs in the use of adult stem cells. Using embryonic stem cells destroys the embryo.
Diabetic mice showed marked improvements when treated with embryonic and adult stem cells. The media broadcast the embryonic breakthrough, but ignored the adult stem cell results — even though adult stem cells worked better. Mice given adult cells lived, while the embryonic-cell mice all died.
And adult stem cells, unlike embryonic ones, have already been used to save children with defective immune systems.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Zenon Zawada ------ KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: John Paul II and His Attacker: Gift and Mystery DATE: 07/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:On May 13, the 20th anniversary of the assassination attempt made on Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Square, the Pope's right hand man, Bishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, gave an unprecedented first-person account of the attack on the Pope.
After thanking the Catholic University of Lublin, Poland, for the academic honors they bestowed on him, Bishop Stanislaw Dziwisz said, “There will not, however, be a lesson for us, but rather a testimony, the testimony of someone who only just touched on the mystery in which perhaps he was an instrument in God's plans (I find it hard to recognize this) but who on the other hand has certainly been an eyewitness of how that gift of the Holy Father's life has been lived in the course of 20 years.”
“I would like to delve into history, recent but nonetheless important, for certain events concerning the date of 13 May 1981. They are deeply impressed on my heart and only today have I mustered the courage to speak of them publicly.
“I know that it is impossible to tell the whole story or to understand it fully. Nonetheless, I consider them worth recalling. I hope that mentioning the details of those events, generally unknown, will serve not so much to satisfy curiosity but above all to help us see how the Holy Father's life was truly saved by a wonderful grace of God, for which we must be constantly grateful.”
The third and final part of his remarks follow.
I would say that the gift was the return: the Holy Father's miraculous return to life and health. One mystery remains — in the human dimension — the attempt to kill him. In fact, neither the trial nor the culprit's lengthy imprisonment has shed light on it.
I witnessed the Pope's visit to Ali Agca in prison. The Pope had already publicly pardoned him in his very first address after the attack. I did not hear the prisoner utter a single word to ask forgiveness.
He was only interested in the mystery of Fatima — troubled by the force that had gotten the better of him. In the Year of the Great Jubilee, the Holy Father sent a letter to the Italian President asking for Ali Agca's release. This request — it is well known — was accepted by President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi. The Holy Father accepted the release of Ali Agca with relief. He had several times received his mother and his relatives and had often asked the prison chaplains about him.
The divine dimension of the mystery consists of this dramatic event, which took a heavy toll on the Holy Father's health and strength, but at the same time was not without an effect on the content and fruitfulness of his apostolic ministry in the Church and in the world.
I recall that in one conversation the Holy Father confessed: “This was a great grace of God. I see in this a similarity with the Primate's [Cardinal Stephan Wyszynski's] imprisonment. Except that that experience lasted three years, and this experience only one …”
Blood Was Needed In St. Peter's Square
In this case I do not think that it is an exaggeration to apply the ancient saying: Sanguis martyrum semen christianorum (“the blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians”). Perhaps this blood was needed on St Peter's Square, on the site of the early Christians' martyrdom. In this context, four thoughts spring to my mind.
There is no doubt that the first fruit of that bloodshed was the union of the entire Church in the great prayer for the Pope's recovery.
The pilgrims who had come for the General Audience and an ever-increasing multitude of Romans prayed in St. Peter's Square throughout the night that followed the attack. On the following days, Masses were celebrated and prayers offered for the Pope's intentions in cathedrals, churches and chapels all over the world.
In this regard, the Holy Father himself said: “It is difficult for me to think of all this without emotion, without deep gratitude to everyone, to all those who gathered in prayer on the day of May 13, and to all those who persevered in it for all this time … I am grateful to Christ the Lord and to the Holy Spirit, who, through this event which took place in St. Peter's Square on May 13 at 5:17 p.m., inspired so many hearts to common prayer.
“And thinking of this great prayer, I cannot forget the words of the Acts of the Apostles, referring to Peter: ‘earnest prayer for him was made to God by the Church’ (Acts 12:5)” (General Audience, Oct. 7, 1981, No. 12).
During those days, kind wishes also arrived from many quarters which did not really have anything to do with the Church, from heads of state, from the representatives of international organizations, and from various political and social organizations across the world.
It seems that the sentiments expressed at that time have contributed to this day to forming their opinion of the Holy Father as a moral authority in the world. Concern for the Pope's life and health was ewx-pressed not only by the Catholic Church, but also by communities of other Christian denominations, and even other religions.
PART TWO OF THREE
I remember that the Secretariat for Christian Unity received hundreds of telegrams from their representatives. From Constantinople, a special envoy arrived from Patriarch Demetrius to express his profound participation in the sufferings of the Bishop of Rome. Telegrams were sent by the Patriarchs of Moscow, of Jerusalem, of Armenia and of other Orthodox Churches. Telegrams also came from the Primate of the A n g l i c a n Communion and from the heads of many Protestant communities.
I am deeply convinced that the Pope's suffering made an enormous contribution to the work of Christian unity, to which he is so dedicated. I have already said that for that day, now a memorable one, a large demonstration had been planned in Rome and sponsored by sectors which had declared themselves to be pro-abortion. The demonstration was revoked because of the attack.
Nothing happens by chance in divine Providence's plans. Perhaps there that innocent blood and that desperate struggle for life were needed, to awaken in human consciences an awareness of life's value and the will to preserve it from its conception to its natural death.
The fact that both the Academy for Life and the Institute for the Family at the Pontifical Lateran University were created during those days seems to confirm this insight. Independently of the effective state of laws and customs, with regard to the matter of respect for life in contemporary society, it can be said that on that day the commitment to the family of the Holy Father and the Church was given a new impetus and an existential motivation.
Of course, we could delve more deeply into the mystery of the attack and of the struggle for the life and safety of the Holy Father, mentioning other results which today, 20 years later, we can identify. However, I am aware that its definitive meaning will remain hidden in the inscrutable desires of divine Providence. I also wish to express my deep conviction that the blood poured out in St. Peter's Square on May 13 came to fruition with the springtime of the Church in the Year 2000.
I never stop thanking God for this gift and for the mystery that he granted me to witness with my own eyes. At the end of this account, I would like to cite the words of Cardinal [Karol] Wojtyla [who became Pope John Paul II], from his poem Stanislaw:
“If words do not convert, blood will.”
— Lublin, Poland, May 13
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Bishop Stanislaw Dziwisz ------ KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 07/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:Movements a Boon to Priests, Says John Paul
VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICES, June 27 — Pope John Paul II says the new ecclesial movements can offer “effective” help to priests attracted by their charisms.
The “positive efficacy” of the new communities for the life of priests, the Pope said in a message to Cardinal J. Francis Stafford, the Vatican's point-man on the laity, “is manifested when the latter find in the movements ‘the light and warmth’ that help them mature in a fervid Christian life and, in particular, in an authentic ecclesial sense — ‘sensus Ecclesiae’ — which leads them to firmer fidelity to legitimate pastors, and to attention to ecclesiastical discipline.”
The above statement is part of a message that John Paul II sent to Cardinal James Francis Stafford, president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, on the occasion of the Theological and Pastoral Congress under way in Castel Gandolfo. The topic of the congress is “The Ecclesial Movements for the New Evangelization.”
Pope's Letter Recalls the Tears of AIDS Orphans
VATICAN PRESS OFFICE, June 25 — Pope John Paul II sent a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, appealing for respect for the right to health of AIDS patients in developing countries who cannot afford treatments.
On the eve of the U.N. General Assembly's special session on the AIDS problem, and before leaving for Ukraine, the Holy Father wrote a letter to communicate to the assembly's participants his two main concerns about the present situation of 36 million AIDS sufferers.
The Pope's first concern is the “transmission of HIV/AIDS from mother to child,” an “extremely painful question.”
“While in developed countries,” he explains, “it is possible to markedly reduce the number of children born with the virus, thanks to appropriate therapies, in developing countries, and Africa in particular, those who come into the world with the infection are very numerous, which results in acute suffering for the families and the community.”
The tears of AIDS orphans should move the conscience of the international community, the Pope states.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ------ KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: The Popes in Fatima's Shadow DATE: 07/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — The story of the third secret of Fatima — and how it foretold the attempt on the Pope's life — was told to the world last year.
Pope John Paul II went to Fatima, Portugal, May 12–13 to beatify Francisco and Jacinta Marto, two of the three shepherd children who saw visions of Mary there in 1917.
At the end of the beatification Mass the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, revealed the contents of the third secret of Fatima. He said part of it described the gunning down of a “bishop clothed in white,” which the Pope interprets as a reference to the 1981 attempt on his life.
Pope John Paul II did not read the third part of the secret of Fatima until after he had been shot in 1981, a top Vatican official said.
Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone, the secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said June 26 his assertion was based on “irrefutable information, both oral and archival.”
“The Holy Father, John Paul II, read for the first time the third part of the secret of Fatima after the assassination attempt, after having requested the text, while in the Gemelli Hospital,” the archbishop said at a Vatican press conference.
The Vatican, publishing the complete text of the third secret June 26, said it was a symbolic prophecy of the Church's struggle against atheistic political systems and included a line which could be understood as a reference to the attempt to assassinate Pope John Paul.
Along with the text, the Vatican published a historical introduction by Archbishop Bertone.
The third part of the secret revealed to three children in Fatima, Portugal, in 1917 was written down in 1944 by the only surviving visionary, Sister Lucia dos Santos, the archbishop wrote.
The nun, now a 93-year-old Carmelite, gave the text in a sealed envelope to her local bishop. In 1957, the envelope was sent to the Vatican where it remained in the custody of the secret archives of what is now the doctrinal congregation, Archbishop Bertone said.
Although Pope Pius XII was still alive when the text arrived at the Vatican, there is no record in the secret archives of the Pope ever having read it, the archbishop said.
According to the records of the archives and his own diary, Pope John XXIII was given the envelope containing the secret on Aug. 17, 1959 — nine months after becoming Pope — and decided to read it with his confessor, the archbishop said.
Pope Paul VI read it on March 27, 1965, after having been pope for almost two years, Archbishop Bertone said.
Pope John Paul asked for the secret after he was shot May 13, 1981, the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, the archbishop said. It left the archives on July 18, 1981, and was returned Aug. 11, the archbishop wrote.
Vatican watchers and biographers have long assumed and even reported as fact an assertion that Pope John Paul read the secret soon after his Oct. 16, 1978, election.
In addition, it was reported widely that the Pope spoke of the supposedly apocalyptic, end-of-the-world character of the secret during a semi-private meeting in Fulda, Germany, in November 1980.
German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the doctrinal congregation, said June 26 no such meeting ever took place.
Archbishop Bertone, in news reports appearing June 28, repeated his statement that the Pope read the secret only after being shot.
“This is a sure fact,” the archbishop said. “And it wasn't even immediately after the attack, but more than two months later: the 18th of July of 1981,” he said.
He said Cardinal Franjo Seper, the then-prefect of the doctrinal congregation, gave a white envelope containing Sister Lucia's text and an orange envelope containing a Vatican translation from the Portuguese to then-Archbishop Eduardo Martinez Somalo, the substitute secretary of state.
The archbishop, now a cardinal and prefect of the Congregation for Religious, delivered the envelopes to the Pope at the Gemelli Hospital and returned the envelopes to the archives three weeks later, Archbishop Bertone said.
----- EXCERPT: Ukraine's Resurgent Greek Catholic Church ----- EXTENDED BODY: Zenon Zawada ------ KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Brazil's Bishops Seek to Rein In Their Own Conference DATE: 07/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:ITAICI, Brazil — Starting July 12, the Brazilian Conference of Catholic Bishops, known as the CNBB, will have one of its most important gatherings ever. The 39th Assembly of one of the largest national bishops' conferences will discuss a document entitled “CNBB: Life and Organization at the Service of Its Mission,” aimed at thoroughly reforming the CNBB's structures.
The underlying aim of the reforms: to restore to the Brazilian bishops authority usurped by the CNBB in recent years.
‘Some policies are not [the bishops'] but a small group of lay advisers',’ said one bishop.
Bishop Raymundo Damasceno Assis, CNBB general secretary, said the document is being drafted by a commission headed by three bishops: Cardinal Geraldo Majella Agnelo, archbishop of Sao Salvador de Bahia, Bishop Celso de Queiroz of Catanduva and Bishop David Picão, retired, bishop of Santos.
“The document, and the [reform] process related to it, is a response to the Pope's call made to all the bishops of the world in the letter Apostolos Suos,” said Bishop Picão, who added that the CNBB reform is aimed at “consolidating the communion and increasing the participation of all bishops in the decision-making process on a steady basis.”
In practice, it will mean the dissolution of the currently dominant “Pastoral Commission,” a nine-member committee that meets permanently and makes decisions in the name of all of the more than 320 Brazilian bishops.
The Pastoral Commission would be replaced by an executive council in which all regions of the episcopate would be represented, and which would have much more limited powers.
Apostolos Suos, which specified that national bishops' conferences have only limited authority and should not impede the apostolic authority conferred on local bishops, was published in May 1998. However, the CNBB decided to reform its structure only after Pope John Paul II sent a letter in December 2000 to the CNBB's president, Bishop Jayme Chemello of Pelotas, urging the application of the 1998 papal instruction.
In March, the CNBB announced the creation of the reform commission and released a first draft of the reforms, asking bishops to approve them during the July bishop's assembly.
Draft Criticized
The draft has already been criticized in regional gatherings. The bishops from the state of Rio de Janeiro, under the leadership of Cardinal Eugenio de Araujo Sales, are proposing that reform go much deeper, insisting that CNBB structures be less intrusive in diocesan life and respect the autonomy and authority of each bishop.
“The Pope's idea for the CNBB, and I believe, for any episcopate, is that the bishops' conference may be run by bishops and by no one else,” said Bishop Rafael Llano Sifuentes, auxiliary of Rio de Janeiro.
“The CNBB has a great influence on the country; therefore, it is very important for it to express the true voice of the bishops,” he said. “The CNBB works pretty well, but not infrequently some of the policies applied are not those taken during the [bishops'] general assemblies, but by small groups of lay advisers and so-called experts … We definitely have to change some rules, to make sure that the assembly is the final voice and makes the final decision.”
If this new approach is accepted, many existing CNBB procedures will have to change. One is the controversial “Situation Analysis” that a group of advisers prepare each month, suggesting the course of action the bishops should take.
The May “Situation Analysis,” signed by sociologist Pedro A. Ribeiro de Oliveira, extensively analyzes the possible economic impact of U.S. policies on the Brazilian economy under the sub-title, “The Menace Coming From the North.” Along with praising the recent Zapatista march in Mexico, the analysis urges bishops to reiterate the CNBB's support for Brazil's controversial and highly politicized “Landless Movement,” an initiative that several bishops have been publicly questioning.
Bishops from the Sao Paulo region, who gathered June 5–7 at Campo Limpo to discuss the draft, expressed concerns similar to those voiced by the Rio bishops.
“I don't believe the document will have a significant effect if approved,” one bishop who attended the meeting told the Register on condition of anonymity.
The time for discussing the draft reforms has been too short, the bishop said, and besides, “the reform desired by the Holy Father requires greater conviction in the leadership.”
Liberation Theology
The same bishop also said that the Brazilian episcopate “is not going through a good moment. Many issues are still quite divisive: liberation theology, political involvement, pastoral priorities and so on.” Liberation theology, which holds that Christ's message was a revolutionary message of class struggle rather than one of transcendental salvation, was explicitly rejected as a false doctrine in a 1984 instruction from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Despite the criticisms of the CNBB reform process, Bishop Damasceno insisted that “time for the bishops [to review the draft] has been sufficient, since most of them have already sent in their suggestions, and the attitude I perceive is very collegial.”
The conference is ‘highly influenced by few bishops and countless advisers, cleric and lay,’ said another.
Bishop Damasceno also noted that once the document is approved by the assembly, it will be sent to the Vatican. “The Holy See can make changes to the document, and it will depend on the Holy See how soon the new rules are applied.”
Nevertheless, some bishops remain openly skeptical.
Bishop Amaury Castanho of Jundiaí publicly aired his own criticisms in a recent article in the Brazilian weekly O Lutador.
Wrote Bishop Castanho, “To the general public it is already evident that there are, within the Church, not mere tensions, but deep differences among bishops, priests and lay people. It is superficial to say that such differences are irrelevant. Actually, they are very deep, and go from Biblical interpretation, Christology and ecclesiology, with evident repercussions on pastoral practices and the liturgy.
“The moderate absolute majority of the episcopate, who are shepherds above all, do not get from the major secular media the visibility achieved by those who remain on either the Marxist or the ultra-conservative extremes.”
With respect to the CNBB, the bishop said that “despite being regarded as one of the most highly organized bishops' conferences in the world,” it is “highly influenced by few bishops and countless advisers, clerics or lay, who attempt to enforce on the whole episcopate, as well as on the new lay movements, an objectionable uniformity, more inspired in ideological than Christian reasons.”
Alejandro Bermúdez writes from Lima, Peru.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Alejandro Bermudez ------ KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: What About U.S. Bishops? DATE: 07/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — On July 1, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and the U.S. Catholic Conference merged into a single entity, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, known as the USCCB.
One key change is the dismantling of U.S. Catholic Conference committees on which lay and religious members were allowed to sit. Under the new merged structure, all committees will conform to the model previously in place at the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, which limits membership to bishops and utilizes lay and religious participants only on a consultative basis.
Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk of Cincinnati, who headed the committee that worked from 1997 to November 2000 to institute the new conference structure, said that preservation of bishops' authority was not a major objective of the reforms, which were intended as a “simplification” of the old two-conference set-up.
Still, he acknowledged that the change with respect to committees could have the effect of strengthening the position of bishops.
“When we began to look at revising the statutes and the bylaws, we decided we ought to have only just one kind of committee, since we are having only one conference now,” Archbishop Pilarczyk said. “And therefore those who are not bishops should not be full members of the committees, because they can't be full members of the bishop's conference.”
The only exception to this rule applies to Cardinal Avery Dulles, the Fordham University theologian who was elevated to the cardinalate in February by Pope John Paul II. Although he has never been a bishop, Cardinal Dulles enjoys the same status as retired bishops, meaning that he can sit as a member on any USCCB committee and participate freely in the bishops' general assemblies but may not cast a vote when “deliberative” votes are taken.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ------ KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 07/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:Asylum Denied to Persecuted Christians?
MIDDLE EAST QUARTERLY, Winter 2001 — Christians fleeing persecution get little sympathy in U.S. courts, immigration lawyer Louis A. Gordon charged in the Middle East Quarterly.
Although Christians from “notoriously anti-Western countries such as Iran” often win asylum, Christians from countries such as Pakistan and Jordan face barriers, Gordon said.
Christian groups have charged that the Immigration and Naturalization Service sets impossible standards for persecuted Christians. For example, Gordon said, some of his clients were asked to explain complex theological concepts.
Gordon argued that the INS relied too much on State Department reports, which focus on governmental persecution but downplay cases where the government passively allows citizens to harass and attack Christians.
Bush: No Direct Involvement in Irish Troubles
WASHINGTON POST, June 22 — As violence flared again in Northern Ireland, the Bush administration's point man on the region said that Bush would not urge American mediation, the Washington daily reported.
Unlike Bill Clinton, who appealed personally to Catholic and Protestant leaders at each outbreak of violence, Bush will emphasize “the local parties themselves,” said Richard Haass, the State Department's new director of policy planning.
Mexican Mass Breaks Anti-Religion Taboo
ASSOCIATED PRESS, June 22 — A Mass celebrated by Mexican Cardinal Norberto Rivera drew about 80 Mexican congressmen and senators, the wire service reported.
The Mass, honoring the patron of politicians St. Thomas More, broke with a century of prohibitions on mixing religion and politics. Cardinal Rivera told worshipers, “Man can't separate himself from God just as the political cannot be separated from the moral.”
In the 1850s, all religious groups in Mexico were banned from running schools, owning property or participating in politics. After the Mexican Revolution of 1917, even harsher laws led to the bloody Cristero War.
The government eased its laws in 1980, after the first of Pope John Paul II's three visits to Mexico, and in 1992 religious groups regained their legal status.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ------ KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Reclaiming Catholic Academia DATE: 07/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:The U.S. bishops are taking on the great scandal of dissent in American Catholic universities.
They've hashed out a way to begin granting the canon law mandatum to theologians, a bishop's official statement that a theologian's teaching is in communion with the Church.
This is excellent news, because the dissent of Catholic academics has done incalculable damage in America.
The dissenter's fault isn't just that he deprives the magisterium of the fidelity he owes it — but also that he denies the world the charity he has been commanded to give it.
America has more college-educated Catholics than any country in the world. Our schools have graduated students who have accomplished many great and good things in America. But Catholic leaders have been guilty of serious sins as well.
When the Register ran the headline “Abortion Supporters Take Control of the U.S. Senate,” it was a reference to the new Senate committee chairman who are staunchly pro-abortion — and Catholic-university educated Catholics. Look at the biggest cultural polluters on William Bennett and Senator Joe Leiberman's list, and you see alums of the biggest Catholic colleges. Catholic-educated Americans have benefited the world in a thousand ways. But we have to recognize what else they've done: helped create the “culture of death,” and made the United States an innovator in destructive laws and the world's leading exporter of degrading entertainments.
How could this be?
Catholic thinkers have sometimes acted as if their own heritage of knowledge and wisdom — the Church's teaching — is shameful. It had to be hidden, explained away, overcome. That's a great pity. Because whenever our universities were busy forming the best and brightest of secularism, the great answers to the problems of our time went unexplained because there were few credible voices to give them.
The wise and practical teachings of the Church are light-years ahead of the world in fundamental areas like natural morality, the power (and therefore both the beauty and the danger) of human sexuality, the human person's place in the economy, the relationship between truth and freedom, between sin and psychology, between faith and reason, between life and love, and on and on.
The story of 20th century America should have been straightforward: The story of Catholic thought being unpacked and let loose on a host of social problems, providing a beacon for the world. It should have been the story of Catholics rising from the streets to the universities, and from the universities bringing the life-changing message of the faith to the nation's boardrooms, airwaves, halls of power, everywhere.
But it is more complicated. It is also the sad story of theologians and others who betrayed not just their faith, but their brothers and sisters in the world.
The consequences of the bad ideas that have been promulgated are incalculable: Too many have lost their sense of right and wrong, too many have wrecked themselves by playing with sexuality like it was a toy, too many bought the lie that man is merely a consumer and too many can't understand why they are mired in depression after a life of choices that everyone said would make them happy. Tragically, when Catholic alums promoted these ideas, it wasn't always despite their Catholic university training, but often because of it.
What can be done? Catholic teaching — for starters, the encyclicals of Pope John Paul II — can still spark a revolution in America. The Jubilee Year saw Catholics all over the world return to the basics of the faith. Each World Youth Day sees hundreds of thousands — often millions — of young people flocking to a man they know will tell them the truth. New diocesan programs fill halls by stressing the sacraments. New lay movements build battalions of young evangelists. These could be the first signs of a new springtime of the faith, says the Pope. The Holy Spirit won't be stopped.
We should pray that our universities will be among the first places to see the shoots of a vigorous new Catholic faith. And we can be grateful that the U.S. bishops have already begun to ready the soil.
----- EXCERPT: Editorial ----- EXTENDED BODY: ------ KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Letters DATE: 07/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:Chipping Away at Death
Regarding “Pope Solomon and the Babies” (editorial, June 17–23): American Life League has always favored incremental legislative proposals that ban all third-trimester abortions without exception, provide parental notice without judicial bypass, or require health inspections of abortion mills. Such strategic goals do not contain flawed language that denies the value of certain babies.
We agree with Pope John Paul II that “an elected official whose total opposition to procured abortion is well known” could vote for flawed-by-exception legislation.
But American Life League cannot identify more than a handful of such elected officials. The majority of those who claim to be pro-life publicly favor aborting children in certain cases. Such individuals are not publicly opposed to all abortion; they do not fit the Holy Father's definition.
American Life League will never promote legislation that allows the destruction of certain babies because of the sins of their fathers (rape or incest) or states that a baby's life is less valuable than his mother's (life of the mother). We support the elected official who has done all he or she can to achieve a law's passage without exceptions, and subsequently is left with less in a final bill and votes for the best bill at the time. We do expect that he will publicly proclaim his dissatisfaction and promise to achieve more as quickly as possible.
The “justice of incremental strategy” translates into laws that chip away at the culture of death while not containing language that says some babies are expendable in certain situations.
American Life League proudly joins the tens of thousands of pro-life groups and individuals working to end all abortion without exception in a world overwhelmed with disdain for the intrinsic value of every single human being.
JUDIE BROWN Stafford, Virginia
The writer is president of American Life League Inc.
Contraceptive Consequences
After reading your “Indepth” point-counterpoint feature on pro-life strategies in the June 17–23 issue, I think it is important to make one fundamental point.
Over the last seven years of practicing family psychotherapy, I have often been confronted with the destructive effects of contraception in the lives of my patients. It is plain to me that our contraceptive culture is at the root of many behavioral pathologies and most seriously leads to a high demand for abortion. This in an observable, empirical fact that is recognized well outside the boundaries of the Catholic Church.
In the 1992 Supreme Court decision Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the court defended a right to abortion by reasoning that Americans had “for two decades organized intimate relationships … on the availability of abortion in the event that contraception should fail.”
When couples contracept, they approach sex with a certain sterility of intention — determined that life should not follow love. In cases where life does follow, their disposition has already been set to reject it — raising the cultural demand for abortion.
A contraceptive culture will always be one that demands abortion. Yet the National Right to Life Committee refuses to recognize this empirical fact by allowing their so-called “pro-life” allies to support the state-funded promotion of contraception with impunity.
Recently, their “pro-life” president (who supports legal abortion) matched the Clinton Administration's budget for contraceptive “family planning” in foreign countries.
It is time that the National Right to Life Committee squares its “pro-life” policy with the empirical fact that widespread contraception leads to a positive demand for abortion — even if such a reality happens to coincide with a dreaded Catholic moral doctrine.
DAN LYNCH EauClaire, Wisconsin
Situation Normal, All …
Regarding “Communications (ahem) Mess-Up,” Patrick Lee Miller's June 17–23 letter to the editor:
The Register does not owe anyone an apology for its use of the acronym snafu. I first ran across this in the early '40s, and was told it meant “Situation Normal, All Fouled Up.”
My generation was not nearly so enamored of the “F-word” as succeeding generations have been. It was never heard on the radio and never seen in print (there was no TV). It was never, ever heard in polite (or casual) conversation. Even small boys (and I knew many of them!) who wrote it on the sidewalk would never have said it!
I served in the military during the Korean War and snafu still referred to a fouled-up situation.
It wasn't until the '60s that I heard it had been “taken over” by the free spirits who believed that freedom of expression was necessary for mental health.
A perfect example of a snafu: I'd been without the Register for a couple of weeks, then Vol. 77, No. 22 arrived. Two days later, Nos. 21 and 23 arrived. That's a foul-up; and for our glorious U.S. Postal Service, it seems to be normal. A true and accurate use of the word snafu.
Keep up the good work — it's nice to know there's still someone who supports the magisterium!
LOIS MANNING Visalia, California
Red Meat
I just finished the “Inperson” interview with baseball broadcaster Ted Robinson (“On ‘Cafeteria Catholics’ and the Pope,” June 10–16). I was quite pleased with most of the article, but one portion got my goat. Mr. Robinson was commenting on his children accepting all of the precepts of the Catholic faith, not only the ones they want to accept. His children cannot understand why they cannot eat red meat on Fridays during lent.
What is this “during Lent” belief? The abstinence from red meat on Fridays applies to all Fridays during the year, not only during Lent. Once again good Catholics demonstrate their ignorance of Church rules.
I remember when Vatican II changed the rule about Friday abstinence from red meat. It was announced by a deacon at Mass. He said, “We no longer have to abstain from red meat on Fridays!” — which was completely wrong. Vatican II replaced the period on the previous rule with (in essence), “but you may eat red meat on Fridays if you substitute the abstinence with a prayer format, like the rosary.”
You had a perfect opportunity to correct this gross misinterpretation of a Church rule with truth and you blew it. This absence of a correction degrades my opinion of the Register.
I would hope that in the future you would scan articles to see that Church rules are correctly announced or to correct a misstated Church rule spoken by another person.
V. V. MAHONEY Montague, Michigan
Senate Scandal
Could not help but wince when I read “Abortion Supporters Take Control of U.S. Senate” in the June 10–16 issue.
Bush's primary opponents on the Senate Judiciary Committee, should he nominate a pro-life candidate for the Supreme Court when the next opening comes, would be Senators Leahy, Kennedy, Biden, Durbin and Cantwell — all Catholics and Democrats.
Talk about selling your soul for political gain! Would that the Catholic voters who have supported them up to now realize the embarrassment these five are bringing to their faith when the time comes for their re-election.
ANTHONY YANIK Troy, Micigan
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ------ KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: What Would Aslan Do? DATE: 07/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:Tim Drake's commentary on the gutting of C. S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia (“The Dollar, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” June 24–30) should be a call to arms.
HarperCollins should know that, if they ally themselves with the White Witch and betray Narnia for the sake of the dollar, they will face the wrath of the many Friends of Narnia. If the Friends of Narnia should awake — and withhold their buying power from HarperCollins — his threat to Narnia may well be averted.
Perhaps you could provide the proper contact or contacts at HarperCollins so that those of us who love Narnia can express our opinion of this proposed desecration. Aslan, I'm sure, would approve. Friends of Narnia, to arms!
DEACON BILL TURRENTINE Fairfax, California
I was appalled but not surprised to read about the intention to “revise” the Narnia books to remove Christian elements (“The Dollar, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” June 2–30). I hate to tell Tim Drake this, but he is already reading a revision without being aware of it. In your article, you mentioned that you were reading the first book in the series, The Magician's Nephew, to your son. The Magician's Nephew is not the first, but the sixth book of the Chronicles of Narnia.
A few years ago, the publishers decided to “improve” the series by putting the books into what they considered a more logical, chronological order. This is not the order in which Lewis intended them to be read and, artistically and theologically, the books work better when they are read in his order.
The correct order is: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; Prince Caspian; The Voyage of the Dawn Treader; The Silver Chair; The Horse and His Boy; The Magician's Nephew; and The Last Battle.
Please make your readers aware of this. I don't know if it is even possible to buy sets in the proper order any more, but people can choose to read them in the right order if they know about it.
THERESA GRAHAM Seattle, Washington
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ------ KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: To Purgatory With The Penitent — But What About McVeigh? DATE: 07/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:Now that the hubbub over Timothy McVeigh's execution is over, perhaps Catholics might recover the divine wisdom in the doctrine of purgatory.
One fine place to begin is with the unedited emotions and statements made after the execution was carried out.
Sue Ashford was in the Oklahoma City federal building when McVeigh blew it up, and considered lethal injection too good for McVeigh. “He didn't suffer at all. The man just went to sleep. … I think they should have done the same thing to him as he did in Oklahoma.” Plainly, she (along with countless others) felt a very deep desire for justice, a justice that would put McVeigh through the very hell he inflicted upon others.
Sue Ashford is right. We have a tendency today, in some ways admirable, to think that the harshness of justice is itself evil. This brings us to a belief that we are owed mercy, and that means we are confusing justice with mercy. But the simple truth is that “they should have done the same thing to him as he did to those people in Oklahoma.”
Paul Howell, whose daughter Karen was killed, also witnessed the execution. “What I was hoping for, and I'm sure most of us were, [was that] we could see some kind of, maybe, ‘I'm sorry.’ We didn't get anything from his face [before the execution].”
Paul Howell is right. There can be no forgiveness unless the sinner repents. But if McVeigh repented, it certainly could not be read on his face, nor did he release any but the vaguest words of remorse.
Finally, we have the words of Father Ron Ashmore, a priest whose parish was near the prison and who corresponded with McVeigh. Father Ashmore reported that McVeigh “had reconciled himself to God and was beginning to express his sensitivity to the pain and suffering of the people of Oklahoma.”
Father Ashmore noted that, just before his death, McVeigh had received the sacrament of anointing; he said he considered that sufficient to absolve McVeigh of his sins. At least one newspaper account quoted Father Ashmore as saying that McVeigh was now in heaven.
Father Ashmore is right, too, at least about this: God's mercy knows no bounds, and the turn to repentance, no matter how slight, is enough to save even the worst sinner from the jaws of hell. It does not matter how many people McVeigh killed, 168 or 10 times that gruesome number.
How can all three be right? If we remove the doctrine of purgatory, they cannot.
In purgatory, justice and mercy meet. It is the constant teaching of the Church, going all the way back to 1 Corinthians, that a sinner who at judgment is not yet a saint “shall be saved, but only as through fire.” St. Thomas said that there is no difference in severity between the fires of hell and those of purgatory; the difference is that, in hell, the fires effect only punishment, while in purgatory, they bring about purification (purgare in Latin meaning “to purify”).
There is no remorse more bitter than that found in purgatory.
Sue Ashford rejects mercy for McVeigh, and desires only justice. She cannot bring herself to accept that only mercy could be showered upon a mildly repentant McVeigh. But if she could see McVeigh in purgatory, her desire for justice would be more than satisfied, and perhaps she could bring herself to forgive him as well. Maybe she would purge the hatred from her own heart for fear of those same fires. Perhaps she would even pray for the end of capital punishment, so that such mild repentance would have time to become more fervent.
Paul Howell wanted true repentance from McVeigh, repentance as deep and agonizing as the grief which daily pierces his soul over the loss of his daughter. Purgatory is the school of such remorse, remorse deeper than hell, but filled with the grace by which God draws the repentant sinner slowly up to heaven. As with the pain of the fires of hell, there is no remorse more bitter than that found in purgatory.
Mr. Howell, if he could see the remorse which the sinner McVeigh would willingly embrace in the fires of purgatory, would ask for nothing more. And perhaps the same light of grace which draws the sinner up would dissolve the gall in Mr. Howell's heart, and he would nightly pray for his one-time enemy.
Father Ashmore wants McVeigh in heaven, no matter how slight his almost imperceptible nod toward penance. But if McVeigh's slight nod was enough — and I pray that it was — then the most merciful thing Father Ashmore can do is pray and do penance for McVeigh. Simply to declare victory is to rob McVeigh of the one thing that he needs most of all, for as Father Ashmore himself admitted, he was only “beginning to express his sensitivity to the pain and suffering of the people of Oklahoma.” That beginning is brought to perfection in purgatory.
So then, whether it is fashionable or not, let us pray for the soul of Timothy McVeigh — for a restoration of the most sane doctrine of purgatory, and for an end to capital punishment so that mercy may be extended for the sake of penance even to this life.
Ben Wiker, a fellow with the Discovery Institute (www.discovery.org), teaches philosophy of science at Franciscan University of Steubenville (Ohio).
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Benjamin D. Wiker ------ KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: In the U.S., Abortion Is Murder - Sometimes DATE: 07/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:Several years ago, I surveyed my criminal-justice students to find out their knowledge of the murder rate in the United States. I was surprised when the majority came back with grossly overestimated figures. What was more, nearly 15% of the freshmen and 6% of the seniors put the annual number of homicides at more than 1 million. At the time, the correct answer was approximately 19,000.
This was good for two things: a chuckle over the absurdity of the inflated estimates — and a new appreciation of criminal-justice students' need for the basics.
Recently I revisited the survey, spurred by the news of a number of states wrestling with “unborn-protection” laws, as well as the House of Representatives passing a bill to protect the unborn (H.R. 503). It occurred to me that, if one includes abortion, the students were, however inadvertently, on to something.
Combining the FBI's estimates of murder and non-negligent manslaughter with the annual number of abortions since 1973 as reported by the Alan Guttmacher Institute (a decidedly pro-abortion organization), one arrives at the estimate of 1 million-plus murders per year since 1975. The key factor in all of this is how murder is defined.
The FBI, which maintains crime statistics from state and local police agencies under their Uniform Crime Reports, defines murder as “the willful killing of one human being by another.” The key phrase, related to abortion, is “human being.” The “pro-choice” lobby argues that a fetus is not a human being, while the pro-life side articulates that life begins at conception. The issue then centers primarily on the right to life versus the right to individual choice as it relates to the life of the baby.
This issue highlights a controversy between the concepts of criminal law, namely murder, and the modern notion of individual rights, which holds that abortion is not murder, but the prerogative of a pregnant woman who, protected by her “right to privacy,” chooses to view the baby in her womb not as a person, but as an optional, dispensable part of her own body.
This controversy has only recently begun to play out as a matter of criminal law.
Unborn Victims of Violence
On April 26, by a vote of 252–172, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2001 (H.R. 503). If passed by the Senate, it will provide criminal penalties for injuring or murdering an unborn child during the commission of a federal crime. Although the bill is unlikely to pass, given Vermont Sen. Jim Jeffords' defection from the Republican Party, the bill highlights the changing perception of unborn babies as it relates to the criminal law. This law, if passed, would establish a second victim in the case of either an assault or the murder of “a child, who is in utero at the time,” to use the language of the bill itself. In other words, for example, if a rapist assaults a pregnant woman and her unborn child dies as a result of the attack, the assailant can be charged with a federal crime on behalf of the baby.
Meanwhile, however, the law would exempt prosecution “of any person for conduct relating to an abortion for which the consent of the pregnant woman, or a person authorized by law to act on her behalf, has been obtained or for which such consent is implied by law.” Translation: If the rapist causes the death of the baby even inadvertently, he can be charged with a federal crime. But if the mother, with the aid of an abortionist, deliberately brings about the death of the same baby, she is innocent of any wrongdoing in the law's eyes.
In essence, the right to privacy would usurp the right to life under the criminal law. Yet the underlying assumption of the law clearly holds that an unborn child is a human being, or as the bill also states: “a member of the species homo sapiens.”
The criminal law is establishing itself as a possible arena for challenging the precepts of
The Right to Be a Person
The Catechism of the Catholic Church clearly articulates that the right to privacy can never supersede the right to life. “Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person — among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life” (No. 2270).
The Catechism further elaborates that “the moment a positive law deprives a category of human beings of the protection which civil legislation ought to accord them, the state is denying the equality of all before the law” (No. 2273). Although the U.S. Supreme Court has chosen to deny protection to the unborn, perhaps the various legislative bodies will now move to reaffirm these rights through the criminal law.
While the passage of the federal Unborn Victims of Violence Act is unlikely to occur with the Democrats taking control of the Senate, look for activity in this area in individual states. Currently 11 states provide homicide laws that recognize unborn children as victims throughout their pre-natal development, while another 13 give partial coverage to unborn victims, generally after the “embryonic stage.” In addition, seven states provide some criminal laws for specific acts, such as felonious assault with the intent to cause the death of an unborn child.
As the underlying assumptions of these laws compete with the underlying assumptions of abortion, it is becoming clear that the criminal law is establishing itself as a possible arena for challenging the precepts of Roe v. Wade. As these avenues are developed, the contradictions in the existing laws will become ever more clear.
The scales between the right to life and the right to privacy may well be restored to their proper balance due to these developments in the criminal-law arena.
Then perhaps once again we can truly chuckle over students' bloated estimates of the murder rate.
Willard M. Oliver is an assistant professor of criminal justice at Radford University in Radford, Virginia.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Willard M. Oliver ------ KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Ten Years Later, the Key to Free Society Is Still Culture DATE: 07/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:This year marks the 10th anniversary of Pope John Paul II's most important social encyclical, Centesimus Annus.
Taking its name from the first two words of the Latin text, the title means “the hundredth anniversary.” It is a reference to Rerum Novarum, Pope Leo XIII's 1891 encyclical on the condition of the working classes.
Rerum Novarum was the most important social encyclical of Leo's pontificate. Remarkable because of the way it clarified the teaching of the Church on the social questions of its time, Leo's analysis and moral insight into the social, economic and moral questions of his time helped make the Church an important voice again after a period of apparent retreat.
John Paul II's teaching in Centesimus Annus is likely to have similarly long-term importance. Like its predecessor, Centesimus Annus clarifies in detail the teaching of the Church on contemporary social, economic and political questions, solidly building on the teaching of the Scriptures and the tradition of the Church while moving the Church's social teaching in a new and exciting direction.
Even after 10 years, much of what is innovative and profound about Centesimus Annus has not yet been absorbed fully. Ten years after its publication, I find four key elements that are most remarkable about Centesimus Annus.
E First, the encyclical knits together the social teaching of the Church, holding together a scriptural foundation with the teachings of the popes over the last century. Against those who tend to divide Church teaching into two parts (before Vatican II versus after), Centesimus Annus shows that there is really a single, unifying theme that holds the Church's social teaching together: the dignity of the human person as created in God's image. The genius of Leo's 1891 encyclical was his ability to apply that theme to the social questions of his day. Likewise, John Paul II takes the same theme, shows how the Church has constantly emphasized it and applies it to our time.
E Second, Centesimus Annus is extraordinary in the way it reconfigures the basic framework for Catholic social teaching.
Ever since 1891, almost every social encyclical has been framed in terms of an argument against two dominant social philosophies: individualism and socialism. After the deficiencies of each were explained, past encyclicals went on to show how an emphasis on the dignity of the human person could be applied to that period's contemporary situation. But Centesimus Annus breaks the mold, in part because socialism is all but gone from the world scene after 1989.
Centesimus Annus includes a chapter-long reflection on the death of communistic socialism. Since John Paul II played a significant role in bringing about the end of communism in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, this is one of the most intriguing parts of the encyclical. It reads like the account of a humble knight recalling the slaying of a dragon: “It was going to die anyway.” Though communism is not completely gone from the world scene, it is virtually extinct as a significant moral and cultural vision of how to organize a just society.
With socialist communism all but gone, it no longer makes sense to frame Catholic social teaching against the backdrop of two rejected social philosophies. The new framework for Catholic social teaching is a proposal for a free society rather than a rejection of two ideologies. The new framework comes as an answer to the question: “How shall we best order our lives on earth, as we await Christ's return, in a manner that will bring about a free and just society befitting the dignity of the human person?”
The answer is that we need a free culture, a free market and a free polity. This three-part model of the free society, described in detail in Centesimus Annus, is the new framework for Catholic social teaching.
E Third, in one of the most creative applications of this new framework, John Paul II makes it clear that the Church affirms the free market.
This is not an affirmation of the unlimited market of the 19th century robber barons or of laissez-faire capitalism where there are no restraints on the market.
Instead, what is affirmed is a market economy that is bounded by a free culture and a free polity.
E Fourth, Centesimus Annus makes it clear that the key to a free society is not economics or politics, but culture.
For example, the main lesson to be drawn from the collapse of communism is not economic or political, but cultural. The problem under communism wasn't just long lines for toilet paper and bread; nor was the difficulty simply that the political system produced rulers who were totalitarian tyrants. The main problem was a spiritual void in the culture. Marxism promised to uproot the need for God from the human heart, but the results showed that this is impossible. Every single human action, even buying bread or toilet paper, includes a spiritual component since the human person is created as a free being ordered toward truth.
The key to the free society is a culture that promotes the dignity of human life. In contemporary American society, many people have come to think that freedom means being able to have and do whatever you want. Consumerism is a distortion of authentic freedom because it makes us slaves to our desires, even to the point that it promotes a culture of death.
The lesson of the fall of communism isn't that we need a new economics or a new politics.
Likewise, consumerism leaves us with a hollow culture. Every human person is given freedom as a gift to be used to pursue the truth, especially the ultimate truth, which is God. Centesimus Annus, now a decade old, teaches us that the primary task of working for social justice lies at the level of the human heart and involves promoting the culture of life.
Gregory R. Beabout is a philosophy professor at St. Louis University and an adjunct scholar with the Center for Economic Personalism.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Gregory R. Beabout ------ KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Witness in the Wisconsin Wood DATE: 07/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:On Wisconsin's Door Peninsula, miles of scenic coastline follow Lake Michigan on the east and Green Bay on the west, meeting at Porte des Mortes (Death's Door) -aptly named for the ships that met a watery grave at the turbulent tip.
Towns and villages dot the peninsula. State parks, marinas, golf courses and art galleries attract hordes of visitors. The population swells with tourists in the summer and fall, and then recedes.
This scenic stretch of land attracted another type of traveler a century and a half ago. Immigrants from Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium began arriving in great numbers, driven by poor living conditions in their homelands. In the 1850s, the people of Belgium in particular struggled with a widespread potato-crop failure. Wisconsin officials advertised there, promising inexpensive land and unlimited opportunity for hardworking people.
Eventually, between 7,500 and 10,000 Belgians would arrive in the area that is now Green Bay and southern Door County. In 1850, the city of Green Bay was an outpost for French fur traders. By 1853, it had become a large French-speaking settlement. Many Belgian families pushed north into the wilderness and staked out claims.
Among them were Lambert and Marie Catherine Brice, their three adult children and their nephew. In 1855, the Brice family bought 240 acres for $120 in the town of Red River. Adele Brice, 24, had wished to remain in Belgium and enter a convent, but obediently came to America with her parents. It was to her that Our Blessed Mother allegedly appeared.
The ‘Lady all in White’
Adele Brice was not blessed with a good education or family for-tune. Somehow she lost an eye in childhood. But she was known for her charming personality, piety and confidence in the Blessed Virgin. Adele shared the hardships of the pioneer life with her family. She worked in the fields, planted crops and carried them to the grist mill.
It was in October 1859, while Adele was on her way to the mill with a sack of wheat on her head, that, according to her subsequent description, she first saw a “a lady all in white,” standing between two trees in the forest. Adele said she had been too frightened to speak to the lady. Adele reported seeing the lady a second time between the trees on Sunday, Oct. 9, while walking the 11 miles to Mass at Bay Settlement with her sister and a friend. When, upon returning from Mass, Adele saw the lady for a third time, she asked: “In God's name, who are you, and what do you desire of me?”
According to Sister Pauline LaPlant, to whom Adele often related this story, the lady told Adele in a soft, sweet voice that she was Queen of the Heavens: “Teach them their catechism, that they may know and love my Son; otherwise the people here will lose their faith.”
Adele promised to do what the Blessed Virgin told her. “Go, and fear nothing. I will help you,” replied Mary, according to Adele. Mary then rose slowly upward, surrounded by a light, smoke-like incense, blessing Adele kneeling below. That was the last Adele said she ever saw of Mary.
Lambert Brice built a small log chapel near the place where Adele reported seeing the apparition. Many people assumed the episode a figment of Adele's imagination, but most believed her story, especially when she began to tirelessly teach the faith to area children.
Whatever Adele experienced in the woods of Wisconsin, she became a Franciscan tertiary and devoted the rest of her life to religious instruction.
Several other Franciscan tertiaries joined Adele in her ministry, and became known as the Sisters of Good Help. Community donations entirely supported the endeavor. A frame chapel was built in 1861. A convent and St. Mary's Academy boarding school were built near the chapel in 1869. A brick chapel was built in 1880 with donations from area settlers and priests.
Since 1861, the Feast of the Assumption was always a day of prayer. An outdoor Mass was celebrated and, afterward, a procession wound its way around the chapel grounds. Over the years, thousands of pilgrims attended this celebration. There were numerous claims of cures, and many received special help from Our Blessed Mother in those days. Another sign of Mary's blessings came in 1871, when a downpour saved the chapel grounds from the great Peshtigo Fire, the historic Wisconsin conflagration that leveled all around them.
Charmed by a Chapel
It was a warm spring day when my husband and I arrived in New Franken. Modern farms and fields of corn, oats and soybeans now make up the countryside around the chapel. The red brick, Tudor Gothic structure, built in 1941, is the fourth chapel dedicated to Our Lady through the work of Adele Brice. The day we were there, the well-kept churchyard was quiet except for the plaintive sound of a mourning dove.
Inside the quiet church, not yet knowing its history, I felt that something special had indeed happened here, at the place my grandmother always referred to as “the Chapel.” All I knew was that my mother said people had come here for many years for healing.
We were the only visitors in the upper church, and did not speak as we carefully looked around at the altar, statues and open, stained-glass windows. A statue of Mary holding the infant Jesus rose behind the altar. A light shown upon it, which, in the low light of the church, emphasized its beauty. Kneeling angels faced Mary and Jesus. Ornate statues of many saints rested on either side of the altar. The original 10-by-12 log chapel must have been quite a contrast.
A shrine to Our Lady in the crypt includes an altar that stands over the place of the alleged apparitions. A former student remembered when the 1880 brick chapel was built, “and the precious trees were cut down to build the chapel, and the altar placed on the spot.” When razed in 1941 to build the present chapel, the two stumps of the trees were found beneath the floor where the statue of Our Lady now stands.
This lovely statue was made in France, and donated in 1907 by Father Philip Crud, former pastor of the Belgian colony. Devotional candles and kneelers surround the shrine. Beautiful stained glass windows depicting the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary were salvaged from the 1880 chapel. Abandoned crutches, canes and braces lean against a wall next to a glassed-in statue of the lifeless Jesus in Mary's arms.
A woman came in to pray that midweek morning. Here I felt a stronger reverence for the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is clear that she has blessed this chapel with many graces. Historian Mary Ann Defnet said of the healings: “It is a well-accepted fact by the people, but not officially recognized by the Church.”
Every Tuesday is dedicated to Our Lady of Good Help, with a special Mass and rosary. The annual Feast of the Assumption continues to draw many faithful. “It is the celebration of the summer for people in the country,” said Defnet, whose grandparents rode in their horse and buggy from Green Bay out to the Chapel in the 1920s and 1930s.
Sister Marie Adele Joseph Brice is buried in the small cemetery beside the chapel. Her simple tomb-stone bears an inscription in French, which reads, “Sacred Cross, under thy shadow I rest and hope.” An untold number of people have learned, and continue to learn, hope
----- EXCERPT: Site of an unapproved 19th-century Marian apparition has changed lives ----- EXTENDED BODY: Laurie J. Buckeye ------ KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 07/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY: SUNDAY, JULY 8Putting People First EWTN, 8 p.m.
This is the third and final segment of a powerful pro-life series that exposes population controllers' falsehoods, logical inconsistencies and massive abuses of the poor people whose interests they claim to have at heart. The host is Steve Mosher, head of the increasingly influential Population Research Institute. To be rebroadcast Thursday, July 12, at 1 p.m. and Friday, July 13, at 3 a.m. and 10 p.m.
MONDAY, JULY 9
Home Run Derby ESPN, 8 p.m.
“All I can tell 'em is, ‘Pick a good one and sock it,’” advised Babe Ruth, baseball's greatest slugger. You can see his modern counterparts sock homers galore in this powerfest on the eve of the annual All-Star Game.
TUESDAY, JULY 10
Major League Baseball 72nd All-Star Game Fox, 8 p.m.
“Remember through the summer suns/This is the game your country loves,” the great sportswriter Grantland Rice wrote as he waxed poetic about baseball. You'll agree wholeheartedly as you watch this year's exciting battle between the American and National League stars.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 11
National Geographic Special: Air Force One PBS, 8 p.m.
Air Force One, the airplane of U.S. presidents, is so exclusive that even most White House staffers never get aboard it. But now everyone can, thanks to the wide access recently given filmmaker Peter Schnall. This unprecedented show takes us on flights, interviews both of the Presidents Bush and covers presidents' air travel since 1943.
THURSDAY, JULY 12
The Giving Boom: How the New Philanthropy Will Change America PBS, 10 p.m .
Commentator Ben Wattenberg shows how Bill Gates, Michael Milken and others are using their mega-riches to bring about the kinds of social change they think the American people must have. A one-hour “Think Tank” special.
THURS.-MON. JULY 12–16
Ninth Annual Film Preservation Special American Movie Classics
Every time they're polled, the American people vote John Wayne the greatest movie star ever. This five-day TV festival salutes the beloved Duke (real name: Marion Morrison) with 35 of his best films, including restored versions of his 1930s one-hour Westerns. The festival also features a live TV/Internet auction of memorabilia (June 12, 9 p.m.), as well as periodic reminders about the importance of film preservation.
FRIDAY, JULY 13
Religion & Ethics Newsweekly PBS; check local listings for time
Reporter Lucky Severson studies the Catholic charismatic renewal and its emphasis, over the past 30 years, on sanctification, the gifts of the Holy Spirit and obedience to authority in the Church. (Program topics subject to last-minute change.)
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dan Engler ------ KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: The Illuminator's Miniature Masterpieces DATE: 07/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:Jed Gibbons, a former creative director for a large advertising agency, is helping revive the almost-lost art of painting sacred illuminated miniatures. He spoke with Register correspondent Karen Walker in his Chicago studio.
Walker: What is the difference between illumination and illuminated miniatures?
Illumination is the art of lighting up the page. Today the name “illuminator” often refers to calligraphers who add striking flourishes and design elements to their writing of a text. Painting illuminated miniatures does not refer to calligraphy, but to the small, intricately painted narrative scenes that illustrate an accompanying text. I'm not a calligrapher. I paint the miniature scenes.
What role did illuminated miniatures play in people's lives?
Illuminated miniatures helped educate people about divine realities. They were used in liturgical books, the Divine Office and the Book of Hours. The Book of Hours became the bread-and-butter job for many lay people in the Middle Ages. The monasteries became overloaded around the mid-1100s. The Church was flourishing and universities were springing up, so the monks began delegating the work of illumination to the laity. When the Book of Hours, with its magnificently illuminated pages, was developed by the laity, another whole area opened up for the artists and craftsmen of the day. It is mostly the [illuminated copies of the] Book of Hours that have survived throughout the years and have ended up in collections. This is what most people associate illuminated miniatures with.
What are you working on right now?
I'll be designing and executing illuminated miniatures of the Stations of the Cross for a new chapel in the works at St. Edmund's Retreat in Mystic, Connecticut. I also co-teach a course on manuscript illumination at the St. Michael Institute of Sacred Art, which is part of St. Edmund's Retreat.
What led you to become interested in illuminated miniatures?
I always liked the works of artists like Giotto and Fra Angelico. When I first looked through a Book of Hours, I was drawn in by the brilliant colors and intricacy of the small paintings. They resembled the frescoes of Giotto and Fra Angelico, but were done in a much more manageable size. That's when I figured that I wanted to try and do that.
What did you learn during your first attempt?
My initial attempt at illumination led down a long road of searching at many art stores in Chicago and elsewhere to locate the materials I needed to do the work. Finally, people from the Chicago Calligraphy Collective and the Newberry Library helped give me some direction, in addition to what I had uncovered through my own research. As I kept researching, I discovered more sources that carried historically accurate materials, such as calfskin vellum and pigments that were used in the Middle Ages.
How do today's materials compare with those used in medieval times?
People often imagine the Middle Ages to be a dark, gloomy period, but their color palette was very bright and lively. Ours today does not compare. Many of their colors came from semi-precious stones such as Lapis Lazuli imported from Persia — it was used to make genuine ultramarine blue. It was the most expensive blue you could make. Today it is still more expensive than gold.
Other precious stone colors included azurite, also used for blue; malachite, for green; and orpiment, which forms yellow crystals on underground rocks for a rich, bright yellow. The colors that came from these stones were very brilliant and had a shimmering quality that came from their crystalline structure. Cinnabar was the rusty red they used until they discovered how to make the brilliant red of Vermillion.
Using these beautiful colors in combination with gold was important in sacred art because their intrinsic value became part of each piece, thus adding to the honor given to the depiction of divine realities. The rich symbolism of blue and gold was also important, since blue represented the rich majesty of the sky, the firmament and the Virgin's robe, while gold represented the uncreated light.
The time artists put into preparing materials must be extraordinary.
They were like alchemists. They figured out how to take a particular stone or material and turn it into pigment. They invented methods of grinding and polishing that removed impurities. They figured out certain chemical processes. They didn't have art-supply stores where they could buy tubes of color. They made their own brushes. They purchased vellum from workshops that manufactured vellum parchment.
Like the medieval illuminators, I also hand-grind Lapis, Malachite, Orpiment, Cinnabar and Vermillion. Some of these colors are very costly and rare, but they give the work a gem-like quality that shimmers and lights up the page. Also, it is fitting to use the best materials for sacred art.
Each stone has its own grinding requirements. Some colors are easier to mix than others. I usually grind them with gum arabic, but sometimes I grind them with glair, which is beaten egg whites. I beat the egg whites until they are stiff and let them set overnight. Clear liquid runs off the whites and that's what you use as binder for pigment.
For me, the alchemy is what I call transforming the mystery of color into the color of mystery. That is, taking the gold and pigments made from semi-precious stones and minerals of the earth and transforming them into a beautiful work that, through the symbolic use of color and imagery, reveal the mysteries of the faith.
It sounds as though the process is as important as the results.
Yes — sacred art is a whole process; it's not just the end-result of the finished art piece. I like the whole process. For example, when I'd come home from working at the agency, I wasn't in a state of mind to work on a face the size of an eraser head. I had to ease into it as I prepared the materials and ground the pigment, or the gesso for gold gilding. By the time you do that, you're much more relaxed and able to work for hours with a magnifying lens and a very tiny brush to paint a very small face.
Karen Walker writes from San Juan Capistrano, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Karen Walker ------ KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 07/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery (1997)
The opening of the American West was once presented in a positive, heroic light. But the revisionist historians who currently dominate the academy often consider it only a story of racist, capitalist exploitation.
Filmmaker Ken Burns (The Civil War) creates a fair-minded balance between the two viewpoints in his feature-length TV documentary Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery.
In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson acquired the Louisiana Purchase from France and commissioned Meriweather Lewis and William Clark to explore the new territory which had doubled the United States' size in a single stroke.
These two Virginia-born Army officers set out to map the land and record its flora and fauna.
They were accompanied by a party of a few dozen men, including Clark's black slave and a Native American woman who served as translator and guide.
The film is based on the journals of Lewis and Clark, and Burns masterfully intercuts readings from them with period drawings and commentary by historians such as Stephen Ambrose and Dayton Duncan.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1960)
Hollywood has adapted this Mark Twain classic three times. This sprightly version, directed by Michael Curtiz (Casablanca), is the best. Authentic Mississippi locations provide a colorful backdrop for this all-American coming-of-age story.
The mischievous Huck (Eddie Hodges) and the African-American slave Jim (Archie Moore) float downriver on a raft in the mid-1880s, encountering a cast of colorful characters.
This unlikely duo must learn to get along with each other and overcome a pair of con men, the King (Tony Randall) and the Duke (Mickey Shaughnessey) who try to pull them into their nefarious schemes.
Curtiz adds some riverboat and circus scenes that aren't in the original, and many will find its implicit critique of slavery too tame. Nevertheless, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn wonderfully captures the contradictions between America's untamed, outlaw spirit and its high-minded attempts to establish civilization at the edge of the frontier.
Citizen Kane (1941)
What makes a media mogul tick? Citizen Kane, one of the Vatican's top 45 films, is a hard-hitting, multilayered portrait of the kind of personality who creates a communications empire. Writer-director Orson Welles (Touch of Evil) and coscreenwriter Herman Mankiewicz have based their movie loosely on the life of well-known newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst.
It begins with the death of the fictional Charles Foster Kane (Welles). No one is able to understand the human being behind the public persona. An experienced journalist (William Alland) interviews all the major figures in Kane's life to try and find out.
Kane's life is part Great Gatsby, part Horatio Alger story. Kane understood how to use media to influence society. He was also a creator of mass-culture myths who became one himself.
The movie's reputation rests primarily on Welles' spellbinding performance and its numerous technical innovations and groundbreaking narrative devices. But Kane's rise and fall is a cautionary tale still relevant today.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ------ KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: The Breakfast Club Meets The Book of Virtues DATE: 07/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:FREMONT, Ohio — She had no idea that her words would end up introducing hundreds of high school students to the virtues in talks given by community leaders: “Father, we have to do something with these kids!”
Jane Moyer, a mother of three teens, was talking to Father Todd Dominique, the energetic associate pastor at St. Joseph Parish here about a persistent nudging she attributed to the Holy Spirit.
“I just felt that we weren't reaching the kids with enough positive reinforcements for living the faith.
“It's awfully hard to live the faith authentically in this day and age and I thought they needed more help from us to do that.”
Moyer's plea to Father Dominique three years ago was the start of First Hour, a program that brings high school students together at 6:30 a.m. on the first Friday of each month during the school year for a full breakfast, a talk on one of the virtues and a short discussion.
“The concept was: Let's take what is a pretty traditional Catholic observance, first Friday, and let's set it aside as the date and time to have this event, which we ended up calling First Hour,” Father Dominique said.
A team of adults who met with the young priest in response to Moyer's concerns had identified moral formation as a strong need among young people in the small northwestern Ohio community and so the group decided to build a program around William Bennett's Book of Virtues.
“In my experience of ministering with young people,” Father Dominique explained, “we tend to expect them to live the virtuous life, but we fail to teach them what the virtues are for living.”
The plan was to target a virtue for each session and bring in a speaker who could elaborate on it. Although sponsored by area Catholic parishes and held at Sacred Heart Parish here, the program was to be open to any high school-age student.
First Hour's first speaker was the local diocesan bishop, Bishop James Hoffman, who was invited to speak on the virtue of simplicity in living.
“He happened to be in town and I happened to know he had nothing planned at 6:30 in the morning,”
Father Dominique said. “We both showed up at 20 after 6 that first First Hour and I told Bishop Hoffman, ‘I don't know what to expect. You and I could be having breakfast here this morning and having a nice talk.’”
By 6:30, a trickle of teens had filtered in, but by 6:35, Father Dominique said, “They were just coming in from all doors.” In all, 80 students showed up. “It was awesome to see this parish hall filled with young people,” Father Dominique said. “Of course, the team was just beaming and we realized that we were onto something.”
Living the Vision
Father Ron Schock, chaplain and director of youth and young adult ministry for the Toledo Diocese, said he has since included First Hour in Living the Vision, a diocesan resource guide for youth directors.
Subsequent First Hour speakers have included local judges who spoke on honesty, highway patrol troopers speaking on courage, and retired Bishop Albert Ottenweller, former bishop of Steubenville, Ohio, who talked on wisdom.
“I think there's a hungering for teens to know what these virtues are and what the wisdom figures of our community have to say about those virtues,” Father Dominique said.
Moyer said she continues to be amazed at the turnout with each First Hour. Attendance has been as high as 100, but the numbers have never dipped below 60, even on snowy January mornings.
Students have told Moyer they are impressed that adults are willing to get up early to fix them a hot breakfast that is served on china plates at decorated tables set with candles and silverware.
Father Dominique said he insisted on the china and silverware because “Kids can tell when you're cutting corners.
“Kids know quality and they know that the event is worthy by the quality that surrounds them. I think that's just a basic principle of youth ministry. They know that if you're using paper plates and Styrofoam for their gathering that maybe this isn't quite as important.”
Father Dominique said he also made sure that the environment for each First Hour reflected the virtue being presented or the Church's liturgical season.
Sarah Pollick, who is now a student at the University of Dayton, said that after First Hour started during her junior year of high school she missed only one or two of the sessions before graduating last year.
Pollick said she got a spiritual lift from the program and especially liked the opportunity for personal reflection after each talk.
“Depending on the virtue, Father Todd would give tips as to the goals we should be setting for ourselves. So it was a nice boost in the morning to lift you up in spirit and help you set goals for yourself during the day. So many times, you intend to be a good Christian, help others, and do all those things you intend on doing, but you kind of push it aside. To have someone boost you up and give you pointers is nice so you can plan something special to do for someone else that day.”
Father Dominique said he also heard from students that First Hour gave them the feeling they were not alone in what they thought and believed.
“I think for them it was a nice way to affirm the direction they were going and to build their belief, to help build their foundation.”
Budgeting for Success
First Hour costs about $100 to $120 per program, an expense borne by the parishes involved. Donations of food defray some of the cost.
Father Dominique suggested at the outset that the program operate with what he calls a “wash account budget,” so that the funds are expended each month. “We found that if you ‘wash’ it, and if you're confident that the money will be there, God will provide.”
A team of about 25 people puts on First Hour, meeting just twice a year to organize the division of labor.
“If anyone else is thinking about doing this, it's never been a burden on any of us,” Moyer said. “It's a very doable program.”
Moyer, whose three sons, now ages 15, 18 and 20 attended First Hour with their parents, said the program is beneficial not only to teens but to adults.
“I come away every morning just feeling good around the rest of the day, feeling good about being Catholic, feeling good about life in general.”
Judy Roberts writes from Toledo, Ohio.
----- EXCERPT: Kids Get Up Early for Innovative Program ----- EXTENDED BODY: Judy Roberts ------ KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Studying Philosophy Should Have Been This Much Fun DATE: 07/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:The critical ability to distinguish between two closely related terms is the very lifeblood of philosophy. ”Philosophi est distinguere,” (It belongs to a philosopher distinguish) as the philosophers of yore proclaimed .
Let us begin by distinguishing between a book that is helpful and one that is pretentious. This one is helpful. But, far more than that, it is engaging, stimulating, arousing, eye-opening and intellectually adventurous.
G.K. Chesterton, who certainly possessed a keen philosophical mind (and therefore a penchant for making the distinction), said, “Philosophy is merely thought that has been thought out. It is often a great bore. But man has no alternative, except between being influenced by thought that has been thought out and being influenced by thought that has not been thought out. The latter is what we commonly call culture and enlightenment.”
Brown's book is not a bore. On the contrary. Reflecting the urgent need that exists in our benighted culture for the light that philosophical thinking generates, it is a delight.
The title does not deceive. Open the book anywhere and, within a minute, you are philosophically airborne. The road to wisdom may be long and arduous, but it does not take very long to make a keen philosophical distinction. And there is little danger for the reader of becoming a three-minute egghead. The book is like a magic carpet that takes you to one exotic and enchanting realm after another.
The author lays out for us 88 verbal pairings. Together, they constitute, like the same number of notes on a piano, a keyboard providing us with as many keys that unlock the mind so that we can enter a clearer and broader world.
For example, pages 12 and 13 invite us to distinguish between choice and impulse. The former is “rational motivation”; the latter, “irrational motivation.” Three clearly written paragraphs describe each term. A concluding sentence punctuates their difference. Quotations from distinguished thinkers re-state the difference with a touch of eloquence. Finally, we are given questions we can put to ourselves to make the distinction a little more personal.
One of my favorites is the spread contrasting wonder with bewilderment. Wonder, our philosophical guide tells us, is “uncertainty that awakens the intellect.” Meanwhile bewilderment is “uncertainty that frustrates the intellect.” For Plato, “Wonder is the feeling of the philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder.” For Aeschylus (sounding a bit like St. Paul), bewilderment looks like this: “Men at first had eyes but saw no purpose; they had ears but did not hear. Like the shapes of dreams they dragged through their long lives and handled all things in bewilderment and confusion.”
Professor Brown, who teaches philosophy at St. Anselm College, would likely be happy to humor his enthusiastic readers who apply what he teaches to the very book from which he teaches. To my mind, the contrasting concept for sophistication might have been better rendered by pretentiousness than by snobbishness. Maybe determination is a more apt counterpart for stubbornness than tenacity. And Brown pairs frankness with rudeness. Might not clarity and bluntness have made for a more incisive comparison?
Wait a minute. In making that minor criticism, did I just engage in discussion or argument? Let's see — page 32 …
A philosophical colleague of mine pasted on his office door the words “eschew obfuscation.”
We can be grateful for Brown's present exercise in clear thinking. The good professor's philosophical distinctions sharpen the mind, whet the appetite and revive our longing for truth and wisdom. He has succeeded in making philosophy fun. For that, we should be grateful (rather than indebted), thankful (rather than obliged) and happy (rather than pleased) for his insightful (rather than frothy) eye-opener (rather than lid-lifter).
Don DeMarco is a philosophy professor at St. Jerome's University in Waterloo, Ontario.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Donald Demarco ------ KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 07/08/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 08-14, 2001 ----- BODY:Atlanta's Black Catholics Address School Crisis
ASSOCIATED PRESS, June 25 — An announcement by the Archdiocese of Atlanta that it will withdraw financial support from two predominantly black parish schools spurred black Catholics to plan a symposium to discuss black Catholic education, the wire service reported.
The archdiocese's Office of Black Catholic Ministries is working with volunteers from the parishes to put together the symposium for next fall. The archdiocese announced that it would not close St. Anthony's and Our Lady of Lourdes schools, but that it would no longer offer financial assistance.
The Sisters of the Holy Family will attend the symposium, and the Diocese of Memphis will talk about how it reopened many of its inner-city schools.
At Boston College, Victims Oppose the Death Penalty
The 25-year-old group, which supports families of murder victims who do not believe in the death penalty, has over 4,000 members. The theme of the Boston College conference was “Healing the Wounds of Murder.”
Many of the group's members have gone on to found violence-reduction programs.
One program, the Tariq Khamisa Foundation, began when Khamisa's grief-stricken father sought out the family of his son's killer.
Many members of Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation said that they had been snubbed by the criminal justice establishment, while families who called for the death penalty were treated respectfully.
Catholic Athletic League Will Include Black School
ASSOCIATED PRESS, June 21 — After strong words from the Archdiocese of Chicago, the Southside Catholic Conference voted unanimously to invite St. Sabina School to join its youth athletic league, the wire service reported.
The conference had initially voted against inviting St. Sabina's, because parents feared that the primarily black grammar school was in a dangerous neighborhood. The children of the Southside Catholic Conference, however, told Chicago Tribune reporters that they would welcome the chance to play St. Sabina's.
The archdiocese criticized the vote against St. Sabina's, and urged the conference to invite the school as it has now done.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ------ KEYWORDS: Education TITLE: Spouse Keeps the Money DATE: 08/12/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 12-18, 2001 ----- BODY:Q. My husband keeps all of the matters relating to our finances to himself. He provides me with a modest amount of money to pay for groceries, but other than that I never have any idea where we stand. Shouldn't I?
A. In the years I have been counseling, the issue that continues to appear as the primary reason for marital difficulty is the lack of unity. At its root this really is a lack of unity in the faith, and without the faith as our common guide, we don't understand how Our Lord wants us to act toward each other.
Your question reminds me of a phone call we received a few weeks ago from a young mother with three children.
In her case, like yours, there was no communication with her husband. He maintained all the financial records and she didn't even know how much he earned! He gave her the bare minimum to purchase what he thought were necessities. Since her sense of “necessity” was different, you can imagine the disagreements that ensued.
The only time there was “peace” in the home was when the silent treatment became the mode of communication. Eventually, she began making purchases on credit cards without his consent and the situation spiraled out of control.
It's heartbreaking to see these types of situations when we know that Our Lord wants so much more for married couples. What suggestion do I have?
In most of these cases, I'm convinced that a true conversion of heart is needed for both spouses. The words of St. Paul, which are so often misconstrued, can be food for thought: “Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Ephesians 5:21; see also 5:22-33).
True, St. Paul calls for the wife to be subject to the husband. But the husband is called to love his wife as Christ loved the Church. Christ loved us enough to make the ultimate sacrifice of his life. It is this same type of mutual self-sacrificial love that Paul calls us to.
Sometimes couples need help to enter into the type of relationship St. Paul writes about. In cases like this, some have achieved great success by participating in groups like Marriage Encounter or Retrouvaille. I encourage you to contact your pastor or a diocesan representative about what programs they recommend to help you take the first step towards reconciliation.
I also encourage you to use the sacrament of confession as you work through your difficulties.
To a great extent, making progress with your finances will depend on achieving a sense of unity and common purpose. Once that is done, you can take the basic steps needed to create a solid financial plan, taking all the family's priorities into account. Most important, Christ will now be the foundation of your decisions. You are in our prayers.
God love you!
Phil Lenahan is vice president of Catholic Answers.
Reach Family Matters at familymatters@ncregister.com
----- EXCERPT: Family Matters ----- EXTENDED BODY: Phil Lenahan ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: They Come From All Political Stripes DATE: 04/16/2000 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 16-22, 2000 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON - Nat Hentoff is an atheist. He writes for New York City's left-wing newspaper, The Village Voice.
And he's a champion of the unborn child.
“It makes sense unless you categorize people,” Hentoff told the Register. But he admitted that his ilk is rare among the left-wing media. “I still may be the only pro-life writer The Village Voice has ever had.”
Hentoff embraces the late Cardinal Joseph Bernadin's “seamless garment” philosophy, which recognizes what he calls a “consistent ethic of life,” opposed to both executions and abortions.
His strong defense of the unborn earned him recognition as a “Remarkable Pro-Life Man” from the Washington-based Feminists for Life, a group Hentoff called “the most significant civil rights organization of our day.”
Chris Smith: Congressman
Feminists for Life also praised Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., who works hard in Congress on legislation to promote adoption, protect women against domestic violence and save women and children from the international sex slave industry.
But his staunch defense of the unborn has led many in the pro-life movement to consider the 10-term congressman and former director of New Jersey Right to Life as a “pro-life statesman.”
“Partial-birth abortion is a gross violation of human rights - a barbarous form of torture directed against a defenseless girl or boy,” Smith told the Register. “This is a practice that if done two minutes later and one inch further, would legally be considered murder. This is murder.”
But not all men recognized by Feminists for Life are celebrities or politicians.
George Paci: Regular Guy
Case in point: computer programmer and pro-life activist George Paci.
Raised in a Democratic Catholic family that didn't switch positions on abortion in the 1970s, Paci always thought abortion was an affront to humanity.
“It's not that you can't kill because you are Catholic,” Paci told the Register. “You can't kill because it's wrong.”
While attending Cornell University, he volunteered at his college's pro-life group and was instrumental in forming the Ivy League Coalition for Life in 1991. For the last eight years he has worked diligently to promote American Collegians for Life, where he currently sits as chairman of the board.
His organization works in concert with Feminists for Life's college outreach program.
“Students go to college with pro-life beliefs and leave pro-choice. We really have to get in there and fight the cookie-cutter pro-abort orthodoxy,” said Paci. “The Feminist for Life's outreach program is excellent: It's focused on college students and the specific problem they have.”
You can actually be simultaneously liberal and pro-life. It's just lonesome.
— Mark Shields
Feminists for Life, established in 1972, provides educational information and resources to over 200 colleges across the country. They also spread the message that the early feminists like Susan B.
Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton opposed abortion. In fact, Alice Paul, who authored the first Equal Rights Amendment, said in 1923, “Abortion is the ultimate exploitation of women.”
The organization works hard to build a coalition from all sides of the spectrum.
“It's not about liberal or conservative, Republican or Democrat,” Serrin Foster, the organization's president, told the Register. “It's about recognizing women's equality and honoring women's life-giving capacity. These men refuse to choose between women and children, while working to ensure better options,” she said. “These men truly deserve the recognition that Feminists for Life is proud to give them.”
Comedians, Columnists, Clergy
The list of Remarkable Pro-Life Men honors that goal of reaching across the entire political spectrum.
Matching an atheist, Nat Hentoff, is a Catholic priest, Father Richard John Neuhaus. Conservative Ben Stein supports Republican candidates and defends supply-side economics, while liberal Martin Sheen stumps for Democrats and protests nuclear proliferation. But they both oppose abortion and capital punishment.
Said Ben Stein, “We have to tell women that we love them even if they are unwed, even if they are poor, even if they are young.” Responsibility for defending life doesn't rest on women alone, he said. “Real men stay with their families,” said the actor best-known for his role as the teacher who repeats in monotone, “Bueller,” in “Ferris Bueller's Day Off.”
Conservative columnist George Will, well established for his defense of the unborn, turned heads when he wrote against the death penalty recently. “Capital punishment, like the rest of the criminal justice system, is a government program, so skepticism is in order.”
Likewise surprising is liberal columnist Mark Shields' defense of the unborn. In the Washington Post a few years ago, he wrote, “You can actually be simultaneously liberal and pro-life. It's just lonesome.” But that might change. “The orthodox Democratic position is not only ‘intolerant,’” he said, “it is losing political support.”
Other recipients of the Feminists for Life honors were Rev. John S. Walker of Christian Friendship Missionary Baptist Church in Henrietta, N.Y.; Rep. Dale Kildee, R-Mich.; Rep. John LaFalce, D-N.Y.; Rep. Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va.; former Pennsylvania Gov. Robert Casey (now deceased); Joel Brind of Baruch College of the City University of New York; Hadley Arkes of Amherst College; Jim Towey, founder of Aging With Dignity; law clerk Peter Wolfgang; and student pro-life activist Bryan Amburn of St. Mary's University in Winona, Minn.
Joshua Mercer writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: Feminists for Life's remarkable pro-life men ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Life Notes DATE: 04/16/2000 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: April 16-22, 2000 ----- BODY:Overthrowing the Gladiators
Chicago Tribune, June 20 - The Roman Colosseum, once the killing grounds for gladiators and wild beasts, became an international symbol for opposition to the death penalty during the Jubilee Year.
“Every time someone in the world was spared execution or a country did away with the death penalty, the white lights that normally illuminate the Colosseum were switched to gold,” reported the Chicago Tribune.
The golden lights burned 14 times during the Jubilee Year.
The Colosseum was bathed in golden light for the first time in 2001 on the evening of June 19 to celebrate Chile's abolition of capital punishment. The Vatican joins the United Nations and the city of Rome in sponsoring the Colosseum campaign.
Woman Rejects Fundraising
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, June 22 - When Deby Schlapprizzi was asked to organize the 2001 Heart Ball for the American Heart Association's St. Louis chapter, she prayed and tackled the job with gusto.
Then, just as she was getting started, she stopped because the Heart Association's board had endorsed research using embryonic stem cells. That was intolerable to Schlapprizzi, a devout Catholic, reported the Wall Street Journal.
Her Heart Ball committee disbanded, and planning for the event went on indefinite hold. Schlapprizzi's defection led to a wrenching debate inside the Heart Association, beginning in the St. Louis chapter and spreading to the national board.
St. Louis Archbishop Justin Rigali became involved when he denounced stem-cell research as immoral in his own letter to the association's national office and vowed “to discourage Catholics from supporting the AHA.”
Last fall, the Heart Association did change its policy to the chagrin of some scientists but to the delight of Schlapprizzi who then helped raise more than $400,000 at the Heart Ball in February.
Planned Parenthood Loss?
ASSOCIATED PRESS, June 21 - Planned Parenthood could lose millions of state and federal dollars under a bill debated by a Michigan House committee that restricts funds for family planning, reported the Associated Press.
Pro-abortion activists attacked legislation that would give groups that don't advocate abortion priority to federal or state funding for family planning. They said it would hurt Planned Parenthood's ability to help low-income women, reported the Associated Press.
The state Department of Community Health this year doled out $15.8 million in state and federal funds for groups that provide family planning services, with Planned Parenthood receiving $3.5 million of it, reported the Associated Press.
Jansen said the family planning funding wouldn't be cut under his bill. It would only prioritize which organizations get funding.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life ----- TITLE: Cause Introduced for Diana's Kin DATE: 07/15/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 15-21, 2001 ----- BODY:LONDON — When millions of Britains were convulsed with uncharacteristic public grief on the death of Diana Princess of Wales in 1997, some media pundits called her as a “saint.”
Yet the Spencers may have a real saint in the family.
As thousands of visitors flock this July to Althorp House, approximately 50 miles north-east of London, for the annual exhibition on the life of Diana, the final preparations were being made after a nine-year investigation to send a mini-library of documents to Rome for the cause of Father Ignatius Spencer, a Passionist Friar and great-great-great uncle of the tragic princess.
The Diana exhibition, on the estate where she is buried, re-opened July 1 on what would have been her 40th birthday, and for the last three years has attracted many of those who mourn Diana at her various “shrines.”
But a little country church on another part of the estate may one day have its own pilgrims — devotees of Father Spencer, who as Rev. George Spencer was its Anglican parson before his conversion to the Catholic faith in 1830.
Passionist Father Hubert Condron, vice-postulator for the cause, told the Register that the diocesan investigation was nearly over and seven volumes of Father Spencer's diaries were due to be sent to Rome along with his extensive collection of letters.
“It is a matter of months now,” he said, adding that the final hearing by the tribunal set up by the Archdiocese of Liverpool would be held shortly.
Passionist Father Ben Lodge, who has had the laborious task of painstakingly transcribing the would-be saint's diaries, said they reveal an extremely dedicated priest but also his humanity.
“He comes across as an obsessive person, he keeps very detailed lists,” Father Lodge said, adding that the diaries also reveal a vibrant missionary spirit. “Ignatius Spencer is always looking for an opportunity to spread the Gospel, often preaching five or six times a day.
“There is a record of his famous three-day missions in Ireland” he added, “where he kept going for seven months without a break.”
His eventual vocation as a mendi-cant friar was an eternity removed from his family background.
Born in 1799 to one of England's most influential families — his father was First Lord of the Admiralty — like many other younger sons of aristocratic birth he planned to become an Anglican cleric.
Father Spencer, who was also closely related to Sir Winston Churchill, mocked the Catholic Church in his youth but later crossed the Tiber, turning his back on a high-society lifestyle and an annual stipend of what today would be approximately $150,000.
Graduating from Cambridge and in no hurry to be ordained, he undertook a Grand European Tour, as was customary for those at the pinnacle of Britain's gentry.
Imbued with the prevailing anti-papism of Anglicans of the day, he said of a visit to an Italian Catholic Church, “There was all around the building incense burning. The priest saying anthems all the time [there was] a quantity of mummery — the sight of which might well have driven Calvin to the extremities which he went to.”
However, his own spiritual conversion came in Paris at a performance of the opera Don Giovanni, in which Mozart's lead character is dragged off to hell in the grand finale. “As I saw this scene I was terrified at my own state,” he recalled.
This made him a serious-minded Anglican cleric who lived a very simple lifestyle, even giving all his clothes and money to hobos.
Searching for an adequate expression of his fortified faith, he tried both the Anglo-Catholic and Evangelical wings of the Anglican Church but in the 1820s became influenced by a small group of local Catholics.
In January 1830 he became a Catholic, a move described by his family as an “unmixed evil,” and almost immediately embarked on studies for the priesthood.
After being ordained, he worked tirelessly as a dedicated pastor and confessor for his working class flock in Birmingham, and as an instructor of converts.
Patron of Cricket?
His only relaxation was cricket — for which he admitted a “mania” — and more than one British Catholic writer has suggested that he will become the game's patron saint.
Father Spencer had always entertained the radical idea of religious life, and in 1846 he joined the Passionists due largely of his friendship with Blessed Dominic Barberi, who he met in Rome. Barberi was the Italian friar who got to fulfill St. Paul of the Cross' vision of evangelizing England and who received Cardinal John Henry Newman into the Catholic Church. Father Spencer took the religious name Ignatius.
The Passionists were dedicated to retreats and preaching and their Italian founder, St. Paul of the Cross, had a vision that his order would one day re-evangelize England.
Because of his family background Father Spencer gained extraordinary access to the political leaders of his day including the British prime ministers William Gladstone and Lord Henry John Palmerston, Emperor Franz Joseph of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Napoleon III of France.
“The Spencers were a famous family long before Diana. Father Ignatius was always a figure of social prominence,” explained Father Condron. “Wherever he would go he was a central figure.
“But I think his holiness is summed up by incidents such as the time he was invited to a big occasion but did not go because he was looking after a poor, dying woman and he wanted to see her safely into her heavenly home.”
As millions worldwide watched the funeral of Diana, devotees of Father Spencer were transfixed as her younger brother Charles, now the ninth Earl Spencer, gave a eulogy from the pulpit. That's because the current earl has the distinctive Spencer jowls, evident in drawings of the priest.
And although Charles Spencer is not a Catholic — unlike his and Diana's mother, who converted in 1994 — he has taken a keen interest in his relative. David Fawkes, a spokesman for the earl, said he would not comment on the canonization cause but noted the fact that Charles Spencer devoted a whole chapter to Father Spencer in his book on his family's history.
Father Spencer is not buried in the family seat but at the church of St. Anne and Blessed Dominic in St. Helens, near Liverpool in northwest England.
He is buried alongside Blessed Dominic Barberi and Mother Mary Prout, founder of the Sisters of the Cross and Passion, whose cause has also been launched.
Father Spencer's time as a priest coincided with what English Catholic historians called “The Second Spring.”
The Church revived in 19th century Britain, due to a combination of the relaxation of punitive laws, the arrival of Irish immigrants, high profile Anglican converts like Cardinal Newman and the restoration of the hierarchy in 1850.
A whole constellation of priests, sisters and bishops helped this revival in the mid-19th century and Michael Hodgetts, historian at the prestigious Maryvale Institute in Birmingham, said Father Spencer is “part of this galaxy.”
Said Hodgetts, “Father Spencer was not as influential as Newman, who may well become a doctor of the Church if he is canonized, but he is still a very substantial figure along with people such as Blessed Dominic.”
Along with his love of the poor, Father Spencer's other great preoccupations were the conversion of England and the unity of all Christians. In fact, the Vatican Web site entry for the Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity cites Father Spencer as one of forerunners of the prayer for unity.
And as his great-great-great nephew Charles, the current Earl Spencer, explains in his book The Spencer Family, his saintly forefather had one other quest.
“He had one final ambition, revealed more than two decades before: He wanted to die like Jesus, without any care or fuss from his fellow man,” wrote Princess Di's brother. “As he said himself, ‘How beautiful it would be to die in a ditch, unseen and unknown.’ It was, eerily, to be a wish that was granted almost down to the final detail.”
A Selfless Death
Father Spencer gave his last mission between Sept. 27 and Oct. 1, 1864, in southern Scotland. During a stop afterward on the way to Edinburgh he decided to pay a visit to an old friend.
A hundred yards down the road he collapsed and died in a ditch.
And, Father Lodge explained, he also shared in the Lord's agony: “When his friend came to see him dead in the ditch he barely recognized him, his face was so distorted with pain.”
Paul Burnell writes from Manchester, England.
Parish Visitors of Mary Immaculate
----- EXCERPT: Saint in the Family? ----- EXTENDED BODY: Paul Burnell ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Despite Vatican Orders, Cathedral Remake Is On DATE: 07/15/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 15-21, 2001 ----- BODY:MILWAUKEE — An apparent victory for opponents of a $4.5 million renovation of the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist here has been tempered by Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland's response to a Vatican directive telling him to revise the plan.
In a June 30 letter to the archbishop, Cardinal Jorge Medina, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, cited “the incongruity of the proposed floor plan with the architectural structure of the church” as a “serious obstacle” to approving the renovation. Cardinal Medina remanded the plan to the archbishop asking him to rework it in accord with canonical and liturgical requirements.
The letter listed four areas of concern: plans to place an organ in the cathedral's apse and the altar in the central nave, relocation of the tabernacle to the baptistry to create a Blessed Sacrament chapel, the reduction in number of confessionals from four to two, and the use of images of persons “whose cult has not received the necessary approval and extension in law by the Holy See.”
The archdiocese said the cardinal's mention of artwork “not consistent with requirements in canon law” may have referred to a plan that since has been abandoned. It would have included such images as those of Mother Teresa, Archbishop Oscar Romero and Martin Luther King Jr., in an ambulatory near the cathedral.
Archbishop Weakland, who received the cardinal's letter July 2 and replied to it the same day, has said that the congregation's concerns were minor and able to be dealt with in a single response, which he has declined to make public.
Jerry Topczewski, archdiocesan spokesman, said the archbishop has retained canon lawyer Martha Wegan to explore options that could include appealing to the Apostolic Signatura, the supreme court of the Church. “He felt he needed to make sure he was protecting his rights as a bishop.”
Full Speed Ahead?
Opponents of the renovation project initially were euphoric over news that the Vatican had responded to their concerns. “But we certainly we got brought back down to earth rather quickly when we found out the archdiocese was interpreting this letter ... as full speed ahead,” said Al Szews, a leader of the effort to stop the renovation.
“This letter, it seems to me, gave [Archbishop Weakland] a great opportunity to save face,” Szews said “It was a respectful letter to him. It pointed out some things that ought to be changed and it does come from an authoritative source. ... [The archbishop] should have gracefully said, ‘I will indeed respect your suggestions and get another plan.’”
Alan Kershaw, the canon lawyer representing the Milwaukee renovation opponents in Rome, told Catholic News Service he expected to file a petition with the Congregation for Bishops seeking action against what he called Archbishop Weakland's “straight-out defiance of what was ordered.”
He said the congregation's action, which was taken after he filed a request for investigation and intervention, reflects the verification of violations by the archdiocese of liturgical norms and canon law.
Father John Huels, a canon lawyer based at St. Paul University in Ottawa, said Cardinal Medina's letter seems to indicate that Archbishop Weakland “is being told he must reconsider and he must restudy the issue.” Although the archbishop is not being instructed to do this in a specific way, Father Huels said, the implication is “we expect you to reconsider in light of these laws and get back to us with how these laws are being observed or not.”
Father Huels said he has never heard of the Vatican intervening in a church renovation case, but he said the congregation may have acted out of concern for the rights of the faithful as spelled out in the 1983 revised Code of Canon Law.
Members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement of support for Archbishop Weakland on July 3, expressing sadness that the disagreement has not been settled. Topczewski said the archbishop also has had expressions of support from Cardinals Bernard Law of Boston, Francis George of Chicago and Roger Mahony of Los Angeles.
“I think he feels satisfied that the bishops are behind him in how he's handled himself,” Topczewski said. “I'm sure that's comforting to him.”
Meanwhile, work on the cathedral project continues, including the dismantling of the baldacchino mentioned in Cardinal Medina's letter.
“It would seem to this congregation that the ancient and venerable high altar together with its baldacchino should be retained,” the cardinal's letter states, “given also that it is a most suitable location for the reservation of the Most Blessed Sacrament.”
Topczewski said Archbishop Weakland is allowing the dismantling based on an opinion he secured from the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Heritage of the Church, which he said concurred that the structure had no great value as a piece of artwork and did not need to be preserved.
In citing the baldacchino in his letter, Topczewski said, Cardinal Medina was not dealing with a point of law, meaning the matter can be left to the local bishop. Parts of the baldacchino are to be used in a corona that is to be placed over the new altar.
The cardinal's letter also said relocating the tabernacle to the baptistry does not fulfill the requirement in canon law that it be in a conspicuous place. Nor, the letter said, is the baptistry large enough to accommodate those who might wish to pray privately before the Blessed Sacrament as required in the General Instruction of the Roman Missal. However, Topczewski said the archbishop believes the chapel is sufficiently conspicuous.
“It would be hard to make that judgment for someone who has not been there to look at it, “Topczewski said. “The entry into the baptistry is directly across from what will become one of the main entryways into the church so as you walk in, you will see the doorway to the chapel and the vigil light there.”
The Archdiocese of Milwaukee says it has received encouragement from the U.S. bishops and several U.S. cardinals.
Topczewski said the cardinal also had the dimensions of the baptistry wrong in his letter and that the actual space is twice as large as he stated.
As for the cardinal's concerns about locating a “new and visually imposing organ in what is the clear natural focal point of the cathedral,” Topczewski said, “There are ways we think that could be handled and certainly still be well within the integrity of the plan ... Certainly, [Archbishop Weakland] believes it is well within the law and some minor changes might enhance it. He's willing to look at those, but clearly, it is his judgment to make those decisions.”
Cardinal Medina also said in his letter that the two reconciliation chapels in the plan seemed insufficient to meet the needs of the faithful. Topczewski said of the four existing confessionals in the cathedral, only two are used and that the new chapels can be expanded if needed. Currently, he said, the two confessionals provide adequate access to the sacrament.
Renovations Critics
Opponents of renovation projects in Petoskey, Mich., and Rochester, N.Y., where groups are fighting similar battles, said they were heartened by the Vatican's action in the Milwaukee case.
“We're certainly encouraged by this ruling,” said Tim Ehlen, chairman of the St. Francis Xavier Guild, which also has engaged Kershaw in its fight to save the Petoskey church.
The Rochester cathedral plan, like Milwaukee's, is the work of the well-known liturgical design consultant Father Richard Vosko of Albany, N.Y. Father Vosko said he had no comment on the developments in Milwaukee.
Michael Brennan was less reti-cent. He operates a Web site that disseminates information on the effort to stop the renovation of Sacred Heart Cathedral in Rochester. “I don't think Cardinal Medina could have done any more in support of the faithful in this country than what his letter did.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Judy Roberts ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: California Catholics' Catch-22: Break Church or State Law DATE: 07/15/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 15-21, 2001 ----- BODY:SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A panel of three federal judges dealt another blow to Catholic Charities of Sacramento in its fight against mandatory contraception coverage.
On July 2, a three-judge panel of the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that California's mandatory contraception-coverage law applied to Catholic institutions.
The ruling comes quickly after a June 12 ruling in Seattle that left some question as to whether Catholic institutions would be expected to follow contraceptive coverage laws.
Federal judge Arthur G. Scotland, writing for the three-judge panel, acknowledged that the latest decision was putting Catholic institutions in a bind. he wrote, “the statutes present Catholic Charities with the dilemma of either refusing to provide health insurance coverage for its employees or facilitating the sin of contraception, both of which violate its religious beliefs.”
The new California statute mandating contraception that triggered the court case does have a religious-institution “conscience clause” exemption, but it is drafted so narrowly that organizations only qualify if they meet three conditions: Their primary purpose must be to teach religion, their employees must be primarily of the same religion as the organization, and they must serve primarily members of their own faith.
Father Michael Kiernan, chief executive officer of Catholic Charities of Sacramento, noted that such a definition of “religious” excludes large sectors of Catholic apostolate. “When our people go out to help someone in need ... we're doing it because the love of God and the love of Jesus impels us.”
Alan Brownstein, a professor of law at the University of California, Davis, called the California statute's definition of religious “truly extraordinary.”
Brownstein said, “Let's suppose you were a missionary group. You only hired people of your own faith, your purpose was the inculcation of your faith, but you obviously don't serve only people of your own faith, because the whole purpose of being a missionary is conversion. Under this standard you wouldn't be protected!”
He added, “It's odd that the government is sending the message that we'll only protect you if you discriminate.”
Catholic Charities is still considering whether and how it will appeal the decision. Carol Hogan, a spokeswoman for the California Catholic Conference, said, “The opinion contains incorrect information that is presented as fact.”
As an example, she cited the court's ruling that “they saw no difference between the California State Constitution's guarantee of religious freedom and the federal Constitution. That is refuted by a number of decisions by the California state court in which it has been explicitly said that the California guarantee of religious freedom is broader.”
Hogan added that the issue of “what is religious” was central. The legislature, she said, “basically wanted to sever the Catholic Church into different parts. The legislature was laboring under the impression that ‘church’ meant ‘church in the congregational model,’ the little group of people that got together in a building for Sunday services.
“That's not the Catholic understanding of church,” she said. “The Catholic understanding is much broader. It's hierarchical.”
It was this concern for the right of religious groups to define their activities that led some evangelical Protestants and Seventh-Day Adventists to join Catholic Charities in their legal action. Hogan pointed out, “Seventh-Day Adventists don't have the same teaching on contraception. This case is not on contraceptives, it's on religious freedom.”
But Kathy Kneer, president of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, said that an appeal would be unlikely to succeed. “The court made it very clear that [Catholic Charities'] arguments were not sufficient or substantiated,” said Kneer, whose organization coordinated and lobbied heavily for the contraception-coverage bill that is now law.
“It treated all religions the same,” Kneer said. “And the purpose of the law, ending gender discrimination, was secular, therefore it did not violate religious freedom.”
Kneer added that the law would have been constitutional even if it hadn't exempted religious institutions at all, because “the state has a legitimate interest to protect the health of all Californians.”
Said Kneer, “A broader exemption would have meant an erosion for the goal of equity for women employees and spouses.”
But James Sweeney, an attorney for Catholic Charities, said that the legislative debate surrounding the California bill showed a “lack of neutrality” due to “a long and sad history that shows that the Catholic Church was held up to ridicule on the floor” of the legislature as it debated the bill.
Hogan dismissed the claim that its anti-contraceptive policy was sex discrimination. Unlike the contraceptive-coverage case in Seattle, “Catholic Charities does not provide contraception for women or men. We don't provide vasectomies for men.”
During the legislative debates on the bill, Hogan said, “we heard a lot” about the fact that many Catholics neither follow nor agree with the Church's teaching on contraception.
But legally, she said, “It's neither here nor there whether people adhere to it or not. It is a bona fide teaching of the Church.”
She explained, “For instance, we know that the Jewish religion forbids the eating of pork. But we all know some Jews eat pork. What if it was decided that for the good of the public all delis, whether they were owned by Jewish people or not, had to serve pork? Wouldn't there be a hue and cry?”
Brownstein agreed. “I'm Jewish,” he said. “We have Reform Jews, Orthodox Jews, Conservative Jews and plenty of Jews who go their own way.” But, he said, courts could not ask religious believers to adhere to “a particular model of your faith” in order to win protection of religious freedom.
Moreover, Brownstein added, “Religion is one of the things that isn't decided by majority vote,” so the court could not determine what constitutes the Catholic faith by citing polls of what Catholics believe.
Planned Parenthood's Kneer said that Catholic Charities had created a “paradox” for itself, by rejecting a potential escape route in which Catholic Charities would refuse to provide any prescription health benefits but would give employees extra pay in lieu of benefits.
Calling Kneer's argument “yet another Planned Parenthood red herring,” Sweeney replied, “That does not work actuarially. It's very expensive and very difficult for me to go out and purchase a health plan for myself. It costs me roughly twice what it would cost me in a group.”
Another such “way out,” Sweeney noted, would be for an employer to “refuse to serve anyone who isn't Catholic or employ anyone who isn't Catholic — but that would run into employment discrimination” law.
“You're in a catch-22,” he concluded.
No one at Catholic Charities is talking about what they will do if the Sacramento decision is not overturned on appeal. Slashing preventative health benefits entirely “is not a choice,” Hogan said — but what if it's the only way to avoid covering contraception?
Said Hogan, “We're proceeding on the idea that when we get to the right court, our concerns about the imposition on religious freedom will be heard.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Voice for a Generation of Survivors DATE: 07/15/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 15-21, 2001 ----- BODY:What does the daughter of a pro-life leader do when she's pregnant and unmarried?
Cathy Brown, Director of American Life League's Youth Outreach program, told Register features correspondent Tim Drake her story.
Is it possible for someone to be the daughter of Judie Brown and not be involved in the pro-life movement?
No, all of us are involved to one extent or another, so I would say she did a very good job raising us. My younger sister takes pictures at ALL [that is, American Life League] events, and my older brother runs a printing plant and does some of ALL's printing.
What was it like growing up as the daughter of a leader in the pro-life movement?
We grew up with a lot of the people who are heroes in the movement now. Father Paul Marx lived in our house for six months when I was a little girl. Father Dennis O'Brien, who is ALL's spiritual director, visited our home for lengthy stays all throughout my childhood. I've known Joe Scheidler and Mildred Jefferson since I was a child. It was neat for us because as children we saw them as regular people and then you grow up and they are heroes. I respect and admire them greatly.
My parents would take us with them everywhere they went. I remember being on tour in Rome with Joe Scheidler. He went out really early one morning and buried Roman coins in the ground. Then he took us out and had us dig to find the coins. For 12 years I thought I had a coin that was worth a lot of money when it reality it was worth 25 cents.
ALL was founded at our kitchen table. As it grew, it moved to the basement. We would come home from school and help open the mail. Aside from college, all of my life I've been either volunteering or working with ALL. I'm so thankful for having grown up in a family like that. We are all grounded and can articulate the arguments.
How did ALL's youth division come about?
ALL has always had some kind of youth program, but in the past it has been a back-burner project if we had extra money. Someone might work in the accounting department, but in their spare time they wrote youth articles because they were young.
When I came to work for ALL fulltime my son was 3 years old. Being a single mom, I knew what it was like to go through pregnancy alone and I saw the need to reach out to young people and have that consistent education.
Having experienced that myself drove that home more. My family took me in and took care of me, but I knew many other young people that didn't have that kind of help or support. My heart went out to them.
Being on a college campus, being pregnant, not being married and being shunned a little, I could see how easy it would be for someone who didn't know, to consent to having an abortion just so that they wouldn't have people talking about them behind their back. Once I started working full time, I started pushing for ALL to get more involved. We would get letters from young people that just broke your heart. So Mark DeYoung and I got together and prepared a proposal. We took it to the board and they said, “Great let's go for it.”
Is that when you started Rock for Life?
Later we met up with Rock for Life's Erick Whittington and Bryan Kemper. They had a vision, but no money. They were good activists and were able to get kids motivated. We were good at putting together educational materials. So putting these two groups together has been an incredible combination. When kids leave the concerts they are on fire for life and want more information, so we give them Reality Check.
The newsletter gives them ideas on how to be activists. It might explain the boycott process or explain how purchasing a ticket for Lilith Fair actually contributes $1 to Planned Parenthood. We show them how that contributes overall to the cultural climate.
Is there a secret to reaching youth with a pro-life message?
We are dealing with a generation of kids that has questioned everything, so we know that that element is there and we use it. We ask them to question what they are being taught about abortion and birth control.
They like “in-your-face” information. We're age-appropriate, but we don't hold the truth back from them. We do not compromise. We say that this is the truth and this is why you need to live your life this way. Many will come up to us afterwards and say, “Thank you. No one has ever presented this to us in this way.”
We also try to make it very personal for them. This is a generation of kids that survived life in the womb. They were all born after 1973 and their lives were threatened whether they knew it or not. So we make sure they understand that one-third of their generation is gone. These are people who would have been their classmates, their friends, and their dates for the senior prom. Who knows who these people were, but they most certainly would have impacted their lives.
We tell them they should be personally offended because it's their brothers, sisters, cousins and friends that have been aborted.
What is the goal of ALL's youth division?
Our goal is to build leaders. The youth are the present of the pro-life movement. That is why it is important to educate them now. They are in the battleground. The girls who are having abortions are in their schools, their youth groups, and their communities. We need to make sure that youth are prepared to courageously defend the truth, so we train youth to understand the history of the movement, how we got to where we are today, and where we are headed.
I understand that ALL will be presenting nearly 100,000 signatures from pro-life youth to Congressman Mark Kennedy?
Yes, this was Bryan Kemper, of Rock for Life's idea. Rock for Choice had c o l l e c t e d 50,000 signatures from teen-agers who said they were pro-choice, so Bryan's idea was to gather 100,000. To date, we have collected more than 75,000 from pro-life teens. Those will be presented to Minnesota Congressman Mark Kennedy during Friday's Rock for Life concert with Audio Adrenaline.
We are hoping that Congressman Kennedy will take these messages from young people back to Congress. These are youth who will soon be of voting age and they are tired of being lied to and being hurt. They are the ones who are suffering.
Before 1960 and sex education, there were only two common sexually transmitted diseases. Today there are more than 30, and hundreds of strains of those.
One in four sexually active teens has an STD. They are suffering from STDs, from post-abortion syndrome, and from the inability to develop healthy relationships. They do not want the generations who come after them to be hurt as they have been hurt. That is the message that is being presented to Congress.
Can you share how the work of ALL's youth division has impacted individuals?
We get, on average, about three to four letters per week from teens who thank us for our work and our consistent message. We've had letters from teen girls that decided not to have an abortion because of our newsletter or an Abortion is Mean T-shirt.
We also get letters from adults and priests who have used Reality Check in counseling teens. We have had babies that have been saved through e-mail correspondence. We've even had phone calls from teens who call us from the lunchroom at school.
They'll say, “I've got 15 minutes. I just found out that my friend is going to have an abortion. I'm on my lunch break. What can I do or say?” This shows the sad state we are at culturally. Kids should be able to enjoy their baloney sandwich, yet they spend their lunchtime scared because they've heard that a friend is going to have an abortion.
These are the things youth have to face in schools today. There are some real heroic kids out there.
Information
Find American Life League's Youth Division at:
www.all.org
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Cathy Brown ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Canadian Tribunal Says Bible-based Ad Is 'Hate Speech' DATE: 07/15/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 15-21, 2001 ----- BODY:SASKATOON, Saskatchewan — The province of Saskatchewan's Human Rights Commission ruled last month that public reference to the Bible can be “hate speech.”
The Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission June 19 ordered both the Saskatoon StarPhoenix newspaper and Hugh Owens of Regina, Saskatchewan, to pay $1,500 to three homosexual activists for publishing an ad with biblical references to verses condemning homosexuality.
The ruling also prohibits Christian activist Owens from “further publishing or displaying the bumper stickers” upon which his newspaper ad was based.
On June 30, 1997, Owens placed an ad in the StarPhoenix, on the occasion of the city of Saskatoon's Homosexual Pride Week. His ad listed four Bible references followed by an equal sign and the universal prohibition sign (circle with slash) containing two stick-men holding hands (see photo).
In its decision against Owens and the StarPhoenix, the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission judged that, “while the stick-figures are more neutral,” it is precisely the “combination of the prohibition symbol with the Bible passages that exposes homosexuals to hatred.”
The three homosexual activists had filed a complaint with the human rights commission, noting that provincial and federal human rights codes both include “sexual orientation” as a protected category.
In the commission's hearing of the complaint, Catholic, Lutheran and Jewish representatives testified about the biblical perspective on homosexuality. But a witness for the complainants, Rev. Brent Hawkes of Toronto's Metropolitan Community Church (who recently tried to circumvent Canadian law by “marrying” two homosexual couples) testified that the Bible does not in fact condemn homosexuality. He also called religions like Catholicism and Judaism “extreme,” and branded fundamentalists as “satanic.”
In its ruling, the commission conceded that Owens, an evangelical Christian, was “publicly expressing his honestly held religious belief.” However, it ruled, the provincial human rights code can place “reasonable restriction” on his free expression, since the ad exposed the complainants “to hatred, ridicule, and their dignity was affronted on the basis of their sexual orientation.”
Catholic Perspective
Father Paul Donlevy, vicar general for the Diocese of Saskatoon, was called to testify before the commission on behalf of the Catholic faith. He testified that the Church understands sexual orientation may not be chosen, but nevertheless “every person is called to holiness … and homosexuals are called to the same sexual morality as any other unmarried people.”
“All I said was a variation on ‘hate the sin but love the sinner,’” Father Donlevy told the Register. But for his pains, he was berated by both the homosexual litigants and later by a conservative lobby group, who called him “a lackey of the Human Rights Commission.”
“I certainly hope this decision is appealed,” Father Donlevy said. “It's a great concern that simply referring to biblical scriptures can be called hate speech. Soon, we'll be so politically correct, we won't be able to preach.”
Homosexual litigant Gens Hellquist said he was “certainly pleased” with the tribunal's decision. “There are standards for what's fair comment regarding Jews and racial minorities, and now the commission has set standards on fair comment regarding homosexuals,” Hellquist said.
The appeal to religious freedom is “a common ploy with the right wing,” Hellquist said, but religious freedom is “not a real issue here,” since “not everyone interprets those verses the same way.”
Said Hellquist, “People are free to interpret the Bible any way they want in their own lives, but [they cannot use] that interpretation to create a climate of hate and intolerance. Owens' agenda is really scary. He didn't say it in so many words, but he really believes that judges [following Leviticus] should put homosexuals to death.”
For his part, Owens, 50, single and a career corrections officer, says he placed the ad in the newspaper as “a Christian response” to Homosexual Pride Week.
“I put the biblical references, but not the actual verses, so the ad would become interactive,” he said. “I figured somebody would have to look them up in the Bible first, or if they didn't have a Bible, they'd have to find one.”
Owens denies that, as a Christian, he wants homosexuals put to death. But he does believe that “eternal salvation is at stake,” both for those engaging in homosexual acts and for himself, if he fails to inform them about “what God says about their behavior.” He dismisses the possibility of “alternative interpretations” of the Bible as “simply the old secular-humanist stand-by” argument.
Religious Freedom
Owens believes his case is clearly a collision between religious freedom and sexual orientation rights. He is planning to appeal the decision, and thinks his case may end up before the Supreme Court of Canada.
John McKellar, president of Toronto-based Homosexuals Opposed to Pride Extremism, calls the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission ruling a “five-star bloodbath.” He thinks homosexual militants are now “pots calling kettles black” in suppressing supposed religious intolerance.
“The major media are all non-stop advertisements for the homosexual lifestyle, so how far are they prepared to go in denying free speech to Christians, Muslims and Jews?” said McKellar.
“No major world religion has ever accepted homosexual behavior,” McKellar said. “And if [homosexual] activists had any sense of history, they'd realize their own lifestyle is a symptom of an over-urbanized, relativized culture heading into decadence.”
McKellar believes that, as in Weimar Germany, Canada's state-sponsored decadence is fuelling an inevitable “political cataclysm,” in which “we [homosexuals] are always the first to be purged” by the very state agencies that previously promoted them.
Meanwhile, in Ontario, Toronto printer Scott Brockie is preparing to go to trial at the superior court level, after losing two hearings before human rights tribunals.
Brockie's transgression was refusing to print stationery for the local Homosexual and Lesbian Archives. He had previously done printing jobs for homosexuals, but he judged that printing stationery for an advocacy group would constitute a personal endorsement of their lifestyle, contrary to his Christian faith.
If he loses his appeals and faces a judicial order to serve homosexual activism, Brockie has said he will surrender his business rather than comply.
Joe Woodard writes from Calgary, Alberta.
Knights Give Millions of Dollars and Hours to Charity
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joe Woodard ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 07/15/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 15-21, 2001 ----- BODY:Texas Jail's ‘God Pod’ Ruled Unconstitutional
THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS, June 29 — A unit in the Tarrant County, Texas, jail was dismantled after the Texas Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional, the Dallas daily reported.
The Chaplain's Education Unit, which inmates called the “God Pod,” separated inmates into an area where they studied the Bible.
Instructors were not allowed to discuss other religions, and the only opportunities for group religious study in the jail used a Christian curriculum approved by the sheriff. The court ruled that a jail cannot offer only programs that match the sheriff's religion.
House Hears Testimony on Chinese Organ-Snatching
THE VILLAGE VOICE, July 3 — Thomas Diflo, director of renal transplant surgery at New York University Medical Center, testified before a House of Representatives subcommittee about patients who told him they had received organs from executed Chinese prisoners, the New York weekly reported.
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., has drafted a bill to ban Chinese physicians from entering the United States for transplantation training. Diflo criticized the bill for preventing doctors from learning.
However, human rights advocate Harry Wu said that since the bulk of China's organ supply comes from prisoners, few innocent doctors would be affected by the bill.
The Washington Post reported that a Chinese doctor seeking political asylum in the United States said that as a physician in China, he removed corneas and skin from over 100 executed prisoners.
Dr. Wang Guoqi said that his hospital sold the organs for enormous profits. In 1995, he said that he and other doctors removed kidneys and carved the skin from a prisoner while he was still alive. Wang was also invited to testify before the House of Representatives.
Catholic TV Station Tunes In Families
PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, July 2 — Familyland Television Network, a new 24-hour Catholic channel, will feature sitcoms from the 1950s and original programming, the Pittsburgh daily reported.
The Apostolate for Family Consecration owns FLTV. The station will feature messages from Catholic leaders, old movies paired with discussions of their historical accuracy and moral implications, and reruns edited to remove rough language, disrespect and violence.
More Americans Bringing Faith to Work
FORTUNE, July 9 — Organizations, educational programs, and conferences exploring how to live one's faith at work are booming, the national business biweekly reported.
Membership in the Chicago-area group Business Leaders for Excellence, Ethics and Justice is growing. The mostly Catholic group holds dialogues with bishops and discusses questions like how businesses can promote family life and what constitutes a just wage.
One survey of executives found that although over 60% had positive feelings of “spirituality,” they also viewed “religion” negatively. But, Fortune reported, the steadily growing group Legatus, an organization of about 1,300 Catholic CEOs, is trying to change that.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Schundler's Quest: A Religious Conservative Wins in N.J. Primar DATE: 07/15/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 15-21, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — The surprise victory of Bret Schundler, an avowedly pro-life politician, in the New Jersey Republican gubernatorial primary June 29 might have national implications on the pro-life movement.
“For us Catholics, this is a big deal,” Princeton professor Robert George told the Register. “Even though Schundler is Protestant, he is giving voice for Catholic social thought.”
Along with his pro-life convictions, Schundler has been a strong proponent of school choice while serving as mayor of Jersey City since 1993.
Schundler also earned national attention for his ongoing battle with the ACLU over the inclusion of a nativity scene in the annual Christmas display outside Jersey City's City Hall. Schundler ultimately won that fight in 1999, when a federal judge ruled the nativity scene did not violate the constitutional prohibition against the establishment of religion. He was the first Republican elected in the majority non-white city in a century.
Speaking about the attractiveness of school choice to voters, George said, “What we do is create a set of policies to empower this family to get their kids out of public schools afflicted with violence.”
In last month's primary Schundler defeated pro-abortion Republican Bob Franks — the preferred choice of New Jersey's GOP powerbrokers — 58% to 42%, and will now face Democrat Jim McGreevey in the November election for governor.
George thinks that the mayor of Jersey City can show Republicans that defending the unborn can be a winning electoral issue.
“If Schundler wins, not only does it show that the pro-life issue is not radioactive, what we can prove is a new playbook,” he said.
The new playbook, George said, is declaring the pro-life position and adopting an incremental strategy to end abortion.
“You don't hide from it. You tell everyone where you stand and where you want to go,” George explained. “Act where you have consensus, and where you don't, build towards consensus.”
Republicans in states like Michigan, Oregon and Iowa are pro-life, but they don't know how to defend their position, George said.
Underdog
University of Virginia professor Larry Sabato called Schundler the “underdog” against his Democratic opponent, Jim McGreevey.
“Given the increasing liberalism of the state, its strong Democratic leanings, and the ‘time-for-a-change’ mood after eight years of GOP governance, McGreevey is the favorite,” Sabato said. “[Schundler] must hope that the campaign can focus on his positions that are popular [such as anti-tax issues] rather than social issues where he is out of the New Jersey mainstream.”
In contrast, George thinks that Schundler can win traditionally Democratic voters while remaining true to his pro-life convictions.
“People say Schundler is too conservative to win statewide in New Jersey. [But] he was elected twice in a major urban center,” the Princeton professor said. “He didn't win as the candidate of the suburbs. He didn't win as the candidate of business. He won as the candidate that would empower poor families to overcome adversity.”
A poll conducted by Quinnipiac University immediately after Schundler's primary win found him trailing McGreevey by 35% to 48%, with 14% undecided, the Bergen County Record reported July 4. But Schundler supporters said they were not discouraged by the numbers, particularly given that Quinnipiac University polls taken during the primary showed Schundler trailing Franks by even larger margins as late as May.
“With 13 points and with four months to go, it is a pretty good starting point,” said Bill Guhl, Schundler's spokesman, the Record reported.
But Ramesh Ponnuru, Washington editor of National Review magazine, said that Schundler has to unite the Republican Party before he kicks off his general election campaign.
“If Schundler doesn't act quick, he'll risk losing part of the Republican base,” Ponnuru said. “Franks has done the right thing [by expressing support for Schundler], but [acting Gov. Donald] DiFrancesco has been whining. Schundler has to get the party unified.”
While DiFrancesco met with Schundler after his upset primary victory, as of July 5 DiFrancesco had still declined to endorse the Republican candidate publicly.
Ann Stone, president of Republicans for Choice, suggested that Schundler not focus on passing laws to end abortion, but focus on adoption. However, she doesn't think his pro-life views will necessarily spell electoral defeat, even in a Northeast state where pro-lifers are supposed to be unelectable.
“If he's proactive on reaching a common ground on trying to make abortion less necessary, instead of pounding on the legislative side, I think he's got a shot [of winning the governor's race],” Stone said. “He's a good campaigner.”
Rising Star?
There's one thing on which Ponnuru and George clearly agree: If Schundler wins, he will be a rising star in the Republican Party.
“If a conservative can win in New Jersey, it proves that conservatives are not dead in the Northeast,” said Ponnuru, whereas a loss might be interpreted as proof “pro-lifers can't win in New Jersey.”
George is also excited by Schundler's prospects should he win this November. “He's 42. Forty-two plus eight is 50,” George said, referring to Schundler's age for the 2008 presidential elections.
But George recommended that Schundler stay focused on his upcoming race.
“He knows he's young, he knows he's charismatic,” George said. “But if he's focused on the presidency, he won't win the governor's race.”
Joshua Mercer writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 07/15/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 15-21, 2001 ----- BODY:Pope Paul VI Praised Graham Greene
THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY, July/August 2001 — An Atlantic Monthly reporter who gained special access to Vatican files on Catholic novelist Graham Greene found that Greene's controversial 1940 novel, The Power and the Glory, had a prominent fan.
The novel drew criticism from the Holy Office, which maintained an Index of Forbidden Books, because its portrayal of a whiskey-soaked priest seeking redemption disturbed “the spirit of calm that should prevail in a Christian,” as one Vatican consultant wrote. The office quietly condemned the book.
But Giovanni Battista Montini sent a sharp dissenting letter to the cardinal who condemned Greene's book, calling it “a book of singular literary value.” When Montini became Pope Paul VI, he gave Greene an audience and told the author to “pay no attention” to Catholics who misunderstood and condemned the book.
Cell Bank Expands to Mexico and Central America
CRYO-CELL INTERNATIONAL, June 26 — Cryo-Cell International announced plans to expand their umbilical cord blood stem cell preservation program into Mexico and Central America.
Umbilical cord blood is an alternative to embryos as a source of stem cells. Harvesting stem cells from embryos kills the embryos, whereas using umbilical cord blood is harmless. Cryo-Cell International recently signed an agreement with the Vatican-owned San Rafelo Hospital in Milan, Italy, to open an umbilical cord blood cellular bank at the hospital.
Italian Premier Has First Meeting With Pope
ASSOCIATED PRESS, July 3 — Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi had his first meeting with Pope John Paul II since Berlusconi returned to power as head of a center-right coalition government June 10, the wire service reported.
Berlusconi later met with Vatican Secretary of State Angelo Sodano. The meeting had to be squeezed in before the Pope left for a vacation in the Italian Alps. A “courtesy call” at the Vatican is standard for Italian heads of state.
The Vatican said the two men discussed the upcoming G-8 summit of industrial powers and the theme of “international solidarity,” among other issues.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Suffering and Fidelity of the Ukrainian Church DATE: 07/15/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 15-21, 2001 ----- BODY:Register Summary
The beatification of Ukrainian martyrs, ecumenical dialogue, and a big meeting with youth are among the moments John Paul II recalled from his recent historic trip.
The Pope highlighted moments of his June 23-27 Ukraine visit at his general audience July 4 in St. Peter's Square.
“I thank God for making this pilgrimage possible, a pilgrimage so dear to my heart,” the Pope told the 14,000 pilgrims gathered in the square. “It was intended to be an act of homage to that people, to their long and glorious history of faith, witness and martyrdom.”
Referring to the 30 men and women he beatified during the trip, the Holy Father said he hopes that Ukraine will “draw renewed apostolic enthusiasm from the legacy of holiness left by these exemplary disciples of Christ.”
Today I would like to review with you the stages of the apostolic journey I was able to undertake during these past days in Ukraine. I thank God for making this pilgrimage possible, a pilgrimage so dear to my heart. It was intended to be an act of homage to that people, to their long and glorious history of faith, witness and martyrdom.
[The Holy Father then acknowledged the bishops and cardinals, both Eastern and Latin, who attended the events of his journey in Ukraine. He also greeted the Orthodox Church and expressed his gratitude again to President Leonid Kuchma and the other Ukrainian leaders he met at the Presidential Palace on the evening he first arrived in Kiev.]
At that meeting, moreover, I highlighted the journey of liberty and hope on which Ukraine has embarked — a country that after a century of extremely harsh trials is now called to consolidate more fully its national and European identity, while remaining anchored to its own Christian roots.
East Meets West
Kiev is the cradle of Christianity in Eastern Europe. Ukraine, from which more than 1,000 years ago Christian faith and civilization spread throughout Eastern Europe, is a significant “laboratory,” where Eastern and Latin Christian traditions coexist.
It was an unforgettable experience for me, in Kiev and Lviv, to preside over solemn Eucharistic Celebrations in the Latin rite and in the Byzantine-Ukrainian rite. It was as though living the liturgy “with both lungs.” This is what it was like this at the end of the first millennium, after the baptism of Rus and before the unhappy division between East and West.
We prayed together that the diversity of the traditions not impede communion in faith and in ecclesial life. “Ut unum sint” [That they may be one]: The words of Christ's heartfelt prayer resounded eloquently in that “border land,” whose history records in blood the call to be a “bridge” between divided brothers and sisters.
I felt this singular ecumenical vocation of Ukraine when I met with the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations. It is made up of representatives of Christian Churches, of the Muslim and Jewish communities, and of other religious denominations. It is an institution that promotes spiritual values, fostering a climate of understanding between the diverse religious communities.
This is all the more important in a country that has experienced the heavy-handed coercion of religious liberty. How can we forget that, besides many Christians, a considerable number of Jews were victims of Nazi fanaticism, and many Muslims were harshly persecuted by the Soviet regime?
Urkaine's history records in blood the call to be a ‘bridge’ between divided brothers and sisters.
Rejecting every form of violence, all believers in God are called to nourish the essential religious roots of every authentic humanism.
Abundant Holiness
My pilgrimage was meant to be an act of homage to the holiness of that land soaked in the blood of martyrs. In Lviv, the cultural and spiritual capital of the Western region of the country and the see of two archbishops, Cardinal Lubomyr Husar for the Greek-Catholics, and Cardinal Marion Jaworski for the Latins, I had the joy of beatifying 30 sons and daughters of Ukraine, both Latins and Greek-Catholics.
They are: Bishop Mykola Carneckyj and 24 companions, martyrs — among whom are seven other bishops, 13 priests, three religious sisters and one layman, heroic witnesses of the faith during the communist regime; Father Omeljan Kovc, martyr under the Nazi occupation; Bishop Teodor Romza, a zealous pastor who paid with his life for his unwavering fidelity to the See of Peter; Archbishop Jozef Bilczewski, an esteemed professor of theology and exemplary archbishop of Lviv of the Latins; Father Zygmunt Gorazdowski, a tireless apostle of charity and mercy; Sister Josaphata Hordashevska, founder of the Sisters Handmaids of Mary Immaculate.
May Ukraine draw renewed apostolic enthusiasm from the legacy of holiness left by these exemplary disciples of Christ, and by so many others that they in some way represent. Their legacy — especially that of the martyrs — deserves to be firmly safeguarded and communicated to the new generations.
This task falls, in the first place, to priests and to men and women religious actively committed to the apostolate. It is my hope that there will be a rich flowering of vocations to ensure the necessary personnel for effective pastoral service to the People of God.
Encounter with Youth
From this point of view, it is significant that the much hoped-for encounter with youth took place between the two beatification ceremonies at Lviv.
To them, who are the hope of the Church and of civil society, I pointed out Christ: He alone has “words of eternal life” (John 6:68) and leads us to true freedom.
I symbolically entrusted to “young” Ukraine the Ten Commandments of God's law as an indispensable compass for their journey — alerting them to the idols of a false material well-being, and to the temptation of evading their own responsibilities.
While the images of this journey and its various stages remain vivid in my mind and heart, I ask the Lord to bless the efforts of everyone in that beloved nation dedicated to the service of the Gospel and to the quest for the true good of man, of every person.
I am now thinking of the many situations of suffering and difficulty, including that of prisoners, to whom I send my affectionate greetings, assuring them of my special remembrance in prayer.
I entrust each person's good resolutions to the intercession of Mary most holy, who is venerated with tender devotion at numerous shrines in your country.
I renew my good wishes for prosperity and peace to the Ukrainian people, gathering all in a great embrace of fondness and affection. May God heal every wound of that great people and guide them toward a new future of hope!
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Appointments & Meetings DATE: 07/15/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 15-21, 2001 ----- BODY:Appointed
Thursday, June 28
E Lazarist Father Robert Maloney as a member of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
E Handmaiden of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Sr. Rita Burley as a member of the Pontifical Council “Cor Unum.”
E Archbishop Aldo Cavalli as apostolic nuncio in Chile.
E Archbishop Luigi Gatti as apostolic nuncio in Lebanon.
E Bishop Giuseppe De Andrea as apostolic nuncio in Kuwait, Bahrain and Yemen, and elavated him to the rank of archbishop. E Chorbishop Antoine Chahda as apostolic exarch of a newly created exarchate for Syrian-Catholics living in Venezuela.
Friday, June 29
E Msgr. Walter J. Edyvean and Msgr. Richard G. Lennon as auxiliary bishops of the Archdiocese of Boston.
Saturday, June 30
E Father Virgilio Pante as bishop of newly created Diocese of Maralal, Kenya.
E Father Benjamin Ndiaye as bishop of Kaolack, Senegal.
Tuesday, July 3
E Coadjutor Bishop Thomas Nguyen Van Tan became the bishop of Vinh Long, Vietnam, succeeding Bishop Jacques Nguyen who reached 75, the age limit.
Met With
Saturday, June 30
E Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops.
Monday, July 2
E Nine members of the bishops' conference of Cuba on their ad limina visit which heads of dioceses make every five years to review their diocese with the Pope and Vatican officials.
Sunday, July 1
E Representatives of groups honoring Polish poet Cyprian Norwid on the 180th anniversary of his birth.
Wednesday, July 4
E Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.
Thursday, July 5
E Five members of the bishops' conference of Cuba on their ad limina visit.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Drumcree: Will Tribal Hatred or Christian Charity Triumph? DATE: 07/15/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 15-21, 2001 ----- BODY:PORTADOWN, Northern Ireland — The town of Portadown, County Armagh, is noted for sectarian [Protestant] bigotry against the Catholic minority of its citizens who inhabit a ghettoized area on the northern side of the town, comprising Obins Street and the Garvaghy Road.
Garvaghy means “rough” in the Irish language, and life is rough for the Catholics of the Garvaghy road during the weeks before and after the 12th of July every year, the date of the Orange marches to commemorate the victory in 1690 of King William of Orange at the Battle of the Boyne near Drogheda, County Louth.
The Orangemen hold these parades not for the alleged religious purpose to give thanks for the victory of the Protestant King William over the Catholic King James, but to dominate over their Catholic neighbors; they accompany their marches with provocative banners, flags and tunes like “The Sash My Father Wore.”
History
The Anglo-Irish Agreement was signed on Nov. 15, 1985. This led to Catholics who were tormented yearly by strutting domineering Orange-men. As well, the Royal Ulster Constabulary Police, or RUC, also felt released from sectarian management by the Dublin influence of Garrett Fitzgerald, then the prime minister of Ireland, in agreeing to reroute Orange marches into controversial areas.
One of the most offensive was a march through Obins Street, on the Orangemen's way to a religious service in the Drumcree Church of Ireland. In 1986 there was an amount of trouble when this march was rerouted. An alternative route was agreed, with return from the Church service going through the Garvaghy road, a new road through several new housing estates which were over 80% Catholic.
This compromise was accepted reluctantly by both sides for almost seven years. Then the Catholics began to stage non-violent protests. Under the influence of “republicans” — militant Catholic nationalists — these protests became more vocal, like the insulting behavior of some Orangemen.
In the bitter atmosphere of Portadown, people were assaulted and wounded and a few were killed, most recently Robert Hamill, kicked to death in April 1997 in the presence of RUC policemen sitting in a wagon who did nothing to help him, and also a prominent Catholic lawyer, Rosemary Nelson, who was murdered by a bomb placed under her car in March 1999. There were other murders of Catholics on the streets and in the homes in Portadown.
The Drumcree Orange march was banned in 1995. The response of Orangemen was to block many of the roads of Northern Ireland. In this lawless operation the Orangemen and their supporters were helped by the inactivity and lack of impartiality of the RUC, a 90% Protestant police force. The Chief Constable of the RUC then reversed his order and allowed the Orangemen to go down the Garvaghy road. The people blocked the road and the police clubbed the women off the road with batons. This led to widespread unrest.
In 1996 the march was allowed to go down the Garvaghy road again by Mo Mowlan, then the British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. The republicans retaliated by doing 6 million pounds worth of damage, burning homes and trains. For the last four years the march has been forbidden and the Orangemen have maintained very widespread protests with the help of the police growing less every year until in 1999 a policeman Frank O'Reilly was killed by loyalist paramilitaries at Drumcree.
Murders
Another terrible incident arising from the protest by Orangemen was the burning of a Catholic home at Ballymoney in 1998 when the two little brothers called Quinn were killed.
Last year, the Orangemen blocked off the roads again and caused great inconvenience, preventing people going on their holidays, getting married and attending funerals. The police again allowed them too much latitude; for example, in some places a half dozen children blocked roads and the police would not move them on.
Parades Commission
In 1998 the British government set up an independent Parades Commission which has legal status and can direct whether a parade should be allowed or not, where it should go or not, what music should be played or forbidden. For example, the Annual Report of the Parades Commission for 2001 states in Reference to Drumcree:
“It is important that the Commission continues to challenge the boundaries of apparent dissent and constantly — within our obligations and powers under the legislation — to try to find new ways of looking at the old issues. We have spent considerable time, again on the difficult question of defining ‘engagement.’ Like our predecessors, we find that it is easier to define or describe the outcome than the process.”
Solutions?
One must appreciate the good work of the Parades Commission in a no-win situation. But one must dig deeper than law in dealing with this problem. How can we remove bitterness, hatred, suspicion, resentment and distrust? How do we build the mutual respect, confidence, and trust tat will allow a moderate solution of a “give and take” model?
There are three centuries of conflict, persecution and resentment behind this problem — like Yugoslavia or the Holy Land. We must build from a new foundation the peace and reconciliation we need.
It is difficult to influence the Orange Order or the leaders of the Garvaghy Road Concerned Residents Group. The biggest obstacle is that the Orangemen will not speak to the residents because they say some of their members are Sinn Fein members or ex-IRA men, even though some of the Orangemen have connections with well known Loyalist Protestant paramilitary persons such as the late Billy Wright, leader of the Loyalist Volunteer Force. “When there is no talking, there will be no walking,” the residents say.
Concessions of Charity
The Orangemen must talk to the residents. The residents will consider in the future a silent parade of about 300 — the contents of the church service — with no flags and no triumphalism. Both must act from motives of charity and brotherhood in a genuine search for peace in community relations and a good example for the youth.
Mutual confidence, mutual trust and mutual respect can create the road to peace and a future of goodwill — a hard task but a necessary one.
Northern Ireland parish priest
Msgr. Denis Faul is a high-profile voice for peace.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Msgr. Denis Faul ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 07/15/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 15-21, 2001 ----- BODY:Muslims Denounce Fresco Showing Muhammad in Hell
THE TIMES, June 29 — Muslim leaders in Italy demanded the removal or destruction of a 15th-century fresco in Bologna that shows Muhammad, the founder of Islam, in hell, the London daily reported.
The Union of Italian Muslims has written to Pope John Paul II and to Cardinal Giacomo Biffi, the archbishop of Bologna, about “The Last Judgment” by Giovanni da Modena. The group also demanded that schools in immigrant areas stop teaching Dante, since in the Divine Comedy Dante placed Muhammad in the ninth circle of Hell.
A spokesman for the cardinal said that it was “absurd to suddenly discover after 600 years that our most famous treasure is offensive to the Islamic religion.”
Last year, Cardinal Biffi said that Muslim immigrants threatened the values of Christian Europe. There are half a million legally registered Muslims in Italy, and about another 500,000 may be living there illegally.
In Bologna Nabil Baioni, head of the Islamic Cultural Center, said that not all Muslims wanted the fresco removed. The figure of Muhammad is very small, and the fresco is one of Bologna's greatest treasures.
Korean Martyr's Face Reconstructed
KOREA TIMES, June 29 — A bronze bust of St. Andrea Kim, the first Korean martyred priest, was created from a scientific reconstruction of Kim's bone fragments, the Korea Times reported.
St. Andrea Kim, born Kim Dae-gon, was tortured to death in a Seoul prison in 1846, for trying to set up underground communications between Korean Catholics and French missionaries in Beijing. His father and paternal grandfather also died because they would not renounce Catholicism. He was canonized with 102 other Korean martyrs in 1984 when Pope John Paul II visited Korea for the 200th anniversary of Korean Catholicism.
The reconstruction of his face was undertaken by the faculty of anatomy at the College of Medicine of Catholic University in Seoul, Korea.
FDA Nixes French Sect's Cloning Plans
U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, July 16 — The Food and Drug Administration has cracked down on a French religious group that planned to clone a human in the United States, the national weekly reported.
The “Raelian” group believes that human cloning is a religious imperative. Federal Food and Drug Administration agents uncovered a secret Raelian cloning laboratory at an undisclosed location, and ordered it to shut down. No charges were filed and no lab materials were seized.
A Raelian leader, Brigitte Boisselier, vowed that if she could not clone humans in the United States, she would take the operation overseas.
Several other groups and individuals have claimed to be working on human cloning, which requires only ordinary lab equipment. The Food and Drug Administration also sent warnings to Panayiotis Zavos and Richard Seed, scientists who have also declared their intention to clone humans.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Lady Diana's Catholic Connections DATE: 07/15/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 15-21, 2001 ----- BODY:LONDON — Media reports have always claimed that Diana Princess of Wales had more than a passing interest in the Catholic Church.
She certainly visited the Carmelite Church of Our Lady of Victories, near her home in Kensington, London. And according to the British Catholic weekly The Universe, Diana was buried with a rosary given to her by Mother Teresa of Calcutta. It is also on record that she visited the Shrine of St. Catherine LabourÈ in the Rue du Bac, Paris.
A prominent Catholic journalist in London confirmed to the Register that Diana had several conversations with a priest but later her “spiritual” interests took a New Age quasi-occult leaning. Her consultations with a medium became public knowledge.
But Diana's mother, Mrs. Frances Shand-Kydd, is a convert to the Catholic faith and has founded a chapel of adoration of the Blessed Sacrament on the island of Iona, Scotland — the island where the Irish St. Columba founded a monastery in the 6th Century.
Mrs. Shand-Kydd said that Diana and her other three children were all “really happy” for her when she converted, Catholic World News reported in 1995.
In an Oct. 1995 interview on Scottish television, Mrs. Shand-Kydd said she decided to convert after attending services for six years at the Catholic cathedral in Oban, near her home in Scotland.
“I was excited, happy, and very peaceful inside — I had no doubts,” she said. “It was like coming home.”
— Paul Burnell
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Tolerating Embryos DATE: 07/15/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 15-21, 2001 ----- BODY:Our culture's ideal of tolerance has a lot of good in it. It ought to be applied to embryos.
If it were to be stated as a principle, it might go something like this: We are to tolerate every human being not because of who they are but simply because they are.
We are to tolerate different races — not because they look like us or act like us or somehow please us, but because they are human beings. We are to tolerate different religious beliefs — and no religious belief — not because there is no such thing as true religion, but because there is such a thing as freedom. We should even tolerate the sins of others — not condoning them, but loving our fellow sinners despite their weaknesses, in order to help them move past them.
Why should we tolerate such people? Because, no matter what someone looks like, no matter how he prays or what harmful practice he's mired in, we know that he shares our humanity. We know that at his core he is made in the image and likeness of God.
The ultimate test of tolerance would be to strip away all of the externals from a person. Take away her looks, her beliefs, her choices. You would be left with raw humanity. This is exactly what has happened in the cases of the severely handicapped, and in embryos.
The Register was informed of one Connecticut father who threw a party recently for his daughter's 21st birthday. She was finally fully adult, and he went all out to celebrate. He invited more than 100 people for the occasion.
He hired a band and, with his wife, decorated a hall. When everyone was seated, he got up on stage to make a speech, and told everyone present that they had been invited because each had made a difference in his daughter's life.
For her part, his daughter lay in a fetal position on her wheelchair, staring into space, apparently unaware of her surroundings, as she has done since before her birth.
There are some who would argue that her life is worthless. Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, certainly would. She founded Planned Parenthood to remove such undesirables from the gene pool.
Many doctors would say such a severely handicapped girl's life is worthless, also.
They now would routinely abort such a child if they detected one — or even thought they had detected one — in the womb.
But the hundred-plus people at that party were better off for having known the disabled girl and celebrated her. And her celebration on earth is just a foreshadowing of her true destiny — an eternity of joy in heaven.
The truth is, from God's perspective, we have much more in common with that mentally impaired girl than we do with him.
We, too, are severely limited creatures compared with his omnipotence. We, too, have as our greatest attribute the enormous dignity of having been made in the image and likeness of God.
It's the same with embryos. No, they don't look like us. No, they often don't even look like fetuses yet. But they are unmistakably human. They are more like us than we are like God. They are made in his image and likeness, planned and loved by him. They are meant to develop and grow.
To destroy them makes us killers, plain and simple.
To do so for medical research only makes our killing more macabre.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: EDITORIAL ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Tales of Tolkien DATE: 07/15/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 15-21, 2001 ----- BODY:The story that J.R.R. Tolkien translated the Book of Job is one of those rumors that refuses to die (“Lord of the Box Office?” July 1-7). As has been known for decades, Tolkien's contribution to the English version of the Jerusalem Bible was the Book of Jonah. This doesn't mean that he worked it up directly from the Hebrew, but he did give the text its literary form.
SANDRA MIESEL
Indianapolis
----- EXCERPT: Letters ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Deflate the McVeigh Big Top DATE: 07/15/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 15-21, 2001 ----- BODY:A headline speculating on Timothy McVeigh's afterlife (“Heaven or Hell? McVeigh's Last Rites,” June 24-30) may be one more act in the media circus surrounding his condign execution, but it was certainly beneath the stature of the National Catholic Register. The unending analyses of McVeigh's life and death is just perpetuating the pain of the many, many victims he left behind.
Furthermore, while his earthly justice was in the hands of mortals, his ultimate salvation — or lack of it — will be rendered by God. Debates as to the final judgment of anyone, even the personification of evil, are inappropriate feature topics.
STEVEN FANTINA
Phillipsburg, New Jersey
----- EXCERPT: Letters ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Peculiar Posture DATE: 07/15/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 15-21, 2001 ----- BODY:Our bishops recently gave us a wonderful reaffirmation of Catholic teaching about the Real Presence and then, in the same breath, mandated that when we receive the Eucharist, we walk up and nod our head (“New Liturgical Norms Adopted at Bishops' Spring Conference,” July 1-7). They did not explain why this posture was preferred; nor did they cite any “pastoral reasons.” They need to know that certain cultures and ethnic groups within our country prefer kneeling when receiving Holy Communion. What happened to our celebration of diversity?
My gut feeling is that some people have a peculiar grudge against those of us who wish to kneel and receive Our Lord. We give at least that much respect to the Holy Father or Queen Elizabeth; why not to Jesus?
JOHN HENNING
Hamtramck, Michigan
----- EXCERPT: Letters ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Compromise Kills DATE: 07/15/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 15-21, 2001 ----- BODY:This letter is in response to Darla St. Martin's commentary in the June 17-23 edition of the Register, “Better to Save Some Lives Now Than None At All, Ever.”
While I respect Ms. St. Martin's opinion, I feel her strategy is flawed. Every time conservative Christians and pro-life activists have compromised their beliefs and votes for incremental gains, we've allowed the other side to win. A case in point: the 2000 election.
The National Right to Life Committee and the Republican Party told us that George W. Bush would be the pro-life “champion” who was going to stand up for unborn children.
Even though he did reinstate the Mexico City policy, his prior actions as governor should be a “red flag” to all pro-life activists. Bush showed us, with his appointment of pro-abortion judges in Texas, that he does not care about the unborn.
The Texas Supreme Court, with four members at one point who were appointed by Bush, reversed an appellate court decision on March 10, 2000, allowing a 17-year-old girl to have an abortion without notifying her parents, thus bypassing the state's parental notification law. How many unborn lives were saved that day?
This court was put together by George Bush, a man who claims to be pro-life.
As a pro-life activist, I am worried about what Bush and the Republican Party will do. In the 2000 election, Christians were more concerned with winning than voting their conscience. The Republican Party, along with the National Right to Life Committee, told us for the past year that if we put Bush in the White House and more “Republicans” into Congress, then everything would be fixed. I have a hard time believing the Republican leadership, especially after they let Bill Clinton stay in office.
Christians bought into this “incremental-gain” strategy last year, and that's why Christians voted for George Bush instead of Alan Keyes in the primaries and why they ignored Pat Buchanan and Howard Phillips in the general election.
NEIL ECKARD
Falls Church, Virginia
----- EXCERPT: Letters ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: True Total-Protection Strategies DATE: 07/15/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 15-21, 2001 ----- BODY:I write to correct an apparent misunderstanding in “Better to Save Some Lives Now Than None At All, Ever” (Opinion & Commentary, June 17-23).
I have worked in grassroots development and public policy at several total-protection groups in this country, and happen to know with certainty that these organizations support acceptable incremental legislation to reduce the number of abortions. An excellent explanation of the total-protection philosophy can be found on the Web site of American Life League.
Ms. St. Martin completely misrepresented this position by implying that these groups would not support the “parental notification” bill that she lauds for its success at saving some babies. They certainly would!
The personhood movement supports any and all legislative measures that will reduce the number of abortions without conceding to the culture of death that there is [ever any justification] for killing an innocent human person. In other words, this movement supports the simple truth.
Isn't it interesting that the most effective law for saving children, which Ms. St. Martin cites in her article, is in conformity with total-protection legislative policy?
Ms. St. Martin is either professionally negligent for not doing adequate research, or intentionally misrepresenting total-protection strategies. In either case, she owes the readers of the Register, and total-protection pro-life advocates everywhere, an apology.
MARY JAMINET
Arlington, Virginia
----- EXCERPT: Letters ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Protecting Babies After Birth DATE: 07/15/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 15-21, 2001 ----- BODY:I am a pro-life physician and would like to see the passage of the bill introduced in June in both the U.S. Senate and House (“Lawmakers Introduce Born Alive Infants Protection Act” June 24-30). Enactment of this bill is necessary to ensure that all infants who are born alive are treated as legal persons for purposes of federal law.
Babies whose lungs are insufficiently developed to permit sustained survival are often spontaneously delivered alive, and may live for hours or days.
Others are born alive following deliveries induced for medical reasons, or following attempted abortions.
As Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, [a Catholic] explained in a June 12 “Dear Colleague” letter, “It has long been accepted as a legal principle that infants who are born alive are persons who are entitled to the protections of the law. But the corrupting influence of the seemingly limitless right to an abortion has brought this well-settled legal principle into question. Under the logic of recent court decisions, once a child is marked for abortion, it may become irrelevant whether that child emerges from the mother's womb as a live baby.”
Mr. Chabot is correct. In June 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court (in Stenberg v. Carhart) expanded the so-called “right to abortion” created in Roe v. Wade to cover partial-birth abortion, in which the baby is only inches from complete live birth when killed.
In view of such developments, the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act is necessary. Late term abortion procedures (such as saline injection which are commonly performed) often result in a live birth. There are many testimonies where nurses and assistants stood by as the baby was left to die in a pan or laundry room. I believe these children deserve basic medical care if they show signs of life. Modern day neonatal medicine has made significant advances in caring for these infants.
Nevertheless, the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL) attacked the bill after its original introduction in Congress. NARAL said the bill would “effectively grant legal personhood to a pre-viable fetus — in direct conflict with Roe [v. Wade].” Roe v. Wade dealt only with the constitutional status of the “unborn fetus.”
There is nothing in Roe to support the claim that infants who are born alive may be considered anything less than legal persons.
THOMAS MESSE, M.D.
Groton, Connecting
----- EXCERPT: Letters ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Down Syndrome Beauty DATE: 07/15/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 15-21, 2001 ----- BODY:Thank you for the beautiful article regarding the abortion of unborn babies with Down syndrome (“British Cabinet Minister Condemns Down Syndrome Abortions,” July 1-7), and for highlighting the work and moral leadership of Dr. Jerome Lejeune, the French scientist who discovered the cause of Trisomy 21, the most common form of Down syndrome.
As we write this letter, our camp for teens with mental disabilities, Ranch Camp, is in full swing. Of 27 campers in residence, 17 have Down syndrome, and they are the most beautiful group of kids it has been our privilege to serve.
Among the Ranch Campers is our daughter Kelly, born when Judy was 42 and Jerry was 46. We rejected the [medical exam] that would have told us she had Down Syndrome.
When Kelly was five weeks old, Judy was privileged to attend the National Down Syndrome Congress in San Antonio, where the keynote speaker was Dr. Lejuene. His compassion and love for these kids, and his respect for their lives, breathed new hope into our lives.
Far from the disaster most professionals predict for families having a child with a serious disability, Kelly has led us into the Church, and into a very special ministry to kids and adults with disabilities. Today our lives are more full of faith, compassion, hope and laughter than we would ever have dreamed possible — all because of a baby most of the world deemed unfit for life.
Ten years ago we quit our jobs and launched Down Home Ranch — yes, the play on words is intentional — to create a unique Christian community providing homes and good jobs for 60 or more adults with mental disabilities. We have created a very popular camping program, built greenhouses for future employment, and are starting construction on our first permanent homes next month.
It is heartbreaking that so many babies are denied life, and their parents a unique and wonderful — if challenging — gift, because of the pressure to abort. We invite parents receiving the diagnosis of Down syndrome to contact us and, even better, to come and witness for themselves the joy that these children can bring into a home.
May God continue to bless the wonderful work you do at the Register, as publishers of his truth.
JUDY & JERRY HORTON
Elgin, Texas
----- EXCERPT: Letters ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: How Bush Won A War of Words With Laughs DATE: 07/15/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 15-21, 2001 ----- BODY:The fact that four generations of the Bush family tree have graced Yale with their presence did nothing to ingratiate the sitting president with many of the school's faculty members and graduating students.
Barbara Bush, daughter of President George W. Bush, recently completed her freshman year at Yale University. Her great-grandfather, Sen. Prescott Bush, as well as her presidential grandfather and father, all earned degrees from that same hallowed institution.
When he received an honorary doctor of laws degree and spoke to the graduating class of 2001 on May 21, President Bush was greeted with a chorus of boos. Hundreds of yellow signs conveyed messages protesting his policies and positions on a number of issues. More than 200 faculty members had signed a petition objecting to his appearance. One of them, Peter Brooks, said that President Bush had been in office too briefly. “He's still such a cipher,” said Professor Brooks.
Well, not quite net zero. Clever enough, at any rate, to dull the sting of all the outrageous epithets that rebellious students were directing at him. “Grow Trees, Not Bushes.” “Execute Justice, Not People.” “Oh no Gore's ahead/Better call my brother Jeb!” “Protect Reproductive Rights.” And so on.
Some wore mortarboards with models of coal-fired utility plants belching puffs of smoke. They turned their backs to him when he began speaking. All in all, not exactly expressions of kindness or civility. Certainly nothing like the standing ovation the students gave New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton 24 hours earlier on Class Day.
The three issues that most charged up the unhappy Yalies were the environment, abortion and the current AIDS policy. It was as if the protestors were insisting that nature should remain natural and not in the service of man, while sex should remain unnatural and not in the service of life.
How does one engage such a roiling sea of emotion? With reasoned argumentation, yards of statistics, persuasive rhetoric? President Bush took the wiser route. He chose to disarm his opponents with self-deprecating humor. If he could survive the pointed barbs he administered to himself, how could he be harmed by the tamer assaults of his adversaries?
“To the ‘C’ students,” he said with a grin, “I say you, too, can be president of the United States. ... I know Yale has a tradition of having no commencement speaker. I also know that you've carved out a single exception. Now you have to be a Yale graduate, you have to be a president and you have to have lost the Yale vote to Ralph Nader.”
Bush noted that Dick Cheney dropped out of Yale and joked that this explained why he had to settle for being vice president. His witticisms drew laughter, even from his antagonists.
Lighthearted humor in the face of harsh opposition is a virtue of great practical value.
“My critics don't realize I don't make verbal gaffes,” he quipped, referring to an esoteric poetry course he took at Yale. “I'm speaking in the perfect form and rhythms of ancient haiku.” He later added, “Everything I know about the spoken word, I learned right here at Yale.”
The prodigal son had returned. He had told associates during his presidential campaign that Yale was a fount of intellectual and liberal elitism. In this matter, he was merely speaking the truth. Nonetheless, Yale's ever-agitated power base did not want to be exposed. There are some things that even deconstuctionists do not want to have deconstructed, such as their own deconstruction. Yet, the president was neither confrontational nor penitent. He was congratulatory and reached out to those who disagreed with him. He disarmed with his humor and charmed with his humanity. He turned the protestors' bad form to his own advantage.
Lighthearted humor in the face of opposition is a virtue of great practical value. It presupposes a host of other virtues — humility, courage, self-possession. And it anticipates friendship and collegiality. A president need not be solemn to appear presidential. Well-placed humor, especially that which is directed at one's self, indicates an awareness of one's imperfections. At the same time, it indicates a sturdy character that does no allow imperfections to be a source of discouragement.
Humor is not only enjoyable; it is infectious. It sets a tone of humility and invites people to relate to each other on a human level, rather than one that is merely political, social or academic.
President Bush's return to his alma mater provoked controversy. But it showed that he could rise above controversy and respond to it with cordiality. A clear victory for the president, and a commencement lesson that his protesters would be wise to absorb.
Don DeMarco is a philosophy professor at St. Jerome's University in Waterloo, Ontario.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Donald Demarco ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Why Liturgy Has To Get It Right DATE: 07/15/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 15-21, 2001 ----- BODY:As a public language — and this is important — as a public language, American English has self-censored many references to God in the past generation or these references to God have been deleted from public discourse by court order. And you can see the way in which new immigrants, when they come from a culture that has been shaped in dialogue with the Catholic faith, in a while, even when speaking their first language they begin to censor themselves.
When the Mexican people and others from Latin America come to Chicago and other places, the first two years they continue to say “Gracias a Dios”; and after a few years, it becomes simply “Gracias.”
Languages have developed differently in relationship to historical and social circumstances. We are much more linguistically self-conscious now, and that is very good. Yet language is and must be more than the construct of any one generation or any single group. We just heard that from your class representative, quoting Chesterton: “Language puts us in contact with people long dead.”
And therefore, linguistic manipulation which severs these connections, is a first cousin to human genetic engineering and just as morally ambiguous.
Therefore, we recognize, because of this sophistication in understanding the way in which words do shape our world, that language can hide as well as disclose truth. The way in which a language is structured enables us to see some things more easily than others; and that is indeed the source of much of the difficulty in the great discussions around liturgical language.
Particularly when, for pastoral reasons, we want to see that this language is as inclusive as possible. And yet we cannot do that, and most bishops, being kind men, are sensitive to that. We cannot do that by sacrificing the fidelity, a fidelity which isn't even possible unless you have a linguistic idiom which is able to make a distinction between individuals and natures.
You studied the classical thinkers, you studied Catholic theology and you know how trinitarian and christological theory depends upon an absolute necessity to distinguish between individuals and natures so that we can predicate natures and therefore can talk about the mysteries of faith.
An idiom that says that the world is composed not of individuals and natures and collections of individuals, but only of individuals and collections of individuals is not an idiom that is capable of expressing the Catholic faith, nor able to be used for translating the Roman missal. And that is very often the case, as we start to discern what is a good translation and what isn't.
It comes down to what is this idiom able to express? And very often, in the kind of language that now is politically correct, we have an idiom that is unable in itself intrinsically incapable of expressing the mysteries of our faith.
Celebrating the liturgy makes us not only more self-conscious about language, liturgy also moves us to express in action what it is that unites us to God and therefore to one another, and what it is in our action that either permits us or prevents us from living joyfully the mission Christ gives his people here and living most joyfully with him forever.
The original liturgical movement of the past century insisted on this relationship, between celebrating the liturgy and creating a new world, transforming this world in which we live. You are to come to the altar, to receive the Lord, to listen to the inspired word of God, not just when you read it by yourself in personal prayer, important though that is, but to read it as it is proclaimed in the liturgical assembly, which is where it is explained in a normative way for all of us.
You should see yourselves, as a result of this experience, as a priestly people, committed therefore, by that very prayer, to bringing Christ's own healing and reconciliation to all the world.
We are to bring Christ to a world caught up in all the many things that we can give words to, give names to, but which in fact, if we don't have a face in front of us, often we can only be involved in abstractly. Individualism, racism, secularism, violence. It is when you are acting in the world, you put faces with all those words, that you can come to see yourself as God's own instrument, spreading His peace and justice within the community that God has given you to love. This, this in its entirety, is the spirit of the liturgy. Liturgy is not about us, except to the extent that we are in Christ.
Many years ago I read an excellent little book by Josef Pieper, In Tune With the World: A Theory of Festivity. And in this book, Professor Pieper addresses the point of falling into the trap of a man-centered liturgy.
He put it: “[T]here can be no festivity, no liturgical celebration, when man imagining himself self-sufficient, refuses to recognize that goodness of things which goes far beyond any conceivable utility. It is the goodness of reality, taken as a whole, which validates all other particular goods and which man himself can never produce nor simply translate into social or individual welfare. Man truly receives it only when he accepts it as pure gift. And the only way fitting to respond to such a gift, is by praise of God in sacramental ritual worship.”
Our Holy Father, in speaking so marvelously about the vocation of Christ's faithful in the world, tells us precisely that our action in the world follows from our action in the liturgy. Our words in the world follow from our words in the sacred liturgy. Our conversation in the world follows from and is integral to our conversation with God from within Christ's body, the Church.
Only if, like a good liturgical translation, we are faithful to the original, to the image of God, stamped in us through baptism so that we are like Jesus Christ, and yet understandable to everyone we meet — only if, like a good celebration of the liturgy, our actions are witnesses to God's own transcendence and to our own future eschatological banquet — only then is liturgy good and are our lives holy.
Liturgy cannot but be motivation for justice which transforms the world. Liturgy itself transforms us and the world itself so that we are truly present and Christ is really present to the world through us. If you have ever been in a place where the liturgy has never been celebrated, where the Eucharist has never been confected by Christ's body the Church, there is a vast difference.
The world is different because Holy Mass is celebrated.
The world is different because we participate in that celebration. Not just we individually, not just the Church, but the world as a whole would be a very, very different place were the Holy Eucharist not celebrated.
Exerpted remarks of Chicago Cardinal Francis George at St. Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, Calif., June 9.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Cardinal Francis George ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Time to Fix the Translations DATE: 07/15/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 15-21, 2001 ----- BODY:“[B]attles over translations have occupied too much of the Church's energy in recent years, so much of our energy that we haven't looked at the world around us and asked what words must we say there,” Cardinal Francis George of Chicago told the Thomas Aquinas College graduating class June 9.
He said that just as education is meant to create a true image of Christ in a person, the liturgy should be concerned with creating a true image of the Church in its words. Bu the added, “One cannot have full, active participation in the liturgy unless there is full, active participation in the Church.
“And one of the great sadnesses of the post-Conciliar world in the Catholic Church is that we have yet to see the new Pentecost prayed for by Pope John XXIII. We cannot rejoice in the fact that two-thirds of the baptized Catholics of this country do not participate in the liturgy.”
Acknowledging the unique style of education at the Santa Paula, Calif., school, he continued, “You, who have in your years here struggled to understand classical texts in their original languages, can appreciate the problems of liturgical translation. The first translations of the Roman Missal in the late 1960s, the translations still being used in our celebration of the liturgy in English, were done far too quickly, probably with good intent. But they have been heavily criticized, even by the International Commission on English in the Liturgy itself.
“Which is why they have redone the sacramentary. They did not adequately capture the Latin original and a new document on authentic liturgy issued just a few weeks ago from the Holy See presents guidelines for the second generation of translated liturgical books. These guidelines recognize the need to be both faithful to the original and to be understandable in English, but with the first emphasis on fidelity to the Latin.”
What follows is a longer excerpt from his remarks.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Victims of Sexual Assault Heal by Giving Birth DATE: 07/15/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 15-21, 2001 ----- BODY:Ever since the abortion wars began, pro-abortion-ists have trotted out the “hard cases,” especially rape and incest, to justify the “need” for abortion.
What could be worse, more violent, more shattering, more tragic than rape or incest? According to the pro-abortionist, the only thing worse is denying the pregnant victim an abortion and thus “forcing” her to give birth to her rapist's baby.
At first glance, denying an abortion seems cruel and punitive to a woman who has suffered so much already. So popular opinion assumes. And so would pro-abortion-ists with their media influence and their political opinion-makers have us assume. Even some pro-lifers squirm on this point due to muddled compassion and moral confusion.
But what's the reality behind these hard cases? Has anyone asked the victims themselves?
Do these women want abortions? Has abortion helped them? Would they recommend it as a solution to others pregnant through rape or incest? These women are, after all, the real experts on the subject.
Now they have been given a voice. In a groundbreaking book, Victims and Victors: Speaking Out About Their Pregnancies, Abortions, and Children Resulting from Sexual Assault, editors David C. Reardon, Amy Sobie and Julie Makimaa — a child of rape herself — draw on the testimonies of 192 woman who experienced pregnancy as a result of rape or incest, and 55 children who were conceived through sexual assault.
The stories and opinions may disturb those comfortable with the assumption that no woman would want to give birth to a baby conceived in sexual violence. According to the book, the culmination of a nine-year study sponsored by the Elliot Institute for Social Sciences Research, 94% of interviewed rape victims and 100% of incest victims said abortion was not a good option for women in their situation.
In other words, most victims who become pregnant through sexual assault do not want an abortion. Says Rebecca Morris (not her real name), who was raped at 15 and underwent abortion at her mother's insistence: “They say abortion is the easy way out, the best thing for everyone, but they are wrong. It has been over 15 years, and I still suffer.”
Edith Young, an incest victim at 12 years old, was forced into abortion. A quarter-century later, she still grieves: “Throughout the years I have been depressed, suicidal, furious, outraged, lonely and have felt a sense of loss. My daughter ... was a unique individual whose life I exterminated. How I miss her so.”
Of the women in this study who carried their pregnancies to term, not one regretted her decision, whether or not she raised the child. Says Lee Ezell, who was raped as a teenager and chose adoption: “Never, in all the years after her birth, did I ever regret giving life to my daughter. However, there have been many times when I have looked back grateful that no state legislature had provided an easy, instant answer of a free abortion for me.” After 20 years, Ezell, who never gave birth to another child, was reunited with her daughter — Victims and Victors co-editor Julie Makimaa.
Anger at feeling “used” by pro-abortion forces surfaces again and again in these interviews. “I, having lived through rape, and also having raised a child ‘conceived in rape,’ feel personally assaulted and insulted every time I hear that abortion should be legal because of rape and incest,” says Kathleen DeZeeuw. “I feel that we're being used to further the abortion issue, even though we've not been asked to tell our side of the story.
“As I have stated before, a woman is most vulnerable at a time such as this, and doesn't need to be pounced on by yet another act of violence. She needs someone to truly listen to her, care for her, and give her time to heal.”
Editor David Reardon summarizes the book's relevance: “It is estimated that rape and incest pregnancies account for only 1% of all abortions. But this 1% is the cornerstone on which tolerance for the other 99% of abortions has been built. Moreover, this cornerstone is not strong. It is made of glass, a mirror of our own ignorance and prejudices.
“It can be broken by giving the women who have been pregnant following sexual assault, whether they carried to term or had an abortion, the chance to have their voices heard. ... There is no documented evidence that rape and incest victims ever benefit from abortion. There is documented evidence that abortion for rape and incest victims actually make their problems worse.”
Highly readable and well documented, Victims and Victors should be on the reading list of all pro-lifers.
And it will provide a hard challenge to all those who are unyieldingly “pro-choice” because of the “hard cases” of rape and incest victims.
Una McManus writes from Columbia, Maryland.
Victims and Victors: Speaking Out About Their Pregnancies, Abortions, and Children Resulting from Sexual Assault is available by calling Acorn Books at (217) 525-8202 or visiting the Elliot Institute's Web site at www.afterabortion.org.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Una McManus ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Close Encounters of the Carmelite Kind DATE: 07/15/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 15-21, 2001 ----- BODY:How best to celebrate the 750th anniversary of Our Lady of Mount Carmel giving the brown scapular to St. Simon Stock on July 16, 1251?
Those who find themselves in the northeastern United States on that date might begin by visiting two New York churches founded in the 1880s by Italian immigrants. The newcomers brought their fervent centuries-old devotions to Mary under this title to America.
For the 114th time this year, the Shrine Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Brooklyn celebrates the occasion with 12 days of festivities that revolve around a solemn novena, many Masses in different languages, formal enrollment in the brown scapular, processions through the neighborhood, all-night vigils and a host of other traditional religious and entertainment events.
A few miles away, across the East River in upper Manhattan, another shrine church named for Our Lady of Mount Carmel will observe its 117th such feast with a similar spate of events.
The Brooklyn Church
When I visited the Brooklyn church a few weeks before the festivities, a palpable sense of anticipation was in the air. Colorful decorations decked out the old neighborhood streets around the brick church, where thousands come during the feast to pay homage to Our Lady of Mount Carmel. They also honor the patron saint of the neighborhood's town of origin in Italy, St. Paulinus.
They take part in the nine days of the solemn novena. The enrollment in the brown scapular was scheduled to take place this year during the July 14 formal prayer service celebrating the 750th anniversary.
To give some indication how powerful the brown scapular devotion is around this church, Msgr. David Cassato, the pastor, told me that 25,000 scapulars will be distributed by the time the feast ends. “Everybody in the neighborhood wears a scapular,” he said. Plus the parish has an active community of Third Order Carmelites, and devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel continues all year with the regular Monday-night novena. “Many Italians still observe their traditional Wednesday fasting for Our Lady, too,” added Msgr. Cassato.
People come in droves on July 16, the official anniversary, for a Mass at midnight, followed by devotions and hymns all night long before Masses start again and go throughout the day in English, Italian, Spanish, Polish and Creole. Twice between them, one of two beautiful statues of Our Lady of Mount Carmel — usually the larger-than-life-size one that's placed outside under a tent for 24-hour veneration during the feast — is lifted on a flower-bedecked float for morning and afternoon processions.
The two-hour morning procession wends through the north side, while a three-hour afternoon procession makes its way past devotees along streets in the south side in this neighborhood, called Williamsburg, which is split by the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. The highway took the original 1887 church.
It was replaced in the 1950s by this brick edifice with a simple interior. Inside is a beautiful statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel near the sanctuary. Its well-visited chapels honor familiar saints as well as local Italian saints.
During the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the spectacular “Dance of the Giglio” takes place at both the Brooklyn and Manhattan shrine churches. This 1,600-year-old tradition, honoring fourth-century St. Paulinus of Nola, is now combined with the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
The five-story high, five-ton, ornately sculpted Giglio (Italian for lily, it's pronounced GEE-lee-o), which also supports a 12-piece brass band playing lively Italian folk songs, is lifted on the shoulders by 120 men and “danced” through the streets. It represents the lilies with which people greeted their fourth-century bishop, St. Paulinus, when he returned from captivity. He's the patron saint of the Neapolitan town of Nola, the home of the original immigrants.
The Manhattan Church
Over in New York City, on 115th St. in East Harlem, the immigrants built Our Lady of Mount Carmel Shrine Church in 1884 as the first Italian parish in New York and, two years later, obtained a replica of the Italian image of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, who traditionally holds the Child Jesus.
The peoples' intense devotion and the countless miraculous answers to prayers before the statue sparked pilgrimages from near and far. In 1903, with a letter in hand from the archbishop of New York, the pastor went to Rome to petition Pope Leo XIII to crown the statue with a gold crown. The Holy Father gave the decree, seconded by his successor, St. Pius X, who gave two precious emeralds for Mary and the Child Jesus' crowns, which were made from gold donated by the people.
Thousands attended the ceremony in New York where Archbishop John Farley crowned the statue at the shrine.
The Pope called her the patroness of all Italians in America and granted a plenary indulgence in perpetuum for pilgrimages between July 6 and 23.
The statue is one of only about four in North America that's been privileged with a solemn papal coronation.
At one time, tens of thousands came throughout the year to pray before this image of Our Lady enthroned in the highly ornate sanctuary. Only a few of the miraculous answers of all kinds granted by the “Madonna of 115th Street,” have been recorded, although over the decades countless have been reported. During World War II, hundreds of letters show servicemen here placed themselves under the protection of Mary by means of the scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and found themselves safe during bitter battles.
Deep Roots
Our Lady of Mount Carmel with the Child Jesus, both wearing the crowns and garments of white, still looks out to us from the large, arched marble niche above the altar, eager to hear and answer our prayers.
White Carrara and different varieties of yellow Siena marbles make the sanctuary niche a fitting throne room for this most approachable queen of the scapular.
Directly above her, a mural covering the entire dome honors Christ as King, flanked by Mary and St. Joseph. The arch spanning the sanctuary proclaims: Regina DÈcor Carmeli Ora Pro Nobis (Queen, Splendor of Carmel, pray for us).
The church remains close to its 1884 roots even though it has gone through periodic renovations from the late 1920s to the present. From a replaced bell tower, to fresco and canvas murals of the mysteries of the rosary along the barrel-vaulted ceiling, to the sparklingly clean stone faÁade of the latest restoration, the years have seen many changes here.
Side chapels honor several Italian saints, along with Mary under different titles, as the neighborhood makeup has changed over the years. Busloads of Italians come back July 6-16 for the yearly Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, which now has services in English, Italian, Spanish and Haitian. A candlelight procession on the 15th prepares the faithful for midnight Mass. At 6 a.m., Masses resume hourly until 8 p.m., with a solemn procession of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, usually using another huge wooden statue of Mary.
The Pallottine Fathers first came to America to administer this church-shrine and have remained ever since. Father Tony Kelly, a member of the order who's been here for more than a quarter of a century, mentioned to me that, during the feast, the shrine church gives out 20,000 brown scapu-lars made specially with the image of the miraculous statue.
The popularity and intensity of devotion at both these shrine churches give us a hint of how Mary might like all of us to celebrate this 750th anniversary of Our Lady of Mount Carmel even if we can't make it to Brooklyn or Manhattan. Wherever we may be, we can accept Our Lady's anniversary gift of the brown scapular.
Joseph Pronechen writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: Two New York parishes gear up for a 750th anniversary ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: 'Whoever Dies Wearing This Scapular ...' DATE: 07/15/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 15-21, 2001 ----- BODY:“Whoever dies wearing this Scapular shall not suffer eternal fire.” So said Mary when she appeared to St. Simon Stock at Aylesford in Kent, England, on July 16, 1251.
Our Lady indicated to this Carmelite prior general that this scapular would be a sign of eternal salvation and protection in danger for the wearer.
What a deal. The scapular is a small piece of brown cloth that replicates, in miniature, the large apron worn by the monks and nuns of Carmel. Wearing the scapular joins the wearer to today's Carmelite family, which includes such popular saints as Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Therese of Lisieux and Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein).
In March, Pope John Paul II, noting the scapular's 750th anniversary, wrote: “Those who receive it are associated more or less closely with the Order of Carmel. ... I too have worn the scapular of Carmel over my heart for a long time! Out of my love for our common heavenly Mother, whose protection I constantly experience ...”
The brown scapular, like any sacramental, isn't magic; nor can it substitute for the sacraments. It is an object that, on the Church's authority, draws on the personal dispositions of the wearer and on the merits and prayers of the whole Mystical Body of Christ (the Church) to help individuals draw nearer to God.
The wearing of a scapular originated with the Benedictines; the shape symbolizes the yoke of Christ. The brown scapular of the Carmelites is the best-known of the 18 scapulars which the Church has approved.
— Joseph Pronechen
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Every Robot's Got a Hungry Heart DATE: 07/15/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 15-21, 2001 ----- BODY:A “Brave New World” is now upon us. Technological breakthroughs are pushing the boundaries past what was once thought scientifically impossible and redefining our notions of what it means to be human.
This has brought about a change in our moral priorities.
Science fiction has long dramatized these conflicts in a way that's comprehensible to a mass audience. A.I. Artificial Intelligence is the result of a collaboration between two cinematic masters in this field — Steven Spielberg (E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind) and the late Stanley Kubrick (2001: A Space Odyssey, one of the Vatican's top 45 films).
Kubrick worked for more than a decade adapting Brian Aldiss's short story “Supertoys Last All Summer Long” before turning it over to Spielberg to rewrite and direct. Cinema buffs will argue for years about how and to what degree this movie reflects the two filmmakers' differing points of view.
The finished product asks all the right questions. But its answers have implications that are subtly antagonistic toward those who believe in the absolute dignity of all human life. A.I.'s subject matter is the use of computerized technology to manufacture robots that look and behave like humans. The issues raised also have meaning for society's handling of cloning, genetic engineering and other bioethical innovations.
The movie is divided into three parts, each with its own narrative style. The first two seem to be the work of a gifted cinematic craftsman at the top of his form. The third is pretentious and muddled, and its weaknesses reveal the incoherence of the cosmology underlying the entire piece.
However, for pro-lifers the warning signs are apparent in the opening narration. Its assumptions reflect a currently popular, politically correct view of the environment. “Those were the years after the icecaps had melted because of the greenhouse gases,” the narrator (Ben Kingsley) intones. As a result of this global warming, population growth must now be strictly controlled. Although never directly stated or explored, this suggests a pro-abortion and pro-contraception legal system and governmental authority.
Professor Hobby (William Hurt), the chief engineer at Cybertronics Manufacturing, is a benign version of the mad scientist. His most recent creation is a robot that looks like a child and has been programmed to love like one. He believes this model will be a bestseller among childless couples. (We later learn he himself has lost a son.)
When Hobby's staff raises some moral issues, he brushes them off. “In the beginning, didn't God create Adam to love him?” he asserts. Creation is presented as a projection of God's anthropomorphic desires. This incomplete, narcissistic riff on classic Judeo-Christian theology is never challenged. Its flawed understanding of the nature of love permeates the rest of the film.
The product of Hobby's scientific and moral experiment is David (Haley Joel Osment). He's adopted by a Cybertronics employee, Henry Swinton (Sam Robards), and his wife, Monica (Frances O'Connor). Their real son, Martin (Jake Thomas), is terminally ill and has been frozen until a cure can be found.
At first Monica is reluctant is accept David, but his carefully programmed unconditional love wins her over. These scenes present parents' desire to raise children as a function of the parents' emotional neediness.
Martin is suddenly awakened, cured and sent home. As a flesh-and-blood “orga,” he resents his “mecha” sibling, who's only a robot. A series of conflicts are provoked that end with David's removal from the Swinton family.
According to the terms of the Cybertronics contract, David must be returned to the company and deactivated. But Monica now loves her robot-son and doesn't want to see him die. Instead she turns him loose in a forest.
David remembers the fairy tale about Pinocchio, which Monica used to read to him. He believes that, if he were to become a real boy, as that wooden puppet did, she would take him back. So he begins a journey to find the Blue Fairy from the story who will tell him how to accomplish that transformation.
The next section is a brilliantly executed cross between The Wizard of Oz and the dysutopian sci-fi action-thriller Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. David's guide through the forest is another mecha, Gigolo Joe (Jude Law), who's also been programmed to satisfy human emotional needs, in this case, those of sexually dissatisfied women. The duo is captured by a human bounty hunter (Brendan Gleeson). Along with other mechas, they're to be destroyed in a rock concert-like arena called The Flesh Fair.
The event's sales pitch — “A Celebration of Life” — tells us where the filmmaker's sympathies lie. The bounty hunter insists that robots like David are part of a “plan to phase out God's little children.” In contemporary terms, this villain is meant to be a religious fanatic and crazed pro-lifer, and Spielberg makes us root for the robots' escape from his clutches.
The last section leaps forward 2,000 years. Rising ocean waters, driven by the melting of the polar icecaps, have now engulfed Manhattan except for the tops of its skyscrapers. Spielberg indulges himself in a foolishly serious exploration of the meaning of cultural archetypes as defined as by Jungian disciples like Joseph Campbell. Pinocchio's Blue Fairy is linked to David's longing for Monica and even to worship of the Virgin Mary. Some benevolent aliens tie everything up in an unconvincing fairy tale-like fashion.
The underlying assumption is that the creator of the universe is a projection of our deepest psychic needs and thus somehow made real by us. A robot (and/or a genetically cloned creature) can become our moral equal by rising to our level of consciousness.
None of this makes a lick of sense, and all of it corresponds to certain sentimental, pseudo-spiritual trends in our increasingly secular culture.
In keeping with these, A.I. aspires to create transcendent meaning in a materialistic order rather than seek it in an earnest search for the truth about life, death and why anything matters at all. It comes as no surprise, then, that the film never does find what it's looking for.
Arts & culture correspondent
John Prizer writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: A.I. looks for meaning in all the popular places ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 07/15/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 15-21, 2001 ----- BODY:Nazarin (1959)
Nazarin, one of the Vatican's top 45 films, is the sincere attempt of controversial Spanish director Luis Bunuel (The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie) to come to terms with his Catholic roots. Father Nazarin (Francisco Rabal) wanders through Mexico's poorest areas, trying to live according to Christ's teachings.
He's unattached to any parish and unsupervised by the hierarchy. His faith and religious practice are a mixture of Franciscan spirituality and the ideas behind the worker-priest movement which was popular at the time. But his preaching always conforms to Church doctrine.
The drama unfolds in a series of parable-like episodes. Nazarin is a good man with great strength of character, but his odyssey is filled with difficulties — sometimes cruel, sometimes comic. Many scenes play like a skit in which the joke's on him. But as we laugh, we become aware of humanity's fallen nature and how it reacts when encountering someone good.
Sanctity is presented as a quality of spirit rather than a recipe for worldly success.
Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993)
The sad truth is that many so-called family films replace honest dramatic conflict with an overly sentimentalized look at the relationship between parents and their children. Searching for Bobby Fischer, written and directed by Steve Zaillian, aims higher.
Based on Fred Waitzkin's real-life memoir, it's an intelligent, deeply felt examination of the difficulties facing a youthful chess prodigy as he tries to cope with the unusual demands of tournament competition.
The 7-year-old Josh Waitzkin (Max Pomeranc) has two very different chess instructors. One is a purist (Ben Kingsley) with an intellectual approach; the other is a streetwise hustler (Laurence Fishbourne) who plays the game for money.
At the same time, Josh's father (Joe Mantegna) becomes obsessed with his winning while his mother (Joan Allen) fights to preserve his youthful innocence.
The boy worries that he will lose everyone's love if he ever loses a game. We sympathize with Josh as he tries to balance these conflicting influences and remain a normal, well-rounded child.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 07/15/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 15-21, 2001 ----- BODY:All times Eastern
SUNDAY, JULY 15
New Directions in Christian Psychology EWTN, 9 p.m.
Franciscan Father Benedict Groeschel and Dr. Gladys Sweeney, dean of the Institute for the Psychological Sciences in Arlington, Va., explain the differences between secular psychology and Christian. The latter acknowledges our souls, our creation by God, our conscience and our eternal destiny. To be rebroadcast Thursday, July 19, at 2 p.m. and Friday, July 20, at 4 a.m. and 11 p.m.
Mon.-Weds., July 16-18
Beware!
The Learning Channel, 6 p.m.
These three valuable hour-long programs tell how to spot various kinds of thieves and protect yourself and your family. Shoplifters, on Monday, shows these crooks' techniques and merchants' counter-measures. Pickpockets, on Tuesday, spotlights sidewalk robbers' tactics. Con Men, on Wednesday, reveals typical swindles.
TUESDAY, JULY 17
The Path to the Golden Cities History International, 10 p.m.
Each chapter in this “The Greatest Journeys on Earth” series visits a new country to follow its early exploration routes, discuss its history and sample its current culture. This installment escorts us to Peru. Ralph Begleiter and Giselle Fernandez host.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 18
The Roman Empire in the First Century
PBS; check local listings for time
This new, four-part series relies mainly on ancient Romans' memoirs. At 8 p.m., Part I, “Order from Chaos,” depicts the rule of Augustus Caesar, intrigues involving his daughter Julia, opposition from Marc Antony and Cleopatra, and the fame of the poet Ovid. At 9 p.m., Part II, “Years of Trial,” covers Tiberius and Caligula — along with the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the first days of Christianity.
THURSDAY, JULY 19
Dead Sea Scrolls: Unraveling the Mystery Discovery, 10 p.m.
This hourlong show describes researchers' use of new technologies to piece together and interpret the ancient scrolls that were discovered in the Holy Land in 1947.
FRIDAY, JULY 20
The Declaration of Independence History, 7 a.m.
Have breakfast while watching this hourlong “Save Our History” installment. It tells the immortal story of the American patriots who “shook bold Freedom's hand” by drafting and ratifying the Declaration. Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a Catholic Marylander, was one of them.
SATURDAY, JULY 21
Our Lady of Guadalupe and Miraculous Mexico
EWTN, 8 p.m.
This half-hour documentary recounts Mary's appearances to Blessed Juan Diego in December, 1531, and the miraculous image of herself that she left on his tilma (cloak) when he unveiled her miraculous roses for Bishop Zumarraga.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dan Engler ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: World-Class Abusers? China's Olympic Bid Sparks Protests DATE: 07/15/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 15-21, 2001 ----- BODY:MOSCOW — As the International Olympic Committee met in Moscow, Beijing was poised to take home the gold: the right to host the 2008 Summer Olympics.
But opponents of China's Communist regime compared “Beijing 2008” to the 1936 Olympics in Hitler's Germany, a publicity windfall for the tyrant.
“It's China's bid to lose,” said Dick Schultz, former executive director of the U.S. Olympic Committee before the July 13 vote. “There's a real desire to bring the Games to China,” he said, speaking from his experience with the Sydney and Athens Olympic Games. China lost its 2000 Olympic bid to Sydney by only two votes.
While not ruling out a last-minute upset, he said that the International Olympic Committee “feels this would be a great benefit to China and the rest of the world.”
Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., was pushing a House resolution to ask the U.S. Olympic Committee to vote against holding the Games in Beijing. Alternative sites include Toronto and Paris.
But Schultz warned that U.S. government action could “create an opposite reaction from other members of the international community,” and pointed out that the United States would stand virtually alone among governments if it condemned Beijing's bid.
Schultz said he thought a Beijing Olympics might ease human rights conditions in China. “There's a lot of scrutiny on China right now,” he said, “but nothing compared to what it will be if they get the Games. For the next six and a half years China will be exposed in a way they've never been exposed before.”
That extra exposure has already started — and what it revealed dismayed many human rights advocates. In June, China detained six scholars on espionage charges. Two, Li Shaomin and Wu Jianmin, are American citizens, while the other four were U.S. residents.
On June 8, Sidney Jones, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Asia Division, sent a letter to outgoing International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch asking that he get a firm commitment from China that the Olympics would be open to all foreign journalists and that the Games wouldn't become an opportunity for a government crackdown. Jones said she had received no answer from Samaranch.
Schultz pointed out, “China's expected to do a lot of other things to get the Games,” such as making commitments to house the enormous crowds of athletes and spectators. “Why shouldn't their human rights record be a part of that?”
The Human Rights Watch letter said that “every previous major international event that China has hosted, from the 1990 East Asian Games to the 1995 International Women's Conference, has been preceded by arrests designed to eliminate any sign of protest or dissent, and evictions of migrants or homeless people whose presence might be considered unsightly.”
The letter also charged China with “refusing visas to journalists and to individuals linked in some way to Taiwan, Tibet or Xinjiang, or to organizations that have taken stands critical of Chinese government policies.”
Jones warned that China was engaging in “crass manipulation” of the Olympic committee by strategically releasing a few high-profile detainees.
Jones said she expected the trials of the American scholars to be part of that manipulation. “Whether any of these individuals were involved in anything remotely resembling espionage is unlikely,” she said. “We expect two will be released after their trials, but they will be convicted first, after forced confessions.”
Nina Shea, director of the Center for Religious Freedom, cited the “tremendous religious persecution that is continuing to take place in China” as reason to deny the government “the chance to bolster their own international reputation through the privilege of hosting the Olympics.”
Shea warned that the Communist leadership would “use the Olympics as political propaganda theater,” pointing to the 1936 Olympics as a precedent. While she was quick to note that China's human rights violations do not approach Hitler's, she said that the two regimes would use the Games similarly to win political support.
Shea added that since China represses many religious groups, from Hindus to Catholics, “spectators will not be able to practice their religion freely when they get there.” For example, Catholics might not be able to find a priest in communion with Rome, since China's government outlaws all but “patriotic,” government-controlled Christian groups.
Neither Jones nor Shea thought the United States should boycott a Beijing Olympics, as it did the 1980 Olympics in Communist Moscow. “The damage has already been done” by that point, Jones said.
But she argued, “The Olympic ideal is more than just sports. Saying that systematic abuse of human rights doesn't matter would violate the Olympic spirit.”
The Chinese Embassy in the United States could not be reached by press time. But an International Olympic Committee poll showed 96% support in Beijing and other Chinese urban areas for the Chinese bid.
Yang Jiechi , Chinese ambassador to the United States, argued, in an April 23 speech, that opposition to Beijing's bid represented the last remnants of a “Cold War mentality.” Yang said, “Stop using human rights as an issue to attack China, stop [the] actual support for the evil cult Falun Gong, stop opposing Beijing's bid for the Olympics.”
The “evil cult” remark was a tipoff for those who oppose China's bid, and who decry its crackdown on the Falun Gong sect. Robert Menard, chairman of the international press group Reporters sans FrontiËres, told reporters, “To me it seems just as monstrous to hold the Olympic Games in China in 2008 as it was to have held them in Berlin in 1936.”
The Paris-based organization said China should get one award, at least: the “Gold medal for human rights violations.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Pax Christi's Pro-Abortion Speaker Stopped by University DATE: 07/15/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 15-21, 2001 ----- BODY:ERIE, Pa. — Pax Christi USA has canceled its national assembly after the Catholic university where the meeting was to be held refused to allow the planned keynote speaker on the campus because he supports keeping abortion legal.
Pax Christi national coordinator Nancy Small told Catholic News Service July 2 that the Aug. 3-5 annual meeting in Memphis, Tenn., was canceled after Christian Brothers University notified her that the Rev. James Lawson, the keynoter, would not be permitted to speak on the campus.
Rev. Lawson, a retired Methodist minister, known for his civil rights activism since he began working with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., was scheduled to talk about how to build a culture of peace through non-violence. In recent years he also has spoken occasionally in favor of keeping abortion legal.
News reports listed Lawson as a board member of Planned Parenthood in 1995. In 1998, he was a featured speaker at a 25th anniversary celebration of the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion. He participated in the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice's interfaith service at St. John's Episcopal Church in Los Angeles last summer.
Pro-lifers have accused him of demonizing them with statements such as this, quoted from a Martin Luther King Day celebration this year: “the religious right funds a theocratic, fascist movement that emanates out of racism, sexism and violence.”
In a June 29 statement, Pax Christi said the conference planners “were unaware of Rev. Lawson's pro-choice activities when we invited him to speak.”
It also noted that the organization “became aware of these activities through several Pax Christi members, including members of Pax Christi Memphis involved in planning the assembly, who objected to Rev. Lawson as our keynote presenter.”
Pax Christi USA is a national Catholic peace movement based in Erie. Its current president is Bishop Walter F. Sullivan of Richmond, Va., and its membership includes about 140 Catholic bishops, according to spokeswoman Holly Knight. She said no bishops associated with Pax Christi were directly involved in the organization's decision to cancel the conference.
A spokeswoman for Christian Brothers University said there would be no comment from anyone at the university about the Pax Christi meeting.
“There really isn't anything at all to discuss,” said Lisa Bell, the university's media relations director. “It was all covered in Pax Christi's news release.”
The Pax Christi statement said the organization recognizes that Rev. Lawson's position on abortion “is not in keeping with the entirety of the consistent ethic of life, which holds that all life is sacred and opposes every form of violence that threatens life, including war, the arms race, abortion, poverty, racism, capital punishment and euthanasia.”
“However,” it continued, “we cannot discount his lifelong work for nonviolence, which has made a tremendous contribution to peace and justice. There is much more that we hold in common with Rev. Lawson than there is that separates us.”
It went on to say that Pax Christi has a long-standing practice “of refusing to make judgments regarding the moral fitness of individuals based on a litmus test of any single issue,” and that Rev. Lawson had been invited to speak on how to build peace through nonviolence, not to talk about the topic of abortion.
Small told CNS that the university offered Pax Christi several options for the conference, all of which would have precluded allowing Rev. Lawson to attend the meeting.
“In the end, we felt none of the options were acceptable,” she said.
Rev. Lawson also was keynote speaker for Pax Christi's national gathering in 1977 and he was welcomed at Christian Brothers University during the civil rights movement, according to the Pax Christi statement.
The national assembly's agenda was to include the launch of an anti-racism program, including a visit to the National Civil Rights Museum, located on the former site of the Lorraine Motel, where Rev. King was assassinated.
Small said she does not fault Christian Brothers University for the decision to bar Rev. Lawson, but blamed the situation on “the divisiveness within the Catholic Church over abortion.”
The statement said Pax Christi “stands firm in embracing a consistent ethic of life and as a Catholic organization upholds the value that our faith tradition places on human life at every stage, including the unborn.”
But it said such divisiveness over abortion “affects Pax Christi USA as it does Christian Brothers University and parishes, schools and other Catholic institutions throughout the country. The need for dialogue around this issue is vital.”
Small told CNS that the Pax Christi members notified of the cancellation have been “pretty gracious,” as was Rev. Lawson. Generally the meeting draws between 300 and 400 people from around the country, she said.
She added that it would cost Pax Christi at least $10,000, perhaps closer to $20,000, to cover expenses and deposits that cannot be refunded because of the cancellation.
Pax Christi canceled its annual meeting once before, also over the choice of a keynote speaker, Small said. In 1974, the planned keynote speaker, anti-war activist Jim Douglass, was criticized because he had been divorced and remarried outside the Catholic Church.
Besides being considered by some to be an inappropriate speaker for a Catholic audience, there was reason to believe the FBI was planning to arrest Douglass at the meeting in connection with his anti-war activities, Small said.
(CNS)
Register Staff contributed to this report.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Pax Christi USA and Abortion DATE: 07/15/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 15-21, 2001 ----- BODY:Pax Christi USA, a Catholic peace and justice movement, includes this statement on abortion on its Web site, www.paxchristiusa.org:
In response to the increased debate following the July 3, 1989, Supreme Court ruling on abortion, Pax Christi USA reaffirms its 1981 Seamless Garment position in support of all life. The consistent ethic of life opposes not only abortion, but also the death penalty, war, the nuclear arms race and anything that threatens life. In addition, Pax Christi reaffirms its goal to work for the full and equal participation of women in the church and society.
Pax Christi's opposition to abortion is based on a total commitment to the principle of unwavering reverence for human life. We reject, as we have rejected in the past, the claim of any individual, any group or organization, any nation to the “right” to destroy human life, whether singly or as entire populations.
Having made this clear, we agree that our concern must not only ensure saving the lives of the not-yet-born but also include recognizing that every child must be assured the opportunity to meet their basic human need and to develop and fulfill their physical, intellectual and spiritual capacities. The fact that 40% of the homeless in the US are families with children cannot be overlooked in our present debate.
We also recognize that, as the debate rages on the abortion issue, the situation of women in our society continues to worsen. One-third of female-headed families live in poverty. Two out of three of all minimum wage earners in the US are women: widows get only a portion of the Social Security payments accorded to their deceased husbands. In the abortion debate, the societal conditions which limit women's options are often ignored. Women are too often criminalized or condemned by those committed to the unborn or exploited and victimized by those committed to abortion rights. The physical and psychological trauma of abortion on women is minimized and trivialized.
We must recognize that women who are considering abortion often struggle with a complex and painful dilemma. We must ensure that women do not choose abortion because of a lack of economic assistance, child care, health care or emotional support. No matter what decision is reached, they should be received with loving concern and compassion by the followers of Christ.
Our work for nonviolent change should protect the life and the dignity of both the unborn and women. To achieve these objectives, we urge that all parties to the debate conduct themselves in a spirit of compassionate respect for their opponents and not allow the discussion to degenerate into arguments or actions which could lead to, or involve, the threat of physical or psychological violence. Pax Christi USA commits itself to engaging in the debate by promoting dialogue and the search for common ground among those on all sides of the issue.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Proof Texts for the Apologetically Challenged DATE: 07/15/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 15-21, 2001 ----- BODY:Don't judge the depth of a book's content by the width of its spine. That advice certainly applies to this pocket-sized volume from Catholic publisher, writer and speaker Patrick Madrid. Small as it is on the physical plane, it packs plenty of apologetical punch.
On first glance, Madrid's book seems similar to so many others like it that prove the scriptural basis of various Catholic teachings. What makes this book different is its organization, its arrangement and Madrid's own concise commentaries.
The book is arranged into 43 chapters, divided into categories such as doctrines, the sacraments and moral issues. Each category is broken down by the specific issues with which many non-Catholics wrestle. For example, a section on authority includes chapters on the Church, the papacy, sacred tradition, Scripture and apostolic succession.
The pages for each category are shaded, much like Bible tabs, so that the apologist “under the gun” of a questioning non-Catholic can page through, spot the appropriate tab and respond with an immediate, Scripture-based response.
Another useful feature is scriptural insight on issues beyond the typical objections raised. Here are biblical citations on such contemporary hot-button issues as abortion, tithing, non-Catholic beliefs and drinking — the kinds of things that come up not only with non-Catholic Christians, but also with the altogether unchurched.
Where Is That in the Bible? by Patrick Madrid Our Sunday Visitor, 2001 176 pages, $10.95
I particularly enjoyed the way Madrid breathes life into specific Bible passages and explains them in relation to the issue at hand. On the issue of the Eucharist, for example, Madrid draws the important parallel between the Mass and the Passover event of Exodus. “Compare the significance of the Passover,” he writes, “with the Mass, the sacrifice of the lamb with sacrifice of Christ, and the people being commanded by God to consume the lamb, as Christians are commanded to consume Christ's own body and blood in the Eucharist: ‘Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you shall have no life in you’” (John 6:53).
The beauty of this book is that it assembles the most convincing arguments into one cohesive whole, and makes them easy to find. The only thing I was less than enthusiastic about was the listing of unexplained Bible citations at the end of each chapter. A section on the priest-hood, for example, contains the text of only one complete Scripture passage (Numbers 18:1-7), but then lists an additional 14 Bible verses without providing either the text or commentary upon the text.
It's a minor flaw. Madrid's book will help the reader on several counts. It provides biblical answers to the most common questions non-Catholics ask about the Church. It helps to interpret the Bible according to authentic Christian tradition. And it shows the true meaning of verses which anti-Catholics often use to attack the Church.
No sooner did I read the book than I began using it in an ongoing discussion with a Baptist friend.
Just remember that, as thorough as the book appears, and as tempting as it might be to carry it with you, it's incomplete without a Bible. Use it in concert with a Bible, and you'll be well-equipped to provide a literate defense of most any Catholic doctrine.
Tim Drake is managing editor of Catholic.net.
----- EXCERPT: Book Review ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: Books -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 07/15/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 15-21, 2001 ----- BODY:University to ‘Deepen’ Catholic Commitment
The Spiritans, or Holy Ghost Fathers, founded Duquesne.
Twelve Spiritan priests now serve at the university, and Dougherty called for more priests to come. Dougherty will be the second lay president of the university.
Dougherty said, “The contemporary American campus, even a Catholic campus such as Duquesne, is in need of serious evangelization. The faith of many young American Catholics is thin and vulnerable.”
Pontifical Institute Closes Temporarily
The Ratisbonne Institute was founded in the 19th century. After the Second Vatican Council, it became a Christian center for Jewish studies. In 1998, it received the personal sponsorship of the pope and became a pontifical institute.
Pope John Paul II has strongly supported the institute.
Some Jewish teachers at the institute feared that the closure was a sign that the Church was distancing itself from Israel and from the institute. The teachers wrote to Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, cardinal prefect for Catholic Education at the Vatican and president of the institute, saying they are concerned the school may not reopen.
Papal Nuncio Pietro Sambi said the closure is only temporary and is solely for the purpose of reorganizing the institute, which bears a heavy debt load and has not been able to get its certification recognized by American academic institutions.
Sambi said the decision appeared sudden because officials had to wait until the end of a gathering of American cardinals in Rome at the end of April.
----- EXCERPT: Culture of Life ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Heroes of the Faith in Ukraine Beatified by the Pope DATE: 07/15/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 15-21, 2001 ----- BODY:LVIV, Ukraine — At a Mass here June 26, in the presence of a gathering variously estimated at 300,000 to 600,000, Pope John Paul II beatified Archbishop Jozef Bilczewski (1860-1923) and Father Zygmunt Gorazdowski (1845-1920).
On the following day, also in Lviv, the Pope beatified an additional 28 Greek-Catholics.
Latin-rite Archbishop Jozef Bilczewski was born into a peasant family in Wilamowice April 26, 1860. He was eldest of nine children.
In August, 1880, he entered the seminary of Krakow and was ordained a priest July 6, 1884. He then moved to Vienna to continue his studies and earned a doctorate in theology.
In Rome and Paris, he specialized in dogmatic theology and in Christian archaeology.
In 1891 he became a professor at the University of Lviv.
He was appointed archbishop for the Latin Catholics of Lviv Dec. 18, 1900.
In his work as a bishop he had to face difficulties due to internal problems of the Church and the conflicts of World War I. He often intervened with the civil authorities on behalf of Poles, Ukrainians and Jews.
The Polish-Ukrainian War (1918-19) brought a new wave of violence to the people and many priests were killed or put in prison. Then the Bolshevik invasion (1919-20) was unleashed with all its fury against the Catholic Church.
Archbishop Bilczewski stood firm to protect everyone, without distinctions of race or religion. From 1918 to 1921, his archdiocese lost about 120 priests. Seriously ill, he accepted sickness calmly and courageously.
He died on March 20, 1923 in Lviv.
In his homily at the Mass of beatification, John Paul said the archbishop “came to the aid of the needy, for whom he nurtured such a love that even beyond death he wanted to be with them, choosing to be laid to rest in the Janow cemetery in Lviv, where paupers were buried.”
Latin-rite Father Zygmunt Gorazdowsky was born in 1845. At the end of his second year of law studies he decided to enter seminary in Lviv.
He finished his studies there and was ordained to the priesthood in 1871.
From childhood he was afflicted with a lung ailment, that did not prevent him, however, from helping others. He founded two houses for the poor, hungry and homeless. He also founded a dormitory for poor students of the local teachers' college.
Father Horazdowsky also established the “House of the Child Jesus” to give refuge to single mothers with children and to abandoned children.
In 1884, he founded a convent for the Sisters of Mercy of St Joseph, to assist in the other works he had begun.
He also wrote a catechism and many other books for parents, teachers and young people. He died in 1920.
The Pope referred to the priest's “extraordinary charity [that] led him to dedicate himself unstintingly to the poor, despite his precarious health.
“The figure of the young priest who, disregarding the grave risk of infection, moved among the sick people of Wojnilow, and personally prepared for burial the bodies of those who had died of cholera, remained in the memory of his contemporaries as a living sign of the merciful love of the Savior,” he said
The Holy Father continued: “And to you, who now stand with these generous servants of the Gospel, seeking to carry on their mission, I say: do not be afraid! Christ does not promise an easy life, but always gives the assurance of his help.”
(From combined wire services)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Adopted in the Nick of Time DATE: 07/15/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 15-21, 2001 ----- BODY:Yesterday I returned, with my family, from one week in Romania. There we met our new four-year old son, Cyprian. After nearly two years of paperwork and waiting, we were introduced to Cyprian in the home of his temporary foster family in Bucharest. The moment was made more dramatic by the announcement the day before that Romania was stopping all international adoptions until charges of corruption could be investigated.
Russia shut down it adoptions last year to address the same issues, and most major countries are united in their support of the Hague Treaty — a treaty that will create an accreditation process for agencies working with international adoptions. In fact, when our efforts to adopt in Russia were delayed by this new accreditation process, we were encouraged to look toward Romania.
As Cyprian was brought into the living room, however, it was no longer a matter of writing checks, filling out forms, or dealing with bureaucratic red tape. This was different: I was going to look in the eyes of my son, he was going to look into mine, and who knows what would happen? What if he didn't like me?
In all my preparations for this moment, I hadn't even considered this possibility. The irony of the sudden reversal wasn't lost on me: We had not merely chosen Cyprian, now we'd find out if he would choose us.
He refused my offer of a fuzzy brown bear, keeping a tight grip on the knee of his foster father. However, the wooing of my wife and daughter, Theresa and Hannah, elicited a few steps in our direction when his attention fell on a green balloon. Cyprian threw it into the air in our general direction — as we kept the balloon floating in the air, the room became filled with his laughter and ours.
After the foster home, we visited a doctor's office to get the required certification of Cyprian's good health. Three of his first four years were spent in a Romanian orphanage, which has the reputation of being a hard place to grow up. The doctor's positive verdict came as welcome relief, but her words to Theresa and me were poignant: “You have come in time for this child.”
Cyprian, like other orphans, developed the habit of rocking himself to sleep or to soothe himself. Every time he does it we can't help but be reminded of all the children who go to sleep at night without parents to tuck them in.
One day Cyprian will let his mother or me rock him to sleep, but who knows how long it will take? Who knows what his memories are or what they will be? These are things I am adding to my list of what is out of my control.
Theresa and Hannah had to convince me that I wasn't too old (age 51) to raise a young son. Their persuasion, coupled with the Holy Father's words about “giving the gift of self,” overcame my resistance. Now, of course, I am kicking myself for causing any delay at all.
What if we had not come in time for Cyprian? Of course, the more important question now is how long other children will have to wait for nations to agree on accreditation standards for adoption agencies. Until then, adoptions will proceed haphazardly, and some parents may not reach their children “just in time.”
Deal Hudson is editor of Crisis magazine.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Deal W. Hudson ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Family Matters DATE: 07/15/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 15-21, 2001 ----- BODY:Kids Don't Want Spare Time
I'm a busy professional providing for my family. I don't have as much time to spend with my kids as I'd like. How can I make sure my time with them is high quality?
A wise priest once told me that we should look upon all time as a precious gift from God. Any time wasted is an irretrievable loss. The notion of quality time is sometimes a rationalization for the infrequency of time spent with our kids: “Though I'm hardly ever there with them, I'm there when it's important.”
“Quality time” for some might be making a cameo appearance at the big important stuff: attending the championship little league game, academic awards night, or opening night of the school play. Those events are important to our children and we need to be there to lend support and highlight that we're proud of them. Often our memories and our appreciation of our parents are built around such events. The “important events,” however, are not the only times our children need us.
Or “quality time” might mean making the most of a small amount of time. Sometimes with our frantically filled lives, that means doing something special when we can work our kids into our schedule. But this is often time left over after the really important things are taken care of at work — and children can tell.
Or maybe “quality time” for us is making an effort to have a conversation on the way to one event or another. This can make us merely like a chatty cab driver.
The problem in each of these scenarios is that the events overshadow the person. Our kids may get the impression that they're only important when they achieve something big, or are doing something interesting. What's missing is time spent with our kids in the day-to-day. Not just the big game, not just the pre-arranged special rendezvous, not just a sudden burst of intimacy in the car — but unplanned time, as well. Playing catch with them on a Saturday afternoon, helping with the first draft of a tough paper.
And if our “quality time” happens at first communion and confirmation parties, maybe what's missing is our teaching kids to turn to prayer, naturally and unselfconsciously, at all times.
These unguarded and uneventful moments with our children are so precious and so often lost today. Have we forgotten to really know and love our kids personally? That takes time, a lot of time. All of it is valuable, even though all of it might not seem to be “quality time.”
The truth is our kids don't want our time. They want us.
They want our loving commitment to them personally which is more than just chauffeuring them around and witnessing their big moments. Maximize your time with your kids and see all of it as an opportunity to understand them and love them unconditionally. Everything else should be a subset of that.
Art A. Bennett is a licensed marriage, family and child therapist.
Reach Family Matters at familymatters@ncregister.com
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Art A. Bennett ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: My Life Before America DATE: 07/15/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 15-21, 2001 ----- BODY:My name is Ronald John Kuzlik Jr. I am 14 years old.
I have a mom, a dad, four sisters and two dogs.
In my bedroom I have a dresser where there are always clean clothes neatly folded for me to wear. I have a bicycle of my own and a big backyard to play in. There is always food on our table and afternoon snacks when I arrive home from school each day.
I go to church where I serve as an altar boy and I believe in God's word. I am the son of a middle class family and I live in the Hubbard Heights section of Stamford, Conn.
I can't help but remember, however, that it wasn't long ago that things were very different. I had no home to call my own, no mom or dad to care for me, and my future didn't look very promising.
Budapest, Hungary, 1994
Once again I woke up to the sound of my stomach growling from hunger and the baby crying. Kristina needed her diaper changed and all five of us were hungry. At the time I was just about 8 years old. Loni, the oldest of my sisters was 7. Anna was 6. Melinda was not quite 3, and Kristina was 2.
Three months had passed since my mom left us and things had gotten worse. Dad was hardly ever home, and when he was, he was usually sleeping off the alcohol from the night before. My sisters and I were learning to take care of ourselves and do what was necessary for our survival.
As far back as I can remember, my mom was never really around. She would constantly leave for days at a time and then return for short periods only to leave again. I can still remember the last time she left. She said she was going to empty the garbage, but she never returned.
My dad, on the other hand, would come home, but he was usually so drunk that he would just fall asleep. Loni and I knew that when dad was drunk there wasn't much he remembered, so we would wait till he fell into a deep sleep and then we would go through his pockets looking for money. We would hide what we found till the next day when dad would once again leave for the day. Then the two of us would go shopping for food for the little ones.
Sometimes dad would get so drunk that he would be gone for several days. When that happened we had to resort to other measures for food. I would leave the house and walk into town to steal from the local stores, although I did get caught several times. The storeowner never reported me to the police, but would take the food back and give me a good lecture.
On other days, I would go to the local baker and beg. He would send me on my way with a loaf of bread and a jar of lard. If all else failed, the last resort was the dumpster behind the stores. Loni would wash whatever was good and feed it to the little ones.
None of us attended school. Now as I look back, it's a wonder to me how we ever survived, because there were times when we did some stupid things. Loni and I once found rat poison and thought it was powder to make chocolate milk. We mixed it up and had just taken a few sips when Dad came home. Thank goodness he was sober enough to realize what we had done.
Sometimes Dad would take me with him when he would go out. One particular afternoon it had just started to rain. The girls were at home watching television alone when he decided to drag me along.
My dad's friend was having a party and there was lots of food and alcohol. Everyone was having a good time and for once I was getting some real food in my stomach.
I was so busy feeding myself that I wasn't paying attention to how much my dad was drinking, and before I knew it he was so drunk that he had passed out on the couch. Outside, the rain continued.
All the guests had left and it was now dark out. A couple of guys helped to take my dad outside and then proceeded to drop him in a wheelbarrow. I was told to wheel him home in the rain.
It was only about a block, but once I got him home there was no way I could lift him up to bring him in the house. So he was left to spend the night outside in the rain.
More than three months had now passed since my mom left. We realized that she wasn't going to return. One particular day my dad took me out to one of his friends' houses. When we got home, my sisters were missing from the house and there was a letter in the mailbox. The letter simply stated that my sisters were taken into government custody and that he was to release me to their custody as well.
My dad was very angry. He had always told us never to open the door when he wasn't at home, but, as I learned later, Anna had opened the door and let the officials in. Dad insisted he would never let them take me away.
A few months later, though, I decided to walk into town. The next thing I knew there was a police car next to me, and two officers jumped out and chased me. I ran as fast as I could, for as long as I could, but they finally caught me in front of my house.
When my dad heard all the noise he came out and tried to pull me away. The officers tried to calm him as they placed me in the back seat of the car. They gave him a chance to say good-bye, and as we pulled away, he faded into the distance. It was the last time I ever saw my dad.
That night I found myself in an orphanage. Although I missed my dad and what was familiar to me, it felt good to have a clean, warm bed to sleep in and food in my stomach. For the first time I was totally alone The orphanage was for boys only and I still had no idea where my sisters were.
I finally was able to start school. With all I had been through I was a good student and I learned quickly.
Reunion and Family
Six months passed before I was united with my sisters. One day a van came to pick me up and my sisters were all inside waiting for me. I was so happy to finally see them again. We were all brought to a larger orphanage in Petervasara where we spent the next year and a half.
Although we didn't have a lot, it didn't matter because we didn't know better. All we knew was that we had a place to sleep, food on the table and clean clothes to wear. During the next year and a half, our mom visited us a few times and occasionally would write to us.
We had gotten used to our new home when one day two Americans came to visit. The two strangers were introduced as Linda and Ron. Linda had a warm smile and I thought she was very pretty. Ron was friendly and outgoing, and though we couldn't communicate without the translator, he made us laugh and played ping-pong with us.
Just a short time earlier our mom had signed away her parental rights. Plans were being made to split us all up for adoption. It was the only thing to do if they expected each of us to have a home.
It didn't turn out that way, though. On April 19, 1997, Linda and Ron returned to make my sisters and me a permanent part of their life.
They adopted all five of us, and on May 30, 1997, we returned home to a new country, a new house — and most of all, a new family.
Ronald Kuzlick wrote this with the help of his mother, Linda.
----- EXCERPT: 'Orphan' Siblings Dealt New Parents a Full House ----- EXTENDED BODY: Ronald Kuzlick Jr. ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Where Mothers' Tears Turn to Healing DATE: 07/15/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 15-21, 2001 ----- BODY:MENDOTA HEIGHTS, Minn. — After the birth of five healthy children, Eileen and Jim Noble of Minneapolis were devastated by the loss of their next child to miscarriage. Eileen says she was not doing well after that, but it never occurred to either of them that it would keep happening.
The Nobles have suffered the loss of six children to miscarriage; and even harder, said Eileen, is that no one gives you permission to grieve for those losses. “As my husband says, people often respond as if you just had a fender bender. And as the mother, you're left with this enormous loss and no means of acceptable expression.”
Now, however, the Nobles have found a way to express their grief at a new Children's Memorial in Resurrection Cemetery in Mendota Heights, Minn., where they have engraved on a memorial wall the names of their six children and Eileen's twin sister who died soon after birth. The wall bears the names of more than 100 children who have died before birth or in infancy or youth. Additional granite panels with 40 to 50 more names will be added soon.
The memorial was the dream of the late Angela Wozniak of St. Paul, and her husband, Don, a retired chief judge of the Minnesota Court of Appeals. They wanted to help mothers in particular find closure in the loss of their children. They themselves had suffered the loss of a 16-month-old grandchild in a swimming pool accident in 1991. Together they raised $200,000 for the project, and the Wozniak children have now set up special funds for improvements and to supplement engraving costs. Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis maintains the memorial and requests a donation of $500 to engrave a name on the wall. All money goes back into the project.
“In the earlier years people used to say, ‘Tough it out. Get on with your life.’ And [the grief] just hung on and on,” said Don Wozniak. “The mothers never had a place to go. There was nothing there for them to touch and feel, until now.”
Archbishop Harry Flynn dedicated the Children's Memorial on the one-year anniversary of Angela's death — May 29th, 2000. In the week following, Catholic Cemeteries fielded over 100 phone calls from people all over the state, inquiring about the memorial.
All Children Welcome
Eileen heard about the memorial while it was in the planning stages. It became more meaningful to her as she kept losing more babies, and when she found out it wasn't going to be exclusive.
“There are all kinds of pro-life causes around the country that are erecting memorials to victims of abortion. It became more and more clear that the Wozniaks were being very broad in their interpretation of what the memorial would be — meant to memorialize all these valuable children, not just those aborted and anonymous,” she said.
The innocence and young age of a child who has died can have a long-term effect on a family, and there's a tendency to blame God, remarked Father Paul LaFontaine, pastor of St. Charles Borromeo Church in St. Anthony, Minn.
Father LaFontaine added that some parents find great comfort in having the Children's Memorial as a place where they can go and pray — which is not often available in the case of miscarriage or abortion. Still, they need other intangible inner resources to fall back on for healing.
When ministering to a grieving family, he often shares the story of his parents' loss of a week-old daughter.
“They developed a very strong devotion to her because they knew she was in heaven and regarded her as a saint who could pray for them and help with graces,” he said. “I know it was very comforting to my folks. My dad had a strong devotion to her all his life and that was very touching.”
A liturgical prayer service held last fall at the Memorial was particularly powerful for the families, and will become an annual event, according to John Cherek, director of Catholic Cemeteries. “The beauty of this memorial is it's a gathering place to grieve. The more we can do things like this, the more opportunities for healing we provide the parents of children who have died, either born or unborn.”
Evocative Site
Local landscape architect Marjorie Pitz created the memorial to be like a pilgrimage. Its circular walkway leads to a quiet pond, garden and sanctuary. Biblical verses are etched in stone along the pathway. The garden has a sculpture of Rachel weeping, from the book of Genesis, who represents all women who have lost a child. An informational kiosk was added along the walkway this year.
Noble says the memorial is very somber, signifying the process of grief one endures. “There's a feeling of going down into the darkness of grief — and there's no tangible place to come to terms with that grief. You're face to face with this weeping woman and all those names, and then you look past it to this tranquil lake, and then you walk out of it,” she explained. “Somehow you have to cope with it.”
One wonders, she added, “How many trips a mother has to take around that circle over how many years before that pain is reduced to an acceptable level.”
Barb Ernster writes from
Fridley, Minnesota.
Information
Children's Memorial Catholic Cemeteries 400 Selby Ave., Suite S. St. Paul, MN 55102 (651) 228-9991
----- EXCERPT: ProLife ----- EXTENDED BODY: Barb Ernster ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Life Notes DATE: 07/15/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 15-21, 2001 ----- BODY:Repeating Past Successes?
SCRANTON TIMES, June 25 — Helen Gohsler vividly recalls the swarms of Scranton residents who filled the sidewalks to protest against the state hospital in 1976 while its board was deciding whether to start offering abortions, reported the Scranton Times.
Gohsler, who is president of the Scranton chapter of Pennsylvanians for Human Life, said, “The board decided against it. No hospital has tried again.”
Now they want to repeat that success and have started protests against RU-486, the abortion pill.
“There was a report in the paper [in February] that said they [Planned Parenthood] were considering offering the abortion pill in Scranton,” Gohsler said. “We want them to forget about it and not consider it.”
Pro-Life Physicians' Packets
PRO-LIFE WISCONSIN, June 29 — A Wisconsin pro-life group is encouraging people to ask tough questions of health care professionals to determine how strongly they defend life.
In a press statement, Pro-Life Wisconsin state director, Peggy Hamill, said, “We regularly hear from pro-lifers who thought their doctor was indeed ‘pro-life,’ but instead the doctor was involved in directly referring women to abortion centers.”
The group says patients need to be proactive in educating their physicians. Pro-Life Wisconsin has developed a free “Physician Education Kit” which includes a variety of brochures on topics such as Abortion, “The Morning After Pill,” Depo-Provera, Norplant, “the pill” and physician-assisted suicide.
Trucking the Life Message
CENTER FOR BIO-ETHICAL REFORM, June 27 — The Center For Bio-Ethical Reform has launched a pro-life Reproductive Choice Campaign — a fleet of large, box-body trucks whose sides display bill-board size, color photos of aborted human embryos and early fetuses.
Initially, the trucks will operate every business day on the freeway system in Southern California. According to a press statement, a nation-wide expansion will be undertaken before the end of the year.
Gregg Cunningham, director of the Center For Bio-Ethical Reform, said traffic data suggest that, during rush hour, up to 50,000 people per hour will view the pictures on each of the individual trucks.
Raising Unwanted Babies
WORLD NET DAILY, June 28 — A pro-life church in rural northern California has rented billboards to advertise their willingness to raise unwanted babies, World Net Daily reported.
“Don't end your pregnancy. We will raise your child,” read the striking billboards. The Glad Tidings Community Church in Yuba City, Calif., paid for the ads. Over the last three years, congregation members also have helped raise more than 50 babies born to prison inmates.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Diverse Group Pushes Marriage Amendment DATE: 07/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 22 - 28, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON—Religious leaders from a Catholic cardinal to a colleague of the late Martin Luther King Jr. agree it's time to make it official: Marriage can exist only between a man and a woman.
That is the consensus of the multicultural and religiously diverse Alliance for Marriage, which July 12 proposed a marriage amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Recent judicial decisions made in states like Vermont and Massachusetts have made this amendment crucial, said Matt Daniels, executive director for Alliance for Marriage.
“It precludes the courts from distorting existing constitutional or statutory law,” Daniels announced at the press conference here to unveil the amendment. “At the same time, the amendment does not depart from the principles of federalism under which family law is, for the most part, a state matter.”
The proposed amendment reads: “Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this constitution or the constitution of any state, nor state or federal law, shall be construed to require that marital status or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups.”
The U.S. Constitution has been amended 27 times since 1789. To ratify an amendment requires a two-thirds majority vote from both houses of Congress and approval from three-fourths, or 38, of the states.
“We are convinced that protecting the legal status of marriage—and in the process protecting the right of the American people to decide critical issues of social policy for themselves—is a necessary condition for the renewal of a marriage-based culture in the United States,” said Daniels.
Such a renewal is critically needed in the black community, said the Rev. Walter Fauntroy, who served 20 years in Congress as delegate from the District of Columbia.
“When I left the White House with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on July 2, 1964, upon the signing by President Johnson of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 25% of African-American children were born out of wedlock,” said Fauntroy. “Today, it is up to 80%. If we don't do something about this pandemic, we will soon be back to the slavery era when 100% of our children were born into a system based on the destruction of the nuclear family.”
Bill Teng, senior pastor of the Chinese Community Church in Washington, said that now is the time for Alliance for Marriage to act.
“The courts finally overcame the will of the people in this national debate when the Vermont Supreme Court required the state of Vermont to grant all of the benefits of marriage to same-sex couples,” said Teng, who serves on Alliance for Marriage's board of advisers. “As a result of this judicial dictate, the Vermont Legislature passed a ‘civil unions’ law that creates de facto ‘homosexual marriage’ in name only.
Teng noted that less than a quarter of the 2,000 couples who have entered into so-called civil unions are residents of Vermont.
Although not in attendance at the press conference, Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua of Philadelphia issued a statement in support of the Federal Marriage Amendment.
“Society, through our laws and customs, rightfully supports marriage as the commonly accepted natural state of a man and a woman who want to commit themselves to each other in a communion of love and fidelity,” said Cardinal Bevilacqua, who holds degrees in both civil and canon law.
“Love and fidelity are indispensable virtues in any human relationship,” he added. “Marriage, however, is defined as the exclusive relationship of one man and one woman. This definition is non-negotiable and irrevocable.”
That hasn't stopped governments from trying to redefine marriage, Cardinal Bevilacqua noted.
“Today, the institution of marriage is being questioned and even threatened by those who want to redefine it. It is unfortunate that even legislative bodies in some countries, including our own,” the archbishop said, “are attempting to equate other styles.”
He added, “It is true that this proposed amendment by itself would not directly affect these types of de facto unions. Yet, it deserves our support since it would achieve the essential objective of protecting through the law of the land the true definition of marriage.”
In the July 2000 document entitled “Family, Marriage and ‘De Facto’ Unions,” the Pontifical Council for the Family stated, “The family has a right to be protected and promoted by society, as many Constitutions in force in States around the whole world recognize.
“This is a recognition in justice of the essential function which the family based on marriage represents for society. A duty of society, which is not only moral but civil too, corresponds to this original right of the family. The right of the family based on marriage to protected and promoted by society and the State must be recognized by laws” (No. 17).
America's Decision
The more Americans who can weigh in on the question, the better, say supporters of the amendment.
“The Alliance for Marriage is making a bold attempt to let the people decide the question of marriage instead of the courts,” said David Coolidge, director of the Marriage Law Project of the Washington-based Ethics and Public Policy Center. “Its efforts to galvanize the issue and to broaden the circle of Americans involved in the debate is to be welcomed.”
But the Human Rights Campaign, a homosexual lobbying group, criticized the proposed amendment for equating “pro-family” with “anti-gay.”
“Throughout history, we have only moved forward when society has distinguished between traditional values and valueless traditions,” said Donna Payne, a spokeswoman for the Washington-based organization.
“This is also a gratuitous attack on lesbian and gay Americans that would create a constitutionally mandated second class of American citizens,” Payne added. “The supporters of this amendment's agenda is clear: prejudice.”
Daniels responded that remarks like Payne's were “inappropriate.”
“Who are you to tear down the integrity and caliber of these individuals who have joined this cause?” asked Daniels. “What qualifies you to even casually assert that? Nothing.”
Lakita Garth, an entertainer from Los Angeles who was also Miss Black California 1995, said that opponents of the Federal Marriage Amendment have tried to convince Americans that marriage is as outdated as black-and-white television.
“People say this is a return to Ozzie & Harriet,” said Garth. “But families were not invented in the 1950s. Marriages have been the center of civilizations since the beginning of time.”
Joshua Mercer writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: ON THE SAME PAGE? DATE: 07/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 22 - 28, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON—At St. Patrick's Cathedral earlier this month, when President Bush awarded the late Cardinal John O'Connor with a posthumous Congressional Gold Medal, the brief ceremony was transformed into a political event.
And not just because it was Bush's first visit to New York as president.
Bush has been reaching out to Catholics, a traditionally Democratic voting bloc, and a big test of his appeal to Catholics loomed ahead: his decision on human embryo research.
The New York event also called to mind past scrapes between Catholics and the GOP. U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert was master of ceremonies. He's the speaker who was accused of passing over Catholics to pick the U.S. House chaplain. And the chaplain he eventually chose, Chicagoan Father Daniel Coughlin, led the opening prayer.
Later this month, while in Italy for the G-8 summit of leaders of industrialized nations, Bush is expected to meet with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican. It will cap a long line of Bush's welcoming gestures to Catholics.
“I think that what this administration has done with Catholics since the inauguration is of historic importance,” said Deal Hudson, editor of Crisis magazine and member of a group of Catholic intellectuals who hold weekly meetings by phone which typically include senior White House staff.
“Within a week,” he said, “the president and first lady had dinner with the archbishop of D.C. in his home; the president gave the inaugural address at the opening of the John Paul II Cultural Center; he hosted 45 Catholic leaders including [New York] Cardinal [Edward] Egan in the White House for a meeting on the faith-based initiative ... he re-instituted the ‘Mexico City policy’ [prohibiting the federal funding of abortion overseas]; he has appointed numerous Catholics and pro-lifers to key administration positions; he is regularly advised by knowledgeable lay Catholics. What else could you ask for?”
One of those bishops with whom the president met is Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver.
Archbishop Chaput said of the president, “A lot of Catholics—at least among those who actually practice their faith—will feel very comfortable with the moral framework of the Bush administration, especially on life and family issues.”
As the White House sees it, another key component of the Bush administration's Catholic outreach is his faith-based initiative.
Marvin Olasky, senior fellow at the Acton Institute, is the evangelical Christian who wrote the book Compassionate Conservatism. He was a campaign adviser to the president.
He said that Bush is “interested in both Catholic votes and Catholic experience with effective poverty-fighting.” The president “has learned about Catholic social teaching concerning subsidiarity. Bush's conservative subsidiarity leaves him wanting to free community groups to perform social tasks at the lowest possible level.”
White House spokesman Tucker Eskew said recently that Bush shares many concerns in common with Catholics.
“The man has an abiding sense of compassion, and that value is a tenet of the active Catholic's faith,” he said, “as is defense of the family, defense of life. Those issues all ring true with this president's character and that faith's values.”
The Catholic Vote
But will that mean that he'll get more Catholic votes? Not necessarily. In the 2000 election, Republican Bush and Democrat Al Gore almost evenly divided the electorate. It's hard to define a “Catholic vote” in such circumstances.
Steven Wagner, president of QEV Analytics in Washington, D.C., ran the Republican National Committee's Catholic Task Force during the 2000 general election.
According to a landmark survey he conducted on Catholic voters for Crisis magazine last year before the election, Catholics' general attitudes have shifted monumentally in recent years.
Catholics in general have voted more Democratic than the country as a whole in every presidential election since Kennedy-Nixon in 1960. Active Catholics, (less than half of Catholic voters), seem to have no political home.
Archbishop Chaput points out the problem Bush faces in seeking Catholic voters as a bloc: It's the president's “conservative political approach to many social and economic issues.”
“Less government and less spending simply can't solve most of our problems,” said Archbishop Chaput. “And, of course, when it comes to the death penalty, the president is just wrong.”
Catholics Aren't Conservatives
Talk to many Catholics about their economic views and you won't hear the tenets of conservatism.
Among Catholics' top priorities in polls, for instance, is raising the minimum wage—though conservatism argues that this costs jobs. In fact, even school choice isn't always a winner with a solid bloc of Catholics. The majority of Catholics voted against recent private-school voucher proposals on the ballot in Michigan and California.
Yet, commentators point out that the GOP has come a long way with Catholics to the point where a Republican president could get almost half their votes. Exit polls released last election day reported that 50% of Catholics voted for Gore and 46% for Bush. Two percent of Catholic voters cast ballots for Ralph Nader.
As liberal columnist Anna Quindlen recently wrote about the Catholic vote, every obituary for Massachusetts Rep. Joe Moakley included his famous quote about Irish Catholics: “As soon as we're born, we're baptized into the Catholic Church, we're sworn into the Democratic Party and we're given union cards.”
Winning as many Catholic votes as Bush did in November was a major coup considering Bill Clinton had won Catholic voters by a 16-point margin in 1996. If Catholics are baptized Democrats, a surprising number are committing heresy in the voting booths.
Still, Catholics are hard to pin down. During last year's election, GOP Catholic Task Force leader Steven Wagner said, “Catholics may be the most maddening electoral group in American politics ... the demographic bloc that drives poll-sters, pundits and politicians of all stripes to distraction.”
Pro-Life, Left and Right
One big issue that a majority of Catholics do agree on is abortion. Two-thirds of practicing Catholics consider abortion immoral, as do 55% of all Catholics.
On this and other issues, “Bush has given public voice to traditional Catholic concerns,” former Secretary of Education William J. Bennett and former congressman Vin Weber, both Catholics, wrote during last year's presidential campaign. “He has made the GOP more open to minorities and immigrants, to those who are vulnerable and defenseless.”
Concrete pro-life measures, more than any photo-ops, may be the best Catholic outreach.
And another help in this regard is the Democratic Party. Former Democratic mayor of Boston Raymond Flynn was appointed U.S. ambassador to the Vatican by Clinton. He endorsed Bush in this past election because of abortion, saying, “I didn't leave the Democratic Party; they left me.”
That's a common sentiment among party switchers. In many ways, the move to the GOP is really a rejection of the Democrats.
Legislation may be a better approach for Bush than photo-ops for another reason. Some argue that the incessant press reporting on the White House's Catholic outreach makes it appear heavy-handed, causing some allies to be discomfited by the special treatment. William Galston, who was a domestic-policy adviser in the Clinton administration, thinks so.
“My political critique of the administration's recent gestures toward Hispanics, Catholics, environ-mentalists, Californians, you name it, is that they have appeared nakedly and clumsily political,” he said. “Voters rarely respond positively when they come to believe that a politician is pandering to them. In the long run, less politics is better politics.”
All the same, many Catholics love seeing the president of their country rubbing shoulders with the princes of their church.
And few good words from the hierarchy can't hurt, either, as when the president of the U.S. bishops recently thanked Bush personally for the tax credits included in the new budget.
Or, to take another example, consider Archbishop Chaput's words: “the Bush administration communicates a real respect for the faith and concerns of religious people that the previous administration did not.”
Kathryn Jean Lopez is an associate editor at National Review
(www.nationalreview.com).
----- EXCERPT: Bush Steps Up Outreach, But a Key Test Looms ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kathryn Jean Lopez ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Politics-Based Initiatives? DATE: 07/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 22 - 28, 2001 ----- BODY:Whether President Bush's idea of subsidiarity is the same as the Pope's is an open question. An even more pressing question is whether it's the same as John Dilulio's.
The Catholic who directs the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives voted for Al Gore last November. Some argue that his direction of the office is more like old-style pork-barrel politics than the civil-society conservatism Bush favors.
Marvin Olasky, considered the father of “compassionate conservatism,” is not fond of how the office defines “compassion.”
“Sadly, John DiIulio's subsidiarity emphasizes government grants, and that's where the pandering kicks in,” said Olasky. “Throw in some money, garner some votes. The administration right now could head toward either Catholic conservatism or liberal pandering.”
DiIulio dismisses such criticism by pointing to his fans. “The president spoke at a Republican conference the other night and he was most passionate about faith initiatives, and he really rallied the troops,” he said.
But will Catholics care if his office succeeds or fails?
“I don't know,” said DiIulio. “I don't think any of this has any clear or predictable electoral outcome.”
Support for his initiative lines up neatly among religiously observant Americans, rather than attracting Catholics specifically.
In the end, DiIulio says, it doesn't matter much on this issue because, “the whole enterprise transcends politics.”
— Kathryn Jean Lopez
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kathryn Jean Lopez ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Lives at Stake in Stem-Cell Wars DATE: 07/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 22 - 28, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON—Should President Bush allow federal funding for potentially life-saving medical research using stem cells derived from human embryos?
Some people might expect Ron Heagy to be among the first to say Yes. The motivational speaker from Healy, Ore., is paralyzed from the neck down, and some scientists believe embryonic stem cells hold the key to regenerating damaged nerve and spinal cord tissues.
In fact, Heagy is an ardent opponent of such research, since it causes the destruction of the embryos it uses.
In testimony before the U.S. Senate, he asked, “How can we stop the violence, the hate, the sheer lack of respect for life [in our culture], if our government sends the message that there are times when it's OK to disregard one human life form, for the betterment of another?”
These words have a special resonance as the debate over stem cell research has intensified dramatically in anticipation of President Bush's decision on whether to grant federal funds to research projects using stem cells obtained from frozen embryos “left over” from in vitro fertilization procedures. Opponents of such research are urging him to sign an executive order banning funding.
Heagy is asking Americans to remember a basic moral principle: The end doesn't justify the means.
During the 2000 election campaign, Bush said he was opposed to funding such research, but he has increasingly shown signs of uncertainty in recent months.
On July 9, Bush's press secretary Ari Fleischer initially deflected questions at a July 9 press conference about when the president believes human life begins—a critical question in the stem cell debate because proponents of the research claim embryos are not yet human. But later that day, the White House released a statement reaffirming that Bush believes life begins at conception.
‘Pro-Life’ and ‘Anti-Embryo’?
Adding to the pressure on Bush is a surprising division among leading pro-life members of Congress.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who has a strong anti-abortion record, has emerged as the leader of a significant number of Republicans with pro-life reputations in Congress calling on Bush to approve the funding. In a June 13 letter to the president, Hatch argued that the promise of embryonic stem cells to cure a host of human diseases and disabilities is so great that it would be wrong not to proceed.
Hatch believes that since most frozen embryos are destined to be destroyed, scientists should be able to use them to ease the suffering of others.
Dr. Jack Willke, of the Life Issues Institute in Cincinnati, responded to that argument in an article June 27: “Why then don't we use the tissues of a criminal who has been legally executed? Why did we universally condemn the Nazi doctors who used Jewish subjects because they were going to be killed anyway?”
On July 11 it was announced that a fertility clinic in Virginia has produced embryos solely for the purpose of extracting their stem cells. Two days later, Worcester, Mass-based Advanced Cell Technologies admitted it was attempting to clone embryos for the specific purpose of destroying them to harvest their stem cells, The Washington Post reported.
Observers remarked that while most people find such practices repugnant, the government would find it difficult to restrict funding to research on “left over” embryos, once it has admitted that it is acceptable to use embryos for research in the first place.
Adult Stem Cells Better
A crucial factor in the debate is the fact that stem cells—cells that have the potential to become tissue of any type—can be obtained from sources other than embryos, such as bone marrow and umbilical cord blood.
Some scientists believe that adult stem cells are actually superior to embryonic stem cells in treating disease, because their growth is more easily controlled, and, since they may be obtained from a patient's own tissues, they are not subject to rejection.
David Prentice, professor of life sciences at Indiana State University, said that while adult stem cells have already been used successfully in clinical trials using human subjects, embryonic stem cells have had far fewer successes, and then only in trials using animals.
“The embryonic stem cells have yet to help any human being,” said Prentice. “The adult stem cells, on the other hand, have already shown successes for treatments such as for cancer of various types, multiple sclerosis, lupus, and rheumatoid arthritis, and growing new corneas to restore sight to blind patients.”
He also listed strokes, Parkinson's disease, muscular dystrophy, diabetes and heart disease among the ailments that may be treated using adult stem cells.
Sen. Hatch is aware of these arguments, but believes there is a scientific consensus in favor of embryonic stem cells. The American public, however, seems unwilling to support embryonic stem cell research, regardless of debate among scientists.
Competing Polls
A poll released by the U.S. bishops June 8, conducted by International Communications Research, indicates that 70% of Americans oppose funding embryonic stem cell research, while only 24% support it. The poll also found that 67% would prefer to fund adult stem cell research, even if scientists cannot agree on whether it is more promising.
While these numbers fly in the face of other polls, such as a recent ABCNews/Beliefnet poll that claimed Americans favor funding embryonic stem cell research by a 2-to-1 margin, the questions in such polls have failed to distinguish between embryonic and adult stem cell research and have neglected to point out that embryonic stem cell research necessitates the destruction of the embryos used.
In anticipation of President Bush's decision, various political compromises have been suggested. For example, some have said the government could decide to fund only projects using stem cells obtained from existing “cell lines” (that is, cells cultured from embryos already destroyed) in order to avoid involvement in the ongoing destruction of embryos.
Prentice said such a compromise “will make no one happy. Obviously on the pro-life side you still have what I would call tainted research ... On the other side there have already been several scientists who have said [the existing cell lines] are too few, we need hundreds or thousands of different embryonic stem cell lines because of genetic variability.”
Richard Doerflinger, associate director for policy development for the U.S. bishops' office of pro-life activities, argued on ABC's This Week July 1 that the status quo is already a form of compromise, and that embryonic stem cell research does not depend on federal funding in the first place.
“All we're saying ... is, don't promote this over our objections as taxpayers,” he said. “The people who support it can fund it. Johns Hopkins University just got a $58 million grant from one wealthy donor to do [embryonic] stem cell research ... Let's make the taxpayer budget fund the stuff we can all agree on, which is as promising or more so.”
To this end, pro-life leaders are urging Congress and the president to support the Responsible Stem Cell Research Act of 2001, which would provide $30 million for adult stem cell research.
Church Position Clear
On July 11, Bishop Joseph Fiorenza, president of the U.S. bishops' conference, wrote to members of Congress urging them not to approve funding for embryonic stem cell research.
A similar letter was sent earlier to Bush, which stated, “We believe it is more important than ever to stand for the principle that government must not treat any living human being as research material, as a mere means for benefit to others.”
In its August 2000 Declaration on the Production and the Scientific and Therapeutic Use of Human Embryonic Stem Cells, the Pontifical Academy for Life rejected the use of embryonic stem cells, pointing out that “no end believed to be good ... can justify an intervention of this kind. A good end does not make right an action which in itself is wrong.”
In his 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae, Pope John Paul reiterated the Church's teaching that “from the time that the ovum is fertilized, a life is begun which is neither that of the father nor the mother; it is rather the life of a new human being. ... The result of human procreation, from the first moment of its existence, must be guaranteed that unconditional respect which is morally due to the human being in his or her totality and unity as body and spirit” (No. 60).
Mary Jane Owen, executive director of the National Catholic Office for Persons with Disabilities, puts flesh on such statements. Although she is hearing impaired and visually impaired and lives with spinal cord and neurological injuries, she is adamantly opposed to embryonic stem cell research.
“I do not wish to encourage or be a party to the cannibalization of my tiniest brothers and sisters,” she said. “I was an embryo, you were an embryo. ... How could I profit from the fact that one of my tiniest brothers and sisters was treated as a product?”
David Curtin writes from Toronto.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: David Curtin ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Mandatum Won't Guarantee Fidelity in Catholic Universities DATE: 07/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 22 - 28, 2001 ----- BODY:MILWAUKEE—When Julie Frank decided to attend Alverno College in Milwaukee five years ago, she had no doubt the school was for her. Alverno had a good nursing program and Frank wanted to be a nurse. It was located in Milwaukee and Frank lived nearby. It was Catholic and so was Frank. The school, she thought, was a perfect fit.
It wasn't.
One year after graduating from Alverno, Frank said she wishes she had known how little emphasis the school put on its Catholic identity. The school did not require Frank, a nursing major, to take courses in theology or Church doctrine; Mass was available on campus only once every two weeks; and guest lecturers—Hillary Clinton was one—were often hostile to central teachings of the Church. To prospective Alverno students who want to be supported in their Catholic faith, Frank has some advice: “I would not recommend it.”
For parents and students who want to avoid an experience like Frank's, the guidelines adopted by the U.S. bishops in June for issuing and withholding a man-datum to teach Catholic theology will be of little help in determining a school's orthodoxy, bishops and theologians now say.
“That's not the purpose of the mandatum,” said Cincinnati Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk, who chaired the committee that drafted the guidelines. “It is not per se a good housekeeping seal of approval.”
The mandatum, as defined by the guildelines, is as “an acknowledgment by Church authority that a Catholic professor of a theological discipline is teaching within the full communion of the Catholic Church.”
A draft of the form that theologians will now be required to sign in order to obtain the mandatum was made available at the bishops' June meeting. It said that the theologian who signed it was a “teacher of Catholic theology within the full communion of the Catholic Church,” and that as a teacher of Catholic theology the signer was “to refrain from putting forth as Catholic teaching anything contrary to the Church's magisterium.”
There will be two methods of conferring the mandatum—local bishops will either offer it to the theologians in their diocese or theologians will request it from their local bishop. In both scenarios, the bishops said, theologians are presumed to be in full communion with the Church unless proven otherwise.
Professors have one year from the effective date of May 3 to obtain a mandatum, which is permanent. Bishops who are considering denying or revoking it are expected to discuss the matter informally with the theologian in question. In such a case, theologians are free to offer “all appropriate responses,” to the bishops' concern, the guidelines said.
No Immediate Effect
Theologians are generally agreed that the mandatum will not eliminate dissent from the classrooms of America's Catholic colleges and universities unless bishops enforce its terms. And given the fact that the bishops' original plan for implementing canon law was rejected by Rome for being too soft, most believe strict enforcement unlikely.
“I don't think the mandatum is entirely helpful,” said Monika Hellwig, who taught theology for three decades at Georgetown University and currently serves as the executive director of the Society of Catholic Colleges and Universities in Washington, D.C. “The bishops have declared very clearly that it doesn't mean they will supervise what is being taught. It only means that the people concerned have said they will teach in communion with the Church.”
Hellwig noted that the guidelines indicate that a professor who does not have a mandatum should not be considered hostile to Church teaching.
“This is why I say it's difficult to say what it does mean,” Hellwig said. “I think most will accept it and sign the paper. Some won't, but I don't think the bishops will make a big issue of it.”
Theologians' Fears
Still, many theologians don't take a light view of the mandatum. Just days before the bishops approved the guidelines for issuing the mandatum, several theologians urged defiance at a meeting of the Catholic Theological Society of America in Milwaukee.
Sacred Heart Sister Theresa Moser, a professor at the University of San Francisco, said that if theologians did not accept the mandatum, the canon that established it as law would be considered null in 30 years. And to those at the meeting who were prepared to accept the mandatum, James Corridin, a professor of canon law at Washington Theological Union in Washington, D.C., said, “We urge you not to do so.”
Such comments have not been reserved for private gatherings. In a May article in America magazine entitled “The Impending Death of Catholic Higher Education,” Jon Nilson, a theology professor at Loyola University Chicago, compared the mandatum to the Doomsday Clock, which was used by scientists during the Cold War to show how near the world was “to the midnight of mass nuclear annihilation.”
And Father Richard McBrien, a professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame whose reputation has been built on vocal opposition to Church teaching, indicated in a February 2000 article in America that he will not accept a mandatum even if is offered to him. In a message he left with the Register after the bishops' June meeting, Father McBrien reaf-firmed this position.
According to Hellwig, such open opposition to the mandatum is “silly.” She said that if theologians “had issues of their own [with the mandatum] they should have handled them quietly with their bishop.”
Father Edward Baer, a former professor of theology at the Josephinum Seminary in Columbus, Ohio, attended the Milwaukee meeting. He said those who spoke out against the mandatum were making a “last-ditch effort to stop the mandatum from working.”
Father Baer said he's not sure whether the effort will be successful. “It's going to be up to the gumption and the insight of the local bishops to implement this,” he said.
The mandatum was introduced into universal Church law by the 1983 Code of Canon Law, but was largely ignored by bishops and theologians in this country. In his 1990 apostolic letter on Catholic higher education, Ex Corde Ecclesiae, Pope John Paul II reminded bishops of their duty to enforce the mandatum. For the past several years, the U.S. bishops have tried to come up with a plan to implement this and other instructions contained in the document in a way that satisfied U.S. theologians and the Vatican.
Father Baer said he was hopeful that even if the mandatum does not have an immediate effect, it will lead to a greater commitment on the part of future theologians to teach in communion with the Church.
“At least this will establish something that practically has not existed, namely dialogue between the theologians and the bishops,” he said. “This will force them to get into a dialogue and that's good.”
Archbishop Pilarczyk agreed. As a result of the mandatum, he said, “theology professors will be reminded that they are supposed to be in relationship with the Church, that Catholic theology is not just one more academic subject.”
As for parents who looking for a way to identify good Catholic colleges, Archbishop Pilarczyk had this advice: “I think you talk to people.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian McGuire ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: They Are That Innocent DATE: 07/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 22 - 28, 2001 ----- BODY:It isn't often that chastity lecturers get standing ovations in today's high schools.
But it happens all the time in Jason Evert's work.
Currently a full-time apologist with Catholic Answers, Jason Evert is the author of the book Pure Love and is currently writing the sequel to Did Adam and Eve Have Belly Buttons with Matt Pinto. He spoke recently with Register features correspondent Tim Drake.
Drake: Where are you from originally?
I was born in Florida but raised in Arizona. My father is in real estate; my mother is a nurse. They have been married for 30 years. I was raised in Catholic family, and have an older brother and a younger sister.
Was there ever a time when your faith wasn't important to you?
Yes. In high school I was just going through the motions. It was toward the end of high school, after confirmation, under the leadership of a good priest and youth minister that I started to come around.
I was all set to go to Arizona State University. I had enrolled and had my dorm roommates all set up, but I wasn't excited about it. I had some friends that were attending Franciscan University of Steubenville, and so I decided to swing by [Steubenville] while on a family vacation. At the last minute, I decided to attend Steubenville. I applied, enrolled and was taking classes all within the same month of August. As soon as I was there, something clicked and I knew that it was where I was supposed to be.
Ninety percent of your talks are now on chastity. What is it that you tell young people?
Many abstinence programs are based on fear. They might say, “Imagine how many bad things can happen if you have sex. Just say no!” It tends to be a very negative approach.
I do something different.
I try to show them the beauty of God's plan for life and love. I show them that God is concerned about our love lives beyond merely making sure that we don't go too far. I show them that God is not down on sex by showing them the beauty of the Church's teaching on human sexuality. They very much expect to be either bored or that they will be made to feel shamed, dirty or guilty. I don't go there to condemn them, but to call them and challenge them, and I have found that they absolutely embrace the message.
Why do you think that is?
Because they are so used to being told that they can't control themselves and that they are going to do it anyway. They're used to adults presenting them with double standards. Teens are saturated by sex, they aren't satisfied by much, and they don't know what the problem is.
They constantly want something more, something better.
We have many disappointed and unhappy young people because what the world has told them will never satisfy their deepest yearnings. It's captivating for them to see a man in his mid-20s trying to live a chaste life and being happy about it. They think abstinence will kill them by their 20s.
I read once that the average teen will see 9,000 illicit sexual images on television per year. Imagine if a teen saw an image of a saint for every time they saw the image of a half-naked model on a magazine cover. I have 45 minutes to try to combat all of these images. That is why it's important for us to try to set up clubs in the high schools, a Web site and other resources that create an environment where it is easy to be good.
Do you feel the message is having an impact?
Certainly. While in Louisiana recently, seven high schools in a row gave us standing ovations.
One was an all-boys high school.
Another good measure of our effectiveness is the correspondence we receive. We receive more than 500 chastity e-mail messages per month.
I just recently received an e-mail message from a girl in Idaho who had been very sexually active. She wrote to say that she has been abstinent since my talk, six months ago, and has said a rosary every night since then.
I also recall a message from a young man in Louisiana. The night of my talk, he had been planning to go to the motel with his girlfriend to celebrate eight months of dating. She had been pressuring him to give her the gift of his virginity. After my talk, instead of calling the motel, he called his girlfriend to say he couldn't go to the motel. He wrote me to tell me that he is so happy that he is still a virgin.
Quite often, following a talk, I'll learn of teens who were on the border of giving away their virginity. Those e-mails are a real confirmation to me when life on the road gets long.
What role did the Franciscan University of Steubenville play in the development of your faith?
I spent five years there and it was extraordinary. It was a time of great spiritual growth in my life. The environment, the faculty and the spirituality of the campus all contributed to my faith. I graduated in 1997 with undergraduate degrees in theology and counseling, and a minor in philosophy. I finished my master's in theology 10 months later.
What led to your work at Catholic Answers?
I landed an internship with Catholic Answers during the summer after my undergraduate studies and I loved it. After spending three months with them, they asked me to stay. So, while I was studying for my master's degree in Ohio, I was answering inquirers' e-mail questions sent to Catholic Answers.
What are some of the most common questions you would receive about the Catholic faith?
From an apologetic standpoint, sadly, the most common questions are liturgical questions from bewildered Catholics. People will write to describe what is taking place in their Church and they wonder if it's according to the rubrics or not. Thankfully, my colleague, James Akin, came out with a book titled Mass Confusion that answers many of their questions. That book has been very helpful to Catholics and to staff in answering people's questions. Aside from liturgical questions, we received a lot of questions about purgatory, the papacy and Mary. Answering such questions was excellent training for me.
At the time we were receiving up to 50 e-mail questions per day. Because of the overwhelming demand, we have had to shut the e-mail service down.
Do you have any favorite stories from those you've counseled over the years?
I remember corresponding with one young girl whose father was a Baptist pastor. She e-mailed me because she had problems understanding the communion of saints and Mary's role as co-redemptrix. We corresponded for a period of months, and then weeks went by when I didn't hear anything from her. I wondered what was going on.
When she finally wrote back, she said, “Well I did it, I've begun to pray to St. Thérèse of Lisieux, but I don't know how to break the news to my dad.” She e-mailed me with her profound thanks for introducing her to this whole family that she had never known, and explained how this had brought her closer to Christ.
Tell me about your forthcoming books.
The first edition of Pure Love was a 32-page booklet of questions and answers from teens on sexuality.
It just whets the appetite. My next book will be the top 100 questions that teens are asking, and the Church's teachings on those questions. This should be published by the end of the year and a Jehovah's Witness [rebuttal] book will be ready this September.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Jason Evert ----- KEYWORD: Inperson -------- TITLE: Archbishop Weakland Fires Back at Renovation Opponents DATE: 07/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 22 - 28, 2001 ----- BODY:MILWAUKEE—Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland sent a letter July 5 to priests, parish directors and deacons of his archdiocese, vigorously defending his position on renovation of the Milwaukee cathedral and declaring that the issues involved “touch the very nature of the church and how it functions.”
The letter became public when the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on it July 11 and published the complete text on its Web site.
The archbishop declared that Cardinal Jorge Medina Estevez, head of the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, “has not proven that I broke any liturgical norms or canons in making the decisions that were rightfully mine to make as the local bishop of this church.”
The cardinal, in a letter faxed to the archbishop June 30, said aspects of a $4.5 million renovation of the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist now under way violated canonical and liturgical law and asked Archbishop Weakland to revise the project.
Cardinal Medina objected to the transfer of the main altar to the center of the cathedral coupled with placement of an apparently prominent organ in the apse where the original high altar was.
He also objected to the size and location of a eucharistic chapel, the removal of two confessionals and the use of images of persons “whose cult has not received the necessary approval and extension in law by the Holy See.”
In his July 5 letter, Archbishop Weakland wrote that Church liturgical documents that deal with newly constructed or renovated church buildings say it is the local bishop “who is to make the ultimate decision on the disposition of the spaces.”
Said the archbishop, “I will defend my decisions as being not only liturgically correct, sound and beneficial, but also as being my prerogative to make.”
“I do so, not out of stubbornness, but because, at this particular moment of history, it is my obligation to insist on the rights and duties of a local bishop in the Catholic Church,” he added.
The archbishop said that it had become clear to him that “a small contingent of complainants fired off their objections [to the renovation], almost like buckshot, to various Vatican congregations and commissions, hoping that something would hit a target.”
His letter included a group-by-group analysis of those opposing the renovation:
“There is a small group—in Rome, in Milwaukee, and in the United States—who see this as one last opportunity to publicly humiliate ‘Weakland’ before his retirement. They are not without power.” (The archbishop is 74; normal retirement age is 75.)
A larger group consists of those who simply like the cathedral the way it is. “That the celebrant is so far away from the people, that the priest, while celebrating Mass, has his back to the Blessed Sacrament, that the altar upon which Mass is said is an afterthought, that the pulpit is way over on the side and insignificant, etc., are not matters of concern to them.”
A third group is composed of people who have never accepted reforms of the Second Vatican Council and “still hope in their hearts that the church will go back to the way it was in the '50s.”
Archbishop Weakland said that “probably the largest” group of people in the archdiocese, however, consists of those who “simply do not appreciate or understand the importance of a cathedral or its role in the life of the Catholic community, perhaps never having even visited the Cathedral of St. John, and who now are confused by all of this furor.”
In his letter, the archbishop also said there was evidence that the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments had not followed correct legal procedures.
He said he still had not received a copy of the complaint submitted to the congregation and that his lawyer had been denied the opportunity to view the complaint document and the facts of the case. He said he had been denied a copy of the minutes of his meeting in Rome with Cardinal Medina, while the lawyer of the complainants “receives copies of all letters from the congregation to me—sometimes even before I do—but my lawyer does not.”
Archbishop Weakland has enlisted the services of Martha Wegan, a Rome-based canon lawyer, who may appeal the matter to the Apostolic Signature, the Church's supreme court.
Michael Dunnigan, general counsel of the St. Joseph Foundation, which helped renovation opponents prepare some of the papers for their challenge, disagreed that Archbishop Weakland had been treated unfairly in the Vatican's handling of the renovation controversy, the Journal Sentinel reported.
“I think Archbishop Weakland has made himself the judge of the Holy See,” Dunnigan said. “It's one thing to say that a decision-making body has made a mistake and then you go and ask them to reconsider evidence.
“But the archbishop or his spokesman said on June 26 that he submitted everything he had and was satisfied that he had submitted everything he needed to. He received a decision he didn't like, so he decided just to disobey it.”
Dunnigan also disputed Archbishop Weakland's claim, the Journal-Sentinel reported, that only a “small group” was objecting to the renovations, which have continued despite Cardinal Medina's intervention.
“There's been 2,500 people sign their names on the line in Milwaukee to say we are publicly opposing this [renovation],” Dunnigan said, “and yet the archbishop continues to call them a small contingent, continues to psychoanalyze them in this July 5 letter in a patronizing way.”
(Catholic News Service—and staff files contributed to this report)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 07/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 22 - 28, 2001 ----- BODY:Portrait of the Next Priests
THE WASHINGTON TIMES, July 5—The United States may suffer a priest shortage, the Washington daily reported, but it still has the highest priest-to-parishioner ratio in the world.
A series on the future of Christian clergy found that the largest Catholic seminary in the country, Mundelein Seminary in Illinois, has reached record enrollment levels. Tomorrow's priests have an average age of 36, older than usual.
When men leave the priesthood, a new study found, they typically leave because of celibacy, loneliness or lack of appreciation.
One candidate said that society's “awkwardness” about celibacy was one symptom of a larger inability to keep vows. “The biggest vocations crisis we have in the Catholic Church is marriage,” he said.
In general, said the clergy interviewed, the most important recruitment method was for individual Catholics to ask young men whether they had considered the priesthood.
Jehovah's Witnesses Barred from Pa. Prison
ASSOCIATED PRESS, July 11—The York County Prison Board of York, Pa., rejected a request by Jehovah's Witnesses to hold services for inmates, the wire service reported.
The board ruled that only major religions—Protestants, Catholics, Jews and Muslims—could hold group services. Officials added that no inmates had requested Jehovah's Witness services or complained about the lack of services.
County Solicitor David Craun said that it would be impossible for the prison to accommodate every group that wished to hold services.
Warden Tom Hogan said that if enough prisoners said they are Jehovah's Witnesses, the prison would allow services. But Jehovah's Witnesses Elder Edwin Rivera told the board that 52 inmates and detainees were seeking Jehovah's Witness Bible studies.
Schundler Says Opponent is Anti-Catholic
THE TRENTON TIMES, July 7—Republican candidate for governor Bret Schundler responded sharply to his opponent's attacks on his pro-life stance, the Trenton, N.J., daily reported.
Democrat Jim McGreevey, who is Catholic and pro-abortion, called Schundler a pro-life extremist. Schundler, a Presbyterian, said that McGreevey's comments implied “that anybody who adheres to Catholic teaching is an extremist, unfit for public office.”
“I don't think Americans like intolerance,” Schundler continued. “I don't think they want to elect an ayatollah.” Schundler added that it's not “immoderate” to believe that “every life has value.”
No, Danny Boy
PROVIDENCE JOURNAL, July 9—Rhode Island Catholics who want “Danny Boy” to be sung at a funeral Mass will be disappointed, the Providence, R.I., daily reported.
The Diocese of Providence's music commission made it clear that secular songs can't be used in Mass. Some churches quietly make an exception for “Danny Boy,” but The Providence Visitor, the diocesan newspaper, pointed out that the Irish standard was inappropriate. Save it for the wake or the reception, a music director urged.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Father Wins Fight Over Convenience-Store Porn DATE: 07/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 22 - 28, 2001 ----- BODY:DALTON, Ga.—When Brian Rudnicki stopped into his local Favorite Markets' convenience store last March to fill up with gasoline and pick up some odds and ends, he was shocked to discover the convenience store's latest addition—a magazine rack filled with pornography.
Not content to sit back, Rudnicki took matters into his own hands, resulting in the recent removal of pornography from the 150-store chain, demonstrating that concerned citizens can make a difference in the way that businesses operate.
“I have a 13-year-old son and a 15-year-old daughter and I do not want either of them to think that pornography is acceptable,” Rudnicki told the Register.
At first, Rudnicki expressed his concern to the store manager. When he was told that it was a corporate decision, he tried reaching Favorite Markets' president, Samuel Turner, by telephone. When Turner would not return his phone calls Rudnicki enlisted help from the Tupelo, Miss.-based American Family Association, of which he had been a member for about 10 years.
With the assistance of Randy Sharp, director of special projects, a registered letter was mailed to Turner seeking to set up a meeting to discuss the issue. “We help citizens stop the proliferation of pornography and other immoral and anti-Christian activities in their communities,” said Sharp.
Turner responded saying that the introduction of pornography was a 90-day test and that a final decision would be made based upon sales. Further attempts to reach Turner, to set up a potential meeting, were met with silence.
“Every day those magazines are on the stand is another day that an adult or child can get their hands on them,” said Sharp.
Sharp encouraged Rudnicki to begin a petition drive in the community. Using names and addresses provided by the Chamber of Commerce, Rudnicki began soliciting signatures from area businesses and churches. Within a week he had gathered 500 signatures.
Rudnicki then brought the petitions to Favorite Markets' corporate office. When he was told that the president was not in, Rudnicki left the signatures at the office.
Rudnicki's next step was to begin a boycott and contact Texaco, the supplier of gasoline to the chain, but during the first week of June, Favorite Markets abruptly stopped selling the magazines and removed them from their stores. “I feel the campaign convinced the chain that it was not worth the trouble,” concluded Rudnicki.
Turner did not respond to Register phone calls.
“The very same week Friendly Express, a chain of 200 stores in southeast Georgia, also made the decision to stop selling pornography,” commented Sharp. “But there are many stores that still refuse to remove porn.”
Currently, the American Family Association is engaged in a similar campaign with Carl Jones, the president of the Waycross, Ga.-based Flash Foods convenience stores. Jones is the chairman of Prime South Bank, as well as the owner of an automotive dealership. The American Family Association is encouraging its supporters not to do business with any of Jones' entities.
Said Sharp, “We approach store owners one-on-one. If there is no response then we go back with a pastor. If they continue to not respond we go back with radio and newspaper advertisements in the community.”
“We find that citizens want to do something, but do not often know what to do. American families are tired of being inundated with immorality and are beginning to stand up and fight back,” said Sharp. “Either we do something or we run the risk of losing the family in America.”
Complaints Matter
Other stores in the Midwest also demonstrate the effect that a single person can have.
“I used to manage a convenience store in a small, rural Minnesota town. After introducing pornography we had a complaint, so I pulled the magazines,” said Richard Powell. Powell currently manages Bonkers, a convenience store that does carry pornography.
The store is owned by Tom Thumb, a 99-store chain based in Hastings, Minn. Tom Thumb operates six Bonkers' convenience/discount cigarette stores in Wisconsin and Minnesota.
“Tom Thumb's corporate policy leaves it up to the individual store or manager whether or not they sell pornography,” said Powell.
Doug Ollom, Tom Thumb's corporate buyer, told the Register that he had no comment on Tom Thumb's corporate policies.
“The magazines,” explained Powell, “come through Gopher State News, which delivers all of our magazines. They come along with everything else. It is up to us whether we choose to carry them or not. We receive many copies of each issue and send about half back.”
Powell estimated that magazines, as a whole, make up approximately $500-600 per month of the store's sales. “I'm not concerned about the sale of pornography,” Powell said. “The magazines are kept in the adult section with the cigarettes. You need to be 18 years old to go into that section.”
One interesting development that has given pro-family groups and individuals some leverage in the fight against convenience store pornography is the acceptance of no-pornography policies by several of the major oil distributors.
“Distributors such as Chevron, Texaco, Philips and BP/Amoco have instituted policies that state that any convenience stores that sell their brand of gasoline must agree in contract not to sell pornography. If stores are unwilling to stop selling pornography, we will approach the oil companies that supply them,” said Sharp.
In addition, Exxon/Mobil is set to institute no-pornography terms in March 2002.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that pornography “does grave injury to the dignity of its participants (actors, vendors, the public), since each one becomes an object of base pleasure and illicit profit for others. It is a grave offense. Civil authorities should prevent the production and distribution of pornographic materials” (No. 2354).
Tim Drake is managing editor of Catholic.net
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Pope Favors the Alps Again for Two-Week Summer Vacation DATE: 07/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 22 - 28, 2001 ----- BODY:LES COMBES, Italy —John Paul II made an excursion by car into the mountains July 10, the first full day of his vacation in this northern Italian village in the mountains near France. The Pope's 12-day stay is the ninth visit of his papacy to this area.
Travelling by helicopter from Rome, John Paul arrived in Aosta July 9, where children and local dignitaries were on hand to greet him.
Mayor Osvaldo Naudim later reported: “I approached him and greeted him on behalf of the municipal council and all, and I wished him peaceful days of rest and outings. Smiling, he replied, ‘Let's hope so.’”
Bishop Giuseppe Anfossi of Aosta said: “We offer a vacation to a person who comes from a most important and courageous work, a man who continues to sustain exhausting rhythms of life, but who is not indifferent to the time of rest or the choice of place.”
Referring to the Pope's recent trip to Ukraine, the bishop said, “I must say that to welcome him after such an important moment for the history of our Church is overwhelming.”
From Aosta, the Pope went by car to Les Combes, where children presented him with flowers and read him a poem of welcome, the Associated Press reported. The Pope is staying in a a two-story, wood-and-stone chalet built by the Salesians. The chalet looks out on Mont Blanc, Western Europe's highest mountain.
On July 11, the Pope spent more than seven hours in the heights of La Thuile. On his departure from the vacation chalet and on his return, the papal caravan of cars stopped briefly to let the Holy Father exchange greetings with Les Combes neighbors, who were waiting for him on the road.
Children crowded around the car and gave the Holy Father drawings they had made and other gifts.
Before his departure for vacation, the Pope, an avid hiker in his younger days, told pilgrims in St. Peter's Square July 8 that he was particularly fond of his summer retreat in Les Combes.
“I hope that everyone during summer can enjoy a little deserved rest,” he said
Coinciding with the Pope's days of rest the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers published “Pastoral Orientations for Tourism,” July 11.
The document said vacations should be a time to rest, to learn about other cultures, to spend time with one's family and to appreciate God's creation. The document also dealt with many ethical questions raised by tourism, including respect for local cultures and religions and safeguarding the environment.
In memory of the Pope's holidays in the Val d'Aosta region, a residence for the elderly there has been named after him and a little museum has opened with mementos of his days in Les Combes.
Besides excursions in the mountains, the Pope's vacation itinerary includes time for reading, writing and praying. Residents and mayors from Val d'Aosta were also scheduled to present a video to him on July 15. The video reports the flooding that hit the valley last October, the worst in its history.
John Paul was due to return to Rome July 20, then travel directly to his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo. Among the first appointments on his schedule after his return is a meeting July 23 with President Bush.
Compiled by Register staff from combined wire services
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 07/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 22 - 28, 2001 ----- BODY:Padre Pio's Canonization ‘Almost Certain’ for 2002
THE MIRROR, July 9—The Vatican announced that the beloved Italian priest Padre Pio is almost certain to be canonized next year, the London daily reported.
Pope John Paul II beatified Padre Pio in 1999. The Vatican has now recognized a second miracle performed by Padre Pio, the healing of an 8-year-old child with meningitis.
The child, who is known only as Matteo Pio, was taken to a hospital founded by Padre Pio. Although his doctors despaired, and the child fell into a coma, Matteo Pio revived after 12 days saying that he had dreamed that Padre Pio smiled upon him.
Jubilee Year Boosts Vatican Bank Balance
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, July 6—The Jubilee Year 2000 led to a windfall for the Church's finances, the wire service reported.
The Vatican reported an unprecedented $7.7 million profit. Pope John Paul II's finance minister, Cardinal Sergio Sebastiani noted that the Vatican spent 208.85 million euros on administration. It employs 2,650 people.
The money included “Peter's Pence,” an annual collection in Catholic churches worldwide. This collection usually raises over 50 million euros, which the Pope distributes mainly to poor countries. Cardinal Sebastiani stressed the importance of donations to the Vatican, which helped the Church get out of debt in 1991 after 23 years of running deficits.
Pope Encourages Cuban Bishops
EFE NEWS SERVICE, July 6—Before leaving on vacation, Pope John Paul II met with members of the Cuban Bishops' Conference and encouraged them to promote human rights, liberty and solidarity, the news service reported.
The Pope emphasized “the right to life of the unborn, and the right to food, health, education, and to exercise the freedoms of movement, expression and association.”
When Cuban bishops demand those rights, the Pope explained, “they are not attempting to defy anyone, but are only fulfilling their mission to promote an existence based solidly on human truth for the Cuban people.”
The Pope urged the bishops to promote “faith in Jesus Christ, who acts within human beings in a totally different way from ideologies, which are outdated and consume the energies of people and nations.” He also encouraged the laity to participate, although he acknowledged that many Cubans face great difficulty in exercising their faith due to the island's repressive regime.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Peruvian Pro-Lifers Reserve Judgment on New President DATE: 07/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 22 - 28, 2001 ----- BODY:LIMA, Peru—Peruvian pro-lifers agree that hardly any government could be worst for the cause of life and family than the recent regime of Alberto Fujimori.
In fact, during his 11-year term, Fujimori's government legalized sterilization, promoted the toughest birth-control campaign in Peru's history and approved a controversial “sex education” program. And its campaign of forced and sometimes deadly tubal ligations among poor peasant women prompted harsh criticism from the U.S. Congress, several human rights groups, and even from some feminist organizations.
President-elect Alejandro Toledo, who was a key player in the process that finally ousted Fujimori last November, has tried to make a fresh start, distancing himself as much as possible from his predecessor since being elected president in a June 3 runoff election. Toledo has strong U.S. connections, having left the impoverished port village of Chimbote at the age of 16 to study at the University of San Francisco on a scholarship, and subsequently to obtain a doctorate in economics from Stanford University.
Some Peruvian pro-lifers reacted with satisfaction when Toledo, instead of receiving the greetings of the Peruvian bishops at home after his victory as is customary, decided to visit the Peruvian bishops' conference and talk to its permanent council, which was holding its regular session at the time.
Immediately after the hour-long meeting, the bishops' conference issued a press release stating that the meeting “served to initiate a dialogue with the new president-elect, establish channels of communication between the Catholic Church and the new government, and to face, together with all Peruvians, the problems that affect our homeland.”
A bishop present at the meeting said that the president of the conference, Bishop Luis Bambarén of Chimbote, raised the issue of the sterilization program as a way to politely probe Toledo on his own position.
In various moments during Bishop Bambarén's explanation, the president-elect clearly nodded expressing his agreement, a gesture that was later interpreted as “very positive” by Bishop Bambarén. But the bishop consulted by the Register noted that “Toledo did not express any comment, much less a commitment [to prevent further abuses] in this matter.”
Added the bishop, “He instead talked clearly about joining forces with the Church in fighting poverty.”
Catholic Advisers
Still, many bishops as well as several pro-life leaders have expressed optimism over the fact that two strong, outspoken Catholic politicians are among Toledo's closest advisers.
One is Carlos Ferrero Costa, a founder of the Christian Democratic Party in Peru who is slated to become the next Speaker of the Peruvian Congress. Ferrero was one of the few politicians to openly oppose Fuji-mori's legalization of sterilization.
The other is Luis Solari de la Puente, a convert and a highly regarded surgeon who until very recently was a member of the Pro-Life Commission of the Peruvian bishops' conference.
Solari was crucial in making known worldwide the brutal consequences of Fujimori's sterilization campaign. For this and other services paid to the Church, he was awarded the “Pro Ecclesia et Romano Pontifice” distinction by Pope John Paul II in 1998.
Solari is the secretary-general of Toledo's Perú Posible party and is a key member of the president-elect's entourage.
But other pro-lifers are much less optimistic about what could happen with Toledo on life and family issues. Dr. Raúl Cantella, one of Peru's top AIDS experts and a colleague of Solari's at the Pro-Life Commission, warned that Perú Posible has many more supporters of birth control and “sex education” than pro-lifers.
Cantella, who unsuccessfully ran for congress in Peru's last general election, cited the influence of Toledo's Belgian wife, Eliane Karp. “Karp has made clear that she favors birth control, abortion and the approach to ‘gender issues’ shared by European nations,” Cantella said.
He also said that Solari withdrew from Perú Posible after registering strong objections to the fact that the party's platform included several items referring to population control and “sex education.”
Cantella said Solari returned to the party only after Toledo personally assured him that such programs would be eliminated from the government's agenda.
Cantella's account could not be confirmed by Solari, who was not available for comment because he was coordinating trips to the United States. and Europe that Toledo will make before assuming office July 28. As well, Perú Posible spokesman Jorge Toledo said he was not in a position to confirm or deny it.
Another pro-life leader, psychiatrist Maíta García, also expressed concern about the influence that Karp and her feminist entourage might have. Karp has stated that she will not have a passive role during her husband's term, and has promised that she will focus on “women's issues,” a term many regard as a euphemism for promoting birth control.
Personal Questions
García also mentioned what she described as “Toledo's very weak personal credibility, especially in family issues.” Allegations persist that Toledo fathered a child outside his marriage and used his political influence to win a favorable judgment in a paternity suit.
Toledo has adamantly denied the girl is his, but he agreed to an out-of-court settlement allowing the child to bear his name and has refused to submit to a DNA test to establish paternity.
There are also clinical records showing he tested positive for cocaine after an extramarital hotel rendezvous with three women in 1998.
In what many observers viewed as being partly an indirect reference to these problems, Peru's bishops issued a post-election document stressing that “the root of the crisis affecting our country is of moral nature, which has a direct effect in the social, political, economic and legal fields.”
Said the document, “This situation demands now a commitment of the rulers and the ruled to work for the moral regeneration of our nation.”
Toledo has recently made overtures to Christians. Between the first presidential vote in early April and the June runoff against the runner-up, Alan García, Toledo started changing his references to the “Apus”—ancient Inca divinities—to references to “God” and even “Christ.”
And while Toledo went on vacation after the first vote to an exclusive resort in the Dominican Republic while García remained in Lima to participate in Holy Week celebrations, the Sunday following his June victory Toledo inaugurated a chapel at a shantytown in Lima and attended Mass. He even made his Jewish vice president, David Waisman, raise hands and join with him in praying the Our Father.
The unprecedented visit to the bishops' conference also fit with Toledo's efforts to project a more religious and moral image. But, many Peruvian pro-lifers warn, only time will tell if this new image is a reality or just a temporary political expedient.
Alejandro Bermúdez is based in Lima, Peru.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Alejandro Bermúdez ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 07/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 22 - 28, 2001 ----- BODY:Survivors of Totalitarianism Denounce Beijing Games
WALL STREET JOURNAL, July 10 —In a column in the business daily, three survivors of state terror denounced plans to hold the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing
Gerhard Loewenthal wrote that the 1936 Games in Nazi Germany boosted Hitler's power and aided the regime that ultimately threw Loewenthal in a concentration camp.
Vladimir Bukovsky wrote that the 1980 Games in Communist Moscow were a similar propaganda windfall for the Soviet government that imprisoned him for 12 years.
Finally, Chinese dissident and labor camp survivor Wei Jingsheng argued, “Beijing will surely use this opportunity to oppress those Chinese who fight for human rights and democracy.”
Church Radio Station Opposes Angolan Government
ASSOCIATED PRESS, July 11—Radio Ecclesia, a Catholic station serving Angola, rejected a government accusation that its reporting was “subversive,” the wire service reported.
The station announced that it would continue providing “unbiased, reliable and truthful” news, despite the government crackdown on independent reporting in the country, which has been racked by civil war since 1974.
Belarus Drops Cases Against Christians
KESTON NEWS SERVICE, July 4—In a heartening surprise for religious believers, Belarusian officials have dropped charges against volunteers who distributed an interdenominational Protestant newspaper, the religious-freedom news service reported.
The editor of the Christian newspaper Slovo (Word) also learned that charges against him were dropped.
Philippine Army Captures Muslim Terrorist
NATIONAL POST, July 10—Philippine troops captured a senior officer of the Muslim rebel group Abu Sayyaf, the Canadian daily reported.
Abu Sayyaf is holding U.S. and Filipino hostages in the south of the country, where the group claims it seeks to establish a Muslim homeland in the mostly Catholic nation. Abu Sayyaf uses kidnapping to promote its political ends.
Nadzmi Sabdulla, arrested with three other Abu Sayyaf members, was the highest-ranking member ever arrested, and was considered “the brains” of the group.
Greek Catholic Patriarch Dies
THE INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE, July 9—Patriarch Maximus V Hakim, who for more than 30 years was the head of the Greek Catholic Church, died at age 93 in a Beirut Hospital, the international daily reported.
Maximus V, elected in 1967, vigorously sought closer ties with the Eastern Orthodox Church. He was the head of 600,000 followers, mainly in Syria, Egypt and Lebanon, who accept the authority of the Pope but worship in Arabic according to Orthodox rites.
Islam OKs Cell-Phone Divorce
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH, June 27—Islamic religious scholars announced that husbands in the Gulf emirate of Dubai can divorce their wives by sending mobile phone text messages, the English daily reported.
Under Islamic law, a man may divorce simply by saying “I divorce thee” three times. Scholars ruled that a man who sent his wife the message, “I divorce you because you are late,” had validly ended his marriage.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Apostles of Romance DATE: 07/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 22 - 28, 2001 ----- BODY:The Catholic Church is the only organization capable of saving romance from dying in the world. That's because Catholic teaching is the only place where human love and sexuality are properly respected, and marriage properly understood.
This means Catholics have a special duty to back the new federal marriage amendment that was introduced to Congress on July 13.
When a bride and groom stand before their friends and relatives and pledge, with all their hearts, that they will love each other forever, what do other organizations say to them?
The legal profession says, “Fine and nice, but if you're talking about a legal bond I'd have to inform you that in America either party can break the marriage contract for any reason or no reason.”
The psychological establishment says, “Well, if it works out, this marriage will be a benefit to the man and, at best, a mixed bag for the woman. If it doesn't, which is increasingly likely, then maybe these words, said so happily now, will just cause ugly wounds later.”
Unfortunately, too many religious bodies say, “What you are doing is important and significant—but your pledge, alas, needs some qualifications. Be assured that divorce and remarriage are perfectly fine under several conditions.”
But Catholic teaching says, “We take your pledge so seriously we have made it a sacrament. And with the other sacraments, we will be there to help you stay true to your vows.”
The marriage vow, in Catholic teaching, is for real. It's a promise you can't take back. It's real enough that it should give a couple great pause before they marry, to consider whether they are willing to stick it out or not.
Many Catholics have married without understanding or respecting the gravity of this commitment; many without being told about it, even. These the Church has reached out to in a number of ways, through her marriage tribunals and pastoral counseling. But the number of annulments in America is a sign that we should take marriage more seriously, not less.
Catholic teaching on marriage is the most romantic precisely because it is the most serious. Marriage is society's solemn ratification of the promises made by lovers. If society gives couples a wink and a nudge, it has diminished romance. If society lets anyone marry for any reason, with no expectation that a couple will stay together, then it has diminished romance.
And what interest does society have in the preservation of romance? Social stability. Marriage promotes the general welfare of a nation by building the strong bonds that keep a society together and by producing children in loving homes who are cared for by parents who stay together.
If a society begins to grant marriage benefits to any couple, simply because they live together and have sex, it not only encourages a behavior that does society no good, it also prevents it from giving any benefit to the behavior that does build it up.
Earlier this year, the Register published a front-page story about a man with a plan to sap religion of its power in the United States. He is making as many people as possible into ministers. He figures that if hundreds of people (and, as it turned out, animals) with no qualifications were ordained ministers, then ordination would lose its meaning.
Plans to make marriage available to all—including same-sex couples—will have the same kind of effect, on a massive scale.
No one should doubt that some homosexual couples have a real affection for each other and a rewarding relationship. But so do many friends.
A society that accepts any applicant for marriage will in effect be saying to a bride and a groom: “You have promised to love each other forever, which we expect you probably won't do, but you want to have some sort of formal acknowledgment of your commitment, however long it might last, and we'll give you that. Why not? We give it to everybody.”
And that's not very romantic.
It's up to Catholics to be apostles of romance, before romance is killed altogether. A federal amendment that reiterates the definition of marriage is a good place to start.
----- EXCERPT: EDITORIAL ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Opinion -------- TITLE: Letters DATE: 07/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 22 - 28, 2001 ----- BODY:Appointments & Meetings
I have been a Register subscriber for more than a decade. One of the items I have always looked forward to seeing were the episcopal appointments from throughout the world.
For the last month, the Register has not carried this item. I hope that you would consider bringing it back. It helps us priests keep abreast of many of the changes in leadership taking place throughout the Church.
FATHER DAVID BIALKOWSKI
Buffalo, New York
God's Hand in History
Regarding “John Paul in the Land of Blood and Crosses” (July 8-14): The mystery of suffering in our own lives and in our world has always been a source of puzzlement to the human mind. It's often difficult to accept that [suffering] is God's raw material in molding his children to perfection. So it's reassuring to see a glimpse of the divine wisdom as the fruits of suffering emerge.
Recently, while I was visiting a Polish Church, a beautiful wooden icon of Our Lady caught my eye. An old gentleman told me its history. It was carved by a man using the sharpened lid of a tin can during his captivity in a Nazi concentration camp in Poland. He went on to describe the sufferings of his people under the Nazi regime and then the communists that followed them. So much persecution and oppression was revealed in the tears in his eyes. Plaques cherishing the memory of the thousands of soldiers who had fallen in battle lined the choir loft.
The faith of the people was surely tested in the furnace and, despite 40 years of atheistic communism, hope remained, the Church maintained its position and the culmination of half a century of prayer and pain brought forth a Polish pope. To see that, shortly followed by the collapse of the regime in Poland and then right across Eastern Europe and the USSR, is to see God's mighty hand guiding history.
As John Paul II continues to be a voice crying in the wilderness of a world that largely ignores Christ's teaching, I can't help wondering what means God will use to bring our nations back into the fold, but I'm sure his love will find a way.
STEPHEN CLARK
Manchester, England
Nix the Newspeak
In the best Clintonian tradition, Eve Tushnet (and apparently Bishop Fiorenza) use the term “refundable tax credit” when they mean “welfare.”
Newspeak has no place in a Catholic publication.
T. MARK STAMM
Potomac, Maryland
Remarkably Misguided ‘Pro-Life’ Men
How outrageous and terribly disappointing that a once authentically Catholic newspaper such as the Register would print on its last page a huge letter glorifying people such as Martin Sheen and Mark Shields (“They Come From all Political Stripes: Feminists for Life's Remarkable Pro-Life Men,” July 8-14).
These individuals are notable supporters of candidates who would allow the murder of pre-born children virtually until the time of their birth. As principal host of “Capital Gang” on Ted Turner's CNN, Mark Shields regularly disparages pro-life candidates and consistently supports pro-abortion candidates. Martin Sheen is an ardent supporter of outrageously pro-abortion candidates as Bill Clinton and Al Gore while pretending to be pro-life because he is opposed to the death penalty for capital crimes.
It is often difficult for conscientious individuals, who have problems with many Republican positions and long family traditions of voting Democratic, to guide themselves by the overriding desire to end the killing of millions of children. Nevertheless courage requires prioritizing concerns, and no other concern comes close to the protection of innocent human life. Both parties are now unfortunately basically pro-capital punishment, so that position is a red herring and does not apply when used by “seamless-garment “ advocates to justify support of abortion-rights candidates.
How are we ever to end the horrific practice of abortion in this country if Catholics are provided the justification for voting for pro-abortion candidates in supposedly decent Catholic newspapers?
The only hope we have to end abortion is through our representatives and hopefully through decent court appointments. This will never happen as long as Catholics continue to feel it is a viable choice to vote for candidates like Al Gore and Bill Clinton.
I am sure these sorts of justifications were also used in supporting racist politicians in the pre-civil rights era, because of their positions on other issues. Why would any politician change their viewpoint if they feel they can safely vote against pro-life concerns and still get a large number of Catholic voters? I am slowly running out of groups to support financially, as I cross off the National Catholic Register from my list.
Mark Shields and Martin Sheen as Catholics disgrace and scandalize the Catholic Church. So, apparently, does this newspaper. You have no idea how deeply this pains me. I will not be renewing my subscription. Shame on you!
KEN BRINKMAN
Rancho Palos Verdes, California
Editor's Note: It's a shame we're losing your support over our coverage of this year's Feminists for Life awards.
We ask you to judge the Register not by the actions of the groups or individuals we report on, but by our own editorial content.
Carmelite Connection
The Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help in New Franken, Wis. (“Witness in the Wisconsin Wood,” Catholic Traveler, July 8-14), was founded by Franciscans—but now has a Carmelite connection. What we identified as a Franciscan house of prayer is, in fact, the Carmelite Monastery of the Holy Name of Jesus.
—Editor
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Opinion -------- TITLE: Gorillas Get the Gist DATE: 07/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 22 - 28, 2001 ----- BODY:Regarding “Human Rights For Apes?” (July 8-14): How long will it be before we are looking for “human rights” (maybe under a different title) for fleas, mosquitoes and flies? Maybe that would be after rights are obtained for snakes?
Don't think it is far-fetched. Not long ago “human rights for apes” would have been laughed off. Now, for some advocates, it has arrived at the serious thinking and action stage.
That's where modern education is leading.
Can you imagine that if an ape kills a human, anyone killing it would be brought to trial? We would allow the ape to live, and range free, because of the ape's diminished mentality.
Perhaps we could have apes on the jury for the trial. Then we would hire interpreters for the apes, because the apes could not fully speak human. Anything the “expert” interpreters determined the apes had said would be accepted.
Stop the world! I want to get off!
JAMES KELLY
Feasterville, Pennsylvania
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Opinion -------- TITLE: Better to Light One Votive Candle Than to Curse the Rolling Blackout DATE: 07/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 22 - 28, 2001 ----- BODY:Some people look at a dark cloud and then try to find the silver lining.
Others see the lining first and pretty much put the cloud out of their minds. I know it may be more responsible to adopt the first attitude, but often enough I find myself taking the second.
Nowadays, as everyone else bemoans the energy crisis, I see it as something that may rid me of a long-term annoyance.
Newspapers have been filled with political cater-wauling about the energy shortage, which may or may not be a real shortage, depending on which commentator one follows.
Two decades ago, during another energy shortage, the U.S. Catholic Conference issued a document called Reflections on the Energy Crisis. It predicted doom and gloom—regular oil wars, oil priced at $100 per barrel and the virtual disappearance by 2000 of domestically produced oil and gas. “The days of cheap and plentiful power are over,” said the report.
It has turned out that, aside from the Persian Gulf, there have been no massive oil wars. Oil prices are around $30 per barrel and falling, with the Energy Department predicting $20 per barrel within two years. Worldwide proven oil reserves have more than doubled; ditto for reserves of natural gas.
Oil prices collapsed twice, once in the 1980s and once in the late 1990s. The inflation-adjusted price of gasoline dropped from $2.14 to $1.24 over 16 years. The price is higher now but won't be for long. Where I live, Southern California, fuel prices have held steady for weeks and now have begun to decline, even as the summer driving season ramps up.
Not only were the prognostications of the U.S. Catholic Conference proved wrong, but even recent worrywarts have been off the mark. We haven't had rolling blackouts around California for some time, and the ones we have had have been short and isolated. Of course, things are in flux, and blackouts may return as the overall energy situation seeks to stabilize over the summer and as 30 million Californians set air conditioners on full blast. But it will be a hit-and-miss thing—mainly miss, I suspect.
The lights will go out now and then, but not for long, and soon enough we'll be incandescently happy again.
Before the blackouts disappear down the memory hole, I want to take advantage of them while I can. In a small way they could spell liberation for Catholics.
Contrary to what many think, an energy crunch is not always, or at least is not in all ways, a bad thing. Higher prices result in more conservation and a return to motor vehicles that have engines measured in miles per gallon instead of yards per gallon. Pressure on utility companies now mean more power plants, perhaps even more efficient ones at that, in the future. And so on. Yet such considerations are for politicians, economists and talk show hosts.
Rolling blackouts might be good for the religious ambiance of our churches. Here's my plan.
My interest focuses less on what captures headlines than on what might happen at my parish. If timed judiciously, rolling blackouts might be good for the religious ambiance.
Here's my plan. While Californians are applying to the government for exemptions from electricity shutoffs (“If my power goes out, how will I keep up with my favorite soaps?”), I'd like to suggest that parishes volunteer to put themselves at the top of the list to be blacked out. It would be a sign of generosity to the community. It would be a way of taking on and reducing the suffering of others. It would be a true witness to our materialistic culture.
Best of all, it would snuff out those blasted electric votive lights.
Let others worry about oil wars, depletion of resources and soaring utility bills.
The real problem is in the nave of our churches, where pulsing filaments have been squeezing out beeswax candles. If we can solve this problem, we can solve any problem.
Yes, I know the rationale for electric candles. Although a stand for electric candles costs more than one for wax candles, in the long run light bulbs are cheaper than live flames. They're also safer.
No matter how high electricity prices are, it takes a fraction of a cent to illuminate a low-wattage bulb for a few minutes. What's more, no one in the rectory has to worry about cleaning out the remains of old wax candles and making sure there are enough lighter sticks or matches. Electric votive candles are clean, simple and antiseptic.
The problem with them is that they aren't real candles and can't convey the right symbolism. The essence of a wax candle is that it is consumed. Just as a prayer that accompanies the lighting of a candle takes something out of us—it is a holy work that exacts a cost—so the wax candle gets used up. Electric candles just recycle. It's not the same.
Maybe it's time to welcome the darkness and curse the electric candle.
Karl Keating is founding director of Catholic Answers in El Cajon, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Karl Keating ----- KEYWORD: Commentary -------- TITLE: Human Rights... DATE: 07/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 22 - 28, 2001 ----- BODY:The current hit movie A.I. Artificial Intelligence is stunning cinema—just what a moviegoer would expect from two of the silver screen's greatest architects, Steven Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick.
The acting is also first-rate, particularly the performances by child prodigy Haley Joel Osment as the robo-boy David and Jude Law as the aptly named Gigolo Joe. The beautiful veneer, though, conceals a disturbing blemish—and I'm not referring to the film's acceptance of two popular gloom-and-doom scare theories of the day, global warming and overpopulation.
In a post-apocalyptic world starved of resources, David is created to be the perfect child for parents who cannot get birth licenses from the government. Once David “imprints” on his parent, he is programmed to love that parent unconditionally, irrevocably, forever. David imprints on a woman whose son, Martin, has been cryogenically frozen because the medicine of the day cannot cure his illness. But a cure is discovered, Martin wakes up and David proves to be a danger to the family.
When Martin manipulates David into cutting a lock of his mother's hair, she wakes up in the act and her husband misconstrues David's act as a sign of underlying malevolence. Next, while defending himself against Martin's bullying friends, David latches on to Martin, begging for protection. Hysterical, David drags Martin over the edge of a swimming pool, nearly drowning him.
David's mother agonizes over what to do with David before deciding to let him go. Then follows one of the most upsetting scenes on the screen in recent memory.
The mother takes the robo-boy into the woods. When David begs her not to leave him there, promising to do anything so that she will love him again, she throws him to the ground. David looks on in shock and horror as she takes off. David then embarks on an odyssey to find the blue fairy who, as he read in Pinocchio, may be able to change him into a real boy.
Spielberg proves himself a master of emotional manipulation: One would have to be inhuman indeed not to feel for the figure Haley Joel Osment cuts as a lost child. And David's quest is, after all, the most human quest possible—the search for unconditional love. In spite of my awareness of the director's heavyhandedness, I found myself involved in the plight of this appealing character.
Feeling Is Believing
A.I. works as stirring cinema, all right, and a big part of its success is that, as a fantasy, it never has to explain how it is that a machine can flawlessly mimic love, the most complex and human of all emotions. Just as he convinced us that a robotic shark was a real fish in Jaws, Spielberg here convinces us that a real boy is a robot is a real boy (got that?).
And why wouldn't we believe what we see with our own eyes? Spielberg has cast a charming, cute, bright-eyed little boy and then used all the tools at his disposal, including some of the most amazing and expensive special-effects wizardry ever invented, to draw us deeper and deeper into his illusion.
When the little boy is dragged through the mud of the plot's heart-tugging devices, and the audience sees his tears and hears his cries for mommy, it is impossible not to care deeply about this David.
So why is this a bad thing, from a Christian point of view? Because our succumbing to the story's emotional seduction is strong evidence of our predilection toward functionalism.
We, too, tend to equate humanity and personhood with what one can do rather than with who one is. David is the perfect flip side to the abortion debate. He is not a human—but he looks, acts and sounds like one.
Meanwhile a blastocyst (a days-old human conceptus) is human, but certainly does not look, act, or sound like one. As Spielberg sees it, the Davids of the world, if they ever come to be, will be more human than many humans.
In this way, A.I. divorces the notion of personhood from that of dignity. The functionalist accords dignity only to a being who fulfills a preconceived idea of what a sentient human is. The Princeton utilitarian ethicist Peter Singer argues for exactly this divorce, even to the point of condoning infanticide. The problem is that most people base their ideas solely on everyday contact with the people in their lives, who fall within a limited range of appearance and capability. Anything radically outside of that experience does not meet the common expectation of a functional human.
Of course, early-stage fetuses and embryos look nothing like the people we see around us. If we rely on subjective feelings and our narrow ranges of experience, we will not accord them the dignified status of personhood. They don't look like any person I've ever seen, so they must not be a person at all.
As dignity and personhood go, so go rights.
Who's Human?
Because the unborn do not fit the mold of everyday experience, the functionalist concludes that they are not persons and have no rights. Hence, the slippery slope leading to abortion, infanticide and embryonic stem-cell research.
On the other hand, we have David to deal with.
David does fall within the normal experience of what it means to be a functional human being. So moviegoers are able to sympathize with a nonhuman machine. How many of those same viewers are able to sympathize with the human embryo, so much harder to relate to?
In order to believe that life really begins at conception, we need to go beyond the prejudices of subjective experience into the realm of principle, where appearances are not all that matters. Sadly, there do not seem to be too many people capable of doing such a thing. Why resort to reason when feeling is so much more immediate and familiar?
Even if one does come to the principled conclusion that life begins at conception, David still looks a lot more human and worthy of rights than the indistinct blastocyst, no matter how firmly one thinks the opposite.
In other words, David pulls on our heartstrings when we should be using our heads. And Hollywood continues to reinforce prejudices that engage our sympathy for what only appears human while riding roughshod over real human beings.
Tom Harmon is a researcher and writer at the Faith & Reason Institute in Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tom Harmon ----- KEYWORD: Commentary -------- TITLE: Hold Stem Cells Until Summer Feeding Frenzy Subsides DATE: 07/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 22 - 28, 2001 ----- BODY:President Bush is not to be envied. The life-and-death issue of federal funding for embryonic-stem-cell research is not a winnable one, in public-relations terms, for the president.
Plus recent and upcoming events only make matters worse for him, in some respects.
Earlier this month, he spent his first visit to New York City since becoming president at St. Patrick's Cathedral, where he conferred the Congressional Gold Medal—the highest honor the U.S. bestows upon civilians—posthumously on Cardinal John O'Connor. Later this month, he'll meet with Pope John Paul II in Rome.
Every event of this kind builds the public perception that, if the president decides to protect embryos by prohibiting the federally funded destruction of them for their stem cells, he is “caving to Catholic pressure.”
Nor does it help him that, after he gave a speech at the opening of the Pope John Paul II Institute in Washington, D.C., some dubbed him “the second Catholic president.”
The press, of course, is buzzing: cover stories in the national newsweekly magazines, endless chatter on the talking-head TV shows, hot call-in debates on radio talk shows.
Bush's allies and Cabinet secretaries, including prominent Catholics like former Florida U.S. Sen. Connie Mack, are giving the president no aid, spouting off instead about how destroying embryos is the “genuinely pro-life” position.
Meanwhile, there are a few stories here and there, mostly ignored or downplayed, about the promise of adult stem cells—which may be more flexible and are certainly more abundant, not requiring an endless stream of human lives sacrificed to research.
It's no surprise, then, that many Americans aren't sure what the to-do is all about. And that includes not a few of the people doing the talking, for whom the “fuss” is the story.
In early June, for example, the Los Angeles Times reported on a compromise position that leading Catholic intellectuals, sometime advisers to the president, were ready to accept from the White House. Never mind that, in fact, the rumors of a compromise position were greatly exaggerated.
In a statement released the following weekend, the Catholic advisers in question—Prince-ton's Robert P. George, Crisis magazine editor Deal Hudson and Father Robert Sirico of the Acton Institute—made clear that they do not favor a compromise. Their statement came as a relief to activists struggling against the media tide.
In fact, as Richard Doerflinger, the point man for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops on stem cells, and now a regular on the talking-heads circuit, has said: The status quo, with no one pressing for an all-out ban on embryonic-stem-cell research is the compromise position.
The preferred position would be to prohibit the embryo-destroying research entirely, not just reroute federal dollars to research with adult stem cells and let private researchers destroy all the embryos they want.
As Fred Barnes has pointed out in The Weekly Standard, Bush would have been a lot better off had he done what many proposed he do upon being sworn in: immediately issue an order barring federal funding for stem-cell research that destroys human embryos, and simultaneously propose increasing federal funds for research on adult cells.
Needless to say, Bush did not take that advice. And now he finds himself faced with a vicious media spotlight on a painful issue that not many Americans, including reporters, understand.
Now what's he going to do?
Why not wait a while? For starters, that would give Americans time to get up to speed on the issues involved. That's bound to happen eventually, as even the quick-hit media will have to reckon with hard-hitting, if low-profile, reports on the dangers of working with stem cells which have appeared in respected research journals.
It was not long ago that activists claimed fetal tissue would bring a cure to diseases like Parkinson's. But as they have tested those utopian claims on human beings, some of the results have been tragic.
The Register reported on one study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, back in March (“Fetal-Tissue Transplants Cripple Patients,” said the headline.
The study showed that 15% of the Parkinson's patients who received fetal brain transplants experienced runaway dyskinesia—uncontrollable muscle spasms that cause the patients to twitch, writhe and fling their limbs spasmodically. One of the authors of the study, Dr. Paul Greene, a Columbia neurologist, called the study “tragic” and “catastrophic.”
There's another reason the president should wait: The summer's no time to do something unpopular, because it's the slowest time of year for the news. The mainstream media is standing by, starving, eager to devour any kernel that comes its way.
Imagine what the news hounds would do if presented with the chance to juxtapose President Bush kissing the papal ring in the Vatican City—days after or before announcing a ban on federal funding of embryo-destroying stem-cell research—with heartbreaking pictures of Morton Kondracke's Parkinson's-stricken wife Millie (she of the best seller Saving Millie).
Right now the media is having its way with its favorite kind of easy feed, a potential sex-and-murder scandal in the nation's capital. Bush should lay low.
Then, in the fall, he should do the right thing, the thing he promised to do in his presidential campaign: Prohibit once and for all the federal subsidy for the killing of innocent human beings.
Kathryn Jean Lopez is an associate editor of National Review (www.nationalreview.com).
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kathryn Jean Lopez ----- KEYWORD: Commentary -------- TITLE: The 'Black Madonna's' Keystone Station DATE: 07/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 22 - 28, 2001 ----- BODY:The rolling green hills and stone colonial farmhouses of southeastern Pennsylvania's Bucks County evoke a sense of peace and timelessness.
Driving through, it's easy to forget that you're just a few miles from the big-city commotion of Philadelphia (and Trenton, N.J.).
Follow the back roads north of Doylestown and, just when you think the setting couldn't be more tranquil, you come to the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa.
You can thank the shrine's patron, with her gentle, maternal spirit, for this being a place of such supernatural serenity.
Since the pontificate of Pope John Paul II began, Americans have become more familiar with the image of the “Black Madonna” of Czestochowa (pronounced Chen-sto-HO-va). This ancient icon, said to have been painted by St. Luke, has been the rallying point of Polish Catholics since the late Middle Ages.
In 1655, when Poland had all but fallen to Swedish invaders, a small band of resisters successfully defended the besieged monastery where the image was housed. They were led by the father prior of the monastery, and their victory inspired the entire nation to fight back with renewed vigor. After this, Our Lady of Czestochowa was venerated as “Queen of Poland.” In more recent years, the shrine at Czestochowa achieved international prominence when Pope John Paul visited in 1979 and 1983.
The Pauline monastic order of Czestochowa began its first American foundation in 1953, when the order purchased 40 acres of Pennsylvania farmland. An old barn became the first chapel; it's still there today. The style of this chapel, both inside and out, resembles the country churches found throughout Poland. It is unmistakably Slavic, adorned with both statues and icons, since in Poland eastern and western customs meet and blend.
As the 1966 millennium of Poland's conversion to Christianity drew near, the Pauline fathers approached the hierarchy and their lay supporters with the idea of a major shrine and Polish cultural center to honor the occasion.
Soon donations were pouring in, and an army of volunteers began working to make the dream of an American Czestochowa a reality. In October of 1966, Archbishop John Krol of Philadelphia—along with U.S. President Lyndon Johnson—dedicated the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa.
Doorway to Devotion
Rising 70 feet overhead, with a 200-foot tower, the sleek edifice is the largest in all of Pennsylvania. A sweeping staircase leads to the main door, on which relief sculptures depict scenes from the history of the holy image. The vestibule is worth a look, especially to anyone interested in Polish history. It showcases small memorials honoring, among other people and events, the airmen who left Poland and flew with England's Royal Air Force during World War II, the officers murdered en mass by the Soviets in the Katyn forest, the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, and the great concert pianist and Polish patriot Ignacy Paderewski, whose heart is enshrined here.
The center aisle of the immense church leads to a raised sanctuary with a marble altar. An exact replica of the Czestochowa icon is suspended above, framed by a stately and striking sculpture of the Blessed Trinity.
The two side altars—one dedicated to St. Joseph, the other to the Blessed Sacrament—are each backed by colorful mosaics. On either side of the church are enormous walls of stained glass; at 40 feet by 50, they're the largest such windows in the United States. The east window-wall depicts in 34 panels the history of the United States, with special attention to its religious and Catholic history. (My favorite was the signing of the Declaration of Independence, with Our Lady of Guadalupe hovering above.) The western window-wall depicts 36 highlights from the first 1,000 years of Christianity in Poland.
Leaving the church, one sees in the choir loft a magnificent pipe organ, and is again reminded of the sad yet glorious history of Catholic Poland: A prominent inscription dedicates the organ to the memory of Father Jerzy Popieluszko, the martyr of the Solidarity movement who was beaten to death in 1984.
Confession and Consolation
The 2,000-capacity church is not used during the week, but the same building also houses a separate chapel, dedicated to St. Anne—whose feast day is July 26—which can accommodate up to 200 pilgrims.
This smaller sanctuary is not lacking in attention to its own displays of beauty and splendor. Behind the altar, another replica of the miraculous “Black Madonna” image hangs on a green marble reredos decorated with golden angels and royal Polish eagles. Other features of the chapel include a newer statue titled “Mary of Nazareth,” in which the Blessed Mother appears to be running forth to welcome pilgrims, and a striking painting of St. Peter preaching in catacombs by artist Adam Styka.
Although founded largely with the aim of preserving the cultural and spiritual heritage of Polish Catholics, the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa has become much more. The busloads of pilgrims that come every Sunday form an increasingly multiethnic throng. Haitians, in particular, come in such numbers that many instructional signs have been added in French.
Many who come here find their mother—and, as the Pauline priests who hear confessions all day long will attest, a “door” through which they return home to a church family they had abandoned years before.
Father Marian Zalecki has been here since 1965. He is one of the 16 Pauline priests and brothers who serve the Doylestown pilgrims. He has witnessed many miracles of conversion at the shrine.
“The Blessed Mother is the good mistress of this house,” he told me. “The pilgrims come here, tired and weary with their various problems, and she welcomes them. She washes their feet and leads them to confession. She sets the Lord's table, and leads them to the Eucharist. She refreshes them so they can go forward in their earthly pilgrimage.
“Our Blessed Mother is, as Vatican II reminded us, ‘the great consolation of the pilgrim Church.’ Those who come here leave with that consolation.”
Daria Sockey writes from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
----- EXCERPT: National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa, Doylestown, Pa. ----- EXTENDED BODY: Daria Sockey ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: 'A Turning-Point of History' DATE: 07/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 22 - 28, 2001 ----- BODY:Pope John Paul II expressed his devotion to the Black Madonna in August, 1991. Speaking extemporaneously in his first general audience after returning from the sixth World Youth Day—at Jasna Góra in Czestochowa, Poland, where he prayed before the original image—he recalled the 1 million participants in the event.
“These days were above all days of prayer and reflection, centered on the words of St. Paul, who says that those who are led by the Holy Spirit are children of God,” he said in Italian after he finished reading his prepared text. “We invited the young people to work with the Holy Spirit in this spiritual transformation which enables an individual, a young person, each of us, to become a child of God, in the likeness of the only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
“At the Shrine of Jasna Góra, with its ancient image of the ‘Black Madonna,’ those present were able to experience together a turning-point of history and to recover, after the sufferings of our century and the collapse of ideologies, the Christian roots of Europe.
“At the threshold of a new spiritual season for mankind, I pray that young people from East and West will walk together along the path of freedom, working to overcome all conflicts between races and peoples, so as to build a world of authentic brotherhood and to carry the liberating message of the Gospel everywhere. Through the prayers of Mary, Mother of God, may the Church, united with her in prayer, come to experience a new Pentecost, and the dawn of the ‘civilization of truth and love’ for which we all long.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Travel -------- TITLE: Hello Web, Goodbye Busy Signal DATE: 07/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 22 - 28, 2001 ----- BODY:I spend a considerable amount of time each day uploading files.
Daily we put up the Liturgy of the Hours in audio and update our live chapel Web-cam picture every minute. To make monksofadoration.com work, you might think we need a big-bandwidth connection such as cable, DSL or T1. But, in fact, we make do with a dial-up, 56kbps modem and a regular telephone line.
The Web cam has been a challenge with this arrangement because “unlimited” usage on a dial-up connection by an Internet service provider (ISP) does not mean you can be permanently connected or have a “dedicated” line. Read your ISP contract closely some time, and you will find all sorts of reasons they can give to terminate you.
Most ISPs restrict how long you can stay connected before being kicked off. And they monitor your usage such that if you are idle too long, the connection will be severed.
“Excessive Usage” is another reason for termination. This could cover being connected for too many hours each month—or for using up too much bandwidth through excessive amounts of downloading and uploading.
Now, it is understandable why dial-up Internet Service Providers have to limit usage. An ISP can only have so many people connected on their network at the same time at a given location. When that number is exceeded, customers become angry because of those infamous busy signals, of which AOL was a prime example at one time. About four years ago, ISPs started clamping down on usage. I was using Prodigy for my Web cam and everything was fine until they rewrote their customer agreement. Within weeks, I was scheduled for termination for “excessive usage” unless I cut back on usage. So I started looking for another ISP.
After much searching, I found C-Zone.net out of California. I specifically asked if they had any problem with my having a Web cam that was connected 24/7. They said that, as long as they could kick me off every eight hours, it would be OK with them. So I set it up such that when I was disconnected, the Web cam would automatically reconnect. This worked well for a few years. Between the extra phone line and the ISP, we were paying $37 per month.
Then came the advent of broadband connectivity. At first, this wasn't even a consideration because of the price. A few months ago, Comcast, our local cable-TV carrier, began advertising cable connection to the Internet for $49.95 per month. My interest was piqued—until I found out I would have to rent a cable modem for an additional $7 per month, or buy it for who knows how much, plus pay installation fees, a network card, and so on. There went my interest.
Last month, the company promoted a special deal for Internet cable: Free installation and setup, a free cable modem until January 2002, free network card, $9.95 per month for the first three months and $42.95 thereafter. What did I have to lose? Certainly trying it for three months at $9.95 was worth the risk.
Having heard some horror stories regarding both cable and DSL, I made it a point to back up my computer's files before the installation. Comcast guaranteed that they would show up to hook it up between 1 and 5 p.m. on Wednesday—or give me a $20 credit. The workers descended upon our place in rapid succession. First, a technician came to install and turn on the cable; he also tested the signal to ensure the cable modem would work properly.
Next, a Comcast representative arrived, contract in hand, and asked me to sign on the dotted line. Then came the technician to actually hook up the cable modem, network card and install the software on our computer
Now he was fast.
He never touched the mouse and his hands flew so fast over our keyboard that I thought smoke would start pouring out! He gave a five-minute explanation of the software installed and left. And it has been working flawlessly ever since.
Have I noticed a difference? Definitely. Sending and receiving e-mail takes place in the blink of an eye, file uploading that used to take at least 10 minutes now takes one and streaming broadband video looks a lot sharper (although every once in a while the video action falls behind the audio). The increase in surfing speed was less dramatic, but it's still noticeable.
So should you take the broadband plunge? That depends on your current situation and the specials offered in your area.
Do you currently pay for a separate phone line? You will also have to factor in the cost of adding either a software or hardware firewall. Hardware-wise, a Pentium 166mhz computer is minimum and 200mhz is preferred for cable. Connecting multiple computers will cost you an extra $8 per month, per computer. If your current costs are already close to cable costs, it is worth it to upgrade.
Brother John Raymond, co-founder of the Monks of Adoration, writes from Venice, Florida.
----- EXCERPT: Mean business? Maybe you need bandwidth ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brother John Raymond ----- KEYWORD: Arts & Culture -------- TITLE: Monthly Web Picks DATE: 07/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 22 - 28, 2001 ----- BODY:Inactive Catholics at www.-jcn1.com/william was put together by Redemptorist Father William McKee. Although the site itself does-n't offer much, the ability to contact the priest by e-mail makes it all worthwhile. Why? Because he has 14 years of experience working with over 10,000 inactive Catholics.
The purpose of The Coming Home Network International at www.chnetwork.org is to provide fellowship, encouragement and support for Protestant pastors and laymen who have recently been received into the Catholic Church—and those who are, or may be, on their way in.
The Returning Home apostolate at www.catholicity.com/cathedral-/returninghome reaches out to Catholics who either have left the faith of their youth or who are not currently living it. Rick Ricciardi, the founder of this apostolate, knows what it's like to leave and come back. He wants to help others come back, too.
The Archdiocese of Cincinnati at www.catholiccincinnati.org answers questions like “How can I become a Catholic?” and “How can I return to the Church?”
Check your diocesan web site for similar information or programs either for yourself or a friend in need at www.nccbuscc.org/dioceses.htm.
To order Catholics on the Internet: 2000-2001 by Brother John Raymond, call Prima Publishing (800) 632-8676.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brother John Raymond ----- KEYWORD: Arts & Culture -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 07/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 22 - 28, 2001 ----- BODY:Thomas Jefferson (1996)
America has always been more of an idea and an experiment than a physical location or an ethnic group. Thomas Jefferson, a feature-length PBS documentary, examines how The Declaration of Independence embodies that idea in the life and personality of its author. Director Ken Burns (Jazz and The Civil War) presents Jefferson as a young lawyer from a prosperous Virginia family whose thinking was transformed by the Enlightenment and the fire of the American Revolution. Novelist Gore Vidal and historians Daniel Boorstin, Joseph Ellis and John Hope Franklin (plus, unfortunately, Garry Wills, author of Papal Sin: Structures of Deceit) offer their perspectives while actors Sam Waterston and Ossie Davis read the founder's words. Burns uses location shots of Jefferson's famed estate Monticello and period drawings and paintings to illustrate his story.
The contradictions between Jefferson's eloquent belief in equality and his ownership of slaves is honestly confronted. But as the movie was produced before the DNA evidence about Sally Hemmings was released, it doesn't explore the controversy about their relationship in any depth.
The Absent-Minded Professor (1961)
Hollywood's present-day special effects wizardry is awesome. But earlier effects-driven movies were often forced to be more imaginative because their technical capabilities were limited. The Absent-Minded Professor relies on comic invention and charm to carry its family-friendly fantasy about an eccentric academic who discovers flubber, a gooey kind of rubber with sustainable energy. Ned Brainard (Fred MacMurray) is so distracted by his scientific experiments he forgets to attend his own wedding. He's too busy attaching flubber to his old Model T automobile which he discovers makes it fly.
Brainard rushes to share his excitement with his long-suffering fiancee (Nancy Olsen), who's gone to a basketball game with a jealous colleague (Elliot Reid). The eccentric professor secretly puts flubber on the soles of the home-team players' sneakers, and they score an upset by being able to fly. However, a local tycoon (Keenan Wynn) schemes to steal the substance to get rich off it. The 1997 remake with Robin Williams, Flubber, is technically more adept but not half as much fun.
The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)
The immediate post-war era produced a series of uniquely British films that highlighted eccentric characters in whimsical escapades with great wit and a touch of farce. The best is The Lavender Hill Mob, one of the Vatican's top 45 films. Henry Holland (Sir Alec Guinness) is a government clerk with a reputation for honesty who supervises the delivery of gold bullion to banks. He falls in with Alfred Pendleberry (Stanley Holloway), a manufacturer of tourist souvenirs, who has a foundry like the government plant which molds gold into heavy bars. Together they decide to rob the truck that carries the bullion and turn the gold into one of Pendleberry's products, a miniature Eiffel Tower paperweight.
Part of the charm of this comedy of errors is watching Holland, whom everyone underestimates, outwit his betters. Both he and Pendleberry are quite conscious of having succumbed to “temptation,” and morality eventually asserts itself. But not before we get to laugh with a pair of underdogs as they enjoy their brief moment on top.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORD: Arts & Culture -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 07/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 22 - 28, 2001 ----- BODY:All times Eastern
SUNDAY, JULY 22
Boxing: Outside the Ring A&E, 8 p.m.
This two-hour, two-fisted new special investigates alleged corruption in professional boxing. The reporters say promoters, managers, boxing organizations and cable networks all siphon money away from the hapless athletes.
SUNDAY, JULY 22
America's Homestyles:
The Pueblo
Home & Garden, 9 p.m.
From Southwestern Indians' ancient pueblo dwellings to today's variations, this show covers the evolution of the Pueblo style.
MONDAY, JULY 23
The Journey Home EWTN, 8 p.m.
Bowie Kuhn was commissioner of Major League Baseball from 1969 to 1984. He tells host Marcus Grodi about the deepening of his Catholic faith through the years. To be rebroadcast Tuesday, July 24, at 10 a.m.; Friday, July 27, at 1 a.m.; and Saturday, July 28, at 11 p.m.
MONDAY, JULY 23
Fei Hu: The Story of the Flying Tigers
PBS, 10 p.m.
Claire Chennault's Flying Tigers—the 300-strong American Volunteer Group, based in Burma (Myanmar)—flew Curtiss P-40 Warhawks for the Republic of China against the Japanese from 1941 to1942, when they were absorbed into the U.S. military. Chinese admirers called the AVG pilots “Fei Hu” for their war-planes' shark-mouth paint scheme.
TUESDAY, JULY 24
The Tomb of Christ
PBS, 8 p.m.
Oxford structural archaeologists Martin Biddle and his wife Birthe describe a tomb they say they have found under the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Biblical archaeologist Father Jerome Murphy O'Connor provides commentary.
TUES. - FRI., JULY 24-27
“Ride 'Em, Cowboy” Week
History, 10 p.m.
Tuesday: Cattle Ranches takes us from the old cattle drives and open range to today's huge spreads. Wednesday: Saloons charts the benefits of pasteurization, the bottle cap and refrigeration. Thursday: The Railroads that Tamed the West tells the saga of the Transcontinental Railroad (1868-69). Friday: Guns of Winchester shows how Oliver Winchester's shotguns and famed lever-action rifles gave Westerners the practical, affordable self-defense tools they needed.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 25
The Roman Empire in the First Century
PBS; check local listings for time
At 8 p.m., Part III, “Winds of Change,” covers the reigns of Claudius and then Nero, when the Celtic warrior queen Boadicea and her rebel army battled the Romans in Britain and St. Paul the Apostle spread the Gospel in Asia Minor, Greece and Rome. At 9 p.m., Part IV, “Years of Eruption,” the series conclusion, describes post-Nero power struggles, the destruction of Pompeii by Mt. Vesuvius, and the rule of Trajan.
SATURDAY, JULY 28
The Story of the Screaming Eagles: The 101st Airborne
History, 10 p.m.
From Normandy to Bastogne in World War II, from Quang Tri to the A Shau Valley in Vietnam, the men of this legendary Army division have always taken on deadly combat assignments. Here is the story of their service and sacrifice to the present day.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dan Engler ----- KEYWORD: Arts & Culture -------- TITLE: Pier Giorgio Frassati: The Man Who Lived the Beatitudes with Gusto DATE: 07/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 22 - 28, 2001 ----- BODY:ROME—Here is an excerpt of a talk given by Father Thomas Rosica, national director and chief executive officer of World Youth Day 2002, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of birth of Pier Giorgio Frassati, last April.
There is a perennial intrigue about Pier Giorgio Frassati who Pope John Paul II called “the man of eight beatitudes,” “of prophetic apostolic modernity,” at his beatification ceremony in St. Peter's Square nearly 11 years ago. Let us look at some of the highlights of this young man's life that combined political activism and work for social justice in a remarkable way.
Pier Giorgio Frassati was born 100 years ago today, at the turn of the last century in Turin, Italy. His mother, Adelaide Ametis, was a painter. His father, Alfredo, an agnostic, was the founder and director of the liberal newspaper La Stampa, and was influential in Italian politics, holding positions as an Italian senator and ambassador to Germany.
Pier Giorgio was educated at home with his sister Luciana, who was one year younger than him, before attending with her a public school and finally a school run by the Jesuits. There he joined the Marian Sodality and the Apostleship of Prayer, and obtained permission for daily Communion (which was rare at that time).
He developed a deep spiritual life which he never hesitated to share with his friends. The Eucharist and the Blessed Mother were the two poles of his world of prayer. At the age of 17, in 1918, he joined the St. Vincent de Paul Society and dedicated much of his spare time to serving the sick and the needy, caring for orphans, and assisting the demobilized servicemen returning from World War I.
What little he did have, Pier Giorgio gave to help the poor, even using his bus fare for charity and then running home to be on time for meals. The poor and the suffering were his masters, and he was literally their servant, which he considered a privilege. This spirit of selflessness was nurtured by daily communion with Christ in the Holy Eucharist and by frequent nocturnal adoration, by meditation on St. Paul's “Hymn on Charity” (1 Corinthians 13), and by the writings of St. Catherine of Siena.
He often sacrificed vacations at the Frassati summer home in Pollone (near Turin) because, as he said, “If everybody leaves Turin, who will take care of the poor?”
The young Frassati loved the poor. It was not simply a matter of giving something to the lonely, the poor, the sick—but rather, giving his whole self. He saw Jesus in them and to a friend who asked him how he could bear to enter the dirty and smelly places where the poor lived, he answered: “Remember always that it is to Jesus that you go: I see a special light that we do not have, around the, sick, the poor, the unfortunate.”
A German news reporter who observed Frassati at the Italian Embassy wrote, “One night in Berlin, with the temperature at 12 degrees below zero, he gave his overcoat to a poor old man shivering in the cold. His father, the ambassador scolded him, and he replied simply and matter-of-factly, ‘But you see, Papa, it was cold.’”
He decided to become a mining engineer, studying at the Royal Polytechnical University of Turin, so he could “serve Christ better among the miners,” as he told a friend. Although he considered his studies his first duty, they did not keep him from social and political activism. Beneath the smiling exterior of the restless young man was concealed the amazing life of a mystic. Love for Jesus motivated his actions. In 1919 he joined the Catholic Student Federation and the organization known as Catholic Action.
In opposition to his father's political ideas, he became a very active member of the People's Party, which promoted the Catholic Church's social teaching based on the principles of Pope Leo XIII's encyclical letter Rerum Novarum. He even thought about merging the Catholic Student Federation and the Catholic Workers' Organization. “Charity is not enough; we need social reform,” he used to say as he worked for both.
In 1921 he was a central figure in Ravenna, enthusiastically helping to organize the first convention of Pax Romana, an association which came into existence to facilitate the unification of all Catholic students throughout the world for the purpose of working together for universal peace.
Mountain climbing was one of his favorite sports. Outings in the mountains, which he organized with his friends, “The Shady Characters,” served as ideal moments for his apostolic work among them.
He never missed an opportunity to bring them to Mass, to adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, to the reading of Scripture, and to other forms of prayer. He often went to the theater, to the opera and to museums. He loved art and music, and could quote large sections of the poet Dante Alighieri.
Fondness for the epistles of St. Paul sparked his zeal for fraternal charity, and the fiery sermons of the Renaissance preacher and reformer Girolamo Savonarola and the writings of St. Catherine impelled him in 1922 to join the lay Dominicans (Third Order of St. Dominic).
He chose the name Girolamo, not after St. Jerome the Bible scholar, but rather after his personal hero, Savonarola. “I am a fervent admirer of this friar, who died as a saint at the stake,” he wrote to a friend.
Like his father, he was strongly anti-Fascist and did nothing to hide his political views. He was often involved in fights, first with anti-clerical Communists and later with Fascists.
Participating in a Church-organized demonstration in Rome on one occasion, he stood up to police violence and rallied the other young people by grabbing the group's banner, which the royal guards had knocked out of another student's hands. Pier Giorgio held it even higher, while using the banner's pole to fend off the blows of the guards.
Athletic, full of life, always surrounded by friends, whom he inspired with his life, Pier Giorgio chose not to become a priest or religious, preferring to give witness to the Gospel as a lay person. His friends remember him saying: “To live without faith, without a heritage to defend, without battling constantly for truth, is not to live, but to ‘get along’; we must never just ‘get along.’”
Just before receiving his university degree in mining engineering, he contracted poliomyelitis, which doctors later speculated he caught from the sick for whom he cared. His sickness was not understood. His parents, totally taken up by the agony, death and burial of his grandmother, had not even suspected the paralysis. Far from it, two days before the end, his mother kept on scolding him for not helping her in such days.
Not even in those desperate final days could he ever forget his closest friends, the poor. It was Friday, the day he visited them. While lying on his deathbed he wanted the usual material assistance to be brought to them. He asked his sister to take a small packet from his jacket and with a semi-paralyzed hand he wrote the following note to Grimaldi: “Here are the injections for Converso. The pawn ticket is Sappa's. I had forgotten it; renew it on my behalf.”
When the priest who was attending him asked, “What if your grandmother were to call you to heaven?” he replied “How happy I would be!”
But he immediately added, “What about father and mother?”
And the priest replied, “Giorgio, you will not abandon them; you will live in spirit with them from heaven. You will give them your faith and your self-denial, you will continue to be one family.”
These few words were enough to dispel Pier Giorgio's final human concerns and he smiled, nodded his head and said, “Yes.” His sacrifice was fulfilled at 7 o'clock in the evening of July 4, 1925.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Arts & Culture -------- TITLE: Too Religious to Practice Psychology? DATE: 07/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 22 - 28, 2001 ----- BODY:PASADENA, Calif.—Linda Wagener, associate dean of Fuller Theological Seminary, was worried that her students wouldn't be able to find jobs. Not because of a tight market, but because their degrees in psychology came from a religious school.
Wagener said that the recent call to eliminate Footnote Four from the American Psychological Association's regulations would “have a devastating impact” on her students.
The footnote exempts religious schools from the association's anti-discrimination rules, including a bar on discrimination based on sexual orientation. Without the footnote, religious schools could lose their accreditation if they refused to hire actively homosexual faculty.
Many accrediting agencies in other fields, such as the American Bar Association, have a similar exemption for religious schools.
The association's committee on accreditation has proposed eliminating the footnote, and will be hearing comments on the proposal until Sept. 1. After that, the committee may seek legal advice, and then it will make a recommendation to the association's council of representatives, which has the final say. The council will vote on the footnote in either February or August 2002.
The association is the only group recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as an accrediting agency for doctoral and postdoctoral programs in clinical psychology. So if Fuller lost its accreditation, Wagener said, its students “wouldn't be able to receive the most prestigious internships, wouldn't be able to be employed by the federal government, wouldn't be able to work for the Veterans Administration. Our graduates would be discriminated against.”
Invoking the Footnote
Only a few of the association's 814 member schools invoke the footnote. A handful of other programs currently seeking accreditation also planned to invoke it. “We are a Christian community, so we hire our faculty on the basis not only of their academic credentials but on the basis of their Christian commitment,” Wagener explained.
“We have had gays and lesbians as part of our community before,” Wagener said, but “Everyone is expected to live by our standards, which do include a sexual standard that prohibits sex outside of marriage. It is expected that [homosexuals] would be celibate.” Fuller has asked faculty members to leave because of heterosexual affairs, but has never dealt with a case of active homosexuality.
Religious Freedom
Rhea Farberman, spokeswoman for the association, said that there were “competing rights: the right of a religious institution to conduct its program as it sees fit within the accreditation guidelines, versus the right for gay and lesbian students to be a part of programs and not be discriminated against.”
Farberman said that the association was still in “a true information-gathering stage,” and that no decision would be taken until the comment period ended Sept. 1.
She said that she had not heard of “any specific complaints” that homosexual students or faculty were excluded, “but I know of a general concern that Footnote Four may create an environment where gay and lesbian people would not be allowed to be a part of the program.”
Farberman said the association wanted to preserve “diversity broadly defined—people of faith, and gay and lesbian people.”
The proposal to scrap the footnote has not generated “any overwhelming response,” Farberman said.
She added that no one yet knew how the change might affect specific programs like Fuller's. “It's too early to talk about ‘what will happen if,’” she said.
One of the issues the committee will consider is a potential legal challenge. The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty has already announced that it will challenge the association in court if the religious exemption is removed.
Patrick Korten, vice president of the Becket Fund, said, “The issue here is the religious liberty of religiously affiliated colleges.”
Because of the association's ties to the Department of Education, Korten said, the association is “what we refer to in the law as a state actor,” acting in place of the federal government.
“Therefore, we take the position that they must abide by the Constitution and especially the First Amendment,” he continued. “In our view, the First Amendment requires that they allow flexibility on the part of religiously affiliated institutions.”
Korten noted, “It is fairly common for religiously affiliated institutions of higher learning to either give some preference to, or to actively recruit, both faculty and students that share that faith tradition and that is obviously central to the mission of just about any religious school.”
Korten said, “I can't imagine that the APA would do anything as foolish as to drop this exemption. I can't imagine that they would—but stranger things have happened.”
Echoes of Freud
One of the underlying reasons for the conflict, Wagener charged, was psychology's longstanding skepticism of religion.
“Christian programs in psychology are rare,” Wagener said, noting that Fuller was the first Christian school to institute a doctoral program in psychology. “There was pretty clear discrimination against religious people in the profession of psychology.”
Farberman disagreed, saying, “I don't see that at all. I have seen in the last half decade an embracing of faith and people of faith within mainstream psychology.”
But Wagener cited studies showing that only about 30% of psychologists said they had a religious faith, compared to about 90% of Americans in general. “Some of the founding figures of psychology, like Freud, viewed religion as psychopathology,” she added.
“I think that's changing,” she said. Nonetheless, she said, Fuller has had to “struggle” to win accreditation.
“We've always had trouble,” Wagener said. “Our last accreditation visit in 1998 was the easiest one we'd ever had. We didn't have to have repeat visitors, we didn't have to have lawyers explain our position.”
But “just when we thought things were settling down,” she said, the footnote controversy threatened the school all over again.
If the footnote is eliminated, Wagener feared, “I don't know how we could attract students or why students would take the risk to come here.”
----- EXCERPT: Clause Protecting Religious Schools Threatened ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ----- KEYWORD: Education -------- TITLE: Real Men Dump Vice and Woo Virtue DATE: 07/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 22 - 28, 2001 ----- BODY:Character counts, and a man can be neither manly nor godly without the rock-solid habits of the virtues.
And what are the virtues? The building blocks of character—traits without which “our moral lives will eventually collapse under the pressures of the world and we will fall short of our proper destiny,” according to Tim Gray and Curtis Martin.
In this brisk study guide, serious yet engaging, the authors challenge their readers to become authentic men of God. It's a blueprint for a rigorous spiritual workout, made enjoyable by the pair's presenting pursuit of the virtues as an exciting adventure.
“Loving God with all our strength,” they write, “will raise the sails so that they can catch God's grace, which will empower us to move across the rough waters of this world to the tranquil harbor of heaven.”
Given the target audience, it's not surprising that Gray and Martin employ sports metaphors early and often. Example: By diligently practicing the natural virtues (prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance), we come to habitually do what is good and right—just as Tiger Woods, by diligently practicing the fundamentals of a good golf stroke, habitually finishes his holes at or better than par. The result is that we “win” a moral life, rich in spiritual rewards and satisfying on multiple levels.
Gray and Martin repeatedly remind us that God so loves us that he created the means to become truly virtuous: the Church and the “living presence of the Holy Spirit.”
Gray and Martin know their subject well. They avoid the trap of portraying the cardinal (natural) virtues as mere sidekicks to the “leading man,” the theological (supernatural) virtues—faith, hope and love. The “cardinals” are good in and of themselves and, as Peter Kreeft has written, they are the “seed bed” for the “flower of supernatural virtue.” Without the latter, however, it is very difficult to excel with the former. Could one act with justice toward the poor if his heart was not softened by love, which Aquinas called the “mother” of all virtues? Hardly.
Recalling Aristotle's conclusion about the goal of virtue, Gray and Martin argue that living the moral life is about becoming the kind of man who can be a good friend. Reflecting Aquinas, they explain that the theological virtues extend this horizontal relationship vertically, making friendship with God possible.
“Motivated by love, we can be transformed by the noble actions that lead to good habits and end in solid character,” they write. “Over time, through God's grace and our arduous effort, we can build up the habits that dispose us to be virtuous. This positive inclination, which the virtues bestow upon us ... liberates our will to do the good we desire to do, rather than capitulating to our passions. This is what Saint Paul meant when he spoke of the ‘glorious liberty of the children of God’ (Romans 8:21).”
Young men (and women, for that matter) need the virtues to navigate, for example, the Internet. In the quiet of their rooms, as they surf through cyberspace, our children need a foothold to keep them from drifting to the outer reaches of hate, pornography and violence. At some point, sitting there in front of their flickering monitor, the virtues we have imparted in them will be the only foothold they have.
Whether understood as skills, tools, blueprints, a pattern of habits or a road map, the virtues, though ancient in origin, are as up-to-date as the latest “dot-com.” The virtues begin by teaching us that the universe does not revolve around us, but around the Son.
Here's hoping this book helps many a man stay in Christ's orbit.
Dave Andrusko is editor of National Right to Life News.
----- EXCERPT: Book Review ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dave Andrusko ----- KEYWORD: Education -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 07/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 22 - 28, 2001 ----- BODY:Moral Code for Catholic School Employees
Employees may be fired if they break the code by, for example, having or aiding in an abortion, bearing or fathering a child out of wedlock, or cohabiting. Archdiocesan Superintendent J. Rene Coman said the rules were “part of an effort to preserve the religious mission” of the schools. He added that distributing the code of conduct could help prevent misunderstandings with teachers, and could offer legal protection if a school is targeted by an employee lawsuit.
Ten School-Choice Studies Find Benefits
Public Interest surveyed 10 studies, including several “random assignment” studies in which students got vouchers based on lotteries, so luck is the only difference between students who switch to private schools and students who don't.
Studies found that parents of voucher students were much more satisfied with their children's education than parents of students who remained in public schools. Seven studies also found test score improvements.
The studies found that the average family using vouchers had a very low income. Between 70% and 77% of voucher students in various cities came from single-mother families.
School choice in Milwaukee and Florida seemed to produce a surge of energy in the public schools—e.g., “failing grade” Florida public schools saw a sharp jump in scores even before students actually got promised vouchers.
One study found that private-school students volunteered more. Private schools, especially religious schools, were found to be significantly more racially integrated than public schools.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Education -------- TITLE: Children, Nuns and Goats DATE: 07/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 22 - 28, 2001 ----- BODY:Few sounds bring out the joys of summer as unmistakably as squeals of laughter from children. This summer, those sounds will be amplified as 240 kids gather for the popular Land-Based Summer Experience run by the Franciscan Life Center in Meriden, Conn.
Unlike other camps these days, the Summer Experience gathers 60 kids ages 6-12 for each of four weeklong day programs to do simple things like pet animals, mold clay, swim, learn about the environment, sing and play games. And, just like other boys and girls from the preceding eight summers of the camp's existence, the kids can't wait.
“We're a real low-tech camp,” laughed Franciscan Sister of the Eucharist Sister Clare Hunter. “There's no technology here. Just a chance for kids to come, be outside in the sun, have fun, play with the animals in our barnyard, and do what kids do in the summer.”
“The focus here is on relationships—with nature, each other, animals, the environment, God,” she continued. “There's no competition, no pressure to excel. Just relax, enjoy each other and have fun in the process. There's a simplicity here that the kids respond to.”
Holding fast to the theme, the sisters don't formally call it a camp. The “summer experience” is just that—a chance to be outside, interact with nature and each other, play, climb the 103-year-old copper beech tree, and hold or pet an animal. And for some, it's the first time.
“I like all the sisters and the goats and the chickens,” said Rachel Adams, age 7 from Cheshire, Conn., who was enjoying the camp for the first time. “The sisters are really kind to us, the goats are really soft and gentle—and the chickens are scary.”
Said Sister Naomi Zimmermann, who coordinates the program, “The animals are a definite high point for most kids, I would say. They have names for all the goats and chickens, and they learn about their behavior and how to respect them.”
This year, the camp received a special grant from a local foundation to teach the art of raku. Sister Maria Sena, a Native American and master potter, is giving the children hands-on experience making pots or other designs they can take home with them.
Simplicity is key. Donning bathing suits one hot June afternoon, the kids begged to go swimming. “Wait till you see the pool,” said Sister Clare, turning a corner near the barn to reveal a plastic, three-ring pool. “Fifty dollars from a local store, and the kids love it,” she said laughing.
Amazingly, the camp is so popular that the sisters don't even advertise it and the roster is still full. In fact, there's a waiting list.
“We even have older kids who try to get in the camp by telling us they're under 13,” Sister Clare laughed. “And some families bring their cousins from other states who are visiting for the summer and come purposely for the camp.”
“Even the children who came years ago, now come back as teenagers to be assistants,” she continued. “It amazes us, too. But I think it's because there's a continuity here. They make friends one summer and want to come back the next to keep those friendships alive.”
For many of the children, the experience is a first-time exposure to a rural setting. For the past two summers, the Franciscan Life Center has been offering scholarships to children from urban schools.
“We send kids who otherwise would never have a summer camp experience for economic reasons,” said Jay Bowes, youth minister for Sacred Heart/St. Peter School in New Haven, Conn. “Our kids love it.
“It's a very different experience for urban kids—from the rural farming activities and the diverse group of kids, to the love and care of the sisters who run the program. It's been a great experience for us, and a wonderful, fun-filled opportunity for the kids.”
Proving the point was an enthusiastic 10-year-old, Suen Haggigal from New Haven. “I want to come here again,” she said, “I want to come here every day.”
“The underlying theme is that we're all unique, all part of God's creation,” said Sister Naomi. “I love it. We see such a variety of kids from all over Connecticut plus other states. I love seeing them have fun. And with the passing of each summer, I see the kids grow up.”
The summer experience carries a Christian message that builds upon the spirituality and simplicity of St. Francis who taught about relationships and elements of creation. Although religion is not taught directly, the children pick it up from morning prayers and from the way the sisters lead them in interacting with each other and the environment.
The Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist were founded in 1973 after the Second Vatican Council. It follows the spirituality of St. Francis through apostolic service in spirituality, counseling, education, music, health and elderly care, business services and a land program.
The motherhouse is located in Meriden and is part of the Franciscan Life Center Network that offers professional services and programs at centers in Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Washington, Connecticut, Oregon and Texas—as well as in the Holy Land, Assisi and Rome.
Mary Chalupsky writes from Milford, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: How to Have a Great Summer Experience ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mary Chalupsky ----- KEYWORD: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: After Abortion: One Woman's Story DATE: 07/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 22 - 28, 2001 ----- BODY:Research shows that most women seek an abortion because they feel trapped. “They're caught in what is perceived to be an impossible situation,” said Father Richard Hogan of Priests for Life. “The only thing that looks possible is an abortion, and that is done with great reluctance.”
“Kim” (who wishes to remain anonymous) echoed those feelings when she described her pre- and post-abortion experiences in an interview with Barb Ernster.
Kim was a bright, happy 22-year-old in 1987, just finishing her final semester at a small college in the Midwest with plans to attend graduate school on the East Coast. But after months of denying and suppressing her symptoms, she finally confirmed her pregnancy at 20 weeks. Feeling that she had no other options, she sought an abortion.
Now, 14 years later, Kim is married with two small children. She shares her story in talks and in interviews. She also volunteers with Project Rachel, an organization dedicated to helping women heal from abortion.
Ernster: Tell me about your experience from the time you found out you were pregnant.
Kim: I found the abortion doctor and went into the clinic for the exam. They did an ultrasound on me and the young man, a doctor or assistant, said to me, “Oh I don't think you want to be seeing this little one.” He turned it away before I could see what was on the screen.
They said that I had one week, and then I would be illegal [for an abortion] in my state. Whether or not I would have been, or indeed maybe I was past that, I'll never know.
What was going on in your mind?
It was a panic week. The young man I was dating panicked and I panicked. About the middle of that week that I had to decide, I started to feel the baby move.
Did you know it was a baby or did you believe something else?
I knew that it was a baby. But I didn't know. This was just a horrible nightmare I was in and I was so scared. I honestly believed that I would be giving the baby back to God, and then when I was ready he would give the very same baby back to me. I just kept saying, “God, not right now, not now.”
I remember calling lots of places and I couldn't find information on where to go away and have the baby. It would have been appropriate because I was set to go to the East Coast in the fall for an internship. Finally, it felt like there were no options, which of course, I know now that there were options.
Did the abortion clinic offer any other options?
No. I remember them telling me “You really shouldn't have a child, you're young, you don't have any money, you're not married.” And when they found out I was Catholic, they told me “to be careful because in a couple of years they could really work on you and try to make you feel guilty for this because you're Catholic.”
No, I don't remember any other options.
So you wanted other options?
Yes, I wanted someone to say, “I know you're worried about your parents, but we can find other options for you.” But there wasn't.
Tell me about the abortion itself.
Because I was so far along, they had to artificially dilate me. Then the third day the actual abortion took place.
All I remember is being on this table and there was this huge jug on the side of me that just filled up with blood and other matter.
I remember feeling like this little voice was screaming, “Please, mommy, don't; please, mommy, don't.” I remember crying and the doctor saying, “Oh, you're such a wonderful, good, calm patient.”
I felt this pressure coming out of me and immediately feeling like my stomach was gone. There was a loss there. There was a little person that had been lost.
I tried to make myself feel better because they said, “Depending on the quality, we can give these parts to research to help somebody out, or to fight a disease.”
I remember thinking, “OK, this is a good.” I wouldn't call it a baby at that point, but these little parts could help somebody out.
What happened after the abortion?
I just closed down all systems for two years. A lot of women will turn to alcohol abuse, substance abuse of some form. I became incredibly promiscuous. It's only by the grace of God that I did not find myself in the same position again and again.
I remember thinking that this is what a prostitute would feel like, you just sort of disconnect from your body. It became so self-destructive. My life was a huge lie. You feel dark and evil and dead inside. It's a vicious cycle that you can't seem to pull yourself out of.
How did your healing process come about?
When I left for the East Coast, I was anything but a practicing Catholic. I became almost the extreme opposite. I had lots of nightmares; I attempted suicide.
I finally confided in a friend of mine, and he found [the support group] Conquerors. I met with a woman who was post-abortive for one-on-one counseling. That helped tremendously because here was a woman I could relate to. She knew what I was going through. That started the ball rolling.
It took a while because I continued a lot of the same behaviors. But little by little, it was like cleaning out this wound. ...
I went on a young adult's retreat in 1991 and went to confession for the first time in 10 years. It opened the floodgates. I was in the confessional for an hour. It started from there in a very powerful way and it was very healing.
Were you finally able to forgive yourself?
I did, and I feel so grateful to be Catholic and have this wonderful sacrament called confession. I realized what a gift it was; it's like food from heaven. The graces that come from it are just wonderful.
What are your feelings toward the pro-abortion agenda?
I feel angry and terribly saddened about the fallen nature of human beings and how we can cloud our thinking—for us to say it's a woman's choice, yet we know in our hearts that lives are lost.
Where do you see the pro-life movement today and what advice can you offer?
It's important to get the word out there that the Church is compassionate and merciful regardless of what we do; and for us to be anything but merciful and forgiving is hypocritical. We all are sinners.
Showing pictures of aborted babies is not the way to encourage a woman in that situation. Actually, that fuels the fire for the pro-abortion people. They see it as a fanatical thing.
Show her pictures of life; show her fetal development; show compassion.
This interview first appeared in Catholic Servant and is reprinted with permission.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Barb Ernster ----- KEYWORD: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Surviving the Family Reunion DATE: 07/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 22 - 28, 2001 ----- BODY:Q I'm dreading our vacation—it's my husband's yearly family reunion. This is a major source of tension. His well-meaning family members offer “opinions” and “suggestions” but I feel outnumbered. How can I get my husband on my side?
A George: Coming from a very close family, your question hits home. Family members often feel comfortable offering their opinions on almost any topic under the sun. And sometimes their comments don't exactly go down like honey. Sometimes they get you downright mad.
One thing I've learned to do is to pick my battles. In other words, I try to determine if it would be helpful to respond to a particular comment, or to let it go.
Lisette, on the other hand, jumps right in and sets the record straight. On occasion our different approaches have caused a rift between us.
Realizing this, Lisette and I have made a pact to always try to honor and respect each other during these situations. We never gang up on the other when some family member is making critical remarks.
I also find it helpful to remember that although I love my parents and siblings dearly, my relationship with my wife comes first. Therefore, unity and peace between us is paramount.
That doesn't mean I abandon my father and mother, brother and sister. Quite the opposite, I have wonderful relationships with all of them. But Lisette and George Alexander are at the top of my list, and they get the lion's share of my love and attention.
Another idea: avoid certain conversations. We've learned that certain subjects among our family members are, let's just say, volatile. If we can, we simply avoid those topics.
Lisette: Looming behind your husband's head is a cloud that says, “Honor your father and mother.” The cloud over your head might read, “The man leaves his father and mother and cleaves to his wife.”
It seems like the difficulty is knowing how to put those two ideas together.
We've found it helpful to pray together for God's help and to discuss some questions beforehand:
E What concerns do we both have? What obstacles to our unity are we likely to encounter?
E In those hard situations, how can we honor each other and our parents at the same time?
E Can we find some time alone together during our visit?
We've also made some practical promises to each other. For example:
E I promise to always honor you in front of others in speech and facial expressions.
E I promise not to pit my family against you.
E I promise not to be on the lookout for your family's failures.
E I promise to listen to your family politely.
After that, hopefully we're ready to go and enjoy ourselves and our families!
George and Lisette de los Reyes host
The Two Shall Be One on EWTN.
----- EXCERPT: Family Matters ----- EXTENDED BODY: George and Lisette De Los Reyes ----- KEYWORD: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: HISPANICS LEAD THE WAY DATE: 07/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 22 - 28, 2001 ----- BODY:In 1999, the latest year for which data have been published, whites had the lowest fertility rate of American racial groups, while Hispanics had the highest. The fertility rate is the number of live births per 1,000 women aged 15-44.
1999 Fertility Rate
Source: National Center for Health Statistics.
----- EXCERPT: Facts of Life ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: LIFE NOTES DATE: 07/22/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 22 - 28, 2001 ----- BODY:Better View of the Womb
BBC NEWS, July 6—A hi-tech scan of the baby within the womb is providing prospective parents with more clues about their child's appearance, reported BBC News.
The Voluson 730 scanner shows in minute and realistic details the activities and even the facial expressions of the baby within the womb.
The scan can be used from as early as the seventh week of pregnancy and is mainly for the interest of parents, but it can also be invaluable in picking up certain physical abnormalities.
Professor Stuart Campbell, head of obstetrics and gynecology at St. George's Hospital Medical School, who pioneered the new “4-D ultrasound,” said the technique allowed parents to make an early bond with their child.
He noted, “One mother said seeing her daughter in the womb had encouraged her to give up smoking.”
Pro-Life Video in Israel
HA'ARETZ, July 4—Controversy erupted in the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) Committee on the Status of Women when it discussed abortions in the wake of the distribution to some 350,000 Israeli households of a pro-life video by Efrat, a nonprofit pro-life group, reported Ha'aretz.
Health Minister Nissim Dahan stressed to irate members of Parliament that his ministry had nothing to do with the video's distribution, and that it would not include clips from the tape in the informational material the ministry itself distributes.
Nevertheless, he said, he found the tape instructive, reported Ha'aretz. “I received the impression that the social workers don't do their jobs faithfully and that the abortion committees (medical committees that by law must approve all abortions) approve terminations of pregnancy without sufficient thought.”
Money Over Morals
FOCUS ON THE FAMILY, July 5—Alan Crockett, of the Zogby International polling firm, said his group found that economics, not pro-abortion convictions, influence minorities to support pro-abortion candidates, reported Focus on the Family.
Crockett said, “In our culture polls, where we specifically survey six major U.S. ethnic groups, we found that there was a distinct difference between how many of the specific ethnic groups perceive abortion,” reported Focus on the Family.
Hispanics were the most pro-life minority in the sample, followed by African-Americans and Arab-Americans.
John McHenry, a pollster and political analyst, said that if minority groups see slower economic growth they may be more apt to vote for pro-abortion candidates who promise economic freedom. He also said that nearly all voters put money over morals when they believe times are tough.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Pope to President: Cherish Life DATE: 07/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 29-August 4, 2001 ----- BODY:CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy — When Pope John Paul met July 23 with President Bush at the papal summer residence at Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome, the central focus of their public comments afterward was the defense of human life and dignity.
Also present at the meeting, the first between the two men, were first lady Laura Bush and their daughter Barbara Bush. Both followed Catholic tradition for papal meetings by dressing in black and wearing black mantillas over their hair.
Stepping directly into the intense debate underway in Washington over the funding of human embryonic stem-cell research, the Pope asked Bush to “reject practices that devalue and violate human life.”
He also spoke of the “special responsibility” the United States has to promote freedom and defend human dignity throughout the world.
The acceptance of abortion has led to a hardening of consciences, preparing the way for acceptance for other attacks on human life, the Pope said.
“Experience is already showing how a tragic coarsening of consciences accompanies the assault on innocent human life in the womb, leading to accommodation and acquiescence in the face of other related evils, such as euthanasia, infanticide and, most recently, proposals for the creation for research purposes of human embryos, destined to destruction in the process,” he said.
“A free and virtuous society, which America aspires to be, must reject practices that devalue and violate human life at any stage from conception until natural death,” the Pope said.
In reply, Bush told the Holy Father that Americans “will always do our best to remember our calling” to promote justice and defend the world's weak and suffering.
The president praised the Pope for his international leadership in defending the truth, freedom, goodness and justice.
“You have urged men and women of good will to take to their knees before God — and to stand, unafraid, before tyrants,” Bush said. “This has added greatly to the momentum of freedom in our time.
“Where there is oppression, you speak of human rights,” he said. “Where there is abundance, you remind us that wealth must be matched with compassion and moral purpose.
“And always, to all, you have carried the gospel of life, which welcomes the stranger and protects the weak and innocent,” the president said.
Bush said every nation “would benefit from hearing and heeding this message of conscience.”
The exchange of public comments followed a private closeddoor discussion. At a joint press conference later in the day with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Bush said, the topic of embryonic stem cell research did not come up directly.
Speaking about the decision he would make on whether to fund such research, the president said, “I'm taking my time. I frankly do not care what the political polls say. I do care about the opinions of people, particularly someone as profound as the Holy Father. “
Bush remarked at length at the press conference on the personal impact of meeting the Pope for the first time.
Praise From Bush
“First, let me say how honored I was to be able to be in the presence of the Holy Father,” he said. “It was a moment I was looking forward to because of his profound impact on the world. He's an extraordinary man. He has, by virtue of his leadership and his conscience and his presence, has not only affected political systems, but affected the hearts and souls of thousands of people all around the world. And it's hard to describe. I'm not poetic enough to describe what it's like to be in his presence.
“Nor was I surprised to hear his strong, consistent message of life. It's been his message ever since he's been the Holy Father. He's never deviated. He's sent a consistent word throughout the church and throughout society that we ought to take into account the preciousness of life.”
(CNS contributed to this story)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: Words of Wisdom and Power DATE: 07/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 29-August 4, 2001 ----- BODY:Here is the complete text of the public remarks of Pope John Paul II and President Bush, following their July 23 private meeting at the Pope's summer residence, Castel Gandolfo
Pope John Paul II's remarks to President George Bush:
Mr. President, it gives me great pleasure to welcome you on your first visit since you assumed the office of the president of the United States. I warmly greet the distinguished first lady and the members of your entourage. I express heart-felt good wishes that your presidency will strengthen your country in its commitment to the principles which inspired American democracy from the beginning, and sustained the nation and its remarkable growth. These principles remain as valid as ever as you face the challenges of the new country opening up before us.
Your nation's founders, conscious of the immense natural and human resources with which your land has been blessed by the Creator, were guided by a profound sense of responsibility towards the common good to be pursued in respect for the God-given dignity and inalienable rights of all. America continues to measure herself by the nobility of her founding vision in building this society of liberty, equality and justice under the law. In the century which has just ended, these same ideals inspired the American people to resist two totalitarian systems based on an atheistic vision of man and society.
At the beginning of this new century, which also marks the beginning of the third millennium of Christianity, the world continues to look to America with hope. And it does so with an acute awareness of the crisis of values being experienced in Western society, ever more insecure in the face of the ethical decisions indispensable for humanity's future course.
In recent days, the world's attention has been focused on the process of globalization which has so greatly accelerated in the past decade, and which you and other leaders of the industrialized nations have discussed in Genoa. While appreciating the opportunities for economic growth and material prosperity which this process offers, the Church cannot but express profound concern that our world continues to be divided no longer by the former political and military blocs, but by a tragic fault-line between those who can benefit from these opportunities and those who seem cut off from them.
The revolution of freedom of which I spoke at the United Nations in 1995 must now be completed by a revolution of opportunity, in which all the world's people actively contribute to the economic prosperity and share in its fruits. This requires leadership by those nations whose religious and cultural traditions should make them most attentive to the moral dimension of the issues involved.
Respect for human dignity and belief in the equal dignity of all the members of the human family demand policies aimed at enabling all peoples to have access to the means required to improve their lives, including the technological means and skills needed for development. Respect for nature by everyone, a policy of openness to immigrants, the cancellation or significant reduction of the debt of poorer nations, the promotion of peace through dialogue and negotiation, the primacy of the rule of law — these are the priorities which the leaders of the developed countries cannot disregard. A global world is essentially a world of solidarity. From this point of view, America, because of her many resources, cultural traditions and religious values, has a special responsibility.
Respect for human dignity finds one of its highest expressions in religious freedom. This right is the first listed in your nation's Bill of Rights, and it is significant that the promotion of religious freedom continues to be an important goal of American policy in the international community. I want to express the appreciation of the whole Catholic Church for America's commitment in this regard.
Another area in which political and moral choices have the gravest consequences for the future of civilization concerns the most fundamental of human rights, the right to life itself. Experience is already showing how a tragic coarsening of consciences accompanies the assault on innocent human life in the womb, leading to accommodation and acquiescence in the face of other related evils, such as euthanasia, infanticide, and most recently, proposals for the creation for research purposes of human embryos, destined to destruction in the process.
A free and virtuous society, which America aspires to be, must reject practices that devalue and violate human life at any stage from conception until natural death. In defending the right to life, in law and through a vibrant culture of life, America can show the world a path to a truly humane future in which man remains the master, not the product, of his technology.
Mr. President, as you carry out the tasks of the high office which the American people have entrusted to you, I assure you of a remembrance in my prayers. I am confident that under your leadership, your nation will continue to draw on its heritage and resources to help build a world in which each member of the human family can flourish and live in a manner worthy of his or her innate dignity. With these sentiments, I cordially invoke upon you and the beloved American people, God's blessings of wisdom, strength and peace.
Thank you very much.
President Bush's remarks to Pope John Paul II:
Your Holiness, thank you very much. Mrs. Bush and I are honored to stand with you today. We're grateful for your welcome. You've been to America many times, and have spoken to vast crowds. You have met with four American presidents before me, including my father. In every visit, and in every meeting, including our meeting today, you have reminded America that we have a special calling to promote justice and to defend the weak and suffering of the world. We remember your words, and we will always do our best to remember our calling.
Since October of 1978, you have shown the world not only the splendor of truth, but also the power of truth to overcome evil and to redirect the course of history. You have urged men and women of goodwill to take to their knees before God, and to stand unafraid before tyrants. And this has added greatly to the momentum of freedom in our time.
Where there's oppression, you speak of human rights. Where there's poverty, you speak of justice and hope. Where there's ancient hatred, you defend and display a tolerance that reaches beyond every boundary of race and nation and belief. Where there's great abundance, you remind us that wealth must be matched with compassion and moral purpose. And always, to all, you have carried the gospel of life, which welcomes the stranger and protects the weak and the innocent. Every nation, including my own, benefits from hearing and heeding this message of conscience.
Above all, you have carried the message of the Gospel into 126 nations, and into the third millennium, always with courage, and with confidence. You have brought the love of God into the lives of men, and that good news is needed in every nation, and every age.
Thank you again, Your Holiness, for your kindness, and the honor of this meeting.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: 'Which Would You Kill?' Father Asks Congress DATE: 07/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 29-August 4, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — Mark and Luke Borden have become unexpected heroes in the fight to stop federal funding for research that destroys embryonic human lives.
John and Lucinda Borden adopted the two boys through the California-based Snowflakes Embryo Adoption Program.
“Mark and Luke are living rebuttals to the claim that embryos are not people,” Lucinda Borden told members of the House Government Reform Committee July 17. “We plead you not to fund this slaughter.”
Then her husband John picked up his 9month-old boys and addressed the Congressmen.
“Which one of my children would you kill?” he asked. “Which one would you choose to take?”
The question silenced the room. For an entire day, cable networks played the clip.
Ken Connor, president of Family Research Council, said that the Borden boys play an important role in the debate raging in Washington over sacrificing human embryos for research.
“Their story points to a very important fact — human embryos are not merely potential human beings. Rather, they are human beings with potential,” Connor said at a press conference. “They are not mere property. The human embryo is a who, not a what.”
Connor noted that a Virginia company, called the Jones Institute, has begun to purchase human embryos in order to harvest stem cells from them for research.
The knowledge of the company's experiments didn't stop supporters of federal funding of research on human embryos.
Testifying before Congress, actress Mary Tyler Moore, who has lived with juvenile diabetes for 30 years, maintained that the disease could be ended by transplanting embryonic cells into patients with diabetes.
“The hope I refer to resides in the potential of embryonic stem cells which can be coaxed to develop into any cell in the body, including [insulin-producing] islets. To make this hope a reality, embryonic stem cell research requires federal support,” said Moore, who is chairman of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, known in the past for his opposition to abortion, came out in support of the research as well.
“I think that federal support of embryonic stem-cell research is a pro-life, pro-family position. This research holds out promise for more than 100 million Americans suffering from a variety of diseases,” Hatch said.
A few days later, Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., also endorsed “carefully regulated” research conducted on human embryos. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., believed that as many as 70 senators favored the research.
But Ted Furton, a spokesman for the Boston-based National Catholic Bioethics Center, said that supporters of the research are missing the point: The destruction of a human embryo ends a human being's life.
“Any scientist, setting aside all religious beliefs, recognizes that the union of sperm and ovum produces a human embryo and therefore a human being,” Furton told the Register. “It has been a standard principle in Western Civilization that we don't kill innocent human beings.”
Ramesh Ponnuru and John Miller of National Review magazine think that supporters of embryonic research are playing word games by labeling embryos with the technically-accurate but dehumanizing term blastocyst.”
He noted that the term had been used only 55 times in the media during the 1980s, but that it's been used 105 times this year already. And it's not likely a coincidence.
“The word sounds alien. ‘Blasto’ comes from Greek and means a bud, but to the ears of English speakers a ‘blast’ is the sound of an explosion. And cyst? That's an ‘abnormal membrous sac,’ according to the dictionary. In other words, it's the sort of thing people have removed from their bodies by surgery ,” they wrote on National Review Online.
They concluded, “A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, says Proverbs. For pro-lifers, embryo is a good name and blastocyst is not.”
Pro-lifers think they have a couple of better names for what an embryo really is:
Mark and Luke Borden.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: Teaching by Example: New Orleans Schools Adopt 'Lifestyle Policy' DATE: 07/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 29-August 4, 2001 ----- BODY:NEW ORLEANS — Teachers and principals in the Archdiocese of New Orleans’ schools are being told exactly what kind of behavior is expected of them under a revised “lifestyle policy” that went into effect earlier this year.
Using quotes from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the policy specifies 10 acts that could lead to discipline and/or termination. They include:
E marrying in violation of Church rules,
E obtaining or helping another to obtain an abortion,
E actively engaging in homosexual activity, E becoming pregnant or fathering a child out of wedlock,
E taking public stands against Church doctrines or laws.
Also mentioned are:
E living as husband and wife outside of marriage,
E conviction of a felony or crime involving moral turpitude,
E immoral or dishonest conduct impairing one's effectiveness as a teacher,
E membership in an anti-Catholic or racist organization,
E engaging in immoral or illegal activity that would be a bad example to students.
According to the policy, the list is not exhaustive and the archdiocese reserves the right to determine whether an educator's actions or lifestyle violates the moral or religious doctrines or teachings of the Church. Even non-Catholic teachers, the policy says, “must uphold in their teaching and lifestyle basic Catholic teachings and practices.”
Father Neal McDermott, executive director of Christian formation for the archdiocese, said the revised policy enlarges upon a more general statement requiring teachers and administrators to adhere to Church teaching in matters of faith and morals.
The revision was needed, he said, to clear up confusion about what conformity with the Catholic Church means.
“I've discovered we've got to spell these things out better for our people,” Father McDermott said. “That's one of the reasons the lifestyle statement is so explicit. People have been given such a variety of opinions over the years.”
The New Orleans Archdiocese, which has 104 Catholic schools with 51,250 students, is believed to be among the first to adopt such a specific lifestyle policy for teachers and administrators. Archdiocesan officials who researched the new policy said they found generalized statements in other dioceses, but nothing as specific as the policy they eventually wrote.
Sister Mary Ann Walsh, a spokeswoman for the U.S. bishops’ conference, said most Catholic schools have policies regarding the professional conduct of teachers, but the degree of specificity varies from diocese to diocese. She said she knows of none with policies as specific as New Orleans.
A spokesman for the National Catholic Educational Association said the group would have no way of knowing how unusual the New Orleans policy is because the association doesn't ask for such information from its members.
Under the former policy, Father McDermott said, some teachers would choose to marry outside the church in public ceremonies. “And then they would proceed to tell us they did not understand the Church's teaching or regulation on marriage.”
He said in some cases, an offense committed in private by a teacher and dealt with in the confessional might not necessarily lead to dismissal. “But when things are made public and called to our attention, we have an obligation to respond by something more than silence to assure people that we are not just allowing any form of activity to occur in our schools on the part of teachers. They're being held to a standard because we are Catholic teachers in a Catholic school.”
The policy, which was reviewed by a lawyer, was written by a committee based on recommendations from a dialogue between archdiocesan school principals and teachers and Father McDermott's predecessor, Msgr. Robert Massett.
Since it went into effect with the signing of contracts for the 2001-2002 academic year, the policy has not been challenged, said Richard Bordelon, an attorney for the archdiocese.
On the contrary, Father McDermott said, “I've had a number of priests stop to tell me thank God I've finally cleared this up, that this is something that should have been done.”
Some have expressed concern, he said, that the archdiocese might be driving away good teachers. “My response is, ‘Is a good teacher one who teaches and does not practice the faith?’”
David Hardin, principal of Archbishop Rummel High School, told the New Orleans Times-Picayune that the clause works well at his school. “If you can't abide by those guidelines,” he said, “then you need to move on to a school system that is not dictated by them.”
However, several teachers who asked not to be named criticized the policy in an article in the Times-Picayune. One characterized the practice of firing teachers for failing to marry in the church as not being “very Christian” and said the schools should be more understanding in such matters, particularly because annulments can take time.
Father McDermott said a teacher who marries publicly outside the Church is not automatically fired. Rather, a pastoral process is followed in which the teacher is given the option to correct the situation or resign.
Others quoted in the Times-Picayune article said the rules seem out of touch with modern times.
Inspired by the Pope
But Father McDermott said, “I believe that modern times are what the Holy Father addressed as subjectivism, individualism, and all those “isms” that say it's not necessary to believe what Jesus taught, but only to feel good about it … It seems in this day and age we are more and more being eroded by the culture that's around us and if we don't stand for something we fall for everything.”
Father McDermott added that the new lifestyle policy was inspired by Pope John Paul II's concern for Catholic education at every level. “In Ex Corde Ecclesiae [the Pope's 1990 apostolic constitution on Catholic higher education], he is expressing concern that Catholic [college] students have a right to Catholic courses that are truly according to the Magisterium of the Church. Why not say that all Catholic high school and grade school students also have a right to what is Catholic in those schools?”
Judy Roberts writes from Millbury, Ohio.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Judy Roberts ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: Episcopal Priest to Catholic Laywoman DATE: 07/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 29-August 4, 2001 ----- BODY:Two years ago, the wife of Rear Admiral John Poindexter — who was President Reagan's national security adviser — ended her 13 years as an Episcopal priest.
Linda Poindexter became Catholic. She spoke with Register correspondent Stephen Ryan.
Your first “conversion” was from the Disciples of Christ Church to the Episcopalian Church. How did that come about?
John and I married in 1958. He had graduated the Naval Academy. The Protestant chapel services the Midshipmen attended were always according to the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer. You could attend another church in town, but at the Navy chapel the Protestant service was Episcopal. Back then, attendance at some service was mandatory.
I was down there most weekends when we were dating so I'd become quite accustomed to the services by the time we were married. John was raised a Methodist, so we looked at several churches when we married and quickly settled on the Episcopal Church, primarily for the liturgical part of the worship.
What was your attitude toward the Catholic Church?
Growing up I always thought my Catholic friends had the neatest church in the world. Going to Mass with them in the '40s and '50s was so dramatic and so moving. I also thought, “Catholic kids really have to do something,” and I found that very appealing. Something was demanded of them.
You've said that the emphasis on the communion service in your childhood church prepared you for your conversion. What else did?
In this very Protestant church where I grew up they had a small chapel, and it was called “Madonna Chapel” — a Protestant chapel called “Madonna Chapel”!
I can remember there was a painting of the Blessed Mother in the front of this little chapel. Somebody must have donated it and put it up there, but I found that unusual. It's always been a Protestant thing that Catholics “worship” Mary, and it's wrong. But to have this chapel in there, it just makes my mind click. I've been given an awful lot of gifts along the way. It's amazing how long it takes for it to sink in.
Did your husband enter the Church, or is that a possibility in the future?
I think he will, but he hasn't as yet. He goes to Mass with me every week. In all but name he's there. He certainly agreed with what I was doing. It would be difficult without that support. I feel for many who convert and their conversion makes for a very difficult time in the family. It took Kimberly Hahn [wife of Catholic scripture professor and convert Scott Hahn] quite a while to come along.
What finally led you into the Catholic Church?
There is a tendency among Protestants to “think for themselves” and that's what's led to so many differing denominations.
There is an unclear sense of authority. I was able to accept the structure of the Church's authority more easily. Thus I am at peace, and because I believe, I don't have to argue with others about it. It certainly makes sense that God would have chosen this kind of structure to let people know about him and about what they're supposed to be doing.
Of course, Newman said it much better than I do. The first thing I did when I felt drawn to the Church was to buy Newman's Apologia. I guess he's the standard for Anglicans who become Catholic. I had underlined the passage where he talks about authority.
What was your next step?
When I was serving in a parish, I'd find it difficult to pray in the same place that I worked. There was a Catholic Church just a few minutes away, so I'd pop in there for some quiet prayer. I'd put a scarf around my neck to hide the clerical collar.I remember feeling some thing like a wish.May be I couldbe here someday.
In your studies, did you come across the Marian strains in Martin Luther's writings? Apparently, the founder of Protestantism was very fond of her.
Yes, I know he was, though I didn't really study Luther until seminary. In seminary we did some reading into Luther, and he certainly was Marian. As an Episcopalian I had no problem with that.
I was always very drawn to learning more about Mary. What I do then is buy a lot of books I don't have time to read, thinking I'd develop a course on the Episcopal understanding of Mary. Many in the Episcopal Church are very dismissive about the Catholic reverence and devotion to Mary. A lot of people are now thinking the baby got thrown out with the bathwater, that they've robbed themselves by not understanding and venerating the Mother herself.
What is your perception of the all-male priesthood? Having been an Episcopalian priest, did this pose a problem for you later?
In the context of the Roman Catholic Church, I believe in and support the all-male, celibate priesthood. I find it difficult to accept intellectually all the reasons for this, but I am content to believe that the magisterium of the Church is divinely guided and inspired and perhaps may contain more truth than my own thinking on the subject. Within the Anglican communion and the various Protestant communities, it is a different matter.
I do believe that many women are very gifted in many pastoral, educational and administrative capacities and I am happy to see that the Catholic Church is striving to allow those gifts to be used.
Should Catholics allow married clergy, as the Episcopalians do?
In our parish, we happen to have a married former Episcopal priest, and I felt very drawn to talk to him when I first considered converting.
That's a tough thing, trying to support a wife and family and to change your whole life is very difficult.
I think the celibate priesthood is the way to go. I said that all the time I was actively in a parish, and I began to understand the gift. It's tough to give your all to a parish and give your all to a spouse and family.
Then I see younger women with children and I don't see how they're doing this. Once you've taken marital vows you do have those obligations. It becomes most confusing.
The way it seems to have worked out in the Episcopal Church is that people are overly concerned now with their contracts and their benefits, their time off and all the rest of it, because that's necessary if you're going to be part of a family.
But that means it becomes a 9-to-5 job, which means many of them won't do anything on a day off. You've got to go find somebody else. If somebody dies on your day off, that's too bad. It's a very awkward situation. Granted everybody needs some free time, and I'm glad when they get it, but it is just very difficult when you have a family.
I see Episcopal priests taking off to pick up their kids from school, and they have this and that, and then I hear Catholics say we have to have married priests because we're so short [of priests]. That's just not a good reason. You don't know what you're asking for. For one thing, are you prepared to triple your parish budget?
It becomes a very different view of the priesthood. There's just something very special about someone who has the gift of celibacy and is set apart for that reason. There again we get into the awe and mystery that I think contributes to that.
If our priest is just like us, why would I feel drawn to confession?
Stephen Ryan writes from London.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Linda Poindexter ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson ----------- TITLE: Salvation Army Memo Prompts Questions About Faith-Based Plan DATE: 07/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 29-August 4, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — As President Bush's effort to win federal funding for religious charities moved through Congress, a leaked memo from the Salvation Army stirred new uncertainties about the plan's effects on the charities it is intended to benefit.
The memo, reported by the Washington Post on July 10, detailed the Salvation Army's request for a federal regulation that would carve out a religious exemption to local laws barring discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
The Salvation Army, the nation's largest charity, wanted an assurance that it could keep federal grants even if it refused to offer domestic partnership benefits to active homosexuals in states and cities with anti-discrimination laws.
The White House swiftly responded that it would not grant the request, stating that federal law already provided the protection the charity sought. When those federal laws conflicted with local anti discrimination statutes, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters, “That's a matter for the courts to resolve.”
The House passed faith-based legislation July 19, rejecting a bid by Democrats to amend the bill to include a provision forcing religious organizations that accept federal grants to comply with federal civil rights laws banning discrimination against homosexuals. But Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., warned afterward that the bill was unlikely to pass in the Senate without such an amendment.
”I can't imagine that we could pass any bill that would tolerate slipping back into a level of tolerance that would be unacceptable in today's society,” said Daschle, Associated Press reported.
Such comments worry some supporters of the faith-based initiative.
Charles Ritchie, director of the Fayetteville, N.C.-based Christian charity Operation Blessing, said that although he still supported Bush's plan, he would not apply for a grant if he couldn't be guaranteed protection.
Operation Blessing, which runs a pro-life crisis pregnancy center and a food pantry among other services, lost funding from the Housing and Urban Development department two years ago “because we refused to dilute our Christian content,” Ritchie said. “The same thing would happen if we would be asked to hire people who are non-Christians or who do not agree with our philosophy of ministry. That would prohibit us from receiving the funds.”
Although Ritchie was quick to point out that Operation Blessing did not discriminate in providing services, he added that his group did not “hire anyone who's actively adulterous, or actively homosexual.”
Ritchie said that he would still apply for a federal grant “assuming that we can apply for the grant without losing our identity.”
Courts Will Decide
The Salvation Army did not return repeated calls for this article. However, an open letter from the group's national commander, John A. Busby, stated, “All Army services are provided without discrimination to all who seek our help, regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation or any other factor. …
“Among our 45,000 employees in the USA, I know that there are people of all races, religions and sexual orientation.”
Busby reiterated the Salvation Army's support for the faith-based initiative, but added, “The Salvation Army has not entered into any conditional agreements with the Bush administration, nor have they made any promises or commitments to us.”
HR-7, the faith-based initiative bill that has now been passed by the House, may already afford the protection the group was seeking. The bill states, “Neither the Federal Government nor a State or local government shall require a religious organization … to alter its form of internal governance.”
The bill adds, “In order to aid in the preservation of its religious character, a religious organization … may, notwithstanding any other provision of law, require that its employees adhere to the religious practices of the organization.”
However, Fleischer noted that where state and local laws prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, it was “not clear” whether HR-7 would actually override the local laws.
“Wherever there is a federal statute in conflict with a state statute, it often ends up in the courts,” he said.
Marvin Olasky, a senior fellow at the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, noted, “Clearly the Salvation Army didn't feel that there was adequate protection.”
Added Olasky, “If there is good protection, the Bush administration should prove it.”
In his view, the Salvation Army flap was only one symptom of a misguided focus on government grants to implement faith-based initiatives.
Olasky prefers tax credits for charitable giving, “so individual taxpayers can choose what to support. That gets around the problem,” he says, of asking people to fund organizations whose hiring practices offend them.
Are Charities Protected?
Should a pastor worry that he could get sued if he takes a federal grant?
Not necessarily, some observers maintain.
“The structure of the [faith-based] bill seems to me quite good,” said Michael Novak, holder of the Jewett Chair in religion and public policy at the American Enterprise Institute.
He pointed out the clauses that allow religious organizations to set their own rules for internal governance and hiring. The possibility of a state-federal conflict ending up in court could come up “no matter what the White House would do,” he added.
Novak, a Catholic, said that the “main effect” of the faith-based initiative “is to streamline regulations, to make it easier for charities to operate. The secondary effect is whether or not there are grants.”
Said Novak, “Many more charities worry about what government does to impede them. They want their independence.”
Novak said he would “like to see as much independence from the government as possible” for faithbased charities. “That means reduced regulations — that's the most important thing. The second is more incentives, such as tax credits to encourage charitable giving. The third step, being able to compete for grants on an equal footing with secular groups, will be attractive only to some religious groups.”
That third step, he added, “is the one that's most controversial, but least important.”
Charles Ritchie can certainly get along without it. Since the HUD grant was yanked, he said, Operation Blessing has relied solely on private funding — with no worries about what strings might be attached.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 07/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 29-August 4, 2001 ----- BODY:Struggle With Alcohol Forged Bush's Faith-Based Ideas
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL, July 17 — Rep. J.C. Watts, ROkla., told the wire service that President Bush's personal commitment to his “Faith-Based Initiative” sprung in part from the fact that faith in Christ helped Bush quit drinking at age 40.
Bush has often spoken of the role faith played in his decision to stop drinking. Watts added that Bush had also been impressed by the success of faith-based groups in Texas.
‘Teenangels’ Teach Kids Web Smarts
ASSOCIATED PRESS, July 19 — Teenangels, a growing volunteer group, teaches young Internet users how to avoid predators who haunt the Web looking for trusting children, the wire service reported.
Teenangels began two years ago in Demarest, N.J., with the help of privacy lawyer Parry Aftab. Aftab's organization, Cyberangels.org, has trained thousands of adult volunteers. Now the group has branched out by getting teens involved.
Aftab said there would be about 350 Teenangels worldwide by the end of the year. New teams are training this summer in several American cities.
Teenangels spokesmen say many kids don't know that predators can use seemingly innocuous snippets of information like where they work or the name of their school sports team to track down children.
The Teenangels can be found on the Web at: www.wiredkids.org/teenangels/ta-index2.html.
A ‘Uterus’ With a Hand?
NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE, July 15 — Many media commentators, including Andrew Sullivan and the online magazine OpinionJournal, sharply criticized the New York Times Magazine for its caption of a photograph showing surgery being performed on a 24week-old fetus.
Although the photograph clearly showed a tiny hand reaching out toward the surgeon, and a tiny arm (the rest of the fetus was still inside the mother's womb), the caption read, “Dr. Joseph Bruner with Kelly Hasten's uterus.”
Media watchdogs speculated that the Times, whose editorial page is strongly pro-abortion, didn't want readers to wonder if the tiny hand meant that a tiny child — and not a formless “lump of cells” — could be both the beneficiary of fetal surgery and the victim of abortion.
Head of Boston Catholic Television Dies
ASSOCIATED PRESS, July 18 — Msgr. Frank McFarland, who took Boston Catholic Television from a small local station to the largest archdiocesan television station in the world, died in Newton, Mass., at age 69.
Today, the station airs in over 130 cities.
Mourners remembered Msgr. McFarland's special care for the sick and those who watched the daily Mass program because they could not leave home.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 07/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 29-August 4, 2001 ----- BODY:Putin Calls for Better Catholic-Orthodox Relations
CORRIERE DELLA SERA, July 16 — Russian President Vladimir Putin praised Pope John Paul II and said he hoped that the Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches can forge a closer relationship, the Italian daily reported.
Putin praised the Pope for his visits to predominantly Orthodox countries. His tone contrasted sharply with the strong opposition of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Alexy II, to the recent papal visit to Ukraine.
No Penalties for Participating in Conference Dissent
THE IRISH TIMES, July 12 — A Vatican spokesman said there had been no consideration of sanctions for two nuns who attended a Dublin conference advocating women's ordination, the Irish daily reported.
The coordinator of the first international Women's Ordination Worldwide conference, Notre Dame de Namur Sister Myra Poole, was summoned to meet with the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life at the end of May.
She said that letters from the congregation led her to believe she would be dismissed from her order if she attended the Dublin conference. She went anyway, but attended only the latter half of the conference.
Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister, a prominent advocate of women's ordination, attended despite a letter from the Vatican advising her not to go. Sister Chittister told the conference that the Benedictine order had existed for 1,500 years, and was “not going to let a little letter from Rome upset us.”
In 1994 Pope John Paul II declared that the Church had no authority to ordain women as priests. A further Vatican statement in 1998 added that the statement was definitive and all Catholics were required to adhere to it.
Pope May Visit Azerbaijan in 2002
ASSOCIATED PRESS, July 19 — An Azerbaijan official announced that Pope John Paul II may visit the former Soviet republic in May 2002, the wire service reported.
Metim Mirza, deputy head of the Foreign Ministry's press department, said that preparations for the trip had already begun. The Pope has traveled to Azerbaijan's neighbor, Georgia.
Polish Film Is First Movie Shown in Vatican Auditorium
DAILY VARIETY, July 16 — The Aug. 30 world premiere of the Polish film Quo Vadis will be the first movie shown in the Vatican auditorium, the entertainment newsmagazine reported.
The film will be shown in the 7,000-seat Paul VI Hall. Pope John Paul II has been invited, but it is unlikely he will attend.
The movie is an adaptation of the Henryk Senkiewicz classic Quo Vadis. The Pope has watched movies in the Vatican before — notably Life Is Beautiful, a papal favorite — but only small private screening rooms have been used until now, so very few people could attend.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican ----------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 07/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 29-August 4, 2001 ----- BODY:Romanians Jailed for Returning Church Property
ASSOCIATED PRESS, July 13 — Romania's Eastern-rite Catholics protested the arrest of two former state officials who were accused of illegally returning property confiscated from the Church by Communists, the wire service reported.
The Romanian-rite Catholic Church, whose members make up about 1% of Romania's population, was banned by the Communists in 1948, and the government seized almost 2,500 churches.
Since communism fell in 1989, only 120 churches have been returned, even though the ban on the Church was ended.
Doru Popa and Marius Zgaia were charged with abusing their position, falsifying documents and causing damage to the state of $4.4 million because in February 2000, they gave 120 buildings in the Transylvanian city of Blaj back to the Church.
The men, who are both Romanian-rite Catholics, denied that they had acted illegally.
No Yoga in Schools, Says Slovak Party
ASSOCIATED PRESS, July 12 — Slovakia's Christian Democratic Movement, a party in the country's ruling coalition, came out against government plans to teach yoga in elementary schools, the wire service reported.
The Catholic Church leadership in Slovakia has already criticized the plans to introduce yoga. The Christian Democratic Movement has now threatened to leave the ruling coalition if it does not cancel the yoga plan, charging that yoga is anti-Christian.
Yoga is a Hindu discipline aimed at achieving the liberation of the self and union with the universal spirit.
The ruling coalition had intended to introduce yoga in gym classes next year.
“Devil Dancers” Keep Catholic Tradition Alive
THE DAILY OBSERVER, July 14 — The descendants of Venezuelan slaves celebrated the feast of Corpus Christi with one of the oldest surviving Latin American rituals, the Canadian daily reported.
The Devil Dancers, 1,500 men in colorful masks, dance to the beat of drums in a ritual dating back to Spanish colonization.
In 1740, Catholic priests encouraged the ceremony as a way to allow African slaves to join in church celebrations despite racial discrimination. The dancers give thanks to God for favors they have received throughout the year.
Exorcist Rids Handel's House of Haunt
SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, July 15 — A Catholic priest agreed to exorcise the London house where George Frederic Handel composed “The Messiah,” the London daily reported.
The Handel House Trust requested the exorcism after two people claimed to have seen a female ghost while preparing the house for public opening as a museum.
The exorcism took place in the bedroom where the composer died in 1759.
A fundraiser for the trust noted, “We weren't sure whether having a ghost would attract or deter customers, but with all the valuable objects we have coming into the house we felt it might be safer to get rid of it.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: Embryo Research Myths and Answers DATE: 07/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 29-August 4, 2001 ----- BODY:A lot of misinformation is going around in the debate over stem-cell research on human embryos.
Here are some myths and answers President Bush should keep in mind as he makes his decision about whether or not he should allow the federal government to fund experiments that destroy human embryos:
These embryonic “blastocysts” are just clumps of cells, not people.
Before reading further, turn to page one and look at the Borden children. We all started out as babies, just like them … and, just like them, we all started out as embryos. They got lucky — as frozen embryos, they were adopted by a family rather than acquired by a laboratory. Any policy that would sacrifice the Bordens so that you or I might live longer is an unacceptable policy.
Embryos won't be created for research purposes. Only “discarded” embryos will be used. Why not let them do some good before they're destroyed?
First of all, this isn't true. As the recent press release from the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine in Norfolk, Va., shows, there really are not strict limits on which embryos are used in research. The press release bragged that the institute paid $1,500 and $2,000 apiece for eggs, and then used them to create embryos for the purpose of destroying them.
Second, research proponents tip their hand as soon as they make this case. We can ask them right back: If discarded embryos can be used for research, then why not create embryos for research purposes? If it's wrong to create embryos for research purposes, then they must be human beings. And if they're human beings, then none of them should be destroyed. (This, incidentally, raises the larger issue: It's wrong to create embryos by in vitro fertilization in the first place.)
To make this argument, pro-research voices must hold a chilling unspoken principle: Medical research is more important than some human lives.
Research on stem cells taken from adults has less promise than embryonic stem-cell research.
There are two answers to this: First, and most importantly: So what? Even if embryonic stem cells held the cure to debilitating illnesses (and they don't, necessarily), it would still be immoral to use them. You can't destroy one person so that another might live. Pro-lifers should never let the argument over human embryos become a question of whether they are useful for one reason or another.
But second, there have been amazing breakthroughs using alternative stem-cell sources — umbilical cord blood, organs, fat, etc. Some diseases have already been healed using stem cells found in umbilical-cord blood — and Rome's Catholic University is helping lead the way in banking umbilical-cord stem cells.
This makes the pro-life position much more palatable. We needn't sacrifice the benefit, just the destructive means in getting it.
Pope John Paul II has urged President Bush to do the right thing in embryo research. And well he should.
But this issue isn't really a matter of Catholic teaching vs. science, as it is often portrayed in the media.
You don't need to be a Catholic to recognize that it's wrong to use human beings for experimentation. And you don't need to be a Catholic to recognize that embryos are human beings.
Just ask the Borden family.
----- EXCERPT: Editorial ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion ----------- TITLE: Letter DATE: 07/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 29-August 4, 2001 ----- BODY:Jesus Was Once a Blastocyst
The debate over federal funding of human embryonic stem-cell research is reaching a fever pitch (“Tolerating Embryos,” Editorial, July 15-21). Many claim the human embryo is nonor sub-human. Dr. Jerome Lejeune, honored by President John F. Kennedy as the father of modern genetics, who first isolated the Down syndrome chromosome, testified, in the famous case in Tennessee in 1989 dealing with frozen embryos, that we are genetically complete at the moment of conception. The Court concluded that human life begins at conception.
A more authoritarian source than the Court is sacred Scripture, which clearly gives the true answer to the stem-cell debate.
Following the angel Gabriel's annunciation to Mary that she was to be the mother of God, we read in St. Luke's Gospel: “During those days Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, ‘Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?’”
The distance between Nazareth and Judah is 60 miles. Mary, going “in haste,” probably reached Judah in three or four days. A new human being progresses from conceptus to blastocyst to zygote, whereupon, after five to seven days, it implants in the lining of the uterus as an embryo.
The awesome reality is that both Elizabeth and her son, John the Baptist, at six months in utero, recognized the divine personhood of Jesus while he was still in the blastocystzygote stage — before he became an embryo.
To kill human beings in stem-cell research, at this same stage of development as Jesus when he first revealed himself, is an abomination.
WILLIAM J. HOGAN, MD Rockville, Maryland
The writer is a retired obstetrician-gynecologist.
Execution Sickness
In regard to “Heaven or Hell? McVeigh's Request for Last Rites” (June 24-30): Could you clear something up for me? From what I understand, the anointing of the sick is given only to people with serious illness or old age (as it says in your excerpt from the Catechism). A person who is going to be executed or a soldier going into battle would not be fulfilling the specific need that the sacrament is meant for, even though death is a certainty for the former and a possibility for the later. How, then, could McVeigh receive that sacrament? Any clarification on this matter would be appreciated. Thank you.
Joseph Fitzpatrick Hamden, Connecticut
Editor's note: While the Catechism specifically mentions only illness and old age, the Church has long offered the anointing of the sick to persons facing imminent death or grave danger, no matter the likely cause.
The President and Cardinal O'Connor
Having served as a lector to John Cardinal O’ Connor, I was fortunate to hear a good number of his sermons. A number of them were spent on the rights of the unborn. Despite knowing the wrath he would take from certain local and national newspapers the following day, it never made him hesitate to suffer for those who were unable to defend themselves.
On July 10, I saw the courage of President Bush on the same altar at St. Patrick's Cathedral (“On the Same Page?” July 22-28). The president was there to present the Congressional Medal of Honor that was awarded to his eminence a couple of months before his passing. Before presenting the medal, the president, standing before the same local and national newspapers that would make the cardinal's cross heavier at times, stated proudly before the packed cathedral: “[T]he world will remember the gallant defender of children and their vulnerability, innocence and their right to be born.”
The president, not knowing what possible wrath awaited him the next day in the press for mentioning the rights of the unborn in New York City, did know one thing and that was more than 4,000 people giving him a standing ovation in appreciation of his remarks.
I'm sure if the cardinal was still with us today, he would have liked to shake the president's hand and tell him, “Good job, Mr. President — you, too, will be remembered as a defender for the unborn.”
WILLIAM G. MCKAY Harrison, New York
Priests and the Liturgy
I would like to make a few comments on the Zenit interview with Auxiliary Bishop Timothy Dolan (“Former Seminary Director Refutes ‘Gay Priesthood’ Myth,” July 8-14) and the letter to the editor concerning our U.S. bishops (“Peculiar Posture,” Letters, July 15-21).
I agree with Bishop-Designate Dolan concerning the goodness and maturity of most priests. I have had the privilege of knowing a good many fine and holy priests throughout my life. In a way, it is a tribute to the priesthood when the media become excited in their reporting of wrongdoing by some priests since it shows the high [esteem] in which the priesthood is actually held by Catholics and non-Catholics alike.
I would like to add one caveat, however: It is essential and mandated by canon law that priests conduct themselves in an appropriate manner when celebrating Mass or any of the sacraments.
It should not even be necessary to warn them that they are being disobedient to God and His Church, for example, when they are not following the General Instruction of the Roman Missal when celebrating Mass or when reciting/chanting the Liturgy of the Hours. The liturgy belongs to the entire People of God, and no one has the right to change it except through proper ecclesiastical authority.
The letter by Mr. Henning points out a difficulty that many Catholics, young and notso-young, feel when approaching the holy Eucharist. It is this: If the wise men, as reported by St. Matthew “prostrated themselves and did him homage …” (Matthew 2:11), why are we not allowed to kneel for Communion?
He is the same God, is he not? God's blessings!
SISTER GERALDINE MARIE, O.P. Lompoc, California
Many Millions of Murders
Willard Oliver's commentary on the legal status of the unborn was very interesting (“In the U.S., Abortion is Murder — Sometimes,” July 8-14). He overlooked, however, one important factor that significantly increases the annual number of pre-born homicides in the U. S. by millions above the 1 million figure.
Mr. Oliver stated that “the pro-life side articulates that life begins at conception.” Unfortunately, the term “conception” has been redefined by the abortion industry to mean the time of implantation rather than fertilization. Millions of unborn children each year have begun their lives at fertilization, journeyed for seven to 10 days, and grown independently to 100 times their original size. At this time they should be able to implant in the mother to retrieve needed nutrition from her.
But abortifacients such as the “morning after pill,” the I.U.D., Norplant, Depo-Provera and the “pill” make the mother's womb inhospitable to her unborn children. Many of these women are unknowing participants in the chemical homicides of their unborn children. Please remind Mr. Oliver that legal status should protect all humans from the time of fertilization, when life truly begins.
ELIZABETH MADIGAN Melrose, New York
The writer is a former Director of the Speakers Bureau of Citizens Concerned for Human Life in Albany, N.Y.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion ----------- TITLE: Enraptured With Rapture Books DATE: 07/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 29-August 4, 2001 ----- BODY:Carl Olsen (Inperson: “Enraptured by the Rapture” July 8-14) is well versed (so to speak) on the various theological views regarding the rapture.
I must disagree with him, however, when he says that the Left Behind series is incompatible with the Catholic Faith. My husband and I read the series with the following understanding: “lousy theology, great fiction!”
Whether or not there is a “rapture” is not really relevant to the Catholic faith. Our faith focuses on whether or not we are in a state of grace, not on potential global events, fact or fiction.
The series does provide an opportunity for the reader to see people courageously witness to their faith and sacrifice all to fight evil enemies of God.
The story lines used as vehicles to present humans in a struggle with evil are not nearly as important as the general concept of the books: We choose between the Righteous One and the Evil One and are afforded salvation through grace. The rest of the texts serve their primary purpose: They are very entertaining fiction.
ELIZABETH MADIGAN Melrose, New York
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion ----------- TITLE: How to Spend Sunday Afternoons Like the Pope DATE: 07/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 29-August 4, 2001 ----- BODY:According to the Census Bureau, Americans are working harder than ever.
The adult American worker does nearly 2,000 hours of paid work a year. That's about two weeks more than 20 years ago. Consequently, many Americans enjoy higher earnings and live much better materially than ever before.
The American work ethos creates and sets the pace of our successful economy. Our prosperity should make life easier and more satisfying, yet we are working longer, harder and more intensely than before with little or no time left for anything else.
As our work expands, time with our family and friends contracts. Moreover, with home faxes, beepers, cell phones and e-mails, we can never completely escape from work. Thanks to all this, it's easy to forget that economic security is not the goal of our lives.
As Christians, we need to understand work in relation to leisure. In his Apostolic letter Dies Domini (The Lord's Day), Pope John Paul II develops a theology of leisure based in part on God's rest after the creation in the book of Genesis.
He argues that we all need at least once a week an entire day of rest — preferably Sunday for Christians. By the precept of the Sunday observance, the Church helps to lighten the burden of workers and protect them from being abused.
The Pope reminds us: “It should not be forgotten that even in our own day work is very oppressive for many people, either because of miserable working conditions and long hours — especially in the poorer regions of the world — or because of the persistence in economically more developed societies of too many cases of injustice and exploitation of man by man.” For this reason, the Holy Father believes that everyone should enjoy “the freedom, rest and relaxation which human dignity requires.”
Leisure, however, as the Pope understands it, should not be confused with idleness or weekends in which people engage in superficial or even morally questionable forms of entertainment. Leisure, in a Christian sense, contributes to personal growth. If this is the case, how should we use our leisure time? The Holy Father suggests that, first of all, we use this time to cultivate family life. He believes that “the relaxed gathering of parents and children can be an opportunity not only to listen to one another but also to share a few formative and more reflective moments.”
For example, families could plan moments of prayer together or moments of catechesis to learn more about the faith. Along with the family, we should spend our time of relaxation with our friends or other social relations. This gives us a chance to know others without the normal pressure of everyday work. As the Pope puts it: “[In a leisurely exchange] we see the true face of the people with whom we live.”
Sundays should find us resting in the joy of the Resurrection. And that means all day, every Sunday.
On a higher level, a time of rest or leisure for Christians is linked to a particular day — Sunday, the day of the Lord's resurrection. The Sunday rest, then, is not just a time to spend with family and friends, or to pursue cultural interests.
Above all, it should be a time to adore and to praise God. Sunday Mass should not be seen as a burdensome obligation, but, on the contrary, a joy. For it implies a spiritual rest that consists in a personal encounter with the crucified and risen Christ in the Eucharist.
The Holy Father stresses the fact that “Sunday [is] a weekly echo of the first encounter [of the disciples] with the Risen Lord. [Consequently,] Sunday is the day of joy in a very special way, indeed the day most suitable for learning how to rejoice and to rediscover the true nature and deep roots of joy.” This joy and spiritual rest proper to the Sunday Eucharist should be the focal point of our week.
The Pope refers to Sunday as the “soul” of the entire week.
How do we express, on a practical level, this deep conviction of faith or love we have for the Sunday Eucharist? The Holy Father believes the joy and rest we experience in the Sunday Eucharist should be expressed in works of charity and mercy.
Why? Ever since the times of the first Christians, the Sunday Eucharist has been a day of solidarity with the poor, the sick and the abandoned. It's a special moment for all Christians to give the best of themselves, for love of Christ, to others in need.
It's true that no one can accuse Americans of being lazy. We all seem excited and caught up in the competitive spirit of meeting the challenges of our all-absorbing “new economy.”
At the same time, we feel a sense of loss. We miss not having quality time to spend with our families and friends. We regret losing the sense of God in the midst of our work. What do we need to keep in mind to avoid living for our work? Leisure is just as important as working to those who want to live a meaningful life.
Father Andrew McNair teaches at Mater Ecclesiae International Center of Studies in Greenville, Rhode Island.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Andrew McNair LC ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary ----------- TITLE: And When He Fell, He Fought on His Knees DATE: 07/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 29-August 4, 2001 ----- BODY:“How does one write a book about one's father?” Clara asks in the preface to Life is a Blessing: A Biography of Jérôme Lejeune. In her case, the answer is: very perceptively and movingly — if a bit apologetically.
“His life is at the same time too near and too far for the solemnity of the usual biography,” she writes. “Too near because affection can scarcely maintain a critical point of view; too far because his story is not ours, even though we are, from a certain moment on, intimately involved in it.”
Clearly Clara, one of Jérôme's five children and the youngest of his four daughters, has been deeply affected by her subject's dedication to the sick and the handicapped. This account of his life, translated for Ignatius Press from the original French by Michael Miller, comes straight from her heart.
Which is as it should be. Lejeune, a scientist of world-class distinction, fully understood the importance of the heart. “Our intelligence is not just an abstract machine,” he wrote. “It is also incarnate, and the heart is as important as the faculty of reason, or more precisely, reason is nothing without the heart.”
That Lejeune's heart was never dissociated from his scientific intelligence is a leitmotiv that characterizes the essence of his life.
Lejeune carved his niche in history's pantheon of science when he discovered the genetic cause of Down syndrome: trisomy 21.
One day a popular television program in France, “Un dossier de l'écran” (On Screen Dossier), aired a debate on the question of aborting unborn children who had trisomy 21. The debate put terror in the hearts of Down syndrome children as well as their parents.
The next day, a 10-year-old boy with trisomy arrived at Lejeune's office for consultation. He was crying inconsolably. As his mother explained, “He watched the debate last night.” The child threw his arms around Dr. Lejeune's neck and said to him, “They want to kill us. You've got to defend us. We're just too weak, and we don't know how.”
“From that day on,” Clara reports, “Papa would untiringly come to the defense of the pre-born child.”
The Stuff Non-Laureates Are Made Of
Lejeune's commitment to the unborn remained passionate and unswerving for the rest of his life. It required great courage, however, and exacted many personal sacrifices. On one occasion, during a debate at the Mutualité, he was hit in the face with raw calves’ liver and tomatoes. Another time, took the podium at the United Nations and decried the prevailing sympathy for abortion. “Here we see an institute of health that is turning itself into an institute of death,” he said.
That evening, writing to his wife, he confided, “This afternoon I lost my Nobel Prize.” Political correctness, to be sure, held absolutely no attraction for Lejeune.
His pro-life commitments created problems for his family members as well as himself. Clara recalls how, when she was 12 or 13, she and her sister, riding their bicycles past the walls of the medical school, were horrified to find the following ominous threats painted in black letters: “Tremble, Lejeune! The MLAC [a revolutionary student movement] is watching.” “Lejeune is an assassin. Kill Lejeune.” “Lejeune and his little monsters must die.”
Lejeune never descended to the level of such people. “I am fighting false ideas,” he would say. If he was fighting at all, he was fighting for people. Yet that was enough to make him the target of angry attackers. He became, as his daughter tells us, “the object of unconscious fury on the part of those who set themselves up as the apostles of tolerance.” The litany of persecutions and discriminations he suffered is long and disturbing.
The child threw his arms around Dr. Lejeune's neck and said to him, ‘They want to kill us. You've got to defend us.’
Clara and her siblings bore the stigma of being the children of Professor Jérôme Lejeune. They learned, rather painfully, that “we have to live with labels that don't define us.” It was, as Clara describes it, a new kind of “original sin.”
Dr. Lejeune maintained his deep concern for the suffering even when he, himself, was near death and suffering acutely from both the cancer that finally killed him and the massive chemotherapy being employed to counter it.
As his daughter testifies, he would answer the telephone while exhausted, between bouts of vomiting, in order to discuss a therapeutic hypothesis with a colleague.
“His suffering was intolerable at times,” writes Clara, “but he was always considerate of others; he put himself in their place.”
‘On His Knees’
During his last days, when what little strength he had was ebbing from his body, he identified with the motto of the Roman Legionary: “Et si fellitur de genu pugnat” (And if he should fall, he fights on his knees). For Lejeune life, compassion and service were all inseparably intertwined.
He passed away, in accord with a presentiment he had, on Easter Sunday, April 3, 1994. Pope John Paul II delivered a eulogy the next day in which he referred to “our brother Jérôme,” and stated that “If the Father who is in heaven called him from this earth on the very day of Christ's resurrection, it is difficult not to see in this coincidence a sign.”
Lejeune and the Holy Father were close friends. Professor Lejeune and his wife had enjoyed lunch with the Pope on that near-fatal day of May 13, 1981, when a would-be assassin's bullet rang out in Vatican Square.
That very night, Lejeune experienced stomach pains so severe that he was taken by an ambulance to a hospital. “No one understood what was wrong,” writes his daughter. “He experienced the pain of the Pope's wound.” He would have surgery, as did the Holy Father. Their temperature curves were similar, and they left the hospital on the same day. Was this a “coincidence”? Was it a “Godincident”? Or was it the result of a powerful bond between spiritual brothers that passes understanding?
One thing is certain. Lejeune could never do enough for his patients. Two images provided him with recurring guidance and inspiration.
The first is the final line from Brahms’ Requiem: “Blessed are those who die in the Lord. For their works follow them.”
Lejeune's compassionate work continues under the auspices of “La Fondation Jérôme Lejeune” which was established in his name to continue his research into the causes and treatments of mental handicaps. The second is St. Vincent de Paul's reply when the Queen asked him, “What must one do for one's neighbor?” “More!”
Life is a Blessing is itself a blessing — a needed light and inspiration to counteract our darkening world. Clara Lejeune, worthy of her name, here provides that light which is also eternally young.
Don DeMarco is a professor of philosophy at St. Jerome's University in Waterloo, Ontario.
----- EXCERPT: The life of the great JÈrÙme Lejeune ----- EXTENDED BODY: Donald DeMarco ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary ----------- TITLE: So Many Frozen Embryos, So Few Answers DATE: 07/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 29-August 4, 2001 ----- BODY:Estimates vary, but most agree that that there are between 100,000 and 150,000 frozen embryos in the United States.
Various prolife groups endorse the adoption of these embryos. Yet many Catholic faithful are hesitant to agree that that's the right thing to do.
The Vatican has not explicitly addressed the question of embryo adoption, and moral theologians are divided on the issue. But all agree on the gravity of the situation. As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has pointed out, we should have never gone down the path of in vitro fertilization (or IVF, as it is called) in the first place. Now that we have, many complicated moral issues confront us.
People who have undergone IVF typically create “spare” embryos. This provides a backup if the first embryo does not successfully implant. It also offers the possibility of later births without undergoing the often painful process of harvesting a woman's eggs. For the interim, the embryos are held in a state of suspended animation. The process is called cryopreservation — what we loosely call “freezing.”
Sometimes the biological parents do not desire to bring “spare” embryos to term, or they just give up on the process. The success of IVF ranges from 12% to 30%. As a result, many couples are naturally discouraged by failed implantations and miscarriages.
Meanwhile these embryos — tiny humans whose lives have been put on hold — languish. Out of sight, out of mind.
Embryo adoption has been proposed as a way to rescue them. A healthy woman agrees to have the embryo implanted in her and carries the baby to term. Ideally, the woman is married and she and her husband have agreed to adopt the child to raise as their own.
Proponents such as theologians Germain Grisez, William May and Geoffrey Surtees argue that the sin, namely the conception of the child outside of the marital act, has already been committed and that the implantation is not intrinsically evil. Rather, a good is being sought because the life of the child may be saved.
The conception is a done deal. The adoption of these embryos is understood, morally, as closely similar to that of a woman who carries a child conceived through rape.
On the other hand, philosopher Mary Geach and Msgr. William B. Smith, professor of moral theology at St. Joseph's Seminary in New York, take the position that the implantation is illicit because it takes procreation outside of the context of marriage.
In 1987, the Congregation for Doctrine of the Faith published Donum Vitae (The Gift of Life), an instruction on respect for human life in its origin and on the dignity of procreation. With regard to “spare” embryos, the congregation explained that they “are exposed to an absurd fate, with no possibility of their being offered safe means of survival which can be licitly pursued.”
The question in the adoption of embryos, therefore, becomes whether or not the implantation of an abandoned embryo is a licit procedure. Another way of phrasing the question is: Is it ever licit for a woman to become pregnant outside of the conjugal act?
Donum Vitae explains that surrogate motherhood contradicts the unity of marriage and the dignity of the procreation of the human person. The document addresses more than conception. That's because procreation involves more. The duty of parents goes beyond the birth of the child — the parents are also responsible for the education and rearing of the child.
Msgr. Smith cites the document's treatment of surrogacy as a basis for arguing against the adoption of embryos. Surrogacy, as put forth in the document, isolates pregnancy apart from “the obligations of maternal love, of conjugal fidelity and of responsible motherhood; it offends the dignity and the right of the child to be conceived, carried in the womb, brought into the world and brought up by his own parents; it sets up, to the detriment of families, a division between the physical, psychological, and moral elements which constitute those families.”
May, Grisez and Surtees argue that the implantation of the abandoned embryo is not an instance of surrogacy because those seeking to rescue the child are not breaking the bonds of the marital act; nor are they trying to deny the child the right to natural parents. They are simply trying to right the wrong that has already been done.
But Msgr. Smith counters that we have to consider what is being done, not simply why it is being done. The family provides the context for procreation. Isolating aspects of procreation breaks down the family. Even if there is a chance that the embryo can be saved through this form of adoption, it doesn't change the fact that the act of implantation is taken out of the context of the marital act specific to the love between husband and wife.
Both sides have noble intentions. For now, the discussion remains open. We must consider all of the related questions.
Are we willing to offer embryo adoption to any healthy woman who wants to adopt an embryo? Or should it only be offered to married couples? Is the ultimate good the child's life, or does that depend on the type of life that can be given?
How would the embryos be selected for adoption? The oldest, who are most at risk? Or the youngest, who have a better chance of survival? Would more than one embryo be implanted for a higher success rate (a practice which can endanger the lives of the other embryos)? Would a Down syndrome baby be implanted? And so on.
Perhaps there's something to the initial hesitancy that many faithful parents express when they are asked about this procedure.
Msgr. Smith points out that these are individuals who actively seek the good in every aspect of their lives. Their lives are intimately concerned with the family and they are habituated to seeking the good within the immediate context of the family. In a nonacademic way, they are experts on the family.
And when deciding grave moral questions, it's wise to unite our forces and consult all of our experts.
Pia de Solenni is a theologian in Washington, D.C. Reach her at: adsum00@yahoo.com
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Pia De Solenni ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary ----------- TITLE: Spirit Of Saigon DATE: 07/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 29-August 4, 2001 ----- BODY:I arrived at the Vietnamese Catholic Center early for Mass, but when I walked up the steps to the Vietnamese Martyrs’ Shrine, chanting poured out of the doors and enveloped me.
At first my heart leapt; a syllable here, another one there, and I thought perhaps the chanting was in Latin rather than Vietnamese. Once I'd stood in the back of the packed shrine for a few minutes, though, I realized I was out of luck. The kneeling people, many clutching rosaries, were chanting in Vietnamese. I had no doubt that once Mass started, the language would remain the same.
There was one empty spot, I noticed, in the very back of the right side of the shrine. (It wasn't until much later that I noticed that the right side of the church was filled with men. The left side was totally filled with women. Leave it to me to make a faux pas before Mass even begins.)
I knelt quickly, crossed myself, and prayed a prayer of thanksgiving. I was glad to be in God's house. The Diocese of Orange, home to Disneyland, more than 60 parishes and a million Catholics, is also the site of Little Saigon, an area that cross the borders of several cities and has the biggest population of Vietnamese people outside of Vietnam. That's why the Vietnamese Catholic Center is so necessary.
The center, which got its start in 1982, seven years after the fall of Saigon, is not a parish. The people I worshipped with attend Mass in their own parishes on Sunday, except perhaps for the few occasions when the center does offer Sunday Mass — celebrations like the Lunar New Year and November's Feast of Vietnamese Martyrs, All Souls Day, the Holy Triduum and the May Crowning of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The rest of the center's full schedule is taken up with English and citizenship classes, tai chi and acupressure instruction and seminars on topics like health care and legal aid.
Faith is obviously at the heart of this busy cultural center. The weekday Mass is so full that people line the walls. It's like the Christmas and Easter Masses at my own parish — but with a few striking differences.
For example, at my parish, the standees remain standing throughout; here, the unseated worshipers take off their shoes, settle on the floor and listen attentively to the homily.
There was, it seemed to me when I visited, a much greater consciousness of being at home, of being in the Father's house.
Even the spectacular mural behind the altar emphasizes that sense of family.
The 117 Vietnamese martyrs (canonized in 1988) crowd beneath the outspread arms of Jesus, who seems to embrace the viewer as well as the martyrs themselves. The martyrs are also featured on eight reliefs on the center's exterior walls.
So here I was, a member of the family despite being the obvious odd woman out. Small wonder that I didn't feel isolated, even though I couldn't understand a syllable of the homily or the readings.
It was a thrill to be able to follow, in a tentative way, the order of the Mass; the priest's chanting clued me in, and I could tell when the worshipers replied, “And also with you,” “Thanks be to God,” or — the biggest thrill of all, because then I could respond too — “Amen” or “Alleluia.”
I muttered the Our Father to myself in English, as the rest of the congregation prayed it aloud in Vietnamese. That was perhaps the most difficult moment: to be part of the Mass, yet unable to pray with everyone else. But after the prayer, all sense of aloneness ebbed away as people came up to me to shake my hand, to make me, a most obvious stranger, feel welcome in their shrine.
Everyone scatters after Mass; some huddle in small groups to chat, some head straight toward the center's classrooms and some stay inside the shrine to chant the Stations of the Cross in an intricate ceremony involving much bowing, kneeling and swaying.
Because they are so familiar with it, no one seems to pause to admire the loveliness of the building: the dragons guarding the corners of the roof, the three front gates that symbolize the past, present and future, the twin pools that stand before the Vietnamese Martyrs’ Shrine.
A small outdoor shrine to Our Lady of La Vang does get the regulars’ notice, though, as they pause there to pray with Our Lady. (Mary appeared to a group of Vietnamese Christians at the turn of the 19th century, during a time of great persecution; Vietnam's national shrine is named Our Lady of La Vang, a title derived from the name of the ferns that grew near the spot where she appeared.) The shrine is a sliver of a tropical paradise, green with plants, a rock-bordered pond at Our Lady's feet.
It isn't like the church where I grew up, I thought as I stood beside the pond — but it is my Church. What a delight to see this distinctively Oriental facet of it.
Elisabeth Deffiner writes from Orange, California
----- EXCERPT: Vietnamese Catholic Center, Santa Ana, California ----- EXTENDED BODY: Elisabeth Deffner ----- KEYWORDS: Travel ----------- TITLE: Two Small Faces, One Big Heart DATE: 07/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 29-August 4, 2001 ----- BODY:When was the last time you took in a Broadway play and left the theater smiling, delighted and a little prouder to be a Catholic?
That's how I felt after attending Stones in His Pockets at the John Golden Theatre, where it opened April 1 and is still playing.
Here's the setting. A major motion picture company is shooting what it hopes will be its next big blockbuster on location in a small, close-knit Irish village. The locals have been invited to work as extras on the turn-of-the-century romantic epic. And they're thrilled because it means rubbing shoulders with the American mega-movie star Caroline Giovanni. Plus they make 40 quid a day and get to eat for free.
It seems like paradise until intrigue, old demons and the effects of original sin enter and spoil the party. The ensuing psychodrama involves the director, the assistant director, his ditzy assistant, a security guard, a troubled soul, a pair of boys and the last remaining extra from the set of The Quiet Man, along with a host of others.
But here's the thing about this production: The 15 characters that comprise the dramatis personae are portrayed by exactly two actors. And these particular two actors, Conleth Hill and Seán Campion, turn in virtuoso performances. Utterly convincing, supple and subtle, Hill and Campion morph from one character to the next instantaneously — in the blink of an eye before your eyes. The individual characterizations they create are intricate, authentic and complex — never caricatures, never stereotypes. Both performers were nominated for the 2001 Olivier Award for Best Actor. Hill won it.
Stones in His Pockets clearly was conceived to be a tour-deforce for a two-man cast. However, with actors of any less caliber than Campion and Hill, the play simply wouldn't work.
Moreover, this medium carries a message. While the device of actors assuming multiple personalities is often both fascinating and captivating, here it gives new meaning to the expression of St. Paul: “I have made myself all things to all men” (1 Corinthians 9:22). We laugh, listen and care because we identify with the many characters whom these two actors assume. There's a little bit of all of them in each of us.
The technique reminds us just how two-faced, inconstant, shifty and fickle we ourselves can be. But, at the same time, the theatrical convention assures us that change is possible: We can become the person God destines us to be if only we conceive his will and apply our freedom to it. Art imitates grace; never did self-induced schizophrenia offer so much hope.
The wonder of the dramatic experience is the way the production dares to engage the audience's imagination. No crashing chandeliers, no barricades, no nudity, helicopters or people dressed like felines. Rather, minimalism is the keynote as far as scenery, props and costumes go. True, lighting designer James McFetridge does provide a marvelous, grainy-gray, flickering effect to suggest the screening of certain scenes of the film-in-progress. But, otherwise, Ian McElhinney's expert direction relies on the innovation of the human mind to fill in the blanks and create significance out of nothing.
That challenge makes seeing this production delightfully satisfying. Despite the lack of the spectacular, there is never a dull moment. It is no wonder that the playwright Marie Jones won the 2001 Olivier Award for Best Comedy for this play. Stones in His Pockets is what theater is all about.
Stones in His Pockets is deeply engaging because its appeal is not limited to clever theatrical convention. The play's story is meaningful and moving. There is an unanticipated depth to Jones’ play that penetrates, reaching the soul and touching the heart. It's hard to believe that a piece so utterly hilarious could be as compellingly poignant and profound. But truly it is.
An example: When sudden tragedy strikes, devastating the village and jeopardizing the shoot, the guilt-ridden Jake Quinn becomes distraught. Glamour, fame, power and wealth quickly lose their allure. The weight of his sorrow prompts Jake to renounce his devotion to worldliness and to seek refuge in the Church. But where to turn to make sense of the mystery? Jake calls upon his boyhood teacher, a Christian Brother, whose compassion and solace comfort Jake and enable him to confront the truth.
In its own discreet way the play suggests that, at the heart of all our searching, our yearning and our longing is the Faith that puts everything in perspective, that transforms us and that keeps us living for what really matters.
Stones in His Pockets is thoroughly enjoyable, even enthralling.
Just when you think that Hill and Campion have exhausted their store of brilliance, the play proceeds to wow you with a rousing Irish step-dancing sequence featuring many of the 13 characters. (The playbill doesn't credit a choreographer.)
Apart from its questionable use of strong language in spots, Stones in His Pockets stands as a compelling reminder of how important live theater will be if the culture is to be transformed. I didn't want it to end — there was too much to think about, delight in, crack up over and wonder at. I think I need to see it again.
Dominican Father Cameron, an award-winning playwright, is editor of the liturgical-prayer monthly Magnificat.
Stones in His Pockets is playing at the John Golden Theatre at 252 West 45th Street in New York. For tickets, call 212-239-6200.
----- EXCERPT: Stones in His Pockets affirms faith, hope, love - and the power of pure fun ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father Peter John ----- KEYWORDS: Arts ----------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 07/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 29-August 4, 2001 ----- BODY:Joan the Maid (1993)
The most recent big-budget films about Joan of Arc (starring Milla Jovovich and Leelee Sobieski, respectively) have been inadequate in their dramatizations of their heroine's state of mind and the political context of her times. The low-budget Joan the Maid intelligently focuses on these two aspects of her story.
The movie begins with a very girlish Joan (Sandrine Bonnaire) announcing that she's been chosen by God to save France from the English. She succeeds in persuading the Dauphin (Andre Marcon) to give her a command, and her victories place him upon the throne. Rivette skillfully shows us the intrigues which lead to her unjust imprisonment. Joan is condemned as a heretic and burned at the stake on May 30, 1431 — courageous, honest and religiously faithful until the end.
8 1/2 (1963)
The films of the late Frederico Fellini (La Strada) are passionate, surreal and often autobiographical. They rarely address religion directly, but the filmmaker's Catholic upbringing made an indelible imprint on his psyche and creative personality. 8 1/2, one of the Vatican's top 45 films, is the story of Guido (Marcello Mastroiani), a film director much like Fellini, who's unable to find the inspiration to complete his latest movie.
Staying in the same spa-hotel as Guido is a Catholic cardinal with whom he has a long, rambling conversation. It doesn't lead to a conversion experience, but after it Guido does begin to try to put his spiritual house in order and rediscovers the importance of human connections, community and love.
Quo Vadis? (1951)
Quo Vadis? based on Henryk Sienkiewicz's novel, blends over-the top melodrama with wellchoreo graphed, exciting set pieces.
Marcus Vinicus (Robert Taylor) is a pagan army commander who receives a hero's welcome when he returns to Rome after a victorious campaign in the 1st century A.D. He falls in love with Lygia (Deborah Kerr), the daughter of a defeated warrior who's a secret Christian. When she refuses to become his mistress, he makes her his slave. She continues to resist but changes his life. The apostles Peter (Finlay Currie) and Paul (Abraham Sofaer) make dramatic appearances, and Marcus finds himself taking the side of the Christians as the emperor Nero (Peter Ustinov) persuades the populace to blame them for the burning of Rome.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts ----------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 07/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 29-August 4, 2001 ----- BODY:All times Eastern
SUNDAY, JULY 29
The Porch: America's Window to the World Home & Garden, 5 p.m.
The good old summertime is a perfect time to enjoy this pleasant hour-long show about the history of American porches and their influence in home design.
SUNDAY, JULY 29
The Staircase
CBS, 9 p.m.
This two-hour drama is a fairly accurate retelling of the miraculous construction of a staircase in the chapel of the Sisters of Loretto in Santa Fe, N.M., in 1882. The Sisters make a novena to St. Joseph because their chapel's builders forgot to provide a staircase to the choir loft — and, on the ninth day, a carpenter arrives. He makes a 33-step, double 360-degree spiral staircase that has no center support or metal nails and is of wood not native to New Mexico; then he vanishes. To this day, his handiwork remains for all to see. The Register reported on the site earlier this year in a Catholic Traveler report, “Mysteries of Santa Fe” (April 29 May 5).
TUESDAY, JULY 31
Area 51: Beyond Top Secret
History, 8 p.m.
This program discusses rumors about fantastic advances in air and space technology taking place in Nevada at the U.S. Air Force's most secret test site.
TUESDAY, JULY 31
Great Old Amusement Parks
PBS, 10 p.m.
Return to the golden days when roller coasters were made of wood, penny arcades charged a penny, and cotton candy, hot dogs and ice cream were new-fangled inventions.
WEDNESDAY, AUG. 1
Battle for Korea
PBS, 8 p.m.
Using never-viewed archival combat film from North Korea, Red China and the ex-USSR, as well as declassified intelligence material from the Red Chinese and exSoviet archives, this two-hour documentary traces the battles and troop deployments of the Korean War (1950-1953). The battle descriptions are well done, but scholars dispute the claim that the dictators Stalin and Mao wanted no confrontation with the United States and did not order the North Korean regime to invade South Korea.
THURSDAY, AUG. 2
Evening at Pops
PBS, 8 p.m.
At Boston's century-old Symphony Hall, Keith Lockhart conducts the Boston Pops Orchestra in Verdi and the classical-bluegrass fusion of guests Bela Fleck (banjo), Mike Marshall (mandolin) and Edgar Meyer (bass).
SATURDAY, AUG. 4
EWTN Honors St. John Vianney
EWTN
“Prayer is to our soul what rain is to the soil,” St. John Vianney (1786-1859), the Cure d'Ars, counsels us. At 5:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., in Super Saints, Bob and Penny Lord discuss the life, works and words of this patron saint of parish priests. At 8 p.m., Where Saints Go provides a 60-minute documentary about him. At 9 p.m., in Saints and Other Powerful Men, the Lords offer more thoughts about this beloved saint.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dan Engler ----- KEYWORDS: Arts ----------- TITLE: Zimbabwe First Lady: Church Holds Only Hope forAIDS in Africa DATE: 07/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 29-August 4, 2001 ----- BODY:HARARE, Zimbabwe — Grace Mugabe, Zimbabwe's First Lady, says Christians hold the answer to challenges facing the nation, particularly the AIDS pandemic ravaging this southern African country.
Mrs. Mugabe was addressing the annual general meeting of the Zimbabwe Council of Churches on July 4.
She said: “I believe the church holds the biggest answer to the challenges that confront us. Running through all the anti-AIDS messages is the call for behavioral change. I am sure you will agree that to a large extent, this is something achievable only through preaching of the Gospel.
“Our message of mutually faithful, lifelong relationships can only succeed when society as a whole [promotes] God-fearing living.”
The latest UNAIDS epidemic report shows that about 70% of adults and 80% of children living with HIV are in Africa, mainly in southern Africa. Zimbabwe is considered to have one of the fastest rates of HIV infections in subSaharan Africa.
The number of AIDS orphans also is growing. About 1 million children are orphaned by Aids, according to UNAIDS statistics.
Father Walter Nyatsanza, secretary of the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference, said: “The ministry of health budgeted a large portion of funds to government hospitals, especially those in urban areas, while giving a small fraction of the budget to mission hospitals [in rural areas]. Paradoxically, the majority of the people are in rural areas.”
Mugabe said, “The sad news is that poverty is associated with an increased risk of HIV infection and a poor prognosis among infected individuals.”
Orphaned girls from poor households had become easy targets for sexual exploitation, and often girls were the first to drop out of school to tend to parents who fell ill, she said.
The first lady's message of chastity was echoed in Kenya.
President Daniel Arap Moi appealed to Kenyans to abstain for two years from promiscuous sexual relations to “save a generation” from being contaminated with AIDS.
The president made this appeal after the government announced that it will import 300 million condoms to combat the disease, which is estimated to kill 700 Kenyans a day, Reuters and Efe reported earlier in July.
The Kenyan Health Ministry said that 2.2 million of the nation's 30 million people are infected with AIDS.
“As president of the country, I feel embarrassed by the need to have to spend millions to import condoms, which could easily be avoided by those who are going to use them,” said Moi, who until 1999 was criticized for “not speaking out with greater clarity about AIDS.”
A month ago Moi said the death penalty should be applied to those who, knowing they have AIDS, give it to others.
The Catholic Church issued a statement affirming that “to import such a quantity of condoms implies that the government accepts promiscuity.” Likewise, Sheikh Mohammed Dor, secretary-general of the Council of Imams, said the country is “committing suicide” by buying condoms, because it will encourage youth to experiment with sex and thus keep the AIDS problem going.
(Report compiled from Ecumenical News International and Zenit)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life ----------- TITLE: New Journal Accents Role of Faith in the Academy DATE: 07/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 29-August 4, 2001 ----- BODY:Franciscan University of Steubenville plans to publish the first issue of a new scholarly journal later this summer.
Fides Quaerens Intellectum(“faith seeking understanding”) will explore how theology, philosophy and history relate to one another and to other academic studies.
The journal's editorial board is convinced that faith, far from being opposed or inessential to serious scholarship, illuminates all the intellectual disciplines.
Oblate of Mary Immaculate Father Bevil Bramwell, director of Steubenville's graduate theology department and editor of Fides Quaerens Intellectum, recently described the new publication to Register senior editor Gerry Rauch.
Rauch: How did the new journal come about?
Some of us from the three departments [of theology, philosophy and history] had just had dinner in Pittsburgh and we were browsing in a bookstore; and I said that I would like to start a theology journal. John White said that he would be interested in a philosophy connection. And Kim Georgedes (chair of the history department) said that you cannot do those two disciplines without history.
Our hope was that a journal could be a platform for some serious discussion about the relationships between the academic disciplines and their core meaning, which is found in Christ.
Then it took us a long time to find a name. John White finally came up with Fides Quaerens Intellectum.
The name means “faith seeking understanding.” Why did you pick it?
The name goes back to St. Anselm [1033-1109 theologian, archbishop of Canterbury] and sums up the human search for meaning and at the same time opens out into openness to God, who is the root of all meaning. And this search takes place in the daily history of life.
Please describe an article from the first issue and explain what makes it important.
Prof. Kenneth Schmitz, who is our consulting scholar in philosophy, wrote on “The Solidarity of Personalism and the Existential Act.”
The personalist tradition, the philosophical tradition in which John Paul II finds himself, has preserved and extended the understanding of the human person. Schmitz's article discusses how the personalist tradition protects the understanding of human action.
The correct notion of person and action is fundamental to answering all the moral questions being disputed at this time — fundamental for understanding why the Church teaches what it teaches.
What are the most important trends affecting today's Catholic philosophy departments? Is Thomism alive or dead?
No, I don't think that Thomism is dead in some Catholic schools. Others tend to focus differently.
Don't forget John Paul II is not saying that Thomas is the only theologian. Rather he set an example for rigorous thought that was open to all the data, including Revelation, and not a selected pool of data; and he was a saint who was searching. There is a connection between holiness of life and the truth that one finds.
What other schools of thought are making a difference?
Personalism is probably one of the more striking schools of thought right now. But it is not going to affect materialists or rationalists or pragmatists directly. There is a need for a real intellectual conversion to see where one's thinking is narrowed down, and where it needs to be challenged by the data of faith.
Cardinal Paul Poupard recently said that society today fears truth, that “to speak of truth in contemporary culture is a provocation and challenge.” Do you agree?
Cardinal Poupard is entirely correct. Truth in the sense that it is objective and not simply ‘my truth’ or ‘the opinion that I hold at the moment’ is threatening. Relativism has a real problem with such a notion of truth.
Don't forget the ultimate expression of truth which is Jesus Christ. His teaching has always been just as troublesome to large sectors of the culture. The other side of this point is that truth is troublesome to some people inside the Church precisely because they have baptized relativism.
What does this fear of truth tell us about the practical philosophy and theology of the ordinary person today?
The ‘practical philosophy and theology of a person today’ is precisely that — ‘practical.’ It seems to work, so a person holds on to it. Abortion seems to solve a problem, so even a lot of Catholics supports support it.
The challenge to the Church is to help people think. Absorbing doctrine is fine for children, but adults have to also think about it as they absorb it. There will always be a place for learning the facts, but increasingly Catholics have to learn from the facts so that they live a much deeper spiritual life since the facts are expressions of the truth of Christ; and then they can also operate in a lot more situations and make informed moral judgements.
If someone is not going to do the “heavy lifting” of reading and reflecting then it is already a great step that they know the Church's teaching and work at following it. But if they can also wonder at it — see that it is bringing them face to face with Christ — then they have advanced even more. Then the teaching is not impersonal, but simply the framework for a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
The journal's Website says it will consider how “faith illumines understanding in all intellectual disciplines.” That sounds similar to the thinking of
You are right that the project of the journal sounds like Ex Corde. There is a sense in which the journal is an attempt to implement Ex Corde.
Ex Corde has launched a massive intellectual project centered on Jesus Christ, who is the Truth. Hopefully the journal can make a small contribution in that direction.
Many of the barriers to Ex Corde that are being raised now have to do with “politeness,” political correctness and a wacky notion of political freedom. Claims of politeness are hindering the real conversation with the universities about what they think they are doing to promote truth.
Obviously conversation needs to be civil; but equally obviously, any question can be asked, even by the bishops. After all, that is what the academy is for — to face the challenges of rigorous thought.
Political correctness is a straitjacket of liberal ideology that has been adopted uncritically by some academics and is used as a substitute for the real inquiry that the Church is encouraging.
Academic freedom is misunderstood as a license, rather than a challenge to reach for the fullness of the truth.
This is where Jesus Christ comes in, not as a short circuit of the intellectual process, but rather as the reference point for informed inquiry.
What impact do you hope
Our hope is that the first impact will be within academic circles — to contribute to and expand the intellectual conversation.
There should be a larger effect, though, in the sense that when academics are presenting a fuller truth, they will be much more challenging to students — and that should have observable influences on everyone from business majors to mathematicians and nurses.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education ----------- TITLE: A Loving Look at God's Little Instruction Manual for Life DATE: 07/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 29-August 4, 2001 ----- BODY:The Ten Commandments were written more than 3,200 years ago. How could a set of proscriptions that old be directly applicable to the men and women of today? How could Jesus Christ have complemented them so fully with his New Covenant?
These are the questions Norbertine Father Alfred McBride, a theology professor at Pope John XXIII National Seminary in Weston, Mass., answers in this engaging volume of stories, reflections, meditations and teachings.
In each of ten chapters, one dedicated to each commandment, Father McBride presents an illustrative story that makes the chapter's lesson readily apparent. This is followed by a question and three approaches to the answer from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The teaching that follows is rich in references to the Catechism and Scripture, and is set in an entertaining narrative that offers historical and present-day examples. Father McBride follows each of these with specific suggestions for action.
Each chapter ends with a meditation and a prayer, both reflective of the challenge of that commandment.
Father McBride begins this course in the Ten Commandments by introducing the reader to the fact that the commandments were issued in the context of a covenant relationship between God and his people.
Therefore they are not simply do's and don'ts, but rather the expression of a communion between the human and the divine, a blueprint for a deep and enduring relationship. Father McBride tells the reader that God's purpose in issuing the commandments is to make us more fully human.
“God is the author of human nature, and knows what will contribute to its positive and creative development,” he writes. “Every commandment contains a value that makes us better human beings.”
The message that comes through is a thoroughly Christian one: the more closely we are aligned with the divine, the more fully human we become.
In his treatment of the commandments, Father McBride does not shy away from Catholic teachings that may be hard for today's culture to hear. In chapter nine, for example, in which he discusses the commandment against “coveting your neighbor's wife,” Father McBride describes the depraved sexual morality St. Paul found in Corinth in the first century — and draws parallels with our own prevailing culture.
Father McBride explains how St. Paul taught that Jesus Christ sanctified the human body, and that therein lies our key to holiness — and wholeness: purity. “A clean heart makes the difference because,” he writes, “being able to see God and experience a loving union with the divine, the motive for loving another person is never mixed with selfishness or derailed by disordered passions.”
The Ten Commandments being God's own little instruction manual for our lives, there's a lot of ground to cover. Father McBride does so by keeping the pace brisk and interesting, the discussions relevant and enlightening. In this book you will find an agenda-free treatment of social justice, environmental stewardship, sexual morality, family values, respecting human life, honesty, peace and war, and the importance of the interior life.
The Ten Commandments is an excellent resource for improving one's understanding of how the rules God gives us to live by have as their source God's own deep love for, and knowledge of, us. Read it and answer God's invitation to enter more deeply into personal relationship with him — and, in this way, to become more fully yourself.
Mark Dittman writes from Maplewood, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: Book Review ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mark Dittman ----- KEYWORDS: Books ----------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 07/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 29-August 4, 2001 ----- BODY:Mandatum Debate Spreads Beyond Catholic Universities
The article portrayed several professors with different stances on the mandatum, which is a statement signed by a bishop certifying that a professor of theology is teaching in communion with the Church.
Some professors feared that the mandatum would cause them to lose credibility in others’ eyes and create “a binding obligation to the Church,” but as the June 1, 2002 mandatum deadline approaches the Chronicle found that many professors were reconsidering their opposition after meeting with Church officials. The bishops proved to be more open to the theologians’ concerns than some of them had expected.
Although Gaile Pohlhaus, professor at Villanova University, was still unsure whether she would seek the mandatum, she noted that it's part of a professor's job to present Catholic teachings fully and fairly.
Dennis Doyle, professor of religious studies at the University of Dayton, said he'd seek a mandatum because “Theology is a form of ministry, and it's something I do within the context of the Church.”
Casino Cash Funds Catholic School Supplies
Last year's U.S. Supreme Court decision Mitchell v. Helms allowed local governments to provide instructional materials for private and religious schools. The equipment can be used only for “secular, neutral and non-ideological purposes.”
William Bennett On Home Schooling
HOMESCHOOL.COM, July 11 — William Bennett, former U.S. Secretary of Education, discussed home schooling and his own home schooling curriculum, K12, with Homeschool.com.
Bennett noted, “All of the empirical and anecdotal evidence points in one direction: with a lot less money, much less government oversight and regulation, and much less specialized ‘learning theory’ and hours spent on teacher certification, homeschooled children are outperforming their peers. I only wish there were a bit more freedom throughout the American education system.”
He praised “talented and hardworking school teachers” and the “hundreds, indeed thousands, of schools that are doing a solid job.” But, he added, “The family is the first, best, and original Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.”
By next year, Bennett said, K12 will cover six subjects (language arts/phonics, math, history, science, art and music) for kindergarten, first and second grade.
He noted that home schoolers have not done as well in mathematics as in other areas.
Bennett said he hoped that K12's curriculum would help bring home schoolers’ math skills up to speed.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education ----------- TITLE: The Iron Hand DATE: 07/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 29-August 4, 2001 ----- BODY:Q Is it appropriate to change your mind about your discipline, or would that be inconsistent?
A I used to think it was inconsistent, but I've since changed my mind.
By “change your mind,” I assume you mean, after the heat of a discipline moment has passed, to have second thoughts about your decision or style — or both. That's what most parents mean.
Let's say Barney has just tormented his brother, Andy, for the umpteenth time today. In a fit of frustration, you exact a heavy penalty: “I don't want either of you breathing within a mile of each other for two days, and if you do, you'll be grounded for a week.”
Two hours later, Barney's in bed, asleep, looking cherubic, and you're calm, wondering how to get out of the corner you painted yourself into without looking wishy-washy or inconsistent.
First of all, it is neither weak nor inconsistent to logically reconsider a decision made during a burst of emotion. If you conclude a lesser punishment would better fit the crime, this is not backtracking. Let's call it reassessing based upon — and this is key — a clearer perspective. Discipline will still happen, only in a more measured way.
Second, if you've laid down a pretty foolish law, i.e., no contact within a onemile radius, you're going to look even more foolish trying to enforce the unenforceable. Unless your house is absolutely enormous, or really tall, your discipline is pure fiction. Better to cut your losses, salvage your credibility, and tell them you meant “within a meter” of each other. There's still a consequence, only now it's realistic. Kids love to push us to wild overstatement, and then watch us wiggle around on our own words.
Then, too, sometimes logistics dictate a discipline change. A one-week grounding may burden you more than them. Figure out something else to substitute. Your discipline is still in force, but the consequences have been changed to protect the innocent — you.
Third, be ready to apologize for verbal or emotional overkill. Your discipline itself may have been right on target, but your style was rough. You got personal or off the real point. It is never wrong to admit one's own misbehavior. It's mature, even merciful. Admitting our own childishness can help our kids grow up.
Finally, real inconsistency in discipline comes from a pattern of poor follow-through due to laziness, or guilt, or fear of disapproval, or weakness of will, or being badgered. In other words, inconsistency arises from all the wrong reasons. It is not inconsistent to correct, or tinker with a decision, provided you're not doing so out of a misguided sense of self-doubt.
Therefore, be open to a change of mind when, through calm deliberation, you determine it's called for. You will neither lose credibility nor send your kids the wrong message. Indeed, I think you'll rise in their eyes. They'll know that you're willing to think things over, because you think it's warranted, not because they do.
Dr. Ray Guarendi is a clinical psychologist and author.
Reach Family Matters at familymatters@ncregister.com
----- EXCERPT: Family Matters ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dr. Ray Guarendi ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life ----------- TITLE: Facts of Life DATE: 07/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 29-August 4, 2001 ----- BODY:BABY'S FIRST MUSIC
BABIES CAN REMEMBER what they heard in the womb more than a year after birth.
Previously experts thought that babies could remember in utero sounds only for a month or two. In a new study, mothers chose a single piece of music of their preference and played it to their babies for the last three months before birth.
More than a year later, all the babies showed a preference for the pieces of music they had heard in the womb over similar music they had not heard before.
The babies’ preferences were shown by the amount of time spent looking towards the source of the music.
Source: Leicester University study reported by BBC News, July 11
----- EXCERPT: Family Matters ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life ----------- TITLE: 'How Great Are Your Works!' DATE: 07/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 29-August 4, 2001 ----- BODY:On vacation in Les Combes, a village in the Italian alps, Pope John Paul II gave the following angelus meditation on Sunday, July 15:
Dear brothers and sisters, in the presence of such spectacular scenery, my thoughts during these days turn naturally to the psalms in which creation — and especially the mountain — plays a prominent role.
I am thinking, for example, of Psalm 8: “O Lord, our God,” the psalmist exclaims, “how awesome is your name through all the earth!” (verses 2, 10).
In Psalm 19 we read: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the sky proclaims its builder's craft” (verse 2).
Actually, creation is the first book of the Revelation that God has entrusted to the mind and heart of man.
“The Lord is my shepherd,” sings that splendid Psalm 23:
“In green pastures you let me graze; to safe waters you lead me;
you restore my strength.
You guide me along the right path” (verses 1-4).
All of Psalm 104 is a hymn to the Creator:
“Bless the Lord, my soul!
Lord, my God, you are great indeed! …
You made springs flow into channels that wind among the mountains. …
The high mountains are for wild goats; the rocky cliffs, a refuge for badgers. …
How varied are your works, Lord!” (verses 1, 10, 18, 24).
Before these natural wonders which are so breathtaking, how can we fail to make ing Natural Family Planning within her marriage and from the writings of Pope John Paul II. Family Honor has earned the endorsement of Charleston Bishop Robert Baker. Its first major conference will be held these sentiments our own?
As I contemplate the summits of these mountains, which have by now become familiar to me, my mind turns often to Mary. God raised her above all angelic and earthly creatures and gave her to be our support in the journey toward heaven.
Tomorrow in the liturgy, we will honor her as the Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel. Today we venerate her as “Queen of the Valley of Aosta,” as is suggested by this beautiful statue, which was carried in a special way into the Cathedral of Aosta.
This is the same statue that traveled throughout the villages of the region in 1948, after the Second World War, instilling a new spirit of brotherly love in the people of Aosta.
Let us pray to Mary that there may always be unity among Christians and that justice, solidarity and peace may reign throughout the world.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Paul II ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life ----------- TITLE: More Than Abstinence-Only DATE: 07/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 29-August 4, 2001 ----- BODY:COLUMBIA, S.C. — Ann Nerbun likes to talk about sex. She has done it virtually every day for the past two decades and, at 51, her enthusiasm does not appear to be diminishing.
“At one point, our older children called me the sex lady from Sumpter,” Nerbun said, referring to the town in South Carolina where she and husband Bob raised most of her seven children.
The founder of a chastity program called Family Honor, Nerbun has for the past 14 years dedicated herself to spreading a positive message about sex to parents and children.
Family Honor is guided by the principle, Nerbun said, that parents — not schools, not other children and not the culture at large — should be the ones teaching children about sex. It's a message Nerbun said she learned largely from her own experience of practicing Natural Family Planning within her marriage and from the writings of Pope John Paul II. Family Honor has earned the endorsement of Charleston Bishop Robert Baker. Its first major conference will be held a year from now in Georgia.
Family Honor is not simply an abstinence-only program. Rather, it instructs parents and children together about the sacred meaning of human sexuality within the context of the family. The program draws largely from biblical sources and from the “theology of the body” developed by Pope John Paul II.
Nerbun said programs that are limited to an abstinence-only message have the potential to smother human sexuality under a cloak of taboos, causing people to view their sexuality as negative. Rather, she said, sexual desire, when rightly directed, is a gift from God.
To illustrate her point, Nerbun appealed to “the three R's — respect, reverence and restraint — of sexuality.
“Respect is about respecting you own and another person's body. The idea here is that the body is the expression of the person. Reverence is about our relationship with God. And the theology behind this is that sexual intercourse is a sign of the sacrament of marriage. It's a very holy understanding,” Nerbun said. Quoting Pope John Paul II, Nerbun added that chastity “frees love from aggression and selfishness.”
Abstinence, Nerbun added, is not a virtue, but “a decision to withhold the use of your sexual powers.” And unless abstinence-only messages are “well-grounded in an understanding of total-person sexuality and the dignity of the human person,” Nerbun said, they “lack something in terms of sustaining the individual's conviction to live a life of chastity.”
But just teaching children about the sacredness of human sexuality is not enough, Nerbun said. And Family Honor, as its name implies, makes every effort to make the family an open forum for matters pertaining to sex.
An example of this is that Nerbun and her staff only teach parents and children in tandem. Some classes are held jointly between parents and children, others are given to each group on its own. At the end of the child-only or parent-only sessions, families always regroup for discussion.
Parents are told to reclaim the task of educating their children about sexual matters. Children are told that the proper exercise of their sexuality demands that they develop in many different areas of their lives. They are asked to then make resolutions regarding the type of person they intend to marry and how they will work to develop themselves in preparation for their eventual partner.
“We started this program to honor the biblical fact that God created us as a family and gave us the responsibility and privilege of forming our children,” Nerbun said. “By virtue of the grace of marriage parents have the grace to do this.
“God did not give us children and say you need an expert to teach them. It would be a cruel farce if God made it so we can't do this.”
It's this aspect of the work that has caught the attention of Charleston Bishop Charles Baker.
“I strongly endorse the program based on what I have read and heard up till now,” Bishop Baker told the Register. “The parents should be the principal ones involved in the sexual formation and education of their children. This is the direction we should be going in, helping the parents to do this.”
The Four Myths
Parents who enroll in Family Honor often need a little more convincing. Nerbun said that newly enrolled adults “always” give her three reasons for being discouraged about teaching their children chastity.
“There are basically four myths,” Nerbun said.
E“That others are the experts — that parents can't do this job — is the first.
EThe second is that peers have a greater influence than parents.
EThe third message is that the culture is way too pervasive. But God would be a cruel God if he made it impossible for us to reach a good and faithful life. And, as the Holy Father says, faith transcends culture. EThe fourth reason is biological determinism. Obviously, any Christian has to reject that wholesale.”
Nerbun said that parents never seem to fail to give at least the first three of those reasons to explain why they find it so hard to raise their children with appropriate attitudes about sexuality.
Dr. Paul Eleazor, an internist in Columbia, S.C., has attended Family Honor classes with his wife and three children. He said the program not only helped his kids develop a positive view of sexuality — his oldest daughter now teaches a Family Honor class — it also helped him and his wife do the same.
“I'm a physician, so I look at things in medical terms,” Eleazor, 46, said. “Talking about anatomy and physiology comes naturally. Talking about … the spiritual and emotional context and the reason for keeping things within the sacrament of marriage, the self-respect attitude, those are things I would not have been able to articulate without Family Honor.”
As far as combating the culture, Eleazor said Family Honor taught him to “recognize how frequently teenagers have degrading messages” presented to them and “the lack of self-respect that the media by and large conveys.”
“You are going to get a lot of messages and you don't have to listen to them,” he said.
Most importantly, though, Eleazor said Family Honor helped him to see “two things that people don't understand” about sexuality.
“One is the context of God within sexuality itself and in sex itself,” he said. “God is present, period. It's a blessing. This is a happy and joyful time and of course God is with us. I don't think people appreciate that. There's nothing negative about it at all. It's a very joyful part of your life.”
Family Honor presented its program to 10 parishes in the Diocese of Charleston last year. The need for such a program was particularly acute in Charleston, Bishop Baker said, because the area had the 13th highest teen-pregnancy rate in the country, according to a 1999 poll. Counting presentations in neighboring states, Family Honor reached 1,000 people and 474 families last year. Still, Nerbun said her aim for the interdenominational program is much wider.
“Our goal ultimately is to make this a national effort, to have Family Honor everywhere in the country to serve families,” Nerbun said. “We are not saying that other programs aren't good, but we are so convinced that nothing is going to change unless we impact the family, and you have to do that through the parents.”
Nerbun acknowledged that Family Honor has taken her life in a direction she would never have imagined for herself as a young mother. Describing herself as a naturally shy woman, Nerbun thought of her current goal and sighed at the prospect of its accomplishment.
“Never, never in my life,” she said, “did I anticipate talking about sex with anybody.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian McGuire ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life ----------- TITLE: Life Note DATE: 07/29/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: July 29-August 4, 2001 ----- BODY:Black Pro-Life Protest
CYBERCAST NEWS SERVICE, July 13 — After hearing that a proabortion group planned a summit at a historically black university in the District of Columbia, a black pro-life group sprang into action, assembling grassroots activists to protest the event, reported Cybercast News Service.
“Where is the outrage for the 1,452 black children killed by abortion every day,” asked Rev. Johnny M. Hunter, national director of the Life Education and Resource Network (LEARN), a pro-life group founded in 1993.
LEARN hastily gathered several dozen of its members from around the country to offer a different message to students at Howard University than the one offered by the pro-abortion Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, a group with ties to the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, reported the news service.
Girl Injured in Utero Can Sue
ASSOCIATED PRESS, July 12 — The Washington state Supreme Court says the parents of a six-year old girl can sue for damages she suffered in the womb when her mother had an on-the-job accident, reported the Associated Press.
The unanimous opinion has no direct bearing on the abortion rights debate and confers no new rights on an unborn child, said Justice Bobbe Bridge.
Dan Kennedy, head of Human Life, a statewide pro-life group, says, “It does help our cause in the minds of the culture, that this is a human person and consequently she has human rights,” reported the Associated Press.
The mother in the case fell at a fast food restaurant where she worked. She was nearly full term, and when her fall injured the placenta, it deprived the unborn child of oxygen, reported the Associated Press.
The baby girl was born a few hours later with severe and permanent mental and physical disabilities.
Laws Against ‘Feticide’
REUTERS, July 9 — In a bid to curb selective abortion of female babies, India is beefing up laws to prevent the abuse of fetal sex determination, reported Reuters.
The country's health minister, Dr. C. P. Thakur, has decided to amend the prenatal diagnostic act to discourage the use of ultrasound and the more recent preconception XY chromosome manipulation to determine the sex of a fetus.
According to the ministry, the main purpose is to make the link between fetal sex determination and selective abortion of female unborn babies completely clear in law, reported Reuters.
In its current form, the act clearly states that doctors conducting sex determination procedures could be imprisoned for up to 5 years, fined $1,000 (U.S.), and/or banned from medical practice.
To date, the law has only been taken seriously in top-of-the-line hospitals. The health ministry plans to send decoy customers to lay traps for doctors illegally conducting such tests.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Vatican Rejects Charges Of Pius XII Cover-Up DATE: 08/05/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 05-11, 2001 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — A Jesuit historian-priest has accused Jewish historians of “irresponsible” behavior that has “poisoned” the work of a joint Jewish-Catholic panel investigating the Church and the Holocaust.
The International Catholic-Jewish Historical Commission to suspend its work July 20, claiming it was unfairly denied access to Vatican documents dated after 1923.
But Jesuit Father Peter Gumpel, postulator of the cause of World War II-era Pope Pius XII, said that 3 million pages of documents have not yet been cataloged and thus are not yet usable by scholars.
Some critics of Pius XII have claimed that he failed to take actions that could have saved the lives of Jews persecuted by Nazi Germany. The commission was charged with investigating those claims.
The panel has three Jewish and two Catholic members. Father Peter Gumpel criticized the panel's Jewish members.
In a written declaration authorized by the Vatican, Father Gumpel said, “From the beginning of the work, some — not all — of the members of the Jewish component of the group publicly spread the suspicion that the Holy See was trying to conceal documents that, in its judgment, would have been compromising. These persons then repeatedly leaked distorted and tendentious news, communicating it to the international press.”
The commission contended that the Vatican has not offered it access to the archives necessary for its research.
The suspension of the commission's activities was communicated in a July 20 letter addressed to Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Commission for Interreligious Relations with Judaism, who is directing the initiative. Elan Steinberg, director of the Jewish World Congress, reported the decision to the New York media.
The commission was established in 1999 to probe accusations that Pius XII avoided public condemnation of Nazi atrocities. The group initially comprised three Jewish historians and three Catholics, who were reduced to two after Eva Flieschner resigned.
On June 21, Cardinal Kasper requested the preparation of a final report by the historians. The request, made in a letter, acknowledged that the Vatican archives, from 1923 onward, are not accessible to researchers for technical reasons.
On July 20, the five historians responded with a letter addressed to the cardinal, in which they said that “without a positive response to our respectful request” to study these archives, the commission's conclusions are not credible. Therefore, they suspended their work.
Professor Michael Marrus of the University of Toronto, one of the three Jews on the commission, said that this “does not necessarily mean the end of our work. I believe we must continue at a certain level, although the Vatican's support in this topic would have been very useful.”
Other Jewish spokesmen were more direct in their criticism of the Vatican. Seymour Reich, the Jewish coordinator of the commission, said he feels “very disappointed with the Vatican's lack of response.”
Robert S. Wistrich, a Jewish member of the panel and a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, told the Jerusalem Post that the Vatican is “not really interested in allowing us to pursue our work further.”
“Whatever expectation they [the Vatican] had of the panel — that we would give carte blanche to Pius’ beatification, or that the situation would be defused without probing too deeply — they were wrong,” Wistrich said.
Commenting on the matter, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Rabbi Michael Melchior cited a “lack of Vatican cooperation” which prompted the suspension. Melchior said he “expects the Vatican to cooperate in the worldwide effort to expose the truth of the Holocaust period and open its archives.”
But Catholics involved with the commission have rejected the claim that the Vatican was not cooperating properly.
Eugene Fisher, Catholic coordinator of the commission and adviser of the U.S. bishops’ conference on Catholic-Jewish relations, said that two archivists are working as fast as possible to catalogue the Vatican's post-1922 documents. He added: “The question is not if the documents are published, but when. It is only a question of time.”
Father Gerald Fogarty, a professor at the University of Virginia and one of the two remaining Catholic historians on the commission, said that he does not think the Vatican is concealing evidence that would implicate Pius XII. “I doubt that there is a smoking pistol in those documents,” he said.
Father Fogarty and the commission's other Catholic member, Father John Morley, a professor at Seton Hall University, said they do not support Reich's allegations against the Vatican.
They said it was unfair for Reich to fault the Vatican's two interfaith liaisons — Cardinal Kasper and retired Cardinal Edward Cassidy — for not granting greater access.
The two professors said if they had known how Reich would use the committee's joint statement, they would not have signed it.
“We did not sign [the letter] in a sense of protest against the Vatican or in what Mr. Reich characterizes as ‘deep disappointment’ at the Vatican for not giving us the response we may have desired,” they said.
“As historians, we are on record as stating we would like the archives to be open, but neither Cardinal Cassidy nor Cardinal Kasper are in a position to promise or guarantee that opening.”
(From combined wire services)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Bishops Crack Down On Catholic Hospitals DATE: 08/05/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 05-11, 2001 ----- BODY:CARRINGTON, N.D. — The Carrington Health Center in North Dakota is run by a Catholic health firm, Catholic Health Initiatives, so one might assume that everyone working there would understand and comply with Church teachings regarding medical practices.
But in fact, until last November the health center was performing sterilizations on women. Sister Paula Ringuette, a board member of the hospital, told Associated Press that she thought the practice complied with Catholic health care rules.
Eventually, Bishop James Sullivan of Fargo was forced to order the hospital to stop. “Direct sterilization is an intrinsically evil act and, as such, is always and without exception forbidden,” he said in a November 2000 letter to Catholic Health Initiatives.
What happened in North Dakota is anything but unique. Catholic and Catholic-managed hospitals across the country have offered sterilizations, contraceptives and abortifacients to their customers, according to the Linacre Institute-Catholic Medical Association, a nationwide group that dedicates itself to upholding Catholic principles in medicine.
In order to try to stop the widespread abuses, the U.S. bishops in June adopted a revised fourth edition of their Ethical and Religious Directives for Health Care Services. Some “applications [of the old rules] were not acceptable,” said Bishop Donald Wuerl of Pittsburgh, who directed the revisions along with Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk of Cincinnati.
The previous directives “seemingly were misapplied, “ Archbishop Pilarczyk agreed, adding that they “seemed to be an invitation to trouble. “
The revised rules, specifically those detailed in Part Six, entitled “Forming New Partnerships with Health Care Organizations and Providers,” are designed to prevent Catholic hospitals — and Catholic hospitals that have merged with secular firms — from engaging in “intrinsically immoral” acts.
Such actions include abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, and direct sterilization.
“The goal of the revisions is to ensure sufficient distance between the Catholic entity in arrangements with other-than-Catholic organizations and wrongdoing, particularly direct sterilizations,” said Fred Caeser, senior public affairs director of the Catholic Health Association.
Vatican Involved
The revisions were made after the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith ordered changes be made to the old directives, particularly to a four-paragraph appendix that appeared to contain loopholes allowing Catholic hospitals and merged hospitals to be involved in sterilization, contraception and related matters.
The revisions were the result of a yearlong consultation between a working group of the bishops’ conference, Vatican officials, theologians and Catholic health care representatives. An introduction to the revised directives says that efforts in the original appendix to explain the principles of cooperation “did not sufficiently forestall certain possible misinterpretations and in practice gave rise to problems in concrete applications of the principles.”
The key change was the deletion of the appendix. “How the appendix was interpreted was the problem,” Bishop Wuerl stressed. “Now, the bishops are clarifying exactly where things are not allowed. It is practical, not theological.”
According to the revised directives, decisions that may lead to serious consequences for the identity or reputation of Catholic health care services, or entail the high risk of scandal, should be made in consultation with the diocesan bishop. Any partnership that could affect the mission or religious and ethical identity of Catholic health care institutions must respect Church teaching and discipline, and diocesan bishops and other Church authorities should authorize the final agreements on such partnerships.
As well, if a Catholic health care organization is considering entering into an arrangement with another organization that may be involved in activities judged morally wrong by the Church, participation in such activities must be limited to what is in accord with the moral principles governing cooperation. Catholic health care organizations are forbidden to engage in immediate material cooperation in actions that are intrinsically immoral, such as abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, and direct sterilization.
Still, some observers remain skeptical that the bishops’ conference or the Catholic Health Association, which represents more than 2,000 organizations working in the not-for-profit health care sector, are fully committed to the new guidelines.
“I think the loopholes have been tightened,” said Dr. Eugene Diamond, director of the Linacre Institute-Catholic Medical Association. But, he added, some firms “are still going to try to make abortifacients available, and they are going to continue to want the Catholic hospitals to forfeit their beliefs in order to get mergers and contracts.”
The Catholic health care ministry runs nearly 600 hospitals and more than 700 nursing homes in the United States. Four of the country's 10 largest health care firms are Catholic, and between 1994 and 1997, 17% of hospital and health care mergers involved Catholic institutions. Of those mergers, 93% were with secular hospital partners that commonly provide sterilizations contraceptives and other services prohibited by the Church.
Merger Problems
The problem is how to maintain those mergers and enter new ones without violating Church teaching. The problem is compounded by the fact that nearly all health insurance provides “family planning” services that can include abortions and contraceptives.
In addition, 13 states now require health insurers to provide “family planning” services.
“I know that the bishops are trying to tighten up on this stuff,” said Michael O‘Dea, director of Christus Medicus, a Bloomfield, Mich.-based organization dedicated to promoting health care coverage that complies with Catholic teaching. “But I'm not sure they understand the problem. Are they going to rewrite the health plans? They have to be rewritten and then approved at the state level.”
Concerning the new directives, O‘Dea said he “hopes” that they close the loopholes that have allowed sterilizations and other immoral actions to occur at Catholic hospitals.
To avoid seeming directly complicit in such actions, O‘Dea explained, the merged firms have taken to moving certain operations to another site.
As well, some Catholic hospitals have used a third party to collect fees, with any money collected from a site offering “reproductive services” not being sent to the Catholic hospital.
The bishops’ revised policy clarifies that “not only can't you do it but you can't help others do it,” Archbishop Pilarczyk told Catholic World News in June.
Asked what sort of cooperation was allowable between a Catholic institution and an institution offering prohibited services, he said that the two institutions might share a driveway.
Father Michael Place, director of the Catholic Health Association and former health care advisor to Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, said that the new guidelines are “the best we have right now,” although experience may reveal the need for further refinements.
“I believe the new directives respond to the Congregation's concerns,” said Father Place.
“But it's like reading a book on swinging a golf club.” He explained that this meant there are many variables to the issue and no single application of the rules can work in every case.
Local Bishop Decides
So, how will the new directives be enforced?
“The ultimate responsibility is with the diocesan bishop,” said Father Place, whose organization has more than 2,000 members working in the not-for-profit health care sector. “What we're doing is providing our members with the resources they need.”
When asked whether individual bishops would comply with the new rules, Archbishop Pilarczyk said, “They are supposed to.” He added, however, that these are directives and “they can't guarantee compliance.”
Added the archbishop, “No document, no directive can solve every problem in advance … I think we did what was asked of us, in accord with what the Holy See wanted. But not everyone is deliriously happy.”
Christus Medicus’ O‘Dea predicts it will remain a diocese-by diocese battle to ensure that Catholic institutions remain faithful to Church teachings. “I don't think the U.S. bishops [as a group] will do much of anything to enforce the directives,” he said. “It will come down to individual bishops taking action.”
Michael Chapman writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: But will the new health care directives be implemented? ----- EXTENDED BODY: Michael Chapman ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Women's Sacrifice Transforms Their Families DATE: 08/05/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 05-11, 2001 ----- BODY:WAUKESHA, Wis. — Viola Jankiewicz stood at the kitchen sink, her hands plunged in soapy dishwater, her eyes brimming with tears. Heartsick, she turned a pleading face to her teen-age daughter, Darlene, whose surprise announcement had just shattered the peaceful ritual of Saturday evening cleanup.
“How can you do this?” Viola wanted to know. “Don't you love us?”
Entering a secular institute — the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary — wasn't at all what Viola had envisioned for her daughter.
Darlene was supposed to get married, move into the other half of the family's Milwaukee duplex, and be available to her parents. Viola had counted on this plan for good reason: Her husband, Henry, was severely hard of hearing — deafness ran in his family — and she herself had been totally deaf since early childhood.
“Who will take care of us?” Viola agonized. Their two married sons lived nearby, but she didn't want to “interfere” in their family lives.
Her mother's tears left Darlene moved but unswayed. A deep sense of conviction had accompanied her recent discovery of her vocation. The call, heard as she knelt by the tomb of Father Joseph Kentenich, in Schoenstatt, Germany, had both surprised her and brought great peace.
“Mom, I know this is what I'm called to do. God will work things out.”
But Darlene's peace didn't rub off on her family during the months that followed. Her grandmother, aunts and uncles — many of them not Catholic — couldn't understand. Darlene was unfeeling, some decided, and shirking her responsibilities. Her parents thought so too. Undeterred by their objections, as well as by their gift of a red Cutlass Oldsmobile, Darlene finally left to begin her period of Schoenstatt training.
Viola was so upset that she stayed home from work for the next two weeks.
This October, the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary will mark the 75th jubilee of their founding by Father Kentenich and his disciple and coworker Emilie Engel.
In September, auxiliary bishop of Milwaukee Richard J. Sklba will participate in this anniversary celebration by celebrating Mass at the Schoenstatt retreat center in Waukesha, Wis.
“Having experienced regular meetings there,” he said, “I know that the sisters are committed to bringing the gospel to a great variety of professional enterprises. I have witnessed their active spiritual support for the faith development of families and young people throughout the archdiocese.”
The Sisters of Mary have cause for celebration, having weathered many a hard time since their founding. The group took root in post-World War I Germany and grew quickly despite political persecution and economic hardship — to say nothing of considerable parental opposition.
Like Henry and Viola Jankiewicz, some parents of those pioneer Sisters of Mary just wanted their daughters to marry and lead “normal” lives.
But others who would have supported a daughter's entrance into a religious order often opposed her joining the Sisters of Mary. A community that took no vows and saw itself as lay, not religious? There was no model for it in the Church, parents worried. This was just one of Father Kentenich's “peculiar ideas.”
Really, it was farsighted. Only in 1947 did the Church officially recognize secular institutes as representing a new form of consecration for laypeople. As Paul VI explained in 1967, secular institutes offer a way of life that combines “full consecration according to the evangelical counsels” and “freedom to take on the responsibility of a presence and transforming action in the world.”
The Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary are unusual among secular institutes in that their way of life includes the freedom to move back and forth between wearing a veil and uniform dress or ordinary clothes, living in community or alone, using or forgoing the unofficial title “sister,” and working within or outside the movement. The choices turn on whether a given situation is best served by highlighting consecrated virginity or secularity.
“We're a little like the Marines,” laughs Jean Frisk, who currently works at the movement's Waukesha, Wis., center. “We're prepared and ready to do whatever is needed to bring Christ into the world.”
This flexibility confuses people, Jean admits. “Some wonder, ‘How can you be a lay person when you sometimes call each other sister and wear what looks like a habit?’ I explain that it's part of our calling to be adaptable, that it's a committed life with a certain structure, and that it's definitely lay!” The crucial distinction, she said, is that the Sisters do not take vows. They are committed to the community through a legal contract and a Marian consecration.
Maria Palmer, who for almost 12 years has overseen the formation of young women entering the Sisters of Mary, noted that this absence of vows creates a “dynamic secularity” rooted in principles, rather than externals. It invites young women to be magnanimous, she has observed. “They are motivated to give their best to God — not because they have to, but because they choose to, again and again, in freedom.”
Happy Ending
“We pray a lot for the young women who are attracted to us, but also for parents,” said Maria Palmer.
Undoubtedly, the sisters’ prayers were instrumental in bringing Henry and Viola Jankiewicz to a radically different view of their daughter's vocation.
At first, said Darlene, her parents’ visits always included mention of the red Cutlass — a reminder of what she was missing. But the Jankiewiczs mellowed as they came to know the Sisters of Mary and saw their daughter's happiness. They began offering their practical skills — painting, remodeling, sewing — at the houses and retreat centers where Darlene was assigned.
In 1996 they made their own pilgrimage to Schoenstatt, Germany. There, in the chapel where Darlene had discovered her vocation, Henry and Viola made their own joint consecration to Mary.
Now 82 and living in an apartment attached to the Sisters of Mary house where Darlene lives, Viola smiles to think that she once fretted about “who will take care of us.”
As it turned out, “God took care,” said Darlene. “He arranged things so that I was there for everything my parents needed.” Retirement decisions, real estate transactions, her father's stroke, surgery, and death — “I was able to help my parents with it all.”
God's plan for Darlene far surpassed her own, Viola realized long ago. It brought “good blessing” for her and her husband. “It changed our lives. It gave us stronger faith and a more prayerful life.”
And after all, Viola laughs, “I didn't lose a daughter. I got even closer to Darlene, and I gained about 120 more daughters!”
Sisters of Mary: The Schoenstatt Movement
A preserved Nazi memo provides what is arguably the Schoenstatt Movement's most compelling endorsement: “People who are formed in this spirituality are useless for our ends.”
Pallottine priest Father Joseph Kentenich couldn't have foreseen the rise of National Socialism when in 1914, he and a few students met in a little chapel in Schoenstatt, Germany, to consecrate themselves to Mary in a “covenant of love.”
But the movement he initiated then — a sweeping, farseeing effort to help people toward the Christian vision of human beings as “the new person in a new society” — set him on a course that landed him in the Dachau concentration camp for three harrowing years.
Released in April 1945, Father Kentenich encountered another type of testing. This was a church investigation that came to a head in 1951, when Father Kentenich was removed from leadership, separated from his movement, and banished to the United States. He bore it all patiently, enduring 14 years of exile before seeing his movement officially approved and returning to Schoenstatt in 1965, at age 80.
Today some 180,000 people in more than 40 countries comprise the Schoenstatt family's more than 25 branches — leagues, federations, six secular institutes, and additional groups for families, priests, students, singles, children and others.
The Sisters of Mary pay special attention to the movement's families, women, and girls. More broadly, the Sisters aim to further Schoenstatt's overall mission: “renewal of the world in Christ, through Mary.”
The Sisters realize this high calling, said Carol Richards, who, with her husband, Dick, runs a thriving hotel and conference center in Waukesha, Wis., and are frequent visitors to the Schoenstatt retreat center in that city.
“These are working women who hold jobs and responsibilities in ‘the real world’ and who radiate peace and love of God and the Blessed Mother everywhere they go,” Carol explained. “Whenever my husband and I have needed a support system during difficult times, the Sisters have been there for us with their prayers and their counsel. They are truly our extended family.”
The Sisters of Mary made their first U.S. foundations in Wisconsin, starting in 1949, and expanded from there to Texas, New York, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Ohio, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
About 160 of these shrines exist worldwide, each one a replica of the chapel where the first “covenant of love” was made. Each features a picture of Our Lady holding the child Jesus. The image is called the “Mother Thrice Admirable,” a name that stems from the Litany of Loreto and honors Mary as Mother of God, Mother of the Redeemer, and Mother of the Redeemed.
— Louise Perrotta
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Louise Perrotta ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: St. Dominic's Preview DATE: 08/05/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 05-11, 2001 ----- BODY:Father Carlos Azpiroz Costa
Dominican Father Carlos Azpiroz Costa will spend his first St. Dominic's day as head of his order Aug. 4.
Dominican Father Carlos Azpiroz Costa will spend his first St. Dominic's day as head of his order Aug. 4.
The 44-year-old from Buenos Aires, Argentina, was elected the 87th Master General of the Order of Preachers on July 14, the second non-European to hold the post since the order's foundation in 1215 by St. Dominic. He spoke from Providence, R.I., to Register Correspondent Paul Burnell, shortly after the election.
What was your family like?
My father was an agricultural engineer, my grandfather and grandmother on my father's side were from Navarre, Spain. That is why my family name is Azpiroz — it is Basque. My mother was a very devout Catholic. At the same time she was quite silent — today I would call her contemplative. As the years have gone I have understood more and more about my mother.
My father would go to Mass every day. He was always helping vocations. He was always giving money for vocations but never wanted his name to appear.
I remember when I was 10, I went to my mother and told her I want to be a Marist Brother (our school was run by the Marist brothers).
I remember she told me, “You are so young. You must wait.”
I remember thinking, “My mother doesn't believe in God.”
When I was a teen-ager, I was always going to parties; I was the kind of person who doesn't stay at home. But, again, at 16, I told my mother, “I think I want to be a priest.” I got exactly the same answer: “You must wait and finish school.”
In 1979, when I was near the end of my civil law degree, I decided finally to enter the Dominicans.
I talked with my father (my mother died in 1976). He said “OK, if that is what you desire. But finish the civil law course first.” We were alone in my father's bedroom and he told me, “Your mother desired [the priesthood] for you.”
I was shocked. She had never pushed me to make this kind of decision.
My parents were very quiet. You never heard them shouting. Our house was like a priory. I once asked my friends if we could study at our house — it was very big; it had four floors. But they thought it would not be quiet. When they came they were amazed.
Throughout your teen-age and student years, there was a military junta in power in Argentina. What are your recollections of growing up in that time?
The year 1978 was a very exciting year for me as a student, but it was also a painful time for the country. Argentina won the soccer World Cup in Buenos Aires and everybody went crazy, but there were some terrible things happening at the same time.
I was president of the student body at Pontifical Catholic University in Buenos Aires. I was 22-years-old but I was pretty certain I would become a priest. That year was very special. I had had a girlfriend but we had ended our relationship. We didn't end it because I wanted to be a priest. There are often unconscious things at work in our hearts.
I was not very conscious of the political situation. For me, studying civil law was a very important link to reality, but I could never open my eyes to the real reality outside — it is part of the story of our country at the time.
Some of my brothers were studying in the U.S.A. at the same time, and when we used to have discussions about the social and political situation, I was shocked. It was another world.
I remember being on a train and hearing about sociology and having a big discussion with my brother about Marx and Engels — it was a new world. This opened big questions in my life. I found the answers in becoming a Dominican which I saw as not going out of the world but going, in one sense, deeper into the world.
You are a canon lawyer and a theologian with a largely academic background. Some people might wonder how much of the real world you see.
I teach theology to different levels of people. I teach many lay people. I teach lawyers, engineers, economists, all boys around the 22, 23, 24 age group.
It is a big challenge, because they may have learned their catechism when they were younger and nothing more.
Outside of the academic year, it is very exciting because we have a missionary commitment. We go in teams of priests, sisters and lay people to poor missions. Although Argentina is 90% Catholic, there are places that a very isolated and very poor and they may only see a priest once a year.
Why do you think the order has elected a Latin American to the post of master general?
I wasn't present at the election. I was attending the chapter as a peritus [adviser]. When the chapter was discussing the candidates, I was asked to answer a few questions, and then I had to leave.
I do not know what was in my brothers’ minds that they decided to elect a Latin American, and that they elected a younger man. It was a chosen by a secret ballot — which has been the method since the beginning of the order.
You recently described the Dominican family as being like a symphony orchestra — how would you describe the role of the master general in that orchestra?
I am the person who takes the instruments round to the musicians (laughs).
I think the Holy Spirit — or St. Dominic — is the conductor. We are a really deep democracy, not in the sense of having a ballot on everything but in the sense that we have to reach a consensus.
In the Dominican family the role is to push the life of the ideas discussed at chapter. As the major superior of the brothers, the master has very important powers in ensuring a moral sense of unity for the brothers.
Your last role was procurator general of the order in Rome, which involves dealing with friars who wish to be dispensed from their vows. How did that affect you?
I have done this for the last four years. It is very special, very delicate situations you are dealing with through papers and documents, not directly. Every case is different.
It shocked me, but it has opened my mind and heart to the compassion of St. Dominic. There are brothers who leave because of very, very different situations, but I try to open my mind to understand these people. These people are very isolated brothers and some are helped to come back — for others, it's too late. You have to be a shepherd and some sheep are lost; I am not entering into the moral question here.
Is there a generation gap between younger, more tradition-minded Dominicans and older friars?
It has opened my mind and my heart to understand our vocation, which is a beautiful vocation.
Your order has many notable saints. Who are your favorites?
St. Dominic, of course, and St. Thomas Aquinas for his open mind and stand for freedom, especially in intellectual life.
The first biography of a saint I read in my life was St. Martin de Porres; he has a special place. My novitiate was in the Priory of St. Martin de Porres, and I was later prior there. So he is special. Also, he is from Latin America and represents a mix of cultures and the special graces between Spain and Portugal. I also admire a lot of other theologians and brothers who are still living.
Your order has also had its fair share of rebels. Are there any of those you admire?
Remember St. Thomas Aquinas had his problems in Paris.
Father [Marie-Joseph] Lagrange [the scripture scholar who founded the Jerusalem Biblical School in the early 20th century] gave the Church a new approach to the Bible, although he had many critics. I am also very impressed with the French in the ‘40s and ‘50s, men such as Father Jacques Loew and Father Chenu [members of the Worker Priest movement which was halted on the instructions of Pope Pius Xll].
When they were asked for silence they obeyed; this is why I love them.
Father Lagrange was never a rebel like John Lennon. He gave the Church a new approach to the Bible and when he was asked to be silent, he obeyed.
Your predecessor Father Timothy Radcliffe wrote of a generation gap in the order between the Post Vatican II brothers who abandoned a certain amount of your tradition, and the new breed of young brothers who are seeking a return to a “classical” form of religious life. How do you view this situation?
This is a great challenge. A lot of young people like these kind of things. We cannot reject them because they are not like us. At the same time, the order has an experience of freedom, an open-minded and open-hearted tradition of eight centuries.
I thought before I entered the order I knew everything about it. Now I realise I knew nothing. It is a place where you can find peace, freedom, fraternity. Talk of freedom seems to be unusual from the lips of a canon lawyer.
You have said that the emphasis on preaching is very important for the order. Is that really still true?
I think the order's gift is to be preaching. The faith comes to us through our ears. The gift of the order — to preach — is to open hearts and to open minds.
We need to preach the truth today not as a list of contents but as Jesus the person. The Dominicans love the truth as a person, not an intellectual approach.
Today, a lot of people do not believe in God. We must dialogue with these people in a special way with the language of human beings and interreligious dialogue by respecting different positions, saying we love the truth as a person. We must be proud of our Friend the Truth and give the whole truth. We must not just say beautiful things to someone's face.
According to Father Radcliffe you have a good sense of humor and are a good impersonator. Who or what do you impersonate?
I like to mimic many things. I like to impersonate Italian people using cell phones and the different gestures they make — they're crazy but they're lovely! In the middle of meetings I have impersonated animals just to cool things down if the meeting is getting too tense.
Do you think it is significant that you are following an Englishman on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the Falklands/Malvinas War between Britain and Argentina?
When Father Timothy Radcliffe was elected, I was in Rome. A Spanish brother asked me how I could be happy that an Englishman had become master. I said, “I am happy that Timothy Radcliffe is the master of the order, and not the president of Argentina.”
I have learned a lot from this man. He has opened my mind and my heart with his example and his preaching.
In the corridor of our curia is a beautiful gallery of portraits of our masters, and I wanted to play a little joke on him when he was first appointed.
I knew him already and I knew he had a sense of humor. I had a tiny copy of the official photo of him from a chapter so I had it set in a tiny frame and hung just after the portrait of the previous Master. As we walked down the corridor with the superior of the sisters who look after the brethren, he stopped and just stared at it.
I was worried, at this point, that he wasn't taking the joke well.
He turned to the sister and said in very bad Italian but good humor, “Don't worry, I'll get bigger with the help of your pasta in the next nine years.”
I still have that tiny photo to this day and will put it in my personal office just to have the smile of Timothy every day in front of me.
Paul Burnell writes from Manchester, England.
----- EXCERPT: A frank discussion with the Dominican order's new leader ----- EXTENDED BODY: Paul Burnell ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Senate Democrats Seek to Screen Out Pro-Life Judges DATE: 08/05/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 05-11, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — When Vermont Sen. James Jeffords defected from the Republican Party in May, thereby handing effective control of the evenly divided Senate to the Democrats, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., promised to slow down confirmation of President Bush's judicial picks in his new job as Judiciary Chairman.
Not only did Leahy fulfill that promise, but Senate Democrats have now initiated a new strategy to combat judicial selections made by Bush.
Welcome to the pro-abortion ideological litmus test.
“This era, perhaps more than any other before, calls for collaboration between the president and the Senate in judicial appointments,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., the new chairman of the Judiciary subcommittee on courts, said at a subcommitee meeting in late June. “It certainly justifies Senate opposition to judicial nominees whose views fall outside the mainstream and have been selected to further tilt the courts in an ideological direction.”
Added Schumer, “The president, of course, can choose to exercise his nomination power however he sees fit. But if the president sends countless nominees who are of a particular ideological cast, Democrats will likely exercise their constitutionally given power to deny confirmation so that such nominees do not reorient the direction of the federal judiciary.”
This focus on removing “ideology” from judicial appointments is being championed by pro-abortion senators like Schumer and Leahy. Republicans are worried that it really means that conservatives, especially those who are pro-life, will face insurmountable hurdles to win confirmation from the Democratic-controlled Senate, whereas pro-abortion nominees will be regarded as “non-ideological.”
“Using ideology as the grounds for confirming or rejecting a judicial nominee is a dangerous exercise,” Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., said in a statement to the Register. “It shatters the historic notion of deference to presidential nominations, ensures constant conflict and demands that senators conduct inappropriate judgements in determining what constitutes ideological ‘balance’ on the courts.”
Kyl noted that there are currently 108 vacancies in the federal judiciary. Forty of those slots are considered judicial “emergencies” by the administrative office of the U.S. court system. Kyl added that 42% of Bush's judicial picks have received no Senate vote yet. This rate is much higher than at a similar point in time for Presidents Clinton and Reagan (26% and 28%, respectively).
Kyl spokesman Matt Latimer noted that Democratic control of the Senate has brought confirmations to a near standstill. Since the Democrats took control in late May, Latimer said, “As of July 20, only three candidates have been confirmed.”
Began with Bork
Larry Sabato, professor of political science at the University of Virginia, warned that both parties engage in political fights over the federal judiciary.
“Since the defeat of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court in 1987, judicial nominations have been a tinderbox,” Sabato told the Register, “Both parties do what they can to slow the other party's presidential nominations.” “The reason is simple: The stakes are so high and the ideological gap between the parties is so wide.”
Sabato suggested that Bush, like Clinton, will have to supplement his judicial picks with candidates for which the opposition party approves. Even then, a rough road is ahead, he warned.
“Many judgeships will simply be left unfilled for [Bush's] entire term, or terms,” Sabato said. “Just wait until the Supreme Court vacancies. Those fireworks will make the district and appellate controversies look like mere sparklers.”
The fireworks stem primarily over abortion. Abortion supporters have made it known that they place support for legalized abortion far above any other consideration for judicial candidates. That's why they oppose many of Bush's picks: because they're pro-life.
Kate Michelman, president of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, said, “Most of the president's nominees are staunch conservatives who will roll back many of this nation's most cherished rights, including the right to choose.”
But in fact, while Bush was accused during last year's election campaign of seeking to impose a pro-life “litmus test” for judges, most leading pro-life activists have never sought such a commitment. For instance, neither during the campaign nor during the judicial selection process has National Right to Life demanded that Bush adopt a pro-life litmus test.
“Bush has said that he is going to continue nominating those judges who are not legislating from the bench,” Douglas Johnson, legislative director for National Right to Life, told the Register. “That's of course antithetical to Roe v. Wade or Stenberg vs. Carhart.”
Joshua Mercer writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: Judicial Committee Institutionalizing the ‘Borking’ of Judges ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 08/05/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 05-11, 2001 ----- BODY:Celine Dion's Baby Baptized
CANADIAN PRESS, July 25 — Celine Dion's infant son made quite a fuss during his baptism Wednesday in front of about 250 family members and guests in Montreal, the news service reported.
“I think that little Rene-Charles wasn't cut out for a big ceremony like that because he cried quite a bit,” said Michel Jasmin, a Quebec television host and family friend.
The 40-minute ceremony took place at a chapel adjoining Notre-Dame Basilica, six months to the day after the baby's birth.
Rene-Charles was baptized as a Greek Melkite Catholic, the same as his father, Rene Angelil.
Ignoring the Marriage Amendment
The Alliance for Marriage press conference was covered by the two major wire services, two of the three major networks, CNN and FOX News, every national radio network, and many local newspapers and television stations. But the Washington Post, the New York Times, ABC World News, and the Boston Globe declined to report on it.
A reporter and an editor at the Los Angeles Times, which ran a lengthy story on the push for a marriage amendment, said that newspapers shouldn't wait until a movement is successful before they cover it — a reason cited by media outlets that declined to report on the Alliance for Marriage press conference. The Los Angeles Times staffers added that the marriage amendment was newsworthy because of its religiously and racially diverse coalition of supporters, and because of its relevance to the controversial issue of homosexual unions.
Pittsburgh Expecting 2,000 for Catholic Rally
FIRE — Faith, Intercession, Repentance and Evangelism — features speakers and Masses to reawaken or strengthen Catholics’ faith. The first rally in 1983 drew over 13,000 people, and the rallies have reached 400,000 participants.
The Pittsburgh rally will host speakers Ralph Martin, Sister Ann Shields, Father Michael Scanlan and Father Dave Pivonka. Bishop Donald Wuerl of Pittsburgh will celebrate the closing Mass. When they first began, FIRE rallies were perceived as strictly Catholic charismatic events, but in recent years the focus has broadened.
Fox News Has Psychic Seek Missing Intern
The “psychic,” James Van Praagh, appeared on the Fox show “Judith Regan Tonight.”
OpinionJournal.com said, “By providing a forum for such occult claptrap, Fox manages to insult anyone who believes in God, science or both. And this is hardly an isolated incident. Fox has put at least three other ‘psychics’ on the air in the past two weeks alone.”
Catholic League Organizes Showtime Boycott
The boycott was organized after the Catholic League ran an ad in Variety magazine asking Viacom CEO Sumner Redstone to join in condemning Showtime for producing “Sister Mary Explains It All,” which the Catholic League said was anti-Catholic. Showtime is owned by Viacom. Redstone did not comply with the request.
Among the groups supporting the Catholic League's call for a boycott of Showtime are the American Catholic Lawyers Association, the Cardinal Mindszenty Foundation, the Institute for Religion and Public Policy, Jews for Morality, the Parents Television Council and the Polish American Congress.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Cardinal Keeler Optimistic About Bush DATE: 08/05/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 05-11, 2001 ----- BODY:NEW YORK — The head of the U.S. bishops’ pro-life commission told Zenit news service that he sees cause for optimism about President George Bush's upcoming decision on federal funding for stem-cell research, and about relations with the Church in general.
“The atmosphere in the White House has changed, and the first signs, in relation to the Catholic Church, are hopeful,” said Cardinal William Keeler of Baltimore.
In this interview with Zenit, the cardinal analyzes John Paul II's address July 23 to Bush at Castel Gandolfo, Italy, and the decisions that confront the president.
Said the cardinal, “It was an absolutely necessary speech, to turn attention again to the moral dimension of the problem. To date, the public debate concentrated almost exclusively on the medical implications of the decision Bush must make, forgetting that the embryos to be used are the beginning of life. A just society cannot put aside the ethical analysis of such an important question.”
Zenit: Why is the president's decision on stem-cell research so important in the United States?
Because it is a point of inflection. To date, we have succeeded in keeping the government, which finances this type of research, from officially authorizing the sacrifice of life in the name of science.
However, the debate has now extended to the entire Congress and country, and we are only a step away from approving the funding. A change in the policy line, with the abolition of the existing prohibition, would cause a chain reaction, with negative effects for the pro-life camp.
Why are Bush's doubts so prolonged? If he believes that life begins at conception, he should be sure of his position.
The situation should certainly be clear. On the other hand, if we look at all the pressures that the White House executive has received, within his party, too, and if we analyze the way in which the media has covered the argument, we can understand how a mistaken view can arise.
If the president had decided, solely on what the newspapers have written, he would have removed the prohibition on funding months ago. This is why it was necessary for the Pope to make his voice heard, attracting attention to the most neglected aspect of the problem.
However, you say that relations with the new administration are hopeful. Why?
Because of the attention the White House executive is giving to Catholics, demonstrated also in gestures. For example, a few days ago, he dedicated his first visit to New York to honoring the memory of Cardinal O‘Connor. In recent weeks, he attended the inauguration of the new cultural center in Washington, which is named after John Paul II.
These gestures are also coupled with words and the taking of positions. In his speeches, Bush often refers to Catholic values, the Pope's words and the defense of life. We know he supports the death penalty, but we still have not had an in-depth public debate with him on this topic.
He has declared himself personally opposed to abortion, but added that the country is not ready to abolish it.
We must continue to raise the problem on all possible occasions.
Some analysts say that Bush's attention to Catholics is politically motivated. His objective would be to attract the majority of votes of this center group, which might decide the results of the next presidential elections.
I will not go into the issue of politics. What is of interest to Catholics is to raise important questions, in keeping with our faith.
The president said that in his meeting with the Pope they spoke at length on international topics. What do you think of his Middle East line, the anti-missile shield, and the inclusion of excluded people in the benefits of globalization?
It is too early to judge his Middle Eastern policy, but we must pray that, not only the president but also the other leaders involved, will be convinced of the need to put violence aside and concentrate on peace.
As regards the anti-missile shield, its recent connection to nuclear disarmament is hopeful. No matter what the future of this initiative, it would be useful to begin to discuss a more thorough reduction of the arsenals.
Lastly, despite the clashes and violence, the G-8 has taken initiatives in the struggle against poverty. Before leaving [on his trip], Bush asked the World Bank to turn half of its loans into donations for development. This is a positive sign: We will now see if it is translated into practical action.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Missionary Gives His Advice to G8 Leaders and Protesters DATE: 08/05/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 05-11, 2001 ----- BODY:ROME — Anger against the leaders at the recent Group of Eight summit in Genoa was misdirected, suggests a missionary.
Father Piero Gheddo is a member of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions and co-author of the book David and Goliath at the G-8: Dialogue on Globalization, soon to be published.
The causes of the violence of the protests in Genoa were, in the first place, “the ideology of ‘everything now,’ which began in ‘68,” he said.
“Why protest against leaders of rich countries and not against our society of waste and the superfluous, [which is] indifferent to the poor of the world? … If our ‘model of life and development’ does not change, not even a leader can do very much.”
In the second place, the missionary pointed out, is “the analysis of the poverty of poor peoples, which is Marxist in origin — the world divided between exploited and exploiters.”
“However, this analysis is totally mistaken,” he countered. “Ethiopia is much richer than Italy in natural resources, but immensely poorer or rather, impoverished. How and by whom, I ask? Because of six years of Italian colonization? What great stolen riches should we return to Ethiopia? The obelisk of Aksum?
“The causes of poverty in the Third World are much deeper — historical, cultural and religious.”
During the days of protest in Genoa, the priest said, “there was no talk of [missionaries’] successful endeavors against poverty, which include proclamation, education, sharing, and solidarity, paid with their life.
“The rich world can produce money and machines to send to the poor, it can produce protesters and opponents of the G-8, but every day it produces fewer men and women who are prepared to give their life for others.”
Father Gheddo spoke more extensively about these issues with the Vatican news agency Fides:
Fides: Italy's new prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, made his first visit to the Pope a few days before the G-8 meeting in Genoa. What advice would you give to Berlusconi?
I would tell him, Italy and the G-8 leaders to turn their attention to the chasm between the rich and the poor of our world. This is the greatest scandal of our day. I would like to see the G-8 show concern for those countries who are considered unworthy of entering world trade.
Until the 1970s black subSaharan Africa shared in 3% of world trade; today it takes part only for 1%. It is excluded. Globalization is a train running on advanced technology which bypasses many countries.
Do you agree then with those who protest against the G-8 meetings?
I am positive toward these protests. I am well aware that they also include anarchical, violent and anti-Christian tendencies. But it is right to react to this division of the world.
International figures show that at the beginning of the last century the proportion of wealth between north and south of the world was 8 to 1. Today it is 70-80 to 1. We cannot continue this way; it is not right, it is not human, it is not peace building.
We cannot have 49 least developed countries living on aid, prevented from making their own specific contribution to international trade.
But in this context could this not be paternalism toward the poor?
Certainly. I am afraid that none of these young protesters has ever visited the Third World, or even has any desire to do so. …
To the G-8 protesters I would say: “I admire your intentions, but you must be real brothers of the poor. Make a minimum gesture against useless and superfluous consumerism — for example, close discos at midnight. But the most serious proposal would be to throw your life into life with the poor. Join our missionaries in Africa, don't just battle with police.”
In 1985 in Africa there were 1,700 Italian lay volunteers belonging to various associations and organizations. Today there are only 400. This is because the Italian governments have cut funding to these bodies and no one objected.
Secondly there are fewer young lay people willing to give three or four years of their life to the poor. The money ran out, so did the volunteers. It is no good protesting against the G-8 while enjoying the North's abundance.
What can missionaries give to the G-8 and to justice in the world?
We must be convinced of what Mother Teresa used to say for India: “The greatest unhappiness is not to know Jesus Christ,” not only for eternal life and salvation, but for this life. When we meet Christ our life changes.
A hundred years ago the pariah, or low caste Indians, were slaves to the other castes. Thanks to Christian missionaries, Catholics and Protestants, who brought the influence of the Gospel and education, today low caste Indians are recognized by society.
In [the encyclical] Redemptoris Missio, Pope John Paul II writes: “Man is the principal agent of development, not money or technology” (58).
For the Jubilee Year 2000, Pope John Paul II led the Catholic Church to propose, universally and locally, cancellation of international debts of poor countries, but response was poor.
I agree with the anti-debt campaign. I am disappointed that the Church in Italy, the various committees and even missionaries only joined the slogan of the moment. The international debt is in fashion, so we talk about international debt.
There are other things that no one talks about, not even Christians.
Recently an anti-G-8 manifesto was published by Catholic associations and missionaries in Italy. It is a list of criticism of the G-8, analysis of GNPs, technology, taxes, but there is not a word about Jesus Christ, the only Savior, the only One who can change the heart of man. And yet this should be the first and fundamental task of missionary institutes.
In the last two years I visited much of Africa and I spoke with missionaries about the problem of international debt. They all agreed: If you simply cancel the debts you will only help the dictators. What you must do is to make the governments change.
Why do African governments assign 30% of national resources to their armed forces and only 2% to education and 1.5% to health care? This calls for a profound change and missionaries can do much in this field.
Can missionaries be agents of development?
We cannot do everything; we are too few. But we can build bridges.
Italian missionaries in Africa, about 7,000, are helping the continent to develop. More than applause and admiration, they need help.
(Zenit contributed to this story.)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 08/05/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 05-11, 2001 ----- BODY:Vatican Clarifies Pope's Words to Bush
ASSOCIATED PRESS, July 25 — After several commentators suggested that Pope John Paul II's words to President George W. Bush did not condemn all forms of embryo stem-cell research, the Vatican issued a statement saying the Pope found all forms of such research immoral, the wire service reported.
Some commentators had speculated that the Pope's references to “the creation for research purposes of human embryos” might allow research — which destroys the embryo — on “leftover” embryos produced in fertility clinics. The Vatican's statement firmly denied this possibility, quoting the encyclical The Gospel of Life: “This moral condemnation also regards procedures that exploit living human embryos and fetuses — sometimes ‘produced’ for this purpose by in vitro fertilization. … The killing of innocent human creatures, even if carried out to help others, constitutes an absolutely unacceptable act.”
‘Pied Piper of Rome’ Dies
The Dublin-born monsignor started a boys’ home known as the “Shoeshine Hotel” during World War II, sheltering homeless children and war orphans.
He went on to found nine more “Boys’ Towns,” a “Girls’ Town,” and many day-care centers, ultimately housing or educating over 7,000 Italian children and winning the nickname “The Pied Piper of Rome.”
Although many of his charges were street-hardened, used to begging and stealing, he won their trust. Monsignor Carroll-Abbing did not confine his compassion to children. He served as chaplain of Rome's Knights of Malta Military Hospital during the war, and in February 1944 created Medical Aid for the Battle Areas, which set up hospitals, provided food and supplies, and aided evacuations. After the war he continued founding clinics and distributing food.
On the day that Rome was liberated, he was awarded the Silver Medal for Valor on the Field of Battle.
New Financial Charges Against Naples Cardinal
The charges are related to the 1995 purchase of three barns by the Naples branch of the Vatican bank, Istituto per le Opere di Religione.
Prosecutors contend that the official price of the sale hides almost a half million dollars channeled illegally to a real estate agency. Cardinal Giordano was acquitted last year of usury charges in a separate case.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vetican -------- TITLE: 'Why Does God Treat Us Like This?' DATE: 08/05/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 05-11, 2001 ----- BODY:Register Summary
Tribulation is God's way of teaching us, though his mercy is always present, John Paul II told his weekly general audience July 25.
“Affliction therefore seems to be a kind of divine pedagogy in which mercy, nevertheless, always has the last word,” the Pope said.
The Holy Father focused on the biblical portrayal, in the book of Tobit, of God as the one who punishes and saves. He said: “Whoever does good, especially by opening his heart to his neighbor's needs, is pleasing to the Lord. Although he is tested, in the end he will experience the Lord's kindness.”
The Pope recalled the story of the exiled Tobit, who suffered sudden blindness and poverty. Tobit trusted God in spite of his sufferings and was richly rewarded.
“I exalt my God, and my spirit rejoices in the King of heaven” (Tobit 13:7). In the canticle we have just heard, the person who speaks these words is the elderly Tobit, about whom the Old Testament presents a short, inspiring story in the book named after him.
In order to fully understand the meaning of this hymn, one must keep in mind the narrative in the preceding pages. The story is set among the Israelites exiled in Nineveh. The sacred author, who is writing many centuries later, refers to them as an example of brothers and sisters in faith who are dispersed among a foreign people and tempted to abandon the traditions of their fathers.
The picture of Tobit and his family is offered, therefore, as a program for living. He is the man who remains faithful to the requirements of the Law, no matter what — and especially to the practice of alms-giving. Misfortune falls on him, bringing poverty and blindness, yet his faith does not decrease.
And there is no delay in God's response; it comes through the angel Raphael, who guides the young Tobias on a perilous journey that leads to a happy marriage and, finally, to his father Tobit's healing from blindness.
The message is clear: whoever does good, especially by opening his heart to his neighbor's needs, is pleasing to the Lord. Although he is tested, in the end he will experience the Lord's kindness.
Mystery of Suffering
It is against this background that the words of our hymn take on their full meaning. They invite us to lift our gaze above, to “God who lives forever,” and to his Kingdom which “lasts for all ages.”
From this consideration of God there unfolds a short sketch of the theology of history, in which the sacred author seeks to answer the question that the dispersed and tested people of God are asking themselves: Why does God treat us like this?
The answer is found in both divine justice and divine mercy: “He scourged you for your iniquities, but will again have mercy on you all” (verse 5).
Affliction therefore seems to be a kind of divine pedagogy in which mercy, nevertheless, always has the last word: “He scourges and then has mercy; he casts down to the depths of the netherworld, and he brings up from the great abyss” (verse 2).
One can therefore have absolute trust in God, who never abandons his creature.
And so the words of the hymn lead to a perspective that attributes a redeeming significance to the very situation of suffering, turning the exile into an opportunity for giving witness to the works of God: “Praise him, you Israelites, before the Gentiles, for though he has scattered you among them, he has shown you his greatness even there” (verses 3-4).
Trusting in God
From this invitation to read the exile as a providential sign, we can extend our meditation to consider the mysteriously positive meaning which the condition of suffering assumes when it is lived out in abandonment to God's plan.
Already in the Old Testament, various passages sketch out this theme. It is sufficient to recall the story of Joseph, which is told in the Book of Genesis (37:2-36); sold by his brothers, he was destined to be their future savior.
And how can we pass over the Book of Job? Really, here it is the innocent man who suffers and who cannot give an explanation for his tragedy except by entrusting himself to God's greatness and wisdom (Job 42:1-6).
For us who read these Old Testament passages as Christians, our reference point can only be the cross of Christ, which holds a profound answer to the mystery of the world's suffering.
Conversion
To the sinners who were punished for their iniquities (verse 5), Tobit's hymn addresses a call to conversion and opens up the marvelous prospect of a “reciprocal” conversion of God and man: “When you turn back to him with all your heart, to do what is right before him, then he will turn back to you, and no longer hide his face from you” (verse 6).
This use of the same word — “conversion” — for the creature and for God is very eloquent, though it has a different meaning in each case.
The author of the canticle is thinking, perhaps, of the benefits that accompany God's “turning back” — namely, his renewed favor toward the people. But in the light of the mystery of Christ, we must especially consider that the gift consists in God himself.
Man has more need of God than of his gifts. Sin is a tragedy not so much because it incurs God's punishments, but because it drives him away from our heart.
Praising the Father
This is why the canticle directs our gaze toward the face of God, seen as Father, and invites us to blessing and praise: “He is the Lord our God, our Father” (verse 4).
One feels here the special sense of “sonship” which Israel experienced as a gift of the covenant and which prepared for the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God. At that moment, the Father's face would shine forth in Jesus, and his boundless mercy would be revealed.
It is enough to recall the parable of the merciful father, which is recounted by the Evangelist Luke. The father responds to the conversion of the prodigal son not only with forgiveness, but also with an embrace of infinite tenderness mixed with joy and celebration: “While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him … and kissed him” (Luke 15:20).
The expressions of our canticle are in line with this moving Gospel scene. And from it the need to praise and thank God wells up: “So now consider what he has done for you, and praise him with full voice. Bless the Lord of righteousness, and exalt the King of the ages” (verse 6).
(Translation by Zenit and Register)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vetican -------- TITLE: Northern Irish Negotiations at Crisis Point DATE: 08/05/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 05-11, 2001 ----- BODY:DUBLIN, Ireland — Special prayers for politicians were said in parishes and churches of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland July 29 as the Northern Irish political process approaches a critical stage.
Northern Ireland's leading Protestant politician warned July 22 that the troubled province's landmark Good Friday peace accord may not survive its current crisis.
Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble said the failure of the Irish Republican Army and Protestant paramilitary groups to disarm could jeopardize concerted efforts now underway by British, Irish and Northern Irish leaders to save the 1998 peace deal.
On July 23, suspected Protestant extremists threw a pipe bomb at a Catholic-occupied home southwest of Belfast, the latest in a string of such attempts to intimidate Northern Ireland's minority community. The blast in Derriaghy, a mostly Protestant suburb, injured nobody but blew open the front door and damaged the roof.
Outlawed anti-Catholic groups opposed to the 1998 peace accord have thrown more than 100 pipe bombs and other explosives at Catholic homes and property this year.
Four church leaders requested their congregations to remember in their prayers all those who have serious decisions to make regarding the political future of Northern Ireland.
Catholic Archbishop Sean Brady, primate of Ireland, said, “I encourage all people of good will to reflect on the critical stage we have reached in the peace process, and to pray that God will guide all who have serious political decisions to make at this time. The long-term future and well being of us all is at stake. The political progress made to date must be consolidated and built upon. The very fragile peace we enjoy at present must be strengthened.”
Dr. Alastair Dunlop, the Presbyterian moderator, said, “I want to urge people to pray that God will guide all who have serious political decisions to made at this time. Outbreaks of intercommunity violence continue to occur. Lives and property continue to be damaged. The prayers of God's people for the whole community are a power for good.”
Archbishop Robin Eames, Church of Ireland primate, said, “While prayers are usually said each Sunday in Church of Ireland parishes for elected representatives, I feel we have a clear duty to call on our people to pray that God will guide all those who carry such a heavy responsibility at this time. The violence we are seeing on our streets, where there is such a risk to the lives of the innocent, including little children, must be challenged in God's name.”
The Reverend Harold Good, president of the Methodist Church, said, “In praying for our political representatives, an end to vicious sectarian violence and a lasting peace, let us commit ourselves to being part of the answer to the prayers we pray.”
New Proposals
The London Daily Telegraph reported July 25 that new, non-negotiable proposals to be delivered by the British and Irish governments in an attempt to break the impasse over the Good Friday Agreement would contain major concessions to encourage the Irish Republican Army to disarm.
These could include the transfer of senior Irish police officers into the new police service of Northern Ireland, the appointment of convicted Irish Republican Army terrorists to local police boards and an amnesty for 60 fugitive paramilitaries.
The proposals will concentrate on the outstanding issues of disagreement between the Protestant and Catholic representatives: police reform, the reduction of the British military presence, paramilitary decommissioning and ensuring that the new political institutions remain stable. The proposals were agreed to in principle by British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, the Telegraph reported.
After six days of talks chaired by Blair and Ahern in mid-July failed to reach agreement between Protestant and Catholics, the two leaders announced they would put forward joint non-negotiable proposals in an attempt to break the impasse.
But Unionist leaders accused both leaders of favoring Catholics in the new proposals.
Sir Reg Empey, the acting First Minister of the Northern Ireland government and a senior Unionist minister in the power-sharing executive, said the issue of paramilitary weapons needed to be addressed properly before his Ulster Unionist Party would support the proposals.
“We remain committed to making the agreement work, but we cannot carry the burden alone,” he said. “We are not prepared to allow Sinn Fein to continue as executive ministers while the IRA continues to break its public promise to decommission its weaponry.
“If the proposed package does not deal with the decommissioning issue effectively, then it is unacceptable.”
The failure of the Irish Republican Army to honor its pledge to disarm has already led to the recent resignation of Trimble as First Minister. And unless agreement can be reached by Aug. 12, the Telegraph reported, the British government will be forced to reimpose direct rule of Northern Ireland from London, or to order fresh elections for the Northern Ireland Assembly.
(Zenit contributed to this story)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 08/05/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 05-11, 2001 ----- BODY:War Crimes Tribunal Criticizes Croatian Bishops
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, July 25 — A spokeswoman for the United Nations war crimes tribunal condemned Croatia's Catholic bishops for a recent declaration accusing the court of unfairness in its investigation of the 1991-95 Serb-Croat war, the wire service reported.
The Church statement, issued by the Croatian bishops’ Justice and Peace commission, suggested that the UN tribunal was engaged in “collusion” with those who sought to “undermine Croatian independence.” The tribunal had indicted two Croatian generals for war crimes against ethnic Serbs.
Many Croatians see their country as a victim of the conflict, not an aggressor, since almost a third of Croatia was occupied by Serbs after Zagreb declared independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1991.
But the bishops’ statement insulted “both the international law and international justice in general,” said war crimes tribunal spokes-woman Florence Hartman.
Judge Who Sentenced Bishop's Killers Flees Guatemala
REUTERS, July 25 — Guatemalan judge Yassmin Barrios fled the country after sentencing four men convicted of murdering a Catholic bishop, the wire service reported.
Barrios was attacked with a grenade and received threats before the trial was conducted earlier this year, but still sentenced the killers of Bishop Juan Gerardi to up to 30 years in prison. The bishop was killed in April 1998, two days after releasing a report blaming the military for most of the human rights abuses during Guatemala's 36-year civil war.
Pakistani Christian's Appeal Rejected in Blasphemy Case
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, July 25 — A Pakistani court rejected an appeal from Amnesty International on behalf of a Christian sentenced to death for blasphemy, the wire service reported.
Ayub Masih was arrested in 1996 for allegedly speaking against the prophet Mohammed, the founder of Islam. He was condemned to death in 1998 under Pakistan's strict 1985 blasphemy law. Syed Sajjad Haider, president of the Pakistan chapter of Amnesty International, challenged the verdict, but his appeal was rejected.
Masih can still appeal to Pakistan's supreme court. Dozens of people have been convicted for blasphemy in Pakistan, but so far none have been executed.
Matchbook Bible-Smugglers Hope to Expand Apostolate
ASSOCIATED PRESS, July 2 — Almost 20 years ago, Paul Lemons began creating thousands of matchbook-sized Bibles — each with its own magnifying glass — to be smuggled behind the Iron Curtain into the Soviet Union, the wire service reported.
Today, despite the fall of the Soviet Union, Lemons’ Alabama-based East European Harvest is still printing the tiny Bibles in a variety of languages.
They are shipped to countries within the former Soviet bloc, where evangelical Protestants often run into government opposition, and Lemons hopes to take on new projects in Africa and China.
Lemons, 80, runs the printings entirely on donations. He now makes normal-sized Bibles as well.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: EDITORIAL DATE: 08/05/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 05-11, 2001 ----- BODY:Summers are supposed to be slow in the news business. Not this one.
It is good, from time to time, to take a break from comment on the news to comment about the news. Particularly in the summer. Many readers will have taken vacations in the past month. If you're one of them, think of this column as a guide to help you navigate through the issues you missed.
In our pages during July:
The Pope right-hand man described the Holy Father's meetings with Ali Agca.
Bush's faith-based initiatives came under fire from all sides.
A British politician decried the hunt for Down syndrome babies to abort.
The news we reported included: new anti-religion rules concocted by the psychological establishment, Marian apparitions in Rwanda, an abortion speaker stopped by a Catholic university, a feminist group's awards for liberal pro-lifers, one man's successful effort to ban convenience-store pornography, the New Orleans diocese's new lifestyle policy, an Episcopalian priest who became a Catholic laywoman, Mormon baptisms ruled invalid, the status of President Bush's outreach to Catholics, and how the Pope spent his vacation.
We even featured a number of animals: Michael, the gorilla who “dreamed” of world peace, Aslan the lion a publisher wants to “de-fang”, the goats of the Franciscan Life Center; and a shark whose life-threatening attack on a little boy was thwarted by a prayerful family and bishop.
All of that was in addition to headliner stories such as: John Paul II meeting Bush, the Pope in Ukraine, Milwaukee's cathedral renovations, new U.S. Communion norms, the mandatum, federal judges vs. Catholic teaching on contraception coverage, an archbishop's excommunication, the sainthood cause in Lady Diana Spencer's family, Canadian judges who ruled the Bible to be hate speech, and two high-profile cases in which priests’ secrets have become highly-sought evidence.
And so that our features writers don't feel left out, we should also note that July saw the fine debut of Irish columnist David Quinn, commentary on A.I. in Indepth and Arts & Culture features, books from the useful (Where Can You Find That in the Bible? and The One-Minute Philosopher) to the inspirational (My Life on the Rock), and travel destinations that give pilgrims Vietnam in California, Italy in New York, and Belgium in a Wisconsin wood.
This midsummer night's pause can serve as a reminder to readers (particularly those with renewals due in August) of just how much the Register brings you, week to week.
President Bush has yet to decide whether or not he will use executive privilege to fund embryo research.
Whatever the outcome of his decision — and we pray he will follow Pope John Paul II's warning and ban it — one reader has pointed out how the very discussion has scored a few points for pro-lifers.
By arguing for embryo research, scientists have basically ceded whatever remained of the argument that life doesn't begin at conception, but at some point later on. Scientists say they must use human embryos for their research because they need living tissue from a human. Animals won't do. Cadavers won't do.
In other words, scientists have assured us that embryos are both human and alive.
Unfortunately, the irony is that it's only because scientists know that embryos are living humans that scientists are so eager to pretend that their deaths-by-research don't matter.
But we should point out, again and again, the ground that science has conceded: Discussions about embryo research are discussions about ending human lives.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 08/05/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 05-11, 2001 ----- BODY:Standing Up for Obedience
Personally, I prefer to kneel when receiving the body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus as an act of humility, and hope one day altar rails will return to all Catholic churches (“New Liturgical Norms Adopted at Bishops’ Spring Conference,” July 1-7).
However, if the new general instruction from the Vatican states we must do what the conference of bishops decides, then it becomes a question of obedience — and obedience increases our humility, and the more humble, the more Christ-like we become.
Is that not why we desire to receive Holy Communion?
GLORIA SCHREINER
Hamburg, New York
Pax Christi: Give Peace a Chance
It's hard to imagine why the peace movement Pax Christi USA would make a public statement in defense of their invitation to Rev. James Lawson using the logic that, “There is much more that we hold in common with Rev. Lawson than there is that separates us” (“Pax Christi's Pro-Abortion Speaker Stopped by University,” July 15-21). Whoa! Where's this common ground?
Rev. Lawson was scheduled to speak on how to build a culture of peace through nonviolence. How could anyone not wonder how a man could speak on this topic and at the same time support keeping abortion legal; be a board member of Planed Parenthood in 1995; be featured as a speaker at a 25th anniversary celebration of the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion; and participate in the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice's interfaith service at St. John's Episcopal Church in Los Angeles last summer?
An even more soul-searching question is how Pax Christi can think this man would have credibility? Mother Teresa many times stated that the greatest destroyer of world peace is abortion. If the child in the womb is not safe, who is?
CAROL BROWN
Palm Beach Gardens, Florida
In Defense of the University of Dallas
Your May 20-26 article, “Resignations Rock University of Dallas,” may give readers the impression that UD is in danger of losing its identity as a traditional Catholic liberal-arts university. Nothing could be further from the truth.
I was one of several UD faculty who expressed concern when Msgr. Milam Joseph was named president here five years ago. Since that time I have viewed his presidency with growing respect. Not only are fundraising and administrative competence much improved, but the academic quality of the school has been strengthened as well.
Yes, we have lost a small number of capable faculty since Msgr. Joseph became president. But we have added an even larger number of capable faculty during the same period, including three fine appointments in the Politics Department.
Not one change has been made in the nationally acclaimed undergraduate core curriculum. No changes in the core are being proposed now. None are likely in the foreseeable future.
Four years ago, George Weigel wrote that the University of Dallas provides “a first-class liberal arts education, in a Catholic environment that's open to engaging everyone's arguments.” He concluded that UD is “the best Catholic college in America.” He was right then, and he is still right now. My daughter Susie graduated from UD in 2000. Son David will be on UD's Rome campus next semester as a sophomore. I would be pleased if my two younger sons choose UD as well.
THOMAS G. WEST
Irving, Texas
The writer is a professor of politics at the University of Dallas.
Reality Smites
Regarding “After Abortion: One Woman's Story"(July 22-28):
My husband and I have gone to pray in front of an abortion clinic for many years. We have seen literally hundreds of young girls just like “Kim.” They come out of the clinic with extreme sadness written all over their faces. Many of them are accompanied by their mothers. Sometimes I think that statements like Kim's are not 100% accurate. Two points in her statements: “… that the young girl feels trapped, no one is there to offer help … and … pictures of aborted babies is not the way to encourage” … etc.
We carry signs: “Free help for you and your baby.” We also have 800 numbers, offers to pay lost wages and any other help the young woman needs. But, by the time they come to the clinic, they have made up their minds. Also, their mothers and boyfriends are big factors in getting them to have these abortions. My heart goes out to these young women, but I also feel they do know to some extent what they are doing.
I would have a problem if the Kims we see were to say, like her: “Feeling that she had no other options, she sought an abortion.” We had two girls change their minds, one while she was on the table. I think that they must own their decision. There is help in many instances, but they choose to do what they choose to do.
Secondly, even though we offer compassionate help, pray the rosary for them and their babies, mourn the babies (as Bishop Daily asked us to do), and offer any free help and assistance they need, we also carry a picture of an aborted baby. The picture is sad. The reality is much sadder. Everyone wants to put this picture out of their minds, even many of our churches: “It's too hard to see.”
What about the reality? TV won't show it. Newspapers won't print it. Even churches won't show the poor babies. Yet, Jesus said, “The truth will set you free.”
Our 16-year-old son saw such a picture at the March for Life for the first time and, upon returning, said: “Is that what abortion is?” He then became actively pro-life.
We serve a merciful God; the Kims of this world must help others in their search for peace. Yes, I agree, we must show these women compassion, but we must do it in truth, honesty and tough love.
MARY EDGAR
Charles Town, West Virginia
Mercy for the Moms
Thank you for the interview in your Culture of Life section with “Kim,” who told your writer, Barb Ernster, about her abortion experience (“After Abortion: One Woman's Story, July 22-28). Anyone seeking to find a Project Rachel near them can contact the National Office of Post-Abortion Reconciliation & Healing at (800) 5WE-CARE or check out our Web site for additional information: www.marquette.edu/Rachel.
There are post-abortion healing ministries in more than 140 dioceses in this country with several in Canada.
VICKI THORN
Milwaukee
The writer is foundress of Project Rachel.
Book Hunt
I hope you can help me. Recently you reviewed two books in the same issue (July 1-7). One was a fictionalized version of the mysteries of the rosary. Each Mystery was described in detail in a historical-fiction manner.
The other book was about a man who had a lot of questions about his Catholic faith, joined an evangelical Protestant church and became a minister there and then realized the Catholic faith was the one true faith. The book describes his journey in faith.
I want to get both of these books for my teenage daughter, but I discarded that issue of the Register and I need to know how I can order these books.
I hope you will be able to help me, as I don't know where else to turn.
ELIZABETH WILLIAMS
Indianola, Iowa
Editor's Note: You're referring to Mystery Stories: A Journey Through the Rosary by James L. Carney, published by Crown of Mary, and My Life on the Rock: A Rebel Returns to His Faith by Jeff Cavins, published by e3press.
If there's a Catholic bookstore near you, the manager should be able to order these titles for you (if they're not already in stock).
Or, if you have access to the Internet, you can order them through an online bookstore such as Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: A.I.: Intellectual Artifice? DATE: 08/05/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 05-11, 2001 ----- BODY:Thank you for the John Prizer and Tom Harmon articles on the movie A.I. Artificial Intelligence (July 15-21 and July 22-28).
Both articles were right on target. I have little to add to what they said except to point out a certain irony. In Schindler's List, Spielberg did such a fine job of portraying the wicked de-humanization techniques applied against Jews by the Nazis. But maybe now he needs to examine his own conscience. The demented sentimentality of A.I. indicates that Spielberg has some difficulties himself understanding what constitutes a human being.
The “profound” problem his film poses can be answered quite simply: If it's a robot, however impressive its powers of mimicry, it is no more human than an automobile. Anyone who cannot grasp that is either not thinking or is insane.
JOHN LORANGER
Sparks, Nevada
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Armies, Navies, Police Forces ... And the Pope DATE: 08/05/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 05-11, 2001 ----- BODY:John Paul II gave a Jubilee address to police officers and members of armed services from around the world last November 19.
The talk was somewhat reminiscent of the rather affectionate way that Christ often spoke with centurions in the Roman army. What else would we expect from this Pope?
The meeting was held in Rome near the last Sundays of the liturgical cycle, with readings dealing with the end of the world. Christ would come, the Pope told the military and police before him, “in power and glory.” The Christ who comes “is the same son of man, merciful and compassionate, whom the disciples knew during his earthly journey.” The Holy Father did not hesitate to remind this audience of the unity and continuity of Christ's person. He spoke of profound things to ordinary soldiers and policemen. “When the moment comes for his manifestation in glory,” he said, “he (Christ) will come to give human history its definitive fulfillment.” Human history has a purpose; a completion is in store. We do not live in complete chaos.
Next, referring to Mark's Gospel, John Paul explained to these men and women how they directly relate to human and divine experience in their very vocations. God will pronounce his judgment and then end “a universe corrupted by falsehood and torn by violence and injustice.” Looking right at them, the Pope wondered who better than they can “testify to the violence and to the disruptive forces of evil present in the world"? These aberrant realities are things such men and women see every day. At this very point, the Pope explained why we have soldiers and police: “You are called to defend the weak, to protect the honest, to foster the peaceful coexistence of peoples.”
The Pope is not a naive utopian who thinks that, somehow, some day, the world will no longer need armies and security forces. Like an Augustinian who knows about the fallen nature of the world, he put things in proper order.
Standing before the Pope were members of many armies and military forces. He said something very remarkable to them: “You are the representatives of armies [that] have faced one another down through history.” His words were a stirring reminder of, for example, the trenches of World War I, in which thousands of one-time friends died at each others’ hands.
In this majestic setting, we could also call to mind Henry V at Agincourt, who told his men on the eve of battle that there is a difference between their own salvation, which is up to them, and the struggle for their country, for which the king is responsible. That day last November, the Pope recalled all of these fallen men of whatever unit, of whatever side. Salvation and military victory, he reminded all who would hear, are not the same thing.
The Pope often speaks of “peace” as a “right.” This is a somewhat odd notion. Usually, peace is considered to be the result of something, of establishing and living worthily in a right order. We do not seek “peace,” but what causes it. Probably what he had in mind is the noble idea, following Plato's insistence that the end of war is peace, that human flourishing is best achieved in peace, in right order, even though souls may be saved (or lost) in war or in line of duty.
Again, the Holy Father is not a wishful idealist. “At times this duty (to protect life and justice) … involves concrete initiatives to disarm the aggressor,” he said. “Here I wish to refer to the so-called humanitarian interference, which, after the failure of efforts by police and the instruments of nonviolent defense, is a last resort in order to stay the hand of the unjust aggressor.” Aggressors ought to be disarmed. Police can fail to contain large sources of violence. Nonviolence does not always work. In saying so, the Pope is not giving a license to run all over the world interfering with every rumble on this turbulent planet. Rather, he is explaining the perspective of a political realist.
The Pope can speak of Christ to armed men. Those who die in action can do so out of a sole motive of duty. Yet “many of them (fallen soldiers) believed in Christ, and his words illuminated their existence and gave an exemplary value to their sacrifice. They made the Gospel their code of conduct.” The Gospel is a “code” of conduct! And finally, the Holy Father tells these men and women, in the words of St. Paul: “Pray at all times.”
No doubt, soldiers and police can find themselves, through changes in regimes, in the service of ideologies or tyrants. When this happens, their lot is most poignant and most dangerous both to themselves and to the citizens of their or other nations or cities. But this Pope does not hesitate to reassure them that, in principle, soldiers and police have a noble, if dangerous, vocation — a vocation in which and through which, like the rest of us, they are to save their souls through their service of others and through their following of Christ.
Jesuit Father James Schall teaches political science at Georgetown University.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: James Schall SJ ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Child of Suicides, Father of Death DATE: 08/05/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 05-11, 2001 ----- BODY:In 1957, in a federal penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pa., a man passed away who had done more than anyone else to earn the title “father of the sexual revolution.” His revolution was intended to liberate people from sexual repression. But it had no provision for personal love. Inevitably, it led to its own opposite — a tyranny of the flesh that repressed man's spiritual potentialities for love and community.
Wilhelm Reich was born in Austria in 1897. His mother committed suicide when he was 13, as did his father four years later. He had three marriages and as many children. Nonetheless, for the better part of his career, he railed unrelentingly against parental authority and marriage as a social convention.
Reich studied medicine at Vienna University. In 1922, Sigmund Freud selected him to be a first assistant physician for his newly formed Psychoanalytic Polyclinic. He was also an avid student of Marxism. In 1930, he abandoned his first family in Vienna, went to Berlin and joined the German Communist Party.
Reich became the world's first Freudo-Marxist. Since he felt that, by themselves, neither Freud nor Marx could provide the comprehensive therapy that the world needed, he was ultimately ejected from both Freudian and Marxist circles. Yet Reich was enthralled by the grandeur and scope of his own revolution, one he accused the Freudians and Marxists as being too timid to launch. “There can be no doubt,” he exclaimed. “The sexual revolution is underway, and no power in the world will stop it.”
The revolution Reich envisioned was far more sweeping than that of any Marxist. His war against repression went further than that of any Freudian. His aim was to strip away all cultural and social “masks” — all forms of authority — so that a total revolution would be achieved in which the real human being would emerge, whole and clean.
All traces of what Freud called the “super-ego” had to be dissolved. In this regard, Reich saw “conscience” as the first “tyranny.” With the dissolution of conscience, morality would also disappear, as well as any lingering voice of authority. With all this stripping away, what could possibly remain? For Reich, it was man's “primary biological impulses,” the bedrock that lay at his “deep, natural core.”
To Kill a Thought
Jean-Jacques Rousseau had maintained that the source of all evil is civilization. He rejected the Christian notion of original sin as “blasphemy.” For Rousseau, man would find his beatitude in a primitive state of innocence. Rousseau had a deep influence not only on the “flower children” of the 1960s, but also on Reich. But Reich went further.
For him, original sin is fear of self.
Yet the self, for Reich, is essentially the erotic impulse, an instinct that is far below the level of either personality or community. Man begins to “armor” himself against himself at the moment he begins to think. “I think; therefore, I am neurotic” became Reich's anti-intellectual, yet self-identifying logo. He feared that the act of thinking would divide the individual, separating thought from body at the expense of his primal urges.
Thinking, therefore, was a disease. The ideal character for Reich is the unafraid, unthinking individual who has “satisfied his strong libidinal needs at the risk of social ostracism.”
Reich saw the family, with its inevitable patriarchal authority, as the chief source of repression. Therefore, the family had to be dismantled. His rejection of the role of the father gave him a certain stature as a feminist. He proclaimed that his heroines were “courtesans who rebel against the yoke of compulsive marriage and insist on their right to sexual self-determination.” In rejecting the authority of both parents, he allied himself with a broad spectrum of secular sex educators.
He insisted that we must free young people from “parental ideas.” He urged the practice of adolescent intercourse and inaugurated a children's crusade against all authority. In 1930, when he was ejected from the Austrian Communist Party, he complained that “Irresponsible politicians who had promised the masses a paradise on earth … expelled us from their organization because we are defending children's and teenagers’ right to natural love.”
In his book The Tyranny of Pleasure (1999), Jean-Claude Guillebaud said that for this “rebellious son of Freud, dissenting Marxist, Jewish anti-Nazi, supposed victim of American ‘repression,’ every detail of Reich's life came together almost miraculously into what Max Weber called ‘a social pathos,’ the chaotic and romantic pathos of the Sixties.”
Ever the empirical scientist, Reich wanted to discover what was at the core of the erotic impulse. His great discovery, he claimed in 1939, was that at the heart of all matter is a hitherto unknown energy that he called “orgone,” and described it as “the basic life-stuff of the universe.”
Three years later he founded the Orgone Institute where the “science” of Orgonomy would be studied.
Reich claimed that he could measure and collect this “orgone” in an “orgone box” and use it as a form of therapy. Although hitherto unknown, Reich stated that at favorable times he could actually see the orgone.
He alleged that it gave off a “bluish-green” color that flickered vibrantly as if it were vitality itself.
Representatives of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, however, did not see the orgone. They charged Reich with fraud and prosecuted him as a quack, peddling across state borders empty boxes for purchasers to sit in while awaiting a cure for whatever ailed them.
The government decided that Reich's orgone boxes cured nothing and sentenced him to two years in prison for contempt of court and violation of the Food and Drug Act.
Sociologist Philip Rieff has said of Reich that this unusual man, who saw himself as the only healthy person in the world, “does seem more than a little sick himself.” Some contend that, toward the end of his career, Reich lapsed into insanity.
Although Reich talked about “love,” what he had in mind was nothing personal or free or directed to the good of another. He imagined love as something like electricity bouncing off the insides of boxes.
His quixotic adventure in healing the world led him to his own isolation in prison. His revolutionary attempt to rid the world of repression led to the repression of personality and love. The culture of life that he proposed was clearly more consistent with a culture of death. His alleged discovery of “deadly orgone energy” (DOR), late in his life, cause him to worry about its negative effect on the cosmos.
One critic of Reich has said that “he lacked that sense of humor which can protect even messiahs from becoming arrogant with the grandeur of their own vision.” Reich lacked much more than a sense of humor; he lacked common sense.
Disciples say he died imprisoned for his beliefs. He became an unlikely martyr. Despite his arrogance, his unscientific claims and his ultimate nihilism, Reich continues to maintain considerable influence on modernity.
His influence is particularly evident among radical feminists, left-wing university students, secular sex educators, enemies of the family and in various cults, works of art and publications. The Orgone Institute Press continues to publish his works. Plans for constructing Reich's Orgone Energy Accumulator (as well as other orgone “therapies”) can be purchased through the Internet. A movie star has written a book in praise of Reich's Orgone therapy.
A two-act musical, Wilhelm Reich in Hell, and at least two additional songs and at least one motion picture have been produced in his honor. Also available are Wilhelm Reich videos, tapes, CDs, photographs and tee shirts.
Reich's ill-conceived therapies warrant his inclusion among the architects of the culture of death, primarily because he succeeded in finding no shortage of followers to advance his warped, loveless revolution in the 1960s and well beyond.
Don DeMarco teaches philosophy at St. Jerome's University in Waterloo, Ontario.
----- EXCERPT: Wilhelm Reich, true father of the sexual revolution ----- EXTENDED BODY: Donald Demarco ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Milly Needs to Be Saved From Misplaced Compassion DATE: 08/05/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 05-11, 2001 ----- BODY:Can a day go by when the controversy over harvesting stem cells from human embryos fails to grow more complicated, more intense?
In just the past few weeks many of the “givens” that had governed the debate have fallen by the wayside, including the idea that these “master cells” are uniquely situated to cure a host of devastating diseases.
Proponents had long assured critics and nonpartisans alike that they were merely going to experiment on “spare” embryos “left over” at fertility clinics. But just last month, the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine at the Eastern Virginia Medical School in Virginia reported that researchers had actually created human embryos for the sole purpose of extracting their stem cells. Virtually the next day the Washington Post reported that a Massachusetts firm was attempting to clone human embryos whose stem cells they would harvest.
Almost simultaneously, two startling developments undercut the underpinnings of the advocates’ argument. An article in the July 6 edition of Science strongly suggested that embryonic stem cells may harbor unique genetic abnormalities. This complete surprise follows on the heels of the mountains of recent experimental evidence demonstrating that stem cells from adult sources were at least as promising as those culled from human embryos.
Equally significant is that the public has learned there is a program whereby some couples who have created embryos they've not implanted are donating them to other couples, typically those who have had problems conceiving or carrying a baby to term. Several of the lovely children who've been successfully adopted made an enormously moving appearance at a congressional hearing July 17. In other words, “spare” embryos are not necessarily going to be destroyed.
However, advocates of embryo-destructive stem cell research have many tools at their deposal, including a well-received new book by journalist Morton Kondracke. Saving Milly is his account of how Parkinson's disease has “kidnap[ed]” his wife.
As a high-profile member of the Washington media establishment — when he's not serving as executive editor and columnist for Roll Call, a publication read avidly by congressional staffers and not a few of their bosses, he's popping up on a number of political-talk TV programs — Kondracke is strategically placed to have a major impact in the high-powered campaign to win federal funding of research that requires the killing of human embryos to go forward.
Kondracke tells you frankly that he is a man in search of a miracle. And he is persuaded that, in embryonic stem cells, he has found one.
Often described as “blank slates” or cells that “haven't made up their minds yet what they'll be,” embryonic stem cells supposedly can be induced into turning into virtually any of the 220 types of cells and then transplanted into a patient.
Kondracke sees embryonic stem cells as a kind of universal life jacket that can rescue people suffering from everything from Parkinson's and Lou Gehrig's disease to cancer, diabetes and spinal cord injuries. Alas, he is hardly the only one blinded by assertions so hyperbolic that, in retrospect, they will seem almost comically overblown.
Quite a few politicians, including a few pro-lifers, have bought into the speculation — along with almost all the editors of America's mainstream editorial pages and nearly all of the organizations which lobby for federal funding to research “their” disease. The tragic irony is that the bevy of morally acceptable alternatives — adult stem cells, stem cells from placentas, and umbilical cord blood — have proven track records of helping people.
As Indiana State University Professor David Prentice explained in a letter to The Wall Street Journal, “Adult stem cells have already been used successfully in clinical trials to treat cartilage defects in children, restore vision to patient who were legally blind, relieve systemic lupus, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis, and cure severe combined immunodeficiency disease.”
Throughout Saving Milly (subtitled Love, Politics, and Parkinson's Disease), Kondracke seems to brush aside questions about journalistic ethics raised by what he has done and continues to do through his work: lobby.
When he gave up heading an organization that lobbied on behalf of doubling the NIH budget over a five-year budget, Kondracke convinced himself that it was ethically acceptable to buttonhole presidents (and presidential candidates), write a stream of indignant columns on behalf of greater funding before indicating that it was his wife who was the “close relative” with Parkinson's that he had written about all along and, all in all, virtually erase the line between journalist and lobby-ist. Maybe he's looked around at the cheerleading for embryonic stem cells masquerading as “reporting” and concluded he's in the mainstream.
But ferocious debates over embryonic destructive stem-cell research and journalistic ethics are not the only issues raised by Saving Milly. The fear of eventually being unable to swallow compounds his wife's understandable (but thankfully unjustified) fear of abandonment. In a desperately depressing last chapter, Kondracke tells the reader of suicide's seductive appeal — of how, based on what he thought he understood Milly to want, Kondracke lay in bed “playing out strategies for the Final Exit option, becoming more panicky each time I did so.”
But in a July 1 interview with CSPAN's Brian Lamb, we learned that Milly has now decided she would accept a feeding tube if or when she loses her ability to swallow, as long as she can take it out when she wants to. The book would seem to indicate that Milly is clinically depressed, a condition sometimes better handled by medication than other times. Meanwhile, Milly's better half wages war with himself over whether or not to accept assurances that dehydrating his wife to death would provide a painless, “natural” solution.
Like his book, Kondracke stands at the intersection of public policy, journalism and medical research. In his steadfast loyalty to Milly, he stands as a model for all spouses.
It is sad indeed that, like so many of his peers, this caring, sensitive man hasn't a clue why pro-lifers stand so resolutely against the latest effort to turn human beings into commodities.
He tells us he has grown up during the 14 years of Milly's long illness. Based on that assurance, maybe there is hope for him yet.
Dave Andrusko is editor of National Right to Life News.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: David Andrusko ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Bones of St. Peter's Brother DATE: 08/05/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 05-11, 2001 ----- BODY:At Pentecost last year I found myself at the Marina Riviera, a small hotel in Amalfi, an hour south of Naples in southern Italy, relaxing after an arduous press trip (honestly).
I looked out to sea during that afternoon and thought I was seeing a vision or having a hallucination.
Coming toward me, far out to sea, was a large cross. It was being carried, I later saw, by a small boat, bouncing over the Mediterranean, heading for port. As it drew near the landing jetty I ran down the hill toward the beach and found that a crowd of people had preceded me. It was the Pentecost celebration along the Amalfi coast, and many towns had gathered to welcome the cross to their shore. It seems that different coastal towns “host” the cross each year.
After landing on the beach, the cross was carried on the shoulders of local residents up into town and up the steep staircase of Amalfi's cathedral.
Soon the large church was filled with people singing “Gloria a te, Cristo Gesu.” There was true Christian joy there.
I knew I was blessed indeed to be part of it.
Amalfi lies at the foot of a tall cliff, in a valley along the coast far south of Rome and south of Naples.
The coast to which it gives its name, the Amalfi Coast, is without a doubt among the most beautiful seacoasts in the world. I had begun to stop there 20 years ago in my travels and fell under its spell as I developed some lifelong friendships.
The first of four Sea Republics (along with Pisa, Genoa and Venice) that commercially and militarily dominated the Mediterranean until the discovery of America in 1492, Amalfi, with the others, lost its power when greater wealth was seen to lie westward.
These coastal republics have an Eastern look in their cathedrals and seem to belong to the seagoing world more than to their neighboring inland cities.
Amalfi is now a summer place where tourists jam the streets and coastal road from Easter till the end of September.
Andrew's Atmosphere
The focal point of many Amalfi tours is its cathedral, dedicated to St. Andrew, the Apostle whose bones are buried here, and legend says his bones give off a special ointment once a year. The first work on the cathedral began during the ninth century; it was subsequently enlarged in an Arab-Norman style that had developed from the time of the Crusaders. Normans and Arabs had both been here, and the Normans set up a kingdom after returning from the crusades of the 11th century, full of Eastern ideas. As the years passed, the facade and the 62 steps that precede it were modified. The church soon became a merry blend of styles.
The most beautiful part of the church, the Cloisters of Paradise, is Moorish in design with elegant interlaced arches stretching above slender columns. Fragments of the centuries are displayed beneath tall palm trees.
The campanile (bell tower) dates from the 12th century. Like many churches along the coast, the cathedral is faced with brightly colored majolica, which makes it seem radiant even on the gloomiest winter days.
Even the crypt is a merry place, which may make St. Andrew happy.
Rich marble pilasters and a large statue of him proclaim his august presence.
The perfume his bones give off, called the Manna of St. Andrew, is exuded during the last week of November, in time for his feast day on Nov. 30.
I looked him up later in the Golden Legend of Voragine (13th century), where I found: “It is said that manna in the form of flour and a scented oil used to issue from the tomb of St. Andrew [in Greece], and by that people could foretell the fruitfulness of the coming year; for if the oil flowed abundantly, it was a sign that the earth would be fruitful.”
‘Leaving All’
Andrew, patron of sailors, brother of St. Peter, was a native of Bethsaida in Galilee. After the dispersion of the Apostles he preached the Gospel in the Eastern Mediterranean, in Greece, Turkey, perhaps even Russia, as he is that country's patron saint. A less reliable tradition has it that he went to Scotland; he is the Scots’ patron as well.
Martyred in Patras, Greece, he was crucified on a cross in the shape of an X.
A statue of the saint on that cross adorns a fountain in front of the cathedral, not at all a martyr's scene despite the cross.
It seems the saint's body was transported to Constantinople in 357 and deposited in the church of Constantine there. In 1270 his relics were brought to Italy and left in Amalfi.
I remember a childhood song of St. Andrew that comes back to me when I visit his final resting place, which goes something like this: “As of old, St. Andrew heard him, by the Galilean lake; Turned from home and toil and kindred, leaving all for his dear sake.”
Amalfi is, alas, more commercial than spiritual these days, and stores selling lemon liqueur almost consume the main street. It is even difficult to enter the cathedral in season without paying a fee for a tour. (Does Andrew know this?) However, if you should be there before the summer crowds appear, you might climb the stairs and pay your respects to this great fisher of men.
Barbara Coeyman Hults is based in New York City.
----- EXCERPT: Amalfi, Italy -- St. Andrew's final resting place ----- EXTENDED BODY: Barbara Coeyman Hults ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Shrekking Toward Gomorrah DATE: 08/05/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 05-11, 2001 ----- BODY:“The box office never lies,” golden-age Hollywood producer Samuel Goldwyn once quipped.
These words can be given a somewhat wider meaning than the mogul intended if we look at what the summer season's hits tell us about the broader cultural trends at work in society today. The news is not good.
Two very different films have astonished critics and industry insiders with their runaway success — Shrek, a computer-animated fairy tale about a princess and an ogre, and The Fast and the Furious, an action-driven buddy story set in the world of illegal street racing. Both are well-crafted audience-pleasers aimed at a mass market. But their morality violates their genres’ usual codes of values in a way that would have been banned 30 years ago. The key issue isn't the usual culprit, excessive sex and violence, but something more subtle (and, thus, potentially more pernicious).
Shrek, based on a story by William Steig, is a postmodern deconstruction of the traditional fairy tale. The once-clear difference between good and evil is purposefully sanitized. The title refers to the name of the story's main character, a lovable ogre (voice of Mike Myers) with the id of a 6-year-old. Among other things, this means plenty of opportunities for bathroom humor.
The ogre leaves the swamp he calls home because the despotic Lord Farquaad (John Lithgow) has set up an internment camp there populated by creatures who are characters in other fairy tales. Directors Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson stage a series of clever gags that poke fun at our conventional understanding of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the Three Blind Mice and other childhood favorites.
Shrek complains to Farquaad, who promises to remove the refugees if the ogre will rescue a beautiful princess (Cameron Diaz) imprisoned in a castle by a fire-breathing dragon. The prince is not really evil, just short, insecure, and, worst of all, uncool. The ugly but kind-hearted hero sets out on this quest with a comic sidekick, a wise-cracking donkey (Eddie Murphy).
The fire-breathing dragon, traditionally a symbol of terrifying malevolence, eventually turns out not to be so bad, after all. The creature's merely been misunderstood.
The movie thus subverts our expectations about ogres, dragons, handsome princes and beautiful princesses. The filmmakers seem to believe that old-fashioned fairy tales perpetuate politically incorrect gender stereotypes and rigid moral values. To counter that perception, they offer a pop-psychology parable about self-esteem in which, once their characters get in touch with their authentic selves, they turn out to be OK. The message is that learning to love oneself is more important than loving others.
The big finale pushes the envelope in a way that Hollywood's Production Code, in force until 1968, would have forbidden. The princess is being married to Farquaad by a cleric in a Gothic cathedral. Will the ogre, who's better suited to her personality, be able to rescue her before the ceremony is completed? That quandary is the source of the suspense.
This time Shrek subverts our expectations by allowing her marriage vows to Farquaad to be completed and then having her run off with the ogre and live happily ever after. The fact that she's now married in the eyes of the Church to someone other than Shrek is treated as part of the gag.
Equally unsettling is the moment when the dragon, a once evil figure now redeemed by increased self-esteem, blows out all the cathedral's stained glass windows to make the rescue possible. This comic plot twist creates a cunning disrespect for an important symbol of traditional religion.
Like Shrek, The Fast and the Furious subverts the moral code of a traditional genre in a way that young audiences are embracing.
The subject matter — fast cars, pretty girls and the meaning of male friendship — was skillfully exploited by 1960s drive-in movie auteurs like Roger Corman (The Young Racers) and Jack Hill (Pit Stop). The story is recycled from countless 1940s Warner Bros. gangster classics (White Heat): An undercover cop bonds with a criminal gang leader and must decide whether the law is more important than their friendship.
Brian O‘Connor (Paul Walker) is a Los Angeles policeman assigned to bust a band of truck hijackers. He infiltrates the local street-racing scene and loses his car to the subculture's top dog, Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel). But when the cops on the beat try to arrest them, Brian helps the criminal escape.
Grateful, Dominic takes him into his racing “family,” where he falls in love with the big man's sister (Jordana Brewster). The gang leader is a formidable dude — a rebel, an ace driver and charismatic father figure. “I live my life a quarter of a mile at a time,” he declares. “Nothing else matters. For those 10 seconds or less, I'm free.” Deep stuff.
When Brian discovers Dominic's a truck hijacker, he's emotionally torn. But, in a manner unthinkable to old-time moguls like Goldwyn, he helps the gang leader get away from his fellow cops even though the criminal is totally unrepentant. Harvard-educated director Rob Cohen uses the ethic of his rap-music soundtrack to transform the genre. The moral is: If you're cool enough, you're above the law.
Parents, educators, clergy and politicians may debate the way in which they think our culture is changing. But if the current movie season is any guide, moral relativism of an extreme sort is becoming the unofficial law of the land.
Arts & culture correspondent John Prizer writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: Sly and subtle, summer hits Shrek and The Fast and the Furious turn traditional morality on its head ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 08/05/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 05-11, 2001 ----- BODY:Remember the Titans (2000)
The drama of a sports film usually revolves around who will win the big game. Remember the Titans remains true to the conventions of the genre. But it also intelligently explores the conflicts generated by government-mandated integration within the context of high-school football.
Its true story is set in Alexandria, Va., in 1971. The white coach, Yoast (Will Patton), is forced to step down so that a black coach, Boone (Denzel Washington), can become the team leader.
Their players are also forced to integrate, and neither the black ones (Wood Harris and Craig Kirkwood) nor the white ones (Ryan Hurst and Donald Faison) like it. Yoast swallows his pride and stays on as an assistant coach to help overcome prejudice. Boone's boot-camp methods alienate some but produce a winning team that becomes a model of racial harmony for the community. Director Boz Yakin and screen-writer Gregory Allen Howard present humility and self-sacrifice as virtues more important than personal glory and victory at any cost.
Bite the Bullet (1975)
The dying of the Old West is the subject of many great films (Ride the High Country, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, etc.). Bite the Bullet gives the topic a unique twist. At the turn of the last century, a newspaper organizes a horse race of 700 miles over the open countryside. The prize is $2,000.
But the competitors find that the natural elements are as much an obstacle to victory as each other.
Writer-director Richard Brooks (The Professionals) focuses on the episodic adventures of his colorful characters more than the race to the finish. Two tough old hands (Gene Hackman and James Coburn) test themselves against a kid with an attitude (Jan-Michael Vincent), a cowhand with a serious health issue (Ben Johnson), a Mexican (Mario Arteaga) and a beautiful woman (Candace Bergen). A band of outlaws attempts to sabotage the contest, and the wealthy competitors scheme for unfair advantage. The horses, too, are pushed past their usual endurance points and at times seem more admirable than their riders.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 08/05/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 05-11, 2001 ----- BODY:All times Eastern
SUNDAYS IN AUGUST
EWTN Catholic Classics
EWTN, 8 p.m.
Join Mother Angelica in celebrating EWTN's 20th anniversary. These 90-minute shows feature EWTN series, specials and other highlights of the past two decades. To be rebroadcast Thursdays at 1 p.m. and Fridays at 3 a.m. and 10 p.m.
MON.-SAT., AUG. 6-11
Summer Pledge Period Specials
PBS; check listings for time
Here are some of the specials that local PBS stations will choose from for their pledge drives this week. (Each station will air only some shows.) Cooking for Gold follows the U.S. Culinary Olympics team for 12 months as they practice for the four-day international cooking competition held every four years. Frank Patterson's World of Music reminisces about the late Irish tenor and airs his “Ave Maria” (Gounod), “Farewell, My Derry Love” and other treasures. Great American Rail Journeys ushers us aboard historic trains for spectacular trips around every section of our beautiful land. Three Mo’ Tenors in Concert is a tour de force in opera, Broadway, jazz, blues, soul, gospel and spirituals by Victor Trent Cook, Rodrick Dixon and Thomas Young.
MONDAY, AUG. 6
Blind Man's Bluff
History Channel, 9 p.m.
In this gripping two-hour premiere, ex-crewmen of U.S. nuclear subs tell of top-secret U.S.-Soviet submarine espionage encounters from the early postwar period into the ‘90s. A Towers Productions special based on the non-fiction bestseller by Sherry Sontag and Christopher Drew.
TUESDAY, AUG. 7
Sherman Tanks
History Channel, 10 p.m.
This “Modern Marvels” show tells of the heroism and heavy losses of the crews of U.S. Sherman tanks in World War II. Their superior tactics and greater numbers overcame the German Panzers’ thicker armor and deadlier guns.
THURSDAY, AUG. 9
Martyrs: They Died for Christ
EWTN, 6:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m.
This episode movingly describes the life of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) on her feast day. A brilliant philosopher whose mentor was Edmund Husserl, Stein converted from Judaism on Jan. 1, 1922, and became a Carmelite sister in 1933. She and her sister Rosa were murdered in Auschwitz in 1942.
FRIDAY, AUG. 10
Third Annual Family Television Awards
CBS, 8 p.m.
We can agree or disagree with them, but here are the picks for 2001 from the Family Friendly Programming Forum, an initiative of 47 major advertisers. The nine awards include an interesting category, “Inspiring Stories/Pride in Our Heritage.”
SATURDAY, AUG. 11
Feast of St. Clare Specials
EWTN
At 5:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., Bob and Penny Lord's Saints and Other Powerful Women salutes St. Clare of Assisi (1194-1253), founder of the Poor Clares. At 8 p.m., the documentary St. Clare of Assisi describes her life. At 9 p.m., Francis and Clare of Assisi tours sites loved by Assisi's two great Franciscan pioneers.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dan Engler ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: 'A Violent Attack Against the Catholic Church' DATE: 08/05/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 05-11, 2001 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — Here are excerpts from a translation of a statement made July 26 by Jesuit Father Peter Gumpel, a historian and postulator of the cause of beatification of Pius XII. The Vatican authorized the declaration.
In recent days, a violent attack has been unleashed again against the Catholic Church. The occasion for this defamatory campaign follows the decision of the Jewish-Catholic study group to suspend its activity.
This mixed study group was established in 1999 with the specific task to examine the 12 volumes of the work “Actes et Documents du Saint Siége relatifs à la seconde guerre mondiale,” which includes all the documents of the Vatican archives during the Second World War.
This initiative was praiseworthy in itself, leading to in-depth study of the historical truth regarding the activity of the Supreme Pontiff, Pius XII, during the Second World War, with special reference to his work of assistance to the persecuted Jews.
Anyone who has read this work can see how the Supreme Pontiff made every possible effort to save as many lives as possible, without any distinctions whatsoever. Unfortunately, this aspect was not sufficiently examined and considered by the said group.
Instead, from the beginning of the work, some — not all — of the members of the Jewish component of the group publicly spread the suspicion that the Holy See was trying to conceal documents that, in its judgment, would have been compromising.
These persons then repeatedly leaked distorted and tendentious news, communicating it to the international press.
Although aware of this manifestly incorrect behavior, the Holy See continued to encourage the discussion, despite the fact it had the possibility and right to withdraw from its participation in this group.
Indeed, in the course of an academic discussion, the least that can be expected from participants is an attitude of mutual respect and reciprocal trust regarding the honesty of the participants. Despite the Holy See's total willingness to continue the work of historical research, it was noted that not all the group's components, and perhaps not even one, had read the 12 volumes that were to be examined.
Each member of the group examined two volumes, and each one of them should have written a report. At the end of this preliminary work, the disparity in the judgments was such that Eugene Fisher, the group's coordinator, said: “They were so different in form and substance that a joint summary report would have been most difficult to write.”
At this point, the group decided to formulate and transmit to the Holy See a list of 47 questions. Among other things, the group requested the possibility to examine all the documents kept in the Vatican archives and not published to date.
The study group came to Rome in October 2000, and met with Cardinal Edward I. Cassidy, Cardinal Pio Laghi, Monsignor (now Cardinal) Jorge María Mejía, and the under-signed in the capacity of expert appointed by Cardinal Cassidy. The purpose of the meeting was to answer the questions posed and clarify the historical events.
I met with the said group on Oct. 24, 2000, after preparing 47 dossiers to respond specifically and in detail to every single question sent to me 15 days before the meeting. With keen disappointment I observed that the reading of the volumes in question was done in a superficial manner, with interpretations of dates and facts that on some points were completely reversed. Given my explanations and the enclosed documentation, the members of the group could not object to anything.
At the end of the meeting, during which we were only able to address 12 of the 47 questions, I expressed my absolute willingness to continue the discussions. Unfortunately, this proposal was not accepted, also because following a new news leak, for which a Jewish member of the group was responsible, the time available was used to try to resolve issues of the internal crisis.
As a result of this situation, a consultation of two members of the group with the historian Father Pierre Blet was canceled.
It is disconcerting that in the subsequent months some Jewish members of the study group systematically spread the news that they had never received answers to their questions. Moreover, to date, the group has never presented a definitive Report on their work and, therefore, have not completed the task entrusted to them.
Instead, they have decided to suspend their work, alleging as the motive that they have not been allowed unlimited access to the Vatican archives. In this connection, it is known that the Vatican archivist, Cardinal Jorge María Mejía, explained in detail to this group the technical impossibility of viewing the post-1922 documents, given the quantity of the material (more than 3 million pages) which has not been catalogued.
At this point it is evident that the tendentious news spread in recent days is groundless, the objective being publicity to the detriment of the Holy See. Therefore, the initiative, which was intended to improve relations between the Catholic Church and the Jewish community has failed, and this is the direct responsibility of those who, contravening the most elementary academic and human norms, have made themselves culpable of irresponsible behavior.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Reconnecting Love and Sexuality DATE: 08/05/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 05-11, 2001 ----- BODY:Catholic teaching on marriage and sexuality can transform lives for the better. So why is no one talking about it?
Mary Shivanandan is.
The author of Crossing the Threshold of Love: A New Vision of Marriage in the Light of John Paul II's Anthropology and professor (and, until recently, associate dean) of the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family spoke recently to Register features correspondent Tim Drake.
Drake: Where are you from originally? Were you raised Catholic?
My father was Irish and my mother Scottish. We were brought up mostly in England although we spent a few years at school in Australia.
My father left the Catholic Church when he left Ireland and my mother did not practice her Protestant faith, but my father insisted we go to Catholic schools because, he said, “Catholics are the only ones with any morals.”
At an early age I developed a devotion to Mary and began to say the rosary, which I have continued ever since. The love I experienced in the Eucharist also profoundly formed me.
My father was tragically killed when I was 17. This and other events led me to question my faith.
At Cambridge University where I majored in Classics I hardly attended any Catholic activities but I never stopped going to Sunday Mass.
After graduation I felt a strong need either to be serious about my faith or to give it up. By God's grace I made a commitment to take it seriously and have done so ever since.
How did you meet your husband?
I emigrated to Canada and worked in the national radio in Toronto and Montreal. That is where I met my husband, an astrophysicist from Sri Lanka. He then went to the United States. For nine months he sent a letter or card every day. Once, while visiting New York, he sent five cards in one day!
We are celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary with a trip to Lourdes in July.
We settled first in Boston where our son was born. It was very important to me to be at home when the children were growing up. At the same time I had many intellectual interests so I combined child rearing with writing and research. This was a wonderful way to be present to the children and also contribute to the public square.
At the height of the women's movement our teenage daughter asked me why I was wasting my talents since I did not go out to do a full-time job.
She, of course, appreciates now the fact that I didn't. It is all a question of priorities and of timing.
What topics did you write about?
I wrote on many different topics, from America's bicentennial to a café in Georgetown that ministered to young street people.
Paul VI issued an invitation for those engaged in the media to contribute to evangelization. I remember thinking that I could contribute some of my talents.
The next thing I knew the only articles that were accepted for publication concerned marriage and family. Soon I was given a column in the magazine Marriage & Family Living and then a book proposal to write about natural family planning was accepted by a New York publisher. …
Natural family planning remains one of the Church's best kept secrets. Why do you think more couples are not embracing its use?
I would agree that it is still one of the Church's best-kept secrets.
One of the reasons is that it takes time to appreciate all the benefits. As a society we expect instant answers, instant relief from any painful situation.
The pill is so easy and quintessentially “modern” and feminist. But in fact it demeans the woman, treating her fertility like a disease. It asks nothing of the man whereas NFP [natural family planning] calls for joint responsibility for fertility.
In our present culture, practicing NFP calls for a conversion. It really involves adopting a whole new way of life, one that appreciates the gift of the body, fertility and children. …
We have lost the sense of the sacredness of the body. Christianity is unique, as the Pope says, in giving full value to the body. The body is central to all the mysteries of our faith from the Incarnation to Jesus’ death on the cross (the source of all grace), the Resurrection and the Eucharist. …
What led you to write Crossing the Threshold of Love?
My dissertation with much editing became Crossing the Threshold of Love. It is in two parts and represents not just my studies at the Institute but 20 years of immersion in the marriage, family and NFP fields.
The book is now used as a textbook in seminaries and other Catholic institutions. Excerpts both of the Pope's Theology of the Body and my book have been incorporated into a four-season study guide for interested lay groups under the auspices of Women Affirming Life.
A study group will be offered in each of the five areas of the Archdiocese of Boston in the fall through the Archdiocesan Institute for Ministry. Recently, 40 participants from three states, Maine, New Hampshire and Boston took part in a training session for facilitators of the study guide.
It is being given in other dioceses as well. Maine is offering it in a three-day retreat, at which the bishop will say the Mass. …
What do you view as the greatest threats to marriage and the family?
One of the greatest threats is, I believe, the present tendency towards androgyny and the confusion of roles between men and women.
This is why John Paul II continues to stress the role of the woman as mother.
No one can truly replace the mother in the family. This does not mean, as he says, that the woman should not contribute in the public square, but it must not be at the expense of the children, especially. We are at risk of raising a generation deprived of love in varying degrees. …
It has already been shown that divorce [also] poses a threat to children. If children are loved in a secure home they are much less likely to be tempted by drugs, out-of-wedlock sex or pornography. …
How can the family survive such threats?
I would put prayer and witness to faith at the top of the list, making Christ the center of family life. It is very important for the father to give example here.
Just a simple practice as grace before meals brings God to mind twice a day.
Family prayer in the evening is a more significant way for the family to be “domestic church.” And of course, Mass and the Eucharist as often as possible.
The parents must live their faith especially when it is difficult. Associating with other families who share the same Christian values both inside and outside the parish is also critical.
Being there for the children, taking time to listen and responding in a loving but firm way when they go off track is important. Children are bombarded with contrary messages and often the parent is the safest person to shock.
Usually the child simply needs reassurance that the message is unacceptable or untrue. Clear boundaries are a must. Children need to know what is expected of them.
Finally, mutual forgiveness. As parents we are fallible. We make mistakes and sometimes fly off the handle. Children will respect us if we apologize. It helps them accept their own humanness.
John Paul II also speaks about honoring our children, accepting them fully as unique persons made in the image of God.
----- EXCERPT: Mary Shivanandan of the John Paul II Institute for Studies for Marriage & Family ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Families' Priceless Gift to Free Society: Self-Giving Love DATE: 08/05/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 05-11, 2001 ----- BODY:by Jennifer Roback Morse
Spence Publishing Company, 2001
288 pages, $27.95
“Motherhood provoked me into writing this book,” explains Jennifer Roback Morse in the prologue to her insightful exploration of family, economic and political issues — though this is not a book most mothers would have written. After all, most women don't come to motherhood with the perspective of the professional economist. Morse, a Register columnist, taught economics for 15 years at Yale and George Mason University; now she is a research fellow of Stanford University's Hoover Institute and a senior research scholar of the Social Philosophy and Policy Center at Bowling Green State University.
Neither is this a book most economists would have written. Love and economics are unusual bedfel-lows. Moreover, Morse writes as one of those relatively rare intellectuals who allow their personal lives to act as a reality check on their professional theories.
Reality hit home for Morse in 1991, when she and her husband became the parents of two children — a naturally conceived daughter and an adopted 2-year-old boy from a Romanian orphanage. Up to that time, Morse's captivation with the ideas of free-market economics and libertarian political theory had inclined her toward a laissez-faire approach to family life, in which family members pursue their own self-interest within the framework of agreements with each other. Musing on the radically different developmental paths followed by her two children led her to a different view: The laissez-faire family does not make for either personal happiness or the common good of a free, democratic society.
Economic and political theorists, Morse explains, believe in the importance of rational, autonomous individuals who engage in transactions of mutual self-interest. Without them, limited government and free markets cannot function. Theorists consider such individuals “the social glue for the good society.” But, Morse points out, observations of children who have developed attachment disorders show that, by itself, being rational and autonomous is not social glue but social solvent. Lacking relationships with trustworthy adults, such children risk becoming calculating manipulators who are “unfit for social life” and who are “literally running the cost-benefit analysis on every opportunity for theft, lying, and cheating.”
Actually, Morse argues, theorists implicitly recognize this problem and assume that rational, autonomous individuals will restrain themselves in the interests of society. But the presence of socially responsible individuals in society cannot simply be assumed, Morse insists. “We are born as helpless babies,” she emphasizes. We must learn to be socially responsible.
The place where the social glue is created, Morse argues, is in the family — specifically, in the self-giving, committed love of a father and mother taking personal care of their own children. “The family performs a crucial and irreplaceable social function,” Morse explains. “Inside a family, helpless babies are transformed from self-centered bundles of impulses, desires, and emotions to fully socialized adults. The family teaches trust, cooperation, and self-restraint. The family is uniquely situated to teach these skills because people instill these qualities in their children as a side effect of loving them. Contracts and free political institutions, the foundations of a free society, require these attributes that only families can inculcate. Without loving families, no society can long govern itself.”
Read Love & Economics if you need convincing that there is no substitute for the traditional biological family. (Morse explores the deficiencies of private child-care, government programs and single parenthood.) Read it for big-picture perspective on the value of the countless humble tasks that comprise good parenting. Read it for enlightened recommendations for public policy priorities and for practical help in setting your own priorities for family life.
Finally, read Love & Economics for its thought-provoking discussion of love's workings in the family. Sometimes couched in the language of economics, sometimes in the language of apologetics or even meditation, Morse's reflections will leave you motivated to build a civilization of love, starting with your own home.
Louise Perrotta writes from St. Paul, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Louise Perrotta ----- KEYWORDS: Books -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 08/05/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 05-11, 2001 ----- BODY:William Bennett on Home Schooling
NACHE, July 22 — William Bennett, former U.S. Secretary of Education, discussed home schooling and his own home schooling curriculum, K12, in an address to the National Association of Home Education conference in the Washington, D.C., area July 22.
Bennett noted, “All of the empirical and anecdotal evidence point in one direction: with a lot less money, much less government oversight and regulation, and much less specialized ‘learning theory’ and hours spent on teacher certification, homeschooled children are outperforming their peers. I only wish there were a bit more freedom throughout the American education system.”
He praised “talented and hardworking school teachers” and the “hundreds, indeed thousands, of schools that are doing a solid job.” But, he added, “The family is the first, best, and original Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.”
By next year, Bennett said, K12 will cover six subjects (language arts/phonics, math, history, science, art, and music) for kindergarten, first and second grade. He said that home schoolers have not done as well in mathematics as in other areas, and hoped that K12's curriculum would help bring home schoolers’ math skills up to speed.
Mandatum Debate Spreads Beyond Catholic Universities
The article quoted several professors with different stances on the mandatum, a statement signed by a bishop certifying that the professor teaches in communion with the Church. Although some professors feared that the mandatum would cause them to lose credibility in others’ eyes and create “a binding obligation to the church,” as the June 1, 2002, mandatum deadline approaches, the Chronicle found that some of these professors were reconsidering their opposition after meeting with church officials.
The bishops proved to be more open to the theologians’ concerns than some of them had expected.
Although Gaile Pohlhaus, professor at Villanova University, was unsure whether she would seek the mandatum, she noted that it's part of a professor's job to present Catholic teachings fully and fairly. And Dennis Doyle, professor of religious studies at the University of Dayton, said he'd seek a mandatum because “Theology is a form of ministry, and it's something I do within the context of the church.”
Casino Cash Funds School Supplies
Last year's U.S. Supreme Court decision Mitchell v. Helms allowed local governments to provide instructional materials for private and religious schools. The equipment can be used only for agsecular, neutral and non-ideological purposes.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Family Matters DATE: 08/05/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 05-11, 2001 ----- BODY:More Month Than Money?
Q With us, there's always more month than there is money. How can we get out of this vicious cycle of spending more than we earn and never saving?
A Your question reminds me of two recent items in the news: First, the Commerce Department reported that the household savings rate was a negative 1.2% in May, the lowest level since the Great Depression and the second time that a negative savings rate has occurred this year.
In another story, and one that showed how even those with higher incomes find it easy to spend beyond their means, it was reported that Elton John has accumulated debts of over $40 million! He was spending at the rate of $400,000 each week on credit cards. While I've seen all types of situations as a result of the counseling I do, I have to admit I haven't run across credit card spending like that!
What's going on?
While there is no simple answer, I believe the problem is based on two primary problems. First, many families today earn a modest wage and, especially if managing their household on one income, truly have a challenge in just being able to meet their basic needs — let alone set aside any savings.
On the other hand, there are large numbers of people who generate very substantial incomes — even if not at the level of Elton John's — who still have difficulty keeping their spending in line with their income. At root, these folks are dealing with a spiritual battle as they search for happiness in material things rather than in a relationship with God.
Success at saving, no matter what your situation, requires an act of the will that is very difficult for most of us. Here are four steps that will help you start on the road to saving:
Step One. Develop an annual budget and track your actual spending according to the budget categories. Meet with your spouse at least once a quarter to compare the two and make adjustments as necessary.
Step Two. Be a comparative shopper. By obtaining bids on major purchases, including cars, appliances, home improvement projects, insurance policies and mortgages, you'll save thousands.
Step Three. Pay cash for major purchases. Psychologically, you'll spend less than you would with credit, because you'll have a greater appreciation for how difficult it was to save the money in the first place. In addition, you'll save thousands on the interest.
Step Four. Watch your entertainment and recreation dollars. Meals out, vacations, movies and cable TV add up quickly. Look for enjoyment in simple pleasures like walks, bike rides and days at the park.
With a little planning and a dose of fortitude, start the good habit of saving, and be on your way to financial freedom.
God love you!
Phil Lenahan is executive director of Catholic Answers.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Phil Lenahan ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of life -------- TITLE: Facts of Life DATE: 08/05/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 05-11, 2001 ----- BODY:The number of births in European Union countries rose by an average of 1.3% in the Jubilee year, 2000. France had the biggest increase. Only England and Finland experienced decreases.
----- EXCERPT: MORE BABIES IN FRANCE ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of life -------- TITLE: From Sea to Shining Sea DATE: 08/05/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 05-11, 2001 ----- BODY:It was on the outskirts of Los Angeles earlier in the summer. A woman pulled her car to the side of the road where three Crossroads participants were walking, got out of her car, and asked them what they were doing.
Ben Stalling, 27, of Reedville, Va., leader of the southern group, said the woman told the walkers she was planning to have an abortion, but that after talking to them, she decided she couldn't go through with it.
More than 20 college students and recent graduates who consider themselves abortion survivors are making a pilgrimage across the United States this summer to take the message of life to a generation they believe is at a crossroads in dealing with abortion.
Wearing T-shirts that say, “Pro-Life” on one side and “America Is Pro-Life” on the other, the walkers are following two routes, one from San Francisco across the northern half of the country, and the other from Los Angeles across the southern states.
Along the way, they are praying the rosary, offering up the discomfort of life on the road in atonement for abortion, speaking in churches, and reaching out to those who have grown up in a land where abortion is legal.
In keeping with the idea of a pilgrimage, they are walking in faith, depending on the kindness of strangers and God's Providence for food and supplies. On Aug. 11, they will meet in Washington, D.C., where the U.S. Supreme Court made abortion legal in 1973. Anyone born since then, they say, is a survivor.
“Those of us born after 1973 are the ones most affected by abortion because the majority of our brothers and sisters are not here anymore due to abortion,” said Adam Redmon, national director of the walk, known as Crossroads, and a two-time participant.
Redmon said many of those born since 1973 have never thought about abortion as anything other than a woman's right.
He said Crossroads’ mission is to educate the MTV generation that what they've been told about abortion is a lie. When they learn the facts, he said, “Usually, they just eat it up. They're thirsty for the truth. And when they leave, they seem very excited to do something.”
Forklift Brainstorm
Crossroads started in 1995 when Steve Sanborn, then a student at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, decided he wanted to do something for the pro-life movement.
During the summer of 1993, Sanborn, who now lives in Kansas City, Mo., said he was moved by the way television coverage of flooding along the Mississippi River centered on the “good news” of Americans’ willingness to help each other in times of trouble.
“I was sitting on a forklift on a dock on Kodiak Island when I thought, ‘I bet you could walk across the country, deliver a message, and make some kind of statement with the walk, and just rely on the help of people who believe in what you stand for and what you're doing.’”
Two years later, he led the first Crossroads walk from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., accompanied initially by eight Franciscan University students and an Australian priest who had spent a sabbatical year on the Ohio campus. By the end of the walk, their numbers had reached 15.
Sanborn said he was inspired by Pope John Paul II's 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life), in which the Holy Father says, “What is urgently called for is a general mobilization of consciences and a united ethical effort to activate a great campaign in support of life.”
After having started Crossroads in January that year, Sanborn said the Pope's message spoke loudly to him when it was released in March. “He was kind of putting the call out there — ‘Does anybody still care?’ We were saying, ‘Yeah, we do. Literally.’”
Early on, walk participants were mainly from Franciscan University, but since then, the effort has attracted students from all over the country and Canada, Redmon said.
Since its inception, about 250 walkers have been involved and about half have gone on to work in the pro-life movement full-time. “After they do the walk for three months, they want to stay involved,” Redmon said. “They want to fight this culture of death.”
Logistics of Life
Crossroads begins with training in Virginia at the headquarters of the American Life League, which recently made Crossroads one of its divisions. Participants then drive west to either Los Angeles or San Francisco to begin their walk. Next year, organizers hope to start a third route beginning in Portland, Ore.
Each Crossroads team is divided into a day group and a night group so that the walk can continue around the clock. A mini-van accompanies each team, transporting walkers to the road and carrying water and other supplies. A motor home and tent also are used to provide separate sleeping quarters for men and women. Cellular phones keep them connected with a central office that handles such details as setting up speaking engagements and contacting the media.
As a group, each team covers about 3,000 miles, with individuals walking 20 to 30 miles a day. Along the way, local youth groups are encouraged to join the walkers.
“A lot of miracles happen on the walk, especially when you're throwing everything out there for God to take care of,” Redmon said.
Members of the northern team shared the story of the L.A. woman Sunday night, July 22, at a church in Indianapolis, said Chris Weber, 25, of Hanover, Ontario, the northern team leader. Afterward, a woman approached the team and told them she too had been planning to have an abortion, but after hearing what they had to say, realized she could not do it.
“We get stories like that, and this is just the most recent one,” Weber said.
Sister Diane Carollo, director of the pro-life office of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, agreed that the Crossroads group made a significant impact as they passed through the area.
She emphasized that what the teams are actually doing makes people sit up and take notice.
“They are committed, zealous and authentically Christian,” Sister Carollo said. “They make a sacrificial pilgrimage and that gives a tremendous value to their witness.”
Sanborn said he takes solace in knowing that Crossroads has changed minds and saved lives, even in a morally relativistic society where semantics are used to justify anything.
“I think Crossroads is going to help because it turns a lot of heads when young people who could have been aborted themselves say ‘I'm against this because it's wrong, it's against God, it could have been me, it could have been you,’” said Sandborn.
“A new generation can put a new perspective on this for many people,” he said. “We have a new generation that it was OK to kill.”
Sanborn said Crossroads also has given hope to those born before 1973. “I think it's instilled confidence in older people that the fight's not going to die. A number of older people have cried when they met us because they said, ‘We thought it would be over when we're gone.’”
Judy Roberts writes from Millbury, Ohio.
----- EXCERPT: 3,000-Mile Walk Champions Life ----- EXTENDED BODY: Judy Roberts ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of life -------- TITLE: Pro-Life British Sisters Have Third-Millennium Style DATE: 08/05/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 05-11, 2001 ----- BODY:GLASGOW — Founding a religious order has never been an easy task. But it must be twice as difficult under the full-time gaze of the mass media.
Ever since Sister Roseann Reddy, 37, broke the news of the foundation of the Sisters of The Gospel of Life, in Glasgow, Scotland, in January 2000, the camera, the notebook and the microphone have never been far away.
The British Broadcasting Corporation even devoted one of its flagship documentaries on the birth of the first new British congregation since the 19th century.
Reddy had already been a high-profile figure, coordinator of the late Cardinal Thomas Winning's controversial pro-life initiative which was dubbed “cash for babies” by the media, when it was set up in March 1997 to help any woman with a crisis pregnancy.
But as the initiative developed — it has helped 374 babies and their moms — so did a deeper stirring in her soul, which had started five years earlier.
“In 1992, a priest friend of mine who was involved in the Faith Movement (a U.K. Catholic youth movement) asked me if I had ever thought of being a nun. I just laughed and said, ‘Why would I want to be a nun?” He said, ‘Because you love God and you want to serve him.’”
She recalled, “I have never been a person for half measures. When my priest friend said that, it struck something.”
Yet it was later that decade she took time out from the Pro Life Initiative, with the cardinal's blessing, and spent time with the Sisters of Life in New York.
“I had a very good experience with the sisters but I was convinced that we needed something similar in the U.K.”
The result was an informal gathering of women, who met under the watchful eye of the cardinal, a noted canon lawyer, and started meeting together to pray, reflect and study the Church's teaching on religious life.
“The Church has such rich and wise teaching on the religious life — we got most of the documents off the Internet,” she recalled.
Another essential text for the fledgling order was Pope John Paul's encyclical Evangelium Vitae, The Gospel of Life, which is studied with the rigor that novices in long-standing orders explore the charism of their founder.
Third-Millennium Model
One scene filmed by the BBC summed up the order for primetime viewers. Would-be sisters discussing their habit in a trendy wine bar with the immortal words, “We don't want anything too frumpy.”
This combination of media exposure and respect for Church norms has proved a great witness.
She laughed, “I have to go shopping late at night sometimes, as we cannot go to the supermarket without people stopping to talk to us either because of the habit or because they have seen us on TV.”
Armed with a lethal combination of sharp intellect and a stand-up comedian's gift of timing, she can give a robust, but compassionate, apologetic for the Church's teaching on sexuality and pro-life issues to any audience from the most cynical media sophisticate to hormone-charged teens.
Sister Roseann admits she too, once fell for the pro-choice line.
“I used to believe it was a woman's right to choose when I was a teen-ager. Like many people, I didn't know what I was talking about! But that didn't stop me holding these opinions.”
Her views started to shift radically following Pope John Paul II's visit to Scotland in 1982.
“He spoke about the need, when you choose for your future, not to choose for yourself alone. He said whatever decision you make, you should make a decision that will last,” she said. “This had quite an impact on me, I had left high school and was unemployed. My mum had died the year before and I had given up my job to look after my dad and my three brothers.
“Mother Teresa came to a big pro-life rally the same year. She made it seem so simple and so important that we did something.”
Over a period of time she ended up working for the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child (known as SPUC) and later for the Glasgow Archdiocese Pastoral Care Department.
One of her former bosses, John Smeaton, Director of SPUC, has no doubt about the significance of both the pro-life initiative and the formation of the Sisters of the Gospel of Life.
“I think both the pro-life initiative and the work of Sister Roseann Reddy are prophetic. The Pope said in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae that we have to build a culture of life in the face of the current culture of death and the pro-life initiative and the sisters are part of this.”
Pro-choice groups have given a curious reaction to the initiative and the sisters with a marked absence of feminist rancor against celibate women engaging in pro-life counselling.
More Than Choice
Even Amanda Callaghan, Public Affairs Manager of British Pregnancy Advisory Service, one of the United Kingdom's main abortion promoters, seemed unwilling to criticize the foundress.
“Sister Roseann, whatever her religious beliefs are,” said Callaghan, “is not trying to stop anybody having an abortion. She is just helping women who have already made that decision to go through with the pregnancy and are looking for help.”
But the nun's ministry is more than that. Take “Bernadette,” who gave this testimony on the BBC documentary.
“It was actually my boyfriend that contacted the Pro-life Initiative as I wanted an abortion and he had strong views against it,” she said.
“I was frightened, guilty and devastated.
“I am not stupid or easily influenced but I am so grateful that people actually tried to stop this and help and support people by listening. So many babies die because of fear. I feel so guilty that mine was very nearly one of them.”
The sisters currently number Sister Roseann and cofounder Sister Andrea Fraile; they are due to be joined another novice in September.
They are opting for slow but sustained growth underpinned by a sustained community prayer life, including daily Mass, eucharistic adoration and the recital of the Pope's prayer from Evangelium Vitae.
The sisters are currently undergoing the painstaking but vital work of writing their constitution and for three years will scale down their role with the Pro-Life Initiative for the intense spiritual stage of their formation.
Their only regret is that their mentor, Cardinal Winning, died June 17 this year, and will not be able to celebrate Mass for their final vows.
“He celebrated Mass in our oratory for our first vows. He gave a 25-minute homily for just the two of us, it was amazing,” recalled Sister Roseann.
They are preparing for the long haul yet paradoxically Sister Roseann has this vision: “I pray for the day when an order like ours will not be needed because all life is respected from conception to natural death.”
But she added, “I cannot see it happening just yet.”
Paul Burnell writes from Manchester, England.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Paul Burnell ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of life -------- TITLE: LIFE NOTES DATE: 08/05/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 05-11, 2001 ----- BODY:Spain Encourages Pregnancy
According to United Nations figures, Spain's birth rate is the world's lowest, plummeting to fewer than 1.2 births per woman — well below the 2.1 rate needed for a generation to replace itself.
Spanish demographer Juan Antonio Fernandez says with fewer babies born each year, Spaniards, on average, are getting older. As the balance tips further, he says he fears the country's social-welfare system, particularly its pension plan, will collapse.
No Right to Money
The justices said although the right of privacy in Florida's Constitution “protects a woman's right to choose an abortion,” it does not give her “an entitlement to the financial resources to avail herself of this choice.”
The decision lets stand a rule that prohibits state money from being spent on abortions, except in cases of rape or incest or when needed to save a woman's life.
Methodists on Stem Cells …
GENERAL BOARD OF CHURCH AND SOCIETY, UNITED METHODIST CHURCH, July 17 — Jim Winkler, the general secretary of the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society, sent a letter to President Bush, a member of the United Methodist church, urging him to continue to impose “an extended moratorium” on human embryo stem cell research.
Winkler wrote in the letter, “Such practices seem to be destructive of human dignity and speed us further down the path that ignores the sacred dimensions of life and personhood and turns life into a commodity to be manipulated, controlled, patented and sold.”
And Bret Schundler
Schundler called on Bush to instead increase funding for adult stem cell research, an alternative that does not involve the destruction of human embryos.
He said, “Recent scientific studies have shown that adult stem cell research holds the most promise in finding new treatments and cures to some of mankind's most serious infirmities.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of life -------- TITLE: St. Thérèse, World Traveler, En Route to Canada DATE: 08/12/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 12-18, 2001 ----- BODY:VANCOUVER, British Columbia — On Sept. 16, the reliquary of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus — the Little Flower — will fly into Vancouver for the start of a three-month tour of Canada. After visiting 41 of Canada's 63 Catholic dioceses, it will fly out of Halifax on Dec. 15, returning the saint to her home in Lisieux, France.
It seems a little strange that a shy young nun who never left her convent in rural Normandy should now be a patron saint of missionaries. But in 1997, to mark the centenary of her death, the Little Flower's relics began traveling the world.
St. Thérèse's bones are now visiting their 22nd country, Bosnia-Herzegovina, on a tour that is cloaked in secrecy because of the religious feuding there. Canada will be their 23rd country in the past four years. And after Canada, they go to Africa.
“She'll break all the records in Canada, like she has everywhere else,” says Father Donald Kinney, a Carmelite monk from Idaho, who accompanied St Thérèse's bones on their 1999–2000 American tour.
“People are so interested in this little Carmelite nun,” he adds. “And it's so ironic, because she said all she ever wanted was to lead a hidden life.”
Father Kinney says the great attraction of St. Thérèse is her Little Way, a kind of spiritual antidote to the negative aspects of modernity. The Little Way is defined by her words, “We cannot all do great things, but we can all do little things with great love” — put into practice by Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and quoted by President Bush at his inauguration.
The popularity of the Little Flower is phenomenal. Over 15 million people visited St. Thérèse's remains in Mexico, and over a million more during her 1999–2000 tour of the United States. The tour of the Philippines last year included a visit to death row at the National Prison outside Manila, where 33 presumably hardened convicts reached out to touch the 300-pound, four-foot reliquary containing her bones.
But nowhere has the saint shown her capacity for transforming of a nation like she has in Ireland.
There, between Easter Sunday, April 15, and July 1, her reliquary drew a third of the nation's 4 million people. Over 75,000 people trooped through Dublin's cathedral on the evening the relics first arrived there.
“It was most unexpected,” said Carmelite Father Linus Ryan of Dublin's Terenure College, who accompanied the saint's bones throughout Ireland.
“We had 115 venues, at churches all over the country,” he said. “And the schedule was two hours on the road” — in a Mercedes van dubbed the Thérèse-mobile — “and then 22 hours at a church. The churches stayed open all night, and there were long lines, sometimes a half-mile long, from 8 in the evening till 2 a.m.”
Even more moving, Father Ryan said, were the number of small churches along the route that weren't scheduled for a stop. “But there'd be a crowd, 200 or 300 people with the local priest, standing by the road as we'd be driving by. Of course it put us off schedule, but we'd have to stop for a few minutes. There'd be this great silence. It was very dignified. The hand of God was there.”
Father Ryan calls the Irish response to St. Thérèse “the greatest mass movement of our people in history,” and he rejects vehemently any suggestion it might be “a mile wide and an inch deep” and amount to a superficial attraction to the saint.
“The people of Ireland have had an economic boom for over 12 years, and they're discovering money doesn't guarantee happiness,” he says. “The people are searching for meaning; and into the middle of this comes this young saint, with her great love of God -and who doesn't like a good love story?”
The result, Father Ryan says, has been “a massive return to the sacraments, especially the sacrament of penance. Priests all over the country are saying there's been a return to confession by people who've been away from the sacrament for 10 or 20 years.”
Brief, Beautiful Life
Born in 1873, Thérèse Martin entered a Carmelite convent at Lisieux at the age of 15. Eight years after she joined the convent, she took ill and began spitting up blood from tuberculosis. In 1897, at age 24, she died, unknown to the world. Her funeral was attended by 30 people.
After her death, however, the nuns in Thérèse's convent obtained permission to print her autobiographical notebooks. Published a year later, The Story of a Soul became an instant classic. It is considered by many to be the single greatest spiritual work of modern times.
American Carmelite Father Kinney says that it's precisely the Little Flower's anonymity with which modern people identify, and her simplicity which they seek.
“Our lives are so impersonal and so complex, it becomes so easy for people to think that their lives don't matter,” says Father Kinney. “But as Thérèse's Little Way says, in God's eyes, we're not important for the great things we do, but for the love with which we do them.”
Father Kinney defends the practice of honoring the relics of the saints.
“Even in the New Testament, some of St. Paul's clothing was saved as a relic,” he says. “We don't concentrate on her bones, as such. Having her bones there is just the occasion (for grasping) her message of merciful love.”
Within a decade of her death, Thérèse of Lisieux had become an object of popular devotion. By 1923, her convent received 800 to 1,000 letters a day, reporting favors received through her intercession. She was canonized in 1925; and in October 1997, Pope John Paul II named her a doctor of the Church, putting her among the Church's two-dozen most-honored theologians. Not bad for a young woman with almost no formal schooling.
Canadian Snows
Gerald Baril, secretary of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops committee coordinating the visit of St. Thérèse's relics, says the planning has been going on for a year and a half. Most of the dioceses throughout Canada will have them for two or three days, and in the far northern Labrador City-Schefferville Diocese, the reliquary will yet be traveling by snowmobile.
In addition to the expected vigils with the local bishops in attendance, some of the dioceses are planning trips to schools, penitentiaries and youth events.
Father Myles Gaffney, coordinator for the visit to the western Diocese of Calgary, says St. Thérèse's youthfulness and simplicity explain part of her appeal for modern folk — “doing ordinary things with such great care, doing everything for Christ.” In addition, however, “her influence today is obviously so great before the throne of God. Miracles and graces beyond number have been due to her inter-cession.”
Joe Woodard writes from Calgary, Alberta.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joe Woodard ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: EWTN at 20: A Powerhouse Online, Too DATE: 08/12/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 12-18, 2001 ----- BODY:BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — On Aug. 15, when Eternal Word Television Network celebrates its 20th anniversary, it will reach an audience of millions — on the World Wide Web.
There it will reach Catholics like Ray Mutzel, who started an EWTN fan-club e-mail mailing list in early 2000, and says “EWTN has certainly become my ‘prima facto’ source” for everything Catholic.
And it will reach converts like Michelle Parker who says she frequents the Q&A section because, “I find a lot of useful information in those forums that I did not know.”
The popularity of the Web site is the newest twist to the story of a television network started on a wimple and a prayer. On Aug. 15, 1981, Mother Mary Angelica, a cloistered Poor Clare of Perpetual Adoration, flipped the switch on a television station with very few programs and exactly $200 in the garage of her monastery in Irondale, Ala., a suburb of Birmingham.
As of a month ago, the only two countries in the Western Hemisphere that did not carry EWTN were Cuba and Canada. But, as if a birthday present, Canada's bureaucratic Canada Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission finally granted permission in late July for EWTN to send its signal to Canada. And on Aug. 15 EWTN will also be expanding its digital radio service to Europe and the Middle East.
But it was only in 1995 that Mother Angelica started the most recent — and most widely accessible — of her global Catholic network's ministries: EWTN online (www.ewtn.com).
The “global Catholic network” as they call it, today reaches about 66 million households in 43 countries with a budget of about $29 million and under 300 employees.
But it is this Web site that makes EWTN truly global in a most expansive way. If you have a phone line and a modem, or you have access to EWTN every day, 24 hours a day.
If you live in New York City, for instance, and cable and radio competition means the no-frills EWTN is not on either your television or radio, just install free RealPlayer software on your computer, and you can listen to WEWN radio live. Or watch the latest or archived episodes of Mother Angelica Live, the station's flagship program, or any other of the network's offerings.
Thousands of Pages
EWTN's Web site began when it absorbed a site called the Catholic Resource Network, which collected Catholic documents, including encyclicals and writings of Church fathers.
According to Netscape's “What's Related” feature, EWTN has 7,342 pages. For comparison, the Vatican has 5,524, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops 2,602.
EWTN online's biggest draw, according to Web master Sam Ranelli, is the question-and-answer section.
The other component of the Web site that makes it a resource is its document library, which current holds more than 7,000 Catholic documents. They add about 400 new documents to the collection annually.
“Since EWTN acquired the Web site from CRNET in 1996 we have concentrated on official Church texts. We no longer accept, for example, private submissions from individuals,” says Colin B. Donovan, vice president for theology at EWTN. “This better corresponds to our mission to evangelize with the teaching of the Church. We believe we do the greatest good by concentrating our resources on making available the writings, speeches and other texts of the Holy Father and his collaborators in the Holy See.”
The most recent addition to the site is an “Eastern Catholic Churches” forum to the Q&A section. Says Donovan, who oversees the Q&A sections, “This enables us to breathe with both lungs of the Church, East and West, thereby enriching Latin Catholics and others with the wonderful Christian patrimony of Eastern Christianity.” He says, “The reaction has been overwhelmingly positive, from both Roman-rite and Eastern Catholics.”
Says Donovan of the forums, “Since the forums are open to all, the questions are as varied as people's knowledge and interest in the faith. They deal with the mundane, as well as scholarly matters, and some are even antagonistic toward the Faith and the Church.'”
Generally, during the day, the traffic on the site increases around lunch time, as people check the site for the readings of the day, the homily (available from the “Daily Mass” which airs live from EWTN's main campus and is repeated throughout the day). The traffic peaks again in the evening when people tend to make use of the Q&A section of the site.
The site's main page typically reflects the liturgical calendar, with some appropriate art image. “If there is something special going on, like a canonization or a papal visit,” Sam Ranelli says, “the home page will take on the look of television,” using whatever images the art department has developed as a logo.
Recently, the site's home page has featured a special St. Ann's Novena “that U.S. President George Bush will cooperate with God's grace in preventing stem cell research on preborn human babies.”
Features on the site also include a collection of updated news links, from various Catholic news services, as well as an online religious catalogue, and the option to donate to EWTN online. Browsers may also request tickets for live shows, Mother Angelica's mini-books (which are also available online), or rosaries.
Currently the EWTN Web staff is developing a children's section of the Web site, which will include animation, catechism lessons, and other teaching tools for parents. Says Ranelli, it will be an essential part of the site, since “children are growing up on the Internet.”
“Five years ago,” says Michael Warsaw, president of EWTN, the Internet component was just “another medium for us to use in spreading the Gospel.
“[N]one of us who were involved in that decision could have ever imagined the extent to which Our Lord would use that service to expand the reach of EWTN.”
A simple Web site now reaches millions of visitors each month. Why?
“They want the truth,” said Warsaw. “That's what they find in all of EWTN's services.”
Kathryn Jean Lopez, an associate editor of National Review, is executive editor of National Review Online (www.nationalreview.com).
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kathryn Jean Lopez ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Fight To Prevent The Clone Age DATE: 08/12/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 12-18, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON, D.C. — Somewhere in the world today, in secret laboratories, scientists are preparing to clone a human being. “We're doing it right now as we speak,” Panos Zavos, the Lexington, Ky., fertility doctor who announced he and a consortium of scientists would produce a human baby clone by 2003, said in a telephone interview in late July.
Zavos also said he was completely undeterred by a bill in the House of Representatives to ban all human cloning in the United States. The Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2001, introduced by Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Fla., passed the House decisively July 31 by a vote of 265-162.
It would make any attempt to clone a human being by using somatic cell nuclear transfer (the process used to clone Dolly the sheep and several other animal species) a federal crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison or a $1 million fine.
“We don't intend to break any laws,” said Zavos, director of the Andrology Institute of America. “We're not going to work in the United States.”
Zavos and his partner, Italian Severino Antinori, who has specialized in helping post-menopausal women — including a 62-year-old — to get pregnant, are at the front of a pack of maverick scientists racing to be first to clone a human.
They claim to have the support of thousands of infertile and homosexual couples, and parents grieving the loss of dead children. “One thousand couples have asked us for assistance in making a human clone,” Zavos said. “The demand is tremendous internationally.”
Rep. Weldon introduced his bill in April after Zavos and other pro-cloning researchers triggered alarm bells.
But in June, Rep. Jim Greenwood, DPa., introduced a competing bill. Pro-lifers tagged it “The Clone and Kill Act,” because it sought to prohibit so-called reproductive cloning, in which an embryo is implanted into a woman to be delivered, while allowing so-called therapeutic cloning, where human embryos are created then destroyed to allow their inner mass of stem cells to be harvested for research.
Critics pointed out that the Greenwood bill would not have banned cloning at all. Instead, it would have served to make trying to save the life of a cloned embryo, by implanting it, a crime.
Moreover, some experts, such as David Prentice, life sciences professor at Indiana State University School of Medicine and scientific adviser to Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., don't believe legislation like that introduced by Greenwood would even prevent “reproductive” cloning.
The bill called only for a ban on human cloning “with the intent to initiate pregnan cy.” Intentions can change, Prentice noted. “The wording is too vague,” he said.
U.S. Research Underway
Last month's announcement by the Worcester, Mass.-based Advanced Cell Technology, known for animal cloning experiments, that it is attempting to clone human embryos with hopes of farming them for stem cells, fired the House debate on Weldon's bill.
Therapeutic cloning advocates claimed harvesting cloned embryo stem cells could lead to cures for diseases from diabetes and Parkinson's.
“Why would we condemn the world and future generations not to have this miracle?” Greenwood said.
To that argument, Brownback, who has co-sponsored a bill in the Senate paralleling Weldon's legislation, said, “We have an answer. God has provided us with wonderful alternatives in adult human stem cells and stem cells from [newborn's] umbilical cord blood.”
Research with adult stem cells is already producing positive results in human patients, a claim which no embryonic stem cell researcher can make, he added.
Brownback called Greenwood's bill “utilitarian” and criticized its “lack of respect for each human being as a unique, never to be repeated child of the living God.” To allow human cloning for any reason, he believes, will inevitably lead to a culture of eugenics and to breeding and genetic modification of humans for superior qualities.
Perhaps with this fear in mind, the House rejected an amendment to the Weldon bill, based on Greenwood's competing bill, which would have allowed therapeutic cloning for research.
Bishop Elio Sgreccia, vice president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, commended the House after the vote. He told Vatican Radio the bill “successfully harmonizes the logic of ethics, as regards human life, with scientific logic.”
President Bush, who is still weighing a related decision whether to allow federal funding of “therapeutic” stem cell research on cells derived from so-called leftover human embryos in fertility clinics, expressed similar support for the House vote.
Said Bush, “We must advance the promise and cause of science but must do so in a way that honors and respects life.”
But before Bush can sign the anti-cloning bill into law, after the August recess it must pass the Senate where it is expected to face stronger opposition. “There are not the same quantity of pro-lifers [as in the House],” said Brownback.
However, Brownback was surprised by the strong margin for the Weldon bill in the House, and he is hopeful liberal Democratic Senators will support a total cloning ban because they “see cloning more as a [human] manufacturing issue.”
Even adamant supporters of therapeutic stem cell research are troubled by human cloning, Brownback added, citing the recent comment by Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., that he was “very uncomfortable” with cloning.
Daschle said July 31 that he was “opposed to the effort to clone under virtually any circumstances,” Associated Press reported.
In his formal remarks to President Bush at their July 23 meeting at Castel Gandolfo, Italy, Pope John Paul II said, “Experience is already showing how a tragic coarsening of consciences accompanies the assault on innocent human life in the world, leading to accommodation and acquiescence in the face of other related evils such as euthanasia, infanticide, and, most recently, proposals for the creations for research purposes of human embryos destined to destruction in the process.”
Added the Pope, “A free and virtuous society, which America aspires to be, must reject practices that devalue and violate human life at any stage from conception to natural death.”
But researcher Zavos is not budging on his 2003 deadline for creating the world's first human clone. He and Antinori have already begun developing tissue cultures to assist cloning technology in laboratories outside the U.S.
“We've got two laboratories in two different places because, as the phrase goes,” Zavos said, “you should never put all your eggs in one basket.”
Weldon believes his bill, if it becomes law, will make Zavos and scientists like increasingly ostracized by sending a message that they are criminals and restricting their options as the international community moves to prohibit cloning, as major nations such as France and Germany have done already.
Technical Hurdles
Zavos also faces tremendous technical hurdles. Animal cloners have cited high miscarriage rates (90% in the first trimester of pregnancy) and numerous unexplained complications — squashed faces, obesity, immune disorders, and mysterious deaths of clones and their mothers.
As well, cloned animal babies and placentas are gigantic. A cloned human baby could weigh 12 or 15 pounds at birth. “They could kill a woman trying to do this,” said Weldon.
In July, Rudolph Jaenisch of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Mass., and his colleagues published their findings that healthy, cloned mice possess a subtle “instability” in their genes that causes some genes to be expressed abnormally. The study, published in the journal Science, suggests that cloning causes fundamental errors.
Zavos, however, is unfazed. “I have a track record that is second to none,” he boasted at congressional hearings in the spring. “Those experiences cannot be diluted by just a few dead cattle out there in Texas.”
During those same hearings, Rep. Steve Largent, R-Okla., offered a chilling assessment of where that kind of thinking would lead humanity.
Said Largent, “Human cloning represents the first footstep into a dark wilderness from which we may never emerge.”
Celeste McGovern writes from Portland, Oregon.
----- EXCERPT: House bans human cloning; scientists vow to press on ----- EXTENDED BODY: Celeste Mcgovern ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Marriage in the USA DATE: 08/12/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 12-18, 2001 ----- BODY:Reading the 2001 “State of Our Unions” report reminds you of the opening lines of Charles Dickens' Tale of Two Cities: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” The report, issued annually by Barbara Whitehead and David Popenoe's National Marriage Project at Rutgers University, charts trends and attitudes regarding marriage in the United States.
This year's report, “Who Wants to Marry a Soul Mate?”, released in June, continues research begun last year on the largely neglected area of dating. What are today's 20-somethings looking for in the dating world and, more importantly, what are they looking for in a future spouse?
They're looking for the best — a soul mate with whom to share an “intimate community of … love” (to pirate Vatican II). They're also believing the worst: Cohabitation, they think, will help them find that soul mate. In other words, they want a spouse with whom to share the deepest feelings, but they're inclined to buy some of today's prevailing orthodoxies hook, line and sinker. For example, less than half (42%) think finding a spouse of the same religion is important.
Reading this report suggests that Catholic young-adult, family-life and preCana programs have a tough row to hoe. Nonetheless, there are embers worth kindling. Some 86% of young adults recognize that “marriage is hard work,” while 88% think the divorce rate is too high and America would be better off with fewer divorces.
The report also points up brushfires worth extinguishing. For example, 62% deem it acceptable for an adult woman to have an out-of-wedlock child if she hasn't yet found the “right” man to marry. While almost 9 out of 10 think there's too much divorce, only 47% want to change the law to make divorce more difficult to obtain. Around 80% say marriage is the business of nobody but the two people involved.
Whitehead and Popenoe sum up their data this way: Marriage is seen as “emotionally deep and socially shallow.”
Alien Arrangements
What does this mean for Catholics? That we must contend with the toxin of the sexual revolution that has privatized marriage and sexual relations. Young people now widely believe that society has no legitimate interest in marriage, the building block of society. Nearly half the respondents, 45%, do not believe the state should even license marriages.
In such a worldview, marriage is not a natural institution. It has no inherent properties, no natural contours. It is a purely conventional arrangement, a contract whose terms are defined by the two parties and nobody else.
Such a viewpoint obviously is incompatible with the Catholic faith. Not that we stand alone on that front — a privatized notion of marriage is without precedent in human history. Except for the last three decades or so, the idea that society has no legitimate interest in the arrangements by which it is continued is utterly alien to history and anthropology. The track record of the last 30 years indicates that the long stretches of human history knew something we are determined to ignore.
“State of Our Unions” also reports that American marriages are increasingly losing their “child-centeredness.” Conventional wisdom in America today denies that parents should avoid divorce “for the sake of the children,” even though social science increasingly amasses data indicating that children do much better when parents stay together.
Whitehead and Popenoe note that since 1975 “the presence of children in a marriage has become only a very minor inhibitor of divorce.” In an international survey, U.S. respondents lead the world in disagreeing (about 70%) with the proposition that “the main purpose of marriage is having children.”
Don't interpret this to mean that children are irrelevant. If marriage is OK without kids, so are kids without marriage. The Whitehead-Popenoe study tapped into an ongoing survey of high-school seniors conducted since 1976 by the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research. In the period 1991–95, a majority of girls (53.3%) agreed for the first time that “having a child without being married is experimenting with a worthwhile lifestyle or not affecting anyone else.” The majority of boys (51.0%) surprisingly only concurred later, in the period 1996–99. By that time, female support only increased, up to 56.4%.
Marriage and family are distinct institutions, as Karol Wojtyla noted in Love and Responsibility (1960), but in the ordinary situation the former leads to the latter. Children are also not merely achievements to be tacked on to one's curriculum vitae, however loudly the biological clock may be ticking. What the Rutgers report suggests, however, is that increasing numbers of young people no longer “hear” what Humanae Vitae had to say about the indissolubility of the procreative-unitive nexus of the sexual act. Humanae Vitae in some ways presupposes a “culture” — a culture of life — that finds resonance in the larger culture in which young people are living. The Rutgers data suggest that the general failure of the Church in the U.S. to address this issue long-term, and not just as a check-off on the PreCana inventory, represents either gross ignorance of long-term cultural trends or the dirty little secret of silent complicity in them.
Cohabitation Confuses
The data on cohabitation is even more disturbing. Notwithstanding the ever-growing data indicating that premarital cohabitation is bad for marital health, 62% of respondents say that living together is a good way to avoid divorce. Some 43% even said they would “only marry someone who agreed to live together first.” In the period 1996–99, strong majorities of both male (65.6%) and female (58.9%) high-school seniors also generally agreed that premarital cohabitation is a good index of marital compatibility.
Some of the report's insights build on research into dating begun by the National Marriage Project last year. In its 2000 report, “Sex without Strings, Relationships without Rings,” the project reported that 54% of young singles agreed there are people with whom they would have sex whom they wouldn't marry. In this new ethic, young people do distinguish between casual sexual encounters and premarital “soul-mate” relationships. Paradoxically, 6 out of 10 young unmarried women agree that they “wish guys would be more interested in them as a person and less as a sex object.”
Examining the present situation, one can see how much water has passed under the bridge in the past 25 years since Persona Humana, the Vatican Declaration on Sexual Ethics, issued in 1976. When was the last time you heard the word “fornication?” Probably even more remotely, when was the last time you heard fornication called a sin?
The 2000 report indicated that the median age when Americans now marry (males 27, females 25) is the oldest in U.S. history. Age can bring maturity. It can also bring less elastic people more settled in their ways. When ideals clash with reality, the “soul mate” can be less prone to compromise. This fixation on my ideals is put under even greater stress when kids arrive: Howling infants with dirty diapers are generally unconcerned about their parents' self-fulfillment. Searching for a soul mate can be an expression of the deepest aspirations of marriage to form a communio personarum. But it can also be justification for a sterile (and ultimately doomed) egoisme-a-deux.
“Who Wants to Marry a Soul Mate?” studies a broad sample of young people today standing on the threshold of marriage. While it does not single out Catholics for special examination, I have no reason to believe the thinking of the average young American Catholic would substantially differ from that of the general population. One would hope it would; in-depth intramural research is needed. Pessimistically, however, I don't think the research would produce radically different results.
That said, Catholic family-life leaders ignore this report at the peril of designing and promoting useless family-life and marriage-preparation programs that do not address what is going on in the larger culture. Priests ignore it at the peril of not understanding what's happening in the pews. Catholic spouses-to-be need to know what stresses and challenges they will face. And Catholic parents need it to guide their kids in a world very different from the one in which they married.
John M. Grondelski, a moral theologian, writes from Warsaw.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John M. Grondelski ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: From Russia, With Hope DATE: 08/12/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 12-18, 2001 ----- BODY:Life is still tough in Russia. Just ask Father Dan Maurer — the second publicly ordained Catholic priest in Russia since the 1917 revolution.
He currently serves Most Holy Mother of God parish in Vladivostok, in the far east of Russia, and is one of only two Catholic priests in their region. Father Maurer recently spoke with Register features correspondent Tim Drake.
Where are you from? Tell me about your family.
I'm originally from Benton Harbor, Mich. I have a twin brother David and another brother, Roger, who is 11 months older. One month out of the year all three of us are the same age, so there is some sibling rivalry in the family.
My father is a retired stockbroker and my mother was a housewife.
What led to your vocation?
My vocation has always been to religious life first, and secondly as a priest. What led to it was daily Mass in Catholic grade school as a child. I loved Mass and felt it was a special place, so I wanted to continue that. I had two aunts that were Sisters of St. Joseph of Nazareth and two uncles that were Dominican seminarians. My grandmother was a Third Order Dominican.
I was going to be a Dominican, but during seventh grade a Crosier priest came to my school and I fell in love with the habit of the Crosier. After that I went to Our Lady of the Lake Crosier seminary in Syracuse, Ind. I had no idea where Syracuse was, but as it turned out it was only 75 miles away from my home. I loved every minute of it and graduated as the valedictorian.
What led you to Russia?
Following the upheaval after the Second Vatican Council, I left the Crosiers. A fellow Crosier and friend, Father Myron Effing, founded a new order of Canons Regular of Jesus the Lord. I decided to join him in the new order. Originally we were going to serve on the island of Guam, but our proposal was turned down. Father Effing had read in an Aid to the Church in Need newsletter that there would soon be a great need in the Soviet Far East and so that was our original inspiration to go to Russia.
We went to Russia because we wanted a place that needed the charism, and where we would be free to establish the charism without obstructions. We wear a full habit and we are completely faithful to Tradition and the magisterium. Yet, we are not throwbacks. We're in the modern Church, but we want to be Catholic. In 1987 there were few places in the modern Church where you could do that and obtain the sponsorship of a bishop. …
We asked to go to Russia before the fall. We wrote to the Vatican and submitted our references in 1990. We finally heard from the Vatican in June of 1991, obtained our visas, and went to Vladivostok in February of 1992.
Explain what Russia was like when you arrived.
I had absolutely no preparation and was very naive about everything. I knew that this had been a Catholic center, and I thought we were going to find Catholics. Vladivostok had the largest Catholic parish in the Asian part of Russia, so we knew that our first job would be to find the Catholics and invite them back.
We now know that there had been probably 15,000 Catholics in that parish. After more than nine years we have only been able to find six baptized Catholics who remember the Church before it was closed in 1930. Everyone else has been either killed or dispersed, so we really had to start from scratch.
Those six Catholics were little girls at the time of the repression and they grew up without the faith. When we got there they were all over the age of 70 and didn't know anything. They knew only that their parents had baptized them Catholic, that it was important to them and that if they ever got the chance they would return.
Russia is the only place in the world today, except for Communist North Korea, where the Church has to begin again from nothing. There were 300 Catholic parishes before the revolution of 1917 and during the Communist period there were two that were allowed to remain open in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
The only reason that those two were allowed to remain open is because they were the property of the French government and the French government insisted that they remain open as a condition for having diplomatic relations with Russia. So they were open but they didn't always have a priest and when they did have a priest sometimes the priest wasn't allowed to talk to Russian citizens.
What have you found are the most pervasive problems in post-Communist Russia?
The problems are so pervasive it is hard to explain them without depressing others. Communism killed the spirit of the Russian people. There is no spirit left to them. There is a glassy look in their eyes and no hope, especially in the older generation because they are the ones that gave their lives to Communism and now they understand that there was something wrong with that. Yet, they don't want to understand how deeply there was something wrong with that. The average life expectancy during the last 10 years, since the fall of communism, has dropped down to 57 and I think that it is because people do not have any hope.
Another problem is the family is completely destroyed. The family is the main unit of culture where you learn how to love and share and how to connect with people. We just attended a family conference to try to understand the problems of the Russian family and the statistic that kept being repeated at this conference was that 80% of Russian marriages will end in divorce in the first four years.
About five or six years ago, someone asked me what Russian family life was like. They asked, “What do fathers do with their children?” Almost every Russian I know does not know who their father is. If 80% of marriages end in divorce in four years, who would remember their father? When the father leaves, they have no input into their children's lives. The mother raises the children.
Russia was the first country in the world to legalize abortion, in 1921. It was the only way to limit the size of the family throughout the Communist period. There was no contraception or family planning. Now, because Russians are so demoralized with such a lack of hope for the future, the average Russian woman will have multiple abortions during her childbearing lifetime. I have talked to women in the confessional that have had as many as 35. That is a holocaust of the spirit. The whole country is post-abortive and angry.
Another difficulty is alcoholism. It's rampant and at least three times higher than it is in the U.S. Traditionally, there was no way of dealing with alcoholism because the only real way we have found of dealing with it is through AA. AA is based upon a higher power and in Communism there is no higher power.
How are you responding to these problems?
We have started the first crisis pregnancy centers in all of Russia. We were able to open the first one in Vladivostok three years ago with the help of trainers from Dayton, Ohio. Since then we have opened two more in other outlying parishes. Our hope is that we might open one in each of our 11 parishes. We estimate that it will cost between $7,000 and $10,000 to start each center.
Currently there are four AA groups in Vladivostok. Outside of Vladivostok the nearest AA group is perhaps 5,000 miles away.
Do people seem to be returning to the faith?
Not in any numbers. Our parish has grown from those original six women to 400 people. While that is nice, we are in a city of 1 million, so that's a 100th of 1% of the population.
The Communists did a very thorough job of convincing the general population that religion is superfluous. They taught people that you have to be weak or stupid or crazy to need to believe in God and who wants to be thought of as weak or stupid or crazy? Therefore people are not flocking back. The group that is coming back the most are the young adults with children because they have the least to lose. The hardest group to get are the elders because they gave their lives to Communism and it is very difficult for them to admit to themselves that they were so deeply wrong and what they always knew to be true is now false.
How has your presence there positively impacted individual lives?
I have had the privilege of giving first Communion to people in their 70s that were baptized as Catholics as babies, but who were never able to make their first Communion because the revolution came. They receive the Body and Blood of Christ with tears streaming down their faces. It is a wonderful privilege to feel that the Lord has used us to complete the initiation process for these Christians.
In addition, our parish combines the corporal and spiritual works of mercy by feeding the elderly poor, feeding children on the streets, providing clothing and medicine distribution, and sending home-health-care nurses to visit the elderly poor in their homes.
The Communists always told people that the Church is just out to get what it can get, not for what it can give, so when people see Catholic Christians of any kind really giving of themselves and their time, it is an argument for the faith that they cannot ignore completely.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father Dan Maurer ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: A Church Divided: Feuding Christians Go to Federal Court DATE: 08/12/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 12-18, 2001 ----- BODY:ACCOKEEK, Md. — An intense legal battle between the female Episcopal bishop of Washington and a conservative Maryland rector who rejects her authority has spilled into a secular courtroom.
Bishop Jane Holmes Dixon's June 25 appeal to a federal court to settle the matter has further stretched the already divided 2.5-million member Episcopal Church.
The dispute began Dec. 13 after Christ Church in Accokeek called the Rev. Samuel Edwards and gave him a contract as its new rector.
Bishop Dixon became bishop Jan. 1, following the retirement of Bishop Ronald Haines. In late February, she met with Edwards. “The majority of the congregation expressed to Bishop Dixon that they were not happy with the election of Edwards,” said Carter Echols, Canon for Congregational Development and Clergy Development for the Episcopal Diocese of Washington.
On March 6, Bishop Dixon rejected Edwards' call to Christ Church. The bishop's rejection of Edwards stems primarily from his opposition to female and homosexual ordination in the Episcopal Church.
“Father Edwards had written widely about his concerns with the Episcopal Church,” said Echols. “Bishop Dixon had two concerns rooted in Father Edwards' history and writings. One, is that he would assure her that he would not take Christ Church property out of the diocese, and secondly, that he would obey his ordination vows to obey the bishop. To date, she has not received unqualified assurances to that effect.”
According to Edwards' interpretation of Episcopal canon law, the bishop had only 30 days after his Dec. 13 appointment in which to reject the call, but didn't reject it until 53 days later.
Echols, however, maintains that that time period is not improper. “The canon does not stipulate that a decision must be made within 30 days, it simply says that the bishop should communicate with the vestry within 30 days,” she said.
Further complicating the case is the unprecedented move by Fort Worth's Bishop Jack Iker to assume pastoral oversight of Christ Church. Rev. Edwards, originally from the Fort Worth diocese, said that the move is temporary and limited in scope.
In early April, Bishop Dixon visited Christ Church. “The bishop was met at the door by the senior warden who told her that she could worship at the church but could not celebrate,” said Echols.
In response the bishop celebrated with parishioners outside the church, while Edwards conducted his own service inside.
The battle has divided parishioners. George Hanssen, who maintains the parish register, said that between 52 and 74 of the parish's 90 members have been attending church at an alternate location in Accokeek.
Twelve priests in the diocese have filed canonical charges against Edwards, accusing him of violating the “doctrine, discipline, and worship” of the church.
Countercharges have been filed against Bishop Dixon by a collection of priests, retired bishops, and lay people in her diocese accusing her of “intentional, material and meaningful” violation of church law for trying to dislodge Rev. Edwards after the 30-day period.
Edwards also disputes Bishop Dixon's legitimacy, as a woman, to claim authority as a bishop. He said that while he can acknowledge Dixon as his administrator he cannot assent to the proposition that she is a bishop in the line of the apostles.
Why a Secular Court?
Echols said that the Episcopal Church has exhausted all other options and therefore that bringing the case before a federal court was the only way to obtain the removal of a rector who is serving illegally in the diocese.
“We have tried for six months to find a resolution other than going to court. We are not asking the court to make a decision on the canon, but we are asking the court to affirm the bishop's right to decide who can become a rector in the Episcopal Church,” said Echols.
Edwards argues that ecclesial remedies have not been exhausted, and he has asked the federal court to dismiss Bishop Dixon's case for that reason. “Courts do not usually intervene until all ecclesial proceedings have been concluded,” he told the Register. “At present there are two ongoing proceedings.”
An Aug. 23 hearing has been set by the federal court to hear oral arguments.
Catholic observers wonder what precedent might be set by the involvement of the federal court. Pete Vere, staff canonist with the Fraternity of St. Peter who follows traditionalist movements within Christian communities, commented that “civil courts do not usually interfere in Church matters unless the Church neglects to follow its own canon law.”
Therefore, Vere does not see cause for concern.
“One has to recall that the Catholic Church, through the Holy See, is recognized as an international entity,” said Vere. “Instituted by Christ, it has historically overcome any and all attempts by the state to apply undue pressure.”
Notre Dame law professor Gerard Bradley also thinks that the Catholic Church will not be affected by the case.
“I do not think this case an especially important one, from a Catholic perspective, for two reasons,” Bradley said. “One is that the case is not unique. It is pretty well settled in American civil law that, if the civil court can identify from Church materials the locus of a final decision on a matter such as this, the civil court will defer to that church body.
“The second reason is that Roman Catholic canon law leaves little doubt about authority over priestly appointments, and it is the ordinary who has the final say.”
Episcopal watchers such as Vere suggest that if Edwards is rejected, he and his parish could very well end up joining the traditionalist splinter church, Anglican Mission in America.
Another option, said Lee Penn, a writer and a convert from the Episcopal Church who monitors that Episcopal affairs, is that the battle “may disgust some Episcopal members enough to drive them to join the Catholic Church.”
Tim Drake is editor of Catholic.net
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 08/12/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 12-18, 2001 ----- BODY:Church Leaders Hope for Rebate Windfall
E-mails, letters, fliers and even exhortations from the pulpit encouraged congregants to send the checks, which range from $300 to $600, to churches. The refunds are the first tangible results of the 10-year, $1.5 trillion tax plan signed by President Bush in June. Rebate checks worth a total of $38 billion, will arrive in mailboxes over a period of 10 weeks.
Portland Catholics Protest ‘Antichrist’ Billboard
KOIN.COM, July 26 — A billboard claiming that the Pope is the Antichrist provoked a swift response from the Portland, Ore., Catholic community, the online Portland-based news site reported.
The billboard appeared on a local stretch of Interstate 5. The Archdiocese of Portland asked all Catholics to call the billboard's owners, Outdoor Media Dimensions, and ask that the billboard be removed. Archdiocese spokesperson Mary Jo Tully said that similar billboards have appeared in western Oregon since 1993.
Senate Won't Give Faith-Based Groups Exemption
Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., the bill's sponsor in the Senate, agreed to drop a provision that would make it easier for religious charities to avoid state and local anti-discrimination laws. Local laws barring discrimination based on sexual orientation, for example, may conflict with a religious charity that wishes to avoid hiring active homosexuals.
Santorum removed the provisions that would protect religious charities from such anti-discrimination laws in order to win support for the bill from prominent Democrats like Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn.
Contraceptive Ad Dropped From Movie Promotion
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Aug. 1 — The makers of the teen sex comedy “American Pie 2” scrapped part of a tie-in marketing plan after objections from the Motion Picture Association of America, the wire service reported.
Universal Pictures and Ansell Healthcare Inc., maker of Lifestyles condoms, had planned a joint marketing deal including a sweepstakes, placement of Lifestyles condoms in the film, and a television commercial promoting both the movie and the condoms. But the Motion Picture Association rejected the commercial, so it will not be shown.
The association reviews all marketing materials produced by member studios. The association does not allow condoms in commercials meant for general audiences.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: John Paul's Message Animates Young People in Toronto DATE: 08/12/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 12-18, 2001 ----- BODY:TORONTO — In a move that surprised and excited the crowd at a high-energy youth rally at the Toronto City Hall July 28, Pope John Paul II's official message for the next World Youth Day was released here.
The nighttime event, evocative of the vigils held with Pope John Paul II as part of World Youth Days, drew thousands of youth from across Canada to mark the beginning of the official one-year “countdown” to World Youth Day, to be held here July 23–28, 2002.
In a departure from usual practice, the World Youth Day Message for 2002 was not released first at the Holy See Press Office in Rome, but in Toronto. According to senior Toronto officials, the Holy Father himself granted permission to release it only the evening before, in response to a special request.
The message announces that the theme selected for World Youth Day 2002 is from Matthew 5:13–14: You are the salt of the earth… You are the light of the world.
“Dear young friends, Toronto is waiting for all of you who can make it,” writes John Paul II. “In the heart of a multi-cultural and multi-faith city, we shall speak of Christ as the one Savior and proclaim the universal salvation of which the Church is the sacrament. … Come, and make the great avenues of Toronto resound with the joyful tidings that Christ loves every person and brings to fulfillment every trace of goodness, beauty and truth found in the city of man.”
“After two years of planning, tonight World Youth Day has arrived in Toronto, a city known as a meeting place, a city made for World Youth Day,” said Basilian Father Thomas Rosica, national director of World Youth Day 2002, to the crowd, who cheered madly at every opportunity. “Jesus Christ himself is depending upon us to make this all work!”
“The principal hosts of World Youth Day are the youth themselves,” echoed Cardinal Aloysius Ambrozic, archbishop of Toronto, who led a candlelight procession at the end of the ceremony. “The young people of Canada themselves will host the young from around the world.”
Various testimonies were given by young people, while official greetings came from civic authorities, including Toronto's flamboyant mayor, Mel Lastman.
“I am not Catholic,” said Lastman, who is Jewish, but he confessed that he felt “chills throughout my body” when he attended World Youth Day in Rome last year to represent Toronto. “There were hundreds of thousands of people, and there was no drunkenness, no drugs, no fighting — only love!”
The evening was marked by various Christian musical groups and was headlined by special musical guest Leahy, a Celtic-pop band from Lakefield, Ontario.
The band is made up of 11 brothers and sisters of the Leahy family and, judging from the enthusiastic crowd reaction, will likely be a favorite next year if they are included in the program.
The most moving testimony of the evening came from Justin Trudeau, the 20-something son of the late Canadian Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau, a man whose own relationship with the Church was sometimes strained though he said he never abandoned his faith and did call for a priest on his deathbed last fall.
Since delivering a eulogy at his father's funeral, Justin has become a minor celebrity in Canada, owing more, it must be said, to his good looks than his status as a high-school drama teacher.
“Je suis canadien français, je suis catholique, (I am French-Canadian, I am Catholic)” he began, explaining how he was raised in the faith, attending Mass and Sunday school, with his famous father reading the Bible to his sons every week. But at the age of 18, Justin stopped practicing and began to look into other religions.
“I told my father that I didn't see that the Church had anything to do with me,” Justin said. “It was full of old people with old ideas.”
But after the death of his brother two years ago in an avalanche, and the death of his father last year, Justin said he began to reconsider his faith.
“In my search I had closed my eyes to my own Catholicism and so I started to rediscover my own religion,” he related. “I discovered that it is not about rules, but about guidance. The Church is a teacher who guides us to ask the right questions, the most of important of which is: How do I do justice to the wonderful gift of life which God has given to me?”
Trudeau's speech was greeted by some with pleasant amazement, as it is not customary for Canadian celebrities to discuss their faith in public.
“Catholicism is alive in Canada, but has been a private thing,” said Father Rosica after the event. “We brought it out into the street last Saturday, and that's what we are going to do next year for World Youth Day.”
Raymond DeSouza returns soon to Rome.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Raymond J. De Souza ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: You are the salt of the earth You are the light of the world DATE: 08/12/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 12-18, 2001 ----- BODY:For a long time, salt was also used to preserve food. As the salt of the earth, you are called to preserve the faith which you have received and to pass it on intact to others. Your generation is being challenged in a special way to keep safe the deposit of faith.
Discover your Christian roots, learn about the Church's history, deepen your knowledge of the spiritual heritage which has been passed on to you, follow in the footsteps of the witnesses and teachers who have gone before you! Only by staying faithful to God's commandments, to the Covenant which Christ sealed with his blood poured out on the Cross, will you be the apostles and witnesses of the new millennium.
It is the nature of human beings, and especially youth, to seek the Absolute, the meaning and fullness of life. Dear young people, do not be content with anything less than the highest ideals! Do not let yourselves be dispirited by those who are disillusioned with life and have grown deaf to the deepest and most authentic desires of their heart. You are right to be disappointed with hollow entertainment and passing fads, and with aiming at too little in life. If you have an ardent desire for the Lord you will steer clear of the mediocrity and conformism so widespread in our society…
When the light fades or vanishes altogether, we no longer see things as they really are. In the heart of the night we can feel frightened and insecure, and we impatiently await the coming of the light of dawn. Dear young people, it is up to you to be the watch-men of the morning who announce the coming of the sun who is the Risen Christ! …
In this secularized age, when many of our contemporaries think and act as if God did not exist or are attracted to irrational forms of religion, it is you, dear young people, who must show that faith is a personal decision which involves your whole life. Let the Gospel be the measure and guide of life's decisions and plans! Then you will be missionaries in all that you do and say, and wherever you work and live you will be signs of God's love, credible witnesses to the loving presence of Jesus Christ. Never forget: “No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a bushel”!
----- EXCERPT: Excerpts from the Pope's message for World Youth Day - 2002 ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 08/12/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 12-18, 2001 ----- BODY:John Paul to Attend Premiere of Polish Movie
REUTERS, Aug. 2 — The world premiere of the Polis epic Quo Vadis will be shown in Rome, with a special guest on hand: Pope John Paul II.
The news service reported that the $18 million feature is the most expensive Polish picture ever made. Its premiere will be held with a crowd of 6,000 in the Vatican's Paul VI Audience Hall.
The movie is about Nero's persecutions of the Church in ancient Rome, based on the 1896 novel by Nobel Prize — winning Polish author Henryk Sienkiewicz, the film is directed by by Jerzy Kawalerowicz, Oscar — nominated for 1966's Faraon (Pharoah)
Quo Vadis was filmed in Tunisia, France and Poland and will see its Polish premiere Sept. 9 in Warsaw.
Presidents and the Pope
ASSOCIATED PRESS, July 20 — Preparing to cover George Bush's visit to the Pope, the Associated Press recalled previous presidents who did — and didn't — visit the Pope:
Woodrow Wilson and Dwight Eisenhower visited the Pope, as did John F. Kennedy.
President Johnson visited Pope Paul VI in Dec. 1967, to try to keep the Holy Father from mentioning the Vietnam War in a Jan. 1 address on world peace.
Pope John Paul II visited Jimmy Carter's White House — the first pope to visit the presidential home.
Ronald Reagan and John Paul met in 1982, when they discussed how to relax the Communist grip on Eastern Europe. Their efforts changed the course of history.
Roman Holiday
ASSOCIATED PRESS, July 22 — The Associated Press reported that President Bush and the first lady found Rome to be a “romantic city.” According to the news service:
Bush gave a mock speech as he climbed down the steps of the Roman Senate, saying:
“I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe — I believe what I believe is right.”
Bush also helped his wife navigate the ancient steps in the Roman Forum in her dress shoes. They had last visited Rome when daughter Barbara took classes in the city during college.
The Bush's Italy trip included a visit to Tuscany, which included stops at the leaning Tower of Pisa and the medieval hilltop town of San Gimignano.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Mass Amid a Menagerie: St. Peter's Hosts an Animal Kingdom in Art DATE: 08/12/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 12-18, 2001 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — Given the enormity of the task before them, it's no surprise that most visitors to St. Peter's Basilica completely miss some of the most curious characters in the massive church's artwork: the animals.
The artists who worked on St. Peter's over the centuries used animals not only for traditional and serious purposes, like symbolically depicting the Holy Spirit as a dove, but also as an outlet for humor or even vanity.
To see the lighter aspects requires sharp eyes and a willingness to press against walls, get down on hands and knees, or stand on tiptoe.
Put the guidebooks away. They're usually no help.
One little-known example of artistic vanity can be found on the funeral monument of Pope Clement XIII, in the right wing of the basilica behind the main altar. An 18th-century sculptor who helped carve the monument's two life-sized lions was so proud of his work that he fashioned the left-hand animal's rear end into the face of an elephant, his trademark signature. The lion's tail forms the elephant's trunk.
One of the basilica's most famous creative geniuses, 17th-century Gian Lorenzo Bernini, also incorporated lighter elements into his immense and intricate four-columned bronze altar canopy, which stands more than 90 feet high. Crawling on the base of the two rear columns are several real lizards that he bronzed, with one taking a bite out of a bronzed scorpion. (Another personal touch is the artist's bronzed rosary and holy medals, which rest several feet away.)
Given the vast number and variety of animals in the basilica, one official laughingly calls it “Noah's ark.” The appellation has a double meaning in Italian because the last name of the cardinal who heads the basilica, Virgilio Noe, translates as “Noah.”
Yet the topic is also the subject of serious scholarship. One of the basilica's chief art historians, Daniele Pergolizzi, has teamed up with an animal specialist to research the basilica's flora and fauna. They hope to publish a book in coming months.
Pergolizzi, who gets noticeably excited when the topic comes up in conversation, is particularly interested in tracking new animal species that began populating the basilica's art after the discovery of America. He says the phenomenon shows up mainly in different varieties of birds.
Art experts recently focused attention on the figure of a dog that often appears in ancient representations of St. Peter. According to the basilica's July newsletter, the depictions are based on scenes described in the apocryphal “Acts of St. Peter.” The animal enters the text as the apostle's friend and defender against lies, at one point even assuming a human voice to help Peter denounce a sorcerer's deceptions.
According to other legends, the dog followed Peter to his death by crucifixion, and is shown in some basilica artwork standing mournfully at the foot of Peter's cross.
One such example, on the church's bronze central door, is St. Peter's crucifixion scene in which the barely discernible figure of a dog looks on. A dog occupies a more central spot in a 15th-century funeral monument to Pope Paul II, which is now housed in the basilica's administration office.
One reason animals are so popular with artists is their ability, through symbolism and reference to legend, to pack a lot of significance into a limited space.
The dog, for instance, represents ardent and unfailing faithfulness. One of its most famous uses in the basilica is in a huge sculpture of St. Dominic. A perky little dog carrying a torch in its mouth accompanies the famous preacher, symbolizing his fidelity to Christ. A Latin name play on Dominic's religious followers, “Dominicanes,” means “dogs of the Lord.”
Bernini's lizards, at first glance a simple expression of artistic high spirits, also carry Christian significance. Because the cold-blooded creatures hibernate, they are used as an image of the resurrection. The lizard chewing on the scorpion, a symbol of sin, serves as a sign of spiritual rebirth.
Fantastical creatures, like dragons and wide-mouthed dolphins, peer out of almost every shadowy corner in the basilica. A massive gold unicorn hovers 80 feet up amid a grouping of sculptures representing the virtues; it signifies purity because of the creature's mythological affinity for female virgins.
Much of the animals' symbolism is lost on modern visitors because common cultural references have changed over the centuries.
But the meaning of some representations baffles even art experts. One example is found on the basilica's central entry, known as Filarete's Door after its 15th-century creator.
In the gloom at the very bottom of the door's inner face sits a small panel depicting Filarete and his six assistants. On either side rides a knight, one on a donkey and the other on a camel.
Pergolizzi, the basilica's art specialist, speculates that the camel represents the East, since much of the door's artwork is dedicated to the Council of Florence, which attempted to unite Eastern and Western churches.
But he won't even hazard a guess about the significance of two little pigs that play at the feet of the camel.
“Art critics haven't yet turned their attention to that panel,” he said, adding with a note of relish, “there's still much work to be done.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Norton ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Serving the Great High Priest DATE: 08/12/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 12-18, 2001 ----- BODY:Register Summary
Altar servers are much more than “simple helpers of the parish priest,” John Paul II Aug. 1 at his 1,000th general audience.
“Above all, you are servers of Jesus Christ, of the eternal High Priest,” the Holy Father told 22,000 altar servers from around Europe who gathered in St. Peter's Square for the highlight event of their pilgrimage to Rome.
“You altar servers are called in particular to be young friends of Jesus,” the Pope said. “Be determined to go deeper and to cultivate this friendship with him. You will discover that in Jesus you have found a true friend for life.”
Dear young people!
Today St. Peter's Square is the square of youth. Here, about a year ago, at the heart of the Great Jubilee 2000, young people from all over the world were warmly welcomed for the celebration of World Youth Day. Today this Square is the setting for the 1,000th general audience since Divine Providence called me to be a successor of the Apostle Peter. And today it receives the thousands of boys and girls who have come on pilgrimage from all over Europe to the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles.
Dear altar servers! Yesterday you crossed St. Peter's Square in a long procession to the basilica's Altar of Confession. By doing this, you continued, in a way, the journey that the young people of the world began during the Holy Year. The motto of your pilgrimage to the Eternal City — “Toward the New World” — is a sign of your willingness to take your Christian vocation seriously. …
Put on Christ
Your commitment to the altar is not only a duty but a great honor — a genuine holy service. In connection with this service, I wish to offer you a few reflections.
The clothing that the altar server wears is very special. It recalls the garment that everyone puts on when they are welcomed into the community in Jesus Christ. I am referring to baptismal clothes, whose deep meaning St. Paul explained: “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (Galatians 3:27).
Dear altar servers, even though you can no longer fit into your baptismal gowns, you have put on the clothing of those who serve at the altar. Yes, baptism is the point of departure of your “authentic liturgical service” which places you next to your bishops, priests, and deacons (see Sacrosanctum Concilium, 29).
Encounter with Jesus
The altar server holds a special place in the liturgical celebration. Whoever serves at Mass presents himself before a community. He experiences up close that Jesus Christ is present and at work in every liturgical act. Jesus is present when the community comes together to pray and give praise to God. Jesus is present in the Word of Sacred Scripture. Jesus is present above all in the Eucharist under the signs of bread and wine. He acts through the priest, who celebrates holy Mass and administers the sacraments in the person of Christ.
Therefore in the liturgy, you are much more than just helpers of the parish priest. Above all, you are servants of Jesus Christ, the eternal High Priest. This means that you altar servers are called in a special way to be young friends of Jesus. Commit yourselves to deepening and cultivating this friendship with him. You will discover that in Jesus you have found a true friend for life.
The Light of Christ
The altar server often holds a candle. It is impossible not to recall what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount: “You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14). Your serving must not be confined to the inside of a church. It must shine out in everyday life — in school, in your family, and in different areas of society — because anyone who wants to serve Jesus Christ inside a church must be his witness everywhere.
Dear young people, others your age are waiting for the true “light of the world” (John 1:9). Don't carry your candlestick only inside the church! Carry the torch of the Gospel to all those who are in darkness and are going through a hard time in their lives.
Answer the Call
I have spoken about friendship with Jesus. How happy I would be if something more were to spring from this friendship! How beautiful it would be if some of you were to discover a vocation to the priest-hood! Jesus Christ urgently needs young people who will generously and wholeheartedly put themselves at his disposal. And couldn't the Lord also be calling some of you girls to embrace consecrated life in order to serve the Church and your brothers and sisters? Also, for those of you who will wish to be united in marriage, being an altar server teaches that a genuine union must always include a readiness for mutual and freely offered service.
(Translation by Zenit and Register)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Archbishop of Canterbury Tells Pilgrims to Flood Holy Land DATE: 08/12/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 12-18, 2001 ----- BODY:JERUSALEM — The Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, has made an impassioned plea for Christians to strengthen their presence in the Holy Land, warning that the Christian community here is at risk of becoming a vanishing minority.
His comments came one day after violence erupted again in Jerusalem.
On July 29, about 15 Israeli officers and 30 Palestinians reportedly were injured in violent clashes at the Western Wall.
The clash occurred after the Jewish fringe group called the Temple Mount Faithful arrived at the Western Wall hoping to lay a 4.5-ton stone that they proclaim as the cornerstone for a third Jewish temple that would supplant an elevated Muslim compound.
In response, Palestinians on the platform above the Western Wall hurled stones on the Jews praying below, provoking a battle with Israeli police.
Speaking at a press conference July 30 at the close of a four-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian Territories, Archbishop Carey said Christians should act as a bridge between rival Palestinian and Israeli groups battling over religious as well as political turf.
“I want to say to Christians around the world to come back to Jerusalem and flood this place with your joy and your singing,” Archbishop Carey said. “Here I was in Bethlehem yesterday, in the heart of the tourist season and we were the only people there.”
Archbishop Carey, leader of 70 million Anglicans worldwide, said he was “shocked and disturbed” at the violence and economic hardships in the region that are driving many Christians to flee the area.
The archbishop called on the Christian minority — most of whom are Palestinians — to remain in the Holy Land and for followers of the faith abroad to make pilgrimages in large numbers.
“We want to urge you [local Christians] to stay put,” he said. “I [also] want to tell Christians around the world to come back to Jerusalem. Come back in your tourist buses and flood Jerusalem.”
Archbishop Carey said that he empathized with the plight of the Palestinians, who have faced long closures of their areas and other restrictions on their movements because of Israel's stringent security measures.
The Anglican archbishop said that “security at any price will not do,” adding, “We are frightfully concerned [about] Christians from the Holy Land leaving in despair, and we have to say it is because of frustration, a daily sense of humiliation.
“The situation facing the churches is very serious, it's compounded by problems such as the economic situation in Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza [and] added to by the inability to move freely.”
During his visit, Archbishop Carey met Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, and the president of the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Arafat. He called on both leaders to tone down what he called their “dehumanizing” rhetoric and to work to end to the current violence that has taken more than 650 lives in the past 10 months.
Local Christian leaders agreed that a “lack of vision” among political leaders has led to increased tensions and violence.
“We are seeing a lack of total vision on both sides which is creating a cycle of violence and we can't see what the next step will be,” said Father Raed Abusahlia, chancellor of the Latin patriarchate.
“We are now seeing a dramatic slow death for everybody on both sides. We are against war and violence on both sides. It is a waste of time, energy and blood,” he said.
Father Abusahlia also expressed concern over the growing extremism on both sides, saying it would make it harder to reach any kind of agreement or reconciliation. He called for an immediate cease-fire on both sides.
Ramzi Zananiri, executive director of the Near East Council of Churches Jerusalem, said, “There is a higher sense of animosity. We are not heading toward peace, we are heading toward something else.”
Father Abusahlia called for nonviolent resistance to replace the current violence.
The cycle of violence has placed so much hatred and animosity into the hearts of both peoples that it will take a long time indeed to overcome it and reach any kind of reconciliation, he said.
Said Father Abusahlia, “It is in the best interest of both Israel and the United States to resolve the conflict as soon as possible.”
(From combined news services)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 08/12/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 12-18, 2001 ----- BODY:Homosexual Couples Get Legal Status in Germany
REUTERS, Aug. 1 — Angelika Baldow and Gudrun Pannier, clad in white tie and tails, were the first couple to take advantage of a German law allowing the registration of same-sex partnerships, the wire service reported.
Same-sex partners can share surnames (Baldow and Pannier became Frau and Frau Pannier, the German equivalent of “Mrs. Pannier”), and have the same inheritance rights as married couples. The law does not give homosexual couples the tax breaks married couples enjoy, nor the right to adopt children. Same-sex partnerships are formally known as “registered life partnerships.”
The law still faces a legal challenge, to be decided next year.
Pregnant Baptist Mother Forced Out of Turkmenistan
KESTON NEWS SERVICE, July 23 — Two Baptist women were ordered to leave Turkmenistan after their husbands were deported for religious activity, the religious-freedom news service reported.
One of the women, Nadezhda Potolova, is pregnant with her fourth child.
Six other Baptist families from the Council of Churches, to which the two women belonged, have been deported from Turkmenistan in the past few years despite having legal residence. Hundreds of foreign Protestants, Muslims, Jehovah's Witnesses and Hare Krishnas have also been deported.
Iranian Ayatollah Endorses Abortion and Sex Changes
Saanei declared that women could hold any office, and that “blood money” paid in compensation for causing a woman's death must be equivalent to that paid for a man. However, he also said early abortion was permissible if the pregnancy threatened the mother's health or if the child would have abnormalities. He has also permitted some sex-change operations.
Saanei was a protégé of revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. He withdrew from government in 1984, and now leads Iran's Islamic reform movement, which works closely with reformist President Mohammad Khatami.
Mexican Mass Draws Leftist Ire
ASSOCIATED PRESS, July 27 — Mexico's largest leftist party is furious that a government official hung a crucifix in his office and invited employees to a Mass in a government building, the wire service reported.
The Democratic Revolution Party filed a complaint with the Mexico City comptroller and announced that it would seek to ban all religious images from government offices.
Jose Espina, a borough president from President Vicente Fox's National Action Party, hung a crucifix in his office and sent a letter on official stationery inviting government employees to a Mother's Day Mass at borough offices.
Mexico's Constitution says officials cannot give preference to any religious group. Espina argued that his actions did not violate that law.
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----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Crime and Punishment - For Kids? DATE: 08/12/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 12-18, 2001 ----- BODY:Recently, a number of shocking crimes committed by children have so frightened the public that prosecutors have sought to try youthful offenders as adults.
Many people think that these exceptions to the rule are justified and necessary for society to defend itself. History, however, will attest that when human beings feel threatened, the traditional lines set by law to indicate caution, reason and due process give way to the injustice of mob rule. The turn-of-the-century lynchings of African-Americans in this country and the pseudo-justice of Nazi Germany stand as cases in point.
In the end, the denial of justice to some inevitably diminishes the rights, dignity and lives of all. Might the adult trials and sentencing in Florida of 12-year-old Lionel Tate, sentenced to life in prison for wrestling his 6-year-old playmate to death, and 13-year-old Nathan Brazille, who will serve 28 years for shooting his teacher — a term some criticized as “insultingly lenient” — presage a lowering of standards for western society's traditional concept of justice and punishment? I believe so. Here's why.
Most of our country's statutory law is derived from the English common law, which is based on precedent. Those who adjudicated these earlier cases were formed in Christian religious traditions that shaped their basic concepts of justice and punishment for wrongdoers. These judges' archetypal worldview was that the natural order of society was in need of correction due to the disruption and damage caused by a crime. The primary purpose of punishment, therefore, was always retribution — a biblical concept — which is justified when the offender deserves it, it is in proportion to the offense, and the perpetrator is morally culpable or responsible.
Culpability is vitally important to the discussion at hand since the judges recognized that minors usually do not have a requisite full understanding of the wrongness of their actions and/or consequences of those acts, thereby diminishing the magnitude of their crime and guilt. A child's limited ability to reflect on his actions and his limited free will thus lessen the punishment needed for correction of the individual and the reparation needed to reestablish the good order of society. Concomitant with this, good jurists have always prescribed the punishment of minors with rehabilitation in mind, believing that a productive life in the future was a real possibility for them.
For most, the awakening of concepts of right and wrong begins around age 7. Few, however, would deem a second-grader fully competent to commit a mortal sin for the same reasons as mentioned above. Legal authorities have usually recognized 14 to be the point where the law begins to question claims of incompetence, and only if proven competent would the person be treated as an adult offender.
Though age is somewhat arbitrary, society has and does set certain ages as guides for the common good. For example, it is a criminal act for a person over 18 to have a sexual relationship with a minor, laws regulate by age when a person is deemed mature enough to drive and the Social Security Administration sets specific ages for the disbursement of benefits. Imagine the harm, chaos and injustice that would ensue if these dates were arbitrary, depended on a case-by-case evaluation or were changed capriciously according to public whim or temperament.
At a time when the sacredness of life and the dignity of persons is so threatened by relativism and utility, is it wise to further muddy the waters by inflicting adult penalties and punishment on children who are at least questionably less responsible for their actions than adults? Or to inflict punishments on them that may cause even greater damage to their underdeveloped psyches and that diminish or end their chances of ever becoming morally upright and healthy citizens?
These are exactly the questions now being asked about Michigan's new laws that allow a child of virtually any age to be tried as an adult. The testimony of Christie Clore, an eighth grader just turned 14 — who was sentenced to one year in a Michigan women's prison for setting a fire to a home that left a mother and son homeless — deserves serious consideration.
Clore said that during her seven-month incarceration, her first cellmate was a sex offender and that a killer became her best friend. She said she learned about things she had never been exposed to before, cocaine and promiscuous sexual activity being two of them. How could such friendships and negative experiences be useful in the rehabilitation of a child? This type of punishment seems rather to contribute to their destruction. (See No. 2266 of the Catechism.)
The current trend of punishing children as adults reeks of vengeance and not retributive justice, which demands punishment that is proportionate to the guilt and encourages the reform of the offender with education as its primary aim. The cases mentioned earlier and others like them that are sure to come contradict both the teachings of the Church and the enduring practice of western jurisprudence.
For the childrens' sake and for the sake of a humane society, this frightening aberration must be resisted.
Father Michael P. Orsi is chaplain of, and a research fellow at, Ave Maria Law School in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Michael P. Orsi ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: The Register Is Not 'Conservative,' I Told the Bishop … DATE: 08/12/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 12-18, 2001 ----- BODY:That's what I did in a recent conversation with a bishop who had been told the Register was “conservative.”
“Bishop, the Register is not conservative,” I said.
“So,” he replied, “you're saying it has no agenda?”
“Not an agenda — a mission,” I explained. “The Register exists to promote the New Evangelization called for by Pope John Paul II. So, it reports on the vitality of the Church, on how the Church is changing the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Imagine my dismay when, a few days later, I read a column written by a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington, practically giving the lie to what I had told the bishop. The column, which was syndicated by Catholic News Service and has appeared in numerous diocesan papers, is about the vocations shortage and how, for ideological reasons, “liberals” and “conservatives” cover the shortage from opposing angles.
For starters, the column labels this paper “the conservative National Catholic Register.” What could the term conservative mean in this context?
Catholic News Service's own Stylebook on Religion 2000 says: [T]his term often is used to signal contempt for sincerely held religious convictions. In general, do not apply it to an individual or group except in quoted matter or when someone uses it as a self-description.”
The syndicated column goes on to say that, if you read the Register, “you would think that there is no vocations problem at all.” The Register, you see, “is full of stories about overflowing seminaries and growing applications.”
In the writer's view, in the face of the priest shortage, “conservatives want to say, ‘What problem?’”
In the first place, the column misrepresents the Register's coverage. One article every few months on vocation successes hardly qualifies as making a weekly paper “full of” such stories.
In the second place, the column mis-represents self-described conservatives. They are the very ones who continually harp on the vocations shortage, because they predicted it. In their view, the vocations drain vindicates conservative criticism of inept catechetics, misguided pastoral programs, dissenting theology and defective seminary formation.
This is the true conservative approach, and the Register has never adopted it.
Why the double misrepresentation? Because such a caricature enables the writer to position himself “somewhere in the middle” — between the liberal press, which emphasizes the vocations shortage, and the conservative press, which supposedly refuses to acknowledge a vocations crisis.
“The difference in reporting,” he assures his readers, “is driven more by ideology than facts.”
He claims that the priest shortage will persist as long as “conservatives,” like the Register, fly in the face of reality and reject “any change in the priesthood that might be driven by necessity if they admit to a vocations crisis.”
Aha! So that's what “conservative” means.
Why choose to label the Register conservative? Because it promotes the Tridentine rite? Because it rejects Vatican II? Because it favors the death penalty? None of the above describes this paper. No, the Register gets the conservative label because it rejects change in the priesthood.
This enables the writer to call for “change in the priesthood” without being himself labeled liberal.
Clever, isn't it?
It's distressing to see people still stuck in the “spectrum model” of the Church. Especially since the '60s are over. Come to think of it, so are the '70s. So are the '80s. The '90s, too. This is the new millennium, the springtime of the New Evangelization.
Time magazine's secular-political interpretation of the Second Vatican Council as a struggle between good-guy liberals and bad-guy conservatives, which the good guys mostly won, was not true then, and was definitively and authoritatively rejected by bishops from the entire world in the Synod of 1985. That's a long time ago!
Be that as it may, there really is a priest shortage, and the writer quotes abundant statistics to prove it, as if they were needed. But the existence of the problem is not in question. What is in question is what to do about it.
One course of action would be to promote vocations. Other dioceses and groups could imitate the ones who are successfully attracting vocations — the ones the Register is reporting on.
That's not an option that the column writer wants his readers to think will work. So, he informs them that the Register is reporting only on “some few conservative dioceses and movements.”
This is simply inaccurate. What the Register is covering, when it occasionally covers a new flowering of priestly vocations, is not a handful of dioceses and movements fearful of genuinely needed change.
The Church recognizes the new ecclesial movements as a fruit of the Second Vatican Council, a living expression of the New Evangelization. They are active agents engaged in creating a civilization of justice and love, innovators of fresh approaches that build a culture of life. Those dioceses and religious communities that are experiencing a rebirth of vocations share the joyful spirit and enterprising attitudes that characterize ecclesial communities.
To brand them as “conservative” is either clueless or malicious. And when the branding is a smokescreen to cover an ideology promoting unspecified, necessity-driven “change in the priesthood,” then you have to wonder if it's merely clueless.
Why does the Register report occasionally on dioceses and groups that are successfully promoting vocations? Precisely because they could be imitated.
Other dioceses, communities and movements could promote a celibate, male priesthood that unabashedly calls for heroic sacrifice. They could foster prayer and eucharistic adoration, especially among young adults. They could find innovative ways to invite young men to discover and test their call.
They could provide a priestly formation that, at a minimum, respects a candidate's manliness, his Catholic faith and his desire for the priesthood as instituted by Jesus Christ and handed on by the Church — and reaffirmed time and again by the bishops of the world gathered in synod.
If they did, they would be successful. And for one simple reason: None of this is conservatism. It's New Evangelization. It's what the Spirit is asking of the churches. It's what God blesses.
But don't take it from me.
Take it from the bishop who heard the Register was “conservative.” Presented with the facts, he signed on for a three-year subscription.
Father Owen Kearns is the Register's publisher and editor-in-chief.
----- EXCERPT: Being a publisher sometimes means explaining what your newspaper is not. ----- EXTENDED BODY: Owen Kearns, Lc ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Texas Gothic DATE: 08/12/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 12-18, 2001 ----- BODY:In the retail world, “location is everything.”
How many Texas businesses have envied the locale enjoyed by Austin's magnificent St. Mary's Cathedral?
Situated in the heart of downtown, it's visible from the state's capitol building, a continuing reminder to legislators of the spiritual dimensions of citizenship and good government. Within walking distance is Town Lake, the southernmost in a series of seven man-made lakes along the Colorado River — a veritable oasis in a capital which has attracted worldwide attention since former Gov. George W. Bush was elected president.
Austin is a vibrant city of over 1 million, boasting such popular tourist attractions as the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and the George Washington Carver Museum, the nation's first museum of black American history. Novelist James Michener also left his mark here, donating his art collection to the University of Texas' Blanton Museum of Art.
The sophistication of Austin often surprises outsiders who expect cowboy boots and hats to be de rigueur here.
It's not widely known that the city has the most highly educated people per capita among the U.S.'s 50 largest cities, and its bookstore sales are also the highest per capita. That's why visitors aren't prepared for the beauty of St. Mary's Cathedral, an architectural gem whose famous Gothic arched doorway and Rose Window beckon all to enter and pray.
The principal church of Central Texas, St. Mary's story began in 1874, under the pontificate of Pius IX, two years after the Holy Cross order came from Notre Dame in Indiana to staff the college and the cathedral. There was broad support in the capital, as evidenced in a donation by Company D, Tenth United States Infantry. It was an exciting time for the city, too, as gas street lights were introduced that year. The Daily Statesman described the proposed architecture as “Geometric Gothic,” a variation on early “December Gothic” used in the 13th century.
Ten years after construction began, in the spring of 1884, the bishop of Galveston dedicated St. Mary's while on the same day confirming 56 children.
Activity Center
Today visitors marvel at the main vault in the center of the ceiling, which forms a canopy of sky blue. The sanctuary windows depict the four Evangelists in their traditional symbols — angel, lion, ox and eagle. Surrounding the altar are five spectacular stained-glass windows. In the center is the Immaculate Conception; to its sides are Sts. Joseph, Peter, Paul and John. There are various other striking decorations in the cathedral, but the most magnificent is the rose window, rich in ornate liturgical design, over the front entrance.
Before Vatican II and for a time afterwards, the cathedral was home to many organizations — rosary altar societies, two Sodalities, League of the Sacred Heart, St. Aloysius Society for Boys, and a Perpetual Novena to the Sorrowful Mother every Friday. In 1947, when Austin became the seat of the seventh diocese of Texas, Father Louis Reicher became the first bishop and St. Mary's was designated as the cathedral.
Today the cathedral is a vibrant source of faith-filled energy for the entire region.
Not only has it retained its beauty, but also it has adapted itself over the years to the changing face of the faith. In my travels, I visit many cathedrals and, sad to say, many of them dispense the sacraments and tend to the needs of visitors, and perhaps a fragment of steady inner-city parishioners, but one feels no distinctive parish culture within the walls of an impressive structure.
This is not the case with St. Mary's. The first thing I noticed was a large pro-life sign on the front lawn of the parish office located beside the cathedral — Our Lady with the Child Jesus and the words, “Pregnant and Need Help? ” along with a phone number. It's part of the Gabriel Project launched in 1992 (and reinforced by the parish Respect Life Committee) and now found in most parishes in the diocese.
Their new bishop, Gregory Aymond, succeeded Bishop John McCarthy in 1999 and previously was bishop of New Orleans. Flood describes the parish as “profoundly committed to social outreach.” A new post, that of parish administrator, was established in November of 2000, and its first occupant is Father Bud Roland, appointed this spring.
One of the practices of which the cathedral community is most proud is that of tolling the church bells whenever there is a state execution in the United States.
Architecturally beautiful, liturgically reverent, spiritually, culturally and socially active — these are the hallmarks of an exceptional cathedral situated in an exceptional city.
Lorraine Williams writes from Markham, Ontario.
----- EXCERPT: St. Mary's Cathedral, Austin, Texas ----- EXTENDED BODY: Lorraine Williams ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Planet of the Remakes DATE: 08/12/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 12-18, 2001 ----- BODY:The remake of a much-loved classic raises our expectations, and with The Planet of the Apes, the bar is set high. The original 1968 version was a pop-culture phenomenon — a mixture of sci-fi camp and political moralizing which successfully came together in a way that only Hollywood at its best can make happen.
A deft allegory about race relations and the environment was combined with imaginative characterizations and carefully conceived action sequences to create a knockout piece of entertainment. Its tone was a perfect balance between dark satire and over-the-top earnestness. It produced memorable lines (“Take your stinkin' hands off of me, you damn dirty ape”) and archetypal images (the ruined Statue of Liberty buried in sand) that have been seared into our consciousness. The movie also spawned four sequels, a TV series, a cartoon and a comic book, all of which made money.
To those unfamiliar with the original, the current release of The Planet of the Apes will play like an OK summer popcorn film with some attempts at clever laughs. (However, the added violence makes it unsuitable for kids.)
Director Tim Burton (Batman and Ed Wood) has a butterfly intelligence that flits from one bright idea to the next without melding them into a coherent whole. Each notion triggers a separate gag, one-liner or visual pun whose payoff is the only point. They never add up. The humor is sly, mocking, self-referential and hip, much in the style of the successful Scream horror films.
Burton and screen-writers William Broyles, Jr. (Cast Away), Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal set their story in the near future with astronauts who leave earth for several years to explore the universe in huge space stations that house high-tech labs and space simulators. Capt. Leo Davidson (Mark Wahlberg) is training a chimpanzee for an exploratory flight. When the primate's pod is launched and disappears, Leo defies his superiors to try and find him.
Swallowed into a nebula, the astronaut crashes onto a strange planet where humans are slaves and apes are the overlords. Leo winds up as the house-servant of Ari (Helena Bonham Carter), an ape-senator's daughter and human rights activist who's the equivalent of a rich-kid liberal feminist. It's interesting that the filmmakers have no sense of humor about the contradictions that make up her political type.
The apes' society is meant to be a mirror image of certain authoritarian tendencies in our own. The humans are in a permanent state of rebellion, and the military has taken control in order to suppress them. “Extremism in defense of apes is no vice,” cracks army commander Gen. Thad (Tim Roth) in a joke that's intended to make fun of Barry Goldwater-like right-wingers. Ari rejects his courtship because of his semi-fascist principles.
The filmmakers don't inflate all this into a critique of conservatism. After some muddled speculation about whether both apes and humans can have souls, they move on.
Leo escapes from captivity with Ari, the beautiful, blonde slave-girl Daena (Estella Warren), a wise-cracking simian slave trader (Paul Giamatti), an ape-soldier (CaryHiroyuki Tagawa) without the usual anti-human prejudices, and some house servants. This mixed-species crew is supposed to represent the movie's dramatization of “why can't we all just get along?” — the Rodney King line which the filmmakers recycle in another stab at clever topicality.
The escapees trek across a forest and a desert in search of a means for Leo to get back to earth. They're pursued by an ape army led by Thad and forced to fight a big battle in which Leo's superior understanding of technology is their major asset.
That's it — a competent Saturday-morning TV sci-fi adventure plot, with $80 million spent to achieve the best in make-up, prosthetics, special effects and stunt work.
Meanwhile, a few of the jokes that punctuate the action may unsettle religious believers.
Attar (Michael Clarke Duncan), one of Thad's warlords, insists that his fellow apes bow their heads and say grace at meals. He prays to a “holy father” whom they hope will one day return and restore order. Others worship at private altars that are a melange of Christian, Buddhist and Hindu practices. One of their cult's relics looks like a folk-art rendering of the Sacred Heart. Inside is a pistol, the invention of which holds the key to understanding the difference between humans and apes.
The more you think about this, the less it makes sense. But the filmmakers can't resist the opportunities science fiction presents to knock organized religion. Attar's respectful spirituality is shown to be based on ignorance and myth. The sacred figure to whom he's been praying is revealed to be Simos, the original ape leader who overthrew the humans, not a divine creator. “Everything I have believed is a lie,” Attar moans.
Near the end there's also a half-baked riff on what Jungians would describe as “the messiah” archetype. “Someday they will tell a story about a human who came from the stars and changed the world,” Ari says to Leo as he prepares to leave her planet. “And some will say it is just a fairy tale.”
The movie remains true to its disjointed style and, unlike the recent releases Dogma, Stigmata and Chocolat, doesn't try to string these moments together into a sustained attack on established religion. In fact, it has no central theme beyond a vague notion of tolerance and the urge to deconstruct. But anyone who remembers the 1968 epic will feel cheated by this version's vapid content and cheap-shot irony.
Arts & culture correspondent John Prizer writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: The Planet of the Apes looks nifty. Does it say anything new? ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 08/12/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 12-18, 2001 ----- BODY:All times Eastern
SUNDAY, AUG. 12
Bridges: Reaching Out
Discovery, 1 p.m.
This 60-minute show traces progress in the design and building of bridges. Covers beautiful spans from the Brooklyn Bridge to today's engineering marvels in Japan.
SUNDAY, AUG. 12
A Conversation with Koko
PBS, 8 p.m.
This hour-long “Nature” episode chronicles Dr. Francine “Penny” Patterson's three decades of using sign language with Koko, a female gorilla at the San Francisco Zoo, starting in 1971 when Koko was a baby. The affection between Koko and her mentor is touching, but Catholic viewers will realize that the gorilla's capabilities do not mean she has human intelligence, much less human nature.
TUESDAY, AUG. 14
Russian Trinity
PBS, 9 p.m.
This 90-minute documentary focuses on three facets of life in Moscow under the Soviet tyrant Stalin. The Kremlin was the seat of the Red dictatorship. The Lubyanka prison meted out torture, execution and exile to slave labor camps. The Bolshoi ballet entertained the communist elites who were committing terror and mass murder against the people. This show cannot help but remind Fatima-familiar viewers that today's communist regimes perpetuate “the errors of Russia” and still threaten the world.
WEDNESDAY, AUG. 15
Tears of Love
EWTN, 1 a.m., 2 p.m., 10:30 p.m.
Is heaven weeping for mankind? This new half-hour documentary films Catholic statues and icons around the world as they appear to shed real tears.
WEDNESDAY, AUG. 15
Mother Angelica's 20th Anniversary
EWTN, 8 p.m.
In this live, two-hour special on the Feast of the Assumption, Mother Angelica recalls the inspiring story of EWTN's founding and its first two decades of Catholic TV. The network's hosts, friends and phone-in callers also explain what EWTN has meant to them. Taped rebroadcast to be presented Thursday, Aug. 16, at 9 a.m.; Saturday, Aug. 18, at 4 p.m.; and Sunday, Aug. 19, at 2 a.m. and 10 p.m.
THURSDAY, AUG. 16
Drake's Secret Voyage
History Channel, 11 p.m.
This 60-minute program investigates why Elizabeth I of England tried to cover up Sir Francis Drake's around-the-world voyage of 1577–1580.
FRIDAY, AUG. 17
Air Safety: Learning from Tragedy
Discovery, 8 p.m.
This hour-long documentary shows industry experts and government regulators in action as they try to prevent air disasters and as they draw lessons from crashes.
SATURDAY, AUG. 18
WNBA Basketball Playoffs
NBC, 4 p.m. (live)
This game kicks off the first round of playoffs in women's professional basketball. Observers agree that the league's quality of play is on the upswing. Note: As of our deadline, the playoff teams had not been determined.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dan Engler ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 08/12/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 12-18, 2001 ----- BODY:Founding Fathers (2000)
How did such a “mismatched group of quarrelsome aristocrats, merchants and lawyers” ever find a way to bury their differences and create the United States of America? This four-hour History Channel documentary presents these men as imperfect individuals who somehow worked together to pull it off. Directors Mark Hufnail and Melissa Jo Peltier use well staged reenactments and carefully chosen period drawings and engravings to tell their story. Noted scholars like Richard Brookhiser and Joseph Ellis place each of the four segments in their proper context.
The action begins with the protests of Samuel Adams (Beau Bridges) against “taxation without representation” and then to the Boston Tea Party. The Virginians — Patrick Henry (Burt Reynolds), Thomas Jefferson (Peter Coyote) and George Washington (Brian Dennehy) — pick up the torch of liberty, and these patriots form the Continental Congress, win the Revolutionary War and write the Constitution. Included are portraits of the currently fashionable John Adams (James Woods) and the controversial Benjamin Franklin (Hal Holbrook).
Tex (1982)
There are lots of movies about teenagers, but few depict that time of life from the adolescent's point view. Tex, the best of the films adapted from S.E. Hinton's novels, is a gritty but sweet drama about the coming-ofage of a 15-year-old boy (Matt Dillon) in a rural Oklahoma town. His mother is recently deceased, and his dad is an itinerant rodeo rider. His 17-year-old brother Mason (Jim Metzler) holds the household together while hoping to win a basketball scholarship to college. Money is so tight they must sell their beloved horses for groceries.
Tex and his best buddy Johnny (Emilio Estevez) are always in and out of trouble. The anxieties and boredom of small-town life are convincingly evoked.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Not A Magic Charm: Exploring The Purpose Of The Brown Scapular DATE: 08/12/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 12-18, 2001 ----- BODY:DARIEN, Ill. — Carmelites see the 750th anniversary of the brown scapular as an opportunity to educate Catholics on what the devotion to the scapular is all about.
The scapular is not a magic charm of protection, an automatic guarantee of salvation or an excuse for not living a Christian life, according to Carmelite Father Robert Colaresi, director of the Carmelite Spiritual Center in Darien.
The center, in the Joliet Diocese, hosted the national congress on the Carmelite brown scapular this summer.
During the two-day congress, attended by more than 300 Carmelite priests, nuns and lay associates, speakers gave historic background on the scapular and also explained the significance of the devotion today.
Father David Blanchard, a faculty member of the Washington Theological Union, said the brown scapular originally was a monastic apron for several orders, including the Dominicans. The long, narrow outer cloak served a practical purpose, as it was part of the habit that religious wore and the brown color was associated with the Carmelite order in particular.
Over time, lay people joining confraternities connected with the Carmelites also received the scapular. As its popularity grew, its size shrank.
Today the scapular is small and bears two images, each about the size of a postage stamp sewn onto brown fabric and connected with brown ribbons. One picture is of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the other is of the Sacred Heart of Jesus or of St. Simon.
Carmelite Father Patrick McMahon, provincial delegate to lay Carmelites, pointed out that the actual date that the brown scapular devotion began is not really known, but that it stemmed from a vision documented in the 1400s that reportedly had taken place in the 1200s.
According to tradition, Mary appeared to St. Simon Stock, a Carmelite, in 1251 and gave him the scapular, an apron-like brown piece of fabric that fit over the head, telling him that whoever wore the scapular would be saved from the fires of hell.
Father McMahon said one problem with that story is that it is not mentioned “anywhere in any record for 150 years.”
“This gives us good evidence to say that there is no historical evidence of the vision of the Blessed Mother to Simon Stock,” he told the Catholic Explorer, Joliet's diocesan newspaper.
There also is the story that John XXII issued a bull that granted the “Sabbatine Privilege” to those wearing the scapular when they died, meaning that Mary would protect anyone who wore the brown scapular in death, especially on Saturdays — a day of honor for Mary.
But the Holy See always has insisted the “Sabbatine Bull” was a forgery, according to Discalced Carmelite Father Sam Anthony Morello, who researched the scapular while serving on his order's general council from 1986–91 in Rome.
Fathers Morello and McMahon have been working for the last five years on a new catechesis on the brown scapular for bishops and priests in America.
“Many people were beginning to realize that if we clung to pious legend, instead of sound theology, there would be no future for any devotion to the scapular,” Father McMahon told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview in Chicago after the congress on the brown scapular.
The new catechesis he has been working on states that the scapular is “essentially a habit,” linking those who wear it with the Carmelite order.
Father McMahon noted that scapular devotion has been refocused in the last 20 years. The scapular might not be as popular as it was in the 1950s and '60s, but today it signifies more of a link with the Carmelite order and is often worn by members of the lay order of Carmelites.
“It is not just something people wear,” he said, “but it inspires them to identify with the Carmelites in following Christ in the company of his mother.”
He said the Carmelites themselves have been more conscious of making sure people don't see the scapular just as a badge, and are finding ways to make people feel linked to the Carmelite family.
The priest said the tangible aspect of the scapular is significant today.
“Human beings, by nature, are sacramental,” he added. “We are a people that depend on signs and symbols.”
Contributing to this story was Carol Zimmermann in Washington.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kathrynne Skonicki ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: White House to High Court: Allow Cleveland's Vouchers DATE: 08/12/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 12-18, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — The 3,700 students enrolled in Cleveland's landmark school voucher program have a powerful new ally in their fight against the teachers' union: The U.S. Department of Justice.
The program suffered a setback last year when the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Ohio's Pilot Project Scholarship Program “clearly has the impermissible effect of promoting sectarian schools” and was thus unconstitutional. Ninety-six percent of the students enrolled attended religious schools.
In a brief filed in late June, Solicitor General Ted Olson said it was in the “nation's interest” for the Supreme Court to hear the case.
Lawmakers need to “know, without further delay, whether such programs are a constitutionally permissible option for expanding education opportunity for children enrolled in failing public schools across America, or whether other solutions must be sought for this critical national problem.”
It is unusual for the solicitor general's office to file a Supreme Court brief until the judges agree to hear a case. The Bush administration's action invigorated the hopes of school reformers that the Supreme Court would give vouchers a constitutional green light.
“The Bush administration is right to get involved with the Cleveland school voucher case,” said David J. Owsiany, president of the Buckeye Institute, an Ohio-based public policy think tank.
Last year's federal court's decision, Owsiany told the Register, “puts in jeopardy a program that has given 4,000 Cleveland-area school children hope for a quality education in one of the worst-performing school districts in the country.”
Owsiany predicted an education renaissance would be sparked by a positive verdict from the Supreme Court.
“By accepting this case and upholding the Cleveland school voucher program,” he said, “the court will be removing a significant obstacle to school vouchers and will reenergize the voucher movement in Congress and state legislatures.”
Meanwhile, the National Education Association, which has long opposed vouchers, said the Justice Department should keep out of the fight over the Cleveland program.
“This extreme step is clearly out of step with what the American public wants for children and public education,” said Becky Fleischauer, a National Education Association spokeswoman.
National exit polls, she said, showed public opposed to vouchers 78% to 12%, preferring smaller public school classes and modernized equipment instead.
“This is reflected in the current education bill, which was stripped of vouchers in both the House and Senate,” she said. “The White House appears poised to shun the will of voters and Congress. This is extremely disappointing.”
But the administration's opinion on vouchers shouldn't surprise the National Education Association, say Bush administration officials.
“Secretary [Rod] Paige and President Bush have both been strongly and consistently supportive of private school choice,” Lindsey Kozberg, an Education Department spokeswoman, told the Register.
“Although we did not prevail on this issue in the current legislation, we have every hope that legislation providing for private school will be adopted in the future,” she said. The administration, Kozberg added, “will continue to support the expansion of parental options.”
Winning this case might encourage more opportunities for parents, said Notre Dame Law professor Richard Garnett.
“These experiments have been hamstrung because local governments are worried about its constitutionality,” Garnett told the Register. “They always say, ‘Well, you know that vouchers violate the separation of church and state.’ But if the Supreme Court says they're constitutional, that becomes a tough argument to make,” Garnett said.
Vouchers have faced many political obstacles, he said.
“We need the Supreme Court to uphold vouchers so that local communities will be free.” He said the administration's action “shows Bush is committed to school choice as a part of education reform.”
For Garnett, the fundamental legal question in the case revolves around who best represents the child's interest.
“Who owns your child's mind: The state or your family?” asked Garnett. “It doesn't get much bigger than that.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Archives Written in Blood DATE: 08/12/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 12-18, 2001 ----- BODY:As the last 2,000 years attest, Christian martyrs will be with us until Christ's return.
In just the 20th century, communism, Nazism, socialism and fascism produced millions of Christian martyrs — the great preponderance of them Catholic. And, even as we speak, Catholics and other Christians are under attack in Sudan, India, Malaysia, China, Serbia and India.
Those under fire for their faith in every age can take heart in the knowledge that their suffering and death will not be for nothing. For, as Tertullian proclaimed to the Church's persecutors in the second century: “We multiply whenever we are mown down by you; the blood of Christians is seed.”
“Because we need that power more than ever,” writes Paul Thigpen in the introduction to his book titled after that early Church Father's famous statement, “I offer this little collection of martyrs' stories, trusting that what these saints tell us by their deaths will change what we do with our lives.”
So begins a spirited journey through the centuries and around the world, during which we meet the “seeds” upon whose sacrifices our magnificent Church has grown and still stands. Cutting between times, places and circumstances, Thigpen show the similarities in faith and courage that bond the martyrs into one unified, living witness. Moving us along at the swift pace of a novella, he introduces us anew to John the Baptist and Stephen before bringing us to Polycarp's final, dramatic ordeal (loaded with documented dialogue) and on to the heroic ends of Justin Martyr and Perpetua in Carthage.
And that's just the beginning of the story. Moving through the years, Thigpen doesn't shy from recounting the horrific tortures some martyrs endured. Clearly his aim is not to shock, but to help us realize and appreciate all the more what they suffered for the love of Christ — and, in this way, to let them remind us what Jesus himself suffered for us.
Writing about Isaac Jogues, one of the Jesuit missionaries who died to bring the faith to the natives of North America, he writes: “When Jogues tried to tend to a wounded Frenchman, the Mohawks beat him, bit out his fingernails, and chewed off his forefingers. Next the savage torturers burned one of his fingers, crushed another with their teeth, and twisted and squeezed the others they had already injured. The stabbed him and scratched his wounds with their fingernails, then laid burning torches to his arms and thighs. The other prisoners received similar abuse.”
The volatile mix of politics and religion fueling martyrdom across the centuries is linked here from the Reformation to the anti-Christian fury of 20th-century atheism. All of the accounts are told in an engaging narrative that reads like good fiction; only a sparse section on Thomas More, one of the greatest martyrdom stories of all, seems wanting for more breadth and depth.
I found a chapter on the 20th century especially affecting. From Edith Stein dying at the hands of the Nazis, to Miguel Pro bearing the brunt of Mexican socialists' anti-Church rage, to Marcel Van losing his life to Vietnamese communists — these are stories that will stay with me for a long time.
“Perhaps the most significant insight we gain is that martyrs were often quite ordinary men and women caught in extraordinary circumstances,” notes Thigpen. “In many ways, they were everyday people like us, people who weren't looking for trouble and who prayed, even as Jesus had, that God might somehow spare them from it.”
The witness of these martyrs disturbed a world fleeing the truth, a world trying to silence those who speak the truth in love. Their vivid stories now disturb us a bit. If these accounts of these lives don't shake us out of our modern complacency, nothing will.
Joseph Pronechen writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Where Credit is Due DATE: 08/12/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 12-18, 2001 ----- BODY:Q. I have a boss who rarely gives me any credit at work. His style is unsupportive and frustrating.
A. Everytime I interview someone for a position I always ask, “What kind of a boss do you like to work for?” I almost always get the same answer and it's never very believable: “I want a boss who tells me what to do, and then leaves me alone so I can do it.”
I don't believe people really want to be left alone.
If you ask people why they're happy with their work, it's generally because they have a boss who doesn't “leave them alone.” He's someone who works with them, appreciates their work, takes an interest in it and gives them constructive and supportive feedback.
To put it another way, we want to work with someone and not merely for someone. We want to feel supported as well as challenged, even if pride causes us to say otherwise.
A boss is supposed to evaluate and motivate. He may either like or dislike what you do. And whether he admits it or not, you can bet he is making such judgments to himself and perhaps to others, if not to you.
There is something, however, that you can do to get feedback: Ask him for it.
It may take courage and it may challenge your pride or vanity, but it's a good idea to acquire the habit of asking: “Hey, how do you think I'm doing on this project?”
Remember, though, that you might get something less than praise. If you can stomach it, that's better than nothing. Then you know where to improve.
There are several advantages to asking for his evaluation. First, it makes the process open and minimizes backbiting and gossip. Second, you don't have to wonder where you stand. Your boss has told you — in the open. And if he says, “I like your work because … ,” then it's harder for him to make a 180-degree turn later without a lot of explaining.
If he gives you good news, you have that to build on. If he's critical of your performance, then you want to ask: “What would I have to do for my work to meet your standards?”
Face it: Most people are uncomfortable making judgments. And bosses are people, too. They don't like to judge people to their face. It's their job to do that, though, and you can make it easier for them by not being defensive and by asking for their evaluation.
This takes humility on your part. But when you've made such an overture it lessens the likelihood of surprises at performance evaluation time.
It is the truth, not necessarily praise, that sets us free.
So be non-defensive and ask for feedback regularly. That will get your boss into the habit of openly evaluating, and perhaps appreciating, your work. Then you'll know where you stand.
Art A. Bennett is a licensed marriage, family and child therapist.
----- EXCERPT: Family Matters ----- EXTENDED BODY: Art A. Bennett ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Facts of Life DATE: 08/12/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 12-18, 2001 ----- BODY:Stories in the national media have claimed public support for embryonic stem cell research. One article said 72% of Catholics and 57% of pro-lifers backed it. But such survey results depend on keeping respondents in the dark. When they are informed that embryos are destroyed in the process, they strongly oppose any federal funding.
Federal funding for
embryonic stem cell research
Source: U.S. Catholic Conference poll cited in Washington Post, July 30.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Mary's Glorious Assumption DATE: 08/12/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 12-18, 2001 ----- BODY:The Mother of Jesus is a saint. Yet, it always strikes me as a bit strange when I hear her called Saint Mary.
This might be because I'm used to calling her “our Lady.” It might also have something to do with the fact that she is unique among the saints.
Mary was immaculately conceived, is full of grace, is the Mother of God, and is the Mother of the Church. And that's not all.
Among the many other things unique to our Lady is her Assumption, both body and soul into heaven. The Catechism of the Catholic Church calls this “a singular participation in her Son's Resurrection” (#966).
We celebrate the Memorial of Mary's Assumption on Aug. 15.
In 1950, Pope Pius XII defined the dogma of the Assumption for the whole Church. This proclamation came after centuries of belief in Mary's special entry into heaven.
In the fifth century, Eastern Christians celebrated a feast on Aug. 15 called the “Memorial of Mary.” In the following century, it came to be called “Mary's Dormition,” or “falling asleep.”
This feast was adopted by Rome in the seventh century, and its title changed to the Assumption.
The Byzantine liturgy has this prayer for the Dormition:
“In giving birth you kept your virginity; in your Dormition you did not leave the world, O Mother of God, but were joined to the source of life. You conceived the living God and, by your prayers, will deliver our souls from death.”
It was certainly fitting that Mary, who participated so closely with her Son during his earthly mission, should share in his victorious resurrection. Mary has already realized in herself what the rest of us will experience during the general resurrection of the dead.
“The Mother of Jesus in the glory which she possesses in body and soul in heaven is the image and beginning of the Church as it is to be perfected in the world to come,” declares the Vatican II document Lumen Gentium. “Likewise, she shines forth on earth, until the day of the Lord shall come, a sign of certain hope and comfort to the pilgrim People of God” (#68).
Honor of Our Race
The glorious Assumption of Mary has a great deal of significance for us. Our Lady is the honor of our race, the first fruit of the victory that Jesus won for us. She is a “sign of certain hope” because, just as she now shares in the Resurrection of Jesus, so shall we one day.
The Second Vatican Council called this knowledge a “comfort” for us. And it most certainly is. It tells us that God does keep his promises.
If we remain faithful unto death, we will one day be with Mary in heaven in a resurrected body. Imagine the people we will meet there, including those whom we know have gone before us. We will have all eternity to get to know everybody. Now that's a reunion I would-n't want to miss!
This knowledge that “all will be well,” as Julian of Norwich used to say when people despaired over the conditions of this present life, is something for us to think about.
No matter how bad our situation may be — at home, in the family, at work — remember that all will be well. Mary has preceded us to heaven. And, as our Mother, she'll be happy when we get there!
Brother John Raymond is the co-founder of The Monks of Adoration.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brother John Raymond ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Life Notes DATE: 08/12/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 12-18, 2001 ----- BODY:Stable Homes Cut Teen Sex
The findings for the first time make a direct link between the teenager's family environment and his or her attitude to sex.
The survey of 2,000 teenagers aged 13–15 reveals that teenagers are twice as likely to engage in underage sex if their parents are separated or cohabiting rather than married.
Embryo Research Illegal
Just one state, South Dakota, explicitly forbids stem cell studies. Last year, at the urging of abortion opponents, South Dakota made it a misdemeanor to experiment with cells or tissues obtained from human embryos.
Legal experts say the existing statutes could impede university scientists and biotechnology companies, not only because of the bans but also because some states prohibit payment for embryonic tissue.
Broadly construed, such provisions could prevent scientists from buying stem cells — even if President George W. Bush approves federal funding for research — and could prevent companies from selling stem cell-based therapies.
Reform Party Is Pro-Life
After two hours of debate and three votes, national convention delegates voted to recognize that life begins at conception and to support overturning Roe v. Wade.
The party adopted a manifesto that ranged from defining marriage as between a man and woman to opposing the use of fetal tissue for research, opposing hate crimes laws, restoring God to the public square and returning the nation to its Christian roots.
Birth After 8-Month Coma
ASSOCIATED PRESS, July 26 — A car-crash victim who was in a coma virtually her entire pregnancy has given birth to a healthy, nearly 8-pound daughter, reported the Associated Press. Doctors said it is one of few known cases in the United States in which a comatose woman was able to carry a baby to full term.
The mother, Chastity Cooper, 23, of Erlanger, Ky., has slowly improved since a November auto accident, but still cannot move or talk. Routine tests done in the emergency room after the accident revealed that she was two weeks pregnant.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Correcting Course at Human Life International DATE: 08/12/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 12-18, 2001 ----- BODY:During the 1980s, operating in a relatively favorable political and judicial climate, Human Life International (HLI), under the direction of its founder Benedictine Father Paul Marx, took part in some of the early successes of the emerging pro-life movement. But in today's climate of cultural upheaval and moral collapse — and in the aftermath of serious internal organizational problems — HLI faces more challenges than ever as it continues its work of converting minds, hearts and souls.
Last Dec. 15, HLI named as its new president Father Thomas Euteneuer of the Diocese of West Palm Beach, Fla. Tom Allen of Catholic Exchange recently interviewed him about his appointment and the future direction of HLI.
Allen: Father, could you tell us the trajectory of your faith experience?
Father Thomas Euteneuer: When I was 14 a priest in my parish in Florida asked me to think about becoming a priest. He planted the seed of a vocation in my heart and from that point on I believed that God had blessed me with a discernment about a vocation and continued to help me overcome obstacles to getting there. …
After college I applied to a seminary in Florida and was accepted. I became a seminarian in the fall of 1984 and was four years there before being ordained a priest. Following ordination I went back to the seminary for one more year to finish my masters degree, and from there I've been working in parishes.
What did you receive your Masters in?
My master's degree was in Biblical Theology from the Gregorian University in Rome.
How did you first become involved with HLI, and what were the circumstances surrounding your appointment as president?
I had heard about HLI and kept in touch with their activities through their newsletters for many, many years. So, I wasn't unfamiliar with what the organization was all about.
The attractiveness of HLI for me, and the reason I followed the goings on there, was I thought it was a totally Catholic institution that recognized the connection between birth control and abortion, and I felt it preached the true doctrine of the Church about these issues and wasn't afraid to preach that doctrine out in the public and to do it with vigor.
And of course I admired Father Marx, our founder, very much because he traveled around the world and really planted the seeds of the pro-life movement in so many different societies. …
In August, 2000 … I happened to be on vacation down in Miami, and on the last day of my vacation I went over to HLI's Miami office, not knowing that Father Welch had resigned. I met the director of the office, Magaly Llaguno, who informed me of the resignation and asked me to send her a resume. …
Touch on the difficult times that HLI experienced and how it happened that Father Welch finally transitioned out of the organization.
In 1998, the HLI board of directors set up a transition committee to develop plans for the orderly transfer of organizational leadership and the operational functions of HLI, due to the fact that Father Marx was in his late 70s and talking about retirement. This was a logical and responsible step. … It is not easy for a founder — particularly one with an entrepreneurial spirit and great achievements — to pass the baton to others to carry on the mission, and unfortunately, there was some friction.
In the summer of 1999, Father Marx's religious superior, [Benedictine] Abbot Timothy Kelly, recalled Father Marx home to St. John's Abbey, where he has resided ever since.
These events led to media coverage about controversy at HLI, with reports of charges and counter-charges. Since I was not on the scene during that period, I think it is best not to comment on any specifics, other than to say my own view is that probably no one involved is 100% right or 100% wrong.
Sadly, however, the whole matter overshadowed HLI's critical work on behalf of God's most innocent ones. In coming to HLI, one of my priorities has been to try and bring peace and healing to the organization, to reach out to those disenfranchised by these events, and to help all parties realize that what we have in common — the fight for life, faith and family — is far more important than any particular matter where there may be disagreement. …
How is Father Marx doing at present?
Father Tom: I've had one or two brief conversations with Father Marx since I came on board. I've read his books and listened to his tapes and am astounded at how clearly and how early on he recognized the contraception-abortion link, and how he was able to predict so many of the travesties which now confront our culture. …
I am hoping Father Marx will have some involvement with HLI in the future. His insights and advice would be invaluable and his 50-year history in the movement is simply unparalleled. …
How about Fathers Welch and Habiger?
Both of these priests are doing pastoral ministry with their respective religious orders. I understand that Father Welch is in New York working with his religious order, the Redemptorists, in a predominantly Hispanic parish in Spanish Harlem. He is fluent in Spanish after having spent a dozen years in a parish in Puerto Rico.
Father Habiger, ironically, is studying Spanish right now, which would mean that his order, the Benedictines, plan to use him in some form of ministry to the Hispanic community in the future.
It is not surprising that these priests would leave one ministry of “option for the poor” — that is, the defense of the innocent unborn — and go into another area of ministry to the poor, that of underclass Hispanics. This charism goes deeply into the hearts of all of us who are in the pro-life movement. I wish each of them well in their future ministries. …
What do you think of President Bush's pro-life policy so far?
Father Tom: Well, we've been pleasantly surprised I would say, but the jury is still out. It was wonderful to see him appointing John Ashcroft, a super pro-life attorney general, and wonderful to see him take the initiative right away to restore the Mexico City policy. If he did nothing other than these two things he would be remembered in history as a pro-life president.
And I think that if he did nothing else, he at least would not likely place any obstacles in front of the pro-life movement. Pro-abortion forces would not be able to advance as easily as they did under the Clinton Administration. So these are things that have been very positive.
However, it is still undetermined what kind of initiatives he is going to take in the future. We're all kind of watching to see what he does on embryonic stem cell research, for example, and if he's going to hold true on his commitment to stimulate an honest dialogue about abortion in the United States. But as I say, up to this point, his record is good.
Are there some specific steps you'd like to see the administration take vis-a-vis pro-life policy?
Yes, Mark Crutcher from Life Dynamics is urging President Bush to establish a blue ribbon commission to study the issue of abortion and to open up a national dialogue about the effects of abortion on women and society. We've joined with them to help get people to sign the petition and present it to President Bush.
— Tom Allen is editor-in-chief of catholicexchange.com
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tom Allen ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life ----- TITLE: Church Opposes Human Research Plan DATE: 8/19/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 19-25, 2001 ----- BODY:CRAWFORD, Texas — President Bush's much anticipated decision on whether the federal government would fund research on human embryos came as a surprise to many.
In a nine-minute-long nationally televised speech, the president announced, “As a result of private research, more than 60 genetically diverse stem-cell lines already exist. They were created from embryos that have already been destroyed, and they have the ability to regenerate themselves indefinitely, creating ongoing opportunities for research. I have concluded that we should allow federal funds to be used for research on these existing stem cell lines, where the life-and-death decision has already been made.”
President Bush's decision means his administration will be the first to use federal tax dollars to fund research prohibited by a 1995 congressional ban. The law banned experiments in which embryos are “destroyed, discarded or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death.”
Last summer, with encouragement from the Clinton White House, the National Institutes of Health issued guidelines that let federally funded scientists bypass the law by obtaining embryonic stem cells from private laboratories.
The Clinton-era guidelines would have allowed the first federal subsidies of research using human embryonic cells, although federal funds would not have been used to directly kill any embryos. But they never actually became law.
The reaction from pro-lifers to the decision was mixed. James Dobson, the evangelical Christian who is president of Focus on the Family, applauded the president's decision.
Catholic leaders like Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua were more guarded.
“It is with mixed feelings that I listened to the decision of President Bush regarding the use of federal funding for embryonic stem cell research,” he said.
“From a Catholic perspective, I would have preferred a total exclusion of funding for embryonic stem cell research,” he added. “At the same time, I am grateful that the President has remained faithful to his pro-life stance by banning the use of taxpayer money for research on stem cells that would require any future destruction of living human embryos.
Bishop Joseph Fiorenza, president of the U.S. bishops' conference, did not.
He said the “trade-off” Bush announced was “morally unacceptable,” adding, “The federal government, for the first time in history, will support research that relies on the destruction of some defenseless human beings for possible benefit to others.”
What of the limits the Bush decision puts on the research?
“Researchers who want to pursue destructive embryo research and their allies in Congress have already rejected such limits, saying that these limits will interfere with efforts to turn embryonic stem cell research into possible medical treatments,” said Bishop Fiorenza.
In the end, “The president's policy may therefore prove to be as unworkable as it is morally wrong … ultimately serving only those whose goal is unlimited embryo research.”
Helen Alvare, a professor at the Columbus School of Law, and former pro-life spokeswoman for the U.S. bishops, agreed.
“Considering the hubris of the scientists in this field, and the public's lack of expertise,” she said, “I am afraid the President's action is like waving a little raw meat before lions.”
Father Robert Sirico, a Catholic priest who serves as one of the informal advisers to the White House on “Catholic issues” — including stem cells — said he counseled against the compromise.
Father Sirico told the Register, “I think that the decision, while politically brilliant, and perhaps even morally tolerable, may end up moving things in the wrong direction and further erode the culture of life the president so dearly values.”
With Robert P. George and Deal Hudson Father Sirico said a month before the decision that just such a compromise would be unacceptable to them as Catholic:
“An article quoting us in [July 8's] Los Angeles Times could leave readers with the impression that we favor a ‘compromise’ on the issue of embryonic stem cell harvesting that would include authorization of federal money for research on existing cell lines. We do not.
“While it is possible, as an abstract matter, to imagine circumstances and conditions under which research on existing cell lines could be acceptable, such circumstances and conditions would have to involve, among other things, a permanent, absolute, enforceable, and unequivocal ban on the funding of embryo destruction and research involving future cell lines deriving from embryo destruction. A compromise permitting funding of research on existing cell lines would, in the current political climate, make it more difficult to maintain existing protections of embryonic human beings against destructive experimentation, stem cell harvesting, and other assaults.”
‘Leon Kass is top-class. He's a splendid human being. He's been an opponent of cloning for 20 years. You couldn't get a better informed advice than you will from him, and a truly reflective of the Judeo-Christian position.’
— Msgr. William Smith
Science Answers
Scientists like Daniel Callahan, director of International Programs at the Hastings Center in New York, were more willing to accept the decision.
Callahan also advised the president before the decision. He has worked closely with University of Chicago's Leon Kass, who will head a new panel to oversee stem-cell research and other biotech issues.
“As an opponent of embryonic stem-cell research,” he said. “I am pleased that the president did not authorize the creation of new cell lines from discarded embryos. I would have preferred that he not have authorized research of any kind, but I think he acted prudently in seeking a compromise. He found about the only one possible, and I support him in that.”
Another scientist, Lee Silver, was bothered that the president did not give the biotech community enough in the compromise. The professor of molecular biology and public affairs at Princeton University, who is out-spoken on biotechnology issues, is optimistic that Bush's decision will only briefly stunt federally funded research on embryos.
“The decision opens the door to federal funding of this research for the first time,” he said. “The 60 cell lines should be enough to kick-start the research, but as a consequence, as discoveries are made in the next few years, there will be a need for a serious expansion of the pool of cell lines to take the research to the next phase.”
In the end, he added, “This president or another will be faced with having to decide between allowing the research to continue with more cell lines, or stopping it in its tracks.”
Not Solomon's wisdom
Chris Currie is a diabetic whose condition could possibly be helped by stem-cell research. He said he nonetheless opposes Bush's decision.
“The freedom of researchers to create new cell lines by destroying countless more embryos using private money continues unchecked,” he said.
“President Bush may have felt he exercised the wisdom of Solomon with his compromise,” he said, “but the wise king saved the baby.”
Dominican Father Brian Shanley, a philosophy professor at the Catholic University of America, said that Bush's apparent understanding of the issues involved only makes matters worse.
“In the end, I don't think Bush has the courage of his convictions,” he said. “The principles are in place in the speech to draw the right conclusions, but he doesn't do it. For all his philosophizing, he ultimately ends up incoherent in an attempt to mollify his critics.”
Other moral theologians were less severe. Msgr. William Smith of St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y., said the decision was “on balance positive.”
“I know some people have hit the wall, and if you ask me it's better if we didn't do it,” he said. “But at least the government is not funding the destruction of embryos. That's an important line not to cross.”
But he added: “They've been working on stem cells from mice for years and haven't accomplished beans.”
Kathryn Jean Lopez is executive editor of National Review Online (www.nationalreview.com) and an associate editor of National Review.
Day of Decision
CRAWFORD, Texas — On the morning of Aug. 9, the White House requested nine minutes from television networks so the president could make his first primetime address since he spoke to a joint session of Congress in February.
He was to announce his stem-cell decision from “the Western White House,” his ranch in Crawford, Texas, where for weeks, insiders had said he was carefully deliberating over the decision, meeting with various theologians, scientists, and others with insight on the issue.
Throughout the day, leaks came from the White House, where few knew what exactly the president had decided. It was clear a “compromise” position was to come, but the details were unclear.
By 9:15 that night, no one seemed completely happy. Surprised, yes, but not satisfied.
Throughout the day, activists on both sides of the debate had focused on a letter President Bush sent to the Washington-based Culture of Life Foundation on May 18.
In it, he wrote: “I oppose federal funding for stem-cell research that involves destroying living human embryos. I support innovative medical research on stem cells from adult tissue.”
— Kathryn Jean Lopez
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kathryn Jean Lopez ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: How to Keep Kids Catholic? The Answer Is In the Cards DATE: 8/19/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 19-25, 2001 ----- BODY:WEST CHESTER, Pa. — Katherine Andes, a creator of Friendly Defenders Catholic Flash Cards, wants to make an entire generation of children more like her daughter, Lauren.
At least she wants them to know apologetics as well as 14-year-old Lauren does.
At a summer camp two years ago, a friend told Lauren that confession scared her and a Christian counselor — an ex-Catholic — overheard. “You don't have to confess your sins to a priest,” said the counselor. “You can confess them to anyone — that's what the Bible says.”
“Lauren sprang to the girl's defense, responding ‘Oh yes you do,’” recalled Andes, “quoting John 20:22-23 — ‘Jesus breathed on them and said, ’Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’”
Said Andes, “The counselor later telephoned me to comment on Lauren's knowledge of the Bible and to say that she was impressed that Lauren knew why she believed what she believed.”
Andes, along with Matt Pinto, author of Did Adam and Eve Have Belly Buttons?, recently announced the introduction of their Catholic apologetics flash cards for young people.
The Friendly Defenders Catholic Flash Cards present the most common objections people have regarding the Catholic faith, accompanied by short, Scripture-based responses. The full-color, 50-card set features objections in 12 categories, including questions about confession, Mary, salvation and the Eucharist.
The cards are engaging. They are illustrated with five Catholic kids like “Joyful Joey” and “Gracious Grace” responding to questions from five non-Catholic kids like “Curious Connie” and “Questioning Quincy.”
On the front of one card, for example, “Questioning Quincy” asks, “How can you believe a piece of bread is really Jesus?” On the backside, “Gracious Grace” says “Jesus called himself ‘The Bread of Life’” and reinforces the quote up with Scripture John 6:51 and related verses.
The cards were the idea of Pinto, based upon the work that Andes had already been doing with her own two children. The cards took two years to create and are being distributed by Ascension Press.
Defense Tactic
A catechist and “revert” to the Catholic faith, Andes began teaching her children basic apologetics through a self-designed, weekly program of introducing the basics of the faith intermingled with supporting Scripture, which they systematically memorized.
“In our community, we interact with a large interdenominational group,” said Andes. “I knew my kids would eventually be challenged on their faith, and I started thinking seriously about what I could do to help them know and share it truthfully and charitably.”
Andes hopes that the cards might help prevent people from leaving their faith. “I interact with many Protestants,” said Andes, “and so many of them are ex-Catholics. That is what motivated me to teach my children apologetics at a young age.”
Support has already built for the cards. Many believe that they will be useful in Catholic classrooms and with both children and adult catechism students.
“I am delighted to see these cards make their debut,” said Father Peter Stravinskas, editor of The Catholic Answer. “What we have here is an interactive learning system that presents Catholic theology accurately.”
In addition, the cards are tied into an elaborate Web site (www.friendlydefenders.com) featuring additional games, quizzes, and contests for children.
“I think they will be of great help in the formation of children,” added home-school mother and author Laura Berquist. “They are easy to use, speak to the point, teach the doctrine of the faith, and move the heart.”
While Andes added that the cards are based upon how she taught her children, she did not have the advantage of a complete set of flash cards. Even Lauren, she said, “is really looking forward to learning the entire set of cards.”
Collector Cards are Also Popular
Flash cards aren't the only cards being used to strengthen children's faith. Six years ago, Cactus Game Design released a novel modification of an old favorite – the collector card. Think of them as baseball cards with a twist. It was this popularity that game designer Rob Anderson hoped to seize upon with the creation of Redemption.
“I grew up in a home where we had a fond appreciation for games,” said Anderson. “When collectible trading card games, such as Magic: The Gathering, first came on the market, I found many aspects of creating one's own deck to play against an opponent intriguing.”
However, Anderson found the card's dark and horrific themes and artwork troubling. “The question in my mind,” he said, “was whether or not I would be comfortable with my own children playing such a game.”
Finding it difficult to reconcile such a game with his Christian faith, Anderson created a collectible trading card game based upon the Bible. A $600,000 project, Redemption was first previewed at the Christian Book Publishers Convention in Nashville in January of 1995.
Since then, the game has grown in popularity, especially among church youth groups, and has expanded to four additional sets: The Prophets, The Women, The Warriors, and The Apostles. It has also been endorsed by groups such as Focus on the Family, Campus Crusade for Christ, and the Salvation Army.
In the game, players create their own card decks to play against one another. Each player sends their heroes into battle against their opponent's evil characters in an attempt to rescue lost souls for Christ.
Michael Turnidge was first introduced to the game by a friend five years ago and has been hooked ever since.
He admitted that the game has strengthened his faith, primarily from the Bible verses found on the bottom of each card. “I find that Redemption supports my faith and beliefs unlike games such as Magic and Pokemon which are based upon the occult,” commented Turnidge.
While Turnridge, an Evangelical Protestant, says that the card game has been helpful to his faith others wonder if the collector cards might not be Catholic enough.
New age expert Randy England, author of The Unicorn in the Sanctuary, said, “Like so many other Christian products, I wonder if the cards might not be confusing to Catholic children that have not received proper instruction in the faith?”
While a Catholic version of the card game does not exist, Cactus Game Design has released a Catholic version of their children's game Scattergories.
In addition, the company produces a Bible edition of the popular game Outburst, the computer game Saints of Virtue, and a set of comic books by the title Archangels.
Tim Drake is editor of Catholic.net, a Web site maintained by Register publisher Circle Media.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: In Troubled Bethlehem, Empty Inns Mean Hard Times DATE: 8/19/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 19-25, 2001 ----- BODY:BETHLEHEM, Israel — It is a blister-ingly hot summer day, but Elias Banda, 43, and his 10-year-old son Issan seem oblivious to the heat as they deftly scoop up the eggs in their new chicken coop.
Although Banda ordinarily makes his living as a construction worker, Israel's tight closure of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, a response to the 10-month-long Palestinian uprising, often makes it difficult for him to reach his Jerusalem work-place. When his job in Jerusalem ends at the end of August, the coop could well be his only source of income.
“It's wonderful to know that I have a stable income to live on,” says Banda, a father of two from Bethlehem. “Here in the West Bank there's no work and I can't get a permit to travel legally to Jerusalem. There are days when I can't get to Jerusalem at all.”
Were it not for a new fund initiated by the Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem, Banda would not own 1,000 egg-laying hens. The brainchild of Father Raed Abusahlia, the Patriarchates's enthusiastic young chancellor, the Olive Branch Fund sponsors modest local projects aimed at helping the area's approximately 200,000 Christians (among them some 80,000 Catholics) weather the current political crisis.
“The local Christian community, like other Palestinians, has suffered terribly during the past 10 months,” Father Abusahlia explains. “The territories are hermitically sealed, and because such a large percentage of tourist-related professionals are Christians, our community has been devastated by the absence of pilgrims. The Palestinian Authority doesn't provide social or health insurance. People don't have money to pay their children's tuition fees so the Church makes up the difference. Many families have no wage earner, and lack any income whatsoever.”
According to Father Guido, regional director of the Pontifical Mission for Palestine, the situation in the West Bank and Gaza “is desperate. In some areas, at least 70% of the population has no income.” For this reason, several local Christian families have already emigrated, and others will follow if the security situation continues to deteriorate, he says.
Metropolitan Timothy of the Greek Orthodox Church, the largest local denomination, earlier this month told reporters that Christians from Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Beit Sahur, Beit Jala, Ramallah, Nabulus and the Gaza strip “are steadily moving out.” Muslims and Jews are leaving as well, Father Abusahlia notes, but adds that “because our community is so small, we feel the impact more.”
Due to the acute problems facing the community, many of the existing Christian relief agencies have moved away from long-term development projects toward emergency existence. Their resources, not surprisingly, are at the breaking point.
“These organizations are doing remarkable work under extremely difficult circumstances,” Father Abusahlia says. “We see our fund as complementing their work, a small drop in the sea of social services.”
Although representatives from relief agencies said they welcomed any and all funding to alleviate the suffering, some questioned — on condition that their names not be published — the wisdom of starting a new fund when so many existing ones are being stretched to the limit.
Father Abusahlia believes that the fund is breaking new ground, because it serves more as a lending society than a charity.
“During the past 150 years, Holy Land institutions and schools have always relied on foreigners,” says the chancellor, who is from a Palestinian village in the West Bank. “Unfortunately, when giving social assistance to people, we didn't always teach them to become self-sufficient or to share.” The result, he says, is “a dependent community, both Muslim and Christian Palestinians, who think that the Church is very rich and should provide instant relief. Our goal is to show that help must come from within, not from outside. Our fund works on this premise.”
Hatching Plans
Rather than handing out cash to needy families, the initiative is funding projects with earning potential. In the case of Elias Banda, the fund purchased 1,000 chickens, virtually all of which lay eggs. Since the coop began to turn a profit, the Bandas have refunded a small amount of money to the fund, which in turn helps other poor families.
Other fund projects include cows for the poor, whereby a family can feed its children and sell the leftover milk; and the Olive Branch Tent, a small restaurant in nearby Beit Sahur built by three young men next to a children's amusement park. Literally covered by a large Beduin-style tent, the place will hopefully become an oasis of calm in a town where gun battles between Palestinians and Israelis occur on an almost nightly basis.
“When people come I ask them what can we do to help you earn an income?” says Father Abusahlia. “It's not charity.”
To date, the Olive Branch Fund has channeled approximately $15,000 to 20 families. Ultimately, Father Abusahlia hopes to raise enough money to provide scholarships for every poor Christian child (cost: $300-$500 per year) and a small income every month for the sick, the old and the disabled.
“Usually there's no pension and our parishes are poor. To have to rely on your children is humiliating. Receiving even $100 per month would be wonderful.”
Another of Father Abusahlia's dreams is an apartment for every young couple.
“True, people are desperate due to the situation,” says the priest. “They don't see any kind of stability or future of employment. But even more importantly, they can't afford housing. I'd like to see a parish in Italy or the U.S. sponsor a young couple to keep Christians in the Holy Land. That's what we're aiming for.”
Michelle Chabin writes from Jerusalem.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Michele Chabin ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: God Gave Her Music DATE: 8/19/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 19-25, 2001 ----- BODY:A senior at the College of St. Benedict, Kari Knuttila was crowned Miss Minnesota in June.
In September, she will compete for scholarship dollars and the crown in the Miss America pageant. She recently spoke with Register features correspondent Tim Drake.
Drake: Tell me about your family.
I grew up in Detroit Lakes, Minn., as the middle child between two sisters. I grew up around pageants. My parents helped run the local pageant and my sisters and I always walked the ramp, and dreamed of getting the opportunity to one day get on stage. My father is an investment representative, and my mother is a religious education director for Holy Rosary, our hometown Catholic church.
I've been very blessed to grow up in a front-pew family. Church has always been a priority for my family. Not only did we attend church each Sunday, but we also said prayers every night, and we have been involved in the choir and music ministry.
I understand your mother participated in pageants as well.
Yes, she was crowned Miss Faribault right out of high school and had the opportunity to go to Miss Minnesota. While she didn't place, she grew so much through the experience that it was important for her to continue to support the Miss America program. She took over helping out with our local pageant.
In addition, my older sister Kimberly was crowned as Miss Perham and competed in Miss Minnesota in June, 1999, and my younger sister, Kathryn, is currently Princess Altona.
What is the most difficult hurdle you've faced and how did you face it?
Part of the reason that our family is so close is that I grew up in a family with an alcoholic history. Growing up with this problem was life-changing for us and it forced us to bond together in order to get through it.
It has challenged me to make the right kind of friendships through high school and college, and has made our family stronger. I think that this is also why our family is so faith-centered.
How has your faith played a role in becoming Miss Minnesota? It has played an enormous role. I've had a God-given gift for music ever since I was little. My parents knew that and reminded me to remember where that gift came from and the need to give back. That's why we so often played music at Church.
My faith is what has kept me centered, especially at Miss Minnesota. The 12 contestants began the competition with prayer that we might all do our best. I felt very confident that God was covering me in prayer from family and friends both at the pageant and back home. I expected to be nervous, but I wasn't, so I know that I was covered in prayer.
Prayer really keeps the 51 Miss America contestants centered. The public doesn't often get to see that side of the competition.
Your platform is that music makes a difference. How has music made a difference in your life?
Our family has always been very involved in music. My parents made a big commitment, driving us 90 miles one-way for piano lessons each week. I started piano when I was 4 years old and began teaching piano at age 15. My family, faith, and music has helped me to become the woman that I am today. Music has given me the tools to succeed in life, and that is what I feel it will do for others.
The discipline, self-confidence and self-expression I learned through music is parallel to none. When I sit down at the piano, people can see a glimpse of who I am by watching me play. This is what I want to portray not only to the judges, but also to everyone else that is watching.
Children need the opportunity for self-expression at a young age. Children that learn music excel. Unfortunately, so often school districts just do not have the budget for music programs, lessons and instruments. Part of my platform is trying to help find alternative sources of funding for music programs. Whether I win Miss America or not I look forward to spending a year being able to talk about my platform to help change people's mentality about music.
As you travel around the state speaking with youth and others, do you envision sharing about your faith?
Yes, I do. I can't talk about music without talking about it as a God-given gift. I'm not playing the piano to win, I'm playing to give glory to God. The competition needs to be about something bigger than yourself. I hope to use my year to be a witness. It was my prayer that I would make the top five in Minnesota and trusted that God would take it from there.
As the Miss America competition approaches in September what are your hopes?
My hope is to have a great time, and to walk out of every area of competition knowing that I did my best. Our father drilled into us the importance of setting goals. My goal is to make the top 10.
What do you hope to do after graduation? I hope to have my own private piano and voice studio and become a high school choral director. I love choir. In high school I did a clinical kind of experience and was able to do some teaching. While I'm putting off school for a little bit because of Miss America, I can't wait to graduate and begin working with students. It's a huge part of who I am.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kari Knuttila ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Mennonite Families Flee Canada After Officials Seize Children DATE: 8/19/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 19-25, 2001 ----- BODY:AYLMER, Ontario — In mid-July, 100 members of a German Mennonite Church of God in rural Ontario fled Canada to the United States, a few days after seven children from their congregation were dragged from their parents' home — literally kicking and screaming — by child welfare authorities.
The Children's Aid Society of St. Thomas and Elgin County, with the assistance of more than a dozen police officers, seized the seven children, aged six to 14, from their home in the southern Ontario town of Aylmer July 4.
The children had apparently suffered no physical or emotional abuse. The sole grounds for their apprehension was the fact that their unidentified parents, recent German Mennonite immigrants to Canada from Mexico, would not promise never to use a switch or belt when spanking their kids.
The Church of God, on the basis of the Book of Proverbs' warning that “he who spares the rod, hates his son,” holds that the Bible explicitly sanctions such corporal punishment by parents.
“It's just about the most disgraceful thing I've seen in my life,” said neighbor Ernie Timmins, Canadian Press reported. “A six-year-old girl, with policemen carrying her by [her] arms and her legs, and the fear in that kid's face was unbelievable. The screeching was so unbearable I had to leave.”
A social worker said that the Children's Aid Society's two-hour physical examination of the children had found nothing, and other neighbors testified the children were happy and playful.
As well, during the course of interviews with social workers, there was no indication that the children had ever been beaten, Canadian Press reported. Nevertheless, the children, who speak only limited English, were separated and scattered to foster homes throughout the region.
Neighbor Timmins later voiced the opinion that the police seizure would traumatize the children and that the social workers themselves should be charged with child abuse.
The social workers and police apparently responded to an anonymous complaint. The issue was not spanking as such, but rather “the use of inanimate objects, such as belts or cords or sticks,” said Children's Aid Society directory Steve Bailey.
Religious Persecution?
A week after the apprehensions, another Church of God family disclosed that they had been visited by Children's Aid Society workers. On July 15, the group's pastor, Henry Hildebrandt, reported that 100 of its members — 26 mothers and their 74 children — had fled Canada and were staying with relatives in Illinois and Indiana, fearing the attentions of the Canadian authorities.
By last week, the number of church members who had fled to the United States had risen to 118.
“Doesn't it sound like religious persecution?” said Aylmer resident Kelly Reiter, who runs a deli in the town of 7,000. “It sounds that way to me.”
At a hearing July 26, the seven children were finally returned to their parents, pending a full-scale custody trial in September, on condition that no one be permitted to discipline them physically and that social workers would make unannounced visits and interview them without their parents.
The fact that the children were returned was taken by most commentators to indicate that even in the judgement of the Children's Aid Society, they were never in any real physical danger. Hildebrandt stressed that his church does not countenance child abuse, saying that corporal punishment is taught as “a measure of last resort,” to be used only in a controlled fashion.
Said Hildebrandt, “I don't think we were deliberately targeted by Children's Aid, but once they became aware of what we teach, all of our families were at risk.”
Under the Criminal Code of Canada, Section 43, parents and guardians are explicitly permitted to use physical force with children, so long as it is “reasonable under the circumstances.” As well, there is no proscription of objects like spoons or switches in the criminal law.
However, Section 43 has been subject to several challenges by child-advocacy lawyers over the past decade.
The most recent challenge was launched by the Canadian Foundation for Children, Youth and the Law, a children's rights advocacy group that earlier led a court campaign that lowered the age of consent for male homosexual activity to 14. The foundation challenged Section 43 last year, claiming that corporal punishment violates children's constitutional right to equality.
The umbrella Children's Aid Society for the province of Ontario intervened in the case, supporting a complete ban on spanking. The anti-spanking advocates claimed that Canada was obliged to outlaw corporal punishment by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
In fact, the children's right convention — which Canada has ratified but which has not been ratified by the United States — does not ban spanking. Nevertheless, the U.N. committee overseeing international compliance with the convention has twice censured Canada for permitting corporal punishment.
Section 43 was upheld at the trial court level last year, but the verdict is under appeal. The case will almost certainly be decided by the Supreme Court of Canada.
Despite the trial court's ruling in support of corporal punishment, provincial Children's Aid workers ignore Section 43, Hildebrandt charged. Instead, he said, they follow the Ontario Child and Family Services Act, which gives officials the power to apprehend children wherever there is an undefined “risk” that a child “is likely to suffer physical harm.”
Hildebrandt said that in the Aylmer case, social workers appeared unconcerned that the apprehension of the kids in itself risked harming them, “and they couldn't care less about our religious beliefs.”
Catholic Position
Bishop John Sherlock of the Diocese of London, Ontario, which contains Aylmer, said that he doesn't comment on particular cases without knowing all the facts. But he said he's “puzzled by the whole affair,” and thinks the social workers “should have found some less catastrophic way of intervening,” since the children apparently were happy and had suffered no physical harm.
“The role of the parents is paramount in the raising of children,” Bishop Sherlock said. “So the state shouldn't intervene unless the children are unmistakably at risk.”
Added Bishop Sherlock, “Most of us experienced a little reminder of reality, when we were kids, and it didn't do us any harm. Obviously, the Church doesn't support real violence against children, but parents must be free to exercise their own judgment.”
Joe Woodard writes from Calgary, Alberta.
----- EXCERPT: Parents' Support of Corporal Punishment Triggers Intervention by Social Workers ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joe Woodard ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Cloning Scientist Calls Vatican 'Criminal' at Washington Conference DATE: 8/19/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 19-25, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — Italian doctor Severino Antinori, who has announced he will begin to clone humans later this year, has called the Vatican “criminal” for opposing his plans.
Antinori made his remarks at an Aug. 7 conference convened by the National Academy of Sciences in Washington to consider the ethical ramifications of trying to clone humans. The participants were is analyzing the human cloning proposals of Antinori and Panayiotis Zavos, who runs an infertility clinic in Lexington, Ky.
Antinori, whose clinic in Rome enabled a 62-year-old woman to have a baby, confirmed at the conference that he will try to clone humans. His plan calls for the November launching of his cloning program.
Antinori has disclosed that 200 women have been selected worldwide and will be treated for free. Most of them cannot have children because their husbands are sterile.
The U.S. House of Representatives July 31 approved a broad ban on human cloning, including for research purposes.
The fertility specialist acknowledged that, given the international hostility against human cloning, he might be forced to work in a foreign country or on a ship in international waters.
Speaking to a crowd of reporters immediately after addressing the conference, Antinori condemned the House ban and said it was his “human right” to pursue human cloning research, Pro-life E-news reported.
Antinori blamed “religious fanatics” for organizing opposition. “The Pope is screaming at me,” he said. “He wants to avoid the condom and IVF. Nobody announced the criminal when President Bush met in Rome the Pope. Vatican is behind the Bush, Vatican is criminal.”
Brigitte Boisselier of Clonaid, an enterprise offering cloning services on Internet for $200,000, defended Antinori's project at the National Academy of Sciences meeting.
Clonaid was founded in 1997 by a racing car driver who changed his name to Rael and launched the Raelian Movement, a UFO group that maintains that life on earth was created by extraterrestrial scientists.
Boisselier is a bishop in the movement, according to its Web page.
Most Clones Die
Rudolph Jaenisch of the White-head Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a pioneer in animal cloning, warned about the pitfalls of human cloning.
Jaenisch explained that only 1% to 5% of cloned animals survive. The errors and aberrations observed in animals indicate that at present human cloning is “dangerous and scarcely developed technically,” he said.
Alan Colman, research director of PPL Therapeutics in Scotland, another cloning specialist, told the conference that cloning in animals is improving and he expects much greater efficiency as techniques get better, Associated Press reported.
“The bottom line is practice makes perfect,” he said. “But is it ethical to practice in humans? I think it isn't.”
(From staff files and Zenit, a Rome-based news agency)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 8/19/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 19-25, 2001 ----- BODY:Activists Say Same-Sex Marriage Will Harm Family
One homosexual author praised homosexual unions because they would help end monogamy and the traditional family, while another predicted that such unions would require the law to assume androgyny rather than distinct gender roles.
Journalist Andrew Sullivan, perhaps the most prominent advocate of homosexual “marriage,” also noted in his book Virtually Normal that widespread acceptance of homosexual unions would likely lead to “greater understanding of the need for extramarital [sexual] outlets” for both homosexuals and heterosexuals.
National Review Online commented that supporters and opponents of homosexual unions often agree on the unions' societal effect of undermining traditional morality, but proponents want to see gender, sexual fidelity, and monogamy challenged, while opponents do not.
California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Rhode Island, and Washington are considering legislation based on Vermont's “civil unions” law, which last year accorded homosexual relationships many of the civil benefits of marriage.
Mass. Catholic Conference Backs Abuse Law
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Aug. 8 — Although a spokesman for the Massachusetts Catholic Conference had spoken earlier against a proposed law that would require clergy to report all suspected child abuse, the conference announced that it would support the bill, the wire service announced.
The bill would add clergy to a list of professionals, including teachers, doctors and day care workers, who are required to report any suspicions of child abuse. Information received in confession or in other “confidential conversations” is still confidential.
A Church youth worker pleaded guilty July 9 to 75 counts of child sexual abuse, and one Massachusetts priest will face trial in September on charges of molesting 70 children.
Cardinal George's GentlerApproach Echoes 1940s Dispute
However, the 1940s struggle, in which a small black Catholic school was shut out of a white athletic league in St. Louis, was only resolved when Cardinal Joseph Ritter banned segregation and threatened opponents with excommunication. Most observers believed that approach wouldn't work today.
Chicago Cardinal Francis George used moral leadership and private phone calls to bring the two sides to agreement on including St. Sabina in the league. Cardinal George backed the school's inclusion in the athletic league despite league parents' fears that their children would be unsafe in St. Sabina's neighborhood.
As Hank Lenzen, chairman of the Southside Catholic Conference, put it, “He's the boss, but he didn't put the hammer down.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Homosexual Activists Harass Black Leader for Supporting Marriage DATE: 8/19/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 19-25, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — Friends warned civil rights leader Rev. Walter Fauntroy that homosexual activists would not appreciate his support for a constitutional amendment, to define marriage as between a man and a woman.
But little did he expect his home phone to ring off the hook from angry homosexual activists, at the prompting of an e-mail from a homosexual leader that contained Rev. Fauntroy's phone number.
Thann Young, who serves with Rev. Fauntroy on the advisory board for the Alliance for Marriage, which proposed the Federal Marriage Amendment, said encouraging activists to call Rev. Fauntroy's home phone number was “outside the bounds” of appropriate discourse.
“Of all groups, they should understand what they did to Fauntroy was like a hate crime,” said Young, who works at the Congress of National Black Churches and is a pastor at Agape Church in Olney, Md. “It contradicts a lot of what they say about justice and peace. It speaks volumes about what they are about as a group.”
The controversy began immediately before Alliance for Marriage's press conference July 12, at which a diverse coalition unveiled the Federal Marriage Amendment.
One of its members was Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua of Philadelphia. “I commend all the men and women of various races, faiths and political parties who have committed themselves to the task of promoting the sacred dignity and value of marriage through this amendment,” said Cardinal Bevilacqua.
On July 11, Rick Rosendall, vice-president of the Gay and Lesbian Activist Alliance, a Washington, D.C., homosexual organization, sent a message critical of Rev. Fauntroy to his organization's e-mail list.
In the e-mail, Rosendall wrote, “Fauntroy wraps himself in democracy and the civil rights movement while seeking to disenfranchise a group of Americans. Truly obscene.”
Home Phone Number
He then adds, “Call Rev. Fauntroy at home at [number deleted by the Register] and register your objection to his alliance with anti-gay bigots … Tell him how offensive it is that he — a civil rights veteran, of all people — would deny freedoms to others that he himself enjoys.”
Rev. Fauntroy has impeccable credentials as a civil rights leader. In 1960 he was appointed by Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr., as director of the Washington bureau of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and he served as the D.C. coordinator of the historic March on Washington of 1963 and as coordinator of the Selma to Montgomery march of 1965.
In 1971, he was elected as the first delegate for the District of Columbia to the U.S. House and he served as leader of the Congressional Black Caucus from 1981-83.
He is currently pastor of the New Bethel Baptist Church in Washington, and is also president of the National Black Leadership Roundtable.
In an interview, Rosendall defended his decision to include Rev. Fauntroy's home phone number.
“I had other numbers for him, but after testing them, the only line that I could confirm was Fauntroy's was the home phone, so that's the one I used,” Rosendall said. “Exposing the man to the views of the former constituents he is trying to disadvantage seems reasonable to me.”
When asked if Fauntroy would consider it wrong to have his home phone number publicly disseminated, Rosendall replied, “As to whether Fauntroy might regard it as inappropriate, I am much more interested in the question of why it is appropriate to scapegoat gay people for the problems in straight people's marriages. Fauntroy is a public figure, and must be held accountable for his actions and advocacy, particularly when he pursues such an extreme measure as changing the Constitution to resolve a social dispute.”
Rosendall insisted that he did not intend for activists to harass Rev. Fauntroy. “I urged our members to communicate with him, not tie up his line or harass him,” he said.
Syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher was unimpressed with Rosendall's answer.
“Rick told me that he didn't tell people to harass him, just to engage in civil conversations,” Gallagher said. “It might not be harassment in the legal sense. But in the moral sense, if you send a man's home phone number over the Internet, it is moral harassment.”
Matt Daniels, executive director for Alliance for Marriage, expressed dismay that the important discussion on the Federal Marriage Amendment was being misused to justify personal attacks.
‘Hateful Language’
“Gay activists claim to be the victims of hate. But in this case, who used hateful language and employed harassment tactics against a civil rights leader and his family?” Daniels said.
He added that Catholics should be concerned about the attacks on Rev. Fauntroy.
“The African American Church and the Catholic community have both been subject to discrimination and persecution at different times in the history of our nation,” said Daniels. “In this case, we have every reason to make common cause on behalf of the legal status of marriage, and against those who would seek to suppress and silence our efforts to express our deeply held beliefs.”
Rev. Fauntroy did not return calls for comment. But Young expressed anger over Rosendall's comparison between the struggle by blacks for civil rights and the campaign by homosexual activists to win recognition of same-sex “marriage.”
Said Young, “when you look at how many African Americans were killed, how families were destroyed, how people were forced to come to this country, how my ancestors were beaten — there's just no comparison.”
Young added that homosexuals undermine their own arguments by attacking people like Rev. Fauntroy. Said Young, “They're complaining about harassment and hate when they are using the same tactics. To me, it's really kind of ridiculous for them to attack him. I listened carefully at the [July 12] press conference. At no time did he represent any intolerance for gays.”
Joshua Mercer writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 8/19/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 19-25, 2001 ----- BODY:Cardinal Ratzinger Compares Cloning Scientists to Hitler
“In a certain sense, Hitler was ahead of his time as far as some modern developments are concerned,” said the cardinal, who lived through Nazi Germany as a teenager. Monsignor Elio Sgreccia, vice president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, called cloning “the worst manifestation of human slavery.”
Doctor Severino Antinori was one of three pro-cloning doctors to address a panel of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington. London's Daily Telegraph reported that Antinori called Pope John Paul II and President George W. Bush “criminals” and asserted that he had a “human right” to research cloning.
Mel Gibson and Sons on Pilgrimage to Vatican City
Gibson took Edward and Christian, 17, on a pilgrimage to the Vatican. The Australian actor wore religious symbols from the Carmelite order around his neck when he spoke with reporters.
Over Half of Ukrainians Positive About Pope
SOCIS INSTITUTE, Aug. 2 — Just over half of Ukrainians polled by the Socis Institute said that they felt “positive” about Pope John Paul II's June visit, despite condemnations form the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
Fifty-one percent judged the visit to be positive, while only 14% thought it had been negative. One third of Ukrainians said the papal visit “will reinforce the international prestige” of Ukraine or “will contribute to an improvement in interdenominational relations.” Six percent thought the visit would cause Orthodox-Catholic relations to deteriorate, and 7% said the visit was part of a “plan of global expansion of Catholicism.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: 'A Call to Faith in a God Who Is Not Indifferent' DATE: 8/19/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 19-25, 2001 ----- BODY:Register Summary
God watches over all the events of human history, protecting the weak and encouraging all people to hope in him, Pope John Paul II said at his weekly general audience Aug. 8.
Speaking to thousands of people in the Vatican's audience hall, the Pope continued his series of talks on the Psalms, focusing on Psalm 33, which he called a “catechesis” on God's constant care for his creation.
The psalm, he said, teaches that God is the Lord of human history and that his plan for humanity often faces opposition from “the plans of earthly powers.”
Psalm 33, which is divided into 22 verses, the same as the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet, is a hymn of praise to the Lord of the universe and of history. A wave of joy permeates it from the very first lines: “Rejoice, you just, in the Lord; praise from the upright is fitting. Give thanks to the Lord on the harp; on the ten-stringed lyre offer praise. Sing to God a new song; skillfully play with joyful chant” (verses 1-3).
This acclamation is therefore accompanied by music and is the expression of an interior voice of faith and hope, of happiness and trust. The hymn is “new,” not only because it renews our certainty about God's presence within the created world and human events, but also because it anticipates the perfect praise that will be sung on the day of definitive salvation, when the Kingdom of God will reach its glorious fulfillment.
The final fulfillment in Christ is essentially what St. Basil has in mind when he explains the passage this way: “In general, ‘new’ means either something unusual or something recently come to be. If you are thinking of the astounding manner, beyond all imagining, of the Lord's incarnation, you are necessarily singing a new and uncommon song. And if you are reflecting on the regeneration and renewal of all humanity, which was made old by sin, and are proclaiming the mysteries of the Resurrection, then you, too, are singing a new and uncommon song.” (Homily on Psalm 32, PG 29, 327B).
In a word, according to St. Basil, the psalmist's invitation — “Sing to God a new song” — means, for believers in Christ: “Honor God not according to the ancient custom of the ‘letter,’ but in the newness of the ‘spirit.’ Actually, whoever is not following the Law externally, but is honoring its ‘spirit,’ such a one is singing a ‘new song’” (Ibid.).
In its central section, the hymn is divided into three parts that form a trilogy of praise.
The first part (verses 6-9) celebrates God's creative word. The wonderful architecture of the universe, like a cosmic temple, did not emerge or develop from a struggle between gods, as some cosmogonies of the ancient Near East suggested, but only on the basis of God's effective word. This is exactly what the first page of Genesis teaches: “God said … and it was so.” The psalmist, in fact, is repeating: “For he spoke, and it came to be, commanded, and it stood in place” (verse 9).
The psalmist particularly highlights control of the sea waters, since in the Bible they are the sign of chaos and evil. The world, along with its boundaries, however, is preserved in being by the Creator who, as mentioned in the Book of Job, commands the sea to halt at the shore. “Thus far shall you come but no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stilled” (Job 38:11).
God's loving faithfulness covers, warms and protects us, offering us serenity.
The Lord is also the ruler of human history, as stated in the second part of Psalm 33, in verses 10-15. In a vigorous juxtaposition, the plans of the earthly powers are contrasted with the wonderful project that God is outlining in history.
Human programs, when intended as alternatives, introduce injustice, evil and violence, rising up against the divine plan of justice and salvation. Despite transitory and apparent successes, they are nothing more than mere schemes, destined to dissolution and failure.
The biblical book of Proverbs succinctly states: “Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the decision of the Lord that endures” (Proverbs 19:21). Similarly, the psalmist reminds us that from heaven, his transcendent dwelling, God follows all the doings of humanity, even the mad and absurd ones, and sees into all the secrets of the human heart.
“Wherever you go, whatever you do, whether in darkness or in the light of day, God's eye sees you,” comments St. Basil (Homily on Psalm 32, PG, 29, 343A). Happy will that people be who accept divine revelation and observe its instructions for life, following its paths on the journey of history. At the end only one thing remains: “But the plan of the Lord stands forever, wise designs through all generations” (verse 11).
The third and last part of the psalm (verses 16-22), picks up, from two new angles, the theme of the lordship of God alone over human affairs. The powerful are invited not to delude themselves with the military power of armies and cavalry. The faithful, often oppressed, starving and on the brink of death, are invited to hope in the Lord who will not let them fall into the abyss of destruction.
This shows that the psalm also has a catechetical function. It turns into a call to belief in a God who is not indifferent to the arrogance of the powerful and who is close to the weakness of humanity, comforting and sustaining it as long as it trusts and relies on him, and raises its prayer and praise to him.
“The humility of those who serve God” — as St. Basil explains — “shows that they hope for his mercy. Indeed, whoever does not put his trust in his own great enterprises, nor expect to be justified by his own works, sees in God's mercy his only hope for salvation (Homily on Psalm 32, PG 29,347A).
The psalm ends with an antiphon that has become part of the well-known hymn, the Te Deum: “May your kindness, Lord, be upon us; we have put our hope in you” (verse 22). Divine grace and human hope meet and embrace. Or rather, like a blanket, God's loving faithfulness (according to the meaning of hésed, the original Hebrew word used here) covers, warms and protects us, offering us serenity and giving a secure foundation to our faith and hope.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Church Intercedes in Argentina's Economic Crisis DATE: 8/19/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 19-25, 2001 ----- BODY:BUENOS AIRES — Aug. 7 could not have been a more emblematic day of what is happening in Argentina.
It was a day of two multitudes: one, in an orderly line at the Shrine of St. Cajetan in Buenos Aires; the other, blocking roads in a sign of protest along Argentinean highways.
In the midst of rising unemployment and an economic crisis showing no signs of easing, tens of thousands of Argentineans paid homage to St. Cajetan, a 15th-century Italian saint who mysteriously became the patron of work and bread to whom Argentinians appeal to during hard times.
Coinciding with St. Cajetan's feast day, Argentina faced a wave of nationwide road blockades by thousands of unemployed workers protesting an unpopular government austerity plan aimed at sparking international financial support and avoiding debt default.
The prayers to St. Cajetan and the shouts at road blockades asked for the same thing: an alternative to public sector spending cuts that have caused recession and 16% unemployment.
But a divergence of opinion divides the South American nation on how to overcome the crisis. The center-left government of Fernando De la Rua, in an act of political desperation, has appointed as new economy minister Rua's political rival, Domingo Cavallo.
For Cavallo, a former presidential candidate and former economic minister, the solution is hard but simple: a dramatic cut in government spending to secure a $6 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund to keep servicing Argentina's $128 billion public debt.
The Argentinean Bishops' Conference has a radically different view about how to proceed. Said Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, archbishop of Buenos Aires, “There must be something fundamentally wrong when the measures put more poor people in the streets while rich people celebrate; when the police prosecute those who shout for jobs, while white-glove thieves elude justice.”
Bishop Marcerlo Melani of Viedma, who recently released a statement about the need for a deep moral reform, told the Register, “In the way this situation is being handled, there is no reference to a critical problem: the great immorality and irresponsibility in the way politicians, bankers and even union leaders have been acting.
“There is a deep divorce between the leaders and the people, because while politicians speak about ‘convincing investors,’ the people are asking why they have to pay the price of a party they did not attend.”
International markets want to see evidence that the government will stick to its austerity plan, aimed at erasing the budget deficit for the second half of 2001. But state employees and retired workers, who have seen salaries and pensions slashed by 13%, are demanding a different solution.
‘Hard Time’
Secretary of Finance Daniel Marx said the government is taking the harsh measures for the sake of
Argentina's citizens, who “otherwise would see their future obliterated by inflation.” Said Marx, “This is a hard time that must be shared by all in order to have better times.”
Still, Marx admitted it would take “some time” before Argentinians, especially the poor, see concrete benefits. In fact, he told the Register that all of the $6 billion the government is seeking “will be used to recompose reserves to increase trust among investors.”
Bishop José Cone-jero Gallego of Formosa, a poor northern region, said “the neo-liberal economics have not only imposed over us an economic system, but even a language — full of terms like ‘competitive,’ ‘deficit,’ ‘default’ — that is completely foreign to our people.”
Added Bishop Conejero, “The government have neither explanations for their measures nor a clear policy to help the most needy, and this is creating a sensation of uncertainty, anguish and lack of hope.”
Constructive Alternative
The bishops have also been central in facilitating negotiations to seek constructive alternatives.
Cardinal Raul Francisco Primatesta, retired archbishop of Córdova and head of the Social Affairs Commission of the Argentinean bishops' conference, is leading informal conversations between government representatives, heads of entrepreneurs' organizations and union leaders.
A source at the Social Affairs Commission said the meetings are intended to “help different sectors to go beyond their usual jargon and find a long-term agreement on how to face the crisis in the best way possible.” Said the source, “The cardinal's role is pretty much to help all sectors sit together and understand that all will have to concede something.”
Also, in addition to the existing support provided by its network of relief services, the Church launched a campaign on Aug. 7, St. Cajetan's feast, to generate jobs for unemployed workers.
The jobs, offered through Caritas Argentina, draw on two sources. One is the creation of employment in Church-run organizations; the other is coordinated with the Catholic Association of Catholic Entrepreneurs.
Cardinal Primatesta has asked the entrepreneurs' association to encourage members to provide jobs in their businesses, “even walking an extra mile.” Other private employers have been requested to at least not make job cuts unless absolutely necessary.
“This effort to provide jobs is a call to hope and to solidarity,” said Bishop-elect Fernando Maletti, pastor of the St. Cajetan shrine, where the largest job center operates.
Nevertheless, the bishops insist that only a moral restructuring of public life can provide a long-term solution. At least 20 Argentinean bishops, including those of the most important archdioceses, have released statements about the connection between the economic crisis and the lack of personal virtues and public values in Argentinean politics.
“There has been too much corruption, widespread tax evasion and a systematic abuse of the state's resources,” said Bishop Melani. “How much proof is needed to accept that values have consequences in our public life?”
Sergio Rubin, a political analyst of the daily newspaper Clarín, said, “With their recent words and deeds, the Argentinean episcopate has shown their decision not only to defend the poor, as usual, but even to be uncomfortable to the powerful. And the powerful means anyone at the top, because the bishops' critical words fit not only the government, but also the opposition and financial leaders.”
Alejandro Bermúdez is based in Lima, Peru
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Alejandro Bermudez ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 8/19/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 19-25, 2001 ----- BODY:Salvation Army Faces Russian Opposition
The Russian capital's justice ministry cited the Protestant group's use of military-style uniforms and ranks. The Salvation Army may be kicked out of Moscow at a court hearing in September.
Any religious organization not affiliated with the country's four main religions — the Russian Orthodox Church, Orthodox Judaism, Islam and Buddhism — must periodically register with the government. In January 1999, the city of Moscow first refused the Salvation Army's application. Last June, the justice ministry argued that the group was illegal.
The Moscow justice ministry has already rejected 248 applications from churches, and plans to reject almost 200 more, including Catholic, Buddhist, and Seventh-Day Adventist groups.
Did
The study predicted that there is “around an 85% chance that the world's population will stop growing before the end of the century,” and a 15% chance that by century's end there will be fewer people than there are today. The authors called this “welcome news,” but the Journal‘s Seth Lipsky disagreed.
Lipsky pointed out that when Asia's population more than doubled, the continent pulled off a remarkable economic boom, and “per capita food consumption soared.” The Far Eastern Economic Review noted that the United Nations called for increased population control when Asia was actually suffering from a labor shortage.
Lipsky suggested that countries with declining populations should start thinking about how to lift their sagging population figures.
Pastor Banned From Religious Activity in Belarus
KESTON NEWS SERVICE, July 30 — A Ukrainian pastor in the Belarusian capital of Minsk was banned from “public religious activity,” the religious-freedom news service reported.
Pastor Venjamin Brukh of the Church of Jesus Christ was told that he would not get the “special permission” required for foreign pastors, since according to a state official Bible colleges in Belarus produce enough pastors.
The Minsk City Council also recently denied all religious organizations the right to rent property.
Stop Smuggling My Sermons, Priest Tells Flock
ANANOVA, Aug. 5 — Father Pietro Zaurna, a priest of the Diocese of Milan, Italy, said that some of his parishioners are writing down his sermons and giving them to other priests in the diocese, the online news service reported.
The priest said he was “really indignant about unoriginal people who smuggle sermons.” He had found a photocopy of one of his sermons on the “black market.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Playing Politics With Judges DATE: 8/19/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 19-25, 2001 ----- BODY:Judiciary Committee head Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., has made his strategy on judiciary nominations clear: As long as the president sends “ideologically slanted” judges (read: pro-lifers) he will delay giving them confirmation hearings.
The very idea should outrage Americans of every stripe. It's the role of the executive branch to appoint judges — not the executive and legislative branches collaboratively. If the Senate has a particular problem with a particular judge, it should give him a hearing, and point out in a public forum what, exactly, the problem is.
And yet most commentators have been silent about the senator's stated objective.
We remember that it wasn't too long ago that Sen. Orrin Hatch waited before confirming Clinton appointments. American newspapers' editorial comment at that time was not only cogent, but tinged with outrage. How dare he stall like that?
It's a good idea to look back at what was said in 1998. Perhaps we can remind our nation's media of the principles they once held — principles that need to be vigorously applied to a new situation.
The Detroit Free Press on Jan. 3, 1998, wrote: “[T]he courts are too important an institution to be a pawn in a game between senators and the president. If Sen. Hatch truly respected the courts and our democratic system, he would cease his corrosive political games.”
The Los Angeles Times on Jan. 5, 1998, wrote about “the Senate's petty, partisan game on judicial appointments,” adding, “To Republicans, still smarting from a Democratic-led Senate's rejection of four nominees (including Robert H. Bork) forwarded by Ronald Reagan or George Bush, turnabout is fair play and tarring Clinton's nominees helps raise support for conservative causes. Sen. Hatch surely knows these are not worthy justifications. In the name of justice, he should move ahead.”
The Portland (Maine) Press Herald on Jan. 3 wrote: “GOP leaders in the Senate have delayed action on scores of nominees because, they say, they want to ferret out nominees they perceive as ‘activist’ or, in plain terms, liberal. … The way the senators have gone about it is troubling, however. Regardless of their politics … nominees to the federal bench deserve fair consideration and a vote on their qualifications. Leaving them hanging serves neither the cause of justice nor the political process.”
The St. Paul Pioneer Press on Jan. 4 wrote that “Sen. Orrin Hatch … lays the blame on the Clinton Administration for offering ‘activist’ candidates for the judiciary. ‘Activist’ by whose standards? Regardless, the nominees deserve a vote.”
It is appropriate for the Senate to vigorously assert the power it has to check the president's nominations. The American system is supposed to work that way: one branch grabs for more power, the other branch slaps it back.
What's unacceptable is for one branch of government to usurp — or simply shut down — the operation of another branch altogether (as the Supreme Court did, in the case of Roe v. Wade).
There was a time, not too long ago, when our media were outraged at the politicization of the judiciary. Where is the outrage now?
----- EXCERPT: EDITORIAL ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Come Together Over Life DATE: 8/19/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 19-25, 2001 ----- BODY:I am 20 years old, a former head of a Rock For Life chapter, and a man who is totally pro-life.
In the past few issues, I've been noticing the sad disunity of the pro-life organizations and movements — namely, Judie Brown and others, who have their own bones to pick with the National Right to Life organization. I find this disheartening, for we must be together in this fight to save the unborn. A kingdom divided against itself cannot [stand]. This kingdom is the culture of life, which we are fighting for. This petty bickering is distracting us from the real job of saving unborn lives.
I'd ask Judie Brown, and any others who share her opinions, to pray for our president rather than judge him before he decides on pro-life issues. It's all too obvious whom she and others voted for last year, a so-called prolife/Catholic candidate whose own views and party positions differ from that of the Church and, most of all, the Holy Father.
They voted for a man who on national TV has voiced his disagreement with the Pope and faithful Catholic bishops. Bush is not perfect but neither was that man. That man also almost gave this all-too-close last election to pro-abortion candidates.
Let us pray for unity, let us pray for our president, and let us pray for the end of the culture of death.
TIM SCHLENZ JR. Middletown, Virginia
Storing Up Treaures
Several of the comments quoted in your June 24-30 article on the Ave Maria Catholic Values Fund (“Domino's Founder's Fund Throws Good Money After Good”) shed some light on the attitudes toward principled investing that prevail in the Catholic community and help explain why most Catholics don't extend their religious convictions to their personal investments.
Many, no doubt, find the concept appealing but may share Msgr. William Smith's concern that the moral aspects of investing in mutual funds are “enormously complicated.”
I would argue that the choice between investing in a portfolio of companies selected without regard for their compliance with Catholic teaching and a portfolio which excludes companies that violate Church principles is simple, not complicated. The issue is whether you want to try to do the right thing or not bother.
The monsignor properly observes that merely labeling a fund Catholic doesn't make it so, but determining whether a particular fund does, in fact, adhere to Catholic values need not be so “very, very difficult to pin .. down,” as he suggests. The investment policies of Catholic mutual funds in general, and certainly of the Ave Maria Catholic Values Fund, are clear and unambiguous. The exclusion of companies directly involved in abortion, pornography and other anti-family practices results in portfolios that are very different from those of secular funds. They reveal just how far from the real world is Phil Lenahan's hypothetical 100-stock portfolio, which includes a single “limited” deviation from Catholic teaching.
Consumers should definitely be careful about funds that claim they can take the sin out of the marketplace, as Msgr. Smith warns. As portfolio managers, however, the Ave Maria Catholic Values Fund can provide concerned Catholics with an investment choice to which they are entitled.
GREGG D. WATKINS Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
The writer is portfolio manger of the Ave Maria Catholic Values Fund.
Joan on Film
Your Weekly Video Picks of July 29-Aug. 4 included a video titled Joan the Maid. I am a devotee of St. Joan of Arc and thought I had seen every movie and video made about her, but this is one I have never seen. Could you tell me how I could procure a copy of it?
MSGR. MYRON J. PLESKAC Lincoln, Nebraska
Editor's Note: You should be able to get a copy of the two-tape set from the major online sellers of books and videos (such as amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com) or by special order at most video stores.
Social Justice vs. Socialism In “Ten Years Later, the Key to Free Society is Still Culture” (July 8-14), Greg Beabout is correct when he states that Centesimus Annus denounces socialism and “teaches us that the primary task of working for social justice lies at the level of the human heart and involves promoting the culture of life.” However, he is misleading in claiming that “socialism is all but gone from the world scene after 1989.”
There is and has been a creeping socialism in the United States since the 1930s. Our current culture is to give to the government through taxes the power to be the definers and administers of social justice. Moreover, the government wants to usurp our responsibility and let the government take care of it. The government — as a remote bureaucracy — does not have the human heart to promote the culture of life.
For example, more than 60% of Catholic Charities funds come from the government. That is creeping socialism and certainly not in keeping with Centesimus Annus. It depicts a culture of socialism rather than a culture that lies at the level of the human heart.
TOM McGINN Fountain Hills, Arizona
Remarkably Misguided Register?
Your reply to the letter “Remarkably Misguided Pro-Life Men” July 22-28 could be taken as simply “passing the buck.” However, it seems to me to be “spin” to say “Judge us for what we say we believe on our editorial page, not for the articles we print on the other pages.”
With Ken Brinkman, I say, “Shame on you!”
JEANETTE MASCHMANN St. Louis
Editor's Note: Many letter-writers have pointed out to us that some of the self-professed liberal men who were recognized by the Feminists for Life as pro-life have been high-profile supporters of pro-abortion candidates. We agree that this is an inconsistent position on their part. The Register is adamant about the incompatibility of pro-life views and pro-abortion votes. We ran the story because we thought it would be helpful for readers to know that even avid political “liberals” recognize that killing the unborn is wrong. The organization did not praise these men's choice of candidates — only their affirmation of unborn life.
Pax Christi on Shaky Ground The statement which Pax Christi makes on its Web site about abortion is filled with nothing but Planned Parenthood's continuing lies about pro-lifers (“Pax Christi's Pro-Abortion Speaker Stopped by University,” July 15-21).
A case in point is the statement by Pax Christi that “Women are too often criminalized or condemned by those committed to the unborn …”
The people with Pax Christi must never associate with anyone who has worked in a pro-life crisis pregnancy center, for if they had, they'd know that statement to be an outright lie. And, if any of them actually came down to earth and worked with groups such as Rachel's Vineyard, the Elliot Institute or Life Dynamics, they'd know that there are many pro-life groups that work hard to help women overcome the many physical and emotional traumas that their abortions caused them and regain a sense of dignity in their own eyes through the mercy of God's forgiveness.
Is this what they mean by common ground? What kind of common ground are they talking about when it comes to abortion? Do they mean it's OK to abort some babies and not others? Do they mean it's OK to create a human life in a petri dish so long as you kill it for its stem cells? What do they mean?
And, if they are willing to look for common ground on abortion, why stop there? Why not find common ground on euthanasia? Or maybe the death penalty?
Pax Christi makes grandiose statements about a “seamless garment” in their opposition to “not only abortion, but also the death penalty, war, the nuclear-arms race and anything that threatens life,” and they “reject the claim of any individual, any group or organization, any nation to the ‘right’ to destroy human life, whether singly or as entire populations.”
Do they mean that no one has the right to defend themselves from attack? I think Pax Christi's “Seamless Garment” has a few holes in it.
JOHN M. CRAVEN New Orleans
----- EXCERPT: LETTERS ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Liturgical License? DATE: 8/19/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 19-25, 2001 ----- BODY:If you'll permit another letter on Father Kavanaugh's June 10-16 letter on liturgical translation, I believe his premise that “Every act of translation is also an act of transculturation,” is mistaken.
The translations of the texts of the Mass are, or should be, occurring across languages but within the Catholic culture. If Catholic culture is lacking, it is where there is a lack of education and understanding due to a lack of accurate texts. This is exactly the point made by Liturgiam Authenticam (Authentic Liturgy).
The problem is precisely that the translations as they now stand are not “rendered in a way that makes the truth of the text accessible to the hearers.” For example, “ite, missa est” is not, as in Dismissal C, “Go in peace to love and serve the (our) Lord (and each other)” (these parentheticals being occasionally added by the presider). “Ite, missa est” is nothing but “Go, the Mass is.” While the words are plain enough, their implications may not be, and we are thus presented with a perfect opportunity for catechesis on the mysteries of the Mass, the Eucharistic Sacrifice (in time and outside of time) and the Sacrifice on Calvary (once and for all).
Culture is not a matter of turns of phrase, but of behavior. American culture mistakenly suggests that one can do something which may be wrong until one is caught and told not to do that thing. Hence, again mistakenly, the thing not specifically prohibited is allowed. It was illustrated for me this way: The rule book for baseball gets thicker, while the rule book for cricket does not. This is also illustrated by Dismissal C above. Priests are not authorized to re-translate the translation of the dismissal.
[Translator Douglas] Hofstadter's credentials notwithstanding, he makes a grave injustice of the translating/painting analogy by choosing an impressionist painter rather than just a painter. By definition, the mere painter renders to the best of his ability what is before him, and the impressionist renders his impression of what is before him. While some may prefer an impression of a landscape to a simple, accurate rendering of a landscape, the latter is to be preferred in a translation.
Regarding Father Kavanaugh's mistaken concluding points: Language is referential, not analogical (see Mortimer J. Adler, Intellect: Mind over Matter, page 129); the introduction of the General Instruction on the Roman Missal (6-15) speaks clearly about what has and can change in the liturgy, hence no “strides” toward “disabuse”; and, by their respective natures, Liturgiam Authenticam has a lesser chance of being “ideology-tainted” than any conclusion which may be drawn from an uncritical reading of Father's letter.
MARK L. WILLE Phoenix
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: MARK L. WILLE Phoenix ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: The Physician, The Judge and The Journalist DATE: 8/19/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 19-25, 2001 ----- BODY:When my wife and I first went house-shopping, one of our prayers was that we would find a place with good, Catholic neighbors.
God answered our prayer, but as only God can. Across the street lives a physician and his family. A Wanderer and New Oxford Review reader, he frequently passes along his previously read issues of Crisis and Catholic Eye for my reading enjoyment.
Next door lives a retired judge and his wife. One day last summer the woman approached my wife, asking, “Which newspaper is it that your husband writes for? Is it the National Catholic Reporter?
We read that paper religiously. It's progressive and headed in the direction that we think the Church should be going.”
“He works for the National Catholic Register,” was my wife's only reply.
Needless to say, the physician and the judge have their differences. In fact, I've been told that, one year, when Paul Wellstone was running for the Senate, the judge placed a sign supporting Wellstone on his front lawn. In response, the physician put up a cardboard, hand-made sign that read “Wellstone Supports Abortion. Do you?”
It's a curious thing, this triangular relationship representing the various facets of the Church. The physician, in his 50s, traditional in his thinking. The retired judge, older and more liberal in his views. And me, the 30-something Catholic journalist — trying to stay on good terms with both of them. It occurs to me that the three of us form a microcosm of the Church at large.
I came to know about the Catholic faith as much through the Register's pages as through the Catechism. As a disgruntled Lutheran, I had begun attending our neighborhood Catholic Church with my Catholic wife. Each Sunday, on the way out, I would pick up that week's copy of the Register. In its pages I found a “voice” I had not often heard — the voice of Christ as a light in the darkness. I savored its unique perspective on the news, reading it from cover to cover. I remember feeling terribly disappointed on Sunday mornings when all the issues had been snapped up from the vestibule before I had a chance to grab one.
I quickly grew to love the Church, but only gradually came to recognize the extent of its internal struggles for true unity. Anxious to understand the problem, I began to read. Today, looking out my window at my Catholic neighbors' homes, I think of a passage that resonated with me several years ago — and seems even more enlightening now. It's by G.K. Chesterton, from his classic work Orthodoxy. He wrote:
“As I read and re-read all the non-Christian or anti-Christian accounts of the faith … a slow and awful impression grew gradually but graphically upon my mind — the impression that Christianity must be a most extraordinary thing. For not only (as I understood) had Christianity the most flaming vices, but it had apparently a mystical talent for combining vices which seemed inconsistent with each other. It was attacked on all sides and for all contradictory reasons. No sooner had one rationalist demonstrated that it was too far to the east than another demonstrated with equal clearness that it was much too far to the west.”
It occurs to me that the three of us form a microcosm of the Church at large.
Little did I dream when I first read that passage that I would one day write for the Register. Or that G.K.'s observation would take on a whole new meaning for me. Like Chesterton, I find that I catch criticism from all sides. Those on the left describe my work as “conservative,” while those on the right suggest that it is too “liberal.”
It brings to mind my initial confusion as a fresh convert to the Catholic faith when confronted by two parishes within our diocese. One took great liberties with the liturgy; the other practiced the Tridentine rite. To my way of thinking, the Church was neither right nor left. The Church was the Church was the Church.
That was also made clear to me through the actions of my seemingly disparate Catholic neighbors. Last fall, while I was recovering from back surgery, the judge and his wife paid to have a lawn crew pick up all the fallen leaves from our yard. Then, at Christmas-time, the physician' s family brought over gifts of toys and hand-made blankets for our children, a quilt for our newborn, and books for my wife and me.
Christ, it seems to me, represents both perfect truth and perfect charity. He chased the moneychangers from the Temple, but also cured the sick. He did not emphasize one at the expense of the other.
Whether left or right in their views, both neighbors demonstrated authentic Christian acts of love — with absolutely no expectation for anything in return.
While they may differ in their beliefs, their actions testified to the fact that, in Christ, they can offer the world a consistent Christian witness.
On those days when the bickering wears on me, I remember Christ's admonition that we are to “love our neighbors.” I recall our neighbors' acts of generosity and love. And I pray that, in the words of Our Lord as recorded in the 17th chapter of John's Gospel, one day they — we — “may all be one.”
Tim Drake is managing editor of Catholic.net.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Did Abortion Reduce Crime? DATE: 8/19/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 19-25, 2001 ----- BODY:In the mid-1990s, reports began to trickle in that crime rates were finally on the decline — and Henry Morgentaler said he knew why.
“When the crime statistics first came out, I thought, ‘that's because of abortion becoming legal,’” said the medical director of the Morgentaler Clinics and one of the foremost Canadian proponents of abortion.
As Morgentaler saw it, unwanted children are more likely to commit crimes. If there are more abortions, there will be fewer unwanted children. Fewer unwanted children will mean less crime.
In 1999, a scholarly study appeared to confirm Morgentaler's syllogism. The study, by John J. Donohue, a professor at Stanford University Law School, and Steven Levitt, a professor of economics at the University of Chicago and research fellow of the American Bar Foundation, hit the media spotlight amid accusations that the scholars were proposing eugenics to eliminate likely criminals.
Two scholars sharply criticized Donohue and Levitt's methods in separate studies of their own. Their studies have received far less press coverage than Donohue and Levitt's.
Levitt argued that no one should use his study to support legal abortion — in fact, he said, in the course of his research he became “much more sympathetic to the pro-life view of the world.”
Levitt noted: “The scale of abortion in this country is very sobering. The other thing that I think is disturbing is that, with the legalization of abortion, the number of children born falls by only about 6%, and yet 30% of pregnancies are ending in abortion. So that suggests that there's an extra 24% of pregnancies which would-n't have occurred except that abortion was an available option.”
He added that, although he wasn't sure where he stood on abortion now, “The number of abortions performed is a thousand times greater than the implied reduction in homicide we find due to legalized abortion. So if abortion is murder or something like murder, then our study does not make a strong argument in favor of legalized abortion. I don't think people should be using our results to derive public policy on abortion.”
But he continued to defend his study against the two scholars who criticized it, John Lott, senior research scholar at Yale University Law School, and Ted Joyce, professor of economics at Baruch College of the City University of New York.
In the course of his research, Levitt became ‘much more sympathetic to the pro-life view of the world.’
Anecdotal Arguments
Levitt explained his results in an interview with the Register. “If you look at the number of homicides committed by people born right before and after legalized abortion,” he said, “and you look at how many homicides they've committed, you see very clearly that there seems to be a reduction in homicides associated with legal abortion.”
Asked if he had considered other factors that affect crime, like economic downturns and changes in law enforcement, Levitt replied: “As we've added more and more controls, for the economy or for the criminal justice system, the results don't change.”
Levitt and Donohue compared the five states that legalized abortion before Roe v. Wade to the rest of the country, and found that those five states had the first drops in crime.
“You don't see any difference in the crime patterns for 15 years, and then suddenly you see them diverge,” Levitt said. Moreover, “In states that have high abortion rates, the declines are only observed for those who were born in the legalized abortion regime. The people who are older — their crimes are not going down.”
Donohue offered the story of a mentally ill woman in Texas who tried to illegally abort her twins in the late 1960s. One twin survived, but the mother almost died. When she became pregnant again, she did not try to abort. She gave birth to a son, whom she neglected and abused. Her son was executed for the brutal killing of two elderly men. Donohue asked, “Are you now surprised that legalized abortion can reduce crime?”
Lott and Joyce maintain that horrific anecdotes don't give an accurate picture. Ted Joyce picked up on one fact noticed by Levitt, arguing that it undercut an important premise of Donohue's argument: Almost as many children were born after legal abortion as before. And the teen birth rate remained steady as well — so this wasn't a case of teens waiting until they were mature enough to care for a baby.
No Excuses
Another criticism raised by both Joyce and Lott is that the abortion-reduces-crime study assumed that before Roe, the abortion rate in 45 states was zero. “That's not remotely close to being true,” Lott said. “In 1972, there were 23 other states that allowed significant numbers of abortions. Some of those states had significantly higher rates of abortion than the five states [that legalized early, due to] ‘life or health of the mother’ exceptions.”
Lott said, “Abortion doesn't cause a reduction in crime. The evidence seems to indicate that it increases [crime].” Joyce disputed that conclusion, and Lott acknowledged, “The evidence isn't as strong as I've had in other research.”
Lott suggested one way abortion might raise the crime rate: Legal abortion has created an atmosphere in which even women unwilling to abort feel pressured to have premarital sex. They have lost an excuse they could have used to reject sexual advances. This has led to a rise in out-of-wedlock childbearing and, thus, indirectly, to a rise in crime.
Joyce compared groups born only one year apart, where one group had been exposed to legal abortion and the other had not. “When I do that I find nothing” in terms of an abortion effect, he said.
Joyce found that teen crime rates in the early-abortion states tracked young adults' crime rates very closely, even though the teens had been exposed to legal abortion and the young adults had not.
Crime fell first in the five early-abortion states, he said — but it also peaked first there, suggesting that the important factor in states like California and New York was not abortion, but these states' vulnerability to the crack epidemic.
Neither Joyce nor Lott is pro-life. Lott called abortion “one issue that I don't really care strongly about one way or another.”
But their research has challenged those abortion advocates who were using the Donohue and Levitt study to boost their cause.
Eve Tushnet, a former Register staff writer, returned this August to her native Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Where the U.S. Military Should, and Shouldn't, Get Involved DATE: 8/19/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 19-25, 2001 ----- BODY:During a recent visit with our troops in Kosovo, President Bush agreed with Pope John Paul II's call for “humanitarian interference.”
Meanwhile, he also announced that the U.S. will seek to shift more peace-keeping responsibilities to other nations.
Such a shift is critical because the United States must focus its increasingly limited combat resources on a growing array of threats.
“As the people and countries of the Balkans move closer to Europe,” said Bush, “it's only natural that Europe assume increasing leadership and responsibility.”
The president also affirmed the Holy Father's homily for the Jubilee of the Armed Forces and the Police, delivered in Rome last November, in which John Paul endorsed the use of the military as a last resort to “disarm” and “stay the hand of the unjust aggressor.” Bush told U.S. soldiers: “The United States stands against all who use or support violence against democracy and the rule of law.”
While supporting peacekeeping, however, the U.S. must not be distracted from the growing number of security challenges around the world.
For some time, our military has been stretched too thin. Some 23% of the 1.4 million U.S. military personnel are currently scattered at duty stations in 141 countries. Between 1990 and 1997, our military was deployed 36 times for non-routine operations that included, among others, Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm in Kuwait, Operation Eastern Exit in Somalia, and stabilizing missions in Haiti and Bosnia.
Despite the increase in operational tempo, the proposed 2002 defense budget has shrunk, as a percent of the gross national product, to 3%, down from 5.1% in 1990.
The long-term results of these cuts and the increase in overseas deployments during the Clinton years have prompted a drastic decline in troop morale. Our discouraged soldiers are leaving the service in droves and this seriously threatens combat readiness.
A military-wide survey by the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies found that two-thirds of our troops believe people in their units are “stressed out.” Only half agree that morale is high and nearly two-thirds (62%) believe their units lack the materiel and resources needed to accomplish their missions. Most alarming is the fact that 67% say their income is inadequate to provide for their families.
The Bush administration inherited this situation and it is now their duty to bolster the spirits of our troops. As a first step, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has launched three studies to determine how to reduce the number of deployments — and at the same time address emerging powers such as China and the threat of nuclear-tipped missiles launched at the United States or her allies by rogue nations.
While the U.S. commitment to defense spending has decreased, the communist Chinese have increased investment in their military by double digits in each of the last 12 years. They have modernized their forces with the latest Russian equipment, and have stolen or purchased some of our best nuclear- and ballistic-missile technologies — thereby increasing the threat against the United States.
More alarming is the fact that China is selling nuclear and ballistic-missile technology to a number of our potential adversaries. In late July 2001, four U.S. senators sent a letter to the president alleging that China has broken 15 non-proliferation pledges over the past 20 years by selling dangerous technologies to Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya and North Korea — all sworn enemies of the United States.
China's illegal transfer of deadly technologies to these countries has prompted the Bush administration to put the development and deployment of a national missile defense on a fast track. In order to accelerate this program, the Pentagon must find new funds or cut money from other existing or proposed programs. Peacekeeping, which has diverted precious defense money for years, is one of those programs being reevaluated.
President Bush recently told our troops stationed in Kosovo “We must step up our efforts to transfer responsibilities for public security from combat forces.”
Those forces and the funds to support them must be freed to address sagging soldier morale, the growing Chinese expansion and the threats of missile attacks by rogue nations.
Unfortunately, new conflicts arise each year that could warrant outside military intervention. In 2001, there have already been five significant military events ranging from the Thai-Myanmar border conflict to the growing conflict in Macedonia. The reality is that 32 significant new conflicts erupted during the 1990s alone. Military conflicts that threaten world peace will likely increase and many will become candidates for outside peacekeepers.
Peacekeeping missions might better be handled by the United Nations or regional defense pacts such as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Currently, the United Nations has 16 active peacekeeping missions involving 50,000 troops. Thirty-five were initiated during the 1990s alone.
The United States should always promote peace, but its forces must be focused on preparing for real combat in defense of this nation and its worldwide interests.
Our military must not be bogged down performing utilitarian peace-keeping functions in far-flung places like Kosovo. Peacekeeping is, as Pope John Paul II has said, “courageous work” — but it's work best done by the United Nations or other regional defense pacts.
Lt. Col. Robert Maginnis is vice president of policy for the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C. He retired from the U.S. Army in 1993.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Robert L. Maginnis ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Soul-Reader in the Big Easy DATE: 8/19/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 19-25, 2001 ----- BODY:When Bishop Thomas J. Rodi of Biloxi, Miss., visited Jessie Arbogast in the hospital July 14, he blessed the 8-year-old with a relic of Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos.
The nation knows Jessie as the victim of a terrible shark attack earlier this summer in Pensacola, Fla. — one in which his arm was bitten off, then recovered from the fish's mouth and reattached.
As the boy continues to recover at a Catholic hospital in Pensacola, attention is due the little-known blessed whose intercession may have been instrumental in the boy's recuperation.
You don't have to travel far from Pensacola to find Blessed Seelos, a Redemptorist priest and the first North American to be beatified in the Jubilee year (on April 9, 2000): His shrine is just across the Mississippi Sound in New Orleans.
St. Mary's Assumption Church houses the shrine. Once a Civil War parish church, St. Mary's, completed in 1860, attracts visitors with its beauty, history and artifacts that belonged to Blessed Seelos. Generations of Catholics have worshipped in this magnificent building, New Orleans' most sumptuous church.
Father Seelos served as a missionary in the mid-Atlantic states, as well as Michigan. Far from his homeland in Fussen, Germany, he adapted to American life with his multi-lingual gifts, which allowed him to converse with Dutch and German immigrants. He also lived and worked for nine years at St. Philomena's Parish in Pittsburgh. There, in a rectory that had been converted from a leaky old factory, he was mentored by another great Redemptorist, St. John Neumann (who later went on to serve as bishop of Philadelphia).
Later, at subsequent assignments, people recognized Blessed Seelos' obvious holiness. Some claimed a brilliant light emanated from his presence; others simply described him as “angelic.” After his death, a New Orleans newspaper wrote: “No one could look upon him, especially when at the altar, or in the pulpit, without feeling that there was immeasurably more of heaven than of earth about this devoted servant of Christ. … The many who sought his spiritual guidance knew his only human weakness was his overflowing sympathy and charity for poor, erring humanity.”
In 1866, traveling by train to New Orleans, Father Seelos prophetically announced to a nun that he was going for a one-year stay, “and then I'll die of yellow fever.”
With an epidemic of that disease ravaging New Orleans in the summer and fall of 1867, Father Seelos nursed the sick, perpetually putting himself at risk, and succumbed on Oct. 4, 1867.
Confessional Constancy
With seating for 1,100, the Seelos shrine retains its Civil Warera ambience. Four gracefully carved mahogany confessionals sit in the rear church, where Blessed Seelos gave absolution. The Catholic Encyclopedia notes that, here and throughout his priesthood, his confessional “was constantly besieged by crowds of people of every description and class. It was said by many that he could read their very souls.”
One of his New Orleans confessionals is still in use today; Father Miller told me how privileged he considers himself to hear confessions where Father Seelos so compassionately drew souls into the mercy of God.
Mahogany pews are carved at the ends in scroll design. Spanning the length of the church are 16 German-Baroque columns. Chandeliers, once gas-lit, hang above the outer aisles.
The glory of St. Mary's architecture is its high-altar sculpture of the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, complemented by statues of the four evangelists standing on surrounding columns. All statues are wood-carved, painted in vibrant colors and imported from Germany. The Coronation altar was under construction during 1866-67 and, although Father Seelos did not live to see its completion, he celebrated Mass while waiting for its finish. Neither did he see the stained-glass window of the Assumption, imported from Munich and added after his death. The church is now graced by this premier window, as well as four others designed in quarter sections. Ten Redemptorist priests are interred behind the original altar railing, among them Father Wencelaus Neumann, brother of St. John Neumann.
The remains of Blessed Seelos were interred at a side altar until his beatification proceedings began.
The initial slab remains, although one can now see the splendid reliquary in the Seelos Shrine that extends off the main church. A rare design by Italian artists Giovanni Ascione and Sons, the reliquary looks like a miniature house. It's decorated with amethyst stones in every “shingle,” an amethyst ball at the top adorned with a gold cross, and a figure in the main niche of Blessed Seelos; he is flanked on either side by an angel holding a sign of his priestly office — a chalice to his right, a stole to his left.
Opposite this display, the founder of the Redemptorist order, St. Alphonsus Ligouri, appears with Sts. John Neumann and Clement Hofbauer at his sides in a breathtaking reliquary. Its ornamentation also contains intricate mosaics, amber stones, cultured pearls and four panels depicting Blessed Seelos' life.
Cast in silver, and counting the casket inside, it weighs 500 pounds. A plush, gold-tone kneeler invites petitioners and visitors to pray close to the remains of this saintly priest.
Evidence of Holiness Strived For
The Shrine Room contains a beatification portrait and a reliquary containing a sizeable bone chip of Father Seelos. In October, this relic will be replaced with his sternum; a newly designed, jeweled reliquary will house it.
The Museum Room displays some of Blesses Seelos' personal objects, including his 15-decade wood rosary with a divider medal of Our Lady of Sorrows. The origin of his love for Our Lady under this particular title is unclear, but he prophesied that he would die under her protection — and literally did, with his casket resting in state near her statue, which he had blessed. This now resides in the courtyard under a canopy.
The museum cases also exhibit Blessed Seelos' profession cross and a simple, carved-wood box for his letters and homilies (which are preserved in the Redemptorist Archives in Brooklyn, N.Y.). His original, cast-iron casket with supporting wood pieces can be seen, as well as Seelos' chalice, paten, handkerchief and two penitential objects — a small whip of coarse cord and a cilicium, an iron cuff with small, sharp points worn around the arm or leg three times weekly.
Other artifacts include relics of Sts. Paul, Alphonsus Ligouri, Gerard Majella and Pope Pius X, along with pieces of the True Cross and the Holy Sepulcher. A case labeled “Beatification” holds documents, photos, invitations to Rome and Italian newspaper clippings. Stunning artistic renderings of the Stations of the Cross, painted by Neopolitan Antonio Lomuscio, were added last year.
In the shrine's courtyard, a cross marks the spot where Father Seelos gave his soul to God after a three-week bout with “the fever.” Formerly, the museum area was a residence for priests and extended into the present courtyard. Now it brims with palm trees and other indigenous foliage.
There are tables for picnicking. A gift shop offers literature, devotional objects and relics of Blessed Seelos.
Twice yearly, at Seelos Masses in the spring and fall, the Beatification Tapestry from St. Peter's Square is hung from the choir loft, while Blessed Seelos' mission cross is used to bless the faithful.
I was impressed by the beauty of the National Shrine of Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos, and deeply moved by the abundant evidence of his intense love of God.
I felt like the 19th-century French townsman who, upon laying eyes on another holy priest, St. John Vianney, said: “I have just seen God in a man.” Now, with my visit to the shrine a wonderful memory, something tells me Jessie Arbogast is in very good hands.
Regina Marshall writes from Hamden, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: New Orleans' National Shrine of Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos ----- EXTENDED BODY: Regina Marshall ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Major Masterpiece or Minor Shaw? DATE: 8/19/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 19-25, 2001 ----- BODY:Live theater can be — and perhaps should be — an indicator of the state of culture. Much can be surmised from a look at the new plays getting professionally produced on Broadway and the “old chestnuts” that are being revived there.
The question to ask is: “Why is this play being staged at this time?”
Even more to the point, theater, like all the fine arts, should be an instrument of the transformation and enrichment of culture. Pope John Paul II underscored this in his recent Letter to Artists (1999). “I appeal to you, artists of the written and spoken word, of the theatre and music,” he wrote. “I appeal especially to you, Christian artists: I wish to remind each of you that, beyond functional considerations, the close alliance that has always existed between the Gospel and art means that you are invited to use your creative intuition to enter into the heart of the mystery of the Incarnate God and at the same time into the mystery of man.”
Nonetheless, sometimes the artistic entrance into the heart of the mystery of God and man is less than fortuitous. George Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara is a case in point. Plainly put, it is a vexing play. It concerns a millionaire munitions maker in early 20th-century England who wields his formidable wealth, status and paternity like the weapons he manufactures in order to dissuade his daughter from pursuing a religious vocation (with the Salvation Army). The tragedy of the play isn't simply that Barbara experiences a crisis of faith, but — even worse — the betrayal of her father.
In effect, the play is one lengthy, elaborate polemic. But exposure to such polemics is beneficial for developing the “shrewdness of the serpent” we need to fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew10:5-16). Pope John Paul II has charged the Church to undertake a “new evangelization” that “calls for a clearly conceived, serious and well-organized effort to evangelize culture” (Ecclesia in America, No. 70). We can't evangelize culture in a strategic, serious and well-organized way unless we know what we're up against. Major Barbara shows us.
‘The decay of society is praised by artists as the decay of a corpse is praised by worms.’
—
In the first act, Lady Britomart, Undershaft's estranged wife, upbraids her zealous daughter, saying: “Really, Barbara, you go on as if religion were a pleasant subject. Do have some sense of propriety.” Undershaft makes matters worse: “That is what is wrong with the world at present. It scraps its obsolete steam engines and dynamos, but it won't scrap its old prejudices and its old moralities and its old religions. … In morals and religion and politics it is working at a loss that brings it nearer bankruptcy every year. Don't persist in that folly. If your old religion broke down yesterday, get a newer and a better one for tomorrow.”
At another point, Undershaft addresses his son Stephen, an earnestly virtuous young man portrayed as a buffoon.
Undershaft says: “Well come! Is there anything you know or care for?” Stephen replies: “I know the difference between right and wrong.” At that retort, the audience howled with derisive laughter as if the suggestion of possessing moral rectitude were the most absurdly preposterous notion ever proposed. Nihilism is the order of the day that the new evangelization must counteract with the splendor of the truth.
In terms of production values, the Roundabout Theatre's new staging of Shaw' classic is a masterpiece. It's hard to take your eyes off John Lee Beaty's meticulous, realistic sets so graced with intricacy, color and detail. Jane Greenwood's costumes are equally sumptuous and satisfying.
What's more, one might wonder if Shaw wrote Major Barbara for this particular cast. The performances across the board are superb. Shaw described the play's antagonist, Andrew Undershaft, as “diabolically subtle, gentle, self-possessed, powerful, stupendous, as well as amusing and interesting. There are the makings of ten Hamlets and six Othellos in his mere leavings.”
In writing to the British actor Louis Calvert, who originated the role in 1905, Shaw warned: “Learning it will half kill you; but you can retire the next day as preeminent and unapproachable.”
Unfortunately, Calvert managed to miss the mark, for the day after the play's opening, Shaw wrote: “I see with disgust that the papers all say that your Undershaft was a magnificent piece of acting and Major Barbara a rottenly undramatic play, instead of pointing out that Major B is a masterpiece and that you are the most infamous amateur that ever disgraced the boards.”
Happily , David Warner's portrayal of Undershaft in the current Broadway production is nothing short of masterful and would make the playwright proud.
All of this is the fruit of Daniel Sullivan's eloquent, intelligent direction. Rarely does Shaw receive such first-rate Broadway restaging, and it is worth seeing for that reason alone.
To be sure, people in love with the Gospel will find the tone of Major Barbara decidedly cynical and snide. All the same, it's hard to gainsay Shaw's incontestable command of the English language and his brilliant wit. Relativists could easily be taken in. But those who listen with the ears of faith come away with ammunition far more powerful than the kind that Andrew Undershaft makes.
Major Barbara is provocative and ponderous. This superb production will rile you up and get you thinking — and it may leave you exasperated. But, like a good parable, you don't come away apathetic or undecided about the issues at hand.
Major Barbara isn't a play to agree with. Rather, it is a work of art to appreciate in order to reexamine and reorder one's own religious and moral convictions.
Dominican Father Cameron is editor of the liturgical prayer monthly Magnificat.
----- EXCERPT: George Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara Is a Vexing Play ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father Peter John Cameron ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 8/19/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 19-25, 2001 ----- BODY:In the Mood for Love (2000)
Chinese movies are currently on the cutting edge of world cinema, providing artistically innovative entertainment that elevates the human spirit. This one, directed by Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Karwai (Chungking Express), is a romantic drama of melancholy and regret. It uses lush visuals to highlight a potentially adulterous liaison that's never consummated. A journalist (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) and an executive secretary (Maggie Cheung Man-yuh) live in adjoining apartments in a cramped Hong Kong building in 1962. When they discover that their respective spouses are having an affair, they lean on each other for comfort and support. A mutual attraction blossoms, but they don't give in to it.
Unlike the characters in most Hollywood films today, these aren't conditioned to yield to instant gratification. This denial causes them great pain, but they're able to move on without self-destructing. Because of family ties and cultural customs, moral relativism doesn't seem to be an option. This gives the characters, despite their flaws, a dignity and strength rare in cinemas today.
Red Dawn (1984)
To many at the time, the Cold War was a struggle between the freedom-loving West and the “evil empire” of Soviet communism. Nowadays, our media and college-campus elites are working overtime to convince us that there was a moral equivalency between the two sides. Red Dawn, written and directed by John Milius (Conan the Barbarian), is a well-made, melodramatic throw-back to the hard line of the Reagan era. The premise is a fantasy scenario in which Russia and its Cuban ally invade the United States. A band of teen-agers (Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen and Jennifer Grey) in a small Colorado town go underground and organize a guerilla-style resistance force in the mountains.
Most of the townsfolk are bullied into submission by the communist firing squads and interrogation camps. A sympathetic parent (Harry Dean Stanton) and a downed F-15 pilot (Powers Boothe) try to help the kids. America's youth is shown to have the right stuff under pressure. Patriotism and honor prove to be more important than material comfort.
Knute Rockne, All American(1940)
Speaking of Reagan, “Win just one for the Gipper” was one of his most famous lines as an actor. He was playing George Gipp, an All-American football star at Notre Dame who supposedly uttered those words to his coach as he lay dying of pneumonia in 1920. The movie is Knute Rockne, All American, whose old-fashioned sentimentality still works its magic.
A Norwegian immigrant, Rockne (Pat O'Brien) abandons a promising career as a research chemist for football. During his 13 years as Notre Dame's head coach, he wins almost 90% of his games and three national championships. Known for his ability to inspire his players, his quotation of Gipp's deathbed words at halftime is shown motivating his team to come from behind to defeat Army. Rockne is also the first coach to use the forward pass, and unlike many of his counterparts today, he never intervenes to get higher grades for his players. Notre Dame is presented as an unapologetic Catholic institution, and its officials are treated with reverence.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 8/19/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 19-25, 2001 ----- BODY:All times Eastern
SUNDAY, AUG. 19
The Washington Opera Presents “Le Cid”PBS, 9 p.m.
In the Kennedy Center's Opera House, Hugo de Ana's Washington Opera stages the first U.S. performance of Jules Massenet's “Le Cid” in more than 90 years. Placido Domingo is the 11th-century Spanish hero and Elisabete Matos is Chimene, his fiancé. Emmanuel Villaume conducts the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra and the Washington Opera Chorus. The show provides English subtitles for the French lyrics.
MONDAY, AUG. 20
Making a Buck History Channel, 9 p.m.
This two-hour documentary on the history of counterfeiting shows how people began making fake money more than two millennia ago. It also reveals today's counterfeiting techniques and the sophisticated technologies used to fight them.
TUESDAY, AUG. 21
The Bloody Tower of London History Channel, 11 p.m.
England's Tower of London ranks with history's most infamous prisons. Yet, as this program shows, the Tower was home to not only the worst in human nature but also the best. Centuries of torture, betrayal and bloody executions in the heart of London evoked, among prisoners, countless acts of heroism, fidelity and love of Christ and country. From Sts. John Fisher and Thomas More to the boy prisoner (and escapee) Red Hugh O'Donnell of Donegal, the Tower's inmates showed mankind how to persevere.
WEDNESDAY, AUG. 22
Star FleetLearning Channel, 6 p.m.
Commentators speculate about what advances in space exploration and travel we might make in the next several decades. Will we concentrate on colonization, scientific studies — or a combination of the two?
THURSDAY, AUG. 23
Traditional Art: The Next New Thing? PBS, 10 p.m.
“Think Tank” host Ben Wattenberg moderates this 60-minute special about new artists who ignore “modern art” conventions by creating traditional representational art. The show also discusses patrons who support the revival of traditional standards in art.
FRIDAY, AUG. 24
Breaking the News: A Museum of Television and Radio Special CBS, 8 p.m.
Be on the lookout for “spin” — but, in this two-hour special, you can relive many of the biggest news stories of the past 40 years as Walter Cronkite, Tom Brokaw, Mike Wallace, Dan Rather and Barbara Walters discuss their broadcast news coverage.
SATURDAY, AUG. 25
Skyscraper at Sea Discovery, 11 a.m.
How many people does it take to install the world's largest offshore oil rig? Hint: More than it takes to put in a light bulb. This hour-long show explains that 1,500 designers, construction workers and transportation-crew members cooperated to get the job done.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dan Engler ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: How to Bring Back the Late, Great Hippocratic Oath DATE: 8/19/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 19-25, 2001 ----- BODY:“Traditional morality and medical ethics are crumbling before our very eyes,” writes Wesley J. Smith in Culture of Death: The Assault on Medical Ethics in America.
“Twenty years ago,” he notes, “it would have been unthinkable to dehydrate people to death by removing their feeding tubes because they were cognitively disabled. … Today, due in large part to vigorous advocacy by bioethicists, which in turn has led to court cases and then to new laws permitting the practice, it is routine in nursing homes and hospitals throughout the country.”
Likewise, legalized assisted suicide was “virtually unthinkable” 15 years ago. Now it's a reality in Oregon. Taking organs from a patient in a coma? Very soon it too will be a reality, if the bioethicists who currently advocate it in medical journals have their way.
Traditional medicine, based on the Hippocratic Oath, has been transformed by bioethics over the last few decades. Bioethics “focuses on the relationship between medicine, health, and society,” writes Smith. “This last element allows bioethics to espouse values ‘higher’ than the well-being of the individual.”
Smith paints a frightening picture — one in which doctors no longer pledge to “do no harm” but instead presume to determine the quality of an individual's life and judge whether it is worth preserving or ending. In fact, as Smith notes, most doctors no longer take the Hippocratic Oath upon becoming physicians, as many “no longer see it relevant to their profession.”
Without a license or even a “formal university discipline” — most bioethicists are trained in elite philosophy departments — bioethics has infiltrated our nation's hospitals. And it is a small “insider” clique of “name” bioethicists who give congressional testimonies, write books and “materially influence the opinions and practices of the thousands of men and women who labor in the trenches of clinical medicine at hospitals, nursing homes and HMOs. They testify as ‘expert witnesses’ in court cases or write ‘friend of the court’ briefs in important litigation involving health care. And they exert a steady and growing influence over the public health laws, the application of medical ethics, and the protocols of hospital care.”
With their “new morality of medicine,” bioethicists “define the meaning of health, determine when life loses its value, and forge the public policies that will promote a new medical and moral order.” Most bioethicists are atheists or agnostics, who view religion as “mumbo-jumbo.” This “near-absolute rejection of religious values as a moral framework for debating and creating secular public policies” has overtaken even some of the religious in its midst. Smith writes, “even those who maintain strong spiritual beliefs — including some Catholic priests — are so anxiety-ridden about imposing their religion upon secular society that they leave their personal, faith-inspired values at the door.”
Smith does an adequate job of chronicling the damage bioethics has done in medicine, advancing the culture of death. He steers clear, however, of abortion, not wanting to have his book branded as “pro-life.” It's an attempt to reach a wider audience, although it may seem to many readers a bit unnatural since abortion is so much a part of the culture. Still, there is so much else that is wrong, that even without abortion, there is more than enough to cover. Perhaps readers who are drawn in by Smith's book will come to the right conclusions themselves. (He does not fail, it should be noted, to call partial-birth abortion infanticide.)
Smith concludes Culture of Death on a somewhat optimistic note, despite the “ethical abyss” we are rapidly heading toward, stating that he believes we haven't yet reached “the point of no return.” Smith suggests a strategy of containment, which would consist of shining a light on the current culture of new medicine and being prominent in the debates over stem-cell research, cloning, assisted suicide and all the other life issues.
Smith, a lawyer and a Naderite — no typical pro-lifer, he — has written a book that can serve as an important, coalition-building step toward a “revitalized Hippocratic tradition.”
Kathryn Jean Lopez is an executive editor of National Review Online (www.nationalreview.com).
----- EXCERPT: Weekly Book Pick ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kathryn Jean Lopez ----- KEYWORDS: Books -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 8/19/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 19-25, 2001 ----- BODY:Pork Bypasses Most Catholic Colleges
This year's $1.668 billion was $624 million larger than last year, The Chronicle reported.
The list of top 30 recipients has only one Catholic college on it, however.
Wheeling Jesuit University ranked 14th on the list, reaping $16,268,600 from the Federal treasury, far behind the $35,048,470 that the University of Alaska at Fairbanks received.
No other Catholic college or university received more than the $9,520,060, which the University of Miami (ranked No. 30) received this year.
For Wheeling Jesuit, getting government money had less to do with its Catholic identity than its location in West Virginia.
West Virginia's senior Democratic Senator Robert Byrd is unapologetic about funneling government pork to his home state. As ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, he also funneled $15,592,333 to West Virginia University, ranked 16th on the list.
St. Louis U. Mourns Father Reinert
Father Reinert received his bachelor's and master's degrees from St. Louis University, a Catholic institution.
Ordained in 1940, he was named the dean of the university's College of Arts and Sciences in 1944.
He became academic vice president in 1948, a year before being named the university's 27th president, at the age of 39.
Father Reinert was named chancellor in 1974 and chancellor emeritus in 1990.
The New York Times noted that during his presidency, Father Reinert admitted women as regular, full-time students to the university for the first time and oversaw the spending of more than $150 million to modernize and expand the campus.
In 1955, he was a Missouri delegate to the White House Conference on Education, and a year later President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed him to his Education Beyond the High School committee, reported the New York newspaper.
In the 1960s, President Lyndon B. Johnson asked Father Reinert to serve on two education task forces, and in 1968 President Richard M. Nixon appointed him to his task force on education.
Mother Superior Stuns Researcher
He said he knew the subjects of his previous studies “only through their medical records and questionnaires they had filled out.” The head of the order of sisters, however, clearly told him that kind of approach would not be acceptable to her.
“No matter what you do, I want you to remember who these women are. They are real people. Very dear to us,” Snowdon quotes her as saying.
“They are holy people, too,” she continued. “I don't want you to treat them as research subjects. Get to know them. … We treat them with the care and respect they deserve. We will expect nothing less from you.”
Snowdon said simply, “I was a little stunned.”
Catholic Papers Win Five of 12 Awards
CENTER FOR PRINT AND BROADCAST MEDIA, July 23 — Two Catholic publications took home five awards at the Center for Print and Broadcast Media's third annual Conservative Campus Journalism Awards.
The Georgetown Academy received recognition for its humor and its fundraising prowess. The Villanova Times distinguished itself by winning three awards.
“They started the Villanova Times to remove the stranglehold on campus discourse that the Villanovan had,” said Tom Crowe, director of the awards for the Center for Print and Broadcast Media. “They wanted to let the Villanova community know the whole story on campus.”
Patrick Reilly, executive director of the Cardinal Newman Society, said that independent newspapers are critical for Catholic renewal in academia.
“Without the Georgetown Academy, efforts at Georgetown to return crucifixes to the classroom walls and end university support for an abortion advocacy group would not have been successful,” said Reilly, whose organization will highlight Catholic campus journalism in its first annual Ex Corde Ecclesiae Awards this November.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Strictly Speaking DATE: 8/19/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 19-25, 2001 ----- BODY:Q
I fear my wife is expecting too much of my children. She's too strict. She says there's no such thing as “too strict.” Is there?
A
Yes and no. We shrink types are trained to make these kinds of definitive pronouncements.
Yes, a parent can be too strict, if strict means mean. No, she can't, if strict means high moral standards.
Commonly, strict is confused with volume, or strong emotions, or verbal barrage. Consider an argumentative adolescent. Think of the neighbor kid if you have to. As the dueling interchange begins, we hear, “Young man, are you arguing?” “No,” followed by more arguing. Then, “That is just about enough!” followed by yet more.
As the words escalate, so too do our tone and emotions. We appear to be standing strong. But no discipline has occurred. We may have looked, even sounded, tough. But in reality, we were weak and permissive, placing no consequences on Buck's misconduct.
Nowadays, the word strict sounds bad. It conjures up all sorts of other bad sounding words: rigid, unyielding, dictatorial. In essence, it evokes a you'll-do-it-my-way-kid-because-I'm-the-boss style.
Of course, the parent is the boss, but that's not the prime motive for discipline. Forming morals and character is. Bossiness for bossiness' sake is too strict. Being the boss in order to teach is not too strict. It's ultimately kind.
Within a loving home, being too strict shouldn't be a worry, if strict means expecting good conduct. Indeed, when are we “expecting too much” in terms of moral goals? How high are standards that are too high?
Suppose you have a house rule: All family members show respect toward all family members. How do you ensure that you're not overly frustrating the kids with your rule? Would you allow a few exceptions? “OK, children, you are each allowed three snotty outbursts, two name callings, and one kick below the neck per day towards your siblings. Anything over that will be disciplined. We want to keep our standards realistic here.”
If protecting little Nielsen from amoral television is a parenting priority, do you shield him from all nasty stuff? Or do you allow one sexy sitcom, two brutal local news stories, and one afternoon talk show just to make sure he won't react too negatively to your decision, or feel too much like a misfit compared to his peers?
Raising a great kid requires setting the moral bar high — likely much higher than most parents around you. Certainly, this does not mean your children will always, or even consistently, reach that bar. The most grownup of grown-ups don't clear the moral bar much of the time. Still, we all need something to stretch for.
Jesus said, “Be perfect even as your heavenly Father is perfect.” I've looked for an asterisk after the verse, saying — wink, wink — “I know you can't do it, so I'm not really even asking you to try.” There is none.
Dr. Ray Guarendi is a clinical psychologist and author.
Reach Family Matters at familymatters@ncregister.com
----- EXCERPT: Family Matters ----- EXTENDED BODY: DR. Ray Guarendi ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Risk-Free Method Now Helping British Couples — Morally DATE: 8/19/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 19-25, 2001 ----- BODY:LIVERPOOL, England — A unique transatlantic partnership is bringing new hope to British couples suffering the heartache of infertility.
Just ask Mark and Anna Bennet.
They say they had “lost faith” in the government-provided test-tube techniques and were tired of the artificial techniques being pushed on them.
“From our first conversation with [Liverpool's Life Health Center], we felt that at last someone understood what we were going through.”
The couple now have the baby boy they yearned for.
The Pope Paul VI Institute in Omaha, Neb., has teamed up with Life, a British pro-life organization, to spread its pioneering NaPro technology in the United Kingdom as an alternative to the unethical and expensive in vitro fertilization treatment. The technology is also on the verge of spreading in other countries, as it is now being taught in Ireland, Mexico, Poland and Germany.
NaPro technology grew out of research on the Billings Ovulation Method of Natural Family Planning by Pope Paul VI Institute's founder, Dr. Thomas Hilgers, and is a way of monitoring different biological markers that reflect hormone patterns during a woman's fertility cycle.
The technology is used by medical personnel to offer couples a more complete prediction of the wife's times of fertility, and thus of their opportunities to conceive a child by natural means. It can also be used as a natural approach for delaying pregnancy or as a diagnostic tool in tackling such problems as infertility, repetitive miscarriage, recurrent ovarian cysts, pre-menstrual syndrome, hormonal abnormalities and abnormal bleeding.
The U.K. effort is the result of the development of NaPro technology in Ireland where Dr. Phil Boyle was a pioneer.
It operates out of the Life Health Center, which is based in a former convent in Liverpool, England. The work has also spread to a London clinic and there are hopes for further expansion.
Virginia Griffin, a director at the Liverpool center, said Life Health first came across the work of the Pope Paul VI Institute at a conference led by Boyle in Ireland three years ago.
“We just knew this was what we had been looking for. It is woman-friendly and ethically acceptable,” she said.
In addition to educators who teach a system for charting the relevant changes during a woman's cycle, there are medics who analyse a couple's chart and prescribe appropriate treatment, as well as counselors and spiritual directors.
For example, where other doctors have to guess the best times to test a woman's hormones, NaPro technology pinpoints the exact time when tests will yield the information a couple needs for achieving pregnancy.
“We look after each couple for as long as they need our support. We share their joy if they achieve a pregnancy, but we stay with those who do not conceive,” she said, “exploring other options such as adoption and helping them to move on. We find the couples who go through this process are more likely to accept their childlessness.”
David and Goliath?
The project is still small-scale. Peter Garrett, research director of the Life Health organization, explained: “We are up against a multimillion dollar industry. It has been estimated that by 2050, 1 in 10 births in Western Europe will be test tube babies.”
In many parts of the United Kingdom, with its government-funded free National Health Service, an estimated 1 in 4 couples can get free in vitro fertilization.
The majority of U.K. couples who find difficulty conceiving look to the test-tube approach. In vitro fertilization is regulated by a government-appointed watchdog, the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority.
Pro-life critics say the Fertilization Authority is just an example of self-regulation and make the point that pro-lifers are absent from its membership.
Church of England Bishop Michael Nazir Ali, chairman of the group's ethics committee, denies that the authority promotes in vitro fertilization.
He told the Register, “I know there are certain members who believe that our job should be promotion not regulation but I disagree with that.”
Ali describes in vitro fertilization in some instances as the lesser of several evils and denies that it enjoys a privileged position. He argues that the process should create the minimum number of embryos needed.
He said he doesn't ascribe to the Catholic teaching that in vitro fertilization violates the dignity of the human person, stating: “I think it depends on when you think person-hood begins. I happen to think it is when brain activity starts although I believe the human embryo should be respected. My colleague, the Bishop Richard Harries of Oxford, said that if you believe personhood begins at conception then heaven is going to be populated by people who have never been more than single cell embryos.”
But pro-lifers like Garrett say non-Catholic churchmen such as Bishop Ali are missing the key issue when it comes to in vitro fertilization and its repercussions. Garrett calls the work of the Life Health Centre a “prophetic stand,” adding: “By the middle of this century natural procreation could be seen as socially unacceptable because methods of artificial conception will have their own quality control, screening out anybody who doesn't function properly.”
Even the state is also beginning to take notice of the center. “We are now getting our first referrals of couples from the National Health Service,” said Griffin.
And in a neat twist, life has come full circle for the Life Fertility Center as its Web site is receiving a fair number of hits from the United States. Laughs Griffin, “We take great delight, of course, in referring these people back to the Pope Paul VI Institute in Omaha.”
Paul Burnell writes from Manchester, England.
In Vitro Fertilization
In vitro fertilization, often called IVF, is the creation of human embryos by mixing sperm and ova in the lab, with embryos conceived this way transferred to the womb of the woman who is to carry the child.
Often, more embryos are created than needed, and those not transferred to the womb may be used by other women, frozen or destroyed. In Britain, it is legal to experiment on these embryos for up to two weeks after fertilization. Such experiments are inspected by the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA).
But even when no embryos are destroyed, the Catholic Church still teaches that unnatural conception violates the dignity of the human person. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches:
“Techniques that entail the dissociation of husband and wife, by the intrusion of a person other than the couple (donation of sperm or ovum, surrogate uterus), are gravely immoral. These techniques (heterologous artificial insemination and fertilization) infringe the child's right to be born of a father and mother known to him and bound to each other by marriage. They betray the spouses' ‘right to become a father and a mother only through each other.’
“Techniques involving only the married couple (homologous artificial insemination and fertilization) are perhaps less reprehensible, yet remain morally unacceptable. They dissociate the sexual act from the pro-creative act.
“The act which brings the child into existence is no longer an act by which two persons give themselves to one another, but one that ‘entrusts the life and identity of the embryo into the power of doctors and biologists and establishes the domination of technology over the origin and destiny of the human person. Such a relationship of domination is in itself contrary to the dignity and equality that must be common to parents and children.’. … ‘Only respect for the link between the meanings of the conjugal act and respect for the unity of the human being make possible procreation in conformity with the dignity of the person.’” (2376-2377).
— Paul Burnell
Reinventing ‘Natural Family Planning’
The Pope Paul VI Institute is starting to make its work more publicly known according to Sue Hilgers, its Director of Education.
Hilgers, wife of NaPro technology pioneer Dr. Thomas Hilgers, told the Register that the institute limited its outreach and promotion so far because there were two key priorities that had to be taken care of first.
“We wanted to make sure we had done our research thoroughly because we knew once we went public it would be heavily scrutinized,” she said.
The second priority was to “rebrand” their work — a process that started two years ago. “We have been looking for another phrase to describe our work as [the term “natural family planning"] has negative connotations and is too restrictive.”
“We wanted something that would make people more open to what we do and we have come up with Fertility Care. Recently the [natural family planning] professionals in the U.S.A. had their 20th annual conference and also decided to call themselves fertility care professionals.”
— Paul Burnell
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Paul Burnell ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Brother Michael's Silent Pro-Life Witness DATE: 8/19/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 19-25, 2001 ----- BODY:Ever since he was a teen-ager, Michael Gaworski has been a pro-life voice in the St. Paul-Minneapolis area.
Paradoxically, for the past 10 years he has motivated others without being able to speak or even move.
In what some people see as his most fruitful pro-life period, Michael now communicates his message silently from the center of a network of caregivers — family, friends, and eight men who, like him, belong to a fledgling community of religious brothers in the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis.
The seeds of all this were sown in 1979, when Michael — then a college student at St. John Vianney Seminary in St. Paul — and fellow seminarian Paul O'Donnell struck up a friendship. The two engaged in a variety of pro-life activities — sidewalk counseling, prayer rallies, political organizing, even civil disobedience. Together they launched Pro-Life Action Ministries, a direct-action organization that now numbers some 20,000 members.
Eventually discerning that God was not calling them to the diocesan priesthood, both men with a few others who felt drawn to St. Francis and his way of life began living and praying together. “The pro-life brothers,” many people called them.
The Franciscan Brothers of Peace, as the group is known today, is now a “public association of the faithful,” following its own statutes and the Rule of St. Francis.
While the Brothers' priorities are prayer and community life, they also serve the spiritually and materially poor. Their activities include providing a home for “international survivors” referred to them by the Minneapolis-based Center for Victims of Torture, working in poor neighborhoods, and various pro-life activities.
The Brother's pro-life commitment was put to the test in 1991, when Brother Michael Gaworski contracted a bacterial pneumonia that caused him to go into cardiac arrest. Paramedics revived him, but he had suffered brain damage that left him unable to communicate or move.
Brother Michael spent two weeks in intensive care and months in the hospital. The period was an education in the difficulty of being pro-life, Brother Anthony Sweere recalls. “We had nurses, doctors, a social worker, and even a hospital chaplain urging us to pull the plug on him.”
In one discussion, a physician unwittingly warned the Brothers not to let themselves be pressured by “right-wing religious zealots from Pro-Life Action Ministries” — the organization Brother Michael had co-founded. At a Catholic hospital, a doctor reprimanded the men for “playing God” and “imposing” their morals on Michael rather than “letting him go.”
“We were hardly pressing for extraordinary measures,” says Brother Anthony. “Beyond food and hydration, all Michael needed at the time was antibiotics and pain management.”
Once Brother Michael's condition stabilized, the Brothers brought him back to the friary. “It was the natural thing to do,” says Brother Paul. “Michael is a brother of this community, a founder. Caring for him is a natural part of our vocation, not a ministry.” The Brothers educated themselves about medications and feeding tubes and began caring for him around the clock, with help from medical professionals and others, including Michael's blood brother, Gary.
At first, Michael's parents wondered whether the group was really up to it. “They were so young, and it was such a huge commitment,” Wynona Gaworski explains. Seeing them rise to the challenge, she and her husband, Dick, declare themselves “more grateful than we could ever express.”
She says they have seen God use the joint witness of her son and his Franciscan brothers “in powerful ways.” One day Archbishop Harry Flynn stopped in and prayed over Brother Michael, as Gaworski looked on. “He told him what a wonderful gift he was to the archdiocese and the Church, how precious his life is. That touched me very deeply.”
She has also been impressed at the number of people who stop by her son's bedside in search of strength for their personal struggles — “people with health problems, mental problems, addictions. Michael can't say a word, but their faith in God is strengthened just by being with him.”
Teaching Through Love
The Brothers' obvious love for Michael has an evangelizing quality that touches everyone who encounters it, his mother observes.
Medical personnel sometimes express astonishment at how superbly Brother Michael is cared for. A reporter for a local newspaper dropped in at the friary one day to get information, was intrigued by the Brothers' pro-life witness, and returned to volunteer for a day. The reporter, who is a Buddhist, later said that the encounter helped her when she was suddenly called to care for her mother, who developed bone cancer. “I truly drew strength from that memory during my moth-er's ordeal,” she wrote.
Jamo, a torture survivor from Ethiopia (he asked to be identified only by his nickname), reports that living with the Brothers for more than four years brought him a “healing of the spirit.” A medical doctor, Jamo helped with Brother Michael's care, which led him to reflect on his own experiences. “I have survived a lot. When I think about why these things happened, even though I don't understand, I now see that God has a reason why this has been allowed.”
The Brothers' example of dedicated love played a part in the healing, says Jamo. “They could do anything they want in this land of opportunity!
But here they are, giving up these privileges to serve other people, to live with the immigrants, to care for their brother.”
“In a way, all of us have been wounded with Michael,” Brother Paul reflects. “But with the loss and grief comes a different way to relate to others' hardships, an awareness of the spiritual fruits of suffering and of a hidden realm that is far beyond our
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Louise Perrotta ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Life Notes DATE: 8/19/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 19-25, 2001 ----- BODY:World Population Decline?
ABC NEWS, Aug. 2 — A study released in a recent edition of Nature says that population will peak at about 9 billion by 2070 and then begin a decline, reported ABC News. The researchers criticized the population predictions of the United Nations, which show no decline in sight.
Warren Sanderson, a professor of economics and history at State University of New York at Stonybrook and co-author of the study notes, “The evidence shows women are already not having enough children to replace themselves.
“We may as well wake up and smell the coffee and begin focusing on how to live sustainably with the number of people we will have in the next century.”
Pro-Abortion Retirement
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Aug. 3 — U.S. Rep. William J. Coyne, D-Pa., announced Friday that he will retire when his term ends next year, reported Associated Press. Coyne, who according to the Prolife Infonet has a pro-abortion voting record, has represented a district that includes Pittsburgh and some of its northern and western suburbs since 1981.
Pennsylvania will lose two congressional seats next year because of slow population growth. A possible redistricting by state legislators would have pitted Coyne against Congressman Mike Doyle, a pro-life Democrat.
Coyne's retirement should allow Doyle to represent the area instead.
Docs Oppose Assisted Suicide
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Aug. 6 — The American College of Physicians, the nation's second-largest medical organization behind the American Medical Association, has joined the AMA in officially opposing assisted suicide, reported Associated Press.
A paper published in the Annals of Internal Medicine says the 90,000-member organization believes doctors should always look for ways to improve care for the dying.
“We must solve the problems of inadequate care at the end of life, not avoid them through practices such as assisted suicide,” said Dr. Daniel Sulmasy of the American College of Physicians, an author of the paper.
The paper said assisted suicide would damage the patient-physician relationship, jeopardize the medical profession's role of healing, and lessen the value placed on life.
Hospital Fights to Save Woman
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Aug. 3 — Officials at Tampa General Hospital are taking the unusual step of going to court to be allowed to treat a burn patient, reported Associated Press.
Rosemary Frost has been in the intensive care unit for two weeks. She has third-degree burns over 54% of her body, can't communicate and may die. Her family has asked doctors to stop treating her.
The hospital's lawyers have filed a petition seeking court permission to administer emergency medical treatment.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life ----- TITLE: Does Bush Oppose the Vatican on Gun Control? DATE: 08/26/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 26 - September 1, 2001 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — Only the strong opposition of the Bush administration has prevented the establishment by the United Nations of a global gun control policy.
This position appears to place the United States in direct opposition to the Vatican, which is a staunch supporter of the U.N. initiative.
The International Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in all its Aspects concluded last month in New York. A number of restrictions were removed from the final program after Undersecretary of State John Bolton declared that the United States would not accept them.
The deleted items included: restrictions on civilian gun ownership, curbs on weapon sales, the promotion of international advocacy by pro-gun control non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and a permanent gun control bureaucracy.
Asked for his reaction to the final policy, Msgr. Francis Chullikatt, a representative of the Vatican's permanent mission to the United Nations, referred to a speech made to the conference by Msgr. Celestino Migliore. “You could interpret the outcome in the light of that intervention,” he said.
In his July 11 address, Msgr. Migliore, Vatican undersecretary for relations with states, stated his opinion this way: “Unfortunately ... it is impossible to ban all kinds of small arms and light weapons.” He quoted a 1994 document by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace:
“In a world marked by evil ... the right of legitimate defense by means of arms exists. This right can become a serious duty for those who are responsible for the lives of others, for the common good of the family or of the civil community. This right alone can justify the possession or transfer of arms.”
Msgr. Migliore said, “Civil populations suffer the most tragic consequences from the use of light weapons and small arms; the majority of the victims of these arms are civilians, most of whom are women and children.”
Accordingly, he concluded, the Holy See “offers its full support and cooperation” to “mechanisms for prevention, reduction, accountability and control [of guns].”
He specifically endorsed:
— “The creation of systems of marking, tracing, and record-keeping;
— “The defining of criteria for the export of arms or for determining when there is effectively a surplus;
— “The regulation of brokering activity;
— “The inclusion of mechanisms for collecting and destroying arms in peace processes;
— “The establishment of adequate standards for the management and security of the stocks of these weapons;”
— “The implementation of educational and awareness activities aimed at promoting a culture of peace and life, through, among other things, the involvement of different protagonists in the civil society.”
In his July 9 speech to the U.N. conference, Bolton, the Bush administration's point man on gun control, had a sharply different view of the matter.
“The United States believes that the responsible use of firearms is a legitimate aspect of national life,” he said. “Like many countries, the United States has a cultural tradition of hunting and sport shooting. We, therefore, do not begin with the presumption that all small arms and light weapons are the same or that they are all problematic. It is the illicit trade in military small arms and light weapons that we are gathered here to address.”
St. Gabriel Possenti
Bolton stressed that the United States would not accept any “measures abrogating the Constitutional right to bear arms.” As well, he pointed out that the draft proposal “would preclude assistance to an oppressed non-state group defending itself from a genocidal government.”
John Snyder, of Arlington, Va., founder and chairman of the pro-gun St. Gabriel Possenti Society, said he is perturbed by the Vatican's U.N. intervention.
Snyder, a Catholic and a professional gun-rights lobbyist, is campaigning to have St. Gabriel Possenti (1838-1862) named patron of handgunners.
He said that in 1860, the then-Passionist seminarian so impressed a rampaging band of Piedmontese soldiers with his marksmanship (he killed a lizard with a shot to the head) that he single-handedly drove them from the Italian village of Isola del Gran Sasso.
Earlier this year, Pope John Paul accepted the presentation of a special St. Gabriel Possenti Society medallion. The society enjoys the support of Archbishop Custodio Alvim Pereira, vice president of the Chapter of St. Peter's Basilica.
Snyder said the U.N. move to regulate small arms would empower rogue governments against unarmed citizens.
“I find it hard to accept that a member of the Roman Catholic Church, the primary defender of the right to life in the world today, could conceivably support the right of governments to take away the only means that people may have to defend their lives and the lives of their loved ones from criminals, including criminal governments,” he said.
But Loretta Bondi, advocacy director of the Fund for Peace of Washington, D.C., a prominent gun control NGO, said such claims are “absolutely disingenuous and, in fact, even ridiculous.”
She said they are of a piece with arguments that the U.N. gun-control initiative undermines U.s. sovereignty, which Bondi said are “offered by a minority of people that do not even represent a majority constituency in the United States.”
Bondi praised the Vatican's work on the small arms issue and attacked what she called American “intransigence” and “isolationism.” It is yet another example, she said, of the Bush administration's refusal to support international diplomacy.
She denied that the ultimate goal of her organization was the disarming of Americans, and explained that gun control regimens are best accomplished nationally.
But when asked what sanctions should be taken against “rogue nations” that refuse to sign international gun control regimes or properly implement them, she replied, “Do you mean the United States of America?”
She later claimed this was a joke, but then argued that on this issue the Bush administration had more in common with Syria and Iraq than with its “closest allies.” Msgr. Migliore's speech was “an excellent statement that reflects NGO sentiment,” she concluded. “We really hope the Pope will take on this issue [personally] and speak about it.”
Charles Rice, emeritus professor of law at Notre Dame University, agrees that the right to bear arms “is not an absolute right,” but denies that Americans now accept that this right is limited only to personal self-defense. Said Rice, “The Founding Fathers made it clear that the Second Amendment recognized an armed citizenry as the best defense against tyranny.”
And not just in America. “Look at the Sudan,” he said, referring to the gradual enslavement in that country's civil war of Christian and animist southerners by Muslim northerners. “Do you think that would have happened if the citizen-ry had been armed?”
Throughout the 20th century, he noted, totalitarianism and genocide had been preceded by gun registration and confiscation.
J. Michael Stebbins, professor of ethics at Gonzaga University, said that he is not certain that the Vatican intervention represents a development in Catholic social teaching.
He is certain that it does not, as some have claimed, present American Catholics with an impossible dilemma of choosing between their country and their creed.
“There is always tension between the demands of country and the demands of religion,” Stebbins concluded. “This is something that Catholics always reconcile in the light of their faith.”
Kevin Michael Grace writes from Victoria,
British Columbia.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kevin Michael Grace ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Faith-Based Head Quits DATE: 08/26/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 26 - September 1, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — John DiIulio's resignation rocked Washington Aug. 17, when he became the first member of the Bush administration to leave.
But DiIulio insists that from day one he intended is stint as director of the faith-based initiatives office to be a short one.
In an exclusive interview with the Register only hours after the story broke, DiIulio insisted that family concerns trumped all other considerations.
“I signed on only for a few months,” said DiIulio, a Catholic. “I have to be true to my family and my original plan.” He noted that the New York Times had reported seven months ago that he had only agreed to work for only six months on Bush's plan to make it easier for religious charities to get federal dollars. “I never got used to the 4:05 a.m. trains each morning to Washington” from Philadelphia, he said.
DiIulio said that his immediate plans included more time with his family, improving his health and working on community projects in Philadelphia. DiIulio, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, said he would not return to teaching for a few semesters.
The impending resignation sent Washington buzzing that DiIulio had become frustrated at growing opposition become frustrated at growing opposition to Bushís faith-base initiative.
Steve Benen, a spokesman with Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, said that DiIulio's recent comments “indicated that he's frustrated by the criticism from groups on the left and the right.”
Said Benen: “I don't blame him. This effort received a variety of objections from a variety of directions for a variety of reasons.”
Recent opposition came from homosexual activists who urged legislators to prevent religious organizations from receiving government aid, if they refuse to confer benefits to homosexual couples.
“Whether through regulation or legislation, our government should not fund discrimination through taxpayer funds,” said Winnie Stachelberg, a spokeswoman for the Human Rights Campaign.
But DiIulio insisted that the administration would not allow the homosexual lobby to eliminate religious exemptions from current law.
“There'll be no compromising on this,” he said. “This is not a civil rights bill. That means the 1964 Civil Rights bill stays intact. Title VII stays in tact. Religious exemptions [on matters of moral beliefs] were included in '64. They were strengthened in '72. The Supreme Court upheld them 9-0 in 1987.”
Caught Off Guard
Nonetheless, Washington insiders said the timing of the resignation caught people off guard.
Byron York, White House correspondent for National Review magazine, said, “DiIulio's departure comes at a moment when the fate of the faith-based initiative has not yet been decided.” He added, “The House has passed a significantly stripped-down version of the initiative — some parts, like expanded tax breaks for charitable activity, were cut to almost nothing — and the initiative's future in the Democrat-controlled Senate is anything but clear.”
But DiIulio insists that the bill's fate didn't spur his resignation plans.
“It's a natural break in the action,” DiIulio said. “The House passed the bill. The process begins again in the fall.” He said he has not made any suggestions for replacements to President Bush.
He noted that the current political leadership would ensure final legislative success.
“It depends on the good will of the two principal leaders,” said DiIulio. “That's the president and Sen. Lieberman, who I have the greatest respect and appreciation for. The leadership is strong, and ultimately the leadership will carry the day.”
----- EXCERPT: But DiIulio says Bush's initiative will survive ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Cardinal George Grapples With General Absolution DATE: 08/26/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 26 - September 1, 2001 ----- BODY:CHICAGO — Chicago's Cardinal Francis George is facing a major challenge to his efforts to curb a longstanding practice by some priests of giving penitents general absolution.
A group of about 100 diocesan priests has insisted that general absolution, though restricted under canon law to cases of extreme necessity, is essential to good pastoral care.
The cardinal has responded by engaging them in a continuing dialogue that, he has, said could lead to the joint presentation of a report on the archdiocese's experience with general absolution to the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. However, he has reminded the priests that neither he nor they have the authority to allow general absolution without Vatican consent.
“The misuse of authority, in the long run, weakens the Church, no matter our good intentions,” he wrote in a letter that followed a June 19 meeting at Holy Name Cathedral with the Pastors' Forum.
Permitted as one of three forms of celebrating the sacrament of penance, general absolution, or Rite III, is to be used only in urgent situations when penitents would not otherwise have time to have an individual confession heard.
Canon No. 961 states that general absolution can be used when “serious necessity exists,” such as when a supply of confessors Cody, who allowed it provided he was informed ahead of time or the vicar was notified afterwards.
“From that point on, people began to use it,” Father McLaughlin said.
However, the Congregation for Divine Worship has made a point in recent years of letting bishops know that the practice is not to continue, particularly after its widespread use in Australia was publicized.
In a circular letter to bishops last year, the Congregation restated the rules for the sacrament of penance and emphasized the importance of individual confession. Said the letter, “In response to God's sacramental gift: It would ... be foolish, as well as presumptuous, to wish arbitrarily to disregard the means of grace and salvation which the Lord has provided and, in the specific case, to claim to receive forgiveness while doing without the sacrament which was instituted by Christ precisely for forgiveness.”
Necessary Practice?
Priests in the Chicago Archdiocese who support using general absolution tout its benefits and say that those who favor restricting it are too far removed from everyday parish ministry. They also argue that the shortage of priests makes private confession difficult, particularly during Lent and Advent when more people come to the sacrament.
“I see [general absolution] as an absolute pastoral necessity in order to restore a broader sense of relationship to the sacrament of reconciliation,” said Father Bill Stenzel, who presented a position paper supporting of general absolution to the June 19 Pastors' Forum attended by Cardinal George.
Father Stenzel is pastor of the 2,800-member St. Francis Xavier Parish in LaGrange, Ill., which offers general absolution services during Lent and Advent.
“We get huge crowds at our services and the people coming are not radical, liberal bridge-burners,” he said. “They are elderly, faithful, the backbone of the church. They consistently attest to the significance of [general absolution] in comparison to what their experiences have been in individual confession.”
Father Stenzel said the services typically last from 60 to 90 minutes and offer more time for reflection and examination of conscience than does individual confession, known as Rite I.
Rich Seng, a parishioner at St. Mary's of the Angels Parish, said he has never been to a general absolution service, nor has he ever had a problem finding a priest for confession. He said he would not object to the use of Rite III, as long as it was done with permission of the local bishop, but that he thinks private confession with its opportunity for counsel from the priest may lead to deeper reflection and contrition.
Deception?
Father Stenzel said general absolution services lead people back to a proper relationship with individual confession, enabling them to distinguish when that form or the general form meets their needs.
During the services, each penitent usually receives the imposition of hands from a priest and has the opportunity to say something. “The look on their face says more than any word could articulate,” Father Stenzel said.
However, Greg Morrow, a member of Chicago's St. Thomas More Parish who has been fighting the use of general absolution in the archdiocese for many years, said he is concerned that those who go to confession in this way are not receiving forgiveness.
“It's not valid,” he said. “Nobody actually receives absolution and they're deceiving the people.”
Father Patrick Lagges, vicar for canonical services for the Archdiocese, said he believes that parishioners who are given general absolution are receiving a valid sacrament, provided they are properly disposed and intend to confess any serious sins to a priest as soon as possible.
“The problem is not with the people. They're OK. They've received a valid absolution, but the problem is the discipline the priest has followed in giving absolution.”
He said Cardinal George's discussions with priests who advocate the practice are aimed at rectifying that discipline.
“If priests are not celebrating the sacraments correctly, whether Penance or Eucharist, the bishop's first responsibility is to talk to them personally. ... That's exactly what the cardinal is doing. He's talking to his pastors.”
Father Lagges said the cardinal is trying to clarify what is meant by general absolution. Sometimes, he said, priests refer to communal penance services at which penitents have the opportunity to mention a sin or sins to a priest as general absolution. “But it's not quite. It's sort of like a hybrid.”
General absolution, he said, implies that there is no individual encounter between priest and penitent.
A one-on-one encounter that is part of a communal service might not be the most beneficial, he said, “but it's at least an encounter and it's individual auricular confession, which again fulfills the minimum.”
Rite III has been an evolving issue in the church, Father Lagges said. “And there haven't been any hard-and-fast rules while it was developing.” As a result, he said, different priests remember being taught different things about it.
“Part of it is just the confusion that comes with any developmental process,” he added. “I don't think it's priests being openly disobedient or anything like that. It's simply priests doing what they remember in that developmental process.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church says general absolution may be used in the case of “grave necessity” which it defines as “when there is imminent danger of death without sufficient time for the priest or priests to hear each penitent's confession.”
It adds, “Grave necessity can also exist when, given the number of penitents, there are not enough confessors to hear individual confessions properly in a reasonable time, so that the penitents through no fault of their own would be derived of sacramental grace or Holy Communion for a long time.”
Even in that case, “for the absolution to be valid the faithful must have the intention of individually confessing their grave sins in the time required,” the catechism instructs.
“The diocesan bishop is the judge of whether or not the conditions required for general absolution exist,” it concludes. “A large gathering of the faithful on the occasion of major feasts or pilgrimages does not constitute a case of grave necessity.”
Judy Roberts writes from Millbury, Ohio.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Judy Roberts ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: 'Back to School' Means Many Things These Days DATE: 08/26/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 26 - September 1, 2001 ----- BODY:ST. CLOUD, Minn. — When parents send their children back to school this fall, they will find far more schooling options available to them now than when they were kids.
Catholic schools and Catholic home-based education are experiencing notable increases. Following decades of decline, Catholic school enrollment in the United States has increased in recent years. Likewise, home-based education in general, according to the National Home Education Research Institute, has been growing by as much as 15% per year.
The recent popularity in Catholic schooling has been aided by a geographic realignment, particularly in suburban areas. Over the past seven years, enrollment has increased by approximately 86,000 students. Nearly half of the nation's 8,146 Catholic schools report they have waiting lists, and more than 300 Catholic schools have opened in the last decade alone.
“New schools are occurring in areas where there are new Catholic populations who are asking for them,” commented Michael Guerra, president of the National Catholic Education Association. This trend is evident in dioceses such as St. Augustine, Fla., Cincinnati and St. Paul-Minneapolis.
Parents are attracted to Catholic-based education for several reasons.
“As our public schools become increasingly secularized, many people of faith want to talk about God and want to try to live with that as part of their educational experience,” said Todd Flanders, headmaster of Providence Academy. Opening with 180 students this fall, Providence Academy is one of seven new Catholic schools that have opened in the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis within the last two years.
The low teacher-to-pupil ratio, student safety, and the emphasis on academics attracts others. “Students receive a far supeattracts others. “Students receive a far superior education,” said Kathleen Calgaro, of San Bernadino, Calif.
A former public and Catholic high school teacher, Calgaro sends her two daughters to Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic School. “I was concerned about discipline [in the public schools] and wanted my daughters to receive a moral and religious background,” she said of her decision to choose a Catholic school.
Calgaro's daughter, Amy, explained how a fellow student left the Catholic school for a year to attend the public school and then returned the following year.
“The girl said that the students didn't know their addition or subtraction, while we were studying multiplication in the same grade,” said Amy, who is entering the sixth grade.
Independent Catholic Schools
Another trend is the rise of the private Catholic school that operates independently from the diocese. Trinity Grammar and Prep is one example. The first through 12th grade college-prep school was founded in 1995 by a group of Napa Valley, Calif. families.
“Our school started with 50 students,” said Tony Ryan, president of the board of directors. “Today we have 140.” Unusual among Catholic schools, Trinity offers daily Mass for their students.
“We're interested in their academic and spiritual growth. Like a lot of parents, we wanted to have more of a personal involvement with our children's spiritual and academic formation. Our graduating seniors have an average SAT of 1250, and 99 percent of our graduates have gone on to college,” added Ryan.
In addition, the National Consultants for Education, affiliated with the Legionaires of Christ, offers services to a growing network of approximately 30 independent Catholic schools across the U.S. and Canada.
Tom McInnis serves as principal for one of the schools — Cedarcrest Academy, located in the Twin Cities' suburb of Maple Grove. This school, too, grew rapidly — from 11 students four years ago, to 140 this year.
“I would attribute the growth to three factors,” said McInnis. “Children at Cedarcrest are physically safe. They are protected spiritually, and I will never allow an individual or a small group of individuals to interfere with the learning environment of a classroom. That is something I never could have said, as a public high school teacher.”
Home-based Education
For still others, home-based education is their choice.
“The most important reason for home schooling is the opportunity for individualized instruction,” said David McClamrock, a home schooling parent from Fort Wayne, Ind.
Home education is custom-made, he said, “in the selection of the curriculum, in the manner of presentation, and in the evaluation of your children's performance,”
According to Brian Ray, president of the National Home Education Research Institute, between 1.5 and 1.9 million students were home-educated last year. “If you go back and examine numbers from 1979-80, you'll see that no other form of education has grown like that. No matter what kind of spin you put on it, that is phenomenal,” commented Ray.
“Two months after the Columbine shooting, our applications increased from 700 to 1,400 members,” added Richard Jefferson, director of media relations with the Home School Legal Defense Association.
Maureen Wittman, author of A Catholic Homeschool Treasury, gave her reasons for teaching at home succinctly: “I believe that our Catholicism should permeate our everyday lives. It is for that reason that I believe in Catholic education. My own children's Catholic school happens to be their home,” she said.
No matter what method of instruction is chosen, it is obvious that increasing numbers of parents are making considerable sacrifices to provide a Catholic education for their children.
The Church calls parents to do nothing less. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that, “The role of parents in education is of such importance that it is almost impossible to provide an adequate substitute. The right and the duty of parents to educate their children are primordial and inalienable” (No. 2221).
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Why the Dancer Sang DATE: 08/26/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 26 - September 1, 2001 ----- BODY:Her St. Philomena Foundation is the largest distributor of free Catholic music in the United States.
About 16,000 copies of her compact disc, “Keep Your Eyes on the Beloved,” have been disseminated in all 50 states and many foreign countries since its release in January 1999.
On Catholic radio and TV, she is a known for telling her re-conversion to the faith. She spoke with Register correspondent Susan C. Fox from her home in Chicago.
You grew up in a large Lithuanian Catholic family in the Chicago area. What was your family life like?
My mother was an opera singer, and my father was a piano player and organist, so music was very much a part of growing up. I was four when I would go to daily Mass with my father. I can vividly see myself in the choir loft singing the Kyrie. And something about that — the Latin Mass — was the first capture within me.
Then I lost it along the years. The Latin Mass went out. The number of nuns decreased. Catholicism was taught differently. My parents, I think, assumed that the education I received in the Catholic school was the same as what they had. But that wasn't the case.
You have said that the Eucharist was important to your return to the faith.
It was the key. I was coming back in and starting to go to Mass, but it wasn't connecting with my heart.
I expressed to a friend that I was still struggling with the Catholic Church, and she said to me, “Simonetta, How could you give up the Eucharist, the most precious gift we have in the Catholic Church?”
What she said changed my most precious gift we have in the Catholic Church?”
What she said changed my awareness.
Then I went on a retreat in 1996, and a priest gave me an hour of Eucharistic Adoration for my penance. It was that night before the Blessed Sacrament that I was so awestruck by the presence of God.
That retreat was the complete turning point for my faith. At that moment I realized, “She's right, how did I forget that this is God — truly Jesus here before me?” From that moment, I was just a sponge, wanting to absorb all I could.
Most of my songs were written before the Blessed Sacrament, including “You Captured Me.” I was sitting before the Eucharist and I was really sad. In a moment, there came this consolation and this song. His Ineffable love captured me. There was nothing not to trust. Through this unexplainable love, I had an understanding that God had fastened His gaze on me and given me the understanding to write these songs.
In the introduction to the song your father wrote, “Blessed St. Theresa,” you speak passionately about your relationship with the Little Flower. What role did this saint play in the beginning of your music apostolate?
St. Theresa came into my life when I started writing the songs, and it was brought to my attention that this would be something good to record because many people were asking for copies of the music.
In my family, I was not the greater musical one.
I had three older sisters who were the singers. I went into dance. So to come back to music, and have God ask me to do this, I thought, “Wait a minute. I'm not the singer.” So I decided to pray a novena to St. Theresa, asking, “Is this truly what God wants me to do?”
During the last two days of the novena, we stayed at a monastery, and there was a six-foot statue of St. Theresa. On the final night of my novena, as we were praying in the chapel, it started to storm outside and the room was filled with the scent of roses. When I came home from this weekend, I went to visit my father and mother. I walked in the house and they were playing and singing, “Blessed St. Theresa.” I asked my mother, “What are you guys singing?” And she said “We're singing Dad's song that he wrote 50 years ago.” I never even knew he wrote the song! So it was like St. Theresa said, “It's OK, do you hear me?”
Was it scary starting a music apostolate, the St. Philomena Foundation, in which you would give away the first tape or CD free?
Once we decided this was something we were called to do, we had already put aside some money. But as time went on, and we hadn't seen how much it was going to cost, my husband asked me, “Well, what are we going to name the apostolate?” One day, a friend was explaining to me the meaning of the St. Philomena cord (for chastity).
It was another one of those moments that I was awakened to a beautiful treasure (of the Catholic Church). I wanted to show my devotion to her, so I began a 54-day novena. And in the midst of that, a woman doctor going into the cloister became our first benefactor. It was that donation that completed everything: the final music arrangements and the engineering of the CDs. There was no fear after that. You could see the hand of God.
Now that you have the music apostolate, are you still glad you made the decision to teach your children at home?
It's one of the greatest joys of my life, greater than — forgive me, God — music. We just did a play (on the Little Flower) for the girl's club. And the night before she was taking her final vows, St. Theresa was fearful, not knowing her vocation. And all of a sudden she realized what it was. It was love. That's kind of how I felt when I began home schooling. I realized my vocation was to be a wife, a mother and to teach my children the faith.
When the music apostolate began, I was fearful this would take away from my mothering. People on radio interviews ask me, “How do you do it?” I say, “It's by God's grace.” He worked out ways. The money has come in. I give it to him at all times.
What are you working on now?
This new CD evolves with the writer and her spiritual growth, so I've done more songs from Scripture.
I have a song, called “Why?” Why do I do the things that I do? Why do I say the things I don't want to say? It took me forever to get the answer. While we were there making the recording, it came to me. I realized it was Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” It's not about why, but how.
The new album is a journey through the longing for God. I also have a rosary CD with [Franciscan Friar of the Renewal] Father Benedict Groeschel that will come out later this year.
We met to record it in this little chapel in Peoria, [Ill.,] and prayed together before the Eucharist. So when people listen to it, they can know that it wasn't something done in a studio. I left it up to Father Groeschel which direction he wanted [the rosary meditations] to go. It was interesting because he took it very Marian. The meditations were done with his eyes closed. It just flowed from him. It was very apparent that God was with him.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Simonetta Pacek ----- KEYWORD: Inperson -------- TITLE: Ground Zero: Population Controllers Target Wal-Mart Stores DATE: 08/26/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 26 - September 1, 2001 ----- BODY:LAFAYETTE, Colo. — Wal-Mart promises to roll back prices, but Zero Population Growth wants the world's largest retailer to roll back its ban on Preven — a so-called “emergency contraceptive” drug that prevents or ends pregnancy if taken within 72 hours of intercourse.
But some observers are puzzled that the campaign has been launched at all, given that the U.S. fertility rate is already below the level required to maintain a growing population.
Activists with Zero Population Growth, a Washington-based group headed by former congressman and Clinton administration official Peter Kostmayer, are traveling across the country to stage small rallies in Wal-Mart parking lots.
“They may stock Viagra, but if you're a woman who needs a prescription for emergency contraceptives filled at your local Wal-Mart, you can forget it,” said Kostmayer, a former seven-term U.S. representative from Pennsylvania and a senior Environmental Protection Agency official under Clinton.
Kostmayer spoke recently at a Wal-Mart in suburban Denver, standing beneath a huge color banner that says “Wal-Mart is Rolling Back Women's Rights and We're Not Smiling!”
The rally was largely ignored in Lafayette, Colo., a community with a large population of Hispanic Catholics who oppose birth control.
Although Kostmayer's banner espouses “women's rights,” he told reporters the thrust of his opposition to Wal-Mart's ban on Preven involves concerns about too many people.
“We don't need to worry about too much population in the United States,” said Sarah Dateno, publications editor of the Population Research Institute in Front Royal, Va. “All recent statistics from the United Nations and the U.S. Census Bureau show exactly the opposite — that we should be concerned about dwindling population here and around the globe.”
In the United States, Dateno said, fertility is below replacement rates and the nation would be in economic crisis if it weren't for legal and illegal immigration.
Recent U.N. studies have warned that by mid-century, population will plummet in many developed countries, causing grave social and economic problems.
“Japan's social security system is collapsing because fertility rates have declined below replacement for years,” Dateno said. “Their economy is suffering, and they don't have the benefit of immigration to offset it.”
Added Dateno, “It's ridiculous to suggest that Wal-Mart needs to sell next-day ‘contraceptives’ because of overpopulation. It's just silly nonsense.”
Bogus Numbers
Kostmayer didn't refute Dateno's charge that U.S. population is threatened with decline, rather than over-population. But he said Dateno failed to view the world as one unit and look at the overall growth in global population.
“You can find countries, cities and states in which population is declining,” Kostmayer says. “But then you're just talking about distribution. I'm talking about global population, and globally the population of the world increases by the equivalent of New York City every single day.”
In fact, the actual increase in global population is only a tiny fraction of that figure. The population of New York is slightly over 8 million — meaning that if Kostmayer were correct, the current global population of 6 billion people would be increasing by more than 2.9 billion people annually.
According to the U.N. Population Division, the actual increase between 1995-2000 was only 78 million people per year, or nearly 40 times lower than that claimed by Kostmayer.
Kostmayer is just as confused about future trends as he is about the present growth rate, said Bob Sassone, author of Handbook on Population, a popular demographic resource among bureaucrats, politicians and U.N. diplomats.
“By the year 2030, fertility will likely be in decline worldwide, if we merely continue the current trends,” said Sassone. “I have studied all the important demographic data and I've visited at length with all of the leading researchers on both sides of this issue, and I'm convinced beyond doubt that the population explosion is more baloney than bang.”
It's definitely “baloney” in the United States, continued Sassone.
“People born in the United States have fertility rates far below replacement,” he said. “We're below replacement even with current immigration trends.”
When pressed further on the issues of declining domestic population growth and projections that worldwide population will reach overall decline in 30 years or less, Kostmayer changed the subject.
“People say Wal-Mart should be able to sell whatever they want, because it's a private company,” Kostmayer said. “Yes, but they should not be able to discriminate. Nobody would tolerate it if Wal-Mart decided to refuse to sell drugs designed for people with AIDS or sickle-cell anemia. But with their ban of emergency contraceptives, they've decided to discriminate against women of child-bearing age.”
Workplace Morals
Wal-Mart's official explanation for the Preven ban is that it's a “business decision” based on projected slow sales of the drug, which when taken within 72 hours after intercourse either delays ovulation to prevent fertilization, or acts as an abortifacient to kill an already fertilized embryo.
Kostmayer said he suspects Wal-Mart banned Preven because of moral concerns expressed by pharmacists. Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the world, has a written policy to “respect the pharmacist's right to object to the dispensing of medication based on their personal beliefs.”
Wal-Mart did not respond to repeated requests for an interview for this article. But Mimi Eckstein, director of the Respect Life Office of the Archdiocese of Denver, said WalMart's policy is in harmony with Church teachings that Catholics must respect life in the workplace.
“Vatican II was all about the laity taking their faith life into the real world, including the workplace,” Eckstein said. “We are supposed to know our faith well enough that we can present facts and defend it. If Wal-Mart says this is a business decision, that's fine. But it probably means someone in that company made a persuasive argument regarding the truth about these drugs, and that's what we, as Catholics, are called to do.”
Added Eckstein, “And it could very well have been a business decision. I can imagine there are a lot of bottom-line business concerns regarding the sale of a dangerous abortifacient with potential harmful side-effects.”
Wayne Laugesen writes from Boulder, Colorado.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Wayne Laugesen ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 08/26/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 26 - September 1, 2001 ----- BODY:Bar Association Considers Pro-Life Proposal
FEDERALIST SOCIETY, Aug. 6 — The American Bar Association, the lawyers' professional association, will consider a resolution supporting the right to life of “those conceived but not yet born,” announced the Federalist Society, a law debating society.
The proposal may be ruled out of order on the grounds that it conflicts with the Bar Association constitution's vow to “uphold and defend the Constitution [of the United States].” Since the Bar Association has previously stated its support for Roe v. Wade, it may interpret “upholding the Constitution” to require defending abortion.
The lawyers' association will also consider a resolution opposing the newly-reinstated “Mexico City policy,” which prohibits organizations receiving U.S. money from advocating or performing abortions in foreign countries.
Do Seminaries Deserve an ‘F’ in Economics?
WALL STREET JOURNAL, Aug. 3 — In order to fulfill the Gospel command to care for the poor, ministers must understand basic economics — and seminaries may not be offering adequate preparation, the New York daily argued.
The Acton Institute, which seeks to defend classical liberalism based on Christian principles, surveyed of the presidents and deans of 251 American Christian seminaries. The survey found that seminaries devote little time to economics, and those that place the heaviest emphasis on economic issues are the most hostile to the free market, the Journal reported.
The survey covered every major Christian denomination in the United States. It found that students studied topics relating to social justice in an average of one-quarter of their classes. However, more seminary leaders thought their students left “not well prepared” on these topics (11%) than “very well prepared” (6%).
Catholic and Orthodox seminaries were the most likely to have “intensive” programs.
Woman Indicted in Dorothy Day Cottage Demolition
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Aug. 9 — A Staten Island, N.Y., woman pleaded innocent to charges of forging documents that made possible the destruction of a cottage where Catholic Worker co-founder Dorothy Day once lived, the wire service reported.
The indictment charged that Flory Henao doctored building permits that let developer John DiScala demolish the cottage before the city's Landmarks Preservation Committee completed deliberations.
Day, who was proposed for canonization by the late New York Cardinal John O'Connor, lived in the cottage until her 1980 death.
Auden: Poetry Isn't Prayer
FIRST THINGS, August/September — Edward Mendelson's new study, Later Auden, explores how W.H. Auden's adult conversion to Christianity affected his poetry, according to a review in First Things.
Auden first came to Christianity through recognizing his own inadequacy and sinfulness, and was influenced by the existentialist Soren Kierkegaard, but later wrote that Kierkegaard was “deaf” to the joyful aspects of Christianity.
Auden emphasized the goodness of the body and free will. After his conversion, he also emphasized that poetry is no substitute for God or prayer.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Killer's Nightmares Trigger a Case Defining Religion DATE: 08/26/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 26 - September 1, 2001 ----- BODY:WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — Paul Cox was having nightmares.
He told a fellow member of Alcoholics Anonymous about the dreams, which centered on the night Cox stabbed a couple to death in a drunken stupor in 1988. Cox had told other Alcoholics Anonymous members about the slaying before but, this time, his confidant went to the police.
In his 1995 trial, several members of Alcoholics Anonymous testified under subpoena that Cox had told them he killed Dr. Lakshman Rao Chervu and his wife, Dr. Shanta Chervu, in their suburban New York City home in 1988. A jury convicted Cox of manslaughter, and he received up to 50 years in prison.
On July 31, however, U.S. District Judge Charles Brieant overturned the conviction, ruling that the Alcoholics Anonymous members should not have been required to testify, because the group is a religious organization. Under New York law, confessions made to “a clergyman or other minister of any religion” cannot be used as evidence, unless the person confiding waives that privilege.
Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced that she would appeal the decision. She told ABC News that, since Cox made his confessions outside the context of regular Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, his claim was “not unlike going to church and then having a cup of coffee down the road 10 minutes later with someone sitting next to you and saying, ‘By the way, I killed two people.’”
Cox will remain in jail until the appeal has been completed.
Alcoholics Anonymous denies that it is a religion. Although the group does not designate members as spokesmen, and will not allow them to be identified by name, a staff member at the group's general service office in New York said that the group's emphasis on a “higher power” is a reference solely to “god as you understand god.”
The staff member said that Alcoholics Anonymous' traditions do not permit it to comment on political, medical or legal issues.
However, he noted, Alcoholics Anonymous has “no requirement that you believe in any specific dogma. The sentiment in AA is that you need to come to a belief in a power greater than yourself, whatever that power is.”
“44 Questions,” an Alcoholics Anonymous pamphlet, states, “Alcoholics Anonymous is not a religious society, since it requires no definite religious belief as a condition of membership.” A member can interpret the group's “spiritual values... as he or she thinks best, or not to think about them at all,” the pamphlet says.
The most controversial portions of the Alcoholics Anonymous “12 Step” program are those that speak of a “higher power.” The group's pamphlet states, “Some alcoholics choose to consider the AA group itself as the power greater than themselves; for many others, this Power is God — as they, individually, understand Him; still others rely upon entirely different concepts of a Higher Power.”
The legal privilege extended in U.S. law to religious communications is based on the Catholic seal of confession, which requires a priest to keep absolutely secret any confidences given during the Sacrament of Penance. Even if a religion does not have a specific group of priests or ministers, however, members can still invoke the legal protection if they confess to another member.
New York's standards protect any disclosurre made “in confidence and for the purpose of obtaining spiritual guidance.”
1996 and 1999 cases in New York and federal courts ruled that Alcoholics Anonymous “entails engagement in religious activity and religious proselytization.” Brieant also noted that meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous closed with the Lord's Prayer.
Criminals Anonymous?
Because Step Five of the Alcoholics Anonymous program requires confessing wrongdoings “to God, to ourselves, and to another human being,” Brieant ruled that Cox's confessions to other group members were part of the “discipline imposed upon him by AA.”
Prosecutor Pirro accused Brieant of being “an activist judge,” and said that his ruling “impedes the truth-finding process.” She said that decisions as to the definition of religion should be left to the legislature, not the courts.
Pirro suggested that a group might even designate itself “Criminals Anonymous,” and invoke the religious-confidence privilege for its members' confessions.
William P. Marshall, professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law, noted that “courts are very reluctant” to take cases that involve defining religion. “It's fraught with constitutional peril,” he said, “but occasionally a case comes before them and they literally have to make a decision as part of deciding the case.”
The U.S. Supreme Court has addressed the issue of what makes a religion a religion only in two cases involving conscientious objectors, Marshall said. In those cases, the court laid out criteria centering on the issue of “sincerity of belief.”
In this view, particular doctrines or statements on the nature of God are less important than whether “the belief occupied the same place in the mind of the believer as religion does,” Marshall said.
There is still disagreement about whether there must be a theistic component. Some legal scholars believe that secular humanism is, legally speaking, a “religion”; others do not.
‘Religious’ or ‘Spiritual’?
Jim Christopher, who founded SOS — Secular Organizations for Sobriety — in 1985 after leaving Alcoholics Anonymous, disputed Alcoholics Anonymous' distinction between being “religious” and being “spiritual.”
“They speak of conscious contact with God and prayer,” he said. “You have to turn your will and your life over to a higher power.”
“It does sound like they're trying to be inclusive,” Christopher acknowledged. “They say everyone is welcome. But [the book Alcoholics Anonymous, the group's basic text] devotes a chapter to the agnostic that says, basically, ‘You poor thing. You will come to believe.’ That makes folks feel out of place.”
Christopher disagreed with Alcoholics Anonymous' contention that the “higher power” can be understood in innumerable different ways.
Said Christopher, “Turning my will and my life over to a door-knob, or to the group — some of these things are just silly, and some are dangerous.”
Eve Tushnet writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 08/26/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 26 - September 1, 2001 ----- BODY:Fake Bomb Snarls Rome Trains
REUTERS, Aug. 14 — The wire service reported discovering a fake bomb at an underground train stop in Rome's central railway station Aug. 14.
“The fake bomb, found at 9.15 a.m., was made with electrical wires, an electrical transformer and plasticine. Experts used an extremely powerful water spray to diffuse the suspect package,” a police spokesman was quoted telling Reuters.
The phony bomb, in Termini station, closed Rome's subway for 30 minutes. A bomb had damaged Venice court house a week earlier, and Italy was the target of rioters during the recent G-8 summit in Genoa.
South Korean Minister Meets Vatican Counterpart
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, Aug. 9 — South Korean Foreign Minister Han Seung-Soo began a 10-day tour of the Middle East and the Vatican, the wire service reported.
Han planned to meet with political leaders and officials in Iran and Egypt, and with the Vatican's foreign minister, to revive failed hopes for peace between North and South Korea.
Over Half of Ukrainians Positive About Pope
SOCIS INSTITUTE, Aug. 2 — Just over half of Ukrainians polled by the Socis Institute said that they felt “positive” about Pope John Paul II's June visit, despite condemnations from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
Fifty-one percent judged the visit to be positive, while only 14% thought it had been negative. One third of Ukrainians said the papal visit “will reinforce the international prestige” of Ukraine or “will contribute to an improvement in interdenominational relations.”
Six percent thought the visit would cause Orthodox-Catholic relations to deteriorate, and 7% said the visit was part of a “plan of global expansion of Catholicism.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Inspiration for Self-Sacrifice DATE: 08/26/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 26 - September 1, 2001 ----- BODY:“The Queen shines, O Lord, at your right hand!” This is what the Church sings today, while it is jubilantly in awe at the extraordinary event of the Assumption of the Virgin, body and soul, into heaven.
This solemnity, in the heart of summertime, is a fitting occasion to meditate on the reality that goes beyond earthly existence.
Contemplating the Madonna in her heavenly glory, we understand better that the obligations and exhaustion of each day should not totally absorb us, because the scope of life is not limited to this earth. In her, she who today gleams with light, we see fully realized all that the heavenly Father promises to those who generously serve him — extending their fidelity, if necessary, to the point of offering the supreme sacrifice of their life.
St. Maximilian Kolbe, whose feast we celebrated yesterday, gave courageous witness to this fidelity. He was always inspired by Mary, whom he loved to call “dearest Mamma.” He was a worthy spiritual son of St. Francis, dying Aug. 14, 1941, precisely on the vigil of the solemnity of the Assumption, in the sadly familiar bunker of that infamous Auschwitz.
This year is the 60th anniversary of his dramatic and heroic martyrdom. After unspeakable suffering, he was done away with by “an injection of poisonous acid in the left arm” — as recounted by the medical report of the one who verified his death — and his body was burned in the ovens of the crematorium on the next day.
He offered himself enthusiastically in place of a father of a family who had cried out: “My wife and my children! I'll never see them again!” His extraordinarily generous deed can be seen symbolically as a “gift to the family,” whose fundamental mission in the Church and society he had thoroughly described. With this intention, he wrote that “the mutual love of the persons who unite themselves to form a family is an authentic echo of the divine love” (SK 1326).
May the memory of this martyr of charity help all believers to follow Christ and his Gospel without hesitation or compromise. As a devoted son of the Virgin, Saint Maximillian especially encourages families and young people to find in the Mother of God support for difficult times and a secure guide toward holiness.
He always allowed the Immaculate One to take him by the hand, convinced, as he loved to repeat, that “Mary will think of everything for us, and taking away every distress and difficulty, she will promptly see to all our corporal and spiritual needs” (SK 25.56).
(Translation by Register)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: vatican -------- TITLE: Register Summary DATE: 08/26/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 26 - September 1, 2001 ----- BODY:At a noon blessing Aug. 15, accompanying the recitation of the Angelus on the feast of the Assumption, Pope John Paul II spoke about the deep Marian devotion of a fellow Pole, St. Maximilian Kolbe, who was put to death at the Nazi extermination camp of Auschwitz, Aug. 14, 1941.
Recalling Mary's assumption and marking the 60th anniversary of St. Maximilian's martyrdom, the Pope said he wanted to underline how the saint's dedication to Mary fueled his faith and his sense of self-sacrifice.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 08/26/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 26 - September 1, 2001 ----- BODY:250 Christians Arrested in Lebanon
MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, Aug. 9 — Up to 250 Christian activists, including two senior Christian officials, were arrested by Lebanese troops, the Milwaukee, Wis., daily reported.
The arrests followed many Christians' demands that Syria pull its 25,000 soldiers out of Lebanon. The army said it had arrested only anti-Syrian activists holding illegal meetings.
The Maronite Catholic Church and an influential Druze politician condemned the arrests and warned of political repercussions.
Man Rams Car Into Lourdes Shrine
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Aug. 15 — A Spanish man driving a car filled with explosives rammed through the entrance of the sanctuary in Lourdes, France, the wire service reported.
The man then set the car on fire. Although 40,000 people were attending Mass to celebrate the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, no one was injured.
The man said he was trying to commit suicide and had no religious or political motive. He was taken into police custody.
Survey Shows What Religious Give to Irish Society
THE IRISH TIMES, Aug. 6 — A new survey by the Conference of Religious of Ireland attempted to determine how much priests and religious give to the “social economy,” the Irish daily reported.
For example, 80% of the care for the disabled and mentally handicapped in Ireland is done by religious.
As fewer priests and religious are available to teach and work in Irish hospitals, costs will inevitably rise, since lay workers do not adhere to a vow of poverty.
Killer of Pro-Solidarity Priest Freed
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Aug. 16 — Grzegorz Piotrowski, a former Polish secret police officer, was freed after serving 15 years for the 1984 killing a popular pro-Solidarity priest, the wire service reported.
Three other secret police officers convicted of abducting and killing Father Jerzy Popieluszko have also been freed. They were convicted in a hasty 1985 trial by the Communist government.
Poland's current government recently announced a new, independent investigation into Father Popielusko's murder. The govern-ment's National Remembrance Institute said it hoped to indict top-ranking Communist officials who are believed to have ordered the killing.
Wladyslaw Ciaston, the former deputy head of the communist-era Interior Ministry Security Service, is already being retried for possible involvement after his 1992 trial led to an acquittal for lack of evidence.
Singapore May Become Embryo Research Center
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, Aug. 16 — One of the top three embryonic stem-cell research companies said it would help make Singapore a center for the embryo-destroying research, the wire service reported.
ES Cell International announced plans to set up its main research and production facility in Singapore by Christmas. Singapore has no restrictions on embryonic stem-cell research yet, although a Bioethics Advisory Committee is studying the issue.
The Catholic Medical Guild of Singapore protested the announcement.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: To Stop a Flood DATE: 08/26/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 26 - September 1, 2001 ----- BODY:It could have been worse. A lot worse.
Faced with what most observers thought was a decision for or against funding research that destroys human embryos, President Bush chose a third option: To fund research on human embryos that have already been destroyed, but whose cell lines are being kept available in labs.
That means that federal funds won't go to the destruction of human embryos. That's no small thing in today's climate. At the same time, it would have been better to withhold money for any destructive research, whether the victims are dead or alive.
Rapid developments in biotechnology are coming at us like a flood. Stem cells from embryos are just one of the many “Brave New World” practices scientists are overwhelming us with.
These practices, paradoxically, show two things: First, that science is absolutely certain that life begins at conception (otherwise, there would be no interest in these early lives) and second, that many scientists care very little about the ethics of this work and are not likely to give their attitude a second thought.
In the face of such a flood, it would have been extremely difficult for the president to simply say “No more research on human life.” It may even have taken heroism. But America needs no less than a hero.
Instead, President Bush's decision puts him — and his country — in a precarious moral situation.
Embryos are still being killed for research, some in the very labs that will be providing the 60 cell lines Bush's decision makes available. The new policy will encourage the killing of embryos, say scientists. And for what? So far, medical remedies using embryonic cells have only harmed, not helped, patients.
Once that moral situation is spelled out, though, another question arises. Should pro-lifers abandon their support for Bush?
We don't thinks so.
Bush's decision has to be judged on two levels: First, its moral implications and second, its political intent.
It would be unfair to suspect Bush of making the choice he made out of callous disregard for the unborn or, for that matter, wanting to thwart the building of a culture of life.
In addition to the moral logic at work here, there is a political logic. It is the logic of power, of how to manage the opposition, the choices politicians must make sometimes to give appearances of compromise to gain the intermediate end of neutralizing the opposition, so as to achieve the ultimate goal.
Pope John Paul II himself has said that a pro-life politician in a regime of bad laws can do his best to lessen the evil.
Bush is pro-life. He took his speech as an opportunity to tell Americans that life is sacred and begins at conception. Perhaps he saw his political choice this way:
First, he could have given a green light to the research. That would have been a disaster for the embryos involved and the rest of the population.
Second, he could have banned federally funded embryonic stem-cell research. If he had done so, he would have incurred the wrath of the scientific — and pro-abortion — establishments. A hostile and radically pro-abortion Senate would have reacted predictably by going around him to fund stem-cell research. A hostile judiciary would have helped.
Third, he could do what he did: Limit embryonic stem-cell research to existing cell lines. By placing a limit on federally funded embryo research, the decision might well force more experimentation on adult stem cells. Or then again, the research may find that stem cells are fool's gold anyway, with nothing to offer.
At any rate, Bush may well have decided that you can't stop a flood by executive order. Perhaps he thought it would be better to dam it and control it, instead. We pray that he's right.
Pro-lifers have not been slow to point out the moral deficiencies of Bush's policy. We should be just as quick to back up the principle he first articulated in the Register more than a year ago:
Life begins at conception, and it must be protected.
----- EXCERPT: EDITORIAL ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Opinion -------- TITLE: Letters DATE: 08/26/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 26 - September 1, 2001 ----- BODY:Rave Review
Thank you for an excellent newspaper. I get the whole story, both the good news and the bad news. Keep up the good work.
FRANCES SIMECEK
Bay Village, Ohio
Johnny Embryo, Meet Mary Zygote
There's another problem associated with frozen embryos that needs to be addressed (“So Many Frozen Embryos, So Few Answers,” July 29-Aug. 4).
Here's a zygote from couple AB introduced into the uterus of Mrs. C. Here's another zygote from couple AB introduced into the uterus of Mrs. D.
What happens when Johnny C grows up and meets Mary D and they fall in love and want to marry? They are full siblings. Is anyone keeping track of this?
LOIS MANNING
Visalia, California
Kim's Courage
I want to thank you, “Kim,” for your courageous interview about your abortion experience and I want to encourage you to continue to share your story (“After Abortion: One Woman's Story,” July 22-28). Bearing this cross publicly is a heroic feat. Please do not be discouraged by criticism, but persevere and grow from it. These stories need to be told.
Our Lord's mercy and love is infinite and unfathomable. We all need to emulate Christ's perfect compassion for the sinner (and not just the repentant sinner). Our world is full of these walking wounded. Our Church is full. He is pouring out his graces and blessings upon you so that you might help all of us know the beauty of God's great love.
For those of us in the pro-life movement, please persevere and grow from this humble criticism (for I too have been guilty of this): Be compassionate and merciful always in everything you say and everything you do. Abortion is a secret that most women (and men) carry silently and painfully for years. Some of these children of God are in our rosary groups, they are in our adoration chapels, they are filling the pews of our churches every day of the week and they are in the pro-life movement. They hear our frustrations, our anger and our righteous indignation.
They need to hear our compassion and know our love, especially behind closed doors. Their stories need to be heard. We need to be willing to listen. They are the Pauls of the culture of life — [persecutors] redeemed and radically transformed. The Lord needs these humble soldiers in this war against the culture of death. Let us do nothing to discourage them from answering the call. And let us be humble enough to learn from them.
PHYLLIS DEERY STANTON
Jenkintown, Pennsylvania
Uncommon Vocation
It was in the chapel of the Oblates of the Virgin Mary, in Boston's Prudential Center, that I chanced upon [Register] subscription cards, and so I hereby take advantage of this good offer!
I'm well acquainted with your paper, through friends' giving me their copies after they read them. Now, with a subscription of my own, I can pass the issues on to others, too.
Kindly convey to the staff my great appreciation for your recent story on consecrated virgins (“Virginity as a Vocation,” May 6-12). A good friend was one of those quoted in the story, and there were one or two other quoted whom I also know. The article was quite good, I thought; in my 27 years of a consecrated virgin, I've answered all kinds of questions from all sorts of people with all types of attitudes (both positive and negative) toward this beautiful vocation, recently restored in the Church in the West and much misunderstood even after nearly 30 years since the English translation of the Latin document of promulgation of the restored rite, in 1970.
In my own experiences and conversations with people, I have always found it most useful to find out how much the person knows, and then connect that with whatever I have to say. In one sense, it is always going to be one-on-one word of mouth, but articles such as yours do help to give a general idea to folks. I find that what confuses people the most is that consecrated virgins are not religious, and neither does the U.S. Association of Consecrated Virgins function like a religious order — which, even today, is the only form of consecrated life with which most people are familiar, and with which they feel comfortable.
One can hardly blame people for not being at ease with unfamiliar forms of consecrated life, though, because of the very poor catechesis around the “changes” in the Church over the past three or four decades.
The general society and cultural milieu is of no guidance, is of no help, because of its lack of connection of any sort with God.
Thank you for publishing a good, intelligent, lively, interesting reliable paper.
God Bless you!
ANN E. STITT
Boston
Hero Delivery Device
Let me start by saying what a refreshing paper you produce. From the clarity of World News to the savvy movie reviews in Arts and Entertainment, there's plenty of good reading to be found in each issue. Thank you for restoring credibility to journalistic reporting.
I am compelled to write to seek more information on the “First Hour” lecture series about which you wrote in your July 8-14 issue (“The Breakfast Club Meets the Book of Virtues”). The idealism of youth is quickly snuffed out by the nihilism prevalent in popular culture, and enshrined by media moguls. What a great idea to bring our local heroes before our children to illuminate the deep joy of living the Gospel in the world.
Would you kindly provide your readers with any additional information on this program?
MARGEE W. SIMEO
Glen Ellyn, Illinois
Editor's Note: Contact the Diocese of Toledo, Ohio, by calling 419-244-6711 or visiting www.toledodiocese.org.
Praying the Register
In January of this year, I joined a pro-life organization called Concerned Women for America (CWA). It boasts an enrollment that surpasses NOW.
One of the strongest assets of CWA is its commitment to prayer for persons in leadership positions. CWA provides its members with prayer cards entitled “CWA ‘Key 16’ Prayer List,” on which we are to write in the names of our government, state and local leaders and it lists for us the names of our Supreme Court members.
Our members are committed to pray for these people daily.
The card is prefaced with words from 1 Timothy 2:1-2:
“I urge ... that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all those in authority.”
In the Aug. 5-11 issue of the Register, sadly, the article “Senate Democrats Seek to Screen Out Pro-Life Judges,” and the names of two Catholics, appear in the article.
After reading this piece of news, my decision wavered between writing directly to these Catholic members of the Senate or writing this letter. My decision went for the letter.
You see, I've added the names of Patrick Leahy and Ted Kennedy to my prayer list and will pray daily for their conversion of heart and mind. Also, I ask anyone who reads this to join me in prayer that God will make the final decision in favor of pro-life judges.
DORIS MADISON
Monroe City, Missouri
Shrek
I didn't see, and won't see, The Fast and the Furious — but I did take my Catholic family to see Shrek. And we all loved it. How can you lump these two films together?
I read your movie review and wondered if we'd seen the same movie. My wife and I were grateful to have a movie like Shrek to entertain the kids. There's a glut of the other kind of entertainment out there (sex, violence); Shrek is a sigh of relief.
Read into it all you want, but you can't beat the un-Disneylike ending. And sorry if the dragon had to blow out the Gothic cathedral windows. Where else did you expect the wedding to take place, the dungeon?
We still give Shrek two thumbs up.
JEFF BENOIST
Corpus Christi, Texas
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Opinion -------- TITLE: Lifestyle Policy DATE: 08/26/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 26 - September 1, 2001 ----- BODY:It was refreshing to read “Teaching by Example: New Orleans Adopts ‘Lifestyle Policy’” (July 29-Aug. 4).
Being a Catholic has lost a lot of its meaning in today's society. I pray this will only be the beginning of spelling out what it means to be Catholic. I pray other dioceses will follow suit with their own lifestyle policies.
JUDY GOODNIGHT
Dallas
Conception as a Sin?
There is something wrong in New Orleans listing “conceiving a child or fathering a child out of wedlock” as a cause for dismissal in its lifestyle policy. The sin is in fornication or adultery, not in conception. The child is simply evidence.
That provision could be a dangerous precedent for Church and civil authority.
SHEILA KENNY KAUFMANN
Denville, N.J.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Opinion -------- TITLE: The Incredible Shrinking Household DATE: 08/26/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 26 - September 1, 2001 ----- BODY:I was saddened by recent news stories confirming that the number of cohabitating couples continues to rise.
Many young people who have survived their parents' divorces are longing for life-long love, but have no idea how to make it work. Many of these young people see cohabitation as a way of avoiding a costly mistake that could lead to divorce.
Research shows that couples who cohabit before marriage are more likely to report unhappiness in their marriages, and more likely to divorce. This result surprises some people, including the researchers that have uncovered it. But it is not a surprise when you consider that the marriage relationship is much more than a glorified roommate or business relationship. People imagine they are taking their potential spouse for a “test drive.” The problem is that you cannot simulate commitment. Live-in lovers tend to have one foot out the door throughout the relationship.
Then, too, cohabiters only pretend to practice self-giving; in reality, they hold back from one another. Untrusting, uncommitted, they rehearse for a show that may never go on.
I am sorry to say that I know this from experience. My husband and I lived together before we married. It has taken us a long time to overcome some of the habits we developed during those early years. I would have been just as surprised as the researchers who found the cohabitation is a poor predictor of successful marriage. But since I have experienced cohabitation, marriage with reservations, as well as self-giving marriage with abandon, I think I have a pretty good handle on what the research data actually mean.
While this is essentially a cultural and spiritual problem, there is an economic aspect to the issue. The rising prosperity of the Western world, coupled with the increasing economic opportunities for women in particular, makes living alone more financially feasible than it used to be. This rising prosperity is one of the factors at work in a number of the census trends. People are living alone: Nearly a third of all households consist of individuals or unrelated individuals.
I would never say that this prosperity is a bad thing. Many of the Founding Fathers, for instance, were unsure whether a “commercial republic” could be stable, since wealthy people would tend to become complacent. I do think that we need to pay closer attention to the choices we are making surrounding our families, or we will all end up alone.
The correlation of child well-being and living with both biological parents is present in the raw data of most studies. The debate among scholars centers on the extent to which this can be accounted for by differences in resources typically found in single-parent households. The debate then turns to ways in which society can offer additional resources to support the children of single mothers. But most studies show that children of single parents still do worse even after accounting for differences in economic status. This suggests that the children are harmed from the loss of the relationship itself, not simply the loss of resources.
Untrusting, uncommitted, cohabiters rehearse for a show that may never go on.
It is almost as if policy makers and academics wish they could find any way possible to help children, short of stating the obvious fact that they would be better off if their parents were married. The goal seems to be to find the minimal set of human relationships that a child can have and still turn out tolerably well, or to find the least adults must do for their children. This minimalist posture is not confined to academic advocates and people who themselves are divorced. People from across the political spectrum seem to be saying, “What do I have to do in order to maintain my position that divorce or single parenthood is not harmful to children? How much money does society have to spend to make up for the loss of the relationship, so that I will not have to give up my belief that parents are entitled to any lifestyle choices they want?”
The crucial cultural issue behind the “home-alone” family is the American ethos of independence. We tend to glorify and glamorize independence. Independence is all well and good, but the truth is that there are times when we are legitimately dependent on others. The human person comes into the world as a helpless infant. Most modern political theory treats this as if it were a peripheral fact. Children require a social order around them for their very survival. The family provides that life-giving structure that allows the infant to thrive and ultimately to develop into the kind of person who can safely be turned loose in a free society.
Americans tend to be uncomfortable with the vulnerability that comes from acknowledging our dependence on others. We prefer the illusion of control. In my view, we would benefit from developing our ability to be interdependent with others in a constructive way. I believe that, for many people, fear of being dependent stands in the way of healthy cooperation. This is what destroys our self-giving nature, and, ultimately, undermines the welfare and happiness of our families.
Jennifer Roback Morse is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and the author of Love & Economics: Why the Laissez-Faire
Family Doesn't Work (Spence, 2001).
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: J.R. Morse ----- KEYWORD: Commentary -------- TITLE: One Bread, One Body, One Lifebuoy From the Bishops DATE: 08/26/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 26 - September 1, 2001 ----- BODY:I was on the beat. Steve was looking to sell some ad space. Industry conventions bring together odd travel mates.
We met at the airport, Steve and I, two of a sizable contingent our publisher was sending to this particular conference. The company had asked us to fly together and share a room at the hotel to save a few bucks, so, with an hour to kill at the gate, waiting to board our flight, here was a good chance to practice some inter-departmental diplomacy.
I knew things were a tad testy of late between sales and editorial at the business magazine we both worked for. I knew Steve and I would be spending the next four days in and out of one another's orbit. So I should have done all I could to keep the conversation light. The weather. Sports. The pros and cons of doing the Macarena at company parties. Anything but politics or religion. But no. I had to go and ask about the cross he was wearing on his lapel. (Hey, at least I refrained from barbing him about showing up in a suit and tie for a six-hour flight.) The cross had a number “7” where the corpus would be on a Catholic crucifix. What was the significance of that?
Steve didn't know. The person who gave it to him had told him the numeral somehow signified “God's greatest blessings” and, well, that was good enough for Steve.
When it came to religion, Steve said, he only knew two things. One, he loved Jesus and the Bible and all the “positive energy” his faith gave him to succeed in his career and family life. And two, he had no stomach for the Catholic Church.
It was going to be a long four days.
Bread Alone
Steve, I quickly learned, was a confirmed Catholic who had left the Church when he divorced his first wife and married a second. As he talked, it became obvious that his present faith was a singular syncretism of born-again-Christian orthodoxy and New Age, power-of-positive-thinking novelty. “The Lord wants us to realize all our dreams,” he explained in an excited whisper, citing a verse of Scripture to prove it.
Seeing his uncontainable zeal, I figured the best thing to do was to let him know he was talking to a Catholic, then lay low and hear him out. That's what I did and, to his credit, Steve cooled it on the Church and just preached the Gospel According to Steve: Seek health, pursue wealth and give God the glory — what we've lately come to know as basic Prayer of Jabez stuff.
As it turned out, once we boarded our plane, I didn't see a whole lot of Steve the rest of the conference. He went his way and I went mine; as for being reluctant roomies, by the time I got in each night, he was already sacked out. It wasn't until our final morning at the hotel, while we were both packing our bags, that Steve and I had another chance to chat. He quickly brought up the “R” subject again. It was evident he'd been itching for the opportunity.
We jawed about matters of faith and Christian doctrine a bit, the task at hand providing a convenient distraction and a safe buffer zone.
That cracked quickly enough when Steve paused from his packing, folded his arms and said, “Look, I still believe everything the Catholic Church teaches.”
“Really?” I asked, feigning credulity as I recalled the wacky theology lesson I'd been treated to at the airport. “Then why'd you leave?”
Visibly perturbed, he shot me a cross look. Then he said something I'll never forget: “Because they say I can't receive the bread of Christ there.”
“The what?” I asked, thinking I might have heard wrong. “You mean Communion?”
“Right. Communion. The bread of Christ.”
“Steve, where did you hear that term — the bread of Christ — for the Eucharist?”
“What? Am I saying something wrong?”
“Actually, you are. It's not his bread. It's his body. There's a big difference.”
“Semantics,” said Steve, a familiar facial expression betraying his aggravation with a nitpicking editorial type. “The bottom line,” he added as he folded a crisp white shirt and set it in his suitcase just so, “is that the church we belong to now doesn't judge. They give all their blessings, including communion, to anyone who comes forward in faith. If you ask me, that's what Jesus would do — not what the Catholic Church does.”
Only a third of the nation's Catholics said they believed Christ is really present in the Eucharist.
Yeah, like I possessed the apologetical acumen to cut through that. And without risking opening up a major inter-departmental rift? L'impossible. It was time to shake hands, say I was sorry we saw things from a different point of view and make a mental note to pray in front of the Blessed Sacrament for Steve later.
Looking back, I suspect that, had the conversation proven an isolated incident, I would have forgotten about Steve's unintentional trope in the busy weeks that followed. What ended up burning it into my brain was its timing. For it was right around this period, the mid-'90s, that the mainstream media began splashing a survey of U.S. Catholics in print and broadcast outlets from coast to coast. Among the study's most striking findings: Only a third of the nation's Catholics said they believed Christ is really present in the Eucharist.
And, for me, a Catholic who'd returned to the Church from evangelical Protestantism a few years prior — largely because of the Eucharist — this was to become a time when those statistics would begin taking on real faces with real voices, some much closer to home than a co-worker on a business trip.
“You can't confine Jesus to a thing you can see and touch,” insisted a former Catholic in my family who now partakes of pita bread and grape juice every Sunday morning in an independent evangelical church.
“It's the faith you bring to Communion that makes it meaningful to you as an individual,” declared a Catholic neighbor.
“We are Eucharist,” proclaimed a would-be defender of the faith in an anti-Catholic discussion board on the Internet.
Where was The Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the Eucharist: Basic Questions and Answers when I needed it?
I don't know — but, thanks to the U.S. bishops, it's here now.
I'm happy to report that it was worth the wait. Cogently spelling out all the key points of the Church's teaching on the Eucharist — source and summit of the Christian life, focus and foundation of true Christian unity — the bishop's statement, released in July, is a doctrinal dynamo. Not a word is wasted, not a punch pulled.
Only the hardest of heart and the thickest of head will be able to spend the 10 to 15 minutes it takes to read these 20 pages and walk away still missing the core of the Catholic faith: The Eucharist is, was and always will be Jesus Christ. Body, blood, soul and divinity. Right here, right now. Physically. Mysteriously. Eternally. Really.
At less than $2 a copy, I think I'll order a few. They'll make great stocking-stuffers this Christmas.
Now that I think of it, better make that a couple dozen. After all, it's only a matter of time before my path converges with that of another starving soul, another Steve straining to convince himself that one blessed bread is as nourishing as the next. This booklet will fit snugly in the inside pocket of a suit jacket or with room to spare in the shirt compartment of a designer suitcase.
Suitably armed, I'm saying goodbye, corporate diplomacy and hello, charitable catechesis. In these days of famine in the midst of plenty, I'll happily hazard being labeled inter-departmentally incorrect.
Reach Features Editor
David Pearson at dpearson@ncregister.com.
To order The Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the Eucharist: Basic Questions and Answers, call the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops at (800) 235-8722 or visit www.usccb.org on the Internet.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Commentary -------- TITLE: An Aging 'Apostle' Shows How Not to Preach the Gospel DATE: 08/26/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 26 - September 1, 2001 ----- BODY:Some things improve with age. Fundamentalist pastor and controversialist Peter Ruckman is not one of them.
I debated Ruckman — now 79 and living in Pensacola, Fla. — in 1987 and have not seen him since. The debate was held at a Baptist church in Long Beach, Calif. I forget the topic, but I remember Ruckman. I particularly remember that he refused to shake my hand at the conclusion of the event. Perhaps I did better than he expected, or maybe he just was afraid of catching Catholic cooties.
I also remember one of his front-row supporters. When Ruckman was at the lectern, his backer held up a hand-lettered sign that read, “Amen, brother!” When I was at the lectern, the sign was flipped over. It then read, “Repent, sinner!” I figured right off that the fellow was not an unbiased observer.
Throughout the debate Ruckman worked the crowd as though he were giving a tent revival in the rural South of yesteryear. In his good-ol'-boy language and anti-intellectualism he was — and is — a walking stereotype. Over the years I have caught glimpses of him, usually defending himself from complaints lodged by other Fundamentalists. Even for them Ruckman is too extreme.
Among other things, he holds that the King James Version is a translation produced under a divine impulse. Any Fundamentalist who declines to use the KJV exclusively is not to be thought of as a real Christian. It is all the worse for other Protestants; Catholics, of course, are far beyond the pale.
Recently I was sent a copy of the Bible Believer's Bulletin, Ruckman's newsletter. In it he devotes a long article to excoriating my most recent book, The Usual Suspects. He begins by asserting that I have been “elected by his peers as the official voice of the Roman Catholic Church in America to act as its official ‘apologist.’” This is an honor I did not know I had received.
Perhaps Ruckman is mixing me up with someone else, just as, in the next paragraph, he confuses two saints. My book is published by Ignatius Press, but Ruckman thinks the Ignatius for whom the publisher is named was Ignatius of Antioch rather than Ignatius of Loyola. This is an odd mistake coming from someone who complains repeatedly about Jesuitical intrigues in the Catholic Church.
Among many other things, in The Usual Suspects I recount the story of Emile Zola's visit to Lourdes in 1892. The French novelist, who prided himself on his anticlericalism and atheism, was witness to one of the few miraculous cures certified by the Church. Marie Lemarchand was described by Zola as having “a case of lupus which had preyed on the unhappy woman's nose and mouth. ... The cartilage of the nose was almost eaten away, the mouth was drawn up all on one side by the swollen condition of the upper lip. The whole was a frightful distorted mass of matter and oozing blood.”
The 18-year-old was taken to the baths and came out healed, yet Zola told the director of the medical bureau, “Were I to see all of the sick at Lourdes cured, I would not believe in a miracle.” He was a fine example of blind faith in the impossibility of miracles.
Peter Ruckman has his own kind of blind faith. “I don't fool with Lourdes because I figure any dead, Jewish woman who spends 15 centuries visiting Bible-rejecting pagans while she is trying to hear and answer the prayers of 900,000,000 ‘elect’ members of the ‘Church that Christ founded’ must be a careless, heartless, publicity-seeking female.”
The argument may be different, but the result is the same: Miracles do not happen — at least to Catholics.
To say that Ruckman is a curmudgeon is to understate the matter. For some reason he has maintained a loyal following for decades, even though he has reduced his ideology to what his Protestant opponents called “Ruckmanism,” sort of a oneman religion. I am not aware of his ever having said a civil word about a Catholic or, for that matter, about any living Protestant who is not his follower. In his newsletter he calls me “stupid, illiterate, and confounded.” My book is “anti-biblical claptrap.” My thinking is “inadequate and muddled.” I am an “old, crafty, cunning, lying lawyer.” (I find this last remark a little insulting: Compared to Ruckman, I am not old.)
Peter Ruckman is nearly the last of his breed: a self-styled evangelist of the Gospel who is crude without being profane, suspicious of reason, loudmouthed even in print. It may come as no surprise to learn that his newsletter hawks a booklet defending racial segregation as biblical and that he condemns other anti-Catholic writers for being insufficiently anti-Catholic. When he goes, the Florida panhandle will have lost a character — not an attractive one, perhaps, and certainly not one who ever induced anyone toward Christianity through the use of sweetness and light, but a character nonetheless.
If nothing else, he has served, for Catholics and Protestants alike, as a good bad example.
Karl Keating is founding director of Catholic Answers in El Cajon, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Karl Keating ----- KEYWORD: Commentary -------- TITLE: Ageless in Florida: America's Oldest Parish DATE: 08/26/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 26 - September 1, 2001 ----- BODY:On Florida's east coast, the Cathedral-Basilica of St. Augustine occupies a place of honor in the heart of America's oldest city.
The church, easily recognized by its handsome Spanish Renaissance architecture, is the most striking feature in a downtown plaza that has many eye-catching sights.
What I found even more remarkable about the church is that it is home to the oldest parish in the continental United States, a parish that pre-dates the formation of its diocese by more than 300 years. Did the settlers who built it have any inkling that they would be the seeds of a parish that would still be growing and flourishing 436 years later? Struck by its beauty and vitality, I couldn't help but wonder.
The parish was founded on the same day as the city of St. Augustine itself, Sept. 8, 1565 — 55 years before the English pilgrims set foot in New England and, fittingly, on the feast of the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Led by Pedro Menendez de Aviles, the first permanent Spanish colonists to Florida stepped ashore and met one of their priests, Father Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales, who had preceded them. Their first act was to offer a Mass of thanksgiving to God on the site they called Nombre de Dios.
It's also believed that the first ordinations on what would become U.S. soil took place here when, in 1674, the bishop of Cuba made an official visit and ordained seven priests.
Another century passed before the Spanish royal engineer Mariano de la Rocque designed the church that was to form the basis for this present edifice. Foundations were laid in 1793 and the completed church was dedicated four years later on Dec. 8, 1797 — which the Church later designated as the feast of the Immaculate Conception. At the time it was reportedly the most impressive church in all of Florida and rightly became the first cathedral in the state when the Diocese of St. Augustine was formed as the state's first diocese in 1870.
Refining Fire
Not long after, on April 12, 1887, a devastating fire spread through the entire plaza. It destroyed everything but the cathedral's walls and bells. Because the walls were more than two feet thick and formed of coquina rock, a native shell-and-stone formation quarried just across the river on Anastasia Island, they stood ready to be rebuilt. (Some of the coquina came from the earlier shrine on the grounds of Nombre de Dios and possibly from the old parish church.)
Bishop John Moore, along with Henry Flagler and James Renwick, watched as the fire took its toll. Flagler, co-founder of Standard Oil and an ardent developer of the city as a winter haven, promised to help the bishop rebuild the cathedral. Renwick, the architect who had designed St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City a decade prior, volunteered to direct the restoration.
Among Renwick's most notable innovations here were a 12-foot extension of the sanctuary and the magnificent bell tower, paid for by Flagler, located to the left of the facade. These additions blended seamlessly with the original coquina walls. Despite the massive rebuilding project, the cathedral was ready for Easter services by the following April 1.
Thirteen beautiful stained-glass windows were added in 1909 by the fabled Mayer & Co. of Munich. Then, in 1965, the cathedral's second major remodeling and renovation took place; it coincided with the 400th anniversary of the parish and the city.
The historic windows are a stirring reminder of the four-plus centuries of the parish and the Catholic faith on this site. Twelve of the windows depict milestones in the life of St. Augustine, whose feast the Church celebrates this week (Aug. 28) and who became the namesake of the parish and city, thanks to the devotion to that great doctor of the Church by city founder Pedro Menendez de Aviles. The scenes include Augustine's baptism by St. Ambrose, his meeting with St. Monica (his mother, who prayed ardently for his conversion) and his composing of the rules of his order. The detailed, Old World artistry of the windows is complemented by oil paintings of the Stations of the Cross, completed in Rome.
The high, timbered ceiling, painted cardinal red, reflects the Spanish flavor of the cathedral-basilica. The brilliantly decorated crossbeams feature, in sequence, the coat-of-arms of each bishop of the Diocese of St. Augustine.
Awe-inspiring magnificence fills the sanctuary. What a heavenly background the ornamental reredos provided for the traditional First Communion procession I happened to witness there one Sunday. The gold reredos contains three carved statues. In the center, in full burnished gold leaf, stands Christ Triumphant. Jesus is accompanied by St. Peter and St. Augustine in lower niches.
Visual Catechism
The space behind and above this stunning sanctuary is filled by a high choir loft which is in sight of the entire congregation.
So rich and detailed is the cathedral's interior, it's like a visual catechism. In the light-filled Blessed Sacrament Chapel, completed during the 1965 renovation, for instance, Venetian mosaics designed by Hugo Ohlms begin with a large, detailed scene of the Last Supper. To either side, more mosaics picture the Blessed Mother and saints closely associated with the Eucharist — Clare of Assisi, Tarsicius, Thomas Aquinas, Pius X, and John Vianney.
This chapel's central stained-glass window commemorates Paul VI's encyclical Mysterium Fidei, and its image of a jet conveys the fact that pilgrims have been traveling to this parish for centuries. The hand-wrought sanctuary lamp was a gift of a Spanish sea captain in answer to a prayer for a safe harbor in a storm. He landed in St. Augustine.
Tiled murals and statues carved in Italy form the shrines of Sts. Joseph and Patrick. The latter honors scores of Irish priests and religious who served in Florida for centuries, while the former also commemorates the Sisters of St. Joseph, who have worked in the diocese since 1866 and still staff the cathedral's grammar school. The Blessed Virgin Mary's chapel, with its sublime blue and gold triptych of Mary, offers another quiet place for meditation.
In the baptistry, the wall mural of the Crucifixion, with Mary and St. John, is stunningly presented in wood of varying hues.
The cathedral-basilica's abundance of murals, done by Olms (who was head of the mural department of Rambusch Studios in New York), presents important historical milestones in the parish, along with prominent church figures and explorers; it's a veritable history lesson of the Catholic faith in the region.
Just one chapter of this visual book takes in Ponce de Leon, Hernando de Soto, St. Francis de Sales and Pope St. Pius V, who took a keen interest in the discovery of new territories and the conversion of Florida's Indians.
Near this very spot a few decades prior to the parish's founding, Ponce de Leon discovered and named “Florida” while searching for the elusive fountain of youth. He was too early to find the beautiful Cathedral-Basilica of St. Augustine — which springs anew today with the promise of eternal life.
Joseph Pronechen writes from
Trumbull, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: Cathedral-Basilica of St. Augustine, Fla. ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORD: Travel -------- TITLE: What's In a (Domain) Name? DATE: 08/26/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 26 - September 1, 2001 ----- BODY:Many of us had gotten used to dialing certain area codes in our own state and outside it. Now, we have to get used to new ones.
Why? Because, eventually, all the possible combinations for phone numbers in many area codes were used up.
A similar problem is being experienced on the Internet. All the “good” domain names have already been taken or are trademarked by somebody. This is similar to the problem on AOL, where you have to come up with a ridiculous screen name in order to make it unique from the other 30 million names already registered.
Here's an example that shows how the Domain Name System (DNS) works. When you type in the address of our Web site, monksofadoration.org, a lookup is automatically done to find its corresponding address, which is 152.160.53.219.
Behind the scenes is something similar to the phone book that lists domain names and their corresponding address. The DNS was introduced in 1985 with seven generic domain extensions — including .com for commercial organizations, .net for network providers, .org for not-for profit organizations and .mil for the military.
In addition, there were two-letter domain extensions, such as .jp (Japan), .uk (United Kingdom), and .fr (France), to identify geographical locations. One of the goals of these original extensions was to make the Internet more navigable by separating addresses into categories based on the registering organization or individual.
In 1998 a nonprofit corporation was set up called the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to decide DNS policy.
On Nov. 16, 2000, ICANN approved seven new generic domain extensions for use on the Internet. They are: .biz, .info, .name, .pro, .aero, .coop and .museum. They are expected to be available for use by the end of 2001 and will not be released all at once. It is the first major expansion of the domain space ever undertaken. Let's look at what these new extensions mean.
Dot-biz sites will specifically target commercial organizations by requiring registrants to certify they will use the site for “legitimate commercial use.” This makes it a little more stringent than the dotcom extension already being used.
Dot-info sites will provide general information and are intended for both companies and individuals.
Dot-name sites allow individuals to have personal Web addresses. An example would be “john.smith.name”. Only two names are allowed before the .name ending. A British company will be registering these type of domain names.
Dot-pro is intended for use exclusively by lawyers, doctors and accountants. An example could be “johnsmith.law.pro”. Like .name above, only two names are allowed before the .pro ending. To register proof of professional credentials will be required.
Dot-aero sites are reserved for “legitimate members of the air transport industry and civil aviation sector,” which includes airlines, airports and related industries. An example for JFK airport in New York could be “arrivals.jfk.aero”. An international telecommunications society headquartered in France will be overseeing the use of this extension.
Dot-coop sites are reserved for “business cooperatives,” such as credit unions and rural electric cooperatives. Initially, .coops must be members of the National Cooperative Business Association.
Dot-museum is intended as a sign of authenticity to assure users that sources of information about cultural and scientific heritage are verifiable. The Museum Domain Management Association, a nonprofit trade association founded by the International Council of Museums and the J. Paul Getty Trust, will manage this extension.
Although policies may change, the existing proposals call for these new domain names to be registered on a first-come, first-served basis, with a kickoff period during which accumulated registration requests will be processed in random order.
This will be done to ensure no registrant or registrar has an unfair advantage. If you are thinking of registering for one of these new extensions, be sure to read more about it at newdomains.networksolutions.com/gtld/tm_landingpage.jsp.
Not everybody agrees with ICANN's system of deploying new extensions. New.net has already introduced 30 new domain name extensions! How? They have developed proprietary technology that allows their domain-naming system to exist alongside the traditional naming systems currently in use on the Internet. Right now, almost 54 million Internet users have access to these new domains either through their Internet service provider or special software one can download from New.net. They have already partnered with some providers, such as EarthLink, @Home and Prodigy. New.net is a commercial entity seeking to promote a collection of domain names unilaterally established without participating in the Internet community's ICANN consensus process.
How might this affect you? Widespread acceptance of New.net's system will cause domain-name conflicts. This would be comparable to dialing a telephone number correctly and sometimes reaching one person and sometimes another. This would seriously undermine confidence in the reliability of the Internet to users and potential users around the world. For more information, go to ICANN's web site at icann.com and select “A Unique, Authoritative Root for the DNS.”
Brother John Raymond, co-founder of the Monks of Adoration, writes from Venice, Florida.
----- EXCERPT: Coming soon to a computer near you: extension choices galore ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brother John Raymond ----- KEYWORD: Arts & Culture -------- TITLE: Monthly Web Picks DATE: 08/26/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 26 - September 1, 2001 ----- BODY:With this month's picks we'll concentrate on youth (but adults can look at them too!).
thehands.org/Philomena.htm
Philomena: A Place to Be a Girl & Be With God at was started by Jean-Ann Hand who, with her husband Joe, is known for originally composed Catholic music (including “I Want to Live My Life On the Rock,” theme song of Jeff Cavins' popular EWTN show). Besides an online ezine, the site also offers girls a membership in Club Philomena, which offers scheduled chat meetings, contests and other fun stuff.
Pope John Paul II's message archive for World Youth Day at vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/ messages/youth/index.htm is always worth looking into.
LifeTeen at lifeteen.org challenges high school teen-agers to ‘Get a Life ... in Christ!’
Real Faith TV at realfaithtv.com is put together by youth and adults from the Diocese of Trenton, N.J. Their goal is to reach out to teens who are looking for answers to many of the issues they face in today's world, and help them to deal with difficult issues through a Catholic faith perspective. See their TV shows online, ask a priest a question or read reflections by teens.
“Life on the Rock” with Jeff Cavins at ewtn.com/rock/index.-htm is another TV show for youth. Here you can watch a show live, see past shows and start a youth group.
For other youth sites, see monksofadoration.org/youth.html.
To order Catholics on the Internet: 2000-2001 by Brother
John Raymond, call Prima Publishing at (800) 632-8676.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brother John Raymond ----- KEYWORD: Arts & Culture -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 08/26/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 26 - September 1, 2001 ----- BODY:Emma (1996,1997)
One of the surprising counter-cultural trends of the past decade has been the number of movie and TV productions of Jane Austen's novels (Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Clueless, etc.).
Austen's carefully constructed morality plays have neither the overt sexuality nor the emotional excesses that characterize most contemporary pop-culture romantic stories.
Her ironic portrait of early 19th-century English society encourages modesty, reason, psychological balance and a kind, forgiving heart.
Emma has been the subject of both a highly praised feature film starring Gwyneth Paltrow and an A&E cable-TV minis-eries. The longer version is more faithful to the original, with skillfully drawn characters and fully developed subplots.
Emma (Kate Beckinsale) is a young, wealthy busybody who fancies herself a matchmaker, but some bad choices maker her question her judgments. She is also surprised to discover that a man (Mark Strong) whom she had previously considered just a friend may prove to be a suitable lifetime partner.
All Creatures Great and Small (1974)
Country living has its virtues, and they're often are ignored in the hurly-burly of present-day life. All Creatures Great and Small, based on James Herriot's autobiographical novels, is set in England's picturesque Yorkshire farming country at the beginning of the last century. Herriot (Simon Ward) is a young veterinarian just out of college who joins the established practice of the Farnon brothers. He must learn to cope with the demanding, dedicated Siegfried (Sir Anthony Hopkins) and his irresponsible younger sibling Tristan (Brian Stirner).
British director Claude Whatham and screenwriter Hugh Whitmore use droll humor and an eye for period detail to tie together Herriot's varied adventures. The tone is set in the very first scene when the young vet, just down from London in his perfectly pressed suit, must follow Siegfried into the stables to treat a messy horse injury. But the filmmakers pause long enough to present Herriot's courtship of the lovely Helen (Lisa Harrow) whom he eventually marries.
Champagne for Caesar (1950)
Quiz shows and other audience-participation contests are once again grabbing top TV ratings. This film directed by Richard Whorf and written by Hans Jacoby and Fred Brady, is a deft satire on the subject that still has relevance. Beau-r e g a r d B o t t o m l e y (Ronald Colman) is an “independent scholar” who can't find a steady job.
A confirmed bachelor, he lives in Los Angeles with his sister (Barbara Britton) and a parrot named Caesar.
After an unpleasant employment interview with Milady Soap, he decides to get even by becoming a contestant on the “Masquerade for Money” radio quiz show, which is sponsored by the company.
Bottomley wins big money on every program and becomes a national celebrity, so popular the producers don't dare kick him off the air. Milady's president, Birnbridge Waters (Vincent Price), hires a female spy (Celeste Holm) to uncover Bottomley's weaknesses, but she falls in love with the contestant. The show's host (Art Linkletter) also has designs on Bottomley's sister.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Arts & Culture -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 08/26/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 26 - September 1, 2001 ----- BODY:All times Eastern
SUNDAY, AUG. 26
The Mighty Mississippi
Biography, 9 p.m.
This informative series on America's greatest river follows an 8 p.m. show on an author forever linked with the Mississippi, Mark Twain: His Amazing Adventures. At 9 p.m., Born of the Ice Age studies the river's formation. At 10 p.m., Steamboat‘s A-Comin’! pictures the Mississippi's colorful riverboat heyday of the 1850's. At 11 p.m., War Along the River describes both sides' military use of the river in the U.S. Civil War.
MONDAY, AUG. 27
Bullied to Death
A & E, 10 p.m.
In this back-to-school “Investigative Report,” Bill Kurtis examines how and why many children become schoolyard and neighborhood bullies who terrorize other children and inflict lifelong psychological (and physical) scars on them. He also explores the urgent need for parents and teachers to recognize bullying, intervene and put an end to it.
TUESDAY, AUG. 28
Nuclear Subs
History Channel, 10 p.m.
This world premiere “Modern Marvels” show reveals the latest data on the capabilities of the giant U.S. nuclear submarines that patrol the seas to gather intelligence and to deter attacks on our country.
WEDNESDAY, AUG. 29
“Little Women” from Houston Grand Opera
PBS, 8 p.m.
The Houston Grand Opera stages U.S. composer Mark Adamo's opera based on Louisa May Alcott's beloved 19th-century novel. Patrick Summers conducts and mezzo-sopranos Stephanie Novacek and Joyce DiDonato lead the cast in this operatic story of the family life of four sisters in New England in the Civil War era.
THURSDAY, AUG. 30
Holocaust: The Untold Story
History Channel; check listings
This “History Undercover” program notes that, in World War II, the mainstream U.S. press tended to either dismiss reports that leaked out of Europe about the Holocaust, or to consign them to the back pages. The show asks whether U.S. newspapers could have saved lives in Europe by pursuing the reports and making the story a major one.
FRIDAY, AUG. 31
Religion & Ethics Newsweekly
PBS; check local listings
In this interview by Bob Abernethy, J. Michael Fay calls his conservation efforts in the jungles of Gabon and the Congo “his religion.” Catholic viewers will find that notion inadequate but will gain insight into how some conservationists and environmentalists think.
SATURDAY, SEP. 1
Soldiers of the Pope: The Story of the Swiss Guard EWTN, 8 p.m.
This exciting premiere documentary goes inside the Vatican to offer an exclusive look at the daily life of the Swiss Guards and to examine their rich history and traditions. To be rebroadcast Wednesday, Sept. 5, at 1 p.m. and Thursday, Sept. 6., at 3 a.m. and 10 p.m.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dan Engler ----- KEYWORD: Arts & Culture -------- TITLE: Prodigals Who Breached the Point of No Return DATE: 08/26/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 26 - September 1, 2001 ----- BODY:Welcome Home! Stories of Fallen-Away Catholics Who Came Back Edited by Victor R. Claveau Ignatius Press, 2000 318 pages, $14.95
Reading about a conversion to the Catholic faith can be like following the story-line of the Odyssey: You know that the hero finally makes it to Ithaca, but you can't predict what obstacles he'll meet or how he'll overcome them.
Welcome Home! is an anthology of first-person accounts written not by converts, but by “reverts” — Catholics who left the Church but eventually found their way back. It's as though the Iliad has been included for good measure, except that instead of the battles fought over Helen of Troy, we read about the adventures of participants in the recent “culture wars.”
Nothing is as dramatic as real life, especially when God plays a major role. The stories in this volume can get complicated, but they are consistently well-told and revealing. The editor, Victor R. Claveau, took as the anthology's title the words spoken to him by the priest who heard his confession when he was reconciled with the Church. Having “been there” and come back, Claveau was able to help the other 10 contributors write autobiographical essays that are testimonies to their rediscovered faith.
The reader meets a few “celebrities” on these pages — notably Father John Corapi, the dynamic preacher of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity. Most of the contributors, however, are just ordinary Catholics who developed above-average apologetics skills by grappling with questions about the faith.
Typically, a person raised Catholic does not so much break with the Church as drift away. One woman writes, “Actually, I would have to describe our exit as a fading out. If our participation in, and love of, the Church was a bright color photograph in 1967 when we married, by 1977 it had faded to a frayed brown and beige print.”
The stories illustrate a wide range of problems that Catholics have with the Catholic faith. In a few instances, the sins of parents were visited upon their children (such situations are handled with suitable restraint). The sorry state of recent Catholic catechesis is very much in evidence, though the glimpses that we get of contemporary secular education and the social work establishment are even more appalling.
Alcohol abuse, birth control, marital strife, and workaholism make their appearances, but often it is hard to say whether they are causes or merely symptoms of a loss of faith. It becomes almost a refrain: “For [my wife] and me, being Catholic was something we had been born into, but neither of us had really made the Faith our own.”
Again and again we watch uncommitted, uninstructed Catholics fall for Protestant arguments and fellowship and then develop an animus against the Catholic Church. When Jesse Romero began immersing himself in fundamentalist literature, his wife challenged him: “‘Before you run off to some other church or, worse yet, start your own, why don't you study Catholicism from Catholic sources?’” Romero reconsidered: “Being a deputy sheriff, I saw great validity to her argument. Hearsay testimony is inadmissible in a court of law, and all of my anti-Catholic biases were hearsay.”
Though they all arrived at the same destination, God got through to the reverts in many different ways. Some of them discovered the truths of the Catholic faith by reading encyclicals and Church history; others through Cursillo and Marriage Encounter, apologetics conferences, EWTN programs and audio tapes.
The stories in Welcome Home! bring many Gospel passages to life. The misadventures of these former-former Catholics demonstrate that it is safer to “enter by the narrow gate,” yet their homecoming proves that the door to our Father's house is always wide open.
Michael J. Miller writes from Glenside, Pennsylvania.
----- EXCERPT: Weekly Book Pick ----- EXTENDED BODY: Michael J. Miller ----- KEYWORD: Education -------- TITLE: How Tears Made a Saint DATE: 08/26/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 26 - September 1, 2001 ----- BODY:Catholics who take any interest in the lives of the saints are familiar with St. Augustine, one of the greatest doctors of the Church, whose writings have had such a profound effect on Christian philosophy.
His prayer, “You have made us for yourself, O God, and our hearts are restless till they rest in you,” has moved many a convert. And those who struggle with sins of the flesh have been heartened by Augustine's humble admission that he had often prayed “Lord, make me chaste — but not yet!” If Augustine eventually won through to holiness, they reason, anyone can.
St. Augustine's feast day is Aug. 28. And on its eve the Church remembers his mother, St. Monica. There is no doubt that without the prayers of Monica, we would have had no St. Augustine to enrich the Church with his holiness and intellect. Her story will resonate with many Catholic mothers today. It needs to be told.
Monica, a fourth-century Christian of North Africa, was married to a nonbeliever, and doing her best to bring up her three children in the faith. At that time and locale, baptism was often put off into adulthood. This was due to an attitude of exaggerated horror of falling into sin after receiving the sacrament. It was thought better to wait until maturity had steadied the passions somewhat.
Nothing Monica said to Augustine seemed to have any effect.
So, although Augustine and his siblings were instructed in the faith from early childhood, they didn't have the advantage of sacramental grace to sustain them. It certainly showed in Augustine. Although a good student, he was a juvenile delinquent from early adolescence. Monica wept and prayed. Nothing she said to Augustine seemed to have any effect.
Augustine went away to Carthage for advanced schooling at the age of17. Although first in his class, he was also prominent as a leader of a gangs of young vandals that caused mayhem each night in the city. Later, he began living with a girlfriend and had a child. Monica wept and prayed.
Eventually Augustine became a successful teacher of rhetoric, and in addition, seemed to be taking life a little more seriously, devoting his spare time to the study of philosophy. Monica, now a widow who followed after her son whenever he changed his city of residence, might have been somewhat encouraged.
But then Augustine settled on the dualistic Manichean heresy as his chosen religion.
With the strict dichotomy it drew between flesh and spirit — almost as if each man is two separate beings — Augustine convinced himself that sexual immorality could peacefully coexist with one's higher, spiritual nature. Monica wept and prayed. “The son of so many tears could not perish,” a spiritual advisor told her.
Tears Turn to Joy
Monica's prayers seemed on the verge of being answered when Augustine was 28. He discovered the philosophy of Plato, whose teachings gave him a truer idea of God than that held by the Manichees. And soon he was seeing connections that led inexorably to the Gospel of Christ.
He broke up with his live-in lover, keeping custody of his son. Monica was sure he would enter the Church and make a decent marriage. But it didn't happen. Convinced intellectually of the truth of the Catholic faith, Augustine was simply unwilling to practice chastity. Now his relations with women were even more casual and uncommitted. Monica wept and prayed.
It took four more years before Augustine's conversion was complete. Shortly after his baptism, Monica died, completely content that she had fulfilled her purpose in life. One might say she gave birth to Augustine twice: once to a son, and again, with spiritual labor pains, to one of the greatest saints of all time.
Daria Sockey writes from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Daria Sockey ----- KEYWORD: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: The Society of St. Monica DATE: 08/26/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 26 - September 1, 2001 ----- BODY:The Society of St. Monica was founded in the 1980s by Father Dennis McNeil, who today is pastor of St. Robert Bellarmine Church in Euclid, Ohio.
He calls it “an organization with no meetings or dues.” Its purpose is to pray for the return of fallen away Catholics to the practice of their faith. It's secondary aim is to provide support and sometimes fellowship for Catholics whose loved ones have wandered away from the Church.
The requirements for membership are simple: to recite daily the society's prayer for fallen away Catholics, and to remember at Mass society members around the world four times a year — on the last Sundays of March, June, September and December.
The Society of St. Monica has adherents in every state and in many other countries as well. In some areas, independent parish chapters have formed, and these meet for prayer and fellowship.
Connie Limtiaco has run a St. Monica group in St. Edward's parish in Newark, Calif., for nine years. One of her adult children had left the Catholic Church for a Protestant sect.
Her son has not yet returned, but, “I believe God works in mysterious ways. Maybe he's using my situation so that so many others are now being prayed for. Other people in our group have gotten their children or relatives back through praying to St. Monica. I just have to keep praying and never give up, just like she did.
Prayer of the Society of St. Monica
Eternal and merciful Father, I give you thanks for the gift of your divine Son Who suffered, died, and rose for all mankind. I thank you also for my Catholic faith, and ask your help that I may grow in fidelity by prayer, by works of charity, and penance, by reflection on Your word, and by regular participation in the Sacraments of Penance and the Holy Eucharist.
You gave St. Monica a spirit of selfless love manifested in her constant prayer for the conversion of her son, Augustine. Inspired by boundless confidence in Your power to move hearts, and by the success of her prayer, I ask the grace to imitate her constancy in my prayer for (N.), who no longer shares in the life of Your Catholic family. Grant that through my prayer and witness (he/she/they) may be open to the promptings of Your Holy Spirit to return to loving union with Your people. Grant also that my prayer be ever hopeful and that I may never judge another, for You alone can read hearts.
I ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Spotless Playroom Floor DATE: 08/26/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 26 - September 1, 2001 ----- BODY:Q Getting our small children to pick up their toys is a daily sore spot in our house. No matter what I say, they won't do it. Am I making a mountain out of a molehill?
A Anything that's a daily sore spot may not merit mountain status, but it's more than a molehill. Indeed, toy litter is a hot spot between parents and preschoolers.
Toys are among a child's first possessions. So they offer a natural means to teach responsibility. Unfortunately, responsibility is not something that comes naturally to humans. Like most admirable qualities, it has to be learned.
Children generally force themselves to learn about responsibility the hard way — through consequences — rather then the easy way — through words. In a way, that's good. Consequences teach them respect for their possessions, and ours, more quickly and durably than do all the words we can muster.
How might you rid your house of toy clutter — well, at least 75% of it?
The only way to ever reach 100% is to have no children living with you. But if that isn't possible, here are some ideas for a near litter-free environment:
1. Get the kids a toy box or something similar where toys not in use belong — a shelf, closet, dump truck. Then get yourself a similar receptacle. Every toy you have to pick up goes into your stash and is off-limits for a week.
This little rule will drastically reduce nagging (“Morris, how many times do I have to tell you ...”), begging (“Please, Morris, just once for my sake gather up your debris ...”), or threatening (“If I pick up one more toy, Morris, you won't have anything new to play with until your kids have toys.”). Let your stash do your talking.
2. For older kids or younger, stubborn ones, you can add meat to your rule by requiring payment of a small fee to purchase the toy back. For example, Mario not only lost his bike for a week because he raced it through the flowerbeds again, he also owes you a quarter to get back riding privileges.
With teens you can use this fine approach every time you pick up their clothes. After about four days, the average adolescent is either penniless or wearing a sackcloth.
3. Off-limits periods work better when kept short — a few days or a week. By giving Barbie her doll back before the turn of the century, you give her the opportunity to try and try again.
If you permanently trash every toy you've picked up more than 90 times, you may never face toy litter again, but you've also thrown away the chance to teach Barbie how to care for her possessions.
4. Once your rules go into effect, be prepared for the “I don't care” reaction, conveyed through words or through that familiar mouth wrinkle/shoulder shrug. Ignore it.
If Elvis didn't care about losing his ukulele for a week, why would he bother to play with it in the first place?
Persevere. Eventually he will care. Even Elvis will get tired of playing with rocks, sticks and mudballs.
Dr. Ray Guarendi is a clinical psychologist and author.
Reach Family Matters at familymatters@ncregister.com
----- EXCERPT: Family Matters ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dr. Ray Guarendi ----- KEYWORD: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Growth in Charity DATE: 08/26/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 26 - September 1, 2001 ----- BODY:THE NUMBER OF tax-exempt organizations in the United States — charitable, religious, educational, scientific and literary — grew 74% from 1987 to 1998. The number of volunteers for all charitable, social welfare and religious organizations (some not tax-exempt) rose from 93 million in 1995 to 109 million in 1998.
Number of tax-exempt organizations
Source: Rasmussen Research/Portrait of America, cited by Prolife Infonet, July 24
----- EXCERPT: Facts of Life ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: LIFE N NOTES DATE: 08/26/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: August 26 - September 1, 2001 ----- BODY:Surrogate Mom Sues
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Aug. 11 — In a case that underlines the importance of Catholic teaching against in vitro fertilization, a British surrogate mother has sued a California couple, saying they broke their contract by pulling out of the pregnancy deal after she refused to abort one of her twin unborn children.
Helen Beasley, who is 25 weeks pregnant, said an abortion would be too risky. But that has left the 26-year-old secretary bearing children she has no legal right to and that she says she cannot afford to care for.
Europeans Want Clone Ban
CYBERCAST NEWS SERVICE, Aug. 9 — Two European countries have asked the United Nations to negotiate an international treaty banning human cloning.
Two months ago, Germany and France said they would like to see a global ban. Now French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Velaro has asked that a General Assembly session, scheduled to begin next month, start work on a universal treaty outlawing human cloning. “This is a question with repercussions for all of humanity,” Velaro is quoted saying. “The U.N. is thus the appropriate forum.”
“In a certain sense, Hitler was ahead of his time as far as some modern developments are concerned,” Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of the Vatican was quoted saying. “It's terrifying to think that the powers that fought to defeat Nazism in the first half of the previous century are today choosing inhuman and questionable practices in the scientific area.”
Sikh Priests Organize Campaign
REUTERS, Aug. 11 — The news service reported that Sikh priests are trying to stop the common practice in India of aborting girl babies in the womb. Some 250 priests gathered at a Sikh shrine in Fatehgarh Sahib in Punjab to draw attention to sex-selection abortions.
“We will use the services of priests ... to take the message against female feticide to the grassroots,” Manjit Singh, the religious head of Anandpur Sahib temple, was quoted saying. Reuters said the Indian Medical Association estimates that about 5 million girls are aborted each year because they are the “wrong sex.”
Ms. Magazine vs. Pro-lifers
ELLIOT INSTITUTE, Aug. 10 — In Ms. magazine's August issue, author Cynthia L. Cooper accuses Christian-based post-abortion counseling groups, and specifically Elliot Institute director Dr. David C. Reardon, of “exploiting” women who have had abortions.
The Eliot Institue responded by saying: “Although Cooper interviewed a number of pro-choice activists for her article, she never bothered to call the central target of her attack, Dr. Reardon.” Reardon said the thesis of the article — that pro-lifers of cynically using women's pain solely to advance their own “anti-choice” agenda against women” — doesn't ring true for today's crisis-pregnancy centers.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Culture of Life ----------- TITLE: Bush Ponders Amnesty for Undocumented Immigrants DATE: 09/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 02-08, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — In a renovated Catholic school in downtown Washington, D.C., dozens of immigrants, almost all of them Hispanic, huddle into a small classroom to learn English.
Perhaps under fear of persecution, most of the immigrants who spoke to the Register claimed that they had student visas. However, the staff refuses to ask if the people have entered the country illegally, and one teacher confessed that “at least 80% are undocumented.”
“Julio,” a Paraguayan working in retail sales, said that better job opportunities enticed him to the United States. “I love this country,” he explained. “I was just working in a market [in Paraguay].”
His friend “Margarita” also left Paraguay recently, but with a different status. “My dad lives here,” she said. “My dad's brother lived [in the United States] for 27 years.” It took her father more than 10 years to get to U.S. citizenship, but it became much easier for her because the laws have changed in recent years. “I just got my green card,” she said, smiling.
Across town from the classroom, national lawmakers have begun a public debate over amnesty, which would allow undocumented immigrants like Julio to eventually gain U.S. citizenship on the same footing as those, such as Margarita, who obtained legal status before their arrival. The Bush administration has been studying the issue closely and is expected to announce a formal proposal soon.
A prosperous economy over the last eight years has evaporated the more vehement anti-immigration sentiment found in 1992, when the United States was pulling out of a recession and presidential candidate Pat Buchanan advocated building a wall over the U.S.-Mexican border.
Opponents of the current amnesty proposal acknowledge the impracticality of sending the estimated 5 million undocumented immigrants back to their home countries, but they worry that more will arrive if an amnesty is issued.
“It sends a message that we are not serious about enforcing our immigration laws,” Jack Martin, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, told the Register.
He asserts that an amnesty passed by Congress in 1986 proved to be a failure.
“The amnesty of 1986 led to an atmosphere in which we saw an increase in illegal immigration, not a decrease,” Martin said.
Bishops' Viewpoint
Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Camden, N.J., who is the U.S. bishops' point man on immigration, disputes Martin's claims. The issue is of particular concern to the Church hierarchy, as the majority of Hispanic immigrants are Catholic.
“The circumstances have changed,” said Bishop DiMarzio. Over the last eight years, the demand for workers has surged, he noted. That means that the Immigration and Naturalization Service “looks the other way” and refuses to prosecute undocumented immigrants, he said.
But now, having entered with the tacit approval of federal officials, undocumented immigrants are vulnerable to abuse, Bishop DiMarzio said.
“Are we just going to look the other way for all these people? Are we the kind of country that doesn't have labor protection for 5 to 6 million people? I hope not,” he said.
Martin said that he “respectfully disagrees” with the U.S. bishops, who support an amnesty.
“It's perfectly understandable that the bishops favor amnesty. They are approaching this from a universalist perspective because the Church is a universalist institution,” Martin said. “Nevertheless, we think national leaders should look at this from a national perspective.”
What Will Bush Do?
President Bush initially floated a general amnesty proposal, though it was unclear if it would cover all undocumented immigrants or only those from Mexico. The former Texas governor, who speaks Spanish, has made a concerted effort to improve U.S.-Mexico relations and enjoys a warm personal relationship with Mexico's new president, Vicente Fox.
The two men will discuss the proposals to regularize the status of at least a portion of the undocumented Mexicans in the United States during Fox's state visit to Washington Sept. 5-7. In a telephone conversation last week, they agreed the United States needs a new system for accommodating the immigrants in a “safer, more legal and humane manner,” the Toronto Star reported.
But it seems clear that the Bush administration would prefer a guest-worker program or a limited amnesty that applies only to Mexicans, rather than a general amnesty for undocumented immigrants.
At an Aug. 23 press conference at his Texas ranch, Bush said that there would be no “blanket amnesty,” the Los Angeles Times reported. The new immigration initiative will not shortchange those “who have been waiting in line legally.”
“The rationale behind limited amnesty is pretty simple: Giving permanent legal status to some Hispanics shows that Bush isn't one of those ‘Pete Wilson Republicans’ [who are opposed to immigrants] and that the president is on their side,” syndicated columnist Stuart Rothenberg wrote in a recent column.
Conservatives in Congress are divided. U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., favors limited amnesty. “Ultimately, on the amnesty question, all roads lead to citizenship, though it might be delayed,” he told the Washington Times.
U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, instead favors a guest-worker program, which would extend temporary legal status and protections to undocumented workers now in the country but would deny them more permanent status.
“It's bad policy to say, ‘If you violate the law, we're going to reward you,’” Gramm said. A guest-worker program would be different, he said. “If they come forward and have not been convicted of a felony, they will be guaranteed to a one-year work permit subject to a renewal at least twice.”
But Martin worries that a guest-worker program might force many low-skilled and poorly educated American citizens out of the work-force and onto welfare. And he predicts most guest workers would never leave.
“The history of immigration works in this country is that once people go on the way to legal permanent residence, the pressure builds to grant them amnesty,” Martin said. “That seems to be where it's heading downstream.”
In fact, Bishop DiMarzio stressed that the opportunity to remain permanently would have to be available eventually for undocumented immigrants if the bishops were to support any guest-worker program.
“If it's temporary status and they can work for permanent status, that would be a possible solution,” he said. But he said the bishops would oppose any program that would invite immigrants into the United States. only when extra labor was needed and return them back to their countries when unemployment or an economic downturn returned.
“You can't use people. You can't turn your backs on them,” Bishop DiMarzio said. “That's not worthy of our society.”
Joshua Mercer writes
from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: The Decline of Dating DATE: 09/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 02-08, 2001 ----- BODY:NEW YORK — Guy meets girl on a modern campus. He's attracted, she seems to be. What should he do? Work up the courage to ask her for her number? Ask her out to dinner? Send flowers, perhaps?
Or just have another guy in his dorm say at a party, “Hey, he really wants to hook up with you. He thinks you're cute. You should go to his room.”
The latter strategy is actually a common one on modern college campuses, according to a grim study released last month by the Independent Women's Forum called “Hooking Up, Hanging Out and Hoping for Mr. Right: College Women on Mating and Dating Today.”
Courtship is dead and romance is mortally wounded, the research suggests. The findings were based on a poll of 1,000 campus women and in-depth interviews with 62 women attending 11 of the more elite colleges in the nation. Modern love relationships at American universities commonly consist of “hookups” — the new slang for casual sexual encounters with no promise of anything further.
In the national survey, 40% of women said they had experienced a hookup — a deliberately vague term defined as kissing, sex, and everything in between. One in 10 had hooked up more than six times. Often they were drunk; frequently the hookups took place in co-ed college dorms.
“Dating and mating has always been very murky, but there's less clarity now,” said Elizabeth Marquardt, an associate scholar with the Institute for American Values who helped Texas sociology professor Norval Glenn collect the data. “There are no socially prescribed conventions.”
It's not just that the rules have changed since the days of gentlemen callers. There are no rules of engagement in modern relationships. The result, said Marquardt, is “a lot of confusion and ambiguity.”
Still, a majority of college women are crystal clear about what they want: a gold band.
Notwithstanding its lackluster media image and the damage to marriage inflicted by the sexual revolution, 83% of the modern college women polled said marriage was a major “life goal”; 63% said they'd like to meet their husband in college.
Also, only a minority of college students hook up frequently, and it is easy to find students who don't like the idea of hooking up at all. Twenty-year-old Washington State University student Megan Kennedy said, “Respectable girls just won't go out and do that.”
Three freshmen recruited from California to the University of Portland volleyball team grimaced as they heard the study results. They have heard of hooking up in high school. Usually it happened at parties, when students were drunk.
“If a guy expects that, that's not really the sort of guy you want,” said 18-year-old Laura Pappas.
Monique Kettler, 18, was more blunt: “Sorry, dude.”
Perhaps it is this attitude that accounts for another study finding: 39% the college women polled said they were virgins, including one third (31%) of senior women. Some of the women in the study clearly grasped the connection between their present relationships and future marriage. “It is strange but I feel like I have a commitment to whoever I will end up with,” a young woman from the University of Michigan said. “So a lot of my time right now is kind of laying the groundwork for what I hope will be a healthy situation later on. A lot of people are, like, … ‘Why do you not just hook up with anyone?’
“[I]t is because of the future.”
The Walk of Shame
For those who are hooking up, however, the future in love is uncertain. The campus social scene is hardly designed to help them meet the goal of life-lasting love.
Not surprisingly, women reported they often felt “awkward” and confused after hooking up. (They call it the “walk of shame” when they have to return to their own room the next morning wearing the previous night's clothes.) And many women admitted to hooking up with hopes it would lead to something more.
“A lot of people seem to cope with [hooking up] real well, but for me when it happens, it means a lot,” a New York University student said. “I mean the next day I'm thinking about him. I go, what does this mean? It's crazy.”
A significant number of respondents (12%) in the study agreed with the statement, “Sometimes it is easier to have sex with a guy than to talk to him.” A student at Colby College student explained, “Sex and hooking up are not necessarily tied to as many emotions as talking face to face with someone.”
A whole new lexicon surrounds the hook-up culture. “Friends with benefits” is a term used to describe couples who hook up repeatedly. “Like I know this girl,” said a New York University student, “there's this guy on my floor and she lives upstairs and they'll just call each other at random times” for encounters.
“The talk” is the term used for the conversation that women usually initiate, asking a man if repeated hookups mean anything. “When she asks, he decides,” the study found.
Apart from the risk of rejection, there are unprecedented statistical odds working against women: There are 100 women for every 79 men on campus, nationally, which gives the males a sort of shopping advantage.
Anecdotal evidence backs the study's findings. The Internet is rife with student articles offering advice on hooking up. Last year, students at Brigham Young University — a Mormon school with a conservative reputation — launched a Web site to facilitate “non-committal make-outs” between total strangers. And women's magazines on campuses offer titles such as “One-Night Stands That Worked” and “How to Make A Player Propose” suggesting casual sex can get women what they want. The current issue of Cosmopolitan magazine offers a “Hook-Him Handbook” including advice to postpone having sex for “at least several dates” but gives the example of a woman who breaks the rule “just to tide him over.”
Hitched at the Hip
Hookups do not appear to help young people form and sustain mature relationships, concluded the study, adding that, although only a minority of students hook up, it tends to “lessen the overall quality of college mating for everybody.”
The flip-side relationship of hooking up, for example, is being “hitched at the hip” — a couple that spends virtually every waking and sleeping hour together.
“There really is not much dating,” a University of California-Berkeley student told the researchers, “people either just start hanging out together and live together and they are boyfriend and girlfriend. Or, they just like do random hookups.”
Agreed a Yale University student, “There's a saying here that people are, like, ‘altar bound or messing around.’”
These options leave women looking for a more traditional, less fast-paced approach frustrated. “In the past, no one had to take one whole big risk at once,” said Marquardt. “It wasn't like you invested your whole physical and spiritual being” in an attempted romance.
In their report, Marquardt and Glenn criticized adults' failure to help young people make wise dating decisions. Marriage is a crucial life decision, it is of vital importance to the stability of society and children, and it remains a goal of young women yet, “nobody talks about marriage,” said Marquardt, “except to say, ‘Don't marry too young.’”
The solution, said the researchers, is to create new “socially prescribed rules and norms … that can guide young people … and support toward the marriages they seek.”
The study also criticized coed dorms. “In the dorms I think [hooking up] was huge,” a Rutgers University junior told the researchers, “it was so easy to come back to your dorm, and everyone's there at 2 or 3 in the morning … everyone's intoxicated.”
Michael J. McManus, writing in the Washington Times, agreed that coed dorms are a problem. When Boston University had the courage to change the rules in 1989, he noted, it declared an end to people of the opposite sex spending the night in dorm rooms to cut down on sex, student conflicts, vandalism and loss of privacy for students.
The problems improved immediately and while initially, the number of college applications fell from 23,877 before the policy was announced to 19,644 for 5,000 slots, in 2001 there were 28,221 applications. As well, their average SAT scores rose from 1263 to 1283.
Real Love Production's Mary Beth Bonacci, a teacher of chastity education, says another cure to the hookup culture is to “to teach [youth] about the meaning, the sacredness, and the dignity of human sexuality.”
In her 15 years of work, she said, high school students have been very receptive to the message that sexual encounters can never be casual, that sex outside of the context of the stability and love of marriage can scar your heart. “I meet kids all the time [who have been having casual sex], who say, ‘You know, I am just not capable of feeling love anymore.’”
Bonacci said that “lost kids” may be worse off than ever in the current culture, but also, where the chastity message is taught, she finds that “kids listen,” and that message has been spreading for a decade.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that chaste people aren't just better off morally — they're happier.
States the catechism, “The alternative is clear: either man governs his passions and finds peace, or he lets himself be dominated by them and becomes unhappy.
“Man's dignity therefore requires him to act out of conscious and free choice, as moved and drawn in a personal way from within, and not by blind impulses in himself or by mere external constraint” (No. 2339).
Celeste McGovern writes
from Portland, Oregon.
----- EXCERPT: Has 'Hooking Up'replaced Courtship on Campus? ----- EXTENDED BODY: Celeste McGovern ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Why Sexuality Is Too Good to Waste DATE: 09/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 02-08, 2001 ----- BODY:This “Open Letter to a Disgruntled Reader” by Mary Beth Bonacci was written in April. It and other examples of her work with Real Love Productions are on the Internet at www.reallove.net.
Why on earth am I, as a single woman, so enthused about the subject of sexuality? Why have I essentially given my life to helping people understand God's plan for human sexuality, when I have no direct experience with the expression of that plan?
First of all, it's beautiful. So beautiful that is simply must be shared. When I first read John Paul II's Theology of the Body, I was flat-out overwhelmed. (John Paul II. See, there's another celibate who spends a whole lot of time talking about sex.) This is not the meaningless, body-centered activity that popular culture has taken to crassly glorifying at every turn. This goes the very core of who we are as human persons. It is the centerpiece of his plan to “fill the earth and subdue it.”
It is his love, reflected in the self-donating, life-giving love of a husband and a wife.
I can appreciate the beauty of that plan, even if I don't participate directly in its expression. And, second, God's plan for sexuality is about me, in more ways than I can enumerate in a single column.
Sexuality isn't just about intercourse. It's about who we are, as male and female, in the image and likeness of God.
My capacity to give myself in marriage teaches me about myself, whether or not I ever actually make that gift.
It teaches me that my sexuality is sacred. It is not to be thrown around carelessly. It teaches me how to keep my dating relationships healthy. It teaches me to really love, by setting aside a sometimes very strong and insistent drive for the sake of what is best for myself, for my date and for my relationship with God.
Respecting the gift of sexuality helps keep me healthy, happy and sane as a single person.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Did Bush Get It Right on Stem Cells? DATE: 09/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 02-08, 2001 ----- BODY:Even some of his political foes agreed: President Bush's Aug. 9 speech was so searching, so sober, that it managed to transcend politics. Yet the stem-cell compromise he introduced that evening — denying federal funds that “would sanction or encourage further destruction of human embryos” while permitting funding for research on the 60 stem-cell lines already in existence — has divided the pro-life movement.
Bishop Joseph Fiorenza, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, swiftly denounced the decision, saying it “allows our nation's research enterprise to cultivate a disrespect for human life.” Just as quickly, a number of pro-life leaders voiced their approval. “We breathe a sigh of relief that President Bush has upheld [the] pro-life policy,” said Dr. James Dobson, president of Focus on the Family.
What are leading pro-life advocates and Catholic thinkers saying about the development? Here's what several wrote when the Register asked for their thoughts.
Daniel P. Sulmasy
President Bush's decision on stem cells came as a welcome surprise to me. I had been prepared for a full-scale authorization of federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research. I do not see his decision as a compromise of principles, but as one that upholds principles and helps to avert an “open season” on human embryos among U.S. scientists.
I think the decision can be justified under the classical principle of material cooperation. First, research on embryonic stem-cell lines is not in itself evil. An embryonic stem-cell line created through the destruction of human embryos is not a human person. Second, the president's decision to prohibit further funding for the destruction of human embryos, along with his explicit condemnation of such destruction, is evidence that there is no formal cooperation or sharing in the evil intent. So, the cooperation is solely material.
Third, it is not necessary cooperation. Necessary cooperation would imply that the embryos would not have been destroyed but for the president's action. This is clearly not the case.
Fourth, it is not immediate material cooperation because the president's decision does not involve him or any scientist using these cell lines (except those who created them in the first place) in any physical way in the act of destroying human embryos. Therefore, it is remote material cooperation.
Nonetheless, declaring an act to be remote material cooperation is not sufficient. Another question is whether the act causes scandal in the sense that it might induce others to evil, either by appearing to condone it or by encouraging others to participate in evil acts. But the president coupled his decision with a ban on further funding for the destruction of human embryos, substantially mitigating any worry that the decision will induce others to this evil. Some have argued that this decision will lead to pressure to destroy more embryos for research. However, I think the line can be held at using these existing cells. And the president has promised to veto any legislation funding more embryo destruction.
Finally, one must consider proportionate effects of this decision. There well may be human benefit from these embryonic cell lines that could not be achieved with adult stem cells. And I am convinced that, had Bush decided to ban all funding for embryonic stem-cell research, Congress would have authorized it with a vetoproof majority and would probably even have funded human cloning.
Thus, I think pro-life advocates should be supportive of the president's position as the best we could have hoped for under the circumstances.
This decision itself violates no pro-life principles. But it does mean that we must be especially vigilant to hold the line here and not allow the government to succumb to more pressure from the biotech industry and pro-abortion lobbyists who want to eliminate the principle that human life, in its embryonic and fetal stages, has human rights and is worthy of our profound respect.
Franciscan Brother Daniel P.
Sulmasy, M.D., is director of the
Bioethics Institute at New York
Medical College.
Cathleen Cleaver
One reaction to President Bush's decision is to mourn the loss of life that has already occurred, defend the stance against future funding and get on with the promising research. Yet we cannot help but feel something approaching dread when we contemplate that, with this decision, we will be paying for research that has been made possible only by the taking of human lives.
I say “approaching” dread because the whole concept can seem so abstract. We know that an early embryo is just as human as we are. But what kind of life do these embryos have? Can it have any meaning? Why is it difficult to see these embryos as tiny humans, early in development, made in the image of God?
In Evangelium Vitae, Pope John Paul II explains that we are experiencing a culture of death because there has been an “eclipse of the sense of God.” By living “as if God did not exist,” man not only loses sight of the mystery of God, but also of the mystery of his own being. In our culture of death, we no longer see our lives as gifts, given at the pleasure of the divine gift-giver. Human life no longer seems sacred because we have forgotten its origin.
This forgetting of God, and consequent losing sight of man, leads to what the Holy Father calls a “systematic violation of the moral law.” We experience this now. When one in four pregnancies ends in abortion, abortion is no longer an occasional evil; it has become part of the very fabric of our society. What happens to a society which makes the violation of moral law systematic? The result, says John Paul II, is utter confusion between good and evil — a “darkening of the capacity to discern God's presence.” When, by our own will, we forget God, we begin a journey to a place where it becomes difficult or impossible to see God. We live in a culture today which has so systematized moral violations that it no longer recognizes them as violations.
The president's decision to fund embryonic stem-cell research goes to the heart of this tragedy. Before the decision, there were scientists who were killing human embryos for research. This was a grave evil, but it was an anomaly, an evil at the margins. The decision to publicly finance research on the remains of these destroyed embryos helps to bring the research into the mainstream and make it a public affair — it systematizes it and makes it part of the fabric of our society. And it will make it even more difficult for society to see in every human embryo the image of God.
In their quiet stillness, human embryos bear our image, and the image of God. They are a mystery to us, but not to God.
Cathleen Cleaver is director
for planning and information
at the Secretariat for Pro-Life
Activities of the U.S. Conference
of Catholic Bishops.
Janet E. Smith
Pro-life critics of President Bush's stem-cell decision say that it dishonors those lives killed to obtain the cells, and that it will lead to future destruction of more embryos should the cells prove valuable — and even if they don't. Refusing to use these cell lines would certainly serve to signal how wrong it was to have sacrificed their lives for research — an important signal for a culture terribly deficient in its respect for embryonic human life. Nonetheless, I believe that it is morally permissible for some scientists to do research on the cells generated from these embryos unjustly killed. Why?
Certainly, one should never do evil to achieve good, but this does not mean that one cannot bring good out of evil actions already done. Hospitals and schools have undoubtedly been built, on occasion, from money donated by those who acquired the money by immoral means. If we were to learn that the chief benefactor of a hospital was a mafia don, should we therefore close the hospital?
But perhaps these analogies aren't quite accurate. Undoubtedly, it is morally problematic that those who started the cell lines were willing to destroy embryos for the sake of research. One opposing use of the cell lines might argue that, if someone murdered another to have access to a kidney, we would not permit the murderer to use the kidney. That is certainly correct and thus it would be immoral for those involved in the creation of the cell lines to do research on them: They would be profiting from their immoral deeds. On the other hand, wouldn't it be moral for someone else to use a kidney transplant from the murder victim?
Those who did not participate in the creation of the cell lines, in my opinion, may morally do research on the stem cells. I do fear that scientists might clamor for the creation of more cell lines and become even more willing to create and destroy human life, but I also think allowing such research may diminish the demand for more cell lines. It may well be that scientists will find that embryonic stem cells are not very useful and that umbilical-cord stem cells and adult stem cells may be much more useful.
That the embryos did not give consent to the use of their cells presents another moral challenge. Yet, perhaps it is reasonable to assume consent on the part of the embryos; indeed, if I were the victim of some crime, I would approve use of my cells and organs for medical and research purposes and I suspect others would also, especially if it would prevent other innocent human beings from being killed for such purposes.
Very possibly at considerable political cost to himself, Bush has made it clear that he opposes killing embryonic human beings in order to get their stem cells; thus, I do not think he can be accused of being complicit in the killing of the embryos who were killed to create the available cell lines. His decision seems to me to be truly wise and one that best serves the lives of embryonic human beings, both dead and alive.
Janet E. Smith, associate
professor of philosophy
at the University of Dallas, is on
leave to teach at Ave Maria
College
in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
Deal W. Hudson
President Bush's decision to provide federal funds for research on embryonic stem cells is disappointing. The president kept his campaign promise not to use federal funds to destroy embryos, but the research on existing cells lines remains linked — materially — to the original destruction of the embryos.
However, the good news in the president's announcement should not be overlooked. Most of the federal funds ($250 million) will go toward research on stem cells taken from adults, umbilical cords and placentas. The president also stated his unequivocal opposition to human cloning.
The president's decision ensures for the time being that no more embryos will be destroyed for the sake of federal funding. He will need to continue restating his position since the media will surely provide a megaphone for any scientist or physician who thinks the 60 cells lines are insufficient to produced the promised miracle cures.
Most importantly, a commission will be established to oversee stem-cell research headed by, perhaps, the most respected bioethicist in the United States, Dr. Leon Kass of the University of Chicago. The selection of Kass should give all of us a sense of security that the implementation of this policy will not slide down the slippery slope.
The president's speech was also remarkable for its near-scholastic weighing of pros and cons before coming to a conclusion. If he was intending to set a civil and rational tone for subsequent debate, then let us hope he succeeds. This kind of careful sifting of argument and deliberation gives the truth its best chance of coming into view.
The only verbal misstep in his speech was describing embryos as possessing “potential for life.” All human life, strictly speaking, contains potential, because it is constantly changing. Any change is a change from potency to act, whether a fetus developing visible limbs or the moment of birth itself. But what remains constant is human identity — it does not undergo change or diminution with any physical change.
To describe an embryo as having “potential for life” sounds like calling it something less than human. Bush, who has stated publicly his belief that life begins at conception, should avoid such terminology in the future.
It will be interesting to compare the Catholic reaction of Bush's stem-cell decision to Bill Clinton's on partial-birth abortion. There will be some who will want to use the Bush decision as a wedge issue to divide him from his Catholic constituents; others will simply express disappointment in a man they believe is a pro-life president.
It should be obvious that Bush, from a pro-life perspective, is doing many things right — the Mexico City Policy, Attorney General John Ashcroft's appointment, and judicial nominations — even if this decision is off the mark.
Deal Hudson is publisher and
editor of Crisis magazine.
David N. O'steen
Displaying a respect for life conspicuously absent from the White House during the Clinton-Gore years, President Bush has announced he will not allow federal funding of stem-cell research that would cause human embryos to be destroyed. In his Aug. 9 speech, the president said, “Human life is a sacred gift from our creator. I worry about a culture that devalues life, and believe as your president I have an important obligation to foster and encourage respect for life in America and throughout the world.”
The substantive and symbolic importance of the president's decision for the pro-life movement should not be underestimated. Bush's decision nullified Clinton administration guidelines that would have provided taxpayer funding for embryonic stem-cell research that allowed for the continual destruction of human embryos. As he said in an op-ed for the New York Times, “ it is unethical to end life in medical research.”
The National Right to Life Committee commends Bush's decision to prevent the federal government from becoming involved in research that would require the destruction of human embryos. In so doing, the president acted to save the lives that he could.
Furthermore, the president has subsequently emphasized that he would veto legislation, such as the Specter-Harkin bill, that expanded federal funding to include stem-cell research that would require the destruction of human embryos. Specter-Harkin seemed certain to pass in the Senate before Mr. Bush fundamentally changed the terms of the debate by placing “the need to protect life in all its phases” front and center.
While National Right to Life did not favor federal funding of research involving existing embryonic stem cells, neither Bush nor his administration had anything to do with the destruction of embryos from whom the approximately 60 stem-cell lines that currently exist were derived.
We mourn the children who were destroyed to derive these stem-cell lines, but there is nothing the pro-life community or the president can do to restore their lives.
In his speech, Bush also reaf-firmed his strong opposition both to human cloning and to the creation of human embryos specifically for experimentation. These are not just theoretical possibilities. A Massachusetts company plans to attempt to create cloned human embryos for the purpose of harvesting their stem cells.
Although the House of Representatives recently voted to ban human cloning, prior to Bush's speech passage of the bill seemed very problematic in the Democratic-controlled Senate. Passage is now a real possibility, thanks to the president's unwavering opposition to cloning.
Pro-lifers must seize the opportunity Bush has helped provide by acting immediately to prevent cloned human embryo farms in the United States. The president drew a line that said No to killing embryos for research, No to creating embryos for lethal research, No to human cloning — but an emphatic Yes to the protection of life.
The line may not have been drawn precisely where some prolifers would have drawn it, but we should all stand with the president in defending that line against anti-life forces.
David N. O'steen is
executive director of the
National Right to Life Committee.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: David N. O'steen ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: She Believes in Love DATE: 09/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 02-08, 2001 ----- BODY:Together with her husband H. Lyman Stebbins, Madeleine Stebbins founded Catholics United for the Faith in 1968.
The apostolate is still going strong today. She spoke with features correspondent Tim Drake about herself, the organization and the re-release, by Sophia Institute Press, of Father Jean d'Elbee's I Believe in Love: A Personal Retreat Based on the Teaching of St. Thérèse of Lisieux.
Tell me a little bit about yourself. Where are you from originally?
My parents came from Switzerland. I was born in Patterson, N.J., as one of five children. My father was a doctor of chemistry and my mother stayed home and took care of the children. My mother did a lot of charitable work during the Depression, and she also took care of refugees from Nazi Germany.
Refugees were always staying in our house. This was how I first met Dietrich von Hildebrand. As a refugee, he came to visit for dinner one evening. I later studied philosophy under him at Fordham University.
Were you raised Catholic?
Yes, but my mother was a convert from the Swiss Reform Church. She was a direct descendant of [Protestant reformer Ulrich] Zwingli and perhaps his first Catholic descendant. My husband, Lyman, was a convert from the Episcopal faith.
How did you and your husband meet?
We met through a friend of Dietrich von Hildebrand's, Dr. Baldwin Schwarz. They both lived in the same apartment building on Central Park West. Both Lyman and I were Benedictine oblates, as was Dr. Schwarz. I was introduced to Lyman one day when I went to pick something up from the Schwarz residence. Lyman was a graduate of Yale, and at the time he was a stockbroker on Wall Street. We met often at Dr. Schwarz's and Dr. von Hildebrand's.
What led you to found Catholics United for the Faith?
There was, first of all, the time in 1967 when Pope Paul VI issued The Credo of the People of God. Lyman felt very strongly that Pope Paul VI was trying to stem the faithlessness of the age. Then there were massive uprisings against the Holy Father's encyclical Humanae Vitae in 1968. Lyman felt right from the beginning that the revolt against Humanae Vitae was only the latest symptom of a general dimming of the faith that had taken place over the previous years.
There was also a great deal of confusion because of the loud voices of dissenting theologians. Lyman felt that it was our duty to applaud and support the Holy Father, and that the only remedy to this general disaster of dissenting voices was to build up the faith and spread the faith in whatever way that we could.
Lyman believed that we must at all times be totally obedient and submissive to our Holy Father the Pope and the bishops in union with him. What the magisterium teaches with authority is the faith. This then led to the creation of CUF.
How did you discover the book
In 1971, Lyman and I were in Rome at the Hotel Columbus. In walked a Frenchman named Pierre Lemaire. He was the head of Tequi publishing in France and was a very holy man. He had a book with him, Croire a l'Amour by Father Jean du Coeur de Jesus d'Elbee, which he handed to us and said, “I want you to read this book.”
We asked him to have lunch with us and there was an immediate meeting of minds. Lyman started reading the book, and one night while reading the book, he turned to me and said, “This is an absolutely heavenly book.” I read it and agreed.
The book is very moving. It throws a light on St. Thérèse of Lisieux and on the merciful love of God in language that is simple and flaming. It sets a fire in you. My husband spoke the book into a cassette and played it often at retreats. Many people said they were touched by it.
What in this book was so appealing to you?
It brought very close to our hearts and minds the overwhelming, merciful love of Jesus Christ. It gives one a perception and an understanding of what confidence in God's love means. The surrender that he asks of us is a loving surrender. The book distills and develops the central doctrine of St. Therese of Lisieux. One comes away with grace after reading the book.
Did you get to know the author?
No, but I did correspond with both Father d'Elbee and his wife, Sister Claire-Marie of the Heart of Jesus. The two were married for a year and had a great love for each other.
They also had a deep love for Christ and both felt called simultaneously to religious life. Father d'Elbee became a religious of the congregation of the Sacred Heart and Sister Claire-Marie became a Carmelite. He dedicated the book to her. St. Therese of Lisieux's teachings form the core of Father d' Elbee's reflections.
Why do you think this book, and St. Thérèse, touch so many people today?
It's a mysterious thing. Whereas the great mystics, such as St. John of the Cross and St. Catherine of Siena were fiery, Therese was able to bring this love of God within everyone's grasp. Her “little way” was what the mystics were saying, but in a different manner. Whereas St. John would say, “Nothing; nothing but God,” St. Therese said, “Just be a child in the arms of Jesus.” In a way, she made the spiritual doctrine accessible. She had the gift of explaining with simplicity, beauty and charm.
The Church had experienced a Jansenistic influence during the previous two centuries. Therese just melted all that away. The charm of her personality was like a perfume. She was transparent to the face of Jesus and God's grace. She brought people to Christ and she continues to do that.
Lyman felt that this was needed in our day and age, especially when theologians were strutting around like proud peacocks. This childlike way was an instrument for melting hearts and bringing them back to orthodoxy and a simple, straightforward and true spiritual life.
Sophia Institute has recently re-released the book. Can you tell me about that?
Yes. Lyman and I had completely reworked the original translation in the mid-1970s. Sophia re-released it in July of this year. I am very delighted with this new edition and feel it applies, even more so, to our day and age because of the dismay, desolation and despair that has set in. Sinful humanity seems to be caught in desolation, and to come back to the truth and the love of Christ is very difficult if one isn't thoroughly immersed in and overwhelmed by God's mercy. Otherwise the guilt is so heavy and seems too much for a human being to overcome. So, I think this a wonderful way to let the grace shine. I think it is needed now more than ever.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: No Protection: Federal Study Highlights Condoms' Ineffectiveness DATE: 09/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 02-08, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — “Safe sex” isn't safe.
A recent study by the National Institutes of Health reported that condoms provide no guarantee against becoming infected by the most serious sexually transmitted diseases. In the wake of the study, a group of more than 2,000 doctors is demanding the resignation of the head of the Centers for Disease Control, charging that he has failed to inform the public about the inadequacies of condoms.
The numbers are appalling: An estimated 65 million Americans have a sexually transmitted disease, and about 15 million new infections arise each year. Suspicious that these figures indicate that condoms do not perform as advertised, family practitioner and then Rep. Thomas Coburn, R-Okla., called in June 2000 for a government analysis of their effectiveness in preventing disease transmission.
In response, 28 scientists pored over 138 peer-reviewed studies before issuing their report to the NIH. In the results of their work, released in late July, the scientists said they found little to no evidence that condoms are effective at preventing many STDs.
For example, while consistent and correct use of condoms was about 85% effective at preventing transmission of HIV, that translates into a failure rate of 15% for transmitting AIDS. (The rate can be much higher when condoms are not always used, or are used improperly.)
Moreover, HIV is actually harder to get than many sexually transmitted diseases, and it's not the only killer in the bunch. Human papillomavirus, or HPV, is the cause of more than 90% of all cases of cervical cancer, which kills more American women each year than AIDS. The NIH analysis found no evidence that condoms prevent any HPV transmissions.
Condoms were between 49% and 100% effective in preventing the spread of gonorrhea in men, but no effect was found for women. And an array of other serious diseases — chlamydia, chancroid, trichomoniasis, syphilis and genital herpes — showed no reduction with condom use. These diseases also increase the risk of contracting HIV.
Despite the findings, Health and Human Services issued a summary of the analysis declaring that the report was inconclusive and should not lead people to consider condoms ineffective.
That response didn't satisfy the Physicians' Consortium, a group representing more than 2,000 physicians. Dr. Joanna Mohn, a member of the consortium's executive board, said the studies show “the healthiest way to have sex is within marriage.”
“It's been studied and studied,” Mohn said. “We've been promoting condoms now for 20 years and we can't show that they're effective.”
Mohn charged that condom promotion has caused “a false sense of security. A lot of teens come and say, ‘I thought I was being responsible,’ and they come down with a sexually transmitted disease, or they get pregnant. They have gotten into risky sexual encounters assuming that condoms were effective.”
CDC Attacked
Coburn and the Physicians' Consortium have joined with other critics in calling for the resignation of Jeffrey Koplan, head of the Centers for Disease Control. Coburn charged Koplan with ignoring the data on the ineffectiveness of condoms and failing to comply with a 2000 law, which Coburn wrote, requiring all agencies that receive federal funding to provide medically accurate information on HPV.
Coburn, Rep. Dave Weldon, RFla., the Physicians' Consortium and the Catholic Medical Association issued a joint statement charging that on Koplan's watch, “the CDC has systematically hidden and mis-represented vital medical information regarding the ineffectiveness of condoms to prevent the transmission of STDs.”
The statement added, “The CDC's refusal to acknowledge clinical research has contributed to the massive STD epidemic.”
The joint statement also called for revised condom labeling regulations to take the NIH study into account, for Health and Human Services to strip federal funding from any recipients whose literature does not reflect “medically accurate information,” and for “a congressional hearing on the scandal of the CDC's cover-up of information vital to women's health.”
Both CDC spokeswoman Lisa Swenarski and Health and Human Services spokesman Bill Pierce emphasized that their agencies have always stated that abstinence is the only sure method of preventing disease transmission. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson “has not and will not” ask for Koplan's resignation, Pierce said.
Pierce acknowledged that the department had received “a fairly significant number of calls” protesting Koplan, but said that decisions about how subordinate government health agencies present the condom study's findings would be left “up to the agencies.”
Still Pro-Condom
Michael McGee, vice president of education for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, sharply disagreed that the study proved condoms' ineffectiveness. He said that research had already shown that “condoms are highly effective when they are used consistently and correctly.”
Added McGee, “It's certainly preferable to use a condom than not to, if you're having sex with a new partner.”
The Health and Human Services summary of the recent study strikes a similar note, emphasizing those diseases against which condoms do offer some protection, and implying that condoms were found ineffective for preventing other diseases because of problems in the research data rather than problems in the condoms.
The NIH panel itself used similar language. It concluded, “The absence of definitive conclusions reflected inadequacies of the evidence available and should not be interpreted as proof of the adequacy or inadequacy of the condom to reduce the risk of STDs.”
The condom report also included a controversial table showing the effectiveness of condoms in laboratory tests, a method that the Physicians' Consortium assailed. Condoms are better at keeping out viruses and bacteria in the lab than they are in actual reported use, the consortium said.
There are major problems with condom studies. Many fail to distinguish between frequent and infrequent condom users, correct and incorrect uses, and high-risk versus low-risk sexual behavior. And researchers cannot study a control group who would have high-risk sex without condoms, due to ethical concerns.
Mohn said the Physicians' Consortium is “not going to argue whether people should or should not wear condoms,” but rather that the public “should have the information” on condom ineffectiveness in order to make properly informed decisions.
As for the condom report's conclusion that further study was needed before scientists could make a definitive statement on whether condoms prevented disease, Mohn said, “You can do as many studies as you want, but in the meantime, we need to be disbursing information that is accurate based on the studies we have now.
“You can't keep saying condoms protect.”
Eve Tushnet writes
from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 09/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 02-08, 2001 ----- BODY:Circus Priest Brings Church to Clowns
Now, as Father Hogan, he celebrates Mass and performs baptisms, weddings and funerals for lion tamers and human cannonballs. Father Hogan serves as chaplain to an estimated 10,000 U.S. circus workers. He regularly visits 28 circuses for two or three days at a time.
Father Hogan took the post in 1993. Five nuns also travel with circuses full time.
Florida Death May Prompt New Day-Care Rules
Child advocacy groups urged legislators to require religious centers to adopt the safety standards needed to get a state license.
Zaniyah Hinson's teacher at the Abundant Life Academy left the toddler in a van for over two hours after a field trip. Investigators estimated that the internal temperature of the van was 140 F. The academy does not check students off on a log as they begin and end field trips, a practice required at state-licensed facilities.
Some religious groups warned that regulation could lead to infringement on religious freedom, by requiring such things as the employment of open homosexuals.
Memorial for U.S. Missionary Who Died in Kenya
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Aug. 22 — The Catholic peace group Pax Christi held a memorial service for an American missionary who died in Kenya last year, the wire service reported.
Father John Kaiser, 67, was found shot dead on Aug. 24, 2000, on a road north of the Kenyan capital Nairobi. Kaiser had worked in Kenya for 35 years, mainly in rural areas. He was an outspoken critic of the Nairobi government's human rights abuses.
Kenya ruled Father Kaiser's death a suicide, and in April the FBI, which was asked to investigate by the Kenyan government, reported his death “is more consistent with a suicide than a homicide.” However, some continue to believe the priest was murdered, possibly for political reasons.
Knights Care for Abandoned Children
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Aug. 22 — The Knights of Columbus have held funerals and burial services for six children abandoned in Las Vegas since 1988, the wire service reported.
In 1988, a baby was found in the city's sewer system. Babies have been found in casino trash bins as well; that's where the sixth child, whom the Knights named Francis, was found.
Other chapters of the Knights also arrange funerals for abandoned babies, and in some cities, mortuaries, police and fire departments, and other nonprofit groups pay for such funerals.
Days after Francis was found, Nevada joined 30 other states whose laws allow mothers to drop newborns at safe places like fire or police stations and hospitals. Most states will not prosecute the mothers who use the baby drop-off facilities.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Racism and Aggressive Nationalism Are Sins, Pope Says DATE: 09/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 02-08, 2001 ----- BODY:CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy — Racism, aggressive nationalism and ethnic violence are attacks against the human family and serious offenses against God, John Paul II said.
The Pope made his statement Aug. 26 when he met with several thousand pilgrims in the courtyard of the papal residence of Castel Gandolfo to pray the midday Angelus. The Pope urged the international community to mobilize in light of the the U.N. World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, which will be held in Durban, South Africa, Aug. 31 to Sept. 7.
“In that venue the Church will also vigorously raise her voice to safeguard the fundamental rights of man, rooted in the dignity of his being created in the image and likeness of God,” the Pope promised.
“In the last decades, characterized by the development of globalization and marked by the worrying resurgence of aggressive nationalism, ethnic violence and widespread phenomena of racial discrimination, human dignity has often been seriously threatened,” the Holy Father added.
Given the above, every “upright conscience cannot but decisively condemn any racism no matter in what heart or place it is found,” the Pope continued.
“Unfortunately, it emerges in ever new and unexpected ways, offending and degrading the human family,” John Paul II said. “Racism is a sin that constitutes a serious offense against God.”
The Holy Father asked the international community to oppose racism with “the culture of reciprocal acceptance, recognizing in every man and woman a brother or sister with whom we walk in solidarity and peace.”
“The Church intends to continue with her efforts in this area, and requests that all believers make their own responsible contribution of conversion of heart, sensitization and formation,” the Pope concluded. “In order to achieve this, in the first place, prayer is necessary.”
To this end, he announced that the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace has prepared a new edition of the document published at his request in 1988, “The Church in Face of Racism: For a More Fraternal Society.”
At the U.N. meeting, representatives of the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference will focus on issues of reparation, economic justice and debt cancellation, particularly debt accumulated by South Africa's former apartheid government.
Father Dabula Mpako, general secretary of the African Catholic Priests' Solidarity Movement, said South Africa was an appropriate choice to host the U.N. conference because the country “has just emerged from institutionalized racism,” in the system of apartheid.
It will be important for delegates to find symbolic ways of acknowledging that wrong was done in the past, he said in a telephone interview from Pretoria.
“We cannot talk of undoing racism if we don't look at what happened in our past, such as colonialism and slavery,” Father Mpako said, noting that “this tells us how we came to be where we are.”
Reparations for the past need not be financial to be effective, and the conference needs to look at meaningful ways of acknowledging past abuses, he said.
The United States and other developed countries have opposed such a move, fearing potential litigation if their governments formally apologize for centuries of slavery and make offers of reparations.
White House officials said there is little interest among Washington and U.S. allies abroad for reparations, Newsday reported Aug. 26. “Reparations for when and to whom?” an unnamed senior administration official asked,
Newsday reported.
“What about the slave trade in the Middle East, in Africa, in Brazil? Who would pay for what? If you pursue that, it would prove an endless and nonproductive debate,” the official said.
(From combined wire services)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican ----------- TITLE: Register Summary DATE: 09/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 02-08, 2001 ----- BODY:After listening to a sung version of Psalm 36, the Pope explained the scriptural passage for several thousand people attending his weekly general audience Aug. 22.
He said that, in contrasting the evil of the sinner with the goodness of God, the psalmist had described the intensity of both realities. The sinner is seen planning wickedness even before he rises from his bed in the morning, while God's desire for man is depicted with images of generous love, bounty, life and light.
The Pope suggested that morning prayer is a good way to orient oneself spiritually before heading out into the “not always straight paths” of contemporary life.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: The Wickedness of the Sinner, the Goodness of God DATE: 09/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 02-08, 2001 ----- BODY:At the opening of every day of work and of human relationships, each person can take on one of two fundamental attitudes: to chose good or else to give in to evil. Psalm 36, which is heard rather infrequently, presents exactly these two contrasting profiles.
On the one hand, there is the person who hatches wicked plots right from his bed before getting up. On the other, there is the person who seeks instead the light of God, “the fountain of life” (verse 10). The impious person's abyss of malice stands in contrast to the abyss of God's goodness, the living spring which quenches thirst and the light which illumines the faithful.
Both persons are thus types of those described in the psalmist's prayer which was proclaimed just now, and which the Liturgy of the Hours presents for Lauds on Wednesday of Week I.
Eager to Do Wrong
The first portrait the psalmist presents is that of the sinner (verses 2-5). Within him exists “the oracle of sin” (verse 2), as the Hebrew original says, using a strong expression. This suggests a satanic word — as opposed to the divine word — that resounds in the heart and speech of the wicked.
This person's inner reality seems to have become one with evil, which thus expresses itself outwardly in words and acts (verses 3-4). He runs through his days choosing “wicked ways” — from early morning, when he is still “in his bed” (verse 5), right up to night as he is falling asleep. This constant choice flows out of a fundamental option that implicates the sinner's entire life and generates death.
Zealous for God
But the psalmist is entirely oriented toward the other portrait, through which he wants to reflect on himself — that of the man who seeks the face of God (verses 6-13). This man raises up a true and genuine song to divine love (verses 6-11) and follows it up, at the end, with a supplication to be freed from dark fascination with evil and forever enfolded in the light of grace.
Winding through this song is a true, characteristic litany of expressions celebrating the features of the God of love: grace, fidelity, justice, judgment, salvation, protective shadow, abundance, delight, life, light.
Four of these divine attributes are especially noteworthy. They are expressed in Hebrew words that have a stronger impact than translations into modern languages are able to convey.
What God Is Like
Above all, there is the word “hésed” — grace — which means at the same time faithfulness, love, loyalty, tenderness. This is one of the basic words used to extol the covenant between God and his people. It is also significant that it echoes at least 127 times throughout the psalter — more than half the number of times it appears in the rest of the Old Testament.
Then there is “emunáh,” a word derived from the same stem as the amen, the word of faith; it signifies stability, security, unswerving faithfulness.
It is followed by “sedaqáh” — justice — which has above all a salvific meaning: it describes that holy and provident characteristic of God which works through his intervention throughout history to set his faithful people free from evil and injustice.
Finally, there is “mishpát,” the judgment with which God governs his creatures, bending down over the poor and the oppressed and bringing down the arrogant and the overbearing.
Four theological words which the psalmist repeats in his profession of faith, as he sets out for the streets of the world with the certainty that he has near him the God who is loving, faithful, just and saving.
God's Gifts
The psalmist adds two thought-provoking images to the various titles with which he praises God. On the one hand, there is the abundance of food: This especially puts us in mind of the sacred banquet that was celebrated in the temple of Sion with the flesh of sacrificed animals. There are also the fountain and stream, whose waters quench not only the parched throat but also the soul (verses 9-10; Psalms 42:2-3; 63:2-6). The Lord satisfies and fills the person who prays, making him a participant in his full and immortal life.
The other image is given in the symbol of light: “In your light we see light” (verse 10). This is a brightness that radiates as a sort of waterfall, and it is a sign of the revelation of God to his people.
This happened to Moses on Mt. Sinai (Exodus 34:29-30), and it happens to Christians in the measure to which they are gazing “with unveiled face on the glory of the Lord, [and] are being transformed into the same image” (2 Corinthians 3:18).
In the language of the psalmist, “to see the light of the face of God” means concretely to meet the Lord in the temple, where liturgical prayer is celebrated and the divine word is heard. The Christian, too, has this experience when he celebrates the praises of the Lord at the opening of the day, before setting out on the not always straight paths of everyday life.
(Register translation)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican ----------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 09/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 02-08, 2001 ----- BODY:Mother Teresa's First Miracle?
Monika Besra, a tribal woman from West Bengal in India, claimed that she was cured of a gigantic tumor in her uterus after she prayed to Mother Teresa and after members of the Missionaries of Charity, the Albanian nun's order, placed a medallion on Besra's stomach that had rested on Mother Teresa's body.
Several doctors agreed that the tumor had disappeared, and Besra recovered enough to help in the nuns' garden and eventually return home.
The diocesan church in Calcutta began gathering evidence on Mother Teresa two years ago, after the nun's death in September 1997, and just shipped 34,000 pages of material to Rome.
Some observers, however, have criticized the “secrecy” surrounding the Besra reports (the nuns involved have refused to discuss what happened with the press). And questions have also arisen as to why Besra was taken to five doctors before she was cured — an extraordinary number given her and the nuns' poverty.
Obstacle Cleared for Pope's North Korea Visit
The Vatican reversed a previous decision not to visit North Korea until diplomatic ties existed. But it still insists that North Korea accept a priest dispatched by Rome, to minister to the country's estimated 3,000 Catholics who have no priest.
Ambassador Bae Yang-il said the Pope has a strong personal desire to visit Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, as one of his last missions.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican ----------- TITLE: Editorial DATE: 09/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 02-08, 2001 ----- BODY:Recent media reports about Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo's bizarre marriage to a member of the Sun Myung Moon cult, and the Vatican's consequent threat of excommunication, are rife with misinterpretations.
They also provide an interesting barometer of where media sympathies lie.
When an organization that journalists have so far reviled as a cult and despised for its conservative politics confronts the Catholic Church, which side will the media paint as the bad guy? The Church, apparently.
“Debate Continues Over Vatican Celibacy Policy” was CNN's slant on the drama, as if celibacy were a recently established rule, or as if celibacy itself drove the 70-year-old African archbishop to marry a 43-year-old Korean acupuncturist. “It seems that Hell hath no fury like a Church scorned,” said The Mirror, a London newspaper, as if the Holy Father were driven by jealousy to want Archbishop Milingo to return to the sacraments.
“Archbishop abandons wife for Church,” said the Birmingham (Ala.) Post, as if a vowed celibate could legitimately marry in the first place.
The articles could at least point out that Moon's sect is not a church at all but a cult. The truth is that Moon, who calls himself the messiah, has been jailed for tax evasion and has been barred from the United Kingdom.
Moon's U.K. troubles became public when members of his sect were described by the Daily Mail as “robots, glassy-eyed and mindless, programmed as soldiers in this vast fund-raising army with no goals or ideals, except as followers of the half-baked ravings of Moon, who lived in splendor while followers lived in forced penury.” Moonies sued the newspaper for libel, but lost and were ordered to pay a small fortune in court costs.
Another questionable point is the legitimacy of the marriage itself. The archbishop and Maria Sung participated in a ceremony at a New York Hilton that organizers stopped short of calling a wedding. Like the dozens of couples who shared the experience with them, the two had met each other only two days, and Moon himself arranged the pairing and decided how and when the newlyweds would see each other.
Then there is the question of members' consent at the time of their marriages.
Moon is quoted in a recent documentary: “I do want absolute control of people's minds, but I don't call that brainwashing.”
An example of this “control” arises in the story of Donna Collins, reported Feb. 11 in the San Francisco Chronicle. After being raised as a child by Moonie rules and kept at arm's length from her parents, Collins was sent to the Moons' own household in South Korea. Moon “and his kids didn't live by the teachings,” she said. “His sons would come in and swear all the time. They were having steaks flown in from America. I'd been eating rice and kimchee for three years and getting serious dysentery. It was a joke. I started asking myself, ‘What is godly about all this?’”
Then the 13-year-old was called in to speak with “the messiah.” “He got livid that somebody would have the nerve to question him and screamed at me for 30 minutes. I was bawling and shaking uncontrollably,” she told the Chronicle.
“Then he'd hold my hand, and say, ‘I am your parent. One day, you will be a great woman for God.’ I calmed down and said, ‘Thank you. Thank you.’ And then I'd write in my diary about how great it was to be with the True Father.”
That love-hate relation with Moon seems to characterize much of secular media coverage, which bracketed their usual scorn of the Moonies to side with the “True Father” instead of the Holy Father.
As with the true Messiah, this Korean messiah reveals the thoughts of many hearts. And those thoughts can hardly be called objective.
----- EXCERPT: Moon Shine ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion ----------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 09/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 02-08, 2001 ----- BODY:Hurray for Bush
Regarding “Church Opposes Human Research Plan,” Aug. 19-25:
I think the stem-cell decision was a positive step in the culture of life Bush is trying to create.
On the other hand, I am disappointed with the pro-life organizations that have come out against the decision.
Although they are correct [to insist that] the ends never justifies the means, and [that] technically, we shouldn't be doing any research on embryonic stem cells, they miss the broader point.
Can you imagine what Bill Clinton or even Bush Sr. would have said? For a president of the United States to publicly announce that a “fetus” is a human life is a tremendous stride.
And again, W. backed his words with telling action. The doctor named as the director of the advisory committee, Leon Kass, is solidly pro-life.
In a perfect world, we would all live by strict moral standards, but even Jesus Christ, the Son of God, did not go that way on earth. The reason pro-abortion supporters have gotten so far in America is their slow, steady and relentless attack. They are content with taking minor, “insignificant,” unnoticed steps that erode our faith and morals. Why can't pro-life organizations realize that we must do the same to reverse the course?
We must use divine wisdom in changing hearts. As humans we have intellect and free will. And as Catholics we are truly pro-choice. We have the choice to follow God's law or not.
My only consolation with the complaints of the pro-life organizations is that the pro-abortion organizations will think they won. But maybe even this is a naive pipe dream. The pro-abortion lobby is immensely practical and grounded. They will now turn this very positive step into a rallying cry of inhumanity and heartlessness. They will raise multimillions for their causes. Why can't the pro-life organizations [do the same]?
Now is the time for pro-life organizations to rejoice about, and capitalize on, President Bush's announcement.
DAVID COTTER
Mt. Carmel, Connecticut
Dolores Park Fan
What a beautiful article God blessed you to write about Dolores Park (“A Child's Clutter Changed Her Life,” July 1-7).
To know of a professional person of “the world” who turns and gives it all to God is magnificent. It is such a blessing to read a story of someone standing up for the Catholic faith and truly giving God back his gift of music.
Thank you for taking the time to write about someone who is an inspiration to Catholics, singers, women, mothers and wives.
May God continue to bless you in revealing and sharing those who are needed in today's world.
LIBBY GURROLA
Bakersfield, California
China No Worse than U.S.
As an American who is married to a Chinese [citizen] and has lived in China for many years, I took some offense to your article “World-Class Abusers? China's Olympic Bid Sparks Protests” (July 15-21).
Americans are great at pointing the human-rights finger at others, especially China, but maybe Americans should clean up their backyard first. America has a homeless problem that would be unheard of in China.
The U.S. Postal Service, in cooperation with the Dallas Police Dept., just finished a sting operation that borders on violating not only the right to free speech, but also the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. Yes, it dealt with pornography, which I also disagree with. But how they went about it is the problem. Your writer should take a bus ride sometime along the United States-Mexico border and watch how members of the Border Patrol treat people they suspect of being illegal [aliens].
That behavior also violates ones rights to unreasonable searches. But who cares, because these people don't look like typical Americans? That's the same thing that the Chinese government does.
So law enforcement in America operates the same as the Ministry of State Security in China.
In America, we perform many abortions every year. This is also a violation of human rights. But no one wants to acknowledge that violation.
And the U.S. government should stay out of dictating what Olympic decisions and policies should be. The Olympic Committee is an international body, not a department of the U.S. Congress. I have a great love for China and for its people, some of whom are my family by marriage. So if China, as your writer put it, would get the “gold medal for egregious abuses of freedom,” then America should be right behind it with the silver medal.
WILLIAM A. SCANLON
Houston
Editor's note: There is much to love about China. But don't forget the targets of the article — the nation's one-child per-family policy (enforced by forced abortion and sterilization), its outlawing of the Catholic Church, and its incarceration of priests and bishops. Cracking down on child pornographers and overzealously patrolling the border seem to pale in comparison. We agree that abortion makes it impossible for America to boast about its own human-rights record.
Fund Finder
Could you publish contact information for Ave Maria Catholic Values Fund and the other fund you covered recently (“Domino's Founder's Fund Throws Good Money After Good,” June 24-30)? Thank you.
KRIS LARSEN
Middletown, Kansas
Editor's Note: Certainly. Ave Maria Mutual Fund can be reached at (866) AVE-MARIA. The Catholic Values Investment Fund Can be reached at (888) 974-4486 or found on the Web at www.catholicinvestment.com
Ite, Missa Est
A featured letter by reader Mark Wille in your Aug. 12-18 issue takes exception to a current version of the final phrase of the Mass, saying that the Latin Ite missa est
means “nothing but ‘Go, the Mass is.’” Actually, the original, literal meaning of these words was “Go, it is dismissed.” According to the Oxford English Dictionary, our word Mass comes from Late Latin Missa, from, missio , “dismissal”, derived from mittere, “send.”
Interesting, my 1933 missal renders this as “Go, the Mass has been said” and my 1960 missal gives “Go, the Mass is ended.” So we had ceased to be strictly literal long before Vatican II or ICEL.
SANDRA MIESEL
Indianapolis
Pius XII's Piety
Regarding the article “Pius XII Scholars at Odds on Catholic-Jewish Panel” (Aug. 5-11): Why should there be any investigation into Pius XII's behavior toward the Jews during the Nazi era?
There are already numerous quotes in print, many from prominent Jews of that era, such as Golda Meir, praising Pius XII's handling of the Nazis vs. Jews issues.
Also, the Chief Rabbi of Rome during World War II, Israel Zolli, who was certainly in a position to know, converted to the Catholic faith after WWII, and took Pius XII's given name, Eugenio, in honor of Pius.
If Pius was indeed, as his critics charge, weak-willed and indifferent to the plight of the Jews, this was certainly a very odd way fro Rabbi Zolli to show it.
JO HENIZMAN
Kansas City, Kansas
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion ----------- TITLE: What Rhymes With Pachyderm? DATE: 09/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 02-08, 2001 ----- BODY:I was pleased to read John Norton's article about the animals depicted in St. Peter's Basilica, especially the lion (“Mass Amid a Menagerie: St. Peter's Hosts an Animal Kingdom in Art,” Aug. 12-18). When I was a seminarian in Rome, we had a little riddle about it:
St. Peter's has a pachyderm
Near St. Michael's station.
Those who've seen him will affirm
They used imagination.
He for whom Paolina sat
Made Clement's end the place
To pose him like a Cheshire cat
With Leo's end his face.
This sculpture can be found in a place with a large statue of St. Michael nearby. The sculptor, Antonio Canova, made a beautiful statue of Napoleon's sister, Paolina, found in Rome's Borghese Gallery. “Clement's end” refers to his tomb, and “Leo's end” refers to the lion whose end is an elephant, as John Norton described.
Unfortunately, I have no idea who wrote the poem. Also unfortunately, according to my recent visit to St. Peter's, the statue is unapproachable, being in a section that is roped off exclusively for penitents who access the nearby confessionals.
FATHER JAY H. PETERSON
Billings, Montana
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion ----------- TITLE: Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, With God To Work We Go DATE: 09/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 02-08, 2001 ----- BODY:As Labor Day rolls around, I've been thinking back on how my son spent much of his summer vacation working in a factory.
At 18 years old, the oldest of our five children, he'll soon be our first to leave home for college. In fact, that's why he worked on the assembly line — to help pay his expenses.
From his point of view, it was hard work at reasonably good pay. At least it paid quite a bit better than the other jobs that he's had since he turned 16. His first job was flipping burgers at a fast-food restaurant. Later he worked in the produce department of the local grocery store. A summer position in a factory meant more sweat and a better wage.
My wife and I were especially happy he got this job. We wanted him to develop the habit of hard work and an appreciation for the toil of those who spend much of their lives doing physical labor. Both of us worked at blue-collar jobs to put ourselves through college, and we want our children to have the same kind of formation.
Long before he became Pope John Paul II, Karol Wojtyla experienced the life of labor during his college years. He worked in a quarry and, later, at a chemical plant. Working side by side with other laborers shaped his perspective on, and his thinking about, work.
The Holy Father's most important contribution to the philosophy of work, his encyclical Laborem Exercens (On Human Work), was issued 20 years ago. It was to be released on the 90th anniversary of Leo XIII's ground-breaking encyclical on the working class, Rerum Novarum. The anniversary would have been May 15, 1981, but the schedule was thrown off by the May 13 assassination attempt. When the Pope's health returned late that summer, the finishing touches were completed and Laborem Exercens was issued on September 14, 1981.
In a certain sense, Laborem Exercens can be read as a personal letter from the Polish Pope to the workers of Poland. Just as St. Paul's letters are written to specific local communities while having significance for the universal Church, John Paul II's letter to the workers in his homeland contains an account of the spiritual significance of work that is edifying for all.
Remember that 1981 was a time of great turmoil in Poland, especially for the working classes. Communist ideology promised to improve the conditions of laborers by imposing an atheistic philosophy. The Polish workers united in protest against communism behind Lech Walesa, a shipyard welder, devout Catholic and father of eight children. Rejecting the ideology of communism, Poles turned to the Church for a spiritual understanding of their labor. They found it in Laborem Exercens.
Consider the difference between the philosophies of work advanced in contemporary culture with those of John Paul II. Communism advanced the false promise that work planned by the state would produce a utopia on earth. In contrast, our culture is imbued with two main philosophies of work. One is a kind of crass materialism that says the whole meaning of work is to make money. The other is a more sophisticated, yet still materialistic, view that says work is where we find our whole meaning in life. In this view, work provides status, purpose and the material advantages of consumer culture.
‘In spite of the toil — perhaps even because of it — work is a good thing.’
In contrast, Laborem Exercens focuses on both the objective and subjective character of work. Not only does work change the world, but it also changes one's personal habits of character. Thus it can provide a way to draw closer to God.
John Paul II emphasizes that there are three purposes to work. Through work, each person provides for one's daily bread for oneself and one's family, develops one's talents and personality, and contributes to the common good. Crass materialism only emphasizes the first. Sophisticated materialism emphasizes the second. Communism emphasizes only the third. An authentic understanding of work recognizes the importance of all three.
Since the worker is a person, there is an inherent personal dignity in labor, even if this isn't recognized by the standards of the world. The Pope reminds us that Jesus spent most of his adult life working with his hands at the carpenter's bench. In doing so, Jesus provided for his daily bread, developed his talents and used his abilities to benefit others.
Just as God the Father worked in creating the world, so too humans, made in God's image, have a vocation to work. As a result of sin, all work involves an encounter with “thorns and thistles.” Nonetheless, as John Paul II put it, work “is a good thing, because through work man not only transforms nature, adapting it to his own needs, but he also achieves a fulfillment as a human being.”
I hope my son learned this way of understanding labor at his summer job. In a culture like ours, it is easy to gain a false impression of work: that it is undignified, or that the only meaning in work is to make money or gain status, or that work is the entire purpose of life.
As I recall my son coming home day after day throughout the summer in his sweat-stained shirt, untying his work boots after a difficult shift, I find myself hoping he learned something of this “gospel of work” as articulated 20 years ago in the Pope's Laborem Exercens: “In spite of the toil — perhaps even because of it — work is a good thing.”
Gregory Beabout is a philosophy
professor at St. Louis University and
an adjunct scholar with the
Center for Economic Personalism.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary ----------- TITLE: A Chip Off the Ol' Eugenics Block DATE: 09/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 02-08, 2001 ----- BODY:Planned Parenthood follows in the footsteps of its founder, Margaret Sanger
Planned Parenthood has proved a loyal offspring to its mother, Margaret Sanger.
Sanger was an outspoken advocate of eugenics, the science of purifying the human race of the “unfit” (see “Angry White Female,” June 24-30). Picking up on Darwin's theory of the “survival of the fittest,” she argued that too many “sickly and weak” individuals — what she called “the degenerate, the imbecile, the feebleminded” and the “mentally and physically defective” — were being allowed to survive and propagate. She considered the promotion of birth control to be one of her greatest contributions to society. “Of course birth control itself is a eugenical measure,” she declared frankly. “We want a race of thorough-breds.”
Pro-life opponents have uncovered so many embarrassing “Sangerisms” that Planned Parenthood has posted an apology, of sorts, on its Web site. “Sanger … entertained some popular ideas of her own time that are out of keeping with our thinking today,” the statement reads. Yet, the organization insists in the same section, “Margaret Sanger was not a racist, an anti-Semite, or a eugenicist.”
The facts suggest otherwise.
Ominous Origins
Planned Parenthood began in 1922 as the American Birth Control League. It changed its name to the Birth Control Federation of America in 1939 and finally settled on the Planned Parenthood Federation of America in 1942. One undeniable sign of the organization's commitment to the cause of eugenics is that, right through the 1960s, it shared many members in common with the American Eugenics Society. For example, Alan Guttmacher, vice president of the American Eugenics Society in 1957, went on to serve as president of Planned Parenthood from 1962 to 1974 and to found Planned Parenthood's research branch, the Alan Guttmacher Institute.
Although Planned Parenthood began to drop explicit references to eugenics during World War II (because of the distasteful association the word took on with Nazism), the eugenic aim remains central to its mission to this day, as evidenced by the organization's double advocacy of prenatal testing and abortion on demand.
When amniocentesis was developed in the 1960s, proponents of eugenics were able to shift very forthright speech about eliminating undesirables to more subdued and clinical speech about the need for testing for disorders and defects in the womb.
Not surprisingly, Planned Parenthood became a big advocate of such prenatal testing as a standard precaution for those who are “at risk” for having babies with birth defects. In a policy paper written in 1977, “Planned Births, the Future of the Family and the Quality of American Life: Towards a Comprehensive National Policy and Program,” the organization called for a national plan that, with copious funding, would emphasize “pregnancy testing and preventive services, prenatal diagnosis of fetal defects, genetic counseling, venereal disease prevention and other services.”
As should be obvious, such testing has as its goal the elimination of “defectives” by abortion. Perhaps the best summary of Planned Parenthood's eugenic views can be found at its own Web site store, where shoppers find a “onesie” (a baby shirt) with the words “Parenthood. Plan it!” on the front, and “Every Child a Wanted Child” on the back. The barely hidden eugenic point: Who wants to have an unhealthy, defective baby?
Planned Parenthood's catchy slogan “Every Child a Wanted Child” incorporates not just eugenic underpinnings, but also Sanger's belief that sexuality must be released from the restrictive confines of procreation. The Sangerian sexuality the organization gladly adopted holds that sex is something we want all the time; babies, meanwhile, are only rarely desirable. Contraception must be available to sever the “undesirable” natural connection between sex and procreation, and abortion must be available to clean up what contraception misses.
Planned Parenthood long shared many members in common with the American Eugenics Society.
Essential to Planned Parenthood's view of sex is the Sangerian belief that sexuality is some kind of inner, natural drive that must be released from restrictions so that it may express itself “creatively.”
Masterful Marketing
Since Planned Parenthood regards “sexual expression” as a “basic human need throughout our lives” — a notion introduced by discredited researcher Alfred Kinsey — it isn't surprising that its educational efforts are directed at promoting the fulfillment of every sexual “need” which suggests itself. This goal defines the organization's extensive efforts to define the content of sexual education curricula.
Planned Parenthood's educational agenda can be seen quite clearly in its pamphlet “Human Sexuality: What Children Should Know and When They Should Know It.” Again following Kinsey, the organization here claims that 5-year old children should “know that it is normal for them to touch their genitals for pleasure.” And, since sensorial pleasure, not procreation or marital unity, is the goal of “healthy” sexuality, elementary school children should “be aware that sexual identity includes sexual orientation: lesbian, gay, straight, or bisexual.” Children 9 to 13 should know that “sex is pleasurable as well as the way to make a baby” and that “sexual acts can be separated from reproductive acts.” These same children, then, must be taught that “masturbation is very common, and … that it is normal to masturbate — but only in private.”
Educate your children according to Planned Parenthood's resources and, by the time they are 18, they will not only be well-practiced in methods of “sexual expression,” but also well-versed in sexual-revolution ideology. A key tenet of this, of course, is that biblical, heterosexual marriage is just one of many modes of sexual expression — one that is no better or worse, either morally or practically, than any other mode.
With such an open-ended approach to sexuality, contraception and, especially, abortion become social necessities. According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, “49% of the 6.3 million pregnancies that occur each year are unplanned and half of these are terminated by abortion.” Leaving aside how anyone could possibly know, even by extrapolation, how many pregnancies were “unplanned,” the intended result is to scare Americans into believing that abortion is the only means available to stem the epidemic of “unwanted-ness” gripping the country.
It is in this way that Planned Parenthood has carved itself a lucrative market niche in the culture of death. Indeed, from a business analyst's perspective, Planned Parenthood's strategy is nothing short of visionary. Teach a view of sexuality that leads to “unplanned” pregnancies, prepare surprised mothers-to-be to accept abortion and be there when they go looking to “terminate” their pregnancies.
According to Planned Parenthood's most recent annual report, the organization performed 182,854 abortions in 1999, its highest total ever and an increase of 8% over the previous year. And, of the $627 million the organization took in — a third of it from the government, mind you — some $222 million flowed in from its largest revenue stream: “Clinic Income.”
“Crime doesn't pay,” we've been told. But in the culture of death, crimes against humanity seem to pay quite well.
Ben Wiker, a fellow with the
Discovery Institute, teaches
philosophy of science at Franciscan
University of Steubenville (Ohio).
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary ----------- TITLE: Reform Judaism's Philly Victory is Our Victory, Too DATE: 09/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 02-08, 2001 ----- BODY:The judge got it right and it's driving them nuts.
The case concerned Congregation Kol Ami, a Reform Jewish congregation seeking its own synagogue in Abington Township, a suburb of Philadelphia.Residential neighborhoods there are home to some 25 Christian churches, one former convent and monastery, and no synagogues. The former convent is a substantial property owned by the Sisters of The Holy Family of Nazareth. It includes administrative offices, a large kitchen and residence, its own parking lot and a free-standing chapel. It was an active convent until 1995. After that it was rented for a year to a group of Greek Orthodox monks for use as a monastery. Neither the nuns nor the monks had any zoning problems.
Kol Ami, a congregation comprising some 200 families from the area but without permanent worship space, had a modest proposal: Why not simply move into the unused convent? After all, if it was good for nuns, and good for monks, why wouldn't it be good for rabbis? What could be more obvious?
But the Abington Township zoning bureaucrats didn't think so. They suddenly discovered traffic concerns and other such weighty matters and denied the synagogue's request. Never mind that the convent had a chapel with seating for 250 people that could only be home to some religious group or other whose members would have to drive there. And never mind that the property had its own parking lot. Synagogues are different from convents and monasteries, the board ruled, so a whole new zoning application would be required and, alas, no such application could ever be accepted because the township's revised zoning law no longer allows houses of worship in any residential neighborhood. True, special exceptions could be made for train stations, bus shelters, dog kennels, police barracks, libraries, snack bars or country clubs. But synagogues and other houses of worship need not apply. So sorry.
We filed suit on behalf of the congregation and won. Federal district judge Clarence Newcomer held that it was unconstitutional to allow applications for train stations, but not for churches. It was irrational, said the judge, to suppose that churches would cause more traffic, noise and light pollution than a train station. Besides, the judge held, “a house of worship inherently further[s] the public welfare.”
And that's the line that's driving the secularists crazy. Those who oppose public expressions of faith in American culture have taken to the Internet to vent their wrath at a judge who dares to state the obvious: that houses of worship, like theaters, parks and museums, have always been part of our social fabric precisely because they proceed from the depths of human nature itself. During President Jefferson's administration, there weren't enough churches in Washington so worship services were held weekly in the Treasury Building, in the House of Representatives and even in the Supreme Court's own argument chamber. Today, however, houses of worship are being treated more like adult bookstores.
Such sentiments are not unique to Abington Township. All across the nation, cities and towns are wielding their zoning codes as weapons to drive off churches and other undesirables. Some zoning boards say it's because of the traffic.
Others say it's the noise. Still others say it's a matter of aesthetics: Quaint little steepled churches are permissible in historic districts, but only if they promise not to outgrow their quaint little size.
And they are most certainly unwelcome, with or without steeples, in business districts. Who could stand to have his best customers donating their disposable income to the church next door — especially when it's tax-exempt so the town can't get its cut? Whatever justification they give, though, the real reason is usually the same: We don't want those people in our neighborhood. And it's not just minority religions that historically have suffered — and still continue to suffer — the effects of old-fashioned forms of prejudice. Now it's any religion.
In addition to Congregation Kol Ami, we're currently representing an African-American church in Atlanta, a synagogue in Alabama, a small Christian congregation in Hawaii and a Unitarian church in Ohio. Yes, even Unitarians, whom William F. Buckley once said “believe in at most one god,” and are the most “PC” and socially inoffensive group imaginable, are having problems with zoning.
Why? For the same reason that there's always somebody ready to sue over a Nativity scene or a Menorah on the courthouse lawn, a Ten Commandments plaque in the park or even, on occasion, an Easter bunny in a public school. There's an awful idea spreading out there that religion in public is bad for you. Believing in front of everybody is increasingly seen in the same way as smoking in front of everybody. It's bad manners and it's dangerous.
And just as the government protects you from the irritant of second-hand smoke by requiring people to smoke furtively, alone and out of doors where fewer people will notice them, the government, it appears, should protect you from being exposed to other people's faith.
Congress has provided us with a potent legal weapon against discrimination against religious institutions, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA). RLUIPA forbids such discrimination except where the government has a truly “compelling interest,” which certainly does not include routine traffic concerns, aesthetic disagreements or a town's problem with its tax base. (For more details, refer to www.rluipa.org.) But, most fundamentally, this is not a legal fight, it is a cultural one.
Until the bad idea that religion is harmful is finally refuted by the good idea that faith is natural and its expression laudable, the radical secularists, together with the small-minded bureaucrats who front for them, will continue to wage war on any form of faith in public. It is a war we cannot let them win.
Kevin J. Hasson, president of the
Becket Fund for Religious Liberty
(www.becketfund.org), writes from
Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary ----------- TITLE: Foster-Father's Mansion on the Hill DATE: 09/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 02-08, 2001 ----- BODY:When I first heard there was a big, beautiful basilica in little, unassuming Webster, Mass., I thought folks must be exaggerating.
Now that I've been, I'm happy to report that I was wrong.
The striking brick edifice of Saint Joseph Basilica stands atop a hill surrounded by modest homes. Its twin towers and spires stretch high above the neighborhood. From his statue in the peak of the central gable, St. Joseph watches over this humble scene. I wondered how many thousands of parishioners, most of whom were immigrants working in the local mills, were graced by the intercession of the Church's second-greatest saint.
The front doors look like something sculpted by Bernini's best pupil. A combination of American craftsmanship and Polish artistry, they're formed of pure bronze panels depicting the 15 mysteries of the rosary. The tympanum above them is filled with a high relief showing Jesus as the Good Shepherd.
But the real visual treasure is inside. Rich murals fill the nave, the sanctuary area and the large chapel of reservation that opens to full view behind it. Magnificent stained-glass windows line the nave with depictions of important New Testament events. Colorful statuary adds to the visual symphony.
The splendor of this celestial art, which is highlighted by intricate scrollwork and abundant use of marble, is meant to give a hint of the “incredible beauty and majesty of God,” it's been said. I took it as a tiny peek through a heavenly doorway left ajar.
There's a wealth of spiritual lessons, inspiration and encouragement in the 55 life-sized murals alone. Here's the marriage of Joseph and Mary (St. Joseph is the Church's greatest role model for husbands and fathers), the flight of the Holy Family into Egypt (he's a patron of travelers), the death of St. Joseph (he's patron of a happy death), the apparition of the Blessed Mother to St. Casimir, and Our Lady of Czestochowa with the saints of Poland. Richly ornate, painted frames and scrollwork decorate these murals lining the lofty ceiling. Their luminous, jewel-like tones shimmer with hints of eternal life.
Awe-inspiring Apex
The whole arched wall spanning the remodeled sanctuary carries a monumental mural that ties the holy sacrifice of the Mass to Old Testament figures — Melchizedek and Abraham with Isaac. From on high at the apex, the Holy Trinity presides over the sanctuary.
don't think regular parishioners can be less than awestruck every time they look at the sanctuary and chapel of reservation.
I don't think regular parishioners can be less than awestruck either every time they look at the sanctuary and chapel of reservation. Here a brilliant, golden reredos houses the tabernacle, flanked by new kneeling Italian marble angels. In a huge mural above it, St. Joseph appears in heavenly glory, holding his foster son for us to see. Happy, praying angels surround them. It's a reverential sight, full of wonder, that captures many of the just saint's qualities. On either side of St. Joseph and the Living Word he's holding, statues of the four evange-lists stand like honor guards in elaborately decorated niches.
Midway along the nave, St. Joseph is further honored in a shrine that's part of the original confessional. On the opposite side, another shrine honors Joseph's heavenly mother-in-law, St. Anne.
Msgr. Anthony Czarnecki, pastor of the basilica parish, supervised the three-year restoration and renovation project of the 1914 church, which was rededicated in 1997.
A year later, Saint Joseph was elevated to a basilica, not just because of its overwhelming beauty, but also because of its major historical significance: In 1887, immigrants founded it as the first Polish-American parish in New England. Then 74 other Polish-American parishes followed.
The restoration was intended to preserve the parish's ethnic heritage. Because the years had taken their toll, all murals had to be restored and reconstructed by artists from Poland, Colorado and Florida.
Remodelers' Role Model
At the same time, the restorers added several new murals, like the ones down the center of the soaring ceiling, to reflect contemporary saints of the church, including Americans. Tilting my head back, I could explore scenes spotlighting the likes of Mothers Seton and Cabrini, Bishop John Neumann (who came from Bohemia), Padre Pio, Maximillian Kolbe and Mary Angela Truszkowska, foundress of the Felician Sisters, the order that has staffed the basilica's school since 1892.
Angels fill the basilica, whose architecture lifts minds to heavenly realms as it respects, preserves and enhances the original design. The marble work itself is spectacular. White Carrara columns from the early years support the 2000-pound altar table, imported from Florence. Off the vestibule, tasteful, quietly spectacular Italian marble columns and the most beautiful reds from Albania enhance the new Chapel of Our Lady of Czestochowa. The icon of the Black Madonna, Queen of Poland and symbol of national survival, was touched to the original and blessed by Pope John Paul II. In the vestibule is the restored, life-sized crucifix that was used at the church's first mission in 1918.
Clearly St. Joseph himself was an inspiration for the painstaking renovation and workmanship, much of which was done by the parishioners. Surely it was difficult and laborious work, but also a labor of love. I couldn't help but draw a mental picture of St. Joseph with a satisfied smile, knowing that here was a sublime place of worship to draw visitors to his foster son — and saying to the workers, “Well done, good and faithful servants.”
Joseph Pronechen writes from
Trumbull, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: Saint Joseph Basilica, Webster, Mass. ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORDS: Travel ----------- TITLE: When War Is Hell and Filmmaking, War DATE: 09/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 02-08, 2001 ----- BODY:The best first-draft screenplay I ever read was John Milius' original version of Apocalypse Now.
I was working for Jack Lemmon's production company as a story analyst 31 years ago and, as part of the job, I was supposed to keep track of hot, undiscovered writing talent. The Apocalypse Now script was so impressive that I scheduled a face-to-face meeting between the former film student and Lemmon's partner, Gordon Carroll (Alien).
Milius, who went on to write and direct Conan the Barbarian and Red Dawn, revealed himself to be defiantly out of step with the rest of Hollywood. Almost everyone else had embraced the morally permissive hippie ethos and the left-wing politics of the time. The three-day-long Woodstock rock concert was being celebrated as the apotheosis of those values. “Can you imagine John Wayne at Woodstock?” was Milius' sarcastic response.
Milius had little sympathy for the anti-war movement, believing strongly that Soviet communism should be opposed wherever it was feasible. But he was skeptical of our involvement in Vietnam because the way we were fighting it made it unwinnable.
The images Coppola conjures up along the way are as powerful and haunting as anything ever put onto film about warfare.
George Lucas was originally supposed to direct the movie, with Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather) as producer. But when Lucas became involved with the development of Star Wars, Coppola took over, rewriting and directing it, spending 10 times more money than Lucas had budgeted.
Coppola followed Milius' basic story line. Capt. Willard (Martin Sheen), an experienced Army counterintelligence operative, is sent upriver in Vietnam to locate and “terminate the command” of Special Forces Col. Kurtz (Marlon Brando) with “extreme prejudice.” Kurtz has been fighting his own savage but victorious version of the war with Montagnard tribesman against the Viet Cong, ignoring orders from headquarters. He's now completely out of control and probably insane. He's set up his own native kingdom somewhere inside Cambodia.
Willard's riverboat journey leads to encounters with various American combat units whose members don't seem to understand why they're there. The young officer is forced to face the kind of brutality and madness into which war can degenerate, and he begins to understand what pushed Kurtz off the deep end.
Milius was fascinated with warrior codes of ethics and wanted to raise questions about how best to preserve moral values, and how to ascertain which ends justify which means, in war. Coppola had another agenda that fatally weakened the film. He used the bare bones of Milius' plot to explore his own muddled and contradictory feelings about the war.
The finished product might best be sub-titled “The Woodstock Nation Looks at Vietnam,” for it reflects a point of view totally opposite to what Milius intended.
The conflict is depicted by Coppola as a surreal mixture of heroism and hubris, violent madness and grief. The director has encouraged critics to make much of his movie's resemblance to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. But the film's vision is best explained by a key change Coppola made to the first-draft script that has no connection to Conrad's novella.
Milius' screenplay depicts Willard as the film's moral center, a sane, dedicated warrior whose search for Kurtz unhinges him, replacing his certitude with confusion. But Coppola believes that a combat veteran like Willard must be presented as emotionally unstable in the very first scene because, according to the director's anti-war bias, Vietnam must have already damaged him as it did everyone who fought there.
This destroys any dramatic progression. The horrors the captain confronts on the river can't really push him much further into the dark side since he's already half nuts at the beginning.
But the images Coppola conjures up along the way are as powerful and haunting as anything ever put onto film about warfare. Particularly striking is the sequence in which the gung-ho Lt. Col. Kilgore (Robert Duvall) destroys a village controlled by the Viet Cong in order to surf on a nearby beach. “I love the smell of napalm in the morning,” he declares in the movie's most memorable line. “It smells like victory.”
The movie was originally released in 1979 to mixed reviews but big box office. Over the years, its critical reputation has risen from interesting failure to cult classic. The story behind the production has become a legend in its own right as tales of Coppola's behind-the-scenes personal and professional indulgences are detailed in books and documentaries.
Apocalypse Now Redux restores 53 minutes of footage that was eliminated from the first release. The restoration doesn't iron out the movie's imperfections, but it doesn't make it any worse, either. The new material in the final segment, in which Willard confronts Kurtz, increases our understanding of the renegade officer's motives. But the rest is just a continuation of the movie's off-center, dream-like vision.
There's a long, ghostly sequence at a rubber plantation still run by the French where Willard has a brief dalliance with a widowed planter's wife (Aurore Clement). Even less impressive is a pathetic, disjointed encounter between Willard's river-boat Navy companions and some Playboy centerfolds whom we've seen earlier entertaining the troops.
Nevertheless, Apocalypse Now Redux is a significant cultural event. The enthusiastic reception it's been getting from today's critics tells us something about how Americans now view the Vietnam War. The narcissistic Woodstock values that Coppola's vision reflects have become mainstream. Thus his movie about the war is, in fact, all about us and our feelings. It never comes to grips with either the political and military issues involved or the real Vietnam. Its confusions are considered moral and aesthetic virtues because, like it or not, they now mirror our own.
John Prizer writes from
Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: Apocalypse Now Redux underscores Coppola's mission ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts ----------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 09/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 02-08, 2001 ----- BODY:Alaska (1996)
Children's dependence upon their parents during their early years is a fact of life. In the movies, the reversal of these roles can create entertaining drama, as the recent hit Spy Kids proves. Alaska, directed by Frasier Heston, is another satisfying variation on this theme. A former 747 pilot named Jake Barnes (Dirk Benedict) abandons his pressured Chicago lifestyle after his wife's death and moves to Alaska with his two kids, Jessie (Thora Birch) and Sean (Vincent Kartheiser). Jake supports himself there as a delivery pilot. His daughter blossoms, but Sean is miserable.
One stormy night, after fighting with his son, Jake crashes his small plane into a mountain, leaving him alone with a broken leg and no radio. Jessie and Sean are forced to try to rescue him. They must outwit an evil poacher (Charlton Heston, the director's father) and hook up with a baby polar bear who helps lead them to their father. The rugged scenery provides a spectacular backdrop for the action.
The Wind and the Lion
(1975)
The flag-waving patriotism of Teddy Roosevelt's motto, “Walk softly and carry a big stick,” has long been out of style. Filmmaker John Milius (Red Dawn) understands that TR's aggressive posture can be made to appear admirable to today's audiences if the values behind it are clearly articulated.
The Wind and the Lion, which he wrote and directed, is a swash-buckling adventure set in Morocco at the turn of the last century. Loosely based on a real incident, the action begins when a Berber chieftain, Mulay el Raisuli (Sean Connery), kidnaps an American woman (Candace Bergen) and her two children.
Outraged at this offense against a U.S. citizen, TR (Brian Keith) prepares to send in the Marines. The chieftain strikes up a friendship with his prisoner and releases her. TR has given his word there will be no reprisals. The Germans, who want to exploit the incident to better their position, go back on TR's promise and arrest Raisuli. Viewers will cheer when the Marines land to defend our national honor.
Ruggles of Red Gap (1935)
The cultural changes with which immigrants must cope when they first come to America are often traumatic. Ruggles of Red Gap, based on Harry Leon Wilson's novel and directed by Leo McCarey (An Affair to Remember), gives hilarious expression to this rite of passage. Marmaduke Ruggles (Charles Laughton) is an old-fashioned English butler who's lost in a Paris poker game by his aristocratic employer to the newly rich millionaires Effie and Charles Floud (Mary Boland and Charles Ruggles), from Red Gap, Wash.
At first this gentleman's gentleman has trouble adapting to America's frontier spirit and its rugged individualism. McCarey uses imaginative slapstick gags and witty dialogue to underline the butler's difficulties.
Also good for some belly laughs are Effie's attempts to be a society hostess and refine her rough-diamond husband.
The movie skillfully switches gears near the end when the newly Americanized Ruggles recites Lincoln's Gettysburg Address with such deep feeling that even the bar patrons who are his captive audience drop everything to listen.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts ----------- TITLE: Back to Class 2001: Home Schooling Goes Mainstream DATE: 09/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 02-08, 2001 ----- BODY:NEW YORK — It is a dramatic sign of how rapidly home schooling is growing in numbers and credibility: Time magazine features the movement on the cover of its 2001 back-to-school issue.
Part of the evidence of the surge in home schooling cited in the Aug. 27 article was a new federal report. It said that at least 850,000 kids were being taught at home in 1999, more than twice the 345,000 the government estimated only five years earlier.
Noted Time, “True, even the largest estimates still put the home-schooled at only 4% of the total K-12 population — but that would mean more kids learn at home than attend all the public schools in Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming combined.”
The story, “Home Sweet School,” acknowledges that “there are signs that home-schooling parents are doing a better job than public schools at teaching their kids.” It also reports that a much more diverse range of parents are now getting involved in home schooling than the “conservative fringe” that was been driving the movement in earlier years.
Contemporary home-schooling parents' chief motivation? Federal research found that up to three-quarters of parents “are worried about the quality of their children's education,” Time reported.
“The problem is that schools have abandoned their mission,” Luigi Manca, a communications professor at Benedictine University in Lisle, Ill., who home-schools his daughter Nora, 17, told Time. “They've forgotten about educating.”
High Performance
The Time article noted that home schoolers consistently outperform other students. The average SAT score for home schoolers in 2000 was 1100, compared with 1019 for the general population, and a large study by University of Maryland education researcher Lawrence Rudner found that the average home schooler scored in the 75th percentile on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, far above the 50th percentile that is the national average for all students.
But despite the acknowledgment of home schooling's increasing popularity and its measurable benefits in terms of educational outcomes, Time was clearly troubled by the exodus of kids from public schools.
“Despite some drawbacks, there are signs that home-schooling parents are doing a better job than public schools at teaching their kids,” the magazine's cover story said. “But as the number of kids learning at home grows, we should pause to wonder: Better at teaching them what? Home schooling may turn out better students, but does it create better citizens?”
Home schooling “threatens” public schooling by removing tax dollars from the government system, Time said. For example, school budgets in Florida will lose nearly $130 million because of the 41,128 students being educated by their families in that state.
Another problem cited in the Time article is the loss of socializing experiences, such as riding a school bus, which the article described as “a singular experience” that is “at once both terrifying and liberating.”
However, the article conceded, “the old canard that home-schoolers are hermits has largely been dis-proven. In fact nearly 1 in 5 takes at least one class in a public or private school, according to the Federal Government.”
And, despite its obvious skepticism about the overall benefits of the home-schooling trend, Time concluded its coverage with a side-bar that contains hints for first-time home schoolers.
Among the issues covered were how to comply with state home-schooling laws, designing a curriculum for your child and getting in contact with home-schooling support groups.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education ----------- TITLE: Weekly Book Pick DATE: 09/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 02-08, 2001 ----- BODY:Abortion, Contraception and Breast Cancer: The Connection
One More Soul, 2000 384 pages, $25
Recently I saw an ad in a woman's magazine that boldly proclaimed: “Anyone can get breast cancer.” True enough, I thought. All women should be encouraged to take the necessary steps, such as self-exams and mammograms after age 40, that enable early detection of a disease that is killing more women between the ages of 20 and 59 than any other type of cancer.
Now that I have read Dr. Chris Kahlenborn's book, that ad seems ominous. For here is the evidence, in an easy-to-understand form, that, although it's certainly true that any woman can get breast cancer, there are particular behaviors that put women at significantly higher risk for the disease. Among these are abortion and the use of oral contraceptives at a young age.
And this evidence, Kahlenborn shows, has been ignored by the medical community for political reasons. This willful ignorance has been to the detriment of women's health.
Kahlenborn's own journey began in 1993, when he first heard a researcher suggest an increased risk of breast cancer in women who have had an abortion. Skeptical, he began his own research. The result is a splendid resource — for pro-life activists as well as obstetricians.
After a brief introduction to the disease itself, Kahlenborn presents a summary of the research testing the impact of contraceptive use and induced abortion on a woman's risk for breast cancer. The results: Women who have had an abortion before their first full-term pregnancy have at least a 50% increased risk for breast cancer. Oral-contraceptive use before the first full-term pregnancy increases risk by 40%.
What do these numbers mean? This is the kind of question which Kahlenborn answers in a clear, forthright manner. “If a particular risk factor increases the risk of getting breast cancer for a group of women by 50%,” he writes, “it does not mean that 50% of that group of women will get breast cancer. It means that the group of women in question will have a 50% higher incidence of getting breast cancer than the general population. If the general population of women in the U.S. has a lifetime cancer risk of 12.5%, a 50% increased risk would mean that the affected group would have an 18.75% overall lifetime risk.”
The reasons behind the increased risk associated with abortion and the pill are based on the disruption of the delicate process of the maturation of a woman's breast cells. The development that occurs in a young woman's breasts during puberty is accelerated by the estrogen and progestin present in oral contraceptives. And those cells which divide at abnormal rates are more vulnerable to cancer.
Another critical period of breast-cell maturation is the differentiation that occurs in those cells during a woman's first pregnancy. An abortion halts this normal process and leaves the undifferentiated breast cells more likely to abnormally develop into cancer.
All of this is presented in the opening chapters of the book, where Kahlenborn takes pains to make the information easily accessible to the lay reader. Medical professionals, meanwhile, will appreciate the later chapters, as these include more in-depth scientific analysis and copious research citations.
And for those of us with a decidedly political bent, Kahlenborn provides some fascinating appendices in which he explains how and why bias creeps in to “objective” medical research; he instructs readers how to recognize the flaws and shortcomings that mark many studies.
It's time to break the medical establishment's silence on the link breast cancer clearly has with both abortion and contraception. This book can help.
Lisa Lickona writes from
Milford, Michigan.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Lisa Lickona ----- KEYWORDS: Education ----------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 09/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 02-08, 2001 ----- BODY:Center to Fight Religious Discrimination in Academia
The new Center for Religious Freedom on Campus will work to ensure that students and professors have an independent resource to turn to when they feel their universities are discriminating against their religious practices or organizations, the Chronicle reported.
Among the cases that FIRE has taken on already was a defense of the Tufts Christian Fellowship, which was denied campus financial support after it refused to appoint one of its members to a leadership position because she did not believe that homosexuality was a sin.
Universities Graduating Many Student Athletes
The first USA Today/NCAA Foundation Academic Achievement Awards recognizes schools for high student-athlete graduation rates in three categories: overall student-athlete graduation rates, the difference between graduating athletes and the general student population and improvement from a previously reported rate.
Catholic universities fared well in the ratings. St. Joseph's College, a Catholic woman's college in Connecticut, ranked first on the list for Division III schools with a 100% graduation rate among student-athletes.
Student-athlete graduation rates jumped 53% at St. Thomas Aquinas of New York, putting the college at the top of the list on Division II schools for largest percentage improvement.
Schools from all three NCAA divisions are recognized. Category winners receive $25,000 and a trophy.
Mount Holyoke Suspends Historian for Lying
The college issued a statement rebuking Ellis, saying his lies “were a particularly egregious failing in a teacher of history.”
Ellis, in a statement issued Aug. 17, said that he accepts the sanctions and that during the coming year he intends “to find time for self-reflection and to begin work on a new book,” reported the Chronicle.
Joanne V. Creighton, the president of Mount Holyoke, said that the institution's Faculty Advisory Committee on Appointments, Reappointments and Promotions “met intensively over a number of sessions” before deciding to suspend Ellis and “publicly rebuke” him for telling colleagues and students — including those in his class on the Vietnam War and American culture — that he had served in Vietnam.
Ellis, this year's winner of the Pulitzer Prize for history, actually served in the Army from 1969 to 1972 as an instructor at the U.S. Military Academy and never went overseas.
The Boston Globe revealed his lie about his Vietnam stint and other fabrications in June. After the story ran, the Chronicle noted, Ellis admitted his deceit.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education ----------- TITLE: Family Matters DATE: 09/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 02-08, 2001 ----- BODY:Labor Day Conscience Exam
I'm a businessman and have appreciated the perspective you share with families on managing their money in accord with Christian principles. Do you have any thoughts on how a businessman can apply Christian principles in the workplace?
What a great question!
Just as individuals have allowed a wall to separate their faith from their finances, so it is in the business world. This subject is so broad that it will be impossible to deal with satisfactorily in a single column.
As a result, I'll periodically return to the topic of Christian business practices in order to answer specific questions in greater depth. What I'd like to do here is outline the main issues any businessman should consider as he strives to live out his faith in the workplace.
Our goal should be to imitate Christ as closely as we can. Below, I have listed a few starter questions that will whet the appetite of any businessman who is dedicated to living out his Christian faith in the marketplace. Having a daily spiritual plan, which incorporates prayer and spiritual reading (the Bible, catechism, Fathers of the Church, spiritual classics), will help you do this more effectively.
E What is the purpose of your business? Is your primary motive to seek a profit, or is it to bring greater glory to God?
E How do you view your competition? Are they “enemies” who you seek to “eliminate,” or do they help you be of greater service by making you better at what you do? Have you considered ways you can work together for a greater common good (maybe special works of charity)?
E How do you deal with your employees, vendors and customers? While most businesses today have caught “customer-satisfaction fever” as a way of increasing market share, do you treat everyone you deal with fairly, in accord with their dignity as a human being? Does the pursuit of profits ever cause you to shortchange your obligations to people?
E Is tithing only for individuals or for businesses, too? (You probably know my answer already) I just read of a start-up business on the East Coast that tithes on its pretax profits. The owner explained that the culture of giving is the glue that holds her company together. Not a bad example!
E How effectively are you balancing your own work and family life? If you are the owner or key executive in the business, are you setting policies that allow your employees to have a proper balance? Remember, work is for man, not man for work.
E How effectively do you witness your faith in the workplace? Do your co-workers look up to your example? Are you consistent, fair and considerate of the needs of others?
Living out our faith in the marketplace is an important way for us to grow in sanctification and to participate in the new evangelization. God love you!
Phil Lenahan is executive director
of Catholic Answers.
Reach Family Matters at:
familymatters@ncregister.com
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Phil Lenahan ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life ----------- TITLE: Back-to-School Basics DATE: 09/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 02-08, 2001 ----- BODY:The signs proclaim the season in every American store that hawks kids' clothing and school supplies: “Back to school!” It brings with it a mixture of excitement and dread.
Where did the summer go? And how will I keep my family sane? Here's our advice on the back-to-school basics.
What to Buy
Before the school year is actually upon them, school-age families should visit those purveyors of garments, pencils and all the other things that signal a return to the classroom. Parents should be sure to do some comparison shopping for everything needed in their family's academic inventory.
One essential category on the back-to-school shopping list is scheduling aides. Pocket planners, wall calendars and other prompters will contribute to that all-important ingredient — organization.
Children who are old enough to read should carry a small calendar in their pocket, purse, lunchbox or backpack, even if adults have to write in the entries.
As soon as the little geniuses are capable of scrawling, it's helpful if they jot down all the information needed for scheduling. Writing is a form of “hands-on,” or kinesthetic, learning not unlike the instruction the better teachers will be using.
Parents should post a very large calendar in a highly visible location somewhere in the home. It's advisable to duplicate this calendar in each child's room or study area.
Once the calendars are in place, parents and older kids should write in all the events listed in school schedules that demand their attention — half-days, vacation periods, exams, back-to-school nights, parent-teacher conferences, games, special celebrations, CCD classes and the like.
Daily Schedule
For most families, the dreaded period is the daily morning rush. This is the hectic time that occurs when an hour, or less, is allowed for hitting the snooze button, napping a few more minutes, hitting the snooze button again and then finally dashing out of bed in time to shower, dress, realize that something needs ironing, the pets need feeding, the breakfast dishes need washing, arrangements must be made for after-school activities or day care, school books must be collected, lunch must be made, and everyone must be out the door in time to get to school and do the homework that is due today.
If this pattern sounds at all familiar, then it's high time for parents and kids to plan ways to make the coming school year more organized.
A great way to overcome this chaos is to understand that the morning after really begins the night before. This is the time when parents and kids should consult that all-important family calendar so they can review the following day's plans and activities, Ideally, these items should have been marked down as soon as their very existence was known, preferably in pencil to allow for any subsequent changes.
If this procedure was faithfully followed, family members will find that much of what they need to know about for planning the next day is already on the calendar.
Another part of the night-before activities is getting school clothes ready. This means that all of the nextday's clothing is clean, ironed and in a readily accessible place.
Almost no clothing choices need to be made by students who wear uniforms. When students don't have uniforms, decisions should be made a day or two ahead about what to wear, with contingency plans in place for abrupt changes in weather.
The household should save a space on a counter or a table — maybe a bright place mat can mark the spot — for all the important things that must leave for school in the morning. It's very upsetting and frustrating when little Mendel doesn't get to go to the pumpkin patch with the class because he forgot his permission slip.
It's also a good idea to set the breakfast table the night before. The food needed for breakfast should be organized and, if possible, prepared ahead.
A key factor in night-before planning is the establishment of realistic bedtimes.
Everyone must allow enough time for restful sleep before the next morning's reveille. This means counting backward from the time the young scholars are expected to be out the door, allowing for a few delays, thus establishing a set hour for the alarm to go off. Then count backward to allow for a good night of shut-eye. (Parents know how much sleep their children need — at least two hours more than they tell parents they need.)
Kids shouldn't go to bed overstimulated by activities that frustrate the winding-down of the body and mind. Violent TV shows, family squabbles, caffeine in food or beverages (chocolate, cola, coffee and tea) will get kids going. Parents should check food packaging for the presence of any stimulants. This includes sugar.
Extracurricular Curriculum
How can parents enhance their children's learning and enjoyment in the coming academic year?
By taking some pages from teachers' plan books. Mothers and fathers should take advantage of the resources — audiovisual and tactile — found in their homes and communities:
1 Plan trips to the household library and the local public library. Allow children to explore the bookshelves and make sure they have current library cards for borrowing library books. Remember that many libraries lend cassette tapes and other resources that assist learning and enjoyment.
2 Visit places where youngsters can spend time online with user-friendly computers. This can be done in many public libraries, but quite a few college libraries have similar facilities. A visit to a college will give budding Web-masters a chance to see how older students use computers and breathe in the atmosphere of post-secondary élan.
3 Ideally, this sort of experience should occur several times before a decision is made about purchasing computer software and hardware for home use.
4 Make sure the children visit local museums and other points of interest. This is especially important because schools can't schedule as many of those expeditions as they, or their students, would like.
5 Schedule regular family meal times — probably more important than scheduling homework times — for family conversation.
Even if the progeny keep mum when first asked, “What did you learn in school today?” they will eventually join in when their elders begin to discuss some event or subject on which the pundits of the future can kick in an opinion. This will give the whole family the idea that the learning process is worthwhile and fun.
Keep in mind that these discussions are golden opportunities to express family opinions and help children shape values.
Parents and kids who follow all of the suggestions listed here will find they have a better school year.
As teachers commonly say to one another in late August and early September: “Happy New Year!”
Joanne Donohue Devine teaches in
child development and family studies at
City College, San Francisco.
----- EXCERPT: How to keep the school year from swallowing your family ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joanne Donohue Devine ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life ----------- TITLE: LIFE NOTES DATE: 09/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 02-08, 2001 ----- BODY:Bush Stands Firm
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Aug. 13 — President Bush said that he would veto any additional funding of new human embryonic stem-cell research, reported the wire service.
“The statement I laid out (Thursday) is what I think is right for America,” Bush is quoted saying. “Any piece of legislation that undermines what I think is right will be vetoed.”
“It's a moral issue,” Bush told reporters, “plus there's a chance that we can save people's lives, and I've laid out the path to do that.”
Adult Stem Cells From Skin
REUTERS, Aug. 13 — The news service reported that Canadian scientists may have found an alternative to research on human embryos to produce stem-cell therapies for neurological diseases.
An announcement said that a study was able to isolate stem cells on the skin of adult mice.
“The hope is that the adult stem cells will provide an alternative approach to using embryonic stem cells, but that still has to be proven,” Karl Fernandes, one of the researchers, told Reuters.
Said Freda Miller, the lead researcher, “We believe our discovery is important as we have identified an exciting new stem cell from a noncontroversial source that holds considerable promise for scientific and therapeutic use.”
Great Stem Cell Hoax
WEEKLY STANDARD, Aug. 20 — Syndicated Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer, writing for the political journal, decried what he calls “the unconscionable deployment of fantasy and false hopes by advocates of ‘therapeutic’ cloning for the production of stem cells.”
He noted: “The basic premise — cure of the incurable — was stated by a Newsweek cover a month ago: ‘There's Hope for Alzheimer's, Heart Disease, Parkinson's and Diabetes. But Will Bush Cut Off the Money?’”
The reality, he said, is that any benefits are “in the far future.”
“We have already had one such experience, a human stem cell experiment in China,” he wrote. “Embryonic stem cells were injected into a suffering Parkinson's patient. The results were horrific. … When finally autopsied — the cure killed the poor soul — they found at the brain site of the injection a tumor full of hair, bone and skin.”
Follow the Leader
MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, Aug. 13 — Two Wisconsin state Senators sent a letter Aug. 12 to University of Wisconsin System President Katharine Lyall and University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor John Wiley asking them to “cease the purchase of any additional embryonic stem cells outside of the five lines that are currently being used for research,” reported the Milwaukee daily.
The letter added: “We would ask that you follow President Bush's lead on this issue.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life ----- TITLE: Internet Offers the Church a World Without Borders DATE: 09/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:NORTH HAVEN, Conn. — The e-mail that arrived in Mary Zurolo's e-mail box one day last May was like countless others:
“I feel that I want to be a Christian but I do not dare to because I am a Muslim and I live in a Muslim country with a Muslim family. I need someone to help me. I go to St. Catherine's Church and love this Church. I feel that I am safe in this Church. I love the Catholic faith and will not leave it. Please tell me what I can do.”
With the advent of Catholic Internet apostolates and Catholic online resources, modern communications are reflecting the timeless mission of a Church without borders, that operates in a world that is jealous of its borders. Not only do such efforts present the international scope of the Catholic faith, but they are also reaching into places where the Church is not welcome.
“I'm no longer surprised by the e-mails that we receive,” commented Zurolo, associate editor with www.catholic.net (a Web site by the publisher of the Register). “We've received letters from prisoners, e-mails from those looking to convert, and most recently received two messages from individuals in Muslim countries seeking more information on the Catholic faith. Some of these folks are looking into the Catholic faith under threat of death. Technology is rapidly making our world smaller.”
What do Catholic.net and its sister Spanish site offer in this situation?
Zurolo has received a steady flow of e-mail messages from people in countries that are hostile to the faith since Catholic.net went live earlier this year. “Depending upon their needs, when possible, I direct them to other resources such as Aid to the Church in Need,” said Zurolo.
With branches in the United States and Canada, as well as 14 other countries, Aid to the Church in Need is mandated by the Pope to assist Churches in more than 138 countries where the faith is oppressed.
Last year, for example, the organization issued a campaign to protest the arrest of a Muslim that had been accused of defamation against Islam and was being condemned to death. “We use our Web site, printed media, the religious press, and newsletters to communicate with individuals in other countries,” said Marie Claude Lalonde, director of Aid to the Church in Need-Canada.
Aid to the Church has also discovered that the Internet has helped them to form relationships with those individuals they are serving.
“People in these countries have very limited access to the Internet,” commented communications director Geraldine Hemmings, “but I have been able to learn a lot about individual lives using e-mail.”
Hemmings, who recently returned from spending five days in Bulgaria, said that she developed a relationship with Diana Bossilkova-Petcheza, a 22-year-old wife and mother in Bulgaria, using e-mail. “Once Diana and I were able to develop a communications system, it was easier to build up that relationship,” said Hemmings.
Through e-mail, Hemmings learned that Bossilkova-Petcheza continued to attend Mass on Sundays, in spite of the reprisals she received at school on the following Mondays for doing so. “Under Communism, Catholicism was considered a foreign influence. Church property was confiscated, the Sacraments were banned, and confirmation was forbidden. After Communism's collapse, many people didn't think there would be persecution,” said Hemmings. “We thought everything was fine, but that's simply not the case. Without the world of communications we would not realize these things.”
Encyclopedia Worldwide
Other apostolates have also witnessed their impact upon the world at large. The online Catholic Encyclopedia project, a volunteer effort headed by Kevin Knight, to transcribe and post the entire 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia online, along with St. Thomas Aquinas’Summa and the works of the early Church fathers, is another example.
ACI-PRENSA, a Catholic newswire agency in South America and the most visited Catholic web site in Spanish, has undertaken the task of translating the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia into Spanish. Project coordinator Giuliana Gerber of Peru explained that after ACI-PRENSA's first two years online, they kept getting constant requests from Catholics and non-Catholics to solve common questions about the faith. “The Catholic Encyclopedia will allow us to respond to all questions with one continuous effort,” said Gerber.
The Catholic Encyclopedia is also having an influence in Asia. An Dang, a Vietnamese software engineer living in Australia, assists Father John Tran Cong Nghi and his team of priests in maintaining VietCatholic, a Web site for Vietnamese Catholics who now live all around the world since the communists took control of the country in 1975.
“The Vietnamese government,” said Dang, “is still under communist rule. They hate Catholicism and have been trying to destroy the Church in Vietnam. They have put a lot of priests in prison. They try to control all aspects of the Church in Vietnam including the ordination of priests and bishops. They do not allow publication of any religious materials — no books, no magazines, no newspapers, no radio, no TV, and no Internet.”
In an effort to aid the Church in Vietnam, Dang copies religious materials from the Internet onto CDROMs and sends them to priests in Vietnam, who then distribute the materials to others.
Following the completion of the Catholic Encyclopedia, Dang felt that a CD-ROM version would be useful for those unable to access the Internet. He sought and obtained Knight's permission to produce a CD version.
Weeks later, Dang designed a special “New Advent” browser that helps users without Internet access browse and search a CD-ROM version of the Encyclopedia. Last year, a business associate successfully brought the CD to Saigon and trained several Vietnamese priests in its use. “I have received many letters from priests and bishops thankful for such a great resource,” added Dang.
As important as the Internet may seem to those in such situations, others recognize that there is something far more important.
“Ultimately, those facing persecution have a source greater than the Internet,” added Hemmings. “The way these people stay strong in the face of persecution is through prayer and God's grace.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Robert Pierce ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: The U.S. and the Vatican Again Address a Communist Powerhouse DATE: 09/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — On June 7, 1982, President Ronald Reagan met with Pope John Paul II. Nine years later, the Soviet Union collapsed.
On July 23, 2001, President Bush met with the now 81-year-old Pope. It was a meeting that could have similarly profound consequences for communism in China.
The New York Daily News reported that in meetings at Castel Gandolfo, the Pope's summer residence southeast of Rome, “Vatican diplomats urged Bush to press Beijing to open direct communications with the Holy See and end discrimination against Catholics in China. National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice said, ‘The president is going to raise the issue with the Chinese’” during his October visit.
Rice has previously indicated a belief that “you can use the WTO [World Trade Organization] and other trade levers to open up the Chinese economy,” which would “do something good … for political change in China.” And she had earlier told Christianity Today, “I am deeply interested in the persecuted abroad. After all, I am a Christian too.”
Steven Mosher told the Register he was encouraged by Rice's comment. “I believe that's a first,” said the president of the Population Research Institute and author of Hegemon: China's Plan to Dominate Asia and the World.
“Neither Clinton nor his predecessors had been willing to push for religious freedom in China with the intention of putting the Vatican and Beijing in closer contact,” he added.
Mosher said there were immediate steps the Bush administration could take to alleviate the plight of Chinese religious believers. “We have an Office of Religious Freedom at the State Department, and it should not be bound and gagged,” Mosher said. “China responds best to international pressure, and it responds worst to domestic pressure. We should increase funding for Radio Free Asia, and it should increase its coverage of religious persecution.”
Joseph Kung, president of the Cardinal Kung Foundation, said that Chinese churches are demolished, and that bishops, priests and laymen face routine arrest and imprisonment solely for their loyalty to the Holy See. Earlier this year, authorities even destroyed the grave of the late Bishop Peter Joseph Fan Xueyan of Baoding, who died while under arrest in 1992.
According to Kung, any attempt by the United States to foster an accord between China and the Vatican will likely founder over the issue of the government-controlled “patriotic” Catholic church, which has not been recognized by the Vatican and which does not recognize Rome's authority. An estimated 4 million Chinese belong to the patriotic church — about half the number that are believed to be members of the “underground” Church that is loyal to Rome. “So long as Beijing insists on maintaining the patriotic association, the Vatican's hands are tied,” said Kung.
Speaking on this subject in 1994, the Pope declared, “The principle of communion with the Successor of Peter. … cannot be renounced by a Catholic who desires to remain such and to be recognized as such.”
American Enterprise Institute scholar Michael Ledeen said that while human rights and religious freedom “are a big subject for this administration,” Rice's comment should not be oversold.
Ledeen was as a consultant and adviser to the Reagan administration from 1982 to 1986. “At a relatively early stage, I was an intermediary between the State Department and the Vatican,” he said. Commenting on the Reagan-Vatican alliance; Ledeen said “I think that the process was a bit misunderstood. We were both trying to understand the thing [in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union]. Since the Vatican had centuries of information, we could learn a lot of what was going on from them. I don't think there was a joint policy.”
Ledeen sees the Bush-Vatican “alliance” on China as similarly educational. “The Catholic Church has the same understanding about China that it had about Russia,” he said. “They've been there for centuries, and they are present on the ground in ways we are not. We want the same outcomes, but the U.S. has other concerns: strategic, military, trade, etc., that the Vatican doesn't much worry about. It's worried about saving souls.”
Still, John Paul II continues to be an inspiration to American policy-makers, Ledeen said. “He has been particularly good on human rights issues and particularly brave in raising them in dangerous places, and the United States as a nation likes that.”
Ledeen added that it is too early to tell whether the Bush administration erred in not opposing Beijing's successful bid for the 2008 Olympics: “Some people think it will be a good thing because it will put China under an international microscope.”
China Unrepentant
China may be under a microscope, but initial indications are Beijing does not worry about what this reveals.
It was reported last month that ultrasound equipment is being imported into the mountainous region of Huaiji in order to enforce a quota of 20,000 abortions and sterilizations by the end of the year. And while the semi-retirement next year of Chinese President Jiang Zemin has excited hope of political reform, skeptics are doubtful.
Journalist John Derbyshire, an American who married a Chinese woman and has just returned from a lengthy visit to the People's Republic, said, “If there is a change, it will probably be in the wrong direction. The reform faction is very much on the defensive. The leadership fears that the WTO rules will wreak havoc, so they have got to maintain strict control.” China is expected to become a WTO member by the end of the year.
It is crucial for Westerners to understand that Chinese society has always been strictly centralized, Derbyshire said.
To the Chinese, “There can only be one sun in the sky; you cannot have alternative power centers. The Communists cannot believe than anyone can separate spiritual and temporal allegiances. To them a Catholic who acknowledges the Pope is a traitor.”
Derbyshire has concluded that whatever the short-term consequences, Western governments and individuals must continue to speak out against the human rights horrors perpetrated in China.
“The more we shout, the more chance we have of getting at least something across to contradict the official lies,” said Derbyshire. “As far as religious believers are concerned, I'm afraid I can only say that faith thrives on persecution.”
Kevin Michael Grace writes from Victoria, British Columbia.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kevin Michael Grace ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: Florida Woman Claims Abortionist Violated Her Right To Leave Clinic DATE: 09/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:MELBOURNE, Fla. — Jane Roe II lay on an operating table in excruciating pain, screaming for an ambulance, and fighting to leave, according to allegations in a lawsuit her lawyers filed in the Middle District of Florida Court in Orlando.
Instead, four employees of the Aware Woman Center for Choice in Melbourne, Fla., forcibly prevented her from leaving, she said.
Clinic staff did eventually call an ambulance for the woman, but requested that rescuers leave the lights and sirens off when they came to take her to hospital.
Florida's Jane Roe II case is highlighting the startling issue of forced abortion in America — something usually associated only with egregious human-rights abusers such as China.
It has also delivered a rare court victory to pro-lifers: in June the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Georgia overturned a lower Florida court's decision and ruled unanimously that the woman has a right to sue alleging that the defendants violated the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, implemented during the Clinton administration to prevent prolifers from picketing or counseling within a 36-foot radius surrounding clinic entrances.
The law protects a patient's “ingress and egress” and Jane Roe II is claiming abortion clinic staff violated her right to use the clinic's exit by stopping her from leaving.
The Georgia court also overruled a lower court decision and allowed the plaintiff, identified in court papers as Jane Roe II, to sue anonymously to protect her privacy and safety.
The defendants are the now-defunct clinic and the former owners of its parent corporation at the time of the woman's abortion in March 1997. Those owners are well-known Florida abortion activist Patricia Baird Windle, author of the book, Targets of Hatred: Anti-Abortion Terrorism, and her husband Edward W. Windle Jr. Also named in the suit is abortionist, William P. Egherman, who had argued in court documents that her abortion was not grounds to protect her privacy.
Michael Hirsch, one of the lawyers representing Jane Roe II, called the defendants’ resistance to the woman's anonymity “incredibly hypocritical” and “disingenuous” given that the abortion-rights movement has always argued vociferously that abortion is all about a woman's right to privacy.
Merritt Island attorney Andrew Menyhart, who represents the Windles and the corporation that operated the clinic, said the defendants filed a petition seeking a rehearing on the anonymity question, but it was denied last month.
“You have to weigh the facts and circumstances of each case,” he said, not grant anonymity “just because somebody says the word abortion.” In the Roe II case, he said, “we have a private individual seeking compensation against somebody else while hiding behind abortion.”
He added that the woman's lack of identity made contending the case a logistical nightmare for the defendants. The court stated, however, that the plaintiff must formally reveal her identity to those named in the suit, and documents filed in court say the plaintiff's true identity is already known to the defendants.
Fort Myers attorney Chris Sapp, another lawyer representing the woman, was jubilant with the Georgia court ruling.
“It's a real solid win,” he said. “For the first time in the United States it is a federal crime to force a woman to have an abortion.” Sapp said he met in August with U.S. Department of Justice officials who assured him that they will now be prosecuting forced abortion cases as felonies under the FACE act.
A U.S. Department of Justice spokesman did not return calls to comment to the Register before this article went to press.
Sapp said he is working now to devise plans to use the FACE act to prevent what he estimates at 300 or 400 forced abortions in the United States annually, adding that the law could apply to boyfriends or husbands as well as staff forcing women to have abortions.
The Windles’ lawyer, Menyhart, scoffs at that. “They are attempting to use this FACE cause of action as a sword against the very people it was designed to protect,” he said. “We are at the very preliminary stage of the case. In my opinion, if she files along the same lines [using the FACE act], the case is baseless and without merit.”
The woman claims that when she went to the Aware Woman Center on March 29, 1997, for her third abortion, she noticed that patients were being moved through the waiting room very quickly and she began to worry.
Almost as soon as her own procedure began, she felt “extreme, excessive pain in her abdomen.” Judging by the horrified looks on the clinic staff, she claims, she believed the abortion was going “terribly wrong” and she began demanding an ambulance to take her to the hospital.
She repeatedly demanded that the doctor stop the procedure but Egherman instructed four clinic assistants to restrain her while he continued, she says.
The woman was later taken to a hospital emergency room, where the remains of her baby were removed and her organs were repaired.
The appellate court opinion stated that, using the FACE act, Jane Roe II will have to make a convincing case that clinic personnel restrained her to restrict her liberty, in violation of the law.
“I think we can do that easily,” said attorney Michael Hirsch. Among the evidence, he said, is a tape recorded phone call from the clinic on March 29, 1997. A partial transcript of the tape reads as follows:
“Aware Woman employee: We need a transport, we have a possible perforation and we'd like a transport with no lights, no sirens.
“Dispatcher: OK, ma'am, we are 911. We have to come emergency.
“Aware Woman: OK, so you have to have lights and sirens.
“Dispatcher: Yes ma'am.”
“They were clearly not concerned about the woman's safety or access to reproductive health services,” said Hirsch.
Menyhart said that the clinic denies the allegations by the woman. “It is the contention of all of the defendants that [if] she was held down to finish the procedure, that it was necessary to continue rather than have her die,” he said.
The plaintiff's lawyers, however, can argue that the defendants denied Jane Roe II her legitimate use of the clinic exits to receive reproductive health services, including treatment for her torn uterus, and complete removal of her dead fetus.
Menyhart said the woman is misusing the FACE act for what amounts to a malpractice claim. The state Agency for Health Care Administration found no violations by the physician, he said, and the plaintiff's federal action came after the statute of limitations for malpractice had expired. A medical negligence suit requires a patient to “jump through a whole lot of hoops” Jane Roe II was avoiding, he said.
Bill Middlebrooks, a spokesman for the state agency in Tallahassee, said he could not confirm any malpractice complaint against Egherman stemming from the incident because the agency does not inform the public of complaints against doctors until a panel of unidentified consultants determine if it is legitimate.
Meredith Raney, of Melbourne-based Christians for Life, said he launched a complaint with the agency against Egherman after observing ambulances going to the Aware Woman clinic on three occasions between March and December, 1997, after seeing Egherman and staff take another woman to a hospital by car in January 1998, and after receiving a telephone call from a woman saying she had delivered an intact fetus at her home after a botched abortion at the Aware Woman clinic.
Raney provided the Register with a copy of a letter dated July 27, 1998 and signed by Randolphe Collette, a senior attorney for the agency, informing him that a Board of Medicine probable-cause panel had investigated his complaint and an unnamed “Department Consultant” had determined that Egherman had not breached the standard of care for women seeking abortions in the state of Florida.
“Perforation of the uterus is a known and common complication of an abortion,” read the letter. “Dr. Egherman acted timely and properly when he realized that the perforation might have occurred.”
In the end, whether Egherman violated the FACE act in puncturing Jane Roe II's uterus will be for a Florida jury to decide.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Celeste Mcgovern ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: From N.Y. to Hollywood to the Net DATE: 09/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:Tom Allen
Among other things, he has worked as a magazine editor, film producer, shelter supervisor and professional actor.
Currently editor in chief of CatholicExchange.com, Tom Allen served as editor of the late e3mil.com.
He spoke recently with Register features correspondent Tim Drake.
Where did you grow up? Tell me about your family.
I was born in the Bronx and raised in New City, N.Y. I'm the second of four children. We were a close family that was active in the faith. I attended St. Augustine grammar school, public high school, then Notre Dame.
Was there a time you fell away from the faith?
Yes, but never completely. About halfway through Notre Dame, I stopped attending Mass regularly. At that critical juncture in my life, I needed the faith to be presented as rock-solid truth.
What happened after college?
My first job was with a plumbing magazine in Chicago, but my passion was acting. Actually my passion was sitting around watching TV, and I wanted to justify it, so I thought I'd pursue a career in the entertainment industry.
I'd performed in Camelot my senior year and was bitten by the acting bug. So I started doing community theater, got an agent, scored some prime-time TV credits, and was on my way. But I recognized that the actor is just a small cog in the show business machine, so I went to New York University to study writing and producing.
After film school I picked up with a movie magazine and was soon interviewing Hollywood heavies like Oliver Stone and Jodie Foster, and staging workshops featuring top screenwriters and cinematographers like Russ Carpenter (Titanic) and Janusz Kaminski (Schindler's List).
Even though I wasn't paying much attention to the faith, it stayed with me.
During my interview with Stone, I challenged him on the anti-Catholicism of his movies. Though blindsided by the question, he handled it deftly, blaming it on the characters. In another interview, when I asked actor Tim Roth a spiritual question, his annoyed response was “Next question.” This was typical of the reactions I'd get from Hollywood types.
They were offended that I would even bring it up.
What led to your return to the faith?
I was not the slightest bit fulfilled during all of this. There was an enormous need that was not being met, and I couldn't figure out what it was. Then one day my dad sent me an audiocassette called Marian Apparitions Explained— the first from Bud Macfarlane's Mary Foundation. That tape planted the seed that would eventually turn me around. I began questioning my priorities and shifting gears. A creature of the night, I began looking into nighttime outreaches to the homeless and got involved with Operation Nightwatch in Seattle.
From that point on, I stopped going to bars and redirected that energy into helping the poor and learning the faith. I began reading Mark Shea and watching Jeff Cavins on EWTN. Our second child had just been born and Sue and I started teaching baptism classes.
I ended up working full-time at a Catholic Charities homeless shelter on Seattle's waterfront, which lasted three years. It was a challenging time of applying the principles I was reading about — compassion, forgiveness, subordination of pride and ego. I was learning the virtues, struggling with the old way I used to live, and trying to eliminate that which wasn't consistent with a faithful Catholic approach to life.
How did you become connected with e3mil?
I began pursuing employment in the Catholic media world and was amazed at how difficult it was to break in. It was easier breaking into Hollywood!
I couldn't get people to return my calls! When all seemed lost, Sue and I prayed a novena to St. Joseph asking him, as patron of workers and fathers, to help me find a position that would enable me to provide for my family while helping build God's Church.
Almost immediately afterward, Jeff Cavins visited Seattle on a speaking tour and told me about e3mil — a new Catholic dot-com based in San Diego. When I learned they were looking for an editor, I flew down with all my magazine clippings and got the job.
Suddenly — and this just shows what a great sense of humor God has— I'm editor of a writing staff that includes Mark Shea, Jeff Cavins and a range of other world-class Catholic figures.
We built up e3mil into something unique and vital to many Internet users around the world, but it fell victim to the dot-com crash.
Do you have any favorite stories of how Catholic Exchange has positively influenced some-one's life?
In the last 24 hours I've received emails from the four corners of the earth encouraging us in the work we're doing.
A young man in Nicaragua wrote to say that our materials are helping him foster ecumenism among a deeply divided Church there.
I also got a message from the Middle East, where a group of Catholics meet “underground” several times a week under threat of execution to be nourished by Catholic Exchange.
There were others from India and Australia, but perhaps most moving of all was from a college kid here in the United States who said our Web site was helping answer the nagging questions he had about the faith. That young man is deciding to make the right turn at the very moment in life when I made the wrong turn. Praise God.
Tim Drake is editor of www.catholic.net, produced by the publisher of the Register.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson ----------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 09/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:Columnist Says More Pro-Life Voices Needed in Pulpit
When President George W. Bush decided Aug. 9 to allow federal funding for research on cells that had already been harvested from embryos (killing the embryos in the process), Bishop Joseph
A. Fiorenza of Galveston-Houston, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops called the decision “morally unacceptable.” Bishop Fiorenza said the decision treated “some lives as nothing more than objects to be manipulated and destroyed.”
Yet after making inquiries the Sunday after Bush's decision, McGurn could only find one couple whose priest had mentioned embryonic stem cells in his homily. Polls show a majority of Catholics support both embryonic stem cell research and abortion.
McGurn said the clergy need to do more to educate parishioners than “issuing statements” or printing “a few paragraphs in the parish bulletin.” He said that Bush's televised address on stem cells “went further than anything ordinary Catholics hear in their own churches and institutions” in “extolling the sacredness of human life” — a situation McGurn called “a scandal.”
Neighbors Battle Missionaries of Charity Home
The Central Area Planning Commission denied the Missionaries of Charity Brothers a conditional use permit and zone variance that would have allowed them to continue the services.
Residents of Los Angeles’ Westlake district wanted the brothers to shut down their homeless shelter. “Nuestro Hogar,” or Our House, provides young men with food, a shower, and confession. It serves about 80 men three days a week.
A neighborhood association charged that the use of the house violated zoning codes and that the homeless men made the area unsafe. Last year, city zoning officials agreed that Nuestro Hogar violated the codes.
The Brothers had appealed the city's decision not to grant them a conditional-use permit that would have allowed them to continue serving the men.
Study: Mild Spanking Doesn't Hurt Kids
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Aug. 28 — A new study has found that occasional, mild spankings of young children cause no harm lasting into adolescence, the wire service reported.
Two researchers studied children who grew up in 100 middle-class white families from 1968 to 1980. Children whose parents used mild to moderate spanking turned out like those whose parents used no physical punishment at all, the researchers reported.
“A lot of people out there advocate that any spanking at all is detrimental, and that's not what we found,” said study co-author Elizabeth Owens, from the Institute of Human Development at the University of California at Berkeley. “We're not advocating this is a strategy that should be used with kids, but we object to people wanting to ban it when we see no evidence that it's harmful.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: Cartoonist Draws on His Talent to Help the Unborn DATE: 09/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Chuck Asay was 37 when his view of life — and his cartooning career — took a radical turn. It was 1979, and Asay's father had just died.
“After Dad died, my mom related to me a story I had never been told,” Asay said. “She told me that when she was pregnant with me, Dad had been unfaithful. She decided to jump to her death into a raging river.”
In what Asay calls a miraculous twist of events, his mother didn't jump.
“I realized, hearing that story, that I had a miraculous beginning,” Asay said. “It gave me a whole new appreciation for unborn life, like I had never experienced before.”
He vowed at that moment, in the wake of his father's death, to use his talents as a cartoonist to defend the unborn at every chance. For the past 22 years, he has outraged pro-abortionists and served as a rare comfort to pro-lifers, who find few allies in the secular press.
Asay, 58, believes God used biting red ants and his older brother to save him and his mother from falling hundreds of feet to their deaths near the family farm in Colorado's San Luis Valley.
“Just as my mother was ready to jump, my brother got attacked by ants,” Asay said. “He screamed bloody murder and brought my mother out of the state of mind she was in. She ran to his aid and had time to reconsider.”
Asay, an evangelical Christian, works full-time for the Colorado Springs Gazette, and his seven-days-a-week cartoon is syndicated to more than 80 other newspapers throughout the United States by Creator's Syndicate.
“He's just a great, wonderful cartoonist who has been a tremendous defender of unborn life for years,” said Nat Hentoff, a columnist for the Village Voice and the Washington Post Writers’ Group. “It's getting harder and harder to be pro-life in the media. While there's all this push for diversity in newsrooms, meaning we recruit a lot of minorities, there's less and less tolerance for diversity of ideas — such as those expressed by Chuck.”
Father Dennis Day, director of the National Right to Life Idaho Chapter, said Asay has a profound effect on secular readers who priests and pro-life activists have a harder time reaching. People reading cartoons lower their defenses regarding moral and political views, Father Day explained, allowing Asay to touch their souls.
“With a few words and pictures, he can make a point very directly — better than some essay or argument that a lot of people simply won't hear because their minds are made up,” Father Day said.
When Asay began dabbling in pro-life cartooning, he caught the attention of Dave Andrusko, editor of the National Right to Life News.
“Chuck Asay has been an inspiration to me,” Andrusko said. “He helped show other mainstream, pro-life journalists that it's not necessarily a career-ender.”
Sometimes, however, it is. Pro-life cartoonist Steve Kelley, who was recently fired from the San Diego Union-Tribune, says his views on abortion simply weren't tolerated by new management. The newspaper also dropped syndicated columnist Cal Thomas, who claims management has cracked down on conservative views.
The newspapers officially deny the charges regarding Kelley and Thomas, citing budgetary constraints and confidential personnel matters as the reasons for their dismissals, not their pro-life views.
A Simple Question
Asay has never been fired, but he's the target of frequent pickets outside the Gazette headquarters.
His cartoons have also triggered hostility on some college campuses. One cartoon last year, inspired by a black evangelical minister in Colorado Springs, posed the question: “Which one of these kills more blacks?” Three panels offered readers a choice of answers: Ku Klux Klansmen, neo-Nazi skin-heads, or a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic.
“I got a lot of flack for that,” said Mel Waters, the minister who helped Asay think up the cartoon. “It started a near riot at Boston University, because black students thought it was racist. When they found out I was behind it, they wanted me to come speak on campus and answer to them. I sent a letter to the black student organization and I asked them to just answer the question: ‘Who's killing more blacks?’ And of course, the abortion clinic kills millions more blacks than any other groups combined. I never heard from them again.”
When the same cartoon ran in the Cornell Review, a conservative student newspaper, pro-abortion students were so outraged that hundreds organized to steal and burn every stack of the n e w s p a p e r s they could get their hands on. Hentoff covered the protests for the Washington Post and the Village Voice, and was struck by the fact dozens of administrators and faculty members stood by, seemingly in blatant approval, while students fueled bonfires with stolen newspapers.
“They told me they couldn't do anything, because this was an expression of free speech,” said Hentoff. “These people think the stealing and burning of newspapers is a protected form of speech.”
Yet Cornell's Code of Conduct states, “The right to free expression requires respect for the rights of others.”
Outraged, Hentoff later spoke at Cornell and delivered scathing criticism of faculty and administrators, who did nothing to protect Asay's free expression and the First Amendment rights of student editors who chose to publish Asay's cartoon.
“These days, there's more censorship from the left than from the right,” Hentoff said. “People who work in the press are convinced abortion is an inalienable right. It's embedded in so-called 'liberals’ to the point that it has become a religion to them. They will not listen to the other side, period. They feel they don't have to tolerate the expression of pro-life sentiments.”
Asay and Hentoff both say they're fortunate to work for editors and publishers who value all free expression, even that which they find offensive. Hentoff says he's the only pro-lifer on the staff of theVillage Voice, a major alternative weekly in New York City.
Other pro-life journalists who have rallied in Asay's defense include Newsweek columnist George Will. He took to task the New York Times and USA Today for refusing to run an Asay cartoon last year that illustrated a violent, partial-birth abortion from the perspective of the unborn child.
“I have a world view that's based in scripture,” said Asay. “Any issue that comes along, when you boil it down, relates to how we got here, what has gone wrong in our fallen state, and how we're going to fix it. People who want to abort children, reduce populationand harvest stem cells — these are people who believe we're here by accident and we're on our own. I believe God will provide, and that all hope is in our designer.”
Wayne Laugesen writes from Boulder, Colorado.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Wayne Laugesen ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: World War II Pitted the Nazis Against the Catholic Church DATE: 09/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:RIMINI, Italy — What does New York Rabbi David Dalin think of Pope Pius XII?
“The Jewish people had no greater friend in the 20th century,” says the historian.
According to Rabbi Dalin, who last Wednesday addressed a meeting organized by the Catholic movement Communion and Liberation, “during the Second World War, Pius XII saved more Jewish lives than any other person, including Raoul Wallenberg and Oskar Schindler.”
You have labeled historians who have criticized Pope Pius XII as revisionists. Why?
Today there is a new generation of journalists and experts determined to discredit the documented efforts of Pius XII to save the Jews during the Holocaust.
This generation is inspired by Rolf Hochhuth's play The Vicar, which has no historical value, but levels controversial accusations against this Pope. However, Eugenio Pacelli's detractors ignore or neglect Pinchas Lapide's enlightening study.
[Lapide] was consul general of Israel in Milan and met with many Italian Jews who survived the Holocaust. In his work, Lapide documents how Pius XII worked for the salvation of at least 700,000 from the hands of the Nazis. However, according to another estimate, this figure rises to 860,000.
Why, then, has there been this change in appreciation?
I call today's critics revisionists because they reverse the judgment of history, namely, the recognition given to Pius XII by his contemporaries, among whom were Nobel Prize [winner] Albert Einstein, Chief Rabbi Isaac Herzog of Israel, Prime Ministers Golda Meir and Moshe Sharett; and, in Italy, people like Raffaele Cantoni, who at the time was president of the Italian Union of Jewish Communities. But many articles published at different times in Boston's Jewish Advocate, The Times of London, and The New York Times can also be perused.
What did Pope Pacelli do for the Jews?
We have much documentation, which shows that in no way did he remain silent. What is more, he spoke out loudly against Hitler, and almost everyone saw him as an opponent of the Nazi regime. During the German occupation of Rome, Pius XII secretly instructed the Catholic clergy to use all means to save as many human lives as possible.
In this way, he saved thousands of Italian Jews from deportation. While 80% of European Jews died in those years, 80% of Italian Jews were saved. In Rome alone, 155 convents and monasteries gave refuge to some 5,000 Jews. At any given moment, at least 3,000 were saved in the papal residence of Castel Gandolfo, being freed from deportation to German concentration camps.
For nine months, 60 Jews lived with the Jesuits at the Pontifical Gregorian University, and many others were hidden in the basement of the Biblical Institute. Following Pius XII's instructions, risking their own lives, many priests and monks made possible the salvation of hundreds of Jewish lives.
But the Pope never publicly denounced the anti-Semitic laws and persecution of the Jews.
His silence was an effective strategy, directed to protecting the greatest possible number of Jews from deportation. An explicit and severe denunciation of the Nazis by the Pope would have been an invitation to reprisals, and would have worsened attitudes toward Jews throughout Europe.
Of course one can ask: What could be worse than the extermination of 6 million Jews? The answer is simple, and terribly honest: the killing of hundreds of thousands of other Jews.
The revisionist critics of Pius XII know that both Jewish leaders and Catholic bishops who came from occupied countries advised Pacelli not to protest publicly against the atrocities committed by the Nazis.
We have evidence that, when the bishop of Munster wished to pronounce himself against the persecution of the Jews in Germany, the leaders of the Jewish communities of his diocese begged him not to do so, as it would have caused a harsher repression against them.
Don't you think that the excommunication of Nazis would have helped?
Yes, I would like to think so, and deep down I think that at least there should have been an attempt to pronounce a papal excommunication. However, despite these sentiments, the documents suggest that the excommunication of Hitler would have been a merely symbolic gesture.
Would it not have been better than silence?
On the contrary. History teaches that a formal excommunication could have achieved the opposite result.
Father Luigi Sturzo and the former chief rabbi of Denmark, for example, were specifically afraid of this. The Nazis themselves interpreted Pius XII's Christmas 1942 address as a clear condemnation of their regime and a demand in favor of Europe's Jews. The anger among the Nazis could have elicited catastrophic reactions for the security and fortune of the papacy itself in the years following the War.
A papal condemnation of the Nazis implied the well-founded and diffused suspicion at the time that Hitler would have sought vengeance in the person of the Pope himself, by attacking the Vatican.
Rudolph Rahn, the Nazi ambassador in Rome, confirmed the existence of these plans, which he himself helped to forestall.
In your writings, you propose a new historiography written by Jews on the “Pius XII case.” What do you mean?
I think the time has arrived on the Jewish side to get to work on a new reconstruction of the relation between Pius XII and the Holocaust.
This reconstruction, closer to the facts, namely, of what Pius XII really did for the Jews, would arrive at diametrically opposite conclusions to the gratuitous ones of John Cornwell's book, Hitler's Pope.
Pius XII was not Hitler's Pope, but the greatest defender that we Jews have ever had, and precisely at the time when we needed it.
This new work of historiography should be based in the judgment that his contemporaries made of the efforts, successes and failures of Pius XII, as well as of the way in which the Jews who survived the Holocaust evaluated (or revaluated) his life and influence in the succeeding decades.
Pope Pacelli was righteous among the nations, who must be recognized for having protected and saved hundreds of thousands of Jews.
It is difficult to imagine that so many world Jewish leaders, in such different continents, could have been mistaken or confused when it came to praising the Pope's conduct during the War.
Their gratitude to Pius XII lasted a long time, and it was genuine and profound.
(Original in Italian; translation by ZENIT)
----- EXCERPT: Pius XII Saved More Jews Than Schindler, Rabbi Says ----- EXTENDED BODY: Wayne Laugesen ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican ----------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 09/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:Sung Accepts Archbishop Milingo Separation
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Aug. 30— After a supervised meeting Aug. 29 with Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, Maria Sung accepted that he was leaving her, the news service reported. Sung expressed “hopes they would be reunited in the afterlife,” the report said.
The meeting lasted three hours at a Rome hotel and came after the two had been separated for three weeks. Archbishop Milingo explained that his commitments to the Church called for him to leave her.
The report quoted Sung saying, “For the great love for my husband, I'll respect his decision.” She added: “But that doesn't change the feeling I have for him in my heart.”
Sung also said Archbishop Milingo had given her a rosary. Massimo Introvigne, a noted Unification expert and the head of the Center for Studies on New Religions in Turin, Italy, said: “I think everybody lost in this case.”
Introvigne said that Archbishop Milingo commands a following of several thousand believers in Africa and Italy, and that the Vatican feared he might consecrate his own non-celibate bishops.
A Unification spokesman, Rev. Phillip Schanker, said Sung's supporters were merely trying to ensure that Archbishop Milingo had made his choice to leave Sung freely.
Sung and Archbishop Milingo were married in a group wedding May 27.
Vatican Calls for Reconciliation and End to Slavery
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, Aug. 29 — The Vatican outlined its contribution to the United Nations World Conference Against Racism, the wire service reported.
The Vatican statement condemned slavery, which “endures, not the least in Africa, between people of different ethnic groups, or elsewhere in other forms, by cruelly exploiting children, prostitutes or clandestine immigrants.”
The Vatican said that exploited individuals or groups may ask for just reparations but did not go into detail, and said that an apology may suffice where there is no clear means of moral redress.
The statement emphasized the responsibilities of richer countries to aid poorer ones, and the responsibility of all parties to avoid “lies, disloyalty, corruption, and political and ideological manipulation.”
Chile's President Warns Cardinal: Stay Out of Politics
BBC WORLD SERVICE, Aug. 29 — Chilean President Ricardo Lagos sharply objected to what he considered Catholic leaders’ interference in upcoming elections, the British news service reported. President Lagos criticized Cardinal Jorge Medina, the Vatican's prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, for his public support for retired admiral Jorge Arancibia.
Arancibia, a candidate for senator, opposes the legalization of divorce and abortion. Cardinal Medina urged Catholics to vote for him.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican ----------- TITLE: In Weakness, Strength DATE: 09/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:Register Summary
The Old Testament story of a woman who saved the Jews from annihilation demonstrates that women are called to fulfill unique and important roles in God's plan, Pope John Paul II said.
Speaking at his weekly general audience Aug. 29, the Pope said the story of Judith also reveals God's inclination to use those who are considered weak to manifest his power.
Vatican officials moved the audience into the blazing sunshine of St. Peter's Square to accommodate some 12,000 pilgrims from around the world. Summer audiences usually are held in the air-conditioned Paul VI Audience Hall.
The Pope said the story of Judith helps ground the Jewish and Christian tradition of emphasize “God's preference for that which is considered fragile and weak — but which, precisely because of this, is chosen to manifest God's power.”
The song of praise that was just proclaimed (Judith 16:1-17) is attributed to Judith. This heroine became the pride of all the women of Israel, because it fell to her to express God's liberating power at a dramatic moment in the life of his people.
The liturgy of Lauds has us recite only a few verses from this canticle of hers. They invite us to celebrate, singing at the top of our voices and playing tambourines and cymbals, in praise of the Lord who “crushes warfare” (verse 2).
This phrase, which describes the true face of the God who loves peace, introduces us to the context in which the hymn was born. It concerns a victory achieved by the Israelites in a totally surprising way — a work of God, who intervenes to save them from the prospect of imminent and total defeat.
Overpowering Opposition
Writing centuries after this event, the sacred author reconstructs it in order to offer an example that can help encourage his own brothers and sisters in faith, who are being tempted to discouragement in a difficult situation. He therefore recalls what happened to Israel when Nebechadnezzar, who was irritated by this people's opposition to his expansionist aims and idolatrous demands, sent the general Holofernes with the specific task of subjugating and annihiliating them.
No one was supposed to be able to resist this king who claimed the honors due to a god. And his general, who shared this presumptuous attitude, made fun of the warning he was given not to attack Israel because it would be tantamount to attacking God himself.
In reality, the sacred author wishes to highlight this very principle in order to confirm believers of his day in loyalty to the God of the covenant: they need to have trust in God.
It is not the powerful of the earth who are the real enemy that Israel should fear, but rather unfaithfulness to the Lord. This is what deprives Israel of God's protection and makes it vulnerable. But when instead the people are faithful, they can count on the power of God himself, who is “wonderful in power and unsurpassable” (verse 13).
Looming Defeat
The whole story of Judith illustrates this principle in a splendid way. The setting is the land of Israel at a time when enemies are invading it.
The drama of this moment stands out in the canticle: “The Assyrian came from the mountains of the north, with the myriads of his forces he came; their numbers blocked the torrents, their horses covered the hills” (verse 3). With sarcasm, the enemy's short-lived arrogance is underlined: “He threatened to burn my land, put my youths to the sword, dash my babes to the ground, make my children a prey, and seize my virgins as spoil” (verse 4).
The situation described in Judith's words resembles others experienced by Israel, in which salvation arrived when there seemed to be no way of escape. Wasn't this also the case with the salvation in Exodus, the wondrous crossing of the Red Sea?
Now, too, the siege of a numerous and powerful army has removed all hope. But all this only serves to make manifest the power of God, who reveals himself as the invincible protector of his people.
Human Weakness, God's Power
God's work stands out all the more brightly in that he does not turn to a warrior or an army. Just as once before, in the time of Deborah, he had done away with the Canaanite general Sisera by means of a woman named Jael (Judges 4:17-21), he now again works through an unarmed woman to come to the aid of the people in distress. Strengthened by her faith, Judith enters the enemy camp, captivates the commander by her beauty, and kills him in a humiliating way.
The canticle strongly emphasizes this fact: “But the Lord Almighty thwarted them, by a woman's hand he confounded them. Not by youths was their mighty one struck down, nor did titans bring him low, nor huge giants attack him; but Judith, the daughter of Merari, by the beauty of her countenance disabled him” (Judith 16:5-6).
The figure of Judith then became the archetype that would allow not only the Jewish but also the Christian tradition to emphasize God's preference for that which is considered fragile and weak — but which, precisely because of this, is chosen to manifest God's power.
She is also an exemplary figure who expresses the vocation and mission of woman, who is called just as man is to play a significant role in God's plan, according to her specific characteristics.
Several expressions from the book of Judith have passed more or less integrally into the Christian tradition, which sees in the Jewish heroine one of the prefigurations of Mary. Don't we perhaps hear an echo of Judith when Mary sings in the Magnificat: “He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones but lifted up the lowly” (Luke 1:52)?
It is therefore understandable how the liturgical tradition familiar to Christians of both East and West likes to apply to Jesus’ mother expressions attributed to Judith, like this one: “You are the glory of Jerusalem, the surpassing joy of Israel; you are the splendid boast of our people” (Judith 15:9).
Revere the Lord
Beginning with the experience of victory, the canticle of Judith ends with an invitation to lift up a new song to God, acknowledging him as “great and glorious.” At the same time, it warns all creatures to remain subject to him whose word has made everything and who has shaped it by his Spirit.
Who can stand against the voice of God? Judith reminds us of this most emphatically: before the Creator and Lord of history, the mountains will be shaken to their foundations, the rocks will melt like wax (Judith 16:15). These are effective metaphors reminding us that everything is as nothing in the face of God's power.
And yet this song of victory is not meant to terrify, but to comfort. God does in fact offer his invincible power to sustain those who are faithful to him: “But to those who fear you, you are very merciful” (Judith 16:15).
(Translation by Zenit and Register)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican ----------- TITLE: U.N. Body Demands Guatemala Legalize Abortion DATE: 09/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:GUATEMALA CITY — In late July, Guatemala was caught by surprise when the United Nations Human Rights Committee concluded its 72nd session with a report on human rights violations in Guatemala calling for the legalization of abortion.
The Human Rights Committee monitors international compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and issues non-binding recommendations to national government.
But even though there is no mention of abortion in the international covenant, the committee said that Guatemala “must guarantee the right to the life of pregnant women who decide to interrupt their pregnancies, by providing them with the information and the means necessary to guarantee these rights and amending the law to establish exceptions to the general prohibition against all abortion, except where the mother is in danger of death.”
The Human Rights Committee also complained about the Third Article of the Guatemalan Constitution, which proclaims that “the State guarantees and protects human life from the time of conception.” The committee said this article creates “serious problems, mainly in light of uncontested information on the high incidence of maternal mortality, of clandestine abortions, and the lack of information on family planning.”
“What the committee is basically doing is to demand a free, sovereign country to disobey its constitution and redraft it. That is simply outrageous,” said Mercedes Arzú Wilson, a Guatemalan delegate at several U.N. major conferences that dealt with life and family issues.
Wilson added that the current Guatemalan government, although nominally pro-life, has “completely ignored” the issue of the U.N. committee's comments, as have local media authorities. Said Wilson, “I personally sent this information to the newspapers and they simply decided not to print it.”
As for the government, “It seems that there are some orders from above to introduce these changes without the people knowing it,” Wilson added.
No Knowledge
The lack of information about the U.N. committee's pro-abortion demands was confirmed by Elízar Castro, spokesman for the Pro-Family Association, the local affiliate of International Planned Parenthood Federation. When asked about his group's reaction to the Human Rights Committee's demands, Castro said, “We have no idea, there have been nothing about that in the media, and we don't have other ways to know about details.”
Asked if the Guatemalan IPPF affiliate would support a hypothetical effort, foreign or local, to force the legalization of abortion, Castro said, “Here abortion is an ideological issue, too charged with ethical and emotional elements. Currently we only offer our services to people looking for reversible or non-reversible birth control methods.”
Guatemalan pro-lifers remain on guard against any effort by local pro-abortionists to use the Human Rights Committee ruling to pressure for changes to Guatemala's pro-life Constitution.
“This is definitely an insult to Guatemala's sovereignty, but we will take care it doesn't become more than just that,” said Mario Ríos, spokesman for the Right to Life Defense Commission, an organization created in 1984 to defend unborn life against political efforts to promote mandatory birth control and abortion.
Ríos said the only way to fulfill the Human Rights Committee's demands would be by changing the Constitution, “and I believe that is something the people of Guatemala would reject, because we live and breathe a pro-life culture.”
Nevertheless, he acknowledged there is increasing pressure from non-governmental organizations, the United Nations and developed countries to introduce abortion in a step-by-step basis.
“About 60% to 65% of our population is Native American, and they have a deep sense of the value of life, of children as a blessing in any circumstance, and therefore, they see abortion as a crime,” said Ríos. “So we are not concerned about the position of our people, but about the weakness of our government, which is prone to accept this kind of [pro-abortion] pressure in exchange for economic help.”
In fact, in the last year, current Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo has reinstated in public hospitals all of the UN-financed birth control methods that were rejected by the former government of President Alvaro Arzú.
Said Ríos, “Unfortunately, we now have a very weak government that, in order to maintain credibility among international donors, is willing to accept almost any kind of foreign pressure.”
Canada's Role
Relations with Canada showcase this situation. The Canadian International Development Agency, or CIDA, which has played a key role in providing material aid to Guatemala, has recently put $2 million into a United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) campaign that includes the promotion of chemical abortion.
CIDA has officially stated that the Guatemalan project is aimed at “increased demand, supply, access and quality of reproductive health services, including contraceptives, in Guatemala.” CIDA's statement also notes that the “UNFPA will work in partnership with the Ministry of Health and other relevant ministries to address the key constraints that have prevented the Health Ministry from meeting the large unmet demand for reproductive health services.”
No CIDA official in Guatemala was available for comment.
Pro-life advocates say that the Human Rights Committee's recent criticism of Guatemala is another element of this international drive to promote “reproductive health services,” including abortion.
“Of course, the Human Rights Committee is another smoke curtain,” said Mercedes Arzú Wilson, who is the sister of Alvaro Arzú. “The IPPF and the ideologues of contraception are the real engine behind this pressure.”
Added Wilson, “Guatemala is today more vulnerable than ever. Since we are a poor country, our only riches are our people, our children, our family, our faith. And even those riches they want to take away from us.”
Alejandro Bermúdez is based in Lima, Peru.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Alejandro Bermudez ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 09/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:Liberian Church Sues Government Over Radio Ban
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, Aug. 28 — Liberia's Catholic Church filed suit against the government for banning its radio station, Veritas, from using shortwave frequencies, the wire service reported.
Liberian despot Charles Taylor's government banned Veritas in late July. In August, Taylor announced that he would only allow three stations to use shortwave: his private network, the state-owned network and the religious station Radio ELWA (Eternal Love Winning Africa).
Taylor had tried to shut down Veritas in March 2000, but backed off under heavy international pressure.
Cardinal Glemp's Guidelines for Polish Voters
POLISH NEWS BULLETIN, Aug. 27 — Cardinal Jozef Glemp, the head of the Catholic Church in Poland, announced ethical guidelines for Catholic voters in a sermon in Czechostowa, the Polish news service reported.
Cardinal Glemp told 250,000 worshipers, “In the parliamentary election Catholics should not vote for those who agree to abortion, same-sex partnerships, genetic manipulation and euthanasia.” The crowd included several members of the Polish Parliament.
Kenya Plans to Make All Schools Protestant
AFRICA NEWS, Aug. 29 — Kenyan Minister of State Marsden Madoka announced that the government will hand over control of all schools in two provinces to a Pentecostal church, the African news service reported.
Madoka said the African Independent Pentecostal Church of Africa would instill “Kikuyu cultural values” — the Kikuyu are a major ethnic group in Kenya — and quell unrest in the schools of the Central and Eastern provinces. Opponents said the government wanted to lessen the influence of churches that had clashed with government policies.
The plan reportedly has President Daniel arap Moi's approval, although an assistant minister for education denounced it.
Some of the schools were founded by the Independent Pentecostal Church but were long ago handed over to Catholics, Methodists, Presbyterians, and the Africa Inland Church by Kenya's colonial government.
West African Bishops Gather in Nigeria
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, Aug. 27 — Catholic bishops from English-speaking countries in west Africa met in the southeastern Nigerian city of Enugu, the wire service reported.
The weeklong conference included bishops from Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. The conference discussed problems facing the Church and its role in west Africa. It also received a delegation from the conference of French-speaking west African bishops.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: Editorial DATE: 09/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:At a recent meeting with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, a Noble Peace Prize official let it slip that John Paul II will likely never get the prize, for one reason: He won't toe the line on condoms.
Said Norwegian Lutheran Bishop Gunnar Staalseth, a member of the select committee responsible for awarding the honor: “The current Roman Catholic theology is one that favors death rather than life. … Condom use should be tolerated as a way to stop the spread of AIDS.”
The bishop's remarks are extremely unfortunate — not just because they unjustly deny the Holy Father an honor he richly deserves, but because they are indicative of an attitude that is literally killing people around the world.
In the future, the Church's no-condoms stance will be seen as prophetic. Catholic teaching spells out moral reasons for avoiding condoms. Science is showing once again that the moral way is the best way medically. Condoms aren't only bad for the soul — they're bad at preventing disease.
Don't just take our word for it. The National Institutes of Health came to the same conclusion recently after poring over 138 separate peer-reviewed studies.
Condoms were judged totally useless against Human papillomavirus, or HPV, the cause of 90% of all cases of cervical cancer. HPV kills more American women each year than AIDS, making this yet another instance where women's only true defender is the Catholic Church. Where others promote condom use, which leads to HPV deaths while providing a false sense of security, the Church promotes abstinence outside of marriage, which saves women's lives.
Even when condoms are most effective, the odds are still worse than the odds in Russian roullette. They have an 85% effective rate against AIDS, according to the National Institutes of Health. In other words, having sex with a condom with someone who has AIDS and then expecting not to be infected is like putting a bullet in a six-chamber revolver, spinning it, firing it at your head and expecting not to die.
Dr. Joanna Mohn is one of 2,000 doctors demanding the resignation of the head of the Centers for Disease Control because he has hidden the truth about condoms.
She reports hearing from teens in her practice who are bewildered at their diagnosis with a venereal disease because they thought they were being “responsible.”
Of course, not all teens — or adults — are “responsible” the way they're asked to be. Teens have trouble mustering up enough responsibility to regularly floss their teeth, let alone to do the “right thing” in the heat of a passionate moment that is often clouded by alcohol.
This makes the actual effective rate of condom use even lower. Pope John Paul II and the Catholic Church may be shunned now for teaching the truth about sexuality, but we won't be for long.
Human society cannot long sustain a situation in which the medical community and the most respected and trusted thinkers — like the Nobel Peace Prize committee members — promote practices that literally kill people. It makes matters worse when they publicly attack the few people brave enough to tell the truth.
In the end, the Catholic Church will be applauded for standing firm on the meaning, dignity and beauty of sexuality. We can all be proud that our Church is willing to tell the world again and again that sex is too good and too powerful — too sacred — to waste on anyone but a spouse.
----- EXCERPT: The Church Is Right on Condoms ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion ----------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 09/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:‘Dummy’ Headline
In your Aug. 5-11 issue, on the first page, in the “Inbrief” section, you make note of the recent publishing of “a simplified version of the book Love and Responsibility… to make the thought of John Paul II more accessible.”
I think heading that particular news brief “Theology of the Body for Dummies” is neither accurate nor charitable; nor does it serve the intended purpose of the simplified version, which is to expose a wider audience to the thought of Pope John Paul II on a very important topic in contemporary society.
It's my hope that characterizing the book as one for “dummies” doesn't discourage people who are otherwise unfamiliar with the Holy Father's theology of the body, from reading his profound insights on this topic.
MICHAEL MCBRIDE
Brooklyn, New York
Joan of Cyberspace
In your Aug. 12-18 edition, you published a letter from Msgr. Myron J. Pleskac of Lincoln, Neb., who inquired about a French movie about St. Joan of Arc which you previously listed as a weekly video pick.
If he has access to the Internet, I think the good monsignor might wish to check out a Web site which is dedicated to St. Joan of Arc.
It's the St. Joan of Arc Center founded by Virginia Frohlick. Its Web address is www.stjoan-center.com. Frohlick has movie reviews of every movie ever made about St. Joan and Msgr. Pleskac might be interested in checking out her comments about this movie.
JOHN M. CRAVEN
Boise, Idaho
Snake Oil and Embryos
Regarding “Church Opposes Human Research Plan” (Aug. 19-25):
It continues to amaze me that so many people still believe the snake-oil salesmen who promise cures for Parkinson's, Alzheimer's or diabetes through embryonic stem-cell research. Weren't these diseases already cured as was promised by these same charlatans, when they advocated fetal-tissue research few years ago? The latter promises turned into disastrous failures, as might well be the case with the latest research.
The most hopeful results thus far have been attained with adult stem cells from the individual to be cured. In this case, the problem of tissue rejection is absent, and no human life needs to be ended prematurely.
The argument that some embryos are going to be trashed or die anyway could be applied to all of us. It is the same argument that Hitler's “doctors” used to justify their gruesome experiments at Auschwitz. We all are going to die, but this does not give anyone the right to use us for research, especially if it causes us grave harm or our premature death.
Science has clearly shown that human life begins at fertilization in that only nourishment and time are needed for the initial cell, with its unique DNA, to grow to adulthood. We were all embryos once. The time has come to cure the self-professed ignorance of the 1973 Supreme Court regarding the beginning-of-life question. I'll be glad to donate some stem cells for this cure.
WENDELL NEUGEBAUER
Ballston Spa, New York
Over the Top on Stem Cells
“Spinning” the headline of a news story is not what I would expect of the Register. Your Aug. 19-25 front page exploded with the headline “Church Opposes Human Research Plan.”
Your news articles quoted Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua as saying, “I am grateful that the president has remained faithful to his pro-life stance,” etc. The Register went on to quote Bishop Fiorenza, who expressed misgivings and also referred to Father Shanley of Catholic University, who said, “Bush's apparent understanding of the issues involved only makes matters worse.”
On the other hand, you quote Msgr. Smith of St. Joseph's Seminary contending the decision was “on balance positive.”
Which is it? Is the Church opposed to the president's research plan, or not? And, if so, just who is speaking for the Church? Is it our clergy, or the Register? My point is that the Register acted like a London tabloid reporting the Church opposed to Mr. Bush's decision. The Register's strong language was, in today's parlance, “over the top.”
EAMON T. FENNESSY
Prides Crossing, Massachusetts
Thank You on Stem Cells
Thank you for your excellent editorial on President Bush's decision concerning funding of embryonic stem-cell research. (“To Stop a Flood,” Aug. 19-25).
I urge all pro-lifers to express public support for Bush's decision (even if it is not the best one can conceive) and make that support known to the legislators in the Congress. For, without an avalanche of such expressions of public support, the Congress will surely pass a vetoproof bill which allows federal funding of research on stem cells obtained from “discarded” or “unwanted” embryos.
This is a distinct possibility in a “throw-away” society like ours, especially since many forget that a human embryo is a human being in one of its earlier stages of growth.
JAMES B.T. CHU
New Haven, Connecticut
Partisan on Stem Cells?
The case presented in your August 19-25 editorial defending President Bush's decision to fund embryonic stem cell research (“To Stop a Flood”) would be appropriate for a partisan Republican publication, not for a credible Catholic periodical.
With this decision, President Bush is not “stopping a flood,” but breaking down a new moral barrier that was previously intact. This so-called “pro-life” Republican administration will be the first in our history to fund research that relies on the killing of defenseless human beings for the benefit of others. The establishment of this precedent will most certainly be used to rationalize the further destruction of innocents in the future.
Any Catholic periodical should understand that a debate such as this relies first and foremost on the defense of objective moral principles articulated by the Catholic Church. Without such principles there is no rational basis for the defense of embryonic or fetal children. Yet the Register insists that our president, who positively supports legal child-killing in certain circumstances (rape, incest, alleged life of the mother), is “pro-life.”
George W. Bush may be less pro-abortion than Hillary Clinton, but he just as surely breaks the same moral principle “that it is never acceptable to intentionally kill an innocent human being.” Capitulations of this principle yesterday continue to justify broad child killing today.
Rather than echoing the misleading GOP mantra that George Bush is “pro-life,” readers of a Catholic periodical should understand that obstinate agreement with such a position would require the Church to refuse them Holy Communion.
PATRICK DELANEY
Stafford, Virginia
The writer is an associate director of the American Life League.
Praying the Register?
I have always had the highest regard for your newspaper and enjoy reading it. But in the Aug. 19-25 issue, the advertisement on Page 12 has me very upset. Quoting it: “Finished with your National Catholic Register? Leave it in an Adoration Chapel.”
An Adoration Chapel is what the name implies — for prayer and adoration of Jesus Christ. As good as your newspaper is, it does not qualify as proper material for prayer and adoration, and for you to suggest reading it there is, in my opinion, wrong, and a surprise to me.
VIRGINIA KNIGHT
Lincoln, Nebraska
Maybe it's because I'm young. Maybe it's because I'm a woman. Whatever the reason, people often ask me why I ever pursued a doctorate in theology.
For me, everything led to theology. Studying in Rome, I expected the obvious: learning the great things and sipping a glass of Chianti as favorite arias played in the background. For local color there would be the Romans themselves and I would just happen to live in the same city as the Pope. Not too shabby.
Studying in Rome was an opportunity to do a double major of sorts, the second being Rome itself. In fact, John Paul II, recalling his days as a student in Rome, once urged Catholic theology students to learn Rome. “After all,” he explained, “a doctorate in theology can be gotten elsewhere!”
For a lay-woman in particular, this double major sometimes seemed like a double life. Classes were made up mostly of seminarians, priests and religious. But, outside the university, it was a Ciao, bella world.
Within two or three days of first arriving in Rome, I went with some friends to the Holy Father's first Meeting with World Families, one of the largest events ever held in St. Peter's Square. The crowd was overwhelming and, since I wasn't in a multicultural frame of mind, the presentations quickly got old.
But there were two amazing highlights. When Mother Teresa addressed the crowd, our likes and dislikes for certain types of music or dance disappeared. Everyone knew that she was a model for each of us despite our glaring differences.
Shortly afterward, the Holy Father led everyone in the Our Father in Latin. Hearing tens of thousands of people praying together, I would have had to make a concerted effort to miss the obvious truth that our differences were transcended by something — by Someone — far greater than ourselves.
One professor used to joke that Rome was the deposit of faith because everybody came and left theirs. Yet, in the people I met, I saw that those who really seek the truth actually seek God. Even if they don't know it.
Students, many non-Catholic, would come from all over the world to study Latin with Father Reginald Foster simply because he's the best Latin teacher. Father Foster doesn't believe in textbooks, so we only used real Latin — “like the bums and prostitutes of Rome used to speak.”
Well, not exactly. He used examples of the best Latin ever written. And in doing so, he was exposing all of us, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, to the truth.
Those who seek the truth seek God — even if they don't know it. For us Catholics, the link between truth and God should have been obvious. But that wasn't always the case.
By using texts that covered more than 2,000 years, he was also opening our eyes to the reality of the human condition and, ultimately, the human desire for God. There was at least one person in my classes for whom this was the definitive step toward conversion, a young non-Catholic woman who became a friend of mine. She started the class as an angry, almost diehard feminist; she ended up converting. Father Foster baptized her.
Lessons like these confirmed the mandate to learn Rome. There was more to the degree than books alone. For example, stand at any street corner in downtown Rome, and you're looking at an instant history lesson. The buildings span the centuries. Small shrines, typically Marian, affixed to the palazzo walls, were built over even more ancient pagan shrines. They witness the continuity of the human heart's desire to have some sort of contact with the divine. The desire is the same. We've only changed who and how we worship, thanks to God's giving himself to us through the Incarnation.
The site of the Vatican was once an arena and part of the necropolis of Rome. Then it became home to the bones of St. Peter and, finally, St. Peter's Basilica — our Vatican. Rome consistently witnesses to unity, even when different and even opposing worldviews have been thrown together.
But the lessons of Rome transcend history. For Rome points to our future. It points to eternity. For my part, I'd like to take all I learned and use it to bring Christ to every culture, every situation, every person I can reach. My model? Pope John Paul II, of course — a perpetual student who never stops learning the culture and the times, so that he can reach as many hearts and minds as possible with the Gospel.
I was able to attend his private Mass once. While I was waiting to enter the chapel, I looked down the hall and saw a door slowly open. It was the Pope, sneaking a look to see who'd come to visit.
After all the Masses he's said, and all the people he's met, you would think the whole thing would be old news. Yet here he was with a look of almost childlike expectation on his face.
St. Francis once advised: “Expect nothing, that you may enjoy everything.” That's the spirit I saw in the Holy Father's face that day. It's the spirit I hope others will see in me one day.
Pia de Solenni is a theologian in Washington, D.C. She can be reached at adsum00@yahoo.com.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Pia de Solenni ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary ----------- TITLE: You Say You Want an Evolution? DATE: 09/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:Pope Pius XII issued Humani Generis on Aug. 12, 1950. Among other things, the encyclical declared that, as long as one distinguished carefully between “clearly proved facts” and unproved and contested “hypotheses,” “the Teaching Authority of the Church does not forbid that … research and discussions … take place with regard to the doctrine of evolution.
“However, this must be done in such a way that the reasons for both opinions, that is, those favorable and those unfavorable to evolution, be weighed and judged with the necessary seriousness, moderation and measure.”
Insofar as we are concerned with the judgment of natural reason, that is the fundamental statement of the Catholic Church's approach to the doctrine of evolution, and it is eminently reasonable.
Sadly, PBS’ new seven-part series “Evolution,” which begins airing this month, fails in regard to these obvious dictates of reason. For starters, we hear nothing about the serious and well-known controversies within the evolutionary camp itself, nor do we hear of any scientific criticisms of Darwinism from without. Also, not surprisingly, Christianity is set up for a most unsubtle drubbing.
It seems that Clear Blue Sky Productions, which produced the series, was bent on offering a remake of the movie Inherit the Wind, where the cool, calm voice of reason (favoring evolution) is pitted against the fevered ravings of irrational biblical fundamentalism (opposing evolution).
The Inherit the Wind caricature in “Evolution” is most clearly seen in the first and last episodes. “Darwin's Dangerous Idea,” the first episode, opens with a docudrama depicting Darwin slogging through South America with Capt. FitzRoy of the H.M.S. Beagle, the ship on which Darwin made his great voyage of discovery in 1831. The two come into immediate conflict — a fictionalized conflict which represents neither Darwin's nor FitzRoy's actual beliefs at the time of the voyage. In a village, Darwin finds the skull of an animal species obviously no longer among the living. “I wonder why these creatures no longer exist?” he muses. Capt. FitzRoy offers an explanation: “Perhaps the ark was too small to allow them entry, and they perished in the flood.” Darwin is barely able to suppress his laughter.
Faith of the Apes
In “What About God,” the series finale, the laughter is no longer suppressed. Biblical literalist Ken Ham and his sidekick, a singing fundamentalist cowboy — I am not making this up — are trotted out as the only critics of Darwinian evolution. Ken Ham thumps his Bible; the singing cowboy thumps his guitar and belts out intellectually challenged anti-evolution songs; clapping parishioners thump their hands together in wide-eyed approval.
For those thinking folk who still must have their religion, we are assured that, as long as they accept the Darwinian account of evolution as orthodoxy, they are free to have any belief they want. To support this position, Catholic biologist Ken Miller, author of Finding Darwin's God, is introduced. “I'm an orthodox Catholic, and an orthodox Darwinist,” he tells us. “I believe that God works in concert with the principles of evolution.”
But the viewer is left dangling, waiting for an explanation of just exactly how “God works in concert with the principles of evolution.” This lacuna is all the more ironic because Miller is first shown sitting in Mass listening to the strains of children singing “All things bright and beautiful/The Lord God made them all.” But orthodox Darwinism declares that chance and chance alone governs natural selection, and that human beings and all other living things “bright and beautiful” are the accidental result of countless, random variations.
We are led to believe that serious, sharp disagreements simply do not exist among evolutionists. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The Catholic faith declares that God's creative power and wisdom govern creation, and that all living things, including human beings, are the intended result of his divine plan. How can the two fit together? We are not told.
To take another, even stranger example, one of the scientists featured prominently in the series is Richard Dawkins, whose books are all written to show that Darwinism leads necessarily (and happily, for him) to atheism. How can Miller and Dawkins both be orthodox Darwinists and come to opposite conclusions about the effect of Darwinism on religion? We are not told that either.
There's still more wrong with “Evolution.” Anyone familiar with the history of evolutionary theory and the current controversies among proponents of evolution will be surprised to find no hint of any disagreement among those within the evolutionary community — and no mention of any scientific opposition to Darwinism from without.
So careful is the series to present a united front of unambiguous, unanimous support for evolution among scientists, that it never mentions the well-known disputes among evolutionists. (There are many.) Where is the discord over the lack of transitional species in the fossil record? The tussling over mapping to show which species descended from which? The debate over the role of DNA in selection and inheritance?
We are led to believe that serious difficulties, sharp disagreements and heated controversies simply do not exist among proponents of evolution. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth.
Silencing the Credible Critics
As for the scientific opposition to Darwinism, the serious criticisms of his theory by scientists of Darwin's own day do not appear in the docudrama of Darwin's life, nor do we hear from proponents of the intelligent-design theory, with their compelling, scientifically sound criticisms of evolutionary theory.
Adherents of intelligent design are not biblical literal-ists; they are not fundamental-ist preachers; they do not sing hokey anti-evolution songs. They have Ph.D.'s in evolutionary biology, chemistry, biochemistry, molecular and cell biology, biophysics, nuclear physics, microbiology, physics, mathematics and astronomy — and they have come to doubt, on scientific grounds alone, the fundamental tenets of Darwinian evolutionary theory. Further, as their name suggests, they argue that the evidence of science actually points directly to an intelligent designer of nature.
Why doesn't anyone from the intelligent-design community appear in “Evolution”? As it turns out, they were asked to appear, but only in the last episode, where they feared that they would be miscast as fundamentalists. According to Jay Richards from the Discovery Institute (the leading think tank for intelligent design), it soon became clear that the series’ producers “weren't going to allow any reasoned dissent from any aspect of Darwin's theory of evolution. They certainly weren't going to allow any empirical evidence that contradicts Darwinism to see the light of day. Ultimately, we decided that the series was going to be an expensive piece of propaganda.” As a result, the Discovery Institute advised Discovery fellows and other intelligent-design proponents not to participate.
Well, with all these defects, is the series worth watching?
Yes. There are a lot of well-done segments interspersed throughout, and strong arguments are made for evolution of which every thinking person should be aware. But in order that viewers not confuse facts with hypotheses — and that “both opinions, that is, those favorable and those unfavorable to evolution, be weighed and judged with the necessary seriousness, moderation and measure” — some additional resources should be used.
Viewers can obtain a copy of the Discovery Institute's “Viewer's Guide,” which has been prepared specifically to supplement the PBS series. This guide is designed to help sort out fact from hypotheses and fiction, and contains a very thorough bibliography for those who wish to do further reading on evolution. It is available from the institute's Web site, www.discovery.org.
I've already watched it once, in preview, and I'm sure I'll watch it again. It may have its share of monkey business — keep the kids out of the room for Part 5, “Why Sex?” — but we who know that we are more than evolutionarily gifted apes owe it to both reason and faith to know both sides of this debate.
Ben Wiker, a fellow with the Discovery Institute, teaches philosophy of science at Franciscan
University of Steubenville (Ohio).
----- EXCERPT: A new PBS series serves it up slanted ----- EXTENDED BODY: Benjamin Wiker ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary ----------- TITLE: Our Last, Best Hope in the European Union DATE: 09/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:An incredibly ambitious project is under way in Europe, but most Americans haven't taken much notice of it. Yet.
Slowly at first, but picking up speed now, the countries of Europe are being knitted together into a political, legal and economic union.
What began shortly after World War II as a coal and steel treaty involving six countries now comprises 15 countries that go under the name of the European Union. Twelve more countries, mostly in Eastern Europe, have applied to join, hoping they can benefit from the relative affluence of their neighbors to the west.
Ireland joined what was then called the European Economic Community in 1973. The Irish have consistently been the most enthusiastic members ever since. We credit the organization — wrongly in my view — with much of our newfound prosperity. But on June 7, our enthusiasm showed serious signs of waning, because on that day we voted against taking the next step along the road to European political union: We voted against the Nice Treaty.
This treaty was the latest in a long line of initiatives, the cumulative effect of which has been to take a great deal of sovereignty away from the nation-state — handing much authority over to the EU, which is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium.
On June 7 the Irish rebelled against this process. The result is that a wrench has been thrown in the works of the EU because, for a treaty to take effect, every member-state must ratify it. In voting No, we did a favor for the millions of other Europeans who are skeptical about the way the EU is going, but have been deprived of the right to have their say in the ballot box. Ireland is the only country which put Nice to its people by way of referendum. Everywhere else, it is being passed by the national parliaments without a national vote.
The main reason Irish people voted against Nice (by a margin of 54% to 46%) was because we feared too much of our sovereignty was being ceded to Brussels.
But different groups had different concerns over exactly what this would mean. Many Irish Catholics are worried that Brussels is promoting a radical, secularizing agenda which is alien and repugnant to them. As evidence, they cite the stances the EU adopts at the United Nations and international conferences.
The latest example of this came last month at a summit on AIDS that took place at U.N. headquarters in New York. The EU wanted a document included in the declaration that would call for “safe, legal” abortion. A second called for legalized prostitution, and a third for homosexual marriage.
How did Ireland, with its pro-life Constitution, respond to this? With total silence. As a member of the EU, Ireland has lost its voice in these matters. Neither our laws nor our ethos have any bearing on EU policies because, at international forums, the EU must speak with one voice. On family and life issues, that voice is almost always inimical to Judeo-Christian values.
In light of this, the decision of some of Ireland's leading bishops to come out with a statement supporting the Nice treaty is exceptionally mysterious. Why would they support something like the EU? The answer, I think, is naiveté.
Many of their colleagues across the Continent entertain the fond and romantic notion that a united Europe will in some way re-create Christendom. After all, they reason, it was the rise of the nation-state that helped to fracture Christendom in the first place. They also think that a united Europe will secure the peace of Europe, and surely all Christians must support that? Furthermore, they believe that the EU will help to share the wealth of the richer nations with the poorer nations. Isn't this, too, a Christian ideal?
Back to reality. The idea that the EU will in some way resemble Christendom is, frankly, too incredible to be entertained.
The hope that a united Europe will bring about lasting peace and help share the wealth of the continent more evenly is defensible at least. But while this helps to explain why a French or a German bishop might support the EU, it does not explain the attitude of the Irish bishops. France and Germany are much further down the radical secular path than Ireland. For example, they already allow abortion. So a French or a German bishop can calculate that a stronger EU could hardly make their laws any worse.
But this is emphatically not the case for Ireland.
Our laws are not yet as hostile to life and the family as are those of many other European countries. So, from a Christian viewpoint, there is much to be lost from closer European integration. The fear of many Irish Catholics is that eventually the European norm on these matters will be imposed on Ireland — in much the same way Roe v. Wade imposed abortion on all American states.
The debate concerning Ireland and the EU is reaching a crunch point. Next year the government will almost certainly present the people with Nice again, hoping we say Yes the second time around.
Given the drift of the EU, there are good reasons for hoping that Ireland will say No again. Catholics everywhere should be glad if it does.
David Quinn is editor of The Irish Catholic in Dublin.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: David Quinn ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary ----------- TITLE: French Fortress of the Faith DATE: 09/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:Mont St. Michel, a massive Benedictine abbey-church, rises imposingly above a steep granite outcrop-ping on France's Normandy coast.
The rock was once an island in the Bay of Mont St. Michel. Pilgrims had to ford it to reach their destination. Modern tourists can avail themselves of a causeway for cars. From base to tip, the edifice measures more than 500 feet; this is astounding when one remembers that the current church is almost nine centuries old. The glint of Frémiet's golden statue of St. Michael the archangel crowns his namesake mount. No wonder the church was called “the Marvel of the West.”
The island was one of those remote spots that attracted hermits and holy men from earliest times. In 708 Aubert, bishop of nearby Avranches, had a vision of St. Michael. The archangel commanded him to dedicate the island to his cult. Monks under the rule of St. Benedict eventually assumed care of the site in 966.
During the Middle Ages, Mont St. Michel became an important point of pilgrimage in France. Even today, the approach to the site is impressive; it must have been entrancing in a world in which sky scrapers were unknown.
As you come upon the mount, it teases you. It appears on the horizon, appearing in solitude above the otherwise flat Norman countryside. Even when it seems to lie right in front of you, the mount plays tricks on your eyes. As you approach along the modern road, the mount keeps growing until, standing at its base, you see just how gigantic it really is.
Imagine the impression Mont St. Michel must have made on the medieval traveler, after a long and arduous trek, with the abbey finally beckoning on the horizon. There were still those last few miles, crossing the bay, watching out for quicksand, until one finally clambered onto this rock to find food and lodging among the inns nestled in the town below.
Heavenly Bulwark
Having attended to the temporal, the pilgrim of old then addressed the eternal. The abbey church crowns this rock, and scaling the grand stairs leading up to it must have been a soul-stirring experience. Once inside the church, the lofty, flamboyant Gothic architecture continued the overall effect, lifting pilgrims’ eyes and minds heavenward. It would have been easy to see this magnificent church as the New Jerusalem come down from heaven (Revelation 21:10).
Mont St. Michel was a medieval pilgrimage destination, but it was also in the Middle Ages that it became a symbol of France. During the Hundred Years’ War between England and France, the mount resisted English bombardment and blockade to become a symbol of French resistance. This was the era when neighboring regions gave birth to another French heroine and saint — Joan of Arc.
Over the years, the Benedictine community waned.
By the time of the French Revolution the rock was a shade of its former glory, serving as a jail for prisoners (some called it “the Bastille of the Sea”). Only during the 19th century was there a revival of the religious community there and, today, Benedictines still live on the “island.”
Tourism now dominates the place. The French government, citing “French patrimony,” claims ownership of Mont St. Michel, a World Heritage Site of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
But the religious dimension is still there. Mass (in French) is celebrated daily at 12:15 p.m. in the abbey church.
Mass is also celebrated Sundays at 11 a.m. in the small parish church on the mount. Sheep still graze the shores of the bay; indeed, if you get there early in the morning, you may have to wait in your car as the sheep are driven out to pasture.
Archangel's Stronghold
The Benedictines foster the cult of St. Michael, the Church's patron against the devil, against whose infernal powers the Church is guaranteed triumph (Matthew 16:18); this church is a powerful and durable reminder of that truth.
Besides the abbey church, visitors should see the other monastery buildings, including the cloister and refectory. St. Peter's, the parish church, is at the base of the abbey, and an abandoned chapel stands along the shoreline.
Beware, however, that tides here change rapidly, the shore can be slippery, and there is still quicksand.
One of the things that makes Mont St. Michel special is its harmony with its natural setting. The worshipper's praise is inspired not only by the church, a magnificent work of human hands, but also by the sheer beauty of the physical environment, ever-changing with the time of day.
Mont St. Michel is also a good starting point from which to visit other shrines and religious sites in the region. Benedictine abbeys are found throughout the nearby Normandy countryside.
Neighboring Brittany, more Celtic than French, has its own unique features.
Of special note are the parish “closes” — marked by very elaborate sculptures of Christ's Passion — found in Breton cemeteries, particularly in the Finistère region. But visitors should be forewarned: A car is essential, especially on weekends when public transportation is virtually nonexistent.
Standing on the church's western terrace, just outside the abbey church, with its breathtaking views of the Bay and Brittany, you become aware that your pilgrimage is one in a line stretching back nearly 1,400 years.
When Charlemagne became Holy Roman Emperor, Mont St. Michel was observing its centennial. By the time Americans fought for independence, it was 1,000 years old.
It's said that the Church thinks in centuries. Praying at Mont St. Michel, you understand why that matters.
John M. Grondelski writes from Warsaw.
----- EXCERPT: Normandy's Mont St. Michel, 'Marvel of the West' ----- EXTENDED BODY: John M. Grondelski ----- KEYWORDS: Travel ----------- TITLE: Well-Armed for Spiritual Battle DATE: 09/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:Tony Melendez was born without arms, but his love for God has never wavered.
As a boy he learned to play the guitar with his feet. When he performed for Pope John Paul II in 1987, the Pope embraced Tony with a kiss and proclaimed him a “gift of hope to the world.” With his wife, Lynn, and their two children, Marisa and Andres, Tony now lives in Branson, Mo., where he continues to share the gift of hope through his gift for song. He spoke with free-lance writer Hayden Head.
What prompted you to move to Branson?
A Catholic businessman by the name of John Connely owned the Remington Theatre in Branson. He saw me at an all-Spanish convention in Miami, Florida, and even though he didn't speak a word of Spanish, he was very moved by my performance. He invited my brother José and me to come to Branson and, when he didn't hear from us, he called my brother and accused him of being a bad manager. Finally, he persuaded us to come to Branson, showed us the theater, and offered me my own show for a whole nine-month season.
I went back to Dallas, where I lived at the time, and asked Lynn, “Are you ready to move?” We prayed about it, and we felt that it was God's will for us to move to Branson. This is my third season, and I am now performing in Branson's IMAX Entertainment Complex. I love the area; it's safe, clean, simple. And what I do here I couldn't do in Los Angeles or New York. Branson is not ashamed of its Christianity, and people who come to Branson almost expect a southern gospel tune or beautiful old hymn. In my case, contemporary Christian music continues to be an important part of my show.
Do you still tour?
Yes. Ultimately, I would like to spend six months in Branson and six months touring.
What is a typical tour like?
I'm not sure any tour is typical. My most memorable tour was in the summer of 2000. Steve Angrisano and I hosted 175 young people and adults on a trip through Europe. We toured for 19 days, visited Fatima and Lourdes, had daily Mass in those beautiful European basilicas and ended up in Rome for World Youth Day. They had different sites set up for different countries, and I played at the American catechetical site and on the English stage near the Vatican.
Seeing millions of young Catholics from around the world gather with the Pope is impressive and encouraging.
I also have the “Unarmed Tour” here in the States. I go into public and private schools and talk to the students about self-esteem, drugs and violence. As I tell them, “Please come to school like me: unarmed.”
What is your sense of today's youth?
Kids today are barraged with adult ideas and temptations from TV and the Internet. Some undoubtedly become lost in that world. But I see teen-agers with a definite sense of right and wrong. I believe that they would go to church if we invited them and talked to them at their level, but sometimes we don't make church “teen-friendly.”
How would you create a “teen-friendly” atmosphere in churches?
You have to catch them when they're young so that teen-agers understand and remember the authentic teachings of the Church. The easiest way for me to remember words is to set them to music, so I'm in the process of putting several prayers to music — the Act of Contrition, the Anima Christi, the Hail Mary and others. Of course, I'm not changing the text at all. Perhaps these prayers in song could help young people remember what they learn in catechism classes.
Your band, the Toe Jam Band, is very ecumenical. Does having musicians from so many different Christian denominations ever create problems for you?
No, no. When we are playing music that praises God and brings people to him, we realize that we all have one “boss,” our Almighty God. I asked the band members if it bothers them when I sing the Hail Mary, and they said, “No, Mary was important in God's plan of salvation. It's not our custom to ask for her inter-cession, but we understand.”
And I've learned a lot from the band members. They are very Bible-oriented and very serious about sharing the Gospel. Evangelical Christians have a lot to teach us Catholics about the new evangelization. Where we've held back, they've already been on the front lines.
You have been a gift of hope to thousands of people. What gift has God given you most recently?
The opportunity to be with my family. It is rare for a musician to be able to stay in one place for long periods of time.
Being in Branson has allowed me to spend time with my wife and kids. And I get to watch my kids’ Catholic growth — baptism, confirmation, and maybe one day, marriage. All of these milestones should be experienced together, as a family.
As a husband, father and singer, I pray that I will do what's right in God's eyes, to reach for the unreachable in order to serve him. Then, when the limitations of life get in the way, I have to move over and let God give me the strength to endure what life has to offer.
Kids today are barraged with adult ideas and temptations from TV and the Internet. But I see teenagers with a definite sense of right and wrong.
— Tony Melendez
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tony Melendez ----- KEYWORDS: Arts ----------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 09/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:Eternity and a Day (1999)
People with terminal illnesses are forced to face death head-on. But a gut-wrenching moment can be turned into a positive experience, providing an opportunity to set one's life in order and reflect upon its meaning. Eternity and a Day, written and directed by Theo Angelopoulos (Ulysses Gaze), movingly chronicles the last day of a middle-aged Greek poet (Bruno Ganz) before he checks himself into a hospital where he's expected to die.
The filmmaker follows the logic of memory rather than a conventional narrative structure. The poet's interior journey ranges from a sterile face-to-face encounter with his grown daughter (Alexandra Ladikou) to fond recollections of his late wife (Isabelle Renaud). He comes to realize that his obsession with literature led him to hold back from the expression of love in his personal life. His ruminations on his own mortality have little metaphysical or theological dimension. But he does find a way to offer hope to an Albanian street urchin (Anchilleas Skevis) who finds himself in a desperate situation.
The American Experience: Truman (1997)
America has always had a fondness for populist heroes who rise from a humble background to achieve great things but never lose the common touch. The American Experience: Truman, written by Ken Emerson and Randall MacLowry and directed by MacLowry, is an intelligent two-part PBS documentary that shows us how President Harry S. Truman filled the bill. Beginning with his ascent to the Oval Office on April 12, 1945, after FDR's death, it flashes back to his origins as a Missouri farmer, a bankrupt haberdasher and an official in a political machine.
The filmmakers mix photos and newsreel footage with re-enactments and interviews with historians like David McCullough. His motto was “The buck stops here,” and he faced up to big decisions about the use of the atom bomb to defeat Japan and whether to wage war in Korea against communism. He wasn't always right, but his courage and down-home integrity won him the political upset of the century when he won re-election in 1948.
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)
Some men define themselves by the success of their career. Frontier cavalry officer Capt. Nathan Brittles (John Wayne) has made the army his life, even sacrificing his family to its service. His final mission before retiring is to escort two women (Joanne Dru and Mildred Natwick) through hostile Indian country to safety. When it ends in failure, he undergoes a crisis of conscience and struggles to redeem himself through heroic action.
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon, directed by John Ford (Stagecoach) and written by Frank Nugent, Laurence Stallings and James Warner Bellah, is a classic cavalry Western, with breath-taking scenery, an exciting stampede, a barroom brawl and well-choreographed gunplay. There's also a romantic triangle involving two young officers (John Agar and Harry Carey Jr.) and a senior officer's daughter (Dru). But it's mainly a character study of Brittles during his last days in uniform and an exploration of the meaning of honor and courage. Ford carefully observes the intricate subculture of Army frontier life.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts ----------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 09/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:SUNDAY, SEPT. 9
Stabat Mater
EWTN, 1:30 p.m.
The best-known work of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-36) was his version of the great 13th-century Latin hymn “Stabat Mater.” Soloists Angharad Gruffydd Jones (soprano) and Lawrence Zazzo (countertenor) perform the piece in All Saints Church in Aldwingle, England, under the direction of Timothy Brown, conductor of the choir of Clare College, Cambridge. To be rebroadcast Saturday, Sept. 15, at 3 a.m.
MONDAY, SEPT. 10
Moments of Truth with Stephen AmbroseHistory Channel, 9 p.m.
In this powerful, two-hour world premiere, World War II combat veterans tell historian Stephen Ambrose their personal moment of truth — the exact moment when the terrible reality of war hit home. Among the many crucibles that the veterans recall are Pearl Harbor, the Bataan Death March, Iwo Jima and the liberation of Dachau.
TUESDAY, SEPT. 11
West Point
History Channel, 10 p.m.
This world premiere “Modern Marvels” history of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., shows how much its “Long Gray Line” — a succession of many thousands of Army officer graduates — has meant to our country.
WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 12
An Animal's World: The African Elephant
Discovery, 6 p.m.
This hour-long show is full of surprises about Africa's majestic giants.
THURSDAY, SEPT. 13
Red Files
PBS, 8 p.m. Check local listings
This is the second in a four-part series from 1999 that uses declassified Soviet files and archival film to shed light on Cold War secrets. In this episode, “Soviet Sports Wars,” ex-athletes such as Anatoly Firsov, Olga Korbut, Larissa Latynina and Igor Ter-Ovanesyan discuss what it was like to toil for a Communist regime. (A rebroadcast.)
FRIDAY, SEPT. 14
Los Romeros: The Royal Family of the GuitarPBS; check local listings for time
Cuban-born Celedonio Romero (1913-96) founded his famed guitar quartet in Malaga, Andalucia, Spain, and brought it to the United States in 1957. Today, as this documentary illustrates, his children and grandchildren perpetuate his legacy of expertise in the classical guitar — and his love for it.
SATURDAY, SEPT. 15
Our Lady in Scripture and Tradition: Mother of SorrowEWTN, 4 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
On the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, Franciscan Father Andrew Apostoli meditates on the Blessed Mother's sharing in the sorrows of all her children.
SATURDAY, SEPT. 15
I Was a Teenage Darwinist
EWTN, 8 p.m.
In a devastatingly logical — and funny — show, John “Woody” Cozad demolishes evolution's most cherished myths. To be rebroadcast Wednesday, Sept. 19, at 1 p.m., and Thursday, Sept. 20, at 3 a.m. and 10 p.m.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dan Engler ----- KEYWORDS: Arts ----------- TITLE: What Andrea Wore On the First Day of School DATE: 09/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:For the last two years, Andrea Lawyer regularly wore a pro-life T-shirt to her public school. The front read “Abortion Is Homicide.” The back had the message, “You will not silence my message. You will not mock my God. You will stop killing my generation.”
This past spring, a teacher complained to the school administration. A vice principal tried to pressure Andrea to stop wearing the shirt.
Noting that no school regulations forbid this type of free speech, Andrea fought back. She notified the local paper, and soon her story came to the attention of national wire services.
When Dr. Laura Schlessinger read Andrea's story on her radio program, the 15-year-old received an outpouring of support from around the country.
She recently spoke with Register correspondent Daria Sockey from her home in Prosser, Wash.
Sockey: How long have you been actively pro-life?
It started about three years ago. Before then, I really didn't know much about the pro-life movement. Then, at a Christian youth rally, I met representatives from Rock for Life. I learned a lot from them. They send a free newsletter to anyone who wants it.
I bought that T-shirt from Rock for Life, just as a way to support what they were doing. I wore it to school during eighth and ninth grade, and only got positive feedback from other students. No one ever told me they were offended.
I had also asked a teacher at one point whether the shirt might be objectionable, but he told me it wasn't against school regulations. The only rules were not to have messages promoting sex, drugs or violence. And there's rules about modesty, like no spaghetti strap shirts.
What got the authorities down on you, and what arguments did they make against your wearing the shirt?
One of my teachers complained. They won't tell me who, but I've got a pretty good idea.
I was called in to the vice principal, who tried for about 25 minutes to bully me into turning my shirt inside out. First he said it was “too powerful” a message. I told him we learned about abortion in health class, and were always told to make our own decisions about it, and I had made mine.
He told me students can only express their opinions if it does not offend other students. I told him no one had ever told me they were offended. He then asked if I thought the shirt was appropriate in a school setting. I said, “Does it promote sex, violence or drugs?”
He threatened to suspend me, and wouldn't let me call my parents. But I didn't back down, and finally he let me go back to class.
Later, I made a survey of what kids in the halls were wearing. I saw one T-shirt with a marijuana leaf on it, another with the Playboy bunny emblem, and about 20 girls wearing spaghetti strap shirts. Yet the school was picking on me. It was so ironic.
Then you began a campaign to protect your rights.
I figured I'd better not wear the T-shirt for a while, just to be safe.
But to get my message out, I wrote to the local paper, and that by itself caused a lot of protest and support for me, because this is a pretty conservative, churchgoing town.
The editors of the paper wrote in my favor. The school responded that they might change the rules to prohibit any political slogans starting this fall.
My aunt suggested I send my story to Dr. Laura. The day Dr. Laura read my story, I received 840 e-mails from around the country, and many more for days after that. Three individual lawyers wrote to assure me that I was within my rights, and offered to help me out if I needed it.
The Thomas More Center for Law and Justice, which does legal work for Rock for Life, has also been helping me out. They sent a friendly but slightly threatening letter to the school, explaining that a move to prohibit all political statements would never hold up in court.
Three weeks ago the school announced that they would not be revising the school dress code.
So, what are you going to wear the first day of school?
My T-shirt!
What would you say is the most positive result of this whole situation?
That it's been such an eye-opener for a lot of people about what's going on, both about abortion and about free speech. So many people from all over are in contact with me, and they're asking questions. Once people want to ask questions, you can start answering them.
I now know about 50 kids locally who would like to start a local Rock for Life group. If we can just get the meeting space and the adult supervision, we can get going.
The back of the T-shirt has the message, ‘You will not silence my message. You will not mock my God. You will stop killing my generation.’
What advice would you give to peers who would like to take a more public pro-life stand, but are feeling a little shy or afraid of consequences?
You kind of have to just get over being afraid. I'm actually known as a shy person most of the time. Schools put on a face of “We have power over you.” But they don't have that much power really. If you stand up for your rights, there's nothing a school can do to stop you.
What has your parents’ involvement been?
They are supporting me all the way. Mom is so proud, she saves all my clippings. Mom home schooled me for five years before I went back to regular schools and I think that helped. If I had been in regular schools all those years, I don't think I would have had the independence to stand up against them. I might have been too afraid to take a stand.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Daria Sockey ----- KEYWORDS: Education ----------- TITLE: The Bold Call of an Archbishop Who's Confident in the Church DATE: 09/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:by Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, OFM, Cap.
Servant Publications, 2001
159 pages, $10.99
If you want to know how the Church can thrive in the third millennium, read this book.
The archbishop of Denver calls for Catholics to be enthusiastic and joyful about their faith without obscuring its demands, and to be prepared to take on a world that is ever more clever about discrediting religion and proposing verities that are anything but the truth.
Archbishop Chaput refuses to accept the notion that the Church is destined for an ever-shrinking role at the margins of a secularized society. His actions as bishop bear that out, and the faithful of his archdiocese have supported his initiatives with funding and personal involvement.
In an era when many prefer not to discuss the Church's “hard” teachings, Archbishop Chaput issued an upbeat pastoral letter on contraception that was well received in the Mile High City (and which forms a chapter of the new book). The energetic archbishop has directed much of his pastoral attention to educating the young and fostering vocations. He opened Denver's first archdiocesan seminary in 1999; its enrollment now stands at 55. He has also founded Our Lady of the New Advent Theological Institute, and new Bible and catechetical schools.
An unflinching critic of modern, secular culture, Archbishop Chaput delivers his critique in a positive, understanding tone without retreating from an obligation to present the Christian faith, in the words of St. Francis of Assisi, “without gloss.”
While the archbishop's book, his first, is ideal for someone who is separated, in one way or another, from the Church, it will also be of interest to the committed Catholic who would like to become a witness, even a missionary. Though its subtitle is Rediscovering the Basics, the book is not a catechism or a systematic manual of Catholic teaching.
Grounded in the best Christian sources,Living The Catholic Faith also draws lessons and comparisons from late-night comics, current movies and information-age technology to show the superiority and the compelling beauty of the Catholic message.
Archbishop Chaput's effort is savvy, positive and refreshing. Ready to argue with the world in charity, he is also not afraid to tell the world that the Church offers something much greater.
While popular culture is ultimately no match for the Gospel, it can drag down the faith of Christians, especially those who are poorly catechized and who fail to appreciate the Church's sacramental richness as the way to God and personal transformation. “The most serious challenge to our faith,” writes the archbishop, “is subtler than anything in our culture. Rather, it's our own lack of zeal, our own discouragement and doubt.”
He observes that “the sons and daughters of the Church lack confidence in the Church” — a logical consequence of which is found in the uneven recruitment of future Catholic leaders, both lay and clerical. “At the root of our vocations crisis is a lack of awe, love, and zeal for the Church,” he writes.
If you think about the Church in “liberal vs. conservative” terms, this is not a book for you. Like Pope John Paul II, Archbishop Chaput isn't much interested in the internal workings of the institutional Church. His approach, like the Holy Father's, is evangelical. He stresses ongoing out-reach, education and spiritual formation.
True Catholic evangelization is summarized in the archbishop's response to dissent within Catholic ranks: “The best approach … is to be very public in the assent of the Church — to teach positively the faith of the Church.” By this positive assertion, he says, “the natural attractiveness of the Gospel will be before people's eyes.”
Joe Cullen, a former assistant editor of the Register, writes from New York.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joe Cullen ----- KEYWORDS: Books ----------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 09/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:Minnesota Universities Redefine ‘Higher Education’
The report, called “Caught Short: General Education at Nine Minnesota Public Universities” cited, among other examples, that “Principles of Television” could fulfill a literature class requirement.
“Perhaps more striking,” the Journal wrote, “is that of the seven Minnesota state universities that do require courses in 'cultural diversity,’ none require the one thing that would give the greatest access to another culture: a foreign language.”
Boston College Profs Among ‘World's Best’
BOSTON COLLEGE, Aug. 9 — Six Boston College economics professors have been ranked among the world's top 1,000 economists, including two — Peter Ireland and Arthur Lewbel — in the Top 20, according to study conducted by the European Economic Association.
The study, written for the European Economic Review, ranks the economists based on a quantitative survey of economics journals published between 1994 and 1998.
Economics Department Chairman Peter Ireland was ranked 15th in the world, followed by Arthur Lewbel (20), Jushan Bai (184), Peter Gottschalk (264), Uzi Segal (403) and James Anderson (533).
Overall, the 25-member Boston College Economics Department was ranked 63rd in the world. When department size was taken into account, the ranking improved to 31st worldwide.
“I am delighted by the results of this ranking,” said Department Chairman Peter Ireland. “It shows just how good our department has always been, but is also indicative of our path moving forward.”
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY, Aug 1 — Georgetown hosted the White House Summit on Early Childhood Cognitive Development, which focused on the importance of encouraging children to read.
First lady Laura Bush noted that a link between poverty and illiteracy. “According to the U.S. Department of Education, more than 60% of fourth-graders in our highest poverty schools still cannot read at a basic level,” she noted.
The first lady unveiled a program called “Ready to Read, Ready to Learn.” The initiative will focus on exemplifying preschool programs that feature pre-reading and vocabulary activities for children.
“One of the reasons we are so honored to host this summit,” Georgetown President John DeGioia said to Bush, “is that your passion for child development relates directly to our mission and activities as a Catholic and Jesuit research university.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education ----------- TITLE: Family Matters DATE: 09/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:‘I Am a Nag!’
Q When we got married, I didn't think I would ever nag my husband. But now, after four years of marriage, I can't seem to stop!
A Lisette: Nagging is an easy habit to get into. Believe me, I can relate.
Your question reminds me of a time when I was constantly telling my husband to take out the garbage. He would always forget. So I kept reminding and reminding — and started nagging.
George would say, “Oh, it's OK. The garbage truck will come again in a couple of days.” But I'm the type of person that likes to get things done right away: “It's garbage, let's get rid of it!”
It became a small but real source of tension.
During that time, I picked up a book I had read the first year of our marriage — By Love Refined, by Alice von Hildebrand. I reread a letter she wrote in response to her niece who had complained about her husband, saying, “A lot of little things irritate me.”
Dr. Hildebrand said: “In such moments I turn to the treasure chest of sweet memories I have of the person, and I try to vividly recall a word, a gesture, an act of generosity or heroism which has particularly revealed to me his true self, his unique beauty.”
There are so many moments in our relationship with our spouses, and we can choose to focus on the positive times or on the negative. The best choice is obvious — the positive.
I now realize that my husband is definitely forgetful. I could focus on that, but I don't. His tenderness and love for me out-shines the dirty garbage any day!
George: OK, so I'm a little forgetful at times. I do have a lot of things on my mind. (Do you like that rationalization?)
But seriously, it's amazing how something like garbage can become a source of discord. Like Lisette said, it's so easy to focus on the negative things in our spouses. But usually, these perceived faults are insignificant. We blow them out of proportion and begin the nagging and destructive comments.
As a recipient of nagging, I sometimes felt resentful toward Lisette for reminding me of what I wasn't doing. I would think to myself: “How about the positive comments?”
Thank God we recognized this harmful pattern in our relationship. Still, for my part, I made a sincere effort to remember to take out the garbage.
To the husbands out there let me say this: If you know your wife has a pet peeve, don't neglect it. It's an act of love to serve her in things that may seem insignificant to you, but are a great big deal to her.
God bless you!
George and Lisette de los Reyes host
The Two Shall Be Oneon EWTN.
Reach Family Matters at familymatters@ncregister.com
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: George And Lisette De Los Reyes ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life ----------- TITLE: Why Children Need Music DATE: 09/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:The sound of piano music fills the air at a recent Southern California party. A group of high school students sit enthralled as their friend, blond and athletic 16-year-old Jonathan Teichert, plays Chopin's thrilling Polonaise, Opus 53.
After the final chord rings out, they break into enthusiastic applause. Jonathan's spirited performance is the fruit of eight years of piano study. One of eight children, he comes from a family that emphasizes love of music.
Many Catholic parents are making an effort to give their children contact with good music. These parents say that both listening to music and performing it are important in a child's development. They arrange music lessons for their children, and they seriously consider the types of music their children listen to.
“Good music orders the soul, and bad music disorders it. I really believe that, I think I've seen it,” said Laura Berquist, home schooling mother of six and author of Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum.
Berquist and her husband have encouraged a love of classical music in their children. As well as playing music by composers such as Mozart, Bach and Puccini in their home, they have sometimes included music as a formal course in home schooling. “Every Thursday afternoon we'd go into the living room all together and take turns choosing something to listen to,” Berquist said.
She also put together a chart of the most important musical periods and types; after listening to a piece, children and mother would classify it on the chart. Rock music was not on the chart, and is not permitted in the Berquist home.
Music and Morality
Andrew Pudewa, father of seven home schooled children and director of the Institute for Excellence in Writing, has assembled a great deal of research on music's neurological, intellectual and moral effects. In his series of talks, “The Effect of Music on Living Things” —available on tape from the institute — he speaks strongly of the benefits of good music, especially of playing it on an instrument, and of the negative consequences of bad music.
Good music, Pudewa says, has “order in variety,” a steady pattern with interesting variations. This, he points out, reflects natural creation. Besides being pleasant, this “order in variety” stimulates the brain and actually encourages healthy neurological connections.
Pudewa cites two notable studies that showed a significant increase in spatial-temporal IQ in preschoolers who played piano and in college students who listened to Mozart. On the other hand, experiments in which groups of rats were exposed either to Mozart or to heavy metal showed the significant effects of bad music. The rats that listened to Mozart increased in intelligence, while those that listened to heavy metal lost much of their ability to learn.
Pudewa maintains that music itself, apart from any lyrics, has serious moral implications. Too heavy an emphasis on rhythm, he says, especially certain irregular rhythms commonly found in rock music, “stimulat[es] your body to the detriment of the balance that your mind would provide.”
Pointing out that most Americans are no longer shocked by serious attacks on life and morality, he says, “I would suggest they have been numbed. They have been numbed by a … preponderance of unnatural music — of unnatural energy affecting their emotions.
… It's the music that affects their spiritual sensitivity.”
If the wrong music can be harmful, parents agree that the right music holds many benefits. Commenting on classical music, Berquist said, “The good is true and beautiful, ordered, desirable, and music is one aspect of that. … If your children can be exposed to it early enough so that they can actually learn to appreciate it and they respond to it, then they're in touch with something that is akin to the truth. I think it opens their minds to the truth.”
Parents value the way music introduces children to the lovely and elegant. “Music opens up a world of beauty that other things may not develop in a child,” said Jonathan Teichert's mother, Julie. One of her children, she explained, went from a lack of interest in beauty to an enthusiasm for it, which he gained through the study of music.
Music's simple capacity to calm is also appreciated by parents: “It soothes the savage beast,” quipped one mother.
Starting Young
Many parents emphasize the importance of early exposure to music. Familiarity helps children begin to hear differences within the music and to appreciate them. Berquist noted, however, that simply playing music is not as effective as listening and appreciating it with children: “I think the thing to do with little children is to expose them to a lot of beautiful music, [and] to enjoy it yourself. It's very hard to get someone to enjoy something you don't — though it can happen, because there's power in the thing itself. But it's better if you become familiar with the music and pick the pieces you enjoy.”
It's not impossible, she said, to develop an appreciation for classical music later in life. She herself didn't start listening to it until her college years. Adults who want to develop an interest in it could start with works that have immediate appeal to almost everyone — for example, Pachelbel's Canon, Beethoven's Für Elise, Rossini's William Tell Overture. The comic operettas by Gilbert and Sullivan, which are available on CD and video, are also a fun way to start.
Now, You Try It
Playing an instrument or singing has a very positive role in music appreciation. Many children's interest in music increases significantly when they can play it themselves.
“Listening to music gives joy, but there's nothing like playing it for actually understanding it and bringing a great deal of joy to yourself and others,” said Mary Wood, whose children play violin and fiddle music in ensembles.
Learning to play an instrument requires discipline, which parents appreciate in their children. Helping to create music with others, by playing in ensembles or singing in choirs, is also an excellent experience for children.
Trying to explain what music has done for him, Jonathan Teichert said, “It's really colored everything in my life. … It's not like I just play music, it's more. Playing music has somehow gone to my soul. … I'm a different person because of it; my whole outlook on reality is different because of it.
“People ask me why I smile so much,” he said. “It has a lot to do with music. I have something to be happy about.”
Wendy-Irene Grimm writes from Ojai, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Wendy-Irene Grimm ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life ----------- TITLE: Mission Possible: Overturning Roe v. Wade DATE: 09/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:A massive litigation strategy to overturn Roe v. Wade is now under way, involving lawsuits in New Jersey and Texas and in federal courts. It seems destined to eventually make its way to the Supreme Court.
The effort, led by the National Foundation for Life and the Justice Foundation in San Antonio, is mobilizing hundreds of women who have already signed affidavits and friend-of-the-court forms. The litigation focuses on evidence that women have been exploited and harmed by abortion, and that states have failed to uphold the legally protected mother-child relationship.
The effort is supported by Norma McCorvey — “Jane Roe” in Roe v. Wade— and by Sandra Cano — “Mary Doe” in Doe v. Bolton. Numerous feminist and pro-life organizations are also involved, as well as Protestant churches and Catholic dioceses that are helping to distribute affidavits to post-abortive women and friend-of-the-court statements to any woman wishing to support the litigation.
McCorvey and Cano asked the Justice Foundation to file friend-of-the-court briefs in the Donna Santa Marie case in New Jersey, now on appeal in the 3rd Circuit Court. The case involves three women who are seeking to redress grievances against doctors who terminated the lives of their children without their informed consent. It also claims that federal law prohibits severing the mother-child relationship until after the birth of the child. The law was originally formulated because of disputes in adoption cases, but the foundation claims that it should also apply in the abortion industry.
Alan Parker, an attorney with the Justice Foundation, will present a similar case against the Texas Department of Health. The Foundation is seeking thousands of affidavits from women who have had abortions. The affidavits will be used in the Texas case and eventually in a planned attack on Roe v. Wade by Norma McCorvey.
Parker said this is the first time the courts will be presented with evidence of abusive practices in the abortion industry and of the physical and emotional health effects of abortion. “Only women who thought abortion was the right answer can show the court that abortion hurts women,” Parker said. “It does not bring them dignity and autonomy as the courts said in Casey (Planned Parenthood of Eastern Pennsylvania vs. Casey), which refused to overturn Roe v. Wade.”
Parker said that many of the affidavits show that women were pressured into making the decision and were deceived into believing that abortion was the only solution, refuting the underlying assumption of Roe v. Wade that it is the woman's choice.
The affidavits also dispute Roe's assumption that the abortion industry would protect women. “We can show that since 1973, the actual practice of the abortion industry is not to protect women,” said Parker. “The courts thought the doctors would protect them, but in reality we now know from millions of abortions that that is not what happened.”
Ron Fitzsimmons, executive director of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers, which represents 150 independent abortion provider clinics, said he is not aware of any affidavits, but said women get more information in a clinic that provides abortion services than they would get if they were going for open-heart surgery.
“I think I can accurately say that it was abortion providers who came up with the concept of informed consent and counseling women,” said Fitzsimmons. “I have sat in on hundreds of counseling sessions and have watched some patients get angry at being asked questions about how they feel. But of course, the anti-abortionists have [a] certain agenda, which is to try to paint the ugliest picture possible.”
Dr. David Reardon, director of the Elliott Institute in Springfield, Ill., which conducts research and education on post-abortion trauma, has joined efforts to promote the gathering of affidavits from post-abortive women. He has been researching abortion for more than 20 years and said the number of women who have passed through the worst part of post-abortion grief is beginning to surpass the number encouraging abortion.
There's plenty of anger to go around among women who feel they've been deceived, Reardon said. “To accomplish healing, women have to get past that anger. They need to go through forgiving the boyfriend or husband, and the abortionist too. It's a struggle for them to do that. I think most of the women participating in the affidavit program are not doing so with a sense of anger, but rather to try to improve the world and help others. That can be healthy.”
Reardon's institute has documented common post-abortion symptoms, including increased risk of future premature delivery and miscarriage, a higher death rate, a higher incidence of breast cancer, substance abuse, promiscuity, depression, anxiety, intrusive nightmares, hatred of self and of others, and suicide.
Susan Renne was 16 when her 23-year-old boyfriend brought her to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Kansas after she missed a few periods. Her affidavit claims she was not informed that she was pregnant, but only that they were going to “clean me out” and force her periods to start again. It was only after the abortion that she realized what took place.
According to her affidavit, her uterus was so damaged by scar tissue that it grew through her uterine wall to the base of her spine, causing intense pain. She had a miscarriage within months of the abortion and three surgeries to correct her uterus, which was found to have only one ligament holding it in place. Her psychological problems included self-destructive behavior, drug use and attempted suicide.
“Everyone screams about this right, but when the woman feels depressed and confused, she would rather die than tell someone else she had an abortion,” said Renne. “If it's so good for us women, if it's our choice and we so fervently need to protect it, why does no one want to admit that they had one? I've spoken to hundreds of women and I've never heard one say, ‘It was a great thing for me and I'm so glad I did it.’ None of them feel good about it.”
Fitzsimmons said that in counseling sessions, the clinics try to ensure that a woman isn't going to have issues later. “I have no doubt that there are women out there who had an abortion and who now might be having issues with it,” he said. “This is a life-and-death decision, like many other big decisions — divorce, what college you go to, whatever the issue. There's always a chance that 20 years down the road, you're going to think twice about it.”
Wendy Wright, director of communications for Concerned Women for America, the nation's largest public policy women's organization, said many of the people working passionately in the pro-life movement have had abortions, and that is why they know the affidavits can be healing. She added that the lawsuits are an essential ingredient in helping to expose what abortion does to women.
“Abortion is promoted as being in the best interest of the woman,” said Wright. “This lawsuit proves that that's a lie. It also shows how negligent the abortionists themselves are, that they are not informing women. We're finding out the doctors are covering up and hiding information from women that they need to know.”
Barb Ernster writes from Fridley, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Barb Ernster ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life ----------- TITLE: Facts of Life DATE: 09/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:VARIOUS SIGNS continue to point to an increase in pro-life attitudes among Americans. The latest Gallup poll on abortion issues, for example, showed a tie for the first time between those who call themselves “pro-life” and those who identify as “pro-choice.” The largest gap on this question was in September 1995.
----- EXCERPT: MORE PRO-LIFE AMERICANS ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life ----------- TITLE: Life Notes DATE: 09/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:Singapore Doctors Pray
REUTERS, Aug. 16 — The Catholic Medical Guild of Singapore, made up of some 300 doctors, intend to lead 10 days of prayer against embryonic stem cell research, reported Reuters.
“We are praying that embryonic stem cell research will be discontinued, not just in Singapore but throughout the world,” guild president Dr. John Hui told Reuters. “We were human at the point of conception … and we believe that absolute respect should be accorded to the human embryo from the very beginning of life.”
Singapore has poured at least $1.7 billion into boosting research in the city state's fledgling life sciences industry, but has no regulations so far.
Adult Stem Cells May Be Key
The team at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute identified and isolated from the brains of mice an adult stem cell which can develop into new nerve cells, or neurons.
The findings, published in the international journal Nature, show that adult neural stem cells may have properties previously thought to be present only in embryonic stem cells.
City Lifts Ban on Posters
The move came just in time to avert legal action from a nonprofit Michigan law firm representing pro-lifer Jonathan Martin and others.
Pro-lifers can continue to picket using the graphic pictures in front of the Great Falls Planned Parenthood. Police will patrol the area near the picket and direct traffic to alleviate the safety concerns that assistant city attorney Kory Larsen said prompted his Aug. 10 ban.
Abortion-Breast Cancer Link
PR NEWSWIRE, Aug. 15 — Three California women are suing Planned Parenthood to force the nation's largest provider of abortions to reveal scientific evidence of a substantial link between induced abortion and increased risk of breast cancer, announced the Thomas More Law Center, a national, not-for-profit public-interest law firm, reported PR Newswire.
The women filed suit in the San Diego branch of the state superior court against Planned Parenthood of San Diego and Riverside Counties, which operates an abortion clinic in San Diego, as well as Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
Patrick Gillen, lead attorney in the case, explained that the complaint alleges Planned Parenthood consistently misled women about the safety of abortion by obscuring evidence that induced abortion causes breast cancer.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life ----------- TITLE: Satan may have tried to possess Mother Teresa, says exorcist DATE: 09/16/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 16-22, 2001 ----- BODY:CALCUTTA, India—Mother Teresa, the nun who won a Nobel Peace Prize and is being considered for beatification, is not the sort of person that one would expect to receive a prayer of exorcism.
But that is what happened in 1996, a year before her death, according to Archbishop Henry D'Souza of Calcutta.
Rome's chief exorcist, Father Gabriel Amorth, told the Register that he thinks the devil attempted to possess Mother Teresa.
Archbishop D'Souza, who formally opened Mother Teresa's sainthood cause in 1999, explained the circumstances in detail to the Register.
Both the archbishop and Mother Teresa were hospitalized at the same time for the same medical procedure, angioplasty, and “after her operation, she was very restless at night,” Archbisohp D'Souza recalled. He explained that the doctors had informed him that “there was no medical reason” for her behavior, which included trying to remove medical instruments that were attached to her.
“Because she was such a holy person,” Archbishop D'Souza was worried that she might be under attack by the devil “because of her [weakened] physical condition,” and asked “an old Italian missionary who was very holy to say the prayer of exorcism over her.” The priest was a bit surprised, said Archbishop D'Souza, and asked “You want me to say the prayer of exorcism over her? What will the devil do?”
Archbishop D'Souza explained to the priest that he was giving him the power of the Church, and then said: “I am the archbishop, and I command you in the name of the Church to go and do it.”
“Mother was very happy [that this was done], and joined in the prayer,” said the archbishop, who also noted that the night following the prayer of exorcism, the nuns reported Mother Teresa “slept like a baby.”
Archbishop D'Souza was quick to point out that Mother Teresa “was not” possessed. He explained that the prayer of exorcism was done “as a prayer of protection,” in case she was in fact under attack. Far from being a stigma, Archbishop D'Souza explained that if she was indeed being vexed by the devil, “it would be an indication of the holiness of Mother.”
Sister Nirmala, who lives in Calcutta and became leader of the Missionaries of Charity a few months before Mother Teresa's death, told the Register she has no comment on the matter at this time, but offered to fax any future statements on the matter.
But Father Amorth, the chief exorcist for the Diocese of Rome, said that “in a moment of physical weakness when [Mother Teresa] was operated on,” he thinks the devil might have “tried to take possession of her.”
Father Amorth cited the recent case of Blessed Padre Pio, as well as St. John Vianney, as examples of holy people who was harassed, though not possessed, by the devil.
Though he said it was less common than harassment, Father Amorth also pointed out that “many holy people have been possessed,” including Blessed Maria of Jesus Crucified, a nun, who became the first Arab beatified when Pope John Paul II raised her to the altars in 1988. “There were two periods in [Sister Maria's] life in which she was possessed and needed to have exorcisms,” Father Amorth explained.
The exorcist insisted that “diabolical possession is not a sin.”
“Rather,” he said, “it is an occasion of merit.” But whether the devil was attempting to possess Mother Teresa, or merely “vexing” her, a prayer of exorcism was a legitimate step to take according to Father Amorth.
“Exorcisms are not to be used as a ‘preventative measure,’” Father Amorth explained. “If there is vexation you can do an exorcism because there are concrete signs” of the devils’ presence, he said.
Father Amorth explained that even in cases of vexation, he personally “always advises first a series of blessings and prayers of liberation.” Only then, if the reaction to those prayers warrants it, exorcism.
Though exorcisms remain uncommon, the Church has definite rules for their use, according to Missionary of Perpetual Adoration Father Charles Carpenter, a professor of theology at the seminary in Ciudad Obregon, Mexico, who has done a great deal of study in this area.
He explained that the Church is very cautious about performing anexorcism, and requires them “to be designated by the bishop.”
Father Carpenter also explained that the Church has paid a great deal of attention to exorcism of late, even going so far as to update the Rite of Exorcism.
Though not fundamentally changed, the revised Rite of Exorcism, which was 10 years in the making, was the first update to the rite since 1614.
At a press conference on the issue in 1999, Cardinal Jorge Medina, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, explained the changes as follows, according to Zenit news service: “The new text is an outgrowth of the old. There are no substantial changes or break with the previous text. There are changes in language: The new text has more sober language, with fewer adjectives. Moreover, it gives the priest who practices the rite of exorcism greater liberty—greater flexibility in the choice of prayers to use. In a word, there is a new style, in a language more adapted to our time, but the content is the same.”
Andrew Walther writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Andrew Walther ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Fox Hurries Bush On Immigration DATE: 09/16/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 16-22, 2001 ----- BODY:Mexico's president visits the White House
WASHINGTON—Immigration reforms to help Mexican workers topped the agenda during Mexican President Vicente Fox's state visit to the United States Sept. 5-6.
Speaking alongside President Bush at the White House, Fox declared, “We must and we can reach an agreement on migration before the end of this very year which will allow us, before the end of our respective terms, to make sure that there are no Mexicans who have not entered this country legally in the United States and that those Mexicans who have come into the country do so with the proper documents,” Associated Press reported.
Fox's comments drew praise from advocates of legalization for the estimated 3 million illegal Mexican immigrants in the United States, but the proposal obviously caught Bush off guard. Before their meetings, Bush had warned that the complexity of the issue prevented any quick solutions and he acknowledged that he has “a lot more selling to do” in Congress of his plan to give legal status to Mexican immigrants.
Bush distanced himself from Fox's bold call to action, jokingly telling reporters in Spanish that “I can't hear” when they pressed him on whether he shared the desire to have a plan in place before the end of the year. Bush's national security adviser, Condoleeza Rice, added, “The president shares the desire to do this as quickly as possible but to do it right.”
A joint statement released Sept. 6 as Bush and Fox visited Toledo, Ohio, struck a much less ambitous tone. It merely committed the two presidents to forging a “realistic approach to migration” that respects “the human dignity of all migrants, regardless of their [legal] status.”
The Senate, in a signal of support for Fox's immigration agenda, passed a bill Sept. 7 to extend the deadline for illegal immigrants to apply for visas.
Yet, House conservatives remain firmly opposed to legalization.
Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., chairman of the congressional immigration reform caucus, said the federal government should not reward those who “forget about American law, sneak into the country and avoid detection,” Associated Press reported.
The vast majority of the undocumented Mexican immigrants are Catholic, so the issue is of major concern to the U.S. bishops. The United States and Mexico should “seize the moment” and support the legalization of undocumented Mexicans and people from other countries living in the United States, said Bishop Nicholas A. DiMarzio of Camden, N.J., the chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Migration.
Also needed are “principles for legalizing the flow of migrants into the United States,” said the bishop in a statement issued Sept. 4 on behalf of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Bishop DiMarzio said Fox's Sept. 5-6 visit is a “historic opportunity” to redefine migration policies.
He urged both presidents “to take bold action by calling for a legalization program for Mexicans and other nationalities who have built lives in our country and who have contributed their skills and hard labor” to bettering the United States.
The White House released four “guiding principles” Sept. 7 that it said are underpinning Bush's current effort to come up with the sort of comprehensive reform advocated by Bishop DiMarzio.
The four principles are: First, a “humane approach,” mandating that U.S.-Mexico migration “must be safe, legal, orderly, and dignified"; second, the “protection of American workers,” requiring that reforms to the immigration system “must not disadvantage American workers"; third, “fairness,” rewarding “immigrants who follow the rules and abide by the law"; and fourth, “commitment from Mexico,” inviting Mexico “join the United States in an authentic partnership to keep our shared borders orderly and safe, and ensure the integrity and success of any new policies.”
Fox said that he and Bush were working together to reform U.S. immigration laws, and the Mexican president lavished praise on his American counterpart, Reuters reported.
Said Fox, “[Bush] is a person with sensitivity, apart from having leadership and vision.
He is fond of Mexico and Mexicans, and he wants to help us in achieving all these things and regularizing the situation of our countrymen there.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Register Staff ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Why So Many Guatemalan Mothers Love Julie Coyne DATE: 09/16/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 16-22, 2001 ----- BODY:NORWALK, Conn.—Julie Coyne of Norwalk, Conn., had never been out of the United States when she decided to go to Quetzaltenango in Guatemala to study Spanish and do some volunteer work seven years ago.
As she got to know the locals through building stoves and latrines in the regions surrounding the country's second largest city, she noticed many of the local kids weren't attending school. Extreme poverty, lack of money for books, uniforms and school maintenance fees, overcrowded classrooms and children who continually failed were some of the problems. Illiterate parents needed their children to work to support the family, forcing kids to quit school without any kind of diploma.
When Coyne heard that, she decided to do something about it.
Coyne, 34, began financial support of the education of three students six years ago, and the numbers jumped to 35 two years later when she received a donation of $20,000, allowing her to formally start her not-for-profit foundation, Education and Hope.
“The program began because so many kids couldn't make it through primary school,” said Coyne, who up until recently survived off small savings, small personal donations, bigger credit card debts and odd jobs during her periodic stays in the United States (she paid herself a small stipend from the project last year for the first time).
With Coyne eturning to the United States approximately every four months to fund-raise, a current budget of $75,000, the program now supports 42 primary, 39 high school and four university students in public and private education on a financial need basis throughout the year. Sometimes that need might be as simple as money for bus fare to and from school; other times, it may be for something like a traumatic eye injury without which a 10-year-old student would have lost half his sight. The average paid per student is $25 a month.
“Every child can stay in education for as long as they like,” said Coyne, a Catholic, of her education for life commitment that assists students in Quetzaltenango, a five-hour drive northwest of the capital Guatemala City, and in nearby rural La Esperanza. The latter means “hope” in English.
Many of the students she helps come from large, impoverished households headed by females, surviving on about $80 a month.
And while the mothers generally realize the importance of their children remaining in school, keeping them there often becomes an intolerable financial burden if the child continues to fail because of inadequate teaching or no help with homework.
Realizing this, Coyne also began a five-day-a-week after-school tutorial program in 1997 that assists 35 of the kids most in need in both locations. “The kids are blooming, and I've seen their confidence grow,” she said. Four part time local teachers are employed in the program. More are needed.
Tomasa Lopez, 23, quit school when she was 10 years of age, when money for school supplies became a problem.
“My mother was single, and what we made (working in the fields and selling cleaning products) was just enough to buy food,” said Lopez, during a translated phone conversation from Guatemala. One year later, Lopez began cutting coffee and cleaning houses to help support her family.
When she was 17, Lopez left her village and traveled seven hours’ drive north to find work in Quetzaltenango. She completed primary school, started high school, and began getting scholarship money two years ago.
“I had no books and had to use the library, but when I was finished work, the library was closed,” she said. “I probably couldn't have continued my studies” without the scholarship, said Lopez, who'd like to study psychology and, later, teach.
Her accommodation, food, $30 monthly school fees and supplies are paid for, and she could qualify for university within two years.
The scholarship enables students to focus on the future. “It's given us a lot of motivation for studying when we have the support,” said Lopez. She said her 7-year-old sister Sorida has flunked the same grade twice, probably because of poor nutrition.
“Education is the most powerful way of bringing people out of poverty, and this can change their lives,” said Sheila Cahill.
The Irish woman and former teacher regularly returns to La Esperanza to visit a family she stayed with seven years ago, while studying Spanish and doing volunteer work. It was during that time she met Julie, and although Cahill has nothing to do with the project, she regularly visits it.
“I'm struck by the hope it gives the people it's supporting, and the ripple effect it has on the family,” said Cahill who saw this firsthand with her former host's family. One of the boys is receiving the scholarship, and “it has a huge impact on his two other brothers—they are more likely to stay in school,” said Cahill, speaking from Dublin, Ireland.
Student and parental attitudes have changed from skepticism to confidence. And the after-school program attracts a horde of children “scrambling to take their books out and start their homework,” Cahill said. The mothers are also very committed to their children's education, in spite of the huge financial burden: “I often think they must see the money spent on education and wish they had it to spend on food. But I've never heard them voice anything other than happiness that their children are getting this chance.”
Cahill said she's amazed by Coyne's commitment to the project. “There have been so many times when I would have walked away” because of the lack of money, she said. “But I know the project is bigger than Julie, and it's not about her—but she's truly loved by the children and mothers she works with.”
Yvonne Moran writes from Norwalk, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Yvonne Moran ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Turning Tragedy Into Love DATE: 09/16/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 16-22, 2001 ----- BODY:Vicki Thorn specializes in rebuilding lives shattered by abortion.
Foundress of Project Rachel and executive director of the National Office of Post-Abortion Reconciliation & Healing, she's an international speaker on the aftermath of abortion. With her organization's 17th birthday approaching, the mother of six spoke with Register correspondent Father Matthew Gamber, a Jesuit, about the organization.
You have said it was a “life-changing” event that led you to eventually start Project Rachel 17 years ago. What was that?
A friend of mine had an abortion in high school. It was a safe abortion performed in a hospital, but still illegal, as it was in the late 1960s. She had already placed a baby for adoption. It turned out that her brother was the father of that baby and her mother quickly arranged the abortion.
Over the years that followed, my friend's life disintegrated—and as we talked, always she said “I can live with the adoption. I can't live with the abortion!” That was one of those life-changing events that you don't recognize at the time.
I never forgot the pain of my friend, and it led me to become a Birthright counselor and to be predisposed to accepting a [right-to-life] job in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.
What have you learned about the type of woman that undergoes an abortion—are there common characteristics?
I think that one of the most striking things is that any woman could have an abortion. I've spoken with women whose lives had crashed and burned, and with women who had it all going for them. They were going to be the stars of the family.
One characteristic is that there was almost always no support system.
They felt they faced this alone and didn't really know where to turn. That is when the lie of abortion as an easy and cheap solution becomes the temptation.
John Paul II sent a special message to women who have had abortions in his encyclical letter
Women who have had abortions can't believe that the Holy Father addressed a special message of hope and healing to them. It has had an enormous effect. There seems to be no historic precedent for that kind of deeply personal message in a papal document. You know, no one seems to know that our Holy Father first described the wounds of abortion in 1960 in his book Love and Responsibility.
Can you briefly take us through the Project Rachel Process that a woman will experience?
A woman would call the local diocesan Project Rachel number and talk to someone who would listen with care and compassion, and help her determine where she would like to begin.
When she meets with the helper, she'll be invited to tell about her abortion. This is often the first time she's ever talked about it. She'll be helped to process any anger she has towards those involved.
She'll be asked if she knows the sex of her child and if she has chosen a name. People often say how could she know the sex—but the truth is that every woman carries within her body cells from every child she has ever conceived—whether born, miscarried or aborted.
She is invited to write a letter to her child and say all her mother's heart needs to say—which always includes “I'm sorry! Please forgive me. Love, Mom or Mommy.” She isn't told what to write. It's just that those words always come up.
She is encouraged to memorialize this child in some way. All the sites in parishes and cemeteries remembering the unborn are wonderful, as she has some place to go to remember.
The priest may offer to say a Mass of Healing for the whole family. Priests are so important to this ministry. For many women, the priest is the first non-hurtful, nonjudgmental man she has encountered. The presence of that gentle priest who really reflects God's love to her goes a long way to heal the hidden wound between women and men.
In closing, she's encouraged to pursue her spiritual growth. Time and again, women have written or spoken to me privately about what a wonderful experience this was for them. Women talk with great appreciation of the priest who walked beside them in the healing. They say that “Father reflected the face of God to me.”
----- EXCERPT: Inperson ----- EXTENDED BODY: Vicki Thorn ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Green Activists Silent on Genetically Modified Humans DATE: 09/16/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 16-22, 2001 ----- BODY:BOULDER, Colo.—“Don't eat Frankenfoods!” screamed the sign of a protester marching this summer in Boulder, Colo., a hub of environmental activism.
Yet the same activists who are quick to warn the world about messing with the DNA of plants have remained noticeably silent on DNA modifications to another species of life: humans.
Public protests against genetically modified corn, soybeans and other agricultural products have been commonplace for the past two years in cities throughout the United States and Europe. Environmentalists charge that scientists are moving too fast and don't know all the future ramifications of engineered foods that can cross-pollinate and forever alter the world's ecology.
Strangely, they seem unconcerned about the same issues when it comes to “engineering” people.
“Mainstream environmentalists will be more concerned about genetic modifications to plants than they will regarding similar procedures involving human beings,” says Brian Andreja, a renowned environmental activist and former national chairman of the Sierra Club's Environmental Justice Task Force. “One problem with today's environmental movement is that it has a real blind spot for human issues. And that will become very apparent if activists take to the streets about modified corn, and remain silent on genetically modified kids.”
Gentically Modified Kids
Such kids exist already. Sixteen children were born in the spring of 2000 after scientists at the Institute for Reproductive Medicine at St. Barnabas Medical Center in New Jersey combined mitochondrial DNA from eggs of young donors with the eggs of older women who were having trouble getting pregnant.
The New Jersey scientists theorized that the imported mitochondrial DNA would improve the chances of attaining a pregnancy. Mitochondria are tiny structures containing genes that float around inside the cell away from the cell's nucleus, where the vast majority of the genes reside.
The mixture of human DNA marks the first known case of what scientists refer to as “human germ-line modification.” Genetically, the children each have two mothers and one father.
The experiment was conducted quietly, without input from the general public or the broader scientific community. It was made public last spring, as most of the children were celebrating their first birthdays, in the British journal Human Reproduction.
To date, the St. Barnabas experiment and the genetically modified children that resulted have received underwhelming coverage by mainstream media in the United States. However, scientists at the Institute of Science in Society in London denounced the genetic modifications. They equated the developments to the advent of nuclear weapons, and warned that the research “amounts to changing the gene pool of the human species.”
The London scientists also charged that as teen-agers the engineered humans may suffer from seizures, strokes, optic atrophy, neuropathy, myopathy, cardiomyopathy, and other diseases associated with “mitochondrial heteroplasmy”—the technical term for mutations that occur in mitochondrial DNA.
Nobody's debating the fact that mitochondria are passed down from one generation to the next. So if these genetically modified children live to reproduce, their scientifically altered genes will be spread among off-spring, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and on down the line.
The Bishops' Adviser
“Once you start altering the gene pool, it's altered forever, unless all of these children die before they reproduce,” said Dave Buyers, executive director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Science and Human Values.
Like most in the scientific community, Buyers has heard little about the New Jersey experiment. He has heard far more public outcry and concern, in the United States and in Europe, regarding DNA modifications to crops.
Crop modifications have become such an issue, in fact, that Buyers and his committee were asked by the bishops’ conference to prepare a full report that answers concerns raised by environmentalists. He has not been asked officially to review the New Jersey experiment.
Buyers says he'll release a report in coming weeks that recommends that genetic modifications to plants go forward “cautiously.” The bishops’ committee concludes that DNA modification to crops may result in better health and nutrition for the poor and famished. However, the committee also suspects environmentalists have raised legitimate concerns about cross-pollination that could result in new organisms harmful to the eco-system.
But despite obvious common ground on the issues of DNA modifications to humans and plants, Buyers doesn't expect any help from environ-mentalists regarding the many potential nightmare scenarios surrounding DNA modifications to human eggs.
“A lot of the people who are environmentalists are pro-choice,” said Buyers. “And if genetic modifications to human eggs can improve female fertility, then it's suddenly an enormous and complicated social issue for them. In a logical world, one who worries about genetic modifications to corn would worry about genetic modifications to humans. This is not a logical world.”
The Green Mindset
Carolyn Bninski, a professional activist with the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center in Colorado, emerged early on as a leader in the crusade against genetically modified crops. Bninski says she's alarmed by genetic modifications to humans. Crop modifications, however, scare her more.
“There are a handful of humans who have been modified, but there are millions and millions of acres of modified agricultural products out there,” Bninski says. “So there are some of the same concerns, but there are some major differences.”
The Sierra Club's Brian Andreja agrees with Buyers that most environmental activists are pro-abortion, and he suspects they will dismiss concerns about genetic modifications to eggs as a “right-to-life” issue. Anderja says humans messing with other humans is seldom as alarming to environmental activists as humans messing with plants or animals.
“If a chemical plant is belching toxins into the air, mainstream environmental activists will talk about the harm it's doing to humans,” Andreja said. “But that's mainly just to get neighborhood support behind the cause. Their true concern is that the toxins may harm the ecosystem of plants and animals. So environmentalists will consider human genetic engineering as related to plant engineering, but they'll dismiss it because it's not their bag of beans.”
Wayne Laugesen writes from Boulder, Colorado.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Wayne Laugesen ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 09/16/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 16-22, 2001 ----- BODY:Saying ‘I Do’ for Baby's Sake
Single women today aren't less likely to get pregnant, Gallagher said; they're just less likely to marry their babies’ fathers. Since 1991, while teen pregnancy rates were falling, the rate of unwed births to women in their early 20s (who have the highest rate of such births) rose 12%.
Gallagher added, “Research shows marriages undertaken to legitimate a pregnancy are not any more unstable; living together doesn't protect children in the same way; adults who marry in their early to mid-20s do not have especially high rates of divorce (teens are another matter).”
And if couples don't marry, Gallagher said, their children get “a fractured half-a-dad pulled between children of different mothers,” rather than an intact family.
Homeless Court Turns Lives Around
Minor offenses like public drunkenness, petty theft, sleeping on the beach or traffic violations can keep the homeless from getting a job or a driver's license.
So Ventura County, Calif., began holding “Homeless Court.” Superior Court Judge John E. Dobroth hands out “sentences” of volunteer labor in place of more formal sanctions. By washing dishes or pulling weeds at a shelter, the homeless can erase their minor criminal records and fines.
The court, established a year ago and modeled on Homeless Courts in San Diego and Los Angeles County, has handled 153 cases involving 65 men and women. Fifty-eight defendants have completed their sentences and a dozen have become sober.
Haitians Finding a Home in the U.S.
Miami Auxiliary Bishop Thomas G. Wenski, former pastor of Miami's Notre Dame d'Haiti Church, said boat people would arrive at church with their pants still damp from the ocean journey. But even those who made it to the United States faced imprisonment by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and prejudice from those who feared that Haitians spread AIDS and took jobs away from the native-born.
Still, progress is being made. Last May, Josephat Celestin became the first Haitian immigrant to become mayor of a U.S. city. Haitians by the hundreds celebrated his investiture as mayor of North Miami.
How the Church Shaped America's Labor Unions
Much of the American Catholic hierarchy came from working-class backgrounds, making American bishops more sympathetic to labor than their European counterparts. Lay Catholics “dominated the most important unions, from the Knights of Labor forward, until at least World War I,” the Journal wrote.
But “most unions, including the Knights, copied ... the notoriously anti-Catholic and secretive Freemasons.” And Irish union members often had ties to violent secret societies condemned by the Church. In the mid-1880s, the Vatican considered condemning the Knights of Labor.
The American bishops convinced the Vatican not to condemn the union and to declare membership in the Knights acceptable for Catholics. Said the Journal , “This declaration set the stage for a series of labor-oriented papal encyclicals—beginning with Pope Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum in 1891—that endorsed both trade unionism and the safeguarding of property rights.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Whose Image Will Be on the Vatican's Euro? DATE: 09/16/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 16-22, 2001 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY—On Jan. 1 Europe begins using a single cash currency, and the Vatican's version of the euro will probably carry the image of John Paul II.
So said Amalia D'Alascio, assistant director of the Vatican Philatelic and Numismatic Office, in an interview with Vatican Radio.
Euro coins bearing the Pope¥s image would likely become collectors’ items, because of their limited production. Italy is producing the Vatican coins under contract.
What does your work consist of, from the philatelic point of view?
We select the philatelic program in several phases. The first is study: We examine the most significant events of the year, such as particularly important anniversaries for the Church, for art, or in history—issues of a particular relevance on the cultural and religious plane. We choose seven or eight every year on which to base our philatelic series.
The program is presented to the Pontifical Commission for the State of Vatican City, which discusses it and gives its approval. Then we begin to choose the artist who prepares the sketches, and they are again submitted for the approval of the pontifical commission. Following this, they are sent to the presses we have throughout the world, in France, England, the United States, Canada.
And, as regards your work in the numismatic field?
The course followed is similar. Topics of cultural interest are chosen and submitted for the approval of the pontifical commission. Then, sculptors are contacted, usually famous ones, like Veroi [or] Manfrini, who prepare the model, in this case in plaster, and present it for final approval. Finally, the plaster model is taken to the Italian mint for coinage of the currency.
An activity that makes one think immediately of collectors.
That's true; we have very many collectors throughout the world. We have close to 60,000 names on our bulletin's list. Lately, we have modernized, creating our own site on the Vatican Internet site, which has been very successful. This is proved by the great number of requests from all over the world.
Is there an especially famous piece, as the saying goes, that whets the appetite of the aficionados?
Yes, these are especially the stamps related to “vacant sees.” There are two or three that have notable economic value.
What is the reason for this?
Because rather limited editions were made, they are, consequently, difficult to find.
And in the field of coins?
In this case, the date of issue is important. The further back [you go], the more difficult they are to find. So, the coins of the first pontificates are the ones that obviously have the greater value.
With in a few months the new euro coins and bills will end up in the pockets of millions of Europeans. How is the Vatican preparing for this revolution?
We are also adjusting slowly because the Convention was recently signed. So, we also incorporate ourselves to the euro, which will probably have the Holy Father's image. The coins will be designed by Veroi.
Hence, it will be among the coins circulating in Europe.
Yes, the Vatican euro will also be circulating.
----- EXCERPT: Probably the Pope's, Says Vatican Aide ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Pennsylvania Rabbi on Mission to Honor John Paul II DATE: 09/16/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 16-22, 2001 ----- BODY:HARRISBURG, Pa.—“Oh, how I love this Pope” are not words one might expect to hear from a rabbi.
But it's a fond saying of Rabbi David Ben-Ami of Harrisburg, who is spending his retirement establishing a Pope John Paul II institute for the advancement of Jewish-Christian dialogue.
“We need to do something in this Pope's honor,” Rabbi Ben-Ami said.
Rabbi Ben-Ami is an unabashed admirer of the current pontiff's attempts to strengthen Jewish-Catholic relations.
So, heeding his own advice, he is lobbying both his Jewish brethren and Catholic friends, and seeking the blessings and assistance of such groups as the American Forum for Jewish-Christian Cooperation, a Harrisburg-based organization, and the Brothers and Sisters of Charity, a monastic community in Arkansas founded by Catholic musician John Michael Talbot.
He said the aim is to promote tolerance, reconciliation, understanding, unity and peace by reaching out to all people of faith and good will. The institute would be grounded in the truths of the one true God and in a respect for Catholicism, he said.
The rabbi said Pope John Paul's words are providing him with the additional energy needed to work on his initiative.
He said the Pope has preached about the “sacred obligations” of all Christians to respect the Jewish faithful as children of God, and has encouraged the creation of “ever newer opportunities” for propelling Jewish-Catholic relations to a higher plane.
The rabbi has a genuine respect for the Holy Father, in large part because they share an understanding and have a common experience: Both lived under the iron fist of Nazi terror.
As a young man in Nazi-occupied Poland, Pope John Paul studied clandestinely for the priest-hood. He had many Jewish friends, and he witnessed the oppression and persecution of the Jewish faithful.
Rabbi Ben-Ami fled Germany's Third Reich in the 1930s with his parents. They were blessed, he said, to have gotten out when they did. Many of the rabbi's close relatives and family friends perished in the concentration camps.
The rabbi said he also is inspired in his quest to honor Pope John Paul II by the work and dedication of his Catholic friends.
His interfaith roots run deep, all the way back to the early 1960s, when he was involved in the civil rights movement in Mississippi. His colleagues in those days included Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, priests from the Divine Word Missionaries and numerous men and women religious.
Over the years, he also has developed a warm interfaith friendship with Cardinal William Keeler of Baltimore, a leading figure in Catholic-Jewish dialogue in the United States.
One of the rabbi's favorite directives about interfaith efforts comes from a talk Pope John Paul gave 14 years ago at the Vatican. In it, he said it is pleasing to God when Jews and Christians embark on the “fraternal journey in which we accompany one another toward the transcendent goal which he sets for us.”
“I have certainly sought to develop and deepen our relationship with the Jews, our elder brothers in the faith of Abraham,” Pope John Paul said in the speech. “And I therefore encourage and bless the initiatives of all those who, in fidelity to the directives of the Second Vatican Council and animated by good will and religious hope, foster relationships of mutual esteem and friendship and promote the Jewish-Christian dialogue.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Roy Horner ----- KEYWORD: Vatican -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 09/16/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 16-22, 2001 ----- BODY:Canadian Gets Pope's Help in Call for Organ Donors
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Sept. 5—A man who is carrying a torch across Canada to encourage people to donate their organs met with Pope John Paul II after the Pope's weekly audience, the wire service reported.
George Marcello, 45, began his cross-country journey in June 2000, five years after he received a life-saving liver transplant. He was able to meet with the Pope due to the efforts of an Italian organ donation group. After his return from Vatican City, he will continue trekking across Canada for another year.
Marcello quoted the Pope as calling his cause “very good work,” and said that the Pope had blessed his torch. The Pope has expressed support for organ donation in the past, and called it “a genuine act of love.”
Hundreds Honor Mother Teresa
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Sept. 5—Hundreds of people gathered at Mother Teresa's marble tomb in Calcutta on the fourth anniversary of the beloved nun's death, the wire service reported.
Sister Nirmala, Mother Teresa's successor, led nuns and volunteers in prayer at the tomb. “Spiritually she is always with us and guiding us in our work,” Sister Nirmala said of her predecessor. She said that the Missionaries of Charity, founded by Mother Teresa, has set up 78 new centers for the poor, homeless and sick, since Mother Teresa died in 1997.
Sister Nirmala said she had not yet heard from the Vatican concerning Mother Teresa's possible canonization. Her cause is being examined by the Vatican, and Pope John Paul II has waived the customary five-year waiting period so that the nun's cause could proceed quickly. “All of us are praying for an early sainthood of our mother,” Sister Nirmala said.
Crowds Predicted for Papal Mass in Kazakhstan
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, Sept. 5—About 50,000 invitations have been prepared for those wishing to attend Mass celebrated by Pope John Paul II during his September visit to the former Soviet republic, the wire service reported.
That's one invitation for every Catholic thought to attend church regularly. There are an estimated 300,000 Catholics in Kazakhstan, mostly those deported under Stalinism and their descendants, but only 50,000 are estimated to be regular churchgoers.
The Pope will celebrate Mass in Motherland Square in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Sept. 23. Invitations are available for all who desire them. The Pope is also scheduled to celebrate Mass for the clergy of Kazakhstan and Central Asia, lay a wreath at a monument to the victims of political repression, and visit Astana's Eurasian University.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Guiding All Peoples to God DATE: 09/16/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 16-22, 2001 ----- BODY:Register Summary
A “surprising” prophecy in the psalms that envisioned all the earth's peoples joined in God's praise, found fulfillment through Jesus Christ, John Paul II told more than 12,000 pilgrims in St. Peter's Square at his weekly general audience Sept. 5.
In his remarks on Psalm 47, the Pope said that Christ's suffering and death broke down the barriers between gentiles and Jews, the people of the covenant.
The psalm, a hymn of praise to God as the king of the universe, concludes, John Paul said, “on a note surprising for its openness to other peoples: 'The princes of the peoples assemble with the people of the God of Abraham.’”
Though the psalm also emphasizes God's domination, it depicts the Jews’ mission as one of “making all peoples and cultures converge toward the Lord, because he is the God of all humanity” whom everyone is called to encounter, the Pope said.
“The Lord, the Most High, the great king over all the earth!” This opening acclamation is repeated with different words throughout Psalm 47, which we have just listened to. It is structured as a hymn to the sovereign Lord of the universe and of history. “God is king over all the earth. ... God rules over the nations” (verses 8-9).
Like similar compositions in the psalter (Psalms 93 and 96-99), this hymn to the Lord, the king of the world and of humanity, implies an atmosphere of liturgical festivity. We are therefore at the spiritual heart of Israel's praise, which rises up to heaven from the Temple, the place where the infinite, eternal God reveals himself and meets his people.
We will follow this song of joyous praise through its basic movements, which are like two waves advancing toward the seashore. They differ in the way they view the relation between Israel and the nations.
In the first part of the psalm, the relation is one of domination: God “made people subject to us, brought nations under our feet” (verse 4). In the second part, the relation is, instead, one of association: “The princes of the peoples assemble with the people of the God of Abraham” (verse 10). Thus, we recognize there has been a notable development.
The First Movement
In the first part (verse 2-6) it says: “All you peoples, clap your hands; shout to God with joyful cries” (verse 2). The center of this festive applause is the majestic figure of the supreme Lord, who is given three glorious titles: “Most High, great and terrible” (verse 3). They exalt God's transcendence, absolute primacy of being and omnipotence.
The risen Christ will also exclaim: “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18).
Within God's universal lordship over all the peoples of the earth (verse 4), the psalmist emphasizes God's special presence in Israel, the divinely chosen people, the “beloved,” the Lord's most precious and dearest heritage (verse 5).
Israel, then, knows itself to be the object of a special love of God, which was made manifest in victory over the hostile nations. During the battle, the presence of the Ark of the Covenant near Israel's troops secured God's help for them. After the victory, the ark went back up Mount Zion (Psalm 68:19) and everyone proclaimed, “God mounts the throne amid shouts of joy; the Lord, amid trumpet blasts” (Psalm 47:6).
The Second Movement
The second movement of the psalm (verses 7-10) opens with another wave of praise and festive song: “Sing praise to God, sing praise; sing praise to our king, sing praise. ... Sing hymns of praise” (verses 7-8). The hymn is still addressed to the Lord, who is seated on the throne in the fullness of his kingly power (verse 9). This royal seat is called “holy” because it cannot be approached by limited, sinful man.
But the Ark of the Covenant, present in the most sacred area of the Temple of Zion, is also a heavenly throne. In this way, the God who is distant and transcendent, holy and infinite, comes close to his creatures, adapting himself to space and time (1 Kings 8: 27, 30).
The psalm ends on a note surprising for its openness to other peoples: “The princes of the peoples assemble with the people of the God of Abraham” (verse 10). The psalmist harks all the way back to Abraham, the patriarch who is at the root, not only of Israel, but also of other nations.
To the chosen people who descend from him is entrusted the mission of making all peoples and cultures converge toward the Lord, because he is the God of all humanity. From east to west they will then gather in Zion to meet this king of peace and love, unity and brotherhood (Matthew 8:11).
As the prophet Isaiah hoped, in the midst of their hostilities the peoples will receive the invitation to throw down their arms and live together under the one divine sovereignty, under a government ruled by justice and peace (Isaiah 2:2-5).
Christ Fulfills Psalm 47
Everyone will look to the New Jerusalem, where the Lord “ascends” to reveal himself in the glory of his divinity. It will be “a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people and tongue. ... They cried out in a loud voice: 'Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne, and from the Lamb’” (Revelation 7:9, 10).
The letter to the Ephesians sees the fulfillment of this prophecy in the mystery of Christ the Redeemer when, addressing non-Jewish Christians, it says: “Remember that at one time you, gentiles in the flesh, ... were at that time without Christ, alienated from the community of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world.
“But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have become near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, he who made both one and broke down the dividing wall of enmity” (Ephesians 2:11-14).
The kingship of God that this psalm extols has therefore been realized on earth in Christ's king-ship over all peoples.
An anonymous eighth-century homily comments on the mystery in this way: “Until the coming of the Messiah, the hope of the nations, the gentile peoples did not adore God and did not know who he was. And until the Messiah rescued them, God did not reign over the nations through their obedience and worship. But now God reigns over them with his Word and his Spirit, because he has saved them from falsehood and has made them his friends” (anonymous Palestinian, eighth-century Arab-Christian Homily, Rome 1994, p. 100).
[Translation by Zenit and Register)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Racism in the 21st Century: A Catholic Perspective DATE: 09/16/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 16-22, 2001 ----- BODY:DURBAN, South Africa—In the wake of the U.S. and Israeli pullout from the World Conference Against Racism, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin addressed the summit's most heated issues in an interview with Zenit news service. The American and Israeli delegations objected to the conference document's equating of Zionism with racism.
Archbishop Martin is the Holy See's Permanent Observer to U.N. offices in Geneva. He served as head of the Vatican delegation to the racism conference, which ran from Aug. 31-Sept. 7.
From the beginning, the Middle East question was the thorn that pricked the forum, yes?
Archbishop Martin: Unfortunately, already in the preparatory conferences there were moments of tension. I must say that our intervention on two or three occasions was decisive to calm the debate, redirecting it to its real source.
The problem is that the present situation in the Middle East makes it very difficult to remain serene. In any case, the conference is not a court to judge only one country. This is a historic moment in which an ethical question is being posed, and no one gets an excellent grade.
In what sense is it a historic moment?
Compared to the previous ones, the Durban conference is different; all countries are involved. All, at the same time, are good and bad. Racism is a current problem in all countries of the world, without a single exception—a problem that touches the feelings of the heart and not just policies.
One of the topics addressed is that of slavery—in particular, reparation to the victims’ descendants. The document “The Church in Face of Racism,” prepared by the Holy See on the eve of the summit, is favorable to compensation.
It is fundamental to make a moral acknowledgment, to recognize the historical truth, yet not to remain prisoners of the past, but to build a new future.
Therefore, the problem is not so much one of indemnity as such, but of doing the opposite to what was done with slavery and colonialism. If atrocious sufferings were caused then to so many villagers and peoples, resulting in incalculable economic damages, today policies must be implemented that value human resources, that help every person to become a protagonist in his or her own life.
There is a historical reading according to which the only ones guilty of slavery are the whites. However, Yoweri Museveni, the president of Uganda, recalled that the whites bought slaves from Arab and African groups.
I think it is important to make an objective reading of history, so this aspect must also be considered. In fact, slavery today is a phenomenon that still happens in Africa among blacks. This is mentioned in the document presented by the [pontifical] Council for Justice and Peace on the eve of the conference.
The Holy See is favorable to the proposal of several African leaders to transform reparation into aid for development.
For example, I view the New African Initiative favorably, a program that was mentioned in this conference, launched by the African governments themselves, which points not only to economic development but also fosters the capacity of each one of the governments to be more efficient, eliminating corruption and nepotism.
At the conference, the Holy See addressed the topic of immigration, requesting governments to be more open.
Immigrants are among the primary victims of racism in our world, and this must be acknowledged.
In particular, illegal immigrants are victims of the most terrible abuses and, precisely because of their condition, they have no means to obtain justice.
However, how can this opening be reconciled with the need to elaborate concrete migratory policies, as the Holy See also affirms? Reality demonstrates that the massive and uncontrolled entry of immigrants ends by provoking racist reactions.
There is no contradiction. We are talking here about immigrants, not immigration. In other words, we are talking about individuals and their families, who have inalienable rights, and not about immigration policies, which are something different.
In your address to the Plenary Assembly, you said that education against racism begins in the family.
Yes, we have succeeded in including a paragraph in the Plan of Action that recognizes the role of the family, as education begins in the family. In it, the child understands for the first time the concept of the other. In the family, the other becomes a brother or sister.
And, in growing up, they must understand that the family is an open place, which opens to new brothers and sisters. The family must be the first school in which the roots of racist behavior must be firmly rejected.
In this conference, there has been no talk of religious discrimination, which happens in many Muslim countries, or of the situation in India. You did not raise the question either, despite the fact that many Catholics live under persecution.
It's true, nothing much has been said publicly, but it has [been addressed] in the working commissions. There is religious intolerance, but there is also interreligious dialogue.
This is why we have supported the introduction, later accepted, of an article that underlines the importance of interreligious dialogue as a factor of education against racism.
It hasn't been easy, given that there are delegations, like the European Union's, which are allergic to the religious question. Some would like to accuse religions of the factor of intolerance, something that is objectively unacceptable.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 09/16/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 16-22, 2001 ----- BODY:English Cardinal Says Christianity ‘Almost Vanquished’
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Sept. 6—Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, archbishop of Westminster and leader of Catholics in England and Wales, warned that Christianity's influence over young people in Britain had waned, the wire service reported.
The cardinal told the National Conference of Priests that Christianity “has now almost been vanquished” as a force guiding moral decisions. He said the British were replacing Christianity with a patchwork of music, New Age beliefs, the occult, the free market and the environmental movement.
“When we live in a culture which says, ‘What I have got is what I am,’ we are in big trouble,” he noted. “Whilst I understand that—to some degree—we are all consumers, this is something we all enjoy a bit, it's quite clear that a sole reliance on the market place does in the end actually prevent people from taking their destiny into their own hands.”
Taliban Could Execute Christian Aid Workers
AFGHAN ISLAMIC PRESS, Sept. 5—The chief justice of Afghanistan's Taliban government said that eight Western aid workers could receive the death penalty on charges of converting Afghan Muslims to Christianity, the Pakistan-based news agency reported.
Maulvi Noor Muhammad Saqib said the workers could be punished with “imprisonment, fine, or execution” if they are convicted. A 12-judge Taliban Supreme Court panel is trying the case behind closed doors.
Saqib said there were no plans as yet to allow anyone to view the trial. Saqib also indicated that a representative of the Vatican would not necessarily be let in, unless he were acting as a lawyer for one of the accused. The eight aid workers, two Americans, four Germans and two Australians, are employees of Shelter Now International, a Christian organization based in Germany.
The 16 Afghans to whom the workers were allegedly preaching will be tried separately on an undisclosed date.
Three Western diplomats and parents of two American detainees have been in Kabul for one week to monitor the trial, and have twice met with the workers.
Spanish Catholic Church Criticized for Teacher Firing
DEUTSCHE PRESSE-AGENTUR, Sept. 4—Left-wing parties, trade unions, local officials and some parents chastised Spain's Catholic Church for firing a religion teacher who married a divorced man in a civil ceremony, the wire service reported.
Some members of the hierarchy pointed out that Resurreccion Galera, 36, would not be an appropriate teacher of religion because she had married against Church teachings. Galera charged, through tears, that her opponents displayed “arrogance and lack of Christian piety.”
In the Gospel, Christ teaches against just such a marriage. Galera's action was a public act of defiance against her bishop.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: How Not to Spend Summer Vacation DATE: 09/16/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 16-22, 2001 ----- BODY:At summer's end comes the World Day of Tourism ó Sept. 27. Pope John Paul II has spoken eloquently of the value of vacations during his own down time during recent summers.
He took the opportunity of the World Day of Tourism to weigh in on a problem common in our day: The moral laxity that often accompanies tourism. It manifests itself in small ways ó hotel television pornography ó and large ways: full scale “sex tourism.”
Excerpts from the Holy Father's statement for the World Day of Tourism follow:
The development of tourism, particularly cultural tourism, can undoubtedly benefit both visitors and host communities. Most agree, for instance, that major works of art are important for the insight into civilizations that they provide, and as such they should be more effectively protected by the international community. In some places, however, mass tourism has produced a kind of sub-culture that degrades both the tourists and the host community: it tends to exploit for commercial purposes the traces of “primitive civilizations” and “initiation rites still practiced” in some traditional societies.
For the host communities, tourism often becomes an opportunity to sell so-called “exotic” products: hence the phenomenon of sophisticated holiday resorts that are cut off from any real contact with the culture of the host country or that are marked by a “superficial exoticism” offered to the curious who are eager for new sensations
Sadly, this unchecked desire leads at times to humiliating aberrations, such as the exploitation of women and children in an unscrupulous sex trade which is an intolerable scandal. Every possible measure must be taken to ensure that tourism never becomes a latter-day form of exploitation, but is instead a point of fruitful dialogue between different civilizations in which experiences are exchanged in creative ways.
In a globalized world, tourism is at times an important element in a process of internationalization that can produce radical and irreversible changes in the culture of the host communities.
Driven by consumerism, the culture, religious ceremonies and ethnic festivals can become consumer goods which are increasingly debased in order to meet the demands of a larger number of tourists. In order to satisfy these demands, host communities resort to a “reconstructed ethnicity” which is the opposite of a genuine dialogue between civilizations in which each respects the authenticity and identity of the other....
Let no one succumb to the temptation of making free time a period of “rest from values” (see Angelus message July 4, 1993). On the contrary, an ethic of tourism must be promoted. In this context, the World Ethical Code for Tourism merits attention. It is the fruit of wide-ranging reflection undertaken by various nations and tourism associations, and by the World Tourism Organization.
This document is an important step towards ensuring that tourism is seen not just as one among many economic activities, but as a privileged means for the development of individuals and peoples. Through tourism, the cultural heritage of humanity can be placed more effectively at the service of dialogue between civilizations and the promotion of a stable peace. It should be noted too that this World Ethical Code acknowledges the different motives that lead people to travel the length and breadth of the planet, and refers especially to journeys for religious purposes, such as pilgrimages and visits to shrines.
----- EXCERPT: Vatican ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Commentary -------- TITLE: Sizing Up the Scapular DATE: 09/16/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 16-22, 2001 ----- BODY:The article “Not a Magic Charm: Exploring the Purpose of the Brown Scapular” (Aug. 12-18) was misleading in a few areas. It is true that the Carmelite order has always viewed the scapular as a call to holiness and devotion to Mary, but not all Carmelites are skeptical of St. Simon Stock's vision or even the message in the Sabbatine Bull. Many Carmelites believe that the vision, which has been passed down to us by tradition, has been verified through miracles.
Even if there is some question about the original Sabbatine Bull, the essence of it has been reiterated by other popes. Sweeping statements like those made in the article need documentation. The article seemed to say that everyone was obliged to agree with the particular Caremlites who were sharing their opinions and interpretations, but this is not true. There is plenty of opposition to their perspectives within the order itself.
Many popular Catholic devotions are based on private revelations, which the Church does not require the faithful to believe in. Some of them have been recognized by the Church and encouraged as a way of helping people in their personal faith and prayer lives, as the catechism teaches (No. 67). However, private revelations do not hold the same place as the Eucharist, which must be accepted by all Catholics.
St. Simon Stock's vision would have been a private revelation. Tradition is held to be crucial in understanding Christianity as well, and a lot of the scapular debate is really about how much faith can be put in a tradition. Also, matters of faith cannot be analyzed in the same way the Civil War can, for instance. Although the Bible has historical information in it, it is not a history book, and the same goes for the Carmelite order. For an order that is so well known for its rich spirituality and mysticism, it makes little sense to apply a strict historical method to it.
These issues needed some clarification because, given the way the article was written, it could seriously challenge the faith of many. While it is not wrong to report the doubts that some have had about Carmelite traditions, it is not helpful to anyone when an issue is presented without the necessary background information or relevant details that would ensure a real understanding of the subject. In this case, regardless what the quoted sources believe, we are still permitted to believe that the Blessed Mother appeared to St. Simon Stock.
Further reading on the subject can be found at the discalced Carmelites’ Web site at www.ocd.pen.net, which has official statements regarding the scapular. EWTN also has some good articles on it in their Internet library.
AMY A. WELCH
Burke, Virginia
The Meek Shall Inherit The Third-Quarter Earnings
The “Family Matters” column of your Sept. 2-8 issue dealt with the conduct of Christian business people and their principles in the workplace ("Labor Day Examination of Conscience,” by Phil Lenahan). I would like to relate a story told by a friend of mine about his business.
At one point in time his business lost one of its largest customers. It looked as though, according to conventional business practice, they would have to lay off 11 people.
They had a meeting and decided that everyone would try harder to get new business and that everyone would be kept on as long as possible.
Before the year was out, they had gained enough new business to more than replace that which was lost. Not only that, but, shortly after this, the customer they had lost decided to bring their business back, and they had to hire more people.
This is Christian business in practice!
DON FAIR
Omaha, Nebraska
Feeding Faith by the Footlights
Regarding “Major Masterpiece or Minor Shaw,” Father Peter John Cameron's review of George Bernard Shaw's play Major Barbara on Broadway:
Agreed, when enjoying theater offerings, a viewer sometimes comes away pleasantly surprised. A new play, Train to Nimroc , was startling in its simplicity and high moral content. In fact, the critic headed his review the next day: “Daring to be nice!” The performance was exceptional for many reasons.
Father Cameron's review of Major Barbara , likewise, has me wishing to see it. Failing that, my library will likely be visited so the play can be read again. There are some good things from our past and Father Cameron should delight in having called this to our attention.
Incidentally, when observing who Father Cameron is (editor of the liturgical-prayer monthly Magnificat ), one can only say, “It figures.” Incidentally, just the other day I thoughtfully asked someone: “Who is responsible for that wonderful Magnificat ?”—and, voila, the Register “registered” this information for me. So, thank you, as always, for another good issue.
LUCY MERKER
Pittsfield, Massachusetts
Embryos Alighting
There are no “extra” frozen embryos; each embryo has its own DNA, and its own soul. The Snowflakes Embryo Adoption Program of the Nightlight Christian adoption agency is the same agency used by Lucinda Borden who gave birth to the twin boys featured on page one of the Register (“Which Would You Kill? Father Asks Congress,” July 29-Aug. 8).
According to the adoption agency, there are tens of thousands of embryos out there—and 2 million infertile couples waiting to begin families of their own. If anyone is interested in adopting a little embryo, visit www.snowflakes.org or call Snowflakes at 714-278-1020.
Also, please tell President Bush that he was wrong to compromise on embryo research, because he has condoned the killing of these embryos by the labs.
Also, it might be a good idea to contact him once a month or so to ask him to pick strong pro-life Supreme Court justices. The president can be reached at president@white-house.gov; phone 202-456-1111.
BEVERLY MORAN
Corinth, New York
Disconcerted by Stem-Cell Symposium
A faithful Catholic friend purchased a subscription for my wife and me. He stated that the Register is an excellent publication and faithful to the teaching authority of the Church. And up till now my wife and I would agree.
However, I was deeply saddened by the article “Did Bush Get it Right on Stem Cells?” (Sept. 2-8). While it is fine to discuss politics of this once great nation of ours, what is missing is the challenge to the faithful to strive for Godly values. This is not just an additional topic to discuss. This touches the heart of our faithfulness to Jesus. Our respect for his divine power over the sanctity of human life. Please consider the following thoughts...
Why not print what the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has written?
Why not print what the diocesan bishops have written? Our bishops by the nature of their office are the people who have the responsibility to teach the faithful, to lead us to the truth. To challenge us to live God's will.
Why not print what the Church has taught on issues closely relating to this one?
Please answer my concerns.
COLBY V. ARDIS, III
Dixon, Illinois
I read with interest your article on Cardinal Francis George's work with his clergy on General Absolution ("Cardinal George Grapples With General Absolution,” Aug. 29-Sept. 1). I too can feel the pinch of time with my parishioners. Things seem to whittle away at my days and, before I know it, the day has passed me by.
However, I, along with my brothers, were ordained to offer the sacraments. If anything or anyone should come in the way of that on a consistent basis there ought to be a re-prioritizing. That is not to say that other clerical activities in the parish are not of value, but nothing reaches the true calling of a priest as that of offering one of our seven treasures.
I trust we are properly training our newly ordained priests to focus on the sacraments. It is true that we do have a vocations shortage. However, the way to increase vocations is not to limit that which separates us priests from every other mortal on this earth—that of offering the sacraments. We priests must be all the more willing to offer these gifts.
We will change the world one soul at a time. And isn't that how Christ would have us administer the sacrament of confession?
FATHER DANIEL LEARY
Gaithersburg, Maryland
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Commentary -------- TITLE: Money Can't Buy Me Love - Only Chores DATE: 09/16/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 16-22, 2001 ----- BODY:We always felt we were giving our kids plenty of “power”—the kind of power that comes from taking responsibility for your actions.
That, we thought, was real power. Spoiling kids only makes them dependent and power-less. Everybody knows that. Don't they?
Apparently not.
Recently, we agreed to baby-sit a friend's daughter, the dearest little 11-year-old girl in the world. The first day with us, Hurricane Hannah returned from a swim at the neighborhood pool, dropping wet towels and gear all the way into the bathroom, where she stepped out of her suit on the bathroom floor and, once clothed, continued on into the TV room.
I was flabbergasted. I am not a neat freak by any means, but this was quite a display.
“Young lady,” I demanded. “What's with the laundry all over the place?”
Hannah got up, sighed loudly, picked up her shoes and headed for the bedroom, leaving the laundry trail right where she'd ditched it.
As she passed, she informed me: “I'm high-maintenance.”
I ran to block her path to the stairs. “That's interesting,” I said, perhaps a little rabidly. “Do you know anybody who does maintenance?”
“Well,” she answered, wide-eyed. “You're supposed to take care of me.” She was absolutely serious; she looked genuinely hurt.
I put an arm around her and walked her back to her mess. “You see,” I whispered, “I'm very good at taking care of people. And I believe that, to really take care of people, you have to empower them to take care of themselves. That means you pick up your own stuff. That way, your stuff will be in order and our house will stay nice.”
Hannah grudgingly picked up each piece, then told my son, on the sly, that if I wanted my house to stay nice, I should pick up the laundry myself.
“But I told her what you're like, mom,” my son said gravely.
“What I'm like?”
“That you'd pick up her stuff all right, but she would-n't like what you did with it next.”
After Hannah's departure, our family sat down and had a good chat about the difference between needs and wants. My boy wanted to know if he ever was as helpless as Hannah. My teen-ager was quick to reply.
“You could try it,” she said. “But you'd get fined.”
We laughed. Our fee-for-service discipline system was once notorious as the cruelest, if most effective, parenting program on the block. It grew out of our children's constant pricing of their own efforts. Every Saturday, after their chores were done and they received their meager allowance, they'd start. “How much will you give me if I wash the car? How much to weed your garden? How much if I scrub the kitchen floor?” It was then we realized, heck, if their time was that valuable, so was ours.
God first calls his children to make each other peaceful and happy in a chaotic world.
I'd had enough of nagging them over kid-type messes, and enough of begging God to offer me a solution. I posted a rate sheet on the refrigerator titled “Mom's Maintenance Fees.” A towel on the floor cost them 25 cents—my pay for picking it up. Gathering their laundry and bringing it to the washroom was 50 cents, the same price as putting it away for them. Big-ticket items were those offenses which cost the household extra money: leaving water running, lights and heat on and so on. Those cost a buck for each incident. And children's library fines would be paid by the children.
It worked. “Please, please, please clean up your room” became “Holy smokes—I'm going to make a lot of money in here!” The former would have caused whining; the latter brought the frantic bumping and thumping of running feet and busy hands.
But fining our children came to an end. On Epiphany of last year, I presented them with a coupon book, with coupons good the whole year ‘round. They were only allowed to use three each month. Some were for ice-cream cones, some for little prizes, treats and videos. But others were for “one free laundry pick-up,” or “one total room clean.”
From this, a new family dynamic blossomed. As the children came to see chores as acts of love, they also came to understand that, to live in a community, everyone has responsibilities. Those responsibilities make one needed and whole and, when they are ignored, there are consequences for everybody. God first calls not with the dramatic mission to save the world. He first calls his children, when they are still children, to the simple things we do that make each other comfortable, peaceful and happy in a chaotic world.
A few weeks after Hurricane Hannah's parents returned from their trip, I got a phone call. “Hannah said you made her do chores,” her mother said. There was an awkward pause, then she added, “How on earth did you accomplish that?” She howled with laughter as I explained.
The next time we saw Hannah, it was at their house. She was thumping through the living room, sullen, toting an armful of dirty laundry toward the wash room.
Her mother beamed at me. “Darn,” she said. “I could have used the extra cash.”
Susan Baxter writes from
Mishawaka, Indiana.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Susan Baxter ----- KEYWORD: Commentary -------- TITLE: The Grandparent Trap DATE: 09/16/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 16-22, 2001 ----- BODY:Grandma and Grandpa: sweet old folks who spoil their grandchildren rotten—or the latest scourges in America's litigation boom? That's the question that arises in the wake of the July 6 West Virginia Supreme Court's 3-2 ruling upholding that state's law guaranteeing grandparents the right to visit their grandchildren after the children's parents divorce.
The Mountain State is not alone. In the wake of the proliferation of divorce in America, numerous others have enacted laws intended to assure grandparents visitation rights. And, like West Virginia, many of those states have had to defend their laws against challenges that they interfere with parents’ rights to raise their children as they see fit. The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to grant grandparents any special claims in visitation cases.
Would that it never had to come to this.
The legal scuffle over grandparents’ rights is one more sign that our culture is trying to cope with the fallout of no-fault divorce laws. The issue represents something of the schizophrenia affecting American family law. On the one hand, the law treats married partners as pure individuals with competing interests that can be put asunder by the uni-lateral decision of one party. But reality insists that marriage unites not only individuals, but families; one cannot step out of the constellation of interpersonal relationships forged by marriage and pretend nothing has happened.
John and Mary may think they can part “amicably,” but the impact of their divorce extends far beyond them. A prevailing myth claims that kids are better off if parents split up rather than if they “stay together for the children” while feeling unhappy or dissatisfied with one another. Social science, however, proves that this is not true: Kids are almost always better off in a real and intact family than in a family of divorce.
Grandfather Clause
Grandparents'-rights laws suggest that generational impact cuts both ways: Not only do the children of divorce suffer by having difficulty establishing good marital relationships for themselves, but divorce also warps the normal relationships that extend backwards through generations (such as the natural bond between grandparents and grandchildren).
The changing role of grandparents is one aspect of the general demographic shift affecting American family life. If 50 years ago extended families were commonplace, an intact nuclear family today is almost exemplary (given the prevalence of broken families). Problems caused by the decline of extended families are compounded by the mobility of Americans. Grandchildren and grandparents are likely to live far apart. My grandma lived downstairs; my daughter's grandmother lives in another country.
Legislators considering grandparents'-rights laws may have images of little old ladies knitting in rocking chairs, but today's elderly are well-organized and, thus, politically powerful. Indeed, in some states, any candidate who opposes the agenda of the “seniors’ lobby” is playing with political suicide.
Are grandparents’ rights part of what Harvard law professor Mary Ann Glendon disparagingly calls “rights talk”—i.e., the proclivity to inflate conflicting policy choices to the level of competing “rights"?
“Rights talk” has, for example, encumbered constitutional law by turning ordinary political decisions into guaranteed and inalienable “rights” (like the so-called “right” to abortion). If the desire to give grandparents access to their grandchildren becomes a matter of legal rights, how far will these rights extend?
Grandparents have a certain claim in justice to see and know their grandchildren—but how far do those rights go?
In New Jersey, a state court decided that grandparents cannot seek judicial redress for infringement of their rights until all non-judicial remedies have first been exhausted. In the name of “grandparents’ rights,” could a state prevent a custodial parent from moving out-of-state? (One of the litigants in West Virginia threatened to move to South America to escape the court's “interference.”) Would the parents have to pay for Grampy's airline tickets if they, the parents, moved out-of-state?
Will courts require regular “telephone time” with grandparents, as a California court held? One can argue that, as extended progeny, grandparents do have a certain claim in justice to see and know their grandchildren, but how far do those rights go?
Catholic social thought rightly emphasizes the family as the basic unit of society. In different cultures, family authority is exercised in various ways. For example, in some Oriental cultures the elderly retain a certain primacy, even over the extended family, and respect for the elderly is greatly valued.
While extended families merit respect, the rights of the immediate family are under frequent assault today. American law ignores the social nature of man by treating families not as natural units but as conglomerates of contractual interests, sometimes cohering and sometimes conflicting. Various self-appointed do-gooders—like secular sex educators—arrogate to themselves the “right” to contradict parental decisions about how children should be educated. From one viewpoint, “grandparents’ rights” are another incursion by the state into families’ private matters.
Law is not a panacea for every social ill; every problem cannot be legislated away. One could even argue that the state's claim of the right to dissolve marriages—and especially no-fault divorce—is to blame for grandparents’ rights in the first place: If the state was not breaking up marriages, it would not have to guarantee grandparents the right to see their grandchildren.
One must ask if grandparents'-rights laws may even do more harm than good. In a typical case, they should be unnecessary. Most parents are presumably mature enough to recognize that regardless of what happened between them, their kids want and need roots. In many cases, custodial parents will not interfere with grandparents’ contact with grandchildren.
In those cases where family relations are so dysfunctional that a parent prevents a grandparent from visiting, the law is hardly the means to heal that rift. Forced visitation may even exacerbate family tensions. Law cannot substitute for the softening of hearts which penance demands.
Advocates of such laws can argue that grandparental visitation is in the child's interest by assuring access to the child by another concerned adult. It also helps kids by preserving the traditional grandparents’ role—a safety valve to the parent's well-meaning, but misdirected, concern.
Such access may be especially important if the custodial mother has a new boyfriend on the scene, for study after study has shown that the greatest peril to children is represented by unrelated adult males living in the same home. The question, of course, is whether “grandparents’ rights,” rather than reviewing the existing custodial arrangements under the traditional “best-interest-of-the-child” test, is the way to go.
Catholic Take?
Where should a Catholic come down on grandparents’ rights? As a Catholic theologian, I have to admit that I can't decide.
On the one hand, parental rights are paramount. The state should not interfere with them even if it is motivated by what's “good.” It may be good for kids to have a healthy relationship with relatives, but it's also good for them to eat healthy food or go to a Catholic school. Whether the good ought to be legally required, however, represents a big jump.
But Catholic theology would never see a family as just a bunch of atoms whose “rights” need coordination. Just as a baby has the right to come into the world, so children have the right to a family (including an extended family). A kid ought not to have to pick and choose among natural bonds of kinship. That's another reason the Church defends the indissolubility of marriage.
Until we discard the myth that divorce is good for children, “grandparents’ rights” may be the best bandage we have to staunch the social hemorrhage caused by the wound of divorce.
John M. Grondelski, a moral theologian, writes from Warsaw.
----- EXCERPT: What rights do grandparents have when parents divorce? ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Commentary -------- TITLE: Only Catholics Can Tell You Why Cloning Is Wrong DATE: 09/16/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 16-22, 2001 ----- BODY:There's nothing like a bout with moral chaos to clarify the mind.
This dawned on me while participating in an Internet chat room populated by scientists, mathematicians, theologians and philosophers, almost all of whom have PhDs in their respective fields, and all of whom are interested in science's relationship with religion.
When the subject of human cloning came up, it became the question of the week. Now it's close to a month and we're still not off the subject. Every one of these very thoughtful, serious-minded folks is absolutely opposed to cloning humans. But being repulsed by something is not the same as having an argument against it. They know this, and are desperately scrambling to formulate some intellectual framework for their feelings.
Some question whether cloning is, morally speaking, any different than producing an identical twin. Some say it assaults the dignity of the person because the cloners are designing clonees. Some are unable to find any difference between cloning and in vitro fertilization, and since they accept the latter, they are stuck, unable to make any moral headway against cloning.
All want to oppose cloning, but the arguments they present are—by their own admission—only half-convincing. The one argument that is absolutely decisive is unavailable to almost all of them. It was made more than 30 years ago, before cloning was even thought of as a moral problem: Pope Paul VI's Humanae Vitae.
You see, almost all of my friends in the chat room are Protestant. They are all quite bright, but they are unable to give their reasoning on this issue any real traction.
I'm not a triumphalist, mind you, but, as a convert to the Catholic faith, I'd have to be blind not to notice that they are suffering the effects of removing themselves from the solid ground held by all Christians until 1930.
In that year, the Anglicans (at their Lambeth Conference) began to teach that contraception was morally permissible and biblically sound. In the years following, virtually all other Protestants came to follow the Anglicans’ lead.
The Catholic Church has stood alone in teaching that, if you separate the procreative and unitive aspects of sexuality, then there is no longer any basis for discerning right from wrong in either procreation or sexuality.
Unfortunately, many Catholics have rejected their Church's teachings on this issue, remaining in the Church while embracing the Protestant view of contraception. And so today the procreative and the unitive aspects of sexuality wander, separated from each other, throughout our culture.
By severing the unitive aspect of sexuality from the procreative, and letting the unitive run wild in a state of amoral abandon, we have given birth to every imaginable form of sexual barbarism (and not a few previously unimaginable forms). If the only goal of sexuality is merely uniting—what young people today call “hooking up”—then what can be objectively wrong with the “uniting” taking place between two males, or two females, or a man and an animal?
Meanwhile, letting the procreative aspect of sexuality run untethered from the unitive is leading to every imaginable technological innovation for producing human beings. An astonishing amount of time, energy and resources are being expended to find ways to perpetuate the species by means other than the uniting of a man and a woman.
This is all very obvious to Catholics, or should be. In fact, the very first time the question arose, “Well, what is wrong with cloning?” in the science-and-religion chat room, one of the few Catholics shot back: “It separates the procreative and unitive aspects of human sexuality, and therefore contradicts the true dignity of the human person.” He wasn't proselytizing; I doubt he had to think for 10 seconds to come up with the answer. It seemed so obvious—to him.
But just as quickly, one of the other members remarked, “That is not a premise shared by all Christians, certainly not all Protestants, who, as I do, accept contraception and in vitro fertilization, and so we need to look elsewhere if ...”
But they have been looking ever since, and no one has come up with anything very convincing. They keep trying to forge an argument against cloning based on its risks and bad effects. But arguing only from the effects of something is a sure sign that you have either already lost the argument or are well on your way to losing it. The fact is, evil actions may have all kinds of beneficial effects: Do not proponents of cloning argue for the undeniably good effect of producing babies? The problem is that we can never do evil for the sake of some perceived good.
Cloning is not the cause of the evils my Internet friends perceive. Cloning is itself merely an effect of a prior cause—severing the procreative from the unitive aspects of sexuality.
Since there is only one cause of cloning, there is only one cure. But it is not an easy cure for those who have built houses halfway down the slippery slope. You cannot accept in vitro fertilization and reject cloning; therefore, you cannot remove the horrid specter of cloning without first rejecting in vitro fertilization. But you cannot accept contraception and reject in vitro fertilization—as should be obvious from how quickly the acceptance of contraception led to in vitro fertilization. Therefore, you cannot remove in vitro fertilization without rejecting contraception. And so, like it or not, to reject cloning, you must reject contraception.
I am hoping that, out of the chat-room frustration, out of their bracing bout with moral chaos and utter moral confusion, my friends will come to clarity of mind. They had better hurry. This November, on a boat sailing international waters, Italian embryologist Severino Antinori will implant cloned embryos in the wombs of 200 women.
Sever ino? Charles Dickens couldn't have come up with a better name.
Ben Wiker, a fellow with the Discovery Institute, teaches philosophy of science at Franciscan University of Steubenville.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Commentary -------- TITLE: The Beach, the Basilica and the Blessed Mother DATE: 09/16/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 16-22, 2001 ----- BODY:On the Italian island of Sardinia, on a hill overlooking the Gulf of Cagliari, sits the splendid 14th-century Basilica di Nostra Signora di Bonaria—the Basilica of Our Lady of Good Air.
The basilica got its name when the Blessed Mother was credited for restoring clean, healthy air to the area after it had been hit by malaria. Because of other miraculous events that occurred in the waters near Cagliari, Mary is also regarded as the guardian of its sailors. And tradition has it that conquistadors named the capital of Argentina Buenos Aires, as a way of extending their devotion to Mary, under this name, to the New World.
One can easily see that Sardinia is rich in history, tradition and folklore. Exotic, mysterious, independent and introspective—Sardinia is a land rich in religious and cultural history. The Church of Our Lady of Bonaria in the ancient seaport town of Cagliari is a living monument to its vibrant history.
Situated approximately 125 miles west of mainland Italy, Sardinia lies 22 miles south of its little sister Corsica, and 90 miles north of the Mediterranean coast of Africa. Second in size to Sicily by just a couple of miles, Sardinia's landmass is shaped like a large footprint.
In recent decades, the island has become famous for its glorious strip of emerald waters, rocky beaches and clandestine coves; the Costa Smeralda is a favored summer resort for Europe's rich and beautiful. Relatively unknown to tourists, the remaining regions of the island are serene, natural and raw, and steeped in religious and spiritual traditions and folklore which span centuries and cultures.
Sardinia's rugged hills are dotted with grazing sheep, punctuated by marshes, and speckled with vibrant wildflowers and aromatic herbs. Its long stretches of stony and sandy beaches have set the backdrop for political, economic and religious intrigue for centuries. It became a part of Italy in the late 19th century; in prior centuries it was invaded by the Phoenicians, the Carthaginians, the Romans, the Moors, the Aragonese, the Spanish, the Genoans, the Pisans, the Venetians, the Lombards and the Austrians.
Throughout Sardinia's long history of military conflict, the Catholic Church managed to remain a constant and strong force here—thanks to the missionary activity of the mainland Europeans. An intriguing array of monasteries, churches and convents, built by various European religious orders, is scattered around the island.
The Church of Our Lady of Bonaria, founded by Aragonese friars, is one of these. In 1323, King Infante Alfonso of Aragon invaded the town of Cagliari, with the intention of conquering the Pisans who were in possession of the seaport town. Successful in the effort, he eventually built a castle and a church.
Two years later, the king donated the church to an order of friars whose task it was to “ransom” Christian slaves from the Moors, a work which was booming in Cagliari. The Order of Our Lady of Mercy, also known as the Mercedarian Fathers, was founded in Barcelona by St. Peter Nolasco, and the order retains custodianship of the shrine of Our Lady of Bonaria to this day.
A Storm Suddenly Subsided
Legend has it that, in 1370, a sailing ship caught in a violent storm lost its heavy cargo, including a heavy case containing a wooden statue of the Blessed Mother and Child. As soon as the case touched the water, the story goes, the sea was calmed and the storm subsided.
The weighty case washed ashore at a particular point on the beach at Cagliari. Today this spot is marked by a marble column indicates the precise spot of the landing.
Upon opening the case, the friars discovered the statue, deemed it worthy of veneration, and placed it in a prominent place in the church for special honor and devotion.
The wooden statue is that of a crowned Mary holding a crowned Infant Jesus in her left arm, and grasping a candle in her right hand. The statue is carved out of a single piece of locust-tree wood, and is now displayed in the apse of the high altar of the church.
The Bonaria statue bears a remarkable resemblance to the statue of Our Lady of Cardigan in Wales. A 12th-century Welsh legend proposes that this statue was found by the side of a river in southern Wales. Despite its being taken to the local parish church three times, it did not remain there. Each time, it mysteriously found its way to the location that eventually became the site of St. Mary's Shrine to Our Lady of Cardigan, built in 1158.
While the Welsh maintain that the Bonaria statue thus has its origin in their land, the natives of Cagliari, not surprisingly, mention little or nothing of the Welsh tradition. In any case, in Cagliari, after the landing of the statue, devotion to Our Lady of Bonaria grew rapidly, particularly among seafaring men who looked to Mary as their protectress.
The oldest section of the edifice is the sanctuary itself, which was built by the Aragonese between 1324 and 1326 in classic Gothic-Catalan style.
The apse of the church is located in the bell tower, a remnant of the original building. In the center of the apse is the statue of Our Lady of Bonaria, located in a niche on the wall behind and high above the altar. From a high point of the ceiling in the apse hangs a small, carved ivory boat dating back to the 15th century. It is said to signal the winds of the gulf over which the Church looks.
Reconstructed Reverence
On the vaulted ceiling are frescoes of sailors at sea, and of angels watching and guarding over them. The frescoes are by an artist named Gina Baldracchini. A small statue, known as Our Lady of the Miracle , dates back to the church's original construction in 1325. It rests in a niche on a side altar to the right of Our Lady of Bonaria. To the left of the Bonaria statue is another small altar in honor of Our Lady of the Goldfinch.
The basilica, which is adjacent, yet separate from the sanctuary, was begun in 1704. Its construction was interrupted, resumed in 1910, and finally concluded in 1926. Its frescoes, as well as other precious artwork, were destroyed during World War II air-raids. Reconstruction of the edifice began in 1947 and ended in 1988.
A carved marble canopy atop green marble columns is suspended over the basilica altar. It is embellished with angels and arches of golden copper. Paintings of Our Lady of Fatima, the Assumption and the Immaculate Conception, are by a Sardinian painter named Antonio Mura. Another painting of the Madonna of Mercy is by Gina Baldracchini.
Majestic bronze doors, the work of Ernesto Lamagna, adorn the main entrance to the basilica. Those who pass through the doors are treated to a spectacular view of the large square, which stretches out toward the sea. The neighboring Parco di Bonaria contains Roman and Phoenician tombs and is located on the hillside next to the basilica.
The square directly in front of the basilica leads to a long beach and a rocky promontory called the “Devil's Saddle.” Legend has it that, at one point, the rocky hill reared itself and threw the devil off. A band of angels arrived just in the nick of time, to assist him in his departure. Hence the gulf is named Golfo degli Angeli , the Gulf of the Angels.
On Sept. 13, 1907, Pope Pius X proclaimed the Madonna of Bonaria the “Highest Patron of Sardinia.” Two popes, John Paul II and Paul VI, have honored Our Lady by making pilgrimages to Bonaria.
The feast of Our Lady of Bonaria is July 1, and is celebrated with many colorful festivities as well as a prayerful and solemn three-day triduum.
Sardinia is certainly more than a hop, skip and jump from mainland Italy—a destination for those who like a little adventure with their pilgrimage.
Elena Dwyer is based in
Annandale, New Jersey.
----- EXCERPT: Basilica of Our Lady of Good Air, Cagliari, Sardinia ----- EXTENDED BODY: Elena Dwyer ----- KEYWORD: Travel -------- TITLE: Girl, You're Gonna Carry That Film DATE: 09/16/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 16-22, 2001 ----- BODY:Star vehicles are Hollywood's lifeblood—movies in which the personality of a celebrity performer is more compelling than the subject matter.
The audience's satisfaction derives from its identification with the lead character's emotional life rather than the dramatization of any larger issues involved.
Two of this summer's hits are driven by their female stars in this manner.
The Others is a modestly budgeted horror film that depends upon our complete absorption in the personality of a well-established celebrity, Nicole Kidman (Moulin Rouge ), for its final plot twists to appear plausible. Legally Blonde is a female-empowerment fairy tale disguised as a romantic comedy, and the forceful originality of Reese Witherspoon's (Election ) interpretation is the key to its success.
The Others , released by Miramax and written and directed by Spanish filmmaker Alejandro Amenabar (Open Your Eyes) , is a carefully calculated cross between the traditional haunted-house film and the recent blockbuster The Sixth Sense. Grace (Kidman) has moved into a fog-enshrouded Victorian mansion on the English Channel island of Jersey near the end of World War II. She awaits the long-delayed return of her soldier husband from the front. Her preteen children, Anne (Alakina Mann) and Nicholas (James Bentley), are afflicted with a condition that makes them fatally vulnerable to light.
So Grace frantically rushes around, closing the massive wooden doors and heavy curtains to keep everything dark.
Three servants (Fionnula Flanagan, Eric Sykes and Elaine Cassidy) mysteriously appear, claiming to have experienced the best years of their lives on the premises. Grace immediately hires them, but this spooky trio has its own agenda.
The house is a character in its own right, with strange noises and movements, a hidden cemetery and a scary photo album of the previous inhabitants. Anne and Nicholas believe the place is haunted by a little boy and his father, a concert pianist. But it's not clear who's a ghost and who's real-life flesh and blood.
The dramatic tension springs from Grace's efforts to keep the household together while she figures out what's going on. Sad to say, the filmmaker insists on making continuous, subtle (and not-so-subtle) jabs at the Catholic faith as he maps out Grace's psyche and plunges the audience deeper into the supernatural fireworks. In the end, the story's resolution is also a repudiation of the protagonist's Catholicism.
Grace is presented as a conservative Catholic who forces her religious beliefs down her children's throats. When they rebel against it, we're encouraged to take their side. Anne and Nicholas seem to study only the Bible or tales of early Christian martyrs.
Special emphasis is placed on preparation for First Communion, which they've come to loathe. The endless recitation of prayers is used as punishment, and they're terrorized with visions of naughty children going to hell.
“Whenever you feel afraid,” Grace proclaims in a fit of hysteria, “squeeze the rosary and say an Our Father.”
Of course, none of this does any good. The Catholic faith is shown to be powerless when confronted with ghosts and other manifestations of the spirit world's dark side. This is a significant departure from horror classics such as The Exorcist or even The Sixth Sense , where the faith is shown to be equal or superior to other forces. “There isn't always an answer,” the housekeeper says as a way of summing up the filmmaker's message.
The film doesn't even poke fun at the faith intelligently: The mother is more like a fundamentalist Protestant than a Catholic when it comes to a Bible, and the movie hits Catholics for rejecting belief in ghosts—a charge of superstition might ring truer for some.
Legally Blonde
Legally Blonde is a much lighter film, and one without any meaningful religious references. About 20 years ago, college-age feminists used to wonder whether they could “have it all.”
By this expression they meant: Is it possible to have a successful career and a satisfying family or love life as well?
The movie, adapted from Amanda Brown's novel by Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith, poses these questions in the context of today and suggests that, yes, a woman can have it all—but only through hard work and interior personal growth.
Elle Woods (Witherspoon) is a stereotypical Southern California blonde sorority girl for whom looking good is everything and she'll shop till she drops to get there. She's expecting her hunky boyfriend Warner (Matthew Davis) to pop the question so she can settle down after graduation like the rest of her sorority sisters.
But her Prince Charming is on his way to Harvard Law School and plans a career in politics. “If I'm going to be a senator, I need to marry a Jackie, not a Marilyn,” he announces at the dinner where he dumps her.
Elle refuses to let her heart be broken. She's determined to get Warner back even if it means going to Harvard, and with a 4.0 grade point average she's able to wangle admission.
First-time director Robert Luketic pokes gentle, cartoonish fun at both spoiled Beverly Hills rich kids and earnest, politically correct Harvard Law students. When Elle shows up in Cambridge in a trim-fitting outfit of pink pearlized leather, her plaid-shirted classmates are appalled.
Witherspoon carries the film because her “dumb blonde” character is never stupid. She's just motivated at the beginning by other issues. We root for her to overcome her situation and blossom into a woman of substance and intellect. The message is to never judge people by their background or appearances.
Legally Blonde doesn't completely live up to its promise, because the filmmakers themselves share many of their characters’ ambitions and materialistic obsessions. Its effectiveness is also weakened by occasional and gratuitous use of raunchy language (and crude sexual references), probably inserted just to get a PG-13 rating, which the studio considers to be commercially desirable.
Two different genres, two female stars on the rise. The Others uses cheap shots at the faith to cover weaknesses in its story that even Kidman's personality can't transcend. Legally Blonde is transformed by Witherspoon's brilliantly observed performance from a summer youth movie into a clever, comic examination of two contrasting subcultures.
John Prizer, the Register's arts & culture correspondent, is based in Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: The Others and Legally Blonde bank on the appeal of their female leads ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORD: Arts & Culture -------- TITLE: The Wrong Stuff? DATE: 09/16/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 16-22, 2001 ----- BODY:DAYTON, Ohio—Most Americans recognize John Glenn, the first American in space, as a hero. Especially in his native Ohio, where he was elected several times to U.S. Senate.
Bringing such a man to a college campus, like the University of Dayton, and awarding him for virtue would only seem natural.
Unless, of course, the campus is Catholic and he earned a perfect voting record in Congress from supporters of abortion.
“I am very sadly disappointed that a campus that I love and a University where I feel I am receiving an excellent education would make such a choice that disregards the fundamental belief that life is sacred,” said Kristen Sheridan, president of Students for Life at the University of Dayton.
“I believe as a Catholic university we are called to respect life and should honor those who, among other things, work to uphold it as sacred from birth to natural death,” said Sheridan. “Unfortunately, John Glenn has not done this.”
Which is why pro-life activists have petitioned the alumni association to rescind the invitation to Glenn to receive the second annual Leadership with Virtue award.
Dayton Right to Life head Angie McGraw agreed that “there are many great things about the University of Dayton.” But she felt an obligation to pressure her alma mater that they should not be honoring a man who rejects human rights for unborn children, she said. “Our objection to John Glenn is based on his 100% pro-abortion record.”
The university countered that while it does not share Glenn's pro-abortion sentiment, it still regards the former senator's virtues worthy of recognition at a Catholic university.
Abortion Diversity
“People hold a diversity of opinions about abortion,” Teri Rizvi, a spokeswoman for the University of Dayton, told the Register in a statement. “As a Catholic institution, the University of Dayton disagrees with his voting record on abortion and do not support it.”
She continued, “However, when you look at the list of characteristics for this award, you realize that John Glenn over a lifetime has demonstrated a standard of leadership that few can match.”
Rizvi added that no recipient of the award was without fault.
“The award is not for perfection. No leader who takes definitive and courageous stands will be perfect by all parties. We live in a world where even the most virtuous are imperfect,” she added.
But perfection isn't what pro-lifers are looking for, just a hope that Catholic institutions would stop rewarding abortion supporters with awards or commencement speeches.
Pro-lifers have acknowledged that John Glenn will receive the award on Sept. 20 despite their opposition. But they hope that the university will think twice before inviting another abortion supporter to campus.
“The Students for Life organization have and will continue to voice this disapproval to the University,” said Sheridan. “We plan to pressure them in a way that an occurrence such as this will not again take place. We hope to bring an increased awareness of the importance of life so that it may be given greater importance in future decisions.”
----- EXCERPT: John Glenn gets high marks from abortion activists and one Catholic university ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORD: Education -------- TITLE: How To Help With the Greatest Rescue Mission Ever Launched DATE: 09/16/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 16-22, 2001 ----- BODY:Search and Rescue: How to Bring Your Family and Friends into—or Back into—the Catholic Church
by Patrick Madrid
Sophia Institute Press, 200
256 pages, $14.95
My college-age daughter recently persuaded the young man she dates to consider the claims of the Catholic faith. He did, and was received into the Church this past Easter. Even allowing for the help that romantic attachment must have given to this conversion, I was impressed.
I've never converted anybody. In fact, my attempts to evangelize a fundamentalist boyfriend back in high school failed miserably. I can still recall long, fruitless phone conversations, Bible in one hand and apologetics reference in the other, in which each of us tried to “save” the other. I didn't realize at the time that arguments, even winning ones, are not enough. Too bad the book Search and Rescue wasn't around at the time.
Apologist and author Patrick Madrid, who's also editor of Envoy magazine, wants us to see that there is much more to evangelization than winning arguments. Our success has as much to do with who we are as it does with how many Bible verses we can quote. The very first piece of advice he gives here is a pearl of wisdom from St. Francis of Assisi: “Evangelize always; when necessary, use words.”
People can tell when we are simply trying to score an intellectual victory for our pride rather than evangelizing out of a genuine love and concern for them. If they don't see something in us that is admirable and desirable—moral ideals lived up to, serenity in the face of problems, kindness, generosity—they won't be moved by our defense of doctrine, no matter how well-reasoned.. And if we don't pray earnestly for the people we are trying to convert, nothing is likely to happen.
This much we all know, but Madrid forces us to examine ourselves in these areas—and to take steps to develop the heart of a disciple. “Devote as much time to praying for these persons as you do to speaking to them,” he writes. “Resolve to love others as fervently as you try to convert them. ... [A]sk Christ in the Eucharist to help you keep your ego in check.”
After leading us through work-outs on charity, example and prayer, Madrid suggests that much time and effort could be saved by finding out precisely why an ex-Catholic left the Church in the first place: The convert to fundamentalism might appreciate scriptural argumentation, but the worldly materialist will not. The individual whose practice of the faith ended with news of a scandal will respond to different talking points than the one who feels alienated from the Church because of its teachings on a specific moral issue. Madrid offers techniques for discerning motives, listening attentively and responding in a way that is tailored to particular situations.
The concluding chapters explain how to deal with discouragement when people do not immediately respond to the truth that we offer them. Madrid reminds us that, in the parable of the sower, “the job of the sower is to cast the seed and move on. His mission isn't to stand there, huddled over the grain of wheat, waiting anxiously to see whether it will take root and grow. That's God's task.”
Only God can see what is going on in a person's soul. We must be patient, as God is patient with us. We must be humble, because if we really think this person's salvation depends on us and our wonderful words, we are destined for disappointment.
Madrid illuminates this point in the book's conclusion with an account of one of his own failed efforts. I'm glad he did. Somehow it's comforting to know that even an accomplished apologist goofs up now and then. His candor, combined with his evident perseverance, motivates us to get out there and try. And, when we think we have failed, to try, try again.
Daria Sockey writes from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
----- EXCERPT: Weekly Book Pick ----- EXTENDED BODY: Daria Sockey ----- KEYWORD: Education -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 09/16/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 16-22, 2001 ----- BODY:Homosexual Student Sent Threats to Self
Neither the police nor campus officials would comment on whether Drago voluntarily confessed, but he told reporters, “I was called in for routine questioning and confessed because I felt it was the right thing to do. There were a lot of times when I wanted to break down and be honest before then, but that usually led to a panic attack or a seizure.”
Drago attributed his actions to his own instability and his ambivalence about being homosexual, the Chronicle reported. Drago was charged with a felony or filing false police reports. He faces harassment charges for threats sent to the homosexual group on campus.
Harvard to Harvest Stem Cells From Fertility-Clinic Embryos
Douglas A. Melton, a professor of molecular and cellular biology at Harvard, was instrumental in securing the deal, reported the Chronicle. Melton's other employer, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, a private foundation, will pay Boston IVF $180,000 over the next two years to cover the cost of transferring the embryos.
Harvard will receive no money in the deal. Harvard officials said they did not know how many new lines would arise from the new arrangement.
“We believe in what we're doing,” said Javier Balloffet, director of administration for Harvard's biological laboratories.
Universe Not a Void, Notre Dame Profs Prove
UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME, Aug. 27—Two University of Notre Dame physicists are involved in the discovery of a fundamental difference between matter and its mirror image, antimatter—a finding that helps explain why the universe is not a giant void.
In 1981, Notre Dame physics professor Ikaros Bigi wrote a paper with Anthony Ichiro Sanda and Ashton Carter that predicted the properties that certain particles would have if the so-called Standard Model of the fundamental forces of nature was correct.
This July, two separate research facilities, one in Stanford, Calif., and the other in Japan, demonstrated the predicted results. John LoSecco, a professor of physics at Notre Dame, was also involved in the discovery.
The new findings give the best reasons to date for explaining, when the universe blossomed into being in the big bang roughly 13 billion years ago, the matter that had been created was not obliterated by an equal amount of antimatter.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Education -------- TITLE: Weekend Duties DATE: 09/16/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 16-22, 2001 ----- BODY:Q My wife is upset with me because I go into work on weekends, but that is the only time I can have peace and quiet at work with no interruptions.
A Many of the inventions to improve business practices in the last 10 years have one quality in common: they enhance impersonal communication. You need never, ever, actually talk to a teller. You can ATM and be done with it, or even do your banking on the Internet. Want to leave messages without getting into a conversation? Hey, there's voice mail!
It's as if the goal of the ‘90s was to invent ways to avoid personal contact. The fantasy is: “If only people wouldn't bother me, I could really be productive.”
I think, though, that people are realizing deep down that we need to actually talk to each other to show appreciation, resolve conflicts and enrich our experience—and even our profits. For the time being, though, we seem to be pushing the impersonalization of the workplace as far as we can go.
Will this approach to work work?
While it's debatable whether the impersonal style is good for business, it is certainly not good for a family.
A family is radically personal. Face-to-face encounters are its lifeblood. You can't just leave notes on the fridge and voice-mails on the phone as a substitute for direct interactions with your wife and kids.
The Vatican II document On the Church in the Modern World(Gaudium et Spes) defines marriage as a personal community in which the partners give themselves to each other. So, however productive you are at work on the weekends, you are paying a price at home if you aren't around.
If, however, your job really requires you to work outside normal hours to catch up, you might compromise by working, let's say, one weekend per month.
At the same time, consider making changes that will enrich your encounters with people at work. As John Paul II reiterates, work is fundamentally for people and not the other way around. It might help, for example, to look for ways to show your appreciation for what your co-workers contribute.
In my 16 years of business experience I've found that the impersonal boss who treats people as objects is generally the one who has to “waste” the most time with human resource problems and employee morale and performance issues. He's always recruiting and training because of the high turnover of people who don't feel appreciated. In other words, impersonal is not more efficient or productive.
In the short run, we might feel more productive by bypassing people; and certainly every organization should carefully reduce wasted time and increase efficiency. Seeing co-workers as obstacles, however, is bound to be unproductive in the long run.
Art A. Bennett is a licensed marriage, family and child therapist.
----- EXCERPT: Family Matters ----- EXTENDED BODY: Art A. Bennett ----- KEYWORD: Culture Of life -------- TITLE: Teaching Teens To Think DATE: 09/16/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 16-22, 2001 ----- BODY:Montague Brown had acquired a degree in English literature—and a somewhat negative, secondhand impression of philosophy—when his wife's Christmas gift of Plato's Collected Dialogues opened his eyes to a new world: “So this is philosophy—I love it!” An enthusiast ever since, he went on to earn a Ph.D. in philosophy from Boston College and has taught it for more than 15 years at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire.
Now with his new book The One-Minute Philosopher, Brown hopes to put a broader audience in touch with the best philosophical thinking on life's key questions. Register correspondent Louise Perrotta recently spoke with him about the book, which springs out of his experience in the classroom and at home. Brown and his wife, Meeta, have four children: Aroostine (20), Graham (18), Louisa (16) and Kristina (13).
What inspired you to write The One-Minute Philosopher?
I teach college freshmen, and the issues that come up in class have made me aware that many young people don't have a grasp on making distinctions between things like authority and power, obedience and servility, lust and love, happiness and pleasure. Also, the same kinds of questions have come up in my family.
Being able to make distinctions like these is important because it can make the difference between happiness and misery. Fortunately, there are trustworthy philosophers—people like Thomas Aquinas and Augustine, but also like Plato, Aristotle and Cicero—whose thinking can guide people who don't have time and energy to devote themselves fully to philosophy. The One-Minute Philosopher presents some of these riches in a fairly simple format so that people can get started on making important distinctions and learn to think more clearly.
Montague Brown teaches logic to freshmen—no easy task
Your book presents 88 pairs of basic ideas that often get confused and treats each pair by comparing them on two facing pages. Why this format?
Most people are very busy and don't have the time to say, “I'll set next month aside to read Plato.” Also, I wanted a non-threatening approach that would help people realize that, although philosophy is a lifelong project, you can get a start on it pretty quickly. This book offers that, and also gives suggestions about further reading.
It took work to get each pair of ideas trimmed down to the most important points, balanced, and illustrated with quotations. But the result, I think, is a clear book that any adult or high school student can understand. Not that the ideas are puerile—they're just put simply.
I notice that you dedicated the book to your children.
That's because I learn so much from the things they say and ask about.
Raising children through the teen-age years, I've had to think about how to give clear explanations to tough questions like, “How do you know God exists?” Part of my answer to that one appears in the entry on “matter” (everything that can be measured) and “reality” (everything that is: meaning as well as matter).
Once the children grasp that some things they know are real—like thought, love and freedom of choice—are not part of the material world that can be explored and measured by science, they're more able to understand the idea of there being a God, a mysterious being beyond us who is the source of our freedom and the good things we have.
How would you suggest that parents use The One-Minute Philosopher?
If the children are older, you could have them read it, as I'm doing with my own children. They could go through it on their own, or you could read and discuss it together, one section at a time.
Of course, reading the book will help parents to clarify their own beliefs. It will get you thinking about key issues so that you're more able to talk about them clearly and convincingly as they come up.
For example, if you're discussing the day's headlines, it might be useful to pass along the distinction between the statesman, who uses power for the good of the people, and the demagogue, who manipulates people to gain power. Or if the subject is something like abortion, you'll appreciate a simple explanation of the difference between justice and law, as well as morality and custom.
Can you give some examples of how parents might use good philosophy to address specific problems—say, the child who won't go to Mass because it's “hypocritical.”
In the book I distinguish between hypocrisy and virtue—fake goodness of character versus the real thing. Virtuous people realize they're imperfect but make a sustained effort to do good for its own sake and to become better every day. Hypocrites are not serious about virtue but only pretend to be good for the sake of some personal advantage.
While it's clear that everyone is imperfect, most people don't go to church out of a desire to fool or manipulate others. Also, virtue isn't essentially about fulfilling obligations but about making yourself happier. You don't have to choose between being good and being happy.
What do you say to the daughter who wants to wear the tight, navel-baring tank top?
It's important to point out the distinction between love and lust. Everyone wants to be attractive, and there's nothing wrong with that. But you want to be attractive as a whole person, not just as a body. And if you wear that “super” tank top, you invite others to look at you as an object. That involves lust, which is the desire to take another person for oneself. Love, on the other hand, is for the totality of the other person and is expressed in giving oneself for another.
What if your child accuses you of being “judgmental” whenever you point out that certain behaviors are morally wrong?
The distinctions between judgment and prejudice, criticism and condemnation, and open-mindedness and indiscrimination are all relevant here. Basically, judgment and criticism represent an effort to understand and evaluate others’ ideas and actions. Their opposites entail devaluating or dismissing as worthless the people who hold those ideas, which is always wrong. “Hate the vice but love the person” is a fundamental principle of ethics.
Parents have a responsibility to make reasonable judgments and not indiscriminately accept or overlook what is bad. We have to let our kids know that certain behaviors and ideas are not fine. At the same time, we always have to make sure that we're not condemning the people involved.
Are children really open to philosophical explanations?
I think that kids really want to hear the ideas. They may object to some, but they want reasons for things and not just declarations. Neither does it comfort them to hear, “Well, it doesn't matter what you do. I'm okay, you're okay.”
Young people's minds are working. That may not always be obvious when you see them in their world of high school and music and friends. But they're thinking about things—trying to judge what friendship is, what's going to make them happy, what life is about. Their minds are engaged, and they need some fodder for thought. I wrote The One-Minute Philosopher to address that need, and I hope parents and kids will find it helpful.
It seems to me that anyone who learns to think about life a bit more than on the surface will find that the world, relationships and choices become deeply meaningful. So that's one important reason to make a start and pursue philosophy for yourself and your children: to be happy!
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Louise Perrotta ----- KEYWORD: Culture Of life -------- TITLE: Anti-Abortion 'Choice' Ads Keep on Trucking DATE: 09/16/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 16-22, 2001 ----- BODY:LOS ANGELES—A media campaign designed to break through public denial of the tragedy of abortion is generating controversy in Los Angeles.
Trucks bearing billboard-size color photographs of aborted human embryos and early fetuses began circulating on the busy Los Angeles freeway system July 25. In giant letters, the word, “Choice,” offers a stark reminder of the realities of abortion.
As the convoy of four trucks followed by a security vehicle moves along the crowded freeways, about 85% of passers-by turn their heads to look at the images, according to Gregg Cunningham, director of the project, which is called the Reproductive “Choice” Campaign. It is sponsored by the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform in Anaheim, Calif.
“We often see people entering into animated discussions about what they have just seen,” said Cunningham. “The reaction of individual drivers typically ranges from anger to stunned disbelief,” he added.
The carefully crafted campaign, which by conservative estimates has now been seen by millions of L.A. commuters, is the result of years of research into movements of social reform in America.
“Shocking pictures have traditionally been used to dramatize injustice ... in the areas of child labor abuses, civil rights for African Americans and the U.S. military involvement in the Vietnam War,” explained Cunningham.
Two key elements of a true social reform movement are a commitment to nonviolence under all circumstances and a willingness to endure anger and persecution in communicating an unpopular message, said Cunningham.
“The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. provides a model for anyone aspiring to be a true social reformer,” said Cunningham. “He was committed to nonviolence, even while being subjected to the anger and hatred of those who felt black people did not deserve equal rights under the law.”
“Dr. King understood that it is naive to think that social reform can occur without the idea that the reformers themselves will be reviled,” said Cunningham. “We have to realize that the need to be liked or accepted is incompatible with the pro-life movement.”
Cunningham said he is not immune to the anger and taunts that his work with the Reproductive “Choice” Campaign evokes. He places a higher priority, however, on saving the lives of unborn children than on his personal sense of comfort.
“We all know that proclaiming a difficult truth is no way to win a popularity contest, but if we are ever going to change the minds and hearts of the American people on the issue of abortion, we have to be willing to show the world what ‘choice’ does to unborn children,” he continued.
Cunningham, a former member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, served with the U.S. Department of Justice under the Reagan Administration and as a special assistant U.S. attorney for Los Angeles.
He spent the last 11 years of his 31-year military career assigned to the Pentagon as a reserve intelligence officer, largely involved in strategic planning.
Cunningham's wife Lois is a public health nurse who, in Los Angeles, founded and directed one of the nation's first crisis pregnancy medical clinics. After serving there for more than seven years, she started a second clinic in Hollywood. Both facilities are still thriving.
Lois now helps crisis pregnancy centers around the country transition from a counseling model to a medical model. She has also been active in post-abortion counseling.
“It should be noted that we believe it is important to protect children from exposure to disturbing photos, whether those photos depict aborted babies or any other shocking subject,” explained Cunningham. “That is why we base the trucks in a location that is industrial in its zoning and go out of our way to avoid residential neighborhoods and schools,” he added.
Licia Nicassio, director of the Respect Life Office of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles would agree that children should not see these photos. She goes further, though.
“I have never believed we should show gory pictures,” she said.
Nicassio stressed that she was not speaking officially for the archdiocese, but giving her own view of Cunningham's graphic images. She said she had not seen the trucks yet, but that such pictures appeal too much to emotions and not enough to reason.
“There are all kinds of consequences that can come from showing these pictures to anybody and everybody. Assaulting our sensibilities clouds the issue. Nothing is really gained by that,” she said.
Indeed, Cunningham's campaign highlights the fact that pro-life leaders take different approaches to the use of graphic images.
“The proof that America really is against abortion is that you do not see it on television,” says Chris Straub of the Culture of Life Foundation in Washington, D.C. “We are naturally repulsed by the violent death of a fellow human being, so the reality of abortion is intentionally hidden from public view,” he added.
“Seeing these images is upsetting because they tell the truth about what is happening to our fellow human beings,” continued Straub. “Our response should not be anger, but a renewed commitment to reaching out in love to women in crisis pregnancies and those suffering the emotional aftermath of having an abortion.”
Peter Droege writes from Denver. Register staff contributed to this article.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Peter Droege ----- KEYWORD: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: LIFE N NOTES DATE: 09/16/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 16-22, 2001 ----- BODY:Advantages of Growth
OPINIONJOURNAL.COM, Aug. 8—Three researchers, Wolfgang Lutz, Warren Sanderson and Sergei Scherbov, report in Nature magazine that they've predicted there is “around an 85% chance that the world's population will stop growing before the end of the century.”
While the authors contend this is good news, others note the clear advantages of population growth, not decline, reported Opinionjournal.com.
As an example, since 1960, Asia's population has more than doubled, and the continent's people have set off a new industrial revolution. Per capita food consumption has soared. Yet the United Nations called for billions to be spent on population control at a time when Asia was actually suffering labor shortages.
‘ABOUT F.A.C.E.’
US NEWSWIRE, Aug. 7—Steven Mosher, president of Population Research Institute, introduced a national campaign to protect American women from violations committed in private- and state-funded abortion clinics and family planning centers.
Dubbed ABOUT F.A.C.E., the campaign draws on the Roe II v. Aware Woman Center for Choice decision of June 8. In that decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta ruled that, under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (F.A.C.E.) Act, Dr. William Egherman violated a patient's right of access to reproductive health services by forcing her to continue with an abortion.
Mosher believes the precedent can help protect women against the full range of abortion-related abuses, including threats, lack of informed consent and lack of information about the harmful side-effects of abortion.
K of C to Boldly Fight Abortion
The resolution called on chapters to take out newspaper, radio and TV ads publicizing elected officials’ statements and voting records on abortion.
Ads should be timed for “maximum impact, in terms of educating the public and influencing the actions of elected officials,” said the chapter.
Opposition to Use of Embryos
The university's James Thomson was re-evaluating his plans for additional stem-cell research following President Bush's Aug. 9 decision to allow funding only on existing lines.
“We would ask that you follow President Bush's lead on this issue” and not finance additional embryonic stem cell lines, the lawmakers wrote.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: In Silence, New York Mourns - And Prays DATE: 09/23/2002 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 23-29, 2001 BODY:NEW YORK — On the streets, silence. One day after hijackers slammed two commercial planes into Manhattan's World Trade Center, killing thousands, New Yorkers by the millions rose to a clear fall day and began to sift through the previous day's events.
It was no nightmare. The Twin Towers, which for 30 years bestrode the southern tip of Manhattan, were gone. In their place, a mountain of twisted steel and broken concrete amid shattered glass by the acre.
Hundreds of firefighters and police officers were unaccounted for; thousands of New Yorkers were feared dead; much of the financial district continued to burn; and buildings, now empty of people, would continue to collapse throughout the day.
There was no denying it. The chemical smell of the still-burning wreckage hung from one end of the city to the other.
For those not involved in the massive rescue and cleanup efforts, Manhattan became an island at prayer.
There was nothing left to do but pray. “I wanted to come to church because it's comforting,” said Marilyn La Porte, an administrator at New York University, who stood outside Holy Name of Jesus Church in the city's Upper West Side in the early afternoon of Sept. 12.
“It's like, what else could you do but pray for all who died — and out of fright, because we're not dealing with people who declare war.”
La Porte said more people had attended the noon Mass at her church than any day she'd ever seen. As she spoke, about a dozen people could be heard inside the church praying the rosary. One young woman left the church in tears. Another immediately walked in, as if to replace her.
The night before, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani had urged New Yorkers to go about their daily lives as they ordinarily would. For many, however, the most normal response to the previous day's horror was reflection and prayer, as streets and sidewalks became a virtual oratory.
Cars sailed at long intervals down barren avenues. Horns did not honk. No one laughed.
At noon, one driver on Broadway beeped tentatively to avoid a pedestrian. Passers-by flashed weak smiles at others.
In the fashionable Chelsea section of Manhattan, the manager of a restaurant called Nikkta planted a chalkboard with the words “Pray for our Nation” on the sidewalk in front of his establishment.
In Greenwich Village, just south of New York University, a makeshift shrine lay in front of a closed nail salon.
Candles, one bearing the image of Mary, burned in the midafter-noon sun. Behind the shrine a sign read, “In loving memory of those who lost their lives.”
Two blocks east, just north of the “zone” — the large section of the lower Manhattan that city police had blocked off the previous day — truck engines grumbled and groaned. They had lined up along Sixth Avenue to await the order from city officials to cart away debris and wreckage from farther downtown.
Truck drivers had taped them to the rearview mirrors on the outside of their trucks; an Asian man carried several through the street; and shop owners hung them in windows.
Several in the crowd clapped spontaneously at the sight of the trucks lining up in formation. Many were crying. The tallest object in the skyline above was a dingy water tank sitting on top of a stout, prewar office building. A day earlier, the tank was at the feet of the colossal World Trade Center.
Further south, inside the restricted area where police were permitting only residents and rescue workers to enter, a group of four teens walked along Sixth Avenue, heading in the direction of the disaster. One girl, wearing black shorts and a blue top with a cross dangling from her neck, moved her lips in soft prayer as the group advanced.
‘God Must Be Crying’
Dominican Father John McGuire, chaplain of the Catholic Center at New York University, had watched from his residence in a downtown high-rise as both planes hit the two towers the previous morning.
“We started praying,” Father McGuire said of himself and associate chaplain Father James Quigley, also a Dominican.
Father McGuire said the hardest-hit group from New York University, which has 18,000 Catholic students out of a total student population of 42,000, was the recent graduating class of the Stern School of Business.
All told, Father McGuire said he knows “about 20” young men and women who died in the previous day's attack.
Lines of people formed on the sidewalks along Sixth Avenue as if watching a parade. American flags waved everywhere. Several in the crowd clapped spontaneously at the sight of the trucks lining up in formation.
One recent graduate came to the campus chapel the day after the attack to pray for his wife of two months, Father McGuire said. She was working in the World Trade Center and had not escaped.
According to Father McGuire, her husband prayed “that he not be selfish in wanting his wife to be found when others were not being found.”
Student response to the attacks was not hysterical, Father McGuire said. No one he spoke with blamed God.
“Not one person has queried that God could be responsible,” Father McGuire said. “The sister of one young lady said, ‘God must be crying.’ I thought that was a faith-filled response.”
Hundreds of freshmen, 80% of whom had moved to New York in the last two weeks from other parts of the country for their first year of college, witnessed the attacks from high-rise student housing.
“I'm dealing with a great deal of post-trauma in students who, although they didn't know anyone in the buildings, saw the whole event go on,” Father McGuire said.
“I try to have them understand that through the cross and resurrection of Jesus somehow this will be made up to [the victims] — that somehow God will give them a share in the resurrection of Christ.”
At the Cathredral
Uptown, people filed steadily into St. Patrick's Cathedral throughout the day.
One woman, dressed elegantly and wearing sunglasses, wept loudly into a cell phone on the steps of the cathedral.
Inside, men and women, young and old, prayed and wept. A gray-haired man and a young man in a T-shirt and shorts flanked the central aisle of the cathedral about halfway down the church's giant nave, their heads resting on the pews in front of them.
A white-haired woman in a red suit stuffed bills into a box at the side altar of St. Elizabeth Anne Seton, lit a candle, said a prayer, and walked away.
At the back of the church, Maria De Los Angeles Martinez, a hair-dresser who looked to be in her late 20s, sat with two friends. Wearing a black tank top that exposed a tattoo on her shoulder, Martinez clutched one of her friend's hands and wept.
“I lit a candle,” she said, “for all those people who I hope they find today.”
Martinez said she has three brothers, one an emergency room technician, one a police officer and one a critical care doctor, working at the disaster site.
“All of them are okay,” Martinez said, “but they are all at ground zero. My brother the police officer lost a lot of friends.” One of Martinez's other brothers had been “pulling bodies out for 24 hours,” she said.
“Everybody wants to do something, but it's frustrating,” Martinez added. “You don't know what to do. I'm just overwhelmed. I came here. It's a good church for all of us in this city who need sanctuary. Right now I'm praying for all those people who are trapped, that they will have hope. And for God to give them strength in their loneliness. It must be so scary.”
Jameson Wells, a vice president at a stock company, also made a special trip to Midtown to pray at St. Patrick's. His father, a naval architect, corralled 200 workers, he said, and directed them safely out of the World Trade Center before its towers collapsed.
“My family, of course, is very grateful,” Wells said. “But we're the lucky ones.”
Brian McGuire, a former Register staff writer, now lives in Manhattan.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian McGuire ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Pope, Bishops and Priests Comfort Washington DATE: 09/23/2002 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — More than 3,500 people came to the Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., Sept. 16 to pay their respects to those who died across the river at the Pentagon — and, earlier, in New York — in Sept. 11's unprecedented terrorist attacks.
In a letter read by Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, archbishop of Washington, Pope John Paul II wrote, “I join my prayers to those of all assembled in the National Shrine for the Mass of Supplication celebrated for those who lost their lives in last Tuesday's terrorist attack on the Pentagon.”
The Holy Father expressed his hope that the people of the United States would rely on their religious heritage to overcome the tragedy of Sept. 11.
“I am confident that, in this time of trial, all Americans will find in their religious faith a source of renewed hope, and the impetus for an ever more determined resolve to reject the ways of hatred and violence,” he said.
He added, “To all, I solemnly repeat the Gospel injunction not to be conquered by evil, but to conquer evil with good, to trust in the power of God's grace to transform human hearts, and to work fearlessly to shape a future of justice, peace and security for the children of our world.”
His words capped a week which priests from military chaplains to the U.S. House's chaplain spent serving the spiritual needs of Washingtonians. On Sept. 16, their spiritual leaders assembled in an unusual joint Mass.
Among those at the Mass were recently retired Cardinal James Hickey of Washington; Bishop Paul Loverde of Arlington, Va.; and Archbishop Edwin
O'Brien, of the military archdiocese. Attending the service were prominent Catholics political figures: D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, and U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J.
“Has there been a darker day in your life than last Tuesday?” Archbishop O'Brien asked in his homily. “The foul, acrid smoke that billowed from the twin towers, the Pentagon, and from the 757 in Shanksville, Pa., choked the tears from the eyes of a whole world.”
He called for “swift and severe” retribution against those who perpetuated the attacks in Washington and New York. He asked for God's blessings for “all who defend and love this country, this America from sea to shining sea.”
But he reminded parishioners that true peace comes only from Christ. “He is our only light. He is our only hope. And he could not be more fully present today than in the Eucharist.”
The military archbishop also reminded parishioners not to succumb to fear or hatred, especially against Americans of Arabic descent, saying “Any prejudice is un-American and un-Christian.”
A Nation of Justice and Peace
Cardinal McCarrick told the Register that he was praying for three things. “More than anything else, I pray that our nation may take this awful tragedy and turn it into a new moment, to a new relationship with each other and to God.”
The former archbishop of Newark, N.J., lost his nephew, a fire-fighter, in the attack on the World Trade Center. He said he was praying for his family.
He added, “I pray that, when we respond to this moment, we remain a nation of justice and a nation of peace.”
Bishop Loverde, whose Northern Virginia diocese includes Pentagon City, said that only faith will help Americans overcome their anguish.
“I can't put into words this unspeakable grief. One is left numb and raw. It's like looking evil right in the face,” he told the Register. “We have to have a vision of faith. With us is the Lord Jesus, and he conquered sin and death.”
“As bishop of this diocese, I wish I could meet with every family that was touched by this tragedy,” said Bishop Loverde. The Diocese of Arlington lost many civilian and military parishioners in the attack. “But we want to do everything that we can. We're offering a grief and counseling center at Our Lady of Lourdes, right by the Pentagon, and we put together a fund so we can help with funeral expenses.”
Spiritual Needs
Msgr. Philip Hall, an Army chaplain, was at the Pentagon when it was hit by the hijacked airline. He said priests from nearby military bases were summoned to help workers there after the attack.
“The whole military area of Washington is helping,” said Msgr. Hill.
“Military people are just like everyone. They have grief,” he said. But the Army chaplain acknowledged that those in the military are a “stronger breed.”
“You don't tend to think of sailors and soldiers as people of faith,” he added, “But I'll tell you this: In my 32 years in the Army, I've never met a more faithful breed. That goes for Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, everybody.”
The mood on Capitol Hill was solemn as well, said House chaplain Father Daniel Coughlin. He said that members of Congress have experienced emotions similar to those of their constituents.
“They have a feeling of being violated, of being helpless,” Father Coughlin said. “They also feel a tremendous responsibility. They wanted to be seen. That it's not going to be a government in exile.”
The first Catholic chaplain of the U.S. House hoped that Americans would not lash out against people of Islamic faith nor think that religion inspired the terrorist attacks.
“The thing that I do worry about is ‘Islamic’ as an adjective — to tie ‘religious’ with ‘terrorism,’” said Father Coughlin. “The American people hopefully know it is not a religious war.”
Josh Mercer writes from Washington.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Love Was Lifting Up the Rubble DATE: 09/23/2002 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:The day after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Father Gino Sylva was invited to counsel rescue workers at the World Trade Center site in New York.
The parish priest and high school chaplain in Paterson, N.J., eight miles from Manhattan, spoke about his experience with Register features correspondent Tim Drake.
How was it that you were invited to serve at the site?
As chaplain of the high school, I had taken the children outside on Tuesday and spoke about the conversion of Paul. I encouraged the children to vent what they were feeling following the attacks, and we prayed for those whose hearts needed to be changed. After sending the children home for the day, I received a call from Father Mark Giordani, chaplain to the Port Authority, which runs the World Trade Center, and he asked me if I would be willing to come into the city on Wednesday. I was happy to have been asked.
What was the scene like when you arrived there?
The Port Authority police drove us in. We arrived at about 9 a.m. Words cannot describe the sights, the smells, or the tastes in your mouth. I cannot describe the scene as a nightmare. It was beyond a nightmare to look at the rubble and to see the many faces of the men that had lost everyone.
In what ways were you able to be of service?
Once we arrived at the site, we just fanned out and dived into the work. Initially, we were going to be used to counsel family members that had found out that their loved ones had been killed. When we got there, however, the rescue workers weren't finding many whole bodies.
Not long after I arrived, I found myself being drawn to the first body bag that I saw. As the body bag was opened and the remains were placed into a plastic bag, I realized that this piece of a person needed to be blessed — there was no one else doing this.
I ended up standing there with a wonderful Jewish rabbi, and as each bag was opened, we would pray over the parts. I wanted people to know that we loved them, and that they would be blessed in the end. We would bless the parts as they were being gathered for the triage morgue and then being prepared to be taken to the full morgue. We often wondered what part of a person it was.
Were you able to help the rescue workers?
When we got on site, we realized that there were several things that we needed to do: We hugged the firemen and police, we heard their confessions, we stood by them and tried to offer them some hope, and we blessed their helmets. I don't think I've ever blessed so many helmets.
We were able to talk to the rescue workers when they needed it, and stay out of their way when they needed that. We just tried to keep things peaceful.
At one point, we were handing big pieces of metal down the line and we couldn't work fast enough. No one there seemed to care about himself or herself. I also don't think that I've ever experienced the miracle that I saw there as well — the faith, hope and love of these people was unbelievable. I could see that out of the rubble of terrorism, love will lift it up and overwhelm it and win.
You could put your arm around anyone there, and they would put their arm back around you. We stayed down there until about 7:30 p.m.
Do you have any memorable images that you carry with you?
Yes. I remember one fireman saying, “I'm not going to leave until I find my brother Timmy.” Then there was another fireman, all covered with dirt, sitting on top of a pile of rubble. I went over to him and asked him if I could walk him back to the resting spot. He said, “I have none of my friends to go back with. I haven't been without my friends my whole life.” So, he didn't want to move.
The most memorable image, though, didn't happen at the site.
That night, when I returned to the church, I had a ton of messages from a family at my old parish whose father and husband was missing. When I arrived at their home, all covered in dirt, their 7-year-old daughter, Taylor, whom I had given first Communion, asked, “Father Gino, did you dig out my daddy?”
It was something to see that little girl's hope that I had brought her daddy home. All I could do was just keep hugging her.
I understand that you also had the opportunity to meet Mayor Giuliani at the site?
While we were at the site, someone pointed me and another priest out to Mayor Rudy Giuliani. He ran over to us and hugged us. He said, “Please keep praying. All we can do is keep praying,” and his eyes looked so red. All I could say was, “I love you, mayor. You're the best.” He's a true hero.
How are you dealing with your experience?
I've just been trying to take care of the kids in school and the emotions of other people. If I sit too long, I get overwhelmed by it. I get upset just thinking about it. I cannot believe that people would do this to other people. One kid said to me, “Father, nothing is different from the time before Jesus. Why do we even bother?” It's so sad to hear kids say that.
You've been busy taking care of so many others. Do you have anyone that's taking care of you?
As the police were taking us out on Wednesday night, I called my brother who lives about half an hour away. I told him, “I haven't eaten all day, can you make me a sandwich?”
He left his wife and family to bring me some food. He gave me a hug, and I felt some strength from that.
When things settle down I'll be in touch with some good friends that are priests.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Gino Sylva ----- KEYWORD: Inperson -------- TITLE: After the Attack, Friars Hope to Rescue Respect for Life DATE: 09/23/2002 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:NEW YORK — Brother Agostino Torres of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal was dressed in his distinctive gray habit, a rope cincture and long set of rosary beads at his waist. In front of him was a weary iron-worker who took a few minutes from the rescue efforts in a pile of steel and concrete that was the World Trade Center twin towers.
“How can people do this and say it was [the will of] God?” the man asked, referring to the militant Muslim belief of the terrorists. “I have so much anger, but I know I have to lay it down before I go to the altar.”
Standing in the midst of what he called an “unreal” atmosphere, with dust continuing to float to earth and cars blown to pieces or incinerated, Brother Agostino wasn't sure what to tell him.
“I talked about how this has to change our hearts for the better,” the 25-year-old ethnically Mexican friar from South Texas said. “I told him, ‘You have a really good heart; you care for the people. We have to raise the next generation so that something like this won't be repeated.’”
Brother Agostino, who knelt in prayer with the ironworker, said later, “We have to have true love in our hearts. We have to teach our children how to forgive. A lot of people are reacting to this in a very angry way. We don't know how to forgive.”
It was a day after the twin towers collapsed, and several of the Bronx-based friars, a group that was formed by Father Benedict Groeschel and several other Capuchins, were on the scene at “Ground Zero” to offer a prayerful presence and pastoral assistance to anyone who requested it.
They went from 7 World Trade Center to a makeshift morgue inside an 18-wheeler to the streets again, handing out rosary beads and offering comfort to those who needed it.
By the third day, the only way they could get below Manhattan's 14th Street was on a special bus with members of the New York City Fire Department. The community, which has two friaries next to a firehouse and a police station in the South Bronx, has good relations with those civil servants, many of whom are Catholic.
Brother Agostino spoke to the Register Sept. 13, the third day of the tragedy, waiting for a bus to return to the scene.
The firehouse and police station were staging areas for extra emergency personnel coming from other cities, and as they lined up to go downtown the first day, Father Robert Lombardo, who directs a homeless shelter in the South Bronx, gave them General Absolution. Since the tragedy struck, the friars have been tending the pastoral needs of rescue workers.
Anti-Muslim Sentiment
But the friars were not welcomed everywhere on the streets of New York.
Many of them wear beards, and a few have dark complexions and features that could be mistaken for Middle Eastern.
Shuttling between their friaries and the sites where they offered their assistance in the first few days of the tragedy, some received threats because they were mistaken for Muslims. A young man who was apparently a member of the “Five Percenters,” an organization that believes that blacks will one day be the masters and whites will be slaves, reversing history's fortunes, told Brother Damiano Vaissaide, “If I had a gun I would kill you.” Brother Damiano, a registered nurse from California, served on a medical team at the Trade Center.
On their way home, several friars got off a bus in a heavily drug-infested section of Harlem, near their friary. Some men on the corner asked if they were Muslim and warned, “Don't go down this street. You won't make it through” alive.
Another person shouted at them, “There will be blood running in the streets.”
Father Glenn Sudano, superior of the community of some 70 friars, and Father Conrad Osterhout, its novice master, worry that too many Americans will become vengeful in response to the terrorism. “We need to pray that we will not make a response that is so hateful, although we have to bring [the perpetrators] to justice,” Father Conrad said in the days following the attack. The Bush administration had not finalized America's response to the terrorism.
He said that President Bush's first few speeches after the terrorist acts have a “certain sense of peace” about them, “not imbued with retaliation, but with responsible authority and accountability.
“It's more of a moral response,” he said. “It has the tone of a moral authority, and that we appeal to that, that there is something higher than ourselves. He's got that substance behind him.”
The nation needs to respond in kind, Father Conrad added.
A Purification
In the wake of the bombing, Father Conrad said that America's disregard for the sanctity of life has made the nation ill-prepared to respond morally to the terrorist attack.
Americans might be too thirsty for blood — any blood — after the attack. “What's disturbing is our willingness to let go of our moral fiber,” said the priest. “It allows for impatience and a lack of generosity and lack of trust. So people are persuaded by ideas with no moral foundation.”
He pointed to well-financed, politically protected forces promoting a “culture of death” that disregards the sanctity of human life and a tiny, underfunded minority promot ing the values of the culture of life.
“We pay a price for speaking up for those values,” said Father Conrad, who once spent a year in prison for protesting at abortion clinics. “But we're only the tip of the iceberg.” The rest of the iceberg includes loss of the family fiber, the family as the foundation of society and the good and true culture that Pope John Paul has emphasized must be at the heart of every society.
Judie Brown, the director of the American Life League in Virginia, agreed.
“First of all, we have to be incredibly sad for all those who lost loved ones in this tragedy,” she said. “From a pro-life perspective, I have to wonder why don't we see these babies as human beings attacked by draconian methods and killed in the process. I hope we reevaluate how we view our fellow human beings.”
She added: “If this awakens a sense of the value of life of everyone of us, then something good will come of it.”
Father Conrad feels it necessary to counter the contempt for Arabs, as well as some people's feelings that religion in general is responsible for last week's violence, with a message of hope, represented best by Pope John Paul II.
The Pope said in his Wednesday audience the day after the attack, “Christ's word is the only one that can give a response to the questions which trouble our spirit. Even if the forces of darkness appear to prevail, those who believe in God know that evil and death do not have the final say.”
Yet the nation faces a “harsh trial,” even a purification, Father Conrad said. But for those who are faithful, it will lead to a “flowering of faith” and deepening of values.
“This is a grace-filled time to convert hearts deeper to Christ,” said Brother Agostino. “I pray that it will be a time of conversion, not revenge or hatred. We can get carried away by a feeling of ‘Let's bomb them,’ but it's up to every Christian to stand up for a higher way of living.”
John Burger writes from New York.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Burger ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: DATE: 09/23/2002 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:In the sunny sky above the steps of St. Patrick's Sept. 12, the Vatican flag flapped gently from the church's facade, as workers set up equipment for the cameramen who would be at the 5:30 Mass later in the day celebrated by Cardinal Edward Egan of New York.
That Mass was full. With most businesses closed, most people had made the trek from outer boroughs or the farther reaches of Manhattan.
“We came to say a prayer for those people,” said Frances Smith, who came down to St. Patrick's from uptown with a friend. A Methodist, Smith said she nevertheless comes to the cathedral whenever “something drastic happens.”
“This seems to be the place to come,” she said.
In his prayers concluding Mass, Cardinal Egan prayed that God would “help us to face the difficulties before us with courage.”
Cardinal Egan told the Register after Mass that he had spent the day of the terror attacks at St. Vincent's Hospital in Greenwich Village and at the New School University, where emergency assistance units had been set up.
The cardinal spent the next day at St. Clare's Hospital uptown and again at St. Vincent's.
“I saw real heroism,” he said. “People came back from retirement, from all over — far more than were needed — to help.
“I saw people getting out of ambulances helping people get out of stretchers, not the slightest care for themselves. We had 12 people who were injured come to St. Clare's. The whole staff came out — decent, noble, strong, courageous people. This is New York at its best.”
“We have to handle this with peace in our hearts, with courage and with justice,” Cardinal Egan said. “There is to be no hate from us and no revenge.”
— Brian McGuire
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian McGuire ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 09/23/2002 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:First, there were the parishioners who worked at the World Trade Center. Then the parish sent firefighters — and many of them vanished into the wreckage as well.
By the morning of Sept. 12, the church's prayer request book had filled with almost 40 names of the dead or missing. One priest had a nephew missing.
Washington Cardinal's Nephew Missing
Burlington, Vt., Bishop Lost a Brother
That plane was American Airlines Flight 11, which hijackers drove into the World Trade Center. Angell's brother Kenneth, bishop of Burlington, Vt., celebrated a Mass in honor of the attack's victims — and then learned that he had lost a brother and a sister-in-law.
Islamic Schools Close After Threats
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Sept. 12 — Islamic schools in St. Louis and Kansas City, Mo., were closed after receiving anti-Muslim threats, the wire service reported.
The Al-Salam Day School in suburban St. Louis and schools in the Kansas City area were closed early Sept. 11, after callers blamed all Muslims for the attacks on New York and Washington.
Muslim leaders across the country have stressed that they abhor the attacks, and that Islam condemns such actions.
The Attackers: Profiles in Cowardice
In 1137, Pope Innocent II banned crossbows because they allowed soldiers to kill from a safe distance and without announcing their intent. He pointed out that, as Goldberg put it, “killing people by surprise” robs the victim of “his chance for last rites” and “final reconciliation with God.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Faith Hits Ground Zero: Eyewitness Accounts DATE: 09/23/2002 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:LOWER MANHATTAN — I was just two blocks from the World Trade Center and one block from my own office when I heard the first plane slam into the North Tower. The tall buildings right in front of me prevented me from seeing the strike, but the sound was enough to make me jump back several steps. Within seconds I could see the leaping flames and thick black smoke that have come to symbolize the attack.
Assuming the worst, I ran toward my office building on Church Street and to a better view of the Trade Center. Others were also running in various directions as emergency vehicles screamed past.
I stopped at historic St. Peter's Church, which was already filling with office workers who sensed evil and the need to plead for mercy. I tried to calm two Polish cleaning ladies from the World Trade Center by repeating news that a colleague had just yelled to me from the street: “It was an airplane that did it — an accident.”
As I left the church I witnessed a near stampede up Church Street that was caused only by the police asking people to move back. It offered a hint of the panic that would sweep the area in a matter of minutes after a second plane exploded against the South Tower.
In the wake of the second explosion came a huge fireball, more black smoke and the clear sight of people falling from the skyscrapers. Men and women cried openly. Caution replaced curiosity as people moved inside and awaited the word to evacuate.
The plan was simple: leave your building and start walking north. Within minutes, FBI agents were coordinating the mass uptown migration — on foot — of tens of thousands of people.
I joined up with a few colleagues in the march, and one asked if I had made contact with my wife. I said yes, not bothering to mention that I had broken down while speaking to Jeannette, who was home with our 1-year-old son, Finn.
God's Silence
I had not experienced conscious fear during the attack, but I wept at the thought of the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of other fathers of young children who would not get home that night. Yet the tears were born of joy because Finn still had his “Da-Da.”
I don't think I so much as offered a quick prayer of thanksgiving during my long march to Grand Central Station or the almost equally long wait for a train back to suburban White Plains.
I awoke early the next morning after a fitful night and opened the paper to see photos of scenes that were already frozen in my mind — the shock and fear of onlookers, the blood and dust and death descending on people I work alongside every day. I was again overcome with grief.
I went to a parish that offers perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament — a practice that always brings me light and consolation, but which gave me neither on this occasion. I covered my face, and tried not to let the others see my tears of despair. It was futile, no doubt, as I could feel my shoulders pulsate under muffled sobs.
Though not plagued by doubt or anger, I could only feel God's absence, that he was far away from me and a world lurching with new vigor toward the abyss. I could not see him or sense his presence, not even in the very sacrament of his presence. It was not God's time. Satan holds sway, I thought, at least for now.
In my disjointed prayer, I remembered how some reported apparitions of Our Lady include warnings of coming tribulations. I also recalled one of the few unfulfilled prophecies of Our Lady of Fatima: “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.”
A Positive Outlet
We had dinner that evening with Jeannette's family on Long Island. While there, I spoke by phone with my best friend, who happens to live in nearby Floral Park. He told me that his parish church would be open that evening to collect bottled water and juices for the rescue workers in the city. I jumped at the opportunity to get away from my thoughts and to do something positive.
Jeannette, Finn and I took off for the store and were soon trotting up the steps of the church with our gifts. We opened the door to find a church filled to overflowing with families who were concluding a holy hour in reparation for the Sept. 11 attack. “I never heard such perfect quiet in a crowded church,” said my wife.
We then made our way to the drop-off point in the parish school, where we found a small army of elementary school students, along with their older siblings and parents, assembling the abundance of donated supplies. My eyes were opened as I surveyed this scene of practical, loving concern for others. While grief must be dealt with in stages and over time, I realized that hope had been returned to me. God was again present in the generous joy of those children who, along with their prayer partners in church, were healing the world — beginning with my soul.
The scene made me remember some of my other experiences in the prior 48 hours: the New Yorkers who let me use their cell phones and gave me water, and the waves upon waves of blood donors filing into our little Red Cross station in White Plains. But the people at this Long Island church seemed to know something deeper. They were not so much going to war, so as they were executing a supernatural battle that had already been won for them.
As we left, I glanced at the sign in front of the church that offered an additional reminder that the Fatima prophecy does not await fulfillment. It is accomplished in those who retain their faith, hope and love — and who do so right smack in the teeth of everything that evil can throw at them. The sign simply announced the name of the parish: Our Lady of Victory.
A former Register assistant editor, Joe Cullen is a senior editor at Moody's Investors Service in New York.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joe Cullen ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: 'Someone Was Dying Just Outside the Church' DATE: 09/23/2002 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:Salesian Father Peter Philominraj has assisted at Our Lady of Victory in New York's financial district for the past 14 months. A native of India, the 35-year-old priest was just nearing the end of the third morning Mass at the popular downtown church when a plane struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center about four blocks away. Father Philominraj told Register correspondent Brian McGuire what happened next.
What happened at the church after the first plane struck?
We usually have the third Mass at 8:20 in the morning. As that Mass was getting over around 8:45, there was a big noise. People said that a plane had struck one of the buildings. One person was outside. He came running into the church with all the debris on him already. He came running and he told us to pray. After he said that, everybody said “Oh my God,” and a group formed to pray in front of the Blessed Sacrament. There were about 40 of them. And then there was a second blast.
What happened then?
After the second blast someone came inside and said there was someone dying just outside the church. I was still inside. He was saying it to our secretary. Three of us went out and anointed the man.
He was just outside the church in the street. They were just carrying him onto the street.
Could you describe the scene then?
As people escaped from the buildings, some of them were making confessions. “Give me a blessing, Father,” they'd ask, with a lot of shock in their face. I heard one or two confessions. They were all hurrying away, but they'd say, “Just give me absolution, Father,” as they hurried to get out of the place.
What about the priests? What did you do?
We were all there trying to calm people. We had actually been moving toward the World Trade Center when the buildings came down. We were walking toward it thinking we could help people out with the sacraments.
At which point did you turn around to escape?
People started running toward us, so all of us ran away with everybody else. We couldn't see anything for quite some time. We ran for two blocks. People were falling down, panicking, screaming. The whole time we were hearing “Oh, my God!” We came back to the church while everybody else went to the Brooklyn Bridge and the South Street Seaport.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Barbara Olson Remembered at D.C. Service DATE: 09/23/2002 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:ARLINGTON, Va. — U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas delivered a eulogy at the Sept. 15 memorial service for lawyer and television commentator Barbara Olson. The wife of U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson, she was aboard the jetliner that crashed into the Pentagon.
Her memorial service at St. Thomas More Cathedral in Arlington brought together many of the political elite in Washington, Associated Press reported. “This is indeed a sad occasion. One to be repeated thousands of times by our fellow citizens across the country,” said Thomas in his eulogy.
Olson, 45, who served as a chief investigator for the House Government Reform Committee in the mid-1990s that looked into Clinton-era allegations, called her husband from her cellphone before the plane went down.
The service, which featured prayers for the Olson family, friends and the country, left most of the 1,500 people gathered at the cathedral in tears, Associated Press reported.
Said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, “She was passionate and devoted to our country. She always had a smile on her face.”
In his sermon at the memorial service, Father Franklyn McAfee, pastor of St. Catherine of Siena Church in Great Falls, Va., said, “In the final moments of that awful drama, we all know that Barbara called her husband, Ted, on her phone, to inform him of what was going on, to ask for his advice, and tell him of her love … In imminent danger, at the very door of death, she turns to her husband, whom she trusts. Many poems can be written about love, but this surpasses them all.”
Added Father McAfee, “Barbara Olson, full of life, cheerful, laughing, smiling, loving, was the opposite of the dark powers that brought her death. But their evil deed was in vain. We are people of life. And no terrorist, no matter how powerful, can take that away. As Pope John Paul II has said, ‘When God gives life, he gives it forever.’”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: 'Violence Will Never Lead to Genuine Solutions' DATE: 09/23/2002 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:Instead of continuing with his Catechesis on the psalms, Pope John Paul devoted his weekly general audience to the terrorist attack on the United States with these words:
I CANNOT BEGIN THIS audience without expressing my profound sorrow at the terrorist attacks which yesterday brought death and destruction to America, causing thousands of victims and injuring countless people. To the President of the United States and to all American citizens I express my heartfelt sorrow. In the face of such unspeakable horror we cannot but be deeply disturbed. I add my voice to all the voices raised in these hours to express indignant condemnation, and I strongly reiterate that the ways of violence will never lead to genuine solutions to humanity's problems.
Yesterday was a dark day in the history of humanity, a terrible affront to human dignity. After receiving the news, I followed with intense concern the developing situation, with heartfelt prayers to the Lord. How is it possible to commit acts of such savage cruelty? The human heart has depths from which schemes of unheard-of ferocity sometimes emerge, capable of destroying in a moment the normal daily life of a people. But faith comes to our aid at these times when words seem to fail. Christ's word is the only one that can give a response to the questions which trouble our spirit. Even if the forces of darkness appear to prevail, those who believe in God know that evil and death do not have the final say. Christian hope is based on this truth; at this time our prayerful trust draws strength from it.
With deeply felt sympathy I address myself to the beloved people of the United States in this moment of distress and consternation, when the courage of so many men and women of good will is being sorely tested. In a special way I reach out to the families of the dead and the injured, and assure them of my spiritual closeness. I entrust to the mercy of the Most High the helpless victims of this tragedy, for whom I offered Mass this morning, invoking upon them eternal rest. May God give courage to the survivors; may he sustain the rescue-workers and the many volunteers who are presently making an enormous effort to cope with such an immense emergency. I ask you, dear brothers and sisters, to join me in prayer for them.
Let us beg the Lord that the spiral of hatred and violence will not prevail. May the Blessed Virgin, Mother of Mercy, fill the hearts of all with wise thoughts and peaceful intentions.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: In St. Peterís Square, Prayers for a Day of Tragedy DATE: 09/23/2002 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:After the Pope's audience message of hope in God in the face of “unspeakable horror,” these intercessions were offered for everyone touched by the tragedy:
Brothers and sisters, In great dismay before the horror of destructive violence, but strong in the faith that has always guided our Fathers, we turn to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the salvation of his people, and with the confidence of children we pray that he will come to our aid in these days of mourning and innocent suffering.
For the Church of East and West, and in particular for the Church that resides in the United States of America, that although prostrate with loss and mourning — taking inspiration from the Mother of the Lord, the strong woman near the cross of the Son — they may nourish in hearts desires for reconciliation and peace and strive toward the construction of the civilization of love.
Let us pray to the Lord: Lord, hear our prayer.
For all those who bear the name of Christians, so that in the sad events of a humanity filled with misunderstanding and hatred, they will continue to be witnesses to the presence of God in history and the victory of Christ over death.
Let us pray to the Lord: Lord, hear our prayer.
For the leaders of nations, that they may not allow themselves to be domi nated by hatred and the spirit of retaliation, and may do everything possible to avoid that arms of destruction sow new hatred and new death, and make every effort to illuminate the darkness of human affairs with works of peace.
Let us pray to the Lord: Lord, hear our prayer.
For those who are weeping and in sorrow over the violent loss of relatives and friends, so that in this hour of suffering they will not allow themselves to be overwhelmed by sorrow, despair and vengeance, but will continue to have faith in the victory of good over evil, life over death, and commit themselves to building a better world.
Let us pray to the Lord: Lord, hear our prayer.
For those wounded and suffering from the absurd terrorist acts, that they may soon return to stability and health and, given the gift of life, may nourish in their hearts desires to build, cooperate and serve on behalf of every form of life — free from bitterness and feelings of vengeance — and become agents of justice and builders of peace.
Let us pray to the Lord: Lord, hear our prayer.
For the brothers and sisters who met death in the folly of violence, that they may find in the peace of the Lord sure joy and life everlasting, and that their death may not be in vain but be a leaven for new times of brotherhood and cooperation among peoples.
Let us pray to the Lord: Lord, hear our prayer.
O Lord Jesus, remember our deceased and suffering brothers before your Father. Remember us also, as we begin to pray in your words: Our Father …
O Almighty and merciful God, you cannot be understood by the one who sows discord, you cannot be accepted by the one who loves violence. Look upon our painful human condition, tried by cruel acts of terror and death. Comfort your children and open our hearts to hope, so that our time may once again know days of serenity and peace. Through Christ our Lord Amen.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Vatican -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 09/23/2002 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:Cardinal Ratzinger Plans Retirement
AGENCE FRANCE — PRESSE, Sept. 10 — Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, announced that he planned to retire next year, the wire service reported.
Cardinal Ratzinger, 74, has headed the congregation for 21 years. He said that he desired “to write books again,” and that his life had become “very hard” due to age and fatigue. In a pastoral letter, he added that he wanted to make way for “new faces.”
The Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported that Pope John Paul II was unhappy about losing the services of his cardinal and friend, but there were no hints that the Pope would seek to change Cardinal Ratzinger's mind.
Pope Will Visit a Changed Kazakhstan
AGENCE FRANCE — PRESSE, Sept. 8 — The Catholic community of Kazakhstan grew as a result of terror, the wire service reported.
Josef Stalin exiled many Catholic Germans, Poles and Ukrainians to the steppes of this former Soviet republic, which Pope John Paul II plans to visit in late September. The breakup of the Soviet bloc brought a brief Catholic revival. But now Catholics are trickling back to their countries of origin, leaving the predominantly Muslim Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan is a mostly secular state, and was the first former Soviet republic to reach an agreement with the Vatican. But many Muslims remain suspicious of the Church.
The Interfax news agency reported that the Pope has requested Italian translations of several Kazakh literary classics, in preparation for his visit.
Canadian Nun Steps Closer to Canonization
Mother Gamelin lived in Montreal in the 19th century. She was widowed and lost both her children while still young.
In December 2000, the Vatican certified that prayers for her inter-cession had led to a miraculous cure of a boy's leukemia.
Orthodox Patriarch Urges Bulgaria to Welcome Pope
“If the faith of Bulgaria's Orthodox community is strong, then we have nothing to be afraid of, whether it is the Pope or anyone else who is not Orthodox,” the patriarch said.
In January, 75 Bulgarian intellectuals invited the Pope to visit Bulgaria this year even though the Bulgarian Orthodox Church opposed his visit. The church has since agreed to welcome the Pope only in his role as head of the Vatican state.
The Vatican has not officially confirmed that the trip will occur.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Appointments & Meetings DATE: 09/23/2002 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:Saturday, Sept. 8
E Bishop Vital Masse as bishop of Mont-Laurier, Canada, following the resignation of Bishop Jean Gratton who reached 75, the age limit.
E Accepted the resignation of Auxiliary Bishop Andrea Veggio of Verona, Italy, who reached 75. E Father Joseph Luc Andre Bouchard as bishop of Saint Paul, Canada.
E Bishop Dante Lafranconi as bishop of Cremona, Italy.
Wednesday, Sept. 12
Msgr. Luis Sainz Hinojosa as auxiliary bishop of Cochabamba, Bolivia.
Met With
Saturday, Sept. 8
E Francesco Storace, president of the Lazio region of Italy. E Archbishop Francesco March-isano, president of the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Patrimony of the Church and of the Pontifical Commission of Sacred Archeology.
E Msgr. Piero Monni, Holy See permanent observer to the World Tourism Organization.
E Bishop Salvatore Boccaccio of Frosinone-Veroli-Ferentino, Italy.
Monday, Sept. 10
E Archbishop Rino Passigato, apostolic nuncio in Peru.
E Archbishop Mario Roberto Cassari, apostolic nuncio in the Congo and in Gabon.
E Five members of the bishops’ conference of Haiti on their ad limina visit, which heads of dioceses make every five years to review their diocese with the Pope and Vatican officials.
E Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone, top officials of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Wednesday, Sept. 12
E Cardinal Joachim Meisner, archbishop of Cologne, Germany.
Thursday, Sept. 13
E Six members of the bishops’ conference of Haiti on their ad limina visit.
Friday, Sept. 14
E Archbishop Thomas Yeh Shengnan, apostolic nuncio in Sri Lanka.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Pope's Words to American Ambassador DATE: 09/23/2002 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:Pope John Paul II received the credentials of Jim Nicholoson Sept. 13 as the new U.S. ambassador to the Holy See and gave the following address:
Mr. Ambassador,
I am pleased to accept the letters of credence appointing you Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Holy See. You are beginning your mission at a moment of immense tragedy for your country.
At this time of national mourning for the victims of the terrorist attacks on Washington and New York, I wish to assure you personally of my profound participation in the grief of the American people and of my heartfelt prayers for the president and the civil authorities, for all involved in the rescue operations and in helping the survivors, and in a special way for the victims and their families.
I pray that this inhuman act will awaken in the hearts of all the world's peoples a firm resolve to reject the ways of violence, to combat everything that sows hatred and division within the human family, and to work for the dawn of a new era of international cooperation inspired by the highest ideals of solidarity, justice and peace.
America's Heritage
In my recent meeting with President Bush I emphasized my deep esteem for the rich patrimony of human, religious and moral values which have historically shaped the American character. I expressed the conviction that America's continued moral leadership in the world depends on her fidelity to her founding principles.
Underlying your nation's commitment to freedom, self-determination and equal opportunity are universal truths inherited from its religious roots. From these spring respect for the sanctity of life and the dignity of each human person made in the image and likeness of the Creator; shared responsibility for the common good; concern for the education of young people and for the future of society; and the need for wise stewardship of the natural resources so freely bestowed by a bounteous God.
In facing the challenges of the future, America is called to cherish and live out the deepest values of her national heritage: solidarity and cooperation between peoples, respect for human rights, the justice that is the indispensable condition for authentic freedom and lasting peace.
Time of Great Possibilities
In the century now opening before us, humanity has the opportunity to make great strides against some of its traditional enemies: poverty, disease, violence. As I said at the United Nations in 1995, it is within our grasp to see that a century of tears, the 20th century, is followed in the 21st century by a “springtime of the human spirit.”
The possibilities before the human family are immense, although they are not always apparent in a world in which too many of our brothers and sisters are suffering from hunger, malnutrition and the lack of access to medical care and to education, or are burdened by unjust government, armed conflict, forced displacement and new forms of human bondage. In seizing the available opportunities, both vision and generosity are necessary, especially on the part of those who have been blessed with freedom, wealth and an abundance of resources.
The urgent ethical issues raised by the division between those who benefit from the globalization of the world economy and those who are excluded from those benefits call for new and creative responses on the part of the whole international community. Here I would emphasize again what I said in my recent meeting with President Bush, that the revolution of freedom in the world must be completed by a “revolution of opportunity” which will enable all the members of the human family to enjoy a dignified existence and to share in the benefits of a truly global development.
Time of Great Dangers
In this context, I cannot but mention, among so many disturbing situations throughout the world, the tragic violence which continues to affect the Middle East and which seriously jeopardizes the peace process begun in Madrid. Thanks also to the commitment of the United States, that process had given rise to hope in the hearts of all those who look to the Holy Land as a unique place of encounter and prayer between peoples. I am certain that your country will not hesitate to promote a realistic dialogue which will enable the parties involved to achieve security, justice and peace, in full respect for human rights and international law.
Mr. Ambassador, the vision and the moral strength which America is being challenged to exercise at the beginning of a new century and in a rapidly changing world call for an acknowledgment of the spiritual roots of the crisis which the Western democracies are experiencing, a crisis characterized by the advance of a materialistic, utilitarian and ultimately dehumanized world view which is tragically detached from the moral foundations of Western civilization.
Culture of Life
In order to survive and prosper, democracy and its accompanying economic and political structures must be directed by a vision whose core is the God-given dignity and inalienable rights of every human being, from the moment of conception until natural death. When some lives, including those of the unborn, are subjected to the personal choices of others, no other value or right will long be guaranteed, and society will inevitably be governed by special interests and convenience.
Freedom cannot be sustained in a cultural climate that measures human dignity in strictly utilitarian terms. Never has it been more urgent to re-invigorate the moral vision and resolve essential to maintaining a just and free society.
America's True Wealth
In this context my thoughts turn to America's young people, the hope of the nation. In my pastoral visits to the United States, and above all in my visit to Denver in 1993 for the celebration of World Youth Day, I was able personally to witness the reserves of generosity and good will present in the youth of your country.
Young people are surely your nation's greatest treasure. That is why they urgently need an all-round education which will enable them to reject cynicism and selfishness and to grow into their full stature as informed, wise and morally responsible members of the community.
At the beginning of a new millennium, young people must be given every opportunity to take up their role as “craftsmen of a new humanity, where brothers and sisters — members all of the same family — are able at last to live in peace” (Message for the 2001 World Day of Peace, 22).
Mr. Ambassador, as you begin your mission as your country's representative to the Holy See, I reiterate my hope that in facing the challenges of the present and future the American people will draw upon the deep spiritual and moral resources which have inspired and guided the nation's growth, and which remain the surest pledge of its greatness.
I am confident that America's Catholic community, which has historically played a crucial role in the education of a responsible citizenry and in the relief of the poor, the sick and the needy, will be actively present in the process of discerning the shape of your country's future course.
Upon you and your family and all the American people I cordially invoke God's blessings of joy and peace.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Vatican -------- TITLE: Islam: A Religion of Peace or of Conquest? DATE: 09/23/2002 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — With the evidence mounting that Osama Bin Laden and his radical brand of Islam were behind the Sept. 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington, many Americans have expressed outrage at Muslims living in the United States.
But although some Americans reacted towards Muslim Americans and immigrants in reprehensible ways, voices in both the Catholic and Muslim community are calling for a more rational discussion. Referring to the hysteria of Americans in World War II, and the subsequent internment of Japanese-Americans, Professor Warren Carroll, chairman of the history department at Christendom College in Front Royal, Va., said, “We must not have a repeat of what happened [to the Japanese-Americans] after Pearl Harbor.”
Imam Yahya Hendi, the Muslim chaplain at Georgetown University, likewise urged restraint, and sought to distance himself and Islam from the terrorists. Hendi argued that since “no one knows who did it yet, the American people should not rush to judgment.”
Even “if it happens to be Osama Bin Laden,” said Hendi, “it is not Islam itself.” “People have always abused their faith,” he said, adding, “Christians, Jews and Muslims have all done that.” Hendi pointed to groups like the Buddhist cult in Japan that bombed the subway in Tokyo a few years ago and the Crusades as examples of harmful uses of religion by non-Muslims.
The imam also contested the contention that Muslims are a predominant source of terrorism. “According to recent State Department Statistics, only 3% of attacks on American interests were carried out by Muslims or in Muslim countries,” said Hendi. “Why then does the media focus on the 3% and not the other 97%?”
Hendi, who was born in the Holy Land and educated in Jordan and the United States, also disputed the frequent claim that words of Muslim clerics have supported violence. Describing the term “jihad” as “just war” along the lines presented by St. Thomas Aquinas, rather than as a radical holy war, he said, “I studied with the same people the media uses to cite [as preaching] violence. “
If violence really were preached in Muslim schools he would have first-hand knowledge of it, Hendi insisted, but he had never heard such comments. Moreover, he said that in one case he knew personally, a cleric in the Middle East whose words were badly misinterpreted.
Hendi said that the Koran only preaches self-defense and punishment for crimes such as murder. Such “punishments” that can only be ordered by a Caliph, or a supreme religious ruler, and Hendi explained that there are “no countries run by a Caliph.” Asked whether Osama Bin Laden's claim that the United States’ stationing of troops in Saudi Arabia near Muslim holy sites was a theologically sound argument for the attacks on the United States, Hendi replied, “Absolutely not.”
Most centrally, Hendi said, “Muslims interpret the Koran through the life of Mohammed,” who forbade throughout his life attacks on religious sites, monks, women, children and old men.
Christendom College's Carroll agreed that especially in the United States, most Muslims had no respect for the terrorists. “It's very similar to the situation with the IRA” and Catholics, he said.
But Carroll challenged Hendi's view that radical, pro-terrorist beliefs are equally uncommon in the Middle East. “There is a radical Islam in foreign countries especially Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq [and others],” Carroll noted, adding that “some people have interpreted Islam [in a radical way] for their own political cause.” He cited as motivations for such an interpretation a violently anti-Israel and anti-U.S. sentiment.
Violent History
Carroll said that Islam has a long history of violence. “[The religion] began with conquest,” he noted. The historian also rejected Hendi's characterization of the Crusades as the moral equivalent of terrorism. “I know it's not popular to say this, but the Crusades were justified because of 500 years of Muslim aggression,” Carroll said.
However, although Christians and Muslims have been at odds for the much of the last 1,400 years — as recently as 1683 the Turks besieged Vienna — in recent memory there has been a great deal of collaboration between the Vatican and Muslim nations. This collaboration has been especially evident on pro-life and pro-family issues at the United Nations since the U.N. conferences on population and women's issues in Cairo and Beijing in the mid-1990s.
Following the attacks, a statement was released by the Islamic-Catholic Liaison Committee, signed by Dr. Hamid Ahmad Al-Rifaie, president of the International Islamic Forum for Dialogue, and by Bishop Michael L. Fitzgerald, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. Said the statement, “As Secretaries of the Committee, speaking in its name, we condemn the horrifying acts of terrorism committed on September 11 in the U.S.A. We express our great sorrow at the number of victims and we offer our condolences to their families.”
Father Abdallah Zaidan is a Maronite Catholic priest who was born in Lebanon, one of the few continuously Christian enclaves in the Middle East. He was based in Brooklyn before becoming rector of Our Lady of Mount Lebanon Church near Los Angeles. With regard to terrorism, Father Zaidan said, he does “not believe that all Muslims are this way,” and those who perpetrated the horrors in New York and Washington “are mad people with no sensitivity.”
Said Father Zaidan bluntly, “They don't know God.”
Father Zaidan, drawing from his personal experience in the Middle East, explained that he believes that the most virulent, terrorist elements of Islam are a fairly new development. “It was not so bad,” he recalled, before “Khomeini and the Iranian movement” gained influence in the late 1970s. Since then, though, Father Zaidan has seen among Middle Eastern Muslims “a tendency to be fundamentalist.” He describes that attitude as a belief that “you must get rid of the non-Muslims.”
Like Carroll, Father Zaidan sees this fundamentalism as largely political. “[The fundamentalist Muslims] have ill feelings against the U.S. for its support of Israel,” he explained, adding that in their poverty such Muslims have also developed “their own ideas against capitalism.”
No one can predict where the fragile relationship between Catholics and Muslims will now go. But the words of the late Catholic historian and writer Hilaire Belloc, who was skeptical of the predicted permanent demise of Islamic power, seem hauntingly prophetic.
“The recrudescence of Islam, the possibility of that terror under which we lived for centuries reappearing and our civilization again fighting for its life against what was its chief enemy for a thousand years seems fantastic,” Belloc wrote in 1937. “I say the suggestion that Islam may re-arise sounds fantastic — but this is only because men are always powerfully affected by the immediate past — one might say they are blinded by it.”
Andrew Walther writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Andrew Walther ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 09/23/2002 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:Eastern and Central Europeans Support U.S.
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Sept. 13 — Tolling church bells and black-swathed fire engines marked the countries of Eastern and Central Europe as they showed their support for the United States, the wire service reported.
Many of the region's countries felt particular anguish at the United States’ sorrow because U.S. aid helped them break with communism. The Czech Republic and Hungary, which were among the first Soviet bloc countries to join NATO, declared Sept. 14 an official day of mourning. Albania, Bosnia and Croatia followed suit.
Hungary's Cardinal Laszlo Paskai celebrated Mass at the Budapest Basilica for the victims, and the country's firefighters tied black ribbons to their trucks in honor of New York's firefighters. All of Hungary's public buildings flew black flags.
In Vienna, Austria, St. Stephen's Cathedral set off the first of about 10,000 church bells that tolled for three minutes across Austria. Government employees observed a minute of silence, as did tens of thousands of other Austrians.
Polish firefighters sounded their sirens in memorial. Romanian police organized blood drives to be shipped to America, and the country's Orthodox Church held memorial prayers across the country.
Croatians placed dozens of bouquets outside the American Embassy.
Three Minutes of Silence Hold Europe's Prayers
Fifteen European states participated in the day of mourning. Queen Elizabeth II interrupted her holiday in Scotland to attend a service in St. Paul's Cathedral for the relatives and friends of those killed in the attacks.
Tragedy Draws Religions Together in Britain
For the first time ever, Britain's senior Muslim leader stood with Anglican, Catholic and Jewish leaders, and issued a joint statement of sympathy with the United States.
The president of the Muslim College and Chairman of Imams and Mosques, Dr. Zaki Badawi, appeared with Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, Catholic Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, and Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks.
Catholics and Jews Mourn Together in France
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, Sept. 12 — Ceremonies led by the Archbishop of Paris and the Grand Rabbi of France commemorated the victims of Sept. 11, the wire service reported.
Bishop Jean-Marie Lustiger celebrated Mass at Notre Dame Cathedral, and Rabbi Joseph Sitruk led Jewish mourners at the nearby Synagogue de la Victoire “as a sign of solidarity with the American people.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Donít Be at a Loss for Words DATE: 09/23/2002 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:At the close of the second millennium, Pope John Paul II called Catholics to evangelize the world again.
On Sept. 11, that call got a lot more urgent.
Catholics have an important role to play in the wake of the terrorist strikes on America. We have to give our countrymen hope. This will be increasingly necessary in the violence sure to come abroad, and perhaps even at home, in the future.
Here are some suggestions of how Catholics can evangelize in this situation.
Don't agree with the terrorists. Some pro-lifers have already made the mistake of drawing dark comparisons between America's culture of death and the killers who have attacked Americans.
Not only will such arguments make people dislike the pro-life message, they aren't true. America is no “Great Satan.”
Think of the distinction this way: The terrorists are evil because they are true to the charter principles of their endeavor, which are death and destruction. America has embraced a culture of death because she has failed to live up to her charter principles, which are that man has a God-given dignity and the right to life.
The truest (and most effective) message for Catholics right now is to agree wholeheartedly with America's newfound patriotism. Wave the flag and sing “God Bless America.” Agree that Americans uniquely dedicate themselves to the good of others.
But go further, as Pope John Paul II does. Point out that Americans are most American when they defend the defenseless, that America is good to the degree it retains its connection to its founding principles, and that these continually need to be renewed and applied.
But remember: Now is not the time to admonish America's sins, but to encourage her virtues.
Tell them what to say to their children. The media now is filled with advice on what to say to children about the attacks. Much of this advice is very unsatisfying. In the end, without faith, there is no way to give children hope. Without belief in a God who is very good, there is no way to face a world that can be very evil.
In the Holy Father's apostolic letter Novo Millennio Ineunte (At the Beginning of the New Millennium), he lays out a program for just what Catholics should promote.
It's the basics: Sunday Eucharist, confession and charity. If you ever thought it was difficult to raise these subjects with your family, friends and neighbors, you needn't think so now. They are looking for something that will give them hope. Christ alone can. Introduce him to them.
Teach them how to pray. Lastly, the Holy Father calls one practice “the secret of a truly vital Christianity, which has no reason to fear the future, because it returns continually to the sources and finds in them new life” (No. 32).
This is prayer. He points to a “widespread demand for spirituality,” and suggests that Catholics fill it.
We should take him up on the suggestion, particularly by promoting the rosary.
By showing us Christ coming into the world, Christ suffering and Christ triumphant in heaven, it offers a way to comprehend suffering — and a way to reject fear.
And that, right now, is exactly what the world needs.
----- EXCERPT: Editorial ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: OPINION -------- TITLE: WORLDVIEWS AT WAR DATE: 09/23/2002 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:The terrorists’ attack has stunned and horrified all people of good will. We should not let the impact of it provoke us to prejudice against all Muslims nor to indiscriminate and violent retaliation.
At the same time, we need to see what we are seeing. In the mind of the terrorists, this was a religious and holy act, as perverted as that seems to us. They represent the radical and activist wing of a broader fundamentalist movement. Islamic fundamentalism is on the increase, so it will be critical how a much broader segment of Muslims react to this event.
The terrorists chose as targets the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Even if the original target was the White House, these are symbolic of what they hate and fear in the modern world: the spread of a global economy and a materialistic culture. They hate it, for they feel that it tempts and corrupts not only Western but also Islamic nations. The United States is a special target, for they feel its military power protects what is demonic evil.
They are not able at this point to engage in conventional war, so they use terrorism, but precisely as psychological warfare. Their attack was not only symbolic in its targets but in its means. They used sophisticated airplanes, directed them against buildings that were engineering masterpieces and planned the whole event to be televised. They planned it well to use our technology against us.
The magnitude of the evil inflicted on innocent people was also part of the message. As with all sudden and violent assaults, it was meant to overwhelm. Above all they sought a psychological victory. But it had a message: America has come under the judgment of Allah; you are condemned for unbelief and spreading corruption. While their primary target is modern culture, they are aware (even if modern secularists are not) that the modern world has Christian roots. For them, this is also part of a 1,400-year struggle with Christianity.
How could such an atrocity be a religious and holy act?
What the terrorists are practicing is their version, extreme as it is, of the jihad.
A jihad is a Muslim holy war, that is, a campaign against unbelievers and enemies of Islam. For the terrorists, Allah is an utterly transcendent and holy God who demands total obedience and worship from his subjects. Holy war has been a belief of Islam from its beginning in the seventh century, but its actual practice has waxed and waned. The terrorists do not promote the Jihad to advance this or that Muslim nation but rather the cause of Islam as a pure and universal religion. They are an extreme renewal movement that hopes to rally Muslims and make of Islam a world force.
Christians, likewise, believe that God is utterly transcendent and holy but also that he is a God of love. Jesus Christ revealed that God is one God in a communion of three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and that, through the incarnation and the paschal mystery, Jesus Christ has opened this divine communion of life to man.
That man should “pretend” to such an intimate relationship with God is blasphemous for Muslims. For us, however, God has done everything that he might have a people made holy in Christ. He created the universe and the human race out of his overflowing love. For the sake of love, he did not destroy Adam and Eve when they sinned. Rather, out of love he sent his Son to become man, so that in the God-man he might have mercy on us.
For love, Jesus Christ, far from using violence to establish his Kingdom, suffered death himself, and a most cruel death. He did so to remove the offense of sin before his Father's eyes and to give those who accept him eternal life. All he asks of man is faith, acceptance of his loving work, love in return and service of his glory.
The terrorists intend to raise ultimate issues. Americans, Christians and all people of good will need to recognize clearly what these issues are. As I see it, some of the issues are these: Which God should a person of good will believe in, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ or Allah? Whose concept of man best promotes his development and dignity, the Christian or the Muslim? What attitude should man adopt, that of hatred for God's enemies or love for one's enemies, even for the terrorists?
And what means are to be used to advance God's cause on earth — doing violence or suffering violence in Jesus’ name?
FATHER JOHN D. DREHER Pawtucket, Rhode Island
----- EXCERPT: LETTERS ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Opinion -------- TITLE: If You're Going To Mont St. Michel DATE: 09/23/2002 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:In regards to the Catholic traveler article regarding Mont St. Michel (“French Fortress of the Faith,” Sept. 9-15), there is one very important new historical development to inform your readers about.
As of this summer (June 24), custodianship of the shrine changed hands from diocesan Benedictine monks and nuns to the Monastic Communities of Jerusalem. This is very significant for many reasons, one of which is that the new residents are part of a growing number of orthodox movements sweeping across Europe.
Established in Paris in 1975, the Monastic Communities of Jerusalem already have more than 150 monks and nuns living in monasteries in France, and they have an average age of 32 among their members. To learn more about the new custodians of the legendary Mont St. Michel, you can visit their Web site at jerusalem.cef.fr
KEVIN J. WRIGHT Littleton, Colorado
Discretion, Please
Regarding “Why Sexuality Is Too Good To Waste” (Sept. 2-8):
Mary Beth Bonacci wants more respect for human sexuality. I'm sure the writer is sincere, but it might be helpful if she used more reverence when discussing sexuality. She compares herself to our Holy Father and states: “John Paul II. See, there's another celibate who spends a whole lot of time talking about sex.”
As a mother of seven children, [I believe that] there is still much to learn from our Holy Mother Church about sexuality. But I do expect the topic to be treated with sensitivity in our home, never crassness. Consideration of the age and vulnerability of our “listeners” (young people) is especially important. The first lesson on sexuality is respect.
Similarly, no one would talk jokingly or crassly about the topic of death to bereaving family members. Rather, gentleness and tactfulness would be used out of respect for these vulnerable “listeners” (the survivors). In both situations it might be most respectful to remember that the less said, the better.
Keep up the good work of trying to keep us struggling Catholics afloat with the Truth. Your paper is in demand at our home and devoured cover to cover, as we each wait for our turn to read it!
LYNNE BOVICK ALBRECHT Cleveland
We Jail Asylum Seekers?
It was good to read a fair and balanced story regarding the illegal alien situation, but this issue should not be addressed until the inhumane treatment of legal asylum seekers is rectified (“Bush Ponders Amnesty for Undocumented Immigrants,” Sept. 2-8).
Few Americans are even aware that thousands of refugees from all over the world are currently detained in maximum-security, prisonlike facilities here in the land of the free. Under President Clinton's watch, a draconian law was passed in 1996 confining these innocent people until they can prove that they warrant asylum. Some refugees have been impris oned for over four years as their cases sputter through a xenophobic legal quagmire.
Ironically, one of these barren camps is located about 10 miles from Ellis Island where Lady Liberty must cry for the poor tempest-tossed souls. It has absolutely no windows and — as in all such places — the residents are never allowed outside. They must wear prison attire, husbands and wives are separated until they are released, and visitors are only allowed in on weekends for an hour at a time.
The Clinton administration boldly displayed its view of immigrants by violently kidnapping Elian Gonzalez away from his loving family and returning him to a life of slavery in Cuba. Before President Bush tackles the complex issues surrounding illegal aliens, he should remove the shackles form those who have not violated a single law, and once again the world's tired and poor will look to America as that Shining City on the Hill.
STEVEN FANTINA Phillipsburg, New Jersey
George W.'s Pro-life Record
Thank you for reporting the efforts of George W. Bush to promote the culture of life.
Since becoming president, Bush has helped promote the culture of life in many ways. For example, he stopped federal funding of groups that provide or promote abortion in foreign countries; he cut Medicaid payments for the abortion pill, RU-486; he increased funding of abstinence programs; he actively supported the strongest pro-life bill banning human cloning; he announced a policy to provide greater insurance support for pregnant mothers at or near the poverty level; he actively supported the Unborn Victims of Violence Act; he has supported all pro-life initiatives in Congress; he has changed the makeup of all delegations that represent the United States at the United Nations and abroad from pro-abortion to pro-life; he even overruled his secretary of state and insisted on a pro-lifer to head the State Department's refugee bureau; and he has installed pornography filters in Army barracks.
If Mr. Gore had been elected, all the foregoing would have been reversed and instead we would have extreme pro-abortion initiatives including forced abortion abroad as an anti-population policy. Although he's not a perfect pro-lifer, we should thank God for President Bush and pray that he will be able to withstand the pressures of the culture of death.
EILEEN HUGHES Springfield, Virginia
Correction
This is how the Sept 9-15 Facts of Life feature should have looked.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: OPINION -------- TITLE: After Sept. 11, What Is A Just War? DATE: 09/23/2002 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:As President Bush tries to determine an appropriate response to the “acts of war” perpetrated on the United States, religion will play an important role in building consensus.
The morality of waging war is a moral issue with which Christians have long struggled.
Throughout the Church's 2,000-year history, different strains have emerged — usually reflecting historical context. The early Church was basically pacifist. The Gospels’ counsel to turn the other cheek was foremost in framing this attitude (Luke 6:29). Being on the fringe of society and under-represented in the military and government, Christian opinion mattered little.
The advent of the great Church under Constantine, however, required Christian accommodation due to the Church's presence in the political life of the Empire. St. Augustine, therefore, began to develop moral codes for the rules of war which have come to be known as the “Just War” theory. Since the fifth century, these principles have served as a guide for Christian nations for the declaring of war and the legitimate means of prosecuting it. This traditional teaching of the Church has much to offer. Yet, in the present crisis, certain particulars for its valid application deserve special attention and thought.
There are four basic criteria that must be met for a war to be “just”:
1. It must be in response to the lasting, grave and certain damage caused by an aggressor;
2. all other means of resolution must be shown to be impractical and ineffective;
3. there must be a serious prospect for success of the planned offensive actions; and
4. the response must be proportional, in other words, not causing greater evil than the one trying to be eliminated.
It seems quite certain that the first principle of self-defense justifies the United States to take military action. This is also clearly recognized in the United Nations Charter, Article 51.
However, the next three criteria become problematic. Part two requires that all other means of curtailing enemy activity must be exhausted. This usually means diplomatic negotiations. When the enemy is a recognized state, channels such as the United Nations or international courts are legally recognized tools to solve the conflict or bring war criminals to justice.
The recent U.N. peacekeeping actions in Bosnia and the convening of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at The Hague in prosecuting Slobodan Milosovic stand out as a current examples. In the situation at hand, however, there is a serious question as to with whom we would negotiate. The terrorists do not represent a legitimate state, and war traditionally is not declared on an individual. The only avenue that seems open is to negotiate with those countries harboring these terrorist organizations to bring those responsible to justice.
This presumes that the states involved are sensitive to international law. If these efforts fail, may we invade a sovereign nation to extricate the criminals? This point is dubious in international law. The kidnapping of Adolf Eichmann and the Israeli rescue of the hostages held in Entebbe, Uganda, are still debated.
Part three calls for a reasonable assurance that our efforts to subdue the enemy will be successful. This was much more viable when wars were geographical and when the enemies’ identity and resources were clearly delineated. These were obvious during, for example, World War II, but the guerilla warfare of Vietnam provided the first glimpse of the difficulty in prosecuting a less clearly defined enemy.
Part four calls for a proportional response. If, as it seems, Osama bin Laden is behind the hijackings, a proportional response will be difficult to achieve because his organization — we are told — has cells in numerous cities throughout the world. How do we successfully exterminate them without extending the evil to innocent people living in cities throughout the world and even the innocent people living in Afghanistan where he is in hiding?
These questions must be wrestled with as America plans its response to the evil inflicted this past Tuesday. While defense and even retribution are a valid Christian response to atone for the evil inflicted on a society, how we achieve it will require the best thinking and highest ideals that those of good will are capable of.
The Christian response will require, even more so, a tremendous amount of prayer for wisdom so that our actions reflect God's will for peace and justice in an imperfect world.
Father Michael Orsi is chaplain of, and a research fellow at, Ave Maria Law School in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Michael Orsi ----- KEYWORD: Commentary -------- TITLE: It's Morning in a Whole New America DATE: 09/23/2002 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:Aristotle says that if something is a “plot,” it is closer to reason, that is, closer to something that has passed through a mind. He means, in other words, that when four planes take off with relatively the same mission, from different airports with different targets, that there is a mind behind the plotting. The plotting mind does not include those actually carrying out the plot. The mind that conceived the plot still exists. Aristotle also means that evil men can also reason and plot.
From the viewpoint of those who organized the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trace Center, the plot was enormously successful — one almost has to say brilliant in its simplicity and startling effectiveness in creating chaos and, more importantly, embarrassment over the inability of the world's greatest power to protect its own back yard. Osama bin Laden, while denying that he had anything to do with it, congratulated those who carried it out. Several celebrations were held in certain Arab cities. Encomia for the heroism of the hijackers were found in the press.
From the point of view of American security forces, the plot was a surprise strike. From the point of view of the victims’ loved ones, it was a tragic day. For the government, it was probably the reception of a declaration of war against this country by some yet not fully identified but real source, though one certainly related to radical Islamic groups, many of whom have more or less sophisticated bases and centers in this country itself. The operation could not have been carried out without people on the ground here in the United States nor without men trained in flying airplanes, willing to sacrifice their lives for their cause. It needed the help or tolerance of some governments.
Aristotle also remarked that if someone is willing to lose his life, it is very difficult to stop him from carrying out his plans. This plot probably required at least 20 or 30 men so willing. They were not simply “fanatics.” They are now gone with their victims. Our disarmed society allowed no one with guns on board who might have heroically thwarted the action. The plotters knew they were safe once on board so they needed only knives. I sometimes get my electric razor checked when seen in a small bag at an airport security checkpoint. How could knives be invisible?
Infamy Again
If one looks on any search engine under bin Laden, there is, in several languages, a whole account of followers and of the man himself about what he intended to do. Actually, had not planes been grounded, several other planes may have been hijacked and other buildings in other cities hit the same way. One hears that the Sears Tower in Chicago, the Baltimore Trade Center and even the Maryland State House were on that gruesome list. Bin Laden was somewhere behind the original bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993. At the trial, one of the men convicted in that plot was asked about the possibility that he would be executed. He replied that “if he lived a good life, he would go to heaven, if not, to hell.” In other words, he was on a mission that rewarded what he was trying to do. Bin Laden himself is cited as saying that, in this war, there are no distinctions between “civilians” and “guilty.” That is, killing some 50,000 folks was killing 50,000 enemies in war. He also said that America is a serpent and must be crushed. The reason America is dangerous evidently is because it supports Israel.
Several British papers called the day “Armageddon” or “Apocalypse.” This terminology — The Washington Times used the word “infamy,” recalling Franklin D. Roosevelt's remark after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor — hints that something more is going on than just disgruntled or psychotic characters running around with bombs. Washington today is full of a sense of “it will never be the same again.” Walking the streets you see police checking cars going across bridges. Air safety checks will be horrendous, at least for a while. If another attack is planned, no doubt it will come later when the new lay of the land is calmer.
How do we sort this day out? First, with regard to the dead — plotters, passengers, workers and all — they end their lives on the same day. Both innocent and guilty are in God's hands. Whether we die by murder, by accident, by plot or in our own beds of old age, we have the same destiny. We must be ready to die every morning when we go to work. It is given to every man once to die, hence the judgment.
Evil Acts — or an Act of War?
If this killing was not a “sinful” deed, we have no right to be angry over it.
This country obviously cannot simply say that this sort of action was an “accident.” The very heart and essence of the country were symbolically attacked, its most obvious defensive building, its most visible trade buildings, in its most well-known cities, the one containing the most number of Jews.
The country has not seriously, in terms of public opinion, really thought that plots were being hatched, and until this terror happened, probably never would have accepted what must be done both to retaliate and to prevent a reoccur-rence.
We hear talk that this was an act of “terror,” and that the ones plotting it are “terrorists.” They are called religious “fanatics.” Indeed, one news broadcast said that only someone with a religion would sacrifice his life this way. The only security, by implication, is in a com pletely secular state wherein no one thinks anything is worth such sacrifice. The only trouble with this idiotic argument is that we would like to have had someone on board who sacrificed his life preventing the action. (Maybe we did have some who tried and failed, because they were unarmed.)
But one must finally declare that a war has been launched against us. This war has a cause and motives, organization, finance. It is not a particular country, though particular countries either abet it or do nothing about its cause. The country is vulnerable to such attacks which are totally planned and, in that sense, rational. A response has to be made, but an effective one. The country has to realize that its security, intelligence and police forces are absolutely necessary; they are not our enemies and without them, we are vulnerable. We have under-appreciated and misunderstood that the first requirement of government is the protection and safety of its people. This requires resources and, yes, will. I agree with Donald Kagan, who wrote in the Washington Post that we need a declaration of war.
Again the Augustinian view of history is proved largely correct: The first duty of the state has to do with moral and ideological disorders of men against peace, that something must be done, often hard striking and hard headed, against people who can blow up our buildings and kill our people. We have, by our habits and traditions, no doubt, left ourselves open. We have no reason to believe that the plot will not go on unless we stop it. This is our immediate political agenda.
Jesuit Father Schall teaches government at Georgetown University.
For more of his writings, visit www.morec.com/schall.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: James V. Schall ----- KEYWORD: Commentary -------- TITLE: Only Supernatural Hope Can Dispel Despair on a Day This Dark DATE: 09/23/2002 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:Sometimes it takes a tragedy so terrible that it leaves us staggering in shock and disbelief to remind us that hope is not a natural virtue.
It is, rather, a supernatural virtue — and one that has nothing to do with probability or expectation. Hope's true meaning eludes us and is understood only to God. This is why G. K. Chesterton said: “As long as matters are really hopeful, hope is mere flattery or platitude; it is only when everything is hopeless that hope begins to be a strength at all. Like all Christian virtues, it is as unreasonable as it is indispensable.”
As dark clouds descended on sections of Manhattan and Washington, D.C., Sept. 11, it was as though night had arrived early — not only at ground zero, but across the civilized world. “It is a dark day for the history of humanity,” said Pope John Paul II. Indeed, his meaning can be taken both figuratively and literally.
In New York, here was a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions, a soul-wrenching grief of indescribable intensity. In the grip of this grisly urban holocaust, visited in an instant upon a place that moments before was humming with the lively drone of “just another day at the office,” how does one begin to find hope?
Hope is a supernatural virtue and man is a hopeful being. There is a corollary to Dante's description of hell as a place where there is no hope. It is this: The person who is without hope is already in hell. Every fiber of our being is tuned to hope. Tomorrow will be a better day! Yet we still need to see some visible sign of hope, if it is going to animate us.
After impact, the twin towers of the World Trade Center quickly filled with smoke. Visibility soon edged to the vanishing point. Some office workers could not see their own hand six inches in front of their face. Scrambling to safety became a problem even for those on the lower floors. Some got caught in a revolving door, unable to determine which way was out. Then rescue squads arrived. Flashlights provided both light and hope. People were told to form a human chain. In this way, through touch and the soft glow of the rescuers’ lights, they found their way to safety, though many less fortunate were left behind.
The towers were secular monuments to the importance of the world of finance. Money, of course, is not the object of man's deepest need to hope. Suddenly, after the hijacked planes jolted three buildings, all attention shifted to the essentials: life, love, care, camaraderie, cooperation. There was heroism and extraordinary generosity. The nation became unified and mobilized. Republicans and Democrats who are wont to be at each other's throats now stood, however briefly, as one. President Bush promised that “terrorism against the United States will not stand.” America's neighbor to the north utilized its airports to accommodate foreign flights that were not allowed to land in the United States. Canadian citizens wept openly, donated their blood, pledged their help and offered hospitality to foreign travelers.
It was an inspiring show of the solidarity of the human family. And yet the question remained: How does one find hope in such oppressive gloom? When John Henry Newman, as a young man, left Sicily and began sailing for home. He crossed the Mediterranean bound for Marseilles. But his ship was becalmed for an entire week in the doldrums between Corsica and Sardinia in the Straits of Bonifacio. It was on this occasion that he penned his most endearing poem, which begins:
Lead Kindly light, amid the encircling gloom, Lead Thou me on!
The night is dark, and I am far from home — Lead Thou me on.
The poem brings many things to mind: Newman's own loneliness, depressed spirit and homesickness, as well as the darkness of the world, the darkening of man's relationship to his fellow man, and the eclipse of God. The enveloping multi-layered darkness moved him to recognize, with great emotional conviction, the compelling significance of light and hope. The recent terrorist assault brings to mind other sudden and unexpected catastrophes; the sinking of the Titanic and the attack on Pearl Harbor spring instantly to mind. It brings to mind that particular national trauma which is the most horrendous of its kind ever to take place on American soil, the Civil War.
How did the defeated general of a defeated South think about hope at a moment when his world was engulfed by gloom? This is what Robert E. Lee said: “The truth is this: The march of Providence is so slow and our own desires so impatient; the work of progress is so immense and our means of aiding it so feeble; the life of humanity is so long, that of the individual so brief, that we often see only the ebb of the advancing wave and are thus discouraged. It is history that teaches us hope.”
America is a nation of resolve and resilience. These qualities will serve to bring about her rebirth through a renewed dedication to honor and live by the essentials of life. This itself is something worth hoping for, a hope reborn in the ruins of lesser hopes.
Catastrophes have a way of clarifying what is important and what is not so important. We take the essential things for granted and it sometimes takes a calamity to remind us of the priority we should give them in our lives. Therefore, we can find hope even in death. America will not allow her beacon of hope to be extinguished either for herself, her citizens or the other nations throughout the world that also believe in freedom and hope for a better life.
Donald DeMarco is a philosophy professor at St. Jerome's University in Waterloo, Ontario.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Donald DeMarco ----- KEYWORD: Commentary -------- TITLE: Angels' Protection in the Battle DATE: 09/23/2002 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:Our nation has rarely needed St. Michael's intercession, or the Blessed Mother's, as it does now, while under attack by a crafty and elusive enemy. (See “Prayer to St. Michael” below.)
The oldest parish in Los Angeles, established in 1784, Queen of the Angels is a perfect place to pray to St. Michael this Saturday, Sept. 29, feast of the archangels.
It stands across from Olvera Street, the oldest part of the city, and just a short block from Los Angeles Union Station. It's within sight of City Hall and provides a striking contrast in style with the modernistic archdiocesan cathedral, still under construction not far away.
Look one way, and you see the orderly grid of one of the world's sleekest, most modern business districts. Look the other way, and it's an unruly tangle of old, Spanish colonial avenidas.
Like the intersecting street grids adjacent to it, the parish is a blend of ancient and modern. In order to accommodate the great numbers of the faithful who flock here, there are now two churches serving the parish — a large, modern one built in 1965, and a small, historic one built between 1814 and 1822. This is the Old Plaza Church, or La Placita, as it is affectionately called by the local Hispanic community.
It is this, La Placita, the old church, that is of the greatest interest to the Catholic traveler.
From outside, the well-maintained church looks typical of the Spanish Colonial churches that dot the coastline of California. Its side door still has the signage of an earlier time, “Chapel of Perpetual Adoration,” even though eucharistic adoration is offered frequently, but not perpetually.
Once inside, one is immediately struck by the visual treasures within. These include an immense, lifelike crucifix in the rear of the church; an intricately carved, gold-leafed wall behind the altar; statues and paintings in the Spanish tradition of saints such as Francis of Assisi and Teresa of Avila; and the focal point, a beautiful golden monstrance daily presenting Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament to eucharistic adorers.
Heavenly Hub
The faith of the people is immediately apparent here — a deep, unabashed and often emotional expression of belief in the Gospel.
In other words, this may be the oldest church in the city, but it is anything but a mere historic artifact. Each day the church opens its doors at 5 a.m. for eucharistic adoration, which is available until 8 p.m.; the sanctuary is never empty. I have been going to this church for years, and I continue to be amazed at the vigorous faith of those worshiping here.
These past few days, I couldn't help but wonder: The two planes that hijackers steered into the World Trade Center were scheduled to fly to Los Angeles. Could any of those on board have been parishioners, or relatives of parishioners, of this beautiful, faith-filled parish?
My most recent visit to La Placita came several weeks ago. I arrived as the 6:30 a.m. Mass was concluding in the old church. Despite the early hour, there were close to 100 in attendance, a sight not often seen at any daily Mass in Los Angeles, let alone one so early.
As the parishioners filed out, many of them stopped to pray before a visiting statue of Santo Niño in a grotto next to the church. A bulletin board next to the grotto has been filled with notes, requests and ex votos, silent reminders of miracles granted and expected. Inside, about two dozen people remained to pray in silence.
On the east side of Main Street is Olvera Street, the historic city center. Here you can find several historical buildings, as well as Mexican food and wares in an open-air market setting. When, after walking around Olvera Street and downtown, I returned to La Placita, around noon, there were still a dozen people kneeling in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. Some prayed the rosary, others read from various prayer books, and one young lady audibly implored St. Jude, whose statue stands in the rear of the church. Whenever someone left, it seemed that someone else entered.
Devotional Overflow
Outside, the parish grounds are always abuzz with activity. Across the courtyard from La Placita, a gift shop is always busy, selling an abundance of religious articles. And the parish social-service office, run by the Claretian Missionary Fathers who staff the parish, is never without a ringing phone and a large group of people waiting to help or be helped.
The level of activity is not surprising, given that Queen of the Angels is really the center of Hispanic Catholic culture in Los Angeles — and boasts the largest congregation of any church in the archdiocese.
Such is the devotion of the predominately Hispanic parishioners that Sunday Mass, only one of which is in English, is celebrated nearly every hour from the early morning to late at night to accommodate the great multitude of worshipers. Even so, the large new church is often filled to overflowing, with people standing in the aisles and the vestibule and, at certain times of the year, such as the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe or All Souls Day, crowds of literally thousands make a pilgrimage here.
It is not uncommon for a “pilgrim statue” to make a brief stop here and that, too, will draw teeming multitudes. Such “old-world” devotions are increasingly a rarity in the United States; the unbridled enthusiasm that that greets them here is especially hard to find in Anglo-American culture. The good news is: All are genuinely welcomed here and any differences in culture or language are joyfully enveloped by the great faith that permeates the place.
Andrew Walther writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: Our Lady Queen of the Angels Church, Los Angeles, Calif. ----- EXTENDED BODY: Andrew Walther ----- KEYWORD: Catholic Traveler -------- TITLE: Give the Internet Credit: It's Safe to Charge Online DATE: 09/23/2002 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:Recently I went to a gas station and used the pump's automated credit-card payment system.
When I finished filling the tank, a receipt was automatically printed for me — right there at the pump.
I reached for my receipt and found another one besides. It seemed somebody had forgotten to take his receipt. Suddenly, here I was with somebody else's credit-card number and expiration date.
(Not all gas pumps include this information on their receipts, but this was one of the ones that do.)
Were I the dishonest sort, I could have tried to place a few orders online or over the phone with this person's card number.
People give out credit-card numbers over the phone, to clerks in stores and in many unsecured situations. Yet some of these people are afraid to use that same credit card to purchase items on the Internet.
To find out the possible risks involved in using a credit card, I called Citibank and asked about their MasterCard policies. Here is one scenario we discussed. A purchase is made online and the merchandise is never received. What does one do? The credit-card holder calls Citibank and receives a credit for the purchase. Citibank will take up the matter with the merchant who failed to send the merchandise.
Another scenario: Somebody intercepts a credit-card number online and begins making purchases with it. The credit-card holder is not responsible, I was told, for any of the charges made — and Citibank cancels the number of the stolen card and issues a new one.
If one pays by check or cash online, the risks are far greater. If the vendor is fraudulent, the check is cashed or the money received without any easy way of getting the money back.
If a credit-card number is stolen online, at most one is looking at the inconvenience of changing numbers.
So who is really at risk with credit cards on the Internet? Our Cloister Shop at monksofadoration.org/giftshop.html is set up to receive credit-card information using an online secured system. We get the numbers off the Internet and manually enter them into a credit-card terminal to process the payments.
If a credit card is not “swiped,” our credit-card terminal asks for the billing zip code of the credit card. If the zip code doesn't match for the credit card, the terminal informs us. That is why many online merchants are very strict about getting a customer's credit-card billing address to verify that the credit card belongs to them.
Unfortunately, we have found that a number of people, for many reasons, enter a zip code that doesn't match the credit-card billing address.
That, coupled with the unlikely possibility of somebody using a stolen credit card to purchase religious goods, made us ignore the warning when a match did not occur.
A few months ago we received an online order from Indonesia for a couple of Bibles. Now, with international orders, zip-code verification doesn't work at all. We processed the order and sent the Bibles off. Later Global Payments, our merchant credit-card processor, informed us that the card owner never made that purchase. The credit card information had been stolen. Global Payments informed us that we, the merchant, had to absorb the stolen merchandise cost.
So who is really at risk with credit cards? The merchants who accept them.
The bottom line: Don't be afraid to use your credit card to make pur chases over the Internet. Just make sure you know and trust the organization you're giving your number to, and be sure the transaction is secure (if it isn't, a box will pop up to warn you). Happy cyber-shopping.
Brother John Raymond, co-founder of the Monks of Adoration, writes from Venice, Florida.
----- EXCERPT: Just be sure you trust the seller ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brother John Raymond ----- KEYWORD: Arts & Culture -------- TITLE: Monthly Web Picks DATE: 09/23/2002 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:With this month's picks we'll concentrate on marriage.
Marriage Encounter at www.wwme.org is a great way to turn a good marriage into a great marriage. Learn more about encounter weekends and find one going on near you. Information is also available in Spanish.
So you are planning on getting married? Why not look into Catholic Engaged Encounter at www.engagedencounter.org as part of your preparation for such an important commitment?
The Catechism of the Catholic Church has a whole section dedicated to the Sacrament of Matrimony. You can read it online at christusrex.org/www1/CDHN/matri.html #MATRIMONY.
Retrouvaille at www.retrouvaille.org is a program to help couples renew and heal their own marriage relationship. It is a live-in weekend and post-weekend program for married couples. For those thinking of separation or divorce, Retrouvaille (the word means rediscovery) may be the life preserver your marriage needs.
“Love is for Life,” a pastoral letter issued on behalf of the Irish Hierarchy in 1985, is very extensive on marriage and even includes a study guide. Read it online at www.cco.caltech.edu/~newman/l ove/Love_for_Life/LfL.00.html.
For other helpful sites, see www.monksofadoration.org/mar riage.html.
To order Catholics on the Internet: 2000-2001 by Brother John Raymond, call Prima Publishing at (800) 632-8676.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brother John Raymond ----- KEYWORD: Arts & Culture -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 09/23/2002 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:Startup.com (2001)
Approximately 85% of new businesses go belly up. But, in America, there is no loss of face for those who fail and start over again. Startup.com, a feature-length documentary shot in 1999 and 2000, captures that crazy moment when Internet entrepreneurs dreamed of getting rich and making history, all at the same time. Kaleil Isaza Tuzman and Tom Herman are high-school buddies whose friendship is severed on camera by their enterprise's collapse. The product they're selling, govworks.-com, enables Internet access to government services, and their bestseller enables online payment of parking tickets.
Their lifestyle is different from what one expects on Wall St. — a cross between business-school entrepreneurship and rock ‘n’ roll. Kaleil uses new-age buzzwords like “heuristic” and “holistic” to manipulate employees and investors. The high point is his appearance on CSPAN with President Bill Clinton. Filmmakers Chris Hegedus (The War Room) and Jehane Noujaim offer an insightful, firsthand look at the bright and dark sides of America's innovative, market-driven culture.
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Most of the movies honoring the “greatest generation” focus on its heroic combat exploits. The Oscar-winning The Best Years of Our Lives dramatizes the return of World War II veterans to their homes and the difficulties they face adjusting to civilian life. Director William Wyler (Ben-Hur) and writers Robert E. Sherwood and MacKinlay Kantor skillfully interweave the stories of three fighting men from the same middle-American town.
Fred Derry (Dana Andrews) is a decorated bombardier who's forced to resume his former job as a soda jerk. His wartime bride (Virginia Mayo) is unhappy with this step down from military glory and walks out. Homer Parish (Harold Russell) has lost both his hands in a Navy battle and must cope with prosthetic hooks.
And former Army sergeant Al Stephenson (Frederic March) is rehired as a bank loan officer, but now pays attention to veterans’ special financial needs. The filmmakers treat their characters’ domestic and employment problems with tenderness and insight.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORD: Arts & Culture -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 09/23/2002 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:All times Eastern
SUNDAY, SEPT. 23
Jackie Gleason, the Great One
A & E, 8 p.m.
If you want to learn about TV's early days, the career of Jackie Gleason (1916-1987) is a good starting point. On the “Cavalcade of Stars” comedy-variety show from 1950 to 1952, he created some of TV's most inimitable comic characters ever: The Poor Soul, Joe the Bartender, Reginald Van Gleason III and Ralph Kramden of “The Honeymooners.” Gleason was also a fine dramatic actor, as he proved in films such as The Hustler (1961) and Gigot (1962).
MONDAY, SEPT. 24
Jordan: The Royal Tour
Travel, 9 p.m.
Take a literal “royal tour” of this biblical land as King Abdullah II, son of the late King Hussein, visits historic sites and meets with Jordan's Palestinian and Bedouin citizens.
MONDAY, SEPT. 24
Surveillance: Who's Watching You
A & E, 10 p.m.
This “Investigative Reports” segment shines the spotlight on a growing trend: the videotaping of unsuspecting Americans in offices and public places by government agents, law enforcement, banks and employers. Reporters interview law officers, surveillance experts, privacy advocates and privacy-invasion victims.
TUESDAY, SEPT. 25
Secret Life of the Crash-Test Dummy
History Channel, 10 p.m.
They might give way to computer simulations soon, but for the last half-century crash-test dummies have outlasted countless collisions and given scientists and safety experts invaluable data on how best to protect humans in autos, airplanes and other vehicles.
THURSDAY, SEPT. 27
Action Heroes: Lewis and Clark
Biography Channel, 8 p.m.
Come exploring with Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on their 8,000-mile journey to Oregon and back (1804-1806). Share their discoveries and perils, and meet their invaluable Shoshone teenage interpreter and guide Sacagawea, her husband Toussaint Charbonneau and their baby Jean Baptiste. (By the way, Sacagawea and Jean Baptiste appear on the new U.S. $1 coin — the first-ever depiction of a mother and baby on a U.S. coin.)
FRIDAY, SEPT. 28
Good Kurds, Bad Kurds: No Friends but the Mountains
PBS, 9 p.m.
This documentary takes viewers inside a major conflict that most Americans know nothing about. For a decade, the United States has protected Kurds living in Saddam Hussein's Iraq with a no-fly zone, but has abandoned Kurds in Turkey — a key U.S. ally — to U.S.-armed Turks’ attacks on rebels and villages. The film says a leading rebel group, the PKK, has largely dropped its Marxist aims. Advisory: Some photos of war casualties and of victims of atrocities by both sides.
SATURDAYS
Popular Mechanics for Kids
Discovery, 11:30 a.m.
This inventive program combines fun with learning as it teaches mechanical principles and shows how to put machines and gadgets together, keep them going and fix them.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dan Engler ----- KEYWORD: Arts & Culture -------- TITLE: Group Defends Thinking on Campus DATE: 09/23/2002 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:PHILADELPHIA — If circumstances were different, Christian groups might feel very uncomfortable indeed with the Philadelphia-based national organization FIRE — the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.
FIRE sees its mission as defending free speech rights on today's campuses — and they would do so for anyone from homosexual activists to born-again Christians.
But Thor Halversson, the foundation's executive director, said that campuses today value political correctness above true pluralism. As a result, Christian groups are the most frequent victims of first amendment violations.
“It just happens that right now there is a movement at universities against conservative groups and Christians,” Halvorssen emphasized. “Non-discrimination policies are being used to root out unpopular groups,” he said, adding that Christian groups contact FIRE “constantly.”
The need is so great that FIRE is currently drafting a guide to religious liberty for distribution on college campuses, informing students of their rights. The foundation is also opening a Center for Religious Freedom on Campus to serve as a resource for students and student groups.
FIRE's mission statement says they aim to protect students’ rights against “increasingly repressive and partisan colleges and universities.” The statement mentions the rights of “freedom of speech, legal equality, due process, religious liberty, and sanctity of conscience” as liberties the foundation seeks to protect.
“FIRE is much needed,” William Donohue of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights told the Register. “There is more repression on college campuses today than ever.”
Since its doors opened in October of 1999, FIRE has been active on more than 150 campuses across the country, from the University of California at Santa Barbara to Vermont's Bennington College. The foundation has worked with Christian groups at Grinnell College, State University of New York at Oswego, Williams College, Whitman College, Tufts University and others.
The organization has defended a myriad of student groups — newspapers whose views run contrary to mainstream campus thought, religious groups that believe homosexual activity is sinful, students tried under flawed university justice systems, gay rights groups, and professors disciplined for expressing unpopular ideas.
In one of FIRE's more high-profile cases, Tufts Christian Fellowship was “derecognized” because the group refused to grant a leadership position to Julie Catelano, a student member whose views of homosexuality and Scripture ran contrary to their own. The group was accused of violating Tufts’ non-discrimination policy. Tufts’ Student Judiciary denied the fellowship access to funding, meeting space, the use of Tufts’ name, and the right to advertise on campus.
The fellowship responded to the charges of discrimination, saying that they welcome gay members, but they denied Catelano a leadership position because she disagreed with the group's belief that homo sexuality is sinful according to Scripture. When protests to the administration were unsuccessful, the Christian fellowship enlisted FIRE's help.
FIRE drew up a petition which was then signed by over 100 professors, asking the Tufts administration to “recognize that it lacks the moral authority to force evangelical Christians to give up their religious beliefs and practices, in order to conform to the administration's preference for ‘inclusion.’”
The story was covered by the Washington Times, the Associated Press and the Boston Globe, among other media — and the Tufts Committee on Student Life eventually remanded the charges against Tufts Christian Fellowship. Shou Minh, a Tufts alumnus and former member of the Tufts Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Collective, called her experience with FIRE “unpleasant.”
The Tufts case is far from an isolated incident. In a similar case at Iowa's Grinnell College, the campus chapter of the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship was derecognized in 1997 and has since been reinstated.
The Newman Center at Williams College was told in May of last year that federal law mandated they adopt a policy of non-discrimination — a policy that conflicted with their beliefs — or face expulsion from campus, Halvorssen said. Along with other Christian groups on campus, they contacted FIRE for help. In November, Halvorssen sent a letter to Williams’ president, dean and provost arguing that “authentic diversity surely requires a place at the table for Evangelical Christians, Orthodox Jews, Roman Catholics, and Eastern Orthodox Christians.”
“No one goes to Williams College thinking that being a Roman Catholic will be unacceptable,” he told the Register.
Williams College dean Nancy A. Roseman responded with a letter saying: “Shortly after becoming Dean of the College, I reviewed the policy concerning student groups and decided to eliminate any requirement that all groups adopt whole cloth the College's nondiscrimination policies as a part of a registration process.”
Roseman told the Register that Christian groups at the college were never threatened.
“I was evaluating our policies before I had any contact with [FIRE],” said Roseman, who has been dean at Williams for one year. “And I decided the policies were overly bureaucratic.” She added that, should a conflict similar to the one at Tufts occur at Williams, she would be hesitant to hand matters over to the student judiciary.
“We would make every attempt to mediate, and make it into a learning opportunity for the entire campus,” she said. “Williams is a small community, and we like to operate as a community, not as a bureaucracy.”
Although FIRE works with a network of about 100 attorneys who provide services from amicus briefs to legal representation, the group does not directly represent individuals. They attempt, instead, to resolve matters amicably. When necessary, they put the media spotlight on campuses where they believe injustices have occurred.
Most of the time, just the threat of exposure leads to resolution. Fewer than 10% of FIRE's cases end up in the news, said Halvorssen.
This non-legislative approach, according to Donohue, is the best way to fight for first amendment rights on campuses. Litigation, he said, is too slow and expensive. Private colleges and universities, in particular, are often held more accountable in the court of public opinion than in a court of law.
Halvorssen agrees. “Schools must be held to the promises that they make to their students.”
Maggie Rauch writes from Austin, Texas.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Maggie Rauch ----- KEYWORD: EDUCATION -------- TITLE: Weekly Book Pick DATE: 09/23/2002 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:Father Peter Stravinskas, founding editor of The Catholic Answer, certainly has a gift for explanation and a wealth of experience. In this concise volume he explains, step by step, the various prayers and rituals of the Catholic Mass of the Roman Rite (Novus Ordo), and offers scriptural meditations to help readers participate in it more fully.
The book is divided into four main chapters, devoted respectively to the Introductory Rite (“Coming into His Presence”), the Liturgy of the Word (“God Speaks to Us”), the Liturgy of the Eucharist (“The Perfect and Acceptable Sacrifice”), and the Communion and Concluding Rites (“Receiving the Lord and Sent Forth to Serve”). There are also helpful appendices on Latin in the Liturgy and on postures and gestures used in worship as well as a glossary of sacred vestments and other liturgical objects.
The first part of each chapter describes what happens during Mass and why. Often the approach is experiential.
In the first chapter, for example, we learn how the Entrance Song and procession, the Penitential Rite and the Gloria (on Sundays) all prepare us to encounter the mystery of God's presence and action among us.
Occasionally the comments are historical. “The Liturgy of the Word has its origins in Jewish Tradition (Catechism, No. 1093, No. 1096), patterned after the example of Jesus and the first Christians,” writes Father Stravinskas. “Synagogue worship, right up to the present, is a heavily verbal ritual, including prayers, psalms, [etc.]. … The Scripture readings in Our Lord's time were based on a three-year cycle, just as they are in the present liturgy of the Roman Rite.”
At several points, the author provides a thoughtful English translation of a prayer in the Mass. Particularly interesting are the notes on each of the four eucharistic prayers, all of which clarify their origins and distinctive emphases.
Father Stravinskas shows sensitivity in dealing with pastoral questions, such as the status of the Tridentine Mass, the proper dispositions for receiving the Eucharist, and the rare circumstances in which non-Catholics are allowed to receive Communion.
One advantage of the step by step commentary is that the author heads off controversies; the answer is usually there before the objection arises.
There is much to learn about the Mass that cannot be conveyed in classroom mode. Therefore, in the second part of each chapter, the author offers a series of short meditations, designed to be read and pondered at the rate of one per day. Each meditation consists of a phrase from the Mass and a Scripture passage, followed by a page of reflections.
A sample: “The Lord be with you. [The Greeting]. ‘Boaz himself came from Bethlehem and said to the harvesters, “The Lord be with you!” And they replied, “The Lord bless you!”’ (Ruth 2:4) … The next time you participate in the Mass, listen for those words and try to experience them for the first time — in all their dazzling audacity. The priest is praying that the Lord will come and make His dwelling within you.”
Father Stravinskas has kept this non-technical explanation of the Mass short and simple, by keeping it on the sure and solid foundation of traditional Catholic theology. Study questions after each chapter make the book suitable for use by discussion groups. This edition is the first publication of Newman House Press, the print apostolate of the Scranton Diocesan Oratory of St. Philip Neri.
Michael J. Miller writes from Glenside, Pennsylvania.
----- EXCERPT: Want to Add Meaning to Mass? Study Scripture ----- EXTENDED BODY: Michael J. Miller ----- KEYWORD: EDUCATION -------- TITLE: ìSexual sins and abortions will ruin the lives of countless students unless we reach them right away with our life-changing new project,î warns Fr. Frank Pavone DATE: 09/23/2002 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:Amazing new publication, LoveMatters.com, immunizes students against Planned Parenthood's evil sex propaganda — and can save hundreds of moms and babies from abortion before Christmas
Dear Register Reader,
Because you take your Catholic faith seriously, I'm sure you'll agree with me that the solution to abortion is self-control, not “birth control.”
That's why we've launched an effective new project that helps young people resist pressures to “have sex.”
We live in a culture of “sex-run-loose,” as Fr. Paul Marx, O.S.B., so often points out. That's why a disaster of monumental proportions is about to unfold before our very eyes — unless we take decisive action immediately.
You see, college students all across America have returned to campuses for the new semester. That means countless girls are being pressured by their “boyfriends” right now to “prove their love” by “going all the way.” Sadly, many girls will give in to this unrelenting pressure over the next few weeks. This will result in a horrifying number of student abortions around the time you and I celebrate Christmas. It's sickening, but it's no surprise.
Students bombarded with sexual temptations
Students are saturated with all kinds of sleazy and unwholesome messages about sex. They read them in Planned Parenthood and radical feminist pamphlets.
Students are also influenced by the raunchy “free sex” messages they hear in today's rock “music.” And you can imagine how a steady diet of sex-filled TV shows and Hollywood movies affects hormone-charged young people.
The truth is, college students face an astounding number of sexual temptations around the clock.
Consider this: Most college kids go to schools away from home and live without the positive influence of parents and their home parish. Many live in co-ed dorms! The young men see immodestly dressed girls everywhere. Most student bookstores sell pornographic magazines. Dorms and apartments are often well stocked with porn videos and X-rated pinups. Every student has a computer today, and Internet porn is just a few “clicks” away.
But that's not all. So-called “health centers” practically throw “birth control” at students. Then there are all the parties, with free-flowing booze and drugs.
Furthermore, many teen “role models” are setting the worst possible example by their shameless public promiscuity and militant abortion advocacy.
Believe me, it's almost a miracle when a student makes it through four years of college without losing his or her virginity.
Just think of all the lives that will be ruined and the unborn babies who'll be slaughtered unless we take action right away to prevent it.
In good conscience, I can't stand by idly and watch all these lives and souls go down the drain without doing something about it. I don't think you can either.
That's why I'm appealing for your help to boldly expand an effective new project.
Sex propaganda: How to immunize students from it
At last, we have a super-powerful new 28-page, full-color newspaper that will immunize students from Planned Parenthood's sex propaganda.
The title of this unique publication is LoveMatters.com. It features celebrities speaking out in favor of chastity and respect for life — actors, actresses, super-models, athletes and more — plus, the whole truth about abortion, and toll-free numbers that a pregnant girl can call to get pro-life help.
I'm so impressed with LoveMatters.com that I agreed to serve as National Advisor to its creator and publisher, Pro-Life America, an effective group I've known and respected for years.
The cover of LoveMatters.com features a close-up of supermodel Kim Alexis with the caption, “Find out why super-model Kim Alexis says, ‘Say NO to sex before marriage.’” Her message is exactly what students everywhere need to hear right now.
And thanks to generous people like you, we've already given more than 98,000 LoveMatters.com newspapers to students at UCLA, Harvard, Georgetown, Clemson, U. of South Alabama, Pittsburg State, Georgia Southern, Univ. of Nebraska — Omaha, University. of Kentucky, Univ. of Louisville, Univ. of Oregon, Eastern Washington University. and Western Washington University.
More good news: another 105 college newspapers approved LoveMatters.com to run as paid advertising inserts. That means we can reach a million students on these campuses this Fall if we can raise the necessary financial support.
Funds permitting, our goal is to saturate Notre Dame, Loyola, Boston U., and every campus in America with this life-changing new publication!
It's one of the most amazing life-saving tools I've ever seen. What's unique about this new 28-page newspaper is that it covers chastity and pro-life subjects from A to Z with celebrities and a contemporary graphic design that gets and holds students’ attention.
Imagine thousands of copies of this powerful, persuasive newspaper being placed right into the hands of college students. I believe God will use this new tool
to save countless students from indulging in casual sex while on dates…, from going on the Pill…, and from having abortions. It'll also give students persuasive reasons to be modest and chaste.
I guarantee you that this project will save countless students from sexual sins and thousands of babies from abortion, if only we can get these powerful papers into the students’ hands.
How much is a baby's life worth? How much is it worth to help save a young person's soul? These are beyond price. That's why I'm praying you'll make a sacrifice for the children and send a generous tax-deductible gift today to help expand this life-saving project.
I have a sense of urgency about distributing this eye-opening new publication on campuses from coast to coast. That's because it can totally change the lives of students who read it. It can save thousands of girls and boys from making costly, life-long mistakes. It can rescue thousands of precious babies from abortion.
Students need to learn that “safe, legal” abortions kill women
I'm also impressed with the amazingly complete treatment of abortion in LoveMatters.com. Here's what it covers:
• Pictures of unborn babies developing in the womb
• The methods of abortion, including the barbaric partial-birth abortion
• The abortion-causing properties of the Pill. Most college kids have no idea that the Pill can cause early, unnoticed abortions.
• Heart-wrenching testimonies from women who've had abortions
• How abortion wounds women for life-mentally and often physically
• The true story of a rape victim who became pregnant and chose life
• True stories of pregnant mothers who died from “safe, legal” abortion, including a 32-year-old mother who bled to death
• Shocking confessions by ex-abortion-ists who expose how sleazy the abortion industry is
• Positive alternatives to abortion, including adoption, with 800 numbers to call for help
• Why abortion is never the answer — even in cases of rape and incest
• How to find healing and forgiveness after abortion
Does your alma mater need LoveMatters.com?
Flooding our colleges with this ground-breaking publication will do even more good than I've told you so far. Imagine all the blessings that'd follow if your alma mater were saturated with LoveMatters.com.
It will save young people from suicide (a study by Dr. Clayton Barbeau showed that fornication is a major cause of teen self-hatred)…save girls from abortion-caused breast cancer…save girls from becoming sterile through VD or abortion…influence professors and admin-istrators (they'll pick up copies, too)…lead many kids to become pro-life activists…persuade pre-med and pre-nursing students to shun abortion…lead students into the Church or back to Her…and much more.
Students and moms contact us every week with praises for this amazing new pro-life tool.
Mary from North Dakota called to tell us, “LoveMatters.com and the Holy Spirit saved my daughter and her baby from abortion…Now her attitude has totally changed…It's a miracle!”
A Harvard pre-med student wrote and said, “I was profoundly affected by reading it. In the last hour while reading, I have become strong-heartedly pro-life.”
Nora O'Callaghan, Director of the Respect Life Office in the Archdiocese of Chicago, said,“This publication will work miracles in young peoples’ lives. Every college student needs a copy.”
Our immediate goal is to give a copy of this baby-saving, life-changing tool to one million college students on 105 campuses that have approved it. It'll cost about 40 cents for each student reached, or $400,000. I know that's a large sum. But I'm praying that we can raise this entire amount quickly so we can flood these campuses with our new publication right away. Imagine all the lives and souls that'd be saved if your alma mater were saturated with LoveMatters.com.
We must not delay. We must make the arrangements and raise the funds now. The fall semester has already begun and that's why I'm praying for your immediate help. Your gift will help a girl say “no” to a pushy boyfriend. It'll help save babies from abortion before Christmas!
We're depending on people like you to help us flood these campuses with this amazing new publication. We have no one else to turn to.
Your help is needed NOW!
Could you make a heroic sacrifice of $8,000 to blanket a large campus such as Arizona State or Berkeley? Your tax-deductible gift would allow us to insert 20,000 copies of LoveMatters.com into one of those student newspapers.
If $8,000 isn't within your reach, could you consider making a gift of $4,000? That's what it will cost to blanket a medium-sized campus such as Duke or Notre Dame with 10,000 copies of LoveMatters.com. Your gift would do so much good. Or, your gift of $2,000 would enable us to reach 5,000 students with our hard-hitting publication on a smaller campus such as Yale or Loyola. Would it be possible for you to sacrifice that amount?
Whatever you send, please send something. We'll be grateful for a gift in any amount — whether it's a major gift or a widow's mite. Besides the larger amounts, we need many, many smaller gifts. They'll be like little streams that join together to make a mighty river.
Your gift of $1,000 will enable us to reach 2,500 students. $500 will reach 1,250 students; $100 will reach 250 students; $75 will reach 187 students; $50 will reach 125 students; and $35 will reach 87 students.
Please send whatever you can sacrifice and please join me in praying for the success of this wonderful new project. (And, yes, LoveMatters.com is also an impressive Web site that's changing many lives.)
I'll gladly send you a FREE copy of LoveMatters.com as my thank-you for your gift. Just check the box on the reply coupon. You may have a friend or loved one who could really benefit from it.
Please make your tax-deductible gift payable to Pro-Life America. And thank you for being the best friend that many young students and their babies will ever have.
Yours for Life,
Fr. Frank Pavone Nationally Known Pro-Life Leader National Advisor to Pro-Life America
P. S. As a Catholic priest, I can't tolerate Planned Parenthood and the pro-abortion, radical feminists brainwashing so many college students and killing so many unborn children. That's why I have such a sense of urgency about this exciting new project.
Please send your tax-deductible gift immediately! Making a generous gift will warm your heart. Don't put it off. Please send it now. Thank you, and may God reward you abundantly!
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: ìWe were pleased to distribute more than 100,000 copies DATE: 09/23/2002 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:of LoveMatters.com to Catholic households throughout the Archdiocese and to our nearly 17,000 high school students. Congratulations to the producers of your magazine. It faithfully reflects the meaning and value of chastity, marriage and family, and the protection of all life in a manner that is attractive and appealing to our youth. Incorporating the personal testimony of celebrities and other believers is a strategy that fosters hope. Thank you for your work to make this valuable resource available.”
— Archbishop Justin Rigali
St. Louis Archdiocese
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Archbishop Justin ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Tell Them What You Saw DATE: 09/23/2002 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:My dear children,
I still remember the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. I was a little boy and was afraid there might be a nuclear war. Would the President do the right thing? Would my father have to enlist? Should I go to the basement if bombs started falling?
I also remember that in those frightening days, my parents told me how they felt on the day Pearl Harbor was bombed. They were a little older than I was at the time of the missile crisis, but they were afraid. And shocked. And angry. My father did serve with honor in World War II, a war fought to end the breed of senseless horror that you have been watching on television.
Years from now, much to my regret, you will tell your children and grandchildren what you felt like on Sept. 11, 2001. You'll describe the images of hijacked planes crashing into buildings, the flames, the incredibly senseless loss of life.
Who could blame you if you tell your families of the fear, anger and shock you felt? How could you possible feel otherwise?
But I pray that you'll also remember that there was hope to be felt. There were many examples of the undying good that humans can do with the courage and grace of God. A tiny sample:
E I had an appointment this morning at the local blood center to give platelets. But there were so many people in the office to give blood to help the disaster victims that the nurse asked me to come back in a couple days. People were waiting up to three hours to give blood.
E The mayor of New York was on television last night to thank everyone who had come to help in the disaster relief effort. And he said there were so many volunteers that they didn't need any more people.
E The President gave a strong and reassuring talk to the American people. He asked for God's blessing on our nation.
E Members of Congress of all political parties gathered on the Capitol steps and sang God Bless America.
There were countless acts of heroic bravery as police officers, fire fighters, emergency medical technicians and other rescue workers plunged into the rubble in search of survivors — and worked to recover the mangled bodies of those killed in the attacks.
People rushed to help each other in every manner of terrifying circumstance.
Expressions of sympathy come to our president from around the world — with many nations declaring days of morning for those who perished. In many world capitals, flags flew at half-staff, and common people piled flowers on the steps of U.S. embassies.
Churches held special prayers services. And the adoration chapel at Sacred Heart Parish near our home was full of people of all ages, engaged in fervent prayer.
The toughest and most hard-nosed television news reporters were obviously shocked and willingly shared their dismay at what had happened. Moist eyes and shaky voices became common.
Despite everything, life went on. Whatever the national or ethic origin of the terrorists, they don't represent their nation or the brethren. They are an aberrant group of lost souls who need our prayers.
When you tell my descendents about this terrible event, you surely must convey the fear, anger, and shock. But don't forget to tell the stories of the heroes. Don't forget the common American men, women and children who stepped forward in Christian love, hope and charity.
Love, Dad September 12, 2001
Jim Fair is a freelance writer in Chicago.
----- EXCERPT: Family Matters ----- EXTENDED BODY: Jim Fair ----- KEYWORD: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: When Help Is Needed, Catholics Respond. How Do We Get That Way? DATE: 09/23/2002 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:In grade school, we learned by heart the corporal works of mercy: feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, visit the imprisoned, and the rest. We are reminded of them regularly in this Gospel reading: “For as often as you did these things … you did it to me” (Matthew 25: 31-46 ).
On Sept. 11, we learned just how important those works of mercy are.
However much confusion there may be about some points of doctrine or morality, it is obvious that Catholics are well aware of the imperative to practice the works of mercy. Catholic leadership in this area was on display in New York in the person of Father Mychal Judge, the fire department chaplain who died helping victims of the terrorist attacks, and in the TV images of nuns on the front lines of the World Trade Center tragedy.
But how can we bring a little of their spirit into our own families, day to day?
For most, this is largely carried out via the checkbook. We select from among the appeals for the needy that come to our homes, and respond according to our means and consciences. This gives us real contact with the suffering we see on the news. If we can't go to the Red Cross offices in Washington or New York, we know our money can.
But apart from these special circumstances, how does a family build up a culture of giving?
How do we form our children so that, in tragedies to come, they will carry on the Catholic tradition of rushing to the aid of the needy?
Children learn the lessons of charity in only way that really sticks: through example and experience.
At Ground Zero
The Franciscan Friars of the Renewal in New York were out in force to help the suffering when tragedy struck Manhattan. They're used to it: Their mission is to care for the physical and spiritual needs of the homeless.
But that would be impossible without a corollary effort, started by Long Island florist Charlie Moran and his wife, Helen.
You see, the friars exist to feed the hungry, but someone has to feed the friars. They take vows of complete poverty, make no provision for themselves, and rely on whatever is given to them. Until recently, this made for a rather unbalanced diet.
Then, two years ago, the Morans founded Friar Suppliers. Starting with their prayer group, and then expanding to everyone he met, Charlie built up a base of 125 donors who supply the funds.
Once a month, on a Friday night, Charlie goes on an all-night shopping spree at various supermarkets and wholesale warehouses. The next day, the Morans, with their three children, plus five other families, sort food, bag it, and load it into vans for delivery to the Franciscans’ homes in Harlem and the South Bronx.
The workaday charity of the Morans makes possible the more visible works of mercy by the friars.
‘We Are Very, Very Rich’
Far away from the terrorist hot spots, other families inculcate a life of charity in their families.
Joe Campbell of Ypsilanti, Mich., never planned to involve himself or his family with regular volunteer work for the Missionaries of Charity in Detroit. He just wanted one of his daughters, who was considering a reli gious vocation, to be exposed to the work of different orders before making up her mind.
But after he, his wife and six of their children spent a day serving meals to the homeless alongside the sisters, they were profoundly affected.
“We live in a very modest neighborhood. But on the way home that day, one of the kids said, ‘We are very, very, very rich,’” recalled Campbell. “Our society is so separated by race, by economic class. This exposure to the poor was something we needed. And to see what the sisters were doing, this was good for us.”
Now Joe, his wife Helen, and their three youngest children (aged 11, 9, and 7) help the Missionaries two to four Saturdays a month.
Two older, teen-age children also accompany them from time to time.
Besides serving meals they sing and play hymns to accompany the readings the sisters do before the meal. They also clean up afterwards. A stop for a fast-food treat on the way home helps keep the kids motivated.
The Young Comfort the Old
Miriam Buono of Arlington, Va., began visiting nursing home residents as part of a high-school service project. She kept it up through college, and was still visit ing an elderly man through the time of her marriage and the births of her three children.
Noting how her friend's enjoyment of her visits was only increased by the presence of the kids, Miriam conceived the idea for involving more families in this work of mercy.
She started the “Adopt a Friend” program in her parish, where she acts as “a sort of match maker. I match up interested families with an elderly person at our local nursing home. They are matched according to various preferences and common interests. The family commits to visiting their elderly friend one or more times a month.”
Between 40 and 50 families have signed up since Buono began the program.
Visiting the elderly is a natural for children, says Buono. Nursing home residents are cheered by the presence of children, whose open personalities are relatively free of adult hang-ups about aging and death.
And visiting as a family, with their parents, has far more meaning than trips organized by school-teachers. “Parents have to give the example. You can say things all up and down to them. But if you don't do it, it won't help. If Mom and Dad are involved, the kids take ownership.”
How Do They Do It?
Many admire works of charity from a distance, and even wish they could do the same.
But who has the time? And who has the talent necessary to serve others in these ways, large and small?
“Pray and seek the Lord and he will attract you to what he wants you to do,” advises Joe Campbell. “Don't get on a guilt trip. God calls on all of us to minister and to serve others, but in different ways. Works of mercy flow from prayer and communion with Christ.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Daria Sockey ----- KEYWORD: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Father Judge, a Hero, Died a Heroís Death DATE: 09/23/2002 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:McDonald has been paralyzed since being shot in the line of duty in 1986. Since then, he had a close elationship with Franciscan Father Mychal Judge who died ministering to firefighters on the scene of the World Trade Center attack Sept. 11. Register correspondent John Burger spoke with McDonald three days after Father Judge's death.
How did Father Judge die?
The way he died tells us everything about him.
I went with a mutual friend and his superior to claim his body, and no one could tell us how he died, only the cause of death. I heard on the news yesterday that he died giving someone the last rites.
I got a call from a friend in Canada who had been on the phone with a firefighter. He and a bunch of the guys were running into the building after the first crash. Father Mike gave them a blessing, and as they continued in, they looked over their shoulder and saw him running to minister to someone on the ground. He was killed by debris falling out of the building.
When did you first meet Father Judge?
A month after I was shot, in August 1986, he was returning from England, where he was studying for a aster's degree in social work.
They were looking for priests to help say Mass in my room at Bellevue Hospital every day. They had a small number of priests, but those men had other obligations.Father Mike has stayed with us all these years.
When his good friend, Father Julian Deeken, Franciscan, said, “Mike, would you come say Mass for Steve McDonald?” he said, “Who is Steve McDonald?”
He said to him, “Where have you been?”
We were a family. He often said to Patti Ann (McDonald, the policeman's wife), “It's the four of us.” There were good days and bad days. We disagreed on some things; we were disappointed with each other at times. But he would always end his phone call by saying, “I love you.”
I'm going to miss that.
I asked him Saturday morning [three days before terrorist attack] to come say Mass Sunday evening. He said, “I have to look at my book.” When he became fire chaplain 10 years ago, he became more and more important to the men and women of the fire department.
He said, “My responsibility is to these people,” and that's how he died. He called back Saturday night and asked if he could come Sunday afternoon. I said I was busy then. Now I wish I had made all the changes necessary so he could come at that time.
Describe him as a person and a priest.
He was shaped by his life. His mother and father were Irish immigrants who had a small grocery store in downtown Brooklyn. His father became ill in 1936 with mastoiditis, when Mike was three. For the next three years he was in terrible pain and discomfort. Mike grew up never knowing him.
He said, “I never had a father growing up, someone I could play catch with or go for a walk with.” Now everybody calls him Father.
He was a very sensitive man, full of love. We'd give him clothes for his birthday or Christmas and spent a lot of those times together. When he came later, we'd say, “Where's your gift?” It turned out he gave it away to a homeless person. When he came for a meal, Patti Ann would have to pack up the leftovers, and he would go to Penn Station to give it to the homeless.
The Prime Minister of Ireland [Bertie Ahern] called the other day asking if the priest who died was the one who traveled with me to Ireland in 1998, 1999 and 2000 [the McDonalds made three trips to Ireland to promote reconciliation]. We got calls from my mother's people over there, and they said there were reports of his death on television.
Friends in Belfast called, saying they did a big story on Ulster television of him as a priest, a living example of being Christ for everyone he came in contact with. He was a warm, sensitive, loving, weak human being like all of us.
But he had many strengths and talents.
He could give you a homily in 10 minutes or less that took others 20 or more. He was a patriotic American. Often, the closing hymn for Mass in our home was God Bless America. If we had Irish visitors in our kitchen, he'd be there, tapping his feet, humming a tune.
He was a recovering alcoholic, and he embraced the AA code of living, going to meetings, telling your story. Wherever we went together — Belfast, Lourdes — he found a meeting. He helped some of my family members get over their drug addictions, and now they're doing very well in their lives. When my cousin Michael died of AIDS, Father Mike was there in his last moments, wiping his brow.
What was your condition, both physical and emotional? In what ways did you require help, and in what ways did he help you?
First and foremost, he was a priest in love with Jesus. He would bring Jesus into every gathering or home he was called to. Where there was Father Mike, Jesus was there. He brought [Christ's] message of love and forgiveness.
People know me from my act of forgiveness [of the man who shot him]. John Cardinal O'Connor and Father Mike were the two that helped me most understand the message of forgiveness. When I was called to forgive, it was their message and homilies that helped me understand, to love my fellow human being. He would pray with me. He spent many hours next to my bed.
Last night at his wake, his closest friend, Father Paddy Fitzgerald, said there were four prayers that meant the most to him — The Lord's Prayer, the Hail Mary, the Glory Be and the Prayer of St. Francis.
When I was struggling in my marriage or in my life, trying to choose between following Christ or sinning against God, Father Mike, either in my home or in my van, was doing what a priest did best, to bring Christ into my life.
Patti Ann said yesterday, “I'm scared to be in a world without Father Mike.”
At a human level, I'm very concerned myself. It's very difficult to think of going on without him, but he's left us with a strong faith that was not as strong before. It's been strengthened by our relationship.
Can we say he was your friend and spiritual director?
He was. We used to talk almost every night. Lately he was going so much — 19 hours a day he was out with his firefighters — but we would always talk between 11 and 1 at night and share what happened that day. He was in Prague for a priest's ordination in June. He went into the cathedral where the statue of the Infant is and called me when he came out.
A lot of priests said [at the wake], “Father Mike was my best friend.” And there were funny stories about how he complained about a cook at St. Francis and said he couldn't get a good meal. He and my son Conor were very close. He was like a father figure to him. Whether we were on the streets of Belfast or New York, they loved to muck it up, poke each other in the ribs and put each other in a headlock. He had a great sense of humor.
You became a high profile figure in New York. Did he help you as a way of attaining publicity for himself?
Father Mike couldn't care less. If somebody was pushing to the front, Father Mike would drop back. That's not the way he thought of our life together.
We went to Lourdes twice. He helped me get into the chair and went into the bath with me and lowered me into the water. He wanted to serve God and be a living example of Christ Jesus to others, not being with me to receive attention. No way, that's not Father Mike.
When my cousin died, it was 3:30 in the morning, and there were no cameras there. Last night there were members of the AIDS ministry he had run before becoming fire chaplain. There were no cameras there then.
His greatest enjoyment was the Eucharist, was Christ; then came us. That's what kept him going. Conor was saying, “Why did this happen? How did this happen?” He and I have watched Saving Private Ryan a couple of times. On the beaches of Omaha, there was a quick scene of a Catholic priest giving the last rites. I said, “Conor, sure enough, that's how he died.”
What motivated Father Mychal to do things like being on the scene of the World Trade Center disaster?
When TWA800 crashed, he said, “I've gotta go.” He knows danger full well. Many times, he's responded to fires where firefighters died. He was the most beloved and wanted haplain on the department. Several years ago, on his 65th birthday, someone said that when he was a little boy, he wanted to be firefighter.
Are you aware of others he's helped?
At 4:30 this morning, my phone rang, and it was a retired but injured member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary from Belfast, Hazel McCready.
She had been paralyzed by a terrorist attack back in the '70s or '80s. She'd helped us the times we were in Northern Ireland with transportation with her contacts in the Constabulary. But she wasn't buying in to this “Christ” message. She was moved over the last several years to embrace Christ's message of forgiveness because of her meeting with Father Mike.
But he could keep religion light. His mother had a saying, “Too much religion is no good for anybody.” Religion is important, but he could make you laugh in the most difficult situations. He realized there was a time to laugh and a time to pray.
[If he survived], he'd be there 20 hours a day until the last piece of emergency equipment was pulled out, making 100,000 new friends. He had limitless love, unconditional love. There's very little of that sometimes. He'd be there praying with people, pulling them through the darkest moments. But he's there with them anyway. I'm sure God is using Father Mike to help them along and give them an extra boost of energy.
John Burger writes from New York.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Burger ----- KEYWORD: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Life Notes DATE: 09/23/2002 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: September 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:Cardinal Confronts Abortion
LIFESITE DAILY NEWS, Sept. 5 — A cardinal in Peru has instructed pastors to withhold communion from public figures who continue to publicly support abortion after being warned.
In a document titled “Moral and Legal Dimensions of Abortion,” Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani of Lima said he wanted to set forth “a pastoral and sacramental response to the increasing culture of death, as well as consistent criteria to deal with this grave moral problem.”
The cardinal reminded pastors that they must first warn anyone in private before denying them communion in public. He also asked pastors to build a culture of life by educating people, praying for legislators and assisting women in crisis pregnancies.
The Goodbye to Dating
A growing movement is “rejecting the dominant culture's approach to dating and romance.” They see the typical succession of intimate but ultimately broken relationships before marriage as needless and damaging.
The report said that such young people are turning to various traditional alternatives, like chaperoned time together and betrothal.
The report told the story of Joshua Goforth and Noelle Wheeler who kissed for the fist time at their wedding in June. Another young woman, after her betrothal, said, “I can begin to emotionally connect because it's safe. You're not going to leave in six months and break my heart.”
Bishops: Vote Pro-Life
LIFESITE DAILY NEWS, Sept. 10 — Mexican Bishops Felipe Arizmendi, Jose Luis Chavez and Rogelio Cabrera issued a statement Sept. 7 telling Catholics not to vote for pro-abortion politicians in October elections in the state of Chiapas.
“You should not vote for someone who leads an immoral life, for someone who is corrupt, who defends abortion or who makes promises but doesn't keep them,” the bishops said.
At the same time, the bishops warned, “failing to vote because of laziness and irresponsibility” is “allowing yourself to be manipulated.”
Abortion-Breast Cancer Suit
DIOCESE OF FARGO, N.D., Sept. 7 — A lawsuit against a Fargo abortion facility for false advertising was set to begin Sept. 11, announced the Catholic diocese. The lawsuit maintains that a brochure handed out by the Red River Women's Clinic falsely claimed “there is no evidence linking abortion and breast cancer.” The brochure also asserted that abortion is 10 times safer than childbirth.
The lawsuit seeks to prevent the abortion facility from continuing to make such false statements. It also seeks to require the facility to inform women that a first-term pregnancy before age 30 tends to reduce the risk of breast cancer, while abortion at any age increases the risk.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Why New Yorkers Turned to the Catholic Church DATE: 9/30/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 30 - October 6, 2001 ----- BODY:NEW YORK—Ed Koch felt like his world was literally crumbling down, as the former three-term mayor watched his city's two tallest buildings fall.
People in his law firm, watching the horror on TV, were screaming “Oh my God” throughout the morning. So it struck him: Koch needed God, right away, and he knew where to find him: at St. Patrick's Cathedral—along with 4,000 others who sought solace and spiritual refuge there within hours of the attacks.
Koch, who's Jewish, said the Catholic faith has long served him well in times of trouble.
He said it makes sense that hordes of Catholics, non-Catholics and non-Christians are turning to the Catholic Church in the wake of the worst terrorist attack in history. “Unlike a lot of other religions, Catholicism is not a salad bar,” Koch told the Register. “It's very clear what Catholicism means and what it is about. You either are, or you are not, a practicing Catholic. Those who are not Catholic see this, and they admire it. That's one reason people turn to the Catholic Church at a time like this.
Koch said leadership in the form of carefully-appointed cardinals and other archbishops also leads people to seek the Catholic Church in times of trouble. He explained that good leaders make the Church familiar to people of all faiths. In New York, he said, there has been little doubt about it for decades: The Catholic Church is the foundation for healing in times of trouble.
“In New York, we have always had pre-eminent occupiers in the office of cardinal,” Koch said. “Catholic leaders receive respect because they speak out, and they speak the truth, and this is highly regarded by the public. The Catholic Church also does more social service than any other organization, so in times of crisis, people are accustomed to the Church being there for them. When I had an AIDS crisis in New York, there was nobody I could turn to other than Cardinal O'Connor, Mother Teresa and the Catholic Church.”
Rapid Response
Within hours of the attacks, Catholics all over the world began organizing impromptu prayer and rosary sessions. Morning Masses, once attended mostly by a spattering of retirees, were reported packed.
“People have been turning to the Christian faith in general, in the wake of this, but people are turning in droves to the Catholic Church in particular,” said Father William Byrne, pastor of the Catholic Student Center at the University of Maryland. “I think that's because nonchurched individuals are more likely to turn to the Catholic Church because we're so visible. You can tell who a Catholic priest is by the way he dresses. We have very consistent teachings and are very clear on what we believe. To the unchurched, it fits their idea of what a church should be. It's what they need at a time like this.”
Father Byrne lost a close friend—37-year-old Michael Lunden—who was working as a bond trader on the 105th floor of the North Tower. But he said he hasn't had time to think much about the attacks or let the death of his friend sink in. He said it's because so many Catholics, non-Catholics and non-Christians are coming to him for help. At regular Masses, he has seen a sustained increase in attendance since the attacks of between 25% and 30%.
Father Byrne said other times of crisis have led to conversions and increased attendance at prayer services and Mass. But this, he said, is different because the numbers are much greater and the people are coming back. He said the crisis has softened some of the most defiant nonbelievers like no other event he has seen.
Koch makes a similar observation and said it reminds him of World War II, which he served in amid heavy combat.
“I was there and I saw it,” Koch said. “There were no atheists in foxholes.”
Wayne Laugesen writes from Boulder, Colorado.
One Secularist Says She's Spooked
Even some avowed, hard-line, headline-grabbing atheists have toned down their rhetoric in the wake of Sept. 11.
Carla Selby, former president of the wealthy and prominent American Civil Liberties Union chapter in Boulder, Colo., made national news on several occasions in the 1990s for her challenges to public religious expressions. She succeeded in getting crosses removed from fatal car crash sites in Colorado, and caused the removal of angel ornaments placed on pine trees in city-owned forests at Christmastime. Yet in responding to questions about public displays of faith in the wake of Sept. 11—even those involving the president and members of Congress ó Selby speaks of the need for tolerance.
“As a civil libertarian I have concerns about it, of course,” Selby said. “But as a human being I understand it. There are religious people living in this world, and they need God as an answer. At a time like this, I can certainly understand why religion would be in heavy demand.” Although she isn't formally challenging any faith activities inspired by the attacks, Selby said she's concerned that the enhanced role of religion will trouble her cause.
“All of this is going to make it much more difficult for civil libertarians to keep prayer out of schools and out of other public institutions,” Selby said. “Religion is popular now. It's almost as if something so horrible has happened that people have decided they don't care about” modern notions of the separation of church and state.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Wayne Laugesen ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: John Paul's Plea: Stop the Violence DATE: 9/30/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 30 - October 6, 2001 ----- BODY:ASTANA, Kazakhstan—Pope John Paul II Sept. 23 appealed to Christians and Muslims to work together for peace in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the United States blamed on Islamic fundamentalists. He warned against using religion “as a reason for conflict.”
The Holy Father made the appeal at the end of an outdoor Mass in the Kazakh capital of Astana, which was attended by thousands of Orthodox and Muslims as well as members of the small Christian minorities in Kazakhstan and neighboring Central Asian countries.
“From this city, from Kazakhstan, a country that is an example of harmony between men and women of different origins and beliefs, I wish to make an earnest call to everyone, Christians and followers of other religions, to work together to build a world without violence, a world that loves life and grows in justice and solidarity,” the Pope said.
Referring to the Sept. 11 suicide attacks on the World Trade Center in NewYork and the Pentagon outside Washington by hijacked airliners, John Paul said, “We must not let what has happened lead to a deepening of divisions. Religion must never be used as a reason for conflict.
“From this place, I invite both Christians and Muslims to raise an intense prayer to the one, almighty God whose children we all are, that the supreme good of peace may reign in the world,” he said.
Dismissing fears of a U.S. reprisal raid on alleged terrorist training grounds in Afghanistan, located to the south of Kazakhstan, the Pope flew to Astana Sept. 22 on a six-day trip that also will take him to Armenia in the Caucasus.
John Paul presided over the Mass in Russian, but he delivered his appeal for peace in English in an apparent effort to speak directly to the Western world.
“May people everywhere, strengthened by divine wisdom, work for a civilization of love in which there is no room for hatred, discrimination or violence,” he said. “With all my heart I beg God to keep the world in peace.”
The Pope concelebrated the Mass with scores of bishops and priests from Kazakhstan and Rome. Kazakh President Nursultan Abishevich Nazarbayev and representatives of Grand Mufti Absattar Derbassaliev, leader of Kazakhstan's 8 million Sunni Muslim majority, headed official delegations.
In his homily, John Paul stressed the need for cooperation among members of different religions and those with no religion.
“Respect for each one's rights, even when that person has different personal beliefs, is the foundation of all truly human harmony,” he said.
John Paul recalled the suffering of Kazakhs under 70 years of communism and of the hundreds of thousands of Russians, Poles, Ukrainians and ethnic Germans from Russia's Volga region deported to 11 gulags in Kazakhstan by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.
The Catholic deportees formed the nucleus of the country's 360,000 member Catholic community, led by Bishop Tomasz Peta, who serves as apostolic administrator. Orthodox Christians number 6 million.
“In this celebration we want to pray for Kazakhstan and its inhabitants so that this vast nation with all its ethnic, cultural and religious variety will grow stronger in justice, solidarity and peace,” the Pope said.
“May it progress on the basis in particular of cooperation between Christians and Muslims, committed day by day, side by side in the effort to fulfill God's will,” John Paul said.
The Holy Father met over lunch in the apostolic administrator's residence with four Roman Catholic bishops from Kazakhstan, four from the nearby republics of Kyrgystan, Tagikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan and the apostolic visitor for Eastern Rite Catholics in Central Asia.
Speaking in Russian, he said the experiences of the small Christian communities of Central Asia reminded him of the parable in the Gospel of Matthew “of the leaven which causes the dough to rise.”
“The leaven seems insignificant, but it has the power to transform the whole loaf,” he said.
John Paul urged “fraternal communion” among Roman Catholic priests and dialogue with other Christians, Muslims and non-believers and called for “a courageous missionary impulse” to combat capitalist materialism.
“The long winter of communist domination with its claim to eradicate God from the human heart often reduced the spiritual content of these peoples' cultures,” he said. “For this reason there is a scarcity of ideals which makes people particularly vulnerable to the myths of consumerism and hedonism imported from the West.”
Authentic Islam
On Sept. 24, the Holy Father denounced the “hatred, fanaticism and terrorism'” that led alleged Muslim fundamentalists to attack the United States but said the Roman Catholic Church has nothing but respect for “authentic Islam.”
Addressing representatives of culture, art and science in predominantly Muslim Kazakhstan, the Pope called on all believers to join in “efforts to ensure that God is never made the hostage of human ambitions.”
Led by the Holy Father, the Vatican has sought to differentiate between fanatics acting in the name of Islam and the religion itself.
“Precisely here in this land of encounter and dialogue and before this distinguished audience, I wish to reaffirm the Catholic church's respect for Islam, for authentic Islam: the Islam that prays, that is concerned for those in need,” he said at a meeting in Astana's Palace of Congresses.
“Recalling the errors of the past, including the most recent past, all believers ought to unite their efforts to ensure that God is never made the hostage of human ambitions,” the Pope said. “Hatred, fanaticism and terrorism profane the name of God and disfigure the true image of man.”
The Holy Father described himself as “a humble and convinced witness” to Christ “the redeemer of man and the savior of the world.” But he said he nevertheless feels “full respect for the search which other people of good will are engaged in along different paths.
“I wish to assure you,” he told the Kazakhs, “of the real cooperation and the sincere prayers of the Pope and of the whole Catholic church to the almighty and most high God that Kazakhstan, faithful to its native Eusasian vocation, will continue to be a land of encounter and acceptance in which men and women of the two great continents will be able to live long days of prosperity and peace.”
Will He Be Heard?
“Sometimes, there are little conflicts and fights but it has nothing to do with [Islamic] fundamentalism,” said Marat Sharipov, a Muslim who owns a restaurant in Astana, as he waited for the Mass to start Sunday morning. “More often than not, it has to do with drunkenness.”
Sharipov said that the people of Kazakhstan understand what is at stake if war in Afghanistan ignites a regional conflict pitting Muslim against Christian.
“We know well that a war would burn us all up,” said Sharipov, a dapper man whose composure broke when asked his opinion about the crisis looming over Central Asia.
“I don't understand those Americans. They live over there beyond the ocean. But they will come, stir up a storm and then leave us in a few months like they did in Iraq. They will leave behind refugees, disease. ... We don't need this. We are just getting on our feet.”
Standing a few feet in front of Sharipov, stamping their feet to stay warm in the cold, was a group of Americans, among them Judy McNulty of the U.S.-based CARE International, an aid worker who lives in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. She said the mood in the capital of the former Soviet republic perched on the top of Afghanistan was “pretty tense”—with Westerners ready to evacuate quickly.
Asked about the significance of the Pope's visit to the region, she said, “It might put people more at ease. I just hope his message is strong enough to reach Western leaders, to reach America and Europe.”
Frank Brown reported from Astana, Peggy Polk from Vatican City.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Frank Brown ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Priests for Life Fears Losing Father Pavone To Parish Life DATE: 9/30/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 30 - October 6, 2001 ----- BODY:NEW YORK—Father Frank A. Pavone, a leading figure in the pro-life movement as director of Priests for Life, was reassigned in early September to parish life in a New York sorely in need of priests.
His organization expressed disappointment at the reassignment by Cardinal Edward Egan. Father Pavone is in conversation with the New York archbishop about how he might continue in his position. The cardinal declined to comment on a priest personnel matter.
“We have assignments that need to be filled, and we don't have enough priests to fill them,” said Joseph Zwilling, spokesman for the archdiocese. The cardinal last year reassigned about five priests from administrative roles at St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y., into parishes and asked priests there to take on administrative duties in addition to their teaching assignments.
“This is a continuation of that,” Zwilling said.
Anthony DeStefano, executive director of priests for life, said in a Sept. 10 statement, “We are shocked at what has happened and frankly can't make heads or tails of it. Neither can other pro-life leaders worldwide. I know that Father Frank has committed his entire life to ending the tragedy of abortion.”
Priests for Life was founded in California in 1991 to “train, motivate and encourage priests to effectively advance the Gospel of Life.”
DeStefano said that until a new priest director is named, Father Pavone has transferred the leadership of the organization to him and other close associates “to avoid any wrong impression that Priests for Life would operate without the blessing of the Church.”
He added, “Nothing is going to stop this organization from doing the things that have made us so effective in the past eight years.”
Father Pavone, who became national director in 1993 with the permission of Cardinal John O'Connor, declined to be interviewed. He is reportedly preparing a statement for release at a later date.
Jerry Horn, his spokesman, said he expects that Father Pavone will be meeting with Cardinal Egan before the monthlong World Synod of Bishops, which begins Sept. 30. The cardinal is a papally appointed general relator. “A lot is still hanging in the balance,” said Horn. “Father Frank would like to maintain his place with Priests for Life, in an obedient way.”
Pro-life Resumè
A pro-life activist for over 20 years, Father Pavone was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of New York by Cardinal O'Connor in 1988. In 1997, he was asked by the Vatican to be an official of the Pontifical Council for the Family. Father Pavone has preached and taught against abortion in all 50 states and in many countries around the world.
In 1996, he was invited to address the pro-life caucus of the U.S. House of Representatives. He was also invited by Mother Teresa of Calcutta to address the clergy of India on abortion and the sanctity of human life. In the United States, he has produced many television and radio programs. He has an ongoing “Defending Life” series on cable's Eternal Word Television Network. He also appears on the Odyssey Network and produces regular radio programs for Catholic Family Radio and Vatican Radio. He is quoted regularly in the secular media on life issues.
Under Father Pavone's leadership, Priests for Life grew to an organization of 40,000 members with five full-time priest staff members and 30 full-time lay staff members. Its Staten Island headquarter is named for Cardinal O'Connor, and the organization has U.S. offices in Washington, D.C., California, Minnesota, Michigan and, abroad, in Rome.
Earlier this year, Priests for Life announced a $12 million media campaign that would use television spots and billboards to reach out to women tempted by abortion or suffering from post-abortion syndrome.
But a month later, after meeting with Cardinal William Keeler of Baltimore, chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities, Father Pavone said the organization would coordinate its efforts with an already existing Project Rachel campaign. Then, in June, it sponsored full-page ads in both USA Today and The Wall Street Journal calling for an investigation of the abortion industry.
Disservice?
Helen Westover, a Catholic from middle New York who directs Mid-Hudson STOPP Planned Parenthood, said she was protesting the move as “a terrible disservice to the pro-life movement.”
“Will we allow a leading shepherd of the Church to eviscerate our efforts, without saying, ‘With deepest respect for your office, you are wrong,’” she wrote in a Sept. 14 e-mail encouraging fellow pro-life advocates to protest.
“‘Your responsibility is to preach the truth of the faith,” she continued. “We, your flock, need to hear the truth. We need for our country to hear the truth. You have the office and the obligation to shout from the housetops, ‘Abortion is murder!’ Abortion unchecked and neglected by the clergy is bringing down the judgment of God upon this country.’”
Zwilling told the Register: “Cardinal Egan's position [on abortion] is well-known and forcefully stated on many occasions. I don't believe any defense is needed of his commitment to the cause of life.”
Angela McNaughton, executive director of the Pregnancy Care Center in New Rochelle, N.Y., said that in spite of Father Pavone's insight and ability as a speaker to “touch women” who are tempted by abortion or suffering from its effects, “people in the parishes really do need the presence of priests in their lives.”
Still, she said, “I'd certainly like to see him continue in some capacity” at Priests for Life, such as a limited parish assignment, leaving him time to maintain a national voice.
“As a parish priest, he can help people save their souls,” said McNaughton. “But with a wider forum he can help save many more.”
Joseph Scheidler, executive director of the Pro-Life Action League in Chicago, was more optimistic. “I understand Father Pavone will go back to his assignment and that he and the cardinal will be having a meeting,” he said. “I think things will all be resolved. I'm very optimistic he'll remain head of Priests for Life with the blessings of the cardinal of New York.”
John Burger writes from New York.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Burger ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Big Apple's Big Heart DATE: 9/30/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 30 - October 6, 2001 ----- BODY:It's a long way from County Clare, Ireland, to Manhattan. The distance seemed even greater after Sept. 11.
A few days after the terrorist attacks, Legionary of Christ Father Eamon Kelly, an Irish priest stationed in New York, told Register correspondent Edward Mulholland what it was like to minister to New Yorkers in those first days.
Have people been anxious to talk to a priest after the tragedy?
These last few days, as I walked the familiar but now eerie Manhattan streets, my first question with each person I met is “Have you lost someone?” Very few people were looking for me or wanting to talk. All seemed numbed by shock and sadness. I always had to take the initiative and only in two cases was there strong reluctance, which, of course, I respected.
After hearing some details about their brother or in-law or friend or colleague at work and sharing in their sorrow and helplessness, I tried to sense their religious affiliation and attempt a prayer. A few spoke a prayer from their own heart. Sometimes I concluded offering them a blessing, which was most readily and gratefully received. All were so filled with deep gratitude as we parted.
Is there a sense of doom in New Yorkers?
New York is responding marvelously. On Wednesday night, Sept. 12, when I was finishing up hours at the Bereavement Center on 29th at First Avenue and was speaking with a young German reporter inside the main entrance door—which I was continually opening for police, volunteers, etc.—a wheelchair came in and the quadriplegic man, whose warped and twisted body called for pity, tried to mumble his wish.
After stooping down to him and asking him to repeat his wish four times, I understood that he wanted to give blood. After directing him to the hospital next door, the policemen and reporter were deeply moved when I explained this to them.
This case is symbolic of all the New Yorkers who are giving all they have to help those in need.
I suggested to the reporter that New York now be called the Big Heart, and not just the Big Apple. There is an extraordinary sense of family. We thank you, Lord, for this great gift of love to your people.
But it must be difficult all the same.
An almost unbearable weight of sorrow hangs over many hearts. A 90-year-old father mourns his 60-year-old son; a terminally ill mother mourns her 27-year-old firefighter son while a surviving uncle hastens to make the funeral arrangements. Brothers and sisters are missing. One parish has lost 42 people, many of whom are young parents. Thirty parents are missing from one school.
There is incredible hurt; but more amazingly, among those with whom I have spoken, a mature forgiveness and lack of will to revenge.
Justice must be served, but the people whom I met were not vengeful. I have not heard a single direct victim speak in terms of revenge. Rarely have I seen such an outburst of love of country combined with such capacity to absorb an unspeakable blow. Anger may surface more as time goes on.
In addition to love of country, are more people returning to a love of religion?
Some people were a little hostile to prayer. Most were deeply grateful for having been approached and expressed that in a prolonged and firm handshake and teary eyes. I have prayed with Catholics, Orthodox, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, born-again Christian, Jews, Muslims and even vague believers. ... People spoke moving prayers for God's blessings and none for revenge. Let's pray that universal brotherhood will be advanced and not further damaged in the aftermath.
The prospect that many bodies will not be found will also deprive many of the healing that comes from saying goodbye. Let's pray for them that they will find peace in other ways.
What is the attitude you find among survivors?
A young businessman, whom I know, ran his companies from the 79th and on some lower floors of the World Trade Center. Three of his brothers work with him. The plane hit very close to them, but all the company employees were outside of the building that morning. He plans a Mass of Thanksgiving.
There are those who feel “guilty”; for example, a brother and sister from out of town who talked their brother into taking a job in the towers a month ago; managers who were not there and who might have ordered their staff out immediately as some did. They, too, need our prayers so they may attain peace of heart for results far from their intent and control.
Many feel the call to come closer to God, to take all we have less for granted, to “renew” their connection with God and the Church, to come back to the sacraments, Sunday Mass, reconciliation after many years away.
What should Catholics be praying for?
We pray especially for all those responsible for the security of all the innocent people on this earth. Lord, guide our leaders in their decisions, in response to this tragedy, to do justice, provide for our safety and impede recurrence. We pray that the solemn bonds of trust, which sustain a free society, will never again be so brutally abused. We ask Our Lord: Give us your strength to transform our lives and the whole world.
As someone who came to live here two years ago, and having been exposed in various countries to the attitudes people often have toward Americans or within the United States toward New Yorkers, I find these days the American people and New Yorkers, in particular, have shone in a greatness which I feel bound to share with all peoples I meet. May God continue to bless America.
Edward Mulholland writes from Carmel, New York.
----- EXCERPT: Father Eamon Kelly ----- EXTENDED BODY: Edward Mulholland ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Gerardine Frawley: Remembering a Great Catholic Publisher DATE: 9/30/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 30 - October 6, 2001 ----- BODY:DENVER—Gerry Frawley died Sept. 6 after a long illness. When I mentioned this to my wife Suann the next day, she was quiet for a few moments and then simply said: “I wish you hadn't told me that. Now I'm going to be sad.” Yes, I thought: Sadness at the passing of a great lady is an appropriate thing. For Gerry will be remembered withaffection and respect by more people than she ever would have imagined.
Through the newspapers she published for more than two decades, Gerardine Ann Frawley encouraged, taught, formed, informed and motivated literally hundreds of thousands of Catholics each year—not just in the United States, but abroad as well—at a pivotal moment in the postconciliar Church. Week in and week out for most of the 1980s, during the heart of the Wojtyla pontificate, the National Catholic Register and Catholic Twin Circle offered some of the best content available anywhere in the American Catholic press, with regular correspondents in Rome, Paris, Manila, Lima, Warsaw and Jerusalem, and stringers and contributors from around North America.
Gerry not only made this possible with her financial resources, she fostered it with her personal zeal.
She was an intelligent woman with shrewd instincts about people, but I doubt she ever saw herself as an intellectual or even aspired to be one. Gerry had a clear, simple faith that rested on two pillars: love for the Church and loyalty to Peter. Whatever built up these two pillars was good, whatever didn't, wasn't.
She also believed in the common sense of the average Catholic, and she had confidence that good information, attractively delivered, would empower that common sense. She had a particular passion for the issues of daily life: marriage, family, education, prayer. She understood the broad strokes of editorial and business strategy, but her main role in our weekly editorial team meetings—which she attended frequently—was listening, encouraging, and keeping the papers focused on their larger evangelical mission.
Gerry was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, and like many another naturalized American she had a patriotic ardor that led her and her husband, entrepreneur Patrick Frawley, into some odd political alliances. Critics on the left delighted in branding them “right wing” and seeing dark Church conspiracies in their Knights of Malta membership.
But in working for Gerry for 15 years, I had exactly the opposite experience. Her political convictions were almost as strong as her religious ones, but she believed above all in telling the truth and serving the truth. She respected intelligence and competence in the people she hired, she listened carefully to differing points of view, she was patient with honest mistakes, and she was absolutely determined to publish papers that were excellent by any standard.
Greatness in a publisher can be measured by two things: the quality of what she publishes, and the quality of the people she gathers around her and through whom she works. Katherine Graham was such a woman, and the Washington Post is her legacy. In her own way, in the Catholic press, G e r a r d i n e Frawley accomplished the same.
Gerry presided over an environment where an entire generation of Catholic writers and editors honed their talent and cut their professional teeth—George Weigel, Greg Burke, Joan Frawley Desmond, Greg Erlandson, Bill McGurn, Alejandro Bermudez, Mary Meehan, Joop Koopman, Phil Lawler, Bob Moynihan and dozens of others.
Just as importantly, despite her wealth and social standing, she never lost the “human touch” with the people she knew, including the staff who worked for her. When she asked about the children of an employee, which was often, she really wanted to know. And while I could never quite bring myself to call her “Gerry” until I'd left the papers—she was always my publisher and therefore “Mrs. Frawley”; anything less formal seemed, in my mind, inconceivable—she showed a warmth and kindness to my family and myself which we've never forgotten.
Gerry always struck me as the kind of person who is made really human by the unpublicized suffering in her life: the struggle with her husband's alcoholism and recovery, the birth of a handicapped daughter, the loss of a child, the daily joys and sorrows of being a wife and mother that money and social position don't begin to mitigate.
And through it all, she loved Jesus Christ and the Church—not as insurance for the afterlife, but sincerely and simply because she believed. This is how I'll remember her: not for her wealth, not for her social standing, not for her generosity to dozens of charities, not even as a good boss.
I'll remember her because she used whatever she had to do something good for the Lord—and the National Catholic Register, now nearing 75 years in print, testifies to her service.
Gerry probably didn't think of herself as a missionary or an apostle. But in her own way, she was, and a lot of people who don't even know her name have their faith because of it. That's a worthwhile life; a life that makes a difference. Nobody can do any better.
Francis X. Maier is chancellor of the Archdiocese of Denver and special assistant to Archbishop
Charles Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.
He served as editor of the Register, 1979-93, and editor in chief of Twin Circle Publishing, 1991-93.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Francis X. Maier ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 9/30/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 30 - October 6, 2001 ----- BODY:Unexpected Benefits of Natural Family Planning
Some couples essentially use natural family planning as a means of contraception, and may augment it with condoms. But others turned to “fertility awareness methods” for religious reasons, or as a means of understanding their bodies better.
The periods of abstinence kept the relationship “fresh,” one woman said. Another, who said that giving up the birth control pill when she became Catholic was “the toughest decision I've ever made in my life,” said natural family planning helped her and her husband to see her fertility as a gift, rather than a nuisance.
As well, fertility awareness can also help couples discover a pregnancy or a fertility problem needing medical attention.
Sermons Grapple With Terror Attacks
Some spoke of the justice that governments must exact on the attackers. Others, like Father Vladimir Alexeev of Brooklyn's Holy Trinity Orthodox Church, spoke of the “victory of love” represented by the decisions of many passengers on the hijacked planes to call their loved ones. Manhattan's Sheik Dr. Mohammad Gemeaha said, “Peace is one of the most noble teachings of Islam.”
Christians and Jews Return to Contemplation
Increasingly, Christians are studying the works of the early Church's mystics and saying the daily office of prayers. One Catholic, who studied Zen meditation but now practices contemplative Catholic prayer, pointed out the biggest difference between Zen meditation and Christian meditation: Buddhism has no personal God, whereas Christian meditation aims “to recognize God's presence and invite it to become active in you.”
Christian Web Site Ministers to Porn Users
KNIGHT—RIDDER, Sept. 8—The Minneapolis-based Love Lines Crisis Center offers a telephone line and a Web site with services that seem triple-X rated, the wire service reported.
But callers and visitors to the site don't get the steamy chat they expected. Instead, a man or a woman describes how unfulfilled he or she felt by compulsive sexual behavior. The message ends, “Jesus Christ delivered me.” Callers are directed to call Love Lines' main number for counseling.
The Web site, www.lovelines.org/sex, also includes a list of 12 signs of sexual addiction.
In July, the site got 1,368 hits, and many callers and visitors sought out further counseling.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: In Terror's Aftermath, Media Finds Religion DATE: 9/30/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 30 - October 6, 2001 ----- BODY:NEW YORK—An atheist stood outside the church doors Sept. 13, calling others to come in.
Steven Chang called out to passersby who stole a glance at the Transfiguration Catholic Church on Mott Street, New York, “You can come inside. You can pray here if you want.”
A reporter from New York's Newsday noted the scene, one of many moments that showed that even non-religious Americans were seeking out houses of worship in the aftermath of the deadly attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
People magazine noted that in some areas, like Chicago's central city, “houses of worship were among the few buildings remaining open.”
Those buildings were packed—churches that ordinarily saw about 150 worshipers now fit over 700. Memorial services and interfaith vigils marked every town's mourning.
Some commentators in 1999 suggested that reporters had been unprepared for the outpouring of religious faith, especially in teenagers, after the shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado.
Since then, stories on Christian revivals and religious upsurges in general have filled newspapers and magazines. A July Newsweek cover featured Christian rock music.
But these stories tended to treat religion as a “new trend,” rather than an integral part of the American national fabric. As smoke that smelled like burning cement settled over Manhattan and military planes roared above the nation's capital, media outlets covered religion as less of a trend than a necessity.
Religions Come Together
The Washington Post noted that the Jewish High Holy Days were less than a week away when the hijackers struck.
The period of repentance and prayer began with Rosh Hashanah, Sept. 17. One Washington-area rabbi said that he intended to abandon his planned readings for the day, choosing instead the first verses of the Book of Lamentations: “Lonely sits the city once great with people. She that was great among nations is become like a widow.”
The Jewish tradition also has a period called Onanut, the period between death and burial. People reported that Rabbi Jeffrey Marx of Santa Monica, Calif., told an inter-faith service, “For the next few weeks, we are all in a state of Onanut.” Then Jews, Christians, and Muslims prayed together: “I believe in the sun, when it is not shining. I believe in love, when not feeling it. I believe in God when God is silent.”
After the attacks, all services became inter-faith. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Jordan Cherrick, a Jew, “wanted to pray with others.” So Cherrick sought out the St. Louis Abbey. As the monks prayed, Cherrick sang the 129th Psalm in Hebrew.
The Post-Dispatch also found that Lambert Airport had become an unofficial house of worship, as passengers whose flights made emergency landings flocked to the airport's chapel.
Heading for the chapel was “a given,” passenger Carol Joyce, of Stony Brook, N.Y., told the Post-Dispatch. “As soon as they announced Mass, that was where we were going.” The paper noted that many of those in attendance were unfamiliar with the Mass, and had come to the chapel because it felt like the right thing to do.
After an attack that cost more lives than Pearl Harbor, in which unknown assailants sent thousands of civilians to their deaths with no warning, media outlets noted that Americans sought a spiritual understanding of what had happened and how they should respond.
Both New York's Newsday and the Montreal Gazette focused on the Christian call to forgive one's enemies. At St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City, the Gazette found Catholics struggling with the biblical teachings.
“I keep telling myself to forgive,” one man told the Gazette. “But it is hard.” One couple in the process of divorcing had come to pray for forgiveness for their own sins. When asked about the hijackers, the husband responded, “My sense is it is always important to forgive, but it is up to others to ask for forgiveness. If they don't want it, I can't forgive them.”
The Washington Post asked Rev. Lloyd John Ogilvie, the chaplain of the Senate, for his views. Rev. Ogilvie, a Presbyterian, replied, “I preach and teach and counsel forgiveness in personal relationships. There are times, however ... when there must be a confrontation of force to bring justice.” He cited World War II as an example.
Joining Together
The disaster was also a spur for press reflections on the communal nature of religion—the way even the most intensely personal worship unites the worshiper to a community and a tradition. An editorial in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette disputed the view that religion is a purely solitary concern: “Our first instinct as we wait for reassurance that our friends are safe is to find other people who are also waiting. And then, when we hear the worst, we will want to mourn with others.”
The Post-Gazette added that after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 A.D., Jews banded together in groups to study Scripture. “To this day, Jewish scriptural study is done in pairs,” the editorial noted, while Jewish prayer is done in groups of at least 10.
For everyone, the Post-Gazette wrote, religion reminds us “that our grief is shared by a community: not just across the world today, but across time.”
Eve Tushnet writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 9/30/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 30 - October 6, 2001 ----- BODY:New Ambassador Comforts Americans After Attacks
Nicholson appeared at St. Susanna's, the church frequented by American Catholics in Rome, and gave a “reflection” at the end of Mass. He noted that the church, which ordinarily draws a smattering of expatriate worshipers, was so full that the priests nearly ran out of hosts when giving Communion.
Many Italians had come to show support, and sang “God Bless America.” Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who was in Rome to address a legal conference, also attended.
Kazakhstan: ‘Unprecedented’ Security for Pope
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, Sept. 17—Kazakh police vowed to tighten security to “unprecedented” levels for the visit of Pope John Paul II, the wire service reported.
The attacks on the United States caused the former Soviet republic, which is near Afghanistan, to bring in about 900 police officers from neighboring regions, for a total of 2,400 officers.
But the capital, Astana, will not be closed, and all who want to attend Mass celebrated by the Pope will be able to do so, officials said.
Airline Terrorists Plotted Against Pope
GEOSTRATEGY, Sept. 25—Decoded messages on hard drives kept by a captured terrorist revealed a plot against Pope John Paul II's life, the Internet news agency reported.
In 1995, Ramsi Youssef was captured in the Philippines. His computer hard drives included plans for many terrorist attacks using hijacked aircraft. According to an intelligence source, the first plan was to assassinate the Pope during a scheduled visit to the Philippines.
Other material on the hard drives helped convict the terrorists who bombed the World Trade Center in 1993. Youssef has been linked to Osama Bin Laden's terrorist group.
Vatican Criticizes Sept. 11 Soccer Matches
L'OSSERVATORE ROMANO, Sept. 12—The Vatican newspaper criticized European soccer teams for playing on the day of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on America.
The Vatican newspaper, criticized UEFA for allowing eight Champions League games to be played, saying: “As the whole world found itself exposed to the terrorist threat and as the American people plunged into mourning, it was decided—in an inopportune way, to say the least—to play the scheduled games.”
Eight Champions League and more than 40 UEFA Cup matches were scheduled to be played on Sept. 12 and Sept. 13.
European soccer's governing body postponed all its matches for the rest of the week of the attacks “out of a mark of respect” for the victims in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Synod Priority: How Bishops Can Encourage Vocations DATE: 9/30/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 30 - October 6, 2001 ----- BODY:The month-long Synod of Bishops beginning Sept. 30 in the Vatican is examining a long list of items as it focuses upon the role of the bishop in the contemporary Church. It is too soon to tell what priorities will emerge, but if recent events in the United States are any indication, the fostering of priestly vocations will likely emerge as a central and indispensable task for every diocesan bishop.
“The scarcity of vocations in a particular Church ... requires a certain courage in recruiting priests,” states the working document of the Synod. “Today, the vocation to priesthood needs again to be promoted with confidence.”
In fact, the centrality of promoting priestly vocations in the ministry of the bishop is a theme that is heard with increasing frequency and urgency throughout the American episcopate.
“No priesthood, no Eucharist! No Eucharist, no Church!” stated Archbishop Justin Rigali of St. Louis in addressing a conference of newly-appointed bishops last July in Rome. Archbishop Rigali spoke in great detail about creating a “pro-vocation” diocese, stressing the need for personal contact between the bishop and prospective seminarians.
Archbishop Rigali told the new bishops of his efforts to gather names of potential seminarians through his vocations office. Given 100 names, he invited all to a retreat at the seminary. Twenty-three accepted, and he spoke to them four times over the course of a weekend, in addition to an individual meeting with each one. Fifteen applied to enter the seminary, and eleven were accepted.
“All the young men told me that it was very important for them to see the personal interest of the bishop in their lives,” said the archbishop. “The value of being invited to consider a vocation to the priest-hood cannot be over-estimated.”
Archbishop Rigali followed up on that insight by assigning to his new auxiliary, Bishop Timothy Dolan, former Rector of the North American College in Rome, a special responsibility for fostering priestly vocations.
“The day of my priestly ordination was the happiest day of my life,” Bishop Dolan said at his own episcopal ordination last August, an example of new confidence amongst American bishops in proposing the priestly life. The recent success of Bishop Dolan's frank and unapologetic book on the formation of priests, Priests for the Third Millennium, is another sign of a more muscular approach to priestly vocations and the distinctive role of the priest in the Church.
“While dreading that whole sense of the watering-down of priestly identity, an apologizing for the unique call of holy orders, a sense of nervousness that recent years have generated in priests who heard so much about the so-called ‘identity crisis,’ we equally dread the other extreme: the arrogant insistence on prestige and power that history has called clericalism. Clericalism is a deplorable vice in the Church,” wrote Bishop Dolan, indicating that courage and confidence ought not to be confused with clerical privilege.
If you want to pick a highlight of this re-awakening in episcopal confidence about the ordained ministry, a good candidate would be Aug. 6, 2001, in Sleepy Eye, Minn. There, at his installation for the Diocese of New Ulm, Bishop John Nienstadt raised more than a few eyebrows with his declaration that priestly and religious vocations were his “number one priority.”
“The New Evangelization will require the dedicated involvement of lay ministries, but that vocation cannot be gained at the expense of ordained ministers,” said Bishop Nienstadt. “The hierarchy is a constitutive element of the Church established by Jesus Christ and that means without it we do not measure up to what Jesus intended. I am convinced that Jesus is calling young men, and older men as well, to act in his priestly person. My brothers and sisters, we must believe this if we are to be faithful to Christ.”
Calling upon his new diocese to begin a “full-court press” (the Detroit native may have to adopt hockey instead of basketball metaphors now that he has moved west to Minnesota), Bishop Nienstadt was very specific in what that meant.
“Let us remember that vocations come from God, not from us. Jesus gives the grace, only he sustains the call,” he said. “Therefore, I ask that for the next year every meeting on a parish or diocesan level begin with prayers for priestly, religious, diaconal and missionary vocations. I ask every family for the next year to pray for vocations whenever they sit down to bless their food or kneel down to give thanks for their abundance. I ask that for the next year every prayer of the faithful whether at a Eucharistic Celebration or a Scripture service likewise include such a petition for vocations.
“Secondly, our fervent prayer must be accompanied with fasting,” he continued. “Therefore, I ask that for the next year abstinence from meat on Fridays be undertaken specifically for vocations. At first, this may strike you as a simplistic request, but I can assure you that I have experienced in my own life how acceptable such fasting is to God when it is offered with a devoted heart. So that's my heartfelt request of every Catholic in this diocese—prayer and fasting for priestly, religious, diaconal and missionary vocations.”
The link between episcopal leadership and priestly vocations has been noticed outside the Church. The Economist, one of the world's leading international English-language newsmagazines, wrote over the summer about “too few heeding the call” in the United States. The secular magazine did not point the finger though at theological or sociological solutions; perhaps unsurprisingly it adopted a business model. Clarity of mission and good old-fashioned recruiting were cited as reasons that Omaha and Atlanta, to cite the examples they used, have far more vocations than dioceses 10 times their size.
In Omaha, reported The Economist, Archbishop Elden Curtiss spends one tenth of his diocesan budget on recruiting priests, and observes flatly, “the number of vocations a diocese will receive is inversely linked to how liberal [in Catholic doctrine] that diocese has become.”
There are many demands on a bishop's time and energy—the lengthy list of concerns that dominate the current Synod's almost limitless agenda is testament to that. Whether from amongst those concerns the fostering of vocations will emerge as a “number one priority” remains to be seen.
Plain speech on vocations is relatively new in the United States. But it may mark an approach that will be adopted by more and more bishops as they re-evaluate their vocations programs. That logic—and a good dose of courage and confidence—may in fact be a defining mark of a new generation of bishops.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Raymond De Souza ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Deliverance from Terror DATE: 9/30/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 30 - October 6, 2001 ----- BODY:It is a dark night. Voracious wild animals are sensed all around. The psalmist is awaiting the break of dawn, so that light can dispel the darkness and his fears.
This is the background of Psalm 57, which we are reflecting on today. It is a night song which prepares the psalmist for the eagerly awaited light of daybreak, so he can praise the Lord with joy (verses 9-12). The psalm moves from dramatic lament addressed to God to serene hope and joyful thanksgiving expressed in words that will ring out once again in another psalm (Psalm 108:2-6).
In reality, we are witnessing the passage from fear to joy, from night to day, from nightmare to serenity, from plea to praise.
This is an experience which is often described in the psalms: “You changed my mourning into dancing; you took off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness. With my whole being I sing endless praise to you. O Lord, my God, forever will I give you thanks” (Psalm 30:12-13).
The First Movement: In the Dark, Trust Amid Fear
There are, therefore, two movements to Psalm 57, on which we are meditating. The first one has to do with the experience of fear at the assault of the evil that tries to strike the just one (verses 2-7).
At the center of this scene are lions in attack position. In no time, this picture turns into a symbol of war, as depicted by spears, arrows and swords. The psalmist feels assailed by a kind of death squad. He is surrounded by a band of hunters who set traps and dig pits to capture their prey.
But this atmosphere of tension is suddenly dispelled. Actually, at the beginning of the psalm appears the protective symbol of the divine wings (verse 2). Specifically, this refers to the Ark of the Covenant with its winged cherubim—that is, God's presence among the faithful in the holy Temple of Zion.
The psalmist insistently asks God to send his messengers from heaven, and gives them symbolic names: “Faithfulness” and “Grace” (verse 4), qualities characterizing the saving love of God. So, although he shudders at the fearsome roaring of the wild beasts and the treachery of his persecutors, the faithful one remains inwardly serene and trusting, like Daniel in the lions' den (see Daniel 6:17-25).
The Lord's presence is not slow to show its effectiveness through the adversaries' punishment of themselves: they tumble into the pit they had dug for the just one (verse 7).
This confidence in divine justice, vividly expressed throughout the psalter, wards off discouragement and surrender to the oppression of evil. Sooner or later, God takes the side of his faithful, upsetting the tactics of the impious and making them stumble over their own treacherous plans.
The Second Movement: At Dawn, Joyful Thanks
And so we come to the second movement of the psalm: thanksgiving (verses 8-12). Here is a passage that shines with vividness and beauty: “My heart is steadfast, God, my heart is steadfast! I will sing and chant praise! Awake, my soul! Awake, lyre and harp! I will wake the dawn!” (verses 7-8).
The darkness has now been dispelled. The psalmist's song has made the dawn of salvation approach.
In applying this image to himself, the psalmist may be reflecting—in the language of biblical spirituality, which is rigorously monotheistic—the practice of Egyptian and Phoenician priests who were commissioned to “awake the dawn”: that is, to bring about the reappearance of the sun, which they viewed as a beneficent deity.
He is also alluding to the custom of hanging and covering musical instruments during times of mourning and trial (see Psalm 137:2), and then “reawakening” them to a festive sound in times of liberation and joy.
This liturgy, then, makes hope blossom: it turns to God, asking him to draw near his people again and to hear their plea. In the psalms, dawn is often the moment when God answers, after a night of prayer.
So, the psalm ends with a song of praise to the Lord, who acts with his two great saving attributes; these have already appeared under different names in the first part of the plea (verse 11). Now, described almost as persons, divine Goodness and Faithfulness come on the scene. They flood the heavens with their presence and are like a light shining in the darkness of trials and persecutions (verse 11).
The Christian Reading: Easter Joy Conquers Death
For this reason, Psalm 57 has become, in the Christian tradition, a song of awakening to the light and joy of Easter, which shines on the faithful, removing the fear of death and opening up the prospect of heavenly glory.
Gregory of Nyssa discovers in the words of this psalm a kind of typical description of what happens in every human experience that is open to the recognition of God's wisdom. “Indeed, he saved me,” he exclaims, “by shading me under the cloud of the Spirit, and those who trampled on me have been humiliated” (Sui titoli dei Salmi [On the Titles of the Psalms], Rome, 1994, p. 183).
Then, referring to the phrases at the end of the psalm, where it says, “O God, arise above the heavens; may your glory shine on earth!” Gregory concludes: “To the extent that the glory of God is spreading over the earth—increased by the faith of those who are being saved—the heavenly powers, exulting over our salvation, are raising hymns to God” (ibid., p. 184).
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Register Summary DATE: 9/30/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 30 - October 6, 2001 ----- BODY:A week after massive terrorist attacks in the United States, Pope John Paul II said that believers need not fear the powers of evil and can trust in God's loving protection. “Sooner or later, God takes the side of his faithful, upsetting the tactics of the impious and making them stumble over their own treacherous plans,” he said Sept. 19 during his weekly general audience.
The Pope devoted the session to reflection on Psalm 57, a believer's confident prayer to God for deliverance.
John Paul made no specific reference during the audience to the Sept. 11 attacks, which in previous days he had called “inhuman” and an expression of the “forces of darkness.” But in remarks in English, he told some 12,000 visitors in St. Peter's Square, “I invite you to pray in these days that almighty God will guide the minds and hearts of world leaders so that the ways of justice and peace may prevail.”
(Translation by Zenit and Register)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Appointments & Meetings DATE: 9/30/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 30 - October 6, 2001 ----- BODY:Appointed
Friday, Sept. 21
E Bishop Manuel Camilo Vial Risopatron as bishop of Temuco, Chile, to succeed Bishop Sergio Contreras Navia, who resigned on reaching 75, the age limit. Auxiliary Bishop Jorge Hourton Poisson of Temuco also resigned on reaching 75.
Met With
Saturday, Sept. 15
E Archbishop Antonio Mennini, apostolic nuncio in Bulgaria.
E Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy.
Monday, Sept. 17
E Four members of the bishops' conference of Nicaragua on their ad limina visit, which heads of dioceses make every five years to review their diocese with the Pope and Vatican officials.
E Ronarong Nopakun, ambassador of Thailand, on a farewell visit.
E Cardinal Ignace Moussa I Daoud, prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches.
Tuesday, Sept. 18
E Archbishop Henryk Jozef Nowacki, apostolic nuncio in Slovakia.
E Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, apostolic nuncio in the United States of America.
Wednesday, Sept. 19
E Archbishop George Kocherry, apostolic nuncio in Ghana and Togo.
E Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops.
Thursday, Sept. 20
E Josep Pique, foreign minister of Spain.
E Archbishop Luigi Pezzuto, apostolic nuncio in Tanzania.
E Archbishop Luigi Gatti, apostolic nuncio in Lebanon.
E Four members of the bishps' conference of Nicaragua on of their ad limina visit.
Friday, Sept. 21
E Archbishop Giuseppe De Andrea, apostolic nuncio in Kuwait, Bahrain and Yemen and apostolic delegate in the Arab Peninsula.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: My life for Christ. DATE: 9/30/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 30 - October 6, 2001 ----- BODY:If you are a man of faith and a man of your word, if you are capable of giving yourself totally to a great mission, then find out if this is your call.
Go on a retreat in your area, go on a pilgrimage to Rome, visit our thriving seminary to meet the men who've found what you're looking for.
A spirituality centered on Christ and consecrated to Mary. Loyal to the Holy Father and committed to the New Evangelization. On mission throughout the U.S., Europe and the Americas.
Life is worth giving.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Shared Grief: A World Perspective on America's Tragedy DATE: 9/30/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 30 - October 6, 2001 ----- BODY:NEW YORK—It's more than two weeks since the events in New York City, Washington and Pennsylvania, which brought the world to a standstill and claimed the lives of more than 5,000 people. Nearly everybody knows somebody who lost a life or who has been affected by this terrible act.
I was less than a mile from the World Trade Center complex at 8:48 a.m. on Sept. 11 when the first tower of the World Trade center was struck. Thoughts that an airplane had flown in too low and missed the airport crossed my mind. That hundreds of people were injured or killed was catastrophe enough for me.
But when the second plane appeared, racing fast and furious into World Trade Center Two, I was devastated. This was no accident but a deliberate act of terrorism.
Even as a child, in my village in County Donegal, Ireland, I heard daily of acts of terrorism in Northern Ireland. At 11 years of age, I saw the pictures of two toddlers on the front page of our local paper—their parents had been shot dead as they watched television in their living room. “Sectarian killings” were the words used to describe the killings. (Sectarian means when people are killed solely because of their religious beliefs.)
I called it murder. I called it terrorism. I also heard terrorist groups give so-called “apologies” when they had shot someone mistakenly. They called it “collateral damage.” Throughout my life, I feared crossing the borders into Northern Ireland for fear that I too could become collateral damage.
Later on I spent several years as a correspondent in war-torn Bosnia. Again, I saw the lives of innocent people taken away in the so-called name of religion. Bodies were strewn across the streets of villages that had been bombed. Entire families were wiped out.
People, many children among them, who survived the raids on the villages, were rounded up like cattle and forced into camps. They had little or no food. They also faced the hardships of the severe Bosnian winters.
Zoritsa, a Serb from Sarajevo, lost her husband in a raid on the city. Ivan, a Muslim from Mostar, lost two of his children when shells struck them as they played in the park outside their house. Donna, an Irish woman and Catholic who had married a Croatian, watched and cried helplessly as her husband was taken from their home in the middle of the night. He had been called to fight on the front lines.
It mattered little anymore what religion they were. They had all suffered at the hands of hatred.
But I didn't expect to see that same hatred in the heart of New York City.
When Father Werenfried van Straaten, the founder of Aid to the Church in Need, saw the images of the horrific attack on this city, he said he too was transported back in time—to World War II. “Thousands of innocent people met their death, then as now,” he wrote in a Sept. 18 letter to our staff. “Who can find the words to explain such madness when individuals can go so far in their boundless hatred that their own lives are of no importance any longer, merely in order to spread chaos and destruction?”
It was true in Bosnia. It is true in Northern Ireland. It is even true in Jerusalem, the birthplace of Christianity. And now the reality of such hatred is true in the United States.
But in this moment of crisis, know that people from many nations of the world are united behind you. They understand your suffering. They, too, have lost their loved ones.
You, also, can use this opportunity to unite with your brothers and sisters in the rest of the world who have suffered needlessly and dearly at the hands of terrorists. It doesn't matter who we are or where we live. Today, we stand united in our determined struggle against terrorism and in our compassion for one another.
Already we have seen the heroic acts of our firefighters, our emergency services, and our police force. Don't forget the words of one firefighter who continued to search through the rubble day after day at what has now become known as Ground Zero. “If I can save just one life,” he said, “then it is worth more than the two buildings that collapsed.”
Let us together remember these words when we respond as individuals, as Christians, and in our work. Let us remember that as Christians we seek justice and not revenge. Finally, let us remember the words of the Gospel when Jesus asked us to pray for our enemies and to love those who persecute us.
Indeed this is the time to act and not to be afraid to act. We are one world and we are a suffering people. But as Cardinal Desmond Connell, Archbishop of Dublin, said in the aftermath of this horrific attack, “As we act, let us not become the evil we abhor.”
Geraldine Hemmings is director of communications of Aid to the Church in Need USA.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Geraldine Hemmings ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 9/30/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 30 - October 6, 2001 ----- BODY:South African Bishops Getting Support for Condom Stance
NEWS24, Sept. 18—The South African Catholic Bishops' Conference has received overwhelming support for its pastoral statement upholding the Church's ban on condoms, the South African news agency reported.
The statement, “Message of Hope,” was released at the end of July. The bishops said that the widespread promotion of condoms did not work to prevent AIDS.
The South African bishops based their statement partly on purely practical considerations: A study in the British Medical Journal had found condoms to have a failure rate of 31%. But the bishops also noted that condom promotion led to a breakdown of self-control and to use of another person for one's own pleasure.
The bishops have received many letters on the subject, and have spoken with teenagers about it. The response has been extremely positive.
Neapolitans Dedicate San Gennaro Miracle to U.S.
DEUTSCHE PRESSE-AGENTUR, Sept. 19—A dark red substance that many Neapolitans believe is the blood of the city's patron, San Gennaro (St. Januarius), liquefied on the saint's feast day as it does most years, the wire service reported.
Cardinal Michele Giordano of Naples dedicated the liquefaction, which he proclaimed was a miracle, to the victims of the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States. He told the U.S. consul to Naples, Clyde Bishop, that he would ask St. Januarius to protect “the USA, Italy, and the entire world.”
Leader of Northern Ireland's Moderate Catholics Quits
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Sept. 17—Citing poor health, Nobel Peace Prize winner John Hume announced he was stepping down as leader of the Social Democratic and Labor Party, the wire service reported.
The party, which represents Northern Ireland's moderate Catholics, is the largest Catholic member of the troubled Protestant-Catholic government created by the Good Friday peace accords. Hume led the party since 1979, but drew criticism and suffered electoral losses for his decision to work with Sinn Fein, the political arm of the Irish Republican Army.
Hume said Sinn Fein's support was necessary to achieve cease-fires in 1994 and 1997. But his party lost voters to Sinn Fein, which in June out-polled the moderate Catholics for the first time.
Hume will remain as a lawmaker in both the European and British parliaments.
West African Bishops Warn Against Sharia Law
AFRICA NEWS, Sept. 5—Bishops from English-speaking countries in west Africa urged the Nigerian government to prevent the further imposition of strict Islamic theocracy in the northern regions of the country, the African news service reported.
The bishops warned that imposing Sharia, which demands harsh punishments for crimes like adultery and theft, could lead to widespread conflicts with Christians, who advocate mercy.
Since late 1999, 10 Nigerian states have enforced Sharia. In one state, 1,000 people have died in subsequent Muslim-Christian clashes.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: How America Can Be Great DATE: 9/30/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 30 - October 6, 2001 ----- BODY:The terrible events of Sept. 11 have swept away many misconceptions we might have had about America. With those misconceptions out of the way, America has the opportunity to be truly great.
Before Sept. 11, some thought America was great because of her military might. But then half a dozen men with box cutters blew a hole in the Pentagon.
Before Sept 11, America's economy seemed to be her strength. Then a small band of killers brought Wall Street to its knees.
Many of us thought God had been banned forever from our public squares and our private conversations. But after Sept. 11, the U.S. House became a house of prayer, alternative-rock radio stations began playing “God Bless America,” and the pledge of allegiance returned to many schools, with God's name left in.
Before Sept. 11, many of us defined America by its moral decadence. We pointed out that pornography was the biggest Internet moneymaker, abandonment of women the biggest cause of poverty, abortion a common form of birth control, and child sexual abuse at an all-time high.
After Sept. 11, we know there's more to the story.
We heard about officers who rushed into buildings that they knew would collapse. We learned of Trade Center workers who slowed their own escapes by carrying out the handicapped or those in shock. We heard of death-defying rescues at the Pentagon. We learned of passengers who likely spent their last moments on earth aiming a plane at the ground so that it would kill only themselves. Now, a previously presumed lost generation is volunteering at military recruitment offices to risk their lives for their country, for us.
If love's ultimate test is to lay down one's life for one's neighbor, then Sept. 11 taught us that hiding in many ordinary Americans is the greatest possible love. Even those who are critics of America can find a great new hope in that.
In 1776, America was the first nation in history to organize itself around principles rather than powers. When our Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence, they pledged their “lives, fortunes and sacred honor” not for material things, but for moral truths. They proclaimed that everyone had the same God-given dignity, and the same rights to life, liberty and happiness. And they suffered for those beliefs. Generations of immigrant and native-born citizens who followed made the same commitment, and paid the same price.
If we thought America's founding vision was lost, we forgot something important. These high ideals have always lived side-by-side with great failings in Americans, from the slave-owners who fought the War of Independence to the segregationists who fought World War II.
That's because Americans seem to know deep down that it is our moral standards that make us great, even if we fail to live up to them. Times of crisis tend to reawaken our best selves and renew our country.
All the same, we have to be careful. There is no guarantee that America will be great. Abraham Lincoln, for instance, said that America had to suffer the Civil War to atone for slavery. What would he say about her embrace today of something so heinous as abortion?
We should pray that Americans will make the right decisions in the months and years ahead—in this war and in our domestic life. But we pray this now with confidence, because we've seen what our countrymen are capable of.
Mother Teresa, at the 1994 National Prayer Breakfast, urged Americans to live up to their heritage—by loving. Not just by heroic love, but by ordinary love. By deciding that in America “no child will be unwanted, unloved, uncared for, or killed and thrown away.”
“Then,” she said, “you will really be true to what the founders of this country stood for.”
----- EXCERPT: Editorial ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Condom Roulette DATE: 9/30/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 30 - October 6, 2001 ----- BODY:Your observation that using a condom to prevent AIDS when having sex with someone who is infected provides about the same odds as playing Russian roulette with one bullet in a six-shooter may be overstating the effectiveness of condoms (“The Church Is Right on Condoms,” Editorial, Sept. 9-15).
For two decades the U.S. government, despite contrary scientific evidence, has insisted that condoms are 98% effective in preventing AIDS. But in July, the National Institutes of Health, after being threatened by a Freedom of Information Act request, released a report indicating that condoms were “highly effective” in preventing AIDS. “Highly effective” to NIH means that condoms are only 85% effective in preventing AIDS (“No Protection: Federal Study Highlights' Condoms' Ineffectiveness” Sept. 2-8).
But according to Dr. Willard Cates, formerly of the Centers for Disease Control, condoms are only 70% effective. Dr. Cates' conclusion verified the findings of Dr. Susan Weller of the University of Texas, who said, in 1993: “It is a disservice to encourage the belief that condoms will prevent sexual transmission of HIV.” Her studies show condoms are only 69% effective in preventing HIV infection.
If a condom is only 69% or 70% effective in preventing AIDS, that is roughly equivalent to playing a game of Russian Roulette with two bullets in a six-shooter.
It is noteworthy that, according to the Washington Post, the Catholic Church, through its hospices, hospitals, orphanages and parish outreach, provides more direct care for people with AIDS, their families and communities, particularly in Africa and Latin America, than any other institution.
The Church is correct, on pragmatic as well as moral grounds, to reject condoms as a solution to AIDS.
Carolyn Naughton
Silver Spring, Maryland
Priorities for Bishops
It is wonderful that the bishops are working to develop an ad campaign to promote the sanctity of human life (“U.S. Bishops Test-Market Anti-Abortion Ads,” Sept. 9-15). I fully support the campaign, which seeks to inform people that abortion is legal for all nine months of pregnancy.
While the bishops' ads are a worthwhile project, there are several other items of a higher priority for the bishops.
A highly visible and perpetual campaign of prayer to stop the killing in the world beginning with the killing in the womb would be the first preference.
The second preference would be for priests to preach the Gospel of Life to parishioners with the urgency that the wholesale killing of abortion demands. Life must be respected from the moment of conception and people need to hear that abortion kills God's highest creation—human beings.
Third would be to prevent Catholic institutions from giving honors and awards to those who promote killing the preborn.
Praying, preaching and preventing are higher priorities, but the ads are certainly a welcome activity.
Richard Aretta
Rockville, Maryland
Spiritual Works, Too
The tragedy of Sept. 11 has resulted in an outpouring of generosity on the part of Americans who want to help those suffering from the disaster. This is certainly in keeping with the corporal works of mercy (“Works of Mercy” Sept. 23-29).
Regarding the dead, we entrust their souls to the infinite mercy of god and pray that they were in a state of grace when they died: “Watch therefore, for you do not know at what hour your Lord is to come. But of this be assured, that if the householder had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would certainly have watched and not let his house be broken into” (Matthew 24:42).
St. Monica, the mother of St. Augustine, said before her death: “Lay this body wherever it may be. Let no care of it disturb you: this only I ask of you, that you should remember me at the altar of the Lord wherever you may be.”
As Catholics we should also perform the spiritual works of mercy of praying for the living and the dead—especially for those thousands, of whatever beliefs or ethnic backgrounds, who died tragically when “the thief” took their lives. I would urge all your readers to request of their pastors that the Holy Mass be offered for the souls of the victims of the attack on America. The Sacrifice of the Mass is of infinite value, and the most important charitable benefit that any soul can receive. What better way can we Catholics help than to join with Christ's Sacrifice in the Mass for the repose of their souls?
Laurette Elsberry
Sacramento, California
As a new reader of the Register (via my mother's checkbook!), I have only had the opportunity to read about three of your publications and can no longer contain my excitement and praise.
Now a graduate of the popular Catholic teen magazine YOU! to present-day “voracious-reader” status with L'Osservatore Romano and Our Sunday Visitor, I am thrilled with your multi-faceted coverage of the Catholic faith.
You have expertly blended the local, national and international aspects in your paper so that it gently refuses to let me be complacent in my Catholicity on any level. I wish to thank you for this.
Furthermore, my sixth-grade students (at a local Catholic grade-school) and I have been keeping abreast of the current stem-cell research issue (among others) and how we can respond in ways right now in accordance with our beliefs for a positive impact to society.
The Register has been a priceless resource to our class not only during our religion classes, but current events as well. Some day my family may get the chance to actually read the copy that comes to our home!
Please know of our continual prayers for your ministry and may God abundantly bless all of your staff and those you reach.
Anna Nabhan
Creve Coeur, Illinois
Ben Wiker's criticisms of the new PBS series on evolution (“You Say You Want an Evolution?” Sept. 9-15 ) were useful in pointing out the series' bias against scientific critics of Darwinian evolution. He also deplored the appearance of biblical literalist Ken Ham as the only critic of such evolution. Wiker mentioned some scientific objections to Darwinan evolution and its strong critics in the “intelligent-design” movement. That was important, but what about a correct, well-founded interpretation of Genesis 1-3?
Your readers would appreciate a solid critique of Ken Ham's literalist interpretation of Genesis 1-3. Polls have shown that 44% of Americans believe God created man at one time within the last 10,000 years or so—39% of Catholics believe that!
A positive Catholic interpretation of Genesis is needed, showing the absurdities of the literalist interpretation from a textual and scientific point of view. Also, sketching the background of Genesis 1-3 in Mesopotamian creation accounts and how man's creation, original sin, grace and redemptive promises are found objectively in Genesis and other parts of the Bible related to it.
The so-called “creationist” position flourishes because a well-based Catholic interpretation of these vital early chapters of Genesis is still too little known.
Father Jerome F. Tracy, S.J.
Clarkston, Michigan.
In your Aug. 5-11 issue you had an article in the Inbrief section about a simplified version of Karol Wojtyla's (now the Holy Father's) book, Love and Responsibility. You did not, however, give a publisher, title or any information for those of us who might want to purchase this book.
Thanks, and I look forward to hearing from you.
Alice Bolster
Nashville, Tennessee
Editor's Note:Pope John Paul II's Love & Responsibility—Simplified Version is published by Key of David Publications, Wynnewood, Pa. For information, call (610) 896-1970.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Where Was the Register? DATE: 9/30/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 30 - October 6, 2001 ----- BODY:I just received and read the Sept. 16-22 issue of the Register and cannot understand why it contains absolutely no reference regarding the overwhelming, continuing topic of concern in our country, the terrorist attack in New York and Washington a week ago yesterday. There is much news concerning religion in the happenings of this past week and, yet, you felt it was important not to include even one mention of this horrible event.
Why? I am disappointed.
JOHN E. GIBES
Petoskey, Michigan
Editor's note: Readers are by now aware that our Sept. 23-29 issue was devoted to coverage of the terrorist attacks. All the same, since we have heard Mr. Gibes' question from many readers, a fuller explanation may be helpful.
The Register, a weekly, goes to press on the Monday prior to the issue date. Thus our Sept. 16-22 issue had the latest information as of Monday, Sept. 10, when terrorism was one of the furthest things from Americans' minds.
Our hearts and minds are very much with the tragic events that began the next morning, our prayers with the victims and their families.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: The Economics Of Human Suffering DATE: 9/30/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 30 - October 6, 2001 ----- BODY:One thing we economists always teach is that smart people snap up undervalued resources, fix them up, and resell them at a profit.
Investors mean much the same thing when they say “buy low, sell high.” Suppose I told you that you had ready access to a very common but deeply undervalued resource, and that you could snap it up for a song. Would you be interested?
Suffering. Pain. Everyone has it. Nobody wants it. Yet, for a Christian, pain and suffering are spiritual goldmines.
Everyone faces pain. Sometimes, we bring it on ourselves. Other times, pain just drops into our lives out of the clear blue sky—as it literally did in the tragedy that struck New York Sept. 11. Most people in the world see suffering as something to avoid. The modern world goes to great lengths to avoid pain, discomfort or even mild inconvenience. When grief cannot be avoided, the modern world has trouble knowing how to face it.
But Our Lord taught us otherwise. Jesus showed us during his passion that suffering has redemptive value. Through his suffering on the cross, he redeemed the sins of the world.
Even our own grief and sorrow can have redemptive value. We all know the experience of becoming a better person through facing and surviving a tough time. That is only the most readily visible example of good coming from evil. At a more spiritual level, God himself transforms our pain into grace. By offering up our sufferings to God, we unite ourselves with Christ and his passion.
As St. Paul says, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the Church” (Colossians 1:24). St. Paul doesn't mean that Christ needs our assistance to effect redemption. He means that we can participate, in fact, that God wants us to participate—in the passion of his Son.
We know that the prayers of the sick and suffering are especially sweet to God. In our suffering, we have a unique contribution to make to the long-term spiritual health of our country. We can turn the trials of our sickness, infirmity or old age into a constant prayer.
We know from the lives of the saints and holy people that this kind of prayer will be the source of a great deal of comfort and consolation for us. Our suffering seems to be pointless to the world and, indeed, it may seem pointless to us at times. But Our Lord assures us that any suffering united to his is not pointless, but precious and powerful.
We know that the prayers of the sick and suffering are especially sweet to God.
As a deacon of the early Church, St. Lawrence had responsibility for the distribution of food to the poor. The Roman authorities assumed he must be in charge of vast sums of wealth. So they arrested him, and demanded that he turn over the riches of the Church. St. Lawrence gathered the poor of the city, and said that they were the wealth of the Church. When the enraged authorities martyred Lawrence by roasting him alive over a massive stone cooker, he had the fortitude to joke with them.
He told them that he was done on one side, and they should turn him over. This, I think you'll agree, is not ordinary behavior. This was the extraordinary behavior of a man sustained by divine grace. God took his suffering and transformed it.
And he can do the same with yours and mine. We can offer him our tragedies, great and small, and ask him to use the grace to benefit whoever needs it the most. He will in turn bring us into closer union with him, and help others, whom you may never see.
It may be the most highly leveraged transaction you ever participate in: You give God something completely worthless, and he transforms it into love and grace and strength and hope. But then, God is like that. He always outdoes us in generosity.
This is the way that we can find meaning in the mundane events of everyday life. We offer them up as a continual prayer. Peeling potatoes, bathing an infirm person, smiling instead of grumbling—these little things become big things in the arsenal of love. They sanctify our souls.
So give the Church's advice. Give it to your grandmother in a nursing home, your sister-in-law who just had a miscarriage, your co-worker whose wife insists on a divorce, and, yes, to anyone you know who has suffered from the terrorists' attacks. Tell your unbelieving friends to act as though they believe.
Go through the motions of allowing God to sanctify ordinary actions. At least they will know that they have allied themselves on the side of goodness and love.
In less than 100 years, every one of us will see God face to face. Perhaps you or I will see him much sooner than that. When we do, he will show us how much our offerings meant to the world.
Jennifer Roback Morse is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and the author of Love & Economics: Why the Laissez-Faire Family
Doesn't Work (Spence, 2001).
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: J. R. Morse ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: How to Fight Back DATE: 9/30/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 30 - October 6, 2001 ----- BODY:A decade ago, at Dubrovnik Airport in Croatia, I found myself on the receiving end of suspicious looks from dour-faced security guards. Their metal detector kept squealing and squawking, even after I had already emptied my pockets of loose change, keys and other possible culprits.
It was the eve of the Balkans' eruption into violence and, in those strained moments, I interpreted the guards' glaring stares and icy directions to mean, “He might have a concealed weapon.” I had no choice but to reach for one last innocent item. I reluctantly pulled out my rosary, put it on the tray and satisfied the metal detectors.
On my way to the plane, I chuckled as it hit me: I was packing a concealed weapon. A weapon more powerful than a pistol. After all, Blessed Padre Pio taught, “The rosary is The Weapon.”
That moment came to my mind watching the events unfold in New York and Washington, D.C. on Sept. 11—on the eve, in a way, of October: the month of the rosary.
“Dear Dominic, do you know which weapon the Blessed Trinity wants to use to reform the world?,” the Blessed Mother asked the Dominican founder. Answer: the rosary.
Seventy decades later, at Fatima, Mary chose to identify herself as Our Lady of the Rosary. She strongly reminded us to pick up this real weapon again and use it daily. The Blessed Mother referred to the rosary as the most powerful weapon of prayer to combat and overcome evil.
Although some thought the rosary was on the way to extinction in the 1970s and '80s, the devotion remained alive and well. And it's experiencing a strong resurgence today.
Pope John Paul II has certainly been a great promoter of the rosary, igniting the masses with his devotion to Mary. Witness Oct. 8, 2000, in St. Peter's Square, when he entrusted the third millennium to Mary. Joined by 1,500 bishops and worldwide representatives, he led the world in praying the rosary before the statue of the Virgin of Fatima.
Rosary Revival
The rosary devotion is definitely on the upswing, says Father Thomas Feeley of the Congregation of the Holy Cross and national director of the Family Rosary, headquartered in Easton, Mass. He notices a “hunger in people for a deeper prayer life” that's being answered with the rosary.
Recent sales of rosaries have quadrupled in the United States. Better yet, in 2000 The Family Rosary reached its Jubilee-year goal: It gave away 10 million free rosaries. Families, religion teachers and chaplains in hospitals, prisons and military installations from around the world requested them. The recipients also got a voluntary commitment form to pray the rosary every day, especially with families.
This summer in Rome, Father Feeley and the Family Rosary handed the Holy Father “a book with the names of tens of thousands of people who have written in from all over the world” making this commitment.
Lists flowed in from Indian villages, where one literate member carefully inscribed the names of the others; from Africa, with names painstakingly pecked out on beat-up typewriters; from nursing homes where elderly residents promised a daily rosary. Already the next 5 million rosary giveaway project is underway.
“Families are redis-covering the rosary's importance,” says Father Feeley. It's “great for children” as well as adults, because “the rosary is a catechism on a string.” It presents all the truths of the faith, “summarizes the basic mysteries of our Christian faith, and so is a good way to instruct children in their understanding of faith.
“It helps all members of the family to share the same spiritual ideals and to walk with Jesus and Mary all their lives,” he adds.
On Oct. 7, 1995, the Feast of the Holy Rosary, John Paul II reminded everyone of the slogan of faith coined by Father Patrick Peyton, founder of the Family Rosary and Family Theatre Productions: “The family that prays together stays together.”
Servant of God Father Peyton, whose canonization cause opened in June, aimed to strengthen families through prayer, especially the rosary, which would allow them to grow in the understanding of their faith, in grace, and in their commitment to serve God and one another.
Pope Pius XII thought the same. He wrote, in Ingruentium Malorum, “it is above all in the bosom of the family that we desire the custom of the Holy Rosary to be everywhere adopted, religiously preserved, and evermore intensely practiced.” Then, he added, the Christian family's home will become an “abode of sanctity” and “sacred temple” like Nazareth.
Through prayer, the family truly becomes the “domestic church” John Paul II calls it to be. He recommends that “two immediate things the Catholic families of America can do to strengthen home life” are to “learn about faith to answer the questions ... especially the moral questions which confront everyone today; and pray, especially the rosary.”
Families find the rosary “catechism” becomes the armor of God that Paul describes in Ephesians, the frontline weapon in the battle of the Church Militant with secularism, materialism, senseless violence and increasingly vile TV and media.
Promotion of the rosary is a mainstay of the Knights of Columbus, too. An average 10,000 new members per month receive a rosary and instructions. That's a potential vast army outfitted with heaven's heavy weaponry.
As we slip beads through our fingers and our minds and souls soar to spiritual realms, we battle the moral decline of our town, city, country and world. Take aim at poverty by praying for a better life for others. Target health problems with a rosary for healings and comfort for others and ourselves. Counter terrorism with a decade each rosary dedicated to world peace.
More than 140 countries are expected to participate in World rosary Day this Oct. 6. For more information, go to www.-churchforum.org/rosario/index_eng.htm.
A rosary is made up of five decades—five groups of 10 beads, each separated by a single bead. Each decade is dedicated to a different mystery of salvation history. The person praying the rosary will meditate on the mystery appropriate for each decade as he prays one Our Father on the single bead and one Hail Mary on each of the 10 beads. At the end of the last Hail Mary in each set he will pray the Glory Be. He will pray one of the five sets of mysteries:
The Five Joyful Mysteries
1. The Annunciation (see Luke 1:26-38)
2. The Visitation (Luke 1:39-56)
3. The Nativity (Luke 2:1-20)
4. The Presentation (Luke 2:22-38)
5. Finding the Child Jesus in the Temple (Luke 3:41-52)
The Five Sorrowful Mysteries
1. The Agony in the Garden (see Mark 14:32-42)
2. The Scourging at the Pillar (Mark 15:6-15)
3. The Crowning with Thorns (Mark 15:16-20)
4. The Carrying of the Cross (Luke 23:26-32)
5. The Crucifixion (Mark 15:22-39)
The Five Glorious Mysteries
1. The Resurrection (see Matthew 28:1-10)
2. The Ascension (Acts 1:6-11)
3. The Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles and Mary (Acts 2:1-13)
4. The Assumption of Mary into Heaven (Revelation 12:13-18)
5. The Coronation of Mary (Revelation 12:1-6)
Our Father
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Hail Mary
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Glory Be
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever. Amen.
Joseph Pronechen writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Growing Up and Starting a Family in the Shadow of the Towers DATE: 9/30/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 30 - October 6, 2001 ----- BODY:With a thundering crash that my wife thought at first was a fallen crane, my lower Manhattan home became a war zone.
I was at work in New Haven, Conn., when the attack came that infamous morning, and was on the phone with my wife as the second plane crashed into the south tower of the World Trade Center, five blocks from our apartment building. The sound was so loud over the wire that the phone shook in my hand.
Maria stood on our balcony, looking at two huge gouges in the upper portions of the sleek skyscrapers and flames spewing clouds of smoke from the steel and glass. She stepped inside as bodies began falling from the sky, to check on our year-old son. I recalled that Maria had worked on the 104th floor of One World Trade Center, the first building to be hit, till she became pregnant, and I had a new reason to thank God for our son. His life had saved my wife's.
“These can't be accidents,” my wife semi-sobbed over the phone. “Brian, we're under attack.”
We all have seen the television images of the horror and carnage, the collapsing buildings—impossible still to imagine—and the rushing crowds fleeing the tons of flying debris that spread like a tidal wave through the narrow streets. We have heard the marathon commentary and analysis, and rallied behind our president as he called the terrorist attacks acts of war and promised a strong response. But nothing touched me as deeply as the simple words of my wife. We're under attack.
These faceless suicide terrorists had launched an offensive against our country, and in the process landed in my backyard. I took it personally, not only as an American, but as a father and a New Yorker.
I had seen the twin towers rise in the late 1960s, seeming symbols of hope reaching above the unrest of the day. My spirit soared as a teen running the few blocks cross-town to see Philippe Petit, on a high wire, step cautiously between the towers, and mountain-climber George Willig scale the shimmering side. The towers had been so much a part of my life, solid double digits visible from any corner of the city, that, with typical New Yorker's pride, I never set foot on the touristy observation deck till I brought a friend from college there.
I also had stood sadly behind police barriers in the aftermath of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, a prelude as it turns out, and walked the single block to St. Peter's on Barclay Street, to say a prayer in the church where St. Elizabeth Seton and Venerable Pierre Toussaint worshiped.
From the moment I heard the blast over the phone, a steady determination developed within me, to make it home and bring my wife and child to safety before another plane fell or a bomb went off. I am of the non-draft generation, missing conscription by a year, yet I felt like a new recruit, responding to a war brought to our shores.
My family was worth dying for, and I would get home on foot if I had to.
I caught an emergency train leaving New Haven at noon, and sat to pray the Church's Liturgy of the Hours. The psalms held extra meaning, with their descriptions of torment and pleas for help: “How long, O God, is the enemy to scoff? Is the foe to insult your name forever? ... Arise, O God, and defend your cause!” A sermon of St. Bernard in the Office of Readings especially struck me. “I beg you, my brothers, stand upon the watchtower, for now is the time for battle,” the 12th-century saint said.
In one of those incidents that can only be arranged from above, I heard the woman sitting in front of me say that she lived in lower Manhattan and was worried about her husband. I found that she lives two blocks from my apartment, and that her husband was scheduled that morning to attend a breakfast meeting at Windows on the World atop the World Trade Center.
She called his cell phone again and again till she finally, miraculously, got an answer. Her husband was safe. He had taken the advice she had given early that morning and skipped the meeting to work at home.
The train, usually bound for Grand Central Terminal in midtown Manhattan, went as far as Mount Vernon in Westchester County. A bus ride brought me a little further south to Yonkers, where I met two women also heading home to Manhattan. We hopped in a taxi cab and told the driver to get us as close to the city as possible.
A police line stopped us at 240th Street in the northern section of the Bronx. We got out, prepared to walk the seven or more miles home, when we heard a subway running on the tracks overhead. Trains had just started moving again. Before the train went underground, we watched with disbelief the billows of smoke arching over Manhattan from the place where the towers once stood.
I got out of the tunnel at Canal Street, as far south as the train would run. At the first intersection, I turned to see a scene from downtown Beirut. Smoke, soot, debris, smoldering sulfur. Rescue workers covered with dust wheezed as they walked from the scene, their eyes vacant with hurt at the loss of so many buddies.
At the Bowery the police line ended, and I joined a stream of other civilians walking through white soot into a quiet battlefield. My wife and child were at my parents' apartment, a block from our own. Before leaving to stay with relatives in New Jersey, we prayed for the dead, the injured, the rescuers and our city—which has survived. R
Brian Caulfield is managing editor of Columbia magazine.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian Caulfield ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: St. ThÈrËse, Little and Powerful, Pray for Us DATE: 9/30/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 30 - October 6, 2001 ----- BODY:In one of the littlest towns, in the littlest state, stands America's first shrine to the saint known as the “Little Flower of Jesus.”
The Little Flower, of course, is St. Thérèse of Lisieux—newest Doctor of the Church. The shrine, in Nasonville, R.I., will be a wonderful place to pray on Oct. 1, her feast day.
Worship in this area began in an old schoolhouse, where a priest traveled by horse and buggy to celebrate Mass during the 1870s; 50 years later, Bishop William Hickey announced the opening of a new parish for the residents of rural Nasonville and nearby towns.
A small church was founded, but with no intention to make it a shrine dedicated to St. Thérèse. That designation followed the miraculous healing of a local woman, Mrs. Oliver Faford, who had been paralyzed. The healing came when the pastor, Father A.P. Desrochers, encouraged Mrs. Faford to devote herself to the newly canonized parish patron saint. Though physicians had diagnosed her paralysis as “hopeless,” she was soon back on her feet, cured completely.
The church was expanded in 1926 to include a school and a convent. Other pastors picked up where Father Desrochers had left off, establishing various devotions and making improvements to the shrine. For a time, it wasn't unusual for as many as 7,000 people to turn out for Mass.
In the early 1970s, the shrine was vandalized and, lacking resources for restoration and maintenance, it began to fall apart. That changed in the '80s, when Father Robert Carpentier set out to bring the shrine back to its former glory, and then some.
He was smashingly successful: As one drives up the hill to it today, pilgrims see the fruit of many volunteers and parishioners who have turned The Shrine of the Little Flower of Jesus into a beautiful little place of peace and spiritual refreshment—a place that lives up to the name of its great patron saint.
American Spirit
At the entrance, a large white-stone statue of St. Thérèse greets visitors, the main brick church rising behind her.
The day I visited, bright flowers surrounded the saint while, overhead, the American and Vatican flags waved in the wind. A birdbath next to a granite St. Francis was very busy.
In the church foyer, wide windows afford a long view of the rural countryside.
Turn your attention back inside, and you're alone with a statue of Our Lady of Grace in one corner and an antique crucifix above the windows. Step inside the sanctuary, and your eyes go immediately to the stunning stained-glass windows depicting the Way of the Cross, then to tapestries and murals of Old Testament stories. You can step over to a side altar dedicated to St. Thérèse; here, her statue towers over an altar railing where countless petitions have been placed in a basket.
Stepping outside, you can begin a walking tour of the lush, expansive grounds with the Holy Stairs. Built in 1934, and restored in the early 1990s along with the adjacent Stations of the Cross, these stairs were solemnly dedicated in 1956. It is traditional to kneel on each step of the “Scala Sancta,” if possible, praying while ascending the 28, in remembrance of the last stage of Jesus' walking trail to Pilate's judgment seat.
At the top of the staircase, figures of Our Lady, St John and St. Mary Magdalene keep vigil. There are two sets of Stations of the Cross, the original wooden Stations, now restored, as well as stone-relief tablets designed by Amedeo Nardini, a world-acclaimed sculptor.
Nardini used stone from Colorado, New Hampshire and Rhode Island; each station took more than five months to complete and stands 12 feet high. A stone kneeler rests in front of each stone station. The wooden stations rest on tall posts with images of the Passion inside glass casings, many which are set against a panoramic skyline of the shrine.
A staircase takes the visitor to the main outdoor altar, where yearly devotions and Masses have always been a part of the shrine's itinerary. Today, the altar is composed of Vermont granite and Tennessee crab orchard stones, with a statue of St. Thérèse above the tabernacle, flanked by those of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph. Another statue of Thérèse rises above the altar. Pilgrims light votive candles here. Inscribed above the altar is the saint's name, flanked by the words “Pray for us” on the left and “Priez pour nous” on the right. The latter has, no doubt, provided comfort for countless members of northern Rhode Island's sizable French-American population.
Rosary Trek
Each year, the Shrine celebrates the feast day of Saint Thérèse on the last Sunday of August, because of the possibility of inclement weather on her actual feast day, Oct. 1. The August event begins with the recitation of the Living Rosary at 11:30 a.m. in the Rosary Garden, which features a unique fountain with a statue of Our Lady of Peace as its focal point.
A giant cross marks the entrance to begin the recitation, with large wood blocks strung together on heavy chain leading on to an archway. From this point, the beads of wood—each nearly a foot long—wind pilgrims along a pathway, where they can stand or sit at nearby benches to complete the rosary.
Flower gardens and a statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus surround this area. Picnickers crowd the grounds for lunch, while other visitors flock to the St. Thérèse Gift Shop or buy tickets to win an oversized statue of the Little Flower raffled at the end of the day's festivities. Home-cooked food is sold, and you can have a lunch, visit a shrine dedicated to St. Michael (a high stone edifice graced by his statue), or practice the outdoor devotionals privately after the rosary.
A procession of St. Thérèse's statue is a high point of the day, as children strew rose petals in front of it as it makes its way to the altar for 2 p.m. Mass.
Today, the Shrine of the Little Flower has become a site where people can find solace in prayer and devotion to, as Pope St. Pius X called her, “the greatest saint of modern times.”
As I drove away from this marvelous refuge tucked away in the woods of northwest Rhode Island, I knew that this visit could never be my last, because my experience at the feast day celebration had been so inspiring. Recently, I simply walked and prayed in the devotional areas, and felt like I had been on an abbreviated retreat. The Shrine of the Little Flower now has another devotee who hasn't made her last excursion to this gem of peace and delight in God.
Regina Marshall writes from Hamden, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Regina Marshall ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: The Mouse Has Two Faces DATE: 9/30/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 30 - October 6, 2001 ----- BODY:Up until 15 years ago, the Walt Disney logo on a movie was a guarantee that its content would reflect traditional moral values and be suitable for family viewing.
New ownership changed this unstated compact between the company and its audience.
The Disney imprimatur would continue to be given to entertainment consistent with the founder's family-friendly vision. But a host of wholly owned subsidiaries bearing different labels were created for the express purpose of distributing product with morally loose content that would have made the previous management sick.
Two recent releases demonstrate this Disney personality split. The Princess Diaries, one of the summer's blockbuster hits, is an attempt to keep alive Walt's entertainment philosophy. Bubble Boy, a Touchstone presentation with no Disney label attached, breaks new ground for the parent company in the way it attacks Christianity and the suburban nuclear family.
From Muted Princess ...
Despite the populist trappings of our culture, many young girls still fantasize about what it would be like to have been born of royal blood. The Princess Diaries turns Meg Cabot's novel on the subject into a female-empowerment story in which some of the components of this dream are cleverly dissected.
In keeping with traditional Disney moviemaking, director Garry Marshall (Pretty Woman) and screenwriter Gina Wendkos emphasize the laughs rather than social commentary or psychological examination, and some of the movie's insights are muted to keep the atmosphere light.
The curly-haired, coltishly awkward 15-year-old Mia Thermapoulos (Anne Hathaway) is a child of divorce. She's been raised by her non-conforming artist mother, Helen (Caroline Goodall), and has never known her father.
This seemingly ugly duckling is embarrassed about her glasses and her inability to speak in a public setting. She pines after her school's big man on campus (Erik Von Detten), and hangs out with a fellow female nerd (Heather Matarazzo) instead of the in-crowd of perky cheerleaders. “My expectation in life is to stay invisible,” she declares.
A surprise visit by her grandmother, Clarisse Renaldi (Julie Andrews), changes all that. This well-bred, formal woman is, in fact, the queen of the independent, Monaco-like principality of Genovia, and the sudden death of Mia's father has made this very Americanized teenager heir to the throne. Her mother had hidden this royal connection in hopes that her daughter would have a normal childhood.
At first Mia doesn't want to be a princess, and makes a hilarious mess of her grandmother's attempts to teach her proper deportment and manners. But the movie quietly makes clear that these lessons are filling an important need. Mia's mother behaves more like a sister than a parent. She's a middle-aged hippie who says she uses her art to propagate “the values of Woodstock.” She also embarrasses her daughter by dating one of her teachers.
Mia's grandmother becomes a female authority figure who gently provides the girl with a kind of interior moral structure previously lacking. This training gives the teenager the confidence to stand up for herself at school and to give expression to her particular gifts.
Much is made of Mia's humorous transformation into a great beauty whom the in-crowd envies. But she also learns that inner changes mean more than outer ones and that serving others is more important than personal popularity.
Like many of its forerunners from Disney's golden days (The Parent Trap, The Absent-Minded Professor), The Princess Diaries has small ambitions and is not without its charms. From a Christian standpoint, the movie's greatest flaw is its falling in line with contemporary Hollywood's view of divorce: The filmmakers show the damage that divorce has inflicted on Mia, but are careful to tiptoe around the parents' decision to break their vows. The clear aim is to avoid any intimations of “judgmentalism” or “intolerance.”
On the whole, The Princess Diaries is an unexceptional piece of passably amusing family entertainment—and a reminder that, in the present cultural climate, only independently financed films have a chance of reflecting a consistently Christian conception of morality.
... to Obnoxious Invalid
Bubble Boy, a comedy about Jimmy Livingston (Jake Gyllenhaal), a 17-year-old boy with a rare genetic immune-system disease that forces him to live in an environmentally protected bubble, is in an altogether different category. Director Blair Hayes and screen-writers Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio intend the bubble to be a metaphor for Jimmy's airless, conservative Christian existence.
The walls of his Southern California tract home are plastered with religious images and pictures of Presidents Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon. The chief enforcer of this imagined cultural and psychological oppression is his cartoon-ishly overprotective mother (Swoosie Kurtz), who makes him recite the Pledge of Allegiance whenever he feels a “filthy” sexual longing. She also bakes him huge cookies in the shape of the cross.
The bubble boy falls in love with Chloe (Marley Shelton), the beautiful blonde next door, of whom his mother is obsessively jealous. “She's not the friend Jesus would pick,” mom exclaims.
When Jimmy learns that his heartthrob is going to get married in Niagara Falls, he sets out cross-country in his bubble suit to stop the wedding. This resembles the premise of countless successful comedies (The Graduate) where the hero tries to rescue his beloved from hooking up with the wrong guy. But the filmmakers turn the story into an obnoxious road movie instead.
As Jimmy careens through Las Vegas and the American heartland, offensive gags are aimed at any expression of spirituality, including New Age cult groups and Hinduism. He also mixes it up with a Chicano biker gang and a band of circus freaks.
This awful film wouldn't be worth noting, except that it represents a change in Disney's marketing strategy. Most of the company's previous attacks on Christianity (Priest) were released through subsidiaries that aimed at an educated, adult audience. Bubble Boy is the first anti-religious Disney product to be targeted at teenage and college viewers.
This ups the ante. Pro-family groups have organized consumer boycotts against the company for previous betrayals of its founder's legacy, but they appear to have no effect. Nevertheless, this summer's releases indicate the faithful must continue to be vigilant and informed.
John Prizer, the Register's arts & culture correspondent, is based in Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: Bubble Boy and The Princess Diaries reveal dueling Disneys ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 9/30/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 30 - October 6, 2001 ----- BODY:The Goonies (1985)
Childhood friendship is a wondrous thing. But unexpected crises can put it to the test and deepen it in ways rarely experienced in adult life. The Goonies, based on a story by Steven Spielberg (Schindler's List) and directed by Richard Donner (Lethal Weapon), is the name of a band of suburban kids who may lose their homes because a sleazy developer has bought out their neighborhood and wants to turn it into a country club.
Mikey Walsh (Sean Astin) finds a treasure map in his parents' attic and gathers his friends (Josh Brolin, Corey Feldman, Jeffrey Jay Cohen and Martha Plimpton) to find the booty and use it to buy back their houses. What follows is a cross between Spy Kids and the more adult-oriented Indiana Jones adventures. The kids embark on a quest that pits them against booby traps, pirate ships and the wilds of nature. But beneath the fun and fantasy is a simple story of good versus evil.
The Crusades (1935)
Islam and the West were locked in mortal combat throughout most of the Middle Ages.
The significance of this part of our history has been downplayed by the academy in recent years, except as a reason for Europe to feel guilty about its treatment of the Third World. The Crusades, directed by Cecil B. DeMille (The Ten Commandments), is a glorious throwback, with brave knights, beautiful maidens and epic battles against the infidels.
It also chronicles the moral education of the English king, Richard the Lion-Hearted (Henry Wilcox-on), who must learn about the meaning of marriage and the Christian ideals for which he's fighting.
Richard dumps his fiancee, the French king's sister (Katherine DeMille), to head off to the Holy Land, and gets betrothed to Berengaria (Loretta Young), the King of Navarre's daughter, to obtain needed supplies for his great adventure. Berengaria accompanies him to Jerusalem.
When she's kidnapped by the cultured Muslim leader, Saladin (Ian Keith), Richard must risk everything to rescue her.
Wit (2001)
To intellectuals, knowledge is often an end in itself, and intelligence the primary virtue. Dr. Vivian Bearing (Emma Thompson) is an expert on John Donne's poetry, and she has sacrificed everything else to become the leading scholar in her field. Wit, an HBO cable movie based on Margaret Edson's play and directed by Mike Nichols (The Graduate), dramatizes those moments when this great mind comes to realize that her assumptions about life may be wrong.
Diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer, Dr. Bearing agrees to an experimental program of high-dose chemotherapy that risks killing her quicker than the disease. The medical researchers in charge, Dr. Kelkovian (Christopher Lloyd) and Dr. Posner (Jonathan Woodward), mirror her previous mindset in their cold-blooded pursuit of the truth. This is contrasted with the gratuitous kindness of one of her nurses (Audra McDonald) in easing her excruciating pain. The brilliant literary scholar begins to understand the importance of simple caring and the need for human connection.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 9/30/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 30 - October 6, 2001 ----- BODY:All times Eastern
SUNDAY, SEPT. 30
The Three Tenors in the Forbidden City
A & E, 8 p.m.
Wise music lovers will view this Three Tenors concert, while being aware that the Chinese communists permit such cultural events only to make their totalitarian regime seem civilized. Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti star in this two-hour production, which was taped June 23 at a plaza in Beijing's ancient Forbidden City.
MONDAY, OCT. 1
St. Therese, Doctor of the Church
EWTN, throughout the day
On the feast of the Little Flower, EWTN presents three half-hour programs by Father Charles Connor. At 6:30 a.m., he describes culture and politics during her lifetime (1873-1897). At 1:30 p.m., he examines her writings in Story of a Soul. At 6:30 p.m., he explains her Little Way and shows how we can imitate it by offering everything to God.
TUESDAYS
Fr. Rutler: Grace and Truth
EWTN, 11:30 p.m.
Every week, Father George Rutler dispenses lots of Catholic wisdom, learning and, yes, grace and truth. Rebroadcast Thursdays at 6:30 a.m.
WEDNESDAY, OCT. 3
The Legendary Lighthouses of Hawaii
PBS, 8 p.m.
This hour-long show, the first of the four-part “Lighthouses II” series, visits picturesque lighthouse sites on Kauai and Oahu. Future shows: Lighthouses in Alaska, followed by the eastern Great Lakes and then the Gulf of Mexico.
THURSDAY, OCT. 4
San Francisco Treats
PBS; check local listings for time
This episode of “Culinary Travels with Dave Eckert” lands us in San Francisco to see the sights, tour the Scharffenberger chocolate factory, and stop by world-class restaurants. A rebroadcast.
FRIDAY, OCT. 5
Who Owns the Past?
PBS, 9 p.m.
Since Kennewick Man, an apparent 9,000-year-old skeleton, was found in 1996, politics has trumped science in the case. Bill Clinton's Interior Dept., citing alleged Indian lore, disregarded scientific evidence and said all North Americans who died 500 or more years ago must have been Indians. The Army Corps of Engineers buried the site under tons of rock. The skeleton was tampered with; it is now in storage and the case is in court.
SATURDAY, OCT. 6
The Pilgrim Virgin Prison Ministry Program
EWTN, 5:30 a.m. and 1 p.m.
This documentary examines the World Apostolate of Fatima (the Blue Army) in action, as members visit jail inmates to teach them about Fatima and to pray the rosary. Inmates publish a newsletter and make up packets of rosaries, scapulars and Catholic leaflets for other prisoners. The prisoners testify about graces and conversions received when, each week, one of them gets to keep a Pilgrim Virgin statue of Mary in his cell.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dan Engler ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Ex Corde Ecclesiae: Where Are We Now? DATE: 9/30/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 30 - October 6, 2001 ----- BODY:In November 1999, the bishops of the United States settled on a way to implement in Pope John Paul II's 1990 apostolic constitution on education.
The Holy Father, in Ex Corde Ecclesiae (From the heart of the Church), calls for a renewal of academia, and for canon law requirements to be enforced in theology departments.
Jesuit Father James Conn has been a proponent of a plan that would “pass the Holy See's review.” His America magazine article (Jan. 30-Feb. 6, 1999) was titled, “The Universities, the Bishops and the Vatican: Breaching the Impasse.”
Register senior editor Gerry Rauch recently interviewed Father Conn from Rome, where he teaches at the Pontifical Gregorian University.
Can you bring us up to date on your current duties in Rome?
I teach canon law at the Gregorian. My principal responsibility is Book I of the Code of Canon Law. It deals with general norms: such matters as interpretation of law, the various kinds of juridical documents, principles of governance in the Church, and ecclesiastical office. I previously taught seminary-level canon law at St. Mary's Seminary and University in Baltimore and at Mt. St. Mary's Seminary in Emmitsburg, Md. I have also been teaching the canon law of the sacraments in the summer J.C.L. [licentiate in canon law] program at the Catholic University of America.
Do the bishops' final documents for the application of
The U.S. bishops have issued two documents. The first one was the application for the U.S. of Ex Corde Ecclesiae. That is binding legislation for the Church in the United States. It was called for in the pontifical legislation, and its scope was determined by directives later issued by the Congregation for Catholic Education. Since it received the required recognitio (review) of the Holy See over a year ago, it is safe to say that it fulfills the Congregation's requirements.
The [U.S. bishop]'s June 2001 guidelines for the granting, withholding and withdrawal of the man-datum is not a legally binding document and therefore required no Vatican action. I am hopeful that both documents, if implemented by individual bishops, universities and theologians, will be effective and certainly not thwart the Holy See's expectations.
Many Catholic theologians and university administrators voiced strong objections to juridical norms, particularly to the
I agree that there has been little comment on this issue since the bishops' action at their June meeting in Atlanta. Future news on this topic is likely to be more local than national.
In a June 18 Catholic News Service article, Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk was quoted saying: “This [the
It will be quite natural for various reasons, however, for many people to want to know who is teaching with a
I agree with Archbishop Pilarczyk that a theology teacher's role is not a public one in the same way that a pastor's is. A theologian, unlike a pastor, does not speak and act in the name of the Church. I further believe that the absence of a mandatum is less a sign of heterodoxy, than it is a violation of ecclesiastical discipline. I can imagine a number of explanations why someone is teaching theology without a mandatum, some more troubling than others.
At the same time, I think that the purpose of the legislation requiring the mandatum is, at least in part, to assure the faithful that a theologian is in fact teaching in communion with the Church. Even if there is no positively stated legal right for the faithful to know who has a mandatum, it seems to me reasonable for them to want to know and for either the bishop, the university or the theologian, at least after inquiry, to inform them.
This is all the more important if the university tolerates the teaching of theology by someone lacking a mandatum.
Will there be any consequences if a
Consequences of the lack of a mandatum with respect to such a theologian's continued status as a teacher, or to his or her assignment to teach theological disciplines, will depend on the university's statutes.
In the same June 18 article, Bishop Joseph Fiorenza said that “any member of the Church can raise questions as to whether a particular theological position is orthodox or not; sometimes they may have an obligation to do this.” He warned, however, against making such accusations casually or, in violation of charity. If people are convinced a certain theologian is teaching open heresy, what steps should they take?
It would depend a great deal on who the concerned member of the Church was, especially with regard to theological expertise and status in the academic community—dean, chair, colleague, graduate, student, parent, etc. As a Jesuit, I try to be guided by the “presupposition” of St. Ignatius' Spiritual Exercises, which encourages us to put the most positive interpretation on what someone else says or writes. It is also salutary to address one's concerns calmly to the other.
If these efforts are not fruitful, I think that the principle of subsidiarity should be honored. A troubled student, for example, might discuss the matter with another professor, a department chair or the dean. If that were impossible or unsatisfactory, it would not be inappropriate to bring the matter to the attention of the vicar general or the diocesan bishop.
I would caution such a concerned student or parent, however, not to be presumptuous about his or her own theological competence. There is a moral obligation to safeguard the good reputation of others.
It's necessary for the Church to allow due process for a theologian who is criticized for his or her theological positions—and due process, to properly protect the theologian, can take years. Meanwhile, Catholic students normally have only four years in college. Is there any way to provide them equal protection from a misguided theological formation?
Catholic universities in the United States are, for the most part, free markets. Students have a wide choice of courses, professors, and schools. In the last analysis, choosing institutions, professors and courses that are clearly and unabashedly Catholic may be the most effective way to ensure the best theological formation for college-age Catholics.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Gerry Rauch ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Is Tolerance a Virtue - or a Failure to Discern and Act? DATE: 9/30/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 30 - October 6, 2001 ----- BODY:A Baptist theology professor has written a very Catholic book—and, though he couldn't have anticipated Sept. 11 when he wrote, it's a book that offers America much food for thought on the climate in which the Islamic terrorists' day of infamy took place.
According to A.J. Conyers, several 17th-century thinkers were seeking an end to religious wars when they sought to emphasize tolerance as a way to bring civil peace between Catholic and Protestant. But the emphasis on tolerance has indirectly weakened natural associations of people—particularly families, clans, craft guilds and towns—leaving only the individual and the state. The state has seized the vacuum and, as a result, as individuals we are all placed at the service of the state.
The author presents his complex argument by drawing out the consequences of those thinkers' justifications for tolerance. For Thomas Hobbes, in order to prevent brutal competition among one another, individuals contract among themselves to yield power to the state. But this argument has the unintended consequence of exalting the individual and the state. Only the individual has the power to contract to form the state, not natural associations.
Pierre Bayle, a French Huguenot, argued for tolerance because human reason corrupted by original sin is a poor judge of human action. Only conscience, informed by private faith, can be the ultimate judge. But, if conscience is supreme, and conscience is fundamentally private, then there is no place for public wisdom, expressed in experience, tradition or custom, and embedded in family, clan or culture.
John Locke posited that religious tolerance is expected from the state because matters of religion affect private salvation. By contrast, the state has the public task of preserving order. But, because religion explains the very purpose of human life, reducing religion to a private matter eliminates discussion of purpose from the public sphere, giving the state the task of preserving order without any conception of purpose.
If individuals are supreme, and public wisdom cannot be trusted, and religion is a private matter, then agreement on a purpose all humans share, such as salvation, becomes impossible.
And social arrangements to facilitate that purpose also become impossible. As the author summarizes: “Reducing, as far as possible, the legitimate realm of religion to that of the private life reduces the opportunities for conflict (at least on religious issues) in the public sphere. What is left to discuss in the public arena, therefore, is not the common good that creates society at the level of common affections and common goals, but merely the resolution of different material interests.”
And Conyers's startling practical conclusion is that this tolerance is not benign: Tolerance makes the world safe for power and profit, at the expense of the common good.
These are powerful and provocative ideas and, indeed, the book's strength is its careful treatment of ideas and intellectuals. How these ideas played out in political and economic trends is not as complete. Instead, a few well-chosen examples illustrate the effects of tolerance on power and profit.
One omission struck this Catholic reader as rather glaring. Like the other ideas discussed, the Protestant principle of private interpretation of the Bible strengthens the role of the individual at the expense of other groups, and indirectly strengthens the state. The Protestant principle might also be analyzed as contributing to the misguided tolerance of today.
The author does not offer any explicit political prescriptions, so policy mavens will be disappointed here. Catholic social teaching generally desires to strengthen natural associations, so principles such as solidarity and subsidiarity might yield prescriptions for the future.
With all this said, the book is worth a read, particularly for those interested in the philosophical underpinnings of the modern predicament. It is a creative, and highly Christian, exploration of political philosophy that has fruitful implications for politics, culture, and economics. And, indirectly, some interesting things to say to all Americans in the wake of Sept. 11, 2001.
Steve Michael is a professor of business administration at the University of Illinois.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Steve Michael ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 9/30/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 30 - October 6, 2001 ----- BODY:Catholic Campuses Hurt By Terrorist Attacks
- Santa Clara University junior Deora Bodley, 20, was a psychology and French double major. She was a passenger on United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed near Pittsburgh, Pa.
- Karen Kincaid, 40, a communications attorney in Washington, D.C., started this semester as an adjunct professor at Columbus School of Law of The Catholic University of America. She was a passenger on American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon.
- Leslie Whittington, 45, was an associate professor of public policy at Georgetown University for five years. She was headed to Australia with her husband, Charles Falkenberg, and two daughters, 8-year-old Zoe and 3-year-old Dana, when their flight crashed into the Pentagon.
Georgetown Offers Class About Homosexuals
According to the paper, the course catalog reads:
“There can be no doubt that lesbians and gay men have recently emerged into the cultural spotlight. We will analyze the ‘gay '90s’ through the prism of an historical period in which there has been an explicit encouragement of lesbian and gay civil rights. This course focuses on this cultural ‘sea-change’ (through films, TV, popular magazines), but places those media images in a social context, a context that includes the election of the first president who has embraced gay rights, as well as the new Republican majority and statewide anti-gay initiatives.
“Are old stereotypes being recycled, or are new stereotypes being invented? How do the media construct the ‘new gay visibility?’ ...
“Are gays being introduced into the cultural imagination, only to be trivialized and stereotyped? And, most importantly, what are the ideologies about gay identity being expressed in these representations? ... While this course will focus on the recent media explosion, we will also locate these representations in a cultural-historical context, examining early Hollywood films and early television images as well.”
SII's Galten Among
Ex Corde Honorees
CARDINAL NEWMAN SOCIETY, Sept. 15—The Falls Church, Va.-based Cardinal Newman Society announced recipients of its “Ex Corde Ecclesiae Awards” for the year 2001.
The winners include John Galten, former director of the St. Ignatius Institute at the University of San Francisco, and Mary Cunningham Agee, founder and director of The Nurturing Network. One of the efforts of Agee's organization is to “develop programs for pregnant students” at Catholic colleges, the society said.
A group award was also announced for the founders and editors of Crossroads, an independent student newspaper at Boston College.
The awards will be given during the society's annual conference at The Catholic University of America, Nov. 10-11. Washington's Cardinal Theodore McCarrick will welcome conference participants.
The society also announced Cardinal Avery Dulles as the winner of its John Henry Newman Award “for distinguished service to Catholic higher education.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Quelling Quibbling DATE: 9/30/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 30 - October 6, 2001 ----- BODY:Q When my sons think they're in trouble, they defend themselves with any irrelevant point they can, it seems, just to outargue me.
A It's called quibbling. Most self-respecting kids have it mastered by age 10. Teen-agers perfect the talent, able to quibble at an instant's notice. When cornered, spouses, too, have been heard to quibble.
What is quibbling? It's the art of muddling, sidetracking and confusing. It is spewing verbal clutter amid pointless nit-picking until the target—almost always a parent—collapses from exhaustion, allowing the quibbler to escape responsibility for his actions.
A scenario: Webb has wandered home an hour after school, clearly breaking the house rule, “Go nowhere after school without permission.” Mom, with worry now turned to anger, asks a straightforward question, naively assuming she'll get a straightforward answer.
Mom: Where were you?
Webb (quibble rule #1—never answer the question directly): I asked you last night if I could go over to Wendell's house for a half-hour after school.
Mom: You asked, and I said, “I don't think so.”
Webb: You said, “I don't think so. We'll see what the weather's like.” Faith was there. She heard you. (A master quibbler cites ear-witnesses, making sure they're unavailable during the actual quibble.)
Mom: (getting outquibbled, tries a new tack): Even if you misunderstood me, you were gone an hour, not a half-hour.
Webb: I was at Wendell's for only a half-hour, helping his dad rake leaves (slick move—pointing out responsible behavior while facing charges of irresponsibility). Besides, it takes time to walk there from school and then home.
Mom: It takes 10 minutes at most.
Webb: That's if I cut through peoples' yards, but I don't think it's right to do that. And I had to wait for both red lights, like you said I should. (This kid's a pro.)
Mom (weakening): Why didn't you at least call to tell me where you were?
Webb: I would have, but my feet were dirty and I didn't want to walk through Wendell's house. Plus, I lost track of the time because Wendell's dad talks so much.
This is merely the early phase of a quibble bout that will drag on as long as mom partakes. Webb won't end it. Time is on his side.
The only person to quell quibbling is you, the parent. The moment you suspect what's occurring, typically within Webb's first or second comeback, identify the process: “We're quibbling. The real issue is you didn't get permission to go anywhere after school. Because of that, you're grounded tomorrow night.” Then end the interchange.
Take comfort—in the long run you will be seen as kinder for not quibbling. Quibbling is arguing, and arguments generally don't make for good feelings on either side.
Dr. Ray Guarendi is a clinical psychologist and author.
His Website is kidbrat.com
----- EXCERPT: Family Matters ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dr. Ray Guarendi ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Facts of Life DATE: 9/30/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 30 - October 6, 2001 ----- BODY:MORE BIG-CITY EUROPEANS say they believe in God than did 10 years ago. In a study of cities with a population over 1 million only Paris showed a faith decline -from 55% to 48%.
People who believe in God
Source: European Value Systems survey, cited by Ecumenical News Service Sept. 18
----- EXCERPT: Turning to God ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Angel of God, My Guardian Dear ... DATE: 9/30/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 30 - October 6, 2001 ----- BODY:Ian Thorpe, the Australian gold medalist from the 2000 Olympics, was visiting the World Trade Center the morning of Sept. 11.
Reportedly, he was half way to the observation deck when he realized he had left his camera in the car. Mumbling under his breath, he returned to street level to retrieve it. As he prepared to reenter the building, the attack began. Surely, his guardian angel was with him that day.
In the past few days, we've all heard similar stories. It seems there are thousands of cases of people who were “almost” at the World Trade Center or the Pentagon. Do we really need a national disaster to notice the presence of our guardian angels? We know that God does permit tragic things to happen to people—but we also know that he assigns angels to be our protectors.
These stories—and the Oct. 2 feast of the guardian angels coming up—show us that angels aren't cuddly useless creatures, nor are they imaginary. They're real, they're powerful and they keep us safe.
As parents concerned for the safety for our children, we can and should encourage them to pray to their guardian angels, for their physical and spiritual safety. Even as we do so, we need also to introduce them to these special friends, so that they can begin to form a strong and prayerful relationship of their own.
At our house, this is an organic process which begins very early with the nightly recitation of the traditional Catholic prayer to the guardian angels:
Angel of God, my guardian dear,
To whom God's love commits me here,
Ever this night be at my side,
To light, to guard, to rule and to guide.
Another delightful introduction to guardian angels is found in the stories from The Catholic Children's Treasure Box. In them, we meet a little angel named Wupsy, who is assigned as guardian angel to a child born in pagan Africa. The action centers around the different strategies Wupsy uses to bring the local missionaries to his young charge. Children are captivated by Wupsy, and he makes their own angels more real.
Once Wupsy is mastered, we introduce lives of the saints at family reading time.
Sacred Scripture is full of wonderful angel stories too. In the book of Tobit, Tobias takes a long journey with the angel Raphael, never knowing until the end that he has been in heavenly company. Angels are found freeing the three young men in the Book of Daniel. In the Acts of the Apostles angels walk St. Peter right past the prison guards (boys especially enjoy this story).
As Padre Pio found, our guardian angels are happy to be of service to us, even in the smallest way. His angel was a translator, mine is an alarm clock. Whenever I ask him to wake me for morning Mass, I find myself wide awake at cock crow.
If we make our angels part of our lives, even in these small ways, our children will naturally make them part of theirs. Many of the saints had a kind of running conversation with their angels, which we can imitate. They especially called upon the angels in times of temptation, and those prayers were always answered.
If we've done our job well, our children will be comfortable with their guardian angels, but as they approach their teen years, they may be challenged by a skeptical culture. Yet it is during these years that their need for their angel is greatest, as they face down the temptations of that culture. Now is the time for hard facts. Does the Church really believe in angels?
Father Michael Duesterhaus, administrator of St. William of York Parish in Stafford, Va., points us to the Mass: “One of the key ways to test whether a teaching or devotion of the Church is true is to see whether it is ... used in the prayers of the Church. At each and every Mass [there is ] the invitation to join the angels in praising God; ‘Holy, Holy, Holy ...’ “”
But what of guardian angels? What does the teaching Church have to say about these? Christ is a good place to start. In the Gospel of Matthew, he says: “Take care that you do not despise one of these little ones; for I tell you, in heaven their angels continually see the face of my Father in heaven” (Matthew 18:10).
We can also point our teens to the work of St. Thomas Aquinas. Not for nothing is he known as “The Angelic Doctor.” In the Summa Theologiae, he speaks of guardian angels in particular, “Man, while in this state of life is, as it were, on a road by which he should journey toward heaven. On this road man is threatened by many dangers both from within and without ... and therefore, as guardians are appointed for men who have to pass along an unsafe road, so a guardian angel is assigned to each man as long as he is a wayfarer.”
These teen years can be a time of experimentation, and it is important to battle with good, solid doctrine some of the current pantheist views of angels that our teens might hear. They may hear the term “spirit guide,” or find angels equated with innocent children who have died very young or with the spirits of kindly ancestors.
We see from the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “As purely spiritual creatures angels have intelligence and will: they are personal and immortal creatures, surpassing in perfection all visible creatures, as the splendor of their glory bears witness.”
Being created as pure spirits, they cannot be equated with innocent children, ancestors or other worldly creatures. Yet because they surpass us in power and perfection, they can take on an appearance if they need to, as Raphael did for Tobias.
Ten-year-old Bethany Nash, of Stafford, Va., puts it all in a nutshell when she says, “They help my brother Thomas by keeping him safe when he crawls up the staircase. They watch over him really well.” Indeed watching over us is their main purpose in our lives, as the psalmist says (Psalm 91:11), “For he will give his angels charge of you to guard you in all your ways.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Cyndi Montanaro ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Father Thomas Dufner, Sidewalk Priest DATE: 9/30/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 30 - October 6, 2001 ----- BODY:Every Saturday morning for just over nine years, Father Thomas Dufner has been praying in front of the Robbinsdale (Minnesota) Clinic where up to 1,200 abortions are performed every year.
He's there for the babies, for the mothers, and to be present at what he calls the “new Calvary.”
“Jesus is suffering right now in his least members and we've come to be with him at the cross, in the very place where he is dying. Even though we can't stop the killing any more than Mary or John were able to stop the crucifixion, we can be there,” he said.
Father Dufner is pastor of Holy Family parish in St. Louis Park, Minn. He was invited to the abortion site by members of Rosaries for Life in 1992. Despite extreme weather conditions, opposition by pro-abortion groups, security guards and clinic workers, Father Dufner leads a group of 40 or more people each Saturday morning in a 15-decade rosary and a chaplet of Divine Mercy.
Coming to abortion businesses, he said, is a source of enormous blessings not only for the mothers and babies, but for himself as well.
“I almost wonder,” he added, “if I'm not the chief beneficiary.”
He experienced the spiritual blessings almost from his first day at the clinic when an unbelieving relative converted on his deathbed. “I'm absolutely convinced that the graces were won at this new Calvary,” said Father Dufner. “The graces were there for me to have an impact on this man's life and to anoint him on his death bed.”
Like many other pro-life activists, however, he doesn't always know the impact of his work. He usually doesn't see it in the faces of the women coming and going from their abortions.
But he resolved from the beginning to keep coming, regardless.
“Even if they leave the door of the abortuary angry and upset, some grace is being communicated to them because God loves them and their brothers and sisters are across the way praying for them,” he said. “Regardless of whether we see the effect of our work, we know that it's powerful.”
That power was communicated to a security guard who once worked for the Robbinsdale Clinic, and is now a good friend of Brian Gibson, executive director of Pro-Life Action Ministries, which owns the property next door where the prayer group gathers.
The security guard told Gibson that he was deeply touched by the prayers and the presence of the people with Rosaries for Life, and was influenced by the interaction he had with sidewalk counselors.
“They go together, the sidewalk counseling and prayers,” said Gibson. “We know that the effectiveness of sidewalk counseling increases when people are out there praying. God answers prayers, especially the rosary groups who have come out so consistently. They may not have the direct contact with the women and babies that we're saving, but they are directly involved in it.”
Judi Spencer, a sidewalk counselor at the Robbinsdale Clinic, noted that people leave the clinic all the time and change their minds, but don't tell the counselors.
“You feel so helpless, but we can't know the results,” she said. “If you're only here for the success stories, you wouldn't keep coming.”
The New Troops
In the early 1990s, Father Dufner said the pro-abortion crowds were more prevalent and vocal, shouting and screaming at them. Their presence was more “exhilarating than anything,” he said. “Our biggest crowds came out when there was opposition.”
Today, opposition is more likely to come in the form of a shout from a passing car here and there. Nevertheless, the pro-life message is more important now than ever, Father Dufner said, because people are beginning to realize that abortion rarely has anything to do with saving the life of the mother, as was once claimed.
“Its chief use is as birth control,” he said. “Worse still, the most hardened pro-abortion people admit that the child in the womb is a human life. And they reserve the right to kill it.”
Since Roe v. Wade 28 years ago, a whole generation that initially opposed abortion is passing on. Though the numbers and ranks are changing, Father Dufner sees a vibrancy in the pro-life movement. “We're getting more men and women into our ranks who have chosen abortion and repented. We're getting people who have had big conversions in their lives and they're joining us,” he said.
The now retired Bishop Paul Dudley, who for many years was active at abortion clinics in his Sioux Falls, S.D., diocese, is also excited by the “new crop” of young bishops and young priests who are very active in the Church and the pro-life movement today.
He has come to know Father Dufner well since returning to Minnesota in 1995, and greatly admires his strong commitment, not only to the Church, but to the sacredness of life.
“He is a priest that I would love to clone. I just so admire him for his gift of perseverance, his fidelity as a priest, his fidelity to the Church and his absolute fidelity and commitment to the gift of life. He's a great example.”
Father Dufner said the many years of praying at the abortion clinic has totally changed his life and given him a tremendous gift of courage and spiritual growth. “You mature (in your faith) to the point where you do things not because it's exhilarating, but because it's right,” he said. “I plan to keep on for the rest of my life.”
Barb Ernster writes from Fridley, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: ProLife ProFile ----- EXTENDED BODY: Barb Ernster ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Life Notes DATE: 9/30/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: September 30 - October 6, 2001 ----- BODY:New Life After Sept. 11
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Sept. 20—Two children have already been born to widows of men who died in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade towers.
Gabriel Benjamin Jacobs was born six days after his father, Ariel, died while attending a conference in the restaurant at the top of the Trade Center. Gabriel's grandmother described the boy's mother, Jenna Jacobs, as “a very strong young woman.”
Allison Lee was born to Kellie Lee in Los Angeles two days after her father, Daniel, died aboard American Airlines Flight 11. Daniel Lee worked as a stage carpenter for the Backstreet Boys.
Stem Cell Cure
Tom Stretch inherited a disease of the white blood cells, called chronic granulomatous, that “would probably have led to his death in his 20s,” the report said.
When a daughter, Hanna, was born to the family last November, doctors in Newcastle-upon-Tyne took stem cells from the placenta and transplanted them into Tom.
Proponents of research that does not destroy embryos pointed to the doctors' success as new evidence of the potential of stem cells acquired ethically.
Pro-Life Politician
BBC NEWS ONLINE, Sept. 13—Britain's Conservative party has a new leader with a pro-life voting record.
Iain Duncan Smith, a Catholic, has voted consistently against cloning and euthanasia, “and is reported to be against abortion,” the BBC said.
Smith was elected 61% to 39% over Kenneth Clarke, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Rare Cases
Irish pro-lifers welcomed the decision because it was accompanied by an interpretation that clearly distinguished between “abortion carried out with the intention of taking the life of the baby ... and the unavoidable death of the baby resulting from essential treatment to protect the life of the mother.”
The interpretation also said that such interventions to save mothers were rare.
Youth Take On the U.N.
In 1999, with several friends, Anna Halpine formed the World Youth Alliance in response to the “off-the-wall ideas of the [U.N.] youth caucus.”
The group now represents about one million young people from around the world who want to stop today's pro-abortion “assault” on fundamental human rights.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: To Pray, to Act, to Fight: A Hero's Life DATE: 10/07/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:SAN RAMON, Calif. — For the nation, the defining moment of 38-year-old Thomas Burnett Jr.'s life came Sept. 11 when he decided to thwart the actions of United Airlines Flight 93. But for Burnett it came on April 25, 1992, when he started his own family.
A press statement released by Tom's sisters after his death stated that “the most important thing in Tom's life was his family.” Indeed, not only was Burnett able to spend time with his parents the weekend before his death, but his family also played a role in his presence on Flight 93, bound from Newark to San Francisco.
Originally scheduled for a later flight, Burnett booked an earlier flight in order to get back home to his wife and three daughters — twin 5-year-olds a 3-year old. Burnett spoke by phone with his wife four times before the plane went down. Much of what is known about the plane's last moments is a result of those calls.
The story of Burnett's life from his birth to that final struggle is the story of a man of faith, a daily Mass-goer, who, say friends and family, would never go down without a fight.
His mother, Beverly, said Tom Burnett's very survival as a baby was a miracle. The family had suffered previous miscarriages and Tom was born prematurely on May 29, 1963. At his memorial service his older sister, Martha, said that “his feet were no bigger than a thumb. For the first month our mother had to feed him every hour and squeeze his cheeks to get him to take a bottle.”
As a boy, he had a brave spirit and a sense of humor, recalled Msgr. Joseph Slepicka, a longtime family friend. “When Tommy was about 8 or 9 years old, his father, Tom Sr., and I took him on his first pheasant hunting trip,” he said. “During our trips I would say Mass every day. I remember on this occasion we were saying Mass in the home of one of the hunting party members after a successful day of hunting. During the sign of peace, Tommy leaned over, grabbed the paw of the owner's golden retriever and shook it.”
He also had a strong faith. “Tom always took his faith seriously,” said Msgr. Slepicka. “He had a love for the Thomases — Thomas Aquinas, Thomas á Kempis and Thomas Merton.”
Msgr. Slepicka added that he would always say Aquinas’ Prayer Before a Crucifix after Mass. That prayer ended up on a prayer card at Burnett's memorial Mass.
Burnett's college roommate, Vince Fahnlander, recalled that he was a natural leader. “People liked him and gravitated toward him,” said Fahnlander. Burnett was a backup quarterback for St. John's University in Collegeville, Minn.
When it came time to get married, Burnett took the step very seriously. “Tom was a deliberate decision maker,” said Msgr. Slepicka, who presided over the marriage of Tom and Deena. “He went through a rigorous process in deciding whether or not he should get married.”
“At the time they met, Tom was flying a lot and Deena was a stewardess with Delta Airlines,” added the priest. “After they were married and started having children, Deena stopped working. She later went through RCIA and became Catholic.”
His character served him well in the business world. Burnett first met co-worker and friend Keith Grossman 12 years ago at McGaw Laboratories. When Grossman began work in 1996 for Thoratec, a medical-equipment manufacturer headquartered in Pleasanton, Calif., he immediately began asking Burnett to work there, too. Later that year, Burnett joined Thoratec where he served as senior vice president and chief operating officer.
“Tom could have been successful at whatever he chose to do,” said Grossman.
Msgr. Slepicka thinks he knows one reason why. “Whether he wanted to accomplish something in business or had other needs, he would ask for prayers,” said the priest. “Earlier this year, he called and asked if I would pray for Madison, one of his twin daughters. She had been diagnosed with a debilitating disease. As it turned out, an error had been made in the testing and his daughter was fine.”
Msgr. Slepicka wasn't the only one Burnett turned to for prayers. In a family statement, Burnett's sisters said, “Our brother often called upon the prayers of the Poor Clare sisters to pray for his family and was grateful for their vocation of prayer.”
His faith was the center of his life. At the memorial service, his wife, Deena, told friends that Tom had been attending daily Mass for years.
On Sept. 11, “when the family learned what was happening, the first thing they did was call me,” said Msgr. Slepicka. “They said, ‘Tommy's in trouble. He's on one of the hijacked planes. Could you pray for him?’”
Tom Burnett was devoted to his family. “I am a lucky man,” Tom reportedly told a friend once. “I love Deena. She is a great companion, a faithful Christian, a wonderful mother, and she can shoot a .30-06” caliber rifle.
Keith Grossman, his friend and business partner, said Burnett changed his life for his family. “Once they began having children he really gave up some of the things he liked to do, like golf,” he said. “He didn't want to spend the time” away from the family.
Asked what she will tell her daughters about their father, Deena said, “I'll tell them that he loved them and that he wanted them even before they were ever born.”
Those who knew him have not been surprised to learn that Burnett decided to do something about the hijacking of Flight 93. “When I heard that he had probably acted out against the hijackers it didn't surprise me at all,” said college roommate Fahnlander. “He was very patriotic.”
All agreed that, faced with the possibility of his plane being used as a missile, Burnett would not have been content to simply sit back.
“He was always a challenger,” said Msgr. Slepicka. “If we caught a fish, he would catch a bigger one. If we shot a moose, he'd shoot a bigger one. He was a man of action. That was the kind of person he was.”
In his first call to his wife, Tom explained that the plane had been hijacked by men claiming to have a bomb and that a passenger had been stabbed. He urged Deena to call the authorities and hung up. After Deena contacted the FBI, Tom called a second time.
After discovering the World Trade Center attacks, this time Tom inquired whether the planes that had crashed into the towers had been passenger planes. During a third call, Deena explained that another plane had crashed into the Pentagon. Tom asked her further questions trying to sort out what was happening and hung up.
What Deena didn't know at the time was that Tom and at least four other passengers were hatching a plan to thwart the hijackers.
Fifteen seconds later, Tom made what would be his final call.
During that call, Tom told Deena that a group of them were going to do something. Deena urged him not to, but Tom insisted, “No, we've got to do something.” He told Deena he loved her and hung up. It was the last time Deena would hear from Tom. The plane crashed in rural southwestern Pennsylvania with 45 people on board, leaving Deena with the difficult job of telling her children.
Deena told NBC, “I sat them on the bed and told them their Dad was not coming home.” She explained that bad people did something to the airplane to make it crash and that all the people in the airplane died.
When they asked where he was, Deena told them he was in heaven. Their 3-year-old asked, “Why does he want to be with Jesus instead of us?”
Deena later told their priest, Father Frank Colacicco of St. Isidore's Catholic Church in Danville, Calif., what may have motivated Tom to do what he did.
“He always believed that God gave us the choice for evil or good — that was his philosophy of life,” said Deena. “He figured that these people were doing evil instead of good, and he decided to do something about it.”
Tom Burnett's own words might also offer a clue to his motivation. During a recent merger with another medical company, Burnett spoke to the employees of the merging health-care company.
“The struggle … to preserve life enriches all of us and our humanity is fortified by the process. To deem life important and to act affects all of those who bear witness to it,” he said in his speech. “What we accomplish in life — our pursuits, our passions — echo in posterity through our children, our neighbors and ultimately in our souls.”
Tim Drake is the editor of www.Catholic.net, another publication of Circle Media.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Vatican Letter Censures Women-Deacon Courses DATE: 10/07/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — After learning that courses preparing women to be ordained as deacons are being planned in several countries, three Vatican congregations have demanded they stop.
The brief notification from the Congregations for the Doctrine of the Faith, for the Clergy, and for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments was approved by Pope John Paul II. It restates the Church's position on women's ordinations and expresses concern that deacon training courses would generate “pastoral disorientation,” creating false hopes lacking a solid doctrinal foundation.
Since the Church does not foresee such ordinations, the notification says, “It is not licit to enact initiatives which, in some way, aim to prepare candidates for diaconal ordination.” Other ample opportunities for service and collaboration are open to women in the Church, the statement continues.
According to the Catechism (No. 1570), deacons “share in Christ's mission and grace in a special way,” assisting the bishop and priests in celebrating the Eucharist, distributing Communion, assisting at and blessing marriages, proclaiming the Gospel, preaching, presiding over funerals, and participating in various ministries of charity.
The International Theological Commission has been studying the question of women and the diaconate in light of the use of the term “deaconess” in the early Church.
However, Father Giles Dimock, dean and professor of sacraments and liturgy at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., said that although there were deaconesses in the early Church who assisted at the immersion baptism of other women to insure their modesty, these were not ordained.
“If we were to revive deaconesses, the first question is what would they do?” he asked. “We don't have a large number of adults being baptized and we don't baptize without clothing.”
Furthermore, he said, if women were allowed to be deaconesses today, the Holy See is concerned that they might erroneously think they were deacons who could then be ordained priests or bishops.
Father Dimock said although there is some evidence that there were female deacons in the Eastern Church, these were not considered exactly the same as men deacons. “And it certainly was never understood that they could be ordained to the priesthood,” he added.
The diaconal programs referred to in the Vatican notification are believed to be in Austria and Germany. Phyllis Zagano, author of Holy Saturday, a recent book that presents a case for the ordination of women deacons, said there has been a stronger call in German-speaking countries for admitting women to the diaconate than in the United States.
Ordination Question
Erin Hanley, communications director for the Fairfax, Va.-based Women's Ordination Conference, said the conference is in the process of developing a statement on ordination to the diaconate.
“The judgment that women cannot be ordained priests does not apply to the question of whether women can be ordained deacons,” she said. “They are two separate ministries. The priesthood is not the diaconate and the diaconate is not the priesthood.”
Zagano said the priest acts “in persona Christi,” in the person of Christ, while the deacon works “in nomine Christi,” in the name of Christ. The priest's ministry, she said, is a ministry of Christ, whereas the deacon's is a ministry of the Church.
She claims the two roles have been confused because the priest in modern times has taken on some of the functions of the diaconate.
In his 1994 apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis(Priestly Ordination) Pope John Paul II used strong language in reiterating the Church's authority to ordain only men to the priesthood. He wrote:
“Although the teaching that priestly ordination is to be reserved to men alone has been preserved by the constant and universal Tradition of the Church and firmly taught by the Magisterium in its more recent documents, at the present time in some places it is nonetheless considered still open to debate, or the Church's judgment that women are not to be admitted to ordination is considered to have a merely disciplinary force.
“Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church's divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Luke 22:32) I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful” (No. 4).
The apostolic letter does not mention the diaconate. The Sept. 14 Notification on the Diaconal Ordination of Women clarifies the point: “Our offices have received from several countries signs of courses that are being planned or under way, directly or indirectly aimed at the diaconal ordination of women. … Since ecclesial ordination does not foresee such an ordination, it is not licit to enact initiatives which, in some way, aim to prepare candidates for diaconal ordination” (Nos. 1-2).
Beautiful Differences
Jennifer Ferrara of Reading, Pa., a former Lutheran pastor who converted to the Catholic faith in 1998, sees great wisdom in reserving the diaconate to men.
“I'm sure that many of the people who are interested in this are looking at it as a steppingstone. Once women are doing that, then there will be even more pressure for them to become ordained as priests. You already see that with female parish assistants.”
Ferrara, who was a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America for 10 years before converting, said that when she first considered becoming Catholic, she was still in favor of women's ordination. Now, she is adamantly opposed to it.
She said she now believes the God-ordained differences between men and women make ordination of women as Catholic priests impossible.
“At the heart of that diversity between men and women lies the differences between motherhood and fatherhood and that priests are in fact fathers, spiritual fathers,” she said. “Just as women cannot be biological fathers, they cannot be spiritual fathers.”
The blurring of lines between male and female, Ferrara said, is primarily what is behind the call for women priests. “If the Church were to give in to that, it would give in to the chaos in our culture surrounding this issue,” she contended.
She said those who insist upon ordaining women to elevate their status are in reality denigrating the status of women, especially motherhood.
“You don't raise the status of women by saying they should be men,” she said. “By doing so, you reject all that is noble and holy about being wives and mothers; thereby denying the importance of the feminine in the divine economy of salvation, that is, women as symbols of the church.”
Father Dimock agreed. “The tendency is to seek equality by having women do the same as men,” he said. “Of course, men and women are beautifully different.”
As a spokeswoman for the Women's Ordination Conference, Hanley said she sees the latest notification from the Vatican on women deacons as “just another example of the barriers the Church hierarchy is creating for women, which is sad, in our opinion.”
Father Dimock said different roles in the Church for men and women need to be seen in the broader perspective of complementarity, an idea the Second Vatican Council attempted to restore, based on St. Paul's notion of different gifts in the body of Christ.
Women who say that the only way to have “power” in the Church is to be ordained, he said, are missing the point of priesthood, which is service.
But Father Dimock added that they're also forgetting about the great women Doctors of the Church and the strong women saints.
“Years ago, many a bishop would quake before an abbess general,” he said. “To say women didn't have power is ludicrous.”
Judy Roberts is based in Millbury, Ohio.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Judy Roberts ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Woman Dies in Canadian Abortion-Pill Testing DATE: 10/07/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:VANCOUVER, British Columbia — On Aug. 28, a woman entered an unidentified Canadian hospital and complained of severe abdominal cramping, bleeding, dizziness and weakness. She was participating in a trial of the chemical abortion cocktail RU-486 and had begun an abortion five days earlier.
Three days later, she was dead.
Doctors who examined her Aug. 28 thought her symptoms were normal for the chemical abortion procedure and sent her home. The following day she was admitted to hospital. On Sept. 1, she died of a gangrene infection that had spread rapidly from her uterus releasing toxins that poisoned her vital organs and eventually stopped her heart.
The woman — and more than 800 other women who have participated in the Canadian RU-486 trial — were not told about a stern letter issued last year by the manufacturer of misopristol, one of the two drugs used in RU-486, warning that misopristol's use in an abortion could cause “serious adverse events” including death. Dr. Ellen Wiebe of Vancouver, the abortionist supervising the Canadian study, told the Register that a specific decision was made to not inform the women about the drug manufacturer's warning.
The New York-based Population Council, owner of North American rights to RU-486 and sponsor of the Canadian trial, refused to reveal any personal details about the deceased woman. “We're not disclosing any of that information to protect the privacy of the individual and her family,” said public information officer Christina Horzepa.
Horzepa said the study has been temporarily suspended while Canadian health authorities and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration investigate the death.
RU-486 is a combination of two drugs that induce abortion within the first seven weeks of pregnancy. The first drug, mifepristone, withers the developing fetus by cutting off vital hormones to the unborn child's nutrition supply, the placenta. The second drug — misopristol — induces uterine contractions to expel the dead fetus.
The Canadian government has not yet approved RU-486 for sale, but the FDA okayed it in September 2000 for use in the United States under protest from pro-life groups, who argued that standard safety protocols were ignored in the rush to approve the abortion drug cocktail.
Adding to the bitter controversy, just weeks before the FDA approved RU-486, G.D. Searle, the manufacturer of misopristol, issued a “physician alert” to the FDA and to every obstetrician and gynecologist in the country, warning that misopristol “is not approved for the induction of labor or abortion.”
The Peapack, N.J.-based subsidiary of Pharmacia Inc. said that misopristol, sold under the shelf name Cytotec, was developed and clinically tested only to treat gastric ulcers. Searle warned, “Serious adverse events reported following off-label use of Cytotec in pregnant women include maternal or fetal death, uterine hyperstimulation, rupture or perforation requiring uterine surgical repair, hysterectomy … amniotic fluid embolism, vaginal bleeding, retained placenta, shock, fetal bradycardia and pelvic pain.”
The FDA, which had recommended that misopristol be used in combination with mifepristone as part of RU-486 treatment, posted Searle's warning letter on its Web site, but did not withdraw its recommendation.
The Population Council would not release a copy of the informed-consent papers women in the trial signed before taking part in the Canadian study, and Horzepa refused to say if the women in the trial were aware of the Searle letter.
Roslyn Tremblay, a spokes-woman for Canada's federal health department, also declined to confirm if the women in the study were aware of the warning. “Within the Canadian context, any research information is proprietary information and would have to be released by the company,” said Tremblay.
But abortionist Wiebe disclosed that none of the women were informed about Searle's physician alert. “They [Searle] were trying to get out of any liability,” Wiebe said. “It [the letter] was a terrible thing because we need [misopristol]. We use it for miscarriages as well as induction of labor.”
The informed-consent papers were approved by five separate “ethics boards” in each of the five Canadian cities where RU-486 is being tested — Quebec, Sherbrooke, Toronto, Vancouver and Winnipeg. Searle's warnings were not included in the information because, Wiebe said, “They felt [the warnings] were not based on good evidence.”
Doctors Ralph Hale and Stanley Zinberg complained in a New England Journal of Medicine editorial in January that the firm's letter had prompted some hospitals to refuse to allow misopristol to be used for abortions. Hale and Zinberg demanded that Searle issue a retraction, and Wiebe claimed last week that, “Searle rescinded that letter.”
But Mark Wolfe, manager of external communications at Pharmacia, denied Oct. 1 that the letter had ever been retracted. In fact, Michael Friedman, the company's senior vice president of research and development, issued a response, also published in the New England Journal of Medicine, to Hale's and Zinberg's criticisms.
Friedman reiterated Searle's warning against use of misopristol in abortion cocktails and insisted the drug should be prescribed only for ulcers. “This is the only approved indication for Cytotec, and we are prohibited by FDA regulations from promoting or even suggesting its use for any other purpose,” he said.
Infection, the specific cause of death for the Canadian woman, was not listed as a risk on the informed-consent papers either, according to Wiebe. “It wasn't considered necessary by our ethics board,” he said. “The reason is that less than half of 1% of women in other clinical trials developed infections.”
Wiebe said the woman succumbed to a rare infection caused by a bacterium called clostridium sordelli. It is part of the body's naturally occurring flora and doctors don't know why it turns gangrenous in rare instances. Wiebe said her review of medical literature for the past 40 years yielded few cases, all but one among pregnant women who had miscarried, had surgical abortions, or had complicated deliveries.
Richard Carpentier, executive director of Ottawa's National Council on Ethics in Human Research, said that in Canadian clinical trials, “the standard is to disclose anything the patient should know to make an informed decision.”
Carpentier cited a 1989 court case, Weiss v. Solomon, in which a man died of a rare allergic reaction while testing a product. The court ruled that although the risk was small, the possibility was grave enough that he should have been informed of it.
Asked if patients in a study should be informed of a letter from the manufacturer of a product warning about its adverse effects, Carpentier said, “Of course.” But he added that in the case of RU-486, the paperwork would have to be reviewed to decide if the women in the trial were sufficiently informed.
Dr. Beverly Winikoff, program director for the reproductive health program of the Population Council, told Reuters news service, “We do not want to resume the study until we are sure everything is okay, but as of now we have no reason to believe that the death [of the Canadian woman] is drug-related or study-related.”
Randall O‘Bannon, director of education and research at the National Right to Life Committee, points out that ordinary RU-486 symptoms may mask underlying complications of the abortion drug cocktail. “If you're already having nausea and cramping and diarrhea, how do you know you're not dealing with underlying serious side effects?” he said.
One in 100 women was hospitalized in U.S. trials, under carefully controlled clinical circumstances, O‘Bannon said. He wondered what the rates are under ordinary circumstances, where follow-up is likely to be much less rigorous after the abortion cocktail is prescribed.
Vancouver family physician Will Johnston, president of Physicians for Life in Canada, thinks is difficult to absolve the drugs of any involvement in the death.
Interrupting a healthy pregnancy by abortion always exposes a woman to risks, Johnston said. During a natural miscarriage, hormonal signals have been telling the mother's body for some time that the situation isn't right, preparing for the necessary expulsion of the dead fetus.
In a chemical abortion, by contrast, RU-486 interrupts healthy signals to dislodge the fetus. Misopristol, charged with expelling the baby, has to work against a healthy body clinging to its placenta and fetus. Johnston warned this increases the chance of dead tissue being left behind and the chances of infection.
Johnston compared the maternal death rate — 5 maternal deaths per 100,000 women — to the much higher death rate for RU-486 in the abortion drug trial. Extrapolating from that trial, the number would be 125 maternal deaths per 100,000 women.
Concluded Johnston, “The one death in 800 [in the RU-486 trial] has to be compared with the overwhelming safety of natural pregnancy and childbirth.”
Celeste McGovern writes from Portland, Oregon.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Celeste Mcgovern ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: 26 Faces Replaced by God's DATE: 10/07/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:St. Mary's Parish in Middletown, N.J., 10 miles south of Manhattan, lost 26 parishioners on Sept. 11.
That's more people than the entire town lost in World War II. Another 50 of pastor Father John Dobrosky's parishioners have lost relatives who are presumed dead. The priest spoke with Register features correspondent Tim Drake about the community's loss.
What were you doing when the World Trade Center was attacked?
I had just come down the stairs ready for a day's work when someone told me to come watch the television. Our secretaries said that a plane had hit the World Trade Center and we could see that the tower was burning. Our jaws dropped. Then we saw another plane hit and we knew that something was terribly wrong. As the news flashes blurted out reports about another plane hitting the Pentagon I told the secretaries, “Ladies, we had better brace for a terrible day.”
How did your parish respond to the tragedy?
People were streaming to church for refuge throughout the day, flocking to our two daily Masses, and attending eucharistic adoration, where many joined in spontaneous prayer. We use an old convent, which used to house 40 nuns, as a visitation house. There we set up some 54 volunteers — clinicians, retired nurses, social workers, a psychologist and our priests and nuns to meet families’ needs. Thanks to these volunteers, the center has been going around the clock non-stop.
It's been overwhelming. Usually it's like pulling teeth to get anyone to do something, but I think people realize that this is something that could have happened to them. It's been a big wake-up call. So many people have said, “I'm willing to do whatever you need.”
When did it first sink in that St. Mary's was going to have so many casualties?
At first we had no idea. During spontaneous prayer in the chapel our pastoral associate realized that there were quite a number of people that were either parishioners or directly related to parishioners for whom people were praying.
Either that afternoon or the next day, Bishop John Smith called the parish to inquire about numbers. When he heard our number he said that we might have been the hardest hit and he wanted to come down to celebrate Mass.
The following Sunday we had about 1,600 people attend the bishop's Mass. We also held an evening prayer service, which was open to the community at large, which was attended by about 900 people. It was a wonderful expression of neighbors praying constantly.
Did the majority of missing parishioners work in the World Trade Center or were they rescue workers?xs
We are slowly finding out who was who. I believe that a majority of the people worked for the Port Authority. Others worked for brokerage houses.
How, as pastor, do you deal with so great a loss among your faithful?
I think the crisis, as it's ongoing, blends one day into another. I haven't had time to check my emotions; I'm just trying to meet the needs of the people. Each individual, each family, each situation, and each funeral is different. Nothing that we learn quite prepares us for something of this magnitude.
The one good thing that we have going is that we are a community of believers — family, neighbors and community. That has helped. Our health ministry has also helped enormously. The presence of the priests and the sisters has made a big difference.
How is the loss affecting your parish school?
Walking through our grammar school and high school we visited each classroom and asked students whether they personally knew someone that had either died or was missing. Eighty percent of the hands went up in every classroom. Connections run deep. Many students lost aunts or uncles or cousins. We are in this together. It's important to say that those people that I knew or knew of, that were lost, were professional people with very successful careers. They used their God-given talents to reach their levels of achievement. These people were executives, but they knew where they stood spiritually. They put their children through Catholic schools, they volunteered at our church fair, they painted classrooms, and they hung drapes.
Many of them had a chance to get out of the building, but they made sure that those people under their care got out first. Isn't that the ultimate Gospel value? Giving up your life for a friend? When I preach, I parallel that act of evil [the attack], which lasted about three hours, with Christ's time on the cross. I tell the parishioners to teach their children that they saw the face of God in the midst of all this — in strangers helping strangers and in people putting their lives on the line and giving them up freely to help others. We preach that we want people to live their faith.
This last week their faith has come alive. It has shown its face.
----- EXCERPT: Pastor of Attack's Hardest-Hit Parish ----- EXTENDED BODY: John M. Dobrosky ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: With New Bill, California Heads Toward Homosexual Marriage DATE: 10/07/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:SACRAMENTO, Calif. — It got little attention, because it passed the California House and Senate in the week following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
But a new legislative measure in California puts that state on the brink of okaying homosexual marriage.
Assembly Bill 25 would give 13 new marriagelike rights to California's “domestic partners,” a category which includes homosexual couples and elderly heterosexual couples. Gov. Gray Davis has until Oct. 14 to sign the measure, along with more than 800 other bills currently on his desk. The governor has indicated he will sign the domestic partners legislation, spokeswoman Hilary McLean told Knight Ridder.
Some pro-family groups are involved in an 11th-hour bid to stop the bill. Concerned that the bill contradicts the 61% of California voters who approved last year's Defense of Marriage referendum, they have delivered 15,000 petitions to the governor asking him to veto the measure, Knight Ridder reported.
Karen Holgate, a pro-family lobbyist with the Capital Resource Institute, said the bill “equates domestic partners with spouses and blood relatives.”
The bill would enable a domestic partner to:
E file wrongful death or negligence suits if a partner dies.
E adopt a partner's child.
E receive coverage for disability, hospital, medical or surgical expenses if a partner has group health coverage.
E become eligible for continued health coverage if a partner is a public employee and dies.
E file disability claims on behalf of a partner if he or she is mentally unable to file such claims.
E act as a surrogate to make personal health care decision for a partner under circumstances as defined by law.
E make health care decisions for a seriously injured or ill partner.
E be treated the same as a spouse in a statutory will.
E inherit property from a d-ceased partner.
Rep. Carole Midgen, DSan Francisco, authored the bill. Her Web site gives the bill's requirements:
“Domestic partners must be adults, unmarried, and unrelated by blood. Domestic Partners must also be members of the same sex, unless both parties are senior citizens. Same sex domestic partners must simply be over 18 years of age. In order for an opposite sex couple to register as domestic partners, both individuals must also be over the age of 62 and either eligible for Social Security pension benefits or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) as an aged individual.”
Marriage Next?
Holgate, whose organization is affiliated with Focus on the Family, sees this as a first step to full-fledged homosexual marriage. She said activists have said that “they will not stop until they get gay marriage in California.”
Robin Todolsky, a spokesperson for Sheila Kuehl, D-Los Angeles, a homosexual who supported the new bill, said that “Sen. Kuehl, in principle, is in favor of civil unions” — the marriage-like arrangement legalized in Vermont. But she added that the senator “wouldn't want to force it.”
Last year, 61% of Californians voted for Proposition 22, the Defense of Marriage Initiative. “Before there can be legislation like [civil unions] there would have to be a change in the voters,” said Todolsky. But she thinks such a change and such legislation “probably will happen.”
Todolsky said she already sees sentiment shifting, noting that several religious denominations already bless homosexual marriage. “Two adults in possession of their faculties ought to have that commitment supported by the state just as other unions are,” he said.
It's not that simple, said psychologist Joseph Nicolosi, known for helping homosexuals embrace a heterosexual life.
“We don't want to decrease the civil rights of people,” he said, but the legislation is dangerous because “the psychological message, especially to young people, is that this is a normal, natural alternative [to marriage].”
In fact, he said, homosexual partnerships very rarely last, and homosexuals have high rates of depression and early deaths.
“The gay lifestyle has much more pathology, much more maladjustment,” he said.
In addition to the increased likelihood of diseases, Nicolosi says that “It is self- deceiving and leads to much more unhappiness, depression, anxiety, loneliness, group sex, [etc.] … Not all [of these problems] are because society is ‘homophobic’ it's intrinsic to the lifestyle.”
Karen Holgate said the sanctity of marriage as such is under attack. She said that legislation like AB 25 is trying to “marginalize marriage as a ‘religious’ institution” by “providing equal rights for domestic partners.”
Carol Hogan, a spokeswoman for the California Catholic Conference, said that California's bishops opposed this legislation and sent three letters to lawmakers highlighting their concerns.
These concerns, she said, were centered on “the sanctity of marriage.” Hogan also said that the bishops “will continue to oppose such legislation” in the future.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Andrew Walther ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 10/07/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:Teens Say Morals and Religion the Key to Chastity
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Sept. 25 — A new survey commissioned by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy found that teenagers say morals, religion and parental influences played major roles in their decisions about sexual behavior, the wire service reported.
The survey of 502 teens found that half cited their parents as the people who most influenced their decisions about sex. Far fewer cited friends.
Thirty-nine percent of teen-agers said that “morals, values and/or religious beliefs” were the most important factor in their decisions about sex. Only 17% said fear of sexually transmitted diseases was more important.
In a separate review of research on teen-agers’ sexual behavior and religion, the campaign found that teens who attended services frequently were “less likely to have permissive attitudes about sex.” Girls’ behavior was more likely to correspond to their moral or religious beliefs than boys’.
Catholic and “fundamentalist Protestant” girls were particularly likely to be abstinent. Those who did have sex were less likely to use contraception.
The campaign deemed the research insufficient so far.
Catholic and Jewish Groups Sign Major Agreement in NJ
Representatives of the Diocese of Camden, the Jewish Federation of Southern New Jersey, the Jewish Community Relations Council and the Tri-County Board of Rabbis signed the document during a ceremony at the local Jewish Community Center.
The agreement was crafted over a decade. It encourages cooperation between parallel charitable groups, and unity in fighting antiSemitism, anti-Catholicism, racism and religious intolerance, among other provisions. The Diocese of Rochester, N.Y. signed a similar agreement with the local Jewish community over five years ago.
“Only in America can we do what we have just done,” Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio told the Courier-Post.
Homosexual Ministry Conference Sparks Controversy
The group ministers to homosexuals and their families. Some local Catholics claimed the group is “notorious for its dissent from Church teaching on homosexuality,” but Bishop Curtin said the meeting would not endorse homosexual relationships or dissent from the Church.
The meeting featured a speech by Father Augustine DiNoia, director of the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington, and workshops on topics such as how parents can listen to their homosexual children and how homosexuals can accept God's love.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Alaska Court Puts Assisted Suicide to Sleep DATE: 10/07/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:ANCHORAGE, Alaska — With a unanimous decision by its state Supreme Court, Alaska became the latest state to reject physician-assisted suicide Sept. 21.
The court said it would leave the question to lawmakers. “Because the controversy surrounding physician-assisted suicide is so firmly rooted in questions of social policy … it is a quintessentially legislative matter,” Justice Alexander O. Bryner wrote in his opinion, according to the Associated Press. In 1996, Alaska lawmakers rejected a bill to legalize assisted suicide.
Sampson v. Alaska pitted Kevin Sampson, an Anchorage man diagnosed with AIDS in 1992, against Alaska. He was joined by an elderly woman physician known only as Jane Doe, who had breast cancer. Both plaintiffs died last year. Their suit sought an exemption from Alaska law, under which a doctor who participates in a suicide can be charged with manslaughter.
The state Supreme Court found that Alaska's privacy clause means the government can restrict personal privacy of doctors and patients only if it doesn't harm others. “And a physician who assists in a suicide undeniably causes harm to others,” Bryner said.
Oregon is the only state which allows physician-assisted suicide. At least 70 people have used the law to end their lives since it was passed in 1997, reported Associated Press.
“We are obviously very pleased,” Robert Flint, spokesman for the Alaska Catholic Conference, told the Register.
“The Alaska Supreme Court has been very ‘progressive’ on life issues, on abortion and abortion funding, for example,” said Flint, whose organization filed an amicus brief in the suicide case.
He noted that the high court has a reputation for “adventurous” legal interpretations. “This time,” he said, “they weren't willing to be so adventurous.”
Writing the decision for the court, Justice Bryner said that the state had an interest in recognizing that “the terminally ill are a class of persons who need protection from family, social and economic pressures, and who are often particularly vulnerable to such pressures because of chronic pain, depression, and the effects of medication.”
No Slippery Slope?
Jennifer Rudinger, spokeswoman for the Alaska Civil Liberties Union, which supported physician-assisted suicide in the case, said she was not surprised by the verdict in Sampson v. State of Alaska.
“I went to the oral arguments last November. I could tell they were grappling with this issue,” Rudinger told the Register. “I came out of the court without pessimism or optimism.”
She noted that organizations that support physician-assisted suicide targeted Alaska because of its constitutional protections for privacy and liberty.
“Compassion in Dying and the Hemlock Society decided on Alaska, because we have a privacy clause and a liberty clause,” Rudinger said. “If any state would define this as an affirmative right, Alaska would.”
She said the court should not have been worried about events in Oregon, where physician-assisted suicide is legal.
“It's essentially a test case in Oregon. So far, there's no reason to believe that the slippery slope will occur in other states,” she said.
But Dr. Gregory Hamilton, a physician in Portland, Ore., who specializes in palliative care, rejected Rudinger's assessment. He cited the case of Kate Cheney, a demented woman who, he thinks, died against her will.
“Under pressure from her family, the HMO administered physician-assisted suicide,” Hamilton told the Register.
“Physician-assisted suicide is not a private act,” he said. “When families and financial institutions are involved, it puts vulnerable people under jeopardy. That's what the judges were worried about. These things are happening in Oregon, and we are going to document this.”
Handicapped Applaud
The legal defeat in Alaska “is wonderful news,” said James Bopp, Jr., president of the Terre Haute, Ind.-based National Legal Center for the Medically Dependent and Disabled.
“It seems like they've reached the end of the road, to have the courts impose physician-assisted suicide on America,” Bopp told the Register. “And they have picked some of the most liberal jurisdictions in the country.”
He pointed to recent court cases in Florida and California as proof that the judiciary is unwilling to define a “right” to physician-assisted suicide. He also noted that voters in Michigan and Maine rejected referenda that would legalize the practice.
And the federal government might put a stop to physician-assisted suicide in Oregon, Bopp said.
“The DEA had a policy that physicians could not prescribe drugs to kill patients,” he said. Former Attorney General Janet Reno reversed that policy, he noted. “Now we'll probably see actions on behalf of the U.S. government to shut the door on this,” said Bopp, who predicted that the current attorney general, John Ashcroft, would reverse Reno's ruling.
In the meantime, Rudinger acknowledged that physician-assisted suicide would not arrive in Alaska in the near future.
“At this point, the Alaska Civil Liberties Union is not planning to bring this to the legislature,” she said. Rudinger added that, if such legislation were introduced, then her organization would support it, but she acknowledged that “it probably would not pass.”
Which makes the court victory that much more consoling to Flint.
“The struggle goes on,” he said, “but it is a great victory.”
Joshua Mercer writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 10/07/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:Italy Tightens Security at Vatican
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, Sept. 24 — The Italian government has authorized the use of the army to protect sites that might be targets for terrorists, the wire service reported.
Sept. 11's attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon have led to tighter security around the globe, and Italy is no exception. The interior ministry and the defense ministry issued a statement to all security services authorizing the use of the army to protect chemical factories, arms depots, fuel dumps and explosives storage facilities. Similar measures were also taken during the Gulf War in 1991.
However, Italy also heightened security at a wide array of locations ranging from aqueducts to restaurants frequented by foreigners. The Vatican also received extra protection, possibly as a result of evidence that terrorists linked to Osama Bin Laden had earlier planned to target Pope John Paul II for assassination.
Pope Gives Only First Half of Speech
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Sept. 25 — Pope John Paul II, showing signs of fatigue, broke off in the middle of a speech in the Apostolic Cathedral in Etchmiadzin, Armenia, the wire service reported.
After giving part of the address in English, the Pope sat down and handed the prepared text over to a priest, who completed the speech in Armenian. Papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said that the changeover had been planned in advance, as the Vatican has done in the past when the Pope is delivering speeches in languages he does not speak. At a later stop in the visit, the Pope rebounded, walking about 50 yards without the use of his cane and waving it cheerfully in the air.
The Pope gave the Etchmiadzin speech only 90 minutes after arriving in Armenia. He was met at the airport by Armenian President Robert Kocharian and the leader of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Catholicos Karekin II. Etchmiadzin, 15 miles west of the capital city of Yerevan, is the seat of the Armenian Apostolic Church, which split with the Vatican after the Council of Chalcedon in the fifth century.
National Television of Armenia, the country's television channel, reported that the Pope had studied the Armenian language in preparation for his trip. His visit is part of the former Soviet republic's celebration of the 1,700th anniversary of its proclamation of Christianity as the state religion.
Vatican Receives First Islamic Female Ambassador
Dincmen's husband, Ustun Dincmen, is a retired ambassador. He will accompany his wife to the Vatican in order to research Ottoman documents in the Vatican's archives.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Pope John Paul Calls For Daily Rosary For World Peace DATE: 10/07/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:MEXICO CITY — In response to the world's heightened awareness of terrorism since Sept. 11, Pope John Paul II is again turning to the rosary as one of the Church's greatest instruments for peace.
Speaking Sept. 20 to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square, the Holy Father said: “Given the present international context, I appeal to all — individuals, families and communities — to pray the rosary for peace, if possible daily, so that the world will be preserved from the dreadful scourge of terrorism.”
The Pope also reminded his listeners that October is the month when the Church venerates Mary as Queen of the Holy Rosary.
“The terrible tragedy of last Sept. 11 will be remembered as a dark day in the history of humanity,” he said. “In the face of this, the Church intends to be faithful to her prophetic charism and reminds all men of their duty to build a future of peace for the human family.
“Of course, peace is not separate from justice,” the Pope said, “but the latter must always be carried out with mercy and love.”
John Paul II added: “Jews, Christians and Muslims adore the One God. Therefore, the three religions have the vocation to unity and peace. May God grant the faithful of the Church to be in the front line in the search for justice, in the rejection of violence, and in the commitment to be agents of peace.
‘May the Virgin Mary, Queen of Peace, intercede for the whole of humanity,” he said, “so that hatred and death will never have the last word!”
The Pope's call for prayer highlighted the upcoming Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, Oct. 7, celebrated by Catholics around the world at rosary rallies and events. The feast day was established by Pope Pius V in 1571 after the Christian fleet under the command of Don Juan of Austria defeated the much larger Muslim fleet at the Battle of Lepanto, saving Christendom through the intercession of the rosary.
Since then, the prayer has been credited with a myriad of conversions, the peaceful overthrow of communist governments in the 20th century, and countless other miracles.
One of the 20th century's best known advocates of Mary's inter-cession for humanity was Holy Cross Father Patrick Petyon. His “Rosary Crusades” drew crowds of as large as a million in various locations around the world, gathered to pray and to hear his trademark phrase: “The family that prays together stays together.”
Holy Cross Father Tom Feeley, vice-postulator of Father Peyton's cause for canonization and director of Holy Cross Family Ministries, sees this particular time of crisis in the world as a good time for people to develop or increase their devotion to the rosary. “When a tragedy like this occurs, people begin to see how fragile life is,” noted Father Feeley. “They put their faith in stocks, and you see what happened.” Now that people are beginning to reevaluate their priorities, Father Feeley hopes they “will return to God as the bedrock of their life” — especially by praying the family rosary.
Father Feeley also lost a Holy Cross colleague and former assistant of Father Peyton, Father Francis Grogan, in one of the hijacked airplanes on Sept. 11.
Devotion to the rosary in the United States has been on the rise since last month's attacks. Peter Sonski, director of communications for the national shrine of the United States, the Ba-silica of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., said “there has been a special focus on the rosary” at the shrine. He also noted that the proximity of the terrorist attacks to October, the month of the rosary, will lead more people to take up this powerful prayer. “Sometimes Providence is on your side,” he said
Claretian Missionary Father Robert Billet, who is based in Los Angeles and has been compiling an encyclopedia of Marian shrines and churches around the world, told the Register that the rosary is something that can be used by anyone, from “the simple to the sophisticated.”
Father Billet said he doesn't believe “Fatima's warnings are over,” and hopes that more people will “say the rosary every day for peace,” as Our Lady asked in 1917. He believes that much good can come of an increase in praying the rosary. “It only would have taken ten people to save [Sodom and Gomorrah],” said Father Billet. Throughout history, though, he says there is a worrisome pattern of ignoring such calls. “Those in Nineveh were the only people that listened” to a call for prayer and repentance, he explained.
Father Feeley, who recently interviewed Dolores Hope, wife of entertainer and recent convert Bob Hope, agrees with Father Billet about the power of the rosary because he has seen the prayer work wonders. Reminiscing about his predecessor, he recalled: “Father Peyton went to Hollywood and brought Hollywood to its knees.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Andrew Walther ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Bonds Between Heaven and Earth DATE: 10/07/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:Register Summary
In his homily at an outdoor Mass Sept. 23 in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, the Pope reached out to the country's Muslim majority and asked them to join Christians in building a “civilization of love” that rejects violence and hatred.
The Pope's call for harmony in the Square of the Motherland seemed to resonate with the estimated 50,000 people in attendance, including many Muslims. Christians and Muslims in Kazakhstan have good relations, and the Pope urged them to keep cooperating in an effort to fulfill God's will.
John Paul II's Mass was celebrated on an altar platform built in the shape of a yurt, the traditional nomadic hut of the Kazak plains.
“There is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all” (1 Tim 2:5).
“There is one God”. The Apostle proclaims before all else the absolute oneness of God. This is a truth which Christians inherited from the children of Israel and which they share with Muslims: it is faith in the one God, “Lord of heaven and earth” (Luke 10:21), almighty and merciful.
In the name of this one God, I turn to the people of deep and ancient religious traditions, the people of Kazakhstan. I turn as well to those who belong to no religion and to those who are searching for truth. To them let me repeat the well-known words of St. Paul, which it was my joy to hear repeated last May at the Areopagus in Athens: “[God] is not far from each one of us, for in him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:27-28). And I recall what was written by your great poet Abai Kunanbai: “Can his existence really be doubted / if every thing on the earth bears witness to him?” (Poetry, 14).
‘Poor for Our Sake’
“There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus”. After proclaiming the mystery of God, the Apostle contemplates Christ, the one mediator of salvation. His is a mediation, St. Paul notes in another of his letters, which works through poverty: “Though he was rich, he became poor for your sake, so that by his poverty you might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).
Jesus “did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped” (Philippians 2:6); he did not want to appear before our humanity, which is poor and fragile, in his overwhelming superiority. Had he done so, he would have obeyed the logic not of God but of the potentates of this world, denounced unequivocally by the prophets of Israel, like Amos, from whom today's first reading is taken.
The life of Jesus was in full harmony with the saving plan of the Father, “who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). He bore faithful witness to the divine will, giving “himself as a ransom for all” (1 Timothy 2:6). Giving himself completely in love, Jesus won for us friendship with God, which had been lost because of sin. This “logic of love” is what he holds out to us, asking us to live it above all through generosity to those in need. It is a logic which can bring together Christians and Muslims, and commit them to work together for the “civilization of love”. It is a logic which overcomes all the cunning of this world and allows us to make true friends who will welcome us “into the eternal dwelling-places” (Luke 16:9), into the “homeland” of heaven.
Earthly and Heavenly Homelands
Dearly beloved, humanity's homeland is the Kingdom of heaven! How compelling it is for us to ponder this truth in this place, in the Square which bears the name of the Motherland, and where stands the monument symbolizing it. The Second Vatican Council taught that there is a link between human history and the Kingdom of God, between the various stages of society's progress and the final goal towards which humanity is called by the free decision of God (see Gaudium et Spes, 33-39).
The 10th anniversary of the independence of Kazakhstan, which you celebrate this year, prompts us to view things in this perspective. What link is there between this earthly homeland, with its values and goals, and the heavenly homeland, into which the whole human family is called to enter beyond every injustice and conflict? The Council's answer is enlightening: “Earthly progress must be distinguished from the unfolding of the Kingdom of Christ, but to the extent that it contributes to a better ordering of human society, it is most important for the Kingdom of God” (ibid., 39).
The ‘logic of love’ can bring together Christians and Muslims, and commit them to work together for the ‘civilization of love.’
Christians Serve The Common Good
Christians are both inhabitants of this world and citizens of the Kingdom of heaven. They commit themselves wholeheartedly to the building of earthly society, but they remain focused upon the good things of eternity, as if looking to a superior and surpassing model in order to implement it ever more effectively in everyday life.
Christianity does not lead to alienation from the tasks of this earth. If at times, in some quite particular situations, it gives this impression, that is because many Christians do not live as they should. But in truth, when it is lived as it should be, Christianity is a leaven in society, producing growth and maturity on the human level and opening society to the transcendent dimension of the Kingdom of Christ, in which the new humanity will be fully accomplished.
This spiritual dynamism draws strength from prayer, as today's second reading made clear. And in this celebration we want to pray for Kazakhstan and its inhabitants, so that this vast nation, with all its ethnic, cultural and religious variety, will grow stronger in justice, solidarity and peace. May it progress on the basis in particular of cooperation between Christians and Muslims, committed day by day, side by side, in the effort to fulfil God's will.
Christians Serve
The Common Good
Yet prayer must always be accompanied by appropriate works. Following Christ's example, the Church never separates evangelization from human promotion, and she urges the faithful in every circumstance to work for social renewal and progress.
Dear brothers and sisters, may the “Mother Land” of Kazakhstan find in you her loving and concerned children, faithful to the spiritual and cultural heritage received from your forebears and able to adapt this heritage to new demands.
In keeping with the Gospel, distinguish yourself by your humility and integrity, offering your talents for the sake of the common good and showing special concern for the weakest and most disadvantaged. Respect for each one's rights, even when that person has different personal beliefs, is the foundation of all truly human harmony.
In deep and practical ways, have an attitude of communion among yourselves and towards everyone, drawing inspiration from what the Acts of the Apostles tell us of the first community of believers (Acts 2:44-45; 4:32). At the Eucharistic table, your charity is nourished: bear witness to it in fraternal love and in service to the poor, the sick and the abandoned. Bring people together and work for reconciliation and peace between individuals and groups, nurturing genuine dialogue so that the truth will always emerge.
Love the family! Defend and promote it as the basic cell of human society; nurture it as the prime sanctuary of life. Give great care to the preparation of engaged couples and be close to young married couples, so that they will be for their children and the whole community an eloquent testimony of God's love. …
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 10/07/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:Nun Killed and Priest Kidnapped in Colombia
Amnesty International blamed the killing on a right-wing paramilitary group that had targeted human rights workers before. Officials said they had no suspects.
Just days later, Florida's Orlando Sentinel reported a Slovak priest was kidnapped on a dangerous highway in Colombia. The most likely kidnappers of Father Pavol Sochulak were leftist guerrillas, members of the National Liberation Army.
Hentoff: Sudan Harbors Terrorists and Slaveholders
There have been reports that President Bush may veto the act because of a proposed amendment to ban from American capital markets (including stock exchanges) foreign oil companies that invest in Sudan's rich oil fields. Sudan's Catholic bishops recently accused the companies of “profiting from gross and systematic violations of human rights.” The companies pay money to the Khartoum government, which uses slave raids and bombing of Christian schools and hospitals as part of its war against Christians and animists in the country's south.
In April, the State Department issued a report naming Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism. The report charged that Sudan sheltered members of terrorist groups linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda group, and that bin Laden had a “working agreement” with Sudan's government.
Pakistan's Christian Minority Waits in Fear
Christians are a tiny minority in majority-Muslim Pakistan — there are about 4 million Christians in a country of 140 million. Although the country's constitution guarantees religious freedom, the law also punishes blasphemy against Islam. Courts have overruled blasphemy convictions, but Christians charged with blasphemy have been murdered before their cases even reach court, and a judge who overturned a conviction was assassinated. President Pervez Musharraf proposed amending the law last year, but dropped the issue when Muslim groups threatened protests.
Muslim zealots often attack Christians. Many fear that the attacks will increase if the United States attacks Afghanistan. One Catholic priest said there were rumors that a mullah had urged his flock to kill two Christians for every Muslim killed in Afghanistan.
Bishop Alexander John Malik, of Lahore, the head of the Church of Pakistan, said he had written to the authorities seeking protection for Christians and their institutions.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Just War Is an Obligation of Charity DATE: 10/07/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:We do not know precisely at this point what military and other responses are being planned after to the attack of Sept. 11, and therefore can make no judgment as to whether they are feasible, prudent, or just.
We do know some things for certain, however.
We know the first obligation of government is the well-being of its citizens, and that protection is essential to well-being. And there is a duty of justice to punish the aggressor. There is a necessary connection between punishment and protection. We punish in order to do justice, and we punish in order to deter and prevent, and thereby protect.
The traditional criteria of morally justified war, usually understood to apply to conflicts between sovereign states, apply also here. An international terrorist network may be seen as a kind of shadow state, probably operating with the assistance of recognized states.
It is also worth remembering that in St. Augustine, for instance, war may be justly waged against brigands and gangsters who do not constitute a state. Although it rubs against prevailing sentiment, just war in response to aggression can also be an act of love. In the Summa Theologiae (II-II.40), Thomas Aquinas discusses just war not in the section on justice but in the section on love.
Just war, aimed at establishing just peace, is the mandatory course of charity. But was Sept. 11 an act of war or simply a horrendous crime?
Those suspected of perpetrating the act have for years made no secret of the fact that they believe they are at war with America and, if they are the guilty parties, they certainly intended it as an act of war. The United States has declared it to be an act of war. We are rightly reminded that this is not a war against Islam but against the diseased mix of religion and utopian ideology called radical Islam or, more accurately, Islamism.
At the same time, the West is now being compelled to recognize itself more clearly for what most Muslims perceive it to be — the Christian West, or Christendom. We cannot understand Sept. 11 unless we understand it as a part of a history that goes back to the seventh century; the Islamic conquest of northern Africa and Spain, the Christian efforts at reconquest (commonly called the Crusades), and up through Islam's more recent centuries of colonial rule by the West and much resented exclusion from the challenges and benefits of modernity.
While refusing to cast this latest phase of that history as a war of religions, everyone is now forced to appreciate more fully the prescient arguments of Harvard's Samuel Huntington regarding a “clash of civilizations.” The current conflict is part of a very long story, and we must brace ourselves for the likelihood that it will be a very long time before it is resolved, if it is resolved.
Sept. 11 recalled America from an extended and mainly hedonistic holiday from history. Pray that we have the courage, endurance and wisdom to pursue a course of justice and love worthy of the civilization that is ours.
Father Richard John Neuhaus is editor in chief of First Things magazine
In New York, a publication of the Institute on Religion in Public Life.
----- EXCERPT: PERSPECTIVE ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father Richard John Neuhaus ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Letters DATE: 10/07/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:Catholic Schools Should Nourish Faith
This is a comment on Tim Drake's recent article on Catholic education (“Back to School Means Many Things These Days,” Aug. 26-Sept.1). He points out that many parents prefer Catholic schools for such reasons as discipline, low teacher-to-student ratios and emphasis on academics. While these are positive values, they are not the reasons why Catholic schools were founded. The main purpose was not merely to avoid the secularism of the public schools, but to teach the Catholic faith.
I submit that, in too many cases, the Catholic faith is not being well presented to the students. Many of these schools are more preoccupied about SAT scores than helping their students come to eternal life in heaven after having learned on earth to know, love and serve God. It comes as a great shock to many parents to find that, after having graduated from Catholic schools themselves, many of their children apostatize from the faith.
A recent phenomenon, and a welcome one, is the rise of home-school education by the parents themselves. This is based not only on the mistrust of the public schools, but also of the Catholic schools. On the positive side, these parents are becoming more aware that the natural teachers of children are the parents. The Church has always taught this, and parents must never be complacent in delegating the exercise of this right and duty to others.
In earlier times, when there was a sufficient supply of good priests, sisters and brothers in Catholic schools — where the faith was steadfastly taught and nourished by frequent Mass and other Catholic devotions — it was easier for parents to rely confidently on Catholic schools. This is no longer the case. Too many parents recall their own good experience in these schools and naively think the same situation is present today. It is not.
Hopefully our Catholic parents will consider the faithful transmission of the heritage of our faith their most important priority. Faith must be constantly nourished. Otherwise it will die like an unwatered plant.
FATHER RAYMOND V. DUNN
Palo Alto, California
Recall Ridge
I think it is critical that we all oppose the nomination of Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge to be the new secretary of “Home-land Security.”
Tom Ridge is pro-abortion and has been banned from speaking in Church facilities by the bishop of his home diocese.
How long before Ridge defines pro-life protesters as threats to “Homeland Security?” Why are we elevating a man of low character (supporting killing babies is about as low as you can go) to higher office? Will not this post be a steppingstone for Ridge to run for president?
Ridge is already being talked of as Bush's right-hand man — Cheney is obviously not going to run. It is even likely that Cheney may step down and that Ridge will be tapped for VP. I'm a Catholic and a Republican and the last thing I want to see is a pro-abort Catholic with the GOP nomination for president in the future. We have to stop Ridge now.
My advice to other Register readers: Write to President Bush and your U.S. Senators as soon as possible.
ANDREW SICREE
State College, Pennsylvania
Just Catholic
Regarding “The Register Is Not Conservative, I Told the Bishop,” (Aug. 12-18):
It's an interesting question. You aren't like the diocesan papers. You aren't like that other national Catholic newspaper. You never mention prominent dissenters, thank God.
You are just a good Catholic weekly.
I have read the liberal and conservative papers — I don't have the time for them. I am orthodox, and I love your paper. Does that say something?
MEL GOINS
Tucson, Arizona
Stem Cell Parable
I am writing in response to a letter on stem cells (“Partisan on Stem Cells?” Sept. 9-15) by Mr. Patrick Delaney, an associate director of the American Life League (ALL).
For years, I have been a strong supporter of ALL, and I still am. I also agree that President Bush's personal position on life does not qualify him as strictly pro-life; but I do not think Mr. Delaney realizes it is possible to support Bush's stem-cell decision on nonpartisan grounds.
For those who are reluctant to lend their support to Bush's decision on moral grounds, because existing stem-cell lines were derived from the evil deed of killing live embryos some time ago, I offer the following consideration:
Suppose there is alive today a rich man — someone like the one Our Lord spoke of in a parable, Luke 12:16-20. Let us say he is ten times richer than the next richest man alive. Suppose he has two sons, both very idealistic. Both would fund research beneficial to human health and other good deeds, if they had the father's wealth.
On his own initiative and without the knowledge of his brother, suppose the older son, William, makes arrangements to have their father killed in order to get the father's wealth. This older son has certainly committed a murder, even though by proxy. The question is: Can we in good conscience support the younger brother, George, when he decides to use the father's wealth, which he has inherited as a result of an evil deed, for good purposes? Readers may draw their own conclusions in this case.
Now, there is a parallel between this parable and the government's role in funding stem-cell research. The stem cells of an embryo are like the wealth of the father. They become available only after the embryo has been killed.
Under the administration of President Clinton, the National Institutes of Health established guidelines that allow the destruction of human embryos and the harvesting of stem cells for research. Because President Clinton failed (purposefully or conveniently) to intervene, and thus allowed the guidelines to take effect, he is like the older son in the parable who arranged to have the father killed in order to obtain his inheritance.
Because President Bush proposed funding research which makes use only of existing stem-cell lines, he is like the younger son in the parable who uses his inheritance, which is the fruit of an evil deed, for the good of others.
I pray that this parable may be helpful to some in arriving at a decision in regard to supporting Bush's stem-cell directive and to make that decision known to their legislators.
JAMES B.T. CHU
New Haven, Connecticut
The writer is a professor at Yale University.
We're Right to Fight Back
Father Michael Orsi's just war analysis (“After Sept. 11, What is a Just War?” Sept. 23) omitted one critical point. Criterion No. 4 on proportionality, as stated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, also includes this sentence: “The power of modern means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition.”
As shocking as the events of Sept. 11 were, even greater horrors could await us.
We now know that terrorists will stop at nothing in their assault on America. This includes using such weapons of mass destruction as biological and chemical agents, as well as nuclear bombs.
There is chillling evidence that terrorist organizations may have some, if not all, of these capabilities now.
If this is not a just war (not to mention a war of national survival), there has never been one.
F. DOUGLAS KNEIBERT
Sedalia, Missouri
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: From the Rubble of Rome DATE: 10/07/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:The past experience of the consequences of terrorism in the United States, when hijacked airliners crashed into the World Trade Center, has affected all Americans. It was the worst day in the history of our country. So many innocent people perished — the result of such unfathomable wickedness — and for these victims and their families all Americans continue to pray. We pray for protection of our nation, for wisdom for our leaders, and for the suffering victims of terrorism in our country and throughout the world.
This photo, of a child presenting an American flag to Pope Pius XII after World War II, is a reminder of past terrorism and a symbol of the present demonstration of respect and love for the red, white and blue by the American people.
I am reminded of the year 1943, when millions of Jews and other Europeans suffered the horrors of the Holocaust. The Eternal City was bombed during a two-hour attack. The Holy Father hurried from the Vatican to the streets of Rome. He stood in the midst of the terrorized people, as buildings collapsed in piles of smoldering rubble and bombs exploded on all sides. The Romans ran toward him for guidance and strength. With hands and cassock smeared with the blood of the dead and the wounded, he blessed them. Then, Pope Pius XII consoled his flock and took care of the immediate needs of the victims. He was acclaimed “Defensor Civitatis.”
Today, Americans look toward their leaders for inspiration as they help sustain the victims of terrorism and continue to carry the American flag with love and pride in the United States of America.
MARGHERITA MARCHIONE
Morristown, New Jersey
The writer is a sister of the congregation Religious Teachers Filippini and the author of Pope Pius XII: Architect for Peace (Paulist Press, 2000).
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Opinion ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Know the Rosary And You'll Find You Know Christ DATE: 10/07/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:Like many evangelical protestants, Jeffrey Johnson found it difficult to stomach the Catholic Church's devotion to Mary.
Born and Raised in Fayetteville, N.C., Jeff believed that the Catholic Church's devotion to Mary was misguided, to say the least. His main objection was that Catholics venerate Mary so much that they obscure the basic belief in Jesus Christ as the only Savoir of the world. Two years ago something extraordinary happened in Jeff's life that changed his way of thinking regarding the Church's devotion to Mary: He started to pray the rosary.
How did it all happen? In a recent phone conversation, Jeff told me, “I began a couple of years ago to study the Catholic Church's devotion of the rosary in order to discredit it. To my surprise, the more I studied the rosary, the more I learned about Christ.” When I asked Jeff what initially motivated him to pray the rosary, he responded immediately: “The mysteries. They helped me to focus and reflect on the life of Christ.”
It's not surprising that, not long after Jeff started praying the rosary, he felt God was calling him to become Catholic. During the Easter Vigil last year, Jeff was received into the Church.
Jeff and I share this experience in common. For I, too, began praying the rosary before becoming a Catholic.
Few Catholics recognize that the rosary has a very attractive ecumenical dimension for some Protestants. Like Jeff, I experienced a spiritual affinity for the rosary because of its Christocentricity. Praying the rosary didn't dim the light of Christ in my life; on the contrary, it helped it to shine out more clearly. The fact that the prayers of the rosary were strongly biblical helped me, when I was Protestant, to recognize its credibility as a profoundly Christian devotion. Through the rosary, I would come to realize that there could be no competition between devotion to Christ and devotion to Mary.
Indeed, devotion to Mary cannot be correctly understood except in the light of Christ, from whom Mary received all that makes her great. Consequently, true devotion to Mary is truly Christocentric.
The fact that the rosary points to Christ makes it an agent for ecumenical unity. Meditating often on the mysteries of the rosary helped me to arrive to the conclusion that Mary is a perfected model of how we ought to live as Christians. In the mystery of the Annunciation, I was always very impressed how Mary said Yes to be the Mother of God: Let it be done unto me according to your word. She didn't demand any conditions from God. She just said Yes.
October is the month of the rosary and the Pope has called for daily rosaries after Sept. 11.
This is our everyday challenge as Christians: to say Yes to God in every circumstance of our life. To live Mary's unconditional Yes to God each day with faith and love is what makes ordinary Christian men and women into saints.
The mystery of the visitation narrates how Mary set out quickly to a town in the hill country of Judah to help her cousin Elizabeth, who was pregnant with John the Baptist. Here Mary practices an active charity. Her love for others is more than words. It is works, as well. Mary's example of service to neighbor reminds us that there can be no true love of God without a vivacious love for others. In short, Mary's entire life summarizes the two great commandments of our Lord: Love of God above all things and love of neighbor.
Praying the rosary convinced me that every Christian should venerate the Virgin Mary with special devotion because she is, as the “Hail Mary” states: “Mother of God.” In other words, the source of Mary's dignity rests on the truth that she is mother of the Redeemer. When we call Mary the Mother of God, we are not using an honorary title. We are stating a reality.
But Mary's motherhood is not merely physical. It is spiritual, too. On the cross, Jesus said to his mother, “ Woman, behold your son” and, to the beloved disciple, “Behold your mother.” All Christians should, like the beloved disciple, take Mary into their homes; that is to say, their lives. To let Mary, as a mother, into our lives is to trust in her intercession: Holy Mary, Mother of God, Pray for us.
We see Mary exercising her motherly intercession at the wedding of Cana. As she interceded to Christ for the needs of the couple at Cana, she continues to intercede to her Son for the many needs that men and women have today. Some may wonder if Mary's intercession contradicts St. Paul's assertion to Timothy: “There is only one mediator between God and mankind, himself a man, Christ Jesus …” When speaking about the role of Mary's intercession, the Second Vatican Council teaches: “Mary's maternal function toward mankind in no way obscures or diminishes the unique mediation of Christ, but rather shows its efficacy.”
October, the month of the rosary, has a special meaning for people like Jeff and myself who, as Protestants, discovered a great spiritual treasure in the rosary. I'm sure that Our Lady of the Rosary will continue to be for all Christians the Stella Maris (star of the sea) that leads to Christ and his Church.
Father Andrew McNair teaches at Mater Ecclesiae International Center of Studies in Greenville, Rhode Island.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Andrew Mcnair Lc ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: The Obligations of War, the Preference for Peace DATE: 10/07/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:In its explication of the commandment “You should love your neighbor as yourself,” the Catechism teaches about the conditions for just war — and the Church's preference for peace. The Catechism's text follows.
Peace
2302 By recalling the commandment, “You shall not kill,” our Lord asked for peace of heart and denounced murderous anger and hatred as immoral.
Anger is a desire for revenge. “To desire vengeance in order to do evil to someone who should be punished is illicit,” but it is praiseworthy to impose restitution “to correct vices and maintain justice.” If anger reaches the point of a deliberate desire to kill or seriously wound a neighbor, it is gravely against charity; it is a mortal sin. The Lord says, “Everyone who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment.”
2303 Deliberate hatred is contrary to charity. Hatred of the neighbor is a sin when one deliberately wishes him evil. Hatred of the neighbor is a grave sin when one deliberately desires him grave harm. “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.”
2304 Respect for and development of human life require peace. Peace is not merely the absence of war, and it is not limited to maintaining a balance of powers between adversaries. Peace cannot be attained on earth without safeguarding the goods of persons, free communication among men, respect for the dignity of persons and peoples, and the assiduous practice of fraternity. Peace is “the tranquillity of order.” Peace is the work of justice and the effect of charity.
2305 Earthly peace is the image and fruit of the peace of Christ, the messianic “Prince of Peace.” By the blood of his Cross, “in his own person he killed the hostility,” he reconciled men with God and made his Church the sacrament of the unity of the human race and of its union with God. “He is our peace.” He has declared: “Blessed are the peace-makers.”
2306 Those who renounce violence and bloodshed and, in order to safeguard human rights, make use of those means of defense available to the weakest, bear witness to evangelical charity, provided they do so without harming the rights and obligations of other men and societies. They bear legitimate witness to the gravity of the physical and moral risks of recourse to violence, with all its destruction and death.
Avoiding War
2307 The fifth commandment forbids the intentional destruction of human life. Because of the evils and injustices that accompany all war, the Church insistently urges everyone to prayer and to action so that the divine Goodness may free us from the ancient bondage of war.
2308 All citizens and all governments are obliged to work for the avoidance of war.
However, “as long as the danger of war persists and there is no international authority with the necessary competence and power, governments cannot be denied the right of lawful self-defense, once all peace efforts have failed.”
2309 The strict conditions for legitimate defense by military force require rigorous consideration. The gravity of such a decision makes it subject to rigorous conditions of moral legitimacy. At one and the same time:
E the damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain;
E all other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective;
E there must be serious prospects of success;
E the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated. The power of modem means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition.
‘The strict conditions for legitimate defense by military force require rigorous consideration.’
These are the traditional elements enumerated in what is called the “just war” doctrine.
The evaluation of these conditions for moral legitimacy belongs to the prudential judgment of those who have responsibility for the common good.
2310 Public authorities, in this case, have the right and duty to impose on citizens the obligations necessary for national defense.
Those who are sworn to serve their country in the armed forces are servants of the security and freedom of nations. If they carry out their duty honorably, they truly contribute to the common good of the nation and the maintenance of peace.
2311 Public authorities should make equitable provision for those who for reasons of conscience refuse to bear arms; these are nonetheless obliged to serve the human community in some other way.
2312 The Church and human reason both assert the permanent validity of the moral law during armed conflict. “The mere fact that war has regrettably broken out does not mean that everything becomes licit between the warring parties.”
2313 Non-combatants, wounded soldiers, and prisoners must be respected and treated humanely.
Actions deliberately contrary to the law of nations and to its universal principles are crimes, as are the orders that command such actions. Blind obedience does not suffice to excuse those who carry them out. Thus the extermination of a people, nation, or ethnic minority must be condemned as a mortal sin. One is morally bound to resist orders that command genocide.
2314 “Every act of war directed to the indiscriminate destruction of whole cities or vast areas with their inhabitants is a crime against God and man, which merits firm and unequivocal condemnation.” A danger of modern warfare is that it provides the opportunity to those who possess modern scientific weapons especially atomic, biological, or chemical weapons — to commit such crimes.
2315 The accumulation of arms strikes many as a paradoxically suitable way of deterring potential adversaries from war. They see it as the most effective means of ensuring peace among nations. This method of deterrence gives rise to strong moral reservations. The arms race does not ensure peace. Far from eliminating the causes of war, it risks aggravating them. Spending enormous sums to produce ever new types of weapons impedes efforts to aid needy populations; it thwarts the development of peoples. Over-armament multiplies reasons for conflict and increases the danger of escalation.
2316 The production and the sale of arms affect the common good of nations and of the international community. Hence public authorities have the right and duty to regulate them. The short-term pursuit of private or collective interests cannot legitimate undertakings that promote violence and conflict among nations and compromise the international juridical order.
2317 Injustice, excessive economic or social inequalities, envy, distrust, and pride raging among men and nations constantly threaten peace and cause wars. Everything done to overcome these disorders contributes to building up peace and avoiding war:
“Insofar as men are sinners, the threat of war hangs over them and will so continue until Christ comes again; but insofar as they can vanquish sin by coming together in charity, violence itself will be vanquished and these words will be fulfilled: ‘They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more’” (Gaudium et Spes, No. 78).
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Why It Is Necessary to Pledge Allegiance to the Flag DATE: 10/07/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:Suddenly, the American flag is everywhere — not only overhead, but also on lapel pins, shirts, ties, billboards.
But not every American is on board. In Dade County, Fla., three firefighters were suspended after they refused to ride on a fire truck because it was flying an American flag.
The flag, the firefighters said, is a sign of oppression to African-Americans (yes, the American flag — not the Confederate flag). A few public school districts have refused to fly the flag because it would allegedly discriminate against foreign students and some teachers or parents might disapprove of the flag's symbolism. Certain members of the press have refused to don American colors because it would be a sign that they favor America in the battle against terrorism and hence mar their reporting objectivity. In the past, certain Muslims have refused to show respect for the flag because, like the firemen, they believe it is a sign of oppression.
Such things make many Americans wince — almost by instinct. That's because, at the heart of the flag question are deeper questions, about the meaning of societies and what human community counts for.
What is society? It is, in Plato's words, man writ large. A society reflects the people that constitute it. If a group of brigands live as outlaws in the mountains, it's no exaggeration to call that group a society of criminals. If people from China live and congregate in a particular neighborhood, theirs is a Chinese community.
In order to understand society, we must understand humans. What is a person? He is a lot of things, but for present purposes we need to understand that he is a belief holder. Every person holds a wide assortment of beliefs, whether they're called religious convictions, political positions, economic persuasions, personal value systems or something else. No one goes through life without a web of beliefs.
If society is man writ large, and humans are belief holders, then what does that say about a society? Precisely this: It, too, will hold beliefs.
Unfortunately, a large segment of our population resists this fundamental principle, opting instead for a thing called “the open society,” a favorite ideal of liberal thinkers throughout the 20th century. It is a basic premise of the open society that society must not have any beliefs, and public authority should never express a preference among beliefs. Here's how political philosopher Willmoore Kendall described it: “Society can have no orthodoxy, no public truth, no standard, upon whose validity it is entitled to insist … all questions are for it open questions, and must publicly be treated as open.”
The open-society ideal was hatched in that hotbed of utopian thinking, 19th-century Europe and America, with an assortment of other dream theories, such as communism, “Social Gospel” progressivism, eugenics, and social Darwinism. The open-society theory is usually traced to 1859 and J.S. Mill's essay “On Liberty.” Unlike the other forms of utopianism that gained little, if any, success in modern American history, the open-society theory has strongly influenced American life over the past 50 years.
A striking reminder of this came in 1992, when the Supreme Court, in upholding abortion rights, declared: “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.”
The challenge presented by eccentric beliefs about the flag is a perfect snapshot of the fundamental problem with the theory of the open society: Society must hold beliefs because at some point it will be forced to choose. In the current situation, it is being forced to choose between eccentric beliefs about the flag and most Americans’ patriotic pride in the flag. If society has no beliefs at its side, it will have no criteria by which to choose, and the results are potentially absurd, like a few school districts’ decision to remove American flags from classroom walls.
When we cringe at disrespect for the flag, we aren't reacting against “free speech” or differing opinions.
We are reacting because we know that as a society, we do hold a set of beliefs. In the wake of the terrorist attacks, I think we're beginning to see the need to shore up the core set of beliefs around which our country must coalesce. When presented with two sets of mutually exclusive beliefs, which should prevail?
Obviously, the set of beliefs that is consistent with our society's principles and our nation's foremost duty to preserve itself. This is a necessity if we expect America to survive as a free society.
Eric Scheske, an attorney in Sturgis, Michigan, is a contributing editor of Gilbert! magazine.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eric Scheske ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary TITLE: In France, Rock-Solid Evidence of American Fortitude DATE: 10/07/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:The church in Ste. Mere Eglise has become a pilgrimage spot for D-Day veterans and a must-see stop for those with an interest in 20th-century history.
As of Sept. 11 it will also stand as an inspiration to our generation — a reminder that our nation has faced a formidable foe determined to see our demise in the past, and we have prevailed.
Many of the Catholic churches in Normandy, France, bear battle scars from World War II.
The church in Ste. Mere Eglise, therefore, is not unique in having walls that are marked with nicks and gashes from heavy gunfire. However, the parish and the town also keep a more human reminder of the events that took place in early June 1944. Hanging from the steeple of the church is a life-size model of a U.S. paratrooper.
The model memorializes the story of Pvt. John Steele, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR), who was dropped into Normandy in the early hours of June 6, 1944 — D-Day — as part of Operation Overlord. During the descent, his parachute became entangled on the steeple. He hung there for a couple hours, pretending to be dead, before he was cut down and captured by the Germans.
Seeing the replica of the paratrooper caught on the outside of the church of course reminded me of Steele's story (made famous by the book and movie The Longest Day) but, in a greater sense, it really is emblematic of the price that was paid for the liberation of Ste. Mere Eglise. The figure serves as a catalyst for the imagination. Stand in the square and picture paratroopers raining down from the sky. Understand that their descent was anything but peaceful.
These men were not supposed to land in the town center. Poor weather conditions and antiaircraft fire had forced a good percentage of the airborne landing (not just those of Steele's platoon) off course.
Unfortunately for those who unexpectedly found themselves descending into the town square of Ste. Mere Eglise, a fire in the middle of the night had awakened many of the townspeople as well as the German occupiers. They all were out on the streets helping to battle the blaze and, therefore, the Germans were able to react quickly to the invasion. The men descending in the parachutes were defenseless and suffered many casualties.
Although the Allies had not intended on landing directly in Ste. Mere Eglise, the town was considered to be of great strategic importance. According to historian Stephen Ambrose in D-Day, June 6 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II, capturing the town meant gaining control of a main road from Caen to Cherbourg and the isolation of German troops to the north in the Cotentin peninsula. Ste. Mere Eglise, therefore, was one of the main D-Day targets of the U.S. Airborne.
By the time additional U.S. para-troopers arrived in the town around 4 a.m., the action had subsided and the Germans actually had gone to bed. The Americans were able to take control of Ste. Mere Eglise relatively easily at this point, but holding on to it proved difficult as the Germans also knew the value of the town. Members of the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment spent the day staving off counterattacks.
In Their Honor
As I sat in Sunday Mass in the Ste. Mere Eglise church, I noticed that a majority of the congregation has white hair. I was moved to think that many of them probably have lived in the town their entire lives and witnessed its liberation first hand.
For those of us who did not, a visit to the church in Ste. Mere Eglise cannot help us completely understand the horror of what went on that day. What it does provide is a chance to reflect on the sacrifices made on D-Day; it allows for an opportunity to thank God for our freedom and to honor the men who fought for it. Inside are two stained-glass windows which were dedicated with this purpose in mind.
The first, located in the back of the church, was commissioned soon after the war's end. I overheard a private tour guide state that it uniquely combines images of the Virgin Mary and armed soldiers. The dominant figure in the scene is the Holy Mother, who is holding the Infant Jesus. However, she is surrounded by U.S. paratroopers descending onto Ste. Mere Eglise, which is pictured in the bottom panels. Literature interpreting this particular window says the idea was to show the town “ravaged by the fire, but haloed by the glory of the liberation.”
The second stained-glass window, located in a small alcove close to the choir, was commissioned by the C47 Club of the 505th on the 25th anniversary of D-Day. It depicts a winged and armored Archangel Michael (many paratroopers consider him their patron saint) defeating the devil. Along the edges of the picture are the various emblems and insignia of the U.S. 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions.
The church also has a fairly new pipe organ dedicated to the memory of those who lost their lives during World War II. It was completed in 1994, in time for the 50th anniversary of D-Day. Not forgetting those who lost their lives in the first World War, one of the stations of the cross pays tribute to a man killed in 1918.
There are relatively few statues in the church at Ste. Mere Eglise. One is a striking figure of St. Sebastian carved in a stark white stone. Golden arrows pierce his flesh. The entire wall around him is a deep green marble, decorated with gilded pillars and other gold flourishes. The same color scheme carries over to the high altar where golden rays fill the top of the arch and cascade down to a painting of the Assumption of Mary. In statue form, she is depicted to the left of the altar holding the baby Jesus and near the St. Sebastian alcove as Our Lady of Lourdes. The latter is surrounded with offertory flowers and plaques giving thanks for prayers answered.
Parts of the church structure, including the base of the tower, date back to the 11th century. The tower itself was built in the 13th century and is called saddle-backed due to the way it is situated on the rest of the building.
The Gothic interior includes vaulted ceilings and side aisles lined with pillared arches. The floor is bare stone; it felt like the middle of winter indoors even on a pleasant day in mid-May. Far from being a deterrent, however, the climate contributes to the ambiance and the experience of worshiping in this historic place.
On the 50th anniversary of D-Day, the day was fondly remembered for the sacrifice of Americans who left small towns across the nation, came to Europe and “saved the world.” This Church is a reminder of Christ, who really did save the world, once and for all — and who remains the world's only hope.
Monta Monaco Hernon writes from Mokena, Illinois.
----- EXCERPT: A Normandy church honors its American liberators ----- EXTENDED BODY: Monta Monaco Hernon ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Stuff That Gospel Art Is Made Of DATE: 10/07/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:Award-winning artist John Carroll Collier's latest major project is a sculpture of Jesus the Good Shepherd for the Diocese of Greens-burg, Pa.
That piece was unveiled in August. Collier, based in Plano, Texas, spoke about his striking religious works with Register features correspondent Tim Drake.
You spent 32 years doing commercial art. What led you to transition to religious art?
I love the Lord, and artists always want to paint what they love, but this was one of the things that I was aware of, but never able to solve early on: What should I paint? When I would take my work to a gallery, it was so varied that they often didn't know what to do with it. My Christianity was always important to me, but I never thought of myself as a religious painter. Most contemporary religious paintings that I had seen weren't very good.
My favorite painters were always religious narrative painters. The idea that you would tell a story in art was for a long time anathema in the fine-arts scene. Religion is also considered anathema to most people in the cultural scene, so I never considered doing such work. It seemed impossible.
So, in coming up with a subject, I started thinking about paintings that I could sell to churches. Unfortunately, all of the evangelical churches that I knew didn't buy art. Then, I reasoned, perhaps I could give the art away to churches. It finally occurred to me that Catholic churches buy art. I was educated by Catholics in high school, and I like to read the early Church Fathers [even though I am] an Episcopalian.
I had heard about Environment and the Arts magazine in the Archdiocese of Chicago and sent some photos of my Madonna and Child sculpture to the editor there. He put the photos in the magazine and I was contacted by a priest who was building a new Church in Rockwall, Texas. That made me realize that there were still churches that bought art.
Most of my commissions are from Catholic churches. People in the pews are tired of barren churches. While they may be reluctant to donate money for carpeting, they are willing to give financially for good artwork.
And what led you to sculpting?
I continue to paint and sculpt for galleries, in addition to churches, but I get bored easily and was looking for something new that I could do, when a friend in California encouraged me to sculpt. I would like to have a kind of secular witness and approach in some very small way like what C.S. Lewis did with literature — serve as a bridge over which the secular world can get at Christianity.
While your subjects tend to be holy men and women, your sculptures present accessible, real-life men and women. Why have you embraced this approach?
The Bible is about amazing things that happened to ordinary people. I want to be faithful to that. There are certainly heroic people in the Bible, but their heroism is seen against the backdrop that this is an ordinary person. So I want the figures that I sculpt to be like that. I like the intersection of ordinary things and sacred things.
In old paintings of the Gospels, there is a kind of quaintness that comes with age, which, while beautiful, gives us an excuse not to follow it in some ways. I sometimes like casting the Gospel in a contemporary [setting] so that someone can look at it and say, “Oh, this is something that happened to someone just like me.”
Often pieces that I do are about some portion of Scripture. I'll read that portion of the Bible and daydream about how that part relates to other parts. Reading the early Fathers has allowed me to see things in a much bigger sense than I ever have before, especially when it comes to Mary.
All of your religious sculptures have been created for Catholic churches. To what do you credit your appeal to Catholics?
Well, there aren't many artists working in this field. When you're a priest or committee looking for someone, you're eager to find the right person because you've been warned by the people sitting next to you in the pew not to get ugly art. Catholics have a strong theology of art in churches. They need it and want it. [Many other Christians] don't think they need it and so they don't want it.
How does your work inform your faith?
It's necessary to think about these things in order to paint them. I think it's that thinking that has given me a great love and appreciation for little things in the church that I hadn't thought of, like Mary — little things that have become big things.
Tell me about your recently unveiled sculpture for the Diocese of Greensburg, Pa.
Bishop Anthony Bosco had seen my artwork and asked me to submit an idea of Jesus the Good Shepherd. I went back to John and read where Jesus calls himself the Good Shepherd. In that passage, he's talking about being the good shepherd because he lays his life down for his sheep. He is talking about his sacrifice, the crucifixion and resurrection.
Christ also says that, when the wolf comes, the hired man runs away. In this context, Christ's statement is prophetic in that the wolf could be said to represent the Roman empire, while the hired man represents his apostles who run away. So, in addition to including Jesus with his sheep, I felt it was necessary to include a wolf as well. Shepherds are only necessary because there are wolves.
In addition, I began thinking that this didn't happen in a vacuum. There were types of Christ the Good Shepherd early on. Abel, for example, was the first shepherd to offer a sacrifice to God. Moses took care of his father-in-law's sheep, and David was the ancestor of the Lord — the shepherd that became king. There are a lot of parallels between the lives of these men and Jesus, so I included them in the sculpture as well. They are watching the upcoming confrontation between Christ and the wolf and are upset.
Do you see signs that a new renaissance in religious art is taking place?
I hope that's true because it's been in the doldrums for so long. The thing about a renaissance is that you don't know if it's happening until it's already happened. I do see signs of hope. Artists’ organizations exist where there were none before.
One might wish that the current interest in spiritual things in the general culture is genuine. There is a kind of longing in the hearts of ordinary people for meaning in life. People are realizing that money, their jobs, and even their families will not give that to them. There has always been a longing in people's hearts for God and it is especially strong now that the culture has abandoned God.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 10/07/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:Agatha Christie's Poirot: Murder in Mesopotamia (2001)
Hercule Poirot is one of the world's most famous fictional detectives. Primarily based in England during the 1920s and ‘30s, he always sports a neatly trimmed mustache and perfectly pressed attire. (“I believe a speck of dust would have caused him more pain than a bullet wound,” his creator comments.) Poirot's method differs from the approach of the somewhat similar Sherlock Holmes. The retired Belgian police officer uses his powers of logical deduction (“the gray cells”) to understand the psychology of a criminal instead of analyzing the perpetrator's modus operandi.
Agatha Christie's Poirot: Murder in Mesopotamia is a British-produced A&E cable movie adapted from Christie's 1936 novel of the same name. Poirot (David Suchet) visits his very proper English side-kick, Capt. Hastings (Hugh Fraser), at an archeological dig in Iraq. The archeologist's wife (Barbara Barnes) receives some threatening letters before being suddenly murdered. There are numerous suspects with plausible motives. As always with Christie, the red herrings are clever and the plot twists surprising.
Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)
The best children's films combine positive moral values kids can understand with an intelligent presentation that engages adults as well. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, adapted from Roald Dahl's classic novel, is a surreal musical fantasy that delivers its message about honesty, gluttony and greed with energy and imagination. The eccentric candy manufacturer Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder) hides five golden tickets inside his candy bars. The children who find them will get a tour of Wonka's factory and a lifetime supply of chocolate, providing they obey his strict rules.
One of the winners is the impoverished Charlie Buckett (Peter Ostrum), who brings along his grandpa Joe (Jack Albertson). Wonka's arch-enemy (Michael Boliner) tempts Charlie and the other kids to break the rules in order to gain advantage over his rival. But those who disobey Wonka suffer cruelly (not for small kids).
A Raisin in the Sun (1961)
Families from every ethnic background share the American dream of moving up economically and creating more opportunities for their children. But the obstacles faced by African-Americans present some unique problems. Raisin In the Sun, based on Lorraine Hansberry's celebrated play, dramatizes the conflicting aspirations of the different members of the Younger family during the Civil Rights era in Chicago's south side.
When the husband of the family matriarch, Lena (Claudia McNeil), dies, leaving her $10,000 in life insurance, she decides to get out of the over-crowded inner city and make a down payment on a house in the suburbs. What's left over will be used to put her daughter, Beneatha (Diana Sands), through medical school. But her angry, ambitious son, Walter Lee (Sidney Poitier), wants to quit his job as a chauffeur to a white man and buy a liquor store. Director Daniel Petrie (The Bay Boy) captures the power of the Younger family women and shows how the racism of the time heightens their struggles.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 10/07/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:All times Eastern
SUNDAY, OCT. 7
Handel: Organ Concertos
EWTN, 1:30 p.m.
Zdzislaw Szostak conducts the Lodz Chamber Orchestra, with organ soloists Grazyna Fajkowska and Miroslav Pietkiewicz, in organ concertos by George Handel (1685-1759). This hour-long performance takes place in St. Matthew Church in Lodz, Poland. To be rebroadcast Saturday, Oct. 13, at 3 a.m.
MONDAY, OCT. 8
Magic of Central Park
Travel, 9 p.m.
This 60-minute special about New York City's Central Park takes on poignancy in light of the terror assaults on the metropolis last month. The show's stops at charming areas of the skyscraper-surrounded oasis will support Mayor Rudy Giuliani's post-attack invitation: “Come to New York.”
TUESDAY, OCT. 9
The Quest for Noah's Flood
PBS; check local listings for time
In this “National Geographic Special,” undersea explorer Robert Ballard leads an expedition to the Black Sea. He finds evidence that a great flood struck there around 5600 B.C., and he locates human artifacts preserved in submerged ancient shores.
WEDNESDAY, OCT. 10
The Cross of Francis: The Crucifix of San Damiano
EWTN, 2 p.m.
This half-hour show tells the story of the crucifix of the Church of San Damiano in Assisi, Italy, and the history-changing day in autumn 1205 when, as St. Francis of Assisi prayed before it, Jesus spoke to him. St. Francis first thought Jesus’ words — “Francis, go, repair my Church, which, as you see, is falling into ruin” — meant that particular church building, but he came to understand that Jesus was calling him to rebuild the Church itself. The miraculous crucifix still exists, thanks to the Poor Clare Sisters, who preserved it for seven centuries. To be rebroadcast Thursday, Oct. 11, at 4 a.m. and 11 p.m.
THURSDAY, OCT. 11
Target: America
PBS; check local listings for time
In the aftermath of last month's attacks in Washington, D.C., New York City and Pennsylvania, this installment of “Frontline” chronicles terrorist attacks against America in the past two decades and examines the responses of presidents from Carter onward.
FRIDAYS
The World Over
EWTN, 8 p.m. live
Listen in as EWTN news director Raymond Arroyo and his guests cover the week's Catholic news and provide a Catholic perspective on the latest global developments. Rebroadcast Mondays at 10 a.m. and Sundays at 5 p.m.
SATURDAY, OCT. 13
Apparitions at Fatima
EWTN, 8 p.m.
This comprehensive, 90-minute special describes Our Lady of Fatima's appearances to the children at Fatima, Portugal, in 1917, and discusses her message of repentance and penance. “War is a punishment from God,” our merciful Mother warned the world.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dan Engler ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Supreme Court to Review Vouchers DATE: 10/07/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether school voucher programs are constitutional.
In orders released Sept. 25, the court agreed to hear three related cases challenging a Cleveland program that gives parents of about 4,000 students vouchers they can use to pay tuition at parochial or private schools or to attend a public school outside their own district.
Most of the students attend religious schools, primarily Catholic. The program provides up to $2,500 per student per year for low-income families. It has continued to operate while lawsuits are on appeal.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in December ruled against the voucher program, saying it “involves the grant of state aid directly and predominantly to the coffers of the private, religious schools, and it is unquestioned that these institutions incorporate religious concepts, motives and themes into all facets of their educational planning.”
The Ohio Supreme Court had upheld the voucher program.
The case will be heard during the court's term, which starts Oct. 1, but no sooner than December. A ruling would likely come before the court recesses in June.
In Cleveland, 3,859 students at about 50 schools are enrolled in the program. Participation has grown from 1,994 in the 1996-97 school year, reported the Associated Press.
Priority is given to families in poverty, but families with incomes up to twice the federal poverty level can qualify.
The Supreme Court will hear challenges to the voucher program early next year. The high court last ruled on vouchers directly in 1973. It forbad a voucher program on the grounds that public money mustn't “subsidize and advance the religious mission of sectarian schools.”
Since then, the court has harked back to earlier days and allowed government aid to religious schools, though only for remedial tutoring and the purchase of computers. It has also allowed certain pro-voucher decisions from lower courts to stand.
Critics quoted by the Associated Press said that vouchers do little to provide school choice.
“What's happening in Cleveland is that the parents of these youngsters are being given up to $2,250 to attend the same private schools they probably would have attended even without the vouchers,” said Joanne DeMarco, a public school teacher and vice president of the Cleveland Teachers Union.
“We think vouchers are not good public policy because all it does is take millions of dollars away from the schools we teach in,” she added.
Steve Suma, a Cleveland father of four, disagreed. His children are being educated at Catholic schools thanks to vouchers. He told the Associated Press that he should be able to put his tax dollars to use to find a better education for his children.
“It's our money and it should go to the school of our choice,” he said. “We don't have good choices of public education, basically because there's no competition.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Somebody Wound the Watch, And It Sure Wasn't Us DATE: 10/07/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:Neil Broom's How Blind is the Watchmaker? is directed against the “blatant reductionist ideology” that pervades much popular science writing. Broom has in mind not only such works as Richard Dawkins’ The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without Design (the obvious target of his title) but also popularizations of science in magazines like Time, and even the displays in museums meant to convey the findings of science to non-scientists.
The problem with such popularizations, argues Broom, is that they are almost invariably materialistic. They present the “universe and all that it contains, including us humans” as “the product of purely material processes and events … the only cause being the impersonal laws of physics and chemistry.” Simply put, they present a universe with no room for God.
Unfortunately, this “absurd reductionist myth” becomes culturally accepted as fact, in no small part, by slick packaging. Such books as Dawkins’ Blind Watchmaker, for example, “are highly readable and well illustrated.
Each is the kind of book that gives accessible, nicely packaged answers to even the most complex questions of science.” Yet, they “represent a brand of popular science that is blatantly misleading and intellectually irresponsible.”
As an antidote, Broom, a research scientist in the department of chemical and materials engineering at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, sets out to show that the actual complexity of natural things points directly to a universe that has been designed, and hence has a designer.
“The living world presents us with a truly staggering array of the most ingenious and creative structures and systems imaginable,” he writes. Broom offers the reader very clear, well-illustrated accounts of DNA, the cell, photosynthesis and muscle structure.
“Even the most intricate man-made devices cannot compare with the sophisticated biochemical systems that operate within the living cell,” he writes. Rather than support a reductionist view of nature, “modern molecular biology has demonstrated that the processes of life are critically dependent on the precise operation of this immensely sophisticated and ingenious information-processing system” of the living cell. We might say that the tiny cell acts like a giant factory, except that no human factory displays that much precisely integrated complexity.
Even more important, Broom stresses how little scientists know of the actual workings.
Contrast this to the popular materialist accounts, which would have the reader believe that the complexity of the cell, and the organism of which it is a part, are the simple mechanistic results of the random chemical juggling of DNA. Broom gives the example of an article on genetics from Time magazine which “presents its readers with a powerful visual feast … a laboratory test tube containing DNA — the ‘essence of life,’ the ‘Master Molecule.’”
“The test-tube image of DNA in the . . . Time article has all the ingredients of no-nonsense [materialist] reductionism, leaving the nonexpert reader in no doubt that scientists have, to all intents and purposes, solved the weighty problem of biological existence. The reader is served up a compellingly simple message — the mystery of life can be explained by a chemical substance in a test tube that we can hold in our hands. And the take-home message — it really is so very simple!”
But it is not at all that simple, as Broom illustrates again and again. And this complexity not only shows us that there must be a designer, but takes us to him as well.
Broom shows us that the “watchmaker” is not blind at all; rather, it is we who need our eyes opened to the wonders of creation. This book is a very fine start on the journey of the scientific mind toward God.
Ben Wiker, a fellow with the Discovery Institute, teaches philosophy of science at Franciscan University of Steubenville (Ohio).
----- EXCERPT: Weekly Book Pick ----- EXTENDED BODY: Benjamin Wiker ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 10/07/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:Scholarships for Victims’ Dependents
Colleges located near the World Trade Center were the first to offer such assistance. They were followed quickly by New York State officials who said they were preparing to help victims’ spouses and children attend public colleges in New York, free.
Other schools offering special aid were Rutgers, New York University, Columbia, Fordham and Harvard.
The Chronicle also reported that Saint Mary-of-the-Woods (Ind.), will offer special scholarships to those who lost family members in the Sept. 11 attacks.
Flagpole Vigil Halted at Marquette
Leitner said she was told, “this is not a day for nationalism.” A staffer said that displaying the American flag would be offensive to foreign students and that university offices were notified not to display the Stars and Stripes.
Rana Altenburg, vice president for Public Affairs, told the Marquette Tribune and the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that Marquette officials were simply confused about what the College Republicans wanted to do. She said she approved the event after she learned that it was to be a memorial and not a rally.
Pro-War Rally at Berkeley
REUTERS, Sept. 25 — “The times they are a-changing,” reports Reuters.
A small group of students at the University of California at Berkeley, a famous hotbed of anti-war protests during the Vietnam War, broke out in a “Rally for America” Sept. 24.
The event, which involved a coalition of student activists and fraternities, rallied behind President Bush's “war on terrorism.”
“This is 2001, not 1968,” rally coordinator Randy Barnes, a Berkeley senior, told 150 students from the steps of Sproul Hall, a landmark for Vietnam-era protests.
Pacifists shouted back, “1-2-3-4, we don't want your racist war.”
Robb McFadden, spokesman for the Berkeley Conservative Foundation, blasted the hecklers. “There is an unwritten rule in Berkeley: Blame America,” he told the crowd.
Loan Obligations Put Off
Rod Paige, the secretary of education, also called on colleges to refund tuition and other institutional charges to students who are forced to withdraw to fulfill military obligations.
“The actions we are taking today, “ said Paige, “will ease their financial burdens as they defend our country in these challenging times.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Rent or Buy? DATE: 10/07/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:Q My fiancée and I are getting married soon and were wondering whether it would be better for us to start out by renting an apartment or purchasing a house. Our friends tell us we'd be crazy to pay rent when we can be building equity in a home. What do you say?
A When comparing renting an apartment and buying a house, many would have the same response your friends did — “Why waste money on rent when you can buy a house that you'll own?” At first glance the argument makes sense. What is often overlooked however, are the substantial costs of home ownership, including the following:
E Purchase costs, including a down payment and the costs to obtain a mortgage, including points, title fees and loan processing charges.
E Ongoing costs of ownership such as property taxes, insurance, utilities, gardening and other expenses which increase the cost of home ownership in relation to rental of an apartment.
E Selling costs, including 3% to 6% of the sales price as a commission (unless you sell it yourself or work out a special arrangement with your Realtor) and other selling expenses.
In addition to the costs noted above, it normally takes years to build equity in your home because most of your monthly payment in the early years of a mortgage is applied to interest. As an example, if you take out a 30-year mortgage for $100,000 at 7%, you'll pay almost $7,000 in interest out of a total of $7,980 in payments during the first year.
Most newly married couples find that the first years of their marriage include a rapidly changing environment — from finishing college to starting a career and a family. These life changes frequently result in multiple moves which, based on the above, would be very costly in the event you owned a home.
Taking all of these costs into account, most young couples would be better off keeping their initial housing costs low and maintaining the flexibility that renting provides.
Once you have settled into your career and have a higher degree of certainty that you'll remain in one location for a longer period of time, it would make sense to start looking for a home.
Here are a few questions you can use to determine when purchasing a home makes sense: Are you reasonably sure you will live in the home for at least five years? Do you have a stable job? Do you have the means to make an adequate down payment (preferably 20%)? Are you keeping track of your expenses with a budget? Are you planning to provide the maximum opportunity for your wife to nurture your children at home full-time?
Because housing represents one of the largest categories of the family budget, making prudent financial decisions in this area is key to setting a solid financial foundation for your family.
God love you!
Phil Lenahan is executive director of Catholic Answers.
----- EXCERPT: Family Matters ----- EXTENDED BODY: Phil Lenahan ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: AMERICAN CHARACTER DATE: 10/07/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:SINCE THE SEPT. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, Americans have been remarkably united in support of the president against terrorism. They have also been remarkably united in their expressions of sympathy, faith and patriotism.
----- EXCERPT: Facts of Life ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Violence crippled the artist, but not her gift DATE: 10/07/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:Dark eyes twinkling with delight, Sister Mary Anna DiGiacomo sat surrounded by her paintings, sketches, and sculptures and greeted the stream of supporters and art-lovers who stopped by her booth at the Intown Arts Festival July 28 in Waterville, Maine.
For many, the very sight of the 78-year-old nun and her artwork was a sign of hope — an affirmation that “something good can come up from the ashes of a tragedy,” as one festival-goer put it.
Sister Mary Anna was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., but has lived in this small central Maine city ever since she joined the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament almost 50 years ago. Founded in 1858 by St. Peter Julian Eymard, the contemplative congregation is small, with only two houses in the U.S., and carries on its work of Eucharistic prayer and adoration in a quiet, low-profile way.
But on Jan. 27, 1996, a break-in and brutal attack at their Waterville house drew the Sisters into the national media spotlight. In that incident, a mentally ill man stabbed and beat four of the nuns inside their convent and chapel, killing two and hospitalizing two others, including Sister Mary Anna. She was rushed to a trauma unit with knife wounds to the head, a broken shoulder and other injuries.
“Sister Mary Anna was very hurt physically,” observes neuropsychologist Peter Flournoy, who met and worked with the nun when she progressed out of acute care to the rehabilitation institute at the Maine General Medical Center, in Waterville. “She had damage to the left frontal part of her brain, which affected the motor neurons on her right side. She has had an amazing recovery. Still, she has difficulty with walking and with moving her right hand. This means that as an artist, her life has been majorly affected and altered.”
Even as a child growing up in Brooklyn, Mary Anna DiGiacomo loved to draw “anything pretty.” She studied with a view to becoming a dress designer, then, after joining the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, used her expertise to design and sew liturgical vestments. As her artistic abilities burgeoned, she created hundreds of oil paintings, sketches, watercolors and sculptures before finally building up to her true passion — icons.
“All art comes from within,” she explains, speaking slowly and deliberately. “But icons are something special. They flow out of your silence and your prayer. They speak about God, and they are an enlightenment for people who see them.” Once she discovered icons, says Sister Mary Anna, everything else paled by comparison. “Icons,” she muses. “That's what I was going to end up doing, all the time.”
The 1996 attack changed her plans. Though Sister Mary Anna is beginning to sketch and paint again, using her left hand to guide her right, she is no longer capable of the precision which icons demand. She accepts the loss without bitterness, but some days it's a struggle, she says. “I mean, you can do something and then you try to do it after it's been taken away, but you can't,” says Sister Mary Anna, her eyes filling with tears. “It's no joke.”
But then in the next breath, she can laugh and declare her ordeal “worth it, because I got closer to God. I feel closer to him — not all the time, but most of the time. So I'm happy! And while I'm waiting to go to heaven, I'm painting and sketching a little.”
Joyce Atkins is glad of that, because she commissioned the painting that Sister Mary Anna is painstakingly working on — an acrylic of a vase of flowers. It won't be the first DiGiacomo piece she owns. Atkins, who lives in nearby Oakland with her husband and three teenage children, treasures a painting of Our Lady that Sister Mary Anna gave her years ago, when Atkins had back surgery. “I felt so supported by her,” she says. “I went into the hospital with my painting and my rosary, and I was out in 24 hours.”
Atkins, who has known and loved the Sisters since childhood and tells hilarious stories about attempting (unsuccessfully) to teach Sister Mary Anna to drive, was mobilized into action when it was the nun's turn to be hospitalized. She became a daily visitor at the nursing home where Sister Mary Anna was sent to recover, and tried to lift her spirits by encouraging her to sketch again.
“I brought her some National Geographics and bird books for inspiration,” says Atkins. “But it was hard, because her whole right side was paralyzed.”
“Fortunately, Sister Mary Anna is very feisty. Otherwise, she wouldn't have made it,” remarks another area woman and volunteer helper, Yvette (Jackie) Bourassa, of nearby Winslow. Having observed the nun's progress during four or five weekly physical therapy sessions over a three-year period, Bourassa sums it up with a simple, often-repeated, “She's come a long way.”
Seeing Sister Mary Anna back in her studio is “thrilling,” says Sister Elizabeth Madden, who lives at the Waterville convent. For one thing, she says, it affirms one aspect of the spirituality of our baptism, “which is that we should continue to grow until we die. We should keep letting the light within us shine out — letting God's gifts continue to come out to the degree that they can.”
Sister Elizabeth has high hopes for her friend. “I'm holding my breath that the rekindling of her gift and spirit has begun, and that she'll stay with it, despite her physical limitations, and keep giving what is in her. Because her gift is still there, and everyone around her is enriched and lifted up to see it flowing out again.”
Peter Flournoy suggests that Sister Mary Anna and the other Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament have another important message to share. “After they were attacked, people here were in shock, and there was a lot of anger and frustration. But somehow, in their quiet way, the Sisters succeeded in conveying to me personally — and I think to the whole community, as well — a message of utter forgiveness.”
The spirit with which the sisters faced their own tragedy inspires him now, says Flournoy, a Buddhist.
“All my patients teach me things. But the Sisters are amazing. They have been and continue to be a wonderful influence. Right now especially,” he added, speaking just days after the Sept. 11 terrorist hijackings and attacks, “I'm sure that all of us in the country could learn from them.”
Louise Perrotta grew up in Winslow, Maine, about a mile from the convent and chapel of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament.
She now lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Louise Perrotta ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Abortion's Victims Will Lead the Way DATE: 10/07/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:Vicki Thorn, foundress of Project Rachel and executive director of the National Office of Post-Abortion Reconciliation & Healing, believes that women who have been reconciled to God after having abortions are the hope for a future culture of life.
Thorn travels internationally to speak on the aftermath of abortion. With her organization's 17th anniversary approaching, the mother of six spoke with Register correspondent Father Matthew Gamber, a Jesuit, about the organization. Part I of this interview appeared in the Sept. 16-22 issue.
Pope John Paul II says that women who have had abortions will change the face of the abortion situation. Has that been the case?
These women are the cornerstones of the culture of life. Everything in their life changes when they are healed. They have been forgiven of what they believe to be the unforgivable sin.
They continue to be very serious about their faith development and prayer after healing. They are quietly behind the scenes changing many things in terms of the way they parent their children and live their marriages. They call other women to healing and reach out to pregnant women.
It is my belief that post-abortion healing is changing the heart of our nation.
When our heart is healed and has been restored through the grace of God's healing, an end to the culture of death becomes real.
I could spend hours sharing the gifts of these women. And let me remind you that while we've been talking about women, it isn't just women. The fact is that there are at least as many fathers who have also lost children to abortion. We must also be about restoring fathers’ hearts.
What are the wounds of abortion and what are the best ways to heal them? What role do the sacraments have in post-abortion recovery?
The basic wound is a spiritual wound. It is a wound of a mother who has lost a child in a traumatic and unnatural fashion. She holds herself responsible for this action.
The questions a woman asks herself are: Can God forgive me? Can my baby forgive me? Can I forgive myself?
Women who come for help recognize that this is a spiritual wound and so often want to begin with a priest. The sacrament of reconciliation is key to putting her heart at rest.
Women carry this wound for so long. We often get calls in our office, after something runs on EWTN about Project Rachel, from very old women. Women who are in their 80s and 90s.
I think we get caught up in thinking that abortion started with Roe v. Wade. Abortions have always happened. Now we just know about them. There were many women who had abortions during World War I, World War II and the Depression.
Right after I started the ministry, a woman I had known for years volunteered to do some work to help me. She was already retired. When I went by to pick up the materials, she very tenuously told me how she had had an abortion when she was 19.
Another woman called and needed to go to confession but was enfeebled. She couldn't get to church without someone taking her, and she didn't want to have to explain why she needed to go. We found a Project Rachel priest to go to her home. She just couldn't believe that a priest would be willing to come to her.
Abortion is said to affect not just the woman and the child, but all of their family members. Is this true, and what are the effects?
Abortion breaks the trust bond between woman and man. To have an abortion is to reject the deepest gift of sexual intimacy — the child. Men and women just don't trust each other after an abortion.
An unhealed abortion may well impact how a mother bonds to her future children. Women talk about being overly protective and, at the same time, keeping their children at arm's length emotionally.
Sometimes a man and a woman, both of whom have an abortion loss, may connect; and when both begin dealing with their loss issues, sometimes years later, they strike out at each other — symbolically striking out at [their former] partner who failed them in the previous abortion.
Children in families where there has been an abortion may develop full-fledged survivor syndrome, just like when a sibling dies from a car accident or cancer.
Do you have any examples of “successful” recoveries? Do all women recover who undertake Project Rachel? Any failures?
I don't know of any failures. I know that sometimes women get stuck for awhile.
What I have learned is that, if a woman says yes to God and begins the healing journey, God faithfully leads her through it at her pace.
I am always so touched by the “God appointments.” One day I was on a plane and someone wanted to trade seats. Well, by the time we took off, I had a new seat-mate. I don't normally blurt out what I do, because it can scare the dickens out of someone. But this woman, after ordering vodka at 10 a.m., struck up a conversation, and eventually what I did came out.
I told her that I helped women heal after an abortion. Her eyes filled with tears and she said, “Oh, that is very important work that you do. I had my abortion 17 years ago.”
We spent an hour and a half talking about her abortion. And the double irony, is that she was going to spend a weekend of vacation with her best friend who had had four abortions! And I knew that she was going to tell her friend all about our talk.
Who is the best person to help a post-abortive woman? Priest, sister, counselor?
Every person can play a role in her healing. God is the one doing the healing, and so he can use anyone or everyone.
It is my experience that women often want to start with a priest. They know this is a huge spiritual wound, and they want to take care of that.
The biggest problem is that they are afraid. They know the Church has been an outspoken prophetic voice on the wrongness of abortion. They believe they have committed the unforgivable sin, and those two things combine to make them certain that the Church does not want them back. That is why it is so crucial that we all get the word out about post-abortion healing.
What has been the response of priests to Project Rachel?
Priests love this ministry. There are priests who are still priests today because of this work.
I have had priests say to me: “I love Project Rachel. This is what I was ordained to do.” They truly see the power of the sacraments to restore the broken- hearted.
What impact has founding a ministry and working with it for 17 years had on your own marriage and motherhood of 6 children?
I could never have done this without my husband. In the early days of dreaming about doing this, he encouraged me. When I get discouraged, he keeps encouraging me.
It is interesting to see that as the kids have grown — they are ages 13 to 24 — that at one time or another, each of them has written a paper on something that has to do with either the wounds of abortion or the healing.
I know that at one time there was a discussion among my daughters about who would take over my work. It was interesting to see that they'd thought about it and were worried about it. Honestly, I don't expect them to. This is my work. God calls each of us to our unique ministry.
I think my children have learned to dare to dream, that dreams can come true and that, when God is in charge, all things are possible. Never in my fondest dreams, did I ever imagine that I would be doing what I am doing today. For a small town girl from Minnesota, this is all pretty awe-inspiring.
Jesuit Father Michael Gamber writes from Spokane, Washington.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of life -------- TITLE: LIFE NOTES DATE: 10/07/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 7-13, 2001 ----- BODY:House Bans Military Abortions
PRO-LIFE INFONET, Sept. 25 — The House of Representatives Sept. 24 rejected an amendment that would have allowed abortions in American military facilities overseas.
The amendment was defeated 217 to 199 during consideration of a 343 billion-dollar defense bill.
The amendment was sponsored by pro-abortion Rep. Loretta Sanchez, DCalif.
The House has consistently rejected similar attempts by Sanchez and other pro-abortion lawmakers in the past. The Senate has also voted against such amendments.
Pakistani Opposes Aborting Girls
DAWN.COM, Sept. 28-A prominent member of the Pakistan Medical Association has urged doctors not to abort unborn girls on the basis of their sex, said the online version of the magazine. Speaking Sept. 27, professor Yasmin Rashid observed that many ultrasound clinics were involved in the “dirty business” of pre-natal sex determination.
However, she said that Pakistan was at the forefront of advanced prenatal testing for genetic anomalies.
She reminded lab stafffers that “all the staff members working in our diagnostic lab are on oath that whatever is the situation we will never tell the sex of unborn child,” and added that now it was possible to find out the sex of child at a very early stage.
RU-486 Abortion Drug Unpopular
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Sept. 24 — Only 6% of gynecologists have ever prescribed the dangerous RU-486 drug, according to a survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation. The FDA approved the drug a year ago.
Proponents of legalizing RU-486 had maintained it would be in high demand as a way to keep abortion private, but their predictions have not proved accurate.
EU: ‘Ban Reproductive Cloning’
C-FAM, Sept. 27 — France and Germany have persuaded the European Union to campaign at the United Nations against human reproductive cloning, according to C-Fam, a pro-life U.N. lobbying group.
In response to reports that scientists in the United States and Europe are trying to clone human beings, the two countries led the Union in petitioning the U.N. General Assembly “to create an international convention” banning such cloning.
The petition did not address the issue of therapeutic cloning, in which human embryos are created for research purposes, and not for reproduction.
In the anti-cloning campaign, C-Fam said that pro-life advocates will be allied with the European Union, which is usually their opponent because it is “very pro-abortion.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: N.Y. Firefighters Say They Had a Helper in Heaven DATE: 10/14/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:NEW YORK — If the story Ladder Company 5 tells is true, then the firefighters on the scene after the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center weren't alone.
Someone was watching — and helping — from heaven.
When New York firefighter Kevin Hannafin joined the effort to find fallen colleagues at what had been the World Trade Center, he was looking for one man in particular: His younger brother Thomas, who years before had followed him into the New York Fire Department.
At the disaster scene, Kevin Hannafin and his fellow rescue workers prayed for help finding victims. In particular, Kevin sought the intercession of a man both he and his brother had long looked up to.
That was Fire Capt. John J. Drennan of Ladder Company 5 in Greenwich Village, who died in the line of duty in 1994. Tom Hannafin had joined Ladder Company 5 because of his admiration for Capt. Drennan.
Kevin and his colleagues say Capt. Drennan's intercession led them to the discovery of the bodies of five fallen firefighters, including his brother Tom, who died that day at age 36. Kevin personally carried his brother's helmet out of the wreckage.
“It was the proudest moment of my life,” he told The New York Times on Sept. 19. “It means a lot to firefighters, in firefighter tradition, that members of their company carry them out. That day, I was part of that company.”
The Captain's Widow
The story of the firefighters' prayer first received national attention when the captain's widow, Vina Drennan, was interviewed on National Public Radio. Mrs. Drennan, a board member of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, said she found out about the prayer to her husband while attending the wake for one of the 11 members of Ladder Company 5 who died in the World Trade Center attack.
“They had decided to pray to my husband who they feel still watches over them,” Mrs. Drennan said. “They prayed, ‘Capt. Drennan, show us where the 11 members are.’ “
“As they tell the story, this one young fellow said, ‘I know right now where to put my shovel,’ “ Mrs. Drennan said. “And Ladder 5 is so comforted that they were able to find five of their own, return their bodies to their families, and honor those deaths in a proper and magnificent funeral.”
Vina Drennan has toured the country on behalf of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, consoling fellow widows and advocating for fire safety. She has spoken out for better fire safety education, audits of fire deaths to look for better means of prevention, and mandatory sprinkler systems in apartment buildings.
Capt. John
Capt. John Drennan was a 49-year-old veteran of 25 years in the NYFD when he suffered fatal burns over most of his body in March 1994.
The fire that killed him started when someone left trash on a stove. It claimed two younger fire-fighters as well: 31-year-old James Young died in the fire itself; 25-year-old Christopher Seidenburg died the next day. But Capt. Drennan suffered six agonizing weeks slowly dying in the burn unit at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center.
The trio is memorialized by a monument built in 1996 in a traffic island a few yards from Ladder 5's firehouse in the SoHo section of Greenwich Village. Architects designed at no cost an 8-feet-by-5-feet red granite monument built around blue-tinted glass.
The glass, lit from inside, has images of the three men on one side and the Fireman's Prayer on the other. The prayer begins: “When I am called to duty, God, whenever flames may rage, give me the strength to save some life, whatever be its age.”
The captain's heroic sacrifice is commemorated annually by presentation of the Capt. John J. Drennan Memorial Medal, sponsored by the Viking Society of the NYFD. The medal, first announced June 5, 1996, goes each year to a member of the fire department who performs acts above and beyond the call of duty.
Vina Drennan said the support from the community of firefighters sustained her family through their loss. Even as she grieves the loss of dear friends, she sees herself as part of their survivors' network of support.
“They are my family,” she said, “and as reports came out that in my husband's company 11 members had perished, I knew that these were the very same people that got us through our darkest days seven years ago.”
Jay Dunlap writes
from Hamden, Connecticut.
A Fireman's Prayer
When I am called to duty, God, Whenever flames may rage, Give me the strength to save some life Whatever be its age. Help me embrace a little child Before it is too late Or save an older person from The horror of that fate. Enable me to be alert And hear the weakest shout And quickly and efficiently To put the fire out. I want to fill my calling and To give the best in me, To guard my every neighbor and Protect his property. And if according to my fate I am to lose my life, Please bless with your protecting hand My children and my wife.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Jay Dunlap ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: Excommunicating Pro-Abortion Politicians DATE: 10/14/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:LIMA, Peru — The archbishop of Lima and primate of Peru, Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani, has instructed pastors to eventually deny Communion to politicians and other public figures if they support abortion.
At the request of Cardinal Cipriani, the archdiocese's Pastoral Commission has sent all his pastors a document titled “The Moral and Legal Dimension of Abortion,” aimed to provide “a pastoral and sacramental response to the worsening culture of death, as well as consistent criteria to deal with this grave moral problem.”
The impact of the document has gone beyond the Archdiocese of Lima, and even beyond Peru.
Judie Brown, president of the American Life League, in Stafford, Va., says the document is a source of inspiration for a national campaign asking the Holy See to step in and excommunicate pro-abortion Catholic politicians in the United States.
According to Peru's Father José Antonio Eguren, episcopal vicar and member of the archdiocese's Pastoral Commission, Cardinal Cipriani requested the document after several pastors told him about a “breach” in the common position of Catholic priests regarding the moral gravity of abortion and its total incompatibility with Catholic doctrine.
“One priest taking a relativistic stand regarding abortion is enough to create confusion among Catholics, so the cardinal decided to provide pastors with the main theological, canonical, moral and pastoral criteria to understand the gravity of abortion as a crime and to act accordingly,” Father Eguren told the Register.
The document, in its Questions & Answers section, reminds pastors that the Church describes abortion as “a horrendous crime” because “it takes away the life of an innocent creature entitled to be loved by her parents, and who has been deprived from enjoying the goods of this life, in particular Baptism and the graces of Christianity.”
Regarding politicians and other public figures that support abortion, the text says that those assuming such a position “are committing a grave sin, because they are supporting a crime.”
For this reason, the document instructs: “[T]he pastor who has a parishioner in this condition can deny him or her holy Communion in public, after warning him or her in private.”
Judy Brown told the Register; “The archbishop of Lima has inspired all of us, and in fact we are in communication with his office in hopes of acquiring a copy of the booklet, in English, that we might then provide to all American bishops and cardinals.”
Brown explained that her organization did not originate the idea for the petition campaign, but merely mirrored the cardinal's efforts, and the many other groups now involved (See Brian Caulfield's story, Page 1).
The excommunication petition was started by Tim Chichester, a Catholic administrator of a Web site dedicated to promoting the initiative. His Web site now refers people to the news reports regarding Cardinal Cipriani.
More Than Excommunication
Father Eguren stressed that Lima's policy includes more positive measures than restrictive ones.
“This pastoral policy, personally requested by Cardinal Cipriani, is fully consistent with the Church's teachings and legislation,” he said, “and has been issued after being carefully reviewed by several specialists in moral theology and canon law.”
It calls on pastors to promote the culture of life “with positive initiatives,” including:
E praying for legislators,
E assisting and supporting women in crisis pregnancies,
E supporting media that promote the culture of life and denouncing those doing the contrary,
E educationg women about the stages in the development of unborn children.
But it also clarifies excommunication. The text recalls that the excommunication latae sententiae(automatically imposed) is still applied to all those associated directly with an abortion.
“If the conditions that constitute an abortion are given,” says the document, “the excommunication falls upon the woman that aborts voluntarily and all who have provided a collaboration without which the abortion would not have taken place — those who practice it, those who suggest it or encourage it decisively, and those who actively participate in it: the anesthetist, the nurse, the person who provides the money, and so on.”
At his weekly radio program, Cardinal Cipriani said that the Catholic Church “has always considered abortion as one of the worst crimes from a moral point of view,” and said that the newly released document provides quotes from the Second Vatican Council as well as the Catechism of the Catholic Church in that regard.
In fact, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, in No. 2270 and following, teaches:
“Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person — among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life … Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable.
“Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law: You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish.
“God, the Lord of life, has entrusted to men the noble mission of safeguarding life, and men must carry it out in a manner worthy of themselves. Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes.”
The Catechism also explains that “formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life.”
Now More Than Ever
According to Cardinal Cipriani, the increasing influence of the culture of death, which makes Church's teaching appear “harsh” and “outdated,” shouldn't dissuade the Church but “is an even stronger reason to underscore Catholic doctrine.”
“Precisely the role of the Church as mother and teacher,” the cardinal told the Register, “is to resist the tendencies of the culture of death and loudly proclaim the culture of life.
“The more we feel the pressure to make concessions in this critical field,” he added, “the more we have to be faithful to the deposit of the doctrine we have inherited from Christ himself.”
The document, in fact, states that “the Catholic doctrine on abortion does not come from the will of Church authorities, but is based upon the laws of God, of which the Church is just the custodian.”
U.S. Plans
In the United States, Judie Brown said her petition campaign is “currently in a stage that requires additional signers and careful examination by a team of canon lawyers, which is currently under way.”
She added that the campaign is also meant to be educational. “We are hopeful that the campaign focuses attention,” she said, “on the fact that bishops can act to make it clear to elected officials who claim to be Catholic that their advocacy and approval of abortion is a sin and that they are no longer welcome to receive [Communion], and have in fact excommunicated themselves from the Church.”
“In the process,” she concluded, “we pray that those politicians will repent of their involvement with abortion and come back to the Church and swear their faith in all the teachings of the Church.”
Alejandro Bermúdez writes from Lima, Peru.
‘The role of the Church … is to proclaim the culture of life. The more we feel the pressure to make concessions in this critical field, the more we have to be faithful.’
— Cardinal Juan Cipriani, archbishop of Lima
----- EXCERPT: Peru Cardinal Puts Lawmakers On the Spot ----- EXTENDED BODY: Alejandro Berm˙dez ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: U.S. Drive Wants the Same, But Critics Raise Questions DATE: 10/14/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:STAFFORD, Va. — Signs calling for the excommunication of pro-abortion Catholic politicians have appeared at pro-life rallies and prayer vigils for years. Many Catholics have wondered why some penalty has not been brought against elected officials who vote for partial-birth abortion one day and go to Mass another.
A group of lay people, claiming that now is the time for action, has decided to press the issue all the way to Pope John Paul II with a petition calling for the excommunication of some 50 pro-abortion Catholic politicians, named in the document as “defendants.”
Among those targeted are Democratic Senators Edward Kennedy and John Kerry of Massachusetts, Joseph Biden of Delaware, Tom Daschle of South Dakota and Christopher Dodd of Connecticut.
Signed by prominent pro-life advocates, including Judie Brown, president of American Life League in Stafford, Va., and a corresponding member to the Pontifical Academy for Life in Rome, the excommunication petition has gained thousands of signatures on its Web site and soon will be circulated in hard-copy form.
Its sponsors, listed as “plaintiffs,” plan to bring the petition to the Vatican.
Citing a list of Church canons and sections from the Pope's encyclical Evangelium Vitae, the petition argues that Catholic politicians who consistently support abortion are a source of scandal in the Church and in the larger society, harming the faith of Catholics and lowering the image and standing of the Church in the world. Non-Catholics are asked to sign the petition as “friends of the court” to witness to the latter claim.
Act of Mercy
The sponsors say that the goal of the petition is not necessarily to get pro-abortion politicians out of the Church, but to urge them to see and admit their errors.
“We see this as an instrument of mercy, an opportunity for each of these elected officials to repent and come back to the Church,” said Brown, whose signature organizers consider important because she attends Vatican meetings as a member of the Pontifical Academy headed by Bishop Elio Sgreccia.
Brown realizes that the effort will be seen even by faithful Catholics as heavy-handed or futile, but stated, “The Holy Spirit never stops working, and we should never write these politicians off. It's so hard for someone to say ‘I'm wrong and I'm sorry,’ but we hold out hope.”
She added, “The bishops have this tremendous teaching office. If this is an opportunity for something good to happen, I'm all for it.”
Also signing as plaintiffs are Philip Lawler, editor of Catholic World Report, Joe Scheidler, head of Pro-Life Action League in Chicago, Chris Ferrara, president of the American Catholic Lawyers Association in New Jersey, and Donna Steichen, author of the book Ungodly Rage.
A spokesman for Sen. Kennedy said the senator was aware of the petition but had no comment. Spokesmen for the half dozen other senators contacted by the Register said they had not heard about the petition.
Precedents
A high profile case of a bishop disciplining a Catholic public official took place in 1983 when Sister of Mercy Agnes Mary Mansour, head of Michigan's Department of Social Services, which provided funds for abortion, left her order after the Detroit Archdiocese intervened.
A few years earlier, Jesuit Father Robert Drinan, a congressman from Massachusetts who supported abortion funding, resigned after the Vatican banned priests from holding elected office in a decree that was was seen as directed at the Jesuit, among others.
Canon lawyers consulted for this article said they support the goal of having people who favor abortion repent, but they doubted whether a petition for excommunication was the proper vehicle.
Father Gerald Murray, a canonist and pastor in New York, said that Church law generally leaves to local bishops the responsibility for bringing charges and enforcing penalties.
Bill Cotter, head of Operation Rescue Boston, who presented a similar petition to the Vatican 10 years ago, acknowledged that the chances of the present effort going forward are slim. He signed the petition to raise the issue within the Church and to inform consciences.
“We are advancing it on the principle of the issue, against the counter principle of pro-abortion figureheads who try to maintain that they can be pro-abortion and Catholic at the same time,” Cotter said, who has a link to the petition at the Web site www.excommunication.net.
Tim Chichester, a computer technician and father of five children in upstate New York, is the main sponsor of the petition. He picked up the text of Cotter's decade-old petition, amended it with the help of those versed in canon law and posted it on the Internet. The effort picked up speed when the tens of thousands at the March for Life last January saw his banner calling for the excommunication of pro-abortion politicians.
To Chichester, the issue is clear. “If pro-abortion politicians are going to wave the Catholic flag, we have an obligation to say that they do not act as Catholics,” he said. “We don't judge them, their record judges them.”
His petition has a “frequently asked questions” section attached which cites canon law that every Catholic has the right to petition the Pope directly, and claims that the action is necessary because local bishops have neglected their duty for decades to educate the faithful and discipline the unfaithful.
Among the many canons cited to support the petition is Canon 1369, which states that a person is to be punished with “a just penalty” who in public or by other means of social communication “gravely harms public morals.” Cited from Evangelium Vitae are the Pope's statements that abortion is a crime that no human law can legitimize, and that it is never licit to obey such a law or take part in “a propagation campaign” in favor of it or to vote for it.
Lincoln's History
Msgr. Daniel Seiker, an official of the Diocese of Lincoln, where five years ago Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz excommunicated anyone belonging to Planned Parenthood and anti-Catholic organizations, said that there are important differences between what was done in Lincoln and what the lay petitioners are doing.
Bishop Bruskewitz laid a legislative groundwork before promulgating his threat of excommunication, which was based on membership in organizations, not on public statements or votes. By naming so many “defendants,” the petitioners make it almost impossible for the Vatican to handle the case, he said, since evidence would have to be brought against each one individually.
He said that it is a scandal that Kennedy and others publicly claim the name Catholic and “pro-choice,” but explained that the “penal process [in canon law] is very long and hard to follow, and that's because the Church wants to try every other means of correction before imposing the penalty.”
He thought the petition might end up backfiring. If it gets a lot of publicity and then goes nowhere, he explained, it might appear to some inside and outside the Church that the pro-abortion politicians somehow won the case.
Brian Caulfield writes from New York.
Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz' actions in Lincoln, Neb., were based on membership in organizations, not votes … and he carefully built the groundwork first, says his office.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian Caulfield ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: A Better Way: Campaign for Clean Vaccines Gathers Steam DATE: 10/14/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:CLEARWATER, Fla. — First, Debi Vinnedge was shocked when she learned many routine vaccines are developed using cells from aborted babies. Then she was furious.
The executive director of the Clearwater-based Children of God for Life started to pray. “Lord, I can't do this,” she remembers praying. “How can one person fight the pharmaceutical industry? It's too big. Then I heard a quiet voice inside say, ‘It's not too big for God.’” Vinnedge became determined.
That was in 1999. Today, she has amassed nearly 430,000 signatures in a petition urging pharmaceutical companies to provide alternative vaccines that are grown without using fetal tissue.
Her campaign has the support of groups ranging from the Catholic Medical Association and American Life League to Human Life International. She has linked up with the Orlando-based group, Liberty Counsel, that offers to defend parents against state authorities free of charge, to preserve their right to refuse vaccination on religious grounds.
Most encouraging for parents who want to vaccinate their children but feel uncomfortable with the dark past of the available ones, Vinnedge is also making headway with the Food and Drug Administration. One goal: to gain federal approval to have a Japanese-developed “untainted” alternative to the fetal tissue-tainted rubella vaccine imported and distributed in the United States.
Even with her campaign snowballing, most Catholic parents are unaware that several common vaccines — measles, mumps and rubella (the MMR shot), polio, chicken pox, rabies, and hepatitis A — involve the use of aborted babies.
The production of these vaccines involves a stage where a virus is grown on cell culture. In the cases of commonly used vaccines for these diseases, the viruses are grown on cell lines from two aborted fetuses.
One of these cell lines, WI-38, was developed at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia in 1961 using cells from the lung tissue of a female fetus aborted at three months gestation because her parents felt they had too many children.
The other, MRC-5, was taken from the lung tissue of a normal 14-week male baby, aborted “for psychiatric reasons,” according to a 1970 article in the journal Nature.
The rubella vaccine, present in the MMR shot developed by Merck & Co., has a particularly troubling history, triply tied to abortion.
Besides being grown on WI-38, the virus itself was taken from the kidneys of a baby aborted in 1964 during a rubella epidemic, when many doctors encouraged women to abort rather than risk having babies born with Congenital Rubella Syndrome, a disease associated with many malformations.
Suzanne Rini, in her book Beyond Abortion, describes how the MMR was also tested on “to be aborted women.” That is, pregnant women who were planning abortions were given the rubella vaccine and asked to delay their abortions for three to four weeks, so scientists could examine the result on the fetuses.
As well, at least one woman in the control group who received the MMR did not realize she was pregnant and miscarried as a result, it is thought, of the vaccine. It was these experiments that led scientists to advise pregnant women against receiving the vaccine because it harms unborn babies.
St. Louis Controversy
Vinnedge learned about the abortion/vaccine connection in 1999 when a group of health care workers in St. Louis objected to a county ordinance requiring all food handlers to obtain the hepatitis-A vaccine.
Some workers objected on grounds the vaccine has “tainted” origins. (Both pharmaceutical manufacturers of the hepatitis-A vaccine, Smith Kline Beecham and Merck & Company, use the MRC-5 line to produce it.)
Press coverage in a number of Catholic media outlets, including the Register, reported the views of a number of moral theologians and bioethicists on the morality of using the hepatitis-A vaccine.
The majority, including Richard Doerflinger, associate director of policy and planning with the U.S. bishops' secretariat for pro-life activities, concluded that while the development of any vaccine with aborted tissue is entirely immoral and should be categorically opposed, use of the hepatitis-A vaccine is permissible in the absence of any alternative means of prevention against the disease.
But both those supporting and opposing the use of such vaccines agree that the best solution would be the development of ethical alternatives that did not involve tissues obtained through abortions. Father Stephen Torraco, professor of theology at Assumption College in Worcester, Mass., told the Register last month that “society has the moral obligation to pursue alternatives.”
When the St. Louis controversy erupted two years ago, Vinnedge had already launched Children of God for Life to oppose embryonic stem cell research that relied on the destruction of human embryos. She immediately saw a parallel to the vaccine issue.
Based on the arguments justifying its use, she worried that some legislators and researchers would argue that any therapeutic benefits from killed embryos could be deemed morally licit.
In fact, after President Bush made his decision in August allowing federal funding of stem-cell research using cell lines derived from already killed human embryos, he further justified it with a letter in The New York Times citing the development of the chicken pox vaccine, manufactured on the MRC-5 line, as an analogy demonstrating such research was morally acceptable.
Vinnedge worries that this argument opens the door to an after-the-fact justification of all stem-cell research. “What's to stop them in the future from saying that it is remote material cooperation to benefit from research on embryo-derived stem cells?” she asked.
The Ethical Alternatives
The best practical way to forestall the pressure in favor of embryo-destroying research, many pro-life advocates say, is to show that ethical alternatives exist. Vinnedge has discovered such alternatives already have been approved for several diseases, including for polio, mumps, rabies and measles. She has posted the information on her Web site, and parents can specify that non-abortion-derived vaccines must be used when doctors vaccinate their children.
Vinnedge has also found an ethical alternative for the rubella vaccine. While Merck dissected at least 27 aborted babies to acquire its virus, a Japanese vaccine was developed simply by swabbing the throat of an infected child. Vinnedge is currently working through the arduous process of seeking FDA approval for the Japanese vaccine's use in America.
In the meantime, she is frequently contacted by parents who are distraught by the abortion/vaccine connection. In Oklahoma a father of five, a lawyer, wrote to her: “We are a Catholic family and were shocked to find our deeply held religious beliefs so callously disregarded. Abortion is wrong. Profiting from abortion is wrong. Making us accomplices to this evil is beyond wrong.”
A California mother of three children, expecting her fourth baby recently wrote: “After learning about the sick method in which vaccines are developed, I will not give my children any more shots … I will not cooperate with evil.”
For parents like these, and for Catholics in general, Vinnedge's campaign to pressure vaccine manufactures to find alternatives looks like the most promising solution to an ugly ethical dilemma.
“We support urging the companies to do it differently,” said Doerflinger, the U.S. bishops' pro-life activities aide. “I think Debi Vinnedge has done tremendous work in focusing people's attention on this issue.”
Celeste McGovern writes from Portland, Oregon.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Celeste Mcgovern ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: Something to Hold Onto in Tough Times DATE: 10/14/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:Before terrorism was on every New Yorker's mind, the manager of the Yankees spoke with Register correspondent G.E. Devine.
Now, Joe Torre is guiding the current World Champions to post-season play for a sixth season (also his sixth as manager), an unprecedented feat.
Your book, Chasing the Dream, mentions that your Catholic family and faith have been very important to you in your recent achievements. Can you tell us about that?
I did grow up in New York in the atmosphere of a very religious family, strong in the faith. My late mother was a daily communicant at our parish, Good Shepherd.
That's in the Diocese of Brooklyn, isn't it?
Yes, I was born and raised in Brooklyn, and went to school at St. Francis Prep there. It's still home, in a very special way, to our family. My sister Rae still lives in the house on Avenue T that has been in our family since 1935, which is five years before I was born!
And your other sister is a nun?
Yes, Sister Marguerite joined the Trinitarian Order in 1951.
Ever since then and even before then, we have been close, and she has always supported and prayed for me. Of course, when we played in the World Series in 1966, she and the other sisters were praying for us.
This got a lot of attention in the media, especially in the New York Times.
She is now principal at the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Elementary School in Queens, right next to the borough of Brooklyn and in the same Diocese.
The year 1996 was also hard for you, wasn't it?
Yes, that was the year my brother Rocco died suddenly of a heart attack. He was 68, the same age my father was when he died. And my mother died at 69. So we were all very worried about my brother Frank, who was in so many ways my model in baseball as well as in life. Frank was looking forward to reaching 65, when he was in need of a heart transplant. As it happened, he received a successful transplant the day before we won the World Series.
Both life and baseball have their really tough times, don't they?
Yes, and I know what it's like to win and to lose, to be in last place as well as in first.
Has your Catholic faith, beginning with that of your mother, been of help to you in the tough times?
Yes, we came through some tough times, but having a religion — something to believe in — gave us something to hold onto.
I really feel sorry for people who don't have a religion, who don't have a God — whatever religion you're in — because you really need something to hold onto when things are going badly.
In addition to Sister Marguerite, were there members of Religious orders and the clergy who stand out in your memory as important at crucial times in your life?
Father Joe Dispenza of the Archdiocese of New York married my wife Ali and me back in 1987 at St. Patrick's Cathedral. He is deceased now but he was very close to us and was my mentor during tough times.
How do you guide your players when the going gets tough?
I think you have to let everybody know that these players out here are human beings. Just because they throw a baseball for a lot of money and get a lot of attention doesn't deny the fact that they are still basically people who eat and breathe and bleed and all those things. They go through a lot of rough times. The most important thing is to know that the players are human and not robots.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joe Torre ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson ----------- TITLE: A Song of Love: Father Al Muniz Ministers to Ecuador's Poorest DATE: 10/14/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:LONGMONT, Colo. — When he's back in his home diocese, Father Al Muniz will keep celebrating Mass, but only while wearing a bulletproof vest.
“You know, it's very hot and humid in Ecuador most of the time, and wearing that vest makes it even hotter,” said Father Muniz, 72.
But the priest isn't grumbling about his circumstances during his current medical-related stay in Colorado. Instead, he's singing and giving talks in local bars and restaurants to help fund his apostolate to Ecuador's poor.
Welcome to the Third World slums of Guayaquil, Ecuador — a place so impoverished that finding food to steal can be an entire day's work, and where a priest's diet commonly includes meals of goat meat, donkey or guinea pig.
Father Muniz began wearing a Kevlar bulletproof vest after being robbed four times and beaten up once. It was February 2000, and Ecuador was in the midst of severe economic, political and social crisis. Most people were hungry, the country had just switched its currency to the U.S. dollar — sparking runaway inflation — and President Jamil Mahuad had just been overthrown.
As Father Muniz put it, “All hell was breaking loose” in Guayaquil, Ecuador's largest city, where he serves under the local archbishop. Olindo Espagnolo, the auxiliary bishop at the time, had just been been held up at gunpoint and refused to conduct Mass publicly. To top it off, Father Muniz returned to his home one day to find that burglars had ransacked the place.
Today, the economy is even worse and the streets are even more violent.
“The poor in Ecuador are really poor,” said Father Muniz. “They are desperate, and many of them think priests have a lot of money. So it's not unusual to see a priest walking around with a black eye, having just endured another assault and robbery.”
But Father Muniz doesn't complain about his ongoing assignment in Guayaquil, where he has spent the last 14 years after asking to be placed among the poorest of the poor.
He's visiting Colorado, his native state, in order to receive medical treatments at a Veterans Administration hospital through January. With the approval of Msgr. Tom Fryar, vicar of clergy and seminarians for the Archdiocese of Denver, Father Muniz is telling stories about poverty most Americans can barely comprehend.
And he's raising money, by singing and strumming his guitar.
Several nights a week, Father Muniz visits restaurants and bars in and around Denver to sing old country-western tunes or Mexican rancheros, depending on the ethnicity of the audience. He gives a short speech about his vocation of funding schoolchildren in Ecuador — providing them with books, food and clothing — and says 100% of donations go to help the needy. Some of the funds help pay for a vocation school he established, called the Center for Our Lady of Guadalupe, where the poor learn skills such as making bread and fixing appliances.
Living His Vocation
But Father Muniz doesn't waste much time preaching to the crowd or soliciting funds. Mostly he just sings, and when he's finished some people write checks.
“He really lives this as his vocation, every day of his life,” said Jim Dorsey, a member of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Longmont, Colo., and a friend of Father Muniz.
During his visit to the United States, Father Muniz keeps an office at St. John the Baptist and says morning Mass.
“Almost always, his homily includes a message about the poor,” Dorsey said. “He has really opened a lot of hearts and minds to conditions many people aren't aware of.”
At night, if Father Muniz isn't singing, he visits patients in hospitals. He has reached out to the large Catholic Hispanic community in Long-mont, regularly attending Spanish-speaking charismatic prayer meetings.
Recently at Tres Margaritas, a Mexican restaurant in Longmont, Father Muniz joined in with the Vasquez family mariachi band, which was performing serenades from table to table.
Father Muniz grew up poor on a ranch in rural Colorado, and joined the Army after high school during the Korean War. After the service, he worked as a bodyguard for a bank manager in Watts, a notoriously rough Los Angeles neighborhood. In his late 20s, he capitalized on the singing and guitar picking he had learned as a child on the ranch.
Sage Records released six of his singles, and he landed himself on radio and TV appearances with country-western giants Johnny Cash, Jim Reeves and Hank Snow. Ultimately, however, the music career lost steam, and he joined a religious order seminary, Priests of the Sacred Heart, in Hales Corner, Wis.
After ordination, when Father Muniz was 41, he asked to work with the poor. He was assigned to a parish in a rough area of Gary, Ind., just Southeast of Chicago.
“I don't know why God took me down this path, but it's clear to me that I am supposed to dedicate myself to the poor,” said Father Muniz.
He worked with America's impoverished for about 15 years, and then felt called to work with the poorest of the poor. He knew he couldn't find them in the United States, where food, shelter and clothing are relatively abundant. So he decided to leave the religious order and asked to work for the archbishop of Guayaquil, specifically requesting to be assigned to the slums of Ecuador's largest, chronically impoverished city.
“It came to me one day, that in order to really help the poor, I needed to live poor myself,” Father Muniz said. “I needed to live among the poor, and personally experience their suffering.”
He had second thoughts upon his arrival in Guayaquil. Food was scarce. The place was hot, dirty, hostile and dangerous. Suddenly his modest childhood on the Colorado ranch didn't seem so modest.
“I was scared to death,” Father Muniz said. “Then I heard the words: ‘I took care of Abraham, I'll take care of you.’ My fear was gone. It was the Holy Spirit.”
Priests Targeted
He's no longer fearful, but Father Muniz knows that priests are targets in Ecuador and becoming more so every day. Since Ecuador switched to the dollar, the country's economy has experienced 91% inflation and more people are stealing in order to survive.
“Nobody has money down there, but the prices are exactly the same as they are in the United States because of ‘dollarization,’” Father Muniz said. “A loaf of bread costs the same in Guayaquil as it does in Denver. Hardly anyone can afford it.”
Although Father Muniz no longer lives in fear, he takes responsibility for staying alive. He packs a .38 Special handgun, just in case those who would mug him and burglarize his home get too violent.
Commented Father Muniz, “I make it real clear to everyone: You break in, I'll shoot and charge you for the funeral.”
Wayne Laugesen writes from Boulder, Colorado.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Wayne Laugesen ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 10/14/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:Are American Christians ‘Soft Pacifists’?
THE WEEKLY STANDARD, Sept. 29 — As the United States experienced an upsurge in public religious expression in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, the national weekly warned that many American Christians may be tempted by a “soft pacifism.”
J. Bottum wrote, “Among Protestants, the entire theological tradition of using martial metaphors to describe God's glory has fallen into massive disrepute. Among Catholics, concerns about the injustices that must necessarily happen during war (the concerns scholastics called jus in bello) have damaged the ability to hold almost any good reason for going to war (what the scholastics called jus ad bellum).”
Bottum noted that a “stern and hard edged” pacifism, which accepts martyrdom, is “a constant theme of the Gospels.” But he also cited Scriptural passages such as St. Paul's declaration that the ruler “beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.” And Bottum expressed fear that a “soft pacifism” left America vulnerable to “enemies without any softness or tradition of pacifism.”
Famed Boston Shrine May Relocate
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Oct. 1 — The 10-story St. Anthony Shrine in Boston's financial district may relocate to ease the strain on the Franciscan friars' budget, the wire service reported.
The friars celebrate 10 Masses each weekday and hear 2,000 confessions in a typical week at the historic shrine, while counseling and teaching classes. But the shrine faces a major cash crunch.
Its location makes the shrine attractive to developers. Father John Ullrich, rector of the shrine, has solicited proposals to develop the shrine. It will probably become an office tower, and the friars will move. They will insist that the new building on the site be “beautiful,” Father Ullrich said, but they need a different home.
The friars have more space than they need, but it is wasted in extra housing space rather than the conference and office space they require. As heating and employee insurance costs soared, the building became too costly to renovate.
Court Won't Hear Scientology Libel Case
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Oct. 1 — The U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider whether a libel case against Time magazine should be reinstated, the wire service reported.
Time's award-winning May 1991 story portrayed the Church of Scientology as “The Cult of Greed” and “a ruthless global scam.” Time Warner Inc. defended the article, saying it would not be “intimidated by the church's apparently limitless legal resources.” Scientology requires its members to take classes and receive counseling that can cost thousands of dollars.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Time had not run the report out of malice, and therefore could not be charged with libel.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: Bay State High Court Might Redefine Marriage Law DATE: 10/14/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:BOSTON — The effort to confer legal sanction on homosexual couples gained significant momentum in 1999 when the Vermont Supreme Court ordered the state legislature to grant legal status and benefits for homosexual couples.
Now the movement has proceeded south to Massachusetts, where several plaintiffs have sued the state for not recognizing homosexual couples under the state's marriage codes.
Experts speculate that Massachusetts state law may preclude a “Vermont decision” where marriage remained between a man and a woman but “civil unions” were established for homosexual couples.
In the Bay State, they say, it will be all-or-nothing: Either marriage will remain between a man and a woman, or marriage will be legally altered to accept other groupings and couplings.
The Catholic bishops in Massachusetts called the lawsuit “as radical an attack on the institution of marriage as one could imagine.”
“We've been following it closely and we're hoping that ultimately the claim will fail,” said Dan Avila, spokesman for the Massachusetts Catholic Conference.
“The bishops have been following this nationally, and in other states when the issue became much more acute,” he told the Register. “In Hawaii, Vermont and now Massachusetts, the Catholic Church went straight to the forefront.”
Avila admitted that the legal movement to redefine marriage as including homosexual relationships caught many family advocates by surprise.
“You go for centuries calling an orange an orange and someone comes along and calls it red,” remarked Avila. “How seriously do you take that?”
But family defenders are now well aware of the commitment of homosexual activists to changing marriage laws.
“There is no question that Massachusetts is becoming ground zero for activist organizations determined to use the courts to do an end run around the democratic process and public opinion in order to undermine our marriage laws,” said Matt Daniels, executive director of the Alexandria, Va.-based Alliance for Marriage.
Homosexual activists insist that they are fighting unjustified discrimination against homosexual couples.
“Same-sex couples and their children do not have access to the protections provided through marriage which give them strength and security in times of illness, hardship and crisis or recognize them as an emotional and economic unit,” said Mary Bonauto, a spokeswoman for the New England-based Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, which has lawyers involved in the case.
“It's time for our commonwealth to live up to the equality guarantees of our state constitution, and not single out gay and lesbian couples by denying them alone access to civil marriage,” she told the Register in a statement.
“Family, Marriage and ‘De Facto’ Unions,” a document released in July 2000 by the Pontifical Council for the Family, states that heterosexual marriage must be protected in public policy because of its unique and irrepleaceable role in society, a role that is not shared with homosexual relationships and other non-marital arrangements.
“Marriage and the family are of public interest; they are the fundamental nucleus of society and the State and should be recognized and protected as such,” the document states. “Two or more persons may decide to live together, with or without a sexual dimension, but this cohabitation is not for that reason of public interest. … Their public recognition or equivalency to marriage, and the resulting elevation of a private interest to a public interest, damages the family based on marriage. In marriage a man and a woman constitute a community of the whole of life which is ordered by its very nature to the good of the spouses and the generation and up-bringing of offspring. In marriage, different from de facto unions, commitments and responsibilities are taken on publicly and formally that are relevant for society” (No. 11).
The Massachusetts case, called Goodridge v. the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, was filed in April. The office of Attorney General Tom Reilly is preparing a legal defense of the current interpretation of the statute, which will likely be filed in December.
Pro-family groups are cautiously optimistic that Reilly will strongly defend the law, even though he has long been considered to be supportive of the homosexual community.
“The statements made by the attorney general, while a cause for concern, have to be put into context,” said Avila. “It's one thing to advocate a certain public policy in the legislature; it's another thing to call for the courts to overrule the legislature.”
He added, “It's too early to tell how the attorney general will argue this, but there's reason to believe that the attorney general's office will defend the law.”
Other marriage advocates, such as the Massachusetts Citizens Alliance, are calling for a constitutional amendment to the state's constitution that would ban homosexual marriages as well as civil unions. Such an amendment, they hope, would make it impossible for a court to make an end run around citizen oppostion to redefining marriage.
“It's about strengthening marriage. It's not against homosexuals. There needs to be a legal definition of marriage which holds it special and unique and protects the children,” said Bryan Rudnick, executive director of the Massachusetts Citizens Alliance.
Daniels said he appreciates Rudnick's attempt to change the Massachusetts Constitution.
“Any effort to use the democratic methods at the state level to protect marriage from being destroyed by the courts is worthwhile and commendable,” said Daniels.
But Daniels, whose group is sponsoring the current campaign for a federal constitutional amendment defining marriage as exclusively the union of a man and a woman, argues state measures are not enough. “The best legal minds on our side of this debate — Robby George, Mary Ann Glendon and others — know that such state law defenses, even state constitutional amendments, will not survive when they are challenged in court,” Daniels said.
He noted that the U.S. Supreme Court, in the 1996 Romer v. Evans case, struck down a state constitutional amendment on the grounds that it had no other basis than “animus” against homosexual couples.
“In light of this,” said Daniels, “legal experts agree that the only long-term solution to the judicial assault upon marriage is a federal constitutional amendment that will provide the highest level of permanent protection for the legal status of marriage in America.”
Joshua Mercer writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 10/14/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:On U.S. Retaliation, Pope Has Final Say at Vatican
L'OSSERVATORE ROMANO, Oct. 2 — The Vatican's official newspaper said that Pope John Paul II's voice should not be muffled by conflicting stances on the proper United States response to the attacks of Sept. 11.
As papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls pointed out, Catholics can use self-defense in response to attacks. But in his main speech on the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pope said, “Difficult questions should be resolved not by recourse to arms but through peaceful means of negotiation and dialogue.”
Turkey Protests After Pope Cites Armenian “Genocide”
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, Oct. 2 — The government of Turkey protested Pope John Paul II's use of the term “genocide” to describe the killing of Armenians under Ottoman Turkish rule in the early 20th century, the wire service reported.
In a letter to Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer before the papal trip to Armenia, the Pope said that Turkey had “nothing to worry about” from the trip.
Turkey claims that 300,000 Armenians and thousands of Turks were killed when Armenians sided with invading Russian troops in the hopes of forming an independent state. Armenia charges that 1.5 million Armenians died in massacres, not fighting.
Cardinal Egan Opens Synod, Warns Against Vengeance
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Oct. 1 — New York's Cardinal Edward Egan was called to the Vatican from New York City, where he had been ministering to the wounded and dying in the Sept. 11 attacks, the wire service reported.
Cardinal Egan delivered the opening speech at the month-long synod of the world's bishops. He said, “All of us with a sense of justice would say you have to know who is responsible and the penalty must be a penalty invoked with justice. …The words like vengeance, retaliation and so forth are not the words of civilized people.”
He said the bishops brought “supernatural hope” to the world.
George Bush I Meets John Paul II
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE, Oct. 5 — Former President George H.W. Bush met with John Paul II Oct. 4 in private audience.
Bush reported that the Pope expressed his sympathy for the terrorist attack in the United States and said that the Vatican would observe Oct. 11 as a day of prayer for the victims.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican ----------- TITLE: Reject Violence in Favor of Love DATE: 10/14/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:Register Summary
During his midweek general audience, Pope John Paul II Oct. 3 appealed to members of all faiths to reject violence and cooperate in building a better world.
“Christians and Muslims, together with believers of every religion, are called to resolutely repudiate violence, to build a humanity that loves life and develops in justice and solidarity,” the Holy Father added.
John Paul spoke to 22,000 pilgrims in St. Peter's Square, recalling his Sept. 22-27 pilgrimage to Kazakhstan and Armenia.
The Pope put special emphasis on the theme of his pastoral visit to Kazakhstan, which was the commandment of Christ: “Love one another.”
Dearest brothers and sisters!
I am grateful to the Lord who in recent days enabled me to joyfully complete an apostolic journey to Kazakhstan and Armenia. It was an experience that left vivid impressions and emotions in my heart.
The journey had a dual nature. In Kazakhstan, it was a pastoral visit to the Catholic community that lives in a country whose population is primarily Muslim — having emerged some 10 years ago from the harsh and oppressive Soviet regime.
To Armenia, I went as a pilgrim to render homage to a Church of very ancient origin; in fact, the Armenian people are celebrating 1,700 years since they became officially Christian [as a nation]. They have maintained this identity until today — at the cost of martyrdom.
I renew my expressions of gratitude to the presidents of the republic of Kazakhstan and Armenia who, with their invitation, opened the doors of their noble countries to me. I am grateful to them for the courtesy and warmth with which they welcomed me.
In gratitude and affection I address the bishops and apostolic administrators, priests and Catholic communities. My most sincere thanks go to all those who collaborated toward the good outcome of this apostolic pilgrimage, which I so longed for and prepared for at length in prayer.
Come Together in Charity
The theme of the pastoral visit to Kazakhstan was the commandment of Christ: “Love one another.” It was especially significant to carry this message to that country in which over 100 different ethnic groups coexist and collaborate among themselves to build a better future. The city of Astana itself, where my visit took place, became the capital less than four years ago, and is the symbol of the country's reconstruction.
In my meetings with the authorities and the people, I clearly saw the will to overcome their harsh past, marked by the suppression of the dignity and rights of the human person. Indeed, who can forget that hundreds of thousands of people were deported to Kazakhstan? Who can fail to remember that its steppes were used to test nuclear arms?
Because of this, no sooner had I arrived, than I wanted to visit the monument to the victims of the totalitarian regime, in order to underline the perspective from which these events should be viewed from now on. Kazakhstan, a multiethnic society, has rejected atomic armaments and is intent on building a solid and peaceful society. This need is symbolically recalled in the monument to the “Motherland,” which was the background for the Holy Mass on Sunday, Sept. 23.
Thanks be to God, the Church is being reborn — sustained also by a new territorial organization. I wished to come close to that community and its pastors, who are committed to a generous and arduous missionary work. With heartfelt emotion I rendered homage, together with them, to the memory of all those who sacrificed their life in hardships and persecutions to take Christ to the local populations.
I vigorously reaffirmed that religion must never be used as a reason for conflict.
In the cathedral of Astana, with the bishops of the Central Asian countries, with priests, religious, seminarians and faithful who also came from neighboring states, I entrusted Kazakhstan to Mary Most Holy, Queen of Peace, the title under which she is venerated in the national shrine.
Hostility vs. Solidarity
“Love one another!” These words of Christ challenge Christians above all. I addressed them first to the Catholics, exhorting them to communion among themselves and with their Orthodox brothers and sisters, who are more numerous. Moreover, I encouraged them to collaborate with Muslims to foster the authentic progress of society.
From that country, in which followers of different religions coexist peacefully, I vigorously reaffirmed that religion must never be used as a reason for conflict. Christians and Muslims, together with believers of every religion, are called to resolutely repudiate violence, to build a humanity that loves life and develops in justice and solidarity.
I gave a message of hope to Kazakh youth, reminding them that God loves them personally. With great joy I was aware of the strong and lively echo that this fundamental truth produced in their hearts. The meeting with them took place at the university, an environment always dear to me, where the culture of a people develops. It was precisely with the representatives from the world of culture, art and science that I had the opportunity to recall the religious foundation of human liberty and the reciprocity between faith and reason — exhorting them to safeguard the spiritual values of Kazakhstan.
First Christian Nation
Leaving this great Central Asian country, I arrived in Armenia as a pilgrim, to render homage to a people that for 17 centuries has linked its history to Christianity. For the first time, a Bishop of Rome has stepped on that dear soil, which was evangelized — according to tradition — by the Apostles Bartholomew and Thaddeus, becoming officially Christian in 301 thanks to St. Gregory the Illuminator.
The cathedral of Etchmiadzin, apostolic see of the Armenian Church, dates back to 303. I went there upon my arrival and again before my departure, according to the custom of pilgrims. I was in prayer before the tombs of the Catholicos of All Armenians, among whom are Vazken I and Karekin I, authors of the present cordial relations between the Armenian and Catholic Churches. In the name of this fraternal friendship, with exquisite courtesy, His Holiness Karekin II wished to welcome me in his residence, and accompanied me in every moment of the pilgrimage.
Throughout their long history, the Armenian people have paid a high price for fidelity to their own identity. Suffice it to recall the tremendous mass extermination suffered at the beginning of the 20th century. To the everlasting memory of the victims — close to 1.5 million in three years — a solemn memorial has been erected near Yerevan, the capital, where, together with the Catholicos of All Armenians, we prayed intensely for all the dead and for peace in the world.
Ecumenical Charity
In the new apostolic cathedral of Yerevan, dedicated to St. Gregory the Illuminator and just consecrated, a solemn ecumenical celebration took place, with the veneration of the saint's relic that I gave to Karekin II last year, on the occasion of his visit to Rome. This sacred rite, together with the Joint Declaration [which we made], placed a significant seal on the bond of charity that unites the Catholic and Armenian Churches. In a world lacerated by conflicts and violence, it is more necessary than ever that Christians be witnesses of unity and authors of reconciliation and peace.
The Holy Mass at the new open air “great altar,” in the garden of the apostolic see of Etchmiadzin, although following the Latin rite, was celebrated “with two lungs,” with readings, prayers and hymns in the Armenian tongue and with the presence of the Catholicos of All Armenians. I have no words to express the profound joy of those moments, in which one was aware of the spiritual presence of so many martyrs and confessors of the faith, who gave witness to the Gospel with their lives. Their memory will be honored forever: We must obey Christ, who asks his disciples to be one, with complete docility.
The last object of my apostolic trip was the Monastery of Khor Virap, which means “deep well.” There according to tradition is the well, 130 feet deep, in which King Tiridate III held St. Gregory the Illuminator as a prisoner because of his faith in Christ — until the saint, with his prayers, obtained a miraculous cure for him, and the king was converted and had himself baptized along with his family and all the people.
There, as a symbol of the faith with which Gregory illuminated the Armenians, I was handed a torch, which I solemnly placed in the new chapel, inaugurated in the auditorium of the Synod of Bishops. That light has been burning for 17 centuries! It has been burning in the world for 2,000 years. Dearest brothers and sisters, we Christians are asked not to hide it, but to add fuel to it, so that it will direct the ways of humanity on the paths of truth, love and peace!
(Translation by Zenit and Register)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican ----------- TITLE: U.S. Ukrainian Catholics Help Their Ancestral Church DATE: 10/14/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:STAMFORD, Conn. — While the Iron Curtain failed to extinguish the Christian faith, it succeeded in destroying churches, books and religious materials, especially from the Catholic Church.
So, when the Soviet Union collapsed a decade ago, Ukrainian Greek Catholics in the free world faced an enormous responsibility in helping revive the Catholic faith in their homeland. The four U.S. Ukrainian Catholic dioceses and their parishes mounted a massive campaign as soon as Ukraine declared independence, sending Bibles, rosaries, liturgical texts and other expressions of the faith.
“The Ukrainian-American community is the community that put Ukraine on its feet,” said Bishop Basil Losten, of the Ukrainian Catholic Diocese in Stamford, Conn.
Investments in construction projects also flowed into Ukraine. Bishop Losten estimates that $8 million in support was funneled through his diocese alone.
In the U.S. and Canada, the Ukrainian Catholic Church has nine dioceses.
After spending half a century as the world's largest illegal church, Ukraine's Catholics also lacked materials as basic as pens, notebooks and Scotch tape, which Bishop Losten's diocese was more than happy to contribute.
“To this day, I can't understand how the Communists could destroy so much in such a short time,” he said.
American and Canadian contributions extended beyond finances and materials.
Ukrainian-Canadian architect Radoslav Zhuk designed the Church of the Nativity of the Holy Theotokos in Lviv, where the Pope held his youth rally during his five-day visit to Ukraine in June.
Bishop Losten has led an effort to convert a dilapidated clinic into an orphanage for young girls, led by the Basilian sisters.
And perhaps the largest contribution from the United States was a human one: Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, major archbishop of Lviv and the current leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, who is an American citizen.
After his family was politically exiled from Ukraine during World War II, Husar studied at the Ukrainian Catholic College of St. Basil the Great in Stamford, and later earned a master's degree from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
He served as a prefect in Stamford until moving to Rome in 1972 to pursue his doctoral studies.
Cardinal's Homecoming
On Sept. 16, more than 500 Ukrainian Catholics extended a homecoming for Cardinal Husar with a Mass at St. George's Ukrainian Catholic Church in Manhattan's East Village, the center of Ukrainian cultural life in New York City. When his family arrived in New York City as immigrants, their first liturgy was at the St. George Parish.
Cardinal Husar returned to the United States mostly for personal reasons, visiting places of sentimental value, like the parish he led in Kerhonkson, N.Y., a small town where many Ukrainians vacation.
His selection of St. George as the final destination on his trip reflected his gratitude to that parish, which like the Stamford Diocese has been at the forefront of American assistance to Ukraine's Catholics.
St. George Parish members contributed half a million dollars to construction of the first Catholic monastery in Ukraine's capital, Kiev.
Cardinal Husar's close ties to the United States proved very valuable in leading the Catholic revival in Ukraine.
He attended seminary with Bishop Losten, who was so active in assisting Ukraine's rebirth that he has a reputation among Ukrainian Catholic clergy throughout the world as an American faucet for funding.
Bishop Losten treats such recognition with modesty, crediting instead the U.S. bishops' conference.
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, he immediately petitioned the conference to organize a collection to support Catholicism in the new republics.
More than $25 million has now gone there, the bishop said, with Ukraine receiving at least one-third of the funds.
Bishop Losten has personally led three major projects in Ukraine: a theological academy and a girls' orphanage, both outside of Lviv, and renovation of St. Nicholas' monastery in Zhovkva, a city north of Lviv.
Illegal just 10 years ago, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is the now the second largest in Ukraine, with 3,317 parishes and 2,777 churches nationally and an additional 305 under construction. Most Ukrainian Christians are Orthodox.
The 10th anniversary marks a turning point, however, in the relationship between Ukrainian Catholics on both sides of the Atlantic, Bishop Losten said, because Ukrainian-American Catholics have exhausted their finances.
“It's time that our people in Ukraine assumed full responsibility for their parochial life,” he said.
To deal with the dependent mentality that is a legacy of Ukraine's Communist past, Ukrainian-American contributions now will take a social form, Bishop Losten predicted, instead of financial and material. Ukrainians need to rediscover concepts like stew-ardship and charity, he explained, and understand their obligation to return a portion of God's blessing.
The Basilian sisters' goal of creating an orphanage for 60 girls is a perfect example of the types of projects Americans are considering. An alarming number of impoverished Ukrainian girls have entered the international sex trade in the last 10 years.
Returning the Favor
The relationship between Ukrainian Catholics and their American counterparts has become more reciprocal. The Ukrainian Catholic Church in the U.S. is now buying religious items from Ukraine, where Catholic factories and publishing houses are operating.
“We can buy cheaper over there than we can buy it here because of the high cost of living,” Bishop Losten said. “And they do good work over there.”
For his part, Cardinal Husar stressed that Ukrainian Catholics in the United States still have an important role in strengthening their ancestral Church.
Commented the cardinal, “Their function of representing Ukraine in the West is not finished.”
Zenon Zawada is based in Miami.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Zenon Zawada ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 10/14/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:Young Nuns Bring Laughs to London
THE MIRROR, Oct. 2 — When she was only 16, Rita McLaughlin left her home in rural Scotland for London's glamorous West End, the London daily reported.
But she wasn't seeking big-city adventure. Instead, she became Sister Simeon of the Adorers of the Sacred Heart.
Now she's Mother Prioress Simeon, head of a convent that's attracting young women with its cloistered, contemplative spirituality and its sense of fun.
A visitor found the nuns dedicated, “bubbly,” and quick to laugh. Tyburn Convent, located near a gallows where 105 Catholics were martyred during the Reformation, is home to 22 nuns. Mother Prioress Simeon, now 33, is near the average age of 35 for sisters at the convent — and the average age is dropping.
The nuns leave the convent only for dentist and doctor visits. They spent much of the day singing and chanting prayers, working, and counseling those in need, but they also find time for snooker and soccer.
Couple Wants a ‘Custom-Made’ Baby
BRITISH BROADCASTING CORP., Oct. 2 — A 2-year-old boy who suffers from a rare, genetic blood disorder will die if he does not soon receive the transplant of marrow from a “custom-made” sibling, BBC reported.
So say the parents and doctor of Zian Hashmi. Zian's case has unleashed widespread debate in the United Kingdom, because of the solution suggested by the doctor.
If the request is granted, it will be the first time in Great Britain that spouses are able to have a “custom-made” child, selected specifically to help a brother. Zian suffers from a disorder called thalassaemia major.
Raj and Shabhana Hashmi, Zian's parents, wish to have another child, in order to obtain the blood marrow needed for a transplant.
Nigerian States Adopt Islamic Law With Severity
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Oct. 1 — A dozen states in northern Nigeria are introducing the militant Islamic legal code of Shariah, the wire service reported.
Brothels and outdoor robberies have become rare, but the punishments are harsh: Thieves' hands are amputated, and a 17-year-old girl who said she was raped was flogged for having sex outside wedlock.
Only Muslims are supposed to be tried in Islamic courts, while others are tried in secular courts. But in countries such as Afghanistan, Shariah has led to persecution and execution of Christians. In Nigeria, Muslim-Christian clashes have killed thousands.
Some critics have accused the All People's Party, which dominates northern Nigerian politics, of using Shariah to target political opponents and to favor Muslims in the granting of government contracts and loans.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: A Catholic Moment DATE: 10/14/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:Ironically, the Sept. 11 attacks tell us more about the untapped Christian potential that lies beneath the surface of America than they do about Islam.
The hijackers weren't holy men, they were mass murderers. Their deeds have less in common with the Islamic traditions of jihad than they do with the nihilism of modern violence. History should place these terrorists in the company of the Columbine killers and Timothy McVeigh, who called the Oklahoma City bombing “government-assisted suicide.”
There is a meaningful inverse symmetry between the hijackers' deaths and the deaths of those who risked their lives to save victims. The hijackers accomplished great evil in carefully planned actions that they thought had high moral purpose. The rescuers showed the highest degree of love — offering their lives for others — in quick decisions that didn't allow for much reflection.
It wasn't supposed to be like this. The Islamic fundamentalists are the ones who appear more faithful to their moral code. The Taliban which harbors them has imposed severe punishments on those who violate the Shariah (Islamic law). It is their followers who gather in large groups chanting their allegiance to Allah.
Meanwhile, religion is on the wane in the West, and faith's highest priorities are often America's lowest. We are undeniably in the grip of an aggressive secularization. Indeed, it was in part the coarseness of the culture America exports that so enraged our enemies.
In his World Day of Peace message on Jan. 1, Pope John Paul II said the West should stop exporting dehumanizing values.
“Western cultural models are enticing and alluring because of their remarkable scientific and technical cast, but regrettably there is growing evidence of their deepening human, spiritual and moral impoverishment,” he said. “The culture which produces such models is marked by the fatal attempt to secure the good of humanity by eliminating God, the Supreme Good.”
What we sometimes forget is that the decadent cultural products of America are the products of the secular philosophies of leaders in media and entertainment, academia and government.
The heroes of Sept. 11 remind us of the stuff that ordinary Americans at their best are made of. One thinks of Abe Zelmanowitz, an Orthodox Jew, who refused to leave his quadriplegic friend to die alone in the World Trade Center, and the evangelical Christian on board Flight 93 over Pennsylvania who prayed with a 911 operator before taking on the hijackers.
But one also can't help notice that so very many of the day's heroes were Catholics. Those who rushed into the crumbling buildings knew they were facing death, and so they put out an urgent call for priests to give them general absolution. The New York Times printed pictures of the deceased rescue workers — rows and rows of Italian, Irish and Polish names. They exemplify the America that isn't represented by the secularizers.
So does Tom Burnett Jr., another hero of Flight 93. His was a life of prayer and action, of daily Mass and time spent with his family. He was a business leader who saw ethics as central to his profession.
These virtues are a good model for lay Catholics to follow — the virtues of leadership.
Why leave our culture's crucial roles to the secularists? Catholics faithful to the magisterium can, and should, become leaders in business, media, entertainment, academia and government. Our faith uniquely equips us for this with its sacramental vision, its incomparable body of teachings on the most significant issues of the day, and its pioneering elucidation of human rights.
All that's left is to put our assets into action on every front.
----- EXCERPT: Editorial ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion ----------- TITLE: Letters DATE: 10/14/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:Hope on a Dark Day
My wife subscribed to the Register about a year ago and it quickly became a part of my everyday routine. I read every issue cover-to-cover and arise early each morning to allow time to read a few Register articles during breakfast.
I am not only a better-informed Catholic as a result, but I go out into the world and my daily workday with a much-improved outlook on life.
As a lay Catholic publishing professional, I have nothing but respect for the magnificent job your staff does with each issue. I learn something about my faith and about Church news in every edition.
I have long had respect for many of the contributors and institutions featured in the Register, including theologians from Franciscan University of Steubenville, Christendom College and Thomas Aquinas College, to name a few; and it is good to see them well represented in your pages.
It is not an easy job for a publication or a Catholic institution to report on a wide array of subjects ranging from the new evangelization to traditional Church teachings — subject matter that encompasses 2,000 years of history in time and the surface of the globe in area — but you and your contributors and supporters are adept at accomplishing exactly that difficult assignment.
What prompted this letter, however, was the superb job your staff did in the Sept. 23-29 issue, reporting on the terrible tragedies of Sept. 11.
We were saturated with reports of the events in every form of media, but I sought in vain for more meaningful coverage — coverage that focused on these tragedies from the eternal, Catholic perspective.
You did not let us down.
From the lead articles by Brian McGuire and Joshua Mercer, to the reports by John Burger and Joe Cullen, to the magnificent piece by Father James V. Schall, “It's Morning in a Whole New America,” the entire issue had words of insight, inspiration and comfort for all of us touched by the events of Sept. 11.
I was looking for a suitable newspaper to save as a memorial to these events — something fitting to pass along to my grandson some day. I will keep this issue of the Register in my scrapbook, along with my faded clippings about John Glenn's space flights and John F. Kennedy's assassination. You have skillfully and sensitively recorded one of history's most tragic and senseless episodes, and brought light and hope where there was little of either to be found.
WARREN MASS
Appleton, Wisconsin
Possessed by Whom?
I would like to comment on a recent article you published about demonic possession (“Devil-Vexed: Satan Tried to Possess Mother Teresa, Says Exorcist,” Sept. 16-22).
I think that by omission of one important point, the article implies something quite contrary to the teaching of the faith. The article never said that one cannot be possessed both by the Holy Spirit and by a demon at the same time. This is the root of our faith: that God is faithful, and that when one invites Christ into one's life he sends the Holy Spirit to fill the soul. Someone with the indwelling of God's Spirit cannot be possessed by anyone other than God himself.
While the consequences of sin may still exist, such as the “human condition” remaining after the removal of original sin, or “obsession,” the circumstances where a person is attacked by demons, these are conditions outside the soul. Testimonies about saints who reportedly were possessed cannot validly challenge this teaching since the deposit of faith is not open to inductive thinking. Those who relate testimony about possessions (like your article) have the burden of explaining how the story corresponds with what we believe.
This was an important point that should have been related in some manner.
MARK LAPOINTE
Commerce, Michigan
The writer holds a master's in sacred theology from St. John's Seminary in Boston.
Abortion and Breast Cancer
As a family physician, I spend a great deal of time on women's health. I'm glad you informed readers about an essentially unreported risk for breast cancer: induced abortion (“Studies Casting a Shadow on Abortion and Contraceptives Are Largely Ignored,” Oct. 7-13). There is no proven effect but a very close correlation has been demonstrated in a large number of scientific studies. Women are not informed about this risk.
I would like to see legislation that would require informed consent before a woman obtains an abortion. Animal studies have revealed the biology of the abortion/breast-cancer link.
The breast in early pregnancy grows rapidly with undifferentiated cells. These cells are prone to cancer unless differentiation takes place in the third trimester. In fact, carrying a baby to term protects women from breast cancer. Stopping a normal pregnancy suddenly leaves these cells vulnerable.
According to the American Cancer Society, in 1962 there were 63,000 cases of breast cancer. In 1992 there were 180,000. There may be many reasons for this increase, but I believe there must be some effect from the 1.5 million abortions that have occurred annually since 1973.
The bulk of the medical studies have shown anywhere from 1.3 to 4.0 times the risk of cancer in women who have had an abortion. Some studies have shown more severe risk when a woman obtains the abortion later, such as the 11- to 17-week range. Some studies show that the younger the woman, the more risk.
I believe that, eventually, the link between breast cancer and abortion will be accepted. It may be awhile. It took decades for the link between tobacco and cancer to be accepted. The first study published on the tobacco/cancer link was in 1928. The surgeon general's warning did not appear until 1966!
THOMAS MESSE, M.D.
Groton, Connecticut
Wrong Orbit
I noted with sadness in the Register that the University of Dayton, a Catholic institution, recently honored former Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio, despite his 100-plus votes in support of abortion, while a member of the U.S. Senate over many years (“The Wrong Stuff?” Sept. 16-22).
The day I read about Sen. Glenn in the Register was the same day that Sen. Hilary Clinton, D-N.Y., spoke at a Catholic funeral service for a courageous fire chaplain who had been killed earlier at the World Trade Center tragedy.
Both Glenn and Clinton have consistently denied any meaningful legal protection for the unborn child during the nine months, prior to birth (as does Roe v. Wade). Both have also supported the partial-birth abortion procedure, a gruesome and inhumane procedure in which a child who is in the process of being born and is viable, fully developed and healthy but has no right to legal protection, protecting its life.
I'm at a loss to understand the rationale as to why any Catholic leader or group would extend such prominence to any individual who espouses the culture of death.
THOMAS E. DENNELLY
Baldwin, New York
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion ----------- TITLE: A Forgotten Flag Made the Best Birthday Present DATE: 10/14/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:September 11, my birthday, belongs to history now.
It is a day of terror, of unspeakable grief, of black death. Every time I close my eyes it's there.
But it's not the horrible pictures in the news, even though those icons are burned on the backs of my eyelids, that keep coming to my mind. The image that persists for me is that of my dear friend Russ, who worked in the Chrysler Building and managed many employees in the World Trade Center.
After being evacuated from his building, his loyalties were torn. He had many friends who might need help in the leviathan pile of smoking rubble in lower Manhattan. But he also had his daughter, Joanie, to think of. She was at a nearby school. His paternal instincts won out and he headed for the school. Soon father and daughter joined the pedestrian exodus. They walked all the way home, seven miles.
I've lived all these years without realizing I had a birthday that spells out the national emergency code. Now I will never forget it. By noon that day, as I feared more attacks, I rushed to pick up my own children. All recollection of what the date once held for me was gone.
When I was little, like Joanie, I never had to watch buildings fall. This time of the year I was busy walking up to complete strangers to say, just in case they were of a mind to give birthday gifts: “My name is Susan, and did you know? My birthday is September Eleventh.”
Then, as now, relatives would send money for my birthday. Invariably, I'd squander it the very next day on some impractical thing that I'd never otherwise afford. But as I opened my swollen eyes this Sept. 12, I wanted one gift: an American flag.
I thought of my own good father, now many years gone, a native of Massachusetts reared in New York. Dad was a fanatic about the flag. None of us was allowed to touch it unless we could demonstrate a clear respect for flag etiquette, violations of which were not faux pas but serious sins. It's twilight — get the flag in. … It's raining — bring in Old Glory. … Don't let her touch the ground! My father would not have been without his flag at this moment. He would have hoisted her right before he left for New York to assist his hometown in its hour of deepest need.
I arrived at the first store as they were just opening their doors. I walked up to a clerk and choked out the words. “I want to buy an American flag,” I said.
“I'm so sorry; we're out,” she said, and started to cry, too. I tried the store next door. And the next and the next. Too late. Other patriots had responded more swiftly than I. There wasn't an unsold flag in the whole town.
Other patriots had responded more swiftly than I. There wasn't an unsold flag in the whole town.
Suddenly my flaglessness, coupled with my date of birth, haunted me. I was a Catholic, a mother, a writer, a teacher. Why did I not have an American flag before this day? I sat in my car, called out for my New York friends and sobbed.
Then I remembered. Somewhere in our home, in a box in the basement, was an enormous American flag. Months ago, my husband's parents gave us an impractically huge one and asked that we fly it, at least on national holidays. In our arrogance, we'd thought the request sweet but old-fashioned, if not, God forgive us, corny. We had intended to mount it, but never got around to it.
I shoved my birthday money into a donation box labeled “September 11 fund,” raced home, and tore through the packages in storage. There, in the very bottom box, next to the Christmas stuff — there she was. Old Glory in all her glory.
I pulled her out of the cellophane, sat on the floor, brought her bright cloth to my face and sobbed into her, as though my father — my brave father, who fought evil in Germany — had, in a profound way, come back to me from the dead. “Daddy,” I cried. “Daddy, what do we do?”
I brought the flag and its pole outside to see where we might mount it, and found a bracket already installed on the side of the house. I pulled up chairs and step stools, but couldn't reach. I ran next door to borrow a ladder from my neighbor, Vic, a veteran who served his country at Guadalcanal. When he saw my struggle, this wizened war hero honored me by raising the flag for me.
He barely had it slipped into the bracket when the wind caught her. Old Glory snapped to attention, announcing her colors to all the world. On her way up, she swooped down and let a corner give me a sharp slap on the head. It was as if Old Glory were saying, “Get it? Don't ever take me for granted again.”
I thanked Vic for his help, and for his service to my country — the country I now knew needed my most fervent prayers.
September 11 is no longer a day on which I wish to celebrate the anniversary of my birth. Instead, it will henceforth represent my rebirth as a “real” American, an American who flies the flag and prays without ceasing for her country.
Susan Baxter writes from Mishawaka, Indiana.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Susan Baxter ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary ----------- TITLE: Is a Great Awakening of Conscience at Hand? DATE: 10/14/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:We certainly need to deal with the evil that was done on Sept. 11: Those responsible and those who assist or harbor them need to be justly punished.
But might this national horror not also be an appropriate time to examine our own consciences? Could the Holy Spirit be speaking to us through these terrible trials?
Our leaders speak of the callous disregard for human life that was demonstrated by the terrorists, and they are right to do so. The Prime Minister of Great Britain, for example, deplored the total lack of regard for the “sanctity of human life” that the terrorists demonstrate.
Yet, for people of faith, such statements raise a troubling question: Are our leaders blind to the total lack of respect for life that has been enshrined in our own laws and culture? Are they blind to the millions of babies that continue to be aborted? Have they forgotten the barbaric decision by our governmental institutions that permit the continuation of partial-birth abortion where a fully viable infant is murdered in cold blood?
What about the elderly and handicapped who are dispatched by the will of man rather than the will of God, and the experimentation on human embryos that is permitted in limited cases here and almost without restriction in Britain? Is anybody noticing the irony — the hypocrisy — of deploring others' lack of respect for life while ignoring the same lack in ourselves?
Pope John Paul II has been gently but firmly warning America for years that its greatness could crumble it if didn't restore its respect for life from the moment of conception to natural death.
And, if we listen closely to the voices of our enemies, they are not only citing political reasons for their attacks. They not only hate us for our virtues, as our leaders insist is the case, but also for our vices. They are angry that America is pouring into the world a flood of filth, immorality and distorted values that are corrupting the young throughout the world.
What the terrorists have done is very evil and truly demonic, and we must move to punish them and protect ourselves from further attack. But is the West's lack of respect of life — widespread abortion, expanding euthanasia on the very old and laboratory experimentation on the very young — somehow less evil? Does our society's embrace of these evil practices, and our exaltation of sexual immorality, not also cry out for justice?
In a time like this even more than usual, we are wise to lend an ear to the voice of the Lord in Scripture, where he communicates his wisdom and laws that govern human life.
One thing Scripture makes very clear is that there is only one “superpower” in the universe, and it's not the United States. It's the Lord. All the nations are passing mists compared to the Lord. It's the Lord who raises up and casts down. And one of his laws is that “Pride goes before disaster, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). These are divine laws that no legislature or court can overturn.
“Why do the nations protest and the peoples grumble in vain? Kings on earth rise up and princes plot together against the Lord and his anointed: ‘Let us break their shackles and cast off their chains.’ The one enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord derides them” (Psalm 2:1-4).
Scripture makes abundantly clear how important it is that we use our prosperity and power in a humble, godly way. Our survival as a nation depends on it.
In the Book of Hosea we read how harshly the Lord dealt with the idolatry, arrogance and immorality of Israel — but not without the purpose and promise of mercy:
“In their perversity they have sunk into wickedness, and I am rejected by them all … for the spirit of harlotry is in them and they do not recognize the Lord. The arrogance of Israel bears witness against him … They have been untrue to the Lord … Upon them I will pour out my wrath like water … I will go back to my place until they pay for their guilt and seek my presence. In their affliction they shall look for me: ‘Come, let us return to the Lord, For it is he who has rent, but he will heal us; he has struck us, but he will bind our wounds.’ “
Love is more powerful than hatred, hope more enduring than despair, faith more formidable than any force of evil in the universe.
It is significant that the terrorists targeted the World Trade Center, a striking symbol of America's economic power, and the Pentagon, a symbol of America's military power. The success of a small band of crudely armed men in totally destroying one and severely damaging the other is a reminder that, as great as our power may appear, it can disappear in an instant.
Disaster as Opportunity
Of course, it would be erroneous to assume that those in the World Trade Center or Pentagon were guiltier than anyone else among us. Jesus himself warns us not to draw this conclusion from a mass tragedy: “Those 18 people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them — do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did” (Luke 13:4-5).
Jesus specifically invites us to take occasions of disasters like this as an opportunity to examine our conscience and see if we're ready to meet the Lord. If not, he urges us, take appropriate action.
Have we received a stern and significant warning in what has happened? Whatever the worldly causes are for these tragedies and whatever we think of them, isn't it important that we take this as a time of reflection? Isn't it important that “business” (and entertainment and sports) not go on “as usual” and ignore what must be seriously pondered, prayed about and responded to?
I believe we have received a call to repentance that's serious and urgent. I also believe that the hour is late, and that it's important that we respond now, or what we have just experienced may simply be the beginning of a great unraveling filled with terror. It's time for all of us to return to God, no matter how we may have strayed from or ignored him, and avail ourselves of his mercy — while there is still time.
There are many heartening signs that, indeed, this may be happening.
The turning to God, the prayer and talk of spiritual realities on major television programs, the crowding of churches and synagogues and mosques, the new sense of solidarity and patriotism — all these are indications that these disasters have profoundly impacted the souls of our nation's citizens.
God didn't cause these terrible disasters, yet he permits human beings in their freedom to do evil. The good news is, he is able to bring good out of our evil. He is a God who redeems and saves and transforms.
He takes even the depth of sorrow and sin and changes it into “something beautiful for God.”
Ultimately, love is more powerful than hatred, hope more enduring than despair, faith more formidable than any force of evil in the universe.
Let us keep these encouraging realities in mind as we pray for wisdom in our leaders — and an examination of conscience throughout the Western world.
Ralph Martin is president of Renewal Ministries in Ann Arbor, Michigan (www.renewalministries.net).
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Ralph Martin ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary ----------- TITLE: Neither Patriot Nor Pacifist, I'm Left With: 'What to Do?' DATE: 10/14/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:In regard to the war on terrorism, I find myself caught in the middle between the easy extremes — cast out by both conservatives and liberals.
That's because I am neither much of a patriot nor much of a pacifist.
I do believe the war against the terrorist network is a just war, meeting all four of the necessary criteria: The damage inflicted was “lasting, grave, and certain”; all other means to putting an end to further attacks would be “impractical or ineffective”; there are “serious prospects of success”; and the use of arms will “not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated” (Catechism, No. 2309).
The damage inflicted? My very first thought when I heard the news Sept. 11 was, “What took them so long?” We have been watching other countries gouged by terrorists for decades, little realizing that America is the biggest of all sitting ducks. The threat of additional acts of violence against us is as lasting, grave and certain as any stark reality in world politics right now.
Nor are there other means of addressing terrorism of this kind. The terrorists are asking for the capitulation of an entire civilization. An aggressive, if careful, uprooting of the terrorist network is the only response possible.
The prospects of success? All one must do is glance at the dark prospects of failure. There are only these two choices.
As for the use of arms, President Bush has wisely ignored the hotheads who are ready to revel in indiscriminate firework bombing of entire countries; instead, he is focusing on a careful weeding out of terrorist networks.
So I am no pacifist. But I am not especially patriotic, either.
When I became a Catholic, I shifted my ultimate allegiance from the City of Man to the City of God. When our patriotism is re-rooted in an eternal home-land, we see our temporary homeland with much clearer eyes — clearer, first of all, because we finally see our temporal home-land as temporary.
But it is not just the bare fact of gaining a higher allegiance that deflates political patriotism. It is the clearer grasp of the actual spiritual and moral condition of our temporary home.
There is a certain bitter parallel between the moral condition of the late Roman Empire and the modern American republic. The love of sensual excess, the sexual saturnalia, the popularity of violent amusements, the giddy enervation of souls immersed in triviality — these social pathologies marked Rome's decline and seem to mark our own. Indeed, we seem to be devolving into a barbarism unprecedented in world history: What else can be said of a nation that slaughters millions of its own babies every year, then strives to cannibalize them to develop medicines aimed at feeding a perverse desire for earthly immortality?
We live in a culture of death. A culture of death is indefensible. How can I summon the desire to defend a culture that defends the indefensible?
So what is it, then? Should we pick up our arms and defend ourselves against terrorism? Or throw up our arms and abandon a ship that seems hell-bent on its own sinking?
In all the ambiguity, we must not forget that we have a moral duty to defend ourselves, both individually and collectively, from attack. We should all be thankful that the duty of self-defense does not depend on the sinlessness either of the protectors or the protected.
Here's an example. A policeman, no matter his own moral failings, has a moral duty to stop a murderer's rampage (and despite the many unjust things that may have helped to turn a man into a murderer). If the policeman fails to fulfill that duty, he has only deepened his own sin.
Like it or not, America has been shoved into the job of policeman, both for ourselves and the world. We are the only ones with the resources and courage to combat the coming rampage of terrorism.
Whatever the cause of the terrorists' anger — whether it be because of our policies in the Middle East, the poverty of Afghanistan or the decadent face of Western culture — we are bound by duty to protect innocent lives from acts of terrorism simply because terrorism, by definition, aims at the destruction of innocent lives. To turn away would only deepen our sins, and they are deep enough already.
But perhaps even more important, in those brief hours in New York and Washington, moral clarity suddenly prevailed. There were no disputed, morally gray areas. There was the pure evil of the action, the complete innocence of the victims and the purified good of the rescue workers. As workers feverishly clawed through the rubble for any signs of innocent life, there was no question whether taking innocent life was evil or whether protecting innocent life was good. Any life was desperately and literally seized as most precious — the elderly, the sickly, the handicapped, the severely injured, the all-but-dead. And every death was bitterly mourned.
For those moments, Americans were wrenched from the culture of death and hurled into a culture clutching for life — even and especially the Americans who could only watch. They turned from the soul-numbing glitz and petty perversion continually seeping from their televisions to watch ordinary men and women jolted into extraordinary action. They saw, perhaps for the first time, the brutal and permanent divide between life and death. Suddenly, the very idea of frittering away hours of their lives in trivial amusements seemed revolting. Wasting time meant wasting lives.
Out of this evil, then, good may come. Fulfilling our duties to protect innocent lives from terrorists is necessary. But it also may be ennobling, not only awakening the long-sleeping virtues of courage and perseverance, but also reviving our grasp of the precious goodness of innocent life itself — whether it is found in an office building or in the womb, whether it is young and vibrant or old and infirm, whether it is strong or lame.
Benjamin Wiker, a fellow with the Discovery Institute, teaches philosophy of science at Franciscan
University of Steubenville (Ohio).
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Benjamin D. Wiker ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary ----------- TITLE: Canadian Seedbed of the Faith DATE: 10/14/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:“For fear that God should cut me off at the root, as a fruitless tree, I have prayed Him that He still suffer me to stand, this year; and I have promised Him that I would yield Him better fruits than in the past.”
So prayed the leader of the band now known as the North American martyrs, Jesuit Father Jean de Brebeuf, little knowing how rich his harvest would be for generations to come. Visitors to Ste. Marie-among-the-Hurons Village, the Martyrs' Shrine and the Huron Village in the Canadian province of Ontario are able to stand on the very ground where the seeds of these “fruits” were sown, and learn of the courage amid inconceivable savagery required to do so.
Those who saw the 1991 movie Black Robe, an adaptation of a novel by Brian Moore, may remember the sweeping scenes of the North American wilderness as the little band of Jesuits from France and their lay helpers set out from Quebec City in 1626. The journey took five weeks and ended at the land of the Huron (Wendot) Indians on Georgian Bay. It was a perilous 800-mile canoe trip through deep forests, dangerous rapids and across more than 35 portages (places to transport boats between unconnected waterways).
At first the priests lived with the Huron whom they had come to evangelize, but decided later to have a central residence of their own from which missionaries could go out into the countryside. This center was given the name Ste. Marie-among-the-Hurons, and within its palisades were a hospital, church, gardens, stables and workshops. Thousands of Hurons came for spiritual and physical healing.
In the 1640s the Hurons' traditional enemies, the Iroquois (allies of the English) became increasingly aggressive. Over a period of four years, eight Jesuits and hundreds of Huron converts were tortured and killed for their faith. Jean de Brebeuf, one of the last of these martyrs, was subject to a particularly gruesome death. In 1648, more than 1,000 Iroquois attacked the Huron villages of St. Ignace and St. Louis, and captured him. They scalped him and tortured him in particularly brutal fashion, using burning coals, amputation and mock baptism with boiling water. Through it all, he kept a profound silence, except for exhorting his Huron converts, who had also been taken prisoner, to remain true to their faith.
He was 56 years old, and this “first apostle to the Hurons” and his Jesuit companions — Sts. Isaac Jogues, Gabriel Lalemant, Anthony Daniel, Charles Garnier, Noël Chabanel, René Goupil and John de la Lande — were raised to sainthood as the North American Martyrs by Pope Pius XI in 1930. Their feast day is October 19.
John Paul's ‘Most Interesting Encounter’
After the death of Brebeuf, the Jesuits could not withstand the constant attacks by the Iroquois, so with heavy hearts they deliberately set fire to their beloved mission at Ste. Marie-among-the-Hurons and sped off to a safer, more northerly island site.
Yet from those seeds of blood and pain, several miraculous results occurred. The flight of the Hurons who were not killed led to the spreading of the Gospel to other native nations in French Canada. Between 1948 and 1951, a team of archaeologists from a leading Canadian University were inspired to discover the original site of the mission.
There in Midland they uncovered evidence of the original large settlement — imposing buildings of the highest craftsmanship, ingeniously defended and linked from the river by a sophisticated system of canals, similar to the first such canals in France at the time. The reconstruction of this Mission, combined with details in the original manuscripts — “The Jesuit Relations,” sent by missionaries back to their superiors in France — has provided us with the clearest and most complete picture possible of what life was like for North America's first European settlers.
Today, visitors view a dramatic film as an introduction to the mission, then mingle with actors portraying the historic figures. It's a very effective presentation; I truly felt like I had traveled nearly 400 years into the past.
One year after the canonization of the Martyrs, the Canadian Jesuit provincial determined to build a church to commemorate the brave saints. For 75 years now, the Jesuits have operated the imposing Martyrs' Shrine at Midland, Ontario, as a place of international pilgrimage. Various ethnic groups have set up about a dozen individual shrines throughout the spacious grounds.
Visitors are taken with the church's wooden ceiling in the shape of a canoe and with a painting of the martyrs by Mother Mary Nealis, which dominates the sanctuary. A reliquary containing relics of the saints, to the right of the altar, is richly ornamented.
There is also a shrine to and relics of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, and a portion of the wall with stacks of crutches and leg braces left by pilgrims who claimed healings here. A must for visitors as well is the museum in the church's lower level. It displays several mission artifacts found in the area, a series of paintings by famous painter William Kurelek telling the story of the martyrs and other unique items. Outside, along with the above-mentioned ethnic shrines, are 14 life-sized Stations of the Cross, bronzed in France, along with a grotto to the Blessed Virgin and shrine to St. Joseph.
Here also stands the altar where Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass on his 1984 visit to Canada and participated with native elders in a purification ceremony.
Standing at the shrine, one looks over to Ste. Marie-among-the-Hurons. The two sites are inextricably intertwined, as Pope John himself noted in his 1984 visit:
“My visit to Huronia was perhaps the most interesting encounter: Christian liturgy of the Word intertwined with the rituals of the original religion of the Canadian Indians.”
Visitors to the Martyrs' Shrine and to Ste. Marie-among-the-Hurons will find appreciation of their faith deeply enriched after treading the ground made fertile by the blood of martyrs. They will also find, in the words of Jesuit Father James Farrell, a past director of the shrine, “courage and strength to live with a cross, to accept difficult and seemingly impossible situations, to make decisions, to forgive — and to go home in peace.”
Lorraine Williams writes from Markham, Ontario.
----- EXCERPT: Ste. Marie-among-the-Hurons Village and the Martyrs' Shrine, Midland, Ontario ----- EXTENDED BODY: Lorraine Williams ----- KEYWORDS: Travel ----------- TITLE: The Bad News Bears Do Mean Street DATE: 10/14/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:Acts of charity can have unexpected consequences, transforming the person who gives as well as those who receive.
The relationship between motive and results on both sides of this equation is often complex, but the love unleashed can develop its own logic and momentum, overwhelming everything in its path.
Hardball is a better-than-average sports movie that dramatizes these issues with surprising sensitivity. Director Brian Robbins (Varsity Blues) and screenwriter John Gatins have turned Daniel Coyle's memoir about Chicago's inner-city Near North Little League into a gritty, urban version of The Bad News Bears. Their film has many virtues and one crippling flaw.
Conor O'Neill (Keanu Reeves) is addicted to gambling. Raised in a Catholic working-class environment, he still retains a faint memory of his religious roots. A statue of the Virgin Mary sits on the dresser in his seedy, one-room apartment. But he wheels and deals in a semi-criminal underworld whose values have become his.
The movie opens in a parish church where Conor has taken refuge as he sweats out the finish of a sporting event on which he has bet thousands of dollars he doesn't have. A priest talks about faith and forgiveness in a way which prefigures the action that follows, but Conor is not yet willing to listen.
He loses the bet, and his book-makers threaten violence if he does-n't pay up. Desperate, he tries to hit up Jimmy Fleming (Mike McGlone), an old buddy who's making big bucks as an investment banker. Jimmy also aspires to give something back to the community by coaching the Kekambas, a baseball team sponsored by his firm and made up of African-American kids from the projects.
Conor is offered a deal that will change his life. He is to take the busy Jimmy's place as the kids' coach for $500 a week. The street-hustling gambler reluctantly agrees, planning to dump his charges as soon as the bookies are paid off.
We all know how this story is going to end: At first, Conor and the Kekambas won't trust one another, but eventually they'll warm up to each other and win some big games.
The filmmakers skillfully overcome this predictable narrative arc in two ways. First, they let us see how Conor's gambling addiction has completely taken over his psyche and the price he must pay as long as he's in its grip. Then they present the dangerous side of inner-city living with documentary-style realism.
Conor doesn't have time for love or personal relationships. All his energy is spent on dodging creditors and placing new bets. He dreams of somehow making a big score that will take him out of this vicious cycle. The audience's stomach churns with his as he lurches from one self-created crisis to the next.
Conor's self-absorption also has unintended effects on the kids. One day he needlessly extends practice into the evening despite their pleas to go home before sunset. He does-n't realize that the darkness of nightfall increases their chances of being beat up or shot at by street gangs.
Conor accompanies one boy to his apartment and wonders why all the neighbors are sitting on the floor. He's told they're trying to avoid the stray bullets that regularly fly through their windows.
The kids look up to Conor as a male role model who can take the place of the father figure who seems to be absent from almost all of their homes. Against all odds, the gambler rises to the challenge of building their self-esteem. In the process, he discovers he cares about them. This gives him something to live for besides placing bets. However, his redemption doesn't come without a carefully delineated inner struggle.
Most of his players attend a parochial school where one of their teachers, Elizabeth Wilkes (Diane Lane), has heard about his good influence. Sparks fly between the two, but the filmmakers resist the temptation to turn the relationship into a romance. Instead their encounter becomes an opportunity for Conor to reconnect with an environment — a Catholic one — that can give his life meaning. Without ever acknowledging it, Conor feels like he's come home.
Sadly, the filmmakers succumb to another fashionable trend. They want their movie to be “edgy” in order to appeal to what they believe to be an increasingly sophisticated young audience. Accordingly, they've given their drama a “gangs-ta-rap” sensibility. In striving to use streetwise language that rings of realism, Robbins and Gatins put an unending stream of profanities into their 9- to 12-year-olds' mouths.
What's most offensive is the use of these ugly words as punch lines for the kids' jokes. What message will this convey to a young audience that wants to be cool? Say something foul and you'll get a big laugh.
Parents striving to imbue their children with good morals won't want to expose them to this unremitting display of verbal coarseness.
This is too bad, for, in some ways, Hardball is subtly a pro-Catholic film — a rarity among major-studio releases these days. Its messages are heart-warming and positive.
Conor learns that there's more to life than suiting yourself, and that giving to others can trigger profound interior changes within the giver. He also discovers that he has an unexpected vocation working with kids. And, most importantly, his charges acquire from him the means to hope and to rise above their oppressive backgrounds.
Alas, the language they use is so harsh that it's lethal to this message. Profanity overkill encourages a moral permissiveness that's part of the problem rather than the solution. Hardball is the could've-been movie of the year.
John Prizer, the Register's arts & culture correspondent, is based in Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: If not for its filthy mouth, Hardball might be a fine family film ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts & Culture ----------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 10/14/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:Islam: Empire of Faith(2001)
Recent events reveal the West's lack of knowledge about the Muslim religion and culture.
Islam: Empire of Faith, a feature-length PBS documentary, is a good place to start. Producer-director Robert Gardner combines location footage, works of art and historical re-enactments with interviews with scholarly experts to chronicle the first 1,000 years of Islamic history. The movie begins in 7th-century Mecca and Medina and ends with the Ottoman Empire at its peak.
The specifics of Muslim beliefs are outlined and contrasted with other religions. There are also profiles of key figures like the Prophet Muhammad, Saladin, Rumi, Mehmet and Suleyman the Magnificent as well as a careful exposition of Islamic art, artifacts and architecture. The culture's remarkable discoveries in mathematics, astronomy and medicine are shown to surpass those of the West until the end of the Middle Ages. The interaction between the two civilizations is well presented, including the conquest of Spain and the Crusades. The emphasis is on Islam's positive achievements.
The Stepford Wives(1975)
The changing role of women has been a constant source of debate for the last century. The Stepford Wives, based on Ira Levin's novel, is a science fiction-like fantasy that cleverly dramatizes both genders' fears. Joanna Eberhart (Katherine Ross) and her husband Walter (Peter Masterson) leave bustling Manhattan for the quiet suburb of Stepford, Conn. A talented photographer, she finds the local wives are perpetually happy, dedicated totally to pleasing their husbands and cooking and cleaning. It all seems too good to be true.
Joanna and another newcomer, Bobbie Markowe (Paula Prentiss), discover that all the other woman are perfectly designed robotic replicas of the original wives who came to Stepford. The local men's club, headed by Dale Coba (Patrick O'Neal), also appears suspicious. Director Bryan Forbes (Whistle Down the Wind) and screenwriter William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) observe this seemingly idyllic community with a sharp, ironic eye. Although at times slow and dated, the movie is both funny and chilling.
Westward the Women(1951)
The opening of America's western frontier is usually thought of as men's business. Westward the Women. Based on a story by Frank Capra (It's a Wonderful Life) and directed by William Wellman (The Story of GI Joe), this is a tale of adventure in which the fairer sex proves that it too can be tough. A wagon train of 150 females treks across the dangerous countryside between Chicago and California in hopes of finding husbands in an isolated ranching community.
The trail boss, Buck Wyatt (Robert Taylor), is skeptical that the passengers under his charge have the right stuff. But the women, led by a few hardy pioneer types (Hope Emerson, Julie Bishop and Lenore Lonergan), change his mind. When Buck's male trail hands all desert, they must fight on their own against marauding Indians, rough weather and the harshness of the terrain.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts & Culture ----------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 10/14/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:All times Eastern
WEEKDAYS
Sew Much More
Home & Garden, 8 a.m.
Susan Khalje invents fun sewing projects for tailoring enthusiasts at all levels of experience. She also brings in guest experts who demonstrate their artistry.
SUNDAYS
Mysteries of the Rosary
EWTN, 11 a.m.
Within living memory, God sent the Blessed Mother to Fatima to urge us to pray the rosary. Pope Pius XII compared the rosary to David's slingshot, which felled Goliath. Pope John Paul II has always said it should be Catholic families' “accustomed prayer” — and he is asking everyone to pray it this month for peace. Listen in as Father Jacques Daley explains this spiritual weapon and how we can live its lessons in daily life. To be rebroadcast Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. and Thursdays at 1:30 a.m.
MONDAY, OCT. 15
The House
History Channel, 9 p.m.
This two-hour world premiere, part of “Modern Marvels Men at Work Week,” follows host Ron Hazelton as he and a construction crew build an entire house from foundation to roof. Hazelton also examines the history of building materials, then visits lumber mills and the factories that make glass, wiring and other components for the home.
TUESDAY, OCT. 16
Death Penalty on Trial
A & E, 9 p.m.
In this two-hour “Investigative Reports” 10th-anniversary special, veteran host Bill Kurtis probes several murder cases that might involve incompetent defense and judicial, prosecutorial or police misconduct. He interviews everyone connected — convicts, attorneys, judges and the families — except, of course, the forever silent innocent victims. He also interviews backers and foes of capital punishment.
WEDNESDAY, OCT. 17
Work Clothes
History Channel, 9 p.m.
This two-hour “Modern Marvels Men at Work Week” world premiere looks into the design and manufacture of the protective clothing and gear that allow workers to do jobs involving hazardous materials and extreme environments.
THURSDAYS
American Icons
Travel Channel, 9 p.m.
Sit back each week and let expert tour guides steer you to some of our country's most historic sites and scenic places, such as the Statue of Liberty and California's sequoias.
FRIDAY, OCT. 19
Egypt's Lost City
The Learning Channel, 10 p.m.
Archaeologist Antony Spawforth investigates present conditions at Armana, a city built in the 14th century B.C. by the Pharaoh Akhenaten, father of Tutankhamen.
SATURDAY, OCT. 20
College Football: USC at Notre Dame
NBC, 2:30 p.m.
Move over, Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner — no other rivalry is as intense as Notre Dame-USC football. Throw out the teams' records and wake up the echoes as the Fighting Irish host the Trojans in another free-for-all.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dan Engler ----- KEYWORDS: Arts & Culture ----------- TITLE: Mercy Explains to Me Everything That Happens DATE: 10/14/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:As a member of Communion and Liberation, I have nothing to say to the U.S. Government about what specific measures and tactics would constitute an adequate military response to the terrorist attack against the United States.
This is the competence of the military and the responsibility of our elected officials.
Following the constant teaching of the Church up to the contemporary Catechism of the Catholic Church, I would remind our leaders that “legitimate defense can be not only a right, but a grave duty for those responsible for the lives of others, the common good of a family, or of the civil community” (No. 2265).
This passage is cited in Evangelium Vitae, No.55. The Catechism, in no. 2309 ff., mentions also the necessary characteristics of a “legitimate defense” using military power, concluding that the “evaluation of such conditions for moral legitimacy awaits the prudent judgment of those responsible for the common good.”
For this reason, in our flyer expressing our judgment on the present crisis, we rejected the response of “indifference” and spoke of the need to “search for justice with all of the means humanly available.” At the same time, we rejected the motivations of revenge and presumption. The latter is a particularly dangerous temptation, since it is based on valid human ideals. The problem is the temptation to turn these ideals into ideology or into abstract idols when the experience of something that really fulfills the deepest needs of our heart is lacking.
For example, the understandable and even moving current manifestations of patriotism should not obscure the fact that all nations are under God's judgment in favor of the innocent and the poor of the world.
Our nation seeks to defend its ideals of freedom, peace and justice, and this is as it should be. However, as Christians we must remember that our ideals of freedom, peace and justice go beyond those of the earthly city.
They are based, not on what our merits or our characters are able to accomplish, but on an unexpected and undeserved experience that has fulfilled our hearts, and to which all human beings are called without distinction. This experience is the attraction of God's grace in Christ, the revelation of God's mercy. This alone corresponds to the human need for salvation from the “sin of the world,” that is, the capacity for the destruction of our humanity that is present like a virus in all human hearts.
That is why our reaction to this horror must take the form of a prayer for mercy. Each one of us in Communion and Liberation is seeking to make ours Father Giussani's witness: “Mercy always explains to me everything that happens.”
Msgr. Lorenzo Albacete is the National Spiritual Adviser to the Communion and Liberation movement: www.communion-liberation.org
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Msgr. Lorenzo Albacete ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: Is There Something No Attack Can Destroy? DATE: 10/14/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:In the face of such a great tragedy and absurdity, beyond our understanding, we are in search of meaning. What is the answer to so much fear and anguish?
As I watched those towers crumbling, hardly believing my eyes, and thought of this appalling tragedy, the shock of a superpower that suddenly discovers its vulnerability and personally experiences the crumbling of many certainties, as well as the threat of a war with unpredictable consequences, it was like [being back in] Trent beneath the bombings of World War II.
Everything was crumbling then and we felt impelled to ask ourselves if there was anything that no bomb could destroy.
The answer was: Yes, there is. It is God. God whom we discovered as Love. It was a luminous discovery that gave us the certainty that he cannot abandon us, that he is never absent from history. On the contrary, he is able to direct the course of anything that happens towards good.
I personally lived this experience in a surprising way. And I asked myself: Couldn't it be that right now, at the beginning of this 21st century, God wants to repeat this great lesson and to give us the opportunity to put him in the first place in our lives, compelling us to put everything else in second place? This thought gives me hope for the future.
So what seems to everyone like a step backwards, took on a different meaning for me. And I see that this vision of things is turning up in the souls of Americans as well. I've heard this from them.
Are there any concrete signs of this vision?
There are concrete signs, absolutely! For example, I learned that a 15 year-old boy said: “I'm shocked by the evil caused by such an action; but look at all the good that is coming out of it. There's a race of solidarity that we've never seen before.”
I attribute this to the fact that these tragic events have brought people closer to God. They write to me from New York — and we've heard this on television too — that they've seen the city completely changed, walls of indifference dissolved into an avalanche of concrete help, of compassion, of comforting, of readiness to do anything to relieve the pain. It is moving — they say — to see a whole people who, in front of adversity, turn to God in spontaneous prayer, from Congress to the squares, showing their true roots as a people of faith.
We feel that it is a sign also of the particular vocation of this great country. I've been to the United States a number of times: They have a special vocation to unity. We can say that all the ethnic groups of the world are present there. It's a country that is so multi-religious, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural that it could present to the world a model of unity.
But we can't deny that there is also a growing anti-Islamic sentiment. There was an attack in the United States in this sense as well. What can be done to avoid these divisions, these sentiments which criminalize the whole Muslim world?
For some time now in [the Focolare] Movement — but not only in our Movement — we have been building a profound unity in God with Muslims, and precisely in the United States with a vast African American Muslim Movement. I learned that in this moment they feel greatly helped by the fact that they are united with us Christians in the commitment to bring universal brotherhood in the world.
We must recognize one another as brothers and sisters, Christians and Muslims. We are all children of God. So we Christians must act accordingly. This is the way.
You are familiar with Islam. Are there also Muslims in your Focolare Movement?
Of course! Very many: They are in Algeria, in America, in Palestine. And in many other countries where there are Muslims, in Africa, in Asia.
How can there be, in your opinion, so much hate on the part of some Muslim fundamentalists? What can we do?
In my opinion, we are dealing here with Evil with a capital E. This is why I feel one thing very deeply, which is perhaps a little original: now people are mobilizing all the forces, on the political level, heads of State, and so on. But the religious world must also be mobilized for the sake of good.
All the forces of good must unite.
This is already being done. For example … the Holy Father spoke very forcefully — and I saw that all the newspapers reported it — asking America not to allow itself to be tempted by hatred.
He continually repeats his appeals for peace. This is already being done by the World Conference on Religion and Peace.
A few days ago there was a meeting in Barcelona with hundreds of representatives of various religions and of different churches, promoted by the Community of Sant'Egidio. They, too, prepared a message in which they express their commitment for peace.
Our own Movement, for example, in its more political expression — it's called the “Movement for Unity” — promotes this idea of brotherhood, which is the harbinger of peace, through municipalities, through parliaments, in many parts of the world. But all that we are doing is still too little. Everything should be intensified and universalized. We must not leave everything to the political world.
And we must pray that we don't go from one tragedy to another, that we find the right way, according to wisdom and common sense.
I had an idea: If all of us Christians would live out with renewed thrust the new evangelization, as the Pope presents it, this would be a solution, because it leads to brotherhood, a spirit of communion, not only among Catholics, but then, through dialogue, with all the others in the world.
In other words, we could find a way.
What can Christianity give to Islam in this dialogue?
Brotherhood, brotherhood. God's plan for humanity is really brotherhood. It's also the corrective to a deviated politics, which we are living a little also here in the Western world. Brotherhood is possible also with people of other faiths and of other convictions because brotherly love is in the DNA of every person created in the image and likeness of God.
And yet, in this moment we are living, to some extent, in a climate of war …
Yes, unfortunately! We hoped otherwise; instead, it seems that the situation is getting worse.
What can simple, ordinary people do?
Some concrete initiatives are already underway. I know of families in a city in Italy that have offered hospitality to children of New York and Washington who have lost their parents. We ourselves welcome people who are in need of help in one of our little towns near New York. Whereas on the scene itself we are all committed to helping whoever we meet through every means. Love is inventive. We must get down to work.
So do you see a world that is going towards unity even in this tragedy?
Towards good, towards unity. Exactly. Actually, paradoxically, our people of the Movement here and in the United States have been telling one another the same thing. Our ideal is to work for a better world, a united world. And so we say to one another: Paradoxically, the doors are wide open now, enabling us to reach unity sooner.
Interview previously published by the Foccolare movement: www.focolare.org
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: Praying for Peace, Preparing for War DATE: 10/14/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:In the third chapter of his First Letter, St. Peter writes, “… he that would love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking guile; let him turn away from evil and do right; let him seek peace and pursue it.”
As Catholic Americans, how do we reconcile these words of Scripture with the compelling demand for justice that arises from the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11? How can we support our president's plans for military action even as our Holy Father is counseling restraint?
First, we should recognize that while all war is evil, it is not always evil to go to war. Christians are not obliged to be pacifists.
Second, in accordance with Scripture, we should give the benefit of the doubt to civilian leaders in legitimate authority over us, beginning with the president of the United States.
Third, we should support military actions that are prudent, proportional, and which limit the loss of innocent life, and whose ultimate goal is the genuine administration of retributive justice, not merely revenge. Lastly, those of us not in uniform should fight this war with the weapons of the spirit, especially prayer, penance and reparation.
When I attended U.S. Army Officer Candidate School, on Fridays we used to march in pre-dawn darkness to the headquarters of the Infantry Branch. There, arrayed in neat ranks, we stood at attention before the statue of a grunt named “Iron Mike” and listened as a voice out of the gloom read aloud from Medal of Honor citations awarded to our OCS predecessors. At the end of the ceremony, a lone bugler would play Taps as we saluted the self-sacrifice of men who each of us silently prayed we would never be called upon to emulate.
Fortunately, I never saw combat; but during my years of service I came to understand that the great majority of soldiers do not desire war, though they are prepared to wage and win it. Like all of us, they want to live peacefully with their families and die comfortably in their beds.
Perhaps that is why religion is usually so important to military people.
They spend a lot of time — more than most of us, I would guess — praying for peace. In so doing, they sharpen the sword of the spirit knowing that, as someone once said, there are no atheists in fox-holes.
As Catholic citizens, let us join our hearts with soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines around the world in praying for peace, reconciliation and the conversion of our enemies.
Mark Gordon served in the United States Army as an infantry officer and air-defense artillery officer.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mark Gordon ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: From the Jubilee to the Synod: The Bishop Is Sent to Teach DATE: 10/14/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:The prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, spoke last December at the “Days of Reflection on the Jubilee for Bishops” organized by the Legionaries of Christ at Regina Apostolorum Pontifical Athenaeum in Rome. His presentation, titled “The Bishop is Sent to Teach,” addressed the question of the bishop's role in the Church — the topic being discussed now by the Synod of Bishops meeting in the Vatican. The first part of Cardinal Grocholewski's talk follows:
Among the missions of a bishop, the munus docendi[teaching mission] is essential.”Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. (Matthew 28:19-20). “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
These words of the Risen Christ addressed to the Apostles are extremely clear and at the same time highly charged with a dynamic toward action, in regards to the teaching mission he assigned to them.
Jesus also pointed out the great value and the authority of this teaching, when he said, “Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me” (Luke 10:16. See Matthew 10:40 and John 13:20). He also emphasized the grave consequences of this teaching for those who would hear it: “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:16).
So, when the Sanhedrin members ordered Peter and John not to teach in Jesus' name, they replied, “Whether it is right in the sight of God for us to obey you rather than God, you be the judges. It is impossible for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19,20). And Paul, conscious of his own duty to teach, wrote in his Letter to the Corinthians, “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:16).
The mission of evangelizing is obviously entrusted also to the successors of the Apostles, that is, to all bishops. When Jesus was entrusting to his disciples the command to proclaim the Gospel to the whole world, he added, “And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). He also affirmed, “You will be my witnesses … to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8) Obviously, such statements cannot but refer also to the successors of the Apostles.
Thus, the Second Vatican Council underlines, “The bishops, in as much as they are the successors of the Apostles, receive from the Lord, to whom all power is given in heaven and on earth, the mission of teaching all peoples, and of preaching to Gospel to every creature” (Lumen Gentium, No. 24).
Even more, among the three munera (the missions of sanctifying, teaching and governing), the council attributes primary importance to the mission of teaching. The dogmatic constitution Lumen Gentium — following the Council of Trent which considered preaching the Gospel to be the principal mission of bishops — underlines, “Among the more important duties of bishops, that of preaching the Gospel has pride of place” [eminet] (No. 25). The same affirmation is found in Christus Dominus, the Decree on the Pastoral Office of Bishops in the Church (No. 12). Logically, both council documents, when they address these three munera in particular, put teaching first.
The same manifestation of the primary importance of the bishops' munus docendi and the identical perspective in addressing the three munera can be found in the talk the Holy Father gave Oct. 7, 2000, to the bishops during the Jubilee for Bishops.
Why It's Timely
The proper understanding of the bishops' munus docendi and a serious commitment to fulfilling that mission are particularly important today, for various reasons.
Nowadays there is a profound crisis of faith. The recent assemblies of the Synod of Bishops have dealt with this.
It is not hard to notice a strong secularization of people's lives. Many people live as if God didn't exist. The ideologies that made materialism a dogma and repression of religion a program have fallen. Nevertheless, practical-existential atheism is spreading.
The kind of rationalism that makes the mind insensitive to transcendence, and the exaggerated defense of the subjectivity of the person, which tends to close itself in on individualism, are still very widespread.
In many believers, religious ignorance remains widespread.
It is easy to notice a generalized ignoring of moral values, especially in such a vital area as marriage and the sexual dimension of the human person.
Within the Church, certain opinions or teachings in contrast with Christian faith are spreading. This is addressed in the encyclical Veritatis Splendor and in the recent declaration Dominus Jesus from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith which made clear the danger for the Church's missionary proclamation from “relativistic theories which seek to justify religious pluralism, not only de facto but also de iure ( or in principle)” (No. 4).
The ordinary magisterium is at times threatened by the opinions of some theologians who claim to be above it, in an attitude of dissent which is nourished — as noted by the instruction Donum Veritatis from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith “On the Ecclesial Vocation of the Theologian” — by the tendency, linked to philosophical liberalism, “to regard a judgment as having all the more validity to the extent that it proceeds from the individual relying upon his own powers. In such a way freedom of thought comes to oppose the authority of tradition which is considered a cause of servitude. A teaching handed on and generally received is a priori suspect and its truth contested” (No. 32).
All these factors require a correct and particulary zealous application of the bishops' munus docendi.
In this talk I obviously do not intend to cover the entire theme with all its implications. I will simply try, in the first part, to develop some theological-pastoral considerations, and in the second part, to outline the variety of obligations involved in the mission of the bishop sent to teach.
Previously published in Rome by the theological journal
Ecclesia.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education ----------- TITLE: To Succeed, Do as They Say - And as They Do DATE: 10/14/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:In Search of Ethics: Conversations With Men and Women of Character by Len Marrella DC Press, 2001 255 pages, $19.95
Character counts, and Len Marrella proves it. Founder and president of the Center for Leadership and Ethics, Marrella introduces us to “men
and women of character” whose stories prove that nice guys do finish first.
Marrella begins by documenting the “moral meltdown” of the 21st century. Citing Gallup polls, magazine surveys and observations from a number of ethics associations, he shows a startling disconnect between our culture's stated values and individuals' actual actions. Then, after briefly tracing the history of virtue, he lets us in on conversations he had with a series of “moral exemplars” representing a wide swath of society — generals, CEOs, athletes, secretaries, teachers, a priest. All have two things in common: Each lives by a solid set of moral values, and each is a clear success in his or her area of endeavor.
The interview format doesn't lend itself well to storytelling, but the histories of these people and the anecdotes they share are engaging. And, most important, the stories they share ring of reality.
“My most important personal decision was my marriage to Meg Engman, my wife now of 36 years,” says Norman R. Augustine, former chief executive of Lockheed Martin Corp. “My most difficult business decision had to do with the closing of a number of our plants. These down-sizing decisions are, of course, intended to be in the best interest of the company and the shareholders, but can be quite devastating for the employees who are required to find employment elsewhere. When you consider that I have spent most of my adult life building teams and fostering teamwork, it is extremely difficult to downsize or rightsize or whatever you want to call it. The human price is immense, but so too are the consequences of failing to face the problems one confronts.”
As a Catholic, I was initially dismayed that Marrella didn't delve into the importance of prayer in living a virtuous and successful life. However, at second look, I realized that the book speaks indirectly, subtly, of how critical God is for those who seek to succeed without sacrificing their integrity. Every single exemplar credits his moral base to a strong family life, and points to a strong faith in God as vital to making good life choices and career decisions. In this way, the book inspires a pursuit of Godly virtue without coming out and preaching it, which would likely turn off much of its intended audience.
By reading In Search of Ethics, parents will be inspired to accept the responsibility of instilling moral courage in their children. Teachers will have a store of role models for challenging students to reach for true success. And corporations may accept Marrella's challenge to bring ethical principles to create an atmosphere of values in reaching for true success.
By presenting a congenial mix of heroes from sports, business and religion, Marrella has managed to show that a latent goodness still exists in the 21st century — a fact that took on real faces in the wake of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. The book wraps up with a challenge to that goodness: “There is genuine concern about surviving the 21st century with the ethics of the 20th,” Marrella writes, “but there is every reason to be hopeful. We know it is right to ethical and to behave in a moral manner. We can live it, we can teach it, and we can make it happen one person and one day at a time. You are the one, and today's the first day.” What Register reader wouldn't get behind a battle plan like that?
Caroline Schermerhorn is on the editorial staff of Envoy magazine.
----- EXCERPT: Weekly Book Pick ----- EXTENDED BODY: Caroline Schermerhorn ----- KEYWORDS: Education ----------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 10/14/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:Homosexuals Urged to Lie In Order to Donate Blood
HARVARD CRIMSON, Sept. 14 — After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, when many Harvard students were giving blood, the leader of Harvard's homosexual group BOND sent an email to the organization on Sept. 11 encouraging members to donate blood.
“On the Red Cross's form, you will be asked: ‘Are you a man who has had sexual contact with another man since 1973?’ This applies to many of you. You should lie,” Clifford S. Davidson wrote in an email to BOND members.
Not all members of the homosexual group were pleased, the Crimson reported. One group member wrote that Davidson “should be embarrassed by [his] behavior, particularly during this time of crisis.”
The newspaper noted that current Red Cross procedure asks potential blood donors about their sexual history and that the agency attempts to screen out homosexual men, who pose a higher disease risk.
Welcome Back to Campus, Soldier
CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION, Oct. 2 — Military recruiters, who have been banned from the University of New Mexico School of Law for more than a decade, will be allowed back on campus, but professors who had voted to keep them off are likely to give them a cool reception, reported the Chronicle of Higher Education.
In a power struggle that erupted last week, faculty members voted to retain the school's ban on military recruiting because of the military's “don't ask, don't tell” policy, which allows the military to discharge someone who acknowledges being homosexual.
Worried that the ban might jeopardize the university's $10 million in Defense Department funds, Provost Brian L. Foster overturned that decision a few days later.
College President Called Back to Active Duty
CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION, Oct. 2 — The president of St. Catharine College was among the 35,000 United States military reservists called to active duty in the week after the terrorist attacks, reported the Chronicle of Higher Education.
The Chronicle noted that there is only a slim chance that William D. Huston, a U.S. Coast Guard captain, could end up in the Persian Gulf.
In 1997, Huston became the first male president of St. Catharine, a two-year college in central Kentucky founded by Dominican nuns. In Huston's absence, Arnold and Donna Major, vice presidents for finance and operations, are running the college.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education ----------- TITLE: Family Matters DATE: 10/14/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:My Wife's Too Busy
Q We have three kids under the age of 5, and seem to have no time left for one another. Now our parish priest wants my wife to teach CCD. I'm against it. What do you think?
A Lisette: I promise not to gang up on your wife's side just because I'm a woman, but maybe I can help you appreciate how a busy mother thinks.
Raising three young children can be exhausting. With just one child, I know that if I don't fit in certain activities I begin to get edgy and to take it out on my family — mainly by getting short-tempered. I need time for prayer every day, to focus my day. That's the time when I put my heart, needs, struggles and ideas before the Lord. I also need time to exercise. It helps my body on the physical level, but it also clears my mind.
Another thing that helps me is having time for activities on my own. Could your wife be looking for something like that in teaching CCD? Maybe she wants time to just do something completely different from her normal routine. It's possible that she even has a special talent for teaching. If so, she'll come back from it more invigorated and ready to give to her family because she feels more fulfilled as a woman in Christ and as an apostle.
On the other hand, maybe your wife really doesn't want to accept your pastor's request. Could she be feeling too shy or too embarrassed to say No?
That's where communication can help — time for the two of you to talk with each other about your needs as husband and wife.
George: I agree with Lisette that communication is key.
Couples do it differently — walks around the block, sitting down on the couch after the kids are asleep, or just lying in bed talking. The important thing is to talk — about life, about your marriage, about your family.
Have you asked your wife why she wants to teach CCD? Would she like it if the two of you taught the course together? Does she understand your concerns for the family? Have you talked about why you have so little time together? Could you reorganize your schedule so you have more opportunities for communication?
Here's another perspective: Lisette leads a bimonthly women's group that studies the Gospels and the Church's teaching on marriage and family. She loves doing it. She really gets a lot out of helping her friends deepen their love for Christ and for the teachings of the Church. In addition, it helps her be a better wife and mother.
I'm not only grateful for her spiritual growth, but also for the time her meetings give me to be with our son. We have our own special night together. It's quality — and quantity — time.
If you and your wife decide it's a good idea for her to teach CCD, you might find some new opportunities in your life, too.
God bless you both!
George and Lisette de los Reyes host
The Two Shall Be One on EWTN.
Reach Family Matters at familymatters@ncregister.com
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: George And Lisette De Los Reyes ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life ----------- TITLE: Facts of Life DATE: 10/14/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:SINCE SEPT. 11, couples filing for divorce in Houston have been changing their minds — their problems no longer seem so overwhelming. One lawyer reported more reconciliations in a week than he used to see in a year.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life ----------- TITLE: Why Manner s Matter DATE: 10/14/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:“When a child holds the door for me, something happens between me and that youngster,” says Clara Shea, a senior citizen who lives in Sarasota, Fla. “It's like a warmth passes between us. That child cared enough to wait and help me in a small way.”
Shea admits, however, that often the doors thump shut. “Manners are in trouble,” she notes. “But I'm an optimist, I think we can do something about it.”
Many across the United States share this 72-year old woman's observations.
Parents, teachers and even specialized programs are confronting the challenge of teaching children why they should keep their elbows off the table, wipe their face with a napkin, and say “please” and “thank you.”
Whose Manners?
Some people think manners distinguish the educated from the less fortunate, the upper class from the lower.
On the contrary, manners, at their most basic level, demonstrate respect and concern for others. Rather than divide, they unite.
Julia Anderson, who teaches teenagers table manners as part of a Home Economics course at Pentucket Regional High School in Newburyport, Mass., encourages her students to take small bites of food, keep their napkins on their laps, and not talk with their mouths full. But, she also stresses that manners are more than knowing the superficial details.
“Table manners are about being sensitive to people. Knowing the reasons why various protocols developed helps students to understand this. For example, it is polite to break bread at the table. You don't cut it with a knife. Bread has always been a symbol of life, a staff of life. To take a weapon like a knife and put it into the bread offends sensibilities because those two things don't go together.”
Although Anderson details numerous social protocols in the classroom, she stresses to her students, “Don't worry if you forget a particular rule of etiquette. Just remember the ultimate rule of etiquette — respect the people you are with.”
To drive this point home, Anderson tells her students a story:
“A noblewoman had guests for dinner. One of the guests, instead of eating soup with a spoon, drank it directly from the bowl. Instead of reprimanding her guest, the noblewoman picked up her own bowl and drank from it so that her guest wouldn't feel she was doing something wrong.”
“That's what manners are all about,” says Anderson, “It's a matter of being sensitive to others.”
Bruce Dersch, a music teacher at a Benedictine school, Subiaco Academy in Subiaco, Ark., agrees with Anderson and takes this sensitivity one step further, “The essence of manners is that we respect others. By doing so, we acknowledge the presence of God in others.”
Parents and teachers agree that among the most important manners are:
E saying “please” and “thank you”
E saying “I'm sorry”
E waiting one's turn
E holding the door for others
E remaining seated at the table
E taking small bites E dressing modestly
E not interrupting others.
Teens come to an understanding of manners by understanding their positive effect on others.
How to Teach Them
Younger children, however, who cannot empathize until they reach age 7 or 8, must be taught manners in a different way.
Preschoolers, children in kindergarten, and first graders learn manners best through role models. If parents and teachers continually say “please” when asking for something, “thank you” when receiving something and “I'm sorry,” when they ... and how to teach them to kids offend someone else, children will mimic this behavior.
Eileen McGovern, principal of St. Frances Cabrini School in Piscataway, N. J., explains.
“Obviously, kindergarten children are egocentric, and cannot be other than egocentric. Our approach with them must be different. Everyone that child comes in contact with, from administrative staff to teaching staff, to parents, to family members, plays a vital role in reinforcing proper manners. They are role models, for better or worse.”
Jennifer Peterson, owner and president of Leadership Skills, a national program based in Vancouver, Wash., that teaches manners to children as well as adults, agrees, “Undeniably children mimic everything. They are carbon copies of their parents. It is very important that parents say, ‘thank you,’ ‘I'm sorry,’ ‘you're welcome’ to their children. Their children will then apply that to everyone they meet.”
Another method that helps younger children understand the need for courtesy, is to have them role-play situations. This helps them learn the golden rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
Children play out scenes where someone cuts in front of them in line, or someone slams a door in their face.
They also enact scenes that demonstrate good manners. Then they discuss how these scenes made them feel.
In this way, they begin to understand the impact of both proper and rude behavior.
As children develop so does their understanding of manners.
Barb Brausieck, who teaches 4th, 5th and 6th grade at Skyline Elementary School in Ferndale, Wash., notes that children come to a deeper appreciation for manners in the middle grades.
“Younger children are naturally self-centered. I watch children change from 4th to 5th grade when they suddenly realize the world is bigger than them and their family circle. It is very rewarding to work with 6th graders who have reached the stage of understanding that they have the power to change the world.”
Still, manners are not acquired in a day, in a month, or even in a year.
Eileen McGovern explains, “With manners, we are talking about behavioral patterns. Parents and teachers need to be patient, consistent and constantly vigilant in reinforcing manners. You cannot tell a child just once, ‘This is what you should do,’ and expect the child to do it. Children need constant reinforcement and vigilance.”
One of the greatest stumbling blocks to developing manners is peer pressure. Jennifer Peterson gives an example, “You can teach children how to dress modestly but when they see an ad on television where someone has a belly button showing it's hard to say that's inappropriate clothing. Parents have access to their children for a limited number of hours per day. Peers, televisions concerts and movies have control of them for the rest of the time.”
To overcome this hurdle, parents can monitor what their children watch on television and on the Internet and keep track of their playmates.
Although, in the beginning, children think manners are just a series of do's and don'ts, parents and teachers should trust that, if they remain vigilant and consistent in their teachings, as their children mature they will appreciate the true meaning of social protocol.
Perhaps Benjamin Anderson, a 9-year-old fourth grader at Swasey School in Brentwood, New Hamp., explains it best. “When we are polite, we make other people feel
Basic Manners for Children
General Manners
E Don't talk back.
E Hold the door for others.
E Say “please” when asking for something.
E Say “thank you” when receiving something.
E Say “excuse me” when it is necessary to interrupt.
E Say “excuse me” when bumping into someone.
E Take turns.
E Offer your seat to an elderly person.
E Dress modestly.
E Knock and wait for a
response before opening a closed door.
E Say “Hello” when you greet someone.
E Say “Good—bye” when you or someone else leaves.
E Don't interrupt others.
Mealtime Manners
E Keep your elbows off the table.
E Take small bites.
E Don't play with your food.
E Don't talk with your mouth full.
E Pass food around the table in the same direction.
E Sit down during a meal.
E Wipe your face with a napkin, not your sleeves.
E Break bread with your hands, rather than cutting it with a knife.
Telephone Manners
E Say “Hello.”
E Say, “May I ask who's caling?”
E Quietly retrieve the person needed on the phone, rather than shouting.
E Say, “One moment, please,” when necessary.
E Take a message (for children who can write).
----- EXCERPT: ... and how to teach them to kids ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mary Ann Sullivan ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life ----------- TITLE: How to Grow in Holiness in the Armed Services DATE: 10/14/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:LONG BEACH, Calif. — Since Sept. 11, Catholic men and women serving in the military have been preparing for war. But many in the ranks have been preparing their souls for years.
Military personnel say there are enormous stresses inherent in the military, even in times of peace — deployments, frequent moves and even the bad example of some commanding officers. With priests moving from place to place, parishes with constantly changing memberships, the continuity that builds strong faith communities is hard to find.
Cadet Janson Durney of West Point agreed that life in the military is often stressful, and cited “problems with regard to faith … a lot of time away from home, which leads to high divorce rates, and a lack of military chaplains.”
But Durney said it's possible to spread the faith even in these circumstances. He finds the Divine Mercy Chaplet, novenas and the rosary, as well acts of faith and hope especially helpful.
Above all, military personnel say a strong sacramental life grounds them. They gave the military high praise for allowing service people to attend Mass even in difficult circumstances.
Durney said the presence of chaplains has helped his own faith. With their help, he started a thriving Catholic Bible study and prayer group three years ago.
Evangelization
Father Jim Melley, who was a Navy chaplain for 16 years before he recently retired, said the stress of military life can be overcome through prayer and support.
He has a unique perspective because before he was a chaplain he was a petty officer second class for four years. When he came back to the military as a priest, he found a flock woefully uneducated about its faith.
“They wouldn't know the Trinity from Times Square,” he said.
This is a real concern, according to Father Melley, since the lack of catechetical formation makes Catholics in the armed forces “prime sitting ducks for the evangelical [Protestants].” He added that he would often hand out basic explanations of the faith such as the booklets Pillar of Fire, Pillar of Truth by Karl Keating, and Father Smith Instructs Jackson.
Father Melley also pointed out that the regimentation of life on a ship can be quite conducive to prayer life. The scheduling and order is “almost monastic,” he said. And in addition to forming prayer groups on the ship, and even getting some of the sailors to pray the Divine Office with him — “They loved it!” he noted — he also saw a great benefit to the power of example. “I was on the battleship New Jersey,” said Father Melley, “and every day there would be an announcement over the loudspeaker: ‘Holy Rosary held in the chapel.’ “
This announcement, he said, was the start of many conversations, as were the booklets he passed out.
The Navy doctor in Maryland also stressed the need for knowledgeable and charitable Catholics even among those who aren't chaplains.
“We need to make sure we are well catechized,” he said “But above all we can lead others to Christ through our example and radical charity.”
He also suggests a retreat once a year for Catholic servicemen and women based on the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, himself a soldier, to “help [them] get back on track for our spiritual journey.”
----- EXCERPT: ProLife ProLife ----- EXTENDED BODY: Andrew Walther ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life ----------- TITLE: Life Notes DATE: 10/14/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 14-20, 2001 ----- BODY:Education Before Abortion
THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT, Oct. 1 — Women who want to have an abortion in Virginia are now required to undergo counseling 24 hours in advance. The law took effect Oct. 1.
“This is not onerous,” said Fiona Givens, spokeswoman for the Virginia Society for Human Life. “There are very few people in contemporary society who would find education burdensome, especially in a decision such as abortion, which is irreversible.”
The bill was crafted to closely parallel a Pennsylvania law that was upheld as constitutional in 1992.
No Abortion in the Military
ASSOCIATED PRESS — In a story on the activities of various advocacy groups in the wake of Sept. 11, the wire service reports that an amendment to enable military women deployed overseas to pay for abortion services at military hospitals was defeated in the House of Representatives Oct. 2.
While decried by pro-abortion groups, the measure was welcomed by pro-life advocates, who have compared the loss of life in terrorist attacks to what takes place in an abortion.
“It's a tragedy that so many people have died in the World Trade Center,” said Thomas Minnery, vice president of public policy for the Christian ministry Focus on Family. “But we're mindful of the unborn babies that continue to die day in, day out, and people seem to be not as concerned about them. That is human life, too.”
Don't Confuse Gay and Civil Rights
TRAVERSE CITY RECORD EAGLE, Oct. 2 — There is “no valid analogy” between the civil rights battles of the 1960s and today's gay rights movement, the founder of Courage, a Catholic organization that helps homosexuals live according to Church teaching, told the governing commission of Traverse City, Mich.
The commission heard testimony Oct. 1 on Proposal 1, a ballot initiative that will go before city voters in November prohibiting the city from enacting any ordinance or policy that offers special protection to persons according to sexual orientation.
Father Harvey urged residents to vote yes on Proposal 1 to prevent city regulations from creating “unavoidable conflict” for persons trying to follow their faith.
Pro-Life Meeting in Russia
LIFESITE, Oct. 1 — The pro-life Web site reported that the Russian Orthodox Church has scheduled a pro-life conference in Moscow for Nov. 26 on “Family and Demography.” The conference is significant because abortion on demand was readily available in Russia throughout the Soviet era, and Russia is today experiencing rapid population decline.
Father Maxim Obukhov, a Russian Orthodox priest and director of a pro-life center in Moscow, said the conference will gather pro-life activists from Russia, other former Soviet republics and abroad.
Dr Jack Wilkie of International Right to Life and Ewa Kowalewsky, director of European bureau of Human Life International, are scheduled to speak at the conference, which will explore the spiritual roots of demographic depression in Russia and other European countries.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: The Pope's Friend Brendan DATE: 10/21/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: October 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:GREAT FALLS, Va. — Four-year-old Brendan Kelly first met 81-year-old Pope John Paul II on Sept. 4, in a meeting made possible by the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
While it was the first time that the two had physically met, it wasn't the first time that the Pope had heard of Brendan.
Last October, Brendan was facing fevers of 106 degrees which his parents, Frank and Maura Kelly, were unable to bring down. Born with Down syndrome, Brendan was diagnosed with leukemia and spent much of November, December and January hospitalized and receiving chemotherapy.
“We love the Holy Father. He's a hero,” said Frank Kelly, senior vice president for government affairs for Charles Schwab in Washington. “We pray for him a lot as a family. Every time he's on television or in the newspaper we point him out to our children. He's part of our life.”
As it turns out, while Brendan was praying for the Holy Father, the Holy Father was praying for Brendan. Unbeknownst to the Kelly family, their neighbors had taken a photo of Brendan from their home and brought it with them on a visit to Rome in January of 2001. When they met with the Holy Father, they gave him the photo and asked him to pray for Brendan.
“Instead of just blessing the photo,” explained Mr. Kelly, “the Pope asked if he could keep it. We only found out about this afterwards.”
Disney World vs. the Pope
With the help of Brendan's doctors, Brendan was nominated to the Make-A-Wish Foundation — a nonprofit agency that grants approximately 10,000 wishes to children facing life-threatening illnesses each year.
Make-A-Wish Foundation representatives came to the Kelly home to interview Brendan.
“They offered him Disney World, meeting Cal Ripken,” said Mr. Kelly, “they told him about some of the other amazing things they have done for kids — sending children to Fiji or taking them in submarines. Brendan's request was, ‘Meet Pope. Meet the Pope.”
At first the foundation had some difficulty understanding how a 4-year-old could make such a wish. When they called to inquire, Maura Kelly explained to them, “I know that it's hard to understand, but let me tell you why this is Brendan's wish. He has a picture of the Pope in his room and we pray for him. He loves to attend Mass every day, and the priests are his best friends.”
A photo in the family living room also may have played a part. At the age of 20, while studying in Europe, Maura had an opportunity to meet with John Paul II. The photo pictures Brendan's mother shaking hands with the Pope.
“It is unusual for a child to wish to meet the Pope,” said Anne Strauss, media relations manager for Make-A-Wish. She estimated that only about 6% of children wish to meet a celebrity. “Usually those are sports figures, actors or singers,” said Strauss. In the foundation's 20-year history only three children have asked to meet the Pope.
Brendan got his wish. On Aug. 31 the foundation flew Brendan, his parents and his brother and sister to Rome where they awaited word on their planned meeting.
Because of a hotel error the meeting almost didn't take place. Staff at the Victoria Hotel failed to let the Kelly's know that the Vatican had called three times. “We were supposed to be there Monday morning [Sept. 3]. The hotel put the messages into our box but never notified us that we had a message,” explained Mr. Kelly. “We didn't get the messages until Monday afternoon.”
Maura called the Vatican switchboard operator and was put in touch with a nun. After explaining the situation the nun spoke with a monsignor and called back minutes later. She told them to arrive the next day promptly at 7:30 a.m.
Pope: 2nd Most Important
On Tuesday, Sept. 4, the family arrived at the gates of Castel Gandolfo and checked in. After being greeted they were escorted to the Holy Father's chapel. “We were in this simple country chapel and suddenly out came the Holy Father,” recalled Mr. Kelly.
“It was as if we were going to Mass in our own church; he wasn't the most important thing there,” he said. The real presence of Christ in the Eucharist was more important.
After Mass, the family was ushered into a receiving area and seated in a U-shaped circle to await the Holy Father's arrival. As soon as John Paul entered the room smiling and talking, Brendan broke away and ran at him.
“There was unbelievable love in the Holy Father's eyes,” said Mr. Kelly. Brendan remained by the Pope's side as he greeted everyone. “In between greeting people he would glance down to wink or wave at Brendan. It was beautiful.”
Said Mrs. Kelly, “I was struck by the fact that Brendan immediately connected with him. It's very unusual for Brendan to run up to someone that he has never met before.”
The family finally had their turn. Pope John Paul II greeted each of them, kissed Brendan, and then they gathered for a family photo. The family then went back to their positions.
“I felt like we were a bunch of kids standing around a father. We were like one large family,” said Mr. Kelly.
The Holy Father blessed the group of 19 and then left. “As he walked through the door Brendan broke away again and ran far enough so that he could see the Pope. He waved his hand and said ‘Bye, Pope’ explained Frank. “No one expected the Pope to come back into the room, but he did. He came back into the room to shake Brendan's hand and say goodbye.”
Mollie Kelly, Brendan's big sister, is 10. “The Pope always had a smile when Brendan was standing next to him,” she said.
Brendan's Moment
After the meeting, Mrs. Kelly asked the children, “Wasn't that great? Did you love meeting the Holy Father?”
Joseph and Mollie replied, “Didn't he love Brendan so much?”
Said Mrs. Kelly, “The whole family knew that this was Brendan's moment, this was his time.”
Mr. Kelly added that, “It's unbelievable how Brendan's story has touched people,” he said. “Many people, those that I do and do not know, have asked for Brendan's prayers.”
Doctors say that Brendan's leukemia is technically in remission, but the family knows that they must keep praying. Brendan has another 2-3 years of chemo — a therapy that weakens his immune system. “The big threat is not so much the cancer,” explained Mr. Kelly. “He could catch a cold and die.”
In addition to the photographs and their memories, as a token of their visit, the Pope gave each of the family members a rosary. “These aren't meant for the closet,” said Mr. Kelly. “The Pope gave these to us, so we better start using them more.”
Mrs. Kelly said she learned more about the Holy Father from the trip. “It was remarkable to see how much the Pope could love Brendan. People need to know that he loves all of us that much and that he prays for us.”
Brendan remembers the experience vividly. “He talks about it a lot,” laughed Joseph, Brendan's 7-year-old brother.
Added Mrs. Kelly: “He just keeps saying, ‘Remember our trip? I met my friend the Pope.’”
Tim Drake writes from St. Cloud, Minn.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: 'God Bless America' Jangles ACLU Nerve DATE: 10/21/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: October 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:WARRENVILLE, Ill. — Debbie Durrbeck circulated fliers around her children's school to encourage students to wear red, white and blue to show support for the country in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.
It brought her face-to-face with a phenomenon that others around the nation face: God is not always welcome at U.S. public schools. A lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union, known as the ACLU, targets a California school that features the message “God Bless America” on a school marquee.
Durrbeck's school district didn't have to have a lawsuit filed against it to make it take action. They told Durrbeck to print a new flier or use scissors to remove “God Bless America” from her flier.
As director of the Parent Teachers Association for Clifford Johnson Elementary School, Durrbeck didn't want to rock the boat.
“I had to cut it off. It was awful,” she said. “It took everything I had to cut it off.”
Durrbeck has no plans to sue the school for what she calls censorship, but she notified the American Center for Law and Justice about the incident.
Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the Virginia-based legal organization, said that Durrbeck's experience is not unusual. He noted that schools across the country are squelching speech, mainly because of lawsuit fears.
“At a time when America desires to exhibit patriotism, the ACLU sees fit to undermine the constitution by attempting to exert a heavy hand of censorship,” said Sekulow.
He said the ACLU has no business suing a school district in Rocklin, Calif., for posting the “God Bless America” marquee.
“There's no reason why a school district cannot display a sign that says ‘God Bless America.’ That's constitutionally protected speech and does not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment,” which prohibits the government from establishing an official religion, said Sekulow. He called the ACLU's tactics “totally absurd and irresponsible.”
The American Civil Liberties Union maintains that “God Bless America” is not appropriate language in the nation's schoolrooms.
“It must be replaced immediately,” said Margaret Crosby, a lawyer for the ACLU of Northern California. She called it a “hurtful, divisive message.”
“This is a time that we need to promote unity among Americans of all faiths. Many schools are flying flags to instill a sense of unity in a time of trouble,” Crosby told the Register in a statement.
“By displaying a religious message,” she said, “the Breen Elementary is dividing its young students along religious lines.”
Rocklin school officials remained determined to keep the banner posted.
“I would like to think that the ACLU would not attempt to preclude or inhibit the free expression of patriotism and goodwill at a time when it is most appropriate, helpful or even healing,” Phillip Trujillo, an attorney representing the school, told the Sacramento Bee, a daily newspaper.
Other public schools around the country also posted “God Bless America” signs since Sept. 11, with out drawing lawsuits, The Washington Post reported. The Wells Community Academy high school in Chicago included the phrase on a digital display, it reported, citing a security officer.
Several public schools in Tucson, Ariz., have posted “God Bless America” on posters or marquees, apparently with some degree of approval from the Tucson Unified School District.
Sekulow said that the his organization will help Rocklin to stand up to the ACLU's “intimidation.”
“It is clear that the ACLU is attempting to censor a California school district by pressuring it to remove the sign,” said Sekulow. “We will defend any school district or student organization that faces legal action by the ACLU for displaying the message God Bless America.”
Richard Thompson said that the ACLU's methods are not new. As a lawyer for the Thomas More Law Center, he has fielded several calls from concerned students and parents.
“What has happened in the long-term is a pattern of intimidation. [School districts] have been threatened by lawsuits,” said Thompson. “It may be an accumulation of conduct where the ACLU has intimidated public bodies.”
But he said that the law is on the side of the students.
“They do have a constitutional right to express their beliefs,” said Thompson. “And that we are letting them know that we are here to defend their rights.”
Josh Mercer writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Josh Mercer ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Battling by the Book: Just War Makes a Comeback DATE: 10/21/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: October 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — In early October, Bishop Joseph Fiorenza of Galveston-Houston, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote to President Bush, praising the “wise, just and effective” manner in which he was waging the rapidly developing war on terrorism.
“This necessary response is directed at those who use terror, as well as those who assist them, and not at the Afghan people or any particular religious group,” Bishop Fiorenza said. And he renewed the call of the U.S. bishops to the American military, that their actions be guided by “the traditional moral limits on the use of force.”
Since the commencement of the U.S.-led air campaign against terrorist chief Osama bin Laden and his Taliban sponsors in Afghanistan, Bush has insisted that it be waged with utmost care, sparing civilian lives to the greatest degree possible.
By doing so in a campaign against foes who appear to respect no moral limitations in their own attacks against American civilians, Bush may have signaled a transformation of the modern “culture of war.” At least initially, say experts, the U.S. response resembles the ancient Christian principles of the just war, codified by St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas.
“The president's speeches have been carefully crafted to address all the criteria of a just war, hitting them one by one,” said retired Lt. Col. Robert Maginnis, vice president of policy with the Family Research Council.
During the 20th century, the world suffered under a theory promulgated by the German General Staff, that “nations in arms” must wage “total war.” This theory was repeatedly rejected by the Church, yet given the state of 20th-century weaponry — powerful yet inaccurate — the predompredominantly Christian allies in World War II apparently saw little choice but to act in accordance with it, attacking the economic infrastructures of aggressor nations.
With war cast as a contest between whole nations, factory workers became strategic targets, no less than front-line soldiers. So the British Bomber Command firebombed residential Hamburg, and the U.S. 8th Air Force innocuous Dresden, killing 50,000 civilians per raid, simply to keep workers from their factories.
Given that same thinking, during the Cold War the superpowers of the Soviet Union and the United States spent 40 years holding their own people hostage to a doctrine of “mutually assured destruction” under which both nations’ major cities were targeted for obliteration by the other side's nuclear weapons.
In fact, there was no more justification for “total war” in the 20th century than there was in the 13th, says Christendom College historian Warren Carroll. Medieval knights needed peasants’ fodder for their horses, just as modern armies need gasoline from refineries operated by civilians. Yet at the behest of the Church, European chivalry largely refrained from slaughtering their foe's peasant civilians.
And even this past century, total war was never proven necessary. The pulverizing of its cities never slowed Germany's industry, and the Japanese fought on despite being brought to the brink of national starvation by a shipping embargo enforced by American submarines. In both cases, given the assault on civilians in the already undemocratic aggressor nations, internal political opposition became virtually impossible. Given what seemed a choice between victory or annihilation, the German and Japanese people fought to the bitter end.
“I believe the demand for unconditional surrender was wrong; it made it much more difficult to end the war. And unlike most conservatives, I don't agree with the use of the atom bomb against Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” Carroll said.
“You don't use a weapon in a way that you know is going to kill primarily women and children. It's a basic principle of moral philosophy that the end does not justify the means. So you just don't do it. We carried it too far.”
A New Kind of War
Yet, now that the United States has taken up the gauntlet in the “first war of the 21st century,” the enemy in this war isn't a nation, but rather a narrow — and narrowly targeted — movement within Islamic civilization. This fact is apparently backing the American military out of the total-war mind-set, and into something much more like the ancient principles of the just or limited war.
The traditional Christian rules governing warfare were largely observed in Europe from the 11th century, ignored during the religious wars of the 16th century, but readopted in the ecumenical wars of the 17th and 18th centuries.
“Men being men, there were always violations in the heat of the moment, but the moral law really did make a difference in the violence of war,” said retired West Point military psychologist Lt. Col. David Grossman, author of the book On Killing.
“There tended to be more lapses when Christians were fighting non-Christians like the Turks” so it may be a little ironic that the just war strictures are being rediscovered in a fight with a terrorist Muslim faction, Grossman said. “But the experience of the 20th century seems to indicate that atrocities are counterproductive, and noble behavior can really be productive in the long run.”
As the Catechism of the Catholic Church states, in Nos. 2309-2317, war is legitimately waged to defend against an aggressor intent on inflicting “lasting, grave and certain” damage upon one's nation or the community of nations. Other means must be clearly “impractical or ineffective.” The means must be proportionate — “the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated.” And only competent civil authorities “who have responsibility for the common good” can be responsible for the decision to go to war.
Incidentally, says Florida State University Islamic studies professor John Kelsay, the same principles were developed by Muslim theologians from the eighth century on, and likewise observed off-andon by Islam until modern times.
Family Research Council's Maginnis laid out the traditional Thomistic principles of a just war: a just cause (today interpreted only as resisting aggression); war as a last resort; a proper intention; authorization by a competent authority; a high probability of success; and a balanced goal.
In waging the war, every effort must be made to discriminate between combatants and noncombatants. And the damage inflicted must be proportional to the goal, the evil to be eradicated.
“In this new war, the goal is a little ambiguous,” Maginnis said. “In the near term, it's to suppress the Taliban and al Qaeda. But in the long term, if it's to eradicate terrorism worldwide, that's a little open-ended.” However, he added, “The cause is just — that's demonstrated by our invoking the U.N. Charter's Article 51 and NATO's Article 5.”
Continued Maginnis, “There are few noncombatant issues there; even when you drop the most sophisticated bombs, 2% or 3% of them are going to go astray. But the effort's being made.”
Precision Weapons
In fact, said the retired lieutenant colonel, it may be partly the new precision of military technology — electronic intelligence gathering, global positioning systems, thermal imaging, laser-guided bombs — that has given the tools of war something closer to the discrimination of swords, and made it possible to exercise more discrimination regarding noncombatants.
Msgr. William Smith, a moral theologian at St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y., said he can see “no realistic possibility of [the U.S. government's] doing other than they've now done.”
Msgr. Smith acknowledges that there has been no formal declaration of war, raising an issue about the “competent public authority.” However, the president has referred the issue to Congress. Further, a declaration of war is stymied by the fact that the enemy is not a national government; consequently, there is no one with whom a treaty could be signed, formally ending a state of war.
And in recognizing this fact by their comments supporting the military action, Msgr. Smith said the U.S. bishops’ conference is taking a salutary step back from the unbalanced pacifism of their 1984 pastoral letter, a letter “that bent over backwards to the pacifists,” he said.
Said Msgr. Smith, “This isn't a war simply to recover prestige or property. We're now dealing with people who have issued a fatwah, calling for the deliberate targeting of civilians. This is war as a last resort.”
Joe Woodard writes from Calgary, Alberta.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joe Woodard ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Ground Zero Became His Parish DATE: 10/21/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: October 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:On Sept. 11, he was in New York, on his way to a meeting with the Port Authority police department where he is a chaplain.
Father Hynes is also chaplain to more than 4,000 men and women in the U.S. Secret Service, the New Jersey State Police and the Essex County Sheriff's Department as well as a professor at Seton Hall University in New Jersey. He recently spoke with Register features correspondent Tim Drake about the day's events and the aftermath.
I understand that you are a former New Jersey police officer. What led you to your vocation?
I graduated from Seton Hall University and attended the seminary for a year. I was 21 years old and thought I was young, so I left to go out and work for a while. I served as a police officer for six years and then returned to the seminary. I was ordained in the Archdiocese of Newark three years later, in 1992.
Where were you when the attacks occurred?
I was actually three blocks away, on Vesey Street in New York City, on the way to a Port Authority meeting. When the first plane hit, I didn't know what had happened. When I got out of my car I could see that about eight to 10 floors were on fire and I just assumed that it was a structural fire.
I ran back to my car to put on my Port Authority jacket and there was an enormous response put out to go to the World Trade Center. When I got there men were getting oxygen equipment and going in. One of the lieutenants asked me to stay there with the cars because they had left many of their doors and hoods open.
When the second plane hit Tower Two, there was an extremely loud explosion. That is a noise I won't forget. There was fire and smoke shooting off the building in an eastern direction and debris was falling everywhere. I knew that something was wrong and ran about three blocks north.
Shortly thereafter, I went back to the building, helped the police and other civilians evacuating the building, and directed dazed and injured people to walk north away from the buildings. I wasn't thinking of myself — only that we need to get these people away from this building right now. In the time before the buildings came down, we had moved about three blocks away, over to West Street. During that time I found myself carrying a lot of stuff — gas masks, oxygen tanks.
It was while we were there that we heard a crack and we knew that the building was coming down. Everyone on West Street ran about eight blocks north.
In what way were you able to help after the attacks?
Many of us headed back toward the building after the dust cloud had passed. I then went to a staging area in a gymnasium where there were about 200 police officers. Many of them had been in the buildings and wanted to go back to get their colleagues, but there was no way we could go back to the building. I worked for a couple of hours trying to calm them.
During that time I was able to get a phone call out to Msgr. Robert Sheeran, president of Seton Hall, to let him know that I was okay. Msgr. Sheeran had cancelled classes. We had discovered that there were a lot of children in local South Orange schools that had parents working in the building, and so the university sent students to the schools to stay with the kids.
At about 10 p.m. that night, I went back to the Jersey City headquarters and worked with one of the captains. We knew the names of all those officers that had not been accounted for, and we realized that we needed to notify the families that their officer was missing. We realized that what we needed were some clergy. So, I called St. Benedict's monastery in Newark and in a matter of about 15 minutes a group of monks were picked up by van. The monks spent the next two-and-a-half hours making the initial notifications.
We then set up a counseling center at the Newark Airport. A group of between 15-18 priests from Seton Hall, including the president, covered the counseling center as the families came down.
Do you have a lasting image from that day?
When we went back on West Street after the buildings came down, I saw an officer running out of the debris cloud covered with dust. I ran into a nearby deli and grabbed 8-9 waters to pour on his head. I saw that officer at a memorial service recently. He told me that his eyes were starting to burn and he thanked me for pouring water over his head. He joked that he thought I was one of the first New York looters.
The New York City Police department lost 23, the Port Authority Police lost 37, and the New York City firefighters lost 343. It seems that a large number of the rescue workers and victims were Catholic. Can you comment on this?
Of the 21 memorial services I have attended or concelebrated, all but one have been Catholic.
I've been attending and concelebrating at one or two memorial Masses per day. I was the main celebrant at one and the homilist at another. I've also been guiding these families along, helping them to choose readings and giving them everything that they want. These Masses are their closure, and yet it's often limited, because in most cases there is no body. We've only had one Mass where the person's remains had been found.
I've visited Ground Zero almost every day from the beginning, and even went down there with our new Archbishop John Myers to pray. Through it all my priority has been the Port Authority police and helping them through this.
This was an evil attack on our nation. It was a violation of our way of life. Yet, in all of that, there is goodness coming out of it that has been remarkable. There were the men and women who ran into those buildings to get others out. People are attending memorial services for people they do not know. There has been an outpouring of support and the country is pulling together.
Yesterday [Oct. 11], as I was on my way to attend Cardinal Egan's one-month memorial service, I saw a blind man in the middle of 23rd Street. At least 10 people ran off of the sidewalk to help him get to the sidewalk. The others in the car with me wondered if that many people would have done that prior to Sept. 11.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father Chris Hynes ----- KEYWORD: Inperson -------- TITLE: Philadelphia Rejects Bishops' Pro-Life Bus Shelter Ads DATE: 10/21/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: October 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:PHILADELPHIA — In a move reminiscent of the situation faced by the American Life League in New York's subway system last year, the city of Philadelphia has rejected a series of pro-life bus shelter ads. The series was created by the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The rejection is all the more unexpected because the ads are deliberately soft-edged, asking only that viewers consider whether the current lack of legal restrictions on abortion might be a mistake.
The U.S. bishops had hoped to run them in at least 34 different bus shelters in the city. Though the ads are running on Philadelphia commuter trains, the city has rejected the bus shelter ads, saying that they violate the city's policy regarding public advertisements.
The ads are part of the bishops’ $250,000 Second Look Project campaign, launched in Philadelphia Sept. 4. The campaign consists of two different transit ads, three 60-second radio spots and a Web site.
The ads feature no religious content and present factual information about abortion. One, for example, shows a young woman with a nine-month calendar lightly superimposed over her torso. The text reads: “Nine months. The amount of time the Supreme Court says it's legal to have an abortion. Abortion. Have we gone too far?”
The bishops were first notified Aug. 28 that the bus shelter ads were being rejected. “We pursued the city, asking them on what basis the ads were being rejected and whether they might reconsider,” said Cathy Cleaver, spokeswoman for the pro-life secretariat. “We received no final response from the city until Sept. 25 when they informed us by letter, stating that ‘the bus shelter program is a commercial program whose sole purpose is to raise revenue. The program is limited to commercial advertisements and a small number of innocuous public service announcements.’”
The Secret Protocol
Luz Cardena, communications director with the city of Philadelphia, referred to a “protocol” for advertisements. “I don't think the city was rejecting the ads, but only specific kinds of ads,” she said. “There is a protocol for what kind of ads the city can get involved with.”
However, despite four attempts, no one was willing to share the specifics of that protocol with the Register. Deputy City Solicitor Marcia Berman refused to explain the rationale for the decision, provide a copy of city policy, or answer questions about what kinds of ads the city has allowed in the past. “We don't really discuss the basis for our legal decisions in the press,” she said.
Others wonder if a pro-abortion bias might be at work. “If they've ever run any kind of advertisements for contraceptive services, Planned Parenthood, environmental causes or Greenpeace, there should be no reason that they should be able to reject these ads,” commented Jim Sedlak, vice president of the American Life League.
‘The campaign is designed to speak to people who consider themselves pro-choice.’
— Cathy Cleaver
A deputy mayor reportedly told Cleaver some weeks ago that the city had approved a series of Republicans for Choice ads last year. More recently, however, the city denied running those ads.
Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania said it has not run bus shelter advertising in the past. “We're a women's health organization. We do patient services marketing, not advocacy work. These ads are trying to sway the public's opinion on something. It's not our business to advertise in that way,” said Margot Callahan, media coordinator with Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania.
Marketing Adventures, a media placement agency in Redondo Beach, Calif., that has placed fashion advertisements in Philadelphia says it has never run into any difficulty in placing ads there. “However, because the shelters are public, in most cities they are placed under the same restrictions as the sides of buses. The city has the right to refuse any copy for whatever reason,” said Bruce Friedlander, president of Marketing Adventures.
Cleaver said the pro-life secretariat plans to learn more about what kinds of ads the city has run in bus shelters in the past. “If what they say bears out, then we may not take any other steps in Philadelphia. We are eager to move on to the next forum,” said Cleaver.
The secretariat plans to continue the ads in Philadelphia until the end of October before taking them to other dioceses that want to sponsor them.
Despite the bus shelter ban, Cleaver says she has been pleased with the public response to the Second Look Project. The Web site received more than 9,000 hits in its first two weeks.
The campaign's purpose is to provide basic factual information on abortion. “It was designed to speak to people who consider themselves pro-choice, but have been misinformed by sources in the mass media that are not prepared to tell the truth about abortion,” Cleaver said. She hopes that other dioceses might use the materials in their own communities, adding that the pro-life secretariat would make the ad materials available at cost.
The Philadelphia Archdiocese welcomed the campaign, but is disappointed with the rejection of the bus shelter ads. “We have successfully used the bus shelters to market our Catholic schools,” said director of communications Catherine Rossi, “but we have never encountered these problems in the past.”
New York's Experience
The American Life League encountered a similar problem with the ad agency for the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority during the summer of 2000. The MTA originally rejected an American Life League ad based upon content. But when MTA officials were confronted with the fact that they had previously run pro-abortion ads, they were forced to approve the American Life League ads, which appeared in New York subways in September 2000.
“If the city of Philadelphia is saying they do not accept ads based on content, then they should have rules about what is and is not allowed,” said American Life League's Jim Sedlak about the bus shelter ad ban. “They may have a policy, but the policy is wrong if it violates freedom of speech. Even the ACLU has stated that you cannot discriminate based on content.”
Tim Drake is the editor of www.Catholic.net, another publication of Circle Media
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 10/21/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: October 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:Americans Re-examine Their Lives After Attacks
Some who find little meaning in their jobs or an overemphasis on making money are looking into volunteering or getting into professions that have more of an impact on the world, such as teaching. New York Giants fullback Greg Comella is reported as saying, “For the first time in my life, I questioned what I do for a living.”
Can Anonymous Prayer Aid Pregnancy?
ABCNEWS.COM, Oct. 4 — A Columbia University study has found that prayers by others appear to help women conceive, the television network's online news service reported.
In a study of 199 women at an in vitro fertilization clinic in Korea, a group of strangers in the United States, Canada and Australia were asked to pray for the women as they began treatments.
The women did not know about the prayer request. Fifty percent of the women who received prayers became pregnant, compared to only 26% of a control group who did not receive anonymous prayer.
The Church condemns in vitro fertilization which separates the parents’ love from reproduction and has had disastrous consequences in lost lives and custody battles.
ABC News medical editor Tim Johnson, who is also assisting minister of the Community Covenant Church in West Peabody, Mass., warned that the “benefits of prayer have by no means been conclusively proven” by the study.
And, Johnson said, a danger exists that women who hear of the study and do not get pregnant will conclude that they do not have enough faith or did not get enough people to pray for them.
Texas Churches Buck Economic Trend
Austin has experienced a population spurt since the 1990s, and churches, synagogues and temples are spending more than $67.5 million to catch up. For example, to keep up with swelling church attendance and membership rolls, the Diocese of Austin has overseen 13 projects at a cost of more than $20 million in the past four years.
Currently, the diocese has more than $17.5 million in projects under construction, including a new student center at the University of Texas, a multipurpose building at one parish and an activity center expansion at another.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: A Month Later, Faith, Family and Outreach Help the Grieving DATE: 10/21/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: October 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:NEW YORK — Msgr. Joseph Murphy couldn't spend much time on the phone. “I'm trying to put one foot in front of the other,” said the pastor of St. Clare's parish on Staten Island, N.Y. “We're right in the midst of burying our dead.”
He later qualified the word “bury.” Most of the bodies of the more than 25 parishioners who perished in the World Trade Center tragedy have not been recovered. The number might approach 30 as more deaths are confirmed, which would exceed the number at St. Mary's parish in Middletown, N.J., previously reported to have the highest number of victims in one parish.
One month after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., many at St. Clare's, as elsewhere, are still trying to make sense of their loss and cope with grief. Those most deeply affected — the spouses, siblings, parents and children of those lost — are digging deep into their faith and hope to get them through a trying time.
“It's a deep, deep grief process, and it's affected nearly everyone,” Msgr. Murphy said, noting that many people on Staten Island work in lower Manhattan, where the World Trade Center stood.
The parish is still arranging funerals and memorial Masses for the deceased, which included 10 members of the New York City Fire Department. An overwhelming number of the funerals for the hundreds of firemen who perished took place in Catholic churches around the city and its suburbs.
“It's going to be a long, extended grief process for us,” said the pastor, who includes himself among the grieving — he for his flock. “It comes down to this: I have no intellectual answer for it. I can be present to the people and let them know I care.”
To the west, in Summit, N.J., Jamie Connor and her two young sons were attending a memorial Mass for her husband, James, who perished in the World Trade Center collapse. Connor was a partner of Sandler O'Neill & Partners on the 104th floor of the south tower. “He was a five-handicap golfer,” boasted Connor's uncle, Father Robert Connor, a priest of Opus Dei in New York. And golf was the reason the 38-year-old investment banker got together with his parents, James H. and Ruth Ann Connor, in August, the last time they saw each other.
“Our faith will get us through,” Mrs. Connor said. “That's what we believe as Catholics. It's difficult to accept, but we're trying.”
Pulling Together
Family ties have also played an important part in the recovery process for Maureen Sheehan, whose brother, Edward Fergus, was a partner and bond broker with the financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald. At 7:30 the morning of the attack, as always, Fergus was at his desk on the 105th floor of the north tower of the World Trade Center. The 40-year-old alumnus of St. Michael's College in Vermont had left his home in Wilton, Conn., before 6 a.m.
Fergus had worked at the World Trade Center when it was bombed in 1993. He had also been there for his sister, when her husband died suddenly in 1999.
“Like others, I'm trying to be of use to other family members, to stay close,” said Sheehan, who has been heavily involved in helping her sister-in-law, Linda Fergus, particularly in doing the necessary paperwork for her brother's death certificate, insurance and other legal matters. “This kind of thing makes you see how fragile life is and how important people are in your life. In everyday life, family life takes a back seat.” But, she added, “family and faith are the most important parts of our lives.”
It's comforting, Sheehan said, to know that members of her family are always there for one another. It was comforting, too, to witness the amount of support the family received from friends, co-workers and neighbors, she said. Some 750 people attended a memorial Mass in Connecticut for her brother, including staff members of Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of New York, where she coordinates services to the homeless and hungry, and priests from St. Michael's. Neighbors of her sister-in-law offered to cook meals for her and her two children indefinitely, while others offered to fix things around the house, do the gardening and chop firewood, things Fergus himself would do.
Sacrificing for Others
Even some who did not lose family members felt deeply affected by the tragedy and wanted to reach out to the grieving. In peaceful Garrison, N.Y., about 50 miles up the Hudson River, the men staying at St. Christopher's Inn, a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center run by the Franciscan Friars of Atonement, wanted to do their part to help contribute to the relief effort. While it was not feasible to head down to ground zero to help recover bodies and possibly save a few lives, one of the brothers at Graymoor, as the Atonement center is called, suggested they raise money for victims.
And so by cutting back on one meal a week, 130 men with serious problems of their own — and little money, in most cases — decided to help families devastated by the attack.
“We'd like to go there and help, but we can't,” James Bollart, 28, of Staten Island told a reporter. Bollart arrived at St. Christopher's on Aug. 28 after nearly 14 years of alcohol and drug abuse. His brother-in-law worked in the World Trade Center, but was on vacation on Sept. 11.
The directors of St. Chris-topher's Inn expect to have $1,000 to send to a relief fund after five weeks of soup-only Wednesdays.
St. Christopher's Inn director, Atonement Father Bernie Palka, made the fundraising proposal to the men in the dining room on the residence at lunchtime shortly after the attack. It was greeted by thunderous applause.
Atonement Brother Thomas Banaki, who works with the recovering addicts, says the act of sacrifice is all part of the recovery process for the men. “When the men come here they have usually reached a very low bottom and all other doors are closed to them,” he said. “There is nowhere else to turn. They have many problems and serious issues to work on, but in all this, they must seek to help others. We must teach them that no matter what, there is always some way to reach out to others. Life is not all about taking; there needs to be some giving.”
And, back in the city, amid talk of erecting a memorial to the terror victims, Father George Rutler, the new pastor of Our Savior parish in Manhattan, decided that for his parish the first step would be to put the church's tabernacle on the high altar. It had been on a side altar in the Park Avenue church. Father Rutler, who rushed to Ground Zero on the morning of Sept. 11 to administer the sacraments to victims, said the move would symbolize what a grieving society needs most: Christ at the center.
Staff writer John Burger joins the Register after eight years at Catholic New York newspaper. Kathryn Jean Lopez contributed to this article.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Burger ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 10/21/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: October 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:Bob Hoskins as Blessed John XXIII
Bob Hoskins will star as Pope John XXIII in a miniseries called “The Good Pope.” The report said the movie follows the life of the Pope who convened the Second Vatican Council. It starts production in January in Rome.
“The English-language project focuses on the last year of Pope John's life,” said the Reporter. “Italian film director Ricky Tognazzi (“Excellent Cadavers”) will helm the miniseries. Italian star Carlo Checchi will star as a trusted adviser to the Pope.”
Pope Appoints Philadelphia Priest to Vatican Post
“Father Grous brings to this appointment not only intellectual gifts and administrative skills, but also his priestly zeal and profound loyalty to the Church,” Cardinal Bevilacqua was quoted saying.
Father Grous was born in Philadelphia in 1961 and was ordained there in 1987. He studied in Rome and served in parishes in Philadelphia and Michigan.
U.N. Food Summit May Stay in Rome
REUTERS, Oct. 10 — The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says it wants a Nov. 5-9 World Food Summit to be held in Rome as originally planned instead of being moved to the Adriatic coastal city of Rimini, reported Reuters, quoting a spokeswoman.
“Following a senior level meeting last night between FAO and the Italian government, a letter is going out today from FAO to the 49-member FAO governing council proposing that the event should be moved to Rome from Rimini,” The Food and Agriculture Organization's chief spokesman Nick Parsons told Reuters.
The summit had been moved to Rimini for security reasons stemming from the protests at July's G-8 summit meeting in Genoa and concern over international terrorism.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Vatican ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: God Wants to Make Us Happy DATE: 10/21/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: October 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:“Hear the word of the Lord, O nations, proclaim it on distant coasts” (Jeremiah 31:10).
What kind of news is about to be given following these solemn words of Jeremiah, which we heard in the canticle just proclaimed? It is consoling news, and it is no accident that the chapters that contain it (see 30-31) are described as the “Book of Consolation.” The announcement refers directly to ancient Israel; however, in some way, the Gospel message can already be discerned in it.
The following is the heart of this announcement: “The Lord shall ransom Jacob, he shall redeem him from the hand of his conqueror” (Jeremiah 31:11).
The historical background of these words is found in a time of hope experienced by the people of God, almost a century after the North of the country was occupied by the Assyrian power in 722. Now — at the time of the prophet — the religious reform of King Josiah represents a return of the people to the covenant with God, and hope arises that the time of punishment is over.
The possibility emerges that the North will be free once again, and Israel and Judah will be reconsoli-dated in unity. All, even the “distant coasts,” must be witnesses to this wonderful event: God, the shepherd of Israel, is about to intervene. He who permitted the scattering of his people, now comes to gather them.
A Future of Happiness
The invitation to joy is unfolded with images that are profoundly moving. It is a prophecy that makes one begin to dream! It depicts a future in which the exiled “will see and sing,” and will find again not only the temple of the Lord, but also every good thing: wheat, wine, oil, the young of flocks and herds.
The Bible is not about abstract spirituality. The joy it promises does not affect only man's inner being, because the Lord cares for human life in all its dimensions. Jesus himself did not fail to underline this fact, inviting his disciples to trust Providence also for material needs (see Matthew 6:25-34).
Our canticle emphasizes this point of view: God wants to make the whole man happy. The endowment he prepares for his children is expressed in the symbol of the “watered gardens” (Jeremiah 31:12), images of freshness and fruitfulness. Mourning is turned into joy, as one is satiated with delights (see verse 14) and abundant goods — so much so that dancing and singing are spontaneous. There will be irrepressible joy and the people's delight.
A Disloyal People
History tells us that this dream is yet to come true — but certainly not because God failed to keep his promise. Once again, because of their infidelity, the people were to blame for this disappointment.
The book of Jeremiah itself demonstrates this with the unfolding of a prophecy that ends in suffering and hardship, leading progressively to some of the saddest phases of the history of Israel. It is not only that the exiled of the North will not return, but that Judea itself will be occupied by Nebuchadnezzar in 587 B.C.
‘They departed in tears, but I will console them and guide them.’
Bitter days now began when, on the shores of Babylon, the lyres were hung from the willow trees (Psalm 137:2). There was no desire to sing for the pleasure of the captors. It is impossible to rejoice if one is uprooted by force from the home-land, the land where God had made his dwelling.
Love That Never Ends
And yet the invitation to joy that characterizes this prophecy does not lose its meaning. In fact, the ultimate justification on which it rests remains firm, expressed especially in several profound verses, which precede those provided in the Liturgy of the Hours.
It is important to keep them in mind, while reading the expressions of joy in our canticle. They describe in vibrant terms the love of God for his people. They indicate an irrevocable pact: “With age-old love I have loved you” (Jeremiah 31:3). They sing the fatherly exultations of a God who calls Ephraim his first-born and shelters him with tenderness: “They departed in tears, but I will console them and guide them; I will lead them to brooks of water, on a level road, so that none shall stumble. For I am a father to Israel” (Jeremiah 31:9).
Although the promise was not fulfilled at that time, because of the children's lack of accord, the love of the Father remains in all its poignant tenderness.
Fulfillment Assured
This love is the golden thread that unifies the phases of the history of Israel, in its joys and sorrows, its successes and failures. God does not limit his love; and the punishment itself is only an expression of it, with a pedagogical and salvific meaning.
On the solid rock of this love, our canticle's invitation to joy evokes a future in God that, although deferred, will come sooner or later despite all the frailties of men. This future was realized in the new covenant with the death and resurrection of Christ and the gift of the Spirit. It will have its complete fulfillment, however, at the eschatological return of the Lord.
In light of such certainties, Jeremiah's “dream” continues to be a real historical possibility — depending on the faithfulness of men — and, above all, a final goal, guaranteed by the faithfulness of God and already inaugurated by his love, in Christ.
Therefore, in reading this saying of Jeremiah, we must let the Gospel resound within us — the wonderful news promulgated by Christ in the synagogue of Nazareth (see Luke 4:16-21). Christian life is meant to be a real “jubilation,” which only our sin can injure.
Prompting us to recite these words of Jeremiah, the Liturgy of the Hours invites us to anchor our life in Christ, our redeemer (see Jeremiah 31:11) and, in our personal and communal life, to seek the secret of true joy in him.
(Translation by Zenit and Register)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Vatican -------- TITLE: Register Summary DATE: 10/21/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: October 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:Amid world tensions, John Paul II used his general audience Oct. 10 to make a heart-felt appeal for hope in God.
The Pope dedicated the audience to Jeremiah 31, a passage full of confidence in the future because of God's promises.
The “Book of Consolation,” as the Jews named this passage, called God's people to rejoice even though they were suffering under the foreign occupation of Assyria at the time.
The Lord promised the scattered people of Israel that they would be reunited, singing and dancing for joy; and he assured them of abundant gifts of grain, wine, flocks and herds.
The canticle shows that “God wants to make the whole man happy,” the Holy Father said.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Vatican -------- TITLE: Muslim Countries' Reactions Range from Rage to Resignation DATE: 10/21/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: October 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:ROME — Fides, the Vatican's missionary news service, monitored the reaction in a number of Muslim countries following the commencement of U.S.-British military action against terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and against military assets of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban regime. Here is a sampling of the comments from religious leaders in those countries:
Pakistan
Tension is high in Pakistan where radical Muslims continue to invoke a holy war and the incoming flow of Afghan refugees continues. Father Sebastian Francis, Friar Minor in Karachi, head of the Franciscan province in Pakistan, said the people are divided between those in favor of the attack and those who support the Taliban.
Although in the north there are anti-American demonstrations, in the south, “in Karachi the schools are closed and roads blocked but there is no violence,” he said.
But Father Francis also expressed fear of retaliation against local Christians often identified with the West. “We are citizens of Pakistan. We will continue to pray for peace and work together with our Muslim brothers and sisters to build a society of justice and peace, united against terrorism,” he said. “But I fear that if violence breaks out it will be a spiral difficult to stop.”
Persian Gulf
In the Persian Gulf, after a terrorist attack in the area a few days earlier, calm seemed to have returned. Fides asked Bishop Bernardo Gremoli, vicar apostolic in Arabia, to comment about the situation. “Things are quiet at the moment,” Bishop Gremoli said. “The authorities have called for calm and there are no protests. The countries in the area have already voiced their support for the position of the West. Among the Christians here everything continues as normal: pastoral work, religious services.”
Indonesia
Father Ignatius Ismartono, head of interreligious dialogue for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference in Indonesia, said he is concerned about the situation there. Radical Muslims staged protests in front of the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, and the Ulema Council, a leading Muslim religious group, has told the Indonesian government to break diplomatic ties with the United States.
Said Father Ismartono, “The Archdiocese of Jakarta has called an emergency summit meeting of religious leaders. We want to restore calm, So far there is no danger for the Christian community.”
Malaysia
In Malaysia, reactions were highly negative. In a statement to Fides, Chandra Muzzafa, the leader of the Muslim group International Movement for a Just World, said military operations are not the right remedy for terrorism. “It is a shame that the Western countries chose to ignore the passionate pleas of peace activities throughout the world, launching these military strikes against unidentified terrorist bases in Afghanistan,” Muzzafa said. “There will probably be civilian casualties and this is bound to have an impact on public opinion in Muslim countries. The violence on Sept. 11 against the U.S., compounded by the violence of U.S.-British strikes in Afghanistan, will give rise to more terrorist and counter-terrorist violence in future.”
Sudan
Bishop Cesare Mazzolari of Rumbek in Sudan told Fides that he fears the conflict will spread with unpredictable consequences. “I hope that the U.S. administration will maintain precise and limited objectives,” Bishop Mazzolari said. “Islam has powerful forces and it wants to unleash a war to change the world — I hope Washington does not provide the opportunity.”
The bishop added that Westerners find it difficult to understand the Muslim world.
Said Bishop Mazzolari, “Fundamental Muslim groups play on the fact that the West is unfamiliar with Islam. World leaders must realize that this war could degenerate into a world war. Maximum prudence is necessary to prevent further tragedies.”
(Fides)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 10/21/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: October 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:U.S. Helps Philippines Battle Abu Sayyaf Terrorists
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Oct. 11 — U.S. military advisers will visit the Philippines in coming weeks to train Filipino troops fighting Muslim extremists with links to Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, the news service reported. Philippine Chief of Staff Diomedio Villanueva said the American advisers will also supply equipment and offer intelligence cooperation.
More than 7,000 Filipino soldiers are fighting the Abu Sayyaf Muslim separatist group, thought to number 1,000 fighters, on the southern island of Basilan. Abu Sayyaf has kidnapped dozens of foreign tourists and Filipinos in recent years and obtained millions of dollars in ransom. The group is still holding American missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham who were kidnapped from a beach resort in May along with Corona, California, resident Guillermo Sobero.
The Abu Sayyaf has said they beheaded Sobero and the military on Oct. 8 said they found what they believed were his beheaded remains, Associated Press reported.
U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Abu Sayyaf insurgents have trained at Al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan.
‘Peace Line’ to Protect Catholic Schoolchildren
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, Oct. 11 — The British government said that a “peace line” wall would be extended to separate Protestants and Catholics near a Catholic school in north Belfast, the news service reported. Holy Cross Primary School is in a Protestant enclave of the mainly Catholic Ardoyne area of north Belfast. Northern Ireland Security Minister Jane Kennedy announced that a wall dividing the Protestant Glenbryn Park and Ardoyne Road is to be extended to the school, which was the scene of bitter clashes last month when Protestants taunted girls walking to the school. Kennedy also called for an end to the Protestant demonstrations.
The Protestants have demanded that the children be taken to the school via a back-door route. At the height of last month's protests a small homemade explosive device was thrown at parents of the Catholic students.
Since then, the demonstrations have been largely peaceful, with Protestants standing silently with their backs to the children as they arrive for school. But as the parents return home, demonstrators begin to jeer, whistle, hammer drums and wave flags and banners.
Portugal Steps Up Security at Fatima
LUSA NEWS AGENCY, Oct. 10 — Portugal implemented heightened security measures at the Fatima sanctuary for Oct. 12 and Oct. 13, when a large number of pilgrims was expected at the Marian pilgrimage site, the government-run news agency reported.
The Fatima sanctuary is located about 90 miles north of Portugal's capital city of Lisbon. Lusa quoted local governmental official Santarem Nelson Baltazar as saying “we don't believe there will be threats, yet we prefer to step up precautionary measures by increasing the number of security personnel in the sanctuary.”
Baltazar said the number of police deployed to the village of Fatima would substantially increase. Baltazar added that in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, it is natural for Catholics to come to the sanctuary to pray for world peace.
The Portuguese town of Fatima is named after the eldest daughter of the prophet Mohammed, founder of Islam. Pilgrimages there peak Oct. 13 because that is the date in 1917 when a crowd of 70,000 who had gathered there, after hearing of the appearance of Mary to three shepherd children, witnessed the miraculous movement of the sun.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Just War Returns DATE: 10/21/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: October 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:It's as if the circumstances were designed to force the United States to fight a just war. The situation in the Mid-East and central Asia could hardly be more volatile as U.S.-led forces target the al-Qaeda by attacking the Taliban regime that harbors them. It has, as its “worst case scenario,” World War III.
Despotic regimes are the norm in these regions. Outside Israel, with the possible exception of Turkey, democratic government is almost unheard of. Poverty (which, in Iraq, U.S. embargoes help perpetuate) and severe human-rights violations combine with a radical form of Islam to make many people willing to turn to anti-U.S. violence in reaction to their dire straits. Oil, history and its geographic centrality could bring the largest global players into the web of conflict: Russia, China, Europe.
To go in with guns blazing indiscriminately, killing civilians and worsening their humanitarian situation, would be gravely immoral. It would also be suicidal.
So what the United States is doing instead — so far — is to target the Taliban regime and take pains to keep civilian casualties as low as possible.
Would that we had always done so.
One of the darkest stains on America's history is the use of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II. When we dropped the bomb and vaporized Japanese civilians — women, children, the elderly — we set a precedent that has haunted us since. The use of the A-bomb was roundly condemned by the Church at the time. Archbishop Fulton Sheen called our use of it the father of moral relativism in the United States. In order to justify the A-bomb, he said, we had to stop believing in right and wrong.
Warfare after 1945 didn't vastly improve, either. The sad circumstances of the Vietnam War saw many civilians targeted. As recently as Kosovo, the United States use of strike-from-a-distance attacks left civilians dead and their survivors angry.
And our previous attacks on Osama bin Laden are known mostly for destroying a pharmaceutical factory and for suggestions that the scandal-beleaguered 1998 White House may have had political motives for launching it.
War is always tragic. But many U.S. military actions have been unnecessarily so.
We are seeing a welcome change in our military tactics today. There is little question that our cause in attacking Afghanistan is just. This cause came uninvited and unwanted to America. War was not chosen, but thrust upon us.
A terrorist network and its loosely affiliated allies have declared a special kind of war on America. It's a war that considers every American a target — that doesn't distinguish between postal clerks, World Trade Center workers, or the uniformed defenders of the United States now amassing near Afghanistan.
In its response, the United States has hit all the right notes. Yes, it seems that more aid to the Afghans was stopped by our attack than was delivered in our food drops. But to precede our bombing campaign by dropping aid packages was a significant gesture of good will to the oppressed people of Afghanistan. And, as Donald Rumsfeld said, it can't be said that the destruction of the Taliban regime will be anything but a long-term benefit to Afghans.
President Bush's call for each American child to send a dollar to the children of Afghanistan is also more than a nice P.R. gimmick. It teaches an object-lesson in civilized combat to children and their parents. Yes, we are bombing Afghanistan. No, this is not “total war” against a people. It's a necessary retaliation against a very bad and dangerous group of men, with unavoidable, regrettable consequences.
We should insist that our leaders continue to wage war in this way. And we should pray that America's rediscovery of principled defense lasts long after the horrors that continue to haunt our country are just a frightening memory.
----- EXCERPT: EDITORIAL ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Opinion -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 10/21/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: October 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:The Evolution by Night
The most amazing characteristic of the recent PBS series “Evolution” was the absence of a single scrap of evidence in support of this fantasy (“You Say You Want an Evolution,” Sept. 9-15).
Despite a multimillion-dollar budget, and participation from evolutionary propagandists all over the world, the show's producers failed to demonstrate even one sequence of transitionary fossil forms; even one example of a mutation increasing the information content of a genome; even one speculation on the formation of the first single-celled organism to emerge from the ooze; even one example of an ancestor to the multitude of invertebrates from the so-called Cambrian explosion; or even one credible ancestor to humans.
They did succeed, however, in editing out interviews detailing the scientific fallacies of evolution, encouraging young viewers to emulate sexually promiscuous apes, and ridiculing God and the Bible. Just once in my life I'd like to meet an evolutionist who is interested in facts instead of propaganda.
DAVID STONE Hancock, Michigan
The writer is an engineering professor at Michigan Technological University.
Apt Angelic Invocation
Regarding “Angels’ Protection in the Battle” (Sept. 23-29): What a timely reminder!
When I was a child during World War II, we said the prayer to St. Michael at the end of every Mass. Sometime during the years, it was dropped. I hope everyone (churches, individuals) will once again adopt it. It was very comforting as a child to know — even if I didn't understand the extent of the evil of Hitler's Nazism or Mussolini's fascism — that God was sending his army of angels with St. Michael at the forefront to protect our military and us.
It's also very comforting to know when we are fighting against evil way beyond our human comprehension that God is in charge — if we so choose! And once again, we have seen the face of evil. We are all in this battle together. Maybe we can't all arm ourselves and fight physically to defend our country. But we can arm ourselves and spiritually fight the evil that has attacked our nation. True peace will come at a cost.
I'm a firm believer in the power of prayer and I know God's power is dynamite. And God can change hearts of stone bent on evil destruction. I hope this prayer gives you strength and comfort and you'll join me in our fight for real peace:
St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do thou, O prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Let freedom ring!
JO MASON Fairfax, Virginia
The Register Rediscovered
A visitor to our parish wanted to give me a Register subscription as a “thank you” for the care his mother received from the parish. I gasped as I recalled reading this paper a few times some years ago, when I was not impressed. He pleaded that it had changed and I might like it and find it informative. Well, I must admit, he was right.
Going to college in the late ‘60s, and avidly reading the National Catholic Reporter for many years through the ‘60s and ‘70s, I was influenced by that style of journalism and reporting. Later on, I became disillusioned with all extreme Catholic newspapers — the liberal and conservative ones.
They were all one-sided and their lack of charity and blindness to the whole truth seemed to be a common thread. The only thing that distinguished them from each other was their ideology; their biases seemed to be narrow and self-righteous. Anger seemed to be the underlying tone in most of the reporting — anger that the Church was not the way they wanted it to be.
Well, I have found a paper that is inclusive, compassionate and one that makes me proud to be a Catholic. Its scope is universal and it is not hesitant to share stories of those who love their faith and their Church.
Thank you for this refreshing publication. I never thought I would ever say that about the Register, but I have become so disheartened by publications that constantly are tearing at the seam of the Church. I look forward to receiving each issue.
God bless you, and may you continue this wonderful evangelization and create a growing love for our Church
FATHER WAYNE CAMPBELL San Leandro, California
Abortion Pictures: Scared Straight
In “Anti-Abortion ‘Choice’ Ads Keep On Trucking” (Sept. 16-22), you quote a person stating: “‘I have never believed we should show gory pictures’” because “such pictures appeal too much to emotions and not enough to reason.” I do not want to state her name, because she speaks for many.
I state that it is “emotions” and complacency that have allowed abortion to remain an acceptable policy in our society. In specific, it is what psychologists have catalogued as the “psychological defense mechanism” of “denial”: People refuse to contemplate reality (the one of abortion, in this case) because it is too disturbing for them to deal with in a rational way.
That is why we should show “gory” pictures — to break through people's complacency, to force them to deal with what abortion is about, and to force them to reason through the consequences of current societal policies and personal beliefs.
NELSON D. CARO Swissvale, Pennsylvania
Bishops and Vocations
I read with interest the recent article on bishops and vocations (“Synod Priority: How Bishops Can Encourage Vocations,” Sept. 30-Oct. 6). It is becoming increasingly obvious that the attitude of the bishop toward vocations, and the actions and statements that embody that attitude, can increase the numbers of young men responding to God's call.
This important point is being made in academic circles. Two recent scholarly articles, both in the Review of Religious Research, document the differences in ordination rates across U.S. dioceses, and attribute part of those differences to the theological attitudes of the bishop.
Late last year Rodney Stark and Roger Finke, in “Catholic Religious Vocations: Decline and Revival,” show that more recently ordained bishops, who tend to be more theologically traditional, have higher ordination rates. This spring I published “Do Bishops Matter?” which confirms Stark and Finke's findings, and presents additional evidence that the theological attitudes of bishops, measured by their contributions to religious periodicals, affect ordination rates.
For example, bishops who contribute articles to the magazine America, whose editorial positions are, to say the least, non-traditional, have much lower than average ordination rates. In contrast, bishops who contribute articles to the magazine The Catholic Answer have much higher than average ordination rates.
Of course, there may be competing explanations for differences in vocations across dioceses. Nevertheless, it is becoming increasingly clear that the successful recruitment of priests need not be an aberration, limited to a handful of dioceses. Bishops are not helpless in the face of sociological trends that discourage young men from responding to God's call.
A bishop must want more priests; those who see in the decline in vocations an opportunity to create a new model of “Church” may not want to reverse the trend.
ANDREW YUENGERT Malibu, California
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Opinion -------- TITLE: America: Two Views DATE: 10/21/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: October 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:Your editorial “Don't Be at a Loss for Words” (Sept. 23–29) contains an error. While advising Catholics to evangelize, you also tell them not to make the “mistake” of drawing dark comparisons between the terrorists and America's culture of death. That is impossible not to do.
This country was founded by God-fearing men who aimed — though not always accurately — to follow God's Commandments. Despite its many mistakes, America was a Christian nation, and God protected it so that in its darkest moments it did not fail. The last 60 years or so have seen this country turn from God and his laws and reject him, and his Son, in order to embrace a lifestyle of materialism, hedonism and death. As a result, America has lost favor with God, and he has apparently turned his face from us.
Which is not to say that he caused the attacks. He did not. Evil men did that in the exercise of their free will, but without God's protection, we are no longer able to stop such men. History has a long list of great nations that rejected God and his word, and fell as a result. Israel appears on that list several times. And now, apparently, so will America.
You are foolish to recommend that Catholics join in this orgy of flag-waving. More than 4,000 of our unborn babies are brutally killed in this country every day, and not only are there no patriotic demonstrations, or star-studded benefit concerts or memorial services, if a pro-life Catholic deigns to protest, he is threatened with jail. This country will not be saved by a missiledefense system, or the killing of Islamic fundamentalists, nor even the death of Osama bin Laden. America needs an awakening, a mass conversion from the gods of money and sex to the God of the Ten Commandments.
That is the message Catholics should be delivering. Waving the flag and singing “God Bless America” is the equivalent of going to the Roman arena and cheering for the lions.
DAVID R. KLUGE
Sheridan, Oregon
Thank you reminding pro-lifers not to make the mistake of comparing the culture of death to the terrorist attacks (“Don't Be at a Loss for Words,” Sept. 23–29).
Since Sept. 11, my e-mail bin and some Internet forums have been darkened by such comparisons made by well-meaning Christians. But, as pro-lifer Gary Bauer pointed out in an interview with Bill O'Reilly, now is not the time to be rubbing salt in America's wounds — no matter how unabashedly pro-life we are. Americans are deeply hurt and looking inward as never before. It is there that they should meet a message that is compassionate to their pain and more likely to lead them to the logical conclusion that they are hurting because of a hard reminder of the sanctity of human life.
Going on the offensive in this regard will do nothing to ease wounds and may generate an angry defensiveness that will ultimately turn people away from the Church and the pro-life message.
NANCY MONTGOMERY
Edmond, Oklahoma
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Opinion -------- TITLE: Philosophy After Sept. 11: Now More Than Ever DATE: 10/21/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: October 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:This was my lot and my challenge Sept. 12, before a morning class of 40 or so students, many of whom are not yet convinced that philosophy has anything to do with life — let alone life-and-death situations.
Having tried my hand at teaching philosophy for longer than I want to remember, the most persistent and vexing problem I encounter is the allegedly broadminded notion that all ideas are equal. “The deepest definition of youth,” the philosopher Alfred North Whitehead once remarked, “is life untouched by tragedy.” In a fantasy world where terrorists are movie actors and mass death is a special effect, moral ideas do not seem to be particularly important. After all, they are just ideas, harmless abstractions that are essentially unreadable — or, in the terminology of deconstructionists, “undecidable.”
It is imperative, however, that we learn how to read ideas when they are ideas, before some of them have a chance to become explosive. What bad idea may be germinating in our heads right now that will one day bring about, when put into practice, a personal calamity? Wisdom is the virtue of reading moral ideas, then adopting them if they are good and rejecting them if they are evil. The opposite of wisdom is foolishness, the wholly unrealistic notion, made respectable by such self-congratulatory terms as “open-mindedness,” “tolerance” and “broad-mindedness,” that all ideas are of equal value. It is the wise person who sees the good in a good idea, and the evil in one that is evil. We should not want to learn our “practical” ethics the hard way: This is to say, that nothing is more practical than wisdom.
If we have failed in the twin areas of intelligence and security, then we have been humbled. But being humbled is no reason for despair. What emerged from the attack on America was a brotherly love, evidenced by solidarity and sacrifice and heroism, that was as moving as the monstrous assaults were horrifying. Human beings are never more human than when they stand together. As mere individuals, pursuing their own course of self-interest, they are not particularly impressive.
As a teacher, I find nothing more tedious than a student who tries to show how smart he is. Conversely, nothing is more arousing that a student who indicates that he wants to learn. Wisdom is not easy. At best, as the philosopher Jacques Maritain has said, “we are merely beggars at the door of wisdom.” Philosophers, which should include students of “practical ethics,” are lovers of wisdom. To subordinate oneself to something beyond oneself is a sign of humility, which is the path to wisdom. All lovers are wise, and this explains why lovers rise above their paltry state of mere individuality. Love, by binding one person to another or to something higher than oneself, humanizes and exalts. The death of a loved one elicits poignant, but unmistakable, signs of love in the bereaved. Love makes us godlike. Self-concern makes us bores.
We have been chastised. But in our chastisement we find reasons for hope.
We did not know there was so much love. It was bottled up, unexpressed, eclipsed by the practical concern of making a living. And then, in an explosive moment, there were explosions of love. When death strikes, we put things into their proper perspective. The essentials come first — love, companionship — and we're suddenly, acutely aware how much we owe each other. The non-essentials — image, income, industry, individuality — come a far distant second.
Terrorist assaults ripped away our pretenses and exposed our humanity. Can we not find our way to humanity through wisdom, rather than through terror? Philosophy is learning the wise way. But we do not put much of a premium on wisdom these days. Pundit Bill Maher quips that “philosophy is about as useful as a bidet in a gorilla cage.” He is being politically correct and pandering to the times. Philosophy has a knack for burying its undertakers. Yet what it wants to do is enlighten its lovers.
There is a popular television program emanating from Toronto called “Speakers’ Corner,” in which the “man on the street” gets to air his grievances. It has been said that watching this program is the fastest way to lose one's faith in humanity. The endless litany of petty complaints, clumsily stated, of individuals who seem oblivious to life's abundant blessings, turns the show into a farce. There was nothing farcical about the way Americans responded to the events of Sept. 11.
Human beings begin to reveal their dignity and their humanity when they link themselves to something more important than themselves. This is a great paradox — that by losing ourselves, we find ourselves. Adversity need not overcome us. It can show us what we are made of.
In the light of what has happened, all pettiness and self-indulgence seems so much less excusable. Even a calamity brings light. Philosophy is not a game. It matters. Wisdom will avail herself to anyone who has the humility to call upon her. We have been chastised. But in our chastisement we find reasons for hope and the need for reform. Let us resolve to live as if the important things were important and as if wisdom were to be more highly prized than foolishness. Let us not seek to return to “normalcy,” but to advance to authenticity.
Donald DeMarco teaches philosophy at St. Jerome's University in Waterloo, Ontario.
----- EXCERPT: What does a college professor say on “the day after” to his class in practical ethics? ----- EXTENDED BODY: Donald DeMarco ----- KEYWORD: Commentary -------- TITLE: America Discovers It Has Enemies DATE: 10/21/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: October 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:Many are, no doubt, surprised that the Vatican took the stance that it did on the right and duty of a nation under direct attack to defend itself and to remove a present and abiding threat to repeat the attack. This is a return of the classic just-war doctrine, a return made simpler because no weapons but knives were used in the most bloody single day in American history.
Recent anti-death penalty discussions in modern circumstances no longer seem apt. The argument to use peaceful means, always and without exception, suddenly seems naive. The horrifying slaughter of noncombatants, after all, was carried out right in front of us. The killing of our friends, neighbors and relatives was actually planned by a definite and organized enemy working for years on the project. As the full gravity of this reality sinks in, some nagging questions come to the fore: What is the morality of those who left us so unprepared? How ethical were the policies of leaders who gutted our security and defense capabilities and sold surveillance equipment to Syria?
Suppose the capture or voluntary surrender of some of those who planned and carried out this attack. Some are already dead, but they are not the brains behind the operations — what would be an appropriate sentence for those who plotted and schemed for months to craft such a heinous plot? Would “life in prison” uphold the “principle of life,” when the lives being saved are precisely those who cause slaughter on such a horrendous scale? Moreover, if those who planned this attack intend to carry out more destruction, as they sought to do on Sept. 11, is not their very existence a constant threat to innocent life? Many a bloody revolution has been planned in a bare prison cell.
The Pope, of course, did not encourage a blanket retaliation, nor did President Bush advocate any such thing. The terms of both have been measured, precise, directed only at those leaders who planned and carried out the slaughter, along with those who protect them. It is difficult to see how a coherent objection can be raised to these positions — unless one, like the plotters, wants to see America destroyed.
Countering Choreographed Mayhem
The Holy Father still makes a distinction between Islam and Islamic terrorists. The Washington Times of Sept. 24 carried a full-page ad signed by many American Muslim groups protesting that Islam is a “religion of peace.” Meanwhile, every day we see photos of Muslims from around the world agreeing with those who destroyed the World Trade Center. Millions seem to approve of this action and threaten dire consequences if we retaliate in any manner. Just where the terrorists come from, if Islam is wholly peaceful, remains a mystery. As far as we can tell, the terrorists themselves think that they come from Islamic doctrine and tradition, which they vow to protect unto death. This position is said to make them, whoever they are, “extremists,” “radicals” or “terrorists.” These same terrorists, however, are organized all over the world in untold numbers.
In fact, a majority of Islamic peoples may well side with those we insist wrongly, I think on calling “terrorists” and not soldiers. The morning the Vatican reported that there was a legitimate right of self-defense in these circumstances, Sept. 25, Osama bin Laden himself was quoted as planning a holy war against the “American crusade,” a jihad against “the great Satan.” That sector of Islam organized for what we call “terror” follows a very rational purpose, granted its fundamental aberration. The many men who follow it are men who have joined an army; they often have scientific, engineering or medical degrees.
It is high time for the peaceful people of Islam to call their violent brothers to account.
And they have, in fact, formally declared war on us, though we did not notice until too late. Their theology and politics deny any distinction between the guilty and the innocent, combatants and noncombatants. They have defined in their minds that there is a single enemy, America, with its adjuncts in Israel, Europe and elsewhere. Those Islamic governments supporting America in this situation will themselves be undermined by the same terrorist means, unless stopped by direct force. It makes no sense to wring our hands, or to deny the objective seriousness of the attack against us, or to think that there is some way to appease this movement by withdrawing completely from any Islamic country and/or from Israel.
Often we hear it said in this country that the enemy is modern, free, secular power. There is a tendency to group all “fundamentalists” into the same “terrorist” categories. Indeed, religion itself is often included in this amalgam. But in the light of the numbers and vigor of Islamic militants, we cannot help but see that it is precisely our secularist views that have depopulated us, aged us. We may think that our technology will save us from their numbers. But the New York attack taught us that we can be destroyed by our own technology and by our own lack of numbers. Why are their militant Islamic cells all over the world, including Europe and the United States? Is it not because we need labor, due to a lack of our own children? Is this where our “rights” doctrines have led us?
This initial attack was said to have been plotted in Hamburg, Germany, whose police have identified 1,000 to 1,500 known terrorists living among the city's large Islamic population. In other words, the worldwide army poised against us is itself scattered all over the world, because we have decided that we are over-populated. If modern secularism includes orthodox Christianity itself as a fundamentalist “threat,” which it often does, we can begin at least to appreciate that the results of secularism's own influence is what has given grounds and manpower to the new Islamic forces, self-appointed though they be, who seek our lives.
Calling All Peaceful Muslims: Help!
No one wants to think Islam, at bottom, not to be peaceful. But the peaceful movements within it must begin to take charge, must begin to ask themselves why they are so politically inhospitable to anyone but themselves, why Christians in so many of their lands suffer persecution. Pragmatic policies may require our overlooking many of these questions. We seek to keep things as limited as possible in terms of military action. But this attack has necessarily touched larger issues which we have not been courageous enough to face. After World War II, the Marshall Plan sought to rebuild Europe. Why have not Saudi Arabia or other Islamic states, with their vast fortunes built on oil sales to us, not offered to rebuild the World Trade Center? Is it because they claim to have nothing to do with these events, even when run by a man born within their midst? Or is it because of a broader cultural problem that looks only to itself and its glory — that looks upon us as useful at best, and at worst as enemies sooner or later to be eliminated? At least we can be sure that bin Laden, with his own millions made on our markets, will not offer to rebuild anything, will not deny that we are his enemy.
Is this a small, isolated event that, in the name of turning the other cheek or avoiding even worse attacks, is best to ignore, to do nothing about? Or is this just the first step of a decades-long war, declared against us long ago and reaf-firmed only recently with superior organization and diabolical cleverness? Or, as many even of our own hold, is it our fault for what we are and for our inept foreign policy? All the good we thought we had done by foreign and humanitarian aid, often to Islamic lands, has come to naught. We are the enemy, but of what? Of an age-old faith that did everything in its power to eliminate us in previous ages? Of modern psychotic rage with no rational basis whatsoever?
If we do prevent our further destruction, we still have to ask what we stand for, what we are. The irony of these events is that we are hated not only for our vices, of which we have not a few, but also for our virtues and our faith. I tend to think we would have a major problem, even if we had no vices that might excuse our attackers. Some wars, in other words, are not merely moral but theological wars, wars of the world — wars caused by the distinction of good and evil, and our understanding, often hazy, of which is which.
In the short run, any retaliation on our part will raise widespread civic unrest against us. Many Americans and Europeans will be arrested, and probably many killed. More attempts will be made to destroy key centers of our culture. The president has determined to stop this assault by every responsible means possible. The Pope understands this pressing need. Jacques Maritain said, in Man and the State, that justice, brains and strength are possible. The question now is whether we have the brains to use what strength we possess against those who would take our lives even in the name of Allah because we are “the great Satan.”
Jesuit Father Schall teaches government at Georgetown University.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father James V. Schall ----- KEYWORD: Commentary -------- TITLE: Mao as Important as Mohammed to Terrorists DATE: 10/21/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: October 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:We have all, in a sense, been sifting through the rubble of lower Manhattan in the weeks since Sept. 11.
The hijackers — who were they? What would motivate young men from comfortable Middle Eastern families to commit such horrors, knowing that the destruction they unleashed would destroy themselves as well as many others?
Most commentators think that if much remains murky about the attacks, the motivation of the “suicide bombers” is clear. It's religion, they say. Isn't that obvious?
Well, no. For one thing, most orthodox forms of the three monotheistic religions — Judaism, Christianity and Islam — revere martyrs who are willing to die, rather than kill, for their faith; the three faiths have always opposed self-immolation as a form of spiritual attainment.
(Anyone who's studied the transcripts of the various communiqués attributed to terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden, or the last testament apparently penned by Mohammed Atta, leader of the World Trade Center attacks, knows that these ignorant ravings have about as much to do with normative Islam as the speeches of Waco cult leader David Koresh have to do with Christianity.)
There is another “r,” however, that has never shrunk from worshipping violence, including terror and suicide: revolution.
That perspective dawned on me nearly 20 years ago when I served as the Register's Middle East correspondent. In the course of covering stories on Muslim-Coptic tensions in Egypt and the rise of militant Islamic attitudes among Palestinian youth, I realized that the profile of the “average” Islamic radical (I had been interviewing people in Cairo and the refugee camps in the West Bank) would have matched the profile of the Arab nationalists who blew up buses of British soldiers in Mandatory Palestine in the early years of the 20th century, or their “Maoist” sons who belonged to groups like Nayef Hawatmeh's Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, of airplane hijacker fame, a generation later.
The common thread in these groups was not ideology, let alone religion. It was belief in, and commitment to, violent revolution as an agent of social change.
It's not for nothing that a form of ideological Islam has been conscripted to cover the narrow shoulders of Third World revolution today. The past century's ideological fashions — nationalism, socialism, communism — have been deep and demonstrable failures. The last gasps of Arab “secular” (read: non-Islamic) revolution breathes uneasily in Saddam Hussein's Iraq and in the Syria of Bashir Assad.
In 1925, the Egyptian school teacher Hasan al-Banna founded the Muslim Brothers, the prototype for today's militant ideological Islam, and in the wake of the collapse of the Arab world's “other” revolutions, it was, perhaps, inevitable that this unofficial, authoritarian political impulse — the creation less of clerics than of lay educators, professionals and lawyers — would have its tragic say.
The young men who get conscripted into these movements are the same young men who would have been conscripted into nationalist or communist revolutionary cells a generation or two ago. Contrary to myth, they are not, for the most part, the children of poverty, but of privilege: middle or upper-middle class youths from good families who have college degrees in engineering that have not landed them lucrative jobs or careers and, hence, the upwardly mobile marriages they envisioned. (This, by the way, accounts for the otherwise inexplicable impieties, such as visits to strip clubs, that members of these groups apparently allow themselves.)
The frustration and bitterness of such youths, then and now, are always fodder for the ideologue who can explain it all for you, especially one who will tell you that you're not to blame. Sixty years ago, such a “soldier” would have been persuaded to dedicate and possibly lose his life in order to triumph over “imperialism.” At the end of the last century, he would have been a foot soldier ready to die for the earth's oppressed.
Bin Laden's No. 2 man, Dr. Ayman alZawahiri, suspected organizer of the 1997 massacre of 67 foreign tourists in Luxor and indicted co-conspirator in the 1998 bombings of U.S. xembassies in Africa, said, during his trial following the assassination of Sadat in 1981, that he represented “the real Islamic front ... the real Islamic opposition to Zionism ... and imperialism.” This is indicative of the way militant Islam has simply taken on the vocabulary and the mindset of the older, and failed, Arab revolutionary movements.
What do they want, these unemployed engineers, who have brought their battles to our skies?
Tragically, much of what they want has nothing to do with New York or Washington, D.C., where they have left their ineradicable fingerprints. It has to do with Riyadh, Cairo, Damascus and Jerusalem, with the dreams of a century of Arab politics. In this scenario, revolution will unseat the corrupt regimes that have acquiesced, and profited from, Western designs to weaken Arab and Muslim power and exploit its divisions. Once borders and national divisions have been overcome, the Arab world, united under militant Islam, will be prepared to confront the West on its own terms, as a competing political-economic system. On these terms, militant Islam is sure, it will win.
It does not take much analysis to see the last fading traces of the Cold War in this dualist vision of competing systems, and to observe that the complex Middle East has always defied attempts, ancient and modern, to impose a single standard on its stubborn diversities.
Scholar Fouad Ajami had this pegged years ago when he dubbed militant Islam's destructive and self-deluding politics “the politics of ecstasy.” The “ecstasy” may be borrowed from Islam, he wrote, but the “politics” — with their echoes of the last century's totalitarian nightmares — is only too familiar.
Gabriel Meyer writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Gabriel Meyer ----- KEYWORD: Commentary -------- TITLE: St. Michael's City, Europe's Capital DATE: 10/21/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: October 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:In recent years Brussels, once considered by diplomats and travelers as the somewhat provincial capital of a small kingdom, has emerged as the glamorous international center of the European Union and the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
With their deep sense of history, the native Bruxellesois and their Flemish and Waloon neighbors in the Kingdom of Belgium are well aware that their ancient capital experienced greatness in the past.
The name of the city may be derived from the Flemish word Broekzelle, “marsh village.” A Gallo-Roman settlement developed into a town in the Dark Ages. Irish monks converted the local people to Christianity during that period. These missionaries placed the area under the protection of St. Michael the Archangel.
In 1383 Brussels became the capital of the Duchy of Brabant. Trade, industry and handicrafts flourished under the enlightened rules of the Dukes of Brabant. The Church played an important role in the lives of prosperous burghers and hardworking peasants.
Brussels grew up around the Grand Place, one of Europe's great squares, and the Town Hall (Hotel de Ville). On top of this imposing Medieval structure's tower is a statue of St. Michael. In the early part of the 11th century, Duke Lambert II had the relics of St. Gudula moved from the center of the town to a church on Treurenberg Hill, a short distance from the Grand Place.
From then on this church of St. Michael and St. Gudula became the Collegiate Church of Brussels. Despite the great role the structure played in the history of the nation, it has been linked with the Cathedral of Mechelen (Mallines) as the see of the primate of Belgium only since 1962.
The early building was in Romanesque style. The additions from the 13th century were Gothic. Today the old foundations may still be seen below the crypt of this magnificent structure.
Medieval Splendor
Actually in accord with Medieval tradition, the church was constructed over the centuries by skilled artisans. The impressive Gothic choir was completed in the late 13th century and the nave and transept in the mid-15th century. The western facade, which was finished in 1490, is in the flamboyant French Gothic style and differs from the Brabantine design in other parts of the cathedral.
The entrance may be reached by climbing a long mid-19th staircase, a comparatively modern addition. Inside 12 pillars form the outline of the interior, world renowned stained-glass windows in later Gothic style allow ample light in the chancel and nave. On the left side of the choir, in the northern chapel, a visitor may view some of these richly decorated windows, which portray the European emperors and kings of the late Medieval and Renaissance periods. Included are the Flemish-born Emperor Charles V, on whose empire the sun never set, and his son Philip II of Spain, who had problems ruling Flanders.
During much of the 20th century, the cathedral was under almost constant renovation. The craftsmen finally finished their work in late 1999. Then, on Dec. 4, 1999, Crown Prince Philippe married his bride Princess Mathilda in the cathedral to great national rejoicing.
Brussels is a city of churches dating back to Medieval times, when religious orders set up parishes throughout the city to perform their religious and charitable duties. Today visitors may hear the peal of bells calling the faithful to Mass even on weekday mornings. Brussels is confronted as much as other parts of Europe by a shortage of clergy and an abundance of religious indifference on the part of many young people.
Typical of local parishes is Our Lady of Sablon (Notre Dame du Sablon) several blocks south of the cathedral. Today the church dominates Sablon Square and its nearby park. The district has many art galleries, shops, restaurants and cafes.
In Medieval times Sablon was outside the walls of Brussels. In 1304 the Guild of Archers built a small chapel there in honor of Our Lady. Soon it became a place of pilgrimage. Then the archers had a major Gothic church built over the years from the early 15th century to the beginning of the 16th. It is one of the most beautiful Gothic structures in Belgium.
Royal Re-enactments
On a trip to Brussels my wife and I had the honor of seeing King Albert II of the Belgians at Mass there on Ascension Thursday. He was accompanied by one escort rider on a motorcycle and a car with attendants. The king walked through a cheering crowd, waved and rode away.
Belgians still are proud of their cultural heritage. They observe many Medieval festivals. A colorful pageant, the Ommegang, occurs annually on the Grand Place in Brussels from July 3-5. It is a historical re-enactment of a ceremony held in 1549 for Emperor Charles V and his son Philip II of Spain.
The Ommegang dates from the mid-14th century, when it was a religious observance. Vestiges of its origin are still maintained. Guests and viewers occupy the Grand Place to see the procession. The royal party and their entourage take their places on a reviewing stand. Horsemen and flag bearers lead the procession. Next come the representatives of the guilds.
Foremost among them are the archers. They carry the statue of their patron, Our Lady of Sablon, which has been escorted from the church. Afterward re-enactors, guests and visitors mingle to enjoy the occasion.
Brussels and the rest of Belgium have much of interest to attract the Catholic traveler.
John Carroll is based in Silver Spring, Maryland.
----- EXCERPT: Brussels, Belgium, home to a glorious and historic cathedral ----- EXTENDED BODY: John H. Carroll ----- KEYWORD: Travel -------- TITLE: Shop Till You Drop Without Ever Leaving Your Seat DATE: 10/21/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: October 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:Recently I helped a retired priest buy an inkjet printer for a donated computer he had received.
He wanted a cheap one. I began shopping as I do very often these days — on the Internet.
I checked prices and options at some local chain stores like Staples, Office Depot and Wal-Mart. The cheapest printer, a Lexmark Z22 for almost $50, varied only by a few cents between them. By doing my research online, I hoped to minimize my shopping time. Staples offered free shipping so I could have just stayed home and received it through the mail, but, in this case, I wanted to see it before buying it.
As it turns out, the local Staples store was out of stock. So was their central warehouse. I drove to Wal-Mart. Here I learned something that I missed online — the Lexmark Z22 only came with the color ink cartridge, not the black one. A black ink cartridge costs almost $28. So add that to the price of the printer and now you are looking at $78. On the shelf above was the Lexmark Z32. It included both ink cartridges and threw in a photo kit, all for $70. I bought that printer for Father instead.
This little adventure taught me that, sometimes, it pays to do some research in an actual store. Items that appear online to be such a deal may prove otherwise upon further inquiry.
What are some of the other catches to online shopping? One is the shipping and handling cost of your order. Some online stores will not mention those charges until after you have finalized your order. And sometimes those charges are reasonable; other times online stores may use either the shipping or the handling to substantially increase their profit and your loss. A great deal could turn out to be a costly mistake.
So make sure you are getting the real total of your order before letting them close the sale with you. You may have to check their shipping policies to get a full, itemized explanation of charges. Also, be sure that the item is in stock, as out-of-stock items may take a long time to reach you. You may have to telephone to be absolutely sure, as online in-stock claims can be wrong.
Return policies for online stores can make or break you. Didn't bother to read the return policies on the Web site? Did you throw out the box, special packing material and paperwork which came with your order? You may be stuck with the product if you can't return exactly as you received it. Return policies can be very stringent.
Also, very often you will have to pay shipping costs to return the item as well. They may be very specific on the shipping carrier you may use and how you must re-package the item, too. And some stores may not take returns at all. Don't forget to look into the warranty as well for the item that you are buying. In the case of my buying Father's printer, I wanted him to have a local store that could repair it or replace it if something went wrong.
There is the old saying, “If it's too good to be true, it probably isn't (true).” A few years back I bought a new notebook computer for $900 — a real bargain. After six months, the screen's lighting system burned out. I could only read it with a desk lamp shining directly on it. I had a one-year warranty so I tried to call the manufacturer. Voice mail upon voice mail upon voice mail. Eventually I learned that the company had gone bankrupt. My warranty was useless. If something online is a really extraordinary deal, look into it. Perhaps call or e-mail asking why the item is priced so low.
Privacy online has become a concern to many people. Services online are required now to state their privacy policies. Buying online could mean that your personal information, which you enter upon ordering, will be sold to third parties. And do you really need more junk mail and e-mail?
If this is a concern to you, be sure to read a store's policy before buying from them. And don't forget about those cookies the online store places on your computer. If you don't want them delete them from the Windows subdirectory “cookies” on your hard drive.
Now, even with all these precautions, here at the monastery we order many items through the Internet. Being able to compare prices from vendors all over the country or world can lead to substantial savings, even with the shipping costs. Unlike what I did for Father, I rarely buy computer-related items in a store. If I see something I like in a store, I go online to get the best price.
Don't just rely on shopping bots like PriceScan and MySimon to find the best price. They don't report every price and sometimes link to dubious vendors. Many times I just use a regular search engine like AltaVista or Google to search for sites selling my item.
Shopping online will continue to grow in popularity in the coming years. Just be as prudent when shopping in the virtual world as you should be in the real world.
Brother John Raymond, co-founder of the Monks of Adoration, writes from Venice, Florida.
----- EXCERPT:The pros and cons of online shopping ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brother John Raymond ----- KEYWORD: Arts & Culture -------- TITLE: Monthly Web Picks DATE: 10/21/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: October 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:Catholic Shopper at catholic-shopper.com boasts more than 6,000 Catholic products to choose from. Frank & Lisa Pollicino have a retail store in Long Island, N.Y., and have been on the Web since 1996. You can search for items or use their drop-down category listings.
Leaflet Missal Co. at leaflet-missal.org is a family-owned business in its 72nd year of business out of St. Paul, Minn. They offer religious articles, gifts and books, claiming to have the widest selection of quality items anywhere. Here, too, items can be found by searching the site or by using a user-friendly drop-down category listing. A free print catalog can be requested as well.
The Catholic Store at catholic-store.com, owned by Richard Wei-gang, has been selling Catholic Bibles, books and gifts since 1985 in Englewood, Colo. They currently offer more than 8,000 items. Also, they have a Web site-affiliate program for earning extra money or a store-affiliate program for keeping online customers happy.
The Catholic Market at catholic-market.com is a clearinghouse of Catholic businesses on the Web arranged according to various categories. Listings for Catholic business owners are free. Also, Catholic job openings can be broadcast to the many recipients on their mailing list.
For more Catholic businesses, see my “Catholic Company” category online at monksofadoration.org/-ccompany.html.
To order Catholics on the Internet: 2000-2001 by Brother John Raymond, call Prima Publishing at (800) 632-8676.
----- EXCERPT: And, speaking of shopping ... ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brother John Raymond ----- KEYWORD: Arts & Culture -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 10/21/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: October 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:Into the Arms of Strangers (2000)
The Holocaust is an example of the worst evil that human beings can inflict on one another. But at times its horrors also gave rise to acts of kindness and bravery. The Oscar-winning documentary Into the Arms of Strangers, directed by Mark Jonathan Harris, chronicles Great Britain's great moment of mercy when it took in more than 10,000 Jewish children from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939. (The U.S. government, which could have launched a similar program, refused to do so.)
The exiled youngsters expected their parents would follow in a few years. Their hopes were dashed by the implementation of the Nazis’ “Final Solution.” Harris mixes footage from prewar Germany and the children's odyssey with interviews with a dozen survivors and a few of their rescuers. Each of their stories puts a human face on the tragedy. Most of the children recall with chilling clarity the exact moment when they saw their parents for the last time. Their feelings about their rescue range from gratitude and wonder to guilt and sorrow.
One on One (1977)
Sports films are a popular metaphor for self-improvement and success in American society. The genre's best also emphasize the moral aspects of the struggle. One on One, directed by Lamont Johnson (The Last American Hero) and written by actor Robby Benson and his father Jerry Segal, examines the commercialization of college basketball. Henry Steele (Benson) is a small-town high-school star who's never fully learned to read. When he wins a basketball scholarship to Western University, he's appalled at the “big business” aspect of the way the sport is played. His coach, Moreland Smith (G.D. Spradlin), is a bully who wants him bounced from the team because he won't go along. Because Henry has few other skills, his situation looks hopeless.
Janet Hays (Annette O'Toole) is a graduate student assigned to be Henry's tutor, and her brains and strength of character give him the courage to stand up. Although occasionally predictable, the movie shows how one honorable man can triumph against all odds if he sticks to his principles.
El Cid (1961)
Most Americans don't know much about the West's medieval battles against Muslim conquest and Spain's centuries-long struggle to free itself from the Moors. El Cid is an epic portrait of the 11th-century Spanish hero Rodrigo Díaz de Bivar (Charlton Heston) during these wars. The movie begins by dramatizing Rodrigo's personal problems. He becomes estranged from his fiancee, Chimene (Sophia Loren), because he has killed her father (Andrew Cruickshank), who falsely accused him of treason. She eventually has a change of heart when he proves himself to be a man of honor.
The death of King Ferdinand (Ralph Truman) makes Spain more vulnerable to Islamic attack. Rodrigo forges a coalition between the Christians and some friendly Moors and, in a spectacular battle scene, he lays siege to the enemy in their seaside fortress at Valencia. Director Anthony Mann (The Fall of the Roman Empire) shows us how Rodrigo's courage, compassion and spiritual commitment are transformed into the stuff of legend. Hollywood doesn't make them like this any more.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORD: Arts & Culture -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 10/21/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: October 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:All times Eastern
SUNDAY, OCT. 21
Celebrating Autumn
Home & Garden, 5 p.m.
Make a kettle of popcorn, get some hot apple cider and enjoy this premiere show as it tours Missouri pumpkin festivals, Vermont's gorgeous forest vistas and Appalachia's best spots for viewing wildlife in the fall.
MONDAY, OCT. 22
After the Game
A&E, 8 p.m.
Once their skills fade or career-ending injuries strike, pro athletes must move into “the rest of their lives.” This “Biography Close-Up” looks at the transitions of Zina Garrison, Wayne Gretzky, Art Heyman, Bo Jackson, James Rodney Richard and Alan Page.
MONDAY, OCT. 22
The Journey Home
EWTN, 8 p.m.
Host Marcus Grodi interviews Mark Gordon, the son of a Baptist minister, about how he became a Catholic and what the faith means to him now.
TUESDAY, OCT. 23
Fat Kids
A&E, 10 p.m.
This hour-long “Investigative Reports” says the number of over-weight children in the United States has nearly tripled since 1963. The show probes nutritional and emotional factors, examines medical consequences and suggests ways to remedy the problem.
THURSDAY, OCT. 25
Inventions of War
History Channel, 10 p.m.
War-related research and development has sparked inventions with peacetime uses, such as atomic power, cell phones, hair spray, microwaves and Spam.
FRIDAY, OCT. 26
All American Marvels
History Channel, 8 p.m.
Every Friday night this new series visits an American landmark and highlights its construction. This week's feature is the Statue of Liberty, or, as the poet Emma Lazarus unforgettably called her, “A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles.” The noble monument to our God-given liberty was built in Paris, 1877-1884, and in New York harbor, 1884-1886. (In future shows: The Golden Gate Bridge and the Empire State Building.)
FRIDAY, OCT. 26
The World Over
EWTN, 8 p.m.
Host Raymond Arroyo interviews Father Elias Mallon, director of the Center for Multifaith Education in New York, about Islam's history and tenets. The two also discuss Catholic initiatives toward Islam today. To be rebroadcast on Sunday, Oct. 28, at 5 p.m.
SATURDAY, OCT. 27
World Series, Game One
Fox, 7:30 p.m.
“I thank heaven we have had baseball in this world,” the mighty slugger Babe Ruth, a Catholic, once said. The Babe always wore his heart on his sleeve, especially for baseball. Millions of fans everywhere will be doing the same as this year's best-of-seven-games duel between the American and National League champions begins. (As of deadline, the teams were not determined.)
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dan Engler ----- KEYWORD: Arts & Culture -------- TITLE: Bishops Must Be Teachers: First, Last and Always DATE: 10/21/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: October 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:The prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, spoke last December at the “Days of Reflection on the Jubilee for Bishops,” organized by the Legionaries of Christ at Regina Apostolorum Pontifical Athenaeum in Rome. His presentation, titled “The Bishop Is Sent to Teach,” addressed the question of the bishop's role in the Church — the topic being discussed now by the Synod of Bishops meeting in the Vatican. The second part of Cardinal Grocholewski's talk follows:
Episcopal Consecration
The Second Vatican Council clearly linked this [teaching] mission to episcopal consecration — a linkage that had not always seemed clear prior to the council — when it affirmed that, “episcopal consecration confers, together with the office of sanctifying, the duty also of teaching and ruling” (Lumen Gentium No. 21). The Council supports this affirmation on the tradition which is expressed especially in the liturgical rites and in the customs of both the Eastern and Western Church.
It is actually a matter of sharing in the mission that originated with the Father and was handed on to the Son and from him to the Apostles. Jesus often said he was sent by the Father, and in his prayer to the Father for the Apostles, he states, “As you sent me into the world, I sent them into the world” (John 17:18). When he appeared to them after the resurrection, he proclaimed, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you” (John 20:21). And earlier on, at the Last Supper, he had said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me“ (John 13:20).
It is noteworthy that this relationship of bishops to the Apostles, and of the Apostles to Christ and to the Father, is strongly emphasized in the text of the prayer of episcopal consecration, drawn from an ancient third-century text, “So now pour out upon this chosen one that power which is from you, the governing Spirit whom you gave to your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, the Spirit given by him to the holy Apostles, who founded the Church in every place to be your temple for the unceasing glory and praise of your name.”
Vatican II similarly declares, “Christ, whom the Father hallowed and sent into the world (John 10:36), has, through his Apostles, made their successors, the bishops namely, sharers in his consecration and mission” (Lumen Gentium, No. 28).
In today's cultural context, there is a widespread rejection of authority that comes from above, which is perceived as a manifestation of a certain kind of monarchism. There is a tendency to favor democratic approaches. Evidently, this mentality cannot be applied to the Church, because it would undermine what is at the heart of our faith, the very structure of the apostolic mission. It is actually a matter of the mission entrusted by God himself, supreme Wisdom and supreme Love, to the Church, as an act of his immense love for the salvation of mankind.
The Inseparability from the Other Munera [Missions]
I would like to underline that the ministry of teaching cannot be separated from the other two missions of sanctifying and governing. In this regard, John Paul II wrote, in his Holy Thursday 1979 Letter to Priests: “The mission of Jesus Christ himself ... has a triple dimension: It is the mission and office of Prophet, Priest and King. If we analyze carefully the conciliar texts, it is obvious that one should speak of a triple dimension of Christ's service and mission, rather than of three different functions. In fact, these functions are closely linked to one another, explain one another, condition one another and clarify one another. Consequently, it is from this threefold unity that our sharing in Christ's mission and office takes its origin.” So, rather than speaking of three munera, it would be better to speak of a triple munus of the one potestas sacra [sacred power].
Teaching, in fact, is not carried out only by preaching and by publishing documents, but also and eminently by liturgical rites, by the sacraments which are signs of the Church's faith. Besides, the mission of sanctifying comprises also the ministry of the Word which is inseparable from it.
Governance — with its three functions: legislative, executive and judicial — in which the bishop represents Christ, must also be considered one of the ways of teaching, insofar as it makes the faith of the Church explicit and is aimed at activating the requirements of the faith. Moreover, the way a bishop governs must be a living education, a continual preaching that will reveal to the faithful the profound law of charity and the values taught by the words.
This implies that a bishop is called to be a witness to Christ not only in his teaching mission, strictly speaking, but also in his life and in the performance of his munus of sanctifying and governing.
Hierarchical Communion with the Head and Members of the College
Regarding the exercise of the three munera, Lumen Gentium notes that these, “of their very nature can be exercised only in hierarchical communion with the head and members of the college” [of bishops] (No. 21).
I think that the explanation contained in the constitution's Preliminary Explanatory Note, No. 2, also referred to this communion. It observes that, “an ontological share in the sacred functions is given by consecration,“ and this must not be understood as if it were “power ordered to action. A canonical or juridical determination through hierarchical authority is required for such power ordered to action. A determination of this kind can come about through appointment to a particular office or the assignment of subjects, and is conferred according to norms approved by the supreme authority. The need for a further norm follows from the nature of the case, because it is a question of functions to be discharged by more than one subject, who work together in the hierarchy of functions intended by Christ.”
Besides, as regards the expression, “hierarchical communion with the head of the college and its members,” it is stated right there that “it is not to be understood as some vague sort of good will, but as something organic which calls for a juridical structure as well as being enkindled by charity.”
At any rate, more than a juridical fact, we are dealing with a supernatural reality, based on and caused by the possession of the Holy Spirit, which is conferred by episcopal consecration.
Thus, apart from “hierarchical communion with the head of the college and its members,” a bishop “by his nature” would no longer be authorized to exercise the munus conferred at his episcopal consecration; he would no longer be an authentic teacher. The council therefore rules that a bishop who opposes or rejects apostolic communion cannot be admitted to office, and that “bishops who teach in communion with the Roman Pontiff are to be revered by all” (Lumen Gentium, No. 25).
Authentic Teachers
Lumen Gentium states that all the faithful share in Christ's triple mission (No. 10), and this includes the duty to spread the faith. In fact, “each disciple of Christ has the obligation of spreading the faith to the best of his ability” (Lumen Gentium, No. 17). The Holy Father recently recalled that “the first mission ... on which [Christ] was sent was to proclaim the Gospel. This was the first mission of the Apostles: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). This call is always timely and compelling. It concerns all the faithful — clergy and lay people. We are all called to bear witness to the Gospel in daily life. It is necessary, as we enter the new millennium, that we answer this call with all fervor” (Homily at the Jubilee pilgrimage of Poland).
There is, nevertheless, a fundamental difference and distinction. Though it is true that all the faithful, as members of the Body of Christ, share in Christ's triple dignity and triple mission, only bishops (and in their degree priests and deacons) are “authentic teachers, that is, teachers endowed with the authority of Christ” (Lumen Gentium, No. 25). In other words, “by the imposition of hands and through the words of the consecration, the grace of the Holy Spirit is given ... in such wise that bishops, in a resplendent and visible manner, take the place of Christ himself, teacher, shepherd and priest, and act as his representatives (in eius persona)” (Lumen Gentium, No. 21).
In the bishops’ ministry, therefore, it is always Christ who teaches, sanctifies and guides his people. Actually, as the council noted, “in the person of the bishops ... to whom the priests render assistance, the Lord Jesus Christ ... is present in the midst of the faithful. ... [T]hrough their signal service ... he preaches the Word of God to all peoples” (Lumen Gentium, No. 21).
A bishop should realize, therefore, that he is an instrument in God's hand and that he is called to teach, not his own doctrine, but Christ's. St. Augustine, in his “Sermon on the Shepherds” that we read every year in the breviary, wrote, “If I speak my own opinions, I shall be a shepherd feeding myself not my sheep; but if I say what is the Lord's, it is he who feeds you, no matter who is speaking. ‘Thus says the Lord God, Ho, shepherds of Israel, who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep?’” (Liturgy of the Hours, 24th Sunday).
Previously published in Rome by the theological journal Ecclesia.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Education -------- TITLE: Can the American Family be Saved from Extinction? DATE: 10/21/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: October 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:When liberal politicians finally notice the destruction of the American family, it can be said that the problem has become obvious. Here's retired New York Sen. in William J. Bennett's new book, on his 40-year career: “The biggest change in my own judgment is that the family structure has come apart all over the North Atlantic world.”
Throughout, The Broken Hearth takes direct aim at issues widely considered to be purely private matters affecting no one but the participants involved. Bennett clearly outlines the problems and illustrates the damage done by the culture's ready embrace of this moral escape hatch. He calls on individuals to accept responsibility for the social implications of their private behaviors, and on religious institutions to take the lead in fostering such personal accountability.
The media's attack on our culture and morals cannot be underestimated, in Bennett's opinion. Movies, TV and music assault our intelligence and consciences with an unending barrage of immorality, filth and violence.
Bennett finds no single answer to why the culture is breaking down, but rather sees a vast conglomeration of converging cataclysms, the cumulative result of which will be the final destruction of the family — unless these trends are reversed.
The tried and tested nuclear family, he shows, is unquestionably the best environment for the raising and education of children. While customs and traditions have changed through the centuries, this fact has not.
Cohabitation, Bennett notes, weakens the place of women in the world, renders children fatherless and encourages men to be promiscuous. It is not preparation for marriage.
Children, he points out, are better off with fathers who have died than with fathers who have divorced their mothers for, with death, children do not feel parental abandonment. Illegitimacy increases infant mortality, joblessness, homelessness, crime, educational failure, neighborhood cohesiveness and economic costs.
Those promoting the homosexual-rights agenda, he demonstrates, seek to destroy the special status of marriage and the family, and simply reduce it to another lifestyle choice.
Concerning divorce, Bennett opines: “[A] sledgehammer is being taken to the American family, and there is no reason in the world why we should be expected to stand by in silence, to say nothing and above all to do nothing. It is time for the rules to be reconsidered.”
He continues, “Divorce is the elephant in the living room” that society ignores at its peril. Fifty years later, the children of divorce can still recall the pain and trauma of parental separation.
Bennett calls on churches to lead and prepare couples for marriage. Part of the problem lies in the fact that Christians have been absorbed by the culture. This must change.
He includes a notable quote from Teddy Roosevelt on the importance of the family: “There are many kinds of successes in life worth having. It is exceedingly interesting and attractive to be a successful business man, or a railroad man, or farmer, or successful lawyer or doctor; or a writer, or a President, or a ranchman, or the colonel of a fighting regiment, or to kill grizzly bears and lions. But for unflagging interest and enjoyment, a household of children, if things go reasonably well, certainly makes all the other forms of success and achievement lose their importance by comparison.”
It's time for the familial and societal carnage to end; the future of our children de-pends upon the restoration of marriage and family. Precious few things impact society more than a shattered family. For this reason, The Broken Heath should be in the hands of every engaged couple — it can be a powerful aid in instilling an understanding of the importance the marital vocation to society. For the married, it is a compelling reminder of the social significance of the sacrament of matrimony.
Mary C. Walsh writes from Fredericksburg, Virginia.
----- EXCERPT: Weekly Book Pick ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mary C. Walsh ----- KEYWORD: Education -------- TITLE: Is Judging Wrong? DATE: 10/21/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: October 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:On my job, I'm a manager and I'm paid to judge people all the time. I often find it frustrating and difficult, and wonder if I'm doing something wrong. Didn't Christ say not to judge?
This is indeed a challenging and troubling aspect of being in charge. A manager has to integrate people with tasks and help them succeed. To do this, he or she has to judge the performance of employees.
At the same time, the manager needs to ask: “Am I doing all I reasonably can to help each person succeed?”
To do this well, we must differentiate between judging the performance and judging the person. As managers, our job is to judge only the performance: “Were the goals met? Did the report get out in time?”
In the heat of the moment, the distinction between judging the performance and judging the person can easily get blurred. We tend to like those who are doing their job well, and we're tempted to be harsh with those who perform poorly.
We need to realize that Christ calls us to love everyone — even poor performers. Loving, however, doesn't always involve an emotional connection. Rather, it means we want good for everyone.
In a manager's case, this means helping people succeed. When we take the time to train, assist and lead, we are, in effect, loving that person.
As managers, it's also our job to exercise authority respectfully, treating people, who are made in the image and likeness of God, with dignity. Their right to dignity and respect is independent of good or bad performance. Their dignity comes from God, and it's our job to acknowledge this.
It takes prayer and the grace of God to see people this way, and to treat them accordingly. We have to remind ourselves that the person is more important than the work itself. This doesn't undermine the value of the work; it just highlights the transcendence of people.
So, does this mean we can't reprimand or fire anyone? No. Working for the good of our employees doesn't rule out disciplinary action if they're unable or unwilling to perform.
Sometimes we may have to terminate an employee. These are never easy decisions and they always call for us to examine our own efforts. The key is be honest, respectful and available, and to provide whatever resources we can in the particular case.
Can our company still be successful if we put love and respect first, ahead of performance and tasks? Certainly — but in the end success is really more in God's hands. We're required to do our best as managers and we need God's grace for that. The normal result will be success; but the ultimate consequences are up to God, not us.
Art A. Bennett is a licensed marriage, family and child therapist.
----- EXCERPT: Family Matters ----- EXTENDED BODY: Art A. Bennett ----- KEYWORD: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Teen's Faith DATE: 10/21/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: October 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:THE VAST MAJORITY of teens say religion is important in their lives and guides their decisions. Even in the sensitive area of sexuality, they say they follow their faith and want more direction from their pastors.
Source: National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, Sept. 25.
----- EXCERPT: Facts of Life ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: The Rosary Blues DATE: 10/21/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: October 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:“Wow!” my friend exclaimed. “The family rosary every night! I'm so impressed. Wish I could get my kids to go along with something like that, but we're just not pious enough.”
My friend was undoubtedly visualizing a lovely scene of seven children, plus parents, rushing eagerly to pray each evening. She could see the kneeling figures. She could hear devout voices softly murmuring the Hail Marys, right down to the tender babe cradled in Mother's arms.
I had to burst that pretty bubble, because that's not how it is in our family. I also assured her that parents don't have to be living saints to launch and sustain the daily family rosary.
Gluttons for punishment, maybe.
On a typical evening in our house, Mom and Dad wander from room to room calling “rosary time!” as 9 p.m. approaches. Three or four people drift into the living room to wait for the other kids.
After five minutes, one or two more meander in, but only in time for one of the earlier arrivals to feel the need for the bathroom. Then another leaves to make a quick phone call. One more family member enters, but someone else goes to get a glass of water.
Bathroom user returns, but two others, tired of waiting for phone-user and yet-to-arrive sibling, decide to make use of the waiting time by dashing upstairs to get into pajamas. Last child arrives in living room, and wonders aloud why she was being shouted at to hurry up when three other people aren't even here!
The whole situation resembles one of those math problems where water flows into the tub at one rate and out at another. And Mom has the same hopeless feeling now as she did back in eighth-grade arithmetic.
At last, everyone really is in the living room, and the rosary begins.
After we all recite the Creed, 5-year-old Katherine leads the Our Father and three Hail Marys. But tonight she insists on saying a fourth Hail Mary, resisting appeals to reason (“There's only three beads there”) and authority (“Don't you want to be obedient?”). Since a major sulking fit is looming, we let her say a fourth Hail Mary.
First decade: Things go pretty well. But after a while the tender babe is no longer content to be cradled in Mother's arms. He slips away, and it's time for another segment of “The Baby Show.”
Second decade: Baby staggers about the room, makes strangling noises in his throat, then collapses on the floor. (He'd watched his big brothers play gun fight this afternoon.) This action is repeated seven times.
Third decade: Baby decides he requires more audience participation than the poorly suppressed laughter he's provoked so far. He climbs furniture and takes flying leaps onto each family member in turn, with the goal of knocking someone over.
Fourth decade: Let's see, how do we distract baby from murderous rampage? Let's give him his own rosary to play with — that nice, child-safe, wooden one! ... Oops! Bad idea. He's using it like a whip to beat his siblings. OK, baby, time for bed.
Fifth decade: Mom returns from putting baby to bed. Several children are now in decidedly unprayerful postures. At this point, Mom doesn't much care, but one older sibling, a.k.a. Mother Hen, is turning around and glaring at each offender. Offenders glare back.
Our closing hymn is “Where Charity and Love Prevail.”
Another family rosary comes to an end. Devout children stampede from living room.
Is Christ praised and our Lady honored by family rosaries like this?
I've often wondered, and always conclude, yes. After all, we've set aside this time for Jesus and Mary. That must count for something.
Second, my husband and I have been practicing the virtue of fortitude by doing this year in and year out. (The kids, too, to the extent that they cooperate willingly.)
Third, praying a well-meditated rosary is difficult under any circumstances. I've been just as inattentive when saying it alone as when saying it with the family. But every now and then I do manage to think deeply about those mysteries. (The kids tell me that this happens to them, too!)
Best of all, we've learned that prayer isn't just an airy “spiritual experience” to be achieved in the ambiance of a silent chapel, but an essential part of the nitty-gritty stuff of daily living.
Daria Sockey, a mother of seven, is a home educator and free-lance author based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
----- EXCERPT: Praying the rosary together when your kids aren't perfect ----- EXTENDED BODY: Daria Sockey ----- KEYWORD: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Rosary Tips for Tots DATE: 10/21/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: October 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:Here are a few tips to make the family rosary a success in your home:
1) Time. Try to pick a consistent time of day when the whole family is most likely to be at home. One family passes out rosary beads immediately after dinner, at the table, to avoid a frustrating “gathering ritual.”
2) Place. Have a family “shrine” for prayer time. A statue and a votive candle on a shelf or end table is fine, or perhaps a candle bracket can be mounted on the wall under a crucifix or picture of the Sacred Heart.
3) Intentions. Announce petitions at the beginning of the rosary. We often pray more fervently when praying for something.
4) Adjuncts. As an aid to meditation on the mysteries, use pictures for younger children, and read short meditations before each decade for older family members. Or try the scriptural rosary — a short Bible verse is read before every Hail Mary. (All these are available from Catholic bookstores, catalogues and retail Web sites.)
5) Changes. Vary the routine when children seem restless. On pleasant evenings, get out lawn chairs and pray outdoors. Say the family rosary while on a hike in the woods, or on a drive through the country.
— Daria Sockey
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Daria Sockey ----- KEYWORD: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Why Unborn Babies Love Living in Michigan: Barbara Listing DATE: 10/21/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: October 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:If Michigan Right to Life were a basketball player, it would be Michael Jordan.
Michigan Right to Life has mounted successful campaigns to pass a state Parental Notification Law, an Informed Consent law, a clinic regulation law, an abortion reporting law and a Fetal Homicide Act. They were on the winning side of a referendum banning the use of Medicaid funds for abortions. They worked with others to stop the legalization of assisted suicide in Michigan. They lobbied successfully to make Michigan the first state to ban cloning and they helped pass restrictions on fetal tissue and embryo research.
Three times the organization was victorious in advancing a ban on partial-birth abortion, only to have federal courts strike it down. They did win a ban, however, on the use of Medicaid funds for abortions — leading to a 48% decrease in the annual rate of abortion in the state. They prevailed in supporting a series of adoption enhancement laws and they are current-l y working on legislation to separate Planned Parenthood funding from family planning funding.
The person most responsible for these legislative and political successes is Barbara Listing, president of Michigan Right to Life since 1981.
Those who know her describe Listing as quiet, patient and organized — a leader to emulate.
“She has a style that almost assures victory. She's well respected by everyone who knows her, including many politicians,” noted Sister Monica Kostielney, the president and CEO of the Michigan Catholic Conference, who has worked with Listing on life legislation and various statewide referendums since 1972. “She has a keen mind, a strong will and a zealous spirit. I am always grateful for the times when we worked together.”
Mighty Michigan
Listing herself attributes the Michigan Right to Life successes to the strength of the entire organization, which formed from a coalition of groups that organized to defeat a statewide effort to legalize abortion in 1972. After the Roe v. Wade decision, however, Michigan Right to Life became a more cohesive group, and has been very successful in the state legislature ever since.
Compared to other states Michigan has had one of the nation's largest decreases in abortions — from about 50,000 a year at its peak in 1987, to about 26,000 a year today, including a 56% drop in teen abortions after the Parental Notification law was passed.
“The law is a great teacher,” said Listing. “Many people would say if abortion isn't legal and wasn't so accessible, we wouldn't have the numbers we have now. You can't pass laws unless you elect those people and get involved in the political process.”
Michigan Right to Life was recently ranked the second most effective single-issue lobbying organization in the state, beating such strongholds as the Michigan Education Association and labor groups, according to a survey of legislators, lobbyists and administrative heads conducted by Inside Michigan Politics. Listing attributes that to the strong grassroots organization throughout the state, which the legislators respond to.
“Sometimes people get discouraged when politicians do not fulfill the obligations and promises once they're elected.” It is equally discouraging that Catholic elected officials so often set their faith aside when it comes to abortion, she said. But if people give up, it opens the door for pro-abortion candidates and laws.
“Because we've been very consistent on the path in what we do in Michigan, the pro-abortion numbers in the legislature are very small and basically can't pass a piece of legislation. I think that shows why you have to become involved,” she said.
Listing said she wasn't always so passionate about working on the abortion issue. It was the Roe v. Wade ruling that prompted her to action.
“I never expected the [Supreme] Court to do what they did,” she said. “I knew that this was a terrible decision for the unborn child, but there was a part of me that felt this would really hurt women and was not going to be the advance for women that the court said.”
She always supported the positions on equal pay and equal access in professions that the National Organization for Women strived for in the earlier years, but said they went wrong when they included abortion in women's rights.
“Perhaps that was what drove me and continues to drive me. When you work with women who have had abortions, it's just reaf-firmed all the time. It certainly was not the gift they thought they were getting.”
Dorothy Hopper was one of the first women to affirm Listing's feelings when she met her in 1985. Hopper and other post-abortive women had formed a group called Women Exploited by Abortion and rented office space from Michigan Right to Life. Listing encouraged them to tell their stories.
“No one talked about having had an abortion. Even now people don't talk about it,” said Hopper. “I think for some time people had the attitude toward the women that they were scum. We were women in difficult situations and were often talked into having abortions. Barb with her faith, being able to forgive and work with us, was vital to my healing. She's a dynamic woman. Without her support, I may not be here.”
Hopper's abortion was funded by Medicaid. She said it was approved in three days, yet when her mother needed Medicaid funding for back surgery, it took over two months for approval. That's not uncommon, she said, and it prompted her to get involved in Michigan Right to Life's legislative effort to ban Medicaid funded abortions.
Listing's”spiritual leadership and encouragement to tell our stories were very important. We pioneered the way for others to go public, and get involved in the Informed Consent bill. God has used the women who have had abortions in some powerful ways,” she said.
Listing said the women who came forward to testify were the best lobbyists they had on the issue, but added, “We have to be careful that we don't simply use them without understanding how they need to be involved or not be involved in the movement.”
As the number of abortions decline and the number of pro-life people increases, she is optimistic about the future, especially in seeing the young people who are willing to sacrifice higher salaries to work for her organization or other pro-life groups. She's also encouraged by President Bush's pro-life positions and the fact that he speaks so strongly about the value of life. “That's a great opportunity for the pro-life movement to move forward in public opinion.”
While Michigan Right to Life is up against two pro-abortion U.S. Senators and a large population of people who vote pro-labor more than pro-life, Listing believes the group can change minds by working with the local communities, educating them on abortion and where candidates stand.
“It's always a constant, people-to-people and one-to-one education — we just can't get away from that. It's still winning people over.”
Barb Ernster writes from Fridley, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Barb Ernster ----- KEYWORD: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Life Notes DATE: 10/21/2001 12.00.00 P.M. CATEGORY: October 21-27, 2001 ----- BODY:Obligations to the Unborn
“We hold, as a matter of law, that a physician who has a doctor-patient relationship with a pregnant woman who intends to carry her fetus to term and deliver a healthy baby also has a doctor-patient relationship with the fetus,” said the 7-0 decision.
National Right to Life Committee general counsel Jim Bopp, Jr. was quoted saying: “This decision just bears generally on the oddity of abortion law, and how out of step [it] is with medical law.”
Lawsuit Over the Pill
BRITISH BROADCASTING CORP., Oct. 1 — The three pharmaceutical companies responsible for making the most modern form of the oral contraceptive pills available in England are facing a massive lawsuit, the British Broadcasting Corp. reports.
The BBC says that lawyers representing the families of 122 women who say they were not warned of the potential side effects of ‘the pill’ announced that they were taking Schering Healthcare, Organon Laboratories and Wyeth to court.
The lawyers noted that the pill caused the women to develop blood clots which led to long-term damage to their health, and in around 10% of cases proved fatal.
No Abortion Benefits
“There will be no more [insurance-covered] elective abortions for county employees,” said Commissioner Ed Szczepanski.
He said he will contact leaders in each Macomb community and ask them to ban elective abortions in their employees’ union contracts.
License Plate Funds
State law mandates that proceeds from the $20 plates go to Florida's 67 counties for distribution to the nonprofit groups.
Because distributing the money to the non-profit groups would drain government resources, the County Commission voted 5-2 to ask Catholic Charities to take responsibility for handing out proceeds from the tags’ sale.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Culture of Life ----- TITLE: Breakthroughs Show Advantages of Adult Stem Cells DATE: 10/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 28 - November 3, 2001 ----- BODY:NEWCASTLE, Wales — Not a single patient has yet benefited from human embryonic stem cell research, and there is virtual scientific consensus that any medical therapies from cells derived from killed human embryos are, at best, years off. Yet patients in clinical trials the world over are experiencing astonishing results using ethically derived stem cells.
Take 3-year-old Tom Stretch of north Wales, for example. Last month, the Welsh boy was cured of a lethal blood condition using stem cells extracted from the placenta of his newly born sister, Hannah. Doctors, led by Andrew Cant at Newcastle General Hospital, infused Tom's vein with blood stem cells from his baby sister's placenta, which was stored after she was born last November.
The stem cells treated the boy's white blood defect, chronic granulomatous disease (CGD), which had left him unable to fight germs and suffering from pneumonia and an inflamed bowel.
Sixteen weeks after the procedure, BBC Radio reported, the cells had cured Tom and the toddler was on his way home.
Stem cells from ethical sources such as umbilical cord blood and adult tissue are used frequently to treat leukemia and cancer patients, and therapies derived from alternative ethical stem cell sources are producing unexpected cures and offering the best hope for repairing damaged spinal cords, hearts, brains and more.
Since Aug. 9 when President Bush announced his decision to confine federal funding of embryonic stem cell research to existing cell lines (from embryos that had been killed before that date), scientists worldwide have reported more than a half dozen breakthroughs in stem cell research using cells derived from morally acceptable sources.
Other recent stem cell breakthroughs include:
E Doctors in Singapore announced in August they have successfully treated a rare hereditary blood disorder, thessalemia, that often causes severe anemia and is usually fatal in untreated children, with a transplant of umbilical cord blood rich in stem cells from a non-related donor.
E Researchers at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center reported in the August Archives of Dermatology they have improved the condition of a man suffering from a rare skin disorder that is characterized by waxy, thick, stiff skin called scleromyxedema. The patient was unable to close his eyelids completely or open his mouth to eat before doctors infused him with stem cells collected from his own bone marrow. Aftter three months his skin lost the “cobblestone appearance” it had developed and he was able to open and close his mouth and eyes.
E In August, physicians at Chicago's Northwestern Memorial Hospital reported initial success treating two patients with Crohn's disease — a painful inflammatory bowel disease — with stem cells extracted from their own blood.
E Doctors in Dusseldorf, Germany, used stem cells from a man's own bone marrow to treat him after he suffered a heart attack that damaged one quarter of his heart muscle. Ten weeks after an injection of cells directly into the man's coronary arteries, heart tissue damage was reduced by nearly a third. As well, the injected cells had migrated to the damaged areas of the patient's heart and begun beating as heart cells.
E Canadian researchers at McGill University's Montreal Neurological Institute reported in the August issue of Nature Cell Biology they have harvested stem cells from adult human skin and mice and grown them into neurons as well as a host of other cell types including smooth muscle and fat. It was the first time that neurons have been isolated from skin.
“They are beautiful neurons,” molecular biologist and co-author of the study Freda Miller told the Globe and Mail newspaper. “You kind of look at them and say, this can't be true. But then you go back and do it 10 times, and you realize it is true.” While it is still unknown if these neurons can transmit electrical and chemical signals as they do in the brain — and perhaps be used to treat neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease and spinal cord and brain injuries — there is a vast, cheap source of the cells. “It's from skin,” said Miller. “There's so much, and it's right there, and this is a non-controversial source.”
Even more promising, after three weeks, the Canadian researchers were able to coax the cells from human scalp to grow into fat cells, smooth muscle cells, and glial cells — the sort that might be used to treat patients with currently incurable multiple sclerosis.
False Dogmas
The Canadian research adds to the growing evidence that old scientific dogmas about non-embryonic stem cells were wrong: Cells from alternative — and ethical — sources also have the ability to divide indefinitely and the versatility to grow into the various tissues of the body.
David Prentice, professor of genetics at Indiana University School of Medicine, notes that besides these recent breakthroughs, adult stem cells are showing remarkable promise for the treatment of stroke, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and diabetes. They have also been used successfully in human patients to relieve other diseases including lupus, multiple sclerosis and arthritis.
As well, cells taken without risk from the umbilical cord of newborns are now used to bolster the ravaged systems of leukemia and cancer patients. Since the first successful umbilical cord blood transplant in 1988 — from a newborn baby girl to her brother who suffered from Fanconi's anemia — umbilical cord blood have been used in children because they are an especially rich source of stem cells, and they are less likely to provoke an immune rejection response in transplant recipients.
And such cells are proving even more therapeutic than was first thought. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in June reported that umbilical cord blood from non-matched and unrelated donors was a useful option in treating adults also.
Yet much of the political debate following the president's Aug. 9 decision has continued to focus on expanding federal funding of research to allow more killing of human embryos.
Sen. Edward Kennedy, a professed Catholic and pro-abortion champion who is head of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, chaired Sept. 5 hearings on stem cell research. In his opening remarks, Kennedy implied that more embryonic tissue was necessary.
“President Bush has opened the door to government funding for this important area of health research,” he said. “The question before Congress is whether the door is opened wide enough — whether the stem cell lines identified by the administration are adequate and available for the research that is needed now to save lives.”
Kennedy said that the 60 stem cell lines the president approved for funding may not actually be available, they may not meet safety requirements for transplants, and they may deteriorate and become unusable for research “in a year or two.”
Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, a pro-abortion Repubican who has referred to embryonic stem cells as a “veritable fountain of youth,” offered a similar assessment. “Many of the lines cited are not really viable or robust or usable,” he said. “The real question is whether the door is open sufficiently.”
Geneticist David Prentice is skeptical about these kind of complaints. “The day before [President Bush's] decision, we heard that embryonic stem cells were nothing short of miraculous, that they could form any tissue and grow forever,” said Prentice. “The day after, we were told that they wouldn't grow, that they had all these problems.”
Specter is pressing for a vote on his own bill, the Stem Cell Research Act of 2001. It would extend federal funding to research on so-called discarded human embryos curently stored in IVF (in vitro fertilization) clinics.
But another pending bill, the Responsible Stem Cell Research Act of 2001, introduced in the House in June by Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., would authorize government spending of $30 million to support adult stem-cell research and would also set up a stem-cell bank for collection of umbilical cord blood and placentas.
All legislative debate on stem cells has fallen to the wayside since the Sept. 11 attacks, but the continuing stream of scientific data continues to show the far greater promise of adult and umbilical stem cells, Prentice said.
Said the scientist, “Frankly, I don't think embryonic stem cells will ever make good on any of the promises of treatments that are being held out for them.”
Celeste McGovern writes from Portland, Oregon.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Celeste McGovern ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: The Bedford Hills Witch Project DATE: 10/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 28 - November 3, 2001 ----- BODY:BEDFORD HILLS, N.Y. — No school in the Bedford Unified School District is called the Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (that's Harry Potter's school). But as I visited the area and spent time with families here, I began to think that perhaps one should be.
According to Catholics in the area and investigative journalist Maury Terry, the area has long been a haven for occultists, from Satanists to Wiccans to druids.
The strange goings-on in Bedford and the surrounding affluent Manhattan suburbs came to light when several families, citing constitutional protections of freedom of religion, in 1996 brought a lawsuit against the school district for what they called an “occult” curriculum.
Specifically, the plaintiffs argued that forcing their children to engage in several school and class activities violated constitutional guarantees against the state establishing a religion.
Among others, the contested activities included the making of models of the Hindu god Ganesha, a school wide “Earth Day” ceremony where gifts were given to the earth, the making of “worry dolls” in class to ward off bad dreams, a yoga class taught by a Sikh priest, and the school sponsorship of a game called “Magic: The Gathering.” Though they won on all but the last two issues in a district court, the decision was overturned on appeal. They appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court in July. This month, the high court declined to review the case, letting stand the lower court's rejection.
I flew from Los Angeles to New York with a fair degree of skepticism about suburban witchery. A first look at the quiet upscale towns of Bedford Hills and Mount Kisco reinforced my expectations.
The leaves are in full autumn colors in Bedford Hills now, making it look a little spooky. But when I visited in the summer, the empty Fox Lane High School looked like any other high school temporarily abandoned for the summer, and Fox Lane Middle School looked tame and welcoming. After a brief first visit upon arrival, I retreated to Manhattan, a half-hour drive away.
The view of the neighborhood from cyberspace was very different. There, I found a directory for witches on a Welsh Web site, and scrolled down to the address of a coven listed at a P.O. Box in Bedford Hills. The sleepy Westchester County neighborhoods I'd visited supplied the members of the Coven of the Cauldron of Cerr.
The next morning took me to the town of Pound Ridge, where I met Mary Ann Di Bari, one of the plaintiffs in the witch-class case. She is a retired attorney, and the grandmother and legal guardian of two children who have spent the last several years in the Bedford Unified School District.
For the next three hours, over lunch and coffee, she told me a story the likes of which I thought existed only in Halloween storybooks.
For Di Bari, the violations of the Establishment Clause listed in the lawsuit were just the beginning. The District Court judge had told the plaintiffs to proceed with only their best arguments, not the host of arguments that they had prepared. As a result the case centered around just a few of the families' concerns. For instance, complaints about “fortunetelling” and “tarot card reading” done in her granddaughter Krystal's class were not pursued — and the game Magic: the Gathering.
About two hours into our conversation Di Bari's cell phone rang with a call from Ceil Di Nozzi. She handed me the phone to hear Di Nozzi concur: Writing, reading and witchcraft are taught at the local elementary school. “Everything Mary Ann is telling you is true,” she said.
Others are spooked by Bedford too. Father James Le Bar, exorcist for the Archdiocese of New York, is familiar with the case. Di Bari and other parents invited him to speak at a conference in the Bedford Hills area on the dangers of the occult.
He shared their concerns, particularly with the card game. He said the Magic game “seems to be a type of game ... to invite the evocation of evil spirits.”
Overall, said Father Le Bar, the cards are “dangerous, useless and not in keeping with Catholic tradition. .... They don't belong in any school.” (The makers of the game disagree. See story, this page.)
Certified School Psychologist Steven Kossor of Pennsylvania also sees the cards as dangerous. In an article which appeared in his publication, The Kossor Education Newsletter, shortly before the Bedford lawsuit was filed, Kossor wrote, “One of the most obscene things about the promotion of Magic: The Gathering by public school officials is that they endorse it as something good, educational, enlightened and sensible, while the conscientious parents who oppose it are ridiculed and slandered as narrow-minded, superstitious people who are pro-ignorance and anti-education.”
Lord Ganesha
Another sticking point with Di Bari and the other families who filed suit is their claim that the children were indoctrinated in Hinduism.
“In Social Studies Class they were supposed to learn about countries,” Di Bari began. “They had one year in India — not the India that you learned about, with Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Calcutta. ... It wasn't Geography, it was Hinduism, and not only [were the children] told about it, they were made to experience it.”
One student forced to experience this was Nikki Di Bari, one of Mrs. Di Bari's granddaughters, who was told to make a statue of an elephant-headed Hindu god whom the teacher insisted on referring to as “the Lord Ganesha.”
Though Nikki refused to make a statue, which featured naked women on it, she ended up making one where Ganesha was depicted riding a rat. “I had to do the clay Ganesha,” Nikki Di Bari told me, “I didn't want to, but I had to.” As for the other children in the class, “they wanted to do it,” she said.
In addition to the statues of Ganesha, the students were also instructed to buy worry dolls in the school store to ward off bad dreams, and had a statue of Quetzalcoatl, an Aztec god, suspended from the ceiling of their classroom, said Di Bari.
The Ceremony
Yet another problem was that Earth Day, a celebration of conservation in most places, became a worship service at Fox Lane schools, according to Di Bari.
She says that she tried to “opt out” of the program on the morning of the Earth Day ceremony, but was told it was too late; “the ceremony has begun.”
The ceremony included drums, a large globe mounted on what Di Bari described as “a totem” and children processing in “concentric circles” and listening to what Edward White has described as: “a prayer to the earth.”
White is a lawyer with the Thomas More Center for Law and Justice in Michigan, a pro bono law office which takes cases that involve religious liberty, sanctity of life and traditional values. It is one of the law firms handling the case.
Salem Road featured dolmens, stone configurations reminiscent of Stonehenge which are viewed by Druids and other occultists as ‘doorways to the underworld.’
Mainstream?
Bruce Dennis, Bedford Central's superintendent of schools, dismisses Di Bari and the other concerned parents as “people who relentlessly want to pursue [this],” and told me that his schools' curriculum “is mainstream.”
The district court disagreed. It ruled that the worry dolls, Ganesha-making, and certain tapes that were played in the classes and the Earth Day Ceremony did in fact violate the First Amendment rights of students. This finding was overturned on appeal because the court ruled that the plaintiffs no longer had standing: Some of the parents had moved out of the district: others had children who had graduated. Today, only Nikki Di Bari remains in the system, a senior at Fox Lane High School. Ultimately, the case was appealed to the Supreme Court, which, earlier this month, declined to hear it.
Around the Town
Before I left, Mrs. Di Bari offered to show me around the town, and the Ward Pound Ridge Reservation, where she says she and others have found evidence of animal sacrifice and other occult rituals.
The town has trappings that would appear to be attractive to occultists. Many of the phone numbers in the area began with the prefix 666 — the “number of the beast” in the Book of Revelation. A main street in town is Salem Road, recalling the famous witch trials of Massachusetts.
Our first stop was a street sign. In fact, all of the street signs in Pound Ridge were the same, stylized human arms with the hands at the end pointing with the index and pinky fingers, a symbol which, according to Mrs. Di Bari and several published reports, is a sign of “the horned beast Satan.”
We next drove down Salem Road to a local nursery located across from Pound Ridge Elementary School. It featured dolmens, stone configurations that were reminiscent of Stonehenge and which Di Bari explained are viewed by Druids and other occultists as “doorways to the underworld.”
But she saved the best — or worst — for last.
We drove several miles to the area of North Salem, and into the Ward Pound Ridge Reservation, a wildlife refuge.
Five minutes on a dirt road took us to a picnic area covered with graffiti, which included what appeared to be a drawing of an African death mask with names written below it.
The words “GOAT BOY” were carved into the rafters, and Di Bari explained that that was the name of a local group of young witches.
Nailed into one of the posts was an odd device, which looked like something out of the movie The Blair Witch Project. I have read a bit about hexes and figured that it was some sort of curse. It seems that it was, for when I pointed it out to Di Bari she chuckled and noted that the witches “call these things blessings.”
In front of the picnic area was a meadow where Di Bari said the members of the occult “gather every Thursday night to call down the moon.”
Witches' View
No one whom Di Bari named as members of the occult would talk to me for this story.
When I called the nursery to inquire about the dolmens, the woman who took the call after hearing my question relayed it to someone else: “He wants to know about the Stonehenge stuff,” she whispered. A hushed voice replied: “Take his name and number and tell him we'll have someone call him back.” No one ever called.
But after I left Bedford, several witches in Westchester County did respond to an e-mail I sent.
Three sent rather lengthy replies. One teen witch and former Catholic, Christine Gorman, who goes by the name LyrStar, explained that the summary of the Wiccan law, called the Rede, states: “harm none, do as you will.” She wrote: “If no one is hurt by the ceremonies being conducted (i.e. no sacrifices, nor curses), then it is all right to do the spell/ceremony.”
As for the problems in the school district, LyrStar wrote: “I also doubt that any real Wiccans are taking over schools anywhere — we tend to be to be a fairly peaceful bunch.”
She defended positive presentations of witches, however. “[W]hen one is bombarded with images of the witch as green, wart-faced, and generally evil from birth, it is hard to shake that image,” she wrote.
Not everyone shares this benign view. Maury Terry, an investigative journalist and the author of the book, The Ultimate Evil: The Truth About the Cult Murders: Son of Sam and Beyond, details an extensive network of Satanism and occult activity in Westchester County, complete with animal sacrifice.
He makes a compelling case that such activity has long been a part of Westchester County, and that David Berkowitz, the notorious killer of nearly a quarter century ago, was simply part of this broad network. He writes: “The fact remains that while some groups claim to celebrate nature, many others pay homage to Satan. That is their tradition and they honor it.”
Nevertheless, Mary Ann Di Bari is not leaving Pound Ridge any time soon, despite having had curses chanted at her over the phone “from as far away as Chicago” (she has caller ID) and despite being disliked by the school board and accused by neighbors of “hurting property values” with the publicity she has generated.
Despite the court setbacks, the media attention has caused things to get a bit better, according to Di Bari. Students today, unlike those of the past, no longer have to make Ganesha figures, and there is no longer an “Earth Day” ritual.
But some problems persist.
After the Sept. 11 attacks, students aren't allowed to sing any patriotic songs that mention God, and can't wear anything patriotic — even flags are taboo.
Di Bari says that as long as her grandchildren wish to continue, she will stay with them and fight. “If we run away what are we saying to Our Lord who is victorious on the cross?” asks Di Bari: “What are we saying to St. Michael and the archangels ... who defeated this beast? That [the devil] has power? That he is God?”
Andrew Walther is based in Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: A Visit to a Sleepy N.Y. Town Where Some Say Witches Hide ----- EXTENDED BODY: Andrew Walther ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: A New Generation Watches War With Mixed Emotions DATE: 10/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 28 - November 3, 2001 ----- BODY:NEW YORK — Students at New York's Fordham University are more likely these days to notice the 228 names that are etched onto the walls just inside this Jesuit University's imposing, turn-of-the-century chapel.
A memorial to students at the university who died in battle during World War II, the list is a bronze reminder of the possibility — increasingly real since President Bush's September declaration of a worldwide war on terrorism — that young American men will be called upon for service by the United States military in the years ahead.
Not since the Vietnam War have American males faced the real possibility of a military draft. And here at Fordham, just miles from the site where two hijacked planes took down the World Trade Center Oct. 11, student feeling is mixed.
“I think that if we did end up going to war and they needed me I would go,” said freshman journalism major Mike Moriarty, 17.
Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness in Lavonia, Mich., said that military efforts now don't require a draft.
“We don't know what the future will be,” she said. Before the United States would issue a draft, it would have to be “something on the scale of World War II. More than a one-front war.”
The draft was repealed by the Nixon administration. To reinstate it would need an act of Congress. Young men still register for it, in case it is ever reinstated.
Nonetheless, she said it is by no means unthinkable that the draft would return.
A native of Elizabeth, N.J., Moriarty said he trusts the government's judgment of a just war.
“If the U.S. decided this was the best decision, I'd be behind it because I believe in our ideals,” Moriarty said. As a Catholic, Moriarty noted, the Pope's recent defense of the right of a country to protect itself against aggressors solidified his support for America's military actions in Afghanistan.
“If my Church is behind these acts,” Moriarty said, “then I am because then I know that I'm doing the right thing.”
The Holy Father, however, has not commented specifically on current military actions, but merely on the principles of just war.
A group of freshmen who were headed to the cafeteria for dinner on a recent evening offered differing views on their duties as citizens and Christians in responding to the attacks on American targets by terrorists.
“I would try to do everything in my power not to go,” said 18-year-old Jamie Coppola, whose family lives in Norwalk, Conn. Asked what he'd do if Congress reinstated the draft, Coppola said, “I don't know what I'd do, but I'm definitely not willing to fight.”
“I've thought about it coming up and I'm with Jamie,” said John Merlin, also 18, from Little Silver, N.J.
Coppola and Merlin, similarly dressed in jeans, new sneakers, and baseball caps, laughed and teased each other as they thought about the draft.
But Patrick Wood, 18, of Montgomery Village, Md., saw in the recent events a duty to serve. “I wouldn't enlist at this point,” Wood said, “but if my number came up, I'd go. I would not try to dodge it because I think it's my duty.”
Wood corrected himself. “It is my duty,” he said. “It's just what needs to be done. If you get drafted, it's your civic duty.”
Coppola interjected his distaste for the idea. This time, with added emphasis.
“I don't feel a commitment at all,” he said. “I don't want to die. I'd rather live a nice life helping people out.” He added, “There's so much to live for. I have a big life ahead of me I think. We Catholics are supposed to believe that God is there for us. I don't think that at 18, dying on a battlefield is what God intended for me to do.”
Past Generations
Symbols of patriotism are everywhere at Fordham. American flags hang from windows all over campus. Across Fordham Road, vendors sell pins and posters touting America's new cause. Employees wore lapel pins; even car windows bear patriotic encouragement for America and New York.
Tom Lacey, a veteran of World War II, and a graduate of the Jesuit-run Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash., described the patriotic mood at his college in the early 1940s as “universal.”
“In those days everybody wanted to get into something right away, sort of the way people feel today I hope,” he said.
Lacey, who was sent to the Harvard Supply School in April, 1944 and then sent to the South Pacific on the destroyer escort USS Swearer, said that of the six ships in his division, every one but his own was struck by a kamikaze pilot.
“The morale was exceptional,” he said. “Everybody was out there doing whatever their part was supposed to be. It seemed universal.
“Everybody was a very loyal American on campus,” he recalled. “To give us a choice, most would probably want to stay, but it seemed we all had to go.”
However, “the attitude during Vietnam was totally different,” Lacey said.
Today's generation is spoiled,” Lacey commented. “They have a lot more than we had when we were young and they seem to want more sooner. That's human nature I suppose. If all of them were spoiled, it might be a little difficult to get the support.”
Wanting to Risk It All
Traditionally in the United States, young men in college are not the first to go in the event of a draft. Even students in the Reserve Officers Training Corps, like freshman Mark Santore, are not expected to serve until after graduation.
Santore, who sat outside his freshman dormitory at Fordham polishing his high black military boots on a recent afternoon, said he's wanted to be in the Army “his whole life.”
When the World Trade Center collapsed, he said he and a friend hopped right on the subway and headed downtown.
“I went down there to see if I could take pictures and then when we realized we could help I put the camera in my bag,” he said.
A native of North Haven, Conn., Santore says he will be willing to go wherever the military wants him to, once he graduates and has his commission.
“If I was not in Officer Training and there was a war with a draft, I'd go,” he said. “I would volunteer. I'd be nervous but I'd go.”
Why?
“I'm going because when our grandfathers were called, they went,” Santore said. “When there is a war and our freedom is at stake, it's our civic duty to serve our country during times of crisis. I would go in there shaking, but ever since I was little, I've felt that way. It's just one of those things you have to do.”
Behind Santore, sitting on a hand rail and smoking a cigarette, was an 18-year-old freshman from Long Island who identified herself simply as Kristen. Her boyfriend, Matthew Repp, volunteered for the Marine Corps last year and is likely to be sent overseas soon, she said.
“He told me to think of all the people who don't have parents any more,” Kristen said. “He wants to fight for these people who don't have family members.”
Around Kristen's neck hung a tiny gold heart that she said Matthew gave her for her 15th birthday. Looking at it, she said, “I was upset [when he volunteered] and then he's like, ‘You're being selfish.’ He really wants to fight for our country.”
Stephen Bock, from Columbia, Md. 18. said he didn't know what to think of military service. “I don't believe in killing,” he said. “It's not my place.”
Still, the tall muscular freshman added, “If I had to go, I'd go. I wouldn't dodge the draft. ‘Cause then somebody would go in my place, and I'm not worth any more than them.”
Santore nodded approvingly.
“I like that answer,” he said, still shining his boots.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brian McGuire ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: High Anxiety: Faith Faces Anthrax Fears DATE: 10/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 28 - November 3, 2001 ----- BODY:NEW HAVEN, Conn. — As employees evacuating from the 22-story Knights of Columbus headquarters stood on the sidewalk in mid-October, some began to notice that people from the 19th floor, where Supreme Knight Carl Anderson's office is located, were not among them. Some began to speculate that those employees were being tested for anthrax exposure.
It was by then a depressingly familiar scenario. A secretary had opened a letter without a return address and pulled out a folded piece of paper, only to have white powder spill onto her hand and skirt. In this case, the letter was addressed to Supreme Master Nestor Barber, who oversees the Fourth Degree Knights.
Emergency personnel responded to the secretary's call to 911. Those closest to the incident were screened and showered, and the offending powder was sent to a lab in Hartford, the state capital.
“Until you know the results of the tests, there is a little anxiety,” said Jean Migneault, deputy supreme knight. He was in the office Oct. 15, when the incident occurred. Anderson was in Rome for the Synod of Bishops.
The secretary who opened the letter experienced stress over the incident for a couple of days, Migneault said. But tests came back negative for biochemical agents, including anthrax. Employees of the Knights assumed the incident was a prank, as many other incidents around the country appear to be.
“We have to go on with our lives, but be very careful,” Migneault said. “I'm praying this comes to an end — soon. It's getting on people's nerves.”
Americans are on edge, wondering if and when another terrorist attack will occur and what form it might take.
In Boca Raton, Fla., where an employee of American Media Inc., a supermarket tabloid publisher, died of anthrax, reaction in St. Joan of Arc Parish runs the gamut from having “their heads in the sand” about the situation to being “paranoid” about it, said Father John McMahon. St. Joan's is not far from American Media, and some parishioners work for the publisher, the pastor said.
“Like all Americans, we thought we were outside the messiness of human existence,” said Father McMahon. Most parishioners are “following the advice of the leaders of our country in terms of getting on with our lives, but with reasonable concern.”
Father McMahon finds it helps to talk with parishioners about their fears. So does Msgr. Anthony Dalla Villa, pastor of the midtown Manhattan parish of St. Agnes. “People are coming in to speak to priests,” he said. “You let them speak. I just listen. I don't think they're looking for advice, just a way to vent their feelings.”
St. Agnes is down the street from Grand Central Terminal, where tens of thousands of commuters come into the city every day on trains from New York's northern suburbs and transfer to subway lines below. Commuters' anxieties focus on the possibility of a chemical weapon being released in a subway or train station.
The church is also across the street from the 77-floor Chrysler building and a few blocks from the United Nations, both potential targets.
Capuchin Father Francis Gasparik, pastor of St. John the Baptist Parish on Manhattan's West Side, near Pennsylvania Railroad Station, also worries about the fear being instilled in the elderly.
Some he has spoken with are afraid to come out of their homes, and that, he says, will lead to social isolation and health problems.
“It's important for religious leaders to send the right signal,” he said. “Our preaching needs to be hope-filled,” and to remind people of faith in a good and loving God.
He felt that kind of faith was second nature for the people who attend an all-night vigil the parish has hosted for some 30 years. The first one after the terrorist attack on the city, Oct. 5, drew its usual 400 people, with most staying throughout the night.
Downtown, near New York City Police headquarters, Blessed Sacrament Father James Hayes said that most of the people he knows are “still trying to recover from the World Trade Center” collapse. That includes members of St. Andrew Parish, where he is pastor, not far from the terror site, and emergency personnel who have been involved in the recovery and cleanup efforts.
The mountain of steel and concrete, permeated with fuel from the two jets that were flown into the towers, was still burning and emitting a foul odor when Father Hayes spoke Oct. 18. And, he said, people are still afraid of other attacks.
For law enforcement personnel, the fear “doesn't debilitate them,” he said. “It motivates them to be on the job, to be vigilant.”
Father Hayes, who said he “got out by the skin of my teeth” when he was ministering to victims on the scene Sept. 11 when the towers collapsed, said he expects the fear and anxiety will be worse six to eight months from now when post-traumatic stress will set in. He saw the same thing happen in the aftermath of the TWA 800 crash off Long Island in 1996. “People will feel terrified at being in tall buildings, they'll abuse alcohol and drugs and engage in aberrant behavior,” he predicted.
One thing that will help ease the stress will be recalling the good reaction of people on Sept. 11, when “one stranger lent a helping hand to another,” he said.
Father McMahon, of Boca Raton, also takes a philosophical view of the matter. “Events are thrown at us, and they shake us out of our complacency and isolation,” he said. “We become more aware of the preciousness of kindness. We become thankful for what God gives us.”
Realizing we are not always in control and realizing our own mortality, he said, makes us “grateful for the day we have. People are more listening, not only with their minds but with their hearts. There's a tendency [normally] to be distracted and to regard things as disposable. We miss the family and relationships around us.”
Prayer is a powerful way to deal with one's anxieties as well, he added.
In Los Angeles, where Mayor James Hahn has asked citizens to ready themselves for a terrorist attack as if they were preparing for a major earthquake, Divine Word Father Walter Miller finds parishioners going about their business and “not terribly frightened,” although the possibility of attacks is “on every-body's minds.”
“I bring it up every Sunday” from the pulpit at Our Lady of Loretto Church, where he is pastor. “I ask, ‘What message can we learn? What's really important in our lives?’”
Father Miller too finds that people want to have the subject of their anxieties expressed in some way and be encouraged to pray about them. When one priest celebrating Mass failed to mention the bombing that began that day in Afghanistan, several parishioners later wanted to know why.
Back in New Haven, the scare at the Knights of Columbus has the fraternal organization processing mail “item by item,” Migneault, the deputy supreme knight, said, so that suspicious envelopes and packages can be placed aside and dealt with separately. “It slows us down a little. We just want our employees to be safe.”
That same concern led to Congress being shut down for five days after a potent form of anthrax was mailed to Sen. Tom Daschle's office last week. The epidemic of powder-laden letters also is spreading thin the resources of the FBI and other law enforcement agencies.
A panel of Georgetown University experts said Oct. 15 that the threat of biological or chemical attacks, while real, is most effective because it creates a climate of fear rather than because of the potential for harming many people.
Boca Raton's Father McMahon likes to put it all in perspective. Of the millions of pieces of mail received in the country every day, so far, only a few people have contracted anthrax. And, except in the first case, it has been treatable.
Indeed, people in New York “seem to be getting back to normal,” St. Agnes' Msgr. Dalla Villa reported. He credits the daily encouragement of New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani to “get out there” to live life and go about one's business. “Otherwise, [the terrorists] will take advantage of the fear” they instill, the pastor commented.
And Father Gasparik, pastor of St. John's near Penn Station, said that someone suggested canceling an upcoming parish dance.
“No way,” Father Gasparik responded. “We can't give in to this.”
----- EXCERPT: Pastors comfort frightened flocks ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Burger ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: From Fascist Hate to Christian Love DATE: 10/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 28 - November 3, 2001 ----- BODY:In his teens and 20s he was a member of a quasi-fascist party in Britain and was even jailed for race hatred.
Through reading G.K. Chesterton, he eventually became a Catholic and ditched his extremist beliefs.
He was written 12 books on such figures as Chesterton, C.S. Lewis and E.F. Schumacher, as well as a volume on literary converts.
The 40-year-old writer-in-residence at Ave Maria College in Ypsilanti, Mich., spoke recently with Register correspondent Paul Burnell.
Can you tell us about your family background?
My parents were working class from the East End of London. My father was a carpenter and my mother did various unskilled jobs at various times. I left school at 16 and got waylaid in dubious politics.
What kind of politics do you mean?
I actually enrolled on an engineering degree course but I got involved in extreme right-wing politics and I dropped out in order to pursue a political career and I ended up editing The National Front newspaper.
How did you come to be involved in that kind of politics?
In the mid-1970s in working-class housing estates it wasn't unknown for people to be involved — we had more than 30 paid-up members of the Young National Front in our housing estate. I got involved when I was 14 or 15. In the England of the 1970s, a lot of people were persuaded that there was a problem with immigration.
Did you get involved in any of the more notorious activities of the Front?
There was always violence, it was part of the backdrop. We used to have running fights with the Socialist Worker Party. I was arrested and convicted under the Race Relations Act for inciting racial hatred with the magazine called Bulldog, which I edited for the Young National Front. I served two separate prison sentences.
Did you actually hate black people and Jews?
It is very difficult to understand the emotions behind my behavior, especially after a quarter of a century. Now, I don't think I ever hated anybody as a person — they were in abstract. I had views about blacks and Jews which were far from Christian.
How did you begin to change?
The Trotskyites used to taunt us that we were the foot soldiers of capitalism. Being an East End boy, I didn't like the idea of that. I wasn't prepared to let it pass.
I tried some research when someone suggested I try to read the distributism of Chesterton and Hillaire Belloc. I bought one book on Chesterton's distributism and one led to another. I am an enthusiastic bibliophile and I started reading more of his works, I began to read his defence against attacks on Catholicism.
At this stage I was a member of the Orange Order in London, opposing the Pope's visit to Britain.
We had very strong links with the UDF and the UDA [Protestant paramilitaries in Northern Ireland]. There were three Orange Lodges in London. I was a member not because I was Protestant — it was merely a political thing because of the National Front's connection with these groups.
I read [Chesterton's] Orthodoxy and I actually felt is arguments were reasonable. I found myself sympathising with the Catholic position. In 1986 some Jehovah's Witnesses called at the door and I though it would be fun if I would pretend to them I was a Catholic. I was convinced I could win the argument. That was in 1986. In 1989, I was received into the Catholic Church.
You partially discovered your faith in prison, right?
From 1982 to 1986, I had done a lot of reading in prison. At one stage, I was in solitary confinement. Unfortunately, members of the party protested so much I got moved out of solitary — I had been enjoying it!
I had started off reading mainly political stuff but had found myself regretting not having a faith. Then I had the problem of squaring it with my politics.
I first started going to Mass in 1986. I don't think I really understood it. I went to see a priest. I was going to Mass every Sunday. He was younger than I was. I think he was out of his depth, to be honest. It was a difficult time, anyway, as I was trying to extricate myself from politics and cutting my ties with certain friends and acquaintances.
I moved to Norfolk (in Southeast England) in 1988 and started attending Mass again and undergoing regular instruction. When people asked me questions about my background, I told them.
How did the people react?
They were very positive. When I was received in the parish, I just felt like I had come home.
What did your parents make of this change?
They were very supportive. My father has since become a Catholic.
How did you get into writing?
I am not sure how I managed. I got a job in a book wholesalers where I worked from 1988 to 1996. I had read books on different aspects of Chesterton but I never felt there was one book that covered all areas of his life. I would be researching and writing when I got home from doing a full day's work. I had to take the plunge and go full time. I realised that I would not get an advance unless I already had a manuscript to show a publisher.
God really blessed me. I got a big publisher for the book. The book got some very good reviews. I have been very blessed to be a fulltime writer.
I was prompted to write to Ave Maria because I thought, with getting married and hoping to start a family, freelance writing is very precarious. God has been very, very good to me, His timing has been impeccable. We are now expecting our first child.
Paul Burnell writes from Manchester, England
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pearce ----- KEYWORD: Inperson -------- TITLE: Catholic Critics Question Evangelical 'Prayer of Jabez' Phenomenon DATE: 10/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 28 - November 3, 2001 ----- BODY:SISTERS, Ore. — The prayer itself, hidden among the huge genealogy of 1 Chronicles, escapes notice. But the book The Prayer of Jabez: Breaking Through to the Blessed Life can't be ignored. It has become a multimillion-dollar publishing phenomenon.
Not only has the book by Bruce H. Wilkinson sold more than 8.5 million copies to date, but it has also spawned a Jabez devotional, Jabez Bible study, Jabez video and audiotapes and Jabez merchandise. Now, a series of at least seven spinoff books for children, teens and women are forthcoming.
It is a phenomenon fueled largely by the book's believers, such as currently reigning Miss Minnesota, Kari Knuttila, a Catholic who credits the prayer, in part, for her title.
“My mother had given me the book and a prayer card before the statewide competition. I read a couple of chapters each night and finished the book on the day of the pageant,” said Knuttila. “The book made me think about expanding my territory and what I could do as Miss Minnesota.”
Stories such as Knuttila's fill the publisher's Web page.
Bill Mintiens, brand director for Wilkinson's products with Multnomah Publishers, credits word of mouth and “pass-along value” for the success of the book. “Once someone was touched by the book, they either recommended it or gave their book to someone else,” he said. “That fueled the fire of people buying many, many copies of the book.”
The Rev. Pete Brisco, senior pastor of Bent Tree Bible Fellowship in Carrollton, Texas, ordered 4,000 copies of the book to give to every family for the church's 25th anniversary. “My desire was that we be a praying church,” he said. “I just think the prayer of Jabez is a great way to order prayer.”
“People are not excited about the book,” author Bruce Wilkinson has said. “They're excited about what happens to them when they pray Jabez. They get a whole new vision of what can happen to them. God can bless them a whole lot, but they must ask for it.”
From Judah to Dallas
The prayer, found in 1 Chronicles 4:9-10, interrupts the naming of different branches of the tribe of Judah and reads, in the translation used by the book, “Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother named him Jabez, saying, ‘I gave birth to him in pain.’ Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, ‘Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.’ And God granted his request.”
The prayer is one that Wilkinson, founder of Walk Thru the Bible Ministries, has prayed since 1972 when he was a student at Dallas Theological Seminary. In the book, Wilkinson explains how the prayer has blessed his own ministry. The book is only the first in a three-part series being published by Multnomah.
Not everyone, however, is heaping praise upon the book. “It is a minor prayer by a minor figure from a minor part of the Bible,” said James Akin, senior apologist with Catholic Answers. Among his criticisms, he cites the book's incorrect translation and faulty exegesis.
Akin points out that Wilkinson uses the New King James Version of the Bible — the only translation which makes Jabez's prayer appear more selfless than it actually may have been.
“The exegesis that Wilkinson offers, both at the translation level and the interpretation level, is bad,” said Akin. “In both cases he uses options that best suit the picture he wishes to create even though they are not supported by the evidence.”
As a case in point, Akin suggested that “Wilkinson's spiritualizing elements of the prayer, such as ‘let me have more influence than you,’ is a very foreign concept in the ancient Hebrew mind-set. The point of the prayer may very well be that Jabez was praying to the God of Israel rather than some other god or idol,” added Akin.
Others, such as fellow Catholic Answers' apologist Jan Wakelin, are concerned with the prayer's emphasis on material wealth.
“Simply put, God favors those who ask,” Wilkinson writes. “He holds back nothing from those who want and earnestly long for what he wants.”
“It smacks a little of the Prosperity Gospel,” said Wakelin. “What about atheists who have been blessed with wealth they never asked for?”
Gospel of Self
The Prosperity Gospel dates back to the Word of Faith and Christian Science movement founded by Mary Baker Eddy and popularized by Norman Vincent Peale. The movement fell into decline with the fall of televange-lists Jim Bakker and Oral Roberts.
Mintiens disagreed with such a characterization. “People that put the book into the prosperity doctrine box have simply not read the book.”
Countered Akin, “There is nothing bad about the prayer itself, but making it the central part of people's spiritual life fundamentally misunderstands the prayer's presence in the Bible and elevates it to a stature that Scripture does not intend it to have.”
He said its massive marketing effort is successful because of “an absence of ritual prayer in Protestantism. It is an attempt to manufacture blessing and spirituality through a form of ritual prayer that Protestants are typically deprived of.”
The prayer has also led to the publication of both a parody and a critique. HarperSanFrancisco recently published “Praying Like Jesus: The Lord's Prayer in a Culture of Prosperity.” Written by American Baptist minister James Mulholland, it challenges the overwhelmingly popular pattern prayer exemplified by the prayer of Jabez.
“In a materialistic, self-centered culture,” writes Mulholland, “such a prayer will always be attractive. Unfortunately, when we reduce prayer to gaining blessing, we make prayer a device — a tool designed to manipulate God. The better the tool, the more blessing we receive.
“Blessing, rather than being an attribute of God, becomes a commodity sold in the marketplace of religious culture.”
Tim Drake is the editor of www.catholic.net and writes from St. Cloud, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 10/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 28 - November 3, 2001 ----- BODY:Harlem Nuns Celebrate 85th Anniversary
The nuns have been based in Harlem for the past 77 years. The 23 sisters at the convent range in age from 39 to 101, and many can recount firsthand history of the area, from the Great Depression, the Harlem Renaissance, the fiery speeches of Malcolm X and the illegal drug trade in the 1980s.
Some of the nuns worry that a new popularity for Harlem is driving rents up — and the working poor out. But Harlem's changes are also reflected in the fact that the Handmaids' St. Benedict Day Nursery now serves black, white, African and Asian children, the Times reported. Even the order itself, one of three predominantly black religious communities in the country, now has a white and a Filipino nun.
Terror Victims Turn to Catholic Charities for Help
U.S. NEWSWIRE, Sept. 14 — Catholic Charities agencies are helping victims and their families recover from the terrorist attacks in New York, Washington and western Pennsylvania, providing things such as grief counseling and emergency food, clothing and shelter, the news service reported.
“With a crisis like this, it is likely families are going to face any number of needs,” said Ed Orzechowski, executive director of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. “They could range from something as simple as transportation to visit an injured loved one to — sadly — burial needs.”
Catholic Charities Office of Disaster Response sent grants of $10,000 each to Catholic Charities of Rockville Centre, N.Y., close to Manhattan, and Arlington, Va., close to the Pentagon, for grief and spiritual counseling. Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York, based in Manhattan, had counselors fanned out across the city to help those experiencing stress and depression.
Religious Shows Gain Viewers After Sept. 11
Likewise, ratings jumped 60% for a news program hosted by “prophecy expert” Hal Lindsey.
And a radio show, “Islam in the Media,” fielded calls covering topics such as the teachings of Islam. But some networks, including Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting, also used the recent events in their marketing pitches, the Journal reported, to get wider distribution on cable systems and TV stations and raise money for their ministries.
Msgr. Thomas J. Hartman, co-host of “The God Squad” on New York cable, warned that religious leaders should avoid trying to convert people “by grabbing them by the throat at a difficult time.”
Said Msgr. Hartman, “What the Church is saying is this is not a time to proselytize. It's more a time for living the message of our faith.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: 'Hell House Halloween' Highlights Horrors of Abortion DATE: 10/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 28 - November 3, 2001 ----- BODY:ARVADA, Colo. — For most children, Halloween means trick-or-treating, carving pumpkins and getting frightened by pretend ghosts and goblins.
But for a growing number of Christian youth, the holiday involves something Protestant minister Keenan Roberts hopes will scare them even more: graphic depictions of abortion, and scenes of people living in hell for partaking in abortions.
His project is controversial, to say the least. Roberts, of the Abundant Life Christian Center in Arvada, Colo., began staging Hell House, a seven-stage haunted house staffed by some 250 volunteers, in 1995 in Denver. Since then, the fundamentalist Bible church has shipped 475 Hell House Outreach Kits, priced at $199, to churches and Christian youth organizations all over the world. Roberts says at least one multistage Hell House will teach children about abortion and other sins in every state this year.
A haunted Hell House in Kingsport, Tenn., last year attracted about 9,000 visitors and an abundance of controversy for the Higher Ground Baptist Church. Along with the scene of a teen-age girl who dies after having an abortion, actors portrayed the tragedies of drunken driving, suicide and teen rebellion.
Parents in a Washington, D.C., suburb denounced the use of deceptive fliers, posted last year by an evangelical church, that invited the public to a “Fright Night” event. Instead of Halloween goblins, visitors paid $5 to see depictions of abortion, a gang murder and a young man dying from AIDS.
Roberts won't reveal the names of organizations that have bought the kits. However, he said they have been sold to organizations representing nearly all Christian denominations, including Catholic organizations.
This year, the Denver Hell House opened Oct. 19 with a less graphic portrayal of abortion than in some ealier years. The scene, repeated for groups of 25 to 30 people at a time, features “Jennifer,” a woman who aborted her child. Jennifer is shown being haunted by visions of her aborted daughter, Tara.
“She [Tara] comes out on what would have been her first piano recital,” Roberts said. “She comes out on what would have been her sweet 16 party; she speaks to her mother on what would have been her wedding day; and then she speaks to her mother as an older lady who was destined to become a first-grade teacher.”
In one scene, Tara accuses her mother of murder while a demonic tour guide cackles. Tara makes her final appearance in the seventh and final Hell House scene — heaven.
Children as young as age 10 are allowed into the haunted house if accompanied by adults. Roberts and his volunteers say they hope children who visit Hell House will make better decisions about sex and abortion during their teen-age years.
“Youth know more than we think they know earlier and earlier now,” says Rachael Gowins, the 24-year-old Abundant Life parishioner who portrays Jennifer.
In Denver alone, Roberts estimates more than 33,000 people have toured Hell House since 1995, many of them Catholic.
A Parent's View
“Yes, it is shocking and graphic,” said Louise Hernandez, a Catholic who has taken three of her children through the Denver Hell House for the past three years.
“But my children have no misconception now about abortion and what it means,” she said. “They will grow up surrounded with a lot of lies about so-called reproductive choice, which tries to confuse the issue. These acts and images will stick with them no matter what anyone says.”
Officials with the Archdiocese of Denver neither condemn nor condone Hell House, which has made headlines in Denver for seven straight years. Greg Kail, spokesman for Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput, says he knows of no Catholic organizations in Colorado that have ordered a Hell House Outreach Kit.
Although Kail has never toured Hell House, he has read about it and understands that the haunted house tries to communicate an anti-abortion message in a context of fear. He hopes the message doesn't backfire.
“It's important to remember that, in communicating morality, what's intended is not always what's received by the listener,” Kail says. “And if we're trying to convert hearts, what's received by the audience — not just what we intend for them to receive — matters tremendously. So when your intent is good, you have to be sure your approach isn't counterproductive, or the message may be dismissed out of hand.
“Shocking people isn't always effective. The truth about abortion is shocking enough, if one just pauses to think about it.”
Kail says the Denver Archdiocese encourages Catholics to be gentle and loving when teaching the immorality of abortion. However, he's careful not to criticize the tactics of those who take a more direct or confrontational approach.
“Abortion is a real tragedy,” Kail says. “A lot of people are out there doing very heroic work to end abortion. We're just saying the way people receive the message is critical to making a real difference in the world.”
The Abortionists' Response
In direct response to Hell House, a pro-abortion group in Fort Collins Colo., called Life and Liberty for Women, is staging a “pro-choice” Halloween play in Denver. The play, “Abortion's Silenced Legacy,” features graphic scenes of women dying from back-alley abortions.
And Dr. Warren Hern, founder and director of the Boulder Abortion Clinic in Boulder, Colo., responds to Hell House by characterizing all pro-life activists as violent. Hern, who advertises “specializing in late abortions,” spends his personal and professional life behind multiple layers of bullet-proof glass and blames people such as Rev. Roberts for spreading anger.
“This is the American brand of theocratic fascism, and their message is ‘do what we tell you to do, or we will kill you,’” the late-term abortionist told Boulder Weekly.
But Nat Hentoff, a pro-life columnist for the Village Voice in New York, says Hell Houses serve an important role in teaching the truth about the atrocity of abortion. He says America tolerates free speech, precisely so people like Rev. Roberts can be shocking and direct.
“You can teach in any which way you like,” Hentoff said. “That's the whole thing about free speech. Nobody's forced to come, right?
This is not a society like China, where the rulers decide what you can see and what you can't see. We have the exact opposite, I hope.”
Wayne Laugesen writes from Boulder, Colorado.
----- EXCERPT: But some pro-lifers believe such shows are too graphic ----- EXTENDED BODY: Wayne Laugesen ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 10/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 28 - November 3, 2001 ----- BODY:Hungary Offers Help in Meeting With Orthodox
Madl, in Rome to open an exhibition on 1,000 years of Christianity in Hungary, said such a meeting would be “an important message as far as the future of Europe and closer cooperation among the Christian churches of the world are concerned.”
Turkish Paper Claims Pope Prayed for Crusade
When President Bush ordered the military strikes, Akit charged, “The Christian world and Israel announced their backing.”
Fides, the Vatican news agency, however, reported that Pope John Paul II and the bishops in the Vatican for the World Synod of Bishops, prayed for peace and for Afghanistan the day after the first strikes.
Pope and Venezuelan President Discuss Terrorism
The two also discussed Church issues in the South American country, including laws on education and worship and cooperation between religious and government authorities.
Scottish Students Pipe for Pope
VATICAN CITY — Pope John Paul II celebrated the 23rd anniversary of his election by going to work as usual.
Arriving for the morning session of the Synod of Bishops on Oct. 16, he was greeted with sustained applause by the cardinals and bishops. One monsignor on hand called out: “Twenty-three, twenty-three!” John Paul is now the seventh-longest reigning Pope in the history of the Church, including St. Peter.
For his part the Pope acknowledged the applause with a simple wave.
“Sia lodato Gesù Cristo (Praised be Jesus Christ),” John Paul saluted the bishops, the pious Italian greeting he uses at almost all of his public events. The custom was evocative, though — those were his first words upon appearing on the balcony of St. Peter's in the evening of his election Oct. 16, 1978.
At the end of the morning prayers that begin the Synod's day, the assembly sang Oremus Pro Pontifice (Let us pray for the Pope), a traditional Latin hymn.
“Planet Earth has many faces and innumerable cultures which make up your parish,” said Cardinal Bernard Agre of the Ivory Coast, speaking on behalf of the Synod. “Above all you have been a pilgrim of hope, an artist of dialogue and of peace, and you have invited all your contemporaries to experience God.
“After the Jubilee of 2000, instead of looking back in retrospect, your prophetic words come back to us: Duc in altum!” [“Set out into the deep!”]
There were other minor departures from the Synod routine. Longtime papal secretary Bishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, who does not usually accompany the Pope in the Synod Hall, slipped in a back door to hear Agre's tribute to John Paul, leaving just as unobtrusively afterwards. At the end of the morning session, the bishops sang the Italian song “best wishes to you” — the local equivalent of “Happy Birthday” and sung to the same tune. The African bishops, who had hatched their own plan over breakfast, then broke into a rousing chorus of “For He's A Jolly Good Fellow,” led by a delegate from Zambia.
For his part, the Holy Father teased the bishops that they were early — it was not until the evening that he had been elected.
The rest of the papal anniversary week — following the election on Oct. 16, the pontificate was formally “inaugurated” on Oct. 22 — was marked by four major public ceremonies, including the Wednesday audience, a Friday afternoon Mass for the students of Rome's pontifical universities, a Saturday evening prayer vigil for Italian families which drew 100,000 to St. Peter's Square, and then Sunday's beatification Mass of Luigi and Maria Quattrocchi.
The Holy Father continued to “age into the future” as one of his biographers has put it, making the necessary concessions to his physical decline but doing as much as possible. On Oct. 19, he spoke extemporaneously in an unusually clear voice to the students at the end of his homily, recalling fondly his years as archbishop of Krakow, when he would celebrate Mass for the beginning of the academic year there, a tradition he brought with him to Rome.
During the Sunday beatification, he delivered his homily using the newest papal adaptation — a sort of “lap-desk” which is placed across his chair to hold his papers during the homily.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Raymond J. De Souza ----- KEYWORD: Vatican -------- TITLE: Evil Does Not Have the Last Word DATE: 10/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 28 - November 3, 2001 ----- BODY:The psalm just proclaimed is a hymn in honor of Zion, “the city of the great king” (Psalm 48:3), at that time the seat of the temple of the Lord and the place of his presence in the midst of humanity. Christian faith now applies it to the “Jerusalem above,” which is “our mother” (Galatians 4:26).
The liturgical tone of this hymn, the evocation of a festive procession (see verses 13-14), the peaceful vision of Jerusalem that echoes divine salvation — all make Psalm 48 a prayer that can be a song of praise for beginning the day, even if clouds gather on the horizon.
In order to appreciate the meaning of the psalm, there are three helpful acclamations — at the beginning, the center and the end — almost as though offering the spiritual key to the composition and introducing us to its internal atmosphere. The three invocations are: “Great is the Lord and highly praised in the city of our God” (verse 2); “O God, within your temple we ponder your steadfast love” (verse 10); “so mighty is God, our God who leads us always” (verse 15).
God triumphs over hostile powers, even when they seem majestic and invincible.
God's Holy City
These three acclamations, which exalt the Lord but also “the city of our God” (verse 2), frame two great parts of the psalm. The first is a joyous celebration of the Holy City — Zion, victorious against the enemies' assaults, serene under the mantle of divine protection (see verses 3-8). There is a virtual litany of definitions of this city: It is a wondrous height that is erected as a beacon of light, a source of joy for all peoples of the earth, the only true “Olympus” where heaven and earth meet. It is — to use the expression of the prophet Ezekiel — the city-Emmanuel because “the Lord is there,” present in it (see Ezekiel 48:35). However, besieging troops are thronging around Jerusalem, almost as a symbol of the evil that attacks the splendor of the city of God. The battle has a predictable and almost immediate result.
Evil Shattered
The powerful of the earth, assaulting the Holy City, in fact also provoked its King, the Lord. The psalmist shows the disintegration of the pride of a powerful army with the thought-provoking image of birth pangs: “Trembling seized them there, anguish, like a woman's labor” (verse 7). Arrogance is transformed into frailty and weakness, power into fall and defeat.
The same concept is expressed in another image: The attacking army is compared to an invincible naval armada, on which a typhoon is unleashed, caused by a terrible east wind (see verse 8). What remains, then, is an unshakable certainty for the one who is under the shadow of divine protection: Good, not evil, has the last word. God triumphs over hostile powers, even when they seem majestic and invincible.
Salvation in Zion
The faithful one then celebrates his thanksgiving to the liberating God in the temple itself. He raises a hymn to the merciful love of the Lord, expressed with the Hebrew word hésed, typical of the theology of the Covenant. Thus we come to the second part of the psalm (see verses 10-14). Following the great hymn of praise to God, who is faithful, just and saving (see verses 10-12), there comes a sort of procession around the Temple and the Holy City (see verses 13-14). The towers are numbered, sign of the sure protection of God; the ramparts are considered, expressions of the stability offered to Zion by its Founder. The walls of Jerusalem speak, and its stones remember the events that must be transmitted to “future generations” (verse 14) through the stories that fathers will tell their sons (see Psalm 78:3-7). Zion is the place of an uninterrupted chain of saving actions of the Lord, which are announced in the catechesis and celebrated in the liturgy, so that believers will continue to hope in the liberating intervention of God.
God's Presence
The concluding antiphon is most beautiful, one of the highest descriptions of the Lord as shepherd of his people: “Our God who leads us always” (verse 15). The God of Zion is the God of the Exodus, of liberty, of closeness to the people enslaved in Egypt and of pilgrims in the desert. Now that Israel is settled in the Promised Land, it knows that the Lord will not abandon it: Jerusalem is the sign of his closeness, and the Temple is the place of his presence.
Rereading these expressions, the Christian rises to the contemplation of Christ, the new and living temple of God (see John 2:21), and he turns to the heavenly Jerusalem, which no longer needs a temple or an external light, because “its temple is the Lord God almighty and the Lamb. The city had no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gave it light, and its lamp was the Lamb” (Revelation 21:22-23). St. Augustine invites us to this “spiritual” rereading, convinced that in the books of the Bible, “there is nothing that only affects the earthly city, because everything that is said about it, or realized through it, symbolizes something that allegorically could also be referred to the heavenly Jerusalem” (City of God, XVII, 3, 2).
St. Paulinus of Nola echoes him, who precisely in commenting on the words of our psalm exhorts us to pray so that “we can be found to be like living stones in the walls of the heavenly and free Jerusalem” (Letter 28:2 to Severus). And contemplating the strength and solidity of this city, the same Father of the Church continues: “In fact, he who inhabits this city reveals himself as the One in three persons. Christ constitutes not only its foundation but also its tower and door. Therefore, if the house of our soul is founded on him and a construction is raised on him worthy of such a great foundation, then the door of entry to his city for us will be, precisely, he who will guide us for ever and will take us to the place of his pasture.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Vatican -------- TITLE: Register Summary DATE: 10/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 28 - November 3, 2001 ----- BODY:At a time of world tensions, John Paul II sounded a note of hope at his midweek general audience Oct. 17, telling thousands of pilgrims in St. Peter's Square that evil does not have “the last word.”
“For the one who is under the shadow of divine protection,” there is the certainty that “good, not evil, has the last word,” the Holy Father said. “God triumphs over hostile powers, even when they seem majestic and invincible.”
The Holy Father was commenting on Psalm 48, as he continued this year's series of meditations on morning prayers used in the Liturgy of the Hours. The psalm is a hymn in honor of the Holy City, Zion, where the Lord dwells in the midst of his people.
God's faithful people give thanks to the Lord who delivers them from powerful armies surrounding Zion; they recognize that it is he who has saved them.
The thoughts of the Christian who reads this psalm turn to Christ, the Good Shepherd who guides his flock to safe pastures.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Vatican -------- TITLE: Afghani Conflict Triggers Deadly Muslim-Christian Violence in Nigeria DATE: 10/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 28 - November 3, 2001 ----- BODY:ROME — Confrontations between Christians and Muslims the weekend of Oct. 12-14 resulted in at least 200 dead and hundreds wounded in the city of Kano in northern Nigeria. The attacks followed protests against the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan.
Violent incidents continued to rage in that city Oct. 15.
Five of those who died were rioters fatally shot by police, according to Reuters news agency. A sixth person was shot to death Oct. 15.
Among the 235 people arrested were five leaders of the group that organized the anti-airstrike rally, said Kano State Police Commissioner Yakubu Bello Uba. At least one church and mosque were damaged in the fighting.
Father Giulio Albanese, director of the Misna missionary agency, said it “all began last Friday [Oct. 12], during the traditional Muslim prayer. When the prayer was over, the people came out of the mosques and the demonstrations began, which at first seemed to have a rather spontaneous character.”
“The fact is that later many villains began to shout slogans against the United States: ‘Allah, curse America!’” he said. “The confrontations continued throughout the night and, unfortunately, both the army as well as the police were unable to contain the violence of these fanatics, who also burned stores and places of worship.”
“Numerous Christians tried to flee from the city,” Father Albanese said. “Terror reigned for 48 hours. The risk is that these demonstrations against the United States will spread to other Muslim-majority states of northern Nigeria.”
The Motive
Misna's director speculated on the motives behind the violence.
“The Muslim fundamentalist world wishes to become the champion of the interests of the peoples of the South of the planet, affirming first and foremost the option of a theocracy,” he said.
“In a word, fundamentalist Islam is unable to make the distinction between the secularism of the state and the religious aspect,” the priest added. “In addition, the Shariah, or Islamic law, is frequently imposed. Thus, real injustices are committed against religious minorities.”
Father Albanese believes that “the only hope consists in really stressing the way of dialogue, especially in formation, because, unfortunately, these events are symptoms of the great ignorance with which many speculate. There are people who are easy to manipulate by these extremist groups, who want the ‘holy war’ at all costs.” On Oct. 17, Pope John Paul II condemned Muslim-Christian rioting in Nigeria and called for the world's peoples to rediscover “the way of fraternity.”
“Another episode of ferocious violence has added itself to the tragic world situation in these days,” the pope said at the end of his general audience Oct. 17.
“Whoever is at the root of these unjustifiable acts will bear the responsibility of it before God,” he said.
The Pope promised his spiritual closeness to Kano Bishop Patrick Francis Sheehan and those who lost loved ones in the attack.
“I pray that God helps all redis-cover the way of fraternity. Only in this way will it be possible to fulfill the expectations of God, who wants to make humanity a single family,” he said.
Two days earlier, the head of the Nigerian bishops' conference suggested President Bush take a break in bombing Afghanistan and root out terrorism by building hospitals instead.
Missiles vs. Hospitals?
“The missiles used against coded destinations cost millions of dollars and are being hurled into the desert. The cost of just one of them could build 20 hospitals in Nigeria,” said Archbishop John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan of Abuja.
The archbishop, in Rome for the Synod of Bishops, was interviewed Oct. 15 by Fides, news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.
The archbishop said the U.S.-led coalition's explanation that the bombings were necessary to root out terrorists “seems not to convince” Nigeria's Muslim protesters.
“They say the ‘war on terrorism’ is just an excuse to attack a Muslim country,” he said.
Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair speak of “the civilized world” being united in the war on terrorism, Archbishop Onaiyekan said, but “they seem to forget that there are billions and billions of other human beings whose priority is not war.”
Last month, another outbreak of Muslim-Christian fighting in the city of Jos claimed 165 lives. The predominantly Christian city is located in northern Nigeria, a predominantly Muslim region.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 10/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 28 - November 3, 2001 ----- BODY:Commemoration May Lead to China Visit
A slight chance still existed for the two sides to make progress at the second half of the conference under way in Rome, which Pope John Paul II was expected to address.
It is hoped that negotiations between the Vatican and Beijing may lead to a papal visit to China in 2003.
Catholics to Open Ghanaian University
AFRICA NEWS SERVICE, Oct. 8 — A Catholic University near Sunyani, Ghana, is expected to be operational by next September, the news service reported.
Catholic University of Ghana, Fiapre, initially will offer programs in business management and administration, information science and technology and theology and philosophy. The Ghanaian Chronicle reports that religious participation in the country's educational sector has been on the rise.
Indian Catholic Group Prays for Terror Victims
The group expressed solidarity in the fight against terrorism and at the same time called for greater protection of the minority Dalit Christian community, The Times reported.
The Union's vice president, John Dayal, said he was distressed by what he termed “right-wing communal fundamentalist forces” rejecting the Dalits' cause at last month's U.N.-sponsored World Conference on Racism in South Africa.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: 'Magic: The Gathering' Cards Spook the Experts DATE: 10/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 28 - November 3, 2001 ----- BODY:“They call it a card game; I call it an occultic activity, an initiation into satanic rules and regulations,” explained Mary Ann Di Bari.
“The game was introduced in Pound Ridge Elementary School in 1994 around Halloween,” Di Bari said.
Along with an invitation to come and play Magic from a teacher, each fourth grader, including Di Bari's granddaughter, Krystal, found Magic Cards in their cubby holes where they keep their personal belongings. The first series of Magic Cards often depicted demons, vampires and monsters with commands to mathematically “sacrifice” creatures to gain power or to cast spells on opponents to slow them down.
Di Bari said the first permission slip for the game was “useless.” She recalled that it read: “come and be smarter,” and that it called Magic “a creative enrichment course in math.” As a result of the controversy another permission slip was later sent out, she said.
Then her granddaughter began having nightmares, which Mary Ann discovered later were being triggered by the images on the cards.
“[Magic] is filled with the symbology of the demonic: the pentagram, the broken cross, the New Age occultism, Christ as a fat woman on a cross, Wiccan, witchcraft, Freemasonry,” explained Di Bari. “[There was] symbology from almost every pagan system that ever was; that is why it is called ‘The Gathering.’”
And the game did not stay simply a game. “It was spilling over into the actual living of life, and the mentality of the children,” she explained, recalling that “children were swinging in the gymnasium from ropes ... saying: ‘Satan enter me; I want you.’”
What do the game makers have to say for their product?
A look at their Web site and a call to company headquarters revealed that the company that manufactures it, called “Wizards”, is now a subsidiary of Hasbro Inc., makers of, among other things, Mr. Potato Head. Said spokesman Todd Stewart, “All [‘Magic’] is is a trading card game. ... There is no violence depicted.”
Reminded of images form half a dozen cards that did depict violence — including a rape being perpetrated by a monk and human sacrifice — Stewart said violent cards were “a minor part of the game.”
He said that charges that there were Satanic elements in the cards were “absolutely untrue ... It's not Dungeons and Dragons; it's not a role-playing game,” he insisted, “it's fantasy.”
Comparing the game to chess, Stewart explained that it was a math-based game, with nearly 7 million adherents worldwide. Competitions are held around the world culminating in an international championship each year in various locations such as Sydney, Australia, and Toronto.
Among the proponents of Magic: The Gathering, Stewart listed “ministers, doctors and teachers,” and added that “many Catholic organizations endorse it.” He boasted that there is “a school in Seattle that allows the kids to play one hour a day,” since the game helps students with math.
“Teachers say all the time that grades increase in math because students understand math from the game.”
In fact, it was as a math enrichment course that Magic was originally billed in the schools of Bedford Central School District.
Despite Stewart's assurances, many people, including Di Bari, remain unconvinced that Magic is good for children, or anyone else for that matter.
Father James Le Bar, exorcist for the Archdiocese of New York, and a speaker at a conference which Di Bari and other parents held in the Bedford area, said: “Magic: The Gathering seems to be a type of game that seems to invite the evocation of evil spirits.” Father Le Bar conceded that he didn't know for sure, since as he put it, “I have never played with [the cards], and I don't intend to.”
He noted a difference between the card came and a game like checkers, noting that a fascination with checkers is unlikely to have negative consequences, whereas a fascination with Magic: The Gathering might.
And it's not just the Catholics who see the danger.
The Rev. George Mather, a Lutheran minister from Sherman Oaks, Calif., and an author and lecturer in the area of cults and the occult, wrote to Ceil Di Nozzi in a letter provided to the Register that “unless one has a familiarity with occult symbolism ... the game might appear as another form of amusement and innocuous.”
“The truth is it's filled with the worst aspects of the occult,” he wrote. “You might say it represents the darker side of evil, Satanism!”
— Andrew Walther
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Andrew Walther ----- KEYWORD: News -------- TITLE: Wanted: More Babies DATE: 10/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 28 - November 3, 2001 ----- BODY:The West has problems too deep to be solved simply with more bombings. What we really need is more babies.
In Bologna, Italy, Cardinal Giacamo Biffi rubbed many the wrong way last year with comments about immigration. He said that immigration caused “serious concerns” about “the identity” of Italy.
He noted that Italy's many Muslim immigrants — estimated at 35% of the country's foreign residents — have profound differences not just in diet and holy days, but in family structure and the treatment of women.
Whatever you think of his conclusions, he's certainly right about one thing: After decades of contraception and abortion, Europe is on the brink of a massive demographic change.
According to U.S. Census Bureau figures, by 2050, Europe's population will have plunged from 722 million to 600 million. As the median age will be the mid-50s, a shortage of fertile females will mean that the depopulation will actually accelerate after that. (We have already seen one early warning: Last year, for the first time in history, people over 60 outnumbered kids under 14 throughout the industrialized world.)
Italy has a total fertility rate of less than 1.4 children born per couple, far below the 2.1 necessary to replace the national population. If current trends continue, Italy will cease to be populated by mostly Italians some time within the next several decades. It is not unthinkable that Italy could become a Muslim country.
America is better off in the baby-making department — but not well off. Our fertility rate is just below 2 children per couple. The United States must also rely on immigration to overcome the economic implications of our baby shortage. In our case, immigrants come mainly from the Catholic countries to our south. But the economic ramifications of our demographic changes are also severe.
At congressional hearings last year, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan praised the economic benefits of increasing immigration rates while seeking to persuade Congress to admit 130,000 additional workers annually. But Greenspan acknowledged that some immigrants are not assimilating as well as in previous generations, forming a new underclass.
What's the solution? It's clear: We need to have more babies.
E The magazine Foreign Policy earlier this year featured a child on its cover to accompany the article “Wanted: More Babies” about the dangerous depopulation of the West.
E Even tennis star Bjorn Borg, in the Swedish daily Dagens Industri, called on Europeans to have more children. “If nothing drastic happens soon, there won't be anyone who can work and put up for our pensions,” read his full-page ad.
E In his 1999 book, Management Challenges for the 21st Century, renowned business consultant Peter Drucker declared that “the most important single new certainty — if only because there is no precedent for it in all of history — is the collapsing birthrate in the developed world.” He called the situation in Japan and Southern Europe “national suicide,” and added that North America is not far behind.
It's time for Catholics to stop being embarrassed about Church teaching on contraception and abortion, and return to the truth that having children — even having a lot of children — is a blessing, not a curse.
The contraceptive-free life is healthier for women (compared to the side-effects of the birth control pill), happier for families (divorce rates are practically nonexistent among those who practice modern natural family planning) and moral. It's also urgently, desperately needed in the West for economic reasons.
The Catholic laity has the numbers and the know-how to widely promote this teaching in creative and effective ways as never before. Let's do so.
----- EXCERPT: Editorial ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Opinion -------- TITLE: Letters DATE: 10/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 28 - November 3, 2001 ----- BODY:Interpreting the Stem Cell Parable
In an attempt to justify President Bush's stem cell research decision, professor James Chu of Yale University (“Stem Cell Parable,” Oct. 7-13) proposed a parable of two sons, one of whom has his father murdered in order to inherit the father's wealth so that both sons can use the money for countless good deeds. He asks us to draw our own conclusions as to whether the “good” son should be allowed to inherit the wealth made possible by the “bad” son's evil deed.
If we agree to stop thinking at this point, then it certainly seems unreasonable to disinherit the good son. But instead let us continue to draw conclusions, as Professor Chu suggested. In the story, presumably both the bad son and the hired assassin will be punished for their crime.
Certainly, neither will be allowed to receive any part of the inheritance — that would be monstrous. And, of course, killing any person is a crime, and killing one's own father (for whatever reason) is a particularly heinous crime. Finally, we can be sure that society will do everything possible to prevent such a crime from ever happening again.
So how does the parable really square with the reality of embryonic stem cell research in this country? First, it is not a crime (according to the law) to kill children in the womb and then harvest their body parts. It is also not a crime to conceive “surplus” children in the laboratory, “discard” them, and extract their stem cells. Our laws do nothing to prevent these activities, because they refuse to recognize them as evil. The controversy is not over whether these deeds should be allowed, but whether they should be funded by our taxes. And it is not monstrous (by the president's logic) that the same people who committed them will be allowed to receive a share of the funding.
Why not profit from an evil that “has already been done”? We seem to be more and more comfortable with this idea. But remember that the evil is still being done with private funds, and we can't (or won't) stop it.
When researchers claim that the cell lines allowed by the president are tainted or have come to the end of their usefulness, and ask us why we can't pay for them to use other cell lines obtained through private research, what will we say? Will we tell them that what they propose to do is evil, or will we just say: “Why not let them, since the evil ‘has already been done’?”
EDUARDO KORTRIGHT
New Orleans
Re: James Chu's “Stem Cell Parable,” Letters, Oct. 7-13: a difference from the parable is that the research involved parts of the human body. Dead bodies should be shown respect and only used with proper permission.
AGNES TURBES
Austell, Georgia
Bush and Catholics
I fear my comments quoted in your Oct. 14-21 issue (“Catholic Skipped for U.N. Job”) regarding the now scuttled nominiation of John Klink to the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration may be misunderstood.
I do believe Klink came under fire from anti-Catholic types precisely because he is a faithful Catholic. I do believe that many in pro-abortion circles would establish an unconstitutional religious test for political office. What I want to make clear is that this kind of opposition came from pro-abortion and population control groups and not from the Bush administration. The Bush administration has been very good in reaching out to faithful Catholics and for this should be applauded.
Faithful Catholics hope the Bush administration will still find good use for such a fine public servant as John Klink.
AUSTIN RUSE
New York
The writer is president of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute.
Three Cheers For Tim Drake
Tim Drake's story, “To Pray, to Act, to Fight: A Hero's Life” (Oct. 21-27) was exceptional writing and very uplifting as an excellent example of our faith truly in practice at the highest level.
Drake's writing is simply extraordinary in every way. Please commend him for me. And, on top of it all, he is a convert to our faith. What a gift he has been in strengthening our faith in so many ways.
I've told several friends that the Register is the best Catholic news resource they can find.
BILL MCCUEN
Doylestown, Ohio
Praising Popular Piety
Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera's expressions regarding piety being in harmony with liturgical life are long in coming.
Your article (“Cardinal: Popular Piety Important to Catholics' Faith,” Sept. 20-Oct. 6) regarding Cardinal Rivera's remarks points out the many problems we as lay people have in just praying quietly in Church. We constantly run into the positions of those theologians and pastors who have cast doubt on the popular piety practices mentioned by Cardinal Rivera. We who follow simple Catholic devotions are too often opposed as “politically incorrect.” We need to be holy; even this simple point has too many times been a point of contention.
I wish that all parishes could read the cardinal's remarks. Many many people will have renewed strength to express their love piously for the sacraments and the Eucharist. Thank you for your wonderful article.
JIM VONDRAS
Florissant, Missouri
To Whom Should We Pledge Allegiance?
One could agree with much of Eric Scheske's analysis of the symbolic meaning of the American flag in “Why It Is Necessary to Pledge Allegiance to the Flag” (Oct. 7-13) and yet lean toward just the opposite conclusion.
Our nation does indeed hold common beliefs as a society, but many of these beliefs flatly contradict the Catholic faith. Most Americans believe, for example, that there is a fundamental right to abortion in at least the early stages of human life, that purveyors of pornography have a fundamental right to produce and disseminate their product, that American foreign policy should have as one of its goals to goad Third World countries into making contraception and sterilization a routine part of their cultures, and that American corporations are within their rights to pay low wages to workers in poor countries.
This reality raises some disturbing questions: Should we as Catholics pledge allegiance to a flag that stands for common beliefs such as these? Should we as Catholics be willing to kill other human beings in defense of such rights as the right to abortion? Is Scheske underestimating the degree to which faithful American Catholics should feel estranged by what our country and its flag have in fact come to stand for over the last few decades?
In short, just what sort of allegiance to our country in its present state is compatible with fidelity to Jesus Christ and his Church?
I do not claim to have indisputable answers to these questions, but I am fairly certain that the questions themselves need to be discussed and prayed about more than they have been.
ALFRED J. FREDDOSO
Notre Dame, Indiana
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Opinion -------- TITLE: Love Your Enemies DATE: 10/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 28 - November 3, 2001 ----- BODY:In this “time of terror” I think it fitting to call to mind one who terrorized the early Church — Saul of Tarsus.
If you remember from the Book of Acts, he was complicit in the hunting down of Christians and brutally stoning them to death. Victims included St. Stephen, the first martyr. But those first Christians — in the light and spirit of Christ — prayed for the persecutor. As a result, Saul the “terrorist” went on to be the great St. Paul.
When the followers of Christ were being terrorized in the arena — at the hands of the emperor — they likewise prayed for them as a result, pagan Rome became the Holy See (or, holy home).
Down through the ages it was the “forgiven and forgiving” who changed the course of history. A young boy — Patrick — is terrorized, taken into slavery. He escapes, forgives, and returns to convert those who made his slavery possible — the leaders in Ireland.
The Lord gave “the Word” and tells us “be true to my word.” And the most difficult word to live is “forgive.” The “peace on earth” that we all yearn for must begin with me; it all depends on “the me” forgiving the enemy.
This requires supernatural charity that comes by way of the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The Lord who died at the hands of terrorists also died for them; so that we may have the grace to overcome evil through forgiveness.
In the words of St. Paul, “Let us not receive the grace of God in vain.” Let us go out to all the world in the peace and in the love — and in the forgiveness — of Christ. Amen.
BOB BOTTOMS
Sebastopol, California
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Opinion -------- TITLE: Ireland Shares America's Hurt, But Offers Little DATE: 10/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 28 - November 3, 2001 ----- BODY:Many would think: If there is one country in the world America can be sure of in its hour of need, that country is Ireland.
After all, America has provided a refuge for millions of Irish people who have migrated there over more than 200 years.
This makes the bond between the two countries strong and deep. Almost every Irish family has a relative in America, and about two dozen Irish people were killed in the attack on the World Trade Center last month.
And so it was that, when that terrible event took place, the great majority of Irish people were almost as shocked as they would have been had the terrorists attacked central Dublin.
The response of the government was to call a National Day of Mourning; this took place the Friday after the attack. Local churches responded by putting on special Masses and services up and down the country. Hundreds of thousands of people poured into the churches on that day.
The response of the Irish intelligentsia, on the other hand, was quite different. The literal dust had barely settled when some of our most high-profile commentators began suggesting that America had somehow brought this upon itself. In their ideological blindness, the leftist Irish intelligentsia was at one with the left in countries that have almost no ties with America.
What of the churches? On the National Day of Mourning itself, they rose to the occasion magnificently.
If only the same could be said since then. At a time like this, what should be the proper response of, in particular, the Catholic Church's best thinkers? Surely it is to apply the moral doctrine of the Church to the situation and suggest a course of action for America and its allies, Ireland included, that is both moral and effective.
Instead of this kind of analysis, what we have been offered by most Catholic thinkers is one shallow platitude after the next; just the sorts of things everyone already knows: “The American response mustn't be indiscriminate”; “We must think of the Afghan people”; “We mustn't make a bad situation worse.”
One priest, the head of the Faculty of Moral Theology at St. Patrick's College in Maynooth, said that almost any military response by America would be immoral. In an interview with The Irish Times, he said that anything that resulted in the deaths of innocent people, even indirectly, would be wrong.
He admitted that he had nothing practical to offer to America by way of how they might stop bin Laden and his followers in the future.
At a time like this, what should be the proper response of, in particular, the Catholic Church's best thinkers?
The Irish bishops have offered better analysis than this, but there does seem to be a missed opportunity here. The Catholic Church has insights which can guide their own flock in Catholic moral principles in this area — not to mention a key perspective that might be of use to the Irish government.
This lack of a hardheaded, rigorous analysis on the part of the Irish Catholic leaders is indicative of an institution still trying to live down its authoritarian past by retreating into a guarded, somewhat effete stance on many of the major issues of the day.
Not so the rank-and-file.
Older people remarked that the National Day of Mourning was like Good Friday as it used to be marked in Ireland. Almost every shop was closed, as were pubs and cinemas. Almost everyone stayed at home with their families.
It was a very unusual day — and a reminder of what life must have been like before the onset of hectic, “24/7” consumerism.
Our response led some people to note that we seemed to be mourning more deeply what happened in America than we ever mourned over the various atrocities perpetrated by terrorists in Northern Ireland.
They had a point. Why would this be?
Perhaps it is because we have become inured against the situation in Northern Ireland. Terror in that part of Ireland, up until the peace process at any rate, had come to seem normal.
The attack on America, on the other hand, seemed like an attack on normality. Who could have done this, and why? What would be the aftermath? Would there be more attacks like this? Who would be the next target?
The Northern conflict was at least predictable. Mostly we knew who would be attacked, and who would be left alone. The horror on Sept. 11 made everything seem somehow unsafe, disordered, unpredictable.
So, in the main, ordinary Irish people felt instinctively for Americans. They didn't attempt to analyze the reasons for what happened, any more than they would have if some terrible fate had befallen a family member.
David Quinn, editor of The Irish Catholic in Dublin, writes his letter from Ireland every month in the Register.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: David Quinn ----- KEYWORD: Commentary -------- TITLE: The Roots of Their Rage DATE: 10/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 28 - November 3, 2001 ----- BODY:“Why do they hate us?” What deeply held resentments could have led the 19 hijackers to work a catastrophic wave of terrorism against the United States Sept. 11? Why is there such bitterness in the Muslim world toward the United States? Why, on learning of the collapse of the World Trade Center, would refugee children dance in the street?
If we ask what fires Osama bin Laden's hatred of the West, the alleged master terrorist has been outspoken about his motives. The Saudi-born millionaire was exiled from his own country for his opposition to its royal government. His complaint? By permitting foreign, that is, U.S., troops on its soil, the government of King Fahd has defiled “the Holy Land” of Arabia, home to the most sacred Muslim shrines, Mecca and Medina. His aim? Departure of American forces from the Arabian peninsula and the Persian Gulf.
Bin Laden's desire to purify Saudi Arabia of the “infidel” presence is only the first step in his attempt to purge Arabia of impiety. While the Saudi royal family adheres to a strict form of Islam, led by the Wahabi sect, their observance is not strict enough for bin Laden. The extravagant lifestyles of the royals and the Saudi elite offend bin Laden's puritanical moral sense. Furthermore, the corruption resulting from the country's oil wealth violates his sense of justice. He hopes to recapture the oil resources of the Arabian peninsula and the entire Middle East to serve Muslim interests and the Arab masses.
Behind the hatred of the terrorists like bin Laden, however, lie the resentments of the multitudes. The bitterness found in the Arab and Muslim worlds has many sources, but what brings it to bear on the United States is America's role in the recent history, going back a half-century or so, of the Middle East and Central Asia.
The ‘Great Game’ Today
In the 19th century, the European powers, especially Britain and Russia, competed for dominance in Central Asia and the Middle East in a struggle of diplomacy, espionage and military adventures the “players” called “the Great Game.” Since the end of World War II, the United States and, before its collapse, the Soviet Union, carried out a similar struggle. It was hard-ball politics of an unsavory kind.
In 1953, the CIA helped overthrow the elected government of Iran and placed the Shah on the Peacock Throne. When the Shah was overthrown in an Islamic revolution, the United States was named “the Great Satan.” Later when the Islamic Republic of Iran was at war with Iraq, the United States supported Iraq, only to make it a pariah state after its aggression against Kuwait. In Afghanistan, after a communist coup was defended by the Soviets, the United States supported Muslim mujahedin, among whom was Osama bin Laden, in a guerrilla war to oust the Soviet invaders. In the ensuing civil war, the Taliban, the most ruthless and puritanical of the factions, won out.
Militant movements like the Taliban or bin Laden's al-Qaida see the United States as the adversary because in the 21st century version of “the Great Game,” the U.S. government has supported and still supports the governments they oppose. In the case of the oil states of Arabia and the Gulf, in particular, it is U.S. military forces which help keep the rulers in power.
Then, too, there is U.S. support of Israel which, in Arab eyes, has stood in the way of an equitable settlement of the Palestinian question for three generations now.
Only recently, almost as an afterthought, has bin Laden added to his objectives the liberation of Israel and Palestine from the infidel Israelis. Yet, after Mecca and Medina, Jerusalem is the third holiest site in Islam. For much of Muslim history the rest of what Christians and Jews call the Holy Land was considered a Muslim waqf, or trust.
The intense anger toward America found in the Arab and Muslim worlds has many sources. We do well to consider them.
Recent developments, especially perceived Israeli assaults on the Haram al Sherif (or Temple Mount), may have roused bin Laden's zeal for the holy places there. That sanctuary is home to the Dome of the Rock, the site of Mohammed's “night journey” to heaven. Naturally, then, Muslims would regard any infringements of this holy ground as an attack on Islam.
For Jews, of course, the Temple Mount is the location of the Second Temple, the most sacred site in ancient Israel. In 1996, Binyamin Netanyahu, then Israel's prime minister, opened a tunnel underneath the Haram al Sherif to the public. For some years, Israeli archaeologists had been excavating the area inside the Western Wall to explore vestiges of Israeli history from Maccabean times.
For many Muslims, the tunnel opening stirred fears that radical Jewish and apocalyptic Christian groups might use the access to dynamite the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa mosque as a prelude to building a Third Temple on the site. After the opening of the tunnel, the first serious fighting between Palestinians and Israelis in the post-Oslo period commenced. It raged for weeks.
Three times in the last year the Haram has made headlines. A year ago, Israel's current prime minister, Ariel Sharon, then an opposition Member of the Israeli Knesset, visited the Haram in the company of more than a thousand Israeli soldiers and police. Palestinian protests over his visit set off the current Palestinian intifada.
Last fall, under President Clinton's leadership, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators resumed peace talks. Jerusalem became a sticking point. At issue was sovereignty over the Temple Mount. The U.S. and Israeli teams tried various formulas to resolve the rival claims: divine sovereignty, shared sovereignty, U.N. control. In the end the Palestinians, looking over their shoulders at the wider Muslim world, demanded total sovereignty. The Israelis sought sovereignty on the Western Wall and in subterranean areas under the mount.
The Palestinians drove the Israelis to despair with allegations that the Temple had never existed on the site. The Israeli demand for subterranean sovereignty inspired nightmares for the Palestinians about plots against their holy sites. Almost as if to underscore Muslim anxiety, in July, a group called the Temple Mount Faithful received permission from the Israeli High Court to lay a symbolic cornerstone for the Third Temple at the Old City's Mugrahbi Gate.
Thus, while the Israeli-Palestinian issue appears only recently and at the end of bin Laden's list of complaints, the controversies swirling around the Temple Mount this last year make it plausible that missteps in the struggle over Jerusalem may have given added motive to a zealot like bin Laden for acts of terrorism against the United States as Israel's protector.
Reducing Resentment
Already the Bush administration seems to have learned that, to prevent terrorism in the future, the United States must address the resentments others have toward us. Remarkably, they have begun with what one would have thought to be the most intractable problem of them all, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They have pressed the two sides to return to the negotiating table and made clear for the first time that the cornerstone of any resolution must be a viable Palestinian state.
If it is possible to tackle that century-long dispute head-on, who is to say ways will not be found to respond to other grievances of the Arab and Muslim worlds as well?
For the short term, there is no substitute for bringing the master terrorists and their networks to justice. In the long run, however, U.S. security and that of the world will depend more on eliminating the sources of resentment against us by building just and abiding relationships with the peoples of the region.
Jesuit Father Drew Christiansen is senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center in Washington, D.C.,and counselor on international affairs to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Commentary -------- TITLE: Generation X Rediscovers 'Militant' Catholic Action DATE: 10/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 28 - November 3, 2001 ----- BODY:“I come not to bring peace, but the sword.” Could these really be the words of the Jesus we Generation X-ers grew up with?
What happened to the Jesus we learned about in our second-grade catechism, the one dominated by pictures of butterflies? Where was the Jesus we talked about in our tender “sharing sessions”?
For whatever reason, we were introduced to two distinctly different Jesuses. But my generation was also lucky enough to be the first wave of the John Paul II generation. Without advocating a warped, jingoistic faith, the Holy Father and many other Church leaders have actively explored and communicated what it means to be part of the Church militant.
Our call to the militant life started long before the events of Sept. 11, 2001. Every saint has lived it. There's no other way to get to heaven.
In the past few weeks we've heard a great deal about evil. But a lot of the discussion has been very abstract, conceptual, as if evil were something looming far of in the distance, something well outside of us. Yet the Church, in her wisdom, teaches us that the battle against evil is something very concrete. It involves each one of us. The sacrament of confirmation ratifies our individual vocation to a truly militant life. It is called the robur ad pugnam. The strength for the battle.
In fact, there was a time when the newly confirmed received the bishop's blessing only with a reminder of the battle they were taking up: a slap on the cheek. Sure, baptism makes us children of God. But we still have to fight the good fight. St. Paul explains: “[W]e are ... heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him” (Romans 8:16-17).
Look at the saints. They suffered in vastly different ways; they fought diverse battles. But they all won. The path St. Thérèse of Lisieux followed was vastly different from St. Ignatius’. Both were soldiers for the Church militant. They fulfilled the required provision to become true heirs to the kingdom.
What motivated them and every other saint? What motivates terminally ill patients who offer up their every suffering? What motivates the brave soldier like Joan of Arc? What motivates the loving parents who remember that every diaper changed, every bag of groceries purchased, every sleep-deprived night can bring them one step closer to victory? What motivated the rescue workers who ran into a disintegrating building on Sept. 11? What motivates all those people who keep going, even when it seems that there's too much to do? What motivates people who simply remember to smile at strangers on the street for no real reason at all but kindness?
Our ammunition, and our nourishment, is love. Love makes the lover do crazy things. The child, the friend and the lover are all confident in their expressions and endeavors because they love. Once we've been baptized, confirmation further binds us to the Church by giving us “a special strength of the Holy Spirit.” This makes us “true witnesses of Christ, more strictly obliged to spread and defend the faith by word and deed.”
The bishop tells the candidate for confirmation: “Accipe signaculum doni Spiritus Sancti.” Take and accept the sign of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Take and accept the gifts which will make us each confident to face God like a child, a friend, a lover.
Take the gifts which will make us love more because when we love more, we end up wanting to do two things. We want to improve ourselves, do our best, look our best. We also gain the courage to be willing to reveal ourselves more completely. No more hiding in the garden — if we're willing to accept the gifts, if we're willing to love.
Despite the horrors of Sept. 11, we witnessed many brave soldiers of the Church militant, not least of whom was Franciscan Father Mychael Judge, who was carried away from the wreckage of the World Trade Center, where he had been administering the last rites. Perhaps what he did seems crazy.
If we don't look outside ourselves, at the big picture, then, yes, it's crazy and even stupid to do such things. But we are called to live the tradition of the “folly of the cross.” We're not supposed to feel too comfortable on earth. Hence, Jesus says he “came not to bring peace, but the sword.”
America's response to Sept. 11 has been singular. Sure there are a few stories of blind hate or stupidity. But, overall, Americans have opened their arms to victims at home and abroad. The Church militant will never put down her weapons in this life. As one battle is won, we are prepared to wage the next. The American response is a sign that we are getting somewhere, that we're winning. We're taking up the sword in our personal lives. We're accepting the gift of love itself.
Regardless of how Sept. 11 plays out in military reprisals, stock markets and economies, we Gen-X Catholics — the future advance guard of the Church militant — know that we truly are in the springtime of the Church. And getting stronger.
Pia de Solenni, a moral theologian living in Washington, D.C., welcomes e-mail at adsum00@yahoo.com.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Pia de Solenni ----- KEYWORD: Commentary -------- TITLE: Polish Heart on the Erie Canal DATE: 10/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 28 - November 3, 2001 ----- BODY:Soon after masses of Polish immigrants began settling in upstate New York in the 1880s, they built a big, beautiful church on the west side of Syracuse.
More than a century later, just in time for the 2000 jubilee, the work of their hands — Sacred Heart Church — was designated a basilica.
By definition, a basilica is a local church permanently reserved for the Holy Father. Thus, if the Holy Father were to come to Syracuse, he would come to Sacred Heart Basilica first because it is his church in Syracuse. Similarly, when the Holy Father celebrates his anniversary as Pope each Oct. 16, it is also celebrated at the Sacred Heart Basilica.
At Sacred Heart Basilica, there are five priests, three of whom are from Poland. They assist with Polish confessions and say Masses in Polish. One of the Polish priests is Father Stanley Dudkiewicz. He lived in Poland with the present Pope and remains his personal friend.
The basilica's physical grandeur is worthy of the magnificent spirit of its “owner.” An enormous sanctuary, it has two large altars — an altar of repose and an altar of sacrifice. To the east of the altar of repose is a side altar of the Blessed Mother; to the west, a side altar to St. Joseph.
Outside the main sanctuary are shrines to St. Adalbert, apostle of Prussia and martyr, and St. Stanislaus, bishop (of Cracow, Poland) and martyr.
A special chair for the Holy Father is located in front of the St. Joseph altar on the west side of the sanctuary. On the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, the Holy Father's chair is placed in front of the altar of repose. Flowers are placed on it, and the Mass is conducted just as though the Holy Father was present. Each Feb. 22, the feast of the Chair of St. Peter is celebrated.
Solid as a Rock
The basilica is a large Gothic structure. The interior has recently been repainted. There is a simple, but rich, beauty to Sacred Heart Basilica, making it an inviting place to worship, pray to and contemplate God.
All of the stained-glass windows were imported from Germany and installed by the former Keck Studios of Syracuse. Huge stained-glass rose windows, imported from Munich, Germany, and valued at $1 million, depict the 15 mysteries of the rosary. Situated in front of the church and on the front east and west walls, they are considered irreplaceable.
On the walls are the coat of arms of Our Holy Father, of the late Bishop Joseph O'Keefe (who was responsible for helping Sacred Heart to become a basilica), and of the present bishop, Bishop James M. Moynihan. Sacred Heart also has its own coat of arms, as many basilicas do.
As you approach the basilica, your attention is immediately drawn to the twin spires, which rise 212 feet over Park Ave. Within, the interior of the basilica is built in the form of a 105-foot wide cross.
Upon entering the church, it is the marble throughout the sanctuary that catches your attention. Marble is everywhere, from the main aisle to the communion rail, from the lectern to the statues and altars.
The Blessed Mother's side altar is also made of marble, as is the solid marble baptismal font. The marble seems a physical reminder of the rock-solid dependability of God's love.
Prayerful Parish
Another repeating theme is, of course, the Sacred Heart of Jesus. There's one life-size statue of the Sacred Heart in an alcove above the altar of repose and another in front of the St. Joseph altar. A third Sacred Heart statue is outside on the grounds and there's also a stained-glass window depicting Our Lord in this familiar image.
Though the Vatican II fathers made altar railings optional, and many churches chose to remove them, they remain intact at Sacred Heart Basilica. Many Catholics come here simply because they like to kneel while receiving Holy Communion. They find it a devotional act, and perhaps it gives one an opportunity to say a little prayer while preparing to receive Our Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament.
The Polish people have great devotion to Our Lady of Czestochowa. Accordingly, a stained-glass window of this icon is featured over the east side entrance. In addition, paintings of Our Lady of Czestochowa are mounted on the east wall of the Blessed Mother altar, on the east wall of the St. Aladabert altar, and on the back wall of the basilica.
The basilica, home to a very dynamic and active parish, boasts 60 altar boys and five choirs. The Paderweski Choir sings at the 9:30 a.m. High Mass each Sunday, the Polonaize Choir at the 11 a.m. Polish Mass on Sundays, the women's choir once each month at the 12:30 p.m. Sunday Mass. There's also a folk-guitar choir that sings and plays at the 5:00 p.m. Mass of Anticipation on Saturdays, and a children's choir that sings once a week at a daily Mass.
Perhaps the beautiful and varied music, along with the enthusiastic and involved parish community, is one reason not a few Catholics come from great distances — as far as 100 miles away — to attend Mass at Sacred Heart every Sunday.
Joseph Albino writes from Camillus, New York.
----- EXCERPT: Sacred Heart Basilica, Syracuse, N.Y. ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Albino ----- KEYWORD: Travel -------- TITLE: A Memorable Mentor, Stephen King-Style DATE: 10/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 28 - November 3, 2001 ----- BODY:Present-day America is plagued by fatherless homes in which children grow up without proper male role models.
Recent statistics reveal that both boys and girls in this environment are more apt to experience psychological, academic and moral problems than kids raised in a two-parent household.
Hearts in Atlantis, based on two short works by horror novelist Stephen King, is a coming-of-age story set in 1960 that dramatizes the positive impact a male mentor can make on a young boy in this situation. Australian director Scott Hicks (Shine) and veteran screenwriter William Goodman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) successfully mix two seemingly disparate styles. Their narrative is propelled by subtle manipulations of the conventions of a supernatural thriller. At the same time, they fashion a visual poem filled with nostalgia for the period.
The filmmakers skillfully get us to see the world through the eyes of an 11-year-old, but some parents may consider the treatment of the material too intense and “edgy” for children of that age. Although the subject matter is never exploited to cheap effect, the language and the sexual encounters are sometimes graphic.
Gray-haired photographer Bobby Garfield (David Morse) learns that an old friend has died when he receives a package containing a well-worn baseball glove. After attending the funeral, he reflects upon the loss. The movie flashes back to his “last summer of childhood” in Harwich, Conn., as he narrates the memories from an adult perspective.
The 11-year-old Bobby (Anton Yelchin) has two pals his own age with whom he does everything — Sully (Will Rothbaar) and Carol (Mika Boorem). We watch them climbing trees together, walking along the railroad tracks and diving into the swimming hole. They always stick up for each other when the going gets rough, and Carol is the girl with whom Bobby innocently shares his first kiss. The filmmakers capture that wonderful pre-adolescent feeling of “best friends forever.”
“Sometimes when you're young, you have moments of such happiness, you're living in someplace magical, like Atlantis must have been,” the middle-aged Bobby comments. “Then we grow up, and our hearts break in two.”
Although most of the time the youthful Bobby is content, he has one aching void. His father died when he was five, leaving him and his mother, Liz (Hope Davis), with no money. She's forced to work as a secretary in a real-estate office and has little time for him. She blames everything that's gone wrong in their lives on her deceased ex. The boy spends many hours at home watching cartoons and children's serials.
Bobby dreams of getting a Schwinn bicycle for his birthday, but his mother claims to be able to afford only a library card as a gift. Yet she somehow finds the means to keep herself clothed in the finest of new dresses.
The boy is growing up mainly on his own until the mysterious Ted Brautigan (Anthony Hopkins) rents the apartment upstairs. The older man has enough years on him to be his grandfather. Claiming to be retired, he arrives with his possessions in shopping bags. Bobby's mother is suspicious.
Ted and the boy immediately bond, and he hires the lad to read the newspaper aloud to him for $1 a week, as his eyesight is failing. These daily sessions give the older man an opportunity to make sage comments that are often filled with references to authors like Charles Dickens.
Bobby is hungry for this kind of insight from a knowledgeable older male. It's more challenging than what he picks up from the boob tube, and the movie shows the boy maturing under Ted's influence.
Accordingly, when Bobby learns some positive things about his dead father that conflict with what his mother has told him, he shares them with Ted, not Liz. The older man makes a connection between himself and Bobby's dad. He's certain that he and the boy's father attended the same football game where the legendary running back, Bronco Nagurski, made a great play. Ted draws a moral from this story which inspires the boy to believe in himself and to do the right thing when later confronted with a problem.
The older man also has a side that's unsettling. He asks Bobby to be on the lookout for “low men” who “cast long shadows.” They supposedly act in a sinister fashion, driving big cars and posting strange notices about lost pets on telephone poles.
At first Bobby believes that Ted's imagining things. But soon he learns that his friend has the psychic ability to read minds which the “low men” wish to use for their own purposes.
While the cosmology behind this plot device isn't orthodox Christian, there's nothing in it that will offend the faithful. Ted says of his paranormal skills: “Some think of it as a gift, but to me it has always been a burden.”
The filmmakers treat these phenomena in an understated fashion, as merely an excuse for another narrative twist. The dramatic focus remains on the beneficial aspects of Ted's friendship with Bobby. The audience roots for this connection to deepen and grows sad at the prospect of its involuntary termination.
We come to understand emotionally the importance to a young boy of a dependable male mentor. It's shown to be essential in the development of his moral sensibility. The movie may even push some into wondering what has gone wrong in our culture that allows us to devalue this kind of relationship.
Arts & culture correspondent John Prizer is based in Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: Hearts in Atlantis is a strange, but winning, story of childhood - Told to adults ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORD: Arts & Culture -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 10/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 28 - November 3, 2001 ----- BODY:Shiloh (1997)
Kids face tough ethical questions on a regular basis, just like grownups, even if their quandries seem mundane from an adult perspective. Shiloh is the first of a series of low-budget features based on Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's trilogy of Appalachian novels. It dramatizes the problems presented to 12-year-old Marty Preston (Blake Heron) when an adorable beagle named Shiloh follows him home one day.
The dog belongs to Judd Travers (Scott Wilson), a mean loner who abuses him. Marty wants to buy Shiloh, but Travers won't sell. The boy's father (Michael Moriarty) asserts that Travers is the legal owner and the law can't be broken. The local country doctor (Rod Steiger) confides to the boy his own struggles to get legal guardianship of his granddaughter after her parents' death. Marty must sort through what's he's been told and figure out for himself the right course of action. Director Dale Rosenbloom skillfully captures the flavor of the backwoods locations while telling the story from the boy's point of view.
A Thousand Heroes (1994)
The courage of our nation's rescue workers has been on full display in recent weeks.
But the intelligent training and deployment of those personnel is almost as important as their brave spirit in the saving of lives. A Thousand Heroes, a TV movie directed by Lamont Johnson, is a documentary-style re-creation of a real-life plane crash in which 180 of 296 passengers survive.
Gary Brown (Richard Thomas) is a fire official in Sioux City, Iowa, who fights an uphill battle against entrenched bureaucracies to establish a coordinated, interagency plan for disaster relief. His only ally is a National Guard leader, Jim Hathaway (James Coburn).
On July 19, 1989, a United Airlines flight en route from Denver to Chicago loses pressure simultaneously in three engines. When its pilot, Capt. Haynes (Charlton Heston), crash-lands in Iowa, Brown and Hathaway work together to achieve what seems impossible — a rescue effort in which nearly two-thirds of those at risk are saved. The movie is uplifting, but not for viewers with weak stomachs.
Ivanhoe (1952)
The Crusades helped create an understanding of masculine virtue which persisted in our culture from the middle ages up until the 1960s. The Oscar-nominated Ivanhoe, based on Sir Walter Scott's novel, is an unapologetic endorsement of these chivalric ideals, as interpreted by Hollywood during its golden age.
Sir Wilfrid of Ivanhoe (Robert Taylor) is a Saxon knight who served England's King Richard the Lionhearted (Norman Wooland) during the Third Crusade. When Ivanhoe learns that his brave monarch is being held for ransom in Austria, he returns to England to raise the money.
Disinherited by his father (Finlay Currie) for serving a Norman monarch, Ivanhoe must outwit the evil Prince John (Guy Rolfe) and his clever henchman, De Bois-Guilbert (George Sanders). He makes an alliance with a wealthy Jew (Felix Aylmer) and his beautiful daughter (Elizabeth Taylor). Although the plot occasionally creaks, director Richard Thorpe (The Prisoner of Zenda) stages an exciting jousting tournament, a thrilling castle siege, and a suspenseful, climactic duel between Ivanhoe and De Bois-Guilbert.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORD: Arts & Culture -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 10/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 28 - November 3, 2001 ----- BODY:All times Eastern
SUNDAY, OCT. 28
Images of Jesus
EWTN, 7 p.m.
This hour-long documentary examines images of Jesus in art since the early fourth century. To be rebroadcast on Thursday, Nov. 1, at 1 p.m. and on Friday, Nov. 2, at 3 a.m. and 10 p.m.
SUNDAY, OCT. 28
Toy Story
ABC, 7 p.m.
Down deep, everyone knows two things about toys: They come alive when nobody's around, and to be loved by a child is their all in all. The first feature-length computer animated film, from 1995, tells the often touching and always hilarious story of cowboy doll Woody's struggle to keep his owner Andy's affection after Mom buys a flashy new toy, space hero Buzz Lightyear. Advisory: Toddlers could be upset by neighbor kid Sid's anti-toy violence.
MONDAY, OCT. 29
Danny Thomas: Make Room for Danny
Biography, 11 p.m.
Everyone in Hollywood, Catholic or not, could take Danny Thomas (d. 1991) as a model of family entertainment, marital fidelity, loyalty to his faith and generosity to mankind. Born Muzyad Yalhood in 1914, the fifth of 10 children of immigrants from Lebanon, Thomas became a star comedian in 1940s radio and 1950s TV. But Danny Thomas's greatest achievement is St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis. He built it to keep a vow he'd made in 1940, when he prayed for help because he had just $7 to his name and his wife Rose Marie was expecting their first child.
TUESDAY, OCT. 30
Dead Men's Tales
PBS, 9 p.m. Check local listings
This “Scientific American Frontiers” attempts to reconstruct episodes from America's past by investigating excavated remains from colonial Jamestown, the Confederate submarine Hunley and outlaw days in the Old West.
WEDNESDAY, OC T. 31
Hunt for Battleship Hood
PBS, 8 p.m. Check local listings
This 60-minute program brings us the first satellite images of the wreck of HMS Hood, the British battle cruiser sunk by the German battleship Bismarck on May 24, 1941.
THURSDAY, NOV. 1
Testing Our Schools
PBS, 9 p.m.
Catholic viewers will be more likely than ever to opt for parochial schools and home schooling after hearing the ineffectual remedies that clueless guests on this “Frontline” propose to deal with public schools' abysmal performance and dismal prospects.
FRIDAY, NOV. 2
Stations of the Cross
EWTN, 6 p.m.
Many Catholic families pray along with this show just before their evening meal.
SATURDAY, NOV. 3
The Truth Exposed
EWTN, 8 p.m.
The conversion stories in this program make for fine lessons in Catholic apologetics.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dan Engler ----- KEYWORD: Arts & Culture -------- TITLE: Bishops Are Obligated by Love... DATE: 10/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 28 - November 3, 2001 ----- BODY:The prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, spoke last December at the “Days of Reflection on the Jubilee for Bishops,” organized by the Legionaries of Christ at Regina Apostolorum Pontifical Athenaeum in Rome. His presentation, titled “The Bishop Is Sent to Teach,” addressed the question of the bishop's role in the Church — the topic that was discussed at the Synod of Bishops, which just ended Oct. 27.
The third and final part of Cardinal Grocholewski's talk follows:
Helped by the Holy Spirit
The Second Vatican Council teaches, in reference to bishops' triple munus, and keeping in mind the biblical texts, that “in order to fulfill such exalted functions, the Apostles were endowed by Christ with a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit coming upon them, and, by the imposition of hands, they passed on to their auxiliaries the gift of the Spirit, which is transmitted down to our day through episcopal consecration” (Lumen Gentium, No. 21).
On the mission of teaching, the council notes that “the bishops, in as much as they are the successors of the Apostles, receive from the Lord, to whom all power is given in heaven and on earth, the mission of teaching all peoples and of preaching the Gospel to every creature. ... For the carrying out of this mission, Christ promised the Holy Spirit to the Apostles and sent him from heaven on the day of Pentecost, so that through his power they might be witnesses to him in the remotest parts of the earth, before nations and peoples and kings” (Lumen Gentium, No. 24).
Two things must be kept in mind in this regard: First, understanding revealed truths does not come from the strength of our human capabilities alone, but also thanks to the light and the action of the Holy Spirit. “When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth ... he will testify to me” (John 15:26), “he will guide you to all truth ... he will take from what is mine and declare it to you” (John 16:13-14), “he will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you” (John 14:26).
Not only understanding, but also teaching, through one's preaching and one's life, must be carried out in the dynamic power of the Holy Spirit. The light and the power to convince, in fact, come not only from human reasoning, but also and principally from the Holy Spirit. “You will receive power of the Holy Spirit ... and you will be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8). The encyclical Veritatis Splendor recalls Paul VI's words in this regard, “Evangelization will never be possible without the action of the Holy Spirit” (No. 108).
Consequently, it is extremely important for a bishop to be open to the Holy Spirit, and be sensitive and docile to his action. This requires prayer, meditation, and the resulting way of thinking, deciding and acting in accord with the categories of faith, which are different from the mentality of the world. The gift of the Holy Spirit does not work in such a way as to transform a bishop into a depersonalized, inert instrument. His freedom remains wholly intact and the supernatural effectiveness of his words and his teachings will depend less on his natural talent and more on his docility to the Holy Spirit who has been given to him.
Second, the Holy Spirit's action does not, however, dispense with a bishop's study and effort; on the contrary, it presupposes and requires it, in order to make it useful for the bishop himself and fruitful in his evangelizing activity.
The lack of serious study and effort, relying only on the Holy Spirit, would smack of what is usually called “tempting God” (see Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 2119). It is significant that St. Paul, writing to Timothy, would exhort him among other things “to reading” (1 Timothy 4:13).
It is not by any special revelation that bishops know what they must teach, nor is it their own personal ideas that they must put forward. They must transmit the deposit of divine Revelation in matters of faith and morals that was entrusted to the Apostles and their successors and is contained in sacred Scripture and in Tradition. They must teach in communion with the Pope and with the members of the college of bishops. It is necessary, therefore, for bishops to be experts in theology (see Code of Canon Law, canon 378) and to deepen their grasp above all of the Word of God and the Tradition of the Church, and be up to date on the magisterium of the Roman Pontiff and of the college of bishops. The earnest concern to transmit what he received and to transmit it in union with the whole body of bishops is one of the most important qualities of a bishop's teaching ministry.
A bishop must know not only the Word of God and the Tradition of the Church, but also the culture in which he lives and acts. Only by embodying the Word of God in the society that surrounds him will he be able to carry out his mission.
In this regard, we may recall what John Paul II has to say about the New Evangelization: It must be “new in its ardor, methods and expression” (Veritatis Splendor, No. 106). A bishop must therefore study the most suitable teaching methods and the most appropriate ways to express the perennial and unchangeable truths of the faith in forms that will be accessible to people today in the context of their lives.
Bishops and Theologians
The dogmatic constitution of the Second Vatican Council on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum, says that “the task of giving an authentic interpretation of the Word of God, whether in its written form or in the form of Tradition, has been entrusted to the living teaching office of the Church alone. Its authority in this matter is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ. Yet this magisterium is not superior to the Word of God, but is its servant. It teaches only what has been handed on to it. At the divine command and with the help of the Holy Spirit, it listens to this devotedly, guards it with dedication, and expounds it faithfully. All that it proposes for belief as being divinely revealed is drawn from this single deposit of faith” (No. 10).
Some writers, however, distinguish the magisterium of the bishops and the magisterium of the Church in general from the activity of theologians, in the sense that theologians are credited with the duty of freely producing theological thought within a climate of daring innovation, while they limit the magisterium to the function of guarding and transmitting the deposit of faith or, in other words, of guaranteeing and defending orthodoxy (see, e.g., J.M. Lustiger, La pratique de la théologie dans un monde sécularisé, in Etudes, Jan. 2000).
Such an approach to the problem is not tenable.
This is evident from St. Paul's Letters to Timothy and Titus (whom constant Catholic tradition considers bishops), where their obligation to teach is placed by the Apostle in first place. In these letters, St. Paul not only exhorts them to guard the deposit of faith and defend it, but he also clearly entrusts to them the task of teaching the Word of God in order to form people in their concrete circumstances.
The council's constitution Lumen Gentium insists above all on the positive role of the bishops' teaching mission. As regards these “authentic teachers,” the council distinguishes four aspects of their mission and designates these aspects with different terms: “they preach the faith to the people assigned to them, the faith which is destined to inform their thinking and direct their conduct” (praedicant); “under the light of the Holy Spirit they make that faith shine forth, drawing from the storehouse of Revelation new things and old” (illustrant); “they make it bear fruit” (fructificare); “with watchfulness they ward off whatever errors threaten their flock” (errores arcent) (No. 25). As can be seen, the council stresses first of all the expository aspect of the teaching mission, while the defensive aspect appears in the last place.
A similar approach can be found in Book III of the Code of Canon Law, which refers precisely to the function of teaching in the Church (canons 747-833). First it speaks of the “ministry of the Word of God,” which entails preaching and catechetical instruction (canons 746-780); then of “missionary activity” (canons 781-792); it follows with “Catholic education” in schools, institutes of higher studies, and specifically in universities and ecclesiastical faculties (canons 793-821); then come dispositions on media, especially books (canons 822-832); and, finally, on persons who must make the profession of faith (canon 833). Although in some preceding canons there are some directives aimed at keeping the faithful from errors, it is only at the end that we find the canon aimed at preventing important ecclesiastical offices being conferred on persons who profess erroneous teachings.
In any case, it must be underlined that the very concept of guarding or keeping the faith is not a static concept. Obviously the deposit of faith cannot be augmented by new revelations (Revelation 22:18; Lumen Gentium, No. 25), but this deposit — as Charles Journet has written — is a “living principle that can keep its identity only by developing” (L'Eglise du Verbe Incarné, p. 408). It is a matter of development in the knowledge of the deposit itself, under the assistance of the Holy Spirit — a development that we can verify throughout the history of the Church. It is true that this role does not belong to any individual bishop. But, in union with the Roman Pontiff and the entire college of bishops, he does share in the magisterial mission of guarding the revealed deposit.
At any rate, the proper collaboration between the Church's living magisterium and the work of theologians is important, as the instruction Donum Veritatis of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith underlined. The bishop, equipped with the munus propheticum, should contribute to the Gospel message being presented in its perpetual newness and its eternal youthfulness.
Relationship of Love
It is noteworthy that sharing in the munus docendi does not reflect only the aspect of knowledge, but implies a relationship of love and of gift. Divine Revelation is an act of love for men. Love is what joins a bishop to the Truth he has contemplated. Pastoral love is what impels him to share this truth as a gift to others.
This recalls the Gospel scene which joins Jesus' compassion for the crowd with his teaching: “When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things” (Mark 6:34).
In his talk to the bishops during the Jubilee for Bishops, John Paul II affirmed that “announcing the Gospel is the highest act of love for man, for his freedom and for his thirst for happiness” (L'Osservatore Romano, Oct. 8, 2000).
The greater a bishop's love for God and for revealed truth and for his neighbor, the greater will be his commitment to his teaching mission.
VARIETY OF OBLIGATIONS
A bishop's teaching mission comprises not only preaching as such, but also many other tasks aimed at assuring that the Word of God is taught faithfully and effectively.
Preaching Personally
In the first place, a bishop cannot exempt himself from the obligation of personally preaching or announcing the Word of God. He is — as we have said — an authentic teacher, sent by the Lord to teach.
To be faithful to this commitment, he must teach all the doctrine in its integrality (not selected truths) and integrity (not presenting only a part of each of the truths), and also in its unity: It is extremely important to present the Gospel message, not as a cluster of isolated statements, but as a coherent oneness of the truth which is in itself fascinating.
A bishop should also feel obligated to proclaim the Gospel to all. “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Good News to all creation” (Mark 16:15). Sometimes there are environments where it is hard for the Word of God to get a hearing, but a bishop cannot in such a case simply exempt himself from his responsibility; he must proclaim the word and insist “in season and out” (2 Timothy 4:2). What St. Paul wrote to Timothy is significant in this regard: “For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine but, following their own desires and insatiable curiosity, will accumulate teachers and will stop listening to the truth and will be diverted to myths. But you, be self-possessed in all circumstances; put up with hardship; perform the work of an evangelist; fulfill your ministry” (2 Timothy 4:3-5). Facing up to difficulties is a sign of a real shepherd.
In the exercise of their munus docendi [teaching mission], the Catechism of the Catholic Church can be of great help to the bishops as a “sure and authentic reference text for teaching the Catholic faith” (John Paul II, apostolic constitution Fidei Depositum, 1992). After all, isn't the catechism addressed principally to the bishops? And didn't they request it during the extraordinary synod of 1985 “before all for themselves as a valid help in fulfilling the mission they received from Christ to proclaim and witness the Good News to all men” (John Paul II, address Dec. 7, 1992)?
Ensuring Faithful and Effective Teaching
Forming priests
Among a bishop's various obligations, I would put in first place providing an adequate, solid formation of priests. They are, after all, a bishop's principal collaborators in teaching and in pastoral work in general.
Their doctrinal formation is a truly serious obligation of a diocesan bishop and of those in an equivalent position (canon 381:2). The Code of Canon Law (canons 232-264) and the 1992 post-synodal apostolic exhortation Pastores Dabo Vobis deal with this extensively. I do not intend to go into detail here; I am sure that every diocesan bishop has studied these documents with particular care and does not leave aside such an important obligation. I would only like to add that it is important to provide adequate spiritual and pastoral formation for priests, so they can effectively collaborate in the bishop's munus docendi; otherwise, lacking a deep spiritual life and pastoral zeal and capabilities, their effort at teaching will be weak.
Promoting vocations
A bishop's obligation to promote priestly vocations and to provide for the ongoing formation of priests should be considered part of the munus docendi, closely connected with his duty to provide for the formation of priests.
A bishop is called to promote priestly vocations by every means possible, and in this regard, I would like to highlight the importance of proclaiming to all concerned the proper teaching about priestly ministry.
In our present circumstances, that is, given the shortage of priests in many local churches, this is an urgent task, inasmuch as — as Pastores Dabo Vobis says — “without priests the Church would not be able to live that fundamental obedience which is at the very heart of her existence and her mission in history, an obedience in response to the command of Christ: ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all nations’ (Matthew 28:19) and ‘Do this in remembrance of me’ (Luke 22:19; see 1 Corinthians 11:24), i.e., an obedience to the command to announce the Gospel and to renew daily the sacrifice of the giving of his body and the shedding of his blood for the life of the world” (No. 1).
Ongoing formation
In relation to his priests, a bishop's munus docendi is permanent. A bishop's faith strengthens his priests; his Gospel zeal becomes courage in his priests.
Pastores Dabo Vobis states that the entire local church “has the responsibility to develop and look after the different aspects of her priests' permanent formation,” but it underlines that it must be carried out “under the guidance of the bishop” (No. 78), specifying that, in this area, “the responsibility of the bishop is fundamental,” insofar as “the priests receive their priesthood from him and share his pastoral solicitude for the People of God” (No. 79).
The exhortation requires that this responsibility lead “the bishop, in communion with the presbyterate, to outline a project and establish a program which can ensure that ongoing formation is ... a systematic offering of subjects.” Even further, it requires the bishop to be “present in person and taking part in an interested and friendly way” (No. 79).
Obviously this formation includes doctrinal formation, which for its part receives stimulus and effectiveness from the other aspects of a permanent formation program.
Catechetical instruction
Another extremely important field a bishop has to deal with, insofar as he is invested with the munus docendi, is without doubt catechetical instruction, above all of children and young adults.
In this regard, let me point out that the pastoral care of children and young adults is crucially important for their future religiosity and therefore for the future of the Church.
If we are able to sow faith and union with God in the hearts of children and of young people, they will bear fruit later on in their lives. Also, if they happen to stray from God at times during certain stages of their life, for various reasons, it will be easier for them to return to the faith: Deeply lived union with God during one's youth remains as a leaven in the heart that is capable of awakening. When faith is rooted in one's youth, it prompts the desire to deepen it, to study it further, and it helps one to become a convinced, active Catholic in the various fields of human endeavor.
I am of the opinion that the most important and decisive battle for the future of the Church and of faith in the world is at the level of religious education of children and young people.
In this regard, it is significant that Agostino Gemelli, the renowned founder of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, once said, as it was told to me, that if he had been obliged to close either the university or the nursery school, he would have preferred to close the university.
As regards a bishop's responsibility in this field, Christus Dominus, the council's decree on the pastoral office of bishops, exhorts, “Bishops should take pains that catechetical instruction ... be given with sedulous care to both children and adolescents, youths and adults. In this instruction a suitable arrangement should be observed as well as a method suited to the matter that is being treated and to the character, ability, age, and circumstances of the life of the students. Finally, they should see to it that this instruction is based on sacred Scripture, tradition, the liturgy, magisterium, and life of the Church. Moreover, they should take care that catechists be properly trained for their function so that they will be thoroughly acquainted with the doctrine of the Church and will have both a theoretical and a practical knowledge of the laws of psychology and of pedagogical methods. Bishops should also strive to renew or at least adapt in a better way the instruction of adult catechumens” (No. 14).
I think that this text is asking a lot from bishops. At any rate, these are instructions to be taken seriously by the one who is principally responsible for the munus docendi in his own local church.
Catholic schools
The munus docendi of bishops acquires a quite particular distinctiveness also in relation to other places dedicated to formation. I am referring to Catholic schools and to Catholic and ecclesiastical universities. It is not by chance that the Code of Canon Law deals with these formation institutes in Book III, The Teaching Office of the Church, and summarizes the important responsibilities of bishops in this regard.
I would like to say a word about these three places of formation in the following points.
Among the most incisive instruments to cultivate education are Catholic schools, as Gravissimum Educationis reminds us (No. 5).
In this perspective, Catholic schools share fully in the Church's evangelizing mission. They help in the task of forming Christians to achieve their final end, and are therefore open to God and his Revelation (Code of Canon Law, canon 795).
In this context, Church documents reserve to a diocesan bishop the task of:
E making sure that there are schools that will impart an education imbued with the Christian spirit and therefore to establish such schools (canon 802);
E regulating and being vigilant over the Catholic religious education in them, in conformity with the norms issued by the bishops' conference;
E being concerned that those who are assigned as religion teachers in those schools be outstanding for their correct doctrine, their witness of Christian living and their pedagogical skill (canons 804, 805);
E being vigilant over the visitation of the Catholic schools located in his territory, even those schools which have been established or are being directed by members of religious institutes (canon 806);
E and issuing prescriptions dealing with the general regulation of Catholic schools.
At this point I would like to add that it is a diocesan bishop's responsibility to look after and promote religious education in non-Catholic schools. It is a serious responsibility and at the same time a decisive one, since most Catholic children and young people go to non-Catholic schools.
Catholic universities
A bishop's relationship with the ecclesial institutions of higher studies — Catholic universities and ecclesiastical universities and faculties — constitutes not only a privileged way to exercise the munus docendi, but it takes on an important role for the future of the Church. That is because the people who will undertake specific tasks in Catholic teaching are formed in such institutions. Also, they are the institutions where scientific research takes place on the truths of the faith, the relation between faith and culture, and between faith and science.
As regards Catholic universities, the Second Vatican Council declared that they should accomplish “a public, enduring and pervasive influence of the Christian mind in the furtherance of culture” (Gravissimum Educationis, No. 10). The primary person responsible for the public influence of the Christian mind in his own local church is obviously the bishop.
Pope John Paul II, in the 1990 apostolic constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae on Catholic universities, wrote that “bishops have a particular responsibility to promote Catholic universities, and especially to promote and assist in the preservation and strengthening of their Catholic identity, including the protection of their Catholic identity in relation to civil authorities. This will be achieved more effectively if close personal and pastoral relationships exist between university and Church authorities, characterized by mutual trust, close and consistent cooperation and continuing dialogue. Even when they do not enter directly into the internal governance of the university, bishops ‘should be seen not as external agents, but as participants in the life of the Catholic University’” (No. 28)
Ecclesiastical universities and faculties
“Among Catholic universities the Church has always promoted with special care ecclesiastical faculties and universities, which is to say those concerned particularly with Christian Revelation and questions connected therewith and which are therefore more closely connected with her mission of evangelization” (Sapientia Christiana, fore-word, ch. 3). All the more reason, therefore, why they should be in the heart of a bishop “sent to teach.”
Even though, because of their ecclesial importance, establishing faculties or universities of this type is reserved to the Holy See, and they grant academic degrees by the authority of the Holy See, nevertheless the responsibility of the local bishop as such or as a member of the bishops' conference is significant. It manifests itself first as regards the preparation for establishing such faculties or universities, and afterwards as regards their life and progress.
Besides, in many cases (or rather, usually), the local ordinary is the chancellor of the ecclesiastical faculty or university, and he enjoys the rights and duties of that office, among which are those of promoting scientific endeavor and safeguarding Catholic teaching in the faculty or university. Where the local ordinary is not the chancellor, norms should be set up regarding his responsibilities in this regard.
I would like to add that a bishop's responsibility also includes the teaching of theology outside of the faculties of theology. In relation to this, one should remember the instruction of canon 812, according to which “it is necessary that those who teach theological disciplines in any institute of higher studies have a mandatum from the competent ecclesiastical authority.”
Media, especially books
On the basis of his munus docendi, a bishop has particular responsibilities in this sector also.
The code in canon 823 distinguished in a general way between the rights and duties in this regard:
E to be vigilant lest harm be done to the faith or morals of the Christian faithful through writings or the use of the instruments of social communication;”
E to demand that writings to be published by the Christian faithful which touch upon faith or morals be submitted to their judgment;”
E to denounce writings which harm correct faith or good morals.”
The following canons (824-832) contain numerous further specifications, among which it emerges to what degree is implied in this sector a bishop's responsibility for the faith to be correctly taught or disseminated in his ecclesiastical territory.
Bishop and theologians
I have already mentioned the need for theologians to collaborate with their bishop. The reason is that they can be a truly great help for the bishop in the various functions included in his munus docendi, whether in the vigilance over correct doctrine or in the various initiatives that can be undertaken. Even more, theologians are people who by their very nature are called to collaborate and to converge, since “the living Magisterium of the Church and theology ... ultimately have the same goal: preserving the People of God in the truth which sets free and thereby making them ‘a light to the nations’” (Donum Veritatis, No. 21)
Nonetheless, as regards vigilance, the reference point is always the authority of Revelation, of which the bishop is the guardian, and he cannot simply delegate this function. “We have the duty, as bishops — wrote John Paul II in Veritatis Splendor — to be vigilant that the word of God is faithfully taught. My brothers in the episcopate, it is part of our pastoral ministry to see to it that this moral teaching is faithfully handed down and to have recourse to appropriate measures to ensure that the faithful are guarded from every doctrine and theory contrary to it. In carrying out this task, we are all assisted by theologians; even so, theological opinions constitute neither the rule nor the norm of our teaching. Its authority is derived, with the assistance of the Holy Spirit and in communion cum Petro et sub Petro, from our fidelity to the Catholic faith which comes from the Apostles. As bishops, we have the grave obligation to be personally vigilant that the ‘sound doctrine’ (1 Timothy 1:10) of faith and morals is taught in our dioceses” (No. 116).
Sometimes a bishop may not feel competent to dialogue with a theologian who is teaching doctrines that disturb the faithful and that do not seem very compatible with the faith of the Church; he can therefore be tempted not to intervene. Such an attitude is not tenable. Of course, he can in such a case consult with sound, qualified theologians, but he must in no way renounce his magisterial function. Cardinal Jerome Hamer makes the proper distinctions: “It is not necessary for the bishop to intervene on the technical level of theology, but it is indispensable to do so in name of the doctrine of the faith, of which he is the guardian and which he must preach.”
Non-Christians
Vatican II, by saying that “bishops are preachers of the faith, who lead new disciples to Christ, and they are authentic teachers ... who preach to the people committed to them” (Lumen Gentium, No. 25), makes a clear distinction between the mission of announcing the Gospel to non-Christians and the task of preaching with authority to the faithful who have already accepted the message and who are obligated to conform their mind and conduct to it.
This distinction corresponds to the New Testament's distinction between kerygma and didaskalia or catechesis. The kerygma is the message proclaimed by an apostle. A catechist or teacher explains the teaching with the authorization of the Church and in its name. Both tasks belong to a bishop.
Consequently, even if a bishop does not take up the task of teaching in mission lands, in his heart must be the commitment to support the missions.
Canon 782 says in this regard that “since they are the sponsors for the universal Church and for all the churches, individual bishops are to have a special concern for missionary work especially by initiating, fostering and sustaining missionary endeavors in their own particular church.”
CONCLUSION
I conclude with a quotation rich in ecclesial content taken from the 1993 encyclical Veritatis Splendor. “Evangelization is the most powerful and stirring challenge which the Church has been called to face from her very beginning. Indeed, this challenge is posed, not so much by the social and cultural milieux which she encounters in the course of history, as by the mandate of the Risen Christ, who defines the very reason for the Church's existence: ‘Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to the whole creation.’ (Mark 16:15). At least for many peoples, however, the present time is instead marked by a formidable challenge to undertake a new evangelization, a proclamation of the Gospel which is always new and always the bearer of new things, an evangelization which must be new in its ardor, methods and expression” (No. 106).
Previously published in Rome by the theological journal Ecclesia.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Education -------- TITLE: 'Blessed,' With Children DATE: 10/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 28 - November 3, 2001 ----- BODY:This All Saints Day, Nov. 1, laypeople can celebrate more of their own than ever before.
That's because, in 1992, Pope John Paul II expressed a concern that few lay people, particularly mothers and fathers, appeared on the Church's calendar of saints.
As a result, the Vatican Congregation for Causes of the Saints took a closer look and, finding numerous cases of heroic virtue, presented parents to the Holy Father for beatification and canonization. Some of their lives, lived in times of war and persecution, are particularly apropos amid today's terrorist threats.
Here are just a few of the husbands and wives recognized recently by the Church:
Luigi and Maria Beltrame Quattrocchi (beatified Oct. 21) became the first married couple in the history of the Church to be beatified together. Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, head of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, spoke of the couple's deep prayer life, their activity in Church associations and the family's “atmosphere of mutual affection between the parents and their children.”
During their courtship the couple wrote and saved love letters. “I have put a kiss so warm as my love,” wrote Luigi. “I take your hands and put them on my face, on my heart, on my mouth,” wrote Maria. They married in 1905 and gave birth to three children in the following four years.
When Maria became pregnant with their fourth child, doctors warned she would die unless she aborted the baby. The couple, however, chose life for their child. In 1914, when their daughter was born, both mother and child survived.
I'If we do not risk our lives today,’ said Blessed Nikolaus, ‘how do we then justify ourselves before God and our people?’
Luigi, a lawyer, died in 1951 at the age of 71, Maria died in 1965 at the age of 81. Three of their four children became priests or religious.
Gianna Beretta Molla (1922-1962, beatified April 24, 1994), a Brazilian, studied medicine in her homeland and later specialized in pediatrics at the University of Milan.
In 1955 she fell in love and married Pietro Molla. They had three children. When Gianna became pregnant with her fourth child, doctors discovered a fibrous tumor in her ovary and advised an operation that would abort the infant. Pleading for her child's life, Gianna requested another procedure that risked her own.
On April 28, 1962, Gianna gave birth to her daughter Emmanuela and died shortly thereafter. When Pope John Paul II beatified her he said, “In the dramatic choice between saving her own life or that of the baby she bore in her womb, she did not hesitate to sacrifice herself. What a heroic witness she gave!”
Nikolaus Gross (1898-1945, beatified Oct. 7), born in Essen, Germany, became an editor for a miner's newspaper in his early 20s. He married Elizabeth Kock from Niederwenigern and they had seven children.
Nikolaus loved his family dearly and, as Europe changed during Hitler's rise to power, he painstakingly balanced family life with his growing social responsibilities. He formed a Nazi resistance group and frequently exposed injustices in his newspaper.
Msgr. Caspar Shulte cautioned the editor to be careful, reminding him of his wife and seven children. Nikolaus responded, “If we do not risk our lives today, how do we then justify ourselves before God and our people?” He trusted God's care for his family.
Although innocent, Nikolaus was arrested, imprisoned and accused of conspiracy in the attempted 1944 assassination of Hitler. From prison, he continually wrote letters to his wife and children, asking for their prayers, and assuring them of his.
His wife, Elizabeth, visited him twice in prison and grieved when she saw his tortured hands and arms. He entrusted his family to God's care, and on Jan. 23, 1945, was hanged in Berlin-Plotzenesee, accused of treason.
Manuel Morales (1898-1926, canonized May 21, 2000), a faithful spouse and affectionate father to his three children, took action when religious persecution intensified in Mexico. On Aug. 15, 1926, when he learned his pastor, Father Batis had been imprisoned, he assembled a group of youths to respond.
The authorities approached the group, singled out Manuel, insulted him and brought him with the pastor to the outskirts of the city. The priest pleaded for the life of Manuel in consideration of his family, but Manuel boldly responded, “I might die, but God does not die. He will take care of my wife and my family.”
He then exclaimed, “Long live Christ the King and the Virgin of Guadalupe!” Moments later, he was martyred.
Ceferino Gimenez Malla (1861-1936, beatified May 4, 1997) was a Spanish gypsy whom people called “El Pele.”
A respected horse dealer, Ceferino married a young gypsy named Teresa Gimenez Castro. Because they had no children, they adopted a niece, Pepita, and raised her as a Catholic.
During the Spanish Revolution, when the militia arrested a priest, Ceferino protested and was imprisoned. Separated from his wife and child, this faithful husband and father recited the rosary day and night. Officials offered him freedom if he would stop reciting the rosary, but he refused.
As a result, on Aug. 2, 1936, Ceferino was shot. He died holding his rosary and uttering the words, “Long live Christ the King!”
Vicente Vilar David (1889-1937, beatified Oct. 1, 1995) was born in Valencia, Spain, and worked as an industrial engineer in his family's ceramics firm. He married Isabel Rodes Reig, the primary witness to his life and martyrdom.
Vicente was a devout husband, active in parish activities and Catholic youth groups. When anti-religious sentiment sprang up in 1931, he sheltered persecuted priests and religious in his home and did not hide his faith.
As a result, Vicente was arrested. While he was being taken away, his wife said to him: “See you tomorrow!” He answered, “Until tomorrow or in heaven!” Moments later, his wife heard shots.
Peter To Rot (1912-1945, beatified Jan. 17, 1995), born on an island off the coast of Papua New Guinea, was the chief catechist of his village. He married Paula la Varpit, one of his former catechists and they had three children together.
Peter defended the sanctity of marriage. When the Japanese occupied his island, legalized polygamy, and made resistance to polygamy punishable, Peter openly opposed the regulations and was arrested.
Knowing he might be put to death, Peter asked his wife to bring his best clothes, so that he would be ready to meet God. At age 33 he was taken to a hut, held down, and murdered by lethal injection.
Victoire Rasomanarivo (1848-1894, beatified April 30, 1989) was born into the ruling elite of Madagascar. On May 13, 1864, she married the son of the prime minister. Her husband openly abused her, and many people counseled her to divorce him. Victoire refused to leave her husband, staying with him until his death in 1887.
Elizabeth Canori Mora (1774-1825, beatified April 24, 1994) was born to a wealthy Roman family and, when she was 22, married a young lawyer named Cristoforo Moro. They had four children, two of whom died in infancy.
Her husband, attracted by another young woman, remained distant from the family, and squandered their money, leaving Elizabeth alone to raise and support her daughters Marianna and Luciana.
Although her husband was both physically and psychologically violent, Elizabeth remained faithful to him, continued to love him, and prayed constantly for his conversion. She foretold her husband would repent and return to the Church.
In 1807, Elizabeth joined the Trinitarian Third Order, and continued to respond with dedication to her family. On Feb. 5, 1825, under the loving care of her two daughters, she died. Shortly after that, her husband converted, joined the Trinitarian Third Order and later became a priest of the Conventual Franciscans.
Frederic Ozanam (1813-1853, beatified Aug. 22, 1997) first considered the priesthood, but then, as a professor of literature at the Sorbonne, he was introduced to Marie-Josephine Amelie-Soula croix and married her in 1841. Both were devoted to helping the poor and tried hard to balance married life with good works They had a daughter named Marie.
Frederic and a handful of students at the University of Paris started a “Conference of Charity” to help the poor in 1952. One year later the group divided into units, and eventually it became known as the Society of St. Vincent De Paul.
Emilie Tavernier Gamelin
(1800-1851, beatified Oct. 7, 2001) was born in Montreal and, at the age of 23, married Jean-Baptiste Gamelin, a wealthy merchant. They had three boys, all of whom died at an early age. Her husband died in 1827.
Without her children or husband, Emilie dedicated the rest of her life to serving the poor. She started a home for elderly and destitute women. She nursed the sick, and visited prisoners. A few of her friends joined her in these works of mercy.
In 1842, she took a private vow to serve the poor. One year later, she founded the Congregation of the Daughters of Charity, Servants of the Poor. She pronounced religious vows on March 29, 1844, and was then appointed as first superior of the congregation, known today as the Sisters of Providence.
She died of cholera in 1851, after a 12-year illness.
Edmund Rice (1762-1844, beatified Oct. 6, 1996), from Ireland, married Mary Elliot when he was 23. While his wife was pregnant, she was thrown by a horse. Mary died, but the doctor saved the child who was baptized Mary. Several months after her birth, Mary demonstrated signs of retardation, and Edmund's stepsister came to his home to help care for the child.
Edmund inherited his uncle's successful business and worked hard. At the age of 40, 13 years after his wife's death, he sold everything he had and sent his daughter to live with his brother Patrick and his wife, who had no children of their own.
In a stable, Edmund started a school to educate poor boys in the Catholic faith. Other men joined him in his work. In 1802 he built a monastery where he and his followers could live a full religious life.
At first his brothers were under the diocesan bishop, but Edmund wanted them to expand. To do that, he needed papal approval, which he finally received in 1820. He was elected the superior general of the new congregation, which was called the Christian Brothers.
Throughout his life, Edmund provided for his daughter Mary. He also made sure she would have what she needed after his death, which came in 1844.
Gaetana Sterni (1827-1889, to be beatified Nov. 4, 2001) was born in Vicenza, Italy, and at the age of 15 married Liberale Conte, a young businessman and widower, who had three children.
She deeply loved her husband and cared for his three children as if they were her own.
While she was pregnant with her first child, her husband died. She carried her child to term, but the infant died a few days after birth. Rumors about the death of her husband and child led Gaetana's in-laws to take the other three children. Gaetana tried to help the children understand the separation.
In her 20s she felt a strong call to serve the sick and dying, which she did with much fervor. In 1865 she and two friends formed the order that would later be known as the Daughters of the Divine Will, dedicated to service of the sick and poor. Gaetana died on Nov. 26, 1889.
Maria Domenica Brun Barbantini (1789-1868, beatified May 7, 1995) was born in Lucca, Italy. She married at the age of 22. She became pregnant, but within six months of her marriage, her husband died. She gave birth to a son.
While carrying on her husband's business transactions, she made sure that her son was raised with Christian values, but he died at age 8.
She felt a strong call to serve the sick, poor and abandoned. A group of like-minded women joined her and they devoted themselves to charitable service. In 1817 they became the Pious Union of the Sisters of Charity. In 1829 this group became known as the Sisters Servants of the Sick of St. Camillus.
St. Marguerite D'Youville (1701- 1771, canonized Dec. 9, 1990), a Canadian, married Francois d'Youville at the age of 21. They had six children, four of whom died young.
Her husband wasted money, and sold illegal liquor. Though he treated her with indifference, when he became seriously ill, she nursed him for two years until he died in 1730.
Marguerite then worked to feed her children and settle her husband's debts. While raising her two boys, both of whom became priests, she found time to help a hospital get back on its feet, through skilled administration.
Over time a number of women joined her to form a group that would eventually become the Sisters of Charity — also called the “Gray Nuns” because of the color of their habit.
At first, they offered medical assistance for the people of Quebec. In 1747, however, Marguerite was given charge of the General Hospital in Montreal. The selfless sacrifices of her nuns gave witness to profound Christian charity.
Mary Ann Sullivan writes from Durham, New Hampshire.
----- EXCERPT: More married models of holiness are recognized by the Church ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mary Ann Sullivan ----- KEYWORD: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Grandparents' Rules DATE: 10/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 28 - November 3, 2001 ----- BODY:Q What can I do about my parents who think I'm being too strict or too mean when I discipline my 4-year-old daughter? The irony is, they were even more strict raising me.
A As Bill Cosby says, “These are not the same people who raised us. These are older people now, trying to get into heaven.”
Asking my father for a nickel for a Popsicle when I was a kid involved submitting a comprehensive fiscal plan detailing how many days of chores I'd be willing to do, what size Popsicle, and what percentage of the nickel I'd give to the Church. Thirty-five years later, this is the same man who accuses me of depriving my children if I deny them a third helping of the ice cream he brought over.
What you can do about your folks' disagreement with your parenting depends upon their level of disagreement. If they just think you're too strict, you don't have to do much. Continue raising your daughter as you see best, even in their presence, knowing they don't fully concur. With time, they'll see what a good kid you're raising.
Level 2 interference involves second-guessing your discipline, either privately with you or in front of your daughter. Here, a first step is to speak up: “Mom, I know you don't always like how I raise Bliss, but you always taught me to do what I believe is right.” Or, if you want to be a little more forceful: “You raised me beautifully, Mom and Dad, so I'm going to do it just the way you always did.”
Level 3 interference is active, purposeful undercutting of your authority. You send Sybil to the corner, and your mom takes her out. You limit her donuts to one half, and your dad gives her a half dozen.
Two suggestions: One, if you can do it without ugly conflict, calmly override your parents and make your discipline stick. Two, create no dispute on the spot, but inform your daughter that if she listens to grandma instead of mommy, she'll face more trouble when grandma is not around. The average kid will learn to act in harmony with a parent, instead of siding with grandma.
The most relationship-straining level of interference involves your folks deliberately disregarding your requests and standards when your daughter is alone with them. In essence, Disneyland without limits is the scene.
Here, if all attempts to get cooperation have failed, you are forced into some tough decisions. Perhaps you can bear with the low standards, confident you can undo them at home. Or you may decide to limit the amount of time Harmony spends with her grandparents. Some cases are so extreme that nothing else will protect your right to raise your child.
In fairness to grandparents, I must acknowledge that they often tell me something like, “I'd like to spoil my grandkids a bit, but their parents already let them get away with so much that I feel like I have to be the disciplinarian.”
Dr. Ray Guarendi is a clinical psychologist and author.
His Web site is www.kidbrat.com
Reach Family Matters at familymatters@ncregister.com
----- EXCERPT: Family Matters ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dr. Ray Guerendi ----- KEYWORD: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: At-Home Moms DATE: 10/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 28 - November 3, 2001 ----- BODY:THE NUMBER of U.S. women staying at home after childbirth — instead of returning to work or seeking employment — has been on the rise. About 3.9 million women between the ages of 15 and 44 gave birth between July 1999 and June 2000.
Still at home at least a year after childbirth
45%
41%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, cited by Associated Press, Oct. 18
----- EXCERPT: Facts of Life ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Life Notes DATE: 10/28/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: October 28 - November 3, 2001 ----- BODY:New Role for Amniocentesis?
The stem cells were detected through amniocentesis, a procedure that has been used mainly as a method to find fetal disorders, with abortion used as a “solution” if a problem is discovered. The new research could give amniocentesis a distinctly life-affirming purpose. If scans suggest a baby may have defects, doctors could isolate cells from this fluid that could be grown into tissue to correct the defects.
Medical Conscience Clause
Curbing prescriptions for birth control, the abortion pill and the morning-after pill are not the purposes of the legislation, said Ehardt. He simply wants to protect employees from pressure to violate their consciences.
Greg Baran of the Michigan Pharmacists Association said current protections are not always viewed as covering pharmacists, nurses and clerical staffs.
Abortion Regs Upheld
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Oct. 15 — A federal appellate court has denied a request by abortion providers to temporarily halt new state restrictions on abortion clinics in South Carolina.
The Center for Reproductive Law and Policy filed a lawsuit on behalf of abortion facilities in Greenville and Charleston, calling the pro-life regulations burdensome and an attempt to undermine abortion. The regulations were passed in 1996 and took effect in August.
The regulations govern a variety of activities, from bookkeeping to air flow in offices. They also require that a list of counselors, including clergy, be provided to women considering abortions.
Parents Block Sex Book
Instead of serving as a required textbook, It's Perfectly Normal, may now be checked out of school libraries by elementary and middle school students, but only with their parents' permission.
More than 100 people attended a school board hearing on the book. Parent Tammy Hogge said, “I do not need my 7-year-old to know how to use contraceptives. I need him to learn how to write and read and do math.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORD: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Anthrax Victim Was a Catholic Evangelizer DATE: 11/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 04-11, 2001 BODY:CLINTON, Md.—Second generation postal worker Joseph Curseen Jr. grew up around stories of his father, who worked in the Reagan White House, delivering mail.
A Catholic “mini-evangelist” who ran a Bible study for postal workers, he never expected that his work might make him a casualty in terror attacks on America.
After fainting at Mass on Oct. 20, and being treated once for the flu, Curseen died Oct. 22. He is one of two Washington postal workers whose recent deaths have been attributed to an inhaled form of anthrax. Anthrax attacks have infected at least 13 individuals, three of whom have died.
“We mourn the loss of two of our own who died in the fight against terrorism,” said Postmaster General Jack Potter. Curseen, 47, worked the night shift as a Level 6 mail processor in charge of the mail-coding machine for government mail at Washington, D.C.'s Brentwood mail sorting center. Officials believe that the letter containing anthrax that was addressed to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle may have been processed at the facility.
Curseen's friends remembered him as a man of intelligence, integrity and faith.
The only boy of three children, Curseen attended Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic School in Washington through eighth grade. Out of a class of about 100, he was one of eight minority students to graduate from Gonzaga High School in 1972.
“That group,” described fellow graduate and friend Gustavo Paredes, “formed an unusual bond. We always had a sense of that community and we would keep in touch and gather at holidays and during the summer.”
When the group gathered for their 25th reunion, they urged Curseen to skip work the following day for a picnic, but he wouldn't hear of it.
“That's just the kind of guy he was,” said Danny Costello, a fellow graduate and vice president for development at Gonzaga. “We joked with him because he had more than 150 [unused] sick days,” added Paredes. “He would never call in sick if he weren't.”
“Joe always had a very quiet strength. He was always there for you,” said fellow Gonzaga graduate Wendell W. Jones II. “Overall he was just a very good person. You don't run into many really good people.”
Curseen went on to graduate from Marquette University in Milwaukee, with a degree in business. An avid runner and basketball player, Curseen served as the founder and president of his neighborhood association—the Cambridge Estate subdivision. “The last thing I remember him doing was passing out fliers and bumper stickers to get people to lobby for speed-bumps in his community,” recalled Josephite Father Lowell Case, pastor at Our Lady of Perpetual Help.
Friend and neighbor Tyrone Pruitt told the Associated Press that he often asked Curseen to pick up his children after school or football practice. Said Pruitt, “Mr. Curseen never said no.”
Curseen divided his time between Our Lady of Perpetual Help, where he grew up, and St.
John the Evangelist near his home in Clinton, Md.
Like his father, Curseen served as an extraordinary eucharistic minister at Our Lady of Perpetual Help. In fact, Joe Curseen Sr. told USA Today that the last time he saw his son healthy he was doing one of the things he loved best—serving at Mass on Oct. 7.
“Joe was always the first person at church on a Saturday afternoon,” recalled Father Case. “I knew Joe was there because the lights would be on, but he wouldn't touch anything. I would find him there standing next to the sink. I would say, ‘Joe, you know where the chalices are,’ but he would always wait until I arrived. He would never get in your way, but would ask ‘What do you need me to do?’”
According to Father Case, for the past couple of years, Joe had run a Bible study group for interested colleagues at the U.S. Post Office. “At one time I believe he had as many as 15 members,” said Father Case. “Joe was like a mini-evange-list. He would push up his glasses and say, ‘Would you like to know more about that?’ He was never obtrusive.”
Neighbor William Jones said that Curseen's only disappointment was that he and his wife were childless. “Joe told me that he always wanted to have a child. He was a man of great faith. He didn't get frustrated … he would say, ‘We'll keep trying. It will happen. He never lost his faith,” recalled Paredes.
“Joe had a real love of God,” added Paredes. “He extended his religion beyond Church on Sunday. It made him more centered and gave him strength. A kind of spirituality came from him even when he wasn't talking about God. I admired him for that.”
Tim Drake writes from St. Cloud, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Battleground Bethlehem DATE: 11/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 04-11, 2001 ----- BODY:BETHLEHEM, West Bank—On Oct. 18, the Israeli army burst into Bethlehem in search of Palestinian militants who had committed violent acts against Israeli soldiers and civilians. The incursion into the birthplace of Jesus came one day after Palestinian gunmen assassinated Rahavam Zeevi, Israel's ultra-right wing tourism minister.
In the days following the Israeli invasion, the 60 children residing at the Holy Family Hospital orphanage in the western part of the town lived in a state of constant fear.
“They have been terribly afraid,” said the orphanage's secretary, who gave his name as George. “The other day they saw helicopters shooting missiles, and for the last couple of days the shooting hasn't stopped. The children have become overexcited and often cry. Some say, ‘They're coming to shoot us.’ They have trouble sleeping at night.”
Like many Christian institutions in Bethlehem, and nearby Beit Sahur and Beit Jala, the orphanage and maternity hospital found themselves literally caught in the crossfire between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen.
Run by the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, the complex, which includes a convent, suddenly found itself next to an Israeli tank encampment.
During the first week of gunfights and shelling, the windows of the neonatal intensive care unit and lobby were shattered. A shell also penetrated a window of the church.
George insisted that Palestinian gunmen “are not shooting from the hospital, but they are shooting from the streets around it. We're surrounded by streets on the east, west, north and south. It's a Palestinian area and anyone who wants to defend his country against occupation must fight from this area.”
Brother Vincent Malham, president of Bethlehem University, said that his campus has been badly damaged by Israeli troops.
“Their tanks have been as close as a block away. We've had close to 100 windows broken, including five stained-glass windows in our chapel that I don't know how we'll replace. The Brothers’ residence has been hit by 110 bullets. Our midwifery lab has been damaged, as has the old Arabic mansion on the premises. Our water and electrical supplies have been affected.”
Brother Vincent, one of 12 De la Salle Christian Brothers who run the university, acknowledged that “there has been incitement by some of the Palestinians shooting small weapons that do very little damage. There has been activity in our neighborhood.”
To protect students and teachers, the university closed its gates when Israeli tanks arrived.
The university president said that he had “augmented” the number of security guards on campus to prevent Palestinian gunmen from taking up positions there. During the past year, militants armed with guns and mortars have fired on the Jewish neighborhood of Gilo, on the southern outskirts of Jerusalem, from the rooftops of Muslim and Christian homes in Beit Jala, next to Bethlehem.
“We've gone to great lengths to keep outsiders off our campus,” Brother Vincent said. “We don't want to risk Israeli retaliation.” The university is particularly vulnerable, he added, “because we're located at one of the highest points in Bethlehem.”
Brother Vincent expressed anger at Israel for repeatedly hitting the university, despite the fact that it has striven to remain neutral in the conflict.
“What's baffled and angered and disappointed us is the extent to which Israel has pummeled the university,” he said. “Yes, they are responding to [Palestinian] shooting but why damage a place that is not in this at all? Israel is occupying this land illegally, and all the excuses in the world don't hold water.”
Israeli officials insisted that the army had no choice but to re-enter Palestinian towns and cities it had relinquished under the Oslo Peace Accords, due to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's failure to imprison the militants Israel regards as terrorists.
The Israeli government withdrew its forces from Bethlehem and Beit Jala Oct. 29, after no violence was reported in either community the previous day, CNN reported. But Rannan Gasson, an advisor to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said that the withdrawal was only a “test case” to see if peace could be preserved without the presence of Israeli troops, which remained in place in four other Palestinian communities occupied after the assassination of Zeevi.
Emanuel Nahshon, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, insisted that Palestinian gunmen have intentionally taken up positions at or near Christian institutions and holy sites, in the hope that the army's retaliatory strikes would damage Christian property.
Speaking Oct. 24, Nahshon said, “There is a cynical and deliberate use of Christian holy places by Palestinian militias in order to shoot against Israelis. This is done deliberately in order to provoke an Israeli reaction, which would somehow put the Christian world at odds with Israel,” Ecumenical News International reported.
While acknowledging that some Christian civilians have been killed in the fray, and that some church property may have been damaged, Jacob Dallal, an army spokesman, asserted that soldiers “are under strict orders never to fire at a church or a mosque, even when fired upon. There have been many instances where Palestinians used a church or mosque to shoot at Israelis.”
As the fighting raged on, Christian leaders utilized diplomatic channels—urging Israeli and Palestinian officials to abide by their signed agreements—and other means to try to put an end to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict once and for all.
Peace March
On Oct. 23, almost 1,000 Christian clergy and laymen marched from Jerusalem to Bethlehem to pray for peace in the Holy Land.
As the demonstrators, accompanied by a few Muslim leaders, proceeded, they were honored by the fighters in the front line. Israeli soldiers briefly left their posts, tanks moved aside and Palestinian gunmen laid down their guns for a few hours during the Oct. 23 procession.
“God of peace, give our land peace,” sang thousands of Palestinians, who joined the march.
The papal nuncio to Jerusalem, Archbishop Pietro Sambi, who led the procession, said the marchers did not mean to take sides in the conflict but only to appeal for the fighting to end.
“It is a demonstration against violence and wars and in favor of peace, just peace, which is the best for the Palestinians and the Israelis,” he said.
In contrast, local Church leaders, the vast majority of whom are Palestinians, accused Israel, and only Israel, of fanning the flames of war.
In a message to the faithful penned immediately after the latest Israeli incursion, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Michel Sabbah said, “In our Holy Land the element that opens the gates to death is the military occupation.” Addressing the Israeli people, the patriarch said, “It depends on your government to put an end to the occupation that has been pressing upon the Palestinians [for] decades, depriving them of their dignity and liberty.”
Father Raed Abusahlia, chancellor of the Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem, said that the latest Israeli occupation had caused the Palestinian people “intense misery, and not just in the Bethlehem area.”
“It is like a battlefield,” he said. “Hospitals have been shelled, people can't go to work or to school. Houses have been damaged, destroyed. The stores are closed. People can't go out and get food. There are no tourists, which is a huge blow because most of the Christians here make their living through tourism.”
Father Abusahlia, an outspoken Palestinian nationalist and one of the organizers of the peace march to Bethlehem, said that Palestinians have a right to fight for independence using whatever means necessary.
“When Israeli tanks arrived in front of our seminary in Beit Jala, the Palestinian resistance fired on the tank,” said Father Abusahlia. “People have a right to defend themselves against occupation.” The gunmen, he added, “are our soldiers, even Hamas and Islamic Jihad—they have the right to defend their people.”
The United States has long considered Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations.
Referring to the U.S. war on terrorism in Afghanistan, Father Abusahlia said that “if you want world peace, you have to end the Israeli occupation. The occupation is increasing hatred in the hearts of more than 1 billion Muslims.”
Arabs, and not only those of the Muslim faith, “view American foreign policy as arrogant,” he continued. “The Sept. 11 attacks were caused by the dirty, arrogant and immoral foreign policy of America. That is the feeling of the people on the street.”
The Pope's Plea
Upon hearing the news that a Christian teenager had been shot to death at Bethlehem's Manger Square—only one of several killings in recent days—Pope John Paul II made an impassioned plea for peace in the Middle East from St. Peter's Basilica on Oct. 21.
“In the name of God I repeat once again: For all,” he told an Angelus audience, “violence is only a way of death and destruction which dishonors the holiness of God and the dignity of man.”
Concluded the Holy Father, “To the families that are victims of violence, I express my closeness in sorrow, prayer, and hope. They have the gift of living in the land that is holy for Jews, Christians and Muslims. All must be determined to make it, finally, a land of peace and fraternity.”
Michele Chabin writes from Jerusalem.
----- EXCERPT: Christians got caught in the crossfire ----- EXTENDED BODY: Michele Chabin ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Reaching Out to Purgatory—And Avoiding It DATE: 11/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 04-11, 2001 ----- BODY:KANSAS CITY, Kan.—Can you really initiate contact with the dead online?
November is the month of the dead, when the Catholic Church remembers the faithful departed—many of whose road to heaven after death includes a detour to purgatory, a place of suffering and purification.
Maria Compton-Hernandez, a Catholic mother of seven in Kansas City, has been promoting devotion to and prayer for those in purgatory via a Web site for several years. Her Web site, poorsouls.net—those in purgatory are usually referred to as the poor souls or the holy souls—includes information on purgatory, and prayers for those there.
Because of her mother's devotion, “I developed a real devotion to the poor souls,” said Compton-Hernandez.
A great number of Catholics over the last few decades have “lost many traditions including praying for the holy souls,” she said. “There is a lack of understanding for the poor souls.”
Compton-Hernandez said people who contact her through the Web site are often “floored because they don't know the Catholic Church still teaches this.”
Others who contact her are “interested in renewing the devotion” to the poor souls, she said. She considers this very important because “the Church teaches that we can pray for them, and they can pray for us, but they cannot pray for themselves.”
In addition, she said she refers people with serious theological questions about purgatory to the Catechism of the Catholic Church or to the priests at EWTN.com for more detailed theological information.
Missionary of Perpetual Adoration Father Charles Carpenter, who taught for several years at the seminary in Obregon, Mexico, said, “Purgatory is real, and people go there.” Like Compton-Hernandez, he pointed out that those in purgatory rely on the prayers of the living to reduce their period of purification and suffering.
People end up in purgatory, according to Father Carpenter, “to make up for the sins they committed, to be purified ... of attachment to evil,” and to achieve the holiness necessary for entry into heaven.
Friends of the Dead
Several saints have had devotion to the poor souls. St. Nicholas of Tolentino, an Augustinian priest who died in the 14th century, is known as one of the patrons of the holy souls. In the 20th century, recently Beatified Capuchin Padre Pio was a great advocate for those in purgatory.
According to Charles Mandina, who spent several months working with Padre Pio in the 1960s, it was common knowledge in San Giovanni, the town where the priest lived, “that the souls in purgatory would come to Padre Pio's Masses to thank him for their liberation.”
Mandina also cited the book The Holy Souls: Viva Padre Pio, by one of Padre Pio's confreres, Padre Allessio Parente. The priest recounts numerous stories of Padre Pio's interaction with those in purgatory, and the sacrifices Padre Pio made on their behalf to shorten their period in purgatory.
One such soul for whom Padre Pio prayed was that of a friar who had to return after death in the chapel of Padre Pio's monastery.
Initially unaware that the friar he saw walking around the chapel was in fact a spirit, Padre Pio questioned what he was doing. The friar replied: “I am doing my purgatory here. I was a student in this friary, so I now have to make amends for the errors I committed while I was here, for my lack of diligence in doing my duty in this Church.”
It turned out that this particular friar had died 60 years before, which caused Padre Pio to worry about “how much longer and more difficult” purgatory would be for those who had committed sins greater than a “lack of diligence.”
Catholic theologians, saints and mystics have all cautioned that the suffering in purgatory is dire. Among many others, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Catherine of Genoa and Blessed Padre Pio have all described the suffering that souls endure in purgatory in the most extreme terms. According to Padre Pio, “The souls in purgatory would like to throw themselves in a well of our earthly fire, because for them it would be like a well of cool water.”
Father Carpenter thinks that a great many people end up in purgatory. “According to St. Teresa of Avila,” he explained, “only four people that she knew in her lifetime went straight to heaven.” And of those four, he said, at least one is now canonized.
The Church's Teaching
The Church has long taught that purgatory exists, and formalized the teaching at the Councils of Florence and of Trent, in the 15th and 16th centuries, respectively. The belief is based in part on Old Testament references to prayers for the dead, especially that in the book of Maccabees.
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (No. 1472): “To understand this doctrine and practice of the Church, it is necessary to understand that sin has a double consequence. Grave sin deprives us of communion with God and therefore makes us incapable of eternal life, the privation of which is called the ‘eternal punishment’ of sin. On the other hand every sin, even venial, entails an unhealthy attachment to creatures, which must be purified either here on earth, or after death in the state called purgatory.
“This purification frees one from what is called the ‘temporal punishment’ of sin. These two punishments must not be conceived of as a kind of vengeance inflicted by God from without, but as following from the very nature of sin. A conversion which proceeds from a fervent charity can attain the complete purification of the sinner in such a way that no punishment would remain.”
Pope John Paul II too has urged Catholics to pray for those in purgatory. He wrote a letter to the Abbot of Cluny in 1998 to commemorate the 1,000th anniversary of the establishment of the feast of All Souls by St. Odillo, who had been an abbot at that monastery. The Holy Father stated:
“I therefore encourage Catholics to pray fervently for the dead, for their family members, and for all our brothers and sisters who have died, that they may obtain the remission of the punishments due to their sins and may hear the Lord's call: ‘Come, O my dear soul, to eternal repose in the arms of my goodness, which has prepared eternal delights for you.’”
Avoiding Purgatory
Father Carpenter agrees with Padre Pio that the best way to avoid purgatory is to accept the suffering that God sends into our lives. “Suffering is purifying,” Father Carpenter explained, and it can “allow you to pay your debt here,” which is “better” than doing it in purgatory where the suffering is much greater. Indulgences too can blot out the punishment due to sin according to the Catechism (No. 1498).
Prayers and good deeds can also be applied to those in purgatory to shorten the duration of their suffering, as Padre Pio, Nicholas of Tolentino and many others have done. And Maria Compton- Hernandez is quick to point out that we should not only pray for them, but should also ask them to pray for us. “They are strong prayer warriors,” she pointed out, “since they are assured of salvation.”
Andrew Walther writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Andrew Walther ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Mass Changes? U.S. Bishops To Debate Translation DATE: 11/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 04-11, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON—Although it has been six months since the Holy See issued new guidelines for the translation of the Mass into the vernacular, any major changes in what people hear and say during the liturgy are still a long way off, experts involved in liturgical matters said.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, meeting here Nov. 12-15, will hear a formal presentation of Liturgiam Authenticam (“Authentic Liturgy”), which was still too fresh when they last met in June.
Issued May 7 by the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, the instruction calls for a more literal translation of the Latin version of the Mass. For example, it would likely have parishioners responding, “And with your spirit,” when the priest says, “The Lord be with you.”
Father James Moroney, executive director of the bishops’ Committee on the Liturgy, declined to be specific about plans for the meeting. But based on disagreements bishops had at their June meeting about the document, the debate following next week's presentation by four bishops will get a great deal of attention.
The American hierarchy also will vote to accept three major documents at their meeting: a call to solidarity with Africa, an updated pro-life activities plan and a statement on the growing Asian and Pacific presence in the Church in the United States. They also will elect a new president and vice president for the next three years, as well as a treasurer and 22 new committee chairmen.
They will vote on a budget, plans and priorities for their national offices, and complementary norms applying general Church law in the U.S. Church in the areas of lay preaching and the discussion of Catholic teaching on radio and television.
In liturgical matters, the bishops will vote on a motion to remand an English translation of the new General Instruction of the Roman Missal to the International Commission on English in the Liturgy, known as ICEL, for reworking in light of the new translation norms.
Remanding the translation to ICEL would be a “big step” in implementing Liturgiam Authenticam, observed Helen Hull Hitchcock, editor of the Adoremus Bulletin, which promotes a more traditional style of liturgy. She predicted that the bishops will review a set of American adaptations to the General Instruction, the Church's norms for the execution of the liturgy.
Still, Hitchcock forecasts that Catholics in the United States will have the present texts of the Mass “for a good long time.” That is not necessarily a good thing in her view.
The translation done by ICEL has been criticized by Adoremus and other groups for not sticking to the exact meaning of the original texts and for using a pedestrian, everyday language that is not suited to the Mass.
“Optimally, the bishops will say [at the November meeting], ‘We'll have to have an entire retranslation by different people,’” said Robert Edgeworth, a longtime critic of ICEL who teaches the classics at Louisiana State University. “But that's too much to hope for.”
“Something along the lines of ICEL will continue to exist,” said Msgr. M. Francis Mannion, director of the Liturgical Institute at Chicago's Mundelein Seminary and a recently appointed member of ICEL's advisory committee. “It may have a different configuration, but episcopal conferences [of each language group] will be working together. That's the way Rome wants it.”
In the wake of Liturgiam Authenticam, anything ICEL is working on now “will have to be looked at,” said John Page, the international commission's executive secretary. As well, the Sacramentary (the book of prayers of the Mass) which has been under review in Rome since 1998, could be sent back to the 12 English-speaking bishops’ conferences that use ICEL's services if Liturgiam's principles are applied retroactively, Page said.
But first, the bishops need to undertake a “sustained overview” of Liturgiam, said Msgr. Mannion. Said the liturgical expert, “It's a document of considerable complexity.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Burger ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Changed DATE: 11/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 04-11, 2001 ----- BODY:Tom Booth has performed his songs for Mother Teresa, World Youth Day, and Pope John Paul II's visit to St. Louis.
He has composed three No. 1 hits on the Contemporary Christian Music charts: Kathy Troccoli's “I Will Choose Christ” and “Love Has a Name” and Amy Grant's “Nothing Is Beyond You.” He just released his fifth CD, “Change Me,” which includes his Unity Award winning song “Taste of Heaven” which was named Rock Song of the Year in 2000. Booth recently spoke with Register features correspondent Tim Drake.
Did you grow up in a musical family?
Yes, my father played the drums and sang. He was also a very avid music listener, so I grew up hearing all kinds of music all the time. Hearing everything from Beethoven to the Beatles had a tremendous effect on me. My brother is also a drummer and I thought that three drummers in one family would be pretty boring so I also learned guitar and piano.
When did you first start playing?
I remember sitting at the piano at a very young age. When I was between 10 and 12 years old, I started making up songs. I would go around the neighborhood gathering up all the kids with musical instruments. We would gather at a neighbor's house and I would tell them when and what to play, so there was something in me that wanted to create.
What inspired your first song?
During the summer of eighth grade I took guitar lessons. After I had learned a couple of guitar chords, I wrote my first song at about age 13. My best friend, Cappy Chase, had died when we were in sixth grade. Someone had been cleaning a loaded gun in his house and the gun went off and the bullet struck him. I had never experienced death. We were on the same football team. Somehow writing that song was therapeutic and a way to express my grief.
The neighborhood and school had started an award named after Cappy and for a couple of years the school asked me to come sing my song at the presentation of that award, so there was encouragement to do song-writing right away. The song seemed to help me and so many other people. Somehow, it allowed me to get a grasp of something that was much bigger than myself.
Have you always been Catholic?
I grew up nominally Catholic. I didn't have the Catholic school experience, but we went to Mass most every Sunday. I kind of knew growing up that I never had a reason to doubt that what was happening up there on the altar wasn't true, but I couldn't understand how it applied to life. It was something you did on Sunday. It seemed like a fairly good idea until high school.
When did you first see the Church's application to life?
If you go back to the 1970s and if you had a nice head of hair and a guitar you can understand why I would think that I didn't need God.
I had what I needed.
I had become very self-sufficient and self-reliant and didn't value relationships, family or prayer. This caught up with me very quickly. By the time I graduated I grew depressed and started asking questions. How could I be so happy last week and suddenly so miserable this week? Something told me that I needed God. Perhaps more of my baptism, and those Sunday Masses and readings had rubbed off on me.
It was during that empty month of June that I wandered into a Newman Center one Thursday evening and experienced a charismatic Mass. The Gospel reading was as if God had written me a letter. It caught my attention and knocked me off my horse. I returned the following week. Through the Newman Center, I met some people that encouraged me to read the Bible. It was a radical beginning to a conversion.
I understand that you were offered your first music job in the midst of confession. Can you tell me about that?
After graduating from the University of Arizona in Tucson in 1984 with a degree in music I wasn't sure what I was going to do. In college I had served at liturgies and led people in prayer and had a real passion for my Catholic faith. When I returned to Phoenix I looked up Father Dale Fushek, a priest I had met in my younger years, for spiritual direction. He had just become the youngest pastor at the largest parish in Phoenix.
It was during confession that Father Dale asked me if I had health insurance. He said, “I am in need of a musician and I've been thinking of offering you a job.” He jokes that my penance was to work hard for so many years—bad sins, I guess. I began in April of 1985 as the music minister for St. Timothy's Catholic Community in Mesa and it was the birth of something special.
I kept serving our community and the teens. We would need a song for this and a song for that and so I kept writing music. Many of those songs have been picked up by Oregon Catholic Press and by other artists.
Tell me how your collaborations with Kathy Troccoli and Rich Mullins came about.
Kathy had attended our Mass and heard us sing “I Will Choose Christ.” She came down to sing the closing song with us and she whispered to me, “I want to record that song.” I said, “Yeah, right!” and she said, “I'm serious.” So we got together. The song, as it was, was liturgical and probably wouldn't be played on the radio so we changed the lyrics and added a bridge. It became No. 1 on Christian radio and was later nominated for a Dove Award.
I first met Rich Mullins backstage after a concert and we got along. He gave me his home number and encouraged me to call him. I thought, “Who am I to call Rich Mullins?” and so I didn't. Later, while on retreat at John Michael Talbot's hermitage I met Rich again and the first thing he said to me was, “You never called me.”
The last two and a half years of his life he served as a kind of mentor to me. He had been writing a song and asked me and a friend [Mitch McVicker] to help him finish it. We wrote “Nothing Is Beyond You,” but he died tragically before it could be recorded.
Small, alongside with my grief in losing a friend, there was also the loss of that song. I was completely surprised when in December following his death Myrrh Records called. They said, “We understand that you wrote this song with Rich Mullins. Amy Grant would like to record it. Do we have your permission?” It was like getting a call from Rich himself.
Tell me a bit about your most recent album.
I worked on “Change Me” for about two years, and I'm very excited about it. It's certainly my strongest recording to date. It includes a variety of styles including worship, liturgical pieces, and radio-ready songs. It includes a love song I wrote to Our Lady that I sing at a lot of weddings.
It also includes a tribute to the late Rich Mullins called “Just Another Day.” Stylistically and lyrically it's a song that I never could have written if I had never met Rich.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tom Booth ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Bush's Faith-Based Initiative Plan Might Pass Congress Before Year's End DATE: 11/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 04-11, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON—While combating terrorism remains the most important political responsibility in Washington, Congressional leaders have continued work on President Bush's faith-based initiative.
The White House has said that the recent attacks have highlighted the positive role that faith-based charities have played in the recovery efforts. The Bush administration has also told the Senate that passage of the faith-based initiative this year is a top priority. The House has already passed the president's bill.
“We are continuing to work with members of the Senate, especially Senators Santorum and Lieberman, to reach consensus and pass a bill that embodies the president's compassionate conservative agenda,” White House spokeswoman Mercy Viana said.
But activists from Americans United for Separation of Church and State continue to lead the battle against a portion of the bill, called Charitable Choice, that would allow religious organizations to compete with secular organizations for government charity aid.
“We don't always want to be naysayers,” said Robert Boston, a spokesman for the Washington-based group. “The tax cuts and the tax incentives [other components of the faith-based plan]—they can be advanced with little disagreement.”
But he said that if the president insists on keeping Charitable Choice in the final faith-based bill, his organization would lobby hard to defeat the bill.
Nevertheless, Boston said that it is a possibility that Bush will embrace a pilot program to test the constitutionality of the Charitable Choice.
“The administration is still interested in promoting Charitable Choice. They might limit it to children of prisoners or some program like that,” Boston said. “They want some kind of victory.”
Princeton professor Robert George said that Bush would be foolish to accept so little of one of the key elements of the faith-based bill.
“I think it would be a mistake for the president to accept that analysis,” George told the Register.
He thinks that the president should insist on the full faith-based bill, especially in light of the need to strengthen charitable organizations in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.
“The president's hand is always strengthened in times of international crisis. I would take advantage of a strengthened hand,” said George.
He noted that supporting a faith bill looks less “political” than cutting corporate taxes.
“It looks like a bipartisanship issue to begin with,” he said. “Congress will be blamed [for grid-lock] and the president should know that. They only way for the president to lose this is to not play his hand.”
The White House refused to say if the president would sign a bill that didn't contain Charitable Choice. Spokeswoman Viana siad the administration remains optimistic that the objections can be answered.
“We are pleased with the progress that we are making,” Viana said, “and we look forward to seeing a bill as soon as possible.”
Joshua Mercer writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Bishops’ Spokeswoman Condemns Anthrax Threats Against Abortion Sites DATE: 11/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 04-11, 2001 ----- BODY:CHESAPEAKE, Va.—More than 130 letters containing a powder, and some containing a written threat of anthrax, were reported arriving at abortion sites around the nation in late October, amid a national anxiety about the threat of biological terrorism.
Many of the letters contained references to the Army of God, which has claimed responsibility in the past for violence against abortion clinics and doctors. In an interview, the Rev. Donald Spitz, a Chesapeake, Va., Pentecostal minister who runs the Army of God's Web site, said he believes that someone from the Army of God “definitely” sent the letters, but did not know whom.
Rev. Spitz characterized the Army of God as a “sort of nebulous organization—not even an organization—of people who have a belief system … that unborn babies deserve to be protected in the same manner we would want to be protected.
“If someone were to rip the arms and legs off us, we'd want someone to intervene,” he said, saying the same intervention should be given unborn babies.
But Cathy Cleaver, director of planning and information for the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat for Pro-life Activities, condemned the mailing of the threatening letters. “Violence in the name of pro-life makes a mockery of the pro-life clause,” she told Catholic News Service Oct. 19, four days after the initial letters showed up at abortion sites. “Just as we abhor the violence of abortion, we abhor violence as a means to stop abortion.”
Similarly, Barbara Listing, president of Right to Life of Michigan, called the threats “psychological terror” and commented, “No pro-life agenda is furthered by deeds which show contempt toward human beings.”
And a spokesman at American Life League in Stafford, Va., referred a reporter seeking a statement to that organization's Pro-life Proclamation Against Violence, which calls on prolife advocates to “reject violence and those who commit violent acts.”
Adina Wingate-Quijada, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood Federation of America in New York, said that by Oct. 22, 136 letters had been received by clinics in 19 states, most of them Planned Parenthood affiliate businesses.
“Planned Parenthood has dealt with this before, so there was a preparedness at the clinics,” she told the Register. Clinics received similar threats in 1998 and 1999, “so there has not been a significant disruption of services.” She said no abortions were disrupted.
Rev. Spitz, however, claimed that “no babies were murdered on Monday [Oct. 15]”, the day the letters began showing up at the clinics. “Abortion mills have to be stopped,” he said. “Every day that passes, there are just as many babies killed as people who died in the World Trade Center disaster.”
Reminded that law enforcement officials’ resources are already stretched thin responding to anthrax scares, he said, “The government allows abortion to go on. They're protecting abortionists, helping them, even financing them. So people on our side don't have too much sympathy for the government.”
In her comments to CNS, Cleaver of the U.S. bishops’ pro-life secretariat quoted the late New York Cardinal John O’Connor's comment that it is a “calumny” to claim that pro-lifers can legitimately “encourage or condone violence.”
Said Cleaver, “We deeply regret how the deplorable actions of a very few can stigmatize the pro-life cause in the eyes of many.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Burger ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 11/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 04-11, 2001 ----- BODY:Challenges Planned to Prayer Bans as Surge Subsides
THE NEW YORK TIMES,Oct. 23-Prayer in public surged in the days after the Sept. 11 attacks on America, but such expressions are subsiding, the daily reported.
However, challenges to court rulings of the past four decades banning public prayer in public school have also arisen over the past few weeks, mostly in Southern states. South Carolina state legislators are proposing a bill to transform the moment of silence that begins each school day into a moment of prayer, and Texas Gov. Rick Perry defended his participation in prayers with children at a public school, saying he disagreed with the Supreme Court's ban on such prayers.
Cathedral Videotaping Prompts Thoughts on Profiling
OPINIONJOURNAL.COM, Oct. 19—In a column explaining why racial “profiling” is justified by current national security concerns, Peggy Noonan reports observing two “Mideastern looking men” 25 or 30 years old videotaping St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York, the online Wall Street Journal reported.
The incident would have gone unnoticed, Noonan commented, except that it was just three days after the World Trade Center bombing and took place at 9 p.m., which she found to be a strange time for tourists to be out videotaping a landmark “top to bottom.” When the two noticed her and her son staring at them, they “stared back at us in what I thought an aggressive manner.”
Since then, Noonan wrote that she had heard other reports of young, Middle Eastern men videotaping a tall building in Manhattan or attempting to videotape the interior of a petrochemical factory.
Noonan said she assumes most Americans have become “watchful potential warrior[s],” and she asked for the patience of Middle Eastern people living in the United States who might be viewed suspiciously.
Lambs of Christ Founder Sentenced in Buffalo
THE BUFFALO NEWS, Oct. 19—Father Norman U. Weslin, founder of the pro-life group The Lambs of Christ, was sentenced to five months in federal prison for violating a court-ordered buffer zone in front of a Buffalo abortion clinic, the newspaper reported.
Father Weslin said it was God's law that prompted him to kneel and pray four times last year in front of Buffalo GYN Womenservices, the News reported. John J. Molloy, the 71-year-old priest's attorney, told the court that Father Weslin had been contacted by the Pentagon about serving as a military chaplain in or around Afghanistan.
Father Weslin, a retired Army officer, later acknowledged that he had contacted the Pentagon, and the military called back expressing interest.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: -------- TITLE: Never Too Early To Get Things Ready: Preparing for Christmas by the Book DATE: 11/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 04-11, 2001 ----- BODY:Is it too early to be preparing for Christmas? The Catechism of the Catholic Church, in its section on the Incarnation, points out that the world spent hundreds of years preparing for the first Christmas.
Its explanation of the Advent Season and Christmas follows.
The preparations
522 The coming of God's Son to earth is an event of such immensity that God willed to prepare for it over centuries. He makes everything converge on Christ: all the rituals and sacrifices, figures and symbols of the “First Covenant.” He announces him through the mouths of the prophets who succeeded one another in Israel. Moreover, he awakens in the hearts of the pagans a dim expectation of this coming.
523 St. John the Baptist is the Lord's immediate precursor or forerunner, sent to prepare his way. “Prophet of the Most High,” John surpasses all the prophets, of whom he is the last. He inaugurates the Gospel, already from his mother's womb welcomes the coming of Christ, and rejoices in being “the friend of the bridegroom”, whom he points out as “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”. Going before Jesus “in the spirit and power of Elijah,” John bears witness to Christ in his preaching, by his Baptism of conversion, and through his martyrdom.
524 When the Church celebrates the liturgy of Advent each year, she makes present this ancient expectancy of the Messiah, for by sharing in the long preparation for the Savior's first coming, the faithful renew their ardent desire for his second coming. By celebrating the precursor's birth and martyrdom, the Church unites herself to his desire: “He must increase, but I must decrease.”
The Christmas mystery
525 Jesus was born in a humble stable, into a poor family. Simple shepherds were the first witnesses to this event. In this poverty heaven's glory was made manifest. The Church never tires of singing the glory of this night: The Virgin today brings into the world the Eternal And the earth offers a cave to the Inaccessible.
The angels and shepherds praise him And the magi advance with the star, For you are born for us, Little Child, God eternal!
526 To become a child in relation to God is the condition for entering the kingdom. For this, we must humble ourselves and become little. Even more: to become “children of God,” we must be “born from above” or “born of God.” Only when Christ is formed in us will the mystery of Christmas be fulfilled in us. Christmas is the mystery of this “marvelous exchange”:
“O marvelous exchange! Man's Creator has become man, born of the Virgin. We have been made sharers in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share our humanity.”
The mysteries of Jesus' infancy
527 Jesus' circumcision, on the eighth day after his birth, is the sign of his incorporation into Abraham's descendants, into the people of the covenant. It is the sign of his submission to the Law and his deputation to Israel's worship, in which he will participate throughout his life. This sign prefigures that “circumcision of Christ” which is Baptism.
528 The Epiphany is the manifestation of Jesus as Messiah of Israel, Son of God and Savior of the world. The great feast of Epiphany celebrates the adoration of Jesus by the wise men (magi) from the East, together with his baptism in the Jordan and the wedding feast at Cana in Galilee. In the magi, representatives of the neighboring pagan religions, the Gospel sees the first-fruits of the nations, who welcome the good news of salvation through the Incarnation. The magi's coming to Jerusalem in order to pay homage to the king of the Jews shows that they seek in Israel, in the messianic light of the star of David, the one who will be king of the nations.
Their coming means that pagans can discover Jesus and worship him as Son of God and Savior of the world only by turning towards the Jews and receiving from them the messianic promise, as contained in the Old Testament. The Epiphany shows that “the full number of the nations” now takes its “place in the family of the patriarchs”, and acquires Israelitica dignitas (is made “worthy of the heritage of Israel”).
529 The presentation of Jesus in the temple shows him to be the first-born Son who belongs to the Lord. With Simeon and Anna, all Israel awaits its encounter with the Savior the name given to this event in the Byzantine tradition. Jesus is recognized as the long-expected Messiah, the “light to the nations” and the “glory of Israel,” but also “a sign that is spoken against.” The sword of sorrow predicted for Mary announces Christ's perfect and unique oblation on the cross that will impart the salvation God had “prepared in the presence of all peoples.”
530 The flight into Egypt and the massacre of the innocents make manifest the opposition of darkness to the light: “He came to his own home, and his own people received him not.” Christ's whole life was lived under the sign of persecution. His own share it with him. Jesus' departure from Egypt recalls the exodus and presents him as the definitive liberator of God's people.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Irish Christmas Light Dispelled Wartime Darkness DATE: 11/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 04-11, 2001 ----- BODY:While Hitler was dropping bombs (accidentally, he said) on Dublin in the dark days of the early ‘40s and Churchill was hitting the country with severe economic embargoes in retaliation for Ireland's neutrality, my mother's Christmas spirit was unbowed.
Though she had to clip small green coupons from a book to buy rationed groceries, with no possibility of finding sugar, almonds and sultanas to make the traditional Christmas puddings and cakes, I had no idea of privation, for my mother threw herself heart and soul into the joy of the season.
Gas masks hung in the cubbyhole under the stairs where I played among the racks of shoes. I would try on my mother's silver dancing slippers, my father's shiny black shoes, and the ugly gas masks with leather straps.
As Christmas approached, my mother fired our imagination with stories until the fantasy reached epic proportions. We would take the tram to the big department stores in Dublin, queuing up at Pims, Cleary's and Switzers to visit Santa Claus.
I still remember the toys Santa pulled from his sack—a painting set with lozenges of bright colors, a noise-maker or a wooden top that I tried to spin with a whip like the older children on the street.
Switzers, in Grafton Street, had the best Toyland, where we boarded a small train that traveled for hours (it seemed) through the painted countryside, as trees and mountains flashed by until the doors opened at the North Pole.
Though frequent tram and train strikes paralyzed the city of Dublin, they never cramped my mother's travel plans. She always managed to find a horse-drawn cab to ferry us into town. Swaying in the tufted leather interior, a rug over our knees, we clip-clopped over cobbled streets from Sandymount to see a pantomime at the Capitol or a vaudeville show at the Theatre Royal.
When the curtains opened, we sat enthralled by the music, the glorious kaleidoscope of lights and the Royalettes, resplendent in sequined costumes, tap dancing across the stage. I wanted those shoes. And when the fairy godmother waved her magic wand, I wanted one too. My father could never convince me there was no such thing as a fairy godmother.
At home, like a conjurer, my mother produced golden lanterns with red and black Chinese lettering for our tree. At the time, I wished for the multi-colored lights of our neighbors. Now I realize ours were far more beautiful.
I can't imagine where they came from, or where my parents found the sparklers that showered the room with silver stars when the lights were turned off.
Surprise Pageant
My mother appeared as a Christmas angel in the drawing room one night, and danced around the room in a long white garment with embroidered butterfly sleeves that I had never seen before. My father enjoyed the surprise pageant as much as we children did.
At bedtime, my mother wrapped her arms around me and held me close.
“I'll be your armchair,” she would laugh.
As we said our prayers together, we could hear carolers singing from door to door in the crescent where we lived.
One Christmas morning, Santa Claus brought me a huge doll's house.
“It's much too big for our small house,” my father said.
But I loved it. And if I scrunched myself small, I could sit inside arranging the spice jars that my mother had filled, inhaling the scent of cloves and tea, and dipping my fingers into the flour and sugar.
Grandma's House
It seemed like the middle of the night when my mother lifted my brother and me out of bed one pitch-dark morning just before Christmas. She dressed us quickly, and we hurried to Westland Row Station to take the train to the West of Ireland where my grandparents lived.
It was dark, too, when we arrived in the small market town of Ballinrobe. When the door to their house opened, my grandmother stood framed against the blaze of a huge hearth.
She held a cast-iron frying pan over the turf fire, cooking bacon and sausages, and spooning hot fat over eggs. A large, soot-blackened kettle hung on the hob, hissing its readiness for tea.
My grandmother was dressed in black from head to toe, and a long, black apron hugged her ample waist. Her hair was drawn back from her plump face and fastened in a topknot. She called us Agra and Astore, terms of endearment in Irish.
My grandfather was tall and slim, with snow white hair and a mustache that tickled when he kissed us.
The table was set with my grandmother's best linen and china (some of which I treasure today). We talked for hours after the meal was over, drinking strong tea with tiny flecks of cream on top.
Dreaming of Cows
The glow of the fire, the strong aromas of tea and turf, the warmth of an extended family suffused my being, until I was at last carried upstairs to dream of cows being milked and pigs with rings in their noses.
One special night, as cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents gathered round the fire in the big stone kitchen, a loud knock rapped on the back door.
Santa's jolly whiskered face appeared in the window, a huge sack over his shoulders.
He lifted the latch and came inside, terrifying my cousins who had never seen him before and causing them to hide behind the grownups.
But I had seen him so often, he was a familiar figure. When my turn came, he handed me a beautiful red handbag and spectacles—he knew exactly what I had been yearning for.
We children hardly knew the horrors that were filling the world all around us. The small joys of Christmas were too big.
Maria Whitla O‘Reilly writes from Darien, Conn.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mariawhitla Oíreilly ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Gift He'll Be Most Thankful For Is Life DATE: 11/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 04-11, 2001 ----- BODY:Paul Jalsevac's has one great wish for Christmas 2001? He wants to go jogging.
That's because Jalsevac has been using supports to walk since his astounding—and some say miraculous—recovery from a car accident last spring.
On March 4, Paul Jalsevac and was involved in the accident on his way back to Christendom College in Front Royal, Va.
Jalsevac was taken to the local hospital, but due to the extreme nature of his injuries, he had to be taken to the trauma unit of Inova Fairfax Hospital, over an hour away from Christendom College. He barely survived the trip. On arrival at Fairfax Hospital, it was determined that, besides the external cuts and bruises, Jalsevac's liver was split in two.
It was expected that Jalsevac would die.
But over the next couple of days, while Jalvesac underwent three major surgeries during which his heart stopped once, students and professors from Christendom stayed at the hospital with the Jalsevac family and prayed.
Back on campus, other students went on a fast of bread and water for Jalsevac's well-being and placed their prayers before the Blessed Sacrament in Christ-endom's Chapel. Also during this time, Jalsevac and his family were placed on prayer lists and prayer chains all across the world.
Whole convents, a major seminary in Rome, Mother Angelica on EWTN, and even the Holy Father himself were asked to pray for Jalsevac and a miraculous recovery for him.
Throughout the month of March, Jalsevac's condition changed almost daily. There were times when it seemed as if death was inevitable, other times, life. He seemed at times to be in a coma, and at other times coherent.
“His Mom and I said the Divine Mercy Chaplet and other prayers for him,” said Steve Jalvesac, Paul's father. Sometimes, “Paul was trying very hard to mouth the words. His mother asked if he was trying to say the words with us and he clearly mouthed the word ‘Yes.’”
Due to the serious nature of the injuries, Jalsevac was very prone to high temperatures, fevers and infections.
The whole world was able to keep apprised of Jalsevac's condition through lifesite.net, an Internet site run out of Canada by Jalsevac's father.
Reports were posted to the site, along with pictures of Jalsevac in his hospital bed being visited by fellow students, friends and relatives. On March 22, Jalsevac was transferred to a hospital in Canada to be near his family in Toronto.
Near the end of March, Jalsevac seemed to finally regain some consciousness, and began to make movements and gestures at his family. By the beginning of April, Jalsevac was sitting up in a chair, with the assistance of his nurses. He was able to write down his thoughts to communicate with his family. He could read novels and listen to music. On April 10, after 37 days in critical care in three different hospitals, Jalsevac was moved to a different floor of the hospital.
Jalsevac had to learn how to speak again, due to the fact that he had required a tracheostomy earlier in his treatment.
He received Holy Communion for the first time since the accident on April 12, Holy Thursday.
By April 20 he was back to eating normal foods.
On May 4, with the aid of his nurses and crutches, Jalsevac took his first steps in two months.
By May 19, Jalsevac was getting in and out of his own wheelchair and was released from the hospital. At the beginning of June, Jalsevac began going to rehabilitation to work on walking and gaining his weight back. At this time, he weighed in at only 117 lbs, about 40 lbs lighter than his normal weight!
And on Aug. 28, after much struggle, pain, hardship, prayer and perseverance, Paul Jalsevac returned to Christendom College where he can now be seen zooming around campus in his bright blue electric go-cart.
Dr. Jack Landis, the main physician, told the family that Paul's recovery was a miracle. That miracle—and the prayers that asked for it—has already had a definitive effect on one other soul.
There was a young 17-year-old patient named Jennifer at Ivona Fairfax Hospital at the same time as Jalsevac who was in an apparent permanent coma. At the request of her mother, Jennifer was baptized. Her mother said the reason for her decision to have her daughter baptized was the witness of the college students praying for Jalsevac.
Home for Christmas
Paul says the Jalsevac home, in Toronto, is a hub of Christmas activity. “My friends are always over here for meals,” said Jalvesac. “They come over to say Hi” but “my mom doesn't let them go out of the house without eating.”
Even if he isn't able to walk unaided by then, he said at this Christmas his friends and family “will be able to offer thanks to God for giving us the special blessing of spending our Christmas together.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Register Staff ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Under the Tree for Catholic Kids DATE: 11/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 04-11, 2001 ----- BODY:Here are some of our favorites out of the thousands of books available this Christmas for Catholic kids. Web sites that carry these and other books include, catholicshopper.com, ignatius.-com, osv.com, Pauline.org and bethlehembooks.com. Most of the books are also available through the big Internet booksellers like amazon.com, bn.com and borders.com.
Christmas
The Night of the Shepherds: A Christmas Experience by Juliana Quaglini, illustrated by Elvira de Vico. Pauline Books & Media, $3.95, ages 2-7
Why Were the Shepherds Excited? by Pauline Youd Pauline Books & Media, $3.95, ages 2-4
General Reading
Brother Joseph: The Painter of Icons by Fr. Augustine DeNoble, OSB, illustrated by Judith Brown Bethlehem Books, $14.95, ages 4-8
The Children's Book of Faith by William Bennett, illustrated by Michael Hague Bantam, Doubleday, Dell, $24.95, ages 5-8
The Children's Treasury of Virtues by William Bennett, illustrated by Michael Hague Simon & Schuster, $29.95, ages 5—8
Pope John Paul II
For the Children: Words of Love and Inspiration from His Holiness Pope John Paul II Scholastic Inc., $16.95, ages 6-12
Karol from Poland: The Life of Pope John Paul II for Children by Mary L. Wilson, illustrated by Carla Koch Pauline Books & Media, $6.95, ages 5-7
Saints
The Young Life of St. Faustina
by Claire Mohan Jordan Marian Press, $7.00, ages 10-13
Pauline Saints Comic Book Series Volumes on the lives of various saints Pauline Books & Media, $1.95 each, ages 8-13
Along the Paths of the Gospel Series volumes on the lives of various saints Pauline Books & Media, $9.95 each, ages 7-10 (Pauline Books also has series about the saints for other age groups)
Vision Saints series
Volumes on the lives of many saints Ignatius Press, $9.95 each, ages 9-15
Bible Stories
The Jesus Book
by LaVonne Neff, illustrated by Toni Goffe Loyola Press, $9.95, ages 4-8
Teach Me About Series Includes volumes on God's Creation, Jesus and the Mass Our Sunday Visitor, $3.95 each, ages 3-7
Mary, Mother of Jesus
by Mary Joslin, illustrated by Alison Wisenfeld Loyola Press, $15.95, ages 4-8
—Gerry Rauch, Register Senior Editor
----- EXCERPT: Christmas Book Picks ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: EDUCATION -------- TITLE: A Christmas Carol With Christ DATE: 11/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 04-11, 2001 ----- BODY:There have been at least eight movie or television adaptations of Charles Dickens’ story A Christmas Carol.
The best is the 1951 British feature film version directed by Brian Desmond Hurst and written by Noel Langley.
It's now available to the ordinary viewer as well as the film buff, courtesy of Blockbuster Video and other major outlets across the country.
Hurst and Langley give the tale an openly Christian interpretation, presenting it as a drama of repentance and forgiveness. Ever since Dickens first published the work in 1843, Ebeneezer Scrooge has been remembered as the archetypal miser—a cold-hearted businessman who values money more than people.
The filmmakers remain true to his basic character. His legendary cruelty and tightfistedness are depicted in all their prickly and sometimes humorous detail. But we also get to see inside his psyche, observing him as a vulnerable human being rather than the crude caricature of many adaptations. For, beneath his hard-boiled veneer, there's still a faint flicker of moral consciousness that the events of Christmas Eve are able to rekindle into a positive force.
“Christmas is humbug,” Scrooge (Alastair Sim) tells some London associates. “It is a habit that keeps men from doing business.” The old miser is even reluctant to give his clerk, Bob Cratchit, Christmas Day off, and he turns down an invitation for a holiday dinner from his nephew whom he's cut off without a penny. Yet neither Cratchit nor the nephew harbor any resentment against Scrooge who, nevertheless, seems unmoved by their infectious good cheer. They are able to forgive him his hard-heartedness.
Scrooge dines by himself at a restaurant on Christmas Eve unwilling to order extra food because of the cost. As he walks home through the snowy streets, he looks lonely and unsure of himself, his top hat scrunched down on his head and his nose and mouth hidden behind a long scarf.
Later that evening the old miser is visited by the ghost of his former business partner, Jacob Marley, who drags behind him a chain. Its loud rattling scares Scrooge. “I wear the chain I forged in life,” the specter warns him. “You bear a chain yourself.”
We see the long-buried spark of conscience begin to work. “Mercy,” he cries, indicating that he's already feeling some guilt about the way he's led his life up until now.
“You have the chance of hope of escaping my fate,” Marley informs him. Three spirits are to visit him and what they reveal will unhinge him. But the possibility of redemption terrifies Scrooge because he can't yet forgive himself. He'd rather be damned than have to confront his sins.
The first spirit is the ghost of Christmas past, and the filmmakers show us how the emotional pain of Scrooge's early experiences embittered him. The wounds are so deep he can't bear to watch the past unfold. His mother died giving birth to him, and his father made him feel it was his fault.
Although always a solitary personality, the young Scrooge did once know love. He had a girlfriend, Alice, who was beautiful and kind. “It makes no difference you're poor,” he tells her, displaying an openness he would later discard.
Scrooge was especially close to his sister, Fanny, who, like their mother, also died in childbirth. “Forgive me, Fanny,” he cries in helplessness as she passes away. But he perpetuates the sin of his father by blaming her offspring, his nephew, even though her deathbed wish was that he care for the boy.
As a young clerk, Scrooge leaves the employment of the honest businessman, Mr. Fezziwig, to go to work for a greedy merchant who counsels him: “Control the cash box, and you control the world.”
Scrooge heeds his advice and joins forces with his fellow clerk, Marley, and begins his rise to riches and power. His behavior toward others becomes unfeeling and calculating. Alice, who breaks off their relationship, understands his motivation. “You fear the world too much,” she observes. Psychologically, he's always playing defense, striking out at others to protect himself from further pain. He may be exploitive, but even at his worst he's never dishonest.
The possibility for change is always held before him. “There's still time,” Marley warns him from his deathbed. “Save yourself.” But Scrooge isn't ready.
The filmmakers show him in great torment. “No, no, no,” he moans as he watches himself continually take advantage of others. Evil though his conduct may be, he still has the moral sensibility to judge himself harshly.
“I'm beyond hope,” he exclaims to the next spirit that appears, the ghost of Christmas present. “Go redeem some other creature.”
This spirit realizes that psychologically Scrooge has backed himself into a corner, and he offers him a way out—Jesus Christ. “He lives in our hearts every day of the year,” the spirit counsels. “You have not sought him.” Scrooge then witnesses those he has wronged forgiving him, particularly, Cratchit's crippled son, Tiny Tim, who toasts the old miser, proclaiming, “God bless us, every one.”
Though moved by their generous hearts, he is emotionally paralyzed. “I cannot change,” he cries in despair, obviously now wanting to do so.
But the next spirit, the ghost of Christmas yet to come, conjures up even more disturbing things that eventually overwhelm him. He sees the irreparable damage his actions inflict on decent people and the desolation to which he has sentenced himself.
“I do repent,” he finally declares. “I'm not the man I was,” he repeats over and over, hoping his change of heart isn't too late.
This version of A Christmas Carol communicates the deeper meaning of the season. Scrooge's problem is identified as a crisis of the soul, and he's only able to make the necessary inner transformation when one of the spirits points him toward Jesus Christ.
Then the old miser is finally able to repent and forgive himself. As a result, he's suffused with an uncontrollable rush of joy and feels “as happy as an angel.” The movie suggests that if it isn't too late for a cruel, elderly curmudgeon like Scrooge to be saved, there's hope for us all.
Arts and Culture correspondent
John Prizer writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: Best film version of Dickensíclassic spotlights redemption ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 11/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 04-11, 2001 ----- BODY:It's A Wonderful Life (1946)
The movie begins with everyone in the small town of Bedford Falls praying for George Bailey (James Stewart). It's Christmas Eve, and the hardworking banker is thinking about killing himself.
The supplications of his family and friends are heard, and an angel is sent to rescue him.
Director Frank Capra and screenwriters Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich, Jo Sworling, and Phillip Van Doren Stern don't pull their punches in this tale.
In order to prevent George from committing suicide, the angel gives him “a chance to see what the world would have been like” if he had never been born.
The payoff is satisfying when the angel tells George: “You see, you had a wonderful life.” “Please God, let me live again,” George tearfully asks.
It's A Wonderful Life demonstrates the power of goodness to change lives and the difference each individual can make if he tries.
Bishop's Wife (1947)
Based on Robert Nathan's novel, the film was redone as The Preacher's Wife with unsuccessful results. In the original, Episcopalian Bishop Henry Brougham (David Niven) is on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
The stress of raising money for a new cathedral has done him in, leaving his work and his relationship with his wife seemingly without meaning.
In answer to desperate prayers, a suave angel named Dudley (Cary Grant) appears, but the bishop has trouble believing he's genuine. The prelate's wife, Julia (Loretta Young), is impressed by the angel's kind way of dealing with her friends.
The prelate's personal and professional problems all come to a head on Christmas Eve, and Dudley must work hard to bail him out.
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
Macy's department store in Manhattan hires as Santa Claus an old man from a retirement home who calls himself Kris Kringle (Edmund Gwen). When shoppers can't find what they're looking for on the premises, he recommends other establishments that might carry the merchandise. At first Macy's officials try to make him change his ways, but the old man is adamant.
Eventually Mr. Macy himself backs Kris Kringle because his open-minded generosity attracts more customers to the store. The old man isn't satisfied, though.
Director George Seaton and coscreenwriter Valentine Davies handle each twist and turn of the plot with skill and charm, and in the end you'll probably find yourself agreeing with Kris Kringle that “Christmas is a frame of mind” and “faith is believing things that common sense tells you not to.”
Miracle on 34th Street has been remade for television and as a feature, but neither has the power of the original.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Love America DATE: 11/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 04-11, 2001 ----- BODY:For all the new openness to prayer, the aftermath of Sept. 11 has not been a straightforward triumph for religion. Many, in fact, argue that Sept. 11 shows that religion is a dangerous force.
The situation puts America at a crossroads where it can either embrace a secular or a religious worldview.
It is as if we went to bed Sept. 10 in Jimmy Buffet's Margueritaville and woke up in bin Laden's Kabul. Americans were content, well-fed, with few cares. Few sought God, because few felt a need to.
Sept. 11 reminded many Americans of the importance of evil and religion, both at once. It reminded them that there are people in the world who believe God is for real, and that these people are affronted by our country. To popular commentators like Bill Maher and many others, these dangerous religious men included both the Taliban in Afghanistan and the Rev. Jerry Falwell and ordinary Christians here at home. At pop concerts and on rock stations, “Imagine” by John Lennon became a post-Sept. 11 anthem, with its fond wish that religion would go away.
Uncomfortable as it might make us, it is obvious that some Americans support Operation Enduring Freedom because it defends the freedom to choose (by which they mean abortion), freedom of speech (in which they include pornography), and freedom of conscience (on such matters as homosexual “marriage”). It's as if the words of the ‘80s hit have become literally true for these new patriots: “You gotta fight for your right to party.”
It seems as if America itself is in danger of being hijacked by a radically secular understanding of what our country means. At the same time, many religious people seem ready to give up on America. Its sins are so clear to them that they find it unloveable. Some readers have disagreed with our contention that Catholics should be patriotic. But we believe that, with our nation at a defining moment, patriotism by Catholics isn't just allowable—it's vitally necessary. Herewith, a full explanation.
Alas, America from the beginning has been a nation of sinners which has always had its sinful laws. At its very founding, it was a nation that harbored slavery: American families forced other human beings to do their bidding, with the blessing of the courts.
Yet two of its founding principles were that all are created equal, and that all have a right to liberty. These two principles inexorably led to the defeat of slavery. It was the work of George Washington, a great man and a slave-holder, that made Abraham Lincoln possible. And it was the work of Abraham Lincoln, a great man and an anti-abolitionist, that made the work of Martin Luther King Jr. possible.
Today, we have abortion laws. Our de facto “right to kill” is at war with the right to life. Abortion and the right to life can't coexist any more than the right to liberty and the institution of slavery could. Abortion will have to go.
But we will only be able to get rid of abortion in America in an “American” way—by using the democratic system that America pioneered to apply the human rights that America codified. It is precisely because this is America that we have the world's best chance to defeat abortion.
As Pope John Paul II pointed out in his 1996 trip to Baltimore, “the democratic system itself” is “shaken in its foundations” when it is twisted to promote immorality.
But America, he said, “possesses a safeguard, a great bulwark, against this happening. I speak of your founding documents: the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights. These documents are grounded in and embody unchanging principles of the natural law whose permanent truth and validity can be known by reason, for it is the law written by God in human hearts.”
If Christians stop loving America, who will be left to defend—and vigorously promote—the truths that are at the heart of America's greatness?
Catholics should be at the vanguard not of America's detractors, but of her faithful children who want to reform and renew her.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 11/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 04-11, 2001 ----- BODY:Cheer for Teens
The Oct. 21-27 “Facts of Life” panel contained the September finding of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. The campaign found that 83% of teens “say religion is important in their lives and guides their decisions, even in the area of sexuality.”
When you add to that the campaign's April finding that more than 93% of teens said they want “a strong message from society that they should abstain from sex until they are at least out of high school”—and the fact that an August Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that only 25% of teens are “sexually active,” i.e., had sex in the last three months, and the fact that sex is so prevalent in our culture—we have to stand up and cheer for teens.
The Kaiser survey belies the Planned Parenthood deception that “everybody is doing it” and all teens must be taught to use contraceptives, which, for teens, have high failure rates resulting in out of wedlock pregnancy and other problems. According to the Physicians Consortium, the highest rate of teen pregnancy is among contraceptive users.
Despite TV, movies, music, magazines, advertisements and Internet sites competing to see which can include more sex and corrupt and injure teens with the promotion of teen contraception, the vast majority of teens reject permissive sex.
We need to provide more support for teens in the war on their values. Parents, the first line of defense for teens, must be vigilant in discussing love, marriage and sex in a positive way with their teens, because teens whose parents do so are the least likely to engage in sexual activity.
Also, teen-chastity programs such as those featured in the Register (like Jason Evert's) should be an integral part of teens’ education, not just a once-a-year event.
Finally, teens need an appealing Internet site that provides the Church's teaching on love, marriage, sex, families, contraception and the problems flowing from contraception and pre-marital sex—abortion, STDs, undermining the family, etc.
JOHN NAUGHTON
Silver Spring, Maryland
Devil Vexation
Mark LaPointe makes an excellent point in his Oct. 14-20 letter, noting that one cannot be possessed by the Holy Spirit and an evil spirit at the same time (“Possessed by Whom?”). Scripture and Sacred Tradition hold that truth unequivocally.
But he leaves out any discussion of satanic activity short of possession. I find this remarkable, since each Christian deals with this area on a daily basis. Satan and his minions’ attacks are not limited to possession. Remember Jesus’ own session with temptation by Satan after his 40 days’ fast? Jesus was tempted even though there was no way he could ever be possessed. The lesson is that we can also be tempted, but Jesus will come to our aid with divine power if we call upon him. One of the reasons this incident is in the Gospel is to demonstrate Jesus’ power over Satan and his evil ways, which (among other things), he came to conquer.
Without Jesus’ help, we are just like weak humanity before they knew they could call on him, that is, trying to fight spiritual enemies on our own without spiritual power. (Devils are fallen angels and, as such, have powers far beyond mere unaided human power. Without Christ, we would be overmatched.)
In Mother Teresa's case, it appears she was being tested with some type of temptation or harassment while she was ill. Of course, the danger of her being possessed was remote indeed. She was not fighting satanic power on her own. She had God's help through his indwelling. Her illness weakened her, so her archbishop (ex-officio led by the Spirit) had an exorcist pray with her for deliverance from the vexation and she was delivered—not from possession but from the devil's testing, whatever it was.
A good spiritual director once told us students that if we are in a state of grace a devil could not possess us, but he can sure whisper in our ears. Anyone who has been seriously tempted should be aware of that. The Cure of Ars now has a plaque on his bedroom wall to commemorate the many nights he wrestled with the evil one who would not let him sleep.
That power of Satan to harass and tempt, short of possession, is left out of the letter as well as the editor's comment. Coping with this kind of satanic activity is basic everyday Catholic spirituality. Omitting this area is, I believe, symptomatic of the crisis of faith we currently experience. In C.S. Lewis’ great book The Screwtape Letters, a senior devil tells his student devil Wormwood that the best way to advance the triumph of the kingdom of darkness is to convince humans that devils do not exist. The success of this strategy is seen everywhere.
The need for awareness of Satan and how he deceives us has never been greater. The Holy Father has asked that bishops arrange classes on exorcism so that every diocese could have at least one priest qualified to assume the office of exorcist. I'm afraid to ask how many dioceses do not have an exorcist. I believe the answer would likely be frightening.
JOSEPH B. CALLAGHER
Bakersfield, California
Catholic Leadership
Your editorial titled “A Catholic Moment” (Oct. 14-20) is a telling and timely message that should be read and re-read. It is a lesson of understanding and recognition of what makes America great—the ordinary American who is willing to risk his life for the love of others.
Your editorial accompanies two front-page stories on the drive to excommunicate pro-abortion politicians. This irony generates in me a vision of another burning tower where innocent life is being consumed daily, and those flames have been raging for almost 30 years. This devastation of innocent unborn human life is also a great evil. So why does it continue to burn after so many years? The answer is: We haven't done enough.
You are right when you say lay Catholics need to follow the example of our newest American heroes. But, in my opinion, it's more important now that our religious leaders follow their example. Yes, our religious leaders have tried to douse the flames of abortion by their pronouncements and activities, but if our country achieves greatness through the heroism of ordinary people, what does that fact demand of our leaders when abortion continues to consume millions of innocent lives?
If the American bishops, as a body, were to excommunicate all Catholics who brazenly claim to be pro-abortion, they would counter years of mixed messages. We have, in effect, perpetuated confusion and conflict among Catholics, and have encouraged the pro-abortion politicians to continue their betrayal of the unborn (and the Church) because they know they'll still get elected. Isn't that a gauntlet thrown down to the bishops?
The American bishops have the power and the responsibility to excommunicate—as prescribed by Church law. This bold act would certainly get America's attention and the media's tendency to want to embarrass the Catholic Church would result in the widespread repetition of the message people need to hear. And the great majority will see it as a major effort to clarify and resolve the confusion. Catholics and others will understand and know in their hearts and minds, that they can't be “pro-choice” and be Catholic!
And then, if the Holy Spirit helps us spread that truth, we won't have to listen to a “Catholic” politician like Governor Gray Davis say, as he did repeatedly during his election campaign, that he was for a woman's right to choose—a sentence he was careful not to finish so he could avoid the hideous imagery of a baby's extermination.
When Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton are reversed we will admit our shame, but then society will look at today's generation to search for a scapegoat, similar to the Pius XII fiasco, where shameless liars are trying to defame an historic figure. These scapegoat hunters, and society at large, will ask some serious questions. Did the American Catholic Church do enough? What action could they have taken to stop the barbarism sooner? And why didn't they?
CHARLES N. MARRELLI
Irvine, California
Deny the Double-Dealers
There has to be some outcry when politicians repeatedly use the Catholic Church as a voting constituency yet ridicule its hardest teachings—especially when it comes to abortion (“Excommunicating Pro-Abortion Politicians,” Oct. 14-20). Here in New Jersey we have a gubernatorial race involving a Catholic, Jim McGreevey, who says things like, “My mother prays the rosary for the economy.” And has twice used the steps of a church to issue press releases on his commitment to himself—to his campaign. “Here on the steps where I was baptized …”
He has the endorsement of every major abortion-advocacy group, and he supported partial-birth abortion against the will of his own people.
We in New Jersey ask for prayers for the non-Catholic pro-life candidate Bret Schundler. The open way the pro-abortion candidate, Jim McGreevey, has flaunted and courted the millions of Catholics in New Jersey brings shame to us all. Furthering the shame is the fact that there has been no condemnation from any diocese in the state. If we cannot excommunicate Mr. McGreevey, we can hope at least to disen-franchise this kind of political/religious double dealing.
SUSAN O‘Dougherty
Morristown, New Jersey
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: God Bless Americans’ Real Civil Liberties DATE: 11/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 04-11, 2001 ----- BODY:Regarding “’God Bless America’ Jangles ACLU Nerve,” Oct. 21-28: The person of faith must now do without his freedom—his American civil liberties, as it were—in public school.
Faith is a gift from God. Religion is how people respond to faith, the gift of God. Religion is how people respond to God. Religion is defined in the dictionary as the worship of God. Most people worship God by keeping the commandments to love God and one another. Any religion that breaks the commandments of God by human sacrifice, torture, etc., is not a religion at all, but a crime.
Realizing that the Supreme Court and the federal government have no jurisdiction over private property (this includes homes and churches), the freedom of religion promised in our U.S. Constitution must be provided for and protected in all public places.
The tax-paying citizen must be able to represent himself in the public school for who he really is, not for who he must be for someone else; he should be made to practice atheism for the sake of the atheist.
The American Civil Liberties Union, to become what their name portends, must busy themselves providing for and protecting the American civil liberties of persons of faith.
MARY DE VOE
South River, New Jersey
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: A Mother's Work—Love—Is Never Done DATE: 11/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 04-11, 2001 ----- BODY:In general it is a bad idea to give space to bad ideas.
But some bad ideas receive so much attention that a response is necessary. Ann Crittenden's new book is in this category.
The problem begins with the TITLE: The Price of Motherhood: Why the Most Important Job in the World is Still the Least Valued (Metropolitan Books, 2001). Strictly speaking, motherhood is not a job at all. It is a vocation. The family is not just a special case of something else, like a job or a contractual obligation. The all-important human endeavor of raising children, creating relationships and building up families needs to be described and defended on its own terms. Describing motherhood in the language of commerce and employment contributes to the commercialization of society in general and the family in particular.
So, too, does Crittenden's proposal to pay mothers to take care of their children. This proposal has generated powerful, visceral and mixed reactions. It is not hard to see why. Motherhood is valuable, and we find it appealing to reward motherhood. But at the same time, we instinctively recoil from the idea of paying mothers. People sometimes have trouble articulating the underlying problem, but I think this is a key issue: “Mother” describes a relationship, not a job. We intuitively know that you cannot pay someone to be in a relationship, and still have the relationship be authentically personal. Nor can you pay someone to do the work of being in a relationship for you.
Building up relationships is at the heart of the maternal vocation. Paying people to build relationships can seriously change the character of those relationships. The market system of exchange works well among strangers with whom you have no personal relationship. Indeed, the market is a wonderful institution precisely because it induces people to cooperate who might hate one another under other circumstances. But the family is not an impersonal network of strangers. It doesn't make sense to replace the most personal institution in the world, the family, with an institution designed for arm's-length transactions among strangers. Of all the relationships in our lives, surely, we want our mothers to take care of us because they love us and not because they are paid to.
Furthermore, this proposal to pay mothers suffers from the same defect as the old-fashioned, discredited welfare system. Because the payment is made directly to mothers, fathers and mothers have less incentive to get married and stay married. Crittenden herself acknowledges as much when she emphasizes the benefits of mothers being more independent of fathers. She quips at one point that many women are “just a husband away from poverty.” She even lets it slip out in her glowing discussions of Scandanavian family policies that almost half of all children in Sweden and Denmark are born to single mothers, in contrast to a third of all births in the U.S.
It is not accurate to describe mothers as ‘dependents.’
We know, from mountains of social-science research, that children do better in two-parent, married-couple households than in any other type of household. Children of intact marriages do better on virtually every measure than those of divorced parents, stepparents, never-married parents or cohabiting parents—health, schooling, emotional stability, propensity to remain drug-free and, ultimately, the probability of getting and staying married themselves. Surely the state should not pursue policies that decrease the probability of mothers and fathers staying married to each other.
The claim that mothers can be made independent by these payments is an illusion. Raising children is too much for one person to do alone. Someone must take care of the baby, and someone must take care of whomever is taking care of the baby. Crittenden's suggestion that the government pay mothers simply masks this underlying dependence. Mothers would be dependent upon the government, and the vagaries of politics, instead of upon their husbands, just as today's single mothers depend on the competence of their child care providers, and the good graces of their employers.
It is not accurate to describe mothers as “dependents.” Mothers must be interdependent with someone in order to bring up their children. The real questions are: Upon whom shall we depend? And with whom shall we interact? The modern world increasingly answers that women shall depend upon impersonal institutions rather than upon individual spouses and fathers. Mothers shall interact with no one in particular.
Finally, the primary emotions that come through this book are fear and anger—fear of spousal abandonment and anger at gender-based unfairness. These are simple, gut-level emotions that are easy to stimulate. People are tired of going through life feeling cheated or frightened. Organizing one's life around these emotions can never make a person happy. I believe this is the core reason why old-fashioned feminism no longer appeals to young women.
Love is the alternative to fear and anger. Using love as an organizing principle for one's life complicates things quite a bit. We can never be completely sure that we're doing it right. Our emotions are less reliable guides for action. We sometimes have to admit to our family members that we were wrong. But this approach at least has the potential to make a person happy.
Motherhood describes a relationship, not a job title. The primary role of the family is not to transfer resources from big people to little people, or from male people to female people. The primary function of the family is to build up relationships. The proper posture for family members to adopt toward one another is the posture of love. Public policies built around fear and anger can only inhibit the development of that posture. Only love can make people happy.
Jennifer Roback Morse is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and the author of Love & Economics: Why the Laissez-Faire Family Doesn't Work.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: J.R. Morse ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: ‘Hell is Other People’ DATE: 11/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 04-11, 2001 ----- BODY:Concerning the early separation Jean Paul Sartre experienced from both his parents—his father died, his mother doted on him before remarrying, which he experienced as a betrayal—the influential French philosopher and author wrote that he had “benefited from the situation.” With regard to his mother, he would not be exposed to the “difficulties of a late weaning.” He expressed even greater gratitude for the early demise of his father. “[His] death was the great event in my life: It returned my mother to her chains and it gave me my freedom.”
“I was lucky,” he wrote, “to belong to a dead man: a dead man had poured out the few drops of sperm which are the normal price for a child.”
Sartre's adventures in existentialism would culminate in his embracing Marxism and declining the 1964 Nobel Prize for literature (in protest against the values of “bourgeois society”). For him, the rupture between biology and morality (between siring a child and raising him responsibly, for example) formed a prototype for the irreconcilable rift he would describe philosophically between the world of matter and the world of consciousness. Biology is mere fact, “facticity,” as he called it, something that stood over and against us. But the world of consciousness, he maintained, is one of freedom.
Sartre's commitment to unfettered freedom was sometimes accompanied by a weak temptation to accept his place in the family. It was a temptation, however, that he found easy to resist. How could he resign himself to his position in the family? As he wrote in his autobiography, he was “made feminine through the fondness of my mother, flavourless through the absence of the severe Moses who had begotten me, and eaten up with conceit through my grandfather's adoration. I was pure object, doomed above all to masochism, had I been able to believe in the family comedy. But I would not.”
Sartre's rejection of the father, as a condition for personal liberty, necessarily extends to his rejection of God. His atheism is not philosophically derived as much as it is a logical consequence of his upbringing. “I was led to unbelief not through conflicting dogma but through my grandparents’ indifference.” He saw in his elders a form of hypocrisy that was only too transparent. They displayed virtues as the alibi for vices, preached one thing and practiced another. There was no substance or true religious meaning to their lives. “In our circle, in my family,” he wrote, “faith was nothing but an official name for sweet French liberty.”
ARCHITECTS OF THE CULTURE OF DEATH
Fourth in an occasional series
Atheism is at the core of Sartre's philosophy. But it is a postulate that he assumes rather than proves. Moreover, it seems to spring from his personal background more than it does from his powers of reason. Whatever the case, it is harmonious with his notion of absolute personal freedom. If there is no God, then there are no rules or commandments; hence, no restrictions placed on human liberty.
Sartre's principal philosophical work is Being and Nothingness, published in 1943. In the introduction of this massive work, he makes a crucial distinction that functions as the bedrock of his philosophical thinking. There are things, material entities, that are simply there, fixed and determined—“dumb-packed-togetherness.” This is the realm of the “being-in-itself” (e⁁treen-soi). Such things are the object of our consciousness.
We, as conscious beings, are not fixed. We are incomplete, dynamic, ever-changing. We are in process, capable of choosing what we are to become. We are transitional beings, guiding what we will become by our freedom. Therefore, we are not a “being-in-itself,” but a “being-for-itself” (e⁁tre-pour-soi). We do not as yet have an essence or a definable or intelligible nature. We really are not human beings at all, but are in the process of choosing what we are to become. In Sartre's celebrated phrase, which springs from the heart of his philosophy, “existence precedes essence.”
‘I was intoxicated with death because I did not like life.’
The contention that we are not human beings or possessors of any particular nature is derived from, and reinforces, his atheism. According to the Judeo-Christian tradition, God makes us in his image. God endows us with a particular nature or essence the way an artist imbues his work with a formative idea. If God exists, for Sartre, he would create us with a particular nature and, as a consequence, deny us the freedom to be ourselves. If God does not exist, then there is no one to saddle us with any particular nature. As a result, we are free beings whose existence precedes our essence: “There is no human nature because there is no God to have a conception of it.”
Absolute freedom, however, is not easy to bear. Throughout his life, Sartre was haunted by the Holy Ghost. Finally, he states, at the end of his autobiography, “I have caught the Holy Ghost in the cellars and flung him out of them. Atheism is a cruel, long-term business: I believe I have gone through it to the end.”
Absurdist Angst
To be alone in a Godless universe, without a nature, without guidance—without hope—can be torturous. “Life is absurd,” Sartre concludes, but we must make something of ourselves even though that something does not amount to anything. Indeed, life is brutal. In this regard, it is not surprising to discover Sartre telling us, “I was intoxicated with death because I did not like life.”
But what should this atheistic existentialist become? He does not want to be absorbed into the “obscene paste” of matter and become a mere “being-in-itself.” Nor does he want to involve himself in relationships with others who are impelled to turn him into an object for their own individual use. Even less does he want to remain an indeterminate entity, floating pointlessly throughout the cosmos, awaiting his inevitable extinction. What is left? The answer is the simple utterance we find inscribed in the title of his life's story—Words.
Sartre must write in order “to be forgiven for being alive.” Yet, in finding refuge in abstract words, he must deny the significance of his body, his incarnate reality, as well as the life-affirming relationships he might have cultivated with others. “Chance had made me a man; generosity would make me a book,” he wrote. Thus, in some way, he would escape from the misery of himself. “The mirror had told me what I had always known: I was horribly ordinary. I have never gotten over it.”
The gap that Sartre creates between his own plane of consciousness and the external world was so wide as to prove uncrossable. The fundamental mode of all human relationships, for Sartre, therefore becomes conflict. As he states through the character Garcin in his play No Exit: “Hell is other people” (L‘Enfer c‘est l‘Autrui).
In his book The Gods of Atheism, Father Vincent Miceli concludes that Sartre's philosophy leads logically and directly to despair and suicide: “His world of atheism is a kingdom of nothingness plunged into intellectual darkness, convulsed with spiritual hate and peopled by inhabitants who curse God and destroy each other in their vain attempt to seize his vacant throne.” This is not hyperbole, but the inevitable consequence of Sartre's thinking, which is congruent with the culture of death that presently surrounds us.
Yet Sartre himself could not be at peace with his own, bleak philosophy. On the last page of Words, he leaves us with a conundrum. “I depend only on those who depend only on God, and I do not believe in God.” Like his life itself, Sartre's philosophy, however carefully thought out, was internally contradictory. Where his frustration ends, the Christian's hope begins.
Donald DeMarco is a philosophy professor at St. Jerome's University in Waterloo, Ontario.
----- EXCERPT: The dead end of Jean-Paul Sartre's existentialism ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Would a World Without Truth Be Less Prone to Violence? DATE: 11/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 04-11, 2001 ----- BODY:So you're standing near the water cooler, on a break at work, and your co-workers are discussing the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
You hear someone comment: “The problem is not that the attackers were Muslim; many Muslims are peaceful and tolerant of others. The problem is that the terrorists are religious zealots. They think they know the truth about what is good and how to live—not just for them, but for everyone.
As long as there are religious people who claim they know the ‘truth’ in some universal sense, there will be people who want to impose their idea of the truth on others, even using violent means. That is the real source of terrorism.”
What do you say?
According to this fashionable line of thinking, in order to avoid terrorism, we should promote “tolerance.” The way to encourage tolerance is to raise doubts among those who have strongly held religious beliefs. The hope is that, as long as people acknowledge that they are uncertain about the universal validity of their religious beliefs, they will recognize that they shouldn't impose their opinions on others.
The result is a kind of radical individualism: Since we can never be certain about which religion or way of life is best, we must accept that there is no absolute truth or universal morality. Each person is left free to interpret life's meaning for himself in private; meanwhile, in public, one should be tolerant of all forms of “diversity.”
This kind of individualistic secular humanism has become virtually enshrined in many parts of American culture. Yet the Sept. 11 attacks show that there are deep deficiencies in this line of thinking.
As was evident in the national response to the terror, we need more than radical individualism as a public philosophy. In response to the violence of the attacks, there was a strong urge in people to come together in prayer and to join with others in works of mercy. Through countless choruses of “God Bless America,” we sang together, asking for help from the Lord.
I was struck in particular by the television special that aired nationally on Sept. 21. Some 60 million Americans watched as over $100 million was raised for the victims of the atrocity. The program ended with a wide array of celebrities singing “America the Beautiful.” Together, movie stars sang along, almost in prayer: “Confirm thy soul in self-control/Thy liberty in law.”
In this song, America gives its answer to why we are a freedom-loving and tolerant people. True liberty is not the freedom to do whatever one wants, but the ability to make self-determining choices in accord with the moral law—a universal law that is written upon every human heart.
The advocates of secular humanism are right about this much: We should treat people of differing faiths with the respect befitting every human being. But the supporters of individualism are wrong in their explanation of why we should treat every human being with respect.
Behind the account of many secular humanists is a fear of the 17th-century wars of religion. They think that if we turn to a deep, religious understanding of the good life, the inevitable result is war. Each religious group will claim with zeal that they are right, and the result will be a breakdown in civilization. To avoid violence, the secularists think that religion should be kept out of the public sphere.
However, in the aftermath of the attacks, we saw how religion in public promotes peace and civility. On Friday, Sept. 14 (which President Bush declared a national day of prayer), politicians joined religious leaders in a very public display of religion at the National Cathedral to pray for the victims and their families. In tragedy, it is good to pray together, to sing together, to join hands together promoting the common good.
The days following the attack confirmed that a free society needs more than individualism. The foundation of a free society is virtue, developed through habits of self-control exercised in community with others.
At the Second Vatican Council, the Church produced an important document, Dignitatis Humanae (Declaration on Religious Freedom). In that statement, the council fathers reasoned that all people of good will should be tolerant of various religions. Further, each government should protect freedom of religion for all of its citizens. The reason we should respect various religious faiths is not that we are uncertain that our faith is true, but because we have assurance that every human being should be treated in a manner that respects their inherent dignity.
“The right to religious freedom has its foundation in the very dignity of the human person as this dignity is known through the revealed Word of God and by reason itself” (Dignitatis Humanae 2).
In response to those who think that terror stems from those who think they know the truth about what is good and how to live, we should have a ready reply. The terrorists were wrong because they hardened their hearts to a truth written by God on every human heart: Each human being is a person.
Since every human being is created as a person, endowed with reason and free will—and therefore privileged to bear personal responsibility—all human beings have an inherent dignity and a moral responsibility to seek the truth, especially religious truth.
The true source of genuine tolerance is not in subjective individualism. Rather, the source of authentic toleration and peace is in the objective truth about the dignity of the human person.
Gregory R. Beabout is a philosophy professor at St. Louis University and an adjunct scholar with the Center for Economic Personalism.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Gregory R. Beaubout ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: New Way of the Cross DATE: 11/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 04-11, 2001 ----- BODY:Here are Pope John Paul's 1991 stations of the cross, all based on Gospel texts. These are the stations that Holy Trinity Parish will be portraying in a new church due to be dedicated Nov. 18.
1. The agony of Jesus in the garden
2. The betrayal and arrest of Jesus
3. The Sanhedrin condemns Jesus
4. Peter denies Jesus
5. Pilate condemns Jesus to the Cross
6. Jesus is scourged and crowned with thorns
7. Jesus is mocked by the soldiers and given his cross
8. Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the cross
9. Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem
10. Jesus is crucified
11. Jesus promises paradise to the penitent criminal
12. Jesus speaks to his mother and to his disciple
13. Jesus dies on the cross
14. The burial of Jesus
15. Jesus rises from the dead
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Disease's Deadly Course DATE: 11/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 04-11, 2001 ----- BODY:Oct. 16—Joseph Curseen Jr. tells his wife, Celeste, that he may have food poisoning. Three days later he leaves work early from work, something he rarely does, and says he has the flu.
Oct. 20—Curseen faints at the 5 p.m. Mass at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church. “A parishioner called 911 and a rescue squad arrived to revive him. He insisted that he was fine and remained through the end of Mass before going home,” said Father Tom Pollard of St. John's. That night Curseen goes to work.
Oct. 21—Curseen is facing nausea and profuse sweating, and Celeste takes him to the emergency room of Southern Maryland Hospital Center. An X-ray turns up nothing. Hospital spokesman David Clark says doctors were unaware that Curseen was a postal employee. He is sent home.
Oct. 22—Curseen collapses at home and returns to the hospital in an ambulance. It's now clear just how sick he is. Curseen dies later that morning. Fellow Brentwood postal worker Thomas L. Morris Jr., 55, died the day before.
Oct. 27—Hundreds attend Curseen's funeral Mass at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Washington.
—Tim Drake
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Investment Tithes DATE: 11/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 04-11, 2001 ----- BODY:Q A few years ago, I opened an account with a brokerage service and have consistently been depositing a portion of our savings into it. I would like to tithe on the income earned, but am unsure as to whether I should tithe on the increase today, or if I can wait until a future date when the investments get sold. Any observations?
A I am impressed by your commitment to tithing! Many would not even consider giving from their increase in savings or investments at all.
Generally speaking, our charitable giving should be based on our increase, and certainly interest, dividend and capital gain income are part of our increase.
We read in Proverbs 3:9-10, “Honor the Lord with your substance and with the first fruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.” While you can get into a debate as to whether this means income before or after taxes (gross or net), we know we should strive to be as charitable as possible.
My pastor captures the essence of our call when he says, “perfect charity is infinite.” You have already recognized this need to give based on your increase, but are questioning whether it needs to be given now, or if you can delay it until you “liquidate” your investment. Here are a few items to consider:
On the one hand, there are always current needs within both the Church and society at large that we should keep in mind. There is merit in giving today to help feed someone who is hungry, or meet some other temporal need. There is also a great need to re-evangelize much of the world, and giving resources today so that this new evangelization can be accomplished is also good. So with these thoughts in mind, it would certainly be a good thing to make a current contribution out of the increase in your investments.
On the other hand, if the account is a retirement account, and there would be penalties associated with a distribution, it is certainly reasonable to wait until your retirement years when the distributions are made in order to pay your tithe.
If you fall into the first category, and want to give of your increase today, remember that there are tax advantages associated with giving appreciated properties as opposed to cash. In short, if you sell a portion of your stock in order to make a charitable contribution in the form of cash, you'll have to pay the applicable capital gains taxes.
As an alternative you can donate the property directly to the charity. While you are still able to deduct the full market value of the gift, neither you nor the charity (assuming it is a qualified tax-exempt organization) will have to pay a capital gains tax.
God love you!
Phil Lenahan is executive director of Catholic Answers.
----- EXCERPT: Family Matters ----- EXTENDED BODY: Phil Lenahan ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Money in The Bank DATE: 11/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 04-11, 2001 ----- BODY:MONEY PROBLEMS often lead to marriage problems; but Americans now seem to be doing their families a favor. Use of credit cards is down and savings rates are up. Consumer debt did not rise from May to August, for the first time since 1992. Survey respondents claim the trend is likely to continue.
Over the next six months
Source: Gallup Poll cited by The New York Times, Oct. 18
----- EXCERPT: Facts of Life ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: New Stations of the Cross Catch On DATE: 11/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 04-11, 2001 ----- BODY:BEAVERTON, Ore.—A suburban parish in Oregon is breaking devotional ground by going back to the source—the Gospel source.
Portland Archbishop John Vlazny is scheduled to dedicate a new 800-seat church at Holy Trinity Parish on Nov. 18. That in itself is a thrill for parishioners who for decades have been worshipping in what was meant to be a gymnasium. But by chance, the design of the new house of worship left 14 sizable empty spaces encircling the church high on the walls. There, parish leaders hope by next spring to portray what some are calling a Bible-based “epic of the Passion.”
The parish is raising money so that Beaverton liturgical artist Greg Lewis can paint massive canvases based on a version of the Way of the Cross developed a decade ago by Pope John Paul II.
The Pope took the scenes directly from the Gospels when he made his way in prayer around Rome's Colosseum on Good Friday, 1991.
Holy Trinity is among the first churches in the United States to fashion its Way of the Cross in accord with the Pope's 1991 texts. Archbishop Vlazny has praised the pioneering paintings as “beautiful representatives of an important story of our faith.”
At the urging of the parish liturgist, members of Holy Trinity have prayed the scriptural Way of the Cross during Lent the past two years. The Scripture-based prayers caught on with the pastor and people, paving the way for the current art project.
During those Lenten devotions, no one in the pews at Holy Trinity reported missing the traditional stations, which have six scenes not included in the Gospel—among them, Jesus’ repeated falls.
The old stations also pass over some important events, such as the Agony in the Garden, the promise of heaven to a repentant lawbreaker, Peter's denial and the Resurrection. John Paul's Way of the Cross includes those scenes and the people of Holy Trinity may be able to see the whole story on their walls.
“Some people say, ‘Hey, that's ecumenical,’ but it wasn't written to be just ecumenical, it was written to be the Gospel,” says Dr. Charlie Gardner, a retired physician who heads up liturgy at Holy Trinity.
Gardner says the large size of each scene—about 5 feet tall and 15 feet wide—plus the spacing and the prominent location, will fit what Catholic bishops have been asking for in recent liturgical documents. In Built of Living Stones, their year-2000 statement on art and architecture in churches, the bishops warned against “clustering” the stations in one place.
“While such an arrangement may be expedient, it is not desirable because it eliminates space for movement, which characterizes this devotion as a ‘way’ of the cross,” the bishops wrote.
There are 14 pieces of blank wall in the new Holy Trinity Church. But there are 15 events in the new Way of the Cross. No problem, says Gardner. The 15th event—the Resurrection—will be amply symbolized by the new baptistery. In the letter to the Colossians, Chapter 2, St. Paul says that the one who is baptized moves into the death of Christ and then is raised just as Christ was raised.
Gardner, who uses the Pope's new Way of the Cross for private prayer, says the reflections give a full experience of the Passion, the last hours of Jesus that Christians hold up as the means of their salvation. “The new version brings a wholeness and an uplifting finale to the crucifixion story,” says Father John Waldron, pastor of Holy Trinity. “Our parish sees this expansion as a legacy we are leaving future generations.”
Parish leaders hope the new Way of the Cross will appeal to people who may not be Catholic but want to discover more about the faith. At the prompting of Archbishop Vlazny, evangelization has become the focus of the Catholic Church in Oregon.
Holy Trinity now counts about 1,200 families with growing populations of Hispanic, Filipino and Vietnamese Catholics.
When the parishioners take part in the devotion, they use a pamphlet written by Jesuit Father Joseph Champlin of Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Syracuse, N.Y.
“This, as far as I can judge, is groundbreaking territory,” Father Champlin says of the Beaverton plan.
Among the other churches to have used the revised Way of the Cross is Sacred Heart Parish in small Gervais, Ore. Its scriptural stations are traditional in size and were blessed in 1996 by then Archbishop Francis George, now cardinal archbishop of Chicago.
In Salt Lake City, the Cathedral of the Madeleine installed a version of John Paul's Way of the Cross during a 1993 renovation. The stylized, symbolic paintings measure about 3 feet wide and 5 feet high. They were painted by local artist Sam Wilson, who incorporated local flora and fauna to help worshipers embrace the Passion as theirs.
In Utah, planning the new stations caused more debate among liturgists than among the people in the pew.
“The discussion among planners was quite vigorous; it was a broad consultation,” says Deacon Owen Cummings, who was on staff at the cathedral and helped guide the restoration. “When it came to the people, I don't honestly think they noticed the difference,” Cummings explains. “Their devotion is to the stations as opposed to John Paul's particular version of the stations or any other version.”
Benedictine Father James Wiseman, a Catholic University of America expert on devotions, says he has heard of no other churches incorporating Pope John Paul's Scriptural Way of the Cross. It is clear that no one has portrayed and displayed the Hly Father's version of the Way of the Cross quite so boldly as Holy Trinity plans.
David Richen, the Portland, Ore. architect who designed the new Beaverton church, says he has seldom seen so golden an opportunity to integrate contemporary art and architecture.
“It will be a large, powerful space and it needs bold and courageous art to complete its purpose,” Richen says.
Not that anyone at Holy Trinity wants the acrylic paintings to be overpowering. Plans call for muted earth tone colors to mimic aged sandstone.
Lewis has completed a preliminary study of the 13th scene, Jesus’ death on the cross. He has been researching life in first-century Palestine to make the paintings historically accurate.
For instance, researchers have found that the Romans often crucified criminals by pounding nails through metal cuffs into the wrists.
Details like that will be part of the paintings. “What I am after is that they are biblically correct,” says Lewis, who has also designed covers of Catholic church music books.
“I also want to make them contemporary enough so they could be a teaching tool.”
Ed Langlois writes from Portland, Oregon.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Ed Langlois ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Marshalling Celebrities for the Pro-Life Cause DATE: 11/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 04-11, 2001 ----- BODY:A Harvard University student was ecstatic about the publication circulating on campus last year. Four thousand five hundred copies of a 28-page tabloid, entitled LoveMatters.com, had been distributed, spreading a pro-life, pro-chastity message. It created a campus wide discussion and a flurry of chatter on Harvard's online bulletin board. The student excitedly e-mailed over 100 student letters to the LoveMatters.com publisher, J.T. Finn, in Redondo Beach, Calif.
A second distribution of 5,000 copies went out to students at Georgetown University. These were among 15 college campuses which have received LoveMatters.com, generating hundreds of phone calls, e-mails and letters from students, parents, teachers, college faculty, youth directors and clergy who are starving for this kind of message to get into the hands of youth.
“The positive (response) outweighs the negative by about five or six to one,” said Finn, who is director of the nonprofit organization Pro-Life America. “It gives me a lot of hope and I think that if people give our youth good role models and messages, they will move toward truth and goodness.”
LoveMatters.com is a colorful newspaper supplement with an eye-catching cover sporting supermodel, Kim Alexis. At first glance, it could be mistaken for something produced by Cosmopolitan. But instead of sex, fashion and make-up tips, celebrities—such as actors Kathy Ireland and Mel Gibson, and pro-basketball star A.C. Green—promote messages of the sanctity of human life, chastity and abstinence-until-marriage.
The paper is filled with testimonies from former abortionists and post-abortive women, information on fetal development, STDs, birth control and abortion procedures, and articles about self-respect and chastity.
Veteran Pro-Lifer
Finn, 40, is the oldest of six children who grew up in a strong pro-life, Catholic environment. His involvement in pro-life activities dates back to pre-Roe v. Wade days when his father, John Finn, was busy publishing pro-life literature and gathering the family for peaceful protests wherever the legalization of abortion was being discussed. His first involvement in college campus work was as a college campus project manager for Human Life Alliance, a Minnesota-based organization. He helped distribute their pro-life supplement, She's a Child, Not a “Choice.”
Human Life's president, Marlene Reid, said Finn was instrumental in getting the supplement on California campuses eight years ago. Today there are over 20 million in print, with about half of that number reaching students. She says the supplement, the original as well as the revised versions, focuses on the pro-life message, whereas LoveMatters.com promotes a stronger abstinence-until-marriage message, so the two complement each other well.
Finn liked the idea of distributing materials to college campuses, but felt it needed further development. He found a graphic designer who could design a hip, contemporary piece that appealed to the youth culture. From there he tracked celebrities that had made pro-life, pro-chastity comments in interviews.
“We were tired of the media constantly saying the pro-life movement was a bunch of old men trying to tell women what to do with their bodies. To overcome that, we thought we needed some popular people, young men and women who are encouraging sanctity of life messages, speaking out against abortion and talking about the beauty of life in the womb.”
Finn's message has reached hundreds of thousands of people today through the publication and the Web site. The Archdiocese of St. Louis recently distributed more than 117,000 copies of LoveMatters.com to Catholic households and high school students. Auxiliary Bishop Joe Naumann said the supplement reinforces their efforts to provide education about chastity and respect for life. The eye-catching format and content helped get a message out about God's plan for human sexuality and the goodness of living a chaste life.
“The environment today is so difficult for young people in terms of embracing Christian values about human sexuality and chastity. The messages they get from movies, television and music are so contrary to that,” Bishop Naumann said. “It's more important than ever that the Church does everything it can to present them with the teaching of Jesus and the Church's tradition.”
Bob Kloska, director of campus ministry at Holy Cross College in Notre Dame, Ind., said the Church needs to be countercultural in its presentation in order to reach the popular culture. He distributed LoveMatters.com to the student body when classes started in August. Although its content does-n't jibe with the popular culture, he said its sleekness and professionalism make it more palatable to youth, and he hasn't received one negative comment. “I think we have to adapt to our culture and use those sorts of marketing techniques, but that doesn't mean we're watering down the message. The medium is contemporary, but the message is eternal truth.”
Finn's goal is to distribute millions more copies to Catholic high schools, private Christian schools, religious education directors, youth ministers and others. He also thinks a more urgent need is to counter the efforts of Planned Parenthood in New York. The group recently announced that for a limited time it would offer free services, including abortions and birth control, to victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks; and it started distributing red, white and blue condoms.
“At a time when churches and non-profit organizations are rushing in with spiritual help, food and funds for the victims, Planned Parenthood is bringing more death into their lives,” he said. “They are a very cunning organization. They're experts at tempting people toward terrible sins that scourge our nation.”
His organization is concerned about the thousands of women who may feel pressured into having an abortion, particularly in light of the fact that people often cope with tragedy through increased promiscuous behavior. Some experts are already predicting a surge in pregnancies, according to a Los Angeles Times report. Pro-life America has drafted a plan to distribute 100,000 copies of LoveMatters.com within a one-hour radius of ground zero, and hopes to garner support from New York and New Jersey churches, schools and pro-life groups.
“We have another war that we're fighting right here on our own soil,” said Finn. “The ultimate act of [violence] is abortion.”
Barb Ernster writes from Fridley, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Barb Ernster ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Life Notes DATE: 11/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 04-11, 2001 ----- BODY:No Abortion Money
WISCONSIN RIGHT TO LIFE, Oct. 11—Bills have been introduced in both houses of the Wisconsin legislature that would cut off state tax dollars from organizations that engage in abortion-related activities.
Wisconsin Right to Life said organizations “will have a choice to make … either stop all abortion-related activities or the state funds they currently receive will be diverted to organizations that do not engage in abortion-related activities.”
A recent Wirthlin poll shows 82% of Wisconsin residents are opposed to tax dollars supporting abortion.
Fetuses in Auto Deaths
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Oct. 11—A Kentucky man, originally charged with double murder in the traffic death of a pregnant woman and her unborn child, pleaded guilty Oct. 11 to reduced charges of two counts of second-degree manslaughter, the wire service reported.
Pike Circuit Judge Charles Lowe let stand a homicide charge against Charles Morris in the death of the baby, who was nearly full term. Morris, however, is allowed to appeal the charge.
Others have been charged with murder in Kentucky in the deaths of unborn children, but the state Supreme Court has so far ruled that even a viable fetus is not a human being.
Court Bars Suicide Bid
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Oct. 18—A terminally ill woman immobilized by a neurological disease lost a British High Court battle to protect her husband from prosecution if he helps her die.
The three judges who rejected Diane Pretty's plea were “desperately sorry for her and her husband and family,” said one of the justices.
Diane Pretty, 42, is paralyzed from the neck down by motor neurone disease and is confined to a wheelchair. The judges acknowledged that her condition will worsen and that death was not far off.
The decision upheld Britain's law against assisted suicide, which calls for up to 14 years in jail for those who help someone commit suicide.
More Ethical Stem Cells
PR NEWSIRE, Oct. 10—Thermo-Genesis Corp., a company which specializes in preserving blood components, announced it had received a fifth order for its BioArchive System from the New York Blood Center's placental blood program. The New York program has pioneered the use of placental cord blood as a source of stem cells for bone marrow restoration for leukemia and other diseases of the blood and immune systems.
Philip Coelho of ThermoGenesis said, “Cord blood may provide a source of stem cells for tissue regeneration without the ethical issues involved with embryos or fetuses.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Not Even Advent Yet DATE: 11/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 04-11, 2001 ----- BODY:Q It's odd, isn't it, having a Christmas supplement so close to Halloween? What kind of “Christmasy” things should my family be doing now? Is there something we can do with pumpkins?
A In answer to your first question: Yes. In answer to your next questions: Not pumpkins. Definitely not pumpkins.
It seems to me that if there's one person who can be “Christmasy” outside of December, it's Mary. After all, she started getting ready for Christmas way back on March 25, Feast of the Annunciation (and my son's birthday).
There is a Mary statue in my backyard. My wife bought it, and I carried it to a place of honor among the evergreens.
Ours is just a little statue, maybe two feet high, unpainted, molded cement. It didn't cost much, but to us it is precious.
No, the cement isn't precious. The thought of who it represents is precious.
Yes, some folks think it is strange, old-fashioned and childish to put such a thing in the yard. Is it an idol? Do you worship her? Do you pray to the statue and ask for lower mortgage rates?
No. We honor Mary, Christ's mother, the speaker of the most far-reaching “yes” of all time: the “yes” that launched 2,000 Christmases. When we're out in the yard cooking hamburgers, tossing a baseball or gardening, the stature reminds us of her sacrifice and grace. It might even remind us to pause in prayer—not to a statue, but to who it represents.
But lest this turn into a long dissertation of the place of Mary in the church and heaven, I simply want to contend that a Mary statue is a better thing to put in my backyard than some of the alternatives my neighbors have selected:
E Bird bath. OK, I appreciate a clean bird as much as the next guy. But bathing birds aren't an especially spiritual group, although some emit a nice song. They also get the water dirty.
E Plastic goose. Several neighbors have these, and take great pleasure in dressing them for the season—raincoat, swimsuit, winter sweater. I hope they dress their kids as well.
E Flags with state, college or seasonal motifs. A guy down the street puts up an Ohio State flag every weekend during football season. Does he worship his university? I really don't want to know.
E Shiny spheres: I admit I really don't know what these things are called. But the guy next door has a shiny ball that sits on a pedestal in his garden. We sort of had the same thing a couple years ago when my son got his basketball stuck in the maple tree—but it wasn't shiny.
As fun as some of these things sound, I'm not going to trade in my Mary statue for any of them. Yes, it reminds me of Christmas. But sometimes it doesn't remind me of anything but Mary. In fact, I might even sit in my backyard and to pray my daily rosary near it. (remember: The Pope wants daily rosaries these days).
While I don't need an image of Mary to pray a rosary, a statue of her can help the mood. At least it helps more than a plastic goose or metal frog.
Jim Fair writes from Chicago.
----- EXCERPT: Christmas Matters ----- EXTENDED BODY: Jim Fair ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: OBEYING LIKE CHRIST DATE: 11/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 04-11, 2001 ----- BODY:Leon Suprenaut Jr. of Catholics United for the Faith points out that, by becoming a boy, Christ became subject to the Fourth Commandment: Honor Your Father and Mother. Says Luke 2:41, “He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to Joseph and Mary.” Suprenaut suggests that the extraordinary example of God himself being an obedient child can inspire obedience in kids.
----- EXCERPT: Facts of Christmas ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Have Yourself a Historic Little Christmas DATE: 11/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 04-11, 2001 ----- BODY:NEW HAVEN, Conn.—One way to appreciate the true meaning of Christmas is to meditate on the Nativity's wondrous supernatural events, as depicted in historic works of art. A new exhibit will allow many a fine opportunity to do just that, this Advent season.
And the works are not just historic—they're from the Vatican's own collections.
The show, “Splendors of Christmas,” on display at the Knights of Columbus Museum in New Haven, Conn., brings together 1,600 years’ worth of artistic reflection on the birth of Christ.
“This is the one and only time this show will be seen in the United States,” notes museum director Larry Sowinski. “It was basically created for us by the Vatican.”
Sowinski describes the exhibit as a “dramatic presentation,” pointing out the special lighting illuminating the works. “We want you to see these works in the light they're intended to be seen,” he says. “We want the content to inspire the reverence it calls for.”
The show includes a number of rarely seen pieces. Perhaps most notable among these is a set of elaborate marble carvings from sarcophagi (elaborately decorated limestone coffins) used by the early Church.
Museum curator Mary Lou Cummings points out how these carvings, which date to the 300s, bring together stories from both Old and New Testaments, so as to present a meditation on salvation history. Thus you find ancient Hebrew patriarchs and prophets such as Abraham and Daniel interacting with Mary, the Christ Child and the Magi.
“All of the essential elements of the Nativity,” such as the manger, sloping-roof hut, mule, ox and star of Bethlehem, “appear in the majority of these early scenes,” notes Cummings. In other words, this display will come as an eye-opener to those who thought the Nativity was the innovation of artists who came much later in Christian history.
Born This Day
Part of the aim of the exhibit is to show the constancy of the basic elements of the Nativity and the Epiphany over the 16 centuries covered. The styles have changed over the centuries, but not the message or the sense of awe that each artist tried to capture.
The 15th-century tempura on wood attributed to Ghirlandaio seems well more than two centuries removed from the 17th-century oil on canvas from the school of Murillo. But, in their own way, both inspire the same sense of awe over the Savior's birth.
The Ghirlandaio, stylized in bold shades of blues, reds and golds, focuses on the Holy Family. Not a stable is in sight. Above them, a quintet of angels unfurls a banner proclaiming "Gloria in Excelsis Deo.”
On the other hand, the 17th-century Murillo depicts the Holy Family, stable and adoring shepherds in the soft tones of a pastoral scene. What's more, St. Joseph is pictured younger and stronger, unlike earlier medieval works that portray him as older and momentarily at rest.
The lighting plays a major role, too. Its source is clearly the Baby Jesus—the Light of the World. It radiates first to his mother Mary, then to a lamb whose feet are bound. Symbolism abounds in these works too.
“It looks so authentic,” commented one visitor, Ellie Kavanaugh of Fairfield, County, Conn., standing before the Murillo. For her it reflects the “actual birth of Jesus,” as contrasted with the stylized interpretations. She also appreciates the show's strong historical aspects. “You get some of the thoughts others have had [on the Nativity],” she said.
The bold 14th-century tempura attributed to Ghissi strongly links the Nativity with the Passion and Resurrection. Half the painting deals with Jesus' birth, the other half with his death. Artists made the point that our salvation depends on both.
“The theological side is that, right from the birth of Christ, the shadow of the cross is on the birth,” says Dominican Father John Farren, director of Catholic information for the Knights of Columbus,
Father Farren also explains that the exhibit is part of the Knights' desire to share with the people of America “the full meaning of Christmas.” More and more in our country, he adds, there is “the shell, the vestige of Christmas” as cities and communities celebrate secular winter festivals in place of Christmas. “The Splendors of Christmas,” he hopes, will help point people to the birth of Christ.
“The Knights want to make explicit the wonder of Christmas—a wonder not just for children as it's (recently) portrayed,” says Father Farren, “but the wonder that God loves us so much that he would send his son who would be born as one of us in utter vulnerability and defenselessness.”
This is precisely what makes the exhibit appealing to Kavanaugh. “The true meaning of Christmas is almost lost,” she observes. “It's become too materialistic.” But these artistic Nativities and Epiphanies become a strong beacon of what Christmas really is.
“The philosophy of the Knights is that there are traditions worth keeping,” says Solwinski. “We have an important function: to keep Christ in Christmas. It's the only reason we have that holiday.”
Signature Crèche
Here Nativity and Epiphany scenes abound—in ivory, as a Byzantine triptych, and as icons, bookbindings, altarpieces, bronze and silver plaques, and even an exceptionally rare 13th-century glass medallion. Some are directly connected to popes. One piece was created in the early 16th century for Clement VII's devotional use. Pius IX donated another, a small table cross, to the Vatican Museums.
Curator Cummings point to the show's 34-piece crèche, an excellent example of Luba Christian art handcarved between 1935 and '39 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in central Africa. Finely detailed and proportioned, 33 figures are of rosewood, while the Christ Child is of ivory. “That's the show's signature piece,” he says.
This crèche greets people in the sweeping lobby, where, beginning Dec. 8, it will be framed by 25 Christmas trees decorated with ornaments handmade by Catholic schoolchildren.
“Christmas is a time of renewal,” says Sowinski. “If ever we needed renewal, it's this year.”
Joseph Pronechen writes from
Trumbull, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: Knights of Columbus' ‘Splendors’ Showcases Two Millennia of Art ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Singing Noels in Times of Terror DATE: 11/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 04-11, 2001 ----- BODY:How does a Catholic family celebrate Christmas—the feast of glad tidings to men of good will—when the world is preoccupied with terror and war? The way it always does.
While this Dec. 25 cannot escape the shadow of Sept. 11—especially for those thousands of families touched most directly by the attacks—the fact is that Christmas is always celebrated in times of turmoil, which is to say in this vale of tears. The wrenching difference this year is the clarity with which we know that the world is still marked by painful wounds that are not yet healed.
From the first Christmas, darkened by the specter of the murderous King Herod, to this year, when anthrax in the mail dominates the news rather than stories about toys in stockings, Christians always return to the blessed routine of Christmas celebrations as an act of hope in a world that gives abundant reasons for despair.
Father Jonathan Robinson, the priest-philosopher from the Toronto Oratory, has written that “getting on with the business of living” is where the Lord is to be found, even in times in unspeakable tragedy—for example, in the days following the first Good Friday.
“It was doing one of these natural routine human things—the final preparation of a body for burial—which led the women to the discovery of the empty tomb, and the news of the Resurrection,” Robinson writes. “It was having something to do, and the implacable sort of courage to go and do what had to be done, that led the women to the Lord. The disciples, who had forsaken him and fled at the time of the arrest, were laying low. They were having a committee meeting behind closed doors—for fear of the Jews, as St. John honestly explains.”
Christmas 2001, like that first Easter morning, is not a time for more meetings about how to cope with fear: fear of planes, fear of the mail, fear of travel, fear of foreigners. It is a time to implacably go about the business of celebrating Christmas as it must be done; and in that blessed routine, the Lord will be found.
It will take great courage—imagine the pain of those young widows who will have to prepare for Christmas alone, without having had the chance to prepare their own missing husbands for burial. It will be a terrible test of faith.
The Beatified Married Couple
Beatifying the first married couple on Oct. 21, Pope John Paul II, noted that they lived “in Rome in the first half of the 20th century, a century in which faith in Christ was subject to a difficult trial.”
“And in these difficult years, the married couple of Luigi and Maria Quattrocchi kept lit the lamp of faith and passed it on to their four children,” the Holy Father said.
How did they do so? By responding to the special circumstances of the two wars which they lived through—Maria was heavily involved in the work of the Red Cross—and by holding fast to their blessed routine, too. In a remarkable letter from one of their spiritual advisors, written at the height of World War I on March 12, 1917, the Quattrocchis are encouraged simply to maintain their spiritual “rule of life,” at the heart of which was daily Mass.
And so they did.
Their response to the terror of war was to live as best they could their sacred routine of daily Mass, Scripture, meditation, the rosary and to make this, as much as whatever other tasks they had to do, their “war effort.”
Another outstanding Catholic couple—whose cause for beatification is already open—lived through the early months of World War II and also combined the extraordinary with the ordinary. Georges Vanier was the Canadian ambassador to France when the war broke out in September 1939.
His wife, Pauline, and children were evacuated from Paris to the countryside, where they spent the next eight months, including the bleak Christmas of 1939.
Despite the unpleasant conditions, the Vanier family responded to the unusual circumstances as needed, but also insisted on maintaining their usual spiritual life and celebrations. When 50 or so dependents of suspected communists were dumped into abandoned buildings in their village of exile, Madame Vanier set about providing material relief and sought out better housing.
Her daughter organized classes while her three sons built shelters.
So they responded to the emergency with generosity, but did not forget their supernatural perspective—Madame Vanier and her mother taught the communist children catechism lessons and then had them all baptized. The Vanier family knew that the gravity of war made it more important, not less, to maintain the blessed routine in which the Lord is to be found.
First Christmas Massacre
Five miles west of Jerusalem, in the town of Ain Karim, longstanding Christian tradition has located the house of Zechariah and Elizabeth, the parents of John the Baptist.
In the church that now marks the site, there is a striking painting which portrays St. Elizabeth carrying the infant John away into hiding, for fear of the massacre of the innocents ordered by King Herod. We do not know exactly where Zechariah and Elizabeth lived, but if they did indeed live close to Jerusalem—i.e., not far from Bethlehem—it is certain that they would have trembled with fear at the news that the king had ordered the murder of all the boys under two years of age.
For the elderly parents of the baby John, having so long waited for the gift of a child, the terror would have been all the more awful. All the hopes expressed in Zechariah's hymn of joy (Luke 1:67-79) must have echoed in their memory with mocking cruelty, as the wailing of grieving mothers reached their ears.
It is even possible to imagine that Zechariah and Elizabeth did not even know about the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem when the massacre of the innocents began—the Gospels do not say. So it may be that their experience of that first Christmas was one principally of terror. But there would still have been the rumors of hope—for they would have remembered that the unborn Lord had already come to their home (Luke 1:39-45).
The Feast of the Holy Innocents, which follows hard after Christmas on Dec. 28, reminds Catholics that terror and fear are part of the Christmas tale. This year, the innocent victims of terror and war will undoubtedly occupy the prayers of Catholics on that day.
But there should also be hope, for the Lord will have come again on Christmas Day. He will have come again in all the traditions that welcome him to a Catholic home—the setting up of the Christmas crib, with the youngest child having the privilege of putting the Baby Jesus in the manger upon return from Midnight Mass; the remembering of the poor during the excursions to the mall for Christmas shopping; the festive dinner in which the happiness of the Holy Family is reflected in Christian families across the generations.
The world—this vale of tears—always provides reasons to be disillusioned, distraught, to give in to despair. Sept. 11 brought that home with brutal force. But exactly fifteen weeks later, Dec. 25 will invite a renewal of faith and a rebirth of hope, for that world has been redeemed. It is part of our annual routine. It needs to be celebrated.
----- EXCERPT: From the massacre of the Holy Innocents to the war-torn 20th century ----- EXTENDED BODY: Raymond J. De Souza ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Follow Baby Jesus DATE: 11/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 04-11, 2001 ----- BODY:Near the Baby Jesus, even you [children] can know God, love him and make him loved. Even more, the Baby Jesus of Christmas invites all of you to represent him, joyfully imitating his goodness, among your families, your parents, and all those whose life especially needs to be illumined by the joy of Christmas, because they are suffering or sad.
— Dec. 19, 1982, blessing of children's statues of the Christ Child.
----- EXCERPT: Gospel of Christmas ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Free Gifts DATE: 11/04/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 04-11, 2001 ----- BODY:won't be Christmas without any presents!” Jo March wails in the opening line of Louisa May Alcott's classic, Little Women. And then the March family goes on to experience its best, most meaningful Christmas ever.
I wish I could say that my family pulled off the same feat last year, when an acute shortage of time and money made it impossible to put gifts under the tree.
Not that our children—all in high school, college or beyond—complained.
Still, our pared-down celebration had a meager, unfinished feel. It's not yet something I'd choose to mention in a “memorable family Christmas” story of the type that I've often written for Catholic publications in December.
As I have interviewed people for Christmas stories, though, it always struck me afresh that what makes Christmas memorable isn't the presents, but the moments of insight into what it is that we celebrate.
Such a moment came to me at age 6 when, in my pale-green-satin angel robe and cardboard wings, I helped create a living Nativity scene.
Over the years, other insights came as I sat quietly in front of the crèche, sang carols at a nursing home, pondered the Gospel at midnight Mass, took a long walk one snowy Christmas afternoon.
For all of us, glimpsing something of God's great love revealed in the Incarnation is the best Christmas gift imaginable. And the personal transformation that God can effect as we open ourselves to these glimpses is the best gift we can give others, starting with our families.
Moments of insight can't be produced. But, by our approach to Christmas, we can welcome them. Simplifying our lives so as to include time for prayer, reflection and service to others furthers that end.
Yes, a “Christmas Gift Guide” like the one you hold in your hand can be helpful. Not so helpful is secular America's approach to the season—a frantic social schedule, long hours at the mall, and a focus on material things that takes its cue from “Greed” and “Who Wants to Be a Milionaire.”
This “Shopping Season” approach to Christmas makes me grateful that, in my family, last year's financial constraints apply this Christmas, too!
Louise Perotta writes from St. Paul, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: Louise Perotta ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Abortion Law's Architect Chairs Cardinal's Dinner DATE: 11/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:TORONTO — Canadian pro-lifers were stunned by the selection of former Prime Minister Turner for the Archdiocese of Toronto's Oct. 18 fundraising dinner. The reason: Turner was instrumental in legalizing abortion in Canada.
The chief spokesman for Toronto's Cardinal Aloysius Ambrozic says that John Turner, the man who was Canada's justice minister when the country liberalized its abortion law in 1969, is “a Catholic in good standing” who “has done a great deal of humanitarian work.”
Suzanne Scorsone, communications director of the Archdiocese of Toronto, told the Register that Cardinal Ambrozic stands by the choice of Turner as chairman of the annual Cardinal's Dinner charity fund-raiser.
She also said he stands by a statement of the archdiocese defending Turner's record and absolving him of any personal responsibility for the legalization of abortion, a statement that the leading Catholic authority on the 1969 abortion law has called “a radical rewriting of Canadian history.”
Pro-lifers heard the news in late July that Turner, who also served briefly as Canada's prime minister in 1984, had been selected to chair the high-profile event in the country's leading English-speaking diocese.
Fifteen supporters of Campaign Life Coalition, the country's main pro-life organization, held a prayer vigil outside while the dinner took place, and approximately 30 members of Show the Truth, a group which displays large photographs of children killed by abortion, mounted a peaceful picket.
Alex Vernon, the organizer of the vigil, said that Campaign Life Coalition “was in no way questioning [Cardinal Ambrozic's] pro-life commitment or the pro-life commitment of the archdiocese.” He said that he and Campaign Life Coalition president Jim Hughes wrote to the cardinal before the event, explaining that “we're not picketing the dinner. We hope for the success of the dinner and the cause that it supports. We're simply questioning the appropriateness of the speaker.”
The vigil participants and picketers included many young pro-lifers, some of whom prayed the rosary. Vernon said the group “really made an impression on the media … and the people going in. The Show the Truth people had some signs saying, ‘John Turner, Abortion's Architect,’ which Mr. Turner had to pass going into the dinner.”
There was no official response to the gathering outside the dinner from the archdiocese, but Scorsone came out briefly to photograph the vigil participants and picketers.
The 1969 abortion law was an initiative of then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, a Catholic. It gave legal sanction to abortions carried out for the sake of the “health” of the mother, without defining the term “health.”
After holding exhaustive public hearings on the bill, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health and Welfare strongly recommended that the term “health” be limited, but Turner, who as justice minister steered the legislation through Parliament, refused repeatedly to define the term.
In response to religious and moral objections to the legislation, Turner said, “We believe that morality is a matter for private conscience. Criminal law should reflect the public order only.”
As many pro-life members of Parliament and others had warned, health was immediately interpreted in the broadest terms possible, so that there were in practice no grounds for refusing any request for an abortion.
While in 1969 the number of abortions in Canada was 542, in 1970 the figure jumped to 11,152, and in 1971 it increased to 30,923. There are now approximately 115,000 surgical abortions in Canada each year, with a total since 1969 of approximately 2.5 million.
Turner has never expressed any regrets about the 1969 law and its aftermath. During the 1984 federal election campaign, in fact, he proudly identified himself as “one of the architects of the abortion amendment.” He refused the Register's requests for an interview on the controversy over his chairing the Cardinal's Dinner.
After receiving complaints about the matter, the archdiocese issued a statement Oct. 1, which Scorsone said “will satisfy everyone.” Ironically, however, it has generated at least as much controversy as the original decision to appoint Turner.
In the unsigned statement, the archdiocese said that the 1969 abortion law “merely ratified the decisions of the highest courts in Canada and other major jurisdictions.”
Father Alphonse de Valk, a leading pro-life priest in Canada and author of a painstaking history of the 1969 law, responded in the November issue of Catholic Insight magazine: “What courts? What jurisdictions? … I can state categorically that there were no decisions by the ‘highest courts in Canada’ at all.”
In an earlier interview with The Interim, a Canadian pro-life newspaper, Turner said that he “merely put into statutory form what the courts were doing for 50 years — not prosecuting women who have abortions for health reasons.” There was, however, no ruling on the matter from Canada's Supreme Court, and the 1969 law went far beyond removing penalties for women who had abortions.
In a brief interview with the Register, when asked about Father de Valk's rebuttal of the archdiocese's statement about court decisions that allegedly endorsed abortions, Scorsone said, “I'm not going to comment on someone else's construction of the situation.”
When asked whether the archdiocese had specific court precedents in mind, she said only, “Yes, and the statement speaks for itself.” The statement, however, does not provide examples.
Another highly controversial aspect of the archdiocese's statement was the clear implication that the broad wording of the 1969 law was not to blame for the way in which the law was interpreted in practice: “What has happened since [the law was passed] in Canada is the responsibility of all of society, not of any one individual, particularly one who neither willed nor mandated what came later.”
Scorsone told the Register that Turner actually tried to restrain abortion, and that he saw the 1969 amendment as a “firebreak.” When reminded that Turner was warned by many people during the parliamentary debate on the abortion amendment that its wording was too broad, Scorsone repeated, “The statement stands for itself. That is the position of the archdiocese.”
The Register's request for an interview with Cardinal Ambrozic was referred back to Scorsone, who said that the cardinal was preparing to leave for Rome and was unavailable.
Father de Valk responded to the notion that Turner bears no special responsibility in the legalization of abortion as “balderdash. It sets the truth on its head. … To honor Mr. Turner without first obtaining an apology for his role in the passage of the [1969 law] is a counter-witness to the pro-life cause. We are now also truly amazed and disturbed at the attempt by the Toronto Archdiocesan Communications Office to recast Canadian history.”
Msgr. Vincent Foy, a Toronto canon lawyer and catechism expert, told the Register that “John Turner made no effort to stem the tide. Actually he promoted the tide by claiming that morality is a question of personal conscience and not to be introduced into politics. He resisted amendments which would have made [the law] more restrictive.”
Msgr. Foy added that regardless, “Nothing would justify the promotion of a [liberalizing] abortion law … it's forbidden to Catholic politicians, they have the obligation to do everything to stop it.”
In his 1995 encyclical letter Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life), Pope John Paul II taught that “in the case of an intrinsically unjust law, such as a law permitting abortion or euthanasia, it is … never licit to obey it, or to take part in a propaganda campaign in favor of such a law, or vote for it” (No. 73). The Pope added that while it may be permissible in some circumstances to vote for an imperfect abortion law, the legislator may do so only “where a legislative vote would be decisive for the passage of a more restrictive law, aimed at limiting the number of abortions, in place of a more permissive law already passed or ready to be voted on.”
The archbishop of Lima, Peru, Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani, has recently issued a document, “The Moral and Legal Dimension of Abortion,” in which the cardinal said that politicians who support abortion “are committing a grave sin,” and that “the pastor who has a parishioner in this condition can deny him or her Holy Communion in public, after warning him or her in private.”
A Second Helping
In contrast, Turner continues to enjoy the public support of the Archdiocese of Toronto. LifeSite News reported Oct. 19 that Turner will appear with Cardinal Ambrozic at another Catholic fund-raising dinner in Toronto Nov. 14. Promotional literature for the $500-a-plate “Tastes of Heaven” dinner, in support of Catholic missions in Canada, lists Cardinal Aloysius Ambrozic and John Turner as “gracing the event.”
David Curtin writes from Toronto.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: David Curtin ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Keep Talking to Muslims, Apologists Urge Catholics DATE: 11/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:NEW YORK — Even as the nation is focused on terrorism undertaken by radical Islamic militants, it is important to keep up a dialogue between Catholics and Muslims and to offer adherents of the Islamic faith a chance to know Christ, several apologists say.
Those in the business of explaining and defending the Catholic faith say the events of Sept. 11 have made them think more seriously about reaching out to Muslims.
“There is a great need for the Church to have some response to Islam,” said Patrick Madrid, founder and editor of Envoy magazine.
Added Karl Keating, president of Catholic Answers in El Cajon, Calif., “It's an area where we realize we should have been doing something. It's something we plan to get into more.”
One Muslim-turned-Catholic is planning to enlarge the scope of his dialogue with Muslims, particularly by expanding an Internet presence.
Indeed, Pope John Paul II recently renewed a call for dialogue and mutual tolerance among religious groups in every country. Though his remarks were published just a month after the terrorist attacks on America, in his Message for the 88th World Day of Migration 2002, there was no specific reference to the tensions between the native-born, largely Christian majority in the U.S. and its Muslim minority, which is largely an immigrant population.
“Dialogue is not always easy,” the Pope wrote. “For Christians, however, the patient and confident pursuit of it is a commitment to be constantly carried out.”
He warned Christians not to be religiously indifferent but urged them to “bear clear witness to the hope that is within us.
“Dialogue must not hide, but exalt, the gift of faith,” he wrote. “On the other hand, how can we keep such richness only for ourselves? How can we fail to offer the greatest treasure that we possess to migrants and foreigners who profess various religions and whom Providence places along our path, and do it with a greater attention for the others’ sensitivity? To accomplish this mission it is necessary to let the Holy Spirit guide us.”
Islam has been growing in numbers and influence in the United States, a fact which some say helped the terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon operate here under the radar. There are thought to be some 6 million Muslims in the country, with about 2 million of these being regular attendees at more than 1,200 mosques, according to the Glenmary Research Center in Nashville, Tenn., a project of the Glenmary Home Missioners. There are 63 million Catholics in the United States.
The number of Muslims has been boosted by immigration and births. And, experts say, Muslims are keen at proselytizing. “Islam is growing more rapidly by taking new converts than Christianity is,” Keating said.
“When I came here in 1993, there was only one mosque in Northern Virginia; now there are seven,” said Daniel Ali, founder of the Christian-Islamic Forum in Annandale, Va. (www.christianislamicforum.org).
The religion of Mohammed is spreading quickly in the nation's prisons, particularly among black inmates. And there is active evangelization on college campuses, where Islamic students are known to distribute tracts to their Christian classmates, making the claim that Christians believe in three gods.
Muslim Myths
That's an age-old myth perpetuated by Muslims, who do not understand the concept of the Trinity, said Keating. “They've been mistaught,” he said. Such myths need to be corrected if there is going to be any evangelization.
Keating said other myths stand as obstacles to Muslim acceptance of Christianity, including the notion that Christ was not really crucified or that he merely swooned and awoke later.
But Christians need to overcome certain misunderstandings about Islam, as well, such as the thought that Muslims have great reverence for Jesus and Mary, he said. “Muslims know almost nothing about Jesus and Mary. There's not much in the Koran about them … There's not much sympathy for Christianity.”
Muslims refer to Christians and Jews as “people of the Book,” indicating a respect for the Old and New Testaments. Indeed, Muslims believe the Bible is inspired, but if there are any contradictions between it and the Koran, Muslims maintain these are due to a mistranslation of the Bible, Keating explained.
Consequently, Christian apologists cannot appeal to the Bible as an authority in talking to Muslims. Keating recommends, rather, appealing to logic and history.
“Islam arose out of a variance of Christianity and a development of animism,” he said. Mohammed encountered unorthodox Christians and members of some Jewish sects in Arabia, from which he got the concept of monotheism. But then he merged in notions from animism.
“Once they realize you are not starting your conversation from the Bible, they're open,” said Ali, who emphasizes a highly personal approach to sharing the faith. That includes not only thoroughly knowing Islam from the Koran and other writings but knowing the person as well. “There are deep divisions in Islam,” he said. “I want to know where this person is from and whether he is a Sunni or a Shiite. They have an entirely different system of belief. And is he in the majority or the minority in his homeland?
“You have to know the theological implications of your own faith and when and where it intersects with the person you are speaking to.”
Converted by Charity
Ali, 43 and a native of the Kurdish region of Iraq, traces his conversion to the “sad” realization that “there is not one quotation in the Koran about God's love for the sinner.” He also disputes the notion that Islam is a peaceful religion, though its followers may be peaceful. “Show me one Islamic state that has lived in peace with its neighbor, or with itself, or one Christian minority that has lived there without persecution,” he said.
One good thing, though, is that it is easier to speak with Muslims than with Westerners about God because religion is so integrated into their way of life, the Christian apologists say.
Anyone who wants to actively pursue dialogue with Muslims, Madrid warned, should remember that many Muslims at this time “feel they are under the microscope.” There is a general feeling among Arabs in the country that their community is under surveillance in the government's war on terrorism. It is possible that a visitor, particularly a white person, visiting a mosque, might be mistaken for an FBI agent.
Aqueel Khan, manager of the Muslim Community Center in Chicago, defended Islam as a peaceful religion and said he would have no ill feelings toward anyone who tried to convert him to Christianity. “Here at the center, groups of Christians come, and we welcome them. We are all descendants of Adam and Eve,” he said. But he seemed to regard converts as “confused” about their way of life.
Madrid said that if he were in a foreign country, “I'd be very careful about visiting a mosque” with an evangelizing intent. In some Islamic countries, proselytizing can be punishable by death. Eight foreign Christian aid workers, including Americans Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer, are now on trial in Afghanistan for allegedly trying to spread Christianity.
“But we are all apostles of Christ, even if it means danger,” Madrid added.
Keating pointed out the contradiction that in many Islamic countries Christian evangelizing is strictly forbidden — even to the point where during the Gulf War, U.S. troops stationed in Saudi Arabia were forbidden to wear religious symbols such as crosses and gather for Mass — while in the West Muslims demand the liberty to proselytize.
The Pope, in his Migration Day message, expressed concern for Christians living as a minority in largely Muslim countries “where they unfortunately do not always enjoy a true freedom of religion and conscience.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Burger ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Unseen, Consecrated Women Are 'Leaven in the Dough' DATE: 11/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:Accepting an unusual vocation often creates a certain amount of tension in the family of the one called. Consecrating oneself in Caritas Christi may cause more tension than most.
“Once you say Yes to a vocation, lots of things intervene to challenge you and tempt you to change your ‘yes’ to 'maybe’ or ‘almost,’” says Patricia Skarda, commenting on her own experience of the cost of discipleship. “And a total consecration does, I think, carry with it opposition.”
An English professor at a distinguished liberal arts college in New England, Skarda vividly recalls an unpleasant confrontation that preceded her 1993 final dedication as a member of Caritas Christi, one of the more than 200 secular institutes in existence worldwide.
As John Paul II has said, the “originality” of these Church-approved associations is that their members are “fully laity,” living in the world and working for its transformation from within, but also “consecrated — bound to Christ by a special vocation” in “the humble profession of chastity, poverty and obedience.”
On the eve of her departure for her final dedication retreat, Skarda confided to her sister that she was about to cap eight years of formation in Caritas Christi by making a commitment involving a vow of celibacy.
Never mind that this would involve no outward change in profession, residence or lifestyle: Skarda's sister was “horrified” and showed up at the airport the next morning in an effort to dissuade her. “She wanted me to marry,” Skarda explains. “For her, taking this vow meant that I would now be no longer a part of the world that she was familiar with.”
Skarda persisted, because “to me, it was a commitment to God, and there was no way I was going to say No.” But there was a price. “I think that my relationship with my sister will never quite be the same, because she does now perceive me as different.”
To avoid misperceptions and labels that can hamper their “leaven in the world” witness to Christ, many secular institute members exercise discretion about revealing their identity as consecrated persons.
Kathleen Devlin, a retired grade-school teacher from the Bronx in New York City, has been a Caritas Christi member for 34 years. “No one in my family knows. If they did,” she laughs, “they might have impossible expectations for what I should be like!” On a more serious note, she points out that a public connection to the Church “can limit your access to people who are turned off by the institutional Church.”
But this “reserve” does not preclude a bold, courageous Christian witness, stresses Father Charlie Hurkes, communications director for the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. His first contact with Caritas Christi — in the 1950s when he was a seminarian and heard a talk by one of the group's first U.S. members — was eye-opening, he says.
“This was the first I'd ever heard of groups of laypeople living consecrated lives in the world. I think all the secular institutes are really great,” he says. “But Caritas Christi's track record is very good. It's a pioneer in the consecration of laywomen to the work of the Church in bringing the message of Christ to the workplace.”
Every evening Linda Patti of Newman, Ga, reaffirms her Yes to this goal by reflecting on the first article of the Caritas Christi constitutions: “The whole reason for our lives is to live in the love of God, to love him and make him loved, in the place where he has put us.”
She prays that she might seize every opportunity for Christ — “to bring him to whomever I meet,” whether that's by coordinating a program that reaches out to estranged Catholics or by taking advantage of everyday social contacts.
Mostly, Patti's witness of love and truth happens in ordinary ways and settings, among people who know her as a committed Catholic but never suspect that she is a consecrated woman.
How successfully anyone reveals Christ's presence is not anything that can be measured. But occasionally, says Patti, there are gratifying moments. Once, during a time of great racial tension at a school where she was teaching biology, she received a Christmas card from a school counselor she didn't know well.
That he is black and Patti white made its message all the more striking: “You are Christ's love among us,” he had written.
Contemplative Apostles
Caritas Christi originated in France in 1937, out of the prayer and discussions of a Dominican priest, Father Joseph-Marie Perrin, and 10 single women who were seeking a new way to consecrate themselves fully to Christ in the context of their individual jobs and families. Pius XII's 1947 apostolic constitution Provida Mater Ecclesia gave official recognition to the secular institute vocation, and in 1955 Caritas Christi became a secular institute with pontifical status.
Normally open to unmarried women and widows from 20 to 40, Caritas Christi aims “to form and give to the Church apostolic and contemplative laywomen in every walk of life.”
Vera Avery, who works in radiation therapy at a veterans’ hospital in Chicago, appreciates this twofold thrust of prayer and action. “I'm not terribly bold in my personality, but at the same time I take seriously this command of Christ to go out and make disciples.”
The first step, she says, is “to start in on our own selves. As St. Paul says, our minds must be transformed [Romans 12:2]. Coming to God in prayer, offering your will and saying, ‘yes, Lord, I want to think as you do’ — that's what being consecrated is all about.”
Formation in the Caritas Christi way of life includes help for developing patterns of personal prayer and comes through regular meetings, retreats, and a one-on-one “sponsor” relationship with a more experienced member.
All this encouragement is important, says Avery, because “disciple-ship has a cost. It might be something small, like giving away a coat — or perhaps it might mean the Lord saying one day, ‘Give your life.’ Whatever it is, I've got to be ready!”
Two things especially strengthen her for this, Avery explains: daily prayer “for transformation, for the grace to love as Christ would have me love,” and also “the lovely sense of belonging to this communion of women who are trying to live the same kind of witness in their own circumstances.”
There is, indeed, tremendous support in being united with women who are saying yes to Christ, Patricia Skarda agrees. At her 1993 dedication retreat — the one she attended over her sister's objections — Skarda was struck by other Caritas Christi members’ “cost of discipleship” stories. “God came first, and they didn't regret their choices.”
Neither does Skarda, as she continues to put God first in her very secular college environment — whether by reaching out to a student in a crisis pregnancy, declaring herself Catholic at a cocktail party where institutional religion is being put down, or “talking to your most atheistic colleagues on your way to Ascension Thursday Mass and walking right into church as they watch.”
This firmness of purpose combined with “genuine charity and clarity of vision” has its effect, observes Madeleine Pack, of Northampton, Mass.
Not herself a member of Caritas Christi, she finds its emphasis on “ordinary lives — but lived with such zest and faith” both winning and effective. Her contacts with the group “have inspired me to try in my own way to be more faithful to Christ,” says Pack.
“They have made me more aware of the practicality of my faith — that it's a way of seeing the world and applies to everything. Understanding that God is not restricted and limited to what we perceive as 'religious’ ministry, I go about my ordinary business in a more expanded way. It's as if my heart has been enlarged.”
Leaven in the dough is “a very fit image” for how Caritas Christi members serve the Church and the world, says Park. It's quiet, ordinary-looking, indirect, almost imperceptible. At the same time, as she and many others have discovered, “these women definitely affect the people that they live and work with. They become a presence you cannot discount!”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Louise Perrotta ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Operation Enduring Charity DATE: 11/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:David Snyder
David Snyder of Catholic Relief Services spent much of October in Pakistan with other CRS staffers, preparing to assist thousands of Afghan refugees.
Snyder, 31, a native of Baltimore, joined Catholic Relief Services five years ago after earning a master's degree from Towson State College in Maryland.
He soon joined the U.S. bishops’ relief agency's Emergency Response Team, which took him to Sudan, Sierra Leone and Kosovo. He spoke by telephone Nov. 1 from Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, to Register staff writer John Burger.
How have you been able to bring aid to the Afghan refugees in the wake of the U.S. led air strikes?
I've been in Pakistan for the past month. All international staff from the U.N. on down have left Afghanistan since mid-September. I was up in Peshawar last weekend, 40 miles from the border.
It's been a fairly unstable area since September but it's calmed down in the past couple of weeks. It's a tribal area, where there's a lot of sympathy with the Taliban. There were anti-Western demonstrations there. The U.N. has warned Westerners not to go into those areas, and the Pakistan government couldn't guarantee the safety of anyone going into the area.
Where are the refugee camps? Who do the refugees consist of, and how many are there?
Some camps have existed since the early 1980s, in what is called the North-West Frontier Province. There are also camps in Balochistan Province, just to the west. Then there are new camps that have been set up in the event there is a refugee influx related to the air strikes in Afghanistan. They are in the tribal area of the North-West Frontier Province.
We've been working with local partners there for water assessment and water rehabilitation. Each camp holds about 100,000 people, and the U.N. has identified 100 camps. So they're aiming to assist 1 million refugees, if the border opens. Right now, Pakistan is not allowing anyone to come in.
There are also people displaced within Afghanistan. We don't know how many, where they are or what their needs are.
Of the camps I went to, one had between 50,000 and 55,000 refugees.
Many have been there 10 to 20 years. And there are some coming illegally across the border. If they are found out, they'd be deported. They are afraid to register. I was in the Jalozai camp two weeks ago with our executive director [Ken Hackett]. A lot of people came up to us saying they are afraid to register. So we've scheduled for blankets, tents and food to be sent there Nov. 12.
We've had teams go there to assess who is most vulnerable. They are living under scraps of plastic. The U.N. estimates that 80,000 refugees have come in; Pakistan puts the figure at 40,000.
The border is mountainous and porous, and many refugees are passing repeatedly back and forth. They go back to collect the rest of their valuables. A lot are paying smugglers to get them across.
Are you encountering any obstacles?
With the overall logistics — how many people we're trying to reach. It's too early to tell whether it will be a camp situation, if the government opens the border, or if we operate a relief pipeline into Afghanistan, which brings with it a whole new set of logistical challenges. It looks now like it will be both.
There was the attack on the Catholic Church [in Bahawalpur] Sunday, but we're hoping that will be an isolated incident. Nobody knows if it's related to the events in Afghanistan. There is a concern that it is.
There are Muslim-Christian tensions inherent in the country. The fear is that this is the first of more to come. They've made some arrests, and they suspected immediately some Islamic extremists.
There was an obvious tension when I first got here. Pakistan is in a difficult position. It's taken in millions of refugees over the past 20 years. It's strained financially, strained in terms of its resources. It's understandable they'd be leery about taking in any more refugees.
In terms of unrest, there's not much you can do. The government will have to take care of itself. [Pakistani leader Gen. Pervez] Musharraf has done what he's had to do. He's concerned for Pakistan. He has to take the next step by allowing the border to open and let these people be cared for by international aid agencies.
What are the feelings among the refugees about the U.S.-led action against terrorism? Is there a lot of resentment, a lot of sympathy for the Taliban or Al Qaeda?
I met with refugees, trying to get a sense of what they're all about. I sat down to hear their stories. One thing that struck me most was that the majority coming across the border are wealthier — people who could afford to pay a smuggler $12 or afford to take public transportation to the border. If the wealthy are allowed to leave the country, those who are left behind are in worse shape.
Some that I met in the camps were down to their last 20 rupees [about 33 cents]. They were in bad shape; winter is two or three weeks away, and they have no blankets.
I didn't hear any animosity toward the U.S. The average guy who left the country didn't care who was doing what to whom; he just wanted to go back home — “I don't care who's in power.” Afghanistan has been under the gun for 23 years; they're used to war; they're a tough people. War is not going to keep them out of their country.
Do you and the other CRS staffers feel in danger? How do you deal with that?
No. Here, from the word go, given the tensions that exist, we pay strict attention to security. Our security person makes evacuation plans and liaises with the U.N. and the embassies and keeps us updated; puts together a plan with considerations for things like the dangers of driving in Pakistan, using phones, procedures for traveling at night, traveling outside Islamabad.
I haven't felt in danger. Even in Peshawar, we were careful about our visibility. You don't necessarily announce your presence as an American or as a Catholic agency.
What do you make of the claim that the United States is sending the Afghans poisoned food?
We've all heard rhetoric from so many camps on so many issues. It's so difficult to know what's going on. It could affect our work within Afghanistan when you hear rumors. Rumors can be as dangerous as truth in many cases. So far, it hasn't affected our plans to work inside of Afghanistan.
We hope to be moving into the country within the next week or two with the first shipment of food and blankets.
We're targeting initially 200,000 people with blankets. That's a first-step response. It could potentially far exceed the resources expended in Kosovo in 1999 — tens of millions of dollars from CRS. We have a partner — Coordination of Afghan Relief, a non-governmental organization. We're just solidifying how much they're going to need, what our partner's capacity is and if they can reach the most vulnerable population, which is always women, children and the elderly.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Group Helps Clinic Workers Expose Abortionists' Illegal Activities DATE: 11/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:DENTON, Texas — When Pheonix abortionist Brian Finkel was arrested in late October and charged with 16 counts of sexually assaulting patients at his abortion clinic, it was no surprise to Mark Crutcher.
Life Dynamics, Inc., the Denton, Texas-based pro-life group that Crutcher heads, recently introduced a new tactic in the fight against abortion by asking clinic workers to report illegal activities they observe going on in abortion facilities — activities that Crutcher says occur at epidemic levels in such facilities.
Through picketing at abortion clinics and a new Web site, www.clinicworker.com, Life Dynamics is attempting to alert clinic employees to signs of such criminal activity as income-tax evasion and insurance fraud, warning them that they could be liable if they know of such activity and do not report it.
“We work with a lot of people from the abortion industry and women who have been harmed by it,” said Crutcher. “We discovered that the things we talk about on the Web site are rampant in the abortion industry: medicaid fraud, income-tax evasion, insurance fraud, sexual assault of patients, sexual harassment of employees.”
In Finkel's case, six former employees and one current employee of his Metro Phoenix Women's Center have told investigators about inappropriate behavior by the abortionist, The Arizona Republic reported Oct. 26. The employees did not come forward, however, before the criminal investigation, which was based on patients’ complaints to police.
Crutcher said people who work in abortion clinics often think they have nowhere to go with such information. “They can't tell their side and they can't tell us because they think we hate them. We wanted to dispel those myths and give them an opportunity to see that there is an avenue for them.”
Life Dynamics says it will investigate instances of illegal activity if there is reason to be confident something is amiss. The group may be able to protect the identity of a clinic worker who contacts them, depending on the circumstances, Crutcher said. “We can't tell you what happens in every case, but we can give you advice that may keep you from going to jail.”
In addition to reaching workers through the Web site, Life Dynamics is encouraging pickets at clinics on days when abortions are not being performed. Signs carried by picketers have messages like “Protect yourselves, clinic workers,” and direct employees to the clinic-worker.com Web site.
Nervous Abortionists
Crutcher said he thinks abortion advocates are nervous about the project. “Clearly, they don't want this information out there.”
Pam Smallwood, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Central Texas in Waco, which has been picketed by protesters carrying Clinic Worker signs, declined to respond to questions about the effort.
In the few weeks the program has been in place, Crutcher said he has received numerous requests for signs and information. As of mid-October, the Web site had had 4,600 hits.
Having dealt with clinic employees in the past, Crutcher said he knows it will take time before they may be willing to share information with his group. “They may call several times till they get comfortable with you and feel like they can open up. We've already started a relationship with some who have called. To this point, they've told us about things going on, but they're not willing to come forward in doing anything about it. We know that through the creation of a relationship with them that eventually they will do so.”
Some, he said, fear that they may be in trouble themselves. “That is a big motivation and rightly so. In certain types of criminal activity, if you know what's going on and don't report it and it's found out, you'll be in trouble.”
Crutcher said he believes illegal activity at abortion clinics has gone unchecked in part because of such fear. However, he said many clinic workers also do not know what to look for or, if they do suspect criminal acts, do not know where to go with the information.
Angie McGraw, executive director of Ohio's Dayton Right to Life, which helped bring about the closure of the Dayton Women's Services abortion clinic earlier this year by monitoring non-compliance with state requirements on inspection and licensing of clinics, said she thinks the Life Dynamics effort is worth trying.
Even if a worker didn't want to report something potentially illegal while still employed by an abortion clinic, she said, such a person might consider doing so after leaving the job. “They may not act on it now, but it's not a bad idea to plant a seed if they would want to do something in the future.”
Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, is involved in the Clinic Worker project and is promoting it on his own Web site. Based on his experience with people who have come out of the abortion industry, he is convinced the program will have a big impact.
“The approach is perfectly legal and moral,” he said. “To those that do not think that this project is a good idea, I would urge that they pay attention to the results. After all, we're in this to win, and it doesn't matter who gets the credit. This project will bring many victories, and they will be dramatic.”
Joan Appleton, a former abortion clinic nurse who now directs Centurions, a group offering spiritual, emotional, psychological, and practical help to ex-abortion workers, said although her organization does not seek such information from its clients, she welcomes any effort that helps close abortion clinics.
She said, however, that she does not think such a program would have affected her while she was in the abortion business because the clinic where she worked was legally above board in its practices.
A Dirty Industry
Crutcher thinks few, if any, abortion clinics are legally clean.
“Running an abortion clinic is like being involved in prostitution or pornography. There is no way you can clean it up,” Crutcher said. “If they think they can clean up their act and stop doing all these things and get us off their back, they're simply wrong. If they clean up their act, they're out of business. They couldn't function without fraud.”
Judy Roberts writes from Millbury, Ohio.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Judy Roberts ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 11/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:Reformation Day Thoughts of Lutherans-Turned-Catholics
The Washington daily, in an article on Reformation Day, the 484th anniversary of Luther's defiant act, said that many Lutherans seek even closer unity with the Church than that offered by the 1998 agreement on justification signed by the Holy See and the World Lutheran Federation.
Father Richard John Neuhaus, editor of First Things and a former Lutheran pastor, said that most Lutherans who convert do so after trying to find the Church which is “in continuity with the apostolic community of the New Testament.” The article also quotes several individuals profiled in a recent book by Register features correspondent Tim Drake, There We Stood, Here We Stand.
Jim Anderson, who runs the Coming Home Network for Protestant pastors wishing to become Catholic, says that people are seeking a Church with authority that can be traced back to Christ. Others quoted in the article said they left the Lutheran Church because of its pro-abortion position.
Muslim Clerics Report Quadrupling of Conversions
The surprising fact was reported by the British weekly magazine, which sees a calm, steady response to terrorism among Americans. Citizens generally are not reacting with hysteria to continuing threats, the magazine said, though they are taking precautions.
They also are showing a greater interest in the religion of the terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Rather than railing against Islam, they are trying to understand it, buying books on the religion and signing up for courses in Arabic.
SEC Suing Churches to Recover Investors’ Funds
The money came from more than 300 investors in Texas, California and Arizona, who were promised their money would grow 24% to 48% annually. Benjamin Cook, of Arizona, was arrested in a Las Vegas casino in 1999 and has been ordered by a judge to repay investors $36.7 million. A partner of his, Ellsworth McLaws, of Scottsdale, Ariz., was ordered to repay $10.3 million.
The money was used to buy luxury cars, gold coins, expensive jewelry, large homes and other real estate. Some was funneled to associates of the Colombo crime family of New York, the FBI alleges in court records.
In the late 1990s, promoters for Cook also made large contributions to churches in an effort to impress potential investors in the congregations. One church, First Baptist of Richardson, Texas, is fighting efforts to recover over $64,000 that it received from a promoter for Cook.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Bottom Line: Mixing Business and Faith Successfully DATE: 11/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:CHICAGO — Many Catholic business leaders find their greatest tests of faith in the workplace, where they must try to reconcile the sometimes contradictory imperatives of their religion and their jobs.
In many cases, “there's a basic dishonesty that's geared towards making money,” said Father Mark Miller, a Canadian bioethics consultant, author of the book Making Moral Choices, and of articles on business ethics.
Finding ways to ways to apply their Christianity to the workplace is the focus of Business Leaders for Excellence, Ethics and Justice, or BEEJ, a collection of about 60 Chicago business leaders who were proflied in a July cover story in Fortune magazine.
They just don't sit around sipping coffee, either. BEEJ has published booklets “Not Just A Just Wage” and “On The Firing Line,” for employers seeking Catholic guidance on business decisions.
BEEJ also hosts passionate debates on business ethics. John Vail, a BEEJ co-chairman, remembers when a Teamsters representative spoke about fair wages. BEEJ's members, mostly executives, were eager to give him an idea of the tough choices they face when deciding wages.
An refreshing and frank dialogue emerged, Vail said.
In the business environment, “a legal discussion occurs,” Vail said. “BEEJ takes it out of that forum … touching beyond legal issues, [to] ethical ones too. It's not only about what we need to do, but what should we do.”
Morality Pays
Remaining ethical isn't a shortcut to bankruptcy, Father Miller stresses.
“There are a lot of ethical business opportunities around,” he said. “I argue that ethical business is good business, everywhere and anywhere.”
Tom Monaghan is living proof of that. He opened his first pizza store, DomiNick's in Ypsilanti, Mich., to pay for his college architecture courses.
Monaghan soon became trapped in the pizza business after falling into debt as a 24-year-old freshman.
“The thing that enabled me to live with that was, I could show you can be successful in business and be honest,” Monaghan said. “Most of the people I grew up with, didn't think that was possible.”
Looking back on 38 years of building Domino's into an American institution, and becoming a billion-aire in the process, Monaghan said he sees no conflict between business success and observing strict Catholicism.
“They're pretty much inseparable,” Monaghan said. “Money and profit are not dirty words. They're just tools to do good or evil.”
Often, though, Catholics feel alone when faced with ethical dilemmas in secularized corporate America, which is beholden to profit-driven investors.
“There's a tyranny of stockholders,” Father Miller said. “The tricky issue is corporate executives who belong to a large company. They really get put on the spot.”
For high-powered Catholic executives, Legatus has emerged as a sanctuary. Formed by Monaghan himself, Legatus has grown to include more than 1,300 members.
In fact, Monaghan said he was amazed to find a disproportionate amount of Catholic chief executive officers, which he attributes to the strong Catholic education system.
However, he found that many were disconnected from their faith.
“There's not enough strong Catholics where faith spills over to their work and social life, in my opinion,” Monaghan said. “Catholics seem to shy away from any evangelization.”
Legatus is an exclusive organization. To join, a Catholic executive must prove he is active and in good standing with the Church.
Professionally, an executive has to run a substantial company — $3 million in annual volume or $10 million in net assets — or lead a subsidiary with millions of dollars in annual volume.
Women executives are welcome, and all spouses become Legatus members too.
The stringent financial restrictions are needed to provide a comfortable environment in which executives can socialize to discuss problems, without solicitors or career advancers hounding them, said Tom McDonald, the group's central regional director.
Unlike BEEJ, Legatus is strictly for Catholics, and guest speakers address Catholicism, even if they are Protestant or Jewish.
The Catholic exclusivity allows members to cope with concerns and honor values they all have in common, McDonald said.
“Not all Christians believe in the presence of Christ in the Eucharist, for example,” McDonald said. “You all have one belief, so everyone is starting from the same point of view. You don't want to be in an organization that's divided from the outset.”
In contrast, BEEJ isn't exclusively Catholic, though it was founded by Catholics. The group has Protestant members, and it has invited Hindu and Jewish speakers to offer their perspectives on business.
BEEJ didn't seek out non-Catholic members, Vail said. They slowly became attracted to the group, and that creates valuable dialogue.
For instance, non-Catholic speakers and members have enabled Vail to understand the needs of non-Catholic co-workers in his office.
Craig McCrohon, a Protestant, said he's learned to appreciate the Catholic Church and its writings as a result of his BEEJ membership.
“There is a rich body of work that would be of great interest to non-Catholics,” McCrohon said. He was particularly impressed with Catholic encyclicals on business and economics.
Ethical Decisions
One BEEJ advertising executive needed advice on whether to sell his business to his employees or to a third party, which might have fired workers.
With help from other BEEJ members, the executive decided to sell to his workers, and he's been satisfied ever since, Vail said.
Monaghan has met Catholic executives who feared saying grace at meals at corporate functions. Once they did, however, they got compliments.
At Legatus meetings, “they share that experience with others, and hopefully others do it,” Monaghan said.
Before leaving the helm of Domino's in 1998 to devote himself full-time to a network of charitable activities, Monaghan sometimes faced situations in which honesty meant Domino's took a financial hit. He used those times to demonstrate to Domino's employees that telling the truth was essential in successful business.
“I wanted them to be the same way,” he said.
It isn't easy, though. McCrohon, a corporate attorney, said his experience with companies has shown that it takes a lot of directed effort to reconcile Christianity with economic success.
But consumers can take comfort in the fact that although business is driven by profit, maximizing profit is not every businessman's goal, McCrohon said.
“Businessmen have personal and social interests too,” he said. “The reality is that businessmen balance many considerations to permit people to excel, while answering to a greater set of ethical and moral standards.”
Adrian Zawada writes from Miami.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Adrian Zawada ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 11/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:Pope to Meet With Muslims in Bulgaria Next May
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE Nov. 1 — The Vatican has accepted an invitation for Pope John Paul II to visit Bulgaria in May, said Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Passi.
The trip, the Pope's first to the nation, is to take place in the second half of May 2002 and is to include a meeting with Islamic religious leaders in the country.
Passi expressed hope that the papal visit will help “erase the stain on Bulgaria's name” in connection with Turkish terrorist Mehmet Ali Agca's 1981 papal assassination attempt. Italian officials charged three Bulgarians with organizing Agca's attempt to kill the Pope after the gunman implicated them. But the three were later acquitted for lack of evidence.
Agca, pardoned by Italy after nearly 20 years in prison, is now serving a 10-year prison term in Turkey for the 1979 murder of a newspaper editor there, and another seven years for robbery.
Vatican Newspaper Criticizes Belgium on Law
“Belgium, the country where King Baudouin chose to give up his sovereignty rather than sign an abortion act, seems on its way to becoming the second European country where doctors are no longer asked 'to cure but to kill,’” the Vatican newspaper wrote. The legislation must still be passed by the Chamber of Representatives, where changes are certain to be proposed.
Two Resign from Vatican Holocaust Panel
One member, Robert Wistrich, a professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, said he felt resignation was his only option in the face of the Vatican's refusal to open all of its World War II-era archives to commission members. Bernard Suchecky of the Free University of Brussels also resigned.
The two resignations make it unlikely that the commission will be able to continue, the Israeli daily said. Msgr. Pietro Sambi, the papal nuncio to Israel, said that to resign from a commission whose work has already been suspended serves no useful purpose other than propaganda.
Taiwan Offers to Help Holy See Promote Religious Freedom
BRITISH BROADCASTING CORP. Oct. 26 — Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reminding the Vatican that Mainland China remains an “autocratic government” which continues to deny religious freedom, offered to help the Holy See promote such freedom in the People's Republic.
The ministry also commended Pope John Paul for his recent statements on the “errors” of some Western missionaries in China.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: The Unseen God Intervenes for His People DATE: 11/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:Register Summary
At his Oct. 31 general audience, John Paul II borrowed language from the theater, a passion of his youth, to describe God's workings in human history. God is the “mysterious and invisible director” who moves “behind the scenes” to guide, protect and lead his people to salvation, the Pope said. “The certainty of God's providential action is a source of hope for the believer, who knows he can count on his constant presence.”
The Pope's reflections, addressed to some 12,000 pilgrims in St. Peter's Square, centered on a canticle from Isaiah 45. While this hymn of praise opens with the words, “Truly you are a hidden God,” it also underlines God's presence in the world by looking at what he has created and what he has done — and continues to do — for his people.
The teaching continued the Pope's yearlong series of meditations on the psalms and canticles of the Liturgy of the Hours.
“Truly with you God is hidden” (Isaiah 45:15). This verse introduces the canticle which is proposed for Friday Lauds during the first week of the Liturgy of the Hours. It is taken from Second Isaiah's meditation on the greatness of God, as shown in creation and in history. Here is a God who reveals himself, though remaining hidden in the impenetrability of his mystery. He is by definition “Deus absconditus,” the “hidden God.” No thought can encompass him. Man can only contemplate his presence in the universe, as if by following his footsteps, and fall prostrate in adoration and praise.
The historical background out of which this meditation emerges is the amazing deliverance that God secured for his people at the time of the Babylonian exile. Who would ever have thought that the exiled Israelites would be able to return to their homeland? Looking at Babylon's power, they could only have despaired. But now the prophet's words resound with the great announcement, God's surprise: as at the time of the Exodus, God will intervene. Then, he broke Pharaoh's resistance with terrible punishments; now, he is choosing a king, Cyrus of Persia, to defeat the power of Babylon and restore liberty to Israel.
The Whole World in His Hands
“Truly with you God is hidden, the God of Israel, the savior” (Isaiah 45:15). With these words, the prophet invites us to realize that God acts in history, even if he does not appear in the foreground. You might say that he is “behind the scenes.” He is the mysterious and invisible director who respects his creatures’ freedom, while at the same time holding the thread of world events. The certainty of God's providential action is a source of hope for the believer, who knows he can count on the constant presence of the One who is “maker of the earth who established it” (Isaiah 45:18).
In fact, the creative act is not an episode that disappears into the night of time — as if, after this beginning, the world should consider itself left on its own. God constantly brings into being the creation which has come from his hands. To acknowledge this is also to confess that God is unique: “Was it not I, the Lord, besides whom there is no other God?” (Isaiah 45:21). By definition, God is the only One. Nothing can compare with him.
Everything is subordinate to him. From this follows the repudiation of idolatry, against which the prophet pronounces severe words: “They are without knowledge who bear wooden idols and pray to gods that cannot save” (Isaiah 45:20). How is it possible to adore something man-made?
No Other Gods
To our modern sensitivities, perhaps the prophet's censure seems excessive — as if it is aimed against the images themselves, without any realization that they can be given a symbolic value compatible with spiritual adoration of the one true God. Surely, what is at play here is wise divine pedagogy: historically, through the strict discipline of banning images, Israel was protected against contamination from polytheistic influences. Once the face of God had been revealed in the incarnation of Christ, the Church acknowledged the possibility of using sacred images, at the Council of Nicaea (A.D. 787) — as long as they are understood in their essentially relational sense.
Nevertheless, this prophetic warning remains important. It opposes all the forms of idolatry, which are often hidden not so much in the improper use of images, but in the attitudes that consider people and things as absolute values and substitute them for God himself.
Everyone Is Invited
From the outpouring of creation, the hymn takes us to the terrain of history, where Israel was so often able to experience God's beneficial and merciful power, his faithfulness and provident care. In particular, the love of God for his people was manifested once again in their deliverance from exile. This happened in such a clear and surprising way that the prophet calls as witnesses the very “survivors of the nations.” He invites them to debate, if they can: “Come and assemble, gather together, you fugitives from among the gentiles” (Isaiah 45:20). The prophet comes to the conclusion that the intervention of the God of Israel is indisputable.
The creation of the world is not an episode that disappears into the night of time.
Then there emerges a magnificent universal perspective. God proclaims: “Turn to me and be safe, all you ends of the earth, for I am God; there is no other” (Isaiah 45:22). It thus becomes clear that the predilection with which God has chosen Israel as his people is not an act that excludes. Rather, it is an act of love from which all humanity is destined to benefit.
In this way, there is already sketched out in the Old Testament the “sacramental” concept of the history of salvation. It does not view the special choice of the children of Abraham — and later of the disciples of Christ in the Church — as a privilege that “closes” and “excludes,” but as the sign and instrument of a universal love.
Praise and Proclaim!
The invitation to adoration and the offer of salvation concerns all peoples: “To me every knee shall bend; by me every tongue shall swear” (Isaiah 45:23). To read these words from a Christian perspective means to turn our thoughts to the full revelation of the New Testament, which points out in Christ “the name that is above every name” (Philippians 2:9), so that “at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10-11).
Through this canticle, our morning praise expands to the dimensions of the universe and also gives voice to all those who have not yet had the grace to know Christ. It is a praise that becomes “missionary,” driving us to go everywhere and proclaiming that God has revealed himself in Jesus as the Savior of the world.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Hints of a Thaw in Beijing's Hardline Attitude Toward Catholics? DATE: 11/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:BEIJING — Fides, the Vatican's missionary news agency reported in late October that it had received two positive responses from members of the underground Catholic Church to Pope John Paul II's recent “Message to the People of China” on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci in Beijing.
And on Oct. 30, Zenit news agency reported that the Pope's remarks had also been received favorably by the Chinese government.
John Paul sent the message to the Chinese people Oct. 24, asking for forgiveness for past errors of the Church's children.
According to Fides, the reports from within China indicate that the Pope's comments were working to unite the rift between the underground Church, which professes loyalty to Rome, and the state-sanctioned Patriotic Catholic Association, which does not.
There are about 4 million adherents of the state-sanctioned Catholic association, while the number of members of the underground Church is estimated at 10 to 12 million by Joseph Kung, president of the Cardinal Kung Foundation. As well, reports from Church sources within China have indicated that up to two-thirds of the bishops in the Patriotic Association privately profess loyalty to the Vatican.
The first response to Fides came from a priest of the underground Church currently under house arrest and subject to strict police surveil-lance.
Said the priest, “When I heard the news [the Pope's words] I had a deep desire to kneel in front of him and thank him for the profound paternal love that he sent to us through the message on October 24. The Holy Father has united us, [Catholics, underground and official]. Only he has the strength, the courage, the ability to vivify the spirit of Christianity, that is love and truth.
“As he said in his message, we are not afraid to recognize the historical truth and to recognize our mistakes, indeed this can only help us to improve our mission in the future.”
The second communication to Fides was from an underground Catholic intellectual. “The Holy Father revealed our dignity as the people of China; he treated us with respect in a way that only he knows how,” the intellectual wrote. “I think that for all the Chinese people reactions can only be positive. Every Chinese man or women of good will and good sense will recognize the profound significance of this message and learn something from the Pope's gesture.”
Zenit reported Oct. 30 that the Chinese government had praised the Holy Father's remarks. However, the government also wants him to apologize for last year's canonization of 120 China martyrs.
Sun Yuxi, spokesman of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, told a press conference that the Pope's request for forgiveness is a “positive sign.”
But, he added, “We see that the papal message does not include clear requests for pardon for the canonization of saints. We regret this.
“Prior to the [October 2000] canonization, there were already contacts to improve relations between China and the Vatican,” Sun explained. “However, the canonization has meant a new obstacle.” And he added, “We hope that the Vatican will take concrete measures to remove the obstacles in order to create a propitious atmosphere for the re-establishment of contacts and negotiations.”
John Paul II is willing to travel to China if this would help to normalize Vatican-Beijing relations, the secretary of the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education, Archbishop Giuseppe Pittau, said in late October.
Last year Beijing protested the canonization of 120 martyrs, whom the Communist authorities regard as “criminals,” and stated that this “insult to the Chinese people” removed any possibility of rapprochement with the Vatican.
Resolvable Issues
Sun, the spokesman for China's foreign ministry, said at the Beijing press conference, “The Chinese government has always wanted to improve its relations with the Vatican, basing itself on two fundamental principles: non-interference in internal affairs with the pretext of religion, and recognition of the People's Republic of China as the only legitimate government for the whole of China, including Taiwan.”
Several Vatican officials, including Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano and Archbishop Pittau, have stated on repeated occasions that the second condition is easy to resolve. Vatican diplomatic representation had been in Beijing until 1957, when it had to move to Taiwan after the People's Republic severed its relations with Rome.
The first question referred to by Beijing is more difficult, since the Communist government believes the appointment of bishops by the Pope constitutes interference in China's “internal affairs.”
But Archbishop Pittau said that “John Paul II has already thought of technical solutions” to surmount this problem.
In Vietnam, for example, the Holy See presents a list of candidates for the governance of a diocese to the Communist government. The authorities choose the bishop that suits them most from the list.
John Paul's specific proposals for the Chinese situation will be proposed to Beijing as soon as the occasion presents itself, Archbishop Pittau said. And he added, “There is no issue that can separate us.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 11/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:Guatemala President Signs Contraception Bill
The new law will bolster reproductive health programs and require reproductive health education in schools. “Reproductive health services,” as interpreted by many international aid agencies that deliver such programs, includes provision of abortion.
But supporters of the law argue it will protect the right to life of Guatemalan women, who have an average of five children.
Guatemala, a predominantly Catholic country where abortion is illegal, has the highest fertility rate in Latin America. It also has one of the lowest rates of contraceptive use.
Said Nery Rodenas, director of a Catholic human rights office in Guatemala, “Our fear is that this law could be manipulated to promote abortions.”
State Department Tailors List of Religious Oppressors
The group of extreme religious oppressors includes China, Iran, Iraq, Myanmar and Sudan, as it did last year, and North Korea, which is new to the list.
Human rights groups said Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan should have been on the list of worst oppressors, which the State Department releases every year under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. The report was sharply critical of religious practices in those countries, the Times reported, and State Department spokesman Richard Boucher conceded that Saudi Arabia prohibits the open practice of any religion other than Islam.
The U.S. report also listed improvements in religious freedom during the past year, placing Mexico, which elected new president Vicente Fox in July 2000, at the top of the list.
Columbia University Scans French Cathedral
The 700-year-old Gothic cathedral, which is on the World Monuments Fund's list of 100 most endangered sites, is unstable and is regularly battered by gale-force winds from the English Channel, less than 100 miles away.
Using a 3-D laser scanner, the Columbia team recorded detailed images of the cathedral's façade and interior by bouncing a laser beam off its surfaces. They then created a digital replica of the building, and plan to perform tests and try out strategies for restoration.
Columbia computer scientist Peter Allen told the Times, “Once we create a computer model, we can do all kinds of structural analysis of the building and figure out the best way to shore it up and figure out where it's weak.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: EDITORIAL DATE: 11/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:Anthrax-laced letters bearing messages that “Allah is great” dominate our headlines. New York continues to dig out the pile of rubble and corpses left there by Mohammed Atta and a gang of killers who left behind copies of the Koran.
These terrorists are clearly outside the mainstream of Islam. But is their something in Islam itself that should worry us?
The Catholic Church, in the Second Vatican Council and since, has proclaimed its deep respect for Islam, and called Catholics to a dialogue with it. To do so, we need to see and celebrate Islam's beauty. But we also need to acknowledge points of vigorous disagreement between the way of Christ and the way of Mohammed.
As Vatican II put it in Nostra Aetate, its Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions: The Church “has a high regard for the Muslims, who worship one God, living and subsistent, merciful and omnipotent, the Creator of heaven and earth” (No. 3).
Pope John Paul II, in his book Crossing the Threshold of Hope adds: “As a result of their monotheism believers in Allah are particularly close to us.”
This is the fundamental attitude of Catholics toward Islam: We see profundity in its simple teaching about God and a high moral standard in its call to surrender to his will.
But this isn't the whole story of what we see there.
“Whoever knows the Old and New Testaments, and then reads the Koran, clearly sees the process by which it completely reduces divine Revelation,” writes the Holy Father. “In Islam all the richness of God's self-revelation, which constitutes the heritage of the Old and New Testaments, has definitely been set aside.”
While John Paul notes that some of the “most beautiful names in the human language are given to the God of the Koran,” he adds that, “He is ultimately a God outside of the world, a God who is only Majesty, never Emmanuel, God-with-us.”
In a word: “Islam is not a religion of redemption.”
Islam has “no room” for the Cross, the Resurrection, the Incarnation, he writes. “For this reason not only the theology but also the anthropology of Islam is very distant from Christianity. ”
In our dialogue with Islam we should be moved to see and imitate its beauty — but to reject and mitigate its truncated understanding of man.
What is there to imitate? Among others, the Pope mentions the attitude of those who, “without caring about time or place, fall to their knees and immerse themselves in prayer.” The Focolare Movement and the Sant Egidio Community have embraced Vatican II's call to dialogue with Muslims. Their efforts have borne much fruit. They are open to seeking the good in Islam, and have made many Muslims more open to the redeeming message of the Gospel.
At the same time, the Pope doesn't recommend naivete.
Presciently, he notes that “In [Islamic] countries where fundamentalist movements come to power, human rights and the principle of religious freedom are unfortunately interpreted in a very one-sided way — religious freedom comes to mean freedom to impose on all citizens the 'true religion.’ In these countries the situation of Christians is sometimes terribly disturbing. Fundamentalist attitudes of this nature make reciprocal contacts very difficult. All the same, the Church remains always open to dialogue and cooperation.”
So, what should Catholics think of Islam?
We should see its beauty and think it a very good thing indeed. But it should also remind us of the fundamental difference between Christianity and all other religions.
That's in the Christian conviction that God is love, and that to love is man's most important duty. Only by being true to this central tenet of our faith will Catholics advance.
----- EXCERPT: Respecting Islam ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 11/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:A Comeback? Just War Never Left!
Regarding “Battling by the Book: Just War Makes a Comeback,” Oct. 21-28:
While almost always I find the Register to be the most insightful of all daily or weekly news sources, I was greatly disturbed by several unchallenged assertions made by individuals quoted in your article on just war and the war in Afghanistan.
To begin with, while Britain's Royal Air Force did target German residential areas at night, the American 8th Air Force practiced daylight precision bombing, targeting factories. While the precision of the time was far from precise, the Air Force did its best within the limits of technology to hit only military targets.
Furthermore, to argue that the Allies’ insistence on unconditional surrender was morally unjustified because it prolonged the war ignores that a conditional surrender would have left the fascist leaders in control of Germany and Japan. Besides setting the stage for another war, it would have let the Nazis continue to slaughter the Jews and others within Germany. Conditional surrender certainly would have shortened World War II, but greatly increased the death and destruction in the long run.
The same is true with the atomic bombing of Japan. As we learned after the war, the military government in control of Japan intended on fighting to the last, causing an estimated one million Japanese and 100,000 American casualties. Even after the blockade and atomic attacks, it took the personal intervention of the Japanese emperor to force the government to surrender.
Finally, I wonder about the reliability of the entire article, given the confusion the author seems to have between the 16th century and the 1600s. The article states that the traditional Christian rules on warfare were largely abandoned during the religious wars of the “16th century,” but then were returned to in the 17th and 18th century. The 17th century unquestionably saw the greatest period of religious wars and abandonment of Christian warfare. This period included the Thirty Years War (1618-48), the English Civil War and the subsequent holy wars of Oliver Cromwell (died 1658). While these all occurred in the 1600s, that makes it the 17th century, since the 1st century A.D. covers the period 0-99 A.D.
(Please note: These opinions are my own and not those of the Air Force.)
SIGURD R. PETERSON JR.
Dayton, Ohio
The writer is a major in the U.S. Air Force.
A Comeback? Just War Absent Still!
With regret I disagree with the statement in your editorial “Just War Returns” (Oct 21-28): “So what the U.S. is doing instead — so far — is to target the Taliban regime and take pains to keep civilian casualties as low as possible.”
It would appear that the hundreds of thousands fleeing to Pakistan are victims of “terrorism,” in a sense. As you pointed out, massive destruction by our country is not new.
BILL GOLDEN
Venice, Florida
Patriotic Like the Pope
Two recent items in the Register (“Neither Patriot Nor Pacifist, I'm Left With: ‘What to Do?’” by Benjamin Wiker (Oct. 14-20) and David Kluge's letter in the Oct. 21-27 issue come close to asserting that Catholics are not Americans. Mr. Wiker states that this is necessarily so because, at baptism, he assumed a “higher allegiance.” Patriotism is therefore beside the point. Mr. Kluge might have pledged allegiance to the American flag of 1789, but our country's fall from its Christian origins has left him little or nothing that is worthy of honor.
These views may be motivated by a desire to love God, but they are clearly wrong. First, they support the old libel that Catholics cannot be true Americans. Second, they are totally at odds with the approach of our Holy Father to faith and culture. John Paul II on his visits to the United States continually exhorts Americans to live up to what is best in our culture and heritage. This is, of course, his approach to the faithful in every country. The Pope himself is just as much a Polish patriot now as ever. Neither his election in 1978 nor any present difficulties in his homeland have changed this one bit, as all can see.
There is much to love in America. All Catholics should happily sing “God Bless America,” which, after all, is a prayer that God will bless our country.
DONALD P. BOYLE JR.
Alpharetta, Georgia
Clash or Dialogue of Civilizations?
Why is Father Richard John Neuhaus fighting his Pope? His “Just War Is an Obligation of Charity” (Perspective, Oct. 7-13) urges us to “appreciate” Samuel Huntington's “clash of civilizations” arguments. On the contrary, it is the implementation of such ideas that is destroying our civilization.
In the 1970s and 80s, our pathetic geopoliticians (like Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski) implemented Huntington's ideas by sponsoring and supporting the Afghanis, especially against the Soviet invasion of 1979. We had much help (you could even say “direction”) from especially British, but also French, intelligence circles, who have played the “Great Game” on the southern borders of Russia for centuries. We now have “terrorists for hire,” connected to the drug- and warlords of the area, who have been promoted by, and still may be influenced by, leading agents of the “Christian West.”
Such are the fruits of the “clash of civilizations.”
Pope John Paul II has tirelessly opposed such geopolitics by encouraging a “dialogue among civilizations” and by promoting a profound ecumenism between especially Christians, Muslims and Jews. These efforts [reflect] Pope Paul VI's formulation [in his 1967 encyclical Populorum Progressio]:“Development is the new name for peace.”
MIKE SMEDBERG
Sterling, Virginia
I am afraid that Mr. Smedberg conflates and confuses at least three distinct questions. As to whether the U.S. response to terrorist acts of war constitutes a just war as defined by Catholic social doctrine, I wrote that I believe the answer is Yes. As to his polemic against Messrs. Kissinger and Brzezinski, and whether their actions were based on Samuel Huntington's thesis regarding a clash of civilizations, I believe his judgments are excessively harsh and, meaning no offense, simplistic. As to the Church's irrevocable commitment to Christian unity and interreligious understanding, and to development as the basis of peace, there can be no question. Nor did anything I wrote suggest otherwise.
Excommunicating Politicians 101
Abortion is the most flagrant and widespread offense against the basic right to life of all human persons in the United States. A country that “legally” kills over a million of its children each year is fundamentally disordered and, despite any material or technological successes, cannot be considered peaceful or just, let alone a moral authority in world affairs.
Cardinal Cipriani's recent canonical action against Catholic politicians in Peru (“Peru Cardinal Puts Lawmakers on the Spot” and “U.S. Drive Wants the Same, But Critics Raise Questions,” Oct. 14-20) brings into a clearer light a specific dimension of this problem: the complicity of Catholics. There currently are dozens of Catholics in Congress who consider themselves “pro-choice.” What can be done to reverse this negative Catholic witness?
Last April, Catholics United for the Faith issued a position paper that addresses this controversial topic. It reviews magisterial teaching on the subject, examines the particular situation in the United States and the U.S. bishops’ response, examines specific issues raised by the Ashcroft hearings and offers practical, constructive steps for lay people to take in addressing these serious concerns.
To request a copy of this position paper, contact
CUF
827 North Fourth St.
Steubenville, OH 43952
(800) 693-2484
www.cuf.org
LEON J. SUPRENANT
Steubenville, Ohio
The writer is president of Catholics United for the Faith.
Correction
Due to an editing error, the first name of the president of Syria was misspelled in Gabriel Meyer's Oct. 21-27 op-ed, “Mao as Important as Mohammed to Terrorists.” The president's name, correctly spelled: Bashar Assad. We regret the error.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Bravo, Brendan DATE: 11/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:I wish to thank you for reporting on the meeting of Brendan Kelly and Pope John Paul II (“The Pope's Friend Brendan,” Oct. 21-28). It is not often that a human-interest story touches me as powerfully as this one did. My prayers will be with Brendan and his family.
CHRIS NIQUETTE
Marlborough, Massachusetts
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Truth, Freedom and the Taliban Way DATE: 11/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:According to Andrew Sullivan, they all are or were dangerous fundamentalists.
Writing in the New York Times Sunday Magazine of October 7, Sullivan says we should all stop pussy-footing around and admit that the war with the Al Qaeda terrorist network really is a religious war. It's just not a conventional religious war of, say, Christianity or Judaism versus Islam.
Rather, says Sullivan, “it is a war of fundamentalism against faiths of all kind that are at peace with freedom and modernity.”
And just who are these menacing fundamentalists who are so valiantly opposed by freedom-loving moderns?
In a spectacular exercise in throwing the baby out with the bathwater, Sullivan announces that the enemy is not just a splinter group of Islamic extremists. No, anyone who really believes in a truth greater than himself is a fundamentalist and, thus, a potential enemy.
You see, says Sullivan, if you “believe that there is an eternal afterlife and that endless indescribable torture awaits those who disobey God's law, then it requires no huge stretch of imagination to make sure that you not only conform to each diktat but that you also encourage and, if necessary, coerce others to do the same.” This, he says, is necessarily true of all fundamentalists, whether Muslim, Christian or other (Sullivan conveniently finds room in fundamentalism for Nazis and Soviets, lest he have to concede that militant atheists have wreaked far more death and destruction on civilization than militant believers have.)
Enlightened freedom-loving moderns and post-moderns, evidently, know better than to take eternity too seriously.
In short, anyone who really believes in a higher truth is a fundamentalist who is presumed to be armed and dangerous. Why? Because anybody who serves truth must be an enemy of freedom.
That is, of course, the case with the Taliban, one of whose many errors is to quash freedom in order to serve truth. But Andrew Sullivan makes a similar mistake himself. For Sullivan, as for the Taliban, one cannot have both truth and freedom. It's just that, for Sullivan, freedom is more important than truth, while, for the Taliban, truth is more important than freedom.
What neither Sullivan nor the Taliban understands is that freedom is oriented toward truth and truth guarantees freedom. Not only are the two not opposed to one another, they are inseparable.
We have a right to search for God and to live out the results of our search free from coercion.
This is hardly a new idea. It is, as Jesus himself said, the truth that makes us free.
Moreover, the inseparability of freedom and truth is at the very heart of the Second Vatican Council and its Declaration on Religious Freedom, Dignitatis Humanae.
Now the Taliban may, perhaps, be forgiven for not having read Vatican II. Andrew Sullivan, who is a Catholic, may not. Religious freedom is one of the most important developments in Church teaching of the past century and Pope John Paul II has shouted it from the housetops. Indeed, the relationship of truth to freedom is the central theme not only of his encyclical Veritatis Splendor, but, many think, of his entire papacy.
On the 30th anniversary of Dignitatis Humanae, for example, the Pope stressed that, in “defending religious freedom, the Church … is defending the truth about the human person.”
That truth, according to the Holy Father, is that we “are religious by nature,” because we are “gifted by the Creator with intelligence and will.” So, in the “depths of our being, we yearn for God and struggle to find him. … It is the integrity and legitimacy of that dialogue between the human heart and mind and the Creator that we defend when we defend the inalienable right to religious freedom.”
In other words, according to Dignitatis Humanae, the truth about man is that we all come with a built-in thirst for the truth, who is God. We naturally seek him and are required by our nature, upon finding him, to obey him.
That part of our nature is so profound that it gives us the right to search for God and to live out the results of our search free from coercion by anyone else. In fact, we cannot be coerced even to believe the truth — or, for that matter, even to begin to search for it if we refuse.
Of course, there are limits. No one has the religious freedom to harm another, much less to commit murder and mayhem. Nevertheless, as wrong as the members of the Taliban are — and they are monstrously wrong — one of their errors is not theirs alone, but is shared by none other than Andrew Sullivan.
Freedom and truth are not competing values. Rather, it is the truth itself that guarantees our freedom to search for it.
Kevin Hasson is president of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty in Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: What do Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi and the Dalai Lama all have in common? ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kevin Hasson ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Collateral Damage From Abusers in Collars DATE: 11/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:The October 2001 edition of Deal Hudson's Crisis magazine features a cover story on “The Price of Priestly Pederasty.” The article focuses mostly on the financial impact of lawsuits and settlements, but it notes that good priests “have been tarnished by the unearthing of a sexual underworld among men of the cloth.”
And how.
To borrow a term from the war on terrorism, there is untold “collateral damage” in the priest-hood because of these violations of sacred trust.
It is a cross all Catholics bear — be they victims of the abuse, Catholics in the pew who wonder how in God's name such a thing could ever happen, bishops who must deal with the lawsuits and sometimes unfair accusations of cover-up, or innocent priests whose reputations are smeared by the sins of their brothers.
So what happens when a priest — a very good priest — is falsely accused of sexual misconduct? He is often presumed guilty until proven innocent. Even clear proof of innocence is not enough for some. Let me tell you about a case very near to my own heart.
In the fall of 1996, my congregation, the Legion of Christ, received word from a reporter that he was going to publish the story of 12 former Legionaries alleging that our founder, Father Marcial Maciel, had sexually abused them decades earlier. We were stunned, uncertain how to handle such outrageous — though, to those unaware of the facts, plausible — lies, but we hoped and prayed that, if we could share the truth in good faith with this reporter and his colleagues, all would be well.
Why would these elderly men attack Father Maciel? Who would conspire to allege sexual misconduct against an aging priest who started a fast-growing priestly congregation, the ecclesial movement Regnum Christi, hundreds of schools, 10 universities, and a host of other institutions and apostolates serving the Church?
A Time of Trial
This case goes back to the 1950s, when these accusers were young adult religious — Legionary seminarians. It was in this time period that all the abuse is alleged to have occurred. In 1956, Father Maciel faced an entirely different set of accusations suited to that day and age. Men who sought greater influence within the Legion accused him, among other things, of drug abuse, financial mismanagement and rebellion against the Holy See.
The charges were brought to the Vatican, which responded by conducting a thorough investigation of Father Maciel and the Legion. From 1956-58 Father Maciel was deprived of his functions as general director of the Legion and not allowed to enter the diocese of Rome. Vatican-appointed investigators lived with the Legionaries and interviewed each member personally. The investigators all reached the same conclusions: The allegations were trumped-up and baseless, and the Legion showed the potential to be of great service to the Church.
Decades later, a group of now elderly former Legionaries, Mexicans and Spaniards, sent their new accusations to the Vatican, which did not dignify them with a reply. So they took their story to an American newspaper. We asked the reporter, Gerald Renner of the Hartford Courant, to share with us the testimony of the 12 accusers. He and the Courant refused to show us the documents, but they did on occasion summarize details.
My order was faced with the difficulty of proving a negative. How do you prove that something, described in lurid detail, never happened? You would wish that the accusers would make some allegation that could be definitively disproved with documented scientific evidence. Then their utter lack of standing and credibility would be there, plain for the world to see.
Fortunately for the truth, they did just that. Twice.
First, some claimed that a former Legionary dictated a “death-bed confession” accusing Father Maciel of sexual abuse. Records show that, due to a stroke, he was unable to speak (there was no dictation) and died suddenly and unexpectedly from choking on his food (there was no deathbed).
Second, they all repeated the claim from the 1950s that Father Maciel was addicted to drugs. Precisely in order to prove or disprove such claims, a cardinal had at the time ordered blood tests on Father Maciel and separate examinations by three eminent physicians. They provided conclusive medical evidence eliminating any possibility of drug abuse.
There was more. One of the Vatican investigators went on to become bishop of Illapel, Chile. When in ‘96 he learned of these sex-abuse charges, Bishop Polidoro van Vlierberghe wrote to us explaining that he found them lacking all credibility, especially because during the one-on-one interviews in the ‘50s he “gave them every opportunity to level any accusation they had, but not once was this type of offense mentioned.”
With Father Maciel under suspicion at the time the abuse had allegedly just happened, not one single person, not even those who brought other false charges against him, accused him of sexual abuse.
Besides this, we were able to catch some of the accusers in their lies. One claimed to hold a position that never existed, and spoke of a seminary that never existed.
One of the accusers actually recanted and signed sworn testimony that he had been recruited to join in lies about Father Maciel in order “to show him up.” Four other men also testified they were recruited to join in the lies, but had refused to do so.
Adding Victims
The writers, Gerald Renner and Jason Berry, knew these facts at the time they published their story. So did their editors at the Hartford Courant. They knew that the accusers were caught in their lies, that some had a decades-old animus against the man they were attacking, that five men (one of whom was an accuser who recanted) had testified that the accusations were a conspiracy of lies and that medical evidence proved that none of the accusers had any credibility.
How did they handle this information?
They simply edited out numerous accusations, changed others and dropped two of the accusers — all without letting their readers know — and went ahead and published the “story.”
Why?
The story alleging abuse by Father Maciel was not a stand-alone piece. It was quickly followed by one attacking Pope John Paul II and the Church as a whole for allegedly covering-up sexual abuse and turning a blind eye to the sexual realities of the day. Since then, the lies about Father Maciel get rehashed time and again with no acknowledgement of the numerous documented lies of the accusers, simply pinning the story on the latest “news hook” or using it to attack another member of the hierarchy. In short, it is a series of attacks on the Church and its teachings on sexual morality.
So this, too, is collateral damage of sexual abuse by priests.
Monstrously, sexual abuse attacks its immediate victim, violates his trust, and harms the faith of his family and community. But this sin doesn't stop with its immediate victims. Not only does such abuse put innocent bishops and priests under suspicion, but it also empowers those who disagree with the Church on matters of sexual morality to use whatever “evidence” they can — true or false — to disparage the Church, trying to force it to change.
The Hartford Courant story alleging abuse by Father Maciel was not a stand-alone piece. It was quickly followed by one attacking Pope John Paul II.
In the Christian spirit of Father Maciel, who has forgiven his accusers, I ask us all as followers of Christ to be charitable to our bishops and priests, to realize that sex scandals, horrible as they are, are the work of those few who have betrayed us, or of those who take advantage of the innocent.
Support and love your bishops and priests. Don't let their vocations — and the truth — become “collateral damage.”
Legionary Father Owen Kearns is the Register's publisher and editor-in-chief.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father Owen Kearns, LC ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: There Is Nothing Small About St. Thérèse's 'Little Way' DATE: 11/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:The relics of St. Thérèse of Lisieux are now making their way through Canada, providing us, your “neighbors to the north,” with a natural occasion for reflecting on the spirituality of this popular and paradoxical saint.
Indeed, Thérèse's popularity itself is a paradox. She lived in monastic seclusion from the age of 15 until her death at 24. She did nothing spectacular. In fact, she embraced obscurity so firmly that she made it inseparable from her spirituality.
Thérèse's spirituality has come to be known as the “Little Way.” The temptation is very strong in the modern world to understand the word little as an expression of mediocrity. “Littleness,” as St. Thérèse understood it, and mediocrity as most of us live it, are perfectly antithetical. It is not easy to live an obscure life and fill it with small and often unnoticed acts of charity. It is extremely difficult to temper one's pride and self-interest, and to abide with grace the thousand petty annoyances that characterize person-to-person relationships. Love is made perfect when pride is made non-existent.
At this time, at the request of their president, George Bush, untold American children are mailing dollar bills to the White House. These dollars are aimed at providing relief for children in Afghanistan. It is a noble request on the part of the president to encourage American children who are privileged to share a small part of themselves with their Afghanistani counterparts who are destitute. It is a noble and generous act for one child to sacrifice a tiny bit of his own comfort so that he can make another a tiny bit less uncomfortable.
I do not mean to criticize President Bush's project. He is putting forth a social-justice project that is both admirable and unassailable. But the point I want to make here is how easy it is for a privileged child to send $1 to one who is for less privileged. Not only is it easy, but it makes him feel good. It is easy for one to imagine children mailing off their dollar bills, feeling good about themselves, and yet still bickering and fighting and being generally nasty to their own siblings. As the immortal spokesman for all children, Charlie Brown, once said, “I love humanity; it's people I can't stand.”
G. K. Chesterton once remarked that his unblemished love for Eskimos was no doubt explained by the simple fact that he had never met any. Social justice, which is a Big Way more than it is a Little Way, is far easier than interpersonal justices, which rarely get headlines and do not necessarily make their practitioners feel good. We do not need to swallow our pride in order to write a check. St. Thérèse's Little Way, is, indeed, very difficult, but it has an indispensable place in the economy of human relationships. Moreover, it should serve as a basis for social-justice impulses without allowing social justice to replace it. Charity begins at home, it is wisely said.
St. Thérèse, who was proclaimed “Doctor of the Church” by Pope John Paul II on October 19, 1997, has much to teach us about her Little Way, the way of interpersonal charity and humility that is wondrously effective. “Zero, by itself, has no value,” she reminds us, “but put it alongside one it becomes potent, always provided it is put on the proper side, after, and not before.” Of and by ourselves, we cannot do very much. “Without me, you can do nothing,” Christ tells us. He also informs us: “If I were to seek my own glory that would be no glory at all; my glory is conferred by the Father” (John 8:59).
Paradoxically, our own nothings become immensely effective when they are properly aligned with God, just as each 0 to the right of the 1 enlarges the total number. In this manner, the Little Way, through humility and love, is a formula for great effectiveness. On the other hand, if, through pride, we call attention to ourselves in our isolated singularity, we remain nothing and can do nothing, despite all our clamor and protestations.
St. Thérèse's Little Way is neither mediocrity nor conformity. It is “love in the trenches,” so to speak. It is loving the persnickety person who is situated next to us — the cranky friend, the envious colleague, the petulant neighbor, the over-bearing boss, the competitive sibling, the finicky aunt, the doting parent. This is immensely difficult and heroic in its own way. It is the Little Way that leads to large results.
Donald DeMarco teaches philosophy at St. Jerome's University in Waterloo, Ontario.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Donald DeMarco ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Where Couples Pray for Conception DATE: 11/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:To paraphrase the prophet Isaiah: God's timing isn't always our timing.
Take St. Gerard Majella. To be sure, he was known as a “wonder worker” in his 18th-century Italy. But it has been in recent decades that his intercession has been sought out most fervently all around the world.
I learned much about this ascending saint during a recent visit to the National Shrine of St. Gerard Majella in Newark, N.J.
“It's really becoming a national shrine now,” Msgr. Joseph Granato, the director, told me. He described the dramatic increase in pilgrims, mostly women, who come between Masses each Sunday morning to be blessed with the saint's relic. And then there are the thousands of wives, married couples, family and friends who write in from across the United States and Canada. They ask St. Gerard to help them conceive a child, or keep mother and baby safe in difficult deliveries or problem pregnancies. They also come to thank St. Gerard — often with their miracle babies in tow.
Because helping mothers, would-be mothers and unborn children is a major specialty of St. Gerard's, it's little wonder that he's popularly acclaimed as patron of mothers, and protector of expectant mothers and their unborn children. Around the time he died in 1755 in Materdomini, Italy, at age 29, he already enjoyed this reputation. Today he's also known for helping infertile married couples conceive.
So now the timing seems right on the button for Gerard's up-to-the-minute pro-life and family concerns to grow from his national shrine in America, just two blocks from Newark's Cathedral-Basilica of the Sacred Heart. The shrine chapel is an annex of St. Lucy Church, itself a glorious example of enduring, Old World beauty.
This shrine chapel, dedicated on Oct. 16, 1935, was first known as the Sanctuary of St. Gerard Majella. By then, his feast had already been a major event at St. Lucy's. The parishioners who were immigrants from Caposele and Teora — Neapolitan villages where Gerard lived and worked — imported their devotion to Newark's first ward and established a public feast in 1899, five years before Gerard, who was a Redemptorist lay brother, was even canonized.
That launched tens of thousands of testimonies, each describing how a novena to him had been answered with a child, even when doctors said was a medical impossibility, or how applying Gerard's “handkerchief” saved a mother dying in childbirth or turned a difficult delivery into a nearly effortless one.
Holy Hanky
The St. Gerard handkerchief, an important sacramental, originated shortly before the young saint died. As he headed to his monastery in Materdomini after visiting with friends, he was surprised by their teenage daughter, running to return the handkerchief he had unknowingly dropped. “Keep it,” Gerard told her. “You may need it someday.”
Years later, dying in childbirth, she remembered Gerard's handkerchief and had it placed on her. Almost immediately all difficulty passed. She delivered a healthy baby.
Since then, handkerchiefs touched to Gerard's relic or tomb have blessed countless mothers with safe deliveries and happy, healthy, joyful births. Less complicated pregnancies too.
“We've given out thousands of these handkerchiefs,” says Msgr. Granato, who's been at St. Lucy's and the shrine since his ordination in 1955. When the sanctuary was raised to national status on Oct. 16, 1977, he was named St. Lucy's third pastor as well as shrine director.
In all those years, he and fellow priest Father Joseph Nativo, here since his ordination in 1956, have witnessed the wonder-working effects of novenas and prayers to this “mother's saint.” When specialists tell couples that it's medically impossible for them to have children, often St. Gerard steps through the same impossible barriers he did in his own lifetime. Husbands and wives can practically hear his standard pet answer: “It is nothing,” he always cheerfully declared.
The miraculous answers have “almost become commonplace, really,” Msgr. Granato notes from his long experience.
In 1999, for the 100th anniversary of the saint's feast (Oct. 16), Fr. Nativo compiled a book weaving Gerard's life through hundreds of testimonies chosen from thousands that have poured in from joyful parents whose prayers for children and safe births have been answered. And, as in Gerard's lifetime, favors are granted for other serious maladies, even of the soul, since he's also patron of a good confession.
Pilgrims pray fervently before St. Gerard's life-like image in the shrine chapel. Parish societies dress the statue, which arrived from Italy in 1900, in full Redemptorist habit for three days of processions through the neighborhood during the annual October 4-16 feast. Thousands fill the church and overflow into the plaza and neighborhood for the major novena and special devotions. Devotees come by busload from around the United States and Canada.
Different days focus on anointing the sick and blessing wives praying to conceive, expectant mothers and the newborn. In recent years, at least 60,000 medals have been distributed during the feast — 70,000 in just two days during the 100th anniversary.
“People don't come for a street festival,” Msgr. Granato explains. “They come to visit St. Gerard himself in the sanctuary, either to pray for a favor or give thanks for one.”
Children's Friend
This beloved statue of Gerard stands behind the altar and tabernacle in the shrine chapel. He looks beatific. In the half-dome above the image, a mural pictures Gerard in heaven surrounded by admiring angels. Half-round murals circling the domed ceiling give us further glimpses into his life. They show us Gerard's baptism, the saint praying for a mother while he holds her baby and his deathbed vision of Mary as Queen holding the Baby Jesus. Both beckon lovingly to him.
It's no surprise. As a youngster, his playmate was the child Jesus, who would step down to him from a statue in a church near little Gerard's home. Churchmen consider it one explanation why divine Providence has entrusted the care of mothers and children to him. Just as people flock to his feast, children followed him all his life.
Opposite the statue, the gleaming marble baptismal font stirred me to imagine how many thousands of infants baptized here were born thanks to St. Gerard's wonder working. And how many more can be as more people discover him.
A vision for wider discovery — and a strong pro-life ally — came during a recent visit by the rector of the saint's international shrine in Italy. He spoke about the desire to get St. Gerard officially declared patron of mothers and their unborn children.
In fact, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of the Camden, N.J. diocese, who grew up close to St. Lucy's and has had a life-long devotion to Gerard, believes there should be a national devotion to him and a Mass in his honor in the U.S. From his own pastoral ministry, the bishop recognizes Gerard's powerful inter-cession for those who want to conceive or who are going through difficult childbirths.
Likewise, Father Thomas Nicastro Jr., whose family also hails from this neighborhood, now holds an annual Mass in Connecticut in May honoring St. Gerard. He directs devotees around the country to the national shrine and works with Bishop DeMarzio and the priests from Italy toward having St. Gerard placed on the U.S. liturgical calendar and officially declared the patron of mothers and their unborn children.
In Newark, St. Gerard's particular devotion to the Holy Eucharist is emulated with up to six Masses daily, plus perpetual adoration.
“I follow what Mother Teresa said: If you want to stop abortion, have perpetual Eucharistic adoration,” Msgr. Granato explains. So, I saw, the pro-life movement itself can find a ready-made powerful intercessor in St. Gerard, whose cause for canonization was initiated by Alphonsus Ligouri himself. After all, from 18th-century Italy to his national shrine in Newark, Gerard Majella has always proven himself one of the Blessed Mother's right-hand champions for pro-life and family causes.
Joseph Pronechen writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: National Shrine of St. Gerard Majella, Newark, N.J. ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Morning in a Whole New Hollywood? DATE: 11/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:No one doubts that America's popular culture is undergoing profound change as a result of the events of Sept. 11.
But it is tempting to believe that these events will trigger a moral renewal that will make our nation a better place — and that outcome remains to be seen.
Hollywood is often singled out as a prime example of everything that's gone wrong with the culture. And, to be sure, the transformation of what it produces would be an essential part of any cultural renewal.
As traditional institutions like schools and the family have weakened, the influence of mass media on the formation of our moral values has increased. Movies are a crucial part of this. They have always been judged according to their worth as entertainment and art, but now many think they must be held to other standards as well.
Pope John Paul II has repeatedly addressed these issues. As a former actor, poet and playwright, he has a special sensitivity to the creative process and its relationship to mass media. His words on the subject provide an excellent set of guidelines.
The Holy Father emphasizes the importance of media in an era of global information. “Through the media, people form their opinions about the world they live in — indeed, form their understanding of the meaning of life,” he writes. “For many, the experience of living is to a great extent an experience of the media” (World Communications Day Message, 2000).
This overwhelming power brings with it responsibilities. The Pope suggests that mass-entertainment products “can be works of great beauty, revealing what is noble and uplifting in humanity and promoting what is just and true” (1987 address to U.S. communications workers). Those presentations “which call attention to authentic human needs, especially those of the weak, the vulnerable and the marginalized can be an implicit proclamation of the Lord” (World Communications Day Message, 2000).
In this spirit, the Vatican's Pontifical Commission for Social Communications compiled in 1996 a list of 45 films of special artistic and religious worth. (The Register has reviewed all but one of them.) The values they promote reflect the Pope's thinking. They're also relevant to the collective soul-searching the current crisis has provoked in our country. But the current Hollywood mindset is not yet fully open to these views. Deep cultural trends are pushing things in another direction.
“The very forces which can lead to better communication can also lead to increasing self-centeredness and alienation,” the Holy Father has warned (World Communications Day Message, 1999). This leads to a celebration of what he characterizes as “the false gods and idols of the day — materialism, hedonism, consumerism” (World Communications Day Message 2001).
John Paul points out that the media culture “is deeply imbued with a typically postmodern sense that the only absolute truth is that there are no absolute truths. As a result, the world of the media can seem no more friendly an environment for evangelization than the pagan world of the Apostles’ day” (World Communications Day Message, 2001).
This moral relativism affects the content of films. “The cinema can oppress freedom when it presents itself as the mirror of negative types of behavior, using scenes of violence and sex offensive to human dignity and tending to excite violent emotions to stimulate the attention of the viewer,” the Holy Father writes (World Communications Day Message, 1995). “It is the task of communication to bring people together to enrich their lives, not to isolate and exploit them” (World Communications Day Message, 1998).
Many currently successful films perpetuate negative values, sometimes in subtle ways. In recent years, the most damaging Hollywood blockbusters have treated apocalyptic acts of mass destruction as $100 million video games (Armageddon, Independence Day, etc). Unlike some action-adventure thrillers, they do not wallow in excessive blood and gore. But they do present violence as fun, without human consequences or cost.
After Sept. 11, the major studios put on hold dozens of these kinds of projects. Let's hope this is the beginning of a deeper change of heart.
Either way, other noxious trends remain. “It is not easy to remain optimistic about the positive influence of the mass media when they appear either to ignore the vital role of religion in people's lives, or when the treatment that religious belief receives seems consistently negative or unsympathetic,” the Holy Father says. “Some elements of the media — especially in the entertainment sectors — often seem to wish to portray religious believers in the worst possible light” (World Communications Day Message, 1997).
Recent hits like The Others, Dogma and Chocolat indicate the truth of these observations. Let's hope the increase in regular church attendance after the terrorist attacks will be noticed in Hollywood and that it will encourage filmmakers to end this anti-religious bias.
John Paul II believes that the present clash of civilizations offers a special challenge. “Media products are seen as in some way representing the values that the West holds dear, and by implication, they supposedly present Christian values,” he writes. “The truth of the matter may well be that the foremost value they genuinely represent is commercial profit” (World Communications Day Message, 1997).
The Holy Father reminds us of the true meaning of our heritage. “For all those who hold the Judeo-Christian tradition, the nobility of communication is linked to the wisdom of God,” he writes. Those who make movies can be “stewards and administrators of an immense spiritual power that belongs to the patrimony of mankind and is meant to enrich the whole of the human community” (1987 address to U.S. communications workers).
These words set the bar high. One prays that, if Hollywood wasn't listening before, it's listening now.
John Prizer writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: Pope John Paul II's vision for moviemakers ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 11/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:Casey's Shadow (1978)
Many people dream of fame and fortune. The key questions are: How far are they willing to go to get there? And what lines are they unwilling to cross? Cajun quarter horse trainer Lloyd Bourdelle (Walter Matthau) has raised his sons in poverty since his wife left him. A colt with a championship pedigree is born on his ranch and named after his youngest (Michael Hershewe), who adores it. Convinced that the horse is his ticket to the top, Lloyd trains it for the million-dollar-purse, All American Futurity race for two-year-olds which takes place at Ruidoso, N.M., on Labor Day.
After the colt shines during try-outs, the trainer rejects a generous offer from a wealthy stable owner (Alexis Smith) to buy it. Then some scheming competitors (Murray Hamilton and Robert Webber) try to sabotage Lloyd's operation as he's put to the test. Director Martin Ritt (Hud) gives Casey's Shadow a documentary look in his depiction of small-town Southern life and the horse-racing environment.
The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima (1952)
Hollywood once tried to produce movies that addressed the spiritual interests of its audience without deconstructing Christian institutions or beliefs. Simple piety was celebrated as a prime virtue. Today some describe those films as overly melodramatic and sentimental. But others embrace them as populist expressions of faith that enriched the culture.
The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima is an old-fashioned film that dramatizes the 1917 appearances of the Virgin Mary to three Portuguese children (Susan Whitney, Sherry Jackson and Sammy Ong). The emphasis is on the response of their family and the government to the events. Director John Brahm (Hangover Square) depicts the children's courage in the face of disbelief, movingly portraying their relationship with their mother (Angela Clarke) and a sympathetic villager (Gilbert Roland).
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
“Capra-corn” is the label affixed to the unique populist comedy-dramas made by director Frank Capra (It's a Wonderful Life) in the 1930s and ‘40s. The innocence and optimism of the ordinary citizen is shown to be strong enough to triumph over society's darker forces. The Oscar-winning Mr. Deeds Goes to Town is a screwball romantic comedy that pits small-town virtues against big-city corruption.
Longfellow Deeds (Gary Cooper) is a tuba-playing tallow manufacturer in Mandrake Falls, Vt., who writes greeting-card verse as a hobby. When he inherits $20 million from a distant relative, the estate's crooked lawyer (Douglass Dumbrille) persuades him to come to New York City to manage his affairs. The local tabloids dub Deeds the “Cinderella Man” and a cynical reporter, Louise “Babe” Bennett (Jean Arthur), befriends him to get the best scoop. Deeds is an honest, charitable man, and the romance that develops between them makes her question her sleazy job and his lawyer's criminal machinations.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 11/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:SUNDAY, NOV. 11
Bookmark
EWTN, 9:30 a.m..
Register features correspondent Tim Drake discusses his book There We Stood, Here We Stand, about 11 Lutherans’ conversions. To be rebroadcast Monday, Nov. 12, at 3 a.m., Wednesday, Nov. 14, at 4:30 p.m. and Saturday, Nov. 17, at 6:30 p.m.
SUNDAY, NOV. 11
Dogs: The Early Years
PBS, 8 p.m.
This “Nature” installment tells how to select the breed and puppy that's right for you, how to give your puppy proper care and training and how to compensate for his separation from his mama. In one segment, Missy, a 10-year-old girl, tends future guide dog “Judson,” a golden retriever.
SUNDAY, NOV. 11
The “I Love Lucy” 50th Anniversary Special
CBS, 9 p.m.
This two-hour fun fest about the comedy series (1951-1961) that starred Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance and William Frawley features segments from memorable episodes, anecdotes from guest stars and appearances by Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr.
MONDAY, NOV. 12
The Mystery of the Sphinx
Travel, 10 p.m.
This hour-long show offers new theories about the age and construction of the Sphinx.
TUESDAY, NOV. 13
NOVA: Bioterror
PBS, 9 p.m.
The germ-warfare capabilities of terrorist groups and Iraq are this program's subject.
WEDNESDAY, NOV. 14
Mother Angelica Live
EWTN, 8 p.m.
Sudan-born Catholic Bishop Macram Max Gassis explains his efforts to make the world care about Sudan's minority Christians and animists, who are victimized by civil war and persecuted by the Muslim regime in Khartoum.
THURSDAY, NOV. 15
Leif Ericson: Voyages of a Viking
Biography, 11 a.m. & 5 p.m.
Evangelization was one motive of Catholic convert Leif Ericson, a Norse Icelander who made voyages to Greenland and Vinland in the early 11th century.
FRIDAY, NOV. 16
Pilgrimage: A Rediscovery of Catholic Tradition
EWTN, 10 p.m.
This documentary covers the four-day celebration in Rome, in Oct. 1998, of the 10th anniversary of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter and of Ecclesia Dei, Pope John Paul II's motu proprio that urged bishops to be generous in making the Tridentine Latin Mass available. The Holy Father and Cardinals Mayer, Ratzinger and Stickler appear in the video, along with hundreds of priests and seminarians.
SATURDAY, NOV. 17
Woman Clothed with the Sun: Beauraing and Banneux
EWTN, 8 p.m.
The Blessed Mother visited children in Belgium — 33 times in Beauraing in late 1932 and early 1933, and several times in Banneux in early 1933.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: All times Eastern ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dan Engler ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Lumen Christi Dawns in Chicago DATE: 11/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:CHICAGO — The University of Chicago, home to more than 70 Nobel Prize winners since its founding by John D. Rockefeller in 1891, long ago established itself as one of the premier secular centers of learning and research in the nation.
What, then, accounts for the decidedly Catholic activities showing up there, at university-sanctioned events, these days?
E Workshops, lectures and symposia have focused on the encyclicals Fides et Ratio, Veritatis Splendor and Dominus Iesus and Sts. Catherine of Siena, Julian of Norwich, Edith Stein and Augustine.
E Talks have been given on Newman and modernity, evolutionary science and Catholic thought, and Catholic faith and the secular academy.
E Francis Cardinal George has spoken on campus some half dozen times since his appointment to the archdiocese in 1997.
E This November, scholars will be joined by the bishop of Stockholm, Anders Arborelius, in a conference on “Word and Image in Christian Prayer and Worship,” to be held off campus at Holy Name Cathedral.
And then there are the Catholic scholars arriving as visiting fellows, a new program in liberal arts and the Catholic tradition, a developing regional Catholic program on science and religion, ongoing campus lectures on the Church Fathers, and sacred study groups modeled on lectio divina, the practice of silent, prayerful contemplation of Scripture.
What's going on in Hyde Park?
This unlikely revival of the Catholic intellectual tradition in a profoundly secular setting is being spurred primarily by the Lumen Christi Institute, a group of scholars who, according to their charter, seek to promote “the study of Catholic faith, thought and culture at the University of Chicago and throughout the surrounding region.”
Formally established in 1997 as an independent institute of Catholic thought, Lumen Christi is the first of its kind and the inspiration for two similar new institutes, at the University of Virginia and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
A Lively Experiment
In short, the Lumen Christi Institute works to engage top scholars and graduate students in an ongoing discussion of knowledge and truth. It began “almost by accident,” says its president, Paul Griffiths, formerly a professor at the university's Divinity School who has since been appointed to head a new program of Catholic studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
“Back in 1997, a few graduate students and a couple of faculty at the University of Chicago were vaguely talking about the need and the opportunity to sponsor some events that would create a forum for Catholic intellectual life at the university,” says Griffiths. “At the time there existed nothing that presented the Catholic intellectual tradition as a lively option.”
From those conversations, there developed a slate of study groups and lectures, notable for their high scholarly quality, says Thomas Levergood, a co-founder and graduate of the University of Chicago who directs the Lumen Christi Institute from its offices at Calvert House, the university's Catholic ministry center.
Gifted with a small but symbolically meaningful grant from Cardinal George, who serves as its episcopal moderator, the Lumen Christi Institute receives no ongoing financial support from the archdiocese, choosing to be “a gift to rather than a beneficiary of” the local Church, says Griffiths.
The institute is also legally separate from the university but “culturally (is) deeply involved,” explains Levergood. One of the speakers at a recent symposium was Don Randel, president of the university and a scholar of the liturgical music of medieval Christian Spain.
The institute's time has come for three reasons, according to Levergood.
First, most Catholics who attend universities, perhaps as many as 90%, will attend not Catholic universities, but secular universities, both public and private.
Second, Catholics are present in these universities also as teachers and researchers.
And third, most Catholic professors are not going to be priests or religious, but laymen or women.
Counter-Cultural Catholics
Being dedicated to pluralism — the acceptance of all religious points of view — secular universities can be particularly good places for reviving the Catholic intellectual tradition, notes Griffiths.
“The Catholic voice can be one more voice among many,” he says. With a religiously diverse audience, there is usually a genuine interest in what that Catholic voice has to say, without the complication of internal “family politics,” he adds.
A different kind of freedom impressed Robert Wilken, a professor of Christian history at the University of Virginia and a graduate of the University of Chicago Divinity School, who was invited by the institute two years ago to give a lecture about the influence in the Church on the formation of medieval culture.
“I was just impressed that here, right smack in the middle of the university, you had a lecture series where you could speak unequivocally as a Catholic but still as a university person,” says Wilken.
Wilken has since launched the St. Anselm Institute, named for the 11th-century monk whose motto was “faith seeking understanding;” it seeks to promote Catholic intellectual life at the university. Also inspired by Lumen Christi, Catholic faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have established the John Henry Newman Institute to enlarge the academic study of the Church and science, the Church and society, and the Church and culture.
At the University of Chicago, Lumen Christi has been welcomed but at the same time noticeably counter-cultural, according to John Whitehead, a recent graduate in classical studies who attended several lectures during his four-year undergraduate career.
“It's a popular view in academic circles that the period when the Church was ascendant was so much superstition and barbarism,” adds Whitehead. “The [institute lectures] made me very aware of the richness of the church's intellectual and academic tradition, which was extraordinarily systematic and comprehensive — a very learned, very clear vision of the world which had a lot of depth and dynamism to it.”
Father Michael Yakaitis, director of Calvert House since July, says the Lumen Christi Institute adds a unique and appreciated dimension to the life of the Church — and, in particular, his own pastoral and sacramental mission at the university.
“Lumen Christi represents the best of Catholic thought,” he says. “It makes our Catholic students on campus feel proud to be Catholic.”
Ellen Rossini writes from Dallas.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Ellen Rossini ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: A Gifted Teacher Leads a Magisterial Tour of the Catechism DATE: 11/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:by Bishop Donald W. Wuerl
Doubleday, 2001
288 pages, $14.95
Ave Maria Grotto, on the grounds of the Benedictine Abbey in Cullman, Ala., consists of dozens of architecturally accurate miniatures of famous churches from all over the world, constructed of bits of glass, metal and donated materials. The Catholic Way, the product of similar patience and diligence, is a remarkably faithful scale model of the monumental Catechism of the Catholic Church, written by an experienced educator who is a member of the magisterium.
While a seminary professor, then-Father Donald Wuerl was a contributor and one of the editors of The Teaching of Christ (first edition 1976), a reliable and very popular catechism for adults. In The Catholic Way, Bishop Wuerl, ordinary of the Diocese of Pittsburgh and chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Education, offers a distinctively American guide to the universal catechism. Conceived as a series of articles for Columbia magazine, this book introduces the main themes of the Catechism while striving to be accessible to the average Catholic — or even the interested non-Catholic.
Chapters 1-33, corresponding to Part One of the catechism, present the doctrines of the faith in well-constructed paragraphs of clear, measured prose. “If you walk into a dimly lit room, you will know if someone is there. But without enough light, you will not know who it is. That is our position in the midst of creation. … Revelation is the light that allows us to look at creation, ourselves and the world and begin to see, through the light of God's word, not only that there is a God but also who God is.” The thorough and elegant explanation of the Nicene Creed is worth the price of the book.
“Part Two” treats the sacraments as seven streams from the one source of grace, and at the same time as events in the lives of Catholics.
The chapters on confession and matrimony are strong, and the thoughtful discussion of the Mass and the Eucharist awakens respect for the Real Presence.
The section on Christian morality and the Commandments (“Part Three”) is “issues-oriented.” Bishop Wuerl squarely addresses the breakdown of the American family, elaborates on medical-moral problems, and defends the Church's right to speak out as an authoritative moral guide.
“Part Four” on prayer is so condensed it's schematic. Elsewhere, however, the author relates traditional prayers and devotions to faith, liturgy and morals.
The streamlined content of The Catholic Way remains consistently Catholic, yet there are subtle “American” emphases. The collegiality of bishops, the corporate effects of liturgical celebrations and social issues seem to get more “coverage” than papal primacy, individual sanctification or personal responsibility, although these, too, are duly mentioned. Text editor Michael Aquilina continues the process of adapting universal teaching to local conditions by providing questions for reflection after each chapter.
In examples and anecdotes, the reader occasionally catches glimpses of Bishop Wuerl reciting the rosary while driving or making pastoral visits to parochial schools. The author's tone is generally calm and urbane, but he has a mordant wit. (Commenting on the Second Commandment, he asks: If ethnic slurs are ostracized, why isn't blasphemy?)
“Faith is the living fruit of two freedoms, that of God, who freely speaks to us, and that of a person who personally uses free will to respond to God with the power that God's grace gives.” Many Americans have a long stretch of road to travel yet before those two freedoms meet. Catholics can be grateful that Bishop Wuerl has constructed a series of access ramps leading up to the Church's catechetical superhighway.
Michael J. Miller translated Volume 3 of Cardinal Christoph Schönborn's Living the Catechism for Ignatius Press.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Michael J. Miller ----- KEYWORDS: Books -------- TITLE: Family Matters DATE: 11/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:Rude or ‘Real?’
Q My husband often ignores me when he talks with his friends. He says “real” men have always behaved this way and that men who don't are “wimpy and unmanly.”
A George: Boys start treating girls badly in elementary school, and even after getting married, we still find it hard to break those bad habits.
Lisette says I change when I get together with my old high school buddies — and not for the better. At first, I dismissed it as normal, like your husband does. But as time went on, I realized I was being, as you so eloquently put it, “rude and uncharitable".
Maybe your husband needs to realize that the way he relates to you is the way your children, especially any boys, will relate to you. What they hear Dad say will be their model for how to treat Mom. When I try to teach my son to respect his mother, I tell him she is the queen and he is the gallant knight.
Lisette: Most husbands do need to learn to listen to their wives, but we wives also need to understand that sometimes we're seeing rudeness where there is none.
One time George was watching an intense football game. It was his favorite team and the result of this game would mean … playoffs! At that moment, though, I was feeling emotional and I wanted to have one of those long walks together.
I sat down next to George and started talking. I don't think he even noticed I was there. I pouted, but there was still no response. Well, how rude, I thought!
On further reflection, though, I have to admit it was really my timing that was wrong. Reintroduce conversation to your husband by giving him some warning, and then wooing him with a special dinner before the talk. Try it! He just might open up.
George and Lisette de los Reyes host The Two Shall Be One on EWTN.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: George And Lisette De Los Reyes ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: Veteran Hero DATE: 11/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:NEWTON, N.J. — The holy card for Benedictine Brother Marinus LaRue's funeral stated simply that he was a monk of St. Paul's Abbey here.
It listed the dates of his birth, profession and death and quoted the Rule of St. Benedict. Nowhere did it refer to one of the most dramatic maritime rescues in military history, which Brother Marinus directed.
As skipper of the S.S. Meredith Victory, a Merchant Marine vessel used as a supply ship during the Korean War, then-Capt. Leonard LaRue brought 14,000 North Korean civilians through perilous waters to safety on Christmas Day, 1950.
To South Korean president Syngman Rhee, who honored the monk in 1958 with the Presidential Unit Citation, the rescue was an “inspiring example of Christian faith in action.” The U.S. Maritime Administration called it the “greatest rescue by a single ship in the annals of the sea.”
Brother Marinus’ feat was the subject of a book by former Washington Post reporter Bill Gilbert, Ship of Miracles, published last year. “It was a miracle they could put 14,000 people on the ship, it was a miracle they got through the minefields, it was a miracle the enemy never caught up with them,” Gilbert told the Register.
But it is not something for which this monk would have taken credit. “God's own hand was at the helm of my ship,” he once said.
The Benedictine, who died Oct. 14 at the age of 87, was remembered as a veteran who humbly accepted praise for his heroism but felt that he was just doing his job. Before becoming captain of the Meredith, he had seen action in the treacherous Murmansk run of World War II. But rather than seek higher positions in military or civilian life, he chose to live out his days in prayer, service and relative anonymity. Four years after the Korean rescue, he retired from the Merchant Marines and entered an abbey not far from his home town of Philadelphia. For the next 55 years he lived in obedience to another “captain,” accepting tasks as menial as dishwashing, working in the gift shop or ringing the wakeup bell each morning.
He “left the life of the sea with all its drama and heroic opportunities for the intimacy of a daily-sustained relationship with the Lord and his Mother,” said Father Joel Macul, abbot of St. Paul's, in a homily at the monk's funeral Oct. 17. “In his own way Brother Marinus was sharing in the cup of the Lord's suffering until he comes again in glory. In the Eucharist he believed he was joining the inhumanity he had witnessed around the world to the saving humanity of Christ who died that all might be free and all might have a lasting home-land.”
Prayers and Perils
Chartered by the Military Sea Transportation Service, the Meredith Victory sailed from Norfolk, Va., in July 1950. J. Robert Lunney, its staff officer, remembers a stop in San Francisco, where LaRue made a point of entering a church to pray for the ship and its men before setting off on the trans-Pacific mission.
‘God's own hand was at the helm of my ship, he once said.’
In December of that year, during the Chosin Reservoir campaign, the ship received emergency orders to deliver 10,000 tons of jet fuel to a Marine fighter base at Hungnam, 138 miles behind enemy lines. Getting there required sailing through heavily mined waters.
But because the fighter base was evacuated under heavy enemy pressure, the vessel was ordered south to offload the fuel at the South Korean port of Pusan.
Later in the month, just a few days before Christmas, the ship had to sail back to Hungnam, where the Army asked LaRue if he would take the last of 100,000 refugees. Because the Meredith Victory was a civilian ship, it could not be ordered to do so. But the refugees were fleeing almost certain execution by the communist forces for cooperating with the enemy during the Chosin campaign. LaRue thought of the first Christmas Eve, when “there was no room” for a certain couple, later fleeing persecution themselves, and took pity on the North Korean civilians.
“He didn't look to his left or to his right, but said, ‘I will take the ship and lift off as many refugees as I can,’” Lunney recalled. On the 455-foot cargo ship, which was built to accommodate only 60 crew and passengers, 14,000 men, women and children were squeezed into every available hatch and hole.
The ship arrived at Pusan on Christmas Eve, but port officials, already overwhelmed with refugees, waved it off to the island of Koje, some 50 miles southwest. Finally, on Christmas Day, the refugees were brought ashore aboard Naval landing crafts. Not one life was lost, in spite of three days of cold, very little food and having to sail through minefields on a ship still carrying highly explosive jet fuel. In fact, by the time the refugees disembarked, five births had increased their numbers.
Lunney, an attorney in White Plains, N.Y., said Brother Marinus later confided his fear that a shell would fall short from one the U.S. warships, which were helping to hold the enemy back and allow the refugees to escape. If the Meredith had been hit, it would have been disastrous. But LaRue never second-guessed his decision to take the refugees. Even if all 14,000 had been lost in such a disaster, LaRue felt confident about being able to stand before God and say he did the right thing, Lunney told the Register.
Years later, when Lunney visited him at the abbey, the former staff officer asked his captain to explain to his 10-year-old son why he took the risk. “The answer is in the holy Bible,” the monk gently told the boy as he placed his hand on a testament. “No greater love has a man than to lay down his life for his friends.”
“One of the first maxims a man learns in going to sea is to always give another man a hand with a job he cannot do himself,” Brother Marinus said at the National Press Club in 1960, accepting the Merchant Marine Meritorious Service Medal. “The entire safety of the vessel and all that she carries depends on this principle. You might say that this is a corollary of ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.’”
A Contemplative Captain
Brother Marinus’ decision to enter religious life was made with the same calm, prayerful reasoning he gave to his nautical decisions, without much apparent agonizing or fanfare.
He simply felt it was something God wanted him to do, according to Gilbert. And he said lines written by Trappist Father Raphael Simon swayed him: “To fall in love with God is the greatest of all romances. To seek him, the greatest adventure. To find him, the greatest human achievement.”
According to Father Macul, Brother Marinus was “deeply impressed” by a “kindly old” Swiss Benedictine missionary from Bahia, Brazil, who was a passenger on one of his ships. And during an illness in Tokyo, when he was reflecting on the purpose of his life, he was visited by a Benedictine chaplain.
Lunney remembers being on deck with him at night, when the contemplative captain was navigating.
The expanse of the sea and the vastness of the sky prompted him to reflect on the parables of Christ and the great questions of philosophy.
“I think he wanted to devote himself to the life he was trying to live, clean and good-living, and maybe he sought the comfort of a community in which he could do that,” Lunney said.
The monk approached Benedictine life “with great faith in God,” said Father Augustine Hinches, prior of St. Paul's.
Defend Us in Battle
Lunney felt Brother Marinus was proud of his military service and believed that he viewed war as a humanitarian effort to the extent that it “preserves the integrity of a nation and the lives of a people.” During his National Press Club speech, Brother Marinus said that the threat to the integrity of Korea was a force that was determined to “enslave all mankind.”
“In answer to this diabolic evil which is communism and to the other satanic forces that assail us both as a nation, but even more so as individuals, let us ask God daily, in our own words, to give us the backbone to live fully and completely his Ten Commandments.”
He also mentioned that, coincidentally, North Korea had been mission territory for his Benedictine congregation. And some of the Benedictine priests and brothers had been martyred at the hands of the communists.
Now, as Brother Marinus is laid to rest and as America fights another war, against an enemy he might also term diabolical, Korea will become an important part of the abbey he loved. Soon after Brother Marinus’ funeral, Father Macul traveled to Waegwan, South Korea, to work out details about several monks there moving to the New Jersey abbey.
“In the United States, the vocation shortage is acute,” Father Hinches said, “and the Korean house has a good number of monks.”
----- EXCERPT: Benedictine Brother Marinus, Rescuer of Refugees ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Burger ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: Facts of Life DATE: 11/11/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 11-17, 2001 ----- BODY:FROM THE LATE 1800s to about 1950, Mary was the most common name for American girls, both Catholic and non-Catholic. By the 1960s, the name slipped to second place. Now, among those raised Catholic, it's in 47th place, though the form Maria is still popular.
FAVORITE NAMES FOR CATHOLIC CHILDREN
GIRLS
1st: Jennifer
2nd: Catherine (or Katherine)
3rd: Amy, Maria (tie)
BOYS
1st: Michael
2nd: Christopher
3rd: John
----- EXCERPT: WHAT'S IN A NAME? ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: Pope Salutes New York Heroes in Rome DATE: 11/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — John Paul II paid homage Nov. 9 to the New York fire department when he greeted a delegation in St. Peter's Basilica. Days before another airline disaster in New York, the Pope privately told one fireman that he “prays incessantly” for the strength of the New York firefighters.
“I give my warmest welcome to the delegation from the New York fire department,” the Holy Father told the thousands who crammed into the basilica for Mass.
“They bear unforgettable testimony to the qualities of courage and dedication,” he said.
On Sept. 11 firefighters rushed into New York's World Trade Center to rescue as many people as possible after terrorists steered two hijacked planes into its two towers. On the scene, the firefighters — most of whom were Catholic — put out an urgent call for priests to give them general absolution, since they knew that the buildings would likely fall down on top of them. More than 300 firefighters died when they did.
The New York delegation flew to Rome for “USA Day,” a rally organized by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Reuters reported. “The aim of the day was to unite Italy behind the U.S.-led coalition battling Afghanistan's Taliban, who host the prime suspect behind the attacks, Osama bin Laden,” said the news organization.
The Pope told the delegation: “May Almighty God grant the bereaved families consolation and peace, and may he give you and your fellow firemen strength and courage to carry on your great service to your city.
“With the promise of my continued prayers, I invoke upon you and your families God's abundant blessings,” the Holy Father said.
Under Michelangelo's cupola, firefighter Patrick Burns gave the Pope the helmet of Franciscan Father Mychal Judge, chaplain of the Fire Department, who died in the Sept. 11 attack on the Twin Towers.
Father Judge died while giving last rites to a firefighter fatally wounded by a falling body. When the priest removed his fire helmet to pray, he was struck on the head by debris and killed.
The firefighters were introduced to the Pope by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, his vicar for Rome, who referred to “the unforgettable testimony of dedication and courage” shown on Sept. 11.
Later Nov. 9, New York Fire Department Chief Daniel Nigro, who replaced Peter Ganci who died in the tragedy, took part in an Italian-organized demonstration of support for the United States.
Nigro spoke about his meeting with the Pope when he addressed the crowd.
“The Pope told us that since Sept. 11, he has prayed incessantly for the victims and for strength for us, the firemen,” Nigro said. “We told him that this is exactly what we felt. All of us will return to New York with the blessing of the Holy Father.”
(Zenit contributed to this article.)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Ragister Staff ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: In Church vs. Sandinistas, Cardinal Scores a Knockout DATE: 11/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:MANAGUA, Nicaragua — Pre-election polls indicated that Daniel Ortega and his Sandinista National Liberation Front had finally convinced Nicaraguans to give them the presidency. But memories of the past and the powerful influence of the Catholic Church combined to deliver a very different outcome.
Enrique Bolaños, the Sandinistas' archrival, will be next president of Nicaragua.
A Nov. 1 Mass, at which Cardinal Miguel Obando Bravo publicly questioned the sincerity of Ortega's claims to respect Church teachings and his personal sexual morality, appeared to play a decisive role in the outcome.
Only a week before the Nov. 4th election, polls showed that Ortega, a leader of the Sandinista revolutionaries who overthrew dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979 then quickly became Soviet pawns in the region, would finally succeed in his third presidential bid since 1990.
Ortega's alliance with former foes, the replacement of his olive-drab revolutionary uniform for a pink shirt and a crucifix over his chest, and a campaign called “the trail of love” seemed to have erased old memories of abuse, scarcity and the hardships of war.
Analysts even started warning the United States to respect the outcome of the elections, and some harshly criticized U.S. Ambassador Oliver Garza for appearing at campaign events of Bolaños, the candidate of the ruling Liberal Constitutional Party.
Sergio Ramírez, a former Sandinista commander, even predicted that the visit of two American congressmen who allegedly convinced a third candidate, Noel Vidaurre, to withdraw to prevent a split of the anti-Sandinista vote, “will only convince Nicaraguans that they need to vote for Ortega, the truly independent candidate.”
But when election returns were counted Nov. 5, Bolaños had blasted away all such predictions with a 56-43% margin of victory. Voters, who during the campaign had wavered over allegations of corruption against outgoing President Arnold Alemán and concern over Nicaragua's gaping social disparities, had concluded when casting ballots that a return to the economic chaos and anti-Catholic hostility of the Sandinista years was even less appealing.
Said Freddy Potoy, an editorial-ist for the daily newspaper La Prensa, “Despite the heavy political baggage inherited by Bolaños from Alemán, history was even heavier in Nicaraguan minds.”
Indeed, while the Sandinistas still have their significant popular base, its enemies and detractors are implacable.
The Sandinista Front started its political career with the aura of the romantic guerrillas who toppled a notorious dictator. Liberation theologians, such as Peruvian Gustavo Gutiérrez and former Franciscan priest Leonardo Boff, as well as left-wing intellectuals like Brazilian Paulo Freire provided academic and other support to what was promoted as the world's first socialist Christian revolution.
With the initial sympathy of the U.S. administration of then-president Jimmy Carter, the Sandinistas organized successful literacy campaigns, distributed land and gave jobs to a large part of the youth — even if some of the jobs were carrying a gun around as part of an oversized, Soviet-financed “Popular Army.”
The Sandinistas' increasing ties to Cuba gradually drove out moderate allies, and after private properties were seized, opponents imprisoned and the economy completely controlled by the state, the Sandinistas openly aligned themselves with the Marxist bloc.
In this context, this year's electoral battle between Ortega and Bolaños was a personal one. In the early 1980s, Ortega ordered the “nationalization” of Bolaños' home and some of his businesses. When the businessman protested, he was jailed.
But the most formidable enemy the Sandinistas made was the Catholic Church. On the advice of liberation theologians — whose interpretation of the Gospels as a message of socialist revolution rather than of transcendental salvation was specifically condemned by the Vatican in 1984 — the Sandinistas tried to create a “Popular Church” by setting up Christian front organizations that were critical of Church authorities and supportive of Sandinista policies.
“Their effort to manipulate the Catholic faith and to turn the people against Cardinal Miguel Obando Bravo was probably their worst political miscalculation,” said Msgr. Bismark Carvallo, who during the 1980s endured constant hostility from the Sandinistas for his role as director of the Catholic Radio network.
“Nicaraguans, who are in a large majority devout Catholics, were shocked when the Sandinistas tried to manipulate the Holy Father's visit,” Carvallo added.
Carvallo was referring to efforts by the Sandinistas to force Pope John Paul II to support the “Popular Church,” and to silence his criticism of the revolutionary regime's oppression of the Church, during his 1983 visit. These manipulations, which reached their peak at an outdoor Mass in Managua where Sandinista supporters drowned out the Holy Father's words with revolutionary chants, sparked worldwide criticism.
During his second visit to the country in 1996, the Pope commented on the notably more friendly reception accorded him.
Said the Pope, “This visit takes place under very different circumstances from the former. Those who remember my visit of 13 years ago, know that the Pope came to Nicaragua and celebrated holy Mass, but could never really meet the people. Since then, many things have changed in Nicaragua.”
In recognition of how much popular support was lost by the Sandinistas' anti-Catholic attitude, a mellowed Ortega dressed in casual wear and promised respect for the Church and for democracy in the presidential election that also took place in 1996. Nonetheless, Alemán won easily.
During Ortega's third bid to win a democratic victory, the Sandinistas tried even harder to convince Nicaraguans they had changed. Ortega vowed to support a market economy, friendship with the United States, and a “close communication” with Cardinal Obando.
Despite his promises, “Ortega was unable to win over his past enemies, especially politicians and businessmen who suffered the Sandinista repression and did everything possible to block him in 1990, 1996 and again this year,” said Adán Silva, a Nicaraguan polit ical analyst.
And, Silva added, while it was true that the U.S. government had used its considerable clout to block Ortega, most commentators have downplayed the crucial role of the Catholic Church.
“Everybody knows that Cardinal Obando, doubtlessly the most popular personality in Nicaragua, has no sympathy whatsoever for the Sandinistas, and he has always made clear that his opinion remains unchanged,” Silva said.
Ortega was so aware of this that his effort to regain the presidency by democratic means featured flowers, fireworks and a crucifix over his pink shirt, and religious rhetoric highlighted with phrases like “love is stronger than hate,” “we will build the promised land,” and “we will promote a truly Christian solidarity.”
Bolaños responded by calling Ortega's softer image “hypocrisy,” repeating time and again that, “We cannot forget the many times [Ortega] said that religion was the opiate of the people.”
The Fateful Mass
Cardinal Obando, who termed Ortega a “snake” in the closing days of the 1996 campaign, criticized the former guerrilla during an outdoor Mass Nov. 1.
“When we vote, we should ask ourselves whether the candidate supports marriage, and a family based on marriage, instead of the tendency to equate true marriage with other forms of union,” the cardinal said during the Mass.
Ortega attended the Mass with Rosario Murillo, with whom he has lived for more than 25 years, although they are not legally married. Bolaños, legally married, also was present.
The cardinal reminded parishioners that Ortega faces unresolved accusations of sexual abuse from his stepdaughter, Zoilamerica Narvaez.
Ortega has denied the accusations. His parliamentary immunity has prevented the case from going to court.
“In electing our candidates we should see if they preach with the testimony of their lives, if they have been exemplary in their families,” the cardinal said.
But after Ortega graciously conceded defeat without challenging the legitimacy of his rival, Bolaños admitted that maybe the Sandinista leader had indeed become a new man and promised to work “respectfully” with the Sandinistas.
The Catholic Church also expressed relief and appreciation of Ortega's decision not to dispute the results. The Nicaraguan bishops' conference issued a short statement praising the electorate for participating and exercising its right to vote, as well as the political parties for “strengthening democracy by participating in such a civic way.”
The document, signed by Bishop Juan Abelardo Mata Guevara of Esteli, general secretary of the conference, also said that “once again our people has demonstrated its profound will to live in peace and work harmoniously in building that peace.”
At a personal level, Cardinal Obando asked his vicar general, Msgr. Eddy Montenegro, to call Ortega and personally congratulate him for peacefully accepting Bolaños' victory.
“Ortega's attitude was very commendable. It was heartwarming to watch him [on national television] greeting his opponent,” Msgr. Montenegro told the Register.
“This was a clear sign that Nicaraguans can go through an electoral process without polarization and violence,” added Cardinal Obando's spokesman. “Now, what the Church expects is to see the winners fulfill their promises on behalf of the people, and the losers to join the effort to bring Nicaragua up on its feet.”
Alejandro Bermúdez is based in Lima, Peru.
(CNS contributed to this report.)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Alejandro Bermúdez ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Hospital Merger Tests Bishops' New Rules DATE: 11/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:MILWAUKEE — Archbishop Rembert Weakland of Milwaukee is awaiting a report from the National Catholic Bioethics Center and other ethicists. It will help him decide whether a new partnership between a local Catholic hospital and another institution that allows sterilization services violates the U.S. bishops' revised health care directives.
At Rome's request, the bishops revised and clarified their Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services in June. Now they say that “Catholic health care organizations are not permitted to engage in immediate material cooperation in actions that are intrinsically immoral, such as abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, and direct sterilization.”
During the June bishops' meeting where the directives were revised, Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk of Cincinnati, the chairman of the committee that wrote the changes, was quoted in news reports as saying that arrangements seeking to circumvent Church prohibitions against abortion and sterilization through the creation of legally separate entities within hospitals would no longer be allowed.
But under a recently announced plan by Columbia-St. Mary's, a partnership sponsored by Columbia Health System and Ascension Health, tubal ligations and vasectomies will be performed at Columbia Center, an independent, 45-bed birthing facility located in Columbia Hospital. No abortions may be performed in Columbia Center under the agreement between the two health systems.
As a result of its partnership with Columbia Health System, Ascension Health has operated Columbia Hospital since Oct. 1. Ascension Health is sponsored by four provinces of the Daughters of Charity and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Nazareth.
The center owns the space it occupies in Columbia Hospital under a condominium arrangement, said Kathy Schmitz, a Columbia-St. Mary's spokesman. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that the third floor of the hospital will be turned into the independent center where sterilizations will be performed, but Schmitz declined to confirm where the center will be physically located.
“It's a completely separate business from Columbia-St. Mary's and Columbia Hospital,” Schmitz said, comparing the arrangement to locating a bank within a grocery store. “They're located at the same site, but they operate and function as separate businesses.”
Schmitz said that as a legal entity, Columbia Center was created by Columbia Health System before the partnership was forged “to respect the guiding principles of both sponsors, and to allow both sponsors to continue to operate in a manner consistent with their own beliefs.”
She said the relationships among the parties involved comply with the section of the U.S. bishops' Ethical and Religious Directives that limit participation by the Catholic partner to what is in accord with the moral principles governing cooperation.
Archbishop Pilarczyk declined to comment on the Columbia Center project, saying that it is the responsibility of the local bishop to determine if a specific health care arrangement represents material cooperation with immoral actions, or gives rise to scandal.
“The archbishop does not wish to comment on the Milwaukee hospital situation because it is outside his jurisdiction and responsibility as a bishop,” said Dan Andriacco, Archbishop Pilarczyk's spokesman. “He notes that No. 71 of the revised Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services makes it clear that it is up to the local ordinary to apply the directives: ‘The diocesan bishop has final responsibility for assessing and addressing issues of scandal, considering not only the circumstances in his local diocese but also the regional and national implications of his decision.’”
The revised directives, which were drafted at the behest of the Vatican and approved by the bishops in a 209-7 vote, give local bishops the authority to approve such partnerships, or to grant a nihil obstat (expressing no objection on moral grounds) in cases where one of the sponsors is a religious pontifical institute.
Archbishop Weakland has known about the Columbia Center project for months, his spokesman, Jerry Topczewski said, but because Ascension Health is operated by a religious congregation that reports directly to Rome, the archbishop's role will involve the nihil obstat. This means that he will not stand in the way of the project if it meets the demands of the congregation's superiors, Topczewski said.
The archbishop received final legal documents on the arrangement the week of Nov. 4, but has insisted on seeing reports from the National Catholic Bioethics Center and other ethicists who have been consulted, he said.
The spokesman added that Archbishop Weakland has been told that all the proper consultations have taken place and that the National Catholic Bioethics Center has reviewed the proposal, “providing assurance that all of the ethical and religious directives for Catholic health care services have been strictly followed and will remain intact under this new operating structure.”
The National Catholic Bioethics Center declined to comment to the Register on the Columbia Center project.
Judgment Call
Father Michael Place, president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association of the United States, an organization of more than 2,000 Catholic health care organizations, said that although his group leaves judgments on such partnerships to local bishops, the Columbia-St. Mary's agreement appears to constitute acceptable cooperation.
If the non-Catholic partner in such an arrangement chooses to create a separate, independently managed and licensed health-care institution and there is no mingling of revenue, Father Place said, then the moral question becomes how the Catholic party is cooperating in evil.
“I think the moral analysis would suggest that if those facts are correct, most orthodox moral theologians I have read would conclude that does not involve a violation.”
He said arrangements that provide for sterilizations to be done at a location that is not jointly owned or managed by a Catholic partner are neither unusual nor common.
But even when cooperative agreements are morally licit, the bishops' directives say they may be refused because of the possibility of scandal.
Father Place said scandal is “a very nuanced theological category” that has to be evaluated in the context of the particular arrangement.
The Ethical and Religious Directives, he said, state that a Catholic partner can be in a relationship with someone who does what the Church considers wrong provided “we are not involved in the doing of the evil.” The bishops have said this does not apply in the case of abortion, he added.
Creation of the independent Columbia Center may have exempted the Catholic sponsors of Columbia-St. Mary's from material cooperation in sterilization services, but they still face a problem of scandal, according to a moral theologian who serves on several hospital boards.
Father Thomas Lynch, a lecturer at St. Augustine's Seminary in Toronto, said the sheer proximity of the center to Columbia Hospital, which is part of the Columbia-St. Mary's cooperative agreement, could cause scandal because of the potential for misunderstanding. To remedy that, he said the Catholic partners in Columbia-St. Mary's will have to make clear that they do not agree with what is going on in the center.
“We have to be really careful to uphold Catholic teaching obviously and vocally in this area.”
He cited as an example a situation in Toronto in which a Catholic hospital took over another hospital that had had an abortion clinic within it. For the clinic to continue, he said, it had to re-establish itself as a completely separate entity.
“Before the public hospital joined the Catholic hospital, it severed its relationship with this abortuary … If it is incorporated separately, we are not materially cooperating; however, we must make very, very clear what is being done.”
In contrast, Michael O'Dea of the Christus Medicus Foundation, which was formed to educate people about the need for Christ-centered health care, thinks arrangements like the one at Columbia-St. Mary's violate Church teaching.
O'Dea said the Milwaukee arrangement appears similar to a method many Catholic health plans have used to provide coverage for abortion, sterilization, and contraception services by contracting with a third-party administrator. “Because they don't touch the money, they have been able to convince the bishops that this is okay,” he said.
Added O'Dea, “They can say they don't have Catholic people doing this or their organization is not doing this, but when they set up one of these bypass mechanisms or arrangements … I don't understand why the bishops can't see that that is cooperation in evil. We do not help facilitate people to get sterilized. To me, they are clearly doing this in those situations.”
Catch 22?
When Catholic institutions get involved in arrangements that allow services prohibited by the Church to continue, said Msgr. William B. Smith, professor of moral theology at St. Joseph's Seminary, Yonkers, N.Y., “You really have to put on a new set of eyeglasses, because what you have is a change in words without a change in reality. They can say this doesn't happen on their property or by their staff, as far as we know, but the problem is you have merged or partnered yourself with someone who has this ‘separate little entity.’”
Msgr. Smith added that the revised U.S. bishops' directives on Catholic health care institutions do not adequately address such issues. That leaves their interpretation to moral theologians, he said, “which puts us exactly back to what got us in trouble in the first place.”
Judy Roberts writes from Millbury, Ohio.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Judy Roberts ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Fed Ruling Might Kill Suicide Laws DATE: 11/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — Advocates for terminally ill patients are breathing easier in Oregon.
That's because U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft ruled Nov. 6 that Oregon doctors cannot end people's lives with drugs already illegal under federal law.
“I am today restoring a judgment made by the Drug Enforcement Administration that narcotics and other dangerous drugs controlled by federal law may not be legally used to assist suicide or for euthanasia in any part of our nation,” Ashcroft said.
The decision leaves Oregon's physician assisted law on the books but will render it ineffective. The new policy will become effective within weeks when it is officially recorded in the Federal Register.
However, Ashcroft's move will have to withstand a court challenge. U.S. District Judge Robert Jones in Portland granted a temporary restraining order Nov. 8 against Ashcroft's decision, at the request of Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers, three terminally ill patients, a doctor and a pharmacist. The restraining order will remain in effect until Nov. 20, during which time hearings in the matter will be scheduled.
Bishop Joseph Fiorenza, president of the U.S. bishop's conference, applauded Ashcroft's move.
“Suicide among the sick and elderly is not a medical practice,” said Bishop Fiorenza. “It is a tragic public health problem that deserves our concern and caring response.”
Dr. Gregory Hamilton, executive director of the Portland-based Physicians for Compassionate Care, also hailed Ashcroft's decision.
“It protects innocent patients and requires Oregon doctors to treat patients the same way doctors in the other 49 states do,” Hamilton told the Register.
Oregon's physician-assisted suicide law took effect Oct. 27, 1997, after two consecutive victories in state referendums. The Portland Oregonian reported that doctors have reported 70 cases of assisted suicide since its inception.
Ashcroft's ruling reverses former Attorney General Janet Reno's 1998 interpretation of the 1968 Controlled Substances Act, allowing doctors to prescribe drugs such as barbiturates specifically to cause a patient's death.
Most Oregon officials oppose Ashcroft's decision.
Gov. John Kitzhaber called the move an “unprecedented intrusion” in Oregon's ability to regulate medicine, and Oregon Attorney General Myers launched the court action to overturn it.
Said Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, “It's going to leave doctors frightened about the prospect of sanctions for aggressively treating pain.” Wyden last year stalled legislation in the U.S. Senate that would have had the same effect as Ashcroft's decision.
But not all politicians in the Beaver State are lining up in support of the assisted-suicide law.
“There's no doubt this is a political issue for some,” said Sen. Gordon Smith, a Republican. “For me, it's an issue of principle upon which I'm prepared to stake my political career.”
Smith also disagreed with Wyden's comments about pain management.
“My mother died of the most painful kind of pancreatic cancer, and her physician along with hospice kept her comfortable, at peace and without pain,” said Smith. “They did it with federal drugs and in accordance with the law.”
Assisted-suicide activists promised to go to court over Ashcroft's decision.
“Our clients would be irreparably harmed if this action were allowed to become effective,” said Barbara Coombs Lee, president of Compassion in Dying. “We will vigorously oppose this unwarranted, heavy-handed federal intrusion.”
But Hamilton of Physicians for Compassionate Care said that individual states cannot exempt themselves from federal law, especially when they try to encourage doctors to end patient's lives.
“It's not medical to kill people. It's medical to treat people,” he said.
Hamilton also predicted that Ashcroft's decision would hold up in court, citing a May case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that there was no special exemption allowed under current federal law for marijuana under a law passed by California voters in 1996. “They tried the same argument with medical marijuana,” he said, “but the U.S. Supreme Court said that states don't have the right to disobey the Controlled Substances Act.”
Hamilton also noted that Ashcroft's support for the aggressive use of drugs to treat pain will likely help patients get appropriate palliative care.
“Attorney General John Ashcroft sent a letter to Physicians for Compassionate Care to reassure doctors that aggressive pain management will be protected,” Hamilton said. The attorney general sent a similar letter to the Oregon Medical Association.
Ashcroft stated, “I want the nation's doctors to know that under this decision they will have no reason to fear that prescription of controlled substances to control pain will lead to increased scrutiny by the DEA, even when high doses of painkilling drugs are necessary and even when dosages needed to control pain may increase the risk of death.”
In his 1998 ad limina address to the bishops of California, Nevada and Hawaii, Pope John Paul II spoke about the dangers of legalizing physician-assisted suicide.
Said the Pope, “The Church offers a truly vital service to the nation when she awakens public awareness to the morally objectionable nature of campaigns for the legalization of physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia. Euthanasia and suicide are grave violations of God's law; their legalization introduces a direct threat to the persons least capable of defending themselves and it proves most harmful to the democratic institutions of society.”
Joshua Mercer writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: Doctors would be unable to prescribe death ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Why He's Bombing Afghanistan DATE: 11/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:United Airlines pilot Mark MacKenzie, a 767 captain, lost plenty on Sept. 11.
Mark MacKenzie
His close friend Jason Dahl, the man he shared a desk with at United's Denver offices, was captain of the 767 that crashed in Pennsylvania. Reduced flights meant MacKenzie was demoted to smaller planes. Then the husband and father of four was shipped Nov. 7 to the Middle East to fly F-16s as a member of the Air Force National Guard. Three days before he left, MacKenzie spoke with Register correspondent Wayne Laugesen.
Are you angry about the loss of Jason Dahl? Do you wonder how God could let something like this happen to your close friend and colleague?
No, I'm not angry about it. I'm asked this frequently: “How can a living God let things like this happen?” Well, God would allow it precisely because he loves us. God gave us free will, and with that comes the ability to choose between good and evil. There were men on that plane who chose evil. They may have thought this is what Allah wanted them to do, but they were mistaken. Perhaps their idea of good had been twisted, but they chose evil. Do I get mad about this? No. I say, “Thank you God, for choice, so we can choose good.”
You're going off into hostile territory to fly an F-16 — an advanced war machine designed to kill people and destroy their property. The Catholic faith values life, order and peace. How do you reconcile your Catholic faith with your role as a sophisticated warrior capable of dropping bombs that can kill hundreds, or even thousands of humans, at once?
There is such as thing as a just war.
I like to compare my role in the F-16 to the role of a police officer carrying a gun on hostile streets. A police officer sees someone committing a crime and threatening people, and he raises his gun and says “drop it,” and then makes an arrest. If the same criminal refuses to drop it, the police officer is probably going to shoot him in order to save the lives of innocent victims.
Osama bin Laden killed people when he orchestrated the bombing of the Word Trade Center in 1993, and when he financed and organized subsequent terrorist acts up to and including the events of Sept. 11. We know now that this man is not going to stop killing. He's not going to obey our order to drop the gun. I'm the police officer who now has to raise his gun in order to kill the bad guy, if the opportunity were to arise, in order to stop him from killing again.
The bad part is that when I drop a bomb from 25,000 feet and it hits the wrong target, say the Chinese Embassy in Kosovo — because intelligence messed up on the ground — then innocent people die. And that's an unfortunate function of modern warfare that we do everything possible to avoid.
Yes, but Scripture, and the Catholic Church, teaches us that all life is created by God and is therefore valuable and sacred. How can you drop bombs that kill, even if you're dropping them only on the enemy?
These people are targeting innocents. The only way to stop them is to get rid of them, and we need to let the world know that we won't tolerate murderous aggression precisely because life is sacred.
Yes, Osama bin Laden was created by God, but he apparently decided to turn away from God. The rabid dog was also created by God, and when you kill a rabid dog, you're killing. But you're killing so that others might live. Osama bin Laden may be an evil killer, but he's still a creation of God and is no less valuable of a human being to God than are other human beings. And that's why even he can be forgiven by God.
When Jesus was on the cross, one of the sinners on a cross mocked Jesus. The other sinner asked Jesus to forgive him, and Jesus did so right on the spot. Osama bin Laden can be forgiven. But right now he's killing people and we have a moral obligation to stop him.
When you're up there in an F-16, putting your life and the lives of others on the line, do you pray? Do you talk to God at all during that time?
No, honestly I don't. I'm too busy just trying to keep the plane in the air and carrying out the mission. I can't pray while I'm doing that. But in 1991 I saw a fellow pilot hit the water in the Atlantic Ocean, near Atlantic City (N.J.). He hit the water at 600 knots and the plane disinte-grated. He just pulled too many Gs (G forces) and lost his ability to control the plane. We were flying so low that he didn't have time to eject before hitting the water.
I did some praying on the way home that day.
Do you think the Taliban have any just complaints against the United States and our culture?
The saddest thing about all of this is that we don't understand Osama bin Laden better than we do, and that we don't understand much about Arabic culture. We, as a nation, haven't spent the time and the money to understand them. Afghanistan is the most impoverished country in the world, and we know very little about it.
Should the Catholic Church have been doing more to reach out to impoverished Muslims in the Middle East? Should we do more now?
The ultimate goal of Christians should not be to make a kingdom on earth, but to accept the gift of the Kingdom that awaits us in heaven. So the Church isn't here to solve all problems on earth, but to help us stay in relationship with God. Nevertheless, Catholics do a tremendous amount to better distribute God's gifts throughout the world. But it's not possible, in a free world, to fix all that is wrong.
Tell me a little about your friend Jason Dahl, who was attacked by hijackers while flying his 767 over Pennsylvania.
I went to Jason's memorial service in Littleton (Colo.), and it was amazing how important he was to so many people.
Friends and neighbors all talked about him as the guy you called if you had a problem, because he could fix anything — your car, your plumbing, whatever. He was so devoted to his wife and son that the people from the scheduling office in Chicago knew him personally, and they came to the service. They knew him because he was always hanging out in the scheduling office trying to finesse his schedule in such a manner that he could optimize the amount of time he could spend with his family.
At one point during the service, his 15-year-old son got up and gave a talk in front of 2,000 people. When he said “good night, Dad,” there wasn't a dry eye in the place. Jason Dahl had a wonderful life.
On Nov. 11, just days before leaving for the Middle East, you got up in front of your fellow Catholic parishioners to tell them of the need to tithe in a strict way. You've been demoted and your job is on the line, with United and all other airlines in jeopardy. People are seeing their loved ones — including you — being shipped off to the Middle East. The welfare of the national economy is in precarious limbo. Unemployment is rising, and a growing number of people in your church are losing their high-tech jobs. Is this an appropriate time to be asking people to give away 10% of their earnings?
Yes, it's a particularly opportune time. Sept. 11 was a wakeup call for all Americans. It made people say, “I'm glad to be alive.” It made people give thanks for simply being able to come home at the end of the day and hug their spouses and children.
Extraordinary events lead ordinary people to do extraordinary things.
I'm seeing a country full of people who are taking inventory of all that God has given them and saying “thanks.” I've flown about 60 hours for United since Sept. 11, and you know what I'm seeing for the first time ever? People are being nice to flight attendants. They're being courteous, polite and respectful.
Good can come out of these tragic times. In fact, greatness can come out of these times. It's an excellent time to start tithing, because if you still have anything, anything at all, you can afford to give.
To whom much is given, much is expected.
Wayne Laugesen writes from Boulder, Colorado.
----- EXCERPT: Pilot lost a friend and job status Sept. 11, but fight isn't personal ----- EXTENDED BODY: Wayne Laugesen ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: L.A. Church Vandalism Draws Catholics and Muslims Together DATE: 11/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:LOS ANGELES — The vandalism of three Los Angeles-area Catholic churches in late October appears to have been the work of a single delusional Islamic radical. Emad Ibrahim Saad, 35, has been charged with a “hate crime” for allegedly defacing several statues and leaving Islamic literature in the churches that were vandalized.
But if Saad hoped to drive a wedge between Catholics and Muslims by his alleged actions, his plan appears to have backfired. A priest at one of the defaced churches and a spokesman for a nearby mosque agree that the incident has served only to draw their flocks closer together.
Three churches were hit by the vandalism, said Anna Maria Castro, a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The churches of St. Raphael and St. Anselm in Los Angeles suffered only minor damage, but at St. Augustine Church in nearby Culver City, “a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary was decapitated,” Castro added.
At St. Augustine's, a statue of St. Rita was also damaged, and a statue of Blessed Junipero Serra was cut off at the feet and deposited on the steps of the nearby King Fahd Mosque. As well, Castro said, “Some Muslim magazines were found at the scene.” The attack took place during Sunday evening Mass Oct. 28.
Saad is being held on $70,000 bail on charges stemming from the acts of vandalism at St. Augustine's.
He will face a preliminary hearing in Los Angeles Nov. 20.
Investigators also suspect Saad is responsible for hitting statues of the Virgin Mary with stones at St. Anselm's and St. Raphael's on Oct. 24 and 25 respectively, and of vandalism at an unnamed Los Angeles tabernacle on Oct. 30. But he faces charges only for the acts he allegedly committed at St. Augustine's because the evidence against him is strongest in that incident the Los Angeles Times reported Nov. 7.
At the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City, the steps were damaged when the mangled statue of Blessed Junipero Serra was dragged over them. Usman Madha, the spokesman for the mosque, which is located near St. Augustine Church, was quick to condemn the vandalism. “I know the fathers at St. Augustine's,” he said. “Nobody should do anything like this anywhere, not just there,” Madha added.
Police believe that Saad is a member of the King Fahd Mosque, the Los Angeles Times reported, but Madha denied that. In fact, he said, the suspect had previously caused trouble at the mosque.
Madha added that Saad was delusional and a man whose “sense of reality is lost.” Not long ago, “he showed up [at the mosque] and started accusing the director of murdering his [Saad's] children,” explained Madha. After he was removed by security, Saad returned at a later time “disguised as a woman,” but again “security caught and shooed him away.”
Detective Lynn Hunter of the Los Angeles Police Department's Pacific Division was even more blunt about the suspect's mental state. “He's nuts,” she said of Saad.
Hunter also said that the Islamic literature found at the crime scene had been stolen by Saad from a local mosque.
Echoes of the Taliban
Usman Madha said Saad's alleged vandalism violates the fundamental tenets of Islam. “The Koran is specific that you don't destroy the statues … that other people believe in,” he said.
However, Saad is not alone in his hatred for non-Muslim religious artworks. In March, the Taliban in Afghanistan destroyed several ancient statues of Buddha, claiming they were insulting to Islam.
The international community and many Muslim clerics condemned those actions. “Whether it's the Taliban or this lunatic,” said Madha, “people who commit such acts have no place in the civilized world.”
Mahda's greatest concern is that Saad could have driven a wedge between local Catholics and Muslims. “What he tried to do was create a rift between Catholics and Muslims,” said Madha, who attended Catholic school and whose wife is Catholic. “Thank God that did not happen.”
Most people understood the vandalism was not representative of Islam, Madha said. He added that the incident actually strengthened the relationship between local Muslims and Catholics.
“I agree with that 100%,” said Father Kevin Nolan, the administrator of St. Augustine Church. “Usman [Madha] came over and apologized profusely for what happened,” Father Nolan said, which was “really helpful for our people.”
Madha was already well known at St. Augustine Church, and gave several talks at the church on Islam in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
Good From Evil
Father Nolan said even the children at the church's school have responded positively to the acts of vandalism. Although “it's difficult for them to see the broken images,” he said, “the school children are praying for the perpetrator.”
The damaged statues cannot be repaired until the FBI concludes its investigation of the incident as an alleged hate crime. In the meantime, Father Nolan said, the damaged images provide a powerful source of meditation: “The perpetrator cut off the hands and feet,” he noted, “and some in the parish have commented: ‘Aren't we supposed to be the hands and feet [of the Church]?’”
Summing up the response in the aftermath of the vandalism incident, Father Nolan said, “Grace is very much present.”
Madha also sees a great deal of good coming from the incident, in terms of the improved relationship between Muslims and Catholics. “Sometimes,” he said, “God works in mysterious ways.”
Andrew Walther writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Andrew Walther ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 11/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:Former Catholic School Student Volunteers for Taliban
“I'm willing to kill the Americans. I will kill every American that I see in Afghanistan. And I'll kill every American soldier that I see in Pakistan,” Junaid told a British television correspondent.
The 26-year-old son of Pakistani immigrants said his anti-American anger began when he was the only Muslim child at the Catholic school he attended in New York. He said he always felt left out at the school and said his grandfather instilled in him the belief that “your loyalty is with Islam.”
Court Upholds Cross Burning as Free Speech
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In a 4-3 ruling, the court threw out convictions against three people in two cross-burning cases, the wire service reported.
“Under our system of government, people have the right to use symbols to communicate. They patriotically wave the flag or burn it in protest; they may reverently worship the cross or burn it as an expression of bigotry,” said the ruling written by Justice Donald W. Lemons.
Virginia Attorney General Randolph A. Beales, who plans to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, said, “Cross burning with the intent to intimidate is a form of domestic terrorism, which is intolerable in a free society.”
Bush and Putin Discussed Meaning of Cross
DRUDGE REPORT, Nov. 5 — President George W. Bush and Russian leader Vladimir Putin discussed the importance of a cross that Putin's mother had given him, the Internet news service reported.
In a meeting of the two men last summer, Putin described how a worker found the cross in the ruins of a house fire, even before Putin could ask him to look for it. “It was as if something meant for me to have the cross,” said Putin, who had the object blessed on a visit to the Holy Land and has taken to wearing it.
Putin “basically seemed he was saying there was a higher power,” Bush told Peggy Noonan, a former speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan. The president also told the Russian president, “I think you judge a person on something other than politics. I think it's important for me and you to look for the depth of a person's soul and character.”
Noonan relates the incident in her new book about the Reagan years, When Character Was King.
Lambs of Christ Priest Reports to Federal Prison
LIFESITE CANADA
The priest was sentenced for criminal contempt for violating an order to stay at least 60 feet away from an abortion clinic in Buffalo, N.Y.
The 71-year-old priest, a retired U.S. Army officer, had volunteered to serve as a chaplain to troops in Afghanistan, the pro-life Internet site noted.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Pro-Lifers Condemn Breast Cancer Group's Funding of Planned Parenthood DATE: 11/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:LOUISVILLE, Colo. — When Laura Lightsey moved to the United States from Argentina in 1989, she was shocked.
“I couldn't believe abortion is legal here,” said Lightsey. “In Argentina it's illegal. It's murder.”
Then came another shock. The Dallas-based Susan G. Komen Foundation, an organization she thought was dedicated to saving the lives of breast cancer patients such as herself, gives money to Planned Parenthood — the largest abortion money-maker in the United States.
Pro-lifers say that the foundation's link to Planned Parenthood is particularly disturbing, in light of the growing body of research suggesting abortion can cause breast cancer.
Lightsey, a woman in her thirties, was diagnosed last spring with breast cancer and had a double mastectomy. She has known most of her adult life she was a likely breast cancer victim, because it runs in her family. And she has now become familiar with what she calls an “enormous” breast cancer support network in the United States, in which the Susan G. Komen Foundation plays a key role.
Komen, whose picture was on the wall of the oncology department where Lightsey was treated, was the sister of Nancy Goodman Brinker, who was appointed in May by President Bush as the U.S. ambassador to Hungary. Brinker founded the Susan G. Komen foundation after her sister died of breast cancer in 1980. The foundation has 70,000 volunteers with branches in 110 U.S. cities.
The foundation has raised more than $300 million in an effort to eradicate breast cancer through early detection, treatment and medical research.
Conflict of Interest?
But the Komen Foundation has come under fire from pro-life activists who don't understand how the organization can work so hard to save lives, and at the same time give substantial grants to Planned Parenthood. Recently, the foundation has given grants to Planned Parenthood chapters in Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio and Michigan.
“It's an absolute conflict of interest,” said Karen Malec, a volunteer with the Illinois-based Coalition on Abortion/ Breast Cancer. “They're dedicated to eradicating breast cancer, yet they give money to an organization that provides abortion — which is one of the known causes of breast cancer. Planned Parenthood markets itself as a servant of the poor, but it serves low-income women about as well as a tobacco company providing screenings for lung cancer to the poor.”
Lightsey said the grants to Planned Parenthood offend her, even though she had no knowledge of medical research that links abortion to breast cancer.
“It's completely offensive,” she said. “Here's an organization that raises money to save lives, yet they give some of that money to an organization that kills the unborn.”
Linda Frame, an advanced oncology nurse and senior clinical advisor for the Susan G. Komen Foundation, says grants are given to Planned Parenthood because the organization provides mammograms and other forms of breast cancer screening to women without health insurance.
But, said Lightsey, “There are many other organizations that provide those services, so they don't have to give money to an abortion provider.”
Frame admits that the Komen Foundation has no trouble finding other organizations, such as branches of the American Cancer Society, county hospitals and public health clinics, that provide free breast cancer screenings. But she sees no reason not to fund Planned Parenthood, because she doesn't believe that abortion leads to breast cancer.
“Our review of recent scientific literature indicates there is no conclusive evidence to suggest that abortion increases a woman's risk for developing breast cancer,” Frame said.
She cites four studies — one from Denmark, one from Iowa, one from the Netherlands, and a U.S. hospital-based study — that lead her to believe abortion does not lead to breast cancer.
Malec countered that Susan G. Komen Foundation officials are ignoring overwhelming evidence to the contrary, simply because they don't want to be in the politically difficult position of telling women that abortion may cause breast cancer. Malec said 27 out of 35 major studies have demonstrated an association between abortion and breast cancer.
Known Risks
Beyond debate, the pro-lifer adds, is the fact that scientists know that postponement of the first full-term pregnancy increases the risk of breast cancer. That means women who remain childless because of abortion automatically assume a higher risk.
“Dr. Brian McMahon of Harvard University published a landmark study in 1970 that has never been disproved or refuted,” said Malec. Dozens of subsequent studies, she continued, back up McMahon's findings.
McMahon's study found that women who postpone their first pregnancy experience a greater risk of breast cancer each year after the age of 18.
“When you have breast cancer, you're told over and over again that one of the three leading risk factors is waiting to have the first child until you're over 30,” said Malec. “Having no children at all is an even greater risk factor.”
Malec noted a passage from the book Breast Cancer, by Dr. Chris Kahlenborn, which states, “Several papers have noted that women who have had an abortion at a young age or had taken oral contraceptive pills early in life, developed a more aggressive type of cancer.”
“And that's what Planned Parenthood does,” said Malec. “They provide abortions, abortifacients and contraceptives mostly in order to delay or completely avoid that first full-term pregnancy. Medical scientists and most of the studies on this subject conclude that a delay in the first full-term pregnancy increases the risk of breast cancer.”
Frame concedes that dozens of studies show a link between abortion, or the delay of a first full-term pregnancy, and breast cancer. But she suspects the findings are flawed because of what she terms “reporting bias.”
Most of the studies, she explains, depend on women filling out forms and confessing to the question of whether they've had an abortion.
She says healthy women, who have not been diagnosed with breast cancer, are more likely to lie or forget a past abortion when filling out surveys for studies.
“Someone diagnosed with cancer, who is fighting for her life, is going to fill out that questionnaire as truthfully as possible thinking her life may depend on it,” Frame said.
But Malec said she doubts the foundation would be so cavalier about a suspected cause of breast cancer if it involved a less politically sensitive subject than abortion.
Concluded Malec, “The Susan G. Komen Foundation needs to put aside its ideology in favor of women's health by discontinuing its funding of Planned Parenthood.”
Wayne Laugesen writes from Boulder, Colorado.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Wayne Laugesen ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 11/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:Italian Minister Plays Down Threat of Vatican Attack
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Nov. 5 — Italy's Interior Minister played down fears that the Vatican might be the target of a terrorist attack, but said Italy is on the highest alert against possible threats. “We have said from the beginning that Italy, since it hosts the Pope, is a strong symbol of the Christian world and, as a symbol, it is a target at risk,” said Claudio Scajola.
Earlier, an Italian Interior Ministry undersecretary voiced concern over a possible terrorist attack, saying the Vatican was “the No. 1 target” in Italy. “There is a real and serious threat,” said Alfredo Mantovano.
Cardinal Dismisses Speculation of Rome Appointment
Cardinal George, who lived in Rome as provincial of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, told the Chicago daily that a curial position would not hold much appeal for him. “It's a very hard job over there because the bishop is a pastor, and over there you don't have people, you just have paper. You're an office man. No matter how romantic it sounds, you just take care of an office, and that isn't much fun.”
Two Former Vatican Officials Charged with Art Fraud
The case rests on whether the works are fake, genuine or wrongly attributed. They may belong to the artists' schools.
Msgr. Basso said that he wanted to sell his collection — which was reportedly left to him by fellow clergymen and noblewomen to whom he acted as spiritual advisor — to raise money for a hospital. His lawyer said that unscrupulous people exploited the priest's naiveté. Experts consulted by Msgr. Basso said the Michelangelo piece of St. John the Baptist was genuine.
Columnist Clarifies Greatest Offense to Catholics
NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE
Appointed
Saturday, Nov. 3
E Bishop Jorge Gómez Serna as bishop of Magangue, Colombia.
E Archbishop Antonio Moreno Casamitjana of Concepción, Chile, as a member of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
E Legionay Father Alvaro Corcuera Martínez del Rió as a consultor of the Congregation for Bishops.
E Bishop Joseph Galante, coadjutor of Dallas, as a member, and Msgr. Francis Maniscalco, communications secretary of the United States Catholic Bishops' Conference, as a consultor of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.
Tuesday, Nov. 6
E Archbishop Agostino Marchetto as secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples.
Wednesday, Nov. 7
E Father Stephen Rotluanga as bishop of Aizawl, India.
E Bishop Victor Pérez Rojas as bishop of San Fernando de Apure, Venezuela.
Met with
Saturday, Nov. 3
E Archbishop Manuel Monteiro de Castro, apostolic nuncio in Spain and the Principality of Andorra.
E Archbishop Anthony Soter Fernandez of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on his ad limina visit, which heads of dioceses make every five years to review their diocese with the Pope and Vatican officials.
E Archbishop Nicholas Chia of Singapore, on his ad limina visit.
E Bishop James Soon Cheong of Melaka-Johor, Malaysia, on his ad limina visit.
E Participants in a pilgrimage promoted by the “Schutzen” Association. ECardinals Opilio Rossi, Giuseppe Caprio, Antonio Innocenti, Paul Augustin Mayer, Alfons Maria Stickler, Angelo Felici, Giovanni Canestri, Antonio Mariá Javierre Ortas, José Sánchez, Fiorenzo Angelini and Luigi Poggi.
Monday, Nov. 5
E Rudolf Schuster, president of the Slovak Republic.
Tuesday, Nov. 6
E Cardinal Camillo Ruini, Archbishop Cesare Nosiglia and Bishops Enzo Dieci, Armando Brambilla, Vincenzo Apicella, Salvatore Fisichella and Luigi Moretti.
E Cardinal Adam Maida and members of the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center of Washington, D.C.
Wednesday, Nov. 7
E Archbishop George Panikulam, apostolic nuncio in Honduras.
E Cardinal Camillo Ruini, Bishop Vincenzo Apicella and two priests of Santa Maria Mater Dei, a Roman parish.
E Four members of the bishops' conference of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei on their ad limina visit.
Thursday, Nov. 8
E Three members of the bishops' conference of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei on their ad limina visit.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Trusting a Love That Will Never Fail DATE: 11/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:Register Summary
Christians can be joyfully confident in God despite the “muddy river” of their sinfulness and failings, Pope John Paul asserted during his Nov. 7 general audience. God's goodness, merciful love, and faithfulness “express a bond that will never be broken throughout the flow of generations.”
Addressing 8,000 pilgrims in the Paul VI Audience Hall, the Pope continued his series of talks on the Liturgy of the Hours by focusing on Psalm 100. The five-verse hymn of praise and thanksgiving crystallizes “the intimate reality” of God, he said. It also stands as a sort of creed that affirms basic truths: The Lord is God, the Lord is our creator, we are his people, the Lord is good, his love is eternal, his faithfulness has no end.
The Pope noted that the brief psalm uses at least seven strong verbs to call believers to praise and serve God, underscoring “the urgent call to prayer.”
Jewish tradition has entitled the hymn of praise we have just proclaimed “Psalm for the Todah” — that is, for thanksgiving in liturgical song. This makes it especially appropriate for singing at Morning Prayer. In the few verses of this joyful hymn, we can identify three significant elements that make it spiritually fruitful for use by the Christian community at prayer.
Come and Praise!
First of all, there is an urgent call to prayer, which is clearly described as liturgical. This becomes obvious if we list the imperative verbs the psalm uses — each combined with its directive for worship. “Shout joyfully … worship the Lord with cries of gladness; come before him with joyful song. Know that the Lord is God…. Enter the Temple gates with praise, its courts with thanksgiving. Give thanks to God, bless his name” (verses 2-4). This is a series of invitations not only to enter the Temple's sacred area through its gates and courts (see Psalm 15:1; 24:3,7-10), but also to sing God's praises joyfully.
It is like a constant thread of praise that is never broken but expresses itself in a continuous profession of faith and love. Rising from the earth to God, this praise at the same time nourishes the spirit of the believer.
The King Is Coming
I would like to make a second small observation, this one about the hymn's very beginning, where the psalmist calls on all the earth to acclaim the Lord (verse 1). Granted, the psalm then focuses its attention on the chosen people. As is usual with the psalms, however — and particularly with those psalms we refer to as “hymns to the Lord King” (Psalms 96-99) — the panorama underlying the praise encompasses the whole universe. The world and history are not at the mercy of chance, chaos or blind necessity. Rather, they are governed by a God who is admittedly mysterious but who also wants human beings to live in stability, through just and authentic relationships. He “is king. The world will surely stand fast, never to be moved. God rules the peoples with fairness. … [He] comes … to govern the world with justice and the peoples with faithfulness” (Psalm 96:10,13).
At the Heart of Praise
Therefore, we are all in the hands of God, who is Lord and King. And we all acclaim him with confidence that this Creator and Father will not allow us to fall from his hands. In this light, we can better appreciate the psalm's third significant element. This is a kind of profession of faith which lies at the center of the praise the psalmist puts on our lips. Expressed through a series of attributes that define the intimate reality of God, this essential creed contains the following affirmations: “The Lord is God, our maker to whom we belong, whose people we are … . Good indeed is the Lord, whose love endures forever, whose faithfulness lasts through every age” (verses 3-5).
Credo
In the first place, there is a renewed confession of faith in the one God, as required by the first commandment of the Decalogue: “I, the Lord, am your God … . You shall not have other gods besides me” (Exodus 20:2,3). This confession appears often in the Bible: “You must now know, and fix in your heart, that the Lord is God in the heavens above and on earth below, and that there is no other” (Deuteronomy 4:39). Then the psalm proclaims faith in God the Creator, who is the source of being and life. Next, expressed in the so-called “covenant formula,” follows the affirmation of Israel's certainty about having been divinely chosen: “Whose people we are, God's well-tended flock” (verse 3). This is a certainty that the faithful of the new people of God make their own — in the awareness that they constitute the flock which the supreme Shepherd of souls leads to heaven's eternal pastures (1 Peter 2:25).
When Words Fail
After proclaiming the one God, the Creator and source of the covenant, the psalmist continues singing his portrait of the Lord with a meditation on three of God's qualities that are often exalted in the psalter: goodness, merciful love (hésed) and faithfulness. These are the three virtues that characterize God's covenant with his people; they express a bond that will never be broken throughout the flow of generations, despite the muddy river of human sins, rebellions and infidelities. With serene confidence in God's love that will never fail, the people of God travel through history with their daily temptations and weaknesses.
And this confidence becomes a hymn for which words are sometimes no longer adequate. As St. Augustine observes: “The more charity increases, the more aware you will become that you were expressing things in words, yet not expressing them. In fact, before savoring certain things, you thought you could use words to speak about God; however, once you began to enjoy the taste, you realized that you are not capable of explaining adequately what you are experiencing. But if you realize that you do not know how to express in words what you are experiencing, should you, perhaps, because of this, be silent and refrain from praising? Absolutely not. Do not be so ungrateful. To him is owed honor, respect, the greatest praise. Listen to the psalm: ‘All the earth, praise the Lord!’ You will understand the joy of all the earth, if you yourself rejoice in the Lord” (Esposizioni sui Salmi III/1, Rome 1993, p. 459).
(Translation by Zenit and Register).
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 11/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:Catholic and Protestant Leaders Take Helm in Belfast
The pair got the necessary support from Unionists and Nationalists after three members of the Alliance Party, which represents Catholics and Protestants, were allowed a temporary re-designation as Unionists. They received more than 70% support in the Northern Ireland Assembly, including unanimous support from the Catholic side of the house.
Bin Laden Calls Conflict a ‘Christian Crusade’
“Muslims in Afghanistan are being subjected to killing, and the Pakistani government is standing beneath the Christian banner,” the letter said. “The world is split into two. Part of it is under the head of infidels Bush [sic], and the other half under the banner of Islam. The Pakistani government has stood under the banner of the cross. Adherents to Islam, this is your day to make Islam victorious.”
The letter was dated Nov. 1, four days after an attack on a Catholic church in Pakistan left 16 people dead.
First British Cathedral Closure Since Reformation Eyed
A dwindling congregation and soaring repair costs have led Bishop Maurice Taylor of Galloway to petition Rome for permission to close the church, which was consecrated in 1957. If the Vatican approves, St. Joseph's Church in Kilmarnock may become the new cathedral of Galloway.
The diocese, at 1,600 years old, is Britain's oldest, but its Catholic population is falling 1% a year.
Chinese ‘Christian’ Sect Spreading to United States
The sect has been one of the subjects of a two-year police campaign against “evil cults,” including Falun Gong. Lightning from the East targets ill-formed Christians with aggressive apologetics and warns of an imminent apocalypse, Time reported.
Last year, a man claiming to be Lightning's coordinator for north China met with a senior aid to a Catholic bishop in Hebei province to try to convert the Catholic leadership there. He failed, and the bishop has warned priests to remain vigilant against the sect.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: EDITORIAL DATE: 11/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:Along with frightening news about terrorist attacks and sad news about war, been we've been inundated with bad news from home. Under cover of the war's smoke, politicians from California to Massachusetts have continued to push radical agendas mandating that employers cover contraceptive and abortion services and giving marriage-like benefits to the usually temporary pairings of homosexual partners.
More bad news is sure to come, but for now let's relish a few items of good news on the culture-of-life front.
Assisted suicide. The tragic Oregon law that turned doctors into killers wasn't merely a local matter. It implicated the federal government as well. In order to prescribe deadly doses of controlled medicines, doctors needed the permission of the U.S. Attorney General.
In the last administration, that office was glad to give the green light. Allowing medicines to kill, of course, runs counter to the very purpose the federal government has in regulating medicines to begin with.
Now, Attorney General John Ashcroft has announced that he will return to a policy in line with the civilized world. Hereforth, the feds are against making doctors participants in the false compassion of mercy killings.
In a letter to Drug Enforcement Administration head Asa Hutchinson, the attorney general demanded the suspension or revocation of the drug licenses of doctors who prescribe death. Ashcroft's move effectively invalidates Oregon's assisted-suicide law.
Post-abortion syndrome. Buried deep in the appropriations bill for the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education that recently passed the Senate, Kathryn Jean Lopez of National Review found an amendment that recognizes the existence of “post-abortion depression and post-abortion psychosis.”
There's good news and bad news about the amendment. But the bad news isn't as significant as the good.
The good news: The amendment asks the National Institutes of Health to “expand and intensify research and related activities . . . with respect to post-abortion depression and post-abortion psychosis.”
The bad news: It has no teeth. The National Institutes of Health can ignore it without fear (and probably will). But the significant thing is that, if it survives and the president signs the bill, post-abortion syndrome will be recognized for the first time federally.
As Vicky Thorn, the founder of Project Rachel, pointed out in the Register, post-abortion syndrome is becoming too big a problem to ignore. She said abortion's “other victims” will lead the way to the defeat of abortion in America.
That's because these women know something abortion's law-makers — who are, after all, mostly men — choose to ignore. Abortion isn't an empowering “choice” that sets women free. It's a deadly decision, usually made in desperation and at the insistence of a baby's father, that haunts a woman for life.
As more and more of these women rise up against the abusive culture of abortion, the more difficult it will be for pro-abortion activists to ignore all the pain they cause.
Catholics needn't lose heart over the steady drumbeat of bad news. Good things continue to happen for the culture of life. With effort and prayer, even better things could be in store.
----- EXCERPT: Good News for Life ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 11/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:Jabez is Just Alright With Me
After reading “Catholic Critics Question Evangelical ‘Prayer of Jabez’ Phenomenon” (Oct. 28-Nov. 3), I wanted to express my disappointment with the comments made in it because of the superficial examination of the “prosperity/-word of faith” movement that it provides.
It's clear from some of the criticisms that the commentators are very unfamiliar with the people they are so quick to condemn; many objections they raise would be easily dispelled if they actually took the time to give the movement a fair hearing.
I myself have had very good results from this type of teaching: I worked my way out of a homeless shelter almost 10 years ago and have had no more than a few days of unemployment since in spite of all kinds of unpredictable factors. And I didn't understand what I did back then until a few years later when I looked objectively at these teachings and realized I had implemented them without explicit knowledge of what I was doing.
Also, consider what a ray of hope this is for people in other countries where the poverty is so bad that the only alternative is to sell your children into slavery or brothels.
Are you sure the motives for this teaching are as bad as you say? Should only Marilyn Manson have any influence or money in our society? Furthermore, I would suppose it is far easier to criticize the “movement” than to take on the highly disciplined, highly consecrated lifestyle it encourages.
Far from being only about crass materialism, I have not heard such lofty and practical application of the Gospels in any church of any denomination as I have heard come from them. I strongly encourage those on your staff who are open-minded enough to study their teachings on the fruit of the spirit, on love and on prayer for themselves because they're quite good.
MICHELE STAFFEN
Pittsburgh
Wakeup Call
Thank you, Ralph Martin, for telling it like it is (“Is a Great Awakening of Conscience at Hand?” Oct. 14-20). How I wish more priests would preach sermons like that on Sunday.
How I wish the people in the pews would go home and think about such sermons instead of turning on the football game. If the World Trade Center disaster didn't trigger mass repentance, revival and prayer, I suspect much worse will happen until we do get on our knees and forsake our idols.
ROSALIE DANCAUSE
Dumfries, Virginia
Cheers for Ben Wiker
Just a quick note to say what an excellent column by Benjamin D.
Wiker titled “Neither Patriot Nor Pacifist, I'm Left With: ‘What to Do?’” (Oct. 14-20).
He says so eloquently what I feel and have been unable to express, and so much more.
Thank you for printing such a fine piece.
MARSHA BRADY
Toledo, Ohio
The Oct. 14-20 column by Benjamin D. Wiker, “Neither Patriot Nor Pacifist, I'm Left With: ‘What do Do?’” impressed me deeply; it touched my soul. It should be required reading — or at least shared, as I intend to do. Then, “out of this evil,” as he writes, “good may come.”
JOHN LONEY
Long Beach, NY
Editor's note: For those who have access to the Internet, Ben Wiker's Oct. 14-20 column — and much of our coverage of the war on terrorism — is available on our Web site, www.ncregister.com.
Doubly Tragic
In these tragic days, would it not be an even greater tragedy if the next baby aborted is the one who was destined to bring an end to the carnage in the world today?
GERARD MCEVOY
Malverne, N.Y.
All God's Children?
In the interview with Chiara Lubich (“Is There Something No Attack Can Destroy?”, Oct. 14-20), I noticed a statement that seems to be popular nowadays with interfaith dialoguers: “We are all children of God.”
Such a declaration makes a mockery of the teachings of the Church on baptism (see the Catechism, Nos. 1265 and 1271, etc.). While any reasonable person would certainly support efforts to be charitable and at peace with those of other religions, nevertheless our bond with non-Christians remains that of God's human creatures created in his image and likeness. Only when we are baptized into Christ do we become adopted children of God, with the privilege of calling Jesus our brother and God our Father. Do we appreciate the magnitude of this gift?
I am a convert from a Jewish family. I was received into the Catholic Church 10 years ago.
MARILYN BOUSSAID
Redondo Beach, California
Irish Ayes
I do not think David Quinn's criticism of the Republic of Ireland is justified (“Ireland Shares America's Hurt, But Offers Little” Oct. 28-Nov. 3). Ireland has done as much for the United States and Canada as they have for Ireland.
President Woodrow Wilson did nothing when Ireland was fighting for its freedom; Canada's seizing control of its foreign affairs and expanding “Dominion Status” to independence did the same for the Irish Free State. Prime Minister W.L. Mackenzie King of Canada did that in 1922 and 1923 in several bouts with British Cabinet Minister Winston Churchill.
Over the years and decades Ireland has contributed troops to U.N. peacekeeping missions and had some 16 killed in Lebanon. The last I read on Irish missions, their troops relieved Canadians of their esteemed Royal 22nd (“Van Doo Can Do”) Regiment in East Timor — protecting Timorese Catholics from terrorism and genocide by Indonesian Muslim extremists. A PBS “Out of Ireland” program reported via RTE News that the Irish foreign minister was opening seaports and airports of the republic to “U.S. forces.”
BOB GORMAN
Chicago
A Time For Healing
Thank you for including Rachel's Vineyard retreats for healing after abortion in your notices of upcoming Catholic retreats (Catholic Planner, Oct. 28-Nov.3). I volunteer with this wonderful organization, and am myself post-abortive.
In the United States, 43% of women, by the time they reach age 45, will have had one or more abortions. We see many women, and couples, on our retreats who have been walking faithfully with God for years, but who carry with them a deep sorrow from one or more abortions in their past.
Knowing of no way to acknowledge and experience their grief, for many people the only way to carry a connection to that lost son or daughter is through lingering feelings of worthlessness, guilt, shame and anger. Often, they express that they feel tentative about entering into a full, loving bond with their current children because of a sense that they are defective as parents. Also, the chronic low-level depression that may result from an abortion can keep a mother from fully entering into the role of active, engaged nurturance of her family that she so desires, or a father from feeling adequate as his family's protector.
On the other hand, one of the most common responses experienced as a result of attending a Rachel's Vineyard weekend retreat, or seeking other support, is a new-found peace and confidence in one's role as a parent, and blessedly deeper family ties.
Sometimes those who have experienced an abortion reject the idea of seeking spiritual and psychological healing because they feel that their negative emotions are simply their cross to bear in this life. They reject the idea of experiencing healing, peace, self-forgiveness and a joyful reconciliation with God about an action they have come to believe was gravely wrong.
The retreat weekend is a way to experience God's will, not our own, about how to carry this cross.
I encourage any of your readers who are post-abortive to seek healing. The Web address of Rachel's Vineyard is www.rachelsvineyard.org; their toll-free number is 1-877-HOPE-4-ME. The Rachel's Vineyard Web site has a page listing the retreat locations and times around the country. Another source for post-abortion reconciliation is Project Rachel, at www.mu.edu/rachel-/projectrachels.html.
LESLIE GRAVES
Spring Green, Wisconsin
Stations of Conversion
Regarding “New Stations of the Cross Catch On” (Nov. 4-10):
I fully agree that the approach of Pope John Paul II can be applied with spiritual benefit to the faithful. The effort on the part of artists and composers of prayers or meditations to be “biblically correct” is laudable.
One hopes that attention would be paid as well to the teachings of the Second Vatican Council and the Holy See with regard to the Jewish people. Otherwise, some may generalize from the involvement of “Temple police” and the Sanhedrin in the arrest and trial of Jesus.
“What happened in Jesus' passion cannot be attributed without distinction to all Jews then alive, nor to Jews today” (Nostra Aetate, No. 4). As the Roman Catechism of 1566 advised, recalling Hebrews 6:6: Any reflection on the Passion should focus on our need for conversion.
FATHER LAWRENCE E. FRIZZELL
South Orange, New Jersey
The writer is director of the Institute of Judaeo-Christian Studies at Seton Hall University.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Divine Table Etiquette? DATE: 11/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:Thanks for the article “Why Manners Matter … and how to teach them to kids” in your Oct. 14-20 issue. It helped me win the ongoing debate my husband and I have had for the past 12 years on the subject of breaking bread at the table.
My grandmother, Annie Van Hasselt, always scolded me, “a good Dutchman breaks his bread!” while removing a butter knife from my hand.
My husband, of Swiss stock, says he has never heard of this rule of etiquette and relegates it to a silly Dutch tradition.
Is there any history to this table manner? Perhaps some advertence to breaking of bread at the last supper?
PATRICIA WOLFORD
Batesville, Indiana
Editor's Note: Readers? Any ideas?
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: We Do Well Always And Everywhere To Give God Thanks DATE: 11/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:Like most Americans, I was taught in grade school that the first Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621 to commemorate the pilgrims' abundant first harvest.
Later I would learn that the pilgrims never repeated this feast, that they knew nothing at all of an annual Thanksgiving feast. Well, if the feast of 1621 wasn't exactly the beginning of our modern understanding of Thanksgiving, then when did it begin?
In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln declared a national holiday, Thanksgiving Day, to be celebrated the last Thursday in November. This Thanksgiving was the first in what went on to become our modern holiday tradition.
It's important to note that the historical setting of Thanksgiving 1863 was not one of prosperity, like the one in 1621, but one marked by loss, anxiety and division. The country in 1863 was experiencing the effects of a horrific civil war. Many Americans were stunned and confused that the prosperity and peace they once enjoyed in previous years could no longer be taken for granted.
By declaring a national day to give thanks, Lincoln wanted to bring Americans together and help them to realize that peace and prosperity are not the mere products of hard work and intelligence, but gifts from God. It seemed only right to Lincoln to recognize, as a nation, the providential hand of God in all things. From a historical perspective, this is the purpose of a national day of Thanksgiving: to remember to give thanks to God always, even in trying times.
This year, more than ever, we will need the same faith in God's providence that President Lincoln and the American people had in November of 1863. Without that faith, our Thanksgiving will seem shallow. Perhaps in the past, for many of us, the meaning of Thanksgiving was centered more around the day's festive character than its religious nature — a huge roasted turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, good wine, music and lots of family and friends. The first Thanksgiving reminds us that Thanksgiving is, above all, a celebration of God and his goodness in creating and sustaining us.
For Christians, Thanksgiving Day is more than an annual feast to thank God for his benefits. Most of all, it represents a way of life. To live with an attitude of thanksgiving is an integral part of Christian culture. The Eucharist being the “source and summit of the Christian life” means Thanksgiving. As Catholics, we are all familiar with the beginning words of the Eucharistic preface: “Father, all powerful and ever-living God, we do well always and everywhere to give you thanks through Jesus Christ our Lord …” To give God thanks always and everywhere in Christ is the foundation of genuine humility. A permanent attitude of thanksgiving reflects our utter dependence on God.
There may have been times in our lives when we were anything but thankful, wondering where was God in the toughest trials of our life. In these moments, it's important to recall that God is faithful to his promises for us: “For I know the plans I have for you … they are plans for good and not evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11). Scripture constantly reminds us that God is good and that it is just to thank him for his goodness. St. Paul reminded the first Christians to “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” However, for me, the most convincing reason to give thanks always to God is because Jesus Christ always gave thanks to God the Father.
Scripture show us Christ thanking his Father in prayer. For example, the Gospels of Matthew and Luke both emphasize Christ's attitude of thanksgiving: “It was then, filled with joy by the Holy Spirit, he said, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth ’” We see the same in St. John's Gospel: “Father, I thank you for hearing my prayer …” We can imitate Christ's example by thanking God daily for his many blessings.
What should every Christian include on his daily thank-you list to God? I would begin by thanking God for the precious gift of life because he is the author of all life. I hope that I never waste a day of my life. My thank-you list would also take into account the wonderful gift of my Catholic faith and the gift of salvation offered to me by Christ. I consider this my ticket to heaven. How could I not be thankful to God for the gift of my family and friends? I hope I never take them for granted. They have always been there when I have needed them most.
And I will thank God, always and everywhere, for his infinite mercy and forgiveness. When I fell flat on my face, he was always there to pick me up and give me another chance.
Lastly, I would thank God for the gift of the cross because it makes me more like Christ.
As we celebrate Thanksgiving this year, let us remember the words of Psalm 92: “It is good to give thanks to God …” May God give you all a blessed Thanksgiving Day.
Legionary Father Andrew McNair, teaches at Mater Ecclesiae International Center of Studies in Greenville, Rhode Island
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father Andrew McNair, LC ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: DAYS OF THE Living Dead DATE: 11/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:In November Catholic piety traditionally focuses on the dead as the Church offers special Masses for the faithful departed. The readings at Mass during this last month of the liturgical year have a strong eschatological cast, too. The high point of this annual commemoration, of course, comes Nov. 1 and 2, All Saints and All Souls Days, when the Church Militant on earth looks with faith toward the Church Triumphant in heaven while doing its part for the Church Suffering in purgatory. But the Church calls us to remember the dead, in a special, heightened way, all month long.
Events of the past two months have led to many non-Catholic Americans also turning their thoughts towards the dead. For the families of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, this November is no doubt proving particularly painful, especially in cases where the bodies of loved ones have not yet been found. The traditional end-of-the-year family celebrations — Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year — will all be sadder. At a time like this, solidarity with our grieving neighbors is especially important.
Catholics pray for the faithful departed not just out of benevolence, but also out of self-interest: Thinking of them reminds us to ask where we are headed. A rhyme I found in a graveyard in Brittany this year summed it up: Priez pour nous trepasses/Car un de ces jours aussi /Vous en serez/Soiez en paix!
It means: “Pray for us departed, for one of these days you will be one, too. Go in peace!”
Amid the tasks of praying for the dead and reflecting on the meaning of life, Catholics might want to spend an evening this month with a classic film. Swedish director Ingmar Bergman's 1957 The Seventh Seal, a powerful meditation on the meaning of life and death, is filled with many memorable scenes. Bergman himself said it was “one of the few films really close to my heart.” Video stores should have it in their classic or foreign film sections, and film sellers like Amazon.com stock it.
Once to Die
The main characters of the film are a knight (Max von Sydow) and Death (Bengt Ekerot). The knight has just returned to Sweden after a disillusioned decade in the Crusades. As the film opens, he is lying on his native shore and Death approaches. (Ekerot's face will long linger with you as Death personified.) Death wants to take the knight, but the knight buys time by challenging Death to a game of chess.
As the game progresses and the film moves on, the knight continues on his way home through a country in the throes of the Plague. Death is everywhere and it is nearby. A man dying of plague who meets the knight and his party in the forest eloquently plays out human powerlessness in the face of mortality. While he begs them to approach him, they must fend him off to stay alive themselves. The dying man wants nothing but water and not to be alone, yet he is cast back upon himself. Death is always individual, always highly personalized.
En route home, the knight encounters all types of people. His squire (Gunnar Bjornstrand) has long ago lost his faith. He gazes upon the decadence and decay surrounding him with a cynicism that strips away delusions but offers no hope: Life is tough and then you die. One of the members of a traveling troupe runs off with the wife of the village blacksmith. It isn't love as much as mere sexual release. In his last scene, the lothario climbs up into a tree to evade the cuckolded husband, convinced he can go on with his “eat, drink and be merry” lifestyle — until Death comes along and literally chops his tree down. A young girl is burned as a witch, and she persists in her delusions until, as the flames lap at her stake, one sees in her eyes the question: “What now?” Death sits below her gibbet, watching.
The knight also meets a family, part of the traveling troupe. The husband is a minstrel, an innocent man prone to visions. A wife and infant son accompany him. Eventually, they join up with the knight's party making its way through the forest. As they travel, the knight once again encounters Death at the chess-board. This time, however, he does not continue the game; he knocks it over to distract Death and, thereby, allow the little family to slip away. Some have seen in that family an image of Jesus, Mary and Joseph on the way to Egypt.
No One Sits Out the Dance of Death
In the final scenes, the knight and the remainder of his party reach his castle. As they sit down to eat, Death knocks at the door. We never see Death in this last scene; we only see his victims as they stand and introduce themselves. Their introductions are awkward, so banal compared to the moment. What else can mortal man do but stammer as eternity beckons?
The film closes with the wandering minstrel, his family at his side, recounting his last vision. He describes the Grim Reaper leading the knight, his wife, squire, and the other castle guests over a hilltop in the “Dance of Death,” a dance no one can sit out. The minstrel's wife writes it off as just her husband's vivid imagination, but the scene of Death, carrying his sickle and leading his party away, hands all linked, will remain with the viewer for a long time.
Bergman's knight, like Bergman himself, wrestles with the problem of faith. He once believed and somehow still wants to, but he's seen too much of human depravity to lapse into a puerile faith. Yet Death is always silent; it gives no answers. As Hans Urs von Balthasar notes: The mystery of death echoes in Christ's cry on the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” But no human answers can satisfy that forlorn cry; only a faith tested and true will.
Like Bergman's knight, many of our fellow Americans are struggling today to make sense of death.
Whether they lost somebody in the bombings or are just afraid when the postman calls, they are searching for sense, for meaning. This November, let's not shy from giving account of the hope that is in us.
John M. Grondelski, a moral theologian, writes from Warsaw.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John M. Grondelski ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: We Give Thanks for America; We Pray God Saves It DATE: 11/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:On Sept. 10, I received a letter from the founder and minister-general of the religious institute of which I am a member, the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate.
The letter stated that I was to return to the United States from Italy, where I was then stationed, to serve as the father-guardian of our friary in Maine, N.Y.
I immediately set out to purchase an airline ticket.
You can imagine my shock the next day, as I was packing my bags for my new assignment, when a novice received a phone call from a benefactor in London saying that both towers of the World Trade Center in New York City had just toppled. Imagine, too, finding out that my dad had been a passenger flying over New York City around 9 a.m. (after the first plane and before the second — he later told me how he watched from his window as smoke and fire billowed from Manhattan's tallest skyscrapers).
Through the providence of God, I arrived at New York's JFK Airport on the 17th, the day I was to begin my new assignment. I must say that it was the most secure flight I had ever been on! The passengers on our flight had to go through two metal detectors and the flight was delayed because they searched the entire plane several times before leaving. As we landed in New York, a spirited choir of passengers spontaneously sang “God Bless America.” This drew tears from quite a few eyes, including my own. Yes, God, please bless our Fatherland! The chorus seemed like a heartfelt, sincere prayer.
I was met at the airport by members of my community, sent to greet me and accompany me to my new post. As we made our way, I quickly noticed that American flags were flying from what seemed like every building, house and car along the way. And then there were the signs, to the left and to the right: “God bless America.”
It was all very moving, yet, after settling in over the next few days, I began to ask the question: What do we Americans really mean when we say “God bless America?” Do we mean, “Give us the blessing of conversion and sanctification; make us a holy nation under God”? Or do we mean, “Bless us with a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage; protect our comfortable lifestyle”?
It's a question that seems even more pressing now, with Thanksgiving Day upon us.
While many have resorted to authentic prayer in these past weeks, it does not seem that our nation as a whole has been turning to God in repentance and asking the blessing of conversion of heart. If we want the blessing of God, we must ask forgiveness from him and change our hedonistic culture.
In reflecting on all that has occurred since I received that letter Sept. 10, I was haunted by the prophetic words of Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II. These two modern prophets warned of these kinds of events, and worse still, if our country does not convert. The bottom line is that the terrorist events of Sept. 11 are only the beginning of even more terrible times if we fail to turn to God and change our ways.
Mother Teresa said many beautiful things in her life (“The fruit of silence is prayer, the fruit of prayer is charity, the fruit of charity is service”). But she also said, “The fruit of abortion is nuclear war.” This short statement is particularly astonishing from the lips of the “saint of Calcutta” who manifested the mercy of God to the poorest of the poor. Yet her prophetic statement is completely logical: If human life is not safe in what should be the safest haven in the whole universe, namely its mother's womb, then it is not safe anywhere (trade centers, airplanes, the shopping mall).
Our nation has not only embraced and cultivated the “culture of death” within, but has nefariously been spreading it abroad.
The farmer reaps what he sows and, in this case, the farmer is America and the seed is death.
Tragically, most Americans simply cannot see any connection between the terrorist attacks and our culture of death. Nevertheless, if Mother Teresa is right, things could get much worse. The fact is that, with the massive slaughter of unborn babies through abortion in this country (not to mention the contraceptive mentality that sustains it), no human life is sacred or safe anywhere or at any time. Biological and nuclear warfare seems but a logical consequence.
So either we convert (starting with myself) or we pay the price. It's that simple. God's mercy has been and continues to await our response.
In 1993, His Holiness, Pope John Paul II, spoke to hundreds of thousands of American youth gathered for the World Youth Day in Denver, Colo. I was blessed to make the pilgrimage to Denver with a caravan of buses filled with young people. It was a marvelous moment of grace for our nation. But I never forgot what the Holy Father said at the climax of the event. Speaking at the Solemn Mass of Our Lady's Assumption on August 15, he said: “Woe to you …”
It goes without saying that this is not common language for papal addresses — especially when the audience is an enormous gathering of highly energized youth. In that address, the Pope used biblical, prophetic language to exhort the young people of America to take an active role in changing their world.
Even eight years later, his prophetic statement echoes unforgettably in the depths of my very being. “Woe to you, young people,” he said, “if you do not succeed in proclaiming the Gospel of Life!”
It was a conditional prophecy: If the Gospel of Life were to be proclaimed successfully, God would bless America as never before; if not, “woe to you.”
For those of us who desire to respond to God's call to conversion and holiness, and who desire to lead others to God's choicest blessings, the means have not changed: prayer and penance. This is the Gospel. This was Our Lady's plea at Fatima.
Prayer — especially the holy Mass, holy rosary and eucharistic adoration. Penance — self-denial, mortification and, especially, the sacrament of Penance. By these means, and no other, we can and must obtain the blessing of almighty God for our country and our world. This is not an option. It is an imperative. “In the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph,” said our Blessed Mother.
By means of prayer and penance, even our country can partake of this triumph of love, can build this culture of life.
It depends on us. Let us do our part, and pray that God in his infinite mercy may truly bless America — not only this Thanksgiving Day, but in all the days to follow.
Franciscan Father Maximilian Mary De Cruce writes from Maine, New York (www.marymediatrix.com).
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father M. M. De Cruce ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Assisi, Put Back Together Again DATE: 11/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:“All praise be yours, my Lord, through our Sister Mother Earth, who sustains us and governs us, and produces varied fruits with colored flowers and herbs.”
So wrote St. Francis of Assisi, from his deathbed, in the ecstatic poem “Canticle of the Creatures.” Nearly 800 years later, “Mother Earth” herself seems to sing praises to God from this lovely Umbrian hill town.
Visiting Assisi shortly after the 1997 earthquake, I witnessed, alongside the scaffolds and blocked entrances, the anguish of the town's residents. Several people had been killed. Part of the vault in the Upper Basilica of Saint Francis had collapsed, destroying precious artwork. Nearly all the major churches and monuments were closed for structural assessment and repair.
As a result of the intensive restoration efforts, most churches were able to open for the Jubilee year, and now even the Basilica of St. Clare has reopened. I returned this summer to visit the sites that were previously closed to me, but I was motivated even more by a desire to revisit the town whose history has haunted me since my first visit.
Assisi is built on a hill in the largest valley of Umbria, the aptly named “green heart of Italy.” The city's center is still surrounded by medieval walls broken at intervals by eight enormous city gates. From a distance, the city literally seems to shine; the St. Francis Basilica, with its long line of arcaded buttresses, is its crown jewel.
Prayer in the Portiuncula
St. Francis died in 1226. He was canonized almost immediately, and plans for the basilica complex were drawn up in 1228. As a result, Assisi's character today is very much the same as it was then. There is not the cultural confusion, the layer upon layer of accretion, which you find in so many other ancient places. Assisi has some Roman remains, but it is essentially a medieval town that discovered its meaning in two people, Francis and Clare. It has honored their spirit with single-mindedness all these centuries.
Despite the inevitable throngs of secular-minded tourists, Assisi is a holy place, a place of pilgrimage. Indeed, many, if not most, visitors are day-trippers there to notch off another must-see stop on their Italian holiday. For that reason it's best to plan more than one day so you can establish your own pace and linger for extended prayer in the holy places. To do that, it's essential to visit some of the sites outside the city walls.
For example: The Portiuncula, the tiny chapel in which St. Francis died singing the praises of “Sister Death,” is a short drive away from the St. Francis Basilica. It's housed inside the enormous Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels, a beautiful and historic place of prayer in its own right.
The San Damiano church is also outside the city gates. Here, set among the olive groves, is the chapel that St. Francis restored after he heard Christ's voice, emanating from the crucifix, telling him to “rebuild my church, which, as you see, is falling into ruin.” At first Francis thought the Lord wanted this particular physical structure repaired; later it became clear that it was the entire Church that needed healing and restoration. This is also where St. Clare lived for most of her life, and where Francis wrote the “Canticle of the Creatures.”
One of the holiest places I found was the walk up Mount Subasio to Eremo delle Carceri, or the Hermitage, where St. Francis used to go to pray. Transportation up the mountain is available, but the sense of pilgrimage is heightened if you walk up the mountain along with other like-minded individuals. The group I was with made the trek one sunny January day and there were other people on the path, stopping along the way to pray the rosary. The views are spectacular and, even in the winter, there are wildflowers in bloom and birds singing. The stone bed on which Francis used to sleep is still there, and I had the sense that, here, on this mountain-side, the saint was most at peace.
Renaissance Birthplace
If all you can get is one day in Assisi, it's still worth the trip. The St. Francis Basilica deserves all the praises art historians heap on it, and then some. Even though I had researched the sites thoroughly, I was unprepared for how densely frescoed both the Upper and Lower Church are, and how impressive a panoply of Christ's life and Francis' biography they present.
Here in this church the Renaissance began, in the transition from Cimabue's work to that of Giotto, both Florentine artists. What such a sight must have meant to late-medieval believers, I can only imagine.
St. Francis is buried in the basilica bearing his name; nearby are some of the brothers minor who were his closest companions. The Chapel of Reliquaries contains extraordinary relics, including his tattered clothing and the early Franciscan rule signed by Pope Honorius III.
The Basilica of St. Clare, on the other side of Assisi, is also astonishing. Built after her death in her honor, this church holds her earthly remains. It also has a chapel for the Crucifix of San Damiano. Sitting on a bench outside this church, I got a good lesson in how cosmopolitan Assisi is. An Italian tour guide was giving a Japanese tour guide a quick course in art history, and they were conversing in English. I learned a lot by eavesdropping.
Assisi is visitor-friendly. An air of kindness and civility prevails. English and a smattering of Italian suffice for most transactions. Assisi is not for the infirm, however. It is a city of winding medieval streets, set on a hilltop, and the primary mode of transportation is walking shoes. Still, it is surprisingly modern in many ways. I saw a sign for an Internet café where I could also get panini (sandwiches) pizza or gelati (Italian ice cream). Good restaurants, some with spectacular views, line the streets. Eating well is not difficult.
Has Assisi recovered from the earthquake? I went there with that question. Yes and No, I would have to answer. The churches have reopened, and the visitors have returned. The intricate restoration work performed on the ceiling in the Upper Basilica is a resounding testament to the good will and skill of the international community.
Cranes still dot the horizon, however, and scaffolding remains on many buildings. While buying a t-shirt at one of the shops, I joined a conversation with the two women clerks about whether I would wear a small or medium. Because we had established some rapport, I decided to ask them if Assisi had gotten back to normal since the earthquake. Their tone changed immediately and they answered, “Oh, no! No!” I felt sorry for having asked.
Yet the spirit of St. Francis is not contained in any brick and mortar structure, nor in any fresco, however beautiful, as he would be the first to remind us. It is in the praise and joy of life that shines through this city of God set high on a hill in central Italy.
Maryanne Hannan writes from Troy, New York.
----- EXCERPT: Earthquake a fading memory in Francis' and Clare's hometown ----- EXTENDED BODY: Maryanne Hannan ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Banner Ads: Bane of the Web Experience DATE: 11/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:On very rare occasions, I have clicked on a banner advertisement on a Web page. But never have I purchased anything this way.
Web sites that host banner advertising get paid according to the number of “click-throughs” the advertiser receives. Or Web sites may get a percentage of the advertiser's sales received through the banner ad they host. At present, banner advertising is just not working.
“Online advertising remains mired in a slump, as evidenced by earnings reports from DoubleClick and Yahoo, both of which said they don't see things turning around anytime soon,” explains Margaret Kane of ZDNet News.
The only notable exceptions are the banner ads placed on search engines.
There are two reasons for this, according to Jakob Nielsen, principal and co-founder of the Nielsen Norman Group, an Internet user-advocacy concern. First, search engines are the only type of sites that users visit with the explicit intention of finding somewhere else to go as quickly as possible. And second, search engines target ads according to a user's current navigation goals.
Now, since many non-search-engine sites rely on the revenue from banner advertising to make money, some have turned to a more aggressive approach. When you click on one of their links, you are directed to a page with only the banner advertisement on it. You can't miss it! To get past this page, I usually hit the refresh button on my browser; the page I originally intended to see comes up. I must admit I find this new aggressive banner advertising annoying at best. And this certainly does not endear me to the advertiser on the banner. But I would bet that some people click on the banner ad because they see no other options for proceeding to the page they originally intended to go to.
Adware is another form of aggressive advertising. If Gator.com's adware is on your computer, it will cover banner ads on a Web site that you are viewing with ads from its clients. So basically it overwrites banner ads on Web sites without your knowledge. Even worse, the program sends periodic reports back to Gator about the sites you visit and the banner ads you've clicked on.
You think that's bad? How about Ezula.com's TopText adware? If this program is on your computer, it overlays links onto whatever Web page you are viewing by keywords it finds in the text. For example, if the word “aspirin” appears in the text of one of my Web pages, TopText would turn that word into a link to their aspirin advertiser. When the unsuspecting user puts his mouse over “aspirin,” TopText highlights the link in yellow and a box appears with some words explaining the benefits of the aspirin being advertised. If the user clicks on “aspirin,” he will go to Ezula's advertiser for aspirin. If I have a link for “aspirin” when a user clicks on it, TopText will have a box appear that gives the option to follow the original link or go to the advertiser's page.
For all intents and purposes, these adware programs are hijacking Web sites to promote their advertising.
Here's how Ezula pitches its adware to advertisers: “Imagine how powerful it could be to widen the effectiveness of search engine keyword advertising to the entire Web. This will enable you to reach millions of qualified users from every Web page that contextually matches your campaign objective and your product or service keywords, anywhere on the Web.”
Ezula and Gator say that their advertisers are very pleased with the results, and they claim millions of PCs have loaded the software. Why would anyone download adware? Nobody knowingly would. This adware is bundled with dozens of popular programs when you download them. C/Net's download.com offers the new KaZaa system of programs to make copies of MP3 music files and share them. KaZaa has been downloaded over 7 million times. Included among KaZaa's programs is TopText, which doesn't relate to MP3 at all but still installs itself with the other KaZaa programs.
To see if you or someone in your family has downloaded adware, go to scumware.com and look at the top of the “Web Surfers” column. There you will find a little gray box that tells you whether or not adware was detected on your computer, along with instructions for removing it if it resides on your computer. Another place for help is lavasoftusa.com.
Gator CEO Jeff McFadden says users aren't “tricked” into downloading his adware software because adware programs are listed in the terms-of-service contracts users must accept before downloading free software. Now how many of you read the entire contract in all its glorious detail before clicking the “I Accept” button? Given this situation, however, I would recommend using the Find function under Edit on your browser menu to search for “adware” in user agreements before accepting them.
Spedia.com bundled a program like TopText with its SurfPlus software. Consumer complaints made them stop this practice. By complaining to advertisers of the above methods or the companies distributing it, we can help form the type of advertising promoted on the Internet and end abuses of it.
Brother John Raymond, co-founder of the Monks of Adoration, writes from Venice, Florida.
----- EXCERPT: How not to let pushy sales pitches drive you offline ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brother John Raymond ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Monthly Web Picks DATE: 11/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:This month's picks deal with Purgatory.
Always a good place to start, the Catechism of the Catholic Church has the definitive summary on Purgatory. Go to sections 1030-1032 at scborromeo.org/ccc/p123a12.-htm.
Next, you will want to read what Pope John Paul II said about Purgatory during his 1999 Wednesday Audience at vatican.va/-holy_father/john_paul_ii/audiences/1999/documents/hf_jpii_aud_04081999_en.html.
For those who want to do more in-depth research on Purgatory, read what St. Thomas Aquinas had to say about it in his Summa Theologiae at newadvent.org/summa/700100.htm
A substantial treatise on Purgatory can be found in the 1911 Catholic Encyclopedia at newadvent.org/cathen/12575a.htm.
Indulgence information has been changed since this encyclopedia edition. See the Enchiridion of Indulgences at ourladyswarriors.-org/indulge for up-to-date information.
The Friends of the Suffering Souls at http://1earth.net/~foss is an organization that assists the souls in Purgatory by arranging for Masses to be offered each and every day of the year for their benefit and especially for the benefit of deceased members.
For more Purgatory sites, see my Purgatory category in my online Catholic Internet Yellow Pages at monksofadoration.org/purgator.ht ml.
To order Catholics on the Internet
by Brother John Raymond, call Prima Publishing at (800) 632-8676.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 11/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:Days of Wine and Roses (1962)
Alcoholism continues to plague American families. It ruins m a r r i a g e s , careers and the lives of children whose parents are addicted to drink. None of the recent films on the subject (28 Days and the overrated Leaving Las Vegas) can equal the dramatic intelligence and emotional impact of Days of Wine and Roses. Joe Clay (Jack Lemmon) is a public-relations executive who can't relax without a drink. He meets Kirsten Arneson (Lee Remick), who doesn't drink but loves chocolate, and orders her a Brandy Alexander. They fall in love and marry despite the opposition of her father (Charles Bickford).
Kirsten becomes an alcoholic like her husband. Joe loses his job and hits bottom, getting sober with the help of an Alcoholics Anonymous counselor (Jack Klugman). But Kirsten is unable to get off the sauce. Director Blake Edwards (The Pink Panther) and screenwriter J.P. Miller make us like their main characters even as they destroy everything around them.
Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954)
Sometimes sequels are better than the originals. Demetrius and the Gladiators is the highly successful follow-up to the b l o c k b u s t e r Roman epic The Robe. Both are based on novelist Lloyd Douglas's c h a r a c t e r s . Demetrius could be characterized as a Christianized version of the recent Oscar-winner Gladiator. The title character (Victor Mature) is a Greek slave freed by the Christian convert Marcellus (Richard Burton) before his death. The freedman is given the robe Our Lord wore to the cross. When he kills a Roman soldier, he's arrested and forced into the arena as a gladiator.
Demetrius renounces his faith after Lucia (Debra Paget), the woman he loves, is unfairly beaten. He becomes a champion fighter and a member of the palace guard of the anti-Christian emperor Caligula (Jay Robinson). An encounter with the apostle Peter (Michael Rennie) brings him back to Our Lord, and he must find a way to stand up to Caligula. Directed Delmer Daves (Dark Passage) and screenwriter Philip Dunne keep the action moving with a grand, over-the-top style.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Mom's Busiest Thursday of the Year DATE: 11/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:I've always thought Martha got a bum rap. While not wanting to second-guess our Lord, I've always taken her side in the dispute with her sister Mary.
Every time I hear that Gospel reading, I keep wishing Jesus will perform a miracle and make the housework go away. After all, if Mary won't help, how is Martha supposed to sit in the presence of the Lord? Thanksgiving is almost here, and Martha's problem again presents itself. While our nation prepares to celebrate our heritage, we Martha-types are thinking about one thing … the work.
The Martha in my childhood household was, as in most families, Mom. Imagine yourself in her apron, and you get an accurate picture of Thanksgiving in our rambunctious house.
Mom got up before daybreak to put the turkey in the oven. All morning long, she prepared the trimmings — the savory stuffing, the creamy spuds, the crushed cranberries, and on and on. She set out the desserts ranging from fancy kiffles to classic pumpkin pie.
As the family opened the wine and passed the hors d'oeuvres, Mom got to try … one. Satisfied that they came out all right, she went off to dust her best china and unpack the silver.
All this took place before 1 p.m., and it doesn't include the shopping, the food prep, nor the post-meal cleanup.
Did I mention there were nine of us?
My mother was a truly selfless soul. She not only sacrificed herself for us every day of the year, she did overtime on holidays. Like Martha, she complained once in awhile. The funny thing is, it always took us by surprise. I'm afraid we just took her for granted. We were having fun. It was a holiday.
Twenty years later, with Thanksgivings of my own to prepare, I realize that we missed the whole point of the holiday. Take the word apart and it spells gratitude — gratitude due to our nation, our families and especially to God.
Among God's many blessings that we should be grateful for is one that he himself enjoyed — hospitality. The Son of Man who had no home was given supper and lodging by dear Martha.
Our mothers also gave us food and lodging. What better way to thank them — and our Lord — than by allowing our mothers to relax and reflect on our Lord's words as Jesus said Martha should do?
Mom's loving hands will create a bountiful feast this Thanksgiving. Let's not wait for her to gripe before offering her a hand. Grab a dish towel and, while you're at it, put a drink in her hand.
Lighten her load and her heart. Then she'll have time to meditate on the works of the Lord.
Susan Lloyd is a home-schooling mother of four who lives in Pennsylvania.
Martha and Mary
Now as they were traveling along, he entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord's feet, listening to his word. But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.“But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:38-42)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Susan Lloyed ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: 'Twas the Day After Thanksgiving ... DATE: 11/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:Like most married couples who are rich in children but hard up for money, the day after Thanksgiving isn't the big day at the mall that some have made it.
For us, it's garage sales.
We discovered early on the benefit of garage sales. For a few well spent dollars every Saturday morning we were able to maintain a standard of dress and home furnishing pretty close to that of our small-family, two-income neighbors.
We could also spoil our children with just as many toys. Items we had dismissed as stupid, mass-marketed trash suddenly appeared a lot less stupid at only 25 cents to a dollar a piece. And with little or no TV in the house, the children weren't influenced by commercials for the newest fad of the “holiday shopping season.”
Normal childish desire for more! more! more! was adequately met by the hot toys of two, three or five years past, now outgrown by other people's children. Or by toys that were never hot, but always classic: standard items from teddy bears to Tonka trucks. And at other times of the year, what a grand feeling of largesse to pull up to someone's treasure-laden driveway and say, “Hop out, kids, you can each pick out something. Whatever you like.”
Toy-Letdown Syndrome
But we soon discovered how short-lived was the happiness brought on this way. The Wonderful Toy would break. Or cause a fight when one child realized her sibling had picked out something much better. Or give rise to an insatiable urge to collect more of the same sort of item, such that each new acquisition only heightened the feverish longing to obtain yet another. (We have 110 My Little Ponies collected by four daughters as each passed through the 4 to 9-year-old stage. This is still too few for the current owner of the collection.) Or simply cause that emotional crash when, some hours or days later, the child realized that the Wonderful Toy was not the answer to all prayers after all.
My husband soon developed a standard response to Toy-Letdown Syndrome. He'd say, “See! Whenever we buy you something it makes you sad. I guess we shouldn't have given you that toy. Don't worry, we won't get you any toys ever again, and then you won't be sad anymore!” The logic of this refrain would always infuriate the children. It stopped the whining as well.
Until the next time. Occasionally we'd try to make good on this threat, like the time we ignored all pleas and refused to even enter the souvenir shop after a trip to the zoo. “If you look at that stuff you'll feel even worse that we're not buying anything,” we reasoned.
“It doesn't make any difference,” moaned one child as we passed the shop by.”I can even smell those toys from here!” Ebenezer Scrooge could probably learn something about avarice from a six-year-old.
“Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless til they rest in Thee.” In calmer moments I explain St. Augustine's words to the children. They grasp the idea at once, relieved, I think, that Something will eventually fill that heaven-shaped hole in their hearts. This is not to say that they act upon this teaching with a new detachment from material things. Nor do I. But at least we know.
Preparing for Christmas
As little children become big children, putting on the annual Christmas gift extravaganza gets harder. We can't find it all at garage sales any more. I wish at times for the courage of those families who buck the tide and institute a new custom of one gift per person, or homemade gifts only. But I can't. The fun of seeing them gaze at that huge pile of wrapped packages is my favorite toy. Not long ago I expressed concern to one of the teen-agers that we couldn't pull off such quantity of Christmas presents indefinitely.
“Don't worry about it, Mom,” she replied. “You know we can hardly recall any of the stuff we got last year. The best Christmas memories come from lighting the Advent wreath, building the manger, putting up the tree, going to midnight Mass, and stuff like that. You know, all those little traditions. Presents are the least of it.”
Really? This, from one of my little materialists? Maybe our restless hearts are beginning to head in the right direction.
Daria Sockey writes from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Daria Sockey ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: How to Explain 'Spiritual' Relatives to Kids DATE: 11/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:Q I love Thanksgiving. I love seeing family. But the holiday is a time that finds me too often at a loss for words. You see, many of my relatives tell me they aren't into the Church, but are “spiritual.”
A It's a statement heard all too often these days: “I'm not a religious person, but I really am very spiritual.”
Although said with pride, it always seems empty and defenseless to me. Sort of like cake without frosting. Ice cream without chocolate sauce. Hope without salvation.
Folks are proud to say they meditate, but unwilling to admit they pray. Folks are proud to say they believe in some undefined higher power, being kind to their neighbors, keeping the environment clean and saving the snail darter from extinction. But it would be politically incorrect to believe in, er, well … God.
Perhaps a family member of yours is the one who gave me a brochure recently while I was waiting for a business associate at an upstate New York airport. The brochure promoted an upcoming community festival that promised to be a glorious celebration of music and the environment.
People attending would be called to the shore of a local waterway for a “blessing of the river.” Others would be able to participate in “reflective and joyous workshops offering Yoga, Tai Chi, meditation and a World Peace Flag ceremony.” If none of that struck your fancy, there were entertainer-philosophers ready to “demonstrate the Zen of juggling.”
Yoga, Tai Chi and the Zen of juggling? Wow. How spiritual can you get? At least the brochure was honest enough to say, “All around the festival you'll find clowns, circus artists, comedians and fools entertaining.”
I hope my children grow up with a sense of fun. I want them to respect the environment, use resources wisely and appreciate various cultures. I don't mind if they take up juggling, provided they understand it involves tossing balls into the air, not achieving spiritual oneness with the universe.
There is hardly a place in North America where someone in search of a spiritual experience is unable to find a Catholic church. In each church is a tabernacle. And in the tabernacle is Christ.
In other words, as an alternative to juggling and spiritual nonsense, people have the option of finding faith in Christ and the hope of eternal salvation. Yes, it requires some faith, a little work and embracing a religion with particular requirements.
But wouldn't you rather have eternal salvation than a gig as a circus juggler?
Jim Fair writes from Chicago.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Jim Fair ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: THANKSGIVING IN A TIME OF WAR DATE: 11/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:Here follows Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1863, made during the Civil War.
It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord. We know that by His divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world.
May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?
We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown.
But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people.
I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father Who dwelleth in the heavens.
A. Lincoln October 3, 1863
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: A. Lincoln ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: LIFE NOTE DATE: 11/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:Court Protects Marriage
Adultery is punishable by a jail term under South Korea's constitution. Offenders can be imprisoned for up to two years.
A young couple recently convicted of the crime — one partner was married — sought to have the verdicts overturned. They told the constitutional court the state had no right to interfere in their private lives and pursuit of happiness.
In their ruling defending the adultery law, eight of the nine judges cited Korea's traditional values of chastity, the sanctity of marriage, and the importance of maintaining monogamy.
The ruling said, “The law responds to the need for maintaining and protecting wholesome family life.”
Life Sacrificed for Baby
At six months, doctors performed an emergency Caesarian. Anderson came round from the anesthetic long enough to hear the news that her daughter had survived the traumatic delivery.
Hours later, Anderson died in her husband's arms, reported the Daily Mail.
Anderson is survived by her husband, Leigh, and daughters Georgia, 4, and the baby, Taylor.
‘Choose Life’ Plates OK'd
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Oct. 23 — An Alabama pro-life group won approval for an official license plate proclaiming “Choose Life” — a slogan that has prompted lawsuits from pro-abortion organizations when authorized for tags in other states.
The Alabama Pro-Life Coalition Education Fund got the Legislature's License Plate Oversight Committee to approve the bright yellow “Choose Life” tag 6-3. The state will print the plates when 1,000 motorists pay $50 each in advance to order a tag.
Teens' Pro-Life Shirts
LIFESITE DAILY NEWS, Nov. 9 — Lisa Klassen, a 16-year-old student in St. Thomas, Ontario, was given an “unofficial suspension” for wearing a pro-life shirt that has on its front, “Abortion is Mean,” and on the back, “You will not silence my message; You will not mock my God; You will stop killing my generation.” The shirt is distributed by Rock for Life.
Klassen was sent home by her principal, who told her some people found the shirt offensive. During her suspension, some 50 students at the school held a protest, at which many wore shirts with the same pro-life message.
A similar case over a “Rock for Life” shirt in Malone, N.Y., was resolved recently after intervention by the Thomas More Law Center. Bryan Kemper, director of Rock for Life, said those wearing the shirts only wish to spread the pro-life message and that the school has helped spread the message by making “such a big stink.”
Senate Recognizes Abortion Depression
Kathryn Jean Lopez of National Review pointed out in her column that the amendment marks the “first federal recognition that women — other than the ones who actually die or are otherwise physically injured, by infections or worse, at the hands of abortionists — can actually suffer from something real: a genuine, medically recognized depression.”
While the amendment didn't create an agency or appropriate any money, it does implore the National Institutes of Health to “expand and intensify research and related activities . . . with respect to post-abortion depression and post-abortion psychosis.”
Post-abortion-stress syndrome, is usually characterized by severe depression, guilt, eating disorders, anxiety, anger, and low self-esteem following an abortion.
England Rejects Human Cloning
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Nov. 7 — The British government said it plans to reject an expected application from an Italian fertility doctor who wants to clone babies in Britain.
Dr. Severino Antinori, who is part of an international team seeking to become the first to clone a human being, has said he intends to apply to Britain's Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority for a license to begin work on cloning babies.
His group says it is pursuing cloning as a treatment for couples who are unable to have their own children.
“Worldwide, this is not considered acceptable, and it will remain illegal in the United Kingdom,” junior health minister Hazel Blears told lawmakers.
Smoking vs. Conception
REUTERS, Oct. 30 — Non-smoking women conceive sooner than those who smoke while trying to conceive a child.
“The study clearly shows a link between smoking and fertility problems,” said Marcus Munafo, who led the research team.
“The message from this research is that, if you want to get pregnant, you will not only improve your chances by quitting, you will also be doing something to protect the health of your child in the long term,” Munafo said.
“This is good news for women smokers who are thinking of trying for a baby, as it shows it is never too late to give up. A year after quitting, a woman's chances of conceiving return to those of a never-smoker,” said Munafo, whose research appears in the Journal of Biosocial Science.
Planned Parenthood Condemned
LIFESITE DAILY NEWS, Oct. 24 — In the South African National Assembly, Cheryllyn Dudley, MP for the African Christian Democratic Party and Member of the Health Portfolio Committee, presented a Notice of Motion against Planned Parenthood.
The motion read in part that the House: “Condemns the actions of Planned Parenthood in New York and the United Nations Population Fund, who are advancing their unscrupulous agenda in the name of charity … in the wake of the collapse of the World Trade Towers, Planned Parenthood is offering free abortions to New Yorkers, and the U.N. is offering free abortions to Afghan refugees.
“Acknowledges that while the democratic world's fight against terrorism is understandable … Planned Parenthood and the U.N. tally a death toll second to none. Planned Parenthood alone has killed more New Yorkers than Osama bin Laden has and these figures pale in comparison with the children they have murdered in Africa, Asia and South America.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 11/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:Terrorism Tests Charity
He reported that a member of the disciplinary committee said that a faculty committee's unanimous decision to suspend Marshner-Coyne was based on his prior offenses, lack of genuine contrition and an inability to verify that anyone had made provocative statements about the Sept. 11 attacks.
Plea for Ceasefire
BETHLEHEM UNIVERSITY, Oct. 26 — The head of Vatican-sponsored Bethlehem University is calling for international pressure on Israel to cease its bombing of portions of the West Bank, including the birthplace of Christ, which had previously been under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority.
During four days in late October, every building on campus was hit by gunfire, with evidence of at least 86 tank grenades and hundreds of bullets found in the aftermath, according to a statement issued by De La Salle Christian Brother Vincent Malham, the university's president and vice chancellor. “Security measures and flying the Vatican flag, have, unfortunately, not produced results,” he said.
Collegians OK War
The survey of 1,200 undergraduate students, part of an annual study of college students' attitudes toward public service and government, found that the majority — 71% — had donated blood, given money or volunteered in relief efforts stemming from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Catholic U Scholarships
CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA, Oct. 26 — The university has pledged to renew a parish-based scholarship program that benefited hundreds of new freshmen in its first year, exceeding expectations. More than 800 students from parishes in 43 states were nominated last year by their pastors for the renewable $3,000 parish scholarships, according to a university press release.
Of those, 555 students were admitted and 256 high school seniors from 38 states enrolled. Forty percent of the incoming freshman class received parish scholarships.
Shocking Protest
“The truck project shocked students on both sides of the abortion debate,” said the newspaper of the tour, sponsored by the Reproductive Choice Campaign of the Center for Bio-ethical Reform, a grassroots education foundation based in Anaheim, Calif. “I wasn't personally offended, but it's not something I really want to see,” said one pro-life student.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joe Cullen ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Reading, Writing and Rising Above DATE: 11/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Quilma Perdomo wants the best for her two boys. A single parent in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Providence, R.I., she works two jobs and struggles to provide the basics — food, shelter and clothing.
Quilma's boys are just two of the many finding help and hope in a group of new schools springing up across the nation to help children in poor, high-crime neighborhoods.
Several years ago, her eldest son, Miguel Castillo, began showing signs of despondency. His grades fell; his cheerful attitude turned somber. Quilma knew her son's experience with his overcrowded public school was contributing to his malaise, but she couldn't afford to send him to a private school.
A friend told her that Brother Lawrence Goyette, a Christian Brother, had started a small school for boys right in her neighborhood. It was called the San Miguel School and it sounded promising.
“I went to talk with Brother Lawrence,” Quilma recalled. “I told him about my son, and he accepted him [for enrollment]. Everything changed. I noticed a big difference in Miguel's grades, in his homework and his attitude.”
Miguel graduated San Miguel three years ago, and went on to La Salle High School, one of the most respected high schools in Rhode Island.
This year, Quilma's youngest son, Javier Castillo, was received into the fifth grade at the San Miguel School.
Brother Goyette, a member of the Long Island-New England province of the LaSallians, knows what a difference an education makes in the lives of boys from the inner city. He's worked as a teacher and school administrator in New York City and Rhode Island for going on 20 years.
In 1993, with a meager budget, Brother Lawrence opened the doors of his newly founded school to 13 inner-city boys in grades five and six.
The Christian Brothers decided to name the school after St. Miguel Febres Cordeiro, a Christian Brother from Ecuador canonized in 1984 by Pope John Paul II.
Rather than establish the San Miguel School as a diocesan institution, the Lasallian province decided to keep the school private, maintaining it under the jurisdiction of the Lasallian Christian Brothers.
Providence Bishop Robert Mulvee told the Register he “thoroughly appreciates” the service of the San Miguel School even though it's not affiliated with the Diocese of Providence or the Catholic schools of the diocese. “We welcome its presence,” he adds. “The school offers a great service to the community by assisting inner-city boys in attaining a quality education.”
The San Miguel School expanded rapidly after its modest beginnings. A seventh grade was added in 1994, an eighth grade in 1995. The first graduation was held in 1996 and, today, the school has 62 students and four classrooms.
And Providence was just the start.
In 1995, a San Miguel school was opened in Chicago; another followed in 1997 in Camden, N.J. Last year schools opened in Memphis and Minneapolis, followed this year by new schools in Portland, Ore., San Francisco, St. Louis and on an Indian reservation in Montana.
There are now nine schools, seven of which are middle schools. One is a pre-school, another a high school. The common denominator at all San Miguel schools is a commitment to helping at-risk children.
The typical San Miguel School student comes from a single-parent home where English is not the first language. Many San Miguel students don't know their father's whereabouts, have a sibling or parent who has been through the justice system, and have failed to thrive in a neighborhood public school.
The cost to send a student to San Miguel School is about $6,000 a year. In most cases, parents pay anywhere from $600 to $800 of that; the rest is paid by individual sponsors and businesses. “The kids are very conscious of that,” says Brother Lawrence. “They know there are a lot of people out there who help us.”
Once a week, to show their appreciation, the children visit nursing homes, daycare centers and pitch in with community-cleanup projects.
Jamal Burk, a 13-year-old student at the San Miguel School in Providence, is among a group that visits the elderly. “Sometimes we bring maracas, tambourines and drums for them,” he says. “We get a beat going and they play the instruments. It's good exercise for them.”
Jamal, who has attended the San Miguel school for three years, says what he likes best about the school are the teachers. “If you are struggling in class, they help you,” he adds. “They always have time for you.”
When Jamal graduates and heads for high school, he will not be forgotten by his teachers and mentors. Like all San Miguel graduates, he will be tracked closely, offered ongoing academic guidance, and assisted in finding financial aid if he chooses a private high school.
Asked to explain the extraordinary dedication to students in evidence at San Miguel, Brother Lawrence cites his order's founder. “St. John Baptist de la Salle recommends that we [cultivate the growth of] the total child, not just see to their education,” he says. “We take them where they're at, and we will help them for as long as it takes.”
In this way, the San Miguel schools offer at-risk youth something in short supply in their neighborhoods: hope.
Mary Ann Sullivan writes from
Durham, New Hampshire.
----- EXCERPT: The San Miguel Schools offer hope to inner-city boys ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mary Ann Sullivan ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Feminist, Philosopher, Jew, Catholic, Saint DATE: 11/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:by Maria Ruiz Scaperlanda
Our Sunday Visitor, 2001
207 pages, $11.95
The controversy over Edith Stein and Carmelite St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross is alive and well. Were they two people, or is she one? Was Edith Stein's canonization an insult to our older brothers in the faith or a bridge to better understanding? In a vibrant and extremely perceptive study, Maria Ruiz Scaperlanda refuses to be caught on the horns of the dilemma. Transcending current polemics, she sketches the rich personality that has captivated Christians and Jews alike in bold and objective lines.
The complex characteristics of her protagonist give Scaperlanda multiple possibilities, among which she has chosen wisely and well. Her analysis of young Edith's role as an intellectual leader of Christian feminism in Europe is particularly striking. A quote from journalist Lauria Garcia throws Edith's position into clear relief: “The woman's body stamps her soul with particular qualities that are common to all women but different from distinctly masculine traits. Stein saw these differences as complementary and not hierarchical in value, and so they should be recognized and celebrated rather than minimized and deplored.”
Scaperlanda ably records Edith's celebration of femininity during the decade between her conversion to the Catholic faith and her entrance into the Carmel of Cologne. In the schools run by the Dominican Sisters in Speyer, the unassuming Fraulein Stein molded a generation of women as she shared with them her knowledge of Christ and challenged them with the truth of their creation in the image of God. She inspired her students to attain the highest intellectual and professional achievement and, by the witness of her life, opened up to them the world of contemplative prayer.
During the same period, Edith delivered innumerable lectures for the League of Catholic Women and the Association of Catholic Women Teachers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland — becoming the ‘voice’ of the Catholic Women's Movement at annual conventions, acting as an advisor in reform plans and serving as their representative in discussions with government officials. While rejecting the radical feminist claim that there are no significant differences between men and women, she firmly pointed women to their responsible roles of professionals, co-workers in the Church, homemakers, teachers and, above all, mothers.
In the most resonant section of the book, Scaperlanda discusses the role of Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross as a Carmelite and theologian. Although her family had nicknamed her “a book sealed with seven seals” because she was such a private person, Edith nonetheless reveals herself with startling simplicity in her writings, particularly her letters. Shortly before entering Carmel, she writes to her close friend Sister Adelgundis, a Benedictine of Freiburg-Gunterstal, explaining that, for her, everything comes down to “a small, simple truth that I have to express: How to go about living at the Lord's hand.” For Scaperlanda, this is Edith's signature phrase; it completely captures the saint's essence.
For the Nazis, it was Edith Stein the Jew who was killed at Auschwitz. For the Church, it was Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, freely offering her life for Christ and for her people. In her chosen title “of the Cross” by which she was blessed — “Benedicta” — and by which she lived, the two elements blend into a most complete unity. In her person, the dilemma is resolved. In this book, we see how.
Dominican Sister Mary
Thomas Noble writes from Buffalo, New York.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Sister Mary Thomas Noble ----- KEYWORDS: Books -------- TITLE: Family Matters DATE: 11/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:Tangled Workplace Web
Q I am asked to get a lot of things done at work, but many of the people whose help I need don't report to me. So I'm constantly frustrated because I can't make them complete the tasks I ask of them.
A The situation sounds discouraging and all too common. Here's a suggestion: When you request something, do you best to motivate the other person to do it. What you lack in authority you have to make up in encouragement. You might think: ”Hey, they're paid to do their job. Why should I have to motivate them? Isn't it their job to be willing to work?”
True, sort of. Most workplaces, however, run with lean staffs to keep costs down. So employees usually have more on their plates than they can manage, and every item in an in-box is a competing loyalty. Eventually deadlines encroach, and pressure gets things unstuck; but then other work is neglected and the cycle continues.
You can motivate others from top down, or from bottom up. Top down: Motivate the other person's boss to give your work the priority it deserves. Bottom-up: Encourage your colleagues to see the importance of what you're asking for. When you're not in charge you really have no other choice.
To motivate colleagues, begin by letting them know you realize they're already busy with important work. Then explain the significance of what you're asking them to do. No one wants to be a hamster on the wheel; they need to see the big picture and how the details fit in. Think about what John Paul II says: People are not objects; they are subjects and they want to understand. Connect the dots for them.
Your empathy toward them and your enthusiasm for the job can light a fire in others so that they want to work with you.
Art A. Bennett is a licensed marriage, family and child therapist.
Reach Family Matters at familymatters@ncregister.com
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: John Paul II's Families DATE: 11/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:Thanksgiving is a time for family and prayer. Twenty years ago, Pope John Paul II's Familiaris Consortio (On the Family in the Modern World) underlined the importance of both. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of that document (Nov. 22), and in honor of Thanksgiving, Register writers explored four of that document's themes by looking at four families whose lives exemplify them.
Called to Serve Life
The Nguyens
Leah Nguyen was 30 weeks pregnant with her third child — who would later be named Mary Magdalene — when she found out the child had anencephaly, a fatal birth defect in which the baby has no brain and no skull bone from her eyebrows to the back of her head.
“We were on our knees,” said her husband Stephen, describing their decision whether to carry their daughter to term. “We were not asking for healings or miracles, but for guidance to understand and to do God's will.”
Having studied the Pope's teaching in Familiaris Consortio (On the Family in the Modern World), the Nguyens were aware of their call as a family “to serve life … transmitting by procreation the divine image” to their children (No. 28). They also knew that “the Church firmly believes that human life, even if weak and suffering, is always a splendid gift of God's goodness.” (No. 30)
Supported by their faith and by their friends and families, the couple from Kansas City, Kan., completely accepted Mary Magdalene's condition. The child was born full-term Sept. 28, 2000 and died 16 hours later.
“Our decision gave us the freedom to celebrate her life, to give her a funeral, and to accept the offerings that people gave us — cards, Masses, flower, meals — the things that poured in because we acknowledged her life,” said Leah.
She concluded, “You don't sign up for something like this, but when it happens, it's beautiful to see how God uses it.”
The Nguyens are expecting their fourth child next year.
Forming a Community of Persons
The Rivards
Kerrie Rivard and her husband, Paul, studied Familiaris Consortio at Blessed Sacrament Parish in Regina, Saskachewan, and learned that the family is a community of persons on the model of the Holy Trinity.
“God created both men and women individually, in his own image using different traits,” said Kerrie Rivard. “Just as the three persons of the Holy Trinity are indissoluble, so is the family.”
The call to build a community persons extends to the children also, as John Paul taught: “All members of the family, each according to his or her own gift, have the grace and responsibility of building day by day the communion of persons, making the family ‘a school of deeper humanity.’” (No. 21).
For the Rivards, this means trying to give “100% to each other, as God does, because we value each other as God does,” said Kerrie.
In their busy household, there are many opportunities to serve. Paul, an insurance underwriter, gives practical domestic help to Kerrie, who stays home with their three children, Stephane (age 4), Benoit (age 2) and Claire (9 months). He also initiates a family prayer time and carves out time to spend with the family each day.
Kerrie recognizes the challenge this places on her husband. When friends sometimes criticize their spouses, she is careful to praise hers. She wants her family to be known for “respecting and promoting each one of its members in his or her lofty dignity as a person, that is, as a living image of God. (no. 22)
Developing Society
The Dannenfelsers
Long before they met and married, Marty and Marjorie Dannenfelser had been involved in politics. Both of them ended up working on Capitol Hill in Washington. Today, the parents of five children aged 9 years to 9 months, the Dannenfelsers say participation in the political arena has become “part of the personality” of their family.
Such political involvement is one of the ways the Pope says families can be involved in developing society: “Families should be the first to take steps to see that the laws and institutions of the state not only do not offend, but support and positively defend the rights and duties of the family. Along these lines families should grow in awareness of being ‘protagonists’ of what is known as ‘family politics’ and assume responsibility for transforming society; otherwise families will be the first victims of the evils that they have done no more than note with indifference” (No. 44).
Marjorie, 35, says, “The older children are always interested in who is running in whatever race nationally or locally, because we talk about it all the time at the dinner table.” She also says her volunteer work as chairman of the board of the Susan B. Anthony List, an organization dedicated to training pro-life activists and candidates, “has been a way to introduce the children to the culture of life ideas.”
Marty, 49, formerly with the Family Research Council and now a presidential appointee in the Administration for Children and Families of the Department of Health and Human Services, sometimes brings the children to his office and explains what he does to help other families and other kids — and why.
Can small children grasp such complex political ideas and processes? The Dannenfelsers have good reason to think so: During the presidential race last year their two older children started a political club to make their playmates aware of the importance of what was going on in the election.
“It was a good time to talk about our responsibility to take our love of Christ into every area, including the political arena,” says Marjorie. “Not everybody tries to make Christ the beginning and end of politics. As Pope John Paul II says, we have an important call to try to re-Christianize the political process, which has gotten secularized since our nation's founding.”
Sharing in the Life and Mission of the Church
The Binkleys
The Holy Father also taught a fourth role for the family: to be a “‘church in miniature,’ in such a way that … the family is a living image and historical representation of the mystery of the Church” (No. 49).
Tina Binkley of suburban Atlanta says she treasures her “domestic church”: husband, John; Amanda, 6; Jack, 3; and Robert, 8 months. She became aware of the idea when she participated in a parish group that studied Familiaris Consortio.
She now takes to heart John Paul's call for her family to share in the mission of the Church, first and foremost by being a “believing community.” Tina teaches her children that Jesus is their best friend, and Mary is their heavenly mother. They often read saint stories, and sing hymns and Bible songs. In every room in their house hangs a crucifix, and a highlight of their week is Sunday Mass, where they always stay after to fellowship with other families. Changing diapers cheerfully, praying with the children before bedtime, passing on outgrown clothes to needy families, saying a rosary while doing the dishes, taking meals to new moms … it all may sound insignificant, but Tina knows that through all these activities she's building the Church.
Like the Church at large, the Binkleys also evangelize. Quoting Pope Paul VI, John Paul said: “The family, like the Church, ought to be a place where the Gospel is transmitted and from which the Gospel radiates. In a family which is conscious of this mission, all the members evangelize and are evangelized. … And such a family becomes the evangelizer of many other families and of the neighborhood of which it forms part” (No. 52). “We're gentle evangelizers,” Tina explains. “We found the best way to reach out was to simply invite family members to come to church with us.”
It's working. They rejoiced recently when John's brother and his wife entered the Church.
The Binkley children have turned out to be the best evangelizers, though. Once when the family had the privilege of hosting a traveling icon of Our Lady from Ireland, Amanda would joyfully shout to all passersby, “Come see Mary — she's at our house!”
Tina recommends Familiaris Consortio to all Catholic families. “Reading that document was life-changing,” she said. “I finally saw the big picture, my whole purpose, that I was called to this family at this moment … it's a complete ‘How To’ manual for Catholic parents.”
Dana Mildebrath, Lynn Williams, Lisa Ferguson and Caroline McDonald contributed to this article.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dana Mildebrath ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Facts of Life DATE: 11/18/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 18-24, 2001 ----- BODY:ON JUNE 17, Facts of Life reported that the tiniest single-birth baby weighed 19 ounces. The University of Iowa, however, says there were many tinier babies. The lightest is a girl born just below 10 ounces. She is now 11 years old and in the top 10% of her 5th grade class. The 25 lightest children are all girls; and the most recent light birth — a girl, tied for 6th place — occurred in Illinois in June.
OUNCES AT BIRTH
Lightest: girl, Illinois, 1989
9.88
Most recent: girl, Illinois, 2001
11.99
Lightest boy: Japan, 1985
13.93
Source: University of Iowa, Department of Pediatrics at www.medicine.uiowa.edu/tiniestbabies
----- EXCERPT: WORLD'S TINIEST ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life ----- TITLE: Out of Kabul: God Answered Prayers for Freedom DATE: 11/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 25-December 1, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON—When Antioch Community Church in Waco, Texas, heard the news that two of its members were freed in Afghanistan along with six other foreign aid workers, the reaction was immediate.
Senior pastor Jimmy Seibert thrust his arms into the air and shouted, “Thank you, Lord!”
“It is more exciting than we could have imagined,” said Seibert. “The great thing I learned is that prayer works.”
Church members Heather Mercer and Dayna Curry, along with Australians Peter Bunch and Diana Thomas, and Germans Georg Taubmann, Katrin Jelinek, Margrit Stebner and Silke Durrkopf, were airlifted to freedom Nov. 14 by U.S. military helicopters. They had been held captive in Afghanistan for three months for preaching Christianity.
The Taliban militia had agreed to release the aid workers but left them behind as they fled from Northern Alliance rebels, paving the way for their rescue, senior Bush administration officials said.
Three U.S. special forces helicopters picked up the aid workers in a field near Ghazni, about 50 miles southwest of Kabul, at about 4:40 p.m. EST Nov. 14, Pentagon officials said.
The aid workers were flown to Pakistan. Upon arrival at a Pakistani air base just outside Islamabad, Curry hugged her mother, Nancy Cassell, while Mercer embraced her father, John Mercer, Associated Press reported.
“It was an incredible moment to see my mom standing there, and to be able to go and hug her,” Curry said at a press conference in Islamabad Nov. 16, Associated Press reported.
Mercer and Curry thanked government and aid officials who helped free them. “The men who came and rescued us did a fabulous job—I don't think Hollywood could have done it better,” said Mercer.
The women also discussed their time inside Afghanistan, describing weeks of waiting inside Taliban prisons without any contact with the outside world.
When the United States began bombing Oct. 7, they could hear—and feel—the assault on Kabul.
“Our building was shaking, our prison was shaking, all we could do was sit in the hallway and pray with all our hearts that the building wouldn't be damaged in any way,” Mercer said. Added Curry, “I just know that it was through the prayers of the people that we were able to come out alive.”
Presidential Pleasure
After arriving in Islamabad, Curry happily told reporters, “The first thing we did was get our hair done, because it was a mess.” On Nov. 15 the young women attended a party at the German embassy, and they also received a 10-minute phone call from President Bush.
The president hailed the U.S. military for its role in the dramatic turn of events.
“I'm thankful they're safe, and I'm pleased with our military for conducting this operation,” Bush said Nov. 15 at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.
Bush had rejected several attempts by the Taliban to use the aid workers as bargaining chips.
Bush also commented on the phone conversation he had with both Curry and Mercer.
“They both said to say thanks to everybody for their prayers,” Bush said, Associated Press reported. “They realized there is a good and gracious God. Their spirits were high and they love America.”
The Taliban had agreed to turn over the aid workers through the International Committee of the Red Cross, two senior administration officials said. The Red Cross was going to get them in the hands of U.S. troops. But before the exchange could be accomplished, the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance overran Ghazni, prompting the Taliban and the workers’ guards to flee.
Bush said only that the International Red Cross and other “people on the ground” facilitated U.S. troops’ ability to rescue the imprisoned aid workers.
He said the rescue ended one chapter in the five-week-old U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan, but the mission remained to topple the Taliban and root out Osama bin Laden and his Al-Queda network.
In Nashville, Tenn., Dayna Curry's stepmother, Sue Fuller, told a reporter she was elated at her step-daughter's release.
“I'm so excited that we're going to see her soon and that she's safe,” Fuller said. “I just think, you know, she trusted that God would take care of her and get her out of there safely, and it's happened.”
The eight workers are employees of the German-based Christian organization Shelter Now International. They had been held since Aug. 3 on charges of trying to convert Muslims—a serious offense under the Taliban's harsh Islamic rule.
Taliban Supreme Court judges had indefinitely postponed their trial, saying they feared their anger at the United States over the air strikes could hamper their ability to make a fair ruling in the case.
Prayer for Afghanistan
Curry and Mercer said after their release that they would like to return to Afghanistan and resume relief work once the country is stabilized.
Said Mercer, “We pray that the world continues to keep its eye on Afghanistan.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Airline Disaster Unites Two Catholic Worlds DATE: 11/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 25-December 1, 2001 ----- BODY:NEW YORK—Only two months after the destruction of the World Trade Center, New Yorkers began grieving fresh losses. And they were doing so in the midst of an ongoing stream of memorial Masses and funerals for an estimated 4,500 victims of terrorism.
Or, in the case of one parish, in the middle of daily Mass.
American Airlines Flight 587 took off from John F. Kennedy International Airport, carrying 260 people to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. Just minutes later, the Airbus A300 slammed into the middle of a seaside community on the Rockaway peninsula, jolting about 100 people attending the morning 9 am Monday Mass at St. Francis de Sales Church, only about 50 yards away. A woman ran in and yelled, “Everybody get out.”
Msgr. Martin Geraghty, pastor, stopped the Mass, and the church was evacuated. “We saw terrible, dark, black smoke and thought the school building was on fire,” said Kevin Kearney, a parishioner who is principal lawyer for the Diocese of Brooklyn. Kearney's son, Sean, 11, who had been serving at the Mass, said to his father, “Dad, we've got to get out of here.”
Kearney took his son to a nearby house where his in-laws live and returned to see how he could help at the scene. He found himself assisting firefighters stretch out a hose.
Rushing to the scene was Father Robert Romano, a priest of the Diocese of Brooklyn who is chaplain of the New York City Police Department. For at least two hours, he blessed bodies as they were recovered from the wreckage and later offered comfort to grieving families gathering at Kennedy Airport.
Blessing bodies in such a situation can be “tough,” but the priest keeps in mind that each is a “creature of God,” deserving of such respect, Father Romano said in an interview. Respect of the deceased is something police and firefighters “have been doing from the beginning, at the World Trade Center,” he added. “They treat every body with the greatest respect. They know that that's a person who is loved by someone.”
He lauded the quiet heroism of those emergency workers, who “do the work they're trained to do, and do it very well, every single day.”
Dominican Dedication
This time, the initial conclusion of officials that the airline crash was not a terrorist act was little consolation for relatives of the 265 people who lost their lives. But the tragedy seemed to unite two very disparate, albeit traditionally Catholic, ethnic communities in New York: Dominican and Irish.
“This disaster has bound the Belle Harbor community with the Dominican community of our city, many of whom make their homes in our diocese,” said Bishop Thomas Daily of Brooklyn, which includes Queens.
News of the crash had an immediate impact on the Dominican community of New York, whose population is estimated at 450,000. Flight 587 was a popular trip to Santiago, getting people there by lunchtime and leaving them the rest of the day to relax on the Caribbean island. “It was full every day,” said Consuelo Cabrera, secretary at Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in the Corona section of Queens. The parish, which she said is 90% Dominican, lost between seven to 10 people—“people who came to Mass regularly.” The casualties included three sisters from one home.
“The parish and the community are taking it in a very calm way,” Cabrera said. “Everybody is so united. There is a lot of strength.”
In Washington Heights, Gabriel Castilo was waiting for confirmation last week that his wife, Juana, 59, was on board the tragic flight. “It's very difficult,” he said. “I don't know if there is a body. I hope we can recognize her face. I don't want to think about it.”
He and his wife had lived in New York for 37 years, had two daughters and were hoping to buy a house in Florida. “Now everything is gone,” he said.
A friend said Castilo, who attended St. Rose of Lima Church, worked hard at the children's clothing store she owned on Broadway near 160th Street. “I asked her Friday why she was going to the Dominican Republic now,” said Francia Pimentel. “She had postponed the trip four times.”
Irish Spirit
Though the numbers of those killed on the ground, at least five, were far fewer than those on the plane, the pain was no less sharp in the closely knit Belle Harbor neighborhood of Rockaway. St. Francis de Sales Parish had lost six young people who worked in the World Trade Center and six firefighters. Msgr. Geraghty, days earlier, had presided over the memorial Mass of a fireman, the final such Mass in his parish.
Among those killed last week were Kathy Lawler, an administrative assistant in the diocese's stew-ardship and development office, and her son, Christopher, a student at St. John's University School of Law in Queens. Their house was destroyed in the fiery crash. Mrs. Lawler's husband, Thomas, a member of the board of directors of the Tablet, Brooklyn's diocesan newspaper, was at a golf outing, and another son was away at college. The Lawlers’ two daughters were at basketball practice at Bishop Kearney High School in Brooklyn.
“Family was foremost in her life,” said Frank DeRosa, a spokesman for the Diocese of Brooklyn, who worked with Mrs. Lawler.
Also killed were Thomas and Helen Concannon, who had lived in the neighborhood for 37 years.
“It almost sounds hokey now, but the community reacts the way they did after the World Trade Center, by coming together, talking to each other, going to each other's houses, seeing how people are,” Kearney said. Girls in the neighborhood were out buying clothes for the Lawler sisters, whose house was totally destroyed.
“It's just a matter of being present for the people,” Kearney added. “And a lot revolves around the church,” where attendance has been on the rise since Sept. 11 and which was full the morning after the jet crash.
DeRosa said that, for priests of the diocese, the last two months have been pastorally demanding. There is, for example, a need for counseling children who “can't figure out what's happening, for families who have lost people, for handling funerals,” He said. The pastor of the Belle Harbor parish “thought it was over” with the last fireman's Memorial Mass, he said. But then a plane crashes in his back yard.
But the response of priests has been just as heroic as that of fire-fighters. About 150 priests from Brooklyn and the Archdiocese of New York volunteered to take six-hour shifts at Ground Zero, being on hand to bless bodies as they are recovered and to talk with stressed out recovery workers.
And helping to coordinate that effort is Father Romano, the police chaplain, who is also a pastor in Brooklyn. “New York is blessed,” he said. “We've got more clergy than anywhere.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Burger ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Cardinal Part of 'Rapid Response' DATE: 11/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 25-December 1, 2001 ----- BODY:NEW YORK—Cardinal Edward Egan should have been taking care of business in Washington, D.C., at the annual fall meeting of the country's bishops. But tragedy called him home, and on the morning of Nov. 13 he was taking care of some hurting members of his New York flock.
Msgr. Gerald Walsh, a pastor in the heavily Dominican Manhattan neighborhood of Washington Heights, led Cardinal Egan to three homes in his parish. Two of those families each lost three members in the horrific airliner crash in Queens the day before.
“There's a lot of sorrow in Washington Heights,” said Msgr. Walsh, pastor of St. Elizabeth's Parish. He said nearby Incarnation Parish lost at least 10 members. “They're doing the best they can. Neighbors come to help. You see a lot of that here.”
The cardinal, who is fluent in Spanish, sat and talked and prayed with the grieving, offering them rosary beads that had been blessed by Pope John Paul II. “He said that even though they lost a great deal, they had all these people around them to help them,” Msgr. Walsh related. “And he said he'd be back later in the week to say a Mass [at St. Elizabeth's] for their loved ones.”
—John Burger
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Burger ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Columbine High Bans Mother's Memorial DATE: 11/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 25-December 1, 2001 ----- BODY:LITTLETON, Colo.—Because her son was killed in the Columbine High School massacre of 1999, Sue Petrone was invited to paint a tile for inclusion in a massive display of thousands of tiles above student lockers. What happened next appalled her.
Being Catholic, Petrone painted a 4-inch by 4-inch tile with a big red heart overlaid by a tiny cross. The name “Danny Rohrbough”—her deceased son—was painted at the bottom of the tile.
“It never made it on the wall,” Petrone said. “My stepdaughter's tile featured a stem rose, with a tiny yellow cross in the background that you could barely see. School officials ripped it down.”
In fact, Columbine High School officials have stripped 90 tiles off the wall that were deemed to contain religious symbolism, and dozens of other tiles painted by friends and relatives of murdered students were never included in the memorial because school officials are determined to keep religious messages out of the school.
Petrone and Danny Rohrbough's father, Brian Rohrbough, are suing the school district, in a case that's becoming more bizarre as it winds its way up the federal court system.
“The school invited us in to participate in painting tiles, as part of the healing process,” Petrone said. “And when we painted what we wanted to express, they didn't like it. They don't like my memory—of my own murdered son—so they've censored me.”
Danny's father, Brian Rohrbough, said he believes school district officials are angry at the parents of children who died in the massacre, possibly because the parents are constant reminders of a horrible event.
His tile, featuring 13 tiny crosses—one for each innocent victim—was censored and never made it on the wall.
Said Rohrbough, “It's very hurtful to be invited in to paint these tiles, and then have them say No. It's like the school thinks we haven't had enough pain yet. They've spent a half million dollars fighting us on this to date, and there are indications that if it goes all the way to the Supreme Court, and we prevail, then they'll just rip down all the tiles in the school.”
The latest round in the fight was won by the parents, when U.S. District Judge Wiley Daniel ruled that district officials had violated the First Amendment protection of free speech by censoring the tiles. Judge Daniel ordered school officials to replace any tiles they had taken from the wall by the end of the day Sunday, Nov. 4.
On the morning of Nov. 5, however, the tiles were still missing. Meanwhile, school-district officials and their lawyers were racing to convince the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to put Judge Daniel's ruling on hold so the district could appeal. On Nov. 6, two days beyond Daniel's deadline for the tiles to be replaced, the court of appeals granted the school district a stay.
Rohrbough says that, to the best of his knowledge, the zeal to keep religious messages off the wall emanates from Jon DeStefano, a member of the Jefferson County School Board. DeStefano was president of the board when the massacre took place. And DeStefano confirms that he'll defend the school district's right and need to censor the tiles all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.
DeStefano's an unlikely school official to be leading the crusade against religious tiles, because he's a Christian who cites Bible verses and invokes the name of Jesus routinely.
“I'm a conservative, traditional Catholic,” DeStefano said. “I believe that Jesus is Lord and Savior, no question about it. I grew up Catholic. I attended Fenwick High School, a Dominican school in Chicago, and I went to college at Regis University, a Jesuit school in Denver. I'm a devout, practicing Catholic. Yet I'm a devout, practicing Catholic who thinks those tiles do not belong in that school.”
Columbine, said DeStefano, is one of 145 schools in the Jefferson County School District. Many of the schools, he said, have tile displays similar to Columbine's. Even the Columbine tile display was up and running for three years before the 1999 massacre.
“To have these displays of art, in a large number of schools serving diverse populations, we have had to enact very strict guidelines about content,” DeStefano said. “These displays are about decorating the schools. They aren't about free expression. If they were about free expression, and we weren't allowed to censor them, then it would get absurd.”
DeStefano said the district learned the importance of censoring student expressions several years ago, when a group of African-American students wanted to wear a tribal symbol on their graduation gowns. District officials said No, and their right to do so was upheld by the courts.
“If we allowed the Kenta Cloth in that situation, it would have opened the door to all kinds of free expression by students,” DeStefano said. “If we allowed tribal symbolism, then it would be that much harder to say No to street gang symbols or swastikas.”
DeStefano added that he objects to any tiles that directly memorialize the massacre victims. He said the district has properly memorialized the students with a new atrium and library—“the best high school library in the country.”
“Thousands of students will be going to this school for years and years into the future,” DeStefano said. “The kids deserve an environment that's just a normal school, not a living memorial to April 20, 1999.”
John Whitehead, lead attorney with the Rutherford Institute, whose organization represents the parents in their suit against the school district, agreed the district has good reason to censor some forms of expression. The district can censor violent expression, or expression deemed obscene by the common sense of a principal.
But what the district cannot do lawfully, said Whitehead, is censor expressions of students or parents merely because their religious nature. The Constitution and the courts, Whitehead explained, have specifically prohibited the censoring of religious expression.
The policy by Jefferson County schools, he added, is simply illegal.
Whitehead argued a landmark Supreme Court case last summer that resulted in a ruling favorable to religious expression on public school campuses. In Good News Club vs. Milford Central School, the court held that a Christian youth club for grades Kindergarten through grade 8 must be permitted to meet in a public school building in Milford, N.Y., because the club's meetings constitute “moral instruction” similar to instruction provided by other youth organizations including Boy Scouts and the 4-H club.
Justices in the Good News case said that a meeting space is merely a forum for information, and does not constitute an endorsement of the religious views expressed in the forum. Like the meeting space, argued Whitehead, Columbine's wall of tiles is nothing other than a “forum” that has been offered up for students and invited members of the community to express themselves.
Legal Battleground
Throughout U.S. history, the federal courts have walked a tightrope on issues of religion in public institutions. The courts want to forbid any form of government—be it city hall or a school district—from creating the impression that it favors one religion over another, thus establishing state-sponsored religion. Establishment of religion, the courts have determined, is prohibited by the First Amendment.
But the First Amendment also forbids the suppression of free speech or practices of religion. Thus, the tightrope walk.
“The courts have determined that the difference between the ‘establishment’ of religion, and the mere free expression of religion, is coercion,” Whitehead explained. “If you force kids in a school to participate in a prayer, for example, that's a clear case of coercion. But allowing a cross on a tile on a wall, with thousands of other tiles—most of which are of a secular nature—does not coerce anyone to believe or to pray.”
School district officials disagree, said Marilyn Saltzman, a spokes-woman for the Jefferson County School District. Although the district has removed 90 tiles, Saltzman said that the tiles are “permanently affixed” to the wall and therefore could be easily perceived as official expressions of the school bureaucracy.
“It is the school district's official view that things mounted permanently on a wall are an endorsement by the school district,” Saltzman said. “As such, we are very careful about what goes on the walls.”
‘Yin Yang’ Not Banned
They aren't “careful,” countered Brian Rohrbough, they're “bigoted.”
“They're blatantly discriminatory against my faith,” said Rohrbough, a nondenominational Christian. “One tile on the wall has the yin yang [an Eastern religious symbol], but a cross is unacceptable. And nobody at the district can explain to me why that's okay, and crosses or Bible verses are not.”
DeStefano said he was unaware of a yin yang tile, and he doesn't know whether it would be in violation of district policy. He said the administration of each school simply makes its own call on each questionable tile, and said the process can never be anything but subjective.
“There probably are some tiles at Columbine that shouldn't be on that wall,” DeStefano said. “One reason for that is the fact that the moment this lawsuit was filed, the tile display was frozen. We were forbidden at that moment from taking down anything else.”
Wayne Laugesen writes from Boulder, Colorado.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Wayne Laugesen ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Nun Crusades Against Abortion Funding DATE: 11/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 25-December 1, 2001 ----- BODY:HARRISBURG, Pa.—When Congress started discussing an expanded children's health-insurance program, aimed at families too rich for Medicaid but too poor for private insurers, Franciscan Sister Clare Christi Schiefer saw the hidden risk.
Sister Clare Christi, president of the Pennsylvania Catholic Health Association, realized that the Children's Health Insurance Program could provide opportunities for pro-abortion groups to get coverage for abortion and contraception for children 18 and under.
The 1997 CHIP legislation provided some federal funds and loose federal guidelines, but allowed each state to design its own program. Sister Clare Christi worked behind the scenes with state legislators to make sure that Pennsylvania's program stuck to pro-life principles.
She met with key legislators and administrators. Due to her advocacy, a 1999 report by the pro-abortion Alan Guttmacher Institute found that Pennsylvania was one of only two states that specifically refused to cover abortion or contraception in the CHIP plan. (The two states, Pennsylvania and Montana, were later joined by Texas.)
The federal CHIP legislation created a complex system that intertwined state and federal funds, Medicaid-based and state-designed plans, and managed care.
In Pennsylvania, prominent Catholic involvement in health care and charitable work helped the pro-life cause: “I did participate in a children's health-care coalition, and they agreed that they would not seek” abortion and contraception coverage, Sister Clare Christi said.
She added, “We're big players in the health care market. We have a lot of schools; we could have done a lot for outreach efforts.”
She explained to legislators that Catholic groups would not recruit children for a program that they considered harmful. Since outreach—getting coverage for previously uninsured children—is a major component of CHIP, losing Catholic involvement would have dealt a real blow to the program.
Mike O'Dea, executive director of the Christus Medicus Foundation, had similar success in Michigan. Michigan's CHIP coverage initially covered abortion, sterilization and contraception, but the state legislature and Gov. John Engler removed sterilization and abortion coverage. O'Dea said he is still working on removing contraception coverage.
Patchwork Coverage
Approximately 20 states still cover both abortion and all forms of contraception. Many states simply expanded their Medicaid plans in order to meet the federal guidelines and, since abortion, contraception and sterilization are covered under Medicaid, they were covered by the CHIP plans as well.
Lynne Flynn, director of Kentucky's Medicaid services for maternal and children's health, explained, “One of the big advantages [of building a Medicaid look-alike program] is that you can use an existing delivery system. You don't have to reinvent from scratch. Most of the programs that got started very quickly were Medicaid look-alikes.”
But that convenience comes at a price: “We do provide coverage for contraception,” Flynn said. Kentucky state law also allows health-care providers to give minors contraceptives without notifying their parents.
As for abortion, Flynn said that Kentucky's coverage follows the Medicaid limits.
Medicaid-based programs can only cover abortions that meet the “Hyde Amendment” conditions: when the pregnancy threatens the life of the mother or is the result of rape or incest. States can expand CHIP abortion coverage if they design their own program and use their own funds.
Then governor of Texas George W. Bush signed a state plan that expanded Medicaid, and therefore expanded abortion and contraception coverage, in order to get the program off the ground quickly. But the Texas Legislature swiftly replaced that program with an alternative plan that did not cover abortion or contraception.
The Guttmacher Institute made a rare attempt at a comprehensive list of states’ plans. The institute found that 12 states used a combination of Medicaid-expansion programs and state-designed programs. The two elements of these combination programs operate under different rules—the Medicaid-expansion portion usually applies to younger and poorer patients, and includes the same abortion and contraception coverage as Medicaid, while the state-designed program typically offers more limited coverage to older patients from family incomes closer to 200% of the poverty line.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, Hawaii and Minnesota's CHIP plans do not cover adolescents. (States can set their own age limits, though virtually all chose to cover children 18 and under.)
Many pro-life advocates say that the CHIP coverage has been able to glide under the radar. “Nobody is telling people that it's in there,” O'Dea said. “Even today, the parents buying the insurance don't know” that their children can get contraception without their consent. He also charged that some health care administrators mistakenly believed that abortion or contraception coverage was necessary to get federal approval.
Keeping It Confidential
“Most people aren't really familiar with what [CHIP] is,” said Michael Janocik, assistant director of the Right to Life Education Foundation of Kentucky. In some states, the program goes by other names, such as KidCare or MedQuest.
The national office of Health and Human Services does not keep a record of state plans’ coverage of abortion, contraception or sterilization, and it also does not keep statistics on how many minors actually use that coverage.
But O'Dea noted, “Every state had to file a document with Health and Human Services in order to be approved for federal funds. I went to our state administrator and got a copy of the document.” He told pro-life advocates in other states, “All they have to do is request that document. It's there.”
O'Dea noted that when parents aren't notified that their children have received contraception or abortions, parents can't hold doctors or legislators accountable.
The Guttmacher Institute's report argued that “even accidental notification of a teen-ager's parents—through routine insurance billing practices, for example—can delay or dissuade a teen-ager from seeking critical, sensitive care and put her at risk for unintended pregnancy, STDs and future infertility.”
But O'Dea noted the health risks involved in abortion and contraception, as well as many parents’ strong convictions that their children should not receive these procedures at all—let alone without parental consent or knowledge.
Eve Tushnet writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: General in the Fight for Peace DATE: 11/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 25-December 1, 2001 ----- BODY:He has been on the front lines of the worldwide diplomatic fight for human rights for almost 40 years.
As Pope John Paul II's permanent observer at the United Nations since 1984, Archbishop Martino has spent most of his career dealing with civil strife, oppression, persecution, drought and famine from Lebanon to Nicaragua. He spoke to Register Correspondent Sabrina Arena Ferrisi in Rome.
Were you in New York on Sept. 11?
We had just arrived in the office [near the United Nations Building]. We all ran to the TV and watched as soon as we heard. At first, it seemed like we were watching a movie. It didn't seem real. But we soon realized the terrible reality of what was happening.
What should the United States’ continued response to terrorism be?
As I said during an intervention at the United Nations in October, those who are responsible must be apprehended and brought to justice through due process. This must be done in a way that does not expose even more innocent civilians to death and destruction. Violence on top of violence will only lead to more violence.
Terrorism is unjustifiable, but you can't free the world from terrorism by police action, because it will only return if you don't address what caused it in the first place. Any serious campaign against terrorism needs to address the social, economic and political conditions that nurture the emergence of terrorism.
Though poverty is not by itself the cause of terrorism, we cannot successfully combat terrorism if we do not address the worsening disparities between the rich and poor. Poverty along with other situations of marginalization, including the denial of human dignity, the lack of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, social exclusion, intolerable refugee situations, internal and external displacement and physical or psychological oppression are breeding grounds only waiting to be exploited by terrorists.
The basic requirements for the peace we seek are the elimination of weapons of mass destruction, the curbing of the arms trade, and the eradication of massive, endemic poverty.
The Holy See's stand against abortion and for the family seems to have drawn together a coalition of Muslims and Protestants at the UN. Can you tell me about this?
There is no pact. There is only a coincidence. Of course, if you are on a path and find companions who share the same principles and views, naturally, you work together. Since the U.N. Conference on Population in Cairo, I have read about an ‘unholy alliance’ with Muslim nations. No, it's just a happy coincidence. I'm sorry that those nations who should work with us because of their traditions do not.
How have the Muslim nations at the United Nations reacted to this event?
Many have asked us for the statements made by the Pope since Sept. 11. So we collected all of his interventions and distributed it to all the missions at the UN.
You have been the Permanent Observer of the Holy See Mission for 15 years. How has the United Nations changed during this time?
The main change came after the fall of the Berlin wall, which indicated the fall of the communist era. This induced a profound change at the U.N. which had been paralyzed by the confrontation between the Western and the Soviet block. After the fall of communism, the U.N. was called to fulfill its original vocation: that of being the forum of all nations, where everybody is on equal footing, in order to adopt positions which affect the whole world community. Of course, in the beginning, the U.N. was not prepared for this change.
Now, there is more of a confrontation between the rich and the poor. This is the new confrontation. You see among the rich nations a reluctance to admit that in order to progress themselves, they should help others.
Last year, there was a campaign to oust the Holy See Mission from the United Nations. What was that experience like?
The campaign was called “See Change", and those in charge of it knew from the start that they would not achieve their goal. They collected several hundred signatures, but those in favor of keeping the Holy See at the U.N. were ten thousand more. You have to remember that “See Change” was only at the level of NGOs (non-government organizations). No government did anything to favor that campaign. The Holy See has diplomatic relations with 176 countries, all of which are members of the U.N. So before any country tries to remove the Holy See from the U.N., they would have to break relations with us. Nothing like that happened.
Instead, last April, we witnessed the adoption by the US Congress of a resolution – with only one vote against – recognizing the highest role for the Holy See in the international arena. This was the first parliament in the world recognizing the historic role of the Holy See, which has for centuries proclaimed moral principles. The same thing happened in the Senate of the Philippines and Chile.
With the Bush administration, are there better relations between the Holy See and the United States?
With regard to the role of the family and the protection of life, there is. Of course, we would like to see a better stand from this administration on the death penalty, disarmament and the environment.
Many of the traditionally Catholic countries in Latin America and Europe don't seem to vote the way the Church would like them to vote on many of these issues. What has happened?
In the last few meetings, we have observed that Latin American countries have aligned with Europe. Many times this is due to blackmail made on those countries. There are also times when we come to these meetings and observe delegates who practically forget their own national laws. For instance, in a country where abortion is outlawed, their delegate votes and introduces text in favor of abortion. I have to ask: what country are they representing?
When you speak about blackmail, do you mean from the money-lending institutions?
Exactly. The message is “Do that or else!” or “You vote this way and we cancel that contract.” I have documentation on this kind of behavior, which of course I can"t expose.
During the 1990s, it seems there was a transformation at the United Nations. Once a place where nations fought primarily over political and economic ideology, today it seems the fight is more over values and morality. Can you comment on the nature of this battle?
Yes, there is a confrontation on values because of rich countries in the Western world that have a liberal lifestyle. I would call those countries “post-Christian countries” because they deny the value of the family and the role of parents. They seek sexual freedom and excess. For instance, during the U.N. Special Session on AIDS, none of those countries wanted to go to the roots of the origin of AIDS. They only wanted to speak about the consequences of AIDS. When we intervened in order to remind them about the need for education on abstinence, they were furious.
It reached a point where, during the last session when the document was adopted, they came to us and asked us not to speak after the vote because they didn't want to hear what the Holy See had to say.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Archbishop Renato Martino ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Faith on the Docket: 2002 U.S. Bishops Meeting DATE: 11/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 25-December 1, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON—The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops elected Bishop Wilton D. Gregory of Belleville, Ill., as president Nov. 13.
Bishop Gregory, 53, vice president for the past three years, is the first black and the first Catholic convert to be elected president of the U.S. bishops in history.
The bishops also elected Bishop William S. Skylstad, 67, of Spokane, Wash., as vice president and Archbishop James P. Keleher of Kansas City, Kan., 70, as treasurer-elect. The bishops also cast ballots for nine committee chairmen and 13 committee chairmen-elect. Bishop Gregory received 186 of the 249 votes cast, with the other 63 scattered among nine candidates. He spent the past three years as vice president of the bishops¥ conference, a post that usually leads to the top office.
He succeeds Bishop Joseph Fiorenza of Galveston-Houston, Texas, who is ending a three-year term.
Bishop Gregory, 53, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that his aim over the next three years is “to do the will of the bishops” and to increase participation by blacks in the Church.
Black Catholics comprise 2 million to 3.5 million of the 63.7 million Church members nationwide.
“I hope that African-Americans might see in me the fact that the Catholic Church takes seriously its commitment to multicultural celebration and life,” The Washington Times quoted Bishop Gregory as saying.
The bishops’ new president holds a doctorate in liturgy from Rome's Pontifical Liturgical Institute and has written extensively on the subject, particularly on liturgy in the African-American community.
Bishop Gregory is chairman of the bishops’ Committee on Personnel and vice chairman of three others: the Committee on Priorities and Plans, the Executive Committee and the Committee on Nomination of Conference Officers. He also is a member of the Administrative Committee and the ad hoc Committee on Publishing and Promotion Services.
He was born Dec. 7, 1947, in Chicago. It was just a few weeks after he enrolled as a sixth-grader at St. Carthage School that Wilton Gregory decided he wanted to become a priest. He first had to become a Catholic, however, which he did by the end of the school year.
Two years after becoming a Catholic, he entered Chicago's Quigley Preparatory, a high school seminary. By the time he was 25, he was ordained a priest. Just 10 years later, he became the youngest bishop in the country. He was installed as an auxiliary bishop for Chicago a few days after his 36th birthday in 1983.
The election was held during the bishops’ Nov. 12-15 fall general meeting, their first as the USCCB, operating under new statutes that call for all officers and chairmen to be elected a year in advance of taking office.
All officers and committee heads have three-year terms.
----- EXCERPT: Bishop Gregory Elected Conference President ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Bishops Juggling Immigration Issues in Post-Sept. 11 America DATE: 11/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 25-December 1, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON—Changes in immigration policy and practices being implemented to protect Americans from terrorism should target the problem without overreaching, said an official with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
“It's a delicate line to walk, but [maintaining safeguards for legitimate immigrants] serves the long-term interest of the United States, said Kevin Appleby, director of the bishops’ Office of Migration and Refugee Policy. “Immigration helps make the United States a powerful, diverse and strong nation.”
The bishops, meeting in Washington, D.C., in mid-November, issued a statement about the United States’ war on terrorism and how Catholics should respond to it. Part of the statement deals with immigrants and refugees and the need for tolerance of Arab-Americans, Muslims and foreigners in the country.
Said the bishops, “As criminal and civil investigations proceed and essential security measures are strengthened, our government must continue to respect the basic rights of all persons and in a special way of immigrants and refugees … Proposals to ensure the security of our legal immigration system and refugee program must avoid harming immigrants and refugees who represent no security threat. Enforcement actions must not be indiscriminate in their application or based upon ethnic background, national origin, or religious affiliation.”
In the wake of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and in the midst of a continuing threat of biological and chemical terrorism, President Bush has called for tighter immigration policies. Most of the 19 alleged hijackers entered the country legally. And government officials have repeatedly warned that more terrorists may be lying low amid the vast Arab immigrant community.
In a presidential directive, Bush created a Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force, which will coordinate federal programs designed to deny entry into the U.S. of aliens associated with, suspected of being engaged in, or supporting terrorist activity. The task force also will help locate, detain, prosecute or deport such aliens already in the country.
The president also ordered a thorough review of student visa policies and practices to ensure that student visas are being issued appropriately. And he called for better-coordinated immigration and customs policies with Canada and Mexico. He ordered the Secretaries of State and Treasury and the Attorney General to work with those two countries to develop a shared immigration and customs control database.
As well, refugee admissions were suspended indefinitely Oct. 1 while the review of immigration policy is being conducted.
The USA Patriot Act, which the president signed in late October, among other things, allows the attorney general or the commissioner of immigration to certify an immigrant as being under suspicion of involvement in terrorism. Those individuals may then be held for up to seven days for questioning, after which they must be released if they are not charged with violations of the criminal or immigration codes.
Bishop DiMarzio's View
Bishop Nicholas A. DiMarzio of Camden, N.J., chairman of the Bishops’ Committee on Migration, said he finds some positive aspects in the changes, such as greater cooperation among federal agencies. But he is worried about anything that would risk falsely accusing the innocent and limit legitimate freedom, including detaining suspects indefinitely without charges.
“It's a little too open-ended,” Bishop DiMarzio said. “We need to have some due process. In the name of security, we can't give up every freedom.”
Appleby noted that the Church recognizes the right of a sovereign state to patrol its borders and defend its population. But he too feels that detention of suspects without charges could lead to abuses of “basic human rights.”
But Steven A. Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, D.C., said the provision is important for national security. In a national emergency such as the present one, it's important to safeguard information that might give the enemy vital secrets, he said. “You don't want to let people know how you know what he's up to. The embassy bombing trial in New York this year was a how-to manual for Al-Qaeda,” teaching the terrorist organization what to do better next time, Camarota said.
Donald Kerwin, chief operating officer of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network in Washington, admitted that there does have to be a certain amount of tightening up. He suggested the problem of terrorism calls for better intelligence and government coordination in immigration controls.
It also calls for more integration of immigrants, Kerwin added. After immigrants obtain legal status, they can go on to work toward citizenship.
But the tragic events of Sept. 11 have also raised the issue of whether all of America's population is loyal to the country's principles. “A sizeable number of new immigrants and their children may be bettering themselves economically and speaking English but not embracing American identity and patriotism,” John Fonte, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, wrote on National Review Online.
North American Border
Kerwin of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network warned that care needs to be taken in implementing a so-called North American border perimeter, especially in dealing with asylum seekers. The perimeter would require prescreening of immigrants before they get on a plane in their home countries. But if a legitimate asylum seeker is turned down in the prescreening, he would not be able to get a hearing in the U.S.
Said Kerwin, “We need to take another step to insure that they are not fleeing persecution from terrorists or a government violating their rights.”
Camarota, though, said there is “no way” to do an effective background check on someone seeking asylum from a country like Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, which probably would not cooperate with the U.S. or be truthful. In fact, if the person is escaping persecution, such a country might falsely accuse him of being a terrorist, ensuring that he is unable to escape.
The bishops’ Office of Migration and Refugee Policy issued a statement Nov. 14. It urged Congress “to call on the Bush administration to expedite the security review of visa issuance and admissions procedures … and resume refugee admissions to the United States as soon as possible.” The statement said that because of the immigration policy review, “it is likely that the [fiscal year] 2002 admissions ceiling of 70,000 will not be reached, thereby depriving thousands of deserving refugees of the opportunity to find freedom from persecution.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Burger ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 11/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 25-December 1, 2001 ----- BODY:National Institutes of Health Launches Stem Cell Registry
The launch of the site, part of the Bush administration's stem-cell plan, allows researchers to seek federal funds to study the cells. The NIH said it could begin awarding grants within a month.
The site lists 52 stem cell lines that have been propagated in research labs around the world from the original cells derived from days-old human embryos. The extraction process kills the nascent life.
Under a controversial plan announced by President George W. Bush Aug. 9, scientists at U.S. universities can win government grants to work with embryonic stem cells created on or before that date. No grants can go to research using other stem cell lines.
New Long Island Bishop Leads Prayer Prolife Vigil
About 350 people walked from Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Massapequa Park, where Bishop Murphy celebrated an early morning Mass, to the nearby clinic.
Planned Parenthood representatives compalined it was inappropriate to be protesting in a time of war. But vigil participants told the Long Island daily that they saw their efforts as more important than ever since the World Trade Center disaster.
Said Bishop Murphy, “What happened Sept. 11 makes this an even more appropriate time to pray. We're here to witness in respect for human life, including the lives of the unborn.”
Orthodox Priest Predicts Agreement on Creed
But Rev. Nicholas Apostola, pastor of St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in Worcester, Mass., predicted opposition from “conservative” elements in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches.
The filioque controversy, which led to the Orthodox Schism over 1,000 years ago, centers on whether the Holy Spirit proceeds from only God the Father, as it is expressed in the Orthodox version of the Creed, or from the Father and the Son, as it is expressed in the Catholic version.
The Orthodox-Catholic consultation is cosponsored by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Government Weighs Producing Anti-Terror Vaccine With Abortion Tissue DATE: 11/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 25-December 1, 2001 ----- BODY:ATLANTA—The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that the new smallpox vaccine ordered by the government to guard against potential bioterrorist attacks may be produced using the tissue of an aborted baby.
Press officer Nicole Coffin said Nov. 13 that the new vaccine will be produced using tissue from a monkey kidney or a human lung. She identified the human lung tissue as MRC-5, which was taken from an aborted baby boy in 1966 and has since been used to produce the polio, rabies, hepatitis-A, and chickenpox vaccines commonly in use in the United States.
Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson announced Oct. 17 that President Bush has set aside $1.5 billion in his $20 billion emergency relief budget request to fight bioterrorism. Thompson said that $509 million of that will fund the development and acquisition of 250 million doses of a new smallpox vaccine. Added to the existing stockpile, that would be enough to inoculate every man, woman, and child in the country if necessary.
Children of God for Life, a Florida pro-life group focusing on human embryonic stem cell research and vaccines “tainted” by connection to abortion, issued a press release Nov. 1, warning that the new vaccine may be produced using MRC-5 and calling on the public to write to Thompson requesting an ethical alternative.
“Consider the outcome if the only vaccine we have next year is derived from aborted fetal tissue and hundreds of thousands of Americans refuse it,” read the release. “Ask [the government] to consider the moral consciences of hundreds of thousands of Americans who have already voiced their objection to the present vaccines derived from fetal tissue.”
Last year, an intense debate occurred among Catholic pro-lifers on whether it is morally permissible to receive a vaccine produced with aborted fetal tissue. Many moral theologians and philosophers—including prominent pro-lifers such as Msgr. William Smith of St. Joseph's Seminary in New York, Prof. Janet Smith of the University of Dallas, and Richard Doer-flinger, associate director of policy development for the pro-life secretariat of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops—agreed that while it is immoral to use tissue from a deliberately aborted baby to produce a vaccine, receiving such a vaccine is a form of “remote material cooperation” with evil, and is therefore permissible under certain circumstances.
Most of these experts emphasized, however, that alternate vaccines should be used where available, and that no new vaccines should be developed using fetal tissue. Pro-lifers say that is even more important in the case of the anti-terror smallpox vaccines, as they will be purchased with taxpayers’ dollars.
Said Children of God for Life executive director Debi Vinnedge, “No matter what your opinion is, whether it's morally acceptable or not [to receive a “tainted” vaccine] … [Catholic authorities] all have agreed we have to have alternatives and we should not be producing future vaccines in this manner.”
Added Vinnedge, “We must seek alternatives and let the manufacturers know that we don't want any new products developed from it so that we're never put in this situation to start with.”
Practical Alternative
There is evidence that a new smallpox vaccine made using animal tissues would be just as effective as one made with fetal tissue. The government's existing stockpile was made using calf skin cells, and the existing doses will form part of the larger stockpile the government hopes to have in place by the end of next year.
Moreover, in an article in the November-December 2001 issue of the CDC publication Emerging Infectious Diseases, government scientists list human tissue as just one of the possible “substrates” which might be used to produce a new vaccine.
The Washington Post reported Nov. 11 that three large pharmaceutical companies—Acambis PLC, Merck and Co., and GlaxoSmithKline—have made the final cut in bidding to produce the new vaccine. Acambis PLC already holds a contract with the government to produce 54 million doses (recently increased from 40 million ordered to add to the smallpox vaccine stockpile before Sept. 11).
The bids are shrouded in secrecy at the moment, but the Postreported Oct. 28 that Acambis is producing its vaccine using “human fibrob-lasts,” referring to MRC-5. According to Children of God for Life, Merck and GlaxoSmithKline already produce other vaccines using tissue from aborted babies. Sources indicate the government would prefer to hire more than one company to produce the new smallpox vaccine.
Health and Human Services spokesman Bill Hall told the Register Nov. 13 that the government hopes to award the contract or contracts “very soon.” He refused to comment on the proposals currently being considered, but seemed to indicate that the government is aware of concerns about the use of fetal tissue.
Said Hall, “I think that the people involved in the negotiations are aware of the various issues that could come up with certain processes.”
David Curtin writes from Toronto.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: David Curtin ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 11/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 25-December 1, 2001 ----- BODY:Pope Cites Internet as New Media for Evangelization
But the Gospel has some competition on the Internet. Reuters reports that some 40% of Internet users in Britain say they have accidentally come across pornography while surfing the Web. A consumers association said it was working with search engines to crack down on porn sites.
Afghans Need Aid Urgently, Pope Warns
“It's an emergency for the world, which must not, however, make us forget that, in other parts of the world, there still persist conditions of great poverty and pressing need,” the Pope said in remarks delivered from his window overlooking St. Peter's Square.
He did not refer directly to the U.S.-led military strikes against Taliban and Al Qaeda positions in Afghanistan. But he said that imbalances between the world's haves and have-nots only fuel conflict, and he called on people to reform their lives. “It's not enough to limit oneself to extraordinary initiatives,” he said. “The commitment to justice requires an authentic change of lifestyle, especially in the society of prosperity, as well as a more equitable management of resources in both rich and poor countries.”
Matteo Ricci's Map Displayed in Beijing
Father Ricci's map for the first time showed China as one nation among many, a marked departure from charts depicting the “Middle Kingdom” as the center of the world.
The map had once been part of the Forbidden City's imperial collection, but when Japanese forces entered Beijing in 1931, it was taken to safe havens around southern China, ending up in Nanjing.
Muslims Begin Work on Nazareth Mosque
The wire service reported that the Vatican, in a statement, called on the Israeli government to stop “Muslim extremists” from building the mosque. Construction would, in effect, “put this holy place in a state of permanent siege and make its gate a gathering place for the most hostile elements,” the statement said.
Muslims in the city accused the Vatican of meddling in local affairs. “The Vatican wants to control Nazareth,” said the leader of the local Islamic Movement.
Construction, which began without the necessary permits, was halted by the Israeli Lands Authority. The Islamic Trust said it will start the work again if it does not get the necessary permits within a week.
Earlier this year, Father Giovanni Battistelli, the Franciscan Custos of the Holy Land, said that free access to Christian holy sites was threatened, and that a mosque next to the basilica would put the church “under siege, in terms of free access.” In a letter to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, he urged construction of a public plaza there instead.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Beginning the Day Without Fear DATE: 11/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 25-December 1, 2001 ----- BODY:Register Summary
The longest psalm in the Bible, Psalm 119 is both a meditation on how God's law should guide human behavior and a reminder that God is always near, John Paul II said. During his weekly general audience on Nov. 14, the Pope reflected on eight of the psalm's 176 verses, a section that is especially suitable for Morning Prayer.
In these verses, the psalmist looks toward the dawning day with serene trust, following an all-night vigil in which he begged God's help. Comforted, “he no longer fears dangers,” said the Pope. “He knows he will not be overwhelmed by his enemies, because the Lord is by his side.”
Speaking to thousands of pilgrims gathered in Paul VI Hall, the Pope invited all Christians to make this passage a “living and timely prayer.” This, he said, is what theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer did, before his death at the hands of the Nazis in 1945. The Pope also recalled that philosopher-scientist Blaise Pascal prayed the entire psalm every day.
Every Saturday of Week I of the Liturgy of the Hours, puts before us a single section of Psalm 119 for Morning Prayer. This psalm is a monumental prayer made up of some 22 sections—as many as the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Each section is characterized by a certain letter of the alphabet, and each individual verse within a section begins with that letter. The order of the sections follows that of the alphabet. The one we have just proclaimed is the nineteenth section, which corresponds to the letter koph.
This introductory remark, which might seem peripheral, enables us to better understand the meaning of this hymn in honor of the divine Law. It resembles Eastern music, whose resonant modulations seem never-ending and which rise to heaven in a recurrence that engages the psalmist's mind and senses, spirit and body.
Unfolding His Word
In a sequence that runs from the first to the last letter of the alphabet—from ‘aleph to tau, or, as we would say, from A to Z—the psalmist pours out his praise of God's Law, which he takes as a lamp for his steps on the often dark path of life (verse 105).
The great philosopher and scientist Blaise Pascal is said to have recited this, the most extensive of all the psalms, every day. The theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was murdered by the Nazis in 1945, made it a living and timely prayer when he wrote: “Undoubtedly, Psalm 119 is heavy because of its length and monotony, but we must take it very slowly and patiently, word by word, phrase by phrase. We will then discover that the apparent repetitions are really new aspects of one and the same reality: love for the Word of God. Just as this love can never come to an end, neither can the words that proclaim it. They can accompany us throughout our whole life and become, in their simplicity, the prayer of the youth, of the man, of the very old man” (Pregare i Salmi con Cristo, Brescia 1978, p. 48).
Revelation That Guides
The act of repeating, besides helping the memory for choral singing, is therefore a way of stimulating interior attachment and trusting surrender to the arms of God, who is invoked and loved. Among the repetitions of Psalm 119, we wish to point out a very significant one. Each of the 176 verses that make up this praise of the Torah—that is, of the Law and the divine Word—contains at least one of the eight words with which the Torah describes itself: law, word, witness, judgment, saying, decree, precept, order. In this way, divine Revelation is celebrated: it is a revelation of the mystery of God, but also a moral guide for the life of the faithful.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was murdered by the Nazis in 1945, made this psalm a living and timely prayer.
Thus, God and man are united in a dialogue composed of words and works, teaching and listening, truth and life.
Dawn of Hope
We now turn to our section of Psalm 119 (verses 145-152). It is well suited for the atmosphere of Morning Prayer. The scene that is placed at the center of this set of eight verses is in fact nocturnal, but it is open to the new day. After a long night of waiting and prayerful vigil in the temple, when dawn appears on the horizon and the liturgy begins, the believer is certain that the Lord will hear the one who has spent the night praying, hoping, and meditating on the divine Word. Comforted by this awareness, he no longer fears dangers as he faces the day that is opening before him. He knows he will not be overwhelmed by his enemies who treacherously besiege him (verse 150), because the Lord is by his side.
A God Who Is Near
All these verses of the psalm express an intense prayer: “I call with all my heart, O Lord; answer me that I may observe your laws …. I rise before the dawn and cry out; I put my hope in your words” (verses 145, 147). In the Book of Lamentations we read this invitation: “Rise up, shrill in the night, at the beginning of every watch; pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord; lift up your hands to him for the lives of your little ones” (Lamentations 2:19). St. Ambrose took up the theme: “O man, know you not that every day you must offer to God the first expressions of your heart and voice? Make haste at dawn to carry to the church the first expression of your piety” (Exp. in Ps. XVIII: PL 15, 1476A).
At the same time, these verses of Psalm 119 are also the exaltation of a conviction: we are not alone, because God listens and intervenes. The psalmist says: “You are near, O Lord” (verse 151). Other psalms affirm the same thing. “Draw near to me, redeem me, set me free because of my enemies!” (Psalm 69:19). “The Lord is near to the broken-hearted, and saves the crushed in spirit” (Psalm 34:19).
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: 'Sinister Ruling'? British Regulators Muzzle Christian Radio Station DATE: 11/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 25-December 1, 2001 ----- BODY:LONDON—Britain's only Christian radio station has been publicly reprimanded by a state watch-dog for breaching official program rules, including criticism of other faiths.
One Church of England pastor has denounced the action as a “sinister” move to restrict legitimate religious comment.
Premier Radio, an interdenomi-national station broadcasting in London, was given a “Yellow Card” warning by the Radio Authority, a body whose chairman is appointed by the government but funded by the broadcast industry. The authority upheld seven complaints against the station filed by the Mysticism and Occultism Federation.
The regulatory authority, which will decide whether to renew Premier's license for eight more years in January, warned of “substantial sanctions” if more complaints are upheld.
David Heron, chairman of Premier Radio, said the station had not released a formal statement about the warning. “These tend to be an exercise in self-justification and the truth is we have broken the Broadcasting Act and had our knuckles rapped,” he said. “We have apologized and we are putting measures in place to prevent it ever happening again.”
But Church of England pastor David Holloway, who was involved in drafting the 1990 Broadcasting Act that legalized local Christian radio in Britain, said the station had to play ball with the authorities because its license was due for renewal in January.
Rev. Holloway called the ruling “sinister.”
The authority upheld, or partially upheld, seven complaints against the station for criticizing religions, while rejecting one complaint that a preacher had denigrated the Catholic Church's law on clerical celibacy.
Thou Shalt Not Denigrate
One upheld complaint was against U.S. -based evangelical preacher Michael Yusef, who commented on air, “Now I don't understand this crazy idea that is dished out in the liberal church that a person can be a good Christian and a practicing homosexual, that a person can be a very good Christian and living in sin.”
Regarding Yusef's remarks, the authority stated, “We agreed that the broadcast contained elements that denigrated the beliefs of other people.”
Another complaint the authority upheld was against the comments from a preacher who said, “Go to a country that has never worshipped the living God and has erected its idols, its shrines … Your heart as a child of God will break as you watch idolaters trying to gain relief from their idols, hoping to assuage their anger with their gifts or incense or their sacrifices.”
The authority said although the preacher did not refer to Hindus or Buddhists , they were the main overseas religious groups who used incense, and that the item broadcasted could give offense in that it made “assumptions that about religious beliefs which could be regarded as offensive.”
Heron pointed out that Premier Radio has never been subject to a complaint before, and that all the complaints came from a single source—an occult/pagan group that he said was looking for any items that might be found “offensive.”
The complaints did not come from the station's typical listener base, Heron noted, which is 99% Christian. It also has a number of Muslim listeners.
Said Heron, “We have a Muslim audience who tune in primarily because it is a station where there is no swearing, no obscenity or blasphemy, and this is very rare now.”
Heron declined to answer a question about the threat to Christian freedom of speech arising from the Radio Authority's ruling. But Catholic broadcaster and former Premier Radio host Mike Apichella was less diplomatic. Said Apichella, “I think it is ironic that the liberal secular mindset usually argues that if you are offended by something on the TV you can always switch it off, yet a different set of standards has been applied to Premier Radio.”
Premier's broadcasts include U.S. evangelical preachers, many of whom repeat common, unflattering Bible-belt clichÈs about Catholics. But the station also features mainstream British Christian representatives and a Vatican correspondent, Father James Cassidy of the Canons Regular of the Immaculate Conception, a British priest based in Rome.
The Broadcasting Act makes it an offence to be abusive about another religion but stops short of saying it is illegal to “denigrate” another religion. Rev. Holloway and others campaigned successfully to exclude the term because it could be used to stifle any contentious religious discussion.
Said Rev. Holloway, “The authority … has gone beyond its powers.”
The Anglican pastor also said that the regulatory body had broken the European Convention on Human Rights, which acknowledges that religious debate may cause offence but should be protected.
Kerry Curtis, spokeswoman for the Radio Authority, denied the authority had overstepped its powers, saying it was merely exercising its statutory responsibilities.
Asked if Premier would have been spared censure if it had included other “balancing comments” to counter the criticisms it aired, Curtis replied, “That is a hypothetical question.”
Some supporters of Premier Radio, hoping that it has managed to avoid more than a warning, are now praying that it will get its license renewed next year.
In a statement Oct. 31 responding to the ruling by the Radio Authority, Premier Radio said, “The team at Premier Radio would greatly appreciate your prayers as we seek to retain the distinctive and exclusive nature of our Christian broadcasting in an environment that has become much less sympathetic to exclusively Christian answers to questions of faith and spirituality.”
Meanwhile, others are seeking to broaden British law to allow Christians to run a national radio station, which is currently banned.
Said Apichella, “I think it is odd that in the country which literally invented the concept of Christian broadcasting with the original BBC, it is illegal to have a national Christian broadcasting station. We are allowed Christian newspapers but not a radio station.”
Christian Vocation
Apichella added that the wider issue arising from the Premier Radio case is the need for working in the secular, mainstream media to be seen as a Christian vocation.
Said the Catholic broadcaster, “All churches should be encouraging their members to see the media as a mission territory.”
Paul Burnell writes from Manchester, England.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Paul Burnell ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 11/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 25-December 1, 2001 ----- BODY:World Health Organization Pressures Mexico on Abortion
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, Nov. 12—A World Health Organization representative urged Latin American countries to seriously consider proposals legalizing abortion, Associated Press reported.
Axel Mundigo, who said some 4 million abortions are performed each year in Latin America, said that because abortion is largely banned there, 90% are performed in secret by unlicensed doctors, resulting in 6,000 deaths. The wire service did not say where Mundigo derived his figures.
Mundigo addressed more than 250 health officials from 20 Latin American countries meeting in Mexico. Sponsored by Mexico's National Institute of Health, the conference was intended to help Latin American governments establish “a free exchange of ideas” about the possible legalization of abortion.
Hundreds of protesters affiliated with Mexico's ruling National Action Party demonstrated outside the three-day forum. Said Angeles Amaro, president of the Love Life Network, “These leaders have arrived as messengers of death under the pretense of public health.”
Iranian Leader Condemns Attacks on America
Speaking at the United Nations in New York, Khatami called the attacks “inhumane and anti-Islamic” actions that were perpetrated by “a cult of fanatics who had self-mutilated their ears and tongues and could only communicate with perceived opponents through carnage and devastation.”
But Khatami also cautioned against revenge, which, coupled with a “misplaced sense of might,” he said “could lead to failure to hear the calls of people of good will or the cries of children, women and the elderly in Afghanistan.” Iran is on the U.S. State Department's list of countries that sponsor terrorism.
Bangladeshi Hindus Complain of Islamist Backlash
CYBERCAST NEWS SERVICE, Nov. 12—Hindus in Bangladesh have claimed that they are victims of a Muslim backlash resulting from the U.S.-led war against terrorism, the Internet news site reported.
Attacks against the minority group in Muslim Bangladesh have increased, according to a Hindu movement affiliated with India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. R.S. Vaidya, a senior official of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh organization, said Muslim fundamentalists, unhappy that their government is supporting the anti-terrorism drive, have increased harassment of Hindus in Bangladesh, prompting thousands of refugees to flee to the Indian state of West Bengal.
Hindus are widely seen as sympathetic toward neighboring India, which is regarded as a U.S. ally and hostile to Islam.
Trimble Decries Torment of Catholic Students
Trimble called the taunting of children passing through a Loyalist enclave in north Belfast “hate crimes.”
Students at Holy Cross girls primary school were guarded by 400 riot police as they walked to classes Nov. 12. It was the largest security operation since Sept. 5, when a bomb was thrown by a Protestant and exploded outside the school.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: EDITORIAL DATE: 11/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 25-December 1, 2001 ----- BODY:Victory changes everything. We hope our progress in Afghanistan will bring new opportunities to build peaceful solutions in the war on terrorism.
The weeks of bombing were starting to wear thin on many Americans. New doubts were arising about the campaign. What good was it doing? No doubt the Taliban was doing much evil—but was it really a legitimate target in retaliation for a Sept. 11?
After the Northern Alliance took over Kabul—and sent the Taliban scrambling—western journalists began to find out in detail just what sort of “haboring of terrorists” Afghanistan's government was doing.
In Taliban strongholds, said The Washington Post Nov. 16, reporters found “grenades [sitting] on a closet shelf, beside sheets of paper bearing fake stamps for travel documents, including one from the U.N. High Commissioner.”
Eerily, there was also a “composition book filled with detailed recipes in English for making bombs with various chemicals and household products. Nearby, a small notebook held Arabic instructions for using Russian mortars and artillery, advice for successful suicide attacks and, in crude English, a note beginning ‘Dear Osamma.’”
Al Qaeda had residences and offices right in the Taliban headquarters. According to the Times of London, partly burned papers in one of their houses including instructions on building an atomic bomb.
In short, the U.S.-led strikes in Afghanistan seem to have scored an important victory.
In a recent interview, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Vatican's doctrinal point-man, offered an explanation of the right to national self-defense that seems to apply to the war against the Taliban. “According to the Christian tradition, one cannot exclude that, in a world marked by sin, there might be an evil aggression that threatens to destroy not only values and people, but also man's image as such,” the cardinal said. “In this case, to defend oneself in order to defend the other could be a duty.”
It is important, at the same time, to see the tragedies that have accompanied our victory. Afghan civilians killed in battle will never taste on earth the freedoms their countrymen are now reveling in. Their relatives, including orphans, are mourning, not celebrating.
In addition to the military actions that await, the hard part of our work in Afghanistan is just beginning—rebuilding.
We must begin what Pope John Paul II has called the “dialogue of civilizations.” An attitude that holds Muslims in contempt is not only unchristian, it's unhelpful.
It may not have as nice a ring to it as “Clash of Civilizations” does. And a dialogue's parameters may be even harder to define. But we must answer violence with something more than violence if we want to live without fear.
An e-mail has been going around purporting to tell the story of Billy Graham's daughter, Anne Graham Lotz, being interviewed on the CBS “Early Show” on Sept. 13. Here's the actual transcript: Jane Clayson: “I've heard people say (those who are religious, those who are not) ‘If God is good, how could God let this happen?’ To that, you say?”
Anne Graham Lotz: “Well, I say that God is also angry when he sees something like this. And I would say also that for several years now, Americans, in a sense, have shaken their fists at God and said, ‘God, we want you out of the schools, we want you out of our government, we want you out of our business, we want you out of our marketplace.’ And God, who is a gentleman, has just quietly, I believe, backed out of our national and political life, our public life and removing his hand of blessing and protection. And we need to turn to God, first of all, and say, ‘God, we're sorry that we have treated you this way and we invite you now to come into our national life. We put our trust in you.’”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 11/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 25-December 1, 2001 ----- BODY:In Defense of Bedford Hills
Our page-one story “The Bedford Hills Witch Project” (Oct. 29-Nov. 4) contained a misstatement. It is not the case that patriotic songs and the American flag are banned on all campuses in the Bedford Hills School District. The Register regrets the error.
In Defense of ‘Magic’
First, my “credentials": I'm an adult convert to Catholicism; my husband is a “cradle Catholic” who returned to the Church about the time I converted. We very rarely miss a Sunday or Holy Day Mass. And, for the past seven years, we've tithed. I'm worried that, based on your Oct. 28-Nov. 3 article about magic cards, parents will forbid their children to play this creative and enjoyable game ('Magic: The Gathering’ Cards Spook the Experts,” Oct. 28-Nov. 3).
“Magic: The Gathering” is probably not appropriate for fourth-graders, and I'm not sure it has a place in any school's math curriculum. That said, I don't believe the game poses any danger to psychologically healthy older children (middle school and above). Yes, some of the illustrations are scary; more are just mysterious, many are humorous, and all are very imaginative. My son has hundreds of the cards, and none shows anything like “Christ as a fat woman on a cross” or “a rape being perpetrated by a monk.” I suspect these cards have been either deliberately or accidentally misrepresented. There are as many “good guys” as “bad guys” in a deck.
“Magic: The Gathering” is a competitive game of skill which appeals mostly to boys—boys of above-average intelligence, those gifted, “nerdy” kids on the honor roll. Magic-players I know include my high school honor-roll nephew and his friends who recently gave up part of their Saturday to help my nephew's family move. My son plays in a middle-school program for gifted kids. His primary playing partners are his dad and his college-senior sister, who both find the game to be great fun. Playing games together as a family is usually counted among the most wholesome of activities for children.
“Magic: The Gathering” is by necessity a social activity—there is no solitaire play. If your son plays the game with friends whom you know and like, gets good grades, and communicates with you, he's not in any danger from a card game. If your child is emotionally fragile, in trouble with the law or at school, involved with alcohol, drugs or sex, then “Magic: The Gathering” is still the least of your worries.
The danger in concentrating on possible occult activities in your kids, is that you may overlook much more likely threats to them. Looking for pentagrams or signs of animal sacrifice in your child's room, while failing to supervise his leisure time or share your values with him, is barking up the wrong tree. It's not that I don't believe Satan is real—it's just that he latches onto more kids by luring them into drinking, sex and excessive materialism, than by witchcraft and New Age practices. We have to remember that a symbol on a piece of cardboard is no threat to believers; Christ is with us.
GRETA PERLEBERG
Wichita, Kansas
Purgatory Debt-Reduction Plan
Regarding “Reaching Out to Purgatory—And Avoiding It,” Nov. 4-11:
As the new millennium unfolds and social activists continue to campaign for the cancellation of developing countries’ debts (and rightly so, in reparation for the centuries of exploitation we have inflicted upon them), perhaps we should consider another kind of outstanding debt, quite possibly in arrears.
How often do we pray for our ancestors?
If one considers that the Church is a body, including its deceased members, and that if the body suffers then we all suffer and that our ancestors may be languishing in purgatory, this seems an ideal time to campaign for their early release.
I wonder, if each family or each parish put some serious effort into praying for its dead, what the response would be from our Father.
Would he cancel the debts?
STEPHEN CLARK
Manchester, England
When ‘Clerics’ Preach Terror
Joe Woodard's discussion of just-war thinking in the Oct. 21-28 edition was very instructive and thought-provoking (“Battling by the Book: Just War Makes a Comeback”). One lingering question which remains with me weeks after reading it concerns the strict differentiation of combatants and non-combatants. The problem I see is that the young Arab men who make up the majority of the terrorists in Afghanistan, and throughout the Muslim world, are under the sway, instruction and encouragement of Muslim clerics who are not technically combatants.
Yet it seems to me that those more mature clerics are far more guilty than the young men to whom they have preached a false and murderous theology. It seems both unjust and an inadequate strategy to target only the naive and misled young men without also going after, in some manner, those who have filled the young minds and hearts with hate, and encouraged the terrorist acts. For, as the news reports tell us, the “schools” across the border in Pakistan where many of these clerics teach continue quite deliberately produce the young “soldiers of Allah” who think murdering Americans buys them a quick ticket to [Paradise].
MARK GRONCESKI
Milwaukie, Oregon
ACLU Jangles the Constitution's Nerves
In your Oct. 21-27 issue there was mentioned how the American Civil Liberties Union is trying to take the name of God out of our civil life (“‘God Bless America’ Jangles ACLU Nerve”). It always upsets me when I see the ACLU trying to do this. What it is really trying to do is to make atheism a substitute for religion, and hence a form of religion. If our founding fathers did not want the state establishing any formal religion as a state religion, they certainly did not want it to establish any substitute for such a religion either.
Atheism has a right to exist in our country like any other religion, but it has no right to be our state religion. I hope our lawyers will see this truth and use it to prove the ACLU to be totally wrong.
FATHER BARTHOLOMEW GOTTEMOLLER
Huntsville, Utah
Founding Fatherly Advice
Regarding Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Thanksgiving address (“Thanksgiving in a Time of War,” Nov. 18-24):
One of the Founding Fathers of the United States, George Mason, made a similar statement about how God deals with nations that have done wrong.
“As nations cannot be rewarded or punished in the next world, they must be in this. By an inevitable chain of causes and effects, providence punishes national sins by national calamities.”
As soon as our nation goes back to God, positive things will happen and terrorism will be conquered.
ANDREA REMLIN
Westport, Connecticut
The Unjust A-Bomb
As a World War II veteran, I just disagree with the letter of U.S. Air Force Major Sigurd R. Peterson Jr. (Nov. 11-17).
There were many in official capacity who opposed the use of atomic bombs as unnecessary and immoral. Among them were General Dwight Eisenhower and Admiral Ernest King, U.S. Naval Commander-in-Chief, as well as Admiral William Leahy, chief of staff to Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman. Leahy, a Catholic, stated that America “had adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages.”
It is true that there were fanatical groups in Japan who wanted to fight on, but they were in the minority and were no longer in the driver's seat after Tojo's resignation.
Why couldn't peace have been reached earlier? There was a powerful clique led by General George C. Marshall and Secretary of War James Byrnes, plus certain State Department factions, who obdurately went ahead with plans for an invasion of Japan that wasn't necessary and eventually resorted to the atomic bomb. And it is this clique who influenced Truman. Ironically, the eventual surrender terms were similar to what Japanese were willing to accept months earlier.
Some War Department strategists wanted to use poison gas on Japanese troops, particularly at Iwo Jima, but Admiral Chester Nimitz rejected the idea.
JACK MORAN
St. Louis
Age-Old Rage
The column written by Father Drew Christianson, S.J., (“Roots of their Rage” Oct. 28-Nov. 3) was partly correct.
The rage of the Muslim world against Christians started can actually be found much earlier. For instance, the year 711 A.D., when Spanish Christians were slaughtered by the Muslim Moors from Northern Africa.
In the “Moorish camp, following the battle of Algeciras, a number of Spanish prisoners were seized, dismembered and their flesh boiled in cauldrons in the presence of other prisoners. These latter were then set at liberty to spread the news that Spain had been invaded by cannibals. The terror that followed may account for the flight of many who were relied upon to oppose the Moor.” … That's from page 21 of Blood-Drenched Altars, by Father Francis Clement Kelly.
JOHN DE MAIO
Hoboken, New Jersey
Blessing America
There have been a number of letters recently about the moral strength of America. The attack on America is not only real in physical terms, but it is real in symbolic terms. It represents as President Bush said: an attack on our way of life—our democratic free process. This is something which carries over from our forefathers as they fought for their freedom years ago. It is what keeps us as a light to others.
The fight now is against evil. It is our sense of justice and truth that takes on the evil of a fanatical group.
We will prevail in the long run, no matter what it takes. But will we come to see the log in our own eye, while taking the splinters out of the eyes of foes?
Their flaws are much easier to see, since they use visible means of destruction to try to bring us to our knees. They did bring us to our knees, but not as they hoped. For it has been on our knees that we have sought the higher power which has always led our fight for justice. Now we have come up with that wisdom, and we are ready to move ahead. We will return time and again to our knees, not to surrender but to seek more strength and wisdom.
I know one thing for sure. If we start out each day on our knees, than this evil will soon be destroyed, and then all the other evils in our country will come tumbling down too. First, the overt evil we have all seen, then the covert evil, which disguises itself in many deceitful ways in our own land. We will be a country where all our citizens are free to choose and live—both the born and unborn, both the healthy and the disabled, both the executive and the janitor. We will be one people, indivisible, under God, with liberty and justice for all.
And, if we stay the course to extinguish all evil, God will bless America … again and again, forever … if.
STEVE CHERRY
Oregon, Ohio
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Up With Umbert DATE: 11/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 25-December 1, 2001 ----- BODY:The Register is a well-done effort on the part of Catholic media. May you always seek to improve and foster the Catholic message.
Many things are to be commended, but I wish to cite Gary Cangemi's “Umbert the Unborn” as an outstanding piece of work. It's far more than cute, cuddly and lovable. Its cutting-edge theme is creative, timely and cerebral, and its humor is worthy of the top echelon of cartoonists today. His strip is terrific, and should be syndicated throughout the Catholic periodical world.
Thank you for your decision to carry it and to Gary for his unique talent.
JOHN MATERAZZO
Roxbury, Massachusetts
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Faith, Hope and Love Versus Fundamentalism DATE: 11/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 25-December 1, 2001 ----- BODY:In a recent meeting at the United Nations, members of the United Religious Initiative, a U.N.-funded nongovernmental organization (NGO), cited the atrocities of Sept. 11 as they indicted religion itself for fostering terrorism.
Their rationale: “[T]here is a lot of terror and violence in Scripture.”
No doubt, verses that seem to encourage violent behavior and attitudes toward enemies can be found in the Koran as well as the Bible. For example, the Koran contains the words: “Then fight and slay the pagans wherever you find them” (Sura 9, verse 5).
The Old Testament is replete with calls for violence against the enemies of Israel and those who pollute the purity of Yahwist religion: “Fair Babylon, you destroyer, happy those who pay you back the evil you have done us! Happy those who seize your children and smash them against a rock” (Psalm 137:8-9).
And, in the New Testament, Jesus says: “Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division” (Luke 12:51-53).
Taken at face value, these passages seem to make the case for the anti-religion lobby. But the fact of the matter is that these texts are taken out of context and give a decidedly false impression of three major religions. The problem is not religion per se—but, rather, religious fundamentalism.
Religious fundamentalism is usually the route taken by those who feel themselves or their culture to be threatened. To secure their identity they: (1) look for simplistic answers to difficult and multifaceted issues by dividing the world into good (themselves) and evil (their perceived enemy); (2) ground their rationale and actions in a selective reading of a sacred text by excising verses from the complete work, i.e. the Bible or Koran; (3) remove the text from any historical reference of time or culture, giving their fight cosmic significance; and (4) rely on the textual interpretation of a charismatic leader who ignores or distorts the mainstream thought of sages and scholars who have been recognized as keepers of the authentic community tradition.
Judaism, Christianity and Islam, all “religions of the Book,” are all susceptible to fundamentalism.
Nevertheless, while the true believer is aware of episodes and counsels to violence in sacred writ, he also knows that these passages are cushioned and outweighed by the broader call for peace, justice and compassion, as well as formulas for moderation.
Judaism, Christianity and Islam, all ‘religions of the Book,’ are all susceptible to fundamentalism.
This balanced and reasonable application of religious truth and behavior is especially taught in the long-recognized secondary sources of scriptural interpretation and commentary used by the great religions. For the Jews, the Talmud has been indispensable for understanding the Torah. For Christians, the writings of the Church Fathers and the great councils guide the Church in applying Jesus’ teachings. And, for Islam, the writings of the Islamic-law scholars are invaluable in understanding Allah's revelations to Mohammed. These commentaries exist to protect religion from fanatics who might act unwisely and thereby denigrate the totality of religious truth.
Bernard Haykel, a professor of Islamic law at New York University, provides a good example of what Koranic scholars must present to Muslims. A recent article in the New York Times quotes Haykel as saying that Osama bin Laden's barbaric violence cannot fall under the rubric of jihad (a struggle in the cause of Allah that includes killing) for the following reasons:
(1) Individuals and organizations cannot declare a jihad, only states can. (2) One cannot kill innocent women and children when conducting a jihad. (3) One cannot kill Muslims in a jihad. (4) One cannot fight a jihad against a country in which Muslims can freely practice their religion and proselytize Islam. (5) Prominent Muslim jurists around the world have condemned these attacks, and their condemnation forms a juristic consensus (ijma) against bin Laden's actions. This consensus renders his actions un-Islamic. (6) The welfare and interest of the Muslim community (maslaha) is being harmed by bin Laden's actions and this equally makes them un-Islamic.
In fact, Haykel goes on to explain, the Koran's numerous injunctions against jihad prove that bin Laden has acted contrary to the tenets of Islam, making him a moharib, or brigand.
Explanations such as this are vital if further acts of misguided religious zeal are to be prevented. The dangers of fundamentalism should concern believers of all faiths. The lesson of Sept. 11 should weigh heavy on all religions to teach the errors of fundamentalism and the false religion it produces. Not to do so would only lead to more tragedy in the future and provide fodder for more attacks on religion itself.
Father Michael Orsi is chaplain of, and a research fellow at, Ave Maria Law School in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Father Michael Orsi ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Christian Sex or Sexy Christianity? DATE: 11/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 25-December 1, 2001 ----- BODY:How many Catholics have purchased the Summa Theologiaeof St. Thomas Aquinas, anxious to read through the most important work of the Church's greatest thinker, only to get mired in the text's complexities in the first few pages?
Not a few have had a similar experience with Pope John Paul II's theology of the body, his massive collection of Wednesday audiences on marriage and sexuality.
Thankfully, a gifted layman named Christopher West has made the Holy Father's teachings in this area accessible to the masses. In a dynamic tape series titled Naked Without Shame (giftfoundation.org), West, a graduate of the Pope John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage & Family, effectively combats the popular view that the Church should “stay out of the bedroom.”
West, who brings this message to live audiences around the country, shows why the bedroom really needs the Church: Because sexuality has a nuptial, covenantal meaning—mirroring our relationship with God—and so sexuality, by its nature, has everything to do with Christianity. With a delivery that is to-the-point, energetic and, at times, somewhat shocking, West reveals one of John Paul II's many great gifts to the Church: his insight into how our sexuality is not something with which me may do as we please, but is infused with a profound meaning under which we must align ourselves if we are to find genuine freedom and happiness. Our sexuality carries within it a covenantal and eucharistic meaning through which we give the whole self to the other just as the Trinitarian God gives himself totally to us.
Why is the enthusiasm elicited by West's presentations accompanied by some bewilderment? Because he grasps the insight that sex must be Christianized so expertly and poignantly that, at times, he inadvertently goes one step too far—and, if I may say so, sexualizes Christianity.
Put another way, so clearly does he see how sexuality must be taken up into Christianity that he can give the impression that Christianity has been taken up into sexuality.
Fallen Foundation
There's hardly a thing in the material content of West's work that falls into this mistake and, even if there were, it would be of minor concern. Just about everyone, myself included, has at least a few rough edges in the material content of their work. Rather, West's mistake occurs in the formal content he presents—that is, in the overarching lens or perspective through which he lets his audiences see the material content. While giving his audience accurate understandings of material content ranging from the nature of the conjugal act to the meaning of celibacy, there is the lurking danger of conveying that Christianity really is all about sex. Ironically, the central insight that sex is all about Christianity then recedes into the background, as uncomfortable listeners become suspicious that Christianity is being sexualized.
For example, West shows how sexual pleasure is a foretaste of the eschaton—an appropriate suggestion and a good example of Christianizing sexuality. But this is followed with the assertion that “Heaven is the ultimate climax”—an inappropriate suggestion and an unfortunate example of sexualizing Christianity.
What's more, knowing that people will be a bit embarrassed by such imagery, he proposes that the audience's discomfort owes to our seeing sexuality through our fallenness when we should be recognizing that Christ has redeemed sexuality. Doubtless there's truth in that, but it seems more likely that the discomfort is occasioned by West's implication that sexuality is the very foundation of Christianity.
This lurking danger can be allayed by a clear reminder that the truth about sex is not at the foundation of Christian truth. It is as true and as important as other Christian truths, but is not the foundation. The “hierarchy of truths” (Decree on Ecumenism,No. 11) means that, while there are many doctrines that are essential to Christianity, not all of them are equally foundational. This is a critical distinction. At the foundation we find the Trinitarian life, dwelling in us as grace, through the Incarnation.
The sacraments, truths about Mary and the truth about sex are all equally true and equally important—but not equally foundational. West might defend himself by noting how John Paul II speaks of marriage as the primordial sacrament, but even the sacraments are not at the foundation of the hierarchy of truths.
To his credit, West now includes a letter of explanation with his tape series that addresses all the specific complaints that have been coming his way. But those complaints may in fact be manifestations of the uneasiness people feel at having sexuality placed at the foundation of the hierarchy of Christian truths. Grace, not sex, belongs there.
That grace, then, can transform our sexual lives. West shows how it really is possible to understand the way sexuality was “in the beginning,” and we can transcend, with the help of Christ, our fallen nature. Then we can see sexuality in its original integrity. With grace, this vision really can be lived. We can avoid disordered uses of our sexuality. An important distinction, however, is in order.
The Body Sacramental
It is one thing to be faithful to absolute moral norms: Avoid fornication, auto-eroticism, the entertainment of impure thoughts, contraception and so on. It is another thing, above and beyond avoiding intrinsically disordered acts, to have a full experience of integral sexuality, infused with Trinitarian bliss. We should all be on that trajectory, and those of us with families must guide our children onto it. But a certain realism is essential so as to avoid a crushing disillusionment or anxious scrupulosity. Mary Beth Bonacci, writing in Envoy magazine, confesses that, even working for years in an apostolate dedicated to promoting chastity, she failed to recognize the sheer fierceness of concupiscence. “In fighting sexual temptation, we're often facing demons we can't even begin to understand,” she writes. “And even for the healthiest of people, commencing sexual activity apparently trips something inside which is very, very difficult to shut back off.”
Many of West's listeners may very well be able to see and appreciate the sacramental meaning of the body, but, due to the damage wrought to the “raw material” of their sexuality, the capacity to fully experience that meaning may be beyond reach.
Take, for instance, the person abused as a child whose damaged psyche spreads to her sexuality. She may have come to terms with this privation, and would prefer to live with it. Likewise the person of homosexual orientation who lives chastely, and would prefer not to seek reparative therapy: He can appreciate the sacramental meaning of the body, and simultaneously put it on the back burner for himself, aware that it's not the center of Christian life.
It is well and good to aim at infusing our sexuality with the fullness of Christian grace. But, this side of the eschaton, many people's damaged raw material—psychological as well as physical—sadly stays put.
The foundation of the faith—the Trinitarian life, grace infused ever more into our being—is something they can have fully, and is in fact something that can grow ever more strong right in the midst of the struggle with our damaged raw materials. Married couples who struggle with disorders may also take comfort in the fact that John Paul II's understanding of the “matter” of the sacrament of matrimony is the entire person of the spouses—not just the conjugal act.
With these caveats in mind, I guarantee that many people will find that Christopher West's series provides just the jump-start needed to get their sexual lives in order. West's highly readable book Good News About Sex and Marriage(Charis/Servant) is also recommended, and we hope that his forthcoming book from Pauline Press, interpreting each of the Pope's Wednesday audiences on the body, keeps the theology of the body rightly ordered within the hierarchy of truths.
As George Weigel has noted, the Pope's insights are like a “theological time bomb set to go off, with dramatic consequences, sometime in the third millennium.” Don't be afraid to let the Holy Father's theology of the body go off in your own life right now.
Mark Lowery teaches moral theology at the University of Dallas. Lowery@acad.udallas.edu
----- EXCERPT: Christopher West's fascinating, but flawed, take on John Paul's theology of the body ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mark Lowery ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Marriage, Love and Economics After Sept. 11 DATE: 11/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 25-December 1, 2001 ----- BODY:People who work in high-risk occupations are used to wondering if each day might be their last.
Most of the rest of us have gone about our days oblivious to the specter of possible death. We've taken for granted that the sun will rise again tomorrow and we'll be there to see it.
Sept. 11 changed all that. Now all Americans are in the same boat—and well aware that another deadly gale might blow in at any moment. Will we be one of those swept off the earth by it next time?
We watch the news for the latest on the bombing of Afghanistan and our mail for signs of bioterror. We debate the finer points of the just-war theory.
And we learn to live in this state of clear and present danger. As we do, we remember that we are all, at core, the same. From dust God made us and to dust he shall, on the way to glorifying us if we are in Christ, return us.
Our debate this summer, too, over the human embryo and its utility for stem-cell research covered the same ground, even though, because of the nature of the embryo—unable to crawl, cry or coo—not all of us realized it at the time. Are embryos human beings? Should they be adopted? Used for research? Disposed of? And, yet, whether you think they are extinguishable or not, there was no denying that we all started out in this dependent, helpless, vulnerable state, too.
The state of war in which we now find ourselves has reminded us that, in many ways, we are just as dependent, helpless and vulnerable, even as adults, to forces we can't control. And the forces just may kill us.
It's a humbling thing to reckon with, this new reality, and it has led many to remember whom they are dependent upon: God. Will it also remind us who is dependent on us? We hope so, for therein lies the very foundation of a free society—the family, bound together by love.
Register columnist Jennifer Roback Morse spells out this equation in her recent book, Love and Economics: Why the Laissez-Faire Family Doesn't Work (Spence, 2001).
“The family performs a crucial and irreplaceable social function,” writes Morse. “Inside a family, helpless babies are transformed from self-centered bundles of impulses, desires and emotions to fully socialized adults. The family teaches trust, cooperation and self-restraint. The family is uniquely situated to teach these skills because people instill these qualities in their children as a side-effect of loving them. Contracts and free political institutions, the foundations of a free society, require these attributes that only families can inculcate. Without loving families, no society can govern itself.”
Is she onto something, or what? Do we need anything more right now than well-rounded, God-fearing adults?
A recent study prepared by the Institute for American Values for the Independent Women's Forum—“Hooking Up, Hanging Out and Hoping for Mr. Right: College Women on Mating and Dating Today—found that the majority of college girls who responded were clear on what they wanted from life. Are you ready for this? They want committed love, stable marriage and children. Yet, despite those goals, their dating lives seem designed to sabotage such stability: “Hooking up”—a term young people use to describe sexual activity devoid of commitment—is the rule on most campuses.
Young women want to be wives and mothers; yet, at the very point in their lives at which they are surrounded by more available “husband material” than they'll ever see in one place again, they bounce from one meaningless one-night stand to the next. This has the effect of de-valuing them in the marriage market, which increases their chances of having to settle for a less desirable mate when they finally do settle down.
It's a shame, and the girls who responded to the survey seemed to know how unwise were their choices. So why do they do hook up? According to “Hooking Up,” it's what they're encouraged to do. Their advisers, friends and maybe even their families are telling them they “don't have time for anything serious” now. That they have to “make it” first. Maybe go to graduate school even before that.
Mix this advice with a potent culture that presents sexual pleasure as a right and an end in itself, and you can see where many would lose their way in spite of their own best judgment.
It remains to be seen whether or not our views of marriage in America will change with the trauma we are now suffering as a nation. There are some signs our perspective will. The New York Times, for example, has lately been running stories of single 20- and 30-somethings in Manhattan who have tried to re-establish contact with long-since discarded boyfriends and girlfriends. It turns out they're coming to see their “independence” as “loneliness,” and looking to their earlier relationships as the closest thing to commitment they every knew.
Before Sept. 11, the census data reflected a sad state of American unions. More Americans are cohabitating then ever before. And those who marry after cohabitating are more likely to divorce. Surprise, surprise.
Which brings us back to the Morse book.
In writing about the truths of love and marriage, sex and divorce, Morse isn't just another academic telling us how to live our lives (even though, as a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, she certainly is a well-respected scholar). Writing Love and Economics, she explains in her introduction, was a labor of love. She draws heavily from her own experiences as a wife and mother—she even tells how she and her husband “tried each other out” before they were married. She says it took quite a while to overcome the habits developed during their cohabitation period. Having experienced “marriage with reservations” and marriage the right way, she's in a good position to interpret census data and our sociological state.
Whether demographics change on a substantial scale, now that we have lived through the first major attack on the continental United States, remains to be seen. Either way, as Love and Economics shows, our present crisis points to one remedy for all that ails us from within: families bound by love.
Kathryn Jean Lopez is executive editor of National Review Online
(www.nationalreview.com).
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kathryn Jean Lopez ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Medieval Magnificence in the Midi Pyrenees DATE: 11/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 25-December 1, 2001 ----- BODY:Charlemagne is credited with the founding of 20 abbeys in France, and the one at Conques was his favorite.
Situated in the Midi Pyrenees region of France, the abbey church of St. Foy in the center of the tiny village of Conques sits as if carved out of the mountains that are cut through by the Lot, Dourdou, and Ouche rivers. The church is the village and the village is the church.
Here, for nearly a thousand years, pilgrims have come for rest and refreshment on their way to the shrine of Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain, still one of the great Catholic pilgrimage destinations. I visited this church in September, an artist on retreat, when the days were warm but dry, and the nights cool and crisp.
Conques is in the old province of Rouergue, now called the region of Aveyron. At the end of the eighth century, a Benedictine hermit named Dadon came here. He was soon followed by others, no doubt to his regret. An abbey was established and Louis the Pious, son of Charlemagne, founded a town around the abbey, calling it it Conques.
In 866 the relics of St. Foy, or St. Faith (Fides in Latin, Foi in French), were “translated,” or brought here (some then and now maintain in blunter language that they were stolen) from Agen. St. Foy was a young girl from Agen who was martyred under Emperor Diocletian in the fourth century for refusing to sacrifice to the Roman gods. The relic of her head is here in a reliquary that, over the centuries, has been covered with carved wood and metal and embellished with precious stones. (The treasury of the church has a very fine collection of medieval art.) Around 950 a Carolingian church was built to house the reliquary of St. Foy.
With the publication of Bernard of Angers’ The Book of Miracles of St. Foy in 1020, devotion to her spread rapidly throughout Christendom. Beginning in 1040 under Abbot Odolric and, after him, Etienne II, the great Romanesque church was built with the abundant local stones of schist, granite and limestone. With their muted gray-blues, roses and ochers, these add much visual appeal to this magnificent edifice. Later, under Abbot Boniface, the abbey itself, including a school, library, and scriptorium, was constructed. He also supervised the building of the western faÁade of the church and its remarkable tympanum of the Last Judgment.
In the 12th century, the abbey rivaled Cluny, but by the latter part of the Middle Ages the abbey was in decline. The ravages of the Black Death and the Hundred Years’ War—along with the smug, comfortable and corrupt life of the Benedictines—discouraged the pilgrims. In the early 1500s, the bishop of Rodez tried to reform the abbey but, when he visited, the monks attacked him. Finally in 1537, Pope Paul III banished the Benedictines and replaced them with canons regular. Christendom was soon embroiled in theological discord with the Reformation and Counter-Reformation.
Reasonable Temple
The wars of religion were fierce in this part of the Massif Central of southern France. The Calvinists attacked and burned the church and the abbey. Then, in 1789, the French Revolution, heralding the Enlightenment, suppressed all the religious orders, including the canons, and turned the church of St. Foy into a “Temple of Reason.” The villagers outwitted the pillagers, however, by taking the relics and treasures and hiding them in their homes and in the chestnut trees in the forests.
After the Reign of Terror, the church was returned to the canons; there was virtually nothing left of the abbey itself. Then, on a visit in 1833, Prosper Mirimee, the great French writer who was also inspector-general for historical remains in France, was horrified to see the decrepit condition of St. Foy, which he considered one of the finest examples of Romanesque architecture in France. Finding the abbey beyond repair, he set about supervising the restoration of the church.
It is thanks to him that we have today's St. Foy—a World Heritage Site of UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization for the “benefit of humanity.”
In 1873, the Norbertine monks were entrusted with the care of the church. Today they continue to serve the church and offer hospitality to the scores of pilgrims and hordes of tourists who visit each day.
The church is designed for pilgrims. There is a semi-circular ambulatory with seven chapels around the choir and the altar. The transept is wide and long; the compact building, situated on the side of the mountain, is similar in design to the much-larger St. Sernin church in Toulouse. The design purposely and sympathetically allows and encourages calmness and serenity.
There are 250 capitals and several statues, intricately carved, depicting the life of St. Foy and her condemnation under Diocletian. Here also are depicted, in similarly striking fashion, Isaiah, St. Matthew, St. John the Baptist and the Annunciation, along with Roland, who fought under Charlemagne, plus monsters and animals, musical instruments, birds and flowers.
The church's greatest sculpture, created by the same artisan who worked on the sculpture at the cathedral of Santiago de Compestela, is the tympanum above the portal of the west faÁade of the church. The sculpture depicts the Last Judgment; Christ is in the center with his right hand pointing upward to the saved and his left hand downward toward the damned.
Luxuriant Light
There are 124 figures in the tympanum, most in a remarkable state of preservation. The work is 11 feet high and 20 feet long. Above Christ two angels hold up the cross. To his right is Mary leading St. Peter, bearing the keys of the kingdom, and other saints. To Peter's left are the souls consigned to hell, in great misery and contortions: the greedy and the proud, including monks and kings. Leviathan with his mouth wide open awaits them.
From here, upon entering the church I was struck by the light, comforting and assuring. It was as if I had arrived home after surviving a dark ordeal. This marvelous effect is due in large part to the windows created by the celebrated French artist Pierre Soulanges. In 1987, after having refused several other public commissions, he accepted the request of the French minister of culture to create 106 new windows for the church to replace the banal and pedestrian stained-glass windows of the 1940s. In accepting the commission, Soulanges noted that it was on his first visit to St. Foy, at age 14, that he had vowed to dedicate his life to art.
For eight years he worked with Jean-Dominique Fleury and Eric Savalli, experimenting with many different materials. He decided no color would be in the glass; he wanted to preserve and enhance the power of the design of the church before glass was used. He finally decided on an opalescent glass that is translucent but not transparent—a soft light filters through like a vapor, kissing the stones.
The Norbertine monks maintain a hostel for about 50 pilgrims; tourists and pilgrims alike join in the Liturgy of the Hours, which is chanted four times a day. Mass is at 8 am week-days and at 11 on Sundays. The two Sundays I was there, the church was full. Night prayer is at 8:30 p.m. After the prayer, the monks offer a special prayer for the pilgrims. A hymn is sung recalling Charlemagne and the nearly 1,000 years of the pilgrimage, and then a small loaf of bread is presented to each of the pilgrims. All then walk over to the north transept, where on the wall above is an exquisitely carved statue of the Virgin Mary. The Salve Regina is chanted. The faith of the assembly is palpable.
After night prayer, one of the monks plays either the organ or piano while people linger to pray or meditate. Some nights there are escorted visits to the tribunes, from which the capitals are visible.
Although all are finely carved, the guide explained that the less intricate designs on some indicated those periods when the artisans weren't getting paid on time.
At St. Foy the past becomes present, and the future is now. For the pilgrim, for the seeker—for an artist on retreat like myself—this stop was not just a glimpse of eternity, but a moment in it.
Geoffrey Gneuhs writes from New York City.
----- EXCERPT: The abbey church of St. Foy at Conques, France ----- EXTENDED BODY: Geoffrey B. Gneuhs ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Where the Sweet Things Are DATE: 11/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 25-December 1, 2001 ----- BODY:Sixty-four years ago, Walter Elias Disney invented the animated feature film, producing the seminal Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
With that stroke of genius, he created a genre of family-friendly entertainment that packs theaters around the world to this day.
As the entertainment industry celebrates his 100th birthday Dec. 5, it's worth noting the uniqueness of his contribution to mass entertainment, when compared to much contemporary product.
Walt Disney's best work (Pinocchio, Fantasia, Sleeping Beauty, Bambi, etc.) was emotionally and morally uplifting, with a clear sense of good and evil and almost no concessions to prevailing political or psychological fashions. His stories and characters appealed to both children and adults, in a way that no one else has ever been able to duplicate.
In recent years, as our culture has became more permissive and ironic about traditional values, his successors have been driven to spice up their mythic yarns with politically correct messages about the environment (The Lion King) and race and gender equity (Pocahontas).
Dreamworks, Disney's main competitor for this franchise, pushes the envelope even further. Its recent hit Shrek deliberately parodies and deconstructs well-known fairy tales. The tone and execution are thoroughly postmodern, with the subtle moral relativism that implies.
Pixar, which releases through Disney, has found a way to be contemporary while remaining true to Walt's values. Its Toy Story series and A Bug's Life use computer-animation techniques to create innovative visuals beyond anything Dreamworks or Disney itself have achieved. But they resist the temptation to make fun of the genres of which they're part. Monsters, Inc. continues this legacy, rolling out 90 minutes of thrills and laughs designed for audiences of all ages.
The scary monster in the closet is a primal childhood fantasy. Directors Peter Docter, Lee Unkrich and David Silverman, along with screenwriters Andrew Stanton and Daniel Gerson, turn these fears back on themselves with a clever twist that will be particularly satisfying to kids. The movie suggests that monsters are even more afraid of children, than the tots are of the frightening creatures.
In the story, the door to every child's bedroom closet is a pathway to a world inhabited by monsters. But the creatures that leap out and terrify kids turn out to be ordinary blue-collar types, employed in a factory that provides energy for a city called Monstropolis. The children's screams power the city the same way electricity and oil operate in real-life urban settings. The monsters serve a necessary function. The motto of their company is: “We scare because we care.”
Monstropolis has the look of Manhattan, all skyscrapers and shimmering lights, only stylized with brighter colors. The traffic signals flash “Stalk” and “Don't Stalk.” But not all of its inhabitants are scary. Most look like Maurice Sendak's sinister-but-cuddly creations. They shop at the “grossery store,” the local paper is called “The Daily Glob,” and the chic restaurant is Harryhausen's, a sly reference to the acknowledged master of stop-motion animation.
The movie comments on contemporary issues in an imaginative way adults will appreciate. Monstropolis is facing an energy crisis; rolling blackouts loom if something isn't done. Screams, the source of “clean energy,” are now harder to come by. It seems that children have become more jaded. “We've lost 58 doors this week,” one monster comments. “Kids don't scare like they used to.”
The monsters’ factory is owned by the crab-like Mr. Waternoose (voice of James Coburn), who resembles the villainous Lionel Barrymore character in It's a Wonderful Life. His employees follow the typical routine of industrial workers. They must punch in before each shift and meet their quotas. The screams they generate are measured in yellow canisters, and there's a hot competition to be Scarer of the Month.
The long-time champion is Sulley (John Goodman), a blue, furry monster with a heart of gold. His main rival is the devious chameleon Randall (Steve Buscemi), whose ruthless ambition threatens to bring the company down.
Sulley's sidekick and best friend is his “scare assistant,” Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal), a green one-eyed blob with the patter of an old-time borscht-belt comedian. His job is to be coach on the factory “scare floor” and set up the closet doors through which Sulley must pass to collect his screams.
The stakes are raised when a 4-year-old girl, Boo (Mary Gibbs), crosses over into the monsters’ world and induces a state of panic. The inhabitants of Monstropolis believe that any contact with humans is fatal. Decontamination commandos in yellow biohazard suits from the Child Detection Agency try to hunt Boo down, irradiating any object they think she may have touched.
Sulley comes across the little girl and tries to protect her. They bond, and she is no longer scared of him, calling him “kitty.” Mike, however, describes her as a “killing machine” and wants to send her back to the world of humans.
The rest of the plot revolves around Sulley's and Mike's efforts to keep her out of jeopardy. In the process, they discover her laughs generate more power than her screams. At times Boo seems a little too cute, and the final sequences have several plot twists too many. But the gags and chases are as inventive and antic as the best Chuck Jones and Tex Avery cartoon shorts of the 1940s and ‘50s.
The movie's mood is sweet and enchanting throughout. The message is that we have nothing to fear but fear itself, and that laughter can be stronger than terror.
What could be more appropriate for these times? Walt would be proud of this one.
John Prizer is based in Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: Monsters, Inc. is just what Walt would have ordered ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 11/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 25-December 1, 2001 ----- BODY:The American Revolution (1994)
The United States is almost unique among nations, in that it was founded on a set of ideas rather than an ethnic group, and, at this moment of national crisis, it's worth examining the principles for which we have always fought. The American Revolution, an A&E miniseries, chronicles the people and events that triggered the rebellion of the American colonies against England. Director Lisa Bourgoujian and writer Don Cambou combine battle re-enactments and location filming with paintings, engravings and the narratives of actual letters and documents from the 1770s.
Well-known actors playing different historical figures narrate the story. Both sides of the struggle are fairly and intelligently presented. We follow George Washington (Cliff Robertson) from the French and Indian Wars through the Revolution and the Constitutional Convention. Also singled out are Benjamin Franklin (Charles Durning), Abigail Adams (Michael Learned), King George III (David Warner), and Benedict Arnold (Kelsey Grammer). Expert commentary is provided by Bill Kurtis, Gen. John Galvin, Thomas Fleming and others.
Not Without My Daughter (1991)
Women in the Middle East are often treated differently than in the United States and Europe, and sometimes true love does not conquer all. Not Without My Daughter, based on Betty Mahmoody's real-life memoir, tells the story of an American woman (Sally Field) who marries a Muslim physician of Iranian descent named Moody (Alfred Molina). They live in Michigan and have a daughter, Mahtob (Sheila Rosenthal). Their relationship is happy until Moody takes his wife and child back to Iran for a vacation. Once there, he decides to settle permanently.
Betty discovers that women have few rights in that culture. She's forced to wear a chador in public, and her daughter must be raised Muslim. If Moody divorces her, he gets custody of Mahtob, and she will never see her again. When Moody beats Betty, she decides to escape to the West with her daughter. Although the melodrama is at times overheated, director Brian Gilbert (Tom and Viv) skillfully builds the story to a suspenseful climax.
The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965)
The Catholic Church has commissioned much of the greatest art ever created. These works represent the finest flowering of Western civilization. The Agony and the Ecstasy, based on Irving Stone's novel, dramatizes the conflicts between Michelangelo (Charlton Heston) and Pope Julius II (Rex Harrison) that produce the Sistine Chapel ceiling. The film recreates the inspiration and pain of the artistic process better than almost any other Hollywood movie.
Director Carol Reed (The Third Man) and screenwriter Philip Dunne (The Last of the Mohicans) depict Michelangelo as a perfectionist, who works on his back on a towering scaffold until he's almost blind. He defies tradition and chooses his models from thieves, drunks and lepers found at local inns. His patron, the warrior pope, is not above pulling rank and summoning troops to get his way. He is also often late in paying the painter, but shows a sensitive and intelligent appreciation of the results. “When will you be done?” the pontiff demands. “When I am finished,” the Renaissance genius replies.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 11/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 25-December 1, 2001 ----- BODY:All times Eastern
SUNDAY, NOV. 25
The Making of “The Lost Battalion”
A & E, 11:30 p.m.
This special describes the production of A&E's upcoming TV movie on the true saga of a U.S. Army battalion in France that was trapped behind German lines and fought off constant attacks for five full days in early Oct. 1918 before being rescued. Some 107 dough-boys died in the ordeal, and only 194 were able to walk out under their own power.
MONDAY, NOV. 26
Raymond's Portrait
PBS, 10:30 p.m.
This 1997 documentary profiles San Francisco Bay Area artist Raymond Hu, 19, who has Down Syndrome. Mr. Hu creates beautiful Chinese brush paintings of birds and other animals. Also interviewed are his parents and his art teacher. A repeat.
TUESDAY, NOV. 27
Special Effects: Titanic and Beyond
PBS, 9 p.m.
This “Nova” installment shows special-effects experts at their most inventive—on the recent Titanic and Flubber films, the “X-Files” TV show and movies all the way back to George Melies’ A Trip to the Moon (1902).
WEDNESDAY, NOV. 28
American Justice: Madalyn Murray O'Hair
A & E, 9 p.m.
Catholics will view this sad crime show as a reminder to pray for the repose of the souls of atheist Mrs. O'Hair, one of her sons and her granddaughter, whose disappearance in 1995 seems to have ended in their murders. Viewers should also note that there is no O'Hair-sponsored “Petition 2493” to the FCC to ban the name of God from TV, despite all the well-meaning e-mails that still perpetuate that pesky 25-year-old urban legend.
THURSDAY, NOV. 29
Life on the Rock
EWTN, 8 p.m.
Jeff Cavins hosts New Evangelization specialist Mike Manhardt, who founded the group F.A.M.I.L.Y. (Forget About Me, I Love You) after hearing Father Stan Fortuna do a rap song of that title about Christ's sacrificial love on the Cross for us. To be rebroadcast the next Sunday at 8 p.m.
FRIDAY, NOV. 30
An All-Star Tribute to Johnny Cash
TNT, 10:30 p.m.
This is the two-hour show from 1999 in which the famed singer and composer Johnny Cash, just out of the hospital, made a surprise appearance at a tribute to himself that other country music stars were taping.
SATURDAY, DEC. 1
Andrea Bocelli: Tuscan Skies
A&E, 8 p.m.
The sightless tenor, who has performed for the Pope and who recently sang the “Ave Maria” so beautifully in
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dan Engler ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly Book Pick DATE: 11/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 25-December 1, 2001 ----- BODY:We talked about the restaurant, its food, our kids, our jobs. My sister Janell and I both knew the real reason I had invited her to lunch, but we avoided raising the subject until all other topics were exhausted. In the silences, we both wondered who would say what and how.
She had left the Catholic Church. Our parents raised us to be Catholic. This kind of thing couldn't happen in my family. Or so I thought.
My scenario is the reason Lorene Hanley Duquin wrote When a Loved One Leaves the Church. Duquin, a freelance writer, has been involved in ministry to fallen-away Catholics for nearly 10 years.
In her book, Duquin examines common questions people ask themselves when someone they love leaves the Church. She devotes five chapters to the questions and concerns people inevitably have: why, who's to blame, dealing with emotions, communication and end of life issues.
Duquin presents many stories, examples and quotes from a variety of religious leaders, clergy, celebrities and unnamed people who have firsthand experience. The reader will find examples of all the most common situations that lead to folks leaving, from a simple loss of faith to the influence of cults, popular culture and misplaced anger.
Duquin quotes extensively from practitioners, particularly clergy, who work with families in situations where someone has left the Church.
These experiences enrich the book and solidify the support offered to the reader.
All this and Church teaching, too. In discussing ways to pray for those who have died, for example, she discusses the meaning of Catholic funerals and Church teaching on purgatory, and includes a helpful sidebar on praying for the dead. After introducing divorce and remarriage as a reason people leave the Church, she devotes a whole chapter to Church teaching on marriage and annulments.
In her chapter on moral dilemmas, Duquin addresses the most sensitive, and the more frequent, reasons people cite for leaving the Church.
Cohabitation, premarital sex, homosexuality, divorce and remarriage—they're all here, and they're all dealt with in a warm, conversational style.
She describes situations people can find themselves in, offers commonsense advice and acknowledges the difficulty. “It's not easy when family members and friends choose to act in ways that are not in line with the moral teachings of the Catholic Church,” she writes. “Your values and your own sense of right and wrong are challenged.”
In discussing whether or not family members should or should not attend a remarriage without annulment, Duquin provides a balanced and supportive perspective. “The couple knows that they are moving outside the limit of the family's belief or value system, but they are going to do it anyway,” she writes. “The child may live to regret the decision, which is an important reason why it's essential for families to maintain contact.”
While Duquin acknowledges that those who leave may never come back, she concludes the book on a hopeful note.
It emphasizes inviting people to return home and offers ten tips on evangelization—something every baptized person should be concerned with.
“When a loved one leaves the Church, it is really not your problem,” she writes. “It's God's problem. Giving the situation to God and constantly striving toward unconditional love, in spite of your pain, in spite of your fears, in spite of your questions and concerns, may be precisely what God is asking you to do.”
When a Loved One Leaves the Church is an encouraging companion for Catholics in painful, difficult situations with once-Catholic loved ones. Read it, as you hope and pray for their return.
Mark Dittman writes from Maplewood, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: Is There an Ex-Catholic in the Family? ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mark Dittman ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 11/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 25-December 1, 2001 ----- BODY:Death by Voucher
Somber Classrooms
NEW YORK CITY BOARD OF EDUCATION, Nov. 8—Increased church attendance is not the only positive effect from the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. The number of New York City public high-school students suspended for bad behavior has dropped by almost 80% this school year, a change school administrators attribute to the somber mood in classrooms since the attack.
Suspension Stands for Profane Professor
Pro-Life Clothing OK'd
THE THOMAS MORE LAW CENTER, Nov. 5—By citing recent court cases and U.S. Department of Education guidelines, the Catholic law center obtained written assurances from school personnel that a student can wear pro-life sweatshirts to her public high school in Malone, N.Y. The student had been prevented from wearing sweatshirts that contained such messages as: “You will not mock my God. You will stop killing my generation. Rock for Life.”
The federal guidelines allow students to display religious messages on clothing to the same extent that students are permitted to display other comparable messages.
No Good Deed …
Adelman acknowledges that she took the time without authorization but plans to file a grievance.
Evolutionary Warning
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, Nov. 6—The Alabama State Board of Education voted without dissent Nov. 5 to place a warning on 40,000 new biology textbooks that will be used in the state's public schools, that refer to evolution as “a controversial theory” that they are free to question.
The statement—the only one of its kind in the country—advises: “Instructional material associated with controversy should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joe Cullen ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Thy Kingdom Come' Christ the King and the Laity DATE: 11/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 25-December 1, 2001 ----- BODY:Following is Pope John Paul II's homily on the Solemnity of Christ the King last year, on which the Church celebrated the Jubilee of the Laity.
“It is you who say I am a king” (Jn 18: 37).
This is how Jesus answered Pilate in a dramatic dialogue which the Gospel recounts to us again on today's Solemnity of Christ the King. On this day, celebrated at the end of the liturgical year, Jesus, the Eternal Word of the Father, is presented as the beginning and end of all creation, as the Redeemer of man and the Lord of history. In the first reading, the prophet Daniel says: “His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed” (7: 14).
Yes, O Christ, you are King! Your kingship is paradoxically manifested in the Cross, in obedience to the plan of the Father, “who", as the Apostle Paul wrote, “has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1: 13-14). As the first born from the dead, you, Jesus, are the King of the new humanity, restored to its original dignity.
You are King! But your kingdom is not of this world; it is not the fruit of the conquests of war, political domination, economic empires or cultural hegemony. Yours is a kingdom of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace, which will be revealed in its fullness at the end of time, when God will be all in all. The Church, which can already taste on earth the first fruits of this future fulfillment, never ceases to repeat: ”Adveniat regnum tuum“, “Thy Kingdom come” (Matthew 6: 10).
The Laity
Thy kingdom come! This is how the faithful, in every part of the world, pray as they gather round their pastors today for the Jubilee of the Apostolate of the Laity. And I joyfully add my voice to this universal chorus of praise and prayer, as I celebrate Holy Mass together with you at the tomb of the Apostle Peter.
I thank Cardinal James Francis Stafford, President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, and your two representatives, who expressed your common sentiments at the beginning of this Holy Mass. I greet my venerable brothers in the episcopate, as well as the priests and religious present. I extend my greetings in particular to you, my lay brothers and sisters, Christifideles laici (lay faithful in Christ), who are actively dedicated to the Gospel cause: in looking at you, I am also thinking of all the members of the communities, associations and movements of apostolic action; I am thinking of the fathers and mothers who, with generosity and a spirit of sacrifice, see that their children are raised in the practice of human and Christian virtues; I am thinking of those who offer their sufferings, accepted and lived in union with Christ, as a contribution to evangelization.
Return to the Council
I especially greet you, dear participants in the Congress of the Catholic Laity, which fits well into the context of the Jubilee of the Apostolate of the Laity. The theme of your meeting is “Witnesses to Christ in the new millennium.” It continues the tradition of the world conventions of the lay apostolate which began 50 years ago under the fruitful impulse of the keener awareness which the Church had acquired both of her own nature as a mystery of communion and of her intrinsic missionary responsibility in the world.
In the growth of this awareness, the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council marked a decisive turning-point. With the Council the hour of the laity truly struck, and many lay faithful, men and women, more clearly understood their Christian vocation, which by its very nature is a vocation to the apostolate. Thirty-five years after its conclusion, I say: we must return to the Council. We must once again take the documents of the Second Vatican Council in hand to rediscover the great wealth of its doctrinal and pastoral motives.
In particular, you lay people must again take those documents in hand. To you the Council opened extraordinary perspectives of commitment and involvement in the Church's mission. Did the Council not remind you of your participation in the priestly, prophetic and kingly office of Christ? In a special way, the Council Fathers entrusted you with the mission “of seeking the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and directing them according to God's will” (Lumen gentium, n. 31).
Since then a lively season of associations has blossomed, in which, along with traditional groups, new movements, sodalities and communities have arisen (cf. Christifideles Laici, n. 29). Today more than ever, dear brothers and sisters, your apostolate is indispensable, if the Gospel is to be the light, salt and leaven of a new humanity.
Christian Life Today
However, what does this mission entail? What does being a Christian mean today, here and now?
Being a Christian has never been easy, nor is it easy today. Following Christ demands the courage of radical choices, which often means going against the stream. “We are Christ!” St Augustine exclaimed. The martyrs and witnesses of faith yesterday and today, including many lay faithful, show that, if necessary, we must not hesitate to give even our lives for Jesus Christ.
In this regard, the Jubilee invites everyone to a serious examination of conscience and lasting spiritual renewal for ever more effective missionary activity. Here I would like to return to what my venerable predecessor, Pope Paul VI, wrote in his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi 25 years ago towards the end of the Holy Year of 1975: “Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses” (No. 41).
These words are still valid today in the presence of a humanity full of potential and expectations, but threatened by a multitude of snares and dangers. One need only think, among other things, of social advances and of the revolution in genetics; of economic progress and of underdevelopment in vast areas of the globe; of the tragedy of hunger in the world and of the difficulties in safeguarding peace; of the extensive network of communications and of the dramas of loneliness and violence reported in the daily press. Dear lay faithful, as witnesses to Christ you are especially called to bring the light of the Gospel to the vital nerve centres of society. You are called to be prophets of Christian hope and apostles of the One “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty!” (Revelations 1: 4).
The Highest Call
“Holiness befits your house!” (Psalm 92: 5). With these words we addressed God in the responsorial psalm. Holiness continues to be the greatest challenge for believers. We must be grateful to the Second Vatican Council, which recalled how all Christians are called to the fullness of Christian life and the perfection of charity.
Dear friends, do not be afraid to take up this challenge: be holy men and women! Do not forget that the fruits of the apostolate depend on the depth of spiritual life, on the intensity of prayer, on continual formation and on sincere adherence to the Church's directives. Today I repeat to you, as I did to the young people during the recent World Youth Day, that if you are what you should be—that is, if you live Christianity without compromise—you will set the world ablaze.
You face tasks and goals which may seem to exceed human forces. Do not lose heart! “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion” (Philippians 1: 6) Always keep your gaze fixed on Jesus. Make him the heart of the world.
And you, Mary, Mother of the Redeemer, his first and most perfect disciple, help us to be his witnesses in the new millennium. Let your Son, King of the world and King of history, reign over our lives, our communities and the whole world!
“Praise and honour to you, O Christ!” By your Cross you have redeemed the world. At the beginning of the millennium, we entrust to you our efforts to serve this world which you love and which we love too. Support us with the power of your grace!
Amen.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Paul II ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Family Matters DATE: 11/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 25-December 1, 2001 ----- BODY:‘But I
Q My 7-year-old son almost always says “I'm sorry” after he's done something wrong. He seems so genuinely remorseful. As long as he's learned his lesson, do I need to discipline him, too?
A Let me begin by suggesting what you could say in response. Try: “Apology accepted,” or “That's good to hear.” What to do in response is the more important matter.
Most likely, one of two motives is guiding your son. Either he's truly sorry for what he did, or he knows discipline is near and he's learned that saying “I'm sorry” conveys that he doesn't need to be punished.
Which motive is it? It's hard to say. It could be a combination of both. It could change with the situation. For many kids, “I'm sorry” begins pretty genuine, and then over time, if they see that it sometimes talks them out of trouble, it slides more quickly off their tongue. A basic truth about kids: They learn real fast what works.
But whatever your son's reasons for saying “I'm sorry,” they're not really relevant to your response. That is, whether he's remorseful or faking, you still must discipline misconduct.
Consider the adult world: If you stole a car, would the judge say, “Okay, you really seem to regret what you did, so wax the car up, put a note of apology on the windshield for the owner, and we'll forget the whole thing”? No, there would be consequences. You did wrong, you were sorry, now you pay the price.
The fact that your son may be truly remorseful is only part of his lesson. The other part is that he learns he will be held accountable for his conduct, not just by his feelings, but by his mother. True sorrow is a sign of developing conscience, but to keep his conscience developing, you have to discipline.
Dr. Ray Guarendi is a clinical psychologist and author.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dr. Ray Guarendi ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Christ: Still the King DATE: 11/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 25-December 1, 2001 ----- BODY:For the Feast of Christ the King, Nov. 25, Register features correspondent Tim Drake spoke to Dominican Father Carleton Jones, retreat master at St. Stephen's Priory in Dover, Mass., on the quandaries of today's secularized society resulting from its unwillingness to recognize Jesus Christ.
If I may ask, what led you to your vocation as a Dominican?
I was received into the Roman Catholic Church in 1982 from the Episcopal Church, where I had served as an ordained minister for 14 years. For 10 of those years, I was a member of an Anglican religious community—the Society of St. John the Evangelist—living the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience in a community of brothers.
From my experience and formation as an Episcopalian religious, I was sure that I had a vocation to the priesthood and religious life. The monks of St. Benedict's Abbey in Still River, Mass., who had given me hospitality for several months after my reception into the Roman Catholic Church, introduced me to Dominicans. I suppose my Benedictine friends could see that I had an inclination to the work of theology and preaching which is the particular charism of Dominicans.
They were right. I have been very happy as a Dominican student, parish priest and now retreat director—always emphasizing in this pastoral activity the central importance of preaching that is grounded in the study and contemplation of the Word of God.
How have you come to experience Christ in your own life?
Yes. As a member of the Society of St. John the Evangelist, I learned to meditate on the Gospel stories following, as it happens, the method of the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola.
As I grew in the practice of meditation, Jesus emerged more and more in my consciousness as an exemplar of the inwardly free man—free to witness to the truth, and free to give himself in love.
I was especially struck by the phrase from the Vatican II document on The Church in the Modern World(Gaudium et Spes), that Jesus not only reveals God to man, but reveals man to himself—what it means to be a human being. John Paul II has made this, what might be called Christ-centered humanism, a central theme of his teaching.
The concept of Christ the King seems somewhat foreign to many of us living in a democracy. Is the title still apropos?
It's only apropos if we keep our focus on what the Gospels tell us about Christ's Kingship. That is the subject of his dialogue with Pilate at his trial: “my kingship is not of (or from) this world.” His is not a king-ship of power, but of love—or rather, the power of his kingship is the power of divine love, which his resurrection shows to be invincible.
As Mary knew by faith and sang in her Magnificat, God has “cast down the mighty from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly.” That is a fine summary of the Gospel of Christ the King.
How might a fuller embracing of Christ as King transform a misguided world?
A fuller embracing of Christ as King must go beyond a nominal profession of his Lordship, which is, after all, the content of all Christian worship; it must include an embracing of his Cross, which was, on earth, his royal throne.
The world of today is misguided in its equation of freedom with power. The more we Christians—individually and collectively—take the risk of renouncing worldly power, the more we will discover freedom of the spirit—inward freedom—that will give us a share of Christ's sovereignty over the world.
The Church is corrupted by the patronage of the powerful. We should not be longing nostalgically for the past “ages of faith.” The community of faith lives most vigorously, and gains most victories, when she is undergoing persecution for the faith. A misguided world will be transformed, as it has been in the past, by the witness of martyrs.
In a sense, the Dominicans were formed to defend Christ. Could you briefly explain the history and the charism of the Order of Preachers? Why were they founded?
St. Dominic did not gather his first preachers and form them into a preaching order exactly to “defend” Jesus Christ. That is hardly necessary.
Dominicans defend Christian doctrine as a necessary, but strictly secondary, aspect of the apostolic mandate to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of mankind and Lord of all.
Originally, St. Dominic and his followers did this by preaching throughout a geographical region—Provence, in southern France—that was overrun by a dualist heresy that denied the goodness of the material creation, and thus, of course, the Incarnation and the grace of the sacraments.
This Albigensian heresy promoted a “culture of death,” in which suicide quite literally had sacramental value.
St. Dominic was moved by a strong and compassionate charity to bring the people who were spiritually bound by this heresy back to the light of Christ and the communion of his Church.
Last July, at your general chapter, Pope John Paul II wrote a letter to the Dominicans. In that letter he suggests we face a similar denial of the Incarnation today. Do you agree with the Pope's assessment?
In his letter to our chapter, the Pope, who was educated by Dominicans, has made an excellent summary of our mission as preachers to the people of our time. He says that there exists in our own sophisticated, globalized Western culture a “new form of the recurrent Manichaen [dualist] heresy with which Christianity had to contend from the beginning.”
Jesus, he says, in the minds of secularized people—even Christians—“remains distant: he is not truly known, loved and obeyed, but consigned to a distant past or a distant heaven.” Religion becomes something purely subjective, “removed from the processes that govern social, political and economic activity;” and “this leads, in turn, to a greatly diminished sense of human possibility, since it is Christ alone who fully reveals the magnificent possibilities of human life. … When Christ is excluded or denied, our vision of human purpose dwindles; and as we anticipate and aim for less, hope gives way to despair, joy to depression.”
Thus, ironically, the Enlightenment project of liberating mankind from religious “tyranny” has produced a much-diminished sense of human possibility, “a profound distrust of reason and of the human capacity to grasp the truth.” Moreover, human life “is not valued and loved; and hence the advance of a certain culture of death, with its dark blooms of abortion and euthanasia.”
The practical denial of the Incarnation also leads inevitably to the degrading of human sexuality, “which shows itself in a tide of moral confusion, infidelity and the violence of pornography.” The “misuse and exploitation of the environment” is another part of this new culture of death, within which Dominican preaching must again find a way of proclaiming Jesus Christ, bringing people once again to the light of his truth and the communion, in divine love, of his Church.
How might those surrounded by a culture that seeks to hide Christ be able to experience Christ in the modern world?
People experience Christ—in whatever era—only, really, when they see real saints at work. Mother Teresa has probably done more to help people in our secularized culture to experience Christ than any number of preachers—including the Pope himself!
We preachers have to remember that kind of thing, even as we try our best to find ways to proclaim the saving Gospel more effectively.
Tim Drake writes from St. Cloud, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Facts of Life DATE: 11/25/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: November 25-December 1, 2001 ----- BODY:GENEROUS AMERICANS
ALMOST ALL American families contributed financially to charities in the year 2000, and regular churchgoers gave the most. Of those with computers, 12% gave online. In addition, almost half of adults spent time in volunteer work.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: 1st Reported Human Cloning Crosses Moral Line DATE: 12/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 2-8, 2001 ----- BODY:WORCESTER, Mass. — A Massachusetts company said Nov. 25 that it had cloned human embryos in order to try to mine them for stem cells, which in turn would be used to treat disease.
The company also explicitly denied that the embryo was a human life — despite long scientific evidence to the contrary.
It is the first time anyone has reported successfully cloning a human embryo, and biotechnology company Advanced Cell Technology Inc., based in Worcester, Mass., said it hopes the experiment will lead to tailored treatments for diseases ranging from Parkinson's to juvenile diabetes, Reuters reported.
“Our intention is not to create cloned human beings, but rather to make lifesaving therapies for a wide range of human disease conditions,” Dr. Robert Lanza, vice president of medical and scientific development at Advanced Cell Technology, known as ACT, said in a statement.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted last summer to prohibit all forms of human cloning, a decision hailed by the Vatican. The Senate is now considering similar legislation.
The ACT announcement drew immediate criticism from those fearing the step would lead to more-widespread human cloning.
Federal law prohibits the use of taxpayer money for the cloning of human beings but ACT is a privately funded company and can do as it pleases, under current U.S. law.
ACT Vice President Joe Cibelli, who led the research, said his team had used classic cloning technology using a human egg and a human skin cell. They scraped the DNA out of the egg cell and replaced it with DNA from the nucleus of the adult cell.
The company did not say whether it had successfully removed embryonic stem cells from the cloned embryo.
‘Complete Failure’
But The New York Times reported Nov. 26 that ACT had actually tried to clone 19 different cells, by removing the cells’ original DNA and replacing it with genetic material taken from adult human cells.
However, none of the cloned individuals lived long enough to develop to the point that they could be deliberately killed so that their stem cells could be harvested. Some progressed no further developmentally than one or two cellular divisions, and none lived more than five days.
“It's a complete failure,” said Dr. George Seidel, a cloning expert at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, the Times reported. Added Dr. Steen Willadsen, a cloning scientist in Windermere, Fla., “If one were to take a positive view of this, then one would say there are some problems with the approach they are taking — it hasn't worked.”
Regarding the question of whether human lives were being destroyed by his company's research, Dr. Michael West, ACT's chief executive, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that human life does not begin until after embryos develop further.
West also told the Times that since the cloned human embryos would not have been capable of developing fully, there should be no ethical objections to killing them to obtain their stem cells.
President Bush publicly disagreed Nov. 26, calling the creation of human embryos through cloning “morally wrong” and “bad public policy.”
“We should not as a society grow life to destroy it, and that's exactly what's taking place,” Bush commented about the ACT research during a Rose Garden appearance, CNN reported.
President Bush decided this summer that federal funds could be used for research on embryonic stem cells, but only on those that had been created before August, found at 11 different academic and private laboratories. The White House has also said repeatedly that all forms of human cloning should be banned.
Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said he did not yet quite understand what ACT had done. “But it's disconcerting, frankly,'’ Daschle said on Fox News. “I think it's going in the wrong direction.’’
In an August interview, Bishop Elio Sgreccia, vice president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, talked about the related topic of stem cell research involving human embryos.
“In recent times,” he told Vatican Radio, “research has made it clear that in order to use ‘mother’ or stem cells, it is neither necessary nor opportune to produce embryos. In fact, stem cells found in adults are valid and safer than those taken from embryos.”
Therefore, he explained, “the pseudoscientific reason that justified the use of frozen or cloned embryos to extract stem cells has collapsed.”
Added Bishop Sgreccia, “All this demonstrates that ethical reasons, namely, that the human being can never be used as an instrument, or as medication, or produced for this end through cloning, always end by helping science, because where the ethical truth is found, the scientific truth is also found.”
(Zenit contributed to this story)
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Register Staff ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Sudan's Christians Fight for Survival DATE: 12/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 2-8, 2001 ----- BODY:TORIT, Sudan — Bishop Akio Mutek of southern Sudan sees a warning of his people's demise in schoolbooks.
As Arab Muslim fundamentalists attempt to take over Sudan and subject its citizens to strict Islamic rule, officials in Khartoum are revising history books that used to describe Arab migration as beginning from Arabia in the 13th century, when the blacks were already in the country. Now they say that Arabs entered Sudan along with the black African population that is predominant in the south.
“In 10 or 15 years, they will say that the Arabs were from this area originally,” predicted Bishop Mutek, an auxiliary of the Diocese of Torit.
Though the world's attention has been focused on Afghanistan and the hunt for Osama bin Laden, Sudanese like Bishop Mutek feel they are directly in the path of a radical Islam that feels compelled to spread throughout the world — through force, when persuasion is not enough.
Khartoum has told the United States it is cooperating in the war against terrorism, but according to Bishop Mutek, the regime's war against the south of the country is itself a terroristlike campaign. In early October, just weeks after Sept. 11, he said, the government was bombing the Eastern Equatoria area of Sudan.
“There had never been any bombing there except five weeks ago, when they bombed a village, Murahatiha, killing 13 people, including eight children,” the bishop told the Register on a visit to New York Nov. 7. “It was the day [Sudanese President Umar Hasan Ahmad] Al-Bashir visited Torit.”
Bishop Mutek explained that heavy security for Al-Bashir on visits to the south includes bombing aimed at the Sudanese People's Liberation Army, or SPLA, which has been leading a resistance against Khartoum for 18 years.
“Even if they kill civilians, they claim they are SPLA,” the bishop said. “They aim at the villages. I don't think they care.”
Khartoum's Plans
The government in Khartoum is dominated by members of the fundamentalist National Islamic Front. Islamic law was imposed in the largely Arab north in 1991 and applies to all citizens, regardless of their religion. Islamic law, known as Sharia, provides for stiff punishments such as lashing or amputation for stealing; lashing for drinking alcohol, and death for apostasy or even for questioning the tenets of Islam.
Sunni Muslims account for 70% of the country's population of 36 million;25% follow indigenous beliefs and the remaining 5% is Christian.
Khartoum is determined to make all of Sudan an Islamic state, Bishop Mutek said. Resisting that Islamicization has led to a bloody war, resulting in an estimated 1.8 million deaths from fighting and famine, and some 3 million displaced persons and refugees.
Government forces have resorted to the bombing of civilian targets, including churches, school and hospitals; slavery; rape; the use of food as a weapon; and forced conversions to Islam, the rebels and human rights groups say.
Bin Laden operated in the country from 1991 to 1996, and Bishop Mutek said the terrorist training camps he established still exist. “Why do they keep the training camps in the area and say, ‘We are cooperating'” with the war on terrorism, the bishop wondered. “If the training is not going on, the places have not been destroyed. They are not temporary places.”
The United Nations’ special rapporteur on human rights in Sudan, Gerhart Baum, affirmed in June that human rights violations have been increasing. But he countered the popular belief that the war is a religious one. “Religion is misused,” Baum said. “It is a power struggle.”
Nevertheless, Christians are discriminated against, Bishop Mutek said. “If your name is Peter, obviously a Christian name, you won't get a good job or get good grades in school. You won't get into high school or a military college,which allows you to get a better paying job.”
Adding more volatility has been the discovery of oil. Human rights activists say the government is buying weapons with the royalties it receives from foreign oil companies.
Talisman owns a 25% share in the oil operation, along with a Malaysian company and Chinese and Sudanese state-owned concerns.
Last month, Talisman was named in a $1 billion class-action lawsuit suit over its alleged complicity in Sudan's human rights abuses. The suit was launched by the Presbyterian Church of Sudan in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Talisman, which paid some $155 million in royalties to Khartoum last year, insists that the problems would be there with or without its presence.
David Mann, Talisman's manager of investor relations, said his company has raised issues with the Sudanese government, built hospitals in the south, aided humanitarian efforts and hired southern Sudanese. And helping the country to develop economically could lead to an improvement in the conflict, which he said is more complicated than Sudan advocates portray.
“It's an extremely poor country and an extremely complicated political situation,” Mann said. “We chose to take the path of constructive engagement … It's a tragic situation, but it's not going to be solved by poverty.”
The government bombs the area where oil is to be explored, Bishop Mutek said. “Then, after a few days, the soldiers [clear the area] with tanks. Then they keep the land open for six months and call Talisman [Energy of Calgary, Alberta] and tell them there have never been any people there.” And the government is bringing Arabs to the south, settling them on oil fields, he said.
Islam's March
Sudan is not the only African country where radical Islam is taking hold. In Nigeria, where several northern states have recently implemented the Muslim legal code despite a constitutional prohibition against the establishment of a state religion, a Sharia court recently sentenced a woman to death by stoning for fornication. And Bishop Mutek finds worrisome signs in Kenya and Uganda.
But observers fear that for radical Islamists, Sudan is the key to the rest of Africa.
“Sudan is a preview of what will go on in all of Africa if the south falls,” said William Saunders, who founded the Bishop Gassis Sudan Relief Fund to assist the struggling Sudanese in the Nuba Mountains.
Observers warn of a pattern that may be replicated in other parts of Africa. Initially, the Islamists present themselves as helpful and peaceful. “They go to a place as traders, bring in things people need, try to live with the people, marry, build shops, preach, ask people to convert, marry local girls, give their children Muslim names and build mosques,” Bishop Mutek said.
He cited an incident in 1986, when Muslims sought out unmarried women who were pregnant and promised to give them money if they gave their children Muslim names. “Then they can show they are in the majority,” he said.
The Islamist movement is discriminatory, racist, supremacist and spreads through violence and coercion, said Rev. Keith Roderick, an Episcopalian who serves as secretary general of the Coalition for the Defense of Human Rights. “There is no fair competition between ideals.”
Rev. Roderick's organization seeks to unite people who have suffered under what he calls Jihad Islamism and raise awareness of their plight. Meeting in Alexandria, Va., last month, the coalition proposed the launch of an international congress for victims of dhimmitude, the discriminatory and segregated status reserved for non-Muslims in Islamic countries.
The violence against the dhimmi takes many forms, Rev. Roderick said. For example, in Sudan, the National Islamic Front's refugee camps have practiced a “food for faith” policy. “You may not be taken care of unless you convert to Islam,” he said. “This kind of coercion is every bit as destructive as being shot or bombed.”
U.S. Response
Father Vincent Nagle, former professor of Islamics at the Catholic University of East Africa in Nairobi, warns that the United States needs to maintain its influence in Saudi Arabia and Egypt — the two countries, he says, that determine Islamic direction worldwide. “If the U.S. withdraws, those governments will fall tomorrow, probably into the hands of fundamentalist Islamic movements,” said Father Nagle, a member of the Priestly Fraternity of Missionaries of St. Charles Borromeo, which is affiliated with the Communion and Liberation movement.
Rev. Roderick called Sudan a “hinge point” for the rest of southern equatorial Africa, and said the fall of the country's south to Jihad Islamism would have a ripple effect. “It would provide a base for other Islamic governments and movements” on the continent. “Sudan would be the godfather.”
“We need to undermine the radicals’ position,” Rev. Roderick said. While a military response would only spawn more terrorists, in his view, the U.S. should pressure governments it has alliances with.
Said Rev. Roderick, “We give a lot of money to regimes such as Egypt, Pakistan and the Palestinian Authority for development and yet we do not hold those governments accountable in regards to the activities they sponsor or tolerate that are actually detrimental to our interests and to the interests of a civil society. When the governments sanction religious schools that teach religious hatred, publish school books that advocate jihad against Christians and Jews, depicting them as pigs, and provide time on state-controlled media for religious leaders to incite hatred, those governments are not acting much like friends of civilization.”
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Burger ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Mainstreaming Witchcraft? Parents Assess DATE: 12/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 2-8, 2001 ----- BODY:LOS ANGELES — As Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone opened to record-breaking crowds the weekend of Nov. 17, parents and experts continue to agree to disagree upon its appropriateness for children. While some see the series as merely adventure-some entertainment, others wonder if the film might take the stigma away from witchcraft and the occult, opening children to danger.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is the first in the series of four Harry Potter adventures written by Britain's J.K. Rowling. The film follows the exploits of a bespectacled orphan with magical powers who attends the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
In the first three days of its release, the film made a record $93.5 million. Audiences packed theaters, with thousands lining up for midnight screenings.
“I have never attended a movie on opening weekend,” admitted Barb Hennen, a Catholic mother of seven in Ghent, Minn. “Yet, it was really fun for my 13-year-old son and I to see the film together.”
She and her son Robert saw the film at their local multiplex on Nov. 17. “I was disappointed that some of the characters in the book were not in the movie,” recalled Robert. To date, only one of Robert's 15 classmates had seen the film. “I hope to go see it again,” said Robert, who admitted that he has read each of Rowling's four books at least five times each.
However, Barb Hennen cautioned that the film was probably not appropriate for anyone under the age of 9. “Lord Voldemort is scary,” she said. “At one point he absorbs a man's body. That's not as clear or visible in the book. That certainly would not be appropriate for younger children to see.”
Otherwise, she said it was a fine movie. “The Christian mothers I've talked to have agreed that it's an imaginative and adventuresome story. I don't think it's right to focus only on what could be wrong with it.” While she admitted that it could be an entry point for a child into the occult, she added, “A child leaning in that direction might … but Harry Potter wouldn't be the only source the child would go to.”
Michael O'Brien respectfully disagrees.
“I think it is a mistake to take a child to the Potter film,” said the Canadian Catholic artist and author of A Landcape with Dragons: The Battle for Your Child's Mind.
“The series uses the symbol-world of the occult as its primary metaphor,” he explained. “This has the potential of lowering a child's guard to the actual occult activity in the world around us, which is everywhere and growing.”
O'Brien argues that both the books and the film present serious threats to the moral integrity of the coming generations. “In the film, an added dimension of psychological influence is at work,” he said. “Any serious student of modern media recognizes the power of film to reshape consciousness. By using overt and subliminal techniques, it can override the mind's natural critical faculty.”
He added that the widespread devotion to the Potter phenomenon, even among Catholic parents and scholars, “is a symptom of our naivete about the power of culture. In our modern culture we have all become accustomed to eating a certain amount of poison in our diet; indeed we often no longer even recognize the poison. Why have we accepted a set of books which glamorize and normalize occult activity, even though it is every bit as deadly to the soul as sexual sin?"
Clare McGrath Merkle, a former New Age “healer” and a revert to the Catholic faith, said she has seen firsthand that O'Brien's warning should be heeded. “We just don't understand that our children live in a reality steeped in violence, sex and the occult,” she said.
She said the problem with Potter remains, despite the explanation that the books depict an innocent, even humorous, white magic. “There is only one kind of magic,” said Merkle. It's “variously known as black magic, occultism, diabolism, or the dark arts.”
The Defense
Los Angeles film critic Michael Medved, known for his defense of traditional virtues and criticism of Hollywood's rejection of them, defends Harry Potter.
“A number of Christian organizations have objected to the whole Harry Potter phenomenon, suggesting that its benign, light-hearted treatment of witchcraft and the occult will lead young people into dangerous realms. I resisted this argument concerning the books and I reject it even more with the movie,” he said. “It's hard to imagine any child who will want to study necromancy, spells or Satanism as a result of seeing the film.”
Medved contends that the film projects a “deadly serious battle between good and evil, while highlighting humane values of generosity, loyalty, discipline and selflessness.”
“Magic,” said Medved, “emains a staple in most of the best children's literature in history, and generations of young people have indulged in those fantasies without satanic influence. In Grimm's Fairy Tales, for example, magic and witches and shape-changing and curses and incantations have always played a role.”
British Catholic home-schooling mother Debbie Nowak also believes that the film can be viewed as good entertainment.
She has seen the film with four of her eight children and doesn't worry about her children falling into the occult.
“Harry Potter has an invisible mark inside of him that his mother gave to him when she sacrificed her life for his,” she said. “This mark, unlike his lightning bolt scar, is one of love. Because he has this mark of love, evil cannot bear his touch.”
Mary Weyrich of Paso Robles, Calif., warned that, in these days of cross-marketing, much of the danger with the book is extraneous to the story.
“I recently went shopping and noticed the sold-out Harry Potter display,” the Catholic mother of eight said. “There on the same shelf was a book of Spells for Children. It looked like a cookbook, except that it was filled with the sorts of things that Harry does, in the books and movie. It was user friendly, easy for children to try.”
She looked into the matter further, she said.
On the Internet, “I went to a large online bookstore's Harry Potter site, found Harry's 'related subjects,’ which included witchcraft.” Three clicks connected her to The Witch Bible, she said.
Her conclusion: “Many will say that the Harry Potter books and movie are just fiction. Many will say that they are so glad that the children are reading again. Many will say that the movie wasn't that scary and it is no big deal. But I do believe that it is a very big deal.”
The Harry Potter phenomenon and franchise — and debate — is only just beginning. Warner Bros. was scheduled to begin shooting a sequel in November, and fans are already looking forward to Rowling's next book.
Tim Drake is the executive editor of Catholic.net.
------- EXCERPT: Harry Potter ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Giant Arch Would Honor Mary's Immaculate Heart DATE: 12/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 2-8, 2001 ----- BODY:BUFFALO, N.Y. — On a clear day, Buffalo attorney Laurence Behr has a fine view from his downtown law office of Buffalo's City Hall.
He can picture the image above its main entrance, a bas-relief sculptural frieze whose central figure is a powerful queen — her finger in a large book, her foot crushing the head of a serpent.
The image reflects Buffalo's nickname “Queen City of the Great Lakes,” earned by its early dominance in the midwest flour trade. For Behr, however, the image can also represent the Mother of God.
Last June 23, the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Behr, president of Western New York Lawyers for Life, announced the creation of a nonprofit association formed to build a $100 million pro-life shrine and towering gold arch dedicated to Mary, the Mother of Christ, adjacent to downtown Buffalo on the Lake Erie shoreline.
The project, featuring a 700-foot-tall ascendable arch topped by a golden cross, overshadowing a shrine, would be known as “The Arch of the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the International Shrine of the Holy Innocents.” When the organization's plans succeed, the Arch will replace the St. Louis Gateway Arch as the world's tallest monument.
Franciscan Father James Goode, president of the National Black Catholic Apostolate for Life, is an Arch of Triumph advisory board member.
“The purpose of the Arch of Triumph and the Shrine of the Holy Innocents is to tell our story of God's love,” he said. “We want to tell the world about our devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and her son Jesus Christ. We wish to tell the world by deed and example that we affirm that all human life is a unique gift from God.”
The project has already won support from many national Catholic pro-life leaders, including Benedictine Father Thomas Euteneuer, Fr. Matthew Habiger, New York Father Richard John Neuhaus, and South Dakotan Father Robert Fox.
“We need to stir the attention of the public to pro-life issues whether they want to hear about them or not,” commented New York Father Frank Pavone, co-founder of Priests for Life, adding, “A sign as public and visible as the proposed arch and shrine will certainly serve this purpose.”
The project has even drawn support from the unlikeliest of places. Buffalo evangelical writer, Rick Kern, noted that while many local Protestants have difficulty with the project's “glorification of Mary,” he described it as “rich with meaning and symbolism” and asserted that it “cannot help but capture the imagination of anyone who takes a second look at it.”
“[A] memorial to victims of abortion runs counter across pro-choice philosophy like nails across a chalk-board,” Kern wrote in the July 29 issue of The Word. “Memorials by nature exist for people as opposed to formless blobs of fetal tissue. Consequently, this memorial in a way revives the status of abortion as a moral crime against humanity.”
A Golden Dream
The idea for the arch came to Behr in an extraordinary dream he had after reading an article in September 2000 about the pastoral significance of Marian shrines.
He dreamt he was on a bridge overlooking a valley. To his left sat a group of unsightly and dilapidated buildings; on his right, sat a stone church in a beautiful green setting with a golden statue of Our Lady set in a niche in its front. Approaching the church he met a woman who said to him, “This is the shrine of the Golden Arch of St. Mary.” He saw a golden statuary grouping of the Holy Family, and awoke asking himself, “why a golden arch for St. Mary?"
Thinking of Mary's titles, Gate of Heaven and House of Gold, Behr decided that a golden monumental arch would be an appropriate tribute to Mary. Later, he recognized that such a structure would necessarily be a triumphal arch honoring the triumph of Mary's Immaculate Heart predicted during her appearance at Fatima on July 13, 1917.
“It's a mystery,” explains Behr, asked why such a shrine would be built in Buffalo, “but I am here and I cannot run a project anywhere else.” He added, “One could as well ask, why Buffalo for the National Shrine of Our Lady of Victory?” referring to the beautiful Basilica built by Buffalo native Venerable Father Nelson Baker in the Buffalo suburb of Lackawanna.
Why Buffalo?
The question “Why Buffalo?” has been addressed before — in the life of Father Baker.
After assisting at mass at the Shrine of Our Lady of Victory in Paris in 1874, Father Baker began a lifelong devotion to Our Lady under that title.
Later, back in Buffalo, he dedicated himself to the care of orphans, showing a zeal for unwanted babies that, many feel, made him a pioneer of the pro-life movement. Finally, in 1921 at age 80, he asked his Association of Our Lady of Victory members to consider contributing $10 to “buy a block of marble for Our Lady.” Donors responded, and the Lackawanna Basilica was erected in just a few years.
Supporters of the Triumph Arch understandably draw inspiration from Venerable Nelson Baker's story. The association asks donors to consider contributing $100, entitling their names to be engraved on the Arch of Triumph. Behr notes that such an amount is equivalent to Fr. Baker's $10 request in 1921.
Behr also points out that there are practical reasons why the arch should be built in Buffalo, including its location only 20 miles south of Niagara Falls, itself a world-famous attraction. Supporters believe that the arch will draw at least as many visitors annually as the Gateway Arch, with 4 million visitors per year. The shrine would also be within a day's drive of 60% of the population of the U.S. and Canada.
Behr would seem justified in calling it “a global signal call to repentance and conversion.”
The project has already raised more than $20,000 from individual donors in Alaska, Texas, Vermont and Canada. The project has also received support from as far away as Australia.
The association's immediate goal is to raise $3 to $5 million to acquire the proposed site, an available private waterfront parcel that Behr believes matches the scene of his dream. In addition, the association is seeking now to recruit capable Regional Directors and to establish local chapters, to oversee fundraising in as many cities, counties and towns around the world as they are able. To date, Regional Directors have signed on in San Francisco and Edmonton, Alberta.
Behr is firmly convinced that God intends to use Our Lady to bring about the end of abortion and the renewal of society, as well as the return of our separated brethren to the fold of the one, true Church.
He sees as primarily responsible for the slaughter of the unborn, the severing of Christ's Mystical Body the Church, allowing leeway to the “serpent” of Revelations 12 in his “war on the rest of her offspring” (v. 17), a reference to all faithful Christians as Mary's true children.
Not All Applaud
Not all of the local reaction to the proposed arch has been as positive. Following Behr's announcement, the Buffalo News ran both pro and con letters for weeks.
“Behr and his ilk are not only interested in advocating against abortion,” wrote Norm Allen Jr., assistant director for the Council for Secular Humanists in Amherst. “They are also trying to promote anti-atheist propaganda.”
Others, such as Lynda Suchman and Diane London, suggested that the money would be better used to create jobs or to educate people.
Behr argues, however, that those willing to donate to the arch will continue donating to other charitable causes. In addition, he says, “When the Shrine is operational and, we hope, generating excess revenues, money will come from it to the needy in our community, as promised in our Prospectus. It is reported that the St. Louis Gateway Arch brought an estimated $2.32 billion dollars into that region in 1999 alone.”
“The reaction of the local Catholic and Christian faithful has been tremendous,” said Behr. He mentions that the Bishop has expressed appreciation for his pro-life work and looks forward to hearing more definite plans about the project.
Behr believes that the project could be completed in as few as four years. “The Arch of Triumph and Holy Innocents shrine will be built quickly once the faithful people of this country are awakened to the greatness of this project, and form a common will to support it,” he said.
Project advisor Father Robert Fox agreed: “Pope John Paul II once said that shrines today are doing for people what monasteries of earlier centuries accomplished for the good of souls.”
Tim Drake is the executive editor of Catholic.net.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Radio Rebirth DATE: 12/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 2-8, 2001 ----- BODY:In 1999, after 19 years as an on-air personality in secular broadcasting, Sherry Kennedy Brownrigg left to pursue work with a Catholic radio station.
A convert to the faith, Brownrigg does both radio and television commercial work and now serves as general manager of KVSS-FM (Veni, Sancte Spiritus) in Omaha, Neb. She spoke recently with Register features correspondent Tim Drake.
Tell me a little bit about your family. Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Omaha with an older brother and sister. My father was an agnostic. He died when I was 5, at the age of 37, from a heart attack. It wasn't until after my father's death that we were baptized in the Methodist faith. My grandfather was a Methodist minister.
When I was 8, my mother remarried a Catholic and came into the Church. She was the family's first convert. My older sister and brother later married Catholics and came into the Church. My younger brother Scott Anthony, who was born into the faith, is in seminary for the Archdiocese of Omaha.
What led to your own conversion to the Catholic faith?
I was just getting back into my Methodist faith in 1987 when I met my future husband, but it felt as if something was missing. I couldn't understand why God would go through the trouble of sending his Son to earth only to leave us to figure everything out for ourselves.
I asked myself, “How can I be sure that this church is really true?” It was a way to worship God, but that was the extent of it. It felt very shallow to me.
My fiancé was a cradle Catholic, so I decided to study the faith through RCIA.
The riches and the truth of the Catholic faith became more apparent to me through the classes, but it was really the Eucharist that drew me.
Even before I felt a love in my heart I could see that the people at Church believed that this was Jesus. If they have believed that for 2000 years, I figured that it must be true.
I came into the Church in April 1993. Unfortunately, I approached my conversion lackadaisically and am ashamed to admit that at this point I didn't believe everything in my heart.
When did you go a step further?
It was another six months before I had a real conversion of heart.
I had been a pro-choice feminist and in October of that year the shackles fell from my eyes. It was at this time that I realized that I had lived my entire life according to the rules of Sherry. As long as my actions didn't hurt anyone, I felt that they were okay to do.
What I realized at this time, however, was that my actions were hurting Christ. I was given just a small glimpse of the pain that he felt and it kept me up all night long. I can still feel that pain so acutely this many years later.
I was depressed for several months afterward because I felt that there was no way that I could ever rectify the situation or make it up to God. I was thrilled to know that confession could wipe the slate clean. It was at that time that I instantly believed in the Eucharist, the sanctity of life, and stopped all of the sins that I had been doing up to that point.
Tell me about your experience in secular radio?
Prior to my conversion, the only thing I can liken it to is like in the Old Westerns where they have the false fronts with absolutely nothing behind them.
I had this big persona of Sherry Kennedy. People would ask for my autograph. Yet, I was a terrible person behind it all. I was running from experience to experience trying to fill myself up with what I thought I needed.
In radio, you're always looking to move to bigger markets. What I didn't realize was that I needed God. I did not like myself at all.
After my conversion, it was very hard to reconcile my job in secular radio with being a Catholic. The environment in secular radio can be so base and anti-Christian. It was everything opposite of what God's plan is.
I can remember going to some radio conferences and there would be cocaine there, and I would be playing songs on the radio about one-night stands and lust. My last two years in secular radio I felt totally useless, and just waited to be fired. I prayed constantly for help from the Holy Spirit to impart something positive to my listeners.
When the opportunity came to be part of KVSS I was so relieved. Even though I had no guarantee of a job in six months and I had to raise my own paycheck, there was an incredible freedom that came with it.
How did KVSS get started?
A dear college friend of mine, Steve Hruby, had tried to start a Catholic station years ago, but there was no programming. I was on the original board.
When Mother Angelica began offering free radio programming, he decided it was time to start a station and we searched for a frequency.
Once, I asked Steve, “Who is going to run this once we get a station?” and he responded, “Well, you.” I didn't know that he was thinking of me so strongly, but once he said that I knew what I was supposed to do. All of the talents that God had given me to learn were going to be used for this. It was a real blessing.
What do you see as radio's place in the New Evangelization?
Radio is essential because of the fact that it is so mobile. You can take it with you wherever you go, and you can even listen to it on the Web.
It doesn't require much active participation. I think it will be a huge source of primary conversions. We get calls and letters every day telling us of people coming into the Church or back to the Church.
Some write just to say “You helped me get through the death of my husband.” Priests have also told us that they have seen an increase in confessions and people coming back to the sacraments in part because of KVSS.
You don't know whom you are reaching or what stage of life you're coming to them at, so you simply present the truth. People are attracted to the truth like moths are attracted to light. We are starving for the truth.
Tell me about your plans for a Eucharistic chapel.
It was something we always knew that we wanted to do, but we didn't have space. We are located in a strip mall and are one bay in from the end. As soon as that bay became vacant we decided that it was the time to do it. We petitioned the archbishop [Elden Curtiss] and he said Yes. We are aware of only one other radio station (WDEO) that has a chapel.
A special tabernacle is being modeled after part of the high altar at St. Cecelia's Cathedral, the Mother Church of the Archdiocese.
Pews and an altar were donated by the Museum of Religious Art in Logan, Iowa. The dedication of the Chapel of the Word Incarnate is scheduled for December 27, 2001. The chapel will be available for Eucharistic adoration to staff and the general public from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
The door to the chapel will have a brass plate that reads “Jesus Christ, KVSS CEO.” This is a place of business, but it's also a ministry. Jesus is the head of everything that we do.
What does KVSS have planned next?
We plan to increase our power and do much more local programming that we can export worldwide. We plan to build translator stations in our archdiocese so that we can radiate the Catholic faith to other parts of Nebraska and neighboring states.
We also have more than 95,000 Hispanics in our region and we hope to be doing some Hispanic ministry programming.
All of our seminarians are required to learn Spanish and I'm learning it myself.
Finally, KVSS also owns a low-power television station. We eventually hope to be doing television programming as well.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Sherry Kennedy Brownrigg ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Baby Mary Louise's Burial Highlights Plight of Abandoned Babies DATE: 12/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 2-8, 2001 ----- BODY:LOUISVILLE, Colo. — Three priests, a rabbi and two ministers walked in together, but what followed in this Colorado community was anything but a joke.
Rather, it marked the beginning of an emotionally wrenching memorial service for Mary Louise, a baby left to die near a dumpster outside of a Louisville Safeway.
Mary Louise is a tragic part of a growing phenomenon in the United States of parents disposing of infants, leaving them to die. States are grappling with new laws designed to help save the children, and the non-profit group Project Cuddle is working to find alternatives for such parents.
Father Donald Willette, pastor of St. Louis Catholic Church in Louisville, said his parish hosted and organized the Nov. 15 interfaith memorial service to show respect for the infant and bless her body. Mary Louise's death is as great a loss to society as the death of a wealthy, accomplished adult with family and friends, the priest explained.
“Whatever claim to fame you have, whatever press you have managed to get for yourself, or whatever plaques you have on the wall — whatever way in which you say ‘I am somebody’ — those perks from the community have little to do with our value as creatures of God,” Father Willette told an assembly of about 100 people. “The value of your life goes far beyond the bank accounts you have, the credit cards you have, or the size of the home you live in.
“Infants have dignity. Mary Louise couldn't read or spell or talk or even focus her eyes yet. But God has prepared a place for her.”
Before offering Mass, Father Willette invited mothers to the microphone to eulogize a child they didn't know had lived until she was found dead Oct. 12.
Mothers’ Prayers
Six mothers took turns talking, and more spoke later at the baby's interment near a memorial for the unborn at Sacred Heart of Mary Catholic Cemetery in Boulder. The mothers urged mourners to pray for the child and the unknown mother who treated her as trash.
“I lost five babies before giving birth to two healthy girls,” said Jeanne Donahue, director of pre-school at St. Louis Catholic Church. “That woman, whoever she is, will never forget this child and what she did to her. Mary Louise is fine. She's in heaven. But this woman has to live the rest of her life with this.”
Another mother hoped to communicate to the mother through the media, telling her: “Please know that God loves you. There is forgiveness and grace for you.”
At the interment, the Rev. Dan Hoeger, a Lutheran minister, said the entire community must work to avoid future tragedies.
“What we have here is a lack of love,” he said. “We as a community have somehow failed, and a child is dead.”
The federal government keeps no statistics on discarded infants. However, an article in the American Criminal Law Review says media accounts indicate an alarming rise in their numbers.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services surveyed major newspapers and found that, in 1998, 105 babies were found discarded in public places in the United States, and 33 of those were found dead. Using identical survey techniques, HHS found that seven years earlier, only 65 babies were discarded, with eight found dead.
Project Cuddle
The phenomenon caught the attention of Debbe Magnusen in 1996. Magnusen founded Project Cuddle to provide teddy bears and dolls to police departments, so children could be comforted while being taken into custody or witnessing their parents or guardians being taken into custody.
When Magnusen read about five babies abandoned in Orange County, Calif., she started a 24-hour, toll-free crisis hotline for women who are contemplating dispensing of one or more children (1-888-628-3353).
Magnusen quickly organized a network of volunteers throughout the country who take in children who might otherwise be discarded, until more permanent arrangements can be made for their custody and care.
To date, Project Cuddle says it has rescued 155 infants from abandonment in back alleys, dump-sters and an array of other locations. Some parents have reported to the hotline their intention to discard infants, and others have called to report the locations of discarded babies.
Project Cuddle volunteers say they hear various reasons for the discarding of infants — mothers being victims of rape; the child's father being someone other than the mother's spouse; fear of being abused if discovered with a child; fear of humiliation; fear of social services taking the parent's other children; fear of an ex-spouse taking custody; being pregnant by someone of another race; and fear of financial catastrophe.
“I pray for these young women who find themselves so desperate they can do something like this,” said Gloria Jiminez, a mother of four who spoke at the memorial service for Mary Louise.
In recent years, 13 states, including Colorado, have passed controversial laws granting parents immunity from prosecution if they abandon their children at hospitals, fire stations or police departments.
Supporters say the laws encourage women to spare the lives of their children, without fear of retribution. Critics say the government should not endorse an alternative to the traditional, planned adoption process.
Colorado's new “Safe Haven Law” did not help Mary Louise. And in Texas, more than a dozen infants have been discarded in back alleys and dumpsters since that state's Safe Haven law took effect in 1999.
A study conducted at the University of California found that people who discard infants fit a general profile. Most, said the study, are “very young, unmarried, physically healthy women who are pregnant for the first time and not addicted to substances … The vast majority live either with their parent(s), guardian(s), or other relatives.
“Massive denial is a prominent feature of this situation,” the report stated. “Women who kill and/or discard their infants generally have made no plans for the birth or care of their child, and get no prenatal care.”
Mary Louise received little care from the mother who left her with the trash in a dark alley behind a supermarket. At the cemetery, however, dozens lined up at the baby's tiny casket to show how much they cared, some kissing the casket, others lighting candles or leaving flowers and teddy bears.
Said one mother after leaving flowers on the casket, “I'm sure Mary Louise is looking down from heaven at us, with a tear in her eye.”
Wayne Laugesen writes from Boulder, Colorado.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Wayne Laugesen ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 12/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 2-8, 2001 ----- BODY:‘Victoria's Secret’ Show Subjected to Scrutiny
The Federal Communications Commission said it had received numerous complaints from around the country about the racy lingerie show and the promotional ads that ran with it. FCC commissioner Michael Copps said he had received 50 e-mails the day after the 9 p.m. airing. One came from his own daughter, who is a new mother concerned about the kinds of things her son might be exposed to on TV when he grows up.
Copps said he was forwarding the complaints to the FCC's Enforcement Bureau, asking it to investigate whether ABC violated indecency regulations.
ABC said the show was approved by its Broadcast Standards and Practices department and aired with a TV-14 parental label, allowing parents with V-chip-equipped sets to block it out.
Ann Landers Advises Couple to Get a Room
The man, a 30-year-old fallen-away Catholic, married his girlfriend in a nondenominational ceremony with a nondenominational minister. His parents refused to attend the wedding, and said the couple is not truly married because “our union was not sanctioned by God in the Catholic Church,” the man said in his letter to the advice columnist.
When the man informed his parents that he and his wife would be visiting, they said the couple must sleep in separate bedrooms because “it would be sinful for us to sleep together.”
Landers said the notion that they are “living in sin” because they were not married in the Church made “little sense” to her. But she said that, when visiting, the couple should abide by the rules of another person's home and, Landers suggested, they could stay in a hotel when visiting the parents.
Bush Aide Describes Personal Importance of Faith
The former television reporter and Sunday school teacher at a Presbyterian church said that prayer guided her decision to join Bush's team on his first campaign for Texas governor in 1994, a few years after leaving journalism to raise a child. “I prayed about it and I gradually decided that God really wanted me to do this,” she said at a church-sponsored conference about the importance of faith.
Faith played a role again on Sept. 11, when news of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon prompted Hughes to race to the White House, a potential target of further attacks. As she headed there, she said, “Everybody else was going the other way.”
Hughes said she continued on because “it was my job, first of all.”
“But it was more than an act of duty,” she added. “It was an act of faith” in eternal life and the idea that she would not be challenged with something she couldn't handle.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Sen. Kennedy Stalls Education Bill That Recognizes Parental Rights DATE: 12/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 2-8, 2001 ----- BODY:LANCASTER, Pa. — Teachers encourage Dana Terry to examine the textbooks that her eight-year-old uses at Hambright Public Middle School in Lancaster, Pa.
“We've been very fortunate here. My daughter's teacher asked me if I could take a peek at my daughter's textbook. Which I did,” Terry said. “Were we to go into a more restrictive district, I'd want to know what the teachers were teaching my eight-year-old child.”
A Kansas congressman wants to give every parent in America the same right that Dana Terry has, because he himself was once refused the right to inspect his child's curriculum.
“There have been an alarming number of recent cases in which the rights of parents have been ignored, forcing them to go to court to secure the basic information which the Parental Freedom of Information Act provides,” said Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan. “Parents should not have to go into the courtroom to find out what is going on in the classroom.”
Tiahrt's legislation, called the Parents’ Rights Amendment, was added to the education bill now making its way through Congress. It received no opposition in the House Education Committee and passed the entire House without any objection.
But when it reached the Senate, Massachusetts Democrat Edward Kennedy put the brakes on the entire education bill. He expressed concern over Tiahrt's amendment, but didn't come out publicly against his proposal.
Kennedy serves as chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
“On the issue of protecting the constitutional rights of parents and guardians who may have religious objections, I have serious concerns with some of the proposals, but I'm confident that we can reach an acceptable agreement,” Kennedy said Oct. 30.
Why the Stall?
Rep. Tiahrt can't figure out why the bill has faced any opposition in the Senate.
“It's simply an amendment to get parents involved,” said Tiahrt's spokesman, Chuck Knapp, said. “Congressman Tiahrt doesn't think it's onerous for a parent to look at the child's curriculum, or to see their child's textbook, or to prevent them from taking a sex survey. These things don't seem too extreme.”
The legislation would restrict school administrators from forcing students to divulge their parent's political affiliations or beliefs. Schools also would be prevented from conducting non-emergency medical examinations without parental consent.
Knapp added, “Senator Kennedy would have to say why he thinks that parents shouldn't be more involved in their children's education.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church repeatedly stresses the primary role of parents in the education of their children. The Catechism states, “Parents are the principal and first educators of their children” (no. 1652), and adds, “The right and duty of parents to educate their children are primordial and inalienable” (No. 2221).
As well, the Catechism instructs that the state has an obligation to respect parental rights over education. “The state may not legitimately usurp the initiative of spouses, who have the primary responsibility for the procreation and education of their children” (No. 2372).
This same principle is recognized in Article 26.3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which specifies, “Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.”
Through a spokesman, Kennedy, who is Catholic, maintains that no major disagreements over the stalled education bill remain.
“We're in the process of agreement,” said Kennedy spokesman Jim Mainley. “We are optimistic some thing will work.”
Mainley refused to elaborate on specific objections that Kennedy had to the bill.
He added, “There's no reason to sidetrack this bill by issues like this,” Mainley said.
But Knapp countered that Kennedy has already sidetracked the legislation because of Tiahrt's pro-parent amendment.
“We wouldn't have expected it,” said Knapp. “It's a little surprising that the Senate would not allow parents to be more involved in their child's education.”
Perplexed Parent
Terry said that she simply does-n't understand how people could object to Tiahrt's recommendations.
“They complain about how they can't get parents involved. Then they discourage it,” Terry said “You can't have it both ways.”
But Michael Schwartz, a spokesman for Concerned Women for America, isn't surprised that politicians would object to Tiahrt's legislation. But he doesn't aim his frustration so much at Kennedy.
“The problem isn't that Ted Kennedy is a Democrat and that Ted Kennedy is a liberal. The problem is that the Democrats and most of the Republicans refuse to buck the teachers’ unions. They do whatever they're told to do,” Schwartz said.
The teachers’ unions have very different attitudes than rank-and-file teachers, he added.
“They are opposed to any accountability anywhere in the education establishment,” Schwartz said. “They don't want to be accountable to parents, and they don't want to be accountable to taxpayers.”
Joshua Mercer writes from Washington, D.C.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Pope Announces Day of Fasting and Day of Prayer in Assisi DATE: 12/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 2-8, 2001 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — In response to the “continuing disturbed and tense international situation,” Pope John Paul II announced at the Sunday Angelus of November 18 two spiritually dramatic initiatives.
The Holy Father asked all Catholics to observe Friday, Dec. 14, as a day of fasting. He made the announcement remembering the “thousands of innocent victims of September 11” in the United States, and all those “forced to abandon their homes to face an unknown and sometimes cruel death” as a result of the subsequent war.
At the same time, John Paul announced that he was inviting leaders of the world's religions to Assisi next Jan. 24, to pray for the “promotion of authentic peace".
Details of the Assisi event are still to be worked out over the next few weeks, according to papal spokesman Joaquìn Navarro-Valls. He said that the organization of the event and the decision about who to invite has been entrusted to three pontifical councils: Interreligous Dialogue, Christian Unity, and Justice and Peace.
Catholics should “pray fervently to God to grant the world a stable peace, founded upon justice, and to make it possible to find adequate solutions to the many conflicts which the world is suffering,” John Paul said concerning the day of fasting. “That which is saved by fasting could be put to the use of the poor, especially those who are now suffering the consequences of terrorism and war.”
The Holy Father noted that the Islamic holy month of Ramadan has just begun, in which devout Muslims fast daily from sunrise to sunset, and remarked that Christians too will soon begin the penitential season of Advent.
The Assisi meeting will be the third time the Holy Father has convoked an extraordinary assembly of religious leaders in the city of St. Francis, chosen according to the Pope because the saint is “known and revered by many across the world as a symbol of peace, reconciliation and fraternity.”
Previous meetings in Assisi were held in 1986 for peace in the world, and in 1993 for peace in Europe, especially the Balkans. These meetings, an innovation of John Paul II, brought together Christians of various Churches and ecclesial communities, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and even animists.
“One will find together, in particular, Christians and Muslims, to proclaim before the world that religion must never become a reason for conflict, hate and violence,” said the Holy Father about next January's meeting. “Whoever truly receives within himself the word of God, good and merciful, must exclude from his heart every form of rancor and enmity. In this historic moment, humanity needs to see gestures of peace and to listen to words of hope.”
It is a measure of how far interreligious dialogue has come that this announcement was treated as something almost routine. When the first Assisi meeting was announced in 1986, there was a firestorm of opposition, and not only from traditional-ist quarters hostile to ecumenical and interreligious ventures. Even senior members of the Roman Curia had misgivings about whether John Paul was going too far, risking syncretism with his bold gestures.
“The coming together today of many religious leaders for prayer is by itself an invitation to the world to become aware that there exists another dimension of peace and another way of promoting it that is not the result of negotiations, political compromises or economic bargaining,” answered John Paul in 1986. “But it is the result of prayer, which, even in the diversity of religions, expresses a relation with a supreme power which surpasses our human capacities alone.”
“In a world where there is too little prayer, the unheard of fact that believers of the different religions find themselves together to pray acquires an exceptional value,” wrote then-Bishop Jorge Mejía of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. “What better response can we make to widespread secularism, if not this journey, this mutual encounter, for no other reason than to speak to God, each in his or her own way?"
Fifteen years later, Vatican observers note that this day of prayer of peace will be aimed not so much at countering secularism, but the idea that secularism is the only safe way to order society in the face of religious fundamentalism. Given the apparent “religious” motivations of the terrorists of Sept. 11, many have come to the conclusion that religion is itself a threat to public order and human rights. Inasmuch as the Assisi meeting next January counters that impression, it will be an important day not only for Catholics, but perhaps even more so for Muslims.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Raymond J. De Souza ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 12/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 2-8, 2001 ----- BODY:Dialogue with Muslims Paramount, Says Cardinal Arinze
The cardinal, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, said the Vatican has been going out of its way to open channels of communication with Muslims, following the “barbarous” Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He spoke to an audience of 500 at the Benedictine Westminster Abbey in Vancouver. Though he rejects the relativistic belief that all religions are equal, Cardinal Arinze said Christians and Muslims must advocate religious tolerance and freedom.
He said he would not disagree with many Muslims who believe Western secular values are being imposed on them through globalization and the mass media, the Canadian daily reported. “The Church is not in favor of the imposition of the culture of one people on other peoples, in past decades by colonialism and today by powerful mass media, which, by TV alone, quietly but effectively spread a whole philosophy of life that homogenizes culture,” he said.
Push for Higher Media Standards, Pope Urges
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, Nov. 20 — Pope John Paul II encouraged Catholics to help set high standards for the communications industry. “People spend enormous amounts of time absorbed in media consumption, particularly children and adolescents,” the Pope said in a private audience with 450 members of the International Catholic Association for Radio and Television (UNDA) and the International Catholic Organization for Cinema and Audiovisuals (OCIC). “An important part of your work, therefore, is to teach wise and responsible media use. This means setting high standards, not for the general public alone, but also for the leaders of the communications industry.”
UNDA and OCIC are merging to form SIGNIS, a new international Catholic organization for all audiovisual media.
Pope Intends to be in Toronto Next Summer
Cardinal James Stafford, the lead Vatican organizer of World Youth Day, agreed that the Pope's presence is important. “Young people have the right to ask, ‘Why has there been so much systemic violence and the murder of so many lives?'” The Pope, he said, will come and say, “I want to help you.”
The July 22-28 event, expected to draw 1 million young people, could be the largest single gathering in Canadian history. In the first five weeks of registration, 45,000 people from more than 50 nations have signed up.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: God's Ever-Present Victory DATE: 12/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 2-8, 2001 ----- BODY:Register Summary
Pope John Paul II said Christians must learn to see their daily lives in the big picture of God's plan for the universe.
Speaking to pilgrims at his general audience Nov. 21, the Pope explained that the “Christian way” to interpret the passing of time was “to place our day on the large horizon of the history of salvation.” Even as the days mount up one on top of the other, he said, we should not be oppressed by their weight but should examine them carefully for signs of God's unfolding plan.
About 7,000 pilgrims gathered in the Paul VI Audience Hall to listen to the Pope, who continued a series of talks on the Liturgy of the Hours. He focused on a canticle from the book of Exodus, a hymn of victory that celebrates how God saved the Israelites by parting the Red Sea.
The Pope called the exodus from Egypt “a symbol of the whole history of salvation” that prefigures Christ's liberation of humanity from sin and death.
“The hymn of victory does not express the triumph of man, but the triumph of God. It is not a song of war; it is a song of love,” he said, adding that the joy expressed in the ancient hymn should pervade the daily lives of modern believers, too.
This hymn of victory (Exodus 15:1-18), which is proposed for Morning Prayer on Saturday of the first week of the Liturgy of the Hours, takes us back to a key moment in salvation history: the Exodus event, when Israel was saved by God in a situation that was humanly speaking, hopeless.
The facts are well known. Following their long captivity in Egypt, the Hebrews, who were already on the way to the Promised Land, were overtaken by Pharaoh's army. If the Lord had not intervened with his powerful hand, nothing would have saved them from annihilation.
The hymn spends time describing the arrogance of the plans of the armed enemy: “I will pursue and overtake them; I will divide the spoils” (Exodus 15:9).
But what can the greatest army do against divine omnipotence? God commands the sea to open a passage for the assailed people and close the way to the aggressors: “When your wind blew, the sea covered them; like lead they sank in the mighty waters” (Exodus 15:10).
These are strong images. They attempt to describe the greatness of God, while expressing the wonder of a people who can scarcely believe their eyes. With one voice, they break out in a moving song: “My strength and my courage is the Lord, and he has been my savior. He is my God, I praise him; the God of my father, I extol him” (Exodus 15:2).
Hints of Resurrection
The canticle does not just speak of the deliverance obtained. It also indicates its positive objective, which is none other than entering into the dwelling of God to live in communion with him: “In your mercy you led the people you redeemed; in your strength you guided them to your holy dwelling” (Exodus 15:13).
The Prophets spoke of a ‘new covenant,’ in which the law of God would be written in the very heart of man.
Understood this way, this event was not only at the root of the covenant between God and his people, but it became something like the “symbol” of the whole history of salvation. Israel would go on to experience similar situations on many other occasions, and always the Exodus would be immediately reenacted. In a special way, that event prefigures the great deliverance that Christ will bring about through his death and resurrection.
Because of this, our hymn resounds in a special way in the liturgy of the Easter Vigil. By the intensity of its images, it illustrates what was accomplished in Christ. In him we were saved — not from a human oppressor, but from that slavery to Satan and sin which has weighed on humanity's destiny from the beginning. With Christ, humanity resumes its journey on the path that leads us back to the Father's house.
In Joyful Hope
This deliverance is already realized in mystery and is present in baptism as a seed of life that is destined to grow. It will attain its fullness at the end of time, when Christ returns in glory and “hands over the kingdom to his God and Father” (1 Corinthians 15:24).
It is precisely this final eschato-logical panorama that the Liturgy of the Hours invites us to look at when it introduces our hymn with a quotation from the Book of Revelation: “Those who had won the victory over the beast … sang the song of Moses, the servant of God” (Revelation 15:2,3).
At the end of time, what the event of the Exodus prefigures and what Christ's Passover accomplished in a way that is definitive, yet open to the future, will be fully realized for all those who are saved. Our salvation is, in fact, real and profound, but it is between the “already” and the “not yet” of the earthly condition, as the apostle Paul reminds us: “For in hope we were saved” (Romans 8:24).
Seeing the Big Picture
“I will sing to the Lord, for he is gloriously triumphant” (Exodus 15:1). By placing these words of the ancient hymn on our lips, the liturgy of Morning Prayer invites us to place our day within the wide horizon of salvation history. This is the Christian way of perceiving the passage of time. The accumulation of day upon day is not a fate that oppresses us, but a plan that goes on unfolding and that our eyes must learn to read like a watermark.
The Fathers of the Church were particularly sensitive to this salvation history perspective. They loved to read the highlights of the Old Testament — from the great flood of Noah's time to the calling of Abraham, from the deliverance of the Exodus to the return of the Hebrews after the Babylonian exile — as “prefigurations” of future events. They recognized those developments as having the value of an “archetype.” In them, the basic characteristics that would repeat themselves in some way throughout the course of human history were announced ahead of time.
A Song for the Journey
As for the rest, the prophets had already reread the events of the history of salvation, showing their always current meaning and pointing to their complete fulfillment in the future. This is how, while meditating on the mystery of the covenant established by God with Israel, they came to speak of a “new covenant” (Jeremiah 31:31; see Ezekiel 36:26-27), in which the law of God would be written in the very heart of man.
It is not difficult to see in this prophecy the new covenant that was established in the blood of Christ and brought about through the gift of the Spirit. By reciting this hymn of victory of the old Exodus in the light of the paschal Exodus, the faithful can experience the joy of knowing themselves members of a Church that is on a pilgrimage through time toward the heavenly Jerusalem.
It's All About Love
This is, therefore, a matter of contemplating with ever-renewed wonder all that God has planned for his people: “And you brought them in and planted them on the mountain of your inheritance — the place where you made your seat, O Lord, the sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands established” (Exodus 15:17). The hymn of victory does not express the triumph of man, but the triumph of God. It is not a song of war. It is a song of love.
Allowing our days to be pervaded by this wave of praise of the ancient Hebrews, we walk the streets of the world — which are not lacking in danger, risks, and suffering — with the certainty of being enfolded by God's merciful gaze. Nothing can resist the power of his love.
(Register and Zenit translation)
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Frictions Build Over Nazareth Mosque's Construction DATE: 12/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 2-8, 2001 ----- BODY:NAZARETH — Reports that work on a new mosque in Nazareth, directly adjacent to the Basilica of the Annunciation, has been blocked by the Israeli government are false, a senior Catholic official in the Holy Land told the Vatican missionary news agency Fides Nov. 16.
Franciscan Father David Jaeger, Holy Land Custody spokesman, also denied that local Christians and Muslims are quarrelling over the issue.
“We are not in conflict with the Muslims; the Israeli government is to blame,” said Father Jaeger, who was responding to news reports following his official statement protesting Israeli approval of work on the mosque, located a few yards from the basilica.
After Christians complained about bulldozing that took place at the site of the proposed mosque, Associated Press reported from Jerusalem said that Israel's Land Authority had blocked further work. But Father Jaeger said that site preparation is continuing at night, and that Israeli authorities have promised that building permits will be granted shortly.
Said Father Jaeger, “These reports are pure inventions. On the contrary, the reliable Jerusalem newspaper Ha'aretz quotes the Home Ministry as saying that it intends to continue and even accelerate all that is necessary for the building of the Nazareth mosque.”
The Holy Land Custody priest said that Israeli authorities have ignored Christian concerns over construction of a mosque on the site.
“They have given no attention to us at all,” he said. “In fact, despite calls from all over the Christian world, from the highest to the lowest, they are determined to allow the building to go ahead. They want the mosque on that site.”
Father Jaeger, who is an Israeli citizen, added that Christians did not see themselves as being in conflict with Israel's Palestinian Muslims, despite the efforts by a militant Islamist group to force construction of the Nazareth mosque on land that Israeli courts have said belongs legally to the state.
“Indeed, we would support all requests from our Muslim co-citizens for respect for their religious rights,” he said. “For example, after the war in 1948 the government confiscated the entire territory of the Muslim religion in Israel. What is more, all over the country there are dozens of mosques in ruins or badly damaged. Muslim movements and associations want to rebuild them, but it possible that the public authorities will deny permission.”
Added Father Jaeger, “There are many ways in which the Israeli government could give justice to the Muslim citizens, and Christians would be only too ready to applaud.”
U.S. Perspective
Jesuit Father Drew Christiansen, senior fellow at Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University and counselor on interreligious affairs for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, told the Register that the fears of the Christian community were heightened by a recent report in the Hebrew edition of Ha'aretz.
The report, which was dropped from the paper's English edition, stated that, in response to protests from Muslim activists, Israel's Interior Ministry had promised to expedite the mosque's building permits.
Father Christiansen, who has been directly involved in the effort to persuade Israel to halt the mosque's construction, said that he was given conflicting responses last July when he asked officials what the government intended to do. While the head of Israel's office of interreligious affairs assured him the mosque would not be built, Deputy Foreign Minister Rabbi Michael Malchior said the situation was “much more complicated.”
Said Father Christiansen, “I was left in doubt about the will of the government at higher levels to stop it.”
He added that Israeli embassy officials in the U.S. maintain that it is the responsibility of Catholics to bring pressure on the Muslim community to prevent the mosque's construction, even though several decisions by Israeli courts have ruled that the land on which it is to be built belongs to the state. Despite the court rulings, three successive Israeli governments have allowed militant Islamists to continue to occupy the land.
As well, Father Christiansen said Israeli officials have refused to include compromise elements, such as ensuring the mosque would face away from the basilica's doors and the building of a police station to help defuse Muslim-Christian tensions, in the mosque's building plans. Summed up Father Christiansen, “You have a whole lot of things that create a great deal of suspicion in the Christian community.”
U.S. Catholics can help by contacting members of Congress, Father Christiansen said, along with the White House. He noted that President Bush had already intervened directly in the issue during a private discussion last February with Israeli Prime Minister Sharon. Sharon declined to take a public position after the discussion, however.
Concluded Father Christiansen, “Christians need to express their concerns about Christian interests in the Holy Land.”
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Register Staff ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 12/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 2-8, 2001 ----- BODY:Middle Eastern Christians Leaving the Region
Unlike Muslims in the West, Christians are native to the Middle East, the business weekly said, and their response to world events often parallels that of their Muslim neighbors. “Most Middle Eastern Christians share the belief that American policy in the region helped stoke the fire of fanaticism,” the magazine said.
But unlike many Middle Eastern Muslims, their opposition to the U.S.-led attack in Afghanistan was muted compared to their expression of outrage at the terrorism directed against the United States in September.
Pro-Abortion Group Meets at Australian Nuns’ Center
Sister Anne McLay, chairwoman of Womenspace, told the Brisbane daily that she had nothing to do with bookings at the center, but refused to say if she would bar pro-abortion groups in the future. Children by Choice coordinator Cait Calcutt said she booked the center because it was inexpensive and close to the group's offices.
Local pro-life groups, including a chapter of Human Life International, called on Archbishop John Bathersby of Brisbane to correct the situation. He has already launched an investigation into reports of distribution of literature for pagan rituals and witchcraft at the Church-run Womenspace center.
Priests Released in Central African Republic
AFRICA NEWS AGENCY, Nov. 16 — Two priests who were arrested in the Central African Republic in connection with a failed coup in May have been released, the news service reported.
Comboni Father Tolino Falagoista, 62, director of Radio Notre Dame in Bangui, the republic's capital, and correspondent for the Catholic news agency Misna, was arrested in October and accused of writing a story regarding mass executions of Yakoma tribe members. He denied the charges.
Father Falagoista was released on condition that he not leave the capital, and a further investigation is pending.
Father Julien Koyenguia of the Berberati Diocese was arrested in September, accused of preaching violence and tribal hatred and of sheltering some of those behind the attempted putsch. He was released by the committee set up to investigate the coup.
South Korean Support Grows for Abolishing Death Penalty
A survey published by the Chosun Ilbo newspaper Nov. 4 showed 36% of respondents opposed capital punishment, compared to 20% in a 1994 Gallup Korea survey. Still, 59% of Koreans support the death penalty.
A further sign that support for abolition is gaining was a vote in the 273-seat National Assembly to ban capital punishment, which in Korea takes the form of hanging. The vote exceeded by 18 the 137 votes needed to pass legislation and was a marked increase over a similar vote just two years ago, when 98 legislators voted to ban the punishment.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: The Register Declares War DATE: 12/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 2-8, 2001 ----- BODY:Islamic extremists are spoiling for a “holy war” with America and the West … but the West (and legitimate Muslim leaders) have, thankfully, declined the invitation. The West has no interest in killing people because of their religion, or making Christianity spread by force, and that's good. But the West also no longer identifies itself as Christian, and most of its leaders have no strong feelings about religion one way or another — and that's bad.
If we are uninterested in a military face-off, we might be interested in a different kind of contest. Islam is a strong and pervasive influence in countries in the Middle East, at exactly a time when the Catholic faith and Christianity are fading as a force in the West.
On this first week of Advent, we suggest that Catholics should wage a spiritual war to reestablish the power of Christianity in our own country.
Earlier this year, the Holy Father provided a detailed proposal in his apostolic letter Novo Millennium Inuente (At the Beginning of the New Millennium) as to how such a battle — the new evangelization — should proceed. He called on Catholics to “put out into the deep for a catch” as the apostles did.
Register readers are just the sort to take up the Pope's challenge, and so, starting this week, the Register is offering, on our back page, a four-part series to help.
The idea is this: If each Register reader successfully encourages one family each year to live an active faith, then, in a few years’ time, we will see scores of active Catholics living their faith and having an impact on society.
Starting this week, we will be printing a series of features that can help answer the concerns of people returning to the faith. Taking up four proposals of the Holy Father in Novo Millennium Inuente, one for each week of Advent, the guides can be cut out of the paper, photo-copied, and given to people interested in being active in the Catholic faith. We will make them available on our Web site, www.ncregister.com, in a .pdf format.
They follow the Pope's program for the new millennium, as follows:
Week 1, Sunday Mass. “We do not know what the millennium has in store for us,” John Paul wrote presciently, “but we know we are certain that it is safe in the hands of Christ, the ‘King of kings and Lord of lords” (No. 35). To assure more people of their safety, he said, we need to encourage them to return to the Lord of the Passover each Sunday. Do neighbors worry about terrorism? Is a family member paralyzed by rage? Mass has the answers they need to hear.
Week 2, Confession. Noting the tragic neglect of a sacrament which is absolutely necessary to a Christian life, the Holy Father called for a new emphasis on confession.
Many today distrust the confessional. They suspect it's a place of disapproval and severity, where they have to bear the rebuke of a priest. Our guide, we hope, will help you deliver the good news that the confessional is a place of mercy and love.
As the Pope pointed out, confession can be popular, too: “The Jubilee Year, which has been particularly marked by a return to the Sacrament of Penance, has given us an encouraging message, which should not be ignored” (No. 37).
Week 3, Prayer. John Paul's next suggestion is to promote prayer, a suggestion he has personally followed in his continued call for rosaries to end terrorism.
This will be the secret weapon of the new evangelization, said the Holy Father. “As this millennium begins, allow the successor of Peter to invite the whole Church to make this act of faith, which expresses itself in a renewed commitment to prayer” (No. 38).
Week 4, Catholic Living. Our fourth guide will give the basics of living a Catholic life.
We hope in this way to help fulfill the great hopes of the Holy Father for a new evangelization — which he said can usher in a new springtime of faith.
After all, he says in the apostolic letter, evangelization “cannot be left to a group of 'specialists.’” It falls, rather, to people like us.
------- EXCERPT: Editorial ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 12/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 2-8, 2001 ----- BODY:Yes to Smallpox Vaccines,
No to Fetal Tissue
Thank you for your timely article on the smallpox vaccine ("Government Weighs Producing Anti-Terror Vaccine with Abortion Tissue,” Nov. 25-Dec. 1).
The Catholic Medical Association has in the past expressed its disapproval of the use of aborted fetal tissue and embryonic stem-cell lines to develop vaccines and medical products. Therefore, it is especially disturbing to learn that our government intends to allow this practice once more in the production of the new smallpox vaccine, when moral alternatives are available.
While we agree that protecting U.S. citizens from infectious disease is both good and necessary, we find the intended use of the MRC-5 aborted fetal-cell line to be both utterly immoral and highly unethical, especially since there are other existing, FDA-approved animal-cell substrates available. It is a fact that, after the horrors of the Holocaust, the cell lines developed from the Jewish people who were murdered by the Nazis in Dachau and Auschwitz were subsequently destroyed by the World Health Organization.
I and my fellow physicians are deeply concerned because of the fact that parents are refusing to adequately vaccinate their children because of concerns arising from the use of aborted fetal tissue.
This becomes a special problem, now that there is the threat of bio-terrorism. I would encourage everyone to write Tommy Thompson and urge him to only accept those proposals from the pharmaceutical industry that will not engage in the use of aborted fetal cell lines or from the destruction of human embryos (embryonic stem cell lines).
Why use means that are morally objectionable to a great number of Americans, when moral alternatives are available?
Thank you, also, for providing an address and phone number where people can express their opposition to the government's use of fetal tissue in this way. I would only add Tommy Thompson's name and room number:
The Honorable Tommy Thompson, Department of Health & Human Services, 200 Independence Avenue, S.W. Room 615-F Washington, D.C. 20201
ROBERT J SAXER M.D. Fort Walton Beach, Florida
The writer is president of the National Catholic Medical Association
Archbishop Should Reject Merger
Regarding “Hospital Merger Tests Bishops’ New Rules,” Nov. 18–24:
In the case you describe, Archbishop Rembert Weakland has been given a chance to demonstrate he can assert Catholic doctrine in his diocese (Milwaukee). Weakland should not grant a nihil obstat in regards to the proposed partnership sponsored by Columbia Health System and Ascension Health. This partnership would allow tubal ligations and vasectomies to be performed in an independent facility located within Columbia Hospital, which has been run by Ascension Health since Oct. 1. Ethical and Religious Directive 53 clearly states that “[d]irect sterilization of either men or women … is not permitted in a Catholic health care institution ….”
Further, Directive 70 states that “Catholic health care organizations are not permitted to engage in immediate material cooperation in actions that are intrinsically immoral, such as … direct sterilization.” The footnote to that directive also warns that “any cooperation institutionally approved or tolerated in actions which are in themselves, that is, by their very nature and condition, directed to a contraceptive end … is absolutely forbidden” (internal citation omitted).
It strains credulity to see how sterilization performed at an “independent” center located within a hospital carrying Catholic affiliation is not immediate material cooperation proscribed by Directive 70. Archbishop Weakland must refuse to grant a nihil obstat.
ROBERT PLUTA
Chicago
Faith on Fulton Street
You may be onto something in your editorial “A Catholic Moment” (Oct. 14-20). In light of recent world events — specifically, the happenings of Sept. 11 — it seemed to me to be a marking point. Just as in a horserace, the gun is shot and the race begins.
I recently visited Ground Zero, first to pay my respects to my former boss’ son and to the many heroes who were killed and who passed over that day. I was never more convinced that they had simply passed over, were alive but in a changed form. Because when I walked up the subway stairs at Fulton Street that day and turned my head to the right (yes, I did see the damage caused by extreme evil), but I also felt the presence of those nearly 5,000 souls.
Unfortunately, there was also the ultimate presence of evil down at Ground Zero — the wreckage overwhelmed me with sadness. Yes, one could have even been annoyed by the vendors and cameras flashing, as if we were all tourists. But the evidence of a “heaven on earth” developing was still apparent. Yes, the smell was nauseating, the atmosphere eerie. But what I found were people conversing with each other — in the streets, on the subways and in the stores. And, in most cases, they were outwardly considerate, friendly and, in many cases, openly affectionate. There was good among the evil.
What I am certain of is that, despite the tragedies of recent weeks, miracles are still occurring. Government and religions are coming together. People are coming together. Individuals are taking stock of their lives and, hopefully, are reconciling with God … because we are indeed united.
For those heroes who were taken from us on Sept. 11, we can be assured that they are in a better place. But for those of us who are here on this earth, it is truly an opportunity to create a “heaven” on earth.
JANE E. MCCARTY Harrison, New York
Recognizing Abortion Trauma
Thank you for your editorial “Good News for Life” (Nov. 18-24), referring to post-abortion syndrome and the amendment requesting the National Institutes of Health to “expand and intensify research and related activities … with respect to post-abortion depression and post-abortion psychosis.”
It is extremely important that the trauma of abortion be made known to the general population and the mental-health professions. Up to this point, there has been no acknowledgment of the profound trauma that follows women and men after abortion. There has been no official diagnosis of post-abortion syndrome in the diagnostic manual, and there does not appear to be any consideration of it in the future.
The fact that women are suffering in large numbers from the act of abortion has been kept under the covers for much too long, and it is encouraging to see that maybe this amendment will have the NIH do some active research in the field. As a therapist dealing with post-abortive women and men, I can personally attest to the huge numbers of people suffering psychological, emotional and spiritual scars years later.
MAUREEN VETTER RUSSELL Rockville Centre, New York
The writer is Project Rachel coordinator for the diocese of Rockville Center.
Defending the Indefensible
Regarding “Fed Ruling Might Kill Suicide Laws,” (Nov. 18-24):
Democrat Hardy Myers, who is Oregon's attorney-general and a member of All Saints Parish, claimed [in Portland's diocesan newspaper] that he had to ignore “personal feelings” (Catholic Sentinel, Nov. 16,) in his attack on a federal law forbidding the use of federally controlled drugs for assisted suicide. But religion is not just another “personal feeling.” Religion is a constitutionally protected right.
Hardy Myers had options. He could have admitted there is no legal basis on which to attack the federal law. He could have stepped aside on the case. Better yet, he could have had the foresight to campaign against the Democratic Party when it supported the pro-assisted-suicide campaign in 1994. He could have changed political parties. But he did none of these things. Instead, he chose to defend an indefensible law.
N. GREGORY HAMILTON, M.D. Portland, Oregon
The writer is the president of Physicians for Compassionate Care.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Hope for the Disabled DATE: 12/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 2-8, 2001 ----- BODY:The front-page article on adult stem-cell research in your Oct. 28-Nov. 3 issue was gratifying ("Breakthroughs Show Advantages of Adult Stem Cells"). This critically important moral challenge had faded into the background, becoming hidden behind more easily understood threats to human life.
As the executive director of the National Catholic Office for Persons with Disabilities, a voice of our bishops’ concerns about meaningful welcome and justice for the 14 to 15 million Catholics with various physical, sensory and cognitive disabilities, I am disappointed so many of my fellow Catholics do not recognize it is the researchers, rather than their research findings, that continue to fuel the clamor for unrestricted destruction of human embryos.
Unfortunately, too many otherwise faith-filled Catholics are confused, in large part because the secular press has tended to ignore the advances made with stem cells acquired by morally acceptable means. Register correspondent Celeste McGovern clarified that confusion by detailing positive outcomes derived from the use of stem cells from placenta, umbilical-cord blood and other tissue that does not jeopardize human life.
But the repeated insistence that somehow we can eliminate or “cure” all human vulnerabilities if only enough leeway is given to those researchers seeking to unlock the mysteries of human vulnerability, is bothersome.
The National Catholic Office for Persons with Disabilities maintains that our shared vulnerability calls forth compassion, generosity, persistence, courage, gentleness and empathy within a society moving toward an increasingly utilitarian definition of human life.
In the celebration of last December's Jubilee Day for Persons with Disabilities, Pope John Paul II asserted in his homily: “Disability … is a request for help, but even before that it is a challenge to individual and collective selfishness; it is an invitation to ever new forms of brotherhood.” He noted that those of us with various disabilities “call into question those conceptions of life that are solely concerned with satisfaction, appearances, speed and efficiency.”
The worst thing in life is not disability, pain or even death. The worst thing I can imagine is to create a society that sees itself as justified in treating people as objects to be used or discarded, as best fits the desires of the moment. I would not wish to live in such a world. And the moral choices we make today will surely shape our future and that of all future generations. We cannot let our frenzied attempts to deny our shared vulnerability cause us to lose our moral guidance.
The triumphs of rehabilitation — the tenacity required to learn new ways to continue to function within one's family and society, medical techniques which prolong life and avoid the pain experienced by past generations — should relieve ancient fears. I pray we can learn to recognize the strength of our shared vulnerability.
MARY JANE OWEN Washington, D.C.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: North America Can Learn Anti-Terrorism From South America DATE: 12/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 2-8, 2001 ----- BODY:Carlos Marighella, a Brazilian Marxist guerrilla leader, was ambushed and killed by Brazilian police in 1970.
Yet his influence lived on long after his violent demise: His Manual of the Urban Guerrilla was the operations manual for later guerrilla movements such as the “Tupamaros” in Uruguay and “Montoneros” in Argentina.
With cold detachment, Marighella's book explains the nature and aims of the urban guerrilla: “Terrorism is an action,” he writes, “usually involving the placement of a bomb or explosive of great destructive power that is capable of producing irreparable loss to the enemy. … It is an action that must be executed with the greatest cold-bloodedness, calmness and decision. … Terrorism is an arm the revolution can never relinquish.”
It was largely thanks to the faithful application of Marighella's teachings that military governments were able to take control of almost all South American countries during the ‘70s, wiping out left-wing terrorism through the excesses that today's world rightly condemns.
In light of all this, it seems to me the brutality unleashed by terrorist groups is an issue that has to be revisited, especially given the events in the United States on Sept. 11.
In Latin America, the question of how terrorism can be morally fought has found three different responses among Catholics.
Those inspired by Sts. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas believe there is a “just war,” a war which is not a vice or a lesser evil that is opposed to the love of God. On the contrary, war-making, when just, can be a form of love.
Of course, peace is generally preferable to war, but there are occasions when war is, in a sense, the preferred state, at least temporarily. Nazi Germany, for example, provided peace and order — but certainly not the sort to be preserved.
Understandably, many Christians react strongly against the very idea of war as a potential good. This position is based on the observation that Jesus surrendered himself to violence: “Though he was harshly treated, he submitted and opened not his mouth; like a lamb led to the slaughter or a sheep to the shearers, he was silent and opened not his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7). Therefore, these Christians reason, for a Christian who wants to seriously follow Christ, war is always an evil.
In the middle, some believe a particular war may be a “necessary evil,” justifiable when it prevents a greater evil. But such a war, they maintain, will never be “just.”
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “love toward oneself remains a fundamental principle of morality. Therefore it is legitimate to insist on respect for one's own right to life. Someone who defends his life is not guilty of murder even if he is forced to deal his aggressor a lethal blow” (No. 2264).
‘Love toward oneself remains a fundamental principle of morality.’
The Catechism also says that legitimate defense “can be not only a right but a grave duty for someone responsible for another's life. Preserving the common good requires rendering the unjust aggressor unable to inflict harm. To this end, those holding legitimate authority have the right to repel by armed force aggressors against the civil community entrusted to their charge” (No. 2265).
With the exception of few radical pacifists, most Catholics agree that society has the right to defend itself, and authorities have the duty to defend society.
But the Latin American experience shows that the hard question becomes not when to fight a morally acceptable war — but how?
According the Catechism, “the strict conditions for legitimate defense by military force require rigorous consideration: (No. 2309). Among those conditions is the stipulation that the damage inflicted by the aggressor must be “lasting, grave, and certain” and “all other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective.”
As clear as these principles may sound, their application is severely tested when the concept of “war” is redefined by the enemy — in this case, the urban guerrilla.
Hans Joachim Klein, a former Red Army Faction member, wrote after the failure of his group: “If you're long enough in the underground, you sooner or later pitch everything overboard. From your humanity to your political ideals. You sink deeper and deeper into the dirt. Once you've taken this path, all that's left is a straight road. You can't turn around.”
The worst danger of the guerrilla path, as several Latin American dictatorships showed, is that it can also drag down and pollute the humanity of those fighting against it.
Like some Latin American nations in the past, North America now faces a new kind of war, one which raises new and challenging questions about how to establish a morally acceptable defense without turning into what they claim to reject.
Take it from a South American who has been there, seen that: The answers to these new questions cannot be naïve or simplistic. They must be principled, firm and rooted in the path to God.
Alejandro Bermudez is the Register's Latin America correspondent.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Alejandro Berm⁄dez ----- KEYWORDS: Commentry -------- TITLE: Wartime Tourists, Arab Hospitality DATE: 12/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 2-8, 2001 ----- BODY:As we hurtle down a road with precious few guard rails but plenty of steep dropoffs and not a few horseshoe turns, I'm busy repressing thoughts of brake inspections and obituaries. A verse from the Koran swings wildly from the bus driver's rearview mirror. My husband grins, then whispers: “If your mother could see you now.”
Indeed. It is just a month since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and we are en route to Deir Alla, a small town northwest of Amman, Jordan, where, it is said, there are interesting ruins of a fifth-century Byzantine church.
If she could see me, I'm thinking, my mother would not be reassured. The only woman on this pitching minibus, I sit surrounded by men whose Middle-Eastern features now fit many Americans’ profiles of what a terrorist should look like. Across the aisle, a careworn farmer in a red and white checked keffiyeh fingers prayer beads. Most other passengers are immersed in the Jordan Times. Having skimmed the English-language edition over breakfast, I know they're reading articles with headlines like “U.S. Launches Fiercest Daylight Strikes” and “Saudis Protest at Treatment of Their Citizens in U.S.”
Undoubtedly, my fellow passengers disagree with U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and are, at best, just warily tolerant of the military operations in Afghanistan. This is understandable. Sixty percent of Jordanians are Palestinians whose families were driven out of their homes by Israeli forces in 1948 and 1967. Thousands still live in refugee camps.
Given the current situation, my husband and I had debated whether or not to cancel our first-time expedition to archaeological sites in Jordan and Syria. We decided it was not imprudent to go ahead. Still, I had braced myself for unpleasant experiences of anti-American sentiment.
They never came. Except for two little boys aiming sticks and yelling “pow pow” at shoppers outside the souk in Aleppo, we saw no terrorists during our three weeks of travel. From Arabs, Christians and Muslims alike, we encountered not hostility but hospitality.
“Where are you from?” people would ask. Typically, our answer elicited surprise (few Americans are traveling in the Middle East right now: We saw about six). Then, unfailingly, came a “welcome, welcome.”
And, almost always, there was something else. Twentysomething Muhammad, a clerk in the men's clothing department at an Amman Safeway store, groped for words to express it: “Excuse me, I don't speak English well. But I am so sorry for what happened in your country.” A cab driver named Daoud told us the terrorist attacks were a “terrible, terrible thing” carried out by people who were “not human.” A Syrian restaurant owner said the same, assuring us that, “Everyone here feels like this.”
Arab Hospitality
Warm words were followed up with action. Muhammad sprinted down an escalator and across half the store to return a package we had forgotten. Jordanian relatives of a Washington, D.C., resident we know only slightly put themselves at our disposal in a way that would have gratified our mothers. A Syrian guide welcomed us into his family home in old Damascus and served us mint tea and his mother's orange preserves.
For me, “Arab hospitality” conjures up vivid pictures from our Deir Alla adventure. The wild bus ride ended in the town's central marketplace, with no “Byzantine Ruins This Way” signs in view. Our foreign and clueless looks quickly drew a loud, friendly, uncomprehending crowd of men and boys. Finally, a taxi driver took matters in hand, motioning us into his car and collaring the English-speaking high school chemistry teacher, who was passing by.
These two men — Abo and Sharhabeel — spent the rest of the day with us. They led us to the regional director of the Jordanian Department of Antiquities, who graciously interrupted his busy schedule to answer our questions over cups of sweet Turkish coffee. The Byzantine ruins don't exist, we discovered. Instead, we were escorted to a nearby site related to the Old Testament figure, Balaam (Numbers 22-24), and to a small, off-the-beaten-track museum. By late afternoon, the four of us had picked our way up a steep hill etched with goat and sheep trails and were standing atop a large, unexcavated tell overlooking the Zarka (Jabbok) River. In some layer of the mound under our feet were the remains of ancient Mahanaim, where King David received news of his son Absalom's death (2 Samuel 17:24; 18:24). Somewhere in the valley below, Jacob “wrestled with the angel” (Genesis 32:23-32).
All in all, it was an experience to remember — and one we would have missed, had two Muslims not given us assistance well beyond the call of their duty. Abo, who bought everyone a snack for the ride home, asked for no more than the modest fare we had agreed on.
Sharhabeel firmly refused any reimbursement for his time and services. “You have friends here now,” they said as we left. “Come to visit again.”
Friends In Need
Later, we had occasion to tell Dr. Taleb Rifai, Jordan's minister of tourism, about our experiences of Middle Eastern hospitality. He wasn't a bit surprised. “We have many archaeological and natural riches, but our people are our greatest asset,” he said.
Looking at the Arab passengers on our flight back to the U.S. — many of them women in traditional long coats and head scarves — I could only hope that they would come away with similar observations about Americans. But with the whole country on edge, I wonder.
Arabs in the Middle East are wondering, too. An Amman man told us that his brother, who runs a grocery in Boston grocer, is living in fear. “He has gotten death threats; his children are being harassed.”
Rania, an earnest young Christian from Damascus, wanted to know whether reports of anti-Arab incidents in the U.S. were true. “I thought immigrants could be safe in your country,” she said.
We assured Rania that most Americans abhor this violence and discrimination and do support civil rights for all. I still believe this, though some recent indicators are troubling — for example, a Time/CNN poll in which 65% of respondents said the federal government should be allowed to hold all U.S. citizens of Arab descent in camps, “until it can be determined whether they have links to terrorist organizations.”
In this climate of high anxiety, we have a choice. We can hunker down, attempting to cut off and shut out whatever seems foreign and threatening. Or we can determine not to let fear direct our attitudes. As a U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops official, John Borelli, urged on Sept. 19, we can seek concrete ways of reaching out to Muslim neighbors — "to reassure them, to visit them, to express friendship,” and even, “if they're afraid to go to the store, to run errands for them.”
Personally, I would like to learn from the kind of hospitality I received in the Middle East: to look a stranger in the eye and see a person — not an embodiment of hostile forces, but an individual with hopes and needs like my own.
After all, what's the greater risk? Learning to make my words and deeds say, “welcome, welcome"? Or hearing myself reproached that “I was a stranger and you did not welcome me” (Matthew 25:43)?
Louise Perrotta writes from St. Paul, Minnesota.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Louise Perrotta ----- KEYWORDS: Commentry -------- TITLE: Was Sept. 11 The 'Big Bang' of a Worldwide Religious Revival? DATE: 12/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 2-8, 2001 ----- BODY:Speaking back in 1988 about the crisis of religion in many parts of the West,
Dominican brother Jozef Bochenski, a logician and a philosopher, attributed religion's irrelevance in the lives of some people to the failure of moderns to ask themselves “existential questions.”
“If someone never poses those questions to himself,” he said, “then to him religion [becomes] unnecessary.” What are those “existential questions?” They are the stuff Catholics have asked themselves for generations. Why am I here? What is the purpose of life? Where are we going? If God is good, why do good people suffer?
In the wake of terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, and faced with the subsequent anthrax scares, Americans have again started asking themselves such questions. Our national tragedy has at least momentarily changed some of the terms of the culture of life vs. culture of death debate. A few observations seem in order.
E Death Has Regained Its Sting. Christians, of course, believe that Jesus Christ conquered sin and that the defeat of death is but a matter of time. In the fulfillment of the eschaton, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more” (Revelation 21:4).
Secularized modernity, of course, has attempted its own de-fanging of death. That “conquest,” however, has involved nothing less than making peace with death — regarding it as a goal, even a friend. The euthanasia movement has hawked that notion of death, although the antiseptic notion of extermination-as-solution really finds it taproot in the abortion-on-demand regime of Roe v. Wade. Death looked a lot better when dealt by lab-coated physicians (in violation of their Hippocratic Oaths). Medicine itself has become distorted as the philosophy of death-as-enemy has been increasingly supplanted by the new ideology of death-as-cure. Remember, Dr. Kevorkian's do-it-yourself suicide machine was set up in such a way as to administer an anesthetic knockout prior to delivering the fatal dose.
With terrible suddenness, the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center showed death for what it is: cold, cruel and frightening. A culture whose etiquette called for a queasy dance around discussing death directly suddenly watched as hundreds of innocent people were obliterated, in a matter of seconds, on TV. It wasn't quiet, it wasn't pretty and it wasn't anticipated. In other words, it was death as most of mankind has contended with it throughout most of human history.
E The Thief of Death Is Back. For centuries, the Church's litanies prayed for protection “against a sudden and unprovidedfor death.” People today hear of sudden deaths less often. Various factors account for this change. Technology, for one, sometimes prolongs the process of dying, blurring the line between assisting breathing and ventilating a corpse. “Pulling the plug” gives some the feeling of being able to “mark” the moment of death. Long-term debilitating illnesses like Alzheimer's or even AIDS give sufferers advance notice that death is on the way, and some (through the euthanasia movement) even try to hasten its arrival. Endless appeals habituate even condemned criminals to think of death in terms of decades. Abortion-on-demand fosters the “planning” mentality: “2:15 Thursday — appointment to kill my baby.”
Now, however, a “sudden and unprovided-for death” sometimes seems as close as the mailbox. Atomized individuals are further enclosed in their isolation when opening a letter can be a lethal act. Nor is death just proximate; it is random. The illusion of human control over one's demise was brutally cut away Sept. 11, when death came with no forewarning to thousands going about the mundane business of the day.
E Religion Is Back in Style. As the Register has reported, people have started finding their ways back to church and synagogue. The World Trade Center attacks starkly re-posed fundamental existential questions before people's eyes. In a world where death has suddenly become unexpected, up-close and personal, eschatological agnosticism is suddenly out of fashion: There really are no atheists in fox-holes.
People have begun again asking themselves: And then what? The prevailing ideology of strict “separation of church and state,” which has resulted in isolating the culture from religion, suddenly does-n't seem all that compelling when people are confronted with a search for meaning in the face of death-on-the-way-to-the-office. Some wire services reported that even the usual atheist litigants ready to sue at the least sign of public religious expression were restraining themselves. “Is that all there is, or is there more?” Face to face with this searing question of faith and existence, people instinctively recognize they cannot be condemned to an exclusively private search for answers.
E Just War Theory May Make a Comeback. In the wake of the Persian Gulf War, George Weigel and James Turner Johnson wrote a highly critical analysis of the public positions taken by American religious leaders. By and large, the authors said, the American religious establishment — both Catholic and Protestant — had become “functionally pacifist,” effectively jettisoning the theory of just war. That outcome, they argued, was unfortunate because in the post-Cold War era, just-war theory might be more, rather than less, useful.
The threat of nuclear warfare between the erstwhile Soviet Union and the United States, Weigel and Johnson maintained, has distorted the whole view of war. Low-grade, localized conflicts have been far more commonplace throughout history. Just-war theory could provide an effective tool for dealing with them.
Since it does not appear that beating swords into plowshares is likely to happen anytime soon, and when weapons of mass destruction can readily fall into the hands of belligerent states and terrorist bands, the need for a principled ethical approach to address these threats is more acute than ever. The Russian Orthodox patriarch, for example, was crystal-clear in declaring: America has a right to defend itself against aggression. That defense, I would argue theologically, can be both prophylactic and punitive. And that's where the theory of just war can provide an essential service today.
The attack on the World Trade Center was a heinous crime. What happened Sept. 11 and in the weeks since has been a tremendous shock for our country. Those events have, however, stimulated a period of national thought and reflection about questions to which the Church has real answers. Will we seize the moment?
John M. Grondelski, a moral theologian, writes from Warsaw.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John M. Grondelski ----- KEYWORDS: Commentry -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 12/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 2-8, 2001 ----- BODY:All times Eastern
VARIOUS DATES
A Musical Christmas from the Vatican
PBS; check local listings for dates and times
This new, 90-minute “Natale in Vaticano” concert features hymns and Christmas carols by the 120-piece Turin Symphony Orchestra (Renato Serio, conductor) in the Vatican's Paul VI Audience Hall. Sarah Brightman sings “O Holy Night,” and international gospel, rock and opera stars perform religious and secular Christmas classics.
VARIOUS DATES
Christmas at San Xavier
PBS; check local listings for dates and times
Hundreds of flickering candles illuminate newly restored Mission San Xavier del Bac as soprano Vanessa Salas and teenage violinist Tommy Liu join the Sons of Orpheus Men's Choir and the Tucson Boys’ Choir in a southwestern Christmas concert.
SUNDAY, DEC. 2
Holiday Gardens
Home & Garden Network, 5 p.m.
Paul James hosts this tour of eight famed U.S. gardens as Christmas decorations transform them into wonder-lands. For example, during the Christmas season, 14,000 luminaria beautify the Desert Botanic Gardens in Phoenix, and almost one million Christmas lights cover Longwood Gardens in Philadelphia's Kennett Square.
TUESDAY, DEC. 4
Brenda Lee: Little Miss Dynamite
A & E, 8 P.M.
This hour-long premiere from the “Biography” series tells the story of the tiny (4-feet-10) and beloved country singer Brenda Lee (b. 1944). She first sang on the Grand Ole Opry at age 10, had hits such as “Sweet Nothings” and “I'm Sorry” as a teen, and continues to tour today.
WEDNESDAY, DEC. 5
Classic Yo Yo Ma
PBS, 8 p.m.
This 90-minute show lets viewers enjoy the great cellist's concert performances and his appearances with tango, jazz and country-western musicians.
THURSDAY, DEC. 6
A Charlie Brown Christmas
ABC, 8 p.m.
Charlie Brown, Snoopy and all of Charles M. Schulz's “Peanuts” gang star in this digitally remastered version of the classic half-hour cartoon special from 1965.
FRIDAY, DEC. 7
Live from Pearl Harbor
History Channel, 10:30 a.m.-midnight
The History Channel offers an all-day slate of Pearl Harbor shows and live broadcasts on the 60th anniversary of the Japanese attack. Live coverage includes the remembrance at the U.S.S. Arizona memorial and the dedication of a Pacific Wing at the D-Day Museum in New Orleans. At 8 p.m., “Save Our History: U.S.S. Arizona” interviews survivors, shows new film of the ship's interior and discusses preservation options.
SATURDAYS
The Victory Garden
PBS, 12:30 p.m.
This longtime series’ latest crop (pun intended) of shows on gardeners and gardening runs every Saturday from Dec. 8 (today) through Jan. 5, 2002.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dan Engler ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: That Old Black Magic DATE: 12/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 2-8, 2001 ----- BODY:In case you haven't noticed, the Harry Potter phenomenon has just gotten bigger. Much bigger.
The record-breaking success of the first film based on J.K. Rowling's books means that hundreds of millions more people across the globe will be introduced to her colorful characters and world of wizardry. The lucrative merchandising tie-ins guarantee that images of Harry's world will be branded into our consciousness for at least the next decade. This is probably the largest film franchise ever, perhaps even bigger than the Star Wars and Jurassic Park series.
Is the to-do over Harry Potter good or bad for the culture?
Orthodox Christian believers disagree among themselves about the answer. Many judge the Harry Potter books to be a skillful continuation of the established genre of children's fantasy entertainment which includes such classics as Grimm's Fairy Tales, L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz, J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, and C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia.
Others view Rowling's sympathetic treatment of witchcraft and the occult as dangerous. They consider the magic depicted to be a flirtation with manifestations of evil, a flirtation devoid of spiritual peril — the overall effect of which is an encouragement to young minds to dabble in the “dark arts.”
The movie version of the first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, won't change anyone's mind. Its morality and cosmology are identical to the book's.
Director Chris Columbus (Home Alone) and screenwriter Steve Kloves (The Fabulous Baker Boys) remain true to the book's spirit in a literal, leaden way. Most of the key characters, plot points and magical devices are retained, but without the visual equivalents of Rowling's verbal inventiveness.
The filmmakers efficiently give cinematic expression to the book's clever pastiche of different genres. The first scenes update the conventions of 19th-century novels about the sufferings of worthy orphans found in the works of Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bronte and others.
Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) believes his parents were killed in a car crash. He's being raised by a nasty aunt and uncle (Fiona Shaw and Richard Griffiths). He sleeps in a closet-like room under the staircase and waits on his relatives like a servant.
On Harry's 11th birthday, Rubeus Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane), a gentle giant who looks like an outlaw biker, informs him that he's a wizard by birth, like his parents. He's taken off to study at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a tongue-in-cheek, gothic version of upper-crust British boarding schools like Eton and Harrow.
Rowling's literary model is Thomas Hughes’ early 20th-century classic, Tom Brown's Schooldays. Only in her version, the house supervisors are ghosts, the massive staircases are always in motion because of perpetual spells, and the subjects taught all relate to magic.
In this environment, Harry is made to feel for the first time like he belongs. Friends of his own age and supportive teachers surround him. He also learns that his parents were killed by the evil Voldemort, a wizard who gave himself over to the dark side and is a sworn enemy of Hogwarts.
The movie makes us experience, through the eyes of these pre-adolescent students, the wonder of the different kinds of magical skills they are acquiring. We watch them act out primal childhood fantasies about having a special calling and a power over the physical world around them. Particularly thrilling is the class in broom-riding in which the students soar through the air. Harry also excels at the Hogwarts game of Quidditch, an imaginative, airborne cross between a medieval jousting tournament and the contemporary sports of basketball and soccer.
In the last third, the movie turns into an action-adventure detective story with kid heroes in the style of Goonies, which Columbus wrote. Harry and fellow housemates Hermione (Emma Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint) discover the fabled philosopher's stone is hidden in the main building's attic and that the evil wizard Voldemort wants to steal it for his own nefarious purposes. The magical object is guarded by a ferocious, three-headed dog, and only these three apprentice wizards can save it.
The fallout from the Harry Potter phenomenon may be more damaging than the book or movie themselves. Neither Rowling nor the filmmakers intend a satanic or occult agenda. It's all just meant to be fun.
Meanwhile, special care is taken to establish a strict moral code of good and evil at Hogwarts. The headmaster, Albus Dumbledore (Richard Harris), even tells Harry about the importance of sacrificial love, saying it “leaves a mark that lives in your very skin.”
Nevertheless, the widespread dissemination of the Harry Potter iconography raises troubling questions. Rowling's books borrow much from Tolkien and Lewis in their presentation of witches and wizards who can be either good or evil. But unlike these models, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone isn't a Christian allegory, nor does it assume a Christian worldview.
Its cosmology is derived from the currently popular works of Joseph Campbell (Hero with a Thousand Faces), a Jungian scholar of psychology and myth who treats all religions as potent sets of symbols of equal value. This is a spiritual equivalent of moral relativism in which, by definition, no belief system can be judged better, or truer, than any other.
The results of this kind of metaphysical romp can be unsettling. Wicca, or the practice of witchcraft, has recently been declared a legitimate religion by certain of our courts. In this context, the movie's depiction of “good witches” as positive role models could move Wicca's abominable practices further into the mainstream, something all orthodox Christians would abhor.
Christians well-grounded in the faith will probably be able to experience the movie as pure entertainment. But parents will want to make sure their young children don't leave the theater with a wrong — and incomplete — message about the occult.
John Prizer is based in Los Angeles.
------- EXCERPT: For good or ill, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is true to the book it dramatizes ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 12/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 2-8, 2001 ----- BODY:Afghanistan Revealed (2001)
The Afghan countryside we encounter on TV is so alien to Western eyes, that it might as well be another planet. The punishing terrain, strange customs and shifting tribal alliances appear impossibly bewildering. Afghanistan Revealed, a 60-minute National Geographic documentary, sheds light on the people and history of this distant place. Best-selling novelist Sebastian Junger (A Perfect Storm) takes us on his personal odyssey through the part of the country that was controlled by the Northern Alliance during the year before the Sept. 11 attacks.
The movie's central figure is the charismatic Ahmad Shah Massoud, the anti-Taliban, Tajik resistance leader who was assassinated two days before the World Trade Center bombings. His warnings about the global consequences of the struggle in which he was engaged now sound prophetic. There are also interviews with Taliban soldiers who've been captured. We see firsthand the misery caused by their repressive policies and the more than 20 years of continuous warfare. Women and children seem to have suffered the most.
Khartoum (1966)
Osama bin Laden isn't the first Muslim fanatic to believe he was chosen by Allah to defeat the West. In 1883 the self-proclaimed Mahdi, or “chosen one,” emerged from the deserts of Sudan to wage a holy war against Christianity and the British Empire.
Eighty thousand of his warriors massacred more than 8,000 British and Egyptian troops. Khartoum, directed by Basil Dearden, is a big-budget spectacle in the style of Lawrence of Arabia that dramatizes the doomed mission of Gen. Charles Gordon (Charlton Heston) to make peace with the Mahdi (Laurence Olivier).
The British military hero is a courageous, practicing Christian who had previously ended slavery in the region.
“I don't ask you to be unafraid,” Gordon says to those besieged by the Islamic warriors, “only to act unafraid.”
He assumes his previous accomplishments will win over the local populace, but dies in a clash of civilizations that seems to be repeating itself today.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Don't Forget Sudan, Catholics Tell Bush DATE: 12/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 2-8, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON, D.C. — Below is the text of a letter sent to President Bush in November regarding U.S. overtures to the Khartoum regime following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Dozens of Catholic and other religious leaders signed the letter, including Lincoln, Neb., Archbishop Fabian Bruskewitz; Newark, N.J., Archbishop John J. Myers; Tulsa, Okla., Bishop Edward J. Slattery.
Dear Mr. President:
We commend you for your leadership as our nation confronts the evil scourge of terrorism. We applaud your repeated affirmation that the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks reflect an ultimate perversion of religious faith, undertaken by radicals who traduce the great traditions of Islam.
We also recognize that national security urgencies necessitate cooperation with countries whose values we do not share and whose human rights practices we oppose. However, in the political context of forging alliances against terrorism, there is always a danger that our government may so compromise basic commitments to religious freedom and human rights that our national credibility and security will be undermined.
We fear that this may happen with respect to the government of Sudan.
Speaking of Sudan before the American Jewish Committee on May 3, you indicated that crimes of a “monstrous” sort are being committed by the government of Sudan. You proceeded to expressly identify some of them, including the fact that in south and central Sudan, the homeland of African Christians and traditional believers, two million have been killed, five million displaced, thousands have been taken as slaves and continue to be held in bondage, and many hundreds of thousands have been deliberately placed at risk of government-induced starvation. You then pledged:
“[M]y administration will continue to speak and act for as long as the persecution and atrocities in the Sudan last.”
In exchange for information on terrorism, said to have been given in late September, the United States has apparently rewarded Khartoum by removing obstacles to the lifting of UN sanctions and by blocking the passage of the Sudan Peace Act. In recent weeks, State Department officials have repeatedly praised Sudan for its “good cooperation.”
In removing Sudan's status as a pariah nation, the United States appears to have done so without calling on the regime to end its campaign of atrocities that you so powerfully spoke out against. As such, your administration may have inadvertently signaled that the United States will overlook terrorism within Sudan's borders in exchange for gestures and promises from Khartoum not to export it to our shores.
The evidence points to the horrifying prospect that Khartoum perceives it can wage terror at home without serious American concern or objection. Since September 12, the regime has increased its aerial bombardment of southern Sudan, killing innocent men, women and children, and destroying cattle. On October 4, Sudan's First Vice president, rallying departing mujahiden troops leaving for the battle front, declared: “The jihad is our way and we will not abandon it.”
On October 9, the regime bombed the UN's World Food Programme forcing the United Nations to evacuate from areas of northern Bahr al Ghazal. It persists in denying extended permission to USAID to deliver relief to communities in the Nuba Mountains that the United Nations has identified as starving to their death. It continues to tolerate and condone slavery; in late September over 4,000 south Sudanese slaves, the vast majority of whom had been forcibly converted to Islam and subject to physical and sexual abuse, were freed by an international, faith-based group acting in defiance of the regime.
By rewarding and praising Khartoum at the very moment it is stepping up its bombing, starvation, and literal enslavement of religious minorities, the U.S. appears to be willing to tolerate religiously-based internal terrorism. We believe that even the perception of such a policy will increase contempt for the United States on the part of all terrorists, not only those in Sudan. In our view, it could cause America to be seen as a country willing to sacrifice people and principles to gain itself a short-term respite from terrorism.
For these reasons, we believe that any understanding apparently reached with Khartoum is inherently unstable; that regimes practicing religiously-based mass terrorism within their own borders will continue to support worldwide terrorism directed against the United States. We believe that such regimes will merely bide their time until current pressures on them abate. Indeed, in an October 9 article on Sudan's participation in the anti-terrorism coalition, the Wall Street Journal quoted a senior aide to Sudan's President Bashir as stating: “In the government, the main feeling is that we want to get America off our backs. We are not so concerned about their friendship.”
Mr. President, we urge you to reaffirm U.S. commitments against the terrorism systematically committed by the Khartoum regime. Specifically, we urge you to adopt as policy the four recommendations of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, which were endorsed by the U.S. Senate in November. These consist of pressing Khartoum to honor a comprehensive cease-fire while putting oil revenues in an internationally monitored trust fund, to lift bans on food relief flights, to join the IGAD peace talks, and to guarantee religious freedom. We appeal to you to give resolute priority to these policies in our relations with Khartoum.
In light of events of September 11, some have argued that “the United States doesn't have time for human rights anymore.” We are confident you do not share this view. Your strong leadership in America's dealings with Sudan will be a critical test by which much of the world will evaluate America's determination to eliminate the terrorist scourge that confronts the civilized world.
We look forward with hope and concern to coming developments in the relations your administration establishes with the Khartoum regime.
(Provided by Zenit)
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Hard by the Hudson, a Historic Marian Manor DATE: 12/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 2-8, 2001 ----- BODY:Since its dedication in November 1852, the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany, N.Y. has been a landmark for the city and for the diocese.
Today, its renown spans the continent. This was the first cathedral in the United States dedicated to Mary under her title of the Immaculate Conception (feast: Dec. 8). In fact, Bishop John McCloskey, the first bishop of New York's capital city, chose the name, upon laying the building's cornerstone, in 1848 — six years before Pope Pius IX defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.
Upon its dedication in 1852, the cathedral at once became a beacon of faith and hope on Madison Avenue Hill, which rises above the Hudson River and the Erie Canal. The canal had drawn thousands of German, Irish and French-Canadian immigrants seeking work on the canal's construction or in the mills that sprung up alongside the waterway. These same immigrants volunteered their labor to raise this cathedral for the glory of God.
Those who couldn't do heavy physical work helped in other ways; one woman walked the perimeter nearly every day for four years, praying for the safety of the workers building the cathedral.
Through their labor of love, faith and sacrifice, this cathedral thrived, becoming the third oldest in the country built specifically as a cathedral and still used as one. It's also the first of 16 cathedrals designed by renowned church architect Patrick Charles Keely. He modeled it after the Cathedral of Cologne.
Keely started out on a grace-filled high note. The soaring arches that appear all over the neo-Gothic edifice lift the spirit; huge triple arches forming the main portals of the church are carved brownstone, now worn with a patina of 150 years. I marveled how they link us to church history. We can still walk through the same stone entrances used by Bishop McCloskey, who became the first cardinal from the United States, and by the tens of thousands of immigrants who refreshed their souls with the sacraments after helping build this place and the canal below.
Godly Grandeur
Although there have been some interior changes since 1852, much the same grandeur that earlier generations knew survives unaltered. We surely share the same sense of awe they must have felt under the canopy of graceful Gothic ribbing in the high ceiling.
The “Lady Window,” from which the Blessed Mother presides in the center of seven glorious panels, fills the north-transept wall. When it was installed in 1852, along with the unusual arched rose window above the choir, it was the largest stained-glass window in America. Few are larger even today.
Surrounding Mary here are Jesus, St. Joseph holding the Child Jesus, and 14 scenes from Mary's life. Smaller panels below depict wise virgin saints, while a congregation of liturgical-symbol stained glass continues to form an arch above the main panels.
The Lady Window was designed and completed, in 13th-century style, in the studio of William Wailes of New-Castle-on-Tyne, England. It was lovingly restored in the 1990s. A century earlier, in 1892, it was moved to its present location from behind the altar when the cathedral was enlarged.
In the opposite transept, the Last Judgment Window, donated by Most Rev. Thomas M.A. Burke, Albany's fourth bishop, and placed in 1897, matches the Lady Window in size. The Hardman Stained Glass Studio in Birmingham, England, designed and completed it together with all the huge windows along the nave and the clerestory.
Two adjacent windows in the clerestory high above the side altars win our attention because of scenes they place side by side. One depicts a seder, the other the Last Supper. I thought these 1902 windows were prophetic once I learned that, in 1986, the cathedral was the site of the first service of forgiveness held in the world between Christians and Jews. The event is commemorated in a modern sculpture called “Portal,” located outside the cathedral.
Brownstone Warmth
The color shadings in the English stained-glass windows range from delicate tones to brilliant crimsons, cobalts and golds that contrast all the more with the overall monochromatic scheme of the nave, sanctuary and side altars.
Most everything else is in tones of brown to harmonize with, or imitate, the brownstone exterior. All statuary except for later 20th-century additions like Martin de Porres — from the Sacred Heart altar, to the Blessed Virgin altar, to angels, and some Doctors of the Church — appear, under carved canopies, as brownstone carvings.
They're part of another of the cathedral's surprising marvels: intricate plasterwork painted or tinted to look like different shades of brown-stone. This “simulated brownstone” is considered to be among the finest plasterwork in the country, as it decorates massive columns with elaborate capitals along the nave and the lofty Gothic arches outlined with intricate designs. Even the ceiling between delicate Gothic ribbings appears to be random checkerboard stonework.
The stunning, reverential Stations of the Cross were installed in 1900, having won first prize at the Paris Exhibition of 1897. During Advent, don't miss the Nativity set from Europe that the Rosary Society donated in 1873.
Other treasures help us feel that unbroken connection with generations of worshipers too. These include the 21-foot-high pulpit carved by Stolzenburg in Holland, the oak choir stalls in the sanctuary, that were carved in Belgium and first used in 1894 when the Apostolic Delegate visited, the 1852 Erben organ (electrified in 1947 and soon to be restored), and the bells cast in nearby West Troy and rung for the first time on the eve of the feast of the Immaculate Conception in 1862.
The bronze statue of St. Peter sitting in an alabaster chair was a gift from Pope Pius IX to Bishop Francis McNeirney in the 1870s. Peter's right foot has been worn smooth from the touch of decades of worshippers. After Vatican II, the present altar was created from the 1892 high altar; on its brass antependium, reliefs of Jesus the Good Shepherd flanked by Mary and Joseph face the congregation.
The 1801 clock in the cathedral's north tower came from Clerkwell, England, via the First Dutch Church in Albany; where it was housed until the church's steeples were removed. But it will stay in place as the cathedral now undergoes its own major exterior restoration.
Most of the brownstone facing is being replaced with St. Bee's sandstone from Cumbria, England, and the roof will again be metal, as was the original. Visitors can play “medieval sidewalk engineer,” as they watch the master stone mason from Germany direct his charges and apprentices in the stone shop erected behind the cathedral for this enormous project of several years.
New finery may replace the time-worn brownstone, but the sense of the reverence, faith and hope of its immigrant builders and worshippers timelessly honors this first cathedral dedicated to Mary as the Immaculate Conception.
Joseph Pronechen writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.
------- EXCERPT: Albany's Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Cardinal Dulles to Catholic Colleges: Be Truly Catholic DATE: 12/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 2-8, 2001 ----- BODY:Cardinal Avery Dulles, S.J., speaking at the Cardinal Newman Society for the Preservation of Catholic Higher Education's annual conference in Washington, D.C., last month, called on Catholic colleges and universities to stop being on the defensive about their Catholicity.
“The time has come for them to regain their confidence and proudly proclaim the faith that animates them,” he said. “Shifting the burden of proof to the secular institutions, they should challenge the other universities to defend themselves and to show how it is possible to find and transmit the fullness of truth if they neglect or marginalize human-istic, philosophical and theological studies.”
Register correspondent Kathryn Jean Lopez spoke with Cardinal Dulles, the Fordham University theologian who was named a cardinal last spring by Pope John Paul II.
At the Cardinal Newman Society dinner a few weeks ago, you said that Catholic colleges and universities today are often “apologetic, almost embarrassed” by their Catholic identity. Can Catholic schools be both committed to orthodoxy and respected in the larger world of academia — on a par with a Yale or a Dartmouth?
I think the answer is Yes. It will take a little education for the rest of the world, though.
What do those in Catholic higher education have to do to educate the rest of the world?
I suppose the first thing they have to do is to educate themselves.
Many members of the institutions have been indoctrinated by the idea that religious knowledge is not really knowledge, that it is more of a feeling. They consider it more like poetry or a taste for music, [something that] really cannot be made academically respectable since it isn't scientific.
I think the American universities are modeled on an Enlightenment view of knowledge, as something deducible from self-evident principles or else imposed on us by experience or empirical data. Religion doesn't fit into either of those categories.
Christian religion is based on faith.
Catholics themselves have to come to understand that Revelation is a real source of knowledge and then we can build theology into the university and have a genuinely Catholic university.
Are there any schools you can point to today and say, Yes, they are doing it right; they should be examples to the others?
Many of the smaller universities are able to affirm their Catholic identity more energetically than some of the larger ones. It is harder to turn a battleship around than a PT boat. So they have made the turnaround faster, I think. Many of the larger universities are working to restore or emphasize their Catholic identities more than they were 30 years ago. They are working at it, but they have to proceed with prudence in order not to alienate the existing administration and faculty. Even presidents have limited powers, so we have to have patience.
Who, or what, is going to renew Catholic higher education — the administrations? the faculties? pressure from students? from alumni? from parents?
A combination of all of these. Certainly trustees are very important. Alumni are very important. On the whole, the alumni of the larger Catholic institutions have been very concerned that the universities have been drifting away from their Catholic moorings and I think their voices have been heard. So I am optimistic about the future.
What is a
The mandatum is an authorization to teach as one who is in communion with the Catholic Church. The requirements for gaining or losing the mandatum have not been very specifically spelled out yet, so we'll just have to see how it works out.
Some bishops are inclined to give the mandatum to practically anyone who asks for it, or even people who don't ask for it. Others might be a lot more stringent in terms of orthodoxy.
To put it in context, it is important to say that the mandatum is not the main thing. The tone of the university is set by a lot of things other than the theology department. The theology department has its importance, but at present it is a minor thing at most universities. I think the mandatum is a fairly minor element in the whole picture.
Do you think more than theology professors should have to have some kind of
I don't put a lot of confidence in loyalty oaths. I think people can be extremely loyal without taking any kind of oath, and people who take oaths can manage to work out variant positions and seem to justify themselves. I think the main thing is to have an atmosphere in which people are proud of their Catholic identity and have confidence in it. If so, the mandatum won't raise any problems.
As you well know, it took the U.S. bishops 10 years to come up with their guidelines after the papal apostolic constitution on higher education came out. Are your brother bishops not as enthusiastic as they should be? Is that hurting schools?
Many faculty members are jealous of their autonomy and their freedom; they think that the magisterium should have nothing to do with what they are teaching in the classroom.
That may be putting it too extremely, but it does tend in that direction. They feel that the magisterium is interfering in the autonomy of the university by insisting on something like a mandatum. So there has been some resistance on the part of the universities. Faculty members want the freedom to teach whatever they feel like teaching. That is not universal, but it is true of some members.
During your career as an educator, have you seen things get better or worse in Catholic higher education, in terms of Catholic identity?
I think both. There was no problem about Catholic identity back in the 1950s. Then, after the Second Vatican Council, or in the mid-'60s, there was a sudden shift. The universities decided to open up to all kinds of views; they invited large numbers of non-Catholics onto the faculty and the Catholics on the faculties took pride in asserting their independence of the magisterium. There was a period of confusion about what it meant to be a Catholic institution. Since about 1980, there has been a move in the other direction. There has been greater clarity about what it means to be a Catholic university.
I think most universities have been anxious to reaffirm their Catholic identities.
Some have suggested that part of Pope John Paul's motivation in giving you this honor earlier this year — elevating you to cardinal — was so that he could continue to send a message to Catholic higher education by having you say the kinds of things you have said in this interview and at your speech to the Cardinal Newman Society dinner. Do you see speaking out on these issues as part of your mission as a cardinal?
I don't think that what I have been saying has been affected very much by me now being a cardinal, although I would think that a cardinal would be expected to support the Church and the papacy. I would be inclined to do so anyway.
Whether that entered into the reasons why I was selected, I have no idea. I wasn't part of the process or consulted in advance.
You'd have to ask the people who were responsible for the decision.
I suppose they would not have selected me if I had been an out-spoken dissenter on central Catholic teaching.
Kathryn Jean Lopez is executive editor of National Review Online (www.nationalreview.com).
The mandatum is a fairly minor element in the whole picture.
— Cardinal Dulles
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Kathryn Jean Lopez ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 12/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 2-8, 2001 ----- BODY:Home-schooling Boomlet
The Post said the prevalence of home-schooling in Howard is particularly striking because of the high scores routinely achieved by area public-school students on state tests. Thanks to cooperative efforts by parents, the paper said “today's home-schoolers [also] have just as many opportunities to make friends as do children who attend traditional schools.”
Digest Moves Off-Campus
The Digest is the largest paid-circulation Catholic magazine in the United States with 401,413 recipients. Included in the deal with Bayer, which is owned by the Congregation of the Augustinians of the Assumption, is the 50,000-circulation God's Word Today. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.
Vouchers Supported
They are asking the high court to overturn a federal appeals-court ruling that declared the program unconstitutional because it allowed parents to chose to spend a portion of their tax dollars to pay tuition at parochial schools.
Comfortable With God
The Times was not able to find a single other student who objected to the message. “It's not a real issue,” said a student. “The majority of students believe the sign should be up.”
Radical Solution
Where the Boys Are Too
The decision followed a six-month, $250,000 study into the future viability of Catholic colleges for women, which Chestnut Hill commissioned along with Rosemont College, a women's college administered by the Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus in nearby Rosemont, Pa.
The study found that the number of women's colleges has shrunk to 65, down from 298 in 1960, and that only 3% of today's high-school girls say they would consider attending a college exclusively for women.
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joe Cullen ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Debt Quiz DATE: 12/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 2-8, 2001 ----- BODY:Q I think our debt is way out of hand. My husband disagrees. Who's right?
A Take this quiz to see.
E Do you argue with your spouse over bills?
E Do you find an increasing percentage of your income going toward debts? It's not uncommon for families to be spending several thousand dollars per year on interest, money that could be applied to basic needs.
E Are your credit cards at or near their limits? Do you keep applying for new cards to expand your limits?
E Are you only paying the minimum balances due on your credit cards?
E Are you chronically late in paying bills?
E Do you borrow to pay for items you used to pay cash for? This is an early warning sign of problems.
E Do you put off medical or dental visits or necessary things like car maintenance because you don't have the money? Delaying true needs often causes greater expenses in the long run.
E Would a job loss place you in immediate financial difficulty because of debts? The high interest of credit cards becomes impossible to manage with a major reduction in income.
E Are creditors calling you and threatening legal action? The stress from these calls and notices can cause divisions in a marriage.
E Have you avoided adding up your total debt out of fear?
If you answer yes to any of the above, then you're in debt trouble. Proverbs 22:7 reminds us, “The borrower is the slave of the lender.” Step one is seeing the problem.
God love you!
Phil Lenahan is executive director of Catholic Answers.
Reach Family Matters at familymatters@ncregister.com
------- EXCERPT: Family Matters ----- EXTENDED BODY: Phil Lenahan ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: How (and Why) To Return to Sunday Mass DATE: 12/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 2-8, 2001 ----- BODY:Reason 1 It's your way to relive the Last Supper.
Reason 2 When was the last time you prayed too much?
Quick Tip Be early. Would you come late to your wedding? (Women, don't answer!)
Reason 3 If you want to spend an eternity with Christ, you need to get to know him now.
Reason 4 It's the central, necessary activity of Christian worship (Luke 22:14-23; John 6:53ff; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26).
Reason 5 It's your best way to identify yourself with Christ's sacrifice on the cross.
Reason 6 Some of the greatest people in history made it a habit to go to Mass (St. Francis, Mother Teresa, John Paul II …)
Quick Tip Be well dressed. Would you come dressed for jogging if you were invited to the White House?
Reason 7 Wise people invest money for the future. How much more should we invest in eternal life?
Reason 8 It has to be better for you than TV.
Reason 9 If you've been to confession, you get to receive Jesus Christ. If you find a better deal, do that instead.
Quick Tip Forgotten what to do at Mass? You'll remember. It's like riding a bicycle! Follow the Mass closely with a helper: missalette, missal, or Magnificat.
Reason 10 If you knew Jesus would be somewhere, wouldn't you go see him?
Reason 11 Guaranteed Bible readings. Countless lives have been changed by Scripture. Might yours?
Reason 12 Statistics say that people who go to church are happier and less stressed out.
Reason 13 It's the best way to pray for your family and friends — and to cope with troubled times.
Reason 14 1 out of 10 Commandments asks us to go to Mass every Sunday.
Quick Tip Communion is open to all who are not conscious of committing a serious sin (anything from missing Sunday Mass to infidelity) since their last confession.
Reason 15 Life is complicated. Get directions that work — from the One who created life.
Reason 16 It's your way to go most directly through Jesus Christ to God the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit in prayer.
Quick Tip Show a sign of respect before receiving Communion. The bishops suggest bowing. (Do it while the person in front of you is receiving Communion.)
Reason 17 Is one hour too much to give to God? How many do you spend on other priorities?
Quick Tip In prayer after Communion, make one resolution about how you'll live your life differently. (Think back on the homily.)
Reason 18 You'll become a better person at Mass. The more you are part of God's life, the better you'll be.
Quick Tip Feel alone and unsure at Church? Bring a friend
------- EXCERPT: The National Catholic Register's Clip-Out and Pass-On Guide for the First Sunday of Advent, 2001 ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture Of Life -------- TITLE: Common 'Good Excuses' DATE: 12/02/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 2-8, 2001 ----- BODY:What's in it for me?
Everything! God desires only and always your good. He became a man in large part to give us himself in the Mass. Why should you deny yourself such a gift?
I don't need to go to Mass to get close to God.
At Mass, you receive God himself — Jesus Christ truly present in the sacrament. Even a beautiful mountain vista can't compare to that.
I had a bad experience with the Church.
This is always sad. But many of us also had bad teachers — and we know the whole education system isn't bad. Jesus wants to bring you healing at Mass.
I don't get anything out of Mass.
Don't expect it to be entertainment. Learn about what it does: joins us to Christ, separates us from sin, wipes away venial sins, commits us to the poor, prepares us for heaven.
I don't have the time.
God has been very generous with time: 24 hours a day, 168 hours a week. Thats less than 1% of your week. You have the time; find it.
I'm a sinner. I don't deserve to be at Mass.
Welcome to the club! We are a church of saved sinners. None of us deserves to be here. See you at the confessional …
------- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Jerusalem Accuses Muslims of Defacing Temple Mount DATE: 12/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:JERUSALEM — After the recent deadly spate of suicide attacks, citizens of Jerusalem fear for their lives. But Christians and Jews in the area say they also fear attacks on their holy places.
Christians in the Holy Land and elsewhere are becoming increasingly concerned by reports that Muslim officials in Jerusalem are destroying parts of the Temple Mount in an attempt to eradicate Christian and Jewish claims to the site.
The site of the ancient First and Second Jewish Temples and the Al-Aksa Mosque, the Temple Mount is also central to Christian history and theology. Luke 2:22–28 records that Jesus was dedicated in the Second Temple in accordance with the Laws of Moses, and note his boyhood visit to the Temple, where he spoke to teachers (Luke 2:41–52). At the beginning of his three-year ministry at the age of 30, Jesus cleansed the Temple (John 2:14) at Passover, and again during the last week of his life (Matthew 21:12, Mark 11:15–19, Luke 19:45–48).
According to leading archaeologists, the Islamic Wakf — the Muslim agency that has sole control over everything but security at the Temple Mount — has been systematically destroying parts of its ancient infrastructure in the process of building a new mosque and performing maintenance work around the site of the old one.
Dr. Gabriel Barkai, an archaeologist at Israel's Bar-Ilan University, believes that the Wakf has been digging at the Temple Mount not only for religious but political reasons.
Barkai, a member of the Committee to Prevent the Destruction of Temple Mount Antiquities, says that “by eradicating physical evidence of Jewish and Christian worship and habitation at the site, Muslim officials hope to strengthen the Palestinians' bid to have East Jerusalem designated the capital of a Palestinian state.”
The Palestinian Authority has long insisted that East Jerusalem, which Israel captured during the 1967 Middle East War, must be the capital of any eventual Palestinian state. Israel, which considers both East and West Jerusalem part of its capital, is vehemently resisting this initiative.
The worst destruction by the Wakf, experts say, occurred in the late 1990s and the year 2000, when the Muslims built a new mosque in an area known as Solomon's Stables. After Wakf officials requested and received from Israeli officials a permit to open an emergency exit in the new mosque, for reasons of safety, the Muslim authority tried to break through four of the underground arches in the northern part of Solomon's Stables.
According to an eye-witness account in the Israeli newspaper Ha‘aretz, the Wakf dug a “200 ft by 80 ft. hole at the site. A fleet of dozens of bulldozers and trucks was put to work and 6,000 tons of earth were dug up and removed. Some of it was scattered at dumpsites. Antiquities dating back to a number of periods, including the First and Second Temple eras, were tossed on garbage heaps. The Antiquities Authority managed to salvage but a small part of all these treasures.”
It is impossible to know whether any desecration is taking place right now, and to what extent, because the Wakf has not permitted any visits to the site by non-Muslims since the start of the Palestinian uprising in October 2000. Ariel Sharon, now Israel's prime minister, toured the Temple Mount just before the start of the uprising, a move Muslims called provocative and which became the flashpoint that triggered the violence.
When Israel wrested control of East Jerusalem from Jordan in 1967, it permitted the Wakf to retain its civil and religious authority over the Temple Mount compound. The decision, which some government officials now regret, was meant to prevent international outrage over the Jewish takeover of a Muslim holy place. However, the government also gave Jews access to the Western Wall, access long denied to them under Jordanian rule.
While flatly denying that Muslims are destroying antiquities, Abdel Husseini, director of the Wakf, told the Register that “it is God's will that this place is a mosque, and this declaration of God is more important than the declaration of Jews or Christians. God's declaration says this is an Islamic place called Al-Aksa mosque. What others like to claim from here and there, we have nothing to do with.”
Some Muslim clerics have gone so far as to proclaim that neither Jews nor Christians have any religious or historical claim to the Temple Mount, and that Jesus was not a Jew but a Palestinian.
Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, the Palestinian-appointed mufti of Jerusalem and the chief Muslim administrator of the site, has said, “The Al-Buraq [Wailing Wall] is part of the Al-Aksa Mosque. The Jews have no relation to it.”
Catholic Perspective
Catholic leaders reject such statements.
“That is their opinion, not ours,” said Archbishop Pietro Sambi, the Vatican's nuncio to Jerusalem, during a late-November tour of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem.
“The Temple Mount is a holy place for Jews, Muslims and Christians, all three,” added Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Holy See's Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, during the Yad Vashem visit. “There must be free access to all believers.”
Evangelical Christians have been particularly upset by what they consider to be a double standard.
“We consider what the Wakf is doing a historical crime,” said Dave Parsons, the media officer of the International Christian Embassy. “The world was in an uproar when the Taliban destroyed statues in Afghanistan, but this has been going on for years in Jerusalem and the world is silent. The Wakf fears our history and is trying to destroy it.”
Clarence Wagner Jr., the director of the Jerusalem-based Christian organization Bridges for Peace, has condemned the Wakf's activities on several occasions.
“For the Muslims to declare that the Temple Mount has never had a Jewish history not only undermines Jewish history at the site but also Christian history,” Wagner wrote in a recent commentary on his organization's Web site. “If there was no Temple on the site, as the Muslims declare, then the events of the life of Jesus and the early Church that occurred on the Mount could not have taken place either.”
It is time, Wagner said, “for Christians, Jews and all people of good will to raise their voice in protest in an effort to stop the continued Muslim destruction of the Temple Mount, which affirms biblical history on the site.”
Israeli government spokesman Ra‘anan Gissin said that Israel had just established a committee to examine the problem, including the Antiquities Authority's inability to enter the Temple Mount.
“We know what's going on but you have to understand that this is a very sensitive issue at a sensitive time,” Gissin said. “We have to tread very carefully.”
Michele Chabin writes from Jerusalem.
Attacks in Israel Sadden Pope
VATICAN CITY — John Paul II expressed grief and concern Dec. 2 over the suicide attacks that killed at least 25 and wounded more than 200 in Israel during the weekend.
The Holy Father also reminded the thousands of pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square that today is the first day of Advent, the liturgical season of preparation for Christmas.
“Advent is synonymous with hope,” hope in God, who is incarnated at Christmas, the Pope said. He cited the day's liturgy which quoted the prophet Isaiah: “One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again.”
“These words contain a promise of peace more urgent than ever for humanity and, in particular, for the Holy Land, from where even today, unfortunately, sad and worrying news reaches us,” the Holy Father lamented.
In the latest of the three weekend attacks, a powerful bomb ripped through a bus in Haifa today, killing at least 16 people and injuring about 35 others, CNN reported.
The attacks are the most tragic bloodbath since the Palestinian uprising began 14 months ago. The uprising has left 1,039 dead.
In the face of this situation, the Pontiff proposed again, to “believers and […] men of good will,” to join the day of fasting and prayer for peace, which he called for Dec. 14, as well as the meeting of representatives of the world's religions, which will be held in Assisi on Jan. 24.
The spirit of these initiatives is to help create “a more relaxed and mutually supportive climate in the world,” the Pope concluded.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Michele Chabin ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: U.S. Clone: Human Being or Clump Of Cells? DATE: 12/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:WORCESTER, Mass. — Is it a human life or not?
That is one of the basic questions at the heart of the recent announcement here that a human being has been cloned for the first time.
Reaction to the announcement was swift and strong, with the Vatican, the president of the United States, legislators, pro-life scientists and ethicists all condemning the action by the biotechnology firm Advanced Cell Technology.
They agreed that if Advanced Cell Technology really has managed to create living human clones, a grave offense against human life and dignity has been committed.
Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington called the news “deeply disturbing.”
“The arrogance that leads someone to believe he can take on the role of God and reduce humans to mere ‘spare parts’ is an arrogance which has dangerous implications we cannot fully anticipate.”
But some members of the ethics advisory board that Advanced Cell commissioned don't believe the clone is human. Even if it is, they don't believe it is deserving of the same kind of protection a “fully human” person has.
Advanced Cell's scientists described the feat in Scientific American's Nov. 24 issue. In an accompanying article, Ronald M. Green, who headed the ethics board, said that most of its members did not agree “the organism produced … is the equivalent of any ordinary human embryo and merits the same degree of respect and protection.”
“Unlike an embryo, a cloned organism is not the result of fertilization of an egg by a sperm,” said Green, director of the Ethics Institute at Dartmouth College. “It is a new type of biological entity never before seen in nature.” He added that although the clone possesses some potential for developing into a full human being, this capacity is “very limited.”
Green pointed out that embryos do not normally attach to the wall of the uterus and begin development until after the blastocyst stage, at about four days. “It has no organs, it cannot possibly think or feel, and it has none of the attributes thought of as human.”
Misleading Arguments
Pro-life medical experts dismiss such arguments as deliberately misleading.
“It's a new, dividing member of the human natural kind. If it is placed in the womb, it has the potential to grow into a child,” said Franciscan Brother Daniel Sulmasy, a physician who is director of ethics at St. Vincent's Hospital and Medical Center in Manhattan and New York Medical College in Valhalla, N.Y. “This name-calling disguises what's being done.”
As for the argument that a clone is not human because it has not yet reached a specific stage of development, Dr. Sulmasy said, “Every member of the natural human kind is deserving of respect … [that's] like saying you don't deserve it unless you have the right skin color or the right color eyes.”
Advanced Cell tried three techniques in its cloning experiments: a chemical stimulus to get the eggs to begin dividing on their own; replacing the egg's nucleus with adult skin cells, and the use of “cumulus” cells that encase the egg. None of the three involved the act of fertilization, the means by which human life is created naturally.
Carol Tauer, an ethicist with the Minnesota Center for Health Care Ethics, which is affiliated with the College of St. Catherine and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, was a member of Advanced Cell's ethics advisory board. She said that she sides with theologians such as Karl Rahner and Bernard Haring in doubting that an early stage embryo is fully human.
Tauer, who served on panels advising the Clinton administration on human embryo research and embryonic stem-cell research, also suggested that because Advanced Cell's technique did not involve fertilization, the entities produced weren't human life. “It's just an egg that started dividing. … It doesn't have the potential to become a fetus, as far as we know.”
Jesuit Father Kevin FitzGerald, a molecular biologist who holds the Lauler Chair in Catholic Health Care Ethics at Georgetown University, attacked this kind of thinking on both legal and scientific grounds. “It's interesting that we have a legal tradition in this country that you're innocent until proven guilty, but here you're not human until you can prove you are.”
Cloned human embryos, if implanted, would have the potential to grow into fully developed human beings, Father FitzGerald added. In human beings, that has not yet happened. “But [researchers] have shown that you can take a clone, implant it into the womb of an animal, and it will develop into an adult mammal,” he said. “No egg you're ever going to put into a womb will grow into a mammal by itself. But you can manipulate it and get an individual, a twin, in fact.”
The Vatican on Nov. 26 rejected claims that the human cloning research produced simple cells and not human individuals. It is “beyond doubt, as indicated by the researchers themselves, that here we find ourselves before human embryos and not cells,” said a statement released by the Vatican Press Office.
The statement also said determination of when human life begins cannot be fixed by convention to a certain stage of embryonic development but instead was found “in the first instant of existence of the embryo itself.”
Though in this case recognizing human life was more difficult because researchers created the embryo in an “inhuman” way — without uniting sperm and egg — the resultant being had the same dignity as any other human life, the Vatican said.
‘Precious Embryos’
Even Advanced Cell's scientists, including president and Chief Executive Officer Michael West, have called the resulting products of their experiments “human embryos.” In their Scientific American article, the researchers describe what they saw under the microscope as “tiny dots” which “held such immense promise.”
“Insignificant as they appeared, the specks were precious because they were, to our knowledge, the first human embryos produced using the technique of … cloning.”
Legionary Father Gonzalo Miranda, bioethics professor at the world's first Catholic school of bioethics at Regina Apostolorum Pontifical Athenaeum in Rome, said Advanced Cell Technology is trying to exploit both sides of the “human life” debate to its own advantage.
“To get public attention they announce that they have produced ‘the first cloned human being,’” Father Miranda said, “And to appease criticism they also say that ‘it is not a human embryo.’”
He added that the viewpoints of Advanced Cell Technology's ethics committee, whose members were selected by the company itself, have little credibility. “The reasons they give to say that these are not human embryos have already been refuted years ago by numerous embryologists and bioethicists. … They remind me of Father Richard John Neuhaus' denunciation that bioethics professionals have become, in large part, the ‘Permission Office.’”
Legislative Outlook
President Bush, responding Nov. 29 to the news from Advanced Cell, called cloning “morally wrong” and said, “We should not as a society grow life to destroy it.”
The House of Representatives voted July 31 to ban human cloning both for reproduction and research. The legislation would carry penalties of up to 10 years in prison and fines of $1 million for anyone who generates cloned human embryos.
The Senate might not take up the legislation until spring. In the meantime, Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., have introduced an amendment to temporarily ban all human cloning for six months.
“This is an important issue, an issue that commands our attention in part because of the vast historical consequence, and also because it is an issue that focuses our attention on the meaning of life — and whether or not we will, as a society, allow life to be created and destroyed at our whim,” Brownback said.
House Majority Leader Richard Armey, R-Texas, called the first human embryo cloning a “four-alarm wake-up call” to the Senate to act on the House bill. “Let's be clear,” Armey said. “We are in a race to prevent amoral, scientifically suspect tinkering with the miracle and sanctity of life.”
(With files from CNS and RNS)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Burger ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Catholics Hope the Movie Lives Up to the Book DATE: 12/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:HOLLYWOOD — Move over Harry Potter; the hobbits are coming.
Scheduled for a Dec. 19 theatrical release, The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring is the long-awaited first installment in the $190 million, special-effects-laden cinematic trilogy based on the books by Catholic author J.R.R. Tolkien.
The motion picture will be followed up by the remaining two volumes in Tolkien's Middle Earth trilogy, with The Two Towers due in 2002 and Return of the King in 2003.
Many fans of the books, however, wonder how closely the film will hold to Tolkien's Catholic vision.
Originally published in 1954–1955, Tolkien's masterpiece follows the journeys of Frodo and The Fellowship of the Ring through Middle Earth, striving to keep the One Ring safe from Sauron, the Dark Lord. Tolkien, a noted British scholar of myth, wrote the trilogy in part to communicate to his readers the Christian understanding of a fallen Creation, where good struggles against evil and ultimately triumphs.
This is not the first time that an attempt has been made to bring the books to the screen. An animated version came out in the late 1970s. “It was a hideous parody of the Lord of the Rings that made no real effort to convey the story. Thankfully Tolkien, who died in 1973, was spared it,” said Catholic convert Joseph Pearce, author of Tolkien: Man and Myth and Tolkien: A Celebration.
For some, the film seems a welcome alternative to Harry Potter, which has been criticized by some Catholics as promoting an unhealthy attachment to magic. To date, Philadelphia father Mark Steele has held off taking his 5- and 7-year old sons to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. “I set down that they could see it if we first see Lord of the Rings. The prerequisite for seeing Lord of the Rings is that we read all three books first. We are only three chapters away from finishing,” said Steele.
The film's director, longtime Tolkien fan Peter Jackson, has consistently said that the film will hold true to Tolkien's vision. It is his hope that the film will introduce the stories to many who have never read the books.
An early review of the film, by Ronald Epstein, described the film as faithful to the book, but also cautioned that it is a very dark film. It brings a variety of Tolkien's menacing creatures to life on-screen — armies of the evil Orcs, the fearsome Balrog, and the Ringwraiths, dark riders who are neither dead nor alive who pursue the fellowship in a never-ending hunt. Epstein described the film as a “visual milestone.”
“Fans who read the original books are going to be enthralled with its faithfulness to the book,” predicted Epstein. “Lord of the Rings has accomplished what many thought was impossible — to bring a live-action film to the screen that accurately portrays the books as written. It is a definitive and accurate recreation of the story.”
Still, others wonder if that's so. Steele admitted that he has some concerns. “In the film, Arwen [a female elf character] is shown on horseback with Frodo fleeing from the Black Riders. In the book she was not at the Fords challenging the Black Riders.”
Steele is also concerned about the possible change in focus. “Burger King has toys coming out that you hook up to a central ring and they light up. The Ring of Power was evil, not just some morally neutral power that one could turn to good or evil, but something of its very nature that would corrupt the good in anyone who would attempt to use it, or even desire to use it.”
Added Steele, “It will also lose a lot of its Catholicity. Although I had probably read the trilogy five times before becoming a Catholic three years ago, I never realized how ‘Catholic’ the books are until reading it with my sons. That imagery is bound to go away because it won't transfer from print to film.”
Tolkien biographer Pearce had similar concerns.
“Initially, my view of the film was a mixture of hope and fear, which is probably true of everyone who loves the books,” said Pearce, who is currently writer-in-residence at Ave Maria College in Ypsilanti, Mich.
Although Pearce has not yet seen the film, he responded negatively to some of the reports about its contents. “As I understand it, they have dropped the character of Tom Bombadil,” said Pearce. “Bombadil is both childish and profound and the producers probably wondered how they could recreate him on screen.”
And like Steele, Pearce was concerned about the portrayal of Arwen. He questioned the film's emphasis on the romance between Aragorn, played by Viggo Mortensen, and Arwen, played by actress Liv Tyler.
“The film seems to have played up the romance, which was at all times chaste in the book. If this is true, it will destroy the credibility of the film for me,” said Pearce. “In addition, the film appears to have given Arwen a crypto-feminist role, particularly at the battle of Helm's Deep, which would be a perverse tampering with the book.”
However, since seeing the film's trailers and a promotional book on the movie, Pearce said that he now has more hope than fear. “You can identify all of the characters from the still shots,” said Pearce. “That has to be a good sign.”
Pearce did say that he had no objection to the judicious use of poetic license. “One example where the film has used justifiable poetic license is when the Fellowship is traveling through the mines of Moria Gate. At one point a hobbit drops a stone down a well to see how far it will go. He sees a skeleton, almost turned to dust, and when he touches it, the whole skeleton falls down the well. To me that seemed perfectly justified because there probably were skeletons there,” said Pearce.
Speaking in Tongues
One way that the film has tried to stay true to Tolkien is through the use of the languages Tolkien created for different characters. Most of elf Arwen's dialogue, for example, is done in an ancient spoken elven language that is subtitled throughout the film.
“These languages were created by Tolkien. I think probably the most difficult thing for us is to really adhere to his work, [even] when people are disappointed, as they are likely to be by some of the sounds and the pronunciations that they will hear, because they have only heard them in their heads when they have read the books,” said the film's dialogue and language coach, Andrew Jack. “At least we were able to produce something which is authentic and true to Tolkien's work.”
“The film is very much impressionistic. It can only give an impression,” added Pearce.
“It cannot give all the detail. We can hope that the film is true to the tone of the epic — bringing out the metaphysics of good and evil present in the book. We can expect that from the film. If it does not, then it will be a failure. The movie cannot re-create literature, it can only be true to the spirit.”
Tim Drake writes from St. Cloud, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Holy Ground DATE: 12/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:The Sept. 11 attack on the Twin Towers changed New York both morally and civilly, says Cardinal Edward Egan.
The archbishop of New York, who coined the term “Ground Hero” to describe Ground Zero of the terrorist attack, told Zenit: “It is a pity that the international press missed, over the past three months of reporting, the most authentic examples of faith and symbols of hope of the people of New York.”
During the Synod of Bishops, you spoke about an examination of conscience on the part of all Americans.
When I was asked if Americans had made an examination of conscience, I answered that undoubtedly they were doing so, but I also said that the real examination of conscience must not only be made in extraordinary cases, such as this one, but should be a constant practice for all men of every nation.
You are relatively new to the archdiocese. You couldn't possibly have expected something like this.
Just a year ago, I was sent by the Pope to lead the New York Church, moving from the peaceful Diocese of Bridgeport to the more complex and multi-ethnic one of New York. I thought it would only be an institutional step that would soon lead me to take on the customs of the big city, given my previous experience in other parts of the world, such as the 20 years spent in Italy. Instead, I never imagined I could have been an eyewitness of that tragedy, which has changed the fortune of thousands of people — a lesson of life that will certainly be impossible to forget.
Eighty days after the disaster, what are your clearest memories?
I saw holiness many times in those days, in the several visits among those ruins, watching the work of our people amid the rubble. Following those tragic events, I have come into contact with many families stricken by the loss of one or more relatives: honest men who worked to take the bread home to their families. Simple, intimate and personal incidents that suffice to give an idea of the sorrow and profound feeling of these people, too often diminished by economic or consumerist descriptions. Just a few days ago I celebrated a memorial for one of the many firefighters who disappeared and were never found. He has left five daughters and two adopted sons, two orphans from Ireland. He lived the normal life of the father of a family who on his own fed five mouths and welcomed two adoptive sons.
Nothing remains of him but ashes — but this doesn't count for those who only wish to talk about Hollywood stars and politicians.
What, then, is the United States like today?
It is another United States that no one ever talks about: We see it in the churches, within the walls of homes, and in the confessionals. They are people who want to continue to hope with the help of prayer. All this can be confirmed by the many priests working in the different churches of New York, on the streets, and in the different communities.
What has this human and pastoral experience changed in you, since you were one of the first to arrive on the scene of the disaster?
My experience during these three endless months is rich in great and small daily actions that constantly bring to mind those indelible hours spent a few meters from the Twin Towers. The chaos was total there. They told me to run to St. Vincent's Hospital to receive the dead. I went and I found myself next to a group of doctors working to save the first wounded. One of them had his father on the 104th floor of one of the towers. I told him to go look for him, but his answer was decisive: “No.” the doctor told me, “I must stay here.” Days later the same doctor wrote me a letter full of feeling and faith, in which he told me that his father was one of the lost, one of the thousands of dead never found.
In this tragedy, you have underlined the birth of a new model of holiness. What is it?
Over this period, I have seen very many examples of holiness. Lay holiness, but with a thrust toward the supernatural. Let's remember that sorrow is the same in all parts of the world. Our people have demonstrated this and are demonstrating it with a human effort that still requires a high price to pay in matters of security. I know, for example, that in many cases there are people who have worked as firefighters but also as workers at Ground Zero. Hence, they are subjected to strict medical control, because of the collateral effects caused by the deadly dust they have inhaled. We do not yet know what awaits us in the future.
----- EXCERPT: How attacks changed New York ----- EXTENDED BODY: Cardinal Edward Egan ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Cardinal Stafford: Torture of Terrorism Suspects 'Absolutely Forbidden' DATE: 12/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:TORONTO — A high-ranking Vatican official has denounced recent speculation in the American media on whether it might be morally permissible for authorities to use torture to extract information from terrorism suspects.
In a lecture given Nov. 16 at the University of Toronto, Cardinal J. Francis Stafford, president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, said such speculation is motivated by an unholy kind of “fear.” The former archbishop of Denver stated that the Second Vatican Council “solemnly declared” that “physical and psychological torture” is “intrinsically evil,” and therefore “absolutely forbidden.”
The media debate began with an article in The Washington Post Oct. 21, in which FBI sources claimed interrogators of four Sept. 11 suspects in New York might seek authority to use “pressure tactics” — such things as forced injections of sodium pentothal “truth serum,” or extradition to countries in which torture is legal.
The measures are reportedly being considered because suspects believed to have the fullest knowledge of the activities of the AlQaeda terror network are refusing to disclose any information to interrogators.
Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter wrote Nov. 5 that while “we can't legalize physical torture … we need to keep an open mind about certain measures to fight terrorism, like court-sanctioned psychological interrogation. And we'll have to think about transferring some suspects to our less squeamish allies, even if that's hypocritical.”
In Gaudium et Spes, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, the fathers of Vatican II included “physical and mental torture and attempts to coerce the spirit” along with abortion, slavery, and genocide in a list of “disgraceful” acts which “infect civilization” and are “a negation of the honor due to the Creator.”
Quoting this passage in his 1993 encyclical letter Veritatis Splendor (The Splendor of Truth), Pope John Paul II explained that such things are “intrinsically evil”; that is, they are wrong always and everywhere, regardless of the circumstances or the gravity of the situation.
Father Richard John Neuhaus, editor in chief of First Things, said that the use of torture would be wrong even if it were aimed at getting information to stop a nuclear explosion.
“To use a very dramatic example, what if a 12-year-old girl knows the location of a nuclear bomb about to go off in Manhattan, which will kill millions — is it right to torture her to extract the information? No, in spite of the good which could be done with the information. There are some things which we ought never to do … if we wish to preserve civilization and our own moral dignity.”
Father Neuhaus explained that moral goods are higher even than the good of life itself in some cases.
“It is unacceptable to treat another human being as an object,” he continued. “Anything which violates the dignity of the human being as an acting subject, which takes away his freedom or power to consent, is wrong.”
The United States has signed and ratified the United Nations' Convention Against Torture and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which forbid physical and psychological torture. The Convention Against Torture states that “no exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.”
Extraditing suspects to countries that use torture is also forbidden.
In its 1999 report to the UN committee monitoring implementation of the Convention Against Torture, the U.S. State Department stated that the laws of the United States also forbid the use of torture: “Torture is prohibited by law throughout the United States. It is categorically denounced as a matter of policy and as a tool of state authority. Every act constituting torture under the Convention constitutes a criminal offence under the law of the United States. No official of the government, federal, state, or local, civilian or military, is authorized to commit or to instruct anyone else to commit torture.”
The State Department added, “No exceptional circumstances may be invoked as a justification of torture [including] a ‘state of public emergency.’”
The Washington Post article noted, however, that lying to suspects is not illegal in the United States. Also, not all forms of psychological pressure in an interrogation would be classed as torture.
What Is Torture?
Father Neuhaus said that while any form of torture is wrong, it is necessary to clarify “what we mean by psychological torture. There are certain [common] practices of police interrogation designed to elicit information, which may be used when authorities are morally certain of someone's guilt [or knowledge of some criminal plan].”
Authority over such matters is exercised by the Department of Justice. The department's Public Affairs Office did not respond to the Register's request for an interview by press time.
Opponents of torture say that apart from the moral issues involved, torture is not an especially reliable investigative tool. National Review Online columnist John Derbyshire argued Nov. 16 that “as a means of discovering facts … torture doesn't work very well. Under physical torture, some people will lie, some will say anything to make the pain stop, even just for a while; and a surprising number will refuse to yield.”
Derbyshire cited a source indicating that while only one in a hundred people tortured by Stalin's secret police refused to confess, most of them were in fact innocent and therefore were “confessing” to false events.
David Curtin writes
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: David Curtin ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 12/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:Santa Schools Counsel St. Nicks to Encourage Faith
IPI Inc., a Toledo, Ohio, school that sends Santas to malls in the Midwest and Florida, instructs students to tell worried children to have faith in God and family, remind them that the world has been through difficult times before and counsel them that good always conquers evil.
Instructor Tom Valent at the Charles W. Howard Santa Claus School in Midland, Mich., says he often tells fearful children, “I'm better at making toys, but I'll go home and talk to Mrs. Claus about it, and we'll say a prayer tonight.”
FDA Approves Contraceptive Skin Patch
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Nov. 21 — The federal Food and Drug Administration approved the first contraceptive skin patch, the news service reported.
Ortho-Evra, made by Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceuticals, is the fourth contraceptive to be approved within the past year. It prevents pregnancy by emitting the same hormones used in birth-control pills. The Church teaches that use of artificial contraception is a grave evil.
The wire service quoted a contraception expert saying the patch is the easiest-to-use method yet in the nation's trend toward longer-acting contraceptives. But the patch carries the same risks as the pill, including blood clots, heart attack and stroke.
Post-Sept. 11 Church Attendance Surge Not Sustained
The Times reports that 47% of people polled by Gallup in the 10 days after Sept. 11 said they had attended church or synagogue in the previous week. But by early November, that figure had dropped to 42%.
“I just don't see much indication that there has been a great awakening or a profound change in America's religious practices,” said Frank Newport, Gallup's editor in chief. “It looks like people were treating this like a bereavement, a shorter-term funeral kind of thing, where they went to church or synagogue to grieve.”
In New York City, though, where the Times says the pain of the attack is most intense, many churches report sustained crowds.
And the Times found that the events of Sept. 11 were a watershed in some people's religious commitment. The paper quotes a 40-year-old Catholic in Los Angeles who said she is much more committed now, increasing her Mass attendance from twice a week to daily.
Justices Hear Arguments on Internet Porn Law
The American Civil Liberties Union says the law limits free speech, but justices seemed to feel the commercial interests could be so regulated. They will rule on Ashcroft vs. ACLU in several months.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Colorado Prosecutor Refuses to Seek Death Penalty for Cop-Killers DATE: 12/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:CANON CITY, Colo. — Outside this small town's courthouse in November, about 75 people with protest signs shouted words of anger at District Attorney Ed Rodgers. Inside, Rodgers was asking a judge to spare the lives of two cold-blooded cop killers — 24-year-old twins Michael and Joel Stovall.
While sparing their lives, Rodgers was likely committing political suicide. He was placing his personal opposition to the death penalty — a philosophy grounded in his Catholic faith — above the wishes of his constituents in a law-and-order county that's home to state and federal prisons.
The case has Catholics debating among themselves about a question shrouded in confusion: Can Catholics, particularly Catholic prosecutors, support capital punishment?
“It's the Church's position that the state always has the right, in extreme cases, to exercise the death penalty,” said Father Paul Montez, who was the celebrant at the funeral for a police officer. “But the Pope has said the state should not exercise that right if it has the ability to protect society from a predator without taking his life.”
The Stovall twins confessed to killing Fremont County Sheriff's Deputy Jason Schwartz as he arrested them Sept. 28 on misdemeanor charges for killing their neighbor's dog. The twins worked for their father making “freedom keys” — plastic gadgets designed to open handcuffs, as advertised in Soldier of Fortune magazine.
As Schwartz carted the twins to jail, Michael Stovall unlocked his handcuffs while sitting in the back of the patrol car. With his hands free, he retrieved a concealed handgun and shot Schwartz repeatedly from behind. As the twins escaped, they shot at officers who were tracking them down, seriously injuring one.
Rather than prosecute the twins before a jury, risking a conviction that could lead to capital punishment for both men, Rodgers opted to plea the case. As a result, rather than facing possible state-imposed death, each twin faces life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus 896 years each for additional charges of attempted murder.
Meanwhile, the district attorney is facing an aggressive recall campaign in which activists, including the deputy's widow, are gathering petitions for a special election to oust him. He's refusing all requests for media interviews, including a request by the Register.
But he isn't without supporters, including Father Montez, a self-described “conservative orthodox” Catholic. Father Montez firmly opposes capital punishment, even though he believes Catholics have the option of favoring the death penalty without violating official Church teachings.
Father Montez and most other priests in the deanery of Pueblo signed a letter of support for Rodgers regarding the district attorney's handling of the Stovall case.
“It's a struggle to be a Catholic prosecutor,” said Father Montez, parochial vicar to the Sacred Heart Cathedral of Pueblo. “You're elected as a voice for the people of the community, not as a voice for the Catholic Church. But if you're baptized as a Catholic, you have a moral obligation to follow the pro-life teachings of the Church — and to respect the advice of the Pope — in all of your thoughts, words and deeds. Ed Rodgers is being a good Catholic, and he's being persecuted for it.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that while “the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude” the death penalty, “Today … as a consequence of the possibilities the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm — without definitively taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself — the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity are very rare, if not practically nonexistent” (No. 2267).
In his 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life), Pope John Paul II declared, “[T]here is a growing tendency, both in the Church and in civil society, to demand that [the death penalty] be applied in a very limited way or even that it be abolished completely” (No. 56).
Despite the deanery of Pueblo's letter, not all Catholics in Fremont County are applauding Rodgers. Deputy Schwartz's widow, Sheryl Schwartz, is Catholic and used to attend the same parish as Rodgers in Canon City. She began attending another parish so she wouldn't be tempted to confront Rodgers in public with her anger over his refusal to seek death for her husband's killers.
“This was a cold-blooded, calculated, premeditated murder,” said Mrs. Schwartz. “I'm very pro-life. I'm 100% against abortion, because that's the killing of innocent life. These men are not innocent. They are a threat to innocent life. They have little in common with an unborn child.”
The widow suspects Pope John Paul II might understand her desire to see the Stovalls killed, because she would try to convince him it's a matter of protecting innocent life.
“It came out in a hearing that Michael Stovall had often spoken of his desire to kill a cop, and he was just waiting for the chance,” she said. “These men are facing life sentences plus another 896 years. If they simply enjoy killing — which became apparent with my husband's murder — they have absolutely no incentive not to kill in prison if given the chance. What do they have to lose?”
She expressed her feelings to Father Montez, a longtime personal friend with whom she attended college. Mrs. Schwartz says Father Montez did not condemn her for wanting to see both men die.
A Priest's Empathy
Father Montez has experienced first hand the loss of loved ones to murder. In 1997, his fellow Benedictine priests, Father Louie Stovick and Father Tom Sheets, were murdered in a Pueblo parish. Diocesan priests, including Father Montez and Pueblo Bishop Arthur Tafoya, vowed to fight any efforts by prosecutors to seek death for the killer, a man who was later found innocent by reason of insanity.
“I understand why [Mrs. Schwartz] wants the death penalty,” said Father Montez. “Her world has fallen apart over this. Her desire to see the death penalty carried out does not make her a non-Catholic.”
Added Father Montez, “What I say to people in her position is this: ‘Pray and ask God to help you understand his will. Ask God for his guidance and to help bring you peace.’
Putting these men to death will not bring anyone peace.”
Wayne Laugesen writes from Boulder, Colorado.
----- EXCERPT: Prepared to Sacrifice Job for Catholic Convictions ----- EXTENDED BODY: Wayne Laugesen ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Archbishop Pell: Ecclesia in Oceania Restates the Importance of Christ DATE: 12/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:Australian Archbishop George Pell, known for his no-nonsense out-spoken style, took part in the 1998 Synod for Oceania. He spoke to Register correspondent Raymond de Souza about the synod's concluding document and the situation of the Church in Australia, the largest country in Oceania.
How would you characterize Ecclesia in Oceania?
It is very broadly based and there are reasons for that. The situation in Oceania varies greatly, both sociologically and religiously. Religiously, in Australia and New Zealand, the problems are those of decline or stasis. There are massive problems in Papua-New Guinea and the islands, but they are nearly always problems of growth. Many places have increases in vocations and continuing conversions. The document speaks of the “Church at a crossroads,” and I think that would be more true of Australia and New Zealand.
The document is useful — and I now speak in terms of Australia — because it restates Christian essentials: that Christ is the center of our preaching. Now you might say that that is obvious. But there are little pockets where this emphasis on Christ might be seen as a form of patriarchy that should be replaced with a sort of “sophia theology.” There is not much of that, but there is some, especially among the women religious. Without any surprise at all, the document restates the centrality of Christ.
One of the temptations in a place like Australia is not to deny explicitly Church doctrines, but to cover them in a veil of silence and neglect. That will be much, much harder to justify after a document like this, which restates the importance of Christ, of the sacraments, of communion.
Will the document be studied extensively by catechists, religious educators, formators?
It certainly will be in my diocese, and it will be received in different ways in different dioceses. But it will be taken up very seriously.
“Inculturation” is a little bit like “subsidiarity,” and to a lesser extent like “communio.” It's very easy to talk about in the abstract. I think the priority in a place like Australia is to spread a greater love and understanding of the basic Christian teachings. There is always the danger of being swamped by the culture. Catholics are a minority in both Australia and New Zealand, and in many other places in Oceania. The overwhelming priority is to restate the basic Gospel truths and then, to some extent, inculturation will look after itself.
What do you make of the decision to apologize to aboriginal peoples and to victims of priestly sexual abuse? Why did the Oceania bishops opt for such an explicit statement? These problems exist elsewhere, but were not spoken of so directly in other synod documents.
That's probably the way we treat matters in our part of the world. We are not outspoken, but if we have something to say we are more likely to say it than not to. We have made substantial progress in Australia is setting out processes to cope with these scandals — to make provisions for the victims. The Holy Father is just saying what we Australian bishops have been saying, either individually or collectively. I think it was entirely appropriate and quite welcome.
The document does speak about the problem of secularization and the marginalization of the Church, a phenomenon felt more in Australia. How has the Synod three years ago, and the subsequent documents of the Australian bishops, affected this? I am referring to the very robust “Statement of Conclusions” which the Australian bishops issued just after the Synod in 1998.
I think that there has been some genuine progress. A controversial example is that the “third rite” of the Sacrament of Penance [general absolution] has been stopped in Australia, more or less. A significant percentage of people lamented that as a pastoral loss. The fact that that happened is important in itself, as a long-term strategy to preserve the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and it is also evidence of a capacity for discipline in the Church in Australia which might not be the case in some other countries in the world. It is significant in itself and significant for what is says about Catholic life.
Within Australia we are beginning to see different patterns emerge in different parts of the country. For example, some dioceses now have a respectable number of seminarians — there are real signs of hope in Melbourne, Perth, Wagga. In Melbourne, which I know better, giving in the parishes rose by something like a 10% increase across the diocese last year — a small sign, but nonetheless significant. And for the first time in many years, Mass attendance did not decline in Melbourne but showed the tiniest increase. And in some parts of Australia we are now getting more press coverage of Christian claims than we have had in many years. So it would not be correct to say that there are not signs of ecclesial vitality.
I think it would be true to say that the great majority of members of the religious orders were quite unmoved by the “Statement of Conclusions.” In many cases, they are still doing marvelous works, but over the next 20 or 30 years we will see the death of some of our religious orders.
With the youth, there are a number of encouraging signs in a number of dioceses. In Melbourne, they have started a branch of the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and the Family. They have 30 students now. The introduction of new religious education texts in Melbourne will make a significant contribution. They will also be introduced in Sydney with some adaptations. It is important not just to have good people, but well-formed young people.
It is a mixed situation, but there is certainly an interplay of light as well as dark.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Raymond J. De Souza ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 12/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:Vatican and Afghan King Agree on Negotiated Peace
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, Nov. 27 — The Vatican's secretary for relations with states, Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, and the former king of Afghanistan, Mohammed Zahir Shah, agreed on the need for a “negotiated peace” in talks at the exiled monarch's residence in Rome. “They talked about the need for … international solidarity for the reconstruction of the country, in the conviction that arms, in themselves, cannot bring about peace and security,” said Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro Valls.
The meeting preceded talks among several Afghan parties in Bonn, Germany, on formulating a broad-based administration in Afghanistan to replace the Taliban.
Pope Meets with Former Polish Communist Leader
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Nov. 28 — Pope John Paul II met with former Polish Communist leader Wojciech Jaruzelski almost 20 years after the start of martial law in Poland, the wire service reported. Jaruzelski imposed martial law to crush the independent trade union Solidarity, and the Pope's support for that union is credited with helping bring about the demise of Soviet bloc communism.
The Vatican released no information about the half-hour meeting in Rome, saying it was strictly private. But the Polish news agency PAP quoted Jaruzelski as saying, “The fact he received me means that he recognizes also whatever positive I have done.”
The meeting came during a break in Jaruzelski's trial in Warsaw on charges he issued a national order allowing soldiers to fire on workers during anti-communist demonstrations in 1970, when he was defense minister.
Vatican Not Ready to Open Archive, Cardinal Kasper Says
“Out of respect for the truth, the Holy See is ready to consent to the access of the Vatican's Secret Archive as soon as the reorganizing and cataloguing work is completed,” the cardinal said, quoting an official Vatican communique.
Avi Becker, secretary-general of the World Jewish Congress, said that in order for a Catholic-Jewish commission of scholars studying the Vatican's response to the Holocaust to continue its work, “the Jewish world has to get a more precise sense of the timing of the archives' opening.” Two of the commission's three Jewish members, frustrated with restrictions on the archives, have resigned.
Kazakh President Designated Papal Knight
INTERFAX, Nov. 23 — Pope John Paul has conferred the Order of Pius, the Vatican's highest award for heads of foreign states, on Nursultan Nazarbayev, president of Kazakhstan. In a diploma of a Knight of the Order of Pius, the Pope expressed his gratitude to Nazarbayev “for the bright humanity and respect” shown during the Holy Father's visit to Kazakhstan in September, as well as for the “skillfulness and talent” which Nazarbayev exercises in his capacity as president of the “noble and beloved” Kazakh people.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Holy Father Raises Funds for Terrorism and War Victims DATE: 12/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — John Paul II will distribute, to victims of terrorism and war, the donations from the Day of Fasting and Prayer scheduled for Dec. 14.
The announcement was published in a statement by the Pontifical Council “Cor Unum,” which fosters and coordinates the charity work of Catholics worldwide.
When he proposed a day of fasting to Catholics last month, the Holy Father explained: “What one denies oneself by fasting can be made available to the poor, especially those who at present suffer the consequences of terrorism and war.”
“Cor Unum” said that, with this gesture, “the Pope wishes to embrace symbolically every man in need.”
Hence, the Bishop of Rome “appeals to all believers to make a concrete charitable gesture to carry hope and daily bread” to the needy.
“‘The donations collected will be allocated by the Pope on Christmas day to those victims, the consequences of terrorism and war, who run the risk of being forgotten, once the greatest emergency is over,” the “Cor Unum” statement concludes.
For this purpose, the Vatican has opened a special bank account, managed by “Cor Unum,” at:
Banca di Roma C/C N. 101010 “Pro Digiuno 14 Dicembre” ABI 3002 CAB 5008 (from abroad SWIFT: BROMIT)
All refugees have a right to humanitarian assistance, including those oppressed by their governments in their homeland, a Vatican aide told the United Nations.
Archbishop Renato Martino, permanent observer to the United Nations, voiced the Holy See's deep concern Nov. 30 for the prolonged fighting in Afghanistan and for 3.5 million Afghan refugees camped in Pakistan and Iran.
He stressed that people adrift and “trapped by war or persecution within state boundaries, need just as much help or possibly more than refugees.”
In the past the U.N. High Commission for Refugees has helped these people even though it has no explicit mandate to do so, he reminded a U.N. General Assembly commission on the question of refugees.
To alleviate the sufferings of people, forced to abandon their homes, there must be security and humanitarian aid: prime necessities without which “any refugee assistance program is senseless or counterproductive,” the archbishop said during his Nov. 20 address.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Church and Masonic Lodge Clash in Chilean Election Campaign DATE: 12/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:SANTIAGO, Chile — The usually soft-spoken archbishop of Santiago, Cardinal Francisco Javier Errázuriz Ossa, surprisingly abandoned his non-confrontational style in mid-November to lock horns with an unlikely rival: the Great Masonic Lodge of Santiago.
The cardinal went so far as to compare the Mason's leadership with Taliban terrorists, responding to an unusual public statement issued by the Masonic Lodge that accused the Catholic Church of being “fundamentalist and intolerant” on life and family issues.
Cardinal Errázuriz's intervention was the highest point in an unusual escalation of confrontation surrounding the upcoming congressional elections scheduled for Dec. 6.
The relationship between the Catholic Church and Freemasons in Chile has been coldly civil for several decades. But Church leaders have not forgotten the leading role the Masons played in the anti-clerical governments of the 19th century, while Masons resent the frequent reminders Chilean bishops make to the incompatibility of being Catholic and belonging to any of the 108 Masonic lodges in the overwhelmingly Catholic country of 17 million people.
And the truce was broken Nov. 11 when Jorge Carvajal, Grand Master of Chile's Grand Masonic Lodge, signed a full-page paid newspaper statement accusing the Catholic Church of engaging in “open interventionism” in the upcoming elections by telling Catholics not to vote for candidates who favor divorce (which is still illegal in Chile), the legalization of abortion, or distribution of the so-called “morning-after” pill.
The Church's action, the Masonic statement claimed, “goes far beyond the moral limits of any religious creed, since it is aimed at imposing specific values on the entire country.”
A source from the Chilean Bishops' Conference, who spoke to the Register on condition of anonymity, said “the masons' unprecedented attack against the Catholic hierarchy is a “desperate” action aimed to prevent the victory of political forces opposed to abortion and divorce.
The bishops' conference source added that Carvajal's statement was “a very bad, clumsy political move, since it will not help the candidates they prefer and will further alienate Masons from Chile's mainstream politics.”
Political Struggle
Senator Sergio Diez, a legislator from the conservative movement Renovación Nacional, commented that the shared fear of both the Masons and the influential Socialist Party is “ the growing likelihood that the Christian Democratic and Socialist Coalition will lose control of Congress for the first time in 11 years.”
While Chile's Christian Democratic party was once close to Church positions, today most of its members favor divorce and some even favor legalizing abortion.
Patricio Forado, a spokesman for the Grand Masonic Lodge, said that the Masonic statement “was not politically motivated but concerned for the defense of the separation of church and state.”
Sen. Diez countered that this “concern” is “at least quite suspicious, if we consider the timing in which it was expressed.”
In fact, the parliamentary elections are occurring as Congress is debating several initiatives that would make divorce legal in Chile, give final approval to the morning-after pill and open the door to the legalization of abortion. The most recent polls suggest that the center-left ruling coalition will definitely lose ground and could even lose control of the Congress to Alianza por Chile, an alliance between Reno-vación Nacional and the Unión Demócrata Independiente party.
“Value-based issues will really make the difference, since most of our domestic and foreign policies are very similar,” said Diez.
An editorial in the daily paper La Tercera called the Masonic intervention a “bear's hug” in support of the ruling coalition. “The attack on the Catholic Church, definitely the most prestigious Chilean institution, was completely unnecessary and it will have a political price,” La Tercera predicted.
Cardinal's Reply
Cardinal Errázuriz, who is president of the Chilean bishops' conference, said in a Nov. 13 response to the Masonic statement that the Masons “use the same words that would have been used by the terrorists that organized the attack of Sept. 11.”
He said that the Masons “have raised serious questions regarding their alleged openness to Catholicism,” and their criticism of the Church as “fundamentalist” for its pro-life and pro-family position was not unexpected.
“We are used to being the only ones swimming against the current,” Cardinal Errázuriz said. “Moreover, criticism is a source of joy when it comes as a consequence of defending the human person, the right to life and the family.”
In an even firmer tone, Father Joaquín Alliende Lucco, spokesman for the Chilean Bishops' Conference, rejected the “low treatment” of the Church at the hands of the Masons.
The Church's commitment to human rights for every individual “benefited numerous members of the Masons when other institutions did not protect them,” Father Alliende added, alluding to the repression waged by the dictatorship of former president General Augusto Pinochet. “While many of the Masons remained silent, Chilean bishops were risking their lives.”
Seeking to defuse the confrontation, Carvajal said after the statement was published that its primary intent was not to criticize the Catholic Church, but rather to publicize the Masons' own known positions. “We just had to pay for the advertisement, because we don't own media and no media covered our statement when we called for a press conference a week earlier,” Carvajal complained.
The Masonic staement had no visible effect on the bishops' determination to communicate their views to Catholic voters. On Nov. 16, the bishops' conference reelected Cardinal Errázuriz for another three-year term as president, and issued a document energetically restating the call to Catholics not to vote for candidates who support abortion or divorce.
Said the document, “We don't intend to impose our beliefs on those who have no faith; but we believe that the truth about family, marriage, children and society is self-evident, and accessible to any human being capable of natural reasoning.”
In response to the bishops' appeal, a pro-life organization called Acción Familia blanketed the country with questionnaires that voters can address to candidates.
The questionnaire included precise questions intended to identify the candidates' positions on family, marriage, life of the unborn, homosexuality, morality in the media and parents' rights.
By late November, the pro-life campaign, entitled Operación Verdad (Operation Truth), had collected the responses of 40 candidates. Of those, 16 had expressed public commitments to support pro-life and pro-family legislation.
Alejandro Bermúdez is based in Lima, Peru.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Alejandro Bermudez ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 12/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:U.N. Coercive Contraception Criticized
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, Nov. 26 — The Population Research Institute blasted the United Nations Population Fund, also known as UNFPA, for distributing morning-after pills to Afghan refugees.
The UNFPA said it was making availlable “lifesaving reproductive health care services” for the women of Afghanistan.
Steve Mosher, president of the institute, called the practice coercive and said it was being carried out “under the guise of safeguarding women's health.”
The French news agency reported Mosher had accused the U.N. agency of trying to “break down cultural resistance to abortion and contraception within the refugee camps.” He said some refugees in camps in Pakistan and Iran were resisting and had confiscated morning-after pills to protect their female population.
Korean Delegations, North and South, Join Hands
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Nov. 26 — Religious delegations from North and South Korea met for the first time in the communist North to celebrate Mass and hold other activities aimed at promoting unification, the news service reported.
The South Korean delegation, led by four priests, flew from Beijing to Pyongyang Nov. 27 for a weeklong visit in the North Korean capital with members of North Korea's Catholic Church association.
The first meeting between the two sides was held last year in Harbin, China. Inter-Korean exchanges flourished last year following a historic summit of leaders of both nations, the wire service said. But they stalled this year amid tension between North Korea and the United States, the South's key ally.
North Korea is known to have one Catholic and two Protestant churches, all in its capital. Last month, the U.S. State Department added North Korea for the first time to its annual report of nations that deny religious freedom to their people.
Northern Irish More Tolerant of Mixed Marriages
THE PRESS ASSOCIATION, Nov. 26 — A study at the University of Ulster found more tolerance for marriages between Catholics and Protestants, the British news agency reported.
The survey said that only 16% of those interviewed in 1998 believe people in Northern Ireland would “mind a lot” if a relative married someone from a different religion, compared with 33% of those questioned in 1989. Also, mixed marriages in the province have risen slowly over the past 10 years.
Catholics also remain more tolerant to mixed marriages within their families, the poll said, though the gap with Protestant feelings on the subject has narrowed.
Mexican Bishop Wants Bibles for Indians
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Nov. 26 — Bishop Felipe Arizmendi of San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico, promised to help finance distribution of the next 10,000 copies of a new Bible translation to Indians in southern Mexico.
A Protestant-led group distributed the first 10,000 Bibles to Indians in San Juan Chamula. Most of the Indians have abandoned a Maya Indian version of Catholicism in recent decades in favor of Protestantism, the wire service said. That resulted in their being driven out of their homes, a move the Catholic Church has repeatedly denounced.
Presbyterian Pastor Abner Lopez Perez, director of the Mexican Bible Society, said the Bible distribution was a “call to build peace in the region.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: EDITORIAL DATE: 12/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:Some truly frightening news was announced just after Thanksgiving. A Massachusetts company said Nov. 25 that it had cloned human embryos in order to try to mine them for stem cells, which in turn would be used to treat disease.
It is the first time anyone has reported successfully cloning a human embryo (apart from hybrid man-beast creatures that have been attempted), and Advanced Cell Technology, Inc., based in Worcester, Mass., said it hopes the experiment will lead to treatments for diseases ranging from Parkinson's to juvenile diabetes.
The news was terrible and frightening, going beyond even the serious ethical problems that are always associated with creating human life apart from a human couple.
For one thing, headlines should have read, not “First Human Embryos Cloned,” but “First Human Clones Killed.”
Human embryos may not look like babies, as fetuses do, but they are certainly human lives. Even modernist ethicists like Princeton's Peter Singer admit this. He says that, when he argues for killing embryos, he doesn't argue that they aren't human — he says he can't win that debate. Rather, he finds it necessary to argue that sometimes human beings have no right to life.
And so, a society that the Pope calls a “culture of death” has escalated far beyond the 1.3 million abortions reported every year, to countless deaths of embryos in labs around the world.
But there is another reason, apart from the deaths surrounding it, that this first cloning is particularly horrible. For many people, the only trouble with cloning is that it conjures eerie images of children who look exactly like one of their parents, with exactly the same character traits.
The reality is much more frightening: These clones aren't intended to become adults or even infants. They are created, rather, because some hope their cells can be useful in fighting diseases.
These human lives, in other words, are being harvested for their body parts as part of an experimental treatment for the living. That's as frightening as any science-fiction premise.
As Christians, we know that man does not have the last word in human affairs. The Lord of history is Jesus Christ — who once said, “What you do to one of the least of my brothers, you do unto me.”
Are not tiny embryos the “least of his brothers”?
And yet cloning is not as unusual as we may think. It is, after all, just a variation on the common theme of creating life in labs rather than in love.
Couples considering in vitro fertilization therapies need to consider this: Their act is not all that different from cloning. They also need to consider the serious moral implications involved:
E They are putting their embryos — their offspring — at grave risk.
E They are perpetuating a system that has had disastrous consequences. In one recent case, two divorced parents sued a surrogate mother to make her abort their child. Such cases point to a flaw at the heart of in vitro fertilization — and put dangerous new powers in judge's hands.
E Their child, rather than being conceived in love and growing in the womb of its mother, is created and developed outside the context of the marital union.
The Church, presciently, spoke out against cloning before it existed — and against in vitro fertilization before it was popular. Her prophetic wisdom, is the voice of the one who commands the world in no uncertain terms to love the least ones the most.
----- EXCERPT: Suffering Clones ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 12/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:I was saddened by the mixed messages in Mark Lowery's essay “Christian Sex or Sexy Christianity?” (Nov. 25-Dec. 1).
Mr. Lowery praises the truth of Christopher West's facts in his work to bring Pope John Paul II's teachings about marriage and sexuality to the general public. Lowery agrees with West when Lowery states that “to have a full experience of integral sexuality, infused with Trinitarian bliss” is a “trajectory” we should all be on and attempting to present to our children. He criticizes West, however, when he alleges that West puts sex before grace in the “hierarchy of Christian truths.” The article then proceeds to imply that the “capacity to fully experience” this integrated sexuality “may be beyond reach” for the many people who have been injured in the area of sexuality. How sad that Mr. Lowery himself does not seem to trust in the primary role of the grace so generously given by the Divine Physician.
If Mr. Lowery wants to censor someone for proclaiming the truth about marriage and sexuality because it may cause injured people further pain, then he needs to begin by censoring the Holy Father.
When I studied Familiaris Consortio it was painful to realize how little I experienced of the beauty of marriage and sexuality. But this led my husband and me ultimately to have hope. In time, the Lord brought healing to me, which has graced all areas of my marriage. What were the primary provisions given to me (and consequently my husband) that brought about this healing? Excellent Christian counseling, the abundant grace of the confessional, a holy priest as confessor and the gifted work of Christopher West.
My husband and I thank God every day for the gift of John Paul II and his teachings as well as calling forth people such as West to proclaim the Holy Father's anointed message to our world.
As for the allegation that West puts sex before grace: I never heard that from West. Perhaps those who are uncomfortable with frank discussion about the goodness and beauty of our sexuality as created and intended by [God the] Father should trust in God's grace to heal the wounds that are present in all of us, as a result of living in a world which so loudly and frequently tells only lies about sex and marriage.
MARY MEYER
Littleton, Colorado
The Best in West
Regarding “Christian Sex or Sexy Christianity” (Nov. 25-Dec. 1):
It has been my great pleasure to learn about Pope John Paul II's theology of the body. I have listened to cassette tapes and videos of Christopher West's talks on the subject.
In addition, it was my pleasure to attend a Rachel's Vineyard leader's conference at which Christopher West spoke. I have even purchased a copy of The Theology of the Body: Human Love in the Divine Plan, which includes all of the Pope's 129 general-audience teachings that relate to the theology of the body.
What a wonderful and beautiful teaching our Holy Father has put forth! I am so very grateful to Mr. West for spreading this awesome work, which might otherwise have gone unnoticed.
From my studies, the theology of the body is a lot to take in. It has been so helpful to me to have Mr. West put it all into terms that even I can understand.
I can understand why Mr. Lowery would be taken aback by Mr. West saying, “Heaven is the ultimate climax.” I have a feeling that Mr. Lowery took this quote out of context. I have the sense that Mr. West was just trying to convey the idea that Trinitarian love is total self-giving and total unity; total fulfillment and total joy: the life that we hope to share one day in heaven.
Heaven is so beyond our limited understanding that we sometimes use human expressions to describe it; hence, what could be construed as an irreverent remark were the words that describe human love as expressed in self-giving and unity, fulfillment and joy. We do this kind of thing all the time. I use a shamrock to talk about the Trinity as three persons and one God with my students. Never once has any of them thought that I was trying to teach them that God is a shamrock!
In all of my studies of the theology of the body, I never once thought that Christopher West implied that sexuality is the foundation of Christianity. Quite clearly, I recall Mr. West saying that sexuality, as God intended sexuality to be, makes the invisible visible.
That is: Sexuality reveals the truth about Trinitarian love; not that it is the foundation of nor is Trinitarian love.
It takes Trinitarian love, God's grace, to live the theology of the body as Mr. Lowery so rightly points out. And though we may fall short of living the way God intended, I am grateful both to the Holy Father and Mr. West for teaching the whole truth rather than leaving out bits and pieces because it is “beyond reach.” I want to be a saint one day, but there is a really good chance that I may not achieve perfection in this life.
Nevertheless, every day I try. And when I fall, I pick myself up every day (sometimes every minute of every day!) and beg to be transformed. I strive for perfection even if it is beyond reach.
FLO MILLER
Carthage, North Carolina
The Cross and Common Sense
Regarding “Columbine High Bans Mother's Memorial” (Nov. 25-Dec. 1):
It seems to me that John White-head, lead attorney with the Rutherford Institute, is the only leader mentioned in the article who shows his common sense. The wall of tiles, he reminds everyone, is merely a “forum” for expressions. Marilyn Salzman, however, speaking for the Jefferson County School District, equates the permanency of the tiles with endorsement by the school district.
Returning to Whitehead's comments, the district may exercise its authority to censor expressions deemed violent or obscene.
A member of the Jefferson County School Board, Jon DeStefano, prefaces his opinion with, “I'm a devout, practicing Catholic.” (Read: “Listen to me; I'm in touch with God.”) DeStefano, in fact, probably embarrasses other “devout, practicing Catholics,” who appeal to common sense.
DeStefano says he doesn't want the school to become a “living memorial to April 20, 1999.” Does that mean, for example, that the trophy down the hall, memorializing the 1975 state football championship, the gold plaque, honoring Suzie Miller as the 1987 Athlete of the Year and, in fact, the entire trophy cases recording past events do not render the school a “living memorial”?
We, as a nation, tend to be paranoid about [such] issues: A cross can exist just about anywhere in the private sector without noticeable complaint. But God help us if the cross aspires to go public — especially on a school tile!
WALTER F. STICHART
Colville, Washington
Time to Un-mix Our Messages?
Congratulations on printing the forthright letter from Charles Marrelli (“Catholic Leadership”) in your Nov. 4–10 issue. He writes, “If the American bishops, as a body, were to excommunicate all Catholics who brazenly claim to be pro-abortion, they would counter years of mixed messages.” Is that not the logical next step to what the bishops wrote in 1998 when they warned, “No public official, especially one claiming to be a faithful and serious Catholic, can responsibly advocate for or actively support direct attacks on innocent human life” (in their document “Living the Gospel of Life: A Challenge to American Catholics”)?
Many pro-lifers were heartened when “Living the Gospel of Life” was published — we thought the Holy Spirit had suddenly invigorated the bishops' conference with an infusion of courage. Wow, things are looking up! Be not afraid! But then, the mixed messages again and the letdown: A blurry bishops' document on “faithful citizenship” a year later with the life message buried in verbal snow, photographs of princes of the Church dining with pro-abortion politicians, confusion from Catholic News Service and millions of Catholics voting for the pro-abortion candidates.
Now we learn that the bishops' leadership is urging more pro-life prayer. The great apostle Paul said it some time back, “Pray always.” Of course. But there does come a point, as Mother Teresa demonstrated, when after many hours of prayer one does have to go out in the street and boldly confront reality with action.
CHARLES MOLINEAUX
McLean, Virginia
Change or Be Changed
Regarding the opinion column “We Give Thanks for America; We Pray God Saves It” by Father M.M. De Cruce (Nov. 18–24):
Today, Christians risk cooperating in a false pluralism. Secular society will allow believers to have whatever moral conviction they please, as long as they keep them on the private preserves of their consciences, in their homes and churches, and out of the public arena.
Democracy is not a substitute for morality, nor a panacea for immorality. Its value stands or falls with the values which it embodies and promotes.
Only tireless promotion of the truth about the human person can infuse democracy with the right values.
This is what Jesus meant when he asked us to be leaven in society. American Christians have long sought to assimilate into our present cultural life.
But, in assimilating, we have too often been digested. We have been changed by our culture too much, and we have changed it not enough. If we are leaven, we must bring to our culture the whole Gospel, which is a Gospel of life and joy. That is our vocation as believers.
There is no better place to start than promoting the beauty and sanctity of human life. Those who would claim to promote the cause of life through violence or the threat of violence contradict this Gospel at its core.
It depends on us. Let us do our part, and pray that God in his infinite mercy may truly bless America — not only during this Christmas season — but also in all seasons and years to come.
JEFFREY T. KARL
Morristown, New Jersey
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Terror and Glory: The Human's Lot in Life DATE: 12/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:We need not fear what seem to be contradictory impulses to both help and avenge. Tension and drama are part of the human condition. Our Catholic faith can give us an explanation for these sometimes bewildering feelings, and guidance about how best to channel them.
Maybe you have felt that blinding, murderous fury at the terrorists and their allies. I have noticed that I could slide over the line that divides righteous anger from visceral rage.
Some modern thinkers would have you believe that these feelings are evidence of a xenophobia inherent in Western civilization — proof that we Westerners really are, at root, racist savages. Others might claim that these feelings stem from the outdated and irrational belief that good and evil are real. If only we could get beyond good and evil, we would not be so powerfully moved by the desire to avenge the thousands of deaths at the Twin Towers.
We could rid ourselves of these passions only by eliminating the ideas of good and evil, which are, after all, only social constructs.
Our Catholic faith offers a different theory about these feelings. A long line of Western thinkers, led by St. Paul, St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, tell us that these feelings are the result of original sin.
Because of original sin, each of us has a clouded intellect, a forgetful memory, a weakened will and a tendency to succumb to our passions. If you are like me, you sometimes find yourself not caring very much whether our stray bombs hit a hospital. We needn't write ourselves off as hopeless. If you feel anger coursing through your veins, overriding the intellect and rationality, you are feeling the effects of original sin. You are not some kind of freak. This is part of the human condition.
In this same period since Sept, 11, you have probably felt some other, more edifying feelings: the desire to help, the beauty of human solidarity, the peace that comes from moral clarity, the knowledge that happiness is found in giving. Theologians have an explanation for this too: This is evidence of the desire for God, which he places into the heart of every human being. Truth, Beauty and Love — these the among the names of God.
St. Thomas teaches that man is always drawn to the good. But, because of original sin, we are often confused about what is truly good. We mistake our passions for true goods. We mistake temporary goods for the permanent good, which is God. We kid ourselves into overlooking the negative impact of our actions on others.
We want to see ourselves as good, and we often lack the courage to face our shortcomings. But even this is evidence for St. Thomas's major premise. We insist on defining ourselves as good. We find it almost intolerably painful to see ourselves as anything other than good.
We are not really convinced by the intellectuals who pretend to be “beyond good and evil.” If good and evil were nothing but social constructs, we would not run so hard from the “evil” label. We would simply shrug when someone calls us, or our actions, wrong.
We sometimes think that we are entitled to have My Answers to All Life's Questions, a nice, neat paperback book with our byline. But this is just our spiritual immaturity talking. We know, deep down, that each of us has a desire for good, as well as a tendency toward evil. These contradictory impulses create much of the tension and drama in our lives.
This tension can actually give meaning to even the most ordinary of lives. Every person, from every walk of life, faces this battle within the self on a daily basis. Even a person with a boring job can know that the seemingly small decisions of his life have significance.
Do I succumb to my irritation over my husband's dirty socks all over the floor, and chew him out? Or do I choose to overlook the socks, and focus on the good that he does for the family? Whether we stay married or become another divorce statistic lies in the balance of thousands of such seemingly trivial decisions.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn has said that the battle line between good and evil goes right down the center of every human heart. By seeing that these tendencies are inherent in the human condition, and not evidence of some pathology, we can all participate in that great combat within ourselves.
The outcome of that interior war truly does determine what kind of world we will create, and winning the interior war is the Christian's ultimate mission in life anyhow.
Jennifer Roback Morse is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and the author of Love & Economics: Why the Laissez-Faire Family Doesn't Work.
----- EXCERPT: Crises bring out the best and the worst in people. The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 are no exception. ----- EXTENDED BODY: J. R. Morse ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Only Men Can Be Deacons DATE: 12/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:Gerhard Ludwig Müller, who has taught Catholic dogmatic theology at the University of Munich for years, recently stated: “Any theology professor at a German university knows that the female students are in no way inferior to their male colleagues with regard to intellectual ability, spiritual vocation and personal qualifications, or in their dedication to the Church and to the Gospel.”
Professor Müller has dealt with questions about women and ordination while serving as a consultant to the German Bishops Conference and member of the International Theological Commission. He is no stranger to the high-voltage emotion with which some approach the issue, and he stands squarely with the magisterial finding, expressed in the 1994 declaration, Ordinatio sacerdotalis, that “the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women.”
To explain this teaching to horrified German intellectuals, Müller distilled his research in two books, Women in the Church and The Recipient of Holy Orders. Meanwhile, feminists in academia opted for a change of strategy: If not priesthood, then at least the diaconate.
Different rules govern church-state relations in Germany and Austria, and universities have been extremely politicized since 1968. Lately, elected officials in Germany have actually advocated state funding to train Catholic women to become deacons.
On Sept. 17, the Holy See responded with a “notification” warning against programs designed to prepare Catholic women for the diaconate. The document, signed by prefects of three Vatican congregations, says that such programs create “hopes which are lacking a solid doctrinal foundation and which can generate pastoral disorientation.”
Müller addresses the controversy in a book, Priesthood and Diaconate, slated to be published by Ignatius Press in the spring. This article summarizes his arguments for an all-male diaconate.
Historical Honesty
Proponents of ordaining women deacons argue that this would be a return to early Church practice. German women students, scouring the libraries for dissertation material, have marshaled evidence. In a list of greetings (Romans 16:1 ff.), St. Paul first mentions Phoebe, calling her a diakonos, “servant.” The feminine form, diakonissa, is a specifically Christian development. Many third- and fourth-century patristic documents mention deaconesses; a few contain prayers for their consecration.
Müller observes that Church history is often “misused as an arsenal of weapons for the ideological battle of the day.” The servants at the wedding in Cana are called diakonoi, too, but no one imagines that Christ ordained them. “The trouble is that the terms diakonos, diakonein and diakonia [servant, to serve, service] were applied to very different sorts of functions and activities,” he writes.
Objective inquiries into the duties of a “deaconess” are bound to disappoint feminists. Often it was an honorific title for the deacon's wife. (Similarly, a woman married to a German Ph.D. is addressed as “Frau Doktor So-und-so,” regardless of her credentials.) In this restricted sense, there were also “priestesses” and “episcopesses.” A prerequisite, though, was a vow of celibacy as their husbands embarked on a second career in ministry.
The other modest function of early Christian deaconesses resembled that of an RCIA sponsor for women catechu-mens (toweling them down after baptism by immersion, etc.). By the end of the fourth century the office had disappeared in both East and West.
Müller makes clear that there can be no question of “re”-introducing a ministry for deaconesses. Attempts to draw parallels with the recent reinstatement of the permanent diaconate are misleading. The magisterium has always taught that the ordained diaconate is an essential part of the hierarchical structure of the Church, together with the priesthood and the episcopate. Despite Protestant attempts to drive a wedge between New Testament times and the fourth-century Church emerging from the catacombs, this teaching continues unaltered from Ignatius of Antioch (died ca. 107) to the Council of Trent, and was reaffirmed by Vatican II (see Lumen gentium 20, 28–29).
The signature of Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, prefect for the Congregation of the Clergy, on the notification of Sept. 17 vouches for the historical fact of an all-male Catholic clergy.
Disprove claims about early Christian deaconesses, and frequently the subject changes to the Church's sins of misogyny. People look at female Lutheran and Anglican pastors and ask when Catholics will stop “discriminating” against women.
Of course, Church policy cannot be decided by opinion polls, sociology or psychology. There must be theological grounds for ordaining men only.
The Western world sees man in terms of “self-creation, self-realization and self-glorification”, but this “is incompatible with the Christian understanding of man in his relationship to God, who creates and perfects man.”
Christian anthropology, founded on Scripture, teaches that male and female are equal in dignity but not identical. The distinct and complementary roles of man and woman are part of the order built into creation. They are made for each other and find fulfillment in relating to one another as persons — another way of saying that they are made in the divine image.
At the Incarnation, the Second Person of the Trinity entered the human family as a male. “The masculinity of Jesus is part of the Logos' self-expression in the flesh,” notes Müller.
The ancient Christian churches, Catholic and Orthodox alike, teach that Christ, in his pastoral relationship to his Church, can be represented only by a baptized male.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger signed the Sept. 17 notification to testify that the ineligibility of women for ordination is not mere custom, but rather a doctrine of the faith, based on divine revelation.
Instituted by Christ
“The vote in favor of a women's diaconate,” Müller points out, “has become part of the ritual at [diocesan] synods, academic conferences and workshops.” From their fall-back position, the radicals keep trying to redefine Church.
In Ordinatio sacerdotalis, the Pope called the question about ordaining women a “matter of great importance … which pertains to the Church's divine constitution itself.” Our Savior's divine-human life, in union with his Church, continues in and through the sacraments. Today's bishops are not free to change the number or nature of the sacraments, because they were instituted by Christ himself: “It is precisely in the sacraments that the Church recognizes the absolute autonomy of revelation and the limits of human competence.”
Is it discriminatory to require that a candidate for matrimony receive the sacrament with a willing partner of the opposite sex?
No, this requirement for validity is inscribed in human nature and the order of creation. Neither is it discriminatory, then, to require a candidate for holy orders to be of the male sex.
The same theological arguments used to defend the all-male priesthood apply to the diaconate. Christ did not institute three kinds of ordination, but one sacrament of holy orders comprising three degrees: bishop, priest and deacon. Despite some initial uncertainty in terminology, this is plainly taught in the New Testament and the post-Apostolic age. “Let everyone revere the deacons as Jesus Christ, the bishop as the image of the Father, and the presbyters as the senate of God and the assembly of the apostles. For without them one cannot speak of the Church” (Ignatius of Antioch, Trallians 2:3–3:1).
The Church's liturgy is an expression, not of consensus, but of her own divinely instituted, sacramental character. Therefore Cardinal Jorge Medina Estevez, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, is also a signatory to the Sept. 17 notification.
Hydra-headed challenges from the “soft sciences” notwithstanding, the Church cannot re-engineer her clergy to suit contemporary tastes.
In his forthcoming book, Gerhard Ludwig Müller places the Catholic tradition of ordaining men in its proper perspective of creation theology and the sacramental constitution of the Church:
“The [perennial] practice of the Catholic Church, of conferring the Sacrament of Holy Orders only upon baptized men who are in full communion with it, is unanimous. It is rooted in the belief that, according to the institutional will of Christ, only a man can receive this Sacrament validly, not because of a superiority of men over women, but because the Sacrament of Orders presupposes the natural symbolism of the relation between husband and wife.”
In other words: “The job description for the female diaconate has no theological foundation.”
Michael J. Miller translated Priesthood and Diaconate by Gerhard Ludwig Müller into English for Ignatius Press.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Michael J. Miller ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Deliberately Living in Wiker's Own 'Walden' DATE: 12/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:Two decades plus, and only now have I finally gotten my family out to the country. Out beyond the noise, smell, and smother of town life. Out beyond the worry of news reports on the war, anthrax and the stock market.
We have left Steubenville, Ohio, a steel mill town, full of beautiful old houses stained with years of factory smoke, to settle in the countryside skirting Hopedale. Same state. World of difference. Our Walden? A little acre and a third on a road less traveled, protected on all sides by woods.
“I went to the woods,” Thoreau wrote, “because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”
For some time my wife and I also have been afraid to die and discover that we had not lived. With six children, that feeling of dread only became stronger. Six more lives held to our account, to waste or spend wisely. Especially because of the children, we (with Thoreau) did not wish “to live what was not life,” for “living is so dear.” Children grow quickly. Time pours itself into memory. Memory seeps into forgetfulness. All that could be turns into what could have been, while a thousand details fritter away the days, then weeks, then months and, before you know it, years. Living is so dear.
Given the present circumstances, some might think that it was the war that drove us, in an apocalyptic flight, out of the city. Wars and rumors of wars, nation against nation, famines, earthquakes, birth-pangs, tribulation, false prophets, wickedness multiplied, love grown cold, desolating sacrilege — it all fits too well. Flee to the mountains! Quick, before winter!
Are these the end times? I do not know. Only God knows. But I do know that, because of the war, others are now filled with the same urgency that has been our companion for so long. War, the great destroyer, reveals time as a gift given freely but snatched without warning. Who will be snatched next? Suddenly, urgently, we all long to “live deliberately,” afraid to die and discover we had not lived. Every moment, a gift freely given — but will this be the last moment?
Out of the evil of war, this good has come. In the buzzing, glittering distraction of modern life, we have become distanced from our own souls, unable to bear silence or work patiently through long, slow thoughts. We become mere bodies, sodden with triviality, giddy with entertainment, ruled by sensual distractions. War shakes loose this clinging detritus, and throws us back into our souls.
Did we flee because of the war? The war certainly turned up the volume on that persistent inner voice. But we fled because our lives were slipping away as we sorted through bills, juggled errands, listened to the news, read the paper, checked the e-mail, drank coffee — and all the while our children were growing, pushing harder against the tight boundaries of our little yard. Children without wilderness soon grow wild.
Just yesterday my children and I made our first fire at the new property. My son dug the pit in the dark, wet earth. We piled sod in a ring, foraged for sticks, chopped logs, laid the fire and conjured this great elemental spirit into being. And then we just looked and thought and talked, like millions upon millions of other thoughtful souls over thousands upon thousands of years. Behind us was our own little stream — lolling, pensive, wandering water full of minnows and, at various times throughout the day, the searching fingers of our children. The air was a sweet mixture of smoke and piercing freshness.
Earth, fire, water, air. Since antiquity, considered the four great fundamental elements. Some thought the soul was even made of fire. I can see why. Staring into the fire, watching the dance of red, gray and black, the depths of the jittery cold distraction gripping our interiors began to thaw, melting away the distance between body and soul. An hour and a half of contemplating a fire with my children is a far better, far deeper use of time than ricocheting around town in a mini-van desperately seizing shreds of culture — piano lessons, ballet, soccer, the symphony.
Earth, fire, water, air. On Sept. 11 the earth shook, fire sprayed, water tried to quench fire, and the air was filled with screams and choking smoke. War had come to us. Staring at the fire, souls began to thaw, and wonder how so much of life had been spent in distraction.
Are these the end times? For us, they are the beginning. “To live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life” — that is why Thoreau set out for Walden Pond. We, too, found that without shedding all that was not life, our lives lacked the depth that is the natural home of prayer. There is a reason that monasteries tend to be built out and away, the same reason Christ went into the wilderness to fast and pray. The beauty of nature thrills with God's creative goodness, shames all the twittering holiday of mere human artifice, draws us to the glory of Christ, the one “through whom all things were made.”
Precisely here, oddly, Thoreau went wrong. Unlike Thoreau, who fretted that turning our attention to the next world soured our natural, primal enjoyment of nature in this world, we have no wish to make an idol out of nature. We only hope to capture again some hint of that original contentment — that prayerful, holy, calm joy that was partially lost by sin, and has been nearly smothered by distraction.
Pray for peace. The peace that shall deliver us from war and, even more, the peace that prepares us for God.
Ben Wiker teaches philosophy of science at Franciscan University of Steubenville (Ohio).
----- EXCERPT: It has been more than 20 years since, as a college undergraduate, I read Henry David Thoreau's Walden. ----- EXTENDED BODY: Benjamin D. Wiker ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Juan Diego's Keystone-State Satellite DATE: 12/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:Because the town of Nazareth is nearby and the small city of Bethlehem is next-door, Allentown, Pa., seems a natural location for the National Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of the Americas.
It will also be a natural place to visit Dec. 12, feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
In 1974, the Allentown diocese was chosen over 40 other dioceses that had applied to host this national shrine. At the time, the choice must have seemed befuddling to some. In retrospect, it makes perfect sense.
The shrine is located in the Church of the Immaculate Conception. This beautiful neo-Gothic church stands in an older, established section of the city that's between the Jordan and Leigh Rivers. The latter's name derives from an American Indian dialect; taken together, the two suggest the span of centuries and cultures for which this area has been a backdrop.
Allentown sits at a crossroads. It's a popular stop for lots of folks on their way to Philadelphia, New York and points in all directions. Then, too, Pennsylvania is nicknamed the Keystone State, a fact that made me reflect that Our Lady of Guadalupe can be the keystone to end abortion because Pope John Paul II named her Queen of the Americas and consecrated the entire continent to her.
After all, Mary is pictured as expecting a child in her miraculous image on a 470-year-old tilma that should have disintegrated after 30 years. Father Harold Dagle, pastor of the church and director of the shrine, emphasized that the black ribbon tied around her waist and into a bow was customary for pregnant Aztec women.
When Mary appeared to Blessed Juan Diego in 1531, it marked her first formal apparition in an America without the formal boundaries we now know. Mary called to “Juanito, Dear Juan Diego, son Juan,” and told him that she was “the merciful mother of all of you who live united in this land, of all mankind …”
Centuries earlier, her words reflected the situation in Allentown when this Church of the Immaculate Conception was founded in 1857, long before the national shrine was placed within it. Because at the time this was the city's only Catholic church, all the European immigrants of different nationalities united here to worship. These peoples learned to live together in harmony in the “Catholic part of town” back then.
‘It is the Immaculate’
St. John Neumann founded this church when he was bishop of Philadelphia. He had been in Rome on Dec. 8, 1854, for the proclamation of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception. As I had once learned at his Philadelphia shrine, it's most likely that Bishop Neumann held the book for Pius IX as the Pope announced the Marian dogma.
And, significantly, the Immaculate Conception ties in with Guadalupe. Mary first appeared to Juan Diego on Dec. 9 — the old calendar date for the feast of the Immaculate Conception before it was changed to Dec. 8. Also, when Juan Diego unfolded his tilma to show the roses he picked out-of-season to Mexican Bishop Zumarraga, the prelate fell to his knees. Seeing the miraculous image of Our Lady, he exclaimed, “It is the Immaculate.”
Here in Allentown, Mary's image as Our Lady of Guadalupe exerts a strong spiritual pull on us from its place above the left side altar. It's visible from every pew in the church; the present Gothic edifice from 1900 was designed so that no pillar obstructed anyone's view of the entire width of the sanctuary area.
This image of Our Lady of Guadalupe is considered by many to be the finest reproduction outside of the original tilma in the basilica in Mexico City.
The full-sized image is actually a photograph taken under rare circumstances by a professional American photographer. According to Samuel McGovern, the national lay director of this shrine since its beginning, the man was unexpectedly offered a private photo opportunity when such picture-taking was rarely permitted. Guards stood by as the case protecting the tilma was opened briefly for him. Kodak produced only three images for him. Only this one appeared to be exact.
Besides this reverential image above the shrine altar, from any pew we can contemplate highlights of Mary's life as they enfold us in the tall stained-glass windows. Their exquisite artistry by the renowned Meyer studio in Munich, Germany, beautifully details Mary in various stages of her earthly and heavenly life.
Nearest the Guadalupe image is a stained-glass representation of Our Lady as the Immaculate Conception. Other scenes led me to reflect on her life with her parents, her marriage to Joseph, the Annunciation, the Nativity, along with her role in Jesus' presentation in the temple, the flight into Egypt, finding young Jesus in the temple, family life in Nazareth, the death of St. Joseph, the marriage feast at Cana, Pentecost and Mary's coronation.
There is also a stained-glass window depicting the Sacred Heart appearing to St. Margaret Mary Alocoque, who was considered a Celt with Gaelic roots by Irish immigrants instrumental in building this church.
Splendiferous Scenery
Several early parishioners have left their mark in other ways. McGovern, who grew up in this parish, remembers that every time his grandmother, Alice Donahue, took him to Mass as a child, she'd bless herself, look up to the ceiling, and say, “God have mercy on Kathy Devers' soul.” When he finally asked why she did that, his grandmother explained that Devers' face was depicted above — not once, but a dozen times.
Over and over the woman was the model for the angels connected with three enormous, mural-like canvas paintings that line the flat central portion of the vaulted ceiling.
Many early parishioners whose names may now be forgotten remain inside the church because they too modeled their faces for these splendiferous scenes — the Annunciation, the Assumption, and Mary's coronation in Heaven. Michael O‘Donnell, a young local artist who happened to be a cousin of McGovern's, painted these holy views between 1923–25.
All these heavenly images surround visitors and also busloads of pilgrims who attend the national shrine's biggest annual celebration to honor Our Lady of Guadalupe, held on the Sunday before the official Dec. 12 feast. This year's Dec. 9 celebration is to include the blessing of flowers for the sick and a solemn procession of the flowers filling a tilma carried by seminarians, and veneration of a glove of Padre Pio.
Of course, Our Lady of Guadalupe is patroness of the pro-life movement in a special way. After she appeared, the Aztec practice of human sacrifice soon completely ended, and more than 8 million Indians were converted within seven years. People can pray here for the end of abortion in our country and the accompanying conversions.
What Mary did once through her miraculous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, she can do again in our time.
Joseph Pronechen writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.
----- EXCERPT: National Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Allentown, Pa. ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joseph Pronechen ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Portrait of the Artist as an Evangelist DATE: 12/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:A native of Sivas, Turkey, and a Muslim convert to the Catholic faith, Meltem Aktas works as a painter and iconographer in her studio, Imago, in Chicago.
Her works combine Turkish, Byzantine and medieval elements, and she has been commissioned for projects by Italy's San Giovanni Rotondo, the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, N.M., and the National Catholic Rural Life Conference in Washington, D.C.. She spoke with features correspondent Tim Drake.
Did you grow up in a devout Muslim home?
I have a liberal father and a religious mother. She prays her path of five times a day. She is neither fundamentalist nor conservative. Interestingly, when I was growing up the town where we lived bordered with Syria where there were a lot of Christians and our house was next to an orthodox monastery. I remember sitting on our balcony watching the orthodox monks meditating in their garden. All the while my mother was teaching me the Islamic prayers. I was being exposed to both worlds.
How did your conversion to the Catholic faith come about?
When I came to the United States, I had the opportunity to visit monasteries to study. It was natural as an artist to feel a calling to icons. I wanted to learn early painting and I picked an icon of St. Marina to copy in order to learn iconography. Painting the icon was a profound experience. St. Marina has a very interesting story and it was one that I could relate with. My conversion 14 years ago was a very personal calling. I felt called, and felt comfort in this form of religion, while respecting all religions.
While your icons bear some resemblance to traditional icons, they are unique. What do you hope to do with your art?
Yes, they are religious paintings, depicting religious subjects, but they do not look quite like traditional icons. They are meant to be prayed with. I studied both traditional icons and early Flemish painting. The Flemish paintings are amazing … so full of passion and poetry and expression. Their style has affected me. My own style is a combination of both.
I paint primarily for Catholic Churches. Icons typically come from an Eastern tradition and it used to be that only orthodox men could paint them. So, it is rare that I, as a female convert from Islam, am doing iconography. I try to follow the path of fasting and praying as I paint. The traditional icons have a look that is both serious and severe. You might have a baby that looks like an adult in a baby's body with a divine, serious look. In our time, we have much more of a nurturing conception of God. We want to be able to see holy people and a God that we can relate to. That is where my personal art enters. I try to convey that message of connection between the divine and human beings and the fact that the whole purpose of icons is not the image itself, but the image is a vehicle that takes you into a transcendent world. In my way of thinking, the more welcoming the image is, the more open we are to the divine world and the more it calls us to prayer.
Have you read Pope John Paul's letter artists? What was your reaction?
Yes, I have and I agree with what he is saying. I was happy to see his recognition that an artist plays a role in the spiritual world.
Fortunately, that is part of our job — to bring that spirit back that had been lost for so long. So much of our music and art and paintings started with Church art. Timeless, powerful pieces come from a spiritual source. When that union takes place, the work transforms to a universal language, and I think it goes beyond the individual artist. Years later, when the artist is long gone, something that they have created in love continues on. The work has a life of its own. That is why when you walk in front of Jewish, or Buddhist, or Christian art you are taken to a different place. You're much more drawn into it and you walk away with awe.
What are you working on at present?
I'm currently working on one of six large icons for St. Barnabas Church in Beverly, Illinois. The five-foot icon I am working on is of Elizabeth Ann Seton. I have a particular love of children and have enjoyed reading about her life and her devotion to children. Reading about her life has been quite inspiring and I look forward to painting the icon. The project is important to me because we feel it will be the first shrine dedicated solely to American saints. It will be completed and hanging in the Church in time for her feast day, Jan. 4.
----- EXCERPT: Muslim convert's icons lift up our hearts to the Lord ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly Video Picks DATE: 12/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:Calle 54 (2000)
Music-performance films are difficult to sustain beyond two or three numbers. Without a compelling personality or narrative the viewer quickly loses interest. Madrid-based filmmaker Fernando Trueba triumphantly sails over these obstacles by mixing lush production numbers with hand-held interviews with the lead musicians. His Calle 54 is a passionate feature-length documentary about Latin jazz and its most talented practitioners. Unlike the celebrated Buena Vista Social Club, it doesn't confine itself to a particular place or style.
The music, of mainly Cuban and Puerto Rican origin, is a joyous fusion of samba, flamenco and meringue rhythms with classic Dizzy Gillespie-like jazz sounds. The most touching sequence is the father-andson reunion between pianists Bebo and Chucho Valdez who were separated by Fidel Castro's revolution. They awkwardly become re-acquainted on camera and then try to top each other with virtuosi performances.
The Man Who Would Be King (1975)
Golden-age Hollywood adventure yarns didn't strain for their thrills or laughs. The action and humor sprang organically from the characters and exotic locales. The Man Who Would Be King, directed by John Huston (The Maltese Falcon) from Rudyard Kipling's short story, is one of last and best of this vanished genre. Daniel Dravot (Sean Connery) and Peachy Carnehan (Michael Caine) are British ex-soldiers who journey into the hills of Kafiristan (a province in Eastern Afghanistan now called Nuristan) to make their fortune in 1880.
Setting out from the office of Kipling (Christopher Plummer), who was then a journalist in India, the scheming pair plan to train a primitive tribe in modern warfare and help its king conquer its neighbors. In the process, they intend to “subvert that king and loot the kingdom four ways from Sunday.” Their success brings more problems than the many hardships they have to endure to achieve it. Huston's tongue-in-cheek attitudes about his scoundrel-heroes and British imperialism keep the story fresh for contemporary audiences.
General Della Rovere (1959)
A person's discovery of a moral code can spring from strange circumstances. General Della Rovere, based on a real-life incident, is a powerful, well-constructed drama about a criminal who finds his own morality by imitating another's.
Director Roberto Rossellini (Open City and The Flowers of St. Francis) skillfully recreates the wartime atmosphere of Genoa, Italy during the Nazi occupation of the winter of 1943–4. The Gestapo accidentally kills resistance leader, Gen. della Rovere. The local German commandant, Col. Mueller (Hannes Messemer), persuades a devious swindler, Bardone (Vittorio De Sica), to impersonate the partisan hero. With this false identity, Bardone is placed in a Milan jail, where he's ordered to find another resistance leader with whom the real della Rovere intended to meet. Bardone enjoys the respect with which he's treated as a brave partisan. When put to the test, he too becomes a hero.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: ... The Vatican's Statement On Education and Religion DATE: 12/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:MADRID, Spain — Here is the text of an address given Nov. 24 by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, head of a Holy See delegation at a conference on education relative to religious liberty. The conference ran Nov. 23–25.
RELIGION PLAYS A CENTRAL
ROLE IN THE LIVES OF MILLIONS
The United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination based on Religion or Belief notes that “religion or belief, for anyone who professes either, is one of the fundamental elements in his conception of life” (Preamble). The recent Durban World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance recalled how “religion, spirituality and belief play a central role in the lives of millions of women and men, and in the way they live and treat other persons.”
This “International Consultative Conference on School Education in relation to Freedom of Religion or Belief, Tolerance and Non-Discrimination” comes at an opportune time. In an increasingly interdependent world, we feel the need urgently to rediscover the roots of what humankind has in common. Religious education is a powerful instrument to help believers intensify their efforts towards the realization of the unity of the one human family.
School education is a key factor in fostering understanding and tolerance among religious communities. It must likewise be a key factor, in often increasingly pluralist or secularised societies, in fostering tolerance among all for religious expression and in ensuring religious freedom for all.
EVERY RELIGION CAN BE
A FERTILE GROUND
FOR PROMOTING HUMAN RIGHTS
The question of religious freedom was the object of a special Declaration of the Second Vatican Council. On the specific question of education — in language which is mirrored in both the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and in the Declaration on the Elimination of All Form of Intolerance and Discrimination based on Religion or Belief — the Vatican Council's Declaration stresses that parents “have the right to decide in accordance with their own religious beliefs the form of religious education which is to be given to their children,” and it adds, “parents should not be subjected directly or indirectly to unjust burdens because of this freedom of choice.” Governments have the obligation to ensure that parents can attain full realization of these fundamental rights.
Religious freedom constitutes a fundamental human right and can certainly be considered one of the cornerstones of the edifice of human rights, because it touches such an intimate sphere of human existence and personal identity, the relationship between the person and the Transcendent.
Every religion, just as every culture, is capable of fully fostering all human rights and indeed of providing the fertile ground in which respect for human rights and the respect for the dignity of all can take root. It is possible — as can be seen, for example, in the practice of so many Catholic school systems, which now reach over 200,000 — for each religious tradition to educate its young members fully in the tenets of its own belief and at the same time create within them a spirit of openness to and respect for the religious traditions of others. Educational institutions established by a particular religious tradition can be open to and fully respectful of the rights of children of different religious traditions who attend them. This conference could profitably initiate a process of sharing best practices in this regard.
RELIGIOUS VALUES CONTRIBUTE
TO THE ORGANIZATION
AND INSPIRATION OF SOCIETY
The declaration of the Second Vatican Council notes that religious freedom also includes “the right of religious groups not to be prevented from freely demonstrating the special value of their teachings for the organization of society and the inspiration of human activity in general.” Religious discourse, if presented within the framework of democratic debate, has the right to full citizenship in every society.
To deny respect for such discourse would be to impose a limit on people to express their most deep-felt sentiments. Unfortunately, all too often, religion is superficially presented in contemporary society only in the context of division and intolerance, rather than its capacity to foster respect and unity.
Obviously, religious freedom must be exercised in such a way that it fully respects the views and the religious traditions of others. Curricula for school-based religious education — in both religious and public educational institutions — should include programs that foster a more accurate and a more sensitive knowledge and understanding of a broad range of religious traditions. Education to sensitive respect for the religious values of others belongs to the education of believers and non-believers alike. Much unhealthy and negative stereotyping of religious traditions springs from a lack of knowledge or from the lack of an open and sympathetic understanding of the tenets of another's religious traditions.
Stringent efforts should be made by religious communities and their leaders to prevent religious factors from being used to exacerbate already existing historical, ethnic, social or political divisions.
Fundamental religious values should rather be directed towards rejecting violence as a means of resolving disputes.
Similarly, religious leaders should be attentive to reject false interpretations of religious tenets that offend human dignity or the unity of the human family. Religious-based school systems should ensure especially that girls have full access to education.
A FUTURE OF DIALOGUE, UNDERSTANDING AND RESPECT
Where mutual respect develops among religious groups, it becomes possible for all to work more effectively for the common good, without anyone renouncing his or her deep-felt convictions. It becomes possible to address tensions that may have arisen in the past.
It becomes possible to re-read history together, in order to reach a better understanding of the hurts that individual religious communities may have caused or have suffered.
This is a theme that has been particularly developed by Pope John Paul II, for example, at a special ceremony of repentance that was held during the Jubilee Year of 2000 or during his visit to significant centers of worship of other confessions and religions.
Honestly addressing the tensions of the past generates a strong force for the construction of a different future and for the beginnings of a process of reconciliation and healing.
The formation of future teachers should pay special attention to their ability to sensitively address divisive historical issues. Where necessary, school textbooks and curricula should be revised to remove harmful or unbalanced presentations of other religious traditions and historical events.
The task of fostering inter-religious dialogue belongs in the first place to religious leaders themselves.
Such dialogue should be extended to include the widest possible sector of each religious community, with special attention being given to young persons. All educational establishments can and should be open to such respectful dialogue, which respects the specific values of the religious traditions of each individual and opens out to the values of others.
It is to be hoped that this International Consultative Conference will be an important impetus worldwide to such a process of dialogue, understanding and respect.
(Vatican translation)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 12/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:True Diversity
Faced with a legal challenge from the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and pressure from the U.S. Department of Education, the association's accrediting committee announced in November that it would abandon the proposal in light of “recent Supreme Court decisions that show an increased deference to First Amendment interests over anti-discrimination statutes and the committee's role as an accrediting body recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.”
McGuire's Court
MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY
— The Jesuit university's men's basketball team is playing its home games on the new Al McGuire court at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee this season. McGuire, a legendary Marquette basketball coach in the 1960s and ‘70s and a long-time NBC broadcaster, died of acute leukemia in Milwaukee last January. An inspirational speaker, McGuire frequently drew on his experiences of the Catholic faith.
Opus Dei College
Philly Status Quo?
Flag Wavers
From a distance of 40 yards, the flag looks conventional. But when you walk up to it, you say, “Wow, this thing is made out of hands,” said Gary Klimek, a parent of two pupils at St. Philip, located within the Diocese of Pittsburgh.
The flag was made as a gift to comfort the Catholic school children of New York following the Sept. 11 terrorist attack and is currently making the rounds of parochial schools near Ground Zero, the former site of the World Trade Center in Manhattan. Klimek came up with the idea four days after the attack, while talking with other parents. “We said, ‘You know, we need to do something as a group. The kids feel like they need to do something.’ “
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joe Cullen ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Mother Teresa: The Paradox of Her Severe Joy DATE: 12/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:MOTHER TERESA: ESSENTIAL WRITINGS
Selected by Jean Maalouf
Orbis Books, 2001
143 pages, $15
To order: (800) 258–5838 or www.orbisbooks.com
“The presence of God is fidelity to small things,” writes Mother Teresa. “Infidelity to small things will lead you to sin.” Her Spartan poignancy can be startling.
The “saint of Calcutta” has already been informally canonized by a broad spectrum of humanity, Catholic and non-Catholic alike. She died in 1997, leaving an indelible footprint on the history of the 20th century; these writings hint at how.
In introducing the selections, author Jean Maalouf offers a succinct biographical sketch, then presents the writings so as to reveal five of Mother's most outstanding qualities — focused, prayerful, loving, joyful and fulfilled. In this way, Maalouf profiles the heart of Mother Teresa's vision and shines a light on the spiritual forces that motivated her to found the Missionaries of Charity in 1950 (whose members now carry on her work in India and 100 other countries).
Mother Teresa challenged people to change their conception and way of life. She followed a particular path toward holiness, and with a clarity of purpose that transcended the image the media tried to create for her.
“At the end of life,” she once said, “we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made, how many great things we have done. We will be judged by ‘I was hungry and you gave me to eat. I was naked and your clothed me. I was homeless and you took me in.’
“Hungry not for bread — but hungry for love; naked not only for clothing — but naked for human dignity and respect; homeless not only for want of a room of bricks — but homeless because of rejection. This is Christ in distressing disguise.”
Relying totally on God's providence, Mother Teresa exuded boundless compassion for the poor. She demonstrated both a contemplative and an active lifestyle and lived in simplicity. She reflected an astounding, unceasing, radical and contagious joy.
Some have criticized her for being too tough, too austere, too obsessed with bodily mortification. Others have objected to the fact that she did not fight to change oppressive social structures, and accepted charitable donations without regard for the (sometimes dubious) motives of the giver. Few, however, doubt the integrity of her vocation. She was neither a philosopher nor a theologian. She simply lived her Christian disciple-ship in the most simple, direct way she knew.
In order to spread joy, joy needs to reign in the family. Peace and war start within one's own home. If we really want peace for the world, let us start by loving one another within families. If abortion is permitted in wealthy countries that have all the means that money can buy, those countries are the poorest among the poor. A winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Mother Teresa claimed it not so much as a social worker but as a religious sister who sought to awaken others into Christ's love and into the duty of becoming holy, no matter what the place, time or circumstance might be for them.
The author's obvious grasp of Mother Teresa's basic but expansive message is well reflected in his selections. These writings will inspire the layman, challenge the scholar, and show, between the lines, why humanity stands in awe of their author.
Wayne A. Holst is an instructor in religion and culture at the University of Calgary.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Wayne A. Holst ----- KEYWORDS: Books -------- TITLE: Bringing the Faith to a World That Fights It DATE: 12/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:THE TRUTH OF CATHOLICISM: TEN CONTROVERSIES EXPLORED
by George Weigel
HarperCollins/Cliff Street, 2001
208 pages, $24
Available in bookstores or at www.harpercollins.com
Here is an outstanding work of contemporary apologetics from the author who brought us the definitive biography of Pope John Paul II, Witness to Hope. In this volume, much slimmer and nearly as important, George Weigel proposes a number of questions — the controversies of the title — that vex the modern mind struggling to comprehend the Church, followed by the orthodox Catholic answer to each. The queries are well-chosen, the responses carefully thought-through, and the style a lively brand of straight-talk.
Is Jesus the only Savior? Does belief in God demean us? Where do we find the “real world”?
Such are the kinds of questions that frame the discussion early on. Weigel explains the Catholic view of space and time, deriving, as it does, from the Incarnation as a virtual re-setting of the historical timeline — and as an opportunity to recover the story line humanity forgot about itself as a result of the fall.
“To think of Christ as the center of the universe and of history is to look at the world in a different and evocative way,” he writes. “Through the prism of faith we learn that world history and what believers call ‘salvation history’ do not run on parallel tracks. Rather, in the Catholic view of things salvation history — the story of God's encounter with history, which reaches its dramatic climax in Jesus Christ — is world history, read in its true depth. Salvation history, God's search for us, is the inner dynamic of the human story, the engine of human history.
How shall we live? The Ten Commandments and the moral teachings of the Catholic Church are the laws that liberate, according to Weigel. They are the habits of free men and women who were brought out from the bondage of Egypt. If the Ten Commandments are ignored, we become slaves to our sin. Catholic moral teaching is far more than a list of “thou shalt nots,” but the way to live to be worthy of heaven. Adjust the Ten Commandments and there will be adjusted results.
How should we love? The Catholic Church views sex, notes Weigel, as a beautiful and wonderful gift within the sacrament of matrimony. The selfishness of contraception and lust, which treat women as objects, demeans the beauty of love, sex and marriage.
Why do we suffer? The Catholic faith is the only religion, Weigel shows, that can make sense out of suffering, because of its deep connection with suffering and redemption, perfected and exemplified by Christ on the cross.
Is Catholicism safe for democracy? Perhaps no other issue has involved the Church in America so much as the abortion debate. Weigel asserts: “A society which permits lethal violence as a means of resolving a personal dilemma is not a society fully governed by the rule of law; it is a society governed in crucial respects by the rule of raw unchecked power.”
What will become of us? Weigel refers to the canonized saints as God's “prime numbers.” Saints are not limited to the era of the early Christian martyrs. Weigel points out that more Christians died for their faith in the 20th century than in all previous 19 centuries combined.
The Truth of Catholicism tells it like it is to a world that prefers debate to dialogue. It's a must-read for every Catholic willing to help make disciples of all nations at this moment in salvation history.
Mary C. Walsh writes from Fredericksburg, Virginia.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mary C. Walsh ----- KEYWORDS: Books -------- TITLE: A 'Just Right' Guide to the 'Christmas' Gospel DATE: 12/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:IGNATIUS CATHOLIC STUDY BIBLE: THE GOSPEL OF LUKE
With introduction, commentary and notes by Scott Hahn and Curtis Mitch, and with study questions by Dennis Walters
Ignatius Press, 2001
82 pages, $9.95
To order: (800) 651–1531 or www.ignatius.com
Many Scripture commentaries in recent years have erred by being too technical. Some are more concerned with theories about the documents than with the truths that the Gospels convey. At the other extreme, some go too far in their efforts to be “relevant,” giving such a narrow, ideological reading that they quickly become dated.
The commentary on the Gospel of Luke which forms a part of the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible is “just right.” Commentator Scott Hahn brings to his work not only a great love for Scripture and a wealth of knowledge, but also the unusual perspective of a former Protestant preacher who now stands in the Catholic tradition of interpreting Sacred Scripture. The result is the best of both worlds: a rich and thoughtful commentary that guides the reader to experience the Gospel as a “living and active” Word.
Every page is packed with valuable, carefully selected information. The top half is devoted to the text of Luke's Gospel, in the Revised Standard Version (Second Catholic Edition). A narrow band along the middle lists Scriptural cross-references. The lower half of the page is filled with annotations in telephone-book type, tiny but legible. Occasional boxes with maps, word studies, charts or topical essays add considerable depth and perspective to the treatment.
The crisp, clear format is matched by the style of the commentary: “Zechariah and Elizabeth live in faithful observance of the Old Covenant (Deut 6:25; Is 48:18). … Mystically (St. Bede, In Lucam), Zechariah and Elizabeth represent the priesthood and Law of the Old Covenant. Both were righteous, as the priest-hood was holy and the Law was good, but together they were unable to bear children for God or bring forth the grace of Christ. The couple thus signifies the aging Old Covenant awaiting the blessings of the New.”
Hahn and Mitch frequently highlight connections between the Old and New Testaments, pointing out the fulfillment of prophecies and also echoes of older biblical books. They demonstrate that Mary is like the Ark of the Covenant and that Jesus' trial was similar to Jeremiah's — not because some clever scholar drew these parallels, but because the Gospel writer intended them as part of his message.
Concisely but thoroughly, Hahn and Mitch also relate Gospel passages to the Church's liturgy and teachings, often referring to the Catechism and other magisterial documents. This comprehensive approach acknowledges that Scripture is divinely inspired and inerrant, and that the truths of the faith form an organic whole.
The study questions at the back of the booklet are of two sorts. The questions “for understanding” quiz the reader on the commentary rather than on the Gospel text itself. (Still, it's worth reviewing lessons learned from such fine Scripture professors.) The questions “for application” are quite personal and often refreshingly blunt: “What does Simon's mother-in-law do when Jesus heals her? How has Jesus' grace in your life influenced your social behavior?”
The study helps which have been so meticulously compiled for this commentary on Luke's Gospel open up marvelous vistas onto this world and the next. The volume is one of a projected series of Scriptural commentaries. It deserves wide circulation and careful, meditative reading.
And, with St. Luke's detailed descriptions of the Annunciation, Visitation and Birth of Christ, it will make for an ideal stocking-stuffer.
Michael J. Miller writes from Glenside, Pennsylvania.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Michael J. Miller ----- KEYWORDS: Books -------- TITLE: Family Matters DATE: 12/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:What T.A.L.K. Stands For
Q Whenever I try to talk to my husband about something he does wrong, he's sullen and unresponsive. How can I do it without upsetting him?
A Presentation is everything. In our marriage we quickly learned that half the battle was not what we said, but how we said it. So we came up with four ideas — that we remember by the letters of the word TALK — to help us “speak the truth in love.”
T. Turn the pronoun around. If you say, “You always leave your underwear on the bathroom floor — I'm not your slave,” you've immediately put your spouse on the defensive. Instead focus the words on yourself and how you feel: “When you leave your underwear on the floor, it makes me feel like a maid.” It may seem like a subtle difference, but it frees your spouse to respond lovingly.
A. Accentuate the positive. “Thou shalt not nag” is a good house rule. Don't bring up a criticism until you've given your spouse at least two compliments that you really mean.
L. Leave out the absolutes. We're tempted to shout, “You're always in a grumpy mood! You never help me with the kids!” Always, never — these absolute statements also put your spouse on defense. (Besides, no one is always in the wrong!) Think of a specific way you'd like your spouse to help, and then say: “I'd really love it if you would play with the kids when I'm trying to get dinner ready.”
K. Keep to the subject. If you bring up an issue, it's not helpful to add things from the past — like the time he didn't tell you his buddies were coming over for the Super Bowl. If you've worked through a difficult issue in the past, leave it there.
When the waters get choppy in the McDonald house, it usually means we're not following these four steps.
Tom & Caroline McDonald are the co-directors of the family life office of the Archdiocese of Mobile.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tom and Caroline Mcdonald ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: How (and Why) to Return to Confession DATE: 12/09/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 9-15, 2001 ----- BODY:The National Catholic Register's Clip-Out and Pass-On Guide for Advent, 2001 — Week 2
Reason 1 The presence of sin can easily lead to depression and anxiety.
Step 1 Examine your conscience … using the Ten Commandments or an available guide.
Reason 2 Mortal sin, unconfessed, “causes exclusion from Christ's Kingdom and the eternal death of hell, for our freedom has the power to make choices forever, with no turning back” (Catechism, No. 1861).
Reason 3 As they leave the confessional, people smile a smile of freedom.
Step 2 You have the choice of facing the priest or speaking through a screen.
Step 3 There are no special words you need to say. Greet the priest, and tell him how long it has been since your last confession. If it's been a while, he'll help you.
Reason 4 You will grow in sincerity, humility and self-knowledge.
Reason 5 Because love means having to say you are sorry to the One you love.
Step 4 Be concise, clear, complete and contrite. You have to confess mortal sins and give a sense of how often. Don't be embarrassed. You're not going to tell the priest anything he hasn't already heard.
Reason 6 You shower to show respect for those around you. Cleansing your soul makes you better to be around, too!
Reason 7 Mother Teresa thought she had to go. Frequently.
Reason 8 Hoping to convert on your deathbed? That's not very likely. More likely, you will die as you lived.
Reason 9 It is itself a serious sin to go to Communion if you have serious sin on your soul and have not asked for forgiveness in confession.
Confession Definition “For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must together be met: ‘Mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent’” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 1857).
Step 5 The priest won't scold you. In fact, if you've had a tough confession, he'll show you extra care. Your penance won't be arduous.
Reason 10 Don't be scared to death of confession. Be scared of death without confession.
Grave Matter What constitutes “grave matter”? Some common sins: Missing Sunday Mass, any sex outside marriage (including pornography and masturbation), serious theft, abortion and contraception, defamation of character, purposely getting drunk.
Step 6 Then you'll make an act of contrition. Look in a prayer book for a longer one, or simply say:
“Jesus, I am truly sorry for my sins and, with your grace, I will try to sin no more.”
Reason 11 Be strong. Face your sins, deal with them and move on.
Step 7 Do your penance right away, before leaving the church if possible.
Step 8 Christ has forgiven and forgotten your sins. As far as he's concerned, you've got a clean slate.
Reason 12 Make sure there are no unpleasant surprises at your particular judgment or at the final judgment.
Reason 13 The priest will listen to your soul and will never tell a soul on pain of losing his soul. Priests even learn to forget what they hear.
Concerns Answers
Can't I talk to God directly, not a priest, to get forgiveness?
Not according to the Bible. Read John 20:21-23; 2 Corinthians 2:10; and 2 Corinthians 5:18.
If God knows everything we do, then how come we have to go to Confession?
You may know your younger brother broke your CD player, but wouldn't it be aggravating if he knew you knew, but still didn't say “I'm sorry?”
Doesn't God forgive no matter what?
If we think of sin as merely breaking rules, it is hard to understand why God can't just “look the other way.” But sin is real; it hurts us and makes us distant from him — and unable to enter heaven. We can only be restored if we confess.
Confession just gives people the idea that it's all right to sin as long as you're sorry later.
If a man is confessing drunkenness while he has plans with his buddies to go barhopping and get drunk again the coming weekend, he can't be forgiven. He has to have decided to stop. Confession stops sins; it doesn't start them.
Content: Martha Fernandez-Sardina (adw.org/evangel/office.html), Father Richard Gill, LC (legionofchrist.org), Father C. John McCloskey (cicdc.org), Matthew Pinto (ascensionpress.org); Edward Sri and Curtis Martin (focusonline.org). Art: Tim Rauch. Photos: AFP. Extra copies: ncregister.com
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life ----- TITLE: Missile Shield Morality: A Duty or a Distraction? DATE: 12/16/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 16-22, 2002 ----- BODY:VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — This month, the U.S military completed its third successful test of an anti-ballistic missile, knocking a Minuteman II missile out of the air 100 miles above the South Pacific with an interceptor missile launched from the South Pacific atoll of Kwajalein.
This latest demonstration of the potential of the anti-missile defense initiative has renewed the debate among Catholics over whether such a system is moral, or prudent.
President Bush certainly thinks it is. In mid-October, Bush said that he would ask Russian President Vladimir Putin to support the U.S. plans, and ask Putin to “envision a world in which a terrorist thug and/or host nation might have the ability to develop — to deliver a weapon of mass destruction via a rocket. And wouldn't it be to our nations’ advantage to be able to shoot it down?”
But while the tragedies of Sept. 11 have greatly intensified the debate over anti-ballistic missile defense, the war on terrorism has done little to alter the arguments on both sides.
“It is the moral obligation of any government, in fact its first duty, to defend its citizens from foreign attack,” said theologian William Marshner of Christendom College in Front Royal, Va.
“No one could have expected the September attacks, so the government is blameless for not preventing it,” he said. “But the threat of intercontinental ballistic missiles is entirely predictable; and so the government is morally obligated to provide a defense against it.”
On the contrary, says David Robinson, the Erie, Pa.-based national coordinator of the Catholic peace lobby, Pax Christi. The attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon have proven that “a ballistic missile is the least likely threat against the United States, that a far more likely threat is a low-cost delivery system, like a [weapon of mass destruction] smuggled in a cargo container.”
Robinson's opposition to missile defense is widely shared by anti-war activists, including actor Martin Sheen, who plays President Josiah Bartlett on TV's West Wing series. Sheen was arrested in October 2000 in connection with an anti-“Star Wars” protest at Vandenberg Air Force.
But the federal government has signaled that it is growing less tolerant of such protests. While Sheen pleaded guilty in June to misdemeanor trespassing and escaped with a $500 fine, 17 Greenpeace activists arrested at another anti-missile shield protest in July were charged with the felony of “conspiracy to violate a safety zone.” If convicted, the protestors face penalties of up to six years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Strategic analyst Baker Spring of Washington's Heritage Institute disagrees with Pax Christi's Robinson about the likelihood of a missile attack launched by a rogue regime. Warned Spring, “Right now, the method of attack against the United States that has the greatest probability of success is a missile, because we have some defense against everything else.”
Spring explained that the United States already has workable methods of defense against other possible means of delivering a nuclear device — a possible “cargo container bomb” could be detected by customs agents and Geiger counters, for example.
Said Spring, “The North Koreans could have an ICBM with a light warhead in a little over a year, the Chinese already have one, and I count at least 30 states that could put an intermediate range missile on a cargo ship, 300 miles off our shore.”
U.S. bishops spokesman Bill Ryan said that the U.S. bishops have made no particular comment on “the Bush plan” for limited anti-missile defense to forestall “rogue regimes.” But in the wake of Sept. 11, the conference has referred to its 1993 statement “The Harvest of Justice is Sown in Peace.”
In the 1993 statement, the bishops call for “a vision of a just and stable political order, so that nations will no longer rely on nuclear weapons for their security.” But they also acknowledge “the threat of global nuclear war has been replaced by a threat of global nuclear proliferation. In addition to the declared nuclear powers, a number of other countries have or could very quickly deploy nuclear weapons, and still other nations, or even terrorist groups, might seek to obtain or develop nuclear weapons.”
But the bishops’ document is light on practical advice on how to address that potential threat. Its only concrete suggestion is that the existing nuclear powers must “bear a heavy moral responsibility” to curtail the spread of weapons of mass destruction.
Christendom's Marshner argues that leaving the United States undefended and relying on the Cold War doctrine of “mutually assured destruction,” which held that neither the United States nor its main nuclear rival the Soviet Union should seek to gain the ability to win a nuclear war without being obliterated in retaliation, may or may not have made sense before. But it makes no sense today.
That doctrine may have seemed prudent when dealing with relatively rational states like the Soviet Union, Marshner said, although the Church has always branded it as immoral. But today, with the possibility of a few missiles falling into the hands “rogue regimes” that are unlikely to fear retaliation, the federal government is obliged at least to investigate the possibility of a real defense.
Strategic analyst Spring shares that view. “When mutually assured destruction had two scorpions in the bottle, it might have seemed rational to keep them both vulnerable to each other,” he said. “But what happens when there's 10, 15 or 20 scorpions?”
Missiles Into Plowshares?
Pax Christi's Robinson counters that the $8 billion now being planned for ABM research yearly would provide greater security if spent on economic and social development. Some of the seven countries commonly designated as potential rogues — North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Sudan and Cuba — have medium-range missiles, but all are thought to be at least 10 years from developing intercontinental missiles. And if ever they get that technology, Robinson predicted, “they would surely be able to develop decoy devices” to defeat an ABM system.
Further, Robinson said, the sort of ABM defense the Bush administration is currently seeking — “boost phase” defenses intended to shoot down missiles before they can deploy warheads and decoys — is “inherently destabilizing.” Those defenses generally must be located far off U.S. shores, within 600 miles of a suspected enemy, a threatening gesture that must “increase the vulnerability for both sides,” in Robinson's view.
Marshner rejects the argument that foreign states will see an ABM defense system as a component of American imperialism.
“Every state in history has tried to provide itself with an adequate defense against its potential enemies,” he says. “States can't justly be accused of imperial ambitions, simply because they're trying to defend their citizens and their commerce.”
And, as the recent experience with Afghanistan's terrorist-sponsoring Taliban regime demonstrated, the United States can't base its foreign policy simply on the good will of foreign powers. Instead, it must rely either on defense or retaliation, and the Church has always repudiated the “total war” implications of retaliation, Marshner pointed out.
“It's the duty of every country to find discriminating weaponry, weapons that will cause no more collateral damage than absolutely necessary,” Marshner said. “Just-War theory requires that; so what could be more just than weapons that target the enemy's weapons?”
Joe Woodard is based In Calgary, Alberta.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joe Woodard ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: O Troubled Town of Bethlehem DATE: 12/16/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 16-22, 2002 ----- BODY:BETHLEHEM — While Christians in all nations turn their thoughts toward Bethlehem, the town itself will be eerily quiet. Children around the world will sing Silent Night. But in Bethlehem all is not calm, and all is not bright.
There will be silence in Bethlehem this Christmas, but it will not be a serene silence broken only by the happy gurgling of a newborn baby. The silence this year in Bethlehem will be pregnant with fear, the silence that descends after the heavy guns go quiet. There will be silence in Bethlehem this year — a somber silence broken only by the sobs of mothers mourning their children.
Given the violence that has afflicted Bethlehem in the last several months, the heads of the 13 Christian Churches in Jerusalem decided to cancel the public festivities usually held in Bethlehem — so there will be no Christmas lights, minimal Christmas decorations, fewer Christmas concerts.
As usual, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Michel Sabbah, will celebrate Midnight Mass in the Church of the Nativity, but aside from the usual liturgical celebrations, there will be little else.
Christmas has not been canceled in Bethlehem this year, but to many — especially those who depend on pilgrims for their livelihood — it will seem like it.
Violence between Israelis and Palestinians has roiled the West Bank (where Bethlehem is located, a short drive from Jerusalem) since the 1967 war and subsequent Israeli occupation, and in particular since the first Palestinian intifada (uprising) in 1987.
But this year has been especially bloody. The Israeli armed forces occupied Bethlehem for 10 days in October and 22 Palestinians were killed in clashes with soldiers.
The Israeli government has defended the attacks in the Palestinian territories as necessary measures against continuing terror attacks, including shelling by Palestinians of the Jewish settlement of Gilo and the assassination of an Israeli Cabinet minister. The cycle of claims and counter-claims continues, but Bethlehem has been shaken by the violence, which has arrived at Manger Square itself, the center of the town of 14,000 Muslims and 13,000 Christians.
On Oct. 19, Israeli troops reached within a quarter-mile of the Square and the Church of the Nativity. Nativity Street itself is now a mile-long strip of gutted hotels, bulldozed shops and buildings pockmarked by bullets.
And then there was the killing of Johnny Talgieh, a 17-year-old Palestinian who served Mass in the Church of the Nativity. He was returning one evening from the church when he was shot in the chest. Palestinian witnesses said that it was a stray bullet from a machine-gun mounted on an Israeli tank. Wherever the bullet came from, the effect was definite — Johnny collapsed and died in Manger Square.
A 12-foot monument has since been erected on the spot, featuring Talgieh's face and verses from St. John Gospel (11:25-26) chiseled into the white stone.
And so the traditional Christmas Tree in Manger Square will be accompanied this year by a silent memorial to the violence. The iron shutters of the shops of Manger Square are not so mute — posters in honor of local gunmen are a common sight, and seething anger against Israeli policy is evident.
Disappearing Pilgrims
I visited Bethlehem last Easter Week, as part of a group of 50 pilgrims. Even then, before the current escalation of violence, there were only a few others.
We were able to make an extended visit to the Grotto of the Nativity — a site where the crush of pilgrims used to permit only a brief stop. Manger Square was likewise deserted, and in the middle of the day we had our pick of many otherwise vacant shops in which to buy religious articles and to eat.
Word arrived last October that the owners of one of the shops we visited awoke one night to find tanks parked outside their home. They did not suffer personal attack like the Taglieh family, but live in fear.
Their home is only a short walk from Manger Square.
Many of the people we met on our pilgrimage send messages to the effect that the situation is beyond desperate, and the even the trickle of visitors of last spring has dried up. The hotels where we stayed in Nazareth and Jerusalem are both closed, their workers laid off, for lack of pilgrims.
The Eyes of Faith
The Church of the Nativity, like many of the Holy Sites, is not a thing of beauty in itself. Given the shared custody of the Holy Sites among the various Christian Churches, most of them languish in a state neglect that ranges from shabby to derelict.
For the American visitor, it is a shock to realize that, for example, most supermarket parking lots are cleaner and better maintained than places like the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
All of which is to say that visiting the Holy Land is a matter of looking with the eyes of faith, for the sensory experience alone is underwhelming in the extreme.
This Christmas in Bethlehem, the eyes of faith will be needed more than ever, as all the other evidence apparently militates against hopes for peace. Sometimes it is possible to see the hand of Providence almost visible in history. Christmas 2001 in Bethlehem is not one of those times.
It is only the eyes of faith that will be able to see, amidst the rubble of broken buildings and broken hearts, that Christmas is the good news of great joy, the coming of a Savior in the City of David.
O little town of Bethlehem,
How still we see thee lie
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep,
The silent stars go by
Yet in the darkness shineth,
The everlasting Light
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight.
Bethlehem lies not still, but angry and grieving this Christmas. The darkness of too many nights has been illuminated only by gunfire and explosions. There are too few hopes and too many fears.
But despite this, perhaps the bleakest Christmas in years, the everlasting light will be proclaimed again. On Christmas morning in the Church of the Nativity they will read the prologue of St. John's Gospel: “He came to his own home, and his own people received him not.”
And those few who are there, in Jesus’ birthplace, will know this is still true.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Raymond J. De Souza ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: New Attitude: Knights Take On the New Evangelization DATE: 12/16/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 16-22, 2002 ----- BODY:NEW HAVEN, Conn. — One thinks of the big plumed hats and the swords. Or the K of C Hall where cousin Sue had her wedding reception. Or maybe the monuments to the unborn victims of abortion.
Get ready to see a new side of the Knights of Columbus, the Catholic fraternal organization.
The public, especially the Catholic laity, may be seeing more of the Knights in the year ahead. Under the leadership of Carl Anderson, the new Supreme Knight, the organization is undertaking an ambitious program of evangelizing, promoting respect for human life and strengthening the family.
On March 25, for example, when the Church celebrates the Annunciation — the angel's announcement that Mary was pregnant, nine months before Christmas — Knights and their families will pray, fast and work to restore respect and protection to unborn children. Anderson introduced a resolution, passed at the Knights’ 119th annual Supreme Council Meeting in Toronto in August, to designate the feast of the Annunciation as an international Knights of Columbus Day for Pro-Life.
“An important aspect of this is that it sends a clear message that life begins at conception, not some indeterminate time in the future,” Anderson told the Register. He hopes the annual observance will take on a significance equal to Jan. 22, the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, in the public consciousness.
But with Jan. 22 in view, Anderson announced an essay contest for students in Catholic schools on “The Responsibility of the Catholic Citizen in a Free Society.” He hopes the contest will encourage study of the Church's social teachings, and help educate Catholics on the crucial difference between the “freedom of choice” that is invoked to justify killing of innocent human beings and the true liberty that does not infringe on the rights of others or the common good.
A New Attitude
The supreme knight has approached his new job with the vigor of a corporate executive who is never quite content with the progress his workers are making but always trying to maximize profits.
“He has a clear direction of what he wants,” said Jean Migneault, deputy supreme knight.
“He brings a youthful enthusiasm in a very quiet way,” said Bishop Thomas Daily of Brooklyn, the organization's supreme chaplain since 1987. “He's full of ideas…of how the Knights can have more of an impact on society and the Church.”
“I'm hesitant to say he has a new vision,” said Tim Hickey, editor of Columbia, the magazine of the Knights of Columbus. “He's building on the vision of his predecessors,” including Virgil Dechant, who was supreme knight for 23 years.
Nevertheless, Anderson has set out a “pretty ambitious program of prayer” and wants to put a “public face” on the organization, Hickey said.
With Anderson at the helm, the Knights have enjoyed a high profile. The 50-year-old Torrington, Conn., native was the only layman from the United States participating in the October World Synod of Bishops. He addressed the bishops gathered at the Vatican with the Pope on the need for greater collaboration of families with the Church in the new evangelization. Just a year before, he spoke at the Third World Meeting of the Holy Father with Families at the Vatican.
The Holy See Mission to the United Nations recognized the Knights recently for being “consistently devoted to supporting the Holy Father and the Holy See on countless initiatives for spreading the Gospel of Christ throughout the world, particularly in their uncompromising defense of the sanctity of human life and the family.”
Archbishop Renato R. Martino, the Vatican's permanent observer at the U.N. and director of the Path to Peace Foundation, presented the Champion of Peace Award to the Knights in a ceremony at Carnegie Hall Nov. 26.
The Knights of Columbus has financially supported the Holy See Mission and the, donating $2 million to the purchase of a Manhattan building where the mission and its Path to Peace Foundation are housed. The organization also supports the Catholic Organizations Information Center at the United Nations.
Accepting the award, Anderson told the gathering that the Knights would be praying the rosary for peace and justice throughout the world on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. He added that the Knights are committed to transmit their country to the next generation “not only not less, but greater, better and more beautiful than it has been transmitted to us.”
Appreciating Anderson's emphasis on the spiritual was Dan Marengo, grand knight of the Agnus Dei Council in Manhattan. “It's a good sign. I sense he's reaching out to us more traditional knights,” said Marengo, a 46-year-old software quality assurance expert. “His initiative for praying the rosary on Dec. 12 is refreshing.”
Indeed, although Anderson has laid a heavy emphasis on increasing membership, he sees that as a way to reach more spiritually oriented goals. Recognizing the crisis of faith in the Real Presence, Anderson said his administration would bring the Knights’ resources to promote devotion to Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.
He encouraged increased prayer before the Blessed Sacrament and increased promotion of corporate Communions, where members of a local council attend Mass and receive the sacrament together to promote unity and devotion to the Eucharist.
Anderson is encouraging Knights to attend the Knights’ first International Eucharistic Congress in June. And he is also encouraging those who cannot get to the event, at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., to take part from a distance by sponsoring corporate Communions in their parishes.
He also wants the organization to boost its membership with younger Knights, and he wants the order to have a significant presence at World Youth Day in Toronto next August.
John Margand, a member of the Agnus Dei Council in Manhattan, said the Knights need to combat the aging of the organization.
“The focus on the social aspect is good, but some councils tend to lose some of their militancy,” he said. Margand, executive director of Project Reach, which supports crisis pregnancy centers, defined that militancy as confronting the culture of death, being outspoken in fighting abortion and defending and advancing the faith.
“Knights are in a position to do that by their example and by catechesis,” he said.
The Knights’ more than has 1.63 million members make them a significant force in the Church. Anderson has also called for more vigorous outreach to Catholics of Hispanic, Asian and African heritage in the United States. “We have nothing less than a moral obligation to realistically offer every eligible Catholic man the opportunity and the privilege of membership,” he said.
As new members come in, Anderson said, “we must continue to institute new councils at an even faster rate …[There is] much to be done to realize Father McGivney's dream of a council in every parish.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Burger ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: U.N. Agency Shuns Women's Health DATE: 12/16/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 16-22, 2002 ----- BODY:LIMA, Peru — It was more than a year ago, when Peru was going through the social and political unrest that would lead to the resignation of President Alberto Fujimori and the incarceration of his spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos. The Lima delegation of the United Nations Population Fund discreetly approached the Ministry of Health to suggest it was time to do some housecleaning on population issues.
The U.N. agency, known as UNFPA, funded a report examining the government's population programs. That report, leaked recently to the Register, confirms that abuses that prompted an international outcry in 1998 have not been eradicated.
But the report has never been publicly released, and UNFPA has maintained its support of Peru's population control program — even though the abuses documented by the report are specifically banned by the Program of Action of the United Nations’ 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo.
The UNFPA-funded investigation into Peru's population control programs arose out of the international scandal over massive forced sterilizations among poor Peruvian peasants. The sterilizations severely damaged the credibility of Fujimori's “exemplary” population control policy, announced by Fujimori at the United Nation's Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995.
In fact, even the openly pro-birth control U.S. Agency for International Development withdrew funding from the Peruvian program when, USAID officials said, “we understood that the Peruvian government was using a quota system to make its sterilization goals.”
In late 1999, when Fujimori's regime was already beginning to collapse, UNFPA finally decided it was important to know how real the allegations against the population control program were.
As part of a project funded by UNFPA, the Peruvian Ministry of Health commissioned six experts of the Cayetano Heredia Medicine School of Lima to carry out an investigation whose results were presented to the ministry in August 2000.
The investigation was conducted between December 1999 and January 2000 at 11 different locations around the country, especially in rural areas, involving visits to some 70 health centers.
Even though the Fujimori government has been out of power since November 2000, and new president Alejandro Toledo was elected in June, the report remains secret — at the direct instruction of UNFPA, sources told the Register.
When contacted Dec. 6, Stirling Scruggs, the UNFPA's director of information, and Marisela Padron Quesa, director of UNFPA's Latin America and Caribbean division, both denied any UNFPA knowledge of the report.
The next day, however, UNFPA's representative in Peru, Mirtha Carrera-Halim, admitted that UNFPA had funded a report with the same title and conducted by the same individuals, but with a different cover date from the version obtained by the Register.
Pressed repeatedly on the matter, Carrera-Halim eventually said, “I suspect that it might be the same [report].”
A copy of the document, entitled “Study on the Quality of Reproductive Health and Family Planning offered by Agencies of the Ministry of Health” and dated August 2000, was given to the Register by a Ministry of Health employee on condition of anonymity.
The investigation team, headed by Drs. Rubén Espinoza and Nancy Palomino, is far from being pro-life: In the report's introduction, the team acknowledges applying a “gender perspective” and an openly pro-birth control approach to their analysis.
Women's Health Neglected
The report's summary states that “the results show that most of the Reproductive Health/Family Planning (RH/FP) personnel is made of very young, female obstetricians with very little expertise in FP.”
In contrast to the undertrained personnel, the “reproductive health care” equipment at the health centers is quite modern, the report found. But the zeal to promote contraception had resulted in the neglect of other key women's health issues.
“There is a good motivation to perform FP activities, nevertheless, health services are mostly focused on contraception,” the report said. As a consequence, “there is a high rate of missed opportunities to detect the two main gynecologic cancers in the country,” that is, uterine and breast cancer.
Dr. Raúl Cantella, a local pro-life leader and president of the Peruvian Foundation for the Prevention of AIDS, Malaria and Tropical Diseases, said “the spending on population control resources was definitely at the expense of investment on medicine and equipment needed to treat other critical diseases.”
Cantella says that Peru has very high rates of tuberculosis, malaria and other serious diseases that require systematic government action.
“Neglecting these health problems to give priority to population control, even in underpopulated areas, is a crime that the new government will have to correct,” Cantella said.
Asked to comment on the findings of the UNFPA-funded report, Carrera-Halim said that she had only become the UNFPA representative in Peru in April and had never seen the report until earlier in the day of her Dec. 7 interview with the Register.
Then, displaying an detailed knowledge of the report's contents, Carrera-Halim pointed out that it had found that 86% of the women who went to the government's “reproductive health” centers had gone there seeking contraceptive methods. This, she suggested, showed that the health centers were simply responding to patient demand by concentrating on contraceptive services.
Coercion Continues
Asked if the patients’ requests for contraceptives might reflect instead an understanding, shared by both patients and health care personnel, that the only real objective of the centers was to promote contraception, Carrera-Halim said, “The study does not establish that, so we do not have a basis to decide that one way or the other.”
The August 2000 report stated that the population control programs retained a tendency to impose birth control methods, including forced sterilization, on patients.
“The concept of ‘reproductive rights’ is frequently reduced to the decision among different contraceptive methods,” said the report. “[T]here were several cases in which the RH/FP providers believed there were situations in which the decision could be ‘external’ to the person.”
According to the report, “There are notorious deficiencies among RH/FP providers regarding the respect of personal and reproductive rights; in this particular field, there is a clear contradiction both in the discourse and the practice, between a formal acknowledgement of the person's rights and its practical denial.”
As examples of this attitude, the report quoted several health workers. Said one, “Some of those people [peasant patients] have a … wrong way of thinking about family planning, you know? [They are] wrong about the different methods … they give excuses, they say, as an example, that [contraceptive] pills make them fat, or give them headaches, or other problems. … After a tubal ligation [sterilization procedure], some of them come and say it is harmful, that they are turning crazy, that they have a pain here or there.”
Dr. Fernando Llanos, president of the Peruvian Institute of Health, said that the attitude reflected by this quote of an anonymous health worker “is a perfect example of what has been happening in the health field: a complete disregard for the human person and an obsession for applying birth control at any cost.”
Llanos said it was revealing that the health worker would cite as an “example” of “how wrong” peasants are by naming “precisely some of the symptoms that are known to be associated with contraceptive pills, like weight gain or headaches.”
Response to the Report
Despite the findings of the August 2000 report, Carrera-Halim rejected the argument that UNFPA has an obligation to withdraw its support from Peru's “reproductive health” programs until it can be demonstrated that the abuses have stopped. “The United Nations does not run governments,” Carrera-Halim said.
UNFPA “monitors” the programs it supports and expresses its concerns through appropriate “channels” to national governments when abuses are reported, Carrera-Halim explained. In Peru, after the allegation of abuses came to light, UNFPA participated in a “tripartite commission” of investigation, composed of representatives of the government, local non-governmental organizations and outside aid agencies.
But Carrera-Halim said it is ultimately up to the Peruvian government, not UNFPA, to make a final judgement whether human-rights abuses have taken place.
Asked if UNFPA shared in the responsibility for the documented abuses in Peru's “reproductive health” initiative, given that UNFPA has helped fund it, Carrera-Halim replied, “I'm not going to answer that question. You can derive your own conclusions.”
Cover-Up?
Carrera-Halim denied the allegation by Ministry of Health sources that UNFPA has ordered the Peruvian government to suppress the August 2000 report. “The study belongs to the government,” she said. “And although we have the right to receive copies … we cannot tell the government what to do with it.”
The reason the report had not yet been released, Carrera-Halim said, was probably that there had been two changes of government since it was submitted to the Fujimori regime last year.
Dr. Cantella expressed skepticism about UNFPA's claims. “I would not be surprised if UNFPA, in fact, had demanded the report not to become public,” he said.
Added the Peruvian doctor, “When even USAID was distancing itself from Fujimori's obviously brutal population control campaign, UNFPA was sticking close, providing founds and even praising Fujimori for its ‘resolve.”
Alejandro Bermúdez is based in Lima, Peru.
----- EXCERPT: U.N.-funded report confirms Peru population control abuses ----- EXTENDED BODY: Alejandro Bermudez ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Faith, $50 and a Ryder Truck DATE: 12/16/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 16-22, 2002 ----- BODY:She is a rarity. A Catholic singer/song-writer who has been embraced by both mainstream and Christian venues.
After releasing “Goodbye Jane” in 1996, she has toured with singers such as Kathy Troccoli, Wes King and The Newsboys. Her most recent album, “Obvious” was released this past summer. She serves as a staff songwriter for BMG Music Publishing in Nashville. She spoke recently with Register features correspondent Tim Drake.
Where are you from originally?
I grew up in Lancaster, Ohio, and have one sister who is a year older than me. My parents divorced when I was 2 years old and my mother remarried when I was 15. I grew up in a loving home filled with music, laughing, and games. There were always aunts, uncles, and cousins over.
Have you always been musical?
Music has always been a big part of my life. It's a part of all of us. We were always singing or music was going on somewhere in the house. Both of my parents were very musical. My mother taught us everything. She sings with several bands — a Big Band and an Irish band. She gave me lessons and taught me to sing. I studied piano, organ and flute, supplementing these with a few guitar lessons from my mother. My degree from Ohio State University was in music composition and theory.
I understand that you met your biological father just a few years ago. What was that like for you?
We didn't talk about him much in the home, so for many years I never really had a father. As an older teen, one day, out of the blue, this guy called and said, “Do you know who I am? I am your father.”
This happened so late in my life that in many ways I felt like it was nice to meet him, but I didn't feel I needed him. This lack of a father did affect my perception of my heavenly Father. For many years I felt that God was distant and absent. It took me a long time to realize that where humans fall short, God does not. God is always there. I talk with many teens, whose fathers are not present, about this.
My father passed away from cancer about two years ago. Today, I'm grateful to have a husband that is a great father to our 18-month-old. I get to see my daughter's joy in growing up with a father, so everything has come full circle.
How did your music career get its start?
During college I had been singing in a lot of bars on campus. I had been praying a lot about what I should do after college. One night I remember coming home at 2 a.m., and I decided to read the Bible. I opened it to Genesis where God tells Abraham to go to the land that I will show you and I will bless you and make you a great nation. I took that as my signal that I should go elsewhere.
So, the day after graduation I packed up a Ryder truck and headed to Nashville to pursue Christian music. I didn't know anyone there and I had about $50 in my pocket. I got a job my first week there and started going to every poetry reading and musical event I could find. I landed session work as a demo singer, flute player and backup singer. I also interned with a couple of Christian music companies to learn the ropes. Here, I learned how to write and I fell into songwriting. I've been here nine years and I feel very blessed — that this is where God wanted me to be.
Your music is inspired by Catholic writers, such as Thomas Merton and Flannery O‘Connor. Can you explain how their writing has influenced your music?
Sometimes when you write, you get a little stale. At those times I try to pick up a book. When I first moved to Nashville I picked up O‘Connor quite by accident. I started reading A Good Man is Hard to Find. I fell in love with her writing. She gave me the understanding that you can write a song that is entirely secular that can be a completely religious story that points people to God. I've tried to maintain some of that in my writing.
I like Merton because he is so steeped in God. His poetry is everything that I want to be. I also appreciate his blatant honesty. If you're not honest, you're spitting out nothing. I want to be honest in my songwriting. I see it as a ministry, and so I appreciate reading others who are honest as well.
Do you have any favorite stories about how your music has affected listeners?
I recall one time, during a concert, singing a song titled “Brave.” It was a song I had written about my biological father when he was dying and my own wish that I could be brave enough to forgive him with full-abandon like God forgives us.
After the concert a girl came up to me and told me that she had been orphaned. Her father had killed her mother and then killed himself. We talked and prayed with one another. By the end of our conversation she felt encouraged — as if she was taking a part of me home. I felt very blessed by her. I don't even remember her name, but I think of her often — every time I sing that song.
Tell me about your most recent project, “Daughters of God”?
Daughters of God is a 14-song album featuring the talents of eight female Catholic artists and writers. I am producing the record and it is set for a spring release. It's women's ministry. We hope to tour the country with a “Daughters of God” Catholic women's conference in order to encourage women to go back and start their own Bible Study groups and fellowships within their own dioceses.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Sarah Hart ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson -------- TITLE: Survey Finds Mass Attendance Affects U.S. Catholics' Views DATE: 12/16/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 16-22, 2002 ----- BODY:SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Mass attendance is closely tied to whether Catholics are in accord with Church teaching, a poll conducted by Zogby International has found.
Though the survey shows high numbers of Catholics in the United States approve of the job Pope John Paul II is doing and feel that their identity as Catholics is important to them, there are significant numbers disagreeing on matters such as contraception and women's ordination. And the frequency of Mass attendance seems to make a major difference in such attitudes.
For example, although 68% of the Catholics surveyed agreed that abortion is morally wrong under virtually all circumstances, 91% of daily Mass-goers and 77% of those who go weekly agreed. Among Catholics who go to Mass once a month, agreement dropped to 58%.
The survey was commissioned by LeMoyne College in this upstate New York city and was the first step in a long-term study of contemporary Catholic trends. Two professors at the Jesuit college, William Barnett, of the religious studies department, and Robert Kelly, of the sociology and anthropology department, aim to take two polls annually for the next two years to look at beliefs, practices and attitudes toward Church governance and public policy issues.
Zogby queried 1,508 Catholics nationwide between Oct. 25 and Nov. 1. The poll's margin of error is almost 3%. Those polled were people who had identified themselves as Catholic on past Zogby surveys.
One of its most dramatic findings is that 71.5% of American Catholics consider it very important to stand up for and live according to their Catholic values in their daily life; 3.2% did not consider this important.
Almost 90% of respondents say that Pope John Paul II is doing a good job leading the Church, while 85% believe the U.S. bishops are doing a good job leading the Church in the United States.
Nearly 89% said their Catholic identity is important to them, yet that was outdone by more than 97% who felt that American identity is important. More than 77% feel “somewhat” or “very” committed to their parishes, and two-thirds feel satisfied with how their parishes meet their needs. Two-thirds also are satisfied with the way the liturgy is conducted.
In matters of faith, 97% believe that God has the power to answer all prayers; 94% believe that Jesus is fully human and fully divine, and 92% agree that the Bible is the inspired word of God.
Trouble
But there are troubling figures, too, with significant percentages disagreeing with Church teaching on various points of sexual morality and important disciplines such as a celibate clergy. Sixty-one percent disagree with the Church's teaching that contraception is morally wrong; 50%, that invitro fertilization is wrong; 28%, that sexual relations outside of marriage are wrong; 34%, that homosexual behavior is against the natural law. Almost 53% disagree that only men can be ordained priests; 33.5% disagree that the pope is infallible in matters of faith and morals.
And, while almost 54% said they attend Mass at least once a week, with 7.6% attending daily, a solid 46.2% appear not to keep the Sunday obligation, with 5.3% saying they never attend Mass. More than 30% never go to confession, but 8.2% say they go weekly and 12.5% say they go monthly.
The Church requires that Catholics confess mortal sins sacramentally at least once a year. Failure to attend Sunday Mass is a mortal sin.
But when responses are broken down according to frequency of Mass attendance, a different picture emerges.
Asked about the statement, “artificial birth control is morally wrong,” 36% of the total said they agree, while 61% said they disdisagree. Among those who attend Mass every day, 74% agreed with the statement. But 54% of weekly Mass-goers disagreed.
Asked whether they agree or disagree that stem-cell research involving the destruction of human embryos is morally wrong, 61% of the total surveyed said they agree either “strongly” or “somewhat.” But 51% of those who said they seldom attend Mass disagreed with the statement. Of those who said they never go to Mass, 55% disagreed with the Church teaching.
Sixty-six percent agreed that euthanasia is morally wrong. Eighty-eight percent of those who attend daily Mass agreed with the statement, while half of those who seldom or never go to Mass agreed.
A First Picture
Barnett and Kelly pointed out that the poll was important for them as an initial “getting to know you” picture of Catholics in America and that many of the results would have to be further investigated in future surveys and through cross-analysis.
Also, the timing of the survey may have influenced many of the results. While 24% say they have increased Mass attendance and confession in direct response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Barnett spoke of the need to track attitudes and see if those practices will hold up over time.
But Kelly was encouraged by what he saw as “large numbers coming home” in response to the terrorism.
“There is some evidence that folks who came back were more likely to have some distance from the Church,” he said. He did point out, however, that the Church was not the only institution that got a “bump” after the attacks. There is generally more confidence in government as well.
Skeptical About Poll
Paul Sullins, professor of sociology at Georgetown who has conducted similar surveys, said he was skeptical about the LeMoyne findings. Mass attendance is much higher than what other surveys have found, particularly the General Social Survey, which he called the “gold standard.” That poll, which is conducted by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, found last year that 29.6% attend Mass at least once a week.
The disparity may be explained by the fact that Zogby did not use a random sample, Sullins said.
Kelly, however, believes the survey accurately shows a vibrant Church made up of “people that are engaged.”
“A number of findings indicate that people feel a real presence of God in their lives,” he said.
As for the very high approval rating of Pope John Paul, one New York man found it easy to understand.
“It's fascinating to introduce people to the thought of the Pope,” said Peter McFadden, who moderates a group that discusses the book Love and Responsibility. He said that many people have an image of the Pope as a “good man” but have not probed his philosophy. “When they do, the response is joy.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Burger ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Challenges for the Church DATE: 12/16/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 16-22, 2002 ----- BODY:The LeMoyne/Zogby poll indicates some of the important challenges facing the Church, said LeMoyne College religious studies professor William Barnett.
The continuing dissent of many Catholics suggests that the U.S. bishops could better communicate the teaching of the Church to the faithful, Barnett said. But while he sees a challenge for the bishops in accommodating calls for more democracy and lay leadership, he does not sense that “people are going to leave in vast numbers” if that does not happen.
Over 61% of respondents to the poll say the Church should become more democratic in its decision-making, and more than 72% want the laity to be able to assume a greater role in leading the Church.
“It's a very American thing to want,” Kelly commented.
The American “streak of independence,” as well as the desire to have significant individual input, might also explain why there is still much dissent, even while Catholics give their leaders high job approval ratings. “It's a thoughtful, highly educated, prayerful and respectful people dealing with these issues,” Kelly said.
The results showing disagreement with Church teachings lead others to suggest that the flock is not being shepherded adequately. “More priests could speak more directly” to those issues, said William Donohue, president of the Catholic League.
“Many Catholics are left to decide on their own, Donohue said. “Priests have been sending a message, even unwittingly, that this is a matter of personal choice. What we need is a dispassionate discussion as to why the Church teaches this way.”
—John Burger
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Burger ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 12/16/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 16-22, 2002 ----- BODY:Episcopal Rector Becomes a Catholic in Pennsylvania
Smith, 52, started thinking about Catholicism after a colleague's lecture debunking Anglican belief that the Reformation restored early, pre-Vatican church forms, according to the Philadelphia daily. He went on to study Catholicism with friends in Canada and kept it up when he moved to Wynnewood in 1997. A theologian at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia pointed him to Catholic apologetics, and Smith read the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
According to a friend, quoted in the Inquirer article, Smith came to the theological conclusion that the “papacy is the essence of the Church.” A retreat last summer got him over his last roadblock: papal infallibility.
“It came to me that the answers I was seeking through historical research were really a matter of faith,” Smith said.
The article also said that the liberal views of Smith's Episcopal bishop — on Scripture, abortion and women and homosexual priests — encouraged him to leave.
Smith, who is married, said he is praying about possible ordination as a Catholic priest but said he is just happy being a Catholic.
Georgia Parish Helps Couples Get Married — for Sure
“For us Catholics, marriage is a sacrament, and sacraments don't happen in courthouses and under trees in the park,” he explained to the Atlanta daily.
Altogether, 14 couples have been “remarried” this year at St. Joseph's, where three-quarters of the 1,900 families are Hispanic immigrants. Most of the immigrant couples Msgr. Hoffman has met hoped eventually to have a Church wedding but felt they could not afford the traditional reception and other accouterments.
The article pointed out that Catholic couples who are not sacramentally married may not receive Communion.
Mississippi Bishop to Head Extension Society
Catholic Extension said Bishop Houck, who has led the Diocese of Jackson for 22 years, was an excellent choice because of his year of experience in what is considered a “mission diocese.” Jackson is made up of 65 counties and about 45,000 Catholics and has many rural churches.
Bishop Houck said he would continue to lead the diocese until a new bishop is installed.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Bush Administration Decides in Favor of Ethical Vaccine DATE: 12/16/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 16-22, 2002 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — To prepare for a potential bioterrorist attack, the Department of Health and Human Services in late November ordered an additional 155 million doses of smallpox vaccine from British-based Acambis Inc. And in a major victory for pro-life activists, Acambis announced that it would not be using tissue from aborted children to produce the vaccine.
Baxter Inc., based in Deerfield, Ill., has a contract with Acambis to help produce the vaccines.
Last year the Clinton administration signed a contract with Acambis to receive 40 million doses of smallpox vaccine by the end of 2002. The doses manufactured under that contract use “MRC-5” tissue, derived from aborted children, but the new vaccines will use “Vero” lines derived from animal sources instead.
“It is an outstanding move by Acambis/Baxter; thousands of people had protested the use of MRC-5 in the smallpox vaccine,” Debi Vinnedge, director of Children of God for Life, told the Register. Vinnedge's organization has spear-headed the campaign to persuade manufacturers to refrain from manufacturing vaccines with abortion-derived tissue.
Pro-life activists put pressure on Acambis and the federal government to not use aborted children to produce the anti-bioterrorism vaccines. A Register article last month helped publicize these efforts.
“We wrote to Acambis directly, as did our supporters in London,” said Vinnedge. “We told them we knew multiple contracts could be awarded by our government and we would support whatever company chose to use non-fetal tissue as the product of choice in America.”
She noted that her organization already had 440,000 people protesting the existing vaccines made from aborted children. Hundreds of those activists wrote letters to Tommy Thompson, secretary of Health and Human Services.
Bill Hall, a spokesman at Health and Human Services, confirmed to the Register that the vaccines made by Acambis under this year's contract would be made using animal tissues. “In the first contract they used MRC-5 lines. In this contract they're using Vero lines,” Hall said.
He said that when the government asked for bids for the contract, it didn't demand that companies find alternatives to MRC-5.
“We did not specify a cell line,” said Hall. When asked if the government had made cell lines a factor in deciding the contract, Hall replied, “I cannot discuss the specifics.”
Thorny Issue
The use of aborted children to manufacture vaccines has raised thorny ethical concerns for Catholics, said Cathy Cleaver, the U.S. bishops’ pro-life activities spokeswoman.
“We have visited as a nation this question of refusing the old smallpox vaccines,” Cleaver said. “The answer is that Catholic teaching does not require Catholics to refuse the virus.”
During a controversy that began in late 1999 over the issue of the morality of using smallpox vaccines manufactured with abortion-derived tissues, a number of prominent Catholic moral theologians and prolifers said that using the vaccines was not intrinsically immoral. But they also said that new vaccines that don't use such tissues should be sought, to avoid placing people in the situation of having to make the choice.
With the government now stockpiling vaccines manufactured both ways, Cleaver wondered whether Americans would be allowed to know the dose they were intended to receive was developed using aborted tissue. “The question may become: What vaccine is this one?” she said.
Still, Cleaver expressed gratitude that Acambis will not use MRC-5 for the new contract.
“It's really good; it's surprising,” she said. “Anytime you invoke the issue of health, people lose sight of the means.” She noted the recent debate over stem cell research and the current debate over human cloning as examples.
Acambis did not return calls for comment. Other companies continue to use aborted tissue to manufacture vaccines.
In a statement to the Register, Merck & Co. said that many of its vaccines are “developed in human diploid cell lines.”
“Human diploid cell lines, which are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and maintained under strict federal guidelines, originated from two legal, therapeutically indicated abortion in the 1960s,” the corporation said in its statement.
The company added, “These abortions were not undertaken with the intent of producing vaccines. No new fetal tissue is needed to produce cell lines to make vaccines, now or in the future.”
Vinnedge said that if Catholics had been more vigilant in the past, companies like Merck might never have used aborted children to manufacture vaccines in the first place.
“Had this information been made public 30 years ago when aborted fetal cell lines MRC-5 and WI-38 were being introduced, it is doubtful we would have vaccines today that are grown on these cultures,” she said. “But those producing the vaccines have perceived a lack of protest as public acceptance.”
Joshua Mercer writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joshua Mercer ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Archbishop Wants to Show the World the Path to Peace DATE: 12/16/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 16-22, 2002 ----- BODY:As the Vatican's permanent observer at the United Nations, it's Archbishop Renato Martino's job to defend the rights and dignity of the human person throughout the world. Following is the second part of his interview with Sabrina Arena Ferrisi.
Tell me about the Path to Peace Foundation. How was it founded and what has been the effect of these awards?
Ah, my jewel! The Path to Peace Foundation was founded 10 years ago in order to help the Holy See mission propagate the teachings of the Church on social matters debated at the U.N. and other international forums.
You know that as a diplomatic mission, the Holy See would have no means to afford added expenses. So through this foundation we can celebrate symposiums, publish books, hold concerts — all activities that are related to the promotion of peace.
Tell me about the different awards?
We have created three kinds of awards. The first is the Path to Peace award, which is given yearly to a statesman or stateswoman. All have distinguished themselves for their work in favor of peace.
For example, we gave this award to Corazon Aquino (Philippines), Lech Walesa (Poland) and Violetta Chamorro (Nicaragua), for bringing their countries to democratic rule peacefully. We also gave this award to King Baudouin of Belgium, for his courageous stand against abortion. About 10 years ago, you may remember that he resigned for one day from his kingdom so that he would not have to sign the law on abortion. When we decided to offer him the award, he died shortly afterwards. His wife, Queen Fabiola, came to collect the award instead.
The second award is called Servitor Pacis, or Servant of Peace, which is given to persons who promote peace in the field. Each is an example of dedication, generosity and service to mankind.
For example, we gave this award to a Salvatorian priest who takes care of street children in Hong Kong. Another award went to a Salvatorian priest and brother who take care of Cambodian refugees in Thailand and now, back in Cambodia, former refugees.
Another award was given to a Consolata missionary in Kenya, who built a 200-mile aqueduct to transport water to the village where he lives. The water also goes to neighboring villages. There was also the posthumous award to two nuns killed in East Timor during the fight for independence.
This year, we will give the award to the former chief of the Jesuit Refugee Service, Father Mark Raper — for his many years assisting refugees all over the world.
The third kind of award is called Champion of Peace. We have only given it out two times. It is given to institutions. The first award was given to the American associations of the Order of Malta for their unceasing activities in favor of the poor and sick. This year it went to the Order of the Knights of Columbus. They have over 1.5 million members in the U.S., Canada, the Philippines and a few Latin American countries. You cannot imagine the work they do. Every year they report millions of hours of service to their communities. We wanted to single them out because we see their good works and how they give glory to God.
Can you speak about this summer's U.N. conference in Durban on racism?
We witnessed the shaky development of this conference. The real question that could have been solved was overshadowed by the controversy of Israel and anti-Semitism.
I think that it was there, in Durban, that the wealthy nations could have made amends for century-old faults, like slavery and colonialism. I am not in favor of asking for forgiveness. The real action that should have been done was to realize the historical sins; and then given the situation of those countries and regions, to make reparations — canceling debt, opening markets.
This would have been much better because when you open markets, you give the possibility to those nations to participate on equal footing. The poorer nations produce many things that are needed in the Western world.
Sabrina Ferrisi writes from Rome.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Sabrina Arena Ferrisi ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 12/16/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 16-22, 2002 ----- BODY:China Calls for Vatican Apology for Canonizations
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, Nov. 24 — China's foreign minister said that before relations between Beijing and the Vatican can be restored, Pope John Paul II should apologize for canonizing the first Chinese saints.
Tang Jiaxuan said in an interview with the Italian daily La Stampa that while the Pope has asked for forgiveness for past mistakes of missionaries in China, the canonizations offended the Chinese people.
China described the 120 martyrs who were canonized, both Chinese nationals and foreigners, as criminals.
Pope Holds Vatican Summit on Holy Land
The Pope, who visited Israel last year, wanted to confirm “his spiritual closeness” to Catholics in the region and “share the drama of their daily existence too often tested by violence and discrimination,” the Vatican said. The Vatican said the meeting would show the “common commitment to the continuity” of the Church's long presence in the Holy Land.
According to the wire service report, Christian influence has waned in the Middle East in recent decades. Where it was a majority 15 centuries ago, Christians today make up only 2% of the population in the Holy Land.
Cardinal Calls for Muslim Help on Bioethics
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, Nov. 29 — Cardinal Francis Arinze, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, invited Islamic religious leaders to a dialogue in order to collaborate more closely on the technological challenge to human life, particularly that posed by genetics. Cardinal Arinze said that although advances in genetics are exciting, they endanger human life and the respect due to it.
“Can we not work together to protect the most important human values which are threatened by a world in continual transformation?” he asked in a message to Muslims marking the end of the month of Ramadan.
“The most exciting and at the same time controversial field of technology is genetics,” the cardinal said, “which touches human nature directly, as human beings try to pierce its mysteries with the aid of technology, with the risk that human life itself and the respect due to it are endangered.”
Muslim-Produced Film Featured at Vatican Festival
BBC, Nov. 28 — An Iranian Muslim film about the friendship between a Muslim boy and a Catholic priest is one of the films showing at the Tertio Millennio film festival, which runs through Dec. 19 at the Vatican. The British radio and television agency described the festival as part of the Vatican's “battle for spiritual substance in contemporary cinema” and said the religious tolerance theme of the Iranian film, “Son of Mary,” makes it ideal subject matter for the festival.
Fereshteh Taerpour, the film's Muslim producer, said at a press conference that he considered his presence next to Vatican representatives a sign that the two religions can look toward a future of dialogue.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: In Victory over Evil, the Lord Is Our Strength DATE: 12/16/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 16-22, 2002 ----- BODY:Register Summary
John Paul II offered a message of hope at his general audience Dec. 5. “Even in anguish, one must keep high the torch of confidence, because the Lord's powerful hand leads his faithful one to victory,” the Holy Father said, meditating on Psalm 118.
Speaking to some 10,000 pilgrims gathered in the Paul VI Audience Hall, the Pope continued his yearlong series of meditations on the psalms and hymns of the Old Testament that Christians pray in the Liturgy of the Hours.
He recalled Psalm 118's vivid images describing the believer's understandable fear: “The cruel adversaries are compared to a swarm of bees or a vanguard of flames that advances, reducing everything to ashes.”
“However,” John Paul said, “the reaction of the righteous, sustained by the Lord, is vehement: Three times he repeats: ‘In the Lord's name I crushed them.’”
The believer realizes, though, that his strength is in God and not in his own resources, the Pope clarified.
When Christians, in harmony with the psalmist of Israel, sing Psalm 118, they feel a distinct echo within themselves. This is because they discover, in this highly liturgical hymn, two phrases that resonate in the New Testament with a new tonality. The first is in verse 22: “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”
This phrase is quoted by Jesus, who, after telling the parable of the murderous vinedressers, applies it to his mission of death and glory (see Matthew 21:42). The phrase is also recalled by Peter in the Acts of the Apostles: “He is ‘the stone rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.’ There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved” (Acts 4:11-12).
Cyril of Jerusalem comments: “We say the Lord Jesus Christ is one only, so that the sonship may be one; one only we say, so that you will not think that there is another. That is why he is called stone — not an inanimate stone cut by human hands, but the cornerstone — because whoever believes in him will not be disappointed” (La Catechesi, Rome, 1993, pp. 312-313).
The second phrase the New Testament takes from Psalm 118 is proclaimed by the crowd during Christ's solemn messianic entry into Jerusalem: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” (Matthew 21:9; see Psalm 118:26). The acclamation is framed by a “Hosanna,” which takes up the Hebrew hoshioh no, “Save [us], we pray!”
At the root is God's powerful right hand, and certainly not the weak and uncertain hand of man.
Song of God's Fidelity
This splendid biblical hymn is part of a short collection of psalms, from 113 to 118, known as the “Passover Hallel” — namely, the psalms of praise used in Hebrew worship for Passover, and also for the principal feasts of the liturgical year. The processional rite can be considered as the theme of Psalm 118 — recited perhaps in songs alternating a soloist and a choir — against the background of the Holy City and its Temple. A beautiful antiphon begins and ends the text: “Give thanks to the Lord, who is good, whose love [or mercy] endures forever” (verses 1 and 29).
The word “love” or “mercy” translates the Hebrew word “hesed,” which refers to God's generous faithfulness to his people, who are joined to him by covenant and friendship. Three groups of people are instructed to sing of this faithfulness — the whole of Israel; the “house of Aaron,” namely the priests; and “those who fear God,” a term that indicates the faithful and, subsequently, also converts, namely, members of other nations who want to adhere to the law of the Lord (see verses 2-4).
Keep the Flame Alive
The procession seems to wind through the streets of Jerusalem, according to the reference to the “tents of the victors” (verse 15). In any case, a hymn of thanksgiving is raised (see verses 5-18) whose message is essential: Even in anguish, one must keep high the torch of confidence, because the Lord's powerful hand leads his faithful one to victory over evil and to salvation.
The sacred poet uses strong and vivid images: The cruel adversaries are compared to a swarm of bees or a wall of flames that advances, reducing everything to ashes (see verse 12). However, the reaction of the righteous, sustained by the Lord, is vehement. Three times he repeats: “In the Lord's name I crushed them.” The Hebrew verb highligts a battle that destroys evil (see verses 10,11,12). The reason is that at the root is God's powerful right hand — that is, his mighty work — and certainly not the weak and uncertain hand of man. It is because of this that the joy of victory over evil gives way to a highly evocative profession of faith: “The Lord, my strength and might, came to me as savior” (verse 14).
Cornerstone of Success
The procession seems to reach the Temple, “the gates of victory” (verse 19), namely the holy door of Zion. Here a second song of thanksgiving is intoned, which opens with a dialogue between the priests and the assembly who are asking to be admitted to worship. “Open the gates of victory; I will enter and thank the Lord,” says the soloist in the name of the processional assembly. Others, probably the priests, respond: “This is the Lord's own gate, where the victors enter” (verse 20).
After entering, the fathful can now sing the hymn of gratitude to the Lord, who offers himself in the Temple as a stable and safe “stone” on which to build the house of life (see Matthew 7:24-25). A priestly blessing descends upon the faithful, who have entered the Temple to express their faith, to raise their prayer, and to celebrate the liturgy.
In the End, Joy
The last scene that opens before our eyes is a joyful rite of sacred dances, accompanied by a festive waving of branches: “Join in procession with leafy branches up to the horns of the altar” (verse 27). The liturgy is joy, a festive encounter, an expression of the entire creation praising the Lord. The rite of branches recalls the Hebrew Feast of Booths, in memory of Israel's wandering in the desert, a feast which included a procession with palm, myrtle and willow branches.
This same rite, evoked in the psalm, is presented again to Christians at Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, which is celebrated in the Palm Sunday liturgy. Christ is acclaimed with hosannas as the “son of David” (see Matthew 21:9) by the crowd “that had come to the feast … took palm branches and went out to meet him, and cried out: ‘Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, [even] the king of Israel’” (John 12:12-13). In that festive celebration — which is, however, a prelude to the hour of Jesus’ passion and death — the earlier symbol of the cornerstone is fulfilled and understood in is full meaning, now acquiring a glorious paschal significance.
Psalm 118 encourages Christians to recognize in Jesus’ paschal event “the day the Lord has made,” in which “the stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” With this psalm they can therefore sing full of gratitude: “The Lord, my strength and might, came to me as savior” (verse 14). “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice in it and be glad” (verse 24).
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican -------- TITLE: British Pro-Life Leader Risks Jail Over Morning-After Pill Ad DATE: 12/16/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 16-22, 2002 ----- BODY:LONDON — The leader of a major British pro-life organization has vowed to defy an advertising ban issued by a government watch-dog. He says he won't stop publishing an ad stating that the so-called morning-after pill is “abortion-inducing.”
John Smeaton, director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, known as SPUC, could even face a jail sentence if he continues defying the British Advertising Standards Authority, The authority is responsible for ensuring that ads are “legal, decent, honest and truthful.”
Some Catholic publishers have also pledged to disobey the ban.
SPUC is due next year to mount a legal challenge to the British government's decision to make Levonelle 2, the only morning-after-pill licensed in the United Kingdom, available from pharmacists without prescriptions and from high-school nurses.
An ad promoting a walk sponsored by SPUC officials to raise funds for the legal action was reported to the Advertising Standards Authority by a reader of The Tablet, a Catholic magazine.
The authority agreed that this statement from the ad was misleading: “Help us beat the morning-after pill. 50-mile sponsored walk from Liverpool to Manchester by SPUC's directors in September. SPUC is going to court to challenge the government over its decision to make abortion-inducing morning-after pills even more widely available.”
The authority said that while it noted SPUC's argument that a human being came into existence at the time of fertilization, not implantation, it understood that Prime Minister Tony Blair's government had defined pregnancy as beginning following implantation of the fertilized egg.
It added that most readers would understand “abortion” to refer to the expulsion of the fertilized egg from the womb post-implantation, and therefore that SPUC's claim was misleading. SPUC was ordered to change the statement to make clear it was an expression of opinion, or to state that SPUC's definition of abortion was pre-implantation.
The authority also warned newspapers carrying the ads to reject or amend any future ads with the same wording.
“The Advertising Standards Authority is expecting us to accept the government definition of when human life begins and furthermore to accept the fallacious claim that you cannot have an abortion unless implantation of an embryo has taken place,” Smeaton said.
Smeaton added that SPUC had presented overwhelming objective scientific evidence supporting its position to the authority.
Clare Forbes, spokeswoman for the advertising authority, said, “The authority based its judgment partly on the witness statement made by Mr. Smeaton that the U.K. government based its policies on accepted medical and legal opinion that the morning-after pill was not a method of abortion.”
Smeaton countered that his witness statement was simply an acknowledgement that SPUC believes that the pro-abortion British government has incorrectly defined when pregnancy begins. “Of course I [made the statement], because that is why we are taking the government to court.”
Abortifacient Drug
The distributors of Levonelle 2, the U.K.-based company Schering Health, lists three possible ways the drug blocks pregnancy: It stops or delays the release of an egg, it prevents its fertilization, or it stops the fertilized ovum from attaching itself (implantation) to the wall of the womb.
Dr. John McLean, a physician and a governor of the Linacre Center, the bioethics institute sponsored by the British and Irish bishops, said there is no doubt that the prevention of implantation makes the drug abortion-inducing.
Said McLean, “It is possible that it will delay or suppress ovulation but there is not a lot of hard evidence to suggest that is its main mode of action.”
He added, “The main mode of action is to prevent implantation, which makes it a form of abortion.”
Four out of Britain's five Catholic national weekly publications — The Catholic Herald, The Scottish Catholic Observer, The Universe and The Catholic Times — are prepared to flout the ad ban.
The only dissenting Catholic voice is The Tablet, whose letters pages have carried views from medical personnel who disagree with SPUC's stance.
Tablet editor John Wilkins backs the Advertising Standards Authority's view that the ad was misleading. “For the person in the street, abortion means a visit to a clinic or hospital by a pregnant woman to get rid of her unborn child, never mind what the government means or anybody else,” he said. “The trouble is biotechnology has gone ahead of our concepts, our words and our ethics.”
But The Tablet's view was rejected as secularist and unrepresentative of British Catholics by William Oddie, editor of The Catholic Herald.
“The Catholic Church does not accept the position of the U.K. government on the conception of life,” said Oddie. “We are going to continue publishing SPUC adverts with this wording — it will be interesting to see what they do next.
“We are not going to be dictated to by Tony Blair and his mob.”
Empty Threats?
It is not clear what sanctions the Advertising Standards Authority can impose on publications that disregard its instructions. Generally, it relies on publications and advertisers to exercise self-regulation, followed by “naming and shaming” those who defy its rulings.
However, officials have warned media outlets that they could obtain a court injunction that could see any objector jailed, and Advertising Standards Authority spokeswoman Forbes said that SPUC and the newspapers could be referred to the British Office of Fair Trading for printing misleading ads.
But the Office of Fair Trading disagreed, as it only deals with ads selling a product or service. Said its spokesman, Paul Matthews, “This would not fall within our remit.”
While Forbes said that the Advertising Standards Authority “is still deciding what to do next,” SPUC has no doubt over its next step. “Our No. 1 concern is that we are able to give our message of defending the unborn child,” said Smeaton. “Free speech has to be a fundamental human right and we campaign in a responsible way recognizing the rules of democratic society. We cannot accept any suppression of this right, and we are looking for wider opportunities to publish this ad.”
Paul Burnell writes from Manchester, England.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Paul Burnell ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 12/16/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 16-22, 2002 ----- BODY:Europe Closer to Funding Embryonic Stem Cell Research
The EU report, which had been heavily amended, left most parliamentarians disappointed with the final version, The Guardian said.
If adopted in its original form, the report could have interfered with the European Union's plan to spend about $267 million over four years on health-related genetic research. Much of that would go to research on aborted embryos and those created in in vitro fertilization processes.
The Guardian also said the European Commission, the EU's executive, issued a statement reaffirming its opposition to creating human embryos for research uses.
Cardinal Glemp Calls for Spiritual Values in EU Constitution
“A constitution should be adopted for the European Union in the spirit of the principles expressed by its founding fathers after World War II so that the idea of the Union is not limited to economic and financial questions, but evokes spiritual questions as well,” the cardinal said in an interview published in the Polish daily Rzeczpospolita. Without a spiritual underpinning, the European idea “won't live more than one generation,” he warned.
Cardinal Glemp reiterated his support for Poland's bid to join the European Union. A November poll found that 61% of Poles favor joining the Union, the French news agency said.
Australian Parents Offended by Abortion Offer
The newspaper featured an interview with Melissa and Anthony Chapman, who described being offered “fetal reduction” right after learning that Mrs. Chapman was carrying triplets. Chapman said his wife's doctor probably saw that they were surprised by the news of triplets and “wondering how we were going to cope with five children under 5.”
“He said, ‘Well, you've got two other kids … there's this thing called fetal reduction.’ I was just staggered,” Chapman said. “To tell you 10 minutes after you find out you're having triplets not to have one or more is a bit much.”
The Chapmans said that after a trouble-free pregnancy, two girls and a boy were born, and the family is happy.
“To look at them now and think one mightn't be here … you could-n't,” Mrs. Chapman said. Life is not always easy, she admitted, but extra expenses and efforts are worth it. “No matter what happens, you can usually cope.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News -------- TITLE: Why Lapsed Catholics Skip Mass DATE: 12/16/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 16-22, 2002 ----- BODY:There's good news, bad news and — in one strong sense — no news in the new extensive poll of Catholics in America.
We'll look at the “no news” first.
Imagine a poll that found 12% of nonsmokers regularly smoke Marlboro cigarettes. Commentators would spot the silliness of the statement immediately and ignore the poll. If anyone pushed them further, they would point out the flaws in the polling: Pollsters only surveyed people who identified themselves as nonsmokers in earlier polls; the subjects felt no contradiction between their smoking and their identity as nonsmokers.
A bit of the same thing has happened with the Zogby poll of Catholics that was commissioned by LeMoyne College, a Jesuit school in Syracuse, N.Y. The only people polled were those who had told past pollsters that they were Catholic. Many of them are simply lapsed Catholics: They are not in communion with the Church, and may have no intention of ever being in communion with the Church.
Yet newspapers didn't catch this simple distinction.
The Chicago Tribune headline was: “Poll finds division among Catholics.” What would the headline of our fictional poll have been — “Poll finds division among nonsmokers over brands”?
The Associated Press ended its story about a woman who was recently “ordained” to the priesthood of the “old Catholic” church, by reporting the Zogby poll's show of support for women's ordination. Using our fictional poll, we doubt the wire service would have ended a story about the tobacco wars by reporting, “yet surprising new statistics show that even many non-smokers love Marlboros.”
One objection to this analysis that will be raised is that being Catholic is a permanent condition. There's something to that — but perhaps little. A poll of people who fill in the blank “religion” with the word “Catholic” and ascribe no meaning to it, isn't meaningful whether they have the right to use the word or not.
So, how can such “no news” bring both “good news” and “bad news”?
Because, even if these people have only a remote affinity to the Church, the poll gives us a snapshot of American views.
First, the good news.
Americans don't reject Catholic authority. There has been a sneaking suspicion in some parishes that the hierarchical nature of the Church is a flop. Not according to the numbers, it's not. In the poll, 90% feel Pope John Paul II is doing a good job; 85% feel the U.S. bishops are doing a good job.
Americans don't reject Catholic identity. In many corners of the Church, Catholics sometimes feel they need to be more like the world to be popular. Particularly in our universities, Catholics often have an inferiority complex about their Catholic identity, which they deny or hide. The poll shows they needn't. In it, 89% said their identity as Catholic is important to them; 71.5% of American Catholics consider it very important to stand up for and live according to their Catholic values.
The bad news is that there's a terrible lack of formation among these gungho Catholics. Only half think in vitro fertilization is wrong (or is the number surprisingly high, given the lack of discussion of this topic?). Only 28% think that extramarital sex is wrong; even 54% of weekly Mass goers have no problem with artificial contraception.
But this “bad news” comes with a challenge and hope.
The challenge: In 21st century America, it is up to the laity to evangelize the society — and to re-evangelize the Catholics of this poll. Even if bishops, priests and nuns redoubled their efforts, they wouldn't reach many of this group of people who rarely go to Mass.
But won't bishops and priests have a lot to answer for because of the state of today's Church, shown in polls like this? That's not for us to say, but it's clear that today's laity will have a lot to answer for if they don't respond to the pervasive problems this poll points to, problems which, given the situation, the laity can best solve.
That brings us, last, to the great hope that the poll should give us.
Beyond showing how receptive people are to hearing and “standing up for” their faith, it shows that bringing people back to Mass seems to bring them a long way toward accepting authentic Catholic doctrine.
And bringing people back to Mass is something we all can do. Right away.
----- EXCERPT: Editorial ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Will the Real Harry Potter Please Fly Away DATE: 12/16/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 16-22, 2002 ----- BODY:Harmless Harry
Regarding “Mainstreaming Witchcraft? Parents Assess Harry Potter” (Dec. 2-8):
Your writers clearly show that they believe the Potter books are dangerous, and that kids will take the books seriously and start to show interest in practicing magic.
Harry Potter is virtually harmless children's fiction. There are other children's books out there that are far more dangerous, like Brian Jacques’ Redwall series, for instance, where violence is glamorized and glorified and made to look honorable.
In the Harry Potter books, good moral lessons are always taught, and the magic should be seen as a backdrop and not as a primary influence. While it is true that the books teach some lessons that are wrong (cheating, stealing), they are kept at a sustained minimum, and children know better than to follow them. I also find it interesting that most of the anti-Harry Potter people I know have never even read the books.
WILL GROSS, age 14
Boise, Idaho
Burned by Wicca
I was disappointed at your “open-minded” treatment of the Harry Potter phenomenon. Do we Catholics have such short memories that we forget the disaster “open-mindedness” wreaked upon the post-Vatican II generation?
My young life was a casualty of lack of proper catechesis, which included absolutely no warning about the occult. Therefore, as a Girl Scout, I became deeply involved in the occult. I played with ouija boards and participated in séances, levitation sessions and attempts to imitate witchcraft. My leaders and mother were aware of this, and failed to advise us against it. Fortunately, the grace of God prevailed, but not until I lost most of my 20s to worldly conduct.
The appeal of certain aspects of Harry Potter is where the danger can be found, blinding even good mothers (like my own) to the insidious influence of the occult. Children near adolescence crave power over their own lives and even over the lives of others. Witchcraft (including astrology) seems to offer that.
Those who think it a reach to connect Harry Potter to interest in the occult should hear Steve Wood, president of St. Joseph's Covenant Keepers, speaking on this subject on EWTN. As a Protestant pastor, he was often involved with teens seduced into satanic activity. He says that the police, in investigating a satanic-type crime (animal or human slaughter with ritualistic markings, for example), would first go to the library and see who had taken out books about the occult to work up their list of suspects.
What began my interest in the occult? Do you remember the TV program “Bewitched”?
LETICIA C. VELASQUEZ
East Moriches, New York
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: LETTERS DATE: 12/16/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 16-22, 2002 ----- BODY:Non-Denominational Hobbits
In your Dec. 9-15 article headlined “The Hobbits Are Here: Catholics Hope the Movie Lives up to the Book,” you wrote, “Tolkien, a noted British scholar of myth, wrote the trilogy in part to communicate to his readers the Christian understanding of a fallen creation, where good struggles against evil and ultimately triumphs.”
But Tolkien had no intent of conveying any message at all in his books.
In his introduction to The Fellowsip of the Ring he specifically says, “As for any inner meaning or ‘message’, it has in the intention of the author none. It is neither allegorical nor topical.”
He goes on to say, “Other arrangements could be devised according to the tastes or views of those who like allegory or topical reference. But I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and have always done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I think that many confuse ‘applicability’ with ‘allegory’; but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author.”
I think that in your eagerness to have the trilogy be allegorical and Tolkien be a good Christian author, you extended his intent and achievement a little too far.
This might reinforce the stereotype of a narrow-minded Christian to others who might chance to read that article.
DOUGLAS MURRAY
Papillion, Nebraska
Bravo, Mass Guide
I gladly read the National Catholic Register weekly. The Dec. 2-9 issue has a marvelous catechetical aid on page 18 about the Mass. I teach in a Catholic school and work with 170 junior high students. I look forward to sharing this with my religion classes so they can better understand and appreciate the Mass. Thanks for this, and for your paper as a whole.
BROTHER EDWARD KESLER
Cincinnati, Ohio
The writer is a member of the Brothers of the Poor of St. Francis.
Communion on the Tongue
For years I have heard raves about your paper. I finally received first issue yesterday and agree it's a wonderful resource for faithful Catholics.
I'm writing to bring something to your attention which needs addressing.
On page 18 of the Dec. 2-9 issue is a “How (and Why) to Return to Sunday Mass” guide. I was pleased to see its Quick Tip about how it's proper to “show a sign of respect before receiving Communion” by bowing, as suggested by the bishops.
However, what disappoints me is that the idea of Communion in the hand was promoted as the single way to receive Our Lord. This situation further saddens me, as I know the “norm” — or preferred way — is to receive the host on the tongue, not the hand. Too few Catholics are aware of this, as evidenced by the push in today's average parish to make Communion in the hand the “norm.”
Funny how Martin Luther pushed for this, too, as a way to decrease belief in the True Presence.
What solution do I have? If possible, for future editions of this guide perhaps you could let readers know that, although receiving via both methods is approved by bishops, the Church Herself prefers reception via Communion on the tongue.
LISA BASTIAN
San Antonio, Texas
Thanks for Two Thanksgiving Articles
Your Thanksgiving issue (Nov. 18-24) carried two excellent articles that we found very uplifting and inspiring. “How to Explain ‘Spiritual’ Relatives to Kids,” by Jim Fair, hit the nail right on the head.
Yes, it seems popular to say, “I'm a spiritual person, but I don't believe in organized religion.”
Pride came before the fall, and the devil (who is also spiritual) has blinded many nowadays into thinking that it matters not in who, or what, you believe, as long as you believe in something. Jim Fair not only pointed out the stupidity of such nonsense, but pointed to Jesus Christ, who said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life” (John 14:6). St. Peter, speaking of Jesus, said, “Neither is there salvation in any other” (Acts 4:12).
We hope that Jim Fair continues to write articles i n the future which will draw people to Jesus Christ and his one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church, which Jesus established.
The “Inperson” interview “What He's Fighting For” shows Mark MacKenzie's authentic and inspiring Catholic faith and his trust in God as he serves us in the military during these dangerous times.
We were glad to see that Mark MacKenzie believes and promotes tithing, the giving of 10% of one's earnings for the Lord's work.
Unfortunately, this biblical truth is neglected in our Catholic Church, and instead we scandalize many Catholics and other Christians by having bingo, Las Vegas nights, etc., to raise money for our parishes and schools.
Perhaps you will in the future publish articles encouraging Catholics to be more generous financially, supporting ministries in the Church which promote authentic doctrine.
MR. AND MRS. C.N. SANTOS
Atascadero, California
Children of God
Thank you, Marilyn Boussaid, for calling attention to the often-misused statement “We are all children of God” (Letters, “All God's Children?” Nov. 18-24) when referring to non-Christians. I have actually heard this from the pulpit. In a discussion group, when I attempted to define “children of God,” as stated in Scripture and as you have so eloquently done, I was told to be careful of “exclusivity.”
All Catholics need to know who we are in Christ and the precious gift he has given us. All are called, but not all respond.
SUSAN R. RAMPACEK
Rochester, Minnesota
The Real First Immaculate Conception Cathedral
Joseph Pronechen's fine article on Albany's Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception was just a tad wrong in calling it “the first cathedral in the United States dedicated to Mary under her title of the Immaculate Conception.”
The Diocese of Mobile was established in 1829, and the parish church — dedicated to the Immaculate Conception in 1781 — was then officially designated the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. The cornerstone for the present structure was laid in 1839, and it was consecrated for public worship in 1850. Come see us sometime!
(By the way: just now the old building — a minor basilica since 1962 — is receiving what should be, if the plans go as indicated, a great face-lift. That may be a story for you down the line.)
DON DORR
Coden, Alabama
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion -------- TITLE: Getting Rid of Pornography: All We Lack Is Will DATE: 12/16/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 16-22, 2002 ----- BODY:Newspaper and magazine commentators have served up any number of reasons for the hatred underlying the Sept. 11 attacks.
Many of them say the root of the problem is that the terrorists resent American freedoms and prosperity. I doubt it.
I do not recall demonstrations against the right of Americans to assemble peaceably, to petition for redress of grievances or to engage in free speech. Why should someone in Saudi Arabia care whether you can complain to your alderman without being sent to jail?
Ditto the prosperity argument.
Decades ago, many Americans thought the superiority of our system over the Soviet Union's was established by a count of color-television sets and washing machines. That was dumb then, and it is dumb now to think that a peddler of trinkets in Kabul resents America because we live in houses with piped water and he does not.
The commentators are closer to the truth when they say America is hated in part because of its perceived cultural decay — pornography, immodest dress, and abortion top the list — which it insinuates into societies around the world.
Our freedoms and possessions do not impinge on the lives of those who hate us. Our culture does. If we were serious about returning to the old verities, we would do more than hoist a flag or affix a bumper sticker. We would repent corporately and deeply.
Think how refreshing it would be to do something that would show the whole world, including ourselves, that we have undergone an authentic conversion. However successful America's military campaign against terrorism, long-term peace will not come unless we fix things on the home front.
How about taking just one of the issues that our opponents in Muslim countries cite?
We have been in the midst of a “war against pornography” for several decades. Has anyone noticed any retreat by the enemy? There may have been some improvement in this town or that, but, on the whole, pornography is more widespread today that ever.
Politicians wring their hands, unable to think of what to do to return us to the relatively innocuous atmosphere of, say, the 1950s.
It's easy, folks. Pornography could be eliminated in a matter of weeks, if we could muster the will.
I have a solution. My prescription does not involve another commission. It does not involve deciding at what age young people may appear in pornographic movies. It does not involve moving adult bookstores further away from schools.
Pornography has no right to exist, in any form or at any level.
It involves the radically Christian approach of simply not putting up any longer with the intolerable.
I work from the premise that pornography, being thoroughly immoral, can have no civil justification. It does not have a right to exist, in any form or at any level, and no one can have a right to engage in it or to profit from it. Any profits gained are illicit profits.
I also work from the premise that there is no slippery slope. Getting rid of pornography will not endanger legitimate movies or literature.
Good movies will not disappear if X-rated movies cease to exist.
Good books will not vanish from the shelves if adult bookstores are eliminated. Lines can be drawn: on this side, legitimacy; on that side, illegitimacy.
So here is my simple plan: The president issues an executive order proclaiming that pornography not only is not protected in any way by the Constitution but that pornography is identifiable aside from the ludicrous Supreme Court decisions about having to find a lack of any redeeming social value. The president instructs the civil authorities to seize immediately all the assets of all producers and distributors of pornography. I mean this in two senses.
First, such operations as Playboy and Hustler are shut down overnight.
Their inventory is mulched and recycled. Their physical plants are sold off piecemeal to the highest bidders. Every adult bookstore is closed down and its inventory similarly disposed of. Pornographic movies are confiscated and destroyed.
And then the personal assets of those who have grown rich from pornography are taken. (No one has a right to ill-gotten gains.)
Leave the Hefners and the rest with whatever the bankruptcy courts normally leave petitioners.
The bulk of the pornographers’ assets can be liquidated and the funds used to underwrite, say, chastity programs.
Is my proposal contrary to the First Amendment? As currently interpreted, Yes. But I don't give a hoot about current interpretations. I do give a hoot about truth and beauty and love and common sense, all of which are violated by pornography.
Would the overnight elimination of pornography end the threat from Islamic terrorists?
No, but it would be worth doing even if there had been no Sept. 11.
Karl Keating is founding director of Catholic Answers in El Cajon, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Karl Keating ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: Making Life in Labs. And Killing It. DATE: 12/16/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 16-22, 2002 ----- BODY:Many Catholics were bitterly disappointed when President Bush announced, on Aug. 9, his decision to allow limited federal funding of human embryonic stem-cell research. Not a few said the United States had reached a new low in its descent into disrespect for human life. Some said they felt betrayed. “What happened to George W. Bush's solidarity with the Church in its passionate defense of life?” they asked.
If we are to be honest with ourselves, however, we must admit that the genie has been out of the bottle for two decades, with no organized, sustained opposition from the Church in the United States — even from many of us engaged in the pro-life struggle on a daily basis. Human embryos have been destroyed routinely and in untold numbers through the technology which makes embryonic stem-cell research possible — in vitro fertilization (IVF) — for two decades now, without any proportionate outcry from Catholics.
This fact was not lost on supporters of embryonic stem-cell research. On CNN's “Larry King Live” July 30, actor Christopher Reeve used it to question the sincerity of our position on the issue. “In … fertility clinics, every day of the week, fertilized embryos that will not be implanted in the womb are headed for the garbage.
“Now, if you believe that life begins the moment that an egg is fertilized, then it would seem to me that [this would provoke] outrage …”
In the June 25 issue of Time, journalist Michael Kinsley made the same point, noting that, in spite of the enormous controversy over embryonic stem-cell research, “President Bush is not searching for a compromise on the issue of fertility clinics because there is no issue.
“The Roman Catholic Church and others are publicly opposed to high-tech fertilization techniques, but they are not beating the drum about it.”
Acknowledging our failure to “beat the drum” is not merely an academic exercise, as if the stem-cell issue and related problems have gone away. On November 26, technicians at Advanced Cell Technology, a private company in Worcester, Mass., announced they had successfully created the first-ever human clone.
Mary Ann Liebert, publisher of the on-line journal that carried the company's announcement, remarked that the people objecting to cloning today are the same people who objected to in vitro fertilization 20 years ago, implying that, just as in vitro has become routine, so will cloning. She's probably right, unless we Catholics return to the source of the problem.
Doctor, Can You Spare a Human?
To be fair, Richard Doerflinger, policy director of the secretariat for pro-life affairs of the United States Catholic Conference, points out that the conference has regularly made public statements and sent out information on in vitro fertilization and related issues in the Respect Life materials sent out annually to pastors, schools and hospitals. He says the issue of embryonic stem-cell research required a special effort on the part of the Church because the government was proposing to make cooperation in the destruction of human life an official policy.
Still, Doerflinger agrees that the controversy over embryonic stem-cell research has raised important questions about our response to in vitro fertilization. “I've been hearing from people in the pro-life movement who are not Catholic, that they had taken a pass on [the issue of] in vitro fertilization in the past 20 years, but that they are reconsidering their stance and [the position of] the Catholic Church,” he says. “Obviously, it's also a teachable moment for Catholics themselves, who may not have paid much attention to the Church's concerns about this procedure in the past.”
While there are no statistics on the number of Catholics who use in vitro methods to achieve pregnancy, we may infer from more general statistics that the number is large enough to be of grave pastoral concern to the leaders of the Church. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine estimates that 6.1 million couples in the United States — some 10% of couples of childbearing age — experience infertility due to various causes. In at least 35% of these cases, in vitro fertilization is the treatment of choice.
Since 1981, more than 95,000 babies have been born as a result of this science; given that the success rate with the latest technologies is still only 29%, the number of couples who have undergone the procedure must be much higher than 95,000.
Moreover, each in vitro attempt involves the creation of approximately eight embryos — most of which are frozen as “spares,” many of which are eventually destroyed for research or discarded.
The upshot: Millions of human lives are at stake.
Warm Conception
The Church's teaching on in vitro fertilization and other assisted-reproduction technologies was explained in detail by the Vatican in the 1987 instruction Donum vitae (The Gift of Life). In vitro fertilization is immoral, the Church says, chiefly because it removes procreation from the natural, marital act of mutual self-giving: “Such fertilization entrusts the life and identity of the embryo into the power of doctors and biologists and establishes the domination of technology over the origin and destiny of the human person. … Such fertilization is neither in fact achieved nor positively willed as the expression and fruit of a specific act of the conjugal union.”
Fortunately, the Church's teaching is finding a receptive and growing, if still small, audience.
Steve Bozza, director of Family Life Ministries for the Diocese of Camden, N.J., has instituted a ministry to serve Catholic couples experiencing infertility. Working with two married couples as fellow counselors, Bozza has begun advertising the new service across the diocese and integrating the issue of infertility with the Family Life catechesis materials provided to parishes. He is also working on a guide which couples can use together at home in working through the problem. In February, the diocese will begin offering natural family planning classes specially designed for couples experiencing infertility.
Bozza has found that many couples are receptive to the Church's teaching on in vitro fertilization if it is presented to them in what he calls a “holistic” way.
He says that he tries to “heal the heart first, and then you're able to more adequately address the moral issues.”
Bozza asks couples to reflect on what the experience of infertility and their proposed solutions may be doing to their marriage. “What is this doing to you, your marriage and your vocation as a married couple?” he asks. After focusing on the couple, Bozza turns to the child they are hoping for. “Look,” he urges, “at the basic rights your child has” — starting with the child's right to be conceived, in love, close to his or her mother's heart.
“What I hope to be able to do,” Bozza concludes, “is to be able to give them their dignity back. If they can rediscover what they loved about each other even before they got married then I've accomplished something. Then they can look at this difficulty that they're having and say, ‘Well, maybe there's something to what the Church is saying.’”
This is a good and hopeful first start. While in vitro fertilization doesn't make the headlines like the debates over stem-cell research and human cloning do, and while it isn't dividing the nation as abortion has for three decades, it is nonetheless an issue into which the Gospel of Life desperately needs to be injected.
David Curtin writes from Toronto.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: David Curtin ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: New Jersey Catholics Picked a Pro-Choice Poster Child ó Why? DATE: 12/16/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 16-22, 2002 ----- BODY:“The Gospel of Life is at the heart of Jesus’ message,” says Pope John Paul II in the opening words of his 1995 encyclical
In this letter the Pope does more than make a plea for the sanctity of human life; he clarifies the Church's authoritative position on abortion, euthanasia, the death penalty and biological engineering.
The Catholic bishops, with priests as co-workers, are charged to preach the “Gospel of God to all men in keeping with the Lord's command,” says the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
What is the role of the rest of us, the laity, as Catholics? As Americans, some say, we have choice. Yet that choice may come down to lining up with either the ancient values of Christianity or the modern culture of death.
In New Jersey's gubernatorial election Nov. 7, Jim McGreevey, a “very Catholic” Catholic was elected governor by a landslide. Heavily in his corner were nearly 60% of all New Jersey Catholics who voted. They supported their brother in the faith; after all, he is Catholic.
Or is he?
Anyone who followed the New Jersey election knew that the Catholic actively supports partial-birth abortion, and considers any other type of abortion a “choice,” a pregnant woman's prerogative at any time in her nine months of pregnancy.
During the campaign, the Catholic candidate labeled his Protestant opponent an “extremist” for his pro-life positions. The Protestant candidate repeatedly expressed that he fully embraces the position of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Catholic bishops of New Jersey, and the magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church.
So why did 60% of Catholics side with the pro-abortion “Catholic” over the pro-life Protestant?
Could it be that we Catholics of New Jersey did not know our Church's teachings? Shouldn't we then blame the bishops of New Jersey?
Guess again. On Oct. 22, the Catholic bishops of New Jersey sent a public letter clarifying the teachings of the Church on innocent human life to “members of the Catholic Community” within the Garden State's dioceses. The courageous letter was signed by Newark Archbishop John Myers, and all 10 other bishops of New Jersey.
There was nothing new in the letter. Church teachings on abortion, euthanasia and physician-aided suicide are unchanged since Peter hung upside-down on a cross in Rome. The significant first-century document Didache (Teachings of the Twelve Apostles) makes clear: “You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms “the moral evil of every procured abortion.” So too are euthanasia and “mercy killing” clearly opposed.
Perhaps the New Jersey bishops were unclear. What did they actually say?
“As another election approaches, we, the Catholic Bishops of New Jersey, reach out to encourage you to vote and to exercise that right in accordance with consciences formed in the light of your faith and the teachings of the Catholic Church,” they wrote. “As bishops, we are most aware of our primary responsibility as teachers of faith and morals to help people follow God's laws and do His will.
“We have always made it clear that we never intend to instruct people on how they should vote by endorsing or opposing candidates and we do not do so today.
“In 1998, as members of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, we adopted a statement, Living the Gospel of Life: A Challenge to American Catholics. In that document, we noted our obligation to remind all Americans, including political leaders, and especially those who are Catholics. We said: ‘No public official, especially one claiming to be a faithful and serious Catholic, can responsibly advocate for or actively support direct attacks on innocent human life.’ Thus, we consistently call upon all candidates to exercise genuine moral leadership by supporting laws that promote respect for the human person at all stages of life from conception to natural death.
“We also call upon Catholics to use their voting privilege to reflect a choice of candidates who respect and sustain the dignity of all human life. Such choices make clear to all candidates that life issues are a determining factor in our voting decisions.”
And that is what all New Jersey Catholic bishops said to all New Jersey Catholics.
The bishops must be wondering what happened to the flock.
How are the bishops doing in your state? Does anyone listen to the successors of the Apostles? Remember, the New Jersey bishops’ statement states universal Catholic teaching, not local lore nor political propaganda.
It would be interesting to learn what issue in the recent governor's election was most important to Catholics in New Jersey. Yet it is hard to fathom what might be more important than human life. But what do I know? I listen to the bishops.
Is innocent human life important enough for us as Catholics to support it? After the events of Sept. 11, I had heard so. Though now I am not so sure, I remain hopeful.
Pope John Paul II dedicates The Gospel of Life to Mary, the Mother of Life, who said Yes to the choice of life. And in a closing prayer our Holy Father asks of Mary: “Grant that all who believe in your Son may proclaim the Gospel of life with honesty and love to the people of our time. Obtain for them the grace to accept that Gospel as a gift ever new … and the courage to bear witness to it.”
For this we pray.
Drew DeCoursey, author of Lifting the Veil of Choice (OSV 1992), writes from Morristown, New Jersey.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Drew Decoursey ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary -------- TITLE: So Many Calvaries, So Little Fear of Death DATE: 12/16/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 16-22, 2002 ----- BODY:Passion is a word associated with France: be it love, cooking, art or sometimes even religion, France does it with passion.
One place where Our Lord's Passion is passionately depicted is Brittany, that peninsula in western France jutting into the Atlantic.
A spirituality devoted to Christ's Passion and focused on human mortality dominated western Brittany from the 15th to 18th centuries. That spirituality gave birth to a local form of Church art and architecture: parish closes (les enclos paroissiaux).
A parish “close” is a group of religious buildings made up of a church, ossuary, calvary, churchyard and triumphal arch. A wall demarcating this consecrated ground encloses the whole. Cemeteries often surrounded churches. Once upon a time it was not unusual for Catholics to pass by the remains of friends and loved ones every Sunday on the way to church. But space in a churchyard is limited and family plots fill up. Brittany's parish closes resolved that dilemma.
When somebody died, he was buried in the family plot. After several decades, all that remained would usually be bones. These were removed to the graveyard's ossuary, a mausoleum-type building. There they would rest for perhaps another century until, when only dust and ashes remained, they might be laid in a common grave.
A sculpted scene of the Crucifixion — a “calvary” — towers over all these churchyards. More than a simple cross, Breton calvaries are works of art that at a minimum usually depict Christ crucified alongside two thieves as Mary, John and often Mary Magdalene keep vigil.
Sometimes one side shows the crucifixion while the reverse depicts the laying in the tomb. Depending on a given village's resources, calvaries could be elaborate: The granite calvary in Guimiliau depicts 25 scenes from the life of Christ, the Passion dominating.
A triumphal arch usually marked the entrance to the churchyard (and, therefore, the church). The gate symbolically separated profane and sacred, time and eternity, here and hereafter. Passers-by were thus reminded of their mortality. The adjacent ossuary reinforced the message, often with an inscription on its front wall like Memento Mori (remember you have to die) or a plea for prayers. In Ploudiry, a skeleton, reminding viewers nobody bows out of the dance of death accompanies four sculpted faces depicting various states of life.
Crowded Crucifixion
But it's the Third Sunday of Advent, you say. Just a week away from the feast of the birth of Our Lord. Why visit, even if only vicariously, a place that seems dedicated to death?
Because, far from being morbid, these masterpieces of religious art are, like the great works inspired by the Nativity, sophisticated declarations of faith.
Death was hardly a stranger in rural Brittany when these closes began appearing. Disease and infant mortality were high. The Black Death had haunted Europe. Warfare was common. Breton seafarers faced the perils of the deep.
Parish closes did not dramatize death, but neither did they share in today's conspiracy of silence about it. People die because of sin. My sins bring death upon me and the cross upon Jesus. The calvary in St.-Thegonnec symbolically makes this point: The men arresting Jesus wear clothes of their times, the 16th rather than first centuries.
Brittany's parish closes also reminded Christians that death does not wholly sever bonds of family and community. As one went to church, his ancestors’ presence reminded him that “It is a good and holy thought to pray for the faithful departed” (inscribed on the ossuary at St-Thegonnec). The dead also remind the living to act while there is still time: “Sinners repent while you live because for us dead there is no more time.” The ossuary at La Roche-Maurice puts it simply: “mihi hodie, tibi cras” (me today, you tomorrow).
Cross the threshold of the church door and new wonders greet you. Eastern ecclesiology says a church should be “heaven on earth.” Something of the same idea hits you upon entering these small Breton churches. If the churchyard has a certain somber, monochromatic austerity, the interiors of the churches are flamboyant riots of beautifully colored polychrome woods. Neighboring towns rivaled each other to embellish their churches.
Side altars were particular beneficiaries of such efforts. The 1682 Grand Retable in Commana successfully melds profound spiritual theology with art.
Consider the central line of the altar, starting at the ceiling. At the very top is a human face borne up by a dove (the Holy Spirit). Just below, a statue of God the Father lovingly clasps the crucified body of his Son. Jesus has one hand on his heart, the other extended to us. He stands on a blue globe.
Continuing downwards, the Father reappears, beard billowing, holding the same globe now surmounted by a cross. Just below is the Child Jesus, same globe in hand, crowned with a cross. Just below him is the tabernacle. The altar profoundly combines Trinitarian theology, Christology, soteriology and sacramentology, all conveyed through images to the largely illiterate 17th-century peasants of this little farming village.
Lampaul-Guimiliau also has a striking side altar dedicated to the Passion of Christ. Eight incredibly detailed polychrome carvings take us from the Last Supper through Jesus’ Passion to the entombment. The crowded crucifixion scene looks as if everybody in Jerusalem that first Good Friday turned out.
Where the Wise Roamed
About 50 parish closes are scattered throughout western Brittany. The three most visited (going west from Morlaix) are St.-Thegonnec, Guimiliau and Lampaul-Guimiliau. Mass is celebrated Sundays at 10 a.m. (11 a.m. in Lampaul-Guimiliau).
St.-Thegonnec is the biggest tragedy because a 1998 fire damaged much of the church's interior. Although reconstruction is underway, the church is worth a visit. An exhibition set up inside the church explains what closes are and displays some treasures rescued from the fire (like the pulpit and presidential chair).
Five miles down the road is Guimiliau. Its calvary is the most intricate, with 200 figures depicting the life of Christ. The last of the three most visited closes, LampaulGuimiliau, is about four miles further down the road. Its ossuary and calvary are simple but the church makes up for it. Apart from the altar of the Passion mentioned above, two other items merit special attention. The cross above the nave, with Mary and John at Jesus’ sides, is supported by a beam with richly colored depictions of Christ's Passion. The church also possesses a life-size set of statutes of Jesus being laid in the tomb, the ashen body of the Savior in sharp contrast to the palpably emotional party (look carefully at Mary and John).
Although these three closes are most accessible, do go off the beaten track. A 70-mile circuit would take you to these three and seven more, including Commana, La Martyre (the oldest), Saint-Servais, Ploudiry, La Roche-Maurice, Locmelar, and Sizun (with its 15-yard long triumphal arch). Rent a car; there is no other way to get between these points if you are not part of a tour. A U.S. driver's license with international driving permit can be used in France and, on many a Breton country road, yours will be the only vehicle around.
Enjoy Brittany's rural vistas and note the wayside calvaries along its roads.
On the ossuary in La Martyre there is a band proclaiming, in old Breton, Fol eo na preder e esperet guelet ez eo ret deceda (“He is a fool who does not meditate on the fact that we all must die”). A trip to Brittany can make one wise.
John M. Grondelski, a moral theologian, writes from Warsaw.
----- EXCERPT: The parish closes of Brittany, France ----- EXTENDED BODY: John M. Grondelski ----- KEYWORDS: Travel -------- TITLE: Finding Gems Amid the Junk in the Video Aisle DATE: 12/16/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 16-22, 2002 ----- BODY:When I was five, the Wizard of Oz was the outermost limit of terror.
The flying monkeys, in their hideous makeup and phony suits, gliding in on barely concealed wires to snatch Dorothy out of the haunted wood, were the stuff of nightmares for me. I had no ability to distinguish between reality and the primitive movie magic on the TV screen. And I was an ordinary kid.
How much less, then, can a small child today discern the difference between reality and, say, the absolutely lifelike, man-eating dinosaurs of the Jurassic Park movies? Do parents expose (or, worse yet, force) small children to endure the psychological torture of such films and hiss at them to stop whining during daddy's two-hour sessions of self-indulgence?
I mention such cheery things at this merry season because not a few parents are just now engaged in the process of finding a last little something for the kids. Many are perusing the video and DVD selections, and not a few are weirdly persuaded that, if a film is billed a “popcorn movie,” then it is, ipso facto, something “for the kids” — including the very young ones.
To them I say: Remember the flying monkeys!
I also say, “All that is cartoon is not kid fare.” This should be common knowledge now that Beavis and Butthead, South Park and other recent celluloid specimens have made it clear that live action has nothing over animation when it comes to being coarse, ugly, neanderthal or just plain offensive. Yet many still seem to assume that, if it's animated, it's for kids. “It's a cartoon,” they say. “It can't be that bad.” Guess again.
This is not to say that all cartoons are either abject crudity or Snow White. It is to say that, not infrequently, things which Hollywood considers “family fare” are defined as such by jaded Hollywood executives who consider your concerns and values something to sneer at. And look upon your kids’ unrefined side as something to exploit for fun and profit.
Take the repulsive Dr. Seuss’ How the GrinchTM Stole Christmas. Please. The “TM” in the title really says it all. Here is a story that could have been a fun, fluffy holiday movie for children. In other words, a dramatic replication of what the book was to early readers a generation or two ago.
But once the corporate suits got done focus-grouping the story, hyping it, casting Jim Carrey and — all important — doing what needed to be done to lose the G rating, they transmogrified it into yet another vehicle for belching and puking jokes, male stars who stick their noses into starlets’ cleavage, utterly gratuitous references to adultery and fornication, and grotesquely hypocritical preachments about the hypocrisy of those awful, bourgeois, middle-class materialistic Whos (that'd be their best shot at you and me).
Then they spent, and they spent, and they spent, spent, spent, spent (as a real Dr. Seuss character would have said) to market this bloated beast of a film till the last drops of money could be squeezed from its cold, soulless carcass. If there was ever a movie that was an insult to family films, this is it. Avoid it like the plague.
But I digress.
Of course, there's also a lot of stuff in between the two extremes, and some of it is pretty good. Shrek (Dreamworks), for instance, is a good film, brilliantly computer-animated, with good characters, good vocalizations and a reasonable story. However, it's definitely a story for older children. It has some relatively sophisticated treatments of “teen issues” like friendship, loyalty, courage and the importance of looking at the heart rather than the physique. It also has a number of sly and richly deserved pokes at Disney. But, even for the older kids, I would note that there is an unnecessary edge (flatulence jokes, some coarse language) whose only apparent purpose was to ward off the dreaded G rating.
Similarly, Antz (also from Dreamworks) is really a late-teen/early-adult movie; it's best-suited to those who appreciate Woody Allen's brand of humor. The little ones would be more bemused than amused.
On the decidedly bright side, there remain films like Babe, Chicken Run (and the Wallace and Gromit trio of shorts), as well as the Toy Story 2 and A Bug's Life — which really are good for small kids. All these are as fun for grownups as for children and teens, and they have the unique advantage (particularly in the case of Babe and Toy Story 2) of being genuinely great films.
Bottom line: Caveat emptor. Which, loosely translated, means “Remember the flying monkeys.” Not only at Christmas, but all year ‘round.
Mark Shea writes from Mountlake Terrace, Washington.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Mark Shea ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Last-minute stocking-stuffers DATE: 12/16/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 16-22, 2002 ----- BODY:Ten videos your kids will love and you won't hate — unless you're a pre-conversion Ebenezer Scrooge:
The Counterfeit Traitor (1962)
Christian faith is often neglected as a motive in the resistance to Nazi tyranny.
The Counterfeit Traitor, based on a real-life incident, is primarily an espionage adventure about a cynical opportunist who winds up doing the right thing in spite of himself. But it also examines issues of belief. Eric Erickson (William Holden) is an American-born Swedish oilman who's trading profitably with the Germans during World War II. Blackmailed into working for Allied intelligence, he recruits sympathetic German friends and is allowed to visit all the Nazi refineries, which he scopes out as future bombing targets.
Eric falls in love with his main German contact, Marianne Mollendorf (Lili Palmer), a practicing Christian who's placed in great danger by their missions. Writer-director George Seaton (Miracle on 34th Street) subtly examines the workings of her conscience. The movie's suspense is as involving as its characters’ interior moral conflicts.
Saudi Time Bomb (2001)
One of the unsettling consequences of the Sept. 11 bombings is the realization that Saudi Arabia, a long-time U.S. ally, may no longer be trustworthy in the fight against fundamentalist Islamic terrorism. Writer-producers Martin Smith and Lowell Bregman examine some of the reasons why in Saudi Time Bomb, a 60-minute PBS documentary. They skillfully combine archival footage with interviews with former U.S. officials like James Baker, Brent Scowcroft and Richard Holbrooke. For balance there are also brief analyses by Middle East experts from the region.
Particularly disturbing are the connections established between the Saudi royal family and the extreme form of Islam called Wahabism. The movie traces how their “madrassas,” or religious schools, have spread their fanatic, militaristic message across the globe to places like Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bosnia, among others.
Beau Geste (1939)
The deserts of the Middle East were once a favorite Hollywood setting for exotic tales of mystery and adventure. Beau Geste, based on Percival Christopher Wrenn's novel, goes beyond the genre's usual conventions in also dramatizing the power of self-sacrifice. The movie begins with a tantalizing set of images: a desert fort strewn with the corpses of French Legionnaires, a note with the confession of a strange theft and a destructive fire of unknown cause.
The action flashes back to England 15 years earlier, where the three orphaned Geste brothers (Gary Cooper, Ray Milland and Robert Preston) are being raised by an impoverished aristocrat (Heather Thatcher). When the eldest, Beau (Cooper), learns that she has secretly sold the family jewels to pay for their upbringing, he claims to have stolen it himself and saves her honor. Then he and his siblings rush off to join the French Foreign Legion. Director William Wellman (Wings) captures both the harshness and the romance of Legion life and stages some harrowing battle scenes.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: Weekly TV Picks DATE: 12/16/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 16-22, 2002 ----- BODY:All times Eastern
SUNDAY, DEC. 16
The White House Christmas 2001
Home & Garden, 9 p.m.
Spectacular decorations, hung with care by artisans and volunteers, make the president's mansion more beautiful than ever during the Christmas season.
MONDAY, DEC. 17
Digging for the Truth: Archaeology and the Bible
History Channel, 9 p.m.
This two-hour world premiere describes biblical archaeology in the Holy Land, past and present, and its potential ramifications for faith and geopolitics alike. Some Zionists and Palestinians see discoveries as affecting claims to territory, and some Christians and atheists interpret discoveries as bearing on Christianity's authenticity. Catholic viewers of this show will remind themselves to seek out and rely on the Church's official positions rather than the shifting opinions of scientists or politicians.
TUESDAY, DEC. 18
A Star for Jeremy
EWTN, 4:30 p.m.
In this touching Christmas cartoon, a little boy and a certain little star discover that God has them in his loving providence. To be rebroadcast Sunday, Dec. 23, at 6:30 p.m. and Christmas Day at 5 p.m.
WEDNESDAY, DEC. 19
Nutcracker Swing
PBS; check local listings for time
In this lively show, the Kurt Mazur-conducted New York Philharmonic's “Nutcracker Suite” alternates with movements from the EllingtonStrayhorn “Nutcracker” arrangement performed by the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and Wynton Marsalis.
WEDNESDAY, DEC. 19
Amato: A Love Affair with Opera
PBS; check local listings for time
Tony and Sally Amato founded their Amato Opera House company in a remodeled brownstone in Greenwich Village in 1948. They still enjoy doing everything — from conducting to staging to ticket-taking. Their young artists gain experience while performing on a small stage for an audience of 107. (Advisory: one instance of profanity.)
THURSDAY, DEC. 20
The Bible's Greatest Secrets
History Channel, 9 p.m.
This program shows archaeologists at work in the Holy Land and predicts that high-tech tools will change the future of biblical archaeology. (Advisory: Programs like this give Catholic parents the chance to alert kids to trust the Church alone and to take commentators’ views with a grain of salt — or a shaker of it).
FRIDAY, DEC. 21
The Gospel According to Luke
EWTN, 11 p.m.
In all the fuss of the “holiday” season, we can always go to St. Luke and find rest and peace for our souls in his timeless reporting from the stable in Bethlehem.
SATURDAY, DEC. 22
Kenny Rogers: Keep Christmas with You
Hallmark Channel, 7 p.m.
In Branson, Mo., five Boys and Girls Club members sing Christmas carols along with host Kenny Rogers and guests Boyz II Men, Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood.
Dan Engler writes from Santa Barbara, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dan Engler ----- KEYWORDS: Arts -------- TITLE: At Benedictine College, Signs of Spiritual Rebirth DATE: 12/16/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 16-22, 2002 ----- BODY:Two hundred students — nearly one quarter of the student body — skip dinner every Wednesday night. They aren't too busy to eat, and they don't scramble around later in search of pizza to quiet the rumblings in their stomachs. They skip the meal in order to donate their food to hungry people downtown.
Such generosity is just one sign of the extraordinary spiritual renewal that seems to be sweeping across the campus of Benedictine College in Atchison, Kan.
“When I joined the faculty in 1997, about 10 to 15 students attended daily Mass,” says Edward Sri, an assistant professor of theology at the school. “Today that number has reached 100. We had seven or eight theology majors then; today we have more than 50. In a secular culture, where religion is not at the center of things, a lot of young people are looking for a deeper meaning to life. Students are coming here with a real openness and excitement about growing in their faith.”
Sophomore Andy Swafford, 19, came to Benedictine from Dayton, Ohio, on a football scholarship. “That brought me here, but that's not why I'm staying,” says the religious-studies major, who plans to teach high school and coach football. “I fell in with a great group of friends who challenged me in my faith and built me up. They said, ‘Let's be better men. Christ is a great man. Let's be like him.’
“It was a gradual process for me,” Swafford continues. “I started out here as a Sunday Catholic, but then I started going to daily Mass. The more I went, the happier I was. Now I feel weird if I don't go every day.”
Those sentiments are echoed by Sarah Moore, 21, a senior from Chicago, Ill. “I was born and raised Catholic, but when I came here, I wasn't into it,” says the elementary special-education major. “I found such a support system here from students and staff who enabled me to feel secure about growing in my spiritual life. They fed that. My faith has grown by leaps and bounds.”
There are many ways for students to grow in knowledge of their faith at Benedictine. Students are required to earn nine credit hours in theology and nine in philosophy, and many take elective courses in, for example, theology in film, spirituality in literature, and economics and Catholic social teaching.
About 80% of Benedictine students live on campus, and spiritual development is even part of the training for residence hall assistants (RAs).
“RAs study Ex Corde Ecclesiae (From the Heart of the Church) and learn how they can implement those principles in their roles,” explains Sri. “They aren't just the ‘resident cops.’”
More than 100 students are part of the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS), which cultivates spiritual growth through Bible study and leadership training. Fellowship is also an integral part of FOCUS, and students encourage each other in three particular areas: chastity, sobriety and excellence.
“If I'd have heard the things in high school that I've learned here,” one student told the Register, “I never would have had sex in high school.”
The sacrament of reconciliation is available every day, along with the opportunity to spend time in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. “A lot of students go to eucharistic adoration in the chapel on the edge of campus late at night,” says Sri.
“There are very few students who are not involved in some way with their faith,” says Benedictine Father Meinrad Miller, director of campus ministry. “I'd say that about half the students are involved in an active way, through things like FOCUS, the Hunger Coalition, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Ravens Respect Life and the Knights of Columbus. Others are involved more quietly, through Bible reading, praying the rosary or saying night prayers.”
School Spirit
“We have one of the largest and most active student pro-life groups in the country,” adds Sri. Every January, about 80 students go to Washington, D.C., to participate in the March for Life. In addition, they help unwed mothers through donations of things like car seats and baby clothes.
“More than anything else, our daughter has enjoyed the opportunity to minister and join the groups she's always wanted to be a part of,” says Kelly Roper of her 18-year-old daughter, Brea, a music and religious-studies freshman from Platte City, Mo. In January Brea is going to Italy with the college's Chamber Singers, and when they are in Rome she will sing at a papal Mass at St. Peter's. Next summer, she is going to spend 10 weeks working in parish-based youth retreats.
“She is willing to sacrifice the opportunity to earn quite a bit more money and give up the ‘freedom’ of summer vacation to do that,” adds Brea's father, Bob. “She really wants to do it.”
“I have had the opportunity to meet with a number of students at Benedictine College, and have been impressed with their commitment to live out their Catholic faith,” says Kansas City Archbishop James Patrick Keleher. “I appreciate their mature desire to share their faith joyfully with their peers and to witness to their faith by lives of integrity, chastity and fidelity.”
“I can't point to any one thing at the college and say, ‘This program did this,’ or ‘This person did that,’” says Sri. “I look at all this growth as a combination of two things. The students come here wanting to be nourished spiritually, and we give them a lot of opportunities for growth and service.
“The students are not interested in conservative or liberal agendas,” Sri adds. “They just want to grow in their relationship with God.”
Dana Mildebrath is based in Chico, California.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dana Mildebrath ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: A Novel Approach to Pro-Life Polemics DATE: 12/16/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 16-22, 2002 ----- BODY:The literary and media establishments don't like the pro-life movement. They delight in caricaturizing its supporters and its point of view. The damage goes deeper than intellectual bias. In novels, movies and plays, the people who oppose abortion are usually presented as extremists, often with some kind of psychological problem that explains their pro-life opinions.
This skewed vision has unfortunate consequences for our culture. A whole class of people is rarely seen in its full complexity. The humanity of pro-lifers is given second place to their usefulness as pawns in a larger ideological struggle.
Holy Innocents is a first-class mystery novel that takes some small steps to right these wrongs.We are plunged us into a small Midwestern community where practicing Catholics seem as normal as blueberry pie. “Some of the Irish workers who had built the rail line settled in the valley, bringing their wives, their children and their fervent Catholic faith,” Kassel writes. “The occasional, open-air Masses were a curiosity to local farm folk, mostly German Lutherans with a sprinkling of Baptists and Mennonites. But novelty turned to discomfort when the first stones were laid for the foundation of St. Mary's and the Catholic presence in the valley became highly visible and permanent.”
The novel's action is triggered by the discovery of an aborted fetus in the men's room of a closed Catholic school called Holy Innocents. The key questions that drive the narrative are: Who put it there? And why? As the reader puzzles over the possible answers, the issue of anti-Catholic prejudice rears its ugly head.
Kassel introduces us to a wide range of complex characters whose behavior and psychology define the times and the milieu. They're also closely interconnected because of the community's small size, and Kassel skillfully captures the way power and information flow in this compacted environment, and how the fallout from the incident threatens personal relationships.
The novel's moral center is the man who finds the fetus, Alan Kemp, music director of St. Mary's parish. A former Air Force criminal investigator, he's asked to uncover the truth behind this shocking occurrence by an old friend in the local bishop's office.
Like G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown, Kemp must overcome obstacles to solve the mystery. His lifestyle contradicts the stereotypes of contemporary American fiction, which often depicts orthodox Catholics as emotionally repressed fuddy-duddies: Kemp also plays guitar in a local country band.
St. Mary's pastor is the elderly Father Karl Muller, who has a secret in his past that may affect his response to the incident. Working with him is Sister Elaine Ryden, a young, ecologically aware nun who appears to relish challenging the status quo.
The local evangelical Protestant congregation is run by Pastor Matt Pell. Although his flock is pro-family and pro-life, he has no history of making common cause with Catholics during crises. Tamar Kittredge, the director of the Interfaith Counseling Center, cooperates with Sister Elaine on specific projects, but her feminist attitudes suggest the possibility of conflict.
Kemp uncovers some disturbing views beneath the community's Norman Rockwell-like veneer. Teachers in the local public school fear that the diocese is going to re-open Holy Innocents and grab the education funds which they covet. This resurrects some submerged anti-Catholic feelings.
Although the climactic suspense scenes at times lack the appropriate menace, all the plot strands are tied together with some clever twists. Holy Innocents is unusual in its presentation of religious commitment as a positive motivating force. Catholics are shown to be intelligent and sophisticated, and their pro-life views have moral weight.
The most important criterion for judging a work of fiction is its ability to engross and entertain its readers. On that count, the book scores high marks indeed.
Arts & culture correspondent John Prizer writes from Los Angeles.
----- EXCERPT: Weekly Book Pick ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Prizer ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 12/16/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 16-22, 2002 ----- BODY:Top Pay
Bullies Beware
Marilyn Reiser, principal at Erie's Our Lady's Christian School, said administrators and teachers are looking at bullying with new eyes. “People thought bullying was age-appropriate. But not anymore,” she told the newspaper.
Junk History
The book consists exclusively of student gaffes taken from papers written at colleges throughout North America. They form an original, often zany, history of the world that begins with the “Stoned Age,” and includes references to religion and Catholicism.
Mary was “different from other women because of her immaculate contraption.” She and Joseph were turned away from the inn “because they were Jewish.”
In later centuries, Catholic dissenters were “burnt at the steak” when they “refused to decant” heresy. An outbreak of “Small Box,” in colonial America “bothered the Spanish little for, as Catholics, they did not believe in God.”
Tabula Rasa
Just three of the top-ranked 55 schools in the nation — Columbia, Colgate and the University of the South — require a course in Western civilization. None of the 55 requires a course in American history and many schools allow students to substitute other disciplines or offer exemptions based on high-school performance.
Cultural Cleavage
NEWSandOPINION.COM, Nov. 27 — In a column on how the cultural elites, including many in the academic establishment, have stumbled in their thinking since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, John Leo includes comments by Lawrence Summers, the new president of Harvard University that could just as easily be applied to religion: “The post-Vietnam cleavage between the coastal elites and certain mainstream values is a matter of great concern and has some real costs.”
Leo reports that President Summers urged the academic world to rethink its attitudes toward patriotism, and said Harvard has a responsibility to support all public servants, especially “those who fight and are prepared to die.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joe Cullen ----- KEYWORDS: Education -------- TITLE: The Boss's Dirty Jokes DATE: 12/16/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 16-22, 2002 ----- BODY:Q
My boss often tells crude jokes at work. He does it even more at dinner meetings. What should I do about it?
A
In my experience fear seems to work best in a situation like this. In years past it could have been fear of God. These days it's the fear of the human resource department.
Humor is a way for a team to unwind and get to know each other in a more informal way. The problem is that when some people shift to an informal mode, they shift to crude and cruel.
Here's my suggestion: In private, tell him you appreciate the way he tries to set a tone of informality and humor amid the stress of work; but that crude jokes run a high risk of offending clients, and no one can afford to do that these days.
Tell him the jokes also risk offending employees. If you're in a small company, it takes only one disgruntled employee connecting their allegedly unfair treatment to his crude humor to create serious problems for him. If you're in a large company, employees’ complaints could destroy his career.
Tell him these jokes aren't worth the risk. He's your leader and you would hate to see him brought down; crude stories will come back to haunt him, big time.
You might also add that you think he's able to be funny in other ways and he does not really need to be crude. If he actually changes, tell him you appreciate his ability to adjust style for the improvement of morale and the team.
In my experience, that's all it takes. If a person is still so enamored with his crude humor that he's willing to risk his career, then he'll probably be brought down by it.
Art A. Bennett is a licensed marriage, family and child therapist.
----- EXCERPT: Family Matters ----- EXTENDED BODY: Art A. Bennett ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life TITLE: How (and Why) to Pray DATE: 12/16/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 16-22, 2002 ----- BODY:Quick Tip God likes to converse with you the way you like to converse with others: He doesn't want you to rattle on and hardly notice him.
Reason 2 Don't you talk frequently and for significant amounts of time to those you love?
Reason 3 As a baptized per son, you are the representative of Christ's love at home, at work and in social situations. You will only represent him well if you've prayed.
Quick Tip Prayer is made of ACTS. AAdoration, C-Contrition (sorrow for sins), TThanksgiving, S-Supplication (your requests of God).
Reason 1 If you had the chance to talk to Mother Teresa, wouldn't you? Christ is infinitely greater, and you have the chance every day.
Quick Tip Kneel when you pray, or sit respectfully. Your body and soul are one. The way you carry your body is important.
Reason 5 Prayer will transform your day and make it fruitful and fulfilling.
Reason 6 Only God can make you truly happy. Not your spouse, not your body, not your intellect. Know him.
Reason 7 Do you want to go to heaven? Then get ready with habitual prayer.
Quick Tip Start by remembering God is present, and telling him in your own words why you believe in him, hope in him and love him.
Reason 8 Read Luke 10:38-42: Jesus says there is “only one thing necessary.”
Reason 5 Prayer will transform your day and make it fruitful and fulfilling. Quick Tip If you get “stuck,” you can slowly repeat the words of a simple prayer like: “My God, I adore your divine greatness from the depths of my littleness.”
Reason 9 Mental prayer is the only thing that will soften your heart besides suffering.
Quick Tip Read a brief passage from the Gospels, and picture it happening. You can even imagine Christ sitting with you.
Reason 10 Christ doesn't want you to pray because you have to. He wants you to pray because he loves you and likes talking to you.
Reason 11 Faithful prayer can give you in a moment what otherwise takes years of experience to gain.
Content: Father Lorenzo Gomez, LC (legionofchrist.org), April Hoopes (regnumchristi.org), Father C. John McCloskey (cicdc.org). Art: Tim Rauch. Photos: AFP.
THE ROSARY is made up of five decades — five groups of 10 beads, each separated by a single bead. Each decade is dedicated to a different mystery of salvation history. The person praying the rosary meditates on the mystery of each decade while praying one Our Father on each single bead and one Hail Mary on each of the 10 beads. At the end of each decade, the Glory Be is prayed.
Pray the Joyful Mysteries on Monday and Thursday, the Sorrowful Mysteries on Tuesday and Friday, and the Glorious Mysteries on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday:
The Five Joyful Mysteries
1. The Annunciation (see Luke 1:26-38)
2. The Visitation (Luke 1:39-56)
3. The Nativity (Luke 2:1-20)
4. The Presentation (Luke 2:22-38)
5. Finding the Child Jesus in the Temple (Luke 3:41-52)
The Five Sorrowful Mysteries
1. The Agony in the Garden (see Mark 14:32-42)
2. The Scourging at the Pillar (Mark 15:6-15)
3. The Crowning with Thorns (Mark 15:16-20)
4. The Carrying of the Cross (Luke 23:26-32)
5. The Crucifixion (Mark 15:22-39)
The Five Glorious Mysteries
1. The Resurrection (see Matthew 28:1-10)
2. The Ascension (Acts 1:6-11)
3. The Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles and Mary (Acts 2:1-13)
4. The Assumption of Mary into Heaven (Revelation 12:13-18)
5. The Coronation of Mary (Revelation 12:1-6)
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Glory be: Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever. Amen.
----- EXCERPT: The National Catholic Register's Clip-Out and Pass-On Guide for Advent 2001 ó Week 3 ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life -------- TITLE: Pope Pleads for Peace on Earth DATE: 12/23/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — On the World Day of Peace Jan. 1, Pope John Paul II plans to make an extraordinary request.
To achieve peace, he wants nations to forgive each other — precisely at a time when violence and retaliation is at a height.
The annual papal message for the World Day of Peace is usually formal and uncontroversial. But the message for 2002 is a highly personal one, in which John Paul brings to bear his own personal experience of war and peace.
Released on Dec. 11, three months to the day after the terrorist attacks, it opens by noting that “the World Day of Peace is this year is being celebrated in the shadow of the dramatic events of last Sept. 11.”
The Pope sums up the Church's wishes for the world when he writes: “This is the hope which sustains the Church at the beginning of 2002: that, by the grace of God, a world in which the power of evil seems once again to have taken the upper hand will in fact be transformed into a world in which the noblest aspirations of the human heart will triumph, a world in which true peace will prevail.”
The message draws on John Paul's experience as Polish bishop, and it casts light on the many requests for forgiveness that have marked his pontificate.
“Since [Sept. 11] people throughout the world have felt a profound personal vulnerability and a new fear for the future,” writes the Holy Father.
From his own apartment window he can see the long lines of pilgrims — previously able to enter St. Peter's freely — who now have to endure time-consuming security checks.
The Pope begins by acknowledging that evil exists and that it needs to be called by name. The message makes clear that to use words like “evil” is a Christian contribution to the world crisis, for evil by its nature always has some reference to the good.
The Christian disciple does not pretend that evil does not exist, says the message. He calls for a response marked by renewed and strengthened Christian witness.
First, there is the duty to combat evil (Vatican News, page 4).
Second, having referred implicitly to the danger of confusing terrorism with Islam, the Holy Father asks that other religious leaders join him in condemning terrorism.
“In this whole effort, religious leaders have a weighty responsibility,” he writes. “In particular, I am convinced that Jewish, Christian and Islamic religious leaders must now take the lead in publicly condemning terrorism and in denying terrorists any form of religious or moral legitimacy.”
But even supposing that the terrorists are caught and punished, that their network of allies is dismantled and that the regimes which harbored them are toppled, the wounds inflicted will not heal the moment the war against terrorism is declared over.
First, Forgive
That is why the peace message bears a striking title this year: No Peace Without Justice, No Justice Without Forgiveness. John Paul's own personal experience suggests that without forgiveness, true peace will not be possible.
“Recent events move me to return to a theme which often stirs in the depth of my heart when I remember the events of history which have marked my life, especially my youth,” writes the Pope in a remarkable passage.
“The enormous suffering of peoples and individuals, even among my own friends and acquaintances, caused by Nazi and Communist total-itarianism, has never been far from my thoughts and prayers,” he writes. “I have often paused to reflect on the persistent question: How do we restore the moral and social order subjected to such horrific violence?
“My reasoned conviction, confirmed in turn by biblical revelation, is that the shattered order cannot be fully restored except by a response that combines justice with forgiveness. The pillars of true peace are justice and that form of love which is forgiveness.”
The Holy Father acknowledges that to speak of forgiveness is difficult, especially when it appears that the malefactors are unrepentant. But through the hard, brutal experience of living under a terror which lasted for most of his adult life, John Paul has come to the conclusion that forgiveness can accomplish what justice alone cannot — a “healing of memories” as he has put it before, which allows for true cooperation and perhaps friendship to emerge between previously estranged and hostile peoples.
“Because human justice is always fragile and imperfect subject as it is to the limitations and egoism of individuals and groups,” the Pope writes, “it must include and, as it were, be completed by the forgiveness which heals and rebuilds troubled human relations from their foundations.”
Polish Nazi Experience
Does the Pope mean to say that at some point, the terrorists ought to be forgiven? That it is necessary that they be forgiven?
On the personal level, this is an unsurprising restatement of the basic Christian teaching to forgive “seventy times seven times” (see Matthew 18:22). After all, John Paul himself forgave his own would-be assassin immediately, and later confirmed his forgiveness with a dramatic visit to his jail cell.
The Holy Father's proposal is that on the level of nations, forgiveness is also necessary for there to be true peace: “Society too is absolutely in need of forgiveness. Families, groups, societies, States and the international community itself need forgiveness in order to renew ties that have been sundered, go beyond sterile situations of mutual condemnation and overcome the temptation to discriminate against others without appeal. The ability to forgive lies at the very basis of the idea of a future society marked by justice and solidarity.”
It is clear that John Paul is drawing upon his roots and long experience as a pastor in Poland. Like all Poles he emerged from World War II as a survivor of the German attempt to exterminate the Polish nation. A very practical question faced the Church in both nations: How to “renew ties” between the former oppressor and victim?
At the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council, the Polish bishops and the German bishops exchanged formal letters in which they reviewed the tortured and tangled history of their fatherlands. The Polish bishops ended their letter with a breathtaking confession of Christian witness: “We forgive, and we ask your forgiveness.”
A firestorm erupted in Poland, as many were not at all ready to forgive the Germans. As for the idea of asking forgiveness from the Germans, the idea was so contrary to popular thinking that the Communist regime attempted to use the initiative as a way of discrediting the Polish episcopate in the eyes of Polish patriots.
But the Polish bishops knew that an act of sincere reconciliation was necessary if the two nations were ever to live together in cooperation.
The need for reconciliation prevailed, even if Poland had obviously been sinned against more than it had sinned. And the calculus of reconciliation does not measure the degree to which one is sinned against, but rather the depths of mercy extended to the other.
Medicine of Mercy
The peace message does not suggest that anyone ask formal forgiveness from the terrorists — that would be an incorrect reading.
But it does propose that peace cannot be achieved without the healing “medicine of mercy” in Blessed John XXIII's memorable phrase.
And while it would strike many Americans and others as absurd to “forgive and ask forgiveness” of the perpetrators of Sept. 11, that is what, a fortiori, the Polish bishops were courageous enough to do 20 years after the war ended. That courage lies behind the repeated requests for forgiveness that have marked John Paul's papacy, culminating in the historic “mea culpa” of the Great Jubilee.
“Forgiveness is not a proposal that can be immediately understood or accepted,” writes the Holy Father, well aware of the criticisms that he has gone too far in this regard. “Forgiveness in fact always involves an apparent short-term loss for a real long-term gain. Violence is the exact opposite; opting as it does for an apparent short-term gain, it involves a real and permanent loss.
“Forgiveness may seem like weakness, but it demands great spiritual strength and moral courage, both in granting it and in accepting it. It may seem in some way to diminish us, but in fact it leads us to a fuller and richer humanity, more radiant with the splendor of the Creator.”
Having made his bold proposal, the Holy Father roots it in his “ministry at the service of the Gospel” which, he writes, “obliges” him to “insist on the necessity of forgiveness.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Raymond J. De Souza ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: 'Bless the Baby Jesus' Events Attracting Kids and Bishops DATE: 12/23/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:ST. LOUIS — The baby Jesus figures brought forward to Archbishop Justin Rigali by the children and their families came in all shapes and sizes.
Some brought beautiful statues from their Fontanini nativity sets. Others brought small handmade wooden Jesuses. Some were plastic, some straw, and some clay. Still others brought the outdoor variety, electrical plugs dangling from their cribs, trailing behind them.
While some emphasize Santa Claus at Christmas, an increasing number of Catholic families in various dioceses across the country are letting the real star of Christmas shine. Through Advent, many families have taken part in “Bless the Baby Jesus” events in churches across the country.
On the second Sunday of Advent, between 800 and 1,000 people gathered at the cathedral basilica of St. Louis for a diocesanwide Bless the Baby Jesus event. This year marks the third anniversary of St. Louis holding the event. Similar events sponsored by Catholic Kids Net are being held, or have already taken place, in Baltimore, Detroit, San Francisco and Miami.
The event consists of a simple liturgical service including Scripture readings, petitions, and a talk given by the bishop. Afterward, each family brings forward its baby Jesus to be blessed by the bishop. This year the archdiocesan children's choir sang during the procession.
In addition, each family is encouraged to bring forward offerings of layettes, diapers or “swaddling clothes” as a donation to the LifeLine Coalition for Babies. Donations last year filled to overflowing 10 laundry baskets put out for the collection.
History of the Blessing
Formed in 1998, Catholic Kids Net is a national group that provides learning activities to families. It has more than 4,000 members in 48 states. In St. Louis alone, nearly 400 families make up approximately 20 Catholic Kids Net clubs.
“Each month Catholic Kids Net presents the realities of the faith in a way that speaks to children,” explained national director Kathleen Conklin. “Bless the Baby Jesus is simply the culmination of everything that we do in Catholic Kids Net all year long.”
The Christmas event got its start when a friend mentioned it to Laurie Gill, the local director of Catholic Kids Net.
“She said that the Holy Father did something similar in Rome. At the time, I wasn't looking for something extra to do at the holidays,” said Gill, a home-schooling mother of six.
However, following her attendance at an international event for families held in Atlanta, Gill was moved by the experience and wanted to do something for God. “I returned home that November and felt more responsive to this woman's suggestion,” said Gill. “We publicized it through Catholic Kids Net, and eventually a small, private group approached the bishop about hosting the event.”
Three years ago those families approached Archbishop Rigali to inquire about the possibility of meeting with him to have their statues of baby Jesus blessed. “Originally we expected about 30 people to meet in Archbishop Rigali's office,” said Gill, “but a few days before the event it looked like there would be about 100, and so it was moved to a small chapel in the St. Louis cathedral.”
As news of the event spread by word of mouth, Gill learned of even more people that planned to attend, and the event had to be moved a second time, this time to the main cathedral. “In the end we had a couple hundred,” recalled Gill.
The following year the Archdiocesan Office for Laity and Family Life and the Office of Worship co-sponsored the event and invited all parishes to take part. Last year, more than 700 people attended.
Transforming the Day
Families see the event as a way to emphasize the spiritual meaning of Christmas while downplaying the season's materialism. “It is a great time for the bishop to be with families to address the subject of Christmas with children,” explained Gill. “It meets a real need that parents have toward reminding their children about the true nature of Christmas in a picturesque and memorable way. Our archbishop has responded to it as a custom of the Church.”
“The competition that exists for the hearts of our children at Christmas is fierce,” added Gill. “It's important that we have an equally strong experiences for the kids that are Christ-centered.”
Msgr. Ted Wojcicki agrees. “So much of Christmas preparation is wrapped up with externals — gifts, lights, glitter. This event helps families to focus on the real purpose of Christmas,” said the vicar for evangelization and planning for the Archdiocese of St. Louis.
“The archbishop has said that because of the tragic events in the U.S. this fall, the whole meaning of Christ as savior has more meaning than ever,” he added.
“As Catholics not only do we have the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, but we also have the symbolic presence of the Christ Child in our homes. This symbol is a great way to teach children about who Jesus is.”
Christmas in Miami
In Miami, nearly 250 people attended last year's event with Auxiliary Bishop Gilberto Fernandez. Because of scheduling conflicts the archbishop was unable to attend this year's event. In his absence, Father Jim Fetscher blessed the families at St. Louis Catholic Church on Dec. 14.
As part of last year's Miami Bless the Baby Jesus event, the children staged a Nativity play. This year, they will do a Gospel narration. In addition to inviting Miami's 30 Catholic Kids Net teams, the diocese has also invited families from area Catholic schools to take part in this year's event.
“The response to last year's event was overwhelming,” said Ana Pierce, coordinator in Miami. “It's a wonderful event because it brings families together to share in a community outside of one's own parish.”
Many in Laurie Gill's own family, as well as others, have told her that the Bless the Baby Jesus event was the highlight of their year. “I know from the feedback that this is an event that really touches people,” she said.
In addition to the Christ Child from their family nativity set, 10-year-old Elaine Gill and her five siblings each carried their own smaller toy Jesus.
Elaine has been a member of Catholic Kids Net for four years. As one of the older members of her group she serves as a junior team member. She said that her team meets monthly. In October, her group met to make chili for the poor.
This year, Elaine read the petitions at the “Bless the Baby Jesus” event. “I like it because it reminds us that Christmas isn't about presents or trees,” she said. “It is about Jesus.”
Tim Drake is executive editor of www.catholic.net, a Web site from the publisher of the Register.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: Christmas Joy DATE: 12/23/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria.
So all went to be enrolled, each to his own town. And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.
While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields and keeping the night watch over their flock. The angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were struck with great fear.
The angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothe-sand lying in a manger.”
And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
— Luke 2:1-14
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: Catholics Cautious on U.S. Religious Surveillance Plan DATE: 12/23/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — Attorney General John Ashcroft's plan to relax FBI rules on surveillance of religious and political organizations in the United States drew a mixed response from leaders of Christian groups.
The plan is intended to help the government in its war on terrorism, especially as it relates to Islamic organizations, which terrorists in the country may be using for cover.
The rules in question prohibit under-cover investigations of a group that meets at a house of worship unless the FBI has evidence that someone in the group may have broken the law. The guidelines were established in the 1970s after revelations that the FBI had run a widespread domestic surveil-lance program to monitor anti-war militants, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the Black Panthers and the Ku Klux Klan.
“We're going to do what we need to do to protect the American people,” Ashcroft said on ABC's This Week Dec. 2. “And any organization that makes it its — part of its mantra, part of its purpose in being, is to kill innocent American people and participates in any conspiracy to do that, we're interested in them.”
He pledged that the government would respect the rights of political and religious freedom. But he indicated that terrorists would not be able to hide under a “cloak” of religion “and claim immunity from being observed.”
Said Ashcroft, “People who hijack a religion and make out of it an implement of war will not be free from our interests.”
Anthony Picarello, general counsel of the Becket Fund, a public-interest law firm that defends the free expression of all religious traditions, said that the Constitution requires a compelling government interest to infringe on religious exercise. “It's not clear whether the change in rules would infringe on that exercise, but if it does, the prevention of terrorist acts is clearly a compelling government interest,” Picarello said.
Bernard Dobranski, dean of Ave Maria Law School in Ann Arbor, Mich., said he had mixed feelings about the proposal. But, he said, groups that plan to terrorize shouldn't be able to use religion as a shield. “The government needs the ability to fight terrorism,” he said.
The question arises, though, of whether the present plan might be used in the future to curtail anti-abortion activities. Catholics and pro-lifers are aware that the government has the capacity to “harass legitimate groups that feel there are unjust laws,” Dobranski said.
Pro-life concerns in this respect have a solid foundation. The RICO anti-racketeering statute, originally passed to combat Mafia activities and drug trafficking, was applied in 1998 by a jury that upheld a class-action suit launched by the National Organization for Women against Joe Scheidler, executive director of the Pro-Life Action League. And since Sept. 11, a number of prominent abortionists and pro-abortion activists have explicitly compared pro-life activism to the terror attacks that prompted Ashcroft's Dec. 2 announcement.
Still, the possibility of being targeted by the new anti-terror initiative isn't a primary consideration for Chris Slattery, who runs a network of Expectant Mother Care crisis pregnancy centers in New York City. “I understand the risks that Christian groups that organize against abortion could face,” he commented. “They could come up for future scrutiny. But it's the price we have to pay to root out the enemies in our country.”
Ashcroft, in the ABC interview, stated that there are al-Qaeda cells in the United States. Slattery, saying that thousands of “sleeper cells” may be waiting for a signal from alQaeda leadership to use biological and radiological weapons, said, “If it means infiltrating organizations, whether religious or not, it has to be done.”
The religious freedom concern raised by Ashcroft's plan might not be an issue in Islamic countries. Islam lacks the concept of separation of mosque and state, noted the Rev. Keith Roderick, an Episcopal priest who is secretary-general of the Coalition for the Defense of Human Rights, a support organization for victims of radical Islam. Instead, the state is an instrument for the advancement of Islam.
Rev. Roderick pointed out that Sheik Muhammad Hisham Kabbani, a Lebanese Islamic scholar who for several years warned of the threat of Islamic extremism in the United States, has said that 85% of the mosques in this country have been politicized by radical Islamists.
“That's not to say that criminal activity is occurring in the mosques,” Rev. Roderick said. But in the past, fund-raising efforts have been touted in Islamic centers, or mosques, not only for humanitarian causes but also for furthering the cause of spreading a radical militant Islam throughout the world, he said.
The planning of terrorist acts is probably not being conducted in mosques, Rev. Roderick said, but Islamic centers — especially those on college campuses — are often places where terrorist groups recruit members and test loyalties.
And, Rev. Roderick added, until recently there has been much ideological incitement in the centers —-in sermons, Friday lectures and talks by guest speakers. If authorities had paid attention to what has been said in mosques and by whom, it may have given them an idea of how networks were developing. “We wouldn't have been caught off guard on Sept. 11,” he said.
Muslim Reaction
But Farouk Fakira, president of the Annur Mosque in Sacramento, Calif., finds it doubtful that the community would allow terrorists to infiltrate a mosque.
In his experience, most Islamic centers are peaceful places, providing for the spiritual needs of the community. He said he has not seen any terrorist-related activity in the mosques of the Sacramento area, where an estimated 30,000 Muslims live.
“We have nothing to fear from [Ashcroft's plans], considering the situation the country is in,” Fakira said.
“The Muslim community realizes that these things have to be done. I just hope it's not abused.”
But, the Muslim leader added, terrorism has to be stopped: “Otherwise, it's going to get worse.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Burger ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: Holy Land Foundation's Ordeal DATE: 12/23/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:JERUSALEM — For Franciscan Father Peter Vasko, the first week of Advent was one of the worst weeks in his life. The Brooklyn-born priest, who is president of the Holy Land Foundation, was dealing with two serious issues: the spate of suicide bombings in Israel, and the confusion engendered by media reports linking the Holy Land Foundation with acts of terrorism.
But it's a different Holy Land Foundation than Father Vasko's, which stands to suffer “irrevocable damage” because many media outlets failed to make the distinction, the foundation said in a statement. Those media outlets failed to use the full name of the terrorism-linked charity — the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development in Richardson, Texas — when reporting that the Bush administration froze its assets Dec. 3, accusing it of bankrolling the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas.
So, Father Vasko spent hours trying to alert the media, writing to some 5,000 donors, responding to inquiries and enlisting the help of hierarchies and Catholic agencies in various countries to get the word out. He was also responding to inquiries, including hate mail, from people who thought they were writing to the other foundation.
President Bush, in a press conference Dec. 4, said the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development raised $13 million in the United States last year, claiming the money goes to care for needy Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
The Muslim Holy Land Foundation has denied the charges of supporting terrorism.
“Money raised by the Holy Land Foundation is used by Hamas to support schools and indoctrinate children to grow up into suicide bombers … recruit suicide bombers and to support their families,” Bush said. He did not use the full name of the foundation, though later in the press conference, Attorney General John Ashcroft did.
On the other hand, Father Vasko's Holy Land Foundation seeks to stem the flow of Christian migration from the Near East due to conflict and economic hardships. The foundation is affiliated with the Franciscan custody of the Holy Land, which is entrusted by Rome with overseeing Church concerns in the region. It has assets of over $2.1 million and provides between $700,000 and $1 million in housing and scholarship assistance each year.
It's too early to tell if the name confusion has caused a drop in contributions to the Holy Land Foundation.
“I know that the most important part of a newspaper article is the first paragraph,” Father Vasko said. “All we're asking for is that newspapers on the first reference add the words ‘for Relief and Development in Richardson, Texas.’”
— John Burger
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Burger ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: Bread and Candles DATE: 12/23/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:Ask Cardinal Godfried Danneels. He serves the Church as head of the Mechelen-Brussels archdiocese in Belgium. From Nov. 26 to 30, at the invitation of John Carroll University, he visited the United States speaking in Cleveland; New Haven, Conn.; and New York on the topic “The Church in 2001: Where Do I Find Hope?”
After a presentation in New Haven at Yale's Newman center, More House, the cardinal spoke with Register senior editor, Gerry Rauch.
You grew up in Belgium during World War II. What was it like living through the fighting?
I was 7 years old when the Second World War came. It was very traumatizing for a young child to see all those planes coming over our heads with their bombs, going to Germany. And then also when the Germans came and conquered the country. We lived in a kind of occupation.
I was too young to have political ideas. I just saw that there were people dying, and being captured and sent to Germany to work camps or concentration camps; and they didn't come back. There were some people we knew who all of a sudden disappeared, and I never saw them again.
It was a difficult time and also a time of poverty. We didn't suffer in my family because we were living in a rural area, and in a rural area there is always something to eat. But in the cities there was great poverty.
It was an experience of violence.
In the midst of that how did you find your vocation?
My vocation came from two different sources. The first one was liturgical.
I was an altar boy, and, for example during the Easter Vigil — in the formal way they used to do it at 4 in the morning — I saw what they were doing with the fire, and with the water, and with the Easter candle. I told myself, “Here's something completely above me.” I have a liturgical vocation, that's clear.
The second source was social. During the war there were poor people living in the other street, and I always played with the children of that family. My mother said, “If you are going to play with them, you should never remain there to eat with them because they don't have so much.”
From time to time, I took some bread from our table without telling anybody and gave it to these children. I think this is the second source of my vocation — a kind of compassion for poor people, for marginalized people.
When I saw it afterward, I realized these are two experiences — one vertical, my relationship with God and the liturgy; and one horizontal. That's exactly, “Love your God and love your neighbor as yourself.”
You lead a large archdiocese, you serve on four Vatican congregations and its Secretariat of State, you are military ordinary for Belgium and president of its bishops’ conference. How is it possible to carry such a load and still maintain a prayer life?
It's a battle. You have to fight every day to save time for God and for yourself.
First, you have to organize your day well. One can do many, many things in a day if you are organized. Second is simply to take time in the beginning of the day and in the late evening.
My prayer time is in the morning, very early. I get up and then I have Mass and I have my prayer and my breviary. Then the day begins. During the day there are some events you are living with other people that can be a kind of prayer.
At the end of the day, at 10 or 11, I conclude always with another prayer. And from time to time between 5 and 6 in the afternoon there is an opening. Many times I put there an hour of prayer, or a half an hour of prayer.
I mentioned your responsibilities for the Vatican. Which of them do you find the most satisfying?
Well, the dicasteries meet just once a year, or once every two years.
The most interesting was the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith — but I am no longer a member of it, because you can only do it for 10 years. These plenary sessions were really interesting, well prepared and on very fundamental subjects.
The other one — and I am no longer a member of this one either — was the Congregation for Bishops, the appointment of bishops. That's interesting because you come to know the situation in America, in Asia, in Germany, in Belgium, in the Netherlands, in England. You have so much information about new candidates and about the situation of the Church, because every dossier is not only on the person who could be nominated, but also on the Church and the needs of the diocese.
These two congregations for me were the best ones. Now I have the Congregation for Liturgy and Sacraments and the Congregation for Catholic Education.
But also clearly interesting for me are the synods, because you have contact with 250 bishops from all over the planet for four weeks. There are some things to be revised in the functioning of the synod; it has to be modernized. But meeting with your colleagues for a month on a topic, like last October on the bishops, is exciting.
It's surprising that you picked Doctrine of the Faith first.
But it's the queen of the congregations. It's the congregation where the Pope himself is prefect. Cardinal Ratzinger is not the prefect of the congregation; he's the delegate of the Pope.
It's interesting because you are really there in the core of Christian faith — the Bible, dogma, morals. You have, for example, all the moral problems of cloning, in vitro fertilization and the rest. You have to be an all-round educated man.
The congregation is not always well accepted by people, probably because they don't read the documents fully. They just look at what the newspapers have taken from the text. You can't in two phrases, or in 90 seconds, really describe a document that is so rich and so complicated. You cannot do that.
So, read the documents. From time to time, though, they're not very pleasing to some people.
Tomorrow you are scheduled to go to Ground Zero. What was your response on Sept. 11, when the terrorist attacks were unfolding?
I didn't know what to say. I was really perplexed when I saw the images on television. I said, “Is this a film? Is this a movie? Or is this reality?” And it was reality.
Ground Zero is for me a symbol of what mankind is, of what we men and women are. It's the place of a blind violence, and at the same time of immense charity and solidarity. People are working there for months already, dedicating themselves to humanity in a very difficult situation.
That is what really happens in our hearts. It's a battle between good and evil. We believe good will have the victory.
This kind of terrorism is a totally new thing in human relationships. Your defenses are so sophisticated; but then at a certain moment on Sept. 11, with very simple means that you can do nothing against, they destabilize you.
It puts a question mark behind all we can achieve. It's a real claim for morality — that we should form our hearts and our consciences because that is the only thing that can save us. Our instruments won't save us; only the conversion of our hearts can save us. And that's a question for religion.
That reminds me of the message you're giving as you speak in the United States on this visit. How would you summarize it?
Continue to hope. Continue to hope; but remember that we can't realize our own happiness by human means. We have to receive it also as a grace coming from heaven and from God.
The events of Sept. 11 tell me that if God doesn't exist, and doesn't intervene with his grace and his compassion and his mercy, then the world is an absurd thing, and we are too.
It's a cry for transcendence.
----- EXCERPT: Where will hope come from for Catholics of the 21st century? ----- EXTENDED BODY: Cardinal Godfried Danneels ----- KEYWORDS: Inperson ----------- TITLE: USAID Inches Toward Church Teachings in Anti-AIDS Programs DATE: 12/23/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — While the U.S. Agency for International Development is as committed as ever to promoting condoms in the fight against AIDS in the developing world, the agency appears to be increasingly appreciative of the contribution made by the Church and its message of chastity.
On Nov. 30, USAID announced its new CORE Initiative, to “target resources and technical assistance to faith- and community-based organizations worldwide” that are engaged in combating the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.
A press release explained that “the norms and values promoted by faith-based groups — respect for life, committed relationships based on fidelity, valuing and providing education — can make meaningful contributions to preventing new infections. Additionally, faith-based institutions typically operate much of the developing country health-care infrastructure.”
Some Catholics active in development and AIDS prevention say that USAID and Western governments in general have become more open to the importance of religion and the message of chastity, which the Catholic Church emphasizes in efforts to prevent transmission of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
“I think little by little the door is opening,” said Susan Hahn of Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops’ international aid agency.
Father Robert Vitillo, president of the National Catholic AIDS Network and co-chairman of the Caritas Internationalis HIV/AIDS Task Force, agreed that there is greater openness to the Church's approach to fighting AIDS.
“I started doing HIV and AIDS work around 1987 and at that time I found that many of the governments and even the United Nations agencies never included the messages about abstinence and fidelity within marriage,” Father Vitillo said. “I think they have included those messages now.”
1 Billion Condoms
But Father Vitillo adds that government agencies in wealthy countries have not turned away from condom distribution.
In fact, USAID boasts on its Web site that it has “provided over one billion condoms” in the developing world, and that its “support for social marketing of condoms has increased sales by over 100% between 1996 and 1998 in four African countries.”
A USAID press release Nov. 29 announcing a new Global Office of HIV/AIDS noted that “increasing the distribution of condoms” is an ongoing feature of the agency's programs.
USAID officially supports three key means of preventing HIV infection: abstinence, fidelity within marriage, and condom use. Warren Buckingham, senior technical adviser on HIV/AIDS for USAID's Africa Bureau, said that support for the condom component is a “constant strategy.” But, he said, USAID does not “expect every organization to be at the same level of comfort or commitment to all three components. We have in fact worked effectively and are confident that we can in the future work effectively with Catholic groups on prevention.”
Chastity Works
Some AIDS authorities have attacked the Church's stand against condoms as contributing to the spread of the disease, and have ridiculed chastity as unrealistic. Recently, Peter Piot, executive director of the United Nations agency UNAIDS, referred to “a group in the Church,” whom he called “hard-liners,” who put “dogma before saving lives.”
There's striking evidence, however, that the condom promoters are the ones putting dogma before lives. In a study partly funded by USAID's Africa Bureau, Cambridge University researchers Dr. Rand L. Stoneburner and Daniel Low-Beer reported at last year's International Conference on HIV and AIDS in South Africa that chastity programs have been more effective than condoms in Uganda, one of the world's greatest success stories in fighting AIDS.
In the late 1980s, approximately one in five Ugandans was infected with HIV, one of the world's highest rates. Through government programs in which the Catholic Church played a key role and in which chastity was promoted strongly, the rate of infection fell by more than 50% between 1992 and 1999.
The Cambridge researchers found that in the crucial 15-to-19 age group, the group most vulnerable to infection, HIV rates dropped even more dramatically, from 20.9% to 5.2% between 1990 and 1998. They noted that fewer teen-agers reported ever having had sex, and among those who were sexually active, a larger number were married.
“The most important determinant of the HIV incidence reduction in Uganda relates to reduction of sexual partnerships and resulting sexual networks,” the researchers concluded. “Protecting sexual partnerships and networks may be a more successful strategy than protecting sexual acts, in the general population.”
Sister Miriam Duggan is an Irish missionary who co-founded one of the Catholic chastity programs which contributed to Uganda's success. She told a Linacre Centre conference in England last year that, “as a doctor and gynecologist, I never cease to be amazed at the way condoms are promoted to the youth as the answer to AIDS, when we know the failure rates in preventing pregnancy, know the breakage rates, know they are not affordable to many and are rarely used when people are under the influence of drugs and alcohol.”
Added Sister Duggan, “In my estimation the free and indiscriminate use of condoms and their promotion in a glorified way has encouraged more young people to become sexually active, because they believe the device will make them safe.”
Dr. E. Anne Peterson, USAID's assistant administrator for global health, acknowledged that the “two most important factors” in Uganda's recent success were chastity-related.
Said Peterson, “The Uganda data show an average of a two-year delay in onset of sexual activity at just the interval when we see the greatest decline in prevalence [of HIV infection], and that combined with the decreased number of partners we think was … the larger portion [of the country's success].”
Peterson added, however, that “condom distribution … certainly does prevent transmission of HIV-AIDS. It has worked very well with specific populations,” including high-risk groups such as prostitutes and couples in which one partner is infected and the other is trying to remain uninfected.
Responding to the criticism that condom distribution programs are often “indiscriminate,” Peterson said that USAID has worked hard to target its condom promotions to high-risk groups, but that the agency still sees a need to send the message to a wider audience.
Said Peterson,”There are specific STDs that condoms are very good for and therefore the availability needs to be broader than just the highest risk and therefore there is an appropriate place for a broad message dissemination.”
Catholic Contribution
While there clearly remain differences between the U.S. government and Church teachings on the acceptability of using condoms are acceptable, Peterson expressed respect for the contribution the Church is making to the fight against AIDS.
Said Peterson, “We've appreciated all of our opportunities to work with the Catholic Church to make a difference, and Uganda and a lot of the African countries [are] an example of where that partnership has really been instrumental in beginning to turn the problem around.”
David Curtin writes from Toronto.
----- EXCERPT: Federal Agency Recognizes Value of Chastity, But Remains Pro-Condom ----- EXTENDED BODY: David Curtin ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 12/23/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:Donations Down in Wake of Sept. 11
The Las Vegas daily reported that the 20 programs of Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada, including job training for the homeless and working poor, are facing increasing demand while resources are shrinking.
“Any time there is a drop in personal income, there's a drop in charitable giving,” said Allan Johnson, director of Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada. People who usually make annual contributions of $300 to $400 during December are reducing their donations this year to as little as $50, he said. “If someone in the family loses their job, they you're going to see that discretionary income shrink, and those contribution checks are much smaller.”
Two Priests Mourned After Boating Mishap
Msgr. John Nguyen Phuc, 43, pastor of St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Destrehan, La., and Father Benedict Joseph Quang, 37, pastor of St. Gertrude's in Des Allemands, La., died Dec. 6 on a fishing trip. Authorities, who found their bodies the next day, think that one of the priests fell in the water while trying to fix mechanical trouble on their boat, and the other man jumped in after him. Neither knew how to swim.
The two were natives of Vietnam. One of Msgr. Phuc's parishioners said the parish would continue his practice of supporting priests in that country, the New Orleans daily reported.
Striking Teachers Settle with New York Archdiocese
A smaller union, the Lay Faculty Association, was continuing a strike it had begun Nov. 29. Cardinal Edward Egan of New York is trying to close a $20 million budget gap in the archdiocese.
Women Still Choosing Religious Life
Parade's cover story points out that many women who become sisters today have first explored life in the secular world.
The article repeated the myth that the drop in religious vocations was attributable to the Second Vatican Council, because it gave lay-women a greater role in Catholic schools and hospitals, as well as a wider array of opportunities for women in the secular world. But vocations are not a matter of roles.
“We are such a secular society, to hear the call of God today is very difficult,” said Mother Agnes Mary Donovan, superior general of the Sisters of Life in the Bronx, N.Y.
In a sidebar, Sister of Life Maria Kateri explained, “In vocation as in marriage, God has someone particular in mind for you.” Another sidebar has a photo of Dominican Sister Regena Ross playing basketball in habit.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: Cardinal Re Praises 25 Years of Sign of Contradiction DATE: 12/23/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — The Roman launch of a new edition of Karol Wojtyla's Sign of Contradiction — the 1976 Lenten retreat he preached to Pope Paul VI and the Roman Curia — was the occasion for looking back over the long pontificate of John Paul II, and a moving testimony offered by one of the Holy Father's closest collaborators, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re.
After 23 years, the post-Jubilee pontificate of John Paul II is moving into a new phase, one of consolidation and reflection upon what has been accomplished. Already this fall, two curial conferences have been held commemorating the 20th anniversaries of two key papal documents — the encyclical Laborem Excercens on human work, and the apostolic exhortation Familiaris Consortio on the family. At the end of November, the Holy Father also addressed a conference celebrating the life of his first prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Franjo Seper, who died in 1981.
The release of a 25th anniversary Italian edition of Sign of Contradiction was celebrated as a recollection of “the beginning” of Wojtyla's pontificate in a broad sense. The retreat indicated already the principal themes that would frame his 23 years as Pope, including a closing reference to the “new advent” of preparation for the Jubilee of the Year 2000 — 24 years in advance.
Addressing a packed auditorium Nov. 29 at Rome's Gregorian University, Luigi Neri, who wrote a new preface to the book, spoke of Sign of Contradiction as “combining the philosophical tradition with the tradition of the Fathers,” all of which was “read against the horizon of the Second Vatican Council, especially Lumen Gentium (Constitution on the Church) and Gaudium et Spes (On the Church in the Modern World).”
The 1976 Lenten retreat is a remarkable document read 25 years later. Its key text is from Gaudium et Spes No. 22, cited at least six times in the 22 meditations, according to Cardinal Re, who also noted that it has been quoted in every major papal document of the pontificate. The key passage reads: “It is only in the mystery of the Word made flesh that the mystery of man becomes clear. — Christ the Lord, Christ the new Adam, in the very revelation of the mystery of the Father and of his love, fully reveals man to himself and brings to light his most high calling.”
“We see in this retreat Karol Wojtyla as a mystical philosopher,” commented Guzman Carriquiry, undersecretary for the Pontifical Council for the Laity. “He faces here the drama of atheistic humanism, as expressed by Henri de Lubac, and sees clearly that the death of God means the death of man.”
Wojtyla's response to that crisis is to propose a humanism rooted in Christ, noted Carriquiry, and man's response to Christ.
“Karol Wojtyla deepens the question of the Council, which was expressed as: ‘Church, what do you say about yourself?’ This question, according to Wojtyla, is a form of the Gospel question of Christ himself: ‘Who do you say that I am?’” said Carriquiry.
“In this volume we can see that Wojtyla is a true son of the Council,” said Cardinal Re, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops. “The magisterium of this Pope is the magisterium of Vatican II. The primacy of truth and the contemplation of it constitute a fundamental principle for Karol Wojtyla.”
“The encounter with God in oneself is not only a philosophical and theological position,” said Cardinal Re, but part of the “mystical soul” of John Paul II. The cardinal previously served for more than 10 years as one of John Paul II's closest collaborators, meeting with him daily as deputy Secretary of State (the de facto papal chief-of-staff). He spoke at length about John Paul II as a man of prayer, perhaps his first extended public remarks about his private observations of John Paul II since he was made a cardinal last winter.
“This pastor, this man of intellectual vigor, this man who can speak to enormous crowds, especially of youth, this man is first of all and above all a man of prayer,” said Cardinal Re. “The more important the decision, the more prolonged was his prayer — some key decisions were only taken after weeks of prayer.”
He recounted two incidents in particular. The first was only a few weeks after the conclave, when on Oct. 31, 1978, John Paul went to a Marian shrine and declared that “the first duty of the Pope toward the Church and the world is to pray.” The second was on the Pope's first trip to Madrid, Spain, where he was staying at the apostolic nunciature. The nuncio, who had woken up extra early, found John Paul already in the chapel at 5 a.m., praying the Stations of the Cross. It was a Friday, related Cardinal Re, and the agenda was full, so the only possible time for the stations was before breakfast.
The devotional life of Karol Wojtyla is evident in the 1976 Lenten retreat. He devotes separate meditations to the three sets of mysteries of the rosary, and preaches on all 14 stations during another meditation.
Sign of Contradiction is available in English. This new edition was released only in Italian, and the original texts have not been revised. The retreat was given in Italian.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Raymond De Souza ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican ----------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 12/23/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:Pope Calls for Lifting of Sanctions Against Iraq
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Dec. 11 — Pope John Paul II reiterated his call for an end to the embargo on Iraq and said that the fast he requested on Dec. 14 would help Catholics better appreciate the suffering the Iraqi people have endured.
“I implore the Lord to enlighten the understanding and hearts of those nations responsible (for the embargo), so that they may open in favor of re-establishing a just and lasting peace in this region,” the Pope told bishops of the Chaldean Catholic Church visiting from Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Turkey and the United States.
U.N. resolutions say the sanctions can't be lifted until the U.N. Security Council is convinced Iraq has gotten rid of its weapons of mass destruction, the wire service said. The United States sees the sanctions as an important way of preventing Iraq from threatening its neighbors.
Peruvian Party Rejects Motion on Faked Document
EFE NEWS SERVICE, Dec. 13 — The ruling Peru Posible Party in the Peruvian Congress rejected an opposition motion to force the government to identify the source of faked documents that claimed to link the papal nuncio and Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani of Lima to a presidential adviser under investigation for corruption.
The documents and signatures of both Church figures proved to have been falsified, prompting the Vatican to demand an apology. The government did apologize, but not before Cardinal Cipriani publicly disclosed the incident.
The U.N. wants Justice Minister Hernan Olivera to tell congress who delivered the documents and explain why he failed to verify their authenticity before taking them to Rome.
Concert in Pope's Honor Features Mass for Peace
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Dec. 7 — Pope John Paul II and many of the 3,000 people attending a concert in his honor had tears in their eyes while listening to a performance of Missa pro Pace, or Peace Mass. The work was performed by the Warsaw Philharmonic at the Vatican.
“The 20th century, marked by war and bloodshed, closed with much hope for justice and peace,” the Pope said in remarks at the concert. “However, the tragic events of Sept. 11 have sharply broken those hopeful expectations. But we must not resign ourselves. Peace is a gift of God and, at the same time, the fruit of the daily efforts of people of good will.
“Through the universal language of music and singing, the invitation to be builders of hope and peace has rung out once again,” he added.
Polish composer Wojciech Kilar said he relied on Polish traditional music for his score and hoped that the Holy Father recognized some of the folk songs of the Tatra Mountains “so dear to his heart.”
Pope Celebrates Euro's Uniting Role in Europe
BRITISH BROADCASTING CORP., Dec. 6 — The Holy Father said the adoption of the European single currency by 12 European Union countries is a “further step” toward creating a united Europe based on a plan of mutual collaboration for a true community of nations.”
The Holy See “pays careful attention to the building of a united Europe … carried out in a spirit of negotiation and dialogue that has allowed nations that were once enemies to work together in a project of mutual cooperation,” the Pope said during a ceremony receiving an ambassador's credentials.
He also said he was pleased that the European Union is committed to include nations in Eastern Europe and said that what is achieved in Europe is an example of what can be done in regions where there is still hostility and violence.
The Vatican will adopt the euro Jan. 1.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican ----------- TITLE: 300th Visit Shows Pope's Personal Touch DATE: 12/23/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:VATICAN CITY — Of all the remarkable statistics of Pope John Paul II's 23-year pontificate, the number of Roman parish visits may well be the most impressive. On Dec. 16, the Holy Father visited his 300th Roman parish, symbolically at the “extreme periphery” of the diocese, in the words of the local pastor.
“How much good I have seen, and how much spiritual fervor in these visits, how many pastoral, apostolic and charitable initiatives!” said John Paul, during his homily for Gaudete Sunday at the parish of Saint Maria Josefa of the Heart of Jesus.
“Each of them has been for me a privileged occasion to give and receive encouragement. While I desire to continue this rich pastoral experience, taking myself to those parishes which still wait for an encounter with their shepherd, I give thanks to God for this mission which he has entrusted to me. He called me to be the successor of the Apostle Peter, Bishop of the Church of Rome, of this Church which presides over the universal communion in charity.”
John Paul has been in the practice of visiting Roman parishes to celebrate Mass on most Sundays when he is in Rome and does not have a special event in the Vatican. Suspended during the Jubilee Year (when the Holy Father celebrated Mass almost every Sunday at St. Peter's), the program of parochial visits was resumed this year.
His very first visit was on Dec. 3, 1978 — to the parish of Saint Francis Xavier. Only 34 Roman parishes are left before John Paul will have visited every parish in the diocese, a simply unimaginable achievement in previous pontificates.
While John Paul does not usually make public reference to his growing list of numerical records, this time he sent an official letter marking the occasion to Cardinal Camillo Ruini, his vicar general for the pastoral governance of the Diocese of Rome.
“Visiting the Roman parishes has always constituted for me a pleasant duty and one full of joy,” wrote the Holy Father. “To pass the afternoon or morning amongst the faithful, in different quarters of the city, with the local pastor and the priests, the religious and lay workers; to celebrate Mass in the parish church; to greet the children, the youth, the parish councils; to reawaken in everyone the task of the new evangelization, all this has been and still is for me of great importance in growing closer to the human, social and spiritual reality of the diocese. All the more so for a Pontiff who ‘comes from a faraway country.’ If today I can say that I feel fully ‘Roman,’ it is thanks to the parish visits of this extraordinary and beautiful city.”
At Saint Maria Josefa of the Heart of Jesus — a new church, dedicated only last January to the foundress of the Sister Servants of the Jesus of Charity — the streets were closed for the papal motorcade and a band was on hand to offer a welcome, but aside from that, it was Mass as normal. There were familiar faces, but in unfamiliar roles. The head of the papal security team, Camillo Cibin, who has been on every international papal trip — over 100 in all, including those of Paul VI — was not on alert for possible assassins, but was helping children find seats in the front. Arturo Mari, the papal photographer for five pontificates, was not shooting heads of state, but was trying to capture the local parish council. Bishop Piero Marini, the papal Master of Ceremonies who normally presides coolly over a team of preening monsignori, instead had to cope with distracted and forgetful altar boys — and girls, in another departure from standard Vatican practice.
As is customary at papal events, a delegation of Legionaries of Christ was on hand, but only four, instead of the usual busloads. And there was no Sistine Chapel choir, but the best the parish had to offer, accompanied by an electric “organ,” the opening voluntary of which was easily drowned out by excited young people chanting “Giovanni Paolo.” And then there was Francesco Rutelli, the former mayor of Rome and recently defeated candidate for Prime Minister of Italy, sitting in the front row. Why he was there nobody seemed to know, except that papal Masses always seem to have Italian politicians sitting conspicuously in the front row.
Saint Maria Josefa is a long way from the heart of Rome, situated in a new urban settlement, a place where, in a reversal of the pattern in the historic center, there are more gas stations than churches. There are still open fields between the new but drab low-rise apartment blocks. The church fits in perfectly, looking as it does like an electrical power substation. An ugly church in a soulless place, it belongs as much to the Diocese of Rome as any of the grand Christian temples which are dated in centuries, not decades.
All of it belongs to the same reality, the same Church to which John Paul has made three hundred pilgrimages. To all of them, he records in his letter, “I have announced the same Gospel, I have broken the same Bread: Christ, the Redeemer of man.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Raymond J. De Souza ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican ----------- TITLE: Recognizing the Splendor of the New Creation DATE: 12/23/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:Register Summary
John Paul II proposed the language of love as an image for the language of prayer.
“Prayer does not fear repeating itself, as a person in love never hesitates to express affection for his beloved over and over, without limit,” the Pope told thousands of pilgrims attending his midweek general audience Dec. 12.
The Holy Father's remarks formed part of a commentary on the hymn of the three young men condemned to be burned to death in a furnace.
The book of Daniel recounts how God saved them from the torment ordered by King Nebuchadnezzar in the 2nd century B.C. Their words of blessing and thanksgiving still inspire prayer today.
The canticle we just heard is taken from the first part of a long and beautiful hymn, which is found in the Greek translation of the book of Daniel. It is sung by three young Jewish men thrown into a furnace for refusing to adore the statue of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. Another part of the same song is found in the Sunday Morning Prayer of the first and third week of the liturgical psalter.
The book of Daniel, as is well-known, reflects the ferment, hope and even apocalyptic expectation of the Chosen People who, in the period of the Maccabees (2nd century B.C.), were struggling to live according to the law given by God.
From the furnace, the three young men, miraculously preserved from the flames, sing a hymn of blessing addressed to God. This hymn is similar to a litany, repetitive but at the same time ever new; its invocations rise to God like billows of incense, which fills the air with similar but never identical forms. The prayer does not fear repeating itself, as a person in love never hesitates to express affection for his beloved over and over, without limit. To keep on emphasizing the same things is a sign of intensity and of the numerous subtleties of interior feelings and affections.
Every Creature's Praise
We heard the beginning of this cosmic hymn from Daniel 3:52-57. It is the introduction, preceding the magnificent parade of creatures caught up in praise. An overall view of the entire song, as an extended litany, reveals to us a succession of elements making up its theme as a whole. It begins with six invocations addressed directly to God, followed by a universal appeal to “all you works of the Lord” — that they might open their matchless lips for blessing (see verse 57).
This is the part we are considering today, which the liturgy proposes for Morning Prayer on Sunday of the second week. The song will be prolonged, calling all creatures of heaven and earth, one after the other, to praise and magnify their Lord.
Returning God's Blessing
This initial passage will be taken up again by the liturgy in the Sunday Morning Prayer of the fourth week. We will now choose, therefore, only some elements for our reflection. The first is the invitation to blessing: “Blessed are you,” which at the end becomes: “Bless!”
In the Bible, there are two forms of blessing intertwined. On one hand, is the kind that comes from God; the Lord blesses his people (see Numbers 6:24-27). This is an efficacious blessing — source of fruitfulness, happiness and prosperity. On the other, is the blessing that rises from earth to heaven. Humanity, beneficiary of divine generosity, blesses God — praising, thanking and exalting him: “Bless the Lord, my soul!” (Psalm 103:1; 104:1). The divine blessing is often mediated by priests (see Numbers 6:22-23; Sirach 50:20-21) through the imposition of hands; human blessing, instead, is expressed in the liturgical hymn, rising to the Lord from the assembly of the faithful.
God Is Near
Within the same passage, another element to consider in our meditation is the antiphon. One might imagine the soloist, in the Temple crowded with people, intoning the blessing — “Blessed are you, Lord” — and listing the various divine wonders, while the assembly of the faithful constantly repeats the formula: “Praiseworthy and glorious above all forever.” It is what already occurred in Psalm 136, the so-called Great Hallel — namely, the great praise — where the people repeated “God's love endures forever,” while the soloist enumerated the various acts of salvation accomplished by the Lord in favor of his people.
In our psalm, the object of praise above all is the “holy and glorious” name of God, whose proclamation resounds in the Temple, which is also “holy and glorious.” While contemplating in faith God, who sits “on the throne of his kingdom,” the priests and people realize that they are the object of his gaze, which “looks into the depths.” This awareness makes praise pour forth from their hearts: “Blessed … blessed.” God, who “sits above the cherubim” and has as his dwelling the “firmament of heaven,” is still close to his people who, for this reason, feel protected and safe.
The New Creation
The re-presentation of this canticle on Sunday morning, which is the weekly Easter of Christians, is an invitation to open one's eyes to the new creation that had its origin precisely in the Resurrection of Jesus. Gregory of Nyssa, a fourth-century Father of the Greek Church, explains that with the Lord's Easter “new heavens and a new earth are created … a different, renewed man comes into being in the image of his creator through the birth from on high” (see John 3:3,7). He continues: “Just as the one who looks at the sensible world perceives invisible beauty through visible things … so the one who looks at this new world of ecclesial creation sees in it him who became everything in everyone — leading the mind by the hand, through things that are comprehensible to our rational nature toward that which goes beyond human comprehension” (Langer-beck H., Gregorii Nysseni Opera,VI, 1-22 passim, p. 385).
In singing this canticle, therefore, the Christian believer is invited to contemplate the world of the first creation, sensing the outline of the second — inaugurated with the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. This contemplation leads everyone by the hand to enter, practically dancing with joy, into the one Church of Christ.
(Translation by Zenit and Register)
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Vatican ----------- TITLE: Dana Scallon's View on Ireland's Abortion Referendum DATE: 12/23/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — How should Irish pro-lifers respond to a bill that would close one abortion loophole, while opening another large and lucrative one?
Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern created this dilemma when he proposed an amendment to the Irish Constitution. Abortion is illegal under the existing constitution, but, due to a 1992 ruling by the Irish Supreme Court, women who claim they will commit suicide if they must bring their children to term are allowed to abort.
Ahern's amendment would reverse that decision and fund crisis pregnancy centers for women who need help.
But the amendment defines “abortion” as occurring after the child implants in a human womb. This definition leaves the youngest lives unprotected — implantation typically occurs near the end of the first week of pregnancy. Moreover, the amendment would make it possible for Ireland to cash in on research on embryonic stem cells, since the embryos would be grown in a lab rather than a womb.
Irish voters are to vote on the proposed amendment in a national referendum next year.
Singer and Irish representative to the European Parliament Dana Rosemary Scallon spoke Dec. 1 with Register correspondent Eve Tushnet, backstage at the Unity Awards for Catholic music and video presentation in Washington. Scallon explained why she opposes the amendment, and how abortion shapes Ireland's image in the European Parliament.
When did you first hear of the amendment?
Well, I should place it in the context of European events. I heard about it as we were drawing toward the close of a year of debate in the European Parliament. I was in a committee that would draw up ethical guidelines for the European Union in the area of research using human child embryos. And it was very clear that the intention within the [European] Parliament was to fund, with public money, this kind of controversial research.
The question that arose was, When does life begin? Well, of course, medical fact is [that it begins at] conception. But for the past 10 years or so, there's been a trend to define it as implantation.
And at the same time we're discussing this in Europe, the wording [of the abortion amendment] was proposed by the Irish government. There was a government commission on assisted human reproduction, and in the pamphlet that this committee presented highlighting possible areas of difficulty, in the paragraph titled “Unborn,” it said that if “unborn” were to mean [any human life beginning at] fertilization, it would cause difficulties with existing practice with [in vitro fertilization, which is legal in Ireland].
It highlighted what the difficulties were: the disposal of surplus embryos, the selection of healthy embryos. And it said that the definition of “unborn” was crucially important. The government commission itself is flagging that fact.
What happened next?
What then happened was that our guidelines were voted on by the [European] committee. To the great surprise of many people, we had a cross-party, cross-national majority that banned the use of public funds for any research resulting in the deliberate destruction of the child embryo. Any kind of cloning was unethical.
The industry committee, simultaneously, was voting on a research fund of 17.5 billion Euros. We were supposed to vote on the guidelines so they would know [what to do with the money].
But, suddenly, we find that they went right ahead and voted in the European Parliament that 300 million Euros would be targeted at research using the child embryo. That was unprecedented. In the European Union they do not fund with public money what is illegal in a member state. And this is illegal in four member states.
It is a fact that what happens in Europe, happens in the member states. So immediately I called for a reexamination of the wording of our proposed [Irish] amendment, in light of what was happening in Europe. And private genetic firms were already applying for licenses to start up, without specific protection for preimplanted embryos.
We in Ireland must carefully examine any words that will change our Constitution. In fact, since the proposed wording was released, the government has legalized the morning-after pill, simply by saying it's a contraceptive. Women deserve to know what they are taking into their bodies — according to the makers, it has the possibility of being an abortifacient, depending on the time of the cycle in which you take it.
How does Ireland's law on abortion affect the way Ireland is viewed in the European Parliament?
Every year, within the European Parliament I have been informed that Ireland has been strongly criticized because they did not have abortions. It wasn't done in front of me. But candidate countries [seeking admission to the European Union] were threatened, basically told, “How could countries knocking at the door of Europe [prohibit abortion]?”
[Pro-life countries] were told that there were ways of isolating countries that isolated themselves. There was extreme pressure on Ireland to make it legal. It was highlighted in any discussion to do with women.
How would you explain your position to someone who sees great potential benefits from embryonic stem cell research?
There have been no proven positive results from stem cell research from human embryos, and there have been very positive results using adult stem cells and postnatal stem cells — using the umbilical cord or the placenta, for example. It is not that our committee was opposed to research, but there are viable, successful, ethical alternatives.
What kind of amendment would you propose for the Irish Constitution?
There are a couple of points that should be kept. Suicide should not be accepted as a legitimate reason for abortion. The distress that an expectant mother is under, demands a response. Whether her distress is caused by financial difficulties, or difficulties arising from the relationship, we need to provide a response to that.
Having had four children myself, it is an emotional roller coaster. And I've worked over many years now with mothers who have had abortions. There is a need to be honest about the lifelong detrimental effect that abortion has in a woman's life.
Would a fully pro-life amendment be a possibility?
We'll see. As the amendment now stands, I can't support it.
Eve Tushnet writes from Washington, D.C.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Eve Tushnet ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: Media Watch DATE: 12/23/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:Queen Invites Cardinal to Preach for Royal Family
Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor will be the first Catholic to preach at Sandringham. The cardinal has also been invited to stay at the Norfolk estate over the weekend of Jan. 12-13. The service is an annual event, and the queen traditionally extends and invitation to a preacher from outside the Church of England.
“The cardinal is greatly honored by the queen's invitation,” said a spokesman for the cardinal. “This is a further sign of the queen's own determination to promote ecumenical relations within the nation.”
Book Recommends Response to Islam in Africa
AFRICA NEWS SERVICE, Dec. 7 — Christian leaders in Africa need to spend a lot of resources combating the encroachment of Islamic fundamentalism, said an African layman in a new book.
Cirino Hiteng Ofuho contributed an article to “Building a Multi-Religious Society in the Context of Islamic Fundamentalism: Challenges and Appropriate Christian Responses,” which he edited along with Jesuit Father Edward Brady.
The Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Regional Conference published the book, based on the proceedings of an ecumenical consultation held in Nairobi this year. The consultation's sponsors included the Office of the Catholic Bishops’ Conferences of Eastern Africa and the Justice and Peace Task Force of the Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Regional Conference.
The volume covers five topics, including human rights and Islamic law in Sudan. Father Miguel Ayuso Guixot points out that the Sudanese government continues to reject Western standards of human rights. They stick to Islamic principles, he said, trying to make Sudan an Islamic model to be extended to the entire world.
Writing about the historical roots of the spread of Islamic fundamentalism, Father Samuel Ador noted that Islam first came to Africa when the Arabs conquered Egypt in 640. The immigration led to a severe persecution of Coptic Christians.
Taiwanese Home Honors Its Swiss Jesuit Founder
CENTRAL NEWS AGENCY, Dec. 7 — Jesuit Father Francis Borkhardt was honored on his 101st birthday by the home he founded for the mentally disabled, the Taiwanese news service reported.
Residents of Sacred Heart Home in the southern Taiwanese county of Chiayi performed on traditional Chinese instruments for Father Borkhardt, who founded the home in 1990. The Diocese of Chiayi helped mount the festivities.
Liberian Bishop Blasts Social Corruption
AFRICA NEWS SERVICE, Dec. 6 — Archbishop Michael Kpakala Francis of Monrovia, in a yearly pastoral letter, asked if Liberian society has learned anything from its recent civil war, the news service reported.
“We do the same things, commit the same sins and spiritually destroy ourselves,” the archbishop wrote. Complaining of the continued erosion and moral decline of civic society, as well as economic inequalities, he said, “Our lives as individuals and as a nation are characterized with corruption, lies and deception, injustices and low salaries.”
Deputy presidential affairs minister for public affairs, Alexander Kulu, responded that, because of an ongoing war in the Lofa area, the “government was not receiving the needed revenues” to address the archbishop's concerns.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: Overpower the Grinch DATE: 12/23/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:Tis the season to be jolly, yes. But it's also the season of Scrooges and grinches. They say “Bah, humbug” to Christmas cheer, and they want to steal Christ himself from the middle of the season.
Joyce Howard Price compiled a list of examples recently for the Washington Times:
E In Maryland, one school employee was told by higher-ups that Christmas cards with a Christian message “may not be a legally protected right on a public school campus.”
E Ephrata, Pa., school officials prevented a fourth-grader from handing out Christmas cards.
E Two Rochester, Minn., middle-school students were disciplined for wearing red and green scarves in a Christmas skit and for ending the skit by saying, “We hope you all have a merry Christmas.”
E In Plymouth, Mass., school officials told two ninth-graders that they could not depict Nativity scenes or write “Merry Christmas” on their school Christmas cards.
E A Plymouth, Ill., principal warned a teacher not to read a Christmas book to second graders. The teacher had checked it out from the school's library.
E A Silverton, Ore., superintendent had students remove all “religious” decorations from their lockers.
E A Covington, Ga., county school board deleted the word “Christmas” from a school calendar after the American Civil Liberties Union threatened legal action.
E City and state officials across the country are banning not only Nativity scenes, but red and green, Christmas trees and poinsettias from public grounds.
We have grown accustomed to such things, and may even think that there's some sense to them. After all, why force a particular religion down the throats of kids in school? Shouldn't public places be neutral on religion?
But look again at the examples cited above. These aren't examples of religion being pushed by officials. They are incidents of the free expression of religious sentiments being quashed by officials. They aren't examples of neutrality on religion; they are examples of aggressive anti-religious secularism.
Children can and do express their love for many things in school: in their art projects, in their lockers, on their folders, on their backpacks, in their reading choices. They express their admiration for Britney Spears, their delight at Monsters Inc., their respect for Harry Potter, their devotion to PokÈmon.
To single out Jesus Christ as uniquely disqualified for public admiration at school is not an act of neutrality. It's an anti-Christian act. To exclude Christ and all things related to him from government buildings isn't a separation of church and state. It's the state banning the church.
This situation sends a terrible message to the public: Jesus is off-limits. He's unfit for public consumption. He's dangerous.
What to do in such a society? We've noticed an interesting thing happening. We haven't seen any scientific assessment of the pervasiveness of the phenomenon, but the evidence seems to be mounting all around us.
Maybe you've noticed it too: More and more yards decked out for Christmas are emphasizing religious themes. Electric nativity scenes seem to be popping up everywhere. Over one, a blinking white star. Beside another, a kneeling Santa Claus. In one, a variety of animals are gathering around the crib of the Child Jesus.
It's as if the more public officials squeeze religious displays out of public places, the more they pop up in surrounding places.
This trend ought to be encouraged. If they don't want Jesus spoken of in public, let's speak of him more and more in private. If they don't want public ceremonies to mention him, let's fill our churches with more and more people.
If Christ's followers are timid and uninterested in him, then those who hate him will always have the upper hand. But we can swell the number of Christ's followers — and their passion — until they won't dare exclude him from our beloved institutions any longer.
----- EXCERPT: Editorial ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion ----------- TITLE: Letters DATE: 12/23/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:Straight to Jesus?
I applaud the Register for the excellent and encouraging article on the sacrament of penance (“How and Why to Return to Confession,” Dec. 9-15). In the section “Concerns & Answers,” however, there is an error. The first question is: “Can't I talk to God directly, not a priest, to get forgiveness?” The answer says: “Not according to the Bible.” This answer is inadequate, for it does not take into account the perfect act of contrition nor the fact that venial sins may be forgiven without sacramental confession and constitute “free matter.”
I realize the author was creating a summary and not a theological treatise — but confusion could arise in the minds of the faithful.
Please know I stand in admiration of you and all you do to faithfully transmit the Gospel and the teaching of the Church. We are very much in your debt.
MSGR. JAMES M. MCDONALD
Dix Hills, New York
The writer is pastor of St. Matthew's Church.
Hope, Healing and Chris West
Regarding the Nov. 25-Dec.1 commentary “Christian Sex or Sexy Christianity?” by Mark Lowery:
Is it Pope John Paul II or is it Christopher West who is giving the world a radical “lens or perspective through which he lets his audiences see the material content” of the theology of the body? I argue that it is the Pope who has gifted the generations of this millennium with a new appreciation of our bodies, our sexuality, that allows us to truly see that we are created in the image and likeness of God.
I speak now as a voice from a generation that has rejected God's grace on a large scale. We have turned a deaf ear to the Church's teaching on premarital sex, contraception, abortion, etc. We have left the Church (some of us have just rejected certain teachings) to find a promised freedom, happiness and personal power that turned out to be nothing but empty lies. Some of us have returned beaten, battered, bruised and maimed to the feet of a merciful God who has poured out his forgiveness and his mercy upon us. He has filled us anew with his grace and we are on a journey to regain our wholeness.
Yes, the damage wrought “to the ‘raw material’ of our sexuality” is staggering and some of us have carried these wounds for years. However, to assume that God is not capable of healing these wounds severely limits the power of Our Lord and Savior. That we have been forgiven, most of us are certain. Have we fully accepted this gift of forgiveness by forgiving ourselves?
Do we think that we are worthy of any further gifts, such as the gift of healing? Can we love rightly when our woundedness forces us to protect ourselves and hide ourselves? Does God want us to regain our wholeness? Does he want us to live and love as he does?
I would like to witness a resounding Yes to the possibility of all of these. I have experienced these wonderful blessings and I will be eternally grateful to Pope John Paul II and his messenger Christopher West for giving me the understanding I needed to have the faith to ask for the miracles of healing.
The Pope is proclaiming a radical truth about love and one of his messengers, Christopher West, has the humility to share this truth with a humble honesty that is like an arm of light that reaches down into the dark abyss that so many of us are desperately trying to climb out of.
“Be not afraid.” With God all things are possible!
PHYLLIS STANTON
Jenkintown, Pennsylvania
The Body and the Truth
The review of Christopher West's “Naked Without Shame” tape series by Mark Lowery in the Nov. 25-Dec. 1 issue (“Christian Sex or Sexy Christianity?”) was good in ways, but also reveals a need for the Lowery and all of us to more deeply grasp the teachings of the Holy Father.
Lowery thinks West's presentation of the Pope's theology of the body goes too far, fearing that Christianity has been taken up into sexuality. Lowery takes issue with the “overarching lens or perspective through which he lets his audiences see the material content.” But, while Mr. Lowery thinks he is taking issue with Christopher West's presentation, he is really more at odds with the Holy Father himself. The fact that Pope John Paul II believes that his teachings present an adequate anthropology of man by making teaching after teaching dealing with Original Man, Historical Man and Eschatological Man shows how overarching the Holy Father believes this teaching to be.
Lowery fails to recognize the Holy Father's appreciation for how mysteriously Christianity and sexuality are related. After all, the Pope believes that Ephesians 5 (when talking about the one-flesh union) can be viewed as a summary of the Gospel. That is why, when Lowery refers to the hierarchy of truths, he seems to be on the wrong track, suggesting that the teachings of the Pope in the theology of the body deal with a separate area of truth.
That view misses the point that the Holy Father's teaching shines a light on all areas of truth. So, when Lowery talks about the hierarchy of truth and discusses Trinitarian life and the Incarnation and grace and other truths, he fails to see how the theology of the body according to John Paul II is related to all of the above! Certainly, when the Holy Father talks about the nuptial meaning of creation, and of how Christ reveals man to himself, we can see (if we dare) how all this fits together with the truths of the faith.
Lowery's review reveals an element of fear and caution for people to be presented these teachings because “the capacity to fully experience that meaning may be beyond reach.” But, let us remember that the Pope wasn't shy about presenting his teachings audience after audience. We are all fallen. We all need healing. That, all the more, should lead us to embrace these teachings of the Holy Father. Christopher West, in faithfulness to the Holy Father's teachings, reminds us of the power of the redemption.
The Holy Father himself, in reflections on the Scripture passage regarding the man who looks at a woman already committing adultery in his heart, teaches that we should not fear the severity of the words but for them to trust in their power to heal us.
What people (all of us, the weak and strong, Mark Lowery and everyone else) need is to dig deeper into this mystery and embrace the glorious plan that God has for us.
RANDY KOSLOSKY
Pittsburgh
John Paul II Sings and Stings
Regarding the Pope's Homily on Psalm 118 (Weekly Catechesis, Dec. 16-22).
I have returned to the Catholic Church after a 17-year sojourn in evangelical Protestantism, having been raised Catholic. I enjoy your paper with all its variety, but I especially value the weekly homilies of Pope John Paul II.
My seminary training was in an evangelical Protestant institution (Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) where there was a strong emphasis on what they call “expository preaching.”
This refers to Scripture-based sermons that explain the meaning of the original text (hopefully based on a study of the original languages, whether Greek or Hebrew) and then seeks to apply the texts in practical ways to the congregation.
Without flattery or exaggeration I can say that the homilies of Pope John Paul II, which appear in your paper every week, are the best “expository sermons” I have ever read. They are informative, concise, clear, learned, interesting, convicting, practical and eloquent. They “sing and sting” as one former professor used to say sermons should. I learn something new from every one of them.
When I read them I am reminded of what Erasmus once said of Origen's expositions, “I certainly praise the man's diligence and am ashamed of my own slackness.”
What a gift, indeed what a model homiletician, God has given the Church in this man, Pope John Paul II. He does all things well.
TOM SCHECK
Iowa City, Iowa
Good vs. Evil or Easy vs. Hard?
What is the difference between Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings?
They both deal with the issues of good vs. evil, they [pit] black magic for evil [against] white magic for good. The only two things that I can come up with is that Harry Potter is an easier read and that J.R.R. Tolkien is a Catholic.
I would much rather have my son reading Harry Potter at this stage of his youth. Your children need to know the difference between reality and a story book.
My son knows that there is magic out there and that it works, but he also knows that God is the most powerful and his is the strongest power there is.
PRISCILLA DICUS
Ferndale, Maryland
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Opinion ----------- TITLE: Don't Misdate the Christmas Evangelist DATE: 12/23/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:I read with concern “DNA Tests Show Remains Could Be St. Luke's,” which you published with credit to Zenit news service (Oct. 28-Nov. 3). The article uses a late dating of the life of St.
Luke, which implicitly calls into question the authority of his writings. I have had some disconcerting experience trying to help highly intelligent and scholarly people find Jesus. They have a sense of God, but they dismiss the New Testament as a collection of second-century concoctions by religious zealots unconcerned with using misrepresentation to achieve conversions. Late dating of the New Testament helps support their view.
The writer states that St. Luke died around A.D. 150 at the age of about 84. This places his date of birth at A.D. 66, four years before the destruction of Jerusalem and approximately around the Neronian persecution and the death of St. Paul. Were Luke born in A.D. 66, St. Paul could never have traveled with him, nor said in 2 Timothy 11: “I have no one here with me but Luke.” Luke writes with apparently no knowledge of the Neronian persecution and, curiously, he ends the Acts of the Apostles before the death of St. Paul.
Luke's writings include detailed descriptions of Jerusalem and the Temple. The Temple, and indeed the entire city of Jerusalem, were leveled in A.D. 70. Yet Luke writes as if these structures were familiar to his readers. The best inference is that Luke wrote before A.D. 70.
Secular scholars, beginning with 19th-century German rationalists, believe that the New Testament was written around, or even well into, the second century. Modern evidence contradicts this. Fragments of Matthew studied at Oxford date the Greek translation of Matthew to the A.D. 60s.
The work of Tresmontant, Carmignac and Robinson date the Gospels to before A.D. 70 — consistent with ancient Church tradition and the statements of some of the writers that they witnessed the events they recorded.
There are many sincere people searching for God who have been taught that the Gospels were written long after Christ's death by people who never knew him or his followers.
By depriving themselves of the Gospels as a resource, they develop an almost impenetrable intellectual barrier which leaves them helpless to answer the questions “What does God want?”, “Who was Jesus Christ?” and “What does God want from me?” Catholics must defend the authority of sacred Scripture. Late dating of the New Testament is a serious attack on that authority.
SAYRE SWARZTRAUBER
New York
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Sayre Swarztrauber ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary ----------- TITLE: Find a Stable Of Your Own This Christmas DATE: 12/23/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:Merry Christmas? Many people nowadays use this expression with a certain amount of skepticism, if not outright irony.
Christmas, for many, is more or less the same predictable thing every year: After all is said and done — the tree taken down, the presents stored away, the gatherings consigned to photographs and memory banks — life goes on as before.
Is this all there is to Christmas? Are the joy and peace of this season only the expressions of a passing mood? No doubt many will ask such questions this year with particular yearning, in light of Sept. 11 and everything after.
When Christians say “Merry Christmas,” we are referring to much more than just a cheerful mood in which we take temporary refuge every December. We are recalling the birth of a child who has changed not only our own personal lives, but also the very course of history. Everything about Christmas rests on this reality. If our celebrations were not based on this fact, they would be an illusion. For Christians, the Christmas spirit does not end on the 25th of December — it becomes a reality in our hearts. There it remains, to form our entire outlook on life.
Christmas reminds us that the Child Jesus is Emmanuel: “God with us.” If God is with us, our outlook on life should be fundamentally optimistic. We become pessimistic when we live alone or for ourselves as though Jesus Christ were never born. Christmas is a challenge to hope, to believe and to trust in this Child born for us to be with us.
If Christmas celebrates the fact that God is with us in Jesus Christ, we cannot help but wonder: Why?Why would God want to become man to be with us? To discover the answer to this question means understanding the true spirit of Christmas.
When we meditate on that holy night when Christ was born, we realize that Christ came among us in order to save us by reconciling us with God the Father.
The Child Jesus is God's gift of salvation to us: “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him may not perish but may have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
The name Jesus means “Yahweh sets free” (or “saves,” or “helps”). This is precisely one of the reasons why the Son of God became a man: to save us from sin and, thus, to reconcile us to the Father. But this is not the only reason. The Son of God became man for us so that we might know God's love.
Christmas, then, is a mystery of God's love. How could it be explained any other way? St. John the Evangelist puts it rather well: “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.”
On Christmas night, love was born in Jesus Christ and that love stays with us each day of our life to teach us how to love. This is why Jesus taught us: “Love one another as I have loved you.”
In Bethlehem, having been drawn by the light of God's revealed holiness, the angels and shepherds adore the Child Jesus.
Christmas brings to mind the truth that Christ became man to be the model of holiness for us. Christmas calls every Christian to a life of holiness. To be holy means to follow Christ, to be his disciple by imitating his virtues. It implies on a practical level constantly asking ourselves in everyday situations: What would Christ do?
If Jesus Christ became man to make us holy, he also became man to make us sons and daughters of God — to be partakers of his divine nature. By the birth of Christ, we participate not only in his humanity, but in his divinity as well. Above all else, Christmas is sharing the very life of God through the divinity of Jesus Christ. The mystery of Christmas allows us to live the life of love that the Trinity enjoys.
Does all this sound too good to be true? What do we need to accept the message of Bethlehem that God is with us? We will only be able to understand the mystery of Christmas to the degree that we practice true humility.
Jesus was born in a humble stable, into a poor family. Simple shepherds were the first to adore him. Bethlehem is the way of humility and simplicity. The Son of God manifested his humility by obedience to the will of the Father to become a man like us. St. Paul recalls this truth:
“Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient.”
We all need to become humble and obedient to God in order to say, with sincerity, those wonderful words: Merry Christmas!
Legionary Father Andrew McNair teaches at Mater Ecclesiae International Center of Studies in Greenville, Rhode Island.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Andrew McNair ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary ----------- TITLE: Our Three Wise Men DATE: 12/23/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:The past two centuries have blessed Christians with three modern wise men — men who, like the wise men of old following the star to Bethlehem, shared their gifts with great generosity and purpose.
Indeed, one might claim that the collective contributions of Charles Dickens, G.K. Chesterton and Frank Capra have had more impact on the way Christians celebrate Christmas in our day than those of any other threesome you might string together from all 20 Christian centuries. (I'll admit that I'd be on shaky ground making their case against a “competing” trio that included St. Francis, creator of the first Christmas crËche, and Clement C. Moore, author of the narrative poem “The Night Before Christmas.”)
What all three of these “Christmas men” — Dickens, Chesterton and Capra — recognized, and what makes them so wise, is the importance of the family. And not just any family. As Chesterton observed and as Pope John Paul II has pointed out, each family is a reflection of the Holy Family.
Saving Christmas
Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is the Western world's quintessential Christmas tale. No matter how many times we read the short novel, or watch the play or one of the seven movies based on it, we are moved by the dramatic conversion of the miserly, hard-hearted Ebenezer Scrooge.
Recall Scrooge's words to the gentlemen who come seeking alms for the poor. To their request, Scrooge responds: “If they would rather die, they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”
Upon the visit of the third spirit, the “Ghost of Christmas to Come” unless he changes his ways, Scrooge hears the line, “And he took a child, and set him in the midst of them.” Scrooge wonders where he has heard the line before — an obvious allusion not only to Tiny Tim, but also to the Christ Child. When Scrooge awakes to find that it is Christmas Day, he remarks, “I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.” Confronted with an authentic experience of Christmas, he is forever changed.
What most fans don't realize is that A Christmas Carol, originally published in 1843, sprang from Dickens’ desperate need for money. He and his wife, Kate, were expecting their fifth child. Published the week before Christmas, the book was an instant sensation; in fact, it became the victim of literary pirates who reprinted and sold it without paying Dickens so much as a single shilling. Dickens ended up spending more money fighting the pirates than he made from the book itself. Still, with the work warmly embraced and widely disseminated, Dickens’ name would forever be tied with Christmas.
Only 31 years later, the prolific British writer and Catholic convert G.K. Chesterton was born. Although Chesterton did not produce a memorable Christmas story, he had much to say about both Dickens and Christmas, and his opinions were highly influential upon writers and artists who followed.
Chesterton wrote that Christmas needed to be saved from frivolity. No doubt sensing the modern tendency to celebrate Christmas without naming it, Chesterton wrote: “To be told to rejoice on Christmas Day is reasonable and intelligible, if you understand the name, or even look at the word.”
Chesterton could readily see the paradox in the holiday. Musing on the first Christmas, he wrote, “It is no more inevitable to connect God with an infant than to connect gravitation with a kitten. It has been created in our minds by Christmas because we are Christians, because we are psychological Christians even when we are not theological ones. In other words, this combination of ideas has emphatically, in the much-disputed phrase, altered human nature. There is really a difference between the man who knows it and the man who does not.”
T‘To be told to rejoice on Christmas Day is reasonable and intelligible, if you understand the name, or even look at the word.’
Dickens, Chesterton would have said, was a man who knew the difference. It is small wonder that Chesterton spent so much time appreciating and critiquing Dickens’ work. “Whether the Christmas visions would or would not convert Scrooge, they convert us,” remarked Chesterton.
Furthermore, suggests Chesterton, we can never be the same once we have encountered the Christ Child in the manger. “Any agnostic or atheist whose childhood has known a real Christmas has ever afterwards, whether he likes it or not, an association in his mind between two ideas that most of mankind must regard as remote from each other: the idea of a baby and the idea of the unknown strength that sustains the stars. … For him there will always be some savour of religion about the picture of a mother and a baby; some hint of mercy and softening about the mere mention of the dreadful name of God.”
Born in Palermo, Sicily, Frank Capra emigrated to America with his parents in 1903. In filmmaker Capra, we have an American Chesterton — a storyteller who longed to tell stories about the common man. In his now-classic film It's a Wonderful Life, we have an American Christmas Carol — a story about a man who is given a second chance. A practicing Catholic, and a man who prayed before filming every scene, Capra was successful in expressing his Catholic vision through his films.
The World Is Watching
Capra regarded the film as his favorite of all the movies he made. At the time of its release, however, the film was a box-office flop. As time went on, people continued writing to Capra about the movie, emphasizing its impact on them.
The movie's popularity was due in large part to Capra's having overlooked the film's copyright renewal. Thus placed in the public domain, the film was readily accessible to television stations; they could air it cheaply and pay no royalties no matter how frequently they aired it. This catapulted Capra's forgotten, minor work to its rightful place as part of our national Christmas ritual. In other words, its ascent was uncannily similar to that of A Christmas Carol.
Capra wrote in his biography: “I woke up one Christmas morning and the whole world was watching It's a Wonderful Life.”
In the film, as George Bailey (played by James Stewart) is undergoing a radical conversion of his own, the angel guiding him through the experience, Clarence Oddbody, exclaims: “Each man's life touches so many other lives, and when he isn't around he leaves an awful hole, doesn't he?”
Of his films, Capra said, “My films will explore the heart not with logic, but with compassion. … I will deal with the little man's doubts, his curses, his loss of faith in himself, in his neighbor, in his God. And I will show the overcoming of doubts, the courageous renewal of faith … and I will remind the little man that his mission on earth is to advance spiritually. … And, finally, my films must let every man, woman and child know that God loves them, and that I love them, and that peace and salvation will become a reality only when they all learn to love each other.”
Chesterton writes about this parallel in The Everlasting Man: “In the practical proportions of human history, we come back to that fundamental of the father and the mother and the child. …The old Trinity was of father and mother and child and is called the human family. The new is of Child and mother and father and has the name of the Holy Family. It is in no way altered except in being entirely reversed; just as the world which is transformed was not in the least different, except in being turned upside-down.”
Scrooge's conversion comes about, in part, through his observances of the Cratchit family. George Bailey's conversion occurs once he understands what the world might be like without him, and the fact that his family would not exist. Transformation, for both, comes about at Christmas because it is Christmas, and the Incarnation that tells us what — and who — we are.
We encounter, in both Ebenezer Scrooge and George Bailey, flawed men, much like ourselves, who, through the grace of God, experience an epiphany. Having said Yes to God and thus, their own true selves, they can never be the same. Having shared their spiritual journeys, neither can we.
Features correspondent Tim Drake welcomes e-mail at timd@astound.net.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Tim Drake ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary ----------- TITLE: America, Do What Bethlehem Can't This Year DATE: 12/23/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:“The municipality of Bethlehem has canceled Christmas celebrations because of the violence in the Palestinian Territories.
“Mayor Hanna Naser made the announcement before the latest round of Mideast violence over the weekend. … Naser explained that at present ‘there is nothing to celebrate.’”
This was the report from Zenit news service earlier this month. Bracing words. Read them again if you are unsure of the precariousness of our present moment in history.
It is hard not to acknowledge that the man has a point. There is no question that the world is in a sorry state when the mayor of Bethlehem must cancel Christmas events because of the utter absence of peace. It is even sorrier that this is not the worst news in a season filled with bad news. Those who can hear it as impersonal news, rather than terrible personal experience, can count themselves lucky.
Thousands among us are still mourning the loss of a loved one, or several, on Sept. 11. There are families whose fathers or mothers will spend Christmas overseas, at war. Throughout America, people are afraid to open their mail. Around Jerusalem, they're terrified of going out to dinner. Thousands of unemployed parents hesitated to buy their children Christmas presents this month, for fear of being unable to buy groceries next month. There are refugees in Afghanistan facing a harsh and hungry winter.
And so the question must be faced by anyone bold enough to string up colored lights or sing a cheery carol: Is there anything to celebrate this Christmas?
“No platitudes here,” wrote Cardinal John O'Connor in a Christmas message to his diocese in 1995. “No time for platitudes at Christmas. There is too much pain around, and suffering, even more of it spiritual than physical. There are too many lonely people. Platitudes don't help, nor do jingle bells. Jingle bells sound hollow in Bosnia; or if someone you love is in Bosnia, or if you're sleeping on a rooftop.”
And yet Cardinal O'Connor, like countless other Christian faithful who have seen the sorrow of the world through the years, found something joyful to write about and preach about and sing about. There is a news, an infinitely Good News, that comes to us in these days, breaking through all the bad news that we hear.
“The people in darkness have seen a great light,” the prophet Isaiah proclaimed, even as he, himself, faced very dark days. “Upon those who dwell in the land of gloom, a light has shone” (Isaiah 9:1). Holy Mother Church proclaims his words again this week, in the first reading of the Mass at Midnight.
Isaiah's words, though he did not know it, looked forward to the Christmas mystery, the taking flesh of the second person of the Trinity. The Son of God becomes one of us.
Jesus is Emmanuel, God-With-Us. The Christmas Gospel, even during a difficult Christmas, is that he is with us still. In our sorrow, God is with us. In our fear, God is with us. In our anger, God is with us. In the midst of violence and war, God is with us.
It is worth remembering that the primary Christian feast is not Christmas at all, that several centuries passed in the early life of the Church before Christians began annually celebrating the birth of the Lord. What they celebrated from the start, what they knew must be celebrated, was Easter — the feast of feasts.
And the Easter message was already in view, already proclaimed by the archangel Gabriel, visiting Joseph with the news of the boy to be born: “You are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Already the sins, and the salvation, are foreseen.
In entering human history, God made history, which so often seems so godless, his Story. It is salvation history, all of it, from start to finish. Even the bad parts, the gruesome parts. It might even be argued, in faithfulness to the Gospel accounts, that especially the gruesome parts are his.
The distress of recent days may even serve to emphasize the wonder of our Christmas faith. There is indeed a wretchedness that God took upon himself when he took human form. Marcion, one of the first heretics of Church history, could not accept that God would do this. He refused to believe that almighty God would agree to inhabit the same world with such “beggarly elements” as reptiles and snakes … and us. God could never place himself in an experience so unseemly as childbirth and it was, Marcion insisted, unthinkable that he would take on a form so “stuffed with excrement” as ours.
It was Tertullian who found the proper response to Marcion's reasonable objection. “What in your esteem is the entire disgrace of my God is, in fact, the sacrament of man's salvation.”
Jesus born in Bethlehem is the answer, even in a year in which Bethlehem has to cancel Christmas, to our most profound questions: the meaning to all human suffering, the key to human peace and the triumph of every human life and death. He is the path out of the darkness in which we now grope. And a pathway such as that is something to celebrate.
“Do not be afraid,” proclaimed the angel of the Lord to shepherds two millennia ago, and to us in the Gospel reading of Midnight Mass these two millennia later. “For behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord” (Luke 2:10-11).
For you, says the angel to us. Today, says the angel at Christmas 2001. A savior has been born for you.
Barry Michaels writes from Blairsville, Pennsylvania.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Barry Michaels ----- KEYWORDS: Commentary ----------- TITLE: Where the Crusaders Spent Their Christmases DATE: 12/23/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:Near a window in the most elegantly designed room of the most impressive of all Crusader castles is one of the building's two surviving inscriptions.
Written in Latin and chiseled in Gothic script, it is a warning: “Riches, wisdom, and beauty you may have, but beware: pride alone corrupts all the rest.”
It's a message perfect for Christmas.
Who decided on this wall decoration, and why? I wondered during a recent visit. Was it to remind victorious knights of their human frailties? To caution against putting more trust in man-made fortresses than in God? Quite possibly, the builders and defenders of this castle, Krak des Chevaliers, needed the warning more than most.
Perched on a steep 2300-foot rock spur in western Syria, Krak is majestic even in its ruins. Even from a distance, I recognized it as the perfect model I had aimed to replicate in so many childhood drawings and sand-castle constructions.
More knowledgeable people have been similarly impressed. “As the Parthenon is to Greek temples and Chartres to Gothic cathedrals,” wrote T.S.R. Boase, an expert on Crusader architecture, “so is Krak des Chevaliers to medieval castles, the supreme example, one of the great buildings of all times.”
Where Knights Kept Watch
Krak still gives an impression of invincibility as it overlooks the large plain that interrupts the Anti-Lebanon mountain range. The Crusaders, who held this position continuously for 161 years starting in 1110, found it strategic for protecting the land route from the Mediterranean and barring the gap to enemy armies headed for Jerusalem. In its best days, Krak provided ample manpower for raids and sorties. It ensured control — economic as well as military — of the fertile fields. Even at the end, when its garrison had dwindled from 2,000 defenders to 150, Krak offered protection. So skillfully had its builders used “stones to do the work of men,” as one writer put it, that Krak's only successful besieger might never have penetrated its inner defenses except for a forged letter ordering the last doughty knights to surrender.
The castle's name reveals something of its history. “Krak” probably derives from the Arabic word for fortress (kerak). “Chevaliers” refers to the Order of Knights Hospitaller, who acquired the building in 1144 and fortified it to become, according to an Arab historian of the time, “a bone in the very throat of the Saracens.”
The Hospitallers’ renovations took more than a century, and no wonder. They completely surrounded the original fortress with an outer wall studded with massive projecting towers. You can walk along the top, if your nerves are steady, and get stunning views to the outside and, to the inside, a good look at the inner ring of masonry within which the castle's original walls and towers were enclosed. On the south, where natural defenses are weakest, this wall is a breathtaking 80 feet thick and slopes sharply into a deep reservoir.
A visit to Krak des Chevaliers stirs the imagination. You can almost hear the clash of swords and clink of chain mail as you proceed through its ingenious maze of an entrance, with its drawbridge and moat, four gates, portcullis, hairpin turn, arrow slits and overhead openings for rocks and boiling oil. You picture banquets and receptions in the Great Hall and adjoining Gothic foyer, Masses and funerals in the simple chapel. Ovens, granaries, oil presses and latrines offer glimpses into everyday life. A game carved into a lookout's window sill speaks volumes about monotony and siege mentality.
Unified Effort, Mixed Motives
For this Catholic traveler, it was especially thought-provoking to be visiting Krak des Chevaliers right after President George Bush's reference to a “crusade against terror” raised hackles among Muslims. Its visibility brought it home to me that, in some parts of the world, the Crusades have left a living but negative legacy. As Amin Maalouf points out in his controversial The Crusades Through Arab Eyes,“events that supposedly ended some seven centuries ago” still exert a surprising degree of influence today and explain why the Arab East tends to see the West as “a natural enemy.”
Thus Osama bin Laden found it natural to compare U.S. troops in the Middle East to “Crusader armies spreading like locusts,” and the Pope's attacker, Mehmet Ali Agca, could write: “I have decided to kill John Paul II, supreme commander of the Crusades.”
A visit to Krak is a humbling reminder that the Crusades — like human endeavors in general — were a complex picture with a dark side. The castle's structure and symmetry resonate with a Western Christian's notions of beauty, high ideals, valor and nobility. For a Muslim in the village below, however, the same image likely inspired thoughts of terror, oppression and foreign invasion.
Walking around Krak's courtyards and chambers prompts reflection on the mixed motivations that drew the Crusaders. Undoubtedly, many came sincerely, out of a desire to honor the Christ Child by defending Christian pilgrims and places in the Holy Land. Just as surely, some of these same men also hoped for fame and fortune and sought it by raiding Muslim pilgrim caravans to Mecca, sacking homes and systematically exploiting the resources of Arabs — Christian and Muslim alike.
Acutely aware that my own actions usually arise out of a mix of motives, I came away from Krak with little desire to throw stones. I remembered Alexander Solzhenitsyn's observation that the line between good and evil doesn't run between people or groups of people: It goes through every human heart.
“Pride alone corrupts all the rest.” The admonition that caught my attention at Krak des Chevaliers continues to remind me of that fault line deep within myself. It prods me to seek the help of him who sees it and loves me nonetheless — of the Christ Child, who alone can heal the human heart.
Louise Perrotta lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.
----- EXCERPT: Western Syria's Krak des Chevaliers ----- EXTENDED BODY: Louise Perrotta ----- KEYWORDS: Travel ----------- TITLE: Quick Fix or Protracted Problem? DATE: 12/23/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:Wherever I go lately, I get asked for help in solving computer problems.
Now, I certainly do not mind performing acts of charity. But fixing a computer is rarely, if ever, a two-minute job. At times, just diagnosing the problem can take days. Computers are easy to use until you have either a hardware or software problem. Then you find out exactly how complicated they can be. If you ever want to grow in the virtue of patience, try fixing a computer problem — even when you “know what you're doing.”
Let me give you an example. I was recently visiting the family of a 12-year-old boy, Dustin, whom I am going to sponsor for Confirmation next year. I know this family because my mother works for his father, who is a doctor. My parents have been sponsors and godparents for some of their children, and Dustin chose me. It just so happened that, for more than a month, the family hadn't been able to connect to the Internet using the Microsoft Service Network. Their modem would begin to connect, then bomb out when verifying their user-name and password. They had called MSN and gotten a new password only to have the same thing happen again. The service representative then told them that the problem might be with their modem. That's where I came in.
I took a look at the problem and identified several possible causes for the glitch. None of these involved the modem. As I explained this, it became clear the family expected me to knock the problem off in five minutes. But a half-hour had already gone by, and I was still stumped. They insisted that I talk to MSN customer support. The girl I talked to gave us a new password, which once again failed to work.
Next, I called MSN technical support. After running through the usual automation maze — “Press 1 for this and 2 for that” — I finally did get to talk to a live human being. Dustin wanted to help and picked up another phone while sitting at the computer. The technician happened to be Asian and spoke in barely understandable English. The television noise from the living room made it even more difficult to understand him. Even Dustin couldn't understand him at times. We must have been on the phone an hour with him. I had to ask him to repeat what he had said a number of times.
It would have been easier to work on the computer in the middle of a tornado!
At one point, the technician had me go to the Windows settings and remove the communications programs. Then he told me to reinstall them. The computer asked me for the Windows 98 CD. Did this family ever get one with their computer? No. Dead-end. I would have to call another number to obtain one. There was nothing more the technician could do for me.
Dustin said that was the longest phone call he had ever witnessed. And, in some ways, the computer problem was worse now because no modem communications were even possible until the family could obtain a Windows 98 CD.
It's understandable that a support technician trying to guide a repair over the phone will sometimes make a problem worse rather than solve it. The technician cannot see the customer's computer; he or she has to rely on the customer for information and to execute his instructions without mistakes. My brother-in-law had a problem with his new modem that the technician did manage to fix over the phone. Unfortunately, at the same time, either the technician or my brother-in-law deleted files critical to other programs on his computer. The modem works, but he has other computer problems now.
With the downturn in the economy, companies have had to cut back and lay off employees. This has impacted customer and technical support. According to a PC World reader survey, customer support is at an all-time low. Respondents complained that now they “wait on hold longer to talk to a technician, the techies seem to have less know-how, and the companies take longer to fix the problems.” Some respondents never had their problems resolved.
What to do when a computer problem occurs?
First, before you have a problem, get in the habit of “backing up” your computer — that is, copying the data from it onto an external disk or CD — on a regular basis. For this I recommend Veritas Backup MyPC software program (www.veritas.com) and a CDRW drive.
If you are running Windows ME, or something that came out later, you can try the System Restore program found under Accessories, System Tools or your backup program. Either can restore your computer to an earlier setup, before the problem began. This could fix the problem. If you have Windows XP, you can request help from another Windows XP user either via e-mail or through the Windows Messenger instant-messaging client. The latter can allow the remote computer-user to view your computer while chatting or even take complete command of your computer. Hopefully you'll pick someone you can trust!
If none of the above work, and you don't know a computer geek, you'll have to call technical support or visit the technical support Web page for the computer or software that's causing problems. If that doesn't work, you may have to take your computer in to a local PC shop.
Some helpful sites for fixing problems for yourself are: PC Pitstop (www.pcpitstop.com), which will run diagnostics and scout out typical PC ills; Wayne's Computer World (www.waynescomputerworld.com), which is run by volunteers; or check the question-and-answer forums at VirtualDr (www.virtualdr.com). Fee-based support sites such as Expertcity.com or Askdrtech.com may be your last resort.
As for the problem with the computer at Dustin's house, I'm sure I'll get another chance at it in the future. Either way, Dustin's parents were good about the whole situation. His mother said the Internet connection didn't work before I got there, so “No harm done.” Nevertheless, I find myself wishing I had listened to his father's wise advice: “I think you'd better do an exorcism on it!”
Perhaps next time I look at some-body's computer, I won't do an exorcism — but I will remember to stop and pray for God's help before plunging in.
Brother John Raymond, co-founder of the Monks of Adoration, writes from Venice, Florida.
----- EXCERPT: What to do when your computer - or someone else's - breaks down ----- EXTENDED BODY: Brother John Raymond ----- KEYWORDS: Arts ----------- TITLE: Monthly Web Picks DATE: 12/23/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:This month we'll look at Advent and Christmas sites.
The Passionists have prayers and customs of Advent and Christmas at www.cptryon.org/prayer/adx/index.html. The site's purpose is “to help families and households celebrate Advent and Christmas in a Christian way. “
St. Anthony Messenger Press, along with Franciscan Communications, has put together “Celebrating the Christmas Cycle: Advent to Epiphany” at www.american-catholic.org/Features/Christmas/. You'll find the daily Mass reading with a reflection and more.
Bernadotteskolen, an International School in Denmark, has put together the World Wide Christmas Calendar at www.algonet.se/~bernadot/christmas/calendar.html. Each day on their calendar tells about how kids celebrate Christmas in a different country. Also, “A Search for the Meaning of Christmas” at http://techdirect.com/christmas/in dex.html shares Christmas traditions from around the world.
Domestic-Church's web site at www.domestic-church.com hopes to promote a Catholic culture in every family. See their Articles section for Advent & Christmas.
The mysteries of Jesus’ infancy are discussed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church beginning with paragraph 522, which you can read online at www.scborromeo.org/-ccc/p122a3p3.htm.
To order Catholics on the Internet by Brother John Raymond, callPrima Publishing at (800) 632-8676.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- KEYWORDS: Arts ----------- TITLE: Christmas Video Picks DATE: 12/23/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
In this sprightly version of Charles Dickens’ classic story, Muppets Kermit, Miss Piggy, the Great Gonzo, Rizzo the Rat and Fozzie Bear have incidental roles as Michael Caine portrays skinflint Ebenezer Scrooge, who is visited by the spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Future so he can learn the true spirit of Christmas. Director Brian Henson retells the holiday favorite with delightful musical numbers, though with less frenzied fun than the usual Muppet outings.
Heidi (1937)
One of Shirley Temple's better vehicles comes from the Johanna Spyri children's classic about a little Swiss orphan who brings cheer into the morose life of her grandfather (Jean Hersholt), then is taken from him to be the companion of a crippled rich girl in Frankfurt, where, after helping the child to walk again, she is spirited away by a hateful housekeeper (Mary Nash). As directed by Allan Dwan, curly-haired Shirley smiles her way through considerable woes until rescued from near tragedy on Christmas Eve. Best for young children with the reassuring presence of a parent.
Red Boots for Christmas (1995)
Animated tale about a long-ago Christmas in a small German town where Hans, a morose shoemaker with no family and few friends, feels left out of the season's cheer until visited by an angel with the promise of a special gift which causes Hans to labor on a special gift of his own. The half-hour video features colorful animation by Cuckoos Nest and a compelling story whose events lead Hans and viewers to understand the Christian significance of the Christmas season. Worthwhile family entertainment.
Three Godfathers (1948)
After robbing a bank, an outlaw trio (John Wayne, Pedro Armendariz and Harry Carey Jr.) pause to help a dying woman (Mildred Nat-wick) deliver her infant son on Christmas Eve, then take the babe with them as they are pursued across a desert wasteland. Dedicated by director John Ford to Western actor Harry Carey Sr., the story may be unabashedly sentimental and the action romanticized, but its lyrical images and religious undertones celebrate the myth of the Old West and its rugged heroes with good hearts. An off-screen suicide is sensitively handled, but makes the film inappropriate for the young ones.
Holiday Inn (1942)
Easygoing musical romance in which two veteran song-and-dance men (Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire) fall for the same woman (Marjorie Reynolds) while performing together in a rural inn open only on holidays. Lighthearted romantic complications ensue.
Directed by Mark Sandrich, the slim plot mainly provides an amiable context for Astaire's eye-popping dance numbers and Crosby's crooning some pleasant Irving Berlin songs, including “White Christmas.”
Anne Navarro, of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Office for Film and Broadcasting, wrote these capsules for CNS.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Anne Navarro ----- KEYWORDS: Arts ----------- TITLE: After Christmas, Don't Forget the Feast of the Holy Family on Sunday DATE: 12/23/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:How often do we drift through the feast of the Holy Family in a pious coma?
Coming after Christmas as it does, this feast day is of no commercial value. Unnoted by the world, it can seem dull after the tinsel and lights of Dec. 25.
We may have heard the Gospel accounts of the flight into Egypt and return to Nazareth so often that we're all but deaf to the thunderous truths that the Holy Family can teach us:
The truth that family life is a steppingstone to sanctity — demonstrated by the fact that God the Son, the second Person of the Blessed Trinity, became part of a human family.
The truth that family life isn't “second-rate” spirituality. It's a true vocation to holiness.
The truth is that family is primary. Jesus had much to accomplish — teaching, suffering, founding the Church. Yet do the math. He spent 30 years hidden with his family — and three years in his public apostolate. That's 10 times as much.
And especially remember the truth that the family is designed by God. It's not an arbitrary — or as we're told so stridently these days — a patriarchal and cultural imposition. It's part of the natural law, engraved on our beings by the Author of nature himself. Spiritually, the communion of persons in the family reflects the mystery of communion within the Trinity.
Perhaps our appreciation of the hidden life of Incarnated Wisdom has been dulled because we fail to meditate on the Holy Family. We deprive ourselves of the opportunity to be grasped by the profundity that true God became true man in a domestic situation not unlike our own.
The Devotion's History
The feast of the Holy Family, observed on the Sunday between Christmas and Jan. 1, is of fairly recent origin. Devotion to Jesus, Mary, and Joseph became popular in the 17th century. Around the same time, after the Protestant Reformation and the rationalistic Enlightenment, marriage increasingly became a civil contract rather than a Church sacrament.
By the time of Pope Leo XIII, the plague of divorce was spreading. Leo vigorously defended the indissolubility of marriage in his 1880 encyclical, Arcanum. To promote family and devotion, he established the feast of the Holy Family in 1893.
Foreshadowing Vatican II, Leo taught that marriage is the place where spouses are sanctified. He urged all Christian families to consecrate themselves to the Holy Family, saying: “Nothing, in fact, can be found more salutary and more useful for Christian families than the example of the Holy Family, which embraces perfection and with it all the domestic virtues.”
In 1921, Pope Benedict XV extended the feast to the whole Western Church.
Our current Holy Father is indefatigable in his defense of the family. It's not hard to see why. Divorce and out-of-wedlock births have now reached epidemic levels.
The institution of the modern family can be compared to its sorry state before Christianity. The ancient pagan world gave men the monstrous power of life and death over wives and children.
Family Under attack
Today, mothers have this power over their unborn. If trends continue, the “rights” of both parents will extend to infanticide.
Because of the low status of pre-Christian women, they could be sold into sexual slavery. But today's women foot the bill for their own serfdom.
In the name of “reproductive rights,” they lay out billions of dollars to pharmaceutical companies to turn their bodies into chemical minefields. If pregnancy occurs and the father saunters off in the name of “sexual liberation,” the mother can exercise her right to enrich the abortion industry.
But unlike moderns, people of antiquity harbored no illusions of liberty. Perhaps that clear-sightedness enabled them to recognize the true emancipation of Christianity when it came.
The voice of Pope John Paul II cries in the wilderness of today's families.
He speaks of living the truth in love. He pleads for conversion to “the civilization of love,” where people are treated as persons, not objects. He reaches out to the modern world — so lost in loveless libido — with the truth of Christian marriage. He points to the Family of Nazareth as model and icon.
“The family, which originates in the love of man and woman, ultimately derives from the mystery of God,” the Pope writes in his Letter to Families.
“This conforms to the innermost being of man and woman, to their innate and authentic dignity of persons. … Human fatherhood and motherhood are rooted in biology, yet at the same time transcend it. … (because) God himself is present.”
Created in the image and likeness of God, man cannot fully “find himself except through a sincere gift of self,” the pope continues. “Without such a concept of man, of the person and the ‘communion of persons’ in the family, there can be no civilization of love; similarly, without the civilization of love it is impossible to have such a concept of person and the communion of persons.”
As his predecessors have done, John Paul II encourages devotion to Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. He adds this stouthearted assurance: “The Holy Family is the beginning of countless other holy families.”
May our families be among that number.
Una McManus writes from Baltimore.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Una Mcmanus ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: Fathers Making Families Holy DATE: 12/23/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:Making families holy is the responsibility of both spouses, but St. Joseph's Covenant Keepers concentrates on helping fathers. The group provides educational materials, conferences, and a newsletter. Participation is open to all Christian men willing to abide by these eight commitments:
1) Following St. Joseph, the loving leader and head of the Holy Family.
2) Loving our wives all our lives.
3) Affirming Christ's Lordship over our families.
4) Turning our hearts toward our children.
5) Educating our children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
6) Protecting our families.
7) Providing for our families.
8) Building our marriages and families on the “Rock.”
To contact St. Joseph's Covenant Keepers, call (941) 764-8565; or check out www.dads.org.
— Una McManus
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Una McManus ----- KEYWORDS: News ----------- TITLE: Looking Behind the Curtain in the Voucher Debate DATE: 12/23/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:WASHINGTON — An Ohio school-voucher plan that includes religious schools may or may not be constitutional precisely for that reason, argued four attorneys familiar with the case.
In a discussion Nov. 28 at Georgetown University Law School sponsored by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, attorneys representing organizations on both sides of the pending Supreme Court case Zelman v. Simmons-Harris agreed that the case will mark an important turning point in law related to religious schools and public funding.
Two of the participants said an apt analogy to the Cleveland situation would be the scene from the “Wizard of Oz” where the dog, Toto, pulls back the curtain to expose the man behind the wizard: a fumbling faker who tries to distract people with the line, “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.”
“This is really a case about control — who controls the education of children in Ohio,” said Robert Destro, a law professor at the Catholic University of America and counsel for the Center for Education Reform, which filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the voucher program.
Destro said if the court overturns the program because the vouchers are used to send children to religious schools, the effective result will be “kids have to be trapped in a second-rate, segregated public-school system because we can't trust parochial schools.”
Elliot Mincberg, general counsel for People for the American Way and co-counsel for groups that oppose school-voucher plans, said the “Wizard of Oz” analogy is appropriate, though he disagreed with Destro's characterization of the intentions of the “wizard” at the controls.
“I think it's a guy trying to undermine public schools,” Mincberg said. “Voucher programs harm the public schools by diverting money from them,” he said. About one-third of children who use state-paid vouchers to attend parochial schools were in religious schools to begin with — they weren't among those struggling in inferior public schools, according to Mincberg.
About 90% of the 4,000 Cleveland children who receive vouchers in the program use them to attend religious schools, most of them Catholic. The program gives qualified low-income families up to $4,000 a year per student to pay for tutors or pay tuition at private schools or public schools in other districts. Few schools other than Catholic-parish schools have agreed to participate.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last December that the program is unconstitutional because the vouchers are primarily used at religious schools. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case this term, though a date for oral argument had yet to be assigned as of Dec. 4.
Charles Lawrence III, a Georgetown law professor and member of the school board in the District of Columbia, said one of his main objections is not that some Cleveland parents choose to use the vouchers at religious schools, but that there are essentially no other choices but Catholic schools.
“All other things being equal, would 90% of these parents send their children to Catholic schools?” he asked. “I think not. This is about the failure to give parents other choices.”
Jay Alan Sekulow, counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, argued that, under Lawrence's reasoning, the state ought to refuse to let religious schools participate even though they're the only ones involved.
“You can't penalize religious schools because they're willing to participate,” Sekulow said. “This program wasn't established for the purpose of establishing religion. It was established because the Cleveland schools stunk.”
The fact that the majority of participating schools are religious doesn't indicate a problem with the religious schools, but with other nonpublic schools that aren't accepting vouchers, Sekulow argued. “They're still discriminating,” he added. “Don't let the penalty fall on religious schools because they're willing to bear the brunt of this.”
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Patricia Zapor ----- KEYWORDS: Education ----------- TITLE: When Children Are Choices Few Want to Make DATE: 12/23/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:Demographic Crash by Michel Schooyans (translated by Father John H. Miller)
Catholic Central Union of America, 2001 141 pages, $10
To order: (314) 371-1653
Almost three decades ago the much-ballyhooed Limits to Growth report claimed all the world's natural resources were close to being extinguished. The Western mass media used the report to launch the “zero population growth” movement. Although it was based on illogical and devious assumptions, the movement has achieved its objectives only too well. According to research by Michel Schooyans in The Demographic Crash, there is now a severe under-population crisis. He warns us that one of its consequences may be the end to all economic growth worldwide as the workforce disappears.
The United Nations’ Department of Economic and Social Affairs reported that, in 1998, a total of 61 nations had a declining fertility rate of under 2.1, meaning that women are bearing too few children to maintain the existing level of population.
According to Schooyans, the drop in fertility is most pronounced in Europe.
He points out that, “given a stable situation and the present levels of fertility, the Italian population would fall to 14% of its present level in 100 years. For Spain the figure is 15% and for Germany it's 17%.” Obviously the sudden baby bust is a result of a “decline in marriage and the reluctance of women to bear and raise children.”
Schooyans here demonstrates that the current anti-life mentality is certainly no isolated sociological artifact, but rather a result of the willful anti-child policies by a group of highly regarded intellectuals. The baby bust, says Schooyans, derives from the “influence of cultural pressures, particularly the heavy indoctrination by Western TV and other forms of entertainment, and the adoption of governmental policies that are anti-child and hostile to raising a family.”
Writes Schooyans: “The child is no longer what he was, one can say ironically; the child is the object of choice between him and other goods, among which he is not perceived as totally different.” He adds that the child is no longer the beloved center around which a young couple bases their future. Instead, “the child is frequently considered as an object to which one has a right, an object that one ‘files away’ — in the crib, in a child-care facility — while the parents work; [this] inclines some people to speak of ‘storage of the child.’”
In the developing nations, Schooyans says that the use of coercion, manipulation and brute force to prevent conception and motherhood has reached staggering proportions. “According to United Nations and government statistics,” he writes, “37% of all women in the developing sector have been sterilized, including 40.3% in Mexico, and 43.3 % in Brazil.”
The author devotes an entire chapter to the United Nations and its far-flung conferences devoted to reducing fertility by destroying the family. As recently as 1998 the Lisbon Declaration on Youth outlined what it called “the new rights of man” including the demand that children from age 10 be “liberated from all sexual restraint” and “have access to contraception of their choice.”
Every devoted advocate of the family and pro-life issues should indeed be grateful that we now have an important new resource at our disposal which not only refutes the blatant biases of the “zero population growth” activists, but also inspires hope for a future in which human life is again welcomed and appreciated throughout the world.
David J. .Peterson is a teacher and free-lance writer in Chicago.
----- EXCERPT: Weekly Book Pick ----- EXTENDED BODY: David J. Peterson ----- KEYWORDS: Education ----------- TITLE: Campus Watch DATE: 12/23/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:College to Close
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, Nov. 30 — Notre Dame College of New Hampshire, a small Catholic liberal arts school, will close at the end of the academic year, officials say, because of declining enrollment and a limited endowment, reported the wire service.
With total enrollment at 1,350 in 1993, the college undertook a $15 million expansion plan that faltered as enrollment declined to its current level of some 1,100, says AP. The college was founded by Sisters of the Holy Cross in 1950.
Philosophy for Folks
Stephen Vicchio, a philosophy professor at the Maryland college and the institute's driving force, says its mission “is to return philosophy to where Socrates left it — the town squares.”
“What Vicchio and the institute do is teach people how to be good,” Bowle writes. Put in a “less sappy” way, he explains, “they teach people how to develop moral reasoning in their everyday lives.”
Villanova Spoofed
The university, administered by the Augustinian Fathers, was cited for its refusal to provide hotel accommodations and added security during a visit to campus by National Rifle Association President Charlton Heston.
“Meanwhile, protesting the event were folks from the university-sponsored Center for Peace and Justice,” says Campus's Nick Felten. He said it was ironic that the school would fund protesters “but not the resulting extra security necessitated by the protesters themselves.”
New Journal
FRANCISCAN UNIVERSITY OF STEUBENVILLE, Dec. 1 — The university has unveiled the first edition of a new interdisciplinary journal that investigates how faith brings deeper insight across academic disciplines. Fides Quaerens Intellectum (Faith Seeking Understanding) will be published twice a year under the editorial direction of Oblate of Mary Immaculate Father Bevil Bram-well, a member of the theology department.
The journal will focus primarily on how theology, philosophy and history work together to explain the meaning of human existence.
More information is available at the university's home page, www.franuniv.edu.
Remembering the 11th
Through the Internet and word of mouth, the Nebraska students have so far heard from five other schools, which have formed their own Eleventh Day Heroes groups.
In order to help the larger world, schools are encouraged to act locally by finding and addressing local community needs.
----- EXCERPT: ----- EXTENDED BODY: Joe Cullen ----- KEYWORDS: Education ----------- TITLE: Peace - After a Century of War, in a Time of Terrorism DATE: 12/23/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:No Peace Without Justice, No Justice Without Forgiveness
1. The World Day of Peace this year is being celebrated in the shadow of the dramatic events of last Sept. 11. On that day, a terrible crime was committed: In a few brief hours thousands of innocent people of many ethnic backgrounds were slaughtered. Since then, people throughout the world have felt a profound personal vulnerability and a new fear for the future. Addressing this state of mind, the Church testifies to her hope, based on the conviction that evil, the mysterium iniquitatis, does not have the final word in human affairs. The history of salvation, narrated in Sacred Scripture, sheds clear light on the entire history of the world and shows us that human events are always accompanied by the merciful Providence of God, who knows how to touch even the most hardened of hearts and bring good fruits even from what seems utterly barren soil.
This is the hope which sustains the Church at the beginning of 2002: that, by the grace of God, a world in which the power of evil seems once again to have taken the upper hand will in fact be transformed into a world in which the noblest aspirations of the human heart will triumph, a world in which true peace will prevail.
Peace: The Work of Justice and Love
2. Recent events, including the terrible killings just mentioned, move me to return to a theme which often stirs in the depths of my heart when I remember the events of history which have marked my life, especially my youth. The enormous suffering of peoples and individuals, even among my own friends and acquaintances, caused by Nazi and Communist total-itarianism, has never been far from my thoughts and prayers. I have often paused to reflect on the persistent question: how do we restore the moral and social order subjected to such horrific violence? My reasoned conviction, confirmed in turn by biblical revelation, is that the shattered order cannot be fully restored except by a response that combines justice with forgiveness. The pillars of true peace are justice and that form of love which is forgiveness.
3. But in the present circumstances, how can we speak of justice and forgiveness as the source and condition of peace? We can and we must, no matter how difficult this may be; a difficulty which often comes from thinking that justice and forgiveness are irreconcilable. But forgiveness is the opposite of resentment and revenge, not of justice. In fact, true peace is “the work of justice” (Isaiah 32:17). As the Second Vatican Council put it, peace is “the fruit of that right ordering of things with which the divine founder has invested human society and which must be actualized by man thirsting for an ever more perfect reign of justice” (Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 78). For more than 1,500 years, the Catholic Church has repeated the teaching of St. Augustine of Hippo on this point. He reminds us that the peace which can and must be built in this world is the peace of right order — tranquillitas ordinis, the tranquillity of order.
True peace therefore is the fruit of justice, that moral virtue and legal guarantee which ensures full respect for rights and responsibilities, and the just distribution of benefits and burdens. But because human justice is always fragile and imperfect, subject as it is to the limitations and egoism of individuals and groups, it must include and, as it were, be completed by the forgiveness which heals and rebuilds troubled human relations from their foundations. This is true in circumstances great and small, at the personal level or on a wider, even international scale. Forgiveness is in no way opposed to justice, as if to forgive meant to overlook the need to right the wrong done. It is rather the fullness of justice, leading to that tranquillity of order which is much more than a fragile and temporary cessation of hostilities, involving as it does the deepest healing of the wounds which fester in human hearts. Justice and forgiveness are both essential to such healing.
It is these two dimensions of peace that I wish to explore in this message. The World Day of Peace this year offers all humanity, and particularly the leaders of nations, the opportunity to reflect upon the demands of justice and the call to forgiveness in the face of the grave problems which continue to afflict the world, not the least of which is the new level of violence introduced by organized terrorism.
The Reality of Terrorism
4. It is precisely peace born of justice and forgiveness that is under assault today by international terrorism. In recent years, especially since the end of the Cold War, terrorism has developed into a sophisticated network of political, economic and technical collusion which goes beyond national borders to embrace the whole world. Well-organized terrorist groups can count on huge financial resources and develop wide-ranging strategies, striking innocent people who have nothing to do with the aims pursued by the terrorists.
When terrorist organizations use their own followers as weapons to be launched against defenseless and unsuspecting people they show clearly the death-wish that feeds them. Terrorism springs from hatred, and it generates isolation, mistrust and closure. Violence is added to violence in a tragic sequence that exasperates successive generations, each one inheriting the hatred which divided those that went before. Terrorism is built on contempt for human life. For this reason, not only does it commit intolerable crimes, but because it resorts to terror as a political and military means it is itself a true crime against humanity.
5. There exists therefore a right to defend oneself against terrorism, a right which, as always, must be exercised with respect for moral and legal limits in the choice of ends and means. The guilty must be correctly identified, since criminal culpability is always personal and cannot be extended to the nation, ethnic group or religion to which the terrorists may belong. International cooperation in the fight against terrorist activities must also include a courageous and resolute political, diplomatic and economic commitment to relieving situations of oppression and marginalization which facilitate the designs of terrorists. The recruitment of terrorists in fact is easier in situations where rights are trampled upon and injustices tolerated over a long period of time.
Still, it must be firmly stated that the injustices existing in the world can never be used to excuse acts of terrorism, and it should be noted that the victims of the radical breakdown of order which terrorism seeks to achieve include above all the countless millions of men and women who are least well-positioned to withstand a collapse of international solidarity — namely, the people of the developing world, who already live on a thin margin of survival and who would be most grievously affected by global economic and political chaos. The terrorist claim to be acting on behalf of the poor is a patent falsehood.
You Shall Not Kill in God's Name!
6. Those who kill by acts of terrorism actually despair of humanity, of life, of the future. In their view, everything is to be hated and destroyed. Terrorists hold that the truth in which they believe or the suffering that they have undergone are so absolute that their reaction in destroying even innocent lives is justified. Terrorism is often the outcome of that fanatic fundamentalism which springs from the conviction that one's own vision of the truth must be forced upon everyone else. Instead, even when the truth has been reached — and this can happen only in a limited and imperfect way — it can never be imposed. Respect for a person's conscience, where the image of God himself is reflected (cf. Gen 1:26-27), means that we can only propose the truth to others, who are then responsible for accepting it. To try to impose on others by violent means what we consider to be the truth is an offence against human dignity, and ultimately an offence against God whose image that person bears. For this reason, what is usually referred to as fundamentalism is an attitude radically opposed to belief in God. Terrorism exploits not just people, it exploits God: it ends by making him an idol to be used for one's own purposes.
7. Consequently, no religious leader can condone terrorism, and much less preach it. It is a profanation of religion to declare oneself a terrorist in the name of God, to do violence to others in his name. Terrorist violence is a contradiction of faith in God, the Creator of man, who cares for man and loves him. It is altogether contrary to faith in Christ the Lord, who taught his disciples to pray: “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matthew 6:12).
Following the teaching and example of Jesus, Christians hold that to show mercy is to live out the truth of our lives: we can and must be merciful because mercy has been shown us by a God who is Love (cf. 1 John 4:7-12). The God who enters into history to redeem us, and through the dramatic events of Good Friday prepares the victory of Easter Sunday, is a God of mercy and forgiveness (cf. Psalm 103:3-4, 10-13). Thus Jesus told those who challenged his dining with sinners: “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice’. For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matthew 9:13). The followers of Christ, baptized into his redeeming Death and Resurrection, must always be men and women of mercy and forgiveness.
The Need for Forgiveness
8. But what does forgiveness actually mean? And why should we forgive? A reflection on forgiveness cannot avoid these questions. Returning to what I wrote in my Message for the 1997 World Day of Peace (“Offer Forgiveness and Receive Peace”), I would reaffirm that forgiveness inhabits people's hearts before it becomes a social reality. Only to the degree that an ethics and a culture of forgiveness prevail can we hope for a “politics” of forgiveness, expressed in society's attitudes and laws, so that through them justice takes on a more human character.
Forgiveness is above all a personal choice, a decision of the heart to go against the natural instinct to pay back evil with evil. The measure of such a decision is the love of God who draws us to himself in spite of our sin. It has its perfect exemplar in the forgiveness of Christ, who on the Cross prayed: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).
Forgiveness therefore has a divine source and criterion. This does not mean that its significance cannot also be grasped in the light of human reasoning; and this, in the first place, on the basis of what people experience when they do wrong. They experience their human weakness, and they want others to deal leniently with them. Why not therefore do towards others what we want them to do towards us? All human beings cherish the hope of being able to start all over again, and not remain for ever shut up in their own mistakes and guilt. They all want to raise their eyes to the future and to discover new possibilities of trust and commitment.
9. Forgiveness therefore, as a fully human act, is above all a personal initiative. But individuals are essentially social beings, situated within a pattern of relationships through which they express themselves in ways both good and bad. Consequently, society too is absolutely in need of forgiveness. Families, groups, societies, States and the international community itself need forgiveness in order to renew ties that have been sundered, go beyond sterile situations of mutual condemnation and overcome the temptation to discriminate against others without appeal. The ability to forgive lies at the very basis of the idea of a future society marked by justice and solidarity.
By contrast, the failure to forgive, especially when it serves to prolong conflict, is extremely costly in terms of human development. Resources are used for weapons rather than for development, peace and justice. What sufferings are inflicted on humanity because of the failure to reconcile! What delays in progress because of the failure to forgive! Peace is essential for development, but true peace is made possible only through forgiveness.
Forgiveness, the High Road
10. Forgiveness is not a proposal that can be immediately understood or easily accepted; in many ways it is a paradoxical message. Forgiveness in fact always involves an apparent short-term loss for a real long-term gain. Violence is the exact opposite; opting as it does for an apparent short-term gain, it involves a real and permanent loss. Forgiveness may seem like weakness, but it demands great spiritual strength and moral courage, both in granting it and in accepting it. It may seem in some way to diminish us, but in fact it leads us to a fuller and richer humanity, more radiant with the splendour of the Creator.
My ministry at the service of the Gospel obliges me, and at the same time gives me the strength, to insist upon the necessity of forgiveness. I do so again today in the hope of stirring serious and mature thinking on this theme, with a view to a far-reaching resurgence of the human spirit in individual hearts and in relations between the peoples of the world.
11. Reflecting on forgiveness, our minds turn naturally to certain situations of conflict which endlessly feed deep and divisive hatreds and a seemingly unstoppable sequence of personal and collective tragedies. I refer especially to what is happening in the Holy Land, that blessed place of God's encounter with man, where Jesus, the Prince of Peace, lived, died and rose from the dead.
The present troubled international situation prompts a more intense call to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict, which has now been going on for more than fifty years, with alternate phases of greater or lesser tension. The continuous recourse to acts of terror and war, which aggravate the situation and diminish hope on all sides, must finally give way to a negotiated solution. The rights and demands of each party can be taken into proper account and balanced in an equitable way, if and when there is a will to let justice and reconciliation prevail. Once more I urge the beloved peoples of the Holy Land to work for a new era of mutual respect and constructive accord.
Interreligious Understanding and Cooperation
12. In this whole effort, religious leaders have a weighty responsibility. The various Christian confessions, as well as the world's great religions, need to work together to eliminate the social and cultural causes of terrorism. They can do this by teaching the greatness and dignity of the human person, and by spreading a clearer sense of the oneness of the human family. This is a specific area of ecumenical and interreligious dialogue and cooperation, a pressing service which religion can offer to world peace.
In particular, I am convinced that Jewish, Christian and Islamic religious leaders must now take the lead in publicly condemning terrorism and in denying terrorists any form of religious or moral legitimacy.
13. In bearing common witness to the truth that the deliberate murder of the innocent is a grave evil always, everywhere, and without exception, the world's religious leaders will help to form the morally sound public opinion that is essential for building an international civil society capable of pursuing the tranquility of order in justice and freedom.
In undertaking such a commitment, the various religions cannot but pursue the path of forgiveness, which opens the way to mutual understanding, respect and trust. The help that religions can give to peace and against terrorism consists precisely in their teaching forgiveness, for those who forgive and seek forgiveness know that there is a higher Truth, and that by accepting that Truth they can transcend themselves.
Prayer for Peace
14. Precisely for this reason, prayer for peace is not an afterthought to the work of peace. It is of the very essence of building the peace of order, justice, and freedom. To pray for peace is to open the human heart to the inroads of God's power to renew all things. With the life-giving force of his grace, God can create openings for peace where only obstacles and closures are apparent; he can strengthen and enlarge the solidarity of the human family in spite of our endless history of division and conflict. To pray for peace is to pray for justice, for a right-ordering of relations within and among nations and peoples. It is to pray for freedom, especially for the religious freedom that is a basic human and civil right of every individual. To pray for peace is to seek God's forgiveness, and to implore the courage to forgive those who have trespassed against us.
For all these reasons I have invited representatives of the world's religions to come to Assisi, the town of St. Francis, on Jan. 24, 2002, to pray for peace. In doing so we will show that genuine religious belief is an inexhaustible wellspring of mutual respect and harmony among peoples; indeed it is the chief antidote to violence and conflict. At this time of great distress, the human family needs to be reminded of our unfailing reasons for hope. It is precisely this hope that we intend to proclaim in Assisi, asking Almighty God — in the beautiful phrase attributed to St. Francis himself — to make each of us a channel of his peace.
15. No peace without justice, no justice without forgiveness: this is what in this Message I wish to say to believers and unbelievers alike, to all men and women of good will who are concerned for the good of the human family and for its future.
No peace without justice, no justice without forgiveness: this is what I wish to say to those responsible for the future of the human community, entreating them to be guided in their weighty and difficult decisions by the light of man's true good, always with a view to the common good.
No peace without justice, no justice without forgiveness: I shall not tire of repeating this warning to those who, for one reason or another, nourish feelings of hatred, a desire for revenge or the will to destroy.
On this World Day of Peace, may a more intense prayer rise from the hearts of all believers for the victims of terrorism, for their families so tragically stricken, for all the peoples who continue to be hurt and convulsed by terrorism and war. May the light of our prayer extend even to those who gravely offend God and man by these pitiless acts, that they may look into their hearts, see the evil of what they do, abandon all violent intentions, and seek forgiveness. In these troubled times, may the whole human family find true and lasting peace, born of the marriage of justice and mercy!
From the Vatican, 8 December 2001
JOHN PAUL II
----- EXCERPT: Pope John Paul II's Very Personal Message for World Day of Peace Jan. 1 ----- EXTENDED BODY: John Paul II ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life ----------- TITLE: Christmas Time Out DATE: 12/23/2001 12:00:00 PM CATEGORY: December 23-29, 2001 ----- BODY:When our Christmas tree is up and I'm baking cookies and Christmas music is playing, the kids know something special is happening and I have a harder time when discipline is needed. What should I do?
Christmas doesn't change anything about the need for discipline, and may even make discipline more effective — if your child is more motivated to get back to all the excitement going on at home.
By “time out,” I assume you mean placing your preschooler in a chair, a corner, her room, or some other semi-isolated place as a way of dealing with misbehavior. Whatever means is used, it essentially means removing Harmony from one scene — where the action, fun or trouble is — and placing her in another — where it's quiet, boring and trouble-free.
Parents often wrestle with how long time outs should last. The rule of one minute for each year of age is based on the developmental notion that the younger she is, the less likely it is that Patience can stay put.
Here are some ideas that should make time outs work:
E One quiet minute per year of age. Time doesn't begin until Al is calm, and time starts over if he starts over.
Will this stress him beyond his developmental limits? No. There's nothing unhealthy about stretching his limits. He is learning to sit a little longer than he'd prefer to. That's what discipline by boredom is all about
E Link the amount of time out to the seriousness of the infraction. It only makes sense to link longer stays with whatever's at the top of your hierarchy of problem behavior — whether it's temper tantrums or tormenting siblings or disrespect.
E Make time out boring. The more dull the location, the less time needed for Grace to simmer down.
A caution: Every parent has to balance the need for supervision with the need for freedom. Sometimes it may be better to keep Sigmund close by to avoid the trouble he could create behind your back.
Dr. Ray Guarendi is a clinical psychologist and author.Reach Family Matters at familymatters@ncregister.com
----- EXCERPT: Family Matters ----- EXTENDED BODY: Dr. Ray Guarendi ----- KEYWORDS: Culture of Life --------